#Air Garam | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ichorai · 2 years ago

Text

i was just a kid ; marc spector.

track one of BROKEN MACHINE.

pairing ; marc spector x vigilante!gn!reader

synopsis ; khonshu wanted you dead. marc just wanted you.

words ; 6.6k

themes ; action, mild angst/fluff, vigilante au, thief au

warnings / includes ; blood/injury, cursing, mentions of human trafficking/sexual assault but not at all graphic, marc is basically chasing after reader for half the fic, we're traveling the world in this fic baby !!! khonshu being Annoying, reader doesn't know marc has DID and thinks he's crazy, a steven cameo !! and one (1) mention of spider-man and daredevil <3

main masterlist.

NEW DELHI, INDIA.

The street market was crowded, bustling with chatty tourists, loud salesmen, and traveling vendors. The air was heavy with the sweet, saccharine smell of fresh mangoes, intertwined with the faintest trace of turmeric, ginger and garam masala from other stalls you hurriedly passed by. You would’ve given anything to stop and try some of the food, if not for the terrifying white-suited fucker hunting you down.

The bleeding cut on your cheek he’d given you from when he threw his crescent-shaped boomerang in your direction throbbed. You’d barely been able to duck away in time. At least here, in the busy street, he couldn’t risk hurting anyone else by striking you long-range.

At least, you hoped so. You weren’t entirely sure how far this bastard was willing to go to get you. Sure, you’d made a lot of enemies in the past, but, to your recollection, you’d never met any moon-caped supers keen on taking your life before.

You were quick to duck through the tight-knit throng, panic setting in when you realized the market was thinning away—you were near the end of the street, and you no longer had the advantage of cover on your side.

With agile steps, you sprinted into an alleyway, glancing up the side of an apartment.

Then, you began to climb. You scaled the small grooves in the bricks, expertly balancing your weight just right so you wouldn’t fall. You’d done this a million times before, with much smoother surfaces to climb—after all, that was the bare minimum required of a thief.

You hauled yourself onto the rooftop, laying low so he wouldn’t be able to spot you from ground level.

Only—he wasn’t on ground level.

A shadow loomed over you just as you crouched by the rusted air conditioning unit, and you had but a millisecond to roll out of the way before his foot came crashing clean through the metal.

Well, fuck me, he can fly, you wryly thought.

“Glide!” the man behind the mask gruffed as he grabbed your arm and shoved you against the crumpled AC unit, the searing hot metal digging painfully into your skin. “I glide, I don’t fly!”

“I said that out loud?” you panted with a hoarse chuckle, before quickly twisting and kicking his knee, brandishing a sharp dagger from the utility belt loosely secured around your hips. Up close, his suit appeared to be fashioned from a multitude of bandages, not unlike the cheap mummies from old nineties halloween movies. “Sorry, would it be weird for me to ask why a toilet paper cosplayer is trying to murder me?”

The man offered you no response, only diving forward and landing a good punch to one side of your jaw, which made your vision go blurry with disorientation for a moment.

There was no way you could best him with strength—you needed to get away from him.

With quick, nimble fingers, you pulled two smoke bombs from your belt and threw them onto the ground. Large plumes of ashen white immediately ate up the space between you, and he was left blinded for a couple of seconds. You tugged a grenade out a moment later, pulling out the pin with your teeth before tossing it in his general direction and throwing yourself off the opposite side of the building, where you’d spotted a plastic-woven tarp over one of the stalls by the edge of the market.

You’d crashed straight through their booth, fruits and drinks spilling all over the street’s asphalt. The vendors started cussing at you in a language that was foreign to your ears, but you knew they were saying foul things nonetheless. With a groan, you pushed yourself up, ignoring the searing pain that ran down your leg and began running back into the crowd.

The explosion on the building had blown Marc back several meters, and he cursed beneath his breath as he pushed himself back up. Just as he was about to set back off to track you down, Khonshu’s bellowing voice made him halt in his motions.

“Let them go,” the God rumbled. There was an undertone of mild disappointment that laid stagnant beneath his voice, as if he’d just lost a game rather than a target. “We have more pressing matters at hand. Ammit’s followers are stealing more souls in Cuba.”

Marc’s brow furrowed. “Let them go? You want me to go to Cuba? That’s halfway across the world! I can finish the job, they can’t have gotten too far—”

“We have more pressing matters,” he repeated himself, this time with an edge to his voice. A headache pulsed angrily through Marc’s temple.

“Why’d you want them dead so bad? This target—that person, were they a follower of Ammit? Huh?”

Much to his frustration, Khonshu ignored him completely, merely brushing past his avatar. “Go to Havana,” the bird-skull rumbled over his shoulder. “I’ll meet you there.”

And with that, he disappeared.

ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN.

A final stream of smoke fell from Elena’s lips as she pulled the cigarette away, dropping it into the floor to stub with her boot. She fixed you with a neutral expression as you made your way to her, though the unmistakable affection in her molten brown eyes gave her away.

“Took you long enough,” she said, glancing at the large black cloak you were wearing. Her demeanor gradually shifted into one of a more somber variety. “Verdict’s been decided. The court decided not to charge—all those police that beat my friends to death… they’re walking away free of consequence. The government’s gone to shit. Everything is more expensive now—riots are breaking out over fuel prices, which means more people are getting killed. Nobody is willing to help anymore.”

You nodded grimly. “What can I do?”

There was a dark glimmer to her eyes as she squared her jaw. “You’re going to help me burn down government buildings. I don’t know how many, but… as many as it takes for them to change.”

A hint of a grin graced your lips as you regarded your past-lover with a nostalgic kind of fondness. “It’s the first time I see you in years and you’re already throwing me headfirst into war.”

She offered you a shrug and a wry smile. “Don’t kid yourself. You live for this kind of shit.”

“Yeah, I guess I do,” you hummed distantly. “Where do we start?”

It was pandemonium.

Everybody was yelling—the protestors, the police, the civilians watching from the sides, the sparse firemen as they tried to put out the massive, roaring flames that were greedily swallowing the government building in its entirety. You had to admit, you were rather proud of your handiwork—absentmindedly wondering if Elena would be happy with it, as well.

Before you could dwell on it any longer, a foreign hand tightly seized around your wrist and began to drag you back away from the crowd. Your gaze wildly swiveled around in confusion to the man yanking you along, noting his heavy-set furrowed brows and his frustrated scowl. With as much strength as you could muster, you dug your heels into the ground and halted his motion, pulling against him with all your might. He didn’t relent, only staring you down with dark eyes that held the warbling reflections of the fire you set behind you.

“Who the fuck are you?!” you barked, starting to get more frantic as you fruitlessly attempted to get him to let go of you.

And when he spoke, it finally dawned on you.

Well, fuck me. It’s that bitch that chased me down in New Delhi. Wonder why he isn’t wearing his super suit… probably not to attract attention like last time. The news was all over him.

“You’re just getting more people killed,” he husked, clearly talking about the fire you’d caused, before brandishing a dark karambit knife, one that you swore gave you a cut just by looking at it. “No wonder he wants you dead.”

Fear wove down your spinal column when the blade poked your lower stomach in warning. “I’m sending a message,” you growled in reply, lips curled over your teeth in a snarl as you bristled. “And what about you? You’re gonna fix the problem by killing me? I don’t even know you! Some hero you are—those people protesting out there? They’re better than you will ever be.”

For a moment, his pupils darted back to the rioting crowd, a flicker of uncertainty crossing his features, and you used the short-lived distraction to your advantage. You expertly kicked the knife out of his hand and landed a quick blow square in the center of his face, feeling his nose break beneath your knuckles.

Not wanting to push your luck—you remembered how fast he was during your last encounter—you gave him one final shove, sending him sprawling into a trash can with a groan and a muffled curse.

By the time he forced himself back onto his feet a second later, you’d already disappeared into the shadows.

Fuck. Khonshu was gonna kill him.

PODGORICA, MONTENEGRO.

Marc still wasn’t sure why Khonshu wanted you dead so badly. Then again, he wasn’t sure about anything when it came to Khonshu.

But he knew one thing for certain—if Marc truly wanted you dead, then you would’ve been six feet under weeks ago. Which meant… he wasn’t actively trying to kill you because he didn’t actually want you dead. All the others that he’d killed for Khonshu felt like they’d deserved it—rapists, abusers, pedophiles… and though Marc didn’t know you very well, he knew you weren’t anything like the people he’d killed before.

Marc didn’t know what he was doing.

Jaw clenched, he pulled the cap lower down his face, shoving his fists into the pockets of his jeans. He followed not too far behind you, silent as a wraith, watching as you merrily strode down the streets of Podgorica.

Finally, when you stopped by a little coffee truck to order an iced latte, Marc stepped forward to stand beside you.

For the first minute, you idly tapped away on your phone, smiling down at the screen briefly before pocketing the device. You glanced at him, thinking nothing of the person beside you, assuming they were just another civilian—

Then you froze.

You knew that face.

After all, you’d broken that very same nose less than a week ago. Strange, it looked just fine now.

Immediately, you hunkered down into a defensive position, backing away from him with quick steps. Then, you ran, sprinting away so quickly that Marc could’ve sworn a trail of dust kicked up beneath your feet.

The man in the coffee truck incredulously yelled out after you, followed by a string of what Marc could only assume was a creative litany of Montenegrin profanity.

Dropping a few shillings onto the truck’s counter, Marc grabbed your coffee and ran after you, shocked at how far you’d managed to get in such a short amount of time.

There was no denying that you were a fast runner—but as the old tale went, the quick hare would always get overly confident. You slowed down to a moderate jog when you glanced behind you, Marc nowhere in sight. With a relieved sigh, you turned the corner and slumped against a building, wiping the sweat from your brow with the back of your hand.

Damn, you’d kill for that iced coffee right about now.

As if on cue, Marc rounded the corner, catching you by surprise. You were just ready to turn tail and run away again, but his hand shot out and held onto your wrist, not unlike he did in Astana.

You spewed out a myriad of curses, ranging from calling him an ‘insufferable cucumber-dicked motherfucker’ to ‘smooth-brained, butt-faced swine’, wildly trying to get him to let go of you. If you weren’t violently bucking against him with all the grace of a panicked mare, he would’ve laughed at the creativity of your insults.

“Stop, I just want to talk!” exclaimed Marc, dodging when you pushed yourself forward to try and wrap your hands around his throat.

“Last two times I saw you, you tried to kill me!” you breathlessly spat. “Sorry if I don’t quite trust you now!”

“I’m unarmed,” he gritted out, stepping back slightly to allow you to scan your gaze over him. Though you didn’t want to admit it, you knew that if Marc really wanted to kill you, you would’ve been dead long ago. “I just want to ask you a couple things. And look—I brought your coffee!”

A low hiss fell from your lips. “I’m not answering jack shit.”

With that, you lunged forward and shoved him hard—so hard that he stumbled into the jagged brick wall behind him with an oomf. The iced latte sloshed right out of its cup and spilled all over his chest. His head struck painfully against the stone and his vision went blurry for a moment, expression faltering.

You stepped away, watching him with cautious, narrowed eyes.

After a long, pregnant pause, the man blinked in a dazed fashion, seeming confused.

“What? Where am I? What’s going on?” he said, accent suddenly… British. He fixed you with a genuinely miffed gaze, appearing slightly frightened at your withering glower.

You didn’t stay to answer his question.

As you were turning on your heel to run away, you faintly heard him mutter to himself, “Where the bloody hell am I?”

Crazy bastard.

VALENCIA, SPAIN.

Your knuckles were split. Blood dribbled down your fist, a mixture of yours and the man whose face you were caving in.

One of your hands was bunched into the collar of his shirt, holding him down as you rained punches on him. The sickening sound of his bones giving way with your strikes didn’t deter you, and you only snarled and hit him again as he blubbered out prayers in Spanish. Blood-flecked spittle dripped from his busted lips.

“Who are you praying to?” you hissed, releasing his collar in favor of wrapping your hand over his throat, squeezing tight. The dull green of his eyes flashed with panic, legs flailing weakly. “The gods will not listen to the likes of you—I’ll make sure of it.”

A strangled wail erupted from him.

And just as you were about to land another punch, you found yourself being shoved away from the man, and promptly lifted off the floor with the scruff of your shirt collar, shoving you against a wall. You began kicking and twisting blindly, cursing furiously when you saw the man you were beating up scurry onto his feet and haggardly sprint away.

Your struggling was of no avail, and you weren’t at all surprised to see the same person that’s been trying to track you down for months now.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he snarled, brows heavily furrowed and dark eyes stormy with anger. “You were about to kill that guy!”

“He deserves it,” you bit out, glaring back at him with just as much intensity. “The fucker’s been stalking a friend of mine and sexually assaulted her daughter.”

There was a beat of silence. Marc’s cross expression seemed to drain away, but he still bore a stern face as he slowly let you go. You slid down the wall and got back onto your feet with a wince.

“Why have you been following me?” you huffed, dusting off your pants. “You think I don’t know that if you really wanted to kill me, I would be dead by now?”

Marc squared his jaw and leveled his gaze on you. “Someone… close to me wants you dead. I want to know why first—he won’t tell me.”

“Sounds like you shouldn't be all that close to him, then,” you snorted derisively.

“Not for a lack of trying,” the man dryly replied.

With a scoff, you stepped forward and wiped your bloody knuckles onto his shirt, leaving a damp trail of darkening crimson. “There’s way too many reasons a person would want me dead,” you whispered, one hand patting his chest. The other trailed down, down, down…

To the high-rise potted plant beside you. You grabbed a fistful of dirt.

“See, he’s not exactly what you’d call a person—”

Before Marc could finish his sentence, you chucked the dirt straight into his face. He inhaled some of the soil and doubled over, pounding on his chest as he coughed it out. With a growl, he frustratedly swiped the remaining flecks of dirt out of his eyes, blearily looking back up. And, to none of his surprise but much of his dismay, you were already gone.

OSLO, NORWAY.

“Why aren’t they dead yet, Marc?” grumbled Khonshu in that grating, gravely tone of his. Even though the God had no eyes, Marc could still feel his stare burning straight through him.

With a frown, Marc was quick to respond, “Because you haven’t told me why yet.”

“You’ve never needed a reason before—always blindly following my orders,” the bird-skull crooned. “What makes them so different?”

There was a bitter taste to the back of Marc’s throat. What made you so different?

“Because I don’t know if they deserve it, alright?” he retorted, crossing his arms to glare up at the tall figure. “You can’t just expect me to kill everyone who mildly inconveniences you.”

Harrumphing, Khonshu snapped back, “They are naught but an inconvenience—they are a disruption to the very balance of nature. Y/N has taken justice into their own hands, and that is a very dangerous thing for a simple mortal to do.”

