#and your assumptions of the world based only on what youre told is true

[donghuamuqing]

Mike wheeler and his epic allegory swag

[lawofangie]

just assume

it seems like some of you don't understand how the law of assumption works, so let me be the one to make a few things clear. i apologize if these seems repetitive, there just truly isn't anything much to the law. i struggle to understand how much more explicitly the only rule has to be stated in order for you guys to grasp this.

first off, the law of assumption is about making assumptions. as in, you have to assume in order for the law of assumption to work for you. this should be an obvious one, but for some reason many of you don't understand this.

i blame it on all the misinformation and lack of critical thinking skills, because it is quite literally in the name. the law of assumption will not work if you are not assuming. a law about MAKING ASSUMPTIONS will not work if you are not MAKING ASSUMPTIONS.

what is an assumption? something you believe to be true without proof. so, you must believe you have your desires without proof in order to manifest.

asking me why you don't have your desires makes absolutely no sense if you understand this concept. there's no point. you're basically asking me why something you believed to be true is happening. the very obvious reason is that's just the way the law works.

the law of assumption is completely indifferent to whatever you want to manifest, your current circumstances, your feelings, etc. it is simply a law that states whatever you assume to be true will be true.

the law is completely neutral and indifferent, so is the world you're living in. absolutely nothing has any meaning or significance until you assign significance or meaning to it. if this was not the case, you would not be able to assume absolutely anything you want, and nobody would be able to come to their own conclusions, have different perspectives, and be different people.

you quite literally become who you are based off of your world views and upbringing. everyone is inherently shaped by their assumptions. everyone has been assuming for their entire lives. assuming is absolutely nothing new. you're just being shown that there is a different way to use your ability to assume.

this means that absolutely anything that happens is on you. the law has no bounds, no exceptions, no excuses, etc. again, it is simply a law that stating whatever you assume to be true will be true. you are the reason you don't have what you want yet, because you fail to follow one simple instruction: make an assumption.

instead of assuming, you approach manifestation with fickle beliefs and a need for validation. then you wonder why you don't have what you want.

you look around for and stressing over the appearance of something you're explicitly being told you have to assume is already there in order for it to materialize. you're failing to meet the singular requirement of the law: decide you have it already.

you can't not follow instructions and then wonder why something didn't work for you. in any context, that makes absolutely no sense. the answer is right in your fucking face, you did not assume. you spent your time waiting something to happen. don't you know what that implies? if you had your desire, why would you be waiting for something to show up? oh, right, because you don't have your desire. you decided it wasn't there, now you're waiting for something else to happen.

you're looking around expectantly for validation when you're literally being told that you have to be your own validation. you're being told that you are the only necessary validation, but you fail to accept that.

you guys seriously fail to understand that the law isn't about making things show up, even if that technically is the end goal. it's about assuming. your assumptions just also have the ability to change your life for the better, you're being shown how to utilize that ability.

you need to take the initiative and stop looking to your own reflection to show you something you aren't showing it. why would any mirror reflect something it isn't being shown?

you don't get what you want, you get what you assume you have. that's the whole point. you assume in your favor in order to have what you want.

you either have it or you don't. there is no in between. you either assume or don't, the law doesn't care. nobody cares. stay stuck and life will move on without you. nobody is coming to save you.

it's in your best interest to assume you have your desire, but nobody can force you to. this is something you have to grasp on your own and apply on your own. all we can do is help you achieve that.

you can continue to look outwards if believing in yourself and having some fucking confidence is too difficult for you, but you'll eventually realize (if you haven't already) that it's to no avail. it doesn't work.

you will never have what you want if you don't assume you already have it. the law of assumption will never work for you if you don't assume.

if you have an understanding of the law, please, do yourself a favor and learn to follow instructions. don't waste your time asking stupid questions.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hey um, what if the Overblot boys told each other their backstories?

Mmm… Well firstly, I think it would take a lot of effort to arrive at a point where all of the OB boys would even feel comfortable being that emotionally intimate with the others. Many of the OB boys are highly guarded and resistant to putting themselves in compromising positions. For example, I can easily see Azul being paranoid that the others would use his background as blackmail; he would not risk having his own vulnerabilities becoming public knowledge. Would Leona really be okay with being sentimental in front of various people he dislikes, especially Malleus and Vil? Would Idia feel safe unpacking his trauma and grief in front of his peers? Etc, etc, etc.

Secondly, I think that even if the OB boys were hypothetically at the point where they were okay sharing their backstories with the others, it wouldn’t change much about their immediate circumstances?? The OB boys generally don’t strike me as particularly… empathetic? At least not automatically empathetic. It’s something they would need to put effort into and actively work on. I imagine that they’d otherwise just pull a Zuko-style “That’s rough, buddy” or potentially even say something tactless that rubs their peers the wrong way (for example, not fully understanding the situation or even downplaying one another’s trauma). Riddle (someone with very little to no experience with social media and entertainment mediums) might not get how being a celebrity influences Vil’s life, Leona might insult Malleus (someone whom he has a bone to pick with), everyone might still be upset with Malleus for what he did to them in book 7. etc. Each OB boy only has their own experiences as the lens through which they see and interact with the world, and it’s not that easy for just anyone to put themselves in the shoes of another person.

Hearing a (for lack of a better term) traumadump doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll connect with it or understand just how grueling it was for the person who experienced said trauma. It would usually take a significant amount of time and reflection (ideally facilitated by a licensed mediator or professional) to digest those stories in group therapy and to make sure that everyone actually understands one another. A surface-level story retelling alone in most cases isn’t (again, for lack of a better term) “enough”, especially with how self-centered, emotionally immature, and different many of the OB boys are.

Think of empathy like a skill or a muscle. It isn’t innate. You need to develop it and train it, and not putting it to use can lead to atrophy. And given how arrogant and independent your usual NRC student is… yeah, it’s definitely going to be something for them all to work on.

If you want to think of it another way, it’s like how different players will react differently to reading the OB boys’s backstories. Someone who experienced bullying similar to Azul could more easily empathize with him while also not fully “getting” the full scope of other stories they hear. Maybe they can’t understand why Riddle still cares about the mother who mistreated him. Maybe they don’t see why Jamil sacrifices so much for his family. It doesn’t make the player a bad person for not understanding all the stories, it simply means they have a limited perspective. The same is true of the TWST characters; they, too, have incomplete perspectives and rely predominantly on their own points of views to make sense of the world.

Maybe knowing their backstories in advance would change some scenes in small ways (such as book 6, when they split up and then butt heads with each other). They’d know where the other boys were coming from, and how that informs how they act in present day. However, I maintain that I think not much would change from the original. In a stressful situation like book 6, they could easily slip up and say something insensitive/make assumptions about their behavior based on their background/overlook or not even consider their background in the first place since they’re so focused on the current task. For example, Azul, feeling insulted that Riddle is underestimating him, could make a snide remark that just because his mother was a control freak doesn’t mean Riddle also has to be. Jamil could still see Leona as a spoiled prince because, despite being treated like an outcast, he still grew up in immense privilege as royalty. They can so easily fixate on their own interpretations of events that it colors how they perceive others, rather than how they can relate to others no matter how similar or dissimilar their experiences were.

In other ways, I think the OB boys sharing their backstories with one another stifles potentially meaningful development. Character growth in TWST isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon, and we’re here for the long haul. What does depositing all the backstories in their laps achieve for the OB boys? It artificially puts them in a situation to “better know” their peers rather than let it happen organically or allowing them to grow closer through their own efforts. Let’s look at the Deuce-Epel beach scene from book 5. Do you think it would have been as impactful of a scene if Epel explained his life in the countryside and how he got his traditional views on gender norms to Deuce? Personally, I don’t think so. The scene we currently have has them bonding and connecting through a shared activity (shouting at the sea), then having a heart-to-heart without a heavy backstory exposition. It’s through that, not explicit backstory sharing, that the two form an attachment and become genuine friends.

