#Chronicles of a Pessimist

[wannabecatwriter]

"Oh yeah? Why don't you spend it with me properly," Josie moved closer to him.

Yes, she knew he had to run the club to maintain this lifestyle, which she liked very much. But she also wanted her man near her as much as possible.

After all, who knew what distractions were at that club of his? There were always so many women around those things and she was not the sharing type.

"You know, that's all I like to do, Josie," Harvey reassured her.

Much as he liked her, he was a little concerned about how sensitive she could be about what she perceived as being ignored. He wasn't ignoring her at all, he just had a full plate.

Of course, he was more than capable of showing her just how much he liked spending time with her.

[nothinggold13]

I am back on my “defending Narflix” train because somebody involved said something stupid and now tumblr is showing me all the people complaining about that quote (which, I will say again, is most likely to either be a silly statement meant to confuse us or was meant as “it’s going to be epic.”)

And I AM very passionate about defending the Potential of Narflix, simply because having the entire story of narnia on screen means so much to me!! as an editor, and as someone who just loves visual media, and as someone who adores the books and wants to see them all brought to life and done justice!! This is an exciting prospect for me because it is the first time one company has owned all the rights!!

But (although this shouldn’t be necessary; anyone who has followed my posts for long enough should know that my passion goes both ways) I will also restate the fact that if Narflix proves to be in any way disrespectful of C. S. Lewis, his books, or his faith, I will heel-turn so fast.

I have so much critical thought. I just like having hope for things. 🫶🏻

[izartn]

Hey, was Noé from Auvergne? Bc that's where Lestat is from. Mochizuki Jun, señora, I know you watched the IWTV film but did you read the books too? Are you watching the new TV series? Is Louis de Sade name an homage?!?! Just a min.

OK, so yes it's Auveroigne in Altus, which the vampire counterpart to the historical province. In the wiki, in Noé page says:

Averoigne is a fictional counterpart of a historical province in France, detailed in a series of short stories by the American writer Clark Ashton Smith.[1] The province is considered "the most witch-ridden in the entire country. The location is frequently used in Smith's stories as well as his close friends'.

One of the main themes tackled in the stories of Averoigne is vampires. The forests of Averoigne are said to be infested with vampires as well as werewolves.

Which means that Mochijun, who has done her research very well for Case Study of Vanitas, would likely have come across this (which seems to be the kind of stories that also got Anne Rice to choose Auvergne for Lestat???) but given that Mochijun has also said (the translation of that interview is somewhere in my vnc tag) that she watched IWTV and all the multiple references to other vampires and Gothic stories and fairy tales scattered in Vanitas I wouldn't put it pass her to put Auveroigne as a wink.

Also here you have the Wikipedia for Averoigne.

I am obssesed by this btw. The stories and worldbuilding couldn't be more different but Vanitas does occur in France, mainly Paris and has vampires so the association was a bit unavoidable in my mind.

If you have read/watched both case study of vanitas and interview with the vampire I want some crazy talk here.

[adoregojo]

★- haunted by the trails of you.

a/n: here's some more angst i had in drafts and now I'm setting it free. wanted more pain but this what yall are getting for now d: (potentially getting a part two)

summary: their first anniversary without you, and you'd still be haunting them. !! gn reader!! characters: isagi, reo, rin. warnings: men. hurt/barely an comfort, the word 'vomit', blood mentions in rin's part, appear of other characters. perhaps heavy angst?

isagi: it was at his own home. for what he can fathom, isagi isn't considered as someone who's hooked on the past. at least that's what he pinned his head to. what had chronicles should've been a lesson, something that'll help him move forward, a memory that'll get him through to his feet again.

once the past had been written, there was no undoing. only exceptions and take the moral out of it.

sometimes isagi wished he had tugged on that enough as much as he tugged his heart to yours.

he was about to send himself a clout. has he learned nothing? why can't he draw a clear line without the ghost of you obsessing in every corner of his life? so instead, he botches his hair to untidy navy-blue locks flying out of place, mumbling cusses to none other than himself.

He bet he looked like a madman, uttering loathes undertone within every step upon a stair he took. He swore he spotted a middle aged lady covering her son's ears in horror. maybe he wasn't muttering as low as he thought.

it was saturday, in which isagi takes a day off to greet his parents from time to time. and he wasn't gonna cancel that over some feelings he might've got the wrong end of the stick about, it was probably just lingering lust and affection he had for you, but I'll past. clinging to the mere possibility and ignoring the ache that remains for too long than intended.

swirling the keys with his bare hands, isagi can view the frigid smoke of his breath appearing with every puff he let out. the tips of his fingers and knuckles were embarrassing standing out an angry shade of red, he forgot his gloves, again ,recalling: yoichi never really had to bat an eye when it comes to gloves. he'll even do it on purpose since you wouldn't think twice before launching yours to his frosty hands, while interlocking your hands with the other one.

now that he mentioned it, he always recollect how futile of an attempt it was. because the back of his hand will always remain polar, but at that time, it didn't carried a feather. he didn't really mind freezing to death if it meant I'll be in your arms. then he'll die any day.

isagi remains stationary, until his forehead rests the irony of his house door. he didn't know if he was deeply disappointed in himself, or just drowned by the sweet bygone days. gabbling something about how an idiot he was before taking a deep lungful of air and finally opening the door.

flinging his shoes to gods knows where, at this state even his mother's berating wouldn't budge a bone in him, yeah, this is how bad it was.

to his astonishment, there were no trails of his parents. isagi called, shouting once, twice. and gave up on the third time. he jogs around to the kitchen era, like expected: a dangling note covering some plate, informing him that they went out and they'll be back before dinner. 

isagi just let out a defeated sigh, an obvious pessimistic wave looming over him. he was genuinely hoping to spend a family-time right away, and something to divert him away from the wraith of you.

a part of him wondered, what answer could he hand his parents, breaking the fact that you two were no longer together. his parents always loved you, adored you even. they'd definitely be shattered, he'll just muddle it by saying that you two drew apart till an ultimate downfall drilled up a hole in your relationship, leading to a break up. they’ll buy it, right?

blindly, isagi carried out the plat, slamming it flatly against the wooden table of the living room. making himself comfortable on the couch that held on the glimpse of his childhood, it was a pleasant to be at home again, and one of a great distraction.

he needed it.. anything to sway him away from the remainder of what name of this day earned..

from the corner of his eye, he spotted a second note. scoffing at himself isagi gets a grasp on it, living on the thought it might've been his parents requesting him to do chores, or just asking him to take extra care of himself. 

isagi consulted it, even when a part of him begged him not to.

‘dear, yocchan. we really hope you'll be the one to read this, but if not! hello yoichi’s partner, that's quite embarrassing if you're reading this hahaha. but anyway, we figured that today is your two anniversary, isn't that just great? We remember just yesterday they were being introduced to us for the first time. What a good time to be alive, but anyway. There's some surprise cake for the two of you to share! Happy anniversary, you lovebirds.- your mother (in law).”

‘don't get too carried away please! - your father (in law).”

isagi flouts, bitterly. so sorely that all the rock-hard grip of his hand went straight to poor paper, ripping it apart to fall into small chunks. the stomach-bug swirl, not the one with the butterflies plopping in the depths of his stomach, swarming with to define a new level of bliss. but a disgusting ache of venom mobbing, making him want to vomit in an instant. 

if it wasn't for his neighbors, isagi would've outcry his lungs out of frustration. but he wasn't on the field, where his anger planted. Now it's just a sad smile etching on his features. 

and maybe a drip of a few tears..

how long were you planning on haunting him for..

reo: he had to delete it.. for the longest period, reo had never been so glued on what he busted by his own hands, words and ego. he had no one to blame but himself, and yet no amount of strength that earth granted him, no matter how the sky have bore in tears gleaming the ground, a pool of agony cries pleading for him to do it.

all that and he’d still struggle to press the delete button. He just couldn't.

“man, just delete it already.” chigiri cried out, slamming his palms against the skin of his forehead. He was tired. and he wasn't even getting paid to deal with this shit.

“it's easier for you to say it, you don't get it.” reo sassed back, trudging inches away from the redhead who's eyes twitched in disbelief. 

nagi and chigiri一well, mostly chigiri, have been summoned by a cry for help from their shared friend. just for the end of the world to be him trying to delete the pictures and videos of you and him, his ex that lived in his head rent free. 

it was a wretched sight to see, his eyes were tearing up while scrolling through your memories together. chigiri一god’s greatest soldier, was really, really doing everything he can to encourage reo back on his feet. It was like helping a spineless creature to straighten up. 

it's quite impressive, he can use all his abilities on soccer pitches, give his best assists, be the heart, the mind and the soul of the field. Yet behind the plate was a completely different person, a hopeless guy curled up in a ball of your blanket that carried most of your left cologne, and sobbing till the sunrise. and today was a special show, he was absolutely shattered because your scent was slowly vanishing. 

all chigiri can do is pinch the bridge of his nose in foiling, “listen, how about we go out or something? there's a nearby place we can get lunch and-”

“they used to love that restaurant¦” reo whines, shoving his phone into the redhead face, it carried a picture of you smiling blissfully and unaware, cheeks rife with food. “they're.. cute, so cute it makes me want to die.” falling backwards on the silky duvet of the queen-sized bed. 

“Please don't, I still need my monthly allowance on genshin.” the one time nagi decided to finally say something, it had to be this. and chigiri never wanted to zip up someone's mouth so badly.

“you keep on stabbing yourself in the throat, you dumbass. if you can't do it then I'll do it for you.” stretching out his arm, opening up his palms for reo to hand over the phone and get this over with already.

in an instant, the phone was being embraced tightly to his chest, “no! I can do it myself, I just need some time," Chigiri just raised his hands in surrender, mumbling a quick ‘whatever’ as he jumped out the bed, leaving the extra space for his friend to grieve, alone.

it was a miracle that his tears still remain un-parched. Every photo he scroll through, the lump in his throat narrows painfully. clinching his lips upwards every time he crossed over while you were smiling, it hurts so good. He doesn't recognize whatever the knot in his stomach was reducing in sorrow or ecstatic.

he wasn't trashing any of those, he couldn't find it in his heart too. instead of criticizing himself of what he should've said to make you stay, what could've he done to swoon your heart instead of fleeting it. you'll keep on tip-toeing around his heartstrings and he'll let you without a charge.

he squeaked in his pillow, he just kept on bruising himself, torturing himself by the dim memory of what the two of you had once. something that not even money could regain or even soothe on. he yearned for one more kiss, one more embrace, one more chance to get a glimpse of you and he'll die a happy man, that's a lie, he'll misses you even after death.

he wished for you to come and haunt him, eat him to bits. but it was like he was the one haunting the crumbs of you.

on the middle of his groaning mess, an amber eyes staring sharply at him, his figure casting a shadow over his state. “here, drink up.” nonchalant, he handed him a random juice he ‘eeny, meeny’ his way to. reo accepted the drink, his arm sluggishly taking it. chigiri swore he was about to crack the glass over his head if he wouldn't stop this pitiful little act of his.

“why are you even this hardcore sad? you were never like this in the last weeks.”

“it's their anniversary, but not anymore I guess.” nagi shrugged, still too focused on the screen of his phone to pay the slightest amount of attention. turning a blind eye when reo flinches a bit at his truthful words 

“have anyone told you you're a terrible human being?” 

one sip, a second one. and his lilac eyes were watering for a million time. “they used to love this drink.” he whispered.

“i genuinely hope you choke on it.” 

rin: it got so bad, he talked to sae about it.. running a few years backwards, if you told the sixteen years old itoshi rin he'd be seeking his own deadbeat of a brother to vent he'd spit out in your face with no second thought.

and if he could, he would've. because rin was rethinking his life choices, taking a step back every second yet taking two ahead then comprehending once again. and now there was no going back, what was between him and the urgent fate was a wooden door. 

his hands buried deep in his pockets instead of making an attempt to knock. he found gazing at his pair of shoes much more entertaining. 

he didn't have it in his head to think straight, not when you clouded over like an angry storm, all he can do is take it and let your teardrop roll down his face, or maybe they were his own tears, he couldn't savvy it. 

after a deep lungful of air, rin thrust his forward, just an inch away, only to stop briskly. sae? really? just how desperate is he? very. he come to cuss himself for counting you as the one and only person he apostrophizes with. if only he’d listen when you would rant about him approving his social skills, he should've listened instead plugging his ears. He wished he listened to a lot of things you said..

in a rush, the door unlocked in a swift. almost making him funk backwards, unraveling the sight of his older brother, standing unimpressed. and before rin could speak a word, sae took the lead. 

