#she’s literally lakshmi

[illicthearts]

Bro of all the people in RadhaKrishn, why is no one, ever on Rukmini’s side?

[hyakunana]

Pocky Day 2k23 feat exo girlfriends ✨

[hasarjunadoneanythingwrong]

I will say, I don’t think jalter is the most anti colonialist jeanneface there is

That’s lakshmi bai :)

[krsnaradhika]

I so wish it was possible to throw hands virtually because I know a few people who deserved to be punched in the face asap.

[h0bg0blin-meat]

What hindu gods/deities are lgbt (I'm sorry if this is rude or ignorant I just wish to learn as I've heard some are)

Dw it's neither rude nor ignorant. Now before I start I do wanna say that almost all the queerness we see in Hindu mythology is highly subtextual most of the time, which is like pretty obvious cuz these were the ancient times. So this might lead to a varied number of interpretations, and I can only offer the same. But most of them are pretty convincingly queer, so let's get into it cuz why tf not. (This is gonna be a loooooong post so buckle up)

Vishnu

This fella is probably the most pan-coded deity in the entire pantheon. Extremely comfortable with both his masculine and feminine side, Vishnu can sometimes be considered one of the peak genderfluid icons out there. His avatar, Krishna, despite being referred to as the Parampurush (in other words the manliest man in the entire universe), his physical appearance (which is what is considered to be a very feminine body for a man today, i.e., slender and soft) breaks the stereotype of what masculine man should look like. There are paintings of him and Radha where I've stared for like a hot minute trying to figure out which one is Radha (mostly in grayscale cuz otherwise their complexions are a dead giveaway) and yet, he slays it like a badass.

Then we also have Mohini, the goddess of beauty probably the best seductress out there, and the only female avatar of Vishnu. Through her having a union (yk what they mean by that) with Shiva (AHEM subtext amirit), Vishnu gave birth to Ayyappa, and wouldja look at dat he has two dads, which was actually prophesized. Mohini in one of the versions of Mahabharata (not the original one) ALSO slept with Iravan (Arjun's son) the night before he was gonna offer himself as a sacrifice for the Kurukshetra war. Reason was that Iravan had a wish to get married and spend the night with his wife before dying, and wishing his wife would mourn for him after his death. So Krishna felt bad for him, turned himself into Mohini and married him. The next day she held her husband's body and mourned for him like any wife would. We can also go back to the time where he sported (make of that word what you will) with Arjuni (female version of Arjun) as well as the female version of Narad (for a year in the latter's case).

In short, we can see how chill Krishna is with his fluidity with sexuality and gender, so much so that it's hard to put a label on him sometimes, which is fine. But yes interpreting him as queer wouldn't necessarily be a preposterous claim after all.

Shiva

Tbh Shiva is also pretty queer-coded, given his union with Mohini (and yes he specifically ASKED Vishnu to turn into her and hence he KNEW it was his best friend after all), and him turning into a woman to join Krishna's leela that one time, which also denotes that he's pretty confident in his gender fluidity as well, to some extent. He also has a sort of female avatar, who's actually very underrated. I think it's called Shivani. Also no one can deny the tension between Shiva and Vishnu let's be real here. They even have a ship name- Harihar, PLUS that "Vishnu is in the heart of Shiva and Shiva is in the heart of Vishnu" line. Btw this was a joke, but now you know why they're one of the popular ships of Hindu mythology. I personally have very neutral stance to the kind of bond they share, whether you call it platonic or something else.

(Note that I personally do not consider Ardhanarishwar and Vaikunthakamalaja as any genderfluid thingy because I just see them as literal fusions of the two couples, but yes many consider these two fused versions of Parvati-Shiva and Lakshmi-Narayan respectively to be gender-nonconforming, or non-binary of some sort.)

Lakshmi

Why did I add her here? Because I have a feeling she might be bi, given the fact that her husband is also technically her wife, considering we take Mohini into account, who I'm pretty sure she loves just as much as she loves Vishnu. But again, that's just my take on it.

Agni

Now he's one of the more popular queer-coded Hindu gods, specifically known for his implied poly-esque relationship with his wife Svaha and Soma (the wind god). Now many sites on Google have claimed Soma to be his husband, but I am yet to find a scriptural evidence for that claim, so I suggest you to take their words with a grain of salt. But what IS true is that these two guys do share a pretty profound bond. There was also this one instance where Soma went to a mountain and Agni followed him. Then both of them at the top of that mountain, 'became one' (what does that mean? not sure but it sure as hell sounded romantic. anyways).

Plus, Agni is also very well-known to be the (oral) receptor of Shiva's (and sometimes Soma's but not sure about the second one) semen, which he then flung into Ganga cuz it was too hot to bear for him, and that's how Kartikeya/Murugan/Skanda (Shiva and Parvati's son and a God of war) was born. So yeah.

Mitra-Varuna

These two.... are another pair of popular queer-coded Hindu deities. They're almost always summoned and worshipped together, and you can say they have canonically.... well had a union, and good news is none of them became a woman for the deed. Their union is recorded in the Shatapatha Brahmana 2.4.4.19, where Mitra is said to have "implanted his seed in Varuna" (hmmm nothing homosexual going on here) during the waning moon. Many people consider this a metaphor for the cyclic nature of celestial phenomena so it's upto you to interpret it however you want.

Now they also give off that sunshine x grumpy vibe, with Mitra being the god of friendship, sun, daylight, dawn and stuff while Varuna is the god of the waters, moon, nighttime, dusk etc. Plus, the latter has anger issues but he has a bubbly Mitra (pun intended) to calm him down for dat :D.

They are also known for siring two sages, Agastya and Vasistha after they accidentally released and mixed their semen into a pot as a result of getting enchanted by Urvashi (one of the apsaras or celestial nymphs).

Budh and Ila

Budh is technically an AMAB non-binary (or intersex) deity (and technically the planet Mercury) born to Chandra (who's also synonymous to Soma most of the time) and Tara, to put it simply, and got cursed to be neither male nor female because Chandra had an affair with someone else's wife -_- (Tara was the wife of Brihaspati, or Jupiter, who was also the guru of the gods).

Ila is another genderfluid deity. Some versions of the myth says they were born a woman, some say they were born a man called Sudyumna, while some say they were born a woman, but since their parents wanted a son, Mitra-Varuna (who they preyed to) changed their gender and Sudyumna was born (but then there was some issue with the rituals, which led to the duo to turn him back to a woman, which is when they took the name of Ila. Ik, too much gendershifting going on, bear with me). Anyhoo they got this genderfluidity from Shiva's spell and every month they'd change sex from Sudyumna to Ila and back to Sudyumna and so on. Budh got enchanted by Ila and married her, and bore the Pururavas with her.

Later on, some versions say Ila permanently turned into a man with Parvati's boon. But personally interpreting, Budh was technically still married to Sudyumna so..... idk what happened to them afterwards tho. I hope they were still spouses...

[marsprincess889]

NAKSHATRAS AS GODDESSES

4/27

🌸ROHINI🍭

DISCLAIMER: This is based solely on my research and the patterns that I saw. I can't promise that I'm gonna be sure in all the coorelations, but I'm going to attribute each nakshatra a goddess that I think fits it the closest. If you're dissapointed, to make up for it, I'm going to list some other deities in the end that I think also fit the nakshatra. Don't come for me if you think I'm wrong, be respectful in the comments if you think so and have fun 🤍

This one was easy and also not easy? It seems too easy, too easy to be true, like the mythology of the nakshatra itself...

Lakshmi

Pantheon: Hindu

Name meaning: a lucky omen, the goal.

Associations: wealth, beauty, love, abundance, fortune, power, fertility and prosperity.

