#so most of them disappeared after I posted it

[spiraphobia]

Heading to a remote village - where everyone’s totally normal… right?

It’s strange how I keep stumbling upon promising new series where the characters either move to or return to a remote village, only to discover that the villagers are strange, or there's a pandemic sweeping through. Is this a sign telling me to avoid moving to a more secluded area? I was seriously considering leaving the city behind and living in the countryside, but now I’m having second thoughts. Anyway, these series are really promising, so definitely keep an eye out for them!

1. Gannibal - Masaaki Ninomiya

Status: Completed (13 Volumes) - Ongoing scanlations

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mature, Mystery, Psychological, Seinen

Synopsis:

After the mysterious disappearance of a countryside cop, the role is reassigned to Officer Daigo Agawa. He finds the remote village quaint, and he looks forward to an easygoing post among the warm and welcoming citizenry. Then he gets a call. The body of a local grandmother has been found. The scene immediately sows doubt for the young policeman. A human bite mark has been left on the corpse, and any voiced suspicion of Agawa's is met with a strange, sudden, and intense hostility. Something dark is lurking under the idyllic facade of the charming mountain village. But can Officer Agawa spare himself and his family from it?

--

2. Bokura no Natsu ga Saketeiku (Summer's Gonna Tear Us Apart) - Miyatsuki Arata & Satou Kentarou

Status: Ongoing (2 Volumes)

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Seinen

Synopsis:

A teenage boy returns to his remote home island from the mainland. While people stopped wearing masks there, on the island the rules to wear masks outside at all times are still surprisingly strict. Could the reason be something different than corona?

--

3. Kisei Rettou (Parasitic Pandemic) - Edogawa Edogawa

Status: Ongoing (2 Volumes)

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mature, Mystery, Seinen

Synopsis:

Sendo Chihiro, a high school girl, moves from Tokyo to the provincial island of Hanayama after her parents' divorce. There's something strange about the island she moves to. There is blatant discrimination against outsiders, mysterious rituals that suddenly take place, and a huge "water tower" built in the middle of the island… One day, a fisherman is stabbed to death in his home. The whole island becomes suspicious of the murderer, and the unexpected culprit is revealed.

--

4. The Gwichon Village Mystery - Daehan LEE & YELLOW_SHEEP

Status: Ongoing (28 Chapters)

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Seinen

Mumyeong Heo’s grandmother passed away years ago. But when he visits her home to spend some time in the quiet countryside, he notices that someone kept it clean all this time. His new neighbors aren’t exactly thrilled by his visit. In fact, most of them don’t want him around. But that’s when his nasty neighbors go missing one by one… for better or worse.

[beauty-and-passion]

Did you see Thomas Sanders' YouTube community post about his plans for videos, including Sanders Sides?

... well, it looks like something happened in the SaSi fandom. Jeez, I cannot leave for a couple months to celebrate the Gravity Falls renaissance, that Mr. Sanders decides to pull up some stunts while I wasn't looking :P

Maybe he hoped I wouldn't notice. That I was gone. Well, unfortunately for him, I am always around - and if I lose something, there are always nice people ready to give me a heads-up. So here I am again, ready to give my unrequested two cents about the latest updates.

A lot of things happened since dear anon wrote me this ask, so I will not talk about one single post (also because I have no idea what post the anon was referring to :P) but I will briefly talk about the latest info taken straight from the ts_criticism tag, which is always the most updated place regarding SaSi.

No, Mr. Sanders' updates do not count, considering they're non-existent.

_____________

Season 2 finale: to watch or not to watch?

There was a survey going on in the criticism tag regarding the season 2 finale and whether people would watch it on YouTube, another platform, or just ignore it.

Now we can tell ourselves all the stories we want, but at the end of the day, we know everyone will watch it - no matter if on Thomas' YouTube page or somewhere else.

And even though we already know it will never be worth the years of waiting, I am sure everyone will still give it a chance. The view count will be high.

But if that's true for part one, who knows what will happen for all other parts? What if part 1 is not worth the wait? Will people still be willing to give a try to the other parts? Will they be willing to wait who knows how long for them?

_____________

The hilariously bad Brei Grace situation

Is it so surprising, that Thomas lost another person working for him? It's basically a constant, considering people keep being laid off, disappearing or not getting paid enough. By now, you would think this man learned something from the past but hey, it looks like I overestimated his intelligence.

What I find incredibly funny about this situation is not that Brei herself had to tell the truth to the public because Thomas, as always, refuses to be honest about anything. It's about this specific part of his post regarding Roleslaying with Roman:

Oh my god, this is so bad it's hilarious.

So Thomas laid his last writer off, but apparently he wasn't clever enough to find a proper replacement before doing it and he openly admitted in a post, to his fans (including his investors) that he has no writer to replace Brei and will have to keep following/begging her to get more of the script, because there's no one else who can develop the story in her place.

Do I really have to explain why everything about this is so stupid? Do I? Okay, then:

Thomas was apparently very quick at firing Brei, but not quick enough in finding another writer before doing it. That's not how any competent person works: when I left my last job, my boss asked me to stay for a couple more days, just enough to get a replacement. But hey, I suppose "finding a replacement" and "not leaving a vacant position" were too complex, too difficult thoughts for Mr. Sanders.

Mr. Sanders showed his investors he's so disorganized and impulsive, he fired someone with no backup plan and, as a result, had to put the series on hold. One of the series people are paying him to produce. If I were still paying him, I would stop immediately after this: if you're this unprofessional, you don't deserve money.

