#and then that’s when I started making my own rosemary posts

[rosemary-is-in-pesterquest]

Everyday I miss the rosemary artists who were really active in 2016-2018….. I miss you dumbbitche and rose-ebottles

[windvexer]

What counts as a spell? Is intent all you need or do you have to do something before to get it all juicy and stuff.

Hi Anon! What a fun question, because there is no answer except this CAN OF WORMS you just opened.

There is no consensus anywhere as to what constitutes a "spell."

There is even LESS consensus as to what makes a spell go.

Intent is a good starting place. It is probably where you should start for all acts of practical magic.

But I find that in it's common form, the idea of intent + willpower = magic has been diluted past the point of utility for most people.

Like if we're talking about "intent is everything" I'm reminded most closely of Chaos Magic. But Chaos Magic is not a school of "just set your intent and you've worked magic!". It's a very rigorously developed system.

In Hine's Condensed Chaos, he lists the third Core Principal of Chaos magic as technical excellence, and I quote:

One of the early misconceptions about Chaos Magic was that it gave practitioners carte blanche to do whatever they liked, and so become sloppy (or worse, soggy) in their attitudes to self-assessment, analysis, etc. Not so. The Chaos approach has always advocated rigorous self-assessment and analysis, emphasized practice at what techniques you're experimenting with until you get the results you desire. Learning to 'do' magic requires that you develop a set of skills and abilities and if you're going to get involved in all this weird stuff, why not do it to the best of your ability?

Later in the book, Hine likens "magical powers" to the concept of achievements, and goes on to say:

Something which is an achievement is the result of practice, discipline, and patience.

Shortly after:

Chaos Magic is not about discarding all rules and restraints, but the process of discovering the most effective guidelines and disciplines which enable you to effect change in the world.

(In above quotes, all emphasis my own)

But these ideas get taken - and I'll give a big nod to the LOA which is just the worst kind of brainrot for encouraging the "intent is all that matters" mindset - and the ideas get diluted so much that people are literally out here saying, "so all those people who spend years studying magic in order to get results are buffoons? All I have to do is imagine what I want and it will be delivered to me? All humans since the start of history just have to decide they want something and it will happen in a miraculous manner?"

(Not you, Anon. I'm just in a mood)

In my mind, yes - something beyond intent must occur in order to make spells go.

But what?

Anon, have you ever heard that dumb belief floating around that all herbs in a spell can be replaced by rosemary, and all stones in a spell can be replaced by clear quartz, and these two things are "universal substitutes"?

I am 95% sure that this nonsense was based on two very popular dictionaries Cunningham wrote in the 80s, the Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic, and Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs.

In the very long entry for Clear Quartz:

Quartz crystal is used as a power amplifier during magic. It is worn or placed on the altar for this purpose.

And from Rosemary:

Rosemary is generally used as a substitute for frankincense.

And I believe that someone somewhere got the idea that since clear quartz amplifies all other powers, it therefore somehow magically Ditto-copies all other powers, and like a shapeshifter somehow becomes something it is not nor ever was.

And, you know. What's the difference between subbing out frankincense and blackthorn between friends?

These beliefs have become so popular that sometimes when unscrupulous blogs rip off entire Cunningham encyclopedia entries and paste them into tumblr posts (without credit), THEY INCLUDE THE EXTRA MADE-UP BIT ABOUT ROSEMARY BEING A UNIVERSAL SUBSTITUTE.

Anon, your question is "is it just intent or do we need other stuff to make it go," but sadly,

IMO common beliefs about the stuff that makes spells go have also been diluted past the point of utility for most people.

Because if I sat here and said, "hey Anon, it's not just intent, you also have to use correspondences ^-^/" then the very first thing you are likely to run into is absolute nonsense about correspondences. IMO, effective utilization of correspondences is a skillset based in research, theory, and technique.

Or if I said, "you also have to raise energy! 👍", this may be mistaken to mean, "set intent but also visualize white light inside of a candle," because the concept of raising energy and visualizing has been (IMO) diluted past the point of utility for most people. I believe that effective utilization of energy work is a song composed of many notes and chords, several of which you must practice before you can utilize it.

And to complicate all of this, which non-diluted things in which combinations you need to make the spell go depends on what paradigm you operate off of, because while there are approximately one billion ways to do magic that works, my currently very dim worldview is that most people who are talking about magic are doing magic that doesn't work,

and in my opinion the actual basis and reasoning, like the rationality behind the magical systems is really important. Because you need that shit to understand what it is within that system that makes the spell go.

And you need to understand what makes the spell go to make the system fit into your life without breaking it, and in order to troubleshoot problems without making things crumble further.

Because when people don't understand the basis and reasoning you end up with "rosemary is a universal substitute" and "imagining white light makes the spell go."

There are a few circumstances where you can totally strip technique from theory and be successful, but there are also a hell of a lot of people out here feeling shit about their practice because their spells never seem to work.

So.

I really just recommend choosing what school of magic you would like to learn about and participate in, and reading an introductory book on it.

This is because it is the job of introductory books to explain the principles and theories behind a system of magic, and most importantly, what makes the magic go, and a step-by-step primer on what you, the practitioner, are supposed to do to make that kind of magic go.

Despite above rambles I'm really not a Chaote, so I can't recommend a strong primer. As far as I'm aware, Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter J. Carroll is a core text.

For Traditional Witchcraft, try The Crooked Path by Kelden.

For something more Wiccan, I can't recall having anything bad to say about Psychic Witch by Mat Auryn.

If either of these things are too Witchcrafty for you, try Six Ways by Aidan Wachter, which is still witchcraft, but it hits different.

For a general primer on helping your spells go, try Elements of Spellcrafting by Jason Miller.

[mushroomwoods]

Sunflower Fields

the rustling wind was all too characteristic now, dream or not, he just wished to remember your voice...

character — wars, romantic or platonic

cw — mild angst with happy ending.

this is a gift i made for the loveliest @wayfayrr and took way too long to post because tumblr is a bitch, but since i am here now... enjoy! ps: i made an art commission from the dearest @h4wari. check it out, it's amazing!

The calm summer breeze blew, comforting and slightly humid as it ruffled his hair along with the scarf.

Blue star coloured eyes focused on the horizon, the chatting and bantering happening beside him barely catching his attention.

He looked lost.

As if chasing after something oh so far away, yet he didn't know what it was.

“Dozing off again, Link?” Impa voice resounded, breaking him off his stupor, gladiolus eyes thinning at the blank stare the warrior offered her.

“Let it be, Impa.” Zelda cut through, graciously stirring the tea before she poured one cup for herself.

“Ah, I can do it, Your Highness-” As Impa tried to stand up, the princess simply waved her hand.

Link took a sip of his own tea, already cold, though the gentle rosemary scent still filled his nostrils, a vague memory of Zelda telling him it was one of her favorite ones coming to mind, yet as the flavor seeped into his mouth he could only grimace.

Bitter.

The princess lightly pushed the sugar pot nearer to him, yet the hero refused, setting the porcelain cup back to the saucer with a muted clack.

“Excuse me, but I have to go back to my duties.” A blatant lie, he had been given a week off just the previous day.

Nonetheless, the princess nodded in understanding, barely looking his way as he made his way out of the garden. The gerbera daisies surrounded him the whole way out, as if mocking him, the sunny yellow shade only serving to make his mood worse.

He couldn’t understand why it was happening, why sometimes there were lapses of memories within him, the figments of a voice and a soft touch that caressed his cheeks with so much tenderness that he wanted to cry. He knew that such a thing could never have happened in the past as he spent most of his time in the war and taking care of his job as a commander.

His fists clenched when he finally reached the outer walls of the castle, the soldiers guarding the area bowed to him in respect, before opening the gates.

Freedom at last.

Somehow, after everything that happened, he couldn’t feel at ease while in that place, when near those people, when he got reminded of every single nightmare he had to push through, he felt as if drowning amidst the suffocating essence of abatina flowers, her image resurfacing to his mind even when he tried so hard to wipe it out of the memory.

With a sigh, he started heading back to his quarter, a vague sensation of deja vu overcoming his body, the rustling of the crisp summer air brushing his hair as if it was a loving hand.

The path home was quiet, some people greeting him here and there, to which was answered by his collected smile.

A fake.

Somehow nothing made sense, nothing seemed real, no amount of working or enjoyment made him feel at ease.

As the door to his house was opened, the red columbine in his stand shriveled, petals droopy, as thirst for a little drop of water, even then he ignored it, too aware of his own cowardice, hanging his uniform as he made his way to the bed.

The tired body just crumbled onto the bed, not trying to hold onto consciousness as he fell into a deep slumber.

…

He felt weightless, the usual tiredness not heaving into his shoulder.

A patch of small sunflowers surrounded him, someone sitting amidst it, a laughter familiar to him.

They said something that he couldn't quite understand, but before he could ask anything, they walked towards him, taking his hands into theirs, comforting and warm just as he remembered.

They laughed before bursting into hundreds of birds of paradise, colourful and filled with emotions.

Link didn't have any time to process it, however, as his eyes opened, the rays of light shone down on him as yet another day started.

Repeating it all once again.

He wished to sigh, but staying still at the same place for so long wouldn't do him any good, and only make him pity himself even more.

Just as he opened the curtains of his bedroom, his eyes widened, the place that should have been a vast open hill, was now covered in a patch of sunflowers, much like the dream he just had.

Not even bothering to take his usual uniform, he headed out in a flurry, tripping over his own feet as he stumbled towards the door.

As he opened it, the sight that greeted him was a familiar, yet unknown figure, surrounded by the townsfolk, all carrying bouquets of sunflowers, and placing it around the now covered patch of land.

The mysterious person's eyes met his, and they didn't hesitate before approaching him, the white-pink valerians in their arms standing out among the bright yellow blooms everyone else held.

“I'm sure you didn't expect it, Link.” Their familiar voice rang inside his heart, and he unknowingly smiled at it.

��You… how..?” So many questions flooded his head, yet no coherent words came out.

Scalding hot tears brimmed around his eyes, and with a soft smile they brushed it out of his face.

“I'm sorry that it took me so long to get to you my dear.” They answered with a melancholic smile, offering him the valerian bouquet.

He hesitated for a second, yet the moment he saw the guilt in your eyes, he carefully took it, not wasting any more time before taking you into a warm embrace.

“I missed you so much…” Link said.

“Me too, Link.” You sobbed into his arms.

Blue Star — Strength, Resilience

Gladiolus — Victorious, Strength

Rosemary — Remembrance

Gerbera Daisies (Yellow) — Appreciation in relationships

Abatina — Fickleness

Red columbine — Anxious, Trembling

Dwarf Sunflower — Adoration

Bird of Paradise — Freedom

Valerian — Readiness

[moonchildstyles]

fic announcement and sneak peek!

hiiiii besties!!!

I said a while back when I announced columba that I would be coming back with another series for both Tumblr and patreon this summer and that time has come :)))))))))))

for the last four years Ive had this idea in my head for a super special h that ive just let build a home in my heart that kept growing and growing and growing! now ive finally had a chance to write it all out and make him real with a fun story and lots of little details to make him who he is!

I don't want to spoil too much about him just because I want there to be a little mystery for him and theres so many fun details that I think will be really fun to put together when you dont' know what he's up to!

so, starting on June 30th, Rosemary will begin being posted with a new part every friday here on Tumblr! Patreon will be getting early access with the first part being posted on June 16th, and every friday after! an extended sneak peek is also up on my patreon rn!

