#2018 Spirit base

[cosmicdream222]

The void explained in an old Reiki book

The other day @gorgeouslypink posted about Reiki and the Void on her challenge account here. Usui Reiki is the type of reiki I learned back around 2018, although I kinda half-assed the training and never fully read the book 💀 So I found one of my old Reiki books (it’s from 1995!) and flipped to the back to see if there was an index. There wasn’t, so I proceeded to open it to a random page and what is it about? The Void.

It’s kind of flowery Buddhist language but it’s the void y��all:

Here is the text for easier reading:

Reality is created by the action of Mind from the Void. The Void is the depths of fathomless peace, purity, perfection, mystery and joy. In Wiccan terms it is Spirit, Ether or Goddess. All Be-ing comes from the Void, and it is the essence of all existence. All Be-ing (everyone) is already in a state of perfection, a part of the Buddha Nature (or Goddess Within). Reality is also the Non-Void, which is all potential, and a vast complex of worlds and shifting universes.

Mind emerging from the Void is the first Buddha source, but this source is obscured to most people by the illusion of the senses, the Non-Void. The reality created by this obscuring of Pure Mind is like the reality created in a mirror. People in incarnation do not awaken to their intrinsic purity (the Void) which exists beyond the senses. Their understanding is based upon the Non-Void's illusion. A distorted mind on Earth acts to creates a distorted reality, resulting in suffering.

"Mind, which manifests itself as wisdom, is intrinsically Void; yet everything proceeds from it and is therefore mind's creation." Everything real is created from the perfection of the Void. Yet, because of distortion and illusion, we perceive the world as imperfect and remain attached to delusion.

Wisdom=energy=creation is the Void, and participates in Nirvana. Human perception of reality is Non-Void, based upon potential, and participates in the Mind's creation of suffering in the world.

Enlightenment is understanding the joy of the Void, one's perfect Buddha Nature, and leaving the attachments and delusions of the Non-Void and the senses. Once true reality is perceived, attachments and cravings no longer have meaning, and Nirvana is attained. This understanding is Enlightenment, which leads to the release of the soul from karma and incarnation. It happens by the freeing of the Mind from delusion.

- Essential Reiki by Diane Stein, 1995

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・。.。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

My tl;dr summary:

Our reality is created by the Mind, which comes from the Void. Everything comes from the Void, and its limitless potential. The 3D world (the non-void) we see is an illusion created by the senses. Unenlightened people suffer because they are stuck in the 3D’s illusion, thinking what they perceive with their senses is real.

True understanding, or Enlightenment, comes when we grasp the joy and perfection of the Void, realizing we already have it all, and can release attachments and delusions of the senses.

[hotcat37]

I made a Käärijä crew personality quiz! Obviously these are exaggerated characteristics based on their stage personas, idk these people irl 🗿 Most answers allude to a certain person but please answer honestly for yourself! I tried going for a 2018 vibe with this one khihi

[calderacitylovers]

Zutara SlowBurn FanFiction: Personal Favs, part I

·        I AM STILL HERE by owedbetter Published: 2017-10-09 | 77K words | 7 Chapters

After the Last Agni Kai K heals Z with the help of bloodbending. Very sweet.

 ·        THE SUMMIT by AJLenoire

Chronicles post-war years, as Gaang and other characters gather for annual summits to keep peace and build relationships between the Four Nations. Katara yearns for a bigger purpose than the Avatar’s companion and slowly grows into a shrewd diplomat. Very sweet slow burn ZK story. Has mature scenes.

 ·        CLOTHE ME IN SEASONS, DRESS ME IN SNOW by sadladybug Published: 2015-01-05 | 62K words | 7 Chapters

Follows old Zuko as he reflects on his life and what would have been if he kept Katara closer. Absolutely beautiful, but also a devastatingly heart-breaking story about loss and pain.

 ·        SILENT DECLARATIONS by Megara Pike (Megara_Pike) Published: 2021-01-20 | 2,6K words

A short story based on animation by Hayley Wong. Z finds K asleep in her study and carries her to bed. Very sweet, gentle story.

 ·        COVERED IN YOU by evergreenonthehorizon Published: 2021-04-02 | 55K words | 14 Chapters

Eight years after the war Z convinces K to take on a role of a Southern Water Tribe ambassador in the Caldera city. Both are completely clueless about each other’s feelings. Features political talks, big gestures, and a ball. Very cute, sweet slow-burn story. Has mature scenes.

 ·        TEN STRIDES IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION by evergreenonthehorizon Published: 2021-04-03 | 29K Words | 12 Chapters

A collection of short stories filling in the gaps between some of the events of ATLAS3 and up to the Last Agni Kai. Features accidental cuddling, embracing in the rain, sharing a bed for warmth, post-Ember Island Theater discussions, being discovered, waiting to be kissed, Suki & Katara being good friends, battle plans, Zuko & Sokka getting drunk, slow burn & angst. Very sweet.

 ·        THE SWAY OF THE SUN by TheBlackBriarSparrow Published: Published: 2019-10-14 | 102K Words | 27 Chapters

Two years post-war Gaang reunites in Caldera city for a secret party in honor of the overworked Fire Lord’s birthday. Rebels attack the palace setting a thrilling consequence of events in motion. Adventures, investigations, and fights ensue. Z & K work together and enlist old friends to help find missing people. Beautiful slow-burn story with an exciting plot.

·        A WARM EMBRACE by ewinkie Published: 2020-10-06 | 19K Words | 7 Chapters

An ATLAS3 rewrite from Southern Riders to the Last Agni Kai. Katara and Zuko have to hide in a cave following their encounter with Yon Rha. Comforting turns to cuddling, which turns to waking up on Appa's tail in each other's arms. Katara is shocked at how comfortable she is. Zuko is shocked that Katara doesn't hate him for it. Features sharing a bed, being discovered, slowburn, and lots of teenage silliness.

 ·        FOLLOWING BLUE by Boogum Published: 2018-11-07 | 39K Words | 10 Chapters

ATLA S2 rewrite. After Katara falls from Appa’s saddle during a pursuit, the Blue Spirit becomes her reluctant companion and helps her reunite with her friends. Ba Sing Se scenes are completely rewritten, and Z ends up joining the Gaang much earlier. Thrilling beginning, sweet middle, average ending.

 ·        ANOTHER WORD FOR ALCHEMY by FanPanda13 Published: 2014-08-19 | 108K words | 24 Chapters

Five years post-war Aang summons old friends for a summit and invites them on a trip to investigate mysterious locations where he experiences loss of bending. Features Gaang setting Z & K up, travelling on Appa like in the olden days, lots of sparring, royal courting, magnificent navy ships & war ballons. Thrilling story with fun banter between old friends. Slowburn, mature content.

 ·        CONSUME ME WITH FIRE, FLOOD ME WITH DESIRE by Dacamia Published: 2020-08-14 | 86K words | 24 Chapters

Steamy ATLAS2 and ATLA S3 rewrite. Z & K accidentally meetup on their way to Ba Sing Se and decide to travel together. Features aged-up characters, lots of intimate scenes, staying in a beautiful cave, helping villagers, betrayal in Ba Sing Se, reunion, forgiveness, etc. Explicit mature content.

 ·        ROOTS AND WINGS by zukoscomet Published: 2020-08-14 | 250K words | 25 Chapters

A series of short stories of Z & K as they grow closer, confess their love for one another and start a family.

 ·        THOSE WHO FAVOR FIRE by hiwasseelane Published: 2021-05-02 |29K Words | 13 Chapters

An ATLAS3 rewrite. Sweet, teen-appopriate.

Here’s a link to Part II of my personal favs.

Here’s a link to Wholesome Zutara Short Stories.

[breelandwalker]

Book Rec - Land Healing by Dana O'Driscoll

For anyone looking to cultivate a deeper relationship with their local land spirits or to engage in more active stewardship of their local biome, I'd like to recommend Land Healing by Dana O'Driscoll.

