#there's a consideration of divinity about folks like me :)

[razzek]

I left the church some time before I really understood and embraced being trans, so I never really looked into it myself. So this was nice to read.

[calcified-panglin]

This is gonna be another long one, bare in mind.

Part of me always wondered why Providence wanted the Survivor to not escape the planet. The biggest threat the Contact Light posed was the teleporters on-board - just take those out of the ship and let them pass.

But then I remembered that Providence is no stranger to keeping violent creatures bound to Petrichor V when they could otherwise leave when they want to. From the Black/Portal Imp log:

Unlike the other fauna on this planet, the black imp is aggressive to all other species. Is the imp also stranded here?

And its log fron RoR2:

Worst of all, attempts to return through the portal have been unsuccessful in our weakened state. It takes considerable effort to enter [the between space] - and we lack the strength to stay there long enough to cross the membrane. We are stranded. And then there is the master of this world. Curiously, it is in his presence that we find ourselves most weakened - and when he senses us, he wastes no time in his approach.

The Imp's ability to cross the planes is weakened on Petrichor V, especially when close to Providence. In Risk of Rain and Returns they and the Overlord straight-up die in gory fashion when they're health is depleted, but in Risk of Rain 2 (where Providence is dead) they seem to be sent back to the Red Plane before they can die, their strength no longer as limited by the Bulwark of the Weak's influence.

Providence is hostile to both the Survivor and the Imps but keeps them there by defending the items they need to escape the planet (Contact Light for the Survivor and access to a portal for the Imps, possibly the Artifact of Origin which you get for beating him with a combination of other Artifacts).

It's notable that both of these stranded creatures have access to some kind of warping ability, be it the teleporters or shifting between planes of existance. Teleportation in particular is heavily coveted by Providence and his brother Mithrix, being the only way they can extend their power to beyond Petrichor V.

Something still doesn't add up, though. The Imps I can understand since Providence's possession of their artifact seems to be what's keeping them under. But the Survivor arguably wouldn't have posed a threat if the teleporters were simply removed from the Contact Light and they were allowed to go on their way. I get why he crashed the ship - it was to bring the teleporters back to the planet - but after that point they don't need to stay on the ship. If they couldn't be moved they likely wouldn't be in there to begin with.

Another idea then; did Providence keep these creatures on Petrichor V because of his love of soul? He consistently indifferent about his legendary status amongst the creatures he saves. The only times we've heard of him interacting with or reaching out to his subjects is to cleanse Mithrix's infulence from them - by deadly force in the case of the Beads of Fealty. While they flourish on Petrichor V, Providence never lets them return to their homes or find a new one to regain what they've lost. His choice of creatures to save run the gambit of intelligent almost-human lizard folk, a people fallen to a parasitic Tar (complete with a desert landscape flowing with Tar littered with giant snake (Worm?) skeletons), and even Scavengers who could threaten to rise to the same level of power as the Survivors through their kleptomanic impulses. It's an aclectic mess that - as proven by the Imps - can still include those firmly against Providence's divine rule.

Providence loves soul. He constructed Aurelionite with an excess of it, exhausting himself in the process. He traps Mithrix on the moon out of fear that he was going down a violent path that could destroy the soul-filled creatures he concerned himself with. He has a fondness for worms, which are perhaps the largest creatures on Petrichor V including his own personal Gilded Wurms. Did he keep the Imps and the Survivor from leaving peacefully because they too contained soul? He was certainly interested in keeping humanity on Petrichor V if given the chance as with the Commencement log:

I know the planet you trail – of water and dirt. You fear their stability. That they will consume themselves.

He's a curious one, that much is certain.

At the same time, a peaceful confrontation might not have been on the table with Providence being the one to kill almost all the crew aboard Contact Light to begin with. The creatures on Petrichor V may have recognised that whatever Providence knocked down was a threat to their way of life and moved to attack outside his influence, pushing the Survivor to horrendous means to... survive, the experiences on the way to Providence molding them into a threat that he could not allow to persist lest they kill more soulful beings. And that's likely the solution to the puzzle; a chain of events that led to neither side having an option but to kill the other due to decisions made independant of - albiet influenced by - the other. Providence forcing them to find a means of escape, the creatures thinking they were under threat by something that caused their god to turn his head, the Survivor going to grisly means to leave as a result.

That answer would gel with the running thread of Risk of Rain; flawed people making decisions based on what they see, with those decisions trickling down and creating horrific consequences as a result. Providence's own reluctance to explain himself is one of his biggest flaws and what ultimately led to the downfall of himself, his brother, and the planet as a whole. All because he felt the need to go to dire lengths to prevent harm. Those means would create the very circumstances for the ones hes stifling to seek the same great, often terrible power Providence himself holds in order to exact their own wants more brutally than he could manage. I'm not entirely sure if Providence even knew the Survivor was alive on the planet until they were on - or close to - the Contact Light. With this idea in mind it's hard to believe he kept them there on purpose. He's powerful, sure, but not omnipotent or omnipresent.

Oh right, the Imps. They might honestly be another creature Providence saught to keep and had to deal with the consequences. Or he saw them as a threat to soul and aimed to prevent them from crossing into our plane, from butchering any life they encountered, and picking off the ones that were on Petrichor V when this occured. His relationship with them is very different from other creatures - even compared to the similarly hostile Void which he completely held back to the point they aren't even seen until RoR2 (because they weren't written at that point nor retroactively introduced in Returns). I'm kinda sad we didn't get any further expansion on them like we did with the Void. Ah well.

[thrashkink-coven]

There’s a lot of gatekeeping and weirdly defined rules in the occult and spiritual spaces. I’m just gonna go ahead and say something that might ruffle some feathers, but hopefully it helps some confused or anxious folks out.

I see a lot of posts online and get a lot of questions about entities. Mainly “is it okay for me to work with this entity?” because of xyz reasons.

Firstly, let’s make something very clear. Cultural appropriation has a very specific definition. Cultural appropriation takes place when members of a majority group adopt cultural elements of a minority group in an exploitative, disrespectful, or stereotypical way.

I say this as a person of color that understands the negative impacts of cultural appropriation and racism. This may not be the popular opinion, but I don’t think that honouring or worshipping a God privately and quietly qualifies as this. There’s a big difference between appropriating a culture and their customs and worshipping a God you feel connected to.

So having said this, if you feel like a God, angel, daemon, or entity is reaching out to you… seriously dude just go with it. We can’t control which things pull us and which entities interact with us. To many of them, we’re all just humans. Our ideas of race and ethnicity are extremely wishy washy, especially on a universal scale. If you feel deeply connected to a deity or concept, let yourself fall into them. Seriously, genuinely. Learn as much about the as you can, do your research, and go with it.

If you’re ever anxious about revealing that entity to others because of fear of judgement or criticism, give them a personal name.

I can’t say this loud enough,

GIVE THEM A PERSONAL NAME!!

Within religion, spirituality, and the occult, we use archetypes all the time. Cultures constantly share archetypes and give them personal names in their languages. The God that you’re thinking about was likely syncretized at one point too.

If you want to work with Aphrodite but don’t feel comfortable calling her Aphrodite, call her something that feels right to you. If you feel extremely connected to Isis but you don’t feel comfortable using an Egyptian name, then give her a personal name! Your connection with that God will be all the more personal.

The Gods like, and sometimes demand worship. Their phonetic names are not the totality of their being. Chances are most of us aren’t even pronouncing them correctly anyways. If you think about Inanna when you say that name, then you’re praying to Inanna. If you want to call her something else, that’s okay.

“What about closed religions?!”

It is nearly impossible to self initiate oneself into a closed religion because their customs are kept niche to their group. Without guidance you wouldn’t know how to do these things properly. If you feel a pull towards an entity from another culture, again, do your damn homework, don’t just rush into it. Be considerate and respectful of their origins. I’m not saying that their cultural origin is unimportant, because it definitely is and your understanding and acknowledgment of that is crucial, but that does not necessarily mean that you have to be Canaanite or Phoenician to worship or work with Astarte. Understand how they were worshipped back then, and how they wish to be honoured now.

Please understand that having a relationship with a God is not the same thing as converting into a religion or appropriating traditional customs. Not all religion is organized. I worship Aphrodite in a very non traditional way according to the Greeks. That’s okay.

And likewise, a lot of deeply closed entities with specific cultural ties simply don’t reach out to people outside of their niche. They have their chosen people and stay within their realm of influence. It’s extremely rare for the Loa to connect with non voodoo practitioners, and Voodoo is a very complex practice that requires specific sacrifices and rituals. It is ill advised to make offerings to vodous without divination and instruction. It’d be very unobtainable for most people. I say this as someone with a practicing Voodoo/Obeah bloodline, even I don’t feel secure enough to delve into that kind of magick by myself.

There’s a lot of high tensions on the internet when it comes to these things. I’ve seen posts (mostly on Reddit) of practitioners heartbroken that they have to break up with Lilith, their angels, their infernals, or some other deity because they got chastised for it online.

I think the immortality of our Gods is beautiful. While many of their original chosen people are long gone, they still live on and find ways to connect with humanity today. That is a very good thing.

So guys, honestly, unless you’re excited to share your path with others and ready to receive criticism, keep your Gods to yourself. Enjoy and worship them on your own, and if you feel compelled to discuss them just give them a personal name. If your God is Hekate and you feel compelled to give her a personal name, just say that your deity is similar to Hekate whenever you discuss them. It’s that easy. There are already a thousand different Hekates that people associate with. There’s no reason why you can’t create one more.

