#really just basic frequency stuff

[kamiiik0]

♧How I Induced the void through SATS

And i know, I've wanted to and said that i'll induce the void through lucid dreaming, but here's the thing. Sats is actually so easy and effortless to do, lucid dreaming feels like a chore now (to me). And the thing is, I, ironically took break from tumblr and void because void state was starting to be viewed "too hard" (💀) to get into, literally induced it unintentionally through sats, it was THAT easy. Let's get right into it, I'm gonna start from the very basics, so you can know how sats works and how to actually utilise it :)

1. What exactly is SATS?

It's a deeply relaxed state, a state where you're groggy and drowsy. Like, yk before going to sleep, you hit this one point where you're half dreaming, half awake ish? like you can't (or don't want to) open your eyes, and you're just halfway through drifting off to sleep. That's exactly it! Your subconscious mind is HIGHLY suggestive to literally anything you tell it in this state. You access right before sleeping and right after waking up, and if you use it carefully you could really benefit from it :)

2.! How i Induced the void through SATS and how to relax :)

I actually did not realise relaxing was subjective to everyone until this experience. Let me tell you what happened.

It was a normal day. Like I mentioned above, I had taken a break from tumblr so I just scrolled through youtube. I was tired that day and wanted to sleep, but yk me and my phone addiction lol. So long story short, I saw some video about a beach, and then I just decided to go on pinterest, look at some comforting dark stormy beaches (💙) and some more peaceful shit and just imagined scenarios that RELAXED me. I like visualization and I'm good at it so imagining the scenarios was extremely peaceful. Basically I just looked at them pictures and just imagined sitting or laying there peaceful and relaxed, and other stuff.

Then i re-downloaded tumblr because I couldn't resist, and the first thing I saw was bunch of void success stories from a tumblr blog. They motivated me a lot and improved my mindset towards void, one of them being like "I was tired, so I affirmed, relaxed, felt a sucking feeling and entered", which to me was crazy because I was already tired and relaxed. So I laid down, relaxed, and almost immediately got into the SATS because of how relaxed and tired I was. Then in the sats I started to affirm for the void. And guess what? I felt a sucking feeling, something pulling me in, and then it was total black. I couldn't feel, hear or see a thing. I didn't affirm anything because of how peaceful it felt and forgot I had to do that (😭). When I woke up it motivated me a lot because I just realised how EASY it was and that I proved myself wrong.

Now, how is relaxing subjective? because to me, relaxing was like blindly following a guided meditation. Almost every blog i saw told me to meditate to relax (NO HATE TO ANYONE!!), and I thought meditation was just meditating to some guided meditation on youtube or the typical high frequency breathe in breathe out shit, which made me alien to the idea of meditating, because for me honestly following some youtube video on how to relax just didn't sit with me, because I wasn't even "relaxing". After the experience I realised what relaxing or meditating actually is. It's about discovering your own peace. It doesn't matter what it is.

(p.s. from the same concept I Induced the alpha state, lmk if you want a post on that. And no I did not count from 13 to 1 then 12 to 1, or even count at all).

and that was literally it. Imagining some peaceful scenarios, lying down, immediately getting inside sats and affirming, then inducing. I even entered 1-2 times after in two consecutive nights which boosted my confidence. Guys, it really is that easy.

[max1461]

I'm really scared. Somebody please help me. I don't know what's going on, I don't know if it's in my brain, my head/neck, or somwhere else in my body.

Recap so people can help me:

Go to dentist nov 12 for fillings (upper teeth), after one particular anesthetic shot (front teeth) start to feel extremely weird

start to have crazy cognitive and physical symptoms which are too many to list. Some include:

facial pain, mostly from the cheeks up, throbbing pain in eyes, nose, and roof of mouth

inability to recognize other people's faces from cheeks up (only chin looks familiar)

eyes no longer in sync, left eye seems to move more slowly and not track things right

extremely vivid almost-hallucinations. I can tell they aren't real and that they're in my head, but they're right on the verge

almost-hallucinations are visual, auditory, smell and emotion. it's sort of like a mix with flashes of a bunch of different memories and thoughts at once, it's not coherent. many different smells, images, etc. flashing through my perception too fast to keep track of. kind of like a soup of different stuff. very scary and distracting

feels like every time I have a thought or memory, it comes up correctly in my mind at first, then it mixes into the soup and I can't get it back. it just becomes part of the soup

the imagery and so on often feels like it is "coming in from the sides", like coming in from both sides of my body/FOV/etc. it's happening all the time but when it gets really intense and starts to get "closer to the middle" I start burping continuously and uncontrollably. almost feels like I'm swallowing air and burping it back up again, but it's totally outside my control. sometimes I'm burping back to back for hours

when it gets REALLY bad it makes me throw up. sometimes just into my mouth and sometimes full on projectile vomit. would say this happens about every two or three days and the frequency has been increasing.

inability to do the following correctly: sneeze, swallow, vomit, orgasm. all feel like the same weird issue. like they start but don't really finish. so e.g. when I vomit it's like the top part of my throat is not involved? it feels very weird but like the muscles are only actuating part of the way up, and it's a very odd sensation. same when I swallow, like only part of the swallowing motion happens and the food is hard to get down because of this.

my factual recall and grasp of factual information seems to be 100% fine, no delusional beliefs etc. Even though I can't visually recall my memories (because the soup of imagery gets in the way) I can easily factually recall what happened. But I can't visualize anything correctly, I just get these crazy visuals instead

feel like I am not sleeping properly. feel like when I "go to sleep" it's just more of the visuals ALL NIGHT and I don't get any rest. basically feel like I am in a half-asleep half-awake state all the time.

I've gotten an MRI, nothing abnormal. Got an EEG, it was slightly abnormal with temporal lobe "sharp waves" but no seizures. Went on seizure meds for 4 months and it had no effect on symptoms. Got another EEG when my symptoms were really acting up and EEG was normal, at that point doctor decided to take me off seizure meds since the didn't seem to be doing anything and symptoms didn't seem correlated with EEG. Seeing another neuro next week. Intuitively it feels like something is wrong in my face, throbbing pain is CONSTANT and has been resistant to all pain meds, and that maybe if it went away I could think straight. not sure though.

Feels like there is a "hole", it's hard to explain but it feels like there's this gaping hole in my mind's eye, that's blocking my from thinking correctly and causing all this shit. And I feel it on my body to, idk where but I can feel this "hole" too. Maybe some kind of fucked up nerve in my face or something? If anyone has any thoughts or could help me with any of this please let me know.

[velnna]

i’m ngl, i’m a big dnd nerd that was running out of high fantasy content to consume and then i stumbled upon your beloved comic. i just wanted to ask what your favorite worldbuilding decision is for utg and if you could pick dnd classes for any (all) of the characters, what they would be 👀

anyway, i hope you have so much good energy! all the good ideas and epiphanies and magnificent sketches to your heart’s desire ♥️

Oh yay thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy it ☺️

There's two major world things that I'm really happy with and helped a bunch of things click into place I think

One has to do with the magic system, or rather how magic works in that world on a sort of... molecular level? People who've seen me do worldbuilding for a while know I'm cheeky about deriving stuff from physics and loosely drawing parallels here and there, and for the under garden I ended up making it so that a lot of magic runs on wave function interference. Kinda. So the "natural" state of things has its own wave frequencies and magic comes from unnatural frequencies being added into the mix causing shit to go weird

By extension deciding this also made it easier to understand why or how some things can detect magic (they'd pick up on the weird frequencies) AND how it's possible to have magic blocking devices (they emit destructive frequencies that nullify it). Does it fully make sense on a physical level? Not necessarily but I get giddy when I can visualise magic mechanics like this hehe

The other decision was to simplify our lineup of humanoid species from the original DnD esque basis, but in a way that allows us to have basically any humanoid appearance you can think of through a ✨mutation✨ cheatcode. We have two "elf" subspecies (basically the dark elf-like ppl and everyone else, including "dwarf" looking folk, etc) and then a species that technically derives from them (and they're all genetically compatible) that's characterised by having abnormal, often insect-like traits. There's no real limit to their phenotypes since their origin is magical and random in nature, and since they can mix with "normal" elves the degree of bugness varies.

Which means i can have insect people, reptile people, horns or hooves or tails or wings galore without needing to come up with a full background for each of these variants >:)c

ANYHOO sorry I get carried away rambling about these things. Class-wise, I only have claims for some characters who... may be yet to make a full appearance in the comic, and would actually fight:

^ Monk??? Not my first claim but after playing an actual monk the ki system started making a lot of sense

^ Lil' sorcerer u_u probably with a subclass or two but sorcerer would hold up as he grows older

^ I think warlock would work for her well enough. Not a perfect fit but I can see it with some homebrew tweaking

^ Ranger makes sense I feel, she becomes one with the avalanches

^ Barbarian.... barbarian/druid???? Uncharted territory here

^ Warlock but you haven't seen much of it yet.... soon.... (I'm actually so excited for her)

^ This one's easy I just snatched her straight from an old DnD game anyway. That's my rogue artificer babygirl

Anyhoo hope you enjoyed this ramble

[insanescriptist]

Flip the Table

Casually eavesdropping on what should be highly secure frequencies, Jason sipped his beer in a sleezy saloon style sports bar somewhere on the Vegas strip, nominally watching college(?) football; he's a hockey fan because baseball's boring as shit to watch and he's never got the appeal about American football. Football to the rest of the world was at least worth watching for the drama. Something had the Justice League in a tizzy and Zatanna -the one who normally covered Vegas when it came to the costumed crazies- was off world; Jason didn't have the details exactly but it sounded like Zatanna was dealing with some magical planar stuff and was not expected back for at least six more days. Assuming all went well.