A follow-up to her other fabulous book, Sacred Actions, Land Healing is a comprehensive guide to land healing for neopagans and earth-based spiritual practitioners who have a desire to regenerate and heal human-caused damage throughout our world. The book presents tools and information to take up the path of the land healer with care, reverence, and respect for all beings. This book also puts tools in your hands to be an active force of good and learn how to actively regenerate the land, preserve life, and create sanctuaries for life–in your backyard, in your community, and beyond.

Dana O’Driscoll has been an animist, and bioregional druid for 20 years and currently serves as the Grand Archdruid in the Ancient Order of Druids in America.  She is also a druid-grade member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids and is OBOD’s 2018 Mount Hameus Scholar.  Dana took up the path of land healing because of the deep need in her home region of Western Pennsylvania, which is challenged by fracking, acid mine drainage into streams, logging, and mountaintop removal. Dana sees land healing as her core personal spiritual path, and has done both individual work in her home region as well as spearheading larger-scale land healing efforts at druid events and through the Ancient Order of Druids in America. Dana is a certified permaculture designer and permaculture teacher who teaches sustainable living and wild food foraging.  She lives on a 5-acre homestead with her partner and a host of feathered and furred friends.

You can find out more about her practices and her publications by visiting The Druid's Garden and you can also hear more on this recent episode of Hex Positive, where Dana talks about her newest book and the inspiration behind it.

[thebramblewood]

thebramblewood's Legacy Universe: A Primer

I've never really been one for following specific legacy challenges, but I do get incredibly attached to families and love seeing genetics play out, so generational gameplay has always been my thing. Recently, I've been very distracted by Helena Zhao Is Dead, which means my long-running family of nine generations (!) has been on indefinite hiatus for most of this blog's life.

I discovered their save got accidentally deleted, which is probably for the best, considering it was the same damn save I started back in 2018. Luckily, I had the current generation in my library, and I missed them, so I decided to bring Naomi and Micah back for Life & Death. I thought it might be helpful to summarize past events for those who might be interested in their family's background. Don't worry, we're not going all the way back! I love my earlier generations, but I didn't start getting into a more story-based approach until pretty far in. So here are the relevant details from generation five on (and I really did try to be brief, I promise).

GENERATION FIVE

This generation's heir was Gaby Martinez-Jang. After saving Strangerville from the Mother Plant with her ragtag investigative team, she moved to Sulani with the hunky conspiracy theorist she met along the way, Alvin. The impetus for this journey was Alvin being adopted and deciding he wanted to learn more about his birth family. In Sulani, he not only met his biological sister, Kaimana, but also discovered and embraced his mermadic ancestry! Meanwhile, Gaby became a conservationist and even won a Starlight Accolade for her documentary film on Mua Pel'am!

GENERATION SIX

Gaby and Alvin's one child, Noelani 'Aukai, became the new heir. After struggling to figure out their identity as a teen, Noelani's love for music led them to pursue DJing and producing. They started off doing pop-up performances in Sulani that gained traction on social media and led to a record deal. Meanwhile, they were falling in love with their childhood BFF, Nani Kealoha. Eventually, the two of them moved to San Myshuno, where Nani pursued her political dreams and Noelani was thrust into stardom.

This is where it becomes really important to pay attention. Noelani's other best friend was Malia Kahananui. The result of MCCC shenanigans, she became the granddaughter of Mele and Alika Kahananui because I thought they were too old for a surprise baby, lol. She was left with her grandparents by her reckless and impulsive mother, who was always going off on grand adventures and eventually just never returned. A yoga enthusiast and masseuse, Malia discovered her talent for communing with the island spirits when she was visited by her recently deceased grandparents, who encouraged her to nurture the gift they never got the chance to tell her about.

The spirits were always cryptic, but during one visit she received a more specific warning: "One day, there will be a cataclysmic threat to the realm where all spirits go. Humans occupy this realm, too, humans with supernatural talents who coexist with us in exchange for the protection they offer. A human of modest background and raw power is the only one capable of defeating this threat. They will sacrifice greatly to save our realm from extermination." She promptly filed that information away for a decade or two.

GENERATION SEVEN

This generation's heir was Noelani and Nani's son and robotics enthusiast, Sione 'Aukai. Unfortunately for him, he was almost immediately overshadowed by his eventual spouse, Malia's daughter, Cassie. Oh, Cassie... Possibly my favorite Sim of all time. As kids, they had a long distance friendship, bonding over their love of magic and fantasy. When Cassie started having dreams of a world beyond her own, her mother remembered the warning from the spirits and, fearing the worst, tried to deter her interest, which only made Cassie more stubbornly determined to seek out magic. Malia thought her daughter's rebellious streak might be fixed by a change of scenery, so she moved in with Sione's family in San Myshuno.

Unfortunately, Sione decided he was "too cool" for their shared childhood interests and rejected Cassie's long-time crush. Even so, they agreed to share a house for uni, where he studied Robotics at Foxbury and she studied Art at UBrite. Cassie soon decided college wasn't for her, but she used her connections in the Secret Society to make her way to the Magic Realm, where she met L. Faba and finally began her magical training. A few years later, she and Sione met up again in the city, finally worked it out, and got married. (Can you tell I'm a big fan of the childhood friends to romantic partners pipeline?)

GENERATION EIGHT

Sione and Cassie have twin girls. Rowan 'Aukai is the heir of generation eight. Rowan and her sister, Sabrina, are just beginning their own magical educations when tragedy strikes. A rogue spellcaster, having acquired forbidden magic, storms the Magic Realm and kills the three Sages. As word spreads, Cassie is one of the first spellcasters to arrive. She defeats the rogue spellcaster but dies of magical overload. Overcome by grief, Sione forbids the girls from continuing their training. Rowan misses magic and her mom every day, though everyone else seems to be moving on. She starts having visions of her mom trying to communicate something important. After clashing with her dad, she runs away from home, determined to teach herself the magic she needs to bring Cassie back to life.

Rowan ends up in Evergreen Harbor, where being a homeless teen in a smog-infested city isn't conducive to developing her magical prowess. She temporarily loses her abilities but is introduced to a couple who takes in wayward teens. After a dream visit from her mom, her magic returns. She and her friend, Alejandro, research all things paranormal and find themselves in a haunted house, where she receives advice from Claude René Duplantier Guidry. Eventually, she returns to the Realm, which is shockingly still intact, and where she finally learns what she needs to do. She casts dedeathify at her mom's grave, and her family is finally reunited.

GENERATION NINE

Whew, we're finally almost finished. Generation nine is ongoing, and its heir, August Uchiyama, only just became a teen the last time we saw him (and will probably look a bit different when we see him again because I have to remake his teen version 😭). After bringing her mom back, Rowan started dating one of her friends from Evergreen Harbor, Raveena Uchiyama. They eventually got married, settled into a hippie lifestyle on a big Henford-on-Bagley farm, and had five kids. August is the middle child and only boy. He's had a rather idyllic childhood full of farm animal friends, oversized crops, and adventures with Uncle Alejandro and Grandma Cassie. He has a lot coming up for him that remains top secret. 🤐

Back to Naomi and Micah, they're August's older twin sisters. (They also have younger twin sisters, Tess and Sadie.) Since August is the heir, they've existed mostly in the background so far. But Naomi proved herself to be a cigarette-smoking rebel who frequently snuck out at night and cut class to hang out with her delinquent friends, and Micah was a reserved, rather moody teen who enjoyed painting and journaling but eventually branched out and joined the cheer team. In The Mourningvale Files, they're meant to be in their late 20s and still struggling to find their footing as adults. I'm excited to develop their characters more before I eventually (hopefully) make my way backwards to fill in the rest of August's story. This may be the final generation for how fucking long it's going to take me to finish. 😅

And that's what you missed on thebramblewood.tumblr.com!

[ineffable-opinions]

Love In the Air is getting a Japanese adaptation.

Things have come a full circle for MeMindY in a way. It was while traveling through Japan in November 2018 that MAME decided to start a production house to film series based on her novel in her own way.