If you are interested in reading the new story, please wait until June 1st to sign up so you only get charged once at the beginning of the month and theres a full 30 days before the next charge!

you can also check out the Pinterest board I made for the fic!

let me know if you guys have any questions about anything! im sooooo excited and cannot wait for you all to read!

under the cut is a sneak peek :)

—————

"Thank you, Harry!" 

The bow girl's chirping gratitude only had Harry looking at her stiffly with a grumbled Yeah falling from his lips. Just as she had done the last couple of months since she made herself a presence during his shifts, she only gave him a smile before bouncing away with her basket only containing a carton of banana milk and her favorite cookies. She was no longer perturbed by the standoffish responses he gave her. Harry couldn't decide if he liked that or not. 

It was like this at least a couple of times a week. She never did a big shop, only stopping by at the later times to pick up individual ingredients for a dinner she had chatted to him about, or little snacks she couldn't seem to go a day without. During at least one of her trips, she found an excuse to talk to Harry; she asked him about his day if she was close enough to feel comfortable starting a question (Harry never gave her a good answer, honestly), she told him about her own day and what she was shopping for if there was anything specific she had in mind. She almost always had a bow pinned her hair, fluttering behind her and matching whatever soft piece of clothing she had cinched around her form. Harry had even began fishing out a pack of her favorite cookies from his boxes if he was stocking that aisle, just to make it easy if she came in and asked him for assistance. It made the interactions quicker and less bothersome—at least that's what he told himself. 

He knew more about her and her routines than he had any of the hundreds of people he'd met in the last handful of years since he started moving around. Even if that did make him feel a bit guilty knowing that she didn't have a clue about who exactly she was sharing these parts of herself with; she didn't know the mess she was tiptoeing around every time she interacted with him. 

Tonight was no different, her leaving a rattling in Harry's bones that he wanted nothing more than to ignore like every other part of his life. If he was superstitious, he would think she could have cast some kind of spell on him with the way she and her little bows lingered in his brain long after she had checked out and gone on her way home. 

That rattling followed him as he made his way into the backroom, his empty box needing to be replaced. An exasperated sigh fought to leave his chest when he saw almost half of the overnight team huddled in the area, puttering about as they chattered and pretended to work. He didn't like being roped into their conversations, and that almost always happened when he ran into more than two of them at once. 

Harry didn't say a word as he broke down the cardboard box on his cart, pushing it off to the pile of the other flattened boxes before he reached for another. The conversations had quieted some when he walked in, but he could still hear what sounded like Brett and Fawn flirting in the back corner with a cart of refrigerated items that needed to go on the opposite end of the store, and Theo talking to two of the other guys that Harry didn't bother to remember their names. 

"Busy night, huh, Harry?" Theo started, dropping whatever topic he had been rambling his friends about just a moment before. 

"Yeah," Harry answered, voice stiff. It wasn't any more busy than any other night as far as he was concerned. Besides, he had other things he needed to worry about to be making conversation with a coworker he barely knew. There was still a pearl colored ribbon tying his stomach in tiny knots that he needed to fix. 

Soon enough, a silence fell through the backroom when the others made their way out. Only Harry and Theo were left, Harry doing his part to semi-organize his chosen box before heading out on the floor again. 

Maybe it was the rattling in his bones, or the vision of a peach colored bow that he saw every time he blinked, but something in Harry felt a little reckless when he peeked over at Theo focusing on his own box. 

"That girl," Harry rumbled, feeling odd in his skin as he spoke, "The one with the bows in her hair... She comes in a lot." 

Theo looked taken aback for a moment, his eyes wide with furrowed brows as he looked in Harry's direction. He even glanced over his shoulder as if there was anyone else there for the conversation to be aimed at. Harry had to keep from scoffing, dropping his gaze back to his working hands. 

Floundering over his words, Theo tried to catch up once he realized Harry was voluntarily talking. "Um, the one with bows in her hair?" 

Harry hummed in response. "She's in a couple of times a week." 

"Ohhh," Theo sounded, familiarity touching his tone, "You mean (Y/N)?" 

Harry swallowed at the sound of her name. He'd never asked for it himself. "If that's her name, yeah." 

From the corner of his eye, Harry could see Theo nodding his head some. "She comes in a lot, yeah. She's not good at keeping a list and always forgets stuff if she tries to do big shops, so she just comes in when she wants something or runs out." 

Though he didn't want this information to mean something to him, Harry felt a part of himself slowing being fulfilled the more details he learned. She didn't tell him these kinds of things when she rambled about her dinner choice for the night. 

Keeping his gaze tacked to his hands, Harry kept his words measured and calculated. "Oh," he started, "Is she from here?" 

"She's lived here forever, yeah. Why?" 

A beat passed as Harry opted to ignore the second part of Theo's response. He didn't need to have any details as to why Harry was asking after someone after working together for five months with only a handful of interactions. Even if he did want to share that, Harry didn't have any answers to that why, anyway. 

"Does she... What does she do?" Harry asked, the phrasing of his words feeling awkward falling out of his mouth. He was lucky he was so used to shielding his emotions and staying stoic, otherwise he would have cringed where he stood. 

"Like for work?" Theo asked, his eyes warm on Harry's profile. 

Lifting his shoulders, Harry only shrugged in response. It was probably a good idea to keep his mouth shut. 

"She—uh—she works at the bakery. She and my sister work there together," Theo told him, acting as if Harry was supposed to know what bakery he was talking about and who his sister was. "(Y/N)'s pretty nice, though." 

"Right," was all Harry offered by the time he finished organizing his box. He didn't bother to give anything more in response or wait for Theo to say more before he was walking out on the floor again. Even when he could feel his eyes stuck to his back.

No doubt would this interaction make its way to the rest of the team before the end of the shift. 

It was harmless curiosity, Harry argued. He just had to believe the harmless part. 

—————

[untitled-writer-013]

Could you do a alt Gabriel x reader who is a Nun? Idk maybe he comes to them and they kinda start to see Gabriel as God or something when he starts telling them he is the true savior? (Just a suggestion Im sure there are many things with this request you can do)

It's fine if not of course, thanks for reading my request either way!

Alt Gabriel x Fem!Nun!Reader

warning(s): mentions of religion, manipulation, reader is a nun, god complex if you squint.

(Y/n) (L/n) had become a nun when she turned twenty-one. She had been feeling unsure and doubtful of her life, and hoped that perhaps some form of religion would give her guidance. And if not, at least she had something to occupy her time. She would make sure the church was kept nice and tidy, ridding any webs and wiping down the stained glass windows, getting rid of dust.

As she entered the church, yet again praying to whoever would hear her, she heard a response. She looked to see who or what was there, letting out a sharp gasp as she spotted a tall man.

“Do not be afraid, my dear. I have great news. I am your true savior.” Gabriel stated, his voice barely above a whisper as he spoke, a gentle smile on his face as (Y/n) looked at him in awe.

“R-Really? Is it true? You’re my true savior?” (Y/n) asked, clasping her hands together over her rosemary, making Gabriel hold back a flinch, biting back a hiss as he spotted the cross around her neck.

“Now then darling, there’s no need to wear that anymore. It’s disrespectful to believe in an object as being holier than your savior.” Gabriel stated, his demeanor and tone still calm.

(Y/n) didn’t hesitate, taking off her rosemary, taking out her Bible, and casted them both aside. She only longed to listen to her savior, after all, how else could he have wings? There was no other explanation. She would do whatever he asked of her, no matter what it was.

“There we are, much better. Now, listen to me, and I shall answer all of your questions in due time.” Gabriel stated, making (Y/n) nod as he began to speak, preaching his own teachings, weaving his beliefs with the teachings of the Bible enough to not give away his true intentions.

(Y/n) was shocked as she learned of many new things, including things called ‘alternates’, which helped Gabriel with his teachings. She listened intently, eager to learn more from Gabriel. Gabriel would talk with her for hours at a time, instructing her to not share knowledge of his existence with anyone, telling her he would reward her if she did as he said. So, without thought, she listened. She did everything that was asked of her, and Gabriel enjoyed every second of it.

Once the alternates had been released among Mandela County, Gabriel was quick to sweep (Y/n) away, making up an excuse that she’d need his protection from the sinful creatures. He had her stay in a house away from the downtown area, where his alternates were most active.

Gabriel would use his alternates to scare (Y/n) into staying inside, convincing her that there was no need to visit the church anymore, especially with how dangerous it was to go outside.

He would have her believe that he was preparing for a rebirth of the world, and she was one of the lucky few that would be allowed to live with him. Her faith in him grew and grew, which only satisfied Gabriel, glad to know he had succeeded in gaining an iron grip on her life.

And nothing was going to make him let go.

~fin~

author’s note: sorry for the long wait, i’ve been busy with balancing school and writing, but i hope you all enjoy! i don’t plan to quit posting anytime soon, so please know that i am writing whenever i can! <33

[mel-1n-hell]

Safe Foods + Diet Foods Masterpost

(I live in the Midwest)

This is a list of a bunch of my personal favorite foods and ingredients to utilize when I’m heavily restricting. I usually love making the highest volume possible out of the lowest cals, but I also sometimes eat smaller amounts of higher calorie/denser foods if I’m, say, wearing something tight or whatever and don’t want to be water bloated. I believe in the importance of being at least mildly sated, and also in the importance of multivitamins+supplements! If you’re restricting, there is a 100% guarantee you are not getting enough vitamins to maintain external functions you really don’t want to start failing on you. I lost a lot of hair when I dropped a fuck ton of weight for the first time because I was 14 at my worst and didn’t understand anything/didn’t care at all about body chemistry, but after I was forced to recover, after my hair began growing back and thickening up, it became very important to me—as did many other aspects of my body that are influenced+enhanced by the ingestion of vitamin supplement (also hair oils like rosemary and castor and almond, leave-in conditioners, good conditioner in general // all of these things will support hair health and maintenance, specifically!) So take your vitamins! Especially capsules, because gummy vitamins are easier for your body to flush out. Plus, a lot of them are just placebos dyed a fun color and rolled in sugar. (The “Now” brand offers very high quality supplements and multivitamins in capsules/pill form)

Also, now that I’m an adult and can buy my own groceries, I have much more access to helpful tools that I wouldn’t have been able to access at 14 or wouldn’t have known enough about to even bother figuring out more. I’m much more educated now and feel almost as if restricting is too easy, too fun. Will it become a problem? Maybe. But until then, and as long as I know we’re all bent on our own destruction anyway, I’ll share what I know, because I wish I would have known about some of these things the first time I decided to dive headlong into the pits of despair (‘:

I can share my favorite combos/meals in another post if anyone would like to see it! First, though, a few general rules I follow, as a sort of context to the masterpost:

1. Caloric intake matters first and foremost. It’s just the simplest way for me to track what I’m eating. (Now don’t do this, but) You could be eating the shittiest, sugariest, most processed diet on the planet but if you’re in a caloric deficit, you’re still going to lose weight.

2. All vegetables are safe. A vegetable is not out here making anyone fat or unhealthy. Certain vegetables, like potatoes, are denser in calories, so it’s just a matter of learning how to use them, but if that scares or triggers you, stay away! For me, I always try to maintain that plants are nothing to be afraid of. I’m neurotic enough without being afraid of the food that literally comes from the earth.

