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brucewaynehater101 · 4 months

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I'm so glad you like it! Honestly, I'm pretty jealous as well. Though, I don't doubt he has the white noise generator and uses it on more than just those trips. Could you imagine Bruce and the other Bats going to the Supers, Clark, Kon, Kara, and Jon (who if I remember correctly has the best ears out of all of them) and when asked to track him down by sound, all of them are just like, "Red Robin? Oh no we can't do that." and when asked why, Clark gets nervous and says, "well. None of us have ever been able to hear his heart beat. We don't know what tech or magic he uses but *none* of us have ever been able to hear his heart. Not since he was 15. I asked you one time why I couldn't hear him and you just hummed at me!"

Meanwhile panic is rising in not just the hero community, but also the villain one. Red Robin has a *lot* of connections and if someone took or heaven forbid killed him? The Gothem Rouges remember what happened when the second Robin died, they know how bad Batman got. Now the Robin who saved them from him is gone? And now Nightwing and Red Hood and Spoiler and all the rest are on a Hunt, getting more violent like Batman did? Oh no, they are all going into hiding until this blows over.

Then there's also the villains connected to members of Young Justice. The Flash's Rouges Gallery hears that one of the Mini Speedsters is in a grief spiral and could end up seriously hurting them because one of his best friends has gone missing and is presumed dead? Fuck No. They are keeping their noses clean until it's done. So are the people who tend to antagonize Metropolis because Kon is *not* holding back. He grabbed Matallo and used his TTK to make him fall into thousands of pieces and then just stared down at him with a cold look of anger before leaving. Dr Light when to the ER when he tried to mess with the Teen Titans while both Dick and Damian were still on call and Tim was missing.

On day four of Tim being missing, Damian's head suddenly snaps up and he says, "I need to check a tracker." and the rest of the Bats follow him to the bat computer. When asked what he is doing, Damian admits, "a few years ago when I still hated Timothy, I put a tracker inside of his favorite camera, which he just so happened to bring with him on his trip. It may still be there and if he has his camera-" a few moments later, there is a ping on the screen showing the tracker is o the move, currently crossing the boarder from Kentucky into West Virginia. Tim has no idea what hell is coming for him, mostly because he figured that the Bats knew he did this every other month to unwind and relax. Traveling on a train for 4 to 6 days is his version of a vacation.

Glad for the add on. However, I think the angst reason for Tim "not having a heartbeat" would be because Kon died.

After Kon died, Tim created the machine to make sure no one else could hear his heartbeat (especially because Kon wasn't around for that anymore). When Kon came back, it was still a rough time for Tim. He was practically a feral and distrustful raccoon. Since he's still working on trusting people again, his heartbeat is still hidden (plus Kon hasn't brought it up, so Tim kind of forgot).

The stuff about the rogues is so true! That's why a few fanworks call Tim the "heart" of the batfam. I think all members play important roles and will similarly be missed. The heart comment is a cute nod to his role as a bridge and leash (he helped B obtain a larger support group and prevented him from killing people).

I like that this has Damian being the one to find out. Though Tim is grateful there's was a way for his family to find him while they were freaked out (he thought they knew about it), he's also exasperated at the tracker's existence. He probably pulls a prank on Damian for it.

Also, Tim 100% brings this incident back up with Bruce whenever the man complains about Tim's habit of overworking. He looks his father in the eyes and says, "The last time I took a vacation, you freaked out and mobilized the entire hero community to find me." They both know that's not what happened, but Tim is also not wrong.

#dc comics #tim drake #dc universe #thank you for the ask!!!!#dc au #damian wayne #bruce wayne #kon el superboy

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whenmemorydies · 2 months

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The Claw, The Scrunchie and The Prayer Card

What - or who - do the hair claw, the scrunchie and the prayer card that appear in season 3 represent? I think I know, and no its not Claire or Mikey. Join me for an unhinged trawl through all 3 seasons of The Bear (with screenshots cos you know I love me some evidence).

A few weeks ago, @vacationship posed a fascinating question about the hair claw seen in Carmy's apartment in 3x01 Tomorrow:

This question branched off into many lovely and thought-provoking discussions including this post from @thoughtfulchaos773 about the significance of hair accessories and this post from @moodyeucalyptus on Catholicism and miracles. Both posts refer to another memento that we are shown in Carmy's apartment, a scrunchie, which we see at the end of 3x09 Apologies:

A particular theory that intrigued me was that the hair claw from 3x01 morphed into the scrunchie we see at the end of 3x09, as one of the many sleights of hand/instances of legerdemain in season 3, potentially indicative of a softening of Carmy's self-loathing and/or guilt (contrasting the hardness and teeth of the hair claw with the gentle grip of the scrunchie). I think the assumption behind this theory was that the hair claw was associated with Claire (in fact we see the hair claw in 3x01 sandwiched between scenes of Claire at home looking forlorn in bed and then later at work in the hospital) and the scrunchie being associated with Sydney as she's often seen wearing scrunchies throughout the series.

I was so intrigued by the sleight of hand theory that I went on a very ill-advised search throughout all three seasons to find these hair accessories (ill advised because it took ages and it meant sitting through every Claire scene in this show lol) I did not find either the exact hair claw or scrunchie (womp) but I did find the characters who'd be most likely to wear these items. Notably, Claire never wears a hair claw or a scrunchie throughout the show.

So who does?

Hair claw: Natalie

(Note: Tiffany is seen wearing a hair claw once in 3x09 Apologies but I think this is just a coincidence. There's no reason for Tiffany's hair claw to be in Carmy's apartment so I'm going to disregard this possibility here. If anyone has a reason why I shouldn't though, let me know!)

Scrunchie: Sydney

Now Carmy's personal interior design style is probably best described as...utilitarian? If that? The man has nails in his walls that have nothing hanging on them. He's got storage boxes strewn around his living space. There's the occasional bottle of painkillers and Pepto and a bundle of hanging herbs drying in his kitchen. And of course, his chef's whites and a large pile of culinary texts and cookbooks. Oh yes and denim in his oven. Other than this, we are not shown much of anything in Carmy's apartment that could be said to be overtly personal to him. Which is why the hair claw and scrunchie stand out. We've never seen Carmy wear a hair claw or scrunchie so their presence in his apartment is significant.

Similarly, there's one more memento we are shown in Carmy's apartment that is distinct from the rest of his belongings. This is the prayer card that Carmy pulls out of his suit jacket pocket and places with the scrunchie at the end of 3x09:

In the discourse of the show, this particular prayer card is often associated with Michael, as its presumed that this is the card that was available for mourners to take at his funeral. We also see it during the show edited next to images of Michael or of his last note to Carmy, reinforcing the association.

Note: I've previously misidentified the figure on this prayer card as St John the Apostle (apologies, I saw the lamb and the staff and assumed it was St John! I'm also not a practising Christian - my knowledge of the religion has been obtained entirely passively because...well I live in the West and my history is enmeshed with the history of European Christian colonisation of the majority of the world including the part where my family's historically from. Soz.). The image on this prayer card is actually "Fresco of Jesus as Good Shepherd" by Josef Kastner.

Prayer card: Richie

BUT...after going through the last three seasons again (much easier to do this time around lol), I've come to the conclusion that the prayer card is actually Carmy's memento of Richie, not Michael. This is primarily because prior to 3x09, whenever we are shown this card in the show, it appears either with, near or when someone is talking about Richie. Lets take a look...

So we first see the card in The Beef in 1x01 before shots of Mikey's body in the morgue and of the back of his head as he's cooking: these are memories Carmy is having while Richie is telling a story to The Beef staff and as Carmy finds his prized chef's knife on the floor of the kitchen.

We see the prayer card next in 1x02 Hands during a nightmare that Carmy is having that features a voiceover from Joel McHale's psychotic Chef Fields. Notably, the sequence of images where we see the card is as follows:

The next time we see the prayer card is in 2x01 Beef to the left of Carmy's head on the wall, when Sydney is telling Carmy that Richie does not have an appropriate certification because...he's Richie.

Later in the same episode we see the card again, after Richie tapes up Michael's Fenway poster (that Sydney had previously fallen through):

The prayer card is immediately followed by a shot of Mikey's last note to Carmy:

The next time we see the prayer card is throughout 2x07 Forks, the most Richie-centric episode of the series. This is because we find out that Richie keeps a copy of the card on his bathroom mirror, so he sees it everyday:

Given the above (i.e. the strong physical and visual association between the prayer card and Richie throughout the show), I believe the card represents Richie for Carmy.

So why would Carmy have a prayer card as a memento representing Richie and not an actual personal item of his brother from another mother/"cousin", like it appears he does for Nat and Syd?

I think this is because Carmy’s connection to both Natalie and Sydney is direct. The former is his sister, the latter his soulmate (I'm not arguing re: Sydney, check my metas if you want to fight). It makes sense that the trinkets he has of them would belong directly to them.

But Carmy's connection to Richie is not direct. Richie is cousin to Carmy because he was best friend to Mikey first. Carmy’s relationship to Richie has always been mediated through his relationship with Mikey. In life, Richie would only be in Carmy's orbit because of his proximity to Carmy's brother. In death, Richie and Carmy have been thrown together because of the restaurant that Mikey left to Carmy but where Richie works. As a result of that forced employer/employee relationship, they're also forced to navigate their grief and mourning for Mikey in close proximity. In this context, it makes sense that the memento Carmy has for Richie is emblematic of Mikey, and is also representative of that shared sorrow between the two of them due to Mikey's passing.

So why does Carmy have these mementos in his apartment?

I'm not entirely sure what the answer to this question is, but my hunch is that these mementos represent the three surviving relationships in this show that are the most important to Carmy but that have all been severed to some extent by the end of season 3.

Carmy's nosedive into Michelin Mode, his psychological spiral triggered by grief, his past traumatic work experiences, his family history, his entitlement borne out of his racialisation and socialisation (among other things) all of this has coalesced into Carmy pushing away those closest to him. He's slipping into that pattern of behaviour he described at Al-Anon in 1x08 Braciole where he cut people out of his life. Carmy doesn't recognise this though because physically, these people are around him all the time. He doesn't realise that you can be physically present but emotionally and mentally AWOL. I mean, the man isn't even physically present for his sister after Natalie gives birth to her daughter, Carmy's niece. He has some explaining and making amends to do! And hopefully we see this next season.

Its likely that the framing of the hair claw and the scrunchie on the show (via suggestive editing) has been a sleight of hand/legerdemain: to get us thinking their presence only has to do with Sydcarmy/Claire. And as I've discussed, the prayer card is widely associated with Mikey. I reckon this is also a sleight of hand too, for the reasons I noted above. Storer and co got us focusing on the romance and dead brother tropes while they continue to push the theme of chosen family home. By the end of season 3, the hair claw, scrunchie and prayer card appear as reminders to Carmy (and us) that he needs to fix his relationships with Nat, Syd and Richie, and that the loss of them is haunting him as well.

And so next season, Carmy needs to move through and past this:

And fight like hell for this:

After all, this show is about love in all its forms, but above all, its about the love we fight for, the love we choose.

Alright chef,

Tagging: @vacationship @moodyeucalyptus @currymanganese @thoughtfulchaos773 @brokenwinebox @espumado @tvfantic87 in case you're interested but keen to hear from whomever wants to discuss!

#the bear #the bear fx #the bear hulu #sydcarmy #sydney adamu #carmen berzatto #the bear meta #carmy x sydney #the bear season 3 #richie jerimovich #natalie berzatto #the magic trick #mikey berzatto #michael berzatto

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ausetkmt · 1 year

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Three young Black girls were strangled and left in a pond last summer in east Texas, and no arrests have been made in a case that advocates and experts believe has been severely mishandled by local authorities.

