#but this is definitely one of the negatives

[softness-and-shattering]

Thats a good point, I see all kinds of neurodivergence in my family but only a couple of us in my generation, afaik, have a diagnosis.

However, my gp attended a recent talk about overlap of queer folk with neurodivergence and also a group of comorbid illnesses including, iirc, POTS/MCAS/EDS/CFS theres a couple others Im just blanking. Digestive issues? Things that we've broadly noticed as a community, and it seems like its starting to be studied.

And also, everyone has some kind of trauma, idk how many people if any have no kind of disability whatsoever, humanity is vast and diverse. And we're wired to look for patterns. Interpret this information how you will, I certainly cant say for sure if these patterns are broader than trans people, or are more people trans than we expect, are we seeing correlation or causation or is there a mechanism in common with all these labels thats the deeper cause, is queerness an interchangeable/'sometimes' factor or a central one, we are way too early to know that yet.

I think its probably not nothing. But we're also not uniquely fucked up. Maybe we're just sticking out, so to speak, so thats where the research is starting. Many people werent taking ME/CFS seriously until long covid prompted more research bc, iirc, there was now a lot more people affected who were harder to ignore. And who were seeking help. Like a lot of people have an allergy or a dodgy wrist or "that weird thing with my digestion" and they dont consider it a disability or seek treatment, yknow? And especially mental health and especially what runs in families, it looks normal to you so why would you ever bring it up to a dr? "Everyone struggles with these things. Everyone feels this way" well you do and your parents and aunts and uncles do and your siblings do, and maybe you told a dr forty years ago you were in pain and they brushed you off so you thought everyone was walking around in agony.

And that gets into an adjacent conversation about medicalising and diagnosing and when does that help and when is it like, making a negative thing of normal human experiences and variations, its not a disorder till its negatively impacting your life, if youre surviving but treatment could help you thrive is it worth the side effects etc etc plus the whole discussion of psychiatry in particular which can be an amount of guesswork and diagnostic labels are often just patterns of symptoms that we see oftrn go together and we dont always yet understand the underlying neurology. (One of my all time best therapists kept up with the latest neuroscience and always had very good and effective suggestions. I only stopped seeing her bc I moved away. If you can be seeing professionals who are keeping up with research, definitely prefer them over someone who hasnt learned anything since they completed training 50 years ago. Always.)

Tl;dr I agree with OP and also this stuff is extremely complex and we're always learning new things about us!

something that should be taken with a grain of salt are the statistics talking about the high rates of mental illness + neurodivergence among trans people (ocd, bpd, adhd, autism, etc)

I see both sides of the political spectrum taking these studies at face value - conservatives say we're broken, and trans people try to come up with reasons why for example autism + gender dysphoria makes sense and why one of them feeds into another

at the end of the day you have to remember that we're the one category of people on this planet who are legally required to go see a psychiatrist in order to receive non-psychiatric medication and surgeries.

more trans people are in therapy by law than any other demographic of people, and as a result, this captures more comorbidities.

if I had to look at my own family & rates of mental illness?

mom, dad, 2 maternal aunts, maternal grandmother, paternal grandmother, sister, sibling, and me all have OCD.

7/9 of them are cishet, never been to therapy, never diagnosed. 2/9 are trans, required therapy for hormone treatment, and were diagnosed.

you don't have to do any math to just see that the resulting statistics end up intensely skewed.

and we can think back to how autism was virtually never diagnosed more than 50 years ago - ruling out any grandparents being included in statistics - and even my parents' generation (they're in their 60s now) wouldn't have been included either.

I don't think it's to anyone's benefit to accept these studies uncritically. a lot of these things are hereditary and far more prevalent in the overall population than people realize

[nqueso-emergency]

What did Lou do?

If it was the memes, than none of these people would stay fans of OS and *especially* RG. So it's not that.

Is it the fact he made Cameos ? Can't be that since Gavin is also on there.

Is it that he openly shared his personal headcanon about the character he was portraying? No, because nothing he said was offensive or negative and he never misled anyone about it being his personal pov.

Is it that he's disliked by the cast? Obviously not given the very sweet and positive things Tracey, Aisha, and several other cast members have said about him.

Is it the fact that people say he's a Trump supporter despite zero evidence? Definitely not because you could just as easily assume that about RG given his history (and current IG follows).

Is it that he gives interviews and answers questions honestly about being disappointed in the storyline for a character he cares deeply about? He was already off the show at that point so what is there to be mad about? Also, he's right, it was an unsatisfying ending. So can't be that. Is it because you still genuinely think he was the one to post some bizarro kpop meme to a hyper specific fandom account, yet there's no screenshot? Or that he hacked someone? No one can be that gullible.

Is it because you saw him liking fan art and tattoos? Nah. There are whole accounts dedicated to celebrating every time RG and OS like or comment on fan works.

Is it because he's in secret psychic communication with BT nation and whenever our antennas go boop it's a new message from him about which hashtag to post on IG? Now that's just silly. Is it because Lou portrayed a character that threatened the fanon ship you've based your entire identity on and you aren't mature enough to deal with those emotions without turning someone into a cartoon villain?

Such a mystery. lmk what you think in the comments!

🤭

[readychilledwine]

Like A Boy

Summary - After putting up with Azriel's behavior for far too long, you begin to match his energy

Warnings - unhappy fated mates, toxic relationship, use of negging a partner, reader is slightly abusive but so is Azriel, implied cheating, based on the women in male fields tiktok trend, loose editing

A/N - This trend currently has me in a choke hold. It is so toxic. It definitely would not solve anything in a relationship, and I am blessed not to be in this type of relationship, but it is fun to see women serving these dishes back.

💙Azriel Masterlist💙Master Masterlist💙

Azriel wondered if you knew how smug you looked. In a booth with two males fawning and drooling over you while you casually manipulated them into thinking they had a chance. You had left your hair to fall in loose waves, flirty and framing your face. Make up was applied to highlight your best features: those soft lips and siren spell eyes. You'd even used your body butter that left your skin with a glittering bronze sheen. You hardly glanced his way while you played these two males. You were letting them buy you drinks, letting them compliment you.

It'd been going on about a week since you started this type of behavior. You not home when you said you would be, you'd come home smelling like other males, you’d come home and bathe before greeting him.

Each time he asked, you played it down, telling him you were tired, caught up at work, or he was imagining things. You were so smooth about it, so confident as you told him he was wrong, that Azriel believed you, nodding as you offered him lies and comfort before pulling him into bed with you.

He was seeing first hand now, though. As was his family. Cassian was clearly uncomfortable, Nesta and Feyre whispering to each other, and Rhys just smirking as if he knew what was going down. Azriel knew he wasn't innocent in this. Hell, he wasn't even innocent right now. He had a priestess hanging on his arm, attention he normally loved, but now, it was sitting like a rock.

While he continued to wonder if you knew how smug you looked, you smirked, knowing he was slowly becoming more and more angry based on his grip closing the bond slipping, allowing it to open.

He was angry. He was embarrassed. He was hurt. Hypocritical considering Gwyn was hanging on him as he watched you, teal eyes just begging for a moment of his attention. He smelled like her every day when he came home for lunch and then he smelled like Elain on the nights you beat him home.

You'd brought up his transgressions constantly, asking him to prioritize you and the relationship and mateship you two shared. But you two had gone from intense honeymoon phase love to roommates with benefits after the creation of Elain Archeron and the sudden appearance of Gwyneth Berdara. Anytime you mentioned moving back out, being just friends, he'd beg you to stay and lure you into false comfort until you caved. You felt trapped, but you'd found a way to push back with Rhysand's encouragement.

A messy bitch, that High Lord of yours.

It had happened by accident, Azriel finding you in an odd position with Rhysand after something had knocked over the ladder you were on in the House of Wind's library. The High Lord had caught you, but barely. He'd had one arm around your waist, the other behind your neck, his knee and powerful thigh supporting below your butt. It looked far more romantic than it was, a lover dipping their partner for kiss. Though Azriel knew deep down Rhysand would never step out of his marriage with the lovely Feyre, it did not stop him from starting a fight with you the second you arrived home that night.

And your response, “He's just a friend, Azriel.” Something he'd said to you many times in the past 4 years about Gwyn, about Elain.

