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abronzeagegod · 1 year ago

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ETS WIP Chapter 15: The Battle of Tech Support

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"Priest Aeth," Sir Lance Corporal said from his position flying above the servers in the grand open space, "you go to server 19-D. Acolyte Lyta, proceed to server 3-J."

Lyta didn't object, even if she didn't necessarily feel like an acolyte. She wasn't so sure about this god, she never was one for specific worship practice. But she believed in Aeth. She believed in Aeth unconditionally, and that could extend some faith to this god.

Aeth found their server and immediately called up the command screen and started looking for all of their logs. Buried in their somewhere must be the connection to the computer in the Abyss.

Lyta, at her server, was busy trying to build a firewall to specifically target the stupid Swwarm app. It was going to take her a while because Lyta was not the best coder, that was Aeth, but Aeth was the one with the permissions to cut off their connection to the Abyss itself, so this was how it had to be.

Occasionally from overhead Sir Lance Corporal would dictate a specific line of code or monitor some kind of error as it flew across the sky of the servers.

Normally Lyta would be annoyed but this was not the time to be annoyed at someone backseat coding.

"I found it!" Aeth cried out excitedly. "It's going to take some time to find all the connections and cut them, but the hard part is over."

"Uh... Aeth? They know, and they're mad," Lyta yelled out.

"No, we still have some time before they find us."

"We really don't," Lyta said as she stepped around the corner to look directly at Aeth.

Their first reaction was stunned at Lyta's beauty. She was surrounded by a snowstorm all her own, and dressed head-to-toe in an Old World battle outfit made of frozen ash and fractal wildfires. The patterns were symmetrical and beautiful and Lyta wore it beautifully.

"I have never manifested anything besides a weapon and now I have a spear and shield and body armor," Lyta said nervously. "The Abyss knows and is madder than anything I've ever seen."

"Work faster," Sir Lance Corporal boomed from across the top of the servers. "We have several minutes before the first of the Abyss arrives and we should make the most of that time."

Aeth had to tear their gaze away from Lyta in full battle regalia and back to their keyboard. They had to shut down as many of the connections as possible.

Lyta was doing her best with the firewall but it wasn't going very well. It would almost be easier to remove the app individually from specific people. People who could help.

Now that was an idea.

Lyta quickly pulled up the masterlist of the tech support employees and keyed in two specific people.

"SIR!" she yelled. "I need you to find access codes to the phones for tech support employee 245845! And employee 984611!"

"Lyta! What are you doing?" Aeth yelled out as Sir zoomed over head accessing data and feeding Lyta the numbers.

"Calling the cavalry! Hopefully!"

Lyta hacked her way into the remote access for those two employees phones and with a quick cast of the Installation Wizard spell, she removed the Swwarm app.

However, it wasn't without a cost. Removing the app from those two employees triggered the attack from the worms of the Abyss.

The incursion began and tripped the failsafes in the tech support servers, cutting Lyta's access off as the worms tried to force their way out of the wires and codes and into reality.

"I'm locked out!" Lyta said. She readied her spear and shield and hoped they would be enough.

"Did it work?" Aeth yelled back.

"I hope so!"

"They are here!" interrupted Sir Lance Corporal.

The doors to the grand and sacred field of tech support servers opened as the dozens of infected employees rushed in to stop the two and their god from doing exactly what they were doing.

"I need more time!" Aeth called out.

Lyta rushed over to face the incoming swarm of her coworkers, determined to give Aeth the time they needed.

Instead of an all out assault, Lyta faced her coworkers taking out their phones. The Swwarm app already open and piles of sickly purple worms started to pour out of them. They had opened dozens of doors into the Abyss and called in the parasites from the other dimension.

"Fuck," Lyta swore.

"Defend the priest, fight the mortals. I will fight the worms," Sir Lance Corporal said over Lyta as the god charged the growing and writing piles of abyssal parasites.

Lyta nodded, feeling the deep rage of the abyss, her own anger at this whole situation, and channeled that magic back into herself to give her the power and knowledge to fight with these weapons she never really used before.

Luckily for her, her coworkers didn't bring weapons or anything terribly dangerous. They instead wanted to overwhelm her with pure numbers.

It was something that could very easily destroy Lyta, if she let it. But the other option was to let them through to Aeth who was typing furiously. That was utterly unacceptable.

Instead, Lyta summoned all the cold and the fury she could and froze the ground solid.

The swarming, infected, people of tech support came unprepared and started to slip and slide on the ice. Lyta's magic gave her the advantage her and she was going to exploit it.

She rushed into the small horde and tried her best to injure and subdue her friends and fellow techs.

Overhead Sir Lance Corporal was battling a horde of worms, parasites from a plane of chaos and unless hunger. But it seemed that more kept coming and the small god couldn't stop the tide.

Eventually all the small worms gave way to one big manifestation of the Abyss.

Xilgliv, the Unending Hunger, Worm God of the Abyss, had presented a fraction of itself in the sever basement of tech support to fight Sir Lance Corporal, Small God of an undetermined belief system.

The large worm reared up and turn it's empty, sucking head towards Sir Lance Corporal. "I WILL CONSUME YOU ENTIRELY"

Sir Lance Corporal said nothing, but dove in to fight the Worm God, to defend Aeth, Lyta, and all the others that had been taken over by the Abyss.

Lyta was doing her best to knock out the people attacking her, but they seemed relentless.

She smashed her shield into the chest of someone she vaguely recognized from the ninth floor and heard a crack. For a split second she feared that she had shattered some ribs but when the person blinked and their eyes cleared, Lyta realized that she had hit their phone in their pocket.

"Of course," she said mostly to herself.

But in that second of distraction and clarity, Lyta found herself surrounded.

Even if they had no weapons, the fists and kicks and blows that the infected used against her still hurt.

She was surrounded and her spear was ineffective.

Without really thinking about it, she summoned instead a small hooked blade.

Lyta tried to use it to target as many phones as she could see, but the forces were overwhelming her. Even the boundless rage that was all around her, Lyta's magic was starting to collapse.

Sir Lance Corporal and Xilgliv battled overheard, the battle of gods happening in and beyond this reality.

With every phone Lyta destroyed and every connection to the Abyss that Aeth closed, the Worm God got less and less.

It wasn't fast enough though.

Aeth was trying so hard to not focus on anything besides their work, besides the code in front of them and their task at hand. Bu the sounds all around them, the battle that was clearly happening, the sounds of their god and their friend being attacked and hurt was a lot for them to try and block out.

But they knew that if they didn't, if they stopped or got distracted or missed something than everything was going to be destroyed by the Abyss.

A sudden bright light illuminated the already bright space of the servers.

A large hand reached out and pulled Lyta free from being surrounded.

"What is happening here?" asked a low, rumbling voice.

"Oh thank fuck," Lyta said, through heavy breathing. "You're here."

The Knight of Doors nodded. "Explain."

Lyta pointed up at the battle between gods. "Abyss is attacking. They're infected. Stop them, break phones. Protect Aeth at all costs."

The large Child of the Earth nodded. They didn't question Lyta any further, it was clear that they grasped the situation pretty quickly.

"You really know how to pick interesting situations," said the other person that had come in with the Knight of Doors.

"Ji," Lyta said with only a little disdain. "Glad you can make it."

"I'm not sure what you did or how you're involved, but I guess I owe you for freeing me from it," the whip thin, rapier of a woman said as the green chains started glow from the tattoos covering her arms.

"I'll explain it later, can you just help out now without causing a thing?" Lyta asked snidely.

Ji frowned and finished summoning the chains. "I fucking hate fighting worms."

Lyta and the two Exterminators rushed into the still swarming mass of infected techs.

With the odds ever so slightly evened out, the fight went much easier.

The Knight of Doors was a force to be reckoned with, and was all but unstoppable even with sheer force of numbers.

Ji was a powerful Exterminator in her own right, using spectral chains and her own specific magic to control and manipulate the swarming masses.

The three of them managed to subdue a decent amount of the techs and smashed their phones, cutting off the summoning of the Abyss, one broken piece of technology at a time.

Aeth had closed off almost all of the connections they could find to the old computer. There were only a few left behind that they could find, but there was a synthetic scream of pain from Sir Lance Corporal as the Worm God Xilgliv pressed into the small god, starting to fulfill it's promise of consuming the being entirely.

With her friends and allies doing all they could, it was time for Aeth to do the one thing they had left to do.

