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silverskye13 · 7 months ago

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could I ask how far into building you are when it comes to the uhhh

court of remembrance? was it court? church? order! the order of remembrance lol

how far have you build out how they work, like their common routines/rituals/etc.

I was considering making my hels!oc part of em cause the hermit-adjacent/"original" player version of my sona is really big on documenting things as they have poor memory, and I want that to be something that ties the two together? if that makes sense?

I'm so sorry this got so long. I. Have a lot of fun world building.

My notes on the Order of Remembrance, as cohesively as I can jot them down, below:

Sooo, when I was figuring out hels stuff, the Order of Remembrance [OR for short] kinda turned up as the equivalent of a culture developing an afterlife, in a world where "afterlife" demonstrably doesn't exist. What would you replace with the idea of an eternal spirit/soul, in a world where superstition and religion still exist? What do you cope with? How do you comfort? Who fills the gaps and holes in the community that people slip through, and why? What informs purpose and meaning?

Memory, the importance of remembrance, the idea that you owe it to the people around you to remember they existed, and that existence affected your life. The idea that you, as an individual, can make someone's life matter by celebrating them, mourning them, even hating them. The universe is indifferent. The greatest sin a helsmet can commit is being indifferent as well.

This started the Remembrance Walls, which gave them importance as landmarks and places of spirituality. And any place with importance deserves protection, preservation, and accessibility.

OR probably started as a small neighborhood collective dedicated to preserving the Remembrance Walls. Which turned into being the people who also supplied the bricks made for those walls, and helping people carve them. Which turned into people who would check in with folks in the neighborhood that hadn't been seen in awhile, making sure they were safe, and taking their names down if they were gone. Eventually a collective turns into an organization, and the ritual of that collective turns into a religion. Now there are helsmets who dedicate their lives, or large sums of money and material goods, to the church. In turn, the church gives back to the community in any way they can, because the more people are involved with each other, the more memories they make, the more that can be preserved.

This is also why OR is so big. Successful people in hels want a legacy that's remembered, so you put your name on every landmark in town -- the OR cathedral is a massive landmark. Memory is important [even the most self centered and heinous need purpose and fulfillment] so a lot of people associate themselves with the church in some way or another. Being remembered is a goal for everyone, not just the community minded. The OR will be important until memory stops being important.

The Staff:

Members directly serving the OR in an official capacity are: Priests/clerics [with one presiding Head/High Priest], scribes, clerks, historians, brickmakers, knights [and squires], and one or two paladins. Various members of the official congregation [they consider all of hels their congregation, given everyone deserves to be remembered, but the official congregation are those who actually attend the church services and functions] will also work for the church if they can donate relevant skills -- this is a part of the church's community building. They will seek needs and fill them with skilled individuals within the church or, if they don't have a recommendation, will contact other churches for members of their congregation. If you need a stone mason for a project, a jeweler for a custom piece, or someone to provide wheat for your new bakery, and don't know where to find one, asking at the OR cathedral is a good place to start.

Priests: Deal with the more spiritual and communal aspects of memory and remembrance. The church has divided the city into districts, and every district has at least one priest who regularly attends it, though the church's goal is to have 3 per district. Every district has at least one remembrance wall, and it's the priest's job to know all the names on that wall, as well as to know as many people as they can in their district, so they can do regular check ins on their well-being. They hold services to add new names to their walls, host and organize community events for their districts [plays, cookouts, parties, gatherings, etc]. They don't pray in the traditional sense -- Memory is more of an idea than a true deity -- but their prayers involve memorizing names, events, dates. A lot of priests will write songs and ballads to aid in this, which they will perform for each other or sing at organized events.

Scribes/clerks/historians: Exactly what it says on the tin. Stationed at the church, these guys get down to the brass tacks of putting ink to paper and codifying memory. They keep accurate records of everything from city economics to books written to personal anecdotes, and they guard their work jealously. Transcribing is a job of great importance, and accurate scribes are revered by the church. The OR has been known to pay a small fortune to individuals who can write quickly, accurately and legibly. Most of the statues decorating their cathedral are scribes revered for their dedication to their craft. Historians meanwhile function as both researchers and, to an extent, unintentional journalists, following developments in hels so they can document them as they happen. While the OR doesn't own news or run a newspaper, the handful of newspapers in town are all run by people who either used to work for the OR, or have friends on the OR historical staff.

[It's important to note the historians and clerks aren't detectives or police. They find information and write it down, they do not solve crimes or prosecute criminals. However, their thoroughness and impartiality means they're often called on as witnesses and informants to crimes. They have been attacked before for either sticking their noses in business someone didn't want remembered, or for providing information someone wanted ignored/erased. Their documents hold a lot of weight.]

This division is also in charge of the OR's extensive library. There is one main library in the cathedral, where every collected written work the library can get its hands on exists. They collect everything from journals, to poetry, to fiction writing, to recipe books. Anything written that can be remembered. They also keep transcripts of hymns and songs written by priests and knights, and up to date registries of the names on the remembrance walls. There is a second, public library that is free for hels to access, which contains every copy the scribes have gotten around to making from the main library. They encourage people to make their own copies of the library works they borrow, and can be paid to make specialty copies of popular works.

[Given how hard it is to grow large amounts of paper in hels, most books in the OR collection are written on vellum (hog skin). Almost every off-world smuggler in hels has a regular customer with the OR if they collect paper/sugar cane on their travels. OR has a current project trying to put every book they own on paper (The Nice Copy TM) and every 2nd or 3rd copy of a book on vellum. Only their best scribes are allowed to write paper copies.]

Knights: Knights are a relatively new addition to the OR staff, in that they weren't really needed when hels was small. As hels got bigger, however, and things like vandalism and crime became big and unruly, knights eventually made their way onto the scene, starting as priests with particularly good PVP skills, and eventually graduating to in-house trained fighters. You can still see their priestly roots in their practices. They too are assigned to districts. They too memorize the names on their associated walls and try to make themselves known in the neighborhoods they patrol. Instead of organizing events and focusing on the social aspects, however, they focus on making a safe place for people to live. They aren't police. Unless the crime is strictly related to memory [for example, destruction of stones on the remembrance walls] they don't track people down and drag them off to jail. They do help the community though. They will stop active crimes, they will stay with people who feel unsafe, they break up street fights, they escort their priests in rougher parts of town, they volunteer to clear out mobs that wander into the city, and have even been known to simply help with building projects for people who need a few extra hands around. Because of their generally neutral disposition towards events in hels [they protect individuals and their church, instead of business or gang interests] they are sometimes asked to be conflict mediators for battling factions in the city who are trying to reach a negotiation point. As a whole, the knights can always be found walking in groups of 2-5 on their routes. They're very rarely seen alone.

