#usually its the inverse

[devotion-disorder]

a lotta stressful irl stuff happening right now so ive taken the bold creative decision to become attached to a random fictional character. on an unrelated note does anyone else think that adachi persona 4's character sprites are like, really lewd

look at this loser's face. i want to trap him inside a hamster cage and feed him cabbage

[snailfen]

was looking at my ship tierlist and it made me think of suitcase and cheesy again... while i dont think they'd necessarily be close friends or anything i think they could at least be fairly good friends post-canon.

i like to imagine after cheesy is eliminated, he refocuses his desire to make others laugh by trying to find what might personally make someone laugh as a way of getting to know others, so long as it isn't mean-spirited! (source: i do this a little)

i personally think about this more in relation to him becoming friends with pickle and bomb, (pickle especially, i imagine getting him to laugh after what happened with taco isn't easy.) but playing with this idea with suitcase is also fun. i imagine getting suitcase to laugh isn't the easiest thing but when she does its really cute. so cheesy has to REALLY try with her to see what her sense of humor is like. and i like the idea of the kind of effort he puts in for that.

[headlinehustling]

I always think about like, what makes it so seedy people stay in Seedy Neighborhood? Most of them are directly adjacent to normal and safe areas, like only one block removed. Places you have to go through to get to the next normal and safe place. There are even some spots where one side of the street is covered in urine and you have a 7/10 chance of being catcalled by a panhandler. But on the other side of the street or if you just turn a corner its perfectly fine. Whats stopping the peeing catcalling people from crossing the street? (I'm happy they don't, though)

[unlicensed-field-medic]

can you tell the time without a watch? and do you have your own internal compass? and do you wake up n' sleep with the sun? and does daylight savings mess you up? and are you weak during eclipses? and are you stronger during summer solstice? are you a portable furnace? do you burst into flames when you're burnt out? do you hate the winter? are you bothered by these questions? should i stop? do you like mitski?

[Will blinks as the questions are thrown at him one after another before holding up his hands] im not bothered, just hold on or im going to forget them.

[Will starts counting on his fingers as he answers the questions] for the time thing, it depends? Like if im outside and the suns out kind of but only like to the hour or half hour its not that accurate.

[He shakes his head as he counts up again] and no i just use common sense. Sun rises in the east and sets in the west but its more north during summer and more south in winter. [Will seems genuinely unaware that this perhaps is not common sense]

Oh, this one is actually used to [will says, glad he can give a positive answer for once] my circadium rhythm is crazy strong so I have all these lamps in the infirmary for late nights. I can still sleep during the day if I have to technically but it feels like literally anyone breathing will wake me up so its not really worth it.

[That joy of a positive answer quickly fades though] yeah, no i hate daylight savings. They're not saving anything, just confusing people and making me late for things when I do sleep.

[Will pauses then, trying to remember before shaking his head] yeah, no, sorry I really dont pay attention to that, I have no clue

And im stronger in the summer [will lowers his hand as he loses count, going a bit more rapid fire] but the summer solstice doesnt specifically make me like super powerful or anything.

I am actually super warm, its pretty nice. Ive been told apparently I give good hugs because of it.

Flames seems a bit dramatic. Burnt out mentally wont do anything weird. Magically though I just tend to get really feverish and hot. Which im a lot more resilient to so it can get... pretty high. Furnace high. But I dont think ive ever reach flame high before passing out first.

I mean i dont hate it. I like the snow, which we dont really get in camp but whatever. Its just the seasonal depression and all. I dont think that has anything to do with... actually it might be an apollo kid thing now that I think about it.

I dont hate them. Im just confused if youre about to send an assassin after me or something. So you can keep going or stop either way.

I mean yeah she has nice music, its not really my favorite though

[gemini-queen42]

The immaculate timing of seeing 2 particular posts on here promptly resulted in the creation of a new batb oc: Renoncule Youxcoyote ♡

Until i finish her ref/starter pack drawing tho, take the sitcom title card for her life; "Prends-le, Renoncule!" A rough/amature translation of the ole' phrase "Suck It Up Buttercup" into French.

Random fun facts/summary of her for now ♡:

- master at the "customer service" personality. Flips it on and off like a switch.

- she has a habit of automatically covering others work for them when they don't manage its completion themselves, either by agreeing to do them a favor or silently swooping in when she notices. This has long stopped feeling rewarding to her, but as they say, old habits die hard.

