#passionate about creating a better society? check

[thenightwolf51]

What if Jack and Maddie Fenton were actually Jack and Janet Drake?

The Drakes are their actual identities but they created the Fentons as a why of letting loose, of getting to be their truest most unhinged selves and pursue their true passion without the eyes of high society Gotham judging them.

Whenever the Drakes are supposedly out of the country on archeological digs they are actually in a little no where town in the midwest.

The Drake wealth is perfectly capable of funding their experiments and prototypes and every now and then they do show up to a dig for a week or too, but the Fentons are who they truly are.

So of course Gotham never finds out about Janet's first pregnancy and little Jasmine is welcomed into the world as an Amity Park Fenton, not a Gotham Drake. Janet's second pregnancy however.

Well as i said, the Fentons are who they truly are at their most unhinged and unfiltered. And upon finding out that their having a set of identical twins, well, can you really blame them for passing up this perfect opportunity to test Nature vs. Nurture.

One boy would be a wealthy Drake raised as an only child in a hostile city, the other would be a Fenton raised with his older sister in a peaceful small town.

That's what they decide and thats what they do, and everything is as cannon goes. Tim doesn't know that his parents "archeological digs" are really an excuse to spend most of their time as the Fentons, and Danny and Jazz don't know that the longer "ghost conventions" are an excuse to handle Drake affairs and check on their unknown brother.

At least until things start to get complicated.

(Im not sure if Maddie fakes Janet's death or if she really dies, and if Jack's coma is fake or real and he lost his Fenton memories. Or maybe the death and coma dont happen at all and the truth comes out some other way like Danny finding the Nature vs. Nurture notes or a school trip to gotham or maybe Jazz desides to go to college in Gotham and it comes out that way somehow.

This obviously works best as a "bad parents Jack and maddie" though how bad they are can be entirely up to you. Maybe everything comes out sometime after a "reveal gone right" and Danny and Jazz think their parents are getting better only to be smacked in the face by the betrayal of "secret billionaire parents who essentially abandoned their brother"

Dont know but im tossing it to the void.

To me the most important scenes in this idea is Tim angst at the fact that his parents were never actually too busy to be there for him and had instead chosen no to be there, the somewhat bitter consolation of learning that even when their parents were physically there they still weren't there there for his siblings, and then some good ole slightly unhinged sibling bonding.

Maybe the measuring of ecto contamination and debate in if their parents presence did more damageto their health or less

They honestly might be tied on mental and physical scars. All three kids tend to come with headcanons about neglect and malnourishment)

@hdgnj @omnicrafts @im-totally-not-an-alien-2 @tathartiel @0mnicrex @ailithnight @little-pondhead

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hi! I'd like to run a game that's Jane Austen-esque or a political/social drama with fantasy elements. Think A Court of Fey and Flowers, except I don't want to subscribe to their channel so I haven't actually seen it. Fairy settings in particular would be appreciated! Thank you in advance

THEME: Political and Social Drama

Hello, I think I have a really fun collection of options for you to take a peek at. We’ve got fairies, we’ve got secrets, and we’ve got drama!

Fey Court Chaos, by Mabbly.

Fey aristocrats party the equinox away. You have been invited by the most prestigious monarchs of this wild magical land. Parlay with potential allies, humiliate your enemies, & impress those worth impressing–but avoid getting kicked out yourself!

Fey Court Chaos is a party-based tabletop role-playing game designed to let you escalate a royal ball into dramatic highs and lows. You will need a pool of dice or coins to play. Any kind will do, but the fancier the better!

This is a game about trying to make a name for yourself while possibly ruining the status of your companions. You’ll wager points of Reputation every time you do something risky, with the risks rising depending on the status of the person you’re interacting with. Success means a rise in reputation or learning a juicy secret. Failure means losing someone’s favour, or even giving one of your own secrets away! If you love fantasy faerie settings, this game gives you all the basics, and has advice for the game runner as well. You should definitely check it out!

The 147th Annual Necromancer’s Ball, by Meghan Cross.

You are cordially invited…

The 147th Necromancer's Ball is a one page TTRPG about necromancy and feeling fancy for a GM and 3-6 players played with a single d6.

You are necromancers attending The 147th Necromancer's Ball, dressed to the nines with your familiars in tow. You are ready to have a wonderful time, but more than that you are ready to show your rival once and for all that you are better than them by displaying your social prowess (and maybe even winning Necromancer of the Year.)

But not everything goes according to plan when a party crasher shows up to ruin the evening for everyone - and it is up to you to stop them and save the party!

This is a game all about being dramatic as fuck and also petty as fuck. You can roll Necromancy when you want to do magic or command the undead, and you roll Feeling Fancy when you engage in social entanglements or navigate the ball. Showing that you’re the Necromancer of the Year won’t be easy, especially once a party crasher shows up to complicate things - and possibly steal your chances of winning!

If you love silly games, as well as taking time to describe just how drop-dead (pardon the pun) gorgeous you look, this might be your game.

Avalon Society, by Martian Machinery.

Avalon Society is a game about courtly love and intrigue, and the conflict between passion and duty. You'll play knights, lords, ladies, upstarts, pretenders, unknowns, or possibly a changeling or a sorcerer. Pull swords out of stones, break curses, ascend to the round table, duel your rivals, or even fall in love with them. It’s up to you.

Avalon Society is a setting created for Good Society, which is the game of social intrigue, and in fact, the game that helped build A Court of Fae and Flowers! Good Society takes place in the same time as Jane Austen’s novels, but Avalon Society replaces character roles and family backgrounds in order to represent an Arthurian story. The court also shifts seasonally, which feels very reminiscent of a fairy court. The biggest downside - you also have to buy Good Society in order to use this supplement.

Townhouse Dracula, by Tenbear.

You have the opportunity to attend a dinner party at the one and only Townhouse Dracula. Here you will vie for Dracula’s favour, which includes eternal life and power beyond your imagination.

To decide who gains this power Dracula puts party guests through a gauntlet of past memories. Guests do their best to impress Dracula and convince them that they would be an asset to have in the Dracula lineage. 

Townhouse Dracula presents the players with scenarios that their characters will have to navigate, trying to piece together Dracula’s memories when they might not have all the answers.

This is first and foremost an improv game, so it’s good for people who like coming up with pieces of a story on the fly. You’ll get tokens as rewards for being funny, clever, bold, kind, etc. At the end of the game, you’ll tally your score and determine whether or not you become part of Dracula’s lineage. If you like the mysterious allure of vampires and want to stretch your storytelling muscles, you might want to check out this game.

Tax Cuts and Pixie Dust, by Weird Blue Yonder.

The home of a sordid assortment of terrible woodland spirits doing terrible things in a desperate bid to sit atop the Fairy Throne.

You are those woodland spirits, and election season is just around the corner…

Tax Cuts and Pixie Dust is probably the most political game on this list. It uses pretty standard faerie tropes - you can be an elf, a leprechaun, a banshee… even a giant! All of you are supposed to be part of the same party, but you all secretly want the throne!

This is a game about dirty politicians, with the humour and camp turned up to allow you to get really ridiculous with it. The resolution system involves building small dice pools of d6’s, tallying successes to see how you fared. The GM is responsible for presenting scenarios and complications, which are present in a few roll tables. At the end of elections you vote on each player’s position in the new court, and that’s game!

Butterfly Court, by mishagw.

In Butterfly Court, you will play as a member of the titular Butterfly Court, the court of the monarchy of the kingdom Praecia. This is a court intrigue game that uses the No Dice No Masters system, based on Avery Alder's Belonging Outside Belonging games.

This is a storytelling, roleplaying game, where players portray members of a court, but not necessarily the monarch or the heir. Instead, the game focuses on everyday lives, intrigue, relationships, obligations, and myriad other concerns of the regular people in the court: nobles, but also staff, servants, artists, and other people that make court life possible.

Butterfly Court doesn’t dictate who you are exactly, but it leaves a broad space for different kinds of supernatural beings. So if you want faeries, this game is certainly able to take place in a faerie court. The game is designed to pit your characters into situations that are difficult for the country at large: rebellions, scandals, famine, crime, etc. You also create factions that have different methods and priorities.

Everything that you create together is shared communally, because Butterfly Court uses a GM-less, diceless game system. This means that you’ll each have shared authority over where the story goes next, although there is a cycle of play that helps you move from one scene to the next. I think that the idea of this being a game about different factions navigating political turmoil has the potential to be represented really well through a collaborative system like this.

Games I've Recommended in the Past

If you want something more like Jane Austen, you might like Le Bon Ton! If you like equal parts adventure and social intrigue, then Household might be for you.