Nine-year old Zi’Ariel Robinson-Oliver, 8-year-old A’Miyah Hughes, and 5-year-old Te’Mari Robinson-Oliver, known as the Oliver 3, were reported missing on July 28, 2022, in Atlanta, Texas. The girls’ cousin, Paris Propps, who was watching the three sisters and their siblings while their mother was at work, reported the girls missing around 9 p.m. Hours later, on July 29, all three bodies were found in a nearby pond.

Initially, authorities said it was a drowning. But in March, nearly eight months after the girls were last seen alive, the Cass County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement that a homicide investigation is underway.

“Autopsy reports concluded the manner of death for all three girls was homicide, indicating evidence of strangulation. The girls also suffered lacerations to their faces,” the press release obtained by Yahoo News from the Cass County District Attorney’s Office said.

Now advocates are stepping in to demand answers. On April 3, Minister Quanell X, the leader of the New Black Panther Nation, traveled four hours from Houston to hold a press conference in Cass County and demanded that the FBI and Department of Justice step in to investigate. The FBI has not responded to a request for comment from Yahoo News.

Quanell X stood beside the mother of the Oliver sisters during the press conference. “She was told that they drowned, but she always had a suspicious feeling that the girls did not drown. Well, her suspicions were confirmed by the autopsies,” Quanell told Yahoo News.

The Cass County District Attorney’s Office is currently working with the Texas Rangers and the sheriff’s office to investigate the murders. “Multiple witness statements have been obtained, DNA testing is ongoing, and the investigation will continue,” according to a statement obtained by Yahoo News from the district attorney’s office. Yahoo News contacted the office for additional information but a spokesperson declined to provide more details.

According to U.S. Census data from 2022, Cass County has a population of 28,539 people, and advocates say the town does not have enough resources to investigate three homicides.

“They were presumed drowned because of a sham investigation, a lazy investigation by investigators who obviously didn't have the resources, the training that was necessary to properly address an investigative crime scene,” Quanell said.

Investigators are still searching for suspects, but experts say the months-long time lapse could have been avoided.

“The usual time frame [for autopsies] depends, I would say within two weeks,” David Thomas, professor of forensic studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, told Yahoo News.

But for small towns, “they send those autopsies off to a whole different county, hours away from that county to do the autopsy,” Quanell said.

However, the autopsy reports are just one piece of the puzzle. Thomas says more could have been done at the time investigators found the girls in the pond.

“They sat and they made an assumption that they had drowned, which would be unusual for three people to drown at the same place, at roughly the same time — [it] doesn’t make any sense,” Thomas told Yahoo News. “If it was Gabby Petito, the world would have come to a stop.”

Revolt Black News weekly recently reported that authorities were aware that a crime had occurred soon after the incident, but just recently released the information to the public last month. “However, they didn’t say why they delayed sharing the info,” the article stated.

“At the end of the day, any seasoned investigators when they retrieved the bodies from the [pond] would have been able to see that this was more than some accidental drowning by the bruising on the faces and the necks of the girls,” Quanell said.

Quanell believes the investigation is not a priority because the young girls are all Black. “I think Cass County is doing what Cass County historically does when it comes to investigating injustice and murder involving Black people as victims. They’re not taking this case seriously in my eyes, because it’s not three young white children,” he said.

“National statistics tell us that over 60,000 Black women are missing, and Black women are twice as likely than they appear to be victims of homicide,” Brittany Lewis, co-founder of Research in Action, told Yahoo News in March.

Now experts say the investigation will be much harder because of the lengthy time lapse. “That eight month time gap is devastating,” David Carter, professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University and a former Kansas City, Mo., police officer, told Yahoo News.

“The longer time between when the bodies are found and the investigation begins, the harder it is. It’s harder to find suspects, certainly harder to find witnesses, and harder to find evidence,” Carter said.

Carter says that as a former member of the law enforcement, there’s no excuse for the delay in the investigation. “I’m really at a loss of why a criminal investigation wasn’t started immediately,” Carter said.

As authorities continue to investigate, advocates emphasize that whoever committed these crimes is still at large.

“They could be anywhere,” Thomas said. “But I would say the likelihood that they knew that pond was there would probably give you an indication that it might be somebody local or somebody that's very familiar with the area.”

“This sounds like a very, very targeted personal crime,” Carter added.

There have been no arrests in the nearly year-old case, but more people are pushing for justice. Recently, civil rights attorney Ben Crump and celebrities like Viola Davis and Niecy Nash shared a montage video on social media of the Oliver 3. The video was created by Black Girl Gone, a true crime podcast that sheds light on Black girls and women who are missing.

“A child killer. A serial killer is on the loose. One who was not afraid to murder three children. And if you kill three you will kill more. Especially when you believe you will get away with it like this perpetrator has,” Quanell said.

On April 26, Quanell and the New Black Panther Nation plan to host a town hall in Cass County, as they continue to seek justice for the Oliver sisters.

#texas #Black LIves Matter #3 Black girls were found dead last year in a Texas pond. Police have made no arrests

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exaltedfuzz · 3 months

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hiii! this is really random but i was looking at your pinned comic again and what do you think gant meant whenever he would talk about swimming? idk if it's because there was so much going on while playing the case, but i could never really figure out if there was more to it and im curious about your interpretation if you dont mind !!

Well, honestly, I think it's threatening enough if it's just swimming. (Speaking as someone who can't swim, haha.)

Seriously though, I think it's a combination "let's be better friends and have fun" with an undercurrent of "you know I could hold your head under water at any time and everyone would think it was a freak accident". Because swimming can be brushed off so easily as simply something fun, there's a sort of gaslighting there too. Like "Now loosen up... why did you think I'd drown you? We're just having a good time, aren't we?" This sense of constant threat in something so supposedly happy. Just like Gant himself.

As for swimming with Lana, although he never proposes this in game, it's what I had in the comic, so I'll put some of the thoughts behind it here.

I'd imagine it as a purposeful disarming tactic again. Lana's design, I feel, is a collection of things to keep her looking strong, and importantly, to cover up her weak points. Her shoulders need squaring up, so she wears military style epaulettes. She's shorter than Gant, so she wears heels. She can't have her throat vulnerable, so she wears a scarf. One that's interesting is the medals. Firstly, her heart is the reason why she was able to be manipulated so entirely, since everything she did was to protect Ema, but the medals are on the wrong side of her chest to keep her heart locked behind her achievements. And Gant knows this, he flat out says it in game - that he "knew Lana" and knew that if Ema was implicated, she'd do "anything and everything he wanted" (don't remember who says this, think it might be Nick), despite being someone who "hated anything corrupt" (Angel). Second, I think this means Lana is a bit insecure. None of the other King of Prosecutors winners that we see (Edgeworth, Manfred) have any desire to show off the medals they presumably have (and though I know this is partly because they didn't exist when they were being designed, I also think it's interesting from an in-universe standpoint) so I think Lana is clutching at the things she can tangibly show off. (Interestingly, this actually makes her slightly like the other Chief Prosecutor we see, [Blaise] Winner. He's covered in the badges... I won't spoil AAI2 for what they are, but... The means by which they each obtained their medals and what they point to about them is, now that I'm thinking about it, a really interesting parallel. But that isn't the point.) She does the same thing with her grades, tells you she was the best in her class. I think that without these accolades she'd feel completely useless, so, this brings me to swimming.

Obviously, swimming, you're half naked. I propose that Lana's insecurities extend to this. Seems the sort to be arms folded in a T-shirt and jeans at a pool party. So, I think an invitation to swim with Gant would be something designed to unsettle her and make her uncomfortable, make her lose all her neatly put together armour. I'm not keen to read potential sexual motives into it, for Lana's sake. That poor woman has really been through enough with what's contained in the canonical text. But certainly, Gant would use it as a means of preying on her insecurities and pushing her buttons re: covering up vulnerabilities. The threat of being scrutinised, without any shields (chipped or not) under Gant's uncomfortably long stare, would be terrifying. I think with Gant, it's always the threat of how entirely unknowable he is. Of course, that unknowable-ness leads to him murdering two people as almost a reflex action, and all he seems to care about is making pawns and raising himself up.

Also, since it's water, it's a sort of washing the blood away style thing. Actually, now that I write that, when you look at Gant's design, he's got a huge cross on him. (And parts of his design went into Strongheart, who has a sort of clergyman-style coat) Maybe there's a bit of a baptism/washing away sins Christian style thing going on there. Not to mention the massive church organ in his office. (On Gant's cross tie, actually, something I noticed and found really interesting was that there's so much "red around neck" in RFTA. Gant's tie, Lana's scarf, Ema's bow, Jake's neckerchief, Angel's little octopus hotdog thing, the suit of armour in Gant's office even has a red scarf style thing. Something about the chains heavy around all of their necks. Naturally the most assertive red is Gant's, since not only does it branch out like a marionette controller, but at the center of it is his big badge. So having the chief position has given him control over all these other "red around neck" people, ready to tighten up the noose at any time. I'd say Angel gives credence to this too. She has the least red going on, and she's the only one who doesn't work there anymore. It's also not actually the thing around her neck, which is a black choker, but an accessory that she's attached to it. Emblematic of her really choosing to go back into this world however she can, and that includes emulating the "red string of fate", as it were. Neil's tie is pink (which is light red) so it's faded into memory, and Bruce's is blue with white spots. Now, this doesn't seem like red, but blood is red too, and the luminol reaction is blue. So this is the discovery point, if that makes sense. Where the red has been revealed to be blood under the blacklight, and things start to become undone. Ultimately, as well, the "white spots" become the holes in Gant and Lana's plan, so I think there's something there! But that isn't the point of the post.)

One thing I find interesting about "swimming" in particular is Gant's theming. His damage sprite is him going completely nuts electrical style. So maybe...

youtube

Thanks for your ask, sorry for going off on one. Hope I answered your question, haha!

#ace attorney #exaltedfuzz #thoughts #damon gant #lana skye #rise from the ashes #rfta #pwaa #ema skye #angel starr #jake marshall #neil marshall #bruce goodman #sl9 crew #sl9

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txttletale · 9 months

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https://twitter.com/ZakugaMignon/status/1739703106466627976?t=6BRheBvMK4MlCt5gXaj4ig&s=19

this is a comically misleading graph lol (copy-pasted it below)

like you look at this and obviously think 'wow training an AI model is so much more carbon-intensive than planes or cars' -- but if you look at the actual units being chosen, they're fucking stupid. like, why is the air travel one the only one measured per passenger? the AI model will presumably be used by more than one person. fuck, even the average car will often be transporting more than one person! why is the car the only one that has its lifetime use and manufacturing cost combined when the AI model only has its manufacturing cost and the plane only has the cost of a single flight divided per passenger?

these are absolutely fucking nonsensical things to compare, and obviously chosen in ways that make AI look disproportionately bad (and air travel look disproportionately good, for some reason?). i'm not even touching the profoundly Fucked political implications of measuring the CEO emissions of 'a human life'

but let's, just for funsies, assume that these are reasonable points of comparison -- in 2021, 9 million cars were made in the USA. for the environmental impact of training AI to be even equal to the effects that those cars will have over their lifetimes (which this graph obviously seeks to imply), there would have to be over a million AI models trained in that time. which--hey, hang on a minute, that reminds me, what the fuck is 'training an AI model'! AI models come in all kinds of sizes -- i don't think the machine learning model that the spiderverse animators used to put the outlines on miles' face cost as much to train as, say, DALL-E 3! there is no indicator that this is an 'average' AI model, or whether this is on the low or high end of the scale.

so having just had that above question, i went to look at the original study and lol, lmao even:

the 626,000 lbs figure is actually just the cost of that one specific model, and of course the most expensive in the study. there's no convincing evidence that this is a reasonable benchmark for most AI training -- for all this study's extremely limited set of examples tells us, this could be an enormous outlier in either direction!

so yeah, this is officially Bad Data Visualization, & if you originally saw this and thought "oh, it looks like AI art really has a huge environmental impact!" then, like, you're not stupid -- the person making this chart obviously wanted you to think that -- but i recommend taking some time when you look at a chart like this to ask questions like 'how was this data obtained?' and 'are these things it makes sense to compare on the same scale?', because there's a lot of misleading charts out there, both purposefully and through sheer incompetence.