The Cathedral:

Paladins: Paladins are an enigmatic rarity for OR. Generally speaking, a paladin is a knight or priest of a given order embued with supernatural power by a deity. OR, as a godless religion, shouldn't be able to get them -- and yet sometimes they do manage to pop up. Some people think they're evidence of a Universe that actually does care about hels, sending someone who can literally fight for the rights of people to be remembered. Only a handful of paladins have ever been called, and they seem to coincidentally pop up whenever someone has done great harm to memory: massive destruction of remembrance walls, burning books, intentionally trying to erase someone from history, fraud. Generally they are compelled, like a very angry sleepwalker, to track down whoever was responsible and stop them. Sometimes this entails violence, but more often than not it involves the perpetrator being imprisoned for a very long time by what amounts to a preternaturally knowledgeable lawyer. It is probably from the OR paladins that the rumors first started that, if you angered the OR, they would have you forgotten [who else could strike someone from the memory of the world, than a guardian of memory itself?]. When they're not actively pursuing holy justice, the paladins look and act pretty normal, though their memory skills are uncanny, near perfect, and they have the habit of just Knowing Things they shouldn't be able to -- speaking and reading languages they've never learned, prophetic visions, etc. When they're being compelled to justice, they describe it as being "dreamlike". In the same way in a dream you Know you can fly despite it being untrue in reality, a compelled OR paladin Knows a destruction of memory has happened, and is unable to stop pursuing that destruction until it's been righted. In the moment, paladins describe the feeling as intensely peaceful: the ability to Know and be Sure. The only frustration is when forces actively try to hinder their task. Because of the intensity of their compulsion, they often have to fight to keep up with basic needs, and it's not uncommon for paladins to lose weight, fall into sleep deprived psychosis, and collapse from exhaustion. Paladins released from their compulsion often have to be nursed back to health again, though none yet have expressed regrets about the rough treatments of their bodies. The way they see it, whatever force compelling them has never been human, and therefore doesn't understand the toll it takes on a living body.

As with all paladins in hels, while they're recovering or in between compulsions, they tie a peace knot around their weapon to symbolize their dormancy.

Squires and apprentices: alongside their regular training with their chosen staff and/or clergy, squires and apprentice clerics/scribes/historians work as the general help staff of the cathedral. If errands need running, someone needs contacted, a mantle needs dusted, an odd job needs filled, they're the ones who catch the chores. They also have the very important responsibility of brick making -- or helping with brick making. The cathedral does employ master brick makers, but those brick makers often need extra hands, so every day the squires and apprentices set aside time to make bricks. This is a time of concentration and meditation, and the apprentices are encouraged not to talk during the process. When each batch has finished baking, the master brickmaker working with the group will call an end to the silence. When this ritual started, the ending was a lot more reverent. Over the years though, the brickmakers have taken more joy in their work than solemnity. It's not uncommon for the brickmakers to break the silence with increasingly bad jokes, rewarding the apprentices that laugh first.

The Head/High Priest: The high priest differs from the other priests and clerics by taking on mostly administrative work. They do not work alone. They have a board of 10 priests, clerks and scribes that help keep things balanced. Balance is the high priest's main objective. The OR excels because it stays as neutral as possible in all of hels's affairs. It does its best to owe nothing to anyone, repays all its debts, and doesn't work with one or two of the various hels factions exclusively. Its goal is to remain as uncorrupt as possible in a system rampant with political and financial corruption. Hels is a place full of evil halves and dark mirrors, a lot of very selfish and manipulative people end up in power, so it's a hard line to walk.

The First Church of Hels, also known as the Cathedral of Remembrance, was the first dedicated church erected in hels. It started out much smaller, a netherbrick building with a brickworks in the back for providing stones. As they grew in importance, so too did the building, until eventually the large cathedral was erected. It was a massive effort from many different hels denizens, and almost every room in the cathedral has a place to display the names of contributors to the project, from the people who laid the mosaic tiles to the folks who soldered the stained glass. The original bricks of the first iteration of the church are enshrined as a pathway that leads through the back garden of the building to their new, much more impressive brickworks. These foundational bricks remain empty, and are blanket dedicated to any helsmet who managed to slip through the cracks in society, whose names were forgotten, never known, or never noted.

The cathedral has one main sanctuary where worship and prayer are performed. They have one holy day a week where all their various members, and any congregation who wants to join, gather to sing songs and hymns, poetry and lists. There are meditations done on works written by bygone individuals, studies and philosophies discussed. While the topics of the main service change from week to week, the basic formula of singing/recital, meditation/discussion, singing/recital happens every time. They open and end every service with the list of names added to the walls that week.

During the week, the cathedral plays host to any number of meetings and events. They have many rooms dedicated as spaces for community gatherings, from small clubs for youths to workshops to food drives. People are constantly coming and going from the place.

Because of the church's center as a place of refuge, history and memory -- and by extension, power -- it has no small amount of detractors and enemies. HumanCleo doesn't allow the OR's knights on her turf, in part because of fear of retaliation: if her gangs attack any of the Order, she risks a paladin ripping down her criminal empire brick by brick. The Demon is one of OR's paper suppliers, and has been known to try to corner and intimidate scribes sent to document his shipments. Many of the historians cannot walk the city without an escort. Even their clerks have been scouted by influential merchants who want an expert in numbers looking over their books. Scribes with a particularly steady hand have been harassed and attempted coerced about forging documents and reproducing copies of cursed books. Thieves and vandals have attempted break-ins of their treasury. They have also had to deal with gang fights and general violence at their larger events. This is where their connections with other churches come in handy. Organizations like the Church of Blood and Steel, with knight and paladins who specialize in fighting, are often contacted to help when the OR needs a little more muscle. In return, the OR will loan them use of their scribes, arrange for their monuments to be built at a discount, etc.