Those are all my thoughts!! ^^

[erme-aeterna-arts]

so i’m watching black sails, and i’ve been having thoughts about s1-s2 and why they feel different from each other and how it serves the narrative.

so, the first impression from s1 was that somebody lied to me and the show is just your average one. like you see the characters who act a certain way, but you can’t tell why the hell they are doing what they are doing. see, eleanor, flint, they say what they’re doing it for, but it’s not what actually drives them, as we discover later. but in the beginning it still feels shallower and simpler than it is. even the relationship between eleanor and vane seems to have a completely different power structure (at first, the viewer is lead to expect the usual toxic dynamic with vane as the abuser, but i’d argue that eleanor has always had all the power, whenever she was with him, she used it for her political ambitions). or ned low who we expect to be the villain of the season and then he’s very quickly decapitated (bc he isn’t not the true villain of the story). there are many examples, but the point is that the viewer in s1 (and partly in s2) is an outsider to the story, is making assumptions based on what we are used to seeing in media, on the expectations and tropes we all subconsciously know and naturally employ to interpret situations when lacking information and later hold these interpretations as the ultimate and indisputable truth. and then they start debunking all that. the viewer begins to learn the truth, begins to immerse into the story.

and this experience of the viewer is necessary to the following dismantlement of the idea of “civilization”. this is the word being thrown left and right in s2, and it’s no coincidence that right until miranda is dead even flint still wants, desperately, to make peace with it, to be a part of it. discourse is a power structure, it is desired, everything that is spoken exists within it and according to its logic, like the concepts of good and evil, men and monsters. and if in the beginning to flint the purpose was to somehow make himself, his family, nassau, worthy of being a part of it, he later realizes that this will never mean freedom, so he tries to build a world outside of the reach of the empires, outside of the discourse.

because that world was never going to accept flint, a queer man, even though we see in his face before miranda speaks up that he would go through with peter ashe’s plan to tell the whole truth. because that world never existed for us, and i relate so much to it, the entire season is the pinnacle of the queer experience.

to sum up, the parallel that is drawn here is that in both cases the viewer is reminded not to trust the expectations we have of the world, not to expect what seems to be the truth to actually be it, that what you are being told is all lies and bullshit. because when miranda says that nobody but her knows why flint is doing it [trying to destroy the fort], we should believe her; because when we see the flashbacks with james and her, we should not assume automatically that the affair is between them, as it was only stated as a fact by other people like eleanor’s father, because it was thomas that james was in love with, because it was all the “civilization” needed to destroy their lives, because we, the lgbtq+, have always been pushed aside, into the shadows, from which captain flint as a persona was born; because when they, the empire, claimed then that this persona is the essence of the person, they did so to excuse the damage they’d inflicted, to hide the fact that the pain brought into the world was caused by them.

* i’d like to add something about the idea of the western world as a discourse (i’m including imperialism, patriarchy, queerphobia here as the basis of the power structure, hence the generalization), in the show it’s not just the word “civilization” that is used, it’s also “reason”, “society”, “rationality” and so on, bc they belong to this discourse. a very illustrative scene is the negotiations between jack rackham and that captain about sharing the prize like “reasonable men”. where it turned out that reasonable ≠ fair, that it meant that the one with more power was to have everything, according to “reason”, and the other one to end up with nothing. it’s a detail, but everything is connected in this show and so fuck the discourse :) fuck the empire :)

[vickyvicarious]

I find the detail that Jonathan was going to spend the night away from home but then sent a telegram that he'll take the 4hr commute back to be home with her tonight pretty interesting. Did he change his mind? We never see his telegram, but Mina seems to suggest he gave as reason that she'd not be alone at night?

I was thinking recently about what day it might be when considering the timeline for Arthur's note to Jack after the funeral for his WRWD. To sum up, it looks like the 25th is probably a Monday. The other option was that it's Sunday, which seems less likely but does make him wanting to get home sooner if he could more likely. I guess in a way that's not very relevant to the specifics of your question. I was just reminded...

Anyways. Your suggestion that Jonathan came home for the (stated) purpose of ensuring Mina didn't have to spend the night alone is interesting, and I see where it comes from:

And yet, if it be true, what terrible things there are in the world, and what an awful thing if that man, that monster, be really in London! I fear to think. I have this moment, whilst writing, had a wire from Jonathan, saying that he leaves by the 6:25 to-night from Launceston and will be here at 10:18, so that I shall have no fear to-night.

If that last phrase is continuing the description of what Jonathan's message said, then yes, that does seem to be his stated reasoning. However, I've always personally read that as a modifier/response to her own earlier line about "I fear to think" - basically, I've assumed Jonathan just said he would make it home, and it was Mina who added that now she won't have to worry about him tonight. Of course, some of that was based on my assumption that Launceston is in London and so she was worried about his proximity to Dracula. But Launceston, I've just learned, is actually in the opposite direction, further west than Exeter. So... perhaps that's not what's going on. Maybe I've been wrong and your interpretation is correct.

Regardless of whether Jonathan said it or Mina did, I think the fear referred to here is her worry about him. He did just have a total collapse a few short days ago (3, to be precise). And that happened while traveling. Not to mention, the last time he went on a business trip away from her for more than a day, he went missing for months and turned up horribly traumatized. So even if she 'knows' it's just an overnight trip and he will be fine, she could be feeling understandable anxiety about this. All the more so after losing Mr. Hawkins and Lucy.

However, equally relevant is Jonathan's own feelings on the matter. I think whatever worry Mina might be feeling about his business trip will be just as intense for him as well, if not even more so. He was obviously trying to dive into his work to both distract himself and live up to the responsibilities he now has as Mr. Hawkins' heir. He may well have agreed to or arranged this trip in an attempt to prove he's fine/make himself fine/fulfill others' expectations. And then perhaps in the train there, he began to regret his choices...

He didn't send Mina his message until around 6:30pm, just about the time he was catching the train home. That's after the close of business for most offices nowadays, at least. Probably back then as well. I think it's quite possible that Jonathan either worked as hard as he could to finish everything early (regretting his choice very soon after leaving) and only told her once he was sure it was all done so he could go home, or was already going to have finished things but originally didn't want the long trip back at night. But he changed his mind at the last minute and told Mina as soon as he did, so that he could get back to her side and not have to spend a night alone away from here.

I definitely think both he and she would hesitate to be apart at night, at least at first. All the more given his night terrors, and a 'business trip' would be worse than some other reason, given the history there. If the need arises I'm sure they could/would, but if Jonathan realized he didn't have to, he'd try not to.

I'd be remiss not to also mention another theory I saw a while ago. I don't have the specific post but I believe there was speculation that Jonathan realized Mina had opened his diary before she told him, and some of his throwing himself into work was him deliberately giving her space to read it. It also might have been him trying to avoid any reaction she might have, in case that dredged up things he didn't want to face. If so, him turning back around and heading home would indicate a willingness to face the truth, or at least see how she looks at him now. I don't tend to buy this one myself because she read the diary a couple days earlier, and so the timing doesn't quite match up for that to be related to his trip.

[utilitycaster]

"There is zero attempt to extend anything but bad faith."

standing ovation for tidily describing this fandom in a nutshell tbh

Thanks, but I'm talking about a particular subset, the handwringy overwrought appeals to emotion crowd for whom the gods can never under any circumstances be redeemed, so unless you are also talking about that specific small piece of the fandom, I disagree! I actually think the fandom at large has been pretty receptive to the story as it's being told. And honestly, even when I've been in fandoms that frustrated me greatly with widespread bad faith interpretations (Midst and WBN have both had problems here)* they've come around when more obvious evidence came about. Better late than never.

I do think that an issue in this fandom, and fandoms at large, is not so much bad faith but as someone else said, motivated reasoning (though in the case of something the motivated reasoner dislikes, will become bad faith). A lot of people decide how they want to the story to go very early, often in a manner that validates their own existing real-world politics (even if they're not super applicable to the situation at hand) or personal preferences. I mean, that's in the end the source of a good number of shipping bad takes - people decide two characters must be in love and so even if they start dating other people and not talking to each other anymore, the motivated reasoning shipper decides that ACTUALLY this is all a front and the actor's blinks are in secret code and the relationship will definitely break up and the True Love was Always Endgame no matter how many times the creators say "no, it never was our intention to have those characters get together." But even then I think the silent majority of most fandoms are just. vibing and happy to be here. It's just that motivated reasoning people are loud.

And I'm not setting myself apart here; I'm loud and I'm certainly not without bias. My motivated reasoning tends to be based on foregone conclusions that I think are more likely to actually play out, I think, and I try to be self aware about it, but like, I do tend to assume stories will be good and follow some narrative lines and use the hints they drop, and that is itself an assumption because some stories are poorly made. Like, for example, with the gods, I do think that there is very little chance Matt is going to tell a story that's like "hey, Ashley, you know your first ever TTRPG character, who brought you into this friend group and whose life's purpose is to restore worship in the Everlight? Bad news, Everlight's a genocidal cunt and she's gotta die." That's obviously not my only evidence here. We've got the whole opening scene. We've got the fact that the non-Aeorian NPCs who aren't divine companions we've spent time with have been a sickly old man granted peace in death, a gnomish woman granted solace after being cruelly mocked by Aeorian forces, and the beggars who didn't have food despite wagons of supplies going to Aeor, whereas the Aeorian NPCs have been guards, slimy bureaucrats, teens badly beaten for minor crimes, and a drunk cop; the defaced and forgotten temple in a poor neighborhood that is heavily surveilled from afar because its laborers are unwelcome. Hell, as I said before it aired, the fact that the main PCs are gods and not Aeorian mages is a very deliberate and telling choice on its own. But yeah on some level, while I think Bells Hells have the space to decide to kill the gods since they are those same cast members (thought I doubt that is what they will do), I do not think Matt will tell an earlier story that says "hey, everyone at the table except Marisha? your beloved character(s) whom you played for all or most of a campaign followed a rotten-to-the-core lie."