Looks like it is a fan project of sorts based on what creators has to say on the project website, so it makes sense that it is MeMindY’s project that gets Japanese adaptation. (If not, it would have been GMMTV, BOC or some other government-supported production company that engaged in Thai government’s Commerce Ministry department facilitated “BL as soft power” negotiations with their Japanese counterparts.

more on this here)

This adaptation is not surprising considering the crowd that showed up at MAME’s Japanese fan-meet consisted of older folk too. It reminds me of Chen Hao producing Stay with Me. While I would be happy to have more bottom-up, demand-driven productions rather than top-down, supply-driven ones, it makes me worried too. I had previously expressed my wish for popular BL manga and novels to get live action adaptation. Now, we have a handful of live action based on works that have won Chil-chil awards but those adaptations have been disappointing to say the least.

source

I am a little worried about production quality. Hopefully, they’ll manage to balance cost and quality since this project’s return on investment would be a signal to future initiatives. I am excited for Shoma who gave an excellent performance in the unfortunately gelded adaptation of the super-popular manga 25 Ji, Akasaka de. I am eager to know who will play Saifah (hopefully they'll retain that character) and Chai.

My Insane Wishlist: Non-Thai adaptation of MAME’s BL

Breath – Japanese live action adaptation TulHin was one of the side couples in Love by Chance 2 but I want an adaptation that stays true to the spirit of their story. In addition, it will be really nice to see Hin in violet rope shibari in the hotel getaway scene. All the shibari scenes we got so far in live action BL has been fleeting and of very little consequence. Japan should attempt adapting this into period piece set in Taisho or early Showa era. The novel is well suited for an adaptation set in that period with rapidly changing position of the aristocracy in the society, conflict between old and new orders, nouveau riche industrialists, feudal households with retainers performing multiple functions, specific forms of xenophobia, grand balls, arranged marriages, intergenerational power struggle, familism and ample space for intrigue. Also, Japan has a good track record of being sincere in their depiction of complexities of androphilic male x androphilic female interactions – they can make Tul's struggle heart-wrenching to watch.  

OatShin from Test Love and OatShin Diary – Tamil-Marathi bilingual movie adaptation with Harshvardhan Rane as Shin, Arjun Das as Oat and Suriya as Akira (Shin's cousin brother). In the novel Love Storm from which Love in the Air is adapted, it is Oat and not Prapai who is the best street racer in their circuit. Saifah, Oat and Saifah's girlfriend are in fact friends and classmates from college - depicted in Test Love. Oat's boyfriend Shinji was his junior in college. Shin is friends with characters from Love By Chance. Their relationship starts at the end of Test Love and in OatShin Diaries we get to see them navigate long distance relationship, familial acceptance and work-life balance as salarymen. OatShin has a very cute dynamic - they are a riba CP (reversible couple) with a lot of push and pull. Shin is super sly and sensitive and I can see Harshvardhan teasing the hell out of whoever he is paired with. Arjun Das probably can't do racer very well - so just get him that ATV from Por for added illegality. He would be perfect as Oat and very adorable too.

Try Me: Chai Win – Japanese manga adaptation with minimal censor bars – Chai’s pearlings needs to exist in 2D version.

Try Me: Chai Win – Turkish live action adaptation – I think Pawit-bey has a nice ring to it and I would pay to listen to it for 40 episodes of 2-hour length each. Maybe some over the top honorifics would be more suitable coming from Chai’s mouth like efendi. Mert Yazicioglu or Ali Yagci as Win and Can Yaman as Chai.

Chai appeared in Love in the Air as a crucial minor character who comes to Phayu's rescue. He has a love story of his own with Pakin's civilian* cousin brother, Pawit aka Win, that is complicated by duty and obligations and extortive meddling by Pakin's dad (the kingpin).

[* not in the mafia]

[writingmochi]

ｌｏａｄｉｎｇ ｉｎｔｅｒｆａｃｅ．．．

you've found a discovery: cinema experience

lissie: greetings! not going to lie, i didn't expect to achieve this milestone in the quick manner that it is (shout out to laurel hell for that like i still am baffled). thank you for taking a chance in reading the fics, giving it a like, giving a reblog and/or comment, and for following the blog. as with the other discoveries found, i'll be sending back to the community and what is not a good way to do that by hosting an open collab for writers who write for ateez, txt, and/or enhypen.

what is cinema experience?

from the youthful stories of call me by your name, to the adventures in star wars, the horror depths of friday the 13th, to the exuberant tales from the princess bride. here is the cinema experience.

cinema experience is a fic collaboration project centred on adapting stories from cinema and creating your own twist and take on it. so, any movie you want to adapt, from the indie to the blockbusters. to the oldies and the newest. give it a twist to your liking, a horror version of the breakfast club with hongjoong in mind, or lost in translation with a sci-fi twist for sunghoon.

this collab is open for anybody that wants to / is writing for ateez, txt, and/or enhypen and will last until the end of 2024. if you decide to join in, your name will be listed on this post.

if you are interested in joining, the guidelines will be below the cut:

guidelines:

this project is for ateez, txt, & enhypen fics

the fics can be either reader insert x idol or oc x idol (no idol x idol pairing)

minimum word count is 1000 (1k)

though i love timestamps, headcanons, drabbles, and reactions, this project is for full-length works only.

plagiarism is extremely prohibited, especially if you are plagiarizing existing works. believe in yourself that you can create something great!

smut and suggestive are allowed but no smut for jungwon and no suggestive and smut content for niki (as per following my blog's guideline)

all written works will be added to a masterlist that i'm making by the end of the year (december 31st, 2024)

if you want to join:

reblog this post with your member of choice and the movie your fic will be based on

tag your work with #discovery: 400 or tag me @/writingmochi when you are have posted it so i can put you in the masterlist!

the groups and the movies:

ATEEZ

@/writingmochi | san | wall-e (2008)

@pyeonghongrie | hongjoong | the phantom of the opera (2004)

@fureastel | yeosang | robin hood (1973)

@hotteoki | yunho | to all the boys i've loved before (2018)

@prodsh00ky | mingi | pirates of the caribbean franchise

@miirohs | seonghwa | how to train your dragon franchise

@vampiriirot | wooyoung | om shanti om (2007)

TXT

@/hotteoki | beomgyu | spirited away (2001)

@/writingmochi | soobin | bridge to terabithia (2007) and tigers are not afraid (2017)

ENHYPEN

@/writingmochi | jay | fallen angels (1995) and millennium mambo (2001)

lissie: i'll be looking forward to reading your works! once again, thank you so much for the milestone <3

our other discoveries:

discovery: 300 send me a fake fic title and i'll make the premise for you!

discovery: 100 ask me questions about my wips and/or writing process!

[toppamplemousse]

The first dream happened at some point in 2018. Charles doesn’t remember the exact details of when, now, but he remembers the dream taking place so vividly, the first dream. A nightmare, actually. He had thought it was an omen. In French, it’s almost a near translation, the word nightmare. Cauchemar. To be trampled on, suffocated, by the evil spirit, the horse. The evil spirit, the mare. The horse. Un cauchemar.

charles leclerc/enzo ferrari, explicit, on ao3

based on this post by @formulahs

[new-holocene]

ode to abandoned projects

normally i dedicate my public facing social media accounts solely to sharing my finished artwork, but I figure some reflection on the past few years of my development as an artist would be worthwhile. I was initially trying to find an old gmod map I made (I didn't find it), and in the process I found a number of screenshots of WIPs spanning the past 7 years. for many of these projects, they were abandoned because I got too busy with school/university.

from march 2017. made in unity. I don't remember the specifics of this project. I think I was trying to make a short narrative walking sim.

from december 2017. I wanted to make a short smw romhack. I remember drawing level designs on a spare piece of paper after finishing a secondary school exam early. one day I'll make a romhack, one day...

from may 2018. I had just replayed marble blast ultra after finding it had a PC port. shortly after I found all the textures were just in the game files and could be modified easily. myself and an old friend wanted to make a 'games repainted'-esque mod. I claim full credit for every marble game since that's included a 🤔marble skin.

from march 2020. a mockup of a piece I was calling 'alignment chart' for the first time I had ever applied for a bursary. this used a mixture of generative art pieces i made in processing and graphic design. this piece is interesting to look back on because it marked the development of my art style for the first time, and the psuedo-cuneiform generator ended up being a recurring feature of my art. my application was rejected because i did not read the terms and conditions to realise it wasn't open to university students - and I was still studying computer science at the time.

