#but by virtue of creating a possible interpretation

[ozzgin]

Is it just me or can I imagine a yandere with a darling who’s immune system and possibly everything about them just screams weak and pathetic, BUT their darling is actually very strong mentally and has and will create the most fucked up, batshit crazy inventions from what used to be harmless to something that can help them escape and possibly destroy everything in its path.

But at the end of the day, they become sleepy koalas who hug whoever is near them and fall asleep :)

This could be a request or rant, whatever you can think of! I just wanted to see how different yandere writers would interpret this small imagination of mine <3

But as always, stay safe and take care! everyone needs a break some time to time~

Sorry, but the moment I read the Darling's description, I instantly thought of Dr. Finkelstein from Nightmare Before Christmas. You know, Sally's inventor. 😭 So let me quickly write this down while I'm in my Shelley vibes, because I like the idea a lot. With a little twist, if you don't mind. :)

Yandere! Monster x Inventor! Reader

A frail inventor, and their affectionate rag doll that has been carefully stitched together for the purpose of a caregiver. An artificial existence, trapped within the confines of your lonely tower. Or so you might think.

Content: gender neutral reader, monster romance, obsessive behavior

"I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel..." [Frankenstein]

You dangle an old, rusty bell for a good minute before leaning back in your chair. The barely audible chimes are quickly swallowed by the loud, mechanical groans of the gears and engines occupying most of this room. No matter, his ears are good. You picked them yourself. And surely enough, within moments, the door to your laboratory opens and someone cautiously walks in.

A tall, slender man. Or rather, something meant to resemble a man. The skin is a clumsy patchwork of blues and grays - you're no talented seamster, sadly - gathering together the body parts in what feels like a parodic attempt at mimicking God and his image. You gaze at the creature approaching you with a tray of tea and sweets. Scarcely your best work, if you must adhere to honesty. Regardless of the quality of your labor at the time of creation, you are proud of the result. How could you not be? You know this man better than you know yourself. Every organ, every artificial nerve cord, every blemish and stitch of his body was placed according to your intentions. A masterfully detailed project that took you years to complete; not an easy feat considering the lamentable state of your health.

"Here's your deadly nightshade tea." The man places a small, porcelain cup on the desk. "Do let me know when I should take you to bed, (Y/N)." You wave your hand dismissively and stretch out your limbs. "Not yet. I am almost finished", you respond, returning to the mound of metal scraps and pipes before you. "Can I ask what you're making?" The pale creature lowers himself to your level, a curious smile plastered on his face. "It's a mechanical heart", you reveal boastfully. "Like the one I have?" You run your hand through the creature's hair affectionately. "Almost. I'm testing out a different way to build the valves, for a more efficient pumping cycle." You continue to explain the intricacies of your novel mechanism, occasionally sipping on your tea. "Who knows, you might have a sibling in the near future."

The man's smile drops in an instant, and his sunken eyes widen at your statement. "What? Am I- am I not enough?" You glance at the creature as he becomes increasingly frantic. "Don't speak nonsense. If it comes out alright, I'll upgrade your own parts as well. I'm a disciple of scientific virtue, of continuous improvement." Nonsense? Vile treachery! You might've chiseled the brain that throbs within the walls of his skull, but his mind is his alone, and you seem to lack a fundamental understanding of his feelings and thoughts. His ardent confessions of love are met with mockingly pitiful grins, in the way a parent soothes a needy child. Even now, your eyes reflect nothing more than sympathy towards his protest. A childish tantrum is what you're most likely thinking. You've no time for emotional bagatelles. He can read you like an open book.

You simply won't understand. There is no place for a stranger in the life he's crafted with his very own hands: you, and him, and the evening tea with a side of butterscotch biscuits, and the bedtime talks, and the stripped branches of the decaying tree that rap at the windows on stormy nights. You might be the Inventor, but he is not just a mere, humble servant, a rag doll to be tossed around or toyed with. As you will soon discover, after all.

You awaken in the midst of night with your temples burning from a much too familiar headache. Although it's not just the pain that has disturbed your slumber. You can hear rattles and thuds coming from the upstairs laboratory. An intruder? Oh, your creations! The sound of glass breaking and metal scraping sends you into spiraling despair. You fumble to reach the nightstand, patting the surface in search for the bell and keys. You shake the handle in a panic, unable to find anything else in the darkness.

The chaotic rustle abruptly stops, followed by descending footsteps. You hold your breath as the chamber door opens, but it's none other than your creature. "Another flare-up? Shall I bring you some medicine?" the man asks with monotonous courtesy. "What have you been doing? What's all that noise?" you demand, agitated, but upon lifting yourself off the mattress you discover your legs are numb and uncooperative. The man hurries to your bed with a worried frown, and you hear the familiar clatter of the keychain coming from one of his pockets. "Have you taken my keys? Cease this foolishness at once!" Indifferent to your reproach, he places a firm hold on your shoulders and forces you back down, tucking you in effortlessly.

"You must forgive my impertinence." he says in a pleading tone. "I do not wish to impede the works of your genius. As your partner, however, it is my duty to prevent you from making mistakes." You furrow your eyebrows at his words. "What mistakes? My invention was flawless!", you argue fervently. "Indeed it was, but not its purpose. What need have you for another being?" It is the creature's turn for a passionate speech. He stands up with a confidence you don't recognize and continues: "You should know by now that I am fit to perform any role. That of your servant, your caregiver, your lover, or anything else you may desire. You can resume your tinkering starting tomorrow, but such blasphemies to our bond as the one today will not be tolerated." He straightens his vest and reaches for the door handle. "I will prepare some tea to help you rest."

Inconceivable. Your own creation, built with your own hands...Has something escaped your attention? His dialogue is deranged, tainted by madness. "Have I done something wrong?" you mumble to yourself, deep in contemplation. "Nonsense." the creature turns to face you briefly. "It was you who created me after all. Everything is perfectly splendid."

[sigh-tofm]

Can you do the TF141 with an autistic S/O?

i think most of the readers i write are a little autistic by virtue of being extensions of myself but…

… price

- knows how exhausting socialising is for you. always keeps an eye on you in public in order to see the signs of anxiety as soon as possible. you know you can always sidle up to him and link your arm in his, stay halfway obscured by his broad shoulders if you need to. whether you’re at a military gala or a sunny street market, he’s your solid constant. he’s also a slick talker and can always steer the group conversation away from you if you just can’t socialise anymore. he will get you both out of there and take you somewhere quiet for you to breathe a little. when you go home, the rest of the evening is spent in comfortable silence, and you just exist together in the same space.

… kyle

- is aware of your sensory and dietary restrictions, and always honours them. you have no problem eating the same dish multiple nights in a row, so it’s easy for him to keep you fed. it creates a sense of stability and routine for you both, knowing exactly what’s coming. he also makes sure to always be stocked up on your favourite snacks. when he’s deployed he will set his phone to send you automatic texts every day around dinnertime to ask if you’ve eaten, since he knows you easily forget. you send him a heart in return and go to defrost one of the meal he’s prepped for you.

… johnny

- loves your hyper fixations and getting to listen to you go on about your niche topic of interest. sure he’s not following all of your many tangents about weather systems, edwardian politics, photons or germanic languages, but he feeds off of your broad grin when he asks you to explain something further. while he’s seated on the sofa with his sketchbook, you’re cross legged on the rug with a fidget toy in your hands, talking about aviation technology. it’s a good day.

… ghost

- is also probably on the spectrum. you both have your little quirks, and you both find yourself quite comfortable in each other’s silent company. you both catalogue each other’s little tells and can after only a short while quite easily interpret each other’s feelings, even though you struggle with everyone else’s. an outsider might think you hate each other, judging by the way you don’t look at each other, much less speak, but you two have achieved a perfect symbiosis of peaceful co-existence and a matter of factly, but very deep, relationship.

[nebbyy]

Can I request king Baldwin being jealous I just would want to see how it everything would go down 🤔🤔

King Baldwin x reader - Jealousy

A/N: uuuuh I like this concept!! I can't lie it was pretty hard imagining him being jealous, especially since I myself wouldn't even look in other men's direction have I had Baldwin next to me😩😩.

Anyway, hope you like my interpretation of your prompt :))

Painting is "A Midsummer Night's Dream - Hermian and Lysander" by John Simmons by the way :))

Warning: angst, jealousy and talks of insecurity. Reader is specifically described as being female!

I think it's common knowledge at this point that Baldwin is a man of many virtues, who likes to act guided by reason, not by the heart

The only exception to this ironclad rule is, well, you. You're his beloved wife, the only woman who had ever walked this earth able to make him swoon and lose his collected reasoning, in the name of his love for you

In his eyes, you were the most beautiful creature God has created, and your virtues to him had to be honored and made an example to the rest of the world

He knew you really had not much choice in marrying him: after all, it was a political marriage. But the moment he saw your cheeks get warmer, your eyes avert his own and your breath hitching as he got closer to you

He couldn't fathom how he got so lucky to be worthy of even the slightest of your attention, let alone your love. It was something that he cherished like the holiest of relics, and he made sure to show it by showering you in gifts, spending every breathing moment he had as close to you as possible, learning your passions and hobbies and introducing you to his own

But as much as he loved to shower you in the affection you so much deserved, he remained a man whose mind reigned over every other part of him, and that meant that he knew that he wasn't easy to love, mainly because of his appearance

He wasn't unaware of the fact that his decayed face, his bandaged limbs, his sometimes showing wounds,.. they made people feel a sense of uneasiness, it even repulsed some at the mere sight of it

He knew that a pair of soft, full lips would be preferred by any reasonable woman over his own scarred and partly destroyed ones

He knew that a vigorous man, strong enough to fight and ride on his own, to carry you and protect you would be much preferred to his weakened, often bedridden, mangled body

And he also knew that it was the norm that in most forced weddings, infidelity was so normal that it was even romanticized by singers and poets

So as time went on and his condition worsened by the day, the dooming feeling in his mind that warned him about you possibly growing a liking to someone else started to become more and more present in his mind

Especially one time, when a dashingly handsome prince has just arrived to Jerusalem's court, and he seems that you have piqued his interest, for he seems to make it his personal mission to be as close to you as he possibly can

It's almost as if he's forgotten that you’re married to the king of the realm that is hosting him!