Going off the meta of creators is a bit risky - a lot of dumb D20 discourse is based on assuming Brennan's leftism is the same as Very Online I Do Not Dream Of Labor Leftism and not his actual "the BBEG is the exploitation and undervaluing of labor and the dehumanization of others; labor itself can be deeply fulfilling, you just shouldn't be forced to rely on your capacity to do labor to the exclusion of all other things to be housed and fed" leftism and reasoning from there - but it's certainly more reliable than going off reasoning of "I as a random private individual want the gods to die for whatever the fuck reason and therefore that is the correct thing to happen and any other outcome is bad."

This is very rambly because I just got up and maybe it's that it's a nice morning and I can actually enjoy a leisurely breakfast before going into work unlike most of last week and much of the rest of this week, but for all I proudly identify as a hater, I am very much a lover of fiction and I want it to succeed and I want it to not just validate me. Like, if I hate on something it's because I wish it were better, but I don't hate on something just because it presents a different viewpoint than the one I already held. And I think you have to bring that good faith to fandom as well. If people are being idiots and assholes then yeah you don't need to keep acting like they're valid for that (I mean, they're valid in that everyone has the right to their opinions, but not in the sense that you need to grant those opinions intellectual consideration on par with thoughtful and evidenced meta and theories) but I do not actually go in assuming the fandom is going to be wrong and dumb and disappointing, and I think that's why I've found such enjoyment in it. Most people are chill! Chill people just tend not to loudly say WOW I'M SO CHILL AND THIS STORY IS GREAT.

*one bit of salt to cut the sweetness here but also still weirdly positive: the way I've dealt with that and specifically WBN is that I am trying to write one piece of meta after each episode that doesn't attack people or anything, just lays out my thoughts respectfully. Be the change you wish to see. I think a lot of people in fandom see someone disagreeing with them and go "OH YOU CAN'T LET US HAVE ANYTHING" and frankly this is the cause of almost all fandom unpleasantness I've experienced (in the sense of people seeing me say I don't like something and acting like I shut them down instead of simply didn't vibe), but it's important to remember that isn't how it works. Even if you do think the fandom has widespread bad opinions, you can change this by being thoughtful and patient and putting forth better ones. I mean there's limits, and if a fandom is genuinely hateful, get out, but if it's just surface-level takes for something that should be deeper? Be the one who shows the depth.

[lightdancer1]

One of the big reasons I think that it's always a bit of a bad thing to forget the Endless really aren't human:

Is because, and I admit here that this is from the POV of someone who does most, if not quite all, of my fanfics from a Death-centric perspective flip both because Gaiman did Dream well and like prequel Anakin there is only so much man pain and mangst I can take before wanting to reach through the screen and strangle the son of a bitch. Disliking Dream as a wangsty jackass who is the architect of almost all of his own problems does not mean being blind to how dysfunctional the Endless as a whole are.

Yet at the end of the day Dream is not your pantsfeels, he's the in-universe true architect of fear and maker of all nightmares, the guy who casually sends a woman to Hell because she told him no. He is inhuman and fickle and dangerous for any mortals that cross his path.......and as a being of story he is also bound by story-logic to pursue the path that makes the better story at the expense of multiple logical and even emotional reactions.

And in terms of this Dream is not really so different to the rest of the family. Even Destruction, when he walks off, very much remains an Endless and is still Destruction. He doesn't become human, he doesn't give up his powers and he goes into a long rambling set of justifications on that and believing simultaneously that the Endless interfere too much in human affairs and turns his group of friends into a minefield to ensure he stays hidden. Destruction, in short, is a flaming hypocrite at best and should not be taken as the reliable one true truth. None of the Seven Endless are that.

So what does all this have to do with Death? Simple. She will outlive the universe and Death of the Endless will be a title and a moment in time. Unlike any of the others she did outright completely quit and walked out and where Dream's captivity and Destruction's hippie moment didn't cause immediate unraveling of reality as opposed to the realm Death did. She is unlike the other six in ways that would and do contribute to why there's so much talking past each other.

The other six, even Destruction, all see their natures as intertwined with their functions, spheres, and all that go with them. Every hundred years for a day Death gives up all that power and becomes fully, truly mortal. She takes the step none of the others can bring themselves to do, and in spite of being the one that outlives the universe, she has died the most of all her kin and the DCU being what it is probably more than a few of those deaths were not pleasant ones. And this is without the equally logical assumption based on Overture that we only see the Earth mortal day, that there were and are such days on all worlds, in all forms of life.

And as I've brought this up before, too, Death's little apartment is not her realm. The realm is only glimpsed partially once, in her second miniseries and it looks every bit as dark as a realm called 'sunless lands' would. With the exception of Destruction all the other realms are seen in detail and not just a partial glimpse. Death has that detachment from that realm, which is as much a part of her as she of it.

In short, unlike the rest of her siblings I think Death is if anything in the comics the least truly focused on duty and much as I consider the 'none of them came for me' to be a good example of Dream's self-serving hypocrisy as he'd hate and scorn and react violently to anyone that actually did and Gaiman is repeatedly on record as noting that, I see the 'our purpose is our function' line as a bit of self-serving hypocrisy in the interest of cheering up her brother. Death couldn't and doesn't take dealing with her function or being an Endless well. She walked out, she keeps trying to turn herself mortal, she will one day continue to exist but no longer be an Endless.

Thus in the end, there is a great irony here. Dream is too rigidly bound by duty to ever truly entertain the idea that he could leave and figure out how to do so short of dying. Death is too frantically eager to discard her Endless status to figure out why anyone would, given the choice, choose to remain one even if it hurts them.

[no-gram]

VOICE DRAMA　fetish

Tsuduri: Hello, admin. Ai: Hello. Tsuduri. Tsuduri: Well, do you mind if I introduce myself? Ai: That would be very helpful.　 Tsuduri: Okay, so… as you probably know, I'm Tsuduri. I was a normal student before I came here. My hobby is…I'm embarrassed to say…writing something? Ai: Wow, that's a nice hobby to go with your name. What exactly did you write about? Tsuduri: Hmm, thanks for the compliment. Yes, I wrote all kinds of things. Mostly fantasy stories, but I was once asked to write a script for a play at a school festival. Ai: That must have been a pretty big role. Tsuduri: Well, yeah. I don't like standing out, but I don't mind helping people. I can't say no. Ai: If you're good with people, they'll take advantage of you. Tsuduri: Hmmm…I see. You're right. But that's the only way I could establish my identity. Ai: I don't think there is anyone here who would take advantage of you right now. You'd better learn to say no if you ever get out of here. That said, I think it's good to be nice. Tsuduri: If I ever get out of here, well…I'll think about it then. Thanks for the advice. You sound a little like Jun. Ai: I wonder if that's true. Tsuduri: That's right. I get the same thing a lot. Ai: Maybe it's because it's true. I don't know anything about you yet, so I don't want to make assumptions. Tsuduri: I'm glad to hear that. I don't like it when people make assumptions about me. Ai: I will judge you properly, so don't worry about that. Tsuduri: …Humph

Ai: What kind of work did you write yourself? You said it was fantasy. Tsuduri: Ha-ha-ha…let's see. I was just trying to make it sound like fantasy, but it's not really fantasy, it's more of a personal novel. Ai: A personal novel? Tsuduri: Yes. It's my mental image wrapped in an ideal. Ai: May I ask what it's about? Tsuduri: I thought if you looked me up, you'd know. But okay… it's embarrassing. There's a character based on a friend I liked, and my dear family is the main character. It's a common story, but it's about stopping the destruction of the world. I'm also a member of the heroic party. Maybe I wanted to live in a world where there are only people I like. Ai: It's a common story, but it sounds like a normal and interesting one. Tsuduri: I'm not writing it anymore, though. Ai: Why is that? Tsuduri: Because I got sick of it. I thought it was stupid. Ai: Well…I'm sorry to hear that. Tsuduri: No, I don't really care right now. If it gets hard, you should try writing something, too. It might be a way out. Ai: Well…that might be a good idea.

Ai: The previous three didn't introduce themselves properly…so I'm glad you introduced yourself in a reasonable way. Tsuduri: Hmmm, you're probably right. Tsugu is shy and seems to be trying to see how they look, and Jun is like a hedgehog. I think Kizuna is just pretending to be weird. Ai: Wow, you know everyone so well. Tsuduri: Yeah, I think I'm the one who talks to everyone the most. Ai: I'm curious about everyone else, but for now, let's talk about you. How's life here? Tsuduri: Well…it's not interesting, but I'm not in any trouble. I'm rather happy to be here.

