#like i am just not perceiving the same reality as most of the people around me.

[sangfielle]

being even somewhat politically literate and aware of the world around you will make you feel crazy about 100% of the time

[renard-dartigue]

Hi now i'm curious what is the beef with the rappers

Man this is going to be long so I'll try to keep this simple and entertaining. I hope this comes across as clear cause I'm shook right now.

Here is a glossarie to break thing up:

Prologue (The Spark 🔥)

Round 1.1 (Physical Education 💪🏾)

Interlude part 1 (Roots 🏠)

Round 1.2 (2 Warning Shots 🔫)

Interlude part 2 (Pusha the Seer 👁)

Round 2.1 (Knifes Out 🔪 )

Round 2.2 (The Nuke 💥)

Epilogue (All eyes on him 👀)

My Theory 🤷🏾‍♂️

Highly recommend checking out the tracks yourself while you read along.

Prologue (The Spark)

Let it be known that I am a neutral party and that I don't take sides when it comes to rap beef. I was here for the music and creativity. I am just trying to recount events to the best of my knowledge. Sorry if some details are inaccurate.

Okay so basically, Drake, J Cole, and Kendrick Lamar are the Big 3 of the rap world right now.

A month ago, Future and Metro Boomin (two rapper who supposedly don't fuck with Drake anymore) released a song with Kendrick Lamar called "Like That". In the song Kendrick took a shot at Drake and J Cole, saying there isn't a big 3, its only him on top.

4 weeks ago J Cole dropped a track called "7 Minute Drill" that is dissing Kendrick. However, in a move that is very uncharacteristic of J, he took down the official track and formally apologized to Kendrick. Thus signaling his exit from the rap battle.

ROUND 1.1 (Physical Ed)

Drake on the other hand dropped "Push Ups" 2 weeks ago, a diss track that went after other rappers he doesn't like but mainly Kendrick. In it, he made fun of Kendrick's height and his contracts. He then ends the song with "I was really try'n keep it PG" meaning he has a nuke on Kendrick that people don't know.

Not long later, Drake dropped ANOTHER diss track "Taylor Made Freestyle" with Ai voices of Snoop Dog and fucking 2PAC! Kendrick has stated before that 2pac is one of his idols so this must have been a deep cut. In the song Drake claims Kendrick doesn't write his own music and uses the writers of Taylor Swift. Relating a rapper to pop music is seen as disrespectful.

INTERLUDE PART 1 (Roots)

Before I continue, I want to give a brief run down on how the public perceives these two rappers.

Drake portrays himself as a superstar, he's always on social media flaunting his success and partying with other celebrities, seeing alot of women and living a lavish lifestyle. His music is catchy, something you put on in the club. Most of his fan base praise him for his sick beats and witty lyrics. He's been in the music industry for a while and is no push over.

Kendrick Lamar is a very private person, doesn't expose anything about his personal life unless its on a track. He almost never gets into fights with anyone. He is a family man, stressing the importance of being there for his wife and son and encourages other fathers to do the same. His fan base praise him for his creative lyrics and highlighting the black American condition.

ROUND 1.2 (2 Warning Shots)

2 Day ago, Kendrick Lamar came back with his first official diss track on Drake called "Euphoria". In this song, Kendrick goes in on Drakes fake personality. Drake has always been known around the community as a bit of a poser, he grew up in Canada and was raised by his white mother, a relatively comfortable childhood. He was a star on the popular show Degassi when he was young. garnering him a fan base early in his career. Kendrick doesn't approve of Drake appropriating black American culture and acting like he some tough guy. When in reality he is a Canadian nerd thats disrespectful to 2pac. All throughout the song, Kendrick hits at things that many people have know about Drake, such as his behavior around underage girls. He also called Drake a deadbeat father who isn't in his son's life, even referencing his lost battle to Pusha T. Then Kendrick finally warns him that he has more dirt that he is willing to share if Drake takes things further.

Similar to Drake, Kendrick dropped another track called "6:16 in LA" later that day. This song focuses on Drake's environment, specifically the people he hangs with. Kendrick implies that Drake paid people to dig into his background and when they didn't find anything, Drake made up stuff instead. Kendrick then says that someone in Drakes group is leaking information to him about something even more serious. Also planting a seed in Drake's mind that his supposed friends don't actually like him, just like the clout from hanging around him.

INTERLUDE PART 2 (Pusha the Seer)

Taking a quick break again, we need to discuss something that occurred long before Drake's battle with Kendrick.

5 years ago, Drake was in a rap battle with rapper Pusha T, someone who was smaller than Drake at the time in terms of popularity. Pusha dropped a song called "The Story of Adidon" where he dropped a bomb that Drake had a kid and wasn't taking care of him. Drake initially denied it but it was later revealed to be true.

Since then Drake has never responded to Pusha T's diss track, making Pusha the current winner. And Kendrick is bringing it back into the light.

Round 2.1 (Knifes Out)

Around 2 am EST time of May 4th, Drake drops his diss track, "Family Matters" one of his strongest songs, switching his flow 3 times in the span of 7 minutes. In true Drake fashion, its a club song with a catchy beat. Like his previous diss, its aimed at multiple people but the main focus is on Kendrick, even bring up "I was really try'n keep this PG".

Drake doubles down on his black identity and mocks the fact that Kendrick and other rappers are saying he isn't black, (incorrectly assuming that they are coming at him for being mixed when the real issue is that he is appropriating black American rap culture as a Canadian mixed man who grew up in a safe environment) Drake not only calls Kendrick a fraud who only raps about black issues for attention, Or that his activism is performative. He makes a shocking claims that Kendrick is a wife beater. Then Drake says that Kendrick's son doesn't belong to him and implies Kendrick's producer was the real father.

The track caused an uproar. But only for the span of 15 minutes. Because Kendrick did the unthinkable.

ROUND 2.2 (THE NUKE)

Almost as if expecting Drake's move, Kendrick Lamar did what no one saw coming. He dropped his diss track "Meet The Grahams" about 15 minutes after Drake released "Family Matters".

This time around, in a fashion almost unheard of from him, Kendrick strips all the usual metaphors from his lyricism and structures his track like he is speaking to Drake and his family, 4 parts per individual.

Kendrick begins by speaking to Drakes Son, Adonis, the same son Pusha T exposed Drake for neglecting 5 years ago. He's apologizing to him for his father's behavior. Kendrick speaks to him softly but sternly like a mentor, telling him not to be like his father. Kendrick tells Adonis all the things Drake did and warns him not to do them too: involved with escorts, plastic surgery to appear more black, surgery to look more muscular, hiding a kid. (Kendrick stresses that Adonis is black regardless of being mixed, further highlighting that he isn't discrediting Drake's blackness because he's mixed but because he isn't being himself.) Finishing of by telling the kid to be proud of who he is.

The second half is Kendrick addressing Drake's mother and father, Sandra and Denise. Kendrick speaks to her like he's revealing tragic news, explaining to her that her son is involved in disgusting things. He goes down a list of things, his tone growing more intense and angry. Kendrick then claimed that Drake is employing and enabling pedos in his group, and hopes they die. Even implying that his group is going to be raided by the feds some day.

The third half is the MOST shocking of all. Kendrick begins talking to an unnamed individual, simply calls her babygirl. Similar to Adonis, Kendrick takes on a somber tone and apologizes to her for Drakes behavior. He says its not her fault Drake abandoned her, says that she is deserving of love. He warns her not to become a target for people like Drake to pray on and says she has so much to offer the world.

Kendrick revealed Drake has ANOTHER kid and isn't in their life! (Allegedly)

To close of, the fourth half is Kendrick speaking directly to Drake, his tone tired. He tries to reiterate that he doesn't have hate for him. However, Kendrick says Drake was the first one to go after his family and he couldn't let it slide. He once again calls for Drake to take the mask off. Then says this isn't a rap battle anymore, tells Drake he is fighting himself.

Epilogue (All eyes on him)

And so here we are, waiting for what will happen next.

Drake posted an Instagram story denying the claim he has another kid. But given what happened with Pusha T, we can't quite take his word for it yet. We should wait a bit to see if anything comes out.

Kendrick hasn't put out a statement on Drake's claims about him but given the recurring theme of Drake being a manipulative lier, Kendrick clearly denies it. Given how private he is, its difficult to prove or disprove it. Much like Drake's claims, we will have to wait and see if any evidence comes out about it.

Drake and Kendrick stans are at eachothers throats right now, arguing over who one and whats real or fake.

Right now everyone is looking to see if Drake is going to continue the battle or stay silent like he did with Pusha.

My Theory

Personally as an outside observer who only followed the beef for good music. I think this goes beyond a simple rap battle.

