#and their lethal passion for protecting their own beliefs

[s1hayas]

fremen really are the most insane baller people.

[kingsdespair-if]

KING'S DESPAIR: THE FOG OF WAR. BOOK 1.

''Welcome, dear slayer.

Or better yet, slayer-to-be.

Sit with me by the fire and help yourself to some ale.

This journey will be long.

And what a journey it will be!

We are about to slay the spawn of a god.''

King's Despair is set in Melethya, a planet similar to Earth.

Our main character is a young adventurer sought after by the renowned sage Egon. Egon presents a mission to slay creatures born from nightmares, the offspring of a bestial god believed to have created the entire universe.

But is this belief true?

Before the creatures can be slain, a sword must be retrieved. Its pieces are scattered throughout the continent of Kellet, where the slayer was born and where our adventure begins.

Kellet is the largest of the five great continents in Melethya. It is also the most hostile, filled with magical creatures who are not keen on sharing their spaces. Now, you must form a party with creatures from different species who despise each other and try to make it work. The greater good calls for heroes, and you are those heroes… sort of.

Choose from 6 unique races, each with their own abilities and appearances.

Fully customize your SLAYER, including their name, height, weight, eyes, body, hair, sexuality, and gender.

Romance, befriend, or become enemies with any of the 6 romance options (plus a secret one).

Select your class, define your personality, and determine the fate of the world. Fight for peace or for destruction.

And who knows, you might even have the opportunity to hatch a dragon egg and have a dragon companion. 👀

This game will primarily focus on character interactions and romance.

Please note that this game contains explicit content and graphic violence, and is only suitable for players aged 18 and above. Reader discretion is advised (This is a very horny and very gory game).

Amisha Kahax, SHE/HER, 29 years old, lesbian, WARG. She has been your best friend since childhood, when your parents found her lost and alone in the forest. Amisha is a formidable warrior who can transform into a powerful white tiger. Despite her fierce appearance, she has a sweet and playful personality, often teasingly flirtatious with the female Slayer. Amisha will always crush on the female Slayer and is dedicated to protecting her friends and loved ones.

Standing at a height of 5'11" (1,82), she possesses a muscular physique and wields a heavy battle axe with great skill.

[Friends to lovers, puppy love, best friends falling in love]

Veleena, SHE/HER, 31 years old, bisexual, HALF ROYAL ELF. Veleena possesses a quiet and lethal demeanor. She is cold and distant, likely due to the mistreatment from her father and the abandonment by her mother since birth. Her father, a human from the human realm, began training her in combat from a young age, as soon as she could hold a dagger in her small hands. Despite her tough exterior, Veleena is fiercely loyal to her cousin, Veldon. However, there are moments when she lets her guard down and reveals her vulnerability, as evidenced by the faint sound of her crying when she believes everyone else is asleep.

Veleena stands at 5'7" (1.70) with a slender body. She has albinism.

[Oblivious to love, Emotional scars, Everyone can see it]

Prince Khalid Razzarq-cassim, HE/HIM, 24 years old, bisexual, HASSAM. Meet Khalid, the youngest member of the royal Hassam lineage. He is fiercely loyal to his people and will go to great lengths to protect them from the mistreatment of other races. Khalid is a strong and passionate individual who isn't afraid to show it. He tends to judge others quickly and is even quicker to dismiss any threats. With a strong sense of pride and stubbornness,

Khalid stands at a height of 5'3"(1,60), taller than most in his race, and despises when anyone suggests otherwise.

[Enemies to lovers, Unattainable love, Lovers in denial, Royal]

Veldon Heredon, HE/HIM, 33 years old bisexual, HUMAN. Veldon is Veleena's older cousin. He hails from the human realm's royalty and takes great pleasure in indulging himself in the city's brothels. He enjoys getting to know the people who work there, as well as engaging in activities like drinking and gambling. However, he puts a pause on his fun-filled schedule when his cousin needs him. At that moment, his playful smile transforms into a serious frown. Veldon has always made it a point to protect his cousin, even from her own father. The scar on Veleena's face haunts his nightmares, as he blames himself for it.

Veldon takes pride in his appearance and engages in regular training for two main reasons: to ensure his cousin's safety and to maintain his attractiveness to potential suitors. He stands at a height of 5'9'' (1,75).

[One-night stand to something more meaningful, Belated love epiphany, Playboy in love]

Kaellë Lorthan, SHE/HER, 27 years old, demisexual. SALT ELF. Kaellë is a timid salt elf who is fearful of her own shadow, but possesses exceptional healing skills. She has never failed to save a patient, even during her years working aboard perilous merchant ships. Accompanying her at all times is her affectionate sea wyvern, Jokhan. Blushing easily and frequently hiding behind her hands, Kaellë exudes a charming presence. However, her thanatophobia raises doubts about her suitability for her current occupation. "Has Egon lost his mind? Oh well, so be it."

She is 5' 1'' (1,55).

[Love at first sight, First love, Can’t say 'I love you', Sweet love]

Mauthak, the cruel, HE/HIM, 35 years old, gay, ORC. Mauthak lives up to his name, being strong, big, and fierce. However, this doesn't mean he indiscriminately kills every creature he encounters. He simply enjoys fighting a little too much for his own good. As the leader of his Orc tribe, Mauthak is responsible for training the young recruits in the army, a role he takes very seriously. He has a love for drinking, fighting, and sex, making him a straightforward individual.

Physically, Mauthak is an imposing figure, standing at a towering height of 6' 5'' (1,98). He possesses the strength of a minotaur. He confidently struts around, his muscular and scarred chest exposed, wearing heavy armor on his shoulders.

[Redemption, Nobody thinks it will work, Forbidden love]

SECRET. Selectable Gender, 28 years old, gay/lesbian/heterosexual, their sexual orientation depends on MC's gender. UNKNOWN race.

They are familiar with you, even if you are unaware of them. They have been discreetly observing you, captivated by you. You are their sole focus.

Unknown height.

They possess immense power. Wait, did you hear that?

[Unrequited love, Dark secret, Secret identity, Secret admirer, If I can’t have you, nobody will]

PLAY THE DEMO

English is not my first language, so please be gentle with me.

//

My side project, Shadow of Styria, can be found HERE.

//

Join the Discord and come chat with me! 🥰 https://discord.gg/NcnHwV65xn

[ask-fantasy-sanders-sides]

yeaaaaahhhhh, piety points……(what are piety points?)

      Piety Points are the Game's way of measuring how devoted a humanoid is to their Deity, (and how much power the Deity and their temples give them in return,) completely independent of player Class or Race!

      Peity Points are basically the God-and-Follower version of Bonds, measuring both the follower's personal devotion to their Deity and the Deity's approval of that follower's actions.

      (Remember, since Bond numbers must be reciprocated, someone who follows a Deity's principles by nature but doesn't really venerate them will not have a bond/piety points, and neither will someone who adores a Deity but doesn't actually follow their rules. For example: Someone who worships Lathander but twists his teachings, and uses them as a justification to hurt innocent people? Lathander does not approve of that, so that person probably doesn't have Piety Points.)

      You can have any number of Points, which are Earned and Lost based on criteria set by the Deity. They are very difficult to earn, meaning that a Player must do many great deeds in the name of their Deity to collect them! These Great Deeds can be personal or interpersonal; saving a town from imminent demise will obviously earn you some points, but so will overcoming personal weaknesses that are important to you.

      There are five Ranks of Piety, which determine how much power you get from your deity and how well-known you are in your temple.

      For a neat breakdown, let's look at Amaryllis and Sune:

~

As decreed by the Goddess of Love and Beauty, you can Earn Piety Points from Sune by:

Awakening love in others, or Inspiring them with your beauty

Embracing the throes of passion wherever they take you

Preforming loving acts, and responding to love from others

Taking decisive action on impulse

Acquiring beautiful items, and protecting the people that make them

And, likewise, you can Lose Piety Points from Sune by:

Hiding away or disregarding your own beauty

Betraying a loved one in any way

Denying the gifts of love to yourself or another

Putting outward appearance over inner beauty

Destroying beautiful things, actively or through inaction

Rank 1: Faithful (1-2 Piety Points)

     Those who believe on a basic level are the most fundamental and common followers to a deity. However, there are those that stand above the crowds, those whose belief is unquestionable and unquestioned; They are the Faithful! Becoming a faithful grants you access to the most basic of the inner workings of the Church. You are able to request and receive personal aid from the church (like food, shelter, minor healing, etc), and you can perform ceremonies as well as bless certain actions in the name of your god.      Sune's Faithful are known as Suneites.

Rank 2: Devoted (3-9 Piety Points)

     You have proven that your belief is not simply faith in the god, but true and honest Devotion! Your superiors have come to value and rely on your service. It’s a heavy burden to bear, but you do it gladly, and succeed where others have failed. Your god recognizes your service with a gift!      As a devotee of Sune, your incredible beauty has garnered her attention and adoration. You can cast Ceremony with this trait, requiring no material components, a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.

Rank 3: Votary (10-24 Piety Points)

     Each person that achieves the rank of Votary has proven to be staunch and unwavering bastion of faith, devotion and service, both to the church and to the community that it serves. These characters have at their service a portion of the might of the Church, and can call on the assistance of the church for minor needs. A Pious character gains a title and rank within the Church, and is given the ability to command a small number of soldiers of the faith, or to requisition a number of scribes and clerics of the faith for research, transcription and other menial tasks. Sune's Votaries are known as a Sibling/Sister/Brother of the Ruby Rose.      Sune's love glows warmly in your heart! With this trait, you can cast Beakon of Hope. Once you cast the spell in this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.      In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against being charmed.

Rank 4: Disciple (25-49 Piety Points)

     You have made a thunderous name for yourself among the church elders and much of the general populace throughout the land, with renown going far beyond your own temple. You have moved up in the ranks of the church, and are awarded with titles, lands and followers of your own! You are recognized as one of the leaders of your faith, and given great leeway with what you do, as it is assumed you are always doing the gods will.      Sune's Disciples are known as Heartwarders, usually being the most handsome/beautiful clergy member both inside and out! They were expected to keep their appearance as flattering as possible to their own tastes, and shower others with sweet words at least five times a month. They often worked as matchmakers, etiquette instructors, artists, or teachers in a myriad of creative disciplines, such as visual arts, dance and performance art, vocal and instrumental music, personal beautification, and social etiquette.      You have grown more than accustomed to the blazing fires of obsession; You can cast Flame Strike with this trait, requiring no material components. Once you cast the spell in this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.

Rank 5: Champion (50+ Piety Points)

     At this point in time, you have become a walking embodiment of the gods will on earth. Though you may not desire it, you have been gifted a grand title and immense pull with the faithful the world over. Your legend grows with every day you live and each story told about you blows your possible deeds out of proportion, crediting you with everything from the sunrise to the death of kings and enemies of the religion. You can ask for great services from the church, as the faithful flock to your command. You are the absolute pinnacle of deific influence wielded by a mortal.      At this point a heartwarder became a creature of the fey, along with all their inherent strengths. In addition, You can increase your Charisma or Wisdom score by 2 and also increase your maximum for that score by 2.

(Amy is here! She has 69 Piety Points)

~

...Although there is no official “Piety Rank 6,″ it is believed that you do get more powers from passing even further than 50 points. Some Heartwarders who are particularly favored by Sune have been said to have one or more additional powers:

Through divine grace, heartwarders' tears can be magically changed into the waters of Evergold, aka the Fountain of Youth. This solution was deadly to opponents who were necrotic or infernal in nature. With more experience, Heartwarders could also use their tears to make a love potion valued highly by the faithful.

Through Sune's Caress, Heartwarders could heal others as their own flesh is mended.

Heartwarders could charge their kiss with rapturous power, bringing sensations of safety, adoration, and complete and overwhelming pleasure to any they bestowed it upon. This kiss blessed those it touched, granting them increased resistance against magical effects for a short duration. (A heartwarder's kiss was so potent that it sometimes confused and dazed the recipient as well.) 

Heartwarders could also kiss those who were at a distance by means of a unique spell. 

Heartwarders could imbue themselves with Siren’s Voice, which helped hone their voice into a sweet and enchanting sound that weakened the will of their enemies, in turn placing them under enchantment.

So great was the love heartwarders had for their fellow allies, that their divine power could absorb some of the harm caused to them. While it reduced the lethality of an attack, it hurt the heartwarder in turn.

Most of the Clergy also believes that Aasimar of Sune are born with all of these powers dormant within themselves, regardless of their rank or level! This has never been concretely proven, with Aasimar being so rare, but the belief persists...

[katsitting]

"Audacity"?

AN: So, we’ve got another one that I ran with.  I hope you enjoy, and that this is along the lines of what you had in mind :) All typos are mine

Ships: Tomarry

Rating: T

Warnings: Alternate Universe - Modern, Canon Divergence, Professor Tom Riddle, Sexual Tension, Student/Teacher Dynamic, Tom Riddle is a Dark Lord but Harry doesn’t know this, POV Third Person Limited, Not Beta-Read

You can read it on AO3 here.

_______________________________________________________________

“That’s total bollocks” Harry said, aware that he was playing a dangerous game, but unwilling to anyway. To do anything else would be to admit defeat, and Harry, even when acquiescence was the safest option in his toolbox, would sooner kiss a Mandrake than do as much.

To hell with that.

“Harry!” Hermione hissed into his ear, with what Harry could imagine was an ashen and horrified look on her face. Harry didn’t turn to face her, though, not when Professor Riddle was standing in front of him with a look of absolute contempt on his face.

“This is insane, Harry. You’re going to get detention, or worse, expelled.” Hermione was buzzing with nervous energy at his side, while Ron, the more terrified of the two, remained silent. It was as if Ron had absorbed all the fear and good sense Harry had because what Harry said, was going to continue to say, wasn’t sensible in the least. “Harry, please, see sense.”

Harry couldn’t, not over the loud rush of anger, of bitterness in his ears. It was a writhing, living mass in the centre of his chest, a poison slowly spreading through his veins.

Stopping wasn’t an option. Not anymore.

“No matter how you slice it, it’s wrong. You can’t just say that the Unforgivables have their moments where they—the total bloody opposite of what the word unforgivable even means—are forgivable.”

Professor Riddle’s expression darkened, his contempt growing into something that resembled loathing.  The murmurs in the classroom had all but vanished; Harry doubted there was even an intake of breath. Still, Harry couldn’t find it within himself to care, to be concerned. He only had room for fury in his heart.

Because how fucking dare he?

A dark wizard had murdered Harry’s parents using an Unforgivable.

A dark witch had tortured Neville’s parents until they’d gone mad using an Unforgivable.

There was no justification, no reason for the use of dark magic. Even if Professor Riddle was brilliant, one of the most talented young wizards to grace this school, he was wrong.

The gall, the bloody nerve, to say that they could somehow be justified.

Harry’s fingers were shaking to the point that he couldn’t keep his pencil in his grip.

“Mr. Potter—“ Riddle began, but Harry didn’t let him finish.  He was on his feet before he realised what he’d done, hands clenched into fists at his hands. His shaking had spread from his fingers to the rest of him.

“No, don’t say another word.”

The room went still. Everyone did. Even Riddle had paused, his expression freezing into one of disbelief.

Harry drank the look in, taking that moment to give Riddle the most disgusted look he could muster, before turning away and beginning to gather his things.  He wasn’t going to stay a second longer.

What would be the point? He was angry, no, furious. Staying in this classroom, with his pissant of a professor, would only invite another argument, would only cost his House more points.

It was such bullshit. Such horseshit.

Harry tried not to think about his anger, tried not to focus on the nervous glances Ron and Hermione cast his way in the hopes he’d face them and sit back down, but that anger—

It was all he could focus on, all he could taste in the back of his tongue as he shoved his books into his bag. He was so furious that he couldn’t stand it, that he couldn’t breathe through his it.

How could someone so brilliant be so blind? How could someone so young be so heartless? It was maddening. It didn’t make any bloody sense!

His head still rung with Riddle’s cavalier discussion of dark magic, of what a fascinating history they had, Riddle had said. He couldn’t get the words out of his head, couldn’t erase the look of fascination in Riddle’s dark eyes as he spoke about the subject to his class.

It was disgusting, so fucking—

Harry shot the thought down before he riled himself up any further.  If he let himself just run with this, there was no telling what else he might do, might say.  Dumbledore could cover for him, but not even he could protect him if Harry took things too far.

