#this is specifically the rain form. i just used all of the various forms as the four poll options for this one because i wasn't sure about

[front-facing-pokemon]

[talonabraxas]

“Om Tare Tu Tare Ture Svaha” Green Tara ॐ Talon Abraxas

Tara’s name is derived from the Sanskrit root tṛ, which means “to traverse” or “to cross.” Tara guides and protects us as we journey across the ocean of the suffering of cyclic existence and arrive at the shore of enlightenment. In Tibetan, she’s known as Jetsun Drölma. Jetsun means “noble, revered” and Drölma means “she who liberates.” Tara is the noble one who liberates us from the ocean of suffering.

She arises in many forms of varying colors and demeanors, each of which has a specific way of supporting us on the path to liberation. Green Tara is a principal form of Tara whose activity is to remove obstacles and protect us from fear and danger. Green Tara has an entourage of twenty-one forms, each of which protects us from a specific type of fear, danger, and calamity.

In Vajrayana Buddhism, various colors represent different facets of awakened awareness and how we experience them on an ordinary level. The color green is associated with enlightened activity, wisdom, and compassion in action. So Green Tara is the embodiment of enlightened activity; her unimpeded action is instantly and precisely attuned to the needs of each moment. She knows just what’s needed to facilitate our liberation. Green is also associated with the wind element, and Tara’s green form expresses her unwavering commitment to act for the benefit of beings with the swiftness of the wind.

Beyond her color, every aspect of Green Tara’s appearance is imbued with meaning. Her boundless, unbiased generosity, joyful diligence, patience, ethical conduct, concentration, and wisdom adorn her as fine silks and jewel-encrusted earrings, necklaces, and bangles. Her golden crown expresses her realization of the five disturbing emotions as being wisdom in their essence. Her black hair is partially drawn into a topknot symbolizing that she’s attained full realization, while the rest of her hair flows down her shoulders and back indicating her commitment to benefit all beings mired in suffering.

How to do Green Tara Practice

1. Take Refuge

Find a quiet place to sit and settle into a posture that allows you to be alert yet relaxed. Take several breaths. Let go of any thoughts or concerns and welcome the present moment. When settled, take refuge in all awakened beings and your innate basic goodness by reciting: “Until awakening I take refuge in the Buddha, dharma, and noble sangha. By the merit of my acts of generosity and other awakening qualities, may I attain full awakening for the benefit of all beings.”

2. Visualize Tam Turning into Tara

With eyes open, gaze into the sky in front of you, taking in the openness of space with a sense of receptivity. Visualize that unconditioned compassion emerges from that openness in the form of a green Tam, the mystical seed syllable associated with Tara. (See the script on top of the lotus at right.) The Tam instantly transforms into Green Tara who sits upon a luminous disk of the moon atop a fully blossomed lotus. Her body is made of blue-green light, the color of a clear, alpine lake. Like a rainbow, she appears, yet her form is not substantial.

3. Empower Your Visualization

Visualize rainbow-colored light radiating out from your heart. It purifies the world, makes offerings to the awakened ones, and invokes Green Tara’s wisdom and compassion to be present with you. In response, many forms of Tara rain down and dissolve into the Green Tara that you originally visualized, empowering your visualization. Have confidence that all your teachers’ mind streams are united with hers and that she’s truly present in the sky in front of you.

4. Chant Green Tara’s Mantra

Begin to chant Tara’s mantra Om Tare Tu Tare Ture Svaha as a way to connect directly with her. The mantra is Tara’s wisdom and compassion manifesting as sound and vibration. Feel the vibration of the mantra in your body and feel that resonate with Tara’s body. As you chant the mantra, visualize that a stream of wisdom-awareness nectar begins to flow from her open right hand. It’s like liquid light that’s blue-green in color. This river of nectar flows into the crown of your head and removes all fear, gives protection, removes obstacles and obscurations, and transmits awakened awareness to you and all beings. Make any prayers to Green Tara that you would like, and allow yourself to receive her blessing.

5. Know That You Are Tara

See Green Tara dissolve into light and that light dissolve into you. As it enters your body, it illuminates you from the inside out, and your ordinary body now arises in the form of Green Tara. Experience your blue-green body of light as being emptiness and form inseparable. Your awakened qualities adorn you as silks and jewels. Your hands and legs rest in the same gestures and manners as hers. Experience your mind as being inseparable from Green Tara’s mind. In your heart area is a blue-green Tam. As you continue to chant the mantra, light radiates out from your heart, sending joy, compassion, loving-kindness, strength, and equanimity to all beings without exception.

