#doesn’t matter into the void the post goes

[maidenofcrows]

I feel like we don’t really talk about David threatening to kill someone for Genya enough. I mean, yes, it’s recognized as one of his peak moments, but I mean beyond “Aw, that’s so sweet of him.”

This is David Kostyk. He’s an inventor. His whole thing is to make new things. To create. He helped fight the epitome of destruction, so what’s the point of causing more destruction by taking someone’s life? It’s not antithetical to his character, but it’s also not the first thing I would ordinarily expect from him.

But then… we do know that David is extraordinarily blunt. We know that Baghra didn’t want to teach him out of fear of what he could become. And his friends don’t even seem all that surprised when he delivered the threat (they were all fairly aggravated; I digress).

This man absolutely meant what he said, and I firmly believe that if Yuri had offended Genya one more time, they would have found the body in 78 different strategically chosen locations

[girlbeyondthegrave]

I Watched Beetlejuice Beetlejuice a Third Time: More Things I Noticed

Here’s my previous list for those that haven’t read it. Enjoy!

A lot of people on this post I made thought that the dog in the MacArthur Park sequence was Taco from the Ghosthouse segment where Beetlejuice appears in the audience. I am sad to report this is not the case. Taco is a chihuahua, and the dog that appears is more of a terrier. However, some people on Reddit wonder if the dog is the one that ran out in front of the Maitlands’ car and killed them. I haven’t rewatched the first movie yet to check.

When Beetlejuice stitches Lydia’s mouth shut, she’s more exasperated than afraid. She literally tries to yell, “COME ON!”

Beetlejuice looks so offended on Lydia’s behalf when Rory calls her codependent. Like, “Is he serious right now? Get him, babe!”

Beetlejuice appearing before Delia can finish summoning him furthers the eavesdropping theory I made in my earlier post, and if we go off that theory, we can explain by Beetlejuice wasn’t that bothered by being summoned away at the wedding. He’s overheard Lydia’s desire to take her relationships slow and her reluctance to marriage. (Which is most definitely because of him and the fact that the last living person she loved tragically died—even if their relationship was over before that point.)

In the film, Beetlejuice is the ONLY person that agrees to help Delia find Charles, which we see her do at the end of the movie. This means that Beetlejuice kept his word and helped Delia, and he didn’t keep her away from Charles after the wedding fell through.

“MacArthur Park” plays when the studio intros roll, during the wedding sequence, and the end credits—three times when we have three different iterations of Beetlejuice and Lydia’s dynamic, fun fact. This is meant to be their song, and although the song is about a doomed relationship, this part sticks out to me: “After all the loves of my life / You’ll still be the one.” It doesn’t matter if Beetlejuice gets the timing right. It doesn’t matter if Lydia marries him. He considers her “the one.” He’s always going to wait for her, as conveyed by “Right Here Waiting.”

Astrid opens pages about violation 699 and summoning sandworms via trapdoors. I understand that was meant to “foreshadow” later events and explain why she knew how to do those things, but the terms for 699 are barely on-screen, so it’s hard to catch the part where it lays out how bringing Lydia illegally into the afterlife makes her contract null and void.

When Delores appears at the church, there’s a huge gust of wind, and the Handbook moves, but NOTHING ELSE MOVES with that precision until Delores moves Lydia away from the altar. This is kind of a stretch, but I personally think it’s possible that Beetlejuice saw Delores, and he purposefully sent the book in Astrid’s direction. If we go off my eavesdropping theory, he clearly knows Astrid is a smart girl. Plus, he stopped her from getting to the book earlier, so he knows it’s a threat.

When Beetlejuice has a dramatic entrance or exit, it’s very intentional. He does a whole dramatic couple’s therapy bit for Lydia and Rory. He does the earthquake through the model with a slow rise from the smoke. But we’ve also seen him appear in straightforward ways, too, like how he appears randomly to spook Delia. Beetlejuice controls his entrances and exits, and so his dramatic exit at the end is intentional. He allows Lydia to send him away. He makes a big show of it. Lydia has been manipulated by Rory for years. He’s tried to control her and stifle her. When Beetlejuice lets Lydia send him away and makes a big show of it, he’s demonstrating the amount of control he’s giving to Lydia. He goes because SHE wants him to, not because he can’t stop her from saying his name.

(Editing to say that this post confirms the dog is Tim’s dog.)

[nebbyy]

Asra Alnazar x reader - Intimacy before and after

Summary: just some headcanons that came to my mind about Asra<3

Warning: smuttt, but nothing crazy tho, there are mostly mentions or hints of smut, nothing specifically described (it’s mostly just angst tbh). There are also SPOILERS for Asra’s route and the Arcana plot in general, so if you haven’t finished playing it I suggest you don’t read this post. 

A/N: just to specify, reader is wrote as non-binary:) Also, this is the first smuttish thing I write, so feedbacks and advices are very much welcome<3<3

Asra has always been a passionate lover. It’s just the way he is, his body can’t help but follow the intensity of feelings his soul feels, and transfer it from the level of the soul to the level of the body

When he first met you, it was almost as if a wave washed over him, depriving him of balance, and he could find it once again in the feeling of you and your body, pressed against him

Passion mixes with intensity and haste the first times the two of you have sex. His every movement is a physical demonstration of  just how deep, how powerful, his feelings for you are

Once the two of you are done, you’re left breathless, legs shaking and sore, sweat covering your body, tears of pleasure running down your cheeks. You’re spent in the best way possible

It starts to change during the beginning of the Red Plague. The deep empathy you feel for the people dying in the streets, the desire to do something to help, takes all your desires to feel pleasure (or anything joyful for that matter), replacing it with the urge to help as many as you can

You start growing distant from each other, the atmosphere in the shop becomes tense, the interactions between you and Asra are short and almost void of any emotion. You start visiting the castle more often, volunteering to help doctor Devorak in finding a cure for this Plague. It comes without say that sex wasn’t really in neither of your minds

And it only becomes worse after your death. Asra feels that same wave washing over him, but this time he doesn’t welcome the feeling of it. It make feel lost, knowing that the very person he used to hold on to, the only one that made him forget the rest of the world, and just give into the pleasure the wave brought

This wave brings grief, desperation. Hell, it even brings hallucinations to some point. He can’t make out what’s real and what’s fake, he can’t discern when he’s dreaming and when he’s awake

It’s at this point that his situationship with Julian starts. We all know just how toxic it was, for the both of them. But Julian needed to feel love in these dreadful times, and Asra needed to feel that same feeling of grounding to save him from the power of that wave

It wasn’t the same as you, he knew that very well. Julian couldn’t fill the void of love Asra felt, he could only satisfy his carnal desires, give him that brief high that, for just a moment, made him forget everything that was happening in his life, his losses, his mistakes, his regrets

But not much time passes before that high becomes unsatisfying, and the guilt of what he’s doing takes over him. How can he do this with Julian, when all he’s thinking of is you? How can he deem himself worthy of having you once again in his arms, when instead of keeping the void you left empty, awaiting for your return, he filled it with someone else, someone not even comparable to you in his eyes?

