#relying on the kindness of friends and benefactors

[sobeautifullyobsessed]

don't want to ask again, but must due to a financial setback...

I've delayed this all week because it physically pains me to do this again so soon, but the need to buy food and pay for gas, plus renewing my driver's license (it cost me $65 more than I budgeted for) have forced my hand. My work hours are still being cut, so far through the end of July. So, I have to try to raise $150 by this weekend to keep my room another week (we're currently in a 90+ degrees heatwave again). I'm exploring a couple of other options but in the meantime, anything I can raise towards that goal would be heaven sent. My deepest thanks go to anyone that can help in any way - and to everyone who continues to bear with me for the necessity of this plea.

[blueepink07]

I can't be the only one who thinks that Muu's dress looks kind of similar with Belle's dress from the Beauty and the beast, right...?

I think it's interesting how the story (not the Disney version) is originated from France. No matter what version you take, Belle saved the beast by reciprocating his feelings and seeing past his appearance, Belle's presence awakening his good inner self.

Somehow, I think it fits with Muu's and Haruka's relationship, in a way. Haruka thinks of Muu as his benefactor, the one who helped him become more confident and cheerful. Although Haruka considers himself as being "useless", Muu saw past this, and found a friend that she can rely on in a weird place like Milgram. She takes care of him bringing him food, prasing him and giving attention, basically, showing kindness.

"Haruka: Muu-san praises me. The useless me… She praises me, acknowledges me, looks at me, and she needs me. My current self only exists thanks to Muu-san."

Her presence and her kindness is one of the factors that contributed in making Haruka feel more confident, changing him. Haruka and the beast are both characters who weren't used to being treated with compassion... And so, the appearance of Muu, respectively, Belle ultimately saved them, based on their perspective and situation.

Also, "Belle" means beautiful in French and Muu is canonically described as gorgeous!

Her birthday art is one of my favourites! The cake (Galette des rois) is such an interesting choice due to its traditions!

I hope I'll have time to share my thoughts of her birthday cake art and make a proper analysis/theory...!

[merrock]

HAPPY FIRST OF SEPTEMBER!

September is such a busy month for me, but also one of my favorites, since it was the first "full" month that we were open for back in 2021. That, and I really love Creek Fest. As we head into the fall season -- peep our new graphics -- we hope that you'll come along for the ride and enjoy everything that we have planned! xx

HAPPENING IN SEPTEMBER!

September 16 - 23 : CREEK FEST -- our annual fall festival is happening mid-September this year, and will feature live music, shopping, games and all of your favorite fall activities!

SEPTEMBER'S MINI-EVENTS!

September 1 -- world letter writing day : the kick-off to our task for the month.

September 1 -- football season kick-off : the first game of the varsity football season. schedule posted on the Times!

September 3 -- pet rock day : go to the library and design your very own pet rock!

September 21 -- first day of fall : and it happens during Creek Fest!

September 25 -- national lobster day : our second go 'round of celebrating lobster in town.

EXTRA BIT OF FUN!

This month, we are doing a fun writing-based task, in which you are to write an in-character letter as your character(s) to anyone they please. You can read more about this task right here! It can be done any time during the month of September, so please take your time. It is not mandatory and does not count towards activity. You are also encouraged to send in ideas for Creek Fest activities to the Benefactor (read more here).

IMPORTANT NOTES!

as usual, just be sure you are familiar with our rules!

gentle nudge: be fair with activity. if you play more than one character, keep them all equally active, and remember that your older replies will just keep getting older! we understand (and totally get!) muse and inspiration, but remember that in a group setting, we depend on each other for activity.

be sure to be kind to everyone in the group, especially OOC. I know that may seem silly, but reply to someone looking for plots, or just be kind to someone having a rough time in the OOC. make it a goal to not just be kind to your friends, but everyone!

speaking of the OOC blog, please talk to us when you need something, rather than relying on talk tags or OOC posts, and remember that if you need something from us as admins, to contact us here on main, rather than our accounts!

lastly, be careful with triggering content! as we mentioned earlier this month, keep an eye on our triggers page, use the "trigger tw" format, and be mindful of language used, OOC and IC.

BEHIND THE SCENES!

not a whole lot to report here! as we wind down the year, I'm working on game planning 2024 some more, making adjustments based on activity & participation, and seeing what shakes out!

for now, we are sticking with "checks at discretion" for the time being! two weeks, removal; one week, warning. if we see you are only logging in to do one or two replies, if you are not replying to starters, or if we notice bubbling, this will also resulting a warning. we'll be observing activity patterns and should we make changes to how things are done, will let you know October 1st.

oh! fun stuff coming up. we'll be doing another Shelter Appreciation Weekend, and have a fun masquerade type event planned for Halloween this year! plus the usual trick-or-treating stuff, if you want to wear a costume.

and that's honestly about it!

HAPPY SEPTEMBER, MERROCKITES!

[overclocksaa]

consider:  kate bishop and tony stark are more alike than they want to admit, in this essay i will-

[deancaspinefest]

Sincerely Yours

Author: perciell | Artist: lotrspnfangirl Posting on Saturday March 5

Dean Winchester is a twenty-one year-old omega with a keen intellect but no prospects, soon to be ejected from the orphanage he’s learnt to tolerate. Castiel Novak-Edlund, an alpha four years his senior, is a philanthropist with more money than he knows what to do with. Dean is like any other beneficiary: Castiel will finance his education at a prestigious college, asking for nothing in return but monthly letters keeping him apprised of his social and intellectual progress. He won’t ever respond—he’s not looking to make friends with somebody who’s relying on him financially. But with each letter to his benefactor—who he dubs ‘Mr. Guardian Angel’—Dean reveals himself to be uniquely witty and incisive, and Castiel can’t help but become invested. All his best laid plans fall apart when they meet in person through his cousin Anael and fondness starts to evolve into something far more frightening. Castiel becomes Dean’s friend without ever telling him that he’s the man he’s been writing to, and worse, he finds himself falling in love. If he ever wants a happy ending, he’ll have to relinquish control and come out of hiding—but he’s not the only one with secrets.

Keep reading for a sneak preview!

The Lebanon Home for Orphaned Children and Young Omegas May 7th, 1908

Dear Mr. ‘John Smith’,

I’m writing to you with a heart full of gratitude, but Mr. Alastair has told me you’re an eccentric man who hates being thanked. So instead of expressing my sincere appreciation, I’ll express my disappointment!

‘John Smith’? What a boring alias! I was hoping my mysterious benefactor might be a little more mysterious. I just refuse to address a single letter more to a Mr. John Smith—even if I find myself writing to somebody unlucky enough to have actually been christened something so plain, I’ll call him ‘Jack’! Seeing as I’m required to write to you every month, starting September, this presents a problem. Now, I’ve given it some thought, and landed on a solution:

You see, although you've saved me from the Lebanon Home, it seems you want to remain completely anonymous. Therefore, from what Alastair has told me, and from what I can gather myself, there are only four things I can confidently say about you:

1. You’re kind 2. You’re rich 3. You’re an alpha 4. You hate omegas

I could call you ‘Mr. Omega-Hater’, but that’s not fair to me; if we’re going to be friends (or one-sided correspondents at least) I’m sure I can convince you we're not so bad. It probably wouldn’t do to call you ‘Mr. Rich-Alpha’, either, because I’m pretty sure you'd find that insulting, like your wealth is all that matters. Besides, if you’re throwing away your money on hopeless half-orphans like me, you might not stay rich forever!

That only leaves what you have done for me, and for so many others in the Home. You know, my mother used to tell me that angels were watching over me—and now I feel like she might have been right. So, I’ll call you ‘Mr. Guardian Angel’. If you take issue with your new name, I suggest you write to me to tell me so—that way I’ll have gotten you to break your own rules, and I’ll consider it a win anyway.

 [continue reading on Ao3 on Saturday March 5]

[bigshotautos]

spamton disturbs everyone he meets on sight, obsession with somehow reaching Heaven very much included, so jevil seeing that part of him as inspiring at all would be such a mindfuck to him, in a good way

the thing is, i don't think it'd be entirely inspiring to jevil. the thing that'd stick with jevil is spamton's aspiration for things to improve, finding heaven is something that he'd likely think is impossible and im kind of inclined to agree with that.

i talk a TON about the speculative issues jevil could have with building stronger interpersonal relationships, but spamton has a bunch of his own, and in varying flavors! his obsession with escaping his lot in life and finding "heaven" (whatever that may be by his definition and the game's definition) isn't healthy and caused him to abandon everything but living selfishly trying to claw towards it. again, not caring what it takes because of his singleminded focus on it.

my own interpretation is that post NEO fight, that was it, all of spamton's dreams for reaching heaven were totally dashed because there was no more options left for him but to become useful as he Dealmaker/Puppetscarf. the thing he focused on for so long, would pray to -- the NEO body -- wasn't enough to break free. and even IF he got kris' soul, spamton would just be controlled AGAIN by something and be no more free (this is kind of an aside but there's an animation for having the soul get swallowed during the NEO fight and i just think its cool).

it's something i think he'd still have latent dreams of attaining but with no path towards it and having somewhat 'accepted' the situation he's in.

but anyway! jevil would still see the hope inside spamton and be drawn to it and once he's done messing with him for fun, just GENUINELY enjoy his company and companionship with the only thing he expects back is a smile or a laugh. and THAT would blow that little puppet's mind.

the way i see it, 'heaven' in his mind is being able to live entirely on his own without the interference of anyone else. even in the NEO fight, his first reaction is to say he's finally live for himself and THEN tacks on for 'his friends'. tying that to his difficulty making connections pre-corruption, being abandoned by the addisons, being left by his mysterious benefactor, he's going to view a LOT of people with skepticism and not want to rely on them, leading him to want to seek a life entirely on his own. even beyond knowing reality is a game, it's a form of escapism to want to live without connections to others. it's giving up entirely on finding any satisfaction in the world he's in, because there's another one out there that he thinks is better. not as dark.

but finding MEANING in the world with jevil makes the dreams of 'heaven' go away because he's found happiness in the world he's already in. just like how with jevil he finds meaning in reality because he cares about spamton.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Either a prompt, or just an answer! But based on your post about JGY and using microaggressions, what do you think would have happened if it had been LXC who caught him in one of his manipulative stunts and realized it was all a trick, rather than NMJ? I almost feel like he'd talk himself out of believing what he's seen, or let JGY talk him out of it, and then neither of them might have guessed at his true nature.