3. All fruits are safe. Moderation is more important to keep in mind when it comes to fruits versus vegetables, because fruit contains more sugar, which means more calories overall. But fruits are my favorite additions to breakfasts, or as sides/snacks later on in the day. It’s a little extra something to crunch/chew on, and all fruit is just so yummy.

4. There’s nothing wrong with a chocolate fix!!! Dark chocolate (the higher the percentage, the better!) has numerous health benefits because it contains a plethora of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. It can be high calorie, so enjoy it in moderation, but there is absolutely nothing I love more than taking my time on a lux little square of dark chocolate while I’m reading a book.

5. No eating after 10pm. (I know most people choose an earlier time, but I’m a college student in a stem field who walks from her apartment to campus, so I get home later than traditional dinner time most nights.)

6. No eating before 7am. (8am is preferable.)

7. Eliminate as many sugary, processed carbs as possible. They aren’t really satisfying your body, and consuming these kinds of foods while restricting often leads to uncontrollable bingeing.

8. Eliminate fried foods (unless you figure out an air frier for a cheat night or something).

9. If you’re going to focus on any macros/micros, focus on protein and fiber! Protein is greater sustenance; fiber makes you shit.

10. If you binge, you binge. It happens. It comes with the territory of ED’s. Your body is literally pre-programmed to react this way to starvation because it’s a self-defense mechanism, and for many people, it’s an emotional defense mechanism. Just make your best mental and physical effort to minimize damage. Screwing yourself into the ceiling and just eating more will make you feel cosmically worse. Try to catch yourself before saying “fuck it” and continuing to binge harder, because even you know you don’t really mean that, and you know you’ll hate yourself to the moon for it later. Take a deep breath, name a few of the five senses to ground yourself or whatever, and then walk away. Listen to some music. Chew some gum or start sipping on lemon water. And remember: one pound is 3,500 calories. You would have had to eat that much on top of your basal metabolic rate (how many calories your body burns just existing) to gain just one pound. Water retention can be flushed. Fat cannot be.

11. Drink at least two quarts of water a day.

12. Take your fucking vitamins. xoxo

Okay! Now that I’ve rambled enough, here’s the masterpost (:

🥗 vegetables 🥗

1 cup broccoli, chopped (31 cals)

9-10 baby carrots (30 cals)

2 stalks celery (15 cals)

5 garlic cloves (20 cals) / (great roasted in the oven or as a flavor edition! stuff also makes you shit like crazy depending on how much you eat)

1 cup kale (16 cals)

1 cup spinach (7 cals)

1 cup baby spring mix (7 cals)

1 cup cauliflower, chopped (27 cals)

1 medium/small white or red onion (41 cals)

5 mini yellow/Dino egg potatoes (110 cals)

1 medium/small sweet potato (110 cals)

5 asparagus spears (15 cals)

5 medium white or baby bella mushrooms (20 cals)

1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts (45 cals)

🍑 fruits 🍑

6 mini sweet peppers (60 cals)

1 medium green bell pepper (24 cals)

1 medium red/orange/yellow bell pepper (37 cals)

1/4 avocado (75 cals)

1 medium tomato (22 cals)

1 medium banana (100 cals)

1 medium apple (100 cals)

1 medium grapefruit (104 cals)

1 large orange (87 cals)

1 clementine orange (35 cals)

5 medium strawberries (25 cals)

1 cup blueberries, frozen or fresh (80 cals)

10 raspberries (10 cals)

10 grapes (20-30 cals, depending on size + size variation; one small/medium grape is usually around 2 calories)

1 kiwi (40 cals)

1 cup red cherries, frozen or fresh (80 cals)

1 small champagne mango (80 cals)

1 cup honeydew melon, diced (61 cals)

1 cup watermelon, diced (46 cals)

1 cup pineapple, diced (82 cals)

1 medium cantaloupe (186 cals)

2 medium medjool dates, pitted (110 cals)

🍞 grains 🍞

1/3 cup flour, wheat or white (152 cals // for use in mug cakes, personal pancakes, personal cookies, etc.)

2 slices Healthy Life wheat, honey wheat, or white bread (70 cals)

1 Country Hearth light bun (80 cals)

1 mini bagel (100-125 cals, depending on flavor+brand)

1 bagel thin (110 cals)

1/3 cup rolled or quick oats, dry (100 cals)

1 cup plain Cheerios (100 cals // 140 cals for honey nut)

1/2 cup rice, brown or white (108 cals, brown; 102 cals, white)

1 “Ole” X-Treme Wellness wrap, tomato basil, spinach, or traditional (50 cals)

🍗 meats 🍗

3 oz (about the size of your palm) boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked (120 cals)

5 medium chicken fajita strips, frozen (110 cals)

2.5 Simple Truth Organic homestyle chicken tenders (170 cals)

1/2 can Good & Gather chunk chicken, canned in water (50 cals)

1 can Chunk Lite Tuna (90 cals)

11 medium Member’s Mark cooked shrimp (60 cals)

1 tilapia fillet (112 cals)

4-6 pieces thin-sliced deli ham or roast beef (60-70 cals, depending on brand)

4-6 pieces thin-sliced deli chicken or turkey (50-60 cals, depending on brand)

🧀 dairy / imitation dairy and animal products 🧀

1 medium egg (66 cals // 78 cals for large)

1 tbsp I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, light buttery spread (35 cals)

1 tbsp Blue Bonnet, light buttery spread (40 cals)

1 tbsp Blue Bonnet, buttery stick (60 cals)

1 slice Kroger fat-free American cheese slices (30 cals)

1 stick Sargento Light mozzarella string cheese (45 cals)

1/4 cup shredded fat-free mozzarella cheese (45 cals)

1 slice Sargento Ultra Thin cheese, Swiss, provolone, pepper-Jack, sharp cheddar, or Colby-Jack (40-45 cals)

1 cup unsweetened almond milk, vanilla or original (30 cals)

1 cup Silk unsweetened cashew milk, vanilla or original (25 cals)

1 cup Silk unsweetened coconut milk (40 cals)

1 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened chocolate almond milk (40 cals)

2 tbsp sugar-free International Delight or Kroger coffee creamer (30-40 cals, depending on flavor and flavor’s brand)

1 Kroger Carbmaster Yogurt, any flavor (60-80 cals, depending)

1/2 pint Favorite Day low calorie protein ice cream, Mint Cookies n’ Cream (180 cals)

1/2 pint Favorite Day low calorie protein ice cream, Cookie Dough or Mocha Coldbrew Coffee (185 cals)

1/2 pint Favorite Day low calorie protein ice cream, Chocolate Peanut Butter or Mini Donut (190 cals)

1/2 pint Favorite Day low calorie protein ice cream, Caramel Maple Bourbon Pecan Pie (205 cals)

additional: any protein ice cream brand is a great dessert choice and so unironically delicious! I just listed Target’s because it’s cheapest, cost-wise, but Halo Top, Frozen Farmer, Enlightened, etc. -- they all market low calorie ice creams for anywhere between 270-470 cals per pint, depending on which flavor and brand.

🍚💰 god-send diet foods 💰🍚

1 bag shirataki noodles (20 cals)

1 cup shirataki konjac rice (30 cals)

1 pint Frozen Farmer sorbet, peach, strawberry, honeydew, watermelon, or mango (70 cals)

1 pint Frozen Farmer sorbet, strawberry lemonade (80 cals)

1 pint Frozen Farmer sorbet, raspberry (90 cals)

Walden Farms syrups, chocolate, caramel, pancake, maple walnut, strawberry, blueberry, etc . (0 cals)

Walden Farms dressings and sauces, Ranch, Buffalo Ranch, Caesar, Thousand Island, Chipotle Ranch, Bacon Ranch, Creamy Bacon, Italian, French, Honey Dijon, Balsamic Vinaigrette, Spicy Buffalo Vinaigrette, Super Fruits Balsamic Vinaigrette, Raspberry Vinaigrette, etc. etc. etc. (0 cals; there are literally endless flavors and all of them are zero calories. No joke. Look it up, order some on Amazon, Kroger and Walmart carry the most popular flavors)

Walden Farms coffee creamers, vanilla, mocha, peppermint, caramel, hazelnut, etc. etc. (0 cals; these might need to be ordered on their website or on Amazon)

Diet Soda, any flavor or brand (0 cals, obv)

2 tbsp Great Value peanut butter powder (50 cals // PB Fit = 60 cals per 2 tbsp)

Stevia or erythritol sweeteners (0 cals)

PICKLES!!!!!!!! (0 cals)

🥨 munchies 🥨

1 cup SmartFood white cheddar popcorn (70 cals // moderation)

1 cup Skinny Pop popcorn (39 cals // moderation)

18 mini twists, Rold Gold fat-free pretzels (110 cals // moderation)

23 twists, Clancy’s Everything-Pretzel Slims (110 cals // moderation)

3 Twizzlers (100 cals // moderation)

2 Zachary’s Thin Mints, mini dark chocolate peppermint patties (65 cals // moderation)

1 Brach’s Candy Cane (50 cals)

2 Hot Cocoa Kisses (36 cals)

2 Cherry Cordial Kisses (40 cals)

1 square 85% Lindt dark chocolate (58 cals // moderation)

1 X-Treme Wellness wrap, cut into 8 slices and salted+baked into tortilla chips, with 1/4 cup salsa (75 cals) or 2 tbsp Good & Gather queso blanco dip / Tostitos salsa con queso dip (90 cals // moderation)

1 slice Healthy Life bread, toasted and with 2 tsp I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! buttery spread, garlic+onion powder, and some salt (60 cals) OR toasted and with 1 slice Kroger fat-free American cheese, melted (65 cals)

1/2 medium banana or apple with 1 tbsp PB Fit powder + 2 tbsp Walden Farm’s pancake syrup for PB drizzle (80 cals // other sugar-free syrups add 5-15 cals, ex. Maple Grove [5], Log Cabin [10], Kroger brand [15], etc.)

2 slices deli rotisserie chicken / turkey, thin-sliced, spread w 1 tbsp Kroger fat-free cream cheese, rolled around 1 baby dill pickle (40 cals // without cream cheese, 25 cals // don’t knock it till u try it😒😒unless u just don’t like pickles lol)

10 strawberries and Walden Farm’s chocolate syrup (50 cals)

1 sugar-free Jell-O cup (10 cals)

1 sugar-free pudding cup (60 cals)

🧂🥫 other sauces / dips / condiments / ingredients 🥫🧂

Mustard, yellow, Dijon, or spicy brown (5-10 cals per tsp, depending on brand)

Miracle Whip Lite (20 cals per tbsp)

Stubb’s Sugar-Free Smokehouse BBQ sauce (10 cals per 2 tbsp)

Prego Marinara No Sugar Added (60 cals per 1/2 cup)

Chi-Chi’s Salsa (40 cals per 1/2 cup)

Tostitos Salsa Con Queso dip (40 cals per 2 tbsp)

Good & Gather Queso Blanco dip (40 cals per 2 tbsp)

Any sugar-free or fat-free dressing!! Just check labels.

Maple Grove sugar-free maple syrup (5 cals per 2 tbsp)

Cocoa powder (10-20 cals per tbsp, depending on brand and purity of cocoa)

Dark spices are said to speed up the metabolism, and they also allow your brain and stomach to feel more sated after eating, so use lots of seasonings! Plus, flavor :P (chili powder, paprika, cayenne, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, etc.)

I hope you all found this post to be useful in some way, or maybe inspiring or motivating! If anyone has anything they’d like to add, don’t hesitate to reblog with your own list of favs. I plan on adding to this if I find anything new or remember something I might’ve glossed over when writing it.