Ai: Why is that? Usually, a strange place is scary, isn't it? Tsuduri: A strange place, you mean. For me, I feel safe here. It feels like a place I know, and I'm happy to be here. Ai: You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but… was the place you used to be uncomfortable for you? Tsuduri: Hmmm. It's not like that. I think I was blessed. I had friends, and to be honest, I think we were well-off. What do you mean, chronic nihilism? Ai: So you don't have that nihilism here? Tsuduri: That's different, I guess. It's hard to put it into words, but I was not able to do what I wanted to do. I guess I feel like I might get a chance to start over. Ai: What did you want to do? Tsuduri: …It's not a big deal. See, you told me earlier that being there for others is a good thing, but too much can be taken advantage of. So I thought I'd start over. I've been used so much and had only frivolous relationships, so…let's do what I want to do for myself! Like that? Ai: I think that's a good thing. Shall I provide you with a little reward? Tsuduri: Really? You shouldn't work too hard, administrator. Ai: Yeah.

Ai: So far I don't see you as someone who would commit any crime…you seem like a normal person. Tsuduri: I wish you would stop using the word “normal,” but yes, I do. I don't think I've done anything wrong myself. Ai: Tell me a little more about yourself. Well…I'd like to know more about your values and what you value. Tsuduri: I…I want to find the truth. Ai: ''True''? Tsuduri: I've been flustered. I don't really know what I am either…I'm reasonably well off, and I have lots of people I can talk to. But there's this feeling that somehow I'm not there. Ai: That's your sense of emptiness… Tsuduri: I guess I'm looking for a place to belong, I guess. There was a place where I thought I belonged. One day, I realized. I was the only one who cared that much, but the reality was that it was possible without me there. You know what? Maybe it's better to stop thinking about things in my head. Ai: I think I heard something similar… Tsuduri: I think it's about Kizuna. I think what she doesn't think about is, don't try to control it with reason… when you think about things in your head, you know? When you think, you remember things you don't want to remember, or you realize truths you don't want to realize. I think I would be happier if I didn't think about anything…I just couldn't do it.

Ai: If you could get out of here, what would you do? Tsuduri: I would like to fulfill my purpose. Maybe travel. To find my own special something… I was so close to finding it, but it got in the way. Ai: What would your special be? Tsuduri: It's hard to put into good words. Ai: Still, I'd like to hear it. Tsuduri: …… It is something that is unique to me, something that saves me. No one else has it. Something that no one else can take from me. Maybe it's possessiveness. But something that makes me feel like this is where I belong. That's what I want to find, that's what I want to be. Ai: Yes. I hope your dream comes true.

[bell tolling]

Tsuduri: Wow, you scared me. Ai: I think this time is over. Tsuduri: I'm sorry we didn't have a proper talk. Ai: No, I'm glad I got to know your worldview a little better. Tsuduri: I guess so. I don't mind talking about myself, so it was fun for me too. Ai: Still, I still can't believe you committed some crime… Tsuduri: … Ai: Tsuduri? Tsuduri: Could I be subject to punishment for speaking out of turn here and now? Ai: What? Tsuduri: Well, still, I think it's worth telling. Hey, Ai. Well, maybe not exactly Ai, but…maybe my crime didn't hurt or cause anyone to suffer in the normal sense of the word. At least, as far as I know, it didn't happen. Ai: Wait, wait? So you're saying you really didn't do anything? Tsuduri: Yeah. This place is strange. It's not that this place is strange, it's that this place is always unstable and strange. I should not be called here, and surely there are other characters like that. I don't know who created this place, but you yourself should be wary. Ai: Maybe you are just making it up. Tsuduri: If you think so, that's fine. But think about it. I don't care what my verdict is. I'll just do my part. I'll be looking forward to it.

[writingonjorvik]

The After Stories

So I was musing to myself about how I thought narratively the Soul Riders were most likely to be set up as more cyclical characters for what I think the next major story arc is most likely to be, what I called the Witch Wars arc in this ask response, and I ended up doing more than the Soul Riders, so I figured I'd share those thoughts.

I'll start with the Soul Riders since I've put the most thought into their arcs, also they're the most important characters right now, so it makes the most sense. I really only think one of the Soul Riders should be in the next story arc as a major character, for a number of reasons, though I doubt that'll be the case. I'm also following the assumption that, based on what we've been told in plot about severing the connection between Pandoria and Jorvik meaning the Soul Riders will lose their powers, that after Garnok is defeated, the connection Aideen created with Pandoria is cut and they don't have magic, or they only have whatever magic is left.

Easiest first, Lisa. I think Lisa is going to return to her music career and take time to recover. Personally, I think the writers need a step back from Lisa. She went from being what I had always thought was the leader of the group in SSL (and in the books) to her country redesign and her being largely the party healer. And I think there is a really good story arc to have there. Not to lean into the trope that metal and rock are symbolic of rebellious phases, but I think there's a story you can tell about the eras of Lisa's music genres being reflections of her stages of grief, the more punk genres being her rage followed by her return to country music as acceptance, a connection with her mother, and a way to maintain that connection as she processes that grief. I think a lot of folks will conflate stadium & pop country with classic country music which does also hold a lot of punk values which sets her up for a return, but I also think a step back from Lisa post all of the crazy would give her time to recover and take that symbolism and make it material. So I think she should take a more minor role in the next story arc.

Second easiest, Linda should not be a major player in the Witch Wars arc. Firstly, Linda is arguably the Soul Rider we've spent the most time with. It makes sense why, she's an easy lore dump character, but that also is a reason why in it of itself. If Linda is always our source of worldbuilding, there isn't an opportunity for other characters to provide information that feels relevant, and also it takes that opportunity away from the player character to discover in their own exploration. But the biggest reason I think is that Linda has probably had the least amount of time to pursue her own personal goals. There is absolutely a story there to tell about how major achievement is a personal scale, you don't need to achieve the world in order to be successful, but I don't think that's a story SSO will tell and it also falls a little flatter when Linda is part of the team that did save the world from Garnok. But comparably, Linda has the least amount of achievement to her name. Like, imagine being able to see the future, not to mention be unquestionably intelligent, with very clear goals of going to university and pursuing your interests and expanding your skills as a writer, saving the world and then watching all of your friends' dreams of reality come true. Visions made material. Lisa's music career, Anne's success as a dressage rider, a model, going on to be a vet, Alex being set up to take over a culturally significant organization (which I'll come back to), and you. Seeing all of it, and never getting there. And then the visions start to go away. There was already the moral question of could Linda use her powers to cheat, not that she would, but I imagine the guilt of the idea probably prevented her from pursuing entry exams because, she could. See the future to see the exam answers to study perfectly. And the fear of it prevents her from applying. And now her powers are leaving, she has the chance to be honest about it again. To provide she was more than her role as the Moon Soul Rider. She deserves to take it and come back to the story a more fulfilled person.

Alex has a good opportunity to be semi-present. She has been set up to take Elizabeth's place and with the defeat of Garnok, there's finally enough breathing room to do so. Yes, I'm sure the druids will be thrown into more ordeals with the fallout of their magic, which leads into the Witch Wars and pursuing answers there, but someone has to take up the mantle now that the chaos of Garnok is passed. And we were told that was Alex. It's a huge responsibility shift for her too, one she's going to have to learn on the job. I'm sure she'll receive help but it's not like she can go to school for how to be the leader of a magical organization. And it's not like her predecessor is there to guide her. There's also the existing tradition that she's breaking by taking Elizabeth's place as the Lightning Soul Rider becoming the Keeper's leader, where the Sun Soul Rider would normally take that place. But these are unprecedented times, the druids are losing a major part of their magic, so maybe it's time for a change. I think that sets Alex up well to be both present in the story, as the leader of the druids supporting us, the PC, going to learn more about witch magic to help the druids, but also take a step back. She has to stay in Valedale now, be a present leader and coordinator. But of course, it's Alex, she's bound to show up for big confrontations.

Which leaves Anne as the last Soul Rider. And I think she remains present. She's the Soul Rider we got the least amount of time with, but she also has the least reason to settle down. She still has a lot of grief to process from her imprisonment. And, as I said in my last post, I don't think we will kill the Generals. They might die in losing Garnok as like, their life source, but I don't think we will kill them directly. I'll get more into them later, but at the very least, I think Darko survives and Sands dies. And that right there sets Anne up perfectly. In a post Garnok world, in a world without magic, and the man chiefly responsible for her imprisonment is still out there. If anyone is going to be desperate for her magic back, it's Anne. There is still an angry part of her that cannot rest, and so when magic starts to fade and the PC pursues answers with the witches, Anne is right there. Not to mention, if we do get a new quadrant of the map, portal magic would be great for teleporting in and then reconnecting physically after main story shenanigans through North Link. But particularly after we've seen Anne proving she's not only back, but she's among some of the most powerful Sun Soul Riders in history, losing that would be devastating. Anne pursues answers about magic, and is our primary ally moving forward from the original cast.