“Mr. Potter—“

Harry’s fingers stilled, his head snapping up to look at Riddle without meaning to. Riddle’s expression had grown icier in the time Harry had spent gathering his things. It was like all the colour had been drained out of him, his humanity gone.

Harry didn’t let that intimidate him. Squaring his shoulders, Harry levelled him with a fierce expression of his own.

“Sit down.”

Harry didn’t. He refused to be cowed, to be silenced for his legitimate position. No one got a pass at saying that dark magic was justifiable, not even the professors.

No, especially not the professors.

Riddle had been alright for a Slytherin, even if he was some of the harsher professors when it came to his lessons, but now, Harry was certain that he was worse than all the rubbish in Slytherins he knew.

The Slytherins he knew at least were forthright with their noxious beliefs, but no, not Professor Riddle.  Riddle was the worst kind of Slytherin, the most heinous of all, he was a bloody liar. A terrible person pretending to be kind, to be good. He was—

A dark wizard through and through.

“Mr. Potter, don’t make me repeat myself.”

Still, Harry refused to back down. The room grew chillier still, the tension among the other seventh-year students enough to make everyone rigid in their seats. Harry wanted to feel bad for putting everyone through this, but he didn’t. Harry felt no guilt.

“Class dismissed. Mr. Potter, you stay.”

Riddle’s voice was a whisper; no louder than the flutter of a page turning. With how everyone reacted, it might as well been a Bombarda. Everyone scrambled to gather their things, to rush out of the room and escape from the mounting conflict with between them.

Harry paid them no mind, still not standing down even as Hermione and Ron lingered on the outer perimeter of his sight. They should have left with everyone else, but Harry understood their reservations, their hesitance. A Harry that was alone was a Harry that could get himself into deeper trouble.

Calling Professor a fucking  dark wizard would do precisely that, and the temptation to shout that off the top of his lungs, was growing stronger by the seconds.

“Granger and Weasley, I believe I said that class was dismissed.”

From Harry’s peripheral, he could make out Hermione freezing in place, her hand falling away from where she had tried to reach for the outer edge of his robes. Her face was expressionless, but by the state of her hair, Harry knew she was flustered and on the verge of panicking. Harry almost winced at the look on Ron’s face.  He fared no better than Hermione; he looked faint, his face a shade of pale green.

Hermione was short of having a panic attack, and Ron, by the look of things, was in the middle of one.

Harry did feel a twinge of guilt then.

Harry turned to Hermione with a smile on his face that he meant to be comforting, but Hermione’s expression didn’t look convinced. Her hair was still frizzed up, as if the strands were sucking up the tension in the room.  

“Go. I’ll be fine.”

Hermione hesitated, unwilling to leave him alone but also equally as unwilling to disobey a direct instruction from their professor. The tension radiating from Riddle was growing worse by the second, it was only a matter of time before he directed his ire on Harry’s friends if they didn’t move fast enough.

Harry didn’t want to drag him into his mess.

“Go.”

Hermione gave a subtle nod, and then, with a fierce expression on her face, managed to undo whatever spell of panic Ron was in and lead him out of the classroom.

Harry didn’t watch them as they left, not with Riddle watching him as closely as he was. It was like he was trying to see beneath Harry’s skin, to uncover some sort of secret that he didn’t know.

What he was trying to find, to uncover, Harry didn’t know nor care.

Riddle could look all he fucking liked.

“Mr. Potter—“ Riddle began, voice so soft that Harry struggled to catch it. It wasn’t angry or upset. It wasn’t much of anything. It was empty, but it was still eerie enough to make the hair’s on the nape of Harry’s neck stand on end.

“While I admire your passion on the subject, what you have said and done today, is—“

Harry couldn’t help his smirk when Riddle stopped talking, lifting his chin a little to stare at Riddle from beneath his nose. A gesture that said, no, screamed—

I dare you.

I bloody dare you.

Whatever the circumstances, Harry was not afraid. Nothing Riddle said could scare him, nothing that he did could make him take his words back. Riddle had lost all of his respect, his goodwill. There was nothing Riddle could possibly do to him now that would make a bloody difference.

Detention?

Expulsion?

While detention was definitely a tool in Riddle’s arsenal, Harry’s behaviour wasn’t enough to justify expulsion. Dumbledore wouldn’t allow it, and in fact, Harry was certain, Dumbledore might even praise him for his defiance.

“The audacity Mr. Potter, to accuse me of being accepting of dark magic, to derail my class with your ridiculous tantrum—“

Harry laughed, unable to help it when Riddle’s expression turned lethal, when Riddle crossed the room to loom over Harry like some sort of angry ghost from across his desk. Harry had never considered Riddle the type to throw fists, but with the look he was sporting, Harry had half a mind to prepare himself for an all-out brawl.

“If given the chance, I’d do it again,” Harry said, and Riddle froze, all the anger draining out of him leaving behind an expressionless mask. “Hogwarts has no place for dark wizards…sir.”

It was miraculous just how fast Professor Riddle switched from one emotion to the next. It made one wonder just how sane he was, if one could even call Riddle sane at all for spouting the nonsense he’d had in class.

“Seventy-five points from Gryffindor and a month’s detention, Potter.”

Harry didn’t flinch, already expecting that. His entire house was going to kill him, but it couldn’t be helped. Actions had consequences, and although he would have preferred getting out of this unscathed, that was not going to be possible after what he’d said.

Oh well.

Riddle didn’t say anything more for some time, his gaze burning into Harry’s eyes.  It was uncomfortable, to say the least, but Harry did not blink. He didn’t want to miss a thing even though his eyes were starting to water.

“Listen well, Harry—

The sound of his name coming from that mouth was enough to make Harry’s skin crawl.

“For someone that is so quick to accuse others of being a dark wizard, I find it curious that you would choose to submit yourself to detention with the very wizard you are accusing of condoning dark magic.”

Harry’s blood ran cold, shock enough to drain away all the burning righteous indignation swimming in his gut. Riddle’s lips had into a saccharine smile and—

Those eyes.

They were lit with something Harry couldn’t identify, something he couldn’t place. All that he knew was that it was wrong somehow, that it was—

No, Harry tried to shake off the unease. He’s only trying to scare you.

Harry squared his shoulders, fighting down the wave of unease murmuring in the back of his mind to turn away and run.

“It’s not very intelligent of you, Harry,” Riddle purred and Harry blanched, unsure of how to respond when Riddle’s face changed again, something mischievous now gracing his features. “But I suppose, that is what others find so endearing about you. This recklessness.”

Harry’s throat caught, a burn he didn’t want to acknowledge blooming across his cheeks. How did he even begin responding to that?

“I’d be careful if I were you. Someone might just find you too endearing, and—“ Riddle’s lips were curled into a strange smile, one Harry had never seen on his professor’s face before. Harry tried to swallow down his discomfort, to not take a step back when Riddle tilted his head to one side, observing him from beneath his lashes.

What the fuck?

What the fuck?

“Never you mind, Harry. You’re free to go.”

Riddle waved his hand, and it was like Harry could breathe again, had been snapped out of his unwanted and unexpected stupor for a moment to take a step back and reach for his moleskin bag.

The moment was over as quickly as it had come.

What the fuck was that all about?

Harry couldn’t even begin to answer that question, to sort through this own confusing thoughts. Even after he’d left the classroom, rushing through the halls all the way to Gryffindor Tower at a much faster pace than he would have liked, he was at a loss.

It was obvious Riddle had been upset. That couldn’t have been more clear, but—

But I suppose, that is what others find so endearing about you. This recklessness.

It was almost as though he were paying Harry a compliment, and that was wrong on so many levels that Harry didn’t even want to consider it. Riddle didn’t pay compliments like that. Especially not after what Harry had said, had done, in the middle of class.

What the fuck?

Harry wasn’t looking forward to detention.

[clareisa]

Ateez In Hogwarts

- I added a couple of random facts about their life in Hogwarts in this post. Do you like it? Should I add it to other Harry Potter posts in the future as well?

- gifs and pics are not mine, credits to rightful owners

- English is not my first language, so please let me kindly know if I did a mistake

Hongjoong:

House: Hufflepuff

Blood Status: Pure-blood

Personality: loyal, helpful, friendly, smart, hardworking, determined, emotional, bright

Pet: ferret

Wand (WOOD): Alder wood -  Alder is an unyielding wood, its ideal owner is often helpful, considerate and most likeable. When an alder wand is happily placed, it becomes a magnificent, loyal helpmate. Of all wand types, alder is best suited to non-verbal spell work, whence comes its reputation for being suitable only for the most advanced witches and wizards

(CORE): Phoenix feather core -  Learns most varied magic, hard to be chosen

Patronus: Dolphin

Favourite Classes: Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms

How Amortentia smells to him: Fresh flowers, Chocolate, Cherries, An ocean breeze

After Hogwarts working as: Auror - He became Auror because of his protective nature and sense for justice. He wants to destroy and punish those who could endanger those who are innocent and protect his loved ones 

Random:

head boy

always helps the new students with anything and everything

Hufflepuff won a house cup couple of times mainly thanks to him

music is always coming from the Hufflepuff’s common room when Hongjoong is composing on his piano

his ferret is always on his shoulder, even he is trying to hide her in classes

Seonghwa:

House: Ravenclaw

Blood Status: Pure-blood

Personality: Intelligent, curious, mom-like, polite, sassy, honest, ambitious, dependable

Pet: Birman cat

Wand (WOOD): Vine wood - Vine wands are among the less common types, and their ideal owners are nearly always those witches or wizards who seek a greater purpose, who have a vision beyond the ordinary and who frequently astound those who think they know them best. Vine wands seem strongly attracted by personalities with hidden depths

(CORE): Thunderbird tail feather - Powerful, but difficult to master. Can sense danger and cast curses on their own

Patronus: Orca

Favourite Classes: Potions, Herbology

How Amortentia smells to him: Pancakes, Jasmine, Petrichor, Vanilla

After Hogwarts working as: Healer and alchemist - Combination with his intellect, curious nature and the need to helping others he will be the head of St. Mungo’s. In the future, he will be known for creating lots of new medicine 

Random:

almost everyone has a crush on him

protective of his best friends group “Ateez”, no one want to cross him

with Yeosang, helping to Madam Pomfrey with sick students in Hospital Wing

scolding his friends for dirty or unironed robes

number one student in the whole school

Yunho:

House: Hufflepuff

Blood Status: Half-blood

Personality: cheerful, lively, friendly, loving, peaceful, diligent, warmhearted, daring, charming

Pet: Golden Retriever

Wand (WOOD): Cherry wood -This very rare wand wood creates a wand of strange power. For cherry wood often makes a wand that possesses truly lethal power, whatever the core, the wand ought never to be teamed with a wizard without exceptional self-control and strength of mind

(CORE): Horned Serpent horn core - Exceptionally powerful and sensitive. Can warn its owner of danger by emitting a low musical tone

Patronus: Dragon

Favourite Classes: Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration

How Amortentia smells to him: Cinnamon Rolls, Apple pie, MOrning breeze, Honeysuckle

After Hogwarts working as: Dragonologist - He always aspired to be one. He admired and was fascinated by them since he was a little kid. After he found out his Patronus is a dragon as well, Yunho knew he was destined to work with those dangerous but awe-inspiring creatures

Random:

best keeper Hufflepuff’s Quidditch team ever had

often secretly going to Forbidden forest, curious about creatures living there

classes are never boring when Yunho is in... if San is around is a mess

always brings a yummy food to his friends from the kitchen elves

often seen chasing after his golden retriever who is as energised as him 

Yeosang:

House: Slytherin

Blood Status: Pure-blood

Personality: cunning, passionate, savage, charming, bold, perfectionist, clever, humane, kind, tolerant

Pet: Serval

Wand (WOOD): Elm wood -  Elm wands prefer owners with presence, magical dexterity and a certain native dignity. Of all wand woods, they produce the fewest accidents, the least foolish errors, and the most elegant charms and spells; these are sophisticated wands, capable of highly advanced magic in the right hands

(CORE): Phoenix feather core -  Learns most varied magic, hard to be chosen

Patronus: Black Swan

Favourite Classes: Astrology, Potions

How Amortentia smells to him: Mango, Gardenia, The beach, Wine

After Hogwarts working as: Hogwarts Potions professor - Actually started with Seonghwa at St. Mungo’s. After he received a letter from the headmaster he immediately agreed and quickly became a favourite teacher at Hogwarts

Random:

new students are often afraid since his gaze is sharp and quite intense 

not the teachers' favourite thanks to his straight forward nature

rumoured to be half-siren thanks to his angel-like appearance and voice

love the wintertime when he can snowboard on the hills in the Hogwarts area

always with Seonghwa in Hospital wing

San:

House: Hufflepuff

Blood Status: Muggle-born

Personality: creative, happy virus, caring, crazy, warm, humble, easily fooled by fake sincerity, skilled

Pet: Slow Loris

Wand: Red Oak wood- The true match for a red oak wand is possessed of unusually fast reactions, making it a perfect duelling wand. ideal master is light of touch, quick-witted and adaptable, often the creator of distinctive, trademark spells, and a good man or woman to have beside one in a fight. Red oak wands are among the most handsome

(CORE): Dragon heartstring core -  Powerful, easy to learn spells though can easily be committed to another owner

Patronus: Capuchin Monkey

Favourite Classes: Herbology, Charms

How Amortentia smells to him: Orange, Chocolate Cosmos, New Books, The Moment Before It Rains

After Hogwarts working as: Curse-Breaker - Employed by the Ministry of Magic, but doing lots of work for the Gringotts.  Almost the equivalent of archaeologists, San loves the travelling included when he is tasked with bringing back gold from tombs and often have to break curses to enter them

Random:

messing around in classes with Yunho

with Wooyoung, they have the cutest Hufflepuff-Slytherin friendship in the school 

often the victim of pranks cuz of his sweet and naive persona

has his own little garden in common room with exotic flowers

often gets detention for causing everyone to laugh in class

Mingi:

House: Gryffindor

Blood Status: Muggle-born

Personality: passionate, optimistic, jolly, enthusiastic, heroic, reckless, gallant, lovely, sweet

Pet: pink pygmy puff

Wand: Ash wood - Ash wands cling to its one true master. Those witches and wizards best suited to ash wands are not lightly swayed from their beliefs or purposes. The ideal owner may be stubborn, and will certainly be courageous, but never crass or arrogant

(CORE): Dragon heartstring core -  Powerful, easy to learn spells though can easily be committed to another owner

Patronus: Lion

Favourite Classes: Flying, Charms

How Amortentia smells to him: Cakes baking in the oven, Bacon, Freshly washed hair, Lemon

After Hogwarts working as: Quidditch player (Seeker and captain) - Is not the safest job in the world but the euphoric feeling of soaring through the air on a state-of-the-art broom surely just can’t be beaten for Mingi. He has natural talent and can make his teammates always ready for anything

Random:

too soft for his little pink pygmy puff, but always loses her somewhere

sometimes clumsy in casting spells

Yunho is his best friend but in Quidditch he is his biggest enemy

always late to classes thanks to his love for sleeping

supporting his friends no matter what, often cheering for them in Quidditch games if they don’t play against Gryffindor 

Wooyoung:

House: Slytherin

Blood Status: Pure-blood

Personality: ambitious, gracious, smiley, driven, fair, cultured, observant, sociable, keen

Pet: Russian Blue cat

Wand: Hawthorn wood -  Hawthorn wands may be particularly suited to healing magic. Hawthorn is not easy to master, however, and one should only ever consider placing a hawthorn wand in the hands of a witch or wizard of proven talent

(CORE): Unicorn hair core - Consistent magic, bonds strongly to the first user

Patronus: Black Mamba

Favourite Classes: History of Magic, Ghoul Studies

How Amortentia smells to him: Wisteria, Clothes Fresh Out of the Drier, Morning dew, Pumpkin pie

After Hogwarts working as: Ministry of Magic official - started his journey at Department of Magical Law Enforcement in lower positions. But Wooyoung thanks to his talent, ambitions, manners and skills quickly became head of this department

Random:

pulls pranks on San very often, but he always takes care of him

always get what he wants

in Hogwarts, he can enjoy the muggle music and art dancing that his pure family hate and judge

always makes girls around blush

a charming gentleman with best manners

Jongho:

House: Gryffindor

Blood Status: Half-blood

Personality: strong, energetic, athletic, observant, bold, spontaneous, principled, gentle

Pet: Sugar Glider

Wand: Beech wood - The true match for a beech wand will be, if young, wise beyond his or her years, and if full-grown, rich in understanding and experience. Beech wands perform very weakly for the narrow-minded and intolerant. When properly matched, the beech wand is capable of a subtlety and artistry not seen in any other wood, hence its lustrous reputation

(CORE): Veela hair core - very individualistic and temperamental 

Patronus: Shark

Favourite Classes: Ghoul Studies, Defence Against the Dark Arts

How Amortentia smells to him: Wood, Fresh Waffle Cones, Lemon Grass, Coffee

After Hogwarts working as: Auror - working alone with Hongjoong.With Jongho’s power and talent, no one was surprised that he became a one. One of the best Aurors out there, feared by many dark wizards

Random:

MIngi’s most trusted team-mate and beater in Gryffindor team

often hanging out with Hongjoong and training for the Defence Against the Dark Arts class 

best in duelling club along with Hongjoong

often asking Yunho to teach him more about magical creatures and how to defend against them

Part of the frog choir, angel voice along with Yeosang

[frstbiitten]

//Yesterday I mentioned that I would talk about Frost’s new gear, since I’ve analyzed it before and talked about it, the names chosen for her cosmetics have a lot of meaning when it comes to its cultural background or anything around it that could be related with Frost. Good thing is that since Aftermath came out, a lot of things for many characters did as well, and y’all know I love this cyborg’s design a lot, so let’s begin with her power arrays.