So like any reasonable person who's going away for a time, she turned on her home security, had the alerts wired over to a friend -in this case Justice League Dark- gave a list of what was needed to be done and when -the pick up my mail and mow my lawn equivalants- went on her trip, trusting that the JLD were watching over her city and it wouldn't be on fire when she got back.

Such glorious hope.

And thus something happened so when Jason pulled into Vegas proper to investigate a desperate -read last hope- lead on a missing person's case, Jason happened to spy one of the lesser members of the JLD losing their shit in the sky. And so in a moment of civic duty, Jason started spying on them.

Magic was not something anyone trained by the Bat really ever got comfortable about, but chances were magic bullshit was going to intervene in his case. Justice League shit spilled over everything, all the time. Ghost cultists tripping Zatanna's necromancy alarms or whatever they were, was not Jason's business. Not unless the presumed cultists -those that had survived- had the person he was looking for.

No, he was looking at a missing person's case and his lead was 1. cold and 2. a longshot and 3. in a city full of tourists and catering staff, where "seen anything unusual lately" could be "there was this trio of tourists arguing how sex with your best friend doesn't count as cheating," or "someone having a meltdown over the delayed shipping of organic blueberries to the hotel," or "Sarah Maria got murdered a couple weeks ago on the job, but I haven't seen any notice about her funeral stuff on her social media, why yes, I do know she's dead, oh, she's dead and I'm an idiot for expecting someone dead to post on their socials their funeral deets."

Point was, he could look and ask all he wanted, beat feet for days, but the chances of this lead panning out were basically so minuscule that Jason could treat this more as a hobby case while on vacation. He still did his due diligence, asked the staff a few questions, called the guests on the same floor during the time period of their stay about how they found their stay, ran into the dead end of shitty business practices -they recorded over their own records every two weeks- and so unless Jason got the ability to do magic and do a "point me!" spell, the case would turn cold. It sucked when it happened but sometimes the evidence wasn't there. Or wasn't noticed or was destroyed before it could be collected. Sometimes people just didn't remember shit until three weeks later, which with some follow up digging gave him the lead to the hotel. Which got him nothing after that.

As Jason Todd didn't gain an innate ability to do magic that he was aware of that actually counted as magic bullshit magic instead of a couple cantrips, all he could do was get a beer and some food in a Vegas style Texas saloon bar. Which not his first choice, but it was full enough no one really paid attention to anyone. Technically a sport's bar but also very much was not. It was also busy enough that Jason ended up getting asked if someone could set with him at his table -which real Jason said hell no to, but cover Jason did agree to-

Oh. Meta. Jason realized quickly. Oh no, he's hot.

His hair is on fire!

How did the server miss that? Most metas don't casually out themselves like that! Too many people willing to target them for whatever power.

That hair was flaming, tied back in a low tail; Jason blinked and the hair flickered color, looked like normal hair -black- and then back to white fire, then black fire, some tv static abomination of color, white hair and then black hair. Another blink and it appeared to be black flames for hair and yeah, Jason closed his eyes. Pointedly ignored the hair thing. If the meta asked, Jason was judging him for the stupid little goatee.

The rest of the meta was built along the same lines as Jason himself, tall, broad and built. Packed with muscle, which was something to make note of; metas usually were more durable and could hit harder, so Jason casually made note to not get hit if a fight broke out.

Which it might, or probably would.

That's just how Jason's luck ran. To shit.

Said meta also ordered food and a beer, didn't even get asked for ID -unfair bias- and judging by the sound, turned in the seat to look at the American football screen that Jason had been ignoring. His hair had at least settled to black flames instead of the glitchy hair.

Of course as this was Vegas, people gambled on outcomes of games too. Which is how Jason learned the meta was rich enough to blow a couple grand -not expensive in the world of supers- but more than what the average person would be comfortable betting.

There were better ways to piss away money than gambling on sports. Like on over priced burgers and onion rings with an order of mozzerella sticks. The burger was good, admittedly Jason's had better and then some party of guys was yelling at the ref on a screen. And yup, that's some altercation with another table but the barman broke it up with a couple of words.

His tablemate muttered something about the ref having made the right call if one of the players wanted to continue a career professionally and Jason used that as social leverage to get a name -Dan, no last name given- and a bit more in-depth explanation on what stakes were going on; he's a hockey guy, not a football guy.

Some time later, Dan had caught him up on the football drama -nothing compared to the hockey drama- and conversation had drifted significantly from sports, lightly touched on family -Dan had siblings he shared little about other than they existed, which fair, they could also be metas and at risk- much like Jason did -he had siblings that existed, no further details- and parents weren't mentioned. Instead a lot of engineering talk, a slide into ethics -Dan's opinion on killing super villains was very much that some people needed Ended- and some small talk about how Dan's high school English teacher cursed in classical book titles.

Soon the easy joy of potential friendship ended when his phone rang; that was the Batman ringtone and Jason felt no guilt hanging up on him. And again. And again.

Then Dick rang and nope. He was not dealing with their shit. Dick would just sweeten up whatever shit B wanted to shovel.

And then Oracle's ringtone rang. Oh, now that was serious. Justice League shit spilling into his life again. No fucking doubt about it.

"Uh-huh, so what's up? Because I gotta say, I am a couple drinks in and the whole bar is waiting for one of the football teams to fumble or foul up their next play so they can throw down."

"Jay-" She started because much like Bruce, she would rather go straight into the mission, and Jason absolutely had wrong-footed her. Because instead of making excuses to leave, Jason had absolutely stayed. So now she had to rephrase things on the fly because who knows who might be listening in. "Hey, it's on the news that the Justice League is showing up in Vegas; something about investigating something magical showing up."

"Uh-huh, that's not a surprise. There was some magic ninny flying in a panic earlier. I decided it wasn't my business."

"I hadn't heard that," -bullshit, she just hadn't double-checked that herself yet- "but what I did hear that some cult might have succeeded in bringing something over."

"Uh-huh. Well, no one's praying to Cthulu yet, there's been no troublemaking beyond the usual human malice and nothing's on fire."

"We were just concer-" And Jason hung up on Oracle.

He'd pay for that later, but petty was satisfying now.

"Sounded important."

"Was bullshit."

"So an entity summoned by a cult that tripped a bunch of magicians into a tizzy-"

Yeah, those sharp ears were not for show. Enhanced hearing check. "That's a bunch of incompetents panicking." Time for his good guess to hit or miss. "You're not going to decide to destroy Vegas, are you?"

"Done it before, doing it again seems pointlessly petty." Statements Jason wasn't going to prod further right now.

"And what if Wisconson University loses?"

"Might flip the table." Dan shrugged.

"More beer?" Jason asked.

"Sure."

[sailorspren]

I'm not a cosmere theories freak but I do have one theory I'm very passionate about which is that the pure tones of Roshar sound like sine wave synths! Let me explain :) I am taking "pure" to mean "consisting of only one note (and no overtones)", which is basically the definition of a sine wave. A sine wave is the representation of a single frequency with no harmonics and is considered an acoustically pure tone. Sine waves don't occur naturally - real world sounds always have overtones, in varying quantities. We can synthesize sine waves, however, and they sound like this (I played it in different pitches so you can get an idea of the timbre):

Here's a visual representation of a sine wave:

So this is what I imagine it sounds like when Dalinar opens a perpendicularity, or when singers hear pure notes in highstorms. And because the sound of a sine wave is so unnatural, it would really stand out and feel otherworldly on a planet that doesn't have modern technology - and I feel like that fits the description.

We also know that it's possible to use tuning forks to play the three pure tones of roshar and pull the matching types of light out of gemstones. While acoustic instruments can't produce a truly pure note (aka a sine audio wave), tuning forks come pretty close. They initially produce high overtones, but those fade out quickly, and then the forks keep resonating with a pure tone. It makes sense that tuning forks are the closest Rosharan humans can get to synthesizing a sine wave!

There's also the fact that Raboniel can sing the pure notes and get the lights to respond, while Navani can't. Is it just because Raboniel's pitch is more accurate, or do singers have an physiological ability to produce notes with less overtones? This is really interesting to me...

