#jan 22 2023

[crawfishcomic]

I Can Explain

[il-predestinato]

What bet did Andrea and Joris lose to Charles "Demon" Leclerc? 😭 🎥: Paris Fashion Week (January 22, 2023)

[abybweisse]

This (x), and what you mention of UT’s ashes, has me realising I should ask a professional on my thoughts (and what would be most correct to canon) about the reapers.

Do you think the “rebirth” is immediate or does the body have to decompose first? That would imply their bodies are cloned/reinvented, right? Or are they resurrected from their mortal bodies, made immortal, which could perhaps have inspired UT with the bizarre dolls, if he’d discovered the event?

If it’s immediate, I can imagine them (a reaper, or countless reapers, perhaps each unaffiliated to one another) easily digging up their own bodies and perhaps then breaking down—if they’re then deemed unfit to be working reapers, temporary or otherwise, then surely there’s a ward for this specific thing? If anything happens to the body, does something then happen to them, as their soul/spirit (I assume that’s what reapers are, in essence)?

(Not necessarily correlating with this, but can’t Death Scythes also kill/fatally harm/etc. other reapers? Surely that’s not a a great system, unless they’re successfully rehabilitated first.)

Anyway—sorry if you’ve already answered this or something like it. Hope you’re having a lovely day/night <3

⚠️ LONG POST ⚠️

Some details about reaper rebirth theory

Professional? 😂 Nahhhh.... But I have been talking about Undertaker's potential death by fire since at least 2017. 😯 And reaper rebirth theory is a subject I like nearly as much as Mother3 theory.

Anyway, let's break this down into its parts.

1. Would the rebirth be immediate, or would they have to decompose?

There are different ways Yana-san could approach this, if she has decided that reapers go through karmic reincarnation. Grelle says something odd in ch10, suggesting that the "memories" are also removed...

...but I think Grelle just means after where "END" ends up going when a reaper makes the cut.

The way I see it, Undertaker gives us a better clue in ch60.

There might be some exceptions to this, particularly if Othello and others in the forensics lab get occasional bodies and/or brains to "dig around in".

But, for the most part, bodies and their brains (containing the cinematic records of things that already happened plus things the human had hoped for) stay in the human realm. I should think this also typically applies to suicides. Undertaker might even be able to make bizarre dolls from suicides, and that might technically be the case with Layla/Al. There's a really strong case for Layla/Al being the daughter of Baron Chris Heathfield... and for her causing the "accident" that took her and her mother's lives. He only needs access to the body and the cinematic records. Grelle cannot mean that reapers take all the memories; Undertaker wouldn't be able to manipulate cinematic records that are completely gone.

Here's the biggest kicker: William and others have made it clear that reapers don't judge the souls of the dying, they just decide whether to end the life and collect the soul. Grelle uses the word "judge", but it's only to decide who dies when, not whether the soul will go to Heaven, Hell, Limbo, Purgatory, the reaper realm, etc.

And even then it's only a formality, according to William. The soul is sent "up" or "over" for judgment by some higher power, like an angel. Could even be the same beings the reapers call their "higher-ups" or "superiors". This means reapers wouldn't really have the authority (or even the ability) to just see a suicide and turn that body (with its cinematic records and soul) into a fellow reaper. It's a bureaucracy, after all!

What the reaper would likely do -- and I've explained this in older posts about #reaper rebirth theory and #karmic reincarnation -- is collect and send the soul for judgment, actually make notes or comments on their death entry (something we have yet to witness them do) about cause of death being something self-inflicted, and then mark it "complete" (as usual)... because that's the extent of their jurisdiction, so to speak.

The body and the brains (with the cinematic records) would probably be left there to be dealt with by humans (or to just rot where it is). However, it's possible that this sort of situation gets one major exception: the reaper might have to collect and send the cinematic records, too, if new reaper bodies need a sort of "seed" record to build off of. Like... if a reaper needs memories of their previous life (or of their death) in order for them to maintain a sense of deserving punishment for how they died. That sort of thing.