Cordelia:

The name itself doesn’t have a clear meaning, but surely the name rings a few bells if you’re familiar with ‘King Lear’ by Shakespeare (inspired by real events). Cordelia was one of the 3 King Lear’s daughters and his favorite. To know how to divide the lands, he asks the daughters which one loves him the most, which Cordelia says ‘according to my bond, no more nor less‘. But Lear is not someone who uses his head for good and is infuriated with the lack of commitment to show love from his favorite daughter, and makes her vanish from his kingdom, to which is the beginning of a time of chaos in the life of the king. Spoiler alert: both father and daughter are taken to prison by their enemies (also, she comes back to aid him in the middle of his madness), and she is hung and dies but her body is taken by Lear for others to see, and is grief the final cause for his death to which he dies next to her. Of course, there are common points and not so common, along with the belief that Cordelia was a tragic character (and Frost is a tragic villain) no less. If we take in consideration the different parallels between Cordelia and Lear with Frost and Kuai: being the favorite, pushed away by their actions and finally dying before the eyes of that one who loved them before (of course, a big thing to notice here is that Lear is more obscure than Sub-Zero all the way if we analyze his character more).

Qingniao:

There’s a lot of names in her power arrays related with mythological figures from different cultures, most of them related to either femininity, the moon or the ice itself. However, Qingniao is different since it is not related to a goddess but to a creature. The qingniaos according to Chinese mythology were these blue (or green) birds, some of them had even three legs or just one and they were the messengers of the Queen Mother of the West Xi Wangmu, a goddess that it was believed could provide long life and prosperity, even some religions in China consider her as their central deity. These birds to the goddess were of high importance since they not only allowed her to deliver messages across the lands but also retrieve food for her as well. It’s pretty obvious why this name fits so well and shows the high importance and relation between Frost and Kronika (Titan - Henchwoman).

Oreade:

This time, this power array has the name that was used in Greek Mythology to refer to the nymphs guarding and living around the forests close to the different mountains, each mountain had a group of specific nymphs that would protect it, in fact, the most known oreade is no other than Echo. She was the nymph who fell in love with Narcissus and her voice was taken away by Hera, only being capable of repeating the last word someone spoke to her. The name for this power array honestly doesn’t have too much relation with Frost, but we could say that she is, somehow, a protector of the Hourglass since without its control, Kronika (or herself in her tower ending) would never be able to bring the New Era.

Ice Demon:

This is by far my favorite along with Quaestor and Birka Viking. Demons in the universe of MK are pretty common (hell, there’s even a whole realm that they habit). Other ninjas in the game have demon themed gear, especially when it comes to their masks, but this time we have that influence in this power array. Perhaps, what is safe to say, that is heavily influenced by the Japanese Onis but also by the Yaoguais, monsters considered by the Chinese folklore as evil spirits of any kind searching for immortality and becoming deities themselves. This relates heavily to Frost since her form to attempt to achieve both was through cyberization, and considering her personality, she could be easily related to the temper of a demon like the Yaoguais, constantly searching to harm divine creatures and humans.

Arctika:

Geographically speaking and according to the lore of the game, Arctika is actually a place beneath the mountains in China were the Lin Kuei Temple resides and this place has never been peaceful since the very beginning. The name of this power array goes along with her mask ‘Daughter of Arctika’, let’s not forget the huge importance that those cold lands have for Frost as a cryomancer and considering her wishes to be the Grandmistress of the Lin Kuei (not taking in consideration the lengths she takes to do it). For both her and Sub-Zero these lands have a higher meaning in their souls, they are around their own vital element that is the ice, and is no coincidence that both have gear pieces named after this place, also is where they first meant when the tournament for the new recruits would take place. A thing to notice is it’s distinctive design since it looks less like the other power arrays and more like a jet pack.

Ice Fury:

It is not a casualty that most of her gear refers to her personality since it’s what stands out the most when it comes to her and the treatment to other people, Frost is known to not be the most chill person to be around and having issues with her rage. Not only that is a quality of her personality that stands out at first glance, but also her fighting style. If we compare her fighting style with Sub-Zero the first thing we would notice is how much chaotic she is and violent with her moves, I’m not saying that Sub-Zero’s fighting style is less lethal, but is much more collected than Frost’s, considering that she is a cyborg and this allows her much more possibilities for her powers and how to use them, her entire body is a weapon of destruction and when Frost uses her ice powers in combat, her abrasiveness goes along with her movements and passion for defeating her enemies.

Chosen by Kronika:

We know for a fact that Kronika, the Titan who is (was) in charge of the course of time since the very beginning of the universe and master of The Hourglass, was the one who gave Frost an important place to take by her side, her gift to the cryomancer for fighting by her side for the New Era was to be superior than any human since she could see the full potential that this woman had in her soul. Kronika cyberized Frost for proving her loyalty to the cause and also be the Grandmistress of the Lin Kuei once their plans succeded completely. We see that Frost is proud to work by her side, logically she’s given an armor that goes along with both Kronika and Geras, who’s also another important agent that helps Kronika to achieve her goals. The name for this mask says a lot about how Kronika perceived Frost, or at least how Frost perceived herself when it comes to decoding what place she takes part in all of this.

Slayer of Sektor:

This name is pretty clear and tells exactly how things worked between Frost and Sektor, even if she would the Grandmistress in the New Era, her compromise with the Cyber Initiative was shared with Sektor, the same Lin Kuei who cyberized a generation of his clan back in the 90��s. The name for this mask could give us a hint about the kind of roles they played when it came to cyberize this new generation of Lin Kueis, we could say that Sektor was the one who organized and made the initiative function considering that he was the one who started everything, and Frost would be mostly in charge of retrieving the subjects for the transformation or even working as his protector (is never favorable to lose the head who has thought about the whole initiative if you think about it).

Northern Lights:

Also known as Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights is simply an atmospheric phenomenon that happens commonly close to the north or south pole, to make things short, is what happens when particles of the sun that are electrically charged with energy collide with the atmosphere of the planet and since the air is full of different types of gasses, the colorful phenomenon happens. Also, to take things in consideration, ‘Northern Lights’ was the name of one of Frost’s moves back in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, it was only allowed to input while fighting with the Tong Bei style. If we notice the design of the mask, it might resemble the mouth of an Oni/Yaoguai but it could also resemble the mouth of a dragon, considering the high importance that these creatures have in Chinese Folkore and the fact that the Dragon Medallion was the object of desire for Frost in the Original Timeline.

Pure Ice:

The name is pretty descriptive already since it’s highly related to her ability, but what stands out the most is the Lin Kuei symbol on it, again, this mask is another that pays homage to her origins and how her destiny is tied with the clan she wants to rule over.

I would continue with her frozen cores but the issue is that the names they have are too specific and related with the origins of her technology so it is not exactly what I’m intended to talk about (and the names are also kinda confusing if you ask me).

[aeternai]

NOTE: ALL CREDIT FOR THIS HC GOES TO THE LOVELY ANUBIS OVER AT @thejackalsden !! 

Musical Keys & Their Importance

Music is always written in a specific key - it helps set the tone, the mood, and overall feel of the music, giving it energy and life due to how the notes sound and how they flow. Musical keys fit into one of two categories: Major & Minor. For ease of organizing, there will be two separate sections for this.

Mainly I’m looking to explain how each key could affect the flow of water, being as how Demyx channels it through his Sitar, especially since we’ve all seen the following image:

Given that we know Demyx will retune his Sitar midfight after being hit with a giant key, it’s obviously important! We do know Arpeggio is Demyx’s baby, but there’s so much more to it than that, even though I’m sure he’d love to keep her in pristine condition. To know the musical keys and how to channel water with it takes an intelligence most might not credit to the Nocturne, but we’ll get to that as we go through the Keys. Just know, he’s not insane for tuning it midfight.

If the sound is off, or he begins playing a different key, then the effect would not necessarily be what he needs it to be to fight. He has to focus not only on the key of his Sitar, to make sure she’s tuned and playing properly, but also juggling the manipulation of Water at the same time? That’s insane focus, not to mention the dorky quirks he has of cutting jokes and bantering in fights.

Major Keys and How Water Might React

C Major

Tone: Innocently Happy

Completely pure. Simplicity and naivety. The key of children, free of burden, full of imagination. Powerful resolve, earnestness.

Water would flow easily, frolicking too and fro, almost, and at possibly its least lethal state: Could be used more in a playful sense.

DB Major

Tone: Grief, Depressive

Rapture in sadness. A grimacing key of choking back tears. It is capable of a laugh or smile to pacify those around, but the truth is in despair. Fullness of tone, sonority, and euphony.

Water would be ragged, agitated, ready to strike at a moments notice but could be deceptively calm until it’s too late. 

D Major

Tone: Triumphant, Victorious, War-Cries

Screaming hallelujah’s, rejoicing in conquering obstacles. War marches, holiday songs, invitations to join the winning team.

Water is energized, quick to flow from one point to another, taunting, tempting the opposing party. Threat level is extremely high

EB Major

Tone: Cruel, Hard, Yet Full of Devotion

Love, devotion, intimacy, openness.

Water would be firm - unmovable obstacles, determined to protect Demyx. More of a defensive key than offensive.

E Major

Tone: Quarrelsome, Boisterous, Incomplete Pleasure

Shouts of joy, complete delight, yet bickering, short-fused, ready to fight.

Aggressive offensive key, water movement dramatic, eye-catching and distracting, everywhere seemingly, and striking in seemingly random yet coordinated patterns.

F Major

Tone: Furious, Quick-Tempered, Passing Regret

Complaisance, controlled calmness over the readiness to explode. Deeply angry but composed and sociable still.

Water is calm but ruthless. Will absolutely blindside any target and attack relentlessly.

F# Major

Tone: Conquering Difficulties, Sighs of Relief

Triumph over evil, obstacles, hurdles. Surmounting foes and finally finding rest in victory. Brilliant clarity of thought and feeling.

Water would be confident, protective of Demyx but still a threat to any target.

G Major

Tone: Serious, Magnificent, Fantasy

Rustic, idyllic, poetic, lyrical. Calm and satisfied. Tenderness and gratitude. Friendship and faith. A gentle key, full of peace.

Most often used in Demyx’s down time if his mood matches it - water is peaceful and serene, if not playful in its movements.

AB Major

Tone: Death, Eternity, Judgement

Putrefaction, expansive viewpoints of a dark cosmos and existence. Haunting and lingering.

Most dangerous offensive key - Water is completely unpredictable, responds and reflects Demyx’s mood perfectly.

A Major

Tone: Joyful, Pastoral, Declaration of Love

Innocent love, satisfaction with the current state of affairs. Optimistic. Youthful and cheerful.

Used mostly as a support key, grants healing properties to the water - allowing it to soothe instead of wound.

BB Major

Tone: Joyful, Quaint, Cheerful

Love, clear conscience, hopeful aspirations for the future and a better world. Optimistic and able to take control in order to ensure peace.

Strongest of the support keys.

B Major

Tone: Harsh, Strong, Wild, Rage

Uncontrolled passions, angry, jealous, fury, despair, burdened with negative energy, prepared to fight.

Used as a last resort, extremely violent, can be offense or defense

Minor Keys and How Water Might React

C Minor

Tone: Innocently Sad, Love-Sick

Declarations of love and lamenting lost love or unhappy relationships. It is languishing and full of longing, a soul in search of something else.

Water would be calm, slow and sluggish to move, searching and reaching. Still a threat, could channel Demyx’s sadness to smother a foe.

C# Minor

Tone: Despair, Wailing, Weeping

A passionate expression of sorrow and deep grief. Full of penance and self-punishment. An intimate conversation about recognition of wrongdoing and atonement.

Water could vary from ruthless surge to stagnant calm, depending on Demyx’s mood or intent. 

D Minor

Tone: Serious, Pious, Ruminating

Melancholy, feminine, brooding worries, contemplation of negativity.

Water would be agitated, unpredictable, highest threat potentially.

D# Minor

Tone: Deep Distress, Existential Angst

Dealing with anxiety and existential terror, deep distress, dark depression. The dark night of the soul. Fear, hesitation, shuddering, goose bumps. The language of ghosts.

Most lethal key of the defensive ones: water adamant in protecting Demyx, unpredictable, and relentless in an assault to protect.

E Minor

Tone: Effeminate, Amorous, Restless

Can carry grief, mournfulness, restlessness. Like longing for a rescuer or a lover.

Water violent in its movements but oddly shallow, trying to encompass and drag its targets. Dangerously calm.

F Minor

Tone: Obscure, Plaintive, Funereal

Deepest depression, lament over death and lost, groans of misery, ready to expire. Harrowing. Melancholic.

A last ditch attempt - mix of offense and defense to protect Demyx. Water movement and patterns vary.

F# Minor

Tone: Gloomy, Passionate Resentment

Tearing at one’s hair and shirt, discontentment, long periods of lamentation and crying. Still capable of fighting this feeling.

Second wind type of key - dependent completely on Demyx’s mood

G Minor

Tone: Discontent, Uneasiness

Worry of the future, of a failed plan, gnashing of teeth. Struggling with dislike and malcontent.

Offense & Defense hybrid key, depending on Demyx’s mood/motive will dictate which way it leans further.

AB Minor

Tone: Grumbling, Moaning, Wailing

Suffocation of the heart, lamentations, life-long struggles. Negative looks at the experiences of life, competition, growth.

A key that is odd, and molds to what is most necessary for it to be. Not often used.

A Minor

Tone: Tender, Plaintive, Pious

Womanly, graceful in character. Capable of soothing.

Another support key - capable of soothing or easing pain, worries, etc.

BB Minor

Tone: Terrible, the Night, Mocking

Garment of the night, surly, blasphemous, turning away the world, preparations of the end. Pessimism and giving up, belief in darkness.

Another ‘last resort’ key, mostly used in defense to give Demyx a chance to escape.

B Minor

Tone: Melancholic, Patience

Key of patience, calmly waiting for fate, destiny, submission to karma.

A wild card Key, not often used, but capable of filling any role.

Now, keep in mind these are not solid Key explanations - I googled until I found explanations I agreed with for the given keys based on my thoughts of them. While this may seem jumbled, just always remember: Music sounds the way it does for a reason. If Demyx can control music or can channel water with it - atop the ability to manipulate it as he pleases, and can juggle all of this in the heat of battle?

That’s a ton to keep track of, let alone to have the perfect pitch ear to keep his sitar tuned just right to keep in the right key for the music. I’m getting off my soap box for now, but any time someone brings up Demyx being weak, I am strongly inclined to disagree. Again, everyone has their own portrayal, and this is just how I personally view his water and music controlling abilities. Take from it what you will. Anubis out.