Marc cast his gaze away in frustration, pacing back and forth. “But that’s exactly what you make me do.”

“Yes, because you are my avatar,” deadpanned the God. “And Y/N is not. Though, they might as well be because you are being a fool.”

He could feel one of his eyes twitch. There wasn’t ever a conversation Marc could remember where Khonshu didn’t insult him.

“They’re doing what they think is right,” defended Marc. “They’re not hurting people just for the sake of it.”

“That is not for them to decide!” bellowed the God, which made him step back just a bit. “They have done terrible, unimaginable things in the past—though mistakes some may be—and they will continue to make them. Take a look for yourself.” With that, Khonshu swept his arm out, gesturing to the large bank across the street, large windows giving him a clear view of what was going on inside.

His heart dropped down to his stomach when he saw you.

You were wearing a mask that covered the entirety of your features, except for your eyes and your mouth. The rest of your body was shrouded with simple, dark clothing, suitable for running.

And, most notably, you had a gun in your hand, pointing straight at the trembling woman working behind the counter. Your mouth was moving and you gestured with lax, calm movements, despite the explicit terror written across the woman’s face.

Marc’s brow furrowed. Damn it.

He watched as you snatched the bag of money the woman slowly slid over, and hightailed out of the bank with the gun still gripped tightly in your hand. You ran the opposite way, before disappearing down another block. Glancing over at Khonshu, only to see that he was nowhere in sight, Marc huffed out a sigh and began sprinting after you.

One downside of Oslo was that their buildings weren’t exactly the easiest to climb—which meant that you had to stick to the ground and trust your speed.

Marc wasn’t as fast as you without his suit, that was for certain. But with his suit—he could glide.

And so that’s how the white-caped figure dropped straight down in front of you out of seemingly nowhere, which elicited a shriek of surprise from you, nearly dropping the bag out of shock. You had pulled your mask off long ago, shoving it into the knapsack shrugged over your shoulders, along with the gun.

This clearly wasn’t your first time doing this.

“You,” was what you incredulously breathed out, eyes wide. “You must be obsessed with me or something.”

Not in the mood to play around, Marc growled out, “Why are you doing this? Give the money back. It’s not yours.”

“Who said it was for me?” you countered, upper lip curled in contempt. You tilted your head at him, eyeing his suit with interest, before returning back to your scathing disposition. “Not that it’s any of your business, but this money’s for the small orphanage a couple miles from here. They’re barely getting by with the money the government gives them. I have a kid there I know.”

With bated breath, Marc willed the suit away, leaving him in a dark sweatshirt and a pair of woolen pants. He eyed you suspiciously, still not too sure if he should trust you.

Sensing this, you rolled your eyes and unzipped your bag. “If you don’t believe me—check my gun. It’s blank.” You fished out the small weapon and handed it over to him with the end pointed towards you so he wouldn’t think you were going to shoot him. “No bullets.”

Marc didn’t need to check it—by now he knew you were telling the truth. But he looked into the chamber anyway, finding it void of any ammunition.

“Can I go now? We both know you’re not going to kill me. The cops will be looking,” you said, voice a bit more gentle than before. He noticed that the anger on your face had melted away, leaving only urgency and another tumultuous emotion that he couldn’t quite pinpoint.

When he offered you no response, finally relenting, you nodded once to him, a glimmer of gratitude behind your irises. And with that, you began running again, effortlessly disappearing into the shadows.

“Fool,” thundered a rumbling growl from somewhere above him. Marc looked up, but the bird-skulled God was nowhere to be found.

COLUMBUS, OHIO.

Damn. Nothing hit harder than classic, greasy, American cheeseburgers with a side of curly fries and a milkshake. You shifted eagerly on the sticky red leather of the booths, shooting the waitress who’d handed you your food a flirtatious smirk and a ten dollar bill, which she took with an equally salacious wink.

You grinned down at your food before taking the first bite into the burger, a muffled noise of content falling from your throat.

“Am I interrupting something?” said a frustratingly familiar voice, the man sliding into the seat across from you. “It sounds like you were just about to have the greatest sex of your life—with a cheeseburger.”

You pointedly glared at him, though it lacked any true heat. After about a dozen deliberately slow chews, you finally swallowed down the food. Marc looked like he wanted to say something else, but you merely held up a finger, slurping on the paper straw of your milkshake. He pursed his lips with a mildly aggrieved look.

Finally, you tilted your head at him.

“Is there something you want from me?” you asked him casually, reaching to the end of the table to grab a napkin and wipe at the corner of your lips. “Because I’m not in the drug business anymore, if that’s what you’re looking for. Or is it something else, hm?”

It seemed that Marc hadn’t completely thought this through. Sure, he’d planned out what he roughly wanted to say to you, but now that you were right in front of him, he found his tongue running dry. He fumbled for words, fists clenching and unclenching by his knees.

“I don’t want to kill you. Or hurt you at all, for that matter.”

You scoffed, remembering the instances in which he’d hurt you plenty.

“I just… I want to know your side of the story. I want to know why you do what you do,” he said, a bit quieter.

For a moment, Marc thought you’d just tell him to piss off. But there was a gradual shift to your features, going from obvious irritation to gentle curiosity.

“Alright. I’ll cut you a deal,” you said, popping a curly fry into your mouth. “I tell you about my tragic backstory, and you tell me all about this… thing that’s been wanting to kill me. And before I start—I’m gonna need your name. I can’t keep mentally cataloging you as the toilet paper man.”

And for the first time since you met him all those months ago—Marc laughed. It was deep and gratingly genuine, coming from the very bottom of his chest.

“Well, first of all, it’s not toilet paper. It’s the ceremonial armor of Khonshu’s temple. And second, it’s Marc. Marc Spector.”

“Ceremonial armor of whose what now?” you balked.

A hint of a smile graced the corner of Marc’s lips. “Khonshu—Egyptian God of the moon. I’m his avatar. He’s the one that wanted me to kill you. He called you a disruption to nature—said that you were wrongfully taking justice into your own hands.” As he spoke, the smile began to wane away, and he regarded you in a more serious light. “I want to know why he thinks that.”

You stared down at your plate of fries, stunned. An Egyptian God wanted you dead? You knew you pissed people off, but Gods too?

“And if you don’t like what you hear?” you quietly asked, lifting your gaze to meet his. “Will you drag me out of the diner and strangle me to death?”

Though you could tell he didn’t like saying it, Marc’s face was set in stone when he leveled with you. “I’ll give you a head’s start.”

Another beat of silence. You picked up another fry and popped it into your mouth. The plate slid across the table as you nudged it towards him.

“Alright, Marc. Settle in, have some fries, order a milkshake—it’s a long story.”

And you told him everything. You told him about your childhood—rumbling stomachs, nimble thieving hands, falling off of buildings when running away from cops. You told him about your teenage years—pulling off heists, brokering deals with gangs, breaking nearly every bone in your body being reckless. You told him about your early adult years—falling in love with Elena, getting more comfortable as a vigilante, as you liked to call yourself, meeting other superheroes and helping out on occasion. Marc seemed to recognize Spider-Man and Daredevil’s names when you mentioned them in passing, his eyebrows arching up closer to his hairline.

You told him that you now spend your days traveling around the globe helping people.

By the time you were done spilling your entire life story, your fries and burger were cleanly polished off.

Marc was silent for a long time, as if unsure what to say.

“I was in love once, too,” he said in a tentative manner, gaze trained on the table. “Her name was Layla.”

“Oh, yeah?” you curiously said, sipping on the last frothy remnants of your milkshake at the bottom of the glass. “And how’d that work out for you?”

There was a sad glint to his eyes. “Not so good. We’re divorced now.” He cleared his throat before you could press him about it. “What happened with you and Elena?”

It was now your turn to stare out the window in a despondent manner. “Same as you. Except we were never married. My lifestyle was… too much for her.”

Marc nodded in understanding. “Yeah, me too.”

The two of you stared at the glossy table in silence.

“You still in love with her?”

You lifted your gaze to meet his. “I love her, yeah—I always will. I’m just not in love with her anymore.”

The man across from you hummed. There was a newfound understanding between you two—unspoken, but the both of you could feel it.

“Do you still love Layla?”

A ghost of a smile graced his features, but it was gone just as quickly as it came. “Not in the same way I used to. But I do.”

With a final slurp of your straw, your drink glass was emptied. “Seems like we’re a lot more similar than first meets the eye, huh?”

Marc fixed you with a loose, awkward smile. Without another word, he pulled the bill of his cap lower down his face, and slid out of the booth. It seemed that he wasn’t going to be strangling you tonight.

You didn’t look back when he walked out of the diner, the bell hooked by the doortop tolling with his departure.

YEKATERINBURG, RUSSIA.

The bird skull was saying something. His bony beak was moving. You could feel the vibrations of his thundering voice beneath your feet. And yet—you had no fucking clue what he was talking about.

You blinked up at the God with wide eyes.

“Could you repeat that?” you winced out, having not picked up a single word Khonshu had said in the past three minutes. The God grumbled, and somehow glared at you despite having no eyes within his bony skull. Beside you, Marc let out a muffled snort.

“You insolent buffoon,” the bony figure snarled. “Have you not been listening?”

Despite the bristling God in front of you, you found the entire situation to be amusing. “Sorry, it’s just… your head’s really big. It’s kinda distracting. Just paraphrase yourself—I don’t need all the terms and conditions.”

Marc’s shoulders shook with silent laughter, but he immediately sobered up when Khonshu rounded his pointed beak to him, back straightening.

“This is a gravely serious matter—!”

“You know what else is serious?” you snapped, pulling your thick woolen coat closer to your quivering body. “Catching hypothermia! Did you really have to pick Russia of all places? We couldn’t have met on a warm beach in the Caribbeans, or something?”

If Khonshu had eyelids, you were sure they would’ve been twitching with repressed agitation by now.

A deep baritone of a sigh fell from the lanky God. He leaned his weight against his crescent-tipped staff, as if willing his own patience to hold steadfast.

“I said—” he started again, watching you cautiously, “—that I will be letting go of your past sins. But only because my avatar is so keen on you, and because you show a consistent effort to rid the world of evil. However, if you slip up so much as once, I will personally see that to an unkind descent into the afterlife. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal!” you harrumphed, tucking your frigid nose into the collar of your fur coat. “And I did those things to people who deserved it—which is exactly the same as what you do, you bony hypocrite! Can we go inside now?”

The God grumbled something unintelligible, though you suspected it had something to do with your impertinence, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“You’ll get used to him,” assured Marc, placing a hand on your back to lead you back inside. “He doesn’t get any better but—you’ll get used to it.”

“That’s reassuring,” you dryly responded, teeth beginning to chatter. As soon as the two of you started to walk back to the small little city hotel, you elbowed his side with a playful grin. “So… you’re keen on me, huh?”

Marc gave you an unimpressed look. Snowflakes danced with the wind and landed in his neatly-combed curls. “Khonshu had to believe that I liked you—the last thing he’d want is a sloppy, grieving avatar.”

“Mmh, I don’t know…” you said, tapping your finger against your chin in thought. “He’d probably like that, considering he’s one manipulative son of a bitch. Maybe he just secretly likes me and wants to keep me around.”

“Yeah,” snorted Marc. He halted in his tracks, forcing down a smile. “That, or I blackmailed him.”

Your eyes widened, frost clinging to your lashes and brows. “You blackmailed an Egyptian God?”

“Let’s just say that he’s had a sticky romance with the Egyptian Goddess of love—ironically, she’s one of the few beings that he’s genuinely terrified of. I threatened to get in contact with her avatar if he didn’t absolve you.”

You kicked at a small build-up of snow by the sidewalk, an excited gleam to your irises. “Crazy how even the Gods have petty dating drama to gossip about,” you commented, turning to him. His nose was tinted a faint shade of red from the cold, bits of white frost freckling his hair and his clothes. “Thanks for not killing me, by the way,” you added as an afterthought, fixing him with a warm smile.

“Just keep out of trouble,” he gently reminded, mirroring your soft grin. The two of you were now standing in front of your dingy little motel—and Marc apparently had something to attend to halfway across the world in Cuba.

So this was goodbye.

For now, at least.

Without thinking, you leaned forward to press your cold lips against the warmth of his cheek, the tip of your nose grazing his cheekbone as you laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Thanks,” you whispered when you pulled away slightly, breath misting into an opaque fog. Marc was regarding you with an expression that bordered on fondness, which was certainly a new look that you found yourself craving for more. “I haven’t really properly talked to anybody in ages so… this was nice. Goodbye, Marc.”

With that, you turned on your heel and headed into the hotel, grateful for the blast of warmth from the overhead heater, though you could still feel Marc’s burning stare bore holes into your back, even as you turned the corner and disappeared from his sight.

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA.

Blood, everywhere.

Gunshots in the distance.

Snarling men rounding the corner—human traffickers.

Your dagger glinting beneath the hot Ethiopian sun.

A man screaming as you sliced his throat.

Gurgling.

Red on your hands. On your clothes. On your shoes.

Two successive punches—one to your stomach, and the other to your face.

Pain blooming beneath your skin.

A fist around your throat.

Squeezing.

Choking.

Dark spots dancing about your vision.

Your nails clawing into their eyes.

Air.

Gasping for breath.

Wheezing.

You desperately parried away another assailant’s knife.

A song of steel against steel.

More gunshots flying every which way.

You dove behind large metal crates.

Sand in your shoes.

Copper on your tongue.

Crashing. Yelling. Cursing.

Your fingers flexing around the hilt of your dagger.

Bated breath.

You looked around the crate.

Marc fucking Spector.

A ghost of a smile on your lips.

Your name being called out—surprise in his tone.

“Fancy seeing you here!” you shouted.

Marc’s fist curled into one of the traffickers’ collars.

“It’s been a while!” came his mildly amused reply.

A grunt. A punch. A groan of pain.

His white cape fluttered with the wind.

“You down for a burger or something later?”

You spoke calmly, as if you weren’t currently strangling someone with a long power cord.

The man fell limp in your hold.

“Sure—I could go for a burger,” he called out,

Blood trickled down your nose and grazed your lip.

You wiped it away with the back of your hand.

The last of the traffickers was struck down with Marc’s crescent boomerang.

A breath of relief.

Drenched in blood (most of which was not yours), you made your way to Marc.

“You clean up nice,” he joked.

A roll of your eyes.

“Oh, shucks, Marc,” you simpered with a mischievous grin, dragging a bloody hand down his face once he retracted his mask.

He grimaced in disgust, but didn’t push you away.

A laugh fell from your throat, hoarse and echoing.

You looped your aching, bleeding arms with his.