Here is my theory: Someone from Drake's clique told Kendrick that Drake and his producers were writing something about him. Real or fake, Kendrick was pissed. And so he drafted 3 tracks, dumping everything he hates about Drake into them. And then, with the leaker's help, Kendrick baited Drake into a battle, goading Drake to drop the "Family Matters" track so he can shut the battle down with "Meet the Grahams". Or maybe his first 2 tracks were a warning to Drake that if he released a track with lies on him he would reveal he has another kid.

I do think Kendrick initially had good intentions in trying to help Drake be a better person. But maybe the more he learned about Drake the less sympathetic he felt.

But I don't know thats just how I see it.

Thanks for reading my essay. I hope it made sense heh. I encourage healthy discussions in the comments and reblogs please. But everyone agrees that Drake is inappropriate with young girls. We won't argue over that.

[ririblogsss]

Damian and the strays

ok look we all know the de aged dani (Danny and Dan). But what if we have siblings/ triplets, and I mean what if we take them all the same age (15/16) and make them into the most powerful trio in school . I mean you have 3 good looking individuals all siblings and in the same way, they all excel in different things (Dan-world history, Dani/Ellie- science Sports, Danny physics), but they are all so easy going and charming plus they are all jacked af.

Like tell me if i'm wrong but they would be beloved maybe popular on the downlow until they do something only fentons would risk doing. For example, orchestrating that every monday at 12:30 am the fire alarms would start and lunch would be extended for an hour more. No one can prove it, but none of them have doubts either. The triplets have their own groups but they mainly hang out with each other if you see one the other 2 are close by. 

Anyways i'm thinking that one day they will actually see why the Fenton siblings are observed closely by the teacher and try to make sure they don't cause mayhem.  One guy, a chad of sorts, decided he wanted to pick a fight with Dante, the more violent of the siblings. Chad didn't even finish his first insult before he was slammed through the door by Danny, who was arguably the pacifist of the 3. But the student body kind of got it. The thing is no one expected Dani (preferred name Ellie) to freaking pummel the guy.

No one saw them at school again. 

It went on like this: the trio would move to one school.Would play pranks on the administration and have fun. Then someone would try something on one of them and the other 2 would pummel the person into the ground. The next day they would be gone never to return. They became an urban legend in some of the schools. 

Until they came to Gotham Academy when they tried their pranks a kid would come and stop them. It was getting on their nerves. All their freaking plans down the drain all because of a snobby brat that didn't know how to mind his own.  Eventually they start pranking the kid instead of the school as a revenge for ruining their fun. This leads to an all out prank war between all 4 of them (Dan backstabbed Danny and Ellie first they just followed the lead). 

Soon enough the 3 of them became friends with Damian (they learned his name 4 weeks after the prank war started). The school body was half convinced that Damian and the triplets were actually long lost siblings. I mean they all have black hair, anger issues and green bluish eyes. Damian knew for a fact that he wasn't related to the Fentons; a DNA test concluded this. But that didn't mean that Damian didn't perceive the triplets as family. 

Damian concludes that even if they aren't adopted into the family the Fentons belong. So that's why one day Damian brings Ellie, Danny and Dante to the family reunion. Where every relative and not so relative is there. Damian is showing them around, pointing at things around the house as a mini tour, and people are starting to notice that there are 3 new faces that they have never seen before. 

there are whispers like: ‘really?! AGAIN?!?’ or “WOW im gone for 5 days and he got 3 more”  and even  ‘Damn so black hair, teen and probably sad backstory is the type’

The triplets looked at eachother looked at Damian and smiled like starved piranhas that have just been served a pound of meat and are ready to devore. Damian reflects it with his own devilish smile.

 So all four of them start saying things out of context such as: 

“I'm so glad to be here now” 

“Yeah same we wouldn't have survived that hell of a chamber without you Dames”

“As long as we're no longer hunted for merely existing I don't mind staying for a while”

“Good things there weren't any actual bazookas that could have gone worse”

All four knew that out of context it seemed like the 3 siblings had been hunted and captured by some unknown person and Damian had rescued them and brought them home, but in reality they were just talking about the past paintball match they had earlier that morning. 

So Bruce wanted to know some more but the rhetorical bullet, and asked “Damian… who, who are these kids” Damian proceeded to scoff and say “Why our new family members, truly father, are you incompetent. This is a family reunion hence only family or perceived family is invited” Damian tried to channel his inner 10 year old self whilst trying not to laugh. Danny and Ellie were on the same boat except they made their faces look devastated with tears in their eyes and everything looked pitiful, but on the inside they were laughing their asses off. Dante feigned indifference but he had teary eyes, from trying to stop himself from hitting the floor laughing at the devastated faces around. 

Danny played his act up clearing his throat “we- we can leave if I mean we didn't know, yeah Dami said it was fine but we understand” he purposely made his voice crack to show how ‘hurt’ he was. 

Ellie made herself look small so she could seem self conscious and uncomfortable with the situation. 

Dante solidified them with the small sniffles he let out every few seconds. 

Damian was looking to the ground to avoid being read, because right now he was shaking from laughter, and it would be clear in his face but if he angled himself right (which he did) it looked like he was silently sobbing. Danny put his arm around his shoulder, also looking towards the ground, also shaking from laughter. Dante and Ellie joined in. From an outside perspective it looked like they were extremely upset not being able to be family. 

Bruce panicked seeing his younger child and 3 other kids the same age all begin to cry he just blurted out “NO no that not what i meant Damian I ment their names what are their names, and does Babs have to get involved so we can have documentation”

Damian cleared his tears and looked up at his father trying not to smirk “He is Dante, that one is Dani with an I but she prefers Ellie and that lanky one is Danny” Bruce nodded and went out the room to see if he could get started on the documents. 

Once Bruce was out of the room all 4 of them burst out laughing, falling into a pile some were heard wheezing, others having maniacal laughter. 

Once they finally stopped and looked at the rest of the family all four of them eerily said “he won't ever believe you” And everyone in the room shuddered. This quartet was going to bring wayyyy too much mischief into the family. 

(if you're wondering where jazz is. She's in college living her best life. I mean she is a highly independent person she thrives of off living alone with a clear schedule set)

—

Also i didn't put any specific names for the previous schools or the family members bc I thought it would be better for u guys to decide who witnessed the beginning of the end. 

[solanasreality]

Ⳋ᧙ — STOP CONFORMING 𝔱𝔬 S✹CIETAL STANDARDS.

i’m serious. there’s genuinely nothing to get out of trying to conform to what you already know is false.

using the law means building trusting in yourself. genuine, unwavering trust.

if you have an assumption that matches up to what the world tells you, “money is hard to make„ “you need to do xyz to shift„ (which only comes from the assumption that you need to work hard 😦)

then you’ll receive that in your reality because that is what you’ve chosen to persist in.

but, now that you’ve known the law, you can do something about that. which is why it’s genuinely bothering when i see people asking how a specific person manifests, because you make the rules.

you make the rules.

we are the operant in power, we control our realities. there is no reason to depend on outside sources when they don’t control your realty. i am essentially a nobody in your reality, the post you’re reading and the many more that’ll come after it, is just you talking to you.

wanna know the truth? none of it matters if your dominant thoughts revert back to negatively perceiving your situation.

the tarot readings won’t matter, the subliminal requests won’t, because it all has to do with you. you can easily change the outcome because of your energy, you just need to hold your own hand at the end of the day and change your thoughts.

tell me, how do you go from breaking free from societal standards by just having the belief in something “non-conventional,” just to fall into the same mindset when the entire point of the law is individuality?

to throw your control onto a random person when you’ve been subconsciously manifesting your entire life, from your first breath, and allowed others’ assumptions to run your life is missing the point.

and even if someone was kind enough to set their dreams aside to guide you, if your dominant story doesn’t match the one that person has, which one do you think is going to manifest?

the assumptions you have? as the operant power? or the person who didn’t control your reality at first, and couldn’t now? we can only do so much.

take back your power and figure out what clicks for you. because i promise you, it won’t be a method that’s telling you to spin around and clack your heels three times, unless, again, that’s what you assume. because it all goes back to your thoughts, and why persist in that when you can take a shortcut and already have your desires internally?

changing your subconscious beliefs is a step everyone has to take. that’s the law of assumption, that’s how it works. luckily for you, it’s as simple as deciding you have your desires right now, at this moment, and not straying from that narrative.

i have no problem with people asking about tips on how to manifest (although, i will most likely redirect you to this post), but to ask me to manifest for you at the expense of my enjoyment? your ask is mooooore than likely getting deleted.

[thehigherseekerastro]

Random Astrology Observations (Alternative Meanings Love Edition) 🤨❤️🤔

DISCLAIMER: I am in no way, shape or form a professional astrologer, modern or traditional.

I HAVE been studying astrology for a while now, and analysing charts available to me, as well as my own, and noticed a lot of the info you find online doesn't make sense in real life, because it is too reductive, stereotypical or lacks broader context. So I thought I'd share some of my personal observations to see if it resonates with anyone.

