#man of mystery (helix)

[muses-of-the-memory]

Happy 7th Anniversary to ARMS

"Hello everyone! Biff here on ARMS Island with a special announcement!" Biff shouted on the intercom.

"Today is the 7 year Anniversary of ARMS, ARMS, ARMS! So our players here on ARMS Island will be happy to spend some time with their fans." Biff spoke.

It has been 7 years since ARMS came to the Nintendo Switch. So today, I'm making an open roleplay for some of your favorite ARMS characters; from Spring Man to Dr. Coyle.

I also roleplay as my fave females; Lola Pop, Twintelle, Min, Min and Ribbon Girl. So don't be afraid to pop on in.

Open for: @friendlyheartless, @hoshi-neko-hikari, @bluemajingirl, @the-silver-screen-queen, @thesuckerpuncher, @keywcilder

[valentine-cafe]

˚◞♡ 𝒋𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒚𝒊 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒓𝒂 209 — the snake-hybrid mad doctor◞ ₊˚

⊹ ۪ ࣪ ᥫ᭡ “ darling, i have dealt with many hearts, but I've never come across one as pretty as yours, ” ꒱

. ˚◞꒰verse꒱ 209

. ˚◞꒰face claim refs꒱ ( x ) ( x ) ( x )

. ˚◞꒰species꒱ grim reaper, snake hybrid

. ˚◞꒰ethnicity꒱ chinese

. ˚◞꒰age꒱ 46

. ˚◞꒰gender꒱ male

. ˚◞꒰mbti꒱estj

. ˚◞꒰aliases꒱ the doctor, the surgeon, doctor herrera, the heartless, the black plague ( by enigma, the resistance ), snakie-boy, snake-bitch ( by haitao )

. ˚◞꒰appearance꒱

𖹭. oftentimes seen wearing his deceptively kind smile, fooling even the most skeptical of people when they catch a glimpse of the red painted lips stretched out on his face.

𖹭. deep amber snake eyes are often hidden by a pair of maroon contacts, hiding away the truth like the rest of his general body language and confident posture.

𖹭. long, silky black hair that falls past his shoulders, usually put into a half-ponytail or let loose.

𖹭. is able to unhinge his jaw, putting on display, his forked elongated tongue, rows of sharp teeth and his two snake fangs protruding whenever he yawns

𖹭. wears a wide range of jewellery, thin gold necklaces and chokers covering his neck and shoulders. while his ears are covered in a pair of standard lobe piercings, along with a helix — right ear covered in a conch and tragus piercing. rings covering his fair toned fingers.

𖹭. stands at the towering height of 6’7 ft ( 201cm ), with a lean and well toned figure.

𖹭. androgynous, sharp and soft facial features.

𖹭. very fluid and elegant in the way he moves and overall looks.

𖹭. primarily dons the red makeup styles.

𖹭. extremely vintage styled aesthetic in fashion choice, loves wearing poet shirts and suits.

𖹭. he has a frenum piercing ( peepee piercing )

. ˚◞꒰personality꒱

𖹭. deceivingly kind and serene demeanor hiding the sadism and manipulative intentions and ulterior motives.

𖹭. he is deceptive in every way and form, his sharp intelligence silencing those who speak against him or try to prevent him from succeeding his goals.

𖹭. has a silver-tongue riddled with false kindness and care the fools that decide to affiliate themselves with him, bringing them into a sense of comfort and security that never was there to begin with — using their confidence as an advantage

𖹭. on the inside, you see the sinister, sarcastic and malicious sociopath that is the true part of the so-called “goodhearted” poet.

𖹭. charming and charismatic words and actions concealing the greedy and sadistic side of him.

𖹭. prefers silence over loud talk, and maintains his anonymity and mystery due to this factor — getting him to talk is not a possibility, even if you tried by forcing it out of him.

𖹭. can be sassy and give blunt replies to people he finds himself irritated with.

𖹭. moodiness is a result of both his snake dna and his traumatic past — or because his husband is not around.

𖹭. calculative and witty — has a great memory and uses it often to note down the speech patterns, movements and body-languages of the people around him.

𖹭. his perceptiveness is the next in line to his intelligence, you cannot outlie the master liar and manipulator, he knows your tricks.

𖹭. hard to anger and irritate, and will applaud you for your audacity and stupidity for trying so.

𖹭. should this man find himself infatuated with someone, he will put his possessiveness and obsessiveness on display. showing you his yandere tendencies and greedy behaviour around them.

. ˚◞꒰with a lover꒱

𖹭. very sweet. very verbally and physically affectionate. you see the more humane side of him that others do not

𖹭. he is exceptionally patient with you. always assuring you when you need and comforting you

𖹭. he loves spoiling you. especially taking you out clothes shopping and letting you try out whatever it is that you may wish. loves seeing you flustered whenever he pulls you into a clothing shop. flustering you whenever he snatches your waist in front of a mirror

𖹭. always worshipping your skin with kisses. he can barely keep his hands off of you

𖹭. possessive, but hides it well with his poetic and loving words. he is most definitely a yandere type. willing to do whatever it takes to keep you at his side.

𖹭. very verbal about how much he obsesses over you, as much as he is clear in his actions that he wants you for himself and no-one else. should anyone look or talk to you in a way he does not like? he will gouge their eyes out, or use them as his newest “patients”

𖹭. loves teasing you and flirting with you until you have lost your breath from giggling or whining for him to shut up

𖹭. a very passionate lover and has no problem in showing his passion for you neither. even when it’s in public

𖹭. pda? what’s that? he’ll pull you into his lap even in a cafe. or kiss you in booths. have his hands on you. anything to show that you are his

𖹭. if anyone lays a finger on you. . . they are dead.

. ˚◞꒰strengths꒱

𖹭. increased bodily function: advanced strength, speed, agility and durability.

𖹭. heightened senses: advanced sight, smell, hearing, taste and awareness of surroundings.

𖹭. healing factor: an average healing factor that heals his injuries far quicker than most

𖹭. fangs and bite: has a set of snake fangs that can secrete two venoms: a paralytic, which he uses for sedation, and a fatal. he can switch between them. and especially powerful bite

𖹭. talons & venomous touch: he has talons that secrete high levels of venom. this venom is extracted by thin wired implanted on his wrists that carry his venom to his nails, resulting in venom-induced touches should he use them on someone.

𖹭. snake physiology: has the flexibility of a snake, therefore his body is able to move in the fluid motion that a serpent would. he is able to dislocate his joints with ease and twist his body in whichever way he prefers. his jaw can unhinge as well.

𖹭. poison immunity: immune to poisons.

𖹭. elastic jaw: the ability to unhinge his jaw to drastic measures

𖹭. hyper climbing and clawing: able to slither up surfaces

𖹭. seismic sense: able to feel vibrations in a seismic way whenever his limbs touch surfaces. he can feel these from quite awhile ago

𖹭. enhanced lung capacity: able to hold his breath for longer

𖹭. stealth: can move around swiftly and quietly

. ˚◞꒰weaknesses꒱

𖹭. poison addiction: due to building up a poison resistance by intaking the substances, he is now immune to poison but in turn has grown addicted to the intake of them. he now does it for the fun of it and as a coping mechanism.

𖹭. abandonment issues: if he is away from the people he loves. this can result in erratic episodes and even have a negative affect on his physical well-being

𖹭. fainting: should he grow overwhelmed, he is prone to fainting.

𖹭. apples: has a mild allergy to apples and takes medication for it.

𖹭. reapers: not much is known of this condition. . . come back later and perhaps you might find out?

𖹭. apples: has a mild allergy to apples and takes medication for it.

𖹭. oranges: has a bad allergy to oranges.

𖹭. daylight: as a nocturnal reaper, daylight and other bright sources of light can weaken his senses of sight as he is used to the darkness of the night.

𖹭. d’akar: an anti-magic material that can greatly weaken him if he comes into contact with it. he, especially is affected by this.

𖹭. extreme emotional attachment: while reapers may remind one of humans, they are not. they are beings with very empathetic instincts and have souls bigger than the average mortal being — a thing that has been with them since their creation. they become extremely attached to things they love and it may cause them to become erratic if enough they love is taken away from them.

. ˚◞꒰relationships꒱

𖹭. rishen herrera: husband, business partner, best friend

𖹭. yuè mèng yáo: mother, deceased

𖹭. zhào mùchén: father, deceased

𖹭. zhào hàoyú: younger brother, deceased

𖹭. zhào haitāo: younger brother, enemy

𖹭. zhào xīyáng: younger brother, deceased

𖹭. wèi lìxuě: enemy

𖹭. liú tàishī: enemy

𖹭. alessio agresta arias: “rival”, deceased

𖹭. lorenzo agresta arias: enemy

𖹭. park tae-hyun: enemy

. ˚◞꒰story꒱

sly grins and skilled yet devilish hands. hidden by kind eyes and serene smiles. how could a gaze like that watch with glee the suffering of experiments?

a mad doctor to match his mad scientist for a husband, experimenting and tormenting enigma and inhumans with the excuse of making a better world. jingyi herrera designs medicines that no other verse has even seen. so what if it's at the cost of a few souls? it's for the greater good. 

so he'll indulge in his insanity. in his horrid morals and his lust for knowledge, for his twisted sense of justice. all if it means succeeding in all of his ambitions and staying at the side of his beloved.

. ˚◞꒰extra꒱

𖹭. he is a doctor and has a clinic on the second floor of valence. he specialises in most areas of anatomy and is a skilled doctor and surgeon.

𖹭. he is also the co-chairman of valence

𖹭. he is fluent in asl and csl

𖹭. he speaks chinese ( mandarin ) and spanish ( latin american )

𖹭. has a cat named beauregard oliver fitzgeralt josé cassandra o'hara the 7th arch king of death.

𖹭. loves old-timey romance movies

𖹭. as much as he is mature, he does love giving his assistants a good scare every now and then when he thinks they are being lazy. . . and by scare we don’t mean by lighthearted pranks.

𖹭. likes collecting tea sets.

𖹭. he sometimes smokes

[downbadfordraper]

I've been working on Expanse gifs and it's led me to doing a rewatch even though I just finished the series literally ten days ago lol

But it's been great going through it when I already know everything that will happen. I'm seeing all these little moments that have taken on new meaning in that context, and I especially love all these callbacks I didn't notice before, like the...third? time Holden sees Proto-Miller, when they're in the galley, and it starts with Miller repeating the word 'father' again and again then transitions into 'poured coffee in the parking lot'.

Only now was I reminded that when Miller first enters Julie's apartment he uses the phrase to sync up the voice-immitation program on his terminal so he can access the unit automation systems, saying 'Father, bother, poured hot coffee in the parking lot' twice.

It gives us a clue to what Proto-Miller is doing: maybe he's trying to find a way to verbalize what he really wants to say, though even then Holden has to interpret/decode what Miller keeps telling him - go into a room (the ring) too fast and the room will eat (kill) you. Maybe he's (it's?) trying to get a better handle on the real Miller's voice - improve the fidelity of the immitation so Holden will listen. Maybe it's an attempt to access something, like when he uses the trick to access Julie's messages - maybe to access Miller's memories or vocabulary, maybe to better 'access' Holden's neurophysiology or memories, maybe to access the information he's compelled by his programming to look for, the information he ultimately needs Holden's help accessing because Holden 'exists'.