And one more fun thing to consider. You know what other instrument comes pretty close to producing a pure tone? The flute! Hoid gave Kaladin a flute... idk if it actually has any reasoning behind it but I really hope it does 😂 imagine how cool it will be if it will be used for musical magic system stuff

[fryingpan1234567]

some CHB headcanons

every cabin has LEDs around the inside, but there’s a constant battle over what color they are

Percy has his rippling back and forth from teal to blue and it looks like light dancing through water all over his walls and floor

the Apollo cabin can usually settle for orange and yellow as a common ground

the Aphrodite kids have a different color for each time of day and sleep with pink on the lowest brightness setting

the Hermes cabin has like ten different strips and they’re all constantly shifting

Demeter cabin’s shifts with the seasons

ANYWAYS MOVING AWAY FROM THE LEDS

they have movie nights, which I will talk about in a different post

before everybody goes back to school, the Aphrodite and Hecate cabins have a massive salon at the end of the summer with new haircuts and magic hair dye and outfit recommendations and fake but enchanted sturdy nails and a whole bunch of other stuff and basically it’s a week straight of spilling hot tea between everyone in camp

if someone asks where a camper got their hair done when they get back to school they just go “oh, um… summer camp.” and their friends will snort and be like bro isn’t summer camp the opposite of a makeover?? but they get no argument, just a shrug and a half smile

when I tell you pride month over there is a fucking riot

because Mr. D is in on it, right?? because he’s the god of gender?? and Chiron is aroace and has been raising dumbass gay heroes for literal centuries?? PLUS the sheer fucking amount of queer peeps up in there?? dude yeah

cabins competing for who shows the most pride

Demeter’s roof is covered in rainbow flowers

Hecate’s is enchanted to emit actual light in whatever flag colors of whoever uses the front door, even when they’re straight (it’s just a rainbow)

Percy collects a bunch of shed scales from the hippocampi at the bottom of the lake and then puts them all over his cabin

I could make a whole post about CHB pride but

every single Apollo kid is also a theater kid fight me

Rachel Elizabeth Dare painted a skateboard for Percy’s birthday and he brings it everywhere now, it even sits in his backpack at school

Leo, Annabeth, Percy, and Piper fucking love horror movies. Frank, Hazel, and Jason fucking hate them. They watch through their fingers, if at all

Piper loves the band Surfaces with all her heart, but she also is a die hard Green Day and P!ATD fan

Jake Mason is covered in burn scars up to his neck, just like Deadpool, just not bald lol

Hephaestus and Apollo kids faintly radiate warmth (like more so than a normal person)

the Stolls sometimes stay at camp year-round because their mom is off on international missions that are too high-risk for them to help with

the seven are AVID Smash Bros players

really everyone but

not as many people go to the Athena campers for help with homework as you might think, but whenever anyone does, they’re happy to help

the sun chariot blasts music at a frequency only the Apollo kids can hear, so their life kind of has a shitty soundtrack that consists of a mix of Broadway, Queen, modern stuff, and random bits of Beethoven every now and then

the Romans swear on few occasions

the Greeks know when to swear and when to be polite

the Valhalla peeps swear unbridled and all the time

the Egyptians never swear (in English)

for the longest time, Will Solace thinks the only gift from his dad is his healing prowess— which is obviously great, but he expresses being upset over the fact that he’s not very good at archery

well, considering this is the dumbass who didn’t bring a weapon to actual fucking Tartarus, Nico drags him to the weapon shack thing immediately afterwards and made him pick something out

he's immediately drawn to the Celestial Bronze shotgun.

Nico’s just like “what in the redneck shit did you just pick up” and Will jokingly aims it at his chest and grins and says “you know I’m from Texas, right?”

that’s how they find out Will is one of the damn best marksmen in Greek demigod history

some of the Disney nerds in the Apollo cabin sing What Once Was Mine to the little ones who need bandaids for knee scrapes and give them lollipops afterwards

Percy Jackson absolutely used to make poverty and struggle meal jokes all the time, but he got weird and concerned looks for it at CHB, so he kind of just stopped. But one day, aboard the Argo II, the PERFECT opportunity came up and he just HAD TO and as per usual— everyone else looked at him like he’s crazy— but Leo laughed so hard chocolate milk came out of his nose and that’s the story of how the two of them became Best Friends

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

umehara appears (again)

I know he’s a prolific VA but tell me why I keep getting jumpscared by this man 😭 This is like the 7th time where I’ve consumed media, went “wow, this voice is nice and it sounds kinda familiar!”, then looked up the VA and found out it was UMEHARA… I don’t think I’ve run into any other TWST VA in the stuff I play/watch to this frequency…

AnYWAY

I wanted to share that Umehara voices this character in a recent GBF story event; it’s a younger version of a 68-year old butler-knight ex-mercenary named Sevastian. In the past, he was known as Wolfe and??? His hair actually looks similar to Leona’s (color and length) and he’s basically this world’s version of a beastman (Erune) and also his cleavage is showing.

Over the course of the story, Wolfe falls in love with a woman. All GBF story events are fully voiced, SO WE CANONICALLY HAVE A L*ONA VOICE CLIP OF HIM SUGGESTING TO ADOPT A Cheka CHILD WITH A HUMAN 💀 AS WELL AS OTHER ROMANTIC LINES… (I mean, yeah, Umehara has also voiced in real otome games but I feel this character is the closest in tone and attitude to Leona, making his lines the most transferrable to TWST.)

P.S. Okay but picture L*ona in this fit, I think he’d kill it—

We also get various lines that feel like things Leona has actually said before or would actually say:

“You’re really going to ignore what I just said and invite me along?” I swear to god Leona has said this before to both Silver and Rook for being overly friendly or insistent that he join them for an activity.

“I, on the other hand, wish you could vacate my life permanently,” sounds like a sarcastic formal comeback he’d pull out when forced to put on airs but he still wants to insult the other person. HIS PETTY ERA………………. ……. …… ….. … . .. ….. .. . … .. . . .. . . .

Those are only two examples, but there’s a lot more on the actual event story OTL

I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS, IT’S A PERSONAL ATTACK ON L*ONA SIMPS/j

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Would I Be the Asshole if I date my FWB without telling them I am aromantic?

I (23F) am fwb with May (24F) May is bisexual and I am an aromantic allosexual lesbian. No one knows I am aromantic, I don’t plan on telling anyone.

Background: May and I have been friends for 2.5 years. We met in college through a mutual friend (Frank 23M) but we were never really close until the summer after graduation when she and her ex boyfriend broke up. Frank had been out of town but I was around and was there for May. About a month after they broke up May and I got a little drunk and May started talking about how she had realized she was bi when she was with her ex-boyfriend and she had never gotten to be with a girl. One thing led to another and we fucked. Since then we’ve hooked up with relative frequency, but mostly we just hang out with Frank as a trio. May and I obviously had the Conversation when we first started getting together but she had just broken up with her ex and didn’t want to start a new relationship.

Situation at hand: up until very recently I thought Frank had no idea about me and May. I guess he knows though! Because he told me that May has expressed to him wanting to be more than fwb with me, and he wants to solve our “useless lesbian drama” and just officially date. I basically told him that I had no idea May was into me romantically and that I would talk to her about what we are.

What I want judgement on: I like May! I think she’s fun and nice and pretty and has very good opinions on reality TV drama. However. I am aromantic, I don’t feel romantic attraction to her or anyone. I’m not romance repulsed though, I think dating and romance stuff is really fun. If I tell May I am aro, though, she will likely no longer want to date me

For May, dating me and dating an alloromantic person would be indistinguishable. For me, I would get to spend more time with a person I like, do fun dating stuff, and would move to being exclusive with her. This seems like it would benefit everyone, but I would not be telling her the full truth.

So WIBTA for dating her and not telling her I am aro?

P.S. by the time this has posted I will probably have already spoken to her but it will still be good to know.

[magnus-marmot]

Comparing Control (the game) to TMAGP

So I finally got around to playing the video game Control after Alex mentioned having been inspired by it in the season 1 QnA. (I started the game years ago but my old computer refused to run it.) And I can definitely see some of the inspiration.

The Federal Bureau of Control is what the OIAR wishes it could be. Their job is to basically track down Altered Objects, Altered World Events and Objects of Power, research them, contain them and then put out an "official" story for the public to avoid any further panic. It's reminiscent of the SCP Foundation, and functionally it combines the purposes of both the Magnus Institute and the OIAR. The player is also given loads of lore on the paranormal events through a variety of media, including letters from concerned citizens, official reports, internal correspondence, recorded interviews, radio/TV programs and so on, which reminds me of the way TMAGP is formatted. I recommend you play it if you're interested in this kind of stuff and some action-oriented gameplay. It's actually super interesting, and I understand how it could fill up the creative tank, so to speak.

What really caught my interest was that I noticed a striking similarity between the explicit metaphysics of Control and the theories I've had for TMAGP. Like to the point where I'm doubting myself because surely the inspiration couldn't be that direct. Let me explain, and then you can be the judge (also some surface-level spoilers for Control).