[mirage-babey]

Apex Legends - Hogwarts!AU

full character AU breakdowns under the cut

(will be updated as more details are thought of)

Bangalore

Hogwarts House: Gryffindor

Bravery, Daring, Nerve

Blood Status: Pureblood

Wand: Fir wood, Dragon Heartstring core, 12 1/2”, Rigid flexibility

Fir: “Gerbold Octavius Ollivander always called wands of this wood ‘the survivor’s wand’, because he had sold it to three wizards who subsequently passed through mortal peril unscathed. There is no doubt that this wood, coming as it does from the most resilient of trees, produces wands that demand staying power and strength of purpose in their true owners, and that they are poor tools in the hands of the changeable and indecisive. Fir wands are particularly suited to Transfiguration, and favour owners of focused, strong-minded and, occasionally, intimidating demeanour.” [via Pottermore]

Dragon Heartstring: “As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord. It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Defence Against the Dark Arts

Patronus: White Stallion

“Those with the white stallion patronus possess a strong sense of self. It is difficult to convince them to turn away from personal beliefs or change who they are. Strength and durability in character make the white stallion especially formidable compared to the conjurers of other horse type patronus. However, those who wield the white stallion can often be provocative and rub people up the way.” [via patronusmeaning]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Wampus

Extra:

Gryffindor Quidditch Team Beater and Captain

Gryffindor Prefect

Actually pretty good at charms but that doesn’t quite live up to the rep she’s built so she keeps that on the downlow

Bloodhound

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Dedication, Loyalty, Fairness, a good finder

Blood Status: Pureblood

Wand: Hornbeam Wood, Phoenix Feather core, 12”, Unbending flexibility

Hornbeam: “Hornbeam selects for its life mate the talented witch or wizard with a single, pure passion, which some might call obsession (though I prefer the term ‘vision’), which will almost always be realised. Hornbeam wands adapt more quickly than almost any other to their owner’s style of magic, and will become so personalised, so quickly, that other people will find them extremely difficult to use even for the most simple of spells. Hornbeam wands likewise absorb their owner’s code of honour, whatever that might be, and will refuse to perform acts – whether for good or ill – that do not tally with their master’s principles. A particularly fine-tuned and sentient wand.” [via Pottermore]

Phoenix Feather: “This is the rarest core type. Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike. Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Care of Magical Creatures

Patronus: Crow

“The crow is a very well-known bird that some believe is an omen of dark magic, but the crow is very resourceful, ambitious, and cunning. Once they set a goal, they always seem to get what they’re after. Crows are also fearless. Regardless of what sort of creature they find in the way of their goal, they will do anything they can to overpower it. They are also very smart and have been observed using tools to achieve their means.” [via mugglenet]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Thunderbird

Extra:

Was a hatstall (in addition to their Hufflepuff nature, they demonstrate a few Slytherin traits too, particularly with their resourcefulness)

Hufflepuff Quidditch Team Seeker

Hufflepuff prefect.

Caustic

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Intelligence, Learning, Originality

Blood Status: Pureblood

Wand: Walnut Wood, Dragon Heartstring core, 12 1/4”, Stiff flexibility

Walnut: “Highly intelligent witches and wizards ought to be offered a walnut wand for trial first, because in nine cases out of ten, the two will find in each other their ideal mate. Walnut wands are often found in the hands of magical innovators and inventors; this is a handsome wood possessed of unusual versatility and adaptability. A note of caution, however: while some woods are difficult to dominate, and may resist the performance of spells that are foreign to their natures, the walnut wand will, once subjugated, perform any task its owner desires, provided that the user is of sufficient brilliance. This makes for a truly lethal weapon in the hands of a witch or wizard of no conscience, for the wand and the wizard may feed from each other in a particularly unhealthy manner.” [via Pottermore]

Dragon Heartstring: “As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord. It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Potions

Patronus: Buzzard

“Those with the Buzzard are natural observers, rarely missing anything. Often less talkative but still involved in what happens around them. However, choosing to watch goings on and be less talkative does not mean they lack communication skills. Those with the Buzzard patronus have great communication skills and can be very persuasive.Those with the Buzzard are often goal orientated. They know what they want and will do anything to achieve it.Analytical, those with the Buzzard are often found thinking and can outsmart there way out of any problem.“ [via patronusmeaning]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Horned Serpent

Extra: 

you’d think he was a Slytherin given how much time he spends in the dungeons

Gifted at Herbology, but he doesn’t actually have much interest it in - he’d rather show of his talents in Potions and DADA

Gibraltar

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Loyalty, Fairness, Dedication, Hardwork

Blood Status: Muggleborn

Wand: Rowan Wood, Unicorn Hair core, 13 1/2”, Reasonably Supple flexibility

Rowan: “Rowan wood has always been much-favoured for wands, because it is reputed to be more protective than any other, and in my experience renders all manner of defensive charms especially strong and difficult to break. It is commonly stated that no dark witch or wizard ever owned a rowan wand, and I cannot recall a single instance where one of my own rowan wands has gone on to do evil in the world. Rowan is most happily placed with the clear-headed and the pure-hearted, but this reputation for virtue ought not to fool anyone – these wands are the equal of any, often the better, and frequently out-perform others in duels.” [via Pottermore]

Unicorn Hair: “Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard. Minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Charms

Patronus: Buffalo

“Few possess just the right strength of character for their patronus to take the form of a buffalo. Those that do are dedicated individuals who are fiercely protective of those close to them, and not in a general way, either. Anyone foolish enough to attempt to harm another under a buffalo’s care is unlikely to come out unscathed. When all is well, they are placid but often outgoing, with strong personalities and who like having fun with those they bond to. However, going too long without contact with friends or family can lead to a buffalo feeling anxious or sad, and they will usually be at their best when sharing time with others. They are steadfast friends that enjoy being helpful and lending a hand to complete a task, or just making someone feel better.” [via patronusappreciation]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Pukwudgie

Extra:

Hufflepuff Quidditch Team Keeper and Captain

Head Boy

Always ready to lend a helping hand to younger students

The best to go down to Hogsmede with

Lifeline

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Ambition, Determination, Preservation, a certain disregard for the rules

Blood Status: Pureblood

Wand: Aspen Wood, Unicorn Hair core, 11 1/2”, Surprisingly Swishy flexibility

Aspen: “The proper owner of the aspen wand is often an accomplished duellist, or destined to be so, for the aspen wand is one of those particularly suited to martial magic. In my experience, aspen wand owners are generally strong-minded and determined, more likely than most to be attracted by quests and new orders; this is a wand for revolutionaries.” [via Pottermore]

Unicorn Hair: “Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard. Minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Potions

Patronus: Chow Dog

“The loyalty tends to only extend to those they have chosen to bond with, and they are fiercely protective of these individuals. They don’t usually bond too well with just anyone and tend to be aloof around those they do not yet know well. Chows may also chafe under authority if those in charge do not suit their taste or if they think the person in charge doesn’t seem to be a good leader. As such, they can be very stubborn and strong-willed in the face of anything from a small argument to some great danger. When at rest, they’re generally easy-going people, but an occasional temper in those with a chow patronus definitely isn’t unheard of.” [via patronusappreciation]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Pukwudgie

Extra:

Helps out in the hospital wing

Stays at Hogwarts over the holidays because she’s not fond of her family’s views

Sometimes struggles with whether or not she actually likes being on Slytherin - one on hand, the traits and values match her, but on the other, the house was founded on the pureblood-beliefs she disagrees with

Mirage

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Intelligence, Wit, Creativity, Acceptance

Blood Status: Muggleborn

Wand: Spruce wood, Dragon Heartstring core, 13 1/4”, Reasonably Supple flexibility

Spruce: “It is quite true that it requires particular deftness to work with spruce, which produces wands that are ill-matched with cautious or nervous natures, and become positively dangerous in fumbling fingers. The spruce wand requires a firm hand, because it often appears to have its own ideas about what magic it ought to be called upon to produce. However, when a spruce wand meets its match – which, in my experience, is a bold spell-caster with a good sense of humour – it becomes a superb helper, intensely loyal to their owners and capable of producing particularly flamboyant and dramatic effects.” [via Pottermore]

Dragon Heartstring: “As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord. It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Charms

Patronus: Magpie

“Those with the Magpie patronus have an impressive mind. Although they may not seem it, conjurers of the magpie are often very intelligent. Perceptive, those with this patronus are often able to understand and process information exceedingly fast. Those with this patronus are the most intellectual of all. Another feature of those with this patronus is the ability to observe, this watchful nature allows people with the Magpie patronus to absorb information just by watching things happen around them.The downfall of those who conjure this patronus is that they can sometimes be willful and will not change their mind easily, sometimes this leads to disputes. However, this willful nature comes from the need to constantly be improving. Those with the magpie patronus strive for better.” [via patronusmeaning]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Thunderbird

Extra:

The youngest in his family, he’s also the only wizard - when he got the letter from Hogwarts, he was incredibly excited but felt guilty about leaving his mother as at the time his brothers were all beginning to move out

Incredibly talented at Charms, Transfiguration, and Arithmancy - he’s good at combining the muggle and wizarding worlds

Secretly enjoys creating his own spells.

Pathfinder

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Ambition, Fraternity, Determination, Resourcefulness

Blood Status: Halfblood

Wand: Vine wood, Unicorn Hair core, 12”, Whippy flexibility

Vine: “Vine wands are among the less common types, and I have been intrigued to notice that their owners are nearly always those witches or wizards who seek a greater purpose, who have a vision beyond the ordinary and who frequently astound those who think they know them best. Vine wands seem strongly attracted by personalities with hidden depths, and I have found them more sensitive than any other when it comes to instantly detecting a prospective match.” [via Pottermore]

Unicorn Hair: “Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard. Minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Muggle Studies

Patronus: St Bernard Dog

“Those with this patronus are playful and bright in character. To cast this patronus takes a large and loyal heart. People with this Patronus are typically thoughtful and committed. Once they pledge allegiance to someone, those who cast the st Bernard show true commitment to friends, family and lovers. Ever thoughtful, those who cast this patronus can seem in their own world. Those who cast the St Bernard are very positive and emotional, often warm and bright. Those with the St Bernard can sometimes be hurt easily by others but more often than not, offer a ray of sunshine in a dark world. Often adventurous, conjurers of this patronus are always looking for fun. Often following a quest all of their own.“ [via patronusmeaning]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Thunderbird

Extra:

Grew up with his muggle mother, never met his wizard father

Aims to succeed in hopes that one day he will find his father

Slytherin Quidditch Team seeker

Wraith

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Self-preservation, Cunning, Determination, Resourcefulness, a certain disregard for the rules

Blood Status: Pureblood

Wand: Silver Lime wood, Phoenix Feather core, 11”, Unyielding flexibility

Silver Lime: “This unusual and highly attractive wand wood was greatly in vogue in the nineteenth century. The reasons for these wands’ desirability lay not only in their unusually handsome appearance, but also because they had a reputation for performing best for Seers and those skilled in Legilimency, mysterious arts both, which consequently gave the possessor of a silver lime wand considerable status.” [via Pottermore]

Phoenix Feather: “This is the rarest core type. Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike. Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Defence Against the Dark Arts

Patronus: Adder

“Serpents in general are often seen as wise, as well as symbols of healing or change, and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. To have a snake represent any part of you is very powerful indeed. Those that associate with the serpent tend to be wise and cunning individuals, known for being both sympathetic and beautiful. Adders in particular are very intuitive about people and situations, and may have a healthy sense of foresight. Adders tend to have very good self-control and are able to accurately judge things as they happen.” [via patronusappreciation]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Wampus

Extra:

Unaware of her blood status as she doesn’t know her parents - she was abandoned at a young age [they thought she may be a squib and couldn’t have that], and though she initially viewed Hogwarts as a place to find answers, it’s grown into a place she finds refuge

Really talented at apparition. her favourite class is DADA, but her best class is Divination, in which her grades are almost supernaturally good

A fairly decent Legilimens, though it’s not a talent she’s necessarily proud of.

[krokodile]

fee - 

house: hufflepuff

wand: cherry, unicorn core, 10 1/4 in, quite bendy

This very rare wand wood creates a wand of strange power, most highly prized by the wizarding students of the school of Mahoutokoro in Japan, where those who own cherry wands have special prestige. The Western wand-purchaser should dispel from their minds any notion that the pink blossom of the living tree makes for a frivolous or merely ornamental wand, for cherry wood often makes a wand that possesses truly lethal power, whatever the core, but if teamed with dragon heartstring, the wand ought never to be teamed with a wizard without exceptional self-control and strength of mind.

Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard.

Minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled, meaning that the hair may ‘die’ and need replacing. - garrick ollivander

patronus: bay mare

“Bay” refers to the color of the horse’s coat (a reddish brown accentuated by a black mane) and is associated with some of the oldest, most respectable breeds, like the Cleveland Bay. These horses are known for their strength and agility. Mares, in particular, are known to be intelligent, courageous, and extremely loyal to their owner. The Bay mare Patronus will not back down when protecting you from a Dementor.  - mugglenet

Horses are a big part of human cultures around the world, and have been bred into so many different colors and varieties that, like the dog, each one has slightly different attributes. The horse in general is representative of power, freedom, and nobility of spirit. People with a horse patronus likely value their freedom and want to live life in their own ways without being controlled by another. They tend to be excellent companions, and passionate individuals that refuse to be tied down by things that chafe their nature. Mares are associated with a gentleness and a connection to the spiritual, while stallions are associated with spiritedness and the physical world. Bay horses in particular mean steady progress and a reliable, well-balanced person that is well on their way to something good.  - patronusappreciation.tumblr.com

sawyer - 

house: gryffindor

wand: maple, unicorn core, 10 1/2 in, supple

I have often found that those chosen by maple wands are by nature travellers and explorers; they are not stay-at-home wands, and prefer ambition in their witch or wizard, otherwise their magic grows heavy and lacklustre. Fresh challenges and regular changes of scene cause this wand to literally shine, burnishing itself as it grows, with its partner, in ability and status. This is a beautiful and desirable wood, and wand quality maple has been among the most costly for centuries. Possession of a maple wand has long been a mark of status, because of its reputation as the wand of high achievers.

Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard.

Minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled, meaning that the hair may ‘die’ and need replacing. - garrick ollivander

patronus: dun stallion

The dun stallion Patronus relates to a serious, responsible, down-to-earth person. It symbolizes stability, structure, and support. The strength of this Patronus rests in the sense of belonging and is therefore more powerful when used in defense of loved ones than in personal defense.

morrigan - 

house: slytherin

wand: elm, dragon core, 12 1/2 in, brittle

The unfounded belief that only pure-bloods can produce magic from elm wands was undoubtedly started by some elm wand owner seeking to prove his own blood credentials, for I have known perfect matches of elm wands who are Muggle-borns. The truth is that elm wands prefer owners with presence, magical dexterity and a certain native dignity. Of all wand woods, elm, in my experience, produces the fewest accidents, the least foolish errors, and the most elegant charms and spells; these are sophisticated wands, capable of highly advanced magic in the right hands (which, again, makes it highly desirable to those who espouse the pure-blood philosophy).

As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. While they can change allegiance if won from their original master, they always bond strongly with the current owner.

The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord. It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental. - garrick ollivander

patronus: eagle

Eagles are one of the largest birds of prey in the world. They have large beaks, muscular legs, and powerful talons. In addition, they have extremely large pupils, which means that they have fantastic eyesight. Having an eagle for a Patronus will protect you from any harm Dementors may attempt. 

The witch or wizard with an eagle for a patronus, is a bold, free and dominant one. They know what they want and they know how to get it. They posses great courage, even if they don't see it within themselves, and strength .

The eagle suggests the caster is highly analytically minded and decisive, although these are admirable traits, they can become stubborn and narrow-minded when frustrated making them lose sight of what's around them, leading to them being insensitive toward others. They must find away to balance the world around them and the emotional/subconcious world.

These people can sometimes seem emotionless or detached to those that don't know them verry well, but for those few he/she is close to they can open up with a little help. This is due to the fact that they prefere to deal with their emotions inwardly.

The eagle patronus is synonymous with the zodiac signs Scorpio, Saggitarius and Libra (for the more balanced of casters) and the ravenclaw house.