Symbols: Lotus flower, elephant, owl, gold coins.

Lakshmi, according to Hindu mythology, was born from the churning of the ocean of milk, an event that was caused by the war between the Demons and the Gods. She was born fully grown, on a lotus, with a smiling, radiant face. She rides an owl and is often depicted by two elephants showering her. Elephants are a symbol of strength, luck and proserity. Owl (the symbol of the opposite nakshatra- jyeshta) is often seen with Lakshmi as a kind of guardian, always watching over her.

Rohini is the nakshatra of quick and rapid growth, its real life natives often being physically mature but internally childlike, often more dependant and submissive. This is the trait that makes this nakshatra the favourite of the moon, the planet moon is also literally exalted here, as well as Rahu.

One of the symbols of Rohini nakshatra is a chariot. It's a preserved tradition that brides ride in a chariot on the day of marriage. Lakshmi is often depicted seating on a chariot. Chariot/cart is also the symbol of the Taurus, the sign in which Rohini is located.

Some sources say that Lakshmi is associated with the moistness nessecary for growth (rohini's power).

You might have noticed that in most depictions she has four hands. They are said to represent the four aims of life: Dharma (righeousness), Artha (gathering necessary material recources), Kama (going after desires) and Moksha (liberation through knowledge). Her name literally means "aim" or "goal", so that definitely makes sense.

The deity assigned to Rohini is Prajapati- creator god. Rohini is the birth of the cosmic daugher and feminine at its most submissive. So submissive, that she does not question what influence is offered to her, she just absorbs it and gives it back.

Because Rohini is growth in all of its aspects, it's no wonder that the Hindu goddess of wealth is coorelated to it. Rohini is also closely connected to the Hindu culture overall. The overabundant use of bright, saturated colors and the frequent flower symbolism (flowers are connected to Rohini) is reminiscent of what people find beautiful as children, especially little girls.

The overall analysis of Rohini is a completely different topic and claire nakti has done a stellar job at it. Hopefully this post made it clear why I think Lakshmi is the fit for Rohini. Also, do not think me lazy because I chose a Hindu goddess, it's literally the best one I could find, besides, Indian culture really suits Rohini.

Apologies to Rohini natives and everyone else, I couldn't find other deities that suited Rohini, besides Prajapati and Goddess Rohini herself, but I think that Lakshmi is pretty much on point. Let me know your thoughts, comment, reblog, like. Thanks for reading and take care 🤍

[thefirstknife]

Bit of left-field question, but: I'm in the middle of a deep dive on exos and reboots, and wondered about your take on something. In earlier lore I've lost track of--iirc something involving Lakshmi-2 researching the topic, I'd be indebted if anyone had a link--suggested that reboots in exos are rare and not fully understood in the present day. I figured that jibed, since it's implied in Legacy's Lament lore that a proper reboot requires fresh Alkahest, which would be hard to come by. But now the Entelechy lorebook offhandedly mentions modern exos all having been rebooted several times since the Collapse. So I'm curious if I missed something, or there's a wire crossed in loreland, about how widely known the need for reboots are/how to go about them, or if everything post-Collapse would have just been exos hitting spontaneous boots for unknown reasons. Thanks for your time!

I couldn't find any mention of it in Legacy's Lament so if you have some specific line you're thinking of, plese share! The only thing I can think of is this:

"Clovis. You, me, and every other Exo… we deserve the life we were promised. If this portal falls, and we die, we lose that life. And if we're gone, and the Vex find some other way back, humanity is doomed. So, let's shut it down. Hell, let's swallow the damn key. But the portal stays."

Elsie explaining to Banshee (at the time Clovis-43) why they can't destroy the Glassway portal; because Exos need those Vex to live. I always read this as Elsie thinking about how if their bodies are destroyed and have to be remade, they would need Alkahest again, as well as Alkahest being needed to make brand new Exos in case they are needed to fight the Vex again. I'm not sure if it relates to resets, though a possibility exists.

But generally speaking, a reboot should not require Alkahest mostly because of what Lakshmi-2 researched; she was researching Spontaneous Exo Reset Syndrome which is a rare condition that causes an Exo to reset on their own, spontaneously. Nobody knows what causes it. Here's one of my posts about it with links to others I've made about it before.

Two cases of it had an Exo spontaneously rebooting in the middle of combat and one rebooting in the middle of a journey back home in a jumpship, so it's virtually impossible that a reset requires some special equipment and Alkahest. Otherwise, it wouldn't be possible to reset like that out of nowhere, unless there's some internal mechanism that works through Alkahest. But applying new source of Alkahest shouldn't be needed, if we go by this information.

Maybe there's a way to do reset with Alkahest and maybe that reset is better, but they can be reset without it apparently. The spontaneous reboot is not really supposed to be happening and nobody knows why it does, so Exos really shouldn't be going through that a lot (and there's only a few known cases). I think there's a difference between regular resets and spontaneous Exo reset syndrome; regular resets may occur because of some sort of trauma or memory overload or something similar, while the syndrome appears to happen completely involuntarily, uncontrolled and sometimes almost lethal as it can incapacitate the person entirely.

It's still fairly unclear how resets happen and how an Exo decides to go through them. Lakshmi theorised that Lightbearers don't need resets at all because a Ghost protects them somehow which seems to hold true. I don't think we have any specific data on civilian Exos resetting. A lot of Exos needed resets back in the Golden Age while fighting on Europa, but that probably has a lot to do with combat and stress.

Still, Ada-1 is one of the two Exos that have never reset. In her case, likely because she was made in a different way in comparison with others. She doesn't seem to experience DER at all and doesn't have to mimic basic humanisms (literally has no mouth). There's only a single mention of another Exo with no resets, here, called Mist-1. They appear to be a civilian and we know nothing else about them that isn't in this tab.

How and why random civilians would need and complete their resets is I believe unknown. But the vast majority did go through them so the CE is fine on that front. Obviously tracking down the very rare individuals who haven't reset might be difficult, on top of the possibility that someone like Mist-1 may have died since. Ada-1 is a special case who wouldn't remember the Collapse because she died during.

[tasavvur-ki-duniya]

नमस्ते भाइयो और उनकी बहनों <3

kanya • 20 • swarg

odia-bengali girl

pronouns: she/her/apsara

girl who randomly changes are theme

please no hate,porn or any kind of bullshit 🙏🏽

likes — rain , food , burgers , storm clouds , writing poetries and random stuffs, fashion,books, clicking sky pics,traveling < sometimes >, makeup, pillows, cool breezes, palm trees, the ocean, animals, movies (horror, thriller, serial killer) leo- my cat,and meeting new people.

dislikes — haters, sexism, greasy hair, coughing, sneezing, hot weather, sweating, sour candy, dust, allergies, stupid entitled anons, too much butter in my popcorn, racism, homophobia, body shaming < yall r all fucking gorgeous and im literally on my knees for you > 🧎🏻‍♀️

ᥫ✦. spotify !

ᥫ✦. instagram !

इस blog को बनाने का motive : मुझे खुद नहीं पता 🤡

FEEL FREE TO MESSAGE ME WHENEVER YOU WANT! I love to talk to new people and LOVE making new friends

bloggers i love and adore <3 : @memoirsofhim @desi-tumbllr-dot-com @alhad-si-simran @priiisdope @the-psychotic-lady @lavanya-lakshmi @dhuup @bigdi-hui-aulaad @dishaakikhoj @ji-jii-visha @manincaffeine @astrocatfizziks @mr-kalakar

one more thing alot people are confused between me and sanskari-kanya so I'm not sanskari-kanya I am a completely new girl on Tumblr

[yakumtsaki]

Oh yay, our first thunder fire in the new house, wonder how long before someone dies again! Also love how you can see our old house in the background, a reminder you can run from your past but you can’t escape it. 