Then there are other things, like when Holden asks about the reasoning behind the hat again and Proto-Miller says it keeps the rain off his head: he said the same thing to Havelock when he was the one who asked. 'Ceres has no laws just cops' is also something he said to Havelock, and is the first thing PMiller says *to* Holden. And, of course, all the things about how to enter a room are pulled from another conversation with Havelock.

What's interesting to me about that is I can't help but wonder if it means something. I'm actually exploring that a little in the fic I'm writing; if PMiller views Holden as a partner like Havelock was. And Holden does, in a way, become his partner in investigating what happened to the Builders.

But I like taking the idea further - that this could be a reflection of the real Miller's perception of Holden. If he came to consider Holden to be a partner of a kind in the investigation into Eros, taking over the role of a man who'd rejected him for being unfeeling, for having the wrong priorities - for not being a good man, really.

That makes Holden's rejection of Miller for similar reasons that much more of a gut punch. It makes me think of how that shakes out in the novel - Miller is tired. Miller has had enough, and thinks about what a relief it would be to just let himself die inside Eros more than once then feels disappointment when he survives. There's also a moment when Holden basically calls him a member of the crew: when Miller leaves the room he cries. For everything in the book leading up to that moment we're given a Miller who considers himself to be alone, that he *should* be alone, that it's what he deserves. The only thing that makes him bother to keep going after he's fired from Star Helix is the mystery of what happened to Julie. He's given up on living before he ever even meets the Rocinante crew.

And now Holden is calling him one of his people, saying it like it's obvious - like it's a fact. And that hurts, because Miller's been alone for so long, thought things like friends and family were forever out of reach. It hurts, because he already knows he's going to kill the man responsible for Eros; he knows he's going to be kicked off the crew he didn't even know until that moment he'd become part of. He even thinks about that when he does it - expects it before Holden even says the words.

He and the Havelock in the novels don't part on bad terms like they do in the show, but for me Novel-Miller's suicidal ideation makes the novel's version of all that hit much harder. He's so unexpectedly found himself a home, but it hasn't changed anything for him. He's had enough. He's done.

And then he stays behind on Eros to die.

The issue with the bomb getting triggered early doesn't happen in the book. Miller goes to Eros with the plan to stay behind - experiences relief, even a kind of joy in the idea. And when Holden realizes where he is, he starts trying to figure out a way to get to Miller, to rescue him, even persists in trying when the plan is made with the bomb (the deadman's trigger set up via a code that Naomi sets him), and Miller has to tell him no more than once, and Holden is eventually forced to accept it.

He finds Julie and tells her she's already dead. Maybe he's been thinking the same about himself.

And even though there's none of that in the show (though we the viewers can apply a suicidal-Miller interpretation if we want to), we still get all these moments to drive things home in a different way. Havelock wasn't just Miller's partner; he'd been someone Miller was mentoring, but Miller's advice is all cast in the pall of pessimism, a belief that things won't ever improve, won't ever change. Miller seems to look at the OPA as a pointless endeavor. A universe where Belters are independent, free to self-govern, is one he seems to consider a pipe dream - impossible, foolish, pointless.

Then he meets another 'kid' with all this (misplaced, in his opinion) optimism, full of piss and vinegar and youthful chutzpah, but Holden seems to make it work. Yeah, a lot of shit goes wrong, with moments of naivety on Holden's part, but I get the sense that Miller's perception of Holden shifts with time - he comes to see him as more than this inexperienced, righteous, foolish kid. Maybe less of someone who needs mentoring and more someone who could be a real partner. Someone that Miller can (and does) learn from, just as Holden learns from him.

How might that affect the reasoning behind PMiller's choice to reach out to Holden over anyone else? How might that in turn inform the protomolecule of who Holden is and how he could be useful?

How might it have impacted Miller's ability to eventually overcome the protomolecule's directives on Ilus?

[vacantgodling]

#33: Helix Carmine

You were never right after you lost them. The days bled into weeks, into months, into years, perhaps, spent adrift in this hell. Your friends speak of fighting on, but you hardly have any fight left to give. It would be better if you were just a spector; better if you just rotted here. Perhaps when whatever life left clinging to you was gone, the two of you would be together in Cerullius. But still, you put one foot in front of the other; if only for the sake that you know they would not want you to die.

“helix” means particle of a spiral form. “carmine” means garden or crimson; sometimes both so let’s say crimson garden. 

37, nb (he/him), romance: yes, sex: yes, preference: feminine or other nb people

helix is deceptively smaller framed at 5’6”, but it only makes sense given his training was more for agility than muscle mass. his skin is soft and tan, and his eyes are rare but two different colors: green for one eye and yellow for the other. his hair is short and choppy but it frames his face, and is a sandy brown color. 

he was a RANGER in the AGoE before the accident, though in some senses he is still a ranger, though relatively bow-less. along with scouts, rangers are trained at pinella’s pass survivalist school, named for princess pinella of argos (aka the lady of the mists) who perished in a landbridge collapse in that very area after the day of fissures. it was here that helix met who would soon become friends and fellow guildmates: jihi, cameron, and miona. he works with a short bow and tends to shoot multiple arrows at a time, usually coated in posion or paralyzing agents to make it easier for his teammates to disable a foe. he’s only missed a shot once in his life, and that was the shot that cost him everything he held dear.

currently his whereabouts including his team members elodia, charissa, and altair is unknown. they are presumed dead, with jihi being the only “survivor” of their group… but there is more than meets the eye with this mystery that will be explored in plot.

helix is a quiet man, but not because he’s awkward or shy—like most rangers he is simply observant. however, he’s very cheerful (or was before the accident), and always goes out of his way to help others. he’s the romantic kind, but the soft kind of romantic where all of his “flirting” is acts of service, and all of this attention was directed at elodia, their romance only budding when everything occurred. he’s also generally amiable; is perfectly content with not being the center of attention.

3 fun facts about them: helix dabbled in being a bard when growing up and can actually play the lyre passably well; he still does occasionally when inspiration strikes him, or to cheer up someone in a bad mood. despite his short frame, he can actually jump from the ground to about six feet in the air without buildup, which allows him to reach most branches in trees quite quickly if he needs to get up and out of the way midbattle. despite how often he’s up in trees, he actually has a fear of heights, in the sense that his fear is being suspended or falling from a high place. its quite a juxtaposition, so he does his best not to fall out of trees.

[stylesloveclub]

KARMA (tattoorry sneak peek!)

+++

It’s a quiet night at the tattoo shop, which Harry is thankful for.

There’d been a few appointments earlier in the day, larger pieces that people had scheduled months in advance because they took a lot of consultations and took long chunks of time to tattoo – but there had barely been any walk-ins. It’s a Thursday night, so of course his business isn’t bustling the way it would be on a Saturday.

Harry decides to start cleaning up – if he’s lucky, nobody else would venture in before their closing time and he’d be able to get home a bit early. (His little cat is waiting for him at home!) He wipes down the tattoo chairs and puts away all the needles, sweeps the floors and turns off the lights in the staff room.

Someone stumbles in. It’s y/n.

Harry looks at her. She looks at him.

“Hello…” Harry says, his voice a little doubting, a little bit confused. Why was she back?

She stands in front of him nervously. “Um…” she’d stumbled into the tattoo shop with such confidence, but finds herself suddenly nervous and unable to speak under Harry’s intimidating gaze. “Hi.”

She won’t lie, she’s a little, teensy weensy bit drunk right now. She’d been at the bar across the street with a couple of her girlfriends, just hanging out and having fun, when she spilled to them about the hot tattoo artist who worked at the shop across the street.

She’s had plenty of fleeting crushes in her life, but none have been as quick and captivating as her crush on Harry. With his deep voice, green eyes, and tan skin, he’s cast some sort of spell on her. She’d been in his presence for what… a total of 45 minutes? And yet she can’t get him off her mind!

He was just… really hot! And he had that sexy, mysterious vibe to him… with all those tattoos and the rings and the black eyeliner… gosh he was straight out of some bad boy romance novel! If it weren’t for the fact that she’d been with her five-year old goddaughter when she met him for the first time, she’s sure she would’ve started acting up. He was just so attractive!

In her tipsy state, with her cheeks warm and a fuzzy feeling in her chest, she couldn’t help but rant to her friends about it. She’d met the hottest guy ever, and she’d never have the chance to see him again! It was tragic!

Well… it doesn’t have to be that way, her friends told her. What was stopping her from heading over to the tattoo shop right now?

No, she thought to herself. Going over to the tattoo shop, drunk, with absolutely nothing to say except Hi, I think you’re hot? She could never do that…

The strawberry vodka lemonade in her system said otherwise. That, along with all her friends who hyped her up to go visit her dreamy tattoo man, had somehow managed to convince her to venture across the street and make her move!

So now she’s in his tattoo shop, but she has absolutely no idea what to say or how to act.

“How can I help you?” he asks after a tense second of silence.

“Um…” she doesn’t really have a game plan, but she decides on the spot, “I want a piercing.”

“A piercing?” he clarifies. She nods. “Okay… where?”

She points to the shell of her ear. “You want a helix piercing?” he asks once more.

“Yeah,” she says confidently, accompanied by an eager nod of her head.

“Okay…” he mulls it over for a second. “Are you… y’know– like, in the right headspace to do this?” Something is telling him that she’s not completely sober, and he doesn’t want to do something that she’d regret.

“Yeah, yeah!” She brushes it off nonchalantly,  “I only had like, one drink! And I’ve been meaning to get a piercing, especially after I came in here with Lola.”

“If you say so…” He’s still a bit doubtful, but he supposes his slight suspicion isn’t enough of a reason to refuse service to her.

He brings her the paperwork on a clipboard and gets all his required equipment out as she fills it out. “Which do you want?” he asks her, pointing to the wide variety of helix piercing options displayed.

“Um…what do you recommend?” She’s normally much more prepared and would have done a bunch of research on what kind of jewelry would heal best or what type of metal was safest… but again, this decision was kind of made on a whim.

“I always tell clients to start off with a stud, and then if you want you can switch it out for a hoop once the piercing has healed.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” A pretty, butterfly shaped stud catches her eye. “Can I do that one, please?”

He nods. Grabbing his equipment, he decides that y/n is gonna be the last customer of the night, so he flips the sign on the front of the door to read closed, and leads her into the backroom, the same room where he’d pierced Lola’s ears.

With a pair of black gloves on his hands, he rips open the sanitizing pad and stands in front of y/n. She’s looking up at him with wide eyes, watching his every movement. Usually it makes Harry really uncomfortable when people stare at him while he’s doing their tattoo or giving a piercing, but with her… he doesn’t fully mind it.

The cool alcohol wipe feels refreshing against her ear, a striking contrast to how warm her face feels. Harry’s eyes are dark and stern as he focuses on his job, eyebrows furrowed seriously. His knuckle nudges her chin, angling her head in a way so he could clean the backs of her ears too.