“you know I could see your shadow casting under my doorstep, right?” 

Rin clicks his tongue in annoyance, and when he doesn't reply, the reddish head moves to the side, and rin steers his way in. shutting the door behind him, sae jog away, letting him take off his shoes. not even a proper welcome, he shouldn't have gotten his hopes up.

the apartment was quite tidy, a strong aroma loomed underneath his nose. Despite that, it was awkwardly dull, not even ghosts would bother haunting it. rin takes a seat in a solo couch, fumbling his fingers in a bothersome way, the silence was a deadline, not anything he wasn't used to.

It was just the first time rin had come here, by himself. without an actual family required to stick to the back. 

or without you.

unintentionally, Rin's leg keeps thrusting. a bad habit of his when the tension gets thick. every passing second he berates himself even further, damn him for having only one path to seek solace in, for allowing only one soul to soothe over his frail heart, for authorizing only one embrace to delay him.

and damn you for carving open his heart. just to leave him to bleed.

the echoing steps of sae cut his strails of thoughts. settling down his cup of hot tea. rin raised a brow at the uncivil manner. “you didn't ask for one.” his brother shrugs calmly, oh he was driving him nuts with this unchanged attitude. 

breathe in, rin.

reverberating voice called, so he obeys. straighten his pouster. “I wanted to talk to you about something. it's important.” 

“I can tell. and your sidekick is nowhere to be found, did they finally ditch you?”

his hands clutching up in a makeshift ball, rin says nothing.

“oh, so they did?” sae blows a few times over the overheated cup, taking a sip then uttering something under his breath. “Well, that's unfortunate.” adding another cube of sugar as he retorted. 

rin only got something out of this, that his brother didn't give a single fuck. and it drove him to the edge.

“You can at least pretend that you care.”

“never said I didn't.”

“you didn't have to, it's fucking showing.” rin seethed, his clenched hand striking the table balance, making the sugar cubes fall out of place. his anger was collapsing even the sweetest floras.

that doesn't nuge sae the slightest, but makes him frowns his brows a bit, because he was the one who had to sweep that off later.

the tension was solid and bulky, and Rin refused to break eye contact with the equal hues. Daring him to say something, anything. Yet he took it as a challenge, like he always does. The only way he communicates with sae is by beating him, proving himself. He'll die on that hill, even if it killed him itself. even if it has killed you already.

he knew this was a stupid idea, he should've just rotted in bed, he should've kept on living in the repeated circle of misery. He should've just lived up with every rush of breeze rustling his mistakes over and over, where he could've sworn that it was your voice.

breath, rin.

he was fucking trying. 

“So what do you want me to do about it? be your wingman and pair you together again?” 

“or, you could just say nothing. listening is enough.”

after a moment of silence, sae shoulders ease up. a guster pointed for him to keep going. so rin dose, he rants and rants like he had the time of the world right in his palms. It was mostly about you, how you were something that became his everything, how he should've stopped you like he wanted to, how he let you be driven away like he always does, how he should've apologized like he was supposed to. 

blustring about ‘what the if’s’ and what would've happened if he just.. he loved you like you loved him.. if only he tried. he can't blame it on his immense ego, his lack of communication, the digged hole on his soul that you bleeded to fill, you gave all your flesh till there was nothing left but bones.

he could've rebuilt the broken pieces of your heart, but they were too sharp to hold. He bled within every one, he was bleeding to ashes, to nothingness. 

you loved till there was nothing left to love about you. you drained down the hill. not even his blood could fulfill you.

his voice would crack, a dust cloud blows over his eyes, yet sae would stare at him ever so flatly. if he even dares to say disappointment. disappointed that his younger brother was just a copy past of him. 

someone that kills everything he touches.

When rin has nothing left to say, sae stands up. reaching his pocket for a card that carries a name and a number. as the dark-head flipped the card between his fingers, blood-thirst eyes narrowed at him.

“a fucking therapist? are you fucking kidding me?"

“you clearly need one.”

“I don't, is this some kind of lukewarm joke?”

“stop being corny, I'm trying to help you here. if you aren't willing to let yourself feel the sense of loss, you can suit yourself out.”

and with that, sae turns his back to him. like he always does. climbing the stairs to his bedroom, leaving rin to reconsider where his actions have driven him, how beyond it threw it all. 

although, he’ll never let himself feel the sense of loss. never. He'd rather be haunted by you than be alone forever, he'll be a stray till you pick him up again.

lmao wrote this with nagi plushie watching me like a hawk

[moss-ridden-owl-creature]

Introduction Post :DD

I don’t know exactly how to do this but I’m doing it anyways!

‼️BEFORE THE INTRO: please do not ask me for donations. I am a minor and cannot donate, and I will not put your posts on my blog, your ask will be deleted. I do feel sympathy but I simply can not donate. Do not send donation asks as hospitals and severe injuries often shown are VERY triggering for me and can send me into panic attacks.‼️

+🌑+🌘+🌗+🌖+🌕+🌔+🌓+🌒+🌑+

Name: Call me Mike, Millard, Cassidy, Owl or Halskë :) (generally don’t care) (nicknames for friends: Cass, Mills, Millie or anything else you wanna call me)

Age: 15+ (I’m a minor)

Gender: Non-binary (pronouns: any except for neos)

Orientation: biromantic & Demisexual :)

Religion: Hellenistic & Nordic pagan (Greek & Norse deities. Probably won’t post often about this stuff but I do reblog things relating to it) (No, I am not interested in converting, don’t try it. Believe me, the Mormons at my school have tried.)

I’ll post my art once in while! Nothing on my blog in terms of interests is set in stone, but you will often see art from fandoms I’m in, or of my ocs/fursonas!

I like making moodboards (they’re more collage style though fyi)!!! Just give me the type/character, aesthetic and (preferably) a color palette! I’ll try and do them as soon as I can :)

I am endo-neutral. I will interact with both pro and anti endos. I genuinely do not care what your stance on it is. Just don’t bring syscourse to my blog or DMs.

theriotype: Tundra wolf! (Spiritual) hearttype: border collie! (Spiritual)

kintypes: Cryptidkin, dragonkin, crowkin! (These are either spiritual or/and emotional.)

Micheal Afton, Millard Nullings (MPHFPC), Cassidy (Vengeful spirit/Golden Freddy) (FNaF), & Serial Designation N (MD) fictionkin! :D

Am I okay with doubles?

N: yes!

Micheal: sorry no!

Cassidy: ehh- it’s iffy

Millard: Sure?

Some form of relation/connection to the FNaF franchise besides a kintype. Potential hearthome or idk maybe I’m just sad about my family lmao (damn. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d say in regards to the Aftons.)

THIS IS NOT A ROLEPLAY BLOG. THIS IS PURELY MY THOUGHTS AND DUMB SHIT. THAT WILL INCLUDE MY FICTIONKIN EXPERIENCES.

Depending on if I’m feeling shifty or having really strong emotions in regards to something related to my sources, my post text color may change and I’ll sign off the message but basically: Micheal, Cassidy, Millard, N

Alt-acc (Millard & MPHFPC-specific blog): @y0ur-l0cal-1nvisible & @tr4sh-b4stard (non-specific alt)

Fandoms: Grishaverse, Riordanverse, The MCU, Good Omens, The Folk of The Air, Murder Drones, FNaF, Heathers, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Lunar Chronicles, The Hunger Games, The Song of Achilles, EPIC: The Musical, Aru Shah, Hamilton (technically), Warriors, Avatar: TLA, Iron Widow, The Furry fandom, and many others! (These are in no specific order) (green text indicates hyperfixations)

I’m a batshit insane Kaz Brekker simp lol :)

Other things: I’m a furry (my fursona is named Halskë! I will post about these things.) I am diagnosed with ADHD, Slytherin, Cabin 7 (Apollo), I’m a fan of bones and taxidermy :) I also bow hunt large game such as antelope, deer, elk and big horned sheep :)

C!Technoblade (DSMP) synpath! (Not a kintype!Just relate to the character:) )

Milo Rossi (Miniminuteman) fan :)

I am a diehard FNaF fan. I will talk about it for HOURS. I love FNaF. Mention it and I will vibrate at a frequency strong enough to shatter glass. So yes, please talk to me about it :)

DNI: Basic haters, bigots, pro-Nazis, zoos, racists, or fans of The Human Centipede (Gives me PTSD-like triggers.) Those who are “Nordic Myth” kins of any type. (Marvel kins are not included. Y’all are fine.) & NSFW blogs, I’m a minor and on the asexual spectrum and it makes me uncomfortable, thanks! :)

also please note, even if you are not in my DNI list, I do block freely, I do not stand for people who are constantly pessimistic. I don’t care if you’re pessimistic in general, myself am a realist, but what I mean by that is if you are more than 80% of the time just a negative being, I will most likely not interact with you. I am endo neutral. Don’t bring discourse to me.

another thing! My content is considerably 13+ (I will not respond to asks if you under 12 years old, as it makes me uncomfortable because tweens scare me.) and if you are older than 25, do not interact with me (EX: asks. The exception for this would be like if I follow you and send you an ask.), as you are between 10-5 years older than me. (The under 12 rule does not apply to those who are regressors, and regressors ARE allowed to interact with my content, but be warned, not all of my content is suitable for littles, be safe!)

I accept people of all gender, sexual, and/or identity. Don’t come on to my profile with your phobic bullshit.

online friends! (Aka the beings allowed to call me Cass) :D @kirshimadenkisero @the-bineapple @writingnotes520 @popatochsp @im-just-another-pony (These goobs are also my mutuals!)

my tags!

Original posts: #Cryptid whispers, #Dragon Growls, #The Wolf Bites #N Rambles, #Cassidy’s Rambles

art: #The Moss Owl Creature Has Taken To Scribbling, #Owl Draws Will add more as the list grows!

reblogs: #Dragon Rumbles

That’s all! Have a good day/evening :D

(Made by @uzihell here on Tumblr!) (FNaF plushie divider made by @sister-lucifer here on tumblr!) (Millard user box made by @clumsypaws here on tumblr!)

[shayesinterlude]

Batfamily and Chronicles of Narnia AU

Dick Jason Tim and Damian

Dick as Peter. Finding himself and siblings being thrown into this unknown world with talking british animals and this fake ahh Grover from Percy Jackson puts him in eldest sibling mode as soon as their feet hit the snow.

Jason as pessimistic oldest sister Susan is just chef kisses 🤌🏽. He would pretend he’s not impressed and filled with childlike wonder for the land of Narnia. Acting like he’s not the same kid that was all, “Robin is magic ✨”

Aslan would be bestowing great words of wisdom and encouragement to each sibling before going into battle. Just for Jason to go “Bro think he Alfred or something 🤨?? Smh..” after his turn.

(Also Jason’s big ole tank self having to crouched down and hunch over in the Beaver couple’s house makes this even better)

And so by default ..Tim is Edmund. I feel like instead of Tim being manipulated by the Winter Witch with gifts and such, he’d be trying to play double agent on her.

Making it seem like he’s just a dumb kid who will play into her hand while secretly gathering intel for himself, and later on for the Narnia revolution. Tim still being Tim by making his questionable decisions and sacrifices but, in the name of the greater good.

Damian being the equivalent to Lucy is hilarious. Damian would love talking to the animals. He’d love having tea with Mr.Tumnus, traveling with the Beaver Couple, and most of all Aslan. Riding on Aslan’s back would his highlight of the whole journey. Aslan’s death would hit hard for all the boys but, Damian the most.

Honestly if the plot allowed i’d want the WHOLE batfam here. They’d have the whole eternal winter and wicked queen thing wrapped up in a day or two.