That’s all for now. Stay hydrated and take your vitamins angels❣️

[malrido]

Ok since you're a fellow malrido shipper, I must know all your headcanons

I GOT YOU. Some of these are character headcanons but can be used ship wise- Also I am a roleplayer and roleplay them with my friend so I may include little story things from those. Gonna put everything past keep reading because i might have gone overboard (I love them so dearly)

-Malleus calls Riddle his rose, his queen, or his treasure. He mainly uses the first two- the second one being used more to tease him.

-Speaking of teasing- Malleus loves teasing Riddle. Fae in general are already mischievous and Malleus is no different. You even see him teasing Riddle during his birthday jacket card with the whole "I'd bring you with me~" to the deserted island thing.

-Malleus "purrs". There are sound bites i've heard of "dragons" basically creating a rumbling noise with their chest (Malleus denies that its purring). Riddle thinks its nice and has used it to fall asleep before. Audio clip from youtube below.

-Later on they end up having two kids. both girls- Rosemary and Morgan (based on Morgan le Fey). I've created picrews of them that I'll add below.

-Malleus is whipped. He is down so bad for Riddle... most of the time he will listen to what Riddle says and do whatever he asks. He's also offered to smite multiple people for Riddle

-Malleus wants to KILL Riddle's mom. Like... not exaggerating. It's a point of contention between them. Obviously Riddle doesn't want his mother to die- but Malleus thinks she's slighted him and almost gotten Riddle to break up with him one too many times and needs to go.

-Riddle loves being wrapped up in Malleus' tail. It makes him feel safe and also its nice and warm. He can almost instantly fall asleep as soon as Malleus puts his tail over Riddle.

-Malleus is VERY over protective. To points that have gotten them into arguments. Riddle is terrified of being controlled like he was by his mother again- while Malleus is terrified of Riddle leaving him, getting hurt, or dying.

-Sometimes Malleus just teleports into Heartslabyul, scoops Riddle up, and walks off towards Riddle's room or Diasomnia. Doesn't matter if Riddle is busy- he needs his rose. A great way to piss Riddle off sometimes- but he will stop when scolded. Malleus absolutely gets whiny (he will deny it) but will always listen to his queen.

-During Malleus' 4th year he just teleports back when hes not busy to be with Riddle. Even if Riddle is studying he just likes being in the room or holding Riddle in his lap. This also helps with Riddle's stress- as Trey and Cater would be gone so he doesn't exactly have somebody to ground him.

-Riddle is convinced Malleus is cursed and thats why every invite somehow falls through or goes wrong or forgotten. Afterall Riddle prides himself on memory and timing. Malleus still says its impossible for him to have been cursed.

-I... do have nsfw headcanons with them that I will not get into but if you're 18+ feel free to dm me if you're curious lmao

-Malleus is glad he mostly hides his tail because every time its out and he sees Riddle it starts thumping against the ground. He has almost broken his own bed frame when he was just sitting and reading with his tail out then Riddle paid him a surprise visit. As soon as Riddle walked into the room his tail starting thumping and cracked the bed frame

-Malleus has memorized all 810 rules of the queen of hearts before they were even dating. It was when he was interested in Riddle and wanted to do something that would make him happy.

It's almost 1 am so I'm going to stop there but I may add to this post honestly... Also if you have any questions about scenarios I will be happy to tell you my answer- also just what you think about all of these in general!

[ciaossu-imagines]

What are some of your favorite horror movies? And which ones you like to recommend to people?

Holy shit! This question makes me so happy but also so…wow, how do I organize this! How can I narrow them down…there’s just so many horror movies I definitely love and would recommend. The different sub-genres within horror and what’s the best to watch from those was considered, but that leaves out some solid horror movies that don’t fit into any particular sub-genre. So I kind of went chronologically, throughout the years…I might be wrong in some of these years, so please forgive me for that. I’ll also definitely have left off a lot of really good ones, so excuse the incompleteness of the list.

So, as mentioned on my other post, gotta start back in the roaring 20’s, when horror really kind of hit the mainstream, with 1922’s Nosferatu. It’s going to seem really boring if you go in expecting a gore-fest like what we get now, but I think it’s a really stand up film for it’s time, with a great atmosphere and feel to it.

All of the classic Universal monster film’s from the 30’s should be checked out. They’re classics for a reason and the horror genre really owes a lot to these early films.

As far as I know, the original that came out then is impossible to find, but you can find versions of 1932’s Freaks and it’s definitely worth checking out. That movie kind of fucked me up, though a lot of the horror in it was the mass exploitation of people who dared to differ from the norm.

As far as I know, the 30’s version of Sweeney Todd was the first time it was on film? Definitely worth checking out, comparing and contrasting to the Johnny Depp version of it. Both are decent in their own ways (though, of course, the stage renditions are the best).

To me, Son of Frankenstein, while considered a horror at the time, was the first horror comedy. At least, I very much have that feel watching it.

While there were a lot of 40’s horror films, the only one I still remember and enjoy is the Abbott and Costello film I recommended in the previous post.

In my opinion, the 50’s had a lot of really great horror films. Watching them now, they do feel campy and kind of B-grade, but I really do think that is part of the appeal to them and it’s also fun to see some of the tropes in horror that are still used to this day. So from that era, I recommend Donovan’s Brain, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, anything with Vincent Price, and Teenagers from Outer Space.

1960 brought us Psycho. Any horror fan should check out Psycho – I consider it a classic and a must watch. I also think that might have been the year The Little Shop of Horrors first came out on film. The original wasn’t bad, though I recommend the later version with Rick Moranis. It had a really great feel to it and was a little more fun than the original.

From the rest of the 60’s…oh, you guys know this one was going to be on here. Rosemary’s Baby, natch. Night of the Living Dead is also one that was obviously going to show up on this list because again – should be considered must-watch for any horror movie lover. Romero and horror – goes hand in hand and especially in terms of zombie tropes…it set up a lot of those. For a surprise from the 60’s though, I do recommend Blood and Black Lace.

The 70’s were great for horror. I definitely recommend the 70’s Wicker Man. If you start to watch Wicker Man and you see Nicolas Cage….press back or do whatever you need to do to turn it off. Then go watch the Wicker Man without Nicolas Cage. You will thank me for that tidbit of advice. Tales from the Crypt, The Exorcist, Jaws, Alien, the OG Carrie, The Omen, the OG The Hills Have Eyes, the OG Suspiria, Dawn of the Dead, I Spit on Your Grave, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Black Christmas, and The Amityville Horror were all fantastic movies from that decade. Plus, the Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchises started in this decade and I really recommend those franchises as a whole. Did both of them have some terrible sequels/prequels/remakes? Oh boy, did they! But overall, the franchises are solid. Young Frankenstein is a solid horror comedy and while technically a miniseries, Salem’s Lot from that time is still something I rewatch at least every year or two.

The 80’s brought Freddy fucking Krueger and boy, do I recommend watching the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise. The Chucky franchise also started at that time and I love the really kind of campy, horror comedy feel to that franchise, with some genuinely scary scenes. The Evil Dead is a classic for a reason and definitely a must watch. Just watch every movie in the franchise because at the worst, they’re hilarious, at their best they’re so, so GOOD. Pretty sure Poltergeist is also from the 80’s but if I’m wrong, it’s late 70’s. I love The Lost Boys, at least the original one.  Motel Hell was weird as fuck but pretty decent horror comedy? My favourite horror comedy from the 80’s though has to be April Fool’s Day – definitely one I recommend everyone see at least once. Fright Night from the 80’s was also really good and I actually also enjoy the remake with Colin Farrell. The 80’s also brought a lot of Stephen King adaptions and where I love his writing, I watched a lot of them – Christine, Cujo, Silver Bullet,  Children of the Corn (the OG one is my favourite, though the remake wasn’t absolutely fucking horrific), Pet Sematary, Creepshow…notice The Shining is missing? It’s because I actually don’t really like the movie. I found the book more genuinely scary. One that does have to be mentioned but which I will personally NEVER watch again – Cannibal Holocaust. Don’t eat going into it and be aware that it gets very, VERY violent. If you consider Gremlins a horror movie, it’s on there. I just say it’s a classic Christmas movie you should definitely check out around the season. I watch it every Christmas season.

From the 90’s, starting with a miniseries but the version of IT that still scares me the most? The 90’s miniseries with Tim Curry. It will legit make me cry but that’s because clowns freak me out royally.  But legit, the 90’s and the 00’s was the era I really was just getting into horror, so I struggle to figure out what is me viewing it with a lot of nostalgia and love and what is actually good so I’m going bullet points for these decades:

Se7en – even non-horror fans know THAT scene from this movie, let’s be real, and I think that  makes it have to be on this list.

Village of the Damned

From Dusk Till Dawn

The first Scream came out this decade, as did a couple of the others, but please watch all the franchise except the newest ones. I watched them, not as great as the original run but 1-4…fucking amazing and probably my favourite horror franchise personally.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

The first Blade movie came out in this decade, but I recommend all three.

The Faculty

Urban Legend

House on Haunted Hill

The Sixth Sense really did have an amazing twist, though it looks cheap and played out rewatching or looking back on it. For the time period though – it was an amazing twist.

Sleepy Hollow

American Psycho

Final Destination. Any of the movies in the franchise kind of give me the happy but the first one is probably the best.

Jeeper’s Creepers

Misery

The Leprechan franchise is great horror comedy. I love Warwick Davis.

I recommend the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, only because it led to the show and the show was so, so precious to me.

The Silence of the Lambs, naturally.

Candyman, also naturally.

The Frighteners was a fun horror comedy. I just like seeing bad things happen to Michael J. Fox

Sometimes They Come Back

Cube

Cannibal! The Musical is frigging fantastic and a great black comedy

The Craft

Idle Hands is frigging amazing as well for horror comedy.

From the 2000’s:

Ginger Snaps

Thirteen Ghosts

Valentine

28 Days Later

Cabin Fever

Resident Evil as a franchise is hit or miss, but I like the original

The Ring

Wrong Turn

The Grudge

The Saw franchise

Hostel

House of 1000 Corpses and the follow up movies to it

Shaun of the Dead

House of Wax, just for being able to see Paris Hilton die

When a Stranger Calls

1408 (have an odd crush on John Cusack)

30 Days of Night

The Mist

Dead Silence

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Coraline

Zombieland

Cabin in the Woods is from around that time and still one of the best meta-horror comedies I’ve ever seen.

[souji-upseta]

yo my name is nyx, it's my birthday today (2/3). my birthdays have sucked SHIT the past few years for reasons that are depressing—

—cringe is also dead, i killed her myself, and i'm still grieving her loss. its been very hard for me—

—since i am the protagonist of Me and can do st abt this, this year i turn 31, and i will at some point turn 31.4, with all of this in mind, what do i want for my birthday? i'll tell you:

to talk about homestuck.

i'll do that, anyways, but you'd be doing me a gift by giving me a prompt to follow, and to feel slightly more validated in my inability to shut up about my hyperfixation.

so i'm asking YOU to talk about homestuck with me.

talk to me abt homestuck? ask me my headcanons. my thoughts. my relationship to the work. tell me yours. expect nothing that's profound, and plenty that's stupid.

i'm even turning anon on, for the first time in 6 fucking years. where making this happen.

this never expires btw. today is my birthday, but, for story purposes, let's say that it's still my birthday after it isn't, bc i will still want and, if i am honest, NEED you to talk to me about homestuck for years onward. i'm very metatextual like that.

i get the feeling it's going to be a long day.

