#The book of lore

[magixfairyix]

Zenothe

(Currently creating lore in my head for different universes/characters in Winx Club, so introducing the first out of three for Darcy's planet, that is not cannon but in my two fanfictions it is: Zenothe)

~Several Earth cultures have roots and influences from similar ones in the Magical Dimension, and the practice of modern-day witchcraft is one of them. In the year 58 A.D. (after the Great Dragon's descent onto the planet of Domino, therefore creating the Magic Dimension) several witches from Domino migrated to Earth to find peace, as at this time it was just found out that every witch had roots in a creature from Oscurita that had just been closed. Witches were also figuring out how to use their powers as no one knew how witch magic worked and that one must use negative emotions.

~When the Wizards of the Black Circle went to Tir Nan Og (all of the wizards were outcasted and wanted revenge on fairies) the witches left Earth, knowing that the fairies always hated them and that they didn't owe them anything.

~The witches then transported themselves to a dark planet that orbited Solaria's moon, which was uninhabited. It was dim most of the time and greyish, but still beautiful. It was completely empty and barren. One of the witches sacrificed her body for everyone else to perform a siphoning ritual that made plants begin to grow from her last life force and magic, and they have a holiday for this. (The Day of Life). The witch's name was Ruse, hence the Grimore of Ruse, where all the main laws of Zenothe are kept

~The original witches (originally from Domino) created a small altar with a dark flame, known as the lifeblood of Zenothe considering it has none as it was dead before they arrived. Domino's lifeblood is the Great Dragon, Solaria's in the three suns, etc.

~They began to build the towns there using the trees around the area and soon built a good place. Over the years to the current day, it hasn't changed much, but they've added some more technology to their lives.

~Eventually, word got out and witches who were also disliked went to Zenothe and soon the population grew. They practiced their traditions in peace and were sort of outcasted from the rest of the Magical Dimension, though trade deals are still substantial between Zenothe and Linfea.

~Zenothe is prosperous in ore, rare plants for potions and rituals, and animals for meat and whatnot (and... also rituals lol). Linfea is prosperous in plants, produce and plants that need a lot of sunlight but does not have any ore.

~Any faries or specialists who want to live there are welcome, but it is common courtesy across the Magical Dimension to respect the customs of the planets one visits. As long as you follow Zenothian customs---outlaid in the Grimore of Ruse.

~However, the Grimoire can be added to as long as it is negotiated with the citizens and the coven heads. You'll be fine and welcome if you come to Zenothe, but if you don't purposfully follow customs then expect glares. The same goes for other planets anyway

~(Population: 89% witches, 6% specialists/wizards, 5% faries)

~Grimore of Ruse: 15 Zenothian Customs, one created by each of the 15 witches that first arrived at Zenothe from Domino. But other witches came to Zenothe afterwards so no incest occurred. Also, someone from specific planets can request a Zenothian trail before the Coven Heads.

~The ones with this agreement are Linfea/Zenothe and are allowed to request trials from each other, but in the current day (after my story S.S.S. when the Shaman Witch is defeated and everyone relatively goes back to their lives) planets such as Solaria and Diamond are trying to form trade alliances.

~Solaria for rare plantlife that doesn't grow in the sun, and Diamond for the same reason and animals because they are rebuilding thier ecosystem after the fall of the Shaman Witch and while Icy is crown princess.

~Grimoire of Ruse:

(From Ruse) Always respect the resources the land gives you; the magic, the plants, the animals, and all natural resources.

2. Treat all with respect to matter the past, present, or future. (May exclude the below if the act was purposful with no sign of mental damage).

3. Those charged with acts of sexual assualt if purposful and void of mental damage will be magically and perminantly circumcised no matter the sex.

4. Welcome all to Zenothe as long as customs are followed, and one has the responsability to follow the customs of the plants they go to.

5. The people have the right to overthrow the Coven heads if they choose to ignore the wishes of the people/ignore the Grimore of Ruse and call for a re-election.

6. The people have the right to free speech, religion, and freedom of action as long as one does not abuse this right to make others feel unwelcome/un-respected (which most people do not abuse this right.)

7. No matter the act all are entitled to a trail in front of the Coven Heads (basically the main covens are the government and sub-covens can be invited/requested/can request to be a part of a trail) and the people of Zenothe.

8. If part of a designated coven one must uphold the values of said coven or else face warnings (one is entitled to three unexcused warnings) or expulsion from the coven for a maximum of two years.