Baldwin first noticed a rather unusual demeanor from the prince on the first night that he's been there, when he started to make a never ending string of jokes, all in order to get a melodic laugh out of you

Then came the walk through the garden, where you usually went with your husband to unwind from your royal duties. And now there he was, this bumptious young prince that acted like he could win you over your own husband

It was right then and there that his own self deprecating tendencies left him to be replaced by a burning flame inside of him, the desire to publicly show your belonging to him and him alone

And so he took it upon himself to muster up all his strength in the following hours, before making his appearance in the main hall. Of course he knew he'd found you there, along with your suitor

Oh how his heart swelled when he saw your eyes, firstly semi-closed from the boredom the prince was causing you, light up at the sight of your husband entering the room

He confidently walked through the room until he was right in front of you, gently taking your hand in his and bringing it to his veiled mouth and holding it there for just a little longer than usual, while his celestial eyes never leaving your own

The simple action left you breathless, mostly because you'd never seen that fire within his stare before, yet in that moment he seemed to you as if he had been possessed by some sort of force that granted him such confidence

Breathing in the sight of you for just a little longer, he then turned his gaze to the prince, talking in a satisfied tone

"What a sight for sore eyes is my wife, am I right? I feel sorry for you that you can enjoy of her company for so little, but I'm afraid that she's needed somewhere else."

If you didn't know him any better, you wouldn't be able to comprehend that there's nowhere where you're needed at the moment other than your husband's arms, and you're glad to fill in the empty spot without hesitation

Because, let's be honest, you took this suitor's attentions as a tool to spur your husband, to test his devotion to you and his desire to have you all to himself. You wanted him to see you as not something gave for granted, no, he had to fight for you like the knights fighting in the name of the women they love in the jousts

And that he did, and you could swear that you have never in your short life have felt so loved and wanted as he picked you up midway through the hallway, smiling playfully at you as you lowered the veil off his face

"You're gonna make me have a run for your attentions, my dear. But I must inform you I'm not prone to sharing when it comes to my beloved wife"

You wouldn't want it to be any other way, as he gently laid you on your shared bed before joining you. And there you spend the rest of the day, after he'd called off both of your daily duties just so that he could have that time dedicated to just the two of you, to make a point of the tie between you two, that no man, much less prince, could ever break

So yes, at times Baldwin can become jealous because of his insecurities and your undeniable beauty, but his combative nature gives him the right spur to make him act on it, never letting anything get in his way

[velvetvexations]

BTW people act like "misogyny was created to oppress people AFAB" is a horrifically TERF-y statement that means you must not think misogyny affects trans women or doesn't affect them as badly and that's...so stupid. Cis women still have privilege over trans women by virtue of being cis because being trans is punished even harsher than being a cis woman.

At best I guess I can understand the inference this means trans people AFAB suffer more for being trans and having been AFAB, but it seems pretty obvious to me that's not so much literally ASAB that's the issue as it is the idea of people AFAB as the Other, and queer people AMAB are fully seen as the Other because of perceived proximity to it, e.g. wearing dresses or sucking cock. Trans women and trans men alike cross the gender divide and as a result are equally reviled as mutant hybrids of Man and Woman.

A lot of people in history literally could not imagine queerness, it just never entered their heads. I'm serious. Yes, people weren't just dumber or less imaginative back in the day, and queerness has always existed and been reviled, but that does not change the fact that great numbers of people were completely ignorant of it even if it was on the books as a crime. In fact, in England, they once passed on making sex between women illegal specifically because they were worried it would simply alert them to it being a possibility.

But people are obsessed with the idea of if you're 'affected' or 'exempt,' so like, you have to imagine trans women have soul-gender that everyone recognizes on sight, because to them it's impossible for anyone who's not a woman to suffer misogyny, so no one could have perceived you as a man beforehand. People say other trans people only suffer splash damage from transmisogyny, but you can also look at the oppression of trans women as the patriarchy punishing traitors in the ASAB War, which even tracks with cis women being privileged over trans women because treason has always historically been punished much more harshly than like, any other crime.* It's like bombing a city and saying "fine, if you want to be them so bad you can burn with them."

Because like, you know what does splash damage?

A fucking nuke.

And being 0.5 inches to the left of ground zero is not remotely better. It does not understate your hardship to say the bomb did not literally drop right on your head a split second before being obliterated by radioactive hellfire. The only way to interpret it as doing so is if you cannot stand the idea of not having at least one issue that revolves entirely around your existence even in it's mere conceptual origin, as though the fact that trans women are oppressed much worse than cis women was not enough and you can't stand even sharing the Gender Mutant class with anyone else. The fact that it was not expected of you to fall into an underprivileged gender class does not mean you aren't equally as valid a member of it.

*as has espionage, which you can relate to trans men

[artist-issues]

this my sound silly, but do you have any advice on how you come up with something to say for a story?

I think you're right that good art has something to say and communicates it well. That's certainly true of every story I've ever loved.

But while I love inventing fantasy worlds, you've made me realize I've never actually planned to say anything with them.

I've got lots of opinions, lots of beliefs, lots of stuff to say, but now that I realize I need to, it's been hard to pick one of those to be the core point of a story.

the trouble is, the dominant writing advice I saw online was the opposite. that stories made for the purpose of communicating a message or promoting something just turn into preachy propaganda, so the best way to make a good story (that, dare I invoke the curse, appealed to a wider audience) was to muddy it so you could take away as many interpretations from it as possible. thus most of the material I've given myself to work with has been slightly poisoned.

I really like how you said all of that! I agree with your assessment of the advice most people give.

Here's how I do it:

A loose concept, like a disgraced knight falling in love with the King's head of staff who's come to live in the village he's hiding in, will pop into my brain. I'll like the concept. I'll imagine one or two interactions between them that I just like.

But when it comes time to write anything down, even just for my own notes—then it's time to find a message. And usually that's not hard, or at least, that's not disingenuous, because:

what I believe, my worldview, was already subliminally shaping the things that I liked.

So then as I go to write down the names, the histories, the plot points, of my fun little knight love story idea, I find that something kind of...readily fits them.

But now here's the catch; it really helps to know what you believe, and to feel strongly about it, for all of that to come as naturally as possible.

About Propaganda "versus" Stories:

It's a lie to say that something which is created to say something is always propaganda, and something which is created with no careful point thought out is always art. Silly thing to believe. It's like saying "all words are propaganda." No, all words are communication. It's not our fault they don't like that we know what we want to say, and we want them to understand it clearly.

I mean. All art is propaganda, if by "propaganda" or "preachy" you mean, "I tried to take what was going on in my head & heart and put it in your head & heart." All art, all storytelling, is that. Otherwise you'd just keep what you think and feel bouncing around in your own brain, instead of doing anything outward (writing, drawing, painting, singing, speaking, reacting with your body language) with it.

I think what people are getting at when they say "avoid being preachy" or "that's not art, it's propaganda" is "you weren't being genuine." And that can be true. Sometimes people can tack a meaning onto a movie or a story where it doesn't fit because they either a) don't believe that strongly in the thing themselves, but everyone around them was clamoring for it or b) they were lazy and didn't do the work to make the story fit, genuinely, with the message, in a way that enhances and makes the message winsome.

But as bad as those two mistakes are, neither of them prove that intending to say something with your story, very carefully and genuinely, that you don't want misinterpreted, is somehow a bad thing.

Look at the fairy tales that the Brothers' Grimm collected. Look at any stories from the time before commercialism: Our oldest stories combined genuine enjoyment with the virtues and meanings that made enjoyment possible/worthwhile.

Anyway. I have a feeling you agree with me already about this so I'll hop down off that soap box.

What Comes First: Having Fun Making What You Like, or Choosing Something to Say?

I don't think it is wrong to tell a story that...you didn't have an intended thesis written down for. I think people like J.R.R. Tolkien and Walter Elias Disney prove that. But the thing is, what they believed got infused into their storytelling, because of course it did. It can't help it. When you want the audience to like your lead character, you make her likeable—but the traits you think are likeable are informed by something.

Snow White is innocent and pure because Walt Disney naturally considered those things beautiful and good and worth liking. He probably didn't even think to write it down and revolve everything around it: it just came out that way.

Frodo is a little scholar, and willing to soldier on with what little he can do, despite his lack of experience, because those are character traits Tolkien felt were good and likeable. Why? Because deep down, in his worldview, he believes being book-smart and doing what you can with what you have is valuable. And that just...comes out, much like his valuing of history, in the thing he creates.

Now, if they didn't know what they believed--or if they were insecure people "blown about by every wind of false doctrine" that comes their way--or if they were focused more on satisfying what the largest number of people liked--they wouldn't have been able to infuse the story with any genuine meaning, planned-out or natural.

That's what I think.

I think it's all a matter of loving what's good and true. Training your affections, so that you care most about things that are worth caring about—the things you feel most strongly about in characters will be the things you feel most strongly about in life. I love Stitch because I love redemption. Not primarily because I love sci-fi characters, the color blue, or the blend of ugly-and-cute—even though I do like those things on a more minor scale. See?

But if you've trained your affections for junk food—you feel most strongly appreciative of characters that are hot, or spout off funny one-liners, or come onscreen to cool music—then that's what will naturally come up in your own storytelling.

There's also nothing wrong with doing it the other way; saying you want to teach a certain lesson, and then coming up with characters and settings to fit that lesson. Coming at it from that direction is just as valid—as long as you put in the work, and care more about that lesson you genuinely believe in than you do what other people think.

Anyway,

To Write Your Own Main Point/Thesis/Armature/Theme

When it’s time to start writing anything down, it’s time to figure out the main point, and that’s when I...typically think about what I'd want to teach the kids I'm around, to be honest.

With my disgraced-knight love story, I go "what is it he loves about the girl, in all those vague vibe-y scenes I’ve been picturing?" And I make the connection between her virtuous character traits to what I want him, the main character, to learn.