Also I’d like to considering putting Cass in the place of Damian as Lucy from a chronological (She was introduced into the fam before him) pov.

Like Cass getting a healing potion and tiniest knife, in the Santa Claus scene. Receiving the least deadly present out of all their gifts while she, herself being the most deadly out of all the siblings would be just 🤌🏽

[thecreaturecodex]

Lloigor

"Monster Concept" © devinatArt user CobraVenom, accessed at her gallery here

[Sponsored by @tar-baphon. The name "Lloigor" is related to multiple traditions in the Cthulhu Mythos and Mythos-adjacent works. It initially appears as a proper noun, one of "Lloigor and Zhar", in August Derleth's elaborate family tree of Great Old Ones. It's used as a synonym for "Great Old One" in the Illuminatus! Trilogy, and from there has trickled into the works of Alan Moore. And, in Colin Wilson's "The Return of the Lloigor", it appears as a species of incorporeal psychic dragons. This is an interpretation of that third version.

"The Return of the Lloigor" can be thought of something as a remake of "The Call of Cthulhu", in that the story takes the form of a journal chronicling the narrator's conversion from skepticism to paranoia about a world-spanning cult serving horrors from human prehistory. Only the main action is in Wales, rather than Louisiana and the South Pacific, and the lloigor have a rather more direct hand than Cthulhu. The CR was by the request of the sponsor, which is in keeping with Call of Cthulhu making lloigor top-tier threats, but in the story proper their power is usually limited to causing malaise and pushing old people down the stairs. They can cause explosions, but this seems to be deeply draining for them. In CoC, their ability to drain the mental energy of victims is an area of effect, but I made it a touch attack. Both in order to have a lloigor actually be something a party can encounter and fight, and because I think it's much creepier to catch a glimpse of a tendril-tail actually dipping into your room as your bunk-mate thrashes in their sleep]

Lloigor CR 18 CE Dragon This thing resembles a malformed embryonic dragon with oily, pallid skin. It has two long limbs, each of which terminates in a hooked claw, and a long thin tail that lashes and drips behind it. Its face is something like that of a deep sea fish, all staring eyes and long thin teeth.

The lloigor are the creations of the Great Old One Ghanathoa, created in a fit of pique over the physical perfection of dragons. When the world was young, lloigors ruled openly as masters of humanoid creatures, but as humanoid civilizations grew stronger, they went into decline. Lloigors are the ultimate pessimists—they are literally incapable of feeling joy or hope, and feed by draining these emotions from the minds of others and leaving despair in their stead.

A lloigor is intangible, more a pattern of energy than a physical being, and they move effortlessly through soil and stone. Lloigors slip through the ground into people’s homes while they sleep, draining their joy with a touch of their ribbon-like tails. Doing so grants them access to more psychic power, and if a lloigor is expecting a fight, or intends to punish someone, it typically goes on a feeding frenzy to charge its psychic energy. They prefer to fight in incorporeal form for its defensive benefits, but if enemies are capable of injuring it, or if it runs out of psychic magic, it can temporarily assume corporeality and fight with claw and fang.

A lloigor radiates malaise in a wide area, and many benighted towns and areas with unusually high crime rates are under the lloigor’s influence. Those that succumb to a lloigor’s touch too often may have their personalities warped and become evil, and lloigors use their telepathy and ability to shape dreams to encourage people to rob and murder one another. As such, a lloigor’s influence can be subtle and felt throughout an adventurer’s career, long before they are powerful enough to confront a lloigor themselves, or even know what they are. Lloigors keep themselves secret, and have a habit of killing people who speak openly about them.

Lloigor    CR 18 XP 153,600 CE Huge dragon (incorporeal) Init +12; Senses darkvision 120 ft., Perception +31, thoughtsense 120 ft. Aura malaise (1 mile)

Defense AC 28, touch 28, flat-footed 15(-2 size, +1 dodge, +12 Dex, +7 deflection) hp 324 (24d10+168) Fort +20, Ref +26, Will +21 Immune ability damage, ability drain, death effects, fear, paralysis, sleep SR 29 Defensive Abilities incorporeal traits, negative energy affinity; Weakness hopeless

Offense Speed 40 ft., fly 60 ft. (perfect), burrow 40 ft. (earth glide) Melee touch +22 (drain hope) Space 15 ft.; Reach 20 ft. Psychic Magic CL 18th, concentration +25 (+29 casting defensively) 15 PE—crushing despair (4 PE, DC 21), dream (4 PE), fear (4 PE, DC 21), greater invisibility (4 PE), invisibility (2 PE), nightmare (5 PE, DC 22), telekinesis (5 PE, DC 22), telekinetic storm (9 PE, DC 26), utter contempt (6 PE, DC 23)

Statistics Str -, Dex 35, Con 23, Int 25, Wis24, Cha 24 Base Atk +24; CMB -; CMD 56 (cannot be tripped) Feats Alertness, Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes,Dodge, Flyby Attack, Mobility, Multiattack, Skill Focus (Stealth), Spring Attack, Toughness, Whirlwind Attack Skills Acrobatics +29, Bluff +27, Diplomacy +27, Fly +25, Intimidate +27, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, engineering, geography, history, local, nature, nobility, planes, religion) +31, Perception +31, Sense Motive +31, Spellcraft +27, Stealth +30; Racial Modifiers +4 Knowledge (all) Languages Aklo, Draconic, Terran, Undercommon, telepathy 120 ft. SQ assume flesh, compression

Ecology Environment underground Organization solitary Treasure none Special Abilities Assume Flesh (Su) A lloigor can, as a move action, become corporeal. It loses its deflection bonus to AC and incorporeal traits, but gains a natural armor bonus equal to its Dexterity modifier, a Strength score equal to its Dexterity score, and natural attacks. It has a bite, two claws and a tail slap, gains powerful blows with the tail slap and rend with the claws. While corporeal, its statistics are as follows: AC 33, touch (-2 size, +1 dodge, +12 Dex, +12 natural); Melee bite +34 (2d6+12), 2 claws +34 (1d8+12), tail slap +32 (2d8+18 plus drain hope); Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft. (20 ft. with tail slap); Special Attacks powerful blows (tail slap),rend (2 claws, 1d8+18). A lloigor can resume its incorporeal form as a move action. A lloigor can remain corporeal for a number of rounds/day equal to its Hit Dice (24 rounds for an ordinary specimen). Aura of Malaise (Su) All creatures within 1 mile of a lloigor suffer a -2 penalty on all saves against emotion, fear and madness effects. This does not function in a consecrated or hallowed area. Drain Hope (Su) The touch of a lloigor’s tail deals 1d6 points of Wisdom damage. A creature that takes this damage must succeed a DC 29 Will save or be affected by the pessimism spell for the next 24 hours. This is an emotion effect and the save DC is Charisma based. A creature that succeeds this save cannot be affected by the pessimism effect for the next 24 hours, and takes minimum damage from that lloigor’s drain hope attack during that duration. If the creature fails this save, the lloigor gains 3 PE. A lloigor can gain PE above its maximum in this way, capping at twice its normal value. A creature that has its Wisdom reduced to 3 or fewer with this ability must succeed a DC 23 Will save or be afflicted with the moral insanity madness. This is a madness effect with a flat DC. Hopeless (Ex) A lloigor can never gain morale bonuses, and suffers an additional -1 penalty whenever it would suffer from a morale penalty.

[novemberhope]

Niara

world building wednesday

B A S I C S

full name: Kaito Niara

gender: female

sexuality: straight

pronouns: she/her

O T H E R S

family: her mother is deceased, her father is a high ranking marine, all her siblings are marine officers. Blackcage Hina is her sister. She does consider the Strawhats her family now and the Spade Pirates before that. Her grandparents from her mother's side of the family are also still alive.

birthplace: East Blue

job: Ship Chronicler

M O R A L S

morality alignment?: Chaotic Good

sins - sloth, envy

virtues - kindness, justice

T H I S - O R - T H A T

introvert/extrovert: extrovert

organized/disorganized: disorganized

close minded/open-minded: open-minded

calm/anxious: calm

disagreeable/agreeable: agreeable

cautious/reckless: reckless

patient/impatient: impatient

outspoken/reserved: outspoken

leader/follower: follower

empathetic/unemphatic: empathetic

optimistic/pessimistic: optimistic

traditional/modern: modern

hard-working/lazy: lazy

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

otp: Niara/Law

brotp: Niara/Ace or Niara/Brook

[zhoras-bitch]

THE WAYHAVEN CHRONICLES || Detective Agent Suilin Bhai-Lam

NICKNAME: Susu

PRONOUNS: she/they

PERSONALITY:

Charming | Intimidating Impulsive | Cautious Sarcastic | Genuine Friendly | Stoic Easygoing | Stubborn

TRAITS:

Heart | Mind Optimist | Pessimist Team Player | Independent

SKILLS: Science/Technology & Deduction/Knowledge

LOVE INTEREST: Bobby Marks (ex) & Farah Hauville

[wannabecatwriter]

"You know, at times, I kind of envy our furry friends," Anna admitted, looking at the cat who seemed to be having the time of her life, without a worry in the world. "They truly live every moment of life to the fullest."

"I feel that," Candace agreed. "They don't really have to worry about much."

"Oh yes, could you imagine a cat concerned about the economy?" Isobel laughed. "But maybe we should take a page out of their book."

"How so?" Anna asked.

"We should have some fun and enjoy ourselves."

[dailyanarchistposts]

Chapter 4: Mutual Aid Among the Barbarians

The great migrations. — New organization rendered necessary. — The village community. — Communal work. — Judicial procedure — Inter-tribal law. — Illustrations from the life of our contemporaries — Buryates. — Kabyles. — Caucasian mountaineers. — African stems.

It is not possible to study primitive mankind without being deeply impressed by the sociability it has displayed since its very first steps in life. Traces of human societies are found in the relics of both the oldest and the later stone age; and, when we come to observe the savages whose manners of life are still those of neolithic man, we find them closely bound together by an extremely ancient clan organization which enables them to combine their individually weak forces, to enjoy life in common, and to progress. Man is no exception in nature. He also is subject to the great principle of Mutual Aid which grants the best chances of survival to those who best support each other in the struggle for life. These were the conclusions arrived at in the previous chapters.

However, as soon as we come to a higher stage of civilization, and refer to history which already has something to say about that stage, we are bewildered by the struggles and conflicts which it reveals. The old bonds seem entirely to be broken. Stems are seen to fight against stems, tribes against tribes, individuals against individuals; and out of this chaotic contest of hostile forces, mankind issues divided into castes, enslaved to despots, separated into States always ready to wage war against each other. And, with this history of mankind in his hands, the pessimist philosopher triumphantly concludes that warfare and oppression are the very essence of human nature; that the warlike and predatory instincts of man can only be restrained within certain limits by a strong authority which enforces peace and thus gives an opportunity to the few and nobler ones to prepare a better life for humanity in times to come.

And yet, as soon as the every-day life of man during the historical period is submitted to a closer analysis and so it has been, of late, by many patient students of very early institutions — it appears at once under quite a different aspect. Leaving aside the preconceived ideas of most historians and their pronounced predilection for the dramatic aspects of history, we see that the very documents they habitually peruse are such as to exaggerate the part of human life given to struggles and to underrate its peaceful moods. The bright and sunny days are lost sight of in the gales and storms. Even in our own time, the cumbersome records which we prepare for the future historian, in our Press, our law courts, our Government offices, and even in our fiction and poetry, suffer from the same one-sidedness. They hand down to posterity the most minute descriptions of every war, every battle and skirmish, every contest and act of violence, every kind of individual suffering; but they hardly bear any trace of the countless acts of mutual support and devotion which every one of us knows from his own experience; they hardly take notice of what makes the very essence of our daily life — our social instincts and manners. No wonder, then, if the records of the past were so imperfect. The annalists of old never failed to chronicle the petty wars and calamities which harassed their contemporaries; but they paid no attention whatever to the life of the masses, although the masses chiefly used to toil peacefully while the few indulged in fighting. The epic poems, the inscriptions on monuments, the treaties of peace — nearly all historical documents bear the same character; they deal with breaches of peace, not with peace itself. So that the best-intentioned historian unconsciously draws a distorted picture of the times he endeavours to depict; and, to restore the real proportion between conflict and union, we are now bound to enter into a minute analysis of thousands of small facts and faint indications accidentally preserved in the relics of the past; to interpret them with the aid of comparative ethnology; and, after having heard so much about what used to divide men, to reconstruct stone by stone the institutions which used to unite them.

