#and instead focus on finding good reference material to work with

[lylahammar]

Artistic "advice" that follows this format of "do this ✅ don't do this ❌" has ALWAYS been a massive pet peeve of mine, and this is a huge one of many reasons. There is no "right" way to do art, I don't care what your personal feelings are about it. You can have stylistic preferences, but that's subjective personal taste, there are no rules. A lot of the time, this kind of advice comes off very counterintuitive and anti-stylization.

But in the case of what OP's talking about, it's an even larger issue. The spectrum of body types on the planet is MASSIVE and more diverse than any single artist can imagine. Literally any physical human trait that you can claim is "incorrect" in art is present in someone, often a lot of people, in the world. Stop telling people they're wrong for drawing in a certain way. It's entirely unhelpful. It's far more productive to give advice on how to find reference material and use it to help you represent specific traits that you have in mind.

you know those posts that are like

INCORRECT way to draw a fat body ❌

CORRECT way to draw a fat body ✅

I saw someone use an example of a body that had a round potbelly and slimmer limbs for the INCORRECT version, saying it looked bloated or pregnant… when it literally looked exactly like my body.

yes it’s important to know the dynamics of body fat on characters, how it hangs, how it folds, etc. because a lot of people draw fat characters as Skinny Lite™️ and that’s a representation issue.

but as long as a character is big and round?? that’s a fat person! fat people look like that too!

[heartlilith]

Sun in the Houses - Solar Return Chart

A Solar Return Chart "refers to the time when the Sun returns to the exact position it was in at the time of your birth in your natal chart. Since the Sun takes approximately 12 months to complete its cycle. Hence, a Solar Return happens every year. And, since this journey begins at the time of your birth, the return usually happens a day or two before or after your birthday" (via)

I like to think of an SR Chart as a yearly Natal Chart. You can see where the planets of your SR Chart fall into your Natal Chart or you can view your SR Chart by itself. I think both are important to acknowledge because you might relate to one chart more than the other or you might relate to both charts. For example; if you have Sun in the 10th house of your SR Chart but it falls into your 2nd house of your Natal Chart, look at both houses below (Sun in the 10th and Sun in the 2nd).

It's also important to remember that your sun sign will be the same every year, so if you're a Leo Sun in your Natal Chart, you'll be a Leo Sun every year in your SR Chart. Your Sun Sign might stay the same but the house it falls in and the aspects it makes will be different.

The Sun in your SR Chart represents where your focus is for the next 12 months, where you'll be concentrating the most. It also represents key themes that show up for you throughout the year. It's crucial to look at how your Sun is aspected to get a better glimpse of how you this placement will affect you.

Calculate your Solar Return Chart

Sun in the Houses

1h: Sun in the 1st house of your Solar Return Chart means your focus will primarily be on yourself, your physical appearance, and how you approach life. Since your natal sun sign would be your solar return rising, it could make for a more transformative and prosperous year. This year, you might decide to reinvent yourself physcially in some way; you may start working out or you could get tattoos. You could dye your hair or revamp your wardrobe; something that puts an emphasis on your individuality and that asserts your identity through physical appearance. It could also mean that your personality is more noticeable in some way and the people around you take notice. Since your rising sign affects the way you approach the world, it could also mean that you assert confidence in various aspects of life. Meaning, wherever you go you go with confidence; whether that be the workplace, school, or at home; you're generally more confident in all aspects of life (of course this also depends on the signs occupying corresponding houses). You might find that you get more attention this year (good or bad depending on aspects) or feel more comfortable with getting attention. You may go through something that changes your approach to life and the world around you. Remember you don't have to have intent, you could find that these things happen on their own, naturally.

Advice: Focus on how you want to appear to the world this year, put yourself and your needs first, and don't be afraid to express yourself - it's a great time to do so. People will pay more attention to you, so try to stay out of drama and scandals. Instead; aim to inspire the people around you.

2h: Sun in the 2nd house of your Solar Return Chart puts focus on your finances, your self-esteem, and your material possessions. Depending on how the Sun is aspected, it could mean that you're motivated to find other sources of income in order to bring more stability into your life. Check where the lord of your 2nd house is in your SR Chart (if 2nd house is in Taurus - check where Venus is in the houses, if it's in Gemini, check where Mercury falls in your houses). This can indicate how you can create another source of income. If it's in the 3rd house; writing and communicating can help you make more money, like blogging or becoming a free lance writer. If it's in the 5th house, creating and selling a product could help or even babysitting. You could also be focusing on saving money and budgeting. Your self esteem and values could change depending on how it's aspected. For example: Sun opposite Uranus could indicate that your self esteem fluctuates and is unstable for this year, along with your finances. Sun sextile/trine Jupiter could indicate that this year will bring wealth and you'll be secure within yourself. Sun in the 2nd house could make you focus more on material possessions; you could buy more stuff (purses, make up, clothes, jewelry) in order to boost your self esteem. You might stand up for yourself more when you notice people disrespecting you or you might need to change your personality in some way; if people are taking advantage of you, you might notice you need to act more assertive, for example.

Advice: Save your money incase unexpected expenses come up, take time out for yourself to practice self care, occasionally buy yourself a gift, learn how to invest

3h: Sun in the 3rd house of your Solar Return Chart puts focus on communication, siblings, short distance travel and transportation. This could manifest as keeping a journal this year to write down your thoughts and experiences. You may notice you're more curious this year and find ways to satisfy your curiosity; through reading, online research, and short distance travel. You may travel to new places like a new restaurant, a new beach, a new place that's close to where you are now. You're more inclined to share your thoughts and opinions with confidence and engage in meaningful conversations with others. You could make friends with people through similar interests; joining a book club and meeting a new friend or finding a new library to go to and meeting someone there. You will be full of mental energy that could manifest as anxiety depending on how your Sun is aspected. The relationships with your siblings might change for better or for worse or you might notice you spend more time with them. You might want to get involved in your community by volunteering, substitute teaching, reading to the elderly. You could start a successful blog that shares information on what you're interested in (astrology, fashion, psychology).

Advice: Getting into therapy would be very beneficial now, try new things and hobbies, join interesting clubs and try things you normally wouldn't.

4h: Having your Sun in the 4th house of your Solar Return Chart can bring family, your mother, and your home environment into focus. You might start thinking about starting a family, or someone in your family could become pregnant. You might visit your family a lot more this year and spend more time with them or your parents might visit your home a lot more. You'll want to focus on making your home more "homey" and decorating it in a way that aligns with who you are. You may become closer with your mother and spend more time with her. If harshly aspected, you may notice your mother (4h) and your father (Sun) may divorce or fight a lot more this year (this depends on other placements too). You may find that you'd rather be at home than go out, you'll be more introverted and prioritize comfort. You may have to stay home against your will due to duties related to children or maybe you have to stay home to take care of your mother or parents. Depending on Sun aspects, this could mean harmonious relationships with your family or it could mean more arguments. You might order a 23 and Me test to find out more about your ancestry and nationality.

Advice: Spend more time trying to get your family together, create happy memories with them and take pictures so you can look back on it. Focus on your home space and implement things that make it more comfortable. Invite people over for events or maybe throw a house warming party.

5h: Sun in the 5th house means focusing on hobbies, creativity, having fun, your inner child and children in general this year. This could mean less work and more play, whether that happens naturally or intentionally. You might take off work to go on vacation or even take work off to do something fun with your kids. You might pick up an old hobby or a new hobby that takes up your free time. Going out, being with friends, going to parties, throwing parties, or doing whatever your definition of fun is will be highlighted this year. You may notice that you're around more children this year which could result in connecting with your own inner child. For example, blowing bubbles with kids or pushing them on a swing could remind you of your own happy childhood memories. Connecting with your inner child this year is crucial; eating your favorite childhood meal, looking through old photos, or engaging in conversations with kids will be really beneficial. Self expression through hobbies, art, or writing can interest you this year. Since Sun in home in the 5th house, this almost always gaurantees an overall comfortable year (if Sun is badly aspected, this placement could make the aspects less intense). You could be more extroverted, creative, and carefree this year. You may find that you go on more dates or spend time on dating apps.

Advice: Focus on pleasure. What makes you happy? Your inner child happy? Try expressing yourself through artistic endeavors. Don't take life so seriously this year.

6h: Sun in the 6th house in the Solar Return Chart can indicate increased focus on physical health and wellness, daily routines, and your relationship to your peers/coworkers. This year you could end up making a dietary change; becoming a vegetarian or simply cutting out sugar. You could focus on what makes you feel good physically; working out and eating healthy. Depending on how the Sun is aspected, this could help you to "glow up" this year. You may try out yoga, pilates, or another workout class that interests you. Your daily routines will help you become more confident. We already talked about working out and eating healthy; this could also mean starting a skincare routine, a bedtime routine, or simply jotting down tasks in your planner. You may seek out alternative healing methods as well, again check aspects. This could include Traditional Chinese Medicine (acupuncture, medicinal herbs) or reiki and meditation in order to benefit your health. Relationships with peers/coworkers will be in focus as well, whether positively or negatively is up to the whole chart itself. Your energy levels can also be affected by the Sun and its' aspects.

Advice: Don't gossip in the workplace, adopt a pet, focus on how to spend your time more efficiently, start implementing positive habits in your daily routines.

7h: Sun in the 7th house in the Solar Return Chart can indicate focusing on love relationships, one on one friendships, and open enemies. You will want to get along with people in your life, you'll strive to have harmony and balance in these relationships. If you don't have a romantic partner, this might be the year that you meet someone special. Write down what qualities you want in a partner and see how they correspond with your natal 7th house. Manifesting and actively seeking a partner could help but it might just happen without your intention! If you have a romantic partner already, the Sun here makes you buckle down and really work on making the relationship flourish, or even taking it to the next level. This could be as big as getting engaged or married, or it could mean moving in together. It could be as little as meeting their parents or having them meet yours. All of this depends on the rest of the chart and if you look at house placements and aspects you can get a better sense of how you'll grow closer. The same goes for one on one connections in terms of friendships. You might grow closer to a friend or friends over the year. The 7th house also rules open enemies. Depending on aspects of the Sun this can be more or less prominent. Sun square Mars, for example, may mean that men with Aries or Scorpio-like qualities (doesn't have to be their Sun sign but can be) can brush you the wrong way or these people could even start arguments with you.

Advice: Focus on the positives and express to your lover or friend what you appreciate about them. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Stick up for yourself in a way that creates peace or better yet, kill the haters with kindness. Ask yourself why certain traits and aspects of other people bother you.

8h: Sun in the 8th house puts focus on personal and financial transformations, self discovery, intimacy, and shared resources. I won't lie, the 8th house can be a tough bid. All houses have their good and bad qualities but the 8th house is all about change which is uncomfortable for most. The good part about 8th house Sun is when you look back on your Solar Return a year from now, you'll be changed in a significant way. It can be hard but it will make you stronger, wiser, and more aligned with your higher self. You will face obstacles this year that will take you out of your comfort zone whether that's intentional or not. You may move out of your parents house and live across the country. You might go to therapy and realize why you act the way you do. You might be moving into your dorm in college this year. Think radical change. You might break up with your partner, move out, quit your job and move back home. It's hard to say exactly what will happen without seeing the rest of the chart because the 8th house rules "Deep personal transformation - " and that's it. Say your 8th house lord is in the 10th house, you'll experience a transformation related to your reputation or career, you may get fired or promoted in a significant way. Your reputation could take a blow or you could become famous. It's hard to tell, again, without looking at the whole chart.

Advice: Take things in stride, try to be your best self, trust yourself and the universe. Be careful with financial matters and contracts. Dive into taboos.

9h: Sun in the 9th house puts learning, long distance travel, and higher education into focus. You will want to expand your horizons in some way whether that be going to college, traveling and learning about different cultures, exploring spiritual practices, or seeking out profound experiences that lead to personal growth. Your year might consist of traveling abroad somewhere and learning about the place's culture. You could appreciate this culture and their values and implement it into your own life. You might go to college or take a course online that interests you in a way that others courses didn't. This course might alter your personality in some way. Say the course is about world religion, after learning about it you might explore it on your own time, for example; Buddhism (technically a philosophy but I digress...), you might take interest in their practice of meditation. You start meditating and it completely changes the way you view life, this could lead to a whole new belief system. You might take up a yoga class and after a couple months you might join your yoga class on a retreat somewhere; this could impact you tremendously and might change your course of life. After the retreat, you might become a yogi or start practicing something intense like Kundalini yoga. The possibilities with this house are endless, but they all start with being curious and wanting to learn something new. Take the first step by exploring other interests, you never know how they will affect your life!

Advice: Try something new this year, be open to new opportunities, quiet your inner critic and be spontaneous, don't let anxiety and insecurity get in your way.

10h: Sun in the 10th house of your Solar Return Chart could bring your career, reputation, and father (or dominant parent) into focus. This could indicate a need to be promoted or recognized by authority in terms of your career. You could get a raise or "climb the corporate ladder", you could find your true passion and open up a business. You might find that your relationship with your father or father figure impacts your personality in some way. You might grow closer or grow farther apart, you might recognize how the relationship affects you in your daily life. Sun in this house brings confidence into the workplace and depending on the aspects, coworkers could be jealous or threatened by that or you might get along well with them and gain popularity. Your reputation could be affected this year either negatively or positively; the Sun here on its own indicates that it will be affected positively but if squares or oppositions are present, it could go the other way. For instance, if Uranus squares your 10th house (aka MC/Midheaven), you might gain a reputation for being irresponsible or unreliable. If you have Venus sextile your MC, you may gain a reputation of being lovable and sociable and your relationship with your boss will be positive.

Advice: Be confident in the workplace and share your ideas. Don't be afraid to stand out. Try your best to create harmonious relationships with coworkers and if you're being treated poorly, stand up for yourself in a mature way. Ask for that promotion or raise.