That’s when the weird relationship between Asra and Julian ends, when Asra conveys all his energies and time in finding a way to get you back

At first, there was nothing in his mind when it came to you other than gratitude to have you back along with the utmost care to tend to you, to comfort you when you were in pain or scared at whatever appeared new to you after you came back. Your mind was at the same level as one of a child, there was no desire in Asra other than to have you back as you were

As time goes by, and you regain the aspects of the person you once were, that desire, that wave of passion, starts to awaken once again in him

And then after years of longing for the feeling of you’re touch, of your body pressed against him, he once again can feel that same feeling of euphoria once your bodies merge once again. Only that this time, his demeanor has changed. There’s a different kind of intensity in his actions

There’s not the feverish haste in his movements anymore; instead, he takes his sweet time kissing you, caressing your body, worshipping you as if you were some sort of deity. He holds you as if you’d disappear in his arms if he loosens his grip too much

His thrusts are slow and deep, making that wave of pleasure that’s in him fall into you too. It makes you feel a deeper kind of pleasure, one with such forse that it has you detached from reality once you reach your high, it knocks the breath out of your lungs, and it makes you only desire to hold Asra closer, to have him deeper inside you. You almost wish you could become one

There are still times where you have fast, rough sex, one that ends quickly and leaves you both breathless and spent. But you just prefer to feel that deeper connection, the one that has you longing for more, that morphs into endless hours of just holding each other. It makes you both feel as if time has stopped, and there’s no one else in the world but you two

[heavenangelly]

My opinions on what this community has come to

I know that I don’t really make posts anymore, and that’s simply because I have said what’s needed to be said. I’ve answered asks but end up turning them off after a few days. This is because the answer will always be the same regardless of ur circumstance. Assume and persist.

But I also feel like along the way, people have forgotten what the LAW OF ASSUMPTION actually is. People have become lazy and undisciplined and because they can’t manifest their desires they attack bloggers on anon mode and make unnecessary drama. Calling people names, making bloggers deactivate, framing them as bad people, etc. the list goes on and I’m actually so appalled by this community sometimes. And I don’t mean this in a superior way, but us bloggers are fucking helping you. We are teaching you a law so that you can get your dream life and in return we get hate, people calling us names, trauma dumping, sending asks upon asks saying the exact same fucking thing and the worst of all, people never applying. If all bloggers deactivate and all that’s left of the community is you hateful learners and undisciplined learners, the law will die with us. What the actual fuck is wrong with some of you? You will attack everyone but yourselves for YOUR mistakes. Do you want your desires or not? I don’t care what you circumstances are, because they never mattered. Log off of tumblr and apply the law instead of complaining so goddamn much. It’s no one’s fault but your own. And that may be a harsh pill to swallow, but it’s the truth. You are your saviour but you’re also your villain. It just depends on who you want to be. Your lack of belief in yourself is no one else’s problem but your own. Do some fucking shadow work or something or I don’t know, ACTUALLY APPLY THE LAW?

And back to what the law of assumption actually is, it’s whatever you assume to be true is true. And one of the things you absolutely have to do is persist. It’s not optional. It’s not an opinion. You need to persist if you want to be different. Assuming + persisting = success.

What is an assumption? Something you accept without proof. You don’t wait, you don’t hope for your assumption to be correct, you accept and it is shown in your reality. That is LAW.

you should be assuming its in imagination while leaving the 3d alone since it will always change to match who you are being in imagination…always. persist in the assumption that its done, because it literally is. you never needed physical evidence especially since imagination is what produces the physical evidence in the first place - etherealkissed88

Affirmations, scripting, vaunting, void, etc are all METHODS. They are METHODS that help you feel fulfilled in the facts it’s ALREADY yours.

This is no shade to any blogger who is an affirm and persist blogger, and not to bring back old drama with states and affirmations, but as an assume and persist blogger, what you guys are teaching can be wrong. You NEED to be fulfilled. You NEED to have changed self in order to get a change in your reality. Robotic affirming is something that along the process you eventually feel fulfilled from, but as someone who has tried it, I hated it. It felt like I was going in loops and loops and I NEVER felt fulfilled. And it certainly never manifested. And if it works for you, that’s great. I’m not saying stop. But if it doesn’t fulfil you, states/assuming will.

How I found states/tumblr

I remember I always used to use subliminals but lacked faith and would assume that some of them didn’t work and I eventually got tired of using them. I would legit sleep with earphones and hope for the best. I remember how I wished there was a way to use my energy to manifest. And that’s when I found tumblr and then found states. I literally found a way to do that and was so grateful.

And states are NOT a method. They are being. A mood. You can tell what state you’re in by the thoughts you get. Thoughts/affirmations come from your state. If you are in a state of lack, you will naturally get thoughts about how you can never manifest, your desires aren’t here, etc. States are endless and infinite and you can enter any state you like just by making a decision to enter it and choosing to stay there.

I’ve been in this community for a few years now and have seen many popular blogs leave their mark, and get their dream lives, and then leave. And that’s actually good for them. They actually fucking applied. And sometimes after their success stories were posted, angry entitled anons wanted proof or called them liars. You people are impossible to please.

You can either believe in the law of assumption or not. Either way, it’s a law. But don’t make it anyone else’s problem but your own.

My advice to the learners and bloggers of this community.

I think that the learners of this community need to actually apply now and to stop complaining. And bloggers need to put their foot down and stop trying to please everyone. As you bloggers gain popularity, you will gain haters. Do not give them energy. And DO NOT water down the law. Do not accommodate lazy learners by saying they don’t have to feel fulfilled, just consistent. WRONG. You have to feel fulfilled to be different. You cannot expect change without having changed. It’s like waiting for a plant to grow but you haven’t watered it. How the fuck will it grow?

End

I may get hate for this, I may get people agreeing with me, but I don’t not like what this community has become. YES this is YOUR reality and you decide but there is a core foundation you need to start on and needs to be exercised regardless of what you assume. Please do not let the law become something different than what it actually is.

Please do not make this community like law of attraction. This community was meant to be a safe space for everyone, please do not ruin it.

I don’t know if I’ll leave or anything, but I’m so thankful for all my mutuals and followers. You guys mean the world to me and to all the silent learners that have applied or even struggle to but never give up, I believe in you. You can do this. Anyone can. The law is easy. You just have to believe.

I hope this post has gave you guys some insight and brought you back to the roots of the law again.

[entropyfox]

Low Honor Ending - Micah Bell

Addition to this post. Obviously heavy spoiler warning.

There are two low honor endings:

1) going back for the money -> Micah stabs Arthur

2) helping John -> Micah shoots Arthur

Either way, even if you fail the last mission (crawling to the gun) Micah kills Arthur.

In my last playthrough I chose the option to help John while being low honor.

As for @convolutedsoul ‘s post,

Do I think Micah only enjoyed killing Arthur or did it as an act of mercy?

I think that there is no definite answer to this question.

Micah is a well-written character with many layers and even more dimensions. This game is generally anything but black and white, and that includes Micah.

Micah is a very grey character in many aspects. He has a past that influenced much of his later life. He does not like to talk about it (implied in a camp interaction he has with Javier). I’d go as far as saying that in some scenes he displays redeeming qualities, though perhaps not redeeming enough for the evil he’s done.

He’s far from a genius but definitely not stupid. He knows he has done unforgivable things. He’s not looking to be forgiven.

He wants to kill Arthur, of course he does, he always wanted to. Arthur had basically everything man could need. He was Dutch’s “strongest”, he was the main man, people feared him but he was still loved and needed.

In terms of strength, Arthur was the one thing that kept Micah from claiming the throne. When Arthur got sick, Micah saw an opportunity.

I don’t think that he has the capacity to show much mercy. Perhaps pity would be a better word.

