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bornchaos · 9 months

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𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄⠀⠀ ‟⠀⠀⠀⠀… ⠀⠀⠀the⠀⠀cost⠀⠀of⠀⠀fame⠀⠀was⠀⠀just⠀⠀a⠀⠀𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍⠀⠀𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒆⠀⠀𝒕𝒐⠀⠀𝒑𝒂𝒚⠀⠀at⠀⠀the⠀⠀time⠀⠀,⠀⠀a⠀⠀little⠀⠀favour⠀⠀and⠀⠀𝖙𝖍𝖊⠀⠀𝖉𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖑⠀⠀would⠀⠀𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒⠀⠀𝑢𝑝⠀⠀𝑚𝑦⠀⠀𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒⠀⠀.⠀⠀but⠀⠀now⠀⠀i'm⠀⠀𝑜𝑛⠀⠀𝑡ℎ𝑒⠀⠀𝑟𝑢𝑛⠀⠀'cause⠀⠀he⠀⠀wants⠀⠀me⠀⠀𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝⠀⠀𝐨𝐫⠀⠀𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞⠀⠀,⠀⠀the⠀⠀fame⠀⠀and⠀⠀fortune⠀⠀got⠀⠀me⠀⠀trapped⠀⠀in⠀⠀a⠀⠀𝘤𝑖𝘵𝑦⠀⠀𝘰𝑓⠀⠀𝘭𝑖𝘦𝑠⠀⠀.⠀⠀mirror⠀⠀,⠀⠀mirror⠀⠀sitting⠀⠀up⠀⠀high⠀⠀on⠀⠀the⠀⠀wall⠀⠀;⠀⠀save⠀⠀me⠀⠀from⠀⠀𝖙𝖍𝖊⠀⠀𝖉𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖑⠀⠀that's⠀⠀ho͟l͟d͟i͟n͟g͟⠀͟⠀͟m͟y͟⠀͟⠀͟s͟o͟u͟l⠀⠀,⠀⠀coming⠀⠀for⠀⠀the⠀⠀favor⠀⠀that⠀⠀he⠀⠀𝒌𝒏͟𝒐͟𝒘͟𝒔⠀⠀that⠀⠀i⠀⠀owe⠀⠀.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ／⠀⠀headcanons⠀ , ⠀⠀threads⠀ , ⠀⠀playlist⠀ , ⠀⠀open starters⠀ , ⠀⠀starter call .⠀⠀ ⠀trigger⠀⠀warnings : ⠀⠀the typical things that come with overwatch : political unrest , murder / assassination all that mumbo jumbo | this is an ever evolving verse , which means more info will be added or changed as time goes on .

ca͟l͟l͟ ͟s͟i͟g͟n : blue ( blackwatch ) | virago ( current : HISTORY , the title has a long and rich history dating back to hellenistic philosophy in ancient greece ; the concept itself linked to the notion of brave men abiding society and being the core of its values and ethics - it's about heroism, morality and physical strength ; women at the time were considered lesser in comparison . however, if exceptional enough - these women could be granted with the title virago - meaning the woman had surpassed the exceptions for what believed possible for her gender and embodied masculine like aggression and/or excellence. virago, then, was a title of respect and admiration. as time went on, the meaning changed to something more negative, 'a domineering, violent, or bad-tempered woman.' or 'shrew' - the title intertwined with it's original meaning and the newest ; however most understand the name to mean the latter . coraline's strong connection to greece and the history is what inspired this title - it's also a little on the nose study that just like the callsign, there is more to coraline and her character than the faracde displayed on the surface . ) bi͟r͟t͟h͟p͟l͟a͟c͟e : britain. lo͟c͟a͟t͟i͟o͟n : bounces around a lot ; has a few apartments in shady spots . however one of her main resting places is a ship that's in the middle of the australian desert ; it has everything she needs . fa͟c͟e͟c͟l͟a͟i͟m : depends when the mood strikes , sometimes natasha romanoff from the marvel comics ; othertime i'll use lara croft both game and comics ; i'll also just use my main live action. ac͟c͟e͟n͟t : due to travelling , coraline's accent has a twinge of everything ; however there is a prominant southen london tone that is more dominant . la͟n͟g͟u͟a͟g͟e͟s͟ ͟k͟n͟o͟w͟n : greek, spanish, russian, swedish, irish, korean, german, chinese, japanese, french, arabic, morse code . sc͟a͟r͟s : deep , red scar across neck from a fatal wound during a blackwatch ops - only managed to survive due to the meds team quick response / talent ; often covered up with a choker , gun shot wounds on left hip and right shoulder . ta͟t͟t͟o͟o͟s : faded blackwatch logo on right side ; clearly in the process of being removed ( is sorrttaa gone recall ; it was a drunken mistake in her ovw era ) / rose thorns circling right thigh , cat tattoo left arm . jo͟b͟ ͟h͟i͟s͟t͟o͟r͟y : worked for overwatch in their undercover division , blackwatch . when disbanded was an assassin for hire with no loyalty to any cause - has a history of being hired by talon acquaintances ; thus starting a complicated , untitled relationship with the group . sk͟i͟l͟l͟s : martial arts , hacking , engineering ( the later two certainly aren't her specialities , they're just things she can do at a low scale . ) po͟w͟e͟r͟s : magic user , has regenerative cells that cause quick healing , this is also why coraline appears ageless - though is mortal , just requires a fatal wound to kill her . ab͟i͟l͟i͟t͟i͟e͟s͟ ͟i͟n͟ ͟g͟a͟m͟e : create portals and jump from different areas of the map ( no team mates can use ) with a 10 second cool down , self healing , smoke bomb that has a 6 second cool down ULTIMATE : duplicates nearby team members for 7 seconds , sending out holograms that mimic the individuals actions . it's the slowest ultimate build due to the intensity of it . lo͟a͟d͟o͟u͟t : M110 semi-automatic sniper , nighthawk aac recon : silenced , throwing knives and an omniblade machete | has an ai companion named hephaestus that helps on missions when/if needed .

𝐏𝐑𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇

the streets have always been coraline's home , even when having four walls and a roof - she didn't shy away from sneaking out and sleeping in alleys in favour of her bed . her parents were abusive ; mean, rich and powerful people who didn't hesitate to weaponize it, even against their own blood . they were reason why she was born with survival flowing through her veins - the reason why she's always had a sharpness about her that the kids around her lacked . it was only a matter of time before she took to them full time , deciding that they were safer than being at 'home' - of cause the streets came with harsh challenges , with ruthlessness - but it was better , making it an environment coraline thrived in all too well .

she needed friends on the streets ... so to speak , friendships are rare in and of themselves - what she needed was allies. meaning snuggling up to gangs in different areas was the next best thing, it was the way to provide safety ; shelter without stepping on anyone's toes, especially with the ever rising conflicts. she didn't carry a title ; at least not internally , outwardly was another story ; realistically, everyone was using each other, it's what made the system work - mutually beneficial relationships, while fickle, have a strength about them the longer you remain useful. within the system there are still special connections to be made - cautious friendships, if you will. with this came trust, in return you can get shelter, food and something that couldn't be gained on her own ; stability and purpose.

it wasn't long before coraline was put to work, things she was more than happy to do - smuggling drugs across state lines, stealing intel from different gangs ; dangerous work, especially for a child - but it was work she thrived in. coraline had a talent for stealth , for having a quickness on feet - it what built her reputation and she wasted no time profiting off of it. there was also the added edge of having abilities that others tyically didn't ; magic usage had only been a small percentage of her life, trying to avoid it as much as possible ; however it came in handy when being sent on the low scale missions - quick healing, the ability to create portals - it made her life easier, it certainly made her far more efficent. though it was a secret held close to heart - she didn't need to go bragging and giving up all her secrets.

it's this what got her on overwatch's radar ; there was a long while of them keeping tabs on her movements, watching from afar and getting a better understanding of her skills and talents - she was the perfect candidate for the organization - the exact sort of skills that they were looking for - though it was a little while before getting involved, obviously waiting for an oppotunity to arise before approaching.

in truth, it didn't take long. the life was catching up with coraline - between gang conflicts coming to ahead, the law slowly closing in and people realising that she was playing both sides with a little too many unfulfilled debts, there were a lot of people seeking her out - the sloppiness had much to do with her worsening drug habit, it was making her reckless, no thoughts going into her actions - she wasn't happy, coraline doesn't remember a time where she was and as a result they were the only things that made her forget about her life - the state she's made of it, it was easy to fall into hopelessness when there wasn't any hope to begin with.

one night, coraline had snuck away from the group after packing up her belongings, what was worth while of it ; a gun, some stolen money and some clothes - it was here when overwatch decided it was time to approach her - extending a helping hand and offering a second chance, a chance to care about something other than herself ; a chance to be someone she could be proud of. coraline didn't really have a choice when accepting, but she'd be lying if she was mad about it.

HEADCANONS :

as mentioned , coraline was heavily involved in drug use ; specifically meth , speed and cocaine - anything that kept her awake and had her blood pumping. there have been several instances of her stealing from stealing from suppliers - giving them the drugs in full, only to sneak back and steal some for herself.

another side gig that was taken up more so as a way to pass the time was partaking in illegal boxing matches - it was something she watched regularly and enjoyed betting on ; it was only a matter of time before taking a personal liking to it ; it was harsh, violent, of cause she couldn't help but be drawn to it - after voicing interest in this, a boxer that hired her to gather intel had taken up the task of teaching her how to fight in a ring ; at first he voiced that she would be stupid to take up going into the ring, even with how much she was learning with him - but that just made the notion more exciting, "it's all about the show, ain't it?" she'd grin, wiping her mouth of blood from a particularly bad punch he'd swung at her - it was then he became aware of how quickly she healed, seeing this, the boxer had taught her how to use her smaller body and strength to her advantage - going up against people her size and the closest to her weight as they could find at the time - but she proved to be a worthy opponent - it was a while before finding her footing, but when that was found she ended up diving into rigging the fights for extra money ; she was in her element. though, it did become just another mess she got herself into.

𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇

before even stepping her foot through the door, overwatch had put coraline in their medical facility in an attempt to help her detox off of the drugs - it was an agonizing road ; dealing with sweats, emotional out bursts and violent mood swings - truly, the most painful experience she had ever been through ; not the fighting, the emotional torment of the streets - simply being away from the drugs almost completely broke her apart, she had relied on them so long to feel anything, to just exist she never realised how much strain they were putting on her body. despite the clear signs of addiction displayed, in truth, coraline never noticed just how much she relied on substances.

it was under a year before overwatch decided they were satisfied with her recovery, though given her cells, she recovered quickly ; at least physically, there was still the aspect of dealing with the mental torment of it all in the aftermath - but she said as long as she kept her mind busy, she would be fine - she feels ready to take on the world, to start new - she's never felt as good as she did in that moment - with the vote of confidence, they put her to work - well, training most specifically ; honing in on her fighting skills, practicing shooting - she had fun with it, even acting as a therapy.

she struggled learning how to trust - she lived her life backstabbing, lying and manipulating - it was the way things were. to suddenly change up the dynamic and put her life in the hands of other people in such a way caused her to have a slight crisis - team building exercises were regular, helping her get used to people, in a way, overwatch was helping her to completely rewire her social perception. it was a painful road seeing people as friends and not as enemies, but after a long time, of training with them and fighting along side them - she began to open herself up. allowing herself to get comfortable, to get somewhat soft around others and become docile - she was happier ; she was putting her talents to use while not having to worry about going home and getting stabbed in her sleep.

MORE TO BE ADDED .

HEADCANON :

i personally hc that coraline was a part of the venice mission, because .. c'mon, it's fun to think about - and while a lot of her portrayal revolves around the core four, if you're a blackwatch writer ( gabriel , genji , moria , cassidy ) and don't vibe with the idea, then that's fine ! just let me know - because i can make it so the impact bw had on her are faceless within the group rather than specifically canon charcters.

