Core Gems
So when a ghost becomes injured, they have a last ditch defense where they retreat into their core. And I mean, injured badly where their body is rip apart to the point they can’t hold a solid form anymore. And they basically go into a hibernation state until they are strong enough to form again.
Ellie, Danny, and Dan are all injured in a final battle against the GIW. The organization was destroyed and the ghosts were safe but the halfas ended up being so injured that they reverted to core form and then went to sleep for a bit. When they woke up, they were still weak but at least recovered enough to gain consciousness. And realize…they are in some kind of auction…in the middle of a heist. It appeared that two furries (one in a bat costume and one in a cat costume) were ducking it out. And they…they were a necklace. All three of them had been turned into a necklace with their cores as gems accompanied by sapphires, pearls, and opals. And frankly gorgeous craftsmanship as the metal was crafted around their cores as if to cradle them and the other gems.
Unfortunately, they were too weak to take a form properly, they could still feel the strain on their bodies. But at least they could still communicate through their auras. Then the cat lady punched a hole in the glass container surrounding them and grabbed their necklace.
However, the bat grabbed the other end and it resulted in a sort of tug-a-war. Meanwhile, Danny, Ellie, and Dan were having a back and form commentary on the situation and what they should do. Completely unheard by the other party.
In the corner of their eye, the three halfas finally noticed a third contender. Some kind of clown who was…hold on…holding a gun?! And it was pointed straight at the two fighting furies who had yet to notice him. The ghosts’ protective instincts went into overdrive and they frantically tried to shout, yell, move. Just do something to warn the two but their cries fell on deaf ears. All they succeeded in doing was faintly glow which immediatly caught the attention of the fighting duo. The two turned to look at the strange necklace but right at that moment, the clown fired and a gunshot rang throughout the auction room. Having no other options, Danny and the others poured every ounce of ectoplasm they had to try and phaseshift, making the two furries intangible as the bullets passed right through them, but in their shock, the two jumped away in opposite directions and accidentally ripped the necklace apart. Gems and pearls went flying and the three cores bounced along the ground.
Luckily, the two finally noticed the clown and went to deal with him and his minions who had appeared. Seemingly putting their fight on hold and forming a temporary truce. The three halfas could only watch as the battle finally wound down, ending with the cops barging into the place and arresting the clown and his grunts, the cat managing to escape with half the scattered gems and pearls from the broken necklace along with a few other jewelry pieces (none of their cores though) and the bat leaving through a skylight.
The auction continued and in the end, despite being broken, their necklace seemed to have caught someone’s interest. A man named Bruce Wayne bought up every piece of the shattered jewelry wear. The auctioneers appeared relived that the item managed to sell in the end and gratefully gave it to him.
Bruce had no idea what happened at the auction, but he could have sworn that some of the gems faintly glowed right before he and Selina were shot. If the necklace was some sort of magical item, then he needed to understand exactly what has been brought to Gotham. It was unfortunate that Selena had taken some parts of the necklace but he utilized his vast wealth to make sure all the other parts ended in his possession. Now he would take them back to the mansion for examination.
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at work rn we're working on a feature where users can scan barcodes/QR codes on their employee badges to log into a robot, and this is all well and good except that *we* don't have employee badges at my work because it's a dinky startup. so we've just been like scanning barcodes stuck onto stuff that say TEST, or, like, random cans of soup from the test warehouse, or whatever's to hand that has a barcode on it (i use my notebook a lot bc i usually have it with me).
my boss decided this was boring & lame (and also we now want to do cloud integration so we need a better-defined set of barcodes), so he took the list of weird names from that dr seuss story about a woman who had 19 kids and named them all "dave" and fed it into chatgpt to have dall-e generate employee badge photos for them, and then printed them out, with barcodes, and made surprisingly legit employee badges out of them. with the clip-on retractor thing and all!
so now i have a Legit Employee Badge to use for testing this feature:
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I think it's interesting that when Gandalf describes Denethor's ability to "perceive, if he bends his will thither, much of what is passing in the minds of men," he ties it less to his wisdom or general insightfulness (though he possesses both) than to his difference from "other men of this time," his near total Númenóreanness, and as bolded here, the active exercise of his will.
Tolkien also attributes Denethor's resilience against Sauron (by contrast with Saruman) to not only his right to use the Anor-stone, but "great strength of will." He notes that Sauron had no servant with greater mental powers than Saruman or Denethor, and Gandalf remarks that Denethor was "too great" to be subdued to Sauron's will.
