#our creations as extensions of the self?

[thesoupisburning]

right so you guys ever think about the spectre telling the narrator that hes more similar to her than to a person?

what "her" was she referring to? the fragment we call the spectre? the way he can only be perceived, not perceive himself? the ghost of him, the ghost of her? all of her?

im just. thinking. i always think about spectre. she has. a lot to say that i think is overlooked in favor of more common favorite routes like moment of clarity and the tower, but shes one of my favorites, and shes one of the only ones who SEES the narrator, save for wraith, who is. also her. or nightmare. and she says that hes not really a person. like her.

of course, that makes sense, we think shes a ghost and dead, so she is. but him. is the echo a ghost in the classical sense? is that what she meant? or are there layers?

she says he's not really like a person. what is a person to her? is she comparing the narrator to the "shards of broken glass on the floor" are her interactions with us and the voices the only "person" she knows?

i love love love when this game separates the narrator from us and our voices. i love it so much i think about it daily. props to tower for "layer of grime" that fucks so hard.

i don't have a thesis im just. thinking. how much of the narrator is left. really.

[coyote-nebula]

To everyone who has lush fields ripe with story ideas but is struggling to go out and actually harvest them with your writer’s scythe: that’s alright. There’s a reason.

I see writers despairing or making self-deprecating jokes about how many wips they have, as if the ability to come up with the idea is equal to the ability to finish it out into an end product.

It isn’t.

A lot of our ideas come about, not because we were determined to be productive writers, but because daydreaming is an internal escape from life’s demands.

Writing is a demand, too.

Resting and relaxing are basic needs, unlike the high level, abstract satisfaction of being creatively productive. That’s why you might daydream (which is a mild and normal form of dissociation) ideas that you feel good about, and then struggle to research, write the words, fill plotholes, check grammar, revise— all the critical thinking and executive function things involved in creation. Your basic needs must be satisfied before your higher needs can be met effectively.

So, if you’re daydreaming about your stories extensively to mitigate stress, it’s expecting a lot of your stressed self to return from fantasy land, sit down in the cold hard real world and do the hard work to write masterpieces of literature. Those operations are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Writing is hard. Making yourself feel guilty is only going to make it harder. You don’t have to atone for entertaining or distracting your mind by making that available to other people. Daydreaming is a valid end in itself.

Don’t feel bad about having ideas but not being able to write them. Scribble some notes if you can, if you want, but above all enjoy the escapism and take care of yourself first. The words will come after.

[blackkatdraws2]

This little NPC is lost. The Narrator [Black] has come to guide her back to where she needs to be. [Blank Scripts AU]

I imagine Black would be a lot more tolerant toward his NPCs since they're basically just the Dungeons spawns, and by extension, his own creations.

[If you're familiar with manhwas / manhuas that features the dungeon / system genre, you'd be able to understand this AU a lot easier. The majority of my inspiration for worldbuilding came from those specific genres.]

[NOTE: 'Dungeon' is just another term for the Parable. Technically, Black owns a Dungeon and the Parable is just a small part of it. The Dungeon itself is much, much larger.]

For context, the comic below references this post about the Dungeon's children/guard dogs.

[They're more like the immune system since all they do is make sure the (body) is safe.]

[The reason the Narrator [Black] considers them his children is that the Dungeon is feeding off his energy and in turn shares the 'nutrients' to the monsters it produces, which transforms them into an image that resembles his power.]

And the old man below is Joseph!

Joseph is NOT AN NPC! He is a person who exists outside of the Dungeon!

[There are two separate 'worlds' for this AU. Inside the Dungeon (where most of the game-like stuff is happening) and the world outside (pretty much their normal world.)]

[There is a secret third world, and that's our world. Our reality.]

These characters are not actually important or anything, I just made them to make the AU feel more lively. To make a world that exists, you know?

When the Narrator [Black] first established himself in their world, he found a growing problem with homelessness. Not understanding human norms or why this has become a problem in the first place, he offers (tricks) them into working for him as janitors for the Dungeon and they accept for the money.

Most of them left after they got paid, but Joseph was one of the people who stayed. He doesn't have anywhere else to go and has no ambitions in life. He just wishes to live a peaceful life with food and a roof over his head.

Joseph defaults to referring to the Narrator [Black] with feminine terms due to his appearance despite his voice. The Narrator [Black] is not the type to care for such terms anyway so he doesn't care how other people refer to him as long as there's respect.

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

This post focuses more on the worldbuilding and background aspects of the AU! There are a lot more in store for the Blank Scripts AU, and I want to explore more on how the characters might interact with their surroundings and how this would work to make a world that makes sense.

It would be so cool if people made self-inserts or OCs for my AU actually. I'd love to see how you guys would work with my stuff. Play around with it like a barbie world for your little barbie dolls. Be canon compliant, be canon divergent, who cares, have fun.

[carry-on-au-fest]

Fest Rules

What is this fest about?

The Carry On AU Fest is a prompt based fest that celebrates any kind of Alternate Universe or canon divergent creation in the CO fandom. We accept any pairings or gen fics and art.

Who can participate?

You must be at least 18 years old at the time of signing up.

We expect you to treat everyone taking part, including the mods, with respect. 

All work must be your own, and we do not allow any kind of fic or art produced with AI.

You may register as both a writer and an artist, and you can claim multiple prompts as long as you have completed the first one you claimed first. 

How does prompting work?

On 5th October we are going to open prompting via Airtable. You can submit as many prompts as you like, and you don't have to claim anything unless you want to. You don’t have to create for the fest to submit a prompt. You can prompt anonymously or write your AO3/Tumblr username (in which case people can gift you their works if they wish to).

How does claiming work?

On 19th October we are going to open claiming via a Google form. You can claim your own prompt or claim someone else's. Alternatively, you can self-prompt by picking the first prompt on the list. 

Prompts are assigned on a first come first serve basis. The prompts will be available to be claimed once for fic and once for art. Collaborations are welcome.

If you decide to gift your work to the person who prompted it, please make sure that you stick to the preferences they have expressed and that you don't include their squicks.

What are the requirements for writers? 

Writers will need to write an original fic with a minimum length of 1k.

The fic needs to be an unpublished fic and it needs to be posted on our fest collection on AO3. Your story doesn't need to be complete by the submission date, but we ask that you post at least 1k by the submission deadline and wait until the end of the fest to post the rest.

You can share small snippets and talk about your story on social media platforms.

Should you need an extension, please let us know as soon as you can.

We will reveal one work per day from 8th February.

What are the requirements for artists?

You can create a variety of original fan work, such as:

- illustrations, both digital and traditional (they don’t need to be in colour) 

- moodboards (at least 6 elements)

- plastic arts (including embroidery and origami)

- playlists (a minimum of 10 songs)

- fic binding

- podfic (please make sure that you have the permission of the author of the fic you're recording a podfic of before starting)

You can post your work either on AO3 or on Tumblr (please get in touch and let us know if you prefer the second option).

What kind of rating is allowed?

Any rating is allowed for both art and fic, but please tag your work appropriately. 

If your work is rated Mature or Explicit, the characters involved must be at least 18 years old.

We recommend that you use a beta reader.

What is the schedule for posting?

You can find the most up to date schedule here.

Please get in touch with the mods if you need an extension.

I still have a lot of questions about this, how can I contact you?

Send us an ask, a DM or contact us at  and we will gladly answer.

The mods for this fest are @orange-peony, @pato-roldnart and @bubble-gumhead.

[4dkellysworld]

When suffering happens

When unpleasant things happen in life, in an effort to understand it and find peace, we (our egos) often either try to find reason and understand why something happened/is so or immediately jump to conclusions and label it, often linking it to our identity like "oh it's because I am _____" or "it's because I did/thought/felt _____ which caused this, I shouldn't have done that!" or "This always happens to me ugh!!!" yet I find this habit ends up causing more harm than good and it is this self-identification that then ends up causing further spiralling and a pattern of similar events later in the future.

M: Detach yourself from all that makes your mind restless. Renounce all that disturbs its peace. If you want peace, deserve it. Q: Surely everybody deserves peace. M: Those only deserve it, who don't disturb it. Q: In what way do I disturb peace? M: By being a slave to your desires and fears. Q: Even when they are justified? M: Emotional reactions, born of ignorance or inadvertence, are never justified. Seek a clear mind and a clean heart. All you need is to keep quietly alert, enquiring into the real nature of yourself. This is the only way to peace. Chapter 8: The Self Stands Beyond Mind - I Am That, Nisargadatta Maharaj

Leave poor Vanessa alone and stop assigning her the responsibility and accountability of everything that the dream shows. The entire dream is all an expression of the Infinite Being, not hers (the ego) which she is just one more creation of. And it doesn't have to be your (the Self's/I AM's) dream anymore when you stop identifying with it.

This is why it's so important to let go of our ego, to let go of the unpleasant thoughts with indifference, reject any claim over them and detach any association with your I AM (the Self's identity) rather than intellectuallise what happened with the mind. You can cut it off and break the cycle right there.

Understanding this was truly the turning point that launched me into earnest and honest study of 4dbarbie's teachings and by extension, Lester Levenson and Nisargadatta Maharaj's teachings. I was just so sick of going through the same shit, being stuck in the trenches and going nowhere. At some point you're going to get so fed up that you just want to give it all up and not care about anything anymore.

