#also I want it on the record that I used roman god names for my missing link au before the new beta | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

deathofpeaceofmiiind · 11 months ago

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high infidelity | two

Put on your records and regret meeting me, I bent the truth too far tonight I was dancing around it *Noah’s POV* Damn, this girl was something else. I won’t ever admit it but I saw her and her friends before I even went on stage. During the show I was looking for my in-ears backstage and I saw her from the corner of my eye with her friends. I had to chuckle watching them dance around and sing every word during Dayseeker’s set. She stuck out amongst her friends though, her long jet black hair, bright red lips and golden skin really caught my attention…she had this glow about her that I couldn’t describe. When we came onto the stage I found her immediately and had a hard time keeping my eyes off her. Every time I walked past her, I kept noticing new things about her. She had a rose tattoo on her sternum, Roman numerals down the side of her neck and a full sleeve of butterflies and peonies on her right arm. I even made a conscious effort to sit near her during Who are you? and as soon as I saw her bright green eyes flash at me, it was game over. I knew I needed to meet her. Then I met her without even trying.

You can’t tell me that wasn’t fate even though it was super embarrassing she found me in the women’s bathroom. I thought I was in the clear since it was just my band and crew backstage but that was a terrible calculation. Also have you shared a bathroom with a bunch of other dudes? Sometimes you just need your own space and the women’s bathroom had a bigger shower.

She really did have to use the bathroom so I gave her some privacy but I waited outside in the hall for her. Her scent of salted caramel and vanilla lingered under my nose and I couldn’t get enough. The guys and I were going to head to a brewery after the show and since Seattle wasn’t far we planned to travel there in the morning instead of overnight. This was our first time in Vancouver so we wanted to make the best of it.

I texted our photographer Bryan about her before putting my phone back in my pocket. He was surprised at my actions considering that I never entertained women on the road, let alone a fan. Something was telling me she was different. I heard the hand dryer going in the bathroom before she opened the door. Her eyes widened as she saw me standing there. “So do you just hang out inside and outside women’s bathrooms?” “Yeah, I was told if I got caught again it would be my third strike.” She laughed and had a huge smile on her face. Fuck, even her smile was gorgeous. She flashed me her green eyes again and I could’ve melted at her feet. God what was she doing to me…

“Sorry, I hope this isn’t too forward, but me and the guys are heading to this brewery down the road. Do you want to come?” “Sure. I’ll just text my friends, they’re back here somewhere.” She replies as she pulls her phone out. I catch myself watching her every move. Her nails were painted a dark maroon and she had the hidden leaf village symbol from Naruto tattooed on her thumb. I smirked, not what I was expecting us to have in common. “I just realized I never caught your name.” I managed to get out. Her eyes find mine and suddenly I’m putty in her hands. “Elliot, but you can call me El.” Why was that suddenly the most beautiful name I have ever heard? *Elliots POV*

Before I knew it we were all sitting at a large table at this cozy brewery having drinks with Bad Omens and their crew. My brain couldn’t process what was going on at all. The boys seemed to have picked one of my friends to talk to and we were hitting it off really well. Noah went up to order some beers for us, I offered him my credit card but he said this round was on him. I couldn’t keep my eyes off him as he walked back to me. “I really couldn’t decide what to get so I got some of those beer flight things to try everything.” He smirked as he sat beside me. His leg brushed against mine and blood rushed to my cheeks again. “That works for me.” I shrugged. “Everything here is really good.” Noah crosses his arms on the table and brings his gaze to me. Those beautiful brown eyes were causing me to go into a spiral. The brewery was so loud but damn, when he looked at me it got quiet. He had a way of making you feel like you were the only one in the room. I was trying so damn hard to not get caught up in it because I didn’t know who he really was. For all I know he could do this every night when he was on tour. I also wanted to live in the delusion that I was the first girl he ever asked out after a show. Get a grip, Elliot. “Do you come here much?” He asked breaking the silence and snapping me back into reality. “I’ve been here a few times, but there’s just so much to choose from living here.” “Do you have a favourite?” “Yeah I do. There’s actually a bar in my neighbourhood I go to a lot. It’s actually a wine bar where they make their own wines, they have the comfiest couches and the best charcuterie boards.” “Sounds like my kind of place.”

Our drinks come to the table and he immediately wrapped his hands around the darkest beer we got. I grabbed one of the lighter looking beers and look a sip of it before we swapped to try each others. Both of our faces scrunched up in disgust before we immediately switched glasses again. I studied the tattoos on his hands as he grabbed the cold glass from me, noticing the heart he had on one of his fingers. I forgot what we were talking about…

“I really like Vancouver so far.” He continued. “It’s like Seattle but the people are way nicer.” “Canada is definitely the superior country.” I chuckled.

He raised his eyebrow at me before moving onto the next beer, “Well, I am looking for a new home base.”

“Not loving California anymore?” “It’s not that I don’t like it…” He pauses to take a sip of his beer. “I’ve always wanted to live in the Pacific northwest area. The weather is more to my liking and people seem to leave us alone. I really like my privacy and people in LA are starting to recognize us more and more. I know it comes with the territory but after quarantine I realized how important it is to have a home base where you can be yourself.” “I get that.” I replied. “Every one deserves to have a safe space to come home to every night.” “Do you have that?”

“I’m working on it.” I muttered, knowing my home life was in absolute shambles. The more drinks we had the more comfortable we got with each other, not like we needed that much liquid courage though. We talked like old lovers picking up where we left off and I admired how respectful he was being towards me. I put my hand over his by accident but he didn’t seem to mind, he just squeezed my hand with a Cheshire Cat smile on his face. I noticed he had the same Naruto tattoo on his hand that I had and we ended up having a long conversation about the anime. We oddly seemed to have the same opinions on it and he showed me a photo of his thigh tattoo of Itachi he recently got. A few moments later I excused myself to the bathroom to gain my composure. I pulled out my phone and found my lawyers number. It was time. “I’m ready.” “Come see me tomorrow…I’m so proud of you for finally doing this, Ellie.” I took a few more breaths before walking back towards our table. I sat beside Noah and his cheeks were getting rosy, it was beyond adorable. His hand grazed over my thighs as he reached for my hand again. Euphoria filled my body and didn’t want it to stop, I didn’t want him to stop touching me. “Do you want to get out of here?” Noah whispered in my ear. “Wow you move fast.” I joked as I pushed his hair out of his face, almost pouting because his hair was so much shorter now. Still, it gave him a Disney prince kind of vibe that I adored. “Oh no, I didn’t mean it like that. I was just wondering if you wanted to go for a walk or go somewhere more quiet.”

“A walk at this time of night? Are you going to murder me, Noah?” “Oh god no - I was - I -um-“ He was stuttering over his words and I couldn’t help but laugh. He was getting more embarrassed and covered his face with his hands. “I’m kidding Noah.” I reassured him by moving his hands away from his face, “there’s another bar I like we can go to. It’s attached to the Hyatt down the street.” “That’s our hotel.” He smirked before finishing off his beer. We got up from the table and said our goodbyes to our friends. Danielle shot me a look and I just shrugged my shoulders at her cause I had no idea what I was doing. We got outside and started to walk towards his hotel slowly, we didn’t say much but he reached for my hand and I grabbed his with no hesitation. After seeing his bands reaction to us leaving together, it definitely told me he didn’t do this very often. This started to feel genuine and I knew I had to tell him the truth. Noah’s POV She was such a calculated risk and I knew that. Honestly, I wasn’t really one to find a girl at our show and try to take her home. Most of the guys would invite some of our female fans to chill with us but I wasn’t interested. All these girls just wanted to be with us because of who we were. Sure, Elliot knew who we were but after spending time with her she made me feel like she saw past the bullshit and saw me as just Noah. She stopped halfway up the stairs to our hotel and her energy had shifted as she dropped my hand. Her green eyes deepened as she looked up at me, causing my heart dropped into my stomach. “Noah, I need to tell you something.” “You can tell me anything.” I partially lied because I didn’t want to know what was next. “I’m in the process of getting divorced.” She bit her lip and looked down at her feet. “I wanted to tell you sooner but...” Go figure, the first women I’ve fallen for in years was still married. “What?” I could feel my voice trembling. I looked at her and I see tears forming in her eyes. I knew this wasn’t an easy thing for her to tell me, but I couldn’t fight off the anger that was boiling inside of me. “So you wanted to see where this was gonna go before dropping a bomb like that? “Noah…Please.” A few tears fell down her face as she looked at me. “Can you blame me? You’re in a fucking band! How the fuck was I supposed to know you don’t take a girl home every night?” “So this is my fucking fault then? You assumed I just fuck my way though my tours?” “NO!” She yelled at me causing a few people to look at us. “No…” She repeated, this time in a whisper. I could feel my own tears forming as I felt myself losing her before I even had her. She looked in the opposite direction of me and I could see her mascara starting to run down her face. I wanted to desperately wipe it away but my heart was telling me to walk away and forget about her. I swore off love years ago and I should’ve kept it that way. “Good night Elliot.”

#noah sebastian #bad omens #fanfic

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renard-dartigue · 1 year ago

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A Guide to Sleep Token

This will be a post for new fans looking to learn some basic/surface level information about the band Sleep Token.

*Cracks typing knuckles*

So basically, Sleep Token is an “atl-prog-blackened shoegaze”(what it sounds like to me) band from Britain. People mostly associate them with heavy metal (myself included) But in reality, no one really knows what genre they are and I think the band likes it that way.

(cont.)

The Bands Symbol

Lore / Terms to Know

Their lore goes that the lead singer had a dream where he encountered an elder God called "Sleep" (its actual name is impossible for the human tongue to speak) thus, he created the band to make music in worship to the God.

They call their songs "offerings", presumably to Sleep.

Concerts are called "rituals".

When you buy merchandise, you are "consuming" it.

The term "worship" is used by the band and fans as a form of acknowledgement.

The band has a total of 7 members and are known as "vessels". All are anonymous, using masks, body paint, and robes to hide themselves. It is said they do this because their music is more important than their identities.

Band Members

4 of them are at the front and are identified with Roman numerals:

I / Vessel

(I) Also known as Vessel (V or Vess) is the lead singer/vocalist of the band and wears a sculpted mask with an exposed mouth. His mask changes based on the album. His vocal range is like no other, at one point singing like an angel before immediately shifting gear into a black metal scream.

(II) is the drummer. A fantastic one at that. His solos are godly, very reminiscent of jazz or gospel. (I believe he started the band alongside Vessel) Check out “An Offering from II” on YouTube to see him go crazy.

Recently he did an interview with Drumeo on YouTube where he talks about his influences and does drum playthroughs of a few songs that demonstrate his drumming prowess.

III

(III) is the bassist, or the "bassy boy" as many fans call him. He is quite the character on stage. His energy is unmatched. You'll often find him prancing on the right side of the stage or laying on his back trying to get Vessel's attention (and Vessel does)

(IV) is the guitarist, often has a covert/cool energy to him but he can be just as captivating as III. Over time he's developed a bit of a flirtatious side toward the crowd. Fuckboy energy(affectionate). He also provides sub vocals, raw screaming certain parts when Vessel is busy singing his heart out lol.