#ask #ai art

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burningvelvet · 10 months

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Why Mr. Rochester and Bertha Mason Couldn't Get a Legal Separation; or, the Utter Madness of Marital Laws

So I saw a Jane Eyre post discussing why Mr. Rochester and Bertha Mason couldn't get a legal marital separation. I've thought a lot about this topic, and in order to procrastinate writing the final for my upper-level Brontë class, I've decided to write this sort of convoluted analysis instead. I know many others have written about this subject, but I wanted to explore a bit further on my own.

Preliminary context about me, the Brontës, their Byronic inspiration, etc.: I've learned a lot about 19th century British marriage laws recently in my classes on old British literature, as well as by having studied Byron, whose marital separation in 1816 was a notorious part of his history & also reverberated through 19c literature. He refers to this separation in many of his works, most famously in his notorious poem "Fare Thee Well." Harriet Beecher Stowe, the most famous American female writer at the time, was friends with Lady Byron and wrote a book defending her called "Lady Byron Vindicated: A history of the Byron controversy from its beginning in 1816 to the present time" (the original callout post).

Insanity accusations did factor in to Byron's separation. Many scholars have remarked how the Queens of Byronic Criticism, the Brontë sisters, took significant inspiration from their well-worn copy of Moore's biography Life of Byron when creating their works. The Brontës would have been very familiar with marriage laws not only due to their knowledge of Byron's trainwreck of a marriage, but also due to being well-educated women at the time who knew that marriage was the most important economic decision of one's life and could very well make or break a person. As a result, marriage plays a significant role in their novels.

More relevant preliminary context about the novel: Jane Eyre actually takes place in the Georgian era, despite most adaptations and anaysis presenting is as a Victorian piece due to the novels publication date (this drives me crazy; same goes for the other Brontë books). Marriage laws did not change drastically from the time the novel is set to the time Brontë was writing the novel, but things were a bit different socially. Rochester was also married 15 years before his attempt to marry Jane. According to this very good analysis, Rochester and Bertha probably married in or around the year 1793: https://jane-eyre.guidesite.co.uk/timeline.

Now, here are the reasons why Rochester couldn't separate from Bertha:

1) Insanity wasn't grounds for divorce/separation in the Regency era.

Rochester himself says that he couldn't legally separate from her because of her insanity, which presumably rendered any of her faults null on the grounds of that marital vow "in sickness and in health." This is possibly one of his biggest reasons:

"I was rich enough now – yet poor to hideous indigence: a nature the most gross, impure, depraved I ever saw, was associated with mine, and called by the law and by society a part of me. And I could not rid myself of it by any legal procedings: for the doctors now discovered that my wife was mad — her excesses had prematurely developed the germs of insanity [..]"

2) Divorce was nearly impossible anyway.

There had only been around 300 divorces in English history at the time. Almost all of them were husbands divorcing their wives for committing adultery. Only a handful of divorces had succesfully been obtained by women, and they were only in cases where the husband had committed incestuous adultery or bigamy, and was extremely physically cruel. So technically after his bigamy attempt, Bertha may have had more grounds to obtain a divorce than Rochester would have, if only she were lucid enough to do so. However, in that scenario infertility would have helped their case, and Adèle's existence would have harmed their case if he attempted to seek a divorce before marrying Jane. Though as the novel explains, Adèle is probably not his, she definitely would have been used against him, as would the fact that he kept Bertha's existence a secret in England. But he wouldn't have tried for divorce that late in the game anyway, considering it was one of the most difficult options.

3) Female adultery was your best bet at divorce or separation, and this probably wasn't applicable to Mr. & Mrs. Rochester.

Although some scholars claim that there is subtext hinting that Bertha was adulterous (which some adaptations, like the 2006, include), you needed substantial proof of the adultery, which Rochester may not have had if it did occur. Being a proud man, he also wouldn't have wanted to be humiliated in that way by letting it be publicly known (as shame is one of his main reasons for hiding their marriage to begin with).

However, I lean toward the idea that Bertha may not have committed adultery. If she definitively did, seeing how affected Rochester was by Céline cheating on him (he shot her lover in revenge and left her with a stipend), if he ever suspected adultery on Bertha's part then I'm sure he would have been at court the very next day. I also think Rochester tries not to be too much of a hypocrite, and he is well aware that he himself is an adulterer, so he probably doesn't want to accuse Bertha of a crime he's committed and which he couldn't definitively prove she did.

Rochester does talk about hating Bertha's "vices" when they lived together, citing drinking, arguing, cruelty to servants, cursing, her being "unchaste," a "harlot," etc. - the last epithets, combined with her supposed lack of morality, and her being described as seductive, heavily imply that adultery could be added to her list of offenses. However, if she did truly cheat on him as well, I don't see why he wouldn't plainly tell this to Jane as well. I would imagine it would be his first complaint, and it would probably be considered his most justifiable reason against her by their cultural standards.

I don't see why he wouldn't jump to take Bertha's infidelity as an opportunity to defend his own actions, considering how open he is with Jane about his own adultery and being cheated on by Cèline Varens. While I can see how some of the textual evidence may strongly suggest Bertha's adultery, we cannot be fully certain, and that may be because Rochester himself is not fully certain. I cannot see why he wouldn't have sought legal advice on that account alone.

In short, if Bertha was an adulterer, there must have been no evidence to convict her.

Also: while the double-standard may seem odd and trivial to us, the reason why female adultery held more weight than male adultery has entirely to due with old patriarchal inheritance laws; i.e the risk of a wife getting extramaritally pregnant and passing the illegitimate child off as her husband's heir was considered too great of an affront. A man could have as many bastards as he wanted because he would know they were bastards and were not at risk of inheriting his stuff. One needed legitimate heirs to justify passing on one's ancestral wealth to. Essentially, marriage was a mere economic tool, and the economy was and is inherently patriarchal. I digress.

4) Rochester's lack of social & economic leverage, and risk of social ruin in general.

Only the wealthiest of the wealthy could obtain divorce or official separation, and it often led to social ruin. Rochester is rich, but he has no title and no great network of supporters due to being a younger son and having been abroad for most of the past 15 years (this was the length of his marriage to Bertha, stated by Mr. Briggs during the bigamous wedding attempt). He doesn't have as much leverage as Lord and Lady Byron had.

To continue on official separation, like Lady and Lord Byron obtained. Just like divorce, this was also a messy and scandalous legal proceeding, and required numerous good reasons to obtain, and being well-connected Lords and Ladies really helped your case. You also needed many witnesses and written statements as evidence. Bertha's family, as we see with Mason, would have been unhelpful to Rochester, and due to his shame and secrecy, no one could really testify on his behalf I'm assuming.

5) Unofficial separation would have been inconvenient, especially in regards to living situations.

Aside from divorce, which was extremely rare, extremely controversial, and only for the wealthiest members of society — there were unofficial and official separations. An unofficial separation was simply living apart from one another. I've often wondered why Rochester didn't simply move Grace Poole and Bertha somewhere else, but my main theory is that it would have been cost ineffective, and due to his family who were implied to be shitty, he probably really didn't want to live at Thornfield anyway so thought it would be convenient to place her there. Rochester says it would be dangerous to place her in his other residence of Ferndean:

"[..] though I possess an old house, Ferndean Manor, even more retired and hidden than this, where I could have lodged her safely enough, had not a scruple about the unhealthiness of the situation, in the heart of a wood, made my conscience recoil from the arrangement. Probably those damp walls would soon have eased me of her charge: but to each villain his own vice; and mine is not a tendency to indirect assassination, even of what I most hate."

6) Annulment was likely impossible given their circumstances.

Annulment means evaporating the marriage, acting as if it never existed, that it was a mistake. This was rare and only granted in unique circumstances, and I believe it was more common with aristocracy and royals. I believe you could possibly get an annulment if you could prove that the spouse was insane at the time of the wedding and you did not know. However, Bertha did not begin to truly deteriorate until after they had been living together for a bit. And while Rochester says that he did not know her mother was in an asylum until after the wedding, having an insane mother doesn't mean that you are insane, which Bertha clearly wasn't at that point, at least not in a way that people would have publicly acknowledged, since Rochester says she attended parties and her hand was highly sought after.

Generally, the longer a marriage had gone on, the harder it was to prove why it could not go on. Rochester says that he and Bertha "lived together" for "four years" in Jamaica while her condition deteriorated and he tried to make things work. And again, after the wedding he found out her mother was "mad, and shut up in a lunatic asylum." So we have more reasons for Rochester's difficulty: the fear of Bertha going to an asylum while she was still mostly lucid in those first four years, combined with the fact that they openly lived together and certainly must have consummated their marriage (things which would further prevent annulment), and were certainly publicly recognized as a couple in Spanish Town society, and her family wanting the marriage to continue so she could have children of "good race" i.e. to produce heirs.

Here's an important passage that to me suggests that Rochester and Bertha not only had an initial flirtation but likely consummated their marriage, likely had a passionate sexual relationship for some time, and likely implies his feelings for her were more complex than we'd initially assume, making annulment not so clear-cut of an option to him at the time:

"My father said nothing about her money; but he told me Miss Mason was the boast of Spanish Town for her beauty: and this was no lie. I found her a fine woman, in the style of Blanche Ingram; tall, dark, and majestic. Her family wished to secure me because I was of a good race; and so did she. They showed her to me in parties, splendidly dressed. I seldom saw her alone, and had very little private conversation with her. She flattered me, and lavishly displayed for my pleasure her charms and accomplishments. All the men in her circle seemed to admire her and envy me. I was dazzled, stimulated: my senses were excited; and being ignorant, raw, and inexperienced, I thought I loved her. There is no folly so besotted that the idiotic rivalries of society, the prurience, the rashness, the blindness of youth, will not hurry a man to its commission. Her relatives encouraged me; competitors piqued me; she allured me: a marriage was achieved almost before I knew where I was. Oh, I have no respect for myself when I think of that act! — an agony of inward contempt masters me. I never loved, I never esteemed, I did not even know her."

7) Spousal abandonment wasn't possible, and on some level he honored his legal and financial obligations to her and the Mason family.

Bertha's family likely refused to house her for legal and personal reasons, and spousal abandonment was forbidden due to the husband's financial responsibility as well as the law of coverture (a wife became her husband's full legal responsibility; some say "property"). Like we see in Anne's Tenant of Wildfell Hall, if a woman ran away from their spouse they would have to live in obscurity and be at risk of being sussed out. You couldn't just abandon your partner. Still, people did, because it was the easiest route to take.

But the more upper-class you were, and the more financial entanglements you had, the more inconvenient this was. We know that Rochester and his family became enmeshed with the Mason family, and he got a lot of money from Bertha, so her father likely would have taken him to court. At any rate, Rochester was legally bound to bring Bertha with him to England when he left Jamaica. If he attempted to abandon her in Jamaica, the backlash it would have brought would have brought him social ruin and foiled his chances at getting away with any bigamy attempts.

All this brings us to a further notice of Bertha's family situation. Based on Charlotte Brontë's positive comments about Rochester's character (https://www.tumblr.com/burningvelvet/731403104856195072/in-a-letter-to-w-s-williams-14-august-1848) I see no reason to suspect him, like many feminist critics do, of being an unreliable narrator or of lying about Bertha Mason's history. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, and in mine, that is simply not the novel Charlotte wrote. By her own admission, she wanted his narrative to be a path to further goodness.