The thing about nothing though is that it's the only thing that can take the shape of everything. 1

Isn't it so much more freeing to just say "fuck it all, it doesn't make sense and I don't care to think about it anymore. This isn't mine", let it go and move on?

Imagine you see a random couple out in public fighting about all their relationship problems openly. What goes through your head when that happens? For me, I go "phew yikes, I'm glad that's not me. Not my circus, not my monkeys. Not my problem", feel a sense of relief and gratefulness that it's not my burden to bear and move on with my day.

When nonsensical or unpleasant things happen in your life, treat it the same way you do when nonsensical or unpleasant things happen in your sleeping dreams for they are both I AM's imaginary creations. Just let it go, detach it from Self and move on - no matter what happens, it is not yours.

Important distinction: I am not saying to physically ignore your body and ego's needs, do what needs to be done but you (the Self) do not have to identify with it, you do not have to claim it as yours. You know it's not you and you are just observing everything, unaffected.

"When the mind is quiet, we come to know ourselves as the pure witness. We withdraw from the experience and its experiencer and stand apart in pure awareness, which is between and beyond the two. The personality, based on self-identification, on imagining oneself to be something: 'I am this, I am that', continues, but only as a part of the objective world. Its identification with the witness snaps." Chapter 6: Meditation - I Am That, Nisargadatta Maharaj

Stop trying to find reason as you are only further sustaining its reality by doing that.

"By resisting evil, you merely strengthen it." Chapter 72: What is Pure, Unalloyed, Unattached is Real - I Am That, Nisargadatta Maharaj "You may try to trace how a thing happens, but you cannot find out why a thing is as it is. A thing is as it is, because the universe is as it is". Chapter 4: Real World is Beyond The Mind - I Am That, Nisargadatta Maharaj

Just let it go. Letting go is what gives ultimate peace and freedom.

Not yours, remember? Repeat. Not yours. You won't lose your mind, you'll only lose your misery. See this world and the body as not real first. What is true is only what I AM is identified with, right now this body which is not in that TV show (your desired reality). Correct this first by letting go of thinking it's you 2

Just let go of the ego, that’s how simple it is.

[ek-atherine]

Ink Manifestation (Satoru Gojo x Reader): Chapter One

A/N: Hello! I just wanted to post the first chapter that I finished of this that I'm starting, I don't know if I'll end up finishing it, but I just wanted to post it here to see how people like it. And if I can get any more writing ideas. This is written in first person POV btw, I know a lot of people don't love that writing style so just a warning now. Without further ado here is chapter one of Ink Manifestation.

Word Count: 3979

___________________________________________

Cursed technique: ink manifestation 

This technique revolves around the user being covered in extensive and complex tattoos that are embedded with cursed energy and can be activated at the will of the user. When activated the tattoos glow and the ink shifts out from their original place. When the ink leaves the spot a scar of what was there is left behind. 

Abilities: 

Creation and control: The user can manipulate the ink from their tattoos to create various objects and creatures. This includes weapons like swords, spears, and shields, or living creatures such as birds, snakes, and wolves. The creations are as strong as the user's cursed energy allows.

Range and versatility: the ink can be projected from the user's body extending their reach and allowing for versatile attacks. For example, ink tendrils can be used for long-range combat or to ensnare enemies. 

Hardening: the user can harden the ink to make it as hard as steel for both offensive and defensive capabilities. 

Shapeshifting: the ink can shift its form rapidly, which allows the user to adapt during combat. Can switch from a defensive shield to a spear in an instant. 

Cursed poison: the ink contains cursed energy that can poison enemies. When cut by the ink the cursed energy from it seeps into the body weakening them and disrupting their cursed energy flow. Prolonged exposure to this poison can lead to paralysis. 

Self-healing: the ink tattoos can assist in healing the user's wounds by converting the cursed energy into regenerative properties. 

Limitations: 

The technique relies heavily on the user's cursed energy reserves. Extensive use can quickly deplete their energy and leave them vulnerable. The user therefore must have a high endurance. 

After extensive use as well, the ink and tattoos need time to recharge making the user's abilities significantly reduced. So the user uses different tattoos and different parts of the body at a time to take that into account.

  “God, would you just stop bitching and stay still?” I asked Satoru impatiently. He was the one that wanted me to tattoo him in the first place and I’ve barely been able to do the outline of the stencil without him bitching about how much it hurt and squirming in pain in response to the needle poking in his arm. 

   All of my classmates, well the three that I have anyway, all have tattoos from me. I like to think it signifies our close friendship with each other and we’ll always be a part of each other's lives through my art. Shoko was the first to get one, and the best one to sit through the whole thing, she has a lotus flower on her back right shoulder—one of my favorite pieces I’ve done. Suguru was the second one that came asking for a tattoo from me, he immediately took a liking to my tattoos when I first arrived on campus and was even more impressed when he learned I did a good majority of them myself. 

   Excluding my face, my whole body is covered in tattoos. In the (l/n) clan, tattoos are a big part of our family, because of my cursed technique I’m the one with the most. Most of the tattoos I couldn’t reach were done back home by other family members in the clan. It’s almost a right of passage sort of thing with tattoos, I got my first one when I was just 13, though it was a fairly small tattoo. I quickly learned how to tattoo myself and others, building up my skill and art, I found myself covered promptly in tattoos, which is a must for my cursed technique. 

   When Suguru got his tattoo, he couldn’t believe the detail and precision I had when it came to tattooing and drawing up the stencil for it. He had gotten a serpent that stretched from the left side of his chest and circled his left arm. I loved doing that tattoo as well, Suguru wore tank tops for the longest time when I first did it so he could show it off. I was the one that gave him his ear piercings as well, though I had never done piercings myself before, the ones I had were done at a shop, but a quick tutorial I saw on the internet fixed that. However, Suguru thought I already knew how to do it. 

   “Well, it hurts!” Satoru complained in a whiny tone making me roll my eyes annoyed at him. 

   “The strongest sorcerer can’t even handle getting a little tattoo,” I mumbled, amused. 

   Satoru was getting the tiniest tattoo out of all of our classmates. Of course, it was centered around his six-eyes technique cause it’s Satoru. He was getting six infinity symbols on top of each other to represent it. We had only just started tattooing as well, just about to finish the first infinity symbol on his right wrist. 

   “Well, you’re poking me with a needle!” He continues to complain. 

   “Well, I can just leave you with a half-ass finished tattoo and then tell Shoko and Suguru how much of a baby you were being.” I threaten. That shuts him up and I smirk at him. “That’s what I thought, now for the last time hold still.”

   Once the tattoo is finally finished (as well as Satoru’s bitching) I do a final wipe down of the tattoo and start to take my gloves off after turning off my tattoo machine. Satoru looks down at his wrist and smiles in awe at his new tattoo. I always love seeing the reactions of people after I tattoo them, probably the people pleaser in me, but especially when it’s those I care about, it just feels so much better. 

   “I love it! Makes me look all sexy and mysterious now doesn’t it?” Satoru asks as I clean up my station. I laugh at his comment as he poses joking showing off his tattoo.

   “One tattoo isn’t gonna cut it, maybe when you get to my level,” I tell him flexing off my sleeves. Then there’s a knock at my door to my dorm room and Suguru’s voice follows asking if he could come in. After telling him it’s okay to come in, he opens the door and Satoru immediately starts showing off his new tattoo to him. 

   “Barely hurt at all, I could’ve fallen asleep.” Satoru lies. 

   “He kept whining like a baby, and he only got that,” I tell Suguru and he laughs at Satoru, who looks at me with a betrayed look. 

   “Anyways, what’s up, Suguru?” I ask him putting away the bottles of ink and the machine. 

   “We haven’t heard from Utahime and Mei in about 2 days, so we’ve gotta go oversee about that,” Suguru explains ignoring Satoru’s continuous posing of his wrist. 

   “Oh yeah, they went to that mansion right?” I asked him which he confirmed. 

   “Shoko is outside waiting for us, so we should probably get going.” He tells us. I nod and throw on my shoes before we all head out. 

   Once outside of the dorms we find Shoko finishing up a cigarette she had hanging out from her lips. Satoru, again, shows off his wrist to her posing ridiculously, how do you even pose to show off your wrist? Doesn’t matter though I guess because he manages to do it. 

   “Christ, Satoru, yes I see your tattoo!” She yells at him annoyed that he’s practically shoving his wrist in her face. Though he was annoying, I found it kind of sweet he was showing off my art, made me feel good that he loved his tattoo so much, no matter how simple it was. 

   The four of us arrived at the now destroyed mansion, Satoru, Shoko and I went to make sure Mei and Utahime were okay while Suguru kept his eye out for the cursed spirit, so he could absorb it. Rumble was moving around and Utahime groaned out in pain as she got out from under the rubble. 

   “Please don’t bother her,” I ask Satoru, knowing he was going to immediately. He smiles and jumps up onto some rubble above Utahime. 

   “I’m here to save you, Utahime,” Satoru tells her with a big cocky grin on his face then leans down to look at her. “You cryin’?” 

   “No! I am not crying! Be more polite!” She yells at him furious that Satoru was there out of all people it could’ve been. Not that I blame her, Satoru is a cocky ass and can be annoying most times. And he loves to mess with Utahime since she was probably the easiest to annoy. 