Vesselettes

Then there are the 3 last members, the choir or vessellettes. They are the three cloaked figures in the back who provide sub-vocals/harmonies. They may not be too audible on certain recorded tracks, but live they sound absolutely heavenly, making songs go from amazing to spectacular!

Music

Song structure-wise, the best way I can call it is measured emotional chaos. Fans are still trying to decipher their meanings here and on Reddit.

But what seems to be the theme is toxic relationships, unhealthy coping, romantic trauma, bitter sweat endings, and eventual closure. It's really gripping stuff I'll tell ya. You gotta hear it for yourself to really understand.

There is ALOT more but that's about a general rundown.

They have 2 EPs called "One" and "Two". These are the band's earliest work but they are still fantastic.

They've only got 3 albums out as of writing this. "Sundowning", "This Place Will Become Your Tomb", and "Take Me Back to Eden"(the one released this year)

Songs I recommend as a launch point:

Jaws

The Offering

Higher

Hypnosis

Alkaline

The Love You Want

The Summoning

My personal favorites :)

All of "One"

All of "Two"

Dark Signs

High Water

Ascensionism

Vore

Take Me Back to Eden

They also have Instagram for the band and their personas. But please avoid trying to uncover their identities, They wish to remain anonymous.

https://www.instagram.com/sleep_token/

https://www.instagram.com/ii_sleeptoken/

https://www.instagram.com/iii_sleeptoken/

https://www.instagram.com/iv_sleeptoken/

Hope you like these spooky goobers.

Other fans are free to comment and/or reblog with additional information or fun facts I missed.

Worship.

#not art #my sleep token sure is lol #sleep token #sleep token band #sleep token vessel #sleep token ii #sleep token iii #sleep token iv #worshitposting #okay back to art lol #i could talk about these nerds all day #sleep token guide

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banannabethchase · 7 months ago

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Title prompt: even bad wolves can be good (hard mode: any codyship)

Even Bad Wolves Can Be Good - also on AO3

Claudio comes to Cody with important knowledge related to the Bloodline's collapse. And Cody can't fight the call.

For the record, I did not plan to write this sequel.

“Give me a few minutes and I’ll be out of here,” Cody says, not even looking up as the light from the hallway pours over him.

“Cody.”

He hasn’t heard that voice in ages, and has to check, lifting his head. And knows immediately something is very wrong. Feigning composure, Cody sets his phone down on the table, frowning. “Claudio,” he says, hesitantly. “What are you doing here?”

Claudio stands casually in Cody’s office, as if he belongs in this place, like they aren’t rivals. “Charmed to see you,” he says. He wears a suit as well as Cody remembers.

“The same to you,” Cody says. He’ll be cautious around Claudio Castagnoli his whole life, the same way he is around other sons of alphas. He underestimated Roman Reigns once. He will not do it with another. “Again, what are you doing here?”

“I have intelligence,” Claudio says. “And, while I know the two of us have never collaborated on less than fraught terms, I wanted to extend my hand.”

Cody raises an eyebrow. “Intelligence.”

Claudio nods. “Moxley has maintained some connections with Seth.”

Cody sits up. “Did Roman go after him again?”

“God, no,” Claudio says. “Breathe, Cody. We’ve protected him before Roman could retaliate.”

“Protected him?”

Claudio nods once. "We knew of violence on Roman’s part, from others. I knew Seth would be an easy target.”

Cody studies Claudio. “You put your ass on the line for Seth?”

“Not for Seth,” Claudio clarifies. “At least, I didn’t do so for Seth.”

Cody raises an eyebrow and waits for the clarification. Castagnoli could never tolerate silence.

“Moxley made a request.”

“A request.” Cody stares. “A request regarding Seth. A human.”

For the first time Cody’s seen it, Claudio’s face goes pink. “I am more understanding of the connection between a human and a wolf,” Claudio says, carefully.

“I knew it!” Cody stands and walks to Claudio, clapping him on the shoulder. “What’s her name?”

“His name is Wheeler Yuta,” Claudio says. Cody’s surprise must show on his face, because Claudio rolls his eyes. “Look less shocked, Rhodes. Roman is the one who started the trend.”

“Rhodes is my father,” Cody says. “And I know.” He sighs. “How is Seth?”

“Seth is well looked after,” Claudio assures. “Mox and Renee have taken him in.”

“Renee?” Cody asks. “The manager?”

“Mox is incapable of keeping it in his pants.” Claudio shakes his head. “It looks like, between Seth and Renee, he’s satiated.”

Cody blinks. “Two humans.”

“Seth has plenty of experience with wolfkind,” Claudio says. “And Renee has a leash on both of them.”

“I hope not literally,” Cody scoffs. “Though, knowing Jon…”

“Please, don’t finish that thought.” Claudio holds up a hand. “I’m here on more sensitive business.”

“I guessed,” Cody says. He sits on his desk, hands folded in his lap. “What do you need from me?”

“It’s not what I need,” Claudio assures. “I’m sure you’ve heard about the collapse of the Bloodline.”

“Collapse is putting it lightly,” Cody says. He doesn’t mention that he’s absorbed most of their assets, that he bought out a shocking number of stock out from under Claudio’s nose. His connections on the inside fed him all the corporate details he’d needed. He still needs to send Randy that gift basket. But he’ll request extra melon – it seems he missed critical details that, somehow, Claudio is willing to offer.

“He put the blame on one of his family,” Claudio says, and his eyes burn. “On one of his pack.”

Cody’s spine stiffen. “Not –”

“He was half beaten to death, Cody,” Claudio says quietly. “He’s in the hospital, right now.”

Cody pushes to standing, ready to run toward the door. Claudio catches him, though, and the five inches of height is enough leverage to slow him.

“Let me go,” Cody growls, flashing fangs.

Claudio’s eyes flash. “He is in the hospital with our people,” he assures. “Don’t think me a fool.”

Cody relaxes, but only a little. “I want to see him.”

Claudio raises an eyebrow. “You do, now.”

“You know I do,” Cody snarls. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” It’s the most admission to what’s been brewing beneath his skin for years than he’s made even to himself.

Claudio is too calm, too collected. Cody wants to rip the sensibility off his face. “I’ll take you there,” Claudio assures him. “But I needed you to know, I don’t see him requesting your services. A beta is not inherently in need of an alpha.”

“Who the fuck do you think I am?” Cody asks, still seeing red. “I’m a better man than that. I care for him, not for his submission.” He’ll regret the words later, when they don’t matter so much.

“I know that,” Claudio says, a hand on Cody’s shoulder. “But you and I both know that sometimes the pull is strong enough to tempt us to forget logic.”

“You’re speaking for yourself here, Claudio.” Cody steps back. “I’m not one to break that trust.”

Claudio stumbles, and Cody regrets his words. “I’ve atoned for my sins,” he says quietly. “And I assure you, I have never felt tempted to do so again.” His eyes go soft. There is a wolf behind them, but it is a shamed puppy. Cody softens.

“I know,” Cody says. “I know. Now take me to the hospital. Even if he doesn’t want to see me, I need to know he’s okay.” He adjusts the cuffs of his suit coat. “Of all days to take the driver to work.”

Claudio drives like a madman, and Cody appreciates it. There’s no one in this world who knows the draw Cody’s felt to Jey since the first days of the Blackpool, Nightmare, and Bloodline collaborations, no one but Claudio. He was close enough to smell Cody’s reaction to Jey laughing at that ethics conference.

The conference was years ago, and, still, Cody can’t get Jey off of his mind.

They pull into Elite Medical Hospital at speeds unacceptable this side of a highway, and Cody practically throws himself to the asphalt in his eagerness.

“Calm yourself,” Claudio demands. Cody hasn’t felt the pull of an alpha warring with his own in years, and he knows Claudio means well. That doesn’t make it okay.

“Stop it,” Cody snaps. “You aren’t in charge of me, Claudio. Remember, I am just as much an alpha as you are.”

Infuriatingly, Claudio rolls his eyes. “I forgot how miserable life is around other alphas. I’m calling Wheeler when you get in there.”

“Who?”

“My – boyfriend,” Claudio says, and that smile is stupidly charming. No wonder he’s got so many people in his pack. “The human.”

Cody raises an eyebrow. “You really have changed your tune.”

“I beg you to stop before you start.” But there’s a light behind Claudio’s eyes that Cody has never seen before. Not even when they were fighting for valedictorian in college, when late night competitive study sessions turned into something a little less proper. “Please. Go see him. Moxley will be standing guard.”

“A guard,” Cody says, stepping out of the car. “You really aren’t playing.”

“I’m not,” Claudio says, eyes firm. “You of all people know what Roman is capable of. Retaliation is not out of the question. Especially if he knows that you and I have gotten involved.”

“Let him retaliate,” Cody says, allowing his eyes to flash. “I dare him.”

Claudio’s smile is just the slightest bit too toothy. “I appreciate your allegiance.”

Cody nods and closes the car door, stepping to the hospital. The receptionist, a tall man with an impressively long beard for such a formal hospital, kindly directs him to the right room. Cody knows the owners of this place – has for years – and is thankful for not only the discretion but also the expertise.

He catches sight of Moxley, fidgety as always, outside of Jey’s room. His eyes brighten when he sees Cody.

“Hey, man!” he says. He reaches out and they clap hands before Cody eschews decorum and pulls Moxley in for a hug. “Long time no see.”

“A failed merger will do that,” Cody chuckles. “You look well.”

Moxley shrugs, but he’s got a similar glow to Claudio’s. “Yeah, well, Renee and Seth keep my shit honest, you know?”

“Seth doing okay?” Cody knows asking is a risk, but he has to take it.

“He’s good,” Moxley says, tone soft. “Pissed to hear how Roman reacted. You know.”

Cody does know. He wasn’t involved back in the day– barely heard about it – but Roman’s “no romance rule” was notorious. He can’t imagine the guilt Moxley must have felt at getting Seth in the middle of a werewolf business turf war. At the very least, unlike Cody, Moxley seems to have repaired what was broken. Claudio’s pack suits him. “I do,” he says quietly. “Is he awake?”

“He is,” Mox says. “Looks worse than you might think, though.”

“Full moon will heal him,” Cody says, but the reassurance is flat. “Only a few days away.”

Mox shrugs. “I think he could use a laugh or two. But I don’t quite know his sense of humor.”

Cody lets a smile play on his lips, remembering the quickly berated snickers on the other end of a conference table from time the time. “I do.”

He knocks gently. “I hear you’re looking for an alpha,” Cody says, leaning against the doorway of the hospital room.

Jey turns, though it must be painful judging by the bandages. He refuses to meet Cody’s eyes. He’s good at this. “Fuck I’m not.”

“I figured being on your own wouldn’t be your interest.” He stares at Jey until he raises his eyes, burning into Cody’s. “You’d do well with a leader who had your best interest in mind.”

Jey presses his lips together. “I’m doing fine.”

“You are,” Cody assures him. “But the bandages suggest better is in your future, no?”

Jey stares at the wall. “It’ll heal.”

“It will,” Cody says. He comes into the room and pulls the door shut.

“You here to grill me for info on Roman?” Jey asks. “Because he hasn’t told me shit for months. It’s why the Bloodline collapsed.”

“Nothing about Roman,” Cody says. “Claudio told me all I needed to know to understand I had to be here.”