Denethor and Gandalf have a strange and unsettling silent confrontation, carried on by their gazes, yet it strikes Pippin as like "a line of smouldering fire" and "as if reading each other's mind." Gandalf afterwards says Pippin was stuck between two "terrible old men," lumping Denethor in with himself. Pippin also sees some kind of kinship between Denethor and Gandalf, as Sam saw between Faramir and Gandalf.
In his letters, Tolkien said that the ancient Númenóreans became barely distinguishable from Elves in appearance and in their powers of mind. In Unfinished Tales, he notes that they loved their horses, and when a Númenórean had a strong bond with a horse, it was said that the horse could be summoned "by thought alone."
In LOTR, Faramir—who has inherited Denethor's Númenóreanness/wizardliness—has a reputation for command over both animals and men. When everyone else is thrown by their horses upon being chased by five Nazgûl, he not only keeps his seat, but mysteriously gets his horse to ride back towards the Nazgûl. And during the retreat across the Pelennor, the soldiers in the city conclude that Faramir must be with the men who are managing to retreat in order, repeating Beregond's remark that he has some undefined command over both men and beasts.
Gandalf suggests that this is a result of Faramir pitting himself against the effects of the Nazgûl in some way, but his abilities (whatever they are) are outmatched. In the event, the effect of Faramir's Aura of Courage commanding abilities remains until he's shot and finally falls to the Black Breath.
Faramir also makes repeated references to perceiving or reading things in Gollum's mind. At one point, he describes Gollum's mind as dark and closed, yet unable to prevent Faramir from detecting that he's holding something back about Cirith Ungol specifically. Noticeably, this only happens when Faramir orders Gollum to look at him (which Gollum does "unwillingly"), and the light drains from his eyes as he meets Faramir's. It seems decidedly reminiscent of the later Gandalf vs Denethor duel-by-eye-contact.
Faramir's exact words about Gollum's secrecy are "That much I perceived clearly in his mind," in reference to his earlier questioning of him. He says that he can "read" previous murders in Gollum and Gollum cries out in pain when he tries to lie to him.
When Faramir gives staves to Frodo and Sam, he says that a "virtue" of finding and returning has been placed on them, with zero explanation of what he means by that. He adds a hope that the virtue will not altogether fail under Sauron's power in Mordor. He describes the people who did the woodwork but not who placed the virtues (it doesn't seem inherent to the wood itself, given his phrasing).
We do know that Dúnedain can potentially embed enchantments into items. The Barrow-daggers carried by Merry and Pippin are specifically enchanted against the Witch-king of Angmar by an unknown Dúnadan of the North, and when Merry stabs the Witch-king, the dagger breaks enough spells for Éowyn's ordinary sword to finish the job.
Meanwhile, Aragorn uses his healing powers to help the city, wishing for the presence of Elrond, because he is their eldest of their kind and more powerful. Aragorn, also, has at least some part of this ability to actively exercise his will and mental powers, perhaps an equal share, though he uses it less often.
In the book, he doesn't physically attack the Mouth of Sauron, but instead holds his gaze (again, eye contact is important!). There's another silent struggle that involves no weaponry or any other contact.
He prevails in some way over the Mouth of Sauron (not a warped creature of Sauron in the book, but a cruel Númenórean who has "learned great sorcery"). The Mouth indignantly says he has diplomatic immunity and can't be attacked like this.
But, I mean, maybe they're all just smart and perceptive, it's really unclear.
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I was reading the Orphic Argonautica last night and the author has mentioned the various methods of divination Apollo knows and guess what? One of them is prophesying by studying the entrails of organisms. As soon as I read that I was reminded of your headcanon of Apollo being into hepatoscopy for divination and I giggled.
Awww 😳😳It's so nice of you to think of me!
Hehe, so fun fact, the overall practice of divination by studying the entrails of animals (including blood, lungs, intestines and so forth) is extispicy while hepatoscopy is specifically using the liver in prophecy and divination readings.
If, like magic in old text exactly like the sort Medea is described as using, the types of divination spoken about in the texts are reflections of the popular divination cultures of the time, I much rather prefer ascribing those to Apollo than I do some vague, somewhat mysterious power which he uses to see the will of the fates, especially since it's mentioned a few times that he'll teach his sons the language of the birds and how to read their signs and so on and so forth.
In short: HEPATOSCOPY APOLLO IS COOL!! HE'S SO NEAT!! Apollo at the altar who predicts the coming droughts and famines from the entrails of his flock!! It's just such a neat little image (to me)!