“Let’s go get that burger.”

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND.

“Ow—ugh, Marc, could you go any faster?” you barked through the dirty cloth wedged between your teeth, glaring up at him with watering eyes. You’d endured pain far worse than this, sure, but Marc was taking twice as long stitching you up than when you’d do it yourself. Though, admittedly, whenever you had to patch yourself up, it was a rather shoddy job and often left a much larger, gnarled scar than it would’ve, had you properly taken care of it.

The man above you shook his head, dark curls hanging loosely over his forehead. “Stop moving and maybe it’ll hurt less,” he replied, the tip of his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth as he worked on your stitches. “You know, just because we work together now and I heal quickly doesn’t mean you do, too.”

With a grimace, you tore the cloth from your mouth, chucking it somewhere across the small motel room to freely speak to him. “It was just a mistake,” you replied, nearly doubling over with a strained groan when he punctured the skin of your abdomen with a small needle, where the deep gash resided, one last time. “I timed myself wrong. Happens sometimes.”

Marc let his eyes roam over your exposed skin, brows divoting ever so slightly upon seeing the multiple other scars littering your body. They were memories of your past, and you weren’t ashamed of them.

“Doesn’t look like it only happens sometimes,” he murmured, tying off his sutures and cleaning off the last bits of flaking, dried blood on your stomach before binding the open wound with thin bandages.

“You worried about me?”

Marc didn’t spare you a response. He busied himself by putting away the medkit and tossing the discarded, bloodied clothes into the bathroom sink. When he came back to sit on the bed beside you, you had gingerly moved positions so that you were propped up against the creaking bed’s headboard.

“How are you feeling?”

“Shitty,” you whispered. “England fucking stinks.”

Marc chuckled, a small smile curling his lips upwards, though you noticed that it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

The two of you sat in silence for a while.

“Thanks for stitching me up,” you told him.

“Thanks for not dying on me,” he replied. His hand sought yours and your fingers laced with his. “I know we’ve only been working together for a month by now, but I’m starting to really like you.”

With one last painful shift, you moved so that your faces were only inches away. You paused when your lips were just a hairsbreadth from his, giving him time to yank you away if need be.

But he didn’t.

His lips met yours with a tender sort of sadness, pouring months of frustration and anger into the embrace. A warm hand came up to cradle the back of your head, angling you closer, wary of your newly-stitched wound.

Forehead resting against his, you gently pulled away, finding solace in the fact that he chased after your lips just a bit, before cracking his dark eyes open.

“We shouldn’t do this,” he mumbled, gaze darting back down to your parted mouth.

“Okay,” came your broken reply.

And despite it all, he threw all caution to the wind and kissed you again. Again, and again, and again—far into the night, until the two of you passed out on the stained sheets of the motel bed, limbs intertwined and your nose pressed against his throat, where you could hear the soft thrumming of his heartbeat.

Unbeknownst to the two of you, Khonshu was hovering on the rooftop, finding himself rather glad that his avatar had finally found someone he could trust—even if that someone was the very bane of his existence.

“I need a new avatar,” the God harrumphed to nobody but himself, knowing full and well that he wasn’t letting go of Marc Spector and his… counterparts any time soon.

#marc spector x reader #marc spector fanfiction #moon knight x reader #moon knight fanfiction #marc spector angst #marc spector fluff #marc spector imagines #marc spector drabbles #marc spector fanfic #marc spector x you #moon knight fluff #moon knight angst #moon knight fanfic #moon knight x you #moon knight drabbles #moon knight imagines #moon knight oneshot #steven grant x reader #steven grant fanfiction

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starwarsanthropology · 4 months ago

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Fuck Canon Tiingilar

i hate the canon tiingilar recipe with my whole heart. Look at this (original source Galaxy's Edge cookbook). This is supposed to be "blisteringly spicy Mandalorian stew or casserole"? This is a mild chicken curry.

It sounds good, but it's not the rich, spicy, flavor-packed mandalorian stew of my dreams.

Let's start by breaking down the etymology of tiingilar.

Tiingilar is broken into 3 parts: Tiin, gi, and lar.

Tiin is an underived form of tiin'la, or coarse.

Gi is the word for fish.

Lar is a bit up in the air; it could be related to laar, for sing (which anyone who's seen someone bite into something spicier than they can handle can understand), or galar, for spill/pour (makes sense for stew), or even olar for "here", which I suppouse could be extrapolated to mean "whatever is here" for a stew which has flexible ingredients.

But the really important bits are the "tiin" and the "gi"! The first chunk of tiingilar means "coarse/rough fish(y)".

The other food word we have with "gi" in it from canon mando'a is "gihaal", (which, hilariously, breaks down into fish-breath), a pungent fishmeal. It's long lasting and stable which means its probably a staple ration food. It sounds like it'd put most people off at first, but given mandalorian tastes prioritize strong flavors (draluram), possibly including pungent flavors, and "richly nourishing" foods (yaiyai) it's probably a pretty common ingredient.

Guess what fishmeal is! A very high protein (typically 50-60%, but up to 70% for some varieties!), nutritionally dense, and coarsely textured! It's used in any cuisines; some is processed for human consumption but I cannot find any sources that use it in food except in research aiming to combat malnutrition (shout out to researchers at the Abeokuta University of Agriculture for being the best resource about fishmeal in food!). Although we can't know that gihaal would be the same as our version of fishmeal (which is normally processed from whole fish), I think that we can assume that mando'ade woudn't be skimping on the inclusion of bone, which include a lot of valuable nutrients, and would make it coarse.

So, gihaal is a pungent, likely coarse fishmeal that is a staple nutritional supplement in, at minimum, field cookery. It would make nutritionally-dense, protein packed, and strongly flavored base for tiingilar. Makes sense linguistically and practically for mandalorians to build their cooking around nutritionally valuable and shelf-stable rations.

Which brings me to the mandalorian values in food! Draluram (bright mouth: intense, bold flavors), heturam (spicy as in heat burning in the mouth), hetikleyc (spicy as in sinus burn), and yai'yai (richly nourishing, which I personally take to mean both nutritionally dense and satiating) are the 4 canon words that express the priorities in mandalorian cuisine.

These values fit in with the inclusion of gihaal as a base for tiingilar, adding yai'yai if not draluram, but where's my spice? Where's my layers of spice, the sharp sinus burn that makes your eyes water and the creeping warmth that leaves you panting and the bright heat and the numbing and tingling sensation at your lips?

Definitely not in that yellow curry recipe.

The inclusion of ginger and cinnamon (from garam masala) are both nice, but think bigger and broader! Obviously, we don't have mandalorian herbs, but add spice with chilies, cayenne, ginger, horseradish, mustard seeds, sichuan pepper! Bring out warming spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, star anise! Highlight the different elements of spice and warmth and flavor with enthusiasm and delight!

As for draluram, I think the pungent flavor of fish is a nice, bold addition to something for a unique flavor, but let's not forget other players. Aliums like garlic and onions are always lovely, but what about citrus? If mandalorians have behot, what's stopping you from adding in citrus juice or peel or some kaffir lime leaves? What about strong bitter flavors from vegetables you choose, like mustard greens or kale, or the rich savory taste of browned meats if you want more protein in your dish?

Yai'yai, we have a good base of protein and fat and nutritional content from the fishmeal, but why not build it out? Add sugar, both to balance flavors and because energy is energy and mandalorians certainly like their sweets. Fats and oils, other meats and proteins, vegetables and carbs. Add nuts, peanut butter, sesame for added bulk and another element of flavour. I want to see an end product that sticks to your ribs, that makes me skip seconds on not because I don't want more, but because I'm full on one serving.

Back to the etymology. Mild chicken curry is not tiin, nor does it have gi. It's fairly yai'yai, got decent draluram, negligible heturam, and no hetikleyc.

Tiingilar with a gihaal base (in irl cooking, any kind of fish base) and heavier seasoning to add multiple kinds of heat would fit all of those categories so much better.

So I guess in the end, I'm saying I don't have an idea of tiingilar as any one recipe, but tiingilar as a general dish that leans into mandalorian food culture and the literal meaning of the word. Maybe it's little gritty and somewhat fishy, but it's a rich and spicy and flavorful meal you can make with whatever on hand as long as you have a handful of staples.

Sources:

Adegoke, Bakare & Adeola, Abiodun & Otesile, Ibijoke & Adewale, Obadina & Afolabi, Wasiu & Adegunwa, Mojisola & Akerele, Rachael & Bamgbose, Olaoluwa & Alamu, Emmanuel. (2020). Nutritional, Texture, and Sensory Properties of composite biscuits produced from breadfruit and wheat flours enriched with edible fish meal. Food Science & Nutrition. 8. 1-21. 10.1002/fsn3.1919.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_meal

https://mandocreator.com/tools/dictionary/index.html# for mando'a translations and definitions

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mandalorian/comments/mp1x7o/recipe_for_tiingilar_medium_heat_add_garlic/ for the recipe

#mandalorian culture #mandalorian cooking #original speculation #mando'ade #food #cooking #mando'a linguistics #star wars meta #FUCK that tiingilar recipe. i mean it looks fine but i looked it up and was immediately furious thats NOT tiingilar #not even chili flakes..... whyd they let people who dont like spicy write the mandalorian recipes

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linkspooky · 7 months ago

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Yu Gi Oh GX and Alchemy: Citrinitas and the Splendor Solis

Yu-Gi-Oh GX, an anime that exists to sell you Trading Cards is a also a piece of media with some of the most well-researched, and layered symbols and references to the Great Work in Alchemy. The show is built around it's alchemical symbolism, each of the four seasons representing a step is the Great Work of turning lead into gold.

Season is Nigredo or 'blackening', Season 2 is Albedo or 'whitening', Season 3 is Cintrinatis or 'yellowing' and Season 4 is 'reddening,' where Judai achieves wholeness of the self, and completely his journey of growing from a child to an adult.

Season 3 is the yellowing, symbolized by the color yellow, the element of earth, and where Judai completes his final chemical wedding with his opposite and his soul Yubel.

The entirety of GX s a metaphor for the Great Work, with season 3 focusing on the yellow stage. The group that surrounds Judai represents each of the 4 stages of alchemy.

Manjoume, (Nigredo Black, and Fire)

Asuka (Albedo, White, and Water),

Misawa (Citrinatis, Yellow, and Earth)

Judai (Rubedo, Red, the Philosopher's stone, and Air).

Season 3 depicts the drowning of the king, only for him to be reborn again. The king in this situation being Judai who drowns and rises up as the Supreme King associated with yellow, is defeated and dethroned, only to embrace the Supreme King's power and integrate it into himself.

All of Season 3 is a necessary dissolution of Judai, in order for him to be reforged into a stronger person, the way metal is purified through the process of alchemy. Judai even states in embracing Yubel at the end of the season that even if his previous self was destroyed he's fine with that because it's a part of growing up.

The entire season is themed around solve et coagula (dissolve and coagulate, rinse away the impurities to refine yourself into a better version of yourself / reforge the stone). Letting things dissolve away is needed in order to become purified, the same way that death alway proceeds a rebirth. We will call back to these ideas time and time again over the course of this meta. This symbolism starts in the very first episode of the season 106, where Judai experiences a dream premonition of the future.

In this dream Judai wakes up in a desert dimension, the same dimension, Yubel will later teleport the academy to. He sees his friends all turned to sand, only for the wind to scatter them on the breeze.

Not only is this a reference to Dissolve et Coagula, but Judai's friends will also literally dissolve later when they are used as sacrifice materials for Super Polymerization, only to coagulate at the end of the season. This scene also takes place in a desert, and earth is the element associated with citrinitas.

The Exchange Students

This episode also features the introduction of the four transfer students, particularly Johan. Each transfer student is associated with an element and a phase in the four step process of Alchemy.

Austin O'Brien, uses a fire deck, associated with nigredo

Amon Garam, uses a water deck, associated with Albedo

Jim Crocodile Cook, uses an earth deck, associated with Citrinatis

What about Johan, you ask?

So far we've been talking about Alchemy as a four step process, but sometimes there is a fifth step called Peacock's tail (The Prismatic Phase).

The peacock tail is a physical stage in alchemy, a brilliant flash of green which comes to signify that the alchemist is one the right path. It can also be recognized in spiritual/psychological alchemy as a flash of visions that come to the adept as they move through the phases of transformation.

The Splendor Solaris painting of Venus / The Peacock is associated with love (the domain the goddess venus presides over), spirit, spiritualism, and inspiriation. II often compare it to the star Major Aracana in Tarot, which is a card of renewed hope and faith and a flash of temporary insight.

What better step fits Johan who not only plays a deck based around seven monsters, which represent the seven colors of light that make up the prismatic rainbow, but also is a character who is capable of seeing duel spirits like Judai.

The most important part of the prismatic phase though is that it's temporary, it's a flash of insight. Johan most notably, after appearing and burning so bright he captures all of Judai's attention disappears halfway through the season.

The search for the yet to be discovered Rainbow Dragon is also what drives both Judai and Johan the first half of Season 3, especially when it becomes their only way to get home. While the search for Johan himself, is what drives Judai in the second half. Johan really is the star in the distance who's light Judai is following.

Judai's first duel against Austin is meant to invoke Nigredo, the boiling away of impurities. Austn uses a fire themed deck, and over the course of the duel Judai helps "purify them" to the point where they remember they're not supposed to blindly follow orders. Austin invokes the fire symbolism by quite literally saying his father was a man who blazed with passion.

I'd forgotten what my father taught me. My father wasn't jsut a dog who fought as he was told. He was a warrior who burned with passion. And he...Judai made me remember that.

Judai's purifying of Austin's soul also starts his character arc here, as he quickly grows from more than just Professor Cobra's willing collaborator.

Kenzan and Jim's duel is a reference to the step of Citrinitas. Kenzan and Jim both duel with earth centered decks, Kenzan's deck revolves around resurrecting dinosaurs, and Jim's deck digs fossils out of the earth. Jim's deck even revolves around fusing summoning monsters in the graveyards, which is a reference to his career as digging fossils deep out of the ground. Kenzan also wears yellow, and when his dinosaur DNA gets out of control his eyes turn yellow. The two of them have their duel on a dry patch of dirt in the middle of the forest.

Cintriatis is referred to as the drawning of the "solar light" inherent in one's being, and that reflective "lunar or soul light" was no longer necessary [source]. What this essentially means is that the subconscious becomes conscious, or we become aware of what we usually keep hidden about ourselves.

Jim's duel against Kenzan references this because the purpose of the duel itself is to wake up Kenzan from a primal, animalistic, subconscious state activated because his Dinosaur DNA went out of control. Jim is basically attempting to show Kenzan the light by calming him down with a duel, something he'll do much later with Judai. A duel between them is a duel betwee instinct and higher reasoning.