Jey finally looks at him. It’s been over a year since Roman had opened his company doors to any dealings or collaboration. Over a year since Cody saw that stunning face in person. “Claudio,” he says. “I thought you two hated each other.”

“It’s business,” Cody says, waving it off. He makes his way to the big chair in the room. A safe distance away, if that’s what Jey wants. But close enough that he could lean in. “He told me you were hurt.”

Jey presses his lips together. Cody wonders what he’s preventing himself from letting slip.

“Are you feeling better?” Cody asks. He wishes it didn’t feel so awkward.

Jey shrugs. “Waiting game until the full moon.” He frowns. “Though I’m not sure where that’s gonna be.”

“You’re welcome at mine,” Cody says before he can stop himself. “I’m pretty docile at this point when I change.”

“You aren’t kidding,” Jey says, tilting his head.

“Nope,” Cody says, and he can’t resist popping the last sound. “Come on. Claudio’s got his handful with his pack of misfits. Mine is just me, my brother, Sami, and Kevin, but they all have their own places. I got a strong alliance with the Elite. Come on.” He leans in. “You don’t have to commit. I don’t expect you to be my beta, Jey. But I’m offering you space.” He doesn’t allow himself to think beyond it. “For as long as you’d like.”

Jey stares at Cody. He knows he’s waiting for Cody to break, for the other shoe to drop, for the catch.

Cody thinks the catch is having to put up with him during nonworking hours. But he doesn’t say it.

“Okay,” Jey says. His voice has none of the confidence Cody’s used to. “Yeah, when – when I can.”

Cody leans into an impulse and rests his hand on Jey’s where it sits on his thigh. “Whenever,” Cody says. “Whenever you want.”

Jey opts to come to Cody’s house the next day, against the advice of Dr. Jackson. Or, as Cody’s known him since grade school, Matt.

“I just think it’s a bad idea,” Matt says, frowning as he looks at the chart. Cody marvels at how he’s managed to keep all that hair looking that good even through transformations. It must take ages. “You could injure yourself more if you’re not monitored during the full moon appropriately.”

“I’ll do it,” Cody offers, before he can stop himself.

Matt turns to him, eyebrow raised. “Did you forget that you’re also a werewolf?”

Cody rolls his eyes. “I have it under control.”

“I have it under control,” Matt mimics, and Cody may be forced to kill him one of these days. “Says the guy who almost got hit by a car when he climbed an eight foot fence.”

“That was fifteen years ago!” Cody says, and he only calms once he sees Jey snickering in the corner. “And we can blame that on stress. And Adam.”

“Leave my dumbass of a husband out of this,” Matt says, glaring.

Eventually, Drs. Jackson agree to let Jey go later that day with constant monitoring.

“That means you don’t sleep alone,” Matt says, staring at Cody. “We can’t risk the possibility of a bleed during the night that no one knows about.”

“That’s fine,” Cody says, automatically, maybe too quickly. “You’re staying with me, anyway.”

Jey’s expression goes unreadable for a moment, something Cody is desperate to better understand. “I am,” he says quietly.

Cody drives as carefully as he can to get back to the house. He can tell Jey’s wincing as they go over speed bumps. He’s never driven like this in his life.

Jey hobbles into the guest bedroom, with Cody attentively following as he bumped into walls in his own home.

“This will be your room,” Cody says. “And, uh. We have the safe room. For when we change Saturday night.”

Jey smiles at him, sweeter than Cody thinks he’ll ever deserve, and settles onto the bed.

“Thank you, Cody,” he says. “This means a lot.”

“It’s nothing,” Cody says.

But he’s lying. This is everything.

Jey sleeps two fitful nights and rests two calm days while Cody checks in on him every hour, but the true challenge will be the full moon.

“And this is where we’ll hang out during the moon,” Cody says. The room is comfortable, he thinks, but he’s rarely focused on comfort in here. The place is all able to be hosed down. He has the deer in the fridge, two of them, if their wolves have particular needs to tear.

Jey nods. “Those giant dog beds?”

“In a way,” Cody says. “Cheap mattresses, blankets. Ways to nest.”

Jey smiles. “Always liked to do that. Me and my brother would curl up next to each other like puppies, sometimes. Stopped when we got older.” He walks over to one of the mattresses and nudges at the blankets with his toes. “But this looks nice. Cozy.” He looks up. “You like blue?”

Cody shrugs. “I remembered you said blue’s your favorite color.”

Jey’s face goes unreadable again. “Thanks again,” he says. “For everything.”

Cody’s mind is less than focused when he’s the wolf. He knows his humanity is limited, knows his identity is shifted.

But he sees a new wolf in his room, one he’s met but doesn’t yet understand and walks over, curling around him. He noses off the bandages and licks the wounds until the skin is healed over, and curls around his new packmate until the fur grows in. He could be cold. Cody doesn’t want his new Jey to be cold.

Jey Wolf curls into Cody’s side, resting his head on Cody’s leg. He waits until Jey Wolf falls asleep, until his breathing is steady, until Cody can be sure he’s no longer in pain.

He uses his teeth to pull blankets more tightly around them, and allows himself rest.

He wakes up warm, wrapped around someone else for the first time ever after a moon. He panics, briefly. And then remembers.

“Jey,” he murmurs, a hand on Jey’s arm. “I’m sorry, man.”

Jey groans, stretching with his eyes closed, and Cody is a horrible man for watching the way all that muscle and skin moves. His eyes open and meet Cody’s with a knowing smile.

“Your wounds have healed,” Cody says, sitting back. He throws a blanket over his lap. “How is everything internally?”

“Pretty good,” Jey says, and he yawns and stretches again. “Really good. Might have been the most comfortable transformation I’ve had in years.” His smile is sheepish, maybe a little sad. “Most of the time would just take care of it in the basement rooms.”

Cody frowns. “Basement rooms?”

“We had these rooms in the basements of our houses, in the neighborhood. Pretty bare bones – safe, but not designed for comfort.” Jey frowns. “Roman didn’t see much use in making them anything more than a utility space.”

“You’re welcome to use this room at any transformation,” Cody says, before he can stop himself. “Even when you decide to leave.”

Cody needs to learn how to read what shows up behind Jey’s eyes, because he can’t find the source of whatever’s there. “Thanks.” Jey finally smiles, and Cody remembers, suddenly, that they are both stark naked.

“Of course,” Cody says. The only way to prevent things from becoming horribly awkward is to wrap one of the blankets around himself. “Whenever you’re ready, I’ll have breakfast ready.”

Jey nods. “You cool if I clean up in here?”

Cody frowns. “We generally have support staff for that.”

“Yeah, but I’m the one who asked for the deer and didn’t do anything with them.” Jey jumps to his feet, and Cody thinks he’s seeing a god unveiled. “Give me, like, ten and I’ll be out.”

Cody walks out of the room, wrapped in the blanket. He thinks he’ll be safe as long as he gets to his bedroom and into the shower, where he can take care of the post transformation boner that’s worse than usual. He realizes, halfway to his bedroom, that he could have just put on the suit from the night before instead of scrambling out of here wrapped in a blanket. He plans on dropping the blanket and sprinting to the mercifully empty bedroom.

Instead, Dustin is standing there in the hallway in front of him, frowning.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asks. He studies Cody. “Why do you look like you just got caught –” He wrinkles his nose. “Never mind. Don’t tell me anything.”

“What are you doing here?” Cody hisses.

“Wanted to check on you after the full moon,” Dustin says carefully. “You didn’t answer when I called.”

“I – oh.” Cody realizes he never plugged in his phone the night before. It must be dead in the pile of clothes in the corner of the transformation room. “No, we’re fine.”

“We,” Dustin says. “Do I want to know?”

“It’s not what you think,” Cody says, and he winces. “That – that also isn’t what you think. Stop looking at me like that.”

“Go put on some goddamned clothes and stop being weird,” Dustin demands. “I can’t believe I came all the way over here.”

“You didn’t have to.”

Dustin pulls his hat off of his head and whips Cody in the arm with it. Cody yelps. “Yeah, actually. I do. It’s the job of an older brother.”

There’s a strange thud behind him, and Cody turns to see Jey, now dressed in his clothes from the day before, picking up a picture frame that had fallen.

Cody turns to see Dustin, who has the worst poker face of anyone Cody’s ever known.

“Is that –”

“Dustin, go home,” Cody says, shoving at Dustin. “Go home.”

“I’m asking you about this later!” Dustin yells.

Cody turns to see Jey leaning against the wall. “Good to know Jimmy isn’t the only older brother who oversteps.”

Cody sighs.

“It’s nice to see you less than…” He trails off. “Less suits and cigars, you know?” He smiles, and it goes right to Cody’s heart. “I like it.”

Cody spends the rest of the week letting that comment tattoo itself into his DNA, and doesn’t know how to make it stop.

The mistake, Cody thinks, isn’t telling Jey he can use the gym. It’s forgetting to knock.

It’s been a week since Jey’s been staying with him, his late nights on the phone and early mornings waking Cody up for a run becoming commonplace.

It’s a later night at the office, stressful, and he changes into his gym clothes when he’s in the walkin of the gym. He forgoes the shirt. It’s not necessary.

He bounces a little, ready to go straight for the treadmill to run as hard as he can as long as he can. He shoves the door open, and he should have realized on touch that the door opened much too easily.

Jey is standing there, stretched out on the bench. He’s shirtless, shorts hiked high up on his thighs, as he works through the chest press.

Cody knew it was a good investment.

Jey doesn’t even see him at first, so focused on what looks like a pretty heavy set. Cody won’t interrupt. But he’s not a good enough man to avert his eyes.

Jey grunts through the last few reps, sweat dripping down his face and bare chest, and Cody is screwed.

He looks up and smiles. “Oh, hey,” he says, and Cody is not going to get through this as the same man. “Sorry, dude. Is it okay I’m here this late?”

Cody nods. He’s not used to being thrown off. He’s not used to be taken off guard. “Of course,” Cody says. His voice is half the force it usually is. “Anything in this house is yours to use.”

Jey’s expression changes, just enough for Cody to notice it. “Anything?” He’s got an unfairly sweet little smile on his lips, too sweet for a man pressing what appeared to be about Cody’s weight and a half.

Cody swallows. “Of course,” he says again. He can’t find any other words he wants to say. “What, uh. What are you doing?”

“Lifting,” Jey says. He studies Cody. “You good, man? You look sweaty and you haven’t even gotten started.”

Cody bites his tongue and walks toward Jey. “No,” he says, and this is a stupid move, “I haven’t.”

It’s been months since he’s allowed himself this fantasy, years since he’s considered it something he was even allowed to dream about. But he leans down and kisses Jey before he can stop himself. He doesn’t touch beyond lips. He wants to give Jey to chance to push him off.

He doesn’t.

Jey makes a desperate little sound that Cody lets linger on his tongue. And then his hands are on Cody’s waist, yanking him in. Cody swings a leg over the bench and presses his thighs up against the inside of Jey’s.

“Hey,” he murmurs, as Jey’s lips move down Cody’s neck. “Are you –”

“If you back out on me, I’m gonna lose my shit, man,” Jey laughs.

