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one of those days

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art will save you, being unreasonably passionate about something niche will save you, letting past sources of joy show you the way back to yourself will save you, earnestness over composure will save you, the natural world will save you, caring for something bigger than yourself will save you, daring to be seen will save you, kindness not as a whim but a principle will save you, appreciation as a practice will save you, daring to try something new will save you, grounding will save you, love will save you, one good nights sleep will save you

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hey, did you know that the world is a better place because of your creations and art and writing, no matter how niche or how many people see it

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Look 3 | Valentino Spring 2017 Couture

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The thing that doesn't quite satisfy me about wholesale knight comparisons regarding Heinrix is that the usual knight ideal is about looking up to the Lady Love™. The appeal is in the unequal dynamic where the Lady™ is this nigh-untouchable thing the knight singularly devotes himself to. The Lady™ holds the key to the knight's emotional fulfillment through her favor, she sets the terms of engagement, and it is his duty to prove himself worthy of her through deeds or service. If she says jump, it is his job to anticipate how high, and he will do so without expectation of equal reciprocation or eventual partnership in many cases. That, to me swings much closer to the kind of relationship Heinrix has with the Inquisition than the arc he develops with the Rogue Trader.

I've said before that I think Heinrix's past as the scion of a knight pilot house made him a prime candidate for the Inquisition. He knows the Imperium at its perceived finest, has a bone-deep sense of generational duty to uphold its institutions, and the circumstances of his exile from that life are due to a random accident of birth. His circumstances provide a rich groundwork for the exact kind of self-loathing that would motivate him to make up for his supposed deficiency, rather than question the power structure that demands he go through such horrifying trials for the chance to live. He can no longer be a Knight pilot, but being chosen as an acolyte offers him a chance to achieve a similar status fulfilling an ideal of holy service against challenges most humans would go mad upon encountering. All aspects of Heinrix's current self are owed to Calcazar and the Inquisition for their willingness to give him a chance to fulfill that purpose, and he cannot make room for himself as an individual within that structure.

Meanwhile, Heinrix's relationship with the Rogue Trader is one that tries to break him out of that lopsidedness. The Rogue Trader is not his social better (at most, the step is small, and mitigated through the gap in experience), nor are they necessarily a better person, but the they encourage his autonomy where the Inquisition requires unthinking obedience. Heinrix moves from guarded and closed-lipped about the goings on of his thoughts and his business in the Ordo Xenos, to sharing his burdens and trying to work with the Rogue Trader on a more open footing. I find the Commorragh sequence to be especially important, since it gives Heinrix and the Rogue Trader a moment to share pain as people, not their roles. And I think it's key that Heinrix's desire to connect in that moment is to reveal a time when he demonstrated his talent for biomancy to Calcazar by repairing damage from his psyker implants and regrowing an eye at the Inquisitor's order. That moment of tension where he considers such an act to be pretty mundane in the scope of his duties, only to potentially not get the reaction he expects and instead be told that such an act should never have been asked of him, works so well as a tipping point to the unraveling of his previous view of the Inquisition. And there are so many moments, especially after that point, that give the Rogue Trader an attempt to challenge his idea of what duty is and examine his own defeatism in regards to the Ordo's control of his life and choices.

To me, all of that is what makes Heinrix's romance unknightly. His arc isn't looking to remove the Inquisition from its pedestal in order to put the Rogue Trader in its place. He's trying to come together with someone who sees him as an equal partner, someone who values him for who he is now, rather than his ability to serve them.

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writing is just sitting in front of a computer and making up problems for imaginary people while ignoring your own. fun and casual hobby.

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many people don't seem to realize this but there's this thing you can do on tumblr where you make your own post

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I have begun.

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“and the universe said…”

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The Starfish Cluster, M38 // Remi Lacasse

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Betelgeuse, α Orionis // Joe Matthews

Betelgeuse (α Orionis) is a red supergiant star in the constellation of Orion, the Hunter. It is the second-brightest star in Orion and the tenth-brightest in the night sky. It has a mass of around 15 times the Sun's, and a radius around 700 times the Sun's. That means that if it were at the center of our solar system, its surface would lie beyond the asteroid belt and would engulf the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars!

The name Betelgeuse comes from the Arabic phrase Yad al-Jawzā’ meaning "hand of al Jawzā' [i.e., Orion]". An error in the 13th century reading of the Arabic initial yā' as bā' led to the European name.

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DEM L50, a large superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud // Alexander Zaytsev & Mark Hanson

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“What if I write it and it’s bad-”

WHAT IF YOU WRITE IT AND ITS GOOD? WHAT IF YOU WRITE IT AND ITS EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANTED? WHAT THEN????

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The Box (HCG 61, center), four galaxies arranged in an irregular quadrilateral! // Michael W. Dean

From bottom left, clockwise, the galaxies are: NGC 4173, NGC 4169, NGC 4174, and NGC 4175.

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playing dress-up with your ocs is the best 😌

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Captivated by the face in the mirror

Shep and Garrus sketch requested by a patron. Think I may end up trying to finish this one. The vibe is cool, though drawing turians hard…