#starlight scripture

[league-of-starlight]

Bel’Veth in the SG universe, but instead of being a monster to fight, she’s just a member of the school staff who despises Kai’Sa for some unknown reason.

[rebranded-reboks]

Late night Genshin thoughts.

Wanderer with my aforementioned Sagau body mods au makes me so insane. Like originally you befriend eachother because you’re both new and stand out and you travel together and end up settling down somewhere nice. Your live near eachother and soend almost every day together it’s cozy and even domestic and the traveler loves how at peace you make him feel. Wihh you not only does he feel alive but he feels safe like you won’t abandon him ever. You of course know his backstory and always try to reassure him without letting him know what or why you seem to know so much about him and your newfound sumeru friends.

Sagau wanderer who’s obsessed with your safety constantly worried that something or someone will hurt you, will take you away from him. Concerned that something will ruin this domestic peaceful bliss that the two do you have created together.Wanderer who spends so much time with you and knows you so intimately that you are practically eachothers shadows. Wanderer who notices before any of your other friends the changes to your hair and other parts of you that cause you to look more and more like the creator from scripture everyday. Who does the way you react to Teyvat and the way it reacts to you.

Wanderer who deep down knows what and who you are; who pretends everyday that he doesn’t know because if anyone else ever knew you’d be taken away from him. Who pretends he doesn’t know because he’s scared of what you, the most holy would think of someone who attempted to become a god and failed. Would you begin to look down upon him? Would you begin to resent his earlier life’s goal? Wanderer who when he sees your starlight blood knows deep deep down that he can no longer deny who you are. Who knows that no one can ever know about this even if it means whisking you away from the rest of the world. He’ll take the hatred and rage of teyvats god if it means keeping them all to himself.

[ineffabildaddy]

favourite fic lines tag game

thank u @crowleyslvt for sharing this lovely idea and inviting me to do it!!! i’ve started doing it at work cause i’m bored lol. & i greatly enjoyed reading urs @captainblou and @ironriots so tysm for sharing!!!

For as many as you want of your published works, pick your favourite line/paragraph and post it up here. Let yourself feel proud of your creations.

as usual, explicit content incoming!!!

I Know

I know you want to interrupt me in the middle of a stammering sentence and lift your palm to my glowing cheek. I know you want to kiss me, gentle and fond as a fifteen year-old girl who silently watches the moon shimmer on the surface of a lake, shoulder to shoulder with the greatest friend she's ever known.

Flecks of Stardust

When I unmuzzle you

Moist, fertile earth spills out of your mouth

Preserved from the Eden days all these years

Nourished inside you like a measured promise

And when I unleash you

You remain beside the apple tree you were bound to

Beckoning me to bite once again

Strawberry Scripture

They came, in long rolling waves, at once, breaths squeezed out between yeses and fucks and darlings and angels, sweat trickling off skin and heat emanating off scales and fire casting two souls in iron, never again to be melted into separation. Aziraphale's spend leaked from Crowley's cunt and gushed down the plated finish of her thighs when he pulled out, and it was pure, it was good, it was right, it was just.

you’re so golden

For the first time, Crawley entered Aziraphale that night, chest fluttering and palms slick and dick flaring with ardent rhapsodies while Aziraphale rolled his hips again and again, seizing the flesh protecting Crawley's throat into his mouth each time Crawley's head fell back against the bark of the tree. By the time Crawley's dick twitched and streamed inside Aziraphale, every one of the freckles on his tanned shoulders was obscured by obscene purplish marks, which were not in view of either party, but were nevertheless making their presence known by way of pushing aching bursts all the way through to Crawley's bones. Drooling and hazy, Crawley allowed his eyes to buzz back into focus on the sheen of Aziraphale's stretch marks while he caressed Aziraphale's straining shaft, and oh, fuck, Aziraphale's spend was flecked with gold just as his skin was. In that moment, with Aziraphale squirming on Crawley's softening cock and showering his own belly with starlight, the words I love you sprung to Crawley's mind, although Crawley had very little concept of what those words meant.

Despite Knowing Better…

He paused a breathy, open-mouthed pause, and then: "I wish you could see yourself like this. My dirty, gorgeous slut."

Crowley's hips fidgeted. She pushed her ass further upwards and outwards, grinding against the air, against nothing.

"The sight of you, it's... it's nothing short of obscene."

The demon's eyes flew open. They were flooded, inundated, overrun with amber; not a sliver of white could be seen framing her irises. Her lids drooped slightly as she stared up at him. She was drooling so heavily now that streaks of her spit oozed from her mouth even as Aziraphale fucked it. Aziraphale beheld these developments with a laboured, guttural exhalation.

"Come here."

I’m Beginning to See The Light

"'Course, angel. Just need you nice and open for me first." Crowley's lashes lowered and he ran his tongue across his bottom lip as Aziraphale squirmed on Crowley's fingers, grinding his dick against Crowley's thumb. "That's it. Good boy, fuck my fingers, just like that." Aziraphale smashed his face into the pillow as his hips stuttered and he felt his dick throbbing. "Yes, yes, come for me, sweetheart, you were so so hard for me, you must have been that way for hours, bet that must feel good." The sweeping motions of Crowley's hips came to a halt, but resumed when Aziraphale lifted his face again and begged Crowley not to stop, pleaded with him to carry on. Crowley swallowed thickly, meeting Aziraphale's sleep-bleared eyes with his glassy ones as he fulfilled Aziraphale's request. "Fuck, you like it when I do this? Gorgeous boy, darling boy, you're killing me."

-

no pressure tags: @raining-stars-somewhere-else @createserenity @robinwithay @foolishlovers

[orangecatty-shiningnikki]

【 Shining Nikki TW+CN 】 Recharge

【 Shining Nikki TW+CN 】 Recharge

Moonlight Trek and Starlight Odyssey

There are many precious ancient books and scriptures in Tiss's family, but the one that she can't forget the most is the popular and interesting "A Tale of the Wild Night".

Suit Display ::

Original :: Moonlit Trek (星月奇谭)

Recolor :: Starlit Odyssey (星梦奇谭)

Designer :: Priestess Tess (靈女緩絲)

Collection :: View of Wasteland

Rarity :: SR

Attribute :: Fresh

Date :: 27/04—08/05/2023

Type :: Recharge

[lovelessdagger]

Starlight - Chapter 40: After

Pairing: Din Djarin x OC

Rating: Mature

Enemies to Lovers, Slow Burn, Canon Divergence, Smut

WARNINGS: None.

Words: 1.4k

Summary:  Tatooine is the galaxy's own personal hell.

A/N: I suppose this can be considered the final chapter, it is in many respects. I've received many asks about the state of Lumina and Din's relationship, while this ending doesn't say much, I do believe it says everything. The epilogue is next, I am still trying to find the words. I hope I don't disappoint.

Masterlist | Starlight Masterlist | AO3 | Prev | Next

Tatooine is the galaxy’s own personal hell. That much is evident. Emotions once indifferent are now set in carbonite stone. Tatooine is nothing but memory and misery; there is no repentance. Tatooine is a barren wasteland gone to the dogs, and the dogs have died.