Please enjoy your practice and your faith. Don’t worry so much about everyone else. The Gods know who you are, and they want to connect with you because they really like who you are. That’s a very very good thing.

[landofzero-archive]

Battle on the Sugoroku Board - Prologue

(Location: ES Hallway)

(One day during the first thirds of February (1). Corridor in front of the NewDi office.)

Natsume: ……PheW, finally the chaos of the end-of-year and New Year period has calmed dowN.

It started with the SS Qualifiers, the new stage for the special program for the end-of-year and New Years SSVRS trial, Maizuru Manor (2)—thougH it feels we’ve been tooting our own horn.

I wondeR if we can finallY return to normal activities.

Now theN. I’ll go beat up the Senpai who is still breaking labor law (3) during the end-of-year and New Years period, and enjoy a belated vacation–

UmM?

(Location: NewDi Offices)

Tsumugi and Ibara: ………♪

Natsume: (“Viper”......!?(4) Why is he herE!?

CoulD it be that he’s trying to imprint something onto Senpai when I’m not therE—)

Ibara-kun. What do you neeD from NewDi?

Ibara: So you’ve returned, Natsume-kun ♪ 

I’m sorry to be bothering you! As the representative of CosPro, I’m currently talking to His Majesty the acting director of NewDi, so please don’t worry about it, Natsume-kun ♪ 

Natsume: ………!

Ibara: My my my! A snake glare! (5) Lately, I tend to be forgetful of the fact that I’m a ‘Viper’, so I’m greatly indebted to your consideration in reminding me of that!

Natsume: That isn’T what I’m trying to do. Can you not string me along at your pace like thaT?

Enough with this tedious talk, just say what you want tO say.

Tsumugi: Don’t be such a grouch~, Natsume-kun. You know, since another agency’s representative came all the way to NewDi~?

Come on, smile, smile ♪ 

Natsume: Shut up, workaholic. (6)

If you don’t rest already, you’re going tO end up in a hospital, you know.

Tsumugi: No way!?

Ibara: You seem to be quite irritated~ It looks like you’ve been equally busy!

Well, this isn’t something that needed to be kept a secret, so I’ll let you in on it. I was just thinking of enjoying seeing Natsume-kun being left out in the cold! (7)

Natsume: You’re a rotten character, huH.

Ibara: AHaHaHa☆ That’s a good look on your face!

Putting that aside. Are you familiar with “NETV (Netteibi)”, Natsume-kun?

Natsume: Net……What?

Ibara: “NETV” —A recently started streaming broadcasting service that’s aimed at overseas folk.

It can be said that unlike a streaming program that is enormously funded with investments of shares in large quantities, it’s a streaming service from a company from this country with a moderate budget.

While niche, there is a demand from overseas. An Idol programme—- or some such is what “NETV” is trying to produce.

As such, I’m simply here to inquire if NewDi would like to cooperate by arranging participants.

Tsumugi: That’s right! Even though Saegusa-kun said it was a ‘moderate budget’ but, from my reading of the plans, the budget allocated is surprisingly quite substantial.

I was thinking that it’s a good chance for a new agency like NewDi.

Natsume: How suspiciouS……of this “Viper” to approacH us with talks of work.

There haS to be something else to it. OtherwisE, CosPro would surelY have exclusively monopolized this delicious project.

Ibara: What nonsense--- to say there is 'something else'. Just like divination, statistics and calculations are all there is to it.

I’m not trying to make a boring joke like “There is nothing hidden to 'fortune tellers'”— or something. (8) There are some things I haven’t explained, but it’s only because I’m unable to disclose everything.

The truth is, CosPro also has investments in this “NETV”.

It was an old connection from the time around when I was just starting out as a manager. Thanks to that, if the program is not a success, it’ll be a total loss.

In other words, this proposition is an idea meant to at least minimize losses. Because a cross-agency programme would be good publicity.

CosPro is extending the opportunity to participate to NewDi to push the program into success—

How about it? It’s not a bad proposition, right?

Natsume: ………

Tsumugi: As for me, I’m thinking positively about appearing on “NETV”.

I didn’t get any bad impressions from when I was looking at documents. It felt like it was influenced by a proper production company.

The only problem is, “NETV” is an online internet program, so not a lot of huge agency idols will participate.

……That said though, NewDi isn’t a huge agency.

This is a chance that won’t come again for us as we are right now. Net programs are still in its infancy stages right now, so long established agencies would not be expanding into it.

Natsume: ……I seE. ThougH there are undeniably fishy parts to it, it doeS stand to logic.

HoweveR. If you do anything suspicious, I won’T be silent about it.

Ibara: My my, please do not say that! Let us be mutually supportive of each other as coworkers in the same job!

Well then, I will be returning on a later date to explain the project! Take care until then!

TL Notes

上旬 - the first ten days of a month, or the first thirds of a month.

He’s listing past Switch events. Maizuru Manor is the orphanage from the 2023 MaM new year story; Poltergeist during the NEW COLOUR campaign.

He actually says ブラック労  (Black labour) here which is the term in Japan for worker exploitation in the form of extreme working hours, verbal abuse, or even power harassment/bullying. The companies using this form of employment are called ブラック企業 (Black Companies).

Technically, a 毒蛇 (Dokujya) is just a ‘venomous snake’; the term does not imply any specific venomous snake species but as the fandom usually knows this particular nickname of Ibara’s as ‘Viper’, Mod is following suit. Viperidae snakes are called クサリヘビ科 (Kusarihebika), and the viper itself is 鎖蛇 (Kusarihebi).

蛇睨み - literally, ‘snake glare’, is a reference to a Pokemon move. In the English version, this move is called ‘glare’. This move paralyzes the target. It can only be learned by snake Pokemon.

‘Workaholic’, written in katakana, is basically read the same way as the English word.

The JP text says Natsume was ‘left out of the mosquito net’, basically the equivalent of ‘left out in the cold’.

This is a pun. The beginning of the word for 'fortune teller' 占い師 (uranaishi) is phonetically similar to the word 裏 (ura) which can mean a lot of things such as 'opposite', 'hidden side', 'hidden shadows', 'more than meets the eye', 'rear'... to that effect. Mod has translated every instance of 'ura' in the lines leading to this bit as 'something else', to insinuate the pun.

Directory | Next

[twojackals]

I am a Multitude

Let's talk about my history with Islam, just for shits and giggles, because I have a funny feeling there's some people in (or outside of) my life who don't fully understand where that association comes from.

I reverted to Islam round about 2009 if I'm not misremembering. Reversion is the same as conversion, it's just that "revert" is a term suggesting everyone is meant to be Islamic from birth and thus someone "converting" is in fact going back to what is the default -- a reversion, if you will. I used the term then, so I'm using the term now.

I had previously been a Kemetic Pagan for about 10 years at that point, with 8 of those years being onward in a formal Kemetic organized religion, though I was a few years out already of having left that organization for the first time.

I did not enter Islam lightly. It was a long process over a couple of years getting to the point where I wanted to revert, and it was quite the tough decision to finally take my Shahada and make that complete step into the faith full-time. I took that step seriously, with a lot of forethought and no impulse, and I really did go in with a complete belief as well.

I was full-on Muslim for 3 - 4 years with no multi-trad tendencies, but slowly my Kemeticism came back to me and I started to mix the two together.

I returned to the Kemetic organized religion around the Kemetic New Year in 2019. Again nothing I did was rushed or impulsive, I had taken quite a bit of time before going back to understand where I was going and why, and I stayed there for about 4 years depending, culminating in the disastrous exit based on that organization's massive failure in just so many areas.

It took me a couple of months, but after I left that organization, I started to realize what a bizarre identity I had built up around myself over the last 4 years: this weird, single-focus, single-tradition identity as if there was nothing about myself that was "other". I only had Kemetic friends, only focused on Kemetic Deities and Kemetic practice, only did Kemetic things, only, only, only... and when I lost that "only" thing in a way (or I separated from what was a large integration in my life over the last 4 years), I felt lost.

For a moment.

Truthfully, on the inside, I was never "only". On the inside, I've always been multi-trad, whether that's my Scottish Folk Magic that has been partially passed down to me (that's a whole other discussion!), my Islamic traditions that I never gave up (no matter how long I was in that Kemetic organization, I never gave up my Salah and several other things as well -- it's just that I never talked about it, because Polytheists and Pagans tend to have chips on their shoulders about the Big 3), my Kemetic traditions -- my heart has always been multi-trad.

I've always made every choice in my life in terms of spirituality with careful study and consideration, and I've always wondered how that ended me up here... but now, I've been enjoying over the last 6 months being able to embrace the facts about myself, and I can be a multitude (at least for now), that no one can put me into a box, and I will continue to explore that no matter what anyone thinks about that.

I am not one thing.

I am many.

And that's ok. Some people will tell me it isn't, and they are what I like to call "wrong".

I have a necklace written in Arabic calligraphy that says "Indeed, I am near". I think that says everything I really need to know about the Divine right now.

I am going to explore this world the way I want to explore it.