The last duel of the exchange students is Manjoume vs Amon. It's a duel that reveals so much and yet so little about Amon's character.

The second stage of alchemy is called albedo, a latinicized term of "whiteness." It's a purification thatfollows after the nigredo stages where all impurities are washed away. It's associated with water.

Amon invokes this stage in several ways. He plays a cloudian deck, clouds are associated with water. Albedo is associated with water because it features the "washing away" of impurities. They duel each other over a a pool of water, in a duel where the loser will be dropped into water below. Manjoume even refers to himself as the lightning going through Amon's clouds, there's only lightning when it rains.

Manjoume: I'm not a spoiled rich dude, casually gazing up at clouds like you were. Manjoume: If you're a white cloud, then I'll be the black thunder.

Albedo is also a stage associated with purification / purity, and the entire duel Amon is remarked upon as being pure / being unreadable like the white clouds themselves.

Manjoume: I'm beating him. It's obvious that I'm cornering him, but... Manjoume: ...What's with this cavelier attitude of his? It's almost like he's like a cloud. Manjoume: I haven't seen him dueling yet. What could he be hiding in those clouds?

Manjoume is also a character associated with Nigredo as he's wearing black, and plays a dragon deck, and the duel ends with him falling in the water.

The exchange student duels end, as the duel academy kids begin hunting down professor Cobra. There's a few moments of interesting elemental symbolism in these duels.

Judai is forced to duel his professor while Asuka, a character who also wears white and is therefore associated with Albedo is about to drown in a chamber slowly flooding with water.

This also doubles ad Jungian symbolism because this is Judai's first confrontation with his jungian shadow the repressed part of his personality. His professor derides him for lacking darkness of the heart. These words speak of Judai's flaws that have previously remained hidden, his selfishness, his unhealthy habit of taking on other's burdens because he lacks a purpose of his own.

Satou: You can't win. I have something that you lack? Judai: Something that I lack? Satou: The darkness of the heart lying deep within a duelist. Judai: Darkness of the heart? Satou: It is what a duelist burdens his heart with. Judai-kun, you lack anything of the sort. Judai: Something I'd burden my heart with? Satou: Thus far, there hasn't been a single duel which I've dueled for myself. ALthough, because you only think only of yourself, I suppose you couldn't possibly understand. Judai: But where's the fun in dueling like that? Satou: There's nothing fun about it! Being burdened with the expectations of others, yet continuing to stay strong. THat's what it was like.

His entire deck strategy revolves around taking control Judai's monsters and turning them against him. His ace monster is also known as "scab knight", a warrior covered in scars from fighting whil enduring the burden of everyone's expectations. Judai will come to resemble this card later on in the season.

I'll make a brief mention of Giese because this is the moment where Johan's role as the peacock feather come into play. Judai asks if Johan has a goal for dueling other than fun, and Johan shares his.

Johan: Those spirits gave me dueling a purpose! A purpose to become a bridge between spirits and humans... Judai: To become a bridge between spirits and humans?

A goal which Judai clearly admires him for. The prismatic phase shows insight, and Johan gives Judai something to aspire to be like because he admires him for having a goal - and for his relationship with spirits. However, it's only a temporary insight because rather than thinking about his own goal it's moments like these, and shortly afterwards in the Cobra duel where Johan tells Judai that he duels while carrying the burdens of others that Judai simply decides to glue himself onto Johan.

Rather than come up with his own answers, Judai just accepts the answers that Johan gives him. Rather than using Johan as support and inspiration, Johan becomes an unstable emotional crutch.

There's one final reference to the Spector Solaris plates in the vial in which Yubel has been baking in the entire arc as they absorb duel energy in order to reconstitute themselves. Yubel at this stage is a reference to the 12th plate, Saturn Dragon and Child.

The plate depicts a child and a dragon sealed together in a flask. Within the child's right hand is a black flask they are forcing down the throat of the dragon, in the left hand are a pair of bellows which he is holding against the dragon's arc. The child is pouring the black Prima Materia in the dragon's mouth, while he increases the heat of flame. This will result in the decomposition of the Prima Materia into a substance that can be reconfigured and rebuilt.

Yubel represents both the child and the dragon. They are a dragon, specifically a child who underwent surgery in order to become a dragon. Just like the child forces their right hand down the dragons throat, Yubel possesses people by grafting their arm onto them.

Yubel also specifically appears as a child, Cobra's missing son, in order to manipulate him. Then feasts on the darkness of his heart and induces him to commit suicide by covering Cobra's entire hand with their fiend arm, and feeding them a false memory of a scenario where their son actually survived. They then transport the entiretyof the school to a desert, more earth symbolism and where the series begins referencing the seven parables.

Splendor Solis

The Splender Solis are an alchemical text from around the 1500s. They are a series of 22 elaborate images, which symbolize the alchemical processes.

They are divided into 4 groups. 4 introductory plates which depict the typical archetypal characters appearing in an alchemical story. The 7 parables which describe the process of death and rebirth of the king. The 7 flask plates which show the making of the elixir. Then the 4 final plates which shows the spiritual refinement.

The main arc of Season 3 revolves around the death and rebirth of the king, and from now on this meta will exclusively focus on Judai's process of becoming the awakened Supreme King.

As mentioned above he entire school is transported into a desert world. One of the first major events in this new world is the appearance of a Wise Man.

Carl Jung interpreted the process of alchemy as an analogy for psychoanalysis. Each stage of alchemy to him also represented an archetypal schema of the human mind. Nigredo is the shadow, Abledow the anima and animus (feminine and masculine), citrinatis i the wise old man (or woman) archetype, and rubedo is the self that has achieved wholeness.

It's the appearance of Misawa who physically resembles a wise old man, complete with a cloak, long hair and a walking stick that helps clue the protagonist where they are, and how to escape.

I also must make mention of Yubel, who begins enacting their plan to turn Judai into a king. Their first plan involves transporting the academy away to a different dimmension, and slowly taking over from inside by converting the duelists into mindless zombies.

Yubel: Attention, lost duelists. I am the rule of this new world. Yubel: I am the one controlling these zombies as the King of the Martin Empire. Yubel: You are the ones opposing my empire, and doing it well I see...

We don't know exactly what Yubel's first plan was, before they switched to their backup of super-polymerization - but considering Yubel's unique logic they likely planned on converting everyone in the school to zombies, while reforming their body. At which point it would be them and Judai alone together, and they would offer Judai the position as king, which Yubel thinks Judai would be grateful for.

Either way it's Yubel who pushes Judai through the journey of dying and being reborn as king. Yubel goes through a parallel death and rebirth (dissolved) , as they were torn to pieces and enact their plan to reconsitute their body back together and revive (coagulate). Either way Yubel's actions start Judai's journey.

The 7 steps of this journey / 7 parables are:

Plate 5 - Miners excavating a hill

Plate 6 - Philosophers beside a tree

Plate 7 - The drowning king

Plate 8 - Resurrection out of the swamp

Plate 9 - Hermaphrodite with an egg

Plate 10 - Severing the head of the king

Plate 11 - The bath

We'll be going mostly in order with these, as Yu-Gi-Oh GX also references them in order. Here's another post covering similiar spector solis symolism from RWBY which I'm lovingly ripping off. Beginning with:

Plate 5- Miners Excavating a Hill

The search for Rainbow Dragon has been a focus of Johan's arc since his introduction, but when the main characters learn that Rainbow Dragon is their way out of the dark dimension than excavating Rainbow Dragon out of the earth becomes the main focus of Judai and Johan's shared journey.

The plate depicts a mountain mined by two figures, dressed in gold and silver. The contrasting colors represent the dualism of the sun and the moon, which is also shown shining bright in the sky while the moon floats along in the river below.

Rainbow Dragon is quite literally mined out of the side of a hill. The two figures could be referencing both, Samejima and Pegasus who are sent out to retrieve it, Johan and Judai who summon it in their partner duel against Yubel.

The number seven also occurs here. There are seven splender solis plates, seven planets, seven alchemical symbols, seven metals, and Rainbow Dragon is a monster that requires the sacrifice of seven gemstones, which also represent the seven colors of light that make up the rainbow.

Featured on the plate is a picture of a scene from the book of Esthter from the Old Testament. This is a reference to the King Ahasuerus and Eshter. THe king is convinced by his grand vizier to kill the jews, starting with executing chief minister Mordecai. This is in spite of the facthe'd already married Mordecai's jewish cousin, Esther.

Eshther appears and touches the king's golden scepter with her hand. This convinces the king not to kill the jews.

“So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that she found favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter. And the king said to her, ‘What do you wish Queen Esther? It shall be given to you – up to half the kingdom!’” (The Holy Bible, New King James Edition, Esther 5.3)

It's a union of opposites (gold and silver, king and queen, sun and moon) based upon communication and empathy. Gx references this story in two ways.

When Samejima and Pegasus are trying to excavate Rainbow Dragon from the mountain, Echo appears and threatens to kill everyone inside in order to allow Amon to remain in a world where he can become king. In a way it's gender flopped because Echo is playing the role of king, threatening everyone at Duel Academy.

The second way is a reference to Judai and Yubel's entire arc of learning to understand people with empathy. Yubel threatens to massacre both Judai's friends, and the twelve dimmensions at large in their painfully wounded state from Judai's abandonment.

This is gender flipped like it is with Echo, where the queen (Yubel) is threatening violence, and the king (Judai) is the one who sways them with empathy. They're linked to queen and king roles, Judai serving as the supreme king linked to the sun, Yubel their feminine bi-gender counterpart and shadow linked to the moon, Judai eventually does so through a union of souls during their final duel, which resembles s a jewish wedding.

Plate 6- The Philosophical Tree

The plate shows three philsophers underneath a tree. The third is a youth, climbing a ladder and handing them down a golden branch.

The two philosophers underneath a tree is a reference to the Aeinid, in order to enter the world Aeneas requires a golden branch from a special tree.

A journey to the underworld is as on the nose for a symbolic journey of death and rebirth as it gets. Judai technically journeys to the underworld twice, the first time when Yubel sends the whole school there, and the second when he like Dante or Orpheus journeys into the underworld to retrieve his lost one - Johan.

The desert world that Judai is transported too is literally filled with zombies, or the wandering dead like in classical depictions of the greek Hades.

Whereas in the world Judai travels to find Johan, losing a duel results in a permanent death for the duelist forcing every character to confront their own mortality.

During that Journey, Judai specifically experiences a death of his ego and a rebirth as the supreme king, before dying a second time and being reborn as the fusion of Judai / Yubel.

The three philosopher's under the tree is specifically referenced when Judai and Johan have their tag team with Yubel, they are the three under the tree. During that duel Johan uses gem tree, a tree that grows a fruit after certain conditions - it grows three fruits in total like the three phases of alchemy.

The duel is fought to return everyone from the dark dimension, a figurative underworld. Whereas in the Aeinid the tree is what grants them free passage into the underworld.

The golden branch and yellow flowers in the splendor solis painting also represent the yellow / citrinitas stage, where light is shed on the unconscious. By the end of the duel, not only is Yubel fully reborn after being torn apart, but they also force Judai to recall the repressed memory of them buried in their subconscious. Yubel's colored yellow when begging Judai to remember them.

Plate 7- The Drowning King

Judai's second journey to the underworld begins after this duel, and this time it's fraught with death. Albeit a necessary death for Judai to be reborn as a whole person.

“The Destruction of one thing is the birth of another.” – Aristotle

The painting depicts an old king drowning in the background, while a new king dressed in yellow emerges in the foreground. While the king is begging to the saved, both the old and new king are actually the same person, being reborn again.

GX references the drowning king in several ways, firstly the entire Supreme King Haou arc is a plan by Yubel to break Judai down and reforge him as the Supreme King.

Not only does Judai experience an ego death first where their mind breaks down and they choose to become the Supreme King going forward and rule with power after the loss of their friends. Judai is also the reincarnation of the original supreme king, which is why Yubel is obsessed with them in this lifetime. Which means he's already died once as king and been reincarnated into a second lifetime.

The king drowning in the river is also a reference to the Nigredo stage of alchemy:

Within the stages of physical alchemy there is a set referred to as the drowning king; this is the dissolution step of the Nigredo process. This is when the alchemists would take their chemically calcified ashes and dissolve them into water. The water itself would absorb the ashes, the word we use to describe this solution, an elixir, comes from the Arabic: Al-iksir translates to “from the ashes”. Elixir.

In order to forge the elixir you have to dissolve away all impurities. Yubel prepares a ritual to literally dissolve Judai's friends away, in order to forge Super Polymerization (which will eventually help Judai and Yubel fuse and become the philosopher's stone).

For now though, the ritual requires five sacrifices, and five of Judai's friend. Just like the five steps of alchemy if you count the peacock stage (the monster Judai fights in his duel is even named Reign-Beaux, a pun on Rainbow).

Manjoume, Asuka, Fubuki, and Kenzan all dissolve while Sho escapes leaving the ritual incomplete. It's after the ritual however, that Judai experiences an ego death and is reforged as the yellow king. Ego death, is the Jungian term which means a "Complete Loss of subjective self-identity." In this case symbolically the Judai identity "dies" as he loses his purpose which was previously dueling for the sake of his friends, and he finds a new purpose in dueling for power alone. A power that will simultaneously bring order to the chaotic world of the dark dimension, but also protect himself from his own insecurities and weaknesses.

Nigredo is also meant to be the dissolving of the ego. While many cultures have negative associations tied to the color black (Islam being an exception, where white is considered an impure colour), there are no such connotations for the alchemist about the Nigrido stage; it is merely the first stage in the Great Work, the dissolving of the self/ego complex. It is probably a fair observation that in cultures without spiritual safe-guards, or even safe-guardians (shamans, priestesses, lamas, et. al.), the spontaneous occurrence of Nigrido may be labeled as a nervous breakdown, or even psychosis. Mythcrafts

Nigredo is again associated with the arhcetype of the shadow in Jungian Psychology. The Supreme King persona first appears to Judai as a vaguely person shaped shadow, before taking on his form. The shadow is also a reflection of the self, Judai's internal landscape is a dark placed filled with mirrors.

Haou: Yuki Judai. In order to defeat evil, one must become evil. In a world with the law of the jungle at work, one must rule with power. Judai: Power, I don't have that power. Haou: In your hand lies the Super Fusion card. Defeat any spirits who may oppose you, and confine their lives into it the perfect card. Judai: Who are you?

There's also two suns in the background. Judai is referred to as being like the sun, by Sho.

