#its also an important decision in the long term

[redwoodrecords]

Oh Looordddd....whelp, now i see who's behind the card declination. And due to the amount of embarrassment I felt, as just the reader, I've chosen not to feel bad. I will not forgive that man. nope, nada.

Like who even does that and NOT tell the person? How do you just not inform them that you've been digging in their money. You literally left MC there; not a heads up before the trip, not even a heads up at drop off...just- left. them. there to just find out in what could be the most humiliating way possible for many people.

Had he said something beforehand to MC, id feel bad and understand. But he literally just...

Deep breaths it's just a story, it's just a story, it's just a story...

Lol oh yeah, this is the same person from that last ask about being embarrassed for MC. I think I subconsciously turned on anon for that one though

i think a lot of people chose not to forgive him which is very interesting to me? i truly understand it though because if i was mc i would have gotten a lift back to my hometown and demanded my dad give me a full explanation as to why and how it all happened. like no way in hell am i dealing with this alone when i didn’t even do anything wrong 😭

[utilitycaster]

I really like Taliesin elaborating on the inspiration from the 90s LA punk scene, in which he said a lot of the people he knew were just people looking for hope in a world that has been incredibly unfair to them. It's a very empathetic view towards people who, as he said, often are dealing with injustice and disadvantages.

He also mentions that many of these punks were dealing with drug and alcohol problems (and while he did not want that to be central to Ashton's character and wanted to focus instead on chronic pain for a number of reasons, including personal, Ashton definitely relies on alcohol for palliative reasons). More generally, we see Ashton look for hope and answers in a lot of places that end up being extremely incorrect. The most obvious one is with the shard of Rau'shan, which, after multiple people advised them against taking it with very clear warnings, they decided to still attempt to absorb, with nearly-fatal results; but there were flashes of this with their earlier cynicism towards Eshteross vs. a much more begrudging acceptance of the transactional worldview of Ratanish or Jiana Hexum.

Ashton often places his own pain in a position of honor, and in doing so can discount that of other people. He's been remarkably unlucky, to be clear; I think that's part of it. We as the audience know that their statement that no one in that room has felt helpless in their lives is demonstrably false about pretty much all of Vox Machina and their allies, as well as the Bright Queen. He says Keyleth maybe does know, not realizing that of Keyleth and Vex, one has been a homeless runaway rather like himself, and it's not the one he's saying knows helplessness. In a way, to hold on to that hope, they find themselves telling themselves a lot of lies because otherwise they have to face the truth that their suffering did not make them more qualified or better; it was just unfair and it might still keep happening. He blames the gods because then at least there's a reason and not just absolutely random chance that he was born to a self-important cultist, happened to survive a long-shot ill-advised ritual and wake up in the desert of another continent, happened to be the one thrown out the window of Hexum Manor, and happened to be saved with a Potion of Possibility. To be clear, they've since made a name for themself on their own merits, but a lot of who they are, both in terms of the traumatic and difficult elements and in terms of what now makes them special was dumb luck, good or bad.

For Ashton, for those LA punks Taliesin knew, for the Vanguard and for Ludinus and for countless people in Exandria and in our actual world, a lot of grasping for hope becomes grasping for a meaning for pain and suffering. I'd argue that this is a pretty major theme Taliesin explores with all his characters. However, just because the pain is real doesn't mean the conclusions one comes to as a result of it are inviolate and above reproach. It is possible to have extremely valid pain and trauma and to be incredibly wrong about its source or what it means, or to deal with it in ways that will either make it worse or that will inflict pain, even inadvertently, on others. And I think the theme of the campaign is very much that; what happens when someone either chooses to or must let the decisions they made to deal with a moment - or a life - of pain be writ large on both themselves and the world?

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

The Season 2 Poster Details

From top to bottom :)

This is a Buddy Holly song Everyday which was originally supposed to be the Good Omens theme :)

Neil talks about it in the Introduction to the Script Book: “In the scripts, Buddy Holly’s song ‘Every Day’ runs through the whole like a thread. It was something that Terry had suggested in 1991, and it was there in the edit. Our composer, David Arnold, created several different versions of ‘Every Day’ to run over the end credits. And then he sent us his Good Omens theme, and it was the Good Omens theme. Then Peter Anderson made the most remarkable animated opening credits to the Good Omens theme, and we realised that ‘Every Day’ didn’t really make any sense any longer, and, reluctantly, let it go. It’s here, though. You can hum it.”

And there is also the Buddy Holly Everyday record! :)

Book The Crow Road by Iain Banks. The novel describes Prentice McHoan's preoccupation with death, sex, his relationship with his father, unrequited love, sibling rivalry, a missing uncle, cars, alcohol and other intoxicants, and God, against the background of the Scottish landscape

Book Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. An early and primary event in the story is the abandonment of a passenger ship in distress by its crew, including a young British seaman named Jim. He is publicly censured for this action and the novel follows his later attempts at coming to terms with himself and his past and seeking redemption and acceptance.

Important themes in Lord Jim include the consequences of a single, poor decision, the indifference of the universe, and the inability to know oneself or others.

There is book The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson. Its characters were based on criminals in the employ of real-life surgeon Robert Knox (1791–1862) around the time of the notorious Burke and Hare murders (1828). Neil said: Oddly enough, episode 3 will take us to a little stint of body snatching in the era.

There is Catch-22 book by Joseph Heller that coined the term Catch-22: situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations.

Is there only one hand or are there two? :) EIther 6 ;), or 6:30 :).

Through the window we can see the coffeeshop Give Me Coffe or Give Me Death where Nina works! :)

Azi is wearing his nifty glasses :).

Crowley is wearing his new glasses, they are RIGARDS X UMA WANG - THE STONE ECLIPSE (VINTAGE BLACK/BLACK STONES) - $435

There is the Holy Bible Aziraphale used in Season 1 :)

There seems to be a broken phone :).

The cakes behind Aziraphale are Eccles cakes :).

Azi is reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens published in 1859, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. 

Another book there is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Neil said said that we will learn a lot about Jane Austin we didn’t know before.

And finally the Treasure Island book by - again :) - Robert Louis Stevenson, an adventure novel with pirates.

There are three geckos cuties. Who are they? Pets? Is Ligur haunting the bookshop? Who knows :).

A mysterious pamphlet, 'The Resurrectionists’ leaflet. (unofficial spoiler :)).

Also there is an old camera... mmm 🤔 Did Azi made some photos (of what? Him and Crowley, ducks? :)) Will we see them? :)

Their positions is an homage to the book covers! :)(x)

Will update this as fandom discovers new things! :)❤

[lua-magic]

Ninth Lord and from where you will get your Luck.

Ninth house is of religion, father, morality, ritousnes, higher learning, long travels and also of Luck

Planets in ninth house and third house are extremely important for manifestation of your desires, when you allign your energy with the planets sitting in ninth and third House, you will get desires easily in your life.

Ninth house is of also of "Blessings " so if your ninth lord is afflicted, that is with rahu, ketu or with sixth, eighth and twelfth house Lord or your ninth house has malefics, or sixth, eighth, twelfth lord then only BLESSINGS of people can change your luck.

Ninth house wherever sits, you will experience luck in that area, if you work on your ninth lord.

Ninth lord in first house 🏠

It is good, because the person would be religious and lucky for himself, whatever person does, ninth lord will help him.

Person is not only lucky for himself, but also for the people around him/her .

More the person becomes religious, and develops morality and ritousnes and values in his life more Ninth Lord would favour him/her

Ninth lord in second house 🏠

You are lucky when it comes to family and money matters, more you become spiritual with regards to Money more luck will favour you.

Second house is also of words and food habits, keep your words soft and food habits simple in life .

Ninth lord in third house 🏠

Your skills will help you to manifest your desires, more you work on your skills and communication more Lucky you get in your life

Your siblings are also Lucky for you.

Third house is of short travels and ninth lord is your religious activities, more you travel to holy places or go to pilgrimages your ninth lord will improve.

Ninth lord in fourth House 🏠.

Your mother is really lucky for you, and you are lucky in terms of home, property and comfort.

Maintain good relationship with your mother and practice positive thinking and gratitude helps you to be lucky in life

Ninth lord in fifth house 🏠

Ninth house is of higher learning and fifth house is of knowledge, you get lucky when you learn more in your life.

Your children are lucky for you.

Ninth lord in sixth house 🏠 house.

Sixth house is of debt and diseases, this combination could create fight with your father or give disease or debts to your father.

More you involve yourself in social services and volunteering activities, your luck will improve.

You are lucky when it comes to do job, and go in service sector.

Ninth lord in seventh house 🏠

Your partner is lucky for you, don't disrespect your partner, otherwise you will become more unlucky in life .

Ninth lord sitting here, will help you in your business and partnerships

Ninth lord in eighth house 🏠

Eighth house is of in Laws, so your in-laws are lucky for you, you need to respect your in-laws, your in-laws could be religious and connected to their roots.

This combination gives problems with father, and causes separation from father.

Ninth lord when goes in eighth house, you need to get connected to eight house related activities like Astrology, surgeon, CA, Tax etc that would enhance your luck.

Eighth house is of secrecy, so maintain secrecy when comes to sharing your personal life and sexual activities and desires.

Have guiding figure or teacher in your life, that would help you and show you the right path, as making right decisions becomes difficult for you, because luck doesn't favour the native, so move ahead in life only with proper and right guidence .

Ninth lord in ninth House 🏡

Great, as ninth lord is sitting in its own house, so father, guru or teacher are really lucky for you.

Native would be religious, moral and have high values in his life and a great teacher and counselor.

More you become religious more luck will favour you.

Ninth lord in tenth house 🏠

Tenth house is of karma, so Ninth Lord sitting here will help you in all your duties and Karma.

It is good, because whichever job or service you do, you will get promotion easily.

Your bosses are lucky for you.

Ninth lord in eleventh house 🏠

Ninth lord sitting here, will fulfill all your wishes when it comes to material wealth.

Your elder siblings are lucky for you.

"Ask and you shall receive "

More you become social especially with spiritual people, more Lucky you get in Life.

Ninth lord in twelfth house 🏠

Twelfth house is of let go, ninth lord sitting here gives you separation from your father.

You need to let go, in order to get lucky in life, you can't have attachments with your desires.

To get lucky you need to.

Let go your attachments.

Do charity, as twelfth house is of charity as well

Settle in foreign land

Become spiritual.

When your ninth house has Rahu, then you might love to know about other religions as well.

When ninth house has ketu, then your first child would be male child, and it is good for leaning astrology and occult.

Whatever you do, remember best remedy of ninth house is your own Karma, you are responsible for your own luck.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Love

TRIANGULAR THEORY OF LOVE

This theory holds that love can be understood in terms of three components that together can be viewed as forming the vertices of a triangle. The triangle is used as a metaphor, rather than as a strict geometric model.