And it seems important (to me) that all reapers be made by the same process. Not all suicide methods leave the same sort of useable corpse, right? They could blow themselves to smithereens, burn to nearly ashes, splat themselves to mush, shoot their brains out, or any number of other gruesome methods that effectively destroy the brain to the point their bodies could not be used to house their reaper selves.

An "easy solution" to this would be to make all suicides go through karmic reincarnation. If people are born with souls placed into them to begin with... and some people claim to have had multiple lives as humans... then why not just place the judged souls of suicides into the bodies of babies that are about to be born? Of course, these wouldn't be human babies but reaper ones. Those phosphorescent but nearsighted eyes. The inter-dimensional traveling abilities. The unnatural speed and agility. Who knows what other abilities they have... that Yana-san hasn't yet shown us. To me, these are not merely human bodies that have been altered after death.

So, to answer the first question in a TL/DR sort of way: it's not immediate, nor do the bodies have to decompose first. Who cares what happens to the original bodies, if the souls get placed into completely new ones? But! This means the souls have to be judged (by someone higher up than reapers), and that unborn baby reaper bodies need to be available (developing) to receive these souls. This is not immediate. Potentially, some judged suicide souls could be waiting in storage of some kind for a proper vessel to become available!

2. Are their bodies cloned/reinvented?

I have no idea if the new reaper babies are otherwise like the old bodies these suicides once had. They might grow up to look the same or not.

I suspect that Yana-san would want for these reapers to be stuck with bodies (including their ASAB) that at least remind them of the bodies they once had as humans. Because it forces them to not only live out a long punishment doing the work they do... but to do this in bodies that might have had something to do with their original decision to end their lives (like extremely negative body image).

3. Are they resurrected from their mortal bodies, made immortal?

It's something Yana-san could end up saying is true of her grim reapers, but for the big reason given above (destruction of some bodies, depending on suicide method used), I think it makes the most sense to automatically leave the old bodies behind and just reuse the old souls (plus perhaps at least bits and pieces of the old cinematic records). That gives each reaper as close to a "clean slate" as possible.

4. Would this have been what inspired Undertaker to make his Bizarre Dolls?

Reapers being made from their old bodies and made immortal? I don't think so. Mostly because 1. Reapers have souls while Bizarre Dolls don't (yet!) and 2. My theory states that reapers have new bodies, while we know Bizarre Dolls are made from dead bodies.

The biggest comparison between reapers and Bizarre Dolls (as they are now), in my reaper rebirth theory, is that cinematic records are definitely manipulated in Bizarre Dolls and are probably manipulated in reapers. Not just from their beginnings as reapers... but also possibly once they begin active reaper duty (if they misbehave enough to be severely punished). And that could have greatly influenced Undertaker's experimentation. I can sort of simplify the differences this way:

Low-end Bizarre Dolls = old body + old cinematic records + new cinematic records that are nonsense (like Undertaker dancing). These are how they were while on the Campania, including real Ciel at the time.

Mid-range Bizarre Dolls = old body + maybe some new organs + old cinematic records + a few sections of old cinematic records removed from before "END" and reattached after "END". This would include Arden, his pals, Agares, and real Ciel at the time of the events at Weston. Arden and his buddies just didn't have high quality "future memories" to use as "episodes". Real Ciel was "shock full" of them, but Undertaker was still working on manipulating them (moving them from before to after "END").

Advanced Bizarre Dolls = old bodies + probably some new organs + old cinematic records + lots of "future memories" moved around to become "episodes" + a blood supply that must be replenished on a regular basis. This is real Ciel and the other three "lords of the stars" right now. But Othello says they are imperfect... and that Undertaker is probably trying to fix whatever's wrong.