The OR has a few loose ties to the Colosseum. All the statues of past champions that line the corridors are designed, drafted and prototyped by OR affiliated builders. Their epitaphs are drafted by their scribes. They have a team of knights whose main job is to attend Colosseum events and study and transcribe fighting styles of the various fighters, so their martial memory isn't lost when they return to the universe. They also record the Colosseum matches, and send a copy of their notes to the showrunners for the use in writing future fighting arcs.

[Also this is just me, but I think there's a writer in hels somewhere that spends all day making serialized literature out of the Colosseum matches, and submits them to the newspaper for people to read after a match. They probably also are very grateful for the OR's Colosseum notes lol].

I think! That's! Everything! I can think of! Though I'm sure I'll remember something else in an hour! Oh well!

#rns asks #order of remembrance #the order of remembrance #hels worldbuilding #hels world building #hhhhhhh oh my gosh #sorry this feels like it might be too much info #i tried to keep it organized

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anoddopal · 14 days ago

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Profile for Bunny Sawyer; with artwork courtesy of @rabidwerechihuahua!!

HORROR/SLASHER SONA- TW for mentioned cannibalism in bio below!

➣・Name: Bunny Sawyer [later; West?] ➣・Age: 27 ➣・Occupation: “Jack of All Trades, Master of None” [Phlebotomist, Laboratory Assistant, Homemaker] ➣・Hobbies: Vulture Culture, Studying Medical Anomalies, Nagging at her family, Animal Husbandry, REDUCE. REUSE. RECYCLE. … REANIMATE? ♻️

➣・The Saw: Bunny is a close cousin to the Sawyer Family. A Sawyer by name and blood, yet just removed enough to have not grown up in the nuclear family home. Bunny doesn’t even live in Texas; at least, not full time. She branched out - despite Drayton’s hemming and hawing - and currently takes up residence in Arkham, Massachusetts. That aside, Bunny finds her way back to Newt, Texas several times a year. It’s her place of respite. It’s somewhere where she can ‘get away from it all’. No matter where Bunny ends up in the world, she will always come back home.

➣・Hiding in Plain Sight: Bunny, like her big cousin Drayton, is the most socially acceptable person of the family. Though certainly an outward oddball, she can mask her unhinged tendencies to the public quite well. As a result, Bunny lives a fairly typical lifestyle. She works a respectable job, contributes what she can to society, and chatters incessantly about her menagerie of animal companions. Y’know, ~ normal ~ !!

Most wouldn’t even peg Bunny as a member of the Sawyer clan unless they looked twice. Yet there’s no denying she boasts some of that Sawyer grunge. It’s all in that crooked smile; in the manic twinkle of her brown eyes.

She’s unsuspecting. Small, thin, bubbly, and frequently clad in pink. Definitely not the vision that comes to mind when someone imagines a deranged, antisocial cannibal. And that trait alone just might make her the most dangerous Sawyer of them all.

➣・Runs in the Family: Meat. The Sawyer Family has always had a good eye for prime meat. Bunny is no exception, and partakes in consumption of “Long Pig” when she visits the family back home. It’s not something she cares to give a significant amount of thought. As long as she doesn’t have to help bring home the bacon or prep it in any way, she does just fine with eating human flesh. She’s not too crazy about organ meat, though. And brain matter? ABSOLUTELY NOT. There will be no spread of prion disease in this household!

Animal meat, on the other hand, can be very touch and go for her. There are the obvious no-nos on her list, but the number one critter Bunny refuses to consume are rabbits. Heavens no, she’s not that much of a monster!!

➣・Bunny’s Contribution: Everyone in the family has a role to play. Chop and Nubbins target unsuspecting individuals. Bubba slaughters and processes. Drayton cooks. As for Bunny? Bunny collects food for Grandpa. Even when Bunny is off the clock, that venipuncture technique of hers never goes to waste. The Patriarch of the Sawyer Clan survives off of nothing but blood [and possibly spite] these days, and Bunny is the only person who can get what he needs without making a gory mess in the process. It also helps that Bunny has her cousins ensure the subject of her bloodletting is out cold before the task begins.

Say, an unrelated note on those phlebotomy skills— nothing touched her more than when that enigmatic medical student at Miskatonic University complimented her on her talent with needles. Dr. West never praises anyone, much less acknowledges them of his own volition. That small comment he made while watching her work made Bunny feel... special.

➣・Gentle Hand: As a whole, Bunny really doesn’t want to harm anyone. She fancies herself as something of a pacifist, despite having a dubious hand in her family’s questionable cuisine. She's not the sort to go out of her way to harm anyone. Can't an introvert just have a bit of peace away from the rest of society? Can't other people mind their business, just as she minds hers?

And yet... there are times when Bunny has had enough of the world. Her smile drops. Her face goes blank. Her voice becomes firm. It becomes cold. The capacity to be compassionate shrivels up. And before you know it, she's spouting off the message of “A Modest Proposal” without a lick of irony to be found. And when Bunny is pushed to at point, of course, it's simply too late.

🐇: “You ever hear that old adage about how we can solve overpopulation and world hunger at the same time? Whoa, hey! Sit. Back. Down. Hear me out for a second-”

➣・Scavenger: One of Bunny’s many hobbies is partaking in Vulture Culture. During the late night hours Bunny joins up with her cousins [mostly just Nubbins, though sometimes Chop and Bubba also come along] to seek out fresh roadkill. Death surrounds Bunny- a fact that she's all too aware of. Collecting and displaying the bones of creatures who have passed on helps her find a healthier viewpoint on the subject. Nature will take what it needs from the corpses, and she will lovingly give the last few remnants of them a place to rest.

As of yet, Bunny hasn't accompanied Nubbins on one of his graveyard plundering adventures. [However, she does have a few human bones in her collection from the victims of her familys' slaughters.] Nubbins has helped her craft a few of her favorite accessories:

⪧ A cutesy headband made with the ears of a desert cottontail ⪧ A necklace/earring set made from the skull of a domestic cat ⪧ A handy patchwork sack made from cow hide + assorted pelts [said sack holds various odds and ends- including her needles, amongst other curious items...]

