#Free Will

[philosophybits]

If in fact one day they find some kind of formula for all our desires and caprices, that is, what they depend upon, from which laws they have emerged, how exactly they have been disseminated, where they are directed in such and such situations and so on and so on – a real mathematical formula, that is – then man will immediately, perhaps, stop his desiring, and not just perhaps but for certain. What kind of wanting can it be when it is wanted according to a table? Moreover, he will turn immediately from a man into an organ stop or something similar; because what is a man without his passion, without will and without desire, if not a stop in an organ pipe?

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground

[succulentsiren]

When Entering Your Villain Era🩸

I. Stop taking orders. When someone says jump — stop responding with, how high? You are not a pet. You don’t owe anyone access to your time, body, money, mind or energy (not even your family is entitled). Release your binds and acknowledge that you always have free will.

II. Stop looking for permission, praise or validation. Pick-Me energy is repelling. Learn to clap for yourself and do things to make yourself proud 1st. Take yourself to dinner, buy yourself flowers and write yourself love letters.

III. Embrace your Dark side. In all things, there is a Yin and a Yang, Dark and Light, Naughty and Nice. Begin to make your own rules without limitations or shame.

IV. Don't over-give, over-commit or over-extend yourself. This is called being a People-Pleaser. Although it's normal to have empathy and manners for others, having excess people-pleasing behavior is an invitation for others to drain and control your energy.

V. SAY NO. This two-letter word is the magick word when it comes to protecting your energy, space and time. Anyone who doesn’t respect it, doesn’t respect you.

VI. Never trust anyone until they prove themselves worthy of being trusted. Trusting people too readily, can cause you to be easily taken advantage of and mislead.

VII. Be less available. Don't agree to participate in anything you don't want to. Yes, you have that choice. Not only does selective availability eliminate toxicity and protect you from being drained of your energy, it also increases your self-respect, mystique and personal allure.

VIII. Emanate a powerful presence. Walk in like the Dark Feminine. Take up space like you are a being of importance. Don't be afraid to make your presence felt and your voice heard. Walk in your power at all times.

IX. Work on your confidence. Your inner core must be unshakable. No one's words or behaviors should be able to shake or decenter you. What others say or do is not personal anyways. Know who you are and remain in your center.

[searay-artist]

So.... Anyway-

[sotie-art]

May I introduce a little creature that lives in my head rent free 24/7?

Here is the Shanelin (Shane goblin)

[angelaness]

Free will

Write a letter to your future self and seal it for next year

Break one routine just to see what happens

Say yes to something you’d usually decline, just for the plot

Make one decision purely on intuition, no logic involved

Practice doing things without documenting them: no photos, no notes, just presence

Go somewhere new without checking reviews first

Pick a book blindly, first one you touch, you read

Have a conversation where you only ask questions, no statements

Order something totally random at a café, no overthinking

Try fully disagreeing with someone in a debate just to explore another side

Walk a different route than usual and pay attention to new details

Give yourself one day to act like a completely different version of yourself

Spend a whole day making choices like a child; curious, playful, unfiltered

Ask a stranger for a book, movie, or music recommendation and actually try it... ACTUALLY

Give something away without expecting anything in return

Try doing the opposite of your instinct just to see where it leads

Write a personal philosophy: what do you actually believe about life?

Spend a full day in silence, no speaking, just observing

Set a personal rule for the day, no lying, no complaining, no autopilot responses

Go on a walk and let a random object or sign dictate where you turn

Pick a past “what if” and go do it now, no excuses

Invent a personal holiday and celebrate it however you want

Try making an important decision without asking anyone for advice

Spend a full day making choices as if you're already the person you want to become

Do one completely pointless but deeply satisfying thing—just for the joy of it

Let go of one belief or habit that no longer serves you, just to see how it feels

Set a rule for yourself: every time you feel hesitation, do the thing anyway

Pick a random topic and learn about it like you’re preparing to give a TED Talk (I'd choose to talk about my art)

Make one small but bold move that shifts the trajectory of your life, even slightly

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

[kafkasapartment]

Rachel Barr, PhD candidate in neuroscience. She is also on the autism spectrum, so autism obviously does not mean someone is cognitively impaired about everything.

[just-floetcoeur]

No Sanity Grian

CG for when your sanity bar runs low. I don’t think he’d canonically look that creepy, I just thought he looked cool. Also my art style is so inconsistent, holy hell.

Also I’m keeping your suggestion in mind, @morning-fragility , I’m just waiting for an idea to come in mind. I’m having lots of fun doing these little pixel drawings.

Design by @morning-fragility

Inspired by Cherri’s art again

[telly-zenith]

I love my Alpha Maomao, we're expecting twins

[mikaikaika]

Pangi saying, “If I blow up everything, the world gets reset… but if the world is corrupted, that restart won’t happen,” speaks volumes and makes it even more evident about his origins from Lifesteal. He’s someone who’s used to destruction being the end of something, but also the beginning. His worldview is shaped by cycles - by seasons. Each collapse is followed by rebirth. It’s not just chaos for chaos’ sake —it’s restoration through annihilation and it has worked time and time again.

So now it makes complete sense that he does not want to see the world enshrouded in corruption as its end. Corruption, unlike destruction, is stagnation. It’s not something you can punch or blow up or slash through. And for someone who language of expression is violence, it breaks his internal logic.