Ultimate Bizarre Dolls = old bodies + probably some new organs + old cinematic records + all those chunks of cinematic records rearranged into "episodes" + a blood supply that can now be cleaned and replaced as needed internally + whatever was missing before + new cinematic records they are now creating on their own. I don't think it's quite as simple as needing a new kidney, because it seems that Undertaker would have figured that out and found kidney matches already from fresh corpses. You don't get your pawns talking about the "shapes of souls" unless you are looking for soul matches. So, I think a soul is the thing that's missing; the thing Undertaker now wants to add. This should allow them to truly be "alive" and make their own cinematic records again. Heathfield and Jane talked about getting one for Heathfield's dead wife. I think that was mostly to keep Heathfield busy while Undertaker searched for souls to transplant into the four "lords".

Much like how Undertaker got a laugh out of Stoker believing what Undertaker was doing is "science", I expect him to eventually crack up in front of our earl... while explaining how stupid Heathfield is for believing you can judge the shape of one's soul by how they behave in bed! On the other hand, I really do think F. O. L. Orphanage is actively shaping young souls to fit into the "lords": Pomeranian class for real Ciel, Corgi class for Doll, Collie class for Layla/Al, and Mastiff class for whoever Polaris turns out to be (I theorize he's a Phantomhive butler who died in the attack nearly four years prior). It's probably crucial that you start with a young soul; not only is their body young, but this is that soul's first body to inhabit. Their souls are most-malleable! It's possible Undertaker got this idea from realizing Sebastian uses a similar technique to "season" our earl's soul to prepare him as a "meal". Sebastian cultivates our earl's soul with everything the kid experiences. And here's a nice little agricultural term for it: Undertaker might have gleaned this information from examining what he saw of Sebastian's cinematic records on the Campania.

*coughs* Anyway.

Reapers = new body + old soul + parts of their old cinematic records + the new cinematic records they make in their new bodies + who knows how much manipulation to their cinematic records to keep them in line or redirect their behaviors.

Basically, Undertaker's ultimate goal might be to create something that's a LOT like a reaper, but starting with a corpse instead of a new body... and then adding a soul from someone else with similar (but forced) life experiences. The other reapers already think what he's doing with cinematic records is crazy. Adding a blood supply sure has Othello's attention, and he has once been considered the crazy one around HQ.... When the reaper organization finds out where Undertaker plans to go with it? Adding used souls? Absolute abomination! Some of them perhaps not realizing just how similar they really are....

What makes Bizarre Dolls such an abomination to the reaper organization? 1. They are made with corpses instead of new bodies/babies, 2. It's being done by a rogue reaper instead of something considered "superior" to reapers (like angels), and 3. If they get souls taken from others, this really messes up soul collection and judgement procedures. If reapers were made from the corpses of suicides, they might not see the problem with #1 but only with #2 and #3. However, Grelle and Ronald make it very clear that corpses should not be moving around. Therefore, I highly doubt that reapers are "moving corpses", even with their own souls in place.

5. Is there a ward for reapers who try to destroy their old remains?

Nah. In my theory, by the time they are old enough to be "recruited" for active reaper duties to begin, their human remains would typically be quite decomposed. Even if they originally left behind an exquisite corpse -- but not in the usual sense of the phrase -- I actually mean a corpse in very good shape. 😆

6. If something happens to the old body, does something happen to the reaper, since they are the soul?

I've come to take what Undertaker says as the honest truth, in this case. The old body and brain stay in the human realm to rot.

But the reaper that will be isn't simply rotting away. The new body and old soul are completely physically detached from that previous life. The shape of the reaper's soul is still largely based on its experiences from its previous human life, though, since it spent however many years in that human body and experiencing all that it did during those years. Otherwise, the reaper wouldn't care about redemption (or as Sascha says "forgiveness"), would they? Back to the idea of children being malleable, the best place for putting an old soul would be into a body that has experienced essentially nothing yet. Right?

Badda bing badda boom.