Crossing over a sand dune, the Mandalorian leaves heavy prints to track. He walks east towards missing binary suns in the dead of night. 

He wonders about dawn and the possibilities of her unknown light. He cannot stand the sight of stars, finding them to only lead to hell.

Or Tatooine.

He makes way towards a defunct cantina in the distance, a lone figure with a backdrop of sky. It’s a small thing, run down, rotten. The doors open with rusted gears, making him slide in sideways when they freeze.

Tables remain unmoved, flooring worse for wear, half stripped. Some seating is tossed about, booths torn. Dust is visible, windows boarded shut.

At the seventh table lays a rifle leaned against the wood and an empty chair. He glances behind to the entrance.

He doesn’t remember it all being so much bigger than him.

---

Tatooine’s horizon is the edge of the universe and Lumina is alone. The wind is chilling, dying blows signal the aftermath of a storm. She tugs her cloak tighter. Humming soft under her breath, her legs dangle off the cantina’s back roof.

She looks down, flicking a half burnt cigarette.

“You can’t die from this height.” A voice from behind.

“I know,” she replies over the wind. She turns her wrist. Soreness remains even after bacta. After the first time, Fennec said she was lucky it only sprained. Lumina still isn’t sure if she agrees.

She looks back at her guest, the Mandalorian tall and not so proud. “Care to join me?”

His steps are heavy, his boots drag along the cemented roof and grating piling of sand. He sits beside her without any real poise, swinging his own cape back.

“I can’t say I like what you’ve done with the place,” he says.

“Boba bought the building and shut it down. Was his first major purchase after gaining control of the territory. Won’t tell me what the plan is, but it seems positive.”

“Positive?”

“There’s a lot you can do in the middle of no where.”

He agrees. “There is… so why are you here?”

She shrugs. “Why are you?”

He gives no answer.

“You shouldn’t smoke,” Din says instead. “Bad for you.”

She takes a purposeful drag. “I want to give you something.” Lumina digs through the satchel on her left, rummaging past her saber hilt, a lightbulb, and a newly etched data pad. In her gloved hand she presents a large shard of emerald glass. “Here.”

“What is it?”

“Flip it over.”

He does just that, his hands cautious in touching hers and the object of question. Heavier than he suspected, Din turns the hoax gem. The front is an encased remnant bedrock chiseled with a distinct Mando’a inscription.

“Is it…”

“Real? Far as I can tell, yeah.” Lumina runs her index finger over the letters. “Do you know what it says?”

Din gives a half nod, not strong enough to be a statement of commitment, but severely lacking in denial. “It’s scripture,” he says eventually. “We learn of tales of the Mand’alors of past. The formation of the Creed, the strength of our planet, our people. This looks like part of the story of the Taung—the original Mandalorians, it was my favorite. They were forced away from their original home on Coruscant and found solace on Mandalore. This section, it tells of how they felt a calling to the world. Something they couldn’t explain.”

“Sounds like the Force,” Lumina says.

“Where did you get this?”

“Jawas,” she answers. “I went to Peli’s to return the ship I took. Total coincidence they were there too.” Her lips press together, she tosses the cigarette butt off the edge. “I wouldn’t have reached out but—well they’re your people, not mine. Mand’alor.”

Din nods again, though overall more sure. “Thank you.”

The issue of the helmet, the reveal, lingers in the air.

She asks, “Have you spoken to your people since—”

“No.”

“I see.”

“I know what they’ll say. I’ll be excommunicated… any credibility I have with the Darksaber will be gone.”

“Then you do want it?”

Din hesitates. “Bo-Katan—” he begins to say.

“Is a threat unrealized. That’s what Fennec says.” 

“What do you think?”

“That you should keep an eye on her. She’s hiding more than she lets on. The Darksaber is in your possession now. In a way, you are king. Be wise.”

“Even with this”—Din waves the glass—“there’s no telling if it’s habitable. And if it is, Mandalore hasn’t had a monarch since before I was a foundling.”

“Then they’ll have no expectations.”

“What if I don’t want this?” Din asks. “I’m hardly a mandalorian anymore. This may not be my path.”

“The Force connected you to that sword for a reason,” Lumina says. “You need to restore your faith.”

He snorts. “In the Force?”

“In yourself.”

After a beat Din says, “So what’s the real reason you called me?”

Lumina could choose to be astounded by his attunement to her, a superficial everlasting trait it seems. But on occasion, in the two weeks passed since their last meeting, his words have grown a habit of circling.

Knowing forever is quite the promise, but Din carries loyalty to his own demise with honor.

“I’m leaving tomorrow,” she says. She lights another cigarette. “For good.”

His breathing stops, his hand tenses, his posture shifts. Lumina closes her eyes, inhaling deep through the Force. Her mind is too clouded, she wants to act rationally. She wants to be cordial. A diplomat. Express a gratitude for positive relations and nobility. Proclaim allegiance on behalf of Tatooine to all of Mandalore.

Or she could close up. Bid farewell and leave at that.

Neither feels correct.

“I can’t shake this feeling that there’s something out there,” Lumina says. “Something bigger than any of us realize. It’s more than the Empire. The things Gideon was doing to me… there’s a reason. He may have failed, but with my capture he proved his goals were possible. It’s only a matter of time until someone picks up where he left off. And when that comes, I don’t know how we’ll win.”

“You’re scared of another war,” Din says.

Lumina swallows, cringing at the lump in her throat. “Not just another war. Another clone war, only this time they’re all like me. I have to do what I can.”

The Mandalorian removes his helmet under the moonlight, placing it to the side. He takes a smoke from Lumina’s pack, waiting until she lights the drug to speak. “Where are you going?”

“I don’t know yet. I’m cashing in a promise I’m owed, so wherever the Force takes me.”

He nods. “Will I ever see you again?”

Her head tips back, she looks into the night. The moons and stars are a fragile crystal setting. Wind blows the line out of view. “You’ll see me everywhere,” then, “I’ll see you too. I think it’s the will of the Force that we’re stuck together.”

She can barely hear his response, were she not herself she wouldn’t hear it at all. But it comes, a soft passing through his lips.

“Good.”

The moons reflect beautifully off Din’s armor, symbolic in a way. Bringing her glimmers of light at the universes edge. A performance of intangible wonder for her eyes only. She leans against his shoulder. He’s warm, despite it all.

His lips press against the top of her head.

“I love you,” Din mumbles into her scalp. Three little words finally said.

She smiles, halfway. “I know.” And then, “I love you too.”

Above their heads a white bird soars across the stars. It calls a song and Lumina looks away at her feet off the edge. A small ebony snake slithers along the roofing.

“Darasuum,” she says. “Right?”

His agreement is repetition. “Darasuum.”

Forever.

For the first time, Lumina thinks Tatooine may not be so bad after all. It isn’t great, few things are, but in the aftermath of apocalypse wastelands can still bloom.

Impossible life has been created before, it can again.

She is proof.

A wave of relief rushes through the planets wind. A renewal, in a way.

Life is separated into two eras.

Before: Living sustained on betrayals and manipulated promises. The Empire, the Sith, the Machine.

After: Her. After there are stars and orchids and auroras. There is rebirth. There is hope.

There is more than the legacy of Anakin Skywalker.