With how close he’s standing to her, she can feel his breath against her cheek. She can’t help herself from staring at his pretty pink lips, how they pout as he marks the spot he wants to pierce.

He holds up a mirror for her. “Look good?”

She nods. She barely looks into the mirror and doesn’t overthink the placement of it at all. She somehow trusts Harry wholeheartedly.

He takes the needle out of its sterile packaging, and y/n eyes it nervously. “Do helix piercings… hurt a lot?” she asks with a timid voice. The sight of a needle coming towards her face has sobered her up quite a bit.

“Not necessarily.” He notices her nervous eyes, “They obviously hurt more than a lobe piercing, since it’s cartilage, but s’only like a pinch.”

She still looks frightened. “Can you, um– count?”

His eyes narrow slightly, and she feels like he’s judging her. But he agrees nonetheless. “Sure. Ready?”

+++

SNEAKY OF MY TATTOORRY FIC! :) POSTED NOW ON PATREON! 

[tagedeszorns]

An AU where Fabius is a Hollywood plastic surgeon.

Where this sudden change of heart came from and why - it's better not to ask when luck favours you so much. An interview with Hollywood's most sought-after, exclusive and undoubtedly most reclusive facesculptor! Well, at least initially with his spokesperson? Assistant? No explanation was given and there is nothing on the tasteful, very blank business card. Not even an email address. Or a telephone number. Anyone who has to ask for it hasn't understood how things work around here.

So now this lobby in a building far enough removed from the city to have an undisturbed hill overlooking the Pacific to itself (presumably at the price of the gross national product of a Central American country). A strangely brutalist-beautiful house that looks like a James Bond villain gave Aldo Rossi free rein.

Dr Bile has never before answered an interview request, let alone positively: why now, of all times, and from a magazine that is not exactly Lancet - it is inexplicable!

It is not particularly inviting yet. Two women who could not be more different and yet look equally unreal without flaunting the artificiality of too much plastic surgery stand with the noncommittal vigilance of born bodyguards at the doorway to the deeper interior of the building. One is downright bizarrely tall, her platinum blonde hair in an expensive cut that shows off her facial features, which are not one hundred percent even in just the right way, to their best advantage. She radiates a deadly elegance that makes it clear that even though she wears strangely blocky high heels that almost turn her feet into hooves (they must be shoes!), in a critical situation she would strike with the ruthlessness of a pouncing snake. Like her colleague, she wears a tailored dark suit in the price range called for by the tailors of the Vatican. No logo on the clothes. Of course there isn't. The winged double helix is only present as an isolated pattern in the dark carpet and on the wall. The other woman is clearly smaller, but more compact. Her muscular composure is punctuated by a couple of almost ceremonial-looking, tremendously precise scars that do not disfigure her face but rather indicate her businesslike nature. Something that her pixie cut and broad, sinewy hands emphasise.

"Ah, good afternoon! Welcome to the Consortium!" Perfectly articulated, flawless. Yet a very slight echo of the rounded consonants of Farsi or Pashtu.

The man stepping out of the doorway is not the doctor. Of course he isn't. But our journalist has done his homework. So this is him. His .. Press officer? Assistant? Marketing manager? It was impossible to figure out. But he is what stands between Dr Bile and the world.

His smile is practised and smooth, his olive-dark features regular. As he reaches out, the sleeve of the Desmond Merrion suit slides up just the right distance to expose the beginnings of the fine lines of a calligraphic tattoo. As if he actually deals with visitors every day, he ushers him to the passageway between the two women. A corridor with old copperplate engravings showing the most prominent buildings of various medical faculties. Tastefully dimmed spotlights create a withdrawn atmosphere. Further back, a few more doors can be seen and at the very end, a double door upholstered in leather. "My name is Saqqara Ur-Damak Thresh and today I am here to answer all your questions."

Of course, this is a lie. But perhaps it is possible to draw enough substance from his answers to get closer to the Doctor's mystery.

His office. Not the doctor's study, of course. And "office" is only a very marginal term. There is an empty desk and a very utilitarian seating area. And bookshelves on the walls. On all the walls. Filled with volumes of all sizes and ages, obviously not just placed for decorative purposes.

Not what you would expect. But actually, you can expect nothing and everything here.

The only wall not filled with literature is a floor-to-ceiling window that looks out over the conifer-forested hills and driveway. Just before Mr Thresh makes an inviting hand gesture towards the couch, a black Maybach with tinted windows pulls up. Stops in front of the entrance. On the door a gold logo. An eye in a circle of arrows. Ah, of course the clientele here is also special.

On the low table between the two couches is a silver tea set. Mr Thresh pours, quite the good host. Everything here is at once completely ceremonial and absolutely authentic.

"I hope your journey was pleasant. Of course, as always, time is short. But rest assured - for the next hour, my attention is entirely yours!"

-------------------

Okay. So. I am absolutely obsessed with the premises of this AU! I haven't barely scratched the surface (I mean, Saqqara, Savona, Igori and a hint of Abaddon is nothing!) and it's already an entire page of text.

So - if anybody is interested, I will write more about this AU. There are a lot of people who have to make an appearance - especially of course the Doctor himself!

[inportant-spam-rsvp]

WELLHEYWHAT'SUPHELLO-

I do commissions. If you want to request a picture, use the askbox. If you want a particular picture done, message me ^^

Here's my nice, concise list of AUs currently being drawn and built and opened and whatnot!

Chilly Citadel: A world where Peppino is believed to be dead and the mysterious italian count Sabatino is the most feared man in the country.

Bone Tomatoes: Pizza Tower: The Musical

Don't Do War: An ask-open AU where Peppino's life is shown in 4 segments; the jock portion of his life at 16, the times he helped his ma's pizzeria as the deliveryboy at 19, the year before his draft at 23, and his "current" life before the tower at 31.

The Peppino Helix: A magic-ask-open, open-submission AU "daycare" for Fake Peppinos in a facility known as The Helix Stope; thousands of fakinos have been manufactured there, but there is still just one Peppino at the bottom.

Maow Maow Magisghetti: A massive mashup of several Pizza Tower AUs in a magical girl anime-satire where 5 Italians battle the devious Pizza Party against their will!

Duende Dorado (Argentine Noise): An AU exploring Noise's family and life from Argentina as he goes on to become a massive sensation in California.

Style Hour: My AU of a hairdresser "Theodore Noise" named Tito Bígaro vs the evil Mr. Ror.

Delivery Belfry: My other AU of a food truck "Mr. Stick" from Brazil named Reuben Tapas that crashes into an old haunted steeple.

I'll make more elaborate descriptions soon!! Just need to work on some AUs, and I'll release more info ^^

[therealityhelix]

Shards of the Nexus: Koi no Yokan

Helix has one weakness. And also another.

Song: Tell Me Baby-RHCP

@cardwrecks​ @captainbaddecisions​

The energy of this place! Electricity in every inch, flowing, buzzing leylines of enslaved lightning, the movement of lights a rainbow in darkness. People in masses, composite organisms, breathing, pulsing in time with the music, a thudding memory of ancestors heartbeats. The building respired, air in constant movement, the throats in the walls struggling to overcome the lungs of the people. The building lived, and the energy filled her up, vibrant antiquity, the ancient ritual of music and dance.

A little too much, actually.

The bouncers didn't know she was here, though she stood out in sartorial anachronism, rockabilly flair in a sea of candy acid vogue. She had entered through a door of a different kind, and the night life had hit her like a sonic brick.

YJ had spoken so highly...she had to find someplace away for a moment, away from the sound, the resonance thrumming in her bones, the weakness, the nemesis. YJ wouldn't have known that 'club' meant something different to her, alcohol and smoke, billiards and leather backed chairs, high bred men challenging themselves and each other, wasn't that what a Riddler was? YJ and Arkham, Puzzles and the Detective, she'd grown to expect predatory quiet in the homes and presences of the viridian men. Not safety, and not silence exactly, but not these auditory attacks.

There were side rooms to disappear into, before noise overcame her, three people exiting one. They didn't see her, though she slipped in so close behind them as to brush skirts. With walls between her and the pumping symphonic tide, she could reinforce herself before facing that battlefield once more.

A breath. Two breaths. She was substantial. She was concrete. She would not have her atoms stripped away by stepping back out into that solar wind of sound. She had come here to meet someone.

There was a man.

Watermelon stripes. Grape soda. Tinted sunglasses indoors. Summer, this man was Summer.

A trickle of gold flowed down his throat, terminated in an inquiry. The symbol, the sigil, the sign!

He regarded her with the same amused curiosity that must be echoing in her own face, stood-to speak? To rebuke? To welcome? Who could know, who could know, so different this one, and the energy here, just beneath the floor, just behind the walls, it spiked as the dozen eyes on the ceiling focused on her, it spiked and it was her focus now, and he smiled-

Deep lapis inset ivory, brass filament in amber flesh, more precious for the flaws trapped within. Long sinuous lines, vines, emeralds and amethysts dripping from his shoulders, like all his kin. A greeting, a voice, irreverent velvet burnout, coumarin and black dammar flowing thick and sticky. And the magic! She could smell it here, he'd been touched by it like all the others, moulded and cracked by the whimsy of Gray beings alien even to her, deep down inside him, a festering bubo of plum wine and bitters.

“Hey there cutie, you all right?”

And she was solid again, fixed with a tack to the wall of the Here and Now. He gazed down at her, the lapis dusting her form, quiet blades picking her apart just as she had done to him. The others had all expressed that this one was different, but hadn't elaborated. Neon and alcohol, glitter and decadence, hedonism as a varnish, a temple of Dyonisian mystery. Not in a thousand worlds would she have expected Edward Nigma to be this.

It was delightful.

“I'm...fine. Yes. Mildly disoriented, nothing more.” It was true, she had returned to herself.

He leaned, casual, calculating against a couch. She was outside of arms reach, but not the legs, no. Nobody had mentioned danger in regards to him, but then, she hadn't been warned about Arkham either.

A rite of passage, a hazing for those who would dare. Survive the challenge of meeting the Patriarch.

She had.

“How bout'cha sit down? Room ain't reserved again tonight.”

She took a seat, took in the room. Couches, mismatched in a way that complemented, a little raised stage with a pillar in the center, power coating like bright honey...pole, it was a pole on the stage. Oh. Yes that explained the molasses thick energy that permeated the place. Certain things, ancient things, caused power to pool. Sex and death, music and dance, blood and light, all built up like layers of stone, ready to be mined by those who could. He sat on the edge of the stage, light sheen of sweat just barely discernible on his face.

“So...you a little lost? You needin' a place to rest until you sober up? I know the place has a reputation, but we do have rules here. If it's the hard stuff, well, you can lay down for a little while and I wont say nothin', but you don't come in here with it again. If you need help though, I can point you in the right direction.”

“You're Swag.” she said.

“And you're not high...are you? So who wants to know?”

“Helix.”

A spark, a star in the lapis. Recognition.

“Hey girl, I was wondering when you were gonna show up! I was beginning to feel left out.”

“You know of me?” But why wouldn't they talk? Family was meant to communicate.