Lan Xichen did his best to like most people, to give them the benefit of the doubt whenever possible – truly, he did. He even thought he was mostly successful at it, purposefully looking at Sect Leader Yao’s boorish nosiness as well-meant although ill-executed sympathy or Sect Leader Ouyang’s tendency to follow the crowd as a sense of fellow-feeling taken to an extreme.

And yet –

He was certain that there was something wrong with Meng Yao.

The seeds of doubt had been planted the first time they’d met – or rather, the first time he’d seen Meng Yao, he supposed. The man had been travelling in a caravan of merchants, heading towards Qinghe; Lan Xichen, on the run from the burning of the Cloud Recesses and utterly exhausted, had abandoned his initial campground and hidden himself in a tree.

He’d intended on simply continuing onwards, ignoring his tired feet (what right did he have to be merely tired, after all, with uncle injured and father likely dying and Wangji taken away by the Wens to be abused…), but something he’d stuffed into his mouth earlier had disagreed with him and he’d just hidden in the tree instead, thinking it’d be nice to see the faces of some fellow humans, even from a distance.

He’d seen Meng Yao then, though he hadn’t known it was Meng Yao, and the way he investigated the campgrounds with a slight frown that turned into a pleased smile, as if something had worked out according to plan –

They’d bumped into each other again a few days later, when Lan Xichen was even more tired and hopeless and fleeing a badly timed set of Wen cultivators out on a night-hunt, only Meng Yao had been alone.

Alone, and with rations to spare, and a story that he’d left Lanling after his terrible disgrace to travel all on his own.

Lan Xichen had been starving at the time, too busy to think twice about it or ask about the other merchants he’d seen with Meng Yao, and it wasn’t until later that night that he opened his eyes and looked up at the moon, bewildered by the one flaw in the otherwise truly piteous story.

If Meng Yao had merely parted ways with the merchants, why lie?

The seed of doubt remained only a seed, then, and they travelled together some ways before parting – after all, Lan Xichen had assured himself, in some ways it could be said that Meng Yao had saved his life; it would be impolite, churlish even, to question him on something he clearly didn’t want to talk about.

It wasn’t until later, when Lan Xichen began to act as courier between the sects during the Sunshot Campaign, that the seed bloomed into a flower, and then began growing even more rapidly than a weed.

A weed like Meng Yao, who was brilliant enough to piece together information and yet selfish enough to use it for his own benefit instead of the benefit of all.

Lan Xichen hadn’t realized it at first, too busy lecturing himself on his pointless suspicion of his benefactor, but the information he collected – some too late to be helpful – suddenly put certain things in context.

Certain battles that didn’t have to happen, but did, and the way that they did threw Meng Yao’s merits into sharp relief – he wasn’t the best at battle, but he was excellent at clean-up, especially in aiding the common folk, but for that to happen the battle had to take place somewhere where they would suffer.

And then there were certain groups of people, Nie cultivators or otherwise, that died shortly after crossing Meng Yao – one survivor telling Lan Xichen that he hadn’t known some critical information that Lan Xichen was certain that he’d conveyed to the Nie sect in time.

He’d been about to go demand answers from Nie Mingjue when the survivor had let slip that it had been Nie Mingjue’s so-capable deputy that had given them the briefing – and that the deputy was Meng Yao.

Lan Xichen had fought with himself, not wanting to believe it. He had no solid evidence, after all, merely suspicions, and Nie Mingjue was delighted by Meng Yao, praising him as virtuous and capable. Nie Mingjue was not a man to praise people lightly, so this was evident evidence of his esteem, and a sign that Meng Yao had managed, somehow, to get in through the usually standoffish sect leader’s guard and into his heart.

But once the suspicion was there, the signs were there, too – things that Lan Xichen would have written off if he hadn’t been looking, things that he would never have noticed.

How facile Meng Yao’s face was, how responsive to his will, and yet how different he was when around different people. Lan Xichen had had to learn to read emotions from the smallest of signs to understand Wangji, prided himself on it, and when Meng Yao was around him, the little things – the crinkle of his eyes, the pursing of his lips, the quivering of his cheeks – all accorded with his words. In other words, he was sincere and true, as far as Lan Xichen could tell, and the only deviation was when he so-nobly tried and yet failed to avoid talking about the occasional injustices that he suffered, and yet those were subject that he had brought up himself, or which Lan Xichen just happened to walk in on.

It was precisely the sort of person he most liked, straightforward and sincere and just a little piteous, someone combining the best parts of Nie Mingjue and Lan Wangji and yet also reminiscent of when Lan Wangji was a child young enough that Lan Xichen could actually do things for him, to be the protective and indulgent big brother in a way Lan Wangji hadn’t needed in years.

If he wasn’t already suspicious, Lan Xichen was quite sure that he would be as enchanted by Meng Yao as Nie Mingjue was.

After all, Nie Mingjue was good with reading emotions, too – only his favorite type of person wasn’t the honest-but-shyly-pitiful type, but one who was straightforward yet restrained, who was hurt by the slights of others but who held his head high regardless, who had a spark of mischief and humor hiding behind his solemnity.  And when Meng Yao didn’t know Lan Xichen was watching, that was exactly the sort of person his face said he was: his eyes dancing in amusement at Nie Huaisang’s latest antics even while his mouth remained stern, his chin lifted a little as if he didn’t even notice when other men spoke ill of him…not shy, not subject to coaxing, still young but in a different sort of way, a happy and energetic way that was reminiscent of Nie Huaisang’s younger years (and, indeed, of his current ones) rather than Lan Wangji’s solemnity, his hidden pain and earnest striving to be good.

A first-class manipulator, Lan Xichen concluded after months of study. Meng Yao’s preferred mask was a display of weakness perfectly tailored to the interests of others, and he wielded that weakness as skillfully as Nie Mingjue wielded his saber or Lan Xichen played his qiao – and as ruthlessly, too.

He was a dagger hidden in the dark.

Lan Xichen tried to warn Nie Mingjue, but to no avail: Nie Mingjue was a stunning fighter, a brilliant general, and there was none better when it came to understanding how the quirks of his enemies would translate into strategic and tactical decisions that could be used on the battlefield, but outside of that context he had always been a little naïve about human nature.

It was something Lan Xichen should have known – Nie Mingjue had never understood, not really, why the other clans would allow themselves to be insulted by the Wen sect, trod upon, why they would selfishly turn their face away from the cries of the innocent to preserve themselves, as the Nie sect had only not declared war because it was too busy helping others – and most of the time he found the almost child-like innocence and inflexibility extremely cute.

Not right now, though.

Nie Mingjue simply couldn’t conceive of someone he was close to lying to him like that. His exterior was fierce but his heart was warm; once he was convinced you were one of his people, he would never turn against you no matter how harsh his tongue might be.

So when Lan Xichen told him he needed to be wary of Meng Yao, he tried, in deference to their old friendship and the trust between them, but he just couldn’t do it. He tried to be wary, tried to watch him, and then something more important distracted him and he fell back into his old habits of trusting and relying on him – no, until Nie Mingjue somehow saw with his own eyes what Lan Xichen put together through clues, he wouldn’t be able to believe that the man was a scorpion rather than a friend.

And while he didn’t say it, the distressed look in his old friend’s eyes suggested to Lan Xichen that Nie Mingjue was worried that he was the one affected, that his suffering at the Cloud Recesses and thereafter had injured his kind and trusting nature, and that he was merely being unduly paranoid.

It was a fair point, so Lan Xichen turned to the one he trusted most.

Lan Wangji listened solemnly to his suspicions, to his concerns, and promised to investigate, agreeing that there was enough there to merit justified suspicion even if he wouldn’t commit to a final decision until he’d had a chance to determine it for himself.

That was fine.

Lan Xichen was sure that there was a problem, even if no one else in the world believed him – but he had Lan Wangji at his side, capable and earnest, and that meant he didn’t have to be the only one in the world. They would unravel the riddle of Meng Yao and shine a light into the dark spaces he preferred to hide, and they would do it together.