These 3 components are intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment. Each component manifests a different aspect of love:

Intimacy - feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness in loving relationships. It thus includes within its purview those feelings that give rise, essentially, to the experience of warmth in a loving relationship. 

Passion - the drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, sexual consummation, and related phenomena in loving relationships. This component includes within its purview those sources of motivational and other forms of arousal that lead to the experience of passion in a loving relationship. 

Decision/commitment - refers, in the short-term, to the decision that one loves a certain other, and in the long-term, to one's commitment to maintain that love. These two aspects of the decision/commitment component do not necessarily go together, in that one can decide to love someone without being committed to the love in the long-term, or one can be committed to a relationship without acknowledging that one loves the other person in the relationship. 

The three components of love interact with each other. 

Example: Greater intimacy may lead to greater passion or commitment, just as greater commitment may lead to greater intimacy, or with lesser likelihood, greater passion. 

In general, then, the components are separable, but interactive with each other.  Although all three components are important parts of loving relationships, their importance may differ from one relationship to another, or over time within a given relationship.  Indeed, different kinds of love can be generated by limiting cases of different combinations of the components.

The 3 components of love generate 8 possible kinds of love when considered in combination. It is important to realize that these kinds of love are, in fact, limiting cases: No relationship is likely to be a pure case of any of them.

Nonlove - refers simply to the absence of all three components of love. 

Liking - results when one experiences only the intimacy component of love in the absence of the passion and decision/commitment components. 

Infatuated love - results from the experiencing of the passion component in the absence of the other components of love. 

Empty love - emanates from the decision that one loves another and is committed to that love in the absence of both the intimacy and passion components of love. 

Romantic love - derives from a combination of the intimacy and passion components. 

Companionate love - derives from a combination of the intimacy and decision/commitment components of love. 

Fatuous love - results from the combination of the passion and decision/commitment components in the absence of the intimacy component. 

Consummate or complete love - results from the full combination of all 3 components. 

The geometry of the "love triangle" depends upon two factors:  amount of love and balance of love. 

Differences in amounts of love are represented by differing areas of the love triangle: 

The greater the amount of love, the greater the area of the triangle. 

Differences in balances of the three kinds of love are represented by differing shapes of triangles. 

Example: Balanced love (roughly equal amounts of each component) is represented by an equilateral triangle.  

Love does not involve only a single triangle. 

Rather, it involves a great number of triangles, only some of which are of major theoretical and practical interest. 

Example: it is possible to contrast real versus ideal triangles.  One has not only a triangle representing his or her love for the other, but also a triangle representing an ideal other for that relationship.

It is important to distinguish between triangles of feelings and triangles of action.

THEORY OF LOVE AS A STORY

Love triangles emanate from stories. Almost all of us are exposed to large numbers of diverse stories that convey different conceptions of how love can be understood.

Although the number of possible stories is probably infinite, certain genres of stories seem to keep emerging again and again in pilot analyses done of literature, film, and people’s oral descriptions of relationships.

Stories found to be particularly useful in conceptualizing people's notions of love are:

Addiction. Strong anxious attachment; clinging behavior; anxiety at thought of losing partner.

Art. Love of partner for physical attractiveness; importance to person of partner's always looking good.

Business. Relationships as business propositions; money is power; partners in close relationships as business partners.

Collection. Partner viewed as "fitting in" to some overall scheme; partner viewed in a detached way.

Cookbook. Doing things a certain way (recipe) results in a relationship being more likely to work out; departure from recipe for success leads to increased likelihood of failure.

Fantasy. Often expects to be saved by a knight in shining armor or to marry a princess and live happily ever after.

Game. Love as a game or sport.

Gardening. Relationships need to be continually nurtured and tended to.

Government. (a) Autocratic. One partner dominates or even controls other. (b) Democratic. Two partners equally share power.

History. Events of relationship form an indelible record; keep a lot of records—mental or physical.

Horror. Relationships become interesting when you terrorize or are terrorized by your partner.

House and Home. Relationships have their core in the home, through its development and maintenance.

Humor. Love is strange and funny.

Mystery. Love is a mystery and you shouldn't let too much of yourself be known.

Police. You've got to keep close tabs on your partner to make sure he/she toes the line, or you need to be under surveillance to make sure you behave.

Pornography. Love is dirty, and to love is to degrade or be degraded.

Recovery. Survivor mentality; view that after past trauma, person can get through practically anything.

Religion. Either views love as a religion, or love as a set of feelings and activities dictated by religion.

Sacrifice. To love is to give of oneself or for someone to give of him or herself to you.

Science. Love can be understood, analyzed, and dissected, just like any other natural phenomenon.

Science Fiction. Feeling that partner is like an alien—incomprehensible and very strange.

Sewing. Love is whatever you make it.

Theater. Love is scripted, with predictable acts, scenes, and lines.

Travel. Love is a journey.

War. Love is a series of battles in a devastating but continuing war.

Student-teacher. Love is a relationship between a student and a teacher.

Sources: 1 2 3 ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References Writing Notes: Hate

[enchanted-moura]

Pick a Dior Serum - How to find more inner peace?

Pile 1 - Plump Filler

Despair, poverty, sadness and hardship may have been something you've been experiencing for some time. You are only going to get out of this situation. The answer to a healing and slowly rebuilding is to tap into your magical side! Stop thinking that this reality is the only or even the one that has all the power, it is not. Sometimes our blockages and pain and come from such a deep internal place that all we can do is go to the root. Before you start casting spells of curiosity and enchantment, research spiritual work for healing, rebuilding self & coming out of dark situations. Painful situations and thoughts have to be replaced with beautiful and abundant ones. Have a look through this page for plenty of ways to add abundance to your life🛍️

Pile 2 - Glow Booster

You may have many fake friends and sneaky allies who may be disrupting your dazzling gorgeous lucky and abundant energy. You are my unique pile, intriguing, and alluring and that draws both beneficial and toxic people like moths to a flame. You have to be cautious of who you keep around you and why. What do you let influence you? What do you let have the final say in your life? Why are randoms more important to you than you? Check out my salt cleansing bath to get rid of all that energetic heaviness off your aura once you commit to getting rid of the junk! You can do this cleansing shower or bath surrounded by candles and listening to serene music, letting the stress wash away 🛁🎶

Pile 3 - Matte Maximizer

You are a sensual being! You are in a position where you are highly desired, coveted and wanted. You just have to believe it and start each and everyday with the notion that you are the most beautiful being ever! You shine the brightest,your vibrant energy is infectious and makes everyone around you feel like they're part of your fabulous, glittering world. So be sure to let yourself shine and paint the world with your unique glitz and glam! 💖

Pile 4 - Lift Sculptor

You may be at a crossroads in your love life juggling options, choices and love styles and preferences. This may be causing unnecessary stress so its time to make a decision. Love and Lust and Desire are all related so if you do not want something bad enough, you simply do not desire it and you cannot force chemistry, desire or even love. Tap into your inner Erotic Goddess and ask her what she desires from her relationships right now. Did she want to explore rotation dating? She looking for a sugar daddy? She wants to commit to a long term relationship? Is she ready for Marriage. Let go of the moralistic judgement and just feel. reflect, dream big, and sprinkle a little more clear love in your life. 🌌💖

Pile 5 - Redness Soother

My money pile, my investor barbies and future millionaires are listening to this. In the same way other piles may stress about friends and love, I feel that your financial life is causing a headache and great distress. You're glamorous af, your ideal closets are stocked with the latest bikinis, lace tops, chic skirts and couture, you desire for your home to have floating crystal chandeliers & fluffy plush carpets. You can have it all but you have to be cautious of your spending habits as well as certain career choices. Are you in the most optimal field for your financial well-being but also mental health? Are you happy in your line of work? Do you have any concrete tangible plans for your prosperity or just pipe dreams. Journal about this and see what you feel 💎👠

More pick a cards available on patreon - https://www.patreon.com/missCordoba 💗

[prettyrealm]

a message from the universe 🌌

pick a card #2: sometimes we can all use a bit of direction! here’s what the universe wants you to shift your focus to and what you should work on to improve your overall quality of life 🌼

how to participate:

🌤️ ask yourself "what should I focus on?" “what should I put more energy into?”

🌷pick the spring sanrio plush that you feel most drawn to.

clear your mind & take as long as you need to choose. keep in mind that you may feel drawn to & choose more than one. you also may not feel drawn to any of them, so don't force it! please consider your headspace before participating as these readings will be honest. the piles are in order from left to right.

🌸 pile 1

there’s something you’re in denial about and the universe wants you to know it’s best you summon the courage to come to terms with it. it’s time you try to acknowledge these issues now to overcome them and not carry this weight with you. be honest about yourself, your intentions and others. I feel this may have to do with someone trying to take something away from you that’s rightly yours, or the give-and-take dynamic of this situation is denying you of achieving your goals. there is no balance - you may be giving more to this person or project than you receive and your resentment is growing. you may even find yourself giving without true genuine compassion, now carrying a “you owe me.” mindset that only stresses you out. facing the reality of this situation, acknowledging it and making a change will bring very good things to you, and very soon at that. you may have gone through a time of hardship, but things are settling and the universe wants you to know that big and positive changes can and will come into your life be it you follow direction. release your fears. you are ready.

💐 pile 2

the universe wants you to know bright new prospects have opened up! you have and will be making immense progress towards your goals - big strides. you may have felt super optimistic lately and this isn’t for no reason, things will be looking up for you. you have nothing to fear. it is time for you to put trust in the universe and in yourself, something amazing is in store for you and you may even feel like a miracle is unfolding before your very eyes. the only downfall is a bit of conflict may appear before you get here - strife and conflict - prepare for battle, but no worries, you will come out on top. this competition will bring out your passion and show your commitment and may even cause others to admire you more for it. don’t be petty, fight fairly and stay honest. seek true understanding. this small hiccup aside, your desires are manifesting, and your new life is on its way.

(note: if you’re someone who has been trying for a child I can assure you it’s coming soon!)

☁️ pile 3

the universe wants you to look forward to new friends, a new environment and seeking knowledge. important things will be happening soon and you may need to prepare for a change in your relationships. you are being told you need to rid yourself of problems and memories you dwell on from the recent past and practice forgiveness. focus on the changes you and others are making to usher in and happily welcome this new change of scenery. moving past the trails you’ve faced will only strengthen your connection and appreciation for your family members. the universe also wants you to practice and strengthen your powers of reason, stop letting emotion cloud your judgement and make your decisions for you. come to solutions without blaming people, playing the victim or projecting. you’re being given the power to think more clearly and objectively at this time to make the changes to your life that you need, so use it. should you listen to the universe, a weight will be lifted from your shoulders and a sense of freedom will wash over you.