“Heard a thing or two. A pesterer of Puzzles, a wyrdling to YJ, an...adversary of Arkham? Nah.” he shook his head, a sardonic grin. “Nah, you don't wanna be that. But yeah. There have been a few words said about you. Mostly 'How the hell did she get in here?' So. How the hell did you get in here?”

“I walked.” she said, and his look was a gentle abrasion. “I...walked. The membranes between worlds open in multiversal osmosis, and I walk. I'm...sorry. Loud noises...fray me. It's hard to think. The energy is overstimulating.”

“Take your time.”

She did. Eventually the strumming on her synapses ceased, the threads of reality cementing.

An offering of water. She hadn't noticed that he had left. That was...odd. How could anybody lose track of this man? She drained the cup.

“So you walked here. Care to say where from? It's kinda a long way from Detective's neck of the woods to here. Figuratively and literally.”

Where did he fall on the pendulum swing? Yj closer to Detective, Puzzles closer to Arkham...Center ground? So many people reveling beyond the door, relishing life. No traps here. No riddles. Questions, not riddles.

“I walk, figuratively and literally. Meeting the Detective was a happy accident. I come from further than that. You're Aware? Of the multiplicity of self? The mitosis of the multiverse?”

He nodded slowly.

“Became aware a li'l while ago. Prolly about the same time Arkham and Detective became aware of each other. I...assume this is unusual, since there's nothing in history mentioning...huh, I wonder if that's where the legends of doppelgangers come from...”

“Maybe.” Oh, he was as quick as his soul-kin, scalpel sharp in cotton gauze. But he had the respect of Matriarch and Patriarch alike, how could anything else be expected?

“It may be a new development. I haven't seen its like before. It's so easy to move here, in this Nexus. Even you native souls can move back and forth, if you know the places.”

“And you're not? Native to the...Nexus?”

“I'm from further away.”

The seed of doubt spread cotyledons in his face. It was worse than not being understood. Being disbelieved.

“I'm from Earth.” she pressed further. “Just not this one, nor any other within this tangle. From further out.”

“I was bouta ask why you sounded like you came from Central City if you really were from 'outside', but...just from a far away Earth, huh? How far does it go?”

“Long way. Couldn't ever explore them all. More and more different, the further one goes. I'm from very far away.”

He clicked his tongue, accepting her words, if maybe not her meaning.

“Ehhh, what can I say? I know a woman who is half plant. There's an alien in upstate New York. I've met six separate me's. Things can always get weirder.”

It was an acceptable concession. He continued to watch her. She supposed it hadn't been the most stunning first impression, showing her weakness like this, but it was better than it had been with Puzzles.

Come to think of it, she had seen this man before, a terrified satellite at Puzzles funeral. In the focus on that hideous rebirth, she'd barely noticed, but there had been another fellow with him, and a ring on his hand, but both were conspicuous in their current absence.

'Nothing lasts forever' was a truth she'd had to grapple with far too often, a platitude useless until after the loss had occurred. She sympathized, for whatever that was worth.

She might have gone quiet for too long, because he reached out as if to steady her, pulling back before actually touching. She caught a whiff of pine heavy cologne, margarita lime mix.

“You're sure, you're all right? You need someplace quieter?”

“I'm fine, really. So this place is yours. Your business?” It seemed strange for a Riddler, but this was a strange Riddler. One who hadn't yet so eagerly tried to show off, or challenge, or prove his own intellect. Even friendly YJ, even the gentle Detective, all had tried to demonstrate something of their mental prowess within mere minutes of meeting her.

“Yep. All above board too. I went straight a while ago. Well, as straight as someone like me can go.” He said with a cheeky wink.

Ridiculous. She couldn't help but to smile back.

“The others said you were different.”

He snorted in laughter.

“I'll just bet they did! How many times did the term 'degenerate freak' show up?”

She tilted her head. Self-depreciation dribbled from his sunken eyes. It fit him poorly.

“Not once. Do you not know that you're loved?”

The surprise, the consternation lasted a Planck length, then disappeared back into easeful allure. But he was watching her now, really watching with that languid, snakelike regard they all shared.

“Well.” he said. “Do you?”

The biomachine moving in uncharted ways. Multiversal syzygy. Swirling islimi progression entwining with centrifugal tessellation. There was something to be built here.

“There is no one left who can. But maybe I'm talking too much. Saying without thinking.”

“No, no.” he leaned forward, weathered smile, shining satin teeth. “Keep talking.”

artist: me

artist: verticalthoughts(deactivated)

Artist: @cardwrecks​

[nicklloydnow]

““The Moviegoer” isn’t really about movies, and yet the title remains unexpectedly apt, just as it was when the novel, published in 1961, became a surprise winner of the National Book Award and made a sudden Southern eminence of its author, Walker Percy, a nonpracticing physician and self-taught philosopher in early middle age. It’s apt because it moves the novel (and our expectations for the novel) out of the South. It intimates that this novel, set in New Orleans, the region’s most storied city, isn’t about history or legacy, isn’t about place at all: it’s about how we see things—a novel of perception and sensibility, dealing with the search for authenticity in a scripted, stylized, mediated world.

Percy’s contemporary Flannery O’Connor characterized the literature of the American South at midcentury as set against the typical. In O’Connor’s view, there was no typical Southern novel, and that was a good thing; for her, the best Southern novel was atypical just as life in the South (in her time, as she saw it) was atypical of American life as a whole. The Southern novel she celebrated takes unusual, extreme, even grotesque, behavior as its starting point. Such a novel is rooted, she explained, in “some experience which we are not accustomed to observe every day, or which the ordinary man may never experience in his ordinary life. . . . Yet the characters have an inner coherence, if not always a coherence to their social framework. Their fictional qualities lean away from typical social patterns, toward mystery and the unexpected.”

“As I Lay Dying,” and “Wise Blood,” and later “A Confederacy of Dunces” and “The Color Purple” and “Fishboy”: these novels are fiercely atypical. But the originality of “The Moviegoer” is more paradoxical than theirs. Unlike the novels of the South that have something of the heightened quality that came to be called gothic, “The Moviegoer” becomes atypical through its scrutiny of the typical. It takes ordinary experience—“everydayness,” Binx calls it—and makes it the subject of fitful philosophical inquiry. It promises a typical moviegoer but delivers the inimitable Binx. It calls literary categories to mind by leaning away from them.

(…)

It’s a Catholic novel (the main action takes place in the days before Ash Wednesday), and yet one whose protagonist considers himself not much of a Catholic at all, but a skeptic whose “unbelief was invincible from the beginning”—who tells us, “I have only to hear the word God and a curtain comes down in my head.”

It’s a distinctly American novel, but one that stands apart from the main line from Hawthorne to Twain to James and Wharton and then to Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Cather—the double helix of innocents at home and innocents abroad. Its key antecedents are the European existentialists Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Camus—the latter two of whom were also important for Ralph Ellison, who drew inspiration from them a decade before Percy, in writing “Invisible Man.”

It’s a novel of the search—“the pilgrim’s search outside himself, rather than the guru’s search within,” Percy liked to say—but without the usual signposting. There’s no journey to a strange culture, no savvy guide, no sloughing off of one self and the taking on of another; no raft and river, no feasting or fasting, no new world at the end of the journey. There’s just the “everydayness” of Binx’s life in New Orleans and the slight diversion of an overnight train ride.

It’s a coming-of-age novel, but one whose protagonist is nearly twice the age of Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield. Binx is about to turn thirty, an age by which American men of midcentury were expected to have settled into their adult lives. He is a college graduate, a veteran, a stocks-and-bonds broker—and yet his self is “left over,” as Percy put it in an essay. Nearing thirty, Binx is gripped by “the possibility of the search” as if for the first time. The novel was a surprise even to its author. As he wrote it, Percy, like Binx, was forced out of himself and compelled to court, as O’Connor wrote, “mystery and the unexpected” as never before.

(…)

Published in 1961, lightly publicized, little noticed, “The Moviegoer” found its way to A. J. Liebling, The New Yorker writer, who had written a biography of the Louisiana governor Earl Long and was steeped in the culture and flavor of New Orleans. Liebling shared the novel with his wife, the novelist Jean Stafford, who was a judge for the National Book Awards that year, and the novel, not formally nominated, was put up for consideration. It was a strong year for American fiction: J. D. Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey,” Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22,” William Maxwell’s “The Château,” and Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “The Spinoza of Market Street” were all nominated. The award went to “The Moviegoer.” Percy, accepting the prize in New York, framed the novel in terms he had explored in his essays (and which he would develop for the rest of his career): the sickness of modern Western society, the loss of the sense of the self, the role of the writer as diagnostician. Concluding, he made his most vital point indirectly: “In short, the book attempts a modest restatement of the Judeo-Christian notion that man is more than an organism in an environment, more than an integrated personality, more even than a mature and creative individual, as the phrase goes. He is a wayfarer and a pilgrim.”

Percy was a late starter as a novelist, and Binx Bolling is late coming of age, but Percy’s novel of Binx’s coming of age was ahead of its time. With its slack and offhand protagonist, its present-tense narration, its effortless mix of informal speech, images from popular culture, and frank ruminations on the meaning of life, “The Moviegoer” is, in my estimation, the first work of what we call contemporary American fiction, the earliest novel to render a set of circumstances and an outlook that still feel recognizably ours.

Faulkner once characterized his approach to writing as “oratory out of solitude.” Of this approach Percy made a new thing altogether. The solitude of “The Moviegoer” isn’t the solitude of a rebel or an independent, but that of a person who is alone in a crowd—in a movie theatre or on a sidewalk in the French Quarter. The oratory in the book isn’t that of the Bible or of Stoic philosophy or of a Russian novel but of a voice-over—the present-tense monologue of the person who does not tell a story so much as self-consciously offer a running commentary on life as it passes before his eyes.

(…)

And yet for all that, “The Moviegoer” seems to describe the way we live now, for its affectless protagonist observes a society whose every aspect seems mediated, contrived, statistically anticipated, manipulated in advance, so that direct experience of life can seem as elusive as the experience of God.

(…)

Southern, Catholic, ironic, oblique: “The Moviegoer” doesn’t add up, quite. What is it about? What has come of Binx’s search? What has prompted him to settle down with Kate and embrace everydayness with quasi-religious devotion? “It is impossible to say,” Binx remarks in the last line of the novel proper. It is impossible to say. And yet “The Moviegoer,” like its central character, has an inner coherence. Its take on everydayness has the quality of wonder that is the novel’s true subject. It opens out onto some larger mystery, one that we, no less than he, are still trying to solve.”

“Melville began Moby-Dick around the time Blood Meridian is set, in the violent, chaotic years after the United States annexed Texas and invaded Mexico, taking most of its northern territory and bringing its western border to the Pacific Ocean. Both novels trade on the metaphysics of nature, violence, commerce, war, and law. Both, in other words, are parables of the US empire. For McCarthy, like Melville, empire meant movement, an expectation of limitlessness, and both demonstrated a skill at describing men and animals moving through vastness, through landscapes without end.