6. Dissolve the Visualization

When you’re done reciting the mantra, take a moment to sit and feel the impact. Then, gradually dissolve the visualization until there’s just a drop of blue-green light left in your heart center, radiating brilliantly the essence of your true nature. Then the light dissolves into space, like a rainbow disappearing into the sky. Rest your mind naturally for a few minutes or longer.

7. Share the Benefit

End this practice session by sharing with all beings any benefit that came from your connecting with Green Tara. Do this by reciting: “Through this goodness may awakening spontaneously arise in our streams of being. May all obscurations and distortions fall away. May all beings be liberated from suffering and the stormy waves of birth, sickness, old age, and death.”

[cmaidaartworkblog]

I finally got around to compiling some of the extraneous, in-service-of-the-main-feature maps for the "Runaway to the Stars" Scud-planet commission that I thought were also worth showing, some because they reveal something unique about this planet's qualities, others because they're pretty, and mostly both. There's a good handful of those and a *lot* of explanatory text, so that's all below the cut.

First we have the maps that bridge the gap between wind data and precipitation. This pair of animated maps demonstrates, first, the Orographic effect that would theoretically result from winds blowing in each of the eight cardinal directions across the planet's whole surface, and, second, the Orographic effects which are actually produced by the local prevailing winds for each season. For both of these, darker values mark where the topography prevents moist air from precipitating (a rain shadow, on the leeward side of a raised terrain feature) and lighter values show where the topography catches most of the airborne moisture before the wind blows over it (a rain-highlight, on the windward side of a raised feature).

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The first static map, looking like a meticulously customized Jawbreaker, roughly represents the inland distance over which air has to travel from various bodies of water (also accounting for vertical distance in the form of mountains and the sizes of the bodies of water providing the moist air), which is another factor in where rain is able to fall.

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Another static map, included entirely for aesthetic reasons, demonstrates (in white) where at least ten times as much rain falls in the wettest month of summer as in the driest month of winter. The cyan end of the gradient represents where only 3 times as much rain falls, in that comparison. This was a step in figuring out what areas would qualify as Dry Winter (climate type Cw) in the climate zone maps, which ended up being completely nonexistent once all the other requirements of that climate type were measured for. All of the areas marked in white (meeting that 10x ratio requirement for Dry Winter) ended up falling under Arid or Semiarid instead.

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For comparison, *this* map shows (in cyan through magenta) where there is at least three times as much precipitation in the wettest month of winter as in the driest month of summer, one of the requirements for Mediterranean climate (or Dry Summer, climate type Cs). Not all of the marked areas ended up meeting all requirements for the final climate zone map, either, but at least *some* did, falling just outside the Arid/Semiarid areas.

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Another precipitation-related map, this one instrumental in figuring out vegetation density, demonstrates the reliability of significant rainfall. Specifically, this represents how many months in a row a given area receives at least 60 millimeters of precipitation per month, with areas in white receiving this amount for every month of the year, areas in black experiencing no months with that much rainfall, and shades of grey showing where this much rainfall persists for anywhere from one to eleven months in a row. The second map attached here shows that data broken down for the exact number of months.

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Next, here is a map that helped me find where Upwelling would occur seasonally. Since material from deeper waters is brought to the surface by the general movement of water *away from* the coasts, and since water is moved in that direction by winds blowing *perpendicular to* the coasts (counterclockwise for the northern hemisphere on a retrograde-spin planet like this, and clockwise for its southern hemisphere), it was crucial that I first determine what directions the coasts themselves were facing, with red marking coasts that face north, yellow for coasts that face west, cyan for coasts facing south, and blue for those facing east. This particular map was produced by taking a blurred elevation map of the shallows, using it as the displacement texture for a flat Plane in Blender, and pointing different colored lights at it from the eight cardinal directions.

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One of the very last elements that I mapped out for this planet was the discharge of sediments from the rivers into seas and terminal lakes, which required a *lot* of steps. The first of these was to isolate the different major drainage basins that would deliver water to various sections of the coastal shallows, as seen in the first, multicolored map. In the second map, we see the surface areas of each of the drainage basins, in the third map we see the average density of vegetation within each basin, and in the final map I've combined this data to show the overall total amount of vegetation in each basin, which should roughly correlate with how much organic material ends up washing out to sea, since river discharge volume and vegetation density are both (largely) contingent on the same factor: precipitation.