9. Magea (faries, specialists, witches, wizards, undines, pixies, etc) sacrifices are illegal unless facing life or death circumstances and the act is voluntary. Creature (the word animal isn't used in the Magical Dimension) sacrifices are only legal if necessary and approved by Coven Cervus and all its members, as well as Coven Tempus. (More information about the covens is later on)

10. Complete eradication of any plant or animal species (if under one's own control) will have the individual face banishment from Zenothe for 50 consecutive years.

11. One can be a part of multiple covens, though only a maximum of two head covens/one head coven and two sub-covens. Freelance covens do not fall under this category, though freelance covens are able to name themselves as representatives should a trial occur.

12. One can gain Zenothian citizenship if in residency for two years, if five citizens of Zenothe can vouch for one's character, and if one swears to follow the Grimore of Ruse when residing in Zenothe for the Zenothian customs may not apply to other planets.

13. All are welcome upon passing (excluding those who had committed one of the unspeakable crimes under thier own control, these said crimes shown below) to have thier magical essence removed from thier body and siphoned over to a pendulum to hang from the Tree of Life all years past thier death; to non-sentiently give wisdom to the citizens of Zenothe.

14. The unspeakable crimes are as follows (if acted under one's own control of self and magic and sane train of thought): s$xual @ssault, eradication of any plant or animal species, murd$r, any sort of @buse

15. Those who had committed any of the unspeakable crimes under thier own control and sane train of thought will have thier Zenothian citizenship permanently removed and may face additional charges as decided by the Head Covens and the citizens of Zenothe.

~Zenothe, like a lot of the Magical Dimension, does not unnecessarily gender things. Even Solaria or Erakleon does not require male royalty to wear suits and female royalty to wear dresses and gowns. More so only during large celebrations out of traditions for those two planets. But Domino and Diamond says fuck it. Let the queens wear suits and let's get Oritel in a dress.

~If things are like that on other planets it is because of tradition and not because of outright hate. Such as not wanting a prince to marry another prince as the bloodline must continue. But honestly, most planets will accept two princes marrying each other if they find a doner of a royal lineage. Erakleon and Andros are more strict on that and less lenient because of tradition, but some people are just assholes it's not a planet-wide hate thing.

~As Zenothe runs on an electoral democracy (different powerful coven heads are elected and nominations for others can occur) monarchy and lineage means fuck all. Powerful witches with powerful lineages are still respected, but they have a belief that power can always be developed and that everyone is valued. 

~There are five primary covens that oversee different aspects, and the coven heads receive applications for the covens and normally open any who are dedicated to putting the work into it.

Coven Viridis: Oversees the plant life of Zenothe and makes sure that no plant species are overused. Consists primarily of nature magea (mainly plant element, air element, ground element, along those lines)

2. Coven Cervus: Oversees the animal life of Zenothe, sets protections, healthy and ethical hunting. (Magea can be vegan, vegetarian, et cetera but just respect all. As long as you respect where the meat comes from). A sub-section of Coven Cervus is the Protectors (Darcy joins them later on after the events of S.S.S.) who research wildlife, new species, and dangerous species, and also stop them from getting too close to the several main settlements.

3. Coven Societas: Oversees meetings between covens/disputes that concern economics or societal structure. Makes sure the currency/pay rate is going well, watches over supply and demand and intervenes if needed.

4. Coven Homines: Oversees Coven Council meetings, Coven Head elections, how well the covens are functioning, school systems, and social programs. People stuff. Also suggestions to the Grimoire of Ruse along with the last coven.

5. Coven Tempus: Oversees the traditions/customs/events of Zenothe. Reads over the Grimore of Ruse, and suggestions to it but they can only happen if agreed by all five of the Covens and the people of Zenothe.

~One can be a part of a primary coven (or multiple but it's like a full-time job so it's not recommended, and yes, you get paid) and be part of a sub coven. Primary covens are funded by Coven Societas. Sub-covens are not named typically and are funded by grants from Coven Societas and donations, also pay a good amount but just a bit less.

~Zenothian Corpus Os (body bone, as until the trade deal with Linfea started they used bones from animals as currency) is the currency. They still use the name even though they use Linfean currency: Diya, small compressed coin-like disks of compressed plant waste/fossilized wood/other. 

~The exchange rate between Diya/Corpus Os to Earth dollars is 5 U.S. dollars for every 1 Diya/Corpus Os. It has more value than the typical dollar and one can go to Coven Societas to cut some of thier Corpus Os in halves/quarters for smaller purchases.

~Primary Coven wage: 24 Corpus Os per day of satisfactory work. 9 am to 5 pm is one day of work, and one can request extra work/overtime. (Deemed satisfactory by the observer, with one in each group working within the coven.)