Also the Orphic Argonautica bangs, genuinely I hope you enjoy it! Orpheus is an insane man and I do not think him along with the collective subspecies of mythical man known as 'sons of Apollo' get enough credit for how truly unhinged they are at any given point in time.
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tell you what tho if there's one thing about this episode that nails it for me, it's exactly that sense of having someone's number. there's the way that juno used that phrase himself obv, but like The Thing Is that Juno's been able to see right through him from literally day one. both that he wasn't who he said he was but also that there was enough of something real to get hung up on and haunted by the thought of him for all that time after. and how the most frustrating part of Train From Nowhere is that so much of the real Peter Nureyev is so close to the surface, practically begging Juno to See Him again, and Juno's too wrapped up in his own insecurities and unwillingness to look.
heeheehoohoo and now the turns have tabled and it's like. oh he's trying to do the stone cold haughty thing that lasted all of twenty-four goddamn hours in Man In Glass and now this is after they've had a whole year together. like ofcourse he's physically incapable of saying those words without idk blacking the fuck out or something (which. I am EATING that WiTH mY MOUTh HE CAN'T GIVE UP HOPE. THE THING THAT TIES HIM DOWN IS ALSO GONNA BE HIS SAVING GRACE) and that whole scene makes it clear that it obviously doesn't matter what other move he tries to pull because Juno's come far enough in his own right to have conviction in that knowledge. disappearing again is pretty much all he's got.
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hello hello, it's been a while since i asked a question so i'm back with one about...hair! can you tell us anything about the soli cast's hairstyling habits? ranking them from least to most effort put into maintaining it every morning, who's the most likely to wear braids, how attunements (feathers or anything else) play a part in this and what accomodations/products the veil makes for these mages.
Always a pleasure to see you show up in my activity feed or inbox, so the questions are welcome!
Ranking them, funny enough but Maia would be at the top of the list for how much effort is put in. Her hairstyle is, by all means, simple. Behind the scenes, though, there's a lot going on to make it look effortless... and of course, when hair reaches a certain length it does become quite a task of love. This goes beyond just styling, as we're talking potions, serums, perfumes and maintenance.
Lyra easily comes after Maia... though she enjoys looking Nice Enough (it might be more accurate to say she likes looking "Cute, in a Mad Scientist Hippie sort of way"-- her own words), her haircare routine is more out of necessity than Maia's labor of love. It wasn't always as difficult to tame, but as her manifestation's overgrowth peppered in between her already wavy, loose curls, that changed. Thankfully detangler potions and specialty combs made for her exact type of manifestation come in quite handy... having a husband willing to help tame the nest, even as it got more out of control, also helps.
It's difficult to see due to mostly seeing her from the front during chapter 2 and the post chapter omake, but she clips part of her thick hair back with a fused crystal lotus barrette. Etched into it is a simple sigil that aids in helping to keep things in place. It can't work miracles, but it can help keep her hair and feathers from tangling due to day-to-day activities.
Audric follows after them. He wears a tidier, shorter hairstyle unless you count for the length of feathers that he ties back and tucks away under his uniform coat when on duty. There's nothing overly special in his haircare routine, though that changes when it comes to taking care of those silver-grey feathers that rest beneath his dark hair. Maintaining them to prevent breaks and fraying is where most of his efforts go.
As they're a product of a rare phenomenon where a manifest trait is passed to a child from both parents sharing the same manifestation, though, he's been doing this since he was a small child... there was considerably more fraying and breakage as a child despite everyone's best efforts, especially as new growth and pin feathers are going to cause enough itching that a child isn't going to be able to resist. As an adult, though, it isn't much of a problem... and feather manifestations being a more common one in the veil means there's plenty of resources for taking care of them. His preening is now spot on.
Audun follows soon after... Though his feathers are fine and small, much more flexible, and aren't quite as finnicky as his wife's and eldest son's. His hairstyle is simple, shorter, with the side lengths clipped back, it isn't difficult to maintain. His biggest task is (or was...) helping Lyra with hers or praying that--
Elias would probably never bother if his family didn't insist. This insisting generally comes from Audric, who will Cut If For Him If He Won't Get it Cut. He takes minimum effort in day-to-day upkeep, only keeping it free from tangles so Willow won't get caught when she's slithering about. There's a brief moment when it's freshly cut and styled by his older brother that it looks neat, intentional and styled... that probably lasts as long as one shake. Audric doesn't fight it anymore. Neither does Audun. Life's too short to keep rolling that boulder up the hill.
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