- Overall bitter, cynical, and can be a wild card for how much patience she has. Petty in theory but not in practice.

- is that a flask? Yes. So she has booze in there? No. What's in there then? That's between her and the majordomo apparently. [Because there's no way "vinegar", "rat poison", "blood" [of varying sources], and the other myriad of answers she gives when asked are the truth- right?]

-she DOES smoke tho. She keeps it out of the castle and on remote parts of the grounds, prefferably entirely off of them if she's got the time to walk it. [Eternally regrets not going the extra distance the night the castle got cursed </3]

-she's not a villain but she DID consider plots from murder to rebellion against the prince during the curse and is REALLY CONFUSED on why it seems like no one else was thinking of it. Or attempted anything that she knew of.

[cervideity]

Are there any FS manga ideas you've had which you haven't really seen anywhere but wish were more common?

RUBS MY HANDS. ok so bc i havent been here that long i havent really seen even a fraction of all the fan content for this thing (although i comb through oldER threads, fanworks, and deviantart fairly often) so i cant say anything on it not existing... plus this is pretty basic

but onw of my fav concepts i dont see utilized too often is pairing off two of the 4/maybe5 guys and putting them in a damn situation by themselves. most of the time , at least the fancontent I see has them all together, by themselves, or paired off like they were in the manga. which is FINE. maybe im just geared different. but what better way to enjoy their characters like its new. what better way to analyze . fuck you scoops up red and vio puts them in the Labrynth with devious creatures. .yaknow?

just for you anon N9BODY ELSE LOOK !! /joke. some very * rushed in the fervour of inspiration * [badly drawn] concepts for a green n shadow dungeon

[dewgongs]

lock in. walk the tightrope

[but-a-humble-selfshipper]

Y'know something I feel in the need to confess and wait hang on.

^ this is me talking this this is like a teen.girl talking to her crush. Ok? Anyway,

I have SUCH an issue bc Hoffman makes me SO insane like he's so fucking hot and also just beautiful and I really like him but... I cannot bring myself to see him in such a relationship w Lil Luly.

And NO Can isn't an option either ! ! Can is way too, weird. They don't fit here + he's a good person and would try to stop them and etc. But like it's just so silly bc it does show how strong the difference between R.L. and L.L. .......

Though who knows what the future could await . . .

[bumpscosity]

actually I think that my distaste for inversions is why I tend to like wooden coasters so much. It's hard to built one that has even ONE inversion let alone a "world record" amount so they have to get creative in finding ways to get people to ride them

[transmutationisms]

I love your takes, but I feel super, super lost with what you were trying to say about the natalism one. I feel like you're saying that there is no contradiction on wanting more babies, a higher population number and punishing mothers, but can you elaborate on that a bit more, because it does seems contradictory. I'm not disagreeing with you, I just want to understand it better.

alright there's a perennial debate (on here but also in a wider cultural sense) that goes on where people start noticing that some of the ways in which we socially and economically de/value children, parenthood, and specifically motherhood are internally contradictory. how can it be that there is immense social and economic pressure to heterosexually partner and reproduce, and yet most public and social infrastructure is also profoundly hostile to children and their guardians? why is it that this person couldn't find a doctor to perform a voluntary hysterectomy because their bodily preferences were subordinated to the medical valorisation of their fertility, and yet this other person was forcibly sterilised or coerced into using contraception because the prospect of them reproducing is framed as socially destabilising and degenerative? how are 'family values' touted by politicians who openly and explicitly also hate real existing families? do they want people to have more children or fewer? is it more counterculture and rebellious to have children or to not have children? to have sex or to not have sex? to partner off? to be polyam or monogamous?

the answer broadly speaking is that the oppositions people see here are only surface-level. the bourgeois state's interest is in biopower, and this produces competing demands: for some people to partner off and reproduce, and for others to be exterminated. the valorisation of the white middle-class nuclear family is the same as the devalorisation of its negations: racialised people, disabled people, family arrangements other than nuclear and heterosexual, etc. you can't understand the demand that people reproduce if you don't understand it is necessarily also accompanied by the demand that other people don't. these aren't actually contradictory once you understand that what the bourgeois state wants has nothing to do with your individual behaviours and everything to do with how many 'desirable' bodies it has at its disposal. that economic consideration is what creates both the natalist policy meant to encourage [some people's] reproduction, and the exterminatory policy meant to suppress and eradicate [other people's] reproduction.