🐣 pile 4

the universe wants you to know your problems are or will be resolved! expect an end or at least an extended break from whatever adversaries you’ve been facing recently. the waters are nice and clear from here on out so feel safe jumping on any opportunity that arises - and they will. whatever your desires may be, the door to obtaining them will be opening up soon. it appears many doors have actually opened for you in the past, but you never took the chance. it’s likely you didn’t realize these opportunities were MEANT for you, but it’s time you stop taking them for granted and start receiving. all the universe asks is that you stop taking things for granted and appreciate what you have. count your blessings, maybe even start a gratitude journal. pay attention to the way you move and your influence on others, be kinder, more responsible and more sweet to those who aid you every day. do not bite the hand that feeds you, and opportunities and gifts will begin to shower you.

🦋 pile 5

the universe is asking you to look to an older male figure in your life. he’s looking out for you and he has the skills and connections that you need at this time. he will be very responsive if you ask for help and expect nothing in return, genuinely wanting the best for you. he is very well-educated and will help push you along on your path, but also provide you with valuable information that will greatest help you in the future. do not take his help for granted and make sure to show your appreciation along the way, this will strengthen the connection and only help you in the long term. you are being asked to relax and relinquish your burdens, accept this assistance and allow the weight to be lifted from your shoulders. you may be extremely stressed recently and these are all things that will help you relieve that stress, but also push you closer to your desires. spend this time day dreaming about, fantasizing about and visualizing what you want for your future.

🐝 pile 6

the universe wants to let you know that you’re on your way to perfecting your craft and rewards will so be yours as a result of your proficiency and hard work! I do see you need to work on getting more information before you make any big decisions. research throughly, consult with others, get a lot of data even if that means as far as going to seminars or watching online lectures. this aside, success and glory is on the horizon! life might feel pretty good right now, but there’s even more joy and happiness in store for you. the universe wants you to step out of your comfort zone, push the limits and stop playing it safe - you’ve been restricted for too long. do not fall victim to close minded thinking, moving off of assumptions and negative history. try to think from a new perspective and don’t get stuck in a loop of bad thought patterns. free yourself.

[lua-stellar]

What is your Current Career Energy?! ✨ Career Rune Reading

consider tipping me on ko-fi if this reading resonated :)

this reading was done via the elder futhark runes, images included

pile 1

runes drawn: ansuz, dagaz, isa

right now i am getting energy of communication in terms of your career life, you have hope for your career and you are reaching out and getting out there to pursue your career, I'm also getting the vibe you recently finished studying this path or are currently in a highly transitional phase in your career life and beginning to look for work but unfortunately even though you are putting yourself out there and trying to get a job in the career path you want you are not recieving the same enthusiasm,and you are possibly facing challenges finding a job and manifesting your dream career to reality. I see alot of stagnating energy in this reading with isa and i feel as though you are in a period of waiting, of stasis. In a way your career is on hold even though you want to get out there and get noticed. Maybe now is the time to be patient and wait until opportunity strikes, currently it seems your career energy is on hold and will be moving a little slowly.

pile 2

runes drawn: raido, ehwaz, dagaz

right now i see aloot of progression alot of movement in your career life, the energy is action action action. You are making important decisions regarding your career, you are overcoming obstacles, new beginnings and opportunities are just around the corner! You are crossing boundaries in terms of your career and you are in a position where you have a harmonious balance and deep understanding of yourself and what you want in your career life, your roads are open in terms of opportunities, and i see a good omen in this reading that wherever you go in your career, you will be able to pass through any difficulties and challenges easily. Currently you are in a highly transitional period, you will reach a satisfactory and enjoyable career life, whatever you're doing you are definently doing something right so keep it up!

pile 3

runes drawn: uruz, hagalaz, wunjo

you have alot of potential regarding your career, i have the feeling that you are just charging right into it in a way, in terms of your career energy i sense alot of freedom and almost a wild energy to you in how you just go for the things you want, but you are currently facing obstacles regarding your career life. You may be facing challenges constricting that free spirit of yours and blockages regarding your career, but not to worry. Whether its a situation youre facing thats difficult or if you are being blocked career wise and you feel that things are going badly, the obstacles you are currently facing will sort themselves out things will turn out smoothly. Your current challenges are temporary and this stage of hardship will not last forever, you will be rewarded with your hard work soon and you will find joy in your career life and harmony. All of your current troubles will soon be left in the past and everything regarding your career will go smoothly, don't be blinded by bad situations when the light is at the end of the tunnel! And this tunnel is not as long as you may be thinking. Keep going and keep being a free courageous spirit regarding your career and professional life and everything will be fine!

[transgenderer]

Would it be ethical to let your children starve to death if you donated all their meals to charity?

Let’s say I have a child that needs surgery, he’s got a disease, he’s gonna die, my insurance company won’t cover it, I’ll need to pay out of pocket, I ask the doctor how much it will be, he says “5k.” What is more moral:

A) spend 5k getting my own child the surgery

B) send 5k to AMF to give anti-malarial nets to Africans

I don’t have another 5k saved up, so it’s one or the other

so, i think these two asks are of a kind, but the latter is neater, so ill answer the latter primarily, with the obvious implications for the former

so, this is a tough question! i think theres a lot of explanations you can come up with, for why your own child is more important. perhaps most significantly, no one else cares about your child, but other people care about as much as you about the statistical african child youre saving. obv problems there, but theres an argument. you could also make all sorts of practical calculations ("calculations") that say the net benefit is higher with your child, whatever, its actually not important

i dont think any of that stuff is the real reason. real reason, is that you care about your child more than you care about the african child, and you want to act in accordance with what you care about. and i dont think thats wrong! or, to the extent that it is "wrong", ethics isn't doing what we want it to. i think ethics, insofar as it is a decision theory, has to include self-interest. that trying to remove self-interest from a decision theory is a...mathematical toy example, and not what ethics is really for or about. so yeah, help your kid! but youre not helping your kid out of altruism, youre helping your kid out of self-interest, and that's fine! the same way its fine to do all the other things out of self-interest.

but there's this other thing, actual altruism, helping people because you think its the right thing to do, even though it will never benefit you outside of warm fuzzies (which, if you were willing to accept delusion, you could get easier), and that thing is valuable, and important, and the human mind must be constantly dragged towards it. but its not the only thing. there are at least two poles in any ethical system i can accept, a pole towards the self and a pole towards the universal Good, and every ethics must be stuck in the tug between them. there might be other poles to. beauty, probably. community, maybe, although i think community is actually just long-term (like, over the course of a life, not long term as in 1000 years) self-interest (which is fine).

[theladybrownstarot]

MONTHLY-READING

2024 MAY 2024

Pick a card reading ~

❀ Here's my masterlist for more !

❀ Make sure you like/follow/reblogg for more pacs like these!

Pile 1. Pile 2. Pile 3.

𐙚 Pile 1 .

Namaste pile 1 ! Let's get with your reading :-

☪︎ The first half of your pile no.1 is all about connecting with your intuition or the very deeper side yourself . Now , from what I sense , a secret is being revealed which could be of any kind also this month your intuition will be the protector and solution to all your queries and problems so stop taking tension and control your emotions because most of you will have mood swings .

☪︎ The second phase of your will be about collaboration , adjustments and being introduced to things or people in general , You are making better decisions and choices for yourself which will make your work easy . If you had financial trouble or issues/any important talk with second or third party can be seen here taking a good turn .

☪︎ The last phase of your month is about releasing of any strong patterns in your life or anything in general which is getting released slowly slowly , you are seem to be patient this month regrading things as it feels like you are shifting your energies or anything in general with patience for long term . Its more like preparing yourself for something . Be cautious of your money usage and job.

𐙚❀˖° Monthly Advice : 333/444 can be a number you may see quite often and date 18th is quite important for you .

A wish you made is coming true but work hard to keep events cool as things may unfold more .

Take some break or take action for same and adjust .

Connect with your emotions more otherwise emotional explosion may happen .

Surrender your things to divine whole heartedly .

❀ Prominent zodicas and houses : Pisces, Capricorn , taurus , Virgo , 4th house , 1st house, 6th house , 5th house , Jupiter and Neptune .

𐙚 Pile 2 .

Namaste pile 2 ! Let's get with your reading :-

☪︎ The first half of the month will be about completion of a cycle happily at last , good moments with family and people . You may get some sort of achievements that you always wanted . It will be calm ,joyful and happy. Some sort pregnancy possible.

☪︎ The second phase about your month is all about taking charge and going ahead with the things fastly but in an aggressive manner which is not good because it is possible that a conflict may emerge out of this or in general so calm your horses .

☪︎ The third phase of the month is all about disbalancing the balanced and then balancing the disbalanced . A lot of fastness in nature will lead to disbalance and instability of things you created all again so be cautious. You need to prioritise things because handing a lot or more than your plate could result in failure .

☪︎ There could be a feminine figure you may be dealing with who has a negative influence on you . You need to focus on your things not people whom you have conflicts with otherwise you will end up regretting .

𐙚❀˖° Monthly Advice : You need to make adjustments and compromises with the things .

please be patient and do not hurry for more till your sown seeds grow.

A balanced communication is required for something important or balance your self talk .

win is coming .

release any negativity if you are holding onto no grudges please .

❀ Prominent zodiacs and houses: libra , aquarius , gemini , cancer , scorpio , pisces , libra , taurus , capricorn , eight house , 7th house , mercury and moon .

𐙚 Pile 3.

Namaste pile 3 ! Let's get with your reading :-

☪︎ Okay , In the first phase of may i see you people chasing after something or running for something that you want more than anything else , you are constant and high with speed for anything you are working for also this may lead you behind some things which may needs your focus . Be focused but be alert too .

☪︎ In the second phase of your month you are letting the guard down , moving in a flow like a river calm and giving attention to all that requires but there's warning do not use any unethical way to get things done , also be cautious as someone may deceive you ; the person appears to be sweet but isn't. Don't self sabotage your feelings too .

☪︎ The last phase will be quite tough as struggles will be their in any form you can expect accordingly to your context . You need to put this thing in your head that don't give up.

𐙚❀˖° Monthly Advice : success is close , just try as you are being tested.

deal with your emotions now and take actions.

make sure you don't blow events out of proportion.

Shift your perception .

shed your old skin

❀ Prominent zodiacs and houses : gemini , libra , aquarius , capricorn , taurus , virgo, scorpio , cancer , leo and aries , 10th house , 11th house , 2nd house and 3rd house .

──⭒─⭑─⭒────⭒─⭑─⭒──

©️ @theladybrownstarot 2023 all rights reserved. Any stealing Or copying of work will be a punishable offence.