“You’re no better than me, Morgan.”

I think in a way, Micah pities himself.

In low honor Arthur, he sees pieces of himself. He sees that failed potential that’s rotting within them both. He sees that thinly veiled anger at the world, that violence that seems almost domestic. Familiar.

For high honor, he walks off. Perhaps because he can’t be bothered. He knows Arthur will die. He knows that Arthur’s mind will race with every painful breath he tries to take. That Arthur will think of everyone he’s leaving behind, and everything he fucked up in life. Micah doesn’t care. It’s not his business. He lets Arthur die slowly and alone.

Low honor however…

Low honor Arthur is not just Arthur. Low honor Arthur is a wreck of a man who is racking up sins and regrets.

Low honor Arthur kills for fun. Out of boredom even. Filling the void in his heart with hatred and blood instead of love like he was supposed to. Just like Micah.

I think when Micah granted low honor Arthur a quick death, he did it not out of mercy to Arthur, but mercy to himself, perhaps metaphorically. Killing off his own sins in form of someone else’s body.

I truly don’t think there’s a way to pinpoint exactly what Micah was thinking in that moment. We know too little and he hides too much. But I don’t think he’s particularly angry at Arthur. He’s not. By the point of Arthur’s death, he already lost most things that mattered to him. Micah knows that, I think his act of “mercy” proved that enough.

But he again and again preaches not doing anything halfway. When Micah says he will do something. He’ll do it entirely. He’ll finish it up. He does not leave loose ends. It goes against everything he values.

I don’t think he killed Arthur because he was still angry. I think he did it because it had to be done, or else his plans would’ve never concluded.

In my opinion, killing Arthur was neither pure enjoyment nor an act of “mercy” towards Arthur. Perhaps it was both these things, in a way. Or maybe he did it to simply finish what he was doing.

He did not not enjoy it, but enjoyment surely wasn’t the focus.

He does not feel the need to show mercy, except towards his own sins.

Micah Bell does not leave things unfinished. Ever.

Low honor Arthur Morgan and Micah Bell are two sides of the same coin, and I think that some people are too afraid to admit just how similar they are.

By the way, if anyone cares to know. After shooting Arthur, Micah walks off but turns to look at Arthur for just half a second. It’s barely noticeable unless you record and stop the recording. He acknowledged that Arthur is gone. He is no more.

[novasintheroom]

Penpals headcanon - Vash x Reader

The letter writing starts as a little check-up on Vash. You can’t travel with him all the time, much like other friends on the road, so you start the age-old trend of writing letters to him. You leave small notes at each town’s postal service, never knowing if or when he’ll blow through. It’s almost like journaling, sending thoughts into the void. You don’t even expect a response, just hoping it might help take that sad look out of his eyes for a moment.

Until you get a letter back. Vash, with his chicken scratch for handwriting, and doodles of toma or himself because he’s self-conscious about how poor his penmanship is (he doesn’t have to write often!), and he wants to give you something for your efforts.

It doesn’t matter how often he receives your letters; he’s floored every time that you write to him. It becomes a game of scavenger hunt, trying to figure out where the next letter will pop up. Often, the first building Vash visits is the post office when coming into a new town. It becomes a habit, a little sparkle of hope in his eye when he sees buildings in the distance.

He starts collecting things on the road he can feasibly send to you. A pretty pebble, a green feather from a tomas, little things he can sneak into the post. You send photos back, showing off the jewelry you made from the item. A necklace against your throat. A feathery earring brushing your cheek. Your smiling face in them all. He treasures those photos more than he’s willing to admit.

He knows it can’t last forever, so he takes what is given. A stack of carefully wrapped letters always sits in his sack or one of his jacket pockets. He pulls them out when he has a moment of peace to allow himself an often-needed smile. The paper browns and softens with age and how often he thumbs over the ink. Some have bullet holes in them. He’s memorized most of the letters anyway, so it doesn’t bother him much. You do the same, though yours are crisper since your life isn’t nearly as dangerous as his.

This goes on for the better part of three decades, with random encounters with one another happening throughout. He thinks you’re getting older, that you’ll settle down at some point and forget to write him. Yet month after month and over the years, your letters come. It isn’t until one day Vash catches on that something doesn’t add up about you. The pictures you send show the same person, same face. He compares the newest to the oldest. Yeah, same person. Same age. And when you meet up after time has passed, you realize:

Neither of you have aged. Not in thirty years. Not even a little.

And suddenly, there’s a lot more to talk about.

[hope-to-hell]

Home (the cure for what ails ya). Eddie x Venom. Post-Venom 2018. Smut, stretching metaphor past its breaking point. Our boy is alive, sure, but he’s had a rough time and would really, really like to go home. Trouble is, where’s “home” when he feels like he’s numb and drifting?

——

There’s this moment between lightning and thunder when it’s like all the air has been sucked from the world; it’s a void, a vacuum, a little peek into the far reaches of space. Eddie knows the thunder is coming, can feel it shivering the air before it happens, but he doesn’t quite believe it, not in his deepest self. He can feel the empty space between light and sound but it’s not until thunder rattles the windows and thuds through him from heart to guts that he really gets it.

What’s there to believe?

Dunno. The majesty of nature, all that shit. It feels—

It feels like being separated, like the moment when he was suddenly all alone and he knew, he knew, that Venom had pulled up stakes and left him— fuck— burning away in wispy trails and if it weren’t for all the fire he could compare it to ink in water, but there was fire, and then the empty gut-punch void, and then silence.

Their reunion isn’t like the movies, when the battle-torn hero appears just at the moment when all hope seems lost. It’s at the end of a days-long nothingness where Eddie’s sponged and bandaged, his blood drawn six times a day, until he’s all bruises and blown veins and goddamnit, I just want to go home. And he goes the fuck home— or at least to his apartment; home is an alien concept now with the way his heart still feels like it’s in free fall— he chokes down a dull beige meal and waits for something to happen.

Hey.

There’s that shuddering thud of his heart beating against something— no, in time with something— but he’s waiting to decide if he dares hope, because if he breaks any further there’ll be no way to put the pieces back together. He counts the seconds and tries so fucking hard not to expect anything, but come on. It’s Eddie. He’s always been all-in, jumping without a plan for the landing; he needs and wants so badly and his guts are tied in knots.

Hey.

Can’t. Can’t do it. It’s spilling over, catching at him and pulling him open til he’s raw; it’s rumbling against his nerves and twining around his veins—

Hey—

In the storm there’s a void that light has touched but sound has yet to follow; there’s no way. No fucking way. He’s losing it— lost it— left it in the bay with shriveled ash and fire that fell in petals from the sky; thunder catches up to lightning and rattles his heart, punches all the breath from his lungs, sends his pulse up through the roof and it can’t be, it can’t, he tried to bury those days and if this is just his lonely mind playing tricks he’s gonna—

Eddie.

Oh.

Sometimes thunder roars loud enough to shatter windows, raining shards of glass on the street below. Sometimes it whispers, barely audible but still felt in the blood. It’s primal, rough, inexorable; it simply is, no matter how far away.

This is a moment that shouldn’t be happening; it’s impossible. He’s— Venom is— was—gone, and if he could just make himself believe it— this can’t possibly be happening, and yet—and yet there’s that kernel of hope that he couldn’t quite crush. And in this impossible moment, he blooms outward in trails of slick blackness, all his bone and sinew covered and caressed and oh fuck, he missed this.