~Sub-Coven wage: 15 Corpus Os per day of satisfactory work. 10 am to 3 pm is one day of work, and one can request extra work/overtime up to two extra hours otherwise the sub-coven hours become primary coven hours, which have to be observed by one of the primary covens. Usually for those with two incomes/with children, which is why two combined is more than the primary coven wage because children do be expensive.

~Normal job wage: 21 Corpus Os per day (9 am to 5 pm) or 12 Corpus Os per day (10am to 3pm). It is not as organized and one can self-direct more, so it normally includes less work in a lot of cases. Normal jobs are not that common

~Since witches were too busy trying to find somewhere where they were not hated gender also means fuck all. Concepts of boys, girls, man, woman, not either, et cetera, and whatnot still exist in Zenothe but they're more of a term to express oneself instead of assigning a gender based on sex. Also, with sexual orientation people have preferences and typically you don't need a word for them, but honestly, you can have a word for it (migration between planets brings new words woohoo) or not and either way people will love you.

~Just depends on whether you want a label or not.

(Zenothe is top tier we love it.)

~So if you take someone from Zenothe, bring them to Earth, and someone rudely tells them girls must wear dresses (and that French genders literal ice cream as masculine) they'll generally be like "Why wtf?" and debunk every possible argument.

(More information regarding Zenothe and my headcanons for Winx Club hopefully will come soon)

(Genually I spent too long on this but eheh)

[okidraw]

i wanted to show them the stars.

[torchtour]

if it stained my hands silver i too would wear gloves

[foldingfittedsheets]

My paternal grandmother was a librarian. I only got to see that set of grandparents once a year as they lived out of state. I fondly remember summers spent at their house watching That Darn Cat and The King and I on loop, hunting for water skippers in the back creek, and reading the entirety of the Peanuts comics.

Because my grandma was a librarian she was delighted to foster my love of reading. We made trips to the library every week. One summer when I was seven or so I got really into this kids series about princesses all named after gemstones, each had a unique magic power.

At the end of each book was a puzzle or some extra bit of lore to decode. All of them were easily copied down in some way. Until I got to Sapphire’s book. At the end of the story Princess Sapphire was in peril! She needed a hero to come save her from a terrible fate. And there, on the last page, was a decoder device. It needed to be cut out and assembled.

I had to help save the Princess!!! In the iron grip of a fever of imagination I immediately found scissors and started carefully cutting the page. The page warned only to use scissors with an adult present and I scoffed to think I needed supervision just for scissors! I was a hero!Her plight called to me from the pages, imaginings of how I would daringly rescue the beautiful sweet Princess Sapphire ran through my little brain-

And about halfway up the page toward my goal I froze. This was a library book. I couldn’t cut a library book! What was I doing?! Even now in my memory it stands as a glaring example of the first time I mastered impulse control. Tragically, too late.

I was distraught. My grandma had a sacred duty to books and I, villain that I was, had defiled a precious tome! I wallowed for some time in abject misery, experiencing the greatest amount of guilt my tiny body had ever previously held. I’d probably go to jail. For a crime as monumental as wielding scissors against a book I wouldn’t even get dessert in jail.

Gradually, I processed my way through the grief of my vile deeds. I couldn’t have the decoder, I slowly accepted. That might be punishment enough. And I had only cut the page halfway. So it was only half a crime... It wasn’t illegal to lie when you’d aborted an evil act, right?

I didn’t know but I didn’t want to face my grandma’s potential wrath. I have no memory of my grandma ever yelling at me. I waited until the next day to approach her.

“Grandma? I finished my book and when I got to the end I saw someone had cut the page! They probably wanted the decoder because I also want that but it was very bad to cut a book, wasn’t it?”

My grandma regarded me benignly. She carefully took the book to observe it and nodded. “It’s good to see that they stopped before they cut it all the way out. Let’s go tape this together, and then I can photocopy the page and we can make you a decoder.”

I was ecstatic. Rewarded for my honesty! I created and cracked codes for the rest of summer with the flimsy paper creation we’d made. I genuinely doubt my grandma believed that I wasn’t the perpetrator, but I loved that she acknowledged that the person responsible stopped.

[homeofwyrm]

I'm giving Anastasia a try, on the fence

[inbabylontheywept]

Babylon and the Duck of Butter

I have a gift for falling in love with random objects. One time, my aunt got me a little rubber chicken, and whenever I squoze it, a little egg thing popped out. Very silly. Except that chicken became something like my best friend. I carried it with me to school, and I kept it with me in my pocket, and whatever social hazards there were about Being The Guy Who Got Stressed Whenever His Rubber Chicken Was Missing were far outweighed by being The Guy Who ALWAYS Had a Rubber Chicken On Him. There's a lot of comedic opportunity that comes with always having a good prop on your person.