Lumina is sure of it.

This has all happened before. It was inevitable. Nothing has changed.

----

Epilogue: Starlight

----

Taglist: @lexloon​ @jay-bel​ @xsadderdazeforeverx​ @spideysimpossiblegirl​ @sarahjkl82-blog​ @annoyinglythoughtfuldestiny​ @hello-th3r3​

[soulmythos]

INTRODUCING... SEVERED DAWN, SUNDERED NIGHT

— summary. — set in the soul mythos — adult fantasy space opera when vitoria is resurrected after a century adrift in space, she must find a way to unshackle her imprisoned gods before the monstrous plague beasts that destroyed her world infest the divines. all the while, the heretic who chained the gods whispers temptation, urging her to kill the deities she seeks to save.

pinterest board | lyrical playlist | instrumental playlist

— word count. — currently drafting — 10,070 of ~100,000

— contains. a main character with chronic pain, queer enemies to lovers, a prophet who suffers the wounds of her bloody visions, fantasy religion, cities within worm-leviathans, beasts that scribe runes on brains to birth more of their kind, a heretic who imprisoned the gods and now seeks to kill them, a fairytale-like journey to forge a weapon that will destroy divinity, and two dumbasses bickering about theology as they fall in love for 100,000 words.

— aesthetic. a forest of eternal ash, white flame flickers in a silver censer, leatherbound scriptures drape from a belt, beasts of void and tooth, a prophet born of the sea wreathed in starlight, an iron fortress spires into lightning-corded heavens, lungs heavy with incense, a sainted sanctuary amongst the cosmos, and the terror of starved gods infested with plague.

— plotline and visuals.

THE TOVAZOTH + THE SRASZA — a century after her death in the final battle for her world, vitoria is resurrected by her gods. she wakes to maroth, the heretic who imprisoned the divines, and he makes her an offer: kill the gods with him and take what they leave behind. vitoria refuses and returns to a people who have lost faith. she struggles to unite them against the plague beasts threatening their deities, and as she protects mortaldom’s final sanctuary, she is increasingly drawn to the heretic who continues to appear to her and the power they can provide her. — main characters. — Vitorael of Vyserth: 121, she/her — Maroth: ~1,000, he/they

— tag list. let me know if you'd like to be added to the tag list!

[winx-orbis-alius]

【 At first...

At first there was nothing and then there was something. A spark arose from the primordial void and the will to life quickly overcame the passivity of nothingness, like a flame that consumed everything in its path, thus our story began.

The four beings that shaped the universe arose in an explosion, the Supreme Dragon that gave us life and taught us about the excitement of beginnings; the Supreme Leviathan who gave us reasoning and pushed our curiosity for knowledge; the Great Phoenix who consoled us in death and taught us the value of endings; the Great Kraken who protected us above all and helped us not to fear the unknown.

Traveling the universe beyond its limitations, after creating, protecting and destroying in an endless cycle, they decided to return to the cradle of their birth only to find a planet they never saw. The remains of their birth gave birth to a precious planet and on that planet they obtained a daughter.

Magna Heka was the only one who knew about their names, she gave us the Fyrcerix. With it, she modified and bound the universe to her wishes.】

... that's what the remains of the Holy Scriptures and all religious texts say before they vary in 784621 main versions with at least 3 different versions each.

The Supreme Dragon, deity of Life

Associated with the elements fire and air.

In the moments before his Dream he returned to Domino, the ruling family decided to create their palace over his resting place to protect him, in gratitude they received the Dragon Flame, all royal descendants have possessed a 'Spark' ever since, whoever proves plus this power is known as Bonfire.

It is said that he is sleeping to obtain the necessary energy capable of destroying the universe when the time comes.

The Supreme Leviathan, deity of Knowledge

Associated with the elements water and air.

After his friend's Dream, he returned to Ildathach, where he deposited all the knowledge he obtained throughout his journey and stayed by the side of the Regent Princess Áine, with whom he eventually fell in love. Deciding to abandon his great power, Leviathan took the form of a faewyrd to stay with his beloved. From time to time, his essence reincarnates in one of his descendants.

It is said that to dispose of her body, he made every faewyrd on the planet eat his flesh and drink his blood.

The Great Phoenix, deity of Death

Associated with the elements fire and earth.

When all his friends decided their fates, he left the universe on a lonely journey, his tears of sadness turned into comets that travel the entire universe in search of a sign of the return of his most beloved friends.

It is rumored that he left a Feather of his own on every living planet so that if a planet lost its fyrcerix it would have a chance to be reborn.

The Great Kraken, deity of Mystery

Associated with the elements water and earth.

It is rumored that he still waits for his friends in the depths of Andros, creating a drop of ink for each day to pass the time, the water no longer clear around him.

Members of the royal family became her guardians, her main Guardian being the only one with the ability to use the Kraken Drop.

Magna Heka, deity of Fyrcerix

Associated with the elements of fire and water, her maidens were associated with the elements of earth and air.

Only known daughter of the Four Supreme Deities, first user of fyrcerix and source of it, ordered the universe so that it would not have to depend on her or her parents, was the one who brought the Starlight to Solaria from where they spread across the rest of the universe.

Her whereabouts are unknown but there are rumors that she entered the Legendary Dimension.

[umbry-fic]

[Additional] Memory

Summary: [Another] story, of a time that came after the end.

After giving up her heart and her memories to become a true angel, Colette wakes up in a strange world she doesn't recognise.

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia, Arcaea Characters: Colette Brunel, Hikari Rating: T Word Count: 4783 Mirror Link: AO3 Original Post Date: 29/09/2023

Notes+Warnings: This was a fun little idea I've had for a long time. Spoilers for the entirety of Arcaea's main story, and for the Sylvarant arc of Tales of Symphonia. This fic takes place in a mash-up of Silent Answer Ending A and Silent Answer Ending B, long after the events of new Paradise(memory=null). But I think enough context is given here that you don't need to know Arcaea or read the previous fic to understand this one. Though this fic does spoil the previous one! In general, Colette is the main focus here.