[chichiscloset]

5 level-up & hypergamy youtubers you need to watch

 

Hey yall! this is part 2 of my favourite Youtuber list CLICK HERE to view it!

I thought I’d share some of my favourite feminine/level-up/pro-hypergamous YouTube channels. Some of them directly talk about femininity, etiquette, or growing towards becoming a better person.

In no particular order, here are my top 5 favourite YouTube channels about femininity, levelling up, hypergamy, and inspiration for generally becoming a better version of myself. I hope you enjoy them too.

KWUCOCO✨

My black SBs and spoiled girlfriends know about this babe!

Kwucoco (Kamanda) is a 27-year-old Cameroonian native. Residing in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts. She is an aspiring real estate agent. Coco is a kept woman her vlogs include herself displaying the various gifts she receives from her many "admirers", "friends" and sugar daddies. Although she mainly makes vlogs of her day-to-day life. She does drop advice on how she became the high-value woman she is today!

Woman of elegance ✨

Woman of elegance is the ultimate guide in teaching women from all corners of the globe how to be elegant, refined and polished ladies.

This online finishing school was created by Vivienne Abena who is passionate about being polished and refined. helping women across the globe with style and proper etiquette.

CodenameChannel✨

The hypergamy and level-up guru! if you're a black woman and you ready to learn how to put yourself in the right places to level up? She's the one to go to! 

Lisa Hart✨

Lisa is a fashion designer and blogger from France who loves old Hollywood glamour and belly dance, which she draws upon in a number of her videos.

In her videos, she discusses style, beauty, femininity, elegance, deportment, glamour, and grace.

Into a Milli✨

Into a milli (Karina) is an entrepreneur running an online business and she also makes videos discussing women, money, and power. On her channel, she talks about internal growth, elegance, beauty, wealth, business, etiquette, romantic relationships, and what she considers the ills of society.

Hope you all loved this list don't forget to check out Part 1 HERE

[bats-and-birds-24]

Okay, so I know that we're all mad at Gege, and for good reason. But I don't agree with the fandom that he's wasting good characters by killing them off.

JJK is an allegory for the terrible pressure placed on people to be the best, or to be useful, which makes people stop seeing them as a fellow humans. And the characters in the show represent that.

For example, Gojo is labelled as the strongest, and as such, no one sees him as a person other than Geto. They always either put him on a pedestal or find him to be a nuisance that they deal with because he's useful to jujutsu society, such as the jujutsu society elders. Even in death his body is used as a tool.

In Geto's case, the honor of being powerful enough to save humanity from curses was dashed because he saw how the non-sorcerers they were trying to save treated them, in spite of the sorcerers facing heavy casualties. Jujutsu society didn't even send someone to check up on him, and he just spirals after the failed mission. After realising that this society didn't care about him, he tries to create a society that does care about sorcerers, at the cost of normal people, the same people who didn't care about him.

Yuta was sentenced to death because of the dangerous curse that was attached to him. Jujutsu society dehumanized him because of factors that he cannot control, same with Yuji.

Gojo sees this and realized that he can't let them be dehumanized like Geto was, gotten rid of if they were deemed pests or used until they were broken if they were deemed useful.

Yuta himself adopts this view in this chapter, risking his life so that they can defeat Sukuna. Yuji also adopts this mentality when he declares himself a cog in the machine that kills curses.

Hakari, Maki, and Noritoshi, are all an exception to this rule, as Hakari refused to let himself be merely a tool and have things decided for him. He enjoys passion and passionate people, while jujutsu society may admire his cursed technique, they don't respect him as a person. Maki and Noritoshi only achieved their full ability after cutting ties with their respective clans.

The Zenins viewed Maki as useless as she was both a woman and had no Cursed Energy. While the Kamo clan only viewed Noritoshi as useful for being male and inheriting a powerful cursed technique.

Megumi had a lot of potential with the ten shadows technique but when he gave up, the elders would have had him executed in order to kill Sukuna.

Sukuna himself stands in opposition to all of this, seeing everyone as equally worthless in a world where the strong have every right to make the weak suffer. In this sense, him and jujutsu society share the common view that only strength matters.

Yuji and the rest of Gojo's students stand in contrast to both Sukuna and jjk society here. They spend more time trying to save Megumi, because they see him as their friend. They spend more time protecting the people close to them not out of some sense of duty or usefulness, but because they genuinely care about each other.

Yuta takes Gojo's body not out of a sense of duty to kill Sukuna, but because he cares about Gojo and doesn't want his sacrifice to be in vain. Gojo died not by doing his duty, but by trying to care for his students.

Gege is saying that following orders and doing your duty until you burn yourself out isn't good, and neither is making yourself out to be better than everyone else because you think that the world revolves around the logic of "survival of the fittest". Which is Sukuna's line of thinking.

I think the story is going to end with only Yuji surviving and him beating Sukuna not because he's just a cog in jujutsu society, but because he's Yuji and he loves his friends and family.

The curse of "die surrounded by the people you love" from his grandfather is reversed as Yuji learns to live for the people he loved.

He's saying that people work best together, but not when they are forced to for some nebulous idea of duty or justice, but because of simply caring about each other.

That's why Gege made us care about these characters in the first place, so that we can fully understand the injustice that these characters are going through.

[ozai-the-bonsai]

*Sips from the glass of wine*

Well, since the tumblr interface on mobile seems to hate my profile description, I decided to create myself a better one.

(If you want to see my works, scroll down!)

About me

Hello, Zuko here. [Awkward introduction moment] Anyways, I guess I could describe myself as an ambivert person (she/her) with an alt-soul - if I hadn't been urged to suppress it, I would have ended up being punk/grunge long ago... Sadly, I got accustomed to the society's norms over the years - though I try to show my real personality from time to time. I love various genres of rock and metal, but my favourite one is by far symphonic metal. (Gatekeepers are NOT welcome in this blog so I will say this politely: go away) Currently, I am majoring in computer science with a minor in psychology and living together with my boyfriend and our pet Mooncake (which is in fact a robot vacuum, I am not responsible enough to own a cat, yet). Writing is my biggest passion and sadly, it gets neglected the easiest since I do it for myself (mostly). I hate myself for this sometimes but I try to work on prioritising what I love!

My Works

I mainly write for: Harry Potter (Sirius Black, Tom Riddle), ATLA (Zuko), HODT (Daemon Targaryen), Shadow&Bone (The Darkling), Ragnarøk (Fjor Jutul)

I used to write for (you can still request them tho): Harry Potter (Draco Malfoy), Star Wars (Anakin Skywalker, Kylo Ren), Winx (Valtor)

Zuko

Cry for the Moon - Zuko x firebender!reader

Request by anon - Zuko x Water Tribe Princess!reader

Daemon Targaryen

Tame the Dragon - Daemon Targaryen x Targaryen!reader

Request by eddiemadmunson - Daemon Targaryen x BestFriend!reader

Like Lovers Do - Daemon Targaryen x fem!reader

Memento Mori - Daemon Targaryen x fem!reader

Tom Riddle

For the Greater Good - Tom Riddle x Slytherin!OC

Shadow & Bone

Power Corrupts People - Darkling x OC, one-shot or smt like this

Valtor

Ghost in the Dark - Valtor x OC

Fjor Jutul

Seiðr - Fjor Jutul x OC (There is only the first chapter, the complete story is on my Wattpad)

There are also some stories (both completed and discontinued) on my Wattpad but I don't use it anymore - if anyone wants to check something out there for any kind of reason, the username is PotterCat.

[I will be updating this post with each new work]

If you have come so far and read all this, I would like to thank you for your time! Have a wonderful day ^.^

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 12, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 13, 2024

At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, a federal fort built on an artificial island in Charleston Harbor. 

Attacking the fort seemed a logical outcome of events that had been in play for at least four months. On December 20, 1860, as soon as it was clear Abraham Lincoln had won the 1860 presidential election, South Carolina lawmakers had taken their state out of the Union. “The whole town [of Charleston] was in an uproar,” Elizabeth Allston recalled. “Parades, shouting, firecrackers, bells ringing, cannon on the forts booming, flags waving, and excited people thronging the streets.” 

Mississippi had followed suit on January 9, 1861; Florida on January 10; Alabama on January 11; Georgia on January 19; Louisiana on January 26; and Texas on February 1. By the time Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4, 1861, seven southern states had left the Union and formed their own provisional government that protected human enslavement. 

Their move had come because the elite enslavers who controlled those southern states believed that Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860 itself marked the end of their way of life. Badly outnumbered by the northerners who insisted that the West must be reserved for free men, southern elites were afraid that northerners would bottle up enslavement in the South and gradually whittle away at it. Those boundaries would mean that white southerners would soon be outnumbered by the Black Americans they enslaved, putting not only their economy but also their very lives at risk.