Sho: Aniki, You're too selfish, Aniki. All the time, Aniki, I thought of you like a sun, giving us all strength, able to make the impossible possible. Sho: But I guess I thought wrong. For you, Aniki, things were okay if you were okay. It didn't matter who you sacrificed as long as it all helped your plan! Even if you avenge them, everyone you sacrificed won't come back. Sho: Big bro, you've been dueling just to satisfy yourself. Judai: Sho... Sho: Don't say it like that. You're not my Aniki. You're not my Aniki.

There's two suns depicted in the sky, and this scene we're shown two judais, to show just how divided his self is between his ego and his shadow. Sho even says that he doesn't even recognize Judai and that he's not "His Judai" right now.

Plate 8- Resurrection Out of the Swamp

“She clothed the man with a purple robe, lifted him up to his brightest clearness, and took him with herself to Heaven.” -Trismosin

On the left a strange being, dressed in black and red arises from the mud. He reaches forward to accept a red robe being offered to him.

On the right appears a winged woman, dressed in white, yellow and blue waiting for him to emerge from the mud and giving him a cloak to dress himself.

There is once again many different ways in which this painting is referenced. Haou first appears dressed in armor mainly colored in black, with a red cape exactly like the one the woman is handing the man in the painting.

If Judai is the man emerging from the mud, then the winged woman waiting for him is likely Yubel. Yubel is a winged figure and a hermaphrodite who represents both the masculine and the feminine.

On the bank of the river, holding out the red clock to the emerging man is Sophia. She has angel wings of white peacock feathers and is dressed in a floral robe. Upon her head is a crown topped with a six-pointed star, a symbol used in many traditions to signify the union of male and female energies; hieros gamos again.

The masculine king is reuniting with a feminine winged figure. Yubel as a hermaphrodite represents a union of masculinity and feminity. The winged woman is awaiting the man.

Judai's rise as the supreme king is engineered by Yubel as a part of a plan to reunite them. More specifically to get into plot details Yubel sacrificed their body to become a dragon to protect prince Judai in a past life until the day he would become king. After Judai saw Yubel make such a sacrifice he promised them his eternal love, and to eternally love them alone.

Yubel and Judai then both died at some point and were reborn, Judai as a person and Yubel a duel spirit. Yubel was Judai's best friend when they were young and took the role of protector too serously hurting anyone who came near Judai which made Judai decide to send them away (on a satellite into space).

While alone in space Yubel was hit by the light of destruction, which tortured them with terrible agony for ten years straight. Yubel called out to Judai at first, but Judai stopped responding. Ten years later Yubel crashed back down to earth, and when burning up in earth's atmosphere they continued begging for Judai's help only to be met with silence.

They asked why Judai would abandon them and their love, and that silence became their answer. Judai must have intentionally made them suffer both as a show of love, and to make them stronger.

Yubel then resolves to inflict the same suffering on Judai, first making them all alone like Yubel was, then putting them through trial after trial until they died like Yubel and woke up stronger as the Supreme King: at which point Yubel believed they would reunite again as equals. Yubel also had the additional motive of trying to make Judai recall his past life, which Yubel remembered and Judai did not.

Yubel: I was suffering as you came to forget about me... Yubel: It burns... It hurts...It's killing me. But why? I love him so much. Why is Judai treating me like this? Yubel: And then it hit me. This is just a form of Judai's love. Judai is hurting me and making me suffer because of his love for me. But you see, I couldn't possibly forget about you in the time i've suffered. Yubel: So when I solved the riddle that you posed to me, I was delighted. And that fueled my decision. I would try to fill the entire twelve dimmensions with my love for you. Yubel: And once I did you would have to recognize my love for you, wouldn't you? Yubel: That is why I sought to fill all those linked to you - your world - with both sadness and anguish. Yubel: ANd my line of thinking wasn't wrong. Yubel: I mean you are right before my eyes, Judai.

Yubel: Though, I did have your friends help me which pulled out the darkness inside your heart and ushered you this far.

The entirety of Season 3 is Judai's journey of becoming king, which will lead to his eventual union with Yubel, his soul, and his other half.

The union of Judai and Yubel is necessary in a Jungian sense, because his fusion with Yubel mirrors the process of individuation.

The alchemical texts at our disposal offer four distinct stages in the transformation of base metals into gold: nigredo. the black stage, albedo, the white stage, citrinas, the yellow stage, and finally, rubedo, the red stage. Physical chemists took this literally; depth psychologists, following in the footsteps of Carl Jung, took this figuratively. From the standpoint of depth psychology, the black nigredo is the shadow, the things we hide from ourselves. The albedo, the white stage, is the hieros gamos, the sacred marriage of male/female, or anima and animus. The citrinas, the yellow phase, is the wise elder, the shaman. And the red, or rubedo, which seems to be the point of this image, is what Jung called individuation; the point when the raw materia prima of our psyches turns into something whole.

Yubel sort of represents all three of those archetypal schema. Yubel is Judai's shadow, they awakened the supreme king which embodies all of his negative traits his darkness of heart. As a hermaphrodite Yubel is a sacred marriage of male and female, and Judai also fuses together with Yubel becoming a hermaprhodite himself. Finally, Yubel is the wise man by serving as the mind character to Judai's heart.

Heart, Mind and Body are traditional roles assigned to characters in an alchemy story. The male character s usually heart, and their female protagonist is mind. Judai is emotional, hot-headed, and most of all stupid. Yubel is tactical, capable of making succesful plans long in advanced, calm and thoughtful, and also possesses deep insight into things Judai is clueless about like the nature of love. In fact after the two of them are united, it's Yubel who serves an advisory role to Judai the way Aster does with Yuma in Zexal. Heart and Mind characters are often, but not always romantically linked to one another.

Yubel also appears as a wise guide in a twisted sense, as they're the one guiding Judai throughout the whole journey and eventually they reawaken the memories of his past.

Judai therefore needs to unite with Yubel in order for his psyche to be whole.

There's other characters who can also serve as the sophia / wiseman figure in this instance. Jim Crocodile Cook is the first character to fight Judai to try to get through to him. Once again Jim is an archealogist, he likes trying to reach Judai to digging for sleeping fossils under the earth.

He also possesses a special eye, given to him by a wise man which allows him to see inside of Judai's psyche. Jim is quite literally trying to dig Judai out of the mud. When using his power the comet his eye is associated with turns red, like rubedo and the philosopher's stone because Jim is trying to make Judai whole again.

Austin follows through on Jim's iniatitive and succesfully reaches Judai. His fire deck allows for a nigredo of sorts winning with his fire themed deck to boil away the impurities of Judai's soul starting up the alchemical process.

When Judai awakens he's reborn again underneath a tree into a new self, that's both the supreme king and Judai. Another wiseman figure appears to him in the form of Misawa shortly afterwards to highlight to Judai that the Supreme King isn't a split personality, Judai is the supreme king and he did all of that of his free will.

Judai: The supreme king's gone, though... his powers can't be mine. Misawa: Not quite... Your current self and Supreme King Judai are each one side of the same person. We all have a good and evil side. Judai: But... Misawa: Will you quit it, already! You won't be able to rescue the others with powerless heroics! Controlling your powerful Supreme King side will allow you to bring about justice. Judai: The power of darkness? I can't! Just stop it! Misawa: Stop your whining. Someone who was given special powers will have to fight for all those who've placed their hopes on them, won't they?

In that sense Misawa is the Wiseman who appears to guide Judai to integrate the Supreme King into his psyche, to be more whole.

The Nihilixir

Let's take a break from alchemy to talk about reverse alchemy for a moment, because I can't do a Season 3 post without talking about Amon Garam.

The relationship between Amon and Echo form a dark mirror to the relationship between Judai and Yubel. There are many ways they correspond to each other, both features a king (Judai and Amon) and their servant (Yubel and Echo). Amon is named after a sun god (AMon or Amon-Re), he was abandoned in the desert as a child, he's associated with the solar king. Echo is his Echo more or less, she was raised alongside him to be devoted to him, she's named after the nymph echo cursed to be left behind as nothing more than an Echo. She is passive and subservient, Amon is active and dominating.

I once mentioned Echo above threatening to kill everyone present, so Amon can be in a world where he can become king. Just like Yubel it's Echo's deepest desire for Amon to be king, and Echo genuinely believes Amon has the right to stand above others. They're also set up as the only other explicitly romantic couple besides Judai and Yubel. Yubel drops the extremely intimate "aishiteru" to Judai, and Echo confirms she loves Amon with "Aishiteru" when talking with Edo.

Echo and Amon attempt a union, but unlike Judai and Yubel's union it goes wrong, instead of purifying each other they both basically destroy each other.

Instead of forging a philosopher's stone, what Amon and Echo make is what's called a Nihilixir, a negative transformation. The process of reverse alchemy is elaborated on this posts here.

Love’s alchemy had once transformed him to “Sun”--to ”a quintessence even from nothingness.” A normal, positive transformation. But now he has been transformed in reverse. a negative transformation. For I am every dead thing... He ruined me, and I am rebegot Of absence, darkness, death, things which are not.... I, by love’s limbecke, am the grave Of all, that’s nothing. (”Limbecke” is another word for the alchemical vessel, the alembic.) The reverse of the Philosopher’s Stone, the Elixir, is the Nihilixir

While Death and Rebirth is a necessary part of Alchemy, Reverse Alchemy is Death without the rebirth. It's a love which should usually redeem destroying both parties instead.

Kate in this post likens reverse alchemy to the relationship between Oz and Salem from RWBY, an incredibly destructive romance. To paraphrase Kate, death and rebirth is necessary for moving forward in alchemy, but reverse alchemy happens when a character resists death and the grief that comes along with it.

Amon's arc is more or less refusing to feel his own grief. He is undeniably an abused child with a terrible lot in life, left to starve to death when he thinks he's finally saved and works hard to earn his parent's love he is replaced by a biological child and learns how conditional his parent's love is.

Yubel basically takes advantage of all the unprocessed grief that Amon has in order to move him forward to his destruction.

Yubel: My power is not especially great. But those with darkness in their hearts can unleash great power in me. Yubel: The pus welling out of your injured heart forms a second heart. I can see that other heart. The darkness in it. Yubel: The darkness in your heart that has nowhere else to go. You desire life-risking tasks because, all you want is a place to die. Yubel: That’s right. That is the darkness of your heart. it’s there, in the depths of your mind. The cream of your other heart, born from your stagnant blood!

In other words Amon is plagued by thoughts of suicidal ideation and takes on risky missions for the sake of the Garam Conglomerate because he's hoping to just die somewhere far away from his parent's - because he thinks he's been shunned from his family and therefore there's no place for him in this world.

He believes that so thoroughly he even leaves this world and doesn't come back, for a chance to be king in an alternate dimmension free from family obligations.

Yubel says that in order to become whole, to become his true self he would need to "kill his god." More specifically kill his iron will, the resolve he made when his brother was born to only exist for the sake of the Garam conglomerate.

However, you cannot kill your own god. That is because it is the role of a devil.

There's an element of truth to Yubel's words, Yubel is the spirit of wisdom after all. Amon needs to accept death, in order to be reborn as someone new.

Kate basically says where Salem and Oz's relationship goes wrong is that Salem cannot accept death or grieve Oz, and imagine living in a world without him. Which is why she's cursed with immortality, literally becoming undying, and unable to change as well.

Amon cannot accept grief. He's still obsessed with the idea of becoming the head of the Garam family, like he was promised when he was younger - symbolically coming king. He can neither let go of that idea and try to find other ways to be happy in life, or grieve his parent's abuse of him by basically raising him to be a tool only to discard him.

In fact, I believe a lot of people have trouble connecting to Amon as a character because he doesn't openly grieve - he remains stoic b/c he's so dedicated to trying to repress all his pain from his terrible life.

This is another way in which Amon foils Judai, they're both referred to as being pure of heart, and therefore lacking a shadow and darkness. This is not a good thing, Judai's lack of darkness of the heart makes him blind to his own flaws until he hits his lowest point. Amon's so disconnected from his own emotions, he can at one point cruelly lure Echo to her own murder, then five minutes later claim to love her. It's this resistance of grief, and lack of darkness of his heart that makes Amon unable to transform into his better self.

Paralleling Judai yet again, Amon conducts a ritual to sacrifice his loved one in order to forge a powerful card, Superpoly for Judai and Exodia for Amon. However, him and Echo don't die together, it's not a union it's a one-sided affair with Echo taking on all the sacrifice herself. As I said, Amon is unwilling to bear the pain in any way. This is something that Yubel gleefully points out to Amon.

Yubel: I get it now... You weren't in love with Echo. Yubel: No. You may have loved her just enough to clear the conditions in place for you to control Exodia. Yubel: But then, you didn't truly love each other. Yubel: You were only unfairly hurting her, while you would stay unharmed. Yubel: You wouldn't suffer. You wouldn't be in pain.

Yubel: And that's why I'm having Judai go through the same feelings! That could be what it means for us to love!

Again there is an element of truth to Yubel's words. Amon and Echo's relationship was fundamentally unequal and Amon has no desire to change it, and even takes advantage of Echo in that way.

Yubel for all the pain they inflict on Judai desires to be equal in their pains, and their goal is connection and communication which is fundamental to the process of alchemy. Yubel does many things, but they're not resisting grief. In comparison to Amon who shows almost no emotion at Echo's passing, Yubel openly cries on multiple occasions from the pain of Judai abandoning them.

Amon's inability to process his grief of let himself feel pain, or just let go of the idea that he was meant to become his parent's heir and inherit the world - he can't see that he could try to live some other way. He's blind to the people who love him in his life. This is also something that Yubel points out, he could have tried to live a different life from what his family set out for him with Echo. Echo who was always there and loved him. He can't get over his parents lack of love to see there was still love in his life. He can't see a world where he can live without his parent's love.

Yubel: That isn't a world! Yubel: I wouldn't even think of living in a world like that. Yubel: You see, a "world" is something that you build with the one that you love! Yubel: For me, it's something I'll build with Judai! That is a world!

Amon could have created something new with Echo, but he refused to change. Which is why in the end they both destroy each other.

Of course, Judai and Yubel's love isn't exactly a paragon of healthy relationship. Yubel is also unable to imagine a world where they can't live without Judai. However Yubel does allow their beliefs to change after a union with Judai, originally Yubel was so afraid of Judai's rejection they wanted to monpolize all of Judai's attention and essentially live in a world with only them and Judai.

However, after their union in season 4 Yubel is able to accept Judai having bonds with other people doesn't mean that Judai will abandon them.

The parallel with Amon and Echo shows that Judai and Yubel have the potential to destroy each other, but by accepting each other's grief thy both changed for the better instead.