After laying Brei off, Thomas still wants to reach her for details regarding the story. The same story he fired her from. If he was so desperate for more of her work, he should've found a way to keep her around, not laid her off, then waste more time trying to find a way to get more of her.

If I were Brei, I would ignore Thomas forever and refuse to write even one more word regarding Roleslaying. But I'm a cold, heartless person, so I don't count. Still hope Brei will have some self-respect and refuse to share her work for free just because he's begging.

Or, at least, I hope she will ask for pre-payments first.

Thomas thought it was a great idea to show how unprofessional and disorganized he is via Twitter post. And refused to say the whole truth too. And no one was in the room to tell him: "Hey, what if you get a replacement first, so at least you won't have to admit you are dropping a series because you have no writer left?".

That's so stupid it doesn't even make me mad. It simply goes all the way around and becomes pure genius.

It also (involuntarily?) reconfirms a thought I had long ago, when Joan left. When I watched the goodbye video, I expected Thomas and/or Joan to tell us: "Hey, Joan is leaving, but here is the person who will replace them!".

But nope, no introduction of a new writer, no update post. Literally nothing. Joan left and no one came in. Only vague mentions of other people and names, but mostly Thomas confirming he was the main SaSi writer.

Thomas. Who is not a writer - let alone a competent one.

That's so stupid it's hilarious.

So, since now Thomas got rid of his last writer, what will he do? Learn how to become one? Considering his lack of progress in general, I suppose not.

So what? Will he hire another one of his friends? Will he think he can do anything and write RwR himself? Or will he keep trying on SaSi, a series that is so difficult to handle and with so many stakes, that even a competent writer would have problems with?

The incompetence has just reached a new level and I can't wait to see how deeper we can go.

_____________

The spoilers for the next SaSi episode

Thanks to @t-slanders, who appeared out of nowhere and decided to feed us something more than the absolute nothing Thomas gave us for years, we know what the next SaSi episode will be about.

And look, it's a plot in which:

The main topic of discussion is Thomas and Nico's relationship

Roman is ready to push things further

Janus and Virgil are not

Virgil is hiding he's on Janus' side

Wow. Wow. That's what Thomas came up with, this is what he's working on for 4+ years and hasn't finished writing yet.

Now, I'm not saying he should've created another plot: that's the only possible plot he could've developed. The only one that made sense, considering how WTIT ended and what was hinted during the 5 year anniversary special.

Why am I so sure of that? Because those are the exact same plot points for the season 2 finale - part 1 I came up with: in my version, Thomas was questioning if he was ready to have a relationship with Nico, Roman wanted to push things further, Janus wanted Thomas to be more cautious, Virgil was siding with Janus but refused to admit it.

Sure, some elements are different of course, but the plot points are the same. The biggest difference is that it took me a few months to develop them into a plot, not 4+ years.

And since those are the plot points, I already know how they will develop too. And not because I'm a genius but, again, they can only go in one direction: Thomas will eventually agree with Janus, it will become obvious Virgil is siding with him, Roman will feel betrayed and his arc will start in the next parts. It's already all written here, it can only go this way. The time travel idea is an "embellishment", but the plot can only go one way.

However, that doesn't mean the season finale will be automatically bad. A lot of stories I can predict end up being great anyway. So no, I won't judge it for its predictability. I will judge it for the production time and the characters' personalities.

And speaking of personalities...

_____________

The tweet video

I watched it at 2x speed, because didn't want to waste too much time on it.

It was... okay. Just okay. The characters' personalities are just okay. Everything is just okay.

Sigh. I'm tired of everything being "just okay".

And no, I cannot shake the feeling that Thomas pulled out this video in 0.2 seconds, only because he had a sponsorship to do.

One last thing I want to tell now, so consider it a warning: if the next episode and/or eventual season finale part 1 are "just okay", I will consider it negatively. From a canonical episode, I expect more than to feel "meh" while watching it.

_____________

And now?

We do the same thing we do every night, my dears: we wait forever for Mr. Sanders to finally decide to update us, to work on SaSi, or to do some stupid shit worthy of a discussion.

Of course, that doesn't mean we should burn him at the stake or cancel SaSi: we are all adults here, so we will simply highlight the shit Thomas does, because if you do stupid shit, you deserve to be criticized. That's not a personal attack, that's just being objective. I hope, one day, he will learn that too.

And maybe, who knows? He will also learn from his mistakes, hire someone competent, pay them properly and not lay them off without finding a replacement first.

Or, maybe, he will just find the perfect excuse to drop SaSi/put the finale on hold forever, so he will be finally free from the burden he clearly feels. When that day comes, I wish him to find a series he will be truly passionate enough, to keep it on until the end.

And sure, of course I will be around when the supposed next episode will supposedly come out: one part of me hopes it will be good, while the other part loves shooting a fish in a barrel. So... well, at least I will be satisfied either way ;P

[euryvices]

weird things about my town that lowkey remind me of tma

god, this is going to be a long post.

okay so. i grew up in a town in the middle east (about 200 people), with my bestfriend Whom I Will Not Shut The Fuck Up about apparently, and it was a strikingly different experience to most people who've grown up in the middle east, or in america. it was yk, a rich people town, populated and run mostly by generational wealth owners. as a result, our town was very hush-hush, despite it being in the Crackass Of Nowhere.

i started listening to tmagp about two months back, under the instructions (*cough cough coercion cough cough*) of my lovely moots (im looking at you @forflightlessbirds and @need-a-name-101) i've noticed a few things which may be...off.