[c0smicheaux]

Eleventh House in the signs

Aries-

When the eleventh house begins in Aries, things are never peaceful in this person’s social life. There are always new acquaintances waiting down the road, and this can make their approach a bit superficial because of the certainty life will always bring someone new our way. It will be easy to make friends but a little hard to hold on to them for very long. Boundaries need to be set and respected, as well as the dedication that flows both ways in order for their relationships to last. As if their God spoke through energy of Aries, these individuals often see life as a battlefield or a game that needs to be won. Once they open up to the Universal thought, they will realize where their energy lies and how to use it, show initiative, and move forwards just as they wish to.

Taurus-

The eleventh house in Taurus speaks of the importance of social life for a person’s material satisfaction. This doesn’t mean their relationships with friends have anything to do with money, although they easily could, but rather that the satisfactions of the Earth are recognized through them. They will learn about their senses through social contacts and often have many stable, loving and tender relationships that last a lifetime. This is a typical position for individuals who truly know how to nurture people they love, without unrealistic expectations, holding on to practical values and morals. There are no false pretenses here, for they wouldn’t last, and natural approach is the one that is easiest to incorporate into their life. Their deep desire for love, peace and emotional stability is so strong that it often doesn’t allow them to change in a proper time or the right way. If they remain flexible, this is a promise of joy and financial security at old age.

Gemini-

With the eleventh house in Gemini, we see someone who wishes to communicate has something to express and always finds several persons to listen. Friendships are fast, exciting and adventurous. There is always a lot to discuss and think about, while brainstorming is the most satisfying activity in their social encounters. On the downside, they can become too superficial out of their need to remain free of solid bonds, and while they would want to have enlightening encounters, they become less satisfying as they shut off their emotional side. The important thing to remember with this position is the importance of self-expression and our brothers and sisters, no matter if we have any from the same parents, or we have cosmic ones in our surroundings. For as long as ambition doesn’t make these individuals too static and committed to work, they should find the time to enjoy the benefits of this airy eleventh house.

Cancer-

If the eleventh house begins in Cancer, everyone in this person’s family will feel like friends. This is a strange position as the eleventh house should be there to free us from our emotional ties, but this is not the case here. These individuals have strong feelings for those they socialize with, have heightened senses around other people and treat others with empathy. However rational they might seem to be, there is something warm in their approach. The desire of the eleventh house in Cancer is in emotional awareness, acceptance and peace. In order to find it, they will have to embrace their emotional depths, however flawed they might seem. The truth is they deserve a calm, serene place in their hearts and minds, but their genetic inheritance stands in the way too often. If they haven’t been told they are beautiful, smart and special often enough when they were children, they should make self-affirmation a regular part of their daily routine.

Leo-

With the eleventh house in Leo, the image of friendships easily becomes more important than actual friends. On one hand, this is obviously a very important issue in a person’s life, and on the other, they tend to socialize only with people who make them look good. Self-recognition comes through other people and it can be difficult to steer clear of control and people who impose their will and show disrespect. The key to creating healthy relationships with this position is to put everyone’s individuality to focus. This doesn’t mean one should neglect their own inner being, but rather that each relationship formed should have a deep personal understanding and respect. Once they realize how each of their friends or siblings is special, without becoming envious or strangely tied to them as if they should become someone else, they will start to surround themselves by honest people with warm hearts. Desired respect can be hard to reach if they don’t have enough respect for themselves.

Virgo-

When the eleventh house is set in the sign of Virgo, there is often something wrong with friends this person finds. While in the best possible light this could show friends who are healers, truly intelligent and incredibly dedicated to their cause, in most cases it also speaks of betrayal of some kind and people who aren’t adequate to fulfill a person’s needs. There is always a question of what is truly deserved here, and it is typical for them to consider themselves unworthy of honest social contacts who as similar to them as they should be. Usually, a lot of time will pass before they realize who they need to be around with, and this comes with age and experience if they don’t close their heart entirely because of several bad wounds. The greatest wish for those born with their eleventh house in Virgo is to be grounded, practical and caring. Lucky for them, this can be reached through inspiring relationships, healthy routine and everyday simplicities of life.

Libra-

The eleventh house likes to be in Libra for its communication issues are focused on important relationships making it easy to form social contacts. However, the sign of Libra itself doesn’t exactly enjoy this position leading to too many changes in their emotional life, as well as breakups or divorce if they haven’t chose a partner who is both their friend and their lover combined. The search for balance these people need becomes clear in their relationships, emotional, social or professional. It is never easy to find it though, and they will jump from one serious social bond into another, in long time periods, as if they had no intention to settle for a friendship that isn’t perfect. The problem is - there is no such thing as a perfect person in this world, unless if you observe the entire humanity as a manifest of perfection. While these individuals reflect in their friends, they will never be happy this way if they don’t accept the imperfections in human nature.

Scorpio-

While many would think that the eleventh house in Scorpio is quite difficult and bonding, we shouldn’t forget that the sign of Scorpio is the sign of the exaltation of Uranus and speaks of the best friends we could find. Friendships in Scorpio represents our deep bonds for life, and they will be hard to achieve, build up, but extremely satisfying every step of the way. The depth these relationships are approached in is extreme and not always easy to comprehend. The preconditions for any true bond here are brutal honesty and the ability to turn to dark humor in the time of need. Individuals born with this position wish to reach emotional depth they don’t recognize within, and they are often not fully aware of this need. Their road in life will be based on reasonable choices and things they can cold-heartedly achieve, but their real goals will never be easy or at the palm of their hand if they don’t deal with family issues and emotional blockages they made along the way.

Sagittarius-

If the eleventh house is in the sign of Sagittarius, people who surround this person are benefactors, teachers, travelers, and open-minded friends who don’t mind differences in opinions, education or race. This is an inviting position as it speaks of all good men and women who have a lot to give, teach, and learn at the same time. Their friends can overdo the favors and the problem that appears in these souls will come from the inability to achieve anything alone. Once this person starts relying on others for help, they will wonder too far from their own character and burden those who wanted to show good faith. This is a wonderful position for all those special souls who came to this planet to reconnect with the Universe. God will speak to them as they breathe together with planet Earth, and find incredible joy in meditation and new techniques that will help them shape their future.

Capricorn-

When the eleventh house begins in Capricorn, friendships last, filled with patience and the sense of obligation. Without a strong basis, there is little that can be done to improve social life, and they need to be surrounded with those who come highly “recommended” by those they already trust. This is a closed circle of friends, as a loop that may last forever. Still, Capricorn doesn’t bring much joy into any house, and especially not in the eleventh. One will have to reach structure, have an organized schedule, and dedicate their life to finding the right balance that will keep them healthy and situated. Karmic friendships are typical here, and those a person is bound to form a strong bond with will feel familiar. Close friends met this person in the past, with their lives intertwined in a loop of karmic debt or reward.

Aquarius-

The eleventh house in Aquarius speaks of liberation a person needs. Slaves to our unhealthy routines, choices, habits and relationships, these people will have a clear wish to be free and expressed as exactly themselves in their society. While humane and righteous in their approach, they will rarely be brave enough to endure in their chases, unless if the Sun is extremely well set in a personal chart. This is a position that gives as many friends as we need, to be there for us, wake us up, and help us find our connection to the Universal thought. If the positioning is extremely difficult, they become aware of the direct link they have to the skies above and wish to go there before their time. In most cases, however, this is a position that allows individual growth through the group and gives the opportunity to truly become enlightened and free.

Pisces-

When the eleventh house is in the sign of Pisces, friendships are hazy and unclear. This is a person who has a task to find faith in others and it will always come with challenges and difficulties in their way. If they believe enough to spread love without many expectations, they could find those several soulmates that were deserved through previous lifetimes. Purity is the key to solid relationships, and with Pisces everything is prone to change and endings. Many friendships will begin only to end, pushing this person in the right direction. Others will be kept at a certain distance and lack intimacy. What these people need to do is sink in, and give in to every relationship that feels good without fear of betrayal or loss. If their friends are supposed to end up at sea, on another continent, or in their dreamland, this is fine for as long as they share an emotional bond wherever they are.

Source; astrology-zodiac-signs dotcom

[bigskydreaming]

Me constantly side-eyeing the preoccupation with Dick Grayson and money, how he pays for stuff, how much of it is Bruce’s, etc etc, when there’s like, comparatively zero examination of or even question about how and where Jason’s money comes from or Tim’s or Cassandra’s or like a ton of other superheroes, lol. Like, why is it only Dick’s financials that are constantly subject to scrutiny? 

Facts that have been in play more than once in canon:

Dick likes to be self-sufficient when and where he can be.

Dick has at times had money from a trust fund from Bruce, and money from a wrongful death civil suit in regards to his parents’ deaths, that Lucius Fox invested on his behalf.

DIck has at times asked Bruce for additional funds, primarily for use for his friends or teams.

Dick has repeatedly and consistently worked dayjobs with a specific eye towards earning his own living wages, even when he doesn’t have to. Its particularly odd how often the subject of how does Dick pay for things comes up, even like just in regards to his apartment, when Dick’s consistently one of the only superheroes without a singular iconic job that’s a part of his narrative (like Clark and reporting, or Hal and being a pilot, or Barry and being a crime scenes/lab tech) who nevertheless consistently seeks out and holds down jobs for the express purposes of....having money to pay for things. 