#i'm too lazy and tired and old to ensure this doesn't end up in the tcm tag #anyway hi folks how ya doin'?#additional reminder that @rabidwerechihuahua is the artist of this ref!!#go check out deev's artwork!! he's one of the most talented guys i know!!#S/I: Bunny Sawyer #not my art #for me #tw: cannibalism #tw: horror #self insert #horror oc #slasher oc

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69constellationsinatrenchcoat · 2 months ago

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I genuinely don't know any systems who aren't queer in some fashion - all of us seem to be either be not het or not cis (I do have thoughts on why but it's too late at night for those).

I might do a future poll just for systems that breaks up whether whether just one or two members ID as queer or whether it's the collective but for now please count this as collective identity (or as I heard someone call it the "singlet-sona")

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cherrychiplip · 3 months ago

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Character Profile Tag!

i just took this from an open tag but thank you @mysticstarlightduck

Full Name: Princess Thaladra Kyvernitis Heir to The Throne of Seirpíti

Kind of Being: Siren

Age: 193 in siren years, about 16 human years

Sex: Female

Appearance: When a siren she has an opal-like white tail, blue-hued skin and white eyes with an intensity not dissimilar to a falcon, she has hair is white as well down to her waist, where human ears might be she instead has gills, in her siren form she is ghostly and haunting. In her human form she is still frighteningly pale and has her white hair, she dresses in ill fitting clothes she stole when she first came on land

Occupation: Princess/ cashier

Family members:

Nerou Kyvernitis - mother of Thaladra and queen of Seirpiti

Gillios Kyvernitis - younger brother, golden child

Igetis Kyvernitis - dead father and former king

Pets: A prized racing shortfin mako shark named Scylla

Best friend: Sona Pandit partly because she’s the only person she knows mostly because Sona rules

Describe his/her room: As the heir she has a pretty decadent room, made from the shiny insides of seashells and every material thing she could ever desire practically at her fingertips.

Way of speaking: A sing-songy lilt with an indistinguishable accent yet her voice is utterly entrancing

People skills:

Towards strangers: Quiet, reserved, mysterious, alluring, stone-faced, impossible to read, kinda rude

Towards Riley & their closest friends: Loving and very caring and compassionate but difficulty showing it, acts of service, protective

Items in his/her back pocket/ purse: like 3 cents and a cool shell

Hobbies: Shark racing, sparing, general rebellion, shell collecting, her girlfriend

Favourite sports: Shark racing

Abilities/Talents/Powers: Shapeshifting into a human, siren song,

Fears: Growing up to be like her mother

Faults: Distrusting, reserved, aggressive, shellfish (more self-preserving but shellfish was funnier), self-isolating

Good points: Independent, strong morals, just and fair, highly protective, intelligent

What he/she wants more than anything else: Independence and love

gently tagging @ray-writes-n-shit @illarian-rambling @mydarlingdearestdead and open tag for anyone!

#oc lore #oc tag #siren #lesbian #oc tour #my ocs <3 #Thaladra #character profile #writing prompt #original character #i love her #she sucks

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kissimor · 3 months ago

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My Hellaverse ocs and sona

Sinforosa

The most popular and woman in hell Sinforosa born Sasha she died in 2020 from Desert Rose poisoning she has zero memory of the days of her death and reason why she was killed but in life she was a college student and reasoning musician but was killed by deranged fan who buried her body in rose garden, in hell she made a deal with the Vees she is both a famous pop star and pornstar she is kind and sweet and sickeningly nice but is extremely vain and has a huge fear of being seen ugly by anyone and her stage persona is very different from actually persona being sexy femme fatale dominatrix she talks differently on and off the stage, off stage she talks very sweet and sugary while on stage she talks in a sultry and sexy way and is well known for her love of sweets and anime (also her style of singing would sound differently on and off stage on stage she sings like a typical sexy pop star while off stage she sings like a Japanese idol) she is pansexual

Webster

This is Webster he is a former member of Angel dust’s crime family who left the crime family after falling in love with Sinforosa in life he was member of angel dust’s crime family and was a close friend of Angel and Molly in life he died by gunshot in the back in the 1940’s he is a joyful and very enthusiastic but he can be anxious and he is very confident but gets embarrassed by Sinforosa’s flirts as well heartless towards his enemies guy he traces of a Italian accent and likes to collect firearms and practice his sniper skills he is straight

Melly

Melly a poor moth demon who literally was rigged by the system in life she was hospitalized for most of her life and had only a few friends which are Sasha(Sinforosa) and Ken(Kitsu) she died on hospital bed from asthma in 2021 she is calm and collected but has a lot of depression and is very lazy she talks she likes to sew and make clothes and actually wanted to be a tailor she also likes to listen to mediation music in her free time her voice sounds kinda gruff due to her breathing mask she is heteroromantic asexual

Kitsu

Kitsu is a lovable and very likable fox demon he was computer science and engineering student and died in fire in his dorm in 2017 he is childhood friends with Sinforosa and Melly and he is a nice supportive guy who is completely against conflict he barely has any negatives beside he is very kinky compared to other bell citizens and does have a timid streak he likes to play video games and watch videos on his phone his a bit of a mix of a japanese and Canadian accent he is gay he used to date Dante when he was new to hell but is now dating Lex

Q.J.