(…)

But the movement in Blood Meridian is different. McCarthy knows that the United States made and unmade itself not on the water but within the borderlands it shared with Mexico. Unlike the Pequod, Blood Meridian’s scalping Glanton Gang turns in circles. Its men cross and recross the same desert sands; they pass the same bluffs, gullies, rivers, and creosote bushes. Victory over Mexico didn’t, at least for this group of killers, open the world. Rather, the vastness of the West closes in on them. They move east to west, then west to east, and as they do their savagery intensifies, taking on its own momentum detached from the economic logic of bounty hunting, less sadistic than naturalistic, as the men become almost indistinguishable from the landscape.

(…)

McCarthy published Blood Meridian in 1985, when Ronald Reagan, after the horrors of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Indonesia, launched a new round of carnage in Central America, Afghanistan, Mozambique, and Angola. McCarthy mostly guarded his political opinions, though after 9/11 he seemed to have a rather conventional understanding of geopolitics and the United States’ role in the world; he accepted the fact that the War on Terror was a civilizational war.

Whatever his opinions, McCarthy is more unforgiving than Melville when it comes to writing about US empire. The relentless violence in Blood Meridian and his other books—the hacking of limbs, the dead babies, the castrated genitalia—leaves little to the imagination.

There’s an anti-humanism at play in McCarthy, often expressed in the one-dimensionality of his protagonists. In Moby-Dick, Ahab is “possessed by all the fallen angels.” He’s an archetype: Milton’s rebel hurling defiance at the vaults of heaven, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Lear. His vengeful rebellion against the natural order of things—not least forsaking his economic duty to his masters—can be interpreted in mythological terms, fate punishing his hubris. Yet Melville, anticipating Freud, rakes over his fears, anguishes, and desires, probing Ahab’s “darker, deeper part.” Ahab’s psyche ultimately remains impenetrable (as do all of ours) and his motives subject to debate, yet he’s a very human obsessive.

Not so with his counterpart in Blood Meridian. Judge Holden, or simply “the judge,” is a murderous, erudite, cultured, dancing polyglot and pedophile. He is a character built more from ideas than drives, a mash-up of Nietzsche and Spengler, pre-Freudian, more premise than person. When read with the novel’s setting in mind—as a story of men dispatched by Mexican and Texan officials to kill as many Indigenous people as possible to open the conquered territory to settlement—the judge’s endless speechifying elevates the violence of empire into ideology and weaves the gang’s cruelty into the fabric of existence. “War is the truest form of divination,” the judge intones. “It is the testing of one’s will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of unity of existence. War is god.” Ahab, lost in his mind’s maze, would never say anything so declarative, so detached from his passions. Yet no Shakespearean doubt, no Freudian ambivalence clouds the judge’s certainty, no more than it would the work of the property surveyors who began to transfer Mexican and Native American land to US settlers.

(…)

Hairless, large, fleshy, with dull, tallowed skin: The judge is Marlon Brando’s Kurtz, an intertextual lineage that connects the horrors from the Mexican borderland to Southeast Asia. Apocalypse Now! premiered as McCarthy was writing Blood Meridian, with Chamberlain’s centuries-old description offering an uncanny model for both. The movie, its director Francis Coppola once said, is “not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam…. Little by little we went insane,” the “we” being both the film’s crew running wild in the Philippines (its production location) and the United States running wild in the world.

One could say the same about Blood Meridian: that it isn’t about the terror that followed the United States’ taking of northern Mexico. It is the terror, overwhelming the senses with suppurating images and inflamed language, forcing readers to touch the viscera, to feel the judge’s white-whale flesh, to be disgusted by his depravity as he rapes and murders children. And it is faithful to history, for the historical sources McCarthy based the book on are filled with grotesque scenes of, as one example, a regiment of Arkansas volunteers herding their victims into a cave and “yelling like fiends, while on the rocky floor lay over twenty Mexicans, dead and dying in pools of blood, while women and children were clinging to the knees of the murderers and shrieking for mercy.”

Blood Meridian is often described as an anti-western, an effort to desanctify Manifest Destiny. Still, the novel’s violence makes it hard to mark out where McCarthy’s pessimism ends and the judge’s philosophy begins. McCarthy, we can presume, based on his life and work, distrusted ideologies of progress and the self-regard of American exceptionalism, or what Melville called “vile liberty,” an idea of freedom based on extreme individualism with “reverence” for “naught”: not for nature and not for others. McCarthy too has the Glanton Gang harmonizing the individual and the group, echoing Melville when he writes that its men were “federated” in their work—not cheerily along a keel, but more like prisoners bound tight “with invisible wires of vigilance.” There’s no eros in Blood Meridian. Thanatos rules. Sex is rape, and rape is death.

Melville transmuted death into life in Moby-Dick. He has a coffin save Ishmael, the only survivor of the stoved Pequod. McCarthy, at the end of Blood Meridian, stands that coffin upright and turns it into an outhouse, the scene of a confusingly told finale in which the judge apparently rapes and murders the only character in the novel close to being moral, the kid. By book’s end, the violence, however faithful to real events, has become so omnipotent and omnipresent that it escapes the mundane motives that drive nations to wage war, to expand, to establish control over their hinterlands. The judge has become a supernatural demon, the avatar of a re-mythologized empire. Ahab, all too human, dies. The judge lives on: “He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.”

Between the publication of Moby-Dick and that of Blood Meridian a lot happened to account for the bleakness of McCarthy’s moral landscape. “Mai Lai burns again and again in the map of my mind,” the Bangladeshi poet Shamsur Rahman wrote in 1971, a lament for the Nixon-and-Kissinger-enabled genocide then taking place in his own homeland. McCarthy continued to build on Blood Meridian’s themes in his subsequent border trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plains. Then, three years after the US invasion of Iraq, McCarthy published The Road. We don’t know the cause of the novel’s apocalypse, whether it was out-of-control technology, fossil fuels, nuclear war, or consumer waste that left only a handful of desperate humans alive. McCarthy doesn’t say, and he doesn’t have to. It’s any and all of those things, expressed in the novel’s disdain for the items capitalism left strewn along the side of the road, “things abandoned long ago by pilgrims enroute to their several and collective deaths.”

McCarthy demonstrated how the frontier wasn’t an incubator of democratic equality but a place of unrelenting pain, cruelty, and suffering. He rubbed away the veneer of Manifest Destiny, revealing US nationalism and empire to be nothing but the right of conquest updated for the democratic age. Let’s admire the wonder of his writing, even though to my ear it often sounded strained, its artifice apparent, unlike the manic, ramshackle Melville, who really did seem to be handpicked by the gods of old—by Milton, Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, and others—to speak for them. McCarthy, though, knew how to name what has been, or will soon be, lost. The last paragraph of The Road, set on an earth stripped of its biomass, is a stunning summation of being and nothingness, of things that once had existed written about as if they still did:

Once there were brook trouts in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.

We should, though, resist McCarthy’s punishing gnostic nihilism, and a pessimism that can only result in moral idiocy, in circle dances that go nowhere, like the Glanton Gang, where existence is original sin and the racial terror inherent in empire building, and the land grubbing that comes with it, is but part of the sublime.”

[ruby-thursda7]

Jack Mcbrayer is SO unexpected but now that it’s in my mind it honestly fits so well I don’t want anyone else to voice Helix, your brain man, your fucking brain-

OK OK so I didn’t think of all of the characters but since you gave all of them I’m gonna think of some right now to match >:)

Helix - Like I said Jack Mcbrayer is a sound choice but if I had to choose my own option I think I would say someone like Zeno Robinson (Hunter from TOH), I feel like his voice is versatile enough

Raven - Now knowing your vision for her I feel so off base with this but honest to God when I first saw her I was like ‘oh this bitch (/lh) talks like Cree Summer (Susie in Rugrats) I know it’ but now I know better!!

Mindy - All ai can see when I look at her is Charlyne Yi (Ruby in SU) although at this point that might be down to typecasting lmao

Bobbie - The moment, the moment you said loud and charming and NY accent I thought of Joan Rivers but OBVIOUSLY we can’t have that so I think Sarah Stiles (Spinel in SU) would be the next best option. I don’t know if her Spinel voice is her genuine accent but even if it’s not I think it’s pretty good!!

Unnamed cats - Hm,,,in second thought maybe Zeno Robinson would work better for the eye-man, I can hear the Intriguing yet Pathetic mystery coming out of their mouth like they wanna draw you in but only so they can show you their Yugioh card collection. Depending on if you wanna go masc or fem for the taller one, I think Madeline Martin (Fionna in Adventure Time) or Justin Briner (Deku in MHA) would work pretty good!!

(Also if you’re looking for names for the last two,,,since the black one is covered in eyes maybe they could be named something like Scophie? It’s like combining Sophie with the idea of scoping about. Also scopophobia which I most certainly know too much about :’D and this one is more of a funny haha but I think Chedder suits the tall one pretty good lmao)

for raven i aubrey plaza rly sums up her personality but i would rather she be voiced by a woc thats what i had in mind when while creating her

DUDE if joan rivers would do a ny accent thatd be 👌 she rly rly does have that liveliness that id want from bobbie

ZENO RONIBSON YES DUDE THATS IT ugh i love him so much and also you 1000% understand what i was going for with that character ahshdhhshdg (also i didnt think about the scopophobia im sorry i can tag that from now on) schophie is rly cute also ajshhdhd

CHEDDERRRRRR and omg fiona from adventure time would be cute

[aspiring-holistic-otaku]

Season 2 Ramble#5 - Mystery, Madness & Mayhem ver. 2

This episode is about mystery, madness and mayhem. And I love this stuff regardless of medium so I pretty much assumed I was gonna be enjoying this month's reads, and even though there weren't as much of certain tastes I was looking forward to there was still much to be enjoyed.

Anyways as I said I love this stuff, definitely the earliest thing I thought I'd want to make a little mini series out of and do continuously, definitely something i’ll be consuming podcast or no podcast. manga or no manga..

Now the setup last time was me giving some definitions of mystery, madness and mayhem then sharing my top 1 manga read in each of those three categories + a grab bag of titles at the end which you can check out below..

This time is pretty much the same but skipping the Google definitions and giving my own "definitions", which you can completely disregard if you so choose tbh, like i know words mean stuff but all stuff is bound to change anyways yk so,,,yh,,, also this time instead of one big grab bag with everything I'm gonna try and split them into their respective categories, loosely ordered from least to most enjoyed. the reads are split the usual way of stuff read this month first then older stuff after.

So definitions quickly:

mystery - the why?

madness - the what?

usually has cast vs some largely unseen thing. can be normal everyday stuff like trying to get a functional ac remote to the paranormal escapades of a microwave scientist fighting assassins through spacetime

usually has cast vs some seen but unbelievable thing. And again can go from normal everyday society™ to the paranormal blood bending psychic mass murderer

mayhem - the everything, everywhere, all at once. To lean on the google definition a bit, chaos.

Just to be clear these aren’t some clear cut genre borders or anything just some themes/motifs i like in my media. and in fact i tend to find where there’s one at least one other follows, so these splits are based on which of each seemed to be the primary focus in the manga.

Getting into it now,, top mystery madness and mayhem read this month go!