Cody pulls back far enough to really see Jey. To see blown pupils, a slight smile, Cody’s favorite face. “Back out?”

“I can feel you panic.”

“I am not panicking.”

“Yeah?” Jey asks, and his damned smile is too much for Cody to survive without being fundamentally changed. “Prove it.”

Cody doesn’t back down from a challenge. He leans down and kisses Jey the best he knows how to, gathering his legs up around his own hips, grinding down. Jey moans into his mouth, a sound he is already addicted to with one taste, and Cody digs his nails into bare thighs. Jey wraps a leg tightly around Cody’s waist to pull him in more and Cody is so, so glad he forwent the boxers in favor of freeballing it in the gym shorts. He can feel Jey’s cock press up against his through the flimsy fabric, already hard. He could quite possibly be dreaming. If so, he never wants to wake up.

“Cody,” Jey breathes against Cody’s lips. “Cody, I want you.”

Cody intentionally forces the wolf back. It’s the full moon wearing off. It has to be. Otherwise, Jey wouldn’t be saying this. “It’s the moon,” Cody says. He pulls back. “I’m sorry. I forgot how – how things can be, when you’re healing. When you’re around a new alpha.”

“Jesus, Cody, you’re so fucking dense.” But Jey smiles as he says it. “It’s been days, man. And I promise you. No alpha will ever make me do something I don’t want to do.” He licks his lips, eyes flicking down to Cody’s mouth. “Ever again.” He sits up and catches Cody’s lips.

The two of them are covered in sweat, and Cody should be mildly uncomfortable but it makes everything so much better. Jey grabs him by the shoulders and pushes him, and Cody stumbles until they’re falling on the floor. Jey straddles him, dicks so close it’s going to kill Cody, and he rocks down.

“Jey,” Cody says. “Jey, I want –”

“I’m yours,” Jey says, and he rocks again, and Cody loses his vision.

Cody rolls them, drunk on hands and skin, and grabs at the waistband of Jey’s shorts. Jey looks down at him with burning eyes, and Cody pulls.

Jey’s cock springs forth, hard and gorgeous. Cody is suddenly ravenous. He sinks his mouth down, letting every sense of Jey fill his body, his mind. Jey’s fingers slide into his mussed hair. Cody will never cut it again if he gets to feel this.

“Fuck,” Jey chokes. “Fuck, Cody –”

Cody pulls off, pressing a kiss to the head of Jey’s cock. “Yeah?”

“Just.” He’s fighting a smile. Cody can finally read that expression. “Your mouth’s good for more than just making deals, yeah?”

Cody rolls his eyes and sinks back down, pressing Jey’s hips to the gym mat so he can’t thrust up. Jey whimpers and moans, squirms, needy. Cody is only a man sometimes, and otherwise a wolf. It’s risky to allow himself access to something he could so easily devour.

The sounds falling from Jey’s lips are impossible to be without now that he’s heard them once.

Cody takes his time with Jey, eschewing any thought of propriety or risk or danger. For once, he allows himself to have what he wants. Jey, moaning his name, pushing at his hands, asking for more.

“Let – I want –” Jey shifts his hips, panting, muscle straining against Cody’s hands. “Cody, I want…” He trails off.

Cody can’t fight the wolf from behind his eyes as he says, “Anything you ever want,” he swears. “Forever.”

Jey swallows. “I want to come.”

Cody smiles and flashes his canines for just a second before turning back fully human. “Anything you ever want,” he repeats, and sinks back down.

His first impulse is to pull back and let Jey paint his face, but it’s more tempting to swallow him down, taste Jey’s release on his tongue and know he’s the one who gets to claim it. Jey’s mouth is filthy as he lets out a litany of curses and prayers, all of which wrapped up in Cody’s name. He shoves his hips up just once before falling back onto the mat, spent. Cody looks at his face, and Jey is smiling. Beaming, almost.

“Jesus,” Cody murmurs, pushing himself back up to sit on his heels. “You don’t have to look that good, too.”

“You’re not allowed to talk,” Jey mumbles. “Your eyes – looking up…” He locks eyes with Cody. He shifts his weight and throws Cody to the ground, then pulls Cody’s shorts down. His mouth is around Cody’s dick before Cody can even breathe.

“Fucking hell, Jey,” Cody says, head spinning. He’s sure he’s felt this way before, felt this kind of need and focus and curl in his gut. But he can’t find where it was hiding. It feels new to him, a blanket curled around a part of him new and fresh and blooming. He rolls his hips, gently, before he can stop himself, and Jey moans around it, pulling him further into his mouth. Cody’s mind has dissolved into want and need at this point. He’d be shocked if he knew any word other than Jey’s name at this point, and that’s all he’s able to say.

He slides his hand into Jey’s curls, wet with sweat, and Cody hears the wolf demand it all over him, demand to be the cause of it. He grins, remembering that, at least in part, he is responsible for some of the sweat.

He fights the urge to roll his hips into the warm velvet of Jey’s mouth, instead focusing on finding the words that match how he feels. But all he can say, still, is Jey’s name.

“I –” He wants to warn Jey. “Jey, I’m gonna – if you don’t –”

It seems Jey does, in fact, because he pulls Cody all the way to the back of his throat and swallows around Cody. It’s over, with a litany of curses Cody’s found the strength to speak. But it’s Jey’s name at the heart of it all, Jey’s name that strikes the chord in Cody. Jey’s name, that he hasn’t quite earned the right to say. He smooths Jey’s hair from where he’d ruined it, and Jey turns his head to rest his cheek on Cody’s thigh.

“That was the best cardio I’ve ever done,” Cody murmurs, dropping his head back and staring up at the ceiling.

“No kidding,” Jey laughs, and Cody can feel his breath on his skin. Jey sits up slowly, lifting himself so he can lean down and kiss Cody, body hovering inches above him.

Cody wraps his arms around Jey, and allows himself to forget, for right now, that he doesn’t deserve this. Right now, he can pretend to be good enough.

Cody left for the office before the sun came up, the night before echoing in his mind so loudly sleep was scared off. He can still feel Jey’s skin on his, feel the salt of his come on his tongue, fell the slight rasp in the back of his throat. He wants more of it, but it’s unfair to ask it of anyone. Let alone Jey.

Somehow, the memories are louder in the office, and he knows there is one solution to working through this. Unfortunately.

He stands and paces his office, organizing his thoughts before writing out the flow chart on the white board. He’s focused, almost too much so. He doesn’t hear his door open.

“That’s detailed as fuck.”

Cody jumps, wishing his wolf senses were a little stronger in human form. He’s ready to bark directions at the intruder, yell at them for coming in without permission.

But it’s Jey. Jey, in running clothes and one of Cody’s hoodies. His heart swells. “Jey.” He looks back at the flowchart and steps in front of it. “What are you doing here?”

“You weren’t in your room when I went to wake you up for our run,” Jey says. “Only other place you’d be is here.” His smile is gentle, and Cody suddenly realizes Jey sees him as the startled animal. “And I was right.” His eyes flicker behind Cody.

Cody swallows. “Don’t look at that.”

“It’s got my name on it about a hundred times,” Jey muses, stepping up to it. “You really think I’d be doing this all to be reporting back to Roman?”

“No, it’s coded in dark blue,” Cody says, scoffing. Jey stares at him. “Oh. Dark blue is for the impossibilities to near impossibilities.”

Jey’s face softens. “Cody,” he says, “what does green mean?”

Cody glances over to where he’d scribbled Jey chooses me and my pack in green. “That’s the best case scenario,” he near whispers.

Jey turns and walks toward him until Cody’s bumped into his desk. “Best case scenario,” Jey repeats. “This is the best case scenario?”

Cody can’t answer. He can only focus on how close Jey is, how much he feels drawn to him, how much the wolf is screaming that this is his.

Jey drops to his knees. “I want you to be my alpha,” he says, and he looks so goddamned pretty with his eyes so wide that Cody almost forgets this isn’t appropriate. “Among other things.”

“Jey,” he says, fighting the shake in his hands. “Jey, no you don’t.” The best case scenario is never what happens. Not to Cody.

“Says you,” Jey says, and the smile is alarmingly aware. “Maybe I just want to suck your dick in that fine ass suit of yours. Maybe I want to do it with you as my alpha. That’s up to me, isn’t it?”

Cody fights to keep his face steady. “You’re lonely,” Cody says. “And you’re a pack wolf. You’re – you’re sensing the possibility for a connection, that’s all.”

“Oh.” Jey stands up. “Now you’re telling me what I do and don’t feel? You know who that sounds like?”

“Don’t,” Cody growls, and he knows the wolf appears behind his eyes. “You know I am nothing like him.”

“I know.” Somehow, Jey is still smiling. He gets further in Cody’s space. “That’s why I’m here.”

Cody swallows. He’s not used to being challenged like this, especially not by a beta. “Tell me more about why you’re right here, Jey,” he says, and he keeps his hands gripped on the edges of his desk.

“Asking you to be my alpha, man,” Jey says. He rests his hands on Cody’s thighs. “After yesterday, I thought you’d know I want it.” He licks his lips. “Thought you’d know I want you.”

Cody swallows. “Jey.”

“Cody.”

Cody has to smile. “Jey.”

Jey’s kissing him before he even considers pulling away. It’s gentle, sweet, almost. It’s far different from the day before in the gym. He pulls back, realizing only now that his hands had settled on Jey’s hips. “Where is this coming from?” But he knows. He knows it’s for what happened last night.

“Come on, man, you can’t act like you didn’t feel it since back in the day.” His smile etches itself into Cody’s memory. “All those meetings where you and Roman pretended to make deals together just to intimidate each other?” He kneads Cody’s thighs. “You know it was my idea to put us across the table from each other, right? And now…” He presses in closer, and Cody spreads his legs to fit him in between a little better. “Well, now we don’t have to worry about that dick anymore, do we?”

“Not that dick, anyway.”

Jey’s grin grows brighter. “Knew we’ve always been on the same page.”

Mini Playlist: Wolves - One Direction Hungry Like the Wolf Animal - The Cab Animal - Neon Trees

#CodyJey #Oops all werewolves #wtf i like wrestling now???#in which sara writes #sarahcakes613 #I really didn't plan on this one

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abidethetempest · 1 year ago

Text

Eliksni Conlang Progress

Velask! this is my first progress post, hopefully the first of many! i have been really waffling on whether or not i wanted to even share any early content yet, but then i realized that was really just me being scared to show off my art and i'm not about that shit (plus i want to have a record of my progress to look back on)!!! so i'm gonna show off my art >:DDDD

so here's most of what i have now! beware, very long post below the cut:

Phonology

i hope to god tumblr didn't totally cronch that image. so yeah this is the rough phonology, emphasis on rough. full disclosure, everything i know about the IPA i learned for this project like a week ago. i'm a total noob, and i'm sure an experienced conlanger or linguist would look at this and their soul would exit their body in horror or smth equally dramatic. but in my defense, i did have to work backwards to build this based on existing material instead of making it all myself, so it was a lot more restrictive and difficult.