the first thing i need to clarify are the rules. we had five of them, that nobody really stuck to, but we all knew of. the rules in and of themselves are normal things any parent tells their child, but weirdly specific. there weren't really any repercussions if we didn't stick to the rules - but most of the time, we didn't like breaking them. they were, as follows :

don't tell strangers your real name, and if you do, run and tell the head of the community center.

if people approach you about 'coming to god' (i.e, christian/muslim/jewish missionaries) tell them god has moved.

do Not enter the junkyard at night. (we broke this one)

always carry a knife. most of us were given jade knives, but my bestfriend got a gold one. ive teased him about it most of our lives, even after we shifted.

take a buddy with you everywhere, and if you can't find one, don't go out.

me and my brother have broken all these rules about once at least, except for the knife one and the junkyard. me and my bestfriend broke the junkyard one though. we shifted together when we were barely teens. first, we lived in the uk, then in the states. we headed back home and barely spoke for a year before he died, at the ripe old age of 17. i miss him, but thats not the point.

it was only after we moved, that we realized how truly Fucked Up our town was. we were living in the middle of war ravaged county, and we had swimming pools, and ipads, and sunset cocktails? obviously i didn't realise it as a kid, as a pre-teen even - but looking at it from the outside feels like a gut punch.

now here's where im going to yap about the similarities between tma and my shitstorm of a childhood and hopefully Will Not Piss Anyone Off. if you're from my town - you'll know exactly what im talking about, and i seriously hope you reach out and/or message me.

the things everyone knows the things. they're just. there. kinda like the bogeyman your mom scares you with when you don't eat lunch except most of us have just accepted that they're real

old man hanna if you've lived here, you know him. he's weird, he's kooky, and he's got a million books and tape recorders and vinyls. he's maybe the only person in that place that doesn't come from money. he hates electronics, says they can't capture things the way old school stuff does

the graves now, our town is mainly christian. uber arab christian. we've got graves, we've got cemeteries. but outside it, on the outskirts, lie a long line of unmarked graves. are they from the arab-israeli war? the gulf war? lord knows

the 2015 blackout this was the creepiest thing that happened here. the blackout, and then the radio stations playing that reading of the bible? my parents shut everything off and rushed me and bulos to the master bedroom

the skydiving institute i have no idea if the government approved this godforsaken place, but it was there. it led to the disappearance of nahren, who was deathly afraid of heights but she said she was ready to face her fears

the church when i shifted to the uk, i saw the proceedings of the greek orthodox church there. and let me tell you - it's so different to our church. for starters, our church doesn't even seem to have any affiliation to the goc, even though it should?? the entire thing is so different

the pond now this is rather controversial. our town's pond was created in the early 70's, but no one knows How or Why. realistically, there shouldn't have been any water supply that far inland. and the water should not be that salty. we don't acknowledge it, and no one drinks from it, even if its really hot. there's a sign outside that asks parents to hold their children tightly when passing by the pond

the soldiers they're mainly american (at least the one i met was), but they rarely enter our town. and when they do, they can only stay in one specific motel - we're not allowed to talk to them. once i did, though. im still...fucked up from it

there's a lot more, but i don't think y'all wanna know about my fucked up town anymore. just writing this is giving me the heebie-jeebies.

we usually aren't allowed to leave our town once we're in it. but my dad got special permission for us to leave, before the divorce. so we did. and then my parents got divorced. which made our family Not Happy, so we weren't exactly welcomed back.

that being said, i don't think there's anything really wrong with my town. it's just a bit...different. and i love it. even if it doesn't seem to love me right now.

god, i think i need to go lay down. i hate remembering all this.

[krindor]

Jewish Life Pre-Diaspora: Jewelry

In my previous post in this series, I looked at something ephemeral and best seen in art; women’s hairstyles [x] and came up a bit short. While I’ll get to men’s hairstyles later I wanted to do something a little easier first, and so am doing a topic archaeology is the best tool at answering: What did indigenous Israelite and Judean people wear as jewelry?

Amir Golani has written the literal book on the subject, and so I’d recommend for further information and techniques you should read his book Jewelry from the Iron Age II Levant or his article Revealed by their jewelry: Ethnic identity of Israelites during the Iron Age in the southern Levant, but I’ll provide a summary and some images here.

Since in his writings on the topic Golani found the Israelites and Judahites (the members of the two Israelite Kingdoms in Canaan in the Iron Age) to be similar in ornamentation trends and groups them together, I’ll be doing the same here under the umbrella term Israelites.

(looooong post beneath the cut. you have been warned.)

Part 1: Distinctly Israelite Jewelry

While trade and the movement of craftspeople led to the dispersion of different styles of jewelry around the Mediterranean, we can see trends that indicate certain pieces of ornamentation are distinctive to Israelite culture.

Three types of pendants, usually made of bone or ivory but sometimes of terracotta or stone, follow the history of the Israelite kingdoms to a surprising degree: originating around the 10th century BCE and disappearing in the 8th Century BCE in the North, and the 7th to 6th centuries BCE in the South (matching the beginnings of the diasporas of Israel and Judah, respectively).

1.1 Club Pendants

These pendants are typically 4-9 cm long shaped pieces with rounded ends and a slightly conical shape. They have been found as far north as the Lebanese Coast and as far south as the northern Negev Desert, though most examples come from the historic borders of the Israelite Kingdoms. Some were plain, but many have bands, latticework, or ring-and-dot ‘eyes’ incised into them.