Top Mystery:

The decagon house murders (Original Book Author - Yukito Ayatsuji, Manga Adaptation - Hiro Kiyohara | 31 chapters)

This is a mystery story revolving around a club for people who enjoy mystery stories,, visiting an island where a house recently burned down and people died under mysterious circumstances… surprise surprise, play stupid games, win stupid prizes,, but even though it was a classic whodunnit, the cast being all mystery buffs meant they pretty much knew all the dos and don'ts and yet… life comes at you fast…

The title alone was a pull because sacred geometry is really cool to look at and see,, if you don't know what that is don't get sucked in just hail the helix and move on + sacred geometry didn't play any obvious role in this anyways. art was nice, really easy on the eyes, pretty cool cast and as I said they were all mystery buffs so that created this almost cast vs plot situation which was really cool. watching them go back and forth amongst each other trying to figure it all out and avoid tragedy was nice, and it didn't take too long to get started or wrap things up. just 31 chapters as I said.

Didn't see the end coming at all and it's actually really crazy how simple it was,, almost cheating and bordering on cheap… but it was something that the original book author admitted relied heavily on being in a written medium and so was still a challenge to pull off in manga.. all that being said I clearly still dug it as it was my top mystery read this month.

mystery grab bag:

the night fish, another , dead man's questions and thus spoke Rohan kishibe

Top Madness:

Memories of her… (Katsuhiro Otomo | 16 chapters )

This is actually the basis for my favourite Otomo animated work called Memories, a three piece anthology that I will continually highly highly recommend. if the name Katsuhiro Otomo doesn't mean anything to you he's the guy that did Akira… if the name Akira doesn't mean anything to you then check that out and thank him for the bike slide.

This work is also an anthology but with about 10 pieces of varying lengths. manga anthology pieces tend to be short and usually surprisingly good, even when I’m accounting for how good I tend to find them and even though I went in with extra heightened expectations, because Otomo, they were thankfully pretty well met.

Individual anthology pieces tend to be short and impactful in some way. Having now been through a bunch more Otomo stuff since starting this podcast I can honestly say his stuff generally does have that punch, does have that impact and that was thankfully present here. again they're all super short so it doesn't make sense to go into them too much more than that, but what I will say is that the impact of otomo's works, at least for me, comes out of a great balance of dramatic environmental storytelling and thoughtful natural dialogue that makes you look more critically at the world,, even if they're usually packaged with a healthy dash of humour. for the record, Akira is my least favourite animated work by him and though i’ll definitely admit it’s the most famous for its impact in terms of art direction for a reason fr, I still highly recommend checking out his other stuff to really see the range of his greatness outside just the one movie, Akira.

Anyways this had great art nonetheless, pretty much expected from him tbh, pretty much every story held my attention, the only thing is that it was a milder madness so to speak rather than the spicier types I tend to prefer.

Quick examples of each so I'm not just saying words that don't connect, a spicier madness would be like Berserk, Elfen Lied, Tokyo Ghoul, Deadman Wonderland, etc., usually based on some set of perpetually unfortunate events, that drives the cast to take extreme actions.. though I also like when the mc and world is already just like that, like in Dorohedoro how extreme absurdities were just everyday routine. lots of messy spaghetti situations in the spicier types…. a milder madness would be like Goodnight Punpun, Welcome to the NHK or even Serial Experiments Lain The Nightmare of Fabrication, where it's almost as if the existential mundanity of life is deafeningly scratching on a whiteboard and slowly pushing the cast to the brink.

madness grab bag: MPD Psycho, smiley, 6000, world apartment horror, Usuzumi no Hate, denjin n, tekkonkinkreet

Top Mayhem:

As the gods will 2 (Muneyuki Kaneshiro on story and Akeji Fujimura on art | 186 chapters)

This is the sequel which is pretty much death games, death games and more death games. since reading part 1 last year I'd been told that it fell off in part 2 which I definitely agree with but maybe even because of my lowered expectations it held up better than I thought it would.

I read part 1 last year and it was my top 1 new manga l read that combined mystery, madness and mayhem, 21 chapters, I definitely highly recommend.

I say it all the time but survival/death games are simple. what you see is what you get. they're all pretty similar, group of folks find themselves in some inexplicable situations that they can't get out of without completing some usually wild challenges. what really defines one from the other is the nature of the challenges, the more unique and roundabout, usually the better. see squid games hype and the saw series somehow still running to this day, 10th one is dropping this year apparently,, Google it if you think I'm messing with you.

In any case the games were definitely unique, I think I really dug it because the game setups were very whimsical and almost childlike in nature but then it turns out the reason the chicken crossed the road was to kill you… the art was okay, the cast was really enjoyable and felt pretty real and not too contrived for the situation like "oh I'm the smartest guy in the galaxy" or "I'm the girl with a horribly timed bad attitude" etc, it was just folks trying to survive and getting wrecked randomly, such is life and that's what I was there for.

Admittedly the end was weak, and it was petering off a little before but yh the end was definitely weak but not to the point of regretting the read. we finally got an up close look at the mastermind behind the whole thing,, though they themselves were also a little disappointing but again not enough to make me really regret reading,, the final face off was close tho… especially after they went on for so long. like I said last season, part of part 1's charm was hitting the nail on the head with story length and not overstaying its welcome, part 2 only got away because the games were so wacky as obvious as the deadly outcomes were…

mayhem grab bag: as the gods say 0, after god, shibatarian

that's it for stuff this month

now older stuff, a lot of the same names as last time but some shifts in order + the grab bags have a bit more stuff and ofc it's split this time

Old Top Mystery:

Soil vs Billy Bat (really tough call I'm sorry)

spoke on soil properly in season 1 ramble 1, it was my top read for the year of 2021, the closest thing to a pure mystery I think I'll ever read vs the real world paradigm shifting conspiracies of Billy Bat, spoke on for the first time at length in season 1 ramble 11 where I focused on Naoki Urasawa, all I'm saying is Naoki Urasawa is a living legend and the moon landing is dubious at best

Old Mystery grab bag:

20th century boys, pluto, monster (Urasawa in general tbh), acca 13, Eden: it’s an endless world, liar game, junji ito works in general, butterfly storage, toilet bound hanako kun, ptsd radio and the ihon series which tied last episode, summer time rendering

Old Top Madness:

Fire punch

chainsaw man is soft. enough said.

Old Madness grab bag:

homunculus, welcome to the nhk, soul eater, made in abyss, cigarette anthology, hellsing, Alice in borderlands, dolly kill kill, junji ito works in general, shuzo oshimi works in general, inio asano stuff ,shigahime, deadman wonderland, takopi’s original sin, believers, gogo monster, alien 9, tokyo ghoul series, to my dearest self with malice aforethought

Old Top Mayhem

JJBA vs Omniscient Reader

I dare any Jojo fan to deny it's chaotic, I want any non fans to do a double take on that title and this young man's figure and tell me you think there are any normal events in this story (spoiler alert, there are none)

Omniscient reader is actually from just this year season 2 ramble 1 new year new worlds,, an isekai,,, manhwa even,, but my first top new read of this year nonetheless, def got v crazy, for less ramble and more words check out the ramble but also trust and just go read lol

Old Mayhem grab bag:

Chainsaw man, Berserk(rip Miura one time every time), parasyte, jujutsu kaisen, as the gods say pt1,terra formars blood lad,inuyashiki, jackals, junji ito works in general, choujin x ,ajin, magical girl apocalypse, bokurano, tougen anki, jagaaaan, origin, raqiya, ddddd(anime), akumetsu top for last seasons

The peak of all this in my mind though is still dorohedoro…

this is literally the first panel of the manga

and yh... that's the ramble 😅😅, thanks for checking it out this far, hope you find a good read o/

[professor-trevelyan]

✧   ⸻   [  jonathan bailey,  cis man,  he/him  ]     ;     oh, there you are, professor KYLER TREVELYAN! isn’t your DRAGONKIND class supposed to be starting soon ? at THIRTY FIVE years old, and with the notable signet of HYDROKINESIS, you’re a real master at what you do. hopefully your male, GREEN DAGGERTAIL dragon, RYGOR, doesn’t mind biding their time while you’re busy with classes throughout the day. the cadets and the riders really enjoy your COMPASSIONATE and PATIENT tendencies, but the other staff members know just how PARANOID and CYNICAL you can really be. some say you remind them of hot tea with a hint of vanilla & a dash of cinnamon, scars lining his body baring the proof of a long & rigorous journey, and sophisticated attire more suited for balls than war, but it’s hard to say for certain.

pinterest

(tw: death mention)

~The Basics~

Full Name: Kyler Alain Trevelyan Nickname(s): Trevelyan, Professor Age: 35 Date of Birth: March 13th Home: Navarre Current Location: Basgiath War College Gender: Cis Male Pronouns: He/Him Orientation: Homosexual Ranking: Staff - Dragonkind Professor Dragon: Rygor - Green Daggertail (male)

~The Appearance~

Face Claim: Jonathan Bailey Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Brown Height: 6′0″ Weight: 173lbs Build: Athletic Piercings: Has a Helix on his right ear and a basic lobe piercing on his left ear Distinguishing Characteristics: Various scars among parts of his entire body

~The Signet~

Signet: Hydrokinesis: The user can create, shape, and manipulate water.

~The Capabilities~

Greater Techniques - (More strenuous on Kyler, therefore, the more exertion on Rygor. Used in moderation and situational.)

Water Wall: Can create walls of water from nothing or by shaping a source of existing water. He can shape these walls into any form, but often remain unchanging and immobile afterwards. Tidal Wave: Can call forth huge waves to crash down on his targets, washing everything and sometimes everyone away in a powerful torrent. Drowning: Can drown almost anything within a sphere of extreme amounts of water. This can include parts of an object or body and in dire situations; the person as a whole.

Lesser Techniques - (Other than the basics and general manipulation of water. Requires less exertion from Kyler and Rygor, though continuous use over time will eventually lead to both tiring out.)

Omnidirectional Waves: Can release minor omnidirectional waves at once in a wide area to dispatch many foes. Water Cutting: Can manipulate water to cut and/or pierce objects or persons. Water Beam: Can control and project water in a compressed state. Then if necessary, can manipulate the beam to scatter into smaller ones.

Weaknesses

*The distance, precision, and mass depends on his knowledge, skill, and strength of the power's natural limitations. *Controlling and manipulating bodies of water over an extended and excessive period of time can and will become dangerously exhausting. *May be unable to create water in a given area if dry, therefore being limited to controlling from already existing sources of water.