Of course, the chicken did eventually. Explode. And such was my grief that I did not eat for 36 hours. This was very stressful for many people. Mostly my mom. I was a very strange child to work with. She took parenting so incredibly seriously, and then I'd pitch her these curve balls like refusing to eat for a day and a half because my rubber chicken died. No parenting book tells you what to do when that happens. You just have to feel it in your heart.

A less tragic story of an object that I fell in love with was a large, foam toad that I found in a trinket shop. The toad was the size of a very large grapefruit. Much too large to carry with me to school (thank god) but enough that I could move it around the house, to keep me company during my solitary pursuits. If I was reading, the toad was there, and if I was tinkering with legos, the toad was there, and even when I slept, I would wrap the toad up in layers and layers of blankets, and then spoon it. I did this until the rubber coating on the foam started to wear out, and the foam started to get brittle and break down and leak this repulsive yellow powder. Then I simply put the toad in the playroom and would consult it on matters of great importance. Eventually I stopped doing that, and someone took the opportunity to dispose of it. Not sure who. By the time I noticed its absence, too much time had passed for me to actually be sad. As an adult, part of me thinks I would have maybe liked burying the toad, but part of me also thinks I might have refused to part with the toad, which would have resulted in it leaking more repulsive yellow powder into the house. So I understand why that decision was made. 

I want to state that this does not happen often, and it does not happen on purpose. I don't choose to fall in love with random objects. And it's always a little bit embarrassing when it happens. 

Which brings me to my wife. 

Before meeting my wife, I did not often go to places with crowds. I didn't really think of it as avoiding them - those places just didn't seem fun to me. But she liked those places, and I really liked her, and being with someone who really likes something can kind of sell you on liking it too, so I'd take her to places and watch her Visibly Enjoy the Fair and go: Alright. The fair is pretty sweet.  

Which is a thing that happened. After fourish months of dating, I took her to the fair. And she fell very visibly in love with a large series of quilts, and she stayed near them for a while, which she thought was very embarrassing, and I got to pretend to be understanding as an outsider, because I thought it would be much more impressive than also being the type of person that would fall in love with a quilt. 

Do not do this. The gods punishment for my hubris was that the room next to the quilts was full of butter sculptures, which was an entirely new thing to me, and I immediately fell embarrassingly in love with all of them. It was like the biggest, sappiest non-sexual crush you've ever had, but not only did the other person not recipropcate, they could not, because they were made of butter. I actually got yelled at for pressing my face against the glass, which is fair, but also, I hadn't realized I was pressing my face on the glass, I just started leaning forward because after approximately 30 minutes of staring wistfully at a cow made of butter my legs got tired. And I think I should be given some grace for that.

Anyway. My wife was very patient with me taking more time to look at the butter sculptures than the average person might spent at the Louvre, and she also felt much less embarrassed over falling in love with a quilt, and we had a good laugh about it on the ferris wheel. 

A few weeks after that was my birthday. And I don't know what I expected, exactly - but I did not expect what she did. 

Dear reader, she made me a butter sculpture. Of a duck.

She picked a duck, because our first kiss was at a Japanese friendship garden. It was our second date, and she'd made up her mind not to do any kissing until the third date, but as we sat on the grass, a duck walked past me, and I'd just seen the hold-duck-gentle-like-hamgurber meme,

so I sort of impulsively reached out and snatched it. I honestly didn't think it would work. I don't know who was more flabbergasted, me or the duck. But we looked at each other, and then I looked at her, and then she looked at the duck, and she looked so incredibly envious that I assumed that must have wanted the duck so I just handed it to her.

It turned out she was actually envious of the ability to just grab a duck as it walked by, but she accepted the duck and stroked it a few times before releasing it. (She also made up her mind to kiss me in that moment, which was very nice.)  

Anyway.

She made me a butter duck of my own. Obviously, I fell in love with it immediately. I cleared out all of the freezer-portion of my mini fridge, and I put the duck in there, and for the next several months, when I felt sad, or lonely, I would open the door up and spent some quality time. Just me and my duck.

But this is, of course, not the end of the story. 

Because.

After several months. 

The mini fridge died. 

I really didn't use it that often. It was mostly my duck storage container. But one day, I walked by it, and it struck me that it wasn't humming. So I opened the door, and it was just. Far, far too late. The duck was dead. Dead dead. Turned into a foul-smelling slime dead. 

