#p.399

[commetombeunarbre]

Was dit de enige ware geschiedschrijving van deze tijd: een gemoedstoestand, uitgeschreeuwd door trompetten, trombones, saxofoons en drums, een lid met wat kreupele bombast als tekst? Mijn hoofd liep om. Het was alsof ik in deze korte staat gedwongen werd om iedereen tegen te komen di eik ooit had gekend, zonder dat iemand tegen me glimlachte op mijn naam uitsprak. Geen blik van herkenning. Ik liep in een koortsachtig isolement.

[nulfaga]

sending you 4 or 8 as you prefer for the prompts :) & i would say lavinia <3 if you’re looking for character suggestions but if you have someone specific in mind….

4: "Hey, it's fashion."

Falcar’s golden magelight makes the guildhall basement a little more inviting, but the smell of mouse droppings persists—so too the stale, still air. No wonder the Guild keeps wine down here, thinks Lavinia. A few feet above is a beautiful Nibenese spring day, humid and fragrant, and down here the cold is rattling her bones. He’d put a muffling charm on the room, Falcar, which had made her uneasy; then he’d made her cast one too and watched her technique, the old goat, which was comfortingly, irritatingly familiar.

All told, she’s confused.

“If you’re here to kill me, wizard,” says Lavinia flatly, “I want you to know it wasn’t me who filched your reagents.”

Falcar smiles. “Wasn’t aware I was missing any.”

“The root pulp and bog-caps, bog-lanterns. . . you’re drawing me out.”

“Bog beacons. I’m not trying to kill you, daft conjurer. I’d be cleverer about it than this.”

“Should hope so.”

“Could I please come out, now?” says an unknown voice, with no source. Before the first thought could put itself together in her head, Lavinia has warded herself and Falcar, and her fingers have sparked with leashed lightning, her hand drawn back to throw—

“Lavinia,” says Falcar in that paralyzing tone he reserves for guild disputes. As if hexed, her hand goes limp. To the empty spot beside him he snaps: “I told you to wait for my word.”

“I beg your pardon, sir,” says the young man—he is, as far as she can tell, a young man—and drops his spell. The air wavers and he appears in full effect, a weird creature, lithe and pale, with hair the color of nightshade petals and wrapped in the most outlandishly rich robes imaginable. “I thought I was dealing with a mage, not a nervous dreugh.”

She chokes on her fury—considers throwing the spell anyway, thinks marginally better of it—instead she gasps, “Bite me you fucking peacock popinjay cunt.”

The young man freezes for an instant, open-mouthed, then bursts into laughter.

His laugh is supernaturally pleasant; rich and rebounding, like that of a nymph. “Pop—popinjay?” he says, placing a hand on the front of his robes, shaking with glee. “It’s fashion, thank you very much. Bespoke, even.”

Lavinia, at a loss, stands there and watches him.

“Let’s try this again,” says the young man, a little breathlessly. “P. Copperhart Darkworth of Wayrest at your service, but just Copperhart will do. I apologize for my outburst, and for appearing unannounced, and I thank you for not incinerating me.”

“Lavinia Marciana Caridenius,” she says tersely, ignoring his outstretched hand.

“A pleasure.”

Falcar seats himself in one of the damp basement chairs and motions for Lavinia and the interloper to do the same. “You know I met with the Council a few days ago, conjurer.”

“Yes,” says Lavinia.

“And you know that an official end has been called to the Simulacrum.”

“Yes, wizard.”

“Well. . .Jagar Tharn, during his reign, compromised the Battlespire. Left it open for the Daedra.”

Lavinia grits her teeth. “What do I want with the Battlespire? I’m a University mage, not a Legion suck-up.”

“Listen,” says Falcar, and follows it with nothing. He puts his head in his hands, the grey hair spills between his fingers. Then, sitting upright, he continues: “The Mages’ Council and the Elder Council deliberated together. It was decided that someone must go to the Battlespire and determine whether there are any surviving battlemages, and whether the facility can be retaken in Tharn’s absence. The guildmasters each put forward a handful of names. You, conjurer, and you, master Darkworth, are brilliant, resourceful casters. . .”

“But young and dispensable, if the worst comes to pass,” says Copperhart coolly.

“And who the hell are you, anyway?” Lavinia presses him. “You’re not even Mages’ Guild. Why are you involved?”

He lowers his glasses, peculiar little spectacles with red lenses and jeweled rims, and peers at her over them. “My family is in town, so to speak, for the celebrations. The Darkworths are known to His Imperial Majesty and the Elder Council, so the matter reached my ears by and by. I was asked to step in.”

Both brilliant casters?—it dawns on her. Arkay’s eyes. “You want us to go to the Battlespire together.”

Falcar looks miserable. “So the two Councils have decided.”

“Lavinia Marciana Caridenius,” says Copperhart slowly, as if reciting a poem. “That is a mouthful. What do your friends call you? Liv? Nia? Vinnie?”

She stiffens with outrage when she hears ‘Vinnie’: a mistake. Copperhart perks up like a wolf smelling blood.

“Vinnie!” he declares.

Lavinia catches Falcar’s eye. He knows her. He’s always tut-tutting about her temper, he knows she’ll throttle this purple bastard if he carries on like this, assignment or no assignment, But all she manages is to groan, “Falcar.”

“Take a little time to think. We’ll talk more about this tomorrow,” says Falcar, and the corner of his mouth twitches. “Master Darkworth will accompany you into the Imperial City at the end of the week. Until then, not a word about this to anyone, please.”

He rises from his chair in his usual way, pushing himself up from the armrests to spare his knees. Copperhart follows suit and excuses himself from the room with a bow. Lavinia goes to the stairs.

“Conjurer,” comes Falcar’s voice.

She turns around, fuming and a little giddy.

Falcar folds his arms and glances aside.

“What?”

“I. . .I was against this whole undertaking,” he says quietly.

Lavinia closes her eyes. All she wants now is to nap in the afternoon sun. To take the carriage to Gold Leaf, maybe. . . “I should see my family.” She holds Falcar’s gaze. He seems exhausted; he has dark circles. There is a tremor in his hands. “This is a lot to ask, wizard.”

“I know.” Falcar sighs. “Take very good care of yourself.”

“I thought I was dispensable,” she says, petulantly.

He glares at her, the Guildmaster’s glare that stops unruly apprentices in their tracks and withers wizards of lesser authority. “Think again.”

[jorrated]

Redid my Maya Knux gijinka! Now with notes and sources on how I did the design (It's kinda long, around 2k words jsyk):

The hairstyle:

Knux has pretty long spikes, so I knew I wanted to give him long hair! Braids or dreadlocks look pretty fitting, so I tried looking for references of hairstyles to see if any fit what I was looking for:

Source: Mayavase.com (Photograph by Justin Kerr)

http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_hires.php?vase=1092

http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_hires.php?vase=1453

http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_hires.php?vase=694

http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_hires.php?vase=1340

While all the vases show a variety of interesting hairstyles, I particularly loved the look of the braids in K694 (the third picture). Being tied upwards wouldn’t really fit Knux however, so something like the man in K1340 (fourth pic) with his hair fully down, or the 5th man from left to right in K1092 (first pic) with a cloth holding the hair would be really nice!