To defend their system, elite southern enslavers rewrote American democracy. They insisted that the government of the United States of America envisioned by the Founders who wrote the Declaration of Independence had a fatal flaw: it declared that all men were created equal. In contrast, the southern enslavers were openly embracing the reality that some people were better than others and had the right to rule. 

They looked around at their great wealth—the European masters hanging in their parlors, the fine dresses in which they clothed their wives and daughters, and the imported olive oil on their tables—and concluded they were the ones who had figured out the true plan for human society. As South Carolina senator James Henry Hammond explained to his colleagues in March 1858, the “harmonious…and prosperous” system of the South worked precisely because a few wealthy men ruled over a larger class with “a low order of intellect and but little skill.” Hammond dismissed “as ridiculously absurd” the idea that “all men are born equal.” 

On March 21, 1861, Georgia’s Alexander Stephens, the newly-elected vice president of the Confederacy, explained to a crowd that the Confederate government rested on the “great truth” that the Black man “is not equal to the white man; that…subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.” Stephens told listeners that the Confederate government “is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

Not every white southerner thought secession from the United States was a good idea. Especially as the winter wore into spring and Lincoln made no effort to attack the South, conservative leaders urged their hot-headed neighbors to slow down. But for decades, southerners had marinated in rhetoric about their strength and independence from the federal government, and as Senator Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana later wrote, “[t]he prudent and conservative men South,” were not “able to stem the wild torrent of passion which is carrying everything before it…. It is a revolution...of the most intense character…and it can no more be checked by human effort, for the time, than a prairie fire by a gardener’s watering pot.”

Southern white elites celebrated the idea of a new nation, one they dominated, convinced that the despised Yankees would never fight. “So far as civil war is concerned,” one Atlanta newspaper wrote in January 1861, “we have no fears of that in Atlanta.” White southerners boasted that “a lady’s thimble will hold all the blood that will be shed” in establishing a new nation. Senator James Chesnut of South Carolina went so far as to vow that he would drink all the blood shed as a consequence of southern secession. 

Chesnut’s promise misread the situation. Northerners recognized that if Americans accepted the principle that some men were better than others, and permitted southern Democrats to spread that principle by destroying the United States, they had lost democracy. "I should like to know, if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, and making exceptions to it, where will it stop?” Lincoln had asked in 1858.

Northerners rejected the white southerners’ radical attempt to destroy the principles of the Declaration of Independence. They understood that it was not just Black rights at stake. Arguments like that of Stephens, that some men were better than others, “are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world,” Lincoln said. “You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden…. Turn in whatever way you will—whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent….”

Northerners rejected the slaveholders’ unequal view of the world, seeing it as a radical reworking of the nation’s founding principles. After the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, Lincoln called for 75,000 to put down the rebellion against the government. He called for “loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.”

Like their southern counterparts, northerners also dismissed the idea that a civil war would be bloody. They were so convinced that a single battle would bring southerners to their senses that inhabitants of Washington, D.C., as well as congressmen and their wives packed picnics and took carriages out to Manassas, Virginia, to watch the Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. They decamped in panic as the battle turned against the United States army and soldiers bolted past them, flinging haversacks and rifles as they fled.

For their part, southerners were as shocked by the battle as the people of the North were. “Never have I conceived,” one South Carolina soldier wrote, “of such a continuous, rushing hailstorm of shot, shell, and musketry as fell around and among us for hours together. We who escaped are constantly wondering how we could possibly have come out of the action alive.” 

Over the next four years, the Civil War would take more than 620,000 lives and cost the United States more than $5 billion. By 1865, two-thirds of the assessed value of southern wealth had evaporated; two-fifths of the livestock— horses and draft animals for tilling fields as well as pigs and sheep for food— were dead. Over half the region's farm machinery had been destroyed, most factories were burned, and railroads were gone, either destroyed or worn out. But by the end of the conflagration, the institution of human enslavement as the central labor system for the American South was destroyed. 

On March 4, 1865, when a weary Lincoln took the oath of office for a second time, he reviewed the war’s history. “To strengthen, perpetuate and extend [slavery] was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it,” he said. “Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. 

“Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered—that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”

“Both parties deprecated war but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish,” he said. 

“And the war came.” 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[ethicalarcana]

Tarot// Temporal Temperance

Personal philosophy is in many ways synonymous with integrity. A person who always tells the truth has integrity. Lineages with a family-first attitude give their offspring a pretty simple mental framework to check in with from childhood. When there is a dispute about a solution to a problem, modern society asks for scientific proof established through experiments, peer review, and wide acceptance. Corporations grow in ways consistent with their shareholder's best interests. It's all pretty straightforward.

When it comes to ethics, morality, and optimal happiness, this card is primarily philosophical. While there are many branches of philosophy, each claims to offer a final resting place for the unity of thought action, and progression through life; as well as an ability to overcome petty societal problems, either through personal or governmental means. Types of philosophies offer types of peace. Rather than negotiate with life as a series of disjointed events, the philosopher groups problems and the people and natural consequences into large categorical swaths. The categories can be dealt with in a unified methodology or approach. The values in philosophy arrive in the person's life and stay there to warden off chaos. The simpler the better.

Spiritual traditions put forward there is an ever-lasting soul or soulfulness that exists inside people, animals, and even places and things. Therefore the events of life and the navigation of those events must serve a unifying spirit and honor the value of the spirit of others. The preservation of life and humility before all its mysteries guide spiritual people. Religious traditions help and challenge this simplicity. Religion breaks a spiritual belief down into ritual, hierarchy, and groupthink. Petty squabbles and the corruption of money and power acquired by religions disrupt the simplicity of spiritual life. The solution to this is for religious people to become accountable to a mission. This mission should protect souls and soulfulness at the center of their faith, lest they be judged by the creator of the kingdom they seek to rule. Religions must temper their use of capitalist, lustful, and materialistic motives to restore their connection to world spirit.

Absurdism is the belief that life is fleeting and almost without meaning so things can be handled in any way that one sees fit. ChatGPT describes it as follows:

“Absurdism is a philosophical concept that explores the inherent tension between seeking meaning in life and the apparent meaninglessness of the universe. It suggests that humans continually seek meaning and purpose in a world that lacks any inherent meaning or purpose.

The term "absurdism" was popularized by the philosopher Albert Camus in his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" and his novel "The Stranger." Camus argued that life is absurd because it is characterized by the inability to find any rational or logical meaning in the face of an indifferent and irrational universe.

According to absurdism, humans must confront the absurdity of existence and create their own meaning and purpose in life through acts of rebellion, passion, and living authentically. This may involve embracing the absurdity of existence without succumbing to despair or nihilism, and finding fulfillment in the pursuit of personal goals and values despite the lack of any ultimate meaning.”

Temperance manages the lofty goals of serving life with the human impulse to see all action as silly and inconsequential. Somedays we are heroes and other days we are non-player characters. As each day bleeds into the next, internal balance is the goal of the Temperance archetype.

[bamdelune]

Genshin boys as uni students + content creators 🎧🎬🗯 (Sumeru edition) headcanons!

— this took a while to post because I saved the draft the moment my wifi cut off and I had to rewrite the whole thing.

— these are my personal headcanons, you may feel free to disagree with me ! little wonky when it comes to talking about what they do in uni because a high school student wrote this 🔥

Al Haitham ★ Law Major + Day in My Life

As much as I want to assign him to being a literature major, I believe he would choose law over it because he believes in practicality and plans WAY ahead into the future. It's not that he was forced into it, he chose it himself to survive in society and he's somewhat fine with that.

He's passionate about his course to a certain/decent degree but I image it's not even measurable to his interest in books & analyzing literature.

Naturally excels in his class and is commended for majority of his thesis papers and projects.

Adding to the last bullet: Whenever the professor assigns those scenario based requirements, the teacher will always get shocked from reading his works because he finds the most unexpected ways (and uses the most unexpected constitutional statements) to answer the question and somehow they always turn up reasonable.

In terms of content creating, he doesn't upload on a schedule but gets irked when the date between today and his last upload is a little too far so he uploads one when he feels today is gonna be a productive one.

Doesn't talk a lot in videos and just shows himself going about his business (mostly studying in the silence of the library or in the bustling environment of the nearest cafe, he still manages to concentrate either way)

When he reads new books with really good plots, he somehow incorporates them into short videos along with his usual routine and talks about what he thinks of it so far (which prompted a few not so pleasant comments on some of his videos because of his unbiased opinion)

Absolutely despises bullshit and problematic authors and problematic plot points and he makes no effort to hide that.