from may 2020. I was aiming to participate in the low res game jam but never got to finish due to university work taking up my time. I never fleshed out the mechanics of the game, but the goal was to take care of the tree in the center of the map. it doesn't look like much, but I really pushed myself (or rather, tortured myself) by not using a game engine and writing this in C++ with raylib instead.

from april 2020. this was going to be a browser based demake of five nights at freddy's (a game I've never played and have no interest in) titled "five years at yanderedev's". I figured that it felt too close to participating in lolcowing someone and that it was in bad spirits, so I scrapped it.

from september 2020. a mockup of my homepage sharpfourth.net. I kept the logo and general layout for whats on the site currently, but didn't include the scanner warped images.

from october 2020. I wanted to make a walking sim in the quake engine, but once again, university work got in the way. however, this got me familiar with the basics of using trenchbroom (a map editor for quake), which came in very, very handy for later projects.

from october 2021. myself and some close friends had planned to make a zine detailing how to do DIY feminising HRT in Ireland (and maybe the UK). we never got around to writing it (partly because we feared potential legal repercussions for disseminating medical advice lol), but this marked a further development of my art style.

from october 2021. I had hoped to make a first person RPG in godot. once again scrapped because I got too busy with uni. I spent ages trying to implement a wonky movement system that could be exploited, being inspired by bhopping from source or strafe jumping from quake. the dialogue system was the last thing I worked on. I used trenchbroom again - this time with qodot - for making the prototype map. while making this demo, I realised the potential use of godot and trenchbroom in visual art, something i would revisit during my first gallery residency.

from march 2022. this might be the most unassuming piece in this collection, but it marks a significant turning point in my life. I was tasked with making diagrams for a group project in uni, but given that I was facing extreme burnout and apathy towards the course, I instead "doodled" with the elements of the diagram. this spiraled into me writing my zine/short-story EATARTHU, which I then used to apply for a gallery residency. I was fortunate enough to get the residency, and I dropped out of college to pursue art.

as discouraging as it might be to constantly start and abandon projects, it's important to stop and remember that ever single abandoned game or drawing or album or whatever marked a chance for you to learn and develop as an artist. one day you might very well finish a project, and it'll reflect a bit of every single abandoned one of its precursors.

[digitaldreams0801]

How the Production Problems of Digimon Adventure Tri Directly Parallel the Issues of Ace Attorney Dual Destinies

i lied. put your clothes back on. we're talking about why digimon adventure tri is the worst thing to happen to the digimon franchise (and how its problems directly parallel ace attorney dual destinies and spirit of justice)

this is a very long rant i typed in a discord server first but it’s something i’ve been thinking for years and i finally put it into words. everybody clap and cheer. (contains very negative opinions toward tri and lukewarm takes on adventure 2020 and ghost game, proceed at your own peril)

let’s talk about digimon tri and ace attorney dual destinies

so first and foremost, what exactly *is* digimon adventure tri?? digimon tri is the seventh-ish season of the digimon anime that released from 2015-2018. despite running for over three years, this show has twenty-six episodes that were split up into six movies and then divided into twenty-six episodes again. that alone should tell you how much of a struggle the production was, but when i tell you this anime might have had the most troubled development of any anime i have ever seen, i fucking MEAN IT. digimon tri is a disaster. 

so to start, it's time for a history lesson. digimon adventure aired for around a year in 1999-2000. it was going to be a standalone anime, but it was extended into a second season known as digimon adventure zero two (the zero two standing for 2002, the year the series takes place in). the second season follows the youngest of the first season cast forming a new team of six for adventures in the digital world. the original digimon adventure was universally beloved as one of the best anime of the 90's and early 2000's, but zero two was received a bit less well. it was a bit of a divisive season with some people really loving it and others not so much. personally i adore zero two and think people's adventure nostalgia keeps them from acknowledging how good zero two is. but that's beside the point. after zero two, the team behind digimon decided to start from scratch and make an entirely new cast of characters going forward, so the series began to follow that pattern going forward, and no season after this save for adventure follow-ups have characters shared with another season

digimon tamers was the next season and it started airing in 2001. the first thing people noticed about tamers is that it is a MASSIVE departure in tone from adventure and zero two. the first two seasons were already surprisingly dark for kids' shows, but tamers in my eyes just. flat out is not for children. this is a horror anime they put under the digimon name. it's very beloved by the fan base now and is known as one of the best seasons of digimon but at the time it was known for scaring kids and generally being terrifying. so the series is starting its decline going into 2002

so to fix this, the next season is the black sheep of the franchise: digimon frontier. i could write an entire paper about the problems in digimon frontier but to put it simply this is the digimon season i have rewritten in excruciating detail. digimon frontier tried something radically different at the time and tried to capture the child audience once again by being a lot more episodic than the last three seasons. in the end frontier struggled a lot with maintaining a consistent quality and fluctuates massively from being amazing to being really bad. frontier being so radically different by taking away partner digimon and instead having the main cast turn into digimon was a massive turn off for a lot of people, and after frontier ended, the digimon anime ended, and the so-called "golden era" of digimon came to a close with the last episode of frontier airing in 2003

after a few years' hiatus, the next digimon season, savers, aired in 2006, and it was very clearly targeting a teen audience. it was also radically different from most other seasons and was most in line with tamers, though even that isn't really a perfect comparison. it has a radically different art style, departs from series tradition by making the characters mid to late teens instead of in the 10-13 range, and is very intense in very strange ways. like the main character just punches digimon. savers was a very strange anime and definitely a second wind but not quite the one the franchise needed to keep going, so the anime went back on hiatus after savers ended in 2007

after another few years, we got digimon xros wars, the longest season of digimon. i say season?? it's one season of 79 episodes split up into three parts. xros wars was a return to form with tween main characters and an overarching story that was nowhere near as intense as tamers or savers. xros wars was radically different because it involved fusing digimon instead of straight evolution, and out of all the digimon seasons, it feels the most like the one made to sell toys. this season was picked up by nickelodeon internationally if that's any indication of how much of a success they thought it was going to be. in practice though?? the third and final part of xros wars went out on a whimper and was so bad it didn't even air internationally. digimon was just falling out of favor with people, and an anime that had once been so good that it was competing with and even *beating* pokemon in ratings and views was now having a hard time getting a season off the ground in japan, much less internationally

and that is where digimon tri comes in. digimon tri was an attempt to recapture the golden era of digimon with its most popular and universally beloved season: the original digimon adventure from 1999. tri was announced as a fifteenth anniversary project, and it would bring back the adventure cast for the first time in fifteen years. this was the first red flag though: it was bringing back the *adventure* cast, not the zero two cast. there are four new characters who join the party in zero two, and they are all very significant. there are two characters who carry over from adventure to zero two, and to be quite honest with you, they are closer with the zero two cast than the adventure cast. like takeru has a much stronger connection with the zero two cast than he did with the adventure cast. but all four characters from zero two were suspiciously absent from all promotional material, and even as fans asked where they were, their questions were never answered. they were just *gone,* and nobody knew why. this is especially bizarre since zero two is very much an extension of adventure. like you can watch adventure alone but it is much stronger with zero two and zero two is the definitive ending of the story. so why the fuck were they ignoring the ending they had set to to their own story??