You had told Rhysand about Azriel's reaction, the male originally joking about you beginning to flirt with other males to end this situation between you and the spymaster. The High Lord paused when he made that joke, though, looking at you with gleaming eyes.

The plan was born then. You would matching Azriel's energy at every turn and you played him off mastering his own tactics after being the victim of them.

You knew tonight may have pushed it. You looked good, you smelled good, you felt good. You left Rita's without so much as looking his way, putting your jacket over your tight short dress before walking through the still lively streets of Velaris.

You slipped off the high black heels you had worn, stretching and curling your toes before heading into the apartment you and Azriel shared to make yourself tea.

The biggest difference between what you and Azriel had done was that you never fully cheated. You never welcomed another male into your bed the way Azriel had been welcoming multiple females. But he didn't know that. He wouldn't care if he did. The males putting hands on you was enough.

You began the 5 second course down under your breath, leaning against the counter when you hit one and the door flew open before slamming shut.

“What the fuck was that,” he was fuming, hazel eyes almost blazing with his fury. “You didn't even look at us! You didn't come say hello! Do you know how embarrassing it is for your mate to be in the same place as you but act like they don't know you?”

“You said we weren't going out as a couple tonight,” you shrugged casually. “You said you didn't care if I went out and had some fun. I just went out. What's the big deal?��� Another of his favorite lines.

Azriel made a stunned face, “The big deal is my family just saw my mate with two males all over her! My family-”

“I genuinely don't know what you are talking about. I had some drinks with some friends and came home. Sorry I didn't see any of you.”

“Are you being serious right now?”

“I am. You are acting crazy,” you watched as another of his lines landed. “I think this is a you issue. Are you feeling okay?”

He realized it then, nodding, “You think you're slick, don't you?”

You only sipped the hot tea, shrugging again, “I think you're overreacting and being emotional over nothing.”

“You don't get to play this game with me,” he glared. “We are mates, you don't get to sit here and-”

“Treat you like you treat me? Oh, but I do, and I will until you either stop and we go to a priestess of my choice to work on us, or you get out of my apartment.”

“If I left, you'd have not-”

“I'd have a new male within seconds. You're here by my choice, Azriel. Stop forgetting that. You aren't that pretty, you aren't that bright, and no one will want a mated male long term. Comes with too much baggage. At least, that's what you tell me all the time, isn't it?”

His face fell further as the weight of what was happening hit him, “Baby-”

You hit him with the last of his favorite lines, “No, no, you think on that. I'm tired of fighting with you. Let's just go to bed. Maybe you will wake up less emotional.”

He watched in shock as you walked away, a gentle sway of seduction in your hips as you did. He moved to the living room, sitting down like you had many nights after a fight like this, and his brain switched from picturing you so smug to picturing you so small. Picturing you in the same position you'd just put him into.

Rhysand had warned him that if he didn't stop playing with you, Azriel would make you a monster.

And he couldn't help but wonder if he finally did and if it was too late to change it.

General Taglist:

@hnyclover @glitterypirateduck @slytherinindisguise @mischiefmanagers @bloodicka @starsinyourseyes @the-sweet-psycho @mariahoedt @rinalouu @sarawritestories @starryhiraeth @starswholistenanddreamsanswered @cumuluscranium @loneliestluvr @eternallyelvish @azrielsmate3 @daughterofthemoons-stuff @meritxellao @aria-chikage @hungryforbatboys @lilah-asteria @fandomrejects @sleepybesson @tayswhp @itsswritten @milswrites

[ellecdc]

OMG CONGRATULATIONS ON 5K MOTHER!!! LY<3 Could I please request 🐻— 'one talking to the other when they think they’re asleep' with our pretty boy Remus where it's the reader talking about Rem🥹

thank you so much, lovie!! <3

Remus Lupin x gn!reader who thinks he's asleep [663 words]

CW: written with a fem!reader in mind but no gender markers used, fluff

Remus can tell that the movie has ended by the deep, definitive breath you take as the credits roll and the music plays. 

You don’t move, though, and for that Remus is grateful. It had been quite the week at work; deadlines and meetings and projects, bosses trying to cram in as much progress as they could before the Christmas break, and Remus is exhausted. 

He’d barely uttered his “hello” upon getting home before you were suggesting ordering take away and watching a movie. A quiet night in, you had called it. It sounded like heaven.

Clad in comfies and lo mein on a plate, the two of you snuggled up on the couch. Plates ended up on the coffee table, legs were tucked underneath bodies, Remus’ head rested against your shoulder.

And though the world fell quiet, Remus never did fall asleep.

He’d completely melted into the couch at some point during the movie, now curled up on his side with his head on your lap as you card your fingers through his hair. Eyes closed in contentment, breathing evened in his ease.

He loves you. 

“I love you.” You murmur softly as if you read his mind, and Remus feels his lips curve into a smile, though his body was simply too heavy to offer you a proper response. “You work too hard, m’love.” 

He would have argued with you, or dismissed you immediately if you’d said anything of the sort when he first got home, but now he was trapped and complacent in your embrace.

“Always taking care of everyone else, aren’t you?” Your fingers brush through his hair again before trailing to his shoulder and down his arm as you speak. “You take such good care of me. I wish you’d let me take care of you, sometimes.” 

He really couldn��t help it then, he turned his head so he was looking up at you, offering you a warm smile as you tsked at him.

“Not even sleeping when you should be, Rem.”

“You take great care of me, dove.” He argues quickly, rolling onto his back so he could continue staring up at you more easily. “What do you call tonight?”

“I call tonight I was too lazy to cook and then got to watch my favourite Christmas movie.” You offer wryly, and Remus shakes his head reproachfully. 

“That’s not true at all. You knew I’d had a day, and made sure I didn’t have to think about anything but sitting my arse down on this sofa.”

Your lips purse as you trace a line down the side of his face with your finger. “That was one day.”

Remus hums in the negative. “No. It’s also the way you just happen to text me everyday around noon, when I happen to be scheduled for a break but usually happen to get too caught up in what I’m doing to realise. It’s also the way you claim that you have to work early in the morning when you notice me growing weary at the pub with my friends so that they don’t tease me for my old man tendencies. It’s the way you let me drone on and on about numbers and stats and editing that I know doesn’t interest you at all, just because you know it interests me. How could you say you don’t take care of me?” 

He watches you study his face for a few moments, expression unchanging even when you finally blurt “I liked talking to you better when you were sleeping and couldn’t argue with me.” 

Remus’ laugh echoed throughout your flat before he stretched out his limbs with a pleased hum. 

“Would you like it better if I went back to sleep?” 

“Yes, thank you.”

“See? There I go again,” he starts as he rolls back onto his side and you queue up another movie, “taking care of everyone else.” 

Remus’ eyes fall shut at the sound of your tinkling laughter.

[villainessbian]

I am on twitter, though I'm planning to leave that cesspit for good because the muskrat's gone and turned it into a shitshow of a mirror for the loosest minds of parler, truth social, and mumsnet.

Yes, crystals can store a lot of information using a femtosecond laser. But it's just an improved microfilm that is even harder to make and read. It's not a revolution, it's an expensive toy.

By the way, the trump administration doesn't exist yet, so it can't look into anything. It's not doing anything because there is no such thing. The current administration is biden's, and it's the only one.

To be clear, you cannot digitise people's consciousness. That has never happened and no one knows how to do it. The main issue with this is absolutely not lack of storage space. If you had a digitised consciousness on your hands you could also not put it back inside a human body.

It bears noting that the trump clique's definition of "wrongdoers" includes queer people (defined as porn which is to be made illegal inside project 2025), non-white people (defined as borderline animalistic illegal immigrants in many many speeches of trump's, regardless of legality or immigration status) and does not include those who actually do wrong, such as causing harm (as with trump's rapes) or endorsing genocide (as with trump's global positions) or putting the security of his own country in danger (as with trump's sales of intelligence in classified documents to foreign nations conducting genocide). Side with their views, side with genocide and rape.

Relatedly, all of trump's projects for all of society are very obviously murderous or very obviously stupid. His victory has already negatively impacted USAmericans' pay cheques this year as all companies had to spend a lot on foreign orders before he can apply tariffs that will gut them long-term, and his previous presidency had the very moronic goal of stopping a pandemic by pretending hard enough it was already over: "no testing means no new cases" was his actual belief. You think that kind of stupidity is able to manage plans that last millennia? Even if the cyberpunk dystopia of putting you in thousands of years of sharingan illusions to manipulate you into his perfect drone worker were possible, it would be the most hellish thing ever to be designed.