All told this is only a tiny fraction of the maps that were part of the overall pipeline. On Reddit you should be able to see these images in higher resolution, so I'm including a link to the corresponding post here

[beigetiger]

ALRIGHTY, I’VE DONE IT, THE MOST SELF-INDULGENT POST EVER

Here is what I think various realms might have been like in the Kingdom of Sky pre-fall, this will be a VERY long post and I might have to do some of it in reblogs. Some of what I say will be based off what I see in the game and other stuff will just be ✨vibes✨, so feel free to share if you have any thoughts.

And with that, on with the headcanons!

➡️ Isle of Dawn:

- The Two Ember’s trailer shows that the environment of Isle used to look a lot like Prairie, so I reckon they may have served similar purposes that I will elaborate on later.

- Was probably mainly comprised of villages and had a pretty small population, was overall pretty quiet.

- Isle seems to have had many different religious groups there who did various things.

- The Prophecy people seemed to celebrate the four elements and a value attached to each of those elements, as well as keeping track of what was happening on the wall, which we can unlock by doing Prophecy quests.

- Passage folks seemed to give animal masks to its more mature members, perhaps associating different traits with different animals and then assigning kids that animals based on what talents they express.

- While the Isle of Dawn wasn’t always a desert, I do think it had transformed into one by the time the kingdom fell.

- Near the end of the kingdom when everything has turned into a desert, people would hand off their kids to various religions because the groups had more resources to take care of the kids than the families. After all, not all of those Passage kids seemed super enthusiastic to be there…

➡️ Daylight Prairie:

- This area (and this also goes for Isle) probably had a lot of farms and mainly engaged in farming and keeping light creatures, as we see many spirits whose job seems to be watching over a type of creature (e.g. the Butterfly Whisperer). They also seemed to like free-roaming creatures.

- Farming light creatures means they probably produced a lot of light involved in creating darkstone.

- Aside from beast keepers, they probably had people whose job it was to construct things like boats that could carry people around, because there is a lot of clouds and a lot of open air in Prairie.

- They probably mainly lived in caves that were formed in the rock, perhaps carving out a few areas as well. After all, there are many caves in Prairie that seemed to serve some use, and some of the caves actually look pretty cozy.

- They were also probably a pretty big vacation destination, so they set aside areas like Sanctuary Islands (and maybe Prairie Peaks) specifically for that purpose.

- They probably had something like bridges between the various floating islands so skyfolk without wings could access it.

- The Flight Guide was apparently a former apprentice of the Prairie Elder Ayin, so it was possible that they helped train new beast keepers, since they seem to have an affinity for butterflies.

➡️ Hidden Forest:

- People tended to either live in giant, hollowed out trees or treehouses. Either way, trees were involved.

- Rain made life much more difficult, which meant that everybody was probably pretty hard workers, and more “no-nonsense” than other realms.

- They made more basic, non-darkstone fueled inventions such as various kinds of chairs, torches, and other stuff. Maybe they helped invent shared spaces.

- Kids spent a lot of time grouper together in little daycare groups depending on their age, and caretaker duty rotated between adults. Is there a single source for this in-game? No, but I choose to believe it anyway.

- At first they mostly consumed light from candles and occasionally birds (they had hunters), but as birds started to become fewer in number due to over hunting and dark plants started growing in, people switched to consuming that instead.

- These giants eggs in a nest imply that something laid them, perhaps some species of creature that went extinct, in which case the eggs would be fossilized.

- Fire was probably pretty important due to the wet conditions, and people preferred to stay cozy indoors when they weren’t working.

- Elder Teth oversaw more major projects, and while they were highly intimidating, you’d be damned if they overworked their workers.

- They had darkstone mines that were constantly in use, and these caves were prone to flooding as the end of the kingdom drew near, which resulted in several deaths.

- The shrooms that grew on trees were at first just used as a place to hang out and replenish light, but as the light creatures grew rarer, people started to scrape light out of those as well.

- Wind Paths had people who lived there as a full-time job who were supposed to make sure everyone going through the Wind Paths got where they needed to go and didn’t get lost or injured.

- They had mochi, but it was more of a treat than a main part of their diet.

➡️ Valley of Triumph:

- The Valley Twins totally have no identity issues. Nope. Never. Being a person whose identity is dependent on there being another person with them totally was not damaging at all.

- Valley prioritized the arts and produced a lot of athletes, artists, and musicians.

- The skyfolk usually took after their elders and were very playful and fun-loving.

- Majority of the population lived in the Village of Dreams, because those who didn’t had houses facing sheer, rocky cliffs.

- The kids spent a lot of time wandering around in groups having fun and doing what counted as enriching activities that made them skilled as adults. The adults encouraged this, and probably half the games played in the kingdom originated from Valley.

- Later on in the lifespan on the kingdom, a decent chunk of the Wasteland soldiers probably came from Valley because Wasteland didn’t have enough of a reproducing population to keep up with the mortality rates.