sighs loudly. the director. i hate this man. i have beef with him. his name is keitaro motonaga, and in cloud's words, he should sleep with one eye open because i am coming for him. so motonaga did this super cool thing called "directing tri without ever watching the source material." ...what? yes, you read that right: the director of tri had *never seen* the original adventure nor zero two. he was going off what i can only describe as a spark notes description of everything that happened. the original adventure was very heavily focused on the subversion of common anime tropes. the ditzy popular girl is the most emotionally genuine. the oldest is the most irresponsible, and the youngest is the most put together. even the two "rivals" aren't *really* rivals when it comes down to it. digimon adventure takes a lot of anime tropes and stereotypes and flips them on their head to make very deep and compelling characters. so when you're operating on a spark notes understanding of the story, you're going to fall back on those tropes, and that is *exactly* what the director did. rather than watch the source material and become acquainted with these characters and their relationships, he operated off stereotypes the characters were made to subvert and completely butchered them in the process. taichi and yamato were always at each other's throats when they were genuinely friends in adventure. mimi became overly mean and insensitive. jyou stepped *back* from a character beat in adventure in a major way that ruined him. in trying to play to nostalgia, digimon tri completely forgot what made all of these characters so great in the first place and then spat on it

i know you're wondering: why the *fuck* did the director not watch the source material? he thought it would "dampen" and "ruin" his creative vision. he shouldn't have even been adapting a media he knew nothing about, but there he was, and it was bad. since he only got the spark notes for adventure, he ignored zero two entirely and cut the characters out of the plot. in fact, various things meant to invoke zero two nostalgia were done solely for the sake of "rule of cool" and nostalgia instead of actually meaning anything. none of it made any fucking sense. there were others on the project who had other ideas of what the story could have been--ideas that actually made sense in line with the spirit of adventure and zero two--but they were shot down in the name of the creative vision of a man who had never seen nor engaged with the source material. keitaro motonaga went on to get a massive reputation in the anime scene after tri ended for doing this with multiple adaptation projects of his: ignoring the source material for the sake of a creative vision that made no sense. it was overall fucking atrocious 

and you can tell it was bad because in japan, they generally don't let the audience know when production is going bad on the back end of something. however with tri, it was bad enough to be addressed multiple times in many ways, and i'm sure that what we know is only the tip of the iceberg. it was a disaster from start to finish. i know a lot of people joke about production disasters but sincerely this was fucking atrocious and i hate it from the bottom of my heart

while tri was airing, it was being released internationally. it actually got international support unlike the traditional season airing at the same time: appmon. out of the two, appmon is *much* better, and it's a return to form for the franchise. i would argue that appmon is much more deserving of the golden era than frontier. appmon is amazing, but because it always had to compete with tri for attention, it never truly got off the ground in japan, much less internationally where it didn't even get official subs until YEARS after the fact. appmon was much more deserving of the spotlight and was actually written well but didn't get jack shit because tri was the adventure thing and therefore drew in people for nostalgia. hindsight is 20/20 though because if they had marketed appmon, maybe toei wouldn't have to bitch all the time about digimon not going well. this is your own damn fault you dipshits

tri has been panned by both japanese and western fans for a lot of reasons. it's heartless slop meant to prey on a person's nostalgia for adventure, and it has none of the heart of its predecessors. it's clumsily written and overall a poor exploration of what an older cast for adventure would get up to. the plot doesn't make sense, and it's a train wreck from beginning to end. the director wanted it to be "mature," so the season is unnecessarily dark and edgy much to its detriment. the creative vision of "maturity" and darkness completely ignored the fact that the original adventure and zero two *were* mature anime with very deep character development. they're classics for a damn reason, but they were pushed aside for the sake of being more "mature." fans panned tri for feeling insulting to their intelligence, like toei thought they would eat up anything as long as it had the digimon name attached to it

and it backfired like all hell. because nobody wanted *anything* to do with tri after it ended. when it ended, it was without any ceremony to speak of. it was 26 episodes split into six movies and then back into 26 episodes again, and it took over three years to release. it had more than double the release time window of appmon, and it had *half* the episodes of appmon. it's not like the tri was an animated spectacle or anything either. in movie four, the budget goes off a fucking cliff and never recovers. appmon may have had shaky animation at times, but it hit it out of the park where it count. tri has a color grading problem in its last two movies, and it's impossible to make out anything that happens in the finale because of it. things happen without reason, the characters have been obliterated completely, and the story makes no fucking sense. everyone was RELIEVED when tri ended, but it was such a massive failure that the digimon anime went on hiatus for ages after it ended, and for a while, everyone thought it would never come back

and when it did?? toei was trying to recoup the losses from tri the best it could. tri was purged from almost all digimon media, relegated to background cameos in future digimon media at most. nobody wanted to talk about tri to the point that when a sequel movie set after tri (last evolution kizuna) was released in 2020, tri was completely ignored. kizuna focuses on the zero two cast to overcompensate for the fact that they were completely absent from tri. the zero two cast even got a new movie last year (the beginning) all their own to try and make it up to fans that they were gone. the adventure timeline has continued, but tri has been entirely excluded from it aside from a few brief snapshots in the background of kizuna and the beginning. nobody wants to remember this anime existed despite it being a part of the main anime's timeline between zero two and kizuna. it hasn't been outright retconned but it might as well have been

after tri, toei decided to play it safe again. they went for an adventure reboot as the next season, and thus, digimon adventure psi (or adventure: or adventure 2020, it has a million names) was born. adventure 2020 is just,,, mediocre. it's a lot more focused on the spectacle of big fight scenes now that the digimon anime has a budget to speak of, and the character growth took a backseat. adventure 2020 took a long time to get dubbed though. like over two years. and it's still very inaccessible to this day because it's not available on any streaming service but instead (reads smudged writing on hand) available on the play station store where you can buy every individual episode out of 67. adventure 2020 is the second longest season of the anime after xros wars but it's still kind of a nothing burger because it fails to capture the emotional heart of adventure 1999. it's a fine enough season but a lot of people lost interest when it turned into just a fight compilation instead of developing any of its characters in a meaningful way

adventure 2020 also saw the continuation of a big problem with tri which was favoritism. since both adventrue 2020 and tri were meant to be franchise revivals in their own ways, they play it very safe and focus on taichi and yamato almost exclusively to the point of ignoring many of the other characters. the problem is at its worst in adventure 2020 in my eyes even though it is present in every season to some extent or another save for tamers and appmon. since adventure 2020 focused on two characters and their fighting capabilities while kind of shelving the other six, it fell into the pitfalls of past seasons (especially frontier and xros wars) and kind of ended without anyone really caring about it

after adventure 2020, the final season of the digimon anime was ghost game. this one is the most episodic digimon season of the bunch to try and appeal to a casual audience, and i think it does that very well! unfortunately it doesn't really develop its overarching plot at a good pace and crams everything together into the last five episodes after having a run time of over fifty episodes before that. ghost game is fine, but it's not a character driven season because of its heavy reliance on the monster of the week structure. the characters were always the draw of digimon, and each season has its own method of going about developing its characters. ghost game,,, doesn't do that! so it's just kind of there, and it once again ended without a grand finale and no one really cared much that it was over

so in conclusion, digimon tri was meant to be the revival of the digimon anime. in practice though, it had a very troubled production and didn't give a damn at all about the suorce material it was meant to follow, and it fell flatter than any other digimon season in the process. tri soured a lot of people's opinions on digimon, which is ironic since tri was supposed to bring back the audience that was lost all the way back when zero two aired in 2000. the digimon anime has not recovered since then, and i think outright ignoring tri in favor of new projects is the best way to go

now for how this ties in with ace attorney dual destinies and spirit of justice! i feel like you can figure out where the parallels are just by reading through everything i've already said, but i'm going into it anyway. ace attorney's popularity started to fall off after the original trilogy ended, and after a few experimental entries (aa4 and the aai games), it was decided that they needed something to bring the old audience back. that wound up being bringing phoenix back into the courtroom for dual destinies. however, dual destinies tries to act as an entry point, so while it's not the same as deliberately ignoring everything that came before it, it has the same effect. dual destinies does not let itself reference anything that happened before it released, and that means it's relying on nostalgia without actually digging into what implications the story will have on the greater narrative. the no-spoiler rule ends up very similar to the tri director's refusal to watch the original digimon adventure and zero two. on top of that, dual destinies tries to tackle darker, more mature themes, completely forgetting the maturity of the storytelling that came before it. frustratingly enough, both dual destinies and tri have nuggets of gold in them, but they're squandered by bad plot points and also reusal of old plots. tri's entire premise is actually just the basis of the first movie for zero two. it's just hurricane landing again but stretched out for closer to ten hours instead of just one. similarly, dual destinies' finale follows a very similar premise to the end of the first game, but it reenacts it without understanding what made the original great. it *could* have been great though, and that is ultimately what frustrates me so much about both of them. they're so close to being amazing, but they just fall short