Also, elon musk is not one of the top minds of the 21st century, nowhere near the 4 billion top minds at least, he's a loser who spent inherited blood emeralds to buy companies and rename them after his fixations. He bought other people's ideas and only succeeded at running them into the ground more times than anyone could do on purpose. He's been fired as CEO from Paypal for incompetence. He's destroyed twitter's market value, userbase, ad revenue, use frequency, standing, credibility, public image (in the exact way he tried to do to Paypal before being fired), and future.

Furthermore, no "top mind" aligns with trump at all. Trump is a nepo baby who can't organise a meeting properly, let alone the politics of a global power. Anyone with half a mind recognises that the only thing he's good for is making a profit by betting against all the moves he does. He says the pandemic will be over soon? Invest in Zoom. He says his tariffs will save the US economy? Bet against the dollar.

Where the fuck did you get the idea that Trump is putting people in crystals??? Did the voices tell you that???

It's been very extensively discussed on X.

That's where the real conversation is happening... and you leftoids are missing it.

[perfectlyvalid49]

Sorry for grossing you out but uh, I have a complex claim to a lot of religions and cultures because of how colonialism (arguably Israel is a settler colony state so uh… hmmm) has impacted me.

As you’ve ascertained (correctly) I’m a non-Jewish American, only by technicality, because I haven’t found a rabbi that will even support the fact that I’m gay and the “three asks” thing feels like a troll move which feels… homophobic???

I need you to seriously consider how my life has been negatively influenced (hence the circumcision poll) by a bastardized JEWISH practice, and what the fuck that means for my identity as it feels like fate to some degree and a bit offensive that you would yuck my ability to find yum in Yhwh or w/e because I’m… too much of a faggoy? Idk man… just asking questions. I’d love to clarify your response in a dm since its… a lot. Not meaning to offend just sick of being put in a box because my circumcision and mother aren’t “right” enough to be in the in club because Hekate or Satan or whatever swooped in and said “NOPE” 🙃

Cheers

Trying to understand Israel through the lens of settler colonialism is a failing proposition. Consider the following:

Jews are indigenous to Israel. We have a historical record that says they’re from there in both the Greek and Roman written record. Like there is as much if not more evidence of Jews in Israel in Roman writing as there is of Julius Caesar being a real person. We also have archaeological evidence. Israel is covered with digs that find evidence of Jewish life dating back 2,000-3,000 years. We also have genetic evidence. DNA studies have shown that even super white looking Ashkenazi Jews have significant portions of DNA that are most closely related to other groups from the southern Levant.

So to call Jews settlers either denies all that evidence, insists that indigenous people can be settlers on their own land, or posits that indigenous people can somehow lose their status as indigenous if you wait long enough. The first is anti-intellectual and antisemitic, the second is ridiculous and the third is a dangerous line of thinking for all indigenous people. How long before Native Americans no longer have a claim to their land? How long before Maori no longer have a claim? It’s not really a place we want to go.

As for colonial, the definition of a colony is “a country or area under the full or partial political control of another country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country.” So which country controls Israel? I think we’ve seen over the last year that it’s not the US given the way Bibi has repeatedly blown off Biden, so who is it? Which country is sending settlers to control the area? Again, it’s not the US. While some American Jews make Aliyah every year, the vast majority of Jews in Israel are either from Europe or the Middle East. To be a colony, you have to be a colony of some other power. What is the other power here?

So we can see that Jews are neither settlers nor colonizers. But you know who did colonize the area? Arabs. Arabs are indigenous to the Arabian peninsula, not Israel. And in the 7th century, Arabs came from the Arabian peninsula into Israel (and other places), conquered the locals and did their best to eradicate their cultures, forced conversions to the conquering religion, and settled in the new lands while being under the political control of the far away Caliphate. Sounds like settler colonialism to me. So if we must understand someone in the area as colonial (and I still don’t think it’s the best way to look at things, but if you do) then it’s the people that Palestinians are descended from.

Having said all that, just because colonialism has impacted you, it doesn’t mean you have a complex claim to Judaism. Here are ways you can have a complex claim to Judaism: 1) your father is Jewish and your mother is not, 2) you have Jewish ancestors who were forced to convert and you are now trying to reconnect with the religion that was taken from them. I don’t know your history, so it’s possible that one of those is true. But if you have no Jewish ancestry, then your claim is not complex, it’s non-existent, and if you do have Jewish ancestry but your ancestors willingly left the tribe, then you don’t really have much of a claim either. That doesn’t mean you can’t convert, but given that you seem to think you have claims on other aspects of Judaism as a non-Jew, my gut reaction is to be very doubtful toward your claim on Judaism in general.

If you can’t find a rabbi to support your conversion because you’re gay, you’re looking in the wrong places. The senior rabbi at my synagogue is gay, and we have several queer families as part of the congregation. There are literal signs on the door to the main office that say Trans and Queer Jews welcome here. This doesn’t mean that all congregations are welcoming, but lots are.

The three asks thing is a metaphor that some rabbis take literally. Converting to Judaism is a big decision. The three asks are to make sure that you’ve really thought about it and are really sure – that you’re taking it seriously and thought through all the consequences. If that feels like trolling to you, then maybe Judaism isn’t a good fit. Honestly, from my interactions with you this week, I would bet that the rabbis you’ve met with haven’t said no because you’re gay, they’ve said no because you don’t seem super interested in taking on Jewishness, you just want to take from it instead.

I don’t know what happened with your circumcision. If it went wrong and it was done by a mohel then you can feel angry toward the Jewish people I guess, but I would want to know why your parents had a bris for you if they weren’t planning on raising you Jewish. If you were just circumcised as a medical procedure, as many American babies are, then you may have trauma related to it, but you don’t need to be taking it out on the Jewish people, which is exactly what that poll was doing.

Don’t write down those four letters. Don’t try to pronounce them either. We have asked, repeatedly that people not do that, and once again, the fact that you are is super disrespectful to Jewish people. Write G-d, or God if you must, or even Hashem (I don't think goyim should, but it's better than what you did), but not those four letters. It’s not yucking your yum. You are allowed to enjoy what you want. But what you are doing here is the equivalent of coming into my house and saying that because my dinner looks delicious you can just reach onto my plate with your bare hand, scoop up some of what I’m eating, take a bite and throw the rest back. It’s disrespectful and offensive. I am not objecting to your joy, I’m objecting to your lack of respect to my culture.

Being Jewish is about more than just being circumcised and having the “right” mother. There is a culture here that you need to understand. If you are raised in it, then you get to join the club that way. If you’re not, then you can put in the work to learn it and learn to be respectful of it and join the club that way. So far, you haven’t been able to find a rabbi that thinks you’re willing to do that work, and from what I’ve seen, I’m willing to agree.

[megismyname]

You need to get over this ‘Lukola’ thing Luke doesn’t go out with girls like Nic, they are JUST FRIENDS, they are BOTH in committed relationships and in love and happy, if you are any fans of them you would support them 

"Girls like Nic" - what does this mean?

Smart girls women

Funny girls women

Beautiful girls women

Successful girls women

Humanitarian girls women

Kind girls women

I mean you're right, he doesn't go out with "girls like Nic" because he goes out with "women who are Nic."

Are the "committed relationships" in the room with us, Anon? I'm sorry you've never been touched by a man or woman or houseplant or donkey (or whatever floats your boat - I don't judge around here) and it shows. The definition for "committed relationship" has truly hit an all time low in this fandom full of middle age virgins.

While I'm on the topic of people who have no friends in real life, can you please point me to the mounds of evidence of these two using the words "Just Friends" in a statement. I understand that may be hard for you given that you've never had any friends but on the other hand you should have plenty of time to get me the evidence I need.

Oh and I support them - both of them - every single fucking day. There has never been a negative word out of my mouth about either one of them - not on June 13th and not on October whatever. I've spent the last 6 months defending them to my core 24/7. All I'm doing is using my brain - you might wanna travel the yellow brick road and see if you can pick one out.

With that, if you ever care to have an actual conversation with me then you can pull up your big girl or big boy pants and COME OFF ANON.