Pangi has an insatiable hunger for violence and destruction in him, an insatiable appetite for motion carved into him through years and years of chaos. Meanwhile on the realm, the slow decay of corruption lacks the action and aftermath required for the catharsis, for the new beginning.

It speaks volumes that the destruction he seeks is of a more physical nature rather than a mental one. So of course he’d rather destroy the world than see it corrupted. Because destruction, at least, gives him something he understands: the chance to start again

[vero-lynn]

Yeah whatever, Brian would throw Tim really nice birthday parties trust me!!

Even if it was the grand total of two, most likely, they'd be really well thought-out. Not too overwhelming and not something that would make the guy feel bad 👍👍 and if I say it was just them two then what. THEN WHAT.

Whatever!

Whatever.

I miss them.

Ugh, happy birthday Tim Wright, I hope not all of your birthdays were spent alone.

[jensensitive]

Changing Channels as gay dean propaganda. After Gabriel I guess sees Dean watching Dr. Sexy, somehow knows Dean likes Dr. Sexy, AND after Gabriel sees just how Dean reacts to his Dr. Sexy and sees that Dean’s crush is so legit as to break the illusion and help Dean uncover Gabriel, Gabriel– as his torture meant to break them– scripts Dean into a sitcom scene version of Supernatural where he’s hooked up with a random woman in a bikini. This is Supernatural as a tv show written by Gabriel within Chuck’s universe, so it’s essentially a parody of the most shallow read of the show possible. And while Dean’s reaction to Dr. Sexy was entirely unscripted and real, a true act of his free will, his encounter with the woman in the motel room is entirely forced, scripted by an angel, and fake.

WOMAN But we did do work! In depth.

Laugh track. DEAN waves at her as she leaves. SAM shuts the door and shakes his head. DEAN speaks through a forced smile.

DEAN How long do we have to keep doing this?

And it’s torture, and it's so interesting that this in particular is torture, because it's not like getting shot or slapped or strapped to a machine to get hit in the balls, it's just a dollhouse version of Chuck’s bigger universe, endlessly playing their parodistic roles that Gabriel has assigned to them.

And then Dean, in another genuine act of free will, goes on to figure out the Trickster is an angel because of Cas’s literally disrupting the plan by breaking into the fake, scripted Supernatural™ where Dean is scripted to act as if he's had sex with a random hot woman, and Dean figures it out because he can read Cas and knows him and can tell that Cas knows Gabriel just by seeing how he looks at him.

[dalliancekay]

Why didn't Aziraphale tell Crowley everything...

...that Metatron told him? Why keep it in bits and pieces? Why panic so hard over what to say?

I think Aziraphale made a decision here. He will let Crowley decide. He will not tell him about his own, impossible choice. He must leave his beloved Earth. It's his punishment for helping Gabriel, for Armageddon, for not refusing the Arrangement for all of it. For putting Crowley, who he loves so much, in so much danger. He knew this day might come. It did.

But he decides not to tell Crowley the full truth. Not to tell Crowley that he is made to go. That he was given an ultimatum. A 'job' or death. Because Crowley wasn't, isn't made to go. Metatron (probably) can't (or doesn't care enough) to do that (or prefers if Crowley stays)*. So Crowley can stay. He has a choice. And Aziraphale doesn't want to take this choice away from him.

He knows well, that if he told Crowley he himself must leave, that he has no option but take the job; Crowley would follow no questions asked. Aziraphale is well aware how strongly Crowley feels about Heaven (not much differently than he himself feels after all).

He doesn't want to do to Crowley what Metatron did to him. He doesn't want to make his beloved go to a place he despises.

But Crowley...

Crowley decides to take that moment and try to tell Aziraphale how much he ... how much he wants them to be a couple. To be together. To stay together. Finally. The things Aziraphale wanted to tell Crowley just mere hours earlier.

So we watch Aziraphale's heart doubly breaking in real time. He's so overcome, so confused over what to do...

He loves Crowley so much, he wants to tell him he wants to be together too, he can't possibly leave without...but how? How can he...now? What can he do? Say?

Aziraphale goes through all the emotions at higher than lightspeed but despite his own pain he holds back. He can't do this to Crowley. It wouldn't be fair. He couldn't... not like this.

Aziraphale carries with him an enormous amount of guilt. He feels guilty for the Arrangement, for Edinburgh, for 'Jim', for a thermos with holy water, for not being strong enough and keep his distance from the demon he adores and who he put in so much danger with his actions.

These are the flaws I'll allow for Aziraphale, his altruistic self-destruction, his misplaced guilt (as he feels responsible for things outside of his control, leading to completely unnecessary self-blame).

He feels overly responsible for the dangers Crowley himself has chosen by wanting to spend time with (and loving) Aziraphale.

So the whole Final 15 becomes a heartbreaking mess and they both want only the best for each other, and yet.

They have to be apart. Aziraphale must leave because staying would bring on some unspoken punishment, for himself and very likely Crowley too and Crowley refuses to go because he doesn't understand how can Aziraphale make this choice. AND YET

'Trust me' 'I do'

*IF Metatron is a lot smarter than we think, then he knew Aziraphale will give Crowley a choice just as he knew Crowley will refuse it (and I still think Metatron knows something about Crowley's Fall that Aziraphale doesn't)

[reallyunluckyrunaway]

[snac-e]

thomas jefferson pony