Ere long history will have to be re-written on new lines, so as to take into account these two currents of human life and to appreciate the part played by each of them in evolution. But in the meantime we may avail ourselves of the immense preparatory work recently done towards restoring the leading features of the second current, so much neglected. From the better-known periods of history we may take some illustrations of the life of the masses, in order to indicate the part played by mutual support during those periods; and, in so doing, we may dispense (for the sake of brevity) from going as far back as the Egyptian, or even the Greek and Roman antiquity. For, in fact, the evolution of mankind has not had the character of one unbroken series. Several times civilization came to an end in one given region, with one given race, and began anew elsewhere, among other races. But at each fresh start it began again with the same clan institutions which we have seen among the savages. So that if we take the last start of our own civilization, when it began afresh in the first centuries of our era, among those whom the Romans called the “barbarians,” we shall have the whole scale of evolution, beginning with the gentes and ending in the institutions of our own time. To these illustrations the following pages will be devoted.

Men of science have not yet settled upon the causes which some two thousand years ago drove whole nations from Asia into Europe and resulted in the great migrations of barbarians which put an end to the West Roman Empire. One cause, however, is naturally suggested to the geographer as he contemplates the ruins of populous cities in the deserts of Central Asia, or follows the old beds of rivers now disappeared and the wide outlines of lakes now reduced to the size of mere ponds. It is desiccation: a quite recent desiccation, continued still at a speed which we formerly were not prepared to admit.[114] Against it man was powerless. When the inhabitants of North-West Mongolia and East Turkestan saw that water was abandoning them, they had no course open to them but to move down the broad valleys leading to the lowlands, and to thrust westwards the inhabitants of the plains.[115] Stems after stems were thus thrown into Europe, compelling other stems to move and to remove for centuries in succession, westwards and eastwards, in search of new and more or less permanent abodes. Races were mixing with races during those migrations, aborigines with immigrants, Aryans with Ural-Altayans; and it would have been no wonder if the social institutions which had kept them together in their mother countries had been totally wrecked during the stratification of races which took place in Europe and Asia. But they were not wrecked; they simply underwent the modification which was required by the new conditions of life.

The Teutons, the Celts, the Scandinavians, the Slavonians, and others, when they first came in contact with the Romans, were in a transitional state of social organization. The clan unions, based upon a real or supposed common origin, had kept them together for many thousands of years in succession. But these unions could answer their purpose so long only as there were no separate families within the gens or clan itself. However, for causes already mentioned, the separate patriarchal family had slowly but steadily developed within the clans, and in the long run it evidently meant the individual accumulation of wealth and power, and the hereditary transmission of both. The frequent migrations of the barbarians and the ensuing wars only hastened the division of the gentes into separate families, while the dispersing of stems and their mingling with strangers offered singular facilities for the ultimate disintegration of those unions which were based upon kinship. The barbarians thus stood in a position of either seeing their clans dissolved into loose aggregations of families, of which the wealthiest, especially if combining sacerdotal functions or military repute with wealth, would have succeeded in imposing their authority upon the others; or of finding out some new form of organization based upon some new principle.

Many stems had no force to resist disintegration: they broke up and were lost for history. But the more vigorous ones did not disintegrate. They came out of the ordeal with a new organization — the village community — which kept them together for the next fifteen centuries or more. The conception of a common territory, appropriated or protected by common efforts, was elaborated, and it took the place of the vanishing conceptions of common descent. The common gods gradually lost their character of ancestors and were endowed with a local territorial character. They became the gods or saints of a given locality; “the land” was identified with its inhabitants. Territorial unions grew up instead of the consanguine unions of old, and this new organization evidently offered many advantages under the given circumstances. It recognized the independence of the family and even emphasized it, the village community disclaiming all rights of interference in what was going on within the family enclosure; it gave much more freedom to personal initiative; it was not hostile in principle to union between men of different descent, and it maintained at the same time the necessary cohesion of action and thought, while it was strong enough to oppose the dominative tendencies of the minorities of wizards, priests, and professional or distinguished warriors. Consequently it became the primary cell of future organization, and with many nations the village community has retained this character until now.

It is now known, and scarcely contested, that the village community was not a specific feature of the Slavonians, nor even of the ancient Teutons. It prevailed in England during both the Saxon and Norman times, and partially survived till the last century;[116] it was at the bottom of the social organization of old Scotland, old Ireland, and old Wales. In France, the communal possession and the communal allotment of arable land by the village folkmote persisted from the first centuries of our era till the times of Turgot, who found the folkmotes “too noisy” and therefore abolished them. It survived Roman rule in Italy, and revived after the fall of the Roman Empire. It was the rule with the Scandinavians, the Slavonians, the Finns (in the pittäyä, as also, probably, the kihla-kunta), the Coures, and the Lives. The village community in India — past and present, Aryan and non-Aryan — is well known through the epoch-making works of Sir Henry Maine; and Elphinstone has described it among the Afghans. We also find it in the Mongolian oulous, the Kabyle thaddart, the Javanese dessa, the Malayan kota or tofa, and under a variety of names in Abyssinia, the Soudan, in the interior of Africa, with natives of both Americas, with all the small and large tribes of the Pacific archipelagoes. In short, we do not know one single human race or one single nation which has not had its period of village communities. This fact alone disposes of the theory according to which the village community in Europe would have been a servile growth. It is anterior to serfdom, and even servile submission was powerless to break it. It was a universal phase of evolution, a natural outcome of the clan organization, with all those stems, at least, which have played, or play still, some part in history.[117]

It was a natural growth, and an absolute uniformity in its structure was therefore not possible. As a rule, it was a union between families considered as of common descent and owning a certain territory in common. But with some stems, and under certain circumstances, the families used to grow very numerous before they threw off new buds in the shape of new families; five, six, or seven generations continued to live under the same roof, or within the same enclosure, owning their joint household and cattle in common, and taking their meals at the common hearth. They kept in such case to what ethnology knows as the “joint family,” or the “undivided household,” which we still see all over China, in India, in the South Slavonian zadruga, and occasionally find in Africa, in America, in Denmark, in North Russia, and West France.[118] With other stems, or in other circumstances, not yet well specified, the families did not attain the same proportions; the grandsons, and occasionally the sons, left the household as soon as they were married, and each of them started a new cell of his own. But, joint or not, clustered together or scattered in the woods, the families remained united into village communities; several villages were grouped into tribes; and the tribes joined into confederations. Such was the social organization which developed among the so-called “barbarians,” when they began to settle more or less permanently in Europe.

A very long evolution was required before the gentes, or clans, recognized the separate existence of a patriarchal family in a separate hut; but even after that had been recognized, the clan, as a rule, knew no personal inheritance of property. The few things which might have belonged personally to the individual were either destroyed on his grave or buried with him. The village community, on the contrary, fully recognized the private accumulation of wealth within the family and its hereditary transmission. But wealth was conceived exclusively in the shape of movable property, including cattle, implements, arms, and the dwelling house which — “like all things that can be destroyed by fire” — belonged to the same category.[119] As to private property in land, the village community did not, and could not, recognize anything of the kind, and, as a rule, it does not recognize it now. The land was the common property of the tribe, or of the whole stem, and the village community itself owned its part of the tribal territory so long only as the tribe did not claim a re-distribution of the village allotments. The clearing of the woods and the breaking of the prairies being mostly done by the communities or, at least, by the joint work of several families — always with the consent of the community — the cleared plots were held by each family for a term of four, twelve, or twenty years, after which term they were treated as parts of the arable land owned in common. Private property, or possession “for ever”, was as incompatible with the very principles and the religious conceptions of the village community as it was with the principles of the gens; so that a long influence of the Roman law and the Christian Church, which soon accepted the Roman principles, were required to accustom the barbarians to the idea of private property in land being possible.[120] And yet, even when such property, or possession for an unlimited time, was recognized, the owner of a separate estate remained a co-proprietor in the waste lands, forests, and grazing-grounds. Moreover, we continually see, especially in the history of Russia, that when a few families, acting separately, had taken possession of some land belonging to tribes which were treated as strangers, they very soon united together, and constituted a village community which in the third or fourth generation began to profess a community of origin.

A whole series of institutions, partly inherited from the clan period, have developed from that basis of common ownership of land during the long succession of centuries which was required to bring the barbarians under the dominion of States organized upon the Roman or Byzantine pattern. The village community was not only a union for guaranteeing to each one his fair share in the common land, but also a union for common culture, for mutual support in all possible forms, for protection from violence, and for a further development of knowledge, national bonds, and moral conceptions; and every change in the judicial, military, educational, or economical manners had to be decided at the folkmotes of the village, the tribe, or the confederation. The community being a continuation of the gens, it inherited all its functions. It was the universitas, the mir — a world in itself.

Common hunting, common fishing, and common culture of the orchards or the plantations of fruit trees was the rule with the old gentes. Common agriculture became the rule in the barbarian village communities. True, that direct testimony to this effect is scarce, and in the literature of antiquity we only have the passages of Diodorus and Julius Caesar relating to the inhabitants of the Lipari Islands, one of the Celt-Iberian tribes, and the Sueves. But there is no lack of evidence to prove that common agriculture was practised among some Teuton tribes, the Franks, and the old Scotch, Irish, and Welsh.[121] As to the later survivals of the same practice, they simply are countless. Even in perfectly Romanized France, common culture was habitual some five and twenty years ago in the Morbihan (Brittany).[122] The old Welsh cyvar, or joint team, as well as the common culture of the land allotted to the use of the village sanctuary are quite common among the tribes of Caucasus the least touched by civilization,[123] and like facts are of daily occurrence among the Russian peasants. Moreover, it is well known that many tribes of Brazil, Central America, and Mexico used to cultivate their fields in common, and that the same habit is widely spread among some Malayans, in New Caledonia, with several Negro stems, and so on.[124] In short, communal culture is so habitual with many Aryan, Ural-Altayan, Mongolian, Negro, Red Indian, Malayan, and Melanesian stems that we must consider it as a universal — though not as the only possible — form of primitive agriculture.[125]

Communal cultivation does not, however, imply by necessity communal consumption. Already under the clan organization we often see that when the boats laden with fruits or fish return to the village, the food they bring in is divided among the huts and the “long houses” inhabited by either several families or the youth, and is cooked separately at each separate hearth. The habit of taking meals in a narrower circle of relatives or associates thus prevails at an early period of clan life. It became the rule in the village community. Even the food grown in common was usually divided between the households after part of it had been laid in store for communal use. However, the tradition of communal meals was piously kept alive; every available opportunity, such as the commemoration of the ancestors, the religious festivals, the beginning and the end of field work, the births, the marriages, and the funerals, being seized upon to bring the community to a common meal. Even now this habit, well known in this country as the “harvest supper,” is the last to disappear. On the other hand, even when the fields had long since ceased to be tilled and sown in common, a variety of agricultural work continued, and continues still, to be performed by the community. Some part of the communal land is still cultivated in many cases in common, either for the use of the destitute, or for refilling the communal stores, or for using the produce at the religious festivals. The irrigation canals are digged and repaired in common. The communal meadows are mown by the community; and the sight of a Russian commune mowing a meadow — the men rivalling each other in their advance with the scythe, while the women turn the grass over and throw it up into heaps — is one of the most inspiring sights; it shows what human work might be and ought to be. The hay, in such case, is divided among the separate households, and it is evident that no one has the right of taking hay from a neighbour’s stack without his permission; but the limitation of this last rule among the Caucasian Ossetes is most noteworthy. When the cuckoo cries and announces that spring is coming, and that the meadows will soon be clothed again with grass, every one in need has the right of taking from a neighbour’s stack the hay he wants for his cattle.[126] The old communal rights are thus re-asserted, as if to prove how contrary unbridled individualism is to human nature.