Bonus fact: the eagle, in Ancient Rome, was a messenger for the highest of God's and was considered "king of the skies".  - user “courtney”/hp amino

[dfroza]

“Embrace the power of salvation’s full deliverance, like a helmet to protect your thoughts from lies.”

Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament is the 6th chapter of the Letter of Ephesians:

Children, if you want to be wise, listen to your parents and do what they tell you, and the Lord will help you.

For the commandment, “Honor your father and your mother,” was the first of the Ten Commandments with a promise attached: “You will prosper and live a long, full life if you honor your parents.”

Fathers, don’t exasperate your children, but raise them up with loving discipline and counsel that brings the revelation of our Lord.

Those who are employed should listen to their employers and obey their instructions with great respect and honor. Serve them with humility in your hearts as though you were working for the Master.

Always do what is right and not only when others are watching, so that you may please Christ as his servants by doing his will. Serve your employers wholeheartedly and with love, as though you were serving Christ and not men. Be assured that anything you do that is beautiful and excellent will be repaid by our Lord, whether you are an employee or an employer.

And to the caretakers of the flock I say, do what is right with your people by forgiving them when they offend you, for you know there is a Master in heaven that shows no favoritism.

Now my beloved ones, I have saved these most important truths for last: Be supernaturally infused with strength through your life-union with the Lord Jesus. Stand victorious with the force of his explosive power flowing in and through you.

Put on God’s complete set of armor provided for us, so that you will be protected as you fight against the evil strategies of the accuser! Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage. Because of this, you must wear all the armor that God provides so you’re protected as you confront the slanderer, for you are destined for all things and will rise victorious.

Put on truth as a belt to strengthen you to stand in triumph. Put on holiness as the protective armor that covers your heart. Stand on your feet alert, then you’ll always be ready to share the blessings of peace.

In every battle, take faith as your wrap-around shield, for it is able to extinguish the blazing arrows coming at you from the evil one! Embrace the power of salvation’s full deliverance, like a helmet to protect your thoughts from lies. And take the mighty razor-sharp Spirit-sword of the spoken word of God.

Pray passionately in the Spirit, as you constantly intercede with every form of prayer at all times. Pray the blessings of God upon all his believers. And pray also that God’s revelation would be released through me every time I preach the wonderful mystery of the hope-filled gospel. Yes, pray that I may preach the wonderful news of God’s kingdom with bold freedom at every opportunity. Even though I am chained as a prisoner, I am his ambassador.

I am sending you a dear friend, Tychicus. He is a beloved brother and trustworthy minister in our Lord Jesus. He will share with you all the concerns that I have for your welfare and will inform you of how I am getting along. And he will also prophesy over you to encourage your hearts. So may God shower his peace upon you, my beloved friends. And may the blessings of faith and love fill your hearts from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Abundant grace will be with you all as each of you love our Lord Jesus Christ without corruption. Amen!

Love in Christ,

Paul

The Letter of Ephesians, Chapter 6 (The Passion Translation)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 10th chapter of the book of Jeremiah that warns against the worship of other gods:

This message is for all of Israel. Listen to what the Eternal is saying to you.

Eternal One: Don’t learn the strange practices and beliefs of other nations.

Don’t be terrified by signs in the sky

just because the other nations are.

For their traditions and customs are useless; there is nothing to them.

A tree is cut down in the forest;

then an artisan takes out a tool and carves it into an image.

They dress it up with gold and silver to make it more impressive.

Then they nail it down so it won’t fall over!

This is what they worship? The idol just stands there—

lifeless, powerless like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch.

It cannot speak. It cannot move. They must pick the thing up and bring it along.

Do you see why there’s nothing to fear from these dead pieces of wood?

They cannot harm you, and they cannot help you either.

O Eternal One, there is no comparison.

You are great; even Your name is powerful.

Who wouldn’t worship You? It is only right;

You are the King of all kingdoms.

The wise and powerful men of all nations in their realms

are still nothing compared to You.

They are stupid fools for taking their cues from blocks of wood,

as if that idol could lead them anywhere.

Beaten silver from Tarshish, and hammered gold from Uphaz—

materials made by artisans and goldsmiths—

Draped with royal blue and purple,

even with the work of craftsmen—still a lifeless object!

Just look at the contrast! The Eternal is the True God:

He is the living God and eternal King, not some lifeless idol.

The whole earth trembles when He is angry; nations crumble beneath His wrath.

Say this to anyone still worshiping idols: The so-called gods you worship did not make the earth and starry sky above it. And one day, they will all be blotted from the earth beneath those stars.

Know whom you’re dealing with!

God alone is powerful enough to create the earth.

He alone is wise enough to put the world together.

He alone understands enough to stretch out the heavens.

His voice thunders through the heavens, and the waters gush from the sky;

He summons the clouds to build up over the earth.

As the rain falls, the lightning flashes at His command;

the wind rushes in from where He alone can store it.

All of humanity is stupid and bankrupt of knowledge.

Those who make idols are shamed by their creations.

What they fashion out of gold are imposters—

breathless, lifeless frauds.

Their idols are worthless, the work of their hands an embarrassing mockery.

They are doomed to perish under God’s judgment.

The portion of Jacob, the Eternal One, is not like any of these.

He was not fashioned out of human hands.

Instead, it is He who made all things and appointed Israel to inherit it all.

His name is the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies.

Pack up what you have; take what you can from the land.

You’ll soon be under siege!

The word I have from the Eternal is clear:

Eternal One: Look, I will pitch out these people who live in the land of promise.

Now is the time for Me to bring hardship on them, so they may be found.

When I think of what is about to happen,

I can’t begin to express my hurt; the wound is so deep, so painful.

But I keep telling myself,

“This sickness is mine to bear.”

Like a tent, my nation has collapsed, all the ropes cut apart.

My sons are gone,

And there is no one left to help me put things back together.

So I am exposed, with no tent and no shelter.

The shepherds of my people have lost their senses;

they never thought to ask what the Eternal would have them do.

So now they are in trouble,

and all their flocks are scattered.

Listen! The news we’ve dreaded is finally here:

Rumblings are being heard in the north; an army is moving into our land.

The villages of Judah will be laid to waste;

their rubble will be the haunt of jackals.

Jeremiah: O Eternal One, I know our lives are in Your hands.

It is not in us to direct our own steps—we need You.

Discipline me, Eternal One, but do so fairly.

Hold back Your wrath, or I’ll be destroyed completely.

O God, pour out Your wrath on those nations that do not acknowledge You,

on those peoples who never call on Your name.

For they have ravaged the land of Jacob and devoured it completely.

They have made sure nothing is left of our land.

The Book of Jeremiah, Chapter 10 (The Voice)

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures for monday, August 23 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms

A post by John Parsons about the Torah reading this week:

Shalom friends. Our Torah portion this week (Ki Tavo) includes instructions for the people to ratify the Sinai covenant in the promised land by means of a special ceremony performed in the valley between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerazim (that was later fulfilled by Israel, see Josh. 8:30-35). During this ceremony the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience would be declared, and Moses warned the people by providing a seemingly endless description of terrible consequences that would befall the Jewish people if they disobeyed the terms of the Sinai covenant (Deut. 28:15-68). In Jewish tradition this litany of woe is called the “tochachah” (תּוֹכָחָה), a word that means "rebuke" or "reprimand."

Reading the tochachah is difficult and painful, though it serves as a bitter medicine to wake us up and prevent us from falling into a lethal coma. In that sense the tochechah may be regarded as a great blessing, since it shocks us into experiencing the gravity of God’s grace. This is similar to Yeshua’s grave warnings about the dangers of hell. If we refuse to listen or rush past his words, we are missing the substance of God’s lament given through the Hebrew prophets. Sin is a lethal problem, and we must turn to God for healing or we will die. As Blaise Pascal once wrote, “Between heaven and hell is only this life, which is the most fragile thing in the world.” Therefore shuvah! -- turn to God and receive the blessing of life! [Hebrew for Christians]

and another about opening up to see Light:

Shalom dear friends. The great holiday of Rosh Hashanah (i.e., “Yom Teruah”) will begin in about two weeks (i.e., Monday, Sept. 6th at sundown). During the time leading up to the High Holidays, it is customary to engage in cheshbon ha-nefesh (“soul searching”) and to derive comfort that God is forgiving and loving to those who sincerely turn to Him. Because of this, the Jewish sages chose seven “Haftarot of comfort” to encourage us to make our hearts ready for the upcoming High Holiday Season.

The haftarah for Ki Tavo (i.e., Isa. 60:1-22) is the sixth of the seven readings from the prophets that are consecutively read before Rosh Hashanah. These “haftarot of comfort” foretell of the restoration of the Jewish people and of the coming of the Messianic Era. In this week’s reading, the haftarah portion describes the long-awaited future salvation of the nation of Israel. The LORD promises to shine His glorious light upon the Jewish people and to reveal His glory, despite the hour of darkness and tribulation that comes upon the earth: "Arise and shine (קוּמִי אוֹרִי) for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD (כְּבוֹד יהוה) has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will shine upon you (וְעָלַיִךְ יִזְרַח יהוה), and his glory will be seen upon you (וּכְבוֹדוֹ עָלַיִךְ יֵרָאֶה). And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip" (Isa. 60:1-4).

Sometime during the “plague of darkness” that represents the time of the Great Tribulation (i.e., the Day of the LORD and the judgment of the world, or Yom Adonai), Israel will finally turn to the LORD and receive Yeshua as their long-lost Messiah (Zech. 12:10). The veil will finally be taken away, and all Israel will be saved (Rom. 11:26; Isa. 59:20). The Light of Salvation (אור הישועה) will be revealed and the glory of the LORD (כְּבוֹד יהוה) will radiantly shine (זָרָח) upon the Jewish people. The land of Israel will be like Goshen during the times of the plagues of Egypt as the world powers are all judged and destroyed. Then the survivors of the nations will understand that the LORD is indeed with Israel and will turn to Him in surrender as well. "And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken" (Isa. 40:5). Yeshua will return to Zion to establish the Kingdom of God upon the earth (Zech. 2:10-13).

The LORD said to Moses from the midst of the shining flame: 'Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy' (Exod. 3:5). The Chofetz Chaim comments: We all need to rise higher... Never say, I will be able to lift myself up at another time or different place. By faith see that this place, right now, is holy ground, and awaits your response. May God open the “eyes of your heart” to help you see (Eph. 1:18-19). [Hebrew for Christians]

8.22.21 • Facebook

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

August 23, 2021

Offering Willingly

“Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.” (1 Chronicles 29:9)

As the people brought gifts for the construction of the temple in Jerusalem, it is mentioned no less than six times in this chapter that their offerings were willing offerings (once in verses 6 and 14, twice each in verses 9 and 17). In fact, they were not only willing but also joyful in their giving.

Joyful giving is not the usual response to a fundraising effort for a religious cause. The great proliferation of causes today—not only for churches but for multi-church or para-church projects, usually associated with high-pressure solicitations by professional money-raisers—has developed a growing cynicism in Christians toward all such appeals.

That is not the way it should be, “for God loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). The churches of Macedonia, though going through “a great trial of affliction” and in “deep poverty,” nevertheless “abounded unto the riches of their liberality,” and they did so in “the abundance of their joy” (2 Corinthians 8:2). What made the difference was that they “first gave their own selves to the Lord” (2 Corinthians 8:5).

No doubt another vital factor leading to the joyful offerings of the people for the building of the temple was the example set by David’s great personal joyful generosity, followed by that of all the other leaders of Israel (1 Chronicles 29:3-8). This encouraged the people also to give “with perfect heart” (today’s verse). They had evidently, like the Philippians of Macedonia, also first given themselves to the Lord. David had led them by example, not coercion, reminding himself and his people as he prayed a prayer of thanksgiving that “all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee” (1 Chronicles 29:14). HMM

[politicaltheatre]

The Boy In The Bubble, pt.1

If you’re of a certain age, you might just remember a TV movie starring John Travolta, “The Boy In The Plastic Bubble”. Travolta was only TV famous then, not yet movie famous, and the bubble wasn’t literally a bubble, it was all of the plastic suits and rooms and boxes on gurneys that protected Travolta’s character and his broken immune system from the always sunny yet lethal outside world.

It was an innocent story from an innocent time. Of course, no one at that time thought of it as being particularly innocent. In the mid to late 1970s, America was still dealing with the fallout from the Vietnam War, Nixon’s Watergate scandal, the sexual revolution, spiritual curiosity and psychological awakening, the civil rights movement, and the women’s rights movement.

We dealt with none of it well.

Far from learning any actually helpful lessons from the carnage of Southeast Asia, American foreign policy switched from supporting dictators and death squads there to doing so in Central and South America. Those working for Nixon who didn’t end up going to jail, such as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, only learned the lesson that next time, whatever they did, they just shouldn’t get caught. That, for them, was Nixon’s only sin.

Meanwhile, whites were fleeing to the suburbs and the cities they left were burning. The religious cults that people fled to for emotional support either fleeced their flocks or convinced them to kill themselves - sometimes both. In the cities and suburbia, depraved serial killers suddenly seemed to be everywhere and spreading like a plague. Children were no longer safe playing outside at night. Worst of all, the decades long threat of nuclear war was rapidly becoming matched by the growing fear of nuclear power and nuclear meltdowns.

All this, and the pandemic that would come to be known as AIDS wasn’t yet even on anyone’s radar. That would come a few years later, about the same time we learned not to trust non-prescription drugs like Tylenol without tamper-proof lids.

And yet, it was a much more innocent time. Perhaps this is because we knew less. We didn’t yet know what we didn’t know, and what our leaders knew, they generally didn’t share. Not that we knew, or even thought to ask. Nixon and the Pentagon Papers destroyed our faith in government, but even then we chose not to seek answers we didn’t want to know.

There’s a lot of willful ignorance now, too, but it has more to do with the corruptions of consumerism and tribalism. Thanks to the internet and mobile devices, we have the ability to learn what our leaders once hid and got away with hiding, and to do with speed that 40 years ago seemed like science fiction.

Sadly, that same technology has allowed us to have what we want when we want it, right down to a reflection of our own, narrow, self-serving political beliefs and the fantasies we require to hide from what we don’t want to know or even see.

We aren’t challenged, we don’t have to be, and to make matters worse we have externalized so much of our collective memory that we each know just about nothing that doesn’t reflect those same narrow, self-serving interests.

We fetishize our ignorance, embracing it as an affectation, something restoring us to and maintaining us in the perceived safety of pre-adolescence. If anyone comes along showing us rational proof that we are wrong, we dismiss them because we can and continue until we absolutely can’t.

If nothing else, this helps explain our current economy and with it our current politics.

We jump from one short term solution to another, from one passion to another. Our collective speculative interest raises the fortunes of politicians as if they were stocks on Wall Street, reducing them to flavors of the week, almost all fading just as quickly as they rise.

To win, a politician needs a hook, something to elicit strong emotions. It must be bold or reckless, or even violent. To sustain that success, a politician needs to keep delivering. What they deliver seems to matter less than the how and the when.

It’s quantity over quality. In short term thinking, quantity will do. You offer options and the enabling audience takes what they want to suit their own short term interests. Everything else is just a cost of doing business. It’s transactional, pure and simple.

Quality demands more from an audience. It answers the rarely asked question of what the audience actually needs rather than what it simply wants. There’s a very good reason that question is rare. Its answer demands a stronger, lengthier commitment, one that requires many to sacrifice what they want for a greater good.

If perfect is the enemy of good, in politics it’s the enemy of winning.

Deliver a clear, rational plan to solve the country’s long term problems and you should be elected; do so without entertaining, without pandering to the basic emotions and short term interest of your audience, and you might as well be one of those brilliant but cancelled shows lost to the Netflix algorithm.

Case in point, Elizabeth Warren. The Massachusetts Senator made a few missteps in her now ended campaign for president, but the further she got the more those errors were dictated by things beyond her control.

The one getting the most press, and deservedly so, is sexism. Of course, sexism played a part in her candidacy’s failure, and that of the other five women who ran (Tulsi Gabbard’s zombie of a campaign was over almost as soon as it started).

So much of our culture, starting with our economy, is built on an imbalance of power. Today’s relationship between employer and employee is little changed from that of the feudal master and apprentice.

In this model of behavior, the apprentice starts out having no power, exchanging time in servitude for an education in a craft. The master, possessing the resource of knowledge which he may share as he chooses, may exploit his apprentice however he pleases.