He likes silence. he finds the silence of his room with only the sound of his mouse and keyboard clicking and clacking as he edits his videos. he finds both the lack of sound and the activity very theraputic.

Posts study with me videos — believes in the power of the body doubling study method and it's a win-win for both him and his followers.

Examples of his videos would be something like what saranghoe or kai notebook would post on their channels (check them out! they're so cool omg)

Kaveh ★ Architecture Major + GRWMs & DIML

Be honest were you really expecting another major for him...

Okay, maybe he would fit as a fashion/art student.

If it's not obvious enough, his blueprints and structure plans are immaculate. Whatever the prompt is, he would ALWAYS find a way to make it fit into both the theme + his distinct architectural style or draw it even better. This man is so full of ideas and genuinely loves his major.

Affinity to classical and dainty architecture styles.

Enjoys doing interior designing as well — he tries to include them in his initial exterior designs if he has the time but majority of the time, he doesn't.

He's a self-care babe. Already has an estsblished skincare, haircare, nailcare, and even makeup routine by the time he starts content creating.

Trust me, if his course didn't entail straining his hands a lot from sketching and nails getting accidentally cracked (to his dismay), he would've painted them a LONG time ago. Instead, he paints his friends' nails for fun.

Is the type to upload anytime without a schedule like he genuinely enjoys making videos and such. Even if those updates last for about 30 seconds or a minute, he uploads them.

His videos are motivation to get your life togjether just because his looks like it.

It's not. He lives off of lattes and convenience store snacks on his off time. (He also films himself even when he doesn't look as put together as he does in his usual videos).

Examples of his videos would be the content Song Jia (free지아) would post. Drops effective tips, recommendations, and even advice from time to time.

Cyno ★ Criminal Justice Major & Tighnari ★ Med Student + Vlogging & Mukbang

Cyno

I decided to write these two as a duo because I headcanon them as roommates as well in a modern au.

Cyno despite his kind of intimidating course takes it very well and has always been a fan of solving stuff related to criminology. In serious moments, he's able to give his two cents on social topics.

The fastest in his class to answer and solve scenario-based questions.

He's a fucking pain in the ass (said in a loving tone) to watch action/thriller movies with because on top of the puns and jokes he makes, he ends up spoiling the plot because he's already deduced what's going to happen.

Tighnari

Tighnari is a tired medical student, taking up a pre-med course in either biology or medical devices.

He's the type to have the messy-neat room, papers neatly but at the same messily sprawled on areas in his room but it adds to his personality so it's alright.

The one med student who makes his notes as neat as possible because he believes that it's better to understand during his first year and the one who relies on a distant memory to decode what he wrote in his notebook that looked like it went through 7 failed situationships, 3 divorces, and lost the custody of 3 children in the later phases of his academic career.

Despite that, he remembers the names and uses of medical treatments and supplements at the top of his head.

Tighnari likes to be precise in practice operations during the later years in med school after pre-med.

-

Cyno introduced the idea of content creating to his roommate.

Tighnari agreed because he's drowning in student debt.

They would mostly do vlogs when they go out with friends or play board games (Tighnari cheats his way to the top whilst Cyno is left to wonder how he, the master at card games and alike, is losing to someone who just learned the mechanics 5 minutes ago).

Their viewers enjoy that bit very much.

When the weekend pulls closer, they like to plan the food they want to eat at home for a video or the restaurant/food fair hopping they'll be doing on a random Friday. It's a routine they do to unwind from the stress of academics.

They also gossip together while filming and eating.

The type of content they would post would be like the videos Stephanie Soo posts.

Scaramouche/Wanderer ★ Performing Arts + Gaming & Covers

He's so K-pop idol coded, did we as a society forget one of his hobbies was dancing in canon

He has a background in contemporary dancing/ballet and hip-hop dancing.

His voice is angelic and his professor really likes his vocal color (probably would have TXT's Soobin / SVT's Minghao's tone).

Scara ensures that dance moves are always clean when he performs and makes sure that there isn't any idle part of his body when he dances. His right hand is up? His left arm has to be placed somewhere at the same time. He hates it when he looks awkward on stage.

A really wide vocal range and can comfortably shift vocal tiers. He only strains his voice when the following note is unbelievably high for his pitch.

Shines the most in slow and r&b type performances, and is extremely flexible physically and in terms of genres.

When he posts content, Scaramouche takes interest in horror games as well as fixed-world (I'm not sure about the word) RPG games (ones like Persona 5, Honkai Stsr Rail). He screams (much more than he likes to admit).

He posts dance covers and song covers as well and gets a lot of praise for it online, urging him to become an idol (little do they know that he's studying to do just that).

Books really nice dance studios for covers and goes all-out for outfits.

Examples of his videos would be what Tuonto/Jake and Antony Chen would post.

© bamdelune may 2023. do not repost or plagiarize any of my works, thank you so much! reblogs, notes, and comments are always appreciated!

(main masterlist)

[thebroccolination]

Once, back when I was living in Japan, my friend drove us up this mountain to look at some castle ruins. Almost nothing is left of it beyond the foundation and some outlines of where the buildings once stood, so we walked around reading these little signs describing what used to be there.

While they read a particularly long description of the main building, I wandered off into this dark, shadowed area under the trees and saw a sign with a much shorter description and a pair of kanji I didn't recognize.

I called my friend over since they had a far stronger grasp on reading Japanese than I did, and we bent our heads over our phone dictionaries looking up radicals and searching for the two unfamiliar characters.

"'Prison'," my friend said.

We looked at each other, then at the sliver of nothing before us. The sky was beautiful, cloudless. We were smack in the middle of autumn. But the temperature in the shade was several degrees cooler, and when we read the description, the cold felt menacing, too.

The sign explained that the castle's prison had been intentionally placed there facing the trees, where even on the sunniest day, its occupants would never feel warmth or see light.

And what made me write this post was the overwhelming sensation I experienced afterward:

On this cramped area where only grass remained, there had once been an ominous, imposing building designed to give its occupants the most discomfort and misery imaginable in their last days or months. Separated from the people they loved and the people who loved them, captured and hated and forced to suffer.

Only grass remained. Grass, trees, and shade.

This beautifully maintained historical site had once been a place of absolutely pointless, malicious anguish and death.

That might have been the first real seed of prison abolitionism that took hold in my heart.

Because our phenomenal capacity for creativity as human beings should be used to uplift each other out of and away from any circumstances that would lead society as a whole to the kind of brutality that encourages people to design pens whose only purpose is pain.

And I think we're failing each other as long as prisons exist. Just as we create with cruelty, we can create with kindness, too. There are better ways.

History isn't as far as it feels.

We live our own every day.

[Naegi Castle Ruins - Time for nerdery! This is a super beautiful historical site, and I highly recommend it! Even if you're not an emotionally intense history enthusiast. They have scaffolding set up at the very top where you can hang out and enjoy an incredible view, and at least when my friend and I went ten years ago it wasn't super popular at all. There was only one other pair there and they seemed as surprised to see us as we were to see them (they were on a date). So, y'know, if you're in Gifu and you have a rental car, go check out the horrible prison spot and then soothe your wounded heart with pretty selfies. Japan has done an incredible job of maintaining its historical areas after their Meiji ancestors went all fire-happy on the feudal buildings that made them testy, so if you're in Japan, please consider visiting the less-visited places like Naegi. I used to be a tour guide in Japan so I'm very passionate about promoting the lesser-visited spots.]

[lint-beetle4]

Copy-and-Pasted from my Google Doc, here's San Marino

Pretty big wall of text below: tldr; small country with enough big dick energy to avoid the Italian Unification and taxes

Nation name: 

The Most Serene Republic of San Marino

Human name: 

Aurelio Marinus Vargas

Physical age: 

23 years

Actual age: 

~1,700 years

Background: 

San Marino is a country that dates back to 301 A.D. Its founder, Saint Marinus built the country on Monte Titano after repairing damage done by pirates. Thus, San Marino was created, later to be separated from Rome. He is the oldest out of the Italy Brothers.

The small country never resorted to violent means. Using trade or kindness, he gained a small amount of land, and a growth spurt. Often threatened by bigger countries in the past, San Marino’s diplomatic and unwavering nature allowed them to stay away from conflicts that rained throughout Europe. This would also lead to San Marino surviving the Italian Unification as well as San Marino becoming a safe haven for refugees during times of conflict due to the neutrality of the nation.

During the world wars, San Marino would remain neutral until waging war on Germany after a particularly bad bombing from a paranoid Britain and America, but he still did nothing aside from sending 14 medics. Despite this, both allies and axis would temporarily stay at his house during different parts of the war, to his dismay.