And thing is, none of these things are mutually exclusive, contradictory or hypocritical? Its only the hyper-fixation on one specific element of all this at a time that tends to present the illusion otherwise.

 Some other things to keep in mind on the subject of Dick Grayson and money in fics:

1) If your fic takes place during or after or otherwise references Dick running Wayne Enterprises during the year Bruce was lost in time and believed dead by most of the family and cape community, are you taking into account that what Dick was doing there was the exact same kind of work that Bruce normally does? And that thus he would have been making quite a good deal of money? Have you considered that even a single year of this should be more than sufficient to last him for a good long while, given that he lives a comparatively modest lifestyle outside of his superhero endeavors? Are you subjecting Dick and his usages of money from this time to a greater scrutiny than you normally apply to Bruce and how he uses money he makes from Wayne Enterprises? Are you treating Dick as being less entitled to any money made here than Bruce normally is, just because Dick doesn’t have Wayne attached to his name even though at the time and in the continuity where this happened, Dick was 100% Bruce’s legal son and heir?

2) If your fic or headcanons are paying close examination to Dick’s various jobs and whether he’s living according to his means or occasionally dipping into “Bruce’s money” to supplement that, are you paying similar attention to Jason’s sources of income? If Jason’s money is coming from off-the-page criminal enterprises, is this something you’re leaning into because you’re of the stance that there’s nothing morally or ethically wrong with the specifics of what Jason is doing to make money here or have you simply relegated it to being immaterial and not even worth exploring, something there’s no need to even get into? If so, is there a reason you’re more willing to handwave away money gotten from means other than just an average dayjob, than you are money gotten from an actual, verifiable, on the page dayjob that simply doesn’t seem high-level enough to earn a significant income? Is there a reason the latter is presented as more worthy of scrutiny and critical awareness in your fic than the former?

3) If your fic is delving into what is and isn’t Bruce’s money, are you applying the same view of money earned vs money inherited to what Dick makes vs ‘gets from Bruce and/or his first parents’ insurance/wrongful death suit’....as you are to what Jason makes vs gets from Bruce or Tim makes vs gets from Bruce and/or his parents’ inheritance....or even what Bruce makes vs got from his own inheritance? Have you ever made the distinction that the money Bruce used to launch everything Batman in his early twenties wasn’t money that he quote and quote earned at WE which he wasn’t even working at yet, or had barely started at, but was, in a sense more ‘his parents’ money’ rather than his? Is there a reason Dick can’t access any money outside of what he makes at his dayjobs without there being an emphasis on it being “Bruce’s money” and is that same reasoning in effect when say, Tim accesses funds that are specifically from Bruce....is this similarly being singled out as Tim using “Bruce’s money” vs his own, or money from his first parents? (Keep in mind that Jack Drake wasn’t particularly wealthy at the time of his death and Tim didn’t actually inherit a lot of wealth pre-Reboot). 

Point being, are you treating Tim or Jason or ANY of the other Batkids as being more implicitly entitled to Bruce’s money without it being singled out as being Bruce’s money, specifically, and if so, is that something to reflect on: why you view Dick and his relationship with Bruce and any funds stemming from him differently? If its simply because Dick does pride himself on being self-sufficient when he can, is this a source of hypocrisy when he can’t be for whatever reason, or say, is it no different from any child who tries to rely only on their own earned funds as an adult, but still can and does go to a parent for help when they need it? 

4) Are you aware that the Titans, as a team, actually make money in various ways like merchandising, and that especially in the 80s this was a large focal point of how they funded things like their headquarters and vehicles....and that the Titans also were allotted funds for things like living expenses FROM these revenue streams? And that Dick was one of the handful of Titans specifically noted as being in charge of organizing and maintaining these revenue streams and the money resulting from them, and also was just as entitled to funds from them himself, same as the rest of his teammates who were able to survive on these without holding down dayjobs at times the majority of their focus was on being a Titan? 

I say this one as most people AREN’T aware of this, but especially when compared and contrasted with how much less of a thing this is in later generations of super-teams, who handwave the subject of money, it is noteworthy IMO that Dick and his generation of Titans were one of the few times this was made an actual focal topic. With again, Dick showing a lot of initiative in making the Titans as self-sufficient without specific outside backers as possible. (But also, when they did have outside backers this included a variety of people who were NOT just Bruce Wayne). 

Point being, though Dick did ask Bruce for help in purchasing things that were Titans related, the Teen Titans were never a case of “Dick relies on his dad to fund his superhero club and clubhouse”....and even if it WERE, consider this: what makes this any different than the fact that Bruce funds a lot of the Justice League himself - and by himself, remember I mean not just money he earned himself working at WE but the millions and even billions that weren’t earned but rather accumulated via inheritance? Is it simply because Bruce isn’t on this team himself, and if so, is this same scrutiny or contextual framing being given to other generations of the team like Tim’s, or other teams Bruce backs without being a personal member, like the iterations of the Outsiders he’s not directly involved with other than as a benefactor?

In conclusion:

If you notice yourself focusing more on Dick’s money and what is or isn’t ‘his’ money than you do any other character, its worth trying to delve into WHY.....because when there are discrepancies in how and where and why one character is singled out or scrutinized on a subject more intensely than others, those are going to show up in other peoples’ awareness whether or not you decide to apply your own awareness to determining why those discrepancies exist in the first place.

[sou-ver-2-0]

Maybe I'm thinking too much about the Persona games today, but are there any characters that you would pair any tarot arcana with?

What a fun question! I think that tarot cards have like, the coolest aesthetic ever. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about tarot arcana, so I went on a deep dive into Wikipedia to try to understand it. I’ll apologize in advance that A. E. Waith’s definitions for these cards feel very heteronormative. I’m working with the traditional definitions, but I try to make them work for a modern story.

Here are the character-card combinations I came up with:

0 – The Fool: Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, bewrayment. [If the card is] Reversed: Negligence, absence, distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity, vanity.

Joe Tazuna

Joe Tazuna is our gaudy, “extravagant” fool! The fool represents the “everyman,” and is often the “protagonist of the story” in Major Arcana. Joe, who is good-natured and clumsy, has the type of personality you’d expect to see in a story’s protagonist. Ironically, he is one of the first to die. His “absence” is deeply felt by our real protagonist, Sara, who must go on the “Fool’s Journey” “through the great mysteries of life and the main human archetypes” without him.

1 – The Magician: Skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety, pain, loss, disaster, snares of enemies; self-confidence, will; [it signifies] the Querent, if male. Reversed: Physician, mental disease, disgrace, disquiet.

Reko Yabusame

Reko is our “skilled,” “confident,” strong-willed musician magician! (And she often uses masculine pronouns, so why not give her a masculine card?) Reko has also suffered through “pain, loss, and disaster,” which has shaped her current mature, kind personality. And in the past, she was a “disgraced” rebellious rock star who burned through bands.

2 – The High Priestess: Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the Querent herself, if female; silence, tenacity; mystery, wisdom, science. Reversed: Passion, moral or physical ardor, conceit, surface knowledge.

Tia Safalin and Maple

This card made me think of both villainous ladies. Tia Safalin has knowledge of science, while Maple seems to also have mysterious wisdom about human nature and the future.

3 – The Empress: Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance. Reversed: Light, truth, the unraveling of involved matters, public rejoicings; according to another reading, vacillation.

Sara Chidouin

The Empress can only be our Sara! The girl who takes “initiative” and becomes the group’s leader! She seeks to bring “light” and “truth” to discussions, and she “unravels mysteries.” And yet, she also suffers from “doubt” in herself, and “ignorance” of her surroundings.

4 – The Emperor: Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person; aid, reason, conviction also authority and will. Reversed: Benevolence, compassion, credit; also confusion to enemies, obstruction, immaturity.

Mr. Chidouin

We don’t know much about Mr. Chidouin, and I do not trust him one bit. However, he seemed to be a suitable companion to his “Empress” daughter. Kai Satou certainly thought he was “a great” and “benevolent” person, though he has an “immature” way of speaking.

5 – The Hierophant: Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy, and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse. Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord, over kindness, weakness.

Kai Satou

The words “servitude” and “captivity” suit our homemaker Kai, who always lived in service to others—either Asu-Naro or the Chidouins. Kai is a “good” man, but he is also shown to be one of the “weakest” participants since he dies early on.

6 – The Lovers: Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome. Reversed: Failure, foolish designs. Another account speaks of marriage frustrated and contrarieties of all kinds.

Nao Egokoro

I know that Nao’s story doesn’t have much romance in it, but I liked the duality of “trials overcome” combined with “failure” and “foolish designs” for our poor, brave Nao. She is a girl who grew a lot, and her heart was overflowing with love for her new friends, but in the end she was doomed to failure with the Sacrifice Card.

7 – The Chariot: Succour, providence; also war, triumph, presumption, vengeance, trouble. Reversed: Riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat.

Alice Yabusame

So many aggressive words in that description made me think of our “Murderer,” Alice! Alice was “triumphant” in his last fight with Original Sou, but he can be “defeated” by Rio Ranger.

8 or 11 – Justice: Equity, rightness, probity, executive; triumph of the deserving side in law. Reversed: Law in all its departments, legal complications, bigotry, bias, excessive severity.