I cried. I did. After the rubber chicken thing, I thought I had changed, but I had not changed, and the unexpected death of my butter buddy left me pretty shook. I texted my then-girlfriend now-wife about how sad I was, and she actually came over to help me say goodbye. We didn't even bother scraping the duck out of the mini-fridge, we just said our goodbyes to both and threw them together in the nice dumpster behind the chapel, because it seemed appropriate to put it in God's dumpster. And it did actually help quite a bit. I certainly did not go 36 hours without eating again. 

And that was, for some time, the end of the butter duck. 

However. Three (or four?) years ago, for my birthday, my wife was looking around thrift stores. And she found something interesting. 

The original butter duck had an odd pose. She'd sculpted it laying flat, intending to raise it up later. But the butter was less flexible than she thought, and she was afraid of cracking it so she left it down which left the duck with a very elongated, very in-motion appearance. And she found a brass statue of a duck in the same, running posture.

It wasn't the original. But it was oddly on the nose. It was a yellow brass, it had the same strange posture, the same crude little face feathers. 

I think it was $3, but it remains perhaps the most thoughtful gift I have ever received. I got very choked up when I unwrapped Butter Duck, The UnDying. 

Pic provided.

[ollywander]

How J.K. Rowling felt after basing Snape on her chemistry teacher (who she quite incorrectly thought hated her) thinking he would never see it (he was good friends with her mother, loved the series, and wrote magical beast fanfiction because he — and I have many sources for this — was a mega-nerd, autistic, multi-talented, innately wizard-ish Welshman).

I looked into this guy because I was wondering what he could have possibly done to get Snape, of all characters, based on him. The only thing I could find was that apparently J.K. Rowling took his autistic socializing as “he doesn’t like me” and that this guy was actually a really nice person. Like, unusually so. I went to read up on it again for the sake of this post and had a bunch of “Oh, that’s right; he totally did have a restroom with disabled access installed in the science department for J.K. Rowling’s T.A. mother who was chronically ill” moments, some “Oh, that’s right; he totally was a pillar of his community who went around doing welfare checks on people with violent exes even when he was on his literally on deathbed battling cancer” moments, some, “Oh yeah, he totally was a feminist who lobbied for women’s rights on a regular basis (my uncle who likes Harry Potter joked that this is why J.K. Rowling didn’t like him)” moments, and some “Oh, yeah; he totally did used to compare his chemistry class to potion making and wizards when kids got bored and sing about it in Welsh with wizard robes on randomly throughout and at the end of the year like a freaking nerd years before Harry Potter was even conceived” moments.

TL;DR: This has been a J.K. Rowling are you fucking kidding me post and also Snape is a feminist by proxy; I don’t make the rules.

[toabstter]

I am so normal about Bill Cipher (lying)

[glassclownz]

My predictions for Bill’s parents

[g4l4xy-qu33n]

Okay, so I discovered something when re-reading Journal 3. The page that has the Oracle on it:

When I first read Journal 3, years ago, this didn't mean much. Oh look, it's the girl that saved Ford from Bill's possession by putting a metal plate in his head, hooray! (and some other stuff but anyway she didn't seem super significant at the time).

Well, this time around I recognised her, specifically because of the Book Of Bill AND thisisnotawebsitedotcom. She's Seveneyes! (the scratched out member of Bill's crew in BoB, and a blacked-out photo of her appears on the website when you put in 'seven eyes'.

I'm not sure if this means anything, but it certainly blew my mind!!

[shyjusticewarrior]

Tim: I figured out the identities of both Robins, Nightwing, and Batman.

Damian: Is your hand stuck in a drink machine?

Tim: I paid for my zesti, I'm getting my zesti.

[turtletoria]

the krampus incident from the book of bill if it was out of character and stupid

[mary-laib]

Just got the book of Bill and here's my favorite snippets (spoiler they're all gay and mostly eluding to BillFord):

Not bro flirting with the pharaoh

This is literally word for word what he did to Stanford in Weirdmageddon

Why do you need a MAN to draw you pretty? Huh Bill?

Okay at this point they're just straight up flirting

And now we got ford x mcguckett??? I'm kicking my feet and giggling rn

Here comes the toxic BillFord

Bill in his breakup era

Will add more if I see anymore BillFord but I ran out of pics I can add to this post so-

[sp0ng3art]

You were right to leave. I always thought that you were failing this world. But, if you were happier on Earth, maybe... this world was... failing you.

pink diamond is a character i am constantly thinking about and turning over and over in my mind. i wish we got more of her. i think the depth of her character was greatly overshadowed by the popular bad faith interpretations of her character present by the end of su future.

[rassicas]

splatoon fandom: please. someone please translate the marina acht story. please me: now hold on. wouldn't you guys rather read a boring newspaper article about the development of crableg capital. because i would