I didn’t want to give him a headpiece, if only to not clutter his head, but also I didn’t think it’d fit Knux as a warrior. The ruler’s headpiece in K1453 (second pic) however allows the hair to come off it, and seems to have some dangly adornments on the end of the strands/braids/locks, which I found super pretty. Plus:

“Elite Mayan men and women styled their hair to show off their pointed heads, crafted through the careful head flattening they experienced as children. Women gathered their long hair on top of their heads in flowing ponytails. For special occasions they braided their ponytails and decorated them with ornaments and ribbons. Mayan men grew their hair long but burnt the hair off their foreheads to accentuate their elongated profiles. They would bind their hair into one or many ponytails or tie it in a bundle on top of their head. Mayan slaves had their hair cut short as one visible mark of their inferior status.” p.399

Source: Fashion, costume, and culture: clothing, headwear, body decorations, and footwear through the ages (Sarah Pendergast and Tom Pendergast, Sarah Hermsen as Project Editor), 2003.

https://archive.org/details/fashioncostumecu0000pend/page/n5/mode/2up

Taking all of that! I settled on tight braids with a few adornments made of jade and wood, with a red cloth to keep his hair from his eyes. Almost all of the braids are pulled together into a ponytails, but there are some smaller braids loose.

It’s somewhat of a mixture of styles, combining ornaments of special occasions, with the long hair of elites on a character like Knux. But I kept these ‘contradictory’ aspects of the design to remember that Knux kinda learns about his ancestors on the go, through murals, writings and technology, so I doubt he’d have a great grasp on what he should and shouldn’t wear. I think it adds character as someone who’s trying to figure out himself, his history and his place in the world.

Shoes and Accessories:

For footwear I kept it simple, just turned Knux’s existing shoes into sandals:

“Ancient Aztecs and Mayans of Central America adopted a thick-soled sandal with a protective legging attached at the heel, while the top of the foot and shin remained exposed.” p.135

Source: Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion (Valerie Steele), 2005

Although my gut instinct was to cover Knuckles from head to toe in accessories, I also tried to keep it simple like the shoes. He’s a very mobile fellow so he can’t have too much weight or annoying bits flying everywhere and getting in his face. So I kept his moon necklace, like in Fleetway, just adjusted the shape to have a bit more of details:

“The jewelry worn by the Mayan, Aztec and Inca people was rich in variety and quite beautiful. Without metalworking skills, Mayans made jewelry from many materials. Mayan men wore nose ornaments, earplugs and lip plugs made from bone, wood, shells and stones, including jade, topaz, and obsidian. Necklaces, bracelets, anklets and headgear were made with jaguar and crocodile teeth, jaguar claws and feathers.” p.402

Source: Fashion, costume, and culture: clothing, headwear, body decorations, and footwear through the ages (Sarah Pendergast and Tom Pendergast, Sarah Hermsen as Project Editor), 2003.

https://archive.org/details/fashioncostumecu0000pend/page/n5/mode/2up

As stated here, Mayans didn’t have metalwork, so I imagine this is an artifact that his ancestors got from another group of people.

Just a page before they also mention how the Maya people used to file points into their teeth, to make their mouths more appealing. This includes shaping them into pointy teeth, (like the classic shark teeth), but they could also file them into other shapes, like in this picture:

Source: https://www.archaeologynow.org/blog-3/blog-post-title-two-txwxl (I’m pretty sure this isn’t the source of the image, but I couldn’t find an actual source that wasn’t an uncredited blog)

The Maya people are also notorious for their good dentistry, as seen the stone ornaments in the teeth above. I think the filling is something Knux could do on his own, but anything that would involve actual dentistry would be too much. But it’s still interesting to read about!

(Here’s an article named “Mayan Esthetic Dentistry: Using Modern Techniques and Digital Imaging Technologies to Link the Past to the Present” by Yassine Harichane if you want to learn more!)

While a non-permanent version of stones on teeth seemed cool, like Jade incisor-coverings, at the end of the day I don’t think Knuckles is too vain, so I didn’t add that to the design. Although I think he’d definitely try out a bunch of things like this, just to try to understand them.

For additional outfits I gave him a red layered cape and a green huipil! The red cape is just to bring back more red into the design, since I gave him a lot of green. And the huipil is a nod to his poncho in the comics! (Although huipiles are commonly associated with women and girls, I still wanted to give him one, not only to bring up his partial detachment to his ancestors, but also because Knux probably wouldn’t think much about gender in general let’s be honest)

Source: Mayavase.com (Photograph by Justin Kerr)

http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_hires.php?vase=638

Somewhat based the red cape on the 4th man in this picture, from left to right, but I kept it simple, as maybe just some fabric Knux found around the island, nothing too fancy.

For the huipil I wanted to do something more detailed but was having a really hard time coming up with designs. And I didn’t want to straight up plagiarize someone’s else work, so I kept it vague, maybe some day I’ll sit down and give it a more detailed version. I did come across a very nice store/ catalog that sells traditional Maya textiles, and this one was very gorgeous! Highly recommend give this and the other textiles a look!

In the end I made the huipil look vaguely like the ones shown in page 128 of the following book:

“In the Museum collection, costumes that looked very much alike usually turned out to be from villages that shared a language. Among Cakchiquel villages, dialect differences were usually mirrored by costume differences. Working on this principle we were surprised by the striking similarity of style in the huipils of San Antonio Aguas Calientes (fig. 195) and San Martín Jilotepeque (fig. 196). These villages, while both Cakchiquel, spoke very different dialects and were separated geographically (map, below). The similarity of their huipil was so remarkable we felt the need to investigate these two villages more thoroughly and found that a multi-cultural history probably accounted for these unexpected similarities of style. Huipils from these villages may well illustrate the earliest examples of pan-Maya acculturation after the Conquest.”p. 127

Source: Threads of identity: Maya costume of the 1960s in highland Guatemala (Patricia B. Altman, Caroline D.West), 1992.

https://archive.org/details/threadsofidentit0000altm/page/n7/mode/2up

Lastly on accessories, which I don’t know if it counts as an accessory but I didn’t know where to put it: the body paint. Last time I gave Knux a human design I couldn't find a good resource on Maya people painting their bodies. Every source mentioned and was in consensus that some of the people did paint their bodies, but that was the extent of the info. I wasn’t able to find any patterns or meanings of the body paintings, or even good visual reference for it. But! This time I was able to get a bit more:

“Body painting was a common Maya practice. Classic Period murals and polychrome vases depict warriors covered with red or black paint; sometimes their bodies were striped with red paint. Paint was also used around the eyes and nose to give a fierce expression. In the 16th century, these practices continued. Women also applied red paint to their faces and bodies, but presumably to make themselves look beautiful, not fierce. Small paint jars of red hematite mixed with mica were found in the houses at Cerén, and these may have been for cosmetic use. Unmarried young men painted their bodies black, and so did those who were undergoing periods of ritual purification and fasting. Priests often wore blue body paint. “p. 338

Source: Handbook To Life In The Ancient Maya World Lynn (V. Foster), 2002.

Source: Mayavase.com (Photograph by Justin Kerr)

http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_hires.php?vase=2800

http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_hires.php?vase=2573

http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya_hires.php?vase=7996

I of course wanted to give him red paint, and I really liked this design of the red lining the cheeks on the face down to the neckline. However in most of these depictions the red on the body is accompanied by the white face, which I can’t actually tell if the face has white paint, or the body has black paint, like described in the quote before. Either way I chose to only use the red, to keep in line with Knux’s original design.