Keiji

Of course I had to give “Justice” to everyone’s favorite self-proclaimed policeman, Keiji! Keiji lays down the law in our group, and don’t we all hope he’ll favor the “deserving side” instead of showing “excessive severity.”

9 – The Hermit: Prudence, circumspection; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption. Reversed: Concealment, disguise, policy fear, unreasoned caution.

Rio Ranger

“The Hermit” feels like a strange card to give to our childish doll villain, but I liked the descriptive words associated with “corruption” and “policy fear.” Rio Ranger commits “treason” by directly killing a participant, and he also “conceals and disguises” himself with masks and other people’s clothes.

10 – Wheel of Fortune: Destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity. Reversed: Increase, abundance, superfluity.

Sue Miley

Sue Miley is the villain who introduces us to our destiny with the Practice Vote and the First Main Game. She sadistically wishes everyone “luck.”

8 or 11 – Strength: Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honours. Reversed: Despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace.

Q-Taro

Q-Taro suits “strength” perfectly! His character arc is all about learning what true strength is. He begins the game from a place of cowardice and selfishness, but he becomes courageous and honorable.

12 – The Hanged Man: Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy. Reversed: Selfishness, the crowd, body politic.

Shin Tsukimi

How could my favorite doomed antagonist have any other card but “The Hanged Man”? Shin is cursed from the beginning of the game with a “prophecy” that he will die. He relies on “intuition” more often than logic and he can be very “selfish,” but he is also “wise” enough to want to protect the most vulnerable among them, leading to his “sacrifice.”

13 – Death: End, mortality, destruction, corruption; also, for a man, the loss of a benefactor; for a woman, many contrarieties; for a maid, failure of marriage projects. Reversed: Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism; hope destroyed.

Ranmaru Kageyama

I liked the card “death” for our main dummy Ranmaru, who has died and transformed. The words associated with “sleep” and “lethargy” also reminded me of his final moments, where he commented that death felt like going to sleep.

14 – Temperance: Economy, moderation, frugality, management, accommodation. Reversed: Things connected with churches, religions, sects, the priesthood, sometimes even the priest who will marry Querent; also disunion, unfortunate combinations, competing interests.

Kazumi Mishima

“Temperance” sounded like a good card for a wise character who lives in “moderation.” Mishima was cursed with an “unfortunate combination” of votes in the Practice Vote.

15 – The Devil: Ravage, violence, vehemence, extraordinary efforts, force, fatality; that which is predestined but is not for this reason evil. Reversed: Evil fatality, weakness, pettiness, blindness.

Original Sou Hiyori

“The Devil” is the most perfect card for my favorite villain! He is “violent” and goes to “extraordinary efforts” to manipulate the participants, but he has also suffered a “fatality.” I thought the phrase “predestined but is not for this reason evil” was especially intriguing for Original Sou, since I often wonder how much free will he could exercise within Asu-Naro.

16 – The Tower: Misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe. Reversed: Negligence, absence, distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity, vanity.

Gashu Satou

Gashu brings a terrible “unforeseen catastrophe” in the Second Main Game, when he would rather kill himself then give our characters a chance to escape! He is undoubtedly the best character for “The Tower.”

17 – The Star: Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says--hope bright prospects, Reversed: Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.

Kanna Kizuchi

Kanna has suffered “loss” and she may be “abandoned” by the people she loves. However, her survival also brings “hope” and “bright prospects” in spite of the Death Game’s cruelty.

18 – The Moon: Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error. Reversed: Instability, inconstancy, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error.

The Dummies

The words related to “hidden enemies” in the “darkness” reminded me of our dummies, who are tasked with killing the human participants.

19 – The Sun: This card is generally considered positive. It is said to reflect happiness and contentment, vitality, self-confidence and success. Sometimes referred to as the best card in Tarot, it represents good things and positive outcomes to current struggles.

Gin Ibushi

Gin Ibushi is a light in our lives who brings Sara emotional comfort! In spite of having no tokens to defend himself in trades, nobody sent him the Sacrifice Card, which is a wonderful thing.

20 – Judgment: Judgement, Rebirth, Inner-calling, Absolution, Karma, Causality, Second chance

The Man from the Memorandum

The Man from the Memorandum, the winner of the Previous Death Game, seems to be the Mastermind of a new Death Game and is calling for a “second chance” for the High School Girl to survive. He pronounces judgment on every victim.

(It’s entirely possible that the Man from the Memorandum is Mr. Chidouin himself, which would make my distinguishing between them silly in hindsight! For now, I’ll assume they’re different people.)

21 – The World: Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place. Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence.

The 17-Year-Old School Girl

Is 15.5% enough to “assure the success” of the High School Girl? Is that enough to “change her place” from dying in the First Death Game? Or will she be “permanently” dead? The entire “world” of the Death Game seems to hinge on this critical role!

[lawrenceop]

HOMILY for 8th after Pentecost (Dominican rite)

Rom 8:12-17; Lk 16:1-9.

What an intriguing parable we have today - possibly one of Jesus' most difficult. It’s often called the parable of the Dishonest Steward, but why is he being praised? How might we understand the situation presented in today's parable and learn from it?

In Jesus' time, the steward was responsible for managing his Master's land; a fund manager, in today's terms, perhaps. And his job was to maximize the profit from the Master's land by negotiating as much produce as he could from the tenant farmers; he was expected to maximize returns on the Master's investment. But the steward was reported to be in dereliction of duty because he was "wasting his [Master's] goods" (Lk 16:1). So, we might say that investment returns were not as high as could be expected. Indeed, the Master was losing his capital. So, the steward was rightly sacked.

But should his job performance earn him the epithet 'dishonest'? It doesn't seem that he was embezzling the profits – taking a cut and enriching himself. Otherwise, he need not have considered begging or relying on the hospitality of his Master's tenants when he became jobless; he could have enjoyed a happy retirement with his dishonest gains. But there were none, it seems. But perhaps he is rightly called the 'unjust steward' since he did not do his Master justice by getting as much as he could for his Master from the tenant farmers. Maybe. But, I think, maybe he was just an incompetent steward.

However, in what happens next, there is an element of dishonesty. Because, although he was going to be sacked, and thus was not in a position to represent his Master any longer, he continued to pretend that he was, and he proceeded to write off the debts of the tenants, thus further wasting his Master's goods and reducing his profits. So, he was just incompetent to begin with, and then he went about being purposely so, in order to gain friends for himself at his Master's expense! But what were these amounts owed that the steward wrote off? Was it simply what was due to the owner from the use of the land, or was it interest on a loan?

Since the Jewish Law did not allow for interest to be taken on a loan, it might well be that the steward was writing off the interest charged by the Master, thus making the Master's contracts just in the eyes of the Law. Could it be, perhaps, that the rich landowner was guilty of the kind of actions condemned by the prophets, such as maximizing profit at the expense of the poor? If so, then, it seems, maybe, the steward was making right a wrong committed by his Master rather than maliciously trying to incur yet more losses for him.

Perhaps. This might explain, if we buy this interpretation, why the Master didn't do what was lawful to him under the Mishnah, which was to sue the incompetent steward for all the losses he'd incurred. Neither did the Master just rescind those deals made by the steward, which he could have, since they were made without his authorization. Or perhaps he chose not to simply rescind the contracts because this would have made him unpopular with his debtors and tenants – after all, they were probably already celebrating the Master's generosity (since they thought the steward had been acting on behalf of the Master), so the Master was probably reluctant to disabuse them of this belief, and so he had to absorb the loss. In return for the stewards actions, then, the Master won the adulation of the tenants, and, it seems, just deals in the eyes of the Law. Hence, the Master gained not only the admiration of his tenants but, more importantly, the mercy of the Law of God. This might account for the rich man's own mercy towards his steward.

But we need to note, just what is being considered praiseworthy about the steward's actions. It is not incompetence, as such, or being unjust; still less, dishonesty. Rather, the steward is commended because of his prudence, that is to say, his decisiveness and his quickness in acting for the sake of a future advantage. He's also being commended because he is clever enough to use money to win friends, including, it would seem, his Master's admiration and mercy.

So, what can we learn from this parable? It's often said that we're being taught to use money to win friends in heaven, that is, to give generously to the poor; for you to become benefactors so that the poor mendicants, like us Dominicans, can pray for you! And I wouldn't want to contradict this sound principle, taught by some of the early Church Fathers. But, I think there is something more.

If we consider that the steward was not dishonest to begin with but just incompetent, or maybe, simply too generous with his Master's tenants, then, perhaps, the steward is, in fact, an image of God's mercy, who does not exact from us sinners what we truly and justly owe him.

If we accept that the Master had been extracting interest unjustly from the poor, then what is it that the steward has done? He has shown mercy on his Master's behalf, forgiving debts so that as St Paul says in the epistle today, we are no longer debtors to the flesh (cf Rom 8:12). And, moreover, in doing so, in rectifying an unjust situation, he has brought down God's mercy on his Master.