Control metaphysics and how they relate

In Control, the AWEs seem to be largely caused by people's thoughts and beliefs. People's perceptions morph reality by creating archetypes in the collective unconscious, which then manifest into paranatural objects and events. The FBC uses fancy (pseudo-)scientific language like parapsychology and parakinesis, they talk about rituals and the collective unconscious and resonance and frequencies. They are concerned with Thresholds, which are places in the world where different dimensions leak into each other. The Bureau itself is an altered location (or a Place of Power), in which the architecture keeps shifting unexpectedly and which seems to work like a nexus that creates links to other altered locations, objects or phenomena. For example, you can find a light switch that doesn't connect to anything, but by pulling it three times (ie. performing a small ritual), you get transported to a motel that's kind of like every motel you've ever been at and also none of them. Just the amalgamation of the concepts people connect to motels.

If you've read any of my TMAGP theories, all of these ideas should at least vaguely ring a bell. Everything from the collective unconscious to people's thoughts being manifested in reality, the liminal spaces created by the amalgamation of those thoughts, and the mercurial locations where the dimensions bleed into each other. The difference being that I use archaic alchemy concepts for my points, while the game uses modernised language that at least tries to pass as scientific. Which, mind you, is not incompatible with alchemy either. For example, modern Rosicrucians still rely on alchemical language, but they often apply it more metaphorically to the modern (though equally pseudoscientific) concept of resonance and manifestation. I guess I'll very briefly break those ideas down too.

Resonance and alchemy

The metaphysics in Control revolve around vibrations and resonating frequencies. This is based on the real world belief that everything in the universe is vibrating at a certain frequency, and similar frequencies attract each other (known as the Law of Attraction by those who buy into it). The idea is that you can manifest things and outcomes into reality by aligning the frequency of your thoughts with whatever you want to manifest. Think of something real hard and it will come to you, be it good or bad.

This idea is not necessarily new, even if the language for it is (at least relatively speaking). Pythagoreans thought that there's a universal harmony created by the movements of celestial bodies, and it's reflected on our lives on Earth ("as above, so below"). This concept was equated with anima mundi or the world soul, and it's the same idea that alchemists later associated with either Aether or Mercury or both (depending on who you asked). Mercury is the shared life force on our earthly plane and it reflects the Aether that makes up the heavenly plane. Changes in one must be seen in the other ("as above, so below"). And we've come a full circle.

My take-away from this

I don't think Alex has directly stolen any ideas from the game, and while I can definitely see some inspiration, the feel of the two pieces of media are totally different. So I'm not drawing these comparisons to prove a point, I just thought it would be interesting to talk about them. But we're definitely dealing with classical alchemy concepts in TMAGP, and we've even been explicitly told that Fr3-d1's code utilises alchemy. I'd also be more worried about the conclusions I've been making if episode 40 didn't make this whole manifestation aspect abundantly clear and difficult to doubt.

But on the other hand, we do have some instances where music (ie. vibrations) is contributing to the paranormal. We've got the violin that produced aetherial, soul-healing music when fed with blood and drove the audience mad when not. We've got Bonzo's theme song, which seems to either summon Mr Bonzo or just follows him around. And most recently, we've got the nursery rhyme that is directly linked to Heinrich Unheimlich and possibly helped in his creation. So I'm not entirely discounting the possibility that we're dealing with vibrations/resonance in some capacity.

Conclusion

This became a pretty incoherent and rambly post, and I doubt many are interested to read about this topic in the first place. So if you made it this far, here's a bonus reason for playing Control: the altered objects are contained in a panopticon that's physically linked to an archive. (The archive is underwhelming but this set-up still tickled me.) Also there's a creepy janitor with a thick Finnish accent who sings Finnish iskelmä songs and loves using directly (and intentionally badly) translated Finnish idioms such as "blow up into pussy splinters" and I love him.

[diapydemon]

A Little Magik, Chapter 4

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Content Warning: ABDL, MDLB, MDLG, diapers, Spanking, manipulation

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Read chapter 3 here.

Chapter 4: The Magik Temper Tantrum

“Are you excited for our field trip at the end of the week?” Alveria gushed from across the desk.

“Sure, but we’re just going into a low level dungeon, right?”

Alveria frowned, “So you’re not excited?”

“No, it’s not that,” I reassured, “it’s just that we’ve been to plenty of dungeons together before.”

“True, but you’ve never been able to practice magik in a dungeon before.”

“What magik?” I gestured to the wrap around bookshelves of Alveria’s library, “I’ve spent the last two weeks singing nursery rhymes, filling in coloring sheets, and completing worksheets.”

“We really need to work on your patience, cutie,” she smiled at me, “but if you ask me extra sweetly I’ll teach you some basic, practical magik.”

I rolled my eyes, “Ms. Alveria, will you pretty, pretty please teach me some practical magik?

“Dawww, You’re just the cutest thing!” She doted, “how could I say no?”

I sighed in resignation.

“First,” she asked, “how many senses do you have?”

“Uhm… five?” I answered with some trepidation; the question felt too easy.

“Right now that’s true,” she nodded, “but certain runes open up something like a sixth sense that allows you to sense magik more easily.”

“Really?” My voice radiated curiosity, “a rune will give me a sixth sense?”

“Sort of.” Alveria explained, “do you remember how you would feel my magik on you when I would heal you or imbue you with any support magik?”

“Uh-huh,” I nodded, “it felt gentle and warm like a nice bath.”

“Ahww thanks cutie,” she smiled at me.

For some reason that made me blush.

“Well, this rune will help you sense passive magik that isn’t directly affecting you, but is still surrounding you.”

“Ah… so this spell is good for detecting magical traps and stuff?”

“That and more! Everything that’s alive or was once alive has a magical frequency to it.”

Alveria gestured around the library with a wave, “Even these books have a magical frequency; the pages come from trees, and the leather bookcovers come from cows. As such, you can sense their magical frequency.”

“Wait,” I looked at the mahogany wooden desk, “so everything has a magical frequency then?”

“That’s right, smarty pants!”

I blushed; even after weeks of Alveria praising me like a child, I still wasn’t used to it.

“So, how do I activate this heightened sense?”

“With runes,” she smiled, “hence why I’ve been hammering them home for you the last couple weeks.”

“Cool!” I was excited, but I was still missing something: “Uhmm… I know a lot of runes and what they mean, but I still don’t know how to activate them.”

“I’m about to teach you, silly!” Alveria raised her pointer finger and began drawing the Silver Mirror rune in the air, “For more permanent spells, you need more permanent ink, but for temporary, fast-paced spells this method works fine.”

I raised my finger up in imitation of her.

“Focus on the magik aura that tingles on the edge of your skin, and imagine it welling up on your fingertip. The magik gathering there will serve as the ink that you’ll write with,” she explained.

“Now, draw the rune that I do. I’ll go slow, so you can follow along.”

My finger traced intricate curves into the air, and I could feel a small, extremely familiar magik take shape in front of me.

“Good job cutie. Now drag the rune you created through the air and over your ear. Then repeat the process for your other ear.”

I followed Alveria’s directions, and I soon felt a small magical weight that hung on my ears like dangling earrings. I immediately noticed the different auditory world I had stepped into: the mahogany table offered a low hum, the pages of the books produced intermittent chirping, and even Alveria herself produced a comforting melody.

This spell didn’t just heighten my magical sense, I could also hear non-magical sounds that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. I heard birds caw in the distance, pieces of conversation from merchants in the square below, and even the rustling of the gentle wind. Is this how Alveria heard the world all the time? No wonder she caught me sneaking out of bed the other night.

“This is awesome!” I exclaimed.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it, but try not to overwhelm yourself too much, ok?”

“What are you talking about?,” I grinned, “I feel like I just discovered a whole new world!”

Alveria frowned, “don’t push yourself too hard; it’s still your first time and —“

“Ughhh,” I was suddenly unable to differentiate all the magik noise, and it all jumbled together into one, migraine-inducing mess of sound. I felt like I had the worst hangover of my life. On top of that, my nose started bleeding.

Before I even noticed her get up, Alveria had wrapped me in her arms.

“Shhhh, you’re okay cutie,” the warmth of her body and the magical melody of her frequency begin to overpower the asynchronous clutter, and it provided some relief. Soon, the temporary runes faded from my ears on their own, and my senses had returned to normal.

“What… what was that?”

“That,” Alveria rubbed my back while continuing her embrace, “was the first time you used magik. It’s like that for everyone, and shouldn’t be even a fourth as bad the second time.”

“Oh… ok,” I said weekly, “Well, let’s try it again.”

“No cutie,” Alveria shook her head, “I think it would be best to put you down for a nap after that.”

My eyes widened. I was just starting to make real progress, and she wanted me to stop!? And she didn’t just want me to stop, she wanted to ‘put me down for a nap’? Bullshit!

“No!” I shouted louder than I meant to, “I don’t want to nap; I want to do more magik!”

Alveria’s lips formed a thin serious line, “Cutie—“

“No!” I stood up from the chair, “No more cutie this or cutie that! I am not a baby, Alveria, and I want to learn magik; not take a nap!”