 San Marino is most known for his tourism and his population in cars being greater than people. He is a stable and surprisingly rich country. He also doesn't impose heavy taxes which makes his country a tax haven.

Personality: 

San Marino is a well spoken nation that speaks with passion and a slight drawl. Being talented with tourism and a good record of diplomacy, he knows how to sway, entertain and not piss anyone off. 

He is very prideful of his maintaining peace and outspoken on topics regarding history. He is polite of others and refrains from causing violence or a disturbance no matter what. He may seem like a doormat due to this, but he can be very defensive about certain topics. Being a very committed democratic nation, he holds a vote for nearly everything, even if it's to choose whether he should be socialist–yes, he did actually do that; yes, he was temporarily socialist (technically, Socialist-Communist as the parties had unified).

San Marino is very defensive when it comes to his nationality; The Sammarinese will never identify as Italian.

 He often comments on how much society has changed, quite like an old man. Often, he appears disengaged and absent-minded, making him appear more isolated than he actually is at first.

Relations:

Germany: Slightly bitter, but he holds a lot of respect for the German. During WW2, Germany protected the country to retain its neutrality which led to its eventual attack. After this, San Marino and Germany’s relation was rather tense until after the war where they steadied a bit.

Veneziano: These two share a close bond. Veneziano is often eager to trade and supply his older brother. San Marino can be seen with Veneziano often. Both share a strong brotherly bond and keep in touch often.

Romano: Not as close as he is with Veneziano, but Romano is protective of his older brother. While Veneziano gives San Marino supplies, Romano checks the exports and imports for any dangers. Both share a bond of mutual brotherhood and slight dislike to a certain potato man. 

Sweden: Legend has it that these two engaged in a long war that would end in a standstill after nearly 350 years of hostility. No one can fully tell about what happened during that time, but some say that the standstill was called due to both running out soldiers while others claimed that they hadn't signed an official peace treaty yet. Both nations deny this and are very confused about its origins. They are on good terms though and wish to get along better in the future.

France: They were close during the Neopleonic era; however, they’ve grown apart slightly. They’re still in touch.

England: A slightly bitter (Read: passive-aggressive) attitude is carried with these two. England was the one who was convinced the smaller country had declared war on him, so San Marino sued the crap out of him after the Allies had attacked the country. They don't talk much, but conversations can be a little tense since England still hadn’t paid the full amount San Marino wanted for reparations.

China: These two get along surprisingly well. They are good business partners and friends. San Marino looks forward to working more with China. Once in a while, both are seen being the old men that they really are.

America: These two are very good friends. Having supported the newer country, San Marino made Abraham Lincoln an honorary citizen while America faced the Civil war. The bond never left, and they still talk happily.

Russia: Until recently, San Marino had not participated in the EU Sanctions Against Russia which sparked a welcoming friendship. However, San Marino had been put on Russia’s list of People Who Could Do Better after San Marino entered the EU Sanctions Against Russia as a response to the invasion of Ukraine. San Marino doesn't care, and finds it hilarious.

Misc.:

He has a scar on his neck and shoulder from the Bombing of San Marino,

The wrapping on his neck is a cockade that Saint Marinus gifted to San Marino,

He is fairly good at baking and finance,

The weapon on his belt is a 9mm Glock 17 pistol,

He only uses rubber bullets and is proud to say he hasn’t fired a shot in 10 years,

He knows how to shoot a crossbow. He's actually talented at it,

His aim is scary accurate; considered one of the best shooters in Europe,

He sucks at soccer so much that it's a main point on why he isn't Italian, yet his speed is on par with his siblings,

San Marino is 168 cm (~5'6), the shortest out of his siblings

His hosting style is making the guest feel like they are at home and ensuring they feel safe during their trip to his country,

San Marino is a frequent visitor of America, and they often bake together,

He is very passionate about history and peace-keeping.

[decompose1]

Because of the asking questions about ocs post, what was CRTs life like before they met destroying angel? (Apologies if this has been answered before)

WOO I CAN FINALLY ANSWER THIS! OKAY SO! GOOD QUESTION!

CRT previously lived in their creators' facility :o) I haven't gotten to flesh out the entire company too much yet, but they came from an older robotics company. CRT was a passion project by a few specific engineers there, one of many tries in a whole project/experiment to try to create something sentient. They're one of the first successful attempts at this!

They have a lot of siblings at various degrees of sentience and functioning levels. I say they're one of the first, because CRT, by today's standards in object society, is actually pretty outdated. Newer robots work a lot better and are a lot less prone to errors like them!

IN ANY CASE. CRT was technically built as an assistant/companion :o). Since they were sentient, though, they did have the free will to make their own choices and form interests, and they became very passionate about living things- especially organic objects, fungi, algae, plants.... things like that.

They were allowed to study biology, and eventually, in cooperation with a local lab, granted permission to pick up a job of their own as another sort of "test run". It was important! This was one of many early tests for integrating robots into daily life.

They worked as Uranium Glass' assistant, and were allowed to earn money and make their own decisions with it, but returned to the facility at night to check in with their creators and charge.

They formed a pretty strong friendship with UG over time. I like to think they were generally quite friendly to people, although the whole robot thing was still pretty new.

It's also worth noting they were trained a lot on television and movies, and they took on this sort of. Personality/attitude based around men in that old media, with all the expectations placed on them. A little guy with a job who eventually found themself a "wife". They acted really confident and smooth. But they were kind of a huge nerd on their own. This thing loved science and was not actually a guy.

And then they met Amanita, and their creators allowed them to leave, with a hefty book of instructions for Ama.

[paigenoelchas-blog]

Before the Lies

Chapter 4 is up, people...

Before the Lies is a prequel to our previously published collaboration written with @duskwoodgirl4life, @x3kristax3 @raemae17, @babeczka415 and @julesthoughts. If you don't know these writers, you should check out more of their stuff as they are tremendously skilled and have a lot of lovely things to read.

Trap of Lies can be found on my master list or any of the other authors' master lists.

Before the Lies previous chapters: 1 2 3

Chapter 4 - Written by pahinanoel

“Darling,” Charles said looking deeply at his wife, “It has been a long day, shall we proceed to bed and end this night properly in each other’s arms? I believe the world and all of its business can wait until tomorrow.”  He kissed his wife and she returned his affection, deepening the kiss.  Her laughter filled the halls as he swooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom.

Charles had to leave very early the next morning, though he made sure to leave a kiss on the cheek of his beloved wife still asleep, and on the foreheads of his son and daughter still happily tucked in their beds. They were everything to him. While he had maintained control of his business thus far, he knew he played with fire and they could all be in danger at any moment.  He never wanted to forget to say goodbye properly.  He left a note for Mary telling her about his early meeting and hoping that she would understand why his side of the bed would be cold when she awoke.  He hated leaving them like this, but the letter that he received the previous night meant he had some things to do that would ensure their protection.

It was mornings like this when the cold nipped at his nose and chilled him to the core, in the darkness before the fog lifted and still clung to the damp air, that he was all too aware of the danger that lurked in the shadows.  He knew he risked their health and happiness continuing this line of work, but he had set up several fail safes and secret protections to ensure their safety.  His business offered them a lifestyle that he and the family had gotten used to, and he wasn’t sure he could find another occupation that would allow them to keep their house or carriages.  

He owed Mary the best things that life could offer.  She was above him in all ways, intelligent, beautiful, and strong.  There was no man worthy of her.  It was his fortune to have her by his side and he would never be one to forget that fact.  They had secrets initially, but she eventually explained her involvement with the White Nights.  Her intention to do good things within this organization made him enamored with her.  She was brave and strong in a time when other women were happy to sit idly surrounded by their lovely things and watch the world move.  He adored her in every way.  Her passion and bravery were inspiring to him and forced him to be a better man.  He only wished his intentions were as noble as hers were.

Mary awoke, finding the note on her nightstand.  She missed him, but she had her own meeting this morning.  It was one held in secret and while Charles had an idea of her current  membership in the group, she never divulged any of the details.  If she told him, it would put his life in great danger.  While it was the same from his end, they never felt isolated or alone in their secrets.  They both knew the ones they had to keep and allowed the other the same courtesy.

Mary put on her uniform for the monthly training meeting of the White Nights. The White Nights was a secret organization that functioned in the shadows of everyday society.  They could move between the shadows, gathering information, and creating havoc when need be.  They trained well and were physically able to defend themselves.  They also underwent regular training sessions that kept their mental acumen in check.