It makes no narrative sense for our explanation of his and Bertha's history to be full of lies when he's trying to make ammends with Jane, who never suspects him of lying during his admission, but who does critique him and figure he'd tire of her like she was one of his many mistresses. Jane wonders if Rochester would lock her in an attic too, which he refutes on the basis that he loves her more than he loved Bertha when she was sane, and so he would care for Jane himself. Jane also tells him that it's not Bertha's fault that she's mad. So in my opinion, if Charlotte wanted us to believe Rochester was lying about his and Bertha's history to make himself look better or Bertha look worse, I don't see why she would have been vague about it, and I don't see why Jane wouldn't have called it out like she does everything else. I don't think Rochester is really a villain who locked his harmless wife in the attic for giggles; I think he weighed most of his options and found, like most people back then and even today, that keeping his problems locked up and ignored was the best solution.

Now, on with the point. I have often wondered why Rochester didn't simply "unofficially separate" from Bertha by leaving her with her family when he left. Why did he take her to England? Why didn't he just run away? It wasn't because he was an evil villain who wanted to keep her as a trophy. It's because 1) I don't think her father would have let him, as he was so quick to marry her off, 2) he felt obligated to her, and 3) it was criminal for men to abandon their wives, and it would have attracted publicity, which is what Rochester was avoiding by taking Bertha to England and sheltering her in secrecy.

Many claim that Rochester's adultery is a betrayal of his wife; and while religiously, narratively, socially, we can accept this statement, it was not legally a crime. While Rochester does honor his financial and legal obligations to his wife and her family, he does not take the religious part of the vows into account, and that's why he's cosmically punished and only rewarded after he repents, as he explains toward the end of the novel.

Another interesting point is that when Rochester recounts his decision to move back to England, he tells us that Bertha had already been declared insane in Jamaica and that she was already confined there (presumably around the 4 year anniversary before they left), meaning her father probably knew about confinement:

"One night I had been awakened by her yells (since the medical men had pronounced her mad, she had of course been shut up) — it was a fiery West Indian night; [..]"

Locking away "insane" people was standard procedure then, and if this was done with Bertha's father's knowledge, considering he locked his own wife away in an asylum, then this further absolves Rochester of a lot of the blame in my opinion. It more than likely wasn't his idea to lock her away, but the advice of "the medical men" and presumably her father's consultation as well.

8) Even if he divorced or separated from her, he couldn't remarry. Attempting these, or getting caught attempting abandonment, would have brought negative publicity that would have likely prevented the success of any future bigamy attempts. To him, secrecy and bigamy seemed better chances at securing happiness than the social ruin and likely failure the other options would have brought him.

Aside from Rochester's own explanation (which I supplied in #2 re: the separation veto inherent to Bertha's insanity), the other biggest reason as to why Rochester wouldn't seek a separation/divorce even if she hadn't been declared insane and even if he were willing to accuse her of adultery truthfully or not, is due to the fact that one could not legally remarry upon separation or divorce (unless you were Henry VIII and got God's permission lol). Rochester's impossible dream is that he wants to be married to someone he really loves, and if secrecy and bigamy are his only options then he is willing to succumb; this is shown in numerous passages:

"[..] I could reform — I have strength yet for that — if— but where is the use of thinking of it, hampered, burdened, cursed as I am? Besides, since happiness is irrevocably denied me, I have a right to get pleasure out of life: and I will get it, cost what it may."

"I will keep my word: I will break obstacles to happiness, to goodness — yes, goodness; I wish to be a better man than I have been; than I am — as Job's leviathan broke the spear, the dart, and the habergeon, hinderances which others count as iron and brass, I will esteem but straw and rotten wood."

"Is there not love in my heart, and constancy in my resolves? It will expiate at God's tribunal. I know my Maker sanctions what I do. For the world's judgment — I wash my hands thereof. For man's opinion — I defy it."

Closing remarks on the above's validity: I can't cite all my sources because a lot of this stuff I learned from lectures via my professor who specializes in 19th century English literature & history. But here's some recently published information from a historian, taken from "Inside the World of Bridgerton: True Stories of Regency High Society" by Catherine Curzon (2023):

"And if you were one of the newly-weds, you really did hope things would work out, because in the Regency till death do us part wasn't just an expression. As the Prince Regent himself had learned when he separated from his wife within eighteen months of their marriage, obtaining a divorce in Regency England was no easy matter. He never achieved it, and for those who did the stakes could be high and the cost ruinous in every sense."

"Until the passing of the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, which legalized divorce in the civil courts, it was governed by the ecclesiastical courts, and the Church didn't end a marriage without very, very good reason. Even these divorces didn't allow a couple to remarry, though, and they were more akin to what we would today call a legal separation, with no shared legal or financial responsibilities going forward. It was freedom, but only to a point."

"The only way to obtain a complete dissolution that allowed for remarriage was to secure a parliamentary divorce, and these were notoriously difficult to obtain. They began with a criminal conversation case, because they relied on adultery by one of the parties to make them even a slight possibility. If a woman committed crim. con., her life in polite society was over."

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felassan · 1 month

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On this Gamestop listing for an Xbox copy of the game, the text contains some more information on the Deluxe edition etc items.

this post became really long so I put it under a cut. :)

Text reads:

"Dragon Age: The Veilguard Rook's Coffer Edition - Xbox Series X Unite the Veilguard and defy the gods in Dragon Age™: The Veilguard, an immersive single player RPG where you become the leader others believe in. Pre-order* to receive the Blood Dragon armor cosmetic for all three classes: Warrior, Mage, and Rogue. A throwback to previous Dragon Age games, the crimson stains on this armor will never fade Obtain a variety of weapons and armor, including curiosities from a forgotten era with the Deluxe Edition. You’ll receive cosmetic weapon and armor sets for the Warrior, Mage, and Rogue classes as well as cosmetic armor sets and weapons for each of your 7 companions. That’s 3 armor sets for Rook, 6 weapons for Rook, 7 companion armor sets, and 7 companion weapons – saving Thedas never looked so good. 6 Weapon Appearances For Rook. Cosmetic Only. - Stave of the Fallen Kingdom - Bow of the Fallen Kingdom - Spellblade of the Fallen Kingdom - Blades of the Fallen Kingdom - Aegis of the Fallen Kingdom & Sword of the Fallen Kingdom - Maul of the Fallen Kingdom 1 Warrior Armor Set Appearance For Rook. Cosmetic Only. - Armor of Bellanaris - Ghellara Helm 1 Mage Armor Set Appearance For Rook. Cosmetic Only. - Revas Robes - Circlet of Awe 1 Rogue Armor Set Appearance For Rook. Cosmetic Only. - Harellan's Bolts - Katriel's False Face 7 Weapon & 7 Armor Set Appearances For Companions. Cosmetic Only. - Bellara's Nerve - Ringlet of Sorrow - Davrin's Resolve - Plate of the High Constable & Beacon Edge - Emmrich's Mystique - Staff of Incessant Gaze - Harding's Focus - Sunderbow - Lucanis's Gall - Heartpiercer - Neve's Fervor - Cat's Eye - Taash's Might - Grief Features Rooks Edition Includes: Light-Up Lyrium Dagger, Rook's Card Deck, Enchanted Die, Glass Potion Flask, Cloth Map and Quiver, Dragon Age™: The Veilguard Companion Litho Print, Thank-You Letter Unite a Battered World - Thedas is home to storied factions like the heroic Grey Wardens and Tevinter's rebellious Shadow Dragons. Rally the Veilguard - Unite a team of seven companions each with rich lives, deep backstories, and their own expertise and unique abilities. Become the Leader Others Believe in - Select from different races and combat classes, customize your appearance, and choose your character's backstory"

[source]

first, I like the Fade pun in "the crimson stains will never fade" hh. :>

second, we talked [here] about how the deluxe armors look ancient elfy, and the description here calls them "curiosities from a forgotten era". the weapons blurb tells us that the weapons are "of the Fallen Kingdom" - given the appearance of the items, presumably this Kingdom and the era is Elvhenan, before it fell. this is confirmed in the names of the armors for Rook - Bellanaris, Revas and Harellan are of course elven words.

from this info, we can see that the bottom right weapon is a staff. the top left is a shield (here's another shield from DA:I with "Aegis" in the name for reference. the word means protection or backing, and also a shield or breastplate type thing associated with mythological features like Athena), and in sword-and-board style it comes with a sword. we know that each of the 3 classes in the game will have "two distinct weapon types". it seems like the names of these 6 weapons might note what these are: [dual] blades and bow for rogue, sword&shield and 2-handed (e.g. a maul) for warrior, and staff and "spellblade" for mages. the latter is 👁️ for me as I've been wondering what the second weapon for mages is for ages now. it was like "wands? floating spellbooks like some mage NPC enemies in DA:I?" but maybe it's these "spellblades"? ^^ which is also the name of one of the 3 mage specs. :D

Bellanaris: 'eternity' (see: Var Bellanaris in DA:I, the elven burial site. Keeper Gisharel: "Var Bellanaris. "Our Eternity."")

Revas: 'freedom' (one place it crops up is the secret greeting to enter Fen'Harel's sanctuary in Trespasser. Ar-melana dirthaveren. Revas vir-anaris.)

Harellan: in Dalish use, 'traitor to one's kin' (see: Codex Entry: The Rebel God). its root-word is related to harillen, 'opposition', and hellathen, 'noble struggle', so the ancient elven use of this word is maybe more along the lines of rebellion than deception.

Armor of Bellanaris and Ghellara Helm? Harellan's Bolts and Katriel's False Face? Revas Robes? for the Circlet of Awe, maybe on qunari Rooks it shows as vitaar as here, or it doesn't show due to their horns.

I wonder if more specific than ancient elven, these 3 bonus armors are related to Fen'Harel and his followers specifically. The Rebel God codex is about Solas ('harel). a heroic rebel against tyranny and slavery is someone associated with freedom. Fen'Harel's friend Mythal in the form of Flemeth is is Asha'bellanar, the woman of many years, and -anaris crops up in his secret greeting. if you wanted to, you can read into the three armor names a Fen'Harel connection. I could see a scenario where you might like, find these armors in the Lighthouse or something. maybe a codex or item description which associates them with followers of Fen'Harel or Mythal. (here I am just speculating for fun ^^)

Ghellara is a new name or word. it could be elven, as we have "Gh" in e.g. "Ghilan'nain" and "ara" as a sound crops up in the language a lot.

Katriel (🥺...) was an Orlesian elven bard and lover of King Maric, from The Stolen Throne. she hid her true identity from him, like a "False Face". her name and lore has cropped up in other item names before, like Katriel's Grasp. ahh, this is making me so excited to find and read all the other item names and descriptions in the game :D these flavor texts are fun and often super interesting 👁️

the 7 weapon and armors for the companions also have interesting names. they have 1 bonus weapon and 1 bonus armor each, and I wonder if the names of these items were chosen as they relate to their personalities, storyarcs, backstories, abilities etc. ((I'm overanalyzing and reading waaay too much into the names of these items just for fun, don't take this post too seriously, wild speculating is just fun to do. ^^))

Davrin: Grey Wardens need to have resolve to do what they do, and for a warrior 'resolve' has tanky connotations. we know Davrin is bold, and you get the impression that Davrin stands firmly and determined from lines such as "Nobody dies on my watch! For the Wardens!". As for High Constable - this is the rank of the Grey Warden who is second-in-command to the First Warden. historically during the time of the griffons, they were also the order's aerial commander. in recent times, they have also become the public face of the Order, acting as the ambassador to the High King and leading local recruitment. Maybe this is Davrin's specific Warden rank? if so, this is our highest-ranking Grey Warden companion yet, and I'm sooo curious to see the relationship and interactions between him and the First Warden. Davrin is also described as charming - perfect to be a public face and ambassador right? :D I also wonder if the historical role of aerial commander for that rank is part of why Davrin is the guardian of Assan. (also, there are some neat thoughts on the design of Davrin’s 'defaut' armor here. that post talks about the in-world griffon rider and irl aerial elements of his outfit design. :>) Or maybe he isn't yet, but can become this rank during the game? as for beacon, it has the connotations of light, hope, and towers and high places. when all seems lost during a Blight, the Grey Wardens come and save Thedas. I guess Beacon Edge is a sword. ^^

Emmrich: we have seen Emmrich holding a staff which does have an incessant gaze. a skull cannot close its eyes, and will 'look' for eternity. Mystique suits a gentleman necromancer who is a member of a mysterious order.