[lilacxquartz]

Those Late Summer Nights | Chapter 24

satoru gojo x f!reader x suguru geto

plot: moving to the city from a small town was no easy feat, especially to start teaching as a jujutsu sorcerer.

summary: coming to a conclusion, satoru makes an important decision that has indirect consequences for everyone else — trigger warning: dubcon, reader is not in her right mind

masterlist • ao3 • chapter directory • previous chapter • next chapter >

Chapter 24. Sweet Cinnamon

At a glance, if he really thought about it, Satoru’s life hadn’t changed all that much. He upheld his role within Jujutsu society just fine; he still went to work and trained relentlessly—just as it was all expected of him. His students continued to not suspect a single thing and as for his remaining colleagues—they didn’t either. After all, nobody outside of his once tightly-knit group of friends could ever suspect just what sort of secret he was hiding just below where he slept.

All of the horror—the suffering—remained unchanged because he had the cover of being the strongest. An important name. A respected figure because what could Satoru Gojo, the man who had the entirety of Jujutsu society wrapped right around his finger, possibly have to hide?

Nobody could ever guess that just below his otherwise unassuming home, there was you who slowly gave into the reality he had so ‘generously’ sculpted. It was insulting in a sense as you finally broke into the concept. The prospect of living life under his assigned conditions and what were otherwise, oppressive terms, no longer seemed that bad, especially since it had been long enough to become untrusting of the outside world to begin with. Everything was losing its appeal and the prison you once sought escape from, was starting to feel like home.

Suddenly, he didn’t seem so much like your jailer anymore—perhaps your cellmate—equally trapped in a reality that you both didn’t fully understand.

Maybe your resolve was just weak.

Satoru never thought so, oddly enough, which was why he chose to break you down slowly as opposed to the alternative, if you would believe him or not. Not that he would admit it, and especially not you, but this whole situation was grating on him, too. Maintaining the sudden severance of his once tightly-knit support network while simultaneously upholding the person that the rest of the world needed him to be was a tough task, after all. You wouldn’t get it, of course, so that much remained a burden for him and him alone. Any sane person would rightfully call him delusional at such a mention, because how difficult could it possibly be, to keep up the life that he was born into?

(He wasn’t just the strongest anymore—he was a mentor, a protector, a parent—but he was also the person that he was when around you.)

Satoru never expected to get away with it though, so much so that he didn’t account for it, but luckily for him, he was good at everything—even keeping secrets buried beneath the surface—even when the dirt kept coughing right back up at him.

You’d change.

You’d adapt.

(And then things would be right again—things would smooth out once more—everything would go back to just how it was, right? …Right?)

Satoru took a deep breath as he tried to justify his delusions, already feeling the negative aftermath of his deeply-rooted obsession. He didn’t understand why he felt this strongly about you if he was being honest, someone he once thought to be insignificant from who knows where—but here he was—losing his goddamn mind.

The only conflicting factor being, was Megumi, because where did you otherwise fit into his life when the boy was too perceptive to accept sudden involvement within his life?

You’d show up clean out of nowhere, supposedly accepting your role as the husk of someone you once were and the kid would see right through it all, somehow. The idea frustrated him a great deal, but if he could pull it off—then maybe life could become worth living again to the two of you—maybe you could learn how to enjoy things again (and not hit him with that wavering, blank stare). He supposed that for now at least, the bedroom could remain off-limits—at least until the prospect of Jujutsu High met him around the corner, come next autumn when Megumi would tear away for the campus instead.

Until then, he would be careful.

He should never make the mistake of perceiving Megumi’s indifferent state as ignorance.

That’s how he would slip up.

That’s how he would lose someone he considered to be his son.

Satoru in the meantime tried cooking today again, shoving the leftovers of what he had accomplished (or lack of thereof) into a stray container. Megumi was on his last day of school for the week and therefore, he had risked it considerably by bringing you up earlier—luckily though—the kid was out cold the entire night. Besides that, there were the festivities that he stuck around for, being begrudgingly sentimental towards such things. Such reluctance and even stubbornness reminded him both dearly of his old trio.

He thought about it often—just what sort of adult he’d grow into—for him to end up like his real father, Toji Fushiguro, Satoru thought would be a devastating prospect. Given the direction Megumi seemed to be heading though, it was highly unlikely. He carried a good head on his shoulders, likely due to him being a suitable model if he could believe it. Satoru gulped at the thought, not quite liking that payoff either, especially given what he was up to right now. The role he so masterfully played, only to be a facade in the end.

“Are the pancakes any good?” Satoru asked, watching the boy poke around the plate with his face scrunched up in disapproval.

Megumi was silently blunt—most found it to be harsh, but at least it was easy to tell what was appreciated and what wasn’t.

With a strained gulp down, Megumi replied in a slightly bothered tone, “Too dry.”

Satoru half-laughed, attempting not to feel dejected, but at least he supposed that it was honest feedback. “Yeah, I… I guess they’re not salvageable either, huh?”

“Maybe not,” the kid muttered in a curt, albeit polite tone, pushing the plate away from him and crossing his arms. “Why are you cooking so much lately, anyway?”

Satoru shrugged as he tried to force down the bites of food he made. He wasn’t usually bad at cooking, especially not with sweet things. Luckily, Megumi didn’t pick up on that or didn’t care about the intricacies of his personal life. For the most part, the annoyance seemed to come from being a taste-test guinea pig instead.

“I’m not sure—I guess, I guess… I guess I want to be useful?”

Megumi blinked, studying his guardian’s expression closely. “Useful?”

Satoru nervously laughed, patting the kid on his head. “You’re a growing boy aren’t you?” he asked, trying to spin it around, realising that despite him being quite young too, it felt like he was ancient when he tried to be relatable towards Megumi.

“You’re acting weird,” Megumi complained, rolling his eyes as he tried to get out of the kitchen by this point, hoping to leave whatever sort of forced banter was unfolding.

For now, Satoru decided to brush away the rejection and scooped up the remainder of the failed concoction into another container, intending to bring it down to you later—or perhaps he shouldn’t—not if he was trying to get you to like him… Then again. That look you had in your eyes when you saw the first snow, though? He knew that he had finally gotten somewhere. He just had to dull your spirit enough to make you appreciate the little things enough.

(The little things that paled in the grand scheme of what he wanted to accomplish with you.)

Satoru listened as the front door slammed shut, intending to leave soon himself. A decision formed in his mind as he considered the process of everything else. He would go through the day as normally as possible, arousing no suspicion at all. He’d teach, he’d piss everyone else off at the faculty all the same and then finally, he’d head home.

Movie nights were always a hit or a miss for you, but this time he would try again, letting you take the lead. He’d get your favourite snacks and your favourite drinks, and let you choose a film out of a variety this time. He wouldn’t try and force you into anything this time either, not anymore—or at least—not like that. Maybe, just maybe, if you were able to feel like you had even a semblance of control (however false it was), then you would finally understand the big picture of what he was trying to paint.

~~~

With the rest of the world fast asleep and with Megumi staying over at a trusted babysitter; Satoru lowered himself into the basement at long, long last. The sight was something he had barely gotten used to by this point, though. Would you even believe him if he told you that he doesn’t actually like seeing you cooped up like that? That he hated that sort of, vacant and surely dead-inside look you gave him daily—nightly—whenever it was. He wanted something different—perhaps those eyes that glinted with hope when you were back in your small town with him at your side, not whatever this was—whittled down to something blank, the sparkle put out and faded.

(Unless he could rekindle it.)

(That was the sort of hope he held onto for both of your sakes.)

The stairs creaked and your body twitched, but you didn’t make an effort to acknowledge him. Satoru softly sighed at such a thing, waiting for the dreaded question to finally surface, the answer on his lips already threatening to escape.

False freedom was what he could give you—but you could never go home.

And yet, just as the words left your lips, the question was something different.

“Can we go up and look at the sk—” you began, only for him to cut you off before you finished with the mention of his, “—never.”

A tense silence brewed between the two of you and the implications hung heavy in the thick, almost stagnant air. Satoru for once, hesitated, unwinding his bandages clean from his eyes and finally dimmed the blinding fluorescents into something more bearable, at long, long last. The shadows were at last allowed to settle and a new look in your eyes formed at the gifted low light—not just relief, but acceptance too—the look of someone defeated, ready to surrender.

He took a deep breath and settled the plastic bag full of snacks and the like down before where you sat, before sitting down right next to you. Satoru considered extending an arm out to reach and pull you in close—to touch you—but he refrained. Nothing forced, he told himself, even if it was too late to go down that approach. He knew himself, that what he was doing was fucked up, but also, he never wanted for it to be this way. Or at least that’s what he kept telling himself. Something about Suguru getting to you first and in secrecy, too, had triggered a darker side of him that he didn’t know he had—that he potentially didn’t want to understand. Maybe it was never about sharing what his friend had to begin with, maybe he would have been fine with it from the start. Maybe it was simply just because…

(Did he even know the real reason?)

It was simply just because Suguru saw something in you that he couldn’t.

Or?

No, that couldn’t have just been it. Or at least, it couldn’t have been the full truth. Think, Satoru, think. There was something deeper—more volatile.

At first, Satoru thought that Suguru was reaching. You were a pretty face, right? Maybe he wanted something passive or casual, that much was fine, but he could read him perfectly well. From the moment you disclosed what you did at the table from the very first time you met, something potentially very dangerous triggered for Suguru. He had seen that look in his eyes before, way back then, right when he was at the cusp of falling off into the deep end—right before he stopped himself.

Perhaps he should have seen the signs earlier on; what with the lacking interest of who it was that they, as sorcerers, should be protecting and how to do it.

(No, no. He got it.)

It was simply because, instead, Suguru saw a familiar darkness within you that he used to bring closer to justify the means.

Whereas you just wanted to move on—to reduce the negativity—to prevent the darkness from consuming you.

(Maybe it was that… Satoru wanted it too?)

Satoru took a deep breath, drinking in the silence. He thought back to hearing about that murder in your old town, recognising the name immediately—the follow-up to a recently connected killing of a civilian but also, his own family too. He remembered that dysfunctional home; the tough crowd that he had to face and yet, it still made him feel weird, but at the same time… not that he wanted to justify the crimes of his friend, he kind of got it. Or at least, he was starting to.

It was however wrong of him to share that information with you in that way, so for that reason, he had to do better. The abduction should never be forgiven, that much was perfectly fine and even something he accepted, but, he would at least try to help you move on.

Away from the negativity.

Away from jujutsu society.

Away from Suguru.

And into a fabricated life, yes, but… he would give you everything he could beyond that and never force anything ever again.

(Was that much such a delusional hope?)

Before that could happen though, he had to understand something. He reached out into the bag at his feet and took out two drinks of something citrusy, pulling at the tab before handing you the other one.

“Hey, [name]?” Satoru asked, locking his eyes on the same wall you focused on.

You turned your head ever so slightly but didn’t answer.

Satoru continued anyway, “Tell me what really happened back then—the part of the story that you didn’t tell. I know that Suguru knows because otherwise he wouldn’t have done what he… I guess… I’m just trying to understand something.”

Your lips parted a little, trying to bring yourself to tell the truth again. A part of you wondered why he was bringing this up now. Maybe he was just curious, or maybe he was trying to conduct his own investigation as to why his good friend went off the deep end. Whatever the reason, you gave in a second time.

You started off the same way, just like before, reciting it just as clearly as you did for Suguru back then. You watched his reactions as you spoke, watching his once curious expression slowly morph into something shaper—something with a different sort of edge to it. Perhaps it was vulnerability, realisation, or both. It faded quickly whatever it was, quickly twisting into anger, perhaps even self-blame because just like Suguru, Satoru at long, long last, finally understood why you were as dangerous as you were.

A product of the very humanity they were assigned to protect, yet so horribly scarred from it.

Satoru tensed as you finally finished up and for a good, long while, he didn’t say a single thing, but then when he broke the silence, he surprised you instead.

“Did you mean to say that you want to go look at the sky, earlier?” he asked, his voice so tender, so raw.

You didn’t have to think twice. “Yes.”

He sat up, stretching out his stiff limbs from their once compacted position, and looked around. Maybe the basement was a bad idea from the start. Maybe giving into the whole estate was. Satoru sucked at his teeth as he made another internal decision, leaving the bag behind and leading you up, flicking the lights off and all of the suspicion be damned, the change was going to start now. He led you up to the roof, letting you lean against the railing to look at the starts, and for just a minute, he left you all alone to step just out of earshot to make a call.

He was going to change things. Isolation was never it. The fucking penthouse was never it. He finally got it. He’d make arrangements for somewhere else, perhaps exactly as Suguru planned and Megumi would go to high school as normal come the end of the next summer. It hurt, but the person he left him behind with was trusted and eventually, he would return—but first—whether it was the wrong way to do it, he was going to make things right. You’d live somewhere far away from the literal prison he had wrongfully confined you to and he would mend things from there on.

(Not quite realising that it was another format of the very same thing he had otherwise inflicted, convincing himself that it was different this time.)

Satoru scoffed again as he finalised those decisions, internally berating himself.

He should have given you that chance from the start.

He shouldn’t have let Suguru poison your mind.

He shouldn’t have succumbed to a moment of weakness back in the classroom—fuck—what exactly did he do, when he…

The cataclysm, indeed.

He was simply just the rain that followed after the clouds, and you, the storm.