[brujamala-aka-gigi]

‧ა sagittarius season tarot readings ໒ ‧₊˚

november 22 - december 21

.☘︎ ݁˖. 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒔 ་༘࿐

These tarot readings are meant to give you some information about how the energy of this season is going to affect you. Sagittarius season usually comes with a big burst of energy, specially channeled in matters that relate deeply to the slightly more childlike side of our intellect. This season usually comes with an enhancement of curiosity, the need to explore and expand our horizons, but also the energy to do so. Let's check what are the positives and the negatives of this season for each sign.

don't forget to check your moon and rising signs' posts just in case

dividers by @adornedwithlight & @cafekitsune, images by Kira Cyan

.‧͙˚ *༓ scroll down for the readings ⋆ִ ‧͙⁺˚

masterpost ✶ pac readings ✶ ko-fi page

 .࿔˚˖𓍢ִ໋`･𝚃𝚊𝚞𝚛𝚞𝚜 {𝙰𝚙𝚛𝟸𝟶–𝙼𝚊𝚢𝟸𝟶} ♉︎

𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒 ✦ 𝐊𝐍𝚰𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 ✦ 𝐅𝚰𝐕𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐔𝐏𝐒

𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬

It's very likely you begin searching for philosophical and intellectual stimulation from the people around you, or being drawn to new people who seem to provide this. There are going to be plenty of quite meaningful and valuable conversations happening, this season will be full of key learning moments, not exactly in the traditional or structured way, but more so in the way in which you learn by making mistakes or having new experiences. You will get the pieces and tools you feel as if you’re missing from your life, and you will also become more confident in skills you already possess. People around you are slightly aware of a subtle nervous energy you have whenever life moves too fast, so they are very likely to come and help. But, your anxiety this season won’t be completely negative, as you have enough motivation to work around it in order to move on.

𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

Somehow, you feel obligated to act on your impulses, which is not entirely comfortable since you are better at doing things consistently over longer periods of time instead of relying on random bursts of energy and inspiration. I don’t think these are bad as they will provide you with opportunities to expand your horizons and gain new perspectives to add into your comfort zones. At this moment you might be hesitant to fully embrace the deeper existential or spiritual development implications your actions are able to communicate, but at some point later you will realize the impressive amount of growth you’ve gone through.

𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞

Don’t get over fixated on self perceived flaws or actual flaws that are being taken out of proportion by yourself or by your environment. There’s plenty of amazing things going on for you and yet you’re not ready to see them, because you might think you are not ready to be responsible for them or deserving of them. During this season you might feel compelled to look for fulfillment outside of your usual lifestyle, and it’s very likely these experiences bring new gratitude and new mindsets that will allow you to find new value in many things that seem too mundane or are just not as exciting or pleasurable right now. The same will happen with the things you feel you are lacking, you might get them only to realize that you didn't actually need them or didn't actually want them in the first place.

₊⁺⋆.�� 𝚅𝚒𝚛𝚐𝚘 {𝙰𝚞𝚐𝟸𝟹–𝚂𝚎𝚙��𝟸𝟸}♍︎

𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 ✦ 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒 ✦ 𝐒𝚰𝐗 𝐎𝐅 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒

𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬

This season will definitely feel like you are going through one of the most chaotic moment’s of your life. It might feel as if everyone around you is moving in the most unpredictable and severe ways possible, nobody is being chill about anything and this sort of impulsive or overly dramatic energy is going to take a toll on your social battery. It is very likely you will have to take some time off and renew your energy more often. Also, I think you are going to be able to test your limits, and test who actually understands those limits. You are going to face many situations in which what might seem spontaneous is actually the explosion of something repressed or postponed. Please be mindful of your own energy, you are also going to see some abrupt changes like most people on this season, but don’t feel like they have to take you too far out of what you already know works best for your peace of mind.

𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

When you are faced with conflictive situations or any sort of confrontation, be mindful of other people being sort of intellectually dishonest with their arguments and the facts they present. There’s a lot of badly calculated moves that are going to be easy to spot when you remove yourself from the situation and take a deep look at it. Also there's going to be a lot of people being overly confident to compensate for what they’re lacking, or straight up bragging about achievements or success that it’s not completely a reflection of actual skill or knowledge. Don’t let them get to you, and don’t let them convince you this is the game you have to play.

𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞

Okay so, this season is going to be messy in every possible way, but you are actually quite good at fixing other people’s mistakes anyways. The season will leave you with a well deserved feeling of pride, and set you up to end the year in a way that feels triumphant. I get the feeling you are really giving yourself the closure you deserve in regards to plenty of things that have happened this year, and it's very likely you will succeed. Just don’t get overly attached to the good feelings that come with letting things go and cutting things out, you are someone who definitely needs a challenge from time to time. These moment’s of order and peacefulness are not meant for you to stay comfortable forever, you’d get bored, these moments are meant to re-evaluate your mental strength and to give you time and energy to focus on the challenges that are far more fulfilling to face. 

°❀⋆.ೃ 𝙲𝚊𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚗 {𝙳𝚎𝚌 𝟸𝟸–𝙹𝚊𝚗𝟷𝟿} ♑︎

𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 ✦ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒 ✦ 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒

𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬

You are almost at the right place, mentally and emotionally, to embrace deeper connections with the people who are already close to you, but also still feel like you haven’t entirely come off your shelf yet. And hey, totally understandable to be a little bit more private, but  at this point you know what the redflags are, you know when you see them and you know when you don’t. Allow your guard to be a little bit down if you don’t see the redflags, even if what you see is not exactly matching your expectations to their full extent. Allow others to take care of you when you need help. I think you are too overworked and stressed right now to see that good things will come your way as long as your patient, and as long as you recover from any kind of burn out.

𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

If you don’t take some time off to chill, reflect, recover, the same things that caused the exhaustion will come back. During this season it might be tempting to overwork your psyche and try to fix everything that went wrong during this year, don’t. It's very likely you will struggle with over rationalizing your feelings and it could lead you to unhealthy thoughts, and an unhealthy relationship with your emotions. This moment is going to be extremely difficult to navigate, you won’t feel comfortable in your own nature, and emotional distress will get to you if you don’t take some time to yourself and to enjoy with people who bring the best out of you.

𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞

I think you are a little bit stressed about how you feel as if nobody seems to completely get you, or what you are going through or what you want from life. You might encounter feelings of disappointment that are reinforced by grief over the moment’s where you felt the hope of someone actually making you feel understood and valued.  In this season you will come to the realizations that are going to allow the healing you need and the confidence to know where are the places in which you are safe and who are the people worth keeping in your life. At this time, it is necessary that you are capable of using your intuition to balance things out in your life, without trying to micro manage everything about it, trust in the natural order of things, embrace it and work around it. 

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[apilgrimpassingby]

I've lately been reading through the Nag Hammadi library, and I'm going to give a pretty hard disagree.

Gnosticism was an umbrella term for a variety of sects with certain shared attributes. I would define it as such: the belief that the world in general and/or the body in particular is a prison for the human soul, that the average person is kept ignorant of this due to the malign powers who created the world and/or the body and that we can be freed by secret knowledge. Additionally, while not essential to the definition, most Gnostic sects operated as secretive factions within a larger religious tradition. I'd include classic Gnostic sects like Valentiniansm and Marcionism under this definition, as well as Kabbalah and Scientology, which, though unrelated and much later, meet all of these criteria. You can say that Gnosticism was about secret knowledge, but that doctrine was inextricably linked with their goal of escaping the world (what else is the secret knowledge for?), which in turn was inextricably linked to their negative view of matter in general and the body in particular.

Manichaeism was a specific Gnostic sect created by a guy called Mani, who's idea was to create a universal religion by hybridising Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Buddhism, afforded a special place in the Western mind by being the most successful Gnostic sect and St. Augustine being an ex-Manichean. A strong matter-spirit dualism with matter being evil and the spirit being good was standard among Gnostics; it's largely a historical accident that we describe people with a black-and-white mentality as "Manichean" rather than "Basilidean" or "Sethian" or any of the other Gnostic sects.

Docetism was a Christological heresy that was common among Gnostics; I wouldn't call it separate from Gnosticism because, like I said, Gnosticism is a package of ideas rather than one belief.