So for example, she used to live in the palace, working for the King, but she was humble enough to give all that up and live in a no-name town to take care of her stepfather. He's disgraced and doesn't want anyone to know who he is—well, that's a pride issue, totally the opposite of how humble his love interest is. And why’s she humble? Because she’s not focused on herself. She doesn’t care about her own reputation or status. So then I just reverse engineer that: the point of the story is "Live in the King's name, not your own." Now one of the two main characters embodies that—the other has to learn it, and the story is the obstacle course he’s pushed through to get there.

I wasn't consciously thinking about making her the king's former head of staff, or him disgraced, when I first came up with the vague concept of the story, see? I just liked the "vibe" of a hopeless dude suddenly seeing a ray of light in the "vibe" of a girl from poor circumstances who seems happy regardless of them. I liked that "vibe." Then I traced what I liked about the vibe back to something that is true and worth teaching or appreciating in real life.

I’m in a job I don’t love right now, and it could make me miserable, but if I just remember “in everything you do, whether in word or in deed, do for the glory of the Lord,” then my focus isn’t on myself and I have joy and hope. And that hope can be used to point others, around me, to hope, too. So I’m not “preaching” something disingenuous; I’m living it, because this is what I believe, so no wonder it’s also leaking it’s way into my story. I just happen to be creating a pipe so that the leak flows more smoothly, which can only help, in the long run.

But I’ve done it other ways, too. Once I watched kind of from afar as a friend’s family fell apart. I felt like, from the outside, I could see where one of my friends was hurting and what they needed to accept (from the Bible) to move forward, but I wasn’t in a position to say it to my friend directly. Then I figured, “if my one friend is going through this situation, others probably are too, and this lesson from the Bible is universal anyway” so I…made up an analogy for the way their family fell apart, then came up with an ending that taught the “family” in the analogy the lesson I got from the Bible. So for that, you can see how I first came up with the main point, then built up characters and a world and a story to fit around it.

Both ways work, the chicken or the egg first. But they only work if you are committed to working hard and serving others with your story, not committed to being popular or “only making what YOU like.”

Make sense? I hope so! Thank you for the question!

[thydungeongal]

After seeing your long post about Rolemaster magic systems, I'd like to hear about the demons and the evil spell lists and what books they might be in.

I may have oversold how strange demons are in Rolemaster, but let me try! Rolemaster, I feel, manages to invoke a somewhat more morally grey dark fantasy setting than D&D by virtue of one simple decision: the first Creatures & Treasures book for Rolemaster was entirely quiet on any kind of "good" analog to demons. If one goes by the original set of Rolemaster books, the sense one gets is that in the implied setting of Rolemaster evil is a living metaphysical force (or at the very least, there is a Hell dimension from which demons come from), but there is no opposing good metaphysical force to oppose it. Later books have somewhat contradicted this by adding Paladins and effects that are "of light," but there is some nuance to it still: Paladins, for an example, rarely have spells that target "evil" creatures, and more likely to have spells that target designated enemies of their faith.

This extends to spell lists: in Rolemaster, spells are learned by list. A Magician doesn't gain the ability to cast all "Magician spells" of level 5 when they reach level 5, instead they must dedicated development points to learning specific lists of spells. What this means is that to learn Fireball you need to dedicated points to learning the "Fire Law" spell list, so before you learn Fireball you learn how to use magic to boil water, heat objects, throw bolts of fire, and finally fireball (and so on).

Each of the game's three realms of magic also has a set of Evil spell lists, and the availability of said spell lists is left up to the GM. Evil Essence spells deal with the destruction of matter, darkness, and summoning demons. Evil Channeling spells deal with creating undead, blighting people, and destroying their bodies. Evil Mentalism spells are pretty much directly about enslaving and destroying people's minds.

And because there are, once again, no coordinate "Good" spell lists it once again comes with the implication that Evil exists as a metaphysical force but there is no opposing Good force in direct opposition to it.

(Although that is just one reading: because Rolemaster doesn't actually mechanically enforce alignment [which is good, because alignment actually sucks ass] it is also possible to read the Evil spell lists as simply taboo, forbidden knowledge whose availability is guarded due to the fact that they are seen as perverse. Which is the approach I have taken in my current campaign. There's a lot left up to interpretation here as a feature, because while Rolemaster is full of hard and fast rules, it also provides a lot of options for GMs to fine-tune the game to suit their needs.)

But the absolute funniest thing about Rolemaster's demons: you know how in early D&D when the different demons didn't have names yet and they were simply arranged according to Type? So you had demons Type I to Type VII or something? In Rolemaster they have the same arrangement. But they're arranged by Pales instead. The demon dimension is known as "the Pale" and it consists of six dimensions of near-void. Why is it called "the Pale?" Well, because it means that the most powerful demons can be classified as "Beyond the Pale."

[rudhira]

So, maybe this is a weird thing to post but it got too long to send in an ask oops.

I saw Nikki's 4t2 Hair Defaults post earlier this week and only now had time to check it out for real, and... whew there is a lot!

First of all, I think the documentation is incredibly thorough and impressive. It's a lot, sure, but there really isn't any getting around that if you want to download bulk hair defaults and also know what it is you're getting. Having clear, unique previews for every hair and also listing information about it is very helpful, and putting all of that together takes... a lot of time.

Second, and this is more personal preference, is that I love seeing all the hats. A lot of hat hairs get replaced with regular hairs, which is sometimes a shame if you like Maxis match stuff, because it changes the vibe. I especially like the Base Game hat hairs, the hats chosen fit the original hairstyles very well and it's a good choice to spice it up by combining the same hat with different hairs.

And third, the way the files themselves are made is very efficient, reusing the same resources to keep unique textures to a minimum. All in all, not counting the clothes and add-ons, there are 1 788 textures. That may seem like a lot, but considering that there are 485 files and hairs generally have at least five textures, you'd expect closer to 2 500 textures. Not having to go through hundreds of extra textures is probably saving a lot of people from pink soup.

Personally, this isn't for me, since I don't like clay hairs and also change my mind too much to get anything from a bulk default, but there's no denying that this is pretty much required for anyone wanting to replace literally all the hairs to fit their aesthetic, with no hassle. This is also the most cohesive set of defaults I've ever seen.

Now, this ended up being more of a public review rather than a personal message to Nikki by virtue of being a post, but, well, thanks and well done. I do know how much work goes into creating defaults like that, and it's no easy task. What you've posted is unlike anything I've seen anyone do before.

And finally, some of my favourite hairs from the post:

uuhairbeanie - it sure does what it's supposed to

amhairhathumanstatue - he gets to still look like a statue!!

amhairhatmascotknightopen_redplate - I have never considered how much the feathers in the helmet could be interpreted as a mohawk and now I can't unsee it

auhairhatsafari - another great use of hats

Mrs Claus Hair - just very cute

ufhairpgchoppy - this hair was the best possible choice for this default

[alicent-vi-britannia]

Like Knightmare, Like Pilot

Hey, Larry! Did you notice that the design and armament of Knightmares reflect the personality and attack style of their pilot? Don't believe me? I'll prove it to you. But I'm going to focus on the unchangeable features that were installed in the first version, since Knightmares are updated as the series progresses and, if I stop to analyze the new implements, I'll never finish. Besides, it won't be necessary.

Let's start with the Gawain (the same one that Shinkiro is based on, which is the Knightmare that Lelouch operates in R2). The Gawain has a tracking system called Druid since it was created specifically for the purpose of investigating the structure and function of Thought Elevators. However, after the Black Knights took possession of it, that system was used to track the possible movements of enemy units, which makes this Knightmare a perfect unit to command others. These characteristics are perfectly compatible with Lelouch's leading and strategic nature. Lelouch is the commander of his military unit. He is the brain that designs all the plans and strategies because he can predict the enemy's and prepare an effective counterattack.

At the same time, Gawain is the first Knightmare to have a pair of hadron cannons installed on each shoulder, allowing it to emit continuous streams of destructive energy at prodigious ranges. Therefore, it is a Knightmare that can execute long-range attacks. This type of armament makes it the perfect Knightmare for Lelouch. He needs to fully and thoroughly visualize the entire battle and anticipate his opponents' attacks in order to design effective strategies to neutralize them. He can know and measure the effects that his Knightmare's long-range attacks will have. He is a long-term strategist.

The Hadron Cannons give Gawain great destructive power and, due to their blooming effect, Gawain fires in an erratic manner. This is matched by the chaos and devastation that Lelouch causes. The boy is so immersed in his revenge that, at first, he doesn't see what and who he is taking out. As you may recall, Gawain also has two seats and is usually controlled by two people: C.C. and Lelouch. She is in charge of navigation, while Lelouch has access to the weaponry because, as Schneizel said about chess, Lelouch "is an offensive style player" (he wasn't going to act any differently on the battlefield).

Gawain doesn't have an ejector seat, unlike other Knightmares, since it is an unfinished prototype. I interpret it as Lelouch's willingness to die for his goals and what he believes in. "Only those who are willing to die should have the power to kill." That's his credo.

Despite its incredible capabilities, Gawain is a rather slow battle unit and can be easily outmatched by other small, fast Knightmares (like Cornelia's Knightmare, which isn't as technologically advanced a prototype as Kallen's and Suzaku's, but is fast and fierce in hand-to-hand combat, fitting the belligerent character of Britannia's best warrior princess). This translates into Lelouch's weaknesses. The boy needs to think before acting, and if he doesn't take into account some variable that may appear later or nothing goes according to his plan, he's lost, because Lelouch doesn't know how to adapt to situations. He doesn't know how to improvise. See, every time he's in check it's because he's thinking about what he can do (and his intuition tells him that nothing works) and unfortunately the battlefield isn't a place where you can stop and think.

But you know who can adapt well to situations and improvise better than anyone else? Yes, Kallen.

Guren is the complete opposite of the Gawain, as it is a short-range attack Knightmare by virtue of lacking long-range weapons and instead being equipped with a knife, a custom pistol, the Slash Harker, and of course, its main weapon is its right hand, which houses the Radiant Wave Surger, which is a powerful microwave radiation emitter. So Guren needs to get close to its opponent in order to grab them and fry them. Thus, Guren takes to the field as a Knightmare as a melee unit and with an aggressive, direct and opportunistic attack style.