11h: Sun in the 11th house of the Solar Return Chart puts friendships, community, and social media into your focus for the year. You will have the desire to expand your social circle or it can happen on it's own! You will want to be surrounded by like minded people that share your interests and ideas. The sign that occupies this house in your SR and Natal Chart can give you greater insight. If you have Scorpio in the 11th house of your Natal Chart, the friends you gain might hold some sort of power, they might transform you in some way (and this is true throughout your whole life). The ruler of the 11th house in your Solar Return Chart, say for example; Taurus, would fall into your Natal 5th house. Meaning the friends you make could have Scorpio/Taurus/Leo and even Aquarius placements (fixed signs). You could meet them through your children (the parents of your child's friend or you could connect with someone at a daycare while picking up your kids). You could meet these friends at a Paint n' Sip. You could meet a friend while going on a double date (think 5th house themes). Either way, they'll most likely have fixed sign energy and have planets falling in your natal 2nd, 5th, and 8th, and 11th house. Other than that, you may focus on getting more involved in your community; this could be volunteering or donating clothes to your local goodwill. You could become famous on social media! Or you could gain followers and attract more likes and comments on your posts.

Advice: Put yourself out there and join groups that spike your interest in order to connect with like-minded people. Get involved in your community or donate to a cause that you believe in. Raise money for the less fortunate or buy a meal for the homeless, you could start a chain reaction.

12h: Sun in the 12th house of your Solar Return Chart puts solitude, reflection, hidden enemies, and endings into focus for the year. This indicates that you'll be more introverted than ever, even if your Sun sign is the most extroverted of all the zodiac signs. You'll prefer to be alone which could sometimes lead to a feeling of loneliness. Sun in the 12th house could mean that you're your own worst enemy. Let go of limiting beliefs or insecurities; it's a good time to release problems relating to your ego since the 12th house also rules endings. The Sun shines a bright light on the house of the unknown, this could lead to finding out secrets or uncovering truths that could hurt your self esteem. If you're spiritual, you could connect more to your beliefs in some way (starting to pray more, going to church on Sundays, or reading books on Chakras and Crystal Healing, for example). If badly aspected, you could be hospitalized or in need of rehabilitation of some sort. Don't use drugs, don't gamble, don't take unnecessary risks. Focus on your mental health and reflect on who you are and what you'd like to change. The Sun in the 12th house could also signify an "ego death" which could put you through something significant that could change every aspect of who you are, since the Sun is the self. This could be as serious as a near fatal car accident or a near death experience of some sort (especially if Pluto/Mars are prominent). It could be as simple as helping others out and realizing that the collective is more important than the self and ego. Be patient with yourself this year and trust your intuition. Please, trust your intuition.

Advice: Don't take unnecessary risks, trust your gut, develop your psychic powers, start a dream journal, see a therapist. Ask for help when you need help, help someone in need, put yourself in other peoples' shoes. Go on a retreat and work on your relationship with yourself.

[crazymuffin1]

this post is for people who wonder what the hell is going on with the venom movies/fandom because they havent watched it

if youre seeing it on your dash and dont want to scroll very long press J. if youre on mobile. cope.

venom the last dance is the third movie in the venom series and people who haven't watched the movies are probably wondering whats going on. whoever you're following has probably posted or reblogged some sort of eddie brock x venom thing. yes of course. mlm ships are popular and theyre the main characters. of course theyre gonna get shipped. just like stucky or other hot main male characters. nothing really special about these guys. right?

wrong! because as opposed to the other ones being non-canon ships where we just look at everything and say "thats gay" or look at it through shipping tinted glasses, symbrock is a bit special.

to start off with! the source material! the comics! im not gonna make this part long, just a bunch of images with short descriptions and you can interpret it however you want (click for full image)

panels ofter referred to as "the ones where they have sex"

no comment

even spider-man knows

aaaaaand the comic writers/artists also know

theres more (like how they have a kid and eddie experienced morning sickness...) but this is about the movie! not the comics!

first movie moments. im skipping smaller moments and i'll try to not write out the whole plot.

eddie and venom go through a whole car chase scene on a motorbike, and the moment eddie calls him cool, they get his by a car. often interpreted as venom losing focus from the praise

-omg why would that lead to venom losing focus?? because venom, on its planet, is a loser. bottom of the barrel. an outcast. and someone called it cool. venom sees that eddie is also a bit of a loser on his planet. theyre two losers together. Eddie asks why he doesnt just kill him and hop to another host, but venom says that hes a good match (other bodies reject the symbiote, and die from organ failure/eaten from the inside) and venom is "starting to like him" venom also gets a bit stuck on the moment that eddie says we instead of i. its both of them. together.

later eddie finds out his organs were failing (venom was starving and was working on fixing it) and when they get seperated the way he acts is kind of framed like a bad breakup. its not "im free from this parasite! yippie!" its "i trusted you and you hurt me. we're done" sort of breakup. venom tries to say he was trying to fix it but eddie ignores it (not the exact words but if you look at it you'll get it)

eddie gets taken away by the bad guys and venom hops on eddies ex and they reunite. and its not just reunite.

its this

thumbnail shows human face but it does not start off with that.

fun fact! theres a sort of deleted scene where eddie asks "who was i kissing just then?" and she says "mostly me" and then we hear venoms voice saying "well actually it was mostly me!" ALSO at the end of the movie, she says it was venoms idea. this was venom and eddie making out. not eddie and his ex. they do not get back together. she has a new boyfriend and they've moved in together so its serious.

venoms original purpose as to why the symbiotes are on earth was as a scouting party for an invasion force. venom changes his mind on being on the invasion part. eddie asks what REALLY made him change his mind "you did eddie."

also after the movie was in theaters they made an additional romcom trailer to promo the dvd/blueray release. the movie. framed as a romcom. im not kidding. on sonys official youtube. for both movies.

speaking of both movies, the second one has them breaking up! full on divorce after fighting and arguing!! very sad. and then venom goes to a rave (october, there are costumes, hes fully transformed) and says "i am out! of the eddie closet!" HES COMING OUT OF THE CLOSET. one person at the rave has a mask on that says "kiss me" and venom says "sorry no, not my type" THEN WHAT IS YOUR TYPE HUH??? MEN?? SWEATY LOSER GUYS??? his hosts keep failing because theyre not as compatible as eddie. and after having fun venom is sad and wishes eddie could've seen him. they of course, get back together* after some apologizes and because they need to fight a serial killer who also has a symbiote (carnage) because previously, they went to interview him, he insulted eddie, venom got mad on eddies behalf and grabbed him, resulting in getting bit, and that spawned a new symbiote from the blood. also the serial killer, (cletus kassidy) went to bust out his girlfriend who upon seeing his tentacles breaking her glass cage, called it hot.

*when they get reunited (anne helps out again) theres no kiss this time, and annes fiancee, after seeing them fight, says "those two need some serious couples counseling"

after a big climactic fight and mutual reassuring that theyre a perfect match for one another, they flee to some random place in mexico where they sort of have a love confession. theres an extended deleted version of it but i think many of us think they cut it down to save it for the third movie. also they get transported to the mcu in the post-credit and then re-appear in the post-credit of spider-man where theyre just sitting at a bar asking the bartender about the blip and thanos. venom decides to go skinny dip but they get transported back to their universe. net zero gain.

THE THIRD MOVIE

hasnt come out yet. but the promotional things. the trailer. my god the tiktoks and twitter clips?? WHY IS THE TIKTOK VIDEO CAPTION VENOM X EDDIE 4EVER??? HUH???? WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME!?!?! IF I GET QUEERBAITED IM GONNA EXPLODE WHY IS ONE OF THEM FRAMED LIKE A COUPLES COUNSELING HELP GUIDE.

i cant post this one on tumblr but this tiktok is a slideshow, one image of venom and eddie from each movie, and the background song is "I've loved you three summer Lover - Taylor swift" with the caption "it's a love love relationship"

WE JUST WANT THEM TO KISS AGAIN AND HAVE A MUTUAL, EXPLICIT, LOVE CONFESSION. AND HAVE 4 HOURS TENTACLESEX SCENE. (not necessarily in that order)

and the first trailer that came out for venom3 has the line"eddie, my home [long pause] has found us" like girrrrrllll for a full 3 seconds i thought he was saying that eddie is his home.

[fictionfixations]

honestly so happy that its easier to grind in hsr then genshin cause im actually able to properly build my characters instead of whatever mess i had in that game (i got the right artifacts but trying to get materials for anything was a bit of a pain to me)

also that the resin (i dont know what its called in this game im using genshin terms) can like. overflow into this other thing??? is. so helpful. (i stopped playing at one point so i just came back to both being full. and then when i realized what it actually did it was a godsend because it made it so much easier to fully commit to grinding. i know in genshin you can make the resin this little thing? condensed?? but thats a thing you have to do yourself i think)

all im missing is leveling up the lightcones and traces

and im only missing the traces because i already used up weekly bosses. THATS IT.

robin and ratio have the same boss material so all i have to do then is get the other resources which isnt actually that hard (ill only have an issue if i cant material synthesis or exchange or whatever since i need to do it for the robin stuff that you get from enemies that can ambush you, i dont know what you refer to them as, but cause i havent unlocked penacony yet lol)

and the only lightcones that might give me issue is because highlighted is penacony material stuff

(yes i put final victor on ratio LMFAO)

so YEAHH i feel like im doing pretty good in that department. also ive caught up to penaconys story i just havent started in-game because i wanted to see where it all leads up to and then go back to see all the foreshadowing and get a better understanding of what happened since it also confused me, so im waiting for a time i can just sit there for countless hours and focus. i even switched to eng vas so i dont end up misreading something

(anyway i only got to trying to max out my characters as much as i can until i can level them higher because before i got stuck on so many quests that required a fight 😭, yanqing, argenti, i hate battling you oh my god)

actually on that topic everyones relics arent fully maxed out.

ive only been leveling this cause 5 star dan heng is my main damage dealer

and the healer because im fucked without them (its natasha, but im open to changing it if i find a better healer or shield 🙏)

on that topic:

i returned to honkai star rail because aventurine. i focused on the story because aventurine. (got spoiled his story, realized 'what the fuck hes cool i like him' and watched someone go through the story) i came back in time for his banner but you know what? i had like zero wishing stuff because id stopped playing so i missed out unfortunately

i have friends who have aventurine as like one of the support characteres thingy tho? like the the where you can get support from other peoples characters

so thats been fun. but also auto is kind of bad with aventurine. or maybe because it thinks 'oh theres already a shield, so i wont e' which is pain. on the other hand actually playing instead of having it on auto is fun with aventurine. i like planning around it and thinking of who to have use their skills while keeping in mind when i should have him refresh his shield. i cant explain to you how it hurts seeing hp missing with a shield around it because i cant do anything about it (im the type of person who likes to keep my characters hp full ngl)

probably not the best decision to want shield over a healer but. i can make it work. maybe. i just want aventurine ok. (except for phantylia who as far as im aware is the only one who can just TAKE hp like that? without even affecting shields???)

[cooknumber3]

Luffy and the sign of Taurus (Part 1)

Normally, when it comes to authors assigning zodiac signs, they tend to do it in a very surface-level way. Most of the time, it would actually be more accurate for the audience to analyze and assign the signs themselves.

I don’t know why I mentioned that because it’s not what we will be doing today. In part 1, let’s take a look at the correlation between Luffy and the decan of Taurus and see how well it translates. In part 2, I will focus more on the personality traits of Taurus and how they show in Luffy as a character.

First, since there’s no specific birth time for Luffy that would allow us to check his entire birth chart, we can find specificity in the decans, which divide each sign into three parts. Luffy was born on May 5th, making him the second decan of Taurus. When it comes to decans, I will be referring a lot to Austin Coppock’s book 36 Faces, which is an awesome read.

The second decan of Taurus is represented by a man holding a key, symbolizing success and achievement. Its Tarot card is the Six of Pentacles, which shows a rich man holding scales to distribute wealth fairly, symbolizing generosity and justice. This card also represents charity—giving to those in need. When this card appears for you, it suggests that you don’t really need to work hard; simply ask, and you shall receive what you want. This is such a fantastic reflection of Luffy liberating countries simply because people who gave him food or whom he likes ask him to.

This Tarot card also represents not just material wealth but also the wisdom of how success is achieved through a harmonious combination of passion and disciplined effort. This can be seen more in Luffy post-timeskip—not that he’s more disciplined exactly, but he no longer operates purely on idealism and heart. He has faced the reality of the new era, and to achieve his dream, he needs to be sharper and more discerning in his own way, which he actually does.

After facing the crushing reality that he wasn’t strong enough yet in Amazon Lily, he regroups, refocuses, and adapts. He grows stronger and sharper, but of course, this doesn’t change his core as a character. Simply put, he has now grown strong enough to be completely himself, more than he ever could before.

The first decan of Taurus is associated with fears of poverty and the need to work hard on the land. But in the second decan, the focus shifts to a different and much more powerful idea—it speaks of the rewards that come from practicing good virtues consistently over time. This applies to Luffy as well. After repeatedly doing right by people and himself, he gains a crew with the kind of bond that most envy, crewmates who are strong enough to stand on their own and protect him, an almost unprecedented reputation, and later even a pirate fleet of his own, whether he wants it or not.

This decan is linked to the time of year between the spring equinox and summer solstice, celebrated during festivals like Beltane or May Day. I find it very interesting that there’s a strong emphasis on the Sun and the Earth in this decan, since these festivals celebrate their union.

While earlier depictions openly displayed themes of fertility and sexual union, later images toned down these elements, focusing instead on more refined virtues like justice and success. Luffy has almost always succeeded in what he does, and his idea of “justice”—or more accurately, his idea of right and wrong and what it means to be a pirate—is world-defining. He’s so successful that the world has to rearrange itself around his own ideas.