Q.J. Or Quincy Jane This chick is Velvette’s older twin sister and was her biggest supporter in life and her rising in hell but was sexually assaulted and by Valentino she died in the early 2000’s her cause of death was a red room which is basically is people get put through torture and murder and the process was recording and posted on the dark web so yeah a lot of trauma she generally feel like her sister abandoned her but buried it deep down until the incident with Val causing her to breakdown and runaway her personality is Spunky and Sassy Girlboss like her except she is more wiser and more maternal girlboss but she has her negatives are basically she had a lot PTSD and Bottles up her feelings until they burst and boil she likes to watch romcoms and generally is a old romantic and has British accent like Velvette and a similar voice but has a more maternal tone she is Bisexual

Dante

Dante is well trained bodyguard and hitman and Kitsu’s Ex and is Sinforosa’s Bodyguard and he is stoic and quiet and has a huge fucking temper which makes sense for him being a wrath ring citizen he likes to box and lift weights he has a southern accent and deep intimidating voice and is Bisexual

Gidget

Next is Gidget she is in life she was a office worker from the late 1970’s she died from throwing herself into a lake and drowning she is loyal Christian and very religious and is a Loyal and super intelligent person but suffers from self-loathing due to her not knowing why she is in hell and thinks she failed as a Christian she has a valley girl accent she likes to cook and help out when she can and is lesbian

Lex

Lex this guy used to work for Vox better later quit to do his own thing in life he was a Art student who died of a overdose in the late 2005’s and is a well laid-back, comedic, a huge art buff and very eccentric his negatives are extremely self-doubting and has extremely bad anxiety issues he likes to paint, hangout with Kitsu, he loves anime and partying he is pansexual

#hazbin hotel sona #hazbin hotel original character #oc #oc art #helluva boss oc

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bodyalive · 8 months ago

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Illustration by Monica Garwood

* * * *

From The New York Times Well newsletter

By Carolyn Todd Feb. 9, 2024

Of the thousands of self-help books on the market, which ones are truly helpful? “It’s uncommon to find a self-help book that feels different,” said Vienna Pharaon, a marriage and family therapist in New York City.

But genuinely useful titles abound. The best of the genre invite reflection or offer practical tools to promote emotional, psychological or spiritual well-being. And there are some that therapists personally turn to or suggest to their patients.

“Almost every therapist I know has a whole list of self-help books to recommend,” said Daniel Tomasulo, a counseling psychologist and the academic director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute at Teachers College, Columbia University.

When sorting through the self-help stacks, who better to help than mental health professionals? We asked seven to share their picks.

1. "The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World," by the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams

How do we experience joy in the face of personal and collective suffering? The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu spent five days reflecting on their own lives to answer that question, and they compiled their stories and guidance in this 2016 book.

“The Book of Joy” is an opportunity to learn from two spiritual leaders in an intimate, accessible way, said Sona Dimidjian, director of the Renée Crown Wellness Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Through their dialogue, which is punctuated with laughter and tears, the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu teach readers how to cultivate joy and work through difficulties like illness and despair. Dr. Dimidjian recommends the book to “anyone who is feeling overwhelmed by the realities of our world and daily life today,” she said.

2. "The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living," by Russ Harris

This book, first published in 2007, teaches you to accept your negative thoughts and feelings as they arise, instead of resisting or being consumed by them — a refreshing approach known as acceptance and commitment therapy.

Diana Garcia, a South Florida-based therapist, says this easy-to-read primer made her “first fall in love” with ACT. She has clients use the book as a supplement to their sessions and recommends it to friends who are feeling stuck. It teaches you how to keep taking actions that move you in a positive direction regardless of how you’re feeling, she explained.

3. "Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion," by Gregory Boyle

Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit priest who founded Homeboy Industries, a rehabilitation and re-entry program for former gang members. His 2011 book is a collection of real, raw stories about people he worked with and the lessons we can all draw from their experiences.

“Each chapter reads like a Sunday sermon to be savored and meditated upon,” said Jacob Ham, director of the Center for Child Trauma and Resilience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. While faith is woven throughout the book, Dr. Ham recommends the title to anyone who feels “that their traumas and all the ways they’ve coped with them have left them broken and unredeemable.”

4. "The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity," by Julia Cameron

This 1992 workbook from Julia Cameron, a teacher and author, is a 12-week guide to recovering your sense of childlike creativity. And it’s not just for artists and writers, said Britt Frank, a trauma specialist in Kansas.

“Of all of the books I have ever used with clients, this one has the most staying power,” she said. “Because everyone is creative, and creativity is medicine.”

For years, Ms. Frank has returned to the book’s tools — like the “morning pages,” a stream-of-consciousness journaling practice. And she uses “The Artist’s Way” when treating clients with issues like depression and addiction. But skimmers beware, Ms. Frank cautioned: “It’s not a book you read. It’s a book you work.”

5. "Homecoming: Healing Trauma to Reclaim Your Authentic Self, by Thema Bryant

Thema Bryant is a trauma therapist, ordained minister and professor who offers a “distinctive lens on health, hope and healing trauma,” said Ayanna Abrams, a psychologist in Atlanta.

Drawing on her clinical work, spirituality and personal recovery from trauma, Dr. Bryant shares stories, reflections and exercises in this 2022 title. She helps people believe in their capacity to heal, Dr. Abrams explained. Dr. Bryant also avoids the “gimmicky, bypassing or vague” language that so many self-help books lean on, she added.

6. "The Power of Character Strengths: Appreciate and Ignite Your Positive Personality," by Ryan M. Niemiec and Robert E. McGrath

This 2019 guide helps people recognize, honor and nurture their brightest qualities, Dr. Tomasulo said. The idea of cultivating your “character strengths” comes from positive psychology, which centers on promoting well-being, he explained. “It’s about moving from focusing on ‘what’s wrong’ to ‘what’s strong.’”

People who lean into their character strengths tend to be happier, Dr. Tomasulo said. This book, he explained, is a good pick for “people who are doing OK, but want to have more joy and well-being in their life.”

[Follies of God]

#Follies of God #Self help books #NYTimes #Monica Garwood

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extinct-fish · 17 days ago

Text

Confidante Drabble

This shouldn’t be too bad. Akechi reasoned with himself as he entered the building.

He had been at home unwinding for the day after the interview with a TV reporter. He was reading a murder mystery novel, mainly to keep his mind sharp, halfway through the fifth chapter. What broke him from his chain of thoughts was his phone ringing. When he picked it up, it was Minato, who informed him to meet at the Iwatodai building in the Port Island area.

And here he was, standing in front of the building that was once a dorm, now made an HQ of S.E.E.S., the awning calling to him as it made the door stand out in the evening light. The glass windows allowed Akechi to see a couple of people in the lobby: a red-haired woman, the girl that he had briefly seen yesterday, Minato, Junpei, a guy with messy brown hair, a couple of dogs, and a guy with white hair, a couple of them seemingly playing with some kind of playing cards, perhaps Uno? All doing that whilst a sort of robot girl watching the game.