the difference between ace attorney and digimon though is that digimon did not double down. after tri didn't work, they yanked the wheel in the opposite direction and made kizuna, a movie that *is* narratively cohesive with adventure and zero two. i'm not a huge fan of kizuna but i do acknowledge that it is very well written. ace attorney, on the other hand, doubled the fuck down and made spirit of justice in the same vein as dual destinies. in doing so, they wrote themselves into a corner they now can't get out of. pandering to nostalgia fell short in the end, and it wasn't enough to truly bring ace attorney to a wider audience as they had hoped. apollo is out of the plot, and he was character assassinated before he was pushed out. athena has been sidelined because of nostalgia around phoenix specifically. spirit of justice is the epitome of the bad decisions made in dual destinies, and they're blowing up in capcom's faces now. there's no easy way to write a seventh ace attorney game now without retconning something, but since they doubled down in spirit of justice--a game that is much worse than dual destinies both in terms of bloat (which is also a tri problem lol) and writing--they can't just quietly escape it the way digimon did with kizuna and the beginning. ace attorney hasn't come out with a new mainline game in eight years. if you ask me, it needs to cut its losses and either a) go the appmon route of making something entirely different since dgs did that and was an amazing game just like appmon was an amazing anime or b) figure out what to retcon and what to keep because going down the same path of spirit of justice very clearly is not working. they realized it too late though, and now, they're in trouble for it

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday to the actor Tony Curran born 13th December 1969 in Glasgow.

Tony took to acting while still in his teens, he recalls the days in the Scottish Youth Theatre with Gerard Butler. Young Anthony Curran went on to attend the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama before gaining notoriety with a prominent role on the BBC series This Life. He would go on to make a name for himself in movies with a sci-fi/fantasy bent, like The 13th Warrior, Blade II, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Beowulf, of his small screen credits, our old favourite Taggart returns after not appearing on Kenneth Cranham’s CV yesterday!

Curran has made a name for himself in over the Atlantic in a number of US shows which include, Numb3rs, Medium, 24, Sons of Anarchy and Elementary. His most notable appearances over here have been in the ITV series Ultimate Force, Dr Who, as Vincent van Gogh , and more recently in the E4/Netflix original series Crazyhead.

Tony appeared in the 2018 Netflix film Outlaw King about Robert the Bruce and the Wars of Scottish Independence, where he played the part of Aonghus Óg of Islay, ( Angus Macdonald) chief of Clann Domhnaill. Back over in the states he has recently been in Ray Donovan, which is a great series series and few episodes of the CBS show SEAL Team. He also turned up in the mini series, Your Honor, which also stars the excellent US actor Brian Cranston of Breaking Bad fame, it’s great hearing Scottish accents in US shows, don’t you think?

Tony is another guy I follow on twitter, the guy has a heart of gold, I remember he tweeted “Me and my lass woke up this morning temperatures dropping compelled to help our homeless, loaded up some blankets pillows clothes, sweaters jackets, I’m sure we all have stuff we can donate, it all helps.” He was then out on the streets handing them out to the homeless, Tony was involved in a charity weekender with all funds raised going to St Mary’s & St Alphonsus and the great community work they do. He has in the past played charity football matches in Glasgow.

In the past couple of years Tony has been playing Despero in the Super Hero series The Flash, Tony has also appeared in the US movie, Two Deaths of Henry Baker where he plays a town Sheriff, this year he appeared in the US crime series The Calling, the show has some good reviews on IMDB with a 7.1/10 rating, and in an episode of the US show For All Mankind

Last year Tony appeared in a homegrown project. The two part “series”, Mayflies is set in a Scotland and Manchester in the 80′s Martin Compston co-stars along with new Shetland star Ashley Jensen, it is on BBC1 on December 28th. The show is based on a novel by Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan's book of the same name. It tells the story of Jimmy (Compston) and Tully (Curran) who ignite an “unforgettable friendship” defined by music, films and their shared rebellious spirit in a small Scottish town in the 1980s. if you haven't seen it, please look it up, and keep the hankies close by.

In the past couple of years Tony has appeared in a couple of US series, an unexpected second season of Your Honor and Secret Invasion.

On fame Tony commented;

"I've been lucky. I don't for a minute take for granted the good fortune I have had. You don't like to get ideas above your station, especially a boy from the south side of Glasgow."

[handyowlet]

The definitive (as best as I could do after transcribing all of S2 myself) list of when Crowley calls Aziraphale by his name versus calling him Angel.

Aziraphale

- [ ] S1E1- 2007- phone booth, we need to talk about apocalypse

- [ ] S1E3- 3004 BC- Noah’s ark (crowd)

- [ ] S1E5- 2018- Soho, bookshop fire, calling out to him to find him

- [ ] S1E5- 2018- Bar, confirming it’s Aziraphale’s spirit after discorporation (background patrons)

- [ ] S1E5- 2018- Air Force base, greeting Aziraphale when he is possessing Madame Tracy (Shadwell, guard)

- [ ] S1E6- 2018- Walking in to AF base, lick/kick butt line (Tracy, Shadwell)

- [ ] S1E6- 2018- AF base, telling him to shoot Adam (Them, Tracy, Shadwell)

- [ ] S2E1- present day- in Bentley after Beelzebub tells him about extreme sanctions, talking to himself

- [ ] S2E3- 1827- Edinburgh, in the crypt to get Aziraphale’s attention when he’s babbling about saving Wee Morag (technically Elspeth is there but not paying attention to them)

- [ ] S6E6- present day- Bookshop, when angels and demons are talking about war because of the halo thing (Michael, Uriel, Saraqael, Muriel, Dagon, Shax, Furfur, Maggie, Nina)

3 private, 7 public, 2 in public but likely not overheard (so his name appears to be the more public option)

Angel

- [ ] S1E2-2018- Tadfield, dropping Anathema off at home (Anathema)

- [ ] S1E3- 1793- Bastille, time is frozen

- [ ] S1E3- 1862- St. James Park, holy water scene (background park-goers but they’re kind of whispering)

- [ ] S1E4- 2018- Soho outside bookshop, run away with me argument (background pedestrians)

- [ ] S2E1- present day- outside coffee shop after hearing Maggie call him an Angel (technically background pedestrians, Maggie has walked away by then)

- [ ] S2E1- present day- back room of bookshop trying to convince Aziraphale to abandon Gabriel

- [ ] S2E2- 2500 BC- Job’s palace, saying Aziraphale sounds jealous about having choice

- [ ] S2E2- 2600 BC- Job’s palace, asking if Aziraphale is sure he won’t kill the kids (Ennon, Keziah, Jemima)

- [ ] S2E2- 2500 BC- Uz, seeing God talking to Job (Job and God are there but not aware of A & C)

- [ ] S2E2- 2500 BC- Uz, when Aziraphale thinks he’s going to Hell

- [ ] S2E3- present day- In bookshop, pulling Aziraphale away from Muriel (Muriel)

- [ ] S2E3- present day, talking to Aziraphale through Bentley radio

- [ ] S2E3- 1827- Edinburgh, telling Aziraphale to give his money to Elspeth (Elspeth)

- [ ] S2E5- present day- Bookshop, during the ball, saying people will get hurt (technically the shopkeepers are in the background but they’re whispering)

- [ ] S6E6- present day- Bookshop, final 15, you’re better than that

6 private, 5 public, 4 in public but likely not overheard (so Angel seems to be the more private option)

[mariacallous]

Like a lot of us, Carlo Acutis spent an ungodly amount of his life staring at screens. Born in London in 1991, he grew up an only child in a newly connected world. He wore sweatshirts and Nike trainers. He played Halo and taught himself to code. But that’s where the similarities end—because next year, Acutis will officially be named a saint.

As well as the internet, Acutis revered another institution: the Catholic Church. From a young age, he was acutely interested in Eucharistic miracles—extraordinary events which, according to Catholics, see consecrated bread or wine suddenly become the actual body or blood of Christ. “To always be united to Jesus: This is my life plan,” he told his mother after his First Communion.