In the short term, this works for both of them. The master is served and the apprentice learns. An imbalance of power, however, cannot be sustained indefinitely. The more the apprentice learns, the less of an imbalance there is and the more difficult it becomes to exploit him.

To maintain his power, the master has two choices: enable the apprentice so that he may himself become a master and then find a new apprentice to replace him, or abuse the apprentice so that he will be forced to stay as and where he is. The more the master abuses the apprentice, the more the apprentice wants to leave and the more effort must be made to keep him where and as he is, and so the cycle repeats until the apprentice revolts against the master, removing him one way or another.

For decades now, the backlash against unions as well as civil and women’s rights has attempted to maintain an economic underclass, to push men and women back where and as they are supposed to be. This has not been some grand conspiracy. It is just what happens when a group that has had it good finds itself in decline, or merely in competition.

Sadly, this backlash has to a great extent succeeded. Union membership has fallen, partly because union leadership has become disconnected from those they serve and partly because laws have gutted their ability to fight. Civil and women’s rights have never been stronger, but members of those groups face racism and homophobia and sexism transmitted like a virulent plague by bots and trolls hiding behind the perceived safety of anonymity.

For someone representing a group that has been abused and exploited because it was different enough and acceptable enough to be abused and exploited, the challenge of campaigning for office let alone winning an election is daunting. They do from a position of weakness defined by the same imbalance of power that underlies the very culture and economy in which they run.

So, how else can we expect the candidacy of someone on the wrong side of that imbalance to end?

True, Barack Obama won twice, but his victories were an outlier. He was the right, inspiring campaigner at the right economic catastrophe of a time going up against Republicans who failed to show either economic competence or empathy when it was most needed. Had it not been for the idiotic deregulation of banking that helped John McCain and Mitt Romney’s most important campaign contributors, Obama may have faced far stiffer competition both times. He might even have lost.

Obama was helped, too, by changes in our culture. Black, male presidents had already been portrayed as competent, empathic heroes in popular films and television shows. All he had to do was inhabit the role, and he did so as if those earlier films and shows had been written specifically with him in mind. If only he had their script writers.

He arrived with a mandate for change, and yet in his two terms Obama just about gave it all away. Part of that was because even as “the most powerful man on the planet” he was still on the wrong side of an imbalance of power. An unscrupulous Republican-led Congress obstructed him at every turn, nakedly serving the very wealthy at the expense of everyone else and daring him to call them on it.

He never really did. Perhaps this was because, as a follower of The Chicago School and “Clinton” Democrat, he simply agreed with many of the Republican’s “business friendly” policies. Mostly, though, it was because of the color of his skin, which those same Republicans and their business friends exploited to stir up fear and hatred in communities facing decline, ones looking for an other to blame.

What’s odd is that Obama won in many of those regions, even as congressional Republicans shifted their party further and further towards the naked racism and scapegoating of Donald Trump. Those people, the ones who voted for both Barack Obama and Donald Trump, really did seem to want change, and perhaps still do.

Could Warren have won in those regions? Possibly. Campaigning as a woman meant that she, too, had to curb her sharp edges the way Obama did, and for a while that seemed to be working. But then it didn’t.

That, ultimately, had less to do with being a woman and more to do with being a brand.

Bernie Sanders is a brand. So is Joe Biden. The difference between them and the twenty-something candidates they have so far beaten has been name recognition. You might be thinking, “What do you mean, ‘name recognition’? Everybody knows who Elizabeth Warren is by now!”, and to an extent you’d be right. But you’d also be wrong.

What the Bernie and Biden brands have going for them is longevity. Brand loyalty is built on habit, and people having a good feeling about a brand for a long time is an enormous advantage. It’s incumbency by another name.

The Bernie brand has been around for four years and it remains strong, in no small part because it has big ideas that require no detail whatsoever. Ask any die-hard Bernie fan to describe his Medicare For All plan in any kind of detail, and the vast, vast majority won’t be able to. It would be great if they could. It would be great if they even took the time and effort to look it up. Few do.  

So few people do, in fact, that the insurance lobby has gotten away with painting it as irresponsibly expensive - it isn’t - and even aired a commercial during the South Carolina debate in which they claimed that it would raise already expensive insurance premiums. Medicare For All doesn’t even have premiums! Aside from one article published just last week in the New York Times, no one in the media even caught on. That should embarrassing all of us.

Still, the Bernie brand is strong. He represents a fantasy of what our country could and should be for a growing percentage of the population. That he may not be able to achieve his campaign promises is beside the point. That is, it’s beside the point for enough of his fans - the real fans, not the possibly Russian and/or alt right Bernie Bots - that they don’t want to hear about it.

That, naturally, hurt Warren. The cold, hard reality of what we must do for each other has long been her brand. That means details, and details mean quality, which requires long term thinking on the part of an audience, which means good luck back in the Senate.

Too late, she tried to pivot to place herself as the sensible choice halfway between Sanders and Biden, but sensible isn’t a choice voters like to have to make, and Biden’s brand has proven to be just as strong as Sanders’.

Biden’s strengths both match and mirror those of Sanders. His name recognition was so great that before he even announced he was the frontrunner. He was a popular vice president, endearingly known for gaffes, not policy. The details of his past are not pretty, not if you were on the wrong side of that imbalance of power.

His current power, however, rests in fantasy, one equal and opposite to that of Sanders in one very specific way: Joe Biden is the “safe” choice, promising to return us to a happier past.

In his case, it’s life before Trump, which is quite a fantasy to have when you consider just how bad things were under Obama. This is because life under Obama was ruled not by him but by his nemeses in Congress, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, who together pushed the imbalance of power in the country almost all the way back to the time before unions or civil rights or women’s rights really took hold.

It was their effort, along with their friends in business and in the right wing media, that paved the way for Donald J. Trump to take Movement Conservatism and make it his own. They, of course, were just building on the work of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who rode the Bush family brand back into the White House and rode American credibility and the American economy right into the ground.

They were as responsible as anyone for the election of Barack Obama. That was the America we wanted to leave behind. Now, we have something far worse.

The idea of going backwards to something better is a terrible brand to have for Democrats. It’s one built on fear. It’s one built on short term, transactional thinking. Biden’s solution to our growing health care problems is to slap a patch on it, to tweak it here and there. He, too, doesn’t have any details, but he isn’t offering them because it’s an advantage not to. We want fantasy, we want that protective bubble, and the fantasy he’s selling of leaving this toxic world behind is plenty.

For now.

Biden currently has momentum and it may well be enough to secure the nomination before the party convention this summer. If he does, expect Sanders to endorse him and campaign with him in order to rid the country of the one thing they both agree it needs to lose: Donald Trump.

Do not, however, expect a campaign filled with details. The fantasy, writ large with big, bold messaging and one main theme, is all you will get. It may be all  want, especially if he succeeds.

Then what?

- Daniel Ward

[morsmordrehasbeensaved]

♔ MOLTEN EYES AND A SMILE MADE FOR WAR ♔

✤  Bellatrix Black. ✤  Slytherin / Seventh Year. ✤  Pureblood. ✤  Death Eaters. ✤  Taken character.

You were always something more. More evil. More powerful. More ruthless. You came out of your mother kicking and screaming, and it doesn’t seem like you have ever stopped. Father adored you, probably preferred you over his other two daughters who were both just a bit more demure. But that didn’t make him forget you were still a woman, and a woman, especially of your status, needed a husband. You kicked and screamed, but you were still betrothed. Even when they knew you were so much more. Deserved so much more.

 BIOGRAPHY.

The windows shook, violent rain swept the streets and the sky was threatening to swallow the world whole. Bellatrix Black was born during a storm, such a night prophesying the personality of the eldest Black Sister. She was given her name by Cygnus Black, from the old myths that spoke of female warrior. From the moment her father looked in her bright blues, she became the apple of his eye. Named Bellatrix Cygna Black, it was clear who adored her. Curious beyond belief, in her childhood, Bella was a force to be reckoned with. She hung on every word her father said, the stories he told about strong wizards and witches. Bellatrix would dream at night, wishing to be the lead character- the witch that held the world in the palm of her hand. It wasn’t until Cygnus took Bellatrix to the ministry, when she was six years old, that she realized her ambitions. She studied the way her father wielded his last name, how others cowered around him as he spoke. Power. Raw, undiluted power. The idea rooted itself in Bellatrix’s mind, she desired nothing but that. Perhaps Cygnus had seen the blooming potential in his daughter and decided to take her under his wing. Twice a week, the child would accompany him, and absorb all that she could, much to the dismay of her mother.

Druella wanted nothing more than for Bellatrix to be an obedient, lovely pureblood. Yet the violence in her behavior, the venom in her tongue was the complete opposite. Bellatrix would misbehave during the extravagant Black dinner parties, a menace to the order Druella required. To her eldest, the Black matriarch was cold woman, lacking any sort of motherly instinct. Why can’t you be more like Narcissa or Andromeda? She would ask the raven haired girl who was so swift to get herself in trouble. It was simply in her nature. As fearless as Bella was, the insults and the disappointment Druella threw in her direction did sting. She would never live up to her mother’s expectations, as as someone who strove for perfection, it left a mark on Bellatrix’s heart. In her mind, she’d grown up motherless. It motivated Bella to watch over Andromeda and Narcissa, her younger siblings. A fear grew in her stomach, she never wanted them to experience what she had with Druella. Bellatrix made sure that they always felt competent, loved in their own way. Like a good sister, she served as the shoulder the cry on, the advice giver and hopefully an inspiration that there was more to being a woman than submissive.

When she arrived at Hogwarts, Bella was easily sorted into Slytherin. Her ambition for power and her will was ironclad, dripping of green and silver. It didn’t take long for a first year Bellatrix to assert herself as a leader. Many of the other students were either scared of her or aspired to be her. Her gang of Slytherins ran a muck the halls, wearing their blood status as armor. She didn’t violently hate the mudbloods, just looked down on them. So many of them hadn’t realized their potential, wastes of air and resources. There was no fire to them whatsoever, maybe it was due to the fact that magic didn’t course in their veins as strongly as they did in hers? Whatever it was, Bellatrix didn’t respect them, tormenting the weakness that they displayed.

Everything that she did was to achieve those childhood dreams of filling her father’s shoes. She aced her exams, became one of the strongest duelists. Bellatrix worked hard, she needed perfection in her life if she wanted power. Who did, after all, look up to someone that made mistakes? As Andromeda and Narcissa joined her ranks, she tried to gently push her sisters in the same direction. Any issues that they came across, she was the first person to offer her services. Boys, O.W.Ls, advice? The loyalty to her family knew no bounds. She was the protective figure that Druella had never been for her… But apparently, it hadn’t been enough. With the disownment of Sirius, her cousin, Bellatrix felt like she had failed.

While her world took a severe hit with the loss of Sirius, she receiving a damning letter. She was betrothed to Rodolphus Lestrange. As someone who valued control and her own freedom, the news came as a shock to her. At first Bellatrix was hurt, but that hurt quickly turned to an anger she never had for her father. She understood that she was a pureblood, that they were always married off in some barbaric way- but Cygnus must’ve have known that Bellatrix was not that kind of woman. She was too strong, too chaotic to ever be the subdued wife. The proposal was a slap in the face. While she once held her father in such awe, the reality was rude awakening. It slowly chipped away at the idea of Cygnus being a hero, that he knew his daughter at all.

Now Bellatrix loathes her fiancée, despite their previous friendship. In her eyes, the man stood for everything that she’d always rejected. She’s made it her mission to get out of her marriage. When she watches the muggleborns saunter around Hogwarts, she almost feels envious. Jealous for the first time in her life. They have a freedom that wasn’t granted for her. No expected marriage, no responsibility to continue the family lineage. Bellatrix may have been someone who had everything, but the privileged to make her own choices escaped her. She hated them. She despised them.

Entering her final year, Voldemort saw a promising follower in Bella. She was a pureblood, viscous and cruel. She needed an escape from the options given to her by her family. What better way to recruit a lethal woman than appeal to her wants and needs? Voldemort whispered in her ear, how her could take her away from the marriage and from the betrayal, to give her the things she desired most: power. vengeance. control. All in return for service. They were two sides of the same coin, both had built themselves up. Their image exuded infamy. Like that, Bellatrix was whisked away into the Death Eaters. She’d pour her whole self into the group if it meant getting away from the things that held her down. The world would truly see what a storm Bellatrix Black was.

CONNECTIONS.

RODOLPHUS LESTRANGE  ━ Betrothed, used to be friends, now hates with a passion. SIRIUS BLACK  ━ Cousin, constantly berates for being a traitor. ANDROMEDA & NARCISSA BLACK  ━ Sisters, wants to protect more than anything.

THIS CHARACTER’S FACECLAIM IS JANET MONTGOMERY.

[imagines-never-die]

Meet the New Mods

Introducing Mod Evie and Mod Viena, my two new assistant writers! I think they’ve got amazing writing styles and will really help this blog turn out more content. I hope you all welcome them and enjoy their work~

Mod Evie

Yo~! I don’t really know how to start this, but as you can see, the name’s Evie and I’m a moderator for this blog. I’ve been playing Overwatch since the beginning and am deep into the lore. It’s the first FPS I’ve ever played (that counts), by the way.

My mains in competitive are D.Va and Mercy, though my favorite character lore-wise is definitely Genji. I would marry him in a heartbeat. I also ship Genji with a couple other of the male characters (mainly McCree), but other then that I’m not much of a shipper.

Other things about me? I live alone in an apartment, own a cat and stay inside most of the time. I draw and write, watch YouTube and play games (that is, Overwatch) in my pastime. I pretty much have no life, to put it simply. But that just means I’ll have all the time in the world for all of you.

Mod Viena

I'm mod Viena! My favorite ships are pretty much any with Hanzo in them (McHanzo, Reinzo, Reapzo, etc), I main Hanzo and Sombra in-game, and my favorite characters are Hanzo, McCree, Junkrat, Reaper, Zenyatta, and Mei! When I'm not reading or writing fanfic, I'm hanging out in other Discord servers or taking a nap, haha!

Mod Viena is currently on her spring break, so she won’t start work here until the 20th of March. In the meantime, Mod Evie and I will be opening the askbox shortly to begin our new collaborative effort! Also, I decided to post their request test responses under the cut so you get to see their amazing writing style ^^

Mod Evie

“Could I get some headcanons please? Junkrat, Reaper, and Sombra with how they would react/what would they do when their s/o takes a potentially lethal bullet for them and is now bleeding out everywhere? Thx!”

Answer:

Junkrat:

When he first saw that his s/o’d been shot, he wouldn’t process it very well

He would have a mix of different emotions, ranging from anger to sadness to disbelief

A very lively personality, he wouldn’t be able to stop talking, trying to figure out ways to convince both himself and his s/o that everything would be alright

He would pester the staff taking care of his s/o, not angrily, but with continuous questions of what was happening, what they could do and crazy ways that they could try to make his s/o better again

Would be in denial of the severity of the situation as he tried to make sense of things, pacing back and forth in any room he was in (it’d be his s/o’s most of the time, if possible)

Sombra:

Would shout her s/o’s name when she saw them get shot instead of her, perhaps cursing under her breath

She would grab her s/o and move them to cover, then call over a medic right away

Once they got out of the battlefield, she’d look up everything concerning her s/o’s condition and make sure the doctors were doing their job right, confirming every step of what they were doing in a firm tone

She would restlessly sit by her s/o’s bed and put on a brave face, assuring them that everything was being taken care of properly and that they would be fine

Though she’d be worried to no end (even if she wouldn’t show it to her s/o), she’d truly appreciate the loyalty of her lover

If any mistakes were to happen, she would shout at the medical staff for hours to come, half of it in angry Spanish

Reaper:

He would be shocked when his s/o took a bullet in his place

Would probably freeze in place when he saw them drop to the ground and only come back to his senses when a field medic got there

Filled with rage, he’d go after the person who had shot his s/o and give them a painful death on that battlefield

He would go to his s/o’s room as soon as the doctors let him, but would be almost completely quiet the whole time he was in there

He couldn’t comprehend why his lover would take a bullet for him, and would sit by the window or the side of the room trying to contemplate it

Would be filled with depressing thoughts of the possibility of the only happiness in his life dying from their wounds, especially since it was to protect him

He would only turn to his s/o if they showed clear signs of needing him closer

             “Scenario with Symmetra, Widowmaker, and McCree where they have a day off but they look outside and it’s raining and they’re like ‘oh well, guess we’re stuck inside’ but then they see their s/o go dashing out the front door in rain boots and an umbrella as they dance out in the puddles shouting for them to come join them. What would they do?”