The Installation Wizard spell, on it's surface, seemed to be a very simple spell. It added or removed a single program or piece of technology via magic.

But the truth was that the spell was deep magic, it was powerful, and it had infinite capabilities.

Aeth took a step back from the server they were working at and started to cast the spell.

They were going to need to upscale the power, the gestures, the code of the spell, and the amount of magic they were going to have to pour into it.

They pushed out with every spare piece of magic they had and then whatever reserves their consciousness held on to.

With the very precise and specific movements and gestures, the pale green code was left on the air in front of Aeth as they traced the patterns with their hands and their rings glowed as the magic began and spread out in front of them.

Finally, the spell was cast.

Sir Lance Corporal disappeared.

The Worm God did a horrible imitation of a laugh. It was wet and dark and disgusting and it sent a deep cold stab into the guts of everyone who hear it.

A moment later the servers all hummed in unison, the prayer chant rising and getting stronger.

The small god of Sir Lance Corporal returned in a brilliant flash. His stained glass wings glowed brilliantly and the circuit body looked unharmed and undamaged by the fight.

Aeth smiled.

"This is my sanctuary," the formerly small god said in a voice that echoed with the voices of the servers. "You will be gone from this place and you will leave my people alone."

The Worm God tried once more to attack, but this time it crashed like a wave against the rocky cliffs. The servers clicked and roared as Sir Lance Corporal turned off connections to the Abyss, and forcibly removed the app from all the phones connected to tech support.

Xilgliv tried once more to attack, to remain relevant and in this reality that they were not allowed in, but against Sir Lance Corporal they were hopeless.

With a rush and a roar, the Abyss was banished.

Lyta turned to Aeth, her armor starting to finally melt away. "What did you do?"

"I'd like you to meet the newly installed god of tech support," Aeth said with a gesture to Sir Lance Corporal.

i have a kofi where you can read the last chapter early

#eldritch tech support #here it is everyone #the battle for tech support #aeth and lyta and sir lance corporal against the might of the endless hunger worm god of the abyss #one more chapter after this

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heroesofprovidenceeternal · 3 months ago

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denimbex1986 · 9 months ago

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After the formal pleasantries of the BAFTAs award ceremony which saw the host David Tennant crack pre-watershed gags and winners gracefully accept their gongs - the celebrations really began.

From Robert Downey Jr. to Emma Corrin, the BAFTAs dinner was the hottest ticket in town on Sunday night as stars flooded out of the awards hall into the function room of London’s Royal Festival Hall.

Though large, it was perhaps less glamorous than one would expect from a party designed to host Hollywood A-listers, similar to a fancy school prom night. Stars later peeled off to separate parties at Annabel’s and Chiltern Firehouse.

...the night sparkled with the film industry's biggest names.

After scooping up awards for Best Film and Best Director, Oppenheimer’s Christopher Nolan was inundated with people coming over to his table to shake his hand.

Cillian Murphy had won Best Actor for his starring role in Christopher's film and went over to introduce his fellow nominee Past Lives’ Teo Yoo, 42, to the award-winning director.

The pair spoke for some time as Cillian, 47, made his way to the neighbouring table to speak to Emma, 28, and their boyfriend, Rami Malek, 42.

While chatting with the Peaky Blinders star, the couple could not keep their hands off each other, with Rami rubbing The Crown star’s back...

While Christopher hid his two Baftas for the majority of the evening, Oppenheimer star Robert strolled through the party with his Best Supporting Actor gong, proudly tucked under his arm.

The Iron Man star, 58, did not stick around for long and fought his way through the crowd of tables to the exit with his wife Susan and a large entourage of bodyguards...

Deep in the opposite corner of the function room Andrew Scott was accosted by a group of female BAFTA staff who were trying their luck at getting a selfie with Fleabag’s infamous ‘Hot Priest’.

Andrew starred opposite Paul Mescal in All of Us Strangers last year but he missed out on a nomination for Best Actor.

Hair ruffled and wide-eyed, the 47-year-old planted a kiss on the cheek of an overjoyed woman as she held her arm up to snap a picture with him.

Immediately afterwards another woman tapped the shoulder of his burgundy suit for her turn and he willingly obliged.

It wasn’t until two more women insisted on a selfie with the Sherlock star that his young assistant intervened, pulling him out of the tussle and the pair made a run for the exit.

They ducked between tables crouching low and Andrew had to refuse yet another selfie before they made it to the grand stairway.

Andrew had almost made a break for it before another woman who he seemed to know leaned over the entrance hall stairway and shouted down for him.

Ever the gentleman, he stopped in his tracks and ran back to say hello, much to the dismay of his assistant.

Andrew’s departure was closely followed by Emma Stone - the winner of Best Actress - as she too descended the staircase accompanied by a large entourage before facing a sea of fans outside the venue...'

#Cillian Murphy #Christopher Nolan #Oppenheimer #Emma Corrin #Rami Malek #Robert Downey Jr.#Emma Stone #Paul Mescal #Andrew Scott #All of Us Strangers #Poor Things #Peaky Blinders #The Crown #BAFTAs #Teo Yoo #Past Lives #David Tennant #Fleabag #Hot Priest

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ballisticiansfolly · 2 years ago

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It was in the stars – Trying to pick up and understand things referenced in The English, pt. 2/2

"Without you, I'd have been killed right at the start."

So, this is the second part of my writings about The English. Like the first one it's rather long, but unlike the somewhat scattered part one I'd say this one is more cohesive and easier to follow if the reader doesn't skip parts. I'm actually super excited to post this, because the topic of this post, a look into the religious beliefs of the Skiri, was what started this whole writing process two weeks ago. The more I looked into the topic, the more interesting it came. Most of the information for this post came from James Murie and Douglas Parks's book Ceremonies of the Pawnee, Part I: The Skiri.

Neither Eli Whipp nor Ckirirahpiks were names Eli had had since birth. Generally a Pawnee man would change his name several times during his life. Names were usually changed and bestowed publicly as a part of certain ceremonies. (Murie, J. R. and Parks, D. R. (1981) Ceremonies of the Pawnee.) Eli had most likely gotten the name Wounded Wolf because of his actions in the Massacre Canyon battle of 1873, and he wasn't particularly fond of it. The reasons for that were cultural.

According to the Skiri religious teachings a wolf was the first creature to experience death: people killed it for its deceitfulness and untrustworthiness, and as a consequence people and animals were destined to grow old and die. Overall wolves were seen as crafty and having thieving traits. In contrast, a wife or a daughter of a chief was expected to act with humility, be generous, and have a strong sense of social responsibility (Parks, D. R. and Pratt, L. N. (2008) A Dictionary of Skiri Pawnee.).

When it came to religion, the Skiri Pawnee were "the great star specialists." Their belief system focused on visible objects on the night sky, whereas the South Bands largely counted upon animals for support and guidance. The Skiri regarded stars east of the Milky Way as male gods, while the female powers reigned in the western sky. The creator of both heavens and heavenly gods was Tirawahat.

Religion and concern for the supernatural permeated most of the life of a Pawnee. The Pawnee seasonal rituals were tied to the observation of the stars and planets. The star god powers were believed to control food supply and war, and the animal powers controlled health and disease. Bundles, both sacred and lesser ones, served as shrines and were linked to different deities and animals, from whom a bundle derived its powers. Their leather coverings could double as star maps.

The village and band bundles were sacred bundles whose keepers were village heads. But each sacred bundle also had its own priest, kurahus, who was responsible of the ritual and knowledge linked to this specific bundle. The oldest and most important sacred bundle is the Evening Star bundle, wrapped in yellow calf leather. The story goes that Morning Star gave Evening Star the Evening Star bundle, and she passed it to the Pawnee people. The keeper of the Evening Star bundle was the chief of the Skiri, and the priest of the Evening Star bundle was the grand high priest of the Skiri.

The Evening Star bundle was necessary for the Thunder or Renewal Ceremony, also known as the Spring Awakening ceremony. The modern proper names of the twin stars of Kûhat are Lesath and Shaula.

In order to find the eastern and western halves of the night sky, you need to know your directions. I appreciated that The English had its viewers learn astronomy alongside Cornelia and there were actual constellations for us to see. It was great to learn to locate the North Star by following the line from the Big Dipper's ladle to the handle of the Little Dipper. As a side note, Evening Star's Pawnee name Cûpiriktâka directly translates to 'female white star.' When pronounced the consonant cluster 'kt' becomes the geminate 'tt' (Parks & Pratt, 2008). Morning Star Hûpirikucu means 'large star.'