Today was the physical challenge, and for that, a special uniform was worn, it consisted of a fitted corset that allowed free movement of the arms and the boning offered some protection. The pants, scandalous to wear out for a lady of her stature, were required in this field of work as the layers of dress would not be accommodating to fight off any attacker.  The belt, a wide band of cloth that resembled a man’s cummerbund, allowed a slim knife to be concealed within. Sewn into the waistband were pockets and loops of varying sizes that would accommodate the needs of any assignment or specialty. These garments were dyed the color of the fog, a lightly swirled, muted gray, which reminded Mary of marble. This color was prevalent throughout the city and reflected not only in the city's walls but also in the mist, which poured into the port in most of the evening hours. The beauty of these “costumes” is that they fit easily under their usual clothing allowing them to change very quickly if the occasion were to arise.  They were all issued a cape as well, the color of midnight on one side and white on the other, matching the color of the uniform.  This gave them the ability to move freely in the shadows if that was required. Sometimes it became necessary to disappear to the corners of the city streets.

Maebelle snuck into the room and watched her mother get dressed.  The look of admiration with which she watched her mother showed how deep the child’s affection was for her.  As Mary brushed her long blonde hair and pulled it tightly into a bun, Maebelle wished she would someday be as beautiful and elegant as her mother. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be so beautiful and confident.

As Mary finished her young daughter’s hair, she moved on to her own blonde hair mimicking the hairstyle of the smaller version of herself.  Looking back into the mirror, she paused at the reflection of her daughter.  Maebelle’s legs swung happily off the side of the bed as she watched her mother continue to prepare for the day.  She chatted constantly and Mary took great delight in the things that they discussed.  Every day, Maebelle was becoming more insightful and creative.  Mary smiled when she looked back at the child and imagined the woman that she would become.  It was a joy to be her mother.  She couldn’t imagine a better life and was very grateful for the one that had been granted her.

“Mae,” Eric said, as he peeked into his mother’s room from the hallway, “Breakfast is ready, I was told to come and get you.”  He snickered, knowing she hated that name.

Mary looked at her daughter, “Yes, Love,“ she said, signaling to Maebelle, and giving her a sweet hug as she ushered her off of the bed, “Your brother is right to call you.  You must go 

“Your Father had his own meetings to run off to, but we shall see him for dinner.” She kissed Maebelle on the head and released her. “Go and eat with your brother.  I will be down shortly.”

eat.  We have important places to be this morning.” 

“Is that why Papa isn’t here?” the girl asked, not wanting Mary to let her go just yet.

Mary could hear Mae running down the stairs humming a tune on her way. She took this chance to place her blade in its holster before joining her children.

Eric ruffled Mae’s hair as they heard a knock on the door.  “I will get it,” Eric said and ran to the door.  He loved visitors.  The daily monotony of their life sometimes made him act out in an effort to fight boredom, usually this acting out was at Mae’s expense.

Jake came running through the door and headed straight for Maebelle. “Good Morning, Mae,” he said with a smile growing on his face.  She pulled out a chair next to her and patted the seat inviting him to join them for the meal. Placing a plate of hot rolls and jam in front of him, she watched him as he began to eagerly partake.  A typical boy, he was never complete.  Maebelle didn’t understand that Jake’s life was very different from hers and the kind of food that she enjoyed was not the common fare. Jake was always hungry because he was a boy, but it was also because money was sometimes hard to come by for his mother.  While she always provided, food at home wasn’t usually as good as this was.  Maebelle giggled as she watched him eat. He was acting like a starved wolf at this moment, otherwise, his manners were impeccable.

Janice leaned over and spoke softly in her son’s ear, a blush alighted on his cheeks as his manners returned to him.  

“Hurry with your meals, children,” Mary addressed them, “Janice and I have a very important place to be. We thought you all might enjoy some time at the library this morning if Eric will oblige and make sure that you two stay out of trouble, that is.”

“Yes, Mum,“ Eric nodded.  He wasn’t much older but was used to watching out for both of them. They tended to get a little adventurous and absent-minded when they were together.  Well, Maebelle was adventurous and Jake, well, he would do whatever Maebelle wanted. Eric didn’t mind watching over the two, it made him feel important and he was eager to get out of the house for a bit, “We will be good. I promise.”

Mary reached over and placed her hand on the boy’s cheek, “I know that I can trust you, Son.  You have never disappointed me,” she offered him a gentle look as she spoke. Eric could both see and feel his mother’s love as it shone brightly in her eyes. It made him stand taller.

The children finished breakfast and the five placed on their coats as they headed out the door.  The wind whipped around the corner almost toppling Mae to the ground.  

“Shall we walk or take the carriage, dear friend?”  Mary asked Janice. 

“Let’s send the children on the carriage and then let’s walk, you know how the fresh air heals my soul,” Janice suggested.

Jake wanted to walk with his mother, he loved seeing her free, with the wind in her face.  She seemed younger and lighter. “Mother, can’t I just go with you?  I would like to go to the library, but I would love to walk with you.  I can wait outside of your meeting and usher you both home. We can count the crows flying by or watch the horses run,” Jake practically begged. 

“No, Son.  This is not an appointment you can go to,” Janice replied, kissing his cheek. “I love spending time with you too, but we will have plenty of days for walks and many more times spent counting the crows and picking the lavender.” She kissed his cheeks.  “Pick out a book that we can read tonight and we can share it before bed. Be a good lad and have fun.  You are with your favorite people.” She smiled and her eyes were full of love.

“You are my favorite person,” Jake replied but knew his mother wasn’t going to budge.  He accepted her answer and the mission to find the perfect book and climbed into the carriage.  Mae instantly began chattering about everything on her mind. Jake watched as his mother faded out of view and eagerly set his attention on his other favorite person and her brother who he admired a great deal. It was a grand adventure to be going alone in a carriage and one that they weren’t allowed very often.  As they rode quickly down the road, Maebelle’s chattering and the boy's laughter filled the air..  

Mary smiled as the two women walked arm in arm down the road.  This was the part of town that Janice wouldn’t normally feel comfortable in due to her status, but Mary always made her feel welcome and accepted.  Their sisterhood was evident in all of her actions.  

“I fear that I will have a difficult assignment today even though I just returned,’ Janice began.  “I have avoided these dangers long enough.”

“Don’t let those thoughts control you. Arthur has chosen to protect you this long.  He knows that Jacob has no one else and he knows your devotion to the Nights.” Mary tried to console Janice.  “Isn’t it a lovely day, despite the wind?  Can’t you smell the salt of the sea and the lavender in the air, and that delicious scent of mint that occasionally tickles the nose? Let’s enjoy our walk, shall we?”

Janice took her friend's advice and took in a refreshing breath of air, instantly feeling at peace. She also quite enjoyed her walk.  

They arrived at the building just outside of the town. From the outside, it was a simple warehouse hidden between the estates of the wealthy and the streets of the commoners.  No one paid it any attention as it looked just like the other buildings in this part of the city. The inside, however, was lavish. The walls were gilded with gold accents and banners bearing the symbol of the White Nights hung from the momentous ceiling. Lush fabric and ornate wood detailed every inch of the building.  Jane, the secretary behind the front counter maintained the propriety of a professional building should an uninvited guest stumble upon the premises.  She was the pulse of the company.  She knew all of the assignments and all of the members, and most importantly she held all of the gossip.  If you needed to know anything, she was the person to find.

The lobby opened up to a long hallway split into two equal sides. To the right were classrooms and offices, no different than any other. Students walked the hallway in hushed whispers.  During their time in these classes, students were assessed for their specialties and put into groups based on their particular set of skills. Mary and Janice were classmates.  Mary was charming and had social ties which meant people would divulge information to her that they wouldn’t normally divulge and as a socialite, she was allowed to enter places that most were not.  Janice had an uncanny ability to read lips and, in this way, gather information where others could not. She also had special skills in retaining and repeating that intel almost verbatim. The two were placed in a specialty class together and became fast friends. The special skills these women had kept them from being put in the most dangerous situations, but they were trained as well as any other Night and could take care of themselves if things got out of control. 

The other side, to the left, led to the gymnasium.  It was a huge open room set up with various tools and torture equipment, as well as a training room inspired by the classic Greeks, designed to prepare the ladies for both defense and attack.  Using inspiration from both the Greek warriors and the Japanese martial art form of kalarippayattu, these women became fully competent warriors able to fend off every foe.  

The women were headed straight to the locker room to change for their training when Arthur stopped Janice. 

Arthur was a tall man, and incredibly muscular.  He was attractive, his blonde hair lit up the dark places. He could charm anyone he wanted, yet his appearance was such that few would attempt to cross him.  His hazel eyes bore such an intensity that it would be impossible to avoid being intimidated by him. The women of the White Nights were not, however, intimidated.  They were his army, but he was their protector and he took that responsibility very seriously. These monthly training helped Arthur, the leader of the group, keep the health and skill of his army in check. They knew that he would take care of them at all costs.