[swallowtailed]

palisade 47! finalisade part 2!

truly three incredible scenes. also this is not going to be a short finalisade lmfao. probably minimum five more episodes (for a total of seven) but the sky's the limit. if they keep going at this rate of scenes, and presuming interludes/epilogue are each one scene long, that'd already be a nine episode finalisade. very exciting

brnine's scene: so glad we finally got to come back around to their attempt to recruit lattice/refrain. it's a good opener for the finale, too, for brnine to be able to make a more successful argument in favor of fighting with mbreak now that they're in the mirage. also obviously it's excellent to have a nobel ghost literally fully just haunting the blue channel now

refrain flickering between faces was really fun. friends at the table has some excellent genderfluidities. speaking of, my first thought re tm comparisons was polyphony--another town created by a shapeshifter (although changing personality rather than face) who wanted folks to come in and stay. was really interesting to me that refrain accepted the compromise of taking only the willing, which is sort of coming at polyphony's strategy from the opposite direction. refrain as archive was also really compelling to me. i like when an archive is covetous and hungry and persuasive, and constructs morality around/within itself, and is animated by preservation and interment. (chanting: WORST! PARTS! OF! MUSEUMS!)

lastly, the question of "what happens when the war's over" has been a quieter throughline in palisade (highly entangled with the whole blue channel self-sacrifice situation, cf phrygian) and it was interesting that brnine raised it to refrain. i'm curious whether that's going to come to the forefront in p3--really depends on what's going on at the end of the perfect millennium, i think.

august's scene: ahhh what a mess. delicious. really good visuals here as well--steeple catterick, clem on her big dramatic dragon, cori's new mech in action (skeleton covered in blooming flowers!), giant ink ferrets devouring the bilat front line and then vanishing and leaving only bloodstains and echoes behind... love to see it

always fun when fatt discovers an animal on air. i do think we should give the giant prehistoric otters serious consideration and also as many other giant prehistoric creatures as can fit (yes i'm still thinking abt the flash nautilus). it's thematically relevant

what did catch my attention about the ultimate result of the scene, re the iconoclasts turning indiscriminately on anyone military (thus neatly equating the bilats and the cause), is that it immediately shoves august's storyline farther in the direction of "compromised and implicated simply through the use of violence". i do wonder where august's gonna end up by the end of palisade--he's on a similar path, i think, to a couple other characters who have struggled to see beyond the war, but he's in much more of a position to be found guilty for it. does seem like he's set up to fail

cori's scene: YAAAAAAAAAY GO CORI :D what a win, what a legend. finally kissed a girl. good for her. the crumbling ballroom filled with the map of the galaxy was reminiscent of brnine and dahlia in a very fun way. "i didn't want to scare you off with my power" / "you know it's an invitation" / [blushing, stammering] "....for what"

my favorite thing about the scene was cori using perennial magic to show elle a potential future for the two of them, because it's such a perfect mirror to future's visions. like, cori can create that herself, using perennial's magic, when elle asks ("build me another dream, then" was such a tasty line), rather than the aura of future dragging it out of her. and can share it (and shape it, and rewrite it) rather than just envisioning it privately. a really interesting contrast between the two divines and their respective views on possibility

can see a one-way ticket out of the mirage being a really pivotal thing to have on the table in a few episodes. cannot wait :):):)

[kiyfra]

My new fic is out! Scorpio can be read here or on A03. Pokerus AU belongs to @monsoon-of-art.

“Why did you sting me, for now we both will drown?”

“I can’t help it, it’s in my nature.”

---------------------------------------------

Ingo forced himself to take slow even breaths as he laid in the messy bedding of Lady Sneasler’s abandoned den. She had taken her kits and relocated the nest elsewhere in the Coronet Highlands, refusing to disclose the location to her warden.

Her decision was a sensible one, not one borne out of disdain as Mistress Calaba believed, even if her words did nothing but repeat in his head.

“He’s an outsider that doesn’t know our customs or share our values. It’s not surprising that he’s done something to offend her.”

She had always been the most critical of him since he was first offered a place within the Pearl Clan and had been one of his harshest critics since he was appointed as Lady Sneasler’s warden. Many of the more traditional members of the clan took issue with his position, but they couldn’t argue with a decision from the Lady of the Cliffs herself.

Most of the Pearl Clan was welcoming or warmed up to him quickly. They were content to think of him as rather odd with his strange mannerisms and knowing a startling amount about pokémon while lacking basic life skills such as starting a fire or food preservation.

Ingo wondered if he was imagining things when he saw Pearl folk giving him dirty looks after he was the first of the clan to show symptoms. But ever since Calaba voiced the belief that he had brought a curse upon himself and the clan, he heard people whispering about him when they believed he was out of earshot, especially after his lady’s perceived scorn.

Irida had stood up for him and had taken a stand against talk about curses or divine punishment from Sinnoh.

“Don’t pay Calaba any mind. It wouldn’t be the first time she accused a guest of bringing a curse into the settlement.”

A guest.

Her reassurances inadvertently confirmed what he had always feared, that the Pearl Clan viewed him as fundamentally other. The place he would have to live and would be his home for the rest of his life would always consider him an outsider and he could never truly belong.

Ingo supposed it didn’t really matter now.

It was a short while after his physical transformation was completed that he made the decision to leave the settlement and isolate himself on Mt. Coronet. Several times he had lapses in memory where he couldn’t recall where he was or what he had been doing, coming to with people staring at him, shocked and horrified.

Irida and his fellow wardens had similar episodes, snarling at and trying to bite or claw anyone that was close, leaving children crying and their parents looking at them with such contempt. These episode grew more frequent as time went on and Irida was giving serious consideration to sending the rest of the clan away to protect them from its wardens and leader.

She found Ingo carefully storing and removing belongings from his tent while carrying a pack containing a few days worth of food, ready to leave his home as if it was never lived in.

Irida was still wearing her traditional garb, the tails trailing behind and dragging on the ground. It was quite cumbersome and impractical with her new quadruped build, but she refused to let the gradual and painful transformation into a glaceon rob her of this sense of dignity.

“Ingo, what are you doing?”

“I am performing my safety checks.” He turned towards her. “Lady Irida, I want to thank you for everything you and the Pearl Clan have done for me. It has been an honour serving as one of its wardens.”

“Don’t talk like that. We’re not going to die,” she said sternly.

“I truly wished for a better outcome, but I can’t ask any more of you.” He bowed his head. “Goodbye, Lady Irida.”

“Where are you going? Ingo? Ingo!”

He ignored Irida’s shouts as he flew off towards the old den to wait as the rest of his humanity faded away, the clan leader tripping over her coat tails as she tried to chase after him.

Ingo spent several days in the spacious nest his lady had left behind, curled up in the bedding and trying to cry out the names of people he didn’t remember.

He could feel his mind changing and slipping away from him as his body had, all hard edges and points. Layers of soft flesh had peeled away to reveal dark purple chitin, massive pincers and a quick stinger loaded with poison. His human exterior had been stripped off and left him with the rugged body and jagged fangs of an alpha gliscor that welcomed any venom and was the bane of his lady’s kind.

The tattered wings wrapped tightly around him couldn’t replace the weight and comfort of his coat, the one he arrived in Hisui wearing and refused to part with for many years. He expected and dreaded the day that the wear and tear would eventually render the garment unusable, not expecting his body would be altered to the point clothes became untenable.

His stomach growled loudly. The rations he had brought with him ran out yesterday, but he refused to leave the den to find something to eat, even if he found himself longing for the coppery taste of blood.

To feel the satisfaction of his prey’s panicked struggling growing weaker as he drained the life from them and shearing at tender flesh. Or hearing their surprised squeals as they were abruptly snatched up and carried away; he could probably find a paras or a shinx still up and about that strayed from the careful watch of their parents, maybe a sneasle if he was lucky.

He should leave to go hunt. How could he provide for a fledgling gligar if he wouldn’t even feed himself?

She’s not your child, you fool!

“Ingo!”

A tiny blue gligar stood at the entrance to the den, dripping wet from being out in the night’s rain. He rushed over, wanting to wrap up his nestling in his wings to protect them from the dangers of the world until they were ready. Keep them safe and warm until they were a proud gliscor.

“Ingo, I need somewhere to sleep for the night. Can I stay here?”

The hazy image of a blue gligar faded from his vision and was replaced by a dewott with a red scarf and large satchel tied around its waist. Ingo blinked hard several times to try and clear his head.

“Miss Dawn? W-what are you doing here?”

“I was trying to catch Cresselia,” she admitted. “We found her at Moonview Arena, but she kept running away. I chased her all over Mt. Coronet for hours, but it started raining and I didn’t know where I was-“

He cut her off.

“Miss Dawn, I’m afraid you must remain behind the yellow line as this station is not safe to stop at. You should attempt to locate one of the Survey Corps camps. My lady would be happy to assist you.”

He wanted nothing more than to let her stay the night; sending her back out into rainstorm didn’t sit right with him. But he couldn’t trust his senses to remain intact or the nature of his delusions to remain consistent. Already his vision was distorting and showing him a shiny gligar in her place.

“I-I know you said you didn’t want me to come back here, but I’m sorry I didn’t choose to save you,” Dawn said, her voice wavering.

That’s what this was about? The warden felt the guilt over his prior behaviour worm its way back through him.

“I thought saving some researchers to help find a cure made the most sense,” she explained.

Ingo was there when she made her report after visiting the three lakes. She had announced to a room with all the clan leaders and wardens that there was a way to prevent the infected from losing their sense of self to the virus, much to everyone’s elation.