The wife of the keeper, or some female relative, cared for the bundle when it was not in use. A bundle was hung (from one of the rafter poles) at the west side of the lodge, and below it was an altar, wihâru. The altar symbolised the garden of the Evening Star in which there were hills of corn that were kept green all the time. When the corn in this field dies, it is time for the world to come to an end. Four heavenly powers - Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Cloud - looked after the garden and were always ready to obey Evening Star. In addition to them, Evening Star had four protectors: Bear, Mountain Lion, Wolf, and Wildcat.

According to the Skiri, Tirawahat made the heavens and then placed stars as gods there. The first one was Morning Star who was the god of war and had greater powers than any other god. The second god Tirawahat placed was Evening Star, the horticultural god, who was a beautiful woman and the mother of the first human being, a girl. The third and fourth were Big Black Meteoric Star, the god of knowledge, and Red Star who controlled the coming of the day.

The fifth ones created were the four powers mentioned earlier - Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Cloud - and after them a group of divine chiefs watching over people. Placed seventh in the heavens were two beings in the north, Wind Ready To Give and Hiccough, who were ready to give when people were in need. Tirawahat placed Wolf Star eight in the heavens because he himself was a god for the wolf family and through the wolves would help the people.

North Star was the ninth placed in the sky and his job was to stand still. His father was South Star, the god of death, who rose now and then to see if his son was still at his post. South Star ruled over the land of the dead, the pathway to which is the Milky Way. Next Tirawahat created Black Star who was painted blue and controlled animals. Finally, Tirawahat placed Sun and Moon in the heavens. They gave the Skiri power through visions and dreams and were the parents of the first human male.

Above in bold text (the light weight ones are clarifications I added afterwards for the purposes of this post) are the steps in the first song sung during the Thunder Ceremony, the ritual associated with the Evening Star bundle. The song recounts how the world was created after Tirawahat had made the heavens and how the first humans came into being. While reading it I was reminded of something:

"How come you came from the South?" "Well... Should've left from Liverpool and I get that now. But, um, Southampton was closest, so that's how I ended up in New Orleans. The thing was, I was in a bit of a hurry and my son had just died, so... so my mind was foggy. Not foggy. It was more, um... it was more... I don't really know what it was. Or is, really. But, um... but the man responsible is here, so here is where I must be..."

I was gobsmacked, and started checking and my suspicions were proved correct: the whole plot of The English is a recreation of the Skiri Pawnee creation myth!

And no, despite Eli's somewhat misleading words he is not Morning Star of this story - that's David Melmont! The whole thing starts in Powder River '75 when the ambitions and amoral actions of David Melmont lead him to stumble through (in a very fucked up way and skipping a number of steps) the warpath rituals of the Skiri - all under the watchful eyes of the messenger of their supreme being. And as mentioned, wolves are deceitful creatures.

When a warrior leader sets out on a warpath he borrows his warrior's regalia from a bundle priest; Trafford's trip was co-financed by Cornelia's father at her behest. Then the man selects volunteers to go with him and rejects some, particularly those who can't stay awake; Corporal Jerome McClintock and Troopers Billy Myers and Timothy Flynn were at Sand Creek '64 as First Volunteers and volunteer for this massacre, too. War stories are told and pipes smoked, then the leader instructs one of the men to hunt for a buffalo skull on the prairie; McClintock and his cronies have gone AWOL under the pretext of hunting buffalo.

Next, the leader makes an offering of tobacco to gods (among others one called Father Hawk) and announces his intention to kill and scalp enemies and chooses his second-in-command; "So, what are you gonna do with him when you found him this, er, this Hawkey fella?" Finally, the warriors are supposed to attack a village with the intention of killing and scalping a few men. Four men are selected to do the scalping. After the attack the war party has to return riding horses in a single file. The men imitate wolves and the leader's head and face must be painted red.

After the warriors' return back to the village informal celebrations were held in the outskirts of the village. When the leader had visited his own lodge he returns the borrowed regalia to the priest he borrowed it from, recounts the tale, and smokes a pipe. The leading warrior (the one who took the first scalp) is supposed to cover the costs of the closing ceremony at the priest's lodge and he may ask for help from others for this. At the closing ceremony the priest opens the bundle in his care and replaces the sacred objects in it with new ones. After the priest has given his closing speech the scalp owner will start preparing a thank-you gift for this priest.

After the ceremony "the scalp owner was now under under obligation to lead a good life [...] for he was to make the New Fire for the people." As we well know, in Hugo Blick's version Melmont ends up raping Cornelia and stealing her money, thus becoming a manifestation of Morning Star, now preternaturally successful in all his endeavours. Morning Star was known to the Skiri as the father of the first human, a girl, who he begat by vanquishing Evening Star's four animal protectors and then "marrying" her. Morning Star was a god who provided fertility and success in war, but the prize he asked for his aid was sometimes a human sacrifice. He was painted red, had a soft downy head, and carried a war club.

When asked Eli justified his return to Watts's hotel that he had wanted to retrieve his bag. Originally my reaction to that day's events had been like Eli's, something I was willing to overlook despite its overall weirdness. With the new perspective, I'd say that there had definitely been signs Eli had noticed subconsciously and to which he'd reacted.

Firstly, Eli (Wolf) had gotten attacked when he asked for water; clouds (a source of water) and wolves being linked to each other in the Skiri culture. When Wolf's death had seemed imminent, Cornelia had arrived from south (South Star ruled over the land of the dead) and stepped out of Sebold's stagecoach passing the dead bird (A bluebird carries prayers to the sky). Then despite the still air, wind had blown on her face. Wind was one of the powers obeying Evening Star, and Wind Ready To Give (or Send Forth) and Hiccough were heavenly beings from north who were ready to help those in need of aid.

Evening Star could perform wonders by speaking and waving her arms, and irrationally Cornelia's actions had led to Eli's release. When Eli returned having escaped death, he found her wearing a scarlet dress; the colour red also associated with wolves. Like Evening Star Cornelia even had her own Evening Star bundle, the locket. So Cornelia and Eli set off on horses whose colours matched the aforementioned star and its sacred bundle (white and yellow). The long winter was over, Evening Star had decided one hell of a Spring Awakening was in order.

#the english #the skiri pawnee #constellations #cornelia's home address is 5 holland park; west; london #why am i not surprised #the skiri religious beliefs #the english 2022 #the spring awakening ceremony #eli's names

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camelliagwerm · 2 years ago

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Can you describe Leonelle and Valerius' morning routines? What is Valerius' biggest regret? What is the hardest decision Leonelle has ever had to make?

Thank you!

MORNING ROUTINE:

for the purpose of consistency, I'm saying this is for their post-epilogues. Both of them are religious, yes, but they worship deities whose faithful go through their religious duties at night, which is why they're not mentioned in this routine.

VALERIUS: usually he gets up before it is too light outside so waking up is less harsh on his photosensitive eyes and either goes for a spar or taking his horse, Dason, for a ride. That is usually a couple of hours and usually by the time that's all done, Camellia is awake and will join him for breakfast. Breakfast for Vali at least always includes a black coffee and is generally pretty hearty/filling - eggs, cold cuts of meat, bread (usually with a salted butter), polenta - while Camellia usually goes for something sweet like a pastry or a bowl of fruit. Usually it's in companionable silence as by then he has his daily itinerary delivered to him and he can look it over, and Camellia doesn't have much patience for small talk. And then he'll prepare for the day - a wash (bathing tends to happen in the evening when he has more time on his hands), attending to his hair, nails and teeth, get dressed - before going into his day. When the twins are born, he'll usually stop in the nursery to spend a few moments with them on his way into meetings.

LEONELLE: she, on the other hand, prefers to lie in. She absolutely must not be disturbed before 8am at the very earliest, but preferably 9am. Her bed partner of choice might have already risen by then - Kanerah likes to make use of as many business hours as possible for her business ventures, and with Jaethal it ultimately depends on how late into the night she has either been working or catching up on all those indulgences she's missed when she was undead over whether she is still there. If they are still there, then Leonelle usually wants some morning affection. If they're not, then she'll send for a maid to help her dress and prepare for the day.

