#out of water part 2

[humhowellujah]

i'm drunk off two lavender martinis what the fuck do you MEAN dan and phil went on a step by step recreation of their japan trip as a part of a HONEYMOON episode for their sims. be so fr rn be so serious please. dan howell you have 4 minutes to respond . phil, keep it up babygirl. lavender martini recipe in the tags

[silusvesuius]

nnnnnnnnnnnnno maa'am

[mintypsii]

not a part 2, but here's a prequel to this sanuso comic I did last month !!! (takes place the night before ,, technically after the first three panels)

[dirtytransmasc]

I made a found family au for Spider and my PC's I thought I'd share, mood boards included 🤭🤭🤭:

This is Spider's vibe in this au, nothing too different from canon. He's Eywa's little golden warrior. A ray of light on the land. Maybe a tad blessed, but mostly just himself. Spunky and bright and adventurous.

this is Sa'ana and A'nak. young lovers that have been forced around the Metkayina and Ta'unui Islands by love and the war, who will eventually settle in Awa'atlu.

(for whatever these two photos will not stay side by side)

Sa'ana is a ceremonial dancer of the Metkayina and Ta'unui villages. Her parents are Metkayina, while her husband's are Ta'unui. She is also a crafter known for her intricate she'll work and a surfer, a hobby she shares with her husband. She is around 20 at the start of her story.

A'nak is a younger scout, also around 20, and warrior of the Ta'unui, with ties to a long line of open ocean scouts who patrol on the outer edge of the reef. He met Sa'ana during one of his scouting runs where he would come to rest and trade for supplies in her village.

their vibes:

They're ey're such cuties, I just wanna squish them.

(lore continued below, I just rambled a ton and it got a little long 🤭 Edit from after finishing the post: scratch that. a lot long. severely long)

The baby was a product of teenage love and the fast pace of it all, which led them to being slightly unprepared for the tasks ahead, but they fast it together... until fate ripped their dreams of making it work apart.

The RDA activity had led A'nak to be called away from his village far more often and for longer periods, while Sa'ana was alone and afraid.

Spider and Sa'ana initially met during the Ta'unui raids when Sa'ana attempted to hide her infant in her Mauri, not knowing the were targets for burning. She had been alone in the village with little support, as she had recently moved to live amongst her husband and his family, before he was called away to scout and protect the village from the RDA presence. While she was loved by his family and his people, she was in an unfamiliar place with people who were still more strangers than family. And as she was not a fighter, and rather a dancer and crafter, she struggled to break free from the hold of the soldiers to reach her baby. it was Spider who recognized the meaning of her cries and ran into the blazes of the mauri ti save the child.

She would forever remember his act. She was young, alone, and scared, and he had come to her and her child's rescue in the time of their greatest need, despite it being dangerous for him to do so. He disobeyed his captors and risked death or even more serious injury than the burns to his back to protect her and her baby, because getting into an argument with Quaritch about being heartless, never once dropping the protective stance he took in front of her. He made her feel less afraid during one of the most traumatic moments of her life.

Their ways would be forcefully parted for many weeks before Sa'ana was forced to leave her husband's village. After the burning of both his and her villages, she could not find the support and safety she needed for herself and her son, and her husband was not due back from the reefs edge for many more weeks, as he was a warrior for the clan.

which will eventually lead her to traveling to Awa'atlu, the island's stronghold village, and there, she would be reunited with the boy who had so bravely saved her and her child.

Spider had yet to be entirely accepted by the people of Awa'atlu. He'd been allowed to stay and he had the Sully children to call family, but he was pretty lonely. A stranger, just like Sa'ana. And she accepts him with open arms. She had heard of his presence here and was more than excited to be reunited. Her son had begun to walk since they'd last met, and that was because Spider had saved him. He allowed her son to live until his first steps. She speaks of his bravery to his new clan and how good he is, hoping to influence their acceptance of him

Spider is happy to see her as well, to see that she and her son are safe and unharmed. He's rather obsessed with Nani, always watching over him and making sure he doesn't out shells in his mouth, building sand castles with him, getting in the occasional fight, cause she difference doesn't matter, a 17 year old and a one year old will manage to have beef (Spider is have the time of his life).

Sa'ana ends up getting his help around her mauri, which is in the deepest section inland of the village, so she's in a little foresty cove. She is closer to Spider's age than she is to being his mother (they have a 3/4 year age difference), so their relationship is something between friends and siblings, while she is still motherly at times. Spider does chores and brings her fish or hunts from the forests he's far better adapted to hunt in, and makes sure no one bothers her. She cooks and crafts for them and makes sure Spider doesn't feel alone.