usually this kind of conversation very quickly devolves into a privilege framework argument, where people are trying to find some kind of social hierarchy that is hegemonically applied top-down and that rewards, universally, certain behaviour choices over others. again, the "people who marry and reproduce are privileged and socially rewarded over me #childfree" versus "actually some people still have to fight tooth and nail to even get medical support / approval to have children, let alone actually get access to the kind of economic and social support necessary to raise them" debate. it's smoke and mirrors because there is no universal privileging of the choice to have children or not have children. what there is, is a privileging of certain people on the basis of the economic assessment of them as biological assets, and the inverse (and mutually constitutive) devaluations of everyone else. really over-discussed examples here but to give them anyway: this is why, for example, french natalist policy and the USA's constant efforts to strip back welfare-net policies in order to harm (primarily) black families are both arising from the same basic impulses of two imperialist nation-states. obviously there are different histories and contextual factors that have resulted in france and the US trying to skin the same cat in different ways. but what they share is an underlying interest in trying to shore up their population in both size and 'fitness', understood here in its full racialised and eugenic meaning.

[wantonlywindswept]

another trope inversion of GAR/Guard interactions:

the GAR is entirely aware that Coruscant is a shit posting.

they're not blind; they can see all the anti-clone sentiment when they're on leave. even when they're deployed, it's not like they're cut off from all news - they know how many times bills for clone rights have gone to the Senate floor and been ruthlessly voted down. they can see how even their Jedi are restrained by the Senate dragging its feet and making bad choices and handling the war like it's a game of dejarik since it will never affect them personally.

very few politicians have the respect of the clones.

but the Guard still have to work with the spoiled, self-centered bastards, and the GAR knows that they're not being treated well. but what can they do? they have no rights, the Jedi are as trapped under the Senate's thumb as they are, and it's not like they can get regular citizens to do anything.

so they offer their support as much as they can. any Guard, any Corrie who needs help, all they have to do is find one of their brothers and it will be offered without any questions.

you'd think that crime rate would go up when battle-traumatized soldiers are given leave on a city-planet like Coruscant, but it actually goes down.

way down.

the thing criminals come to realize is that if you are being chased by one of the Guard, if ANY other clone catches sight of you, it is ON SIGHT. clones in casual clothes carrying food and drinks have dropped everything to immediately join a Guard's hunt, throwing themselves into the pursuit with glee and an energy that the usually-exhausted Guards often lack. (some of them howl. those, the criminal underground agrees, are the worst.) 

and with hundreds or thousands of clones wandering around during battalions' leave, it's possible to run into one of them anywhere. and they usually travel in packs.

best just to lay low for a while.

when it leaks that the Guard regularly run low on supplies, all sorts of things start to go missing on the venators. just a box or a crate here or there, ration packs or bacta patches or cold-weather gear. there are millions of clones and thousands of ships; it's not like every little thing can be tracked by the quartermasters. 

(rex realizes that, for whatever reason, his battalion is always prioritized for resupply, and rarely any questions are asked about their requisitions. rex takes immediate and shameless advantage of this. rex manages, somehow, to lose two entire bacta tanks, along with the bacta to fill them.)

and ofc the idea that started this whole ramble - when a shiny Corrie stumbles somewhere where some of the 501st are shooting the shit, causing everything to immediately come to a halt. the kid is clutching his helmet and one of his pauldrons to his chest; his hair is mussed up and there are tears on his cheeks and bruises on his face and unadulterated panic in his eyes. 

there's an angry call in the corridor.

the shiny flinches.

fives grabs him, hears him squeak, snaps out orders. echo yanks off his bucket and his upper armor; jesse lunges for a blanket. they hustle the kid into a chair, drape the blanket over his lower body, hastily swap his upper armor and helmet for echo's. fives shoves the armor somewhere, doesn't matter, it's out of sight with the telltale red, and they all barely have enough time to drop themselves back into the chairs arranged around the table and pick up their cards before some natborn stomps into the room.

anything we can do for you, sir? sorry, no, the Guard didn't stop in here. we saw him head back down toward the rotunda, though. yes, sir. have a nice day, sir.

they close and lock the door. fives goes back to the shiny. fives was instantly prepared to help a fellow clone in need.

fives was not prepared for tears.

the kid gets snot all over the inside of echo's helmet. they take him back to Guard HQ. fox is painfully, desperately relieved to see him. fox looks too-thin and too-tired but there is a fresh GAR-issued bacta patch covering a slash across the side of his cheek. he thanks them for saving the shiny, like that's something that ever needs gratitude, but is swept away before any of them can say that. 

fives doesn't think that misplaced bacta and pilfered rations are enough support for the Guard anymore.

thankfully, rex and the rest of the GAR agree.