~The Biography~

1. The eldest of the Trevelyan boys which obviously makes him the first of his siblings to graduate from the school as a rider. When Kyler was thirty, his middle brother failed to bond with a dragon, resulting in his untimely demise. This infuriated Kyler since time and time again he had prepped and forewarned his brother. After all, he himself had endured his own excruciating training and studies. This is something Kyler holds himself responsible for given he'd been appointed the sole caretake of his brothers after their parent's mysterious deaths. 2. (Wanted Connection) With his younger and now, only brother entering the school as a cadet, Kyler did not hesitate at the opportunity to take up a position amongst the school's staff to better knowledge all those following in whoever's footsteps and whatever drives them, while also taking this is a way to keep an extremely closer eye on his brother. Kyler has had so much lose over the course of his life; he cannot lose the only thing keeping him going. 3. Although he's taken charge of teaching Dragonkind, Kyler is quite literally the epitome of 'don't judge a book by its cover'. Though he had been deemed more of a lover than a fighter by his old class and squad mates, he can and will fuck you up. There is a slight pleasure found in proving those whom underestimate quite wrong.4. Has done about everything it took to get this far given that survival is not guaranteed. A lesson Kyler has learned in more ways than one and he's hoping to push those lessons through his teachings. Eventually his students will learn, whether they take his words to heart or on their own accord will be theirs to decide. He can only hope to nudge them in the right direction.

[thethirdgenesisbooks]

Aeons: Vessels of the Will of the One

Have you not heard those prophecies yet? I’m sorry. Seers often tell of the coming of people who are Vessels for the Will of the One. They are called ‘Aeons.’

-Hava, former archon of Kernun, current agent of the Rebellion

While many on the world of Ymir have come to understand that the gods who have long ruled over them are false, there are some who still hold faith in some higher power. As such, several “cults” have formed on the world of Ymir, and inquisitors loyal to the gods hunt all these heretical sects.

The sect that has proven the most resilient in the face of such persecution is The Cult of the One, or, as they prefer to be called, the Path of the One (or, in some circles, the Way of the One). These people believe in a single deity who is above the false gods, and who will one day judge the pantheon of Empyrean for all the evil they’ve done. Seers are usually the authors of the holy texts of this faith, and many of those holy texts speak of encounters with the mysterious beings called “Aeons.”

Aeons have usually appeared to seers but have also made themselves known to various truth-seeking individuals, coaxing them onto the Path of the One. Aeons have demonstrated magical abilities that even the greatest casters of Ymir cannot replicate. They often appear out of nowhere and vanish just as suddenly. They know things that, even with magic, they should not be able to know. They can pause time itself to teach important lessons to lost and weary souls.

Each Aeon clings to a certain color. Animus, the Aeon in Red, for example, wears a long red coat and has matching hair and eyes. The Aeons claim to be “Vessels for the Will of the One,” and when they act, they usually do so to protect those on the Path. Yet, for all their power, their interference in the affairs of the people of Ymir is minimal.

This has led skeptics who scoff at the One to say that the Aeons are nothing more than charlatans who know more about magic than most people. Just more false gods looking for pious servants. The Aeons usually counter this by saying the reason for their relative non-involvement is because they have no intention of becoming tyrants, and if they were to interfere too much, that would surely become their path.

At this time in Ymir’s history, not all of the Aeons have been revealed. Here are those who are currently known:

The Aeon in Red

Animus first appeared during the Second Age. He appears as a young man wearing a long, red coat with matching hair and eyes on a pale, freckled face. He usually carries with him a staff that looks like a twisted double helix. Animus is said to embody justice.

The Aeon in Green

Like Animus, Ra’hamim first appeared in the Second Age. Hunters described following their game deep into the woods and finding in a lone grove a woman who was one with a gathering of banyan trees. She demonstrated a deep connection with the forest itself, as well as with all plants. Time and again, she has guided the lost out of danger. She is said to embody mercy.

The Aeon in Blue

The first records of Eidolon’s existence come from the Third Age. The Aeon in Blue typically appears wearing a vibrant, blue robe, with hair, eyes, and skin to match. An azure mist often accompanies him, and he always floats just inches off the ground. According to the holy texts of the Path, the first encounter with Eidolon happened in an ancient adonium mine called “The Godsthroat.” For a time, Eidolon was claiming to be a god, Enlil the All-Father reborn. That was, until the Aeon in Red arrived and humbled him. After that, he joined the ranks of the Aeons, and built the city of Civitas Dei as a safe haven for truly gentle, peaceful souls. He is said to embody knowledge.

The Aeon in Black

Sonia is the most recent Aeon to appear, first making herself known in the Fourth Age. She appears as a little girl with black hair wearing an equally black dress. Often, she is seen playing with dolls, though the way she speaks suggests wisdom far beyond that of a child. Those who’ve encountered her have described the experience as “unsettling,” “frightening,” and sometimes “harrowing.” She is said to embody remorse.

The Aeon in White

Currently, her name is unknown, but some have taken to calling her “The Starlit Empress” or “The Future Queen.” Seers have had encounters with the Aeon in White since the First Age, but most sages of the One teach that she is yet to be born. Some sages have also suggested that when the prophesied Third Genesis comes to pass, the Aeon in White will be the ruler of all Ymir, a benevolent monarch installed by the One. Just what virtue she embodies is unknown, though some have suggested wisdom, purpose, or compassion.

As the story of the world of Ymir continues to unfold, we will surely learn more about the Aeons, the One, and the promised future they all seek.

[paddy603]

Life of Christ

This amazing image is a painting highlighting in part the life of Jesus by someone within my own Kings Church. Seeing the image brought to mind the many prophecies in the Old Testament. Predictions about the coming Messiah (Christ) amazingly all fulfilled during His life. The copied image of this painting is by courtesy and permission, given by Colin McQueen of Artbycolin, the Artist of this piece that can be found following this link. http://www.mcqueens.net/artbycolin/

The painting is a composition of several images wherein light is shone onto and through the life of Jesus. First as God the creator represented via the Helix nebula, often labelled the eye of God. Seemingly looking down on the scene from the darkness of space. In that respect seeing the need for His intervention into the lives of mankind, as in Christ's life seen depicted in the painting.

"And He saw that there was no man,

And was astonished that there was no one to intercede;

Then His own arm brought salvation to Him,

And His righteousness upheld Him. Isaiah 59:16

The first shining a light on that intervention was the Star of Bethlehem above the place he was born. A Star announcing the entry of Emmanuel (God with us) born into the world as the Saviour to the world. Next we see the empty Cross pointing to the opened window, to the "Eye of God" making a way for us through to God. An opening made possible for all because of Christ's ultimate sacrifice in dying on the cross for all mankind.

The next scene we see however is the scene the women in the bible accounts were faced with that Sunday morning, the empty tomb. They as with many since thought/think He had been moved. Only to realise like many down the generations since have come to know that he was raised from the dead to fulfil that promise of redemption for all of mankind. Also fulfilling the many prophecies just as in this one of the Psalms written1000 +- years before Jesus birth.

"But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself." Psalm 49:15

The final scene of Christ's ascension is not depicted in this amazing painting, but clearly was visualized by the Old Testament Prophets as he ascended into Heaven. According to the Bible, over 500 people witnessed the resurrected body of Jesus. The Ascension of Jesus took place in the presence of the remaining eleven apostles. Where it was said;

“You Galileans!—why do you just stand here looking up at an empty sky? This very Jesus who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly—and mysteriously—as he left.” Acts 1:9-11.

" When Jesus departed this world on the shekinah cloud, He was going back to the realm of glory. He was going to receive the glory that He enjoyed with the Father from all eternity. So, the ascension was a glorious thing. That is why, after He ascended, the disciples went back into Jerusalem and praised God in the temple. They understood that their Master was getting His glory back. His humiliation was over, and His exaltation had begun."

"Did the Old Testament Prophets also predict the Ascension? Most clearly it was foretold, the ascension of Christ to heaven is in Psalm 68:18, which is quoted by the apostle Paul and applied to the ascension of Christ (Ephesians 4:8-10), and all the parts of it agree with him." Christianity.

As good as this painting is, what is most amazing is this Christ's life story was told by many of the past Old Testament prophets. Visualized in prophesy even more clearly than portrayed by the painting. Predictions of the Messiah's life to come made hundreds to even thousands of years before he came into the world for us. Each prophet revealing a little of the Saviour's life still to come painted in words. A Tapestry of his life built up, pieced together and told from beginning to end. Being born into our world in a stable, to his death on the Cross, and subsequently the amazing event of the resurrection from the tomb. Then His ascension into Heaven.

"The Old Testament discusses the Messiah (Christ) across various books, but it goes far beyond describing the potential saviour sent by God, but to being filled with many predictions about the Messiah. What makes it so captivating is the accuracy of these many prophecies that we now know to be true. The evidence of these fulfilled predictions can be found in several New Testament books transcribed from the Old Testament allowing us to cross reference. Here are just some of those fulfilled prophecies." Stars Insider.

If the truth cannot be seen in these uncannily accurate prophecies what will convince? Jesus Himself said to those who do see; "But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it." Matt 13:16-17.

Hence here are those prophecies and their fulfilment recorded in the New Testament that not only paint the complete picture but also complete the full story, the truth. In the biblical accounts, it can be seen and attested to that Jesus Christ truly has fulfilled the role of the Messiah and as such is who He is said to be.

1) He would be born of a woman.

The prediction that the Saviour would be born as a human can be found in Genesis 3:15. Matthew 1:20 and Galatians 4:4 affirm this, with the latter stating "God sent his Son, born of a woman."

2) He would be born in Bethlehem

According to the Old Testament, specifically Micah 5:2, Bethlehem Ephrathah was foretold to be the birthplace of Jesus. The verse states, "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans[a] of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." The location of Jesus' birthplace is then confirmed in Matthew 2:1 and Luke 2:4-6.

3) He would be born of a virgin.

The Old Testament describes Mary as both a virgin and the mother of Jesus, referencing Isaiah 7:14, which states "[...] The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son [...]." The prophecy is then fulfilled in Matthew 1:22-23 and Luke 1:26-31.

4) He would come from the line of Abraham.

The passage in Genesis 12:3 and Genesis 22:18 both reference this statement. In the latter verse, it states "and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” This is affirmed in Matthew 1:1, which provides the lineage of Jesus the Messiah. Romans 9:5 also supports this concept.

5) He would be a descendant of Isaac.

According to Genesis 17:19, God establishes an eternal covenant with the offspring of Isaac. This idea is reinforced in Genesis 21:12. Luke 3:34 then states the ancestry of Jesus as "the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor."

6) He would be a descendant of Jacob

The prophecy in Numbers 24:17 states "A star will come out of Jacob.", which is fulfilled in Matthew 1:2.

7) He would come from the tribe of Judah

According to Genesis 49:10, "The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his." Luke 3:33 confirms Jesus "as the son of Judah," which is further validated by Hebrews 7:14.

The prediction of Jesus' reign on David's throne and over his kingdom was foretold in 2 Samuel 7:12-13 and Isaiah 9:7. The latter reads "[...] He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom [...]." Luke 1:32-33 says that "The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David," and Romans 1:3 affirms Jesus' lineage to King David.

9) He would spend a season in Egypt

"When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son," reads Hosea 11:1. Matthew 2:14-15 in the New Testament confirms it: "So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'

10) A massacre of children would happen at Messiah's birthplace

In Jeremiah 31:15, it is predicted that the innocent will be mercilessly killed. This prophecy is later confirmed in Matthew 2:16-18, where it is stated: "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."