(It’s worth mentioning that these vases shown depict rulers, as you can see the intricate thrones and altars, which isn’t really fitting with Knux. But again, I want to keep some mismatched aspects into his design, not only warrior-related things.)

The main outfit:

Last but not least, the main outfit. Don’t have much notes on this I’m going to be honest, I just tried to keep in line with descriptions of warriors clothing:

“While some warriors may have been resplendent on the battlefield, the common Maya soldier fought with little clothing other than loincloth and body paint, based on battle scenes in the few Maya murals that remain (see figure 2.9, page 54).” p.147

Source: Handbook To Life In The Ancient Maya World Lynn (V. Foster), 2002.

I considered putting him in a loincloth for accuracy, but tbh I was scared people were going to be weird about it, and so I gave him a skirt with some fabric that emulates the look of a loincloth and some scrap fabric around his waist and limbs! He actually ended pulling up a lot from the dude I mentioned in vase K1092 (the very first ref pic in this post) lol!

And that´s all, hope y’all liked it :P

[dve]

the saint of duty + an iliad's hector of troy

An Iliad, Lisa Peterson & Denis O'Hare, p. 480 / Harrow the Ninth, p. 124, 133, 191, 193, 194, 204, 228, 267 292, 469 / Nona the Ninth, p. 30, 399, 402

[patchesjam]

DTBLR CC Survey Results

Hello as I’m sure many of you (399 people to be exact) know I asked for opinions on a mix of MCYT’S, Hispanic cc’s, and greater twitch streamers. Here are the results of that survey, a few insights into the data, and links to the full data and analysis if any of you are interested in looking a bit more in depth! Thank you so much to everyone who took some time to answer!

Sorry this is a Bit Long so if you would just prefer to look over the raw data help yourself here     ^_^ 

Overall Analysis

These two graphs above show the top 20 most strongly liked and strongly hated cc’s in dtblr percentage wise. 

A few interesting things to note; surprisingly dream team isnt the top 3 most liked, instead one of the spots go to Technoblade! Don’t worry though, Sapnap is still extremely liked among us all only very slightly eeking behind Tubbo and BBH. Some nice appearences too from non-mcyt cc’s include Spreen, Larray and Rainbolt! 

Looking at the most disliked and well done dtblr ^_^ except for the one person who voted ‘very positive’ for Kaceytron. It’s a very sensible bottom three. Quackity comes next, with stronger feelings from people who do not consume any of his spanish content. Obviously I assume this is a massive change from the general consensus 4 months ago, so apologies to any previous Q enjoyers. A few surprising entries from the rest of Lovejoy, which few people held strong feelings of (12.9% VN and mostly Nuetral/Negative) probably effected by a few anti-drolo moves from a few members recently, and Karl Jacobs who will be talked about later. 

Sorry, this graph is a little hard to read. However, it is interesting. This is a total of Very Positive AND Positive (%). So, it benefits cc’s which people have a bit more distance from and are maybe not as interested in as the top 2 cc’s here are actually BBH (98.5%) and Tubbo (97.7%), with Dream and Techno shortly behind with an equal 97.5% positive opinion.

This is the opposite chart - the total of negative opinions (%) of every cc. Keemstar wins this one with only 10 out of 399 people choosing nuetral, and everyone else (97.3%) having a negative opinion. Minx (81%), Jack Manifold (79.8%), Ranboo (68.7%) and Mr Beast (58.5%) also feature in this top 10 most disliked.

This is an interesting one. And you all better appreciate this because I had three breakdowns and spent 5 hours trying to work the maths out. So I get to nerd out for a second. This graph measures how divided in opinion dtblr is over a cc. It’s a measure of spread, so every answer was asigned a value (VP-1, P-1.5, Neu-2, N-2.5, VN-3) and then a standard distribution was found. The results are shown on a scale of 0 to 2, with 0 representing a theoratical 100% of answers being nuetral, and 2 representing 50% VP and 50% VN <- the most divided you could theoretically get. And it gets interesting results. 

The most divided cc amongst dtblr is...... Karl Jacobs with a score of 0.672. Unsurprising since he had... A Very Split Opinion. Over half feel positively about him, about 20% neutral and 30% negative in some capacity. So, whatever your opinion on him.... I guess you can find at least some blogs to follow?

Other (nearly) as devicive cc’s include Philza, Quackity, Ranboo, Slimecicle and Mr Beast.

Some of the least devicive cc’s are not at all surprising. Now, remember this is based off how much we all agree, not how positive or negative, which is why there is the mix of; Kaceytron, Keemstar, Technoblade, Dream, Badboyhalo, GNF and Awesamdude.

Just for fun, here is the spread of opinions of the two least polarising cc’s. Except for one person putting Very Positive for Kaceytron (which is a mistake i Hope yet i will count it because its funny) they are overwhelmingly negative! Dtblr hopes they both burn in hell! 

Non-MCYT Creators

Next we’ll take a look at the Hispanic ccs! Spreen and Shadoune were firm favourites out of the lot, with 53.4% and 32% very positive respectively, and 94% and 86% positive overall. Roir, Rubuis and Karchez were also well liked among us. 

The most disliked was Quackity (spanish viewers), Auronplay and Komanche, with people most negative about the two formor ccs. Overall though, dtblr is in a lot of agreement with each other about the opinions of Hispanic ccs! 

The Greater Twitch Streamers next. Most popular here are Larray (87.6% positive), Rainbolt (86.5), Austinshow (80.8%) Corpse (77.7%), and the Botez Sisters (75.1)! Good, or I think we’d all be doxxed and then thouroughly beaten in chess. Larray, Rainbolt, the Botez Sisters, BrookeAB and Kyedae are all very liked (from those that know them) with each less than 3 negative opinions. 

Most diliked are pretty obvious, and have been talked about before as the avg streamer here is much more negatively thought of than the worst of the mcyt streamers. However, aside from the fully expected there is also ImAlexx (57.6% dislike), KSI (28.9%), James Mariott (42.4%) and CG5 (48.3%). 

A lot of cc’s here were selected out of my personal interest of a few bigger streamers, a few controversial, and a few Valorant streamers - so many were much less well known than many of the mcyt, which explains the greater percentages of nuetral answers. 

Dream Team

I want to take a bit of a deeper dive into the Dream Team’s individual breakdowns now :)

All three are overwhelmingly positive ^_^ as it should be in DTBLR.... however 4 people did put negative for Dream, 4 negative and 1 very negative for GeorgeNotFound, and 9 negative and 3 very negative for Sapnap. Please be assured: For all three they were still among the very very top of liked all 140 ccs quizzed and are still extremely liked among dtblr - additionally they were all amongst the very top of Very Positive, not just casually enjoyed. 

Additionally, there was at least two people who put a variation of negative for all three, and several who had negative opinions on 2/3 so this poll almost certainly had a few people outside of dtblr take it - so although I didn’t remove any of these results, I probably could have done on this basis. 

One more thing I’ve looked at for the Dream Team is what are people who have Negative/Very Negative Opinions on any or multiple of the three are more or less likely to think of other ccs. In other words, if there’s any correlation!

The results are.... interesting! People who voted N/VN of any of the Dream Team were 42% less likely to vote positive for Austinshow, Tommyinnit and Skeppy, 38% for Puffy and Hasan,  30% for Awesamdude, Punz and Hannah, 27% for Benez, Rainbolt, Shadoune, Sylveey and Callahan and 20% for Karl, Redvelvetcake and Ludwig.