   “If I was crying would you console me? I’d definitely like that.” Mei asked Satoru with a sultry smirk. I make a look of disgust towards her which she thankfully doesn’t notice, she is my senior after all I can’t really be rude to her. Mei was a strong sorcerer and I would never deny that fact, but she always annoyed me and gave me a physical ick, especially with the way she talks. 

   “Yeah but you wouldn’t be cryin’ Mei, you’re strong,” Satoru tells her standing upright to face her making her chuckle at his comment. This very clearly ticked off Utahime since her face was starting to get angrier by the second of their conversation. 

   “Gojo! You listen to me! I don’t need your help!” Utahime yelled finally standing up out of the rubble, but behind her, so did a cursed spirit. She turns towards it shocked and unprepared to react. Thankfully she doesn’t need time to since one of Suguru’s curse manipulations in the form of a giant worm grabs a hold of the cursed spirit so Suguru can absorb it. 

   “Don’t swallow it, I’ll absorb it later,” Suguru tells his curse. “Satoru, it’s not nice to pick on the weak.”

   “Okay, but what kind of idiot picks on the strong?” Satoru asks him with a laugh as he speaks. Utahime turns furiously to Satoru but immediately changes her demeanor when she notices Shoko and me next to him smiling at her.

   “Utahime, you okay?” Shoko asks her. She calls out our names in relief mixed in with happiness. 

   “We were worried about you! We hadn’t heard from you for two days!” I explain to her. Utahime yells out our names again as she runs up some stairs towards us and engulfs us in a hug. 

   “Don’t you dare let yourselves turn out like those two!” Utahime demanded us making Shoko and I both chuckle. 

   “We aren’t trash like they are,” Shoko says as I gently pat Utahime’s shoulder. “And we never will be.” 

   Suguru climbs up the stairs to meet with us all while Satoru mutters something probably mean about Utahime to him since I hear Suguru tell him to shut up jokingly since he was still smiling at whatever Satoru was saying. 

   “Wait, two days?” Utahime asks realizing that is in fact what I said. It must not have seemed like two days to her and Mei if she was reacting like this. 

   “Huh, guess the cursed spirit’s barrier was one of those that messes with time. They’re rare, but they happen.” I explain to her. 

   “It is odd it took so long since Mei was with you,” Satoru explains. 

   “That would make sense,” Mei says. “But that means that it involved two full days of labor. I was just thinking how I’ll rewrite the invoice for the extra fees that are now owed to me.”

   “She’s planning to overcharge again.” Utahime comments. 

   “More importantly though what about, the veil?” Mei asked only to be met with all our dumbstruck smiles that stared back at her. Well, shit. Fucking Satoru. 

   Since Suguru was dealing with absorbing that cursed spirit and Mei and Utahime were both okay, we made our way back to campus, and of course, Yaga asked to meet with us immediately. And to our shock, it was about Satoru’s carelessness with the veil, though we all probably should’ve made sure he did take care of that. 

   Yaga was playing to news on the TV in the classroom and was talking about how the destroyed mansion was due to a gas leak explosion. The four of us were kneeling down in front of our teacher, ready to blame Satoru. 

   “The four of you were supposed to oversee the mission in that home. Also, you left your assistant supervisor behind. And on top of everything you forgot the veil! Who is to blame?” Yaga asks pretty much already knowing the answer. We all point over to Satoru who raises his hand quickly to make up some dumb excuse. 

   “Sensei! I’m asking you to stop this hunt for the culprit!” Satoru yells out with his hand raised high. He’s then met with a punch to the top of his head from Yaga. 

   After being necessarily disciplined due to forgetting the veil, we all went to hang out in the gym. Satoru was throwing a basketball in the air complaining about needing a veil in the first place. Shoko and I weren’t really paying attention though since we were playing around with Satoru’s glasses that he currently had off. She was looking through the glasses amazed how he could even see out of them in the first place. 

   “Come on I wanna see them, Shoko,” I tell her and she hands over the glasses that I quickly put on. 

   I immediately play around with Shoko making her laugh with my Satoru impersonation, which he doesn’t notice since he’s whining about “normies” as he puts it seeing cursed spirits. Satoru throws the basketball towards the hoop which Suguru intercepted dribbling the ball in front of himself. Satoru leans his head back towards Shoko and me so I stand up and place his glasses back on his face earning a genuine smile from him over his cocky confident one. That smile of his always makes me smile back at him in response. 

   Suguru was lecturing Satoru about why veils are important, but Satoru immediately got up when Suguru was distracted stealing the ball he was dribbling and shooting it into the basket successfully. 

   “Looking out for the weak and protecting them is honestly so exhausting,” Satoru says as he throws the basketball back at Suguru across the court. I was laying on a bench on the side playing around with some ink I took from my right arm, just floating it around out of pure boredom. 

   “The survival of the weakest that’s the proper shape of a proper society,” Suguru tells him holding out the ball in front of himself. “The weak help each other and discourage strength. Listen, Satoru. Jujutsu exists to protect the non-jujutsu sorcerers.”

   “Moral argument?” Satoru asks as Suguru shoots the ball into the basket behind Satoru since they have now met in the middle of the court. The ball missed the basket and fell to the floor, bouncing until it became still. “I hate moral arguments.”

   “What?” Suguru asks. Oh crap. Now my attention is caught as I carefully watch my friends preparing for them to start challenging each other. 

   “Assigning reason and responsibilities to strength is what those who are weak tend to do,” Satoru says as he picks up the basketball that had rolled over to behind him and throws it expertly into the basket behind Suguru who was starting to look pissed off. 

   “When are quit making yourself feel better spouting all this bullshit?” Satoru asks him wanting to piss off his friend. My god can’t they just kiss and makeup at this point? 

   “Well, this is a perfect time for a smoke break,” Shoko says leaving the gym as quickly as she could. 

   “Shoko don’t leave meeee!” I yelled out to her, but she was already out the door. 

   “Want to take this outside, Satoru?” Suguru threatenly asks as he starts to conjure up a cursed spirit of his. 

   “What, feeling lonely? Go by yourself if you want.” 

   Thankfully, Yaga walks in at that time and the boys start stretching acting like nothing had just happened. 

   “How long are you going to keep fooling around? Where is Shoko?” Yaga asks. 

   “Dunno, little girls room?” Satoru suggested. 

   “Whatever, this mission is being assigned to you two idiots and (y/n).” He explains I internally smirk to myself since I’m not considered an idiot to him. Or at least not on the level of Suguru and Satoru. The boys groan out in annoyance and make annoyed faces to follow. “What’re those faces for?”

   “Oh nothing,” the boys say in unison. 

   We all walk along campus together with Yaga as he explains the assignment given to us. 

   “Frankly I think it’s too much for you three, but Tengen asked for you three specifically. Your mission has two goals. The star plasma vessel is the one compatible with Tengen. You are to escort that girl and erase her.”

   “Escort some brat and then erase her?” Satoru asks as we make it into one of the class buildings. 

   “That’s right,” Yaga says opening one door and about to head inside. 

   “He’s finally gone senile.” 

   “It is spring, his head is probably full of becoming the next principal,” I explain as Suguru and I follow Yaga inside the classroom. “All joking aside, is this about renewing Tengen’s technique?”

   “Hmm, what’s that?” Satoru asks outside of the classroom peering in through the windows and making us all groan. “What did I miss?!”

   “Tengen possess the cursed technique of immortality but it’s not eternal youth. Not a problem if all he did was get older. But after his body ages to a certain point, his cursed technique begins rewriting his body. Evolution. He’ll cease to be human and become a higher form of existence.”

   “What’s wrong with that?” Satoru asks. “Sounds cool!”

   “According to Tengen, those who reach that state of being have no will. It means Tengen would cease to be Tengen.” I explain to my friend. “All the schools have the barriers that form the foundation of jujutsu society, the many barrier techniques of the assistant supervisors, are all strengthened by Tengen. Without the help from his power, we would hardly be able to maintain security or clean up after missions. And in the worst-case scenario, Tengen could even become a threat. Hence why every 500 years, he finds the Star Plasma Vessel, someone who is compatible with him, and assimilates them, overwriting the information of their body. This renews his body and he resets his cursed technique back to the start and therefore avoids Evolution.” 

   “I get it. It would be fine if he turned into MetalGreymon, but we can’t have him becoming SkullGreymon. So we have him start over from Koromon.” Satoru says making Suguru and me look at him in disbelief. Whatever makes him understand this I guess. 

   “Huh? Yeah, whatever works, I guess.” Suguru voices my thoughts aloud. 

   “The star plasma vessel’s location has been leaked. Right now, there are two major groups after the young girl’s life.” Yaga says as he turns his laptop over to show the three of us his screen. “One is the curse user group Q, which seeks to upend jujutsu society with Tengen’s rampage. The other is the star religious group, also known as the Time Vessel Association which worships Tengen as a god. Tengen will assimilate the star plasma vessel two days from now. You are to protect the girl until then and ensure she reaches Tengen. If you fail, the effects will ripple throughout even normal society.”

   Cool, zero pressure. The three of us finally leave to deal with our mission. We were heading to the girl’s home in an apartment building to make contact with her and get her into our safety immediately. These other groups were most definitely already on their way after her, so we had to be quick, which we would be if those two weren’t the slowest walkers of mankind. When we finally arrived, Suguru and I were going to be the ones going inside to get to the star plasma vessel while Satoru remained on ground control. Suguru had Satoru on speaker on his phone and we were discussing what we were up against. 