Short Vowels

ɪ: i

e: e

æ: a

ə: e or a (always unstressed)

ʊ: u

ɑ: aa

Long Vowels

i: ii

ɔ: o (primarily used before r)

Diphthongs:

eɪ: written as “ey” or “eh”

eə, written as “eyr” (pretty much exclusively seen paired with r, which is the reason for that spelling)

aɪ, written as “ei”

oʊ, written as “oh”

these diphthongs are used to represent a number of sounds that canonical sources do not differentiate between in writing. There might have been a way to do this using rules for pronounciation instead, but it was honestly so frustrating to think i had nailed down a good rule only to find one or two exceptions that i just decided to chuck canon out the window and make some damn diphthongs.

(if you don't know/understand the IPA, I highly recommend checking out this video for a great overview)

Phonotactics

this is also a very rough draft version, doubly so since the only person who has to care abt writing/speaking Eliksni rn is me. but this is my current basis for how i make, pronounce, and write words. i will definitely clean this up if/when i start making guides on using Eliksni, but it makes do for now.

C^3VC^3

Onset: all phonemes

Nucleus: all vowels/diphthongs

Coda: all consonants including clusters

stress on first syllable in most two syllable words

in three syllable words, stress on second syllable if it contains a k or a long vowel/diphthong

stress never on prefix

single "i" is short if surrounded by other letters and long if left open on either side. "ii" is always long and is written that way in words where it is surrounded by letters. Words that start with single i will be spelled with ii if they are compounded with another word. ex) ikrim (time), draiikrim (forever, lit. “all time”)

Consonant Cluster Rules

I only have rules for clusters of two so far, but I am going to flesh out the rules for three-consonant clusters soon since a few of those have cropped up in my lexicon building exercises. The chart for these is in an earlier post if you want to see it all color-coded and whatnot

C: can only pair with H to for CH, all romanizations using C in place of K are done so for aesthetic purposes (i only preserved the use of C as an occassional K because I like how it looks in romanizations, the actual Eliksni alphabet will never substitute C for K)

H: can only precede another consonant as part of the vowel in the nucleus, except for Y (functionally, H being attached to a vowel makes it part of that vowel, but i wanted to highlight this feature to make it very clear that H cannot precede another consonant on its own)

J: never pairs with another consonant. (i wasnt even going to include J as a sound in Eliksni, but there had to be two (2) damn canon names w J in them so i felt a little obligated)

Y: functioning as a consonant, Y cannot pair with any other consonant.

Z: never pairs with another consonant at beginning

Making this bigass chart was unironically so fun. i love you spreadsheets <3 i love you color coding <3 no i am not neurotypical why do you ask

Syntax

VSO

verb-adverb

adposition-noun

possessor-possessee

Noun-adjective

thats it lmao! i'm not even sure if this is gonna stay the same, the only sentences i've written so far have been very basic and all like 3 words long. this is definitely an aspect i am expecting to change a lot over time as I refine how i want things to flow.

Stop! Grammar Time!

(i've waited three years to make that dumb joke lol sorry)

unfortunately grammar itself is no joke.

these are the affixes for conjugating verbs in Eliksni. There are 3 tenses currently (if anyone saw that post I made a few days ago abt the second past tense, i do still plan to implement it, just haven't had the time to think of affixes for it or decide how i really want it to work)

For the sake of time and bc this post is,,,, really damn long already, I won't be including the example conjugations i did here. might make a separate post with that so i can also show off how the mood markers work.

speaking of...

Mood time! i will readily admit this shit kinda confuses the heck outta me, though i understand the basics at least in theory. Some are more intuitive for me, like the imperative and interrogative. i might even drop the subjunctive, although i do want to at least try to grasp it first. Also shout out to the imperative for being irregular bc of ✨worldbuilding reasons✨, we love to see it.

and FINALLY

Noun case markers! Something my time learning German actually prepared me for!

There are only two cases in Eliksni, nominative and accusative. All other situations where other cases like dative or genitive would be used will be done periphrastically using prepositions and such. I was inspired by the lack of gendered third-person-pronoun in Mando'a, which is why there is one pronoun to refer to someone in the third person regardless of gender. If gender absolutely need be specificed, an adjective corresponding to their gender (ie: masculine, feminine, nonbinary, etc) is used.

and that's what i've got after about a week's worth of progress! for the sake of good recordkeeping, the date at the time of writing this post is 7-12-23.

feel free leave any thoughts (but please be gentle! i'm very new to this)!

#destiny #destiny 2 #eliksni #conlang #indee's eliksni conlang adventure

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trashcanwithsprinkles · 9 months ago

Note

Archon war anon

I'm fairly certain that canon implies that Xiao didn't have too many masters, but I'm just having fun with it. I haven't hot potatoed him too much in what I have written, but I'm planning to pass him off for a bit to a bunch of Sumeru tribes who don't actually know what to do with an adeptus, and so just keep trading him off for benefits based on the idea that he's definitely got value, but they don't know what to do with him. I'm also doing this so that Morax later names him after himself? Like, "Xiao" is pretty Chinese sounding, and it would be weird for another land to have used it as a name. That in itself means nothing, bu I was like, "A perfect opportunity to make things weird!"

I did go check Cuijue architecture before I wrote the last ask and was all suspicious about it since I noticed that circle out front had that same square pattern as Guili stuff, but the pillars were very distracting!

We actually do know of gods to do with dreams - the Sumer Companion gods! But, they're obviously not in Liyue, and also not in Chenyu. The most I could find for the god of Chenyu Vale was the line "she made many dreams come true" in An Ancient Sacrifice of Sacred Brocade. Fujin and the others betrayed their god because they wanted to keep the humans safe, and the god was going to flood Chenyu Vale as a last ditch attempt to fight Morax.

The Dunyu-star connection comes from the Records of Jueyun book. The book also says "the redoubts of the Dunyu Valley stood tall and maintained prosperous relations with Liyue Harbor up till 500 years ago"

Very fair about thinking that the stone ruins all have to be old, but at the same time, given what I know about how ruins tend to work, they seem way too intact to be as old as all that? Like, people would have take all of that nice, preworked stone, because that's what people do. Like sure, some of them are kind of far, but then any quarries are also probably pretty far. Especially since Guili looks so much more ruined?

Tianqiu does look pretty temple-like, but also they kind of remind me of this documentary I saw talking about shitty Roman apartments? Like windowless and damp and all that because you spent basically all your time away. And even if it was a temple, temples need like staff to take care of them and priests? It looks big enough that it would probably need a proportionately big staff. I don't know, I'm not actually invested in this theory, it's just kind of fun to think about/argue.

As for when Guizhong died, yeah no confirmation on exactly when, but still at least 1700 years before the war ended.

What I could find on the move to the harbour was mostly referring back to one of the books - Stone Tablet Compilations - which was pretty vague, saying the war killed Guizhong, and "thereupon" Morax took their people to the harbor. And then the event that talked about the flood doesn't mention Guizhong dying, but in it Madame Ping does seem fairly specific about the actual move only taking a dozen days? Like, longer than you'd expect for that short distance, but not a "have to re-gather everyone" type situation (but honestly re-gathering would be really interesting to explore? and I want to see where you got that impression from) The teaser Echoes of the Heart mentions Guizhong's death and implies it was early in the war, but not how it happened or what was going on with their people after. And that's all I could find referring to her death specifically, so yeah, we know nothing. :(

I'm glad it wasn't too much!

no worries, it wasn't too much!

yeah i'm also fairly certain xiao only had one master before morax, but the concept is really interesting (and kinda funny). the idea of him winding up in sumeru and the gods there being like: "you want this magic kid?" "what does he do?" "idk but he's magic so he must be valuable" "you're right, i'll take him" .... "you want this magic kid?" fucking hilarious ngl

my only point of contention (that sounds ultra serious what) with the roman appartment point is that this is liyue? so i'm not sure they'd have a random ruin with no explanation be something that we wouldn't expect from a completely different culture? i guess it could always just be an adaptation though. but yeah, if it was a temple, there'd deffinitely be people living there. if not there, then in the surroundings – i'm just not sure if that would qualify as an entire town, more than just a temple complex. anyway, i've not no smoking gun on tianqiu valley either, we just know so little, but it is fun to throw things at the wall hahah

i have to be honest in that i completely forgot about madame ping's dialogue in moonlight merriment. like i had done the research on this mess for cyanide before that event came out? and since i wasn't even going to get to the founding of liyue harbor in the fic, i didn't bother changing my notes. but yeah, if madame ping says it took more than ten days (original chinese text), then yeah they probably migrated as soon as the flood took over. thankfully the cinematic specifies it was the guili assembly – knowing mihoyo they could've just left it as 'a flood destroyed their home' and never clarified LMAO like even then obviously it would've been the assembly, but still. unless i'm just missing stuff from the original chinese text, it doesn't, however, specify that it took them over ten days to get to the harbor. like it says the adepti stayed with them for ten days, but not how long their journey actually was? it was probably ten days, the harbor isn't all that far from the assembly and it'd be weird for the adepti to just... leave them halfway through the journey, but still. this is what i mean by the lack of clarification being a pain in the ass ToT

the scattering and gathering part actually comes from the guili plains' viewpont. it says "those who gathered here were once again scattered" in reference to the war destroying it. 'scattered' doesn't sound to me like a term you'd use for "there was a flood and so they fled together in a group with the adepti". it sounds more like "everyone fled to different places during the chaos, and then either morax gathered all of them back together to then migrate as a group immediately after it happened (like as soon as the flood settled morax was like "ok where's everyone"), or he took longer to gather them (like longer than ten days)". there's also the issue of the geo travel diaries? which like- i know morax being the god of the stove was disproven, but i'm not sure if that disproves the entire legend? which implies that people had to re-learn how to fucking cook when they first settled in the harbor. that might just be weird wording though, and since it's a word-of-mouth legend, also exaggeration.

the worst offender here i think is zhongli's dialogue during his first story quest. we know he's a little shit sometimes, but he's not known to outright lie when it comes to debating the history of liyue – he even goes out of his way to debate things that have become twisted by time if he finds himself in the conversation (because for some reason he also sometimes just lets the misconceptions be? which- i mean sure, he probably realizes it's an impossible task to try and fix every single erroneous tale in liyue). but when the scholars he's arguing with ask him if it's true that the lord of geo taught the people how to build houses when liyue harbor was being constructed (and how the model he used was made from mora), zhongli just says that yeah that's true. like ????? this either implies that the people didn't know how to build houses by the time they got to the harbor? as though they had been separated for so long that they had to re-learn it (which would make no sense if less than two weeks ago they'd been living in this advanced civilization that they'd built)?? like entire generations had passed??? or like- this could also be that zhongli taught them a new style of houses, going by the fact the architecture is not like the one in the assembly. given we now have madame ping saying it was more than ten days between the fall and the harbor, my only guess is that morax went 'hey i think we should try a new building style, how about this?' and made a harbor house as we know them entirely out of mora, and the people went 'ooo teach us how'. i guess there's always the possibility that, since the way it's worded in the dialogue (i don't have the originla chinese for this i'm afraid), that zhongli is saying that the fact the model house was made of mora is true, and not that he had to teach everyone how to make houses from scratch all over again. it could be that?? it's still weird.

it could always also be a case of all these things are from very early in the game, and since madame ping in moonlight merriment is the latest data we have, hers is probably more accurate? like they hadn't yet quite decided how long it was before the fall and the harbor, and that's why all the sources say different things.

still weird, though.