Spider needed that after everything that happened over the span of the last few months. While he needed a true parent, after his ordeal with trauma bonding with Q and all that entailed, he wasn't ready for an authority/guardian figure in his life. He would have sabotaged any attempts made, but considering his status, no one would have tried to begin with. She wasn't his mother, she wasn't in charge of him, she was just someone he could lean on, nearly an equal, but just a bit older and wiser and reliable, and he felt safe with her.

Spider would bring his siblings to see Nani and play in the tide pools on the forest edge, and it was nice. it helped them feel a bit more... ok, after losing Neteyam, and with the RDA smog on the horizon. And Sa'ana liked hearing the gaggle of children outside of her home, playing with her child.

It would take weeks for A'nak to be relieved from his scouting duties and to make his way to Awa'atlu, where he decided he would stay, regardless of their families choices, so he could be with his wife; they tried to do things the traditional ways, moving with one of their families, but that didn't work, and Sa'ana got hurt in the process, and he would never leave her side again.

Spider does not like him at first. He sees A'nak as a man who couldn't handle his commitment and abandoned Sa'ana and Nani to be a warrior. It takes a while for him to trust the man. He doesn't like him, doesn't trust him to stick around, nor does he believe that he deserves Sa'ana and actively tries to get her to dump his ass. he is the biggest hater. He only gets along with him in the beginning to not stress out Sa'ana, and so she'll leave them with the baby to go take a proper break and mingle and breathe without anxiety.

A'nak does not know what to do with the kid. He's Sa'ana's.... kid? brother? friend? He has no idea what he should be doing. Should he be gently fathering him like Sa'ana mothers him at times? or would they just get him punched in the jaw? (it's the latter).

But eventually Spider will trust his commitment and open up to him, and they become very close. Spider will always give him shit and challenge his authority, but at the end of the day, when he doesn't have an answer or needs someone to have his back, he'll look for A'nak. and while A'nak doesn't know what to call this kid, he knows he would die for him. He would shield his body with his own. He would love mountains for him just like he would for Nani. That's his son and his brother and one of his best friends and that's all that matters.

They're the first people he tells about Quaritch being alive, and while it doesn't go over without reaction, they took it well enough, because that's their boy. They know him. They know he had a reason. And they trust him. He told them, knowing the risks, and he was honest, and his eyes held so much pain. So they help him break the news to the rest of the village and give him unconditional shelter no matter everyone else's reaction.

"I saved the monster that destroyed your home"

"You saved your father. Monster or not, he was your father."

"How are you ok with this?"

"I already know you enough to forgive you."

Sa'ana takes it best. She saw the boy in her village. Saw how torn his heart was. Knows that no matter the feelings he harbors for his father, his people will come first. A'nak needs to step away for a moment, which is the first turn Spider ever truly wanted him to stay, so he didn't do or say something foolish. But he gets over it, especially when the rest of the village gets s little hostile and he begins to guard the scar on his chest he never really asked about whenever he's near the eldest Sully woman. At that point that paternal instincts to protect unconditionally win. No one will touch his kid.

When the warfront returns to the shores of Awa'atlu, A'nak does everything to keep Spider from it, but ultimately takes him under his wing to make sure when he does sneak into battle, he doesn't get himself killed (though Spider does stay behind with Sa'ana and Nani often enough).

in the peace times Sa'ana and A'nak teach him to surf, and will take him all the way out to the edge of the reef to catch the good waves. A'nak takes Spider to scout when he resumes taking shorter, half day, trips. They each him the ceremonial dances of their people, for fun, and they practice together at night, and its so refreshing to do as a little family.

Spider takes Nani everywhere. They're attached at the hip. Spider is always taking him places and cooing to him and making him stuff. Over protective big brother to the max. This is the baby sibling he gets to raise, and that's special. He was only eight and barely accepted when Tuk was born. This is monumental for him. You never see them too far apart for very long. Even if it's a five minute check in every now and then when he's with his friends and other siblings. Nani is represented on his songchord by a pearl.