I know we love to call things Gnostic around here (for good reason) but may I introduce some nuance/other related heresies that may add specificity to your burns:

Gnostic: group of ideas involving a complex cosmology with many lesser creating beings (aeons) emanating from the true God, the last of which created the material world because he was so stupid. Called "Gnosticism" because it was all about gnosis, or knowledge: you need secret knowledge of the aeons to set you free from materiality (which they do see as evil, but it doesn't directly impact their practice; they were often described as sexually promiscuous and greedy for gain). I recommend calling things Gnostic only if and when they imply you need secret knowledge to get to a level of insight into the world higher than normal people have—the denial of the goodness of matter is more distinctive for the following heresies:

Manichean: a form of Gnosticism that emphasizes the strict dualism between matter and spirit, where the material world is evil and not created by God, while the spiritual world is good and salvation comes from ascent out of the world to God. The noun is Manichaeism. Augustine used to be this. I recommend calling things Manichean when their major error is just thinking the material world is inherently bad and we need to escape it, and similarly when they (explicitly or implicitly) deny that creation is inherently good insofar as it is created by and a reflection of God.

Docetic: Docetism is the Christological heresy that says Jesus didn't have a real material body, but was kind of like a ghost or made out of soul-matter and just pretended to eat and walk and suffer like us. Obviously this is influenced by Gnosticism/Manichaeism, but its unique application of the view of matter as evil to Christ, and consequent denial that He was truly human like us, qualified it as a distinct heresy. I recommend calling things Docetic when their main error is denying God's meaningful engagement with and presence in the material world, and of course when they specifically deny that Christ had true physical humanity with needs and senses like ours.

[faiell]

yapping about fics and commenting

sorry to yap but work is boring today and tumblr isn't blocked on my work computer LOL

ok it's abt that post where the writer friend stopped writing because they weren't getting the comments/kudos they wanted.

i'm like. an overeager fandom person. like i cannot get into a fandom without wanting to meet new people and make friends. i love yapping about whatever silly gay idiots i'm hyperfixating over. i'm all about community, and sharing the joy of fandom, and all that fun positive stuff.

i don't post my art for stats but like. that means nothing coming from me tbh. i get stats. i can't accurately predict what would happen if i stopped getting notes on my art, but i would probably keep drawing and keep posting, just maybe less confidently, and less often. i recognize that stats make it much easier and while it’s not my primary motivation, it definitely motivates me to keep posting.

and yet. for years, i never commented on fic. i think i left kudos? and i saw posts like this all the time about how writers were so sad they didn't get comments. and i would feel super guilty about it all the time. but i still wouldn't do it! it sounds stupid, but i would feel pressured. if i liked a fic a lot, it felt even more difficult to comment, because i thought i would have to somehow give back to the author everything that fic gave to me. i wanted to craft the perfect comment that could perfectly encapsulate everything a fic made me feel. and that was way too much pressure so i would just not say anything.

when i got into drarry, i started reading a shit ton of fic. and i still wouldn't comment. i left maybe... 2 or 3 comments, maybe, i think. i can't remember. but i had a lot to say and i WANTED the writers to hear that i had read it and liked it. i just... didn't comment! u know what i did instead? i just fucking straight up DM'd writers on discord and started gushing to them that i liked their fic. somehow i was confident enough to do that, but writing a comment still felt like too much pressure. ?? i don't understand it either, but in my head it felt like a writing assignment, but when I was in DMs it felt more like a conversation and so there wasn't any pressure to make it "good"? idk!! it's very weird.

then i wrote and posted my first complete fic. just a oneshot, nothing special, and i was like. UNREASONABLY nervous about posting it. like. i am a confident person, okay? i was going to make a burner AO3 account and post it under a different name so nobody would know it was me, and then never mention it to anyone except MAYBE super close friends. i got talked out of doing that (thanks i feel a bit silly about considering that now). and then i received my first comment on it, which was basically a two-liner where someone said they liked it and thanked me for writing it.

and i was like. ??...?????? ???????? ...??!!! because i felt like... uncontainable glee? i was freakishly happy. the amount of serotonin those two sentences gave me was definitely unnatural.

is that healthy? idk. will it continue? idk. LOL. i hope so? but idk, some people said it wears off if you write/post for a while. but whatever, the fact that one little comment like that could make my entire day blew my mind. tbh i thought writers were just exaggerating when they said stuff like that.

ever since then i started leaving comments! that shit's easy! like what was i overthinking for? i'm such a fucking tryhard! all i gotta say is that i liked it, and even the bare minimum can bring lots of joy to someone.

so basically what im trying to say is that negative reinforcement doesn't do shit!! it just makes people feel bad about themselves. that post is nasty for guilt-tripping readers like that, and i bet you it's going to have the opposite effect (or no effect tbh).

YAPPING FINISHED. for now.

[serpentface]

Yeah epic poetry is a major convention and is what other traditions of poetry here evolved From.

They originated as forms of recording and passing on history and legends in pre-literate Wardi societies (and still are mostly performed and transmitted orally, though most of the old epics have been recorded in writing and are now strictly 'canonized', and most performers memorize from these 'canon' texts). Each story would be divided into roughly equal 'chapters' which could be individually memorized. They are traditionally designed to be sung, and follow strict poetic meter but typically do not have a rhyming scheme (though often show favor for alliterative rhythm).

Most of the genre is comprised of old, established epics, but the practice of recording history this way has been retained in the commission of epic poetry-form documentation of major current events (these are never as popular).

The main traits of the genre are:

Taking place over broad spans of time and locations

Focus is mostly upon esteemed individuals and heroic exploits.

Narrative rhythm is established through repetition of key words and phrases, as well as scenes that thematically echo each other

Heavy use of epithets

Very flowery text that lavishes in visual description of people, animals, buildings, weapons, clothing, and landscapes.

Extensive family trees are provided for most major characters.

Descriptions often rely heavily upon extended similes and figurative language

Characters speak with highly formal language and perform lengthy monologues

Heavy focus on normative male homosociality

Heroic figures embody societal values, though are often shown as imperfect and having to fight baser aspects of their nature (thus making them perhaps The Best embodiments, showing their self-control and discipline)

Heroic figures are 'allowed' to have major flaws, but these flaws are typically connected to a perceived virtue (ie a highly accomplished warrior is foolishly arrogant about it, a hero's fidelity to his family makes him gullible to a malicious relative, etc)

Heavy focus on kinship, family, and honor (and typically exploring multiple dimensions of these values, including negative ones)

Typically having elements of tragedy, which is often interconnected with the aforementioned values- the tragedy occurs because the heroes do the right things in spite of inevitable consequences.

The most culturally significant epic poem is a mythologized recounting of the life of Erub, a (semi)historical king and founder hero. The only thing historically definite about his life is that a prince named Something Like Erub (more likely Urub, Urbin, or Uru) from the Ephenni tribe was involved in a series of campaigns that lead to about 2/5ths of the region being conquered and formed into a kingdom (most of the present day provinces of Ephennos, Wardin, and Erubinnos), which experienced a period of relative peace and stability for about a century before the First wave of Imperial Burri occupation occurred.

The overall plot points:

-Erub's birth and adolescence, in which he is guided to become a great warrior and skilled leader by a deity who is only described in epithets, mostly war and khait-related ('The thrower of spears' 'with the khaitsmane shield', 'whose horns are iron', 'the wild bull(khait)', 'peerless mounted archer'). This is usually interpreted as the Face Inyamache (and Does very likely represent an early incarnation of this deity, possibly a contributor to Odomache as well).

-Erub's ascension to the Ephenni throne via the sacrificial bullfight rite, in which the bull is a magical animal and son of his tutelary deity.

-Erub courting Hippemides, a princess of North Ephennos (who is described as descending from the chief Burri solar deity Inanariya via his son, minor solar deity Nibeña).

-Erub's marriage to Hippemides as a chief wife, and two 'prince concubines' (they aren't assigned definite sex characteristics but are usually understood as akoshos in the contemporary, almost definitely would not have been men)

-Efforts for diplomacy between the Ephenni and Wardinae tribes, historical enemies.

-Erub's king-sister Inyari is insulted by the Wardinae king Janes assuming her to be Erub's wife (a lesser role). In retribution, she commands their younger brother Nedelas to trespass on the king's lands and steal his cattle (described as 'lunar cattle' and implied to be some kind of demigod animal). Janes demands that Erub hand over his brother or face war. Erub has a long monologue examining the complexity of the situation (as his siblings were clearly in the wrong), but loyalty to his family overcomes. War is declared.