Missed you, he doesn’t say; the words rattle through him but there’s no outlet, not now, not til this settles down to embers. Needed— need you. It’s the most nakedly honest he’s been in forever, and it’s tearing silent through him but all he can say is a spit-soaked you—

Me.

And that’s all there is to say. It’s so sappy, so ripped-bodices-heaving-bosoms-romance-novel cliche, but it is what it is and for Eddie it’s a shattered window falling back up into its frame; he can feel Venom sliding night-black through his veins and across his skin. There’s nothing like it, not even fucking; it lights him up and he is home, you are—

We are home. Now let me take care of us.

Eddie’s yes is all tangled up, lost in his own thick wet oh god oh fuck please now but it is there, reverberating all through him with a deep and rasping echo. With shadows flowing sweetly all through him, he lets Venom take the reins; in the blink of an eye he is stripped bare. His clothes are falling all around in shreds and it doesn’t matter. He could be naked in the street and still he would give himself entirely to this. And so there’s Eddie, arms out and head back, body bowed far enough that on an ordinary day he’d crash to the floor but this is not an ordinary day and so he is held aloft; he is weightless; he is

Mine.

All his almost-words are soaked in brine, in seawater and copper and the thought bursts into being: the water was cold, yes, but he knows the Bay and he should’ve been bound up tight with the chill of it, should’ve been hypothermic at least, but— when you can’t do anything else, you’ve just gotta live. Right? And he’s shutting up because now he knows; his blood was pumping hot and their limbs were moving there in the water and now they are here: renewed and needful and oh fuck there are tendrils tugging at the corner of his mouth and stroking over his tongue and ok. Ok. Shutting up now.

There’s no relaxing into this, not quite, not with need singing through his veins and twitching his hips into the air; there is only the feel of Venom strung all through him, staking his claim with a silk-smooth projection wrapped around Eddie’s cock, another winding up into his ass until he finds something that makes them howl; it’s over far too soon and yet it doesn’t end. Very good. More. Again.

Again? Wait, what, I—

It’s good. We liked it. We want more.

What a fucking time for Eddie to be getting all misty-eyed over a goddamn pronoun. He could say it’s from the projection pulsing thickly on his tongue or the aftershocks that roll all through him; he could say it’s from the feeling of being stretched open and blanketed by Venom all at once. He could say it, and it would be true, but it wouldn’t be the whole story.

We like this. We want

We want

Loss is a hole, a void, an endless fall without a landing. It’s a golden ring locked away in a drawer. It’s rain dimpling the water on the Bay, and all the little fish that mistake it for a meal. It’s a wound that never heals, but only stings a little less with time. It’s bad takeout and worse beer and it’s being shoved into the background so fast that it’s trailing sparks across his vision. He’s floating, the room gone fuzzy at the edges; he’s so fucking close, and all it takes to send him flying is the soft wet slide of the projection withdrawing from his mouth only to brush against his lips.

Ready? Here we go.

Sound surges into the space behind the lightning and rips through Eddie’s veins; it’s taking him apart from the inside and all he can do is feel it. He’s really, truly full now, every cell seeming to pulse at once and it’s too much, too much; he’s hurled over the edge and he is falling

but

he is caught, held tight; he is jelly-limbed and panting and he is

home.

[charmedreincarnation]

What have you manifested and I feel like people don’t talk abt how different they really feel when they’re living their dream life. Like is it really that easy ?

I’m still probably never going to make a mega post of everything I’ve manifest till this point just because I think there are so many out there and mine won’t serve any difference. But I did draft this post a year ago, and even since then I’ve done so much more and my life has only gotten easier and better ! I hope this can kind of gage obviously how happy & grateful I am and continue to be.

I also see other bloggers get comments like, well you don’t seem happy, or how are you already used to it, I’ll never stop being happy. I know it’s surprising but you will. I talked about this earlier but I can’t find the post so I’ll just say it again. No matter how much you have, the capacity you have to be happy forever is limited.

This concept is better known as the Hedonic Treadmill. This is the idea that even when life gets better, our happiness and appreciation for it eventually wears off and goes back to what is called our “baseline” or default level of contentment.

The Hedonic Treadmill is the idea that we can get used to any improvement in our lives. In other words, when something gets better in our lives, we eventually adapt to it, whether it be in our job, lifestyle, financial outlook, or any other aspect of life. Over time, our happiness returns to this baseline level and we no longer feel the sense of elation or appreciation we once did when the situation first improved.

To better explain this concept it’s important to look at the history of the term. It was originally coined by British psychologist Michael Eysenkek in the 1960s, and he explains the idea that “human beings have a limited capacity for happiness, and thus when their quality of life improves they soon adjust and return to their former level of contentment.”

In other words, the Hedonic Treadmill is the idea that no matter how much our circumstances or environment improve, we always return to a state of baseline contentment. This is due to our psychological ability to adjust and adapt to new changes quickly.

We also see this in lottery winners which shows the effects of their happiness no matter how much they won wears out, in about 2-3 years. I’m even seeing this in my own family. If you want to always be happy and living your best life, even after the void you’re going to have to continue doing the work to do so. Will it be hella easier? Yes. That doesn’t mean stop improving your life

[thereareeyesinsidethetrees]

primordial stan twins au! what’s their deal??

post is very ramble-y and came out longer than expected, so. everything’s under the cut!!

the name comes from their origin/dimension, which. yeah makes sense lmao. basically, the idea is that their home dimension is both very new in terms of the multiverse (the multiverse we see in the show- as in the leucistic axolotl- or another multiverse/axolotl, you decide!) and in terms of actual dimensions

theirs is a prototype, basically, an experiment to see how individual dimensions can be made and function. because of this, their dimension is more…fluid with the rest of the multiverse, so to say. the canon gravity falls dimension has solid blue skies that change to pink and orange and black and every color in between, and they have green trees with brown bark, and their buildings are solid. extremely solid structures

the primordial stan twins’ dimension, not so much. the sky looks like that of the space the axolotl resides in, nothing has a static shape or look, and their buildings would be extremely confusing to the canon stan twins

that sets up the basics for the au!! onto the actual story:

we have. bill cipher. now, this is a problem. he is essentially a cancer in the multiverse, corrupting and destroying dimensions. the multiverse does not want this, it kinda needs those

it notices that bill consistently manipulates alternate fords into helping him. primordial ford has never met bill (and, in truth, was never going to considering that he didn’t have the means to contact him in their dimension), but the multiverse decides it’s better safe than sorry and tries to eradicate him

unfortunately, they missed a pretty important detail. which is that him and stan are on pretty good terms in this dimension (partly has something to do with the nature of the dimension. it’s still a work in progress, y’know? the thing that drove them apart in canon- ie. filbrick and west coast tech/the science fair project- never existed in this dimension. that requires a lot more explaining, but that would make things too long, so! moving on!)

stan does not take kindly to the literal fabric of reality trying to kill his brother, so he steps in and fights back as best he can. ford is caught in the crossfire, and ends up being heavily injured and passed out. he wakes up later to a large expanse of bright nothingness. there’s a trail of ‘blood’ behind him. there are mirror-like shards floating all around and they all reflect him back, but…different. he is alone

good news! stan won! bad news! stan is dead and so is their entire dimension. turns out fighting back against existence itself has some pretty disastrous consequences

there is nothing but them in the void, so stan’s body never decays. ford has to sit with his corpse, in the blank corpse that used to be their home. eventually, he starts paying more attention to the shards. they reflect back alternate dimensions, mostly showing himself in those worlds- maybe because he’s the one looking in? he’s not sure. they shatter when they’re destroyed (no matter how hard he crushes them in his hands, they never fall apart. something else always has to break them)

he finds out he can go inside the other dimensions, though he’s essentially a ghost while he’s there, not being able to interact with anyone, and nothing being able to sense him anyway. mostly he wanders around for a while then goes back to his own dimension (he has to keep stan company, he needs to)

eventually, he spots one shard displaying the sea grunks. he’s furious (he’s miserable), that’s not fair! why does the other him get to keep his brother and have a happy ending, and he doesn’t?

it gives him an idea, too. after all, it’s not impossible for him to bring stan back to life. and bill was what got him into this mess in the first place, even though he’s never met the guy. bill frequently possesses other fords. he exists in the mindscape

primordial ford exists in the mindscape. and he is a ford, so…surely they wouldn’t mind him taking over for a minute, just to track down what he needs?