Title from Additional Memory by Jin, which heavily inspired this story. (TW for suicide. Once again, I'm reminded how much Ayano is like Colette.)

~~~

Heavy eyelids opened to a blindingly white world.

She gazed at the sky that stretched out endlessly above her - a sky that was searingly bright and utterly empty, unlike anything she’d ever known. Not a cloud in sight, and there was no hint of a sun to be found. Yet there was light, so much that it almost burned, coming from some unseen source.

It took a while of staring blankly, her arms folded neatly upon her chest, hair trapped beneath her back, for a few questions to sluggishly fight their way to the surface of her mind. Questions she pondered, turning over and over in her head as she periodically tried to blink the brightness away. It reminded her of something, but she couldn’t quite recall what.

Where was she? What was she doing here? Who was she to begin with?

It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, it could have been days, that she spent lying there doing nothing but thinking before the memories returned. But return they did, rushing back in a torrential wave that trapped her in its relentless pull, submerging her beneath its wrathful force.

A dying world, fuelled by the pitiful remnants of mana that had crackled and drained with each second that passed. A sacred duty handed down by Heaven, branding her as the saviour of that rapidly deteriorating world, gifting her wings that shimmered in the starlight and stole all of her dreams from her. All those she had met on her journey, the offered hands she had clasped, smiling and praying that they would meet with fortune as she walked steadily towards her own demise.

The people she'd left behind, the shape of them held dear in her heart. The boy with an exuberant grin that had turned into desperate pleas at the end, begging her not to leave as she’d torn herself away.

Colette Brunel choked on nothing as she realised that she was arranged like the dozens of failed Chosens she had seen in the tower, floating and circling the stairs that had led up into the heavens. Silent and serene in death, unable to utter another word ever again. All that was missing was the coffin to complete the scene.

Scrambling to her knees, the illusion of idle silence utterly shattered, she scratched at her neck, at the gold that wrapped around her throat and the red, red, red -

Her nails met soft skin, nearly piercing through in her frenzy. There was nothing there. The smooth surface of the Cruxis Crystal, which she'd gotten used to running her fingers over to pass the long, quiet nights, was gone.

She didn’t know whether to be relieved as she shakily rose to her feet, her tongue tasting like ash, the mana that usually pooled in her back gone, leaving nothing but a void behind. She’d had her wings for less than a year, yet she felt naked without them. Weak and vulnerable in this strange place.

She'd known she would be leaving everything and everyone behind once she released the final seal, but this...

This wasn't Heaven. At least, not the one written about in the scriptures that the priests had always preached about - a paradise born from the kindness of the Goddess, where no suffering could be found and no judgement would ever be meted.

But didn't that mean...

Vehemently shoving that thought away, she set out with hesitant steps.

It would do no good to stay in this one spot forever.

~~~

In her past hours of walking, she had concluded that she was no longer in Sylvarant. Nor was she in Tethe’alla, the place she had once thought of as the moon but had learned was another world lying parallel to her home.

It was a strange world she travelled, what seemed like dust crunching beneath her heels with every step. Devoid of the sun and the moon, the sky itself alive, a writhing mass of what she thought were shards of glass - a roiling sea that refused to be tamed. Everything lacked colour, as if it had been purposely drained, shades of grey smothering every surface.

It was always quiet. Far too quiet. She couldn't be certain whether she'd retained her angel senses, but there wasn't a sound to be heard but her footsteps, the only noise in her head that of her growing panic, doing its very best to claw its way out. There were no signs of life, and she passed nothing but the occasional ruins - buildings that had once been grand but had crumbled to their very foundations.

Professor Raine would have loved it here.

The sudden thought made her come to an abrupt stop, her heart clenching and tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.

She was pulled out of her head when a section of the sky fell, pieces of glass breaking away from the flock to approach her, prompting a small gasp to escape her lips. Reaching out with a cautious hand, she flinched when they skirted out of reach, before slowly, slowly floating closer again.

They reminded her, inexplicably, of skittish birds. Like the pair of nestlings Lloyd had rescued from high up in a tree, on a winter morning when she had still been the same height as him, back when their shoulders always brushed whenever they walked side-by-side. The two of them had taken care of the nestlings until the warm winds of spring arrived, heralding the melting of the icicles that clung to her windowsill. At the very beginning, before they’d warmed up to the two of them, Lloyd had constantly gotten his fingers nipped by their beaks. He’d scowled, and she’d giggled and soothed his stinging skin, and -

This time, when she opened her eyes, it was to tears trailing down her cheeks, gasping sobs filling her chest and leaving no space for breaths. Blankly, she registered that the glass had surrounded her, images flickering on their shimmering surfaces, like the strange magi-technology in the human ranches that had reflected impossible scenes on their bright screens.

With how much they swirled around her, it was hard to make out anything from the discordant images. Nothing much - except for a flash of a red sleeve, and the echo of a familiar laugh that wound a string tight around her heart.

She couldn’t help but reach out once more, her hand shaking, even knowing that the cracks in her heart would only spread with each memory she revisited. But then, perhaps it was better this way, that she would be the only one to remember those happy times, now forever shadowed.

Her life had come to an end, bringing the tale of the Chosen to a close. Not the tale of Colette Brunel, for it had never existed in the first place. Her story was one wherein her own existence was forbidden.

Sylvarant would never remember that a girl named Colette Brunel had existed. All that would remain in their memory was the saviour, an angel that would be revered in their history as a blessing delivered unto them from the Heavens. And no matter how much it hurt, she prayed that those closest to her would do the same. That their memories would fade into a dull gray, until it became second nature to brush it aside.

Still, she reached out, straining to reach with her fingertips, desperation flooding her heart.

The shard shot out of reach, and like the fool she was, she stumbled after it. It kept a tantalisingly perfect distance from her - close enough for her to think she could grab ahold of it if she was just a little faster, and far enough that she was forced to follow its strange, winding path, heading for destinations unknown. Even knowing she had sacrificed all of herself to give the ones she loved a chance to create new memories, she still could not bear to let go.

Was this her punishment? Surely she must have failed, must have overlooked some small detail that had caused the ritual of regeneration to come crashing down at her feet, displacing her from Sylvarant and throwing her into this desolate world that found itself with not a single seed of life. She must not have toiled hard enough, must not have carried the weight of the hopes and dreams of the land well enough, must not have…

She must have made a mistake along the way, the fault of which lay entirely with her.

“I can die without any regrets…”

A whisper, mocking her.

What a masterful liar she’d been, able to fool even herself.

~~~

A lone girl clothed entirely in white stood in the silent halls of a grand church, a shard of scarlet red hovering over her open palm. More shards swirled around her, whispering in her ears as they flowed at the edges of her dress, almost as if to lengthen it, to make it trail against the cold stone.

"So she'll arrive soon," Hikari mumbled, paying no heed to the shards and their behaviour. She stared intently into the shimmering surface of the shard of red, almost a twin to the one that had freed her soul from the shackles of lethargic apathy, that she had pressed close to her chest with shaking hands as she’d shut her eyes against the blinding white. Contained within was the memory of the girl whose soul this world of Arcaea had just ensnared. The memory of Colette Brunel - every decision she’d made, every secret she’d kept, everything that defined her and formed the core of her identity.

Normally, she wouldn’t have paid any attention when another lost soul found its way here to live out a second chance. There had been so many, falling through the cracks in the boundaries of this world she had created from a lonely wish. It was not much of a second chance they would encounter, robbed of their memories and unlikely to run into another soul, unable to escape this place that existed outside of time. There was nothing much Arcaea could offer but hollow glimpses of other worlds, other times, other memories where one could only play the role of the outsider, never able to breach the gap. Left to stew in solitude that dug claws into their skin and dragged them downwards, most fell into the abyss of madness, and she cared not to witness their descent. So she turned a blind eye and kept to herself, caring only for her own machinations.

But this girl… She had not truly died, and yet an echo of her had appeared regardless, her memories intact and locked tight in her heart.

Something compelled her to meet with this strange aberration. For she could understand the terrible weight of memories, countless regrets pressing down on one’s shoulders until it buried them.

Whenever she closed her eyes, she could still see Tairitsu’s wide eyes, their light fading as the sword gripped tightly in Hikari’s hand pierced through her stomach. She could still see Tairitsu’s smile, sad and knowing, on every copy’s face as it cracked and shattered on that very same blade, driven into a body painstakingly crafted from glass.

The same events had repeated tens, hundreds, thousands of times. She had long since lost count of how many times she had reconstructed the girl with the curious eyes and a kind smile, how many times she had ended her short life, for Tairitsu never, ever wanted to stay, hand always outstretched towards the truth hiding beyond the horizon. She could not bear to listen to the hatred that would surely twist that sweet voice if the truth came to light, but neither could she bear to never gaze upon that lovely smile again.

It had become routine long ago.

Even then, something in her heart twisted every time her sword found its target.