In 2004, Acutis started to research Eucharistic miracles from around the world, developing a website to document them. His aim was to connect with other young Catholics. “He was personally convinced that the scientific evidence would help people … come back to Mass,” says Courtney Mares, author of Blessed Carlo Acutis: A Saint in Sneakers and Rome correspondent for the Catholic News Agency.

The online archive was unveiled in October 2006, a simple build with cursive text and religious imagery. But just a few days after it launched, Acutis fell ill. He was diagnosed with leukemia, with little chance of recovery. “Death has become the passage towards life,” he told his mother, before falling into a coma, suffering a brain hemorrhage, and passing away. He was just 15.

His spirit lived on. The website he’d built helped introduce Eucharistic miracles to a mass audience across the globe and was translated into 17 languages. A physical exhibition linked to Acutis’ work has toured internationally, being shown in thousands of parishes worldwide. It’s still touring now. Acutis is revered not just for his use of technology, but also his dedication to living virtuously. “I think that prayer was truly the great secret of his saintly life,” Mares says. But the website was key to creating a halo effect, heightening his reputation as a blessed figure.

In 2012, the Archdiocese of Milan—where Acutis’ family had moved when he was a child—started a cause for canonization, paving the way for sainthood. Unbeknown to most secular folk, saints are still made regularly; Pope Francis has recognized a record 912 since 2013. But becoming one, as the cliché goes, requires patience. The original petitioner appoints a postulator to collect evidence of the candidate’s sacred work (the “devil’s advocate” used to be a real antithesis to this occupation, arguing against sainthood).

“The process of identifying someone as a saint is long and careful and quite bureaucratic,” says Tim Hutchings, associate professor of religious ethics at the University of Nottingham. “It starts when some Catholics decide that they really think someone should be a saint. They start a campaign to prove to their local bishop that this person lived an incredibly holy life, or died for their faith.”

After being named a "Servant of God" in 2013, Acutis reached the second rung on the ladder to sainthood when he was venerated by Pope Francis in 2018. His body was exhumed and brought to a tomb in Assisi where he still lies today, dressed in his trademark '90s teenager garb. “It’s a beautiful thing that for the first time in history you can see a saint dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a sweatshirt. That’s a great message,” Father Carlos Acácio Gonçalves Ferreira, the shrine’s rector, said at the time. A Franciscan monk based at the tomb, noted that “many young people” were visiting.

Next, Acutis and his followers needed a literal miracle—one he had performed himself. “It has to be something which can't be scientifically explained, so proving this is difficult. For example, this might require doctors to confirm that they can't explain how a healing has occurred,” Hutchings says. In 2013 a woman in Brazil claimed that praying to Acutis had helped heal her son’s pancreatic defect. In 2020 Pope Francis authenticated the miracle and Acutis was beatified, culminating in a ceremony celebrating his virtuous life. “According to Google Trends, more people were searching for information about Carlo Acutis than about the Pope,” Mares notes.

Then, in May 2024, a second miracle was recognized, involving the healing of a 21-year-old girl from Costa Rica injured in a bike accident. In 2022, her mother had knelt at Acutis' grave and prayed for his help. Her daughter then miraculously resumed breathing without support and made a full recovery. The Pope approved Acutis’ canonization in July—with an official ceremony set for 2025.

It’s rare for a saint to be so young and unheard of, and still reach this lofty status so soon after their death. “It is remarkable that Carlo Acutis will be canonized so close to the date that he was born. For context, of the 912 saints canonized by Pope Francis, the next most recent birth date was in 1926,” Mares says. It makes him the first ever millennial saint and, as some Catholics have put it, “God’s influencer” and the “patron saint of the internet.”

Meanwhile, the cult of Carlos Acutis is continuing to spread across the world. Relics, including a piece of the sheet that shrouded his corpse, a fragment of one of his sweatshirts, and his actual heart, have toured internationally, recently coming to the UK for the New Dawn Catholic Pilgrimage. Online, you can buy Carlo Acutis figurines, rosary beads, posters, and commemorative keychains. In North Lanarkshire, Scotland, a life-size statue of Acutis has been erected at Carfin Grotto, and there’s a stained-glass window in Wiltshire to attract young churchgoers.

There's even a comic book telling his story, and a VR experience offering players a chance to step into Acutis’ sneakers. And, for Catholics who are unable to pay their respects in person, his tomb can be visited (and donated to) virtually through an always-on livestream.

The Church doesn’t pick saints—campaigns start with the Catholic community—but Acutis’ popularity meshes with its desire for a young role model. It also highlights the Church’s embrace of tech. “The Pope has been making an annual lecture about communications technology for 58 years,” says Hutchings. “It absolutely makes sense for Catholics to look for a saint of the internet who represents the godly and faithful use of technology.”

There is, of course, still a stigma surrounding the internet’s potential for blasphemous behavior. “The Pope has warned that today’s digital age constantly tempts young people to ‘self-absorption, isolation, and empty pleasure,’” Mares says. And some devout Catholics are still struggling with temptation. “With technology changing at such a rapid pace today, many Christians are still grappling with how best to live out their faith in the world of laptops, cell phones, and social media,” Mares says.

But the Pope also called the internet a “gift from God” in 2014, and he recognizes its potential for spreading the word of Christ—it just depends on how it is applied. And in the case of Acutis, tech was used in a pious way. “Acutis used the new technology in exactly the way that the Church wants to see it used: to promote commitment to Catholic teaching, virtuous living, and devotion to the rituals of the local church,” Hutchings explains. The Church will hope that the relatable “saint in sneakers” who watched cartoons and surfed the web will resonate with a community looking for an idol.

[germanpostwarmodern]

Over the course of more than 50 years Friedrich Achleitner (1930-2019) systematically evaluated 20th century architecture in all of Austria’s federal states except for one: Niederösterreich. Being the largest of the nine states it posed a real challenge that Achleitner was only able to tackle fragmentarily. This circumstance motivated Dietmar Steiner (1951-2020), founding director of the Architekturzentrum Wien and custodian of Achleitner’s archive, in 2018 to initiate a guide to 20th century architecture in Niederösterreich. Based on Achleitner’s preliminary work Steiner et al. pursued the goal of making a guide in the spirit of Achleitner but with a contemporary twist. The result is “Architektur in Niederösterreich im 20. Jahrhundert nach Friedrich Achleitner”, published recently by Birkhäuser and edited by Doris Grandits, Theresa Knosp and Caroline Jäger-Kleine: the guide on more than 600 pages collects about 2,300 buildings and thus offers a comprehensive overview of 20th century architecture in Niederösterreich. Topographically and typologically organized it also marks the buildings researched by Achleitner and those added by the editors. Accordingly Achleitner’s buildings are presented in his own black-and-white photographs while all others are in full color. Otherwise the entries follow the example of the previous editions: as Doris Grandits and Theresa Knosp explain in their essay, Achleitner by means of longer or shorter texts marks more or less important buildings, provides context and establishes relationships between neighboring buildings and typologies. With a precise and poignant language Achleitner the man of letters brings home the aspiration of the guide to be more than a guide. The sheer amount of buildings covered is one indicator but language and effort also demonstrate the outstanding and in its thoroughness unrivaled character of Achleitner’s work.

With the guide the editors bring to a close a project that stays true to the Achleitner’s legacy but carries it forward under 21st century conditions. And despite its comprehensiveness it remained a vademecum for on-site explorations and excursions in Niederösterreich. Highly recommended!