Kallen is well suited to that fighting style (and that type of Knightmare) as she is direct, spontaneous, impulsive, and practical. But all of this means that Kallen takes a lot more risks, and since she can't predict the consequences of her own or her opponents' attacks, her Knightmare is more vulnerable to damage, and indeed, when she is outmatched, it's because her Knightmare has been affected, things that are out of her control (not because she ran out of ideas or was surprised by something she didn't see coming, like Lelouch).

The fandom believes that Kallen isn't a strategist and is just pure brute force. In reality, she is a good tactician. She doesn't stop to think: "I won't do this because the Guren's arm will be damaged." No, that's Lelouch who is comfortable planning the entire battle in his mind to prevent possible setbacks before taking action. She simply connects to her environment and responds to the stimuli, as they arise in the moment, in what is happening. A good example of this can be seen in episode 9 of the first season. Kallen is in a Sutherland and is outnumbered by a police Knightmare, but she manages to win at the last minute when the Knightmare is about to give her the coup de grace. How did she do it? Because Kallen fires her Harken Slash, grabs onto some infrastructure and pulls, so that the Knightmare crashes into the infrastructure and the pilot dies. I mean, Kallen worked with the elements she had at her disposal.

By the way, something that was emphasized quite a bit in episode 10 of season 1 is that Guren is the first Japanese Knightmare and Kallen identifies herself as Japanese, so the Guren reflects her identity. But, after Lloyd and Cécile had access to it, it was reconfigured, modified, and updated. So we can say that Guren, who is a Knightmare made using Japanese and Britannian technology, and Kallen, who is the daughter of a Japanese woman and a Britannian man, are mixed-bloods. Did you notice that, Larry?

Also, the Knightmare has blue eyes and is red in color. Kallen is a redhead with blue eyes (and sometimes wears red clothes).

Now, what about Suzaku?

Lancelot is a Knightmare that has different weapons: two Vibrating Maser Swords, a VARIS particle rifle, two shields (called Blaze Luminous, in case you didn't know, Larry), two data sphere sensors, and four Slash Harkens, which are, roughly speaking, projectiles, and the curious thing about these Slash Harkens is that they have experimental thrusters called Harken Boosters that can improve Lancelot's speed and allow it to change direction in mid-flight. And what is Suzaku's best quality in combat? No, Larry, it's not being "annoying." It's his speed. The guy is so fast that bullets don't hit him when he's running (he has to stand still for them to hit him). The Guren has the Landspinner propulsion system, only it's built into its legs, while the Lancelot has it in its feet, so this Knightmare is as fast as its pilot.

Regarding the different weapons, I think about the training Suzaku has received throughout his life. In the flashback with Tohdoh, he's training with swords (Katanas, surely). In the army, he would have received training on the use of firearms. (Guren, by the way, only had one knife, and Kallen carried a pocketknife hidden up and down her body throughout the first season - coincidence? I don't think so.) If you ask me, Lancelot has the bearing and weapons of a medieval knight, which reflects not only Suzaku's chivalrous attitude, but also his rank as a knight in the Britannian army (first as Princess Euphemia's knight, and then as one of the Knights of Rounds).

As you can see, this is another Knightmare that doesn't have long-range weapons. They're short-range, too. So, the Lancelot is a melee unit just like Kallen's Guren. Suzaku and Kallen are trained in self-defense, mind you. On the other hand, the Lancelot lacks an ejection system like the Gawain. Leaving aside that Lloyd is so excited about installing weapons and upgrades that he forgets to install an ejection seat and that he doesn't care enough about the physical integrity of his pilot, I associate it with Suzaku's kamikaze will. Even if he had one, he might not use it because he wants to atone for his sins through death.

Aside from that, the Lancelot has green eyes and is white. Suzaku also has green eyes and his uniform is white.

In short, Gawain is the right Knightmare for an INTJ like Lelouch, while Lancelot and Guren are ideal for Suzaku and Kallen respectively, who are two Sensors (he's ISFJ and she's ESFP), meaning they pay more attention to their physical reality (Lelouch is more focused on reading situations between the lines).

Anyway, you guys might have more to contribute to the conversation since you like mecha and are more familiar with it than I am.

[godsfavoritescientist]

Bill Cipher: Lord of Hope (the homestuck classpect)

explanation for why I picked this classpect for him under the cut

First of all, a brief note on how I interpret classpects: I think classpect is heavily influenced by one's narrative role in a story. It's influenced by personality too, of course, but someone with the exact same personality could have a completely different classpect depending on how the story uses them.

Lord is an extremely powerful class reserved for the big-bad in homestuck. It means having unimaginable amounts of control over your aspect (which here is Hope). It's also a volatile, destructive, and self-serving class. It's also the mirror and opposite of the Muse class, which is equally powerful, but wielded passively for the benefit of others, often using methods more like setting up all the components of a rube goldberg machine behind the scenes, rather than the Lord's preferred method of steamrolling over things whenever possible.

Second note on my classpecting philosophy: Each aspect has an opposite, and I think these aspect pairs meaningfully influence each other by virtue of being on opposite ends of a continuum. You might even say they're opposite sides of the same concept.

Hope is the aspect of imagination, limitless possibilities, belief, and the literal meaning as well. It also has a ton of religious undertones. Its opposite aspect is Rage, which, other than the literal meaning, is all about doubt, skepticism, tearing down facades, and seeking the truth at all costs. It carries a deep disdain for the unfounded and the sugar-coated. Instead of living in a world of fanciful ideas, it cares about pushing past anything it sees as substance-less to uncover the way things really are, no matter how ugly the truth might be. They both need each other--without Hope, Rage becomes misery. Without Rage, Hope becomes completely disconnected from reality.

Which brings me to Bill. On the Hope-Rage spectrum, he's leaned so absurdly far towards Hope that he's convinced himself Rage doesn't even exist. In his reddit AMA, he literally says "lie until what you want to be true becomes true. Lie until you can't remember what's a lie and what isn't. Lie until you aren't lying anymore." I can't think of a better encapsulation of what it means to push the Hope aspect to its absolute extreme. He believes so much in the power of belief that he simply ignores any truths he doesn't like.

He embodies the Hope aspect in many other ways, too. Originally he was going to be more of a morally-neutral trickster character, whose whole purpose was just to show up randomly in Dipper's dreams and rattle off wild statements of questionable truth and conspiracy theories at him. The kind of things that people hope are true (sometimes to make the world seem more exciting and magical, sometimes for bigoted reasons, you know how it is with conspiracy theories), but the point is: Bill retains some of this in his canon personality. He tells Ford in the journal that the moon landing was fake. When he first meets Gideon, he says the whole "reality is an illusion" thing. He delights in sharing these kinds of things with people, and yeah, it's to fuck with them, but there's still something to be said about the fact that he accomplishes this through the use of things that exist as uncertain possibilities in people's minds, and things that some people have a strong belief in and/or hope to find proof of. He's wielding Hope as a tool, because that's when he's in his element.

Bill also preys on people's hopes and dreams, appearing to people literally inside their heads, and existing mainly in dreams and minds for billions of years--a place where you really can create anything you can imagine. He uses Ford's hopes of accomplishing something meaningful to get him to create a doomsday device. He also has Ford practically worshiping him, calling him a Muse with a capital M, calling his presence 'divine intervention'... the religious themes that often go hand-in-hand with the Hope aspect are definitely present. Of course a Lord would wield the Hope aspect to give himself worshipers who practically see him as a god.

And, speaking of doomsday devices, Weirdmageddon is the exactly what would happen in a world where the Hope aspect ran rampant without any laws or restrictions or concrete truths. In the codes of Journal 3, Bill says, "why should time only move forward, why must cause precede effect, who voted on the laws of physics - rules are perversions against all will, that's why I'm about to rewrite the whole system buddy, and no one is going to stop me."

We also get some insight into Bill's beliefs when we take a look as Mabel's dreambubble. He literally uses someone's hopes as a weapon against them, trapping her inside a twisted version of all the things that could've been true, if only the world was fueled by pure imagination, without any laws of physics or imperfect days or boring moments. Bill is so confident that this trap is infallible that he doesn't even bother to stop Dipper from trying to get her out once he makes it inside the dreambubble. Maybe the reason why Bill is so confident that this trap is inescapable is because he's pretty much trapped himself in a dreambubble of his own creation, where anything is possible and fantasy wins over reality every time (talking about the nightmare realm here), and was so intoxicated by the limitless lawlessness of the place that he spent billions of years trying to expand his little self-imposed prison to cover the rest of the multiverse, rather than ever stop to question himself or consider the consequences. Because with enough Hope, there are no consequences, only infinite possibilities limited only by your own imagination! ...right?

I could probably go on, but I think this is more than enough to support my case for Bill being a Lord of Hope. I'm always interested to hear about other classpect headcanons though!

[tawakkull]

ISLAM 101: Spirituality in Islam: Part 256

Riyada (Austerity)

Riyada (austerity), which we can describe as disciplining life, appetite and thirst, and sleeping and waking only in order to develop the feelings of praise for and thankfulness to God and balancing these by keeping them within the limits of needs, has been used in the terminology of Sufis to mean the training of the carnal self and the acquiring of good, praiseworthy qualities. It has been accepted as a means of restraining the carnal desires, which include appetite, thirst and sleep, by resisting them.

From another perspective, austerity is described as holding back from carnal pleasures in order to acquire piety, righteous-ness, and nearness to God, and to discover the hidden realities of existence and the Divine truths. It combines the following of God’s way without any deviation, making use of will power and conscience in the best way by taking refuge in the atmosphere of spiritual life against the pressures and excessive desires of the carnal self.

“State” and “station,” regarded as crystal-like indicators of a person’s spiritual life, are certain “pools” of indescribable spiritual pleasures mixed with the breezes from the worlds beyond that one can experience through austerity on the way to God. These are based on love of God and the attainment of His approval. Reaching these “pools” and feeling and living in the spacious world of the spirit within the love of God and His good pleasure is possible through austerity and through training the carnal self, and can be achieved by enhancing the spirit with virtues.