𝐏𝐑𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋

after the collapse of overwatch, it took a little while for coraline to get back on her feet ; naturally , this left a large hole in her life that was originally filled by the group - they found her when she was at her worst and as a result she truly never pictured a time where she'd be without them . looking back , she realises how foolish she had been to put so much faith in something that wasn't even remotely sustainable - it was an undercover military group , the shadow of something that represented an artificial light that never truly existed in the first place ; it was bound to collapse in on itself from the weight of sins that it carried ; however she was young , she had a spark in her that made her hopeful - vulnerable , weaker - a mistake she promised to herself to never make again .

she took some time away , retirement so to speak , though without any of the actual relaxing ; taking the time to learn new skills ; languages , hacking , engineering - she knew already knew how to kill , how to fight ; blackwatch saw to that - they had taught her everything she needed to know , but that's nothing without the intelligence and added skills to back that up ; killing , fighting - it was easy, anyone could do it - there always needs to be an added edge . she built gadgets , practiced hacking anything that was of interest - she wanted to be better , she wanted to make herself bulletproof because she knew the path she was about to go down required her to be the best - at least be better than who she once was .

before going back on the field, her first move was to erase herself completely - cleaning up every little shadow of herself she could find in an attempt to have a fresh start, to burn her past self to the ground and rise from the ashes - not necessarily as someone better. her illegal boxing matches from her teenage years, the drug smuggling and gang activity, her time at overwatch - thrown out, as if it never happened at all. any trace of her legal name was gone, she preferred it that way, in this moment came some sort of clarity , even if dipped in melancholy - she became a new person, she had her entire life ahead of her without any of the baggage holding her down - though with this new found lightness, came a lot of bad ideas - ones she was more than happy to live out despite the grave consequences that will unfold from them . continuing the career of mercenary seemed like the most logical line of work for her to go in ; so that's what she did . nothing unusual, nothing that she wasn't already used to ; but eventually she fell into the assassin career, it was one that took a little too easily - even worse, she enjoyed it - she was far too good at the work and it eventually became the new norm in her contracts.

coraline's problem was she didn't really know herself, never took the time to learn. there was no outside of the violence ; because that's all there was, she can't picture not being behind a gun . finding herself in this line of work was natural progression from her previous employment . with dedication, pride and a swift efficiency - it only took a couple of years for her name to become a whisper in the places where it mattered. much like before overwatch she took to the moto of once again having no loyalty , no moral code - she didn't care who was the target, just that the pay was heavy and the client knew what it meant to be inconspicuous - she became the go to gun when needed something done ; swift, quick, easy and was already out of the targets vicinity when the pulling the trigger . eventually she was hired by higher profiles, being paid to off ceos, politicians and high end criminal targets .

coraline can always been seen wearing a mask, without one she feels naked, exposed and far too seen ; people describe her as cold, calculated, lacking empathy - but in truth … that isn't the case, though her actions certainly prove otherwise . she still has moments of hesitating when she knows certain targets don't deserve it, has moments of taking a sharp breath through teeth and closing her eyes as she pulls the trigger and wincing once the bullet goes through a target - she has a job to do and a title to maintain - so ultimately, it gets done, no matter what ; the guilt, the dirty feeling that sticks to her after every mission is ignored, as a result she isn't in the best headspace - forcing herself to shut down as much as humanly possible ; though that's just it, she's still human and living isn't as easy as it used to be - or maybe she's just getting old and faking it is becoming harder ; it's an unwavering farcade that very few can see beyond.

HEADCANONS :

coraline's kill methods range from distance to up close and personal. her usual sign that she was the person behind the kill is kills via blade ; usually leaving behind quite a scene, especially when she deems someones death worthwhile. she likes to see the light fade from someones eyes, likes to be reminded what it looks and feels like when someone dies right in front of her ; it's easy to pull a trigger. it's another thing to hear the final breaths. this is also a method to keep her emotions in check, in short ; not only is it fun, but there's an element of personal mental self harm by putting herself through the trials to stop her going soft.

𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋

work in progress .

#v: overwatch.#THIS IS STILL A WIP AND I STILL AHVE THINGS TO DO #BUT AMMA POST IT NOW BECAUSE THERES MUCH TO WORK WITH #IM IN SANEEEE #if i keep this in my drafts any longer i will delete this out of fustration and never come back to it

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winter-weepingwillow · 2 years

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Teyvat Nations (and more) and their meanings: a summary

So, I figured I could post here some notes I jotted down, back when I first started the game and did some research after seeing the trailer, then kept on adding studies as I went on.

Hope it'll be useful! And I hope I'm not missing anything. Enjoy!

Mondstadt (German) [Anemo; Freedom]: "City of the Moon" ;

Liyue (Chinese) [Geo; Contracts]: 璃月 Líyuè, "Glazed Moon" ;

Inazuma (Japanese) [Electro; Eternity]: 稲妻 "lightning" ;

Sumeru (Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit, Jainism, Prakrit, the history of ancient India, Marathi, Hindi) [Dendro; Wisdom]: (सुमेरु) "excellent mountain"; it represents one of the "eight mountains" (parvata) as defined in the Dharma. [See "Truth Amongst the pages of Purana" in the trailer !!! The Purana (पुराण, purāṇas) refers to Sanskrit literature preserving ancient India’s vast cultural history, including historical legends, religious ceremonies, various arts and sciences.] ;

Fontaine (French) [Hydro; Justice]: Fountain ;

Natlan (Nahuatl) [Pyro; War]: "place near where there is abundance of Na" (See also: this) ;

Snezhnaya (Russian) [Cryo; Love? My speculation: rebellion (against one's fate), redeem oneself]: Снежная, "Snowy" ;

EXTRA: KHAENRI'AH and CELESTIA

Celestia: a variant of Celeste, which means "heavenly" or "of the sky" in Latin and Italian. In this case, it can be translated as "Heavenly Land" ;

Khaenri'ah: Norse culture, mostly, but it was a unified nation, so maybe there are other cultures mixed in as well:

Old Norse: "little knower" (from Celestia's perspective?) About this, I found an interesting source (the same as the Old Norse meaning, mentioned just above): here is a summary; however, I wasn't able to draw a clear conclusion from it. Kanna means "explore/inquire" in Old Norse, (kannaðr means "explorer"). Kenna is the common verb for "to know" (this would imply that they seek greater knowledge, which fits their advanced technology and therefore posing a threat to even Celestia. Furthermore, kanna stands more for "to find out") ; Kenna has a version with the agent suffix, kennari, which means "teacher" (note that agent nouns tend to be more specific than just an abstract [verb]+er, for instance ríðari it should mean "rider" but is mainly used to identify knights) ; maybe it was because they taught humanity how to use a "power from beyond"...?

Coptic: "to set free the (God of...?) knowledge from a cell" (source:) ;

Arabic: "Khaen", betrayer; "Ri'ah", winds; "Kha-en-ri-ah" could be the transliteration of خائن رياح ;

Persian: "Kha-en-ri-ah" خنريه or خانه ریاض Where ریاض means "training, practice, toil" and خانه (xâne) means "house" (I'm not too sure about this one, so please take it with a grain of salt, since my only source was a dictionary found online. I wasn't able to find out more about this).

KHAENRI'AH EXTRA

Art of Khemia: Inspiration from Greek and ancient Egypt culture;

Here we can find some evidence that Khaenri'ah could have been a unified nation with different cultures within, like I mentioned above.

From Genshin Impact Wiki:

Khemia is phonetically similar to several etymological origins for the modern terms alchemy and chemistry. The origin of these terms are uncertain and multiple derivations exist.

• One possible derivation is from the Arabic كيمياء kīmiyāʾ, "chemistry", which comes from Coptic term ⲕⲏⲙⲉ kēme, "Egypt". The Coptic term ultimately derives from the ancient Egyptian word 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 kmt, referring to both the country Egypt and the color black.

• Other possible derivations are from the Ancient Greek χημεία khēmeía meaning "pouring" or "infusion," or the Ancient Greek metallurgical term χυμεία khumeía originally meaning "pouring together," "casting together," "weld," or "alloy."

• In Arabic, "alchemy" translates to خيمياء ḵīmiyāʾ.

So we have Arabic, Coptic, Ancient Egyptian and Greek, the latter of which can also be traced back to Enkanomiya, which, as we know, had a (commercial?) relationship with Khaenri'ah. But this is for another story and yet another (etymological) analysis.

To conclude, other bits of culture could be the Celtic and old Germanic ones, as we can see in the latest world quest in Sumeru (I am not going to spoil it though. I'm just going to say the keyword: Schwanenritter, the Swan Knight), together with the Arthurian legends, scattered EVERYWHERE in the lore regarding the destroyed nation.

And another story will also be the analysis of Dainsleif's name, together with his power, element and role as the boughkeeper.

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR OMG YOU HAVE SUCH PATIENCE! HERE, HAVE A COOKIE 🍪

#原神 #genshin impact #genshin speculation #genshin lore #genshin analysis #genshin impact study #genshin impact notes

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lindsaywesker · 1 year

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Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. Welcome to Too Much Information Tuesday.

Dog food is tested on humans.

Penis enlargement surgeries are free in Cuba.

2.7 million Americans work for either Walmart or Amazon.

Scientists have discovered a species of algae that tastes like bacon.

1.5 million trolleys are stolen from British supermarkets every year.

If your parents are happily married, your risk of divorce decreases by 14%.

Jack Nicholson once got detention at school every single day for a year.

Walt Disney used to pack his testicles in ice to improve his sperm count.

In 2010, a doctor in Blackpool spent £1,200 trying to win a cuddly toy at a hoopla stall.

The first pornographic film came out in 1895, just a few months after the first regular movie.

Nelson was about 5’ 4". His statue on top of the column in London is about 18ft. That's Horatio of about 3:1

During the 2012 Russian election (when Putin was elected for a third term), one region registered a voting turnout of 146%.

If your name begins with a letter that is towards the end of the alphabet, you are likely to struggle more when getting your first job.

Every year, a village in Montenegro hosts a ‘lying down’ championship. This year's champion spent about 60 hours lying down.

2022 saw the highest number of people ever diagnosed with gamophobia, which is the fear of commitment, relationships and marriage.

Elon Musk and Bill Gates have joined forces to make a penis enhancer. Early reports say they plan to name the product Elongates.

Research at MIT has shown that only half of perceived friendships are mutual. Only half the people you consider friends think of you as a friend and vice versa.

In 2008, a Japanese man found a homeless woman living in the top compartment of his closet after setting up a security camera because his food kept disappearing.

In ancient Greek mythology and folklore, the act of women exposing their genitals was believed to have the power to ward off evil spirits or demons. A practice known as ‘anasyrma’ or ‘ana-suromai’.

In 2019, an accountant in London who’d endured years of being bullied at work decided to ‘go out with a bang’ and stole £170k from his employer. He spent it ALL in one weekend on prostitutes and cocaine.

In the town of Whittier, Alaska, almost everyone lives in one building. 90% of the town's residents live in one 14-storey building that also houses a post office, shop, police station, health clinic and a bed & breakfast.

In 2010, UK retailer GameStation claimed to own 7,500 souls after putting a clause in their online terms that stated, "By placing an order via this website ... you agree to grant us a non-transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul."

In Indiana, a 25-year-old delivery driver, Nick Bostic, risked his own life to save five children trapped in a house fire, running into the burning building and safely escorting four children outside and then leaping from a window with the fifth. He made a full recovery.

In 2010, a Harvard student decided to give up on life and shot himself in the head leaving behind a suicide note, explaining in thorough detail why “life was meaningless”. The suicide note he left behind was 1905 pages long.

On April 28th, 2023, the ground really moved for one woman during the second movement of the LA Philharmonic’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony, when she experienced a “loud and full body orgasm.” Several concertgoers described the woman’s climactic moment from the balcony at the packed Walt Disney Concert Hall. “Everyone kind of turned to see what was happening,” Molly Grant, who was sitting near the overjoyed woman, told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday. “I saw the girl after it had happened, and I assume that she … had an orgasm because she was heavily breathing,” she said. “It was quite beautiful,” Grant added. An audio clip purporting to capture the woman’s moment of ecstasy has gone viral. British composer Magnus Fiennes, brother of actor Ralph Fiennes, also was in attendance. “A woman in the audience had loud and full body orgasm during the 5th’s second movement. Band politely carried on,” he said on Twitter. However, some social media users expressed their doubts about the incident, with one who was present suggesting that the woman had a medical emergency. Fiennes insisted, “It absolutely happened. Was in close proximity and had no less than eight other friends attending. All reached a similar conclusion.” Classical pianist Sharon Su added in a tweet that she “checked with someone who works at the LA Phil and they confirmed” that the incident was real and that the orchestra did not stop playing during Tchaikovsky’s 5th. The LA Times reported that its sources and the audio clip corroborated the accounts that the orchestra did not miss a beat during the explosive moment. Music agent Lukas Burton told the LA Times that the woman’s loud moan was “wonderfully timed” to a “romantic swell” during the performance. “One can’t know exactly what happened, but it seemed very clear from the sound that it was an expression of pure physical joy,” Burton told the paper.

Okay, that’s enough information for one day. Have a tremendous and tumultuous Tuesday! I love you all.