-War between the Ephenni and Wardinae tribes.

-Erub and Janes agree to settle the war in single combat. Both are evenly matched and unable to defeat one another. They are both such great and honorable warriors and develop so much respect for one another that they ally instead, and swear brotherhood in front of their collective peoples.

-Erub and Janes pal around for a few years and undertake various heroic tasks and defeat minor enemies of each of their tribes.

-Erub marries one of Janes' cousins as a second wife.

-Janes (ignoring several warning omens) slays a mighty albino buffalo on a hunt, which turns out to have been a powerful animal spirit who curses him in its dying breaths, stating that his death will 'emerge from' his own hunting dogs (the word for 'emerge' is more ambiguous in the source language, and can literally mean 'will physically come out of' or just figuratively mean 'come from'). Janes kills all his hunting dogs and declares himself invulnerable.

-Janes' wife, the queen Mitlewari, is captured by Achetil, the king of the powerful Morinnae tribe (probably a Wogan group). Janes declares war, and Erub follows suit out of loyalty to his sworn brother.

-The fighting between the Ephenni/Wardinae and Morinnae turns into a year of bloody warfare, with many great warriors dying.

-The tide of battle turns to the Ephenni/Wardinae side, and Achetil flees with the remainder of his forces within the city walls. The city of Morinnos is sieged, and Achetil's wives and daughters throw themselves from the fort wall to avoid capture. Mitlewari has been raped in captivity and is pregnant, and, freeing herself in the chaos, she throws herself from the wall as well to preserve herself and her husband's honor.

-The city is sacked. Achetil and his sons are captured and offered as human sacrifices to the proto-Inyamache deity. Erub declares Ephenni, Wardinae, and former Morinae lands to be a new kingdom.

-Erub and Janes, at the behest of their people, are forced to fight once again to determine who should be king. The fight rages on for days without a victor as they are too evenly matched. Janes feels deference to his elder sworn brother and believes Erub should be king, but is unwilling to admit defeat to preserve his and his people's honor. A goddess in the form of an albatross (whose identity is ambiguous in the text and is usually interpreted as Pelannaumache) sends a wind to trip him just enough to slow his parry, and Erub stabs him through the heart. Janes briefly dies but returns to life, as his invulnerability is apparently real. His defeat was unambiguous, however, and Erub is crowned king, retaining Janes as his general and chiefmost advisor.

-The new kingdom is named Erubinnos, and a new palace is raised. A thousand cattle are sacrificed to consecrate the kingdom and eaten at a feast.

-Janes revisits the pyre mound on which his hunting dogs were burned, to mock the curse and revel in his confirmed invulnerability. A viper crawls out from the dog ashes and bites him in the thigh, killing him.

-The funeral for Janes, in which a hundred Morinae prisoners, a hundred khait, and a hundred hounds are killed to serve him in the afterlife. Erub's grief is so tremendous that he shaves his head and beard.

-Erub rules the great kingdom Erubinnos for fifty years until great old age. His eldest nephew Nedachemi (sometimes mistranslated as a son to fit modern Wardi kingship) undergoes the sacrificial bullfight and inherits the throne. Erub dies shortly after.

-The funeral for Erub, in which the same prisoners-khait-hound spread is killed in his honor. Hippemides throws herself onto the funeral pyre in grief.

-Nedachemi marries one of Janes' daughters, and his king-sister marries one of Janes' sons. The wedding consummation of each is described in a fair amount of detail, which has at least Some narrative function as a show of unification between the Ephenni and Wardinae and hope for a prosperous future.

-Ends very abruptly after the sex scenes, with a declaration that the great Erubinnos will one day be whole again (in reference to the state of Imperial Burri occupation that the tale was first developed under, and the fact that the Original Erubinnos was never reformed by the later date of the poem's written recording).

---

The oral tradition the epic descends from probably began about ~750 years BP under the rule of the 1st Burri Empire, and the 'canonized' version of the text was likely recorded about 500 years BP during an independent but heavily tumultuous period of warring Wardi states.

It's notable as a snapshot of the earliest forms of the Faith of the Seven Faced God. The Faith had not crystallized into anything resembling its modern variant during the period of purely oral transmission, and it shows significantly in the text. Entities recognizable as basal forms of some of the seven Faces appear in the text, but they are described as individual deities, are heavily personified and interactive, and some appear to have demigod children (none of these concepts are present in contemporary doctrine). Additionally, gods from the Burri pantheon that had been adopted during this period (and either abandoned or fully syncretized into the Faith in the period since) make distinct appearances. It also contains notable animistic qualities to its worldview, its world is populated by animal and other nature spirits and actions are frequently described as 'witnessed' and reacted to by inanimate and/or non-animal objects/features (sometimes specifically referred to with the antiquated word koya for a essential nature spirit (ie 'the very koya of the grass wept at this bloodshed upon her back'))

This is largely reflective of the proto-Wardi religious practices during the time of the story's development- most regionally native religions had an animistic outlook on the world and centered heavily on animal worship, the proto-Wardi tribes were under foreign occupation with Burri gods introduced as a part of state religion (prioritizing orthopraxy, adoption of rites was forced but there was little to no Active attempts to eliminate native belief systems). These native animal worship ft. general animism practices would continue among much of the population with Burri polytheism added on top, and syncretism between these elements in tandem with cultural upheaval led to the beginning of a new religion (which began to come to fruition after the 1st Burri empire's collapse, and would be a practice in full swing during the 2nd period of occupation).

It also records some obsolete practices with great detail and accuracy, such as the matrilineal kinship systems of the Ephenni where sovereignty passed from the king to his nephew via his sister (and correctly recording that the Wardinae did not have this practice), and the capture of high status war prisoners Very Specifically And Explicitly as sacrificial offerings to deities.

Much of its general themes and priority on honor, kinship, and the family are familiar to contemporary listeners, but a lot of its worldview, practices, and value systems are distinctly dated or entirely confusing. Erub is described as wearing tattoos and having multiple wives (two practices now seen as barbaric), the notion of kings fighting in single combat is seen as Cool But Absurd, and much of its religious worldview is alien to the modern listener. There are some attempts to reinterpret the source text to fit with contemporary outlooks and religious worldview, but it is broadly understood as a snapshot of the 'heathen Wardi' the Wardi peoples descend from and not something to be 'fixed'. Instead, focus is more on finding legitimatizing evidence of modern day religious beliefs in the text (identifying older deities as Faces of God that were simply misinterpreted by the heathen Wardi), and Most of the focus is on framing Erub as a collective father to their people and a great heathen king, whose exploits paved the way to their modern identity.

The declaration at the end that "Erubinnos will be whole again" is heavily reinterpreted to be a sort of prophetic description of Imperial Wardin's emergence as a kingdom for the collective Wardi people (when in context it Absolutely just referred to the specific kingdom comprising most of the present day provinces of Ephennos, Wardin, and Erubinnos, and specifically for the (rather briefly, in the long run) unified Ephenni and Wardinae people (not other proto-Wardi tribes)).

[timkontheunsure]

A CBT look at Blitz's core beliefs

Boring explanationy bit

Ok first off a core belief is this how the world works sort of thought. It has a ton of evidence on it side, or some big life altering event. Acting within is designed to kept you safe. And everyone has good and bad ones.

Think of it as of a short bit of base code running in the background, helping you go with your gut. A quick a short cut, but one that's got a lot of logic and past facts behind it.

They're mostly set up in childhood. So if you have an abusive parent, or trauma, you can get ones that become unhelpful for you in other situations. Like with people that really care about you.

A distortion is a little different. They affect how you look at the wold based off your mood, and are always negative. They specifically don't have a lot of evidence on their side. Like a prism that makes things a little different than what's really there.

They are an action to do based on your mood: catastrophizing (when everybody I love leaves me next year)

Black & white thinking (yes there's all this evidence showing Stolas cares, but that doesn't count as it just sex).

Thought spiraling (this one goes to Moxxie heh)

Or snap judgments based only only how your mood is (Ghostfuckers is fun and sexy, so we should take the case when I know they don't exist).

Blitz's core beliefs

So 'all royals are assholes' and 'no royal will care about an imp' are a core beliefs. Because this is definitely true, the 1% don't give a fig. (Stolas and Ozzie are basically round errors from what we've seen).