This is NOT the end all, be all. Apply it as it makes sense to you.

PS: I don't know how to edit posts, and this is my first Tumblr post, so it's not gonna look pretty.

**************************************************

The 10th House 🕰️

The 10H gets reduced to "career and work", but it goes much further than that. The 10th house represents your highest honors, which, in a capitalist modern world, will often be directly linked to your career success, but it's not the success that's built around the career. It's the other way around. It talks about the career that leads you to success. The main point is NOT working itself, but success. 10H will also describe your public image, your reputation, your public persona, your long-term goals, your social influence, your social status, your legacy and the image you wanna project.

(e.g.: your biggest legacy could have nothing to do with something that made you money in this life. It could have been starting a non-profit that changed lots of lives. Or you could become prestigious in your social circle for your personality, which presents you with opportunities in life that aren't directly connected to acquiring material things [because the 2H is the house of materials and possessions])

Going off of the first topic – 10H synastry, specially house overlays – does NOT mean workplace romance. In fact, your significant other may not even work or, if they do, may not even work in the same field as you, let alone be co-workers. Like I said, the 10H is much larger than "career", but also, career and work are not exactly the same thing. If they do happen to be involved in your career, it may have nothing to do with your workplace directly, but with your career in a general sense. So, instead of meeting at WORK, being co-workers, and all the reductive things people claim, you could meet them through your CAREER.

(e.g.: You work at an insurance company, but are studying to become a lawyer, and you happen to attend a conference related to the lawyer part of your ambitions, not your actual job, and there you meet your significant other./You work as a waitress, but your dream of becoming a model. So you attend an event to network with people in the modeling industry, and there you meet your significant other, but they just happen to be somebody's friend who got invited to go to the event, even though they themselves are not in the industry at all).

Since the 10H also rules your highest self, your "best case scenario", and your status and legacy, having 10H synastry with someone could simply mean they will change your life significantly, either positively or negatively. They will shift the foundations of how you are perceived and perceive yourself, and may even change your status in life. In that sense, the person who eventually becomes your spouse and the parent of your children could have 10H synastry with you. They will have changed your public status, as well as your legacy. Broaden your perspectives without thinking of keywords.

The 9th House 📖

A lot of astro observations are very Americanized/Euro-centric, and lack perspective and social and cultural context. The 9H is much broader than "foreign things". In fact, it's the most expansive house of all 12, so to reduce that "expansiveness" to foreign travel because it's big and wide is too simplistic, and doesn't take into account people whose realities simply do not include access or contact to foreign cultures and places. It COULD indicate foreign travel and cultures, but it will most likely be "foreign" in the context of abstract things, such as beliefs, philosophy and worldview. The "traveling" of the 9H also does NOT have to be literal, and could very often mean intellectual and moral, such as "traveling" through the acquiring of knowledge, or "traveling" through exploring new spiritual practices and teachings.

(e.g.: The 9H will talk of higher education, but that's not a reality for a large portion of the world. So, instead of thinking in terms of university, think more of "higher education" in terms of evolving studying of concepts and notions. In that regard, life experience is ALSO included in the 9H)

Going off of the previous topic – 9H placements do NOT immediately mean you will marry a foreigner, or somebody from a different race/ethnicity/culture, or even that you will definitely travel abroad and meet somebody there. Not only is the idea of just up and moving to another country like it's nothing wildly unrealistic, it centers itself in the easy access Americans and Europeans have to foreign travel. Most of the world outside of those places will either not have the financial means to make foreign travel that easily, nor will they have political access to it (such as a passport that allows them to travel to other countries with no restrictions). Most people will not ever even leave their country by the time they've reached life milestones like marriage, job and children. Not only that – but the extreme racial divide seen in the United States is a very particular and individual experience, only seen also in major European countries (so very Caucasian-centric). Most people will not be making huge deals about marrying somebody who's from Korea, or Africa, or Brazil, or India, as if they were a totally different type of species.

(So the whole ordeal about "you will marry someone from a different race/culture is bogus. Countries like Brazil have a VERY diverse population, yet, they are very seamlessly integrated, so being of black, white, asian, Arab descent is not relevant, as they will see themselves as "just Brazilians" living the same Brazilian experience over all, regardless of their ethnicity.)

Having 9H love placements (such as Venus, Mars or Jupiter, and Juno) or having 9H synastry with someone very likely will not indicate a foreigner or finding love/starting a relationship abroad. It will 9 times out of 10 indicate somebody who expands your horizons, somebody who makes you question things and seek deeper understanding of the world around you, somebody who challenges your mind and spirit, somebody who will expose you to new and inventive ways of seeing, understanding and interacting with the world. That COULD mean they do that because they come from a different country or cultural background. But it could also mean they just think and act very fundamentally different from YOUR personal culture, and will bring up topics that teach you new ways to approach life. Not to mention that it could just describe accessing different cultures THROUGH them.

(e.g.: You and your spouse may be from the very same country and very same race, but upon getting together, you two end up moving to an area that has a lot of foreigners in it, a large population of foreigners, or through your partner you become acquainted with mutual friends who come from a vastly different cultural background than your own, and that, in turn, expands your worldview as if you yourself had traveled to another country or learned about another culture directly./ Or, to put it in more plain terms, your partner may just be a very freaking smart and knowledgeable person who teaches you things you would only learn in college.)

Still, with that said, the basic repeated meanings you see online COULD also still apply here, for anyone, but specially if you are white and from a country from the Northern hemisphere, as those descriptions apply more to their individual realities.

The 6th House 🧹

The 6H deals with daily, repetitive, routine things, which is why it deals with work, health and caretaking, because those are repetitive, orderly, constant tasks.

(Just like 10H is a "career" house, but it is not necessarily a "money house", the 6H is a "work" house, but not necessarily a money house. The money houses are the 2H (which deals with money you earn yourself), the 8H (which deals with money your manage for or earn from other people's possessions, such as an inheritance or your spouse's money), and – to an extent – the 11H (since it deals with "struck of luck" moments and could indicate coming into unexpected money).

You are more likely to date a co-worker having 6H love placements or 6H synastry than you are with the 10H, because the 10H deals with CAREER, which is not necessarily your workplace itself (could be a side business you're trying to take off), while the 6H deals with WORK itself. Since the 6H deals with daily routines, and a co-worker is someone you see on a daily basis at work.

(Not to be confused with the business-related side of the 7H, which will talk of business partners or having a business with your partner. It's like: the 10H will have your partner RELATED to your career somehow, but maybe not directly. The 6H will have your partner be a co-worker, but not necessarily share your career goals and plans. The 7H MAY describe starting a business with your partner eventually.)

Health is another thing that may or may not be a key factor in your relationship, or even for a long time. You might have 6H synastry and health never becomes a theme of your connection. You might be dating for 5 years and health is never a theme, and then you get married and for most of your marriage health is still not a thing. But then, by the time you two are old, one of you may develop a condition and the other one becomes your caretaker. Or another aspect of the 6H that is not talked about is daily life with your children together. The 6H is not the house of children, but the routine of taking care of a child together night be influenced by the 6H synastry, depending on the sign its happening in.

The 11th House 🫂

The 11H is VERY underrated for romance, because it doesn't manifest as quickly as people think romance and passion should. But it is, in fact, an extremely powerful house for synastry, when combined with other romance-inducing aspects. The 11H deals with, amongst other things, friendship. You'll often find that having 11H overlays/synastry means a platonic relationship or, at the very best, one-sided, but that only happens if there are no other aspects pointing towards romance – HEALTHY romance.

(It's also important to note that 11H synastry is deeper than people think. Just because it's a social house doesn't mean it's a detached house. Houses and signs are not the same thing. Aquarius ruling the 11H and Aquarius being stereotypically described as emotionally detached does not mean 11H synastry is detached. On the contrary, the 11H is very deep because it is the house of hopes, life dreams and aspirations, so it will describe things we idealize in a very pure and hopeful way.)

With 11H synastry, specially moon, Venus, Mars and – sometimes, Sun, if it's a water sign –, there will be a very strong bond of friendship, regardless of other layers to that relationship. And who do we trust more, if not our friends? Those are people we are not related to by blood or law, who do not share our immediate environment, whom we have no obligation to whatsoever, but we choose to give them unopposed access to our private world. So with 11H synastry between lovers, there is a deep foundation of friendship, which means that if it ends badly, it will have a very painful effect on the psyche and heart, because it will feel like losing a lover AND a best friend.

(That means that 11H includes a very important component of TRUST, an aspect that is only talked about with the 4th and 8th houses, but is also present in the 11th. Both for comfortability and feeling of betrayal. Also, that intensity also comes from the fact that with 11H synastry people tend to project their hopes and dreams onto each other. Like thinking they are the best person ever, all-in-one, ticking all the boxes, lover AND friend... So if that breaks at some point, it can make people feel really stupid and embarrassed.)