Similar pendants are found in Ephesus (in Asia Minor) and various sites on the Greek Mainland, but these all date to after the 8th century BCE, are truncated at the top rather than rounded, and only have the horizontal bands as decorations and may have arrived with Phoenician traders (as they had been found in the Phoenician city of Byblos in modern day Lebanon).

1.2 Plaque Pendants

These plaques were made of bone and usually had a stringing hole at one end, or with a tab to be attached to a string. Unlike the club pendants, they have more than a single shape; they can be rectangular or oval, circular or teardrops, and are incised with ring-and-dots, lines, and chevrons.

These have a much smaller range than the club-pendants, with most only being found in the territory of the Judean Kingdom. Two were found at Meggido in Israel’s territory, and one at the site of Hama in Syria.

It was at one point theorized that these served as calendars, since some examples have three rows of ten uniform ring-and-dots, the presence of examples with other, non-calendrical numbers (such as 17) indicates that this could not have been their only use.

1.3 Mallet Pendants

The most restricted of the Israelite pendants, both in morphology and in chronology, these pendants are made of two pieces of bone or ivory; a cylindrical head often decorated with ring-and-dot incisions, and a thin shaft pierced at one end for suspension that was inserted into the head at the other end.

These pendants appear in the 10th Century BCE, but disappear in the 8th Century, despite being found in both Israel and Judah.

The hammer form of these pendants, as well as their strict morphology, has led some to theorize that they were used to identify the wearer, though it is unknown if that identity would be to a profession, religion, or some other faction. Similar looking pendants are found in Sardinia in the 12th-10th centuries BCE, as well as Etruscan Italy and Greece in the 9th – 7th Centuries BCE, but those are made of cast bronze and are a single piece. There, however, we know from context that they were probably linked to the wearer’s profession. Whether this bears true for their Israelite counterparts is still unclear.

Part 2: Inherited Canaanite Traditions

While the bone pendants appear to be an aesthetic choice that evolved along with the Israelite identity, as a part of the Canaanite cultural tradition, Israelites also continued to create and wear adapted forms of Canaanite jewelry. Several styles of metallic jewelry that Canaanites also wore, and do not have aesthetic designs credited to the Phoenicians to the north, may be concluded to be the work of local craftspeople in the Israelite kingdoms.

2.1 Crescent Pendants

These are flat crescent-shaped pendants typically made of copper alloys, silver, or gold, though bone examples have been found. They are either strung through a hollow tab at the center of the pendant, connected to a string via two perforations in the crescent itself, or possibly directly sewn into clothing by those same perforations.

These pendants first appear in the area in the Middle Bronze Age (18th - 16th centuries BCE) and appear in archaeological contexts through the Iron Age II, with designs getting simpler over time.

What they represent is debated. Most intuitive to most people reading this would probably be the crescent moon, which was a widely used symbol in the Ancient Near East, either as a symbol of fertility or of redemption and regeneration. The moon cult has been extant in the region for a long time at this point (Jericho, one of the oldest cities in the world, is named after the local moon god Yarikh, who is also the source of the Hebrew word for The Moon, Yareakh).

Other hypotheses include bulls horns or boars tusks, the later of which were used in the area to ward the evil eye away from horses through the Ottoman Period in the Levant. This is further supported by one of the specimen from the Middle Bronze Age in Megiddo is apparently too large to be worn comfortably by a human, and lines up nicely with a story from the biblical story of Gidon taking crescents as spoils of war from Midianite camels in the book of Judges.

2.2 Rings

2.2.1 Finger Rings

Finger rings with bezels (a wider portion used for mounting or displaying an object or image) are by no means a Israelite invention; the style they imitated comes from Egyptian scarab rings, named for their scarab-shaped bezels, which first appeared around 2000 BCE. However, types were worn by Israelites, and their innovations on the style are of interest.

(Egyptian scarabs and scarab rings, via Wikimedia Commons)

The first style Israelites used, all dating to the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, widens and flattens the metal of the ring at its terminal ends, which can support a scarab or other bezel. The rings are made of silver or gold and flattened ends are decorated with flowers, palmettes, or other forms of decorative flora.

The bezel may be made of gold, silver, faience (ancient glass) or may be absent entirely (though it's possible the bezel was simply lost to the sands of time). Unfortunately, such rings are rare (and some of them are poorly documented), so a more robust typology is difficult.

The second form more closely resembles a traditional Egyptian scarab; a round body to the ring with a flattened area at the tips of the terminal ends to support a bezel that may be swiveled on its axis to show off all sides of the piece (this was very important with scarabs, as the bezel was shaped to resemble like a beetle and the flat bottom bore a seal or inscription). The key difference is the material of the scarabs: where the Egyptian scarab is faience or stone, the Israelite 'scaraboid' is made of metal, and the carved scarab is nonexistent.

These are extremely rare and only appear in the record at the end of the Iron Age II (right before the diaspora) and in the Persian period following, so they may have been a relatively short-lived phenomenon - at the same time similar non-metallic, non-ring seals and scarabs are relatively common.

2.2.2 Large Rings

A form of large ring (that is large enough to fit on a limb rather than a finger) that only appears in Israelite contexts has a catch to secure it in place, using a diamond-shaped end and a U-shaped end with upturned ends. Only four of these have been found, all made of a copper alloy, and all from the latter half of the Iron Age II (8th-7th centuries BCE)

This wearing of metal bracelets and anklets appears to be a holdover from Canaanite traditions, where we see depictions of goddesses wearing such items. That, their rarity, and idea that the innovation here is functional rather than aesthetic, are why I believe is why Golani doesn't consider this as a uniquely 'Israelite' jewelry form.