   “The star religious group is an organization of non-sorcerers,” Suguru explains over the phone as we ride the elevator up to one of the top-level rooms the girl was staying in. 

   “We most likely don’t have to pay them much mind then,” I say. “Who we really have to worry about is Q.” 

   “Well, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Satoru says over the phone. I can hear him messing around with the canned drink in his hand making an annoying sound over the phone that I tried to ignore. The face I was making over it was clear to Suguru how much it bothered me, making him chuckle. 

   “We are the strongest after all.” Satoru continues. “That’s why Tengen asked for us specifically, right?” 

   Suguru and I sighed out of annoyance due to our friend’s dangerous confidence. 

   “What?!” He asked offended by our unison sigh. 

   “You’re a cocky confident ass, Satoru,” I tell him. “Stop being so full of yourself.”

   “Huh?!” He exclaims over the phone as he finally destroys his soda can ending the annoying crinkling. The elevator dings as Suguru and I make it to the floor and we exit as Suguru continues the conversation. 

   “She’s right, especially when addressing your superiors,” Suguru tells him. “We might end up meeting Tengen after all. You should really be more polite and humble. It would make yourself seem less threatening to the juniors as well.” 

   “Screw that,” Satoru says with a laugh. 

   “You’re lucky you're my friend, otherwise I’d take a potato peel to your new tattoo.” I threaten, making the boys groan out in horror and disgust. “God I’m kidding, you two are such babies.” 

   Suguru and I make it to the door and I ring the doorbell. A feminine-sounding voice calls out that she’ll be there soon and we wait at the door. But then a high-pitched beep goes off followed by a huge explosion. Thankfully, my instincts were quick and I shielded Suguru and me with a wall of my ink from the blast. Suguru still placed himself over me in a protective manner. 

   “You two alive?” Satoru asks over the phone with worry. 

   “Yeah, we are. Don’t know about the girl.” I say then stop as I look out the window and see something flying through the air, yeah it was her. 

   “You think we’ll be blamed for the kid dying from that?” Satoru asks. 

   Suguru hangs up the phone and I redisperse my ink from the shield into a large shard which I use to break the nearest window near Suguru and me. I knew he had cursed spirits so he could safely fly on to get her, I, unfortunately, had no such skill with my ink. 

   “Don’t blame me.” A man in a white uniform said. He was holding a woman who wore a maid’s uniform by the cuff of her shirt dragging him along to wait out the broken wall to make sure the girl died. “If you must hate someone, hate Tengen.”

   Suguru had thankfully caught the girl and the man in the uniform looked at him shocked. 

   “Please stop making us stand out,” Suguru asked the man with fake politeness. “We just got chewed out this morning.” 

   “Yeah, I’m not getting in trouble over someone else’s stupidity again today,” I say as I form a spear out of my ink. 

   “Those uniforms, you’re sorcerers from Jujutsu High, right?” He asks looking back at me and then at Suguru. “Hand over the kid. Or I’ll kill you and this girl here” 

   “Sorry can’t hear youuuu, come closer and talk,” I tell him in a sing-songy voice. 

[ranticore]

Chapter 1 - Seven Years

[Forward by the author]

The protagonist of our story was born like this:

At an engineering facility on a planet called Ceti, a Human named Dan Loris worked for an entity called Atom GeneWEAVE. He* was tasked with writing the genetic code of a variety of engineered humans and he composed them with the skill of a master musician, for a very particular brief. The first six attempts were not viable and his computer** simulations didn’t predict a favourable outcome for them. The seventh attempt, however, would work. He implanted this genetic code in a Human egg and fertilised it in an incubation chamber, and it began to grow.

Outside his facility, under the unknowable sky of mysterious Ceti, there was a great ship called The Lonely Sailor. This ship was larger than you could ever imagine, large enough to hold thousands of Humans and the requisite cargo to let them live on a new world long enough for them to become self-sustaining there. Measurements on record state that The Lonely Sailor was more than a kilometre long.

The Lonely Sailor was owned by Atom GeneWEAVE and would carry a cargo container full of fertilised Human eggs to the new world. These were known as embryos and were mostly held in a frozen state, but there were twenty of them which were not frozen. They were placed in false amniotic sacs and allowed to continue growing throughout the entire voyage of The Lonely Sailor, even though the adult Humans themselves would be frozen instead.

Dan Loris slotted his first viable attempt at life into the cargo hold last, knowing that it would be the first to wake. He used a computer machine called a Deep Dreamer to monitor the growing life, and encoded within it an operation called ‘Athletic_Boy_Childhood_03.deepdr‘. He wrote on the amniotic sac the name of his creation: Ishmael© property of ATOM GENEWEAVE®.

Dan Loris then settled himself into a sleeping chamber which would freeze him harmlessly for the duration of the voyage.

The journey from Ceti to Siren would take seven years. Ishmael grew from fertilised egg to embryo and then became a baby in the normal period of time that these things take. But he was not born then. He remained asleep, dreaming that he was living a Human childhood.

We can only guess at what he dreamed of, as the memory encoded into him was designed to fade, leaving behind only the lessons that Atom felt were necessary for him to learn, to function normally and not emerge from the seven year journey in a feral state. He learned how to speak, how to read and write, all without ever having taken a single breath. When he was old enough, he moved his body as though he were engaging in games of chase and team sports, and this allowed his muscles to develop.

Atom was as a deity to the Humans sleeping in The Lonely Sailor – Atom decided that they were going to Siren and they were not able to refuse. Throughout every source I could find, I never came across one that described what Atom was at its heart, only that it was unimaginably powerful and had bases on several planets.

Atom was so omnipresent, so all-encompassing, that no one thought to explain it, or question it, or even remark on its presence particularly often. The Humans worked for Atom. Ishmael and his cohort of engineered embryos were born to work for Atom. Working for Atom, it seemed, was the only reason for anybody to live in Precursor society, and they were utterly shackled to its side whether they liked it or not.

Atom chose Siren for three reasons: the atmosphere had the right sort of air and had grown its own plantlife; there used to be very extensive ice caps around North; and a rival entity known as The Authorities could not interfere with Atom on Siren. The writings of Dan Loris state several times that Atom held The Authorities in contempt, but they were the only force powerful enough to punish Atom for poor behaviour. Genetic engineering such that had been planned by Atom was not permitted by The Authorities, and Atom GeneWEAVE, the part of Atom responsible for it, wanted to work with projects which would be profitable in spite of their illegality in the eyes of The Authorities.

Despite the unclear nature of Atom and The Authorities, I believe this is a story which has been repeated time and time again throughout the centuries. Whom among us has never found a secret corner to hide our trespasses? This was a game of chase, and the only thing that motivated Atom, the thing which caused it to sink a considerable amount of resources on The Lonely Sailor, was the pursuit of profit on a scale so grand that the modern Sirenian can hardly comprehend it. And, in the face of this monumental scale of profit, it was hoped that the Authorities would be rendered ultimately powerless.

The Lonely Sailor arrived on Siren on the date ‘20/07/2378’, which I am sure was significant to the Precursors. For the sake of legibility I will refer to this year as Year 1, the first year of Humans on Siren. The Sailor found pleasant weather, low winds and a water level slightly raised from the baseline in West, where the settlement began. While this was noted by the meteorologists aboard The Sailor, they weren’t to know its significance, which any one of us will recognise immediately; West was recovering from a High Tide which must have taken place only months before.

The captain of the ship was a Human called Ivana. She* was the highest authority under Atom itself on the ship, and the first to wake from her frozen sleep. She gazed down at Siren from above and wrote her observations, which I can reproduce here following extensive translation work:

Beautiful morning on Siren. What I wouldn’t give to show Dad this. A career first! We will land in seventy-two hours after finishing our preliminary rotation and once the landing crew have walked off the brain freeze.

I assume ‘Dad’ is a significant other of some kind, perhaps deceased, judging by its absence.

The landing was described in a series of cargo logbooks and completed by a small crew which had been woken up from their sleep. Supplies were conveyed to a low mesa in West and within a matter of days the settlement was born. It was built out over the surface of the sea, anchored to the mesa with powerful brackets that remain today. Throughout the entirety of its existence, the Atom Settlement continued to grow outwards, so the very heart of it was the oldest, the bowers constructed to house the first crew. One of those very first bowers was the gene laboratory, which had been transported in its entirety from Ceti.

Dan Loris offloaded the embryo cargo pod thirty-nine days after landing, still in the first year. Five days later, Ishmael’s amniotic sac was drained, and his deep dream interrupted by his birth.

The last moment of his encoded dream was common to all artificial dreams, designed to ease the transition into true waking life. He was falling asleep in his bed (an archaic sort of bower), his body feeling tired but satisfied after a day of typical, perfectly generic childhood games. He had something called a mother in this dream who pulled the blankets around his shoulders and kissed him as he drifted off, though he did not remember what their face looked like, only that they instilled within him a sense of perfect safety.

His moment of calm was soon eaten by sensation. It was cold, he realised. Colder than anything he had ever felt. The fluid that had supported him at a constant temperature for seven years was draining away and he reached out, to grab at the blanket he half-remembered. His nerves were alight with new sensations and the world was so bright it felt that he was staring into Odr’s eye.