Neve: fervor is intense and passionate feeling, almost like zeal. Jessica alluded to this part of Neve's character during the Companion Q&A panel at SDCC. she described Neve's loyalty, dedication and great love for Docktown and its people. Neve is "really really fighting for those people", and Jessica loves how she has "that kind of a passion" and how she has "dedicated her life" to that and the other vision for Tevinter that she really sees. John mentioned that Neve is pushing back and fighting back against the Tevinter mageocracy and slavery. I guess fervor refers to these traits and beliefs of Neve's. Cat's Eye reminds me of horn-rimmed glasses (tell me that wouldn't be Neve's style in a modern AU hh?) and the imagery of a cat on the streets of Minrathous, ever-watchful from the shadows. it suits a detective from a big city with a dark underbelly. ^^ Feline senses are strong and sensitive - an investigator would never miss a clue at a crime scene or be caught unawares, yknow?

Harding: a Scout needs to be focused so that they do not miss anything when scouting. there is the imagery of a scout focusing on their surrounds, or looking at a far-off horizon. a marksman needs focus for their arrows to hit their targets. Harding has been focused on chasing down Solas for many years at this point in the timeline. focus is also a game mechanic in DA:I. we accumulate focus by killing enemies and when the bar is fully charged, the Inquisitor can use their Focus ability. maybe this refers to Harding's new magical powers? maybe mechanically in gameplay she can use them kind of like how focus in DA:I? as for Sunderbow, of course Harding is an archer. Sundermount is a mountain, and you can talk about "sundering armor". but what "sunder" really makes me think of is 1). the Altar of Sundering that was found in the Deep Roads in Ortan Thaig. it summons a Fade creature and is a source of magical power. why did the dwarves, who don't use magic, of that place have such an altar? 2). Sundering, the sacred mace wielded by Luthias Dwarfson, a famous Ash Warrior.

Legend says the mace was not crafted by hand, but instead hatched from an egg high in the mountains and then carried by birds to Luthias as a wedding gift from the Lady of the Skies. When Luthias dies, dwarves arrived to carry him to Orzammar to be buried as one of their own with the Stone. Sundering was to lie at his side, but the mace could not be found. Stories say the birds reclaimed it and will deliver it to another hero in time.

3.) various dialogue Solas has with Varric in DA:I.

"Dwarves are the severed arm of a once mighty hero, lying in a pool of blood. Undirected. Whatever skill of arms it had, gone forever. Although it might twitch to give the appearance of life, it will never dream." / "You truly are content to sit in the sun, never wondering what you could've been, never fighting back."

Solas: "Do you ever miss life beneath the earth? The call of the Stone?" Varric: "Nah. Whatever the Stone - capital S - is, it was gone by the time my parents had me." Solas: "But... do you miss it?" Varric: "How could I miss what I never had?"

Dwarves as they are in modern Thedas are a sundered arm, unconnected. They are apart from themselves, and from their parents, the Titans. their connection to the Titans broke when the Titans fell; without the Titans, they can't be "taller". if Harding's new magical powers has something to do with the Titans (see: Valta), I wonder if the "sunder" in "Sunderbow" refers to this.

Taash: there isn't much to go on here, but "might" makes sense for a mighty dragon-hunter, and a dual-wielding warrior has more damage-dealing warrior connotations (raw strength) than a more tanky-type, shield-bearing one. "Grief" makes me so worried 🥺 is Taash okay? what is she sad about? is there a bereavement in her backstory? who or what did she lose? what is Taash grieving? please, my heart hurts.

Bellara: you have to have nerve to be a Veil Jumper, a group that only accepts those brave enough to face the dangers in Arlathan Forest including its reality-warping magic. she's brave, optimistic, energetic, an adventurer; daring in her knowledge-seeking quest and desire to find out what's true and what isn't. she just sees a problem and wants to solve it. :) Sorrow.. we already know that Bellara has seen a lot of tragedy in her backstory, and that her optimistic outlook is sometimes a mask to hide the fact that she's hurting and in pain. like with Taash my heart hurts and I wonder what happened in her past 🥺

Lucanis: "heartpiercer" is a great name for the knives of an assassin that always find their mark and kill them. he always gets the contract done, and strikes fatally and with precision. he also pierced all our hearts 💘💘 (heartbreaker.. 🥺?) "Gall" is really interesting.. it has multiple different meanings and connotations. brazenness, temerity, bold behavior, audacity (I'd guess these are the meaning here). bile. great misery, suffering and bitterness. an open wound. to harass or harry.

#dragon age: the veilguard #dragon age the veilguard spoilers #dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #long post #longpost #solas #feels

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f1shart · 1 month

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i am Hearing you Out on Tankbalt. me and bro when we're traumatized teens forced to carry the curse of being too much like our parents and not enough at the same time. please go on

EVERYTHING TANKBALT HAS IN COMMON

rambling under the cut. aha

both the oldest brother with two younger siblings and are the strongest out of them (IGNORING TANK'S 0 BODY POINTS) - you could say they take on the protector role

The Anger

both cover their faces

neurodivergent coded. one camouflages and the other masks come the fuck ON

they have one signature color (which are complementary fyi 💚❤️)

both involved in family feuds though the grunt-smith one is much smaller in scale. also they both have a really gay obsession with a boy from their opposing clan

dead moms that are a key factor in their unbridled Rage

on the topic of family, they both also have a male parental figure that has both a heavy overall influence on them and encourages them to partake in the feud (in consort's case you could argue he doesnt actually encourage tybalt to beat the shit out of the monty brothers every day, but he also doesn't effectively stop him or even make an effort to. i say "effectively" as a reference to the scene in r&j where capulet calls him a saucy boy for wanting to deal with romeoSORRY IM SO OBSESSED WITH THAT)

going back to the color thing can i also say how both their colors relate heavily to their family/expectations... tank's green is obviously representative of how buzz expects him to pursue a career in the military and center his whole life around it; meanwhile tybalt's red, often the "Capulet color" in many r&j adaptations, represents his very strong allegiance to his clan and how he's like. the only teen in that town to actually give a fuck about the feud

both are fanonically associated with an animal aka angry pussy and perrito encerrado <3 not to mention that the kitty x puppy type ship dynamic is very popular

both technically come from wealthy families? i'm just being logical here - i KNOW the grunts dont have a super mega amount of cash in their bank like the capps (and those guys are a whole different breed of rich..) but generals make a fuckton of money irl so just imagine the accumulated wealth of wholeass generations of them!! plus, buzz often gets this one chance card that, if you choose correctly, he brings home §50,000. if u get that one make sure to choose to launch a missile at the thingy (asteroid?) btw

what if we dove into fanon real quick..you could sayyy they both have physical signs of their trauma ^_^ for tybalt, it's his burn scars from escaping the fire that killed his parents when he was young and additionally having to save his even younger sisters. for tankernaut there's a couple of things you could argue: 1. his ptosis. i typically depict it as a congenital thing mysef but perhaps it's stress-induced? from my 5-second google search i've concluded that this isn't possible as a permanent affliction but first of all Fuck Realism, secondly it could be a thing that just appears every once in a while when he's reeeally going through it. and 2. his funny bone injury mentioned in gba/ds, presumably obtained on the battlefield. i've also seen tank depicted with more intense scarring (shoutout to my boy mash) but yap yap NEXT POINT?!??

hmmmmm ah. i think my brain juice's all fixzled oit.... hm. both are whi..te...???

both reeeaalllyy gay like fag asf. quite possibly the gayest boys of the sim franchise

TANKBALT GALLERY

#tankbalt #tank grunt #tybalt capp #asks #so. johnnycutio when

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windvexer · 2 years

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banishing (how to do it)

yeah this is like all UPG but it works good for me, take what you will and leave the rest behind.

if your response to this is "but most people never ever have to deal with unwanted spirit problems so you're probably wrong if you think it's a spirit! do shadow work and touch grass!" please let me invite you to just not interact with this post at all.

Don't cleanse. Like please don't, why do people do this??

"I am confident an unwanted spirit is in my home and I cleansed but nothing happened."

Okay, an unwanted guest is in your home and you did a bit of vacuuming and washing the dishes, so why are they still there??

Why WOULDN'T they be there?! It's nicer now??? It's better for them to stay?!?!?!

"I want to break up with my boyfriend so I did his laundry but he's still texting me :/"

Cleansing =/= banishing and cleansing should be saved for cleaning up after an unwanted spirit after they are banished, which again, is not accomplished by cleansing.

Stop raising wards that trap the spirit inside.

"I cleansed and put up a protection but that only made the problem worse!"

Yes you did a wash up and locked the spirit inside with you, of course it's pissed off. It's trapped.

If you feel the need for immediate protection when dealing with a spirit problem, craft an amulet that serves as a personal protection for you. NOT one that seals off the entrances to your home.

Once the spirit problem is taken care of and you are confident its presence has been removed, feel free to raise up those wards sky high.

Also, if you are heavy-handed with the warding, spirits can sometimes just get trapped inside regardless. Learn how to temporarily "switch off" wards when you need to so things can leave.

Put your fucking foot down and tell the spirit to leave.

This will solve a surprising number of unwanted spirit problems. Not all of them, and come on, please stop telling people they never need to learn actual banishing skills just because telling spirits to leave works most of the time.

But you gotta do it. And I mean you don't have to be an asshole about it. You don't have to jump right into screaming in the spirit's general direction and threatening all such harm on it.

And there's plenty of good reasons to start with this step, especially if you want to be a spirit worker, but that's neither here nor there. Just tell them to leave.

Go to an area where you think the spirit is, or go where its private and speak with the intent that the spirit will hear you.

(You may also sign or write; would generally not recommend doing this operation entirely mentally)

"Hey, Dude. I know you're here, and I want you to know that you must leave. It is no longer an option for you to stay. I request that you leave immediately, and I request that you do not come back to this place. Leave now and we part ways in peace."

Do not go belly up and beg the spirit. It benefits you to behave with authority and dignity.

DO NOT try to "soften the blow" by twisting your words into something that is no longer a demand that the spirit depart. "Hey, if it's okay with you, I'm hoping you'll leave soon, or as soon as you're able... I don't feel comfortable with you here, and I'd prefer if you went." Great, now the spirit knows how you feel. So what?

Banish the spirit (or human, or whatever).

Presumably we're at this step because the prior step ("bro, seriously just leave and never come back") did not work.

Obtain correspondences heavily associated with banishing, use them to enchant a candle, burn the candle.

Can't use a candle? Try a simmer pot.

No fire at all, including incense? Try a floor wash (test carpets to ensure there will not be staining).

Can't burn things or clean the house? Try a sigil you visualize being imprinted on all the walls of your home.

Can't visualize? Consecrate something to represent the spirit, drop it in a jar of water along with banishing correspondences, swirl it around like a whirlpool, chant about the spirit being washed away.

No waterproof containers? Consecrate something to represent the spirit, stand on the edge of your property, throw it off the edge of the property.

You get my drift -- do magic. Do magic. Do magic that banishes. Use magic specifically to banish. Not to cleanse the vibrations or whatever. Specifically magic intended to yeet a spirit.

At this point, do not try to ignore the problem or keep talking it out. Do not just try to meditate or whatever. Do magic. Do magic that banishes.