#mixcloud #mi soul #dj #music #new blog #lockdown #coronavirus #books #democracy #brexit #cronyism #election #tuesdaymotivation #radio

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fatummortem · 10 months

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DOSSIER CHEAT SHEET

LEGAL NAME: Kinney Ryouta (for Krokoa inspired verses~ Legally changed) Akihiro (it's Unknown unless you work for S.H.I.E.L.D. or have S.H.I.E.L.D. Contacts) NICKNAME[S]: mongrel (Daken, Japanese Slur), Ry, Kid-Wolverine (Past), Aki (Past), Boy Wonder (Past), Sexy Asian Biker Guy (Past) DATE OF BIRTH: September 3rd SEX: cis male PLACE OF BIRTH: jasmine falls, japan CURRENTLY LIVING: Mainly in random Penthouses, never under his name. Krokoa's Council, Laura, Gabby will always know which. SPOKEN LANGUAGES: japanese, english, asl, french, italian, german, russian, spanish, greek, chinese, kanji, hiragana, katakana, kana ~ Currently learning Romanian EDUCATION: limited education, Japanese school up until pre-teens, Canadian Armed Forces, otherwise self taught HAIR COLOR: black EYE COLOR: blue HEIGHT: 5′9″ (1.75 m) WEIGHT: 167 lbs (75.75 kg)

FAMILY INFORMATION

SIBLING[S]: Erista, Cannon Foot, Saw Fist, William Downing., Fire Knives, Shadow S. (half brother's all deceased), Junichiro (Adoptive Brother || Deceased?), Laura Kinney, Gabby Kinney, Raze Darkhölme, Jimmy Hudson (there's more, just got lazy. All paternal.) PARENT[S]: Itsu (Birth Mother || Deceased) / Logan Howlett (Birth Father) / Akihira (Adoptive Father || Deceased), Natsumi (Adoptive Mother || Deceased) RELATIVE[S]: John Howlett, Sr. (Step-Paternal-Grandfather || Deceased), Thomas Logan (Paternal Grandfather || Deceased), Elizabeth Howlett (Paternal Grandmother || Deceased) CHILDREN: None (Most verses), Gabby (@huneibadger || For my Deb/Pietro verses or interactions with Ollvr's Gabby. He shares fatherly rights with Remy LeBeau & she got him to stop from freaking out about it by mentioning it'll get under Logan's skin.) PET[S]: Chinchillas (Poncho & Boots ~ Only in verses with @deborahmorgna because they're hers), Jonathan (Only around when Gabby is at his place as Jonathan's more of Gabby's partner in crime)

RELATIONSHIP INFORMATION

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Equal Opportunist RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Ry is single with most of his ships, has a tendancy to make it all about fun. He does have confirmed committed relationships with Julio (@earthtrembled) & Deb/Pietro (@deborahmorgna & @thefastestaround) SINCE WHEN: Julio I've had a ship with pretty close the time I moved Ry onto this blog. Deb they were close friends for about as long as Ry has been on this blog as well. She made him care before dating, probably been together for over a year. Pietro they've known each other for a very long time & is new.)

tagged by: stole it from @overclocks tagging: if ya wanna do it, go for it, just tag me so i can take a gander c:

#dash games #daken muse #about daken #i am not going to put all of the dead siblings #may do other muses for this if i remember #oops ok images deleted

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alsjeblieft-zeg · 2 years

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368 of 2022

I.. [ ] am tall [ ] am in between [ ] am short [ ] am a blonde [ ] am redheaded [ ] am a brunette [ ] have black hair [ ] have blue eyes [ ] have brown eyes [ ] have green eyes [ ] have hazel eyes [ ] have grey eyes [ ] and wear glasses [ ] and wear contacts [ ] have braces [ ] have freckles [ ] have piercings [ ] have a tattoo [ ] have long hair [ ] have short hair [ ] have mid-length hair My nationality includes: (nationality is not heritage, just sayin') [ ] chinese [ ] indian [ ] taiwanese [ ] japanese [ ] hispanic [ ] nicoya [ ] puerto rican [ ] chicana [ ] italian [ ] scottish [ ] filipino [ ] dutch [ ] english [ ] french [ ] german [ ] irish [ ] greek [ ] portuguese [ ] polish [ ] korean [ ] jamaican [ ] canadian [ ] lithuanian [ ] native american [ ] russian [ ] british [ ] danish [ ] african [ ] hungarian [ ] scandanavian [ ] armenian [ ] finnish [ ] other (Belgian) [ ] I don’t know My favorite color(s) is(are): [ ] red [ ] pink [ ] yellow [ ] black [ ] green [ ] blue [ ] white [ ] silver [ ] purple [ ] brown [ ] orange Some things I’ve done/played include: [ ] soccer [ ] cheerleading [ ] dancing [ ] lacrosse [ ] field hockey [ ] hockey [ ] football [ ] softball [ ] wrestling [ ] gymnastics [ ] track/cross country [ ] basketball [ ] baseball [ ] golf [ ] minigolf [ ] playing in the mud [ ] playing music [ ] hiking [ ] kayaking [ ] camping [ ] horseback riding I am sometimes: [ ] annoying [ ] talkative [ ] shy [ ] funny [ ] serious [ ] bubbly [ ] spazzy [ ] fun-loving [ ] laid back [ ] strict [ ] hyper [ ] weird I like _____ music: [ ] rap [ ] rock [ ] pop [ ] country [ ] hip hop [ ] r&b [ ] slow jams [ ] Christian [ ] classical [ ] techno [ ] oldies [ ] the 80s [ ] punk [ ] Metal [ ] reggae [ ] Goth [ ] Latin [ ] 90’s grunge [ ] musicals The pet(s) I have is (are) a: [ ] cat [ ] dog [ ] lizard [ ] rat [ ] ferret [ ] rabbit [ ] fish [ ] bird [ ] tortoise/turtle [ ] snakes [ ] other Clothes I like to wear are: [ ] plain t-shirts [ ] sweatshirts [ ] stockings [ ] high heels [ ] boots [ ] sneakers [ ] jeans [ ] pj pants [ ] dresses [ ] mini skirts [ ] long skirts [ ] watches [ ] necklace [ ] hoop earrings [ ] toe socks [ ] flip flops [ ] halter tops [ ] stilettos [ ] shorts [ ] sleeveless shirts I like to wear my hair (in a): [ ] down [ ] ponytail [ ] pigtails [ ] messy bun [ ] half ponytail [ ] scrunched/curly [ ] bun [ ] crimped [ ] with a bandana [ ] French braids [ ] lots of little braids [ ] Gel [ ] hat [ ] messy hot guy hair [ ] fauxhawk I am mostly labeled as: [ ] goth [ ] emo [ ] prep [ ] punk [ ] surfer [ ] athletic [ ] hippie [ ] nerd [ ] gangster [ ] ditzy [ ] hyper [ ] happy [ ] I have no idea I eat/drink: [ ] dessert every night [ ] no meat [ ] diet stuff [ ] healthy foods [ ] junk foods [ ] a lot of carbs [ ] lots of meat [ ] salad [ ] seafood A typical friday night: [ ] mall with your friends [ ] partying [ ] at a show/venue [ ] watching movies [ ] going to the club [ ] staying home [ ] babysitting [ ] hanging out with your friends [ ] hanging out with your boyfriend/girlfriend [ ] working while your friends are out having fun [ ] i don’t plan out my weekends Currently I am: [ ] in a relationship [ ] single and loving it [ ] crushing [ ] single and looking for someone [ ] single and whatever happens, happens Online, I use: [ ] lol [ ] sup [ ] =D [ ] lmao [ ] stfu [ ] ty [ ] jk [ ] ttyl [ ] g2g [ ] ^^ [ ] T_T [ ] x_x [ ] ^_^ [ ] o.o [ ] <3 [ ] “LOLZOHEMGEE” [ ] knai [ ] omg I have: [ ] lied to my best friend [ ] dyed my hair [ ] dressed punk [ ] kissed a girl on the cheek [ ] lied to my parents [ ] cried in front of lots of people [ ] went barefoot in the snow [ ] played hockey [ ] made my own clothes In the last 24 hours, I: [ ] got in a fight [ ] took a shower [ ] gave a dirty look to someone [ ] cried [ ] went to school [ ] shopped [ ] danced [ ] got sick [ ] did something I regret [ ] ate something gross [ ] discovered something new At school I: [ ] run to class because I’m always late [ ] hide in the bathroom [ ] am smart [ ] am hyper [ ] am a nerd [ ] am somewhat popular [ ] don’t know Right now I am: [ ] in my pjs [ ] drinking [ ] listening to music [ ] watching a movie [ ] IMing someone [ ] talking on the phone [ ] eating Have you ever…. [ ] Ridden a skateboard? [ ] Played a piano? [ ] Been to New York? [ ] Seen the movie “Thirteen”? [ ] Ridden in an ambulance? [ ] Broken a bone? [ ] Broken somebody else’s bone? [ ] Been to sleepaway camp? [ ] Gone to another state country without your parents? [ ] Babysat? [ ] Cried for no apparent reason? [ ] Laughed for no apparent reason? [ ] Shoplifted? [ ] Heard “The Tide” by The Spill Canvas? [ ] Been nothing for Halloween? [ ] Killed a bug with your bare hand? [ ] Met a celebrity? [ ] Moved? [ ] Played on a soccer team? [ ] Made a MySpace? [ ] Talked on the phone for over an hour? [ ] Got detention? [ ] Got suspended? [ ] Played pool?

#survey #about me survey #categorised survey #bolding survey

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blackswaneuroparedux · 3 years

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Anonymous asked: I have always appreciated your thoughtful views on the defence of the British monarchy, and as a university historian it’s reassuring to see someone using history to make invalubale insights to a controversial institution. I wonder what are your own thoughts on the passing of Prince Philip and what his legacy might be? Was he a gaffe prone racist and a liability to the Queen?

I know you kindly got in touch and identified yourself when you felt I was ignoring your question. I’m glad we cleared that up via DM. The truth is as I said and I’m saying here is that I had to let some time pass before I felt I could reasonably answer this question. Simply because - as you know as someone who teaches history at university - distance is good to make a sober appraisal rather than knee jerk in the moment judgements.

Contrary to what some might think I’m not really a fan girl when it comes to the royal family. I don’t religiously follow their every movement or utterance especially as I live in Paris and therefore I don’t really care about tabloid tittle tattle. I only get to hear of anything to do with the royal family when I speak to my parents or my great aunts and uncles for whom the subject is closer to their heart because of the services my family has rendered over past generations to the monarchy and the older (and dying) tight knit social circles they travel in.

Like Walter Bagehot, I’m more interested in the monarchy as an institution and its constitutional place within the historical, social, and political fabric of Britain and its continued delicate stabilising importance to that effect. It was Walter Bagehot, the great constitutional scholar and editor the Economist magazine, who said, “The mystic reverence, the religious allegiance, which are essential to a true monarchy, are imaginative sentiments that no legislature can manufacture in any people.” In his view, a politically-inactive monarchy served the best interests of the United Kingdom; by abstaining from direct rule, the monarch levitated above the political fray with dignity, and remained a respected personage to whom all subjects could look to as a guiding light.

Even as a staunch monarchist I freely confess that there has always been this odd nature of the relationship between hereditary monarchy and a society increasingly ambivalent about the institution. To paraphrase Bagehot again, there has been too much ‘daylight’ shone onto the ‘magic’ of the monarchy because we are obsessed with personalities as celebrities.

Having said that I did feel saddened by the passing of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. After the Queen, he was my favourite royal. Anne, Princess Royal, would come next because she is very much like her father in temperament, humour, and character, so unlike her other brothers.

I have met the late Prince Philip when I was serving in the army in a few regimental meet-and-greet situations - which as you may know is pretty normal given that members of the royal family serve as honorary colonel-in-chiefs (patrons in effect) of all the British army regiments and corps.I also saw him at one or two social events such the annual charitable Royal Caledonian Ball (he’s an expert scottish reeler) and the Guards Polo Club where my older brothers played.

I’ll will freely confess that he was the one royal I could come close to identify with because his personal biography resonated with me a great deal.

Let’s be honest, the core Windsor family members, born to privilege, are conditioned and raised to be dull. Perhaps that’s a a tad harsh. I would prefer the term ‘anonymously self-effacing’, just another way of saying ‘for God’s sake don’t draw attention to yourself by saying or doing anything even mildly scandalous or political lest it invites public opprobrium and scrutiny’. The Queen magnificently succeeds in this but the others from Charles down just haven’t (with the exception of Princess Anne).

However, many people forget this obvious fact that it’s the incoming husbands and wives who marry into the Windsor family who are relied upon to bring colour and even liven things up a little. And long before Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle (very briefly), or Lady Diana Spencer, were the stars of ‘The Firm’- a phrase first coined by King George VI, Queen Elizabeth II's father who ruled from 1936 to 1952, who was thought to have wryly said, "British royals are 'not a family, we're a firm,” - it was Prince Philip who really livened things up and made the greater impact on the monarchy than any of them in the long term.

Prince Philip’s passing belied the truth of a far more complex individual: a destitute and penniless refugee Greek-Danish prince with a heart breaking backstory that could have been penned by any 19th Century novelist, and also eagle eyed reformer who tried to drag the royal family into the 20th century. At the core of the man - lost scion of a lost European royal dynasty, a courageous war veteran, and Queen’s consort - were values in which he attempted to transform and yet maintain much older inherited traditions and attitudes. Due to his great longevity, Philip’s life came to span a period of social change that is almost unprecedented, and almost no one in history viewed such a transformation from the front row.

Prince Philip would seem to represent in an acute form the best of the values of that era, which in many ways jar with today’s. He had fought with great courage in the war as a dashing young naval officer; he was regularly rude to foreigners, which was obviously a bonus to all Brits. He liked to ride and sail and shoot things. He was unsentimental almost to a comic degree, which felt reassuring at a time when a new-found emotional incontinence made many feel uncomfortable. Outrageous to some but endearing to others, he was the sort of man you’d want to go for a pint with, perhaps the ultimate compliment that an Englishman can pay to another Englishman. This has its own delicious irony as he wasn’t really an Englishman.

There are 4 takeways I would suggest in my appraisal of Prince Philip that stand out for me. So let me go through each one.

1. Prince Philip’s Internationalism

It may seem odd for me to say that Prince Philip wasn’t English but he wasn’t an Englishman in any real sense. He was a wretch of the world - stateless, homeless, and penniless. That the Prince of Nowhere became the British Monarchy’s figurehead was more than fitting for a great age of migration and transition in which the Royal Family survived and even flourished. That he was able to transform himself into the quintessential Englishman is testimony not just to his personal determination but also to the powerful cultural pull of Britishness.

He was born on a kitchen table in Corfu in June 1921. A year later in 1922, Philip, as the the great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria and nephew of Constantine I of Greece, was forced to flee with his family after the abdication of Constantine. He grew up outside Paris speaking French; ethnically he was mostly German although he considered himself Danish, his family originating from the Schleswig border region. He was in effect, despite his demeanour of Royal Navy officer briskness, a citizen of nowhere in an age of movement. From a very young age he was a stateless person, nationally homeless. Indeed, Philip was an outsider in a way that even Meghan Markle could never be; at his wedding in 1947, his three surviving sisters and two brothers-in-law were not permitted to attend because they were literally Britain’s enemies, having fought for the Germans. A third brother-in-law had even been in the SS, working directly for Himmler, but had been killed in the conflict.