Rebirth theory Reaper = damaged and hardened old soul placed into a new body (vessel), which has the potential to fit any soul. That new body grows to harden around the old soul, making the reaper a lot like they were before, as a human... in personality and also possibly in appearance. (It fits well with my theory that Sebastian looks so much like Vincent and occasionally acts like younger real Ciel simply because the summoned demon ate real Ciel's soul before taking a human form.)

7. Aside: can't death scythes kill reapers?

They sure can! Grelle says they can cut "anything", including other dimensions... which means that demons and reapers can be killed, if the hit is hard enough or well-aimed. In Kuromyu2, that's how both Alan and Eric die as reapers. Alan's death should be filed away as an accident, but Eric technically dies as "suicide by demon". It's possible that he comes back as a reaper again, having to redo his punishment from scratch!

Of course, we know death scythes don't cut each other, which makes you wonder how Undertaker got those special scissor blades for Layla/Al. Where did he get the same material that death scythes are made from? Did he steal other death scythes and just modify them into weapons for the "lords"? 🤔 Or... has Undertaker simply taught Layla/Al how to fend off death scythes that rely on rotation? Because that's what Sebastian does to Grelle's death scythe with a wool coat. Could be a regular pair of scissors.

I also wonder how many reapers have tried to end their punishments with their own or other reapers' death scythes. Hopefully they realize it would not help their situations... unless they truly believe that death scythes can destroy a soul. Seems silly, considering they use death scythes to collect souls all the time without destroying them. Meh. The wording in the first few volumes is unclear. I think Grelle means how death scythes are used to cut the soul out of the body... not that they can be used to cut up souls themselves.

[starlitwishforu]

i come home on the first night of the rabbit year bearing two illicit packs of white rabbit candy and six dusty bags of gluttonous rice flour, which my mother needs for her niangao; and whose name i was proud to have recognised all by myself until, in a flash of doubt, i googled it anyway just to make sure, squatted there on the crusted tile of the great wall supermarket like a slightly anxious chinese american shrimp. i got it right the first time.

my mother starts the niangao then teaches me to fry dumplings. "i don't even know if they'll cook all the way through," she laughs, "i haven't done it this way in a long time." we put the lid on the pan and leave it to simmer; in the meantime, i pull out a math packet. there's a final tomorrow in multivariable calculus.

that's where i will take the candy, squirreled away in the crevices of my lunch bag, to distribute. the first time i brought candy to school a few adventurous white friends tried some. "you eat the paper," i instructed them. "no, not the wrapper. yes, it's edible, i promise." my chinese classmates chittered, and i was gently amused that these poor white children could not figure out what we at three or four had taken for given. they didn't like the texture, or found the taste of milk too strange in a chewy candy; my chinese classmates and i shared exasperated looks, bonding over what the americans would never understand.

at lunch i will peel tangerines for my friends. i peel my tangerines in spirals. pick at the rind in helixes that loop back and back around; when i get up to take the trash there is a pile of them, tangled, and the tangerine juice leaves stains under my nails, sticky, and when i wash my hands later the water will run a little orange. once i studied an ancient ode to the virtuous morality of tangerines. even the ancient chinese, i cackled, made self-insert ocs! tangerine and white lotus and bamboo and plum blossoms.

on the last night of the tiger year there were people who made niangao with gluttonous rice flour. there were people snacking on white rabbit like m&ms. there were people frying dumplings; people peeling tangerines; people who shopped at 99 ranch market, probably, instead of great wall, because they lived in california. they lived.

when i heard the news i stopped, well, i stopped dead for a moment and then i cried, hard, and then i went on. nothing will bring them back, those ten celebrators, those eaters of dumplings and niangao, those tangerines and white lotus and plum blossoms, the ten of them and the hundreds before them. i am a schoolgirl in america and a chinese girl in america and a queer girl in america and they are not the first ten and they are not the last ten, probably, and nothing will bring them back. we will protest and petition and donate and every time this happens there is a part of me that sighs in relief because it could have been my parents, or my grandparents, or my cousin who goes to school near monterey, or my friends in san diego and new york and fairfax who are american the way i am that is to say too much for our families and not enough for our countrymen, it could have been them and it wasn't.