When the European traveller lands in some small island of the Pacific, and, seeing at a distance a grove of palm trees, walks in that direction, he is astonished to discover that the little villages are connected by roads paved with big stones, quite comfortable for the unshod natives, and very similar to the “old roads” of the Swiss mountains. Such roads were traced by the “barbarians” all over Europe, and one must have travelled in wild, thinly-peopled countries, far away from the chief lines of communication, to realize in full the immense work that must have been performed by the barbarian communities in order to conquer the woody and marshy wilderness which Europe was some two thousand years ago. Isolated families, having no tools, and weak as they were, could not have conquered it; the wilderness would have overpowered them. Village communities alone, working in common, could master the wild forests, the sinking marshes, and the endless steppes. The rough roads, the ferries, the wooden bridges taken away in the winter and rebuilt after the spring flood was over, the fences and the palisaded walls of the villages, the earthen forts and the small towers with which the territory was dotted — all these were the work of the barbarian communities. And when a community grew numerous it used to throw off a new bud. A new community arose at a distance, thus step by step bringing the woods and the steppes under the dominion of man. The whole making of European nations was such a budding of the village communities. Even now-a-days the Russian peasants, if they are not quite broken down by misery, migrate in communities, and they till the soil and build the houses in common when they settle on the banks of the Amur, or in Manitoba. And even the English, when they first began to colonize America, used to return to the old system; they grouped into village communities.[127]

The village community was the chief arm of the barbarians in their hard struggle against a hostile nature. It also was the bond they opposed to oppression by the cunningest and the strongest which so easily might have developed during those disturbed times. The imaginary barbarian — the man who fights and kills at his mere caprice — existed no more than the “bloodthirsty” savage. The real barbarian was living, on the contrary, under a wide series of institutions, imbued with considerations as to what may be useful or noxious to his tribe or confederation, and these institutions were piously handed down from generation to generation in verses and songs, in proverbs or triads, in sentences and instructions. The more we study them the more we recognize the narrow bonds which united men in their villages. Every quarrel arising between two individuals was treated as a communal affair — even the offensive words that might have been uttered during a quarrel being considered as an offence to the community and its ancestors. They had to be repaired by amends made both to the individual and the community;[128] and if a quarrel ended in a fight and wounds, the man who stood by and did not interpose was treated as if he himself had inflicted the wounds.[129] The judicial procedure was imbued with the same spirit. Every dispute was brought first before mediators or arbiters, and it mostly ended with them, the arbiters playing a very important part in barbarian society. But if the case was too grave to be settled in this way, it came before the folkmote, which was bound “to find the sentence,” and pronounced it in a conditional form; that is, “such compensation was due, if the wrong be proved,” and the wrong had to be proved or disclaimed by six or twelve persons confirming or denying the fact by oath; ordeal being resorted to in case of contradiction between the two sets of jurors. Such procedure, which remained in force for more than two thousand years in succession, speaks volumes for itself; it shows how close were the bonds between all members of the community. Moreover, there was no other authority to enforce the decisions of the folkmote besides its own moral authority. The only possible menace was that the community might declare the rebel an outlaw, but even this menace was reciprocal. A man discontented with the folkmote could declare that he would abandon the tribe and go over to another tribe — a most dreadful menace, as it was sure to bring all kinds of misfortunes upon a tribe that might have been unfair to one of its members.[130] A rebellion against a right decision of the customary law was simply “inconceivable,” as Henry Maine has so well said, because “law, morality, and fact” could not be separated from each other in those times.[131] The moral authority of the commune was so great that even at a much later epoch, when the village communities fell into submission to the feudal lord, they maintained their judicial powers; they only permitted the lord, or his deputy, to “find” the above conditional sentence in accordance with the customary law he had sworn to follow, and to levy for himself the fine (the fred) due to the commune. But for a long time, the lord himself, if he remained a co-proprietor in the waste land of the commune, submitted in communal affairs to its decisions. Noble or ecclesiastic, he had to submit to the folkmote — Wer daselbst Wasser und Weid genusst, muss gehorsam sein — “Who enjoys here the right of water and pasture must obey” — was the old saying. Even when the peasants became serfs under the lord, he was bound to appear before the folkmote when they summoned him.[132]

In their conceptions of justice the barbarians evidently did not much differ from the savages. They also maintained the idea that a murder must be followed by putting the murderer to death; that wounds had to be punished by equal wounds, and that the wronged family was bound to fulfil the sentence of the customary law. This was a holy duty, a duty towards the ancestors, which had to be accomplished in broad daylight, never in secrecy, and rendered widely known. Therefore the most inspired passages of the sagas and epic poetry altogether are those which glorify what was supposed to be justice. The gods themselves joined in aiding it. However, the predominant feature of barbarian justice is, on the one hand, to limit the numbers of persons who may be involved in a feud, and, on the other hand, to extirpate the brutal idea of blood for blood and wounds for wounds, by substituting for it the system of compensation. The barbarian codes which were collections of common law rules written down for the use of judges — “first permitted, then encouraged, and at last enforced,” compensation instead of revenge.[133] The compensation has, however, been totally misunderstood by those who represented it as a fine, and as a sort of carte blanche given to the rich man to do whatever he liked. The compensation money (wergeld), which was quite different from the fine or fred,[134] was habitually so high for all kinds of active offences that it certainly was no encouragement for such offences. In case of a murder it usually exceeded all the possible fortune of the murderer “Eighteen times eighteen cows” is the compensation with the Ossetes who do not know how to reckon above eighteen, while with the African tribes it attains 800 cows or 100 camels with their young, or 416 sheep in the poorer tribes.[135] In the great majority of cases, the compensation money could not be paid at all, so that the murderer had no issue but to induce the wronged family, by repentance, to adopt him. Even now, in the Caucasus, when feuds come to an end, the offender touches with his lips the breast of the oldest woman of the tribe, and becomes a “milk-brother” to all men of the wronged family.[136] With several African tribes he must give his daughter, or sister, in marriage to some one of the family; with other tribes he is bound to marry the woman whom he has made a widow; and in all cases he becomes a member of the family, whose opinion is taken in all important family matters.[137]

Far from acting with disregard to human life, the barbarians, moreover, knew nothing of the horrid punishments introduced at a later epoch by the laic and canonic laws under Roman and Byzantine influence. For, if the Saxon code admitted the death penalty rather freely even in cases of incendiarism and armed robbery, the other barbarian codes pronounced it exclusively in cases of betrayal of one’s kin, and sacrilege against the community’s gods, as the only means to appease the gods.

All this, as seen is very far from the supposed “moral dissoluteness” of the barbarians. On the contrary, we cannot but admire the deeply moral principles elaborated within the early village communities which found their expression in Welsh triads, in legends about King Arthur, in Brehon commentaries,[138] in old German legends and so on, or find still their expression in the sayings of the modern barbarians. In his introduction to The Story of Burnt Njal, George Dasent very justly sums up as follows the qualities of a Northman, as they appear in the sagas: —

To do what lay before him openly and like a man, without fear of either foes, fiends, or fate;... to be free and daring in all his deeds; to be gentle and generous to his friends and kinsmen; to be stern and grim to his foes [those who are under the lex talionis], but even towards them to fulfil all bounden duties.... To be no truce-breaker, nor tale-bearer, nor backbiter. To utter nothing against any man that he would not dare to tell him to his face. To turn no man from his door who sought food or shelter, even though he were a foe.[139]

The same or still better principles permeate the Welsh epic poetry and triads. To act “according to the nature of mildness and the principles of equity,” without regard to the foes or to the friends, and “to repair the wrong,” are the highest duties of man; “evil is death, good is life,” exclaims the poet legislator.[140] “The World would be fool, if agreements made on lips were not honourable” — the Brehon law says. And the humble Shamanist Mordovian, after having praised the same qualities, will add, moreover, in his principles of customary law, that “among neighbours the cow and the milking-jar are in common.” that, “the cow must be milked for yourself and him who may ask milk;” that “the body of a child reddens from the stroke, but the face of him who strikes reddens from shame;“[141] and so on. Many pages might be filled with like principles expressed and followed by the “barbarians.”

One feature more of the old village communities deserves a special mention. It is the gradual extension of the circle of men embraced by the feelings of solidarity. Not only the tribes federated into stems, but the stems as well, even though of different origin, joined together in confederations. Some unions were so close that, for instance, the Vandals, after part of their confederation had left for the Rhine, and thence went over to Spain and Africa, respected for forty consecutive years the landmarks and the abandoned villages of their confederates, and did not take possession of them until they had ascertained through envoys that their confederates did not intend to return.

With other barbarians, the soil was cultivated by one part of the stem, while the other part fought on or beyond the frontiers of the common territory. As to the leagues between several stems, they were quite habitual. The Sicambers united with the Cherusques and the Sueves, the Quades with the Sarmates; the Sarmates with the Alans, the Carpes, and the Huns. Later on, we also see the conception of nations gradually developing in Europe, long before anything like a State had grown in any part of the continent occupied by the barbarians. These nations — for it is impossible to refuse the name of a nation to the Merovingian France, or to the Russia of the eleventh and twelfth century — were nevertheless kept together by nothing else but a community of language, and a tacit agreement of the small republics to take their dukes from none but one special family.

Wars were certainly unavoidable; migration means war; but Sir Henry Maine has already fully proved in his remarkable study of the tribal origin of International Law, that “Man has never been so ferocious or so stupid as to submit to such an evil as war without some kind of effort to prevent it,” and he has shown how exceedingly great is “the number of ancient institutions which bear the marks of a design to stand in the way of war, or to provide an alternative to it.”[142] In reality, man is so far from the warlike being he is supposed to be, that when the barbarians had once settled they so rapidly lost the very habits of warfare that very soon they were compelled to keep special dukes followed by special scholæ or bands of warriors, in order to protect them from possible intruders. They preferred peaceful toil to war, the very peacefulness of man being the cause of the specialization of the warrior’s trade, which specialization resulted later on in serfdom and in all the wars of the “States period” of human history.

History finds great difficulties in restoring to life the institutions of the barbarians. At every step the historian meets with some faint indication which he is unable to explain with the aid of his own documents only. But a broad light is thrown on the past as soon as we refer to the institutions of the very numerous tribes which are still living under a social organization almost identical with that of our barbarian ancestors. Here we simply have the difficulty of choice, because the islands of the Pacific, the steppes of Asia, and the tablelands of Africa are real historical museums containing specimens of all possible intermediate stages which mankind has lived through, when passing from the savage gentes up to the States’ organization. Let us, then, examine a few of those specimens.

If we take the village communities of the Mongol Buryates, especially those of the Kudinsk Steppe on the upper Lena which have better escaped Russian influence, we have fair representatives of barbarians in a transitional state, between cattle-breeding and agriculture.[143] These Buryates are still living in “joint families”; that is, although each son, when he is married, goes to live in a separate hut, the huts of at least three generations remain within the same enclosure, and the joint family work in common in their fields, and own in common their joint households and their cattle, as well as their “calves’ grounds” (small fenced patches of soil kept under soft grass for the rearing of calves). As a rule, the meals are taken separately in each hut; but when meat is roasted, all the twenty to sixty members of the joint household feast together. Several joint households which live in a cluster, as well as several smaller families settled in the same village — mostly débris of joint households accidentally broken up — make the oulous, or the village community; several oulouses make a tribe; and the, forty-six tribes, or clans, of the Kudinsk Steppe are united into one confederation. Smaller and closer confederations are entered into, as necessity arises for special wants, by several tribes. They know no private property in land — the land being held in common by the oulous, or rather by the confederation, and if it becomes necessary, the territory is re-allotted between the different oulouses at a folkmote of the tribe, and between the forty-six tribes at a folkmote of the confederation. It is worthy of note that the same organization prevails among all the 250,000 Buryates of East Siberia, although they have been for three centuries under Russian rule, and are well acquainted with Russian institutions.