Minato seemed to be sitting atop of Junpei, possibly on his lap as he played, Kotone just skipping around the group, seemingly to expend some excess energy she may have pent up. Junpei seemed to be reading on his phone, probably some sort of manga.

He stepped in, hearing the following exchange:

“Zap, bitch!” Ken boasted.

“Dammit! Orpheus went down!” Minato sighed.

“Don’t go against an electric ‘sona user!”

“Shuddup,” Minato put down a card, “get Mudo’d, Ken.”

“Aww- c’mon! Just when I started to win!”

“Don’t challenge a wildcard, kid,” Minato teased.

“Motherfucker- I’m not a kid!”

“Suuuure.”

“I’m so going to take you down.”

“You almost whooped my ass in Mario Kart last night, so there’s that.”

“But I wanna win in Persona 3!”

“Get good, then.”

“Son of a bitch.”

Minato chuckled, then turned his head to the door to see Akechi standing there. The other party members then looked at Akechi, Koromaru giving out an aged bark as the younger pup next to Koromaru let out his own bark, similar-sounding to a younger Koromaru.

“You came,” Minato noted.

“You called,” Akechi shrugged.

“Kinda half-expected ya to skip out.”

“Do you take me as that sort of person?”

“Considering what ya did to me, I mean, sorta.”

Akechi huffed a bit, annoyed by Minato’s comment.

“Anyways,” Minato continued, “This is the rest of S.E.E.S., aside from Fuuka, who’s in the operation room and getting info from Rise.”

“I would appreciate it if you could introduce yourselves.”

“You already know me and Junpei,” Minato gestured to himself and Junpei, then gestured over to Ken. “This is Ken Amada, the youngest member of S.E.E.S., he’s the caretaker of Koromaru and Metis, Koro’s child.”

“Metis? Is that the pup’s name?”

“I’m assuming Yu told ya?”

“Yes, he did.”

“And you are?” Ken asked.

“I’m Goro Akechi, I will be working with you all tonight.”

“I’m Akihiko Sanada, and the girl next to me is Yukari Takeba,” Akihiko introduced.

“Just call me Takeba,” Yukari added.

“I will keep that in mind,” Akechi noted.

“I’m Kotone Arisato, you’ve met me a couple times,” Kotone beamed.

“Ah, yes, the hyper twin sister of Minato, I’ve met you.”

“This is my girlfriend, Mitsuru Kirijo; Only I’m allowed to call her Mitsu-sama!”

“Koto-chan,” Mitsuru chuckled.

“While those two lovebirds are being affectionate-” Minato chuckled.

“Says the one literally sitting on his boyfriend’s lap,” Kotone quipped.

“-Do you mind if you’d like to play a round of Persona?”

“Persona?” Akechi asked.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the Persona 5 deck was just released, right?”

“I’ve heard, but I have never played Persona.”

“Have a seat, I’ll teach ya.”

“And me!” Kotone beamed, “I wanna play too!”

“Alright, calm down, Koto.”

Minato collected the Persona cards, making sure to face them flat, then shuffled them. Akechi moved to the sofa, taking his place between Kotone and Minato, watching the wildcard shuffle with practiced ease.

“The rules for each set are a tad different, depending on what you get. We’re playing the Persona 3 set, so you can use two personas at once to attack your opponent: that’s a Theurgy. That’s what I like about the Persona 3 Deck, since the Persona 4 Deck doesn’t let you do that.”

“So how does this work?”

“Each player gets the standard of 7 cards, and it usually goes based on oldest to youngest. I like to do this-” Minato pulled out a D20 and rolled it, “9, whoever gets higher than a 9 goes before me.”

“Lemme try!” Kotone rolled the die, only for it to roll off the table, “Goddammit.”

Minato snickered as Kotone reached under the table, trying to find it. She then looked under the couch, spotting the die. She let out a sigh of frustration as she reached under the sofa, Minato now just laughing.

“Quit laughing, you asshat!” Kotone scolded as she went back to her seat, the die in her hand.

“Fuck you!” he laughed.

She then rolled the die.

“Hah! I rolled a 15!” She boasted, giving Minato a playful punch on the arm, “Take that, fucker!”

“17,” Ken said, rolling the die.

“Oh c’mon!”

“I suppose it’s my turn?” Akechi asked.

“Yep,” Minato nodded.

“I swear to god, if pretty boy over here gets a nat 20-” Kotone grumbled.

“13,” Akechi rolled.

“Okay, so it’s Ken, Koto, you, then me,” Minato noted, “Now, lemme deal the cards.”

Minato carefully dealt out the cards, ensuring each person got 7 cards. He then placed the unused cards down, then flipped over the top card, similarly to how you would start Uno. The starting card was Jack Frost.

“Mind if I look over your cards?”

“Why?”

“To help ya get the hang of the game.”

“I… I suppose- but only if I can see yours.”

“Fair enough.”

Minato looked over to Akechi, noting the hand. One caught his attention.

“Ooh, that one’s Junpei’s favorite,” Minato pointed at the Hermes Persona card.

“This one?”

“Yep. Mine’s between Orpheus and Thanatos-” Minato looked at his hand, a Thanatos card in sight, “Ooh hello~, speak of the devil.”

“Oh, interesting.” Akechi snuck a peek at Minato’s hand, “So, how do you play?”

“What you do is look at each of the Personas in your hand. If one has a spell that matches a weakness, you place it over the card,” Minato instructed, “In this case, if you have an fire spell on one of your Persona cards, you place it over Jack Frost.”

“So, if I have a fire spell…”

“Yep, you put it over Jack Frost.”

Akechi put down a card over Jack Frost, changing the game to Hermes. Kotone put down a card afterwards.

“The goal in the game is to be the last person standing,” Minato instructed.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, if you don’t have a card that would overpower the current one, and you can’t do a Theurgy, you can draw from the pile until you get a persona with the needed spell.”

“How does the Theurgy work?”

“Well, if you have two specific pairs of personas in your hand, you can use a Theurgy to wipe out the opponent, regardless of weakness,” Minato explained, “but, you gotta put the two cards you use perpendicular to the deck, that way, the next person can put down any persona they want.”

“Do the two cards have to remain sideways?”

“After the next person puts their card down? Nope, we just put it parallel so that way it doesn’t bother the perfectionists in the room.”