the dumplings cook through after all, crispy and savoury with golden feet. there is just enough for dinner tonight. i'll make more tomorrow morning, i say, to take to lunch in a thermos. i'll remember to fry them a little extra, i like the burnt ones better. they don't look palatable but they taste better, like being six and bringing dumplings to lunch in a thermos. like being eight and peeling the rice paper to let it melt, flavourless on your tongue. like being seventeen and making it to the rabbit year alive.

the last dumpling tastes like burnt sugar. "WHO," i bellow with gleeful outrage, "PUT CHOCOLATE IN THIS DUMPLING." i know full well it's because we were out of white rabbits last night. there's a chinese tradition to put candies in a few of the new year dumplings. whoever gets a sweet dumpling will have good fortune for the whole year. happy new year says the dumpling. may you live with health and happiness. may the year bring peace and prosperity to us all.

[sunskate]

Why don’t Scott’s students ever post training footage? Something fishy is going on at that school. Maybe Scott makes them turn in their phones before each session.

i don't think the IAM skaters in MTL post much if any training footage either. haley sales has posted brief IG stories of her and nik on the ice. she and christina and some of the others have posted just outside the rink or in the change room. i think it's an IAM policy not to post training footage, or maybe not without clearing it with the school. because it seems across the board something they don’t do. don’t know what you mean by fishy, but there are issues like leaking glimpses of programs before they’re ready to be seen, skaters in the background of your footage who don’t want their practice shown, etc

but look- christina just posted footage of a run through in komoka

[dailyscottficrec]

Jan 22, 2023

Just Us by dahlia_04

Author summary:

After the final battle with the Nogitsune, Scott’s pack is scattered. His best friends are there to help pick up the pieces.

Reasons to love the fic: Another current fic that just blew me away. I love Scott/Stiles/Lydia in all incarnations. And then! With nogitsune! trauma on top of that? This was so thoughtful about each of the characters and their trauma and I loved it.

Don't forget to let the author know if you enjoyed the fic!

[maraczeks]

+

[mikeywayarchive]

paulharries: The brothers Way. MK3 May 22.

[Jan 29, 2023]

[soteriia-art]

[ID in ALT]

hanging out :)

[bcofl0ve]

it’s crazy how aus fans dog on the young women austin date (olivia and kaia) for them being messy & lacking emotional intelligence like if that’s the case doesnt that tell you more about him than the women he dates? it’s crazy how aus fans frame olivia for being messy cos of t-shirt gate but not him for ya know… fucking around with his young costar when he was a relationship idk just me. it’s easy to sit and poke fun at aus’s relationship mess but in all serious we have to acknowledge that it was a real shitty thing to do, even if him and olivia are on good terms.

i agree with you 1000%, esp about the olivia thing. and i feel like i used to be more blunt about my feelings on that but then ppl accused me of being ‘just’ an olivia fan and as much i don’t care if ppl dislike me i was tired of getting anons acting like thinking austin has perhaps made mistakes in his 31 years on earth =s hating him. at the end of the day he is indeed a straight cisgender man. he is going to have less than stellar “man moments” and i don’t think it’s trashing him to say that. if you don’t put your favs on massive pedestals they don’t have far too fall from. learned that the EXTREMELY hard way with, embarrassingly, lin-manuel miranda 😅. more thoughts in the tags to keep this from turning into an essay (:

[niobefurens]

Happy new year.

[rv-there-yet]

Jan 14 - 22 2023 - Baja California

[juieon]

🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

[abybweisse]

Say Mr Undertaker, do you happen to have any other piercings which cannot be usually seen due to garment interference 👀?