A'nak even put up with Spider's attempts to claim a Tsurak. He was a little shocked when he succeeded, but he pretends he always had faith (it's gonna be one of those stories he tells 20 years later and finally admits the truth. "I was only there cause I was gonna try and keep you from getting yourself killed")

in the end, Spider ends up living with them most of the time, he spends some nights with his siblings or with Ao'nung (cause they're totally crushing a little. and I think Sa'ana would giggle at the prospect of Spider falling for someone that reminds her of a younger A'nak, while A'nak himself pales at the mere thought. now he gets why Spider hated him so much), but he's home with them. With little Nani. In the mauri he helped make their own. And more often then not, he sleeps between them with Nani tucked in his arms.

He isn't alone anymore.

[eggo-tistical]

last day of mermay so huzzah

[serpentface]

Do psychotropic drugs and/or ritual play a role in any of the blightseed cultures? A pretty broad question, lol

Yeah that’s a very broad question, the answer is about as much as it tends to play roles in real history. Alcohol is pretty ubiquitous (outside of cultures that abstain from intoxicants) and used for a variety of purposes, opioids are commonly used in some parts for pain relief or recreational purposes, stimulants (usually in mild, natural forms) are used to provide extra energy, and hallucinogens are most commonly used as part of a larger religious framework (rather than for recreational purposes). Any more elaborate answer kinda has to be case by case in a certain culture or part of the setting.

I'll just take this as an opportunity to talk about the one established sect that pretty much REVOLVES around psychoactive use. This is the Scholarly Order of the Root, which is a sort of mystery religion + elite community of scholars who currently occupy the Ur-Tree and its forest in the far southern Lowlands (southeast of Imperial Wardin, on the same land mass).

The Ur-Tree is the obligatory Huge Fucking Fantasy Tree (and its surrounding forest). It’s a mass of vegetation about a mile tall and almost as old as Plant Life Itself, its upper branches are primeval plants, which become more modern the nearer they get to the ground (and each 'level' holds tiny ecosystems, some containing descendants of LONG-extinct arthropods/other small animals). Its lowest branches and the surrounding forest are contemporary plant life, and all is connected and protected by an incomparably MASSIVE fungal mycelium network (which is itself a living god).

A lot of the Scholars' more secretive practices revolve around experimentation with substance use with the goal of expanding the Mind and transcending the body to fully connect to the Dreamlands, and they have a supply chain of traders and mercenaries called Rootrunners who traffic substances into the Lowlands. Most of their psychoactive use is in a very intentional capacity and not just like, for fun, but a LOT of them are just straight up addicted to cocaine (in the form of alchemically refined bruljenum, which is used for practical purposes of its stimulant effect during long hours of work).

All known psychoactives are desirable for experimentation (particularly hallucinogens), with each having properties that either allow expansion of the Mind, transcendence of the body, or outright divine communion. Their effects are logged in great detail and interpreted to form the basis of the Scholars' understanding of the natural world and reality itself.

The most important substance is Ur-Root, which is root matter from subterranean levels of the Ur-Tree that have both their own intrinsic psychoactive substances and a very, very high concentration of living god mycelium. The tree root contains DMT and the mycelium has its own wholly unique effects (being an actual living god). They alchemically refine it into a purer, more potent form, and use it to expand beyond the body and directly commune with the Giants, a group of entities they have identified as the only true gods.

An Ur-Root trip starts off with minor visual distortion, which turns into shifting fractals that slowly obscure the vision. Eventually the senses are entirely taken over by a 'tunnel' of rapidly shifting fractals and geometries. In a complete trip, the experiencer gets a sense that they have been pushed through a membrane and entered another realm, finding themselves in a distinct experiential Space.

At this point they may encounter entities which communicate to them in a language impossible to describe but wholly understood. These beings are understood to be the Giants, or at least aspects of the Giants that mortals are capable of comprehending (they often take familiar tutelary forms of the Mantis or the Snake, or appear resembling the same type of sophont that the experiencer is, all composed of ever-shifting geometries). The experiencer often feels a sense of unconditional and endless love from these beings, though the Giants may be more hostile and may appear in the form of the Trickster (usually a cultural figure regarded as malicious, be it an animal or otherwise) in a bad trip.

(^Up until this point, this has mostly just been a DMT 'breakthrough' experience ft. 'machine elves' and the like).

They are then removed from this space and returned to something that feels like the real world, but is nearly unrecognizable. They have a sense of rapidly moving through time, and will usually see 'the spires' towards the beginning, which just so happen to look like this:

(source + some context via Implication- the spires are exactly what this art is depicting)

The experiencer continues to move across an unfathomable amount of time, occasionally 'seeing' other such flashes of unfamiliar landscapes and creatures, and yet also being devoid of all their senses, the 'seeing' is pure, unfiltered experience. There is a sense of interconnectedness with all life, and that one has become the forest (or even Life) itself. The sense of time is wildly distorted, the trip lasts only about 5 minutes but feels like an eternity and is understood as literal hundreds of millions of years.