Given that this parable follows on from the parable of the prodigal son, which paints a beautiful portrait of God's mercy, then we might say that today's parable teaches us how we, who have been forgiven, should behave: with mercy! For, as the Officium says: “We have received Thy mercy, O God. “

For mercy is one of the "true riches" (Lk 16:11) that all of us - rich or poor - have, and which we can extend to others. And if a dishonest steward can learn to be merciful with money, then we who are "sons of light" (Lk 16:8) can also learn to be merciful and generous, with the help of God's grace. For mercy doesn't mean being soft and negligent, but it is rather bearing the losses inflicted on oneself with patience and sacrifice. Mercy is forgiving what is due in justice by being generous in love, long-suffering in patience, and patient in hope, as God is with us. Mercy is a work of divine grace, and if we are merciful with others, then we will win friends – genuine friends and not ones bought with money – who will, indeed, pray for us, and be good to us.

Indeed, it is in being merciful that we shall be received "into the eternal habitations" (Lk 16:9) of God's kingdom. Thus the Lord taught us to pray: "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us". Or, if to use an older English translation, "forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors” (Douai-Rheims). Amen.

[madmadmilk]

Fic title: it'll always be you

Title: “[It’ll] Always Be You”

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Genre: Mostly Comedy & Dumbassery, Down-On-Their-Luck Hero, Fluffy Fluff Fluff, HeartBurn

(also lol i think i actually wrote a summary about with a similar title as this somewhere haha // so here’s me pulling up some old shit)

Sorta-Summary:

It’s always you. Always you. God.

You see Tom Holland during so many times in your life, but you never quite get the timing right. In your last years of school, through passing parties with old friends, through the eyes of a fan looking at the stars. He’s always been in your sights, filling your body with warmth and butterflies, and stutters and nausea. You just never knew how to decipher it, often busy with your own life. He was always kind, and always called your name so softly–– gestures you’ve taken for granted. By the time you realize you love him, that you’ve always loved him, he’s too far away. 

When you meet him again and it comes rushing back like time has never passed. But of course, the circumstances are less than ideal >> you’ve hit rock bottom in your career, you’ve been kicked out of your apartment, you’ve run out of mascara, and you’ve got nowhere to go. you reach out to an old friend, who, unbeknownst to you, reached out to an older friend, and set you up with a place to crash. of fucking course, The Kind Benefactor turns out to be none other than your boy, Tom. He just as you remember, dreamy and poised, but you’re not close enough to find out anything more. he essentially leaves his flat to you, flying out to his next filming location. you’re in a mad scramble to piece your life together, trying to save face and not rely on his generosity. it’s funny that even though you’re living in his house, living with him and his things, you still hold back and swallow your tongue.

You wonder if the cycle will end, and maybe it will if you step up and fucking say something this time.

Short chapters exploring the “i knew you,” “i forgot about you,” “i like you” and “i’m loving you” phases of your feelings for your dear, Tom Holland.

Send me a fic title and I’ll tell you what I’d write for it 🌿

[vezely-a]

Muse Labels.

idea adapted from museinspo’s navigation page !! bold the 𝖑𝖆𝖇𝖊𝖑𝖘 that serve as the most distinctive traits of your muse, traits that would immediately be apparent to other people. bold & italicize the 𝖑𝖆𝖇𝖊𝖑𝖘 that serve as your muse’s hidden traits, traits that someone else would perhaps have to discover in order to find out about.

repost, do not reblog !!

the academic. » a teacher or educator.

the activist. » someone who fights for social change.

the addictive. » someone who has addictive tendencies eg. drug use.

the aesthete. » appreciates beauty and art.

the allegiant. » the follower.

the anthomaniac. » strong love for flowers and nature.

the aquaphile. » someone with an enthusiasm for water.

the artisan. »skilled in a particular art or craft.

the astrophile. » lover of the stars, space and astronomy.

the baby doll. » cute and innocent, loves to be spoilt and cared for.

the bellwether. » the trendsetter (typically in the fashion world).

the benefactor. » a sugar daddy or sugar mama, tbh.

the benevolent. » someone who's well-meaning and kind, caring.

the bibliomaniac. » bookworm. has the desire to collect and read books.

the black sheep. » considered the disgrace of a family or group of people.

the cataclysmic. » violent, someone bad or unwanted.

the celebrity. » someone of a high and public profile.

the comic. » the comedian/literal meme.

the connard. » asshole.

the contingent. » someone who relies on others for comfort.

the contrite. » the apologetic.

the coquette. » flirtatious women.

the credulous. » naive.

the crepehanger. » pessimistic.

the crestfallen. » sad and feeling low.

the crimson. » heated or aggressive; anger.

the despondent. » in low spirits from loss of hope, disappointed.

the diligent. » workaholic.

the dirtbag. » prone to creating disturbances and breaking the law.

the ecclesiastic. » a religious muse.

the ecdysiast. » a strip-tease performer.

the epicure. » a food enthusiast.

the facade. » someone who hides behind a mask.

the fallen angel. » someone who falls from a high point in their life.

the feeble-minded. » foolish or dull-witted.

the fervour. » someone who experiences intense emotions and feelings.

the fighter. » someone who is regularly getting in fights and/or a boxer.

the gregarious. » sociable and fond of company, known to gossip.

the grifter. » a con-artist or thief.

the hacker. » gains unauthorized access to electronic devices.

the halcyon. » optimistic and carefree in their lifestyle; a free spirit.

the hoyden. » the tomboy.

the icarian. » spontaneous and adventurous; also a free spirit.

the impecunious. » having little or no money.

the impious. » showing a lack of respect for god or religion.

the insurgent. » rebels, stirs up conflict, goes against the norms.

the intangible concept. » a mystery in a person.

the isolato. » someone who lives in solitude.

the lost soul. » someone who has lost themselves or their sense of purpose.

the lothario. » a man who can be alluring and seductive.

the luminary. » the leader.

the malingerer. » easygoing, lazy, childish.

the magnate. » wealthy and influential business person.

the miscreant. » criminal.

the muse. » an inspiration to those artists.

the muso. » a keen fan of music.

the mystic. » interested in spiritual mystery.

the netizen. » frequent internet user, perhaps a vlogger/blogger/insta famous person.

the paracosmist. » the dreamer.

the paradox. » contradictory.

the pastiche. » the result of an event in their life, typically a tragic or traumatic one.

the philanthropist. » someone who promotes wellness in others and takes care of them.

the philophobe. » fear of love or commitment.

the phoenix. » rises from the ashes after a tragic event/losing themselves.

the polymath. » someone with a wide range of knowledge, know it all.

the pristine. » pure, innocent, unspoiled, uncorrupted.

the prosperous. » successful in material terms.

the pyromaniac. » person with an obsessive desire to set things on fire.

the recluse. » shy, reserved, withdrawn. often seen as ‘the loner’.

the reticent. » not revealing one’s thoughts or feelings readily.

the reveller. » the party-goer.

the runaway. » someone who’s run away from their family or home.

the savant. » a distinguished scientist.

the solicitous. » someone showing interest/concern. anxious.

the southern belle. » a country gal (not limited to ofc).

the southern gentlemen. » a country guy (not limited to ofc).

the sovereign. » supreme ruler, queen bee.

the sybarite. » someone who is fond of luxury (rich or not).

the sycophant. » uses people to gain advantage ; a leech.

the tenacious. » not readily changing their course of actions or principle - to the book.

the thespian. » actor/actress or drama queen.

the traveler. » pretty self explanatory !! they love to travel the world & rarely stay in one place for too long.

the trendoid. » a trendy person. someone who keeps up with today’s memes and pop culture.

the urbanite. » someone who lives in the city.

the utopian. » someone who is idealistic.

the vainglorious. » vain, boastful, full of self-pride.

the vindictive. » someone who seeks revenge, someone who does not easily forgive.

the vixen. » an alluring woman who’s often of dubious moral character.

the zealous. » passionate about a pursuit or cause ; opinionated.

Tagged by: @multimentium (ty friend~ :) Tagging: @peredhellen ; @dunadaneth ; @tharanduil ; @alassofesteldin ; @nolodhriel ; @alassofesteldin ; @songinspire ; @feanors-daughter & you too!

[saint-hildegard-of-bingen]

If you love our country, please read this article, and continue to work to save our democracy. And stay hopeful!

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The despair felt by climate scientists and environmentalists watching helplessly as something precious and irreplaceable is destroyed is sometimes described as “climate grief.” Those who pay close attention to the ecological calamity that civilization is inflicting upon itself frequently describe feelings of rage, anxiety and bottomless loss, all of which are amplified by the right’s willful denial. The young activist Greta Thunberg, Time magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year, has described falling into a deep depressionafter grasping the ramifications of climate change and the utter refusal of people in power to rise to the occasion: “If burning fossil fuels was so bad that it threatened our very existence, how could we just continue like before?”

Lately, I think I’m experiencing democracy grief. For anyone who was, like me, born after the civil rights movement finally made democracy in America real, liberal democracy has always been part of the climate, as easy to take for granted as clean air or the changing of the seasons. When I contemplate the sort of illiberal oligarchy that would await my children should Donald Trump win another term, the scale of the loss feels so vast that I can barely process it.

After Trump’s election, a number of historians and political scientists rushed out with books explaining, as one title put it, “How Democracies Die.” In the years since, it’s breathtaking how much is dead already. Though the president will almost certainly be impeached for extorting Ukraine to aid his re-election, he is equally certain to be acquitted in the Senate, a tacit confirmation that he is, indeed, above the law. His attorney general is a shameless partisan enforcer. Professional civil servants are purged, replaced by apparatchiks. The courts are filling up with young, hard-right ideologues. One recently confirmed judge, 40-year-old Steven Menashi, has written approvingly of ethnonationalism.