Even his religion was slightly exotic. He was Greek Orthodox until he converted to Anglicanism on marrying Elizabeth - what with his wife due to become supreme head of the Church and everything - but his ties with eastern Christianity remained. His great-aunts Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine and Tsarina Alexandra are both martyrs of the Russian Orthodox Church, having been murdered by the Bolsheviks; Philip’s mother went on to become an Orthodox nun and a “Righteous Among the Nations” for saving a Jewish family during the Nazi occupation of Greece, spending much of her time in squalid poverty.

His parents were part of the largely German extended aristocracy who ruled almost all of Europe before it all came crashing down in 1918. When he died, aged 99, it marked a near-century in which all the great ideological struggles had been and gone; he had been born before the Soviet Union but outlived the Cold War, the War on Terror and - almost - Covid-19.

The world that Philip was born into was a far more violent and dangerous place than ours. In the year he was born, Irish rebels were still fighting Black and Tans; over the course of 12 months the Spanish and Japanese prime ministers were assassinated, there was a coup in Portugal and race riots in the United States. Germany was rocked by violence from the far-Left and far-Right, while in Italy a brutal new political movement, the Fascists, secured 30 seats in parliament, led by a trashy journalist called Benito Mussolini.

The worst violence, however, took place in Greece and Turkey. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, what remained of Turkey was marked for permanent enfeeblement by the Allies. But much to everyone’s surprise the country’s force were roused by the brilliant officer Mustafa Kemal, who led the Turks to victory. Constantinople was lost to Christendom for good and thousands of years of Hellenic culture was put to the flames in Smyrna.

The Greek royal family, north German imports shipped in during the 19th century, bore much of the popular anger for this disaster. King Constantine fled to Italy, and his brother Andrew was arrested and only escaped execution through the intervention of his relative Britain’s George V. Andrew’s wife Alice, their four daughters and infant son Philip fled to France, completely impoverished but with the one possession that ensures that aristocrats are never truly poor: connections.

Philip had a traumatic childhood. He was forged by the turmoil of his first decade and then moulded by his schooling. His early years were spent wandering, as his place of birth ejected him, his family disintegrated and he moved from country to country, none of them ever his own. When he was just a year old, he and his family were scooped up by a British destroyer from his home on the Greek island of Corfu after his father had been condemned to death. They were deposited in Italy. One of Philip's first international journeys was spent crawling around on the floor of the train from an Italian port city, "the grubby child on the desolate train pulling out of the Brindisi night," as his older sister Sophia later described it.

In Paris, he lived in a house borrowed from a relative; but it was not destined to become a home. In just one year, while he was at boarding school in Britain, the mental health of his mother, Princess Alice, deteriorated and she went into an asylum; his father, Prince Andrew, went off to Monte Carlo to live with his mistress. "I don't think anybody thinks I had a father," he once said. Andrew would die during the war. Philip went to Monte Carlo to pick up his father's possessions after the Germans had been driven from France; there was almost nothing left, just a couple of clothes brushes and some cuff-links.

Philip’s four sisters were all much older, and were soon all married to German aristocrats (the youngest would soon die in an aeroplane crash, along with her husband and children). His sisters became ever more embroiled in the German regime. In Scotland going to Gordonstoun boarding school, Philip went the opposite direction, becoming ever more British. Following the death of his sister Cecilie in a plane crash in 1937, the gulf widened. As the clouds of conflict gathered, the family simply disintegrated. With a flash of the flinty stoicism that many would later interpret, with no little justification, as self-reliance to the point of dispassion, the prince explained: “It’s simply what happened. The family broke up… I just had to get on with it. You do. One does.”

In the space of 10 years he had gone from a prince of Greece to a wandering, homeless, and virtually penniless boy with no-one to care for him. He got through it by making a joke of everything, and by being practical.

By the time he went to Gordonstoun, a private boarding school on the north coast of Scotland, Philip was tough, independent and able to fend for himself; he'd had to be. Gordonstoun would channel those traits into the school's distinct philosophy of community service, teamwork, responsibility and respect for the individual. And it sparked one of the great passions of Philip's life - his love of the sea. It was Gordonstoun that nurtured that love through the maturation of his character.

Philip adored the school as much as his son Charles would despise it. Not just because the stress it put on physical as well as mental excellence - he was a great sportsman. But because of its ethos, laid down by its founder Kurt Hahn, a Jewish exile from Nazi Germany.

Hahn first met Philip as a boy in Nazi Germany. Through a connection via one of his sister’s husbands, Philip, the poor, lonely boy was first sent off to a new school - in Nazi Germany. Which was as fun as can be imagined. Schloss Salem had been co-founded by stern educator called Kurt Hahn, a tough, discipline-obsessed conservative nationalist who saw civilisation in inexorable decline. But by this stage Hahn, persecuted for being Jewish in Nazi Germany, had fled to Britain, and Philip did not spend long at the school either, where pressure from the authorities was already making things difficult for the teachers. Philip laughed at the Nazis at first, because their salute was the same gesture the boys at his previous school had to make when they wanted to go to the toilet, but within a year he was back in England, a refugee once again.

Philip happily attended Hahn’s new school, Gordonstoun, which the strict disciplinarian had set up in the Scottish Highlands. Inspired by Ancient Sparta, the boys (and then later girls) had to run around barefoot and endure cold showers, even in winter, the whole aim of which was to drive away the inevitable civilisational decay Hahn saw all around him. To 21st century ears it sounds like hell on earth, yet Philip enjoyed it, illustrating just what a totally alien world he came from.

That ethos became a significant, perhaps the significant, part of the way that Philip believed life should be lived. It shines through the speeches he gave later in his life. "The essence of freedom," he would say in Ghana in 1958, "is discipline and self-control." The comforts of the post-war era, he told the British Schools Exploring Society a year earlier, may be important "but it is much more important that the human spirit should not be stifled by easy living". And two years before that, he spoke to the boys of Ipswich School of the moral as well as material imperatives of life, with the "importance of the individual" as the "guiding principle of our society".

It was at Gordonstoun one of the great contradictions of Philip's fascinating life was born. The importance of the individual was what in Kurt Hahn's eyes differentiated Britain and liberal democracies from the kind of totalitarian dictatorship that he had fled. Philip put that centrality of the individual, and individual agency - the ability we have as humans to make our own moral and ethical decisions - at the heart of his philosophy.

At Dartmouth Naval College in 1939, the two great passions of his life would collide. He had learned to sail at Gordonstoun; he would learn to lead at Dartmouth. And his driving desire to achieve, and to win, would shine through. Despite entering the college far later than most other cadets, he would graduate top of his class in 1940. In further training at Portsmouth, he gained the top grade in four out of five sections of the exam. He became one of the youngest first lieutenants in the Royal Navy.

The navy ran deep in his family. His maternal grandfather had been the First Sea Lord, the commander of the Royal Navy; his uncle, "Dickie" Mountbatten, had command of a destroyer while Philip was in training. In war, he showed not only bravery but guile. It was his natural milieu. "Prince Philip", wrote Gordonstoun headmaster Kurt Hahn admiringly, "will make his mark in any profession where he will have to prove himself in a trial of strength".

2. Prince Philip and the modernisation of the monarchy

In his own words, the process of defining what it meant to be a royal consort was one of “trial and error.” Speaking with BBC One’s Fiona Bruce in 2011, Philip explained, “There was no precedent. If I asked somebody, 'What do you expect me to do?' they all looked blank. They had no bloody idea, nobody had much idea.” So he forged for himself a role as a moderniser of the monarchy.

He could not have had much idea back in 1939. Back then in Dartmouth in 1939, as war became ever more certain, the navy was his destiny. He had fallen in love with the sea itself. "It is an extraordinary master or mistress," he would say later, "it has such extraordinary moods." But a rival to the sea would come.

When King George VI toured Dartmouth Naval College, accompanied by Philip's uncle, he brought with him his daughter, Princess Elizabeth. Philip was asked to look after her. He showed off to her, vaulting the nets of the tennis court in the grounds of the college. He was confident, outgoing, strikingly handsome, of royal blood if without a throne. She was beautiful, a little sheltered, a little serious, and very smitten by Philip.

Did he know then that this was a collision of two great passions? That he could not have the sea and the beautiful young woman? For a time after their wedding in 1948, he did have both. As young newlyweds in Malta, he had what he so prized - command of a ship - and they had two idyllic years together. But the illness and then early death of King George VI brought it all to an end.

He knew what it meant, the moment he was told. Up in a lodge in Kenya, touring Africa, with Princess Elizabeth in place of the King, Philip was told first of the monarch's death in February 1952. He looked, said his equerry Mike Parker, "as if a ton of bricks had fallen on him". For some time he sat, slumped in a chair, a newspaper covering his head and chest. His princess had become the Queen. His world had changed irrevocably.

While the late Princess Diana was later to famously claim that there were “three people” in her marriage - herself, Prince Charles and Camilla - there were at least 55 million in Philip and Elizabeth’s. As Elizabeth dedicated her life to her people at Westminster Abbey at the Coronation on June 2, 1953, it sparked something of an existential crisis in Philip. Many people even after his death have never really understood this pivotal moment in Philip’s life. All his dreams of being a naval officer and a life at sea as well as being the primary provider and partner in his marriage were now sacrificed on the altar of duty and love.

With his career was now over, and he was now destined to become the spare part. Philip, very reasonably, asked that his future children and indeed his family be known by his name, Mountbatten. In effect he was asking to change the royal family’s name from the House of Windsor to the House of Mountbatten. But when Prime Minister Winston Churchill got wind of it as well as the more politically agile courtiers behind the Queen, a prolonged battle of wits ensued, and it was one Philip ultimately lost. It was only in 1957 that he accepted the title of “Prince.”

Even though he had almost lost everything dear to him and his role now undefined, he didn’t throw himself a pity party. He just got on with it. Philip tried to forge his own distinct role as second fiddle to the woman who had come to represent Great Britain. He designated himself the First Officer of the Good Ship Windsor. He set about dusting off some of the cobwebs off the throne and letting some daylight unto the workings of the monarchy by advocating reasonable amount of modernisation of the monarchy.

He had ideas about modernising the royal family that might be called “improving optics” today. But in his heart of hearts he didn’t want the monarchy to become a stuffy museum piece. He envisaged a less stuffy and more popular monarchy, relevant to the lives of ordinary people. Progress was always going to be incremental as he had sturdy opposition from the old guard who wanted to keep everything as it was, but nevertheless his stubborn energy resulted in significant changes.

When a commission chaired by Prince Philip proposed broadcasting the 1953 investiture ceremony that formally named Elizabeth II as queen on live television, Prime Minister Winston Churchill reacted with outright horror, declaring, “It would be unfitting that the whole ceremony should be presented as if it were a theatrical performance.” Though the queen had initially voiced similar concerns, she eventually came around to the idea, allowing the broadcast of all but one segment of the coronation. Ultimately, according to the BBC, more than 20 million people tuned in to the televised ceremony - a credit to the foresight of Philip.

Elizabeth’s coronation marked a watershed moment for a monarchy that has, historically, been very hands off, old-fashioned and slightly invisible. Over the following years, the royals continued to embrace television as a way of connecting with the British people: In 1957, the queen delivered her annual Christmas address during a live broadcast. Again, this was Philip’s doing when he cajoled the Queen to televise her message live. He even helped her in how to use the teleprompter to get over her nerves and be herself on screen.

Four years later, in 1961, Philip became the first family member to sit for a television interview. It is hard for us to imagine now but back then it was huge. For many it was a significant step in modernising the monarchy.

Though not everything went to plan. Toward the end of the decade, the Windsors even invited cameras into their home. A 1969 BBC fly-on-the-wall documentary, instigated by Philip to show life behind the scenes, turned into an unmitigated disaster: “The Windsors” revealed the royals to be a fairly normal, if very rich, British upper-class family who liked barbecues, ice cream, watching television and bickering. The mystery of royalty took a hit below the waterline from their own torpedo, a self-inflicted wound from which they took a long time to recover. Shown once, the documentary was never aired again. But it had an irreversible effect, and not just by revealing the royals to be ordinary. By allowing the cameras in, Philip opened the lid to the prying eyes of the paparazzi who could legitimately argue that since the Royals themselves had sanctioned exposure, anything went. From then on, minor members of the House of Windsor were picked off by the press, like helpless tethered animals on a hunting safari.

Prince Philip also took steps to reorganise and renovate the royal estates in Sandringham and Balmoral such as intercoms, modern dish washers, generally sought to make the royal household and the monarchy less stuffy, not to have so much formality everywhere.

Philip helped modernised the monarchy in other ways to acknowledge that the monarchy could be responsive to changes in society. It was Prince Philip - much to the chagrin of the haughty Princess Margaret and other stuffy old courtiers - who persuaded the Queen to host informal lunches and garden parties designed to engage a broader swath of the British public. Conversely, Prince Philip heartily encouraged the Queen (she was all for it apparently but was still finding her feet as a new monarch) to end the traditional practice of presenting debutantes from aristocratic backgrounds at court in 1952. For Philip and others it felt antiquated and out of touch with society. I know in speaking to my grandmother and others in her generation the decision was received with disbelief at how this foreign penniless upstart could come and stomp on the dreams of mothers left to clutch their pearls at the prospect there would be no shop window for their daughter to attract a suitable gentleman for marriage. One of my great aunts was over the moon happy that she never would have to go through what she saw as a very silly ceremony because she preferred her muddy wellies to high heels.