[tritoch]

it took me until the pelupelu quests to really get what dawntrail is trying to go for with the moblins of earthenshire.

the first time through MSQ, the feat of pots stuff really didn't land for me. a lot of emphasis is placed on the relationship between the helphands and the potsworn in a way that ends up being pretty straightforwardly and kind of boringly about the importance of artisans, craftsmen, and other skilled laborers to civil society. after the collapse of the yok huy empire, earthenshire used to abduct potsworn under exploitative terms, gulool ja ja shows up and says "not only will hiring and caring for living workers keep people from wanting to kill you, it will also lead to the production of finer arts and crafts," the moblins agree, there is much rejoicing. in the present day, wuk lamat favors gulool ja ja's "let's all benefit from peaceful urbanization and governance" approach while bakool ja ja reverts to direct violence. it's not a bad bit of story, i guess, but it's also not much, and it's soon overshadowed by wuk lamat's abduction.

but the pelupelu society quests highlight it in a different light. it emphasizes not just the potsworn, but the fact that the moblins are facing the question of how to handle a bounty of natural resources.

the moblins of earthenshire were previously oppressed and exploited by the yok huy specifically for the natural riches of southern kozama'uka. what kinds of natural riches? well, gulool ja ja specifically calls out "the quality of the materials used" in earthenshire's goldwork, so we can guess probably gold.

another big answer is staring us right in the face, in the form of earthenshire's architecture: high-quality clay (and feldspar) for ceramics, and probably a characteristic glaze known to earthenshire's artisans. the blue-green color and "cracked" quality of the finish makes me think FFXIV's writers and designers had celadon in mind, even if the final hue is heavier on the blue and lighter on the green than the color celadon is usually associated with in english.

we are told some of earthenshire's traditional industries: underground mining, fishing, alluvial (stream-bed) mining. under the yok huy empire, moblin society was focused entirely on resource extraction. the tour guide says that without the yok huy, the moblins were bereft of both "providers and protectors," suggesting that under the yok huy the moblins were neither producing their own goods nor exercising many traditional powers of government. in many ways, they still don't!

what gulool ja ja proposed, and the moblins have enacted, is now almost an inversion of traditional metropolitan-hinterland relations. under the usual paradigm, the hinterland, resource-rich but unable to resist the interference of foreign powers, is exploited by the metropole, both in terms of its natural resources (which are extracted and shipped back to the metropole for use in the production of goods, as luxuries, etc.) and its people (who are oppressed and forced to labor in extractive industries for the benefit of the metropole). and of course as is usual in colonial relations you expect the metropole to impose itself culturally on the territories it controls. that kind of exploitative relationship between foreign powers and indigenous labor & resources is exactly what some people feared in the run-up to dawntrail (if you weren't paying attention at the time, some of the initial imagery out of shaaloani made some fans leery at the possibility that FFXIV was about to do an "old west" plotline about ceruleum extraction by eorzean powers in turali lands).

by contrast, the moblins of earthenshire control their own natural resources, and the relationship is that they take skilled labor from the metropole (tuliyollal), assimilate those artisans culturally and economically into their society, mediate their access to the natural bounty of kozama'uka, and sell their wares back to the metropole as products of earthenshire. it's all a bit hand-waved in the classic fashion of ffxiv (where are all the moblin miners?), but it's clear enough what's intended. even with the yok huy gone, the moblins have largely maintained their previous way of life, but in a way that centers and celebrates their culture and allows them both civic control and a sort of intellectual property control over the products that result ultimately from their extractive labor. it inverts the traditional "resource curse" narrative in which small, resource-rich countries are "naturally" inclined to be colonized and exploited.

it also pushes back a bit on ffxiv's usual paradigm around resource extraction and arts production. disciple of the hand quests, outside of their specific storylines, often broadly celebrate the ingenuity and labor of the individual artisan. disciple of the land quests, on the other hand, are often about the relationships between labor and the land (with an emphasis on natural stewardship and learning respectfully from local cultures about their local lands) or the importance of extractive labor to broader society.

on the subject of art, what earthenshire does is uniquely honor the role that extractive and reproductive labor play in the creative and artistic process. though the craftsmanship is certainly exceedingly fine, that's not what is truly unique about moblin society or earthenshire's wares. ffxiv is well aware that art cannot exist unless we compensate artists properly (and the existence of the cracked cistern works to complicate our picture of earthenshire along these lines). but what earthenshire truly celebrates is all the labor that goes into the creation of the art that often goes unremarked: the labor of the miner and the porter, of the cook and the launderer. that is the labor which makes each and every good made there not just a product of the individual artisan, but a product of earthenshire.