Dan Loris described him as strong and healthy, but Ishmael did not feel that way. Everything was loud and bright and his body was so heavy. He had never truly experienced gravity, but that alone did not account for the disconnect. His dream had been the dream of a Precursor Human, a bipedal creature with a fully upright stance, straighter even than a shortwing’s, with no tail, no flippers, no phocid morphology. To the newborn Ishmael’s mind, he had just undergone a horrifying transformation, and his body was wrong.

Modern selkies and phocids are likely to imagine a child similar to their own young, but this is not the case. Ishmael was unnaturally pale and almost colourless save for a growth of hair which was a light red. His skin was very thin and translucent, with no markings aside from a blue pictogram on one shoulder, a stylised Atom emblem which had been engineered to form from his own skin pigments.

He was large and heavy compared to Human children of the same age, with a long arched neck connected to his head at the back rather than the bottom as was normal for Humans and harpies, which made it difficult for him to stand upright and look forward without inviting neck pain. He had very large and powerful hands with short webbed fingers, and a combination of long torso and short legs which would help him walk on all fours and swim cleanly with his tail fluke. His arms were quite long in comparison to a modern phocid’s and, at this age, he was exclusively bipedal.

He was born with pale eyes which were white around a pink iris, though that changed over the years. The first things he saw—that he consciously remembered seeing—were his own fingers clamped over those eyes to block out the lights at the laboratory. He opened them a crack, so that the light shone through the pink webbing. It confused him—there wasn’t supposed to be webbing there. Humans (and phocids) do not have webbing between their fingers, after all.

He was curled in on himself on a cold hard surface, while somebody spoke in the background. It is a great blessing that the automatic transcriber machine is still intact today, and we can access the exact words spoken in the laboratory for the entirety of its existence. After lengthy translation work, it can be rendered intelligible to us. Later I will share the correspondences between myself and the anonymous linguist who so greatly aided me here.

“He’s a concept, Ivana, we’re not putting him in the water until we know for sure the probes were right about that sea out there. And I kind of want to leave the actual bodywork to the betas, y’know, Ishmael is just a precaution before we wake them up.”

“Could you turn down the lights a little? I’d have a headache too if I was staring up into those things for the first time,” said Ivana. She had come down to the lab out of curiosity, to see the first-born Human on Siren.

“I need to be able to observe every reaction,” Dan Loris said. “Ishmael will get used to it. Delayed births can cause absolute havoc if the modifications aren’t tuned properly.”

His hands, dry and shockingly cold, caught Ishmael’s blocky wrist. Dan Loris pried the webbed hand away from Ishmael’s eyes and shone a pen light in each. Ishmael’s eyes stung and burned and he tried to wriggle away, but Dan Loris took no notice of this.

He passed a heart scanner along Ishmael’s front and watched the live feed appear on a display window in the side of the lab. Ishmael was rapidly forgetting his dream childhood in the face of this confusing start, but he did remember, for a moment, a similar scene. The childhood deep dream that he had been given included a scene of hospitalisation, to acclimatise children to medical checks.

So the footage of his skeleton and pounding heart on the wall was oddly familiar, though the shape was wrong and freakish to him. His head felt light and dizzy and he, only seven years old, had no ability to reconcile what he saw and felt with what he thought to be true. When Dan Loris pushed the wet red hair away from Ishmael’s face, Ishmael tried unsuccessfully to bite him.

“Funny little guy, isn’t he?” Ivana said, leaning into his line of sight. “Why’d you make him so pale? Like a lab rat.”

Dan Loris snorted. His medical scissors snipped by one of Ishmael’s ear holes and sliced off a chunk of hair. “Why d’you think those are white, too? He’s not here to look pretty. The betas will have proper pigment, they won’t fry in the sun.”

It was at this point that it all became too much for Ishmael. He broke into a sobbing fit with remarkable suddenness and didn’t stop until Dan Loris clamped a mask over his nose and mouth which delivered a soothing air into his lungs. Ishmael’s eyelids drooped. He looked around for his mother and didn’t see one. Calmer, he sat on the examination table and watched over the rim of the mask as Dan Loris performed all manner of tests on him, most of which made no sense to him, and seemed pointless. Every joint was checked for smooth abduction and adduction. Skin scrapings were collected from his tail. They took his blood and his saliva, and every inch of his body was captured in image form by a roving, flashing device.

His first meal came next – a pouch of gel designed for people who had been born in similar circumstances, which might prepare a stomach that had been empty its whole life for the rigours of real digestion. He had been fed through a large blood vessel in the artificial amniotic sac, and not through an umbilical cord. As a result, he had no navel, and spent his first few days alternatively vomiting and crying as his digestive tract learned how to work.

Delayed birth, while preventing a young mind from being irrevocably damaged by sleeping through key developmental periods, was still no substitute for a true childhood when it came to mental development. Ishmael could speak and understand others, but he essentially entered life as an unusually well-educated infant in a large and overdeveloped body.

The accounts of his mental growth during his early years are somewhat sparing. There are abundant records of the tests in which he was forced to participate, the exact parameters of his growth, his weaning from gel to solid food, even records of each trip to the latrine. But nobody thought to record his mood or emotional state beyond “Ishmael was cooperative today” or “Ishmael needed sedation today”.

What I can tell you is that by age ten he stood at average adult Human height and just about average adult Human weight. He rarely spoke and gave little indication of understanding anything said around him either. By this time, the second generation of Sirenians, the beta generation, had been given their own delayed births. But Ishmael did not interact with them and it appeared that he knew very little outside the confines of the lab.

At this point in life, he met Dan Loris’s own fosterling, known as a biological child. This biological child was called Callum and he had not had a delayed birth. In fact, he had been in frozen sleep alongside Dan Loris himself. Although he was also ten years old, he had lived in total seventeen years, even if those seven extra years had passed in the blink of an eye and left no lasting impression on his body or mind. By all accounts, this was a far more ethical way to transport someone great distances on The Lonely Sailor.

Callum’s interactions with Ishmael are well recorded, and the earliest examples we have of Ishmael expressing any desires or opinions – the daily records began to include lines like “Ishmael asked about Callum” or “Ishmael was upset at Callum’s absence”. And while there are transcriptions of every word spoken within the lab, the record banks are so huge that it becomes difficult to sift through for any clues as to how Ishmael was developing internally during this time. It seemed, in any case, that he enjoyed the company of another child his age, which is only to be expected, and that he was able to ask to spend more time with his only friend.

There is another side to this. Among other records we located a diary of Callum’s. All of the Precursors were required to write reports of their weekly activities, and the children in particular were encouraged to keep journals, to discuss their emotional reaction to the great upheaval in their lives, and their imaginings of an Atom-controlled future on this new world. Callum’s diary spans his teenage period, not this earlier time, and we will delve into its contents in a later chapter. But it does mention that, at age 10, Callum was wary of Ishmael, and that after a series of incidents which are poorly described but culminated in Ishmael pulling the laboratory door off its hinges, Callum no longer felt safe in his presence.

Indeed, the incidence of “Ishmael was sedated today” in the record logs increased quite dramatically at around this time. A reason is never explicitly stated but I would make an educated guess that Callum, growing more uncomfortable, was not spending as much time with Ishmael, causing distress in the latter. Ishmael was prone to tantrums, often wordlessly lashing out and, on the aforementioned occasion, breaking a door.

Ishmael himself was never consulted to determine the cause of these incidents, with all indications being that the lab workers did not believe him articulate enough to bother reasoning with. As anyone who has spent a season in the nursery knows, underestimating a child’s ability to understand on some level precisely what distresses him is a fool's error.

At the age of eleven, the tantrums had clearly become dangerous, given the damage to the lab infrastructure and Callum’s unwillingness to spend time with Ishmael. Ishmael was growing physically powerful in a way that had not been anticipated by his creator. It may seem surprising, but the art of genetic engineering was never so simple as merely picking and choosing what traits to instil in an embryo. As Dan Loris noted, the science was still relatively new, and their techniques, while powerful, were not precise enough to predict every single possibility. Thus the need for refining a design over concurrent generations, and for producing one-off ‘alpha’ variants like Ishmael himself. Either way, Ishmael was showing a tendency towards gigantism which had not been anticipated.

Management plans had to be drafted, and Dan Loris records the first ever instance of an attempt to understand Ishmael on an emotional level. He brought in a Human called Maris to talk to Ishmael once a day, in the hopes that it would calm him and provide some insights into his psyche. The notes of Maris are an invaluable resource, providing the most detailed written accounts of Ishmael’s childhood, which even Ishmael himself did not adequately record (citing trauma and personal distaste as his reasoning).

She also captured moving ‘video’ images of Ishmael during these sessions which I have been able to access. If not for these, critical moments and historical figures in Siren’s history may have been lost to time forever, leaving nothing but a dry tally of facts recording Ishmael’s physical parameters, as though he were little more than livestock.

*Humans refer to themselves as ‘he’ or ‘she’. I will leave this untranslated as I believe those are different enough to be significant to this society. Based on my studies of Atom society I believe that their usage of 'he' is entirely unrelated to its modern-day counterpart.

**it is my understanding that a computer is a type of machine which can receive information fed to it by a person and produce a mathematical calculation based on that information which the person can interpret, or cause another machine to perform a specific operation – this was used for every facet of Precursor life to automate their machinations, from food production to predicting the outcome of specific events. We may be more familiar with computers in the form of harpy visors though these could be of almost unlimited use.