I am of course talking about this family’s past of semi-acceptable interactions between family numbers, because from now on is where things really go off the rails in this department. Allow me to introduce you to..

..Julian and Stacy’s daughter, Sunset Tinker-Union! (Because her parents wear pink and purple, get it? Get the name origin?) So the minute Bartholomew brought Sunset from school I knew it was over for me, as we’re now far enough removed from the other branches of the family tree that not even the extended family mod can save us from all those third cousins being fair game.. and you all know full well that if there’s one thing this family knows how to do, is be attracted to their distant cousins-

-I held out to one tiny hope that maybe Barflina will continue being socially incompetent losers and Sunset will hate them, but no, the minute a distant cousin enters the building it’s clearly time to turn up the charm. So first Bartholomew goes and smustles with Sunset, which, Barth, I didn’t know you were even like, biologically capable of having fun in any way-

-and then Felina (who I keep forgetting is SHY LOL WHAT) goes over to ADMIRE HER. BRO. I have never seen Felina do anything remotely nice her entire life, KILL ME.

But don’t worry, Sunset clearly takes after auntie June! She’s into it! She follows Barth to the toilet for no clear reason! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME

So you at this point you might be like ya ok, calm your tits, there’s no guarantee anything will even happen. To which I reply go back and read, not even the whole thing, just our college runs, and then get back to me. We’ve been knocking on semi-incest’s door since generation 1 and now we don’t even have to knock, I mean the door is wide open! FML

ANYWAY, all this to say, it’s time to extremely focus on finding these two flops non-related-to-us people to date before we fuck off to college, and this is ALL I’m gonna be doing this update- 

-Like haha oh man Cyn and Sandy are starting a rock band, there’s def jokes here, NO. NO TIME, DON’T CARE, HAVE TO AVERT DISASTER.

-Failina, hold your goddamn notebook closer so I can copy, it’s hard with my eyepatch! -It’ll be even harder when I take your other eye out!

Alright you two.. uh.. awesome kids, let’s go out! 

-Go out where. -And WHY.

So you can have fun, meet people, maybe sing some karaoke or play bowling! You’ve seen how much fun your ancestors have had as teens out and about, driving drunk, being hoes, committing various crimes, you wanna miss out on that experience? It’s even how grandma Shajar met grandma Sophie and that marriage could not be stronger!

-Ugh ok, I guess I do need to get started on the spouse hunt. -And I would like to get drunk in a different setting than our library.

Perfect! Who knows, by the end of the night, you might even be besties singing duets like Jojo and Gunther!

Oh my- WE LITERALLY JUST GOT HERE. WHAT CAN YOU TWO POSSIBLY BE FIGHTING ABOUT

-SCREW YOU, DAVID OTTOMAS IS MINE -NO, HE’S MINE, HE’S THE ONLY TEEN SIM IN THE LOT AND I HAVE SENIORITY -THE HELL YOU DO

OK LET’S GO HOME

-SCREW YOU, I WANNA OPEN THE GARAGE DOOR -THE DOOR IS MINE, YOU CAN’T EVEN DRIVE YET

OMG LITERALLY STOP. I LEARNED MY LESSON, I’M NEVER MAKING YOU INTERACT AGAIN

Once again, I’m crawling back to Lakshmi! Finally she has returned to us! As you might recall I had to deal with her understudy, Margaret, and frankly she was better than Lak at her job but it just wasn’t the same. Lakshmi and I have HISTORY. We have a deep, dark, beautiful relationship-

-I’m not giving you a discount. 

UGH FINE. Take 5k of our last money (I forgot to mention the new house somehow cost 500K, we legit have like 20k left)-

-and hit us with your best shot!

-Oh, I will! 

Ok but you’ve said that before and I’m still not over the time I paid you 5k for June and you gave us iVan. 

-No, this time I mean it! The path is clear! 

The ‘path is clear’?? The path for FELINA’S love life is clearer than it was for June the literal model-hot genius???

-Indeed!

I gotta say, Lakshmi, your mouth better not be writing checks your crystal ball can’t cash.

-It is not, I promise! 

Alright, I’m waiting, do it to us-

OH

MY

GOD

IT’S MEADOW

THEY HAVE 3 BOLTS THIS IS ALREADY HILARIOUS. LAKSHMI YOU ARE FORGIVEN FOR ALL THE SHIT YOU’VE EVER PULLED ON ME

Bro this pairing is KILLING ME. Like I get it on paper since they’re both family sims and I guess their chemistry panels and zodiacs must insanely match too, but I thought Felina would get with someone like idk. Gvaudoin? Alegra Gorey? Klara Vonderstein? Maybe the Diva or a vamp NPC? Like you know what I mean, someone that makes sense with the whole dark queen powerful dynasty blabla she has going on. But no, she’s gonna start this house Lannister bs her LTW is about with.. MEADOW THAYER. I love it so much, Felina please don’t ruin this for us!

FELINA WTF DID I JUST SAY

-Sorry, but I don’t know you well enough to accept you touching my shoulder, huhu!🌞

-But if you want to tickle me again, that’s somehow more acceptable to me despite it involving way more touching!🌞

Alright, as I suspected, not a lot going on upstairs with dear Meadow, but it’s ok, I’m just glad to have a huhuing sim around again, Cyn is like 80yo :(

Ah, the tickling of love! Good job, Fel, now we can work our way up to flirting-

-Or I can just not be a turbocuck AND GO FOR IT

Man, the Sophie genes kicked in! Good for you, Fel!

Backyard karaoke time! Seriously what song could these two possibly BOTH like, please comment or msg me your guesses. 

So at this point I’m already 100% sold on Meadow as a spouse as I don’t think it’s humanly possible to come up with a funnier pairing than what fate dropped in my lap, but I’d also like to point out that Felina is so into Meadow that she’s already rolling fears of falling out of love with her, despite not even BEING IN LOVE WITH HER YET. Family sims are a fucking trip. 

CUTE. Alright Felina, you’re set, we got it in one, semi-incest avoided, yay us. Now I’m gonna leave you to your dream date and focus on Barth-

-who is gambling by himself. Guess I don’t need to ask who’s drunk again!

-That’s one safe bet, haha! 

Good Lord. Alright, get up, let’s find you someone while Lakshmi is still here, I’m sure our amazing luck will continue-

-OH FUCK IT’S TIAVE TEENS, HE HAS THE DON BROKEN FACE THING. ABORT ABORT

Oh good there’s nothing to abort, because it turns out Bartholomew is a COMPLETE FAILURE OF A ROMANCE SIM. Observe and keep in mind THEY HAVE 3 BOLTS:

-LALALA LALALA NOT LISTENING TO YOU INSULT MY SPATULA, FUCK OFF

LOL NO @ THE NOOGIES RETURN. FUCK. So clearly Felina has grandma Sophie’s chadly genes and Bartholomew has grandma Shajar’s noogiesexuality, except he’s a romance sim with a 20 woohoo LTW. College with this guy is gonna be UNBEARABLE. 

Alright, Barth, let’s try this again, don’t be discouraged! Ignore our lack of cash!

Ignore that Felina got it right on the first try and is still on her endless dream date!

PATRICK TEENS?! LMAO. Bartholomew is so committed to going through family trees, like if it’s not gonna be his own it’s gonna be SOMEONE’S, he doesn’t care! Unlike Don-clone Tiave, Patrick is cute tho, let’s give it a try-

-Ya, let me stop you right there, buddy, not into it but best of luck in your future endeavors!

Bruh. Let’s extremely call it a night, Barth.