It should be noted here that these are not the only large rings found in the Israelite kingdoms, and evidence from graves indicate that both men and women wore single, solid metal arm-bands as jewelry. Women may have also worn multiple, simple, large rings as bangles as depicted in figurines (which to my chagrin told me nothing about hair, but I digress). This may be a local innovation by Southern Canaanites and Israelites, as the Phoenicians to the north are not depicted this way. Bangles were made of many materials; copper alloys, silver, gold, iron, and even shell.

(More common styles of large rings found in the Israelite kingdoms alongside the rare locking one above)

2.3 Earrings

The styles of earring Israelites used were innovations on earlier Canaanite styles, and were so numerous I'll just be showing archetypal forms and the uniquely Israelite ones, otherwise I might as well rewrite the whole book.

2.3.1 'Lunate Earrings'

These earrings are solid metal (usually silver or copper, but any nice metal works) with a crescent body, a bent and tapered hoop that is narrower than the body, and ends that usually meet at one side.

(Simple Lunate Earrings, found throughout the Ancient Near East)

The most common Israelite version of this earring, and indicative of the Iron Age II (our time period of interest), widens the lunate and rounds out the whole earring for a more robust, heavy design, often with a small rise in the center of the body

Towards the end of the Iron Age II, the hoop elongates and decorations such as wire wrapping or soldered hoops and globules appear on the lunate, and are made of exclusively expensive metals such as silver and gold.

A unique final example comes from the city of Lachish in the Shephelah of Judah from the 8th century BCE (Iron Age II). 'At least a dozen' lunate earrings were found in a corroded mass in a burial cave. at least one of these depicted the head and torso of a woman, but the corrosion of the pieces precluded further analysis.

2.3.2 Lunates with Fixed Attachments

A more ornamental variation on the lunate where the body has an attachment joined to it. The archetypal form of the attachment is that of a hollow ball, tear, or pear, and is further decorated with wiring or soldered globules. Much more detailed than the basic lunates, these seem to typically be made of nicer metals such as silver and gold.

These evolved from much simpler tear and globule attachments worn by Canaanites as early as the Middle Bronze Age.

There is an variant of these solid globule attachments that is common in the 8th - 7th centuries BCE with a ring of globules supporting a center orb, that I think is neat, but is kind of an evolutionary offshoot of the more ornate attachments.

Towards the end of the Iron Age II, elaborate attachments begin to appear, including clusters, rows, and pyramids (or even rows of pyramids!) of globules, as well as fans and the elaborate hollow examples above.

It should be noted that these more ornate forms of earrings are rare in Israelite society, the simple lunates and solid globule attatchment lunates were by far the most common forms of ear ornamentation.

Part 3: Conclusion

When looking at the more common pieces of jewelry among Israelites, bone pendants and copper alloy metal rings and earrings in relatively simple forms seem to be the most common items, despite the wealth of the kingdoms attested to by Assyrian records of what they looted during their invasions.

Additionally depictions of Israelites generally show them without jewelry (but that may be due to them being depicted by conquerors who took their jewelry, rather than by Israelites themselves).

So what's with this apparent aesthetic of austerity? According to Amir Golani, the Israelite kingdoms may not have been poor, but the Israelite Identity as separate from Canaanites possibly started as a rejection of the Canaanite City State culture of the Late Bronze Age, and a general distaste of luxury goods may have persisted through the development of the ethnicity to a more spartan aesthetic overall (this is not just seen in jewelry, Israelite pottery is basically earlier Canaanite forms, just undecorated, with some exceptions).

If you made it this far, congratulations! I hope this was as interesting to read as it was to look into, and thank you for your time.

[the-smol-cricket]

Stephpotterdrawtober art for 2023: days 1-7 and 27 (plus my bat plush that 27 is based on)

[wonder-worker]

I've been thinking about the tragedy of Elizabeth Woodville living to see the end of her family name.

I don't mean her family with her husband, which lived on through her daughter and grandson. I mean her own.

Her sisters died, one by one, many of them after 1485. When Elizabeth died, only Katherine was left, and she would die before the turn of the century as well.

All her brothers died, too. Lewis died in childhood. John was executed. Anthony was murdered. Lionel died suddenly in the peak of Richard's reign, unable to see his niece become queen. Edward perished at war. Richard died in grieving peace. For all the violence and judgement the family endured, it was "an accident of biology" that ended their line: none of the brothers left heirs, and the Woodville name was extinguished. We know the family was aware of this. We know they mourned it, too:

“Buy a bell to be a tenor at Grafton to the bells now there, for a remembrance of the last of my blood.”

Elizabeth lived through the deposition and death of her young sons, and lived to see the end of her own family name. It must have been such a haunting loss, on both sides.

[sweetandglovelyart]

Would anyone be interested in hearing about my various Kirby OCs? I’ve only drawn a few of them at this point, but I have a lot of them and have come up with what I hope are interesting backstories for all of them. If anyone is interested I might make a post giving a summary of every OC I have so far, and then I’ll eventually draw them.

[max-iwtaco]

my little collection

[yukinyaminyato]

next time that guy smiles at me im gonna punch him in the face.