In “How Democracies Die,” Professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt of Harvard describe how, in failing democracies, “the referees of the democratic game were brought over to the government’s side, providing the incumbent with both a shield against constitutional challenges and a powerful — and ‘legal’ — weapon with which to assault its opponents.” This is happening before our eyes.

The entire Trump presidency has been marked, for many of us who are part of the plurality that despises it, by anxiety and anger. But lately I’ve noticed, and not just in myself, a demoralizing degree of fear, even depression. You can see it online, in the self-protective cynicism of liberals announcing on Twitter that Trump is going to win re-election. In The Washington Post, Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush and a Never Trump conservative, described his spiritual struggle against feelings of political desperation: “Sustaining this type of distressed uncertainty for long periods, I can attest, is like putting arsenic in your saltshaker.”

I reached out to a number of therapists, who said they’re seeing this politically induced misery in their patients. Three years ago, said Karen Starr, a psychologist who practices in Manhattan and on Long Island, some of her patients were “in a state of alarm,” but that’s changed into “more of a chronic feeling that’s bordering on despair.” Among those most affected, she said, are the Holocaust survivors she sees. “It’s about this general feeling that the institutions that we rely on to protect us from a dangerous individual might fail,” she said.

Kimberly Grocher, a psychotherapist who works in both New York and South Florida, and whose clients are primarily women of color, told me that during her sessions, the political situation “is always in the room. It’s always in the room.” Trump, she said, has made bigotry more open and acceptable, something her patients feel in their daily lives. “When you’re dealing with people of color’s mental health, systemic racism is a big part of that,” she said.

In April 2017, I traveled to suburban Atlanta to cover the special election in the Sixth Congressional District. Meeting women there who had been shocked by Trump’s election into ceaseless political action made me optimistic for the first time that year. These women were ultimately the reason that the district, once represented by Newt Gingrich, is now represented by a Democrat, Lucy McBath. Recently, I got back in touch with a woman I’d met there, an army veteran and mother of three named Katie Landsman. She was in a dark place.

“It’s like watching someone you love die of a wasting disease,” she said, speaking of our country. “Each day, you still have that little hope no matter what happens, you’re always going to have that little hope that everything’s going to turn out O.K., but every day it seems like we get hit by something else.” Some mornings, she said, it’s hard to get out of bed. “It doesn’t feel like depression,” she said. “It really does feel more like grief.”

Obviously, this is hardly the first time that America has failed to live up to its ideals. But the ideals themselves used to be a nearly universal lodestar. The civil rights movement, and freedom movements that came after it, succeeded because the country could be shamed by the distance between its democratic promises and its reality. That is no longer true.

Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans are often incredulous seeing the party of Ronald Reagan allied with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, but the truth is, there’s no reason they should be in conflict. The enmity between America and Russia was ideological. First it was liberal democracy versus communism. Then it was liberal democracy versus authoritarian kleptocracy.

But Trump’s political movement is pro-authoritarian and pro-oligarch. It has no interest in preserving pluralism, free and fair elections or any version of the rule of law that applies to the powerful as well as the powerless. It’s contemptuous of the notion of America as a lofty idea rather than a blood-and-soil nation. Russia, which has long wanted to prove that liberal democracy is a hypocritical sham, is the natural friend of the Trumpist Republican Party, just as it’s an ally and benefactor of the far right Rassemblement National in France and the Lega Nord in Italy.

The nemeses of the Trumpist movement are liberals — in both the classical and American sense of the world — not America’s traditional geopolitical foes. This is something new in our lifetime. Despite right-wing persecution fantasies about Barack Obama, we’ve never before had a president who treats half the country like enemies, subjecting them to an unending barrage of dehumanization and hostile propaganda. Opponents in a liberal political system share at least some overlapping language. They have some shared values to orient debates. With those things gone, words lose their meaning and political exchange becomes impossible and irrelevant.

Thus we have a total breakdown in epistemological solidarity. In the impeachment committee hearings, Republicans insist with straight faces that Trump was deeply concerned about corruption in Ukraine. Republican senators like Ted Cruz of Texas, who is smart enough to know better, repeat Russian propaganda accusing Ukraine of interfering in the 2016 election. The Department of Justice’s inspector general’s report refutes years of Republican deep state conspiracy theories about an F.B.I. plot to subvert Trump’s campaign, and it makes no difference whatsoever to the promoters of those theories, who pronounce themselves totally vindicated.

To those who recognize the Trump administration’s official lies as such, the scale of dishonesty can be destabilizing. It’s a psychic tax on the population, who must parse an avalanche of untruths to understand current events. “What’s going on in the government is so extreme, that people who have no history of overwhelming psychological trauma still feel crazed by this,” said Stephanie Engel, a psychiatrist in Cambridge, Mass., who said Trump comes up “very frequently” in her sessions.

Like several therapists I spoke to, Engel said she’s had to rethink how she practices, because she has no clinical distance from the things that are terrifying her patients. “If we continue to present a facade — that we know how to manage this ourselves, and we’re not worried about our grandchildren, or we’re not worried about how we’re going to live our lives if he wins the next election — we’re not doing our patients a service,” she said.

This kind of political suffering is uncomfortable to write about, because liberal misery is the raison d’être of the MAGA movement. When Trumpists mock their enemies for being “triggered,” it’s just a quasi-adult version of the playground bully’s jeer: “What are you going to do, cry?” Anyone who has ever been bullied knows how important it is, at that moment, to choke back tears. In truth, there are few bigger snowflakes than the stars of MAGA world. The Trumpist pundit Dan Bongino is currently suing The Daily Beast for $15 million, saying it inflicted “emotional distress and trauma, insult, anguish,” for writing that NRATV, the National Rifle Association’s now defunct online media arm, had “dropped” him when the show he hosted ended. Still, a movement fueled by sadism will delight in admissions that it has caused pain.

But despair is worth discussing, because it’s something that organizers and Democratic candidates should be addressing head on. Left to fester, it can lead to apathy and withdrawal. Channeled properly, it can fuel an uprising. I was relieved to hear that despite her sometimes overwhelming sense of civic sadness, Landsman’s activism hasn’t let up. She’s been spending a bit less than 20 hours a week on political organizing, and expects to go back to 40 or more after the holidays. “The only other option is to quit and accept it, and I’m not ready to go there yet,” she said. Democracy grief isn’t like regular grief. Acceptance isn’t how you move on from it. Acceptance is itself a kind of death.

[xanadontit]

The full run down, for those so inclined.

MIL: Let’s just start here because sure. About .5 seconds after we walked in the door, she asked if Santa was bringing me a new car. Apparently E told her mine is kind of dying and I’ve been looking (Side note: I have asked him not to share stuff like this with her because then she fixates and will have opinions on how I’m spending MY money. Also plz don’t @ me, yes I own a car and will trade it in and get another one. Everyone hates car people until they need a ride!). By Santa she means if E is surprising me and I joked that Santa isn’t bringing me one, but I plan to test drive a few in January and hopefully pull the trigger soon; I also said something about it being my money because I’m a jerk and I hate that I make almost as much as E and she assumes everything I have is because he’s my benefactor. Then she launched into a story about how my FIL somehow led her to believe he was getting her a car for Christmas and then didn’t and then she cried when she realized he was messing with her and he thought it was funny. No idea why those crazy kids couldn’t make it work. Like, how do you even respond to something like this that happened well over 25 years ago?

While playing game and just kind of making polite conversation, MIL turns to me and says, “You didn’t have to stay at a hotel.” I was thrown because this came out of nowhere and said, “Well, we are and it’s fine!” cheerfully as she then launched into why it wasn’t OK and the plan she had laid out (which involved Niece 1 staying 30 minutes away at her boyfriend’s house - her plan was to kick her granddaughter out of her room/home so she could take her room and have E and me sleep in MIL’s room). I looked at E to jump in and he said, “We’re staying at a hotel. No one is giving up a room. It’s done.” No setting his mom straight that this wasn’t my evil plot or scheme. That’s when I got a “You hurt my feelings.” 

MIL is very critical of her only sister who is an absolute train wreck, sure, but not terribly different from MIL - just more husbands. MIL said something about her sister always needing a man and declared that she has no desire to date and all she needs now are her children. I pointed out to E that means she’s relying on him and SIL to provide her emotional support because she’s alienated all of her friends when she was with her garbage ex. Have fun with that, guys!

While opening gifts she reiterated she doesn’t care what I think or if I am hurt, and she’ll do whatever she likes when it comes to her kids, even if that means I’m left out. I lost it and looked at my nieces and said, “Well, if I ever die mysteriously we know who did it.” MIL laughed. She also told me if I don’t want the perfume she gave me then SIL will take it. Uh, ok?

She likes the cop and thinks Niece 1 seems really happy. Ugh. Get better taste in men.

SIL: The stress of living with her mom is real and while I feel for her, I’m pissed that she just lets her walk around saying awful shit to her and her daughters and that her attitude toward me is “Suck it up.” There’s just zero desire to have an honest conversation and say “This is hurtful” and give MIL a chance to apologize or think about how her words affect people. It’s super fucked up. And E told me last night that when he called her to let her know we’d stay at a hotel her response was a “What did I do wrong?” So she’s turning into her mom. Good work.