Conversly they are 40% less likely to vote negative for Martyn InTheLittleWood, 35% for MichaelMcchil, 25% for Quackity and Ranboo, 15% for Aimsey, Billzo, BoomerNA, 12% for Philza, 10% for CG5 and ConnorEatsPants, Jack Manifold, James Mariott, Smajor and Sneegsnag, 

They, however, were 34% more likely to vote positive for Eret, Pearlescentmoon and Iskall85, 27% for FalseSymmetry, GoodTimesWithScar, ImpulseSV, Smajor and GeminiTay, 22% for Grian, 20% for Badlinu, Philza, Rendog, Cubfan, and InTheLittleWood, 16% for ConnorEatsPants, Lovejoy and Fundy, 12% for Bdubs and James Mariott.

And finally, they were 25% more likely to vote negative for KSI, 18% for Tinakitten, Tommyinnit and the TheYard, and 16% for Spreen, Sykkuno, HasanAbi and Corpse.

XQC

The only topic left to talk about is the owner of the special poll.... XQC!

Congrats to the 221 who picked neutral (in a bug way) we would all like to study him. But perhaps from a distance. 

In the future I will use this category to evaluate some more members, as that was requested.

Conclusions

I love you dtblr! This was really fun to do and thank you all for patcipating, I might try do this agian with some other cc’s or just measure the change in the future! If you do want a breakdown on some specific cc’s send me an ask, or check out the data providided and give it a go yourself!

[melodygatesauthor]

Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia with prompt: “I’m in love with your voice.” This could be fluff or smut. It’s up to you! Happy birthday. 🧁

I Wanna Hear You

Santiago "Pope" Garcia X f!Reader

Yesssss, love some soft Santi but I was in the mood so I mixed in some smut hahaha. Hope you like it!

Tags/Warnings: NSFW, rough sex, dirty talk, p in v creampie

Word Count: 399

“Mm, come on sweetheart,” Santi pressed his face into your neck, “wanna hear you. I’m in love with your voice.”

“F-fuck!” You said as Santiago shifted your hips and pushed himself into you deeper.

“There you go, that’s it cariño, keep going.” His tongue traced over the skin under your earlobe, forcing a whine from you. “Yeah, like that.”

His cock thrust in as far as it could go, forcing a gasp from you while he continued to lazily kiss over your neck. Santi reached up and pinched your nipple between his thumb and forefinger, causing another whimper to leave you. Your back arched just as he shoved into you harder, and faster.

“Santi!” You shrieked as he moved his hips faster, slamming the headboard against the wall.

“Tell me what you want, come on.” He whispered against your ear softly.

You felt your cunt clench around his cock, “I want you to fill me up Santi, I need it.”

He hummed into your neck, “tell me more.”

“I want to be so full that you’re dripping out of me Santi, I need it, please.” You weren’t above begging if that’s what Santi wanted from you, he always had a way of making you desperate for even the smallest bit of his touch.

“That all you got?” He emphasized the end of his sentence with clenched teeth and harsh plunge into your channel.

You let out another heavy moan in response, digging your nails into his back. He hissed into your ear before nipping at your neck harder. You felt his cock get harder with his impending orgasm, rubbing against your walls and forcing your arousal to pool in your core.

“Santi I’m right there, oh please, please fill me up, I wanna…oh shit.” You tensed, grabbing on to him tightly while he did as you asked, pumping you full.

Your own climax peaked, forcing your cunt to squeeze over his cock. You felt his cum trickling out the sides as he fucked it into you further, never slowing his pace. He got what he wanted, you were nearly screaming his name like a prayer while he thrust a few final times before slowing his pace and resting his head against your shoulder.

“Fuck you sound so good, never get tired of hearing you sweetheart.”

You chuckled, “well, hurry up and get ready then, I want a round two.”

Celebration Masterlist

[llovelyclouds]

notes on cristabel oct

here's all the relevant info on cristabel i took note of during my tlt reread, in one place!

you can find the rest of the posts in this project here!

CRISTABEL OCT

titles:

Mercymorn’s cavalier, first gen, founded the eighth (with Mercy)

name meaning: in latin the meaning of the name Cristabel is: beautiful christian/follower of christ

notes from harrow the ninth:

The reason Mercy is the Saint of Joy (htn. pg. 177)

Mercy won't talk about her to Harrow, even though John thinks she would, and that her name would upset Augustine (htn. pg. 177)

Augustine doesn't mind talking about her though, and says: "A total delight. Effervescent. Kind to animals and children. A master of the sword. Did not have the intellect you'd ordinarily find in a sandwich or an orange, and was a sickening twerp into the bargain. The Eighth House will never see her like again." (htn. pg. 177)

“‘You know what I feel… you know I don't think she was the best influence on Alfred… you know I think they brought out the worst in each other, and I don’t think you disagree.’ God said, ‘They were very similar people.’ ‘No,’ said Augustine. ‘They weren’t, John. She was a fanatic and an idiot- yes, she was, Mercy- and he… was a man who regretted he wasn't. It took surprisingly little to lead my brother astray.’” - Augustine and John, discussing whatever happened between Cristabel and Alfred (double suicide, maybe?) (htn. pg. 274)

Augustine hated her for sure, but he’s ok with pretending he didn’t for dios apate reasons (htn. pg. 279)

"Cristabel always said I was tidy." - Mercymorn (htn. pg. 410)

"you picked the wrong man to enter a suicide pact with. I hate 'em. Cristabel might have undone all my good work with Alfred, but here comes the reckoning." - Augustine (htn. pg. 487)

notes from nona the ninth:

"The only other people I put through that damn trial were Mercy and Cris, because only Cris didn't mind being trepanned on the regular."- Pyrrha, about her and G1deon's trial at Canaan house (ntn. pg. 84)

Was Mercy's nun best friend pre-resurrection (ntn. pg. 128)

"I was worried I was going to get the Antichrist bit from her too, but she was just like: stop doing this! Read your Bible! This was Christ's whole problem! I was like, What are you talking about, Jesus cured the lepers and everyone was all, Hooray, thanks man. M-'s nun was all, Are you kidding, Christ never said no and never asked anyone to pay and got everyone to pay way too much attention and brought the heat down on everybody, Christ didn't keep to office hours, she said. Don't do that." (ntn. pg. 190)

“Me in my bedroom with a nun and a migraine, her thinking that if she pushed me enough we’d instantiate the Trinity and we’d all be saved.” (ntn. pg. 399)

“Eventually it was the nun who changed things. She knocked on my door and said very nicely, John, how are you doing? And I said, Not great, honestly. She said, John, how close are you to finding the soul? And I said, I can’t, Sister, It’s too big. I don’t understand why it’s so huge. I can’t find the soul inside the body, I don’t know where to look. I don’t know what I’m doing. She prayed over me, and then she went away for the longest five minutes of my life. [...] Then the nun came back and knocked on my door and said, John, I think I have it. I know you’re very scared right now, but I’m going to help you. Please let me in. He said: I let her in. She’d brought P-’s gun. [...] She just smiled at me. She said, John, don’t misunderstand. I want to help you. I truly believe that in our most terrible hours we don’t instinctively reach out to God; we push ourselves away from Him. Don’t feel bad for not rising heroically to the occasion right now, Fear doesn’t help us achieve a state of grace; it deafens the heart. John, I truly believe you can save everyone. So concentrate, please. She said, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for our sinners, now and at the hour of our death. And she shot herself.” (ntn. Pg. 404)

[dailyanarchistposts]

F.7.1 Are competing governments anarchism?