[thestargayzingetherian]

Getting To Know You Again

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra) Characters: Adora (She-Ra), Catra (She-Ra), Bow (She-Ra), Scorpia (She-Ra), Swift Wind | Spirit Additional Tags: Fluff, Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Season 5, Episode: s05e01 Horde Prime (She-Ra), War, Catra Needs a Hug (She-Ra), Adora Needs a Hug (She-Ra), Catra is in Love with Adora (She-Ra), Adora is a Dork (She-Ra), Slight adaption of canon but mostly its own thing, Not Canon Compliant, Alternate Universe - Catra joins the Rebellion Series: Part 38 of Adapted Prompts, Part 10 of She-Ra: Diverging Hearts (One Shots) Summary: As Horde Prime continues to siege Etheria and the rebellion prepares to go and rescue Glimmer, Adora finds herself having to adjust to a certain catgirl being back in her life. (Catradora, Canon-divergent, Fluff)

Based on a prompt by @astrynserene

[o-hora-o]

hello your art is amazing !! i wondered, do you have hcs / doodles / thoughts about the aftermath of the 1955 disaster ? be it eins and tesla's reaction, how they had to support each others to rise again, how eins had to survive joyce's loss etc... also i'm curious because we always talk about einjoyce in 55 naturally, but the game showed us she still thinks of him even in 2018, it's been so long.... after all the welt joyce is the whole pillar emblem and creation of anti-entropy, it must be hard to be one of the founder of a worldwide organization based on your old lover's legacy otl

Thank you very much!!! Both for the compliment and the question. I often think about 55's aftermath, of course. And these thoughts torment me most of the time so that I draw sketches and make hcs about the alternative outcome. Sometimes I do want to draw more arts about canonical events, and I probably will but it's just...hard.  

Now further goes my headcanonical 1955 disaster aftermath and einjoyce fan ramble and I’m sorry in advance if this is not what you expected to hear from me: 

In the novel, Ada mentioned that after waking up, Ein and Tesla accepted everything that had happened very calmly. But I imagine Ada wasn't present there when they woke up, she spent all her time with Joachim and took care of him. And maybe at some point, the boy got so attached to her that that’s why he eventually decided to run away with her for 20 years, away from the problems and legacy of the late hero (And then hi3 mentions Ada only...what, once?) I imagine that Ada was really the only one who could look after Joachim because Planck spent most of her time in the hospital. 

So, now let’s talk about Planck. I love Emma, she might have quirks but she’s very dear to me. She played the mother figure whose presence could bring the sense of peace, comfort and safety. Emma was “everything is going to be alright” person with a strong yet soft spirit, she was someone Lieserl aspired to be. But oh, how lonely she’d been...throughout all her life. I think Carl was the only one who understood her like no one else. Then she lost him and was on the verge of losing her dear girls. Not to mention she had already lost Edison and Schrodinger. She had to take Edison's place and single-handedly create an entire organization out of the ashes, and Schrodinger...Planck did not live to see the day when it turned out that Erwin was alive. So yeah, Emma was a lonely woman with no one by her side but the unthinkable unbearable burden, she was the first one who had to carry the weight of the World on her shoulders. All in all, back in 1955-56 Plank was either in the hospital or busy trying to find a new base. Oh, yes, most likely she had to organize funerals which Ein and Tesla, obviously, missed. 

Ein and Tesla...as I’ve already said once, not seeing waking-up-from-coma scene in the novel was the greatest loss but the greatest blessing at the same time. I think it was the hardest and most horrific moment in their lives. And I also like to imagine around then they got drunk together for the first time. 

To be honest, I admire Tesla's copium and how she's doing...mostly alright these days. Especially regarding her unfortunate life. But damn how easily 1955 can trigger her. I think she's been holding a very deep personal grudge against Welt all these years. She almost never mentions him or speaks his name out load and, in general, she never speaks of those years either, unlike Ein. If Ein and Joachim are stuck mentally in the past, Tesla seems to exist only within "today". It's only when Joachim tries to sacrifice himself over and over again all the accumulated resentment and despair wakes up in her. Because Welt's sacrifice did all this to Joachim and Welt's legacy is louder than Tesla's cry to stop playing a lonely hero. I think Tesla is a definition of "I told you so" in this story. She was the one who foresaw Welt's death. She was the one who wanted to share her "know there's nothing worth remembering in our lives so there's no need to dwell on the past" ideology to help him let go of the guilt and start appreciating his life. I think she cared about him no less then Ein because I see Tesla and Welt as a younger brother/older sister duo, they always bicker, tease but care for each other nonetheless. So of course when she woke up, she was lost, angry, hysterical and hurt. I think she deserves no less than Joachim or Ein the opportunity to meet Welt again and to talk everything she’s been holding inside all these years out. But apparently this was too boring for the writers, and they just decided to erase Welt’s soul for forever and took away from AE the opportunity to try locating his soul in the core and bring him back when they’re not busy preventing the end of the world every day. But instead, we got Joffrey (I have nothing against the boy but this whole clone thing just feels so.... utterly wrong, help). And I find it ironic that the one who unwillingly made Tesla’s life a mess is, kinda, became her son whom she’s been taking care of and who will be by her side from now on. 

And Lieserl...you know, I’ve never been a fan of romantic stories but somehow einjoyce got a chokehold on me and my heart, for me they’re the true manifestation of soulmates and match-made-in-heaven thing. I already had a little brainrot post about her living after 1955 but yes, you are right, she still thinks of him even in 2018 and I still can’t wrap my mind around it. That and the fact she’d been analysing him for 3 years before she took him in to the 42 lab. For 3 years, without seeing him in person (and she even tried to practice talking less “nonsense” so she would look mysterious and idk attractive to him? But totally failed on the very first day spent together with him). And then, in the course of one, ONE, month Welt became someone who could not only understand Ein’s quirks, chaotic thoughts but also enjoy her personality and communicate with her in pure silence. He was the last one she talked to so freely and who actually listened to her. And Lieserl being ready to rather die than let Erwin hurt Welt is a whole “hear me out” conversation on its own. So yes, I believe a part of her died that day with Welt and the other - later on with the death of her "ultimate navigator" Planck (I still think about how she shortly mentioned that that period was a nightmare for the organization). Now she's just Doctor Einstein and even though she acts as her younger self from time to time she still feels like an... empty cold vessel with an escapistic fixation on work, books and games. And if she has no Tesla to tease, no work to do, no book to read and no game to play, she escapes into nostalgic thoughts. Does she really care about the future of the world and humanity? Because I think she can't care less about 99% people around her. She and Joachim are just driven by symbolic and twisted sense of Welt's legacy who thought his death would be insignificant and then it turned their lives upside down and inside out. Does she even care about Joachim or just sees him as a part of Welt’s legacy? 

But back to the 1956. 

Would it be too sadistic to imagine she had a long dream in which no one died whilst she was in coma? I remember I had an old headcanon similar to this one but it's about present days where 14th Herrscher puts everyone to sleep with an ideal dream. And it back loops to the moment when Ein wakes up in sweat early in the morning in the villa of Southend-on-Sea.  

But anyway. The moment when she woke up from coma...I’m no writer but let’s say her consciousness awakened before her sensations. She couldn't understand where she was or who she was. She didn't remember what happened. And this void of perception caused both calmness and unease for her, everything around felt like through fathomless water. It was hard for her to open eyes and concentrate because she was met by blinding light and dizziness instead. Her hands were shaking, and her body was shivering when she tried to get up. As she called for Welt and Tesla her lips felt numb and every word seemed to scratch her throat, taking away all her energy so that she was ready to fall asleep again. And let’s say Tesla woke up sooner than Ein so that Nicola and Emma were both in anticipation and fear of the moment when she would wake up only to split her life into “before” and “after” with mere three words. She would be in denial and panic would slowly rise up her throat. As the realisation set in, she would slowly suffocate on the verge of tears. Because all of it was so unfair, she entrusted her little World’s fate to the world, and it took him away. She failed to protect him, and the guilt slowly consumed her from the inside day after day, year after year. And to give her an eternal life with an option of ending it by her will is... sigh. I hope she and Tesla at least got sedative pills while in hospital. 

So that’s when Tesla and Ein formed a strong bond. But their problem is that they are constantly keeping all their opinions, feelings and thoughts to themselves (yes, even Tesla) and most likely it resulted in various quarrels and then Emma helped them realise that from now on they only have each other and the life will go on but in the end... they will be the only one left.  

Sometimes I forget that not long after all of this hospital chaos they took part in numerous interviews with Joachim who had to shapeshift into Welt's appearance, and he had to do that for years. That's almost as dreadful as getting eternal lives.  

As you can see, I can endlessly talk about them and all the known scenes they took part in after 1955. I honestly tried to write my thoughts as short as possible, and I hope you don’t regret opening this door into abyss of my endless thoughts with your question.