With all that, inequalities of fortune rapidly develop among the Buryates, especially since the Russian Government is giving an exaggerated importance to their elected taishas (princes), whom it considers as responsible tax-collectors and representatives of the confederations in their administrative and even commercial relations with the Russians. The channels for the enrichment of the few are thus many, while the impoverishment of the great number goes hand in hand, through the appropriation of the Buryate lands by the Russians. But it is a habit with the Buryates, especially those of Kudinsk — and habit is more than law — that if a family has lost its cattle, the richer families give it some cows and horses that it may recover. As to the destitute man who has no family, he takes his meals in the huts of his congeners; he enters a hut, takes — by right, not for charity — his seat by the fire, and shares the meal which always is scrupulously divided into equal parts; he sleeps where he has taken his evening meal. Altogether, the Russian conquerors of Siberia were so much struck by the communistic practices of the Buryates, that they gave them the name of Bratskiye — “the Brotherly Ones” — and reported to Moscow. “With them everything is in common; whatever they have is shared in common.” Even now, when the Lena Buryates sell their wheat, or send some of their cattle to be sold to a Russian butcher, the families of the oulous, or the tribe, put their wheat and cattle together, and sell it as a whole. Each oulous has, moreover, its grain store for loans in case of need, its communal baking oven (the four banal of the old French communities), and its blacksmith, who, like the blacksmith of the Indian communities,[144] being a member of the community, is never paid for his work within the community. He must make it for nothing, and if he utilizes his spare time for fabricating the small plates of chiselled and silvered iron which are used in Buryate land for the decoration of dress, he may occasionally sell them to a woman from another clan, but to the women of his own clan the attire is presented as a gift. Selling and buying cannot take place within the community, and the rule is so severe that when a richer family hires a labourer the labourer must be taken from another clan or from among the Russians. This habit is evidently not specific to the Buryates; it is so widely spread among the modern barbarians, Aryan and Ural-Altayan, that it must have been universal among our ancestors.

The feeling of union within the confederation is kept alive by the common interests of the tribes, their folkmotes, and the festivities which are usually kept in connection with the folkmotes. The same feeling is, however, maintained by another institution, the aba, or common hunt, which is a reminiscence of a very remote past. Every autumn, the forty-six clans of Kudinsk come together for such a hunt, the produce of which is divided among all the families. Moreover, national abas, to assert the unity of the whole Buryate nation, are convoked from time to time. In such cases, all Buryate clans which are scattered for hundreds of miles west and east of Lake Baikal, are bound to send their delegate hunters. Thousands of men come together, each one bringing provisions for a whole month. Every one’s share must be equal to all the others, and therefore, before being put together, they are weighed by an elected elder (always “with the hand”: scales would be a profanation of the old custom). After that the hunters divide into bands of twenty, and the parties go hunting according to a well-settled plan. In such abas the entire Buryate nation revives its epic traditions of a time when it was united in a powerful league. Let me add that such communal hunts are quite usual with the Red Indians and the Chinese on the banks of the Usuri (the kada).[145]

With the Kabyles, whose manners of life have been so well described by two French explorers,[146] we have barbarians still more advanced in agriculture. Their fields, irrigated and manured, are well attended to, and in the hilly tracts every available plot of land is cultivated by the spade. The Kabyles have known many vicissitudes in their history; they have followed for sometime the Mussulman law of inheritance, but, being adverse to it, they have returned, 150 years ago, to the tribal customary law of old. Accordingly, their land-tenure is of a mixed character, and private property in land exists side by side with communal possession. Still, the basis of their present organization is the village community, the thaddart, which usually consists of several joint families (kharoubas), claiming a community of origin, as well as of smaller families of strangers. Several villages are grouped into clans or tribes (ârch); several tribes make the confederation (thak’ebilt); and several confederations may occasionally enter into a league, chiefly for purposes of armed defence.

The Kabyles know no authority whatever besides that of the djemmâa, or folkmote of the village community. All men of age take part in it, in the open air, or in a special building provided with stone seats, and the decisions of the djemmâa are evidently taken at unanimity: that is, the discussions continue until all present agree to accept, or to submit to, some decision. There being no authority in a village community to impose a decision, this system has been practised by mankind wherever there have been village communities, and it is practised still wherever they continue to exist, i.e. by several hundred million men all over the world. The djemmâa nominates its executive — the elder, the scribe, and the treasurer; it assesses its own taxes; and it manages the repartition of the common lands, as well as all kinds of works of public utility. A great deal of work is done in common: the roads, the mosques, the fountains, the irrigation canals, the towers erected for protection from robbers, the fences, and so on, are built by the village community; while the high-roads, the larger mosques, and the great market-places are the work of the tribe. Many traces of common culture continue to exist, and the houses continue to be built by, or with the aid of, all men and women of the village. Altogether, the “aids” are of daily occurrence, and are continually called in for the cultivation of the fields, for harvesting, and so on. As to the skilled work, each community has its blacksmith, who enjoys his part of the communal land, and works for the community; when the tilling season approaches he visits every house, and repairs the tools and the ploughs, without expecting any pay, while the making of new ploughs is considered as a pious work which can by no means be recompensed in money, or by any other form of salary.

As the Kabyles already have private property, they evidently have both rich and poor among them. But like all people who closely live together, and know how poverty begins, they consider it as an accident which may visit every one. “Don’t say that you will never wear the beggar’s bag, nor go to prison,” is a proverb of the Russian peasants; the Kabyles practise it, and no difference can be detected in the external behaviour between rich and poor; when the poor convokes an “aid,” the rich man works in his field, just as the poor man does it reciprocally in his turn.[147] Moreover, the djemmâas set aside certain gardens and fields, sometimes cultivated in common, for the use of the poorest members. Many like customs continue to exist. As the poorer families would not be able to buy meat, meat is regularly bought with the money of the fines, or the gifts to the djemmâa, or the payments for the use of the communal olive-oil basins, and it is distributed in equal parts among those who cannot afford buying meat themselves. And when a sheep or a bullock is killed by a family for its own use on a day which is not a market day, the fact is announced in the streets by the village crier, in order that sick people and pregnant women may take of it what they want. Mutual support permeates the life of the Kabyles, and if one of them, during a journey abroad, meets with another Kabyle in need, he is bound to come to his aid, even at the risk of his own fortune and life; if this has not been done, the djemmâa of the man who has suffered from such neglect may lodge a complaint, and the djemmâa of the selfish man will at once make good the loss. We thus come across a custom which is familiar to the students of the mediaeval merchant guilds. Every stranger who enters a Kabyle village has right to housing in the winter, and his horses can always graze on the communal lands for twenty-four hours. But in case of need he can reckon upon an almost unlimited support. Thus, during the famine of 1867–68, the Kabyles received and fed every one who sought refuge in their villages, without distinction of origin. In the district of Dellys, no less than 12,000 people who came from all parts of Algeria, and even from Morocco, were fed in this way. While people died from starvation all over Algeria, there was not one single case of death due to this cause on Kabylian soil. The djemmâas, depriving themselves of necessaries, organized relief, without ever asking any aid from the Government, or uttering the slightest complaint; they considered it as a natural duty. And while among the European settlers all kind of police measures were taken to prevent thefts and disorder resulting from such an influx of strangers, nothing of the kind was required on the Kabyles’ territory: the djemmâas needed neither aid nor protection from without.[148]

I can only cursorily mention two other most interesting features of Kabyle life; namely, the anaya, or protection granted to wells, canals, mosques, marketplaces, some roads, and so on, in case of war, and the çofs. In the anaya we have a series of institutions both for diminishing the evils of war and for preventing conflicts. Thus the market-place is anaya, especially if it stands on a frontier and brings Kabyles and strangers together; no one dares disturb peace in the market, and if a disturbance arises, it is quelled at once by the strangers who have gathered in the market town. The road upon which the women go from the village to the fountain also is anaya in case of war; and so on. As to the çof it is a widely spread form of association, having some characters of the mediaeval Bürgschaften or Gegilden, as well as of societies both for mutual protection and for various purposes — intellectual, political, and emotional — which cannot be satisfied by the territorial organization of the village, the clan, and the confederation. The çof knows no territorial limits; it recruits its members in various villages, even among strangers; and it protects them in all possible eventualities of life. Altogether, it is an attempt at supplementing the territorial grouping by an extra-territorial grouping intended to give an expression to mutual affinities of all kinds across the frontiers. The free international association of individual tastes and ideas, which we consider as one of the best features of our own life, has thus its origin in barbarian antiquity.

The mountaineers of Caucasia offer another extremely instructive field for illustrations of the same kind. In studying the present customs of the Ossetes — their joint families and communes and their judiciary conceptions — Professor Kovalevsky, in a remarkable work on Modern Custom and Ancient Law was enabled step by step to trace the similar dispositions of the old barbarian codes and even to study the origins of feudalism. With other Caucasian stems we occasionally catch a glimpse into the origin of the village community in those cases where it was not tribal but originated from a voluntary union between families of distinct origin. Such was recently the case with some Khevsoure villages, the inhabitants of which took the oath of “community and fraternity.”[149] In another part of Caucasus, Daghestan, we see the growth of feudal relations between two tribes, both maintaining at the same time their village communities (and even traces of the gentile “classes”), and thus giving a living illustration of the forms taken by the conquest of Italy and Gaul by the barbarians. The victorious race, the Lezghines, who have conquered several Georgian and Tartar villages in the Zakataly district, did not bring them under the dominion of separate families; they constituted a feudal clan which now includes 12,000 households in three villages, and owns in common no less than twenty Georgian and Tartar villages. The conquerors divided their own land among their clans, and the clans divided it in equal parts among the families; but they did not interfere with the djemmâas of their tributaries which still practise the habit mentioned by Julius Caesar; namely, the djemmâa decides each year which part of the communal territory must be cultivated, and this land is divided into as many parts as there are families, and the parts are distributed by lot. It is worthy of note that although proletarians are of common occurrence among the Lezghines (who live under a system of private property in land, and common ownership of serfs[150]) they are rare among their Georgian serfs, who continue to hold their land in common. As to the customary law of the Caucasian mountaineers, it is much the same as that of the Longobards or Salic Franks, and several of its dispositions explain a good deal the judicial procedure of the barbarians of old. Being of a very impressionable character, they do their best to prevent quarrels from taking a fatal issue; so, with the Khevsoures, the swords are very soon drawn when a quarrel breaks out; but if a woman rushes out and throws among them the piece of linen which she wears on her head, the swords are at once returned to their sheaths, and the quarrel is appeased. The head-dress of the women is anaya. If a quarrel has not been stopped in time and has ended in murder, the compensation money is so considerable that the aggressor is entirely ruined for his life, unless he is adopted by the wronged family; and if he has resorted to his sword in a trifling quarrel and has inflicted wounds, he loses for ever the consideration of his kin. In all disputes, mediators take the matter in hand; they select from among the members of the clan the judges — six in smaller affairs, and from ten to fifteen in more serious matters — and Russian observers testify to the absolute incorruptibility of the judges. An oath has such a significance that men enjoying general esteem are dispensed from taking it: a simple affirmation is quite sufficient, the more so as in grave affairs the Khevsoure never hesitates to recognize his guilt (I mean, of course, the Khevsoure untouched yet by civilization). The oath is chiefly reserved for such cases, like disputes about property, which require some sort of appreciation in addition to a simple statement of facts; and in such cases the men whose affirmation will decide in the dispute, act with the greatest circumspection. Altogether it is certainly not a want of honesty or of respect to the rights of the congeners which characterizes the barbarian societies of Caucasus.

The stems of Africa offer such an immense variety of extremely interesting societies standing at all intermediate stages from the early village community to the despotic barbarian monarchies that I must abandon the idea of giving here even the chief results of a comparative study of their institutions.[151] Suffice it to say, that, even under the most horrid despotism of kings, the folkmotes of the village communities and their customary law remain sovereign in a wide circle of affairs. The law of the State allows the king to take any one’s life for a simple caprice, or even for simply satisfying his gluttony; but the customary law of the people continues to maintain the same network of institutions for mutual support which exist among other barbarians or have existed among our ancestors. And with some better-favoured stems (in Bornu, Uganda, Abyssinia), and especially the Bogos, some of the dispositions of the customary law are inspired with really graceful and delicate feelings.