Here's a banishing spell if you need it:

Basil, cloves, red pepper

Candle (ideally, red)

Paper and ink

Small offering

Draw the planetary seal of mars and the planetary square on a piece of paper, ideally in red. Dress a candle in oil (*burning your house down is an effective way to banish a spirit but perhaps too heavy-handed; dress with care) and include either one or three dried, powdered herbal correspondences to it.

Dedicate the candle to Mars. ("Planet Mars, someone on the internet told me you'd help me if I asked - I'm asking now. I give this candle to you. It belongs to you now.")

Put the candle near the paper.

Evoke Mars. ("Planet Mars, where your symbol exists so you exist. Where your planetary square exists, so do you exist. The space has been made welcoming to you through the presence of these Martian correspondences.") The martian correspondences are the basil/cloves/peppers, btw ("I ask you to bring your attention now to me. I ask you to dwell fully in this space.")

Read the Orphic hymn to Ares if you'd like a little extra elbow grease behind your evocation.

Petition Mars. ("So please get rid of this spirit, it seriously sucks so bad.")

Offer payment. ("In exchange for this help I know you will provide, I give you this candle and also this [small offering].")

Seal the deal. No, you do not need to be able to receive psychic confirmation from a planet or whatever, but do not proceed if you feel any gut-level bad feelings or suddenly get a ton of anxiety. If that happens, be like, "Mars, buddy, never mind - I get a bad feeling about this, so I'm noping out. Thanks for listening while you did. Leave in peace."

But if you feel fine about moving ahead, just be like, "now I give you Mars this offering, and I light your candle, with full and total assuredness that this spirit will be permanently banished from my space, my life, and my home."

[Light the candle, give the offering]

Cleanse

The spirit should be gone before you put up wards

Residual ickyness can make you feel the spirit is still nearby even if its been banished

Cleanse your space and see if the symptoms of the spirit return.

If symptoms return, the spirit has not been banished.

If they don't return,

Put up wards.

Ya got haunted because ya didn't have a fence up to stop random cows from wandering into the garden of your life and trampling all your hard work. Put up the wards.

Oh, but maybe the banishment didn't work, in which case:

Mitigate symptoms.

I mean yeah, maybe try at least a few more types of magical banishing, call in a priest even. But!

Not every spirit can be banished. That's just the long and short of it.

As humans we have the capacity to intertwine our lives, intentionally or otherwise, with forces that cannot be immediately removed from our presence.

Like if the grand spirit of a forest hates all humans and you build a house in the forest, you're not going to be able to banish the forest from the forest, you feel me?

Sometimes, banishing isn't the solution.

As rare as it is, it happens. Make personal protections, use mirror or other illusory wards to hide from its attention, make reparations if possible, avoid attracting attention, and get on with your life.

#banishing #spirits

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wing-ed-thing · 3 months

Text

Of Frogs and Crowns (Ichiji Vinsmoke x Reader) Part I

Synopsis: You couldn't say that being engaged to a man as emotionless and serious as Ichiji didn't bother you. But after a night of sneaking out, you think you've found a quirk to humanize him a bit, and Ichiji finds that he might be in over his head. Two-Shot.

Word Count: 3.2k

Tags/Warnings: No Reader Pronouns, Language, Arranged Marriage, Royal!Reader

Notes: We've been forced into a "write what your heart desires and nothing else" era

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Ichiji was Judge Vinsmoke's eldest and most beloved son. Heir to the infamous Vinsmoke legacy, no one ever thought that Judge would deem any family worthy enough to marry off even one of his dear children, let alone Ichiji.

And yet, the news of your union reached you even before you laid eyes on him. Your family had made it abundantly clear how significant the deal they struck with the Vinsmoke family was, but in the face of your imminent marriage, the importance of the arrangement was the last thing on your mind.

You were provided one lackluster photograph just a week before the Vinsmokes arrived at your kingdom for negotiations, and the most you could say about Ichiji was that he had a firm, sharp jaw. With his eyes covered by combat goggles, hair covering at least half his face, and his cape obscuring most of his body, the picture you were certain was meant to impress you with his military stature left much to be desired.

Ichiji did not appear too dissimilar to his photo. Although, you considered that he looked far more handsome when you first saw him in person. Instead of the raid suit he donned in his picture, Ichiji wore a long-sleeved, white button-down with a frilled collar and an off-the-shoulder cape. His slacks were simple, and footwear nothing to note. The simple change had been for the better, you decided as you stood before him. At least now, you could actually see him. You probably could have done without the opaque glasses.

Your father presented you as you made a traditional gesture of politeness.

“How do you do, Prince Ichiji?” you hummed, beginning to feel the stuffiness of your clothes with your movements. Under the direction of your parents, the servants paid special mind to your appearance. Even compared to your usual wear as a member of a royal family as prestigious as yours, you were made up using only the best of the best. It was a familiar ache; while unpleasant, it was not something you weren’t used to.

Ichiji regarded you silently and stoically. He didn’t offer a gesture in return, not even a bow, as he stared you down. His lips parted, but no words came out, and perhaps if he were any other man, you wouldn’t have thought anything of it. But the way the blank darkness of his glasses bored into you and the uptight manner in which he stood made you wary.

Judge and your father were already laughing together and making merry conversation like old friends. They already appeared deep in discussion about the union and what your families could do for each other.

You glanced back at Ichiji. He held himself militantly and more like a soldier than any prince you had seen. The thought dawned on you that Ichiji wasn’t an actual prince anymore ever since Germa had been disassociated from the World Government. You considered that was the reason why the Vinsmokes were so eager to marry into a royal family. And with conflict on the horizon for your nation, you presumed that your father was just as keen on obtaining Germa’s firepower.

You heard rumors that Germa had tried to ally with pirates in the past to no avail and wondered how purposeful they had been in choosing your modest kingdom. While your nation was among many invited to the Reverie, it was by far not the most glamorous or wealthy. Your early history was primarily rooted in farming and moderate trade, something you didn’t think Germa would be interested in. Although, your father was on good terms with some officials high amongst the world government and even a Celestial Dragon, so you assumed that in addition to regaining their royal status, Germa was most interested in that.

“It’s a bit boring, isn’t it?” you said, accompanied by a light, nervous laugh. Ichiji barely turned to look at you, but you thought you heard a slight hum in acknowledgment. You glanced back to your fathers, who were already beginning to drift to the patio’s refreshment cart, completely forgetting their children. A few servants fussed around them with parasols, and another prepared their drinks. “All the waiting around while they talk politics.”

Ichiji shifted slightly toward you in your peripheral.

“A member of the royal family should be in the know when it comes to their kingdom.” Ichiji straightened himself out, crossing his arms over his chest. “You should not have to be amused by it.” Your mouth fell open, your lower lip wavering with shock.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean—”

Ichiji heaved out a slight, annoyed huff.

“We can retreat to the gardens if you’re so disinterested.” He turned on his heel, his cape fluttering behind him.

Your eyes darted back to your occupied parents, and your head made a rapid swivel before you hurried after him.

“Prince Ichiji—!” you called tentatively, but Ichiji had already made it a distance ahead of you. You retreated deeper into the estate, crossing a small, aesthetic bridge over a tiny creak and through a maze of exotic and intricately maintained flowers.

Your country boasted a wide variety of plants, and you could find a collection of most native species in the royal garden. Segmented into sections by native region, the garden was the pride of the castle. You even had a separate plot of land that grew vegetables, and both areas would typically have been open to the public more often than not. But during this time of uncertainly, no one attended the gardens anymore, and the vegetable garden was closed off.

Ichiji did not slow down for you. He walked with such quick and long strides you were beginning to think he was purposefully leaving you behind. You didn’t catch up with him until he stopped at the marble gazebo in the center of the gardens, and you weren’t certain if you were simply shocked or just pissed.

Ichiji was sure acting high and mighty for someone who wasn’t actually a prince anymore— at least in the eyes of the World Government— and it occurred to you more than once to give him a piece of your mind. But the nature of your arrangement didn’t escape you. You weren’t ecstatic to tolerate poor treatment, but your people deserved a safe home. If Germa could grant your country protection, you could at least grin and bear it while you sorted out your options.

In the center of the gazebo, there was a marble table and a bench made of the same material arranged in a semicircle. Ichiji sat on the bench on the very outside, leaving no room for you to sit near him even if you wanted to.

Then something hit you.

The small object bounced off your chest before falling into the stone pathway. It startled you, causing you to step back. Your eyes instinctively searched for it, finding the metal ring on top of some ornamental pebbles. Your curiosity and mounting rage seized you as you bent at the knee to pluck it from the ground. You could hardly hide your dismay.

“What is this?”

It was the barest ring you had ever seen. The band was thick, silver, and almost squared. A few metal carveouts wrapped around the ring's circumference, providing a certain geometric element to the otherwise plain appearance. A line of tiny what looked to be rubies was embedded across the middle, but the main feature of the ring was metal.

You hadn’t expected the most ornamental engagement ring or even a grand engagement in general. Being proposed to in the garden would have been more than perfect, but the impersonal element of it all was beginning to melt your polite demeanor.

“My proposal,” Ichiji announced with a sigh. He crossed his arms and leaned back on the bench, jerking his shoulder to adjust how his shirt sat on his neck. “It’s unnecessary. We are getting married either way.”

“You don’t know that.” The words flew from your lips faster than you could think. It was a simple statement of fact laced with more panic than harshness.

Ichiji seemed to perk up, slowly moving from his slouching position to sit up straighter. His left hand rested on the marble table, and his opposite foot swiveled to rest on the ground just outside the pavilion. He tilted his head just slightly to the side.

“Oh?” he questioned. “And why do you say that?”

The dryness of Ichiji’s tone anchored you painfully to the present. You hadn’t meant to say what you did, but you meant it.

“Our fathers they— they haven’t agreed to terms.” You nodded, trying to look more confident as you faltered. You wished your voice hadn’t cracked. Ichiji’s other foot swiveled out from under the marble table to face you directly. He remained expressionless.

“They will,” Ichiji said assuredly and plainly. “I’m surprised you’re under the impression that agreeing on terms even matters here.”

You blinked, pausing as your polite smile morphed into a nervous one.

“Of course, they matter,” you defended, beginning to feel hot under his scrutiny.

Ichiji stared at you incredulously, and it took the better part of you to resist slapping his dark glasses from his face.

“You seem resistant,” he stated, “Why is that?”

”I don’t try to be difficult.”

”You will have a comfortable life in Germa if that’s what you’re worried about.”

A clap of silence flooded the space between the two of you. You blinked in an attempt to gather your bearings, although you couldn’t help the slight recoil of your chin at Ichiji’s words. He stared you down head-on, sitting upright and as expressionless as he’d been since your introduction. You had heard that the royal children of Germa were robots manufactured by Judge, and you were beginning to wonder how much weight those rumors held.

”You’re rather abrasive, aren’t you?” You met his blank stare with one of your own.

“And you seem like the sensitive type.”

”I just didn’t realize that living in Germa was a part of the terms when I am my father’s sole heir.” You frowned, absentmindedly toying around with the ring in your hand. “Did Germa even consider the logistics of things before you came here?”

Ichiji scoffed, the motion barely causing his chest to puff.

“I can’t imagine why you’re so attached to this glorified patch of dirt.” Ichiji gestured shallowly at your surroundings. His hand dropped to his knee with another sigh.

“You wonder why I’m attached to my own kingdom?” You almost laughed.

“Your people are so weak they can’t even defend themselves from a simple raid.” He spoke with a similar nonchalant tone that most typically reserved for talking about the weather. “It’s astonishing how eager your father is to sell you off for the sake of putting out a few fires. That’s practically what this is, isn’t it?”

You weren’t sure if you were more mortified by his words or by the fact that you had let him finish his sentence at all. In all your years in the royal family, you had never met anyone so blunt and terrible with the things that came out of their mouth, especially a prince. No one had ever spoken to you in such a manner, but it wasn’t your pride that drove you to rage.