[manuellarts]

Reflections

i wasn't feeling very well, and i couldn't figure what to draw. i've been feeling stuck in a lot of ways lately. i put a random YT playlist on and then i looked up from the screen and saw my reflection. there's a mirror in front of my tablet. and i realized i never really drew myself without overly cartoonizing myself, or trying to alter what i see as imperfections. like asymmetry, bit of a lopsided smile. i never put much care into looking at the details, like i do with my other drawings. i never tried capturing the striking details that make me /me/, as i do with other drawings. it's kind of a weird experience, both sweet and strange, to draw yourself. as an artist, you can bring worlds and characters to life, but often forget who's the one making them. it felt very emotional to me, to draw my reflection, then flip it. sometimes, all we see is our reflection, but we never truly look at who we are on the other side of the reflection. we find beauty in everything, and in everyone, except in ourselves. we search for the details which make a person who they are, yet disregard ours. we pay attention to stay true to those details, so a person's reflection would remain unchanged, but we try to change our own. being a person, but especially being an artist, is ultimately a journey towards self love. there are parts of our self in everything that we make, in everything we create. there is an extension of us in every universe made, in every character created. we struggle to be seen, so we spill our hearts and souls into our creations, hoping to be one day seen and understood. we spill so we won't look at our selves directly, but at a reflection. always a reflection.

[shiftinglea]

A simple example of how your perception creates your experience

Today, I saw a video on TikTok that perfectly demonstrated how we consciously and subconsciously choose the experience of our reality.

In the video, a girl just got her hair extensions done, transitioning from blonde to brunette. She’s filming her partner’s reaction to her new look.

Her man comments that she looks very different, almost like she’s wearing a wig, but he reassures her that he thinks she looks nice and that he likes it.

Her initial reaction was tearful, as she felt he didn’t like her new appearance and worried that he preferred her blonde. However, she calmed down after hearing that he actually liked her new look.

The majority of comments on the video were along the lines of:

“He’s a red flag 🚩”

“You should dump him”

“He made you cry; I would leave him”

Etc…

These reactions surprised me, but also didn’t, considering how people perceive situations differently.

The fact is: every situation in your reality is neutral. It’s people’s choice to label them as “bad” or “good”; they choose the perspective.

When I listened to his comments on her hair, I perceived them as compliments, and it was clear he liked it, even though he mentioned she looked like a different person.

If my husband told me my hair looked like a wig, my first thought would be: “I know! It looks almost too good to be real lol.”

However, a comment like “you look so different” can be interpreted in various ways.

Clearly, the girl in the video and people commenting perceived his comments as insults and red flags 🚩.

Why did they perceive it that way? Because on a subconscious level, they fear not being beautiful enough and worry about not being accepted. So, these subconscious fears influence how they perceive any situation on a conscious level, leading to manifestations of their fears because that’s what they created (either consciously and/or subconsciously).

Why is it important to understand this? Because if you want to be a master of creation (A God), then it’s crucial to understand how you create. To be self-aware of the process of creation on your conscious and subconscious levels.

Your fears, beliefs, and thoughts create your state. Your state will then create the experience, which in turn reinforces your thoughts, beliefs, and/or fears. It’s a cycle 🔁.

To take the first step to change and create a new experience and new reality, you can simply choose a new perception and embody the new state. It’s just a matter of choice. You always choose who you are at every single moment.

[monards]

So!! have you ever thought about how Sucrose's greatest desire is to build a separate world for herself and how she found herself a conscious, near perfect, creation of the Great Sinner to teach her? How she is shown very specifically to study hilichurls, crystal marrow (physical corruption of a dead god's blood), the breath of someone who had a dead god locked inside them (last Windblume, when she got Collei to breathe into a tube) in her official art? have you thought about how the "Harmless Sweetie" seems to be following in the Great Sinner's works as a self help guideline? bc I'm thinking about it

OOUGHHH MY GOD I HAD TO WAIT TWO DAYS TO RESPOND TO THIS BECAUSE. THIS!!!!!!!!!! THIS POINT EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOUUUARE SO RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even BEFORE i was. knee deep in rhine lore. sucrose's personaility has always felt sooo off to me; and it wasn't in the typical 'hoyo messed up writing a woman again' way because its just SO clearly feels uncanny??? in the sort of 'you seem very sweet and act that way, but there is WAY more beneath that.' and now. oh my god.

oohmmygoooodd... the point about the hillichurls and crystal marrow AND COLLEI TOO?????/ IM GOINNG INSANE I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT THAT. This actually reminded me a lot about that one line she had about dvalin, and whether or not he dropped anything after our fight she could 'test' ; especially given that was while he was corrupted, hoyo is. REALLY. lathering on the idea of her interest in corruption or defilement in some form ^ plus, especially considering the rhine references; given her. extensive history of dragons and such. the idea of her wanting to study dvalin (who would be the only known dragon to her,) REALLY screams a million red flags like. hello.!!!! sucrose!!!!!!!!!! babes what are you doing!!!!!!!

With the albedo point you made especially,, it made me think about how it was always really interesting that, in one of her voicelines about him, she pointed out his thought process, rather than him just being a 'genius' like most of the other mond citizens, including himself, do. But now that your pointing out the fact he's the perfect creation of rhine -- it sort of clear he likely *inherited* that thought process from her (as we've seen with most the other hexenzirkel kids and their masters/moms,) which adds. A LOT. more meaning behind why she'd be so willingly to work with him despite the fact it's repeatedly establish he's not the easiest of people to work with (due to easy disinterest in a subject, and all of that)

Even more on the idea of her creating a 'wonderland' ,, (its probably just a very weird comparison my mind made BUT) you just made me think about the way the theme of 'dreams' and all of that is. SO. prevalent in all of rhine's creations especially; with both elynas & durin 'dreaming' (or better worded, hallucinating) what was really happening, and just all of her creations percieving things differently,, it connects SOSOOOO well to her wanting to create that wonderland... dear lord.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GRACEFULLLLILY HOW COULLD YOU DO THIS TO ME. YOU JUST UNLEASHED. SO MNAY THOUGHTSSSSS

[drakeanddice]

After eight sessions of Burning Wheel, we decided that it wasn’t clicking for our table. It had a bunch of neat tech baked in, but wielding the system was not a joy for us. It felt like we could either dedicate ourselves absolutely to the infinite Swiss watch design or else abstract down toward the core resolution forever without ever doing more than scratch the surface and in general neither of those felt…y’know, good. So we decided to drop it.

Which kind of sucks. I feel a little defeated by the book. Like, I spent a not inconsiderable amount of time plumbing through the obtuse and confusing self-referential and esoteric prose, trying to get to the heart of why so many of my favorite designers cite it as a seminal work in the TTRPG field, but all I got was the feeling that the inheritors of its ideas did a lot to clean them up, sharpen them, and make them infinitely more fun to engage with.

I’m left with a feeling I’m getting pretty used to. I missed that moment when this thing was “cool.” I missed the Forge, I missed G+, and I missed Burning Wheel.

But also, I’m given to understand the Forge, like Burning Wheel, had problems, so I’m not taking it too hard.

We decided to play Mausritter this Friday. In a complete 180 from the rule-heavy interlocking gears and levers of Burning Wheel, the 300 pages of character creation, we decided to roll 3d6 3 times, and then 1d6 twice and take our little adventurer mice into the great big world to face danger and find treasure.

I’ve been having a recent problem where I play games for the wrong reasons. I’m looking for inspiration, for pilferable game design thoughts, for experiences outside of my comfort zone. I’m running games as work, as research. I’m slavishly adherent to the rules as written because I feel as though I owe that to the designer, because they clearly knew what they were doing and were doing it for a purpose. It’s a mental weight.

So I am attacking Mausritter from an entirely different angle. It’s an OSR game, very light and fast and abstracted. The rules are loose and few. It’s very minimal mental overhead. So I don’t have a lot to worry about getting “wrong” in the way that I’ve been secretly fearing I’ve been doing for Burning Wheel these past eight weeks. I’m playing this one for fun.

I’ve told my table that I need them to keep me honest. This is not work. My Friday night table is often abused as a play test group, often treated as an extension of my job as a game designer. I design games so I must play them. But this one’s just for fun. Don’t let me think to hard about it. Because I’m not in a mental state to do that right now.

We’re going to be mice. It’s going to be fun.

Anyway. I’ve done a thing I haven’t done in forever and prepped for a game. I’ve got a cool hexmap (adorable), have created some factions out in the world (portentous), named some NPCs (wholesome), and home brewed up some interesting spells and items to sprinkle around (fun as hell). I have not sat and just played DM by myself in a while. Still not something I want to do every time, but a welcome break from conducting atop a surfboard in front of a disaster wave.

I’m excited about this game. Can’t wait to report back.

[lcngdays]

Positivity anon here! Could I ask you to shout out to your five fave blogs? Just to make someone smile today and let them know you love their blog! Maybe even say a little about why!

Hello Beloved Positivity Anon! Sorry for the late reply, I don't get much done during the week, but the weekend is where I thrive! Now, it's hard to pick JUST FIVE FAVES. So I may have included a few more <3

@plcasantnights // While Corpse isn't active on tumblr anymore, he's still my absolute best friend ever. I love him with my whole heart and we've written countless stories together, we've met irl multiple times, and I just. Don't have enough good to say about this man. An incredible writer, a patient and understanding person, and someone I trust with my whole, authentic self. Long days and pleasant nights, bestie. <3

@cxldblxxded / @yxkanna / @striigon // MOOP!!! A very cool writer with a very keen sense of character creation. I love reading about their silly little guys and I love talking with them ooc! I feel like I can throw any must at them from my EXTENSIVE roster and they're down for it, no matter how silly it is!