VALERIUS' BIGGEST REGRET:

What happened to Ember was never his intention and he is ashamed of how jealous he got over an orphan girl, and that she was getting her own following in the city. It made him feel threatened and he responded by shutting her congregation down wherever possible. Had he known it would have led to a descent into madness, he would have never have done that.

LEONELLE'S HARDEST CHOICE:

During the war with Pitax, Leonelle found out that her father had been trying to make contact with her - because why wouldn't he? In her experience, Asmodean priests are addicted to power - but neither Bartholomew (her grand diplomat) or Jaethal had - at first - allowed any of the letters to come through to her. Jaethal already knew about the situation between her Queen and her estranged father, and when the Cardinal started addressing letters to Delgado, Jaethal instructed him to make sure they do not get to the Queen because they will make her lose focus on their main concerns (Nyrissa and Irovetti.) But eventually, she knew it was a problem that needed to be rectified once the letters started implying blackmail, and she offered Leonelle a choice - her father could be assassinated (although it would mean interfering with the Church of Asmodeus and Chelaxian politics.)

Leonelle...did not know what to do. Her father's death would only bring her relief, but it would leave her mother and two youngest siblings without any support - and considering all three of them were devilspawn tieflings in Cheliax, they were unlikely to benefit from his death while they would at least still be comfortable if he was still alive. It was only after the war with Pitax was resolved that she eventually allowed Jaethal to go ahead with the assassination - she even had it made to look like it was a hit from someone else in the church; at the encouragement of both Kanerah and Kailkke, she arranged for her mother and youngest siblings to join her in Tuskdale.

#fashionablyfyrdraaca #answered #oc: leonelle #oc: valerius #pair: valerius x camellia #pair: leothal

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arjaandsimoni · 8 months ago

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Song of the Smiling Knight

Andre Gilbert was a legendary figure even in life. A mountain of a man, striding across the battlefield with his head uncovered, showing a madman’s grin as he cleaved through his enemies with ease. He became a hero to his people, a source of inspiration to frightened soldiers and motivation to keep fighting.

Unfortunately even legends fall in time, struck down by another who would grow to be a legend in his own lands. The cycle continued, and for a long time there was peace for Andre’s weary soul.

Until she came.

All was calm and serene for so long, and then that voice, that… soft... sweet… voice. Andre heard the tales of witches, horrible hags cackling in the moonlight, but this voice was so kind and loving, how could he not trust it?

Then, just as suddenly the voice was gone, as was his peace, and he was alone in the field he fell in... a time long beyond any he recognized.

Was it any wonder that frayed him a bit?

A Remote Part of France

“Sooooo...” Patli’s bright voice carried across the open field well. “Can you see the future?”

Francis sighed lightly, rolling his eyes behind his dark lenses. “I can’t see anything, Patli.”

“Not even dark?”

“I don’t know what ‘dark’ is.”

“... Spooky.”

“Dare I ask why you asked?” He continued, cane bouncing off a small divot in the ground the he hopped over gracefully.

“Well, I mean… blind people are often seers. Mom says there were some priests who plucked their eyes out to see the stars better.”

“Can you see the future, then?” He retorted.

“No, but mine don’t count, I got new ones.” Patli smirked, poking the side of her head, her eyes vanishing into darkness inside her head only to be replaced with small green pinpricks of flame. “See?”

“No.” Francis answered flatly.

“Oh… right, yea… Well I can see just fine! In fact my spirit eyes let me look into the spirit world whenever I want to.”

“... Have you not been using them before just now?”

“No?”

Francis let out a low sigh at that, rubbing his head with his empty hand. “Patli we’re hunting a spirit and you didn’t think to start out using your spirit eyes?!”

There was a bit of a pause before the smaller girl gasped softly. “Ooooh! Right!”

“I was hoping at least if you were going to be constantly talking and dulling my hearing you were at least using your spirit vision…”

“Well I forgot okay?!”

“You forgot your lack of eyes?!”

“Well yea, don’t you ever forget you’re blind? It’s just normal!”

“No! I’ve literally never once forgotten I was blind!”

The pair went back and forth as they walked, Alice unable to hide her snickering as she heard them even in the distance.

“Oh gods what are they doing?” Nessa groaned, recognizing the look on Alice.

“Nothing, they just sound EXACTLY like we did when we first started training together…”

“Oh, so Francis is being a haughty little brat then...” Nessa smirked, nudging Alice lightly.

“Mhm, and Patli’s too eager to show off her cool tricks to remember her one job is to support the blind person.” Alice winked, bumping her back.

“Careful, if those two wind up together too, your fancy little French noble line is gonna get all weird and Aztec-y.”

“Oh yea, hate to imagine a world where the Roche family is weird…"

“Just saying, when our great grand nephews are holding ritual pyres to celebrate the harvest don’t blame me. You Roches are insatiable for Aztec girls it seems.”

Meanwhile, as the two older hunters flirted, Patli and Francis were currently… rolling across the field, not quite as romantic as their siblings as they wrestled and yelled at each other.

“Call me that again you fancy pants jerk!” Patli yelped as she rolled down the slope, holding onto Francis’ shirt tightly to drag him with her.

“Happily! BIRD BRAIN!” He responded, trying to wiggle out of her hold as his cane whipped around behind him, thankfully held onto his wrist by a security strap. “Bird brain!” he repeated even as their bodies hit something solid together.

“Ow!” Patli groaned, holding her head. “I think your dumb cane hit me…”

“My… your stupid flailing feet must have hit ME!” Francis grunted in discomfort as he stood, rubbing his side.

“Yea well you’ll know when my feet hit you in one sec-...” Patli started before Francis held his hand up.

“Hold up…” he said, sounding more serious as he adjusted his glasses. “Do you smell that?”

Thankfully rather than make some comment about Francis ‘fancy shampoo’ or the like, Patli recognized the shift in tone, frowning as she shook her head. “No. I mean I smell the wild flowers, the grass, the dirt… all normal field stuff.”

“There’s something else… where are we?”

Patli took the time to assess the surroundings finally, realizing how far off track they’d gotten in their fight. “Oh… shit we’re way off the path, oh man Nessa’s gonna kick my ass…”

“No, I mean is there anything near us? What’d we hit?”

“Uh it’s…a rock? A big rock… Wait this is a REALLY big rock, ONE really big rock, that’s weird isn’t it?”

The two were standing in front of a massive stone monolith. Just as Patli said it was one big stone, carved by expert hands ages ago, covered by moss and other signs of age…

“Does it have writing on it? Help me out here Patli. You need to be my eyes.”

“Right right, one sec.” Patli said, the two moved on from their fight quickly as they realized how much they need the other’s talents.

In a flash Patli was scaling the monolith, fingers not even needing holds as she seemed to fly up it, scanning for signs. “No writing... it looks like there was paint but it’s really old and faded…” She huffed. “There’s a hole at the top though, I’m checking it out.”

Francis quietly had to admit when the girl focused she was actually quite good at communicating… Right up until the cry of ‘heads up!’ A split-second later something heavy thumped against the earth in front of him.

“Damn it Patli! Again, blind! I can’t see when you’re throwing crap!”

“I said heads up!”

“Yea like a second before!” Francis huffed, crouching down to feel the object. It was small, round, and smooth. It felt cold despite obviously being in the sun in its position…

“Huh,” he mused. “Hey Patli what color is this?”

“Black. Like really shiny black, like Nessa’s knife... but it’s not obsidian, I know that.”

Francis felt the thing in his hand a bit more. She was right, obsidian is a more brittle feeling, hard to get this round without chips and cracks… "Hm...” he mused before bringing the stone to his mouth, licking it quickly.

“EW!” Patli shouted from her perch on the rock. “And you call me gross?!”

“Shut up! It’s how I can tell stuff, I’ve got a good tongue...” Francis huffed, blushing a bit, smacking his lips softly. “Huh… this is onyx…”

“The gem?” Patli asked, slowly floating down to join him. “Weird, what’s it mean?” She asked. Despite making fun of his ‘fanciness’ she knew his time in the library paid off for things like this.

“Typically means strength and absorbing negative energies… You said this is a big rock right? I think this might be marking a warrior’s grave…”

“Like The Smiling Knight?” Patli perked up.

“Could be. Nessa said he was a local legend, it’d make sense for him to be honored with a grave symbolizing strength and keeping him safe from negative magics.”

“Didn’t work well if he’s walking around now.” Patli smirked.