A person capable of sustaining an austere life is a person of tested faith or loyalty in relationships with the Creator, the Truth, and also in relationships with the created. This is the natural state for austerity -the ambition to become a person of truth by liberating oneself from worldly ambitions and carnal inclinations and becoming devoted to the Almighty Truth. Austerity is training the carnal self to realize true humanity and to make the love of God the source of human feelings, thoughts and behavior. In other words, the purpose of an austere life is to think for the sake of God, to speak for the sake of God, to love for the sake of God, and to remain in the sphere of doing or not doing something only for the sake of God, to obtain His approval and good pleasure -purely because God wants us to do it or not to do it- and to always be with God.

Some see austerity as humiliating the carnal self, which we can interpret as the annihilation of the evil-commanding self which always pursues evils, or as being freed from selfishness and self-conceit or overcoming bodily desires in accordance with the maxim, “Die before you die!” From this perspective, austerity can be regarded as plowing the carnal self, as one plows a field, in order to sow the seeds of goodness and virtue, and bringing them into flower by giving them the necessary water and heat in favorable weather.

The couplet,

Be soil, such fertile soil, that roses can grow in you; For nothing other than soil can have the honor of growing roses. describes this state of self which has acquired perfection, humility, and self-annihilation.

Sufi scholars and thinkers have also taken another approach to austerity. They distinguish two types of austerity. The first is “austerity in manners,” which means being freed from weaknesses and vices in order to acquire a second nature, while the other is “austerity in goals,” which means having the best goal and pursuing it in this world. This approach can also be summed up as disciplining the carnal self and acquiring good, laudable virtues. The statement found in the Lujja, “The wisdom in hurting the body is training the reason and the soul” confirms this approach.

Some who have acquired austerity in the most approved manner have made another classification of austerity, as follows:

The austerity followed by those who are at the beginning of the Sufi way to God consists of combining and adorning good morals or good nature with knowledge, and the practice of religion with sincerity and purity of intention, and to observe both the rights of the Creator and the rights of the created. The austerity followed by those who have advanced on the Sufi way to God is to become free of all considerations with respect to anything other than God and, by paying heed to the voice of the inner sense of reliance on God and of seeking help[1]-something that everyone feels in their conscience- to remain true to the direction to which their conscience points. Furthermore, this degree of austerity also demands being oblivious of even the way one is following, because of absorption in seeking God’s good pleasure. The austerity followed by those who have reached the end of the way enables them to experience the Divine manifestations free from all differences and polarities. That is, it enables them to feel in the depths of their heart the unity and harmony of apparently opposed Divine Names and Attributes., with all their manifestations. It is, therefore, a way to see and experience God without seeing any difference between His being the All-Favoring and the All-Requiting or the All-Expanding and the All-Straitening or the All-Granting and the All-Preventing.

[clownprince]

Batjokes in Batman: Last Knight on Earth

I'd highly recommend reading LKOE before reading this meta, but I'll quickly summarize utc (spoilers, obviously).

Basically, Lex Luthor challenged Superman to a debate for evil versus good. Luthor won, Superman died, and the population picked off most of the superheroes. The remaining superheroes had a final meeting to try and decide what to do. The public was outside the hall. Batman opened the doors and let them in. They massacred everyone. Batman survived but barely and when he recovered his mentality was broken. He returned as Omega to try and save the population by acting as a dictator, essentially. The story follows Joker (who stayed alive as a severed head, somehow) and a Bruce Wayne created by Bruce's perpetual Batman machine, on their quest to stop Omega and save the world from being mind-controlled.

So, an idea that I've heard quite a bit is that Joker loves Batman, not Bruce. I've always been of the mind that it's more complicated than that.

A major theme in Batjokes is the idea of duality, Batman and Joker as opposing forces who complement each other. "You complete me." There are different interpretations of this idea, both from creators and fans. In The Dark Knight, Joker loves Batman because in Joker's own words, he's "too fun to kill". Joker is fascinated by Batman, and his interactions with Batman satiate his sensation seeking/need for stimulation. 

Scott Snyder frames it as more of an ideological battle: "... the romance between them for me has always been this sense of them locked in this dance. 'We love each other. We can never leave each other. I am the other half of you. You complete me.'"

And then there's the aspect mentioned in Endgame: "fighting for meaninglessness but giving meaning by virtue of the fight." Engaging in this ideological battle with Batman gives Joker a reason to continue existing; it gives him a purpose in a reality he perceives as cruel and absurd and ultimately futile.

There are different aspects of this and different viewpoints and they're all valid. But I interpret the whole "you complete me" thing in somewhat of a different way.

To me, it's more like: I love you because in another world, our roles our swapped. I love you because you care about everything and everyone so deeply even though it doesn't matter in the end and you know that. I love you because you experienced the same kind of world-shattering trauma that I did, but rather than giving in to the futility of everything and embracing the chaos of the universe, you chose to fight back. I love you because you choose to try and save everyone even when logic says it's impossible, because you keep getting back up even when you know you're just going to get knocked right back down again. I love you because the world told you "life is meaningless" and instead of accepting and internalizing that, you said "then I'II create my own meaning". I love you because you are everything that I'm not. 

I've always believed that Joker loves Batman for his humanity, for his hope and faith in his fellow people and his desire to help, his striving to make things better and to save people even if it doesn't ultimately change anything in a major way. But as I said before, it's complicated. I think that Joker is simultaneously frustrated by Batman continually trying to save everyone, in part because it's pointless to him, but also in part because of how it reflects on him and his worldviews. He hates the possibility that his way of dealing with the meaningless of everything is wrong. His nihilism is a survival strategy and not something he can easily let go of. Hope, optimism, and belief in the goodness of people are not luxuries that he can afford.

In a very real way, Batman embodies what's left of Joker's hope. Batman represents the possibility that people can go through the worst the world has to offer and still retain their compassion and belief in other people and desire to make things better. I think that's one of the reasons Joker pushes Batman like he does, and also one of the reasons Joker wants Batman to break his no killing rule on Joker specifically and not someone else; he doesn't want to be alive in a world where Batman is no longer a source of hope. I also don't think that he can admit this to himself, if he's even consciously aware of it.

Joker's conflict with Batman is his way of clinging on to hope. Hope that maybe, just maybe he's wrong. Maybe kindness and compassion and trying to help isn't futile. Maybe not everyone is bad, maybe people are deserving of help and the faith that Batman puts in them. 

Joker is so traumatized that he genuinely cannot allow himself to have that kind of hope again. It's a common thing with complex trauma to have negative core beliefs about the world and humanity in general. Joker's nihilism is a coping mechanism. He cannot allow himself to be anything other than nihilistic, he can't afford the luxury of hope because if he dared to hope and it backfired it would break him (or that's his perception, at least). This is kind of echoed in TKJ, although you could argue that's more about trust. I think it's both.

I think that Joker loves the part of Batman who wants to save everyone, who puts on the cowl with the intention of not letting anyone else go through what he experienced as a child, who has compassion for even the worst of his rogues, just as much as he loves the part of Batman who is violent and pathological and wants revenge for what he went through. And he wants Batman to get the joke, i.e., accept that everything is meaningless and stop trying to fix things when it's ultimately futile, and stop trying to help people when they're fundamentally bad. But he also wants Batman to keep pushing back, to keep trying to prove him wrong.

Unfortunately, there isn't much evidence for this in comics (largely because not a lot of creators dare to tackle what's going on in Joker's mind and instead just use him as a chaos edgelord villain). The closest thing is this excerpt from TDKR:

You could make an argument that Batman keeping count isn't an expression of him caring about the victims, but l've personally always interpreted this quote as meaning "I love you because these people's lives mean nothing to me, but you care about every single one I take."

Asiide from TDKR, LKOE is one of the only comics that actually has some evidence for this idea. 

This is obviously a reference to Bruce holding the door open for the mob of people. But you could also interpret this as a metaphor for a lot of things. Really any of those concepts I mentioned that Batman represents/embodies and that Joker denies himself, like hope, optimism, belief in the goodness of people, etc. So what he says next, "It's why Bats was always the best act in town in my opinion!"

You could also interpret this in a few ways. One is that he's saying that Batman was the best act in town because he was crazy, and Joker derived entertainment from that. But you could also interpret it more as Joker loves Batman because he would hold the door open, because he believes in people and he because he tries to save people, tries to help even if its dangerous or ultimately doomed.

Here we have Joker finally allowing himself the luxury of hope. He allows himself to believe in Batman's cause. And just prior to this, Joker took Tim's old Robin robot suit, which is significant of in itself. Obviously it varies with the person behind the mask, but the actual role of Robin represents the lighter side of Batman's crusade. Hope for the future, childlike optimism, belief in people and belief that things could be better, that people's actions do have the capacity to make things better. Batman needs a Robin to avoid getting sucked into a pit of anger and vengeance and despair. Aside from the human connection, needs someone to remind him of the lighter side of things.

So obviously having Joker take up this role when he usually represents pure nihilism and chaos, the idea that life is meaningless and people's actions and efforts to change things don't matter in the long run... It's a role reversal that shows how Joker and Batman's dynamic has been forced to change in this post-apocalyptic world. Earlier, Bruce says that Joker can't be Robin because Robin "was just a good person trying to help." Whether Joker fits that description is debatable, but he certainly has changed.

Joker's character development is further emphasized in this page, staring at his old costume, what he used to represent and fight for with his reflection showing where he is now. You could also argue that the next panel with Joker talking about the echoes is him trying to comfort Batman in his own way; that's more debatable but it would fit in nicely with the idea of him filling the role of Robin.

"All I've ever do is tried to challenge you, make you stronger. If you ever broke, you weren't worth it. But this time... this was it... you'd fall if you didn't see." For all the times Joker has said that he wants Batman to be in on the joke, for him to see that everything is meaningless and that what he's doing as Batman is insane and won't help anything because people are not good and don't matter anyway…. Well, imo this quote shows that it's not the entire truth.

The key here, I think, is in the quote "if you ever broke, you weren't worth it." Joker wants to push Batman to the point of breaking, but he doesn't actually want him to break. He wants to challenge Batman and his worldview, but if he ever actually changed his worldview to match Joker's, if he actually stopped trying to change things for the better and gave in to the idea that everything is meaningless, then he wouldn't be worth it.