This decan is also called a linga-yoni. The term "linga-yoni" is deeply rooted in the idea of complementary forces coming together to generate life and maintain cosmic harmony.

Now, let's relate this concept to Luffy:

Union of Opposing Forces: I think this is shown more clearly in what he does to others around him, with him uniting contrasting qualities in others.

He has the ability to work with others and win them over without necessarily making them his subordinates—look at Kid and Law, for example. They can work together and complement each other, even changing the trajectory of each other's lives, but they never stop being on the same level and having their own battles to conquer.

Within his own crew, the most incredible strength comes from the absolutely beautiful union of a volatile combination—his wings—Zoro and Sanji.

Creation and Renewal: Just as the linga-yoni represents creation, Luffy is often a catalyst for change and renewal. He challenges the status quo, liberates oppressed people, and brings about a new beginning.

Sometimes, when it comes to Tarot, I think another card that encapsulates him well is the Tower, a card that destroys only what doesn’t have a good foundation. Luffy only destroys things that no longer make him or his people happy.

Connection to the World: Luffy’s Gear 5, which draws on mythical and natural elements, symbolizes the culmination of this balance and his ultimate connection to the world around him; he can now affect the world on a physical level, making anything he touches turn to rubber.

In summary, Luffy in One Piece can be seen as a living embodiment of the linga-yoni, symbolizing the balance of opposing forces, the power of creation and renewal, and the importance of unity—working together, not alone—in achieving greatness.

[togglesbloggle]

Free Will is a Value Statement

When I was a kid, we had a dog.  It didn’t go well.

This particular dog- one of several in my childhood, and the only time it went awry- loved us very much, and we loved him too.  But when it came to strangers, he was very aggressive, and very dangerous, and not fully under our control.  We’d have to lock him up when there were visitors to the house, and even then it was less ‘barking’ and more ‘baying of hounds’, and unlike some animals he didn’t suddenly turn nice when he was in the same room with them.  And he was large, much too large for this to be safe.  Things came to a head when my mom was taking him for a walk and he started threatening a small kid playing in their own yard, and she came back terrified that if he ever got out, somebody would be badly hurt.

I remember quite clearly the conversation where my parents told me we couldn’t keep him.  They’d made the unfortunate choice to feed me cookies at the same time, to make the bad news go down easier; the net result is that there’s a specific brand of cookies that, to this day, I still can’t eat.  They just turn to ashes in my mouth.

(The good news is that, against all odds, it seems the ‘farm upstate’ that they sent him to was actually real.  They literally saved the receipts, so that when I got old enough to realize what that kind of story usually meant, they could give me proof that they hadn’t lied.  He did live what I believe to be a happy life in what was, more or less, a wild animal sanctuary.  Not all dangerous animals are so lucky, but sometimes, they are.)

The reason to dredge this up is to notice how unthinkable it was for any of us to call him ‘evil.’  Even when he was straining at the leash as hard as he could snarling and growling at a three year old, he wasn’t evil.  ‘Dangerous’, yes.  ‘Violent’, certainly.  But not that, not ever.

And that’s how it works, right?  We recoil at using the E-word for pets, young children, anyone that’s enough weaker than we are.  Evil-as-an-adjective is for peers and superiors, things which present a genuine threat to us.  You can watch this change for the natural world in real time- us moderns watch nature documentaries about predators avidly, and not as horror films, but our received culture still has ancient fairy tales about the ‘big bad wolf’ that date from before our conquest of Earth’s ecosystems.  What a difference a little power makes!  What was once a real and imminent fear, and a central figure in the atlas of evil, has withered away to a narrative archetype with no material referent, while the wolves themselves become objects of admiration and wonder, or a focus of conservation efforts, in direct proportion to our own sense of security against them.

And maybe you’re not the sort of person who thinks about evil much at all, which is honestly a pretty good strategy most of the time.  It can often obstruct thinking more often than it clarifies.  But even if you don’t, I’ll bet you still think about ‘justice’ a fair bit- and that follows the same rules, for about the same reasons.  The punitive and remunerative kinds of justice, anyway.  Was it some kind of punishment, to have that part of my family broken away when I was a child?  Was my dog’s loss and confusion something he deserved?  Of course not.  It was just- disharmony, I suppose.  We couldn’t find a way to put the world right, and so we suffered instead.

And yet when we reach a certain level of direct personal injury or threat of injury, especially by human causes- political enemies, alien people, angry mobs- then, almost without fail, we find ourselves reaching for this idea of justice.  (And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?) Show me, anywhere in the world, where a person has in all sincerity called for justice- and I’ll show you someone who feels weak.

Now, I can point at sentences like ‘my dog was not evil,’ and it should be pretty clear that I’m making a value statement, rather than expressing mundane factual belief in the same mold as ‘grass is green.’  That is, I’m not disputing any mechanism of action, or trying to explain why events occurred as they did.  I’m not giving you information you could use to prevent this from happening to you too, much as I hope you can.  I’m telling you how I feel, about what I want, about who I am.  I’m telling you about my grief.

Loosely speaking, you can imagine beliefs falling along a spectrum.  Don’t take this typology too seriously, it’s just a useful distinction to make for present purposes.  The first extreme of our spectrum is just the observational set of beliefs- the ‘sky is blue, grass is green’ category.  These are especially good for making plans that work, since they model a system that we usually want to work with in some capacity.  If you don’t want to fall off a cliff, it helps to have a good map. The second type is imperatives or value statements, beliefs about how to direct our efforts.  ‘Murder is bad’ is a belief like any other, but instead of telling us how to accomplish a goal, it tells us what goals we ought to have and what ends we should work towards.  (Moral realists will think of this second category as being a subset of the first; that’s perfectly reasonable but orthogonal to my point.).  Both types of belief are absolutely necessary for acting in the world: the means and the end, if you like.  

Here’s where I reveal my thesis:  When, honestly, was the last time you used the concept of free will to make a plan?

“People have free will” sure feels like a factual belief, from the inside.  It’s a description of who we are, right?  Like saying we usually have two legs, like saying the Earth goes around the Sun?  Only… it isn’t doing any of the things I do with factual beliefs.  It doesn’t make predictions, it doesn’t expand my capacity to act on the world.  If anything, ‘free will’ as a concept has a weird twisty negative definition (often something like ‘nonrandom indeterminacy’) that resists analysis of the reductive kind we usually use for this sort of thing.  

And if we look at how it’s positioned in the grand constellations of human thought, it’s awkwardly conjoined with a lot of the other things I’ve been talking about here.  Good, evil, justice.  I use my belief in free will a lot when I’m talking about culpability or praiseworthiness, when I’m deciding what to act towards, when to cheer and when to boo.  

I use it when I’m feeling weak.

Or, less personally, think about where ‘free will’ crops up in our court system.  And it does, in more than a few guises.  For example, altered states that compromise our volition are taken into account, and might even qualify as fully mitigating circumstances that tell the court not to punish the transgression.  (“I was not negligent on that construction site, your honor, I’m a diabetic and I was having a blood sugar crash.”)  In other cases, such as in murder charges, malice aforethought or planning the crime carefully might upgrade the sentence to be more harsh, whereas a crime ‘of passion’ might net fewer years in prison. (First-degree versus second-degree murder.)  What all of these have in common, notably, is in assessments of culpability, relevant to the question of how strongly the community wants to punish or condemn the situation.  But when it comes to the presentation of evidence, the chain of material observations that we use to establish confidence in the story of ‘what happened’, we invoke ‘motive’ instead- that is, we ask what benefits, inducements, insults, or other circumstances might have led the defendant to commit the act.  “Your honor, the accused is ordained with free will and is capable of choice,” is, notably, not considered sufficient to establish motive- but “your honor, the defendant was listed in the victim’s will as a primary recipient, and they were seen to have a large argument two days before the murder,” very much is.  Interesting discrepancy, no?  When we ask whether we should condemn others or show mercy, we care deeply about the defendant’s capacity to exercise free choice.  But when we ask material questions about what happened, trying to get a clear picture of the world as it is, we instead ask where the defendant is positioned in a causal web of material and social circumstances.

It’s hard, really hard, to reliably tell when our beliefs are about facts, describing things other than ourselves, and when they’re doing something else, paying rent in other ways.  But I notice, when I was a little kid crying in the car, I never once asked whether any of this was my dog’s fault.  It’s not that I didn’t know whether he had free will or not; it’s that it didn’t occur to me to ask.  I asked if it was my fault, certainly.  I’m sure my parents did too.  But we never asked if it was his, whether he’d decided to be this way.  That’s just not what ‘free will’ as a concept was for.

So, am I saying there’s “no such thing as free will” in the sense that I’m saying humans are fully deterministic and mechanistic?  Nah, not really.  To reiterate: I’m not saying that I have any confidence whatsoever that humans are deterministic, mechanical agents.  I think there’s plenty of room for consciousness to complicate the story of causality in ways I can’t anticipate; there’s every chance that human brains aren’t just billiard balls bouncing around in a universe running on linear algebra or whatever.  But I don’t think that ‘free will’ as currently discussed is in any sense an alternative to that model, either.  What I’m trying to say is that ‘free will’ isn’t really a claim about what the world is like at all.

The opposite of a belief in free will isn’t ‘I assert humans are chemical robots governed by deterministic electrochemical reactions’.  Instead, the opposite is ‘I am not angry at you for hurting me.’  Free will is a value statement.

Remember that ‘rate my dog’ parody account, and the central joke was that all the dogs got scores of like 12/10 or whatever?  And the punchline to it all, when somebody tried to call them out on the uselessness of a rating system that always stayed maxed out: “They’re good dogs, Brent.”  If I were at a high enough perch- strong enough, wise enough, safe enough- then that same optimism, I think, is the only part of my need for justice that would survive.  True power doesn’t rank humans from best to worst, or spend time blaming us for outcomes that cause suffering to ourselves or to others.  It doesn’t need to.

[dangerous-advantage]

throughout usagi yojimbo, there is this running theme of fatherhood, with usagi generally enjoying interactions with kids. if possible, he tends to seek them out (this is just as adorable as it sounds, btw)

as somebody who has long been iffy about the subject of kids/kid fics and media with a big focus on this, i'm surprised to find just how much i like sakai's exploration on the subject.

so, i've decided to delve into (a part of) why i think this works so well for me. for this, i'm focusing on UY issue #54: the return of the lone goat and kid.

(beware spoilers <3)

(caption: a cropped image of the cover of usagi yojimbo issue #54.)

within this issue, we witness the return of the lone goat and kid, betrayed samurai turned legendary assasin mercenary, with his young son, gorogoro.

i immediately liked these characters when first reading, not only because of the general badassery that they tend to exude, but also because they are very autistic-coded (/pos /lh), and gorogoro is depicted as non-verbal.

(note: he could be very young, but i'm fairly certain he just prefers not to talk, and saves his words for very specific occasions. either way, i love him a normal amount totally definitely /j.)

seeing their return was a welcome surprise, and though usagi and yagi are very autistic when interacting (/pos), usagi's soft-spot for kids plays a big part in their relationship, having saved gorogoro from falling to his death the last time they crossed paths.

even more welcome of a surprise was the plot and focus on gorogoro and usagi's relationship. i love to see usagi allowed to just... hang out with kids. you can tell he really enjoys doing it w/out the story putting a huge emphasis on that fact, which is part of why i enjoy it so much.

(the kid in question.)

now, to break this all down nice and simply, sakai's comics are generally so well done that i think you could just read the comic yourself and glean the same idea, probably in a better, more meaningful way than i can explain it.

but i've already committed, so here we go.

when we first meet gorogoro, he's being chased by a bunch of henchmen who intend to use him as bait for the capture of his father (being a very, very, very wanted man. er, goat.)

usagi stumbles upon him being threatened by one of the few other rabbits in this series and proceeds to suplex him after his hat is ruined. after that, we get the first good-parent-role-model-usagi moment:

(usagi participates in 10 out of 10 parenting/responsible adult behavior. to avoid writing this out ten million more times, i will simply be referring to this phenomenon as usagi being 'father material.')

he (re)introduced himself, puts himself in the (well-earned) position of "trustworthy adult" and then tries to figure out where tf yagi is. gorogoro, of course, does not speak, but instead of pushing him for an answer, he comes up with a conclusion and offers a solution.

usagi: "i guess you two have been seperated, huh. well, it's dangerous in these woods. there could be more of those guys around."

usagi: "there's a town not far away. your father will have an easier time finding you there."

he then invites gorogoro to come with him, saying he can escort him to the town. gorogoro seems unconvinced.

this might be the point where a lesser protagonist would try and convince/force the kid to come with them, or even manipulate them in some way (i.e. offering false promises/reassurances or just straight up lying.)

usagi, however, is not a lesser protagonist.

(several more panels of father material usagi content.)

quick side tangent: you could argue this is somewhat irresponsible, but i disagree.

usagi has met yagi and gorogoro before, and he knows that gorogoro is a smart kid. he doesn't have the full story for why gorogoro is here. for all he knows, gorogoro is on his way to meet up with his father somewhere farther on in the forest.

the point is: he doesn't try and make a decision for gorogoro or try and coax/force him into making one. he instead treats him like an equal and offers him the choice of whether to follow him or not.

when gorogoro doesn't seem to actively seek his help, he walks away, giving gorogoro full reins of his decision while also respecting an unspoken boundary that gorogoro has made.

(though, to be fair, he did assume gorogoro would follow him-- an assumption that paid off.)