[longagoitwastuesday]

This is the piece (and the sketch) I was talking about yesterday in the tags of that one other drawing in my previous reblog

[mcmansionhell]

namesake mcmansion

Howdy folks! Today's McMansion is very special because a) we're returning to Maryland after a long time and b) because the street this McMansion is on is the same as my name. (It was not named after me.) Hence, it is my personal McMansion, which I guess is somewhat like when people used to by the name rights to stars even though it was pretty much a scam. (Shout out btw to my patron Andros who submitted this house to be roasted live on the McMansion Hell Patreon Livestream)

As far as namesake McMansions go, this one is pretty good in the sense that it is high up there on the ol' McMansion scale. Built in 2011, this psuedo-Georgian bad boy boasts 6 bedrooms and 9.5 baths, all totaling around 12,000 square feet. It'll run you 2.5 million which, safe to say, is exponentially larger than its namesake's net worth.

Now, 2011 was an anonymous year for home design, lingering in the dead period between the 2008 black hole and 2013 when the market started to actually, finally, steadily recover. As a result a lot of houses from this time basically look like 2000s McMansions but slightly less outrageous in order to quell recession-era shame.

I'm going to be so serious here and say that the crown molding in this room is a crime against architecture, a crime against what humankind is able to accomplish with mass produced millwork, and also a general affront to common sense. I hate it so much that the more I look at it the more angry I become and that's really not healthy for me so, moving on.

Actually, aside from the fake 2010s distressed polyester rug the rest of this room is literally, basically Windows 98 themed.

I feel like the era of massive, hefty sets of coordinated furniture are over. However, we're the one's actually missing out by not wanting this stuff because we will never see furniture made with real wood instead of various shades of MDF or particleboard ever again.

This is a top 10 on the scale of "least logical kitchen I've ever seen." It's as though the designers engineered this kitchen so that whoever's cooking has to take the most steps humanly possible.

Do you ever see a window configuration so obviously made up by window companies in the 1980s that you almost have to hand it to them? You're literally letting all that warmth from the fire just disappear. But whatever I guess it's fine since we basically just LARP fire now.

Feminism win because women's spaces are prioritized in a shared area or feminism loss because this is basically the bathroom vanity version of women be shopping? (It's the latter.)

I couldn't get to all of this house because there were literally over a hundred photos in the listing but there are so many spaces in here that are basically just half-empty voids, and if not that then actually, literally unfinished. It's giving recession. Anyway, now for the best part:

Not only is this the NBA Backrooms but it's also just a nonsensical basketball court. Tile floors? No lines? Just free balling in the void?

Oh, well I bet the rear exterior is totally normal.

Not to be all sincere about it but much like yours truly who has waited until the literal last second to post this McMansion, this house really is the epitome of hubris all around. Except the house's hubris is specific to this moment in time, a time when gas was like $2/gallon. It's climate hubris. It's a testimony to just how much energy the top 1% of income earners make compared to the rest of us. I have a single window unit. This house has four air conditioning condensers. That's before we get to the monoculture, pesticide-dependent lawn or the three car garage or the asphalt driveway or the roof that'll cost almost as much as the house to replace. We really did think it would all be endless. Oops.

If you like this post and want more like it, support McMansion Hell on Patreon for as little as $1/month for access to great bonus content including a discord server, extra posts, and livestreams.

Not into recurring payments? Try the tip jar! Student loans just started back up!

[therandomartmaker]

Reasons Discord's New Mobile Layout Update is Bad

The reply function is redundant, as most people are used to just holding down and tapping the reply option at the top. If they're going to change it, they shouldn't have gotten rid of the member list for this functionally bad option. It also doesnt line up with any other platform in terms of swipe direction.

The member list is gone from easy viewing

It doesnt auto open your last group chat/DM making multiple simultaneous conversations far more difficult and longer

It's already broken my app once (Locked all channels including other servers' to one channel. I could not access anything except that and my DMs.)

You can not see images that have been pinned in the pins tab.

The search function was fine before. Where did your before, during and after date search go??

All of Discord's individuality is disappearing.

Getting used to a mobile format actually impedes usage of the desktop format and likely discourages people from multiplatforming discord because theyre so used to the "intuitiveness" of the new "tailored for mobile" experience

There is no way to CHANGE IT BACK. This is like Tumblr rolling out Tumblr Live without any Disable button At All.

Why are they marketing midnight mode as Something fucking ENTIRELY new??? It has always been a feature on Android as the AMOLED theme???????

DARK MODE IS NO LONGER LOW CONTRAST AND DISCORD IS DEVOLVING INTO AN ACCESSIBILITY NIGHTMARE

Disable swipe-to-reply by activating full-screen Launchpad in Advanced Settings

Discord’s new layout is apparently permanent. Keep sending feedback and rating it one star on all appstores; if you get redirected to the advice article, double tap gove feedback.

If you, too, dislike the theme, head to settings (you can double tap your account picture) and go to Appearance, scroll to New Layout and Send Feedback.

Overall, what they've done is disorientate every single current user on discord, and you cannot avoid it unless you've not updated to the latest discord because this is not an update. It is a feature that has already been on the latest update and is being slowly rolled out, like Tumblr Polls.

Good Luck, and may we send as much feedback as possible and have them make it optional or at the least, revert it. I've already sent in at least seven complaints to discord, commented on their instagram post about the layout and I'm about one star review it on google play and app store.

This isnt just the appearance and vibes being off like the new (ish) app icon, this is a matter of functionality.