(thus, it begins)

[i-do-a-little-drawing]

I may have a red dwarf theory/head canon about Rimmer, and why he never seems to adapt, learn or change (especially in earlier seasons)

(I have not yet watched the last 2 seasons, if there is something in canon that directly refutes anything I say here please let me know!!)

Rimmer is a hologram, a ‘copy’ of the person he used to be whilst living. He has the memories, personality, everything the original had, but it is still a fact that the original is dead and the hologram is a copy. These holograms were created to boost crew morale on the ship, but cannot go away from the ship (in soft light form, which is what he was originally programmed to be) without being in that huge cage, seen in ‘thanks for the memory’.

To me, this says that holograms are meant to be temporary ways of staving off a crew’s grief until the ship is docked, so that everyone keeps working, and once they go home the fact that they really can’t see this person again begins to hit. They are supposed to be copies that temporarily fill the void that death leaves until it would no longer inconvenience Jupiter mining co.

A hologram would need to be backed up somehow, to have its data saved from new memories it makes post mortem, because if something goes wrong and the hologram thinks it only just died it does nothing to stave off a crew’s grief, since it is even more obvious that the person is really dead.

But large changes in a hologram’s behaviours would also potentially ruin the effect. Even if the change is organic, ie. the hologram learns not to do something they always do or picks up a new habit, the mourning party would see the change as inorganic, believe that the hologram is not truly the person who died, and the holograms purpose would be lost.

So, the most reasonable thing to do would be to update the memories, but prevent any major changes to a hologram’s personality that may be obtained post-mortem. Artificially staying the same is far less noticeable than any sort of change, and holograms are meant to be a temporary solution. It’s not like a hologram will be sustained by the ship for decades, there’s no reason to allow for growth!

Enter the extraordinary circumstance of Rimmer’s situation.

In many episodes, he seems to start to learn to be less of an asshole, only for the next episode to forget all of this potential growth and continue acting the same way. Red dwarf is not truly episodic, the characters remember and reference things that happened in the past constantly, and adapt to them for better or worse. One instance of a character’s personality changing (also the only one I can think of rn) is Kryten, who goes from a simple service droid to becoming an individual, developing a clingy and sneaky demeanour appearing in season 7 which you wouldn’t imagine from season 2 Kryten.

Kryten is not reliant on the ship or Holly, and he does almost all of his own maintenance, but Rimmer (especially soft light Rimmer) is reliant on the ship for everything. This means he will be backed up multiple times, and each time, his personality will revert to ‘normal’.

This is why I think that trying to get Rimmer to stop being such an asshole is like drawing blood from a stone in many of the earlier seasons (though we do eventually see some growth after he becomes hard light and Ace).

Even if he has learnt to be better (or fundamentally different to how he was when he was alive), he will unlearn it. It doesn’t matter how much he wants to change.

He can’t.

[amanesknife]

The Perks of Being a Deus Ex Machina

So I recently binged The Perks of Being An S-class Heroine/ A Transmigrator's Privilege and I need to talk about it or I'll implode.

I apologize in advance because this is gonna be a long post as I can't stop hyperfocusing on it and I need to scream into the void ([tumblr]).

This series honestly has one of my favorite uses of an overpowered MC in a while. I've also seen a lot of people complain about Ailette being too powerful and how much it hurts the story. I've only read until ch170 in the webnovel so I could be wrong but I don't think that's really the story they're trying to tell.

Ai is our main character but she's not the correct main character. She's so strong and gets so much help from the system that nothing poses a real threat to her. I can see how that could be boring for some people. But she was never supposed to be in this story. It's heavily implied that if Tesilid dies in her timeline, the whole world resets again without her ¹ (under spoilers) and it'll be like her version of Ai never existed (Manhwa ch31). It's not just about how well she can survive, it's also about how well she can protect Tesilid. Suddenly this story becomes an escort mission. She's Resident Evil 4 Leon and it's game over when Ashley dies. Or more aptly, she's Gandalf, trying to protect the self-sacrificing Frodo as he journeys to Mordor. It doesn't matter how powerful she is, if Tesilid dies anyways. She can't just leave him alone to kill the big bad on her own, either - Tez dies from like 500 different causes in the original story.

!! Webnovel spoilers under the cut !!

In my opinion, the story doesn't really start until Tesilid's regressions start (which probably won't be until s3 in the manhwa). For some people this is understandably too long. But it's really only a power fantasy during the tutorial period; when she finally gets to meet with (1)17th Tesilid, she turns into a walking Deus Ex Machina. It makes for an interesting dynamic imo, since Tez's powers are so restrictive and he has little choice but to be a self-sacrificing pushover. He even goes so far as to tank for her when he thinks she's about to take a killing blow. On the other hand, she’s all-powerful with a questionable sense of morality. It's like if Ai was Saitama (another Deus Ex!) but he dies if Mumen Rider dies. You know it'll all work out when they arrive, but it's incredibly tense if they're separated. It's cool to read a story from the protector's point of view for once- to see things from their perspective as they try to keep alive the main characters always running around trying to get themselves killed. Especially since we basically already know that there's virtually no way for Tesilid to succeed alone. Ailette has virtually all the power to help Tez and she thinks she knows how, but the farther we get into the story the more we learn that she probably doesn't understand as much as she thinks. Does she know how to end the loops? Or that Tesilid can loop again to a previous iteration? It's a mystery wrapped in power-fantasy skin.

¹ When Reed repeatedly kills Tez before the end of the tutorial, the whole world resets. This suggests that time in this universe revolves around Tesilid and it doesn’t flow for others if he’s dead.

[adambja]

Hello, sorry for the trouble. I have a question about void, I saw several posts about void, so I have questions

1. Is the void real, because some channels say that the void is supposedly us and it doesn’t have the power to manifest all our desires after we leave it?

2. I have such a desire that the man who lives with my mother, my stepfather, so to speak, would simply disappear after I made a wish in the void, so I woke up and went to my mother and asked where he was and she said like who is he? Like a revision or what? Is this real or not?

3. And change my appearance, but so that people remember me with the desired appearance, this is possible since I just enter the void and not them, how can I erase their memory, even change grades on the school website, it’s like if the teachers gave such grades

In general, I have these slightly strange questions, but what are they?

Thank you 🙏🏻

Hey my love,

I am sorry I kept you waiting 🙏🏻

1. Yes, it's real! you have to understand that it is whatever YOU WANT IT TO BE!

Like for ex.