My emotions and senses were all in a jumble, so I didn’t even notice Alveria grab my wrist and pull me into her lap until it was too late. She held me down by the small of my back, and peppered my backside with a barrage of quick swats. They didn’t hurt, but the shock of being spanked completely stunned me. I felt water start to well up in my eyes.

Alveria lifted me with surprising strength —probably magically enhanced— and placed me sitting in her lap facing her.

I couldn’t raise my watery eyes to meet hers.

She raised my head with a gentle finger under my chin, “I didn’t want to have to spank you, but you were throwing a temper tantrum.”

I didn’t say anything, instead just allowing a slow tear to roll down my cheek. Alveria was right, and that didn’t help calm me down.

Alveria wiped the tear from my face, “Look cutie, I get it. Learning magik is fun and exciting, and it should be. But you’re my apprentice and responsibility. You have to trust that I have your best interest at heart and will guide you to learn at the pace you need to learn at, okay?”

“O-okay,” my crying slowed and eventually stopped.

“Now do you have anything to say to Ms. Alveria?”

“I-I’m sorry I got upset and yelled.”

“Thank you cutie, I appreciate that,” she offered a gentle smile, “I know your first time using magik can take a lot out of you, so how about we get you down for that nap.”

I nodded.

Alveria led me by the hand to my bedroom, but took me to the changing table before my bed or even wardrobe.

“…Ms. Alveria?” I asked with a shaky voice. I may have had a temper tantrum, but I did not need diapers.

“Cutie,” she squeezed my hand, “Using magik for the first time affects people in a lot of different ways. I think it would be good just in case.”

“But I—“

“Cutie,” her voice became firmer, “please don’t make me spank you again.”

I lowered my head in defeat, “O-okay Ms. Alveria.”

Soon after, I was lifted onto the changing table and my pants and underwear were gently pulled down my legs. Alveria chose an infantile diaper with cartoonish knights, castles, dragons, and princesses on it. I couldn’t say or do anything except feel the heat of my blushing cheeks. She methodically lifted my legs up and slid the diaper under me before sprinkling my groin with a generous helping of baby powder; now I didn’t just look like a baby, I smelled like one too.

Alveria then led me to the wardrobe where I was dressed in yet another magically imbued onesie. This one also had the crotch snaps to make diaper changes easier. I chose not to think about that too much.

Then she tucked me into bed and raised the bars.

“I actually have something I’ve been meaning to give you,” she smiled down at me.

“Really?”

“Mmm-hmm,” in a flash of magik Alveria produced a baby blue stuffed animal that looked like a dragon and placed him in the bed with me, “to help you fight off anymore nightmares,” she winked at me.

“T-thanks,” I hugged the stuffie.

“Sweet dreams,” Alveria planted a gentle kiss on my forehead before departing.

As she left, I felt semi-familiar magik envelop me, feeling its warmth strongest in my crotch and my arms. Where my new diaper and stuffed friend were. The magik reminded me of Alveria, but it was slightly different. I felt incredibly relaxed and began to drift to sleep. Maybe this was the strange magik in my aura. I decided it didn’t matter right now before yawning and drifting to sleep.

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As Aways, All Characters Depicted are 18+

[cygnus-rex]

Etho answered my question on quantum physics!!!

I cannot even begin to describe how meaningful this is. I sincerely hope he’s inspired to learn more and through this he can inspire others too. Quantum physics was a key factor in changing my life and how I see the universe, the world, other people, and myself.

Even learning about just really basic stuff without getting too much into the math aspect: the double slit experiment, quantum entanglement, how water can react to sound, frequencies in general. It’s incredible and fascinating and thought provoking.

I’m so honored that he answered my question!

Also his new video is really cute and fun, go check it out!

[poppitron360]

@cometmoons so for some reason tumblr has glitched and isn’t letting me respond to the ask you sent me so I’m just gonna do it like this.

OK OK OK OK OK OK SO-

There is SO MUCH to talk about with Wouldn’t You Like. I feel like it’s hard to describe on a written post so I took the liberty of downloading a music notation app and transcribing the bits I wanted to talk about (This took me aaaages. But it was a really fun process and taught me a lot.)

Be warned this is a LONG post.

Firstly, here’s my overall take on the narrative of this song:

Odysseus is one of the smartest heroes of Greek Myth. He’s a mentee of Athena. He’s tactical. Yes, he is a fighter, but he’s for the most part a strategist and he uses diplomacy and cunning and his words to defeat his foes. Big Slytherin energy. Up until this point, that’s all he’s ever used. Eurylochus has doubted and challenged this approach, and has now come to him, saying that Circe is too powerful to defeat and that they should just run away. Odysseus “Pride is my fatal flaw” of Ithaca is insisting on fighting Circe, but is realising that he might not be able to talk his way out of it.

Hermes has now shown up like “hey ✨dAhLiNg✨how about you try something different? DRUGS!”, offering him a taste of something he’s never had before… power.

This, in my opinion, is a big step in Odysseus’ fall from man into monster, and Jay uses music in so many different ways to convey that, so let’s start with a break down of the song one section at a time:

Intro:

For most of the song, you’ve got the Lyre/Harp playing- Hemes’ signature instrument, which is significant to him because according to myth he invented the Lyre. This is the first thing we hear in the song, immediately setting up the things you need to identify his character.

Harps and Lyres are typically used in film and videogame music to give a mystical, magical atmosphere. I love how Jay blends modern (1980s) Synthpop with more classical, eclectic instruments that don’t normally fit the style. I’m assuming for budgeting reasons he’s using a VST or some kind of sample pack and not a real harp (session musicians are EXPENSIVE), but still- you hardly ever hear a harp in this kind of music but it WORKS.

The introduction played by the harp also lays out something that is shown throughout the whole song:

AEOLIAN MODE!!!!

Modes are hard to explain bc I barely understand them myself (I said music theory was my special interest, not that I was any good at it) but according to the Wikepedia article I’m reading about them right now, they were used a lot in ANCIENT GREECE. The Aeolian mode specifically was used a lot back then. The word “Aeolian” comes from… you guessed it- the Islands of Aeolus!!!

Aeolus, being the God of the wind- Aeolian mode is this mystical, free-flowing mode that simulates the feeling of wind.

You know when you hear a high wind through a telegraph pole you get this whistling sound? That’s basically a rudimentary, naturally occurring Aeolian Harp. There’s a whole Physics lecture about sound frequencies and microtones and shit in here that I am not yet qualified to give but this kind of stuff FASCINATES me about music.

I found this 60sec short that explains Aeolian mode really well from a channel I really like: https://youtu.be/bJ6TRQ3k45Q?si=sksSz4xyf_96uMrp It’ll give a much more concise explanation than I could, but basically all you need to know is that the melodies are in this special scale.

Aeolian mode is the natural minor scale. It’s often used to feel spooky and mystical- perfect for a song like Wouldn’t You Like where this magical character is singing about a magical plant. It’s not the standard G minor scale, but something a little more twisted and not really something we’re used to hearing, giving it a mysterious quality.

This is established immediately by the harpline, and sets the entire tone of the song. We then hear his trademark giggle, and so in the first 3 seconds we know everything we need to know about who Hermes is and what he’s like.

Speaking of the giggle- I briefly mentioned Panning in my post about Scylla, and while I can’t discern any use of it just by listening, but I imagine Jay’s probably used a subtle amount of it to give the sense of Hermes flying overhead.

Panning is a thing done in audio production where you can choose how much of the sound is heard on the left or the right.

Verse 1 (“I must say”… etc.):

It’s very gentle at this point, the orchestration and vocalisation is calm and lilted. It’s very beautiful, although the minor tonality gives it a slightly uneasy feel. (Often the minor key is described as sounding “sad”, but that’s not always the case. This is a great example).

The harp melody is repetitive, giving a sense of persistence, this adds to the sense of unease. It also has elements of hip-hop, as a gentle beat comes in as the chorus starts.

Chorus 1:

Now the harp cuts out and you’ve got that synth bass-line coming in- the repetitive, insistent beats and this “four-on-the-floor” drum pattern where the bass drum (which sits on the floor) kicks on every beat (in a four-beat bar). This feeling of it almost pounding in your head on every thump.

The instrumentation is very stark, you’ve just got the vocalist, the bass, and the bass drum. This technique is used by Taylor Swift in both the songs “Look What You Made Me Do” and “Vigilante Shit”- this really makes you listen to the lyrics as there’s nothing distracting you. As this is the first time we’re hearing these words, it draws you into what he’s saying.

On the line “Wouldn’t you like to have some of the magic?”, the Lyre comes in, playing this repetitive line that goes up and down and up and down. It’s a repetitive, almost hypnotic sound.

Verse 2 (“She can turn you to an animal”… etc.):

This is when this bluesy piano comes in.