Plate 9 - The Hermaphrodite

The hermaphrodite is the smybol of the marraige of Solar and Lunar (Sun and Moon.) This is usually embodied by a chemical wedding. This post will be shorter, because I already detailed Judai and Yubel's chemical wedding in this post here.

The Splender Solis depicts a winged figure with two heads, one male and one female. The masculine side of the figure is solar symbolism, his radiant shield, his red wing, his golden halo. The feminine side of this figure is lunar symbolism, her white wing, her silver halo, the egg she holds in her hand. Menstrual cycle are lunar, eggs are lunar, etc.

Yubel’s design is a Rebis, split male and female down the middle. It’s even implied in their backstory they were more masculine, and through an alchemical process to become a dragon altered their body to look as such, giving them several feminine traits.

Yubel as one boob and one pec, one muscular leg and one femine leg, speaks in two voices a deep masculine one and a light feminine one, defaults to using masculine “boku”, but plays a feminine role to comparison Judai’s more straighforward masculinity, they even have their face split one side being drawn with eyelashes.

he appearance of the Hermaphrodite comes after what Jung called the Conjunctio, metaphorically the marriage of Solar and Lunar, or the physical marriage of alchemical sulfur and mercury. While the imagery of plate 9 is quite explicit in its depiction of the hermaphrodite, it is subtle in comparison to another illuminated medieval text: the Rosarium Philosophorum (Rode Garden philosophy)

Judai and Yubel also literally duel together in a Rose garden.

When opposites are finally reconciled, the great hermaphrodite is formed. Judai even refers to this as an act of finally purifying the light’s corruption from Yubel’s soul by uniting it with the supreme king’s soul. The union is a purifying process, and the end of Yubel and Judai’s long journey of losing each other and finding each other again.

However, in order to be purified they have to both let their old selves die in order to form something new, the final death but one they experience together. In order to do that both need to experience a dismemberment.

Plate 10 and Plate 11

I'm coupling these two together because the Severing the head of the king an the bath represent the final process of death and rebirth.

Alchemy is violent, Solve et Coagula requires things to dissolve away before they can coagulate together again. Before the psyche can rebuild, it has to be ripped apart. Before a relationship can get better, two lovers need to clash.

The image itself is set in a city in a countryside, a man is holding a decapitated head severed from a body lying at his feet. Both Judai and Yubel experience a dismemberment at one point or another. In another classical alchemical text Lunar King and Queen experience this dismemberment together, in order to represent the violent union of opposites.

Judai experiences Ego death after his friends are dissolved and adopts the moniker of the supreme king. When he's finally snapped out of it, Hell Kaiser takes his helmet off and throws the helmet to the crowd below in a symbolic decapitation.

Yubel is torn to pieces when they re-enter earth's atmopshere, and quite literally are reduced to just a hand the way the body's limbs are all cut off. They need to use duel energy to restore each other. The second time they dissolve in the duel against Judai and Johan and they physically dissolve a second time and need to possess Johan's body in order to recover.

Another feature of the Splendor Solis painting is the kingdom by a river in the background invoking water, and Air which is related to the sword suit in tarot like the sword the main holds.

Judai and Yubel duel atop the clouds (air) and recalls the past when the air starts blowing the clouds away revealing a kingdom by the waterside.

While experiencing the past he recalls the violent surgery Yubel endured to be reborn as a dragon, literally tearing their body apart in a painful procedure.

Afterwards Prince Judai touched by the sacrifice Yubel made for their sake, unites with Yubel, promising Yubel their eternal love. He also recalls that he and Yubel were together in their past lives, and therefore they've already experienced one death only to be reborn again and meet each other. Judai: You did this... to protect me. Yubel: It is fine. Protecting you as you grow from a child into an adult is my duty after all. Judai: Yubel, I promise you. My love will only belong to you. No matter what anyone says, I will keep loving you.

The union and promise also take place by the waterside, which is symbolic of the bath which is the final plat of the Solis.

The final image is a man sitting in a bath, with a fire beneath it. The plate is an analaogy for sublimation the boiling fo a substance - Judai experienced a sublimation when the water of the clouds turned to air, in a breeze that revealed his past.

IWhen a bath appear in fiction it's often depicted as a man and woman bathing, though it doesn't necessarily have to involve water. For Judai and Yubel, it's their final union brought about by Super Polymerization fusing their souls together.

Judai even refers to this process of purifying the corruption of the light of destruction by joining his soul together with theirs.

Yubel is not destroyed, but rather pacified with a single touch must like Esther with her king, and ends up giving up on their plans of destruction from one act of communication and understanding.

The parable contains a reference to Medea.

“OVID the old Roman, wrote to the same end, when he mentioned an ancient Sage who desired to rejuvenate himself was told: he should allow himself to be cut to pieces and decoct to a perfect decoction, and then his limbs would reunite and again be renewed in plenty of strength.” (Trismosin 33).

Medea married the hero Jason. When he asked her to strengthen his father, she instead ritually killed him, bleeding his old blood away only to restore him later. Medea's also famous for dismembering her brother so that's kind of fun.

Yubel is a very Medea like figure, the embodiment of a woman scorned, after Jason abandoned Medea to marry a new wife, Medea decided to avenge herself by killing his wife, his children, his new father in law but sparing Jason. Her revenge is making him just as alone as she was. Yubel also cannot bring themselves to kill Judai, but take out their pain on all of his friends so Judai will have nothing left but them.

However, as mythcrafts says:

This image relates the ultimate cost of enlightenment, and the curse of growing up; all growth requires sacrifice. New life demands a little dying.

The path is physically painful. The man in the bath is being boiled. Chemical weddings are violent. Hudai screams out in agony when his soul is being fused with Yubel's. He even says that this fusion might destroy who he is now.

However, acepting that death is what allows both Judai and Yubel to take the first steps into healing together.

The plate is also a metaphor for the Hermes Trismegistus, “it arises from the earth and descends from heaven; it gathers to itself the strength of things above and things below” often shortned to "As above, so below."

Judai and Yubel's chemical wedding in the material world, also radiates to affect the cosmos or the world of the heavens. We see this in the effects of Super Polymerization changing the world around them, as it cuts to several characters in the outside world as the destruction of super poly spreads outward.

However, after the violent process of disolve et coagula is over, the two are empowered by each other to fight the light of destruction together. The change is now spreading out to the cosmos. They begin a journey of atonement which lasts even beyond season 4 and into the rest of their lives, to make up for the destruction they've caused.

Judai's friends who've been dissolved away finally return at the same time, and even Judai who is pronounced dead makes a return by the next episode changed into a fusion of himself and Yubel.

Death and rebirth, Grief and healing, all of Yubel's grief even dissolves away into tears as they finally let go of the idea they need to hurt others as much as they've been hurt.

Also because this is citrinitas the entire scene is dyed yellow. By accepting Yubel into his soul, Judai has transformed the dark night into a solar light. THe sun has risen for them both, as the lunar queen reunites with the solar king, they are no longer servant and master but equal.

The third stage, citrinitas, brings forth the light of the sun (the masculine), a light which magically transforms the shadowy and fearful subconscious into valuable consciousness. From the dark night of rubedo, to the pale morning light of albedo, the sun rises in citrinitas to the culmination of day in rubedo.

As Judai and Yubel depart together, we finally move onto the fourth stage of alchemy Rubedo where Judai and Yubel become one whole self!

I'll elaborate more on that on my next alchemy post though, because alchemy is still a four step process and there's still more to come for Judai / Yubel.

#ygo meta #yu gi oh gx #yu-gi-oh gx #judai yuki #soulshipping #yubel #alchemy #yu gi oh gx meta #yu-gi-oh #yu gi oh #jaden yuki

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seonne · 6 months ago

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LMAO YOU GOT REQUESTS OPEN SO I SHALL DELIVER

So during the canon events of My Hero Academia, during the summer camp, the students had to make their own food- and so if I remember correctly, they made curry.

Now my Desi ass is thinking, curry in Japan is most definitely different than curry in India so if we got a Desi reader in there, she would most definitely be a little more than disgruntled at the difference.

Ahem anyways - Bakugou x f!desi!reader who sees our blondie start to make curry and then not only insults his cooking but show him how it’s ACTUALLY done /lh (Lmao no offense to anyone of Japanese culture, I bet your curry is amazing too <3 I just prefer what I grew up with 🤪)

But like imagine his surprise when he tastes our Indian curry and is shocked that it’s not only spicy and full of flavor but better than his????

And then when they get together you can bet he begs reader to teach him more about Indian cuisine 🤍

Hnnnnnggggggg THE WAY EACH TIME I SEE JAPANESE CURRY I CRINGE- (no offense to Japanese people or their cuisine but the dishes with same names but vastly different flavours are very wince-inducing) so yes queen, I will deliver this.

"What on God's ever green Earth are you doing?"

Bakugou turned around to look at you looking over your shoulder in slight disgust.

"I'm putting in the oyster sauce-"

He watched as you comically gagged.

"Oyster sauce? In chicken curry?"

His jaw ticked as you watched him with disgust, his mouth forming a scowl.

"Do you think you're better than me, you damn extra?!-"

"I am at making chicken curry, that's for sure."

Bakugou physically took a step back at the callous remark you just made. He knew you bit back to his quips but this was the first time your statement held a challenge behind it.

Bakugou stood up straighter, moving away from the stove.

"Oh yeah? Prove it then. Put your money where your mouth is."

You huff and roll up your sleeves, tying your hair up in a ponytail. You step closer to the stove and keep aside the curry that he was working on.

"Let's not touch that fishy thing lest it CONTAMINATES my chicken curry. Okay first things first, we need the good old Garam Masala."

Bakugou snorted. "We're in the middle of a forest, genius. Where are you going to get Garam Masala from?"

You grinned. "Good thing I always keep a packet on hand then!"

He watched you slack-jawed as you skipped to your bag and came back with an opened packet of garam masala. You started working on your curry, salvaging some of the chicken from the other batches of Japanese curry being made. The whole area soon filled with the aromatic fragrance of your delicious boiling chicken curry as you worked determinedly. Bakugou watched your every move, begrudgingly admiring you.

After you were somewhat done, you poured some of the curry into a small dish for Bakugou to taste. He frowned at it and sniffed it, before taking a small sip while maintaining eye contact with you.

Your smug grin widened as Bakugou's face lit up at the bomb of flavours going off on his tongue.

"Okay... woah..."

You laughed and fist bumped the air.

"Woah indeed. That's the taste of India right there. I hope my cooking skills did my ancestors some semblance of justice-"

"It's incredible."

You smiled softly at his sincere admission and soon your classmates started swarming you for a taste of your curry.

Some said it was too spicy but no one said it was bad. Everyone agreed that it was very damn good, even those who couldn't handle the spice.

"I'd pair this with puttu and my life would be complete as that as my only meal for the rest of my life."

Bakugou looked up at you as he scarfed down his helping of rice and your curry.

"Isn't that a steamed rice cake or something?"

You smiled brightly. "Yeah! It's a staple food of the south! Ooo you know what would really bang? Dosa and chicken curry! God damn if only I had some urud on hand..."

The night continued with laughter and games as dinner melted into a huge sleepover. After mostly everyone had gone to sleep, Bakugou approached you.

"Hey, dumbass. Don't get it too over your head or anything but... your curry was good, okay? And I... I liked it." He pushed out through gritted teeth. He pushed his hands into his pocket and looked away.

"So, I'd like to know how you made the damn curry."

You looked at him with a wry smile. "Are you asking me for the recipe?"

"Tch! I don't ask for shit! Now give me the recipe!"

Your smile turned smug as you crossed your arms.

"Only if you say please"

Holy shit it's done!!!!! I'm so sorry for the late post but I really hope you liked it!! Thank you for the idea too.

#bakugou x reader #bakugou katsuki #mha bakugou #bakugou x indian!reader #bakugou #katsuki bakugo x reader

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najia-cooks · 2 years ago

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[ID: A large, shallow bowl filled with a bright yellow curd and golden brown pakora garnished with cilantro. A small bowl of jeera rice with green cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf, and cilantro sits to the right. End ID.]

Vegan Punjabi kadhi pakora / ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਕੜ੍ਹੀ ਪਕੌੜਾ

Kadhi is a comfort food popular in north and central India and southeast Pakistan. The base of the dish is spiced curd or buttermilk, to which chickpea flour, vegetable fritters, and spiced tadkas (temperings) are sometimes added. Unlike the sweeter, thinner, and unadorned variations to the south, Punjabi kadhi is slowly reduced to a thick, creamy consistency and studded with onion pakoras.

Recipe under the cut!

Patreon | Tip jar

For the pyaaz ke pakore (onion fritters):

1 cup besan (chickpea flour)

2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced

1/2 tsp table salt

1/2 tsp mirchi (ground red chilis)

1/2 tsp ajwain (carom seeds)

A couple cups of a neutral oil, for frying

For the curd:

1 cup (220g) unflavored vegan yoghurt

1/2 cup (60g) besan

1/2 tsp amchur (dried mango powder; optional)

4 cups water

In Punjab, kadhi is often made with full-fat buttermilk, and sometimes with yoghurt. Vegan yoghurt (I used oat) will provide a similarly smooth, fatty, slightly sour base.

Adding less water to the curd mixture will allow it to cook down faster if you’re short on time; but a long, slow simmer is more typical with this dish.

For the kadhi:

2 Tbsp neutral oil

Pinch hing (asafoetida)

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2-inch piece (20g) ginger, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 green chilis, chopped

2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi)

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp mirchi (ground red chilis)

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp garam masala

3/4 tsp table salt, or to taste

Mustard oil is typical, but any neutral oil (sunflower, canola, vegetable) will work.

For the tadka (optional):

1 Tbsp non-dairy margarine

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 dried red chili

1/2 tsp mirchi

Instructions:

1. Start the pakore. Cut onions in half through the root and lay cut-side down. Slice thinly vertically (perpendicular to the root) and then cut the root off. Whisk together other pakora ingredients (except for the oil) in a large bowl; add the onions and toss well to combine. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes to allow onions to release moisture.

2. Make the curd mixture. Whisk yoghurt and besan together in a large bowl. Add amchur (or substitute apple cider vinegar) if the yoghurt you are using is not particularly sour, to taste. Add water and whisk until a smooth mixture forms. Set aside.

3. Make the kadhi. Heat 2 Tbsp of a neutral oil in a large pot on medium-high. Fry fenugreek and cumin seeds for a few minutes until they are fragrant and popping into the air.

4. Add hing and cook for 30 seconds. Add onion, chili, and salt and saute for 3-4 minutes, until onion is translucent.

5. Add ginger and garlic and sauté for 30 seconds to a minute, until no longer raw-smelling. Add coriander, mirchi, and turmeric and sauté another 30 seconds.