If you want it to be real → It's real!!

If you don't want it to be real → it's not real!!

That's how your subconscious mind takes information in!

So whatever these people are saying it doesn't matter

it's always whatever YOU want to believe!!

It's all about YOU!! Your thoughts! And your feelings!!

So simply always fill your mind up with whatever you want it to be as in IT IS ALREADY A FACT!

For ex.

"the void state is already real"

2. Yes...

Look whatever you think about is possible to achieve fr but you have TO HAVE THAT SUBCONSCIOUS PROGRAMMING or THE MINDSET that helps you and allows you to do this and for revision to be instant!

• How?

Just assume you are already whatever you want to be and read this post!

3. basically you won't erase their memories cuz without even thinking about it people won't remember you with your old appearance they will remember that you always looked like that!

The same thing with the grades! Nobody will remember what it was cuz it was already changed by you! That's all!

If you need paid tapes i got you!! I know you are already using the free tapes💗!

No problem 🙏🏻

[solarwynd]

"It’s been established already that Jimin’s the odd one out when it comes to Hybe actually giving a fuck so it’s nothing new. "

True but then it's just sad face era had traumatized pjms so much, whenever other members get what jimin didn't get (not even talking about promo, or major sabotages,but even the bare minimum like the stage etc) we can't help but compare and feel sad all over again no matter how many times the topic had been done and dusted. I have moved out of pjm twt and only have a burner account with 0 tweets ,and I don't even follow anyone just lurk around a bit for any jimin updates, whenever I login it's always sad there. If it's not about kpopies dragging him every business day, it's something about company messing up with jimin. I actually feel sad it's totally spoiling their stanning experience as a fan, and to top it all, with no jimin content and 0 updates from him, I feel like it takes so much to still be around in those spaces because it's very exhausting. I hope we get that pjm2 announcement as soon as possible, I still remember the time period between official face announcement and the release date. I thoroughly enjoyed that period we used to have so many theories and discussions with each teaser or poster release.

I also do my fair share of complaining about the inequality Jimin receives compared to the other members, but it has become like yelling into the void for me. Doesn’t mean that I think pjms should stop bringing it up though, cause there’s been an increasing amount of people trying to get them to be quiet about it. And these things should be brought to light cause armys clearly don’t care. It’s also why I always say I’ll never blame pjms for being how they are in terms of their hyper vigilance and skepticism. (While still admitting that some of them do over do it where it’s not necessarily needed)

I think it’s very possible to still enjoy the stan experience without being involved in stan spaces, but for some people being in a space with others that also enjoy your interests is a big part of the appeal. Which I get. It’s nice knowing that there are other fans out there that also love jimin and his music. stan spaces can get draining and annoying. I really only ever go on pjm twitter for possible updates not to integrate myself within that space. I made an account that I’m not even using like that right now. It’s really just for pjm2. I’d rather be on here cause it’s not drowned in fanwars. I can only hope that pjm2 goes better cause it was real tough and it got to me bad last year.

“I thoroughly enjoyed that period we used to have so many theories and discussions with each teaser or poster release.”

I actually have a drafted post about this exact sentiment that I’ve been meaning to publish cause I feel the same way. I’m almost on the same level of excitement for that pre release period than the actual release date itself.

[nomsfaultau]

(Potentially) Daily ask №

PS. Potentially cause I probably won't stick to it

So, I was sitting on a lesson and then I realised that you allowed me to send you asks so I wrote out whatever questions came to my mind about Fault.

Wilbur edition!

His legs rearrange to be the highest individual in the room, yes? Is the hair or hats included in that? What if I wear an absurdly tall hat? Will he be taller than it or than my actual height?

He controls darkness or is darkness what I got out from your shitposts. What if I shine a really bright light on him. Okay but what if I go brighter. Or even brighter.

Do only his legs rearrange themselves to be taller? Does his torso stay the same? Does he occasionally look like a beginner artist who hasn't gotten the hand of proportions yet drew him?

If there's an illusion but he doesn't know it is one, will he be taller than it?

You said that he controls the darkness and all things that crawl in it. Moles technically crawl in the darkness. Can he control them? Mole pet when?

Would he and Nico di Angelo from Percy Jackson and the Olympus get along?

I've noticed that he doesn't get as much content as the other blorbos? Is there a reason?

The "Foreign no matter where he goes" post made me sad. The guy deserves a home even if his literal being won't allow it apparently. Can I hug him and how likely am I to die if I do that? Spontaneously hugging and asking first both possibilities included pls ^^

Okay that's all beeyeee

I am enthused to answer any questions and absolutely no pressure at all to ask them!

It goes to biological height not clothing, so a hat or stilts wouldn’t change his assorted height. Although doesn’t tend to count hair. It typically works mostly on humanoids who have matter but he can will it work on say The Blade, who at some point jokes that Wilbur’s height does not take into account his crown of bone-antler things. At which point yes it does screw you and it always has, mildly rewriting everyone’s memory of how tall Wilbur is. It’s a very mild and mostly useless form of magically controlled information.

He has a void on the left side of his face where shadowy eldritch monstrosities come out of. Wilbur can’t entirely control them especially when scared, but can give orders that may be followed or bargains that have to be followed but cost him something. They deffo get worse at night, and you’re on the money! The voidlings despise concentrated light. They do fine in normal light conditions, but flashlights and spotlights they don’t appreciate and will avoid, usually by fleeing into Wilbur’s face or risk dissolving. Wilbur himself is not harmed since he’s made out of flesh and bone (and arguably accurate organ arrangements). Hence the Foundation trapping it in very bright light 24/7. Godflame, which is what Philza is made of, is so anathema to the void that if it intersects with void shadow they both annihilate one another bc it’s a universal paradox to be in one place. Wilbur despises flashbangs in particular, but also doesn’t like complete darkness bc it can’t trust the void completely.

His proportions do not change at all! Which can look very silly. This is roughly its proportions when taller than The Blade.

(From casefiles again)

4. The height thing is not very controlled by him and would not work on an illusion. At which point Wilbur would like deduce the creature before him isn’t made out of matter.

5. It has some degree of control over shall we say capital Darkness that specifically comes from the void in his head and that are still connected by shadowy tethers to the void. Wilbur could potentially try to?? Manipulate the mole??? It would difficult as they don’t have a very robust language system but they are eusocial so I assume they have some level of communication. Since Wilbur can speak all languages it could potentially have rudimentary communication with the mole..? Honestly he’s more likely to eat it than keep it as a pet alas. He’s rather pragmatic, and feeding something that serves no purpose doesn’t make sense to a guy who’s spent most of his life on the verge of starving. Uh. Tommy excluded of course. 6. Well they’re both certainly edgy shadow guys for sure. Wilbur at least wouldn’t be racist to him once he realizes Nico is only half human. Potentially bonding over wrestling with powers, and not feeling like they fit in anywhere. Wilbur would probably think him stupid and gullible for falling for Minos’ manipulations tho, and wouldn’t cut him any slack for being young. 7. My focus on each of them sorta shifts around. I’m a bit on the Tubbo area atm though it’s about to transition to be more The Blade heavy. The first arc of section 2 was rather more Wilbur centric, with him on his own trying to defend the ‘kids’ and making some bad decisions in the process via deals with the devil. There’s lots of fun to be had with it in the future, particularly in section ~4 but also five main characters is a bit of a juggle sometimes. And also while SCP Wilbur feels distinct to me from the actual guy, it’s still sometimes hard to work with him because of his progenitor since I want the character to be fully unbiased when I’m writing it. 8. Part of Wilbur’s arc is to stop pretending it prefers life on the run and really does want a home. Not that living in a society is really possible, but it’s not called found family for nothing! It’ll have to be something made. And Wilbur is of a personal philosophy where he doesn’t kill anyone unless he thinks they’re about to kill him. Very golden rule, if often very vicious bc it doesn’t control the void completely. So, you’re very unlikely to die from a hug! If given a spontaneous embrace it’d probably be a little startled, but try to keep it brief since it doesn’t pass for human under close inspection and would prefer to avoid anything that could mean the Foundation finding it. If asked, he’ll probably calculate the risk of discovery versus social friction leading to greater attention, and accept the hug for appeasement. Since Wilbur really mostly hugs Phil, he’d likely find it surprisingly cold, and be perhaps too affectionate since he doesn’t know the typical level of affection for an embrace between strangers. It would probably be trying to gauge what gambit is being used by you, since it isn’t familiar/trustful of kindness from strangers. Suave and flippant on the surface, but mentally running around in circles trying to figure out what your angle is. Wilbur likes to pretend he’s always on top of things, but a combination of poor memory and lack of socialization mean he’s usually scrambling to figure out what’s happening lmao.