There was bad news though. Each blessing from the lake guardians could only be used on one person, meaning only three people in all of Hisui could be saved. Dawn followed that bombshell by stating that she had already made her choice and used the blessings on three members of the Survey Corps, reasoning that their scientists would need their minds intact if they wanted to find a permanent solution.

Everyone in that room was furious they weren’t even considered, Ingo included. The two of them were close, sharing a love and understanding of pokémon beyond that of their contemporaries. Dawn trusted him as a mentor and confidant as the only other person in Hisui that had been in her position and he always strove to be worthy of that trust.

To hear that she made the decision to leave him to a horrible fate so easily, he did feel angry and betrayed, even if he understood her utilitarian approach.

In retrospect, he acted shamefully, refusing to accept reality and demanding to know how she could abandon him like that. He was desperate for this child to save him, even knowing it would have been at someone else’s expense.

Dawn started to tear up.

“I still want to help you but I understand if you hate me...”

“No, no!” Ingo knelt down to place his serrated pincers over her shoulders.

“I’m the one who should be apologizing. It was never fair you were forced to make a decision like that to begin with and I’m sorry you were made to feel responsible for my problems.”

The dam broke with her shoulders trembling and tears flowed freely as she started crying. She wrapped her arms around his chest plate and buried her face against his neck.

“I’m going to fix a-all of this, I’ll find a way to turn you back to normal... A-and then I’ll bring- I’ll take you back home with me...” she struggled to get through her bawling.

Given how Ingo’s expression rarely changed and how much he relied on his words, he didn’t know what to do when words were failing him. He wanted her to understand the world’s sorrows weren’t her duty to solve or reassure her this wasn’t goodbye.

But he would not lie to her.

Instead he scooped up the girl to cradle her against his chest, mindful that his pincers could snap and sever any protruding body parts without even really trying.

With how many impossible expectations were being placed on this child by the Galaxy Team and the clans, Ingo bitterly thought about how he should never have been amongst them.

Dawn continued to sob against him and he wanted to rub her back or smooth her hair to comfort her, but couldn’t with his awkward, dangerous claws. So he remained stationary to let her cry into his shoulder for as long as she needed to.

Ingo felt overwhelmed by the depth of his feelings and he couldn’t tell if they truly came from him or if they stemmed from his delusions that he was a parent. He had always felt responsible towards her and was always proud of her. But even after she had taken to calling him ‘Uncle,’ he never felt this way before.

It wouldn’t be the first time he wondered if he had been a father before he lost his memories, though he certainly hoped not. Neither was he presumptuous enough to think he could replace the loved ones she left behind.

Whether it would have happened on its own or if vague notions were being filtered through an animal’s brain, in that moment he truly wanted to be her father.

A tuft of mussed up fur was sticking out and Ingo took note of it, wanting to lick it flat. Dawn would not appreciate such a gesture and he wasn’t that far gone yet.

“I did consider using the blessing on you,” she admitted quietly. “I don’t know if you remember, but you’ve hissed and growled at me like you didn’t recognize me. You were scaring me. Especially after what happened with Iscan.”

They had been visiting the Cobalt Coastlands and Iscan had insisted on teaching Dawn how to swim. Ingo agreed with him that it was a valuable life skill to have, so he doesn’t know what came over him when he heard the girl throwing a tantrum.

There was something about her dismayed squeaking in the hands of the man turning basculegion that caused an irrational and uncharacteristic rage to overcome him. When he regained his senses, the Diamond Clan warden was thrashing under the hold of his claws, his throat bloody and torn.

The incident had been proof that Iscan’s theory was true, that the PokéRus victims were gradually loosing their minds and succumbing to violent impulses.

It was also deeply upsetting for everyone involved, though Basculegion’s warden didn’t bear a grudge. One shudders to imagine what would have happened if Paulina hadn’t been there to pull him off of the man.

A lot of people were put off by Ingo’s constant frown, loud voice and intense silver eyes long before his metamorphosis exaggerated his frightening characteristics. He hated being thought of as intimidating or scary and put a great deal of effort into presenting himself as someone reliable and trustworthy.

Despite his haggard appearance, Ingo was one of the most warm and kind individuals Dawn knew. So to hear that the girl who felt a great sense of kinship and looked up to him as a role model was afraid of him must have been a bitter pill to swallow.

“I understand, and I’m sorry,” he said.

She had no more tears left to cry, so they continued to hold on to each other, not saying anything. Neither of them wanted to let go, understanding this would likely be the last time they could appreciate each other’s presence before they became unrecognizable to each other.

“It wouldn’t be so bad to be remembered like this,” Ingo thought.

Whatever people he left behind beyond Hisui, he hoped they remembered him fondly.

“I guess I oughta head out. Volo’s probably waiting for me,” Dawn eventually said, removing her arms from around his neck.

His blood turned to ice at the name. There were many things about the merchant that irked him; his fixation on the rift and Dawn’s possible connection to it, him giving away so much of his inventory as though he was trying to buy her loyalty, his insistence that the wardens were a danger to her and his false sense of cheer and flattery.

“Like a used car salesman,” his mind added unhelpfully.

None of these meant much on their own. Curiosity wasn’t a crime and it was hard to disagree with his assessment on the danger posed by the PokéRus victims. The man made his living as a merchant, so it made enough sense he was prone to insincere flattery. Even the gifts from his shop inventory could be explained by the gravity of their current situation. But taken together, everything about the merchant rubbed him the wrong way.

“Volo accompanied you to the highlands.” It wasn’t a question. “How did you become uncoupled from him?”

Ingo had levelled a serious look down at her and Dawn felt as if she was being interrogated.

“Well, Volo couldn’t get close to Cresselia without spooking her and he thought I’d have better luck. She still kept running away and he put more and more distance between us until I lost track of him.”

That could have been an honest mistake, but it severely bothered him that Volo had been blasé enough about her safety that Dawn got separated and lost on the mountainside during a storm at night.

If Ingo had been accompanying her, he would have insisted on a rendezvous location and urged her to drop the pursuit until morning.

Was Volo actually concerned about her well-being?

“My good friend, I certainly hope you don’t hurt anyone with those claws!”

What could have been genuine concern came across as a barbed insult with his fake cheeriness. Volo had gone on to address Dawn and speak about the warden as if he out of ear shot when he was only a few feet away.

“I just worry that Warden Ingo will snap!”

Ingo wondered if his own personal bias was colouring his perception of the events. He had no proof of wrongdoing, but he didn’t like how the merchant was driving a wedge between her and the other adults in her life. Lady Sneasler’s warden did not want Dawn seeking refuge with Volo.

The man turned gliscor spent a long minute staring into space in silence to consider his choices.

“Alright. You may remain at this station to rest your cab until morning,” he finally declared.

“Really?” She was surprised that he changed his mind so easily.

“I pride myself on my ability to get passengers safely to their destination. Rest assured, I won’t allow myself to be derailed by current events.”

He had made the decision against his better judgement, but it should be fine. It was just until morning and he could keep a hold of himself until then.

---------------------------------------------

The dewott weakly kicked and squirmed in his jaws, its pained squeals little more than noiseless wheezing through its crushed windpipe. Delicious, iron infused blood seeped through its fur and he considered what good luck he had that such an easy meal would so foolishly wander into his den. It should tide him over until he could go hunting for himself and his growing gligar.

If his hatchling was awake he would have let her play with the injured critter for a bit, have some fun killing it and honing her hunting skills under his supervision. But she was sound asleep deep inside the den, unperturbed by the commotion.

He would just have to tear some strips off for her when she woke up. Maybe he could bring some other creature back for a plaything, break a few bones and sting it a couple times in case it got any ideas.

Tiny paws swatted at his face to no effect and in response he bit down harder, blood streaking down his chin. The dewott would stop struggling soon, then he could feed.

---------------------------------------------

Ingo bolted awake in a panic, the sky still dark and sunrise a few hours away. He was laying on his back in the soft bedding with his wings wrapped around him and tail coiled defensively around his chest, Dawn nowhere in sight.

A sick uneasy dread filled him as he was seized by the notion that something horrible must have happened in the night, that he did something eerie and unforgivable after failing to perform his safety checks.

There was a warm weight on his stomach. Visions of violence and gore danced in his head as he unfurled his wings, fearing what he would find but needing to know what happened.

His small passenger was curled up beneath his chest piece, intact but completely still, and he tentatively lifted her chin up with the tip of his pincer.

“Miss Dawn? Dawn!”

“...Mmm...?”

She groggily looked up at him with heavy lidded eyes, barely awake. Relief washed over him at seeing she was unharmed.

“It’s nothing. You may go back to sleep.”

Dawn didn’t need to be told twice. Laying her head back down, she was out in a matter of seconds.

Ingo was still shaken and wouldn’t be able to return to sleep, wanting to fuss over her to soothe his nerves. Fret over the tiny creature in his care to make his heart stop pounding so loudly.

His sensitive hearing was all to keen to pick up on the dewott’s heartbeat, signaling a warm body full of blood that made him salivate at the prospect of biting down and sucking it dry.

The warden was horrified and disgusted with himself for having such thoughts. It had been two days since he had last eaten and he was starting to have tremors from the low blood sugar, but it was doubtful he’d even be able to keep anything down now. Ingo felt nauseous and wanted to retch until the phantom taste of blood left his mouth and throat.

He never thought of gliscors as monstrous, despite their fearsome appearance and morbid feeding habits. They were quite caring and nurturing towards their offspring and colonies. His own was a highly intelligent, sociable creature and a beloved companion that was deeply worried about him.