~~~

After a moment, you headed back down with Satoru from the moment that it got too cold. Your fingers found themselves curling against the clothes that he wore. It was already deep into the dead of winter, but you tried to tolerate more than you could, thinking that this was your last time seeing the sky—even if it was dark—you pushed yourself more than you could.

However, as Satoru guided you into the bedroom and sat you down, suddenly seeming so awkward, so tender; the sass and the confidence gone from his usually proud demeanour, he revealed the person that he kept hidden beneath the surface so well—from the world, from his friends, from everyone—although now, at least not to you.

For what was below strength, also lay weakness.

Satoru tugged you towards him, pulling you deep into his chest, enveloping you with his body as though to shield you from the rest of the world. With his grip and the hurt that coursed through his veins, he radiated a deep anger, feeling something beyond just regular sadness consume him. He held onto you so tight, so longingly, so desperately.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered quietly on a loop, his chin resting atop your head, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry—”

For whatever reason, you gave in. You needed to be held softly for a change—to for once, be listened to. You gave in. You knew you shouldn’t have, but…

His fingers traced their way down to meet your jawline, gently pushing you up to meet with his eyes, so purely blue and crystalline. Satoru’s lips then crashed against yours, his breath hitching—yours too—when you for once, reciprocated it for a change. You were breaking. He was breaking. His lips tasted of sweet cinnamon today, of burnt sugar, of something sweet. He wouldn’t let you go, pulling you up, for once, trying to read into what you wanted for a change.

Delicately, his touch found its way in between your legs, snaking the path down to meet at a certain point. His movements were clumsy—inexperienced—his motions out of rhythm; but, god, he tried. You deserved to feel good for a change, after all. For a moment he stilled, realising that he was only prolonging the cycle, but then—a shudder, no—a moan slipped through your lips and just like that, the addiction returned in full blast, straight like morphine into his system.

Grinding into his touch felt foreign but you did so anyway, circling your hips ever-so-slightly to guide the pace. Satoru picked up just fine, moving to hover over you after a heated moment, as gently as possible trying to read into your body language, pushing apart your legs from the second that he felt no resistance. In an anticipated rush of nerves, he fumbled with his own clothes, plunging his aroused length into the apex of your cunt, burying himself deep inside, pistoning himself with almost manic fervour.

Satoru hilted himself again and again, his breath catching in his throat as ragged gasps barely trickled out of his lungs. You felt so good with your legs wrapped around him like that, sinking him fully into you like an anchored weight—so capsizing and devastating and yet—

Embracing the storm, you allowed him to rut into your core like a man crazed, peppering you with sloppy, open-mouthed kisses all the while. His momentum felt slick, somehow not painful like all of those times before, and yet—charged with something dangerous—so raw and apologetic, finally feeling something from you that wasn’t despair. You kissed him again, letting the taste of cinnamon linger.

Satoru, to your surprise, however, wept into the pillow beside you, dampening your hair in the process. Oceanic blue eyes that flooded—pounding into you with fresh regret, yet at the same time wishing to forget about all that he had inflicted—that he was, actively inflicting; telling himself that it was all okay this time because you were finally giving in.

(Even though, surrendering to a broken state of mind wasn’t the answer.)

“Does this feel good?” he asked as his voice cracked, sounding muffled as he strained into the pillow, partially obscured by your hair.

Your breath locked in your throat as you tried to respond, rolling whimpers that bordered on whines filling the silence instead. You did feel good, but you also didn’t, but you also did. Satoru pushed the advantage, misinterpreting the breathless silence as something positive—you were enjoying yourself, right? At least for now, everything was okay, he was okay, and nothing mattered—

Satoru stilled all of a sudden, feeling himself grow close. His fingers moved quicker that time, tracing feverish laps around your clit, reducing your lower half to a violent tremble, feeling your legs give in from underneath him; the chorus of your voice looping in a short-winded symphony and finally, you came undone at long, long last.

A wave of pleasure imploded within you, collapsing from the very moment it coiled, but beyond that, something felt wrong. So terribly wrong. Like a sudden wave of clarity had washed over you, regret settled into the depths of your heart and soul. The weight of what you gave into playing heavily, leaving you feeling like a woman drowned. You didn’t fight back this time though, realising that you were closer to freedom than ever before—all you had to do now was to hold on a little longer—to give in, to surrender—so that the starry nights could become sunrises forever more.

Satoru finished with a final loaded thrust, driving himself with a wailing conclusion. His head dropped forward, resting his forehead against your own and after a while, he pulled out at long last, not caring about the cleanup for a change, rather just… enjoying the afterglow of the moment.

A hint of worry started to consume him though.

What if your admission of surrender wasn’t real?

As you both drifted off to sleep, he held onto you even tighter than before, hoping, even praying, that this wasn’t the case at all, and yet…

Nevermind.