("i see you decided to come along after all.")

what's important here isn't that his guess paid off, it's that he allowed gorogoro to make the decision. not to mention, he still hasn't quite figured out how to best work with gorogoro, as is showcased in the following panels:

(usagi participates in ableism /j /lh /not serious)

usagi is shown to be "good at kids." he gets along with them, and they tend to like him in turn. but that's not just an innate talent (though aptitude to kids does play a big part of it.)

he invests in positive relationships by treating children not as we often see/think of in parent-child or adult-child platonic relationships, but by treating them like equals. simply, he offers them the same respect he would offer anyone else.

which is so fucking important.

anyway, they get to the town and go to an inn inside, where usagi buys gorogoro food. once again, he exhibits king and father material attributes.

gorogoro doesn't look interested in eating the food. this is the exchange that follows:

and then:

(the 'king shit' in question)

now. let's break this down.

usagi offers food, but gorogoro is distrustful. he employs a tactic that may have worked on other children to try and convince/reassure gorogoro that eating it is fine. gorogoro is, in fact, unconvinced.

then, instead of getting irritated, or continuing to try and (unsuccessfully) convince gorogoro the food is convinced, he uses what he's observed about gorogoro/what he knows about gogoro's life to understand what he is actually saying.

he does not force him. he doesn't get annoyed. when he calls him 'weird,' it feels less like an insult and more like a neutral observation, one that he then uses to better work with/communicate with gorogoro.

('does [he] know kids or what,' indeed.)

in the space of two pages, usagi was able to figure out how to better work with gorogoro, not by changing gorogoro, but by changing his methods.

his outlook is not the one we see depicted in much of modern media-- "the parent is always right, and the child must do as they are told."

instead, it introduces a sense of respect, and therefore trust, into their dynamic. i thought i could only get something this good from roald dahl's matilda, but of course, i should've known to never doubt stan sakai /lh

this of course, isn't the end (but we are close!). a bunch of plot stuff happens, and in the search to reuinte gorogoro with his father, usagi ends up on a bridge, with enemies after gorogoro's head (and associated reward) flanking either side of it.

gorogoro, while still maintaining his distance/boundaries, shows that he trusts usagi by running behind him when threatened.

not only that, when usagi orders him to stay behind him (for reasons of protection,) he does so and continues to do so. because usagi has earned his trust, he feels comfortable entrusting usagi with his safety, where he was less comfortable doing so at the beginning.

(the bridge show-down, with the addition of usagi's killer clapback of a line. 10/10, i laughed.)

there's only one other moment i want to mention, but despite how small of a detail it is, it's what got me thinking about this whole thing.

after usagi realizes he's been flanked on either side and will need to fight his way out in order to keep gorogoro safe, this exchange happens:

one of the very first things usagi must have noticed is the silent boundary that gorogoro put up, one that he's been maintaining this entire time. he prefers space-- i.e., he would rather not be touched, at least not without permission.

in this scene, a lesser protagonist would have snatched gorogoro up by the arm, let loose some feral battle cry, and then rushed all seven henchmen using only one arm.

usagi is not a lesser protagonist.

he takes a moment, however small, to communicate his intentions to gorogoro. "i need to carry you" doubling as a silent question: can i carry you?

while he probably would have had to either way, usagi already built up trust between himself and gorogoro. so, gorogoro obliges.

and then usagi single-handedly (literally!) fights his way through seven guys.

ok, well, that's not quite true-- yagi, the 'lone goat' of the duo (more like G.O.A.T -- yes, i have been waiting for a time to make that godawful pun, and no, this is not an appropriate time, but i had to make it. you don't understand /j /nsrs) shows up on the other side pushing gorogoro's cart, and also contributes to the slaughter.

which leads to this epic, two-page panel:

(its so good ITS SO GOOD--)

after this, the story is wrapped up, the kid is returned to his goat, and usagi and the lone goat and kid go their separate ways (for now.)

as you can probably guess, this depiction of platonic child/adult relationships is very, very important to me, not only because i feel we need more of this in the general media, but also to me, specifically, as a member of the neurodivergent community.

seeing a character that i genuinely like respecting the unspoken boundaries of a nonverbal child character means a lot to me. whether he meant it to be interpreted this way or not, it really feels like we get to see an autistic character having different needs/wants and not being shamed for that by the narrative.

this is only one aspect of what makes usagi yojimbo so great, but it showcases some of the many details that sakai uses to create a well-paced, interesting, and engaging narrative.

gone are the annoying, one-dimensional kid characters and the terrible tropes that usually follow them. instead, sakai treats the children in his characters the same way that usagi treats them: as people, characters that have motivations and reasons and that deserve time and respect as well.

as i stated before, i have long shied away from kid-related stories, especially those with younger kids. but lemme tell you. UY has won me over.

i would happily pay away my livelihood to read 700 more panels with usagi toting around a 6-month-old while he talks about conspiracies with the town inspector (see: usagi yojimbo issue [blank]: [name]), or usagi letting the kid of the family he's staying with admire his blades [insert comic here.]

sakai just gets kids, and now when i'm faced with the question of: is this an example of positive parenting/guidance?, i just ask myself, "would usagi do that?"

and it answers my question.

bonus: usagi and yagi being absolutely not in any way incredibly autistic at each other during The Exchange.

(note: their smiles in that end panel make it all worth it, i think.)

[phlve]

Sociotype Profiles — LII

Ego

Leading Ti

The LII naturally assesses statements, opinions, and actions in terms of conformance to certain principles. These principles may in practice be rules of thumb based on experience, but LIIs will usually appeal to more general, self-evident reasons, if the need arises. The LII is most engaged in communication when they are critically analyzing people's decisions and actions as well as how they generally are or are not consistent with certain pre-established goals. their dual, the ESE, likes hearing the LII's judgment, and simultaneously softens its edge by shifting their focus to how they are communicating their ideas, letting them see the intellectual thought process from the outside. The ESE appreciates and praises their ability to take the information seriously, but the ESE will find funny ways of reminding the LII of how they are coming across when they seem more serious than they realize.

"Just because" is not in an LII's vocabulary. If there is a reason for something, the LII will probably want to find it. The LII strives to reduce things to their most essential aspects, and mentally recreate the whole from the bottom up. The LII's theoretical tendencies can often leave him out of touch with reality, and if unchecked may lead to abstract theories that make logical sense but have little bearing on the real world.

The LII may explore many avenues of thought, but in the end only tell others his refined conclusions, because he sees the intermediate steps as irrelevant. He is often too concise for his own good, making it difficult for others to understand his ideas.

Creative Ne

The LII often applies Ti in an academic field such as mathematics, one which allows for abstract speculation to be realized in concrete conclusions. The LII does not much care for implementation or hands-on work, requiring some degree of independence from material demands in order to develop his own ideas. If the LII feels made to do a task he perceives as boring, he will try to find an original way to do it, if simply for the sake of developing an interesting idea. The LII can think on his feet, and is able to consider multiple viewpoints, although if he feels that he has fully analyzed an idea in the past, he may dismiss it out of hand with Ti.

The LII is always in tune with the "big picture", looking at things from the most general perspective possible. Given this frame of reference, he sees many ways ordinary life could be changed to meet his vision of how things should be. Thus the LII is often seen by other more practically-minded types as naively idealistic.

The LII does not come up with ideas simply for their own sake, but tries to relate everything back to "the main point". He quickly becomes impatient or disinterested with discussion that is simply meant to generate ideas, instead of realizing them.

Super-Ego

Role Fi

The LII is acutely aware of social conventions, such as saying "please" and "thank you", and expends much effort to conform to these rules to maintain the status of a "polite" person. But he tends to overdo the conventions themselves, as opposed to the relationships they are supposed to establish, and so ends up stepping on other people's toes (violating some less easily definable convention which he would never really want to conform to anyways). He prefers an easy-going environment where such conventions don't exist in the first place. When in a heated argument, an LII can alienate others by his natural tendency to hold and defend strong opinions (Ti).

If asked to express a unique, personal sentiment, such as a favorite color or football team, the LII may find difficulty choosing if there is no "obvious" answer. He often feels like he has no real personal, subjective feelings at all, and usually has to make a conscious decision where other types could easily supply an instinctive reaction.

The LII also is very sensitive about how other people see him, feeling depressed if he has affections that are not returned. For this reason, he tends to avoid expressing signals that show interest in certain people (as opposed to signals about his general mood and demeanor, which he feels to be much more natural), but of course it just aggravates his loneliness, instead of relieving it.

Vulnerable Se

The LII hates being ordered what to do, and chafes especially under orders that don't make sense to him. In such cases the LII is likely to criticize the authority — but if he does he is not subtle about it, and usually ends up being marked as a "rebel" and feeling even more frustrated than he did to begin with. An LII works best alone, so that he doesn't have to subordinate (to) others — or constantly negotiate his priorities, which strains his patience and diverts his time and attention away from reworking his understanding; if he is forced to waste time defending what he already knows, he gives up the freedom to deepen his understanding further. He does not tolerate pushiness combined with close-mindedness.

The LII does not like being simply told "get real" or "get off your duff", which he views as crude, intrusive, and insulting. He prefers to be left alone - or better, included in an atmosphere of open discussion that is receptive to his thoughts and thereby inspire him to develop them more.

If the LII has a problem that cannot be solved intellectually, but requires direct personal confrontation, he may resort to total avoidance rather than approaching the person directly, which he tends to think will produce only frustration and contempt. The LII thinks that, in an ideal world, everyone would just listen to reason instead of insisting on having their own way.

Super-Id

Suggestive Fe

Being a naturally private person, the LII finds it difficult to believe that others would be interested in what he is thinking or feeling at any given moment. He feels like something is not quite right if his interaction with the people around him is too aloof. However he only rarely makes an effort to venture into more open spheres, because he usually avoids making small talk, preferring to talk about his real interests and say only what he truly believes.

To this end, the LII, above all things, appreciates others' attempts to get him to "open up" emotionally and express his true thoughts and views of the world - not just as an abstract ideal living in his head, but as something that other people actually care about enough to participate in and bring to fulfillment. His focus on important abstract matters also leads him to detach from the world, if it is not complemented with a healthy dose of silliness. The LII is usually oblivious to his emotional-psychological state and feels little responsibility for improving it, not to mention the state of others. This means that "bad emotions" can build up in him until some environmental factor comes along to alleviate them. Visible demonstrations of emotional warmth play a major part in this: something as simple as a big smile and a hug is enough to brighten an LII's day. The LII can be attracted to insincere displays of affection, even if he consciously realizes that they are only in jest.

The LII is often at a loss for what to do in social situations, and appreciates others who make him feel included in a new group and in the emotional side of a situation. The LII tends to take life very seriously, and appreciates others who can show him the lighter side of things.

Mobilizing Si

The LII has poor control over his physical well-being, neglecting matters of simple hygiene relatively easily. He dislikes having to take care of mundane details of work, but simultaneously derives pleasure from aesthetic neatness and organization.

The LII is easily annoyed by sensory over-stimulation, including loud noises, bright light, and temperature. On the other hand, he easily becomes "addicted" to more pleasurable things, such as music, which have a corresponding effect on his mood (Fe). When left to his own devices, the LII tends to oscillate unhealthily between total indulgence of the senses and total neglect (the latter especially when working on something he feels to be extremely important). He tends to feel guilty for indulging in hedonism for the sake of hedonism.

On the surface the LII can seem easygoing, but in work projects or at home his critical nature will become more obvious.

Id

Ignoring Te

The LII is an efficient worker, and seeks out new tools, resources, or methods as long as they are directly relevant to his work or interests. He is not likely to keep especially careful track of his finances, avoiding this by keeping his needs simple and constant.

The LII can easily understand whether something is impractical or not, but prefers to explain why using structural principles. He dislikes rote memorization of dates and the like, but paradoxically will often have a mental store of many arcane pieces of information (such as the first 100 digits of pi) he finds interesting or equally absurd technical skills (like mastering a video game). Such skills and information will either be a part of his leisure activities, or relate directly to his main interests, which he chooses not based on their immediate practical consequence, but on how interesting they are.

The LII only exchanges such information in conversation for entertainment, and criticizes overly bland or rambling analyses, especially if he feels they have no point.

Demonstrative Ni

The LII is a naturally cautious person, and never acts without considering the consequences in detail. This tendency sometimes prevents him from acting decisively—or at all. However, he tries not to be overly pessimistic about the consequences of others' actions, and only offers direct advice in this area if it is specifically requested. If something bad happens he is usually willing to forgive and move on without placing blame, re-establishing the course as subtly and smoothly as possible. While he tends to have very specific ideas about his general life principles and goals, he is basically indifferent as to their specific timeframe and implementation.

The LII has an active imagination, but it tends to fade in and out and its products are rarely verbalized. He hardly ever says purposely cryptic or idiosyncratic things, and criticizes others for employing overly obscure concepts.

Source: Wikisocion

[puppyeared]

how do you often format your comics? i usually have a hard time trying to do those kinds of things! are there any tips you have or artists that inspired you?

i like to storyboard more than draw comics, but i recommend doing it as a starting point just so you can decide how to put everything together! helps you decide what needs more focus like bigger frames, more text, etc. also, sometimes the final product ends up completely different, so this is really good for exploration.

i also have low energy and im not really ambitious when it comes to drawing pages, so i stick to drawing out 1-2 frames per page to spread it out instead of drawing a lot of things happening on one page. you dont have to follow this ofc, but i find this works for me.

for reference material, i like to recommend gigi dg and her work on cucumber quest. she puts everything in simple rectangles for readability, but balances this out with color for tone and details:

looking at manga is also good because of how well they work with b/w lineart. they are pretty heavy with details, esp since the lineart is so fine in most manga, but they also tend to be more creative with formatting:

its also a good idea to look at detailed tutorials because they tend to be more in depth of what to look for when you format comics. my pointers tend to be based on observation lol

if youre interested, please also see: @/millionfish, @/serenacii, @/hannakdraws (im too shy to tag ///). also @munkiey cuz i love love their comics and they go fucking OVERBOARD /POS

[vics-chrysopoeia]

C1AN2 - "Focus"

(I decided to rename those author notes to make it more clear what they are about.)