[becauseplot]

A Liz and Thiago fic I wrote! Spoilers up to the end of OSNF under the cut <3

(Update! Edits have been made to include more details and refine existing ones, and an Ao3 link has been added :D)

Still Feel

Post-canon fix-it AU I'm affectionately calling "Still Kickin' AU" where Thiago survives both the spiral symbol carved on his back and the explosion that killed him in canon, though his sacrifice is not without consequence.* This takes place a nebulous errr month or two after the end of OSNF. Read Liz and Thiago's relationship however you like in this, I just think they're neat. Fic title from the song "still feel" by half alive. *Side note: in this AU, Liz lost 22 years to the Death God, and Thiago lost 24. They are 50 and 57 respectively.

So no, there is nothing else, not really, not ever. Only him and the symbol before him, behind him, beneath him, above him. Around and around it goes, and so he goes too, around and around. The symbol spins and the void is white, bright, but never blinding. The path ahead is obvious, clear, natural. Just the symbol. Just the symbol.

So no, there is nothing else, not really, not ever. Only him and the symbol before him, behind him, beneath him, above him. Around and around it goes, and so he goes too, around and around. Days, weeks, years, centuries, eternity—it doesn’t matter, has never mattered. Just the symbol. Just the symbol.

So no, there is nothing else, not really, not ever. Only him and the symbol before him, behind him, beneath him, above him. Around and around it goes, and so he goes too, around and around. He has always never been, and will always never be, and this makes perfect sense. Just the symbol. Just the symbol.

So no, there is nothing else, not really, not ever. Only him and the symbol before him, behind him, beneath him, above him. Around and around it goes, and so he goes too, around and…

He blinks his eyes open. Suddenly, it’s dark.

Air bursts into him like a punch. He scrambles to sit up—when did he lie down? Where is he? Where is the symbol? Where is the symbol? He frantically glances about, but he finds only alien shapes in the shadows. The surface beneath him gives way when he shifts, and there’s something snared around his—his—he doesn’t know. Where is the symbol? Why was it here? Where is he? He can’t remember, and he should remember…

He looks down. Hands. Resting on legs. Lap. Twisted blanket. The fingers move. They look so far away. Days, weeks, years, centuries, eternity stretch between each gasp. What is going on? Where is he? What was he doing before? What’s…

Shaking hands clasped on a mouth. Oh God. What’s his name?

But it’s all blank. He doesn’t know. He can’t think. 

Movement. He gasps, jolting, and looks to the side. A shape shifts in the darkness, a slide of heavy shadow, weight to it. A cascade of long hair. It lifts up, and eyes blink at him blearily in the darkness.

His next breath comes a little easier. He knows that face. He knows those eyes. Liz’s lips move, but it’s too muffled for him to hear. Hands come down from his…yes, his mouth so he can speak. “Wh… What did you say?” 

His voice sounds muffled to him too. He doesn’t have his hearing aids, of course he doesn’t; it’s uncomfortable to lie down on his side with them in. They both know this. The thought is both familiar and foreign in his head, like déjà vu, unnerving. Liz sits up properly, shifting and leaning to the side to reach the lamp. She flicks on the light, bright enough to make him squint, and for a moment he swears, he swears—

White. The symbol. Around and around it goes, and so he goes too, around and around— Where is he, what was he doing, what’s his name— Blank, all blank— He should remember— 

“Liz,” he says. His heart pounds in his chest. He doesn’t want to get lost again. “Liz.” 

She leans back over and puts her hand on his—his shoulder. Her grip is firm but not harsh, as is the look she captures his gaze with, holding him steady on both fronts. 

Liz lifts her free hand. “I’m right here,” she signs, lips moving to form the words along with it.

“The— I saw the symbol—”

Liz shakes her head. She takes her hand away from his shoulder to continue: “The symbol is gone. Santo Berço burned. You destroyed it, remember?”

He… He finds that he does. Years and years spent dangling in the grasp of Death, a detonator clutched in his withering hand as he looked back at the retreating forms of his friends. He hit the button and he watched the explosion grow beneath his feet for some hours. Then he watched the silent screams of his fleeing friends for a few hours more. And then everything got really fast, and really, really loud and hot, and the world tumbled around him as he was thrown and plunged into darkness. And then he woke up in the hospital in Carpazinha.

Carpazinha…

He thinks, and he swallows. Blank. He should know this. Tip of his tongue. His heart pounds. He should know this. “…Liz, where are we?”

At those words, Liz’s hard expression melts into something a little softer. She shuffles to sit closer to him, and her hands grasp—

—his. Her hands grasp his.

“Your name is Thiago Fritz,” she tells him, close, loud, and clear enough that he can understand the words without needing the signs. “We live in my house in São Paulo. You moved in last month. You dream about the symbol symbol sometimes, and you always wake up confused. You were just dreaming. We’re okay. Joui, Cesar, and Arthur too. We’re all okay.”

Thiago looks down at his hands, held by Liz. Old, weathered skin cradled in old, weathered skin, one with enough burn scars for the both of them.

Right. That’s right. Thiago remembers this—well, no. It’s more like he knows this. He never forgot it. His life has always been there, in his mind. He just blanked. Got lost. Thiago looks around, and the room is no longer foreign shapes and shadows. Instead, it is their bed, their blankets, and their bedside tables; their dressers, their cluttered desk, and their photos hanging on the walls; their shelves with their mementos from their past lives and past missions.

Their bedroom. São Paulo. Santo Berço and the symbol are gone, save for the dead, scarred remnants on his back. So much was lost along the way, so many people, family, but…

Thiago squeezes Liz’s hands.

“We made it,” he murmurs.

Liz squeezes back.

“We made it.”

He sees the shape of the words on her lips more than he hears them. By now, he has them memorized. They’ve had this conversation at least a few dozen times, after all. The last time was, what, three nights ago? Two? 

Thiago takes a deep breath and releases one of Liz’s hands to scrub at his face, sighing. Yes. It was just two nights ago. How did he ever manage this on his own? (Well, he knows how: he barely slept.)

Liz’s free hand reaches into his field of vision. “Okay?”