-Oh hi, huhu!🌸 -Hi hi, huhu!🌞 -I feel like I know you?💗

Ya Cyn, if I didn’t have photographic proof that it’s not true I’d legit think she’s your long lost daughter. Man ACTUALLY how much sense does it make that like people tend to seek out partners that remind them of their parents and Cyn was always such a maternal influence on Felina??? Holy hell this game has so many layers. 

Clearly inspired by seeing her younger self in Meadow, Cyn finally finds it in her to woohoo again after Don’s passing! It’s legitimately crazy to me how loyal she was to him in death, like I can’t get over it, she never extended that courtesy to him while he was alive!

-𝚁𝙴𝚂𝚃𝙰𝚁𝚃 𝙼𝚈 𝙵𝙸𝚁𝙴.𝙴𝚇𝙴

It’s ok, Barth, you sleep off the romantic flopping and that tray of whiskeys and we’ll try again tomorrow.

-Ya, make sure to call us over when he ‘tries again tomorrow’ cause we don’t wanna miss it HAHA -HAHAHA boy did I screw him over by passing down my personality points! -You sure did, my little turbocuck! Let’s sleep in the same bed tonight, I can’t get into this one anyway with this flop sleeping there! -That’s what everyone is gonna be saying to him in college HAHAHA -HAHAHAHA oh Shaj, I love you, let’s work on our marriage! -I love you too, we’ll overcome our issues!

Awww, see Barth? Love wins❤️

[circesoracle]

absolute biggest fumble of Final Shape was not including Elsie. not even a lore entry. what do you mean the character who's lived the calamitous end of all things again and again and again in a desperate attempt to stop it has literally nothing to do with or even say about us finally getting it right. what do you mean she's the only vanilla D1 character who wasn't part of the plot including Uldren and Mara. what do you mean we've had lore up until Into the Light about her lifetimes spent trying to save everything and how she still doesn't know this will be the time we get it right and she doesn't even get a lore entry on a gun but Lakshmi-2 does. literally what do you mean. what do you MEAN bungie. you can remember deep cut seasonal lore about Crow but not even a shoutout to the character most intrinsically tied to the plot who's lived this all before hundreds of times. what the fuck do you mean Elsie Bray is silent and present in one single group shot. waht do you

[n3xii]

30 day tarot spread challenge

ok so I have alot of tarot decks that I don't use as often as I'd like, so im gonna go a 30 day tarot/oracle spread challenge to become more familiar with all of my decks- you can do this along with me, at the end of the thirty days I'll compose a post with all the spreads in one place so more people can do it if they want too!

Day 1/30

Spread: ''this is me'' spread by Cat Crawford

decks I'm using: the pulp tarot, spirit ally's oracle deck.

My reading:

card one, the moon: the moon is a very spiritual card to get for ''what my soul is crying out for.'' The moon is all about unconscious desires, intution, instinct- the card itself shows a pair of wolfs holding a telescope and howling at the moon. so I wonder if this is trying to tell me that my soul is litterally crying out for intuitive insight and a deeper connection with subconscious forces? My soul wants me to take a closer, intimate look at what my dreams and subconscious has to say. like how people use the telescope to inspect the moon, the stars, the abstract shapes in the sky, my soul wants me to inspect the craters in my unconscious, to be curious and willing to explore them. My soul is yearning for a more profound relationship with the side of me that's turned away from the light, for the side of the moon that's never lit if you will. this is making me think of shadow work, meditation, dream work.

Card two, seven of swords: This is also a juicy card to get for the question ''what you conscious mind is saying.'' the seven of swords possesses a secretive quality, if this this represents the attitude my conscious mind has towards my soul's desires, then the attitude is very much ''go away, get out of my sight.'' my conscious mind feels the need to dismiss and repress intuitive guidance, and traits of my shadow self. The image on the deck im using shows a woman stashing papers and cash away into a safe, so I feel like this is definitely communicating that on a conscious level, I feel the need to hide and repress aspects of my soul and aspects of my shadow into a safe space that no one can access. my conscious mind wants to deceive and hide, and meanwhile, my soul wants to uncover.

Card three, ten of swords: this card depicts the conflict being created between the souls' desires and the conscious mind's desires. the ten of swords in my deck depicts the aftermath of a crime scene, with the blood staining the floor and the swords on top. The ten of swords itself is about trauma, painful but necessary endings, conflict, crisis. I think this card is trying to tell me that the wounds im creating internally are a result of this rift between my spiritual and conscious mind, the card can be about betrayal, so I literally interpret this as me betraying myself by doing this.

Card four. Lakshmi: this showing up as what will help me with my souls' desires is cool to me. this is one of the Hindu goddesses that I know the most about, I love everything about her LMAO. Shes the goddess of abundance and beauty, and each of her four arms represent different characteristics of her divinity. She represents the energy I need to embody in order to reconnect and fulfill what my soul is yearning to do. The oracle card guidebook focuses on the act of gratitude and seeking abundance from several sources other than monetary ones. I think when it comes to fulfilling my soul's objective, this is a call to be more mindful of how much I really have in terms of family, opportunity and growth, I need to be more appreciative towards my shadow side instead of dismissive of it.

Review of the spread/cards used:

The reading defiantly accurately portrays the tension between my subconscious and conscious mind. I do desire to connect with my shadow side and spiritualty more, but there's a blockage on a conscious level that makes me want to hide and tuck away any potential guidance I could receive. self-reflection is not hard for me to do, but meditation, dream work and going inwards can be difficult for me to do in a spiritual lense. My mind is always on, always analyzing and reacting to whatever junk my subconscious spews, and it makes it difficult to see what the more intuitive side of me has to say. This voice deserves more strength than what it's been allowed to exercise.

I feel like the pulp tarot carries so much opportunity to do deep, spiritual readings than people may realize. The cards perfectly display the retro aesthetic of pulp magazines and art, but they also have so much thought and symbolism to work with in it as well. I chose this deck because I dont use it as much as I thought I would when I got it because so used to using my rider waite deck (probably because it's the first deck i owned,) but im glad I tried this spread with the deck. The spirit ally's oracle is interesting because it has gods, goddess, plants, crystals, zodiac signs so there's alot of readings you can do with deck that can be both practical and spiritual. Anyways, I think tomorrow Im going to do a shadow work tarot spread to stay true to the message I got today!

[minimooberry]

List 5 facts about a favorite sim of yours, and send this to 10 simblrs whose sims you adore ✌️💗💗

ELIJAH RAI DEVI.*

Elijah is the epitome of daddy issues, but honestly he's got every single possible issue by the time he's old enough to drink. This poor man is going through it constantly 😭

Elijah almost got kidnapped when he was a week old and his mom Anya was so out of it she lowkey stabbed the guy and was so guilty that she just called his dad Asher and told them not to bother coming back home, that she was gonna start moving everything they needed into the house they were planning to move into anyway and to just drive there after his shift.

Elijah was born when Anya was 17 and Asher was 21. She had just barely finished high school by the time he was born and only started college when he was around 3 years old. Since his dad worked much longer shifts than his mom, he was always closer to Anya and Asher.

He met his best friend Roxy on the first day of kindergarten when they were paired together for an art project. They stayed friends until she was killed when they were 16 years old by her father.