Like I said, 11H synastry in romance doesn't play out as quickly as people think love should be, so it gets dismissed in the romance department. But the 11H is a Saturn house. It takes time, and it needs structure. It means that friendship will ALWAYS come before romance. Now, does that mean that people will always be friends-to-lovers? No. They might start off as lovers, but they won't reach the potential of their intimacy until there's a well-established foundation of camaraderie and friendship, and once they do, that bond becomes very unbreakable, because they become partners in crime and each other's favorite person. IF IT'S IN A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER ROMANCE ASPECTS.

General Things ✨

ASTROLOGY is NOT MAGIC. It will not cause anything to happen in your life. Don't just rely on placements and aspects. It means absolutely NOTHING if you got 4H synastry with the one you love, but you yourself have problematic 4H/moon aspects in your natal chart that you do nothing to work on (and vice versa). That 4H synastry could turn toxic at the snap of a finger, and no amount of "comfort" is gonna prevent it. If you can't process your emotions well, you could date all the Cancers you want, or you could be a cancer yourself, you WILL NOT engage emotionally in a healthy way. You can't give nor receive something you don't have or don't understand. So, instead, learn about the makeup of your charts, but then use it as a study to improve yourselves, not just to think you will magically live in a Disney movie happily ever after just because his Venus falls in your 4H.

Astrology is not a hurricane. Not all things are happening at the same time all the time at all times, as of they were things flying around in a chaotic hurricane. The energies of your individual natal charts, as well as the energies of your synastry will play out in their own time, and may play out slowly, over time. Like house overlays, for example. One particular aspect of the 2H may play out at the beginning of the relationship, but if you eventually get married, another side of the 2H synastry may be unlocked. Or your husband could have an specific placement for his love life that will not be activated until he gets married, which means that for the entire time you are just dating, those things will not be happening. As with all things in life, astrology follows its natural course, and develops and changes over time.

Astrology does not bless or doom a relationship. It won't tell you whether you can/should or not be with someone. It doesn't MAKE YOU do anything. However, for the relationships that end in catastrophe, you can always go back and check the synastry/composite, and it will probably be obvious there, you just couldn't see it before. With that I don't mean to go out planing your life and connections around astrology, because that's very impractical, unrealistic and low-key immature, as people are ALWAYS growing and maturing. But I AM saying that if you are in a relationship that feels draining, toxic, abusive, unstable 24/7... trust the synastry, because you're probably trying to force something that is very clearly laid out for you, and that ONE or two nice aspects or placements are not gonna save you from obvious ruin. BE RATIONAL.

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That's it! Thank you if you've read it this far!

I might have come off a bit harsh (I hope I haven't), but I promise I'm nice lol.

Hopefully this resonates, as well as helps somebody understand a bit more. This was my first post, so it's a bit clumsy, but do let me know if you'd like me to share some more thoughts on astrology, and I might do another round.

MASTER LIST

[itgomyway]

understanding and “applying” non dualism 🪷

there is nothing to get with non dualism because YOU ARE EVERYTHING. i am being literal when i tell you that you dont gain or lose anything. you always are being. anything that can come and go with your awareness does. not. exist. YOU are the only real thing. just be.

“well how do i be?” this seems to be what people struggle with the most. theyre thinking of techniques that are usually associated with law of assumption and while not inherently wrong, its not non dualism. “doing” anything to “get” something contradicts what non dualism is about

you always are being. even “shifting your awareness” isnt a technique it is just what you do and is apart of who you are. what is the one thing your awareness stays on? YOU. no matter what you observe, u observe it through “your” pov. this is how you experience life. this is you

everything around you, whether physical or imaginary cannot exist unless YOU, the observer, is aware of it. i dare u to try to prove this wrong. believe me, as someone who loves learning i tried to think of a scenario where existence happens outside of my awareness and came up empty!

i cannot stress this point enough. no matter how many times or different ways you ask this question, the answer will always be the same. whether you believe in “non dualism” or not, things cannot exist unless youre aware of them. so what now? APPLY!

do you want a better job? okay then be aware that you always get the best job opportunities. how? you just did it. you just said you wanted a better job so now you have a better job. since everything is you and theres no separation, this happens INSTANTLY.

there is no difference between your imagination and your physical reality. none of what takes place in these perceived differently dimensions share a different level of awareness. it all comes from YOU and YOU are one. the only thing that validates smth as real is you.

awareness has no prejudice. it’s not the one that decides what is real and whats not, you as the observer do. you can really just breathe. whenever youre aware of something you dont like just observe the opposite. how? theres no “how” because theres no process it is instantaneous! life can be a game so HAVE FUN.

moral of the story? point of this post? NONE of this is real. its all temporary that comes and goes with your awareness. your creations are not your enemy, THEY ARE YOU! stop fighting with yourself and learn to work with yourself.

© itgomyway

[theshiftingwitch]

hi, previous anon here, i think i don’t quite understand how i’m the one giving my manifestations to myself? like i understand the concept of why i’m the one in control in my reality but like it doesn’t quite sink in that i’m the one creating everything? like i’m one with my reality? i don’t get it because even if separation is an illusion is what i, understand? would you mind explaining how you relate to the outer world then? i understand we can select anything-“physically present” or from imagination but they’re different experiences. i don’t want to “live in imagination” i think if it as a tool to select the realities i want to experience in the physical, i’m scared to be delusional idk,

All right, let's break it down in the most simple of terms:

When we say imagination is the true reality, we do not mean you must live in your imagination for the rest of your life. We do not mean that you have to be delusional (even if that is the term most on social media use right now) we do not mean that you have to disregard the physical reality around you and live inside your head 24/7. What we mean by imagination is the true reality is that imagination is the source. It is the beginning. It is the key to having everything you desire.

Another thing you must understand is that all of creation is finished. Now I do not know if you believe in God or the universe or the source, but from my point of view as a spiritual person who practices both manifestation and shifting, I believe that I'm the universe having a human experience, and that makes me the source of everything. Yes my human experience has its limitation and this human body has its blocks and its limits. But at my core, I am source.

So what does that mean? If creation is finished, that means that everything you could possibly want, everything you could possibly think of, and everything you could possibly need already exists. The trick is to pull it from the 4D where it exists to the 3D where you exist, or let's say where you perceive your existence. Because you do not exist in the 3d, you are a multi-dimensional being existing in a multi-dimensional Omniverse. And so as you manifest, you begin with imagining your desire in your 4d, and then you get that desire in the 3D by persisting in the knowledge that you already have it because you saw it in your imagination.

Your problem is creating a divide where a divide should not exist. Just because you do not physically see it does not mean it's not real. Just because something is in your imagination does not mean it is your own delusion or it's just a figment of your imagination that does not translate into the current reality. That is a misconception that has been hardening into our physical reality for eons now, people mocking imagination, calling it a delusion, telling you that what's in your head is not real... that is not the case when it comes to manifesting. If you see it in your head, if you see it in your mind, then it exists. Being in imagination and being physically present are not too distinct, separate experiences. They are related to each other, one starts the other and one finishes the other.

You are the one creating everything, as in you are the one curating and creating this human experience. You are not creating it as we speak, you already created it as you were part of the Great Consciousness that is the universe. You created everything as the universe and now you are having this human experience in a distinct human body with distinct human emotions and a distinct human mind, and you are trying to connect back to the great source which is still you but you do not understand that because in your mind you are creating a divide between you and the original You when it's the same thing.

If you do not understand anything of what I just said, understand this part: in order to manifest your desires you need three things. To decide (what do you want?) to understand (you already have what you want) and to persist (you have it even if you do not yet see it.) As long as you keep persisting, as long as you don't give up, and as long as you don't let the "physical reality" dictate what goes on in you mind and heart, you will have your desires.

The law of assumption is always working. It doesn't stop. You are always assuming something. The question is, are you assuming you already have your desires? Or are you assuming you are still waiting for it and someone is holding it hostage and refusing to give it to you?

Check your assumptions, they are the reason your 3d is not bending to your will.

[csuitebitches]

Book Review: Book 1: Stop People Pleasing (a 9-part series by Patrick King, “Be Confident and Fearless.”)

I’m reading a 9-part series by Patrick King, “Be Confident and Fearless.” His books talk about becoming assertive, saying no, not people pleasing anymore and being confident. Generally, such books are quite generic but I found his take on the subject interesting. His techniques to handle certain situations seem to be quite doable too. His techniques have been highlighted in bold.

Book One: “Stop People Pleasing”

A people-pleaser is worried about rejection. They have a need, as we all do, to be accepted and treasured—to be loved. But in people-pleasers, this need is amplified to the extent that they will bend over backward just to not lose that love or acceptance. This is more invalidating than giving an honest opinion.