A former senior member of the royal household, who spent several years working as one of Prince Philip’s aides, and an old family friend, once told us around a family dinner table that the Duke of Edinburgh was undoubtedly given a sense of permanence by his marriage into the Royal Family that was missing from earlier years. But the royal aide would hastily add that Prince Philip, of course, would never see it that way.

Prince Philip’s attitude was to never brood on things or seek excuses. And he did indeed get on with the job in his own way - there should be no doubt that when it came to building and strengthening the Royal Family it was a partnership of equals with the Queen. Indeed contrary to Netflix’s hugely popular series ‘The Crown’ and its depiction of the royal marriage with Philip’s resentment at playing second fiddle, the prince recognised that his “first duty was to serve the Queen in the best way I could,” as he told ITV in 2011. Though this role was somewhat ill-suited to his dynamic, driven, and outspoken temperament, Philip performed it with utter devotion.

3. Prince Philip’s legacy

One could argue rightly that modernising the monarchy was his lasting legacy achievement. But he also tried to modernise a spent and exhausted Britain as it emerged from a ruinous war. When peace came, and with it eventual economic recovery, Philip would throw himself into the construction of a better Britain, urging the country to adopt scientific methods, embracing the ideas of industrial design, planning, education and training. A decade before Harold Wilson talked of the "white heat of the technological revolution", Philip was urging modernity on the nation in speeches and interviews. He was on top of his reading of the latest scientific breakthroughs and well read in break out innovations.

This interest in modernisation was only matched by his love for nature. As the country and the world became richer and consumed ever more, Philip warned of the impact on the environment, well before it was even vaguely fashionable. As president of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the UK for more than 20 years from 1961, he was one of the first high-profile advocates of the cause of conservation and biological diversity at a time when it was considered the preserve of an eccentric few.

For a generation of school children in Britain and the Commonwealth though, his most lasting legacy and achievement will be the Duke of Edinburgh Awards (DofE). He set up the Duke of Edinburgh award, a scheme aimed at getting young people out into nature in search of adventure or be of service to their communities. It was a scheme that could match the legacy of Baden Powell’s scouts movement.

When Prince Philip first outlined his idea of a scheme to harness the values of his education at Gordonstoun by bringing character-building outdoor pursuits to the many rather than the fee-paying few, he received short shrift from the government of the day. The then minister of education, Sir David Eccles responded to the Duke’s proposal by saying: “I hear you’re trying to invent something like the Hitler Youth.” Undeterred he pushed on until it came to fruition.

I’m so glad that he did. I remember how proud I was for getting my DofE Awards while I was at boarding school. With the support of great mentors I managed to achieve my goals: collecting second-hand English books for a literacy programme for orphaned street children in Delhi, India with a close Indian school friend and her family; and completing a 350 mile hike following St. Olav’s Pilgrimmage Trail from Selånger, on the east coast of Sweden, and ending at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, on the west coast of Norway.

It continues to be an enduring legacy. Since its launch in 1956, the Duke of Edinburgh awards have been bestowed upon some 2.5 million youngsters in Britain and some eight million worldwide. For a man who once referred to himself as a “Greek princeling of no consequence”, his pioneering tutelage of these two organisations (alongside some 778 other organisations of which he was either president or a patron) would be sufficient legacy for most.

4. Prince Philip’s character

It may surprise some but what I liked most about Prince Philip was the very thing that helped him achieve so much and leave a lasting legacy: his character.

It is unhelpful to the caricature of Prince Philip as an unwavering but pugnacious consort whose chief talent was a dizzying facility in off-colour one-liners that he was widely read and probably the cleverest member of his family.

His private library at Windsor consists of 11,000 tomes, among them 200 volumes of poetry. He was a fan of Jung, TS Eliot, Shakespeare and the cookery writer Elizabeth David. As well as a lifelong fascination with science, technology and sport, he spoke fairly fluent French, painted and wrote a well received book on birds. It’s maddening to think how many underestimated his genuine intellect and how cultured he was behind the crusty exterior.

He didn’t have an entourage to fawn around him. He was the first to own a computer at Buckingham Palace. He answered his own phone and wrote and responded to his own correspondence. By force of character he fought the old guard courtiers at every turn to modernise the monarchy against their stubborn resistance.

Prince Philip was never given to self-analysis or reflection on the past. Various television interviewers tried without success to coerce him in to commenting on his legacy.But once when his guard was down he asked on the occasion of his 90th birthday what he was more proud of, he replied with characteristic bluntness: “I couldn’t care less. Who cares what I think about it, I mean it’s ridiculous.”

All of which neatly raises the profound aversion to fuss and the proclivity for tetchiness often expressed in withering put-downs that, for better or worse, will be the reflex memory for many of the Duke of Edinburgh. If character is a two edged sword so what of his gaffes?

There is no doubt his cult status partly owed to his so-called legendary gaffes, of which there are enough to fill a book (indeed there is a book). But he was no racist. None of the Commonwealth people or foreign heads of state ever said this about him. Only leftist republicans with too much Twitter time on their hands screamed such a ridiculous accusation. They’re just overly sensitive snowflakes and being devoid of any humour they’re easily triggered.

There was the time that Philip accepted a gift from a local in Kenya, telling her she was a kind woman, and then adding: “You are a woman, aren’t you?” Or the occasion he remarked “You managed not to get eaten, then?” to a student trekking in Papua New Guinea. Then there was his World Wildlife Fund speech in 1986, when he said: “If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.” Well, he wasn’t wrong.

Philip quickly developed a reputation for what he once defined, to the General Dental Council, as “dentopedology – the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it”. Clearly he could laugh at himself as he often did as an ice breaker to put others at ease.

His remarking to the president of Nigeria, who was wearing national dress, “You look like you’re ready for bed”, or advising British students in China not to stay too long or they would end up with “slitty eyes”, is probably best written off as ill-judged humour. Telling a photographer to “just take the fucking picture” or declaring “this thing open, whatever it is”, were expressions of exasperation or weariness with which anyone might sympathise.

Above all, he was also capable of genuine if earthy wit, saying of his horse-loving daughter Princess Anne: “If it doesn’t fart or eat hay she isn’t interested.” Many people might have thought it but few dared say it. If Prince Philip’s famous gaffes provoked as much amusement as anger, it was precisely because they seem to give voice to the bewilderment and pent-up frustrations with which many people viewed the ever-changing modern world.

A former royal protection officer recounts how while on night duty guarding a visiting Queen and consort, he engaged in conversation with colleagues on a passing patrol. It was 2am and the officer had understood the royal couple to be staying elsewhere in the building until a window above his head was abruptly slammed open and an irate Prince Philip stuck his head out of the window to shout: “Would you fuck off!” Without another word, he then shut the window.

The Duke at least recognised from an early age that he was possessed of an abruptness that could all too easily cross the line from the refreshingly salty to crass effrontery.

One of his most perceptive biographers, Philip Eade, recounted how at the age of 21 the prince wrote a letter to a relation whose son had recently been killed in combat. He wrote: “I know you will never think much of me. I am rude and unmannerly and I say things out of turn which I realise afterwards must have hurt someone. Then I am filled with remorse and I try to put matters right.”

In the case of the royal protection officer, the Duke turned up in the room used by the police officers when off duty and said: “Terribly sorry about last night, wasn’t quite feeling myself.”

Aides have also ventured to explain away some of their employer’s more outlandish remarks - from asking Cayman islanders “You are descended from pirates aren’t you?” to enquiring of a female fashion writer if she was wearing mink knickers - as the price of his instinctive desire to prick the pomposity of his presence with a quip to put others at ease.

Indeed many people forget that his ‘gaffes’ were more typical of the clubbish humour of the British officer class – which of course would be less appreciated, sometimes even offensive, to other ears. It’s why he could relate so well to veterans who enjoyed his bonhomie company immensely.

But behind the irascibility, some have argued there also lay a darker nature, unpleasantly distilled in his flinty attitude to his eldest son. One anecdote tells of how, in the aftermath of the murder of the Duke’s uncle and surrogate father, Lord Mountbatten, Philip lectured his son, who was also extremely fond of his “honorary grandfather”, that he was not to succumb to self-pity. Charles left the room in tears and when his father was asked why he had spoken to his son with so little compassion, the Duke replied: “Because if there’s any crying to be done I want it to happen within this house, in front of his family, not in public. He must be toughened up, right now.”

But here I would say that Prince Philip’s intentions were almost always sincere and in no way cruel. He has always tried to protect his family - even from their own worst selves or from those outside the family ‘firm’ who may not have their best interest at heart.

In 1937, a 16-year-old Prince Philip had walked behind his elder sister Cecile’s coffin after she was killed in a plane crash while heavily pregnant. The remains of newly-born infant found in the wreckage suggested the aircraft had perished as the pilot sought to make an emergency landing in fog as the mother entered childbirth. It was an excruciating taste of tragedy which would one day manifest itself in a very princely form of kindness that was deep down that defined Philip’s character.

When about 60 years later Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spin doctors in Downing Street tried to strong arm the Queen and the royal household over the the arrangements for the late Prince Diana’s funeral, it was Philip who stepped in front to protect his family. The Prime Minister and his media savvy spin doctors wanted the two young princes, William and Harry, to walk behind the coffin.

The infamous exchange was on the phone during a conference call between London and Balmoral, and the emotional Philip was reportedly backed by the Queen. The call was witnessed by Anji Hunter, who worked for Mr Blair. She said how surprised she was to hear Prince Philip’s emotion. ‘It’s about the boys,” he cried, “They’ve lost their mother”. Hunter thought to herself, “My God, there’s a bit of suffering going on up there”.’

Sky TV political commentator Adam Boulton (Anji Hunter’s husband) would write in his book Tony’s Ten Years: ‘The Queen relished the moment when Philip bellowed over the speakerphone from Balmoral, “Fuck off. We are talking about two boys who have just lost their mother”. Boulton goes on to say that Philip: ‘…was trying to remind everyone that human feelings were involved. No 10 were trying to help the Royals present things in the best way, but may have seemed insensitive.’

In the end the politicians almost didn’t get their way. Prince Philip stepped in to counsel his grandson, Prince William, after he had expressed a reluctance to follow his mother’s coffin after her death in Paris. Philip told the grieving child: “If you don’t walk, I think you’ll regret it later. If I walk, will you walk with me?”

It’s no wonder he was sought as a counsellor by other senior royals and especially close to his grandchildren, for whom he was a firm favourite. His relationship with Harry was said to have become strained, however, following the younger Prince’s decision to reject his royal inheritance for a life away from the public eye in America with his new American wife, Meghan Markle. For Prince Philip I am quite sure it went against all the elder Prince had lived his life by - self-sacrifice for the greater cause of royalty.

This is the key to Philip’s character and in understanding the man. The ingrained habits of a lifetime of duty and service in one form or another were never far away.

In conclusion then....

After more time passes I am sure historians will make a richer reassessment of Prince Philip’s life and legacy. Because Prince Philip was an extraordinary man who lived an extraordinary life; a life intimately connected with the sweeping changes of our turbulent 20th Century, a life of fascinating contrast and contradiction, of service and some degree of solitude. A complex, clever, eternally restless man that not even the suffocating protocols of royalty and tradition could bind him.

Although he fully accepted the limitations of public royal service, he did not see this as any reason for passive self-abnegation, but actively, if ironically, identified with his potentially undignified role. It is this bold and humorous embrace of fated restriction which many now find irksome: one is no longer supposed to mix public performance with private self-expression in quite this manner.

Yet such a mix is authentically Socratic: the proof that the doing of one’s duty can also be the way of self-fulfilment. The Duke’s sacrifice of career to romance and ceremonial office is all the more impressive for his not hiding some annoyance. The combination of his restless temperament and his deeply felt devotion to duty found fruitful expression; for instance, in the work of Saint George’s House Windsor - a centre and retreat that he created with Revd. Robin Woods - in exploring religious faith, philosophy, and contemporary issues.

Above all he developed a way to be male that was both traditional and modern. He served one woman with chivalric devotion as his main task in life while fulfilling his public engagements in a bold and active spirit. He eventually embraced the opportunity to read and contemplate more. And yet, he remained loyal to the imperatives of his mentor Kurt Hahn in seeking to combine imagination with action and religious devotion with practical involvement.

Prince Philip took more pride in the roles he had accidentally inherited than in the personal gifts which he was never able fully to develop. He put companionship before self-realisation and acceptance of a sacred symbolic destiny before the mere influencing of events. In all these respects he implicitly rebuked our prevailing meritocracy which over-values officially accredited attainment, and our prevailing narcissism which valorises the assertion of discrete identities.

Prince Philip was Britain’s longest-serving consort. He was steadfast, duty driven, and a necessary adjunct to the continuity and stability of the Queen and the monarchy. Of all the institutions that have lost the faith of the British public in this period - the Church, Parliament, the media, the police - the Monarchy itself has surprisingly done better than most at surviving, curiously well-adapted to a period of societal change and moral anarchy. The House of Hanover and later Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (changed to Windsor), since their arrival in this country in 1714, have been noted above all for their ability to adapt. And just as they survived the Victorian age by transforming themselves into the bourgeoise, domestic ideal, so they have survived the new Elizabethan era (Harry-Meghan saga is just a passing blip like the Edward-Wallis Simpson saga of the 1930s).