#anyway #thank you;;;;;;;;#ily <3 <3 <3

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lostcauses-noregrets · 3 months ago

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hi!!! sorry for bothering but recently all of my google tabs just closed with no reason so i've lost one eruri fanfic i started reading months ago (before 2024 started) and its one u reccommended here so i was wondering if u could help me? i've been trying to find it in ao3 for hours but i just can't so maybe u can tell

HUH SORRY IM THE ONE LOOKING FOR A LOST ERURI FIC. I SENT AN UNFINISHED ASK IT WAS AN ACCIDENT SORRY😭😭 i'll continue here.. maybe u could tell me if smth you've rec'ed before sounds similar to this: its a long fanfic with A LOT of chapters, the names of the chapters were written in roman((?) sorry english is not my first language, i mean like this 2 = II, 4 = IV, etc), its been months since i last read it (i've readers block) so i don't remember the plot that well but it was canon setting and it had smut im sorry its not a very specific description but if u could try to help me i would be so thankful😭😭 i was loving it.. have a good day!!🤧

I'm so sorry Anon, your ask has been languishing in my inbox for months. I hope you've found the fic you were looking for by now. Unfortunately I haven't been able to identify this fic. I thought it might have been When in doubt, use violence by no_tengo_porque, because it's LONG, but it's not canonverse and it doesn't use Roman numerals.

I wanted to answer this ask though to say that there are a few of things you can do if this disaster befalls you, or indeed anyone else, again. If you close a Chrome tab by accident, the simplest thing to do is to go to the Re-Open Closed Tab option in the File menu. If your browser crashes or you quit by accident, you should be able to return to any page by looking through your browser history. However the best way to return to a fic you've been reading, regardless of which browser or device you're on, is to use AO3's History, which records every page you've visited*, as long as you're logged in with your user account. This is just one of the many reasons why it's a good idea to always be logged in when reading fics on AO3. Logging in will also allow you to bookmark fics, mark fics for later, and read and comment on locked fics. It's worth noting that, thanks to the sad troll who's been plaguing the fandom for months, most recent Eruri fics are locked so that only logged in users can comment.

* Don't worry, no one else can see your AO3 history. That's between you and the gods...

#asks #eruri #find the fic #snk

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usafphantom2 · 1 year ago

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The story of the Catholic priest who got an SR-71 VIP ride and flew at Mach 3.52 breaking the Blackbird Speed Record

The actual unofficial top speed of the SR-71 Blackbird is Mach 3.52. This happened because of the urgings of a Catholic priest!

SR-71 T-Shirts

CLICK HERE to see The Aviation Geek Club contributor Linda Sheffield’s T-shirt designs! Linda has a personal relationship with the SR-71 because her father Butch Sheffield flew the Blackbird from test flight in 1965 until 1973. Butch’s Granddaughter’s Lisa Burroughs and Susan Miller are graphic designers. They designed most of the merchandise that is for sale on Threadless. A percentage of the profits go to Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. This nonprofit charity is personal to the Sheffield family because they are raising money to house SR-71, #955. This was the first Blackbird that Butch Sheffield flew on Oct. 4, 1965.

The actual unofficial top speed of the SR-71 Blackbird is Mach 3.52. This happened because of the urgings of a Catholic priest!

SR-71 pilot Tom Alison said, “My God, Padre, what more do you want? I came within 5 degrees of burning up this entire airplane! “What more do you want?”

The Father wanted to make sure that he broke the official record of the fastest speed in the SR-71 that’s what he wanted.

Father Hesburgh was used to asking for a lot and getting it.

According to University of Notre Dame website, Father Theodore Hesburgh, President of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, was an aviation buff. He was hooked after a flight in a barnstormer’s stunt plane at the age of 10 that his Dad paid five dollars for. In his autobiography, he wrote that He has logged nearly three million miles in the air, flying in supersonic fighter jets such as the F-14 Tomcat, as well as in exotic aircraft such as a Torpedo Bomber, a Weather Plane, and many more. He also broke the sound barrier several times, flew into a volcanic crater, and piloted a naval bomber over the Pacific despite having no formal flight training.

The story of the Catholic priest who got an SR-71 VIP ride and flew at Mach 3.33 breaking the Blackbird Speed Record

Alison on left Hesburgh on right.

But he wanted more.

The ultimate prize would be to fly in the world’s fastest airplane and break the current record. That record was set in 1976 at Mach 3.2.

Hesburgh’s chance came while talking with President Jimmy Carter in the White House.

President Carter was thanking the Roman Catholic priest for his Goodwill accomplishments during a meeting at the White House; he asked Hesburgh ‘Is there anything I could do for you?’ President Carter recalled the moment Hesburgh asked for the favor: ‘I said, “Fr. Hesburgh, it’s not customary for civilians to ride on a top-secret airplane.”

He said, ‘That’s all right. I thought you were Commander-in-Chief.’

The story of the Catholic priest who got an SR-71 VIP ride and flew at Mach 3.33 breaking the Blackbird Speed Record

(Althouhg Wing Commander Shelton’s name was Franklin everybody used to call him Dale)

Two days later, Hesburgh got a call from the Air Force’s chief of staff. He was to report to Beale Air Force Base, CA, to undergo a training regimen and a series of rigorous tests. After passing the physical and psychological examinations administered to astronauts, Hesburgh had to learn how to operate every instrument in the back seat: navigational equipment, radios, and dozens of gauges and meters. He was then put through situational training for various emergency scenarios, including ejection and equipment failure. Father Hesburgh was possibly the oldest VIP to get a ride in the SR-71. He was 61. A close rival for this title would be Senator Barry Goldwater. He was 60 when he got his VIP ride in 1969.

On Feb. 28, 1979, Hesburgh and the SR-71 pilot, Major Tom Alison, prepared for their attempt to break the Blackbird’s speed record.

The priest wanted to push it to the limit.

After cruising at 30,000 feet just under the speed of sound, Allison and Hesburgh dove 5,000 feet and broke the sound barrier. They then turned their nose upwards and rocketed past 80,000 feet, accelerating through Mach 3. As Hesburgh watched the speedometer, the Blackbird pushed past Mach 3.52, breaking the plane’s speed record.

SR-71 print

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. SR-71A Blackbird 61-7972 “Skunkworks”

In his autobiography, Hesburgh said that when he’d landed, he asked Alison if he had pushed the plane as fast as it would go. Alison responded, “My God, Padre, I went within five degrees of burning us up. What more do you want?”

Hesburgh fulfilled a lifelong dream — he set an unofficial airspeed record in the world’s fastest airplane, an SR-71 Blackbird. This became the Father’s proudest accomplishment, a story that he told over and over again to his friends.

This is a truly remarkable story about a man who asked for an almost impossible task and received it!

@Habubrats71 via X

Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) Twitter Page Habubrats SR-71 and Facebook Page Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder for awesome Blackbird’s photos and stories.

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theclownbehindtheslaughter · 5 months ago

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i would like to infodump about Vox (aka trip and dump my headcanons everywhere like it was spaghetti in my pocket)

Vox’s actual name was Vaughn Oxner, he was born in the August of 1909, his birthday was not legally recorded because his family immigrated from Germany to America soon after his birth, but Vox celebrates it on August 1st, even though he was probably born much later in the month.

Vox’s father died in a work related accident when he was 9, and his mother took to doing various odd jobs, mostly centered around cleaning or childcare for the richer people of the time. Vox would try to help by doing yard work and other hands on things to get some extra money.

His mothers name was Maud, and she couldn’t speak English very well. Vox used to act as a translator, sometimes she’d tell him what she wanted said in German and he would say it that way, or later on she’d try to speak in English on her own; but her accent was so thick that Vox would usually have to help anyway.

His family anglecised their last name, with it previously being Öxner, his parents kept the traditional spelling while Vox and his two little sisters got the anglecised one.

Vox has two sisters, Carolin and Anneliese. Anneliese was the youngest, then Carolin was 2 years older than her, and Vox was 7 years older than Carolin.

Carolin disappeared in the dead of night with her female ‘best friend’ when she was 23 and lived a relatively peaceful and very happy life with her ‘galpal’ in St. Louis.

Anneliese became a roman catholic nun, which is funny because her name means ‘devoted to god’, but she changed it to Philomena after the saint once she entered the convent. She was a nun until her death in the late 1990s.

Vox was NBC’s go-to TV personality from 1948 to his death in 1957 (in my fic i said 1953, but I wanted more years to work with, so tis now 1957), he started as an assistant newscaster for a station in Cincinnati in 1946 but quickly moved up the ranks with his charisma and likability, eventually being picked up by NBC to do a variety show; which later spanned into a talk show, various guest appearances on other shows of the time, and he even got a gameshow.

I like to think that Vox had a running gag on his shows where he’d constantly change his birthday, he would announce the days date like “it’s December 14th, my birthday!”, and he’d also have a special way of greeting the audience every episode. I can’t decide on how he would, but it’d be goofy as hell. but endearingly so, yknow.

There was another TV personality at NBC at the time named Vincent Orwell, so on the staff rosters Vaughn Oxner was shortened to “V. Ox.” to avoid confusion with “V. O.” who had been there before Vox.

The reason Vox is called Vox in hell though is entirely coincidental, as when he fell it’d been raining and his speakers messed up due to it. His speakers healed (his first head acted more ‘biologically’ than his later upgrades do) rather quickly, but did so after Alastor asked for Vox’s name.

Vox tried to say Vaughn, but could only get the ‘V’ out, Alastor took to calling him Vox because of his box-shaped head and it simply stuck.

Vox can still speak a bit of German, though he’s not as fluent as he used to be. He can still understand it just fine though, it’s just speaking it thats the problem.

Also, heres a list of what I’s think the names of his shows would be;

“The Wondrous Showcase of Various Talents” (sometimes it would include “:starring Vaughn Oxner” while other times it wouldn’t) - his variety show, it mostly consisted of music but had comedy segments from time to time. It ran from 1948-1956, but took a semi-hiatus while Vox’s talkshow was on. It released it’s second season over the four years Vox did his talkshow and was very irregular in that time. It went for 4 seasons, and a 5th was greenlit but Vox died before it could happen and it was cancelled all together.

“Goodnight with Vaughn Oxner” - his late night talk show that ran 1949-1953, initially it was created as a way to try and pull views from CBS, who ran The Faye Emerson Show at the same time (the first late night talkshow); but when the Faye Emerson show ended in 1950, NBC planned on cancelling Vox’s talkshow as well, but it was so popular they kept it for another season.

“It’s my Birthday!: Starring Vaughn Oxner” - his gameshow, which i don’t have the details worked out for, but it was definitely a guessing game of some kind. it only ran one season in 1956-1957, the finale was filmed a mere week and a half before Vox’s death; it was aired afterwards with an ending card reading “in memory of Vaughn Oxner, may you bring smiles upon the angels that surely surround you”, i think it’s ironically hilarious considering where and how he ended up.

#hazbin hotel vox #hazbin hotel #headcanon #clown writes #incessant honking

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jinhsiimain · 6 months ago

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The Magistrates Diary ♡ Entry 1

Menu - Diary - Archive Date - 23rd May 2024 - contains spoilers See end of entry for important notes !