An "aether focusing instrument" or "focus" is an object with a complicated spell ("array") "written" in miniature, so the mage only has to copy it, instead of mentally assembling it from scratch. In art terms, it would be a free stock photo you can trace over instead of drawing looking at a reference (this would be what casting by looking at a spell book schematics is like) or just drawing by yourself (casting from scratch).

It is not an enchanted object. Enchanted objects affect and/or are affected by the spells placed on them and can be used even by people without a drop of aether on their bodies, if they draw their 'fuel' from the environment. Only magical people (mages, sorcerers, witches, etc.) can even understand how using a focus work and why it makes casting easier than using just drawn schematics.

Focuses can have as many spells as you can "write" in it without them collapsing into one another. The best materials for focuses are ones with lots of flat surfaces, like cristals, but anything flat enough will do in a pinch. Poor people might use cheap quartz, common rocks, sand grains, or even glass shards. If you "write" your spell in a non-flat surface, you better be good at adjusting for it when casting somewhere else.

Usually, focuses are embeded in something that makes them easy to carry/hard to lose, but still mostly safe from damage, like pendants, watches, wands, staffs, brooches, rings, belts, clasps and what-have-you. Wands and staffs are usually embeded with lots of small focuses at once for practicity, and those tend to be work tools that the person won't carry around all the time. If a police officer detects a hostile/illegal spell on your focus, they can pull you over and confiscate it (at best) or jail you (at worst).

Spells on focuses are also, obviously, inactive. The person using them has to know both where in the darned thing the spell is "written" and what is the portion they have to keep from copying to cast the active version (the "lock"). Usually, the lock is also what identifies the spell among similar ones that might be in the focus.

This is both for the safety of the owner (so they don't cast anything by accident, or so kids don't go activating their parents' focuses, for instance) and an anti-theft measure. The spells in a person's private focus are either too common and cheap to warrant the effort to steal and unlock them, or too complicated and full of locks, traps and weird recursions to be feasibly made safe in any less than some thousands of years (think of the locks as passwords - the more parts a spell have and the more locks the owner added, the longer it takes for you to test each permutation of the array to remove every lock without damaging the spell).

Oh, and finding the spells already "written" in a focus might be a deceptively difficult task, if you didn't "write" them yourself. Spells are aether arrays, and aether arrays can be either huge, spanning whole cities, or nano-sized. If a mage is capable of making them small enough in a big focus, pinpointing a spell becomes worse than looking for a needle in a haystack. And if you stack one spell over another by accident, they might collapse into a single one and create a huge, dangerous mess. This makes second-hand focuses a minefield, unless you know very well all that is there.

The obvious workaround would be cleaning the whole thing of spells before using it, even if it means that you will lose some good spells in that process, and it's what is usually done. The problem is, really expensive focuses are usually protected against being cleaned of their spells by anyone other than the owner, and this protection spell might not be removable even by the owner themselves (might be a manufacturer's add-on). Thanks to this, when they are sold or passed down, they lose a bit of their value, because you have to work with less storage (the value may drop less if the owner sells it with schematics for the spells already there, their exact location and their locks, so they are at least useful).

In case you are wondering how focus owners never lose where they "wrote" their spells… well, they do. Constantly. Which is why most focuses aren't "written" with more than one or two spells, and the ones in them are usually as big as possible or written in easily recognizable places. Or they just have a dozen copies of the same spell. Very few people need to store more than a dozen or so complicated spells for constant use in their life, so it is rare for a focus to be too loaded or to be written too small. It's usually done in the aforementioned expensive focuses (heirlooms, gems, particularly flawless crystals, etc.) to maximize their usage and reselling value, or in focuses belonging to people who create complicated spells for a living.

Considering all that, stealing a focus, then, only make sense if at least one of the below points apply:

it's not fancy or secure enough that it only responds to the recognized owner in a way you can't replicate or bypassyou have a way to deal with the locks it might haveyou don't have a way to deal with the locks but you can at least find the spells already in it and either erase them or work around themthe focus is high enough quality (or valuable enough) to warrant all that effortyou simply don't want the current owner to have the focus in their possession, you will either destroy or hide it foreveryou can evade for the rest of your life someone who is either very rich, very powerful, or much better at creating spells than you

So, yeah, focus theft is relatively rare. It's like jewel theft, in the sense that it mostly happens to rich people, and very rarely in a big enough scale to be noteworthy by the large public. The average person is as worried about being robbed of their focuses as you would worry about being robbed of your keychain. Impossible? No. Likely? Well, when was the last time you heard of a robber asking for your house keys and only your house keys?

In a pinch, the mage can just remove the inactivation part of the spell and activate it inside the focus. 9/10 times, it explodes the focus, and the spell may or may not survive intact enough to still work as intended. This is usually a desperate maneuvre to either do simultaneous castings in an emergency (it would otherwise need a long prep time) or to just destroy your focus if the aforementioned robber takes it, being yet another reason why they usually don't bother to steal them (just like your keychain will be most likely useless the moment the robber flees and you warn the police that they have your keys).

In The Green Star, which is set in the Belle Night universe and uses the same magic rules, Charlie does that as a desperation move. He needs to cast simultaneously multiple WILDLY complicated spells so he can teleport himself and Auguste a couple meters to the side and escape an ambush. His multiple cristal focuses embeded in rings explode. It doesn't hurt him because (1) vampire and (2) the focuses are very small, likely to not be huge losses in situations like this.

[affordablehomeservices]

How to Choose the Right Hauling Service for Your Project in Halethorpe

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2. Check for Proper Licensing and Insurance

Any professional hauling service in Halethorpe should have the necessary licenses and insurance to operate legally. This is crucial for your protection, as it ensures the company follows industry standards and you aren’t held liable for any accidents or damages during the process. Be sure to verify that the company has both liability and worker’s compensation insurance.

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4. Get Quotes and Compare Pricing

Once you have a list of potential hauling services, ask for quotes based on the specifics of your project. It’s important to get detailed estimates that outline all the costs involved, such as labor, disposal fees, and any additional charges for special materials. Comparing multiple quotes will give you an idea of the average price for your type of project in Halethorpe.

However, don’t just go for the lowest bid. Make sure the service you choose offers a good balance of affordability, quality, and professionalism.

5. Confirm Disposal Practices

The way a hauling service disposes of materials is an important factor to consider, especially if you want to minimize your environmental impact. Ask how the company handles disposal and recycling. Many professional services in Halethorpe focus on eco-friendly practices, ensuring that as much of your unwanted items as possible are donated or recycled instead of ending up in a landfill.

6. Look for Flexibility and Availability

When you’re working on a project, timing is everything. Make sure the hauling service you choose can accommodate your schedule. Whether you need same-day or next-day service, or you’re planning for a future project, it’s important to find a company that’s flexible and available when you need them.

7. Check Equipment and Capacity

Make sure the hauling company has the right equipment and vehicles for your specific needs. For larger or heavier projects, you’ll want a company that has a fleet of trucks capable of handling the weight and volume of materials. Smaller projects may require less heavy-duty equipment, but it’s still essential that the service is properly equipped to avoid delays or additional costs.

8. Customer Service Matters

Good communication and customer service are key to a smooth hauling experience. Choose a company that is responsive, easy to work with, and answers all your questions clearly. A professional hauling service should guide you through the process and ensure that your needs are met from start to finish.

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[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: The Terminus Factor - First Half

1990

The TERROR Begins!

The terror of another Annual Crossover! Oh noes!

But, but, but! Instead of trying to make one event for the whole company, Marvel has split into fiefdoms.

The Avengers and related books have their own event, the Terminus Factor. The X Books are doing Days of Future Present. The Spider-Man books apparently have a crossover called "Spidey's Totally Tiny Adventure." And the rest of the annuals (Punisher, Daredevil, Incredible Hulk, and Silver Surfer) get lumped together for Lifeform.

The takeaway here is that I don't have to kill myself trying to cover 14 annuals, Atlantis Attacks. There's just five annuals in the Terminus Factor: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, West Coast Avengers, and Avengers. All relevant to my interests and within my wheelhouse.

And all written by Roy and Dann Thomas! It's still a lot of material to cover in one post so I'll still be splitting it up. But limiting things to the Avengers and having the same writers for the thing means it should stay on the rails and not go off into some drug subplot so Punisher can play.

Sure, the focus is Terminus and he's nobody's favorite cosmic jerk. But everything is working in favor of this being a better event than Evolutionary War or Atlantis Attacks.

That's a low bar so fingers crossed, knock on wood.

Captain America Annual #9: You ARE What You Eat

Something already neat about this event is this table of contents. Instead of just Part 1 or Chapter 1, the parts are labelled Stage One and so on and seem to refer to... uh, Terminus' life-cycle. Which he apparently has.

Also, Hercules killed him. But it doesn't seem to have stuck. Or, considering the life-cycle... maybe Terminus laid some eggs before he got Hercules'd?

We're gonna find out!

Also, this Captain America Annual starts in the wildest place. Tony Stark dropping Captain America into a volcano.

Okay, once again with context. Captain America is accompanying vulcanologist Dr Ramona Napier in a special capsule to study Mt. Saint-Cloud from the inside. Tony Stark asked Cap to ride-along. The capsule gets dropped into a volcano by helicopter.

I don't know what kind of wonder capsule this is that it's actually dense enough to sink in magma. Truly science is amazing.

But deep in the new volcano, a mechanical looking egg EXPLODES and releases glowing blobs which start rising upward.

The glowing blobs twine around the capsule, so bright that they're blinding in what should be a pitch black environment (despite how magma is usually depicted as warm orange and reds, even in this very comic). Dr Napier bumps the controls and accidentally locks the capsule to plummet deeper into the volcano.

Observers near the throat of the volcano see the glowing blobs shoot out of the lava and into a nearby stream. They have no idea what to make of that.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark.

He's waiting outside the mountain. Anxiously. Because they lost communications with the capsule.

Which, by the way, they tested in simulated lava! Because, honestly, if you're going to drop your friend into a volcano, it'd better be in a capsule that's already proven lava-proof.

One of the engineers manages to track the capsule as sinking out of control. Tony tells the engineers to do what they can while he goes for a walk and think.

Some Guy: "'Think'? What good'll it do him to go walking off into the woods now? He claims he cares so much about the human beings in Persephone-1... Was that all just a pose?" Another Guy: "Nuts! To blazes with Tony Stark, Boy Industrialist! We've got people to -- Huh? IRON MAN!?"

Yup, Tony Stark went for a walk out of sight and then Iron Man shows up.

Tony Stark, Iron Man, being his own bodyguard is one of those things where you have to suspend him disbelief. But in this instance... Tony Stark goes for a walk, Iron Man shows up and goes 'wow good thing Tony had me on call, just in case!' yeah, I wouldn't question it.

Also a good thing that Tony designed the Iron Man armor to withstand 2000 degrees... well, for a few seconds. Just can't fit as much heat-proofing on an Iron Man armor as you can on a volcano capsule.

Iron Man: "See you soon -- or not at all!"

This story could go in a very grim direction.

Also, Iron Man just plunges right into the lava. Yadda yadda density. Although, he once shoulder checked a rock the size of Manhattan. I believe he could force his way through dense molten rock.

Inside the volcano and inside the capsule, Captain America manages to pull the capsule out of the dive. So they're not sinking. But the heat refracting tiles are coming loose so they're cooked regardless.

THEN BIG HERO MOMENT

Iron Man carries the capsule to the surface of the lava. Then he has to fuck off to cool his armor down before it goes into meltdown.

Which does leave Captain America a chance to be cool too. The door is still locked and it's still ridiculously hot inside... because, well, they're resting in a pool of lava. So Captain America kicks the door down and jumps to the lip of the volcano!

Volcano rescue makes for a pretty amazing opening. Probably not remotely scientifically accurate but comics seldom are.

Meanwhile, the glowing goop from the volcano landed in a stream. One of the engineers comments that something that unusual is what they're dropping capsules into volcanoes to study but what can ya do. No harm done if it lands in the stream, right?

Anyway, the goop is eaten by trout who get weird eyes. A bear is fishing in the stream but is scared off by some people from Georgeville who cast a net to catch some fish for a fry.

A fish fry hosted by the that Iron Man, Captain America, and Dr Napier attend. Tony Stark was scheduled to attend too but whoops, he had to go back to California and people have definitely seen him and Iron Man in the same room at the same time.

Cap and Dr Napier don't eat anything at the trout feast, already feeling queasy from being bounced around inside the volcano capsule.

Also, the thing where Tony's fellow Avengers aren't sure whether or not he's Iron Man continues. They also continue to strongly suspect it's him.

I dunno the point of this subplot. It hasn't really gone anywhere.

Anyway, Cap is distracted mid-conversation with Dr Napier when the mayor suddenly gets the same red with white crackle eyes as the trout and starts growling.

He jumps at Captain America, who grabs him mid-leap and flips him headfirst into the ground. Ouch.

Captain America: "Maybe I had to rough up his honor a bit more than I'd have liked -- but that was more to stop him from really getting hurt than to protect myself. No northwoods politician -- not even one who suddenly turned into a raving maniac -- is any real threat to a guy who's gone toe-to-toe with the Red Skull."

But he quickly realizes it's not just the mayor. It's the whole crowd. It's Iron Man.

It's nearly everyone aside from Cap and Dr Napier.

Cap quickly deduces that something was wrong with the food so even though all these people are trying to kill them, he doesn't want to hurt them unnecessarily. Or let them hurt those in town unaffected. Or let the berserkers hurt themselves.

He sees an adult man and a child running at a terminal box. The man rips the live wires out and gets electrocuted. The child nearly gets the same but Cap tackles him out of the way and shoves him in an ice barrel so he can't try it again.

Meanwhile, Iron Man lands so Captain America throws his mighty shield and all who oppose his shield must yield their ass to the floor.