@handgiven // WHAT IS THERE TO SAY ABOUT KAI!!!!! emmanuel is SO sweet and SO precious and I hold him so dear in my heart. One of the few characters that can put up with my more annoying characters with a smile on his face, the way Kai is able to write such a beautiful, well thought out angel is incredible. I love reading the eloquence of Emmanuel and love seeing everything Kai puts on the dash

@fangmother // HI HUNTER HI HUNTER!!!! hunter is so fucking cool you guys. they have the coolest posts both ic and ooc and i light up each time they come on the dash with anything new. rainer is so cringefail girlboss and i don't care how many times hunter tells me i'm wrong to love her, i'm still GOING TO!!!

@freekzout / @hungryyheart // VIV MAKES ME NOSTALGIC FOR THE NINTIES AND I WAS BORN IN 1997 SO THAT'S WILD!!! everything about the worlds that Viv has created makes me insane. be it cute little vampiis or straight up government coverups viv is SO creative and so nice ooc! puts up with me even though i forget to answer dms a million percent of the time!! ALSO PUTS UP WITH ANGEL SO A HUGE PLUS RIGHT THERE

@burdenedwithfaith // every day it makes me insane that Prince isn't more popular on tumblr. i don't know anything about the series their character is from and yet and YET I am so so so INVESTED with him! I'm so invested with each little character moment and arc and I love writing with them to see where they're going to take it and take John!! even if you don't know the game their muse is from I highly encourage you to check them out because they're EPIC

@soulmissed // I haven't written a lot with Ruben (YET) but his character is SO well written. Ruben also always pops into my dms when I make a sad/venty post and checks on me and he has no idea how MUCH i appreciate that so i'm saying it here. thank you <3

@mr-pulvis // Ruth. Oh Ruth!!!!!! Ruth has known me since the beginning. Since I STARTED on tumblr! They have followed me through countless blogs, countless cringe, countless silliness and revamping and bad writing. I love Miles to death, I've always loved Miles, but Ruth doesn't get enough credit (from me at least!) for how cool and nice they are and how good of a writer they are. here's to many MORE years of knowing each other!!!

@pistolsister + many more blogs in their pinned! // Even though we've followed each other for a long time, we've only JUST started writing together. AND I HAVEN'T EVEN FULLY RESPONDED TO ANYTHING YET I DON'T THINK IT'S ALL IN THE QUEUE! but mille is very cool, very easy to bounce ideas off of and i love each and every one of their characters. SO well thought out, SO easy to write against and just a sweet person over all!

@wehavefoundthestars // EVE!!!! I LOVE OUR SLOWBURN BOYS!!!! But I also love writing with them with ANY of my characters! we're always in each other's dms after each response excitedly chatting away! a very fun person to write with and be around!

@lovepurposed // hi orion :3 orion and I are also a duo who have known each other for a long while. not as long as some of the people on this list, but we've always seemed to find each other on tumblr some way and some how, despite moving blogs or just falling out of certain fandoms. orion is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, and I'm looking forward to writing with orion for a long, long time to come.

@amischiefofmuses // NEVER DID I EVER EXPECT TO FIND SOMEONE IN SO MANY OF THE SAME FANDOMS AS ME. homestuck, invader zim, undertale, hazbin, you NAME it we have it in common. magpie is SO fun to write with, and i think they're just RLLY COOL NGL AND SUCH A GOOD WRITER

@spokewar // MARCI!!!!! so good at writing it makes me insane that they even write WITH me. i followed them originally with sass and their sam winchester but things just blossomed from there into an epic scifi adventure with a little alien prince and obi-wan (AND I HAVENT EVEN SEEN STAR WARS LMAO) marci is super cool and super fun to be around and is a very comforting presence when i get worried about wanting to do something new!

@dumbthink // KC i have followed all over tumblr. i love writing with them, i love all the stories they create, i LOVE all their silly little characters and how well they can analyze LITERALLY ANYTHING!!!!

HONORABLE MENTIONS!!!!!

@null-siren / @honeyhogger / @notsohumerusnow / @badmusejail : THE UNDERTALE CREW!!!!! I write with them mostly on my undertale rp blog but i wanted to give all of them a HUGE SHOUT OUT for being so cool and friendly and fun to write with, even though i'm VERY SLOW over on my undertale blog!!!

@bittcnneck / @r-adio / @bloodsalted / @velvetineblue / @swervdcity / @rcjoice / @deceivesthem / @starbeambully / @ourcwnside / @beastbitten / @heaven-said / @thehazbins / @vitalphenomena / @captivates / @ruinedmyself / @miidnighters / @lcve0n / @hellfrozen / + ALL MY LOVELY MUTUAL!!!! // I LOVE ALL MY MUTUAL I LOVE ALL MY WRITING FRIENDS AND I WANT TO GIVE YOU ALL A HUGE HUG AND AWWWWAAA !!!! i could never name everyone unfortunately, but everyone here is a great writer and friend and i'm happy to be hanging out with all of them even if we've only JUST started talking or writing together!!!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[Image of President Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, center-left, with his head tilted downward. Work is in the U.S. public domain, obtained here from Wikimedia Commons.]

+

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 19, 2024 (Tuesday)

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 19, 2024

For three hot days, from July 1 to July 3, 1863, more than 150,000 soldiers from the armies of the United States of America and the Confederate States of America slashed at each other in the hills and through the fields around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 

When the battered armies limped out of town after the brutal battle, they left scattered behind them more than seven thousand corpses in a town with fewer than 2,500 inhabitants. With the heat of a summer sun beating down, the townspeople had to get the dead soldiers into the ground as quickly as they possibly could, marking the hasty graves with nothing more than pencil on wooden boards.

A local lawyer, David Wills, who had huddled in his cellar with his family and their neighbors during the battle, called for the creation of a national cemetery in the town, where the bodies of the United States soldiers who had died in the battle could be interred with dignity. Officials agreed, and Wills and an organizing committee planned an elaborate dedication ceremony to be held a few weeks after workers began moving remains into the new national cemetery. 

They invited state governors, members of Congress, and cabinet members to attend. To deliver the keynote address, they asked prominent orator Edward Everett, who wanted to do such extensive research into the battle that they had to move the ceremony to November 19, a later date than they had first contemplated. 

And, almost as an afterthought, they asked President Abraham Lincoln to make a few appropriate remarks. While they probably thought he would not attend, or that if he came he would simply mouth a few platitudes and sit down, President Lincoln had something different in mind.

On November 19, 1863, about fifteen thousand people gathered in Gettysburg for the dedication ceremony. A program of music and prayers preceded Everett’s two-hour oration. Then, after another hymn, Lincoln stood up to speak. Packed in the midst of a sea of frock coats, he began. In his high-pitched voice, speaking slowly, he delivered a two-minute speech that redefined the nation.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” Lincoln began. While the southern enslavers who were making war on the United States had stood firm on the Constitution’s protection of property—including their enslaved Black neighbors—Lincoln dated the nation from the Declaration of Independence. 

The men who wrote the Declaration considered the “truths” they listed to be “self-evident”: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” But Lincoln had no such confidence. By his time, the idea that all men were created equal was a “proposition,” and Americans of his day were “engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” 

Standing near where so many men had died four months before, Lincoln honored “those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.” 

He noted that those “brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated” the ground “far above our poor power to add or detract.”

“It is for us the living,” Lincoln said, “to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” He urged the men and women in the audience to “take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion” and to vow that “these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

[Image of President Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, center-left, with his head tilted downward. Work is in the U.S. public domain, obtained here from Wikimedia Commons.]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[fuzzyhenry]

The Metamorphosis Closet

As we stepped into the hidden store, a subtle chime announced our arrival. The room was dimly lit, with shelves adorned with peculiar items lining the walls. And there, standing behind the counter, was a man who exuded an air of quiet confidence.

Store Owner: Welcome, welcome. I see my reputation has piqued your curiosity. I am Felix, the creator and curator of this establishment. Please, make yourselves comfortable.

His warm smile put us at ease, as if he already knew the astonishment we were about to experience. Felix had an air of mystery about him, his eyes sparkling with a mix of artistic passion and deep knowledge.

Felix: You may be wondering what brings me to create such lifelike bodysuits. Well, it's a blend of artistry and my extensive background in the film industry. For years, I have worked tirelessly behind the scenes, crafting special effects and prosthetics that blur the line between reality and imagination. But one day, it struck me—why not give people the opportunity to live in the skin they desire, to experience a different shape, a different self?

He gestured to the rows of suits hanging in the store, each one a testament to his craftsmanship and dedication.

Felix: These bodysuits are not mere costumes; they are an extension of who we are, or who we long to be. With careful attention to detail, I have created a way for individuals to transform their appearance seamlessly, without the constraints of time, effort, or judgment. Here, in this haven of possibility, people can explore their desires, embrace different body shapes, and express themselves in ways they never thought possible.

His words carried an undeniable sincerity, as if he genuinely believed in the power of his creations to bring joy and liberation to those who sought them.