Somewhere in the mix, Minato drew a Mara card and placed it down, causing Kotone to burst out into a fit of giggles while Akechi was reminding himself that he was mature. Minato was trying his hardest not to laugh. To be fair, it’s a japanese buddhist slang term for “penis,” and it’s design is shaped like it, so anyone with a dirty mind would laugh their asses off.

I’m mature, I’m mature, I’m mature, I'm mature- Minato reminded himself internally.

“I can’t,” Kotone laughed hysterically.

“Hey, how big would a Mara be if it was real?” Junpei absentmindedly asked.

“Definitely bigger than you,” Minato teased.

“Oh please, do you really think it’d be that big?”

“Could we not talk about the size of a Mara?” Akechi sighed.

“We gotta have a little fun with that! The rules even encourage dick jokes made from Mara!”

“I don’t believe you.”

Minato picked up the rule card, and sure enough, there it was on the bottom:

Make as many dick jokes as you can with Mara, since we all know it looks like one. While you're at it, enjoy this little bit of trivia straight from the wiki:

Mara's design is a pun of sorts, as "Mara" is a slang word used by Japanese Buddhist monks for "penis."

Akechi stared in disbelief: he could not believe that the rule card actually encouraged Mara being used as the source of dick jokes.

“Told ya.”

“Kotone, make your move already, stop laughing!” Akechi huffed.

Kotone, whilst laughing, put an Artemisia Card over Mara, bringing relief to Akechi. The game continued as normal, Junpei occasionally making jokes about certain personas (“Do you think Thanatos would be smashable?” “June, don’t give Koto ideas!”) and Minato guiding Akechi.

By the end, Minato won again, Akechi gaining respect for the wildcard, which was ironic, considering that his goal was to kill him.

#persona 3 #persona 5 #sees #minato arisato #kotone shiomi #junpei iori #goro akechi #ken amada #writing #creative writing #junmina

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2aceofspades · 1 year ago

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Hehehe I'm gonna follow up now so you *have* to spill about your Sona (if you want to, of course😊). General questions that are easy:

Personality? Friends? Hobbies? What do they do if a fight breaks out during the resistance? Little quirks that you haven't spilled about them yet? 😊 I'm so invested in them lol

Oh! Hehe, okay! 🙌✨

So, their personality is much more reserved than mine (or at least, my online personality). They're mute, so they don't speak or really open up to a lot of people. They do have two friends, Raven (she/her) and Wren (he/him), who they've been friends with since a few years before the apocalypse.

They also have a weapon that I never draw, cuz I never need to, really. They carry around a baseball bat with nails and barbed wire on the end, and they use that to defend themselves. They aren't the best at fighting cuz they're not trained, but they are surprisingly stealthy, sneaky, and fast. Wren is the tank of the group and Raven is a mutant with mystic-like powers, so they all work together to keep themselves safe.

Their hobbies include um...spying? They collect certain intel from certain areas of the resistance base. So, they listen in to tactical plans from Leo and Raph, they sometimes sneak into Donnie's lab to get an idea of what he's working on, they occasionally 'train' around the turtle bros and Casey. Basically, they're very curious about the leaders and 'big guys' of the resistance, and they've found ways to 'spy' on them. When they're not spying, they often do menial tasks such as cooking, serving food, and cleaning to help out the resistance any way they can. This also provides them with 'intel' from other resistance members. So, they're a bit of a questionable character, but they have their reasons. Besides, they keep to themselves quite a lot, so...yeah.

Mm...quirks..um...they fidget with their hoodie strings a lot, which I actually draw them doing like...all the time. They also have two of my real life scars on my forehead on theirs (but you can never see them cuz I draw so small lol). They personally customized their outfit, so all the spades were painted or patched on. Also, the little spade charm hanging off their backpack can glow...but I haven't thought of a reason why exactly heh..

They don't have very personal connections with any of the turtle members of the resistance, mostly because they don't want to get too 'close' to anyone. They were, however, very very devastated with what happens to Raph in the timeline. Raph is such an important and outspoken figure in the wrong fabricated time branch that what happened to him hurt immensely for them as well as the rest of the resistance.

They're also kinda awkward and silly around people they feel comfortable with. Oh! And their friends are used to using 'yes' and 'no' questions more frequently around them to better communicate with them so they can shake or nod their head to answer. Even their friends have never heard their voice but! They can make sounds such as tiny exclamations and groans and little sounds like that. They can also laugh very openly with pretty much everyone.

They rely on being more expressive with their facial expressions and body language since they don't speak, but they also carry around a note pad and a pencil and pen in their backpack to relay messages.

I dunno...I kinda just slapped my own personality onto them and just...took away their ability to speak...?(yikes..oops) Overall, they're quiet, curious, goofy, and pretty easygoing...kinda like my inner child of sorts, I guess hehe 😅 I often find it's almost...therapeutic to draw them nowadays, and I'm very grateful for that.

#ace answers #gah! this seems so long winded and complicated but weee this was fun 🙌🙌#thank you for your curiosity and i hope i explained everything well #:)

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stellarcollisionfic · 7 months ago

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tell me about Jade. I love her I want to know More

🥹 thank you for letting me rant about my girl 💕

Jade Walker: Character Info/HC’s

- Jade is 28 at the start of Stellar Collision. This is important because Jade is very personal to me and I feel like I don’t know what’s going on (in my 20’s as well 🥲). She’s old enough for there to be an expectation that she knows what she wants out of life, but she is hopelessly lost prior to finding Constellation. (Get it? A “Constellation”helping her find her way??? …I’ll see myself out)

-On the subject, she’s definitely more morally gray than Sarah (but who isn’t?). She made bad choices in her youth. It was important to me that she actually had a relatively happy and comfortable home life, because that kind of adds to her dilemma- she’s not forced into this life of crime that she lived before Sarah. She chose it, and has regrets. She lives in fear of the fact that it’s too late for redemption, or for her to be a productive member of society, despite how young she truly is. A lot of the times we have the orphaned protagonist, or the one with bad familial relations- but Jade is solely responsible for taking the easy way out plenty of times in her past, and now it’s coming back to haunt her. Originally, I considered having her father be a potentially injured vet in the colony war- to give her a motivation to have made all these egregious decisions for financial comfort, but I decided against it.