[cyanonights]

SO COME WITH ME, LETS DIE ANYWHERE ELSE

ANYWHERE

JUST NOT HERE

[breelandwalker]

2024 Witches' Calendar

For all my witches out there, here's a handy list of the 2024 dates for the solstices, quarter days, full and new moons, and special events. I've listed my sources at the bottom.

Dates and times for all events are calculated for Eastern Standard Time, USA, Northern Hemisphere. Adjust for your location as needed and check the DarkSky Placefinder to see what special events will be visible in your area. Enjoy!

Solstices, Harvests, and Quarter Days

February 1-2 - Imbolc / Candlemas

March 19 - Spring Equinox / Ostara

April 30-May 1 - Beltane / May Day

June 20 - Summer Solstice / Midsummer / Litha

August 1 - Lughnasadh / Lammas / Summer Harvest

September 22 - Autumn Equinox / Mabon / Fall Harvest

October 31 - Samhain / Halloween / Final Harvest

December 21 - Winter Solstice / Yule

Full Moons

January 25 - Wolf Moon ♌

February 24 - Snow Moon ♍

March 25 - Worm Moon ♎

April 23 - Pink Moon ♏

May 23 - Flower Moon ♐

June 21 - Strawberry Moon ♑

July 21 - Thunder Moon (aka Buck Moon) ♑

August 19 - Sturgeon Moon* ♒

September 17 - Harvest Moon* ♓

October 17 - Hunter's Moon (aka Blood Moon)* ♈

November 15 - Frost Moon (or Beaver Moon)* ♉

December 15 - Cold Moon ♊

*- Supermoon

Fun Fact: The title of Harvest Moon is given to either the September or October full moon, whichever falls closest to the autumn equinox. Once again this year, that month will be September.

New Moons

January 11 ♑

February 9 ♒

March 10 ♓

April 8 ♈

May 7 ♉

June 6 ♊

July 5 ♋

August 4 ♌

September 2 ♍

October 2 ♎

November 1 ♏

December 1 ♐

December 30 (black moon) ♑

Special Celestial Events

January 3-4 - Quadrantids meteor shower peak

March 25 - Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

April 8 - Total solar eclipse

April 22-23 - Lyrids meteor shower peak

May 6-7 - Eta Aquarids meteor shower peak

August 11-13 - Perseids meteor shower peak

August 19 - Sturgeon Supermoon / Seasonal Blue Moon

September 17 - Harvest Supermoon / Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

October 2 - "Ring of Fire" solar eclipse

October 17 - Hunter's Supermoon

October 21-22 - Orionids meteor shower peak

November 15 - Frost Supermoon

November 16-17 - Leonids meteor shower peak

December 13-14 - Geminids meteor shower peak

December 30 - Black Moon

(Check the DarkSky Placefinder to see what will be visible in your area!)

Mercury Retrogrades (in case you need them)

April 1 - April 24

August 4 - August 27

November 25 - December 15

Happy Witching!

SOURCES & FURTHER READING:

Bree's Lunar Calendar Series

Bree's Secular Celebrations Series

Moon Info - Full Moon Dates for 2024

Calendar-12 - 2024 Moon Phases

Full Moonology - 2024 Full Moon Calendar

AstroStyle - All the 2024 Full Moons

Your Zodiac Sign - Astrology Calendar 2024

Old Farmer's Almanac - Mercury Retrograde Dates 2023-2024

Lonely Planet - Best Star-gazing Events of 2024

Sea and Sky - Astronomy Calendar of Celestial Events 2024

DarkSky International - Dark Sky Placefinder for Stargazing

Pagan Grimoire - Wheel of the Year: The 8 Festivals in the Wiccan Calendar (2024 Edition)

=

If you're enjoying my content, please feel free to drop a little something in the tip jar or check out my published works on Amazon or in the Willow Wings Witch Shop. 😊

EDIT: Mercury is stationed direct on Jan 1st, 2024. The source I used which stated it was in retrograde until the 18th had a typo.

EDIT: Fixed the zodiac signs for the full moons using a new source.