But Ingo felt like something that crawled out of a child’s nightmare. A creature made of dark chitin, creaking leathery wings and dripping fangs that would snatch up crying children to sate its hunger.

He was a fool for letting her stay when his mind was so clouded and close to slipping away entirely. First thing in the morning, he would send her away, then he could breathe easy knowing she wasn’t in any danger from him.

It would have been the most sensible to have woken her up immediately to call for his lady and take the girl to her own den, but Ingo was terrified to give himself permission to move.

Hours slowly passed by as he counted cracks in the ceiling, twigs in the bedding, anything to take his mind off of the thoughts battling against each other and to distract him from his ravenous hunger.

Sunlight eventually started to pour in, but it would be at least another hour before Dawn woke up. Her mornings were early, but they didn’t start at sunrise like Ingo’s typically did.

He suspected he wasn’t a morning person before his arrival in Hisui and his permanent eye bags were proof that he never fully adjusted. But he would sleep in till noon today after Dawn had left, given how little rest he had managed last night.

The rain had mostly subsided with on and off again showers; perfectly adequate weather for travelling. There would be nothing preventing her from heading on her way and Ingo waited anxious and impatiently for her to wake up.

She finally began to stir and stretch and he hastily unfurled his wings, unwilling to wait any longer.

“Good morning! I hope you slept well.”

Sinnoh knows he hasn’t.

Dawn remained motionless to pretend she was still asleep, but Ingo wasn’t fooled. Her heart rate had resumed its normal pace after being roused from slumber.

“I know it’s early, but it’s time to start up your engines and locate the tracks for the mountain camp.”

“Hrmmm... five more minutes,” she grumbled, curling up tighter to try and shut out his loud voice.

Ingo wasn’t having any of that. He maneuvered a pincer under her arms and placed her on her feet beside him somewhat rudely. With a nervous energy allowing him to move faster than his exhaustion would have liked, he swiftly sat upright on his haunches as Dawn was rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

He could not allow any further delays; it was already irresponsible of him to have gambled with her safety when he knew he was a danger to her.

“Please forgive my abruptness, but I must insist you remain on schedule and depart immediately.”

The girl let out a sigh, resigning herself to the fact Ingo wasn’t going to let her go back to sleep.

“Don’t you even want something to eat first?” she asked. “It’s important to ‘refuel’ and all. I’m pretty sure I still have some Jubilife muffins left over.”

Dawn turned around to look through her satchel for the pastries.

Ingo felt the prickling of sharp claws in his mind at the mention of food. They abruptly shot out and gripped his brain, squeezing and curling into him like his head was caught in the grip of a massive purugly.

He made a pained noise and tried to press his pincers against the sides of his head to relieve the pressure building up before he felt something burst in his sinus. The unknown creature that had taken residence in his head kept squeezing tighter, a warm trickle from a nosebleed dripping down his face. Searing hot talons like a branding iron burned holes into his own thoughts and Ingo gave a loud hiss as his vision blurred into a haze of red.

Dawn huffed as she turned around.

“Well, if you don’t like muffins you can just say so.”

She didn’t expect to find Ingo hunched over on all fours, eyes wild and taking on a red gleam with blood dribbling past a pained grimace.

“Uncle Ingo?” she asked tentatively, taking a step forward.

His eyes focused on her and his pupils constricted, wings flaring out as he bared his teeth. He lunged towards the girl, jaws wide as Dawn screamed.

Ingo was hit point blank with a jet of water from the fast thinking dewott, mere inches away from his target. The attack contained enough force to blister soft skin, but wouldn’t do much more than irritate the armour-like chitin of an alpha gliscor. A blast across the face and into an open mouth made Ingo gag and struggle to clear his airway, surprised by the unexpected bout of resistance.

It was first time she had managed to pressurize the attack for a proper water gun, not just a sputtering stream of bubbles. If Ingo was in a proper frame of mind he would have congratulated her for the feat, but there was no time for celebration.

His spluttering gave her just enough time to scrabble away and turn tail to run towards the cave entrance, kicking up grass and shed fur from the bedding in her mad dash. She didn’t dare check behind her as Ingo recovered from the distraction and scurried after her, an enraged shrieking only encouraging her to run faster.

A window of grey light from an overcast sky was less than a foot away, but Dawn could feel the flecks of spittle from the mad gliscor hot on her tail. The girl threw herself through the cave entrance and a pincer snapped shut where her head had been moments prior.

She landed hard on the gravelly slope outside the den and slid down several feet,  the rough terrain leaving harsh stinging scrapes all over her front and down her face. Some of the larger stones she bumped over would leave nasty bruises.

Dawn looked over her shoulder to see Ingo standing in the cave’s entrance, claws tightly gripping the edges and stinger raised threateningly.

A series of confusing and contradictory emotions flickered across his face before his posture relaxed and he vanished back into the cave, returning to his solitude.

A hallowed out feeling settled inside her chest at the sight of the man disappearing into the den, knowing it would be the last time she would get to see him as anything other than a monster.

The man that went to such great pains to be a supportive figure during such a tumultuous and uncertain time in her life and the closest she had to family, would be gone forever if she couldn’t shoulder the burdens of Hisui.

Deep inside Lady Sneasler’s abandoned nest, her warden lied curled up facing the wall, unable to stop trembling. There was only a single request on his mind, the only one he could reasonably make.

“Please stay safe.”

[stagkingswife-services]

I would like a free tea reading, if available.😊 Thank you in advance!

I wanted to ask how this month will be for me physically and/or mentally.

I also have a general question for you. I was wondering how the cup affects the readings? You said that this is a cup you recently got, so I assume you have other cups you use for readings too. Is it like a tarot deck feeling where different cups are better suited to some questions/has a specific vibe or is it just the cup is shaped differently so you want to test it out? I’m very interested in learning this divination method. (I will eventually make my way into it once I start liking tea lol)

Parallel Lines (Yellow) -  In Geometry parallel lines run forever and never meet.  There’s something unchanging and interminable about them.  Truly parallel lines are rare to find in nature, but seemingly unchanging situations aren’t.  

Crocodile (Blue) - A lot of things come to mind with a Crocodile symbol, “Crocodile Tears,’ various crocodile associated entities from different cultures, but with it’s mouth open like this I mostly think of the symbiotic relationship between crocodiles and Egyptian Plovers.  How the plover can safely pick rotting food out from between the crocodile’s teeth, even going so far as sit inside the croc’c mouth.  

Rabbit (red)  - Most of my rabbit associations come from my love of Watership Down and traditional folk stories about trickster rabbits. So to me the rabbit is a symbol of running and running and never stopping, of safety in numbers, a symbol of trickery, of cleverness.  But above all it’s a symbol of survival, because all of that, the running, the numbers, the tricks and cleverness, they all come together to ensure the survival of the warren, of the species. 

There’s a great deal of time to consider in this reading.  I know you asked about an upcoming month, but I feel like the scale being taken into account might actually much longer than that.  This may all apply to a single month, but I think it scales better when applied on a longer time span.  Things have been stagnant for a while haven’t they?  I don’t know if you have some sort of existing chronic issue, or if you’re waiting for a diagnosis, but the Parallel Lines make me think that you’ve been in some sort of holding pattern, waiting for things to get better - or at least change.  And here’s the thing, I think they are going to change, but I can’t necessarily say that they’re going to change for the better.  That’s not to say that things are going to get worse either.  I’m not seeing anything that really indicates one way or the other.  What I am seeing, and what in my opinion as a semi-professional patient myself is more important, is how you handle it.  You survive. Like the Rabbit you tackle whatever is coming towards you with cleverness, and you keep running.  And eventually you work out a balance, like the Crocodile and the Egyptian Plover.  If I can wax poetical about disability in this reading for a momment - isn’t that something that we’re all looking for, really?  Not to overcome our diagnosises, whatever they be, but to achieve a symbiotic relationship with them eventually that doesn’t break our stride?  I know that’s certainly something I’ve tried find. 

As for your question about cups:  I find that the cups don’t really factor into the readings in a magical or spiritual way, it’s not like I have a cup for love questions and a cup for health questions, or anything like that.  I do find that there are a lot of mundane features to take into consideration when choosing a cup for tasseography.  I like wider, shallower, bowls with open mouths.  One of my favorite teacups to drink from is actually terrible to use for readings, it’s slender and fluted in shape, so any leaves in the cup get caught in the flutes and don’t form good shapes.

You may have noticed that I switched cups after the first few readings. My new cup, though delightful to drink from, and full of a delightful energy, was not good for how I like to do my tasseography readings. When I do a reading I like to drink as much of the tea as I can, swirl the very last little bit of liquid around and then flip the cup upside down on its saucer to drain the last little bit of liquid away.  The placement of the handles on my new cup was very high so when I tried to flip it the rim of the cup didn’t actually touch the saucer.  Trying to flip it ended up being very messy, and it actually left less in the cup to read.  Also, there was a pattern on the inside of the cup, which was very pretty, but made it harder to discern the symbols in the leaves - which sort of negates the whole point.  So I’ve gone back to some of my old favorite cups for the remainder of these readings.  Lower placed handles, plain white inside in the cup, and good shapes.  All around easier to read.

[buriedinleather]

In b4 someone else asks 👻 for Ghost.

👻 GHOST - do they believe in ghosts? what are their "ghostly experiences", if any?