Also in all of this, the Guardians. We don't know if in losing their Soul Rider powers the Guardians survive (I think they will), but we don't know if the Soul Riders will be able to talk to them. Like does Aideen's Gift maintain itself. Of all the Soul Riders, Anne probably has the most experience of not being able to talk to her horse, and so I see her thriving in this condition of still being able to connect with Concorde in a way none of the other Soul Riders can because of her time working with Concorde as a foal. And I see that causing a rift with the Soul Riders too as suddenly Anne is the odd man out again, and now that their grief in losing that particular connection is broken, there is some true feelings coming out about how they expect Anne to help in a way she only ever got resistance or correction for feeling with Concorde.

Quick ones off the list next:

Fripp goes to sleep. I don't know if he dies, I think he probably like. Does whatever Aideen did and fades into the magic of the world. I think he comes back, but without the connection to Pandoria, he can't maintain his consciousness without more magic. It also gets him off the table for the same reasons I think Linda should back seat, he knows too much and that takes away from the player's ability to discover.

Avalon dedicates himself to supporting Alex in taking over the leadership role. He's more confident now and speaks up for her against the rest of the council and commits himself as her primary ally and mentor within the druids.

Evergray is going back to the North with us. Without a connection to Pandoria, he is still a magic researcher. Possibly even tasked with finding another connection back to Pandoria, which leads to whatever he was doing in the North. He also has the most connection with witches there.

Rhiannon is also going back to the North. She's a Warden, she knows more about magic outside of the Circles from her proximity to the witches, and the Wardens aren't, kinda aren't, are something other than druids. Not to mention, if the connection with Pandoria cuts off magic and possibly losing Aideen's Gift, Rhiannon is the most set up to help reestablish this connection. I think it will, it's Aideen's Gift to Jorvik, it was her own magic, but there's a plot there to connection with the Wardens.

Ydris leaves. I know he's the game's Internet sexy man, but we've honestly seen very little of him since Fripp's recovery and we know his goal is to save his home. If the connection is broken, Ydris goes home to Pandoria. He can return in a later arc, with I think what would be fitting, a redesign of his original model since time is soup there, but I see very little for him to do in a witch arc unless he can't make it back home, which does have potential in him being a begrudging ally as he's made like. Semi-human from being cut off from Pandoria.

Mrs. Holdsworth and Sive are obvious, it's called the Witch Wars arc, they would be joining as major characters. Great opportunity too to introduce Marzipan from concept work from forever ago here as our young witch companion.

I think Justin should get a baby arc just to give him a better ending. He should go train with the Wild Whispers before going to train with Herman.

Speaking of Herman, he comes back briefly because his brother, Coyote, is in northwest Jorvik, so that gives us a connection into the not magic stories and exploring the cities there. Also, that sets up CHILL to come in with GED and we can have that semi-mundane arc too.

On to bad guys!

GED first, there's no reason why these guys wouldn't be back or even thriving without DC competing with them. They're low stakes bad guys, they've been basically run out of southwest Jorvik, they're very likely to be back in a new region.

I already said it, Mr. Sands dies. Look, his wife is dead, the devil he made a pact with dies, and he was human. There is no reason that he survives unless we get the redemption arcs I've discussed before happen, which are not remotely set up in the story. The man is death flagged, I don't make the rules. Turns to dust, bye.

Darko survives. I think having Darko be less present now means he can be set up to do the whole take over the vacuum when Sands is gone. Maybe he sees the writing on the wall, this is a kids' game and Garnok is going to lose. So he stops trying to go for Sands and bides his time. And when that happens, guess who steps in. A magic inventor with the remnants of resources to continue to be a problem and no competition anymore to do so. The rest of DC is goons, now he gets to horde a black market of magic to himself. DC dissolves, all the assets relocated before charges could be pressed. No charges to press on a dissolved company, the leading members of the board dead in a freak accident of their own making, there's no one there to hold responsbile. And Darko wasn't a General, he was just their inventor, conveniently missing from records, assumed dead, ready to be a main antagonist in the next arc under a new evil corporation.

I don't think all the Dark Riders die. The least likely is Erissa. She has gone through so many iterations just to finally get released, Erissa survives. Escapes capture even. Blends in, disappears, starts whispering into powerful ears. She becomes a problem. She also looks like a kid, they're not going to kill her for a slew of age rating reasons.

Because that's the thing, the Dark Riders aren't human. They're different kinds of aliens, by our best guesses. From different worlds too. Katja's ice world and Sabine's dark star are not the same places. If anyone survives the break from the pact with Garnok, it's these four.

Jessica is iffy, she is arguably the least developed. Of any of the Dark Riders to team up with Darko, I see it being Jessica. She reads as having a need for control, and suddenly cut off from her magic, either from being more injured than the others or the loss of the portals powered by Pandoria's magic, I think a reluctant deal with Darko for some scraps of magic to survive, that's where Jessica lands.

Katja leaves. She does not care about people. Of anyone in the story to become a permanent cryptid, it's Katja. She just goes back to being the Ice Witch of Icendell, if not through that portal. She's here because of her pact with Garnok, I see no reason for her to stay. She isolates herself until she can recover enough power to be a menace again.

Sabine is difficult but I see her as the character the community most wants to have a redemption arc (for various reasons), as well as the story setting up the most for a redemption arc, but I don't know if SSO would go there. Sabine has a riding club, she's made connections, however trivial to her now, on Jorvik. And something else, she's discovered a new kind of power, one she could never possess on her Dark Star home. People, control over people, working together to achieve more power. There is no civilization to control back home, it's a world of beasts, hunters, predators, there is no civilization, nothing to control, just survival. There are here. And so while I see her probably still being fairly narcissistic about it, I also see a story where Sabine recognizes that she can only have that kind of authority if she protects this new home. Very Greed from FMA kind of character twist. So she is a partial ally then, but it opens the door for more opportunities of, maybe not altruism, but more potential for good.

I think that's everyone who's a primary NPC. But let me know who I missed. Or if you think otherwise.

[stromuprisahat]

Alina and the Darkling’s interactions, pt. 14

(But also a bit of Malina drama and the Darkling’s qualities of a decent leader.)

Siege and Storm- Chapter 3

Twice a traitor, twice deserter, murderer of her fellow soldiers, staying in a comfy private cabin, fed, allowed to see her beloved fellow deserter... What a life!

I feel like there’s a step missing. Alina doesn’t know about the Sea Whip and its properties, yet she “figured out” the Darkling wants the amplifier for her. Based only on the assumption he’s insane and what’s more nuts than two amplifiers?! Good thing she’s the MC, so it works...

Remember, children: Even a person prone to jumping to conclusions can occasionally land on the correct one!

It’s madness, I told myself. He wouldn’t dare attempt it. The thought brought me little comfort. He always dared.

One of the Darkling’s best qualities. If there’s a way, he’ll try it.

Stupid? Yes. Gullible? I’m sure the Darkling would wish so.

“Someone less stubborn? Less selfish? Less hungry for the life of a mouse? Believe me,” he said, “I wish I could.”

The Darkling’s often accused of wanting Alina weak and malleable, but the text shows quite the opposite! He wants confident Queen, only more open-minded and compassionate. He wants her proud and powerful, but helpful to Ravka and Grisha alike.

A Grisha can have only one ampifier. You told me that yourself.

No, he did not:

“If we have any hope of destroying the Fold, we need the stag’s power.”

“But maybe if I had one to practice with—”

“You know it doesn’t work that way.”

“I do?”

He frowned. “Haven’t you been reading your theory?”

The Darkling lets Alina draw a conclusion, but he doesn’t say she cannot get an amplifer, because she couldn’t have the Stag otherwise. I can see three possible reasons, all probably true.

a.) There’s no need for her to know about the rest yet.

b.) Alina’s main problem is lack of training, no skill. Amplifier for practice would only increase that power she cannot control.

c.) Why waste perfectly good amplifier on someone, who’s getting another?

I don’t understand why is the Darkling explaining anything to Alina. She’s obviously not willing to cooperate, yet he’s still schooling her. Somehow not giving up on her...

I thought of the books I’d read on Grisha theory.

So, like three?

Alina sounds like a spoiled brat. I want, I want, I want! This is the main character in a world full of wars and suffering. Her tantrum reminds me of a certain evil step sister from a certain Russian fairy tale...

When we’re there, the irony of the antagonist being the one to set aside his desires to achieve what’s more beneficial for others is also something else...

Back to insulting the antagonist right in his face... because it’s the most mature reaction to disagreement and the safest way to persuade him not to kill your beloved LI.

You can’t control the Fold. It has to be destroyed.

... I know, because I’ve studied merzost for centuries like half an hour, when YOU were using it in front of me! Strategy for even longer, because that’s in every map maker’s poor, poor orphan’s curriculum!