>Nyx: Be the other guy.

You are now the other guy! What will you do?

>Web Tumblr User: Inbox Tumblr user souji-upseta?

>Mobile App Tumblr User: Do that, but hyperlink is unavailable?

=(n×∞)>

FOURTH WALL BREAK!

you are now nyx again, and i am now me, and i need to exposit some lore.

as in, some starting points to get u going, since "homestuck" is a very broad subject:

•i'm a massive massive slut for the epilogues and post canon content/hsbc. pesterquest is too good for this gay earth.

•dirk is my fav, ALL of the dirks, all of them, and it isn't even close. my fav relationship is the canon platonic/familial one between dirk and dave. i fucking love the striders. dave is my 1.5th fav.

•im more invested in dave's relationship to corndogs (and corn dogs) than you even know.

•mspa reader is my second fav after the striders, bc they are a good thembo friendsimp and also bc they are me and they are You. i might be biased. i love You. i love me. i love us. we're fucking gr8.

•im pretty canon-compliant, so my fav ship is dirkjake as exes (for now), and my fav ship as not-exes is panquadrant (canon) davekat.

i'm also really fascinated by rosemary and would welcome more opportunities to learn abt and talk about them but if homestuck makes a statement about anything it's to let the women and the sapphic characters tell their story (thats a joke, talk to me abt them too)

•june eg(g)bert real.

•i'm fascinated by classpects and the applications of paradox space's classpecting and extended zodiac system when applied to real life, since our only experience of those fictional systems is in linear dimensions of spacetime, and our only experience of astrology is as a species that in-universe cannot experience the sign caste system the same way the fictional aliens that created our species in their own image do. skaia knows, but we sure as fuck don't.

•i'm a former prince of heart (2012-2020) and a current knight of space, and my aspect is light. that is a thing that actually makes perfect sense for the reasons i just said.

don't ask me about vriska serket or (vriska) serket. not bc i'm not willing to discuss dark or problematic characters (hello, lanque bombyx) but bc:

for one, she can speak for her damn self, and has, tyvm.

for two, talking at length about a problematic character in any positive capacity marks you as an enemy of the state if that character is a woman, and being an enemy of the state is way too much fucking pressure for me for reasons i already explained as soon as i told you i'm a knignt of space. i wouldnt make a very good enemy of the state. it'd be an unhealthy blackrom relationship to the detriment of us all.

for three, i can just give you all my opinions/headcanons on vriska that matter:

•JOHN HUGGING VRISKA IN HSBC YESSSSSSSSSS

•she's greasy and gross and unkept af but not unclean or unsanitary, like, she bathes, she smells fine, she changes her clothes, but she's got the troll crust punk aesthetic absolutely on LOCK. she doesn't comb her hair.

•it would have been funny if she did even more bad things

•aradia did nothing wrong. vriska did but the meme is funny even if someone needs to take that meme out back and shoot it for the good of humanity.

•she should beat up ultimate dirk, and my reasoning for that is bc that would, also, be really fucking funny if she did

•john has both punched her in the face and hugged her, and now that john has punched aranea in the face, all that's left is for june—i assume she will have come out of her egg(bert) by then—to hug aranea and complete the circle of stupidity.

•she is trans yeah but she doesn't wanna get into it, she doesn't have to, and neither do i.

•vrisrezi most important relationship in homestuck.

there. you already got me to talk about vriska at length, and you didn't have to try. moot issue.

[wyrddogs]

Went ratting last night. It's post concert season so there was a lot of trash, which meant a lot of rats, and we nabbed our personal city best of twenty-seven rats from one single park.

I brought Zaku and he not only was able to dispatch his very first rat, he got four in total. Very pleased with him.

We used some tactics again and placed a bunch of netting over the rosemary and some known tunnels to control movement prior to bringing the dog out. My friend, who is apparently part terrier herself, killed a rat with a bat as she was laying nets. She has her own personal kill count!

I started out with just Kermit for the first hour or so. At one point we were walking along the sidewalk to a new area and Kermit did a hard ninety degree turn and a coyote hop into a pile of leaves. We quickly set the catch dogs up, a rat popped out, and that was that.

Later we were working some rosebushes and Kermit FINALLY redeemed himself for his friggin soft mouth and he grabbed and killed a rat that was flushed into him. (I might have yelled, "GET IT, DUMBASS" as he thrashed it.) We were working next to a group of homeless folks and they clustered over to watch us and cheer and point out rats. They seemed to really enjoy the show.

I brought Zaku out as we worked The Gauntlet and dual-wielded the boys as catch dogs. A few rats got past us at first because Kermit is, bless his heart, the slowest dog on the team, and Zaku was figuring out what was going on. But then Bubby pulled a rat out of the netting and crunched it and I made much of him and he was like "ohhhh!!!" and then he was on.

Kermit's second kill of the night was when we ran down a rat, which we don't get to do often. Normally we're the flushers. I'm very pleased with him.

Zaku turned out to be a pretty good catch dog; he's quick on his feet, very attuned to movement, and he has enough jaw strength to kill the rats pretty instantly. He did get bit a couple of times but it just activated his fight reflex, which is excellent.

At one point he pulled a small rat out of the netting and started trotting around with his tail high like it was his bally. It bit him and he dropped it, and one of the terriers had to run it down and dispatch it. He's still figuring stuff out so I expect him to make silly choices for a few more outings.

Kermit's half-sister is turning out to be a great catch dog. She excels at darting swiftly in and nabbing rats as they run by her. She also has a harder mouth than Him and doesn't struggle with the dispatch like he does.

We had a random guy just start walking through the middle of our group and try to get his little fluffy dog to say hi to our dogs. Our dogs, of course, were working, and completely uninterested in visiting with strange dogs. We finally had to explain to the guy several times that we were working before he took the hint and continued on.

We got home at midnight after three hours in the park. Pretty damn good haul! Hopefully folks notice a decrease in the rat population for a bit.

[citadelsushi]

Remember a couple posts ago when I said I was writing an original fic? Well, those characters wouldn't let me continue world building until I wrote something. And that something turned out to be some filthy smut. TW: enthusiastic consent but they're angry about it, fighting turns into something else that starts with f.

“You have no right to lecture me,” she spat, wiping at her mouth. Blood streaked the back of her hand.

            “I have every right.” Three quick strides closed the gap between them. “As your warden, as your better –”

            Amara scoffed and droplets of blood sprayed from her freshly split lip. “My better? Because you’ve ascended to Scholar?” She pointed a shaking finger in his face. “That doesn’t make you better than me, Kai. It makes you so” -she lowered her hand and jabbed that finger into his chest- “much” -jab- “worse.”

            He smacked her hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

            “Or what?” The flat of her palm connected with the solid plane of his chest. The force barely made him shift onto his heels. It wasn’t enough. She wanted to send him flying across the room. She wanted him to hurt. “You won’t do shit about it. You never do anything. You’re a damned coward.” Before she could land another hit, he struck, the movement so quick it barely registered. Fingers closed around her wrists, searing her flesh as she struggled against his grip.

            “Funny that you call me the coward when you have spend the last five years hiding.” He pulled her closer with a yank of her wrists. So close her balled fists pressed against his stomach. Rage rose from his body like steam. “I know you’re waiting for your opportunity to run. Don’t. I found you when the entire world thought you dead,” the rosemary on his breath infiltrated her senses as he leaned in, “I will most certainly find you again.”

            All struggling ceased at his threat. If not for the menacing tone with which he growled the words, it could have been a lover’s promise. Something like longing seized her stomach, made her blood heat and her head spin. Based on the slight furrow of his brow, the minute relaxation at the corners of his eyes, Kai felt it too. The weight of his words hung between them. For a moment, it was as if they were teenagers again, lovesick and making vows they could never keep. Before she blew that version of them to smithereens. Before they accepted each other’s deaths without any confirmation because it was so much easier than the truth.

An ache blossomed in her jaw from clenching her teeth so tightly. Bastard. How dare he say such a thing? How dare he revive that part of her heart that had withered for so long. He hadn’t been looking for her, he had stumbled across her home blindly while in pursuit of another. If she were to go missing again, he wouldn’t expend an iota of energy more than required by the Mage. There was nothing left between them but distrust and loathing, and he had the nerve to speak as if he would follow her to the ends of the Earth. To threaten her with a lifetime of confinement.

“You couldn’t possibly get so lucky twice,” she snarled.

Kai’s eyes widened, as if to flinch, in the split second before she wrenched her arms free from his grip. A crack split the air as her fist connected with his jaw. His head snapped to the side. Red hot pain shot through her knuckles and up her forearm. When he looked her way again, no sign of the lovesick man she used to know remained. In his place was a Scholar, a warrior without an ounce of compassion.

Fists flew at her face. Kicks targeted her chest, her abdomen, her legs. Blood roared in her ears as she desperately tried to deflect and dodge his blows. He had been taking it easy on her in training, letting her practice the motions of deflecting and landing a hit of her own. Now, he moved so quickly it was all she could do to avoid being pummeled. Air whooshed overhead, ruffling her hair, as she ducked a fist intended for her head. A blur of motion on her left sent her rolling right. If she didn’t know him miserably well, she’d suspect his magic increased his physical abilities. If she didn’t hate him so much, she’d be impressed by the way he moved. Every strike, every step so fluid it was as if his muscles acted of their own accord. His body and mind joined in the singular purpose of destroying their opponent, of destroying her.

A flurry of blows aimed at her face, and she shot her forearms up to block. All oxygen in her lungs was expelled at once as a vicious kick landed square in her stomach. Amara collapsed to the ground, folded in on herself, hand pressed to her abdomen.

From above, Kai glowered and stretched his jaw. “Don’t pick a fight you can’t win.”

Panting, she glared up at him. The bastard wasn’t even out of breath. A familiar hollow opened in her chest, a great chasm that pulled her ribcage apart at the sternum. Glacial cold crawled from the newly torn depths. Silver flames burst forth from her hands, dancing along the bruising flesh of her arms.

“Amara, don’t,” Kai warned. “Your magic will eat you alive.”

A chill spread through her bones, ice dusting her skin. “Not before it takes a bite out of you.”

Flames lunged through the air. A brilliant white dragon of power gave chase as Kai retreated, dodging and ducking as she had been moments before. Good. Run. She wanted his fear. She wanted to strike him in the heart and freeze it as solid as her own. Magic sang the same sadistic tune in her veins.  

Blackness leeched the edges of her vision and Amara knew her eyes had gone black. Soon she’d be overwhelmed by her own magic, and she couldn’t bring herself to care. Watching Kai run from her attacks was too satisfying. There was little he could do against her; it had always been that way. As strong as he was in his own power, hers were a living, breathing beast of its own.

Awareness tingled as her magic sensed movement to the right. A chair was flying in her direction, sent by Kai. She hadn’t noticed him pull it across the room. Her right hand shot up and her cold fire stretched out to meet it. Wood warped and shriveled mid-air, then combusted. Splinters rained. On her left, Kai was closing in. Encased in a shimmering blue shield, he was no longer running from her attack. Another stream of flame erupted from her hand, straight at him. Silver collided with the energy of his shield. Energy crackled and popped, reverberating through the room like the sound of ice breaking at the center of a frozen lake.

“Amara, stop!” Veins in his neck bulged as he strained to move through her fire.