[sug-kuk]

Trying social events and groups for students. Found some interesting ones. I’m kinda just starting from the beginning again when it comes to friends, i think that can be good

[waywardsalt]

sometimes you make aus just to see how far you can push your favorite fictional little guy within the bounds of their canon characterization before they’re straight up an entirely different character

[yzashaven]

pairing ☆ scaramouche x fem!reader

content warnings ☆ nsfw content ahead. unprotected sex. hate fuck. rough sex. slapping. spanking. degradation + praising. overstimulation. nipple sucking. creampie. hair pulling. marking. riding. mating press. prone bone. "whore, slut, baby"

note .ᐟ HEYYY so like... it's been a while, yes? 3 months since my last post, how is everyone? i made this yesterday randomly at 3am and didn't really feel like posting it on the new blog (that is still in progress) also I AM SO SORRY if this is in any way bad?? i'm so rusty... i haven't written in so long but gosh it felt nice to finish a work and i thought it would be a good idea to put it here just because i felt like it akbsuwhs the plot is kinda all over the place i have no idea—anyway, if i missed anything in the warnings, please let me know! i hope you guys will enjoy reading this ♡

word count ☆ 0.98k

the sight of you riding him was the last thing he expected to enjoy seeing. the way your face has pleasure written all over it, your breasts bouncing with each move your hips make, body trembling from the feeling, and most especially, the way you moaned so lewdly.

he loved it, yet hated you.

he hated your cocky and annoying attitude, always teasing and defying him no matter when or where you were. why do you always think you're better than him? you never will be. well... at least that's what he thinks.

putting you in your place was always the one thing he wanted to do. but as much as he wanted to do so out of anger, the hidden sexual tension between you was no joke. he couldn't avoid it.

he wants to slap you, punch you, hit you in some way. but at the same time he feels like pounding you, pushing your face down into the bed, shutting you up with his fingers in your mouth. no matter how much he thinks you're the absolute worst, he can't deny how attractive you are. and it just fuels his desires even more.

his eyes dart down to watch the way his cock disappears into your pussy, smirking to himself, "such a filthy slut. you take me so well, don't you?" hand reaching behind to grab a fistful of your hair, pulling it back, exposing your neck to him. he doesn't hesitate to lean it and mark you as his.

moving down, he sees your hardened nipples from arousal. his lips wrap around the sensitive area and gently suck on one, tongue flicking on it every now and then. he pulls away and finally lets go of your hair. hands going over to grip your hips now before he spoke up, "getting tired already? gosh, you're weaker than i thought."

you shake your head, about to respond but he doesn't let you. two fingers suddenly filling your mouth, "don't even think of speaking," he whispers and lays you down on your back, "i'm gonna fuck you hard, and you'll take it like a good girl, won't you?"

a red hue spreads across your face. speechless, you nod silently. he smirks and playfully spanks your ass, "atta girl." in one thrust, he fills you up completely. grabbing your legs and bringing them up to your chest. his cock is way deeper inside you in this position and he knows that very well.

capturing your lips in a rough kiss, he began to thrust in and out of you, slow in pace but definitely powerful. gradually getting faster, wilder, with each passing second. your hands come up around your legs to hold them in place, spreading yourself for him.

finally pulling away from the kiss, you try to catch your breath but moans flow out of your lips one after another. to add to it all, he brings his thumb down to rub your clit. it was visible from your body language that you were close to an orgasm. so close.

"you gonna cum around my cock like a good whore, baby?" he chuckles. his other hand comes up to your face, playfully slapping you, "i've always wanted to do that since you're so damn annoying." narrowing his eyes, he glares down at you.

"as if you aren't as well!?" you exclaim back, but it fails—he pinches your clit, drawing out a lewd cry from you. "be quiet and i'll let you cum. come on." you look up at him and make eye contact. he isn't moving anymore, his cock just buried deep inside you. the moment is rather intimate, or so you thought.

"fuck you, scara–"

"you're doing just that and you're still complaining?"

you glare up at him, giving up and letting your head fall back onto the soft pillows, "just fuck me already, fucking hell." you unexpectedly say. he smiles, "gladly."

before you could even register anything else, he was already pounding into you. rough, hard, and fast. giving your clit a sufficient amount of attention as well. all of it was completely overwhelming and all you could do was scream out his name as you came around him. gripping the sheets so tight that your knuckles turned white, your whole body shaking.

"fuck–so good... you feel so fucking good squeezing my cock like that, baby." he groans before finishing inside you. keeping himself in place for a while as he calmed himself down before pulling out gently. he silently watches as your body continues to tremble. scaramouche sighs and gently stimulates your clit, "aww, shh... there there..." the gesture causes you to get overstimulated rather than soothed.

"i'm still hard, just so you know." his voice low as a whisper. "let me just..." flipping you over, he puts you on your hands and knees, entering you from behind and making your body weakly fall flat on the bed. he sighs and just gets on top of you, pushing himself back deep into your wetness.

his bare chest to your back, your body quivering beneath him as he began to thrust into you again. starting at a slow pace that gradually got faster, fucking you properly. leaning down, he whispers right into your ear, "such a perfect cunt you've got, huh?"

you're already so close. the head of his cock brushing over your g-spot every now and then. his body trapping you under him, leaving you with no choice but to take what he gave. drool was already seeping from out of the corner of your mouth from how long you've had your lips apart, occupied in moaning his name over and over again.

as much as he despised you, he could never even think of denying how much he adored the fucked out state you were in. all because of him.

[tojisun]

sugar, spice, everything on ice (hockey au)

hockey player simon riley x f!reader’s relationship, through the eyes of the fans // sort of smau

i was listening to 5sos’ slsp while writing this so!!! sorry i went bonkers 😔 i just love this au sm

simon riley is obsessed with his girl, and it is maddeningly endearing.

of course he’s in love with you, everyone could see even from a continent away, but there is something clingy, possessive, in the way simon hovers around you. like you’d disappear right before his eyes if he wasn’t pressed close; if his tattooed arm wasn’t looped around your waist or his thick fingers were not twined with yours.

it is new, unheard of, even riley’s loyal fans says so, but it’s just so—

nice.