No, of course not. Yet according to “anarcho”-capitalism, it is. This can be seen from the ideas of Gustave de Molinari.

Hart is on firmer ground when he argues that the 19th century French economist Gustave de Molinari is the true founder of “anarcho”-capitalism. With Molinari, he argues, “the two different currents of anarchist thought converged: he combined the political anarchism of Burke and Godwin with the nascent economic anarchism of Adam Smith and Say to create a new forms of anarchism” that has been called “anarcho-capitalism, or free market anarchism.” [Op. Cit., p. 269] Of course, Godwin (like other anarchists) did not limit his anarchism purely to “political” issues and so he discussed “economic anarchism” as well in his critique of private property (as Proudhon also did). As such, to artificially split anarchism into political and economic spheres is both historically and logically flawed. While some dictionaries limit “anarchism” to opposition to the state, anarchists did and do not.

The key problem for Hart is that Molinari refused to call himself an anarchist. He did not even oppose government, as Hart himself notes Molinari proposed a system of insurance companies to provide defence of property and “called these insurance companies ‘governments’ even though they did not have a monopoly within a given geographical area.” As Hart notes, Molinari was the sole defender of such free-market justice at the time in France. [David M. Hart, “Gustave de Molinari and the Anti-statist Liberal Tradition: Part II”, pp. 399–434, Journal of Libertarian Studies, vol. V, no. 4, p. 415 and p. 411] Molinari was clear that he wanted “a regime of free government,” counterpoising “monopolist or communist governments” to “free governments.” This would lead to “freedom of government” rather than its abolition (i.e., not freedom from government). For Molinari the future would not bring “the suppression of the state which is the dream of the anarchists … It will bring the diffusion of the state within society. That is … ‘a free state in a free society.’” [quoted by Hart, Op. Cit., p. 429, p. 411 and p. 422] As such, Molinari can hardly be considered an anarchist, even if “anarchist” is limited to purely being against government.

Moreover, in another sense Molinari was in favour of the state. As we discuss in section F.6, these companies would have a monopoly within a given geographical area — they have to in order to enforce the property owner’s power over those who use, but do not own, the property in question. The key contradiction can be seen in Molinari’s advocating of company towns, privately owned communities (his term was a “proprietary company”). Instead of taxes, people would pay rent and the “administration of the community would be either left in the hands of the company itself or handled special organisations set up for this purpose.” Within such a regime “those with the most property had proportionally the greater say in matters which affected the community.” If the poor objected then they could simply leave. [Op. Cit., pp. 421–2 and p. 422]

Given this, the idea that Molinari was an anarchist in any form can be dismissed. His system was based on privatising government, not abolishing it (as he himself admitted). This would be different from the current system, of course, as landlords and capitalists would be hiring police directly to enforce their decisions rather than relying on a state which they control indirectly. This system would not be anarchist as can be seen from American history. There capitalists and landlords created their own private police forces and armies, which regularly attacked and murdered union organisers and strikers. As an example, there is Henry Ford’s Service Department (private police force):

“In 1932 a hunger march of the unemployed was planned to march up to the gates of the Ford plant at Dearborn… The machine guns of the Dearborn police and the Ford Motor Company’s Service Department killed [four] and wounded over a score of others… Ford was fundamentally and entirely opposed to trade unions. The idea of working men questioning his prerogatives as an owner was outrageous … [T]he River Rouge plant… was dominated by the autocratic regime of Bennett’s service men. Bennett .. organise[d] and train[ed] the three and a half thousand private policemen employed by Ford. His task was to maintain discipline amongst the work force, protect Ford’s property [and power], and prevent unionisation… Frank Murphy, the mayor of Detroit, claimed that ‘Henry Ford employs some of the worst gangsters in our city.’ The claim was well based. Ford’s Service Department policed the gates of his plants, infiltrated emergent groups of union activists, posed as workers to spy on men on the line… Under this tyranny the Ford worker had no security, no rights. So much so that any information about the state of things within the plant could only be freely obtained from ex-Ford workers.” [Huw Beynon, Working for Ford, pp. 29–30]

The private police attacked women workers handing out pro-union leaflets and gave them “a severe beating.” At Kansas and Dallas “similar beatings were handed out to the union men.” This use of private police to control the work force was not unique. General Motors “spent one million dollars on espionage, employing fourteen detective agencies and two hundred spies at one time [between 1933 and 1936]. The Pinkerton Detective Agency found anti-unionism its most lucrative activity.” [Op. Cit., p. 34 and p. 32] We must also note that the Pinkerton’s had been selling their private police services for decades before the 1930s. For over 60 years the Pinkerton Detective Agency had “specialised in providing spies, agent provocateurs, and private armed forces for employers combating labour organisations.” By 1892 it “had provided its services for management in seventy major labour disputes, and its 2,000 active agents and 30,000 reserves totalled more than the standing army of the nation.” [Jeremy Brecher, Strike!, p. 55] With this force available, little wonder unions found it so hard to survive in the USA.

Only an “anarcho”-capitalist would deny that this is a private government, employing private police to enforce private power. Given that unions could be considered as “defence” agencies for workers, this suggests a picture of how “anarcho”-capitalism may work in practice radically different from than that produced by its advocates. The reason is simple, it does not ignore inequality and subjects property to an anarchist analysis. Little wonder, then, that Proudhon stressed that it “becomes necessary for the workers to form themselves into democratic societies, with equal conditions for all members, on pain of a relapse into feudalism.” Anarchism, in other words, would see ”[c]apitalistic and proprietary exploitation stopped everywhere, the wage system abolished” and so “the economic organisation [would] replac[e] the governmental and military system.” [The General Idea of the Revolution, p. 227 and p. 281] Clearly, the idea that Proudhon shared the same political goal as Molinari is a joke. He would have dismissed such a system as little more than an updated form of feudalism in which the property owner is sovereign and the workers subjects (also see section B.4).

Unsurprisingly, Molinari (unlike the individualist anarchists) attacked the jury system, arguing that its obliged people to “perform the duties of judges. This is pure communism.” People would “judge according to the colour of their opinions, than according to justice.” [quoted by Hart, Op. Cit., p. 409] As the jury system used amateurs (i.e. ordinary people) rather than full-time professionals it could not be relied upon to defend the power and property rights of the rich. As we noted in section F.6.1, Rothbard criticised the individualist anarchists for supporting juries for essentially the same reasons.