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In reality, people-pleasers continued promises and inaction just tick their friends off, as it becomes apparent that they are willing to be dishonest and only say what people want to hear.

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They’re not really doing what they do to improve someone else’s life—they just want to feel more positive about themselves.

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Living under the limitations of our own viewpoint, we tend to think everyone in our circle is looking at and judging how we look and behave. At most, maybe a couple of people are paying attention to most of your moves, and they’re likely people you’re already close to who are supposed to know you better than anyone else.

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When you’re so consumed with the perceived needs of others, you’re not paying yourself any attention. You could be overlooking or ignoring things you need to do to take care of yourself.

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Avoiding confrontation for fear that it might only make things worse ironically results in the very outcomes it’s meant to deflect. The absence of confrontations doesn’t mean your relationship is all healthy, and the presence of confrontations doesn’t mean your relationship has gone to the dogs.

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The BLUE model is a specific CBT strategy developed by PracticeWise to help counter negative thinking. BLUE is an acronym that stands for the kind of extremely negative thoughts you should recognize in yourself when they do pop into your head. “B” stands for blaming myself, “L” is looking for bad news, “U” means unhappy guessing, and “E” represents exaggeratedly negative thoughts.

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What many people-pleasers fail to see is that sacrificing so much of themselves in pursuit of serving everyone else around them is sabotaging their very capacity to continue being there for others when it truly matters.

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Rejecting an invite is not the same as rejecting your friend and that prioritizing your own peace of mind by just settling into a restful weekend is totally okay.

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Ask yourself, “What are the things I do to be happy?” or “What are the core beliefs I have about my worth as a person?”

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Exposure therapy is the process of deliberately placing yourself in situations that cause you fear and anxiety. You’ll need to immerse yourself in your feared situations in a gradual and progressive manner, starting from situations that cause the least anxiety and later advancing to those that cause the most intense feelings of fear.

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Creating your fear hierarchy. The fear hierarchy is an ordered list of situations that elicit your fears and anxieties.

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The first habit we must develop is the habit of self-awareness. We don’t understand why we people-please, and we’re not aware when we’re doing it.

This begins with questioning the motives for your actions: “Why exactly am I going out of my way for this person?” “Do I genuinely care for them, or am I just afraid of what might happen without them?” “Would I be doing this out of free will, or am I doing it for someone else?”

Take note of the moment you’re starting to feel internal resistance. When that happens, stop everything and question why you’re doing it.

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The second habit to cultivate is the habit of personal autonomy. An autonomous person knows what they truly believe and why they believe it. But the differences that you’ve valued your own opinion over that of others. Or you’ve at least valued it equally and not by habit put your own opinion as inferior to that of others.

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That’s why it’s important to get into the habit of expressing yourself honestly. The more you communicate where you stand, the more people will know where you’re coming from (and what your limits are). After all, people can’t read minds, and to expect others to know what you want is an impossible task.

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Remain strong under pressure. When you stop people-pleasing, you will face some angry reactions. It’s not necessarily their fault because you have conditioned their expectations. But this is where you must not fold under pressure, like you previously would have. It only takes five seconds of extreme willpower, and it gets easier every time thereafter.

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How to set boundaries:

1. Determine your core values

2. Change yourself and only yourself. You dont control other people

3. Set consequences of someone else breaking your boundaries. Write down the boundaries you have, the actions others might take that trespass those boundaries, and exactly what you will do when they’ve violated your boundaries.

4. Communicate your boundaries to others in very exact terms. Make sure everybody’s very, very clear on what your limits are.

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If you tell yourself “I can’t,” you’re simply reminding yourself of the limitations you’ve set for yourself. You’re creating a feedback loop in your brain that tells you that you can’t do something that you would normally want to do.

When you tell yourself “I don’t,” you’re creating a feedback loop that reminds you of your power and control of the situation. You’ve given yourself a line in the sand that takes the situation out of your hands. Your choice was premade to say no and thus you can stick to it more easily.

[annunakitty]

"Some people will use a symbolism of the relationship of God to the universe, wherein God is a brilliant light, only somehow veiled, hiding underneath all these forms as you look around you. So far so good. But the truth is funnier than that. It is that you are looking right at the brilliant light now; that the experience you are having that you call ordinary everyday consciousness—pretending you're not it—that experience is exactly the same thing as 'it.' There's no difference at all. And when you find that out, you laugh yourself silly. That's the great discovery."

~Alan Watts

I think a lot about this quote in relation to the cave allegory; we're doomed to be chained in the cave‚ forced to experience the conceptual rather than the "real." But I motion that the cave is itself still part of the "real" and we ourselves are part of the "real," all made up of the quarks, atoms, molecules, and compounds that for the vast majority of our lives we are forced to experience only in the conceptual; as shadows on the wall. The reason for this is simple, it's what was evolutionarily advantageous; being aware of individual particles and their interactions does little to ensure our survival. And yet, we've developed the senses, through scientific inquiry, to conceptualize them, even if we're incapable of seeing them as they are in our every day life.

What I feel like most people don't realize (and what Watts is suggesting here) is that we are exactly the same as the world around us, and it is exactly the same as us; the perceived separation between us and our environment is an illusion. We are the brilliant light outside the cave.

The part that makes me endlessly sad is just how many people who dismiss this kind of revelation as "hippy dippy nonsense," and what makes it perhaps all the more frustrating is that I can remember what it's like to be content with the shadows on the wall and happily oblivious to their cause—it makes me want to grab them by the lapel and scream at them, "I am you and you are me, and we are it," but I know that's not how it works; you have to want to see the light and I wish I could foster that want in more people.

Annoying still are those who can conceptualize that what they experience is only a silhouette of reality's true visage, but refuse to acknowledge that it means anything special; or worse, believe that this revelation somehow makes us insignificant. We are star stuff that somehow discovered itself, how much more amazing and special could you get!?

Anyway, the best I can do, and I think the most that most of us can strive for, is to foster the curiosity that sparks that want to see the light, to be a guide for those who might be ready to lose their chains, and to be a warm embrace for ourselves as we discover our brilliance.

[actual-changeling]

Do you think Aziraphale has been verbally, emotionally and psychologically abused by Heaven as well?

I will answer this question like one asked in good faith even though my gut is telling me there's a 50/50 chance it is very much not one.

So!

There are two parts to his answer, or rather one question is actually two.

Firstly, we have to talk about whether heaven is abusive, what that abuse looks like, and how it differs from hell.

Secondly, how did the results of question one affect Aziraphale, if it is different from what the other angels in heaven face, and what additional trauma might he have experienced due to being on earth.

I could write a 10k meta post about this and go into the finest detail, but I will just try and stick to the main points for now. It's still going to be way too long because I am so fucking tired of people accusing me of 'hating' Aziraphale or harassing me on my posts or in my inbox.

Is heaven abusive? Yes, and it applies to both heaven as an institution and the Archangels running it.

Getting to know Muriel and what their life looks like was extremely helpful in properly defining this, because they showed us that although the Archangels tend to travel and work as a group, most of the angels are incredibly isolated.

The result is complete emotional neglect, which not only impairs your ability to form and maintain healthy relationships with other people, it also stops your from learning emotional regulation and how to behave and feel as a part of (angelic) society. We see the consequences of that in Muriel, who comes across as overly naive, socially awkward, and out of touch with not just people but themselves.

When your entire life has been shrunk down to what happens inside your own head, suddenly being confronted with having to live outside of your mind is jarring, overwhelming, and foreign.

How do you talk to people when no one ever taught you how to do that? How do you behave around someone after a lifetime of being alone? How do your regulate your responses to their behaviour?

Who are you when there is someone else to perceive you?

Figuring that out is complicated and it takes time, and while most of the angels are only distantly aware of how humans live and what kind of interactions some of the other angels might have, the effects of that neglect stay the same whether they are aware of it or not.

Muriel shows us that angels are not born/made as a blank slate, and neither are humans for that matter. Tabula rasa as a philosophical belief is one thing, but reality is very, very different.

Angels also appear to have the same inherent need for connection, for a caretaker that loves them unconditionally, for someone to help them figure out how to be, and that provides a safe space to make mistakes. Without some or all of that, you grow up into a disregulated, socially awkward if not inept person who does not know how to have relationships or how to properly exist.

It is one of the reasons why autistic people are a) almost always traumatized to some degree and b) do not know how to socialize. No one ever works with our brains, and the resulting neglect is very similar to not receiving any help at all.

If you are now curious what happens if you're both autistic and were completely socially neglected, the result is uh. me. Hi! Not nice, but at least I am very sure I win the award for being my therapist's most fucked up client, so that's something.

Yet the angels are not solely emotionally neglected, the system/household they live in demands a low self-esteem, a lack of individual identity, and complete adherence to a defined ideology and behavioural pattern. In short, you are told how to be a useless, tiny part in a bigger machine, that your only purpose is to succeed at your tasks, and any opportunity for individual development is removed or destroyed.