11) A messenger would prepare the way for Messiah

According to Isaiah 40:3-5, it is mentioned that "the glory of the Lord will be revealed." And this indeed happened, as described in Luke 3:3-6: "He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book the Messiah would be rejected by his own people

He would be rejected by his own people

Psalm 69:8 and Isaiah 53:3 predicted that Jesus would be "despised and rejected by mankind" (quoting the latter). Then, in the New Testament, John 7:5 states: "For even his own brothers did not believe in him." The words of Isaiah the prophet."

13) He would be a prophet

"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him," reads Deuteronomy 18:15. A prophecy that was confirmed in Acts 3:20-22.

14) He would be declared the Son of God

Psalm 2:7 reads: "I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, 'You are my son; today I have become your father.'" Then in Matthew 3:16-17, following Jesus' baptism, God says: "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

15) He would bring light to Galilee

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned," reads Isaiah 9:1-2; a prophecy confirmed in Matthew 4:13-16.

16) He would speak in parables

Both Isaiah 6:9-10 and Psalm 78:2-4 ("I will open my mouth with a parable") mention this prophecy. The prophecy is confirmed in Matthew 13:34-35, and Jesus explains why he speaks in parables in Matthew 13:10-15.

17) He would be sent to heal the broken-hearted

"He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted," can be read in Isaiah 61:1-2. The fulfilment of this prophecy is described in Luke 4:18-19.

18) Messiah would be a priest after the order of Melchizedek

While "Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest," (Hebrews 5:5-6) God's message was there in Psalm 110:4: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”

19) He would be betrayed

Psalm 41:9 reads: "Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned[a] against me." This topic is also covered in Zechariah 11:12-13. Both Luke 22:47-48 and Matthew 26:14-16 described the betrayal of Judas.

20) He would be falsely accused

"Ruthless witnesses come forward; they question me on things I know nothing about," reads Psalm 35:11. And then we find "some stood up and gave this false testimony against him" in Mark 14:57-58.

21) He would be spat upon and struck

Isaiah 50:6 reads: "I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting." Then Matthew 26:67 confirms it: "They spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him."

22) He would be hated without any justifiable reason

Both Psalm 35:19 and Psalm 69:4 confirm this. The latter reads: "Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head." John 15:24-25 details the fulfilment of the prophecy.

23) He would be crucified with criminals

Isaiah 53:12 alludes to the same scenario, which is also mentioned in Matthew 27:38 ("Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left"). This is reiterated in Mark 15:27-28.

He Messiah would be given vinegar to drink

Psalm 69:21 reads, "They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst." Matthew 27:34 and John 19:28-30 confirm it: "A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips."

25) His hands and feet would be pierced

"Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet (Psalm 22:16). Zechariah 12:10 also mentions this prophecy. John 20:25-27 then confirms its fulfillment.

26) He would be buried with the rich

Isaiah 53:9 mentions that Jesus was "assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death." Matthew 27:57-60 confirms it.

27) Christ resurrection from the dead

The resurrection of Jesus is confirmed in Psalm 16:10 and Psalm 49:15, and further supported by passages in the New Testament: Matthew 28:2-7 and Acts 2:22-32.

28) Messiah would ascend to Heaven

Him rising was foretold in Psalm 24:7-10, and later verified in the New Testament in Mark 16:19 and Luke 24:51, the latter stating: "While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into Heaven."

And finally the Messiah(The Lord) our Saviour Jesus Christ would be made a sacrifice for us, our sin, turning our backs on a God created all.

The prophecy originates from Isaiah 53:5-12 and includes the line "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities." Romans 5:6-8 confirms the fulfilment of this prophecy. "Christ died for the ungodly. God demonstrates his own love for us in this While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Hebrews 12:2 is a verse from the Bible that encourages Christians to focus on Jesus, who is the source and goal of their faith, and who suffered and triumphed over the cross for their sake.

About His return still to come also predicted Jesus said; "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:7-8, NIV).

Jesus left no doubt that He will return again to complete His mission of salvation for mankind: "Don’t be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly."

The return of Christ is a significant event in Christian theology, often referred to as the Second Coming. It brings about the kingdom of God, where God’s absolute rule over creation, including humankind, is established. During this time, there will be judgments, resurrections, and eternal life for believers. While the exact timing remains unknown, the Bible emphasizes readiness and anticipation for His return. As Jesus Himself said, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour."

[magdalene-spirit]

Quotes

* Divination is one of man's oldest spiritual technologies, its origins lost…

* From a framework of mythic events and divination - literally readings of the divine - came language, which evolved over time into written forms based on the original symbolic elements.

* “Language,” Fulcanelli tells us…, “the instrument of the spirit, has a life of its own - even though it is only a reflection of the universal Idea.” This Gnostic meta-linguistic mysticism is the core it seems of illumination itself.

* The language of light emitted and received by the DNA may be the original of all languages, the ultimate language of initiation.

* This Ur-language, Fulcanelli insists, is the common language of initiation and illumination behind cultural expressions as different as the Christian, the Inca, the medieval troubadours and the ancient Greeks. And traces of it can be found in the dialects of Picardy and Provence, and most important of all, in the language of the Gypsies.

* And, to top it off, he told us that traces of it can be found in the language of the Gypsies, a fairly obvious reference to the Tarot, long held to be a Gypsy invention.

* Could it be possible, by looking at the structure of DNA, to reconstruct this dragon's speech, this green language of light's syntax, grammar and vocabulary? And could it be, as Fulcanelli suggests, that fragments of that original language of light can be found in the divinatory systems used by all nautes, shaman and initiates?

* The increment of change between the pairs described the rhythmic structure of that elusive quality the now or the everchanging present.

* How this actually worked was a mystery until recently. Carl Jung's study of the I Ching led to his theory of synchronicity as an acausal connecting principle, but he was unable to see how the flow of archetypes formed meaningful structures in an acausal manner. Synchronicity could be defined as a psychological event, the projection of meaning onto a background of randomness, but Jung left unanswered the question of meaning itself. Does this temporal universe inhabited by biological entities truly have a “meaning?”

* It is no accident, given the light sensitive nature of DNA that eclipse cycles, sunspot cycles and the informational structure of DNA should all be based on the same ratios and proportions.

* From this we can see that the structure of the I Ching and the DNA code contains both local solar system time orchestrated by the permutations of sun, moon, eclipses and sunspot cycles, and the larger cycles of precessional time. Counting by turns and triplets reveals that a macrocosmic framework of precessional numbers supports the microcosm. The movement of the spring equinox backward through the zodiac due to the tilt of the earth's axis is measured at the rate of one degree every 72 years, therefore 12 triplets, 1 and 1/5th turns of the helix equals 1/6 of a degree of precessional motion, or 12 years. Given that there billions of turns and millions of triplets in a single strand of DNA, then the entire history of the universe, from beginning to end, could be coded into our DNA.

Reading the Green Language of Light

by Vincent Bridges

Divination is one of man's oldest spiritual technologies, its origins lost…

From a framework of mythic events and divination - literally readings of the divine - came language, which evolved over time into written forms based on the original symbolic elements.

“Language,” Fulcanelli tells us…, “the instrument of the spirit, has a life of its own - even though it is only a reflection of the universal Idea.” This Gnostic meta-linguistic mysticism is the core it seems of illumination itself.

The language of light emitted and received by the DNA may be the original of all languages, the ultimate language of initiation.

This Ur-language, Fulcanelli insists, is the common language of initiation and illumination behind cultural expressions as different as the Christian, the Inca, the medieval troubadours and the ancient Greeks. And traces of it can be found in the dialects of Picardy and Provence, and most important of all, in the language of the Gypsies.

And, to top it off, he told us that traces of it can be found in the language of the Gypsies, a fairly obvious reference to the Tarot, long held to be a Gypsy invention.

Could it be possible, by looking at the structure of DNA, to reconstruct this dragon's speech, this green language of light's syntax, grammar and vocabulary? And could it be, as Fulcanelli suggests, that fragments of that original language of light can be found in the divinatory systems used by all nautes, shaman and initiates?

The increment of change between the pairs described the rhythmic structure of that elusive quality the now or the everchanging present.

How this actually worked was a mystery until recently. Carl Jung's study of the I Ching led to his theory of synchronicity as an acausal connecting principle, but he was unable to see how the flow of archetypes formed meaningful structures in an acausal manner. Synchronicity could be defined as a psychological event, the projection of meaning onto a background of randomness, but Jung left unanswered the question of meaning itself. Does this temporal universe inhabited by biological entities truly have a “meaning?”

It is no accident, given the light sensitive nature of DNA that eclipse cycles, sunspot cycles and the informational structure of DNA should all be based on the same ratios and proportions.

[theoseong]

01/BASICS

Full Name: Theo Seong

Nickname: Theodore (it’s an inside joke with his friends, because his full name is just Theo)

Birthday: October 27, 1994

Species: Erkuss

Gender: Cisgender Man

Sexual Orientation: Gay

Astrological Sign: Scorpio Sun, Sagittarius Moon

Spoken Languages: Flagruu and English

Birthplace: Rungung, Maeyr, Gaison, Kraysha

Occupation: Musician

Relationship status: Single

02/PHYSICAL TRAITS

Hair Color/Style: Dark brown usually artfully tousled 

Eye Color: Red

Face Claim: Hwang In-yeop

Height: 6′1″ 

Tattoos: Several including a full sleeve (TBD)

Piercings: Lobe, upper lobe, and helix

Unique Attributes: N/A

03/PERSONALITY TRAITS/TYPES

Positive Traits: Innovative, creative, sensitive, virtuoso, and hard-working.

Negative Traits: Stubborn, reserved, sarcastic, and emotionally repressed.

Hobbies/Interests: Singing, guitar, songwriting, mixology, and cooking.

Insecurities: Theo has a lot of insecurities, one being that he didn’t succeed in pursuing music. Currently, his main insecurity is that his father died, still disappointed in him and assuming he hated him. He’s also worried that he’ll fail at becoming a successful musician again.

Quirks/Eccentricities: He always carries around a guitar pick that he fidgets with.  

MBTI Type: The Virtuoso - ISTP 

Enneagram Type: The Investigator - Type 5

Moral Alignment: Chaotic Good

Temperament: Melancholy

04/THIS OR THAT

Introvert or Extrovert? Introvert

Optimist or Pessimist? Jaded optimist

Leader or Follower? Leader

Confident or Self-Conscious? Self-Conscious

Cautious or Careless? Cautious

Passionate or Apathetic? Passionate

Book Smarts or Street Smarts? Both

Compliments or Insults? More like sarcastic comments

05/FAVORITES

Favorite Color: Black

Favorite Clothing Style/Outfit: Theo dresses pretty casually. He has a grunge style with leather jackets, ripped jeans, and boots. 

Favorite Bands/Songs/Type of Music: Alternative Rock and Indie Folk

Favorite Movies: Scary movies: Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch Project, Hereditary, Midsommar, etc.

Favorite Books: He’s not a big reader, but he always liked mysteries and thrillers.

Favorite Foods/Drinks: He likes all types of food, but is pretty averse to diner food. His favorite drinks are coffee, tea, Old Fashions, and Moscow Mules.