- The Valley Elders were basically everybody’s secondary parent figures and they absolutely loved interacting with their subjects. The twins regularly held big, realm-wide competitions that tested athletic and artistic ability.

- The graves in the waiting rooms for the races are the graves of various champions of those races throughout the years.

- That one grave in the Village Theatre is from when someone died and was buried, perhaps after Eden had blown up and so the others could only bury them and then run to escape the chaos.

- The big floaty things in the citadel are decorative art pieces because someone figured out how to do it and the twins loved it so much they stuck it there.

- The bird statue in front of the citadel was a protest from a citizen near the end of the kingdom who was warning against the overhunting of animals.

- The Valley people caged and killed wild mantas for their light that could be transformed into darkstone. Aurora was sent from Megabird to stop this behaviour, but sadly failed.

- When the first person died from a krill attack, both elders were INSANELY guilty and it still haunts them today.

- Slope race was run by Sah, flying race was run by Mek. This is one of those headcanons were I say it purely off of vibes.

- The Valley Twin’s masks are Priestess Sahmek’s mask split into two. I could unironically make an entire post about these two alone buuuut I’m gonna refrain from doing it here.

➡️ Golden Wasteland (this is a LONG one, buckle up):

- It was originally a very technologically advanced realm, it had a lot of inventors and worked a lot with darkstone. Their affinity for darkstone means that the corruption hit them first and hit them hardest.

- As I said, they originally had many inventors and people who worked on the pipes. But as the corruption and darkness started creeping in, more and more people became soldiers until there were pretty much only soldiers left.

- The Elder Room where you talk to Tsadi used to be different, and it was a room built exactly like Elder Teth’s room. I also want to make a post analyzing this. But basically, room used to be different but they were forced to change it because the corruption was threatening to take over that area.

- They used to have a population of whales who were over hunted and are now extinct.

- Late in the kingdom’s lifespan, child soldiers were used when necessary, but only teenagers. They also brought in people from Triumph because it was easier to train people who had been working out their entire lives.

- Those big pipes around the fortresses were used for transporting something but as of now I don’t know what it would be.

- Everyone slept in barracks and children had a designated mass caretaker, which did not rotate duties like in Forest.

- Resh was worshipped and looked up to a lot more in the Golden Wasteland than other places (which is why they had so many big statues of him) and Elder Tsadi was totally under Resh’s thumb. Some soldiers disliked this but didn’t speak up out of fear of punishment.

- The crashed boat in the crab fields was the Sky equivalent of the Titanic and had all sorts of people on board. The ship was taken out by the krill that now patrols it and many people died. One of the soldiers that survived made a small mass grave for as many of the bodies as they could bury.

- The spirits from Season of Remembrance were originally Wasteland spirits that eventually fled to Vault (that or their spirits were transported there after their deaths for preservation purposes).

- The Forgotten Ark was similar to the crab fields crash but happened a while before and was eventually transformed into a space for spell merchants.

- The spell merchants tended to be from the Golden Wasteland but could move throughout realms, and they sold things to assist with everyday life for the various groups of people.

- There was a small community of merchants who lived full-time on the Forgotten Ark and worked together to collect supplies and sell their wares. The giant pot on one end of the ship was where they concocted the spells.

➡️ Treasure Reef (getting its own section because I have things to say):

- Treasure Reef was originally a colony from the Golden Wasteland to mine darkstone.

- A lot of the now-underwater structures in the reef look like they were created to be walked around in normally, so perhaps the water levels used to be much lower but went up over time, forcing the colony upwards.

- As the water level rose and it became harder to mine darkstone effectively, they would resort to simply swimming down and collecting whatever they could.

- They were deemed hardcore by the other realms (and the rest of Wasteland) due to their diet. Most areas were used to living off of candles and occasionally light creatures, while these people were cracking open clams and catching fish like nobody’s business.

- They probably had a lot of storms, and were one of the first areas in Wasteland to start experiencing krill attacks, which is why the King Krill is located there.

- This means they had an entire protocol if a krill was spotted, which involved moving any children somewhere safe (because the krill would target them) and grabbing a weapon.

- They were all very strong swimmers and spent much of their lives in the water, and swimming was a very standard way of getting around.

- The blue eel/water dragon was very rare and considered a symbol of good luck.

- They also might have been storers of information similar to what can be found in Vault. That or that was their way of containing darkstone.

- They may have lived in caves carved out underneath the water to save space on land.

- Eventually, the krill attacked the colony as a giant group and killed many people, including the Abyss spirits we see today. Those who survived fled to join Wasteland.