Weirdly, the crowd piles on Iron Man instead of continuing to go after Cap. Also, notably, the child Cap shoved in some ice seems to have recovered, regaining his speech and asking if he can get out.

Cap tells the boy to run home. And the gears in his head must have been turning because he suddenly seems to have a plan.

He tells Dr Napier to get to tha choppa, he's got a theory. And just as he predicts, Iron Man throws the dogpile off of himself and takes off after the helicopter.

Captain America flies towards the mountain and nearly gets there when Iron Man blasts the rotors.

The helicoptor crashes on the snowy mountain. Luckily, Cap and Dr Napier survive the crash. Good piloting, Launchpad.

But the townspeople are marching up the mountain path after the helicopter "like the cast of 'Night of the Living Dead'! and Iron Man is circling overhead.

Captain America: "IRON MAN! If you want me -- if there's enough of your brain functioning for you to have any idea what you want -- COME AND GET ME!"

And Iron Man swoops down and fires his repulsors at Cap. And when the guy just backflips away from that, Iron Man punches him in the face.

This glowy eye trout food poisoning sure is an odd beserker status. The people affected don't seem able to talk anymore but Tony is operating a complicated suit of powered armor. Weird.

Anyway, Iron Man beats the shit out of Captain America. And Captain America baits him into flying into a snowbank and also SPTANNGs him in the chest.

It's a very disproportionate fight. As one would expect when a dude, even a peak human dude, is trying to fight a war machine.

Iron Man punches Captain America off a cliff and then repulsors the rock he's clinging to. But as Cap is falling to his death, Iron Man seems to regain his sense and his non-glowy eyes.

He flies down really quick and catches Captain America and flies him back up to the clifftop.

And now is when Captain America Explains It All.

Captain America: "Something in those fish turned people into raging psychopaths -- beserkers attracted to energy sources, like a terminal box and your armor -- or you, to the chopper. But you snapped out of it -- just in time, by my reckoning -- because cold somehow seems to reverse its effects. An accidental ice-dip had worked on that boy -- so I had to pray it'd work on the rest of you. And it did, once the townspeople had tramped up here to the snowline chasing a power source -- you! As you can see, they're slowly returning to normal."

Well, that sure was a lot of correct conclusions you jumped to, based on the available evidence.

Dr Napier adds that the weird glowing stuff they saw shoot out of the volcano was probably to blame. It landed in the same stream that the trout were fished from.

Iron Man: "Then, whatever that glowing substance was -- we can't be sure the menace it posed is over, can we?" Dr Napier: "No. Of course, it's possible that all of it was absorbed by those particular fish -- or else dissipated harmlessly in the flowing stream --" Captain America: "But if it wasn't, it could be way downstream by now. It could be... almost anywhere... And, if something else ate some of those tainted fish... the whole world could be in big trouble!"

Oh no, the bear from earlier was infected by eating a glowy fish!

TERMINUS LIVES!

Well, the cover has Terminus on it and the title of the crossover is the Terminus Factor. So it's not a huge surprise.

But I guess the glowy stuff was Terminus goo and now that bear is Terminused. Got the red eyes.

This introductory issue was not bad. An excuse for Captain America and Iron Man to fight, with Captain America getting to be the smart one. An interesting new angle for Terminus, who was just budget Galactus before now.

And the Iron Man Annual is next so I assume Tony is going to have to fight a bear.

Let's find out!

Iron Man Annual #11: If the TERMINI Come...

THE BEGINNING of the END!

That Terminus-infected bear is looking pretty gruesome. Like an animatronic that has seen better days and is also into murder.

Also, hi, Aaron Stack!

Feels like it's been a while since I've seen you in something. I don't remember if you appeared in any of Essential Avengers before now so it would be the Earth X liveblog instead.

Anyway.

We start with some Aaron Stack, Machine Man (X-51), status quo. Apparently, the Captain's team of ad hoc Avengers found Jocasta's disembodied head floating in the ocean after she blew up the High Evolutionary's gigantic boat. And lacking the ability or motivation to do anything about it, they mailed the head to Aaron.

... That's what Iron Man did with Victor Mancha's head too, when he 'died' in the Vision series.

Avengers, stop mailing people robot heads!

As Aaron tries to repair Jocasta (or at least reactivate her head? She's missing most of her), he's kept company by Peter Spaulding.

Anyway, suddenly a very angry bear bursts through the wall.

Aaron shoves Peter to relative safety and tries to restrain the bear. But it knocks him away, tearing its fur in the process and revealing

ROBOT BEAR.

Wow, Terminus infection is a hell of a thing.

It completely hollowed out that bear and replaced the body with metal, leaving just the fur.

I would have had a seemingly normal bear be the threat for a while, delay the metallic reveal. Perhaps during Aaron's very ineffective attacks on it.

He tries tackling the bear, to no effect. He tries shooting the bear with his finger gun (he has a .357 Magnum built into his pointer). He even tries using his knuckle flamethrower. Which would have been a good time for the fur to be burned away and show what Aaron is really dealing with.

Aaron even tries an extendo-punch but the bear rips off his arm and starts chowing down on it.

Getting his arm ripped off knocks Aaron the fuck out. Peter Spaulding has stuck around despite Aaron telling him to run and he won't leave Aaron to be snacked on. He manually activates Aaron's boot jets and sends him flying out of the shack. Aaron even manages to snag Jocasta's head, despite being unconscious. Nice!

Then Peter Spaulding figures, this thing wants to eat metal, I'll give him metal to eat. He throws a container of liquid titanium at it. While the METAL BEAR chews on that, Peter tries running out the Aaron hole.

But the bear snags his leg and drags him back into the shack. And considering the scream and the SNAPP!... Yeah, Peter Spaulding isn't making it out of this one.

And by this one, I mean this story.

What's weird is that this isn't the end of Peter Spaulding. For some reason, despite dying here, he was brought back ten years later in a X-51 series with no explanation.

SO NEARLY TWENTY YEARS AFTER THAT, Marvel Comics #1001 has to establish that the Peter Spaulding was an impersonator.

Why was someone impersonating Peter Spaulding? Iunno.

Sometimes retcons amount to little more than a shrug. Anything to get out of a seemingly irreversible writing decision.

Over on the Iron Man side of this Iron Man book, Tony Stark is being given a tour of the Baintronics Inc factory by Sunset Bain.

Tony Stark: "Hope you won't mind my asking -- is 'Sunset' your given name?" Sunset Bain: "Yes. Given by me... to myself. I'm very much a self-made woman, Tony."

Tony and Sunset vibe for a bit over robotics. Sunset has a nostalgia for the robots you'd see in old sci-fi. And muses how she always wanted to grab a can-opener and see what was inside.

Odd lady, Sunset Bain.

Something triggers the Baintronics Inc factory reconnaissance radar and Sunset cuts the tour short to go check it out. Tony being Tony decides to check it out too, after finding a spot to change into Iron Man.

Iron Man spies a missile that is very much shaped like a man just hurtling through the air past the Baintronics compound and towards the Columbia River.

He uses his repulsors to nudge the object into landing on the shore and discovers that it's no missile, it's Aaron Stack, Machine Man! Minus an arm and plus a Jocasta head.

Iron Man scoops up Aaron and takes him into Baintronics factory. He lie/explains to Sunset that he took Tony Stark to safety and that he'll call later. But hey, look at this Machine Man.

Tony Stark, that resourceful, clever man, definitely has some tools at his Los Angeles plant that can help repair Machine Man so he asks if he can leave Aaron there for an hour while he goes to get those tools.

Sunset Bain says that's no problem and that's because she's up to no good.

My cursed future knowledge of Dan Slott's Iron Man run makes me aware that Sunset Bain is actually evil. And she has the supervillain name of Madam Menace. She reveals her true colors the second Iron Man is gone.

She's been after Machine Man for a while and now he was just dropped into her lap? Everything coming up Sunset!

She has the deactivated Aaron taken to the Duplikatron, which scans his body and creates a duplicate except with both arms.

And she would have gotten away with it if this wasn't taking place during a crossover.

The Terminus-infected robot bear OH YEAHs into the Baintronics facility and starts tearing its way through men and machines.

Begrudgingly, Madam Menace Sunset Bain sends out her evil mooks to go deal with the robot bear. She doesn't like Madam Menace business mixing with Sunset Bain business. And she also errs on the side of caution and commands Iron Man to turn around and come back.

Sunset Bain: "You've got to get back here!"

Iron Man: "But I'm already halfway to Fresno!" Sunset Bain: "I don't care if you're halfway to the Moon! Get your tin can back here -- fast!"

Iron Man turns around but he sourly thinks that he doesn't really care for that attitude.

And in fairness, she hangs up on him without actually explaining jack. He's reasonably irritated.

When he arrives and sees the giant hole in the skylight and the robot bear terrorizing, he concedes okay this is a real emergency.

Iron Man jet boots right at the bear to welcome it to the slam but gets smacked back, FTHAK!

Iron Man: "That huge metal thingie -- it's terrorized those men, and now it looks like it's eating those titanium rods. Ordinarily, I like to find out what's going on before I take sides in a squabble -- but this time, I think maybe I'd better make an exception! ARRRGN--! On the other hand -- maybe there's something to be said for the diplomatic approach."

So Iron Man tries approaching the bear and asking what its deal is. The bear does not respond... uh doy... so Iron Man resumes resorting to force. He repulsors it against a wall but it manages to force itself loose and KTHANGs him again.

This time Iron Man got a good look at its eyes and recognized the look from what Captain America told him about the Georgeville, Washington fish fry incident. The stuff that shot out of the volcano and infected the fish and the people that ate the fish!

And for some reason, Iron Man also leaps to the conclusion that this is Terminus! Even though he's never been around on the previous times the big guy has been encountered.

I wonder if that's just narrative convenience to establish that this is a Terminus thing or if it will be important in the plot that the word Terminus leapt to Tony's brain.

Anyway, the link to the fish fry incident gives Iron Man a thing to try. Cold killed the terminus spores (or whatevers) in that case. So he'll just dump a big vat of frozen liquid titanium on the bearobot.

(I don't think titanium is liquid at cold temperatures actually... But it sure is in this story)

Unfortunately, the robot bear just absorbs the inexplicably frozen liquid titanium and grows bigger.

Then it smacks around Iron Man some more, except with bigger claws.

Meanwhile, Sunset Bain is trying to relocate the Machine Men out of the path of the bear rampage but her workers tender their resignations, no two weeks notice because they do not want to get beared.

A power surge wakes up Machine Man. He remembers his own encounter with the metal bear and follows the sounds of an exciting action packed comic book fight to see what's been going on without hi.

(Luckily for Sunset, the copy Machine Man was on a lower platform than Aaron and he doesn't look back once he gets going.)

Machine Man joins the fray and Iron Man catches him up on how things have been progressing. He also asks Aaron whether he's ever heard the name Terminus. he has not. And since Terminus was 150 feet tall...

Machine Man: "May we assume, then, that our present foe is still growing?" Iron Man: "At this point, we can't assume anything -- including our survival!"

Stakes: raised.

Aaron mentions that when he ran into this thing and it took his arm, it looked more like a bear. Fur and whatnot. And Iron Man says maybe it was and explains how a more microbial stage was able to mindjack anything that ate it.

There's an error with who the speech bubbles are pointing to but I think Aaron comes up with the idea to try molten metal if frigid liquid metal didn't work.

Machine Man has to swoop down and scoop up Sunset Bain (who has changed out of her Madam Menace mask) when the giant metal bear starts chasing her.

Sunset Bain: "But -- what's Iron Man doing with that vat of hot liquid metal? " Iron Man: "whatever -- i can -- lady -- unnnh! -- Whatever I CAN!"

And he just dumps that vat of piping hot metal all over the giant metal bear. Who melts.

Aaron was right about the first and second Terminus stages having different needs and weaknesses.

Unfortunately, out of the frying pan into the fire.

Right after finishing off the bear, Iron Man, Machine Man, and Sunset Bain hear a news report of hordes of animal-shaped robots swarming towards Seattle's aircraft factories, shipyards, and the Baintronics complex. On the hunt for Titanium.

Metal birds, metal fish, and metal beeeeees.

The problem was not limited to one net full of fish and one bear. Those Terminus spores have gotten all up and down the food chain.

Iron Man and Machine Man head off to go tackle the problem while Sunset Bain stays behind to capitalize.

One of her guys asks if she wants to activate the duplicate Machine Man so he can help deal with the robot animals. Sunset calls him an idiot. She's keeping the duplicate. Going to have to change some details around since the original is still kicking. Maybe use that random woman robot head Machine Man left behind.

Sunset Bain: "What's the difference? After all -- they'll only be robots. Our robots! It's not like robots have any real feelings or anything!"

Scene cut to Machine Man being very sad that (eventually retconned into an imposter) Peter Spaulding got super killed by the robot bear. He also has to comfort friend Gears Garvin who is feeling a lot of survivor's guilt for not being around.

Also, apparently, the horde of animal robots have diverted from Seattle. Iron Man suspects that there's some kind of group mind that told them one of their number got destroyed. Also, he's dubbed the robotocized animals Termini.

Aaron gets a new arm and he and Iron Man take off to go fight lots of things!

So many things.

As covered in one of the annual's back-up stories, which takes the form of a news broadcast about the "Terminus Plague."

Gonna be honest. Terminus Plague sounds like a better name for the crossover than the Terminus Factor.

Apparently, as Iron Man explained it and the KSNN broadcast conveyed it "'Termini,' which is apparently a sort of electronic virus that infects living organisms and slowly transmutes them to rabid, robotic creatures."

Which seems right.

It's cool to follow up directly from Iron Man and Captain America having a weird Terminus-related situation to Iron Man dealing with the same problem but bigger.

Just something you can do with these more contained crossover annuals which just have one writing team.