The alias 'Ghost' is more so a callback to his own youth and trauma than an actual reference to the supernatural. Though, of course, like most folks, he's had his fair run-ins of odd occurrences. Things he can't quite explain.

Considering I headcanon Ghost as having dissociative identity disorder, autism, and borderline personality disorder these things need to be taken into consideration as well. He is more prone to things like hallucinations, paranoia, and intrusive thoughts.

( Due to this - and the fact that he's aware of his own mental illness to a degree - he tries to avoid going outside of logic & science for an explanation. It can, in fact, make these very real symptoms worse for him if he tries to put thought toward spirits, ghosts, gods, etc. )

Experiencing psychosis to a significant degree would obviously put the entirety of his team and himself at risk. With that in consideration, he denies the existence of these things affecting reality in any great capacity. Though he understands some folks might find comfort in the divine, these concepts have only ever caused him pain in the past, and currently would be a greater risk than they would be a boon.

Does he believe in the traditional sense? No, not entirely, but not 'not at all'.

( Remind me to make a two-part response to this because I think it'd be fun to do a character study of sorts where I write some drabbles about his 'ghostly experiences'. )

[solibrie]

wip wednesday!!

context: this is a bit of a prologue for an AU where the sheikah were still making tech under hyrule's nose for the 10,000 years, so the yiga don't exist. as a wip, it's called "approximate disobedience"

⤵

“Please tell me you are not considering King Benedict’s idiotic order.”

“The king threatens invasion,” Maz murmurs, spreading their hands out. “Should we disobey, he will surely send the Hylian army to our doorstep.”

“Mighty doorstep that it is,” Impa interjects. She is not being prideful, it is merely factual—Kakariko City is the largest Sheikahn settlement in Hyrule. The Western Abbey on the Great Plateau is the second largest, and Oritsu Village, just east of Hyrule Castle under Mount Crenel’s watchful shadow, is the third and smallest. Oritsu Village or the Western Abbey are far more accessible than Kakariko City, and they pale in comparison to the technological prowess being expressed in the Sheikah’s capital city.

“They would not start here,” Maz counters. “They would start close with Oritsu. They would climb the Plateau and forgo the ban of violence, lie and claim they have the princess’s support, and exterminate the holy folk in the Western Abbey if need be. Then, and only then, would they descend to the Pillars of Levia and challenge us. They would frame this as a holy crusade if we do not comply.”

Impa makes a disgusted expression. “Do you really think so? We are Hylia’s Eyes!”

“Do not forget what Hyrule did to the Zonai a century ago, and they worshiped the Emerald Goddess Farore,” Maz reminds her. “The kings of Hyrule always take advantage when their wives are dead and their daughters are young to commit violent acts of imperialism. This is another instance of this. They will call us apostates if they must in order to rally public support, because the Hylian people would not support a mindless war so soon after the Calamity. But if their beloved princess called it a holy war, that is a different story.”

“I do not fear the King of Hyrule so long as that army is bolstered by our technology, Maz Koshia,” Ikuo snaps. “All it takes is Shigeo or Ritsuko executing Order 44 and everything within a kilometer of Kakariko, Oritsu, or the Abbey will shut down upon entering the radius. Why are we even entertaining this?”

Ume is a very slight woman; her frame betrays her incredible skill with not only the blade but in the art of Sheikah runescribing and hand seals. For all her four-foot-eleven glory, she is likely the most dangerous person seated at the table. She tilts her head to the side, the heavy metal eyes of the Sheikah on her hat clanking next to each other before they settle into silence. Her hat’s wide brim hides her eyes from the sight of everyone else.

“Appearances still matter, Ikuo,” Ume says. “My daughter knows her history—we’ve followed Hylia’s lineage since she was still divine flesh. There is a dangerous misconception swirling around all of Hyrule,” she states after three counts of quiet consideration. “The Sheikah have served the crown of Hyrule for generations. As you’ve said, we have stood steady in our role since the Kingdom’s infancy.” Ikuo narrows his eyes. Ume raises her hand to silence him before he speaks.

“However, that has only ever been a lucky coincidence,” she hums. “The Sheikah do not follow the royal family. We follow Hylia’s lineage and on occasion aid the soul of the hero with his duties. Unfortunately for Benedict the Third, he has not a drop of Hylia’s blood in him nor the Sword that Seals the Darkness on his back. The men who marry into the Hylian royal family are nothing but shortsighted fools. We will not be taken down so lightly.”

Her words settle across the table, and Ikuo’s dangerous frown melts into a pleased smile. “And so we disobey?”

Ume finally lifts her head, red eyes glinting menacingly. “Approximately. We were called the Shadow Folk, once. Let us allow Hyrule to continue forgetting that.”

(In another world, Lady Ume does not think about her clan’s promise to Hylia’s bloodline and only to the royal family. In another world, Ikuo, in his fury, rallies the rest of the angry Sheikah and travels south, southwest, west. In another world, for some, the Eye of the Sheikah flips and changes into the infamous Inverted Eye.)

[princeofgod-2021]

LIGHT OF LIFE 449

John 1:4

DIVINE ORDER 14: FROM BEGINNING OF CREATION 13

Exo 40:4 And THOU SHALT BRING IN THE TABLE, AND SET IN ORDER THE THINGS THAT ARE TO BE SET IN ORDER UPON IT; and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the lamps thereof. KJV

4. RAW MATERIALS INFLOW

We proceed with our focus scriptures as we consider another point still.

1Sa 22:1-2 So David escaped from that place and fled to the cave at Adullam. When his brothers and all the rest of his family heard about it, they went to him. THEN EVERYONE WHO WAS IN TROUBLE, IN DEBT, OR BITTER ABOUT LIFE JOINED HIM, and HE BECAME THEIR COMMANDER. There were about four hundred men with him. GW

Now David himself was [considerably] not settled, being a fugitive and not having any sure [physical] means of provision or protection, yet he was suddenly laden with Broken bruised and battered Men, why?

Because he had the Capacity - through God - to Mould them.

1Sa 16:17-18 So Saul said to his servants, “Find me a man who plays well and bring him to me.” One of his attendants replied, “I have seen a son of Jesse in Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. HE IS A BRAVE WARRIOR AND IS ARTICULATE AND HANDSOME, FOR THE LORD IS WITH HIM.” NET

These Men were the Raw Materials for David to work with. They were “without form, empty and in darkness”, yet the Spirit of God was upon them and brought them to David.

You may not realize it but the world is full of such men and they are all around us.

Isa 60:2 FOR TRULY, THE EARTH WILL BE DARK, AND THE PEOPLES VEILED IN BLACKEST NIGHT; but the Lord will be shining on you, and his glory will be seen among you. BBE

But you see, God has said: “Let there be Light” and that Light will be seen on you and will guide your Raw Materials to you.

Isa 60:1 Arise, shine; for THY LIGHT IS COME, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. RV

When you have come of age and your time to take up responsibility is at hand, God sets you up like His Church Mountain for all your Raw Materials to see and be drawn to.

Isa 2:2-3 In days to come THE MOUNTAIN WHERE THE TEMPLE STANDS WILL BE THE HIGHEST ONE OF ALL, towering above all the hills. MANY NATIONS WILL COME STREAMING TO IT, and their people will say, "LET US GO UP THE HILL OF THE LORD, to the Temple of Israel's God. HE WILL TEACH US WHAT HE WANTS US TO DO; WE WILL WALK IN THE PATHS HE HAS CHOSEN. For the LORD's teaching comes from Jerusalem; from Zion he speaks to his people." GNB

It is that simple folks!

This is how you see the Bible agree with itself from Genesis to Revelation, making the same points all through.

Your Raw Materials will connect with you to receive instructions for living and maximizing life.

It does not matter if they look rich and noble; you are the carrier of Life and it is they that need God’s Life through you.

Isa 60:3 Nations will come to your light, and KINGS WILL COME TO THE BRIGHTNESS OF YOUR DAWN. GW

Sometimes of course, you are the one to go looking for the Raw Materials, but basically, you find them somehow because they are also looking for you and waiting hungrily.

Mat 10:6 Go instead and find THE LOST SHEEP among the people of Israel. TPT

Whether you are a Pastor, Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer, Carpenter, Cleaner, Servant, Messenger etc, the same Central Rule applies to all.

As long as you are connected to God yourself. Connect with your Raw Materials.

So now, how did David’s life impact these broken, bruised and battered Men?

2Sa 23:8 These be THE NAMES OF THE MIGHTY MEN WHOM DAVID HAD: The Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite: he lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time. KJV

Just read from that point to the end of the Chapter.

These are the same broken men after spending their lives with David in caves and forests, not schools and training camps.

The Terrain rarely matters. It is the Life of the “Creator” working with them, that matters more.

1Pe 3:2 For when they observe your pure, godly life before God, IT WILL IMPACT THEM DEEPLY. TPT

I pray that your ife will make indelible impact on your generation, IN JESUS NAME.

Come back on Wednesday, as we proceed in digging into this inspiring Subtopic.

Keep Shinning!