The piano is used a lot in different points of Epic- it’s an essential part of any musical orchestra pit or just a song in general, and crucial in every composers instrumentation arsenal (and was also the first instrument I ever learned to play and my first real taste of music, so it’s not like I’m biased or anything)- but it’s mostly associated with Athena as it’s her signature instrument. It’s a stretch, but my interpretation is that Hermes is trying to appeal to something familiar to Odysseus. So far the only God he’s interacted with at length is Athena, who taught him this idea of being strategic and tactical. Hermes is acknowledging that this is Odysseus’ main way of fighting, while also showing him that there could be something more to it.

The piano plays these low-octave chords in this syncopated rhythm, which adds a layer of intensity that you didn’t have in verse one. This continues into the second chorus.

Chorus 2:

The orchestration is much more intense, pulling the audience (and Odysseus) in.

I’m gonna talk a lot about the musical “language” that Jorge has established for the universe- bits of music theory he’s tied in with themes that don’t necessarily have the same connotations anywhere else, because I think it’s genius.

Jay has said that the mythical beings (Gods, monsters, Odysseus when he kills the suitors) are all able to summon non-diagetic backing vocalists to back them up. Interestingly, Hermes doesn’t use this the first time round, speaking to Ody on his level, and is now rising up and displaying the power he’s tempting him with.

This is when we first hear the backing vocalists. There’s now a group of voices, so there’s more people urging you to taste the flower. Musically speaking, the harmony moving in the same rhythm with the same words as the soloist creates a sense of movement, congruent with Ody’s temptation.

Here is where we get to how this harmony works. This is the section that will actually answer your question.

First of all, I also struggle with overstimulation so I totally get what you’re talking about. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do backing vocals, and I know from experience that writing harmonies as complex as this takes skill and practice.

I think that’s why music is so special to me. The sensory calm certain sounds and songs give me, the good kind of stimulation and the bad kind. It has always made me so curious as to why and how the choices made in music can impact a person psychologically, make the listener feel immersed in a story, inflict specific emotions.

This is what fascinates me about music theory. Yes, it should overwhelm you. Yes, it should sound wrong. But it doesn’t. It WORKS. And what’s so interesting to me is why.

Jorge describes it as “crunchy and punchy” which is honestly perfect.

He is of course, referring to dissonance.

I have been studying music most of my life, and pretty much every music teacher I’ve ever had describes dissonance as just “sounding smushy”. It’s actually “a lack of harmony among musical notes”, usually two notes next to each other played at the same time.

But why does this sound “crunchy” and not “smushy”?

The Melody remains modal, as it has done the entire song. This is our grounding, our “Home”, but the harmony does something different. It’s moving down and up, flowing like wind, like the sea. And it’s doing this chromatically- using notes from the G minor key instead of the Aeolian mode- which creates clashes. Also known as dissonance. Also known as “smushy”.

And this is where we break out the good ol’ notation! I transcribed this myself by ear, so it might not be perfect. I can sight read tablature but not sheet music, so if this is wildly off then I’m sorry. I find it easier to explain music through annotations, but in order to make this screenreader accessible, I’m just gonna cite the lyrics and explain it in the text underneath.

In this section, “Wouldn’t you like to have some of the magic? Wouldn’t you like your outcome preferred?” The melody pretty much remains on C this whole time, only changing at the end of each two-bar phrase. This gives a forceful, repetitive, driving feeling. Hermes is being very persistent here.

For the first two-bar phrase- “Wouldn’t you like to have some of the magic”- both harmonies are the same. They then split at “Wouldn’t you like your outcome preferred?”

“Wouldn’t you”- The harmony starts on G, which is the root of G minor (the key that we are in). This is diatonic (using the notes from the key)- so it sounds nice, not “smushy”.

“Like to”- We then go down to F sharp, which is dissonant to the Aeolian mode, even though it’s the major 7th of G minor. This is why it sounds “smushy”

“Have some of the”- And here is where the “crunchiness” kicks in. It’s resolving down to the flattened 7th, which is F natural. The flattened 7th is the modal note.

“Magic”- The first two-bar phrase ends in E natural, which is dissonant to the mode. The melody also ends in D, which provides a lot of dissonance with the E as they are right next to each other, which can create clashes.

“Wouldn’t you”- This is where the two harmonies split. Harmony 1 goes back to G, which is the root of the mode. Harmony 2 goes down to E flat, which is also consonant (not dissonant).

“Like your”- Harmony 2 goes down to D, which is dissonant with the note in the melody (C) because they are next to each other. Harmony 1 goes to F sharp, which is dissonant to the Aeolian mode, as said before.

“Outcome”- Harmony 1 resolves to an F, and Harmony 2 goes back to an E flat.

“Preferred”- The last two notes “smush” as F natural (Harmony 1) and E natural (Harmony 2) are a semitone apart, then both harmonies join at E natural, which clashes with the D in the melody.

So the pattern goes from “nice” to “smush” to “nice” to “smush” to “nice” to “smush” to “nice” to “even more smush” and then when the next part of the harmony starts “deep in the night” you resolve back to the G, which is the tonic note.

Why does the dissonance work in this song?

It’s passing. Going down by step and resolving to a modal note. Passing notes that resolve don’t have that smushyness. They crunch.

Dissonance is a funny thing. Often musicians stay away from it because it sounds muddy and awkward and not great, but it can at times sound quite sweet, and with skill and knowledge you can learn how to use it effectively.

It also works here because it fits with the aesthetic and Hermes’ character. We’re already in this spooky, mysterious mode. We’re in a minor key. And Jay is using all these other musical techniques to give a slightly uneasy, hypnotic feel. The dissonance feels strange- not the sweet, diatonic harmonies we’re used to hearing. This is what makes this song stand out, and what makes Hermes such an intriguing and appealing character.

There’s this “up and down” melodic pattern that occurs throughout the song in several places. While Harmony 2 is doing that, Harmony 1 is just going down, repeatedly. I find it interesting that Odysseus isn’t rising to this power, but falling to it. It hints at Hermes’ trickster nature. These musical motifs (harmony, the harpline, the synthline, etc.) go up and down and up and down and up and down like gentle waves. We’re on the ocean. It’s lulling, compelling, hypnotic. “Come hither” whispering in the ear. It’s creepy, to be honest, and shows a darker side of the song that I will talk about later.

Bridge (“Here in the root of this flower”…etc):

Jorge has talked about how this is one of his favourite bits to sing, and musically that makes perfect sense.

Firstly, you’ve gotta hand it to Troy Doherty’s amazing performance. Hermes is so expressive even without seeing him.

Quick note about vocal techniques- YOU CAN HEAR SMILES. The act of smiling changes the shape of your mouth and thus changes the quality of your voice. You can HEAR Troy break out into a smile on the line “Though it’s only for a moment, ‘til you’ve beaten your opponent”. This is also my theory as to why the line “Penelope Whyyyy, you know I’m too shyy” is so stuck in everyone’s mind. Try singing it without smiling and then try singing it while smiling. Do you think it would’ve been that catchy if Jay wasn’t such a cutie pie?

Smiling is contagious, even if you’re only subconsciously noticing it. Hearing a smile gives you that little hit of dopamine.

When we hit the bridge, the piano, bass, and backing vocals cut out. Again, it’s just drums, harp, and lead vocals. This signifies a new section of music and also does the same trick as before- drawing you into the vocalist- but this time making you focus on the melody instead of the lyrics.

This whole bit is solely in Aeolian mode. The downward motion of the bridge increases the intensity of the song, dragging you into his words, falling into the power of the root. It’s sort of a callback to the downward motion to the second harmony line.

The constant quaver rhythm of this rising and falling conjunct “stepwise” melody gives a spiralling feeling, leading downwards. The rhythm is almost conversational, which fits with a mode like Aeolian that flows like the wind. It’s also why it’s so catchy and fun to sing. I love how Jorge composes in this uncommon scale in this particular pattern to reflect this idea.

There’s also one particular detail about the rhythm of this riff that compositionally shows something even deeper:

THIS IS IN TRIPLETS.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT TRIPLETS SYMBOLISE IN EPIC???

RUTHLESSNESS.

Ruthlessness is usually a theme reserved for Poseidon, Act 1 Athena, and Act 2 Odysseus. You wouldn’t expect a “friendly” God like Hermes to be using it. But he is. He’s being persistent, constant. He is trying every trick in his bag to persuade Ody to take the flower.

Jay is VERY deliberate about his arrangements and his composition, so this is not a coincidence. He has established this “language” of musical voices, rhythmical voices, and motivic voices to symbolise all his characters and themes. It’s fascinating to me that he made this choice for Hermes. Ever so subtly hinting that the God might not be as benevolent as he seems.

Chorus 3:

The instrumentation of this new chorus is pretty similar to Chorus 2, except…

These DRUMS.