I love when the Darkling’s rational about Alina’s usefulness.

Alina once again assumes her precious Malyen’s gonna get hurt, even though the Darkling just told her how much he’d love to do it, but can’t... They’re both treated far better than they should’ve been, yet Alina’s first thought is death and torture. Just like back in the day, when the Darkling dare to ask about her day...

Like a fool.

Alina’s self-criticism's well deserved, but for different reasons than she wants us to believe. She’s not some defenceless victim surrounded by enemies, she’s merely close to facing consequences of her own reckless actions.

fool1/fuːl/

noun: fool; plural noun: fools

1. a person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person.

And there’s nothing silly about her, or about anything she caused so far.

Aleksander’s done with her hysteria, but (un)fortunately possesses inhuman amount of self-control.

17 y/o voice: It’s a fairy tale. A children’s story. It doesn’t actually exist. I would know. I got out of our tiny village like a year ago...

“Like the stag?”

“... or my sister? Oh, my mother didn’t mention her, when unearthing family dirt? She IS a mermaid, btw...”

I just have to add this thread...

Let’s make infinitesimal a new effervescent!

Mal glanced at me. I gave an infinitesimal shake of my head.

Totally unexpected, and surely unnoticed by any Corporalki... but a moment later, the Darkling threatens to torture Alina and make Ivan heal her. Does it mean they don’t have any Healers with them? They would be less likely to survive and escape to join their general, if we use the “selfless doctor” stereotype to explain. Less used to combat, probably protecting their patients... Non-warriors are always easiest to kill.

Another proof the Darkling doesn’t enjoy cruelty or torture. He certainly knows when to use it, or threaten to do so, but never with other way at hand. Also, as a decent leader, he won’t have his people do something he’s not willing to do himself.

How doesn’t anyone find this suspicious? I’d thought Sturmhond has a reputation to uphold. ... and not one of the knight in shining armour!

I also need to link this amazing AU, where Sturmhond has the balls to act like a ruthless pirate.

The Darkling casually dismisses Sturmhond’s objection, to focus on matter at hand- namely persuading melodramatic couple to cooperate, since neither of them's willing to see the other harmed in any way. There’s no need to cease his actions, because unlike Sturmhond he’s aware they will never get to the torture.

He doesn’t waste time or breath on Sturmhond or his crew. They can be dealt with later, when Malina’s not present. The Darkling doesn’t show or tolerate disunity on the ship in front of the prisoners.

He uses theatrics to stall and unsettle Malyen. I have a suspicion that even the fact he’s touching Alina’s enough to bother the tracker.

They’re so easy! There’s not even a scratch yet, and Malyen breaks! It’s probably supposed to show how much does Alina matter to him, but heroes should struggle, not cave in as soon as someone pulls out a knife! This way they look incredibly weak and I don’t understand, why should reader root for them.

I know this is supposed to be Mal putting Alina’s well-being first, but he reads like a spineless coward.

The Darkling’s pretty generous for an insane megalomaniac, isn’t he? A week was Sturmhond’s first suggestion. Is it partly to appease him?

This is just PATHETIC.

I feel like I’m reading Rosamunde Pilcher, not ‘chosen one’ kind of fantasy. I guess I understand noble silent suffering more than constant screaming of each other’s names.

They DO love their drama....

All previous parts.

[unmeritedunearnedundeserved]

Another Joseph Prince Law Of Attraction Analogy

I like to take sentences out of Joseph Prince’s books, and allegorizing them into their principle centered equivalent.

Joseph Prince is a Christian pastor who I believe is one of the absolute greatest Law of Attraction teachers of all time and doesn’t even know it.

Here’s one of his quotes..

“My friend, knowing that you are completely forgiven destroys the power of sin in your life.”Pastor Joseph Prince, from his book Unmerited Favor

(My commentary and interpretation)

Many people in the world today feel that their manifestations are contingent on their performance and behavior.

They feel that if they do good, they’ll get good and if they do bad, they get bad.

This system is known as meritocracy and is based off of the idea that certain actions have (or ought to have) specific consequences.

And so, above, when Joseph Prince talks about being forgiven, this is really the idea of a person feeling deserving of a manifestation in their life despite the “bad” things they’ve done and despite their failure to meet certain performance standards.

Being “forgiven” allegorically speaking is an awareness that you are no longer subject to the consequences of your actions and in fact can override “consequence” through the power of your imagination.

“Sin” refers to the state of consciousness one enters when they believe in external powers and causes outside of their consciousness.

When one is in this “second cause consciousness”, they are “living in sin”, for they feel subject to the world and all its consequences.

And so the above statement that knowing you are completely forgiven destroys the power of sin in your life, is really an allegorical way of saying that, when you know that you are the First Cause and that your own thought is the one and only power, this destroys the power of the external world (sin) in your life.

In other words, when you know the Law of Attraction / Law of Assumption, you effortlessly rise above every condition and challenge.

When you know the Laws of Mind, you are subject to no man and no thing.

When you know you are the First Cause and that thought CREATES, you are IMMUNE to consequences.

You are no longer subject to that which the world is subject to. You are no longer of this world and you effortlessly express all you desire, without works or merits or reasons.

The laws of the world no longer apply to you.

You transcend what the world feels is true and effortlessly manifest your desire, even if the entire world feels you haven’t worked hard enough for it or don’t deserve it.

My friend, know that greater revelation of the Law of Attraction completely destroys the power of the external world and apparent ���external causes” in your life.

You will be delivered quickly and easily from the most complex of conditions, for you know that all is an expression of your state of consciousness.

For Example: In prison, I once asked a female guard who was driving around the perimeter if she would throw a pack of cigarettes over the fence.

I was of course joking but I noticed that her tone of voice dropped and I could literally feel that she was unhappy with my request even though she drove away.

I returned back to my unit, afraid I would get a “write up” for soliciting staff, which is a serious write up.

Deciding not to resist the situation, I became at peace with it.

I told myself, “I’m going to visualize being safe and sound and having a clean and clear record. But if it happens, it happens. Whatever. I’ll be ok.”

And I fully accepted the idea of the potential write up.

As I expected, I was called down to an office to speak with a higher ranking officer who proceeded to ask me if I had asked so and so to throw over a pack of cigarettes.

I told her, “yes sir I did. And I’ll have you know that it was a joke, but I understand the seriousness of what I asked. And if you feel that you must write me up I completely understand and will ‘take my licks’.”

The officer told me to go back to my unit and that he would let me know his decision later.

I never spoke to him again.

You see friends, there is power in indifference and making up your mind that you are whole and complete regardless of what you want not happening.

The great irony is that once you make up your mind that you’ll be completely ok even if what you want doesn’t happen, it ends up happening anyway!

So when you know that you, as the First Cause, are not subject to conditions or to consequences, then decide that you are whole no matter what happens, then knowing you are completely “forgiven” from conditions and from the consequences of your mistakes, will destroy the power of “sin” (second causes / external powers) in your life!

And I love what Esther Hicks (Abraham) says

“You don’t ever have to experience something you don’t want to”.

[hiswordsarekisses]

Since I was a little girl I always assumed that I knew what Jesus looked like because of all the pictures I had seen. I will never forget the day I wanted more specifics and I prayed for Him to show me what He looks like now, and the next thing I knew I was reading a description of Him in the first chapter of Revelation.

I had read that description of Him hundreds of times, yet, for some reason what stuck with me instead were the pretty pictures of the handsome dark-haired Jesus. The only “for sure” description we have is in the Bible, and between the Old and New Testaments, He is described with white hair and “eyes like fire.”

This bled over into who I thought His character was as well. Although I read my Bible, I held onto my own version of Him rather than what was actually on the pages - and quite clearly I might add. That day I began praying to know Who He really is. All I want to know is Who He really is.

My desire to know Him was overwhelming enough that I became brave enough to lay down all the things I had been taught to see and all the things *I thought I knew.* Revelation after revelation came flooding to my heart as I would read like I was digging for treasure. This was the most important thing He ever taught me to do in learning to know Him…. Every once in a while I still get a brand new, unmarked Bible and each day I still pray for Him to teach me.

I have Learned so much over the years that is different from what I was convinced that I knew for sure was true. The biggest thing I learned was just like His Word says - it’s when you think you know, that you really know nothing. (1 Cor 8:2)

It’s amazing how openly receiving your heart becomes when, in humility, the truth is all that matters to you.

That is the “love of the truth” that 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is speaking of, that keeps us safe from deception.

Our journey as a Christian a lot of the time, is letting go of our assumption about who God is and letting it fall away as He replaces it with Who He actually says He is in His own Word. He is not like us. His character is written out in His Word - His Word is His heart written down for us to know Him. If we base our knowledge of Him on the way we think or feel, or on what a human in a pulpit has told us - I guarantee that we do not know Him at all. Unless we abide in His Word daily, prayerfully studying the Love of our life, the world around us will color our perspective of what true love is. This is a strong warning that has been on my heart for years.