If you are now once again curious what that might be like, uh, yeah, hi once more. Obviously my childhood was not exactly like an angels life, but the core characteristics were the same, just realized differently. Again, not pretty, really, really fucks you over.

Take that and the neglect, combine it into one person, and then drop them in the Garden of Eden—hello Aziraphale! Crowley got dropped into hell first, experienced more abuse, and then dug his way up into Eden before joining him.

Aziraphale experienced everything Muriel (and Crowley, and every other celestial being) also experienced, with one main difference: He is the one who got away.

We have to remember that out of every single celestial being, Aziraphale got the best deal. He did not fall, he got out of heaven (more or less) permanently, and was then largely left alone.

Does that erase anything I laid out above? No, of course not!

It simply provided him with the opportunity to heal, to take his cPTSD and who knows what other disorders he developed as a result, and start recovering.

Canonically, heaven did not bother him, like, ever, except for the odd note about 'frivolous miracles' or ten minutes of catching up every millennia. They only started monitoring him once they started to suspect he was involved with Crowley and trying to stop the apocalypse from happening.

Aziraphale worked on some things, he got better in many regards, especially with Crowley there to support him, but after six thousand years, many aspects have stayed the same or regressed back to the start over and over.

I will tell you a hard pill to swallow now: If you refuse to acknowledge your issues to instead live in a world of nicer denial and compartmentalization even when you have been offered the chance to change it, that is partly on YOU.

Is it fair? Fuck no! It's not fair at all, and I have had so many breakdowns over that fact. I did not break it, this is not my FAULT so why should I have to fix it all on my own? Why do I have to do the work, not them? How come they get away with it while I am going to have to carry this for the rest of my life?

I still have to do it though. I have to do the work, no matter how uncomfortable and exhausting, because I want to get better.

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This conversation has so many facets and is a lot more complex, but this is already long enough, so if you have any questions or want to know something specific (while asking politely and in good faith) just send me an ask; I will do my best to answer it.

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We are now only missing the last part of question 2, and that one is also so fucking complicated reducing it to the main points almost feels wrong, but I will do it anyway. Again, just ask if you have questions.

Abusive households are horrible, and you want to get out and away, but they are also the only thing you know. The world is scary, too big, too open, where did all the rules go that were previously defining your life?

Surviving in an abusive environment means you establish routine after routine after routine for every possible horrible scenario, you write a mental rule book to try and reduce the abuse (don't make them angry, don't cry when they're already shouting, don't do this, don't do that, do x but not y), and THAT is your socialization. THAT is everything you know, everything you are, everything you know relationships to be like.

Once you are away from that, you are completely and utterly lost. Even breathing feels like making a mistake, you feel watched, judged, rated, berated, you have them stuck in your fucking head. So you keep sticking to what you know, your behavioural patterns that have kept you safe your entire life.

The problem is that they kept you safe, past tense. In a healthy environment, all of those coping mechanisms are now maladaptive and harm you instead of keeping you safe.

However, breaking out of them and starting from scratch is terrifying. So, so, so terrifying. I live in constant fear, I feel judged and unsafe in my own flat with the curtains shut and the lights on. I feel like I am about to get subjected to another one of his fits for daring to use the stove.

No matter what you do, your body and brain are SCREAMING at you that diverging from what you know will kill you—and then you have to do it anyway.

Do it alone and afraid and awkwardly but DO IT. Otherwise you will always find a way to recreate the environment you grew up in, whether that is people getting into unhealthy relationships and replicating the patterns they know (which Aziraphale does with Crowley, e.g. the push-pull of his affection) or eventually even returning to it because they ruined you, but a part of you is so, so attached to them you just have to try and change them.

Some people can move on from it without going back, but sometimes you need to try and experience that failure for yourself before being able to move on, and that's where Aziraphale is at.

He needs to try and fail to be capable of finally committing to recovering.

So, to summarize this entire shitshow: Yes, Aziraphale experienced emotional neglect and abuse, and while it is different to what Crowley went through and objectively less intense and physical, it is still just as valid and horrid.

Just because a car accident is objectively worse than falling off a bike doesn't mean the biker's pain is unimportant. Both can kill you, both can hurt you, and both deserve to get their injuries treated.

Questions?

[zeroducks-2]

I don’t understand how Clark is even Bruce’s friend after reading how Bruce treats his sidekicks

There's more than one reason.

All heroes - beside Barry Allen - haven't been (and often still aren't) always sunshine and rainbows when it comes to their sidekicks. I won't go in depths with all of them but Bruce isn't the only abusive one. Consider that the Leaguers were all pretty young when their sidekicks came around and made lots of mistakes, whether because of inexperience or because they were misguided, thinking that being harsh and unforgiving would have built character for their little counterparts (again, Barry is a stark exception to this). And importantly, how to mentor a sidekick was no one's business except the mentor's. You don't see Barry tapping on Arthur's shoulder and tell him "stop hitting Garth", despite how affectionate and careful with children Barry has always been. Same thing goes with Clark and Bruce.

Of course seeing Bruce treat his sidekicks that way over more than two decades should be enough for anyone to reconsider the friendship, but comics are not real life. Being "difficult" is part of Bruce's whole deal: he pushes away the people he loves, he isolates, keeps to himself and stews in his own pot of demons and loneliness. And Clark loves him, he really really does, and wouldn't leave him alone despite the abusive behaviors Bruce displays towards, well, pretty much everyone (Clark included. I know Superbat shippers tend to live up on the candy mountain where everything is perfect between Bruce and Clark, but Bruce is very much abusive, manipulative and an asshole to Clark too and invariably, Clark forgives him). So the thing is, Clark loves both Bruce and Dick. He recognizes Bruce's flaws and the fact that if he pulled away, it would just hurt Bruce and Dick, and solve nothing.

More in general, Bruce's behavior in this sense is normalized. Read any comic of anyone interacting with Bruce for more than 1 minute, and there will be some rationalization or justification for the shit he pulls at some point in the story (not necessarily towards his sidekicks but in general). His personality is full of jagged edges and if you try to touch you'll likely cut yourself, and all the people close to him know and accept this - luckily for Bruce, because otherwise he'd be entirely alone. This dynamic consistently hurt his friends and family though, and it's especially damaging to the people who Bruce has power over, namely his sidekicks. But everyone normalizes this and considers it part of the "Batman deal", which is why no one does anything meaningful to make him stop, or cuts ties with him over it.

There's another reason, and this one is more meta. When discussing Bruce we can't forget that the character is 80+ and has been written by hundreds of people. And depending from writer to writer, his behavior towards his sidekicks is perceived as more or less abusive: some people make him do the most terrifying things and present them as "tough love", or "necessary for Robin's growth", or even a symptom of how Bruce is the perfect mentor and is preparing his sidekicks to the harsh reality of their vigilante duties. The emotional incompetence (and therefore neglect) is shown as something masculine and therefore desirable, necessary to survive in a world where the Mission is more important than everything else, and everyone is potentially out to get them. So even if one writer will have Clark actively disliking Bruce's behavior towards any Robin, it's likely that the next writer will just drop the plotline and pretend it never happened because they see nothing wrong with it.

And finally. I know that I've said "comics are not real life" at one point, but if I am to be entirely honest with you anon, this is exactly how it works in real life too. People are friends with people who abuse the shit out of their kids, employees, waiters at the coffee shop. Awful parents have friends, managers who act like slave owners have friends, teachers who vent their frustration on kids have friends - it happens all the time and if abusers weren't coddled, justified and even catered to, the number of traumatized people in the world would be drastically inferior. Clark remaining friends with Bruce despite everything is honestly way more realistic than lots of people claim it is.

[foreversnews]

1:am July 4th, sitting here flipping this Tamia I'm so into you song in to a slow sample

thinking of new ways to trust myself

this song has always reminded me of a special kinda of feeling around love. or infatuation at least right now this specific scope of "love" feels more to me like alice millers cover of spell on you by Nina Simone

or frank ocean seigfeind

or looks good with trouble by Solange

slow sample just going on loop as I write this

" I can't realllyyy exxxxplaainitttt"

slowed down at about 45.5 bpm

I used to hear this and think of the most life affirming guilty embarrasingly mushy love

where my young imagination could only think of me walking in the sunlight with a pretty girl, not even touching her, just walking

funny how I always thought romance could save me from something

even as a kid I would almost stay up all night before the first day of school, finally I get to see girls !!