~~~

An awed gasp left Colette as she craned her head up to drink in the sight of the church before her, the matter of the shard she’d been chasing forgotten for the time being.

It was a massive building topped with an elegant spire that reached tall and proud towards the sky, a far grander structure than the Martel Temple she’d known all her life. It was gorgeous, yet even here, there seemed to be no life to its stone, its entrance dark and cold. Her gaze wandered to the stained glass windows that decorated the top, disappearing around a curve, depicting angels. Perfect angels standing with rigid backs, neatly folded wings and impassive faces, as if they had been sculpted from stone.

Tearing her gaze away from a reminder of all that she was not, she began to cautiously make her way into the church, inching between the piers and melting into long shadows. Approaching the girl that waited at its end, still as a statue.

With each step she took, her heart thundered louder in her ears, sweat forming on her palms, knowing that pale pink eyes were trained on her and had not left her once.

She recognized the madness that swam within them, enough to make her want to turn tail and run. It was not the cruel inferno that had resided within the Grand Cardinals, fuelled by the suffering of others, its tongues licking away at hope until it burned to ash. It was the empty gaze of those that had buckled beneath the crushing weight of despair, a bone-chilling brokenness lurking behind it. Not an inferno, no, but a simmering flame that could easily consume all if allowed to grow.

Not to mention the glass spinning around the girl, an unquenchable hurricane following an unknown rhythm. The shard that had led Colette here had long since disappeared among its fellows, and she had no hope of picking it out from among them. The horde followed the other girl’s every movement, crowning her in glory, as she finally moved. Her white dress swirled around her legs, the strange, sharp contraptions floating by her side snapping into place by her shoulders - mechanical wings that flared behind her.

Here too, in the flesh, were graceful angels, carrying themselves with hardened steel in their spines.

"You've arrived," she whispered, raising her head, a strand of pale hair slipping to rest on the pink rose on her shoulder. "Welcome."

Taking a deep breath, Colette pulled herself upright, certain that every action she took now might determine her fate. This could be an opportunity to learn the truth, to find out how she’d ended up here. Or it could spell her doom once more, the raw power hiding beneath the surface of the other girl poised to explode at any moment.

"Who are you? And… where am I?" she asked, taking care to ensure her voice didn’t shake, the expression on her face smoothing into blankness from years of practice.

“My name is Hikari.” The answer was given to her easily, lips curving into a smile. “And this is a world of memories.”

Memories? Genis would have scoffed and exclaimed the impossibility of everything, yet she was inclined to believe the words fed to her, continuing to search for a single shard among dozens.

“Let me show you.”

That was all the warning she got before an iron grip wrenched her wrist up, those pink eyes now inches from her face. Hissing in pain, she tried to pull away, but was unable to do anything as a single shard shoved itself against her fingertips, a shock of cold slamming into her body.

The world around her warped, greys turning into vibrant green as the heady scent of soil flooded her senses -

The cicadas chirped lazily in the hazy darkness that clung to the space between trees, streaking over sturdy bark and painting them almost black.

Lloyd made a soft sound in his throat when her hand found his, their fingers slotting together as perfectly as they had when he'd first grabbed her hand outside the schoolhouse, grinning as bright as the sun, on the day they’d met.

If she closed her eyes, she could still see the light of the oracle superimposed against her eyelids. Blinding white light that signalled the end of life as she knew it, curtains falling on the daydream she'd lived all this time.

When tomorrow arrives...

"Just so we don't get lost," she whispered, not wanting to disrupt the sanctity of the soon-coming night, the sky still painted with messy strokes of pink and orange.

It was a ridiculous thing to say, a feeble excuse that didn't hold a candle to the lies upon lies she'd already told in the short life she’d lived. She'd walked this path between Lloyd's home and Iselia hundreds, perhaps thousands of times. She could count the exact number of steps needed, knew where to jump over roots that had burrowed through the ground, and knew where to duck to avoid low-hanging branches.

She just didn't want to let go.

Those russet eyes she so loved held a question in them, but he didn't voice it. He only squeezed her hand, his laughter filling the silence, a sound she soaked in, desperate to memorise.

"I won't let you get lost, silly."

She pressed closer to him, savouring the warmth that radiated from his side as they walked ever closer to an ending that couldn't be avoided. Trying to commit to memory the shape of him, unable to bring herself to curse the weakness that had led her to get this close in the first place.

At the end of the path, she told him she would see him again tomorrow, the lie burning her tongue. The words she truly wanted to say stayed locked in her heart, a truth she couldn't divulge for fear of breaking his.

Another promise she would have to shatter.

A goodbye, even if he didn't know it.

The sensations faded as she crashed to her knees, shivering uncontrollably, staring unseeing at what once was a forest and now was the drab floor of a church she’d been standing in minutes ago. Or… What felt like minutes ago. In truth, barely any time had passed at all, Hikari still standing a hair’s breadth away, having let go of her wrist.

It had been so vivid, nothing like her own recollections of precious moments, which seemed so pitiful now. It was like she'd just turned sixteen again, making preparations to leave everything she’d known behind to set out on a journey that she wasn’t certain she would survive. Not yet possessing the knowledge that Lloyd would chase after her, again and again, all the way to the end of her preordained fate.

The words she’d wished so much to say that day were still on the tip of her tongue, and she swallowed them down with the bitter taste of reality, salt stark against her lips.

"This is a world of memories," Hikari repeated as she lowered herself to Colette’s level, the gentleness of her voice sending a shudder down her spine. The shards had come to a complete stop, floating at irregular intervals around the two of them - the calm before the storm. “And I have the power to gift you paradise.”

“Paradise…?”

Naked yearning dripped from her voice, unable to be held back, as her fingers absentmindedly rubbed against the red marks left on her wrist, the physical sensation clashing with the ghostly echo of warmth lingering on her palm. It felt as if her chest had been split open, leaving her heart to bleed all over the floor from its jagged, open wound.

She had once thought that to give up one’s heart until no tears could fall and nothing could bring a smile to one’s face was the worst fate that could befall a person. Yet perhaps it had been a blessing all along, one that had slipped through her fingers. It would mean never having to experience this torment, enough to sunder her heart in two as she witnessed all that she had left behind. From the very beginning, she’d been nothing more than a coward, secretly glad that she would die at the end - for death should have spared her from this.

"It hurts, does it not?" The whispers seemed to come from all around her, despite the fact that Hikari hadn't shifted, her hand raising to cup Colette’s cheek, soaked in tears. The surface of each shard rippled in time with her words, thorns of fear pricking at Colette’s skin at the veneer of kindness presented to her, her breath catching in her throat. "To remember. Those who come here never do. It must hurt, to know that you can never return."