Brother Prince

Monday, December 25, 2023

08055125517; 08023904307

[sheetpin8]

The smart Trick of 7 Inspiring Bible Verses About Weight Loss For Your Weight That Nobody is Talking About

Use this supreme manual to Bible verses for your weight loss journey for Bibles on emotional eating, appeal, appetite, & even more! *Please keep in mind: Some recipes for glucose and carbs are not entirely evaluated on creatures; for breeder, observe 'Cholesterol and Sugar in Food', in 'Food Choices on Carbohydrates and Healthful Eating', and in 'Tips to Decide on A Healthy Carb. When individuals talk to me regarding how I shed 100 pounds, they are practically consistently anticipating me to answer along with some magic diet regimen or workout plan. It is simply a scenario of making use of my wellness, creative thinking and energy to generate a well-balanced and balanced diet plan. Some sportsmens might inquire me how can I discover a means to shed 100 pounds, yet carry on to be ripped. This is an additional means to view the body weight reduction difficulty as an anomaly. It is one of those items that is normally forgotten. The fact is, one of the most powerful things that aided me shed weight and always keep it off is Bible verses! Right now that I have ended up being more confident, I require to know additional about the Bible in general. Here are the two most crucial Bible-related inquiries I really wanted to inquire. There is actually one. Why does the Bible claim this? Is it wrong to consume creature hides when the Sabbath is being noticed? Permit’s face it – losing weight is hard. In simple fact, a new research study presents that after getting surgery, folks of all sex identities are about the very same weight. The research study, carried out on 12,000 guys and women with an internet survey, found that 40% of guys and 36% of women looked at eating much less fat when taking into consideration body weight cuts after they came off their surgical procedure. The women were in fact larger on average, with men taking a lot less opportunity to reduced down. It’s often a a lot slower method than you wish it to be, and it’s so simple to get dissuaded, disheartened, and strongly believe that it’s merely not worth all the work when you don’t view the development that you experience like you should. It's like individuals yearn for to obtain abundant as promptly as achievable by receiving their organization out coming from under them, so if you cease them you lose them for lifestyle. The excellent updates is, that you don’t have to merely give in to the frustration (the Bible shows you how to possess stamina when you experience like offering up). It's like providing up because you loathe yourself for taking (some or all) of yourself. It's like providing up because you need to have motivation for self-improvement. You feel the demand to use these tools to control your actions located on simply a handful of basic rules.

You possess all the tools you need to have to deal with back and the finest device of all is the double-edged falchion of God’s Word . For you, we recognize He creates the Word of God a tool: a kind of divinely formed paper that serves as a source to us all for working along with problems and troubles and for our spiritual recuperation and gratification. This is something we may not anticipate of a scriptural document—and he talks for it as properly. How To Make use of Bible Verses In Your Weight Loss I understand how effortless it is to skim by means of messages like this and respond at their truths…at that point click away coming from the web page and overlook all about them. I've read through several publications which help you to reviewed and comprehend Bible knowledgeables much better (some by Jesus) and they additionally aid you to construct a terrific attitude regarding God's passion and grace, which he carries to his household and good friends and to himself. If you wish these knowledgeables to really impact your life, I would extremely motivate you to select the ones that reverberate most along with you and remember them. I would advise reading it properly because you may read it and presume differently concerning it. More Details believe the trick listed below is to help make your ideas and observations matter and not obtain them to be a part of your identity that are going to come to be part of the narrative that you later on bring by means of after you've carried out your research. write the Scriptures on notecards make use of a completely dry erase pen to write the Bible verses on your washroom mirror create the knowledgeable the lock display on your phone go through Much less of Me: A 30-Day Weight Loss Devotional for more faith-focused reassurance from my very own 100-pound weight loss quest inquire God how these Bible administer to your life straight now journal your notions and feelings as you reviewed through each verse and how they apply to your weight reduction experience That technique, when those damaging thoughts rush in ( like when you tip on the range and see that you acquired a stinkin’ extra pound instead of dropping after you functioned so hard!

[7serendipities]

Review: John Beckett’s Course on Pagan Monasticism as a Solitary Practitioner

I enrolled in John Beckett’s Course 7 at Under the Ancient Oaks on Pagan Monasticism as a Solitary Practitioner because after taking his one-hour class on the same topic at Mystic South back in July, I decided I needed to explore the monastic path more deeply. Now having finished the course and done some reflection and processing and discernment, I’m left with a feeling that roles of monastics/contemplatives and priests overlap considerably, especially the roles of Gods-facing temple priests (rather than a congregation-facing minister priests), which I have considered my calling for a few years now.

Part of my purpose is to (eventually) establish a retreat center that reflects a space in the Otherworlds where I am in service. It’s a bit like a temple and a bit like a hospital and a bit like a spa hotel, and I call it the Waystation. In this world, I envision a space nestled in the woods that hosts workshops, rituals, and retreats, serving the local pagan community. This kind of a space may also make a good space for an annual gathering of contemplatives, who otherwise live most of the time out in the world, as solitary monastics. More than being a monastic myself, I feel called to create and hold space for pagan monastics. In this, I’m not unlike Janet Munin, the editor of the book that served as the class text, “Polytheistic Monasticism: Voices from Pagan Cloisters”, who says she began working on the volume as she was exploring the path for herself, and then came to realize that the path was not her own calling, but writing about it was.

Both Beckett’s course and the book itself were helpful as I created a new structure for my practice, in this time of personal transition. I’ve been figuring out a new schedule for myself since the tail end of August, when the Acorn Sprout started full-time kindergarten. With a little more time on my hands, I needed a new organizational system to keep myself on track, and to keep myself from getting overwhelmed to the point of paralysis with everything I now had time to do that needed to get done. I needed a way to help myself prioritize, and the homework for the second module was to come up with a schedule or calendar for cycles of repetitive practice: daily, weekly, etc. So now I have foci for each day of the week (for my practice but also for my personal life) and hopefully this new schedule will also keep me blogging more regularly! In addition, I’ve adjusted my liturgical calendar to be monthly instead of just the eight neopagan holy days, and October is now the month of Na Morrigna.

As for the class itself, Beckett presents information in an accessible way that also invites deeper contemplation (as per usual). If you’ve enjoyed other classes of his and think this one sounds interesting, you won’t be disappointed! I think the interviews Beckett recorded with some of the authors were probably the most valuable parts of the course, for me; he asked them some of the same questions I would have, and they had enough time to really elaborate in ways it would have been hard to include in the book.

My new week is as follows: Monday: Order and Organization Tuesday: Divination and Trancework Wednesday: Study and Writing Thursday: Cleansing and Household Concerns Friday: Divination and Trancework Saturday: Nature Sprits and Ancestors Sunday: Fair Folk and Gods

I could have read the book on my own and gotten some good ideas out of it, but I don’t think I would have gotten as much as I did without the format of the class. The structure and time delay for the each module, coupled with the reflective homework and the paired readings, really gave me a good scaffold to lay it all out and examine it more closely. And there was plenty of additional material comparing and contrasting the Benedictine (in a monastery) and Jesuit (out in the world) approaches, and information on various other traditions. The module about what our monastery jobs might be was particularly memorable to me, because the list Beckett gave of possible jobs for those without a physical monastery to upkeep read like a list of my hobbies: academic study, reading, writing, teaching, doing magic, crafting, gardening… Little wonder I’d found the path intriguing, I suppose!

Regarding the book itself (which I suppose I should also briefly review), some of the essays were more relevant to me than others, but that’s how it usually is with edited volumes. Chapter 4, “Called by the Spirits but not to the Priesthood” by Kimberly Kirner was perhaps the most relevant to me — and I came to the opposite conclusion, though for some of the same reasons, as Kirner was mostly contrasting monasticism with ministration. Kirner was also one of the authors that Beckett interviewed, and that helped clarify a few of her points. Chapter 8, “Of Hearth and Shadow: A Contemplative Norse Polytheist and a Fledgling Animist Abbey” by Danica Swanson also really helped me reflect on what I mean by “retreat space” when I say I feel a calling to create one, and I think following the development of the Black Stone Sanctuary will help me plan my own sanctuary as I move forward down my (now clarified) path.

TL;DR: I enjoyed this course and the book, and if either interest you, you should check them out!

[janshu]

Once In A Millennia...P1.

Summary: A thousand years ago you were married to the Sukuna, a mortal man with the power of a god. Bound to him, his "death" leads you to wander the world alone, against all odds. However...his spirit remains and was resurrected by an unknown boy...

Word Count: 1k-ish.

Warnings: Gn!reader, mentions of a past life & family arranging a marriage.

The days had begun to blur into one incoherent mess.

That wasn't too out of the ordinary. You couldn't be expected to remember every moment of every day, not when you had several lifetime's floating around between your synapses. The mundane and monotonous would naturally be forgotten to make room for the impactful and important memories. The one's you hold onto like your life depends on it and maybe in some way it did, life was mysterious in its ways.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that you had seen everything. Every advancement in every field from science to medicine, going from horse-drawn-buggies to vehicles and letters to text messages. Safe to say that nothing was a surprise anymore. What was life's great surprise now? In a thousand years you had seen and experienced everything, from the divine to the depraved.

Life had begun easy. Being only the child of simple country folk who took pride in their work, worshipping the gods in their own special way, you were given more freedom than most in your childhood. Father and Mother had let you wander the secret places of the village until the sun set and dinner was ready, fed and ready for bed you'd lay down on the comfortable cot they had purchased with the earnings from that season's harvest to let you dream the night away. Until he came, that fateful day where your parents made the decision to sacrifice you to the warlord baring down on their home and land. The ultimatum that sealed your fate was simple: you or them and being the pragmatic people they were chose themselves to save.

Now hundreds of years later you weren't sure you should curse or bless them for their decision because that choice set you on the path to where you are now, browsing the morning market like the days of old with the luxuries of the modern age.