➡️ Vault of Knowledge:

- It doesn’t exist naturally, it was built in a part of the void and is constructed entirely of rock and darkstone.

- The people who lives there were keepers of memories and information, and were regularly recording memories that summarized whatever big events were happening at that time.

- Any kids that lived in the Vault were also in charge of keeping the memories safe and organized, so many of them were quiet, under socialized and had never seen the sun.

- Great, wise philosophers and thinkers were the most likely to be transformed into spirits instead of memories. Some of the graves of these thinkers are kept behind the four-player door on the Vault’s first floor.

- The elevator was always moving up and down and people were always jumping on and off it, and it was certain people’s jobs to literally stand there charging the elevator each time for hours at a time.

- Certain, more important or delicate areas had designated keepers instead of being upkept by the general population.

- Speaking of population, the Vault had the smallest one in all the realms.

- People slept in the Remembrance area mainly, but also sometimes would curl up in a corner of the Vault and nap there instead. The conditions were not amazing and there weren’t enough bedrolls for everyone to sleep at once, but that was ok because Vault had no proper night/day cycle, and so there was always a group of people who were working and a group of people who were resting.

- The Nine-Coloured Deer area is a kingdom distinct from the Kingdom of Sky that Vault discovered and created a connective area to so they could keep in touch.

- The Little Prince area is more of a metaphorical dreamland than an actual place and it isn’t fully real. A group of people once did something very bad and were essentially damned to hell there, which is why they are chained up. What they did is up for debate, but these guys were very unaware of what was happening in Vault once they were locked up and are currently unaware that the Kingdom of Sky has fallen. They might never find out.

- Cosmic mantas are actually manta spirits that were brought to the Vault.

➡️ Eye of Eden:

- It had the biggest population in all the realms.

- The people there were friendly, albeit a tad vain.

- They also had pipes similar to those in Golden Wasteland, presumably serving a similar purpose.

- Resh didn’t created the corruption on purpose, and he was violently ignorant of it’s existence even as it was actively harming his own people. He only realized how badly he fucked up in his last few moments of life.

➡️ More general stuff:

- The Hopeful Steward tried to travel throughout the realms warning people of the corruption, but wasn’t listened to due to being a child and instead left to create a little village of their own. At first it was just them, but as the corruption started pushing people out of their homes, more and more people joined the village. It had most of the remaining population of Sky right before the crystal blew up and released the corruption.

- The four mannequins from the Season of Revival are what remains of four kids who were friends of the Hopeful Steward and tried to help them raise awareness about the corruption, but were sadly killed by a krill. This only fuelled the Steward’s determination.

- There used to be caravans pulled by mantas that would travel throughout the realms, and people jumping on the back of them to be carried around was quite common.

- The spirits all used to have names more resembling the Elder’s names, but none of the kids know what those names are. The names we refer to them by (cackling cannoneer, stretching lamplighter, etc) are what the skykids dubbed them.

And that is it, although maybe I’ll add to it later. Sorry again for making this so long, I’ve been slowly constructing this in my head for months and wanted somewhere to put my ideas down. I would’ve added more images, but I can only put ten so that’s gonna have to do it. Thank you for coming to my ted-talk.

[star2fishmeg]

I HAVE ARRIVED BWAHAHAHA I request a fic with Shibaman, please~ Picture it - the reader is walking down the street in the rain, trying to find the Sannoh diner where her childhood friend is waiting but she gets lost and ends up at Oya. She's a decent fighter, but she is quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of Oya students. And who comes to her rescue? Why, Shibaman and Tsuji, of course! Not that she would ever admit needing to be rescued!

The second time she gets lost and ends up at Oya, it wasn't an accident. She just wanted to see Shibaman again! <3 You can change whatever you like, just wanted to give you something to get your mind going. Thank you for opening requests, ily <3

ʀᴀɪɴ

Pairing: Shibaman x afab!reader

Summary: did y/n really get lost? Or did she just want to see him again in hope everything went according to plan? Not that Shibaman complained, he benefitted greatly from the situation

Warnings: fluff, swearing, suggestive (making out but that’s it), Shibaman has reddish hair (from worst x cross) and Tsuji has rainbow hair (from the worst), half-naked Shibaman

Authors note: this one’s for grandma, and a reward for dealing w me n kel *mic drop*

Request: above!