But, as is clear from Hart’s account, Molinari had little concern that working class people should have a say in their own lives beyond consuming goods and picking bosses. His perspective can be seen from his lament that in those “colonies where slavery has been abolished without the compulsory labour being replaced with an equivalent quantity of free [sic!] labour [i.e., wage labour], there has occurred the opposite of what happens everyday before our eyes. Simple workers have been seen to exploit in their turn the industrial entrepreneurs, demanding from them wages which bear absolutely no relation to the legitimate share in the product which they ought to receive. The planters were unable to obtain for their sugar a sufficient price to cover the increase in wages, and were obliged to furnish the extra amount, at first out of their profits, and then out of their very capital. A considerable number of planters have been ruined as a result … It is doubtless better that these accumulations of capital should be destroyed than that generations of men should perish [Marx: ‘how generous of M. Molinari’] but would it not be better if both survived?” [quoted by Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1, p. 937f]

So workers exploiting capital is the “opposite of what happens everyday before our eyes”? In other words, it is normal that entrepreneurs “exploit” workers under capitalism? Similarly, what is a “legitimate share” which workers “ought to receive”? Surely that is determined by the eternal laws of supply and demand and not what the capitalists (or Molinari) thinks is right? And those poor former slave drivers, they really do deserve our sympathy. What horrors they face from the impositions subjected upon them by their ex-chattels — they had to reduce their profits! How dare their ex-slaves refuse to obey them in return for what their ex-owners think was their “legitimate share in the produce”! How “simple” these workers were, not understanding the sacrifices their former masters suffer nor appreciating how much more difficult it is for their ex-masters to create “the product” without the whip and the branding iron to aid them! As Marx so rightly comments: “And what, if you please, is this ‘legitimate share’, which, according to [Molinari’s] own admission, the capitalist in Europe daily neglects to pay? Over yonder, in the colonies, where the workers are so ‘simple’ as to ‘exploit’ the capitalist, M. Molinari feels a powerful itch to use police methods to set on the right road that law of supply and demand which works automatically everywhere else.” [Op. Cit., p. 937f]

An added difficulty in arguing that Molinari was an anarchist is that he was a contemporary of Proudhon, the first self-declared anarchist, and lived in a country with a vigorous anarchist movement. Surely if he was really an anarchist, he would have proclaimed his kinship with Proudhon and joined in the wider movement. He did not, as Hart notes as regards Proudhon:

“their differences in economic theory were considerable, and it is probably for this reason that Molinari refused to call himself an anarchist in spite of their many similarities in political theory. Molinari refused to accept the socialist economic ideas of Proudhon .. . in Molinari’s mind, the term ‘anarchist’ was intimately linked with socialist and statist economic views.” [Op. Cit., p. 415]

Yet Proudhon’s economic views, like Godwin’s, flowed from his anarchist analysis and principles. They cannot be arbitrarily separated as Hart suggests. So while arguing that “Molinari was just as much an anarchist as Proudhon,” Hart forgets the key issue. Proudhon was aware that private property ensured that the proletarian did not exercise “self-government” during working hours, i.e. that he was ruled by another. As for Hart claiming that Proudhon had “statist economic views” it simply shows how far an “anarcho”-capitalist perspective is from genuine anarchism. Proudhon’s economic analysis, his critique of private property and capitalism, flowed from his anarchism and was an integral aspect of it.

By restricting anarchism purely to opposition to the state, Hart is impoverishing anarchist theory and denying its history. Given that anarchism was born from a critique of private property as well as government, this shows the false nature of Hart’s claim that “Molinari was the first to develop a theory of free-market, proprietary anarchism that extended the laws of the market and a rigorous defence of property to its logical extreme.” [Op. Cit., p. 415 and p. 416] Hart shows how far from anarchism Molinari was as Proudhon had turned his anarchist analysis to property, showing that “defence of property” lead to the oppression of the many by the few in social relationships identical to those which mark the state. Moreover, Proudhon, argued the state would always be required to defend such social relations. Privatising it would hardly be a step forward.

Unsurprisingly, Proudhon dismissed the idea that the laissez faire capitalists shared his goals. “The school of Say,” Proudhon argued, was “the chief focus of counter-revolution next to the Jesuits” and “has for ten years past seemed to exist only to protect and applaud the execrable work of the monopolists of money and necessities, deepening more and more the obscurity of a science [economics] naturally difficult and full of complications” (much the same can be said of “anarcho”-capitalists, incidentally). For Proudhon, “the disciples of Malthus and of Say, who oppose with all their might any intervention of the State in matters commercial or industrial, do not fail to avail themselves of this seemingly liberal attitude, and to show themselves more revolutionary than the Revolution. More than one honest searcher has been deceived thereby.” However, this apparent “anti-statist” attitude of supporters of capitalism is false as pure free market capitalism cannot solve the social question, which arises because of capitalism itself. As such, it was impossible to abolish the state under capitalism. Thus “this inaction of Power in economic matters was the foundation of government. What need should we have of a political organisation, if Power once permitted us to enjoy economic order?” Instead of capitalism, Proudhon advocated the “constitution of Value,” the “organisation of credit,” the elimination of interest, the “establishment of workingmen’s associations” and “the use of a just price.” [The General Idea of the Revolution, p. 225, p. 226 and p. 233]

Clearly, then, the claims that Molinari was an anarchist fail as he, unlike his followers, was aware of what anarchism actually stood for. Hart, in his own way, acknowledges this:

“In spite of his protestations to the contrary, Molinari should be considered an anarchist thinker. His attack on the state’s monopoly of defence must surely warrant the description of anarchism. His reluctance to accept this label stemmed from the fact that the socialists had used it first to describe a form of non-statist society which Molinari definitely opposed. Like many original thinkers, Molinari had to use the concepts developed by others to describe his theories. In his case, he had come to the same political conclusions as the communist anarchists although he had been working within the liberal tradition, and it is therefore not surprising that the terms used by the two schools were not compatible. It would not be until the latter half of the twentieth century that radical, free-trade liberals would use the word ‘anarchist’ to describe their beliefs.” [Op. Cit., p. 416]

It should be noted that Proudhon was not a communist-anarchist, but the point remains (as an aside, Rothbard also showed his grasp of anarchism by asserting that “the demented Bakunin” was a “leading anarcho-communist,” who “emphasised [the lumpenproletariat] in the 1840s.” [The Logic of Action II, p. 388 and p. 381] Which would have been impressive as not only did Bakunin become an anarchist in the 1860s, anarcho-communism, as anyone with even a basic knowledge of anarchist history knows, developed after his death nor did Bakunin emphasise the lumpenproletariat as the agent of social change, Rothbardian and Marxian inventions not withstanding). The aims of anarchism were recognised by Molinari as being inconsistent with his ideology. Consequently, he (rightly) refused the label. If only his self-proclaimed followers in the “latter half of the twentieth century” did the same then anarchists would not have to bother with them!

It does seem ironic that the founder of “anarcho”-capitalism should have come to the same conclusion as modern day anarchists on the subject of whether his ideas are a form of anarchism or not!

[eucanthos]

Jacques-Louis David (FR, 1748 - 1825)

The Death of Socrates (details), 1787. Oil on canvas 129.5 × 196.2 cm (51.0 × 77.2 in). The MET

The Greek philosopher Socrates (469–399 BCE) condemned to death by the people of Athens, prepares to drink a cup of hemlock, surrounded by woebegone friends. In the spring of 399 BC, three Athenian citizens had brought legal proceedings against the philosopher. They had accused him of failing to worship the city's gods, of introducing religious novelties and of corrupting the young men of Athens - and such was the severity of their charges, they had called for the death penalty.

Socrates had responded with legendary equanimity. Though afforded an opportunity to renounce his philosophy in court, he had sided with what he believed to be true rather than what he knew would be popular. In Plato's account he had defiantly told the jury:

So long as I draw breath and have my faculties, I shall never stop practicing philosophy and exhorting you and elucidating the truth for everyone that I meet ... And so gentlemen ... whether you acquit me or not, you know that I am not going to alter my conduct, not even if I have to die a hundred deaths.

And so he had been led to meet his end in an Athenian jail, his death marking a defining moment in the history of philosophy....