6. Add the curd mixture and stir to combine. Allow to come to a boil, then lower the heat to low and allow it to cook, stirring occasionally, for 30-45 minutes, until thickened.

7. Meanwhile, finish the pakore. Stir the onion slices to distribute any moisture they may have released. Add just enough water to hydrate all the besan and allow the pakoras to hold together.

8. Heat about an inch of neutral oil on medium in a large pan. Once hot, drop small handfuls of pakora mixture into the oil. Fry, flipping once, until golden brown on both sides. Remove onto a paper-towel-lined plate or wire rack.

9. Add pakoras to the kadhi, along with garam masala, and allow to simmer for another 5-10 minutes until kadhi is very thick and creamy. Remove into a serving dish.

10. Make the tadka. Heat margarine in a small skillet until sizzling. Add cumin seeds, chili pepper, and mirchi and heat until fragrant. Pour the oil, seeds, and chili over the finished kadhi and serve immediately.

Serve with roti, paratha, rice, or jeera rice.

#recipes #vegan recipes #cooking #Indian recipes #Indian #Punjabi #yoghurt #yogurt #besan #chickpea flour #pakora

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wonik1ss · 1 year ago

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UNFORGIVEN 003. — le.m

about : UNFORGIVEN will be a three part series from now : the start of the UNFORGIVEN era, to the actually comeback, to the promotions of UNFORGIVEN. All about Garam’s replacements life as a LE SSERAFIM member during the UNFORGIVEN comeback !!

pairing : lesserafim x 6th!member

song rec : not your girl - ive

You laughed as Eunchae backed Yunjin into a corner doing the ‘boom boom boom’ part of your song eve psyche and the blue beards wife.

“ EUNCHAE! “. Yunjin yelled as You laughed.

“ Eunchae come here! “. Eunchae pouted and ran over to you hands around your waist hiding behind you as Yunjin ran over to her.

“ Where is Chaewon when I need her! “. Yunjin yelled as you shielded Eunchae as Yunjin tried to tickle the younger girl.

“ It’s time to go on stage! “. Chaewon said as she slightly opened your groups changing room door. You all nodded as you turned around and fixed Eunchaes hair and she did yours.

As you all ran to the the stage you and Eunchae giggled as Yunjin mumbled about how she was going to get Eunchae after there performance.

You all got in your spots as the music started and so did all of you.

“ Ya Come here Hong Eunchae! “. Yunjin yelled as Eunchae ran and Yunjin followed.

“ I swear we need to put a leash on those two! “. Chaewon said as she lazily followed the two girls as you Kazuha and Sakura giggled.

“ We have a few minutes till the van comes so be in the dressing room in 10 ok! “. Sakura said as she ran away to find some food. Kazuha walked over to you and held your hand as you both wondered around Music bank. Eunchae probably was getting ready to interview another group when you jumped back as 5 girls popped out.

“ Surprise Y/n! “. Hanni yelled as she ran to hug you. Kazuha stood in shock as the other four girls crowded out with balloons and party hats.

“ We’re sorry we couldn’t congratulate you on unforgiven’s win sooner! “. Hyein said as you patted her head.

“ It’s ok Hyein- that’s why your all here? “. Hanni and the rest of the girls nodded as they dragged you and Kazuha to your changing room.

As you entered Hyein ran to hug Eunchae and Minji ran to place the cake they bought for all of you. Danielle started to record as Haerin moved you all infront of the cake as Hanni lit it.

“ Blow them out! “. Hyein mouthed as you held your members hands and blew out the candles.

You smiled and made fingers guns at the camera as your fans cheered. Then bowed to them as you and your members hurriedly ran of stage.

“ I’m so hungry Chaewon can we go to the cafeteria now! “. Eunchae whined as Chaewon nodded and Eunchae ran to get food.

You and Yunjin chuckled as you followed the Maknae to the cafeteria.

You got your food and we’re about to sit down with your group when you felt someone drag you into a seat.

“ Y/n ! “. Ni-ki beamed at you as you glared at the Maknae for grabbing you.

“ You could have just asked me to eat with you! “. You whined as Ni-ki shrugged.

“ But pulling you over here was funner! “

“ Funner is not a word Ni-ki! “. Jungwon said as he nudged the younger boy. You smiled as your bickered and chatted with the rest of the boys about your comeback.

“ Aww we have to go now! “. Sunoo whined as you all stood up. You had a photoshoot to go to and Enhypen had another show to perform on.

“ See you later Y/n! “. Sunghoon said as the group left. Chaewon and the rest of the girls came to you as you left.

“ I’m going to fight Ni-ki later! “. Eunchae said as she pretended to fight the air.

“ Why? “. You asked as the younger girl held your hand.

“ Because he keeps taking our Y/n from us when he has 6 boys to talk to! “. You giggled as Eunchae went on and on about how your the groups first then friends with everyone else, as you left music bank once again.

You sighed as you hit the vending machine again, it had ate your 3 dollars for a messily bag of chips that you really needed. Especially since you couldn’t eat until lunch which was in 2 hours.

“ Excuse me? “. You turned in shock of the random english you just heard. You only really talked in English with Yunjin and a few other idols like Hanni and Lily who’s comebacks were far done by now.

“ Yes? “. You said as you turned to see a tall black haired boy staring at you.

“ Me and my member Leehan wanted to know if you could make a tiktok with us.. we just had our debut an- “

“ Ahh Your Boynextdoor right? “. The boy stared at you in shock as light shade of pink colored his cheeks.

“ Yes how- “

“ Eunchae talks about your songs a lot.. and sure I would love to make a tiktok with you “. You said as you smiled and The boy urged his member to join the two of you. The boy gave his phone to one of his staff members and ran over to you.

“ I’m Jaehyun by the way! “

“ I’m Y/n “. Jaehyun nodded.

“ I know your pretty famous in hybe.. “. You giggled as the boy did too. He then started to teach you the dance to his groups song one and only as his member helped too.

“ Ok I think I got it “. The boys nodded as the staff member started the tiktok. You danced and then ended in a peace sign as the boys smiled and made a heart behind you.

“ Thank yo- “

“ Jaehyun hurry up we’re all hungry! “. You looked up to see 4 other boys waiting for there members.

“ It was no problem you should both go to your members “. The boys nodded as they waved to you and left.

“ Y/n! Do you know where Ni-ki is? “. You shock your head as the younger girl pouted.

“ What wrong? “

“ We were supposed to do a tiktok together but he pranked me and ran “. You giggled as Eunchae rolled he eyes.

“ Just do a tiktok with me fearnots love it when we make TikTok’s together “. The girls eyes beamed as she dragged you to the stairs. She put the phone down and started the tiktok. Unforgiven played in the the background as you both danced together, and then made Hearst ok eachother as the TikTok ended.

You smiled and Eunchae did too. You finally made your way into the kpop industry. Even thought you still had haters you were Unforgiven and you didn’t care.

The last installment of UNFORGIVEN has come! I hope you enjoyed this little series! As another will be coming soon!

#kpop fanfic #kpop #kpop idol x reader #kpop imagines #kpopidol #kpop gg #kpop girls #kpop smau #reader x idol #reader insert #ive x reader #chaewon le sserafim #yunjin le sserafim #le sserafim eunchae #le sserafim kazuha #sakura le sserafim #le sserafim

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alyaalfita · 1 month ago

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Kantong Mata Tak Hanya Masalah Penampilan! Ini Penyebab dan Solusi Tepatnya

Beberapa hal, seperti kurang tidur, penumpukan cairan, penuaan, dan gaya hidup yang tidak sehat, dapat menyebabkan kantung mata. Seiring bertambahnya usia, jaringan dan otot yang menopang kelopak mata melemah. Akibatnya, lemak berpindah ke area bawah mata dan membentuk kantong. Kurang tidur juga menyebabkan pembuluh darah di bawah mata melebar, yang membuat kantung mata dan lingkaran hitam terlihat lebih jelas.

Ada beberapa metode alami yang dapat digunakan untuk menghilangkan kantung mata. Salah satunya adalah kompres dingin, yang dapat membantu mengurangi pembengkakan. Anda bisa menggunakan kain basah yang dingin atau bahan alami seperti kantong teh dingin dan irisan mentimun, yang memiliki antioksidan untuk mengurangi peradangan.

Beberapa makanan yang mengandung banyak kalium, seperti kacang-kacangan, pisang, yogurt, dan sayuran hijau, juga dapat membantu mengurangi bengkak di bawah mata. Selain itu, tidur dengan kepala yang lebih tinggi dapat membantu mengurangi penumpukan cairan di sekitar mata.

Penggunaan pelembab dan krim mata secara teratur dapat membantu mengurangi lingkaran hitam dan mata panda, meskipun Anda tidak langsung melihat hasilnya. Pilih pelembap atau krim mata yang mengandung kafein, retinol atau retinoid, vitamin C, kamomil, dan antioksidan.

Jika kantung mata disebabkan oleh alergi atau iritasi, menghindari pemicu alergi dan menggunakan obat anti alergi dapat membantu mengurangi munculnya kantung mata. Selain itu, menjaga pola hidup sehat dengan tidur cukup, minum cukup air, dan mengurangi konsumsi garam.

Jika metode alami ini tidak cukup, ada beberapa prosedur medis seperti penggunaan filler atau blepharoplasty (operasi kelopak mata) yang dapat menjadi solusi untuk menghilangkan kantung mata, terutama yang disebabkan oleh faktor genetik atau penuaan.

#skincare tips #kantungmata #penampilan #solusi #beauty #healty #food

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infinite-xerath · 1 year ago

Note

"I... Really... Hate... Desert..." Garam was talking to himself in desert. The sun was too bright. The temperature was too high. And the air was too dry. Garam hated everything about Shurima.

The only reason why he was traveling Shurima is because he heard there is a strong power in Shurima. He wanted to know it. And he needed some power, too. "I hope I can find it soon..." Garam talked to himself again.

Indeed, Shurima had long been abandoned. The wasteland was naught but ancient tombs and ruins, along with a few scattered settlements and caravans. This was not the same Shurima that had once relied on the power of Ascension, but another world where the empire's history had taken a radically different path...

In this world, there were indeed ancient forces resting beneath the sands, as well as powerful guardians designed to keep them there. One such guardian patrolled the halls of his assigned tomb, ready for the moment someone or something dared to trespass.

#garam-yordle

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semburatsore · 6 months ago

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JERIT HATI SEORANG NELAYAN

Tercebur aku dalam kali tempat aku biasa mencari ikan,

Sekali-dua kali, namun kali ini ia telah mematahkan kakiku..

Haruskah aku bertahan?

Menangislah aku dalam lautan, hingga asin air mataku saru dengan laut,

Tak jemu - jemu aku memecahkan lautan karang,

Aku hanya ingin berhenti,

Lalu bagaimana nasib anak-istriku kelak?

Biar aku bekerja dgn kakiku yang diamputasi,

Semoga aku kuat dan berharap ada keajaiban di laut, walau aku harus jg beralternatif menjadi petani garam, walau tak seberapa yang penting perut masih bisa terisi.

Semburat Sore,

17.05.23

#puisi #poems on tumblr #sajak #sajak kehidupan #kehidupan #puisi kehidupan #sajak patah

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trolagygirl2022 · 1 year ago

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BELIFT'S "R U NEXT?" Tarot Reading

(This reading was done 07/06/2023)

How succesful will "R U NEXT" be?

Seven of Wands, Ace of Wands, Eight of Cups, Three of Cups, The Tower rev, Queen of Pentacles

Hmm. Will this show be succesful internationally but flop in Korea? Seven of Wands means success but Eight of Cups is abandoning/leaving behind. A boycott of some sort? This show would probably have friendship moments (i.e. Xiaoting and Yurina in GP999 and SHanbin and Zhang Hao in Boys Planet) it could have funny moments and be entertaining (i.e. SIXTEEN) I'm confused about the Tower though. I feel like there would be a scandal of some sort, or that trainees could leave before the show airs or the lineup is changed last minute??

What scandals will be on "R U NEXT"?

Six of Swords, Justice, The Hermit, Two of Swords, Two of Wands, King of Wands, Knight of Swords.

On top of the deck is the Six of Cups so I feel their will be a bullying scandal of some sort (Garam??) They are many possibilities to this

They could be a trainee who is too strict and has an unlikable personality and could be even bullying the other trainees. The trainee will not get a way with it and could cause a major scandal in Korea for letting a school bullying and could cause anxiety among BELIFT staff and the trainee be sent home.

2. They will have a good amount of non Koreans in the show/ final lineup that will cause xenophobic k-nets to be upset

3. An attidude scandal? A Trainee has a very private, expressionless attidude even to the mentors which can send hate to them.

4. A Trainee's past was leaked causing them to get hate. It seems more like a bullying scandal.

#kpop tarot #kpop tarot reading #runextbelift #iland2

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jeonvein · 1 year ago

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| genre: thriller, romance.

| extras: this story follows my book version of this. The names Garam and Jungseok will be changed. Jungseok becomes Jungkook and Garam is Y/n. For the fanfiction version everything will be changed to fit it.

| trigger warning: child abuse, abuse, violence, murder, cannibalism,

Chapter 1: Y/n Pov

"How long am I required to work today?" I asked my manager who was sitting just inches away from the counter where the register was placed. I had just clocked in to my shift not knowing that my other boss left a note wanting me to work an extra shift because people hadn't shown up.

My manager shifted slightly into her seat, sighing heavily. "I honestly don't know. Seyoon barely comes to work and when she does, she begs other people to take her shift."

I chuckled lightly. "I know Seyoon is very unique."

"I wouldn't say unique, she has a habit of laying people off. Why I would rather have you work the hours I do than work her hours."

Eunae had been my manager for some time. She's been very helpful while I was struggling with money problems that had affected my family upon moving to Tongyeong-si. I moved to stand in front of the register that is next to Eunae. She didn't move an inch in her seat but she looked extremely exhausted.

"You should head home, Eunae."

"My shift isn't over just yet."

"You look exhausted, Eunae."

Eunae laughed. "It is part of customer service especially in a coffee shop." She stood up, wiping down her apron. "Our jobs ain't cheap."

I chuckled lightly. "You got that right."

Eunae was right, sometimes serving customers here at the coffee shop was exhausting mentally and physically especially if these customers were being rude to the employees causing more stress onto us and the managers. That was the only bad thing that I could think about being here in this small city.

There were a lot of memorizing sights like the small fountain placed just inches away from the coffee shop. I loved to stare at it during my breaks, it helps clear my mind most days. I've been offered multiple jobs by multiple different people, I even had one person offer me $200 a week to be a stripper at their club but I respectfully declined them.