Elijah is 8 years older than his sister Aathira and 12 years older than his brother JJ. He actually named Aathira lol

his addiction is like lowkey one of the only things he really remembers from being a teenager. most of elijah's memories are being high, hanging out with roxy, arguing with his dad, and being appointed the third parent to his little siblings.

and roxy dying, but he honestly considers that the end of his teenage years because he runs away and joins the military the second he can

and for like a while anya and asher don't notice because they have a one year old and a five year old at home that constantly need attention and elijah's always been like. independent

elijah looks older too. by the time he's like 14 that guy can grow a beard, so no one really looks at him weird when he buys stuff. it doesn't really start affecting his entire life until he's 15 and he does heroine for the first time, but that just spirals. he's always mad at his dad and that he talks so much shit but doesn't even blink when he's gone for hours, he's mad at roxy's dad for being fucking creepy and making her feel uncomfortable in her own house, he's mad at the town because nothing good ever fucking happens in it, and he's mad at himself for being so dependent on something he can't handle a few days without losing it. he hates being sober because he's literally just the embodiment of anger.

he runs away at 16 and the second he turns 18 he joins the military because he thinks that if he dies in battle it would be a 'good' way to die. better than overdosing.

OOKAY HAPPY STUFF NOW

he meets nilaani when he's 23 while he's drunkenly venting to him while he's serving her at tha bar and they eventually have a marriage of convenience (fake marriage) to appease her family

the tattoo on his hand in the henna that nilaani had on their wedding day. she admitted to him that she felt that he viewed her more as a burden than anything because it was her family that was the driving factor behind their marriage. elijah's like 'wtf, you're the coolest, smartest girl i've ever met dummy' and the next day he shows her the tattoo. that's when they have their first actual kiss 😋😋

when they find out that nilaani was having twins, she names their daughet lakshmi after the goddess lakshmi, and since at that point they didn't know that jj was still alive, he names their son jayden. their nicknames are lucky and jj 😓😓

[themorguepoet]

I find it hypocritical when hindu boys say "jai shree ram" and follow tate- all in the same day. Bro wtf are you high on?

Like I don't even get this glorification of him among the Indian youth. His concepts of masculinity and femininity are half baked. Western concepts don't apply to us either. Are you lacking neurons or are you just intellectually lazy? "He tells us to go gym" yeah bro- no one was fit in India until Tate baba said so yeah? *haryanvis having hanuman ji as the fitness-eight pack-strength icon while absolutely killing in the wrestling area* *Kohli apparently couldn't inspire Indian men for fitness as good as Tate did* Lame loser justifications to follow a narcissist.

Indian concept of masculinity and femininity does not require a western lens no thank you. We have Gauri-Shankar, Lakshmi-Narayan, Sita-Ram etc that guide our societal roles here. Everything that Tate baba says is a sign of a "High value man" happens to have feminine symbolism in your culture you ignorant child. Knowledge, Wealth and Power. high value men things right? Sorry to break it to you. Here in India, Knowledge is Ma Saraswati, Wealth & Prosperity is Ma Lakshmi and Power is Literally Adi Shakti Ma Parvati.

Let me clarify more for you. First of all, there is no complete masculine man or feminine woman. Everyone has varying rates of masculinity and femininity within them. What do these terms even mean. Well in easy words, the way masculine traits could be described from indic lens cpuld be with the imagery of a mountain; strong, reliable, changes are slow almost unseen, protective (hailing to how himalayas protect us from the blizzards) while feminine imagery could be that of a river- always moving, unstoppable in its path, destructive rage but also equally nurturing, unpredictable, frequent change, adaptable etc.

These are some traits that can be associated with the terms. Now if your neurons haven't picked up yet, these traits aren't exclusive for a male or a female respectively. Men can have the qualities of adaptability, can be nurturing too. Women can be rigid, strong and reliable. These traits can be found in any gender. So for the "women ☕️" meme fans you also have feminine traits within you- to suppress emotions is actually a feminine trait much more than it is "masculine"- Shri Rama cried his heart out when he lost Ma Sita. Bhagwaan Shiva carried devi satis burnt body in his arms for many many eons, screaming in distress. Krishna adorned himself with vaijyanti flower garlands, peacock feathers while simultaneously holding sudarshan which is capable of destroying the three worlds at his command. I don't understand how Tate Baba's words appear enlightening to you when it is so contradictory to your culture which you claim to be the flag bearer of? Sit down. You know nothing Jon snow.

Without Shakti, even Shiva ji is powerless. However without bhagwaan Shiva- shakti still holds her powers but without any direction. Divine masculine becomes the channel for the divine Feminine. Without devi lakshmi, even Vaikuntha remains in gloom. The world is born, run and destroyed by the feminine traits.

The Masculine is the anchor, the Feminine is the power. Without Shiv ji, Ma Kali's rage would be unrestrained, directionless- he roots her but he neither commands nor controls her. Her capability is not reliant on anyone but herself- only the effects of her shakti can be and are supposed to be managed by her counterpart.

Shri Rama couldn't command Ma Sita into staying back at Ayodhya, he couldn't control her from going back to Prithvi Ma when she felt disrespected by her own subjects and made a decision for herself. He did not try to restrain her independent expressions. Meanwhile Ma Sita remained with Shri Ram throughout. In his exile he had no wealth, no power (army power is what I mean). But the lack of neither made him "low value man"- and Ma Sita did not care.

I am frustrated and tired. I will end it here because if you didn't get it this far- sorry buddy you are a little too far gone, I can only pray that Ma Saraswati knock some sense into you.

For the love of Krishna, do not enforce the idea of marriage being a contract? or a give and take idea? Like I bring the money you bring the pretty? Please don't get brainwashed by the western idea of what marriage is. Marriage in India is sacred. At the time of wedding the couple are no less than Lakshami-Narayan themselves as per the customs. So come out of this non sense. And go to gym. Our dieties, our lore heroes, our legends don't carry their abs and diamond-hard biceps with ten different weapons just for you to go and take fitness lessons from a rando on Internet.

[versegm]

As someone deeply invested in your posts about Sabers, I have to ask: is Shirou Emiya a Saber, or is he his own category? I know he's similar to the original Saber, but he also seems very similar to both Kirei Kotomine and King Solomon, as people who were born as something inhuman (a sword, a fiend, a king) and who must try to become human later.

-> Implying Saber was born as something human.

Shirou isn't quite a Saber but he wants to be one. Saber is very much the representation of his ideal, of this superhero of justice capable of giving herself away for the greater good. That's a good chunk of the Fate route actually, a push and pull between Shirou's "hey girl your life fucking sucks can you maybe be a person for once" and Saber's "motherfucker you act exactly like me don't be a fucking hypocrite and start taking care of your own life before telling me how to live mine."

(day 14 of the Fate Route, i believe the scene is called "parting at the bridge" or something along these lines)

The one thing that stops Shirou from completely being a Saber is that Sabers are characterized by duty. Saber (or Ereshkigal, or Lakshmi Bai, or whichever Saber you're more familiar with) constantly self-sacrifices because she believes it's her responsibility. They have an actual goal in mind, be it to protect Britain, to rule the underworld, or whatever else. Shirou however acts out of guilt. Not gonna go into details into his survivor's guilt for space reasons, but when Shirou says "I want to save everyone" he doesn't mean it as in "I love everyone in the world and I want to protect them" he means it as in "a fuckton of people died and I didn't and the only way I could possibly repay this debt is by saving as many people as humanly possible first." Saber self-sacrifices because she believes it's worth it. Shirou self-sacrifices because he doesn't believe his own life has any worth. I literally cannot emphasize enough that Shirou spent years repeatedly shoving a magic iron pipe up his spine for the extremely vague purpose of "maybe someday this will help me save someone."

Solomon (and Roman) is absolutely a Saber so any Saber-Shirou comparison applies to him as well (biggest difference being that Roman wanted to be human while Saber had to be dragged kicking and screaming into personhood.)

As for Kotomine, well,

if I had to make a Shirou character archetype it'd probably be along those lines.