My Journey began at 4:08 am, after loading and veryfiying. I made a Whatsapp chat to record all of this :D The intro cutscene reminded me a lot of the unknown god scene from genshin. (I apologize for the comparisons to hoyogames, that how I connect info and make it go into my brain-)

The animations are beautiful and the goddess is etheral. I picked the female rover! cuz i thought the short hair looked so cool and then i noticed she joined the rat tail gang :/

Running around was so fun and Yangyang and chixia are adorable. I almost freaked out when I first saw Baizhi, she's so pretty.

One thing I noticed almost immediately is that the dialoge is really messy (cut off, fading out ??).

But the animation when they talk is so nice, like it has variety and not just the same two Expressions for every character, it gives them more charm.

AND I found the skip button - I told myself not to abuse it tho cuz I wanna know the story and understand everything.

I love that we have an actual name in the game for now like i love rover sm.

The thing about me finding out about Echos: "Oh i unlocked echos hihi!" "no echo for me :(" "WHAT" "ECHO FOR ME?"

I absorbed the echo with my body and was SO confused.

The OST is so cool and nice to listen to. I almost exploded over their facial expressions.

THEN I FELL IN LOVE no seriously, I met Jinhsi

"MY ROMAN EMPIRE?" "SHE WANTS TO MEET ME" "like a date 🤞🤞" "jkjk" "BUT LOWKEY I'M INVESTED" "surrounded by pretty girls" "what a day to be alive"

I got invested in the story, finding out we're important to the nation and becoming friends with Chixia and Yangyang! I also slowly got used to combat, especially enjoyign the echo abilities! The turtle is super fun.

"BRO IS HAVING A DANCE PARTY"

THEEEEEN I FOUND OUT ABOUT THE DOUBLE JUMP - best thing that ever happened.

short environment rant before I continue!! I love the way the open world feels so far! it's amazing to see a seemingly normal open world with little oddities and familiar entities! like the enemies can be turtles, shrooms and random floaty things or stone golems. Some of the animals I saw so far were obviously birds, lizards and fish but there's also rabbits and goats running around which I find really cute.

the design of the world feels really nice too like the colors aren't like "boom in your face!" but rather bend well. Things like the villages and the huge cherry tree stand out that way and I love that so far. and it feels so peaceful and immersing?? Does that make sense??

I found out how to increase stamina and i can run up walls!!! It's amazing, as well as the dodging ability. I was playing honkai impact just hours before the release so i was already used to evasion skills hihi!!

Another thing that started bothering me is that the dialog of the main story is kind of repetitive and doesn't feel that natural (yet), but I think it's due to the localization issues kurogames had before. I'm sure It'll get better soon!

3 hours in, I got my very first 5 Star

"I actually wanted her most next to Jianxin :3" "she has those creepy ass puppets but that's exactly the stuff I like 🤞"

I planned to save my limited banner pulls for future characters bc i think the guy looks kinda goofy- "I hope jinshi is limited and available soon🫶🏻"

At 11 am I lit up the entire map except the top part :D

I got used to playing Encore, since I'm a Yanfei main I found she feels kinda similiar", and its really fun!!!!!!

Then I came up with my goals for this patch but I'm in no way pressuring myself to meet them or play because I want this game to stay fun! FUN!!!

100% the current map

finish the main quest

collect all the available sonace caskets

max / main encore

In Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail I (used to) collect all the 4 stars and i was thinking about doing that too in WuWa but I'm not sure about that yet since I actually have no pressure/desire to pull.

I continued the main story and met Jianxin, she's so cool!!

"I just noticed that all the black haired girls so far have like colored hair parts and I was thinking that it aligns with their element? but rover is spectra (currently) so idk? but also everyone kind of has elements colored hair- lemme verify that" ↳ okay so hair theory only partly fits

Every resonator has the tacet discord mark? as far as I can tell (yes genius did you pay attention?)

my team so far is Encore, rover/yangyang and baizhi and once I get jianxin I'll replace rover / yangyang probably

I fought my first "big" boss - caraspace engine zero, no death + achievement!! or rather "Trophy"!

Yangyang is a midnight ranger, like chixia, okay!!

Did some more story and got lore dumps! There's a voice inside us?

Also it's so cool that yangyang can feel stuff in the wind please do more with that!! We can read tacet discord coordinates?? Yangyang can also hear in the wind?? that ahhh so cool

I desperately want more elemental lore, it's so interesting!

We met scar - "Mr bad man Mr Scar okay he's the bad guy??" "Yangyang found a cat and vanished" "Mr bad guy is a little insane" "his eyes are freaky" "WHY DOES HE KNOW ABOUT OUR BACK STORY" "HIS NAILS ARE SO LONG FOR WHAT"

"I KNEW IT THEY'RE ALL SUSSY" "lowkey I trust him with the lore dumps but not so much with him wanting to be our friend" "he's possessive girl get a grip" (lowkey he's so flirty and hot and ngh) "okay I think he's really not lying, like I said, not friend, but a reliable source. gonna call him Mr lore!" "Jinhsi is in on it too girl what are you doing?" "So Mr lore wants equality between the resonators and normal humans?"

The story book tale is actually so cool and while I as playing i tried to understand and puzzle the pieces together! " The black lamb was their scapegoat… they sacrificed her… but there's a black goat in the back still. The flock blamed someone again after the shepherd stopped granting wishes. The village is guilty of their own greed."

It turned out that Scar wasn't the shepherd and I never suspected as such, he seems more like a black lamb himself!

Then he trapped us in his Elysium, which is an interesting ability. I don't know if you guys have the same "problem?" but I'm so fast at beating the enemies that the voicelines are too slow. I haven't even leveled the weapons and echos.

We met scars companion? The spider lily girl. Her voice is adorable and she's soo cool!!! The character designs in general are amazing.

So Yangyang is sus of scar and eventhough I'm as well, I still think he is right in some aspects and the story book like tale he told holds at least some meaning and is mostly true.

SANHUA FOLLOWED US?? I KNEW SHE WAS STILL INVOLVED!

ok so I found a diary in the quest which basically confirms what scar told me. okay done with I act III, dailies unlocked!!! I need to reach Union Level 14 to continue which was to be expected!

Im gonna spend some of my wave plates and them I'll log off for today. I feel like I got a vague understanding of the world and the mechanics so far and I really don't need to overdo it since I wanna have fun with the game going forward!!!

Details/More

Gameplay: - I don't like the camera lock on feature - puzzles so far are simple enough so I can familiarize myself with the world but interesting enough to be fun if that makes sense - mutterflies are basically seelies - found my first parallel perception cave and that's one fun game mode, I beat with with just one second over the 3 "star" mark so I did it first try!! - decryption puzzle 10/10 - Fragile block has actual physics and collapsed onto me 💯/💯 - the cooking is cool too, it's just auto cooking but at least you have a skill thingy - Theres no underground map for the qichi village cave but that's just some spoilt genshin kid nitpicking on my end

Plot holes (or i didnt pay attention properly, please correct me!!): - why do we know jianxins name? like we just started calling her master jianxin?

Archive notes: - Tacet Discords - Etheric Sea - Waveworn Phenomenon - Lament - You can't seem to collect humanoid echos - Fall Damage - Switching Characters - Midnight Rangers - Fractsidus - Voice inside Rover? - Tacet Discord or Goddess? - Yangyangs Aero Affinity

Bugs I encountered: - Dialog stuff (non visible text, diverging voice acting) - most of the npcs seem to be buggy tho like they don't properly load in? eventhough my PC supports highest graphics without stuttering or excessive loading times

End of Entry Stats: Team: Encore, Rover, Baizhi UL: 14 Wishes: (corrupted)

~ ♡ ~ ♡ ~ ♡ ~ ♡ ~

#the magistrates diary #the magistrate #wuthering waves blog #wuthering waves #jinhsi #wuthering waves notes #my gameplay #poll #wuwa #rover #female rover #encore #baizhi #scar wuthering waves

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mask131 · 2 years ago

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The Zeus Case: Why such a messy love life? (1)

Short answer: Because people are parrots who repeat blindly everything they hear without doing their research. :)

Long answer: get ready for a class.

So I expressed several times my strong dislike of TV Tropes’ descriptions of the Greek gods, and they notably use to describe Zeus one quotation from the Youtube channel known as “Overtly Sarcastic Productions”. This is the quote:

From a modern perspective, when we look back at the original tellings, it’s very difficult to see Zeus doing his thing and conclude anything other than that the king of the gods is an omnipotent serial rapist who leaves a trail of shattered lives and bastard children in his wake and this pantheon is a fucking nightmare.

This quote is a perfect summary of how modern Internet perceives Greek mythology... and this point of view is wrong. I am sorry to say that, but it is wrong. I do enjoy the OSP videos, I do follow faithfully their Journey to the West videos and the like - but they also simplify some stuff to fit a small-video format and, of course, ARE OVERTLY SARCASTIC. That’s in their very name. Their videos are fun to watch, but I wouldn’t use them as a scholarly work about Greek mythology.

And so studying Zeus’ love life reveals a much more complicated history and evolution than just “In truth he was a serial rapist but nobody wanted to say it”.

1) If you want it Roman, sprinkle some rape

Let’s tackle already the very concept of “Zeus as a serial rapist”. The answer is: no. I already talked about it previously (see my post about rape in mythology) but the whole reputation of Greek mythology as being all about rape is a huge misunderstanding caused by the Romans. Most of the stories of mythological rape came from the mind of Roman authors and writers. Ovid is a particulary bad offender, because thanks to his rape fetish he either invented lots of rapes or reinvented consensual relationships into rapes - and the problem is that Ovid’s Metamorphoses, despite being a Roman text that built a Romanize mythology, was used for a long time as a source of info about “Greek mythology”. When it was as Greek as Disney’s Hercules. And with Zeus you can actually see that: if you look at the texts in which most of his “rapes” are recorded... They are either Roman texts, or texts written far after the age of Ancient Greece, texts written in a Romanize Greece or by authors who tried to “reconstruct” the lost Greek myths by taking the preserved Roman versions as a source. So while yes Jupiter was a rapist, Zeus wasn’t a “serial rapist”. I haven’t checked EVERY story mind you, so there might some true “ancient rape”, but most of the time there is no rape - at most there is deceiving as for example Zeus will disguise himself under another shape, but this calls for more subtle, case-by-case analysis, as the transformations were done as much to not frighten/kill the often mortal lovers, as to protect said lovers from the wrath of Hera.

2) If you like it, don’t say it

There is an implicit consent in Ancient Greek texts that modern audience, sensibilized to sexual harassment and “the evils of patriarchy”, often does not get. When someone rapes another person, the Ancient Greek author will explicitely say it. There will be descriptions of struggle, of violence, of resistance. If there is no mentions of that, if the relationship is not called a “rape”, it won’t be a rape. This notably led to a great confusion due to several myths describing Zeus “taking away” or “ravishing” a person in animal form, snatching them away from their home or community to isolate them and have love with them. I can sound like rape - but in effect, in the text, it is just ravishing someone. The confusion notably arose in latinized languages thanks to the word “rapt”, “rape”, originally meaning “taking someone away by force - usually with romantic or lustful intents but not always”. With time “rape” became what we know today, but in old-fashioned language a man in love with a girl but refused her hand by her parents, if he took her away from her parents nonetheless, it would be a rapt/rape - even if the girl was in love with him, because it was still forcefully and brutaly stealing away from a family/from parents. There is a big confusion arising from all that.