Answer:

Symmetra:

It was rare for the both of them to have a day off from work, and Satya had planned out everything they would do that day. The weather report had promised a lot of sun, so they would be going to an outdoor play, then have lunch at a cafe near the theater. Later in the evening, they’d even agreed to take a walk on the beach.

Only, as soon as they woke up, early in the morning like Satya preferred it, a thick coat of clouds could be seen covering the whole sky. She and her s/o decided to brush it off though, since the weather report had clearly stated they wouldn’t have anything to worry about later that day. Of course, their beliefs were proven wrong when in an hour or so it was pouring with rain.

”Ugh, there go our plans for today…” Satya sighed as she looked out the window, sipping her coffee as she did. ”When do you think it will stop?”

It was then that Satya heard their door open and close, and a confused look showed on her face.

”[Name]?” she called into the vestibule and tried to see over to the door. She caught movement in the corner of her eye and glanced out the window.

She couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw her s/o dancing in the rain, sky blue rainboots on their feet and her expensive umbrella above their head. They were smiling widely, and when they saw Satya looking out, they gestured her to join them.

After recovering from her surprise, Satya would shake her head clearly for her s/o to see. They showed an exaggerated pouty face, though it was to be expected. Satya was far too neat and organized to voluntarily dash into the rain – though she did find the fact her s/o enjoyed it unexpectedly entertaining. A subtle smile was on her face as she watched them play in the rain, sipping her coffee in their warm kitchen.

Widowmaker:

Amélie and her s/o stood just outside their open door, on the terrace, confirming that it was indeed raining. The sniper folded her arms with a neutral look, even shrugging a little as she spoke:

”Oh well, we can always watch a movie. I’ll make us a good dinner, too.” While she was busy watching the rain, she didn’t notice her s/o had retreated inside. When she turned around, however, she saw them dash out with enthusiasm, rainboots tapping against the terrace boards. She watched them open the umbrella and go farther into the rain, her eyes wide in surprise.

”Wh-what are you doing?” she asked, her accent thicker than usual. Her s/o chuckled in response.

”What does it look like, Amélie? You know I love rain!” they exclaimed. ”You should come join me.” She knew, but she didn’t know their love went this deep. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she watched her s/o do twirls under the umbrella.

”Alright, but only if you stop spinning,” she agreed, and stepped out into the rain. Her s/o did as asked, and brought the umbrella over them both when Amélie got close enough.

The sound of the rain falling against the outer surface of the umbrella silenced everything else around them. Their warm breaths created almost invisible clouds of vapor in the cool air, and soft smiles were on their lips. They were very close to each other, the bare skin on their arms lightly touching.

It was then that Amélie decided to slowly wrap her arms around her s/o, who did the same with their free arm, the both of them effectively pulling each other into a kiss. It started out as gentle and sweet, but each time their lips touched a bit more passion was put into it. It was many seconds later that they finally pulled apart, their breaths silent. They took a moment to stare into each other’s eyes, the world even quieter now. It was like it had completely disappeared.

It was Amelié’s s/o who had made her feel again, and even to this day, they were still surprising her.

McCree:

”Well darlin’, ’t looks like we’re stayin’ inside today,” Jesse declared in his casual tone and absent-mindedly looked through his pockets. ”How ’bout you pick us a movie to watch while I smoke this cigarillo?” he added when he found the cardboard package from his back pocket.

Since it was a day off for Jesse’s s/o, they had planned on having a date in their usual restaurant and go to the movies afterward. But the way it was pouring outside, they knew it was futile to even try and go outside and still be comfortable.

”You should quit that bad habit. There are healthier alternatives,” his s/o stated with their arms crossed as Jesse made his way to the door.

”How many self-respectin’ cowboys do you see vapin’, honey?” Jesse questioned as he picked up his hat and stepped outside. His s/o didn’t bother to hide their grin.

”How many self-respecting cowboys do you see, period?” they challenged.

”Touché,” Jesse agreed as the door closed after him. His s/o shook their head and stepped into the living room, their gaze drawn to the rain. They folded their arms on the windowsill, watching the dark sky and wondering if it’d turn into a thunder storm. They remembered how they used to play in the rain as a child, how fun it used to be when they had no care in the world. That’s when they remembered they’d recently gotten a new pair of rain boots.

Jesse didn’t quite know what he was seeing when his s/o entered the front yard after him, all dressed in rain gear and jumping into the nearest puddle. He could only stare in silence as his s/o laughed, then turned around with that charming grin on their face.

”Come on, Jesse, don’t be boring! Come out here!” they insisted.

It finally registered to the cowboy, and as usual, his s/o’s grin was contagious. He stubbed out the cigarillo and threw it into the pot next to their door, then followed his lover into the rain with no hesitation.

”Didn’t know ya were a fan of this awful weather,” he spoke in surprise and wrapped an arm around his s/o’s waist. Only giggles were given to him as a response. ”As fun as you’re havin’, though, one of us is gonna catch a cold like this.”

”Ah, I see, now you’re the one giving me health advice?” his s/o replied with a smirk.

”Yeah, yeah, you got me. But let’s talk about it by the fire. What do you say, hun?”

Mod Viena

“Could I get some headcanons please? Junkrat, Reaper, and Sombra with how they would react/what would they do when their s/o takes a potentially lethal bullet for them and is now bleeding out everywhere? Thx!”

Junkrat

* He can’t believe you would do that, and for someone like him! He knows you two are together, but he hadn’t expected you to care that much! His life isn’t worth yours, you’re so stupid!

* Whoever shot you won’t live much longer. A well-placed explosive will make sure of that; he stops messing around when it comes to you.

* He’s low-key panicking, but keeping his cool.

* That was a lie. He’s visibly freaking out because he and Roadie aren’t medics, how the hell are they supposed to fix you!? What do they do!?

* He’ll probably babble in your ear to keep you conscious while he sends Roadhog off to get help.

* “Y-you’re gonna be alright, love! Yer a good sport! I won’t let ya conk out on me, ya hear? God, that was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen, you takin’ that whallop for me, and I’ve seen my own reflection! And that red stuff’s supposed to stay in you, you know, heh…oi, d-don’t close your eyes!!”

* When help comes, he’ll threaten to blow them up if they can’t save you, and refuses to let you leave his immediate line of sight.

* When you recover, he probably won’t take you on heists with him for a while, the overprotective rat.

Reaper

* Why would you do that in the first place? You know bullets can’t kill him, he’s told you this before!

* The person that hurt you gets decimated by a round of shotgun bullets, almost excessively. Reaper wouldn’t dare let them live after such an offense.

* Reaper isn’t openly affectionate, but he can make an exception here, considering, y’know…you’re kind of bleeding to death

* Low-key panicked, very good at hiding it behind that mask of his

* He’d probably make Widowmaker or Sombra cover him while he carried you to safety

* You take priority, so he’d demand someone come help you immediately or he’d ult them

* Once you’re recovered, he gruffly tells you not to take risks for him anymore

Sombra

* This was not part of the plan!! Why did you do that!? She was just about to sabotage the shooter’s gun and take them out!!

* There’s no sense in leaving you as you are, so after she disposes of the shooter, she’d probably piggy back you as fast as she can to get someone to help.

* She’s definitely panicked - you weren’t supposed to be there! Why did you do that for her!?

* Expect to be cursed out in Spanish, both as you’re bleeding out and being patched up. She’ll really let you have it.

* When she calms down enough after you’re in recovery, expect to be cursed out in English but with less intensity.

* “Tu es mui idiota…” She’d mumble, but she recognizes a life debt when she sees it.

* She won’t tell you, but she’s thankful you tried to save her life. You’ll get a lot of kisses after this blows over.

 “Scenario with Symmetra, Widowmaker, and McCree where they have a day off but they look outside and it’s raining and they’re like ‘oh well, guess we’re stuck inside’ but then they see their s/o go dashing out the front door in rain boots and an umbrella as they dance out in the puddles shouting for them to come join them. What would they do?”

Symmetra

   “Satya, let’s go out.”

   The architech blinked confusedly at you, then glanced out the window. “In the storm?”

   “Yes,” you nodded, laughing a little. “It’s lovely outside!”

   “It is raining.”

   “I know Satya; that’s why it’s lovely! Don’t you like the rain?” You asked, rising from the couch and crossing the room. You plucked your shoes off of the shelf beside the door and began to lace them up, humming an idle tune. Satya hadn’t moved from her seat.

   “You will catch a cold,” she insisted, shaking her head. You ignored her warning and threw open the door, stepping out with a grin. “Come back inside!”

   “Come and get me,” you cried, skipping through puddles and splashing water everywhere. The rain beat down upon your skin, soaking your clothes from head to toe, and you laughed all the while. Satya wrinkled her nose, unattracted by the prospect of you tracking mud and water back inside when you were done.

   But, she noticed, you were shining. Your hair, though it was plastered to your skin, appeared to fall around your head like a river, and the water running down your arms made the flesh beneath look like glittering crystals.

   You were beautiful, Satya noted, and despite herself, she smiled.

   Minutes later, she laid towels out next to the door and tentatively stepped out into the storm. The wind blew her hair all over her face, and she was cold, but then there you were, brushing stray locks from her eyes and beaming in pride.

   “You came to get me,” you murmured. The architech brushed her thumb over your cheek.

   “Always,” she muttered, her words nearly swallowed by the storm. You heard them loud and clear, however, thanking her with a kiss.

Widowmaker

   Amelie didn’t care for the rain, but she didn’t dislike it, either. It was only irritating her today because the both of you had planned a picnic; she knew now, at least, not to trust the forecast.

   You, to her confusion, didn’t seem perplexed at all. In fact, you looked excited, turning to Amelie and grasping her hands.

   “Hey,” you said, the plea audible in your words, “maybe the picnic isn’t happening, but we can still have fun, right?”

   “Fun, how?” She asked, raising a brow. “You and I don’t always have the same idea of fun, my dear.”

   You smiled, releasing her and tugging your shoes on. Certainly you weren’t going out there, were you? Amelie watched you swing open the door, wearing nothing but a T-shirt and shorts.

   Then, you were outside, laughing and running around in the rain. The sniper watched you dance around with an incredulous expression, unsure of what to do. Were you trying to get sick? Was getting Pneumonia what you considered “fun?”

   “Amelie!” You chirped, stopping in midst of your frolicking and extending an inviting arm towards her. “Join me!”

   It was a foolish decision, she knew, and likely to get them both sick and scolded by Reaper later. Looking at your sweet face, however, smiling wide and bright, Amelie found herself stepping out into the storm and threading your fingers together.

   It wasn’t fun, not really, but it was fine as long as you kept that grin.

McCree

   “Shoot,” Jesse muttered to himself. His metal arm nudged the blinds aside so he could stare out into the heavy storm beating against the window. Sighing, he turned to deliver the news that he and you were going to have to wait it out when he noticed you weren’t in the room anymore. “Darlin’?”

   His comm beeped on the counter; it was your chime. Picking it up, he answered with a confused “hello?”

   “Babe!!” You sounded like you were in the midst of a storm, laughter leaving your lips in excited puffs of breath. “It’s raining!”

   “Yeah, I can tell,” Jesse replied, flesh hand adjusting his hat with a roll of his eyes. “Are ya’ outside?”

   “Yes! Come join me, these puddles are huge, babe!!” You cried. Jesse heard a splashing sound come through the comm, followed by your delighted squeal, and his heart soared at the sound. “C’mon, c’mon! Please!?”

   “Yer gonna catch a cold,” he argued, but it sounded weak to even his own ears. Already he was pulling his boots on and grabbing a jacket. He considered getting yours, too, but it sounded like it would be pointless by now. “My sick honeybee, slighted by mother nature.”

   “Get out here already,” you replied, the smirk evident in your voice. You both knew you’d won.

   The smile on your face when he shut off the comm and stepped out into the storm was worth it. The colds you caught afterwards were maybe a little less so.

[valorxdrive]

“Sorry, but I don’t lose.”

Proof behind such declaration could be the miniature rivers of crimson spilling down his opponent’s body. Pain unending, seemingly everlasting, for a fleeting moment all of that raw grit finds itself cracking under a fight he truly couldn’t of anticipated. Nothing but wavering vision is what fixates him onto the figure carefully stepping towards his fallen prey.

Sora had nothing but the smattering heft of blood to expel from his lips. So so so much. Energy felt as if it was bleeding alongside of the natural liquid of his being as he’s pressured down onto a single knee.

‘Can I really..?’ With one singular thought did the ascension to his end finally begin.

The promised crystal begin to creep from the ether, pristine, prominent all while holding a cosmic force not yet fully known. No amount of attention could be grated to such a design, nor to the fact it’s gradually restricting his movement.

♕ - What swelled into mind and heart was a torrent of relief. Any hardship sustained was gradually being drained as the encroaching sharp edge continued it’s warpath, gradually sweeping over his legs, up the extent of his arm and soon seething along another. In a way it’s mystifying, a forceful calm taking away the agonies of life itself as it begins to fully draw him into a ‘savior’s’ embrace. Heterochromatic eyes would be the last witness upon the keybearer’s fall. Any struggling remnants of willpower was made to bring himself higher.. But for what? As the comfort only intensifies such sensations of serenity... Why had he been struggling to such maddening degrees to begin with?

Why fight when a safe haven was enveloping him entirely, removing the burden, allowing any thoughts united with his purpose to seep like the spilled crimson his body once ushered?

Crossing over what he believed to be his vision would be blinding white.

....

........

Comfortable. Somewhere. Anywhere. ..Nowhere? Mindless thoughts found themselves melting away as nothing but pleasant serenity pervaded every nook and cranny. In untold ways it was soothing, unnaturally so to find himself wading through a gentle ivory abyss. Any urge to allow those cerulean eyes to be hidden from the world was overbearing, barely outweighed by emotions that haven’t yet found rest. How could they when the giddiness ebbed into soul lifting contentment? Nothing but the sweetest memories begin to pepper Sora’s heart and mind as everlasting crystal encases him.

Rest. There was no need to fight, no need to struggle, that was the continuous demand drawn as a silent hum commands. Focus on what sprawls before his sight, what nostalgia grants the ears and the effort of letting all p--n escape. A lingering moment of seconds stretched an eternity’s worth of memories in the pool of his heart. Carefree days spent dreaming of heroism alongside of his dear friends, the quieter instances, grandiose moments underneath a starlit sky as hefty smoke and chimes of laughter signaled another camp out. The pristine shine of Destiny Islands and the many, beloved faces it held and revealed to him, all revealing their shamelessly bright smiles towards him.

His parents. R--u, K---i, Tidus, Selphie and Wakka too.

Another turn of the turbulent pages had revealed times that were.. static-y? Splintered fragments of memory were attempting to fight through an invisible force. Sights of a shield whose love protected any ally from harm, the stalwart beat of magic made through a wand, bending the elements to either desolate it’s foes or offer life giving magics when he needed it most.. Who did these belong too?

Smiles. So faint, so hard to remember, yet the feelings that gave brings a nostalgia so potent it nearly brings tears to his eyes then and there. D----d, G---y.

Soon the beat of the memories begin to swim by faster as more hazy recollections were desperately scraped by. Times in a town once drenched.. No, one that always held peace, shining with a pristine radiance as the prominent city of light. Many worlds that held many people, all who held no problems.. Problems?

When did he..?

Why... Was he relaxing so much in this moment?

A terrified lunge of the heart stirred an awakening beat that roars through the entirety known as Sora. Grating within his ears if the harrowing howl of a power loosening it’s grip of control, desperately vying to give positives back into the set of emotions bubbling akin to a cauldron’s fury. Emotions introduced awareness, this very awareness brings back a very cradled and important truth to the wielder of the keyblade. All this was feeling too good, too right. The very source of what brought him here was fading away fast.. Too fast, almost as if a force was attempting to tear away any weight from his beloved burden.

The pain that allowed him to connect with so many precious people in his life.