There was once a time when the Royal’s German blood was a punchline for crude and xenophobic satirists. Now it is the royals who are deeply British while the country itself is increasingly cosmopolitan and globalised. British society has seen a greater demographic change than the preceding four or five thousand years combined, the second Elizabethan age has been characterised more than anything by a transformational movement of people. Prince Philip, the Greek-born, Danish-German persecuted and destitute wanderer who came to become one of the Greatest Britons of the past century, perhaps epitomised that era better than anyone else. And he got through it by making a joke of everything, and by being practical.

I hope I don’t exaggerate when I say that in our troubled times over identity, and our place and purpose in the world, we need to heed his selfless example more than ever.

As Heraclitus wisely said, Ήθος ανθρώπω δαίμων (Character is destiny.)

RIP Prince Philip. You were my prince. God damn you, I miss you already.

Thanks for your question.

#question #ask #prince philip #duke of edinburgh #queen elizabeth II #the queen of spades #monarchy #britain #british #royalty #politics #history #culture #europe #crown #icon #great briton #society

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dead-dog-dont-eat · 2 years

Text

Notes: *fukken dies* AAAAAAHHHHHH!!--Okay, I NEEDED to make this post because I recently came up with an idea of James Jacob (J.J.; Striker and Blitzo's first son) being part of a 23-person polycule (I know, its a lot of people) and now I couldn't get it out of my fucking head (blame my neurodivergent polyam ass). Also I am too lazy to do full-on descriptions of each character due to how many there are, but I can tell what Hell species they are specifically. All of them are rock/grunge/punk band group members, btw.

CW: Long post

Name: Feliz

Species: Incubus/Electricity Demon

Age: 20

Favorite Bands: Metallica, Marilyn Manson

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: None

Languages Speaken: Spanish, Filipino

Gender: Agender Male

Pronouns: he/him and it/its fluidly

Sexuality: Vincian/Toric

Name: Daliz

Species: Envy/Wrath Imp

Age: 19

Favorite Bands: The Beatles, Pink Floyd

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: Self-Diagnosed PTSD and Depression, Autism

Languages Speaken: Russian, Samoan, Vietnamese

Gender: Trans-Enby (non-binding) Male

Pronouns: they/he/xe

Sexuality: Gay/Turian

Name: Celix

Species: Humanoid Plant Demon

Age: 24

Favorite Bands: Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: Chronic Pain

Languages Speaken: Latin, Greek

Gender: Demiboy, Gendervoid, Voidpunk, Bloodcoric, and Genderflor

Pronouns: they/knife/blood/plant/he

Sexuality: Gay/Enbian

Name: Tori

Species: Incubus/Pride Imp

Age: 19

Favorite Bands: GHOSTMANE and Marilyn Manson

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: CPTSD and above-elbow amputation of left arm (has a cyborg prosthetic)

Languages Speaken: Spanish, Hebrew, Latin, Italian

Gender: Transgender, Genderfluid, and Punkcoric

Pronouns: he/punk/they/she

Sexuality: Turigirl and Demisexual

Name: Pyronite

Species: Humanoid Fire Demon

Age: 27

Favorite Bands: The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: None

Languages Speaken: German, Sweden

Gender: Male

Pronouns: He/They

Sexuality: Gay

Name: Tarasque (aka, son of Leviathan)

Species: Same demon as his dad

Age: 18

Favorite Bands: Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Metallica, GHOSTMANE, Marilyn Manson, Gorillaz

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: None

Languages Speaken: Any/All except Latin

Gender: Nonbinary male

Pronouns: they/them to be preferred but is okay with he/him

Sexuality: Queer/Gay/Vincian

Name: Corrino

Species: Flaming Skeleton Demon

Age: 23

Favorite Bands: KISS, Black Sabbath

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: Chronic Pain

Languages Speaken: Thai, Korean, Japanese, Latin

Gender: Libramasculine male

Pronouns: it/he

Sexuality: Queer

Name: Eccentric

Species: Envy/Lust Imp

Age: 18

Favorite Bands: Metallica, GHOSTMANE, Gorillaz, Andrew W.K. (I know that is the name of a singer and not a band, just chill)

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: Autism, PTSD and Hypersexuality

Languages Speaken: Chinese and Latin

Gender: Boygirl/Girlboy, Librafeminine, Transgender (non-binding), and Polygender

Pronouns: they/ae/vir/xe/she/he

Sexuality: Turigirl, Gay, and Queer

Name: Anatoly (has a baby brother and baby niece whom he adopted)

Species: Electricity/Crystal Demon

Age: 28

Favorite Bands: Any/All

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: None

Languages Speaken: Russian (he is also, too)

Gender: Male

Pronouns: he/him

Sexuality: Turian

Name: Lukas (has a 18-month-old son from a previous relationship)

Species: Alligator demon

Age: 20

Favorite Bands: Andrew W.K. and Gorillaz

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: Blind in left eye from an accident

Languages Speaken: German (bilingual) and Cajun French

Gender: Paraboy and Demiboy

Pronouns: he/him and they/them

Sexuality: Queer

Name: Nas (is pregnant with Lukas' child; six months)

Species: Greed Imp/Incubus

Age: 18

Favorite Bands: Black Sabbath, Rage Against the Machine

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: ADHD and Autism

Languages Speaken: German (bilingual), Latin, Italian, and Greek

Gender: Transgender (non-passing/binding), Roseusboy, Lavender Boy, Xenogender, Nonbinary, and Xemboy

Pronouns: they/them

Sexuality: Queer/Toric

Name: Atliz

Species: Wrath Imp/Crocodile Demon

Age: 18

Favorite Bands: Any bands that have alternative rock, grunge, and heavy metal

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: Autism

Languages Speaken: Latin

Gender: Transgender, Demiboy, Paragender, and 90scoric

Pronouns: he/they/she

Sexuality: Gay/Toric/Turigirl

Name: Alter

Species: Lizard demon

Age: 24

Favorite Bands: Mainly Gorillaz

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: ADHD

Languages Speaken: African, Hebrew, and Latin

Gender: Bxy and Xenogender

Pronouns: they/it

Sexuality: Queer/Turian

Name: Liminal

Species: Shadow Demon

Age: 29

Favorite Bands: Black Sabbath and Metallica

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: Has a limp

Languages Speaken: Any/All

Gender: Voipunk, Gendervoid, Darkgender, Gothgender

Pronouns: he/thing

Sexuality: Queer and Demisexual

Name: Sabbath (is pregnant with Liminal's child; three months)

Species: Wrath/Envy/Lust Imp

Age: 18

Favorite Bands: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Marilyn Manson

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: Depression, CPTSD, blind in right eye from an incident

Gender: Transgender (non-binding), Nonbinary

Pronouns: they/xem

Sexuality: Toric/Turian

Name: Akhenaten

Species: Speed demon

Age: 27

Favorite Bands: Any bands that are indie rock

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: ADHD and Chronic Illness

Gender: Demiboy

Pronouns: they/he

Sexuality: Queer

Name: Angelique

Species: Fallen Angel (still an angel)

Age: 18

Favorite Bands: Any that is heavy metal and grunge

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: Lost left eye from an incident, has PTSD

Languages Speaken: Latin

Gender: Transgender male

Pronouns: he/they

Sexuality: Gay

Name: Suriyel

Species: Fallen Angel (still an angel

Age: 18

Favorite Bands: The Beatles

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: Lost a right eye from an accident and suffers from CPTSD

Languages Speaken: Latin

Gender: Genderqueer, Transgender male

Pronouns: they/he

Sexuality: Gay

XX:

Name: Matchitehew

Species: Wendigo/Sloth Imp

Age: 20

Favorite Bands: Any bands that are in a soft rock genre

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: ADD and ADHD

Gender: Agender, Nonbinary, Omnigender, and Transgender (non-binding)

Pronouns: Any/All (prefers they/them and he/him)

Sexuality: Turian/Turigirl

Name: Ala

Species: Humanoid Fog/Mist demon

Age: 21

Favorite Bands: Metallica

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: NPD and BPD

Languages Speaken: Some but not all

Gender: Male

Pronouns: he/him

Sexuality: Gay/Vincian

Name: Rusalka

Species: Water demon

Age: 20

Favorite Bands: Any that produced indie rock or heavy metal

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: Savant Syndrome

Languages Speaken: Any Asian language

Gender: Genderqueer guy

Pronouns: he/him and they/them

Sexuality: Queer/Vincian

Name: Orpheus

Species: Wrath/Lust imp

Age: 26

Favorite Bands: Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, GHOSTMANE, Gorillaz

Disorders/Illnesses/Disabilities: Hypersexuality

Languages Speaken: Mexican, Czech, Russian, German

Gender: Transgender (non-binding) male, Nonbinary

Pronouns: they/them

Sexuality: Gay/Toric

#helluva boss #helluva boss oc #helluva boss ocs #long post #tw long post #long post tw #text post #oc #ocs #original characters #imps #demons

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yournameyn · 3 years

Text

Feeling Deeply

Genre: Fluff so much fluff. Arranged Marriage fic.

Pairing: Namjoon x OC

A/N: Aaaaaa this is the first fic I'm posting ever ever. It's basically a way to follow the red thread of my desires. OC is named Brishti. She's Indian. She's Bengali & curvy & an introvert. This whole fic is 90% going to be a slow burn fluff fic about two introvert nerds getting to know each other. Seriously there's like hardly any real angst, maybe slight angst about okay when are these two going to bang - if you look very carefully but basically its just slooooow fluuuufff. Hopefully you all like it. Please let me know what you think. Current Chapter: This one is loooong. Remember this is all happening in the 1960s. OC & Namjoon are both really well off first gen immigrants. In this chapter we have our couple coming closer together - talking about some issues they've both had in their lives. Also this is the chapter where you'll get to know one of my favourite Namjoon songs and like why the OC is named what she's named. Also just a reminder because im a bit paranoid - Rim Jhim (referred to as Rim) is our OC Brishti. Its a pet name that's introduced in this chapter. And Namjoon being the wordsmith that he is makes it shorter, with the korean meaning of the word.

Previously in Feeling Deeply: Preface-ish Chapter 1

Chapter 2

And so it went for the next few days, the two of them quietly discovering each other. They were finding out the normal, casual, small things - how he didn’t like mint chocolate, how she loved bitter black coffee. Since both of them worked, they decided to split the chores at home. It worked out great because Namjoon liked to sweep & Brishti loved to do the dishes. They both struggled to cook but they decided to learn how to cook each other’s cuisines. So she was learning how to make kimchi (the green onion one) & he was learning how to prepare daal (the yellow one). They split the rent & decided to create a separate bank account for their savings. Talking about money increased warmth because they discovered that neither valued it excessively.

Slowly, they began talking about things a little more intimate. Meanings of names were revealed. She was impressed that his name meant genius. And he loved that hers meant rain. Pet names were introduced. He called her Rim - an even shorter version of her daak naam Rim Jhim. He told her to call him Joon. She looked away, smiling, then - silently telling him they’re not there yet. What he didn’t tell her was that he was already making up a fairytale about Joon, the genius & Rim, the brilliant jade that makes him so.

They spoke about books the most. Between them, they had half the globe's literature covered. She had read Indian authors & Russian & Spanish ones. He loved Korean authors, Japanese literature & all the Greek Classics. He geeked out about philosophy & poetry while she nerded over nature writing & music. They spoke about how they might take a look at other European writers & musicians together. To that end, Namjoon brought home a book of love poems by Rilke.

He hadn’t told her that he wrote poetry too. He hadn’t mentioned anything because it seemed like an indulgence of the past, poetry. But that night everything changed. After a late dinner, Brishti had asked to read aloud from the book he’d brought. As she read ‘To Music’, Namjoon saw tears float in her eyes. Secretly, something inside him had wept too. And just like that, he knew he would begin writing soon.

Each week the two watched late shows of classic hollywood musicals in a nearby theatre because they’d decided against a tv in their home - opting, instead, for a record player. Meeting for a movie each of the two Fridays they’d spent together so far was an experience both looked forward to - not only for the movie. In the darkness of the movie theatre, they experienced the first glimpses of intimacy. Soft smiles, whispering, silent glances, hands caressing each other. He loved how she laughed with abandon. She loved that he would tear up during the emotional scenes.

Her smile was getting wider, warmer toward him, Namjoon noted everyday. He’d been sleeping separately since their wedding night because he wanted her to feel safe. He was mostly okay with that except if he thought about it… If he thought about a time when he would get to touch her - Namjoon almost felt dizzy with feelings.

This happened the most when he saw her read by the window, he ached to touch her. That was her - Brishti - that was who she was at her core. Reading, running her fingers through her short hair, staring out the window, thinking, looking at clouds & then going back to reading. She was still quiet, but less so. She spoke about the rain and the trees and when she was happiest, he learned, when she really trusted that no one was going to judge her, she spoke about the moon. It had happened twice in the last few days.