(the word is inadequate, they know, but there’s nothing close that could describe how heart-fluttering his devotion to you is.)

riley has always been a private person, sharing only sparse details of his life. one can even easily locate his earliest instagram post because there’s just about twenty uploads in his account since its creation—from 2017, and it’s a broken hockey stick. even that throw-away picture continues to amass likes as new fans come scouring whatever of him they can find.

his latest post was during last season’s finals’ celebrations—a series of pictures of the boys carrying the stanley cup. the first few pictures were all professionally taken, but the rest splinters into blurred shots of mactavish and garrick, particularly, drinking from the cup from inside of the locker room.

it said: thank you all.

curt, direct, but not any less meaningful.

cut to this year, mid-regular season (january), and after five months of drought, the simon riley posted a picture. and it wasn’t just any picture, but it was a hard launch of his new partner.

it was a selfie, taken by you, the camera angled just slightly. your back was pressed to his chest, and his chin was hooked to your shoulder, and, cheek-to-cheek, the two of you grin up at the camera. the background was distinctly new york, central park, so it must have been taken after the specgru’s game against the rangers (0-4 for the specgru).

for the caption, he wrote: she’s never been here before.

in an instant, all of the speculations were confirmed—the most eligible bachelor of the franchise is, finally, in an official relationship.

news articles popped up after that, speculations bloating at the shocking news. some people have even said that they’re sure they’ve seen you prior to the announcement—weren’t you that one fan simon riley was flirting with while he was on ice, mid-game?

(you were.

you were even one of the people that was tagged in johnny’s story before it got preemptively taken down; and the same person seen with the other WAGs, sprinkles of your silhouette seen on pictures like the ones that are taken on the days when the franchise flies them for game nights or the countless ones during the unveiling of the season’s WAGs jackets.

you have been a part of their circle even before the world knew who you were and, somehow, that was comforting; how simon riley had not thrown you to the wolves—or vultures, as mactavish snarled when they’ve hounded him about his fiancee’s abrupt end of her season in the FIVB, like her health wasn’t the priority over her career—and instead made sure you were surrounded by people who knew how to survive amidst the scrutiny.)

and, just like that, the dam called simon-riley’s-secret-album-of-you broke.

what had been a sporadic activity in his account exploded into series of posts, one update every week. it was a whirlwind of excitement because no one from the hockey world has ever seen this much of simon riley’s life.

he was always unapproachable, distant, like there’s always a wall between him and the rest of the world. like in exchange of being called the living legend, the guiding star, simon riley gets to shirk away from the public whenever he chooses. and who can fault him for that? riley’s career has always been heavily documented—people knew him even before he was drafted into the league, they had betted on his rookie year, and then had put him in a lonely pedestal. so of course he is fiercely protective of his privacy.

only a select few get to truly know him, only a select few have stories of simon that isn’t about the ice or hockey or his in-the-works legacy. only a select few see him beyond his crown, and now he’s giving a piece of his true self to the world because of you.

because you are worth showing off.

because life with you is worth celebrating.

.

riley41

[it’s a candid image of you standing on the balcony, wearing a too-big of a shirt that is getting ruffled by the wind and pyjama pants, and leaning over the railing as you stare at the scenery. you’re all silhouette because your body is devoured by the orange rays of the sunrise, its tendrils spilling into the wooden floors of the hotel room.]

liked by jmactavish.91, reyenzo14, and others

riley41 ibiza

.

riley41

[it’s a series. the first image is of the two of you on his motorcycle, the picture taken from simon’s bike’s camera. you’re both wearing tinted helmets and leather gears, the background a blur of colours which indicates that this was taken mid-ride. you’re gripping him tightly and your body is almost fully-covered by his bulk, leaving only the top half of your helmet to be seen peering from his shoulders.

the second image is of the beach. it’s dusk, and the sky is an explosion of pinks and purples and blues.

the third image is a selfie with your visors up. you’re looking at the camera with a shy smile, your eyes squinted because of how bright it still is, while simon only has his eyes on you.]

liked by pricejhn2, alexkeller_, and others

riley41 vroom

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riley41

[it’s a mirror selfie of the two of you, with simon taking the photo. the background is notably his house. your back is facing the mirror, your head tilted to rest on his shoulder, while his arm is curled around your waist. you’re wearing this season’s WAG jacket—it’s black and green, their colours. the pose now makes sense because you’re showing off the back of the jacket that spells out RILEY 41 in white. simon’s wearing their away-jersey.]

liked by kylegarrick, konig_76, and others

riley41 game six let’s go

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riley41

[it’s a video; the angle shows that it is taken by someone else. you and simon are hugging, and are swaying lightly as the two of you dance to the faint sound of music booming from somewhere behind the camera. simon’s mouthing the lyrics to your ear, his cheeks flushed like he’s buzzed from drinking, while you giggle and softly rub your palm at his back.]

liked by jmactavish.91, kylegarrick, and others

riley41 my favourite person

.

.

yourname

[it’s a candid picture you’ve taken of simon sleeping while he uses your lap as pillow. the angle captures the way your fingers are playing with his hair and scratching his scalp gently. the picture is a little blurry because there’s not enough light to properly focus the lens.]

liked by riley41, jjoanne.spam, and others

yourname im the happiest when im with him