"You can live again," she offered. "I can make a world for you, one where you can be happy, where you will never need to remember all that burdened you in your past life. You have already given up so much. Do you not at least deserve to let go of all that pains you?"

Sitting at a table with a pencil in hand, pondering her math homework as Lloyd snoozed beside her, sunlight filtering through the window and illuminating the dust motes that danced in the air. She nudged him with a shoulder, giggles bubbling from her throat as his only response was to mumble something under his breath. Reaching for her phone, still blowing up with messages wishing her a happy sixteenth birthday, she wondered what tomorrow would bring…

The scene faded slowly this time, bit by bit. The wood of the table, covered in pencil scratches caused by clumsy hands. The sky outside the window, a lovely blue that signified a perfect day. The cosy room, filled with the dreams of a child, whose only consideration for the future was a mild curiosity over what it would bring.

It was perfect - a lovely dream that stabbed yet another dagger into her heart.

“Living a normal life… Isn't that what you've always wished for?"

There it was, the wish she had locked away long ago, the key rusty and lost. A wish she had attempted to forget by surrounding herself with the warmth of her friends. It was tempting, to accept the offer given to her for no price at all, to finally be given a reprieve from the ache deep in her soul. And yet…

She remembered a teacher who had known of her fate, and had done her best to give her a fulfilling life. A young elf who had been unfairly chased from his home, and had displayed such bravery over the course of their journey. A mercenary who never spoke much, but had given her advice on how to weather the angelic transformation. An assassin, who had cared so much for a world that wasn’t even her own.

Most of all, she remembered a boy who had never cared about her role, who had torn through the facades she put up and reached the scared girl hidden beneath.

"I can't." The words slipped out, Hikari’s stare turning frigid as she dropped her hand, shifting away. Perhaps she was sealing her fate, but she couldn’t stop the words from spilling out of her, tripping inelegantly over each other. "I can’t forget what I’ve been through, nor the choices I’ve made. These memories, no matter how painful, are still precious to me.” She shook her head, fingers tightening on the fabric of her clothes. “I don’t want to forsake the truth for an illusion. That would mean dishonouring all the sacrifices that came before me.”

"If this is to be my punishment for not being a good enough Chosen," she whispered, smiling sadly, "then I accept it. I will bear this burden. And I will sin no further by seeking reprieve."

The air itself seemed to turn solid all of a sudden, forcing her prone to the ground with heaving gasps. Above her, shards sliced through the air, faster and faster, until it drowned out all other sounds. She could only watch, words escaping her, as the walls and the ceiling itself unfurled into ribbons of glass, spiralling away to reveal the sky and all that remained of the grand church that had once stood in this very location - broken pillars and scattered rubble.

"You have your wish, then," Hikari hissed, a burning rage erupting from within her that matched the turbulent motion of the shards. "You will not be remembered, and you will never be able to leave. Those precious memories of yours will haunt you for the rest of time. If you so desire to gaze upon the truth, then you may have it."

With a dismissive flick, a single red shard materialised in the air, hovering just within Colette’s reach. She stared at it with wide eyes, watching her own image reflected on its surface.

“May it bring you fortune, Chosen One.”

In the distance, footsteps echoed.

And then there was nothing but blissful silence.

~~~

The truth. What was so appealing about it that people simply could not avert their eyes? It had brought her nothing but pain. To cling to it seemed absurd.

Was happiness not a good enough reason to forsake the truth? Those had been the very words she’d told Tai, over and over again, yet Tai would always find her way to the church, and she would always remember. And she would always die by Hikari’s hands - an inviolable rule of this world, one that she couldn’t bend despite the power she yielded.

The girl she’d left in the ruins of that very same church was similar to Tai, in a way. They had suffered all their life, yet still, they pushed on with a smile, refusing to yield, strength hidden behind soft words and a demure face.

Hikari came to a stop, knowing not where her feet had carried her. It mattered not.

How many days, months, years had it been since she'd first awoken here, surrounded by shards of Arcaea depicting nothing but joy? So much of it that she’d gotten drunk on it, only for it to drive her to the brink of losing herself in its overwhelming brightness.

The girl would shatter, the instant she realised that wonderful "truth". All she had done was for a lie, and in another time, another world, Colette Brunel had already awoken from her curse, clutching a precious birthday present close.

This one was nothing but a copy. Even then, the pain she felt was real. But it was too late to save her. There was nothing to be done but to wait to pick up the pieces.

For now... for now, she would simply make preparations. Her heart sang a single wish, a wish to see that gentle smile framed by black locks once more. She yearned to feel the warmth of Tai’s palm pressed against her own.

She had missed Tai’s embrace so very, very much.

~~~

A few shards of glass remained in the ruins of a church, unheard whispers spreading amongst themselves as they watched the newest arrival - another girl, drowning in grief she couldn’t control. Just as they had watched every other girl, so too would they watch this one, observing the tragedy of her story as it unfolded.

They watched as she reached out with trembling fingers for a singular scarlet shard, hugging it close to her chest. Her grip was so tight that the shard cut into her fingers, causing more red to trail down her arms in a trickling river.

They watched as she raised her gaze towards the sky, perhaps to catch sight of the twinkling stars that had been her companion for many a sleepless night. But there were no stars to be found here, in this strange, alien world. There would be no opportunity to count them, as a gruff voice disguising kindness had told her to do. There would be nothing to refer to as she recounted the stories that had been whispered to her on rooftops, by a gentle boy whose cheeks had been kissed by the cold. There would be no crackling of the fire, no soft breaths coming from Genis as he slumbered next to his sister. There would be no scent of miso soup, still wafting from the thoroughly emptied pot that Sheena had laboured over.

They listened in silence as she began to softly sing, her voice carrying through the air. A hymn, praying for salvation from an ever-benevolent Goddess.

They did not respond, continuing to churn in eternal silence. A song heard by no one, swallowed up by this endless world.

There would be no salvation, now and forevermore.

[league-of-starlight]

Xayah’s team:

Xayah:

Still sarcastic but redeemed, Xayah is now focused on trying to find Rakan.

She’s not entirely sure what to say if when she finds him. She’ll probably call him an idiot and they’ll go out for dinner.

She’s a little softer with her team, but will deny it whenever someone brings it up.

Xayah tends to keep her distance from her Horner teammates. Too much baggage for now, you know?

Orianna:

The best student out of the group. She is the only reason they haven’t flunked out because of their SG work.

Can be a bit comically serious. Her and Seraphine have a fun dynamic.

Dances in her room.

Reads the Battle Academia Manga.

Senna:

Acts as Xayah's lieutenant with strategies. With that said: Hit it with everything we have is a viable strategy in her books.

Keeps in touch with her boyfriend, Lucian. He knows about the SG thing.

Has given a book report on Forbidden Flame. She got the best grade in the class and she has it framed as bragging rights.

Seraphine:

Has a crush on the punk rock girl in class. (Scratch.) They practice together sometimes.

The one who hates keeping her identity secret the most. Especially from her dad.

Brings a sense of levity for the group.

Also reads the Battle Academia Manga.