I could get a girlfriend !!

life was simple like that then, elementary school me lol

wanted to feel like something to somebody so baddd

"iiii rreeaallly liiikke what youuu dooonne too meee"

as slowed sample plays*

this song it still hasn't lost its shiny touch

makes me think of someone that I haven't spoke to in while an

meiby in a way I thought she could save me from myself

if I pretend enough

if i talk enough

if i give enough

if I tell you any and everything

nothing stopped the inevitable end

as the loop still runs *

"doooonnee toooo meee"

I think of the countless beds I found myself in the search of the comfort of the that little kid that just wanted to feel like that song feels

cords and rhythms bouncing off my shoulder blades

quick as a lie Is told

as love is perceived

I've ran out of rhythms to not see in this

"whhhaaat youuuu Donnee too meee "

as the sample plays on loop *

playing out the cyclical natures of my most intimate desires coverd by cathexis of pretty faces and gentle misreadings

but to young people who like each other isn't there any more to think a out??? haha my young mind thought it was that easy

making Valentine day cards. hiding them in desk and sing to girls during recess lol

I found (Mei)self dreaming this person again.

how can I begin to think about this in a way the keeps me intact ?

because after all this is who I built for better or worst

become charming people will forget how you've warn that same unwashed uniform shirt to school 5 days In a row

maybe she might look past the body odor you quite don't know how to get in order yet lol

ive always found myself obsessing over what my first time would be like

would it be like one pf those songs of the weekends trilogy ? high school me would think about lol

after all it seems like the perfect sounds track to this double reality I found myself in from a young aspiring towards everything and hopping to find home

'IIIII ammmsoooo iii inn too you"

sample still runs *

being a young boy not really aware of my innocence

didn't feel like I had anything worth seeing

like I was guilty from the first perception of others

the only thing that I could see for myself was desire of romance

maybe I could think about this all day and nothing else

I remember one day my dad would update me on his latest sexual prized catch and how sexy she was, how ,such she pleased him

"iccaannnntt reallly exxplaainne It"

Sample does on *

.........................................................

now my conquest for the ultimate I immature romance, devided in two sexual prowas and power.

after all if my dad is telling me all these details it must be somthing worth doing right?

was he only telling me this to escape his own feelings of loneliness

maybe if he reflects some sort of cool posture ill look at him in a way that helps him look at himself

funny how that goes

bc here I am now hoping to see my value in bodies, faces,ect

but how can I ask them to see omthing I havnt deeply interrogated ?

I know now that love feels more like Alice Coltranes going home

unknowable, only lived and acted out in my own personal being

romance is just a extent of ritual maybe

the coldness of my young self non knowing how to cope with poverty, with abuse and misuse of my young body, mind.

its not far off that, that became the only motivating factor win my life but I deeply want to know myself in everyday possible

not from a automated idea in hopes of finding someone

im not personality package, a body to be used, an idea to be exploited

but then again.

'iiiii reeallly liikkke whhaat youuuuu donnneee to mee iii cannnnt rreealllly exxpllaainne iiit iiiimm sooo iiinn too youuu"

last sample flip*

maybe this coldness is what ive never recognized.

(im rambling and speaking in fragments but I wanted to be honest with how many turns my brain was making "

[newtafterdark]

I’m not sure if it’s a good time to ask this, but after seeing @mrultra100’s post about the matter, what was your history with the Dr. Crafty show? And what kind of history did you have with the creator?

Ah, I see folks are talking about the whole mess on here now too? (As an important sidenote: I talked about it in length on my Twitter, but I privated my account and don't plan on ever using it again.)

For those who don't know, this is in reference to the Youtuber and VTuber that went by the alias "Dr. Crafty", also known as Alexander "Alex" Tansley.

The short of it is that I used to work for him for around two years and thought of him as a friend - until I reached the point of realizing that something was very wrong with having the man close to myself and my friends.

Basically, after making some fanart of some of the characters from his show, Crafty and I got in contact and it became what I thought was a fun friendship that developed throughout the months. Now I know better and I know he has a pattern of "befriending" people to get things out of them.

Around the end of 2018 I brought up that I'd be happy to help out with his show if he ever needed help… and that lead to me creating all of the "Questionable Qloset" tarot cards. (Which he put up on his Red Bubble without asking me. If there was ever money made with them, I never saw a cut.)

I was not doing well mentally at the time at all, hell, I worked on the tarot cards while being in medical rehab and he still was pushy for me to finish them way earlier than we had agreed on. But at this point I am not surprised that he took avantage of my less than great mental state. It seems to be a pattern for him, having read several testimonies.

That work unfortunately also lead to me being one of the absolutely overworked employees during the creation of the "I Need A Hero Academia" finale for his show. I was tasked to colour, shade and add effects to the storyline bits of one full episode of that three-part finale, and some bits in the third episode, along with coloring two short animations. Close to 200 illustrations coloured. 90 bucks for all of that work. And burned out at the end of it all. A nightmare.

I also was responsible for designing the Infinia Relics and big villain at the end of the series, but aside from one glimpse of her, that design mostly remained unused.

Along with that I was also partially responsible for the core idea behind "Shakeup Saloon", as I had the idea for the host character - but Crafty took my idea and warped it into something almost unreconizable. He also never credited the person who gave him the idea for the show itself in the first place, Nero (of "ToonGrin"), one of his editiors at the time.

In general, Crafty hated crediting us for all the work we did to make his shows a reality. I had to beg for myself and my co-worker Zaz (who did the lineart I colored) in the finale to be even credited in the last video of the three parter. We didn't even get credited on the video we did the most work on.

So… in general, looking back it was an exhausting work experience.

My personal gripes with him mirror the behavior you might've heard from a multitude of folks on Twitter last month.

Unwanted pushing to do NSFW rp (and me telling him off multiple times, but he would try again multiple times) and trying to do the same with anyone he perceived as female in my private discord server. If you were AFAB, he'd try to slide into your DMs, basically. Which also goes hand in hand with him completely disreguarding that I am a trans man and drawing me with an hour glass figure and needing to be reminded to not draw me with massive tits. It just felt like if he percieved you as a women, he'd use you for his own entertainment as he saw fit. It just took me too long to realize that. Still, I managed to completely cut contact with him in 2020.

All in all, Crafty was a shitty boss and a creep who pretended to be my friend. And that's all I'll say on that matter on here.

Don't waste your energy on thinking about Crafty. Support his victims and let them heal.

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

(Wall of text warning, sorry! I have so many Damon posts saved for when the time came, now I don't know how to disperse them!) This is meant to be more of a five-mile view of Damon's "prettiness," band history more than personal opinion for the most part, but of course that'll never be entirely removed from it.

We're not wrong to laugh at his "it's difficult to be taken seriously when you're a prettyboy" quote, but he really wasn't the only person who thought it at the time; Damon was so pretty that it was regarded as an issue, and it redefined the way the band was marketed, the style of music they were pushed toward, and the way they were treated. Interviews were at times awkward as blushing hosts blurted out how he made them nervous, or took a gossipy tone about his looks and personal life over the music. On occasion they were introduced in pretty crass ways-- one that springs to mind is "the crotch-moistening Blur"-- even when expressing fairly little sexuality in the actual music. Whenever the stage was in reach of the audience, Damon was an object of devastating desire, cried for and groped and clung to no matter how serious the song, no matter how strung out or dead behind the eyes he looked. (I'm not criticizing fans for being eager or having certain expectations based on evolving performance styles through their career, and I think there's a complicated history of bands including Blur doing some distancing from fans themselves, but you do notice how... out of sync the energy can feel at times.)

Damon once spoke of getting rid of all the mirrors in his home (I believe around the same time he first shaved his head, but I don't have the quote/year on me at the moment) and stated that it gave him a sense of clarity to be free from seeing his reflection, and instead he would simply "know who I am." I'm sure his full feelings and motivations are complicated, but he seemed to rebel against his own looks just as often as (and in the end, more than) he took advantage of them.

This excerpt really sums it up, and features an especially great quote from Dave at the end. Sure, many people are pretty, but are they pretty enough that their bandmates advocated for mutilating them?

"The prettiness thing has been a problem. Damon Albarn is one of those people who is supernaturally handsome. He has the upturned nose of an aristocratic 16-year-old girl and big lips, which he licks a lot with a big, fleshy tongue. And, of course, there’s the eyes: fields of bluebells on a summer’s day. But people have a natural distrust of the unbearably pretty. So, in an effort to override the looks issue and get taken seriously, Damon took the objectionable route. In the early days he’d throw up on stage; he’d clamber like a deranged chimp over towering speakers and amps before hurling himself kamikaze-style into audiences; he’d come out with outrageous statements.