[thefirstknife]

I want to talk about Lakshmi-2 again since her story came back as relevant, as well as touch on Savathun since she's coming back. So this is going to be a retrospective on their involvement in Season of the Splicer!

A lot of people weren't around for Season of the Splicer or maybe don't remember it as well. That season was a lot and one of the most important parts of it was that at the time we still didn't know about Savathun impersonating Osiris. SOME of us who dedicated a lot of time to figuring it out have speculated it and were pretty much 100% convinced that Osiris in Splicer was NOT Osiris, but this wasn't confirmed until after Splicer ended.

I think that the misunderstanding of this event has also led to misunderstanding Lakshmi and what she did in Splicer. The entire season's story takes on a completely different vibe if you know that Lakshmi was heavily manipulated by Savathun whose presence in the City had a major goal of destabilising leadership and drawing attention away from her own schemes.

This isn't a post to justify anything that Lakshmi did; her actions in Splicer were unambiguously bigoted towards the Eliksni. She used her xenophobia for personal political gains while putting a vulnerable population in danger with her words and actions. Lakshmi's xenophobic preaching resulted in direct violence against the Eliksni. There is no excuse for that, no matter what's the origin of that xenophobia. I want to make that clear before I dive into this.

What happened in Splicer?

Season of the Splicer was the third season in Y4 (Beyond Light). It focused on a mysterious phenomenon known as "the endless night" which wrapped the Last City in perpetual darkness. This was done by the Vex. Nobody knew how to deal with this, including every single Guardian and scholar in the Tower so out of desperation, we turned to the Eliksni for help; sacred Eliksni Splicers had means to enter the Vex Network and find a root cause as well as a possible solution to the problem. This is how Mithrax and his House of Light were invited to the City, in an unprecedent move for an alliance with the Eliksni. Splicers and Guardians together have the unique power to manifest physically in the Vex Network and deal with the cause for the endless night. Long post under:

Accepting the Eliksni into the City was tough. Most humans have experienced some form of violence at the hands of the Eliksni. Our past is filled with wars and battles against the Eliksni. The first big battle for the City, Battle of Six Fronts was against the Eliksni who wanted to breach the newly built wall and attack humanity. Battle of Twilight Gap was a final fight against united Eliksni houses that got close to conquering the City, only to be held off at the Twilight Gap as the last line of defence. This battle was saved, in part, because Mara decided to reveal the Awoken and stop House of Wolves from joining Twilight Gap which essentially prevented Eliksni victory, but spurned the Reef Wars which devastated the Reef; both the Eliksni and the Awoken. This is but a small selection of the biggest conflicts that show for how long this has been going on and how many people were affected by the wars with the Eliksni.

This is all after the Eliksni arrived to the system just as our Collapse finished and they wasted no time settling in a world just beginning to recover from the Collapse. Early human settlements were routinely entirely destroyed by the Eliksni who were stronger and better equipped than humans; until the Risen showed up. But even with the Risen, ordinary humans still continued to suffer to both the Eliksni and the Risen and their combined conflicts. Stories about Amanda and Safiyah are but a fraction of stories of ordinary humans who had to deal with Eliksni attacks. This also includes civilian Eliksni; many Eliksni were literally just survivors of their own apocalypse and had nowhere else to go, while dealing with unfathomable desperation about being abandoned by what they saw as their deity. Both humans and Eliksni were exploited by their leaders and pushed to constant wars.

This is important to understand because it gives some context to why some citizens of the Last City were somewhat reluctant to accept the Eliksni being there, on top of the growing paranoia about a City plunged in an endless night at the hands of the Vex. Humans didn't just wake up one day thinking "Eliksni are stinky!" there were legitimate reasons for being afraid. Mithrax's daughter Eido confirms this in her logs, telling us that the Eliksni are well aware that they were the initial aggressors on humanity. The same can be applied to Eliksni as well; many Eliksni have lived with the knowledge that at any point in time superpowered immortal humans can descend from the sky and start indiscriminately killing them. They have horror stories about this, most notably about Saint-14 who led a long crusade against the Eliksni, including against civilians who wanted nothing to do with the wars. Putting Saint-14 and Mithrax in the same City during a Vex-induced anxiety was a ticking time bomb.

Luckily, Saint-14 is a kind man who is capable of reflecting and being compassionate. Once Mithrax explained how the Eliksni view him, he got deeply ashamed of his actions and sought to atone for his past. It took a while, but the Eliksni accepted him and he became great friends with Mithrax and was willing to lay down his life for Eliksni who, at the end, he claimed are his people equally as anyone else in the City. At the end of the day, the leadership of humanity and the Eliksni decided to put everything behind and start anew, which was the right thing to do. Everybody suffered in the past, but nobody has to continue suffering in the future. Giving everyone a second chance is literally the core theme of Destiny.

The Lakshmi-2 Problem

On the other hand, there was Lakshmi-2. She was the leader of the Future War Cult, one of the City factions. Factions in the city were representatives of the civilians; Future War Cult, New Monarchy and Dead Orbit were the three that operated for the interest of the civilians. Lakshmi was immediately deeply against the Eliksni settling in the City. She proceeded to be a staunch advocate for their removal, broadcast weekly radio messages with anti-Eliksni sentiments and stoked the anxiety and paranoia of the citizens, directing it towards the Eliksni. At one point, the animosity towards the Eliksni turned to violence as well, and the Botza District, where the Eliksni were settled, was attacked and their settlement ransacked. Many Eliksni were harassed in the streets and some were attacked. Lakshmi's broadcasts were a huge part of this violence, which ended with her broadcasting about taking matters into her own hands which resulted in opening a Vex portal to the City (specifically to Botza District to attack the Eliksni).

The fandom immediately hated her for that and with good reason. A lot of people were confused because they didn't think it was right to portray her as a warmongering politician which was always strange to me. She was the leader of the Future War Cult. Her messaging was always that of political warmongering. It's in the name. Splicer just amplified this because the situation was happening in front of our eyes and for other reasons influencing Lakshmi.

Lakshmi was shown actively using the Device, a prediction machine owned by the Future War Cult since the Golden Age which was made back then by Maya Sundaresh who founded the FWC and invested into this Device which is a mesh of Vex technology. Maya called it a "mind-ship" and shown that it was capable of displacing one's consciousness, allowing you to see the future, past, other timelines, or possibly something else. The contemporary FWC found remains of the Device and continued to use it for the same purpose. Using the Device proved to be largely damaging or even lethal to those put in it. A lot of the "futures" that users saw would be that of utter Darkness, war and collapse so they decided to spread the message that "war is all there is" and that there will always be some fight happening in the future and that we must always be ready for it. Lakshmi used this to prove that this whole thing with the Eliksni is that fight; the inevitable yet another clash between human and Eliksni that endangers us all.

It's important to note that using the Device is not safe and it's not reliable. It often shows stuff that is hard to interpret or even completely false and based on what the users wants to see. This shows with Lakshmi with a lot of the visions she was seeing. Even her own fellow FWC members were distraught at her behaviour at the time with some deciding to resign, believing that she was becoming corrupted and going mad. This is relevant because it shows that her close colleagues noticed that she was acting strangely.

And she was. Because of Savathun.

Savathun.

At the time, Savathun was in the city, masquerading as Osiris. Before Splicer, she tried turning us to war with Caiatl, which failed. After that failed, she turned to the ace in her sleeve; Quria, the Taken Vex Mind she was gifted by her brother Oryx back in the Books of Sorrow days. Savathun instructed Quria to manipulate the Vex into creating the Endless Night in order to create a problem for the City that will destabilise its leadership, and cause panic and infighting. Savathun was the one who, as Osiris, suggested that Mithrax and House of Light be invited into the City, knowing full well that it will cause issues. She wanted those issues. She wanted a panicking anxious population on the brink of slaughtering each other, gossiping, spreading lies and misinformation. She needed it to keep her worm fed and she needed it to keep eyes off herself, while she schemed to figure out how to get the Light. She needed time to investigate archives and find materials and learn as much as possible so a little background chaos was perfect for that; nobody will pay attention to an old man who recently lost his Ghost when there's bigger problems at the horizon.