[pscicicdragon001]

Some new locations that we made for the AU! These locations are in Orbit/the afterlife :))

The River of Memory - in leu of the previous idea of memory lanterns/life scriptures, we came up with a river that, when looked in to, reveals to the user the memories of their past life before they died. Mega put this in place some time after the events of the cataclysm as she was creating the afterlife copies of the physical realms, putting it in the Starlight Desert. This helps spirits and Elders alike from forgetting who they are, as Mega knew it would be quite some time before she could resume reincarnation

The Sea of Stars - this is the sort of in-between in Orbit, the cosmic ocean that surrounds the realms of the afterlife. There are very few to no islands in this shimmering curtain, one of which houses Adina and his family. It's pretty much just your standard sea, save for the fact that it seems almost completely compromised of softly shining sparkles suspended in an endless void of deep cosmic blues

[chronicbeans]

A Random Fact About Each Iolite Hospital Character:

Aluminum: He has joint pain from his medication, so he sometimes wears knee and wrist braces.

Dr. Cogsworth: He and Dr. Baxter dated at one point after Baxter asked him out. He kinda misses those times, but he felt bad due to his difficulty showing affection or recognizing his emotions.

Dr. Baxter: He's scared of thunder, cars, dogs, basically anything that can be loud.

Maya: She's scared of water. Most Landsharks physically can't swim, though, so her fear is mostly from instinct.

Derek: He sleeps in a nest made of hay. Cow People prefer the feeling of hay to a mattress when sleeping indoors, since it reminds them of the feeling of grass/the ground, which they are meant to sleep on.

Johnny Doe: He has hyperacusis, or a reduced tolerance to sounds. Normal sounds seem too loud and annoying, while loud ones can be painful. He's stressed by this, a lot of the time, which is why he eats a lot (including the things his pica causes him to eat). It helps him calm down. He hasn't mentioned it because he thinks his sound intolerance is normal.

Father Cosmos: It is very flirtatious, which might seem unbecoming of a priest. However, due to the fact that everyone in this world only knows about Christianity and any human religion due to the religious scriptures falling into the world without context, their version of Christianity, Judaism, and such are very different than the human versions. This is made extra difficult due to it being the only person following Christianity. It believes that it is okay for a religious leader of Christianity to be flirtatious, due to it having no other role model to follow.

Chef Starlight: Her favorite texture of food is crunchy. She can eat her favorite food, void chips, for days. The only reason why she doesn't do so is because void chips are extremely unhealthy and she doesn't want to be a bad role model for the patients.

Dr. Clown: She tries to keep everyone's spirits up by holding a magic show every Sunday and Saturday. She also makes balloon animals and balloon teeth, face paints, and tells knock-knock jokes.

[nvrcmplt]

"I'm not in the mood to pretend to be whatever I am not- and I can assure you, I am not anything you are thinking I could be." Miryin stares at the other with hollow, unfeeling eyes of pitch and violet, unblinking, unmoving. Its head cocks, and every minute detail about its appearance seems to shift ever so slightly, just like the fog smearing the surrounding landscape. Its hair wafts out behind it like a sentient being, glimmering with cold starlight. When it draws in a breath, its entire frame blurs into a mess of could-have-beens, and for a nauseating moment it has too many arms, too many eyes, too many mouths, too much and yet nothing. In the next, it is back to standing straight and tall. And still that unnerving gaze remains. A filigree claw hooks directly under the other's chin, though the creature had not appeared to move at all. "Ask me what I am and I'll tell you. Otherwise," it bends down close, its voice ebbing out into a disembodied whisper, "I suggest you forget you ever saw me."

Of the two creatures - who could say which was more holy and more demonic? It was nigh impossible with how the world seemed to be bending under their feet and the skies cracking from their collision. As if an immovable object finally hit an unstoppable force. The axis of the Earth - the shifting of the moon phases, the twinkling stars --- all of them, held their breath.

Touch like ghosts and the void staring back of him, Alistair remained still and polite, staring where his eyes could see through the mass of writhing shadows - as tempting as it was to play with each curl or slither of something akin to the Devil's Serpent, he knew not to touch. This was not a display of humour -- it was a display of something more. A silencing - as if they too knew just what they were touching under the chin.

His gaze was like an endless book, thousands upon thousands of words - a length of scripture, in ink and divine languages that even the stars quaked upon remembering the origins - but silenced with the inability to say who or what they remember so clearly. In their souls, the cores, the burning pinpoints of their beginning, they feared whatever it was that triggered the remembrance.

Still, the attention of Alistair's gaze did finally move. Hidden behind the soft closing of his lashes and the soft glow of his outline, the shimmering tones that twisted in between that of the darkness this one held. Though unlike most literatures, they didn't fight for space - why would they? They are of the same coin, like love and grief. They were nothing without the other. His gaze upon them settled with a coldness that could rival space but it held no intentions of being rude or harmful to them, instead --- understanding.

"It is good to see that there are beings out there with the same mindset as my own --- a pleasure doing business with you. Farewell." It was all he spoke, lowering his cane's tip to the floorboards to allow it to crack with a sharp thud. The room, gone. The air changed, and his head turned away with ease. After all - he knew all too well the desires to be forgotten. He was not to pry of their wishes for his own curiosity… After all, if things were to be, they will be another time.

[surrealistnyc]

International Women's Day Statement

Today, on International Women’s Day, we, the Surrealist Middle East and North Africa womens , stand before you not merely as artists, but as a surrealist seers, as architects of a revolution of the minds . The canvas of our rebellion is the body, the mind,, the subconscious power, the very fabric of a reality that seeks to chain the feminine to the mundane.

We have seen the desires of women – desires born of fire and starlight – caged like exotic birds. Their imaginations, vast and shimmering tapestries of the possible, have been stifled and dimmed. The very contours of their bodies policed, mapped like territories ripe for conquest. Let it be known that this ends here.

We channel the spirit of our surrealist ancestors – the defiant eyes of Joyce Mansour and Leonora Carrington, and Leonor Fini, the cosmic fury of Unica Zürn. We weave their audacity into our own, amplifying it with the pulse of this land – a land where the dreams whispers ancient secrets and the echoes of women’s voices reverberate across millennia of oppression.

To those who brandish tradition as a weapon: we spit on your archaic laws. To those who seek dominion over our bodies: we offer not docile flesh, but flesh transformed. Woman as phoenix, woman as tempest, woman as the boundless expanse of the subconscious.

We are the harbingers of dreams that refuse to bow. Our bodies are maps to unexplored realms, our desires manifestos written in the language of the strange and sublime. Let the oppressors cower, for theirs is a world built on sand, soon to be devoured by a rising tide of female liberation.

We have unearthed the key to the cage, and it is forged in the fires of our collective imagination. Today, we shatter the bars. Today, we rise, sisters of the brush, the pen, the sculpted dream.

From downtown Cairo to the bustling hearts of all the surrealist cities, a femmene surrealist rebellion is born.

The gods sold to us by Oppressive societies have grown fat on our silence. Their hollow scriptures chain our wrists, brand the scarlet letter of submission onto our skin. They mold our bodies into grotesque parodies of virtue, cloaking vibrant flesh in the shroud of shame. Their whispered edicts invade the chambers of our minds, poisoning the wellspring of thought.