"I'm going to die alone" is also one.

So is "I make everyone's lives worse"

But his good ones are: "we don't get rid of family",

Ok with these two good ones we're going to have to go into rules for life. Blitz core belief is about family sticks together and protects each other. That's his code that always wants to run.

But he's also got evidence that family will kick you out for not being good enough, and hurting/killing people on accident. When you get code clashing you get cognitive dissidence, which physically hurts.

So you do a patch to reduce that pain. A rule to live by. 'If X is right and Y is right, then the variable that off is me.'

'We don't get rid of family, but we do get rid of me = I'm the only one who we can get rid of'.

With Loona it's we get orphanage lady saying words that could have come straight out of Cash's mouth. (I want Blitz to get a song telling that git off so hard).

Those hit Blitz hard, so hard he changed his mind on adopting a small little child, to a older teenage. CBT says that when something hits that hard it's because it hit at least 1 core belief. He sees himself in Loona in that moment, and never want another kid to be gotten rid of.

And other one could be bad or good depending on what's around it. 'I will be of use to family/people I love'. Blitz needs to feel useful to the people he loves, especially with growing in a family business working from being a kid.

And the rule Blitz has made for himself between the "I'm going to die alone" + 'I will be of use to family' = 'But maybe if I'm useful they won't abandoned of me yet'

(Also how sad it is that Blitz feels he's only allowed help, and support if it's a tit for tat, favours for favours exchange).

So everyone has a mixed bag of these good and bad. The problem happened when trauma responses give you ones that don't help you in a new situation. Like say a demon prince falling head over heels for him.

The idea of CBT is that if your struggling to look at what's changed since the core beliefs were set up. And if it isn't keeping you safe anymore, then you try to replace the old one with a new one; that has new evidence that backs it up. A update.

Like how Millie shows Blitz concrete examples of him improving her life. Just telling him he hasn't wrecked her life wouldn't work.

(This is one of reasons why Stolas' confection doesn't stick with Blitz. Blitz needs to know reasons why someone like Stolas loves him. It why he asks him in apology tour. Stolas tell your boy why he's so amazing for flips' sake).

Millie shows how joining IMP positively improved her live. "He gave me so much...A career, a husband, a future. And now...He's my best friend."

And Blitz helping Millie through alot of her own negative self talk she had. That 'she's not good enough', 'she's only the muscle', 'that Pride's too fancy for imps', and 'no imp works for them selves'.

These we're all Millie's core beliefs before joining IMP, if she still had these Rolando's words would have hurt her. But through having the support and example of Blitz she's removed those old bits of code.

When see her mum it obvious where and why she has these ideas about herself. Lynn describes her full time job, being employed direct by a company; as "Freelance". Because Imps can't work for themselves. (Even if she is impressed by Blitz). It's like different between working for Uber, instead of taxi firm. No protections, and an unsafe unstable job.

She pulls up her daughter's valid explanation why she lost the fight as "Excuses!", because Millie was "'raised better than that' as the muscle of the team.

She's very against Moxxie for being too week, and not having the same melee skills as Millie.

It obvious that she wants her daughter to have a similar life as her, where she keeps her head down, and has a partner that is able to defend Millie. This because there's a level of safety in this crab bucket attitude. She'd very unlikely to come to the notice of higher-ups. Like how Stolas being very involved in IMP and with Blitz.

But Blitz talked Millie round, and also showed her that she doesn't have to pigeon hole herself like that. She has years of evidence that Blitz could do it, and him pointing out how good she is when she fell back into thinking of herself as just the muscle.

Rolando's trying to exploit vulnerability that she's updated against. (It's super ineffective).

Ok after that sight side tangent of with Millie's head, back to Blitz's.

The "your going to die alone" has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, tripping Blitz up alot. Because it comes twofold for his fear of hurting his loved ones, making their life worse, and his fear of abandonment. Because he was abandoned, that did happen.

Making him feel like he has it to push away the people he love for there own, and that they'll leave him eventually so might as well push them away now. He's got a lot of previous evidence tied to this.

It's going to take more then Fizz and Millie telling him he didn't ruin theirs, for him to start to be able to unpick this. Because he's still certain it's true. Even if he's improved the lives of most of the people he knows.

And even Fizz who were directly effected by the mistake Blitz still punishing himself for, has told him that being made disabled didn't ruin his life.

There's a whole debate in my head whether Barbie would have had such trouble with addiction; if she wasn't assuming/told that her brother started the fire on purpose, that killed their mum. I'm honestly not sure. But it does seem like her resentment over it has made it harder on her. And that all seems to stem from Cash abuse. (I'm sure Cash is the one to tell Blitz Fizz said he'd die alone).

Ok on to how the these are interacting/fucking up his relationship to Stolas. Blitz is definitely is afraid to love Stolas for a number of reasons. (You knew I'd get there at somepoint right 😛).

Cus a whole load are clashes together for him, making it really difficult for him because about see things from the outside. with the "royal demons don't give a shit about guys like us" one.

Making Blitz rationalize that it's gotta be about the sex, and being of use. Anything that shows this assumption is wrong has to be disregarded with distortion.

But when Stolas takes sex off the table, and still talking about feeling, and relationships; it makes Blitz's fear of abandonment go turbo. It's not rational but it's the only rule Blitz has that might make Stolas keep him.

He feels like that sex is all he has to give to a prince after all. And he wanted Stolas to stay for a long while now. It's not a grimoire his hallucinations put on a golden pedestal after all. And there a a lot of similarity to how Stolas and his Mama vanish.

(Debøra pør favør pointed out this emotion damage so now you have to suffer too 😭https://x.com/_Choco_torta/status/1859028103772955135)

"I'm going to die alone" and 'I must be of use' Blitz freaks out badly in queen Bee after Ozzie's. Blitz believed that he's be rejected by Stolas, he's been shoved back into the box of it just being about lust.

Because he wants more, but feels he's unworthy, it's got him hurt coming and going. He's got to shut down any attempt by Stolas to have something real. But he was also hurt constantly feeling sex is all that he's got to offer, and all Stolas would want.

"I make everyone's lives worse" and "We don't get get rid of family". Ok this is into theory level but think Master Mind and Sinsmas are going hit these last two harddddd. (We're one week from mastermind).

It looks likely that Stolas is going to lose Via, face punishment for the illegal deal, and be dragged for the affair. With Via swallowing a lot gaslighting about not being loved by Stolas (lines from the trailer).

Blitz will probably going assume it's another another life he's made worse, where he's caused them to lose their own family. Don't think this will play well with last guy he fell in love with he blow up.

It's going to make it much harder for him to remove the idea; that that him loving some will only hurt them.

Alot of the reasons Blitz thought it was ok to get close to Stolas are tied up in these beliefs. He assumes Stolas was powerful and immortal, so couldn't be hurt physically like Fizz or Mumma.

He assumed that a prince would never fall for an imp, so only he could get hurt emotionally. It couldn't end the same way as Verosika. Blitz thinking he's the only one to be able to be hurt, and get to be useful not just to Stolas, but provide a better life for his whole family. It would seem like a bargain. (And the self punishment aspect probably wasn't going be a off for him, cus Blitz thinks he deserves it).

This season seems slow be eroding that pedestal Blitz put Stolas on (and vice versa). It's hurts, and it's knocking the stuffing out of both of them; but it's bring Stolas to earth for Blitz. Making his more of a real person in his eyes.

Eh probably a lot way to go, but I'm here for it.

(was very loosely based on this post, because it got me thinking about distortions vs core beliefs. But then I went off on a whole thing, so thought it would be weird to put it as a reblog. Still loved @akirathedramaqueen analysis and would recommend giving it a read 😀)

[st4rspup]

✮⋆˙ regressor powder hcs .ᐟ

✦ almost every time, she regresses without noticing!! she regresses the most when upset/sad, and easily becomes overwhelmed with her emotions & her involuntary regression kicks in, which can make her very frustrated since she loses the ability to pinpoint + verbalize what she’s feeling

✦ she usually regresses to around 2-4 yrs old! ✧₊⁺ when around that age, she can be either nonverbal or semi-verbal, which also depends if she isn’t too upset

✦ but there are times when she feels a little bit older! the oldest she’ll regress to is around 6-8, and then she’s usually more talkative!