Niece 1: Wasn’t quite as sulky as our last visit but Jesus she and Mashed Potatoes (my nickname for the cop) are so fucking loud. It’s just constant hollering and there’s never a sincere conversation. The best way I can describe it is like a Disney kids’ tv show where everyone is constantly speaking in sarcastic tones and trying to be funny but it isn’t. At all. It’s exhausting.

Mashed Potatoes: He shaved the mustache so he looks slightly less creepy but he’s a cop so I don’t care if he’s Chris Evans’ doppelganger: not a fan!

Niece 2: Jesus Christ with this one. I texted @amaraaaaaaaaaaa about the sin I committed of showing interest in her life which resulted in her storming off during Christmas Eve dinner. Apparently any talk of the future is stressing her out and I wasn’t supposed to ask about graduation, her thoughts on a credential program and/or master’s program, or mention the idea of her eventually moving out. MIL is visibly distressed Niece 2 isn’t seriously dating anyone and has encouraged her to settle with any guy who owns a house. This is her standard for a quality man: owns a house. Sure. 

E: Swears up and down that he told his mom about the hotel and explained it was for everyone’s comfort. I told him I need him to explicitly tell his mom that he wants to stay at a hotel, too, and not leave room for her to speak to me in a shitty way. It’s unfair that I am painted as a villain because one of her children dared to grow up and doesn’t want to pretend he’s 8 and stay with mommy. He agrees she’s completely out of line and was feeling pretty done but that doesn’t help. I expect us to be a united front and a team. Sitting there while she’s obnoxious, then agreeing with me privately isn’t helpful.

Thanks to all of you for the support and snark - it’s nice to know someone somewhere out there likes me!

[mobius-prime]

203. Sonic the Hedgehog #135

The Tommy Trilogy (Part One): Agents of K.N.O.T.H.O.L.E.

Writer: Romy Chacon Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Jason Jensen

Well, the title of this story kind of gives away the mystery of the cover image, huh? Sonic finds himself once again traveling to the Forbidden Zone in search of a undercover contact who just so happens to be a turtle. Interestingly, his narration as he makes his way into the bar that they're supposed to meet in notes that though the Forbidden Zone is apparently under Eggman's control, the Mobians that live there have refused to defect to the side of Knothole, instead keeping their heads down and hoping to not get involved. This is the first inkling we've ever gotten of a population besides Angel Island trying to stay neutral in the war, and since Eggman has more important things to focus on than the residents of a small out of the way town in the middle of nowhere they've been largely successful so far.

As this is going on, in some undisclosed location, Eggman and Snively talk about a mysterious project of theirs. Whatever they're creating, apparently the first hundred models of it failed, but their hundred-and-first is operational. Sounds suspicious… Back in the bar, Sonic slides into a booth across from a similarly hooded figure, reciting some code words, and who pops out of his cloak but Tommy Turtle! Yeah, turns out he survived the explosion at the factory a year ago, and only recently managed to message Sally and Sonic about his continued existence.

Now that's interesting. It seems Ceneca-9009 thought of everything, and tried to make sure that a Mobian once deroboticized can't be reroboticized, but somehow Eggman has found a way around that. Sonic and Tommy's conversation is then interrupted by none other than the same "friends" Tommy was hanging around last time we saw him - Sleuth Dawg, Drago, and the Fearsome Foursome, all roboticized once more! What a conveniently relevant conversation there, guys! The roboticized goons try to place the two friends under arrest, but Sonic easily dodges their attacks and begins kicking their metal butts with ease. He even gets his chance to throw in some sass here and there - but Tommy isn't doing as well as he is, being a noncombatant.

Sonic decides to hurry things along, finishing off his own opponents and rushing to Tommy's aid. However, he's startled to find that somehow, Drago and Sleuth have both disappeared from the scene, with Tommy looking perfectly unharmed. Tommy explains that he was able to hotwire the two of them and reprogram them to go throw themselves into the nearest lake, and that's good enough for Sonic. Together, the two leave the messed-up bar behind, with Sonic glad to have Tommy back and alive once more…

Anonymous

Writer: Romy Chacon Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Jason Jensen

So what exactly is the deal with the roboticization thing, anyway? Time to find out in a story that clearly takes place before the previous one. A.D.A.M. gets Eggman's attention in his base and directs him into a room where stand the six villains of the story prior, all roboticized and awaiting commands. The twist? Eggman didn't do it. He's just as surprised as we are to see them standing there roboticized once more. Eggman is of course eager to find out who has managed to reverse the anti-roboticization effects on them, and has A.D.A.M. run diagnostics on their memory banks to find any useful information.

Several hours later, A.D.A.M. rouses Eggman from his nap only to give him the bad news - their memory banks are totally locked down from accessing information about who retransformed them. The only thing he was able to find was a brief image of their benefactor, which has been similarly censored out, leaving only the impression of someone Eggman-sized behind. The final piece of information A.D.A.M. is able to retrieve is that the person behind it has signed their work merely as "Anonymous," which only frustrates Eggman more, as he has no idea if this person is friend or foe. Hmm, so the famous hacker group is behind this, eh? Watch yourself then Eggman, they tend to not like fascists.

Mobius 25 Years Later: Dealing With the Devil

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

It's time for another riveting piece of teen drama! Lien-Da, after dropping Salma off at home, is ready to interrogate Rutan about where he was last night. Rutan isn't looking forward to the repercussions of his actions, but is grateful when Dimitri steps in to give his two cents.

This sucks in so many ways. Like, how can you make me cringe so much from just a few lines of dialogue? Yes, teenagers often want to sneak off to make out with their crushes. Lien-Da should know this, especially as she appears to be a single mother with no father in sight, indicating Rutan is perhaps the result of a one night stand. But then Penders has to go and make it all weird and have Lien-Da get like, bizarrely feminist on Dimitri, and not the reasonable kind of "I just want equality" feminist, more the "rabid social justice warrior who takes offense at everything" kind of strawman feminist. When has any of this ever been established as part of Lien-Da's personality? Why did we need this weird "man, boys and girls are sooooo different" tangent? It's just… so weird and out of place.

For a moment, we actually take a turn into something mildly interesting - that is, the matter of how exactly Lien-Da and Dimitri got to be where they are today. Apparently, at some unspecified time in the past, when Eggman's empire was on the verge of crumbling, he captured Dimitri with the intention of using him to somehow fix everything. When Dimitri refused, Eggman took his revenge… somehow, which resulted in Dimitri becoming the disembodied head that he is today. Lien-Da thinks that he holds a grudge against her for not saving him from his fate, but he retorts that he's only angry because once he was incapacitated (and decapitated), she drove the Legion forward in her own self interest instead of following his vision… which we're not even sure what it was supposed to be in the first place. Again, all of this is extremely vague - seriously, this entire story arc seems to want to gloss over everything that could actually be interesting in favor of the awkward domestic dealings of heroes past their prime and their annoying, bratty offspring. Lien-Da cuts the budding argument off at this point to go right back to the clearly most pressing question of the evening - namely, what exactly Rutan was doing with his girlfriend last night.

I love how this entire thing comes across as though Penders thinks he's danced around the issue of teenagers boning oh so carefully, when really it's done with all the finesse of a drunk baby deer trying to navigate its way through a room full of glass figurines. Like, who do you think you're fooling, dude? A five year old could read this and know you're talking about sex. Furthermore I'm trying to decide if the shocking part is that Rutan was trying to get it on with his girlfriend at all, or if his mother's life lesson was merely not to lose his virginity in a park specifically. Either way, he's able to deflect her anger by relating what he overheard of the conversation between Knuckles and Rotor, which granted, isn't much. However, it's enough to catch Lien-Da off guard, and after thinking for a moment, she suddenly gets unnervingly sweet, saying that she believes him and sending him off with a firm "just don't do it again" to his room. Rutan catches the chill from her sudden attitude shift and leaves gratefully, and when Dimitri tries to talk to her, she brushes him off, clearly calculating her next move. Next thing we know, Julie-Su, chopping vegetables for dinner, finds herself getting a video call from Lien-Da asking to talk…

Again, though, I just have to point out that nothing we're seeing makes any sense here. Everyone is so scared of Lien-Da finding out anything important, but if she's so dangerous, then why hasn't she been arrested and incarcerated for her former crimes yet? Either she's a dangerous terrorist who should pay for her transgressions against echidnakind, or she's a reformed and upstanding member of society. You can't have it both ways, guys! And now, with the new information gleaned from her son, she's all ready to scheme and plot her way to… what, exactly? The only thing she knows as of now is that Knuckles and a friend of his met in a park at night so that the latter could make a request of the former. How does she know it's anything important at all? Remember, Rutan didn't overhear anything about spacetime breaking down, so for all Lien-Da knows, Rotor just wanted to ask Knuckles if he could borrow his hairdryer. There's nothing here to even begin to be suspicious about! This entire arc is held together with duct tape and Penders' tears, and there's so many weird plot holes that rely on us essentially just taking Penders' word for it that this person is bad, and that person is totally in character, and this other person is at all interesting. And I hate to say it, but we haven't even seen the worst yet! We've yet to see King Sonic and Queen Sally enter the picture, and once they do things only get weirder…