You dropped his ring straight onto the ground. It hit the large, hexagonal stepping stone you stood on, and the noise rang out with a crisp ping.

“You want to marry into a royal family. I don’t quite understand where your pompousness comes from when you should be begging me to restore you to a prince again.” Your voice shook with disgust.

Ichiji stood. You squared your shoulders slightly, not one to be so easily intimidated. His shell cracked in the form of the smallest wrinkle around his nose. Ichiji took another step forward, and you fought the urge to retreat. Ichiji barely had to make a single broad stride before he stood in front of you.

“I am a prince.” The stresses of his words were hardly detectable.

“Your kingdom was expelled from the World Government—”

—“As if status in the eyes of the World Government have to do with anything—”

“You’re a prince without a crown,” you spat. Ichiji matched your gaze directly from behind his glasses. His mouth remained a neutral frown, although the snarl around his nose didn’t fade. You glanced him up and down. “You’re nothing more than a frog in a pond. You’re helpless without a kiss to save you and turn you back into something you claim you already are.”

The garden was silent for a beat. Your heart pounded in your chest. You were already calculating potential outcomes in your head, wondering if you had permanently condemned your kingdom with just a few sentences. You tried not to let your hesitation show on your face.

There was surely another way.

“Are you done?” Ichiji asked, his tone ever stern. He stepped forward despite the lack of room between you, forcing you to back up. Then, he took another step. “Let me spell it out for you because you clearly don’t understand the gravity of your situation.”

You kept taking steps back as Ichiji forced you across the small courtyard. His stride quickened as did yours until he backed you up against a nearby hawthorn tree. Ichiji’s palm slammed against the area next to your head. You could hear the bark fracture. He leaned in toward your face.

“Your kingdom is on the brink of an invasion that, quite frankly, your puny military couldn’t dream of taking on. Your people's farms have been burned to ash. Your people are the ones surviving off rations from that pathetic patch of land you call a royal farm. So you had better watch your tongue when it is not Germa who needs you. You need our assistance.” Your own eyes were reflected back at you in the mirror of his glasses. Even from behind the opaque lenses, you could see Ichiji’s gaze dip down. “Lucky for you, your portrait does you justice. That is the only thing saving your people right now—”

You shoved him back before slapping him right across the face. It felt as though you were hitting solid stone, but you had little time to feel the pain. You stumbled back, and Ichiji regarded you as stoically as he had before. The wrinkle around his nose had faded, but the sharp scowl on his lips remained.

“I’d rather kiss a hundred frogs from the creek before I marry a would-be prince who possesses less civility than— than an amphibian!” You huffed, quickly whipping around to retreat from the gardens and back to the castle.

***

You told everyone you were feeling unwell, and most were content to accept your excuse. After all, your father was having a grand time talking to Judge, and the Vinsmokes would be in the kingdom for quite some time. Your feigning illness would only buy you so much time, but you thought you could buy enough to think and cool down. But after a few hours of complex thought, you came up with nothing.

Ichiji didn’t appear to have told anyone about your squabble, as evidenced by the fact that no one had barged down your door to force you to apologize. You were ashamed to admit that you had thought about his words until dusk, and you were even more reluctant to admit that he was right.

Your country needed military power, and while you kept trying to convince yourself that you’d find another way, you couldn’t deny that Germa’s offer fell into your lap at a moment when things looked the worst. It was a miracle— and while you wondered what made Germa approach your nation in the first place and offer their eldest son no less— you were taught not to question miracles.

You just never considered miracles to be so absolutely infuriating.

You had just scaled the hardy rose lattice next to your window when you heard him.

“Running away already?” Ichiji’s voice made you jump. Your hand came over your mouth, and your other shot to your chest as the pang of surprise shot through you. You spun around to find him sitting on a bench near a line of flower bushes in the moonlight.

“How long have you been waiting outside my bedroom window?” You closed your eyes as you gathered yourself from your acute heart attack. Your hand instinctively clasped the strap of the large bag on your back, which did not escape Ichiji’s notice.

His eyes were focused solely on the size of it. Your pack nearly dwarfed your figure, although if you were a royal making a break for it, Ichiji wasn’t too surprised at your impractical packing.

“You’re about four floors up. I’d hardly call it waiting outside your window.”

Only when you met his piercing blue irises did you notice that Ichiji wasn’t wearing his glasses. He no longer wore his cape either, and you had since changed into clothing, which you were sure Ichiji judged as less than fitting for someone of your status.

You heaved a deep sigh, not even bothering to hide your less-than-dismayed expression.

“It’s late. I don’t have time to deal with you.”

“It’s late, so why are you leaving with a bag?” Ichiji seemed to have risen in an instant, appearing in front of you and impeding your path. His hands were stuffed into his pockets, and he held his usual neutral, if not dismayed expression.

“None of your business.” You sidestepped him to continue on your way, and to your surprise, Ichiji followed. He did so quietly, trailing somewhat behind you as you headed off castle grounds. You didn’t bother to look at him when you addressed him. “Are you lost?”

“You seem like the type to need to be chaperoned.” His comment made you stop. You heaved a heavy sigh to a nearby statue. And when you finally mustered up the willpower to face him, you immediately regretted doing so. Ichiji met your gaze instantly and coldly. “The agreement between our families is important. I can’t have you ruining well-laid plans by running away.”

“I’m not running away.” You frowned, but Ichiji didn’t retort. You turned on your heel. “Don’t you have something better to do, like kick puppies or maybe go back to your own kingdom? It’s in the harbor—”

Ichiji grabbed you by the bicep, tugging you back harshly to face him. You thought his glasses had been cold, but the grim stare of his vibrantly colored eyes shot through you like an icicle. Any emotion you thought you could have picked up on with his lenses gone was undetectable.

“I come with you, or I throw you over my shoulder and take you back to the castle myself,” he stated sternly. Ichiji’s face held nothing but a neutral frown.

You jerked your arm away, and despite his vice grip, Ichiji let you stumble back. It didn’t even take you a moment of thought. Appearing to be stuck with him, you continued off castle grounds.

Thank you to all who liked, reblogged, followed, and supported. Your support means so much and is greatly appreciated.

Notes: The original title of this fic was "Humanized ("I Can't Dance)" because they were originally going to be dragged to the club by Niji and Yonji to celebrate their engagement, but Reader's character really came out during the garden scene. And honestly, I think it works better!

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

#ichiji x reader #ichiji vinsmoke x reader #op x reader #ichiji vinsmoke #x reader #x you #reader insert #germa 66 #one piece x reader #one piece fanfic #ichiji fanfic #vinsmoke ichiji

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jesawyer · 8 months

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Hello Josh, Pentiment is one of my favorite games of all time. It’s an emotional journey for me. I can relate to Andreas’s melancholy and really like the character arc for him. Thank you for creating this amazing story.

I have a question about Seal of Confession in Pentiment. Sister Amalie disclosed Brother Guy’s confession to Andreas and explained why Guy can’t be protected by Seal of Confession. But as a catholic I was taught that Seal of Confession cannot be violated under any circumstances, and the seal also applies to anyone who overhears a confession. I assumed that the rule was different in Middle Ages. Did canon law back in 16th century mention anything about eavesdropping confessions?

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Certainly under modern canon law, Sister Amalie would be subject to church discipline equal to that of a priest who violated the seal, which could include excommunication.

Re: 16th century canon law on witnesses to confession other than the confessor: the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) did not mention witnesses, only the confessor:

Canon 21: On yearly confession to one’s own priest, yearly communion, the confessional seal All the faithful of either sex, after they have reached the age of discernment, should individually confess all their sins in a faithful manner to their own priest at least once a year, and let them take care to do what they can to perform the penance imposed on them. Let them reverently receive the sacrament of the eucharist at least at Easter unless they think, for a good reason and on the advice of their own priest, that they should abstain from receiving it for a time. Otherwise they shall be barred from entering a church during their lifetime and they shall be denied a Christian burial at death. Let this salutary decree be frequently published in churches, so that nobody may find the pretense of an excuse in the blindness of ignorance. If any persons wish, for good reasons, to confess their sins to another priest let them first ask and obtain the permission of their own priest; for otherwise the other priest will not have the power to absolve or to bind them. The priest shall be discerning and prudent, so that like a skilled doctor he may pour wine and oil over the wounds of the injured one. Let him carefully inquire about the circumstances of both the sinner and the sin, so that he may prudently discern what sort of advice he ought to give and what remedy to apply, using various means to heal the sick person. Let him take the utmost care, however, not to betray the sinner at all by word or sign or in any other way. If the priest needs wise advice, let him seek it cautiously without any mention of the person concerned. For if anyone presumes to reveal a sin disclosed to him in confession, we decree that he is not only to be deposed from his priestly office but also to be confined to a strict monastery to do perpetual penance.

The Corpus Juris Canonici may cover this, but I would make two statements here: 1) detailed canon law was not something most parish priests or certainly anchoresses would be familiar with 2) it's late and I don't want to try to search through the UCLA's digital library copy of the Corpus Juris Canonici.

That said, I do have a copy of Thomas Tentler's Sin and Confession on the Eve of the Reformation which gets into the weeds on what was going down in the Holy Roman Empire in the early 16th century. I used it as the basis for a lot of the specifics in Father Thomas' Saint John's Day confessions. I'll try to look it up this question tomorrow.

#pentiment #canon law

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headspace-hotel · 2 years

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Thinking of your post on the problems of veganism as a movement vs veganism as a lifestyle choice/one technique amongst many, that also applys super well to my issues with degrowth (And anticonsumerism as well) as a movement vs degrowth as one technique amongst many for dealing with the hydra-crisis of overproduction/resource overuse/destroying people and places for resources.

Like, in particular as an autistic person the continual recurring insistence that we need to just "change our desires" creeps me out. As someone who's difficulties were dismissed as just "having a bad attitude" and who's interests were so often dismissed as a waste of time instead of preparing for a job in the "real world" IDK if they truly understand the full horrifying implications of that line of thought.

So here's the thing with the concept of "overconsumption"

I had to do this whole project on overconsumption in my Anthropology class where I compared my consumption habits to those of someone 2 generations older, the prof clearly had in mind that we would discover a particular result that I did not end up finding.

I had to watch this documentary called "Affluenza" which was all about how Americans consume too much and they shop and buy things for fun and it's killing the planet, and it kept making these statements like "The average american does X..." and "X" would be something insane that I've never dreamed of doing.

Now I technically grew up below the poverty line, we were always financially insecure and struggling to pay bills and there was never any extra money lying around.

But my upbringing felt average, even privileged. We had a house instead of a trailer on cinder blocks, we had food and clothes. Compared to the upbringing of my mom and virtually everyone she knew growing up, we lived in fabulous luxury.

And the "overconsumption" lesson was bizarre to me because it brought up things like "going shopping for fun once a week" and "owning 20+ pairs of shoes" as if they were normal. I wear my clothes until they're unwearable and shop for clothes like once a year, and my mom has half as many clothes as I do. She feels guilty buying anything for herself and HATES shopping.

It feels like the dominant resources on living an eco friendly lifestyle presume that we have far more agency in what we buy and use than we actually do, instead of being stuck with the cheapest or closest available thing, and that our lives are full of extraneous, non-essential "consumption."

That class brought up the idea of "conspicuous consumption" a lot, or buying things to obtain social status instead of for their concrete utility. The way "conspicuous consumption" was addressed in the class was not very immediately relatable to me—I never had the option of buying clothes just to appear "with it" socially. My parents couldn't buy an extra car to fit the aesthetic of the American dream—we had enough trouble keeping the one we had running. The "conspicuous consumption" that class addressed was just not available to me.

However, I don't think conspicuous consumption is endemic to stable members of a certain socioeconomic status, because consumption is partially driven by the trauma of poverty. People who grew up poor will buy you more Christmas gifts than you can store or use, because they want to spare you the shame they experienced. Their brains are molded around the trauma of not having enough, and giving you enough is their way of keeping you safe.