“Well, magic wears off. This thing’s pretty small, it may have been part of a bigger idol that got lost or stolen.” Francis offered. “Well if this is his grave the entrance is around here too, can you.”

Before he even finished it Patli was giggling, flying into the air. “Watch out!” She called, thankfully a bit better than before as she gave Francis enough time to scramble out of the way before she let out a loud shriek, enough to make the surrounding recon team cover their ears.

The shriek was effective, though, as horrific and banshee-like as it was, it was also effective at sending the moss and grass that covered the hill that the monolith sat on flying. Soon enough the barrow was revealed, a once proud hill of dirt and clay compressed into a sturdy dome that the monolith stood atop like a crown. In front of it was an old wooden door, showing signs of its ancient age but still standing proud.

“Huh, looks like it is a grave. Good tongue, fancy boy...” Patli grinned, slapping Francis’ back as he came back to join her.

“Yea yea...” he huffed. “Good death scream too, you’ve gotten better at it.” He added.

“Aw… you like me!” The girl teased, walking to the door and pushing it open as Francis sputtered a few times behind her.

“What?! I just said your death scream was better.”

“Yea, which is nicer than ‘bird brain.’” she teased as her eyes once again lit up with their flames.

“Well ‘good tongue’ is nicer than calling me a dumb fancy jerk! So what do you like me too?!”

“Maybe I d-...” Patli’s teasing grin faded quickly as she realized what she was seeing. “How many ghosts are we after, Francis?”

“Uh, one?” He answered incredulously, though grateful for the change in topic.

“There’s… more than one.”

The barrow was small inside, most of the mound’s mass being exterior, leaving just one single burial chamber where a stone sarcophagus surrounded by jars and baskets of tribute sat proudly.

There was only one sarcophagus, but far more ghosts lingering around. The Smiling Knight was there, standing in front of his burial site, surrounded by ghosts that seemed to be from all ages past.

Peasants, nobles, modern farmers, students, soldiers, there must have been almost fifty of them crammed into the tight space as the knight’s ghost held court. Nearly seven feet tall, wearing the shining armor he died in, a now rictus looking grin stretching his mouth wide as his ghostly blue form turned to stare at Patli.

“Have you brought the song?” He asked in a raspy, almost pained sounding, voice. “Have you returned my music?”

“Uh… no?” Patli said, stepping back, putting herself between the spirits and Francis before whispering back “Can that sword cut ghosts?”

“Alice said…”

“And I say, can that sword cut ghosts?” She hissed.

“The silver edge is better for it but it can be tricky still.” Francis responded as he pulled the blade out, feeling the danger around him.

“Stay by me, don’t move unless I do… there’s a LOT of ghosts and I don’t think they’re… well.”

“Where is the song?” The knight’s voice raised, the other ghosts turning to face them as he spoke loud enough for Francis to hear as well. “Are you the one who took it from me?!”

“I don’t know what song you mean, spirit...” Patli spoke, trying to speak with authority even as bits of the wall near her chipped off due to the ghost’s voice. “But I don’t take songs. I am a priestess, a warrior like you, and I’ve come to guide you to the afterlife.”

“I cannot return!” The ghost roared, Francis covering his ears as the booming voice echoed around him. “I will not return to the void, the silence! I cannot! I must have my song!”

“Shit, Patli this is too much, this tomb’s one giant bowl and his voice is…” Francis groaned, unable to focus on anything as the sound around him rocked his senses.

“Yea, come on...” Patli answered, stepping back, guiding him to the door.

“The thieves flee with the song!” The knight roared, pointing to them. “Stop them, servants of the Lady!”

The other ghosts surged forward at that, more mindless seeming than the knight, and devoted to his command as the pair stumbled back. “Damn it, okay fancy boy, change of plans. Sword up!” Patli said over her shoulder.

“What?” Francis asked, raising his sword as she instructed.

“Focus, okay? We’ve got ghosts coming at us! You NEED to focus, we won't be getting to the door and I’m about to make your sword into a lightsaber so I REALLY don’t want you to get me with it.”

Francis was still fairly confused, but nodded, taking a deep breath as he tried to put aside the moaning and the knight’s roaring commands that muddled his senses. He felt the heat from his sword as Patli slid her palm along the blade, spreading blood across it that caused it to ignite in green flame just like Nessa used.

“Can you feel them?”

He nodded. It was hard, but he could. The heat of the sword helped, he could feel the chill of the spirits, and Patli’s body heat for contrast. He heard her breath, smelled the grave dirt scent that seemed to cling to the ghosts. It wasn’t perfect, but he could keep from decapitating his fellow hunter at least.

“Alright, good! Now we’re gonna go forward, and we’re not stopping until we hit the knight, got it?”

He nodded, taking a high stance he practiced so many times before, now finally using it in real combat…

The fighting was hard at first, the ghosts weren’t very difficult, more like spectral zombies than anything, motivated by mindless hunger and their master’s command more than any tactics, but fighting in close spaces with someone so different took adjusting. At first Patli’s rapid movements disoriented him, her footfalls and cackles of combat throwing off his aim.

He was too slow for Patli as well, every time she tried to bounce off him or weave around him they seemed out of sync. Soon, though, the two found their rhythm, Patli making more precise movements Francis could read better, and Francis fighting more aggressively to work with her.

If any of Andre’s mind remained intact he would have recognized two young warriors growing together, even felt pride that the ways he learned as a youth, in some form, were still alive in his home.

Unfortunately, all that dominated his mind was the silence that somehow rang louder than the battle around him. The absence of the song was a weight on his soul he couldn’t remove, and it drove him mad with anger as he began to see these children as the forces keeping the song from him.

“YOU WILL RETURN THE SONG!” He roared as the final ghost fell to Francis’ glowing blade, bringing his own great axe down brutally at the pair.

Francis grunted as he held his blade up, hearing that massive axehead slice through the stale air fast enough to block it, though the effort to hold it back made his arms shake…

“We don’t have a song! What are you talking about?!” Francis groaned, knocking the ghost’s blade away to get some distance. “We can help you find the song!” he tried. “Just stop attacking and tell us what it was!”

“My lips would defile the song of my Lady if I spoke it!” He growled, lunging forward as Francis dipped aside, letting him stumble past.

“I’m not fuckin Shazam here, buddy! Going to need a little more to work with!” Francis shouted back.

He knew this wasn’t helping, he could tell the ghost was beyond any help. He could, however, buy time, keep his attention as Patli went to work with ‘Plan B’ for ghosts.

The girl slipped past the fighting pair, pushing the heavy lid of the sarcophagus aside to reveal the skeleton within. For a moment she felt a pang of sympathy for him. Tucked so reverently into the burial spot, his armor polished one final time, axe in hand, he clearly was a man of great honor for his people before this.

“May you fight eternally in the realm of the gods, great warrior. Be free of this madness...” she whispered before reaching into her pocket for a pouch of blessed salt, pouring it over his bones.

The ghost shuddered as if feeling some discomfort, groaning as he stopped his swing halfway to glare at Patli. “Disturb not my bones, song thief!” He shouted, lunging at her only to stop as Francis lept on him from behind, plunging his enchanted blade into the ghost’s back as deep as he could.

“Do it Patli!” He shouted, holding on for dear life as he was bucked back and forth like he was riding a mechanical bull.

In a flash, green flames washed over the bones, a wail of anguish coming from the ghost as his body and spirit began to fade together.

“Rest.” Francis grunted as he hopped off the ghost’s back. “Your time has passed, let the calm of eternity soothe your broken mind.”

“You will be honored as a warrior should be, a more dignified fate than this...” Patli added, and for a brief moment the pair could see that smile soften, the madman’s grin fading into a more genuine, relaxed, smile as he felt himself vanish.

“Easy hunt my ass.” Patli panted, the strain of manifesting that fire as well as keeping Francis’ sword alight starting to wear her down.

“Take my arm.” Francis offered, sheathing his blade again as he moved to support her.

“This some fancy pants chivalry?” Patli teased, a bit weaker than she usually did as Francis rolled his eyes, the two making their way out of the barrow together much more unified than they came down the hill to it, at least.

Outside Harlow’s team was already surrounding things, having moved in when they realized the pair were taking too long, but not hearing any signs of distress that’d make them come in… not that Harlow wasn’t ready, hand gripping his pistol’s handle in the holster tight enough to make his knuckles turn white…

“I see them coming out.” Tatyana offered, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I think they’re okay.” She smiled, hoping to relax him so the pair didn’t see him so concerned.