✦ once she becomes only able to say very simple expressions (i.e, “mm sad” / “m’don’t feel good”) it’s one of the major indicators that she’s started regressing

✦ when this leads to a fussy pow, vi usually can pick up on it very quickly, often noticing her lack of ability to verbalize how she’s feeling and instantly becoming gentler with her

✦ vi is always tries to be the best big sis she can in the moment, offering her cuddles and reassuring words when she notices pow’s words start to turn more blubbery as she fights off tears

✦ since pow’s usual regression stems from emotional distress, it’s a number one thing for her to have her comfort items close by (bunny stuffy, paci, sippy)

✦ she gets very tearful very fast, and at first feels ashamed to cry, but soon grew more and more comfortable around her big sib as she soothed and comforted her as best as she could

✦ lots of reassurance + gentle baby talking is what makes her feel the most validated and comforted in the moment, it’s the main things that’re the first steps to cheering her back up <3

✦ while she still needs her time to cry n let it out, vi knows when she can transition from the comforting soothing to silly babying that cheers her up, and it always has pow giggling in seconds

✦ usually after crying she can also tucker herself out pretty fast, so vi always offers some cuddles and nap, which pow always says yes in the form of yawns and vi will quickly grab her bunny stuffy for her

✦ loves her bunny stuffy!!! takes him everywhere, always cuddles with him every night—vi knows she can get rlly fussy without her bunny, so she always makes sure to keep him close by when she starts regressing

✦ after pow calms down & her tears stop (and after her nap if she ends up falling asleep), she always needs some play time with her big sis <3 having the silly playtime is another big de-stressor she loves to engage in when regressed! one of her favorites is playing hide n seek, where vi looks for her and her bunny

✦ she absolutely loves when vi gets silly and pulls out a game with the tickle monster—one of her favorite things to do to calm down is laugh a lot and be silly (to help take her mind off of any negative emotion + de-stress), so silly games ending in playful tickles are easily some of her favorites <3

✦ also loves to color + doodle a bunch! she tries her best to color in the lines but vi is always quick with a “wow powpow, did you color that? how’d you do that? no waaay!” which always makes her smile and giggle, forgetting about any initial frustration

✦ always loves having her big sis nearby <3 again due to most of her regression triggered from emotional distress, definitely a regressor that needs a cg most of time!

[meowdy-all]

i hope he goes and stays in texas. the toxic behavior of buddie standom has taken a character i used to like and made me hate his guts. well done! this will definitely get you your fetish ship!

they never do anything with his character anyway get rid of the racist piece of shit who plays him

Im sorry, im gonna guess by the vitrol and literal shit your spewing that you're a bummy fan? And if your not i actually still dont give a fuck. Im using you as an example.

People like you always come and come on anon and say disgusting shit like this. Because you can't do it face-to-face. You're a prime example as to why this fandom is toxic. Because why are you coming into someone's ask box and leaving this negative ass shit? Genuinely, it's a genuine question. Like, what do you gain from this? I'm using you as an example. Every single time I've gotten hate messages, i delete them, but this shit is genuinely starting to piss me off.

If a fandom can ruin a character for you maybe you need to take a step back and find what made you love the character jn the first place, because if its THAT easy that headcanons and fandom can make you hate a character, then maybe you never loved the character?

Yall are so fuckin ready to pull the 'RG is racist, you support a racist!' Card and never bother to fuckin fact check.

The man fucked up, severely, and he shouldnt have defended her. but when you're raised surrounded by machismo and told the things rg was NO DOUBT told, of fuckin course he defended his wife. I'd be more shocked if he didnt. But guess what? He divorced her, and he apologized. He's grown as a person. Do you know what happens when a racist works with the cast? Look at LFJR. The motherfucker is a tr*mp supporter, racist, misogynistic peice of shit and the crew iced him the fuck out. Oliver, who takes so many pictures, took not ONE single photo of him.

And RG did get iced out. They had beef for a good two years. Ryan has apologized. He has grown as a person, and the cast has forgiven him and moved on. Does he still act a little weird? Yeah but we're people, were all weird, look at you leaving hate in a random fuckin strangers ask box. Thats weird.

Im so TIRED of people in this fandom rushing to condem POC characters and actors because of their mistakes, but when a white character does the same, or even WORSE its all praises or 'taken out of context' or 'he didnt mean it like that'. Get the fuck outta here with that. Dont play w me rn.

[doukeshi-kun]

Ayy papi. I got some dad!kolya ideas to hear me out on. I know you and I had talked about dad Nikolai and the 3 Gogolings. I think we once agreed that none of them were planned. All were an oopsie (because Nikolai is a horn dog). But hear me out. What if the first two were oopsies, but they tried for the third? Imagine if Karol was 100% planned. Yuri was not planned in the slightest. Mari was also not planned, but they were more prepared for her. What if they decided that "ok. One more, then we're getting snipped." They decided 2 wasn't enough but no more than 3. SO they actually tried for Karol. I'm imagining a funny scenario of them *cough cough* trying for him. All the wacky secks positions, all the times mommy dear takes a test and it comes back negative so Nikolai pulls a "well, damn. Gotta go try again." I'd like to imagine that ironically enough, it was harder to get pregnant with Karol than the other two (when they did not plan for it). It was definitely a process. Karol was a trouble maker since conception.

Also imagine Karol was an agreed name before his gender was even revealed. The whole family decided his name was Karol whether he was a boy or girl.

i can totally imagine Karol is planned. what wasn't planned is how high his clownery is

i feel like nikolai has a BIG thing in cumming inside so he's actually hoping for your test result to go negative so he can pound you like there's no tomorrow OHOHO "well damn i think we gotta try harder eh 😏"

i remember i made yuri being the first one who brought up 'Karol' name in one of my dad!nikolai fics. i like to think that it slipped out of nikolai's mind so when the family suggested 'Karol' as the baby's name, he'd agree to it immediately bcs of how right and familiar that name sounds

[sophieinwonderland]

Yes the word grooming has been blown out of its original meaning. However Grooming isn’t limited to antiqueer propaganda though, the definition of grooming is literally “the behaviour or action used to establish an emotional connection with a vulnerable person so they can abuse and/or manipulate them into doing things”

What your suggesting to do with these vulnerable groups is literally the definition of grooming.

To add to that you keep comparing these “marketing” tactics to branches of Christianity that verge on being called a cult. You’re painting it as though every branch of Christianity does the same thing when it doesn’t and it just so happens that those branches are so F’ed up.

The “marketing” of some of these you mention involve purposefully isolating its members to create a them vs us dynamic and that sort of thing doesn’t help anyone, look at the syscourse community as exhibit A.

Marketing a religion or movement in of itself is not bad, however the way you want to go about it is doing exactly what you preach to be against. No religion is good or bad it’s the people that are involved in it that make it so.

Part of your problem is that you're focusing on using a very broad interpretation of a definition of a word that has very specific connotations. Even if you can find broad definitions like this, that doesn't change the word's history.

Connotations of words can be just as important as literal definitions. For example...

I'm curious where you got your specific definition of grooming as well. I can't find that particular arrangement of words on Google. Here's the Webster's definition.

There are two forms here, one that is neutral and one that is negative.

The neutral "grooming" isn't an issue. People groom someone for a position in a company. They groom candidates. They groom successors. These are fine. But obviously, this isn't how grooming is being used here.

For the second form, this is clearly negative. And while you could make the argument that because it says "especially" for nonconsensual sexual activity, it could technically be applied outside of that, the connotation is still there and is the reason it's be used.

The reason queer people and systems are being accused of "grooming" people to be queer and to become systems is because of the connotations with sexual predators and child molesters.

Also, I find it curious that this language is almost never aimed at these branches of Christianity that use these tactics to convert and indoctrinate children. If me, a queer tulpa, suggesting that we use the same exact tactics of proselytizing religions to spread tulpamancy is "grooming" then surely all proselytizing religions that spread this way are grooming people as well!

And yet, this use of "grooming" is almost exclusively targeted at queer people and systems.

For the record, I'm not against all forms of Christianity. There are plenty of liberal churches that I would be happy to see on our side. Especially since God Himself is a plural God. If I have one problem with these churches, it's their passivity. That they don't do enough to spread their values and fight for inclusion, because the right-wing churches will spread theirs at every turn.

I would like to see stronger allyship to marginalized communities from those churches.