The village communities of the natives of both Americas have the same character. The Tupi of Brazil were found living in “long houses” occupied by whole clans which used to cultivate their corn and manioc fields in common. The Arani, much more advanced in civilization, used to cultivate their fields in common; so also the Oucagas, who had learned under their system of primitive communism and “long houses” to build good roads and to carry on a variety of domestic industries,[152] not inferior to those of the early medieval times in Europe. All of them were also living under the same customary law of which we have given specimens on the preceding pages. At another extremity of the world we find the Malayan feudalism, but this feudalism has been powerless to unroot the negaria, or village community, with its common ownership of at least part of the land, and the redistribution of land among the several negarias of the tribe.[153] With the Alfurus of Minahasa we find the communal rotation of the crops; with the Indian stem of the Wyandots we have the periodical redistribution of land within the tribe, and the clan-culture of the soil; and in all those parts of Sumatra where Moslem institutions have not yet totally destroyed the old organization we find the joint family (suka) and the village community (kota) which maintains its right upon the land, even if part of it has been cleared without its authorization.[154] But to say this, is to say that all customs for mutual protection and prevention of feuds and wars, which have been briefly indicated in the preceding pages as characteristic of the village community, exist as well. More than that: the more fully the communal possession of land has been maintained, the better and the gentler are the habits. De Stuers positively affirms that wherever the institution of the village community has been less encroached upon by the conquerors, the inequalities of fortunes are smaller, and the very prescriptions of the lex talionis are less cruel; while, on the contrary, wherever the village community has been totally broken up, “the inhabitants suffer the most unbearable oppression from their despotic rulers.”[155] This is quite natural. And when Waitz made the remark that those stems which have maintained their tribal confederations stand on a higher level of development and have a richer literature than those stems which have forfeited the old bonds of union, he only pointed out what might have been foretold in advance.

More illustrations would simply involve me in tedious repetitions — so strikingly similar are the barbarian societies under all climates and amidst all races. The same process of evolution has been going on in mankind with a wonderful similarity. When the clan organization, assailed as it was from within by the separate family, and from without by the dismemberment of the migrating clans and the necessity of taking in strangers of different descent — the village community, based upon a territorial conception, came into existence. This new institution, which had naturally grown out of the preceding one — the clan — permitted the barbarians to pass through a most disturbed period of history without being broken into isolated families which would have succumbed in the struggle for life. New forms of culture developed under the new organization; agriculture attained the stage which it hardly has surpassed until now with the great number; the domestic industries reached a high degree of perfection. The wilderness was conquered, it was intersected by roads, dotted with swarms thrown off by the mother-communities. Markets and fortified centres, as well as places of public worship, were erected. The conceptions of a wider union, extended to whole stems and to several stems of various origin, were slowly elaborated. The old conceptions of justice which were conceptions of mere revenge, slowly underwent a deep modification — the idea of amends for the wrong done taking the place of revenge. The customary law which still makes the law of the daily life for two-thirds or more of mankind, was elaborated under that organization, as well as a system of habits intended to prevent the oppression of the masses by the minorities whose powers grew in proportion to the growing facilities for private accumulation of wealth. This was the new form taken by the tendencies of the masses for mutual support. And the progress — economical, intellectual, and moral — which mankind accomplished under this new popular form of organization, was so great that the States, when they were called later on into existence, simply took possession, in the interest of the minorities, of all the judicial, economical, and administrative functions which the village community already had exercised in the interest of all.

[sc-intothedarknightofthesoul]

Gonna go ahead and tag you guys real quick since y'all asked for the same character, but I'd feel bad answering to only one of you: @soulofamy @mommahoodie @ank3kur0

Also, I got a bingo! Yay!

I'll be honest, what if I told you I didn't like Grøh at first?

Shocking, considering I gush over this guy time and time again, but let me explain.

I'll admit I played the Main Chronicle first before Libra of Soul and one of the first things he does is come out of nowhere to ambush Kilik, and putting myself in Kilik's shoes, I'm just as confused as to what the fuck just happened and why he straight up attacked him.

But the thing I learned about Grøh from that scene and the one where he meets the Conduit in Libra of Soul is that he doesn't exactly give off the best of first impressions: he's stand-offish, cold, and blunt (some will call him pessimistic, like I did at one point, others will say he's telling the cold hard truth no one at the time wanted to hear), didn't stop to think about the feelings of others and would rather push them away.

So what made me go a complete 180° on my mind about Grøh?

One simple answer is that, unlike Taki in that story, Grøh does come back to help Kilik and Xianghua get to Nightmare hiding out in Ostrheinsburg Castle, which ultimately made me curious about him that his Soul Chronicle became the first one I watched after completing the Main Chronicle.

The complicated answer is that I actually sort of relate to Grøh in the sense of, "I act aloof and cold at times without meaning to, I've made people cry because I get blunt as a sledgehammer when I thought it was me being honest with them, and I tend to push people away in favour of protecting myself and others from harm."

Point is, it took time, patience, and a bit of looking in the mirror to get me completely on board with Grøh's character.

Then I watched his Soul Chronicle and we got hints as to why he acts the way he does, something I have sort of expected all along: The Malfested took his friends, family and home from him, Nightmare took away his squad and a part of his humanity away and made it ten times harder to be himself without the fear of his Malfested side taking control over him, Azwel basically gave Grøh the worst kind of emotional whiplash imaginable by saving his life and then forcing him to fight and kill his best friend Curtis when he revealed his secret to him, meanwhile also having Orzal, his teacher and probably the closest thing to a father figure in the Aval Organization, killed during Azwel's defection.

Then I finally get to Libra of Soul and I see him slowly open up to the Conduit and soften his heart for them and it's just...

...If Project Soul's definition of slow burn is not only having him and another character bond over time, but also having you, as the player, bond with him over time, then that deserves a chef's kiss from me!

Also, Grøh ends up standing between the Conduit and danger coming for them TWICE, if not THRICE. First being Valtro when we see his Malfested self for the first time, second being an attempt to protect them while they were sick but he messed up his footing in his attack before Taki came out of nowhere to finish the Berserker off, and then finally standing between them and Azwel in that cutscene in the Shrine of Eurydice before reckless succumbing to his Malfestation and throwing Azwel and himself off a goddamn cliff.

Like guys, one time is an instance, two times is a coincidence, and three or more times ends up becoming a pattern.

Also to add to what I said in the previous post about the final fight with Azwel being cathartic because you're making him pay for what he's done, I also fought Azwel in the name of Grøh knowing how much he suffered because of that fucker and that I felt was fulfilling a promise.

So it's no surprise that at the end of the Soul Calibur/Good Route, I cried when Grøh looked back to the camera, to the Conduit, and gave a smile, something that is a first in this game mode. It felt to me that not only is he thanking the Conduit for basically saving his life and bringing back his humanity, it's like a very emotional thank you to the player for playing Libra of Soul.

I also finished the Soul Edge/Evil Route a while back and yeah, it felt gut-wrenching having to fight him with Soul Edge, and just like that, a piece of me died when Grøh died.

So yeah, I can fully say without a shadow of a doubt that I fell in love with this character in a fashion I didn't expect to.

Regarding his design, I'm not too deep into the lore of King Arthur and the Knights of Avalon, but I do enjoy people's take on the lore (Quest for Camelot was one of my favourite movies growing up). Plus, I am also a sucker for Norse mythology and I liked how he kinda looked like Odin with the eye patch and the fur on his coat and the fact that he's from Norway. And the way they basically combined the two is very interesting to me. I also fuck with the punk aesthetic he's got going on.

One headcanon that I see a lot of people use and one I agree with a lot is that since we don't know how old he is or when his home got attacked or how long he's been part of the Aval Organization, I figured he probably was rescued and raised by the Aval Organization when he was really young, which would sort of explain why the Oath he took about taking on the Malfested, or Outsiders, is deeply ingrained into his mindset and why he follows his orders to the letter.

It also saddens me that he doesn't get a lot of love in the fandom or isn't as remembered as much as the other characters, to the point where there was a time a friend thought he was an OC of mine, granted she didn't know he wasn't cos she doesn't participate in the Soul Calibur fandom, but still.

But yeah, just gonna wrap up these asks and say that I love Grøh a lot as a character and I think is an underrated gem.

And maybe an analogy that Grøh is like a shy, distrustful yet lovable guard dog that I adopted at a shelter, while (to add to the previous post) Azwel's the chaotic cat causing mayhem in everybody's wake that I found in a dumpster in an alleyway one Monday morning.

[chimi-cheese-fries]

Hello~ I am here for our matchup exchange. Just in case, please tag me in a separate post instead of answering this ask.

You can call me Aurora and my pronouns are they/them.

I am 5'5, have brown eyes, pale skin with a yellow undertone and shoulder-length brown hair (dyed but it's not very noticeable unless under good lighting cause I didn't bleach my hair). Constant bedhead. I can't tell the difference between my brushed and unbrushed hair cause it's always messy. People have told me that I look unapproachable? It’s the rbf, ahem. I wear makeup sometimes. My fashion style tends to rotate between cutesy pastel clothes, alternative, and elegant/cool. Blue and black are my most worn colours. I would like to try bolder makeup looks and lolita fasion in the future.

I’m an INFP 4w5 cancer. I daydream a lot and tend to space out when I’m not talking to someone. I’m a true introvert, but I love to talk to certain people and about things I find interesting, like my fixations or a fun hypothetical situation. I'm also good at reading people (to the point where my brother thinks I can read people's minds). Purple represents me best as a colour.

I value my authenticity, creativity and emotional intelligence (I can’t say I’m really empathetic, but I listen to people when they need me to and I try to be there for them). But I am quite sensitive and emotional. I tend to remember events in which I was hurt easily. My friend would describe me as a jaded Disney princess because I daydream a lot and used to be idealistic as a kid but now I'm more of a realist/pessimist.

I was raised by parents who are both thinkers, so I find that I tend to think quite logically (when I'm not stressed) compared to my feeler friends. When interacting with my feeler friends, I can feel a stark difference in the way we think, haha. Not easily influenced by what's considered the norm (I don't like conformity much) and by extension social media.

Kins I relate to the most (75% and above of their character): Itoshi Sae, Michael Kaiser, Julien Loki, Shidou Ryusei (all from blue lock), Dazai Osamu (Bungo Stray Dogs), Rook Hunt, Floyd Leech, Jade Leech (all from Twisted Wonderland), Touya Todoroki/Dabi (My Hero Academia), Ivan (Alien Stage)

According to this personality classification system, I am a mint (I wholeheartedly agree). https://2-lines-and-a-circle.tumblr.com/post/692988945418633216/in-depth-description-on-flavors-mint

Hobbies: Reading, writing, and listening to music, psychoanalyzing people, looking for fanfiction with amazing writing styles (descriptions, vibes, the closer it reads like poetry, the better)

Likes: POETRY (I follow the web weave tag here and my favourite poet might just be Richard Siken), tofu (my favourite food), books (the genres I tend to read are thrillers, fantasy or sci-fi), no longer human (my favourite book), the travelling cat chronicles (my favourite comfort book), anime (mostly shounen, but I've watched some movies as well), personality typology (the closest thing I've had to a hyperfixation. my all time favourite is the enneagram, but I had astrology and MBTI phases), action or comedy movies, visiting cafes, looking at sunrises and sunsets. I have taken a liking to buying clothes and crochet items. Also sweet things. :D

Dislikes: Exercising, studying for subjects I'm not interested in, being forced to interact with people, having a sudden change in plans that I don't like, many foods (I am a very picky eater)

Love languages: Acts of service and quality time (giving), words of affirmation and acts of service (receiving)

I wouldn't be able to stand a SO that interrupts me when I'm talking (especially since I would never do the same to them) or is only interested in talking about themselves. I would like someone who's emotionally intelligent enough to deal with my moody self, haha.

Miscellaneous:

I climbed a mountain and ran a small marathon when I was 10.

I am good at academics. I was top of my class in primary school for 3 years straight. In high school, I was tied with one other person in my batch for the top spot.