As Dave Rowntree, Blur’s drummer, once contemplated, “We should’ve taken a Stanley knife to him in the beginning and things would’ve been oh-so-different.”" - Minx Magazine, 1999

...And no, the irony of discussing this during an attractiveness tournament is not lost on me! Despite the context a younger audience sees him through I don't think of Damon as truly "Instagram pretty," but rather, that perceived shallowness we saw in his sun-kissed face and ski-slope nose became something of a mask on top of a mask on top of a mask, and neither the audience not the subject could settle on the reality because he could never stay comfortable. He wanted to be a pop philosopher, then he wanted to be an unbridled manic youth, then he wanted to be the untarnished English everyman, then he wanted to be the poet of the mundane, and all the while he so fully believed himself to be an artist in the skin of a celebrity; he wanted to be the songwriter to give voice to cruel and universal beauty and not just be the face of it... but he was, really. Maybe he was all of it, maybe none, it just depends on how you see it. His looks, and specifically the type of "obvious beauty" he had, are part of what makes him an interesting (if not necessarily always likable-- and hot take, I don't need him to be) figure I think, because Damon was not the male-fantasy protagonist who "didn't know she was beautiful." He was so aware of it that it made him neurotic and defensive and bizarre, and none of that seemed to change everyone around him having a fixation on it as well. 30 years since their debut, the conversation around Damon still fixates on it.

...Note that this doesn't mean I won't still be sending in prettyboy propaganda. Hey, he was one whether he appreciated it or not.

Very different world it would've been if Dave wasn't joking!

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Re: your tags on Jaime’s post.

I ponder sometimes if people have internalized “the personal is political” to an extreme degree to the point of denying themselves and others an inner life that doesn’t adhere (or rather, is perceived as not adhering) to what is considered politically conscious.

And that’s sad because the point of that message was never that one had to place themselves on the alter of a political existence all the time.

anon I gotta be real with you, this is so far out of my wheelhouse, and I am in no way smart enough to answer that, but I am impressed that you thought of that connection.

I think the growing lack of, idk, education in critical thinking and awareness of the world outside one's tiny online bubble may be to blame in a general sense. (Not just about Taylor, but about, like, the state of the world.) People are so quick to box ideas and statements and people into good/bad black/white right/wrong binaries to moralize every fucking thing, when the reality is that everyone's existence is made up of nuance and shades of grey. (I'm talking about like, most people, not actually evil people like well... you know.) And I think a lot of that has shown up in recent events on a large scale too iykwim.

It's not that one is supposed to have it all (which is impossible) or not want any of it (which is up to an individual), it's that people just need to figure out what's right for them (e.g. in terms of family in this example), but not assume everyone else feels the same way in their own lives.

I don't know where I'm going with this, but just... as usual, internet discourse (and Twitter and TikTok discourse in general because I feel this is where it largely starts) is just brain rot nonsense, but in a very real way it's affecting how people are interacting (or not) with the world around them. And the algorithms therein absolutely feed into it too, creating an even more isolating vicious cycle.

[jessjustplay]

Story Analysis of Star Ocean Till the End of Time (Spoilers!)

June 2, 2024

Simple, complicated, philosophical. That's how the story rolls in Star Ocean Till the End of Time.

When the game begins, Fayt and his family are on a spaceship that gets attacked. Fayt is separated and ends up on an unfamiliar planet. He meets Cliff and they eventually find themselves teaming up with a stern woman named Nel (she's cool, I like her). Nel needs them to defend her country, Aquaria, against Airyglyph. That's the simple part. A planet with countries at war? Seems to be a normal occurrence (unfortunately) in all realities.

It's during the next arc that things get complicated. The team meets Maria, and they go to space to defend the universe from some god-like creatures. (I mean... it's a JRPG, what do you expect?) Even the people of Aquaria and Airyglpyh realize this is no time for fighting amongst themselves.

Now, instead of traveling to a new city, the team finds themselves needing to find a way to an entirely new dimension: the 4D. To top it off, they're hit with the news that their existence and the world they know is a complete fabrication. They are indeed, inside a simulation.

The wild part is that, we the player, are technically living in the same world as Fayt, Cliff, and the rest. It's established that Fayt is from Earth, and that is also our home. So the game is technically including us as being part of a simulation. Or on the other hand, we are in the real world, playing a game that is a game inside the game we're playing. (I love it here.)

Anyway, the big baddie of the game is called the Creator, but he's just random man named Joe. (His name is actually Luther, but he might as well be a random man named Joe.) After defeating this guy, Fayt and company are actually deleted along with the universe. (Kinda shocked the game followed through with this.)

"I wonder what's going to happen?" - Maria "Just believe. Just believe that we exist, here and now." - Fayt

"Choose to live!" - Fayt

However, as Fayt finds himself amongst the great big world of nothingness, he becomes aware that he is having a thought. And as René Descartes argues for the knowing of our own existence: "I think, therefore I am."

"There's nothing left. Everything has completely vanished. Light. Air. Even my own body no longer exists. Absolute nothingness. Hmm? Nothingness? So nothing really exists anymore? But if that were true, then what about this thought? This thought is real. And I am aware of this thought. So... there is something left. There has to be. That means... that I'm still alive!" - Fayt

THE WHOLE STORY IS A PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNEY OF RECOGNIZING YOUR EXISTENCE AND THE WILL TO LIVE. It's simply hidden behind flashy PS2 graphics and sci-fi lingo. Incredible!

"All that we can see in our dimension, and everything we can touch, it's all been a fabrication created for us to perceive. And now Luther has disabled our perception of such things, effectively erasing them from existence. Without perception, there is no existence." - Maria "And yet... even though everything around us was an illusion, I'm positive that our minds, which perceived that dimension, really do exist." - Maria "You're right. No matter what Luther claims, our minds are the only things that were real." - Fayt "That's exactly why Luther was unable to erase our consciousness. He merely deleted all the illusions around us. Doing so could not possibly erase that which actually exists outside of his creation." - Maria "So, you're saying Luther never acknowledged our existence? Does his failure to do so explain why we still exist here?" - Sophia "Maybe... strictly speaking, the universe as we know it most likely no longer exists. Nevertheless, we still feel its existence in our minds." - Fayt "If everyone in that universe still feels like we do right now then that universe really does exist." - Maria

Humanizing the characters with ethics, morals, empathy, and compassion

The game includes a variety of moments that evoke emotion in the characters, and us (the player) too! The cutscenes are examples of how humans are, how they react, feel, and think.

These are the reasons why the game's revelation at the end is so impactful. Because, not only were the in-game characters feeling sad, angry, and confused, but so were we.

The characters in this game experience loss, betrayal, hurt, and confusion but also happiness, joy, and relief. They ask themselves and the Creator, if they are just simulations, then did any of those moments actually matter?

And that translates over to us in real life too. The emotions that we feel are what make us feel alive. The good and the bad. If thinking means we are, then feeling means we are, too.

Ethics

When Fayt first lands on the new planet, he is very careful to not break any codes from the "The Underdeveloped Planet Preservation Pact" (UP3). So much so that Cliff will tease Fayt about this throughout the game. Fayt is showing how he abides the law and it's important for him to do so.

Morals

Fayt also knows when it's necessary to break the rules. He helps those in need, like the cute brother and sister (Niklas and Meena) at the beginning of the game. Meena has a broken music box that Fayt decides to fix with his technology. He also uses his device to help Niklas escape the jail. Fayt's morals are shown here as well as later in the game when he decides to help Nel with the Aquaria-Airyglpyh war. He isn't a part of this world, but he decides to help because he knows he should.

Empathy

The characters, particularly Fayt and Sophia, display a lot of empathy towards each other and the situations at hand, but I believe the most empathy is felt by the player. Playing a story video game is the epitome of empathizing since we are playing as putting ourselves in someone else's shoes. I felt so much emotion with the Ameena and Dion subplot and felt so sad when they both passed away. (Tears were shed.) It was incredibly sad, but a testament to how the video game successfully humanized the characters.

Compassion

As the player and genuine true controller of the game, Fayt's desire to help us can only happen if we decide to keep playing. As the story develops and we learn more about the hardships the people of Elicoor are facing, we, unknowingly or not, feel compassion for these characters and we decide to do as Fayt would and fix the problems. (Or you're just a trophy hunter and none of this applies to you. 😶)

So does any of it matter?

The characters wrangle with this question, and thankfully come to same conclusion as I. Yes, it all mattered. It made them feel, that made them real, and that allowed them to exist.

"No matter what the real truth is, the fact is we have thoughts and feelings of our own. We want to save our dimension and everyone in it." - Sophia

"Now that they've developed minds equal to our own, how are they any different from us? The evidence is clear. It's getting harder and hard to interfere in their dimension as we please. Doesn't that prove that they've become equals? That they deserve to live?" - Blair

To think is to be, to feel is to be. To think about your feelings is to be alive. The game purposely gives these pixels, 0s and 1s, human qualities that we relate to and bond with. Star Ocean Till the End of Time also does a great job at making you think about your own existence. Would finding out that your life is a simulation change your thoughts about it? Would it still matter to you?

All the pain, heartache, happiness, disappointment, and joy that you felt up until this point, does it matter or is it meaningless? I'll reiterate that yes, it all matters. Living can be as simple as experiencing fleeting moments of good and bad and embracing that we are here - in this moment alive, until the end of time.