He would make it right again, because, at this point, he had to.

~~~

In the meanwhile, days later after the call with Yuki went through and the hope had planted itself, Shoko received a phone call to her personal cell from an unfamiliar number. Practically tearing out of the med bay within a flash, she quickly locked herself in a nearby supply closet with her back pressed against the door, shutting out the world just in case.

With a tentative hand, she pressed the phone against her ear, expecting to hear words of comfort, her heart dropping from the moment she heard Yuki talk.

“It’s me,” Yuki greeted, her words sounding tense. “We might have a problem.”

Shoko’s breath hitched, already sensing something terribly wrong.

“A problem?” she asked, trying to keep a composed tone.

“Yeah, I, uh,” Yuki continued, “I had a mole check over the estate posing as a housemaid and, “he’s not there Shoko.”

Shoko’s voice faltered. “What do you mean?”

“His home was picked clean, it’s empty,” she added, trying to break the news in as delicately as possible, yet in words that begged understanding, “she asked around, but it turns out that she didn’t need to—they’re keeping it a secret for now, but—Satoru Gojo is gone.”

How could she be so close and yet somehow so far away from it all? For her to have devised a plan that might just work and yet, Satoru flipped the tables all over again. Was this intentional? Her mind raced, yet nothing stuck.

For a moment, it felt like time went still.

What kind of cruel fucking joke was this?

And more importantly, what did that mean for you…?

[verdantwyrm]

In Defense of Curly.

I'm going to start off with the biggest thing that this post could ever mention. Obviously this thread is not at all claiming he is innocent, at all, but some of you need to learn what an unkowning bystander is before you all go and jump Curly and make him out to be just as bad as Jimmy, if not worse for his "Inaction" and i'm going to explain in this thread that accounting bystanders to be apart of the crime is not fair, and how the situation with Anya, Jimmy and Curly is actually very realistic on how real life rape situations go, and the spiraling that occours afterwards.

This is going to be a long thread involving the topics of rape and other mental health junk, so strap in!

Anya's rape.

I'm going to immediately preface this section with a very big important thing. I am a victim, so do not think I am talking out of my ass here when I am talking about Anya, kay we cool now? kay.

So, we as the player know what happens. We know that there was a situation between Anya and Jimmy which either lead to rape, or it was enforced upon her, the actual content of the situation we don't know anything about, all we know that it was not consensual. But how it started and the exact details, we know nothing about.

When Anya tells Curly that she is pregnant, she expresses its something bad, but never tells Curly HOW it happened. And Curly's immediete action is to be concerned for her, he is worried for her, and even though he shouldn't, he LETS HER keep the gun as well!

But WE KNOW exactly what happened, as the player, but Curly wasn't told. He was only told that a pregnancy occurred between her and Jimmy, but the actual details of the event- what we know, is not something that Curly knows. We're able to pick up all the signs and see the language and imagery used, but to Curly, it just sounds like they had a hook up and it ended up in a pregnancy.

And that is a totally fair assumption to make, and it is also a completely fair assumption that your best friend wouldn't do such a thing. (I'll touch on this a bit later) So why would his first assumption be rape? Being unhappy about the pregnancy doesn't exactly scream anything in particular, in Curly's mind, she could be unhappy for multiple reasons. That it happened with Jimmy (of all people), that she is stuck on a ship in outer space for what seems like the remainder of her pregnancy, which is an already unsafe environment to be pregnant in and carry a baby to term. So it is a totally understandable and fine thing to not automatically assume rape when there are already plenty of other things at play that could make her and Jimmy unhappy with the outcome.

And plus, when Anya asks what Curly would have done, people seem to be ignoring (or just plain outright not even noticing) the language used. She's asking him what he would have done. The event is already over, it happened, she is asking what he would have done if he had been there, or if he knew earlier; or maybe if he knew at all.

For safety, for whatever reason the cockpit has locks, whatever reason the Meday has a lock, but not any of the bedrooms. Curly acknowledges the absurdity behind the decision, but he doesn't quite understand or grasp why Anya could be asking such a thing beyond simple curiosity because of course someone like Anya would be pointing out something like this, she spends the most time in the med bay, and Curly likewise with the Cockpit.

There are a ton of nuances that go into play when trying to realistically picture what could have or what should have happened on the Tulpar with Jimmy, and I really wish more people were willing to understand that it's not just as black and white, and not people that end up enabling said abusers are not always a willing and knowing crowd. And start maybe thinking about the fact that maybe

Curly really did not know the depth of the situation.

Jimmy's Spiral

The other thing I see tons and tons and tons of people talk about is "why didn't Curly do more about Jimmy!" "Why didn't he see this coming!"

Because, proven by my point of him not noticing Anya's rape, he would not have noticed Jimmy to do such a thing as murder-suicide. They have been friends for a "long time" according to Curly, but what if this was truly the first time he's ever seen Jimmy get this mad? When Anya tells Curly she told Jimmy, his first immediate response is to panic, he knows that Jimmy is an angry man, possibly a violent one as well.

He expected there to be yelling, or worse, physical violence, but Jimmy just.. walked away. And that's what scared him the most, the fact that he didn't react terrified Curly. So he ran to go and check on Jimmy and try to calm him down, which he thought worked, until it didn't. Curly would not have ever expected Jimmy to do this, how could he?This is probably the very first time that he's seen Jimmy spiral so hard, so intensely and in such a short time. He's seen him get mad, get angry, get violent, but those have all been in different situations, which have not as dire consequences as being the co-pilot of a ship with everyone on board. How the hell was he supposed to assume that he would ever do something like this? And that's even further proved by Curly's shock when Jimmy does divert the ship to crash it.

He is in genuine shock that Jimmy would even do this, and it seems like even Jimmy is as well. Despite having made multiple conscious decisions, turning the steering wheel right, getting out of his chair, grabbing the override key, disabling auto pilot and then steering again into the asteroid, he is still in shock that he actually went through with this. He wasn't actually expecting to do it, and then he did, and now he's grasping the consequences of his actions way too late.

And Curly is also just as shocked.

"I didn't- I should have..." is an immediate blame towards himself for not thinking that Jimmy would do something like this, but again, how do you plan for something like this? If Curly knew Jimmy was capable of such collateral destruction, he would not have him as his co-pilot, so it only makes sense that this was the first real and dangerous time he ever saw Jimmy truly spiral into madness. There were all the warning signs, all the red flags, but nothing could have prepared him for this. Why would Curly's first reaction to anything be the worst outcome, you don't do that when you trust someone. And again, this could be seriously the first time he's ever seen Jimmy react like this.

All we know is that Jimmy has had it rough back on earth, that he was jobless for a long time. Nothing else, nothing about him being a criminal, nothing about him being in trouble with the police, just that he has had it hard which can really mean anything.

It was the wrong time, the wrong person, the wrong break with all the wrong tools.

In conclusion, Curly is not entirely innocent. But I think it is extremely fair and very realistic to not automatically assume the worst of someone you thought you could trust. And he genuinely thought he could trust Jimmy, and he reacted pretty realistically and fairly given the circumstances. He absolutely cared about Anya and the rest, and would have done much much more if he had the time or the ability to do so.

Of course he didn't notice the smaller details, he's used to looking at the bigger picture.

[writingquestionsanswered]

i was reading my writing so far and noticed that it's kind of hasty? it feels like the scenes pass too quickly and characters act and make decisions too fast. i'm kind of a pantser and still on my first draft so there's definitely gonna be a lot of revisions but i was wondering if you'd have any advise on how to make the time in my story pass more naturally as opposed to stuff happening kind of rapid-fire. my story is high fantasy if that's relevant. i hope i worded this in a way that is understandable.

(also thanks so much for running this blog, it's very helpful)

Scenes Feel Rushed (Scene Elements/Structure)

The thing about scene pacing is it has nothing to do with time. It isn't about how long it takes the reader to read the scene, the amount of time that elapses in the story during the scene, or how fast/slow these events play out. Here's why:

-- readers read at different speeds -- scenes can occur over a period of minutes or days in your story -- scenes can be fast-paced or slow-paced depending on need

So, if your scenes are feeling rushed, it's not because you need figure out how to make the time pass more naturally. It's because not enough is happening in your scene. In other words, you don't have a good grasp on what scenes are supposed to accomplish and how to structure them.

Scene Elements

Your scene should include the following elements:

1 - A Writer Understood Purpose - First and foremost, as the writer, you should understand the purpose (aka "goal") of the scene in terms of what it accomplishes in the bigger story. Does it advance the plot in some way? Does it develop the protagonist and/or other main characters in a way that is crucial to the plot? Does it develop the setting, back story, or otherwise give the reader information they need in order to understand the story?

2 - Clearly Established Setting - Imagine if you went to see a play, but the stage had no backdrop, no scenery, no props. It was just a big empty stage with actors on it. Imagine how much you would lose without understanding where this scene was taking place. It works the same way in fiction, which is why it's important to start a scene by giving the reader some idea of where it's taking place. Using sensory and emotional description, you can give the reader a good image of the scenery and what it means to the POV character/s and the scene that's about to unfold.

3 - Relevant Characters - A scene can't play out without its requisite characters, but "requisite" is the keyword there: only characters who are relevant to the purpose of the scene--as well as "background extras" who are there to fill small-but-necessary roles and lend to an authentic setting... such as the teacher and other students in a classroom scene, or other patrons and servers in a restaurant scene. However, don't include main or secondary characters just to include them. They should be there because they need to be or because it makes sense for them to be there.

4 - Scene Conflict - Just as every story needs a conflict (an over-arching problem that must be resolved), so does every scene. Scene conflict can be internal (within the character's heart and mind) or external (in the character's environment). The purpose of the scene is to either resolve the scene conflict or propel it toward a future scene.

5 - Clarified Motivation and Goal - Because you understand the purpose of the scene (what you're trying to accomplish in the scene as the writer) and because you know the conflict/problem that must be resolved, it's important to clarify your character's scene goal (what they're trying to do in order to resolve the scene's problem, or their attempt to resolve it) and what is motivating them to resolve this conflict. Why is it important to them?

6 - Relative Balance of Exposition, Action, and Dialogue - Most scenes should have a relative balance of exposition (narrator explaining things), action (things happening), and dialogue (characters talking.) However, there are sometimes scenes that will lean toward more exposition, more action, or more dialogue. It just depends on the needs of the scene, but generally-speaking, you want a reasonably good balance. If there's no story-centric reason 90% of the scene needs to be dialogue, you need to make sure you balance things out a little more between dialogue, action, and exposition.

7 - Exploration of Emotion - Even in stories that are fully plot-driven, there needs to be an exploration of the emotions being felt by the characters in the scene, and an attempt by the writer to translate those emotions to the reader. The movie Jurassic Park, for example, was pretty fully plot-driven... it wasn't really about exploring internal conflicts or character arcs... but the emotion felt by the characters at throughout the story went a long way in making the reader feel things alongside them. Who can forget Dr. Grant seeing the dinosaurs for the first time:

Or Lex trembling when she saw the raptor in the visitor's center:

By illustrating character emotion using external cues (body language, facial expressions, gestures) and internal cues (sensations like heart pounding, processing what emotions are being felt and what it means), and by exploring how these emotions relate to the plot (and character arc, if there is one), we can create a much deeper sense of what's happening in the scene and why it matters.

Scene Structure

Scenes, like plot, have their own structure. Just as with plot structure, you can vary your scene's structure according to the needs of your scene, but generally speaking it will look like this:

Beginning - hook and setting establishment

Conflict Development - introduce or reiterate the scene conflict; clarify character motivation, goal, and what's at stake. Introduce the obstacles or challenges that raise the stakes or make it more difficult for the character to achieve their scene goal