He had a special spot for Janice.  He was raised by a single mother and appreciated her performance in the White Nights and the love that she showed for her son. She was a beautiful woman, but her intellect is what drew him in.  Others might overlook her beauty because of her social standing, but he knew that she was of the highest caliber as a human. He knew that she would not be here if it wasn’t for her boy.  The White Nights offered a certain amount of protection and security in an increasingly dangerous city.

Arthur had managed to give her easier missions over the years, keeping the safety of both her and her son in mind. The mission that he had to send her on today was a little riskier than he would like, but she had a certain skill set, one that no one came close to matching. He had faith in her ability to complete the mission and return home, but he still didn’t like it. He wouldn’t relax until she was finished with this mess.

“Follow me, “Arthur spoke to Janice, his voice firm but soft. He turned to Mary, “Mrs. Carter, your friend will join you in a moment.”  Mary nodded and headed toward the locker room while Janice went after Arthur, her hands clasped tightly in front of her.  Mary watched her friend with sympathetic eyes, she didn’t like the look on his face.  Her gut, which was never wrong, told her that Janice wasn’t going to like what she was about to hear.

His office was simple, with a plain desk and two chairs.  The walls held his certificates from an unknown university overseas and a series of drawings of famous commanders and kings.  Arthur motioned for her to have a seat, which she did gladly.  

“Janice, I need your help.  You are the only one that can complete this mission.  I would send someone else, but you are the best eavesdropper we have. You are the only one that can accurately tell what information is being passed from a distance and bring that information back to me.  We need this information.  You won’t be in direct contact, but you do have to sneak into their main office and lie in wait to gather the information we seek. Watching every word they say and remembering it is imperative for the next mission, which of course, I can not discuss with you.  You are the only one that I can trust to complete such a vital task.”

“Arthur, I do not have a choice and I will accept your mission, but could I have a couple of days to prepare things at home first.  I need to see my son and find a safe place for him to be.  I need to make sure he knows that I love…”

Arthur interrupted, refusing to let her give into thoughts of disaster. “That is the worst part, I fear.  You must leave within the hour.  Give Mrs.Carter word and see if she can watch your boy.  You should be back to him in a couple of days.  When you return, I will see to it that you have plenty of time with your son.  I was thinking a promotion would be in order.  An office job, perhaps?  One that would guarantee your safety and many happy days for you and your boy?”

She nods acceptance of the task and hangs her head low. Arthur grabbed her hand in his and looked over his shoulder.  In a whisper, he said, “Janice, if there was any other way to accomplish this task, I would have found it.  This directive comes from Archon, the only one above me.  Trust me when I say the two of us have had words about this topic.  I am not pleased, but there is nothing that I can do to protect you from this.  Be safe and come back home quickly.  We will be waiting for you.” His eyes looked deeply into hers, much too deeply for a superior to keep eye contact. He released her hand quickly as someone walked by.  He cleared his throat and straightened his tie, “Off with you now.  See Mrs. Carter, she is a faithful friend and sister.”  

Janice walked out of the office and asked for paper and a quill.  She scrawled two notes and headed toward the training area. She signaled for Mary as she fought the tears that were forming in her eyes.  “Mary, I have to go on my last mission.  I have been promised that if I complete this, I will be given an official position.  I can’t say no even though that is my desire.” Mary’s jaw dropped.  It was just as she feared.  Janice wrung her hands together and quickly put them behind her back, “Could you please watch Jacob while I am gone, and if something happens… could you…”  The tears rolled down her cheeks.  Mary interrupted. “Don’t expect the worst, dear friend,”  Her eyes softened, and then deepened in the sincerest of emotion, “I assure you that Jacob will be taken care of in any and all situations.  I love him as I do you.”  

She pulled Janice into a tight hug, “Remember, emotions hold no place while on a mission.  You must stay strong and focused.  The world will be brighter when you return.”

Janice nodded her head and tried to maintain perspective. She handed the two notes to Mary, one addressed to her and the other to “Jacob Owen, my heart”.  

Janice looked Mary in the eyes and took her hand, squeezing it tight, “Just in case...”

Mary nodded at her friend in an effort to communicate all of the things that she couldn’t say aloud. Her heart prayed that her friend would return soon. 

It is said that the Nights always know when it is their time to leave this Earth and the ominous feeling Janice had earlier made her nervous.  Mary hoped the superstition was nothing more than that or that somehow Janice could overcome this scenario.

Janice turned and left without looking back or speaking another word.  Grabbing her equipment, she scurried out the back door and enjoyed one more breath of fresh air filled with lavender and mint, sea salt, and rosemary.  She freed her mind of all of the things that could go wrong and focused on the task at hand. The thick fog sent a ripple of chills down her back forcing her to pull her cape closed as she disappeared into the cold evening mist.

[fnich-enthusiast]

Hi welcome to university tips as a final year student with unmedicated ADHD who has worked part time for 2/3 years of his degree. I have made so many mistakes and after much trial and error have actually created a healthy working lifestyle, here are some tips so that you don't have to make the same mistakes as I did

If you are going to get a job while at university I would very much recommend trying to work for the university. They are typically a lot more understanding and flexible for students (this is not always the experience but this tends to be more the case than non-university jobs) which allows you to pick up and drop hours depending on how much free time you have

Try to get things done early. I know this is said over and over again but it genuinely improves the quality of your work and life

Do this by setting yourself earlier deadlines. I know that this is repeated so often and when you look at it that way it doesn't work. If you set yourself an internal deadline you are still going to know when the external one is so it just doesn't count in practice. However, the life hack is to turn your internal deadlines into external ones. You want to finish an essay a week before it's due? Tell people. Tell your friends, your parents, your academics if you are comfortable with that. Turn your internal deadlines into external ones for all the bonuses of feeling that time pressure while maintaining a high standard of work and life

Source: I spent YEARS thinking internal deadlines were fake news and writing everything at 12am running on anxiety and a prayer. I have been telling my parents what my internal deadlines are for the last year and a half and nothing I have ever done has been better for my mental health

On a similar note, use the people around you. Do proofreading exchanges with friends (preferably not ones working on the same assignments). You'll get a fresh set of eyes on your work and proofreading things for other people can actually be very good for your own work because spotting other people's mistakes can make you more mindful of your own

Utilise your university's resources. Have an essay coming up? Go to office hours and talk about it. Don't understand something discussed in class? Go to office hours and talk about it. Academics are there to help you and usually want to talk about the topic they're passionate about anyway. Have a disability? Use disabled students support, they are there to help you. Universities have so many resources available but you have to be the one to reach out. 99% of the time nobody is going to check on you, but once you make that first step there is usually some form of support available

Take breaks!!! I cannot stress enough how important this is. For my first two years of university I just did work whenever and I was so unbelievably stressed. This year I have refused to do any work on weekends no matter what. Yes, this increases my workload during the week but taking time to switch off actually makes you so much more productive. This has been the best academic year of my life, and so much of that is because I have allowed myself to take a break no matter how much work I have to do

Similarly, create a separation between the space where you work and the space where you live. I do not work in my bedroom full stop. By doing all of my work in public spaces (e.g. the library) or in the living room if I can't leave the house for whatever reason my bedroom has become a space entirely devoid of university stress. I have spent most of my life working in my bedroom and I honestly can't even begin to explain how much of an improvement this has made to my stress levels and overall mental health

Get involved in student life outside of academics. It doesn't matter if you're representing the university in sports, working in student journalism, joining your university's Taylor Swift society, or all three. University isn't just about learning inside of the classroom and you will enjoy your work a lot more if you have space away from it

Actually sleep, I guarantee it will make your life so much better

Find little things to do every day to help you wind down. I like reading for half an hour every evening, but it's really dependent on who you are as a person. It is just good to have something that you do to indicate to your brain that the work day is over so that you let yourself rest

You will find your learning style, but it really helps to actually listen to academics and older students when they give you tips. I spent a year turning my nose up at the idea of reading things through once before going back and taking notes on them because I was worried about how much time it would take. I now spend a similar amount of time on readings as I did when I refused to reread anything, but I actually understand the content now

Make note of your feedback on assignments and record what you did well as well as what you need to improve on, it will genuinely really help you improve. It is important to make sure you know what you do well because will just put you in a bad place mentally

Find friends who have similar working styles to you, it's so much easier to get things done when you have someone to keep you in check. I really like going to the library with friends because I feel that I get more work done that way, but obviously this isn't the case for everyone