Felix: You see, I believe that true beauty lies in the freedom to choose, to define oneself by the body they inhabit, regardless of societal expectations or limitations. In this world, we are no longer confined by genetics or the boundaries of our physical forms. Instead, we can embrace the endless possibilities of self-expression, stepping into a skin that resonates with our deepest desires.

As Felix spoke, his passion illuminated the room, casting a mesmerizing glow over the bodysuits. It was clear that he saw his work as more than just a business venture; it was a way to empower individuals, allowing them to rewrite their stories and discover new aspects of their own identities.

Felix: So, my dear visitors, welcome to this realm of transformation, where the boundaries of the physical self blur, and the potential for self-discovery knows no bounds. I invite you to explore, to try on these suits, and immerse yourselves in a world of endless possibilities.

[inkedwingss]

I'm not big on anime, and usually skip the intro, but I need to talk about some reasons I find Bubble to be so brilliant.

Spoiler alert.

1. The little mermaid was one of my special interests for years, so yes, there is that.

2. The pure, tender but also "I will die/kill for you" love story. Beautifully done, even when we understand their fate, it doesn't discourage you from watching and it does not disappoint;

3. Good plot with cool characters that actually add to the story.Hibiki and Kai's development, first on that big jump when Kai shows how much of a true leader and self-sacrificing person he is, so we understand it was never jealousy but his desire to be useful and relevant - love how they animated that moment -, and then when Hibiki, that does everything alone, asks Kai directly, in front of everyone, to go with him. These are just two of my favourite moments, but let's keep moving.

4. The quality of the animation itself. Seriously, animating can be a pain but animating parkour? The camera movements are sick, and the dynamic is amazing! Parkour is not a cool background: they are fully committed. Also, they pay attention to other details (like Hibiki's freaking headphones flying on that epic scene) that make all the difference. I could post a ton of pictures about the poetry of it all, but I'm gonna stick with those four.

5. The way they portray neurodiversity: casually, naturally, and with its inherent value. It's a relief to see someone like Hibiki being a pro at something that is not what we usually see in this type of character. Enough with the chess player/reader/tech genius autistic characters. People can have other abilities! Other needs, other characteristics. They can be relevant because of what makes them different, even if it's "small", like an auditory hypersensitivity. This was something very special, and I quite like how this post talks about it.

Also, who doesn't like apocalyptical scenarios nowadays?

A lot of spoilers ahead:

At the very start, Hibiki falls from the tower and Uta follows him, presumably to save him. As he drowns, the bubbles of his breath meet Uta, and they merge into something that resembles a supernova. This is going to be referenced later by Makoto: "It's said that the world repeatedly collapses and rebuilds. Assembles, bursts. Scatters. Then assembles again..."

Uta becomes a human through him, quite literally. As she grows into multiple bubbles, we see a poster on the train with a girl on it, and the similarity between them suggests that she used that as an inspiration for her human form - although her hair is blue, which brings her authenticity forward. Funny enough, the poster says "beyond the border". Then, still underwater, they touch (kiss, in my opinion, for the sake of Hibiki's need for oxygen), but her human form is not affected by touching him like it happens when they are on the surface - beyond the border.

It's also interesting to think about the many layers of the word "bubble", not only as an obvious reference to the original fairy tale. A bubble can be a cage or a protection. When underwater, it holds the air, and "air", "breath" and "wind" are terms extensively used in literature and in various religions to refer to our spirit. We also have a similar situation with "sound" and "music" being connected to frequency and the creation of the world. We know Uta signs and her name means music, in Japanese. A name that was given to her by Hibiki, by the way, which I love, and definitely means a lot to me for so many different reasons.

With all that said, I believe there is a reason why Hibiki and Uta's parkour movements are synchronized and their hair is so similar (with rebel strains on the top of their heads). This sense of oneness is brilliant, and she chose it. She chose to follow him. In the same way she chose to use the shape of that girl in the poster, she chose to conform herself to Hibiki's image - which, to me, is the greatest way of showing admiration and love, the act of considering the "object" of your love so high that they inspire you, they influence you! They change you/ in the end, allowing you to become yourself.

I also like the way they chose to approach our post-modern dilemmas, like doing dangerous stuff for views, the collective "orphan" feeling, as well as this "danger" and "independence" that they "seek" as a way of escaping the ridiculous reality outside (or are they pushed to it?). As a result, they end up living inside another bubble, the bubble that actually originated their trauma. When they choose to live and thrive on their own terms inside that doomed place, it's just a weird but relatable type of irony.

Now, let's talk about the end. I absolutely love the end? Like yeah, smashed my heart, and I'm gonna cry again every time I watch, amazing voice work and all, but that final scene has tons of hope and an amazing perspective of what truly happens when we have a connection (love), which is it never dies.

Love does not die. It lives inside us, and it changes us, and it becomes part of us. It is true that love suffers, but isn't that a consolation? The reality is that suffering can not be avoided unless you want to live a meaningless life, isolated with your headphones, struggling to be yourself, to find your path, wishing you could cease your own existence.

It even makes me think that we can only be ourselves through others.

Society is all about being independent nowadays, but this is just pure bullshit. Our level of co-dependency is higher than we think it is. Without love (connection), all will die. We die, and I mean this literally.

That's why, in my opinion, Hibiki says he wants to leave at the beginning of the movie. He is not going to leave the bubble. Why would he? I believe he wants to leave. You can tell his actions are not only autistic traits or trauma response, and that he is not deliberately rude - they are clear signs of depression: he is just not interested. He is somewhere else, a place no one can reach, detached. He threw the flag after a victory because it didn't matter. It's that stage where we look bored, rude, cold... But we are actually sinking.

Well, if I'm right and he wants to end it, he still needs to understand what that sound is, that song, that calling. So when he goes to the tower, it seems to me he is actually fine with risking everything for it. Hibiki is confident in his skills, but also smart enough to know how dangerous it is. It's better if he dies trying, though, right? The need to find meaning is more important, so he doesn't care if the answer costs his life; he has nothing to lose.

In fact, maybe it's something to win because in the worst scenario, he would not be taking his own life, he would be trying really hard to find the purpose and dying for it. It's a good excuse to die.

This search for meaning is present in the whole crew, but here I have literally so many things in my mind that I can't type, so I will jump to the conclusion that the purpose is found in the community.

And that's the most precious thing Uta did. Since her first moments with them, she was bringing them together in her own way (in chaos, with crazy chickens), and birthing a new pattern. Because of her giving nature, her surrender, her love, and her being, all of them end up overcoming whatever patterns were holding them back before, and that's why I said we can only be ourselves through others. Community is powerful beyond measure when its foundation is true love.

But above that, sometimes there is that one special connection, that powerful type of love, that will change everything, that strong and pure love that is just... Something else. And we crave that. As humans, we crave spiritual, deep, mystical connections. We crave the things that are beyond. That we can feel but can't fully explain. We crave love in its deepest, most consuming levels.

"Love suffers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."

I truly hope we can all be found by it.

[4dkellysworld]

Hii hope you're doing well, if you're okay with it, I'd like to ask for some advice?

So, I've been trying to manifest something for a long time. But.. I haven't seen it. At all. It's been a really long time, like months. Normally I just brush it off and remind myself it means nothing, and imagination determines my reality, but after awhile.. it gets demotivating yk. It's been a long while, my self concept is pretty good, but I think it's slowly eroding because I haven't seen my manifestations yet. Thoughts?

Well, I have no idea what you've actually been thinking/doing/being to 'manifest' so you haven't given me much to work with. Also I am not a manifesting blog lol though I am changing my views on this, after all we are all creators of our own realities; we can either create consciously or unconsciously and self-mastery is all about taking responsibility for all our creations after all (this isn't an invite for more manifesting questions though, there's so many resources on this already lol). You might want to look into @aphroditeapprenticee-archive. A quick look at the asks shows me this one might be helpful to you, the others might be too. This reddit post might be helpful too.

Some other possible reasons:

You never accepted it as a reality/certainty and see it only as a fantasy or daydream

You told yourself you've accepted it as reality when you haven't actually. You can't lie to yourself

You're too fixated on checking if it's there or not, which just reaffirms the reality where you need to check [therefore it is not] >> you lack faith in what you have decided on

[An extension of above point] You keep changing your mind on whether you have it or not. Or you are also entertaining and identifying with thoughts that are opposite (Put another way, in LOA terms, "The old self has to die so the new self can live. Bury the old and live only as the new". Keep choosing the same thing)

You have resistance in the form of one or more: attachments, attachments to outcomes or expectations, fears, desires (you can't desire what you already have) etc which prevents you from accepting your "desired reality" as truth

The following excerpts may be helpful.

I've linked a video below which might be helpful to you, it's not geared on methods and talks more on the importance of faith and being conscious of what thoughts/beliefs you entertain. Very spiritually-geared as opposed to being outcome-focused (their titles are rather clickbaity but the content is alright actually).

Navigating this landscape of thought requires a conscious effort to cultivate a garden of positive life affirming beliefs. Imagine your mind as fertile soil and each thought a seed. What kind of garden are you tending, are the seeds of doubt, fear and negativity finding too much purchase or are you diligently planting and nurturing seeds of hope, love and abundance? The mastery of thought is not an overnight achievement but a lifelong journey of choosing moment by moment which seeds to water and which to weed out. This deliberate act of selection empowers individuals to shape their destinies guided by the unwavering belief in the secret power woven into the fabric of their being.