Climax - The conflict reaches its peak... the character attempts to resolve the scene conflict for good, or at least temporarily. Or, at the very least, something significant occurs

Resolution/Denouement - The scene conflict is either resolved or it's set aside to be dealt with later. The character reflects on what happened, what it means, and what's next

Transition to Next Scene - We usually want to end a scene with some hint of what the next scene will be to create a smooth transition to the next scene. This could be a statement of time, like, "In another week, Roland would return from Bruges and she could finally talk to him about what was going on." Or, it can be a cliffhanger, like, "But it wasn't Bernard and Cleo who got out of the taxi... it was Roland and Cleo. But Roland was supposed to be two-thousand miles away in Bruges..." Or, it can be an establishment of what comes next. "Whatever Roland was up to, she'd have to wait until tomorrow to snoop around and find out more."

By making sure your scene includes the proper elements and generally follows a basic scene structure, you can ensure that there's enough happening in the scene to keep it from playing out too quickly.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[larryisinlove]

I completely agree with this post by @apparentlybychance and what I write below is from my perspective. My understanding comes from the perspective of someone who studied marketing since 2019, is a community manager and currently works in a marketing agency. 

You are not compelled to take everything I say as the real and only way to look at it, this is my opinion and I respect others as well.

It's clear that Louis needs a new marketing team, as the current one doesn't seem to be doing its job properly or, worse, doesn't even seem to understand what they're doing. Their attempts to divert attention to topics such as his "fatherhood" or sexuality are way too obvious, while his music is poorly promoted. Many fans try to fill that gap by promoting his music organically, but it doesn't have much impact as we are not an enormous fandom and it's not our responsibility either. Moreover, the fan base shrinks with every failed "strategy", which generates disinterest, anger and abandonment of the fandom. This is also reflected in the organisation and promotion of their shows and music releases. 

The worrying thing is that this mismanagement is not new; it has been going on since the beginning of his solo career. Some justify this by saying that Louis prefers to be an underground/indie artist and be left alone with the usual fans, but that makes no sense, that's just a justification for the bad actions of his team. No artist seeks to stagnate or limit his growth. To advocate without questioning every decision of an artist's background doesn't mean being a "bad fan", and it is important to understand that questioning the strategy is not attacking the artist. 

It is frustrating to see that many fans believe that Louis doesn't really want to grow as an artist, which, again, makes no sense. The problem is the lack of planning and analysis on the part of his team, who act without foreseeing the long-term consequences. I don't understand this image they want to give him, because as a fan for years, this is not the Louis I grew up with. Maybe he's trying to distance himself from One Direction and avoid the mainstream stuff, which is admirable, but this kinda rude and distant image doesn't seem to align with his original (and real) essence. 

Those of us who work in marketing and communication have a different, more analytical and technical vision, which allows us to detect patterns and strategies (or the lack of them). This is not a justification to invalidate other opinions in any way, but to offer an informed perspective. With Louis, it is clear that there is no clear strategy. His team seems to improvise, as if every decision is made without a long-term plan, simply reacting in the moment.

The resurgence of the babygate stuff a few days ago is another example of this lack of planning. From the outset it seems to have been an idea launched without considering the consequences and, now that it has grown out of control, they don't know how to handle it or shut it down for good. This only creates more chaos as the years go by. The exposure of the child has been contradictory from the beginning: How can you justify wanting to protect his privacy when he was initially exposed so much by his whole family, from pregnancy onwards, and then included in the documentary "All of These Voices"? Nothing has any coherence if you analyse it at all.

As for the blocking on Twitter, it is hard to believe that Louis has blocked so many accounts without it being known beforehand. It's an absurd and ineffective tactic to manage the narrative of his public image. I agree with the post that "Louis and his team are no different. They like to use subtle tactics like blocking, following, unfollowing or general interactions on their social accounts (mainly X) to manage the narrative of their public image" as this is part of a strategy that has been carried over from One Direction, like when he tweeted "I am in fact straight" or "Larry is the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard".

Or Another example we can name is this 2012 interaction with Rebecca Ferguson, where she expresses the overexploitation she was receiving and "Louis" replies "Success is impossible without proper hard work". That contradictory image does not fit with the Louis that many of us fans have known and followed for years. Why would an artist seek to lose fans and, therefore, limit his growth?

Over time, all this has made their actions feel fake and automated. As a fan, one ends up questioning and analysing every action from another perspective, as nothing seems genuine or truthful. His "Hope everyone is doing alright" tweets seem scripted and even programmed, lacking that closeness that used to exist. While we know that artists' social media accounts are controlled, the fan/artist connection remains crucial to maintaining public support and loyalty. When repetitive patterns and bad strategies accumulate, the authenticity of the artist is lost, turning him into a kind of "robot" with no control over his actions, which can end up damaging his image and damaging the relationship with his fans, often without him being fully aware of it. 

From a music marketing perspective, there are several key aspects that Louis' team seems to ignore. An effective marketing team should focus on  research and investigation of the audience, clearly identifying the artist's target audience, considering factors such as age, interests and content consumption platforms. The lack of consistent branding is evident, as Louis' public image doesn't appear to align with his musical and personal essence, leading to confusion.

A well-planned release strategy should include a pre-launch campaign with teasers, interviews and strategic collaborations, something that seems to be absent in most of his projects. In addition, multi-channel promotion is essential, using social media, interviews, streaming playlists and specialised press, without relying exclusively on fandom. A competent team should also focus on authentic storytelling, creating an emotional and genuine narrative to connect with the audience, rather than resorting to polemical tactics that distort his image.

Fan growth and retention is another key aspect. Good marketing seeks to expand the fan base while maintaining the interest of the current, as opposed to what appears to be happening. Finally, long-term planning is essential, with measurable goals and clear direction, rather than reactive and inconsistent decisions.

In conclusion, Louis' team is not managing his career professionally or effectively. Successful marketing requires planning, analysis and authenticity. His fans deserve a clear and respectful narrative, and he deserves a team that will really promote his music and his career. I hope that for LT3 we have a good promotion, that his team starts to get things right because I don't want his career to continue to suffer consequences from this, besides from his image to be ruined by the mismanagement of those working with him.

[celestialtarot11]

Tarot Embodiments 💘🤍🌟

Hi friends! 💗 For those of you learning to read tarot, or wanting to strengthen your understanding of it, here you go! I really hope you enjoy + I appreciate any support given to this blog 🌟🥂 enjoy! I’m wondering if I should make a short on YouTube about how to read tarot! Would ya’ll love that? 🙈💖

💘 Pages- I like to think of Pages as the baby of the court cards. Learning to value its journey, growth, but still nervous about branching out. Seeking information, seeking to grow, gathering ideas, and planning. The planning before the action. Taking mental note. But depending on the Page this channeling of energy can be different!

💗 Page of cups- The sweet, generous, and jovial page. The all encompassing, but still learning to understand how emotions play an important role in situations/connections/oneself. Starting to gain a perspective that invites sympathy, emotion and understanding. Youthful, dreamy and young in their mindset. Also a messenger.

💗 Page of swords- The studier. The one who inspects parts before putting it together. Reading the manual to understand the point of the object at hand. Tinkering with different parts to see what fits, and gathering information over time to reach a conclusion. But does not have enough information to form on at this moment. Associated with spying, stalking, gathering information, and mental stimulation.

🤍 Page of wands- The pursuit of new ideas. The idea comes fast, excitedly, but lacks planning and execution. Putting together different elements to a situation/story/ narrative to create something passionate. Fleeting interest, lacks long term engagement. Ideas can fall apart and come together. Can represent someone who is exploring their passions, dreams and goals, but needs time. Can indicate someone starting a spiritual journey!

🥂 Page of pentacles- Eye on the prize. Determined, skilled, hopes for long term engagement. Still learning the value of a connection/project/friendship. Someone who is learning what their core values are. Someone who is developing slowly, does not make hasty moves. Can be focused to the point they forget anything else.

The Kings 💗🔮

The Kings are the evolved court cards of all. It represents maturity, development, and a state of security!

🦋 King of cups- Someone who is emotionally aware, conscious and stable. Secure emotionally, fulfilled within oneself, feels comfortable surrounding the home. Is able to give and receive comfortably, and is open to their heart space. Someone with dignity, morals, values that encompass emotion too. Shows acknowledgment for feelings, and can have deep conversation. Someone wealthy in terms of emotional knowledge, and spiritual wealth. Their home carries abundance. Humble, generous, loving, sweet, and nurturing.

🌟 King of wands- Someone who is assertive, passionate, driven. Motivated. Excites easily and makes decisions surrounding their passion. Someone who knows what they want and goes after it confidently, and attracts it. Someone who is impressive, but can have a big ego. Someone who is engaged with spirituality, or has a deep connection to spirituality. Someone who carries spiritual knowledge. Funny, energetic, passionate, charismatic, and bold.

🌹 King of Pentacles: Someone grounded, reserved, committed and confident. Self assured, focus is on material wealth, and sustains long term commitments. Someone who is strong headed, firm, and decisive. Considers the long term and future. Someone wealthy materialistically. Someone devoted to their projects, has a high position in their job, and is the head of a family. Someone who thinks of the future carefully and makes adjustments to align with what they see. Gentle, calm, patient, and supportive.

📌 King of swords- Cerebral, a thinker. Skilled in mental processes and is detached from emotion. Considers emotion, but does not make decisions from that place. Represents someone in their head often, and observing reality, can struggle to interact with it. A planner, someone who considers all options, observant and knowledgeable. Someone philosophical, and approaches from a knowledgeable perspective. A walking library. Someone with a lot to say and doesn’t necessarily say it all. Considerate, respectful, cerebral, an analyzer.

The Queens 🦋💘

Same thing as the Kings, they represent the evolved feminine side of us. The energetic feminine.

🌟 Queen of wands- The bad bitch! She knows she’s all that. Confident, secure, passionate, and harbors knowledge. Sexually tapped in, invigorating, yet caring. Someone who takes care of their health, passions and nurtures their dreams confidently. Their confidence comes from within. Is not afraid to be themselves. Magnetic, and attracts abundance from a mile away. Spiritually tapped in and can be well endowed in the spiritual department. Charismatic, spiritual, hilarious, confident, and intelligent.

💖 Queen of cups- The nurturer, has a wide understanding of emotion and how important stability is. Maintains equilibrium, balance, and peace within herself. Is emotionally passionate, guided and self assured. Validation comes from within. Focus is in the home and creating community, and is seen as warm, inviting, caring. Has boundaries and knows when to set limits. Has a deep connection ti the heart, and spirituality. Caring, supportive, nurturing, and expansive.

💘 Queen of swords- An analyzer, and understands the value of emotion in planning. Does not make the same mistake twice. Set boundaries, communicates effectively, direct and open minded. Does not tolerate bullshit, and is knowledgeable. Has higher insight on situations/oneself. Philosophical, and sees things from a different perspective. Can be seen as detached, nonchalant. Does not let emotion get in the way of doing what’s best for them. A thinker, organizer, committed to oneself, and knows her place/ value.

🥂 Queen of pentacles- Committed, generous, humble, and loving. A giver, and knows what she deserves in return. Focused on material abundance, wealth and finances. Blessed financially. Someone who works hard and has dignity. Disciplined, focused, structured. Reserved, honest, and respectful. Committed to their future, and will make any and all adjustments to create their dream life. Knows her value and worth, and will not accept anything less.

Thank ya’ll for reading! It’s appreciated. Any support given is also appreciated 🤗🌟 hope this was informative!