That's when you were made aware of it. The creeping cold of being watched, of being found. The inescapable reality of a person exhaling their hot breath against the back of your neck at an angle your neck simply could not turn towards. The feel of a large palm bearing its weight against the curve of your spine with the addition of three more to various hand-holds across the expanse of your body.

"Have you been well, my sweet spouse? The years haven't been kind to you, have they?"

The deep chuckle of a man thoroughly sadistic in the uncaring manner of which they dispatch those he deems maggots, a man changed, a curse upon the world.

Your husband: Sukuna Ryōmen.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten. Wouldn't it be a pity if you've forgotten your husband?"

And when you understandably twist your head around to venture a guess why he of all beings was behind you at a random stall? There was no one. Not the copious amounts of people shopping for their meal ingredients, not even the shopkeepers or the one that was impatiently waiting for you to purchase that fruit and strangely enough: no husband in sight.

An odd hallucination perhaps?

You were being followed, very conspicuously might I add. Clearly they thought themselves to be a master spy by the way they hid behind dumpsters, peeked around poles and made themselves the most obvious person in the ocean of people. Pure lunacy or a power move you weren't sure of yet, the garment they wore a dead giveaway to their intentions. The deep navy uniforms of the Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College. A sorcerer and not a good one if their sneaking skills alluded to their abilities.

Far more inconspicuously you took a look at the figure with the reflection of a shop's window pane. A young man, average, pink undercut and overall nondescript but there was something familiar about his aura. A sinister darkness that was foreign in his kind features. That couldn't be natural. Sepia shaded orbs trained on your figure with a burning intensity that would set your soul on fire with its pinpoint directness. The more important matter was why a sorcerer was following you. To your knowledge they believed Sukuna was a myth and your marriage to him had been forgotten in the past seven hundred years so was it superstition that led him to follow you? Or did you have a curse attached to you and he was doing his job?

Odd, to say the least.

"Excuse me? Uhh, hello? Uhm..'scuse me."

A hand clamped down on your shoulder from the opposite direction you had been watching the sorcerer. Turning back around what did you find? The very same magic user you had been spying. How did he move so quickly? That was a split moment and he was behind you. How did he manage that?

"Yes?" You responded, face rather devoid of emotions while taking a closer inspection at the sorcerer. Upon closer look he was indeed a boy, in the middle of his teen years at the most yet experience had aged his soul considerably. The windows of his eyes closer to that of a wizened old monk rather than a bright-eyed pubescent teenager. The oddest feature that stood out were the dark tattoo's across the bottom edges of his eye sockets, rather distinguished against the otherwise blank face. Fashion statements got stranger and stranger with each passing century.

The boy appeared to have a goal in mind as his eyes searched your face, your eyes and the windows to your soul. Whatever he was looking for either wasn't there or he kept the discovery to himself because after his hand was removed he sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "Oops, sorry! Thought you were someone else."

"No harm done, honest mistake."

Without another word the sorcerer boy turned on his heel and retreated in the direction he came from. How he had managed to double back and come from your blind spot was still a mystery, there must've been more than meets the eye on that boy.

Yuji Itadori returned to the First Year dorm hall and slid the door closed behind him as he entered. It was late, much later than when he was expected to be in bed and resting. If anyone had noticed his absence then he'd be in a world of pain. What could be worse than the punishment's Gojo could think up? Well, there was one thing. That tattooed psychopath using his body as a vessel. Whoever that person was had set him off. The control he originally thought he had on the cursed spirit had hung by a thread, a battle on who got to control his body raging on. It was a stalemate, mostly. He had control over the vast majority of his facilities but that uppy bastard had gotten his hand in the metaphorical doorway and pried himself into the driver's sleg. Taking over his legs and waltzing up to them and without a plan. They were lucky he had regained himself right as he touched them, what would've happened if he hadn't? There were moments he went on and on about slaughtering women and children like maggots but was the sight of them enough to cause a sudden bloody rampage? Apparently so.

The transition to phase into the mindscape that kept Sukuna contained was seamless. As if he had walked to another section of a home, could be considered as easy as breathing but whenever he was there it was not because he went willingly. He was summoned.

On the pinnacle of the mountain of bones, perched upon on the throne, Yuji noticed there was a crazed grin on the very man's face. Revealing the pearly whites amidst his bloody gums, eyes wide as he leaned forward. Not looking at his host, quite the opposite but something beyond him. Shoulders cloaked in a white robe rose and fell in time with his maniacal giggles, gleeful and relieved. It would be perturbing if he wasn't used to the grating sound by now. The reason why he was laughing was the disconcerting subject.

"Ahh, there you are, dearest spouse. How long will it take until you return to me?"

[kunosoura]

god I forget how much this little novella drives me insane.. vampirism is basically always about When The Sex Is Weird after making the jump from folk tale to gothic horror but Le Fanu was literally decades ahead of the curve... he wrote a story where The Vampire is a point in a cycle of abuse stretching infinitely out, and where the intermingling of desire and horror common in vampiric fiction works to specifically critique the repressive and abusive societies that make people so vulnerable to interpersonal abuse.

Like if Laura hadn’t been raised in such a cloistered, isolated way, she’d be able to recognize that Carmilla’s attention is Not just that of a good friend; if she wasn’t raised in a society that innately viewed women as frivolous and prone to frights, people might have paid more attention to the circumstances of her frequent night horrors; if there wasn’t such a sharp contrast in the humanity granted to the nobility and the peasants, people would have paid more attention to the specific circumstances afflicting the women who died during Carmilla’s spree; and if homosexuality hadn’t been made a taboo beyond even mentioning in polite european society, Laura’s might not have been so repressed that the first person to give her that sort of attention was able to lure use it to lure her into such a vulnerable state.

And there’s shades of this in Carmilla’s character, too! As Laura falls into her power, she begins feeling the exact same melancholy described of Carmilla. There’s also the way that one of the only ways to rouse her to anger is to imply that everything happens by its nature under God, because it implies that what she’s doing and thus what was done to her can be justifiable by any divine grace. She knows deep down that it’s monstrous - that’s a big part of why she’s both adamant in refusing to see the peasants as worth any consideration, and why she’s also so desperate to share that pain with someone whose subjectivity she actually recognizes as being like hers - Laura, a young, sheltered gentlewoman - that someone else could understand.

And Sheridan Le Fanu wrote all this DECADES before Bram Stoker decided to flatten all the nuance out of it and make it about corrupted women seducing innocent christians to the dark side of, “Having Sex”!!

[kiyfra]

Got a WIP of my new fic for WIP Wednesday. Pokerus au belongs to monsoon-of-art.

Ingo forced himself to take slow even breaths as he laid in the messy bedding of Lady Sneasler’s abandoned den. She had taken her kits and relocated the nest elsewhere in the Coronet Highlands, refusing to disclose the location to her warden.

Her decision was a sensible one, not one borne out of disdain as Mistress Calaba believed, even if her words did nothing but repeat in his head.

“He’s an outsider that doesn’t know our customs or share our values. It’s not surprising that he’s done something to offend her.”

She had always been the most critical of him since he was first offered a place within the Pearl Clan and had been one of his harshest critics since he was appointed as Lady Sneasler’s warden. Many of the more traditional members of the clan took issue with his position, but they couldn’t argue with a decision from the Lady of the Cliffs herself.

Most of the Pearl Clan was welcoming or warmed up to him quickly. They were content to think of him as rather odd with his strange mannerisms and knowing a startling amount about pokémon while lacking basic life skills such as starting a fire or food preservation.

Ingo wondered if he was imagining things when he saw Pearl folk giving him dirty looks after he was the first of the clan to show symptoms. But ever since Calaba voiced the belief that he had brought a curse upon himself and the clan, he heard people whispering about him when they believed he was out of earshot, especially after his lady’s perceived scorn.

Irida had stood up for him and had taken a stand against talk about curses or divine punishment from Sinnoh.

“Don’t pay Calaba any mind. It wouldn’t be the first time she accused a guest of bringing a curse into the settlement.”

A guest.

Her reassurances inadvertently confirmed what he had always feared, that the Pearl Clan viewed him as fundamentally other. The place he would have to live and would be his home for the rest of his life would always consider him an outsider and he could never truly belong.

Ingo supposed it didn’t really matter now.

It was a short while after his physical transformation was completed that he made the decision to leave the settlement and isolate himself on Mt. Coronet. Several times he had lapses in memory where he couldn’t recall where he was or what he had been doing, coming to with people staring at him, shocked and horrified.

Irida and his fellow wardens had similar episodes, snarling at and trying to bite or claw anyone that was close, leaving children crying and their parents looking at them with such contempt. These episode grew more frequent as time went on and Irida was giving serious consideration to sending the rest of the clan away to protect them from its wardens and leader.

She found him carefully storing and removing his belongings with a pack containing a few days worth of food, ready to leave his tent as if it was never lived in.

Irida was still wearing her traditional garb, the tails trailing behind and dragging on the ground. It was quite cumbersome and impractical with her new quadruped build, but she refused to let the gradual and painful transformation into a glaceon rob her of this sense of dignity.

“Ingo, what are you doing?”

“I am performing my safety checks.” He turned towards her. “Lady Irida, I want to thank you for everything you and the Pearl Clan have done for me. It has been an honour serving as one of its wardens.”

“Don’t talk like that. We’re not going to die,” she said sternly.