God has said; “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,”

declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” in Isaiah 55:8-9. This is why we must press on to know Him. So “let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to know him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 6:3)

“His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.” Revelation‬ ‭1:14-16

“His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.” Revelation‬ ‭19:12-13‬

“I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire;” Daniel‬ ‭7:9‬

“His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.” Revelation‬ ‭1:14-16

“His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.” Revelation‬ ‭19:12-13‬

“I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire;” Daniel‬ ‭7:9‬

[pixiedust111]

Rapunzel into the Multiverse! (Part-7)

(continued)

Rapunzel and Eugene arrived at Varian's place in Old Corona.

"Rapunzel, Eugene, good to see you!" Varian greeted them warmly.

"Varian, I have something very important to discuss. Could you help me? I really need your assistance," Rapunzel pleaded.

"Sure, what is it?" Varian frowned, noticing Rapunzel's panicked expression.

Rapunzel settled on Varian's newly bought couch and disclosed every detail, ensuring nothing was missed.

Varian and Eugene were utterly amazed by her seemingly preposterous yet intriguing story.

"So, you're telling me you slipped into this universe from an alternate one? Good gravy! Rapunzel, are you sure you've been getting enough sleep lately?" Eugene exclaimed in a single breath.

"Wait, the parallel universe theory was just an implication from Demanitus' ancient book on the secrets of the universe! We don't know if it's real. Our current technology isn't enough to prove it... it's beyond our understanding. Perhaps in a hundred or two hundred years, we'll figure it out!" Varian rushed through his words.

"Holy Demanitus! We might not make it that far!" Eugene exclaimed.

"No, but in the future, some genius scientists might figure it out," Varian replied.

"Guys, you're not helping!" Rapunzel reminded them.

"Oh, right, I was getting to that. There are only two explanations for your situation. First, you were dreaming, which seems more reasonable. Second, well... maybe your hypothesis is true; you're traversing multiple universes, which is more interesting!" Varian said, excitedly.

"Varian, it wasn't a dream. Dreams can't be that detailed. I lived an entire life there. I traveled to the dark kingdom, I had my hair back, I married Eugene..." Rapunzel explained.

"Sunshine!" Eugene called her by this nickname only when Lutz wasn't around. "I wish I could slip into that universe," Eugene expressed.

Rapunzel didn't respond, unsure of what to say.

"If anything is a dream, it's this, which clearly isn't, right?" Rapunzel asked Varian.

"I suppose? But, Rapunzel, if it truly involves a parallel universe, we can make some assumptions based on what's happened so far," Varian said thoughtfully.

"Like what?" Eugene inquired.

"For instance, if this Rapunzel is from another universe, then our universe's Rapunzel must be traversing a different universe now. Since Rapunzel isn't physically traveling; you know, it became evident...there would be two Rapunzel then, so we can discard this possibility, it seems... her mind or consciousness is slipping through other universes. Perhaps something went wrong with whatever maintains the universe's discipline, causing this chaos," Varian explained.

"I understand. I'm just experiencing alternate universes. Is this how parallel universes work, or did you make it up?" Rapunzel questioned Varian impatiently.

"Well, I told you the parallel universe thing is beyond our understanding and current knowledge... but Lord Demanitus did hint that it could be possible, the way you're experiencing it," Varian replied.

"Is there any way I can get back to my world?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Try to remember how you ended up in the other universe first. You were mentally exhausted, trying hard to sleep, then you slipped into that universe. In that universe, you were... exhausted again? Trying not to think about the present situation and slipping into this universe. If you try to exhaust yourself again, mentally or physically, it might help," Varian suggested.

"Wait, what if she ended up in another universe other than hers?" Eugene raised a question.

"Yes, we have to consider that risk. Maybe try recreating a similar situation to the last time you were in your universe? Rapunzel, you've already seen the worst, and honestly, this parallel universe thing seems too absurd. If you truly believe it, why not give it a shot?" Varian proposed.

"You're right. There's nothing else I can do. I really want to return home. Although it is my home, it just doesn't feel like it. I feel terrible for Eugene, but I have no other options. Eugene, I hope you understand?" Rapunzel looked at Eugene.

"Sure, Sunshine. You should return to your own universe. Don't worry about me; I'm just happy to know we made it to some other alternate universe. That's enough for me. And... who knows? Maybe we can still make it in this universe too!" Eugene said, excitedly.

Rapunzel chuckled. "Maybe," she replied.

"So, operation 'Get Rapunzel Back to Her Home'" Eugene declared.

To be continued...

[share-the-damn-bed]

Speaking of fights, what was their fight in S2 about? I've watched it a dozen times but I still don't get what Nancy meant when she said she waited and Jonathan responded by saying that she only waited for a month. What was she waiting for? It seemed like Jancy were pretty good friends between S1/S2 based on their interactions in 2x02 but then she also said in 2x05 that they only hang out when the world is about to end. Were they close between the seasons, were they 'school friends' who talked in class but didn't spend time together outside of school, or were they distant but friendly? Was Nancy waiting for them to spend more time together, or was she waiting for Jonathan to confess his feelings? And how does her relationship with Steve factor into all of this?

Sorry for the long ask, I just love your takes on Jancy :)

Thanks, anon!!

I think a lot of what you mention is true and related to the fight, but let me break it down below. I'm not saying this is what absolutely happened, but this is my best assumption based on what the show told us. There are many people, many other jancy shippers I respect and trust, who probably won't agree with this take and that's okay! The show left room for us to use our imagination.

The Conflict

Ultimately, the fight in the motel room in season 2 boils down to each of them being hurt by the choices the other made initially post season 1.

Nancy was waiting for Jonathan to make a move, to finish the confession he started before Steve interrupted in 1x08, and it just never came. Which frustrated and hurt her.

Jonathan's initial focus post-season one was stabilizing his family and supporting Will's recovery (which would take some time) and he felt it was unfair to put the responsibility of moving their relationship forward on him. Additionally, he thought it was shitty Nancy went back to Steve so quickly while he was dealing with some major family trauma. (there's also some evidence of this at the end of season 1, I always thought Jonathan's "Merry Christmas" line was a little disingenuous after seeing Steve on the couch with Nancy...)

Nancy felt it was unfair to ask her to wait on someone for so long (her perception) which left her feeling unloved.

Like all their fights, I see both sides and think they each have a point but clear communication about their wants and their needs would have cleared this up.

"You just disappeared"/"we only seem to hang out when the world's about to end"

So in season 2, it is pretty clear that they do hang out at school, have lunch together, have class together, know each other’s interests, and are apart of each other’s lives. 

However, I always took these lines from Nancy to mean that after going through what they did together in season 1, and after developing a deep bond, their relationship took a step back and they put some walls up. Sure they talk at school, eat lunch together on occasion, and maybe even partner up for class projects, but they keep that superficial distance. 

This is completely edging into head canon territory, but I have always thought Jonathan was fantastic at blending into the background at-will (or ‘disappearing’). Take for example his first scene in season 2, after Steve meets Nancy at he locker, he backs away and slips down the hallway unnoticed. 

I envision there are many moments in the year between seasons 1 and 2 where Jonathan is able to do this and Nancy has to be the one to seek him out. 

Why does he do this? In part, Steve. Whether it is to respect their relationship or if he’s simply annoyed that they’re back together (or maybe even some hybrid of the two) I think Steve is major reason why Jonathan distanced himself. He even says as much.

Initially, too, I think Jonathan’s focus on his family caused him to unintentionally disappear. From Nancy’s perspective, the two of them were an invested team going through the most intense shit they’d ever faced and then suddenly he’s not there and talking to her anymore. 

Taking all of this into consideration, the only hanging out at the end of the world comment makes sense. In season 2, after forming a plan and getting intentionally kidnaped by the lab, their dynamic probably felt much more like their dynamic in season 1. She probably felt closer again to him and more open and honest than she had felt in a long time. Not to mention, maybe this whole incident is the first time they’ve hung out outside of school since the events of season 1?

In Conclusion

Nancy wanted Jonathan to make a move and Jonathan felt that was unfair since he was a little preoccupied with his healing family. Jonathan and Nancy were friends at school but their relationship was a little more superficial than during the fall of 1983 and Jonathan specifically was more distant initially due to his family but then because of Steve which made Nancy feel like he had ‘disappeared.’ When they do team up in season 2, this is probably the first time they’ve hung out outside of school since the events of season 1 and is probably the closest emotionally they’ve been since that time (leading to the whole ‘we only seem to hang out when the world is about to end’ thing). 

I hope this helps and I hope others envision it the same way!!

[aneliasthetic]

Crowman: an essay on god knows what.

While packing for college, knowing that there was a possibility of me never having the opportunity to come back again, I prioritised only the most essential of my belongings. The last gift from my ageing grandparents. Every letter a loved one has written to me. A signed poetry book from my only maternal figure confessing, “I love you and I believe in you.”