If the [picture - David's painting] struck me so forcefully, it was perhaps because the behavior it depicted contrasted so sharply with my own. In conversations, my priority was to be liked, rather than to speak the truth... I sought the approval of figures of authority and after encounters with them, worried at length whether they had thought me acceptable. When passing through customs or driving alongside police cars, I harbored a confused wish for the uniformed officials to think well of me.

Excerpt from The Consolations of Philosophy, by Alain de Botton, NY: Vintage. 2000, p. 3

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436105

https://www.faculty.umb.edu/michael_lafargue/104/204/plato/readings/debotton-sht-12-05.htm

[porterdavis]

According to an analysis last year by the Economic Policy Institute, the heads of the top 350 publicly traded companies earned annual incomes that were on average 399 times greater than a typical worker in 2021, up from 59-to-1 in 1989.

[abigail-pent]

About G--'s Arm

This is very weird. I still do not understand why John took off his arm. Someone in the comments of a previous post suggested it was so he could use it to resuscitate G-- later, but there's something still suspicious about this, because it requires John to be able to grow a whole new body from a piece that does not even have a brain. And we've been hearing this whole time -- lots of times in HTN and I think also in one of the earlier John chapters in NTN -- that John cannot regrow limbs. So how can he regrow a whole body from an arm?

And on top of that: in the sequence where he takes G--'s arm *off*, he GROWS HIM A NEW ARM:

"He said, He didn't feel any pain, and I grew him a new one then and there. Bit of a gamble, but I was sure I could do that by then. I wanted his arm . . . his material. He didn't even ask me to explain. . . . Should still be around here. The arm, I mean. I stuffed it in the morgue so nobody would find it. I've got plans for that arm." (NTN p. 399)

So at this point, pre-Resurrection, John absolutely does know how to regrow limbs; and if the commenter on my previous post was right and the 'plan for G--'s arm' was to regrow Gideon, then John knew he would keep that power post-Resurrection. But that also doesn't quite make sense, because even though at this moment John says he had a bad feeling, he doesn't know about the soul yet, and so even though he's aware that nuclear armageddon is likely, it can't be within the scope of his plans to understand that there's going to be an 'after' the nuclear armageddon. He doesn't yet know he could ensoul a new G--, even if he could create him a new body.

And then post-Resurrection, a myriad later, who can regrow limbs? Not Lyctors, except for Gideon-in-Harrow. John says he can't, but this is maybe a lie -- I think a fair amount of his lies exist to cover his culpability in the death of Earth and the fact that he has achieved perfect Lyctorhood/Grand Lysis whereas he let the others kill their loved ones to achieve only imperfect Lyctorhood/Petty Lysis. (And his culpability in setting Gideon to kill Harrow in HTN.) It's simple to say 'oh, he lies about everything' but I just don't think it's true; I think he lies for strategic reasons, and those strategic reasons are so fundamental to the world that he just ends up lying a lot. If this is true -- what strategic purpose would it serve for him to lie about being able to regrow limbs? It would show that he's different from the other Lyctors, but he wants the other Lyctors to think he's different, and they already think he's different. So did he lose this power, or what? And what does it mean that Gideon can regrow Harrow's thumbs? Does that come down to the fact that thumbs don't qualify as a limb in terms of the nervous system (as I think @dr-dendritic-trees pointed out)? Or does this point to Alecto as the source of the regrowing ability, and something about Harrow achieving perfect Lyctorhood -- or maybe just Harrow losing her thumbs -- triggers these powers from Alecto lying dormant inside her? Powers which John cannot access because of putting Alecto to sleep, or because of Alecto's pact with Anastasia?

If Alecto is the source of the regrowing ability, we actually get into some interesting themes. It points to a sort of cosmic duality: Alecto as source of life, and John as source of death, compartmentalized in a way that they should not be; a highly unnatural compartmentalization. They ought to be intertwined -- two sides of the same coin -- and intertwining is exactly what John did with their souls at the time of the Resurrection; but he tried to separate them when he put Alecto to bed. And they can't be separated, because when death is conquered, what meaning does life have? When you can't die, when you live ten thousand years... we see what that does to Mercy and what it does to Augustine. It's unnatural. You lose yourself. Death and life have to be together to have meaning.

[santmat]

176: Christ said, “Flesh eating flesh? How offensive an act!” "This is an unusual saying, seemingly enjoining abstention from eating meat. There is an echo here perhaps of the Gospel According to Thomas, Saying 87: 'Wretched is the body that is dependent on a body.' See Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures, p. 395, excerpt no. 87, and p. 399, excerpt no. 112. "The saying seems also to have been familiar in Syriac literature; see E. A. Wallis Budge, The Laughable Stories , p. 31, no. 131." -- The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature, by Tarif Khalidi

[zerogate]

Among a group of nearly 3,000 Finnish men, 153 of them had donated blood at least once in the 24 months preceding the start of the study. The entire group was followed for an average of nine years. In that time, one (0.7%) of the donors had a heart attack, while 316 (12.5%) of the non-donor men had a heart attack. After adjusting for age and all the cardiac risk factors they could think of (cholesterol, weight, etc.), the researchers found that blood donors had an 88% reduced risk of heart attack.

This study tried to adjust for a healthy donor effect by factoring in standard cardiac risk markers, although there might be additional factors that weren't considered.

In an American population of both men and women who were 40 years old or older and followed for cardiovascular events, those who had donated blood were half as likely to have an event such as a heart attack or stroke. All subjects in this study, both donors and non-donors, had no cardiovascular disease at the start of the study.

To get around the healthy donor effect, some studies have compared frequent blood donors to infrequent donors. In one such study, those who had given blood at least once in each of three consecutive years were compared to people who only gave blood one time during the same period. In the following ten years, frequent donors were 40% less likely to have a cardiac event as were infrequent donors.

[...]

The Copenhagen City Heart Study has studied thousands of residents of that city for many years, and is similar to the Framingham Study in the United States. One research group looked at the study's data on almost 9000 people to determine the relation between ferritin (iron) and death rates.

They found that “stepwise increasing concentrations of ferritin were associated with a stepwise increased risk of premature death overall”. People with a ferritin of greater than 600 (a high number) had a median survival age of 55, meaning that of those who had a ferritin that high, half were dead by that age. Those with a ferritin of 400 to 599 lived an average of 72 years; at 200 to 399, 76 years, and if the ferritin was less than 200, 79 years.

-- P. D. Mangan, Dumping Iron

[7evenmoon]

Masterlist

harumatsu fics

• jealous ⤳oneshot, 704 words, fluff/angst, jealous matsuri, established relationship

• needy ⤳oneshot, 390 words, catgirl!matsuri, fluff

• cold ⤳oneshot, 399 words, fluff, established relationship

• cuddle me? ⤳oneshot, 564 words, fluff, comfort, established relationship

• i got you ⤳oneshot, 1,168 words, fluff, smut, established relationship

• deal with the devil ⤳oneshot, 1,462 words, smut, light dom/sub, bratty matsuri, overstimulation, established relationship

• sweater weather ⤳ oneshot, 1,016 words, smut, g!p harumi, friends with benefits

• you just have to ask ⤳ oneshot, 1,610 words, canon universe, angst, feelings realization

• i'm yours already, don't break me ⤳longfic, work in progress, omegaverse, unplanned pregnancy, alpha harumi, omega matsuri, smut, angst, idiots in love, college setting

qingguang fics

• cigarette duet ⤳oneshot, 2,259 words, modern setting, smut, keqing is stupid, ningguang is annoying, beidou and keqing are friends, crack