-Still, Jade does send the majority of her credits to her parents because, in some twisted sense, she wants to be good. She simply doesn’t know how, with her particular skillset, until Sarah and Constellation come along. Now, she has a greater purpose. Unfortunately, it’s far greater than she ever could have imagined. But hey…be careful what you wish for, right?

Personality

-Jade is seemingly confident, perhaps a little arrogant at times. She’s young enough still to have that carefree, somewhat reckless sense about her. She’s very playful and wry with her sense of humor. She’s a flirt through and through, and of course, attracted to older women- or women in authority, at any rate- (though she does seem to resent any kind of authority. Take that as you will). She’s definitely my coolest OC. She thinks Constellation is a very lovable collection of nerds (Andreja being the exception!) Though, she does manage to act like a nervous bumbling idiot in front of Sarah a few times, anyway.

-Jade is definitely an athlete, and her favorite way to work out is to fuck Sarah silly train with Andreja. 😊

- Her style has always been classic cool- black, leather, jeans, the works. Her hair is definitely longer than in the pfp- but that’s as close as we’re getting in-game. I think Rosamund and Eiza (from I care a a lot) are decently close to how I’d envision them.

-She may appear morally ambiguous, but she’s kind. Understanding, given her past. She’s Andreja’s best friend for a reason- she clocks constellation’s micro-aggressions towards Andreja or the Va’Ruun from time to time, and she lets them hear it. She’s good with Sona- even stopping to buy her clothes of her own while she was still injured from Cassiopeia. She is ambiguous regarding the law, justice, deeper topics- though she doesn’t condone harming innocent people or going a murder spree or anything atrocious like that.

-Jade’s fears are as follows:

1. She fears she’s irredeemable. That she’s already wasted her life and accomplished nothing, lying to her parents about how she’s been supporting them prior to Constellation and carrying great shame.

2. She’s afraid of dying. Self explanatory, and obviously due to the powers eating away at her. She’s young. She’s terrified. She doesn’t want to show it.

3. She’s afraid of losing Sarah. She chose Sarah over Sam, point blank. She’d do frightening things for Sarah- things Sarah herself would not approve of.

4. She doesn’t want to die without marrying Sarah properly 🥺💔 it’s the only thing she desperately needs before her time runs out. Those pesky Starborn and the damn UC seem intent on letting her do so, I’m afraid. She’s already made arrangements for her parents, already offered Sarah her galacticat plushie. All that’s left is tying the knot. She wants to be Jade Morgan very fucking badly.

Jade and Sarah

-At first, the attraction is simple: Jade hates authority, Sarah infuriates Jade, Jade is turned on by her intensity but yells right back, Sarah is turned on by her intensity (and insolence 😭)

Rinse and repeat.

-As their relationship progresses, Jade looks up to Sarah. She starts to burn for Sarah’s approval, willing to change her stubborn approach to life because this woman believes in her. This woman knows of her wrong-doing and still wants to give her a chance. She spends more time with Sarah. Starts teasing her more, they become friendly. It is then that Jade realizes she wants more than Sarah’s approval as a boss. She wants Sarah. Badly.

-On the topic of sex: they switch, obviously. I think Sarah’s more experienced, given her age- but Jade isn’t too far behind. Jade is a naturally jealous person- especially for Sarah’s affections. So this talk of “Aja” makes her so sour at the beginning 😭. She’s had a few prior relationships of note- mainly Capt. Marquez (who turned out to be a real one!!!) (Sarah does not love that). I think Jade talks a big game but Sarah is absolutely wearing the pants in the bedroom (and maybe their relationship, to an extent). Jade is something of a service top- but that’s not entirely accurate because Sarah has her way with her a lot, too. Just depends on the occasion 😏

-Jade’s dream bedroom fantasy involves Sarah in nothing but her jacket and an entire floor of a building to themselves so she can put her powers to use on the one thing that matters: Pleasuring Sarah Morgan.

-I think Sarah is everything Jade isn’t, and that’s why they work so well together. Sarah is neat, meticulous, everything she does is calculated, formal, rooted in logic. She NEEDS to believe in the law, needs to believe in order. Jade doesn’t. Jade acts with her heart, never her damn head 😭💀 she’s impulsive, reckless, and disregards facts that don’t serve her cause. She also challenges Sarah and Walter on many things, initially. But she has SUCH a capacity for love, for affection, for doing the right thing. And Sarah just…can’t stop thinking about her 🥹💕

-They give each other a second chance. They give each other unconditional love, guidance, laughter, and yes- sometimes anger 😅 but it only fuels their ever-growing attraction to one another. Jade thinks Sarah is the catch of a lifetime- and she is. Sarah thinks Jade is a brilliant, beautiful, stubborn, sexy idiot whom she absolutely cannot live without. She relies on Jade so much- the idea of having to raise Sona alone scares the shit out of her.

-From Sarah, Jade learns that she has so much to offer. She can be good. She can contribute and have a family of her own. The price, unfortunately, is staggering. Jade learns from Sarah that the true joy lies not in the destination, but the journey. She’s terrified, but…making peace with her inevitable ending. She got to live, to love, she protected Sarah…she’s come a long way. She can die happy, if it means Sarah’s going to be okay. She finally feels as if she has a path in front of her…though it’s not the one she expected.

-Sarah, on the other hand? She’d rather die before she lets go of Jade. Without Jade, she is a shell of herself- reduced to whoever she was before she ever returned to Cassiopeia and put that to rest. She’s learned so much from Jade- being skeptical of her formerly beloved UC, for instance. Sarah is all that stands between the UC and the FC in what is sure to be another full-scale war.

Without Jade by her side…the task is near impossible.

Sarah is NOT going to let her fiancée slip away into nothingness. Though it seems she won’t be afforded a choice.

However this ends, it sure is going to go out with a *bang*!!! 🫠

Here is Jade in the enhance lounge (but we pretend it’s her getting her diagnosis at the clinic instead lol 🥺💔)

And some obligatory gallery shots if you made it this far ☺️

#oc: Jade Walker #starfield #ask #order-of-the-eye #thank you for letting me rant about my baby 🥹❤️#she just wants to do good and be loved

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