Second point is that in Ancient Greek texts, there is no need to explicitely describe the love and the consent of two parties to say “this was a consensual relationship”. While rape is explicitely described as rape, consensual love is not glossed much about. It will often just be said as “X laid with Y and they had three kids”. Or “X came into the bed of Y” or “Y was loved by X”. Often only one side of the couple will be evoked, but not because it was a one-sided relationship - just because there is an implicit consent that is not explicitely described. The Greeks thought that by nature, if two people had children together, it meant they had to be in love. If a man was described as “entering a girl’s bed” without mentions of him enslaving her or brutalizing her, it meant that she had allowed him to climb in her bed. It was a thought-structure that has been recently lost in an effort to prevent the “romanticism of rape”, but it was a thought logic that was prevalent in Ancient texts. Rape is explicit, consent is implied.

(This also tied with a very Greek aesthetic of “sexuality is vulgar”. The Greeks were known to be disgusted by too expressive manifestations of desire. Sexuality was a needed and fine thing - but in moderation and subtlety. If someone loudly or openly enjoyed having sex, they were seen as pervs. Poets kept their art... well, poetic, by saying as little as possible about sexuality itself. This is why Ancient Greek statues of male nudes depicted such tiny genital organs. To have a “big one” was seen as something vulgar and ugly, as a manifestation of an excessive lust or overflowing desire that repelled rather than attracted. On the contrary, to have small sexual organs was something attractive, elegant, “polite” we may say.)

3) Confusion

If Zeus’ love life seems so messy today, it is because people confuse everything and mix together stories from so many sources.

I already pointed out that there is a confusion between the Roman sources (aka “Greek myths rape edition”) and the actual Greek sources. But people also love to throw in Orphic content, not realizing that the Orphic religion was not the “mainstream” religion of the Greeks. This is why it is called “Orphic religion”, not “Ancient Greek religion”. Orphic poetry and Orphic literature fits with an Orphic cosmogony and Orphic rites that differ MASSIVELY from what we know as “Greek mythology”. Orphic religion is WEIRD and completely reinvent the Greek gods and legends by mixing them with motifs and concepts taken from Near-East and Middle-East religions and mythologies ; and so “fusing” it with well-known Greek myths such as the Homerics or the Hesiodics necessitates a HUGE rewrite because they were NOT made to fit, they belong to two different worlds.

For example this is where you’ll find the whole legend of Zeus raping Persephone. Which doesn’t fit because if you look at “traditional” Greek myths, Zeus never slept with any of his daughters.

4) Love VS Lust

As I said previously, the Romans and the “late” Greek authors (understand those that wrote in a Romanize Greece or in a post-Roman Greece/Christianized Greece) took the habit of turning the love life of the gods into a series of rapes and savage hunts. This applied to Zeus’ love life.

Because if you look at the older texts, at the “original” texts, what are the words you find? You find the words “seduction” - Zeus “seducing” women, women being “seduced” by Zeus, aka a process of charming and attracting his lovers, and the lovers themselves falling in love with Zeus or allowing him to share a night with them. And you find the word “love”. Zeus explicitely describes his feelings towards his old flames and affairs as “love”, or “sweet love”, “deep love”, “tender love”.

This is in sharp contrast to the later writers and the depictions of rapes who use more explicit words such as “desire” and “lust”. There is a sharp contrast between the “older” Zeus as an all-lover, and the “newer” Zeus as a deity overflowing with lust. Mind you, in Ancient Greece love and sex were still mixed together (virginity being seen as refusing all love, and chaste lovers being unusual couples) but the Greeks still had a clear way of dividing sexuality as driven by love, from sexuality as driven by pure physical desire.

Which does tie into...

5) My weird Greek wedding

Greeks had a different conception of marriage.

Now, I am not adding as a “solid proof” that Zeus was better than what you think, or that him cheating on Hera was a socially accepted thing in any way. One must point out that the laws and society of Ancient Greeks didn’t actually fit their own myths - such as how Greek mythology presents strong, autonomous, “feminist” goddesses when in real life being a woman in Ancient Greece sucked. The Greeks themselves recognized that the gods, due to their inhuman and superior nature, were allowed things forbidden to mankind (for example incest was perfectly allowed and normal among gods, but sternly forbidden among humans - this topic had been discussed at length by the Greeks themselves). But... to take a peek into the society and the social norms of Ancient Greece does allow one to understand better the myths, by having a different light shine onto the legends.

And the reason Zeus’ love life became so debordant (and why in general gods are known to have what we call today “affars”) is because Greek marriage was much more... permissive than our modern-day marriage. But just for men. Women were sworn to complete and utter fidelity and were owned by their husband or consort - they had no way of sleeping with anyone else. HOWEVER... men were allowed to sleep with women other than their wives in given conditions. Don’t understand me wrong: unfaithfulness was seen as a crime by Greek law, and a husband cheating on his wife was to be punished. But the law also allowed the husband to have a legal sex with other women outside of marriage without suffering any kind of punishment. It was the “Pallakai/Hetairai/Gynaekes” system. A man had to marry to a wife, and they could only have one wife to which they were to be faithful (they were the “gynaekes”). The wife was the “guardian of the house” and the keeper of the man’s home, and she was the one supposed to bear the man’s children, as well as the “tool” through which legitimate succession took place. She was a legal and domestic element. But a man was also allowed to have a “pallake”, that is to say a “concubine”. Pallakai were female slaves (either bought through the slave commerce, or taken back as war prisoners) that their master had sex with. Concubines were allowed for sex - but nothing more. They were sex slaves, but they were not supposed to take over the position of a wife. (In the legend of Agamemnon, Cassandra was a pallake/concubine, as opposed to Clytemnestra the wife). And third came the “hetairai”, the prostitutes, who were also legally allowed to have sex with married men in exchange for money.

So in conclusion, married men were allowed to have sex with prostitutes and concubines - as long as they did not made them fill a roll of “wife”. For example, while men were allowed to have pallakai, it was seen as of very poor taste to have your concubine live under the same roof as your wife (no need to tell you the “concubines” were usually found in noble ranks of the Greek society, among the rich and powerful). As it was said : “We have hetairai for pleasure, pallakai for the body’s daily needs, and gynaekes for the bearing of legitimate children and for the guardianship of our houses”. Three different types of sexual relationships allowed within a marriage, with three different purposes. To be crude: a commercial pleasure ; a living sex-toy ; and a legal wife.

Taking this into account, the many extra-marital relationships of Zeus (and other gods) can gain a bit more sense as, in the Greek mindset a married man is allowed to have sexual relationships with other women as long as 1) it is just casual, non-consequence sex and 2) the other women is of a lesser rank (prostitute or slave). If we try to transpose it to the world of the gods, it explains why the male gods are searching for pleasure among mortal women (by definition, “lesser women”, as humans are inferior to gods and would be a good equivalent of prostitutes/slaves to the “citizen”), but never marry any of them and stick to having one divine wife. But in return, applying such a view onto the myths (which again is not the “correct” one, but just another angle) also explains why Hera would become so furious and so mad at Zeus’ affairs - because 1) as said above, Zeus often deeply loved his mistresses, and seems to have treated them as more than just casual one-nights and 2) he had children with them, which is normally the “prerogative” of the wife. This all leads to a divine repetition of the “Cassandra/Clytemnestra” tragedy, when a wife becomes jealous of a concubine when the husband seems too much attached to her, to the point of almost replacing his wife with her.

Because that’s a last point I should add: wives could easily be replaced in Ancient Greece. Well “easy” might be a bit of a strong word, there were legal procedures to be undertaken and there was money to be exchanged, but the thing is that divorce was a normal and usual thing for the Ancient Greeks. And not just for the men! A man could dissolve his marriage and get rid of his wife - but the same way a wife could get rid of her husband and dissolve her marriage. It was all allowed - and in fact this is why Zeus had so many wives before Hera in such a quick succession (up to seven wives if we believe some interpretations of the poems!). This social consideration could also add another point of view on this set of myths - if you decide to have a “social reading” of them - by raising the question “Why doesn’t Zeus leave Hera?” or “Why doesn’t Hera leave Zeus?”. Of course there is an answer to be provided with the construction of the myth itself - they would have never left each other in mythology because they were a couple in religion and a myth of a separation would only have occured if suddenly religion changed and declared the two weren’t a couple anymore, which likely would have never happened... But since we talk here about interpretation of the myths, and “reinventing” the myths, this is a very legitimate question to ask, especially since people keep this very Christianized view of ancient wedding as a thing people are stuck in till death. It opens a lot of funny and fascinating reinterpretations of the Greek myths: try to imagine, why would Zeus not leave Hera when he left his two or six previous wifes, and that despite all the crap going on in their marriage? You can find a dozen of answers going in very different directions...

ADDENDUM: Gods are not characters

... but while I always encourage people to be creative with their reinterpretation of the Greek gods for FICTION, here we are talking about the ACTUAL god and mythical figure, and I have gone a bit too far. Because all these later considerations are actually treating Zeus as a character. It isn’t all wrong - especially since a good chunk of what we know about Greek mythology comes from literary works, so the gods we know are a third “fictional characters”/”literature characters”. But it is also forgetting that they are mythical figures, AND religious figures. You know, actual gods, of a religion, with rites and canons and theological debates ; and figures of myths, as in the equivalent of today’s folktales and fairytales. Archetypes. Stock figures. Metaphores. Allegories. Not entities supposed to have human-like psychology, not entities supposed to be treated as fictional characters of an author’s work ; and whose stories are not supposed to always be coherent or logical - as long as they are powerful and meaningful.

Yes there was a literary Zeus, akin to the various incarnations of Zeus we have in books today (and this is why we have different Zeus depending on the author - an Homeric Zeus, an Hesiodic Zeus...) ; but the religious and “truly mythical” Zeus of Antiquity was probably more akin to the folkloric/artistic/cultural figures we know today. The Grim Reaper, Father Time, Mother Nature, Jack Frost... Everybody knows who they are, what they look like, what they do, but nobody can give them a true “psychology” or will start saying “They’re like that because they had a bad childhood”. Books will give them backstories and personal traits and human depth - but you can’t call it the “true” incarnation of the entity. [Of course the analogy is a bit shaky because the texts of Homer and Hesiodic were heavily religious in nature, and so there is an effort to stick to an established belief and coherent canon - but we know that for later authors, religious authorities of Ancient Greece clearly considered some of their depictions of gods clear blasphemy.]

Note: I originally planned this post to be just one post, but as it turns out I have a LOT of things to say, so I better split my post into two to let you better appreciate the nuances of this debate.

Second note: Of course I do not tell you to believe me on everything. Remember I am just one person, with a knowledge maybe big but still limited. Always double-check, triple-check, go look for other sources - and if I make any mistake don’t hesitate to tell it to me! With such vast and complex topics one can easily get lost into details and forget the big picture ; or the opposite.

#greek mythology #greek myths #greek gods #zeus #hera #love in greek mythology #rape in greek mythology #ancient greece

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