“....No.” The instant denial of arriving paradise was a rebellious curse spilled from his lips. From the view of an outsider as the mysterious transgression takes place, the one known as Yozora who intends to close the curtain found himself rendered into a pause while a gloved palm rests upon the crystallized Sora.

“...!!” Realization dawns. Charging underneath build of this power was settled in the realm deigned impossibility. A familiar beat, one so foreign yet so brutishly true, one that draws lethal promises in terms of resolve. Despite having carefully placement upon his knee, the resonating beat of that caged heart felt like shattered shackles. Another, more powerful beat causes the miniature garden of crystal with it’s latest piece to be violently interrupted, a harsh gale spilling from the frozen body, causing Yozora to stumble back as the lost feelings of heart managed to briefly echo within the depths of his own unknown.

Drawing across the pristine mark of the statue as a fierce press of abstract chaos would be webbed cracks. Splinters of crystal, iridescent rays pouring from every crevice forcefully drawn before a loud crash echoes out. What first draws it’s freedom would be his hand, arched in such a fashion, grasping onto life from the jaws of peaceful death itself. Following would be a firm jut of the head, leading to the eruption of a face etched in a furious scowl, caring naught of the mysterious strength that attempts to give him a peaceful end.

No. To rid of his pain, another means of connecting him to the power he adores...

That would be a fate worse than death itself.

“Just who do you.. Think you... ARE!” Plowing through the entire arena would be a strength that even hijacks the surrounding dominance of this mysterious city before them. The illusion would find itself shattered, similar to the very cage that aimed to forever lock his heart away. Ripples of strength would draw the ‘steel’ to melt away, for the night’s sky to crackle and shatter from the skies above, revealing the very station that such a battle was taking place. Right now, what was involved was the heart of Sora.

A heart that intends to pay the Ultimate Price and survive.

Blistering energy erupts to the surroundings with ‘precise’ force of a natural disaster. It could truly be considered an incarnate of chaos as light, darkness and the power of bonds coalesced around the newly healed figure of the Keybearer as he remains skyborn. Light spilled from muscle, sinew and Keyblade akin to a freshly snapped bottleneck. Right now the many people who were depending on him, who he depended on, the very belief of self was riding on a fight that aimed to steal it all within a heartbeat.

To eternally freeze him on the path he intends to walk.

Hovering above the resting caricature on the station of his very heart, a passionate blaze was incited in those eyes, peering down to the speechless figure who braved so many trials to reach this very spot.. To accomplish this goal of saving Sora. Just.. Who was he saving exactly?

Before his eyes was a sleeping dog truly awoken. One that intends to never lose sight purpose that the paradoxical vastness known as his heart instilled in him.

“You’re not staying in my way!”

Round 2.

[scienceblogtumbler]

Suppression of Chloroquine is Scandalous

It’s hardly newsworthy that medical science is distorted by money. But last week, a case arose that is so blatant, so extreme, and so suspiciously criminal that it should become a rallying point for all of us interested in reform. It involves the two best-respected medical journals in the world, and a finding that immediately affected the lives of thousands of patients around the globe. Two papers purported to be derived from a large, worldwide database, but they were quietly withdrawn when the data was requested by outside reviewers, and none could be produced. Where is the outrage? Where is the passion for reform?

Hydroxychloroquine is a cheap, out-of-patent drug that literally millions of travelers have been using for 65 years for prevention of malaria. It is also taken on a daily basis by hundreds of thousands of lupus patients. Its safety profile and side-effects are well established. Front-line doctors in Wuhan told us early that, in combination with zinc, it was the most effective COVID treatment they knew. It had previously been used with success during the SARS epidemic of 2003. European doctors reported anecdotal success with chloroquine/zinc, and it became standard treatment in France, the Netherlands, and elsewhere [review]. There were about 70 ongoing clinical trials before the two articles appeared.

HCQ has been discouraged by Anthony Fauci and segments of the American medical establishment, and I have wondered if they were compromised by their investments. Fauci is associated, ideologically and financially, with vaccines. The primary competitor for HCQ is Remdesivir, belonging to Gilead Sciences, and selling for $1,000 per dose. Billions of dollars have already been invested in developing a COVID vaccine. That COVID seems to be treatable and that the pandemic is fading with the spring weather is welcome news for world health, but it is devastating for investors in Gilead, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and 20 other companies that are racing to produce a COVID vaccine.

Last month, the two most prestigious medical journals in the world reported large studies by prestigious researchers, based on a large COVID data set from Asia, Europe, and America. The lead author is from Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s teaching hospital. Here is the Lancet article, claiming that hydroquinone is worse than useless. The data appear to show that people treated with HCQ are dying at 3 times the rate of other, similar patients. Here is the New England Journal article, which analyzes comorbidities but does not mention HCQ.

The Lancet paper had been duly peer-reviewed and rushed into print by editors. But seasoned researchers in the field immediately smelled that something must be wrong. How could this huge database of patients exist, crossing four continents and going back to the earliest days of the virus, when no one thought the records would be valuable? How could comparable conditions be established in hospitals from Capetown to Beijing to New York? And how could it be that a drug in use for 65 years have such powerful lethal side-effects that no one had previously identified?

Questioned and challenged to produce the data behind the study, the authors quickly retracted the paper and refused further comment.

“Dr. Desai declined a request from The Times to be put in contact with a hospital or health care facility that provided its data to Surgisphere. He did not respond to inquiries after the retractions.” NYTimes

Nirav Desai is a physician and researcher from Surgisphere, a small Chicago company that claimed to have compiled the impressive database. Both retracted studies were led by Mandeep R. Mehra, a widely published and highly regarded professor of medicine at Harvard, who may end up being the fall guy for this scandal.

But no one is investigating Surgisphere as the source of a criminal fraud. No one is holding the Lancet journal or its editors or reviewers to account. Certainly no one is questioning the broad system funding and publishing the medical research on which the practice of Western medicine is based. To their credit, Science Magazine published this article, hinting at a scandal and beginning to ask the right questions.

This is happening at a time when the medical establishment is making the largest demands ever on our beliefs and our behaviors. We are locked down based on the computer simulation of a compromised researcher, who also did not document the basis of his computation, and whose predictions have proved spectacularly inflated. Why did we trust him, when he had cried wolf twice previously (Ebola, Avian flu)? The liberal-intellectual press and the science journals speak with a unified voice. denouncing anyone who questions vaccines as ‘anti-science’. Every article in Wikipedia and every Google search is plastered with a message that tells us to trust the CDC. The head of Youtube goes on the air to explain why anyone who disagrees with the WHO must have their videos removed.

The largest of the studies evaluating HCQ were discontinued after the Lancet article raised the probability that the studies might be putting lives of experimental subjects at risk. Now they are being re-started, but a fresh scandal has arisen. Dr Meryl Nass has investigated details of the “Soldarity” and “Recovery” trials. She reports that these trials plan to use dosages that are at least 4 times larger than necessary, dosages that have been found to be unsafe in the past, in fact fatal to a few percent of sensitive patients. She does not mention that the trials are leaving out zinc supplementation, which doctors everywhere report to be an essential part of the treatment protocol. The studies have indirect ties to vaccine manufacturers, through the WHO and through the Gates Foundation.

It appears on its face that these trials are designed to fail, and will kill experimental subjects on the way to “proving” that HCQ is an ineffective treatment. These suspicions can only be amplified by an announcement today from FDA that chloroquine cannot be used for COVID cases. This intrusion into physician autonomy is unprecedented. For as long as FDA has existed, its policy has been to permit physicians to freely prescribe drugs off-label for any condition where the individual physician feels it might be useful.

The institutions in which Americans and Europeans have entrusted their health have betrayed our trust. There are narrow implications for the future of HCQ and treatment of COVID, and then there are broader implications about the need for overhauling the profit incentives in medical research.

Narrow perspective

For those of who dare to look beyond our own noses, a concerted campaign to discredit a good, cheap treatment for COVID is a hint that might help us see past the conventional narrative to make sense of the bizarre global events of the last five months. This is a real virus, a real pandemic, but it is being exploited for a political agenda far larger than the effects of the disease itself.

Why have death rates been consistently overestimated in public reports?

Why have hospitals been incentivized to over-report COVID deaths, and to treat patients with ventilators that don’t seem to be helping?

Why has CDC failed to recommend simple, inexpensive prevention measures (vitamin D, zinc, immune-enhancing herbs, special measures for nursing homes)?

Why have our government agencies encouraged shortcutting of safety tests in “warp-speed” vaccine development, while discrediting simple, cheap treatments (intravenous vitamin C, chloroquine/zinc, Artemisia) that work in other countries?

Why has COVID become cause for bailouts of the financial sector that have little to do with the disease, while working families and small businesses have been forced into bankruptcy?

Many geneticists, including two Nobel laureates, cite evidence that COVID seems to be man-made, the product of genetic engineering (excellent technical summary). But this idea is off the table for discussion, censored by both the scientific community and by the mainstream press (original article, sanitized rewrite). Could it be that the same powerful forces benefiting from the lockdown and social control have power to censor both the scientific establishment and the popular press? These may seem wild speculations, but perhaps they are justified by wild events.

The rules we are asked to follow have been maximally destructive to our economy, our institutions, and our culture, while providing far less life-saving benefit than simpler strategies. Maybe the cultural and social isolation were intended to serve a different purpose than the protection of public health.

Broad perspective

“Two major study retractions in one month have left researchers wondering if the peer review process is broken.” NYTimes

The Times calls them “big blunders” but this is far too charitable. A big blunder is when you publish an article without noticing that a plus sign is really a minus. But when you fail to notice that the database of patient cases you are analyzing doesn’t exist, that is a fraud and not a blunder.

We like to think that medical practice is following medical research as the tail follows the dog. But look at the two economies—$3.5 trillion per year in health care revenues in America vs an NSF budget of only $8 billion spread over every kind of science. It may be too much to expect the dog to wag the tail when the tail is 500 times bigger than the dog.

Meanwhile, medical consumers are voting with their feet. People flock to dietary supplements ($35 billion/year), acupuncturists, chiropractors, and alternative healers. 40% of Americans think that non-standard approaches to cancer are more likely to cure them than chemotherapy and radiation, while most of the purveyors of those alternatives have been driven overseas by aggressive FDA “oversight”.

If the medical science establishment wishes to regain the trust of the American public, they will have to demonstrate that the health of individual patients weighs more heavily in their calculations than the profit motive.

source https://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/2020/06/18/suppression-of-chloroquine-is-scandalous/

[morsattempt]

♔ MOLTEN EYES AND A SMILE MADE FOR WAR ♔

✤  Bellatrix Black. ✤  Slytherin / Seventh Year. ✤  Pureblood. ✤  Death Eaters. ✤  Taken character.

You were always something more. More evil. More powerful. More ruthless. You came out of your mother kicking and screaming, and it doesn’t seem like you have ever stopped. Father adored you, probably preferred you over his other two daughters who were both just a bit more demure. But that didn’t make him forget you were still a woman, and a woman, especially of your status, needed a husband. You kicked and screamed, but you were still betrothed. Even when they knew you were so much more. Deserved so much more.

BIOGRAPHY.

The windows shook, violent rain swept the streets and the sky was threatening to swallow the world whole. Bellatrix Black was born during a storm, such a night prophesying the personality of the eldest Black Sister. She was given her name by Cygnus Black, from the old myths that spoke of female warrior. From the moment her father looked in her bright blues, she became the apple of his eye. Named Bellatrix Cygna Black, it was clear who adored her. Curious beyond belief, in her childhood, Bella was a force to be reckoned with. She hung on every word her father said, the stories he told about strong wizards and witches. Bellatrix would dream at night, wishing to be the lead character- the witch that held the world in the palm of her hand. It wasn’t until Cygnus took Bellatrix to the ministry, when she was six years old, that she realized her ambitions. She studied the way her father wielded his last name, how others cowered around him as he spoke. Power. Raw, undiluted power. The idea rooted itself in Bellatrix’s mind, she desired nothing but that. Perhaps Cygnus had seen the blooming potential in his daughter and decided to take her under his wing. Twice a week, the child would accompany him, and absorb all that she could, much to the dismay of her mother.

Druella wanted nothing more than for Bellatrix to be an obedient, lovely pureblood. Yet the violence in her behavior, the venom in her tongue was the complete opposite. Bellatrix would misbehave during the extravagant Black dinner parties, a menace to the order Druella required. To her eldest, the Black matriarch was cold woman, lacking any sort of motherly instinct. Why can’t you be more like Narcissa or Andromeda? She would ask the raven haired girl who was so swift to get herself in trouble. It was simply in her nature. As fearless as Bella was, the insults and the disappointment Druella threw in her direction did sting. She would never live up to her mother’s expectations, as as someone who strove for perfection, it left a mark on Bellatrix’s heart. In her mind, she’d grown up motherless. It motivated Bella to watch over Andromeda and Narcissa, her younger siblings. A fear grew in her stomach, she never wanted them to experience what she had with Druella. Bellatrix made sure that they always felt competent, loved in their own way. Like a good sister, she served as the shoulder the cry on, the advice giver and hopefully an inspiration that there was more to being a woman than submissive.

When she arrived at Hogwarts, Bella was easily sorted into Slytherin. Her ambition for power and her will was ironclad, dripping of green and silver. It didn’t take long for a first year Bellatrix to assert herself as a leader. Many of the other students were either scared of her or aspired to be her. Her gang of Slytherins ran a muck the halls, wearing their blood status as armor. She didn’t violently hate the mudbloods, just looked down on them. So many of them hadn’t realized their potential, wastes of air and resources. There was no fire to them whatsoever, maybe it was due to the fact that magic didn’t course in their veins as strongly as they did in hers? Whatever it was, Bellatrix didn’t respect them, tormenting the weakness that they displayed.

Everything that she did was to achieve those childhood dreams of filling her father’s shoes. She aced her exams, became one of the strongest duelists. Bellatrix worked hard, she needed perfection in her life if she wanted power. Who did, after all, look up to someone that made mistakes? As Andromeda and Narcissa joined her ranks, she tried to gently push her sisters in the same direction. Any issues that they came across, she was the first person to offer her services. Boys, O.W.Ls, advice? The loyalty to her family knew no bounds. She was the protective figure that Druella had never been for her… But apparently, it hadn’t been enough. With the disownment of Sirius, her cousin, Bellatrix felt like she had failed.

While her world took a severe hit with the loss of Sirius, she receiving a damning letter. She was betrothed to Rodolphus Lestrange. As someone who valued control and her own freedom, the news came as a shock to her. At first Bellatrix was hurt, but that hurt quickly turned to an anger she never had for her father. She understood that she was a pureblood, that they were always married off in some barbaric way- but Cygnus must’ve have known that Bellatrix was not that kind of woman. She was too strong, too chaotic to ever be the subdued wife. The proposal was a slap in the face. While she once held her father in such awe, the reality was rude awakening. It slowly chipped away at the idea of Cygnus being a hero, that he knew his daughter at all.

Now Bellatrix loathes her fiancée, despite their previous friendship. In her eyes, the man stood for everything that she’d always rejected. She’s made it her mission to get out of her marriage. When she watches the muggleborns saunter around Hogwarts, she almost feels envious. Jealous for the first time in her life. They have a freedom that wasn’t granted for her. No expected marriage, no responsibility to continue the family lineage. Bellatrix may have been someone who had everything, but the privileged to make her own choices escaped her. She hated them. She despised them.

Entering her final year, Voldemort saw a promising follower in Bella. She was a pureblood, viscous and cruel. She needed an escape from the options given to her by her family. What better way to recruit a lethal woman than appeal to her wants and needs? Voldemort whispered in her ear, how her could take her away from the marriage and from the betrayal, to give her the things she desired most: power. vengeance. control. All in return for service. They were two sides of the same coin, both had built themselves up. Their image exuded infamy. Like that, Bellatrix was whisked away into the Death Eaters. She’d pour her whole self into the group if it meant getting away from the things that held her down. The world would truly see what a storm Bellatrix Black was.

CONNECTIONS.

RODOLPHUS LESTRANGE  ━ Betrothed, used to be friends, now hates with a passion. SIRIUS BLACK ━ Cousin, constantly berates for being a traitor. ANDROMEDA & NARCISSA BLACK ━ Sisters, wants to protect more than anything.

THIS CHARACTER’S FACECLAIM IS JANET MONTGOMERY.