[hamyheikki]

Links between Finnish/Proto-Uralic folklore consepts and Remedyverse

Disclaimer: this is not an all-compassing information piece about Uralic/Finnish/Nordic beliefs, religions and folklore. This is purely a look into the general aspects of these beliefs and how they might relate to Remedyverse, since we know that Mister Järvi has taken some inspiration from these sources. The foreing terms used here are in Finnish, though the concepts themselves are Proto-Uralic in nature, since that's the group Finnish old belief system lands in.

THE NAIL

In Control's first DLC, "Foundation", you can find a structure referred to as "The Nail", a tall pillar-y object made of dark rocky material. During the campaing, by completing tasks as Jesse, you are able to build it back to it's former glory.

Finnish/Proto-Uralic belief has a concept known as "Taivaannaula", which roughly translates to "Sky's Nail". Taivaannaula is a star on top of a structure called "Maailmanpylväs", as in "World's Pillar" (can also be depicted as a tree or a mountain), and it has said to be the point around which the whole dome of sky turns.

The actual real life star referred here is the North Star, Polaris.

So it would stand to reason that in Remedyverse, the Nail is a link between the Foundation, our world, and the Astral Plane.

THE WORLDVIEW OF THREE REALMS

The World's Pillar runs through all 3 realms of Proto-Uralic worldview; Ylinen, Keskinen and Alinen.

Ylinen is a place above the human realm and sky where the "creator god", a deus otiosus, supposedly resides.

(Wiki: "In the history of religion and philosophy, deus otiosus is the belief in a creator God who has entirely withdrawn from governing the universe after creating it or is no longer involved in its daily operation.")

Keskinen is the realm of mortals and gods/spirits who are responsible for running the daily matters of the world, usually linked to nature or people. For example Tapio - god of forest, Ahti - god of lakes and seas, and tonttu - the guardian of the house.

Alinen is the realm of the dead, also known as "Manala/Tuonela" in Finnish. The land of the dead is said to be an island in an icy sea situated below the ground and governed by an old woman.

In Remedyverse, a neat theory would be that the Astral Plane could be seen as the game's version of Ylinen. A realm where the Former and The Board seem to reside, and a plane which has little to do with the everyday life of natural world and humans. It would also tie neatly into the fact that it seems like the Board's Pyramid fits perfectly into the empty slot on top of the Nail.

The middle realm, where the mortals live, I would say is rather self-explanatory. We already have the god of water Ahti mopping about the place (and you know, Tapio, but that one is much more muddy since we know next to nothing of the guy, and Tapio is a perfectly legitimate Finnish name regardless of one's godly status), and I feel many of the superatural elements of both Oldest House and Bright Falls could be linked to these forces and gods operating in the realm.

And lastly, I think it's pretty safe to assume that The Dark Place is at least somewhat inspired by Alinen. The Diver's Isle in the middle of a lake that's actually an ocean, an old hag lurking about and the concept of a soul becoming trapped under the Cauldron Lake.

And in addition to all of this, these is a river called "Maailmanjoki" which also flows through all these layers. It waters the roots of the Tree in Ylinen, gathers into a pond at the base of it, flows through the realm of humans as a river, travels into the world of the dead Alinen, and because everything is inversed in the Alinen (inversion, another concept Remedy seemingly likes to include in their lore), the river flows into the opposite direction, and ends up going back around to water the Tree once more.

The eternal cycle of the world.

[askoverkill]

OOC: I would like to call out the prediction that volunteering Isabeau for checkers is gonna wildly change the trajectory of the dinner date, because it puts the Director in the inverse emotional state than playing with Odile did.

Odile tried to draw them out and understand them, making the Director, for once, drop their facade and act more like Siffrin. He doesn't know how to respond to her trying to reach out.