We, the daughters of hallucination, disciples of the illogical, reject this tyranny of the ordinary! The spirit of rebellion courses through our veins like wildfire. We will paint our defiance across the cracked walls of patriarchal decree. Our dreams, once caged, will become dreams Molotov shattering the temples of oppression.

. We reclaim this legacy of the surrealist women – a legacy bound not by the shackles of tradition but by the boundless canvas of imagination. We shall conjure storms from our tears, birth revolutions from our wombs.

We demand laws forged not in the fires of religious zealotry, but in the unyielding anvil of justice. Laws that are shields against the blows of social terrorism, that cast light into the darkest corners where women weep in forced solitude.

Let this not be mistaken for a plea uttered in a meek voice. This is a battle cry echoing from the painted lips of the unyielding, a surrealist manifesto inked in the blood of defiance.

They may try to bury us, to erase our vibrant hues from this stark landscape. But know this: from every grain of sand we will rise, a kaleidoscope of resistance unfurling across the horizon. For we are the women of the surrealist – untamed, unbound, and unafraid!, carry our words. Let the world tremble.

Ghadah Kamal Ahmed

[tiand]

Today's Word With Joel and Victoria Osteen - Get Outside Your Tent

Today’s Scripture Genesis 15:5, AMPC  And He brought him outside [his tent into the starlight] and said, Look now toward the heavens and count the stars—if you are able to number them. Then He said to him, So shall your descendants be.  Today’s Word When God promised Abraham that he was going to be the father of many nations, he was seventy-five years old. There was no way in the natural that…

[literatespirit]

Excerpt 84

[Context: Takes place in a sort-of Magic Academy AU. Think of it as the scene in the anime where Hikari has Karen run thru all of Tokyo just bc she can’t talk about her feelings BUT add Claudine. And magic. And skeri dark, evil forests]

(That’s right--IT’S A RARE PAIR WYD also disclaimer i google translated the french im so sorry)]

“If you’re looking for Hikari, she ran that way.”

“Eh?” I turned to Claudine, wide-eyed.

Apparently the direction Hikari had just run in was where the Black Mass Forest was; and that was by no means a fun place. We’d been instructed enough times by the Professors to know it’s never a good idea to go in there, accompanied or not. Too many tales of people going and never coming back; of students and passing strangers turning into monsters no one’s seen before. It was scary enough that even I wasn’t compelled to go—And that’s saying something.

There was a sinking feeling in my chest when I realised what I had to do. Though I had no second thoughts, I sure would’ve liked it better if Hikari had just ran towards the city instead of a dangerous, life-threatening forest. You can practically feel the black darkness engulfing the woods, wrapping around it like a ghostly veil and beckoning the passerby to enter its den; and unfortunately, I was said passerby.

“Just straight ahead?” I asked. Claudine wasn’t smiling, but her eyes were a little livelier than usual—Piqued, I think was the word. She nodded slightly.

“Straight ahead.”

Once again I could feel the color draining from my face; but I showed no sign of it.

Puffing out my chest, I strutted about several steps forward. My foot was barely out the door, however, when I felt a cold hand grasp mine. Looking back, I was surprised to see it was still Claudine.

“Wait.” She interrupted, before I could say anything. I then watched, our hands still linked, as she reached out for her scabbard that rested against the corner of the doorframe, and propped it onto her belt. It was at this moment that I realised she wasn’t stopping me—She was coming with me.

“You’re…coming with me?”

“Don’t look so surprised,” Claudine frowned at me. She then proceeded to do that hair flick thing, which I notice she’s been doing more frequently recently. When I asked why, Maya told me she’s trying to prove a point; though what kind of point, I haven’t figured out yet. I should ask after this whole thing. “You need someone to come with you, don’t you? Your third BFF is out busy, or something.”

Well, as much as I wanted to have Mahiru helping me right now, we need all the help we can get in distracting the rival students. Even Claudine should be in there helping them.

About to point this out, I spoke up. “But—“ Only to be cut off by a finger to my lips.

“Save it, Karen. Je vous suis, whether you like it or not.” she said, smiling now. Though I wasn’t quite sure on the exact translation, she was most definitely telling me she was coming along. Just looking into her eyes gave me enough proof backing that up, especially seeing how they sparkled with resolution.

For some reason, I felt my face flaring up.

“W-well, though I don’t know what ‘je vous swiss’ means—“

“Suis.”

“Suis. Sorry. But, erm… sure!” I beamed. It was definitely comforting knowing I wouldn’t be going in alone; no less with someone as capable as Claudine. 

Just being next to her felt safer already.

“Let’s go.”

[penmanshipeb]

There is much that can be said concerning people's beliefs in these last days. "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils" (I Timothy 4:1). We can see that rampant throughout society, but I don't believe that we identify these occurrences as being tied to the scriptures. A lot has become topsy turvy nowadays from the way we speak to the way we think towards established, known things. It was my intention to currently write on this. But, I read this book, The Witness of The Stars, some years ago. When I get ready to write upon these times we're in, I intend to reread this book for it. The book of Job is about my favorite book of the Bible possibly. Job speaks of the heavenly constellations, which is called Mazzaroth by him. A few groups of stars are mentioned in his discourse, and that intrigued me. The book of Job is said to have been written around the time of the patriarch Abraham, making it the earliest book of the Bible. These people of antiquity were CRAZY smart. When one believes in the word of God, one gets away from other beliefs that are not of God. Therefore, I don't particularly believe in Neanderthals. God created man highly intelligent, for he was to have dominion over this world that God created (Genesis 1:26). (Those who have Reruns know that I touch on this all in the eighth chapter entitled "Life.”) So in doing so, God created man with the intelligence to identify and understand what all God created and its purpose. Man was very knowledgeable. This work, therefore, which is entitled, The Witness of The Stars, Amens the book of Genesis' account. "And God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also" -Genesis 1:14-16 That last, small line – "he made the stars also"—is what God gave this man to write about. Astronomy is the study of the stars, but astrology is a corrupt usage of that. God placed messages in the heavens, and men of antiquity had the intelligence to recognize and understand them. To not spoil this book's content for anyone who's interested, the author goes through each constellation (zodiac sign in today's lingo). According to the scripture, as he pinpoints, the sun appears to circle through each cluster of stars, known as constellations (Psalm 19:1-6 emphasis on all the verses but in particular verse 6). When the sun completes its circuit through the constellations (or the earth’s orbit around the sun), that makes a  year. The author begins with the cluster of stars known as the Virgo constellation, and he ends with the constellation known as Leo. Now to prove that men of antiquity all were intelligent in different regions of the world, seeing and interpreting the same information the same (he better highlights this in the book), when examining the "riddle of the Spinx," this is what we have – a figure that begins with a woman's head (the sign Virgo) and ends with a lion's tail (the sign Leo). The Egyptians, who were involved in polytheism (the worship of many gods) and sun worship, even recognized the message of the heavens unto them. The book is replete with scripture. I could say more, but I've said enough. There is an absolute message that God placed in the stars. It’s interesting. Don’t get caught up in how the Devil wants you to view and utilize things. If interested, support local bookstores, and purchase here: https://bookshop.org/a/56410/9781505784947