“Yeah,” he exhales. He looks back up at her and pulls together a grateful smile, because he might be tired but God, does she deserve it. He signs as he speaks: “I’m perfect, my dear. Thank you.”

Liz shrugs and tilts her head to the side, eyes briefly closing. “Of course. It’s alright.” She uses her free hand to stifle a wide yawn.

Thiago stifles a yawn too. He stretches, and he realizes that the sweat from his panic earlier is making his shirt cling to his chest and back, gross. He shifts his back as he untwists his clothes, and something pops. “Mng, fuck.” Liz snorts. “What time is it?”

Liz grabs her phone from her bedside table and shows it to him. 05:12. 

“Oh, beautiful,” he drawls. “Only two hours before we’re supposed to be up. Practically sunrise. Good morning. I might as well head to the Order now, right? Early start?”

Liz flicks his forehead. “We’re going back to sleep,” she signs. She puts her phone back on her bedside.

Thiago squints at this. “Ehh. Not sure if I feel like dreaming again, if it’s all the same to you.”

Liz adjusts the blankets around her. “Then I will sleep," she tells him, "and you will lie here and rest until it’s time to get up.” She flops back onto her pillow, gray-white hair fanning around her head. “Come on, we’re middle-aged now. Waking up too early and staring at the ceiling is what we do best.”

“Is it?”

“Lie down, Thiago.”

Well. Liz tends to be very persuasive when he knows she can and will fight him if he tries to go make himself a coffee at this hour. And goddamnit, he doesn’t have the energy for that right now. Thiago lies down.

He rolls over onto his side so that they’re facing each other. Liz stares at Thiago. Thiago stares at Liz. Her face is the same but different, after being held in that limbo. Stress lines heavier, laugh lines deeper, years stolen away. He’s seen his own face in the mirror, and he knows he looks much the same.

“Hi,” she murmurs. He sees it on her lips, just barely.

“Hi,” he murmurs back.

“Good morning.”

He raises an eyebrow at her. “I thought you were sleeping.”

She flops over and flicks off the lamp. Back around again, she closes her eyes. “I am,” she says, or something equally matter-of-fact. He can tell by her expression alone, just barely discernible in the darkness.

“Okay. Sleep well.”

She drags her hand up and briefly places it on his cheek. Then she tucks her face into her arm and settles in. 

Thiago watches her breathe for a moment. He rolls onto his back and stares up at the ceiling.

He knows that they got lucky. That he got lucky. For all intents and purposes, he should not have survived. His fate was to burn, and to take Santo Berço with him. He thinks that’s why the symbol still comes for him in his dreams; he was never meant to escape it. 

But, they made it. Not unchanged nor unscathed, not without a loss so great it chokes him some days, but they made it. Despite everything, they still have a little bit of time left. 

Thiago breathes in, feels the stretch in his chest and the ache in his lungs, and breathes out. He slides in close to Liz. Without prompting, she opens up her arms, shifts, and slots into place against him, chest to chest—her grounding weight on top of him as she buries her face into his shoulder, his arm around her as he holds on a little longer. His fingers trace lazy, shapeless patterns along her back, and her breath is soft and steady against his neck.

Over Liz’s shoulder, Thiago can see the bedroom window. It’s dark on the other side of the curtains, but as his eyes adjust to the shadows again, he swears he can see just the faintest blue light of dawn. He can’t hear them anymore, but Thiago wonders if the birds are chirping yet. If not, then it won’t be long now. No, it won’t be long at all.

[whispering-radiance]

I was preparing a question about the characters of Eiko and Nomi, but now I have a new one. Perhaps the concept of a male heir can be traced here, or Eiko expressed a desire to engage in exorcism from early childhood. But still, why do the characters of children have such serious differences? After all, they grew up in the same atmosphere (and, perhaps, only with their father and his friend). Besides, the mentality of the time couldn't allow Nomi to not be able to stand up for himself... could it? Okay, they basically grew up without a mother, which has left Eiko devoid of some sense of values, and on top of that, their father is almost always busy. That is, Eiko can be a courageous, independent, immodest and brave girl. But why isn't Nomi like that?

You may not be looking at the mentality that allows you freedom of action (I have my doubts about school, but that doesn't matter). Still, Eiko and Nomi spend a lot of time together, and they also have a cool father (it doesn’t matter whether others know about it or not - it doesn’t stop them from being proud of their father).

And something else. Does Nomi have a complex about his sister standing up for him? Or does he simply not yet know such dark feelings as envy (and, of course, loves Eiko)?

All this is important. I think this is the reason why Nomi disobeyed his father and put on the mask.

Oh this will be a long one, but RAAAAH I will answer. Now, I should probably add that not every little doodle should be analyzed under a careful eye, sometimes I just feel silly and make things because I want to.

| A golden star for parenting |

(I’m not quite sure when exactly Eiko and Nomi were born; but it might be close to defeating the sorcerer; rather than after)

Now that wasn’t fully thought out till last weekend — Amber was a part of the family for quite a bit. I never fully stated this, I just wrote “they’ve managed to start a family before she disappeared” — But oh, even though she was, she wasn’t ideal. If you’re familiar with how Slavic moms sometimes are, then you’ll have a good image of Amber’s character.

She probably left when Nomi and Eiko were old enough to remember her, but they were pretty much still young kids.

What I can say is that she ventured to stop an ancient evil from escaping the Shadow Realm, if it had managed to get out, it would have been game over for all — but obviously I can’t go on with details because I’m still polishing the story.

| Eiko and Nomi - Kids |

I’m not sure where should I start with— Hmm well, maybe I’ll start with Nomi, because I didn’t have a chance to fully explain his character.

Nomi is dangerously smart, he’s an observer and analyzer, but that doesn’t mean he’s weak or not able to stand up for himself. He knows how he should act in certain situations, and that violence is a double edged sword. Like if he stood up to bullies at school, that would just attract unwanted attention or it would have resulted in some kind of parental intervention; and he preferred not to have all eyes on him.

While Nomi sticks with his motto of “Think before you act”, Eiko acts before thinking — At least she when she was w child.

At that time, Eiko was a mess. She tried her best to fill the void their mother had left, but this turned out to be too much of a challenge for her.

She was impulsive and often ended up causing problems for herself.

They both depended heavily on each other — providing emotional support, encouragement, and trying to keep the other from getting into too much trouble. I don’t think they ever felt envy towards each other

| Are they different for each other? |

I don’t think so — What is different about them is the way of dealing with emotions and different situations. Nomi usually bottles up his feelings, prefers to stay quiet and tries to resolve everything by himself. Eiko on the other hand takes it out on the world, usually with anger.

| Exorcism |

Hmmmm— you gotta believe me on this one, but I will write a post that goes in depth on this whole concept — But the whole business with evil and good spirits was kind of an escapism for Eiko; and also a new possible path she could take in the future

| Nomi, his disobedience |

Now this event happened later in his life, we’re talking full adult, developed brain, probably near his 30s — At that time he was already a respected master.

Whatever went through his brain was a mix of an impulsive decision and childhood dreams of wanting to be a Ninja — After all, he worked incredibly hard to archive and learn the ninja knowledge — His father’s order felt like an insult. And so he wanted to prove that the right successor was there all along.

(And like I’ve mentioned in one answer— First Ninja wasn’t fully aware of the curse, but he knew something was fishy about the way the masked acted sometimes— So trusting his gut feelings he wanted it out of his clan — for safety reasons)