“Yea… never doubted it.” Harlow answered with a soft sigh, giving her a grateful look before composing himself just as the pair staggered out. There’d be time for debriefing and reports later, for now all he cared about was getting the two home safely.

As the Roche helicopter took off peace did return to the area, no trace of the spirit remaining as he was finally laid to rest properly once again. Though that peace wasn’t as welcome to everyone as it was to the locals. Deep in the nearby river a figure stirred, snarling in anger as she felt her magic fading away with the spirit.

The lands of France have many legacies.

Legacies of heroes, of hunters, new and old figures carving their own tales into its history. It also has a long legacy of beasts, creatures older than many kingdoms, older than France itself as an entity. They have their own legacies to live up to, and as a skeletal, clawed, hand scraped the now useless sigil that once reanimated the knight, yet another scion of such legacies was rising. After all, some things were best done personally.

#fiction #modern fantasy #supernatural adventures #lgbtq

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slattery24 · 1 year ago

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My Musical Theme

My theme with these songs is "bugs." All the songs I've listed have "bug" written into their titles; most use it as a metaphor somewhere within their lyrics. I chose this to be my theme simply because I thought it would be a fun topic, and I believe there are many ways bugs can symbolize other things in writing.

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I think "Bug Like an Angel," by Mitski, does this very uniquely. The dynamics of this song are very soft and gentle, excluding the chorus when Mitski's voice grows louder and takes more emphasis, regaining the listeners' attention. The song itself in terms of lyrics, has many religious themes as well as a central theme of addiction. The importance of mentioning any sort of bug is solely to emphasize this. The song opens immediately with "There's a bug like an angel stuck to the bottom/Of my glass." The "bug" that looks "like an angel" can be interpreted as the temptation of the devil.

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The second song on my playlist takes quite a different approach and uses bugs to symbolize the people who are like pests in a person's life. Like someone who is rude and won't leave you be. This song has really nice consonance and is "Bug a Boo" by Destiny's Child.

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"Stink Bug" by Beastie Boys is the third song on my list and is entirely instrumental. The tempo stays the same throughout basically the entire piece and has a lot of harmony among all the instruments and sounds you can hear being played. The sounds really make it interesting, especially towards the end, where you can hear almost a spring-like sound growing louder in the background before the song finishes.

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The next song I have is "The Bug Collector" by Haley Heynderickx. This song is about Heynderickx's dedication to her partner, who, as is implied in the song, has visual hallucinations possibly caused by past religious trauma. A few different types of bugs are used as symbols in this song, such as a centipede, millipede, and most notably, a praying mantis, who Heynderickx's partner swears is a priest. It's likely this creature was also explicitly chosen for its symbolism that often ties back to religion and prayer, in some cultures even being viewed as a reincarnation or symbol of God. Throughout the song, however, Heynderickx's unconditional love is expressed through lyrics such as "I must make you the perfect evening/I try my best/To put the priest inside a jam jar," showing her intended continuous support and love for her partner through challenging moments as well as the good.

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Fifth is the song "Bugs" by Pearl Jam. The background music for this song is very unique while being repetitive throughout the entirety, with the most notable sound being from an accordion that only changes its tempo at the very end when it slows down and then speeds back up again as the singer sings the last lines. It's a song that can be interpreted in many different ways. The lyrics describe how the singer feels almost like the bugs are consuming him and every aspect of his life. The singer, Eddie Vedder, even explained the inspiration behind his song came from a moment when he had bugs crawling all over him, and he realized how little-in the grand scheme of things and the universe-significance he had.

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Last but not least is the song "Boys Will Be Bugs" by Cavetown. This song talks a lot about the mental health of teenagers, toxic masculinity, and the differences between how society expects boys and girls to act and react to things. Bugs are brought into the lyrics as Cavetown's confidence to his problems as he sings, "[a]nd if you wanna cry/Make sure that they/never see it/Or even better yet/Block it out and never feel it," implying that he doesn't feel he can talk or share emotions to the family or friends within his life.

#Youtube

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justaflatbitch · 1 year ago

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horus blessing anon here. saw ur reblog, i hate to say it but i dunno much about egypt ngl other than some of the gods. would love to learn more tho

(this is an invitation to infodump if you want :3)

Gods, where to start. Okay, I’ll try to keep it to the conventionally interesting parts and since I don’t want to offend anyone I’ll keep the religious aspect to a minimum with the exception of the fact that there is absolutely 0 evidence to support the notion that a large number of Hebrew slaves were kept there. In fact, slaves weren’t really even used to build the pyramids. The people that built the pyramids, while not the highest class there was, were definitely respected people. They got fuckloads of booze made by people higher class than them as a kind of bonus for their work and were often able to join into higher classes as well.

Another important group of people, and to me the most important group of people, were the scribes. Out of all ancient societies, Egypt was far and away the best at bookkeeping. Being a scribe in Egypt wasn’t like European scripting, it was a position of respect, you had to work at it from childhood because it was such an in demand job but at the same time it was one of the most under pressure fields you could have. That also allowed scribes to have, in my opinion, the most interesting tombs because, while unfortunately small, a Scribe’s final place of rest is a treasure trove of knowledge, wherein one could learn so much about every detail of the goings on during the 20 or so years they’d have been active.

My favourite however, was the priests, specifically the priests of the goddess Bast. Bast was a fierce goddess with an anthro cat appearance. She covered many aspects from being a housewife to being a war doctor to just being a menace in wars, thus her priests followed suit. They were the caretakers in an out of battle and while we don’t have much evidence that they were fighters, I really hope they were.

Priests had the third most grand resting places of any ancient Egyptian group, Royals obviously having the best and the pets of royalty being second. Yes, pets have always been a thing.

I’m in the midst of studying to work in artefact restoration and while looting and glorified trophy rooms (western museums) have taken much away from these beautiful grounds I put in a lot of work to change that.

Thats all that i can think of off the top of my head, i might add more to this later in reblogs if i think of something else that a wide variety of people would find interesting.

#egyptology #info dump #dont forget to drink water #i hope this isn’t just an annoying block of text

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crucifixes-and-chrysanthemums · 2 years ago

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Wowza. No, wowzers. I just made a DO IT FOR HER thing for Sixto to motivate him to get better at running with Kate Marsh, so Life is Strange is on the brain. Hence, wowzers, its been a hot minute since I last journaled. 4/4/22 is my last, and today is 12/10/22. Its been a good year, I suppose. James got a DUI a few weeks ago and is going to be quitting his job at the OPWDD since his license is getting suspended pending the court hearing for some reason. Total bullshit, but whatever. Maybe I can get him into 7-Eleven. He asked if we’re taking applications. It could be nice. Anyway.

A couple weeks ago my sister went on a week long drug binge, came home, had a major bipolar episode, and got 51-50′d. That was right around the 20th of November. Whatever the previous Friday was, I think. Maybe. Anyhoo, she was there for three days. The last few weeks, she’s been at home smoking pot, going wherever she wants with dad, and smoking pot with dad. It’s fucking stupid, but what am I gonna do about it? Could be worse. As if the gulf between dad and I needed to be any wider, of course. Eh, its always sorta been me and Mom, then Tessa and dad. Stressful, but I guess it could be worse. I’m slowly beginning to hope that we’re on the mend.

Summer was Owen’s wedding. Truth be told, I love the guy, but he’s going down the wrong path. He’s got a nice apartment in Grand Rapids, him and Stephanie, but he’s going down the grifter route and I think that's a bad idea, psychically speaking. Bad karma, or whatever. I had a great time, though, generally. I did all the driving. Got stopped for speeding once on the way there and once on the way back, and only got one ticket. I made burgers stuffed with feta and mozzarella, with a topping of chives, dijon mustard, and sour cream. Corn on the cob on the side. Simple, but neither Alex, James, nor I spoke when we ate. Just mouths opening and closing. Damn, that’s a good burger. Drank three vodka crans in an hour and a half at the reception. Prayed with Owen. Flirted a little with some girl. Danced. Gay ol’ time. James and I never got any fishing done, but such is life.