Paid Readings💘🌹

[youryurigoddess]

The biggest Easter egg yet

I’ve been meaning to address this for a while now, but @camdenleisurepirates gave me the final push after reading my piece on Gabriel’s cross. Huge thanks for that morsel of motivation, my ADHD brain loves you.

This is going to be yet another long read, although not as extensive as my bookshop statues meta. Still, better get yourself some hot chocolate or another drink of your choice and make sure you’re comfortable!

Now, remember the X-Ray interview with Peter Anderson on Easter Eggs in the opening animation he created for the second season? Forget red herrings, apparently our fandom has a literal red phone box! I’m convinced that this whole scene is a one big — the biggest, actually — Easter Egg, and I’ll explain why step-by-step.

The red phone box Crowley used to warn Aziraphale about the Antichrist and the following Armageddon in S1, the exact one where he left change for an emergency call, seems important enough in terms of the future S3 plot, but there’s so much more going on in this frame. Not only the lift.

The angels

At the very start of this sequence we can see a fragment of an elaborate bridge guarded by cherubs sitting on two columns, maybe globes, leading to a distant structure built over a literal mountain of trash — all elements of the S1 and S2 openings which were consciously picked out by the animators and put together in a very ominous pile.

Ready for some scavenging?

In the Gabriel’s cross meta, I already mentioned the importance of Ponte Sant’Angelo in relation to the ex-Archangel’s statue. Now it’s time to widen our perspective and focus on the full picture — quite literally. Apparently the bridge from the opening sequence has ten statues of angels, exactly as the Italian historical monument.

First things first though: the two big cherubs guarding the entry to the bridge might seem familiar to some of you. While they’re obviously not copies of the same statue, a very similar pair of brass cherubs is placed in Aziraphale’s bookshop to symbolize Aziraphale and Crowley. And looking at the screenshot above and the way they sleep or sulk with their backs turned on each other, they are most certainly not talking. The addition of more than one set of eyes is a lovely reference to biblically accurate angel memes though.

If we assume the traditional left-right positioning of the characters, Aziraphale is on the left and Crowley is on the right. Directly behind Aziraphale we can see a ship named “Good Traits”, but in reverse — kinda sorta confirmed by the animator Peter Anderson to be connected to the concept of the seven deadly sins on Twitter. Same that was mentioned recently by Neil in one of his asks.

The presence of Gabriel — a renegade Archangel wielding a broken cross — on the right, Crowley’s side, seems to match this theory. It could also support one of the possible interpretations of the very last bookshop shot in the S2 finale.

Out of all ten statues, Angel Carrying the Cross by Ercole Ferrata is considered inferior to the others on the bridge in that it appears to be a two-dimensional relief sculpture rather than an unbounded three-dimensional artwork, which seems to match Gabriel’s first impression as a character.

The inscription on the statue reads, “Dominion rests on his shoulders" — that is the weight of the cross that Christ was forced to carry through Jerusalem before being crucified. Even though Gabriel’s burden partially disappeared, the whole bridge and its environment is covered with crosses. It’s clear that we’re looking at a direct parallel of Via Crucis, the Way of Sorrows.

Towering over the Italian bridge, at the very top of Castel Sant’Angelo, is a statue of Archangel Michael, seen as the golden angel on the top left part of the trash pile. Aziraphale’s side, perhaps as his assistant, perhaps a rival? Legends of the Jews mention Michael as the chief of a band of angels who questioned God's decision to create man on Earth. The entire band of angels, except for Michael, was condemned to Fall — which could explain why they have such a good access to the Grapevine That Obviously Doesn’t Exist. And whatever’s going on between Michael and Dagon, perhaps.

In Roman Catholic teachings, Michael has four main roles or offices. Their first role is the leader of the Army of God and the leader of Heaven's forces in the final triumph over the powers of Hell. Viewed as the angelic model for the virtues of the spiritual warrior, their conflict with evil taken as the battle within. The second and third roles of Michael deal with death. Their second role is that of an angel of death, carrying the souls of Christians to Heaven. Michael descends at the hour of death and gives each soul the chance to redeem itself before passing; thus throwing the devil and his minions into consternation. In their third role, Michael weights souls on perfectly balanced scales they are often depicted with as their attribute. In their fourth role, Michael appears as the guardian of the Church. Might be the reason why they’re the closest to the building on top of the mountain.

It looks like Michael lost their sword though, just like Gabriel lost a part of the cross he was supposed to carry. The sword in question was supposed to be used to slay the dragon — Satan, the Adversary — according to John of Patmos and his Book of Revelations.

Speak of the devil: interestingly, there are two copies of an anonymous variation of the Angel of Light statue appearing twice on both sides of the bridge. Both the title as well as the statue itself seem like obvious references to one (former) angel literally called the Lightbringer, Lucifer. Perhaps one of them is representing his son, the Antichrist, instead, with the both of them helping out the Ineffables on two opposing — or perhaps only parallel — sides of the bridge?

The light carried by Lucifer appears to be green, a color used in the series as a visual representation of Hell, but on the intertextual level might also serve as a reference to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby and the green light at the end of the Daisy’s dock symbolizing the undying love, desperation, and longing for an unattainable dream. In the story, the color represents the limitations of power and money. Not surprisingly, the novel appears on Jim’s bookshelf and is part of the Good Omens book club — a list of personal recommendations from Neil Gaiman and Douglas Mackinnon for the fans to catch up on before the next series.

Last but not least, the possible connection to Libertas as the inspiration for the Statue of Liberty, shown multiple times in S2 as a foreshadowing of our character’s trip to America in S3. The related quote of Patrick Henry “Give me liberty or give me death” becomes even more relevant if we consider how the motto of the French Revolution was sometimes written as Liberté, égalité, fraternité ou la mort (“Liberty, equality, fraternity or death”). A lesson surely learnt by a certain angel back in 1793, when he was held prisoner for the last time before being forcefully taken Upstairs in the Final Fifteen.

The bridge and the castle

Okay, these are the basic observations. Now a brief historical overview and we will reach the fun bit in a jiffy.

Have you ever wondered about the meaning of this whole complex? It wasn’t always angelic, but named after a Roman noble dynasty. The Aelian bridge was built by the Emperor Hadrian in 134 AD to span River Tiber from the city center to his mausoleum. With time, the remains of more emperors were put to rest in there, until it was plundered and destroyed in a war. Then the remaining structure was transformed into a military fortress and a castle serving as the papal residence in times of war.

The Papal State also used Sant'Angelo as a prison; the Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno was imprisoned there for six years. Executions of the inmates were performed in the small inner courtyard, but they weren’t the only deaths in the area. On the other side of the bridge, in the adjoining Piazza del Ponte, under the watchful eyes of the stone likenesses of two saints, the public executions were held, and the heads of the criminals were brought onto the bridge and exposed to public view there.

As a prison, the former mausoleum is also the setting for the third act of Giacomo Puccini's 1900 opera Tosca. Long story short, the eponymous heroine convinces her lover to feign death so that they can flee together. Unfortunately, they are betrayed and the firing squad shoots at him with real bullets instead of blanks. Tosca believes in the quality of his acting performance rather than the truth, and when the realization hits her, she leaps to her death from the Castel’s ramparts.

After Nero’s bridge was destroyed, the travelers were forced to cross this bridge as the only direct route to the Vatican and St Peter’s Basilica, earning it the nickname “the bridge of Saint Peter”. That’s why in the 16th century Pope Clement VII erected statues of Saints Peter and Paul at the ends of the bridge, guarding it as they are supposed to protect the entry to Heaven.

In 1688 the bridge was embellished with ten angel statues, five on each side of the bridge, carrying Arma Christi, the Instruments of the Passion. The Good Omens characters represented by those statues in the opening sequence might be other instruments of Christ’s suffering as parts of the system that needs to be overthrown or replaced.

One angel appears particularly important in the context of both the bridge and the Second Coming — Saint Michael the Archangel.

Legend holds that the Archangel Michael appeared atop Hadrian’s mausoleum, sheathing their sword as a sign of the end of the plague of 590, thus lending the castle its present name. A less charitable yet more apt elaboration of the legend, given the militant disposition of this particular Archangel, was heard by the 15th-century traveler who saw an angel statue on the castle roof. He recounts that during a prolonged season of the plague, Pope Gregory I heard that the populace, even Christians, had begun revering a pagan idol at the church of Santa Agata in Suburra. A vision urged the Pope to lead a procession to the church. Upon arriving, the idol miraculously fell apart with a clap of thunder. Returning to St Peter's by the Aelian Bridge, the Pope had another vision of an angel atop the castle, wiping the blood from his sword on his mantle, and then sheathing it. While the Pope interpreted this as a sign that God was appeased, this did not prevent Gregory from destroying more sites of pagan worship in Rome. In honor of the vision and Michael, the bridge was renamed in their name.

What if the procession from the opening sequence was meant to imitate the procession led by the Pope from the legend? What if Aziraphale, now officially a Supreme Archangel, Commander of the Heavenly Host, is the one actually leading it, with Crowley finally at his side as his partner and second in command, just like it was proposed by him in the Final Fifteen?*

What if by some reason, maybe personal ambition, maybe just a tragic coincidence or situational necessity, there really was an impostor in Heaven, and Metatron — the so called Voice of God who seemingly doesn’t speak up for Herself since Job’s test — has been playing a winged version of the Wizard of Oz all along?

It would make just the perfect sense if not for one tiny detail. The procession we see on the bridge is actually led by Crowley, which doesn’t fit the parallel at all — unless it’s actually a proof of an ongoing body swap, as the mismatched names of the actors could also suggest?

The mountain of trash and the bookshop

The symbolic mountain of trash we can see Aziraphale and Crowley climb is a reference in itself. To an actual mount called Zion, believed to be the place where Yahweh, the God of Israel, dwells (Isaiah 8:18; Psalm 74:2), the place where God is king (Isaiah 24:23) and where God has installed king David on his throne (Psalm 2:6).

In a literal sense, it’s a hill in Jerusalem, although the sources refer to three different locations in different contexts — although for the purpose of this meta the Upper Eastern Hill (Temple Mount) makes the most sense. Its highest part became the site of Solomon's Temple. The same King Solomon the rituals in Freemasonry refer to. Masonic buildings, where lodges and their members meet, are sometimes called "temples" specifically as an allegoric reference to King Solomon's Temple, not actual places of worship. And Aziraphale’s bookshop is built around Solomon’s Magic Circle.

In a metaphysical sense, and especially in the context of the Christian New Testament, it is also believed to be a part of Heaven — the heavenly Jerusalem, God's Holy, eternal city. Christians are said to have “(…) come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven” (Hebrews 12:22-23 cf. Revelation 14:1). Just like the procession were following in the opening sequence.

There’s been some speculation whether the lift on top of the mountain could symbolize Aziraphale’s bookshop, or, more specifically, the oculus in its centre. If you look closely at the enhanced screenshot, you can see that the dome isn’t made of glass and that it looks like a tower (a church’s bell tower, perhaps) more than a whole building.

And there is an actual doorway in there — not like the modern lift doors — opening up towards the source of that white, heavenly light. And what kind of enlightenment can you usually find up in the skies or heavens?

We’re welcomed to crack open the doors to the Heavenly Sanctuary — the Most Holy place, Sanctum Sanctorum, the Holy of Holies — to undraw the final curtain and finally stand eye to eye with God. Who knows, maybe even ask some questions or listen to some answers.

Or, at the very least, to meet one of Her forms known as Jesus Christ. Because that’s precisely where he serves as our (humanity’s) Mediator and the Holy Priest after his Ascension to Heaven. The structure at the top reminds of some temple architecture seen in Antiquity and Christianity.

The Catholic Church considers the Church tabernacle or its location (traditionally at the rear of the sanctuary) as the symbolic equivalent of the Holy of Holies, due to the storage of consecrated hosts in that vessel and their meaning as the Body of Christ. Tabernacle is commonly marked with a red light turned on and off depending on His presence or lack if it.

Looks like He’s already in the area, one way or another, keeping eye on some things.

Are we following a procession of believers happy to embrace their one and true Savior? Or are they actually protesters on their way to dethrone the authority and the system?

Guess we will have to wait and see.