Y/n hugged herself tighter as she stepped into yet another large puddle that was deeper than expected, not that her socks were dry in the first place. Hair stuck to her face and her clothes soaked through, the rain hammered onto the concrete and clashed against the metal bins on the street. She didn’t even recognise the street she was in anymore let alone trying to find the diner in Sannoh she was supposed to meet her friend at an hour ago, but with the heavens opening so suddenly it was difficult to concentrate on which train stop was hers. And she was left fighting the weather alone, trekking through the dingy streets and deep grey skies with her only form of protection being a hoodie. Upon seeing the various buildings either closed or boarded up, she swore under her breath and concluded that she wasn’t in Sannoh anymore.

Thirty painful minutes trudged by, and the infamous high schools thrashed up gates appeared through the rain, and y/n wasn’t entirely sure if she was relieved or disappointed at where she was. Oya wasn’t known for its amazing hospitality (if they had any at all), but if it meant sheltering from the rain until it died down then so be it.

She jogged through the gates and remained under an overhang out the front, not daring to go inside the building at all, she was only there for shelter anyway. Various yells and crashing came from further inside and that was a solid sign to stay out or be bombarded with questions she did not feel like answering when cold and soaked. Her eyes fixated on the rain, specifically how the ripples in the puddles distorted her face.

“The fuck’re you doing here?” A rather gruff voice called out from behind her, followed by a crowd of men circling her. Now, Oya did not usually try to intimidate women, but recently the had a rising trend in spies from other gangs wanting inside information, so they had every right to be suspicious.

“Literally just sheltering until the rain dies down, then I’m off.” Y/n sniffed, wiping water dripping down her nose. A few of the men gave each other side-eyes before their supposed leader towered over her. She stayed nonchalant, glaring the dude in the eye, considering the bruise on his cheek and the fact his hands were in his pockets; clear kick to the groin and right hook if need be.

“Well, you’re quite pretty. We’ve had a lot of issues with spies around here, convince us you should stay.” His eyes raked her figure up and down, lips tugging into a smirk and puffing his chest out. Y/n stood still, adjusting her feet into a stable position, and clenching her right fist quietly. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d ended up in this type of situation, cocky men thinking that just because she’s a woman means she’s a damsel in distress. Although, she’d preferred to be fighting in a better mood and on dry concrete and when her hands were not numb.

“Yeah yeah, scram vermin, she’s cool.” His deep voice rumbled through the hallway, black varsity jacket with patches of American NFL peeking through the gloom until fully on show. Shibaman and Tsuji casually strolled towards the crowd, making their boots hit the concrete just that bit harder to break up the boys. The group groaned and scattered like flies, y/n’s shoulders relaxing and a sigh of relief heaving from her lungs.

“Every time I see you two your hair changes.” She chuckled, watching the boys lean against the wall.

“Guess it’s fate that we keep bumping into each other, huh?” Shibaman jested, his features softening, a rare sight to see but if you were lucky enough, he’d lower his walls. Tsuji scoffed and rolled his eyes; he knew she was referencing his braids phases and the fact she favoured his rainbow hair.

“What are you doing here, though? You in trouble?” Tsuji asked, adjusting his sunglasses on his head.

Y/n shook her head, taking a quick glance at the weather behind her, “Only with the rain, but it seems to have died down, so I’ll probably start heading home,” she turned back, pulling her hoodie sleeves over her hands, “Got lost and ended up here.” The duo guffawed, shaking their heads. Tsuji turned to leave, waiting for Shiba, who shimmied his jacket off his shoulders.

“I can see you shivering.” he placed it over her, watching her arms slide through and letting the oversized piece of clothing hang off her figure, eyes hopping to her lips while she looked back at him with doe eyes, finding her vision skating to notice his chapped lips. The thirty seconds in close proximity had them frozen in a time where it was just them two together, and nothing else mattered but their heartbeats in sync. Tsuji cleared his throat, dragging the two back to reality and ultimately ruining another moment. In the years they’d known each other, Tsuji had to painfully watch their awkward pining and if neither were making a move, he found amusement in ruining it until they did. Y/n just smiled softly at Shiba; eyes skittish as if she didn’t really know where to look aside from his eyes…lips…the vein in his neck…the structure of his cheeks. His course hands almost instantly warmed her cold cheeks when he cupped them gently, the same chapped lips she gushed over placing a lingering kiss to her forehead. Stomach flipping and butterflies once again whirling in her stomach, her face felt hot, and when he pulled away with a smile, she could barely mutter a sentence as he turned and walked back into the school building.

--

The second time y/n found herself walking to Oya was relatively late at night, she was prepared with an umbrella, donning Shibaman’s jacket from earlier that week. She had meant to return it earlier but with work and school getting in the way, she couldn’t find the time or energy. But Friday opened an opportunity, and she made the journey, in the rain but more prepared. She was not lost this time, and neither was she cold and so the smile that spread across her cheeks felt more pleasant than before, plus, she was seeing Shibaman again, her kryptonite.