But, geez. I'm not very familiar with older Iron Man comics but Dan Slott must have loved this era. Sunset Bain making a copy Machine Man and having Jocasta's head. That's all stuff he repeated during the Iron Man 2020 event.

It's always weird, reading through older comics and recognizing some plot points as having been recycled later. Bendis ripping off Darker Than Scarlet. Morrison doing their own take on That Which Endures. Dan Slott loving this Iron Man era, apparently.

Anyway. Anyway. Anyway. Onto the next annual.

Thor Annual #15: Can Terminus Be Far Behind?

The Return of the ORIGINAL Terminus!

Is Thor shoulder dropping Terminus? Because that would be awesome.

More awesome than the title of this part of the crossover. The Captain America annual got to have a title that hinted at the story. "You are what you eat." People ate Terminus spores and got infected by Terminus.

"If the Termini come..." is a little ominous. What are the Termini? What happens if they come? And by the end of the issue, after Iron Man and Machine Man spend most of the story fighting one, they learn there's a whole bunch more. Uh oh!

But then it turns out that the Iron Man annual title and the Thor annual title are just one complete thought. "If the Termini come... Can Terminus be far behind?"

I dunno! I guess not! But, like, so what? Last time Terminus showed his face on Earth, Quasar yeeted him into space. Kind of diminishes the threat of having a bunch of guys presumably growing into Terminus if the big news is the original guy is coming back.

Well, let's dig into things.

Not going to be a lot of panels to share this time because this is the only part of the crossover not on Marvel Unlimited.

Shrug!

So, Thor and Hercules are booking it by hammer throw to San Francisco because Iron Man asked Thor to keep an eye out for the Termini.

Despite the news report back-up story of Iron Man and Machine Man fighting various Termini, according to Tony now in this Thor Annual, the two of them only managed to destroy the bear one. I guess the fights with the others were inconclusive or the Termini fucked off.

Iron Man had to take a break to repair Machine Man at the Stark Enterprises Oregon plant. So he gives Thor the rundown on the fish fry fiasco, the fight with the robot bear, and how Tony thinks Terminus is involved based on zero evidence.

Thor decides to dig into that link so he leaves Hercules behind and fucks off into the depths of space.

Hercules, by the by, barely knows what's going on. Thor brought him to San Francisco without explaining much. Thor does mention that this might be Terminus related, to Hercules' confusion.

Hercules: "Terminus? Why I once did unshell that behemoth like a pitiful lobster!"

Thor: "That, I am told, was not the true Terminus..." Hercules: "What? Dost thou mean -- someone dared make sport with Hercules?" Thor: "So sayteh Quasar, who lately propelled the true Terminus into the depths of space!"

So, apparently... In Quasar #7, Quasar met Terminus and also threw him into space. But before he did, Terminus apparently clarified that the Terminus that destroyed the Savage Land wasn't him.

One wonders why that was retconned. There's some tug of war going on with the canon of a character that's not very interesting. Ah well.

Thor tells Hercules that if he runs into any of the Termini, extreme heat is super effective.

Speaking of the Termini, a bunch of them bust into the Blackrock Nuclear Plant facility. A wolf, an eagle, and a bunch of fish.

And they are brutal. We didn't see a lot of the bear Termini killing people but these ones just shred anyone they come across in the nuclear facility.

Also, they talk now! Which is creepier than all the murder, honestly.

Termini: "Food" Termini: "FOOD"

Meanwhile, Hercules is just hanging around San Francisco. Remember, he barely knows what's going on and has no idea how to find any Termini.

But some cops found him and asked for autographs which Hercules signs with a lot of 'true heroes' flattery. And while he's doing that, the cop car gets an alert about animal-shaped robots attacking Blackrock.

And Hercules goes oh right, that's the thing I'm looking out for and asks the cops to take him there.

After killing or at least maiming everyone, the Termini at Blackrock start upending a giant container of nuclear fuel. Which they succeed at right as more Termini arrive - strangely adorable ones like squirrels, rabbits, and beavers.

All the Termini drink and cavort in the radioactive fuel and transform from animal robots to vaguely human-shaped ones.

They've also gone from just saying FOOD to parroting what people around them are saying.

Even creepier.

Hercules and the cops come in just about then. Unfortunately, not soon enough to save that survivor.

The cops start shooting at the Termini (to no effect, duh) so Hercules tells them to fuck off and cordon off the area. Then he gets down to the business of monster slaying, which is his spech ee ality.

Also, the life cycle of Terminus continues getting weirder. Starting off as microbes that infect other lifeforms and makes them go rabid and be drawn to energy sources. The infection can be slowed or stopped by cold temperatures. If the infection progresses enough, it replaces the creature's meat with metal and makes them crave titanium to nom. The Termini become immune to cold but lose the microbes immunity to high temperatures. These things originally came out of a volcano, remember.

Then there's kind of a gap in my understanding here. A lot of the Termini look pretty shrimpy so it's not like they were eating as much titanium as the bear one. But at some point in the animal robot stage of the Termini, instead of titanium, they start craving radiation instead? And enough transforms them into bigger human-shaped forms. Is it titanium consumption that pushes them to start craving radiation? Just enough Termini in an area? If it's just about Termini population density, what's the point of the titanium? Just so they congregate in the same areas? I dunno.

Meanwhile, Thor.

It is his annual, after all. He should do stuff in it.

And he uses Mjolnir to warp to where Quasar stranded Terminus in space.

And Terminus is just kind of floating in space. Quasar broke his lance so the guy can't propel himself anywhere.

Terminus sends Thor a psychic warning "Worm of Earth -- do not come near!" and Thor, of course, ignores it.

Then he tries to beat the shit out of Terminus. I'm not sure why. And he's not accomplishing much. Hitting Terminus in space just pushes him in the direction of the blow. And Terminus' armor is so strong (despite the imposter Terminus being easily bodied by Hercules) that Thor is having trouble smashing him open. And zapping him with Mjolnir isn't having any effect either.

Terminus is kind of angrily flailing in space, since he can't really control his positioning but he almost manages to hit Thor a couple times before nailing him with a swat.

This makes Thor SO MAD that he finally succeeds at hammerthrowing himself into Terminus' chest.

Like... inside it. He managed to penetrate into Terminus' gooey yet technological insides.

And Thor decides the point of this exercise is for him to GAIN MENTAL MASTERY OVER TERMINUS, THE WAY HE DID TO ATUM IN ATLANTIS ATTACKS!

Sure.

I don't think of Thor as being very psychic but he does have a powerful will and has out-willed things like the Destroyer armor before.

Except this time, Terminus' mind overwhelms Thor's.

But it does provide an exposition dump. So that's helpful, for the readers.

THE SECRET BACKSTORY OF TERMINUS

Once upon a time, the Celestials blew a planet the fuck up. Because the planet wanted to conquer the cosmos and sometimes the Celestials have opinions on that.

The warmongery unnamed alien race couldn't fight the Celestials. So they created a new microbe they called the Termini, shoved it into a rocket, and blasted it off from a doomed homeplanet.

So Terminus is germ Superman?

Anyway, the microbes were created to multiply, infect, evolve into more complex forms of life, and eventually become the Terminus we all know and know. And Terminus is engineered to just hate the shit out of the Celestials.

So Terminus would fly around the universe, finding planets that the Celestials didn't blow up, and basically plunder them. Then he went to Earth and Reed Richards sent him to the center of the Earth.

Terminus didn't die, duh. Instead, he started clawing his way back towards the surface. But, on his way, he met Jorro, a weapons-maker for the Deviants. And instead of continuing to climb back out of the Earth, Terminus deputized Jorro to go pretend to be him. Which got Jorro super-murdered by Hercules after Jorro destroyed the Savage Land.

Meanwhile, Terminus decided to take some of the shit he plundered and recreated the Termini bacteria. And with those ready to go, he continued his climb. Which led to him getting yeeted into space by Quasar.

Just 0-3 for Terminuses around here.

Anyway, that's THE SECRET BACKSTORY OF TERMINUS.

While Thor was distracted getting exposited at, Terminus prepared his blood corpuscles to kick Thor's ass.

Thor fights back but, yeah, he gets his ass kicked. He gets leeched and Terminus tentacle yoinks Mjolnir.

Thor gets thrown out into space with no propulsion while Terminus uses the power of Mjolnir to fix his lance so he can fuck off.

Meanwhile, Hercules continues fighting the man-shaped Termini. Except they start fighting with each other, glooping together, and merging into one big Terminus (with a tail).

Then, the original Terminus arrives.

I like that New Terminus has a different design than Classic Terminus. They grew up in different environments and given what we now know about his life-cycle, it makes a lot of sense.

So, that's the first half of the Terminus Factor.

I liiiiiiiked the Captain America and Iron Man Annuals. Seeing the volcano bacteria infect a town and drive them rabid was spooky and knowing it had SOMETHING to do with Terminus left this ominous note even after Cap saved most of the day.

Then the infected bear from the first part came back and we got to see how dangerous a single Terminus-infected animal was, only to learn that there were dozens more.

Things kinda took a dip in the Thor Annual. Guy barely got to be in his own story, since he had the burden of facilitating all the exposition needed to finish retconning the Savage Land encounter and to give Terminus an origin. And unfortunately, the origin is... meh? Incredibly vague Some Planet and Some Jerks create a germ to plunder as part of a vague plan to get back at the Celestials. Except has any of Terminus' MO been about the Celestials?

And he had to physically make more Termini germs? I dunno. I think it would have been better if spreading Terminus spores is just something that happened after he was dunked into the Earth.

At least the Hercules side of the plot continued showing more of the Terminus life-cycle. So now we kinda have most of the whole picture.

Next post will have the annuals for West Coast Avengers and Avengers and we'll see where the plot goes now that we've got two Terminuses.

Follow @essential-avengers. That's where this liveblog lives. Like and reblog and tell me your thoughts.

[readwitheve]

REVIEW 3: THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY BY JENNY HAN

MY RATING: ★★★★

While most people read the books first and excitedly wait on the series or film adaptations, I have the opposite approach. I tend to like watching movies or shows first then deciding I’d like to read the book to see the differences between the on-screen adaptation and the source material. For me, I need to see the premise of the content and see if I find it entertaining before I commit to reading the book, though I admit that it’s a rather backwards way of thinking.

With this being said, though I consider myself older than the target audience as I was in my late 20s when I read this book (which was recent), I decided to pick up The Summer I Turned Pretty, which moving forward will be referred to as TSITP, after having enjoyed the first two seasons of the Amazon series of the same title. Now, I am familiar with Jenny Han’s work as I had read the To All the Boys I loved Before series, so I’m not surprised that I ended up wanting to read this series as well.

TSITP follows the story of Isabel “Belly” Conklin, a 16-year-old girl who’s grown up before everyone’s eyes. Alongside her mother, Laurel, and her brother, Steven, Belly returns to the beach house in Cousins Beach owned by her mother’s best friend, Susannah. Here, Belly experiences a lot of firsts that she would’ve usually avoided when she was back home and in school, like her first kiss and first date happening with a boy named Cameron. However, despite how nice Cameron is and how it seemed like fate that the two of them would be at Cousins together after not seeing each other for years, since the Model UN convention in middle school, Cameron is not the boy Belly actually wants. Instead, Belly is still head over heels for Conrad Fisher, Susannah’s first-born son and her crush since childhood.

Conrad, however, seems to have a wavering interest. One minute, he’s hanging around Belly and saying things that could be construed as flirty, the other, he’s pushing her away. He’s also seemed to lost interest in the things he once loved and had backed out on things he said he’d do, like football and working as a lifeguard with his brother. As a result of Conrad’s aloof behavior, Belly gets closer to Conrad’s younger brother, Jeremiah Fisher, who starts to develop feelings for Belly. All the while, distracted from her own drama, Belly doesn’t realize until the end that the reason why Conrad has been so distant with her is because he’s going through a lot, with his mother no longer in remission and her cancer having returned, and his father having cheated on her while she’s battling her illness.

In the end, though, first love seems to prevail as Conrad and Belly start to date.

As happy as I am that these two had wound up together at the end of this first installment in the trilogy, there really is a lot missing in the book, which is how Belly and Conrad actually get together. The ending seems so up in the air, the only thing that really happened was them kissing but there were no conversations as far as what they were and Belly didn’t state they were together, which is sad for Belly/Conrad fans. But as they say, this is about the journey and not the destination.

Overall, I did enjoy TSITP. It’s a cute story, and I do wish there was a bit more focus on Susannah and Laurel’s friendship like in the show compared to the books being limited to Belly’s point of view. I think this would be a good read for its intended audience of young adults, and maybe even older, who like reading romance and coming of age novels.

[dissertationwritinghelpforstds]

Thesis Writing

Realistic Goal Setting

One of the most critical aspects of thesis writing is setting realistic goals. Simply stating, “I’ll have my thesis written in 4 months,” can be overwhelming and counterproductive. Instead, break down this over arching aim into manageable goals. Setting smaller milestones, like completing specific sections or chapters within shorter time frames, provides a sense of achievement and maintains motivation.

Initial goals should be realistic, based on your personal working habits and prior experience. Many underestimate the time required, especially without prior experience in writing such extensive documents. Different tasks, like experiments, lab presentations, or conferences, will also compete for your time. Setting achievable goals and securing “easy wins” early on, such as completing a subsection of the Methods chapter, can build confidence and create a sense of accomplishment. As you progress, gradually set more challenging goals to push yourself further.

Organization

Effective thesis writing necessitates thorough preparation and organization. Before starting, ensure you have all the necessary information and materials. This includes:

Drafts of figures for each chapter, especially the Results.

Collated and analyzed raw data with clear statistical analysis descriptions.

Knowledge of the sources of equipment, chemicals, and composition of solutions.

A comprehensive bibliography using a reference database.