I asked my dad about these while I was staying with my parents over the Xmas holidays, and it resulted in a 5-minuite-long infodump about a specific type of drum used in 80s pop music (yeah I totally definitely don’t see the family resemblance at all /sarcasm). Any Brit in the audience might recognise this drum sound as sounding almost identical the intro to a show called East Enders (which I never watched, but was aware of) and idk if that was Jay’s intention, but the drums apparently have a long and complicated history, which I will give you the abbreviated version. (If this is too much information you can skip the next paragraph if you so wish, I realise this can be overwhelming)

Bass drum called the Simmons’ drum- electronic drum pad- famous for being hexagonal- they were radical in that they gave an electronic palette to modern dummers- they weren’t well-built and the very earliest ones were made from the same composite materials as police riot gear- caused repetitive strain injury that became known by session drummers as “Simmon’s wrist” because it was a bit like using your drumsticks on concrete (What’s that? You don’t think music is as intense as sport? Musicians get injured just as much as footballers do)- the sound is one of the most distinctive sounds in 80s music and entirely synthetic, generated through synthesis so some poor technician had to sit and programme a synthesiser to sound like a tom-tom- in the 90s and early 00s it was seen as cheap and over-the-top but is now looked on with a sense of love and nostalgia.

This is, of course, a sample of the Simmon’s drum as I doubt Jorge owns a real one.

So what does that do for Hermes? It grounds the song it its 80s retro aesthetic, creating Hermes’ unique stylistic voice. Jorge has described how he got the idea for Hermes’ sound when he saw a retro, multi-coloured lamp that made him think of 80s music. Each character in Epic has their own soundscape, and this very particular drum sound adds to it.

It also adds intensity to this final chorus. These loud, heavy drum sounds give that adrenaline rush that the previous verses and choruses have been building to, when Odysseus finally takes the flower.

Then we get Odysseus singing the “oOOOooOoOOhHHHhs” as he eats the holy moly, then the chorus ends, and we get a repeat of the harpline from the intro as he thanks Hermes for the help.

My conclusion:

Odysseus has made a Faustian pact with Hermes, the trickster god. While Hermes’s words are friendly with no ill-intent, the composition and orchestration lean more towards this idea of “making a deal with the devil”. Gods know the game, and how it’s played. You, mere mortal, do not. When they entreat mortals to do their bidding will offer riches, money, fame, success, magic, power, but very rarely are their motives sound.

This is Odysseus’ first taste of the magic that separates gods and monsters from mortals. He is able to fight Circe as an equal, and this new development teaches him that he doesn’t always have to be strategic and diplomatic, but ruthless and relentless as well.

I know that the fandom see Troy Doherty’s performance of Hermes as “omg babygirl so slayyyy!!!” But there’s actually a deeper level to what he’s doing here. He’s a trickster God, tempting and teasing Odysseus down a path of magic and power- giving him the first taste of something that will later drive him into becoming the Monster. Hermes is almost seducing him to the dark side, using rhetorical questions, waving the Holy Moly in front of his face and saying “Come on. You know you want it. Wouldn’t you like a taste of the power? Wouldn’t you like to be victorious for once?” In his lyrics describing a “taste” of the power being something almost like a temptation. Odysseus is breaking from his norm- using magic and might instead of logic, diplomacy and reasoning. While he’s doing it to save his men, this is a major step in his descent into monsterhood, and it’s fascinating how Jay does this not only lyrically, but musically as well, using what’s called “word painting” (music and words working together) to create the sense of hypnotism and manipulation.

Hermes is being:

Ruthless (triplets),

Ceaseless (repetition),

Persuasive (rhetorical questions),

And hypnotic (lilting, lulling melody).

He’s drawing you in, forcing you to listen to him (stark instrumentation focusing on the vocals, then increasing the instrumentation as the intensity progressively increases, culminating in this big, expressive final chorus with this pwerful drum sound)

Overall Jorge uses all these techniques to show Hermes manipulating Odysseus into taking the flower. By subconsciously making you feel the temptation that Ody- the Narrator- is feeling through music and orchestration.

So anyway, those are my thoughts on “Wouldn’t you like”. I didn’t even have time to talk about “Dangerous”- perhaps I’ll make a separate post about that but no promises. Thank you so much for reading if you made it to the end!

[princessaffirms]

how do you know law of assumption is real? have you ever experienced anything supernatural?

hi angel! ₊˚⊹♡ i love this question so much, thank you for asking!✨

for me, the law of assumption just makes sense. it’s literally how the mind, consciousness, and reality interact.

your thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions SET the BLUEPRINT for how you experience the world around you.

going back to the basics of the law: your 3D doesn’t create your assumptions — your assumptions create your 3D. the 3D is literally just a projection of your assumptions. always.

and ever since i learned about it, it’s just made SO MUCH SENSE!

even on a neuroscience level, IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE! your thoughts and beliefs literally shape how you perceive and experience reality.

your brain is WIRED to filter, interpret, and prioritize information based on what you assume to be TRUE.

when you change your assumptions, you’re not just shifting your energy. you’re literally rewiring your brain’s filters and creating a new version of reality to experience.

so of course the 3D would start reflecting that back to you!

　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.ੈ✧̣̇˳·˖

the times i shifted my mindset, held a new story, and persisted even if i didn’t necessarily see immediate results in the 3D (although you can definitely instantly manifest)? those were the times my ENTIRE REALITY SHIFTED around me. opportunities showed up. people changed how they treated me. “impossible” things just “magically” worked themselves out.

but it wasn’t random. it wasn’t luck. it was me.

the consistency, frequency, and ACCURACY of my manifestations materializing and being reflected to me simply cannot be chalked up to chance.

and the more i practiced it consciously, the more undeniable it became.

it’s not about “forcing” the universe. it’s about becoming the version of you who already lives in your desired reality, and letting the 3D rearrange to match that. not worrying about the how, the when or the why, but instead just FOCUSING on the end goal and LIVING in that! it’ll all work itself out somehow, and that’s the beauty of the law. you don’t HAVE to understand the “logic” or the “how”. 🤍 you can just receive!

　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.ੈ✧̣̇˳·˖

💐✨ about supernatural experiences:

if you mean things like ghosts, telekinesis, or traditional “paranormal” stuff: PERSONALLY, i haven’t experienced that, although it’s not really something i believe in or care much to believe in! and that’s okay. you don’t have to believe in the paranormal to recognize the incredible power of your own mind.

but if you want to assume that you experience those kinds of experiences and you wholeheartedly believe, assume, and accept that as true? who’s to say that you can’t? your reality is your own, and you get to set the rules based on your assumptions, beliefs, and what you accept as NORMAL.

when i talk about “supernatural” experiences with the law, i’m referring to the way reality starts to mirror what i’ve assumed, scripted, or visualized, in ways that feel so undeniably magical and precise.

things like:

• the way people treat me shifting to reflect me being the princess in my relationships (romantically, platonically, etc.)

• being known for both brains and beauty: my reputation literally matching the identity i affirmed for myself (“the local princess” energy!)

• getting high grades or grade changes even when, logically, the 3D odds didn’t seem in my favor

• specific scenarios i visualized or wrote on my vision board now existing in my camera roll as lived-out memories

these are the kinds of “supernatural” things i experience daily — but they’re not really supernatural at all.

they’re natural outcomes of assuming, persisting, and living from the end.

　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.ੈ✧̣̇˳·˖

you are not a passive observer here. you are the operant power.

you always have been.

　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.ੈ✧̣̇˳·˖

💐✨ quick note about early learning and the 3D shaping our assumptions:

when we’re little and unconscious of our power, the 3D can shape a lot of our early assumptions: through our environment growing up, childhood experiences, and what we were taught to believe was “normal.”

but once you become aware that you are the operant power, you’re no longer at the mercy of the 3D.

you stop letting the 3D create your assumptions, and you start letting your assumptions create your 3D.

that’s when everything changes.

　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.ੈ✧̣̇˳·˖

i hope this helped clarify some things! and again, what’s possible or doable is really only limited by your own beliefs and assumptions. as i mentioned earlier, it ALWAYS goes back to the fundamental principle of the law: your assumptions CREATE your reality.

please feel free to reach out again if you have any more questions!! 🥹🫶✨

much love and light always! <3

[yuzuyoon]

wanna know a secret? there's basically no such thing as "raw vocals" in kpop.

there are some rare, specific moments in kpop that are completely raw but they're so rare, they're pretty unremarkable. for a majority of fans, it's difficult for them to understand what raw vocals are, especially when all they've heard is a voice with vocal processing affecting their every syllable. but when you get into mixing (live or studio) and you actually hear raw vocals and your job is to make them sound not raw, it's easy to pinpoint where the vocal processing is.

it's difficult for kpop fans to understand that they almost never hear their idols sing completely unprocessed and insulting for some reason? it shouldn't be insulting though, every single artist out there uses vocal processing. kpop, western, etc. and the thing about vocal processing? it isn't just so that they hit the right notes or their voice doesn't sound shaky. it's also about making sure that their dynamic level stays even so they aren't either inaudible or making your ears bleed. it's about cutting down cutting down certain frequencies so that you aren't flinching cause when they hit certain notes it sounds like an icepick to your ears. it's about making sure their mic isn't picking up the noise around them and making the mix muddy or feeding back.