The experiencer has usually lost any remaining sense of Self and individual consciousness during this phase (in which case this time distortion is usually a neutral or even peaceful experience), but some retain a fraction of their identity, and find themselves trapped and conscious while experiencing what feels like eternity (which can be LIFE-CHANGINGLY distressing, even after the fact).

(^This latter part of the trip is the effects of the Ur-Tree fungus).

The trip ends with a sense of rushing through the ground and back up into one's body, at which point they will abruptly return to their senses and consciousness. The details are then immediately retrieved via interview and recorded in immense detail. The whole experience is understood as having been full comprehension of the Dreamlands, communion with the Giants, and then a tour through the act of creation.

This is done as part of the initiatory practice into the inner mystery-religion of the scholars, and as needed for study by high scholar-priests. It is not taken lightly, both as it is absolute communion with the gods and reality, and in that it can be a very, very difficult experience. People who have gone through this often walk away with a permanently shifted perspective, often in a positive and/or comforting way- a sense of interconnectedness with all life, a peace with the concept of death, seeing less of a point in individual ego and the concept of Self, and comfort in the sense of divine love they (may have) experienced. This heavily influences the philosophy of the Scholars and has had effects by proxy in the religious worldviews of the region.

Details of this experience are closely guarded, and initiates are given absolutely no prior knowledge and expectations for their trip. This is seen as a necessity- their naivety will allow for a true, unfiltered experience, and can be used to gauge whether they should or should not be accepted. Those that have a distinctly bad trip upon initiation may be assumed to have been 'rejected' by the giants and thus denied full priesthood, though this largely depends on How they interpret their distressing trip- those who identify this as a test and harsh lesson in a journey to enlightenment may be accepted (as this is how fully initiated scholar-priests interpret and handle their bad trips).

This inner priesthood is only a small fraction of the Scholarly Order, and its greater function is as a hub of education and repository of knowledge, and Scholar-trained doctors can provide some of the best medical care available in the setting ('best medical care in this setting' only means so much but it's pretty solid, relatively speaking). Only a chosen few Scholars ever get to commune with the Ur-Root, and most of the divine secrets revealed in the process are kept hidden (though they indirectly influence the politics and worldview of the entire order).

[puppppppppy]

Why have sex when u can watch blackhead removal videos

[baishouqijia]

don't ask me where i've been cause i have no answer :y

[applecherry108]

IM CALLING IT RIGHT NOW THIS IS GOING TO BE SATAN AND LEVIATHAN

[bitchfitch]

They should invent a way to call the boarders about my cats that wouldn't involve irritating a real live person who has a job to do that is not telling me my cats are ok.

[theinfinitedivides]

SRK!Don girlies pack it up and take it home we're all f*cked after 84 years we finally get official news about Don 3 coming in 2025 or so and there's uh. i can't believe i'm saying this this is actually coming out of my mouth but there's no Shah Rukh

[valeress]

ramble

[smokeys-house]

I changed the smokey special drinky drink a bit 🤏 but instead of actually altering anything I just went from the juice of a lemon wedge to half a large lemon 🍋

[einsatzzz]

OC Crossovers (1/3): Tea Time with Myr and Lidija (@myrmyrtheorca 's OCs!) Kurumi may or may not be telling Lidija about shoujo manga while Myr is just chilling there and relaxing from the nice atmosphere.

[highspeedinterconnect]

this week has been fucking awful I just wanna lay down somewhere quiet w my gf and cats. holy shit

[apocalypse-boogie]

I gotta be honest, I don’t engage with the Criminal Minds fandom (despite having watched all of the original show + Evolution and read up on as much of the spin-offs as I could) because I don’t like how prevalent the racism and sexism and infantilization is in the fandom. There’s just enough of all that shit upfront that I don’t want to dig any deeper than I already have. I’m good, I get enough of that shit in fandoms that I’ve been apart of for years I’m not gonna let this shit sully my love for this show anymore than it already has (especially considering the show’s writing itself is not devoid of these faults).

I’d rather just love the show and dissect it and write analysis and fanfic for it and shit on my own.

My fav characters (just cause & kind of in best to least order): Penelope Garcia (she’s literally me, I love her), Derek Morgan, Emily Prentiss, Jordan Todd, Matt Simmons, David Rossi.