Whereas we see with Isabeau that he is just completely shutting the Director down. The bleeding, mimicking the Blood Curse, is i think an emotional response to how probably agonizing it is to be hated by the party, even when the Director states that this is what xe wants, and has been playing up herself as the villain. Even though it wants the party to justify its self hatred, actually getting that clear cut confirmation Hurts.

Also something something "They looked at me and saw a stranger." The Director still loves the party a crazy amount and would never seriously hurt any of them (i.e. just giving Odile a scare instead of killing her) whereas the hatred for Siffrin / Dawn i see as externalized self-hatred.

TLDR: The dinner date is gonna be Fucked if playing checkers with Isa sends the Director down an even worse mental health spiral than their usual state of being.

//

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

“Orlok is an abuser! And vampires have always been representations and metaphors for sexual predators!”

No, you dumb, ignorant fucks. Robert Eggers’ Orlok occult and metaphysical role is a combination of the original 1922 Nosferatu as created by Albin Grau (member of the magical order Fraternitas Saturni) and the philosophy of Thelemite occultist Kenneth Grant, disciple of Aleister Crowley.

Where Bram Stoker saw the vampire as a symbol for Victorian moral panic and of absolute evil; Albin Grau reinterpreted it as a figure of Saturnian initiation; where the predatory nature serves the higher symbolic purpose of forcing those who encounter it to confront their own limitations and mortality, and initiate profound spiritual transformation through the engagement with the shadow side of life. In esoteric tradition, Saturn represents restriction, death and rebirth, and Grau’s Nosferatu is a shadowy force that compels the initiate to face mortality, fear and their own inner darkness.

The vampire, then becomes, a metaphysical figure, whose appearance and bloodthirst evoke existencial reflection, and its behavior embodies Saturnian ideals of disruption and challenge, serving both as a destroyer and a guide for spiritual growth. Saturn has strict, disciplinary and uncompromising energy which purpose is to test the initiate. It’s usually seen as a Karmic planet (“you reap what you sow”), whose energy either punishes or rewards. Those who master themselves and are aligned with collective consciousness and physic energy reach a higher spiritual development (reward). At the end, the Saturnian figure of Nosferatu is destroyed by the Sun (the opposite planet to Saturn) and the New Age of Aquarius is born.

To Thelemite occultist Kenneth Grant, the vampire is a symbol for humanity engagement with primordial, elemental and extraterrestrial female energies. The vampire, then, embodies forbidden knowledge, liminal spaces of existence and extraterrestrial intelligence; and is a emissary of the “Nightside”, the subconscious realms of existence and magical practice. To Grant, the source of vampiric force is the Qliphoth (The Tree of Night) the dark, chaotic inverse of the Tree of Life. These spheres represent the realms of shadow and dissolution, holding potential for profound spiritual transformation. The vampire then becomes a liminal figure, a intermediary between conscious and unconscious realms, human and alien, terrestrial and cosmic.

Grant saw the vampire as a figure of Divine feminine initiation, as an avatar of repressed feminine energy, tied to lunar and stellar mysteries, the Dark Side of the Moon, both empowering and annihilating. The consuming and bloodthirsty nature of the vampire mirrors the psychic demands of the Nightside path; destructive and transformative, and compels those who encounter it to confront their own female shadow self. It represents the yearning for higher and darker female forces, the aspiration to transcend human limitations and descent into a vortex of madness, hallucinations and cosmic insight. As the vampire feeds, it eats away sanity and vitality, and lures its victims deeper into the mysteries of the Qliphoth.

The goal is to balance the allure of dark female cosmic forces and the dissolution into madness, mastering oneself and reaching spiritual transformation, after confronting the unknown (fear and desire) within and beyond. Those who do not master it, lose their individuality, and risk psychic dissolution, becoming trapped in destructive cycles of desire and fear.

Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu is both a initiator and a destroyer, who forces those who encounter him to face their own inner darkness, mortality, repressed female energy, fears and desires. As a Saturnian figure, he destroys and creates severe obstacles, to test others and impulse their spiritual transformation. He’s not here to compromise; he punishes those in the wrong, and rewards those in right, because he’s a karmic catalyst force. Orlok was cursed by Ellen herself, symbolizing her vengeance and punishment upon Victorian society. Because she’s the manifestation of another figure of Thelema occult tradition; Babalon, and Orlok is her Beast, her sacred consort, fully embodying her role as “mother of abominations” and Goddess of vengeance who punishes when life is out of order.