He couldn’t stop looking at her. As though that needed reasoning, he thought about it at the office too. It wasn’t the only answer he could come up with but Namjoon had never seen a body like hers. She didn’t seem brittle or delicate, the way most women looked - or were “supposed to look”. She didn’t care what a body is supposed to look like, at least, it seemed that way to him. Brishti’s curves were not subtle. She was short and while almost everyone was shorter than him, Brishti was just… sexily so. She’d do these things… seemingly normal, everyday things but they would quickly, embarrassingly, inspire an arousal in him. Like, that thing she did, when she stretched after waking up or even if she stretched her arms or her neck… for some reason that turned him on so much, he’d have to hide… or excuse himself. His breath hitched, everytime he thought about how he hadn’t still actually seen her body.

Brishti, too, enjoyed looking at him from afar. Sharing, creating a living space with a man was never something she thought she would enjoy. They had exchanged the basic stories of how they had reached each other.

Namjoon had said, “I’d met a couple of women… girls… but they just seemed either plastic or porcelain… you know? I mean, not all of them could have been that but that's how they… presented themselves? You… I saw your photos in a pile that the matchmaker labelled ‘rubbish’”

“What?!”

“Yeah… I’m sorry but it’s actually a compliment to be labelled ‘bad’ by a matchmaker. That’s why I was looking in that pile in the first place… when I heard you wanted to keep working… Honestly I was so relieved...”

She smiled, “At least you got a look at me… I didn’t even know what you looked like till we met. I had no choice at all. A boy had agreed to marry me - despite… me… so that was the end of it. That was the bargain with my brother… otherwise I wouldn’t have been allowed to work either.”

“Wow… I’m so sorry, Rim. That’s really… really unfair.”

“Hmm yeah… I just figured if I can keep earning & the man turns out to be wrong, at least I can leave.”

“That’s… thanks for not leaving...”

Brishti smiled, “I got lucky...”

Namjoon understood, then, that Brishti might be an introvert but that did not mean she was shy. She made him blush & laugh. She made him speak without inhibition. The more time he spent with her, his feelings poured out.

“Thanks… It’s been really nice to share this home with you. Just to have you to talk to… My life was not going that great...” he said.

Brishti nodded, even though she already knew this. Whatever he said, strangely, she could see a deeper melancholy behind it. They spoke about being strangers in a strange country. She told him how she had to fight at the library for Tagore to be considered classic literature. How she was slowly but surely, being accepted in the oddball group that ran the library. She was not the only non-english person there, so things were easier for her. Besides, true readers had always been more accepting of the different.

Something made her regret sharing her happiness about this because his struggle in this foreign land was far more intense… she could sense pain behind the words he used. Namjoon did not enjoy his job the way she did. He worked overtime most days and came home bone-tired. Kim Namjoon was in many ratraces at the same time - races Brishti felt he didn’t want to participate at all. Being a lawyer, being an asian - the ‘model minority’, being a slightly well-off Korean in a sea of white men, in a sea of less fortunate asians who were being treated much worse than him. Trying to create a name, an identity of his own was wearing him out... chipping away at his soul.

Brishti sometimes saw him and saw a great banyan cutting itself down, trying to be a shrub just to fit in. When she asked him how his day was, he always smiled. It was real, the smile and yet it couldn’t hide the sadness in his eyes. Something that was beginning to bother Brishti more and more, these days. He... had begun to matter more and more these days.

Now, about two weeks into their marriage, she was experiencing butterflies about the smallest things; Things like watching him sleep on the fold out, bringing him coffee in the morning. She felt a pull deep inside her take over when he would come out of the shower in the bathrobe, skin glistening from the shower & musky man-scents launching her body in a fantastical arousal & her mind in overdrive. Somedays, Brishti even went for a shower after he’d been, just so she could soak in his essence & bathe in a trance she had never felt before.

On their third weekend together, Namjoon didn’t have to go to work the whole weekend. He’d spoken to his superior at the firm to let him have weekends free - after all, he was married now. Post lunch that Saturday, Brishti and he kept unpacking, organising while talking (well, later on, it was just coffee & talking) into the early hours of Sunday. They spoke about things they loved, people they had loved. About fictional crushes and real ones. Both of them spoke about their past relationships. Something Brishti was delighted about - especially since Namjoon told her he was not the type to hold someone’s past against them.

Brishti couldn’t believe it when Namjoon had correctly guessed, “It was the photographer, right?”

“What-?! How- Where- How did you…?” Brishti couldn’t even form a question.

“Your photos, at the matchmakers… something was different. All the other pictures women give out for arranged matches seem... fake. Yours were… real… private. You looked comfortable… looked like you were being teased...” What he didn’t say was how much it seemed in those pictures like she was with someone she truly liked… maybe even loved.

Sat on the ground opposite Namjoon, Brishti kept her gaze on him. It unnerved Namjoon that she could really see him. She unnerved him further when she said, “You should say what you aren’t saying… or… asking?”

“Did you love him?”

“Not really… it was just... a different kind of friendship… ended almost as soon as it began. But I- I don’t regret it. It wasn’t the kind of love-” she trailed off. She looked away, smiling but trying to hide it. The same way she had in the photograph.

He pressed further just to tease her “Kind of love...?” Namjoon was intrigued because she was blushing now & he wanted to plant a thousand pecks on her. Instead he said, “So you can just… stop what you were saying? Mmm. Okay. I see.”

She looked at him then, “I’m feeling… a lot… of… different things these days. Especially because of a couple of dimples...”

Just like that, she turned the tables & his dimples appeared. He blushed, “Yeah… same. I mean… you don’t have dimples but I’ve-”

She nodded to let him know she understood. And then asked, “Uhm... Have you… had sex?”

Namjoon bit his lip, “Yeah… yes. I... had a girlfriend in law school. It… uh… wasn’t serious… for her.”

Brishti looked away nodding, as if stopping herself from saying something.

He looked at her… knowing what she probably wanted to say. He wanted to hug her but he only said, “It doesn’t matter, does it? For me it doesn’t. Doesn’t matter if you’ve had sex too… I know how people can be about virginity… I- honestly… it's just another way to control people.”

She looked at him with a mixture of emotions. She took a minute to compose herself & then said, “I’ve never met a man like you… and it's a little confusing and annoying… Not that you are annoying… not at all. It’s just the world is annoying because this is how low the standard is for a man. A man accepting that the woman has a past makes him… forward…? But of course the woman has to… because, well, he’s a man and he has needs. We’re all told that… Shirley... who works with me… she knows it too. Women just aren’t supposed to talk about their pasts. All women.”

She paused & got flustered further because of how dedicatedly Namjoon had been listening. It really seemed as if he was taking notes. The serious expression on his face, it made Brishti's ears feel hot. Almost as a distraction, she went on -

“It's crazy but that seems to be the only thing THE WHOLE WORLD has agreed on - they can’t agree on one way to make bread but they all agreed that women are inferior. It’s such a basic thing to just let me work… because I want to… but it's annoying that it makes me feel lucky. My best friend had to go through hell because she thought she could trust her husband with the truth about her past… so it makes me feel lucky that… you won’t…”

Namjoon could see the pain in her words. Maybe that’s how she could always sense the pain in his words, he thought.

After a calming silence passed over them, he spoke - “I won’t. I don’t really know what it’s like for a woman. And… maybe you won’t like to hear this, but… I was the same, Rim... I was the man my society had trained me to be. Everything changed when I came here. When, for the first time in my life, I understood what it’s like to be treated inferior. Since then, I just… I cannot be the cause of a feeling like that within anyone... So… you’re right. I’m not doing anything everyone shouldn’t already do. All of this should be normal. Expected. Hopefully the world learns a bit faster…”

Brishti smiled at Namjoon. She chuckled when tears pooled up in her eyes. He instinctively reached out for her & placed a hand on her leg, just below her knee. A jolt went through Brishti and she looked surprised. He did too. Namjoon retracted his hand immediately & looked away, blushing. That’s when Brishti laughed out loud. She stood up. And asked him to stand up, silently.

He did. It always made Brishti’s heart flutter just how gorgeous and tall he was. Someday, she would tell him. Someday, she would show him. For now, she couldn’t help feeling bashful as she asked, “Can I get a hug, Joon?”

This was the first time she’d used the pet name that he’d asked her to call him by. This was what his family called him. And her using this name assured Namjoon of just that - she was becoming family. Her question had made his heart flip. He moved without really thinking, because this is what his body had wanted since the day he saw her. He pulled her up in his arms. He felt like he was melting. She was soft. Warm. Beautiful. And in his arms.

Brishti gasped a little when Namjoon had scooped her up in his arms. She was on her toes, literally & figuratively. She held onto him, less as a hug & more as support… at first. Then, she felt his arms… the strong arms that she had been ogling at, around her. It was as if a knot came undone, within her, suddenly. And in its place, the softest silk suddenly flowed through her body.

She closed her eyes and breathed him in. The same essence that she’d been soaking in after he had showered, that she had been breathing in whenever he would pass by or reach past her. The essence that she had now become so hungry for that she had been secretly sleeping with the shirt he’d worn from the laundry basket. That essence was now all over her. Her chin turned up, resting on his shoulders, her cheeks touching his, her hands - on their own - reached the nape of his neck and began to play with his hair.

When she did that, Namjoon held her tighter, pressed her on to him. He felt her body react to his. One hand reaching her shoulder around her back, he moved the other closer to her waist, so his hands could fold over her curves. He could feel her breath hitch when he did that.

Brishti was revelling in the feeling of his hands, his fingers, feeling his fingertips press into her - that was a feeling she could never have imagined making her so... so... drunk. She was drunk. She ran her hands up and down his vast back, all the way up to his hair. All of a sudden she could feel herself overcome with emotion. Tears began pooling in her eyes again. And she said, before it was too late, she said, “Thank you, Joon, for everything… thank you.”

When he heard the tremble in her voice, Namjoon pulled away, just so he could see her. Brishti quickly retracted too - to wipe off her tears, trying to laugh off the silliness, apologising. Namjoon replied, “It’s okay… I understand… I… Thank you, Rim. I hope you… you know what I mean...” What he wanted to say, what he hoped she understood was that she was what was helping him come alive. But being unable to, Namjoon knew someday he would. Someday soon.

Brishti nodded to say she understood. Namjoon tried to lighten the atmosphere, saying, “You’re not… just anyone, you know? So… maybe you should tell me something I could do which is… not just basic decency, but something that can be considered truly feminist, you know. I’d love to do that for you.”

Brishti smiled and nodded. She suddenly felt tired & almost of its own accord, her body stretched into a yawn. She said, “I’ll think of something. We- I should go now… Do you want- anything?...” Brishti was delighted about how drunk she had gotten from one hug. It was exciting that she knew she’d be sleeping with the sweater he had tossed in the laundry basket tonight. She decided to take a bit more time to enjoy being intoxicated without a substance, together and alone.

Later that night, as Namjoon laid on his fold out sofa, alone, he thought of how great it had felt to have Brishti in his arms. To have someone who wanted to know about his day. To feel her heartbeat, like raindrops, knocking on his chest like it was a window pane, almost as if asking to be let in…

Thoughts like these, they made Namjoon reach for the notepad & pen that he always kept close by. He wrote. He wrote of being world weary and suddenly having a friend. Suddenly feeling like the world wasn't rushing him, that he didn’t need to run, that he could take time, be slow, be a poet. His heart tugged at his pen as it wrote lines about what it felt like to have someone cry for him. To have someone be full of feelings for him, to have someone to embrace his weary body. He wrote about how he missed that embrace and yet it was okay… as long as she was still here, maybe not just next to him, yet. Maybe someday. It was okay because she asked how he was every day and Brishti was here, forever. Namjoon felt tears run down his own face, as he titled the first poem he’d written in almost five years - Forever Rain.

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Oooooh god you read it?! Thank you so much! Please please let me know what you thought! Get into my messages about it! I would love nothing more than to hear what you felt about this!

#bts kim namjoon #fanfic #namjoon fluff #namjoon arranged marriage #namjoon x oc #arranged marriage #slow burn #slow burn fic #fluff fic #bts fanfic #bts #indian oc #red thread fics #forever rain #brishti

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mayordamsie · 3 years

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Damien Dean Ashford

— my damien headcanons —

This is the “dating profile” information: what you’d see if you matched with him on tinder

Full name: Damien Dean Ashford

Nicknames: Dames, Damie, Baby Bear (his mom is the only person that gets to call him that)

Age: 27

Birthday: October 10th, 1994

Height: 6’2”

He and Celine both have sectoral heterochromia, meaning one eye is fully brown and the other is part brown and part blue.

He has a pretty faded, but still visible, scar on his jaw.

He loves cats

He speaks 6 languages fluently and 3 languages partially (french, latin, greek, spanish, korean, japanese, german, russian and hebrew)

This is the “first date” information: what he’d mention on the first date

His parents are divorced.

Has five siblings (Celine, Henry and Grace, Amelia and Sadie)

He has a childhood cat named Charlie thats ancient

He loves the fair

Christmas fiend

Loves baseball, he played since he was able to do little league through college.

This is the “We’re close friends” information: stuff you’d learn

Has an extremely close family relationship, not in a weird way or an uncomfortable way, but he cares a lot about his family.

He does not vibe with dogs. They terrify him.

He can cook and bake very well.

Wanted to be an architect but wanted his dad to be proud of him so he switched to polysci.

When he’s nervous, he cracks his knuckles.

He showers constantly. He smells really good, but he showers twice a day.

He smokes weed, but he takes edibles a lot more than he actually smokes.

His love language is gift giving

He hates his dad, he spent a lot of time trying to make him proud.

He’s only been in two serious relationship before

His hair isn’t naturally black, he just dyes it black.

He is cold 200% of the time.