My prayer life, as of lately, is sorta in the shits if I’m honest. Its just... Hard, man. Rosaries have never appealed to me. At the same time, I don’t feel like God has abandoned me, you know? I’m trying to make everything I do a prayer. Well, alright, I’m trying to make some of the things I do a prayer. I did just finish a book called Eternity, My Beloved by Jean Sulivan and absolutely adored it. Its about a priest in France named Jerome Strozzi (called Tonzi) who essentially becomes a caretaker to down-and-outs. He hangs around with prostitutes, never evangelizing or moralizing to them. Just telling them he loves them, and that they have dignity. That’s when he speaks, which is rarely. They reform. It made so much sense to me. The best way to evangelize, to speak Christ into others lives, is to not do so at all. Just make your faith known, and then be quiet and listen. Treat others well. Thursday, when I’d finished talking to Mike about it, I got a text from an old friend from college, Erika. She asked me if I’d gone through RCIA, because she’s considering it. I passed along Mike and Leslie’s emails. God is good, even if He and I don’t always see eye to eye.

So, speaking of that. I’ve been working on a little bit of a project as of the last while. A group for young adult Catholics in the parish and the surrounding parishes. Mike used the term “faith support group” at some point, and I like that. I picture it as a sort of “ready-made friend group”? Man, my notes are all over the place on it, honestly. I’ve got two thirds written down, on paper, another half in my phone, and a bit more in my head. Gotta get this together. Anyway, the idea in short is a group of young adults, between 18 and say 35, that meet once a week or twice a month. Spend 15 minutes or so talking about the prior week’s readings - anything speak to you? Father say anything that really struck you? Hear something you wanted? Something you didn’t? After that, just open discussion. Maybe one time someone has a topic they wanna talk about - a sin they’re struggling with, or just something they know a lot about that they want to share with the group. The idea is to address loneliness. Why do we, as young adults, feel so fuckin’ lonely? We can access the width and breadth of the human experience with our fingertips but still, lonely lonely lonely. Ready-made friend group. There’s food, of course - a whole ass meal, ideally. Pizza the first couple nights, maybe. But also homemade stuff. Don’t lead, can’t. I can, but don’t want to. Its not about any of us, its just about us. Someone being an obvious leader is a bad idea. Mike said to take pointers from how AA works, actually. Gotta find someone to talk to about that. Mutual aid, mutual aid, mutual aid. We’ve gotta organize ourselves, because nobody is gonna do it for us. And if they did, we wouldn’t want it. They’d be fakers and grifters and ideologues. Kill your leaders, I guess.

I’m actually excited for this. I think its something we really need as a church, as young people, and as young churchgoers. Plan is to start it in the bulletin Jan 1, then have the first meeting end of January or beginning of February. Hopefully it goes somewhere. Lord willing and the creek don’t rise. That seems to be my prayer pretty often - “Good Lord willin’ and the crick don’t rise.” Just because I ain’t the best at praying and He and I aren’t always the best of friends (of course, by this I mean I’m not always a good friend to Him - its all on me, man, I know that) don’t mean I don’t know how, that I don’t, or that I don’t mean it.

DnD is going good with the OperatorChan guys. It’s me, Remo, Anubis, Garde, Senseless, and HingedKilljoy, a friend of Todd’s. Todd’s DMing. We’re playing tomorrow, last session before a long holiday break. Fun fun fun.

Oh, I’ve got a few job things coming up. Civil Service Exam for Corrections Officer later this month - that one’s online - and another for Water/Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator also this month, the 23rd. Then another for Custodian in February. They all pay more than I make now, and none are far away. Here’s to a better job - not gonna stay at Seven-Eleven forever.

Anyway, I guess that’s about it. Still single, but content with it. When I find someone, I find someone. God provides what I need.

12/10/2022

#crandch-blog

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denimbex1986 · 8 months ago

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'All of Us Strangers, directed by Andrew Haigh, is a film adaptation of the 1987 Japanese novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. Since its release on Dec. 22 of last year, the movie has made over $16.8 million in the Worldwide Box Office, as well as scored a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.8/10 rating on IMDb.

The film takes place in London and stars Andrew Scott who plays Adam – a screenwriter who is still grieving and coming to terms with the loss of his parents.

Adam lives alone in a large apartment complex with only a few neighbors. One night, he meets his drunk neighbor, Harry, played by Paul Mescal. As a romantic relationship unfolds between the two, Adam decides to visit his childhood home. While outside his old house, Adam thinks he sees his parents who died when he was only 12 years old.

As the plot progresses, we see Adam trying to reconnect with his deceased parents. While rekindling the relationship, Adam tells his parents about Harry — revealing his sexuality to them. His parents, stuck in the year they died, try to understand their son and his identity.

Adam continues to build his relationship with his parents while exploring his connection with Harry. The two men share a deep connection with each other and their relationship flourishes.

All of Us Strangers delves into the themes of love and intimacy and highlights the lasting effects of childhood trauma, identity struggle, and dealing with loss. As Adam mourns the loss of his family, he struggles to understand their inability to recognize him as a whole person, including his sexuality.

Yes, the movie is a love story between two men, but it’s also a love story between a boy and his parents. Adam imagines the life he could’ve had with his parents if they had lived, which may be his way of handling this grief.

Not only were the movie’s plot and script exceptional, we saw top-notch acting from Scott and Mescal. Scott, who played the priest in Fleabag, gave an outstanding performance as Adam, his emotion shining through the screen to move audiences to tears. Mescal also slipped into his role as Harry seamlessly with a riveting supporting performance.

The film’s evocative soundtrack featured songs such as “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” by the Inkspots, “Always on My Mind” by the Pet Shop Boys, and “Is This Love?” by Alison Moyet.

Haigh also included “The Power of Love,” an emotional ballad by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, to reflect his personal experience of growing up queer through the film’s cinematography. In an interview with IndieWire, Haigh said “The Power of Love” has a sense of “grand, operatic longing,” that struck a chord deep within him through his experiences.

Although many appreciated the celebration of humanity and romance in the film, other critics were confused with the “hallucinatory” aspects that Haigh included. Adam’s constant back-and-forth from his apartment with Harry to his childhood home made a lot of people question what was happening.

Is Adam schizophrenic? Is he just dealing with this grief in a different way? The movie didn’t explain how Adam was able to see his dead parents, which I think made the audience question that aspect of the movie instead of just running with the idea.

Personally, I think that Adam’s reminiscing on what could’ve been with his parents was told through his writing. In the beginning of the movie, the audience sees Adam attempting to write a new script at his desk, alluding to his visions of his parents and what he imagined his life could be if they were alive and could communicate with him.

All of Us Strangers was the kind of movie that I could watch on repeat forever. The film had a small cast, but each character was full of depth and emotion that entranced the audience. Though it wasn’t nominated for any Oscars, it’s still one of the best films I watched in 2023. I constantly find myself recommending this film to friends, which you can also stream with a Hulu subscription now.

SERIOUSLY, IF YOU’RE IN NEED OF A MOVIE OR JUST A GOOD CRY, PLEASE GO SEE ALL OF US STRANGERS.'

#All of Us Strangers #Andrew Haigh #Andrew Scott #Paul Mescal #Oscars #Hulu #Strangers #Taichi Yamada #Rotten Tomatoes #“i Don't Want to Set the World on Fire”#The Inkspots #“The Power of Love”#Frankie Goes to Hollywood #“Always on My Mind”#Pet Shop Boys #“Is This Love?”#Alison Moyet

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panatmansam · 3 years ago

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Who can we trust?

There have been quite a few discussions in Buddhist journals recently concerning the issue of the reliability of the institutions people used to cling to for support like religion and along with this some fine discussions of the Buddha's Discourse to the Kalamas where the Buddha tells us to challenge authority and to do our own investigation where claims are made.

Most people seem to agree that of all the authorities currently available to us today "science" is the most reliable and the most authoritative.

In one such discussion a comment was made to the effect that it is a good thing that people aren't as gullible as they were in the days of religion. I disagree. People are as gullible as they ever were.

The new High Priests are the scientific orthodoxy. Now, before people get all bent out of shape SCIENCE IS GOOD. There it's in all capsTumblr so don't waste my time complaining that I think science is bad or religion is better or some other nonsense. Scientists are for the most part regular people going to middle-class jobs in industry not Nobel Laureates at Harvard. Most work in industry for a paycheck.

Quite a lot in the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, war manufactures, food industries and for profit medical institutions. They are not selfless crusaders for truth.

Most nonscientists "worship" science for the same reason medieval peasants "worshiped" religion. It was mysterious, spoken in a strange language by people in vestments (white coats in our case) with a promise of salvation of a sort.