Conspicuous consumption as a habit is pushed on you if your ancestors were shaped by this trauma. It is a misrepresentation to think of it as driven by pride, because your ability to perform the behaviors and mimic the appearances of a higher socioeconomic status has a concrete effect on how people treat you.

I know J.D. Vance is a nutjob now and Hillbilly Elegy was...not great (I'm more appalachian than you bitch, and I'm not even appalachian!) but the one thing that book got incredibly right was the idea of "social capital" and the way access to financial security and wealth gives you social capital. This is the main thing the current understanding of "conspicuous consumption" gets wrong—the need to escape the appearance and behaviors of poverty is seen as vain and self-indulgent, when it's a survival mechanism and it's something you're expected to engage in to gain opportunities and respect.

Poverty is humiliating. People with money never think about the fact that they have money. They think of themselves as average, if they think of themselves in terms of socioeconomic status at all. Being poor ends up embedded in the grooves and folds of your brain.

I remember when I was about 12, I gave my friend an informal tour of our house the first time she came over, showing her every room. I realized later that this wasn't exactly a normal behavior—I had done it because my mom did the same thing when she brought her friend over, and my mom had done it because it was a way of saying look, I survived. Look, I have a place to live to call my own, isn't this nice?

At its worst, anti-consumerism just reinforces the myth that your consumption is purely a matter of personal choice. And unfortunately when the conversation is ruled by the privileged, this idea will appear substantiated—because rich people can choose the aesthetics of poverty without concretely affecting the way the world treats them. A rich person can choose to live in a "tiny house" but they will never be "trailer trash."

Anti-consumerism revolves around ideas that are almost irreparably tainted by the mythology of an unequal society. Rich people possess and control the aesthetic of restraint and frugality, allowing them to playact living a Simple Life where they live in a tiny minimalist cottage and eat Healthy Vegan Oat Gruel, while McDonalds is the emblem of American excess. It is poor people's behaviors and habits that exemplify excess and greed.

Anti-consumerism isn't going to change anything until it openly confronts the fact that poverty is traumatic and consumption patterns often arise from poverty survival mechanisms.

#random #overconsumption #anticonsumerism #was in my drafts for a long time wow

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ineffablelunatics · 7 months

Text

The Elevator Parallels of Good Omens

The coloring of each scene matched their respective characters. Crowley and Muriel on the green side and the Metatron with Aziraphale on the silver side.

Crowley’s Perspective: He is on the right side of the elevator. He is looking at Muriel who is on the left. They are also in a shadow and Crowley is in the light. Crowley is wearing black. He is being “arrested.” He is going willingly to Heaven. He is going to look for information and presumably bring angels as back up. He has manipulated Muriel into taking him to Heaven so that he can save Aziraphale and the bookshop. This also happens in the evening and the middle of the night. Time seems to move differently on Earth versus Heaven. It’s early morning by the time that Crowley comes back to Earth even though it looks like night when he leaves. This also could be due to the demons messing with the atmosphere.

The Metatron’s Perspective: He is on the left side of the elevator, partially in shadow. He is looking at Aziraphale who is only partially covered in shadow and on his right. He is wearing all black. He is the one bringing Aziraphale to Heaven. It is early morning.

The Metatron and Crowley’s similarities: Besides the where they are standing and their clothing, both of them are high-ranking individuals(at least one of them, Crowley seems like he might be high ranking but that hasn’t been confirmed in the show. He might just know stuff because he’s nosey.:-) who are entering Heaven with a “naive” angel. They both have more knowledge than the angels in front of them. Crowley manipulates Muriel to get into Heaven. The Metatron seems to be manipulating Aziraphale as well, but here’s where they start to differ.

Muriel does not really understand what is happening. They are shown to be easily manipulated by a higher power, but they also think that they could be doing the right thing. They like Aziraphale and they don’t understand exactly how he is a “traitor.” Most of this shows how they are learning and changing from being on Earth with humanity and specifically Crowley and Aziraphale. They’re so excited when someone “acknowledges” that they’re doing a good job. A big part of this is because they have been by themself for centuries or longer. They didn’t have a lot of chances for social interaction so they’re not great at it.

The Metatron manipulates Aziraphale into taking the offer that he presents. This assumes that Aziraphale does not understand the choices at hand, but he does. He has been on Earth around humans who are known for being manipulative for 6000 years. His job has been to steer those particular humans into being better for a very long time. Aziraphale's best friend is the demon who is literally known for teaching humanity how to manipulate. I think that he would know when he is being manipulated and very obviously threatened. Especially after the 1940s incident.

I theorize that the shadows are showing how much they know about the situation they are in/going into. Crowley is covered in light, because he knows that he is walking into a very dangerous place to obtain information that itself is dangerous. It also shows that he is really curious. He wants to bring wriggling things into the light with him. Muriel is in pure shadow, because they do not know what is going on, and they’re scared which makes it harder to be curious. The Metatron is in partial light. He knows everything about Heaven and his plan, but he is underestimating Aziraphale specifically in this moment. He is curious what Aziraphale will do, but he’s being cautious. Aziraphale is in both shadow and light with leaves making it “holes” like holes in his knowledge. He does not have all of the Metatron’s knowledge of the situation nor do we. However, Aziraphale does know what it is like working for Heaven and how the angels can be. He had just learned about the Book of Life(and the owner) then the Metatron takes him away and gives him a thinly veiled threat. Aziraphale chooses to go believing that he can change things as Supreme Archangel(trying to convince Crowley because he thinks it would be safer if they’re together and he loves him). After, he learns about the Second Coming. Now, he’s got to stop another Armaggedon and maybe a revolution would help

#good omens #good omens 2 #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #good omens spoilers #go2 #crowley #good omens speculation #michael sheen #david tennant #theory #go 2 speculation #meta analysis #good omens meta #hope this makes sense

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tainbocuailnge · 11 months

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Realizing I haven't seen an exceptionally fantastic character analysis from you on my dashboard for a while, so I'd like to ask: what are your thoughts on Elizabeth Bathory?

liz is in a bit of a weird position here in the west because you could try to connect the dots and read between the lines of her localised appearances to figure out the hidden depths behind the funny seasonal girl, or you could read a fantranslation of CCC and have her deal laid out for you very clearly and i mean very very clearly there's really not much digging you have to do to understand elizabeth from reading CCC

elizabeth in CCC is a young girl who does not understand why the people around her came to hate her, and is terrified of it happening again. her obsession with youth is because she could tell that as she grew older the patience of those around her was wearing thinner, but she didn't understand what it was about her that caused this and in her desperation to cling to the youthful innocence that made them stay their hand in punishing her crimes she just committed more crimes. her desire to be an idol is a direct continuation of this: she is trying to attract a love and adoration that will instantly turn to hatred should she ever fail to adhere to a strict yet arbitrary standard of youthful purity and innocence.

elizabeth is excruciatingly lonely. she was raised to be extremely aware of her noble heritage and the inherent superiority it gives her. she calls people piglets and squirrels because she was literally not taught to see the common people as people rather than livestock. she has some natural violent inclinations that went completely unchecked and combined with her emotional frustrations into a habit of brutally torturing both people she hates and people she likes. she craves emotional connection between equals but has no idea, no example, no internal model of what such a relationship would actually look like, because the only interactions she had in her life were between the countess and her subjects that were completely at her mercy until they weren't.

this is barely even analysis, I'm just repeating things CCC directly tells you here. you can infer pretty much all of this from her secret garden flavour text alone.

her first SG is that she falls in love easily because she only experienced love in storybooks. "What seems to make her heart skip a beat is the strength of heart to firmly look back at her, even while shaking in pain, never giving in no matter how much she strikes or stabs." -> elizabeth craves a relationship of equals, her romantic ideal is someone who will stand up to her.

her second SG is that she enjoys cooking for/taking care of others, but absolutely sucks at actually making food. "She “bestows meals” to her husband as a noble. It’s no different from feeding... raising an animal. It contains none of the “romance” she longs for. The overlord disposition ingrained into her by heredity devours even her modest dreams." -> the way elizabeth was raised to view herself and others leaves her incapable of actually having such a relationship of equals, because her only models for human interaction don't respect the humanity of the other party.

her third SG is purity. "We would like to leave just what constitutes “purity” to the reader’s imagination. Servants are revived in the form that represents golden age of their lives. So Elizabeth appears as an unwed daughter of house Báthory, a young girl in love with love… presumably. An idol must be pure like snow. Romance might be fine, but the moment she comes to know love, her radiance is lost." -> elizabeth deep down is terrified of actually obtaining a relationship of equals, because her arbitrary purity (a purity the text doesn't even try to define! it's completely subjective!) is the only thing standing between her and a hatred of her for which she doesn't understand the cause. once she comes to view other people as people she can no longer claim not to understand the crimes that made those people hate her, and she will lose the purity that protects her from their wrath.

CCC has a lot to say about arbitrary standards of maturity and purity. BB splits off her own "improper" feelings into various oversexed and unstable versions of herself that she can punish for not living up to the impossible standards she imposes on herself. kiara uses her outward appearance of maturity to cover up a complete lack of emotional maturity while hans looks like a child after a lifetime of being seen as immature for writing children's stories (respecting the humanity of children). elizabeth wasn't taught to respect the humanity of others, but where is the line on when she is "old enough to know better"? what could she have done different? what should she have done different?

naturally, CCC for elizabeth is a long and gruelling process of learning that other people are people, and that even if she was simply doing as taught it was still her own actions that made her subjects hate her. this is such a thorough shattering of her worldview that she's briefly a berserker with both mad enhancement and a unique to her mental disorder skill that makes her numb to the pain or mood of others, just to keep herself vaguely functional. when defeated she screams that she prefers death to being locked up again, because what she fears even more than retaliation is having to reflect on the reason for that retaliation.

you will note that elizabeth in all her subsequent appearances is a very earnest and hardworking girl, who puts a lot of effort into maintaining her friendships. she knows what she did wrong now and is determined not to repeat that mistake, determined enough that in extella link karl's oraclisation brainwashing program that instantly got top tier servants like arjuna and scathach was unable to get elizabeth, and karl decides to let her go out of respect for that determination. one of the earliest cross-installment relationships FGO established is that vlad is very protective of elizabeth because he wants to make sure she does in fact get the chance to become a better person than the circumstances of her life allowed her, and even though carmilla has complex feelings about liz because liz's existence as the young and innocent one means carmilla exists as the one who is beyond saving, she can still be dragged into helping liz with her efforts because the redemption liz works for is one they both want.

elizabeth is a very dutiful person. she's desperate to be liked for fear of what will happen to her otherwise, but also has an actual strong sense of responsibility as countess, and her efforts to become someone likeable and dependable are fuelled by both of those aspects. in every halloween event liz is loud and annoying and self-important, and every halloween event she makes honest and difficult efforts to forge and maintain relationships and make up for past and current transgressions. her singing is beautiful when it's for someone else's sake.

elizabeth is actually one of a very small handful of characters from older works who I feel didn't get flanderised in some way by FGO, her characterisation as funny seasonal girl follows naturally from how her arc concluded in CCC and shallow fandom misunderstanding of the funny seasonal girl is more a result of early FGO assuming most players would be fate veterans who would already know her deal from CCC so they could just build on that uninterrupted without needing to give context first. and I also don't think it's wrong for people to base their understanding of liz on the funny seasonal girl because that's still liz, unlike how for example FGO nero is just not representative of nero most of the time. i haven't actually paid much attention to fgo since lb6 by the way and haven't opened NA in months so i don't actually know what happens in cindereli event other than guda turns into a goat monster (based)

#gorince #king of asks #metapost #elizabeth bathory #fate extra ccc #fate grand order #liz

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