And then there was Crowman.

Crowman is a 7 inch tall clay statue of a humanoid crow, draped in rust green and bowing with crossed feather-fingers behind his back. He was handmade by one of the best friends I have ever had in my life, H.

H is a force of nature never to be trifled with. She is most definitely the strongest person I know, and though not without flinching, she was the first person in my life to know me as I am. I loved H in ways that transcended platonic love or romance— to me, she was nothing short of blood. And in many ways, H saved me from myself throughout the 5 years that I had the absolute fortune of knowing her.

H is no longer in my life. This is my fault. And H’s. And others’. It depends on the story you ask for. It depends on the story you need.

H had cut me out of her life 6 months before I even touched a packing list. And yet here I was, wrapping her beloved child in the softest sheets I could find before carefully tucking him away into the side of my suitcase— before I had even sorted half of my luggage clothes. I remember turning him over and over in my hands, running my skin across the faux-smooth feel of the very surfaces H must have poured hours into moulding.

I remember feeling numb. Numb but with a distant instinct pleading, “Keep him. Keep him safe. Please.”

When I moved into my dorm, one of the first things I did was knock Crowman over and break his beak off. All I did in response was stare. It was kind of funny. The unfortunate part of attending a small high school was that even once you make the decision to cut someone out of your life entirely, you still have to see them 8 hours a day, 5 days a week— even more if you’re in your senior year and everyone is growing anxiously nostalgic for get-togethers and graduation events. So, before H left my life entirely, only my ability to speak to her did.

A month passed before I finally found an adhesive that would return Crowman’s beak to him.

It was the underside of a bandaid. A big bandage along the base of his beak.

But I suppose that’s also how we looked from afar. The raggedy crew of two, left behind by our older friends, clinging to what we could and destroying each other in the process.

H. The person who saved me more times than I can count, in more ways that I can fathom. H. The person who broke me so completely, who showed me depths of grief I wasn’t mature enough to comprehend.

A false dichotomy is the wrongful assumption that there are only two sides to one whole. In most cases, there exists a multiplicity. In some cases, there only exists the whole: paradoxical yet complete in itself. This is one of them. This is a story where every claim is true, all justification is wrong, and no crime is righted. This is the story I have been turning over and over in my hands, trying desperately to comprehend how she smoothed its creases.

A story begs to be told, and I have told it in a hundred ways. As the knight. As the princess. As the dragon. And as the timeless land itself. I have driven myself to the brink of collapse, to the point of near complete hospitalisation in my ravenous desire for some almighty truth. For a shred of understanding for why.

Why did it turn out this way?

Why did she do what she did?

Why did I commit the crimes brought against me?

But most importantly: Why did I have to lose her?

As children, we’re told stories to draw a mist over the brutality of realness— to help fragile minds begin to comprehend a senseless world. As adults, we unlearn these stories through lessons unsweetened. The story I have been trying to unlearn for far too long is the one of a hero and a dragon.

It’s a uniquely raw experience to face your shadow and find none other than an old dog. As of right now, my greatest flaws and weaknesses are also the very things that have kept me alive, kicking and screaming, for so long.

I think that when she left, my body reacted to what it perceived as a mortal threat in the only way familiar to us: telling a good story. And thus, the story began. Of me as the hero and her as the dragon.

It wasn’t long before the pages began to peel— to twist but not yet tear. I found myself strung between two roles, two equally compelling stories, two equally damning convictions. Was I the villain or the vilified?

The answer is a resounding yes. Yes, you are.

Here’s where the confession comes in: I am an immoral being consistently seeking judgement. I am a radical existentialist who still needs to justify his own existence. And I am not often doing a great job at it.

Guilt is my poison of choice. For every many times I have genuinely contemplated cutting my time short, it has been under the influence of guilt. It has been a coward’s solution to a seemingly overwhelming burden: to do good in the face of having been bad.

Because it’s easy to be a bad person who occasionally does good. Or at least, easier than it is to be a good person who occasionally does bad. One is a miracle, the other is a crime. So, I take the easy route and call myself a bad person because it gives me the best view of an emergency exit.

Is this too simplistic an explanation of how my (extremely unreliable) mind works? Does it negate to analyse all the ways in which my mental conditions influence my personhood and actions? Perhaps, but I am not here for comprehension. I am not even here for a stage. I think today, maybe just today, I’m here for my beak.

And this is what I need to say:

My name is Elias Lu. I am 18 years old, 5’8 with the receipts to prove it, and I am an audible, visible, exploding-like-teenagers-with-illegal-fireworks shitshow. I have a track record for loving most of all the very people who have hurt me or been hurt as a result. I am not a good person, nor will I ever be, but that does not make it any less my dream. On occasion, I am a bad person, and during these occasions, the best I can do is take responsibility for my actions, and I often fail to do even that.

But I have had the good fortune of being loved. I have had the fortune of both knowing and being known. And from this, I can say that the effort is worth making. Everything I do to find what people call “the good life” is because the ones in my life have shown a thousand times over that they are worth doing good by. And I think that’s the truest compass I can have: a drive based in the unconditional, timeless, boundless love I hold and have held with others.

My life is worth living because of the people in it. Even if I am directionless at the moment. Even if my body is trying to convince me otherwise. Even if those people are no longer by my side.

This is what Crowman is to me. The bow of a trickster; the earnestness of a criminal. A creature who has paid for his mouth; a promise beyond voice and decay. In other words, he is a reminder that my work here is not yet done, that even a liar can attempt valliance.

I am going to keep stumbling even as I map this path. But I am writing this now to remind myself of all the reasons why I keep going. Thank you for reading my work. Thank you for being a part of my life. You are part of all those reasons. I love you. Thank you for loving me. Don’t go where I can’t follow. And if you do, please consider sending a letter.

[orionsangel86]

Okay so I have a bit of a random question that you might or might not know the answer to. For context, I’m gonna be doing a working holiday in Ireland because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity due to having to be currently enrolled in college or at least within the first year post graduation. Well I’ve been told by multiple people, who have no relationship with each other, that it’s much better for me to say that I’m from Texas than say I’m an American. While both are true, they’ve told me that people have been much more friendly towards them when they say that they’re from Texas and just leave it at that. Do you by any chance know why that is? I’ve tried to look it up, but all I’ve found was the impression y’all get from us are basically guns, big, and BBQ. To me those don’t seem like things that correlate, which has made me more confused.

All good if you don’t know or if it’s not even something you’ve personally experienced or heard of people experiencing. I’m just curious more than anything

Hey! Well I'm a Brit, London based, very English, so I can't speak for the Irish at all (and wouldn't dare even if I thought we might share an opinion on the matter!) but I've never heard of this.

Honestly though? Its just my opinion but I would have thought it would be the other way around? If the people telling you that are from Texas, I'd say thats a bit biased as I know Texans are known for being very proudly, well, Texan.

Most people I know from this side of the pond, whether British or European, aren't gonna judge individual Americans just on the fact that they are American. Unless you are a walking stereotype and rather obnoxious about it I wouldn't be too concerned. We are aware that America is a huuuuge place with a LOT of different types of people living there.

But Texas does have a reputation. The Texas stereotype is more ingrained that the general American imo. Loud, large, right leaning, guns, cowboys, etc...

Texas is one of the more recognisable states to most people over here along with New York and California (and Florida although I think most Brits (again, I cant speak for the Irish) just associate Florida with beaches and Disney World). So whilst I doubt your friends assumptions that people here are friendlier to Texans, its likely coming from a place of recognition. The reaction upon meeting a Texan might be "oooh Texas! Cowboys!" And the Texan in question would view that recognition as extra friendly when its really just "i am aware of you" whereas if you said you were from say Missouri you'll be met with a blank face.

A Californian might feel the same reaction applies to them, that by saying theyre from California, they are likely to get a stronger reaction than saying they are just from America simply because the European person is more aware of California and can make assumptions based on their general knowledge of California.

So thats my best guess. If you want people to associate you with cowboys, horses, guns, bbqs, etc, then by all means proudly state you are from Texas - you just might need to elaborate to then fight a general stereotype.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying everyone will stereotype you, but these are generalisations. I'm actually from Essex, and I often don't admit to that because Essex in the UK has a very strong stereotype which was only further encouraged by that ghastly reality TV show about it. If I say I'm from London, people aren't gonna make too many assumptions. Saying I'm from Essex I immediately get the smirk and the knowing look and the "oh youre an Essex girl are you?" And I HATE it. But some women from Essex might get a kick out of that I suppose.

So what I'm actually saying here is it all depends on how you want to be viewed. Its not about friendliness. People arent friendlier to Texans than other states. Its about whether or not you wanna be associated with peoples general stereotypes of Texas and whether you view those associations as positive or negative.