As a trial lawyer I had a very different view of scientists. I hired them. Experts. I saw how they worked and learned to read and understand their reports and to tear down their testimony as the direct result I do not have an exalted view of science or scientists.

During the pandemic I got my information from good old dependable Dr. Fauci but I also scanned the abstracts of medical journals. I knew when the experts were scared and when they were trying to influence public opinion for example. I wasn't an expert, but neither is any other scientist in any field but their own narrow specialty.

Science is NOT monolithic. That is to say that in every field there is division and disagreement. That is how science is done. Scientists are not selfless seekers after truth. They need to eat and they work for somebody. Academia can only employ so many and most of those work on Government sponsored projects. I can find a scientist to say anything I want. Up is down or down is up. Doctor Takedamoney will be happy to testify and even write a nice report for another ten grand.

One day the world may be divided into scientists, techs and managers in an elite group and the rest of us in another. This is where blind worship will get you.

#text #science #religion #physics #medicine #biology

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rambles-on-dragon-age · 9 days ago

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Cut is in case of spoilers ::

The subject of slavery in Tevinter comes up a lot though?

Neve comments early on that the reason we don't see slaves in Dock Town is because this is the "poor part of town" and these people can't afford slaves. There are multiple letters and codex entries for you to find talking about routes and plans for freeing slaves that the Shadow Dragons are working on. There is a quest where you kill mercenaries that are kidnapping people to sell as slaves. Lots of mercenaries. Lots of trapped people. Dorian mentions that the Lucerni, the political group he made to try and end slavery, was forcefully dissolved after Maevis was framed and stripped of her Magisterium seat. Thus she went underground and founded the Shadow Dragons to take direct action. There's a letter from Dorian where he details how he once bought into the line about how good slave owners had a duty to those lower to them and keep the bad slave owners in check but now he knows better. No person should be owned by another. There's notes from a Magisterium meetings where Dorian is arguing just that (and I think they tried to say nicely that he got up and throttled the man lol).

The other games also brought up things that were done in the books (like Alistair's mom being the Grand Enchanter and if they're both in Skyhold she's kinda looking for him) without explicitly telling you that that stuff is from the books. Maybe they hope you'll get curious and go looking? Maybe they just want to honor canon outside the games as much as possible? Both? The games are just one part of the world of Thedas after all.

As for the Antaam, I think it's detailed most in Taash's quests or codex entries n stuff. When the "Dragon's Breath" plan failed (Trespasser), there was a sect that thought it failed because it didn't go far enough. That's why the Antaam (the body, their fighting force) split away and "went rogue". The Qun are lead by the Triumvirate. They lead the Body (military/antaam), Mind (craftsmen), and Soul (scholars and priests). Well, the BODY part left and are acting without a "mind" and "soul" to keep them in check and instead of trying to convert people to the Qun they just want to kill all baas now. They're left to extremes because under the Qun you are trained for you Role not your Self. (After you defeat the Butcher, the Antaam in Treviso just fall under a new leader. The ones under The Dragon King scatter.) The Risen Gods just step in; oh, you want power? I will give you power if you do something for me.

The Venatori play on nationalism; they want the Tevinter Empire to rise again and be restored to their former glory. They go to extremes and are disavowed as mere "cultists". In true fashion, Magisters don't want to openly support them even if they agree with what they say/do because of how extreme they are. In a popular sense, the Tevinter people don't agree with them. Inquisition and other media show the Venatori schemes for power and how they get thwarted a lot. (Like Neve's first run in with Aelia and how Lucanis gets captured in Tevinter Nights.) Even Solas keeps interfering with their plans because they're considered really dangerous and incredibly extreme. As far as a nationalist cult goes, they're bad at what they do tbh but their big push in Veilguard comes because they finally have the support of real gods, "Lusacan" and "Razikale" in the form of the Risen Gods behind the dragons. (As for the name "Shadow Dragons", Tevinter believe their gods to be dragons so maybe they thought it would be a powerful name? Dragons that work in the shadows to do their work.)

For the Inquisitor, I think it was more of a story beat to show that the Inquisitor is not the main character in this game. They've spent like 12 years working their ass off to get to this moment but this final battle isn't theirs, it's Rooks. While they've been in the South trying to hold out, Rook has been putting in the work to bring everyone they could together in the North. I do wish we had more options for the arm cause not everyone would have put their Inquisitor in a prosthetic, but that's probably more to budget constraints.

(Emmrich and Johanna actually have a short story together! Not helping the accusation this game was nothing but call backs but ;; it's really cute and sets up the longing for his romance so well as well as their dynamic.)

alidjafsdf I WISH MORE OF THE COMPANION QUESTS WERE LIKE DAVRINS please let us take nature walks with everyone and not just him.

Ok! Had some time to think and also I am avoiding re-writing a letter I don't want to write so here we go!! Spoilers ahead

Ok I like... really didn't like veilguard much (No surprise there). It's probably a symptom of being a long time fan, but like.. I think they just glossed over so much. We were in Tevinter for so long but the subject of slavery never came up? All the quests we came across?? Not a mention of it-- or even any discussion of like class inequality between mages. Not a mention of the hard social structures- it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to work it into a side quest of something with the Shadow Dragons.... idk

Felt like all the characters were just cameos from their other books and comics to try and sell those??? But I haven't seen any ads advertising those?? Like if your selling me something at least sell me someting??? Those side characters are all compelling in their own stories but they are so uncompelling and uninteresting in the game?? Antoine and Evka might be a bit different, but idk if i got more screen time with them cause my PC was a warden. Like Isseya? The whole blight crypt?? What was Antoine's deal? Why did he hear the blight differently?

Hated the blanket Venatori and the Antaam are the bad guys and so flat. No words about how the qunari just let the military run away with no follow up? No spies or mages or anything showing up to reel them back in??? No ben hasarath action??? Nothing??? idk Seems like it doesn't fit with anything we've heard about the Qunari before this. Also just like??? Didn't give a compelling reason for an entire section of their culture to just breakaway without any kind of over zealous rhetoric or mission or plan? Why leave the qun to live in the same kind of conditions just... separate from the other parts of your society??? cause some guy said so?? Cause you like his hat?? idk idk

And the Venatori--- so these guys have been marching around the last 10 / 15 years and there's not a significant resistance to them? Unless I guess that's what the Shadow Dragons are (lame name). I thought political militaristic groups would have some name that felt a bit more... relevant to the struggle. What do dragons have to do with fighting slavery and blood magic?

Also the Venatori dont' operate in the open yet? They don't have a cornerstone of the political market?? They seem to have endless numbers but we don't get any sense of there being a controlling hand?? And it never comes up we're just flitting around going "the Gods D: " any time they show up??? And their redesign isn't as cool as their designs in inquisition. Think it was a decision to differentiate the Venatori from the Tevinter forces, but what does it matter if we never see any Tevinter officials take any kind of stance???

Something kind of funny about the inquisitor joining the battle only to ... not join the battle and then waltz up to the platform at the end. Also, my headcannon is that my inquisitor never got a fake arm. She was an archer, so after loosing her arm she lost her ability to shoot! It's been 10 years and that's enough time for a warrior to learn new skills or something to learn to fight with only one arm, but I always thought she wouldn't get that good? Like i think with the anchor, in her prime, she's fighting at an almost god like level. She is SOO strong and deadly. Cuts off her arm after Solas kills it and the anchor and learns to fight with one arm, but like- she doesn't have to get that strong again? She knows that her strength as the Inquisitor is really in the connections and way she can leverage the power of the inquisition, she doesn't have to spend as much time in the field. She's more useful strategizing and talking people into cooperating and knows that's what the world will need in order to keep people alive while the fade/veil shake the world. She doesn't have to get back to what she was and her life is different now.

Emmericks' quest and villian were so fun and good? I felt like they flowed so much better than the others, but I also feel like their plot lines didn't have to hook into some other arbitrary Cameo or throwback stuff. I wish everyones quests felt like that.

I loved Davrin's quests?? Loved how everybody's were like- let's kill this person who has wronged me and he is like- let's walk through the woods and talk about the things that feel beautiful and wonderful in this life. I love angst and kind of wish his story had a bit sprinkled in somewhere, but i also think that paints a piece about his chacter. He's not an angsty guy hahah

Griffins 🥺

idc what else the cannon says my warden get a griffin. She's alive and she gets a baby bird!!!!

#veilguard spoilers #batty is rambling

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