Trauma sections (descriptions of parental abuse, alcoholism, cheating, domestic abuse, sexual assault, dog attack, brief mention of being called slurs, self-harm, anorexia, nightmares, and dissociation.)

He suffered a lot of physical and emotional abuse from his father. His parents didn’t get divorced until he was about 10, but that was well after he had suffered. His dad was an alcoholic and just lived to hit Damien. When he was 4 or 5 years old, his dad brought home a big german shepard that was originally a fighting dog. It was set off using certain commands and one day, Damien and Celine were playing together and his dad had yelled at Damien about something and the dog lunged. He doesn’t remember most of it, thank god, but Celine remembers every second of it. The only reason he’s alive is because Celine screaming scared the dog. When he turned 7 or 8, his father hit him a lot. He drank more than he should have and Damien had gotten a lot of the anger taken out on him. He took it as much as he could, terrified that his father would turn to Celine or his mother. His mother finally had the courage to divorce him and she did, she took the kids and being the main provider for their household anyway, they lived comfortably.

High School was fine for him. Being the nicer jocks, he got by. The occasional slur through his direction for being as open as he was about his sexuality, he dated a gorgeous girl named Sarah who he broke up with in junior year because he had gotten accepted into a college thousands of miles away. In his senior year, he dated Leiland. They were great together, despite her constant want to go to parties. She ended up cheating on him but, I wouldn’t say that’s traumatic for him. He graduated salutatorian of his class and made friends along the way. High school was great, but college was not.

In college, he met Andrew. Andrew was Damien’s first boyfriend. He was in love with Andrew. He’d show up to classes late, he’d cover up bruises, he’d lie to everyone. He did a lot of things he shouldn’t have done for that man. He did a lot of things he wasn’t proud of. Andrew didn’t hesitate to take advantage of the trust and love Damien gave him. Damien had frequent nightmares, horrible nightmares, and Andrew had taken advantage of that too. He twisted and hurt him in every way imaginable. Constant cheating, choking him, threatening him, calling him names to the point where Damien would respond when Andrew swore. Andrew had him on a clock, whether he knew or not, Damien always hoped he didn’t. Damien would only eat once a day in the few hours that Andrew wasn’t in the apartment because he was horrified of the comments he would make if he saw him eating. Damien simply preferred not to find out, so he starved himself. He was falling apart mentally. Occasionally, purposefully burning himself on the stove when cooking for Andrew, cutting himself while disposing of the blade from his razor. He wanted it to be inconspicuous. He wouldn’t dare let Andrew find that out. He was sure Andrew knew it the night he clamped his hand over his mouth and raped him. The first time they ever have sex and it was horrible. He cried the whole way through, begged as hard as he could without pissing him off. He squirmed and pleaded, but Andrew got what he wanted.

He tends to dissociate when extremely stressed. His body shuts down and his mind gives up. It hurts sometimes, like he can feel the dog's teeth sinking into his flesh once more, like he can still smell Andrew’s cologne over him. Sometimes, he can hear Celine screaming or his mother crying. He wants it to stop, he wants it all to go away and he wants to pretend like he is safe. He’ll never be safe, his own mind is a hell-scape. His nightmares are constant. He can’t close his eyes without a painful flashback to memories he would rather not have. He promises his mother that he can’t remember anything from that night with the dog. He would rather she never know that it plagues him.

#markiplier egos #wkm damien #who killed markiplier #who killed markiplier damien #wkm damien headcanons #markiplier #egos #who killed markiplier damien headcanons #headcanons #damien!

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idyoma · 3 years

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The Best Ways to Learn a New Language

Some of the Best Ways to Learn a New Language

My name is Tamara and I have always been interested in languages, how people communicate and how we can interact even more by learning new languages. I was able to take an international exchange program in 2019 and I started taking this interest to a new level by learning and interacting with friends and people that I was lucky to get to know.

I continue studying and trying to learn from home and this is what inspired me to write this article to help more people achieve their language goals and share some of my favourite ways to learn a new language.

People often recognize that being multilingual is associated with career benefits, but did you know that language learning can also enhance your cognitive health? Too often, people graduate from school and leave foreign languages behind in the classroom. Yet, there are some surprising advantages to tackling language learning later in life, too.

As you learn a new language, you build up your communication skills, supercharge your brain with heightened activity in its language centers, and possibly even open yourself up to new work and travel experiences.

Fortunately, today’s language learners have a wide range of instruction options, like Idyoma, that don’t tether them to a traditional classroom. Finding time to learn a new language outside the home can be difficult for people with full-time jobs and busy households. By learning a new language at home, you can adopt an instruction schedule that suits your time frame — and you can fit in practice when it’s most convenient for you. As you decide whether to embrace ESL or learn Japanese, Spanish, or French, keep the following information in mind to help you create a learning dynamic at home that supports your learning style.

Best Ways to Learn a New Language

Benefits of being mulitlingual

Setting up your learning space

Top 10 tips for learning fast

Tips for teaching kids a second language

Why You Should Learn a New Language: The Benefits of Being Multilingual

Although there are many new pastimes one might embrace — knitting or gardening, web design or data science — to fill time, learning a new language is both enjoyable and professionally useful. Today, the career marketplace is highly global.

Bilingualism and multilingualism can catapult your resume to the top of an employer’s list, especially if the company is international and relies on its multilingual staff to communicate across borders. Learning Korean or German can open up an entire range of job opportunities that you may never have thought of before.

Of course, there are other benefits of learning a new language, too. Language learning actually enhances your mental health. As we age, our cognitive function can diminish just as our physical health can. But, language learning can reduce that cognitive decline, slowing its process as you forge new neural pathways.

When you learn a new language you can boost your ability to focus, keeping our minds alert and agile. Many people who engage in language learning report that the time they engage in the study actually improves their mood. As you focus on the enjoyment and challenge of your lessons, you’ll focus less on the stress of all things left undone, giving your mind the opportunity to recharge and rejuvenate from your usual anxieties and inner chatter.

Finally, you might opt to learn a new language so that you’ll be prepared to get out into the world and explore. Being multilingual makes you a more skillful traveler, building confidence and helping you navigate new, far-flung places for a grand travel experience. And learning a new language improves your communication skills — a core interpersonal and professional talent that’ll get you far in relationships, in business, and beyond.

How to Set up the Ultimate Learning Space

Of course, before you start pricing hotels in Barcelona or Paris, you’ll need to begin language instruction. But before you hire a language tutor or sign up for an online class, prepare your learning space at home so that you have everything you need to support your learning goals conveniently in one area. If you have a home office, you can enlist that space to learn, but you don’t have to dedicate an entire room to your new initiative. A special niche in your bedroom, kitchen, or family room will also suffice.

As you set up your language study area, you’ll want to ensure that it’s both quiet and comfortable. Distractions will prevent you from learning effectively. Opt for a space with good acoustics, since you’ll be doing a lot of language listening. Good lighting is important since you’ll be doing a lot of reading and writing. A desk or small table and comfortable chair are essential furnishings for your study area — but why not take your language learning space to an even more exciting level?

Whether you’ve opted to learn Hungarian or Turkish, why not set up your space with some international flair for inspiration? Add some travel posters to your wall, and keep a globe handy. Incorporate the spirit of your Spanish independent study with a Mexican blanket slung on your chair, or enhance your study of Chinese with some picturesque paper lanterns hung near your window. By creating a fun language learning space, you’ll have a special space with a retreat-like atmosphere that may very easily become your favorite place in the house.

Top 10 Hacks to Learn a New Language

Once your study space is ready and you know what language you want to learn, it’s time to get down to business. Consider all the various applications available for learning a language at home. The following hacks will help you transform yourself into a multilingual virtuoso — or close to it! Keep them in mind as you develop your language learning goals and make your plan.

Enroll in an online course

Formal instruction is a good option for individuals who prefer to learn a new language with a more-or-less traditional dynamic. If you’re concerned that independent study isn’t conducive to your learning style, consider this tried-and-true learning route. A formal course features highly structured lesson plans, assignment deadlines, and interaction with a teacher and classmates, albeit virtually.

Download the app

You’ve probably seen the advertisements online for any number of language learning apps. Less formal than an online course, these apps still offer learners a rich level of instruction designed to help them progress at a clip. Apps are ideal for independent learners who don’t have time to meet consistently for an online class.

Update your library card

Your local library system will have a wealth of materials to enhance your language-learning experience. Plan to borrow language dictionaries and picture books, novels, and even films in the language you’re learning so you can read, watch, and practice your listening skills. Check out materials in person or reserve them online and pick them up at your convenience.

Quality earbuds, headphones, or speakers

When you’re learning to speak a new language, you need to be able to hear your learning materials clearly. A speaker that crackles or earbuds that cut in and out will compromise your learning experience. Plan to invest in quality listening devices so that you can hear instructors or your language learning app with crystal clarity.

Use flashcards

Flashcards work for kids, and they will still work for you, too. In fact, if you have kids, you might want to enlist their help — invite them to quiz you on your German verbs after you quiz them on their multiplication facts. You can also find flashcard apps for literally any language you want to learn.

Hire a language tutor

There comes a point when you might hit a stumbling block or a series of obstacles while learning a new language. Don’t despair! Check with area colleges, and engage a language tutor. This can be especially helpful if you’ve never learned a foreign language before or you want to stay on track and pick up speed as you move from beginner-level learning to the more complex, intermediate stages.

Find a learning partner

Convince your bestie, spouse, partner, or friend to consider learning a language with you. When you have a partner, you can keep each other motivated and take turns studying at one another’s homes. Of course, ideally, you’ll want to find someone who’s just as enthusiastic about learning Russian or Portuguese as you are, so choose your language learning pal wisely.

Listen to native speakers

One of the complaints that many students of languages have is that classroom and app models are too formal and not the stuff of everyday language you’ll hear on the streets of Rio, or Naples. Use your devices to track down native language speakers — like watching and listening to videos on the internet. This is particularly helpful if you plan to travel to the country whose language you’re learning.

Be kind and patient with yourself

Too often, people abandon their language pursuits because life interrupts them, and they find it difficult to resume their studies. Keep in mind that it’s okay to learn at your own speed and tempo. It may be asking too much of yourself to learn Italian in six months. If you need to adjust your goals, do it! The key is to keep going — and don’t be afraid to revisit old lessons when you need a refresher.

Immerse yourself in culture

Language learning may seem tedious at times, especially if you’re struggling with tenses or complex sentence structures.

Maintain your motivation to keep learning by immersing yourself in the culture of the language. Learning Greek? Invite your best friend to a luncheon at your favorite Greek restaurant. Learning Spanish? Set Saturday nights aside for a tapas feasting! You’ll find that cultural immersion boosts your learning — and enriches your life.

Tips to Teach Kids a Second Language

Speak It

If you speak a second or third language and you want your children to learn it, the first step is to speak it with them. Children learn through repetition. Consistency is necessary to develop a habit, so the more your kids listen to you speaking in another language, the easier it will be for them to grasp it.

Music

Just like for an adult, listening to music in a different language is one of the best tips to follow when trying to learn a new language. For both children and adults, starting with kid’s songs with easy and basic words can work best.

Audiobooks

For bedtime or nap time, you could aid yourself by using audiobooks. Following a story with the help of native speakers can work wonders for children to learn different intonations, accents, and vocabulary while also entertaining them.

Have fun

Doing fun activities in the language you are trying to teach your kids is another great way to help them grasp the language. If you grew up in another country, do you remember what activities you enjoyed when you were a child? You can plan a fun afternoon with games from your home country to do with your children. If this is not the case and you are just trying to teach your child to learn a new language, games with new vocabulary are always the best bet.

Video

Another good idea is to let them watch tv or movies in another language. Not only tv shows where they interact with the audience work, standard format movies, cartoons, and shows can help you at home, they don’t need to spend hours in front of a screen. This is only to aid you in the repetition, consistency, and the develop a habit side of the process. Remember it is important that they have access to other intonations, accents, and vocabulary for them to acquire the language faster.

Space to Learn

You can set up a special space for them to study. If they are being homeschooled, they would probably already have a designated space for their study work but if not, you can choose a corner in the kitchen, your home office, or their playroom for this purpose.

Things to add to their study space:

Get them a small table or desk their size with chairs.

Set up a whiteboard on the wall with markers for them to write down vocabulary words or to draw.

Corkboards are great to stick images and vocabulary words to.

Shelves for their storybooks and dictionaries.

Be sure to have good light.

Add color. Remember children’s classrooms are always colorful, this makes them feel in a fun and exciting environment. Bright colors stimulate the brain and can help children retain information.

Add storage. If you want to avoid clutter, add boxes or drawers for them to keep things they work with.

When is the best time to learn a language?

When young, human beings acquire new languages, they don’t actually learn them, so you could say the best age to learn a second language is as a young child.

But even if it’s easier to learn languages as a kid, don’t get discouraged. Remember that you can achieve anything you set your mind to. It’s scientifically proven that learning a language as an adult can also have its advantages. As adults, we can follow and understand grammar rules, so learning in a more technical way is easier for adults than for children.

Learning a new language enhances your life in numerous ways while providing you with a marketable skill. As you learn a new language, you’ll develop new communication skills, keep your brain agile, and even discover new writers and artists to read and enjoy as you encounter them in your studies.

Before you know it, you’ll be fluent in the language of your choosing, and who knows where you could go from there?

Written by Tamara Segal

#best ways to learn a new language #new language #tips to learn a new language

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