have we heard jimin's raw vocals? actually yes. when you see a clip of jimin, or anyone in bts, singing without a mic, that's raw. it's kinda hard to explain, but i think the best example is bts's perfect man performance. i made a video (of course i did)

so in the first clip, i really hate to say it because the behind the scenes showed that bts was completely capable of singing the song live, but the official released performance is lipsynced. i mean, it's really really obvious. but that makes this performance perfect for a comparison.

in the first clip, jimin's vocals are completely flat. as in there are no pitch deviations or shakiness, which is only possible through autotune and pitch correction. no singer, no matter how good they are, can sing a song with notes so perfect their note looks completely flat. additionally, his volume, or dynamics, stay completely the same. when you sing, especially while dancing, some words and parts of the phrase are going to come out louder or quieter. his dynamic range does not change in the first clip. his voice is completely smooth. it's perfect. which just is not possible

in the second clip, you can hear the natural "shakiness" or his voice. now i don't mean his voice is shaky or pitchy, i just don't know how to put it. our voices aren't pianos that can produce a perfectly on tune note. you can hear that in the second clip. you can also hear his dynamics and how he gets louder and quieter on different words. it's not perfect. which is how he actually sounds.

i think bts fans are lucky that we have so many behind the scenes, lives, and variety episodes where we do get an opportunity to hear bts's raw vocals because tons of artists dont have those types of things online (because their companies know that their raw voice doesn't sound how it does on the records).

if you have any questions about this, like a clip that you think might be raw, or a clip you want analyzed, or something that you're confused about, just send me an ask! i can tell you if a clip is lipsynced, backtrack, live, etc. not with 100% accuracy but my job is to listen to raw vocals and make them sound...not raw and i grew up around this stuff, so i have an ear for it.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

as someone who is also working their way through a massive amount of batman comics, im curious how you navigate your spread sheet? do you just read across so you're reading everything published at a certain time across all ongoing books? currently my method is to pick one and follow it until the end while branching off for major events/plot points (like war games, murderer/fugitive, etc) while making note of places i want to return to lmao. also would be curious to know how you picked what to include!

just chronologically, you know? like all of the books released in January 2000, then February 2000, March 2000, and so on. especially with the high frequency of Bat crossovers, like you said, it would frequently be incomprehensible trying to stick to a single series at a time - major events like Knightfall, No Man's Land, and Murderer?/Fugitive would be a shitshow viewed through the lens of only a single series at a time. even outside of big crossovers like that, what I really like about this project is tracking the development of the Batfamily as a unit (that has virtually nothing in common with the modern fandom understanding of the Batfamily) in real time, it's really interesting!

I'm also just straight-up including anything crucial to the Bats as a group that's published in main continuity at any point in New Earth. there are some annuals that are basically AUs (shout out to Leatherwing, the pirate Batman!) that I probably wouldn't include now by my current criteria and remain as fun little oddities, as well as some comics published in monthly titles as part of certain events that are completely out there and only tangentially related to anything going on in actual continuity (shout out to DC One Million, for instance).

as for which series make the cut, that's an ongoing process - I just found out Harley had a solo between 2000 and 2004 when it cropped up as part of Joker's Last Laugh, so now I have a year's worth of Harley comics to go back and read because I'm pedantic. I wasn't initially going to include the Teen Titans but then the 1999 Titans series became so integral to understanding what Dick has going on that I had to include it, which means at some point I'll probably go back and read all the Titans stuff that was part of New Earth prior to Titans '99, just to have it. it feels like there's always something new cropping up, which makes the read-through a really interesting challenge.

[mywitchyblog]

Hello! I’ve just read your post about respawning and permashifting and I love it! Though I have question about respawning since I pretty much adopted respawning other than permashifting like I used too mainly due to the fact I’m not coming back here. Like you said in your post, respawning can be consider in some cases spiritual, Particularly with planned reincarnations and all that other stuff relating to it. My whole thing is does it have to be spiritual? Like can just be something simple like permashifting where you just shifting with the intention of not coming back anymore while your typical stand in/version of you just stay behind and live our old life normally. I know this is kinda of dumb question but I just gotta ask cause I even though I do believe in some spiritual practices and concepts, I’m not that very spiritual.

Alright, babe, let’s get into it. So, does respawning have to be spiritual? Is there some universal rule that says, "Honey, if you’re respawning, you gotta bring out the incense and crystals"? Absolutely not. Respawning doesn’t have to be spiritual unless you want it to be.

Respawning and Spirituality: Is it Really That Deep?

People have been throwing “spiritual” around when it comes to respawning because, let’s face it, the idea of moving on to another life can sound mad ethereal. Like, there’s this whole vibe of leaving this world for another, so naturally, people connect that with concepts like reincarnation, the afterlife, higher planes of existence, etc. But, just because something has that “spiritual” ring to it doesn’t mean it’s inherently spiritual for everyone. That’s the gag with shifting and respawning: they’re blank slates. You paint them however you want.

Some folks see shifting as a deeply spiritual practice because it feels that way to them. They might associate it with reincarnation or even ascension, like they’re leveling up or tuning into a higher frequency of their being. Respawning, in that framework, is basically saying goodbye to this life on a soul level and fully embracing their DR as if they’re reborn. So yeah, for those people, it is spiritual. But, babe, that’s their lane, not yours.

The Scientific and Quantum Side of Respawning

Now, let’s talk science for a sec. Just because something sounds mystical doesn’t mean it can’t have a logical, no-nonsense explanation behind it. Some people look at shifting through a more scientific or quantum lens. Ever heard of the Many Worlds Theory? It’s this idea in quantum mechanics that every possible outcome and version of reality exists in some parallel universe. When you think about respawning through that lens, it’s not so much spiritual as it is a form of stepping into a version of yourself that exists in another reality. In that view, you’re not reincarnating; you’re just moving from one branch of existence to another, no more mystical than flipping to a different chapter in a book.

And if you vibe with that, guess what? Your respawn doesn’t have to feel any more mystical than changing your major in college. It’s just a choice. A powerful, badass choice, but still just a choice.

Your Perception = Your Reality

Let’s get into some tea: Your perception is what gives shifting and respawning their meaning. If spirituality feels like a stretch or just isn’t your thing, don’t force it. Respawning can be as simple or as profound as you make it. For example:

If spirituality clicks for you, you might feel that respawning is like a soul shift, a transition from one life journey to another.

If you’re more into the idea of science and self-determination, then respawning can be as straightforward as deciding, "I’m done here. Time to live my best life somewhere else."

The best part? Both interpretations are valid. Because respawning is a concept with roots in personal interpretation, it’s like water—it takes the shape of whatever container you put it in. Spirituality might make it feel like a river flowing into the ocean of another life, while science or logic might make it feel like stepping off one subway line and hopping onto another.

Does Leaving Mean Losing Yourself?

One thing I see sometimes is people worrying that respawning means erasing themselves. Like, if you’re leaving this life, does it mean you’re abandoning everything you were here? The answer is: only if you decide that’s the case. Just because you’re moving on doesn’t mean the essence of you is gone. You’re still you, whether you frame it spiritually, scientifically, or just pragmatically. Your DR self can carry every single memory, trait, or little quirk of yours if that’s what you want. It’s not about losing or erasing; it’s about expanding into something new.

Respawning Without the Woo-Woo

So, if you’re not into the spiritual stuff, here’s what respawning could look like for you:

Think of it as a permanent shift: You’re making the choice to stay in a different reality, while another version of you remains here, handling the everyday stuff.

See it as self-redefinition: You’re not necessarily shedding your soul; you’re just saying, “I’m choosing to redefine my existence in a way that works for me.”

Don’t worry about the ‘meaning’ too much: Sometimes, people get so caught up in “What does this mean for my soul?” or “Am I spiritually transforming?” when the simpler answer is just “I want a change, and this is how I’m making it happen.”

Why “It Has to Be Spiritual” is a Lie

It’s almost like someone saying, “To appreciate art, you have to be an artist.” Um, no, sis. You can experience art however you want, and the same goes for shifting. Just because some people feel a certain way doesn’t make it the rule. The only “rule” in respawning is what you set for yourself. If spiritual elements don’t speak to you, then they don’t belong in your practice. They’re just extras, like garnish on a plate. And let’s be real, sometimes the garnish just gets in the way of the main course.

You Define Your Own Shifting Journey 💅

Shifting and respawning are about self-determination, baby. You’re in control. Just like you don’t need to meditate in a cave or light sage to live your best life, you don’t need to approach respawning in a spiritual way if it doesn’t resonate with you. You can be as witchy or as no-nonsense as you want. Your approach to respawning is as unique as your fingerprint.

So, when it comes down to it, does respawning have to be spiritual? Absolutely not. Whether you’re burning incense, cracking open quantum physics books, or just winging it and saying, “Bye, Felicia,” it’s your shift, your rules. Take what feels right, leave what doesn’t, and own that choice unapologetically. 👑

So, here’s your final answer, darling: No, respawning doesn’t have to be spiritual unless you want it to be.