She didn’t want to stop. As soon as she did, she’d be caged. The Mage would order an implant be placed to strip her of her magic. They would remove her from the small basic room that had become her only refuge and put her behind bars once again to rot. They’d never let her go. Not after an outburst like this. And that was all assuming she could stop. Her magic was starving and now it was so close to being sated for the first time in years, it was salivating. Desperate. It would devour them both, even if it was to be its last feast.

Kai collided with her and knocked her flat on her back. She barely felt the impact, but it was jarring enough – how had he reached her through the fire? - that the streams of power attacking him dissipated. Flames coated them both, freely licking up her flesh with a ghostly chill while trying to find a weakness in Kai’s shield. Magic crackled and sparked. Nothing before had ever withstood her flames. Years ago, even Kai’s shield had failed under the strain. Of course they had hardened over time. Kai had no weaknesses but his own ambition, that much hadn’t changed, and his control had improved immensely in her absence.

“Get off of me,” she ordered, her voice unrecognizably cold.

“Call back your magic,” he countered. She struggled fruitlessly beneath him. He straddled her waist, pinning her legs with his own, as they wrestled with each other’s arms. She managed to get a hand free long enough to slap him across the face. Whether it was the sting of the slap or the echo of flesh against flesh, the smack snapped something in them both. Nails dragged across his cheek as Kai caught her wrists in his hands, his grip mercilessly tight, and yanked them from his face to pin them overhead. “Damn it, Amara, stop!”

All at once, her magic retreated. Full color returned to her vision. Kai’s shield sputtered out and the blue energy that had been covering his body disappeared. The chasm in her chest sucked all the cold from the air, from her body, and she felt warm for the first time since calling to her magic. Entirely too warm. With his shield gone, Amara could suddenly feel everything. The solid weight of him pressing her into the floor. His touch scalding and calloused on the sensitive flesh of her inner wrists. Sweat gathered along her forehead and dripped between her breasts. A similar sheen coated his face and neck and made his shirt cling to his torso. Kai’s body was bowed over hers to keep her pinned, the ends of his hair skimmed her cheek, tickled her clavicle, as he panted over her.

It wasn’t fair of him to still look the same. Magic had taken its toll on her, but he still looked like the same man she once loved. Those deep brown eyes could still pierce her with such intensity she had to close her eyes to block him out. And still, she could feel them on her. Scrutinizing. Peeling her apart, flaying her alive. His weight shifted. Both of her arms were pinned by one of his while the other skimmed up the length of her arm to her shoulder, across her bare skin to her neck. Her skin flushed, goosebumps rising in the wake of his touch. And elsewhere, across her chest and down her abdomen, as if his gaze had dropped to touch her everywhere his hands did not.

Fingers wrapped around the column of her throat, not squeezing, but firmly resting. She opened her eyes to avoid the need to squirm and his shot up to meet her stare. She challenged, “you going to kill me now?”

Kai’s grip on her throat tightened infinitesimally. “I’m not the murderer here.”

Her eyes narrowed. If it wouldn’t fall back onto her own face, she would have spit at him. “I hate you.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

But as she shifted beneath him, her feet struggling for purchase so that she could regain some semblance of control, she felt his body’s betrayal press against her stomach. Air sucked between her teeth like she’d been struck, and he froze. It meant nothing. It was simply his body reacting to adrenaline from their fight and proximity. Just as it meant nothing when a jolt of heat rooted in her abdomen and branched lower. The skipping beat of her heart, the hitch in her breath, it was all meaningless. Physical reactions over which she had no control. The widening of his eyes, however, the stutter of his exhale as his gaze dropped to her heaving chest, that felt like something.

“It doesn’t feel mutual,” she muttered, suppressing a smirk. His eyes darted back to hers, expression dark, as she shifted her hips underneath him. Trapped as she was, she couldn’t really touch him, but the motion was enough to make her point. His erection bobbed, tapping her stomach.

A rumbling, scornful laugh split his lips. “You say that as if I wouldn’t find you soaking if I touched you right now.” Amara swallowed, hard. The roughness of his voice, his words, sent a jolt of lightning straight to her core and she felt a rush of arousal between her thighs. Kai leaned in closer, pressing against her throat, gripping her wrists tight enough to bruise. Hot, rosemary breath ghosted against her ear. “I can hate you and want to fuck you at the same time.”

That had certainly changed. When they’d met, Kai was a hopeless romantic dreaming of an everlasting love. They’d had partners before, they weren’t each other’s firsts, but each lover had had taken had been significant. When they had evolved from friendship to romance, he had been the one who wanted them to wait, to make sure it would be meaningful for both parties. Sex had been the deepest form of intimacy, not a means to an end. Now, he simply wanted to blow off some steam. She could feel it in the way he pinned her, the way his entire body shook imperceptibly as if he was a hair’s breadth from losing his carefully constructed control. Maybe he really did want to kill her, to wound her as deeply as she had wounded him but didn’t have her capacity for violence.

“I don’t believe you,” she whispered, lips brushing against his cheek.

Teeth closed on her earlobe and tugged the sensitive flesh, drawing a gasp from her before she could stifle it. Then his lips were on the scant amount of flesh exposed between his hand and her jaw, the sharp edge of his teeth poised to bite. “Are you asking me to prove it?”

The delicious threat of his teeth at her neck made her thighs clench. An invitation more dangerous than the Mage could ever provide. Prison would be safer. Being stripped of her magic and dropped into a pit of lions had better odds of survival. Yet her heart pounded at the prospect. That chasm in her chest hadn’t closed when her magic retreated, leaving her utterly hollow. And now it was she who was hungry, not her magic, for anything to fill the yawning crater where her heart once beat.

“Yes.”

Kai’s hand tightened on her throat once more, enough to make her lips part to draw more air. A warning. Or his last attempt to cling to his senses. And then they were moving so quickly her mind couldn’t keep up. There was nothing gentle, nothing romantic about how they came together. Suddenly her hands were free, Kai’s busy clawing at her clothing. Teeth scraped along her neck, her jaw, over the swell of her breasts. Her head fell back, baring her throat. She dug her nails into the meat of his shoulders, shifted beneath him until he was nestled between her spread thighs. She rolled her hips. A tortured moan rumbled in Kai’s throat as her core rubbed along his length. She did it again and again, breathless from the friction against her clit. Both of his hands gripped the collar of her blouse and tore. Amara gasped. Air rushed against her bare skin just long enough to know that he had split the fabric down to her abdomen before he was on her again. Callouses scraped against the tender flesh of her exposed breast. Lips skated across her jaw, burning a path to her mouth.

Amara turned her head at the last second, his lips landing on her cheek instead of on her own. Fingers gripped her chin and turned her to him. Eyes impossibly dark with lust latched on to her mouth and his tongue darted out to wet his lips.

She breathed, “don’t.”

Kai paused, something flickering in his gaze as his eyes met hers. It was gone with a blink. His face was flushed. Four angry red lines marked one of his cheeks and they wrinkled as nodded at her trousers and said, “take those off.”

They moved quickly, both aware that if they took too long the spell would be broken, and they would be left half naked and unsatisfied. He sat back on his heels and scrambled to undo his laces while she shimmied out of her trousers and undergarments. By the time he had his off, she was naked from the waist down, her ruined shirt clinging worthlessly to her torso, and she surged forward. Kai laid back, hands reflexively landing on her hips as she straddled him. Nothing separated them now and his length slipped easily through the wetness gathered along her slit.

“Gods you’re wet,” Kai moaned. He gripped her hips so tightly it hurt. She closed her eyes and rolled her hips, leaning into the pain, grinding against his length. At the end of each undulation, the head rubbed against her clit and she shivered. “Look at you,” his voice was broken and strained. “You’re fucked up for being so desperate for me.”

Amara braced her hands against his chest, curled her nails against him, and lifted her hips despite his hold. Her body screamed at the loss of contact. Kai’s grip tightened further, and they locked eyes. His hips rose to follow hers, chasing the same friction her body mourned, and he pulled her back down against him. She huffed a dark laugh, “Who’s the desperate one?”

One of his hands palmed her breast, pinching her nipple between his fingers, and he tugged. She let out a yelp, following the pressure until she was nearly flush against him. The new angle aligned his head perfectly at her entrance. She watched a retort die on his tongue as she instinctively pressed backward, the head of his cock spreading her lips, pressing against her entrance. Amara drank in his expression. The slight gape of his mouth, the heavy rise and fall of his chest. Nipple still caught between his fingers, he worked the sensitive flesh firmly, but almost absentmindedly. As if all his concentration focused on where his cock twitched against her opening. He looked awestruck. Broken. She wanted to memorize that expression. When this was over and they were at each other’s throats once more, she wanted to remember how utterly enraptured he was in this moment.

“What does it say about you,” she leaned down to whisper against the shell of his ear, “that you’re here fucking a convict?” She was torturing herself, prolonging it this way. Desire coiled tight in her abdomen. She needed release, soon.

“Shut up,” he panted weakly. His hips bucked, his hand on her hip tried to push her down onto him, but she resisted.

“Did you request to be my warden, Kai? In hopes that you could fuck me again?” She pressed back ever so slightly, the pressure of his head against her entrance delectably hot and hard. Her cunt ached, contracting around nothing, trying to draw him in.

“I said shut up,” he growled. His hand moved from her breast to her hair, fisting at the base of her neck and pulling tight. Sinfully sweet pain tickled her scalp. Head drawn back, her body arched. Doing so moved her entire body back and finally his cock breached her entrance. “Gods,” Kai sighed, his hips rising, “more. I need more.”

Amara fisted his shirt and breathed deep. The first inch alone was enough to wrack her with a full body shudder. She’d taken him before, but it had been some time since she’d had anything more than her own finger, and her body tensed against the intrusion. “Wait,” she said, her voice a strained whisper from the hold he had on her.

Kai stilled, his fingers tangled tightly in her hair, but he eased up enough that her forehead fell against his chest. Slowly, she worked herself on his cock. Up and down, inch by torturous inch, she sunk down onto him. Eyes closed, breath heavy, she focused on the stretch, on the glide of him inside of her as she rose up high enough to nearly remove him, then sunk down again. Warmth pooled in her core, desire already coiling tight. It nearly snapped as Kai pulled her hair, forcing her to arch, and took a breast into his mouth. Teeth latched on to her nipple and drew it tight. Amara released a breathless, gasping moan as she sank down onto him completely. Kai’s answering noise was long and deep and guttural, rumbling around her nipple. She gave herself but a second to adjust to his girth before she started to ride him in earnest. That band coiled in her abdomen was close to snapping. She had been so ready, so aching, that she wasn’t far from release. Eyes closed tight, she was only vaguely aware that it was Kai beneath her, Kai’s cock inside her stretching her so wonderfully full. His hands roaming her body, bruising her hips, pinching her nipples, pulling her hair.  Jolts of pleasure shot up and down her spin. She tilted her hips, changing the angle and – oh.

“Fuck…yes….” Pinpricks of pleasure exploded, her toes tingled, as his cock hit that spot inside of her. She slipped a hand between their bodies and rubbed her clit in firm circles. Her cunt clenched around him, a new rush of wetness coating his cock. She was going to come. “Gods, yes.”

Suddenly she was yanked back from the precipice of her climax. She nearly sobbed with frustration, her hand forced to leave her clit to catch herself, her body horribly empty and pulsing with need, as Kai withdrew and rolled her onto her back. He pulled her to him by her thighs, fingertips digging into her flesh.