Many people have called me pretty. Also complimented my handwriting, they say it's so neat it looks like computer print.

I don't like when people touch me most of the time. I like to touch them on my own terms. Like a cat.

Tend to get lost in new places. :’)

P.S. I have been seeing your dancing bear gif the entire time while writing this ask. Quite a cute and fun experience.

Blue Lock Matchup !

After reading the info you gave me, I immediately thought of…

Romantic Matchup : Hiori Yo | 氷織 羊

You two are not exactly similar, but more so complementary.

Like you two would be on the same wavelength most of the time. You know the thing where you simply talk with eyes? Yeah, you do that.

A lot of your time spent together would be filled with comfortable silence, especially when he asks you to be his player 2.

Of course, you two have plenty of conversations. I wouldn’t say one if more of a listener than the other and vice versa. It’s a balance between the two of you.

You’re either both very quiet or really talkative around each other. There is no in between.

I wouldn’t say he has volatile emotions, but I think you’d be able to handle each other just fine. Like any other relationship, there are instances wherein you truly don’t see eye-to-eye. But you make up pretty quick.

You also spend a lot of time together, but while doing different things since you have different hobbies. For instance, he could be playing his game while you’re reading a book.

He says the sweetest things ever!

I think you both have a realist/pessimist outlook though at varying levels. It helps you relate to each other somewhat.

I think Hiori would dig your kind of look. Just a gut feeling of mine.

I see Hiori as more of a cat person, so I think that works quite well with your personality! Sometimes he’s annoyed a bit by it, but at the same time, he finds it oddly endearing.

While both of you might seem indifferent on the surface, you’re both actually quite sensitive. It helps make the relationship easier because you can empathize with each other better. You understand and comfort one another the best.

Sibling Matchup : Bachira Meguru | 蜂楽 廻

Bachira would probably the more cheerful older brother who tries to get you out of your comfort bubble.

He can be so pushy sometimes which leads you to fight a lot. And he simply laughs it off every time.

When you two are together, he's usually the one speaking for the both of you or he's the one first approached by people. Everyone is surprised at first to know that you two are siblings.

He's a bit of a daydreamer too, but it annoys you when he tries to relate to you.

He talks off your ear a lot, but there's not much you can do to stop him. But sometimes you do admit that what he's saying is interesting and you actually listen. To some extent, you do care about the stuff he likes to talk about even if you don't show it as much.

Bachira likes to play jokes on you and prank you a lot. There were times when he went overboard, but he apologized profusely afterwards.

He's impressed by your love and knowledge of poetry. He asks you to recite some for him which you do (reluctantly). It makes him so proud.

Since you're directionally challenged, Bachira takes it upon himself to guide both of you through places you visit together.

[a-fucking-tornado]

Hey!

So, I decided to create this random chain for no reason (probably because of the sleep deprivation). It's probably not gonna work but... Heh.

Basically, you just have to answer the questions and tag whoever you want.

What's your favorite color and why?

Mine's green and... Well, it's kinda hard to explain. Basically, I was sorted into Slytherin and I was like, really sad because all my friends were Gryffindors. But then I started accepting the fact and after some time I kinda became obsessed with the Slytherin house. I became so obsessed that my favorite color became green after some time. Basically that's the story of why my favorite color is green. I know, boring.

Pessimistic, optimistic or realistic?

I'm a realistic, but I'm rooting towards the pessimistic. I like to see things the way they are, but my anxiety might also exaggerate some bad things that I think might happen to me.

Name a song that speaks to your soul.

Waving Through A Window from Dear Evan Hansen. The lyrics always seem to speak to me, specially these last days. Because... That's how I feel. I'm trying to speak, but I feel like nobody can hear, so I learned how to hide, how to "slam on the break". I'm afraid I'll make a mistake, but I also want to be heard.

What's your favorite quote?

To be honest, I'm not the type of person that memorizes quotes, but if I had to pick one of the ones that I know, I'd choose "Humor was a good way to hide the pain." from Heroes of Olympus, Rick Riordan. Leo is one of the characters that I relate the most in the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, and quote fits me perfectly.

If you could change your name (and if you want to), what would it be?

Okay, so, I've been thinking a lot about this, since I want to change my name to something neutral. I think I would change my name to Erin. It's a beautiful name, it's not gendered and it sounds good with my surname (that's important for me, since my surname is weird as f*ck). I'm still not sure, but I really think this is it.

Tagging:

@w1s3g1rl @guskinnie @dollythesheepp @im-gay-and-mentally-unstable @kurtkellyisgay @lesbianjaredkleinman @rich-goranksi-stan @sprouts-garden

I don't know who else to tag.

[leitereads]

Bold the Facts Tag!

Thank you so much for the tag, @drchenquill!

Since people have been asking about Eugen, I'll go with him for this one as well!

✧˖°. PERSONAL

$ Financial: wealthy/ moderate/ unsure/ poor / in extreme poverty 

✚ Medical: fit 🔥🔥🔥/ moderate / sickly/ disabled / non-applicable 

Note: Eugen is a vampire, so he is dead, therefore his concept of "health is not the same as the one of a human being.

✪ Class: upper / middle/working / unsure /other 

✔ Education: qualified/ unqualified / studying / other 

✖ Criminal Record: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes/no / has committed crimes, but not caught yet / yes, but charges were dismissed

Note: Technically, Eugen was supposed to have been judged at the Nurenberg Trials, but he died (became a vampire) before it happened.

✧˖°. FAMILY

◒ Children: had a child or children / has no children/ wants children (eventually)

Note: Eugen was about to be a father before dying, but his wife aborted.

◑ Relationship with Family: close with sibling(s) / not close with sibling(s) /has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased

◔ Affiliation: orphaned / abandoned / adopted/ found family / disowned / raised by birth parent(s) / not applicable

✧˖°. TRAITS + TENDENCIES

♦ extroverted / introverted/ ambivert

♦ disorganized / organized/ in-between

♦ close-minded / open-minded / in-between 

♦ calm / anxious / in-between / highly contextual

♦ disagreeable / agreeable / in-between

♦ cautious / reckless / in-between / highly contextual

♦ patient / impatient / in-between

♦ outspoken / reserved / in-between / highly contextual 

♦ leader (reluctantly) / leader (gladly) / follower / in-between 

♦ empathetic / vicious bastard / in-between / highly contextual 

♦ optimistic / pessimistic / in-between

♦ traditional / modern / in-between

♦ hard-working / lazy / in-between 

♦ cultured / uncultured / in-between (depends on the culture) / unknown 

♦ loyal / disloyal / unknown / highly contextual 

♦ faithful / unfaithful / unknown / highly contextual

✧˖°. BELIEFS

★ Faith: monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic 

☆ Belief in Ghosts or Spirits: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a matter of speaking 

Note: regarding the Vampire: the Requiem (and the Chronicles of Darkness universe) lore, spirits/ghosts exist, and so he believes in them.

✮ Belief in an Afterlife: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking 

✯ Belief in Reincarnation: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking 

❃ Belief in Aliens: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care 

✧ Religious: orthodox / liberal / in between / not religious

❀ Philosophical: yes / no / highly contextual

✧˖°. SEXUALITY & ROMANTIC INCLINATION

❤ Sexuality: heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual/ nonbinary

❥ Sex: sex-repulsed / sex neutral / sex favorable / naive and clueless 

♥ Romance: romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favorable / naive and clueless / romance suspicious 

❣ Sexually: adventurous / experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious 

⚧ Potential Sexual Partners: male / female / both (but has little interest in sex) / agender / other / none / all

⚧ Potential Romantic Partners: male / female / both / agender / other / none / all

✧˖°. ABILITIES

☠ Combat Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none 

≡ Literacy Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none 

✍ Artistic Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

✂ Technical Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

✧˖°. HABITS

☕ Drinking Alcohol: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / tried it / alcoholic / former borderline alcoholic turned sober 

Note: as a vampire, Eugen can't eat/drink anything aside from blood. This relates to his life, before becoming a vampire.

☁ Smoking: tried it / trying to quit / already quit / never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / chain-smoker 

Note: as a vampire, Eugen is afraid of fire, thus smoking is something he is totally averse to. This relates to his life, before becoming a vampire.

✿ Recreational Drugs: tried some / never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / addict 

✌ Medicinal Drugs: never / no longer needs medication / some medication needed / frequently / to excess 

☻ Unhealthy Food: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / binge eater 

Note: as a vampire, Eugen can't eat/drink anything aside from blood. This relates to his life, before becoming a vampire.

$ Splurge Spending: never / sometimes / frequently / shopaholic 

♣ Gambling: never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / compulsive gamble

Tagging: @paeliae-occasionally, @writelikethrollope, @yourpenpaldee, @noxxytocin and @the-letterbox-archives! As always, no pressure!

[laudanine]

Tagged by @nanuk-the-bat

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

A total of 40 across two accounts

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

394,995!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Oh, god, you want me to just admit to that shit, openly? Okay, uh, sure. Yeah. 

Beetlejuice

Control

Crimson Peak

Cyrano 

Daredevil

Dishonored 

The Expanse 

Gorillaz

Gravity Falls

Hellboy

Horizon Zero Dawn

Overwatch

Prey

Team Fortress 2

4. Top five fics by kudos

I mean, the fics themselves matter not much at all, imo. I can tell you they are, in order

One) A cute Jesse/Emily Control fic

Two) A porny TF2 Sniper fic 

Three) A sad Stan centric Gravity Falls fic

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try very hard to, but sometimes there's a big delay since my brain isn't CONSISTENTLY functional.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Okay, MOST of my fics are unfinished, but maybe the Octavia/Miller fic that fits just inside of canon, The Last Few Firsts? Or the Prey fic Complimentary Colors, because while my ending is hopeful for canon, man, that canon is GRIM.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Either The Eighth Floor of the Panopticon is a Lost and Found or Parahelion, simply because both of those fics are very alice-of-life and end in an upbeat note. 

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope, I sometimes think that you need to get pretty BIG to get hate.

9. Do you write smut?

Yes. Just yes. 

10. Craziest crossover?

I was working on a Supernatural/X-Files crossover based around Scully meeting Castiel and having her faith confirmed and it going WEIRDLY, but it remains unpublished. 

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, again: I'm a nobody. 

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I've had someone podfic them!!!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I've had friends (HOOT) mentally walk me through plot points (like my Gravity Falls fic), or even give me ideas they didn't wanna write (my current WIP for Fallout 4, centered around STURGES of all people). But that's it. 

14. All time favorite ship?

Tough call, gonna have to cut back to the Source Material for this one and call it a ship I e never written for: Tulio/Miguel/Chel. You know I'm right, objectively.

15. What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oh god, yeah, all of em? The least likely to be finished is probably the Crimson Peak one. 

16. What are your writing strengths?

Not much other than a good sense of character tone/voice. I'm pretty proud of some patches of dry humor, but that's a taste thing. 

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Oh you know, everything not character tone/voice..? Uh, plot, pacing, overarching themes, telegraphing anything ever. 

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

My opinion: it's never appropriate to use another language unless the fic is meant to be read without any NEED for understanding that second language at all. If your side characters are speaking a foreign language and the main character doesn't KNOW that language, and you want to play up that alienation? That's good use of foreign language in a fic! If the characters are speaking pigeon, or an amalgam of several languages, but there's enough context that no translation is actually needed? Good use! Other than those, I think you need to write in one language at a time. 

19. First fandom you wrote in?

Wrote in? Probably either The Vampire Chronicles or Heathers.Posted online for? Daredevil.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Both of my Prey fics, but Lucid Inescapable Rhythms slightly more. It's my least popular fic, for a ship with a total of FOUR fics on AO3 but I'm just super happy with it. The characters were awesome to write for, the universe is weird and sad and pessimistic, the relationship makes both zero sense and perfect sense, I love it. It probably has typos tho…

Tagging: You know how people do that “if you've seen this and haven't participated, I'm tagging you”? I'm doing that. I want to know which of my mutuals are fic writers and I didn't even know it. Tag me as your source. Seriously. Do it.