But Ellen is out of touch with her own female energy and spiritual path, and so, she fears and considers herself a victim to the monster of her own creation; she’s trapped in the destructive cycles of fear and desire. As karmic catalyst force, Nosferatu will create obstacles connected to what prevents her from reaching higher spiritual development (Victorian society), forcing her to confront her inner darkness (Nosferatu), to master herself, and when she does, at end, she’s rewarded with hidden knowledge, and the secrets of life and death, and immortality.

Orlok himself is being tested by the Saturnian figure of Nosferatu, because he didn’t chose this. Ellen cursed him. He’s also reaping what he sow, and getting punished by this karmic force; as he seeks to free himself from this curse, and reach higher spiritual development because his soul did not ascend, it was trapped in the “darkest pit”. To him, Ellen is Divine feminine initiation figure, and only through her, can he reach spiritual evolution, and the dissolution of his own shadow (Nosferatu). When Ellen accepts him, he’s rewarded with spiritual ascend.

Both Ellen and Orlok are each others’ pathway to spiritual enlightenment. And, at the end, to break the curse of Nosferatu, they both accept their sacred roles of Babalon and the Beast, as the figures of the priestess and the hierophant, the enchantress and the enchanter, as their Sex Magick ritual gives birth to the New Age of Aquarius. In the original “Nosferatu” (1922), Grau focused in Orlok in specific (due to his own occult beliefs), Robert Eggers included the Divine feminine.

The non-initiates (like Thomas Hutter and Anna Harding) collapse before Orlok’s presence because they do not possess the spiritual preparation to confront their own inner darkness nor master their own fears and desires, and instead of achieving spiritual enlightenment, their path is that of insanity, psychic dissolution and being devoured by their own shadow, trapped in the destructive circles of fear and desire. Thomas has to be exorcised because he can’t cope, at all. They are in the darkness of ignorance and lower spiritual development stages, and perfectly content to be there, and, as such, are punished by this karmic catalyst force.

[mintmatcha]

cw: exes

"So, who is it?"

The train car is empty besides you and Bakugo, but he keeps his voice down anyway. His knees are spread so far that they are right up against yours, claiming more space than he is owed.

"Who's who?" you reply.

"The one that you're interested in." He gestures to your outfit with a scoff, "Come on, we were married- I know your tricks."

Ex husband: it's still weird to think about. For five years, you took this train home together. Now, Bakugo gets off at the third stop and you get off on the fifth. You know his mother, you were there for his father's funeral, and now you don't know what the inside of his apartment looks like. Your intersecting lives are starting to drift, despite the way you both try to stay close.

"I bet you put perfume on your ankles, whore." That shocks you a bit out of your maudlin thoughts. You smack him with the back of your hand and he chuckles as he pushes you away.

"Are you sure you want to hear about this?" His finger still has a tan line from his wedding ring.

"I dunno," he sniffs, "Gotta talk about it at some point though."

The train inches to a stop. No one gets on, no one gets off.

"I think Sero is cute."

Bakugo snorts and scoffs, rolling his eyes with a flourish only reserved for you.

"What?" you laugh.

"Sero? Really?" He's gruff as usual, trying to be unaffected and succeeding, "I dunno, I just thought you liked..."

"Meatheads?" you tease.

"People who act like me."

The train takes off, smears of neon light flickering as you pass through the city. It's the same as it ever was, yet always different, always changing. "I need something different."

Bakugo breathes in through his nose, an inverse sigh. His jaw is set hard, eyes loyal to the facade. You almost believe he's unaffected until he reaches over and pats your thigh, the touch lingering just a moment too long.

"We were good, though. When it lasted," he says.

"We were," you agree, placing your hand over his. "I think we're good now too."

He nods. The divorce was mutual, the final straw after months of screaming matches and broken hearts. When you first took off your ring, you never thought you could bear to look Katsuki in the face again, but today, as friends, you meet his eye.

Bakugo softens for a second, a smile pulling at the corners of his lips, but he returns to his normal self.

"I'll put out feelers for you," he says softly, "To see if Sero's interested."

Your stomach tightens and you're not sure if it's good or bad. "Thanks."

Bakugo hooks an arm over your shoulder and pulls your head into him. He still smells like vanilla and pepper, that stupid cologne you bought him last anniversary. When he presses a kiss into your temple, it almost feels like it did in the beginning, before the fall.

"I just want you to be happy, baby," Katsuki whispers.

The train starts to roll into its third stop of the night.

"Just sucks that we weren't happy together."