Luckily, the coffee shop was just enough for me and I was offered great staff for the most part.

"Y/n, how is the landlord acting today?"

"Bad, He basically told me I have a month to earn at least 1318000 won or we would be kicked out of the house."

Eunae sighed heavily. "Your mom is still not helping?"

"Not that much, she barely works while she is telling me to get two jobs while dealing with my father's illness."

"If I could let you stay with me I would but I am about to get an apartment of my own."

"I wish but It is what the world is, Eunae." I started counting the money in the register to make sure we had enough to give back to the customers who paid with $5 dollar bills and even $10's.

I was already mentally preparing myself for homelessness, knowing how much of a risk I will be to diseases and even an illness that has affected my father. I am praying in my heart that I will be able to make enough money to last another month or I may have to beg our landlord to extend it even further since we cannot make it to the pay day.

I placed the money in the register, closing it upon hearing quickened footsteps coming closer towards me. I looked in that direction to see who it was and to my surprise it was Hwayoung. She was breathing heavily, holding a piece of paper tightly in her hands.

"Hwayoung, you okay?" Eunae turned around to look at her, seeing her messy hair and sweat upon her clothes. She huffed and slammed the piece of paper onto the counter, making both Eunae and I jump.

"Damn Hwa, You didn't have to slam it on the counter like that."

She was still heaving trying to catch her breath. "Give me" She sucked in the air around her. "Two seconds."

Both Eunae and I laughed. It was nice to see Hwayoung at the start of such a stressful shift. There were not enough words to express the love I have for Hwayoung but I think having her in my life was enough to express that.

There was visible sweat built up on her forehead as we watched her catch her breath before standing up straight. Eunae and I raised an eyebrow at her, curious on what got her running towards us in excitement.

"You had a good run Hwa?"

"Amazing run! My body is pumping full of adrenaline."

"We can tell." I laughed.

"Well, It is not just about the run."

"Then what is it about that has gotten you so excited?"

"That piece of paper!" She exclaimed, pushing this unknown paper closer to me.

"Is it for me?"

"Yes it is! I know how much you have been needing 1318000 won by the end of the month so I did something exciting!"

I looked towards Eunae, still confused about this. Eunae shrugged her shoulders and pointed to me to pick up the piece of paper and read it. I reached over picking up the paper and bringing it close to my face to start reading it.

"You signed me up at an orphanage?" I didn't even read the full thing when I came across the name of the orphanage at the top of the paper. "Jungsik's orphanage" plastered in bold and eye-catching font.

"I did!" Hwayoung shouted, causing some of the customers that were already in the coffee shop to look her way.

"Hwayoung let's not shout, you're disturbing the customers." Eunae explained sternly, signing to the customers that she is handling it.

"I'm sorry, I am just so excited." Hwayoung slightly turned towards the customers, bowing 90 degrees before standing straight.

"But back to the orphanage, how did you sign me up without me being there?"

"It was easy, I saw an application online last night and went to visit it this morning. When I came in, I asked for the job applications. The old lady at the desk gave it to me to fill out as she was thinking I was signing up and I just put your name."

"You basically committed fraud Hwayoung.." Eunae held her laugh.

"Did I?.." Hwayoung took a second to think about it.

"I mean the thought is what matters in the end right?" I shrugged.

One thing about this paper is that the orphanage does look legit but maybe I should look up during my break today to see if I can find its location on the maps. I was still a little bit suspicious about how quickly Hwayoung got the job for me but maybe they were desperate for workers that they took anyone.

"Hwa, How did you get this job so quickly?"

"I have my ways." She smirked towards me and Eunae laughed, hitting my shoulder lightly.

"They owed her money."

"That is not trueee."

"Then what is it hmm? I mean Y/n is right, she shouldn't have gotten that job so easily."

Hwayoung hummed. "What the lady at the front desk told me is that they were actually looking into Y/n. They didn't know what she looked like quite yet but they were going to offer her a job so It was convenient I turned up there and used Y/n's name."

"Which I still can't believe you did."

"Hey I mean I got you a job right!"

I shook my head. "Correct."

"In a weird way but It does work for Y/n." Eunae sat back down in her chair as Hwayoung got closer to us to let people who just came inside of the coffee shop by.

"Make sure to read the whole thing Y/n, if you don't read the whole thing you will miss something and let the company be allowed to rip you off of a job if they wanted to instead of giving you any benefits."

I nodded my head, moving my eyes back onto the piece of paper. I made sure to imprint every inch of information that was said on this piece of paper just in case the company decided to try to lie to me. While I was doing that, my eyes came across another bolded message near the end.

'DO NOT: Do not come at night, throw out your personal feelings before you enter our orphanage'

I didn't understand what It meant or the hidden meaning behind this message. This new boss was definitely like leaving warnings which was normal in this working industry. After that bolded warning, there was a list of potential risks while working at the orphanage.

There were mentions of missing children and the environment of the place causing injuries to the workers which I could understand since I assumed it was in place since the 1900's. I was really glad they told the risks and even mentioned that all injuries are paid for by the orphanage.

Thank god I didn't have to pay for another hospital bill.

I read the application over one more time, allowing it all to seep into my brain. Then I placed the paper down on the counter. Hwayoung pointed at a small line towards the bottom of the paper right after the potential risks section.

"Do make sure you sign it. He can't officially let you be an employee there until you agree to the terms and risks of working there."

I squinted my eyes at the paper finally seeing the small smudged line. I can't believe I didn't see it before. I went to reach for a pen that was placed in one of the cups just right of the register. I moved my head down near the paper before signing it with my signature.

I should have thought twice about applying but they seemed promising with the amount of work they would give and health benefits if anything happens to me while working. I do like that I will be taking care of children which is one of my best qualities. My Aunt always said I was good at taking care of young toddlers.

I went to put the pen back in the cup holder when the bell from the front door rang loudly. A large family came into the shop and stood behind Hwayoung looking at our menu. There were a couple of children with them and they seemed well behaved.

My gaze moved back towards Hwayoung when she practically jumped over the counter to wrap her arms around me to dig her knuckles into my head playfully.

"I knew you would do it! I am always such a good friend!"

"I need the money but thanks Hwayoung." I laughed lightly.

"You're so welcome! I'mma head back towards the dance studio see you both then!" Hwayoung sent us goodbye air kisses before walking past the family behind her to leave the shop.

I sometimes wonder how me and her are friends sometimes but It wasn't my worry at the moment. I just had to get through my shift right now and tonight at this orphanage. I am hoping they are really nice to me.

—––———–––

It reached 6 pm right on the dot. The clock that was set up in Eunae's spot went off reminding her and me that It was our time to go home. I finished with the last customers who came in and ordered their late night coffees. I understood completely why some of them needed it that bad since work drains a person mentally.

Then I placed my apron onto the wall hanger in the break room near the door. Once I finally clocked out, my other manager Seyoon entered the break room. She grinned towards me, placing a hand on her hip.

"Are you taking my shift?"

"I'm sorry Seyoon but I have to go to my other job."

"Other Job? Who else would hire you?" Seyoon snickered out.

I took a step back from the door when I noticed Eunae entering the break room. Eunae looked towards Seyoon before clocking out herself.

"Seyoon, please make sure the coffee shop is closed correctly this time. I don't think we can handle another complaint."

Seyoon chuckled. "I think I was just about to leave, right Y/n?"

"Not really, you have to do your job, Seyoon. I'll see you tomorrow Eunae." I smiled towards Eunae as I pushed past Seyoon who was blocking the entrance.

I started heading towards the bus station just down the street from the coffee shop. It was not a long walk and it was nice to enjoy the breeze that flowed by everyday. When I reached the area, I went to look at the map to see if I could find this orphanage and ask the driver if they could take me out that far.

I placed my finger on the map to point at where I was before looking around for 'jungsik orphanage'. For a couple of minutes I couldn't find it. It was making me think that maybe this place wasn't real but I decided to pull out my phone and go on google Maps to help me out.

When I found it on google, I saw the bus pulling up to the station. I kept a right grip on my purse before getting into the bus. I stopped in front of the bus driver to hand him some money.

"I also have a question sir."

"Hmm?"

"Do you have a station out near Jungsik Orphanage?"

The bus driver looked at me with a weird smirk on his face for a split second before his face went back to normal.

"Yes we do sweetheart, now go wait your turn."

I took a step back, concerned about what I just saw from the bus driver's face. I sighed internally.

Y/n, it is just your imagination.

I hope it was, everything about this night seemed off. When I sat down, the bus driver had already hit two other stops before driving off. While I was waiting, I decided to call my mother and tell her that I found my second job. I know she would be proud about me working instead of coming home.

I dialed her number hoping for a response but It just went straight to voicemail. I sighed lightly, not letting myself think about my mother more than I have to. I didn't want to bother her while she was trying to take care of my father. My mother was starting to get protective of me and I think it is because she knows my father may not make it. I am hoping he does but fate is not always on my side.

The bus reached the orphanage allowing me to get off. I looked straight ahead, seeing the big orphanage in the distance illuminating with the sunset. I should head over to it before I run out of light. I quickly ran towards the orphanage reaching the front yard, that is when I noticed the huge moss growing on the bricks and even the brown burn spots on the green grass just inches from the place.

I decided to take a minute to look up the history of this place. From what I know, the orphanage was built during Emperor Hyo's reign over korea. Which did make sense with its structure and the wood looking rotten. However, I was starting to get a little bit nervous with the human-like burn marks on the walls.

They were in the shape of bodies along with words like "save us, help us, they are hurting us" written in white chalk. I managed to head inside of the orphanage where it looked mostly up to date with the time period. The feeling of the carpet underneath my feet still had its softness while some areas were brittle.

I noticed the hallways were being lit by candles nailed into the walls which added to the swift draft of the wind. While walking down one of the hallways, I stopped in my tracks upon seeing stabbing marks. Some of the marks had a splotch of blood on it.

I think I may go home.

No Y/n, you need this job.

The hell I do.

It was a battle with my mind. I needed to leave, there were obviously better jobs out there than this. I rushed back towards the reception area where a young woman was apparently waiting on me near the entrance.

"You are Mrs.Heo Y/n correct?"

"Um, yes that is correct."

"Great." She walked towards the reception desk with a clipboard. "I am going to need that paper that you were supposed to sign."

Right. The application.

I pulled out the application from my purse, handing it to her. She took the paper from me, reading it to make sure I followed all of the instructions. The young girl put the paper on the wooden desk before picking up a huge stack of papers.

"I am Joy. I will be your tour guide since I will be quitting." She smirked, handing me the stack of papers that I needed to carry.

"Uh, thank you?"

"You're welcome, let's start upstairs." She went up the stairs first leaving me behind. I slowly followed behind not seeing the male that walked in front of me. I stopped in my tracks when I reached the top step, finally seeing him.

The mysterious male was glaring at me with his piercing eyes only to walk past me leaving me alone. That is when I noticed one of the rooms where two boys were playing with a toy but when Joy walked back towards me, they hid it under their bed.

"Let's start with the rooms. I don't need to tell you how many rooms but I am going to pretend that you are stupid."

I should have walked out. I don't know why I didn't.

But Instead I didn't and just smiled at her. She went past one of the first rooms.

"There are six bedrooms on this floor. 10 children are living in each room with the left side belonging to the boys and the right belonging to the girls."-"The rooms are in order from youngest to oldest, Do I need to explain the ages to you?'

I shook my head. "I think I have It ma'am."

"Good, I am happy you're not incompetent."

We reached the end of the hallway where I noticed a door that was cracked. I didn't think anything of it but I did want to ask about it.

"Joy, I have a question."

Joy turned around crossing her arms. "Yes?"

"This room." I pointed to the door. "Is it important?"

"I didn't tell you about it, which means It is not for you."

I nodded my head following Joy downstairs where she showed me the rest of the place like the classrooms, living rooms, nurse stations and kitchens.

"I will be going, I assume you have the common sense to follow the rules."

"Thank you."

Joy quickly left the place leaving me alone. I started doing this stack of papers in my office when crying started getting louder and harsher every couple of minutes. I went to take a break from my work to go see what happened. I headed towards the nursery to find her near one of the cribs.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you."

I whispered it to her kneeling down in front of her. She hesitated but let me look at her arm from a distance. Her arm had burn marks making her arm a bright red. I slowly moved towards her to help guide her to one of the girls bedrooms, tucking her in one of the beds.

"I'm going to get medicine for your arm, okay?" I told her softly, trying not to scare her.

I ran down stairs swiftly rummaging through the cabinets until I could find bandages. I pulled up a stool next to the young girl, taking her arm slowly. Putting on the ointment she was wincing in pain every time the ointment touched her burnt skin. Her tears started filling her eyes as I wiped her tears.

"Can I know what happened?"

She doesn't look in my direction. It looked like she was scared to tell me who hurted her. I stood up and started putting things back into the first aid kit before moving closer towards the door.

"I will be in the hallway if you need me."

Before I could walk out, she whispered out "thank you for being nice." like she didn't want anyone to know she was thanking me. I smiled and turned around where I kissed her head.

"I will always be nice to you."

When I stepped out into the hallway, there was that male again. We almost bumped into each other but he took a step back from me. You could see he was definitely taller than me by a couple of inches along with that scar that came across his right eye complimenting his raw red eye.

He had another scar on his chin down near the bottom left along with his captivating left brown eye. It was definitely rare in Korea for people to have two color eyes and it was nice to see someone unique, specifically in a part of town I've never been to.

"Are you done eye fucking me?"

My eyes widened when his voice turned cold like ice.

"No sir, I was not eye fucking you."

Right when he was about to respond a nun walked up to the both of us.

"Dinner is at 6:30 pm. Bedtime is at 8:30 pm. Don't be late next time."

I looked at her confused. "It is 8:30?"

The nun walked away from me not answering my question. I didn't pay any mind to it and walked past the male to put the rest of the children to bed. I entered one of the rooms where the young boys were jumping on the beds.

"Please, let's get you all to bed hmm?" I tried to convince them but they didn't listen quite well.

"Get into bed, do you want the boogeyman to come out and get you?" I saw the mysterious male enter the room and leaned against the doorframe. He chuckled while each of the little kids went up to him to say goodnight.

"Unnie was so nice to us! She helped Jian today after the meanies hurt her!"

That is when I saw a smile on his face. It was definitely memorizing. I was slowly learning the concept of who the children called the meanies and I was glad It wasn't the mysterious male. He seemed interesting but I didn't have enough time to admire as I rushed towards the nursery to put the babies to bed.

I read the names on the crib, picking up Min Ae and Min So. I sat down in one of the rocking chairs near the corner and started softly singing a song my mother would always sing to me as a baby to help them sleep.

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