“You don’t get to use me,” he snarled. Then he gripped himself in one hand and slapped his cock against her slit. She nearly cried, her clit thrilled for any contact, no matter how lewd.

Before she could catch her breath, he flipped her onto her front, pulled her hips up to meet his, and sheathed himself fully inside of her in one fluid movement. Cheek pressed against the floor, Amara cried out. Her mind fumbled, dizzy and disoriented. Kai palmed her ass, then smacked it, hard, and she yelped. He was relentless, not giving her time to catch her breath before he withdrew and slammed into her again. And again. And again. This was no frantic race to the end; this was a punishment. His thrusts were long and hard, as if each one served to prove a point.

I can hate you and want to fuck you at the same time.

The orgasm he had so crudely ripped from her flared to life. She reached between her legs for her clit, biting back a moan as she rubbed herself in circles. Drunk on lust, she pushed back against him. More, she needed more. Harder, faster, she wanted everything he could give. Muscles in her abdomen tightened. Her pleasure was coiled so tightly she was desperate to release. She brought a fist to her mouth and bit down, stifling her moans.

Kai’s hand wrapped around her throat. Another cupped her breast. He pulled her upright, back arching, the crown of her head nearly touching his chest. Her hands shot up to grab his arm to steady herself. “If you’re going to come,” he growled against her ear, “it’s going to be because I make you.” His hips snapped against her. This angle had him nestled so deep she ached. “And I want to hear it.”

“I hate you,” she panted.

Kai laughed, dark and low, against her ear, and thrust into her again. The feeling is mutual. But Gods if he didn’t feel so fucking good. The hand on her breast skimmed across her stomach, down to where their bodies joined. His fingers slid through her arousal, pausing to savor the feel of his cock stretching her wide as he pumped in and out. Amara shuddered. Feeling his fingers and cock at once felt so erotic, so salacious, she could scream. As if he could read her mind, he bit off another dark chuckle, and brought his fingers to her clit.

The last of his control gave way as he began to rub her clit in circles. Brutally capable fingers closed around her throat, not to constrict, but to restrain. He pounded into her. Thrust after thrust, there was nothing she could do but cling to him and feel. The scrape of his stubble against her cheek, the pinch of his teeth on shoulder, the slick delicious friction of his cock, the firm pressure of his fingers on her clit. Unable to hide her pleasure, her moans echoed throughout the room. She was vaguely aware of how breathless she sounded, how wanton and inarticulate. It felt too good to care.

“Oh Gods,” she choked, “don’t stop.” Every muscle was taut with need, with anticipation. She was so close. If he stopped her release again, she would die. Maybe that was his intention. To bring her to the brink of ecstasy and destroy her by denying it. The prospect nearly made her sob.

Kai groaned against her ear. “Let me feel you come, Amara.” One more circle of her clit, another hard thrust, and she was lost. With a strangled cry, Amara came hard. Tremors shook her entire body. Her cunt clenched and spasmed, a rush of liquid heat dripped down his cock. “Fuck, yes. That’s it.”  

He continued thrusting into her through her orgasm. She was near boneless, fully supported by his hand at her throat and her flesh so sensitive that each drive into her sent another shockwave through her body. The hand that had been circling her clit trailed up her body, leaving a damp trail across her skin, to her lips. Mindlessly, she parted her lips, taking his fingers into her mouth and sucking, tasting the sweet tang of her own cum. As she languidly swirled her tongue around the digits, Kai’s thrusts grew erratic, his rhythm lost to his oncoming release.

With a pained moan, he released her and withdrew. Amara collapsed onto her hands and knees. A hand grabbed one of her cheeks and spread her apart. Hot cum splattered across her ass, in the cleft between her cheeks, dripped down her slit.

Silence suddenly smothered the room. In the absence of skin slapping and their moans, awkwardness set in. Amara remained frozen, drawing deep breaths, listing to Kai’s own heavy breathing as he jerked himself through the last of his orgasm. Hells below, what did she do?

Kai’s hand slid from her ass, and she sat back on her heels, forced herself to look at the wreckage of their decision. He still worse his shirt, but hers was off her shoulders now, a tattered scrap of fabric around her waist. Their pants lie scattered, tangled together like a proclamation of their own. Their eyes met and it took every ounce of willpower she possessed not to let her gaze fall to the floor.

“Hand me my underwear,” she ordered, nodding to the discarded clothing nearest him. He obeyed wordlessly and remained silent, watching as if not really seeing, while she wiped herself clean. “We should go.”

Finally, Kai snapped to attention. He grabbed his pants and stood to dress. “You’re right. The Mage is expecting you today.”

Amara knotted the laces on her trousers and pinched her ruined shirt together. “What for?”

“I believe that depends on how you behave.” Kai’s expression was unreadable. His mouth set into a thin line, his jaw clenched, but his eyes looked troubled. “Let’s go.”

“Now?” She demanded. “Surely there’s time for me to put on a proper blouse first.”

“Your clothing is inconsequential.”

“You’re joking,” she laughed in disbelief. “Kai, I’m not going to stand before The Mage with my tits out.”

“I won’t keep The Mage waiting because you suddenly want to feign decency.”

Amara blinked at the insult. “And what of your decency? Is it common practice for wardens to fuck their captives into the ground?”

Kai whirled on her. “Don’t for one second think that you can question or make demands of me because of what we did. I am your warden because your magic is volatile, and you are too weak to harness it. You will submit to whatever The Mage requests or you will stay in a cell until all that remains of you is bones, and I will drag you there myself.”

Bile burned the back of her throat. If only it were acid she could spit. As she looked at him now, Amara tried to conjure the memory of his face slack with awe as they came together and found it impossible. It hurt to look at him. Something in her chest cracked. The icy crevasse that contained her power widened.

“The next time I collapse a tower,” she said, voice low with malice, “I promise you will be crushed among the rubble.”

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

About your last meta, since TV series Dream is going through his character development more rapidly(changing Gault into a dream, admitting he was wrong and apologizing to both Gault and Lucienne, saying that he will try to listen more) do you think he'll survive his tragic fate? I'm desperately hoping he does

honestly, i've almost written so many metas on this, and never ended up posting any, because the short answer is i just don't know

but if you want my evidence either way...

reasons the ending may change

everything is kinder in the tv show. the world it's working towards is just a better place. john not killing rosemary, unity and desire's relationship being consensual and meaningful, the changes in tone to sound of her wings, the fact that dream seems actually open to calliope's suggestion of reconnecting rather than just outright saying no, the corinthian actually taking care of jed rather than just stuffing him in the trunk of his car, i'm sure there's more i can't think of right now, but this adaptation is astoundingly accurate, most of the scenes are taken from the comics word for word. whenever a scene isn't lifted directly from the comics, i invariably find it's more hopeful than what was originally there

when neil was asked why john didn't kill rosemary, one of the things he said was that he didn't want comic fans to think they always know what's going to happen

as you mentioned, the entire gault plotline. dream's entire problem is that he doesn't believe he's capable of change. by making him realise that one of his nightmares is, that's certainly setting some kind of precedent! (and, while i'm not assuming neil won't pull a bait and switch here given the disparity between what lucifer's actually planning to do to dream and what it sounds like they are, "a new age" is certainly a Choice of line if you're planning on killing dream five years later)

rose and lyta. first off, rose is allowed to remember what happened to her, which immediately gives her a lot more agency over the plot. and she knows lyta a lot better, which means that lyta has a support system in the show that she did not have in the comics. if daniel goes missing, in the show, rose knows the entire story, and she's gonna take that straight to dream, if she can. i am sure the "if you have the power to destroy the world, then you have the power to destroy him!" "i don't want to destroy him" line is going to be relevant in the future

reasons it may not:

daniel's still a character. one way or another, i don't think morpheus is going to make it through this and remain dream of the endless

there's no changes made to desire and dream's last scene, where dream talks (in vague terms) about how that was a murder attempt desire just did, killing family will bring the kindly ones down on his head, like desire vowed to do way back when (and given one particular mason interview where they talked about looking forward to the audience understanding all the backstory behind that conversation, i believe this line is still foreshadowing, dream will still have to kill orpheus and lyta will harness the kindly ones against him)

i think the addition of matthew to the scenes in hell adds a lot to later comic scenes (see: this post for more on that)

tragedies are a specific form of storytelling with their own rules, they're not the same as "regular story, but you made the characters lose at the end". sandman, as a story, follows the rules of a tragedy. and as much as i would also like good things for dream, in order to tell this as a story with a happy ending, a lot would have to change right from the start. which, just personally, i don't really want it to, because a lot of the scenes i really like and find the most meaningful of this story would probably have to get cut or heavily modified to support that new story

and further on that, just from a writing perspective - in a story with a happy ending, tension is created by placing obstacles between the characters and what they want, things they have to surpass and fight for. in a tragedy, getting what the character wants has to be so easy, if they were anyone else in the story. tension is created through the fact that everyone involved can see the exit out of the tragedy, it's right there, but the qualities that fundamentally make the character who they are are the same qualities that keep them from acting.

the conflict in this story is undoubtedly between dream and himself. his need to abandon this burden that is far too heavy, vs his inability to take any action that runs counter to his duty. and it's made interesting by who he's placed in opposition to. what is the point of lucifer as a character, of destruction, if dream could listen to them? if watching someone change for the better could actually change him, then what's the rest of the story? he's already learned that from gault, you could cut it right here. and sure you could test that a few more times, but if we were writing a story about an immortal being who learns they're not beholden to their universe given duty, who has to overcome millenia of responsibility and feeling like they're not really a person in order to realise they're in control of their own life and can live how they choose - that's already lucifer's story. and destruction's. why aren't we writing about them, instead?

one of the big questions we ask in storywriting is why here, why now, why this person? and what makes dream unique is his utter unyielding dedication to the rules and to his responsibilities. and that means that, despite every other character in this story pointing out the glaring neon exit sign from the tragedy, he could never have done anything other than what he did

and you could do it, don't get me wrong. if you wanted to write sandman as a story with a happy ending, you could take dream down a path of learning to be someone else, to change enough that he's no longer the character that gets grabbed by the tragedy (though it'll still be a tragedy for lyta). and if we were gonna do that, and do it well, season one has been a good setup for it. but that's a different story, that will require different challenges, ones that actually make him learn, rather than making the situation progressively worse with every challenge he ignores. and it really comes down to i don't know how much neil is willing to entirely rewrite his masterpiece like that

i think s2 will tell, one way or another, because season of mists is where the tragedy properly starts. as much as i ended up writing a longer thing under reasons why not, that's just because they were more complicated concepts to explain, i genuinely cannot predict what neil is gonna do here. every time i think about this i feel like my opinion falls on a different side. but like i said, whether you're aiming for tragedy or a happy ending, you have to sow those seeds early on, or it's gonna leave the audience feeling betrayed, no matter which you choose. preludes and doll's house, they're early enough and unconnected enough they could fall on either side. but i think season of mists is gonna make it evidently clear

[windvexer]

This is also why I don't know how to recommend spells to people because to me most spells are just:

Find a Guy who's really good at the thing (probably other people talk about how good he is)

Ask him to do the thing for you

Provide auxiliary support to make his job easier (and say please and thank you!)

And one Guy can often do a lot of things. Like, Rosemary can help with memory problems, sleep, cleansing, protection, healing, and nightmares.

So you can show up and say, "Rosemary, when I drink this tea of you, please infuse me with good memory so I can remember important details of this upcoming conversation."