He's constantly pushing Batman to try to get him and break, to see the joke and stop trying, but also if Batman stopped trying, if he stopped being a source of hope and stubborn determination in the face of a meaningless universe, Joker wouldn't have the same interest in him.

As stated in the I Am A Gun arc, without Bruce Wayne, Batman is just hollow anger. His hope and compassion and desire to help are what differentiate him from all the other dark angry edgelord vigilantes out there. Bruce Wayne is the soft, tender, hopeful human part of Batman.

Joker does love Bruce Wayne, or at least parts of him. He just either isn't necessarily aware of it, or can't bring himself to admit it under normal circumstances.

The circumstances in LKOE are anything but normal, though. Usually Joker wouldn't be able to admit this, that he values Batman's belief people and his has hope and faith and compassion and softness. But things have changed.

Omega is a Batman who has broken. He's lost his faith in people. He's lost his hope. The only way he can imagine a world that isn't violent and awful is by mind controlling the populous. He doesn't believe that people could be good enough to make the world good. He's become a dictator rather than a source of hope.

Omega has given up on the world, and he's trying to create a new, better one. But the thing is, Batman would never give up on the world as it is. He would try to save it regardless of whether his quest to save it is doomed, and regardless of whether it even wants saving.

I think this really encapsulates what Joker both loves and hates most about Batman. In a world that says "I have no place for your optimism, there is no room for your point of view and your futile attempts to save everyone in this meaningless, doomed world", Batman says "I'll make my own place. I'll try to save everyone regardless of whether it's doomed to fail and regardless of whether it's ultimately meaningless or futile. I'll make my own place and my own meaning."

Joker's Batman would hold open the door. Because Batman believes in people, has faith in them and their goodness. And Joker knows this, and he loves and hates it.

Ultimately, Joker is the one who helps talk Bruce into not giving up in his fight against Omega. He's usually advocating for the futility of trying to fight for good or trying to change anything, so this is clearly an inversion of that.

As for Joker's apparent hatred of Bruce Wayne; I could make a whole additional meta about this but basically I think it boils down to jealousy and fear of being abandoned by Batman. He hates that Batman is spending time with and energy on people other than him and he's afraid of becoming insignificant compared to the Batfam, essentially. He sees Batman growing as a person in the sense of him making connections, and he feels like he's being left behind because Batman is changing but he isn't. And then there's the jealousy; Batman has connections and people who care about him but Joker has no one.

While LKOE isn't canon, I would argue that Snyder's characterization of him and his motives is consistent enough to generalize across all of his work. So with LKOE in mind and the idea of Joker loving Batman's hope and compassion but not being able to admit it, and him framing it as an ideological battle as a way to rationalize it so he doesn't have to admit to himself that he loves Batman for the softer parts of him (in addition to his darker qualities ofc). There are some examples that hint at this, too.

Here we have Joker admitting he doesn't want either of them to win. To me, this has always read like Joker wants to believe in Batman's message, he wants to believe that things are meaningful and that people can be good but he can't, and this eternal fight is his way of preserving a shred of hope and creating meaning for himself. He doesn't actually want to win, he wants to push Batman and see him continue believing and being a source of hope and trying to change things even though Joker is trying to break him and his worldview. It's almost like every time Joker challenges Batman's worldview and he doesn't break, it gives Joker just the tiniest little additional bit of hope.

And then we have this. It's not as direct as LKOE, but I think the sentiment of Joker loving Batman for his caring and trying to change things and making his own meaning in the face of a meaningless universe is very much present in this panel. I suppose you could read this as sarcastic or trying to make fun of him, but I still think there's at least a shred of truth to it.

So, while LKOE isn't canon, I still consider all of this to be accurate to Joker's character in general, including in canon continuity. Although you're more than welcome to disagree with me.

[wisdomrays]

REFLECTIONS ON THE QUR'AN: Sūratu’l-Wāqi‘ah (The Event to Happen)

I swear by the locations of the stars (and their falling). It is indeed a very great oath, if you but knew. Most certainly it is a Qur’ān (recited) most honorable. (Al-Wāqi‘ah 56:75–77)

Alas for humanity whose heart has been hardened and covered with rust! Almighty God, Who is the All-Knowing, knows this state of humanity and reveals His Message to them by a tremendous oath.

A human being should feel ashamed at this and shudder while reading the verses with this meaning and message. The Lord of humanity swears and speaks emphatically and repeatedly in order to awake man to the truth of the Qur’ān and make them believe that the Qur’ān is His most honorable Book or Message.

There are many such oaths throughout the Qur’ān. God Almighty swears by the sun, moon, stars, the heavens, and many other things. He swears by His bounties on the earth such as the olive and fig. Mount Sinai, day and night are also among the things by which God swears. There are many mysteries and instances of wisdom in all of these oaths.

In the initial verse of Sūratu’n-Najm (The Star), God Almighty swears by a star: “By the star when it rises or goes down (after its rise).” This oath is extraordinarily suited to the subject of the sūrah in which it is found and in which the Ascension of our Prophet is mentioned. From this perspective, it is possible that what is meant by the star is our Prophet himself, upon him be peace and blessings. Just like a star, he first rose from the created and ascended to the Creator and then returned from the Creator to the created again.

Indeed, without being confused and dazzled in the face of all the most exquisite scenes and beauties he was shown during the Ascension, Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, returned to this realm of formations and deformations (or creation and decline) so that he introduces the blessings and bounties bestowed on him to everyone else, taking us toward the horizons to which he traveled. For this reason, inter-preting the star by which God swears in the verse as our Prophet is quite appropriate. In addition to his matchless virtues and excellencies, Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, returned to creation with many new blessings with which he had been favored during his Ascension. Thus God swears by him in the name of the virtues and excellencies he possesses and the new blessings conferred on him during his Ascension. Just as, according to some interpreters of the Qur’ān, God mentions His noble Prophet with the Attributes particular to Him as “as-Samī‘” (the Hearing) and “al-Basīr” (the Seeing) in the verse, “Surely he is the one who hears and sees” (Al-Isrā’ 17:1), He also gives him the same value in the first verse of the Sūratu’n-Najm, in which He swears by him, saying: “By the star when it rises and goes down (after its rise),” and thus alluding to the Ascension of the star of humanity, peace and blessings be upon him, and then his return back to our realm in order to raise us upwards to the horizons to which he traveled.

In the verse, “By the sun and its brightness” (Ash-Shams 91:1), God Almighty swears by the sun and the brightness of the forenoon. In the verse, “And by the night when it has grown dark and most still” (Ad-Duhā 93:2), God Almighty swears by the night and its darkness as it is the resting time; and in the verse, “And the day as it reveals it (the sun)” (Ash-Shams 91:3), He swears by the removal of darkness and the appearance of the brightness of day and, therefore, by Divine bounties and favors coming through such changes succeeding each other.

In another place of the Qur’ān, the fig, the olive, and the Mount Si-nai[1] are sworn by. Mount Sinai (at-Tūr) is an important location where Prophet Moses was favored with God’s speech and certain other kinds of manifestations. This favor of God to Moses at Mount Sinai marked the beginning of the revival of a community. Prophet Moses was receiving God’s commands through Revelation, and a community began on the path to awakening to the true life. Thus, God honored Mount Sinai with swearing by it.

As stated above, there are many such kinds of oaths in the Qur’ān. In the verse under discussion, God Almighty swears by “the locations of the stars.” The following interpretations have been made concerning this oath:

First: The stars have always been important for human beings be-cause there has always been a relationship between human beings and stars. The minimum of this relationship has been that human beings can determine directions through the stars. The following verse points to this fact, saying: “And (other) way-marks, and they (people) find their way by the stars” (An-Nahl 16:16).

In addition, like the verses of the Qur’ān, there are explicit or implicit connections among stars. Through the tongue of their natural order, harmony, functions and appearance, they move our feelings and whisper things related to the truths behind their existence, order, and the general order of the universe. This is another way they function as “way-marks” and provide “guidance” for us. Therefore, by swearing by “the locations of stars,” God Almighty draws our attention to the order, harmony, and magnificent scenes they display. If they were not located where they are, if they had not been established by God in these locations, there would not have been order and harmony in both the heavens and the universe as a whole, and human beings would not have been able to benefit from them.

Second: The present position of the solar system and the universe as a whole and the present formation of the world are the result of the ex-istence of uncountable conditions and their co-existence and cooperation according to extremely sensitive measures. For example, the escape of air molecules and atoms from the atmosphere and the destruction of the bal-ance between the gases forming air destroy the structure of the atmosphere with the result that life extinguishes on the earth. In fact, the co-operation between the earth and sky is very difficult. The molecules and atoms in the atmosphere try to escape into space while the earth tries to attract and hold them. It is God Who holds them together, and they act in obedience to God’s laws. It is said in the Qur’ān concerning this: “And He directed (His Knowledge, Will, Power, and Favor) to the heaven when it was as a cloud (of gases), and ordered it and the earth, ‘Come both of you, willingly or unwillingly!’ They said: ‘We have come in willing obedience’” (Fussilat 41:11). Behind this gravitational attraction and other laws is Divine Power.

Indeed, it is very meaningful and apt to swear by the stars and their locations in the heavens, all of which point to the existence and Unity of God. Indeed, the solar system and all other star systems that exist in the universe are all in order, and everything is exactly in its place. Considering the fact that even the clash and split of tiny atoms cause an extremely large explosion, the idea of great celestial bodies running into each other is enough to make one shiver with fear. Though this abundance of star sys-tems appears to be chaotic and disorderly, they are all in a dazzling harmo-ny and order. Behind all this order and harmony in the universe and the laws of attraction and repulsion between the celestial bodies is the disposal of the eternally All-Powerful One. Here, our attention is turned toward this Divine disposal by means of the tremendous oath by “the locations of the stars.”