• up no more ⤳oneshot, 1,311 words, modern setting, fluff and smut, ningguang is down bad for keqing, established relationship

more info ♡

about me: i'm a twenty years old woman. i'm a big fan of horror movies, i like playing calming video games like animal crossing and stardew valley but ironically i don't really like horror games. i spend most of my time watching movies/shows and reading fics. i mostly read angsty fics with toxic relationships and fucked up characters but if you've read my fics you'll notice most of them are fluffly. the reason for that is that i use writing as a coping mechanism so i prefer writing about cute moments for my ships. also it takes a lot of energy out of me to write really angsty fics but sometimes i'm in the mood for an emotional rollercoaster lol. i'm currently battling with an opiate addiction, which is why i haven't put out a lot of content but lately writing is really helping me cope so yeah. but still, please be patient with me i don't have a schedule for writing and as i've said life is rough at the moment

rules: honestly i'm open to anything on this blog. you can ask me about my fics, tell me about your day, ask questions about me (obviously not personnal information like my adress or boob size 😭), give me fic recs or send me your fics i will be happy to read them! ideas, shows and movies,etc. we can discuss anything really, there is no need to be shy and there is an anonymous option in the ask box for those who are really shy <3

ships i love: harumatsu, qingguang, kokoyae, kokoeimiko, kaebedo, dainkae, tamber, harlivy, emison, jikook/taekook/vminkook (only in fiction, i don't ship them in real life), namo/sanayeon/samoyeon (same i don't ship irl),

ships i like: kokoei, eimiko, jeanlisa, ninglan, mira harberg x laurie, choni, beidou x ganyu, posie, shenhe x yun jin, haleb, spoby, aria x men her age 🤨

ships i'm curious/would like to read about: chilumi, zhongli ships, lisa x la signora

[thesynaxarium]

Today we also celebrate the Venerable Martyr Anastasius the Persian. Saint Anastasius was a Persian by race, the son of a Zoroastrian Magus, and a soldier in the Persian army in the days of Chosroes II, King of Persia, and Heraclius, Emperor of New Rome. The Saint's Persian name was Magundat. When Chosroes captured Jerusalem in the year 614 and took the Precious Cross away captive, Magundat heard the report of the miracles that came to pass through the Cross of our salvation. Being of a prudent mind, perplexed that an instrument of torture should be so highly honored by the Christians, yet seized with longing to learn their Faith, he diligently sought out instruction in the whole divine dispensation of Christ: His Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection. When he learned what he sought to know, his soul was filled with wonder and joy. Withdrawing to the Holy City, he was baptized by Saint Modestus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and became a monk, receiving the new name of Anastasius. As he read the lives of the Saints and the accounts of the holy Martyrs, his heart was kindled with love for them to such a degree that he prayed to be counted worthy of a martyr's end like unto theirs. Finally, unable to contain his longing, he left his monastery. Encountering certain Persian Magi at Caesarea, he rebuked them for their delusion. Since Palestine was still held in the captivity of the Persians, he was taken before the Persian ruler, questioned, beaten, and imprisoned. He was then taken with other captives to Persia, where, after many tortures, refusing to espouse again the error of his fathers, he was hanged up by one hand, strangled with a noose, and beheaded. May he intercede for us always + Source: https://www.goarch.org/chapel/saints?contentid=399 (at Mar Saba) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnsQlYihI5Z/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[llovelyclouds]

notes on gideon (the first)

here's all the relevant info on gideon the first i took note of during my tlt reread, in one place!

(you can find the rest of the posts related to this project here!)

GIDEON THE FIRST

titles:

Third saint to ascend, first gen, founded the second, the saint of duty

notes from gideon the ninth:

G1deon & Pyrrha's room in Canaan house includes a drawing of a chimaera that Gideon describes as "familiar" (the imaging & response construct) and a picture on the wall of John and his pals (presumably) with everyone's faces scribbled out with a thick black marker. Also guns (gtn. pg. 205)

notes from harrow the ninth:

the saint of duty (htn. pg. 177)

most likely really freaked out the first time he saw an RB (htn. pg. 173)

Doesn't respond to pain? (htn. pg. 188)

Made a pact with an authority John has no control over (Alecto???? Pyrrha???) that he would protect John from all dangers (htn. pg. 194)

“The Saint of Duty was a thanergy void. The Saint of Duty was the ultimate nemesis of a bone adept.” (htn. pg. 225)

“The closest thing to interest [Gideon] ever showed in anybody was in Pyrrha, and in the criminals he hunted. [...] When he kicked that Edenite commander out an airlock, it was like seeing a man on his wedding day. Not exactly romance though… Harrow, over ten thousand years I’ve known that man, and he is legendarily unamourous. I have watched six other Lyctors carry out a myriad’s worth of inadvisable love affairs with one another, because it is a very long time to be alone, but never him. He was unassailable.” -John (htn. Pg. 228). 

Is described by Augustine as getting really specific obsessions, has stopped listening to anyone, and has caused Augustine a lot of trouble in the last 40 years (htn. pg. 268)\

Pyrrha was ten years older than Augustine, so pre-resurrection G1deon was besties with a cop probably at least 20 years older than him ?? (htn. pg. 278)

John says that G1deon doesn’t talk about her (alecto), but Augustine and Mercy still feel guilty about what happened (htn. pg. 345)

"Don't know why Gideon was always so obsessed with [Wake]... he never cared about beauty, and she was repellent to talk to." - Mercymorn (htn. pg. 409)

Mattaius Nonius fought G1deon, and seems to owe Pyrrha a debt (htn. pg. 455)

I think John at least had some idea about G1deons memory loss/what was up with his and Pyrrha's lyctorhood based on how Pyrrha (pretending to be G1deon) says she didn't know anything about the affair with Wake (htn. pg. 473)

notes from nona the ninth:

"'I'd need my necromancer to teach Camilla.' 'Why?' 'Because you need teaching to be an asset, and Cam wants teaching to be a killer.'"- Pyrrha and Palamades (ntn. pg. 28)

Knew John since they were kids (ntn. pg. 74)

"No, I don't blame you man… He was always looking for things to throw himself on." -Pyrrha, talking about G1deon to Varun (??) (ntn. pg. 116) 

The parallel to Gideon's death… i'm sooo normal. 

Was an engineer pre-resurrection (ntn. pg. 129)

“P- volunteered to go with him, but G- said he wouldn’t arm it if P- was in range. P- went off at him, but it was one of those times where he held his ground against her. I remember. She called him a stupid kid. [...] I took G- downstairs and I got him to face the wall, and I took his arm off. [...] He didn’t feel any pain, and I grew him a new one then and there. Bit of a gamble, but I was sure I could do that by then. I wanted his arm… his material. He didn’t even ask me to explain. That was the kind of guy he was. He and I had grown up on the same street. I’d spotted him for mince pies all the time as kids, so stands to reason he let me cut off his arm and carried a nuke for me. [...] Should still be around here. The arm, I mean. I stuffed it in the morgue so nobody would find it. I've got plans for that arm.” (ntn. pg. 399)

“He was immovable. That was why I wanted him in: G- only listened to two people in his fucking life.” (ntn. Pg. 402)

Died from John reaching out to stop his heart (ntn. Pg. 407)

“I liked you. He liked you-  Gideon liked you. my necromancer and I always liked you… and hey, what's like except a love that hasn't been invited indoors?” - Pyrrha, to Nona (ntn. pg. 461)