Shaking her umbrella in the entrance way, her shoes squeaked as she attempted to navigate her way to the announcement room where Shiba and Tsuji had mention before (although their description was below helpful). The building was strangely quiet, no chairs being launched, no rowdy laughter, no…men around. Worry crept to her head, unsure if she had taken the right turn until she saw Shibaman’s head through the cracked window of the announcement room. A smile graced her lips, a bounce in her step as poked her head through the doorway. Expecting to see the duo, a burst of giddiness shot through her upon seeing just Shiba slouched back on a scratched-up chair, head thrown back, manspreading and skin doused in bruises and dirt, the occasional cut here and there but nothing that looked serious. She bit her lip, the way that neck vein bulging and his adam’s apple bobbed when he gulped, his lap practically inviting her in for a seat.

“Just you tonight?” she jested, perching on the end of a table. Shibaman sighed deeply, leaning forward.

“Looks like it. Tsuji went home and the rest of the boys left too. Just got back from a fight…if that wasn’t obvious.” He chuckled at the last part, eyes meeting hers. His heart skipped a couple beats seeing her in his jacket again, the memory of earlier that week where he almost kissed her before she left replaying over and over. He wanted to kiss her, and if Tsuji hadn’t been there, he would’ve. He’d been wanting to kiss her years back.

“M'kinda glad they’re not here. Been wanting to catch you alone for a while,” Shiba rained his eyebrows, eye contact becoming intoxicating, “Maybe not this late but, I’m happy I found you still here.”

He broke into a rare smile, shaking his head lightly before standing up and stepping closer to her. She stood up straight, his figure towering over her, almost chest to chest.

“Was waiting for you,” his voice low and raspy, barely above a mumble, “It’s late, let’s go home.”

--

Home. Home home home. His home was now her home and vice versa. The apartment wasn’t as bad as the one he grew up in, it was a lot nicer, and his family had worked hard to get it. She remembered the day he told her about it, she’d never seen him so happy to have a room he could sleep in and not listen to violence echoing outside. He stopped letting y/n back into Hope Hill after a while, and she happily hosted him when things got bad. But now he and his family were happy and safe.

Leaving their shoes and umbrella at the entrance way, they B-lined for his room in almost silence to avoid waking up his sister, who’s room was opposite, a bathroom in-between. Discarding his jacket, y/n threw herself onto his bed, and could quite happily just pass out then and there while Shibaman slipped into his bathroom. With a sigh, y/n rummaged through his drawers for one of his older t-shirts.

Meanwhile Shiba let the hot water rinse the dirt out his hair and skin, facing the showerhead with closed eyes and a thundering chest. It wasn’t the first time y/n stayed over, but as they got older sleepovers felt different and made his stomach flip whenever she laid next to him. Her scent lingered on his sheets every time and he’d never admit that he’d spent those few days with his face stuffed into his sheets, inhaling the remnants, and letting his mind enter filthy places. Eventually calming himself down, he turned the water off, drying himself and his hair as best as possible and pulling clean boxers over his body. With the brief moment he caught his own eye in the mirror, he knew he looked hot.

He thought he’d shaken his sinful thoughts off until he re-entered his almost dark room to find y/n, sitting on his bed, in his t-shirt and her panties. Closing the door gently behind him, he watched her eyes rake his torso, her mouth becoming dry, and a leering expression plastered on her face. Eyes locked onto each other’s devouring gaze, he slid under the sheets next to her, licking his lips and laying down. They faced each other with soft smiles.

“Did you really get lost the other day, or did you just want to see me?” his throaty voice felt as if it was vibrating through her ears.

“Was it obvious how infatuated I am? It feels empty without you.” Her giggles were music to his ears, if he could have a mixtape of her voice, he’d never stop listening to it. He opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t get the right words out, his stomach fluttered again, and nausea flushed through him.

“Fuck it-“ Hovering over her figure, he connected their lips slowly, a languid kiss where he trapped her onto the mattress and her hands held onto his biceps gently, kissing back. And they would’ve stayed like that if they didn’t have to breathe but giving each other a yearning gaze of long-awaited confessions, they dove back in, deeply breathing through their noses. Y/n’s fingers slid to his nape, tangling in his blush-red hair while tongue met each other halfway, lapping and attempting to suppress moans. Vulgar sounds of wet lips and saliva bouncing off the walls as hands roamed the curves of bodies until they had to pull away, gazes boring.