Having all this information at your fingertips prevents disruptions and ensures a smooth writing process. Understanding your data is crucial; conclusions cannot be drawn without knowing the outcomes of your experiments. Hence, organized data collection and analysis are essential to avoid any surprises during the write-up.

Thesis Content and Writing Process

A typical thesis includes the following sections: General Introduction, Methods, Results (with several sub-chapters), Overall Discussion, Bibliography, Acknowledgements, and Indexes. The suggested order for writing these sections is:

Methods: This chapter should be straight forward, detailing what you did and how. Be careful to avoid plagiarism, even in standard protocols, and ensure the inclusion of all methodologies used, especially for final experiments.

2. Results: Start with the easiest chapters or those that may form the basis of a manuscript. Results chapters do not have to follow the chronological order of experiments or the order they will appear in the final thesis.

3. General Introduction: This is often the most challenging part to write. It should provide a historical and contemporary assessment of the literature in your research field and outline the thesis focus. Creating an outline early in the process can help manage this chapter, breaking it into subsections for manageable writing and frequent revision.

4. Overall Discussion: This chapter should synthesize your findings, placing them in the context of your research field. Avoid repeating discussions from individual Results chapters.

Illustrating Your Thesis

Effective illustration of your data through figures is crucial. Good figures tell a story and provide a lasting legacy of your work. Tips for creating effective figures include:

Legibility: Use readable font sizes.

Consistency: Maintain consistency in data presentation.

Separation of panels: Use separate figures when possible to avoid clutter.

Color usage: Be mindful of color use, ensuring accessibility for color-blind individuals and black-and-white print versions.

Figures should be intensively revised and adapted, allowing time to master your figure-making software. Informative figure legends are essential, conveying the “take-home” message clearly.

Communication and Feedback

Maintaining communication with your supervisor throughout the writing process is crucial. Early feedback can prevent extensive revisions later. Schedule regular meetings to discuss drafts and incorporate feedback aimed at improving your work. This collaborative approach ensures your thesis aligns with academic standards and expectations.

Rewards and Relaxation

The thesis writing process can be exhausting and frustrating. Realistic goal setting should include rewarding yourself for completing tasks. Balance work and relaxation to maintain productivity and avoid burnout. Remember, completing your thesis is a significant step toward your career advancement.

Preparing a Manuscript for Publication

Thesis writing often leads to the preparation of manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals. This process involves:

Ensuring your study has a clear hypothesis and contributes significantly to the field.

Drafting Methods and Results sections first to highlight any missing data or additional analyses needed.

Writing a concise Discussion that places your findings in the context of existing research without recapitulating the Results section.

Finalizing Key points summary, Abstract, and Introduction after drafting the main content to ensure focus and clarity.

Following ethical and statistical reporting policies, including providing detailed Methods and ensuring data reproducibility.

Conclusion

The process of writing a thesis and preparing manuscripts is iterative and requires careful planning, organization, and communication. By setting realistic goals, staying organized, and seeking continuous feedback, you can navigate this challenging task effectively. Remember, your thesis is a significant milestone in your academic journey, paving the way for future research contributions and career advancements.

Investing in your academic future with Dissertation Writing Help For Students means choosing a dedicated professional who understands the complexities of dissertation writing and is committed to your success. With a comprehensive range of services, personalized attention, and a proven track record of helping students achieve their academic goals, I am here to support you at every stage of your dissertation journey.

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[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

Eclipse

Been working this theory for a while and I finally want to lay it out there now that the Final Shape launch is over; I think the relationship between the Witness and Veil may be some very clever narrative sleight of hand.

We know the Veil is the other side of the Traveler's coin, that they share a connection and that the Veil connects us all. It is a web of consciousness, of mind and memory. It's a big concept, but one that they've kind of kept their cards close to their chest about still. The Witness has instead been the focus, which has led a lot of the community to attribute many Darkness related mysteries to the Witness.

So here's my idea (and it's a long shot, just bear with me); what if the Witness is a very good and compelling red herring? We have references to the Veil way back to D1's files in Crota's End, where there is the Oversoul, a real concept closely associated with the idea of the Veil, which I believe (source?) does touch the Ascendant Plane. Oryx communed with the Deep via a ritual to summon it into an ogre, something much more akin to the Witness and Maya's rituals with the Veil than a simple encounter with the Witness. And remember, Xur told us that the Traveler has a dark mirror, long long ago.

The Veil name also appears in the files of Shadowkeep, which feels like a crucial moment in the current arc of Destiny. In Beyond, we finally enter the Lunar Pyramid and are spoken to by the Witness through our Ghosts. We reach a Dissenter statue (remember, these were created with the binding power of the Veil), and receive a resonant orb before being whisked to the Black Garden, where the Witness speaks to us. We later recieve Unveiling from that orb, which is how we are told the story of the Gardener and the Winnower.

We know from Osiris that the Veil whispers an electromagnetic language that resonates with our minds, but is indecipherable without an interface. I believe that orb is just one of many Veil Interfaces we've seen in the past, and that Unveiling was indeed written by the Veil, the Winnower. We also know that Egregore is something linked to the Veil, not the Witness. It festers where the Veil has touched, but is more elusive where it currently is operating.

What we see is the mushroom, the fruit of the fungus. The fungus itself is a vast mycorrhizal network of filaments growing and working unseen below the soil, often barely connected to the fruiting bodies we observe. Similarly, we have observed Ghosts—Hive Ghosts included—without understanding the nature of the unseen filaments that may guide us.

This is what I find so fascinating about the idea; Destiny's story has always been built on secrets, mysteries, and esotericism. The veil between life and death (or the material and immaterial world) is a very old idea, one that could easily be vaguely sketched out in preproduction as the "dark side of the Traveler" with the details left for much later. This could explain the early speculation/leaked plot details that "the Traveler is evil," simply a misunderstanding of a more complex idea that hasn't begun to be realized

But how do you make its presence felt while keeping it hidden? You connect it to everything on a core conceptual level, and then confuse and distract. You introduce a mysterious villain, and the concept of a different, harder to understand "villain", and allow them to be conflated. Both concepts remain elusive and uncertain for a bit until Witch Queen, the Witness is revealed, all while the person who hid the Veil teaches us about the Darkness. Immediately, this feels like the big picture. And so naturally, our theories pivot to center on the Witness, not realizing that it is not the pyramidion itself, but rather the first stone laid to support it. Then in Lightfall, we discover the Veil. So now we have two closely related concepts, a universal web of consciousness and the gestalt being that was created in an attempt to emulate the web. Like the Black Heart acting as static in the Traveler and Veil's connection, the Witness placed itself between the player and the Veil.

See who's robed as if a god, who stands with pride above the rest! Destroy this ancient nameless fraud! Destroy the one whose death was blessed!

Perhaps it even tried to take its place physically.

And now that the Witness is gone, we have Echoes, objects reminiscent of the Veil's color and kaleidescopic pattern, a result of the Darkness binding the Witness being released and intermingling with the Light of the Traveler— a mental force taking physical form.

[u.2:11] We live too long for regrets. You taught me that. Don’t forget the House of Light.

[u.1:12] If I can find the time, yes. Not all of us conjure Echoes.

[u.2:12] Reflections, Saint. I have no need for Echoes anymore.

[u.1:13] What do you mean? What’s the difference?

[u.2:13] One is a manifestation of Light. The other… reserved for Taken Kings. Better suited for traversing the Sundial because of what lies at its core.

[u.1:14] One day you’ll have to tell me exactly what you and the Guardian did to bring me back.

[u.2:14] We did what we had to. Trust me.

Eyes up, Guardians.

Hello again, my trenchant Dante. You have stepped in and out of sharp-edged worlds, hewn gods into blunt fractions, twinned yourself with powers whose names cannot even be held in the language of little gray cells. You think yourself very high up on the pyramid of contumely. If you only knew how high that pyramid goes. Higher than I knew when my radiant killer unsung me from biological squalor, or when I witnessed a royal secret turn death into a chrysalis. Higher than I described in my journals, or told to our mutual three-eyed friend. Higher than even I, sailor upon the Sea of Screams that I am, can yet see. Perhaps I will tell you about them. You are right to ask why I would do so. Very good, dear squanderer, your intentions have grown sharp as thrallteeth. You see, they know. What you are, what you were, what you will become. They know. What lean tithes you are to them. Soft whetstones make for dull blades. This I define as the truth and tension of the rope: to bind, one must apply force at both ends. I think perhaps I will tell you after all.

Hope you enjoyed this theory, even if it's a bit out there! Would love to hear your interpretations and thoughts, as I've been fascinated by the Veil and its place in this story since Lightfall (and Shadowkeep if this theory holds!)

[spiritualsoull1969]

Finding Inner Peace: Tao Te Ching's Guidance for Daily Life

A profound piece of wisdom from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching that aligns well with the article is:

"When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you."

This quote emphasizes the importance of contentment and acceptance, key elements of Taoist philosophy that can lead to inner peace and balance in daily life. It encourages readers to appreciate what they have and find completeness within themselves, rather than constantly seeking external validation or material possessions.

Hook

In the hustle and bustle of modern life, finding inner peace can often seem like an elusive goal. Yet, ancient wisdom holds timeless guidance for achieving tranquility and balance. Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, a cornerstone of Taoist philosophy, offers profound insights into living harmoniously with the natural order. This article explores how the Tao Te Ching can guide us to inner peace and provides a practical toolkit to integrate its principles into our daily routines.

Understanding Tao Te Ching’s Core Concepts:

1. Tao (The Way): The Tao represents the fundamental principle that underlies and unites the universe. It is the natural order of things, characterized by harmony, balance, and flow. In daily life, aligning with the Tao means living in accordance with nature and embracing simplicity and authenticity.

2. Wu Wei (Effortless Action): Wu Wei is the principle of non-action or effortless action. It encourages us to act naturally and without force, to flow with the currents of life rather than against them. This doesn't imply inaction but rather taking actions that are in harmony with the natural world and our true selves.

3. Te (Virtue/Integrity): Te refers to the innate virtue and integrity that arise from living in harmony with the Tao. It involves being true to oneself, acting with kindness, and maintaining a moral compass that is aligned with the greater good.

Applying Tao Te Ching Principles to Daily Life:

1. Embracing Simplicity:

Concept: Simplify your life by focusing on what truly matters and eliminating unnecessary complexities.

Application: Declutter your living space, reduce your commitments, and prioritize meaningful activities over superficial ones.

2. Practicing Acceptance:

Concept: Accept life as it comes, without resistance or excessive control.

Application: Cultivate a mindset of acceptance. When faced with challenges, instead of resisting, observe them without judgment and respond calmly.

3. Finding Balance:

Concept: Balance different aspects of your life to maintain harmony and prevent burnout.

Application: Create a daily schedule that includes time for work, rest, and recreation. Ensure you have a healthy mix of activities that nurture your body, mind, and spirit.

4. Acting with Integrity:

Concept: Live in alignment with your values and principles, and treat others with kindness and respect.

Application: Reflect on your core values and ensure that your actions align with them. Practice empathy and kindness in your interactions.

Practical Toolkit for Integrating Taoist Principles into Daily Life:

1. Morning Meditation Routine:

Practice: Start your day with a 10-15 minute meditation session. Focus on your breath and set a calm, positive intention for the day.

Benefit: This practice helps center your mind, reducing stress and promoting a sense of inner calm that carries through the day.

2. Simplify Your Environment:

Practice: Regularly declutter your home and workspace. Keep only items that are necessary or bring you joy.

Benefit: A simplified environment reduces mental clutter and fosters a sense of peace and order.

3. Acceptance Practice:

Practice: When encountering difficulties, take a moment to breathe deeply and acknowledge the situation without judgment. Practice gratitude for what you have.

Benefit: Acceptance reduces resistance and stress, allowing you to respond to challenges more effectively.

4. Balanced Daily Schedule:

Practice: Design a daily routine that balances work, rest, exercise, and leisure. Use planners or digital tools to organize your time.

Benefit: A balanced schedule prevents burnout and ensures that all aspects of your well-being are nurtured.

5. Mindful Walking:

Practice: Incorporate mindful walking into your routine. Focus on the sensation of your feet touching the ground and your surroundings.

Benefit: Mindful walking connects you with the present moment, reduces stress, and enhances overall mindfulness.

6. Reflective Journaling:

Practice: Spend a few minutes each evening reflecting on your day. Write down your thoughts, feelings, and any insights you gained.

Benefit: Journaling helps process emotions, enhances self-awareness, and provides clarity.

7. Acts of Kindness:

Practice: Perform small acts of kindness daily, whether it’s helping a colleague, being polite to a stranger, or doing something nice for a loved one.

Benefit: Kindness boosts your mood, fosters positive relationships, and creates a ripple effect of goodwill.

8. Nature Connection:

Practice: Spend time in nature regularly, whether it’s a park, garden, or wilderness. Engage your senses and appreciate the natural world.

Benefit: Nature has a calming effect, reduces stress, and helps you feel connected to the greater whole.

9. Mindful Breathing:

Practice: Throughout the day, take moments to practice mindful breathing. Inhale deeply through your nose, hold, and exhale slowly through your mouth.

Benefit: Mindful breathing calms the nervous system, reduces anxiety, and enhances focus.

10. Gratitude Practice:

Practice: At the end of each day, write down three things you are grateful for.

Benefit: Focusing on gratitude shifts your perspective to the positive aspects of life, fostering a sense of contentment and peace.

Food For Thought

Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching offers timeless guidance for finding inner peace through simplicity, acceptance, balance, and integrity. By integrating these Taoist principles into our daily routines, we can cultivate a more tranquil and fulfilling life. The practical toolkit provided helps bridge the gap between ancient wisdom and modern living, allowing you to navigate life’s challenges with grace and serenity. Embrace the Taoist way, and discover the profound peace that comes from living in harmony with the natural order.