Third: Another meaning or reality which can be derived from God’s swearing by the locations of stars is that the stars are exactly in their prop-er places, so much so that studying one particular system will give firm views about other systems in the universe. Moreover, it will be possible to establish dialogue with the systems and found dwelling places there. All of the systems have so properly and harmoniously been established and there are such sensitive connections among them that there is not the least irregularity and disaccord in and among them. Instead, we find a magnificent and perfect order, accord and harmony. In Sūratu’r-Rahmān (55), God Almighty expresses His quality of ar-Rahmān (the All-Merciful) with this order and accord. Besides the Name Allāh (God), ar-Rahmān (the All-Merciful) is another proper Name of the Divine Being. No one can be named after and called by these two Names. In the Basmalah, which is re-peated 114 times in the Qur’ān, ar-Rahmān is mentioned right after the Name Allāh. In Sūratu’r-Rahmān, which derives its name from its initial verse: “ar-Rahmān” (The All-Merciful), all God’s bounties are related to His quality of ar-Rahmān. The greatest of these bounties is God’s teaching humankind the Qur’ān: “The All-Merciful. He has taught the Qur’ān” (Ar-Rahmān 55:1–2).

If the messages of the Qur’ān had not enlightened our eyes and worlds, the universe would have remained a common mourning place for us. Then we would have been in horror at the sight of all the creatures in their deadly images. We would never have been able to see the truth of anything, nor would we have been able to understand anything properly. It is through the guiding lights of the Qur’ān that we have come to comprehend the meaning of everything in the universe with the instances of wisdom in it, and we have realized that we are the best pattern and summary of creation. We have been able to understand through the light of the Qur’ān what modern scientific approach and sciences leave in darkness, and we have been saved from bewilderment and horror. Having penetrated the essence of the Qur’ān, we have examined existence and come to realize such things that others are either unaware of their existence or do not recognize them. Indeed, we have detected bright tunnels leading to the realms beyond even through the black holes (in the sky), and we have begun seeing illuminated wherever and whatever we look at with its light.

The All-Merciful God shows us another aspect of His Mercifulness in the following verse, when he says, “He has created human; He has taught him speech” (Ar-Rahmān 55:3–4). If we had been dumb, in other words, if we had been unable to translate the articulate language of the universe, which speaks loudly, and, if we had been unable to understand the Divine Speech and instruct each other in it—if we had not been able to see the universe illuminated through His Attribute of Speech and describe it in its brightness, then we would have remained unable to understand and teach anything of the deep meanings and intricacies of the universe.

“The sun and the moon are by an exact calculation (of the All-Merciful)” (Ar-Rahmān 55:5). The sun and the moon have been placed in locations with such exact, delicate, and precise calculation, and they have such a position with each other that a magnificent Will-power explicitly displays in their formation, functions, and positions. This is another mani-festation of God’s Mercifulness in a different wavelength. If Divine Mercy had not established this order with the most exact calculations, we would have been devastated and lost among the objects colliding with each other. Even though some meteors occasionally fall down the earth, none of them has ever caused a serious problem. These meteors have so far injured nei-ther somebody’s head nor eyes. Therefore, these meteors hit the shield of God’s Grace and are smashed. You may attempt to explain this with the atmosphere or the mass of the dense gases. Whatever physical causes you put forward, they are only the embodiment of God’s Grace. God has estab-lished everything in its proper place with the most exact calculations in so marvelous order and harmony that “the locations of the stars” also imply this.

Fourth: The North Star, its place among stars and showing us our direction; the solar system and its position in the Milky Way; the Milky Way and its place among other heavenly systems, splendid in itself but humble in proportion to others; the position of these systems among other bigger systems; the precisely calculated distances between the stars and between the satellites of each star—everything in the universe is a part of the uni-versal harmony and is itself harmoniously established in the sky and works in precise relationship with everything else. “The locations of the stars” also point to these facts.

Fifth: The locations of the stars are approached differently in the West and the East. For instance, Russian scientists call them the locations where the stars have been established. As for the West, they regard the locations of the stars as black holes or white holes. In fact, in addition to the matters that sciences have established and solved, there are so many mys-teries or matters that wait to be answered. When an issue is clarified, many new matters emerge. For example, there is an opposition between the atmosphere of the earth and the earth itself. Astrophysicists assert that this opposition or contrast is a complementary factor of the balance on the earth and in space, even in the whole universe. Black holes and white holes are also two opposite elements which are also very important for the gen-eral balance in the universe.

According to contemporary commentators, “the locations of the stars” also point to quasars and pulsars. White holes are extremely intense sources of light and energy. Today, these can easily be observed and estab-lished. Scientists say that white holes are like fields where other stars and systems will grow and develop. Truly, these holes have such strong and magnificent energy that even if the Milky Way disappears all of a sudden, one white hole can be the source where another Milky Way will grow by God’s Will and Power. These have been established at the heart of the uni-verse in such harmony that they perform their tremendous duties in the most exact or precise fashion.

Indeed, one of the apparent influential elements in the order of the universe is “the locations of the stars.” Russian scientists regard these as the places where starlets are grown and develop. Their view is important as it shows that the Qur’ān points to a fact fourteen centuries before it was es-tablished by science, and, therefore, it is the Word of Him Who is the All-Knowing and Whose Power is able to do everything He wills.

Sixth: Black holes are formed when heavy stars collapse as a result of electrons losing their energy. After a black hole has formed, it can still absorb mass from its surroundings. They absorb other stars and merge with other black holes, thus super-massive black holes are formed. Even though the stars that collapse do not lose anything of their mass and weight, their bodies shrink and turn into gigantic black holes. They absorb but do not give light. Time accelerates at that point. Just as some puzzling things happen when the objects caught by a whirlpool are lost, certain mysterious things occur in black holes. For example, if the solar system approached one of these black holes, it would be swallowed up like a morsel and disappear. Thus, some of the astrophysicists call these black holes “locations of the stars.”

Seventh: We come across in the Qur’ān that Prophets are also meant by the term “star.” For example, in Sūratu’t-Tāriq (86:3) the term, “an-Najmu’th-Thāqib,” which means “the bright, piercing star,” is interpret-ed as referring to Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, who pierces into hardened hearts and opens the closed doors to penetrate inside. Each Prophet was the star of the heavens of his time that enlight-ened it. Those who follow their lights rise to the heavens of happiness and come into contact with God Almighty. So by swearing by “the locations of the stars,” God Almighty may be drawing the attention to the dazzling positions of, for example, Prophets Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus and our Prophet, Muhammad, peace be upon them all.

Eighth: I would like to point out another aspect of this expression. The Qur’anic verses are called “stars” as well. The interpreters of the Qur’ān say that the Qur’ān was revealed “in stars after stars.” Each Qur’anic verse has its own place both in the Qur’ān and in God’s sight. Since we are unable to perceive the power and comprehensiveness of the Divine Speech in the Qur’ān, God Almighty swears by the position and place of the Qur’ān in His Attribute of Speech due to its matchless value and importance. So swearing by “the locations of the stars” has almost the same meaning as “Qāf. By the Qur’ān most sublime” (Qāf 50:1). Moreover, there is a special place for the Qur’ān in the Supreme Preserved Tablet (al-Lawhu’l-Mahfūz) as well. For it was in the Supreme Preserved Tablet until it was sent down on the Night of Power (Laylatu’l-Qadr) to the heaven of the world. Only those whose sight could reach it could be aware of it. From this perspective, “the locations of the stars” point to the locations of the stars (verses) of the Qur’ān, which is the translator of the book of the universe and the work of God’s Will and Power. Hence, the Qur’ān is regarded as another cluster of stars—a cluster of stars that makes the stars in the universe known. Indeed, there is a similarity between the Qur’ān and the universe. God declares: “We have surely sent the Qur’ān down on the Night of (Destiny and) Power” (Al-Qadr 97:1). Every friend of God (walī) who is able to observe the Supreme Preserved Tablet of Truth can observe and study the Qur’ān there as a whole. In sum, by swearing by “the locations of the stars,” God Almighty swears by this lofty position and location of the Qur’ān.

Ninth: Another location of the Qur’ān, which caused Archangel Ga-briel to gain the designation of trustworthiness, is the trustworthy heart of Gabriel. Therefore, swearing by “the locations of the stars” may also be swearing by the heart of Gabriel and other trustworthy hearts.

Tenth: It may well be that “the locations of the stars” refer to the pure heart of our master Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, and those of his sincere followers.

Eleventh: The pure hearts and consciences of believers who adopt the Qur’ān as the essence of everything and of their lives and feel that God speaks to them anytime they recite it may be among the locations by which God swears. May God purify our hearts, too, as He purified the hearts of our pure, sincere predecessors, making them the hearts by which God may swear.

It is due to all these and many other similar meanings or realities that God Almighty swears by “the locations of the stars.” And He declares that this oath is a very great, important oath.

We believe in the mysteries unknown to us, too, as we believe in the known ones, and we affirm the Divine declaration, “It is indeed a very great oath, if you but knew,” with all our hearts.

[ophiocordyceps]

ok i need to know how v2 preserves itself and what kind of being it becomes in a sense, how it changes and what it's able to retain as it saves itself from its decay. ALSO very interested in gabriel's response to it - both like. how he takes the plans it enacts with regard to its study of angels and its transition into a new entity (hope it's not too much but i love these ideas uuwahhhh)

im not yet sure how gabe would react other than it being generally bittersweet !! (unless @presidentbungus has any input there), though he probably wouldnt've been too surprised when it first started studying angels since V2 was just extremely curious all around and initially it just wanted to learn more about them, since that was wayyy before any of end-of-life plans had ever even been relevant. but the whole backup thing is kind of stressful for V2, at least in a 'you need to get this done while you still can' sense. the whole reason phoenix is more of another, separate entity than just V2 resurrected is that I kind of took from the idea of how artificial intelligence works in the mass effect universe, where you can't even transfer an AI to different hardware without fundamentally altering it by virtue of slight variables between different bits of hardware, even when it's presumably identical on the surface, combined with the fact that in my interpretation the Vs computers are neuromorphic and modelled after the human brain and have artificial synapses and everything, so instead it decides to create some sort of esoteric hybrid processor (which takes a lot of trial and error and probably some suspension of disbelief) that'll last for a very, very long time (it's capable of regenerating itself, but puts a lot of strain on the rest of its body's systems, meaning phoenix has to do a lot more frequent upkeep) and then uploading some of it's memories and other archived data to it that it deems important or vital; mostly important events in its life and various bits of info that would otherwise be lost, and then it leaves gabriel the instructions for how to actually swap out the parts and upload the data backup onto it. it really is a sort of bittersweet 'came back wrong' sort of deal because of the inherent differences between iterations, which is something they would need to work out for sure. it's aware that it's a derivative of someone else who it can never truly be, but it doesn't dwell on that because it knows it was created out of it's predecessor's love for it's friend and to make sure someone would be there still with him, it has those memories and has at least part of that connection still.

phoenix is also initially just kind of. off-putting, vaguely. being an angelic machine (or a mechanical angel), it operates at far higher temperatures and its lights are all bleached white and are brighter and trying to output light from any possible place on its body. it's aware that it's not quite the same entity as V2, though it will respond to both that name and it's given designation (PHNX-AM or just phoenix, V2 named it that both to play into the idea of something being reborn from ashes and also riffing off its mechanical nature and angels as messengers). it's generally more hollow and blank seeming at first, though it does start to relearn a few of V2's mannerisms, and as time goes on it eventually begins modifying its body again into something more unique over the course of what would be several lifetimes both for optimization reasons and identity realization reasons. the whole dual nature thing probably messes with gabe for a good while at first, reminding him of things he's lost or left behind

instead of asking whether a doctor has a doctor, we're asking if angels can have guardian angels, basically.