This was possible to piece together during Splicer, but Savathun helpfully admitted to it all in the season after, in Lost. Of course, she framed it to appear that she was being helpful, but we as players have more information so we can piece together everything she's done. Savathun infected both Lakshmi and the City with her viral song. Lakshmi's last broadcast detailed that "Osiris" aided her in opening the portal. Savathun spoke to Lakshmi on multiple occasions. We also have proof of this from the other side, from the perspective of Osiris who could see into Savathun's actions while he was being held prisoner. This lore was the POV from Osiris, from Lost (after Splicer) and it shows Osiris seeing through Savathun's eyes as she was actively influencing Lakshmi. Osiris didn't even know who Lakshmi was; she gained prominence after he'd already been exiled. But he saw an "Exo woman" with "vacant eyes" and Savathun's "true voice" humming to her.

Savathun, besides creating both of the main problems (Endless Night and Eliksni in the City), also worked tirelessly to fuel violence in the City by corrupting Lakshmi-2. Savathun whispered in her ear, running suggestions by her, enticing her day by day and ultimately being the one who made her open the Vex portal in the middle of the City. Lakshmi, on top of being already driven mad by the Device, was also being driven mad by Savathun who desperately wanted the City's leadership to fight. It got to the point of suggesting a coup against the Vanguard. Lakshmi-2 and Executor Hideo (New Monarchy) got as far as to try recruiting Saint-14 to help them with the coup; when he refused, Hideo feared that he will tell Osiris everything and snitch on them, but Lakshmi was convinced that Osiris will stop Saint from saying anything. Why? Because it wasn't Osiris. The "Osiris" that Lakshmi knew was actually Savathun who would indeed try to stop Saint from outing their coup plans.

I want to stress again that Lakshmi wasn't innocent in this whole debacle. She had her own bigoted beliefs, coming from trauma; at the end we learned that Lakshmi-2 survived the sack of London by House of Devils back in the Dark Age. She has personally experienced a traumatic event of Eliksni attacking and murdering humans and destroying their settlement. The problem with Lakshmi is that she didn't even attempt to deal with that trauma or solve it. Saint was also traumatised, as were many other Guardians and people in the City and they all decided to put it aside and work towards getting better. Lakshmi held onto her trauma and never got over it. She confronted the Eliksni (Namrask) who participated in the sack of London and told him to his face that to her, he will never change from a conqueror he was, despite his very honest attempt to do so. Namrask, much like Saint-14 decided to put his warring past behind and to change and be a different person. And as much as Saint, he has the right to do so. Lakshmi denied it from him and instead still held onto her original belief that Eliksni cannot change and cannot be good.

Unfortunately, Lakshmi also never got a chance to change, given that the moment this all started, she was roped in with Savathun who wanted a City leader to sow chaos. Maybe without Savathun and the Device, Lakshmi would've turned out better. Maybe she would've thought about it more, learned to forgive, learned to accept the Eliksni (much like Saint), but she never got the chance before Savathun corrupted her. I feel like people forget that, or maybe even don't know about it. It's much easier to just hate Lakshmi and call her racist and talk about how violently she should die. The nuance and tragedy of her story is often pushed aside or not mentioned at all.

This is even more tragic now. Lakshmi was violated, deeply, in a way that is truly impossible to comprehend. She died, erased, in proximity to an alien entity. In her body, a new identity was installed, a combination of Maya and other Exos that participated in the "chorus" with her as the "conductor." She did not consent to this and as we've seen from her research into Spontaneous Exo Reset Syndrome, she was at least somewhat aware that something horribly wrong had happened to her. She was directed by impulses that were not entirely her own. Her interest in the Future War Cult and the Device are both suspect now, given that those things were Maya's obsessions and Maya used Lakshmi as a proxy; a twisted way to create a "child" by imprinting a part of yourself into them.

And as if that wasn't enough, she was grabbed by Savathun, a master in manipulation, lies and corruption who didn't care about her or about the City or about the Eliksni. I hope people can also realise that it was Savathun who used the bigotry against the Eliksni as a tool with zero care for actual victims of this bigotry. Eliksni dying in violent attacks around the City were nothing but an accessory to Savathun; accessory to her plans to ruin us while she's looking for a way get rid of her worm with the Light. It was entirely selfish, through and through, with no regards to either humans or Eliksni. In this case, I would put more blame on Savathun than Lakshmi for any kind of bigotry towards the Eliksni; Lakshmi could've learned better had she gotten a chance, while Savathun had many chances and simply did not care.

Lakshmi was an incredibly interesting character to me since I first saw her. This is partially due to her VA (Shohreh Aghdashloo) whom I adore to death so just hearing her speak had me enchanted. But Lakshmi and the FWC were always my favourite faction and I didn't like how the community boiled them all down to just xenophobia towards Eliksni as if there was nothing else to them and as if they all agreed with what Lakshmi did in Splicer. At the same time, people ignored the same xenophobia first and foremost from Savathun who had zero reason to even remotely object to Eliksni being in the City, or even New Monarchy who also participated in Lakshmi's schemes. It was only ever Lakshmi, a woman whose trauma was manipulated against her by an entity known for toppling down entire civilisations with the use of manipulation and corruption. Savathun infiltrated many civilisations in the same way she did ours and they all ended up much worse than us: her infiltration of the Harmony led to their downfall and her corruption of Umun'Arath led to the fall of Torobatl. A lesser known example is told to us by Rhulk, of a species (Kalarahnda) he came to destroy but that destroyed itself upon seeing him because someone (Savathun) alerted them to him so they spent centuries preparing their entire civilisation for his arrival as per her instructions. When he arrived, they self-destructed their whole planet, believing they're fulfilling a great prophecy of mass sacrifice to ascend. This was Savathun's doing; instead of helping them escape Rhulk, she orchestrated their demise purely to take the satisfaction of it from Rhulk. Not to help those people, to spite Rhulk.

I'm adding this because I want to absolutely stress how much Savathun does not care for any lives other than her own. Entire civilisations crumbled into dust due to her manipulations. We've talked about this before due to some of the stuff writers said about Savathun recently and I feel like people simply forget this or want to excuse it, but are super quick to judge Lakshmi in a way they never would Savathun; the actual person who orchestrated her actions and ultimately her death.

I think they should both be judged, albeit in different ways. And I definitely think that the blame for what happened to the City during the Endless Night and specifically for what happened to the Eliksni should fall mostly on Savathun, not Lakshmi. It was Savathun who even orchestrated the endless night to begin with. Lakshmi was complicit and she had her own issues that she should've worked out in the centuries she's had to think about them. Savathun probably chose Lakshmi because she was an easier target; already with a problem against the Eliksni. A believable victim, someone that wouldn't take much to convince and corrupt. I'm also of the belief that, as Osiris, she also tried to do it to Saint-14, but he's a much more principled person than Lakshmi.

So they both suck. Both Savathun and Lakshmi were using the struggles of the Eliksni as a tool for their own gains which contributed to untold Eliksni suffering, but in the grand scheme of things, it was Savathun that forged it all from the bottom to the top. She made the Endless Night, she directed the Vanguard into going to Mithrax and the Eliksni for help, she orchestrated their settlement in the City, she spent time picking a target in the form of Lakshmi to spread propaganda and force people to be in a perpetual state of panic and misinformation for months, while she tended to her own goals of gaining the Light.