Or, "Rosemary, when I hang up this sachet of you, please stand as a sentinel of my sleep and guard against bad dreams."

Or, "Rosemary, when I place your pot by the front door, please cleanse the air of all sickness that may enter, and keep the home healthy."

(And yeah, there are Techniques to this, but that's not what this post is about)

But the problem is that sometimes, the Guy might not be that helpful until you get to know him a little more and things get chill between you two. Or he might show you hidden aspects to himself that are not common and not talked about by other people.

So you can get into a situation where you've been hanging with Rosemary for a while and have a really weird dream and all of the sudden, Rosemary can make other people tell you the truth.

That's not a Rosemary correspondence and it's probably not something that other people can do with Rosemary.

But it's something you can do with Rosemary because you've gotten to know each other on a friend level.

A missing factor for me, and maybe for other people, was treating spellwork like a potion-making game where you just gather X amount of Y-aligned correspondence and if you mix enough of them you get a Potion of Y.

Like if you need protection, you just go to a correspondence list and find enough Protection-aligned plants (regardless of how they work or their personalities or attributes) and put them together in a bag and saying an unrelated charm or prayer that you say no matter which plants you put in the bag.

Which is how people end up with 50 little jars of dead plants that stay dead because they have no connection to them, still looking up what ingredients to use in which spells.

Which is fine, but it's also like... not necessarily what everyone is looking for.

So my point is that if correspondences are reduced to 4-5 purposes on a chart, then you get the correspondence brainrot which is like "which kitchen herb is a gentle cleanser, and which kitchen herb is a strong cleanser," when the reality is that if a guy can Cleanse he can show up gently or strongly in his own unique way,

And it all makes more sense by just treating him like a Guy and asking him to do what you need to do.

I genuinely think that if a practitioner is looking for something deeper and more relational in their practice, a really good way is to scale everything back and start using like one activated (evoked, prayed over, petitioned, etc.) Ally in each spell and just asking if he, as a Guy, can or wants to do something for you.

Like if you go absolutely bonkers over a good cup of Chamomile tea, what's the harm in asking Chamomile to cleanse for you? What's the harm in asking Chamomile to protect your home, or bless your sleep?

At the very least you're going to begin learning a lot about Chamomile in an interpersonal way, where you can begin understanding the "correspondence" for yourself. And you can also learn some fucking cool stuff, like, isn't it weird that when I ask Chamomile to protect my home, we all started finding little bits of cash we had lost?

Idk. Magic is just easier when more things are Guys.

[oddlittlemiss]

Spell Jar for Self-Love

Here is a post about how to make your own self-love spell jar! Feel free to add, take away, or replace anything from this list.

First find any container.

Then gather your herbs, the ones I used are:

1. Lady's Mantle- To help you become a magnet for genuine love.

2. Calendula- To protect and dispel negative energy. Also drawing light and love into your energy field.

3. Yarrow- Attract genuine, wonderful friends.

4. Red Roses- To help you see the beauty and love around and within you.

5. Sunflower Petals- To help build a healthy ego and for protection against negative energy.

6. Jasmine Flowers- To inspire confidence and inner beauty.

Then gather crystals to add to your jar. I only used garnet crystal chips.

Garnet- known to help you feel secure in yourself. Its purpose for this spell jar is so if you meet unkind people, they can't knock you down you with their words or actions.

The candle I used to seal my spell jar:

Rosemary and Lavender Candle- For protection and healing.

Once you have all of your supplies, find a place you won't be disturbed.

Clean your space energetically (in whatever fashion you choose.)

Place protection around your area (choose whatever method you like to use.)

Then fill your container. I like to add my herbs one at a time, saying out loud the purpose of that herb. And adding crystal chips after every 2 herbs.

When you are done, close the container. (This is optional, you can super glue the rim of the lid to have peace of mind that your jar is permanently sealed and it won’t spill if knocked over.) And seal your jar with candle wax by pouring the wax pooled around a lit candle over the closed lid.

After the wax hardens a bit, use an object with a sharp point (toothpick, pin) and write the initials of your full name and your birthday anywhere on the wax. Then hold it in your hands and say out loud:

“My heart is learning to value itself.

Inner wounds left opened will finally be healed.

Starting today I promise to love myself.

And my inner beauty will be revealed.

So mote it be.”

Congrats! You now have yourself a self-love spell jar! Place it on a spot where you will see it often so you will be encouraged to see yourself with love💖

[davekat-sucks]

Wow amazing art but this is strike one. Yiffy was the inevitable failure of postcanon, even with the new union and art team, her very existence ruins Rosemary, ruins Jade, ruins the setting and pisses off the fanbase no matter what you do.

Remove Yiffany and you retcon a major plot point of postcanon and the 4th kid for the new kids for the Candy timeline, keep her in and Jade is still a futanari who imposed herself on Rose to ruin the fanbase’s favorite lesbian couple and raise the kid with a fascist because… people on Earth C are too nosy.

Yiffany destroyed all hype for the original Homestuck^2 when she was revealed, even for as mediocre as the comic started out as, there were fans and speculation, which turned to spite for being so poorly handled. Even now with the new team, r/homestuck at least seems to enjoy the new content (excluding a few voices and r/englishpumpkinparty) but clearly any content with yiffany is gonna piss someone off.

Literally if Hussie just stopped at the epilogues the fandom would like postcanon more. It would have its detractor but it’s easier to defend the epilogues than Beyond Canon.

I can actually understand and connect why Jade and Jane became the way they are in the epilogues. Jane’s encounters with trolls were awful and the mothergrub does lay thousands of eggs to deal with such a low rate of successful brooding grubs. Jade was alone on her island and in a ship for 3 years (post retcon) and needs human connection desperately. My issue was the epilogues do a very one-dimensional and extreme version of these characters and justifies this by saying “no one checked in on them or helped” over the course of a 7 year timeskip and even after the characters did a whole webcomic where the point was friendship and connection is healthy for a human to develop emotionally to maturity, are we seriously doing this theme again?!

But Jane in Beyond Canon is a villain with barely any screen time or dialogue to ramble about why she’s “doing the right thing” and Jade is stripped of any nuance to this invasive and careless brat who tries to gain sympathy by whining about how much her life sucked/still sucks

I swear, this comic will go on hiatus again by the end of 2024 (if everything goes right) or on 4/13 (if it all goes wrong)

At least Jade was justified because 1. She didn't know how Grandpa English died and only came to the shocking realization she accidentally killed him (Tavros had also intervened too during this). 2. She had to grow up alone on an ISLAND and has no social cues how to properly act. Sure she would have Internet, movies, games, and books to read. But they aren't the true basis of human connection. 3. Neither Hussie, James, or anyone in WhatPumpkin/HICU had given a reason why Bec couldn't just teleport her to meet with the others since he still had Space Powers. Some could say because it would ruin the plot and Sburb wouldn't happen that it only took the meddling of MSPA READER in Pesterquest to do it. Her situation is just as shit like Jake English. And look how the series, writers, and nu-fandom shit on Jake despite his conditions is just the same, if not WORSE because of the lusus animals trying to attack him that he had always be training to survive for his life. At this point, drop any faith you have in James Roach and Beyond Canon. Apologize. And hope that this will fail hard that James and Hussie will just let the fandom make up their own ending. Even say DO NOT GIVE James Roach any money if they do go through with the Homestuck merch and vinyl. You are better off supporting the fandom itself. Pay for commissions, buy fan merch on places like Etsy, etc. Do not give shitty people like James or Hussie any cash. Go give Toby Fox some love too. Because he is one of the few sane people left and is successful outside of Homestuck.

[pleuvoire]

Rosemary, since youre the one who got me to listen to more PinocchioP recently, I'd love to know what your favorites of his are if you'd like to share :3

HEHE….. strap in this might get a little long. i like his music a lot. gonna start with my top favorites and then just throw other ones onto the pile from there

nobody makes sense - probably my top favorite. LOVE a good "life has no meaning so we have to create meaning" theme, and the visuals are beautiful. i'm buried in a garbage heap, looking up at the stars...

nice to meet you, people of earth (my own translation of the title lol) - ALWAYS MAKES ME EMOTIONAL. the strengths and faults of humanity viewed through the eyes of a hopeful outsider...

loveit - a quiet melancholy one about easily getting sucked into self-destructive relationships... and the mv is beautiful

anonymous m - best of his recent work imo. LOVE a good meta exploration of hatsune miku as a character or not-character

lonely ufo - one of the first songs of his i ever heard. makes me emotional...

ghosts play to the audience - really interesting song about creative integrity vs crowd-pleasing as an artist and the unclear boundary between the two. also about ghosts! and it bangs!

yozurina - a song about the uncertainty and attachment of long-distance love. dawn comes again...

vocaloid is lame - a melancholy song about dealing with haters of one's work that sort of turns into a classic pino-p "finding optimism in the midst of your sadness" thing. the high note on the astronaut line always makes me tear up a bit

everything about animals - duet between miku and pino-p himself! "there's tigers, horses, deer, working adults, livestock, monkeys, you who once raised your first cry..."

it's a festival, hey come on! - i only checked this one out recently because of the creative mixed-media mv and it took a while to grow on me but now i think the chorus is so catchy. flashing lights cw

tonchinkan feast - possibly the first of his songs i ever heard. kind of an oddball but i love the creative mv. my party trick is i can sing this from memory. if you listen to it you'll understand why it's a party trick

motivation is dead - THEE depression song

god-ish - i'm sorry vocaloid community for putting this one so far down the list i just thought of a bunch of other ones first. this one got so crazy popular it shows up in "all time miku songs" tribute art. kind of wild. i was there when it dropped, who'da known...

magical girl and chocolate - another recent one that got popular although not to the insane degree of god-ish. when i find a toku character to apply this to it's over for you guys

non-breath oblige - forgot about this one for a bit but it's so good it makes me emotional. wish it was humanly possible to sing

and i'm just gonna throw ultimate senpai, what's inside, kick ass literally, nee nee nee, and mushroom mother onto the pile real quick before this gets too long. you've already seen 404, apple dot com, what yama says goes, last continue, reincarnation apple and common world domination from my other post so i didn't write up a blurb for any of those but those are some classic favorites of mine too, especially the first three. NOW as if this post wasn't long enough here are some collabs and stuff of his i like:

i'm a controversy by ado - vocals by ado, written and produced by pino-p. aka THE FUCKING DREAM TEAM EVER. this song expresses ado's conflicted reaction to the controversy she's generated with the social criticism in her music. imo THEE best song to come out of the voca-p adjacent circle this year. mv goes hard too

(not) a devil - collab with deco*27, another insanely popular voca-p, possibly the most insanely popular one currently active. as you can imagine this one made quite a splash. i like duet collabs like this because you can hear the difference in how each artist tunes their miku. pino-p's muted soft-spoken miku ftw

gorgeous big conversation - collab with utsu-p, a less popular but still fairly big voca-p known for his signature heavy metal sound which you can hear in this song. i love the lyrics of this one they are silly and surreal, i wish this video was subbed. shoutout to internet comedian arufa who is the guy in the video, he also provided the human voice in anonymous m. you may know him from this video which got popular on tumblr

ok hope this wasn't too long :) enjoy!!! also, i put these in no particular order, but if you pay attention to the upload dates think it's interesting to see how the style evolves over time. also did you know the art is done by pino-p himself :) with some exceptions obviously but that distinctive style you see always popping up is done by him