[cheapsweets]

The resolute Ilyecham

My response to this weeks Bestiary Posting challenge, from The Maniculum!

I've been vaguelly considering how to tackle this one all week (and trying to avoid seeing others' interpretations as much as possible). Again, we have a lot of behaviours, but nothing in terms of a physical description... Did the author just thing 'everyone knows what birds look like', was this just a bird that the reader was expected to be familiar with, or were they all like 'I'm not describing yet another bird... :p'?

It's a pen and ink drawing (dark sepia ink, and a sailor fude nib) over a pencil sketch; the fude nib is interesting as it's meant to give the impression of using a brush - the nib is bent to allow transition from thin to thick lines - I've got a lot of practice to go to get that transition right though (I'm tempted to try an actual brush pen for next week's challenge...)!

This time, I actually used some references! Well, I briefly glanced at some, anyhow... I feel like it has made a difference, particularly in terms of the anatomy (though there are several things I'd go back and change if I was doing this over), but I still need to work a bit more on consistency (and maybe not tackling any too-awkward perpectives...!). I had a lot of fun with this one :)

Reasoning below the cut...

"The Ilyecham is a bird armed rather with spirit than with claws, having great courage in its small body. [Etymology redacted]. For it greedily seizes other birds. [Etymology redacted.]" - So, carnivorous bird, emphasis away from it's claws... I had to double check this, but falcons kill prey with their beak (a sharply projecting 'tomial tooth' on their upper beak), whereas hawks use their claws. I tried to show this, but it's such a small details it might not be obvious. Did you know that falcons are more closely related to passerines (perching birds, like sparrows) than they are to hawks/eagles? I always find that absolutely mind-blowing :)

"It is said that the Ilyecham is lacking in parental care towards its young, for when it sees that they are able and trying to fly, it does not feed them but beats them with its wings, throws them from the nest and forces them from a tender age to catch prey for themselves lest, when they are fully grown, they should become lazy." - Hey, chalk up another one to that old adage 'birds are jerks'... I'm starting to think that bestiary authors were not the biggest birb fans... In the top right of the picture, we have a mama ilyecham pushing the baby out of the nest with her wing. Time to find your own way in the world, baby bird! I tried to distinguish the younger bird's plumage with a different pattern (spotted/dotted); the adult plumage was inspired by goshawks (I know, hawk vs falcon), more because it would show up as distinctive in black and white than any other reason.

As an aside, I really struggled with how to draw a slightly stylised bird nest!

"It takes care lest in their childhood they grow idle, or are given up to pleasure, or grow weak from inactivity, or learn to expect food rather than to seek it for themselves, or abandon their natural vigour. Ilyechams stop bothering to feed their young in order to make them bold enough to seize food for themselves." - Hang on, this is going to be some kind of inspirational virtuous animal thing, isn't is... :p I can imagine some medieval scribe writing 'and so, the ilyecham represents the cardinal virtue of fortitude' or something...

"It is the custom of Ilyechams in the wild to spread their wings when the south wind blows, so that their limbs are warmed by the wind to release their old feathers. When there is no wind, they create a breeze by spreading their wings to face the rays of the sun and beating them; and thus, as the pores of their body open, either their old plumage falls out, or new feathers grow in." - In the top left, we have an ilyecham spreading its wings, facing towards the sun, and doing just that! The feathers blowing away were fun to draw!

[alephskoteinos]

There is an interesting association that Cornelius Agrippa establishes regarding Satan, or The Devil, regarding his many names. In this respect he also identifies Satan or The Devil with several other devils, and even different kinds of demons and even animals.

for the Devil is called Diabolus, that is flowing downwards: that he which swelling with pride, determined to reign in high places, fell flowing downwards to the lowest parts, like the torrent of a violent stream, as Cassidorus writeth. And he is called Satan, that is, an adversary; who as St. Jerome testifieth, by reason of the corruption of his own malice, he continually resisteth, and is an adversary of God, who is the chiefest good. He is called Behemoth in the 40 chapter of Job, which signifieth an Ox; for even as an Ox desireth today, so he with the teeth of his suggestions, coveteth to destroy the upright lives of spiritual man. And Leviathan in the same place, which signifies an addition, because the Devil always endeavors to add evil to evil, and punishment to punishment. He is also called in Revelation 15 Appolion, signifying a rooter out, for he rooteth out the virtues which God planted in the soul. He is called a Serpent in the 12 of the Revelation, by reason of his virulency. A Lion in the 1 Epist, Peter and the last chapter, which roareth about seeking whom he may devour. He is called a cunning workman on Is. 55 because by his malice he deceiveth the vessels which are elected and approved. He is called Isa. 34 Onocentaurus Erynus, Pilosus, Syren, Lamia Ulula, Struthio. And by David in the 90 Psalm, an Alp, Basilisk and Dragon. In the Gospel, Mammon, the Prince of this World, and the Ruler of Darkness.

It seems possible to derive an interpretation of flowing downwards as downward ascent. First Satan falls, then he initiates the human species in their own fall from the order of God, that they might join the gods in creating their own sovereign destinies. In a certain sense, "adding evil to evil".

[arinzechukwuture]

GREEKS GOT THEIR EDUCATION IN AFRICA

From 1900 to 1100 B.C., a great civilization reigned over what is now present-day Greece. The Mycenaens created works of art, established trade with other nations and lived in great cities. And then suddenly, mysteriously, the Mycenaean culture collapsed. Greece fell into darkness.

Nomadic tribes came from the North to where a bustling, urbane civilization once stood. Trade ceased, and Greece turned inward. For 500 years Greece stood silent, in what historians now call the Greek Dark Ages. And then, almost overnight in historical terms, a new dawn broke over Greece. Homer created his epic poems the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," emphasizing honor and virtue to his new countrymen. Trade resumed, once separate city-states united into a democratic republic. Classical Greece was born.

­Where did this meteoric rise to prominence come from? Scholars attribute much of Greece's development to its internalization. For 500 years it was peacefully allowed to redevelop itself, astoundingly without any outside threats. But the loftiest of the pursuits of the Greeks would not have been possible were it not for another nearby civilization, one that was established millennia before even Mycenae was founded. The culture was called Kemet. You know it as Egypt.

The civilization that built the Sphinx, raised the pyramids and built the world's first library also produced the world's first physician, created geometry and astronomy and were among the first to explore the nature of our existence. And they passed their knowledge along to the Greeks. Modern people, in turn, have benefited greatly from this early education.

It's well-documented that classical Greek thinkers traveled to what we now call Egypt to expand their knowledge. When the Greek scholars Thales, Hippocrates, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and others traveled to Kemet, they studied at the temple-universities Waset and Ipet Isut. Here, the Greeks were inducted into a wide curriculum that encompassed both the esoteric as well as the practical.

Thales was the first to go to Kemet. He was introduced to the Kemetic Mystery System -- the knowledge that formed the basis of the Kemites' understanding of the world, which had been developed over the previous 4,500 years. After he returned, Thales made a name for himself by accurately predicting a solar eclipse and demonstrating how to measure the distance of a ship at sea. He encouraged others to make their way to Kemet to study [source: Texas A&M].

In Kemet, Hippocrates, the "father of medicine," learned of disease from the previous explorations of Imhotep, who established diagnostic medicine 2,500 years earlier. This early renaissance man -- priest, astronomer and physician -- was described as "the first figure of a physician to stand out clearly in the mists of antiquity" by the British medical trailblazer William Osler [source: Osler]. In Kemet, Pythagoras, the "father of mathematics," learned calculus and geometry from the Kemetic priests based on a millennia-old papyrus.

None of this is to say that the Greeks were without their own ideas. On the contrary, the Greeks appeared to have formed their own interpretations of what they learned in Kemet. Nor did the Greeks ever deny the credit due the Kemites for their education. "Egypt was the cradle of mathematics," Aristotle wrote [source: Van Sertima]. But one could make the case that the Greeks also felt that they were destined to build upon what they'd learned from the Kemites.

The Kemetic education was meant to last 40 years, although no Greek thinker is known to have made it through the entire process. Pythagoras is believed to have made it the furthest, having studied in Kemet for 23 years [source: Person-Lynn]. The Greeks seem to have put their own spin on what knowledge they'd learned.

Plato's education may have expressed it best: The Kemetic Mystery System was based upon a wide array of human knowledge. It encompassed math, writing, physical science, religion and the supernatural, requiring tutors to be both priests and scholars.

References

1. James, George G. M.,(March 3, 2010).Stolen Legacy: The Egyptian Origins of Western Philosophy". Kritike: An Online Journal of Philosophy. 3 (2): 167–170. doi:10.3860/krit.v3i2.1536. ISSN 1908-7330

2. Bowman, Alan Keir. 1996. Egypt After the Pharaohs: 332 BC–AD 642; From Alexander to the Arab Conquest. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press

3. Ellis, Simon P. 1992. Graeco-Roman Egypt. Shire Egyptology 17, ser. ed. Barbara G. Adams. Aylesbury: Shire Publications, ltd.