These are things that work for me, and will not necessarily work for everyone, and I have probably forgotten some things. If the mental health/general wellbeing aspect doesn't motivate you, my work has gone from on the low end of average to bordering on the highest it can possibly be as I have implemented more of this into my life. Obviously, some of this will be practice, but having the time and energy to dedicate myself to my work has helped a hell of a lot as well. University is a brand new working environment and you need to change your approach to working in many ways, but everyone struggles at first and everyone learns from those struggles, you will find your place like many people have before you

[nayatarot777]

{collective daily read 🎴}: wed. 24th may 2023

i’m posting collective reads here on tumblr for the rest of this week. if they resonate and you’d like to continue to read them, please check out my patreon

cards:

page of wands

the star

9 of coins

4 of swords

the hierophant

the hanged man

it seems like we have found what we actually want to invest a time and energy into creating or learning. It seems like we can always just see where we want to be where we want to be headed, especially related to our status and society or our career. I feel like we are working currently towards our wish fulfilment and we’re realising that it’s going to require a lot of dedication and hard work, but this dedication is hard work is definitely exposing us to a lot of people in the world and as a result we are going to gain a lot of self-sufficiency an abundance of arseholes Sue whatever we have been working on. I feel like we are being called to view our souls and our value and our knowledge in a very different light more for its uniqueness. it seems like we have recognise what we have a passion in, and where we want to direct of his passion in our lives to create something stable for ourselves. I’m seeing that most of us are working on making a passion, a something that we can live off of. Spirit is reminding us to again value our uniqueness and the aspect of our creativity whatever we’re creating that doesn’t fit into societies mode because I feel like we are coming up to the time where we are realising that what we have to create will not be accepted by mainstream society by the average person that we are going to find a lot of abundance and success within this, and whatever we are envisioning for the future, whatever we are expecting to come out of our work, that’s what we’re gonna reap the seeds of that. I feel like some of us could be being a bit too hard on ourselves when it comes to what we are creating because with a page of wands I’m hearing practice makes perfect and that’s something that we are having to realise first, so that we don’t burn arseholes out or become too hard on ourselves to the point where our passion starts to feel like a true, because that wouldn’t be good for us or a mental health. we might be feeling like whatever we are creating isn’t that good or isn’t as good as we can make it but spell it is really asking us to see the effort and the fruits of my labour from a very different point of you, it’s better than doing nothing it’s better than not trying and there’s actually a lot of value that external outsiders will be able to see in our work where we are not able to see it.

overall, I think that spirit is telling us that we are moving into a much more positive and much more abundant cycle of our lives. However, we have to be careful about our beliefs and what we are feeding our mind in terms of how we are speaking to ourselves internally, especially about our creations . We need to be talking into feelings of pride in our work and just a deep and knowing that abundance is coming our way, thanks to all of the hard work that we have been putting into our projects.

[amarenta-aurum]

I posted 52 times in 2022

That's 26 more posts than 2021!

10 posts created (19%)

42 posts reblogged (81%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@thaliasthunder

@mushroomiegay

@mayuisyuki

@tamayakii

@hellsitevistor

I tagged 17 of my posts in 2022

#me stuff - 5 posts

#ash speaks - 2 posts

#but i feel conditioned by society to please/impress people with this - 1 post

#gay - 1 post

#quotes to go with this - 1 post

#literally an incorrect quote not one of my prompt thingys - 1 post

#quote - 1 post

#correct quote - 1 post

#poetry - 1 post

#lmk if i should upload - 1 post

Longest Tag: 105 characters

#from manga to manhwa to cnovels to cdramas to varied asian drama to the interesting flavor of thai dramas

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Ash reacts live on Tumblr

Me: Let's check my drafts after a year...

Me: Wow, there's 47...

Me: Wow, some of this stuff's weird, but some's nice

Drafts: *staring back with some badly written smut and strange prompts* Ya really think so??? REALLY?

1 note - Posted June 9, 2022

#4

HI i’m back like after a....year?

IRL consumed me,digested me completely. I don’t know if I’m out yet. But, this just helped me realize that I should stop giving a fuck about what I post on this hellsite ‘cause no one really cares and I should probably stop.

More importantly updates on what i’ll probably posting fandom wise:

severely less WMMAP, yeaaaa sorry but my interest waned...if someone reminds me to reread it, i probably will

a lot of more danmei/BL/GL content, and my thoughts on it

Me stuff, because my life is a story that just isn’t popular yet

tl;dr: I’m back with little to no wmmap content in store but lots of plans danmei wise

1 note - Posted June 9, 2022

#3

WMMAP Prompt #CRACK

Yeah, that's right. This one's so out there, it doesn't even get a number.

Fem! Lucas: *kabedon Kiel in* People say my lips are like skittles.

Fem! Kiel: SkItTles?

Lucas: Wanna taste the rainbow with me?

Kiel: NoOoOoOo....*pushes Lucas away and runs like hellfire*

Bonus...

Kiel: Athy, you need to be careful around Lucas.

Male! Athy: Why, Kiel, why? *gently stroking Kiel's long silvery white hair*

Kiel: She almost...kissed me.

Athy: Oh, really. Lucas!

Lucas: Yessss, wait why are you patting her head?

Athy: She likes it. *Kiel smugly smiling* So, why'd you try to kiss her anyways?

Lucas: It's better me than you. *proceeds to sit on Athy's lap and passionately kisses her*

Kiel: *walking away from the gross PDA with tearful eyes*

Lucas: *smiling b/c she knows she won*

Athy: hmmm

2 notes - Posted June 20, 2022

#2

Update on current watchlist

Currently watching:

3 Will Be Free (2 eps left) on Youtube here

Bad Buddy (5.5 eps left) on Youtube here

2 notes - Posted June 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

HI

young royals makes me want to find a person who can play piano better than me, just to watch them, not to get better but just to watch them.

5 notes - Posted December 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[qnewsau]

The colourful world of Kirana Haag

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/the-colourful-world-of-kirana-haag/

The colourful world of Kirana Haag

Whether she’s making art herself or empowering others to create their own, Kirana Haag is having a big impact on Sydney’s art scene.

German-born, Sydney-based artist Kirana Haag knew at an early age that she wanted to live in Australia.

“I remember clearly that when I was ten, I was in geography at school and we had a textbook with a picture of Uluru in it,” she tells QNews.

“The colour was like nothing I’d ever seen and I immediately thought, ‘That’s home.’ I can’t explain it better than to say I had an instant feeling of, ‘I need to live in Australia.’”

It took another 17 years before she got here but her intuition paid off.

Today, Kirana is the owner of her eponymously named business – a venture that sees her produce her own abstract art, take commissions to make bespoke art for clients, and run her very own art school.

“My biggest passions are making art and teaching art,” she says at her premises, a Victorian terrace on Darling Street, Balmain.

Sweeping an arm around the studio, Kirana explains that her art is all about “bold colour fields, expressionism, abstract concepts. I paint experiences. I love when people react to my art with some sort of feeling.”

Many of Kirana’s paintings are on linen (“I love the feeling of linen – it’s so touchable”) but she also produces more traditional canvas works, as well as unconventional mixed media collages.

She uses acrylics, inks, oils and fabrics to create her pieces, which can be viewed at Balmain, as well as her Abbotsford home by appointment and various galleries around Sydney.

In addition to the art she creates during her personal art practice (she produces 20 to 30 works per year, on average) Kirana is very happy to take commissions from clients to produce work within a range of budgets.

“I love doing commission work because it means I can look at the space and tailor the work to it, as well as the client’s wishes,” she says.

“We can see works best for the place, and I can complement the colours which are already in the room.”

Kirana’s European background means she’s very open to working with people who want to furnish their home or offices with art.

“In Europe, it is normal for people to buy original art and hang it in their homes. Like buying a fridge or a car, it’s in the list of the normal household goods,” she says.

“Here, I feel like people often don’t even think about that. It’s not a typical thing to do. It seems like it’s only for the very rich, not the average person.

“It was always a hope of mine that art would become more integrated into Australian society because like poetry, like music, it’s an important part of life. I think that is happening and hope it will continue.”

Kirana is helping to make it happen through her art lessons. She offers one-on-one classes as well as lessons to small groups, and encourages each student to express their emotions through their art.

Art lessons are all the rage right now but unlike the chain art studios where everyone paints the same thing together, Kirana’s method is personalised.

“My approach isn’t a cookie cutter one, where everyone produces the same thing. Even if I’m giving lessons to a group, I encourage each person to do their own thing, and I support them in that,” she says.

“I find everyone has their own style and people are so happy and amazed at what they can create.

“That makes me happy too. It’s a beautiful experience for us both.”

-Kirana Haag is located at 202 Darling Street, Balmain NSW

Website: www.kiranahaag.com Phone: 0448 446 466 Instagram: @kiranahaag Facebook: @kiranahaagtransformationalartist

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.