And once more, Savathun's attempt to put us at war with someone, ultimately led to another alliance. At the end of the day, compassion and friendship in the face of danger prevailed because Destiny is fundamentally a story about hope.

It's just something I wanted to recap and remind people if they aren't aware or don't remember. Because I feel like the new information will reignite the old "Lakshmi is racist" spiel with complete disregard of everything we know about her and with complete disregard of the actual culprit of the bigotry in Splicer: Savathun.

This doesn't mean that you can't dislike Lakshmi for what she's done. You absolutely can! We can't claim that all her actions were because of Savathun; as a matter of fact, she was chosen by Savathun because of how maleable she was. It's not easy to just turn someone into a bigot. The new information definitely adds to the tragedy of Lakshmi's life and to how much she was manipulated by those around her, but it doesn't remove her own fault for what happened.

This also doesn't mean that you have to hate Savathun. Just be aware of some of the more heinous stuff she's done and don't ignore it or view it as not important. Savathun's actions should be condemned as much as Lakshmi's, if not more so, but I'm not here to compare who's a worse bigot. They've both done horrible things to humans and Eliksni in a situation where we needed to stay united. And in the same way we can discuss the complexity and tragedy of Lakshmi, we have to acknowledge it for Savathun as well. She was a victim of manipulation as well, someone who took millions of years to realise that those she swore her life to are liars. She will eventually have to reckon with that.

Luckily, the outcome was ultimately in our favour, although not without consequences. Many Eliksni were attacked and died. Lakshmi died and the rest of the factions were exiled. We now can't simply ask Lakshmi about the new revelations, we can't get more information from her or the FWC, something that might be able to help us understanding and defeating the Witness. There's still a chance to find out in some way, but it would've been so much easier if we could simply ask someone who is in the City.

Splicer was a really good season, I highly recommend going through the story of it if you haven't played. DLV has everything in the playlist I linked and the official channel has just the cutscenes. Being there was truly a whole special experience because of the stuff with Savathun and Osiris. I cannot stress enough that the majority of the players did NOT believe that Osiris isn't Osiris. The theory was out there but it was largely not listened to. Some even used lore tabs that explicitly confirmed the theory from Splicer to claim it debunks it. It was a wild time. The wildest of all was the ending where people were genuinely saying that the ending to Splicer changed their mind to NOT believing it was Savathun. It was one of the most mind-boggling time in Destiny for me and I think that the misunderstanding of that whole plot made a lot of people either forget or not properly understand Savathun's involvement with the events of Splicer. If one played through the whole thing believing that was actually Osiris, Savathun's actions may have eluded them, especially if they didn't engage with a retrospective of the season. I believe that understanding how Savathun manipulated Lakshmi is important for understanding Lakshmi as a character, especially now with these new reveals (and possibly directly because of the new reveals; perhaps Savathun also targeted Lakshmi because of her origin). But at the end of the day, Lakshmi is still someone who couldn't let go of her xenophobia which made her the best target for Savathun to manipulate. That one is on her, regardless of all of her origins and trauma.

[stevenbasic]

GITJ Post 294: Political Rally

This rally is…so great. I am so glad Josie brought me. She, her mom, a bunch of her mom’s friends…they have been to a bunch of these. The election is Tuesday, so this is a big one. So many women! We are taking up, like, all of downtown. No way can they ignore us, we are going to win. Everyone is voting for women, even lots of the men.

‘No, Lakshmi, you cannot go!’ my father had said. He even grabbed my shoulder, as I was walking out this morning. Ahhhh haha I had never done this before but I slapped him away. I left without another word, but I could see the look on his face. He is scared. Haha he is scared.

It is raining but no one cares, we are all so, like, energized. The speakers, now that we are all assembled, after the marches that all met up here in the city center, are very very inspiring. All the candidates for the women’s party - local, state, federal - they are all here. They told us what we can do, on Tuesday. They explained what is going to happen afterwards, when we win. They showed us what life will be like, how it will be different immediately and then a year from now, ten years from now. Omigod. A hundred years from now.

They have had it coming to them, I see it now, for a long long time.

One of the speakers, a professor from Westhall, explained it like this, told our story. A bunch of years ago, like when I was a girl, way before high school, boys had already been hypnotized by the internet, by their phones, by virtual games and fantasy, porn. The technology made it so they could do everything through their screens: school, work, play, jerk off. For women, too, yes, the opportunities were there. But we were different. The boys literally spent all their time in front of their computers. Every year more and more males - of all ages - became addicted to those games and the porn and they became anemic, weaker due to the lack of physical activity. They spent most of their time playing their stupid games, neglecting studies and sports and jobs. They started to fail, intellectually, socially, in their careers. They began neglecting their wives, they were not dating as much.

But women, on the other hand, had started to hit the gyms, to meet their friends and chat, and plan. The more the husbands played games or masturbated, the more the wives worked out, went to classes, got good jobs, made money, set it aside. Donated to causes. It did not seem to bother men that their wives and girlfriends really enjoyed going to the gym, or reading, spending all this time bettering themselves. Firstly, without them around, the men could spend more time on their games, or with their porn, alone, without a girly voice telling them to stop. Secondly, the women started to be more fit and toned and muscular…hot, right? Men were learning to appreciate it, and being a strong woman was coming into fashion. And as the women got smarter, guys started to realize that smart is sexy too, so why complain? They really enjoyed that their wives were becoming more and more healthy, more and more learned, more and more successful. Great if someone else was making the money, now. More time to relax, for us. They actually encouraged their wives and girlfriends to continue. Get bigger and stronger, get smarter and get that big promotion. We’ll see you later…but what’s for dinner?

Women continued to take care of their men, they did. They wanted them to be good partners. They encouraged them, as much as they could, to eat the right way. The new vogue became, for men, training schedules and diets that were planned to prevent any growth or strength development. “Vulni-chic” was in. Softer men, smaller men, thinner men. The ones who worked to reduce their muscle mass, the lean guys were considered the sexier ones. And if you were short, too? Hubba Hubba. The more meager, the better. You’d look good on our strong, toned arm as we strode next to you in our tall heels. 

Boys were now growing up wanting to be thinner, weaker. Sickly was, haha,  something to which to aspire. The new generations of girls coming along, in contrast, were going to be healthier than any before them. With hard training and better food, they were growing naturally tall and strong, while the boys were being left behind, happy to eat the junk food their moms served them. Guys continued to be more and more attracted by virtual games, where they could waste their waning testoterone fighting huge, strong opponents or fucking sexy girls (or, as some of the newer games allowed, fucking huge, strong girls), completely ignoring their wives, not realising they were becoming as sexy and smart and powerful as the virtual girls dancing on their screens. Recently, as male membership dwindled, mixed gyms have begun to disappear, being replaced by 'women only’ facilities. Some colleges have gone back to female-only enrollment. Many companies are hiring in similar ways.

“You're either growing with us…” the speaker continued, from the podium, as if addressing every man on the planet, “or you’re being outgrown by us!!”

As women were becoming more and more attractive, as men’s tastes had shifted to being drawn to more powerful women, some men had started to realize that real life could be as enjoyable as their games. These are the ones that are going to help on Tuesday, in the election. The balance of power will finally forever change and - though there will be complaining - women are not going to accept an about-face in society. We are on our way and we are not going to be stopped. The world is already slowly becoming a matriarchal society, and now it is our turn to fully take the reins.

“By order of the Girl Army,” said the next speaker; a leader of a group of young women who had formed a loosely knit but enormous, nationwide group, “get out and vote!!”

I am voting for the future!

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