Lips tugging into smiles and low giggles, Shiba’s arm wrapped around her waist as he rolled onto his back, pulling her into his broad chest and placing a peck on her forehead. Tsuji would be so proud and relieved that years of unresolved feelings were finally resolved but his next challenge would be third wheeling. Not that Shiba or y/n cared, it was payback for being a cock block.

H&L harem (if you wanna be tagged/removed in future H&L content, comment or lemme know via ‘chat to me bbygorl’ :D);

@straysugzhpe @airbendertendou @strxwberrychocolate @rouzuchan @yuken-gf @rinwhore @simpforchuchu @thatpoindexterpixy @rainisawriter @cheshirecatuniverse

[Masterlist]

[Requests OPEN]

2023 © STAR2FISHMEG All rights reserved - do not plagiarise, translate, repost, copy any of my works. If you notice that any of these have been done to my work, please let me know.

[hindisoup]

I'm currently doing a Hindi course on Duolingo and have come across sentences that contain "होना" as a seperate verb from the "है, हैं etc." that usually ends a sentence. My question is, why not just use the ending of the sentence as the verb since I have also come across sentences that do that?

(I hope it's ok if I ask a question like this, also hope this is understandable)

Hi!

I don't remember the example sentences used in Duolingo Hindi course by heart anymore (so feel free to comment or send another ask with a specific example sentence if my explanation misses its mark).

Here's what's useful to know about होना in Hindi

होना, to be, to exist, to happen, to occur, can be used in several ways:

1. as a stand-alone, main verb or predicate of the sentence in the indicative simple present or past tense - no other verb in Hindi has this form.

वह लड़की है। - She is a girl.

खाना अच्छा था। - The food was good.

2. as a copula, that helps us construct all the other grammatical aspects in Hindi:

वे गए हैं। - They have gone.

मैं कल शहर जा रही हूँ। - I am going to the city tomorrow.

3. as a conjunctive to mean 'via'

मैं दिल्ली हो कर यहाँ आया। - I came here via Delhi.

4. as a part of a phrasal verb where the first part is most often an adjective or a noun:

बारिश क्यों होता है? - Why does it rain?

वह दुकान सोमवार को बंद होती है। - That shop is closed on Mondays.

The phrasal verbs used here are बारिश होना - to rain and बंद होना - to be closed.

5. in conditional and hypothetical sentences:

अगर मैं अमीर होती, तब भी मैं पढ़ाई करती। - If I were rich, I would still study.

होना can also be used as an infinitive:

1. The infinitive can act as a noun, that can be used as a subject, a direct or an indirect object, or an object of a post position.

मुझे यहाँ होना अच्छा लगता है।- I like being here.

ब्लड शुगर के ज्यादा लो होने से क्या होगा? - What will happen, when blood sugar is too low?

2. The infinitive together with चाहिए/चाहना conveys the meaning of an action that ought to happen or a desire to do or be something.

हमारे जाने से पहले कमरा साफ़ होना चाहिए। - The room should be clean before we leave.

मैं खुश होना चाहता हूँ। - I want to be happy.

3. The verb infinitive together with होना conveys the meaning of an obligation or an expected action:

मेरा YouTube चैनल बंद होना है। - My YouTube channel needs to be closed.

Compare: मुझे जाना है। - I need to go.

4. The verb infinitive + पड़ना conveys the meaning of compelled, necessary actions:

जज को ईमानदार होना पड़ता है। - The judge has to be honest.

Because of the way होना can act both as a predicate and as a copula in one sentence, we can see structures as:

क्या हुआ? / क्या हुआ है? - What happened? / What has happened?

क्या होता है? - What happens?

क्या होना है? - What needs to happen?

कुछ कुछ होता है। - Something happens.

I'm not sure if I answered your question but these are some examples of possible reasons you may see होना in its various forms in various places in Hindi sentences - and it's not always just at the end. Thank you for the ask!

Sources: x, x, x

[santoschristos]

Green Tara ॐ

Tara’s name is derived from the Sanskrit root tṛ, which means “to traverse” or “to cross.” Tara guides and protects us as we journey across the ocean of the suffering of cyclic existence and arrive at the shore of enlightenment. In Tibetan, she’s known as Jetsun Drölma. Jetsun means “noble, revered” and Drölma means “she who liberates.” Tara is the noble one who liberates us from the ocean of suffering.

She arises in many forms of varying colors and demeanors, each of which has a specific way of supporting us on the path to liberation. Green Tara is a principal form of Tara whose activity is to remove obstacles and protect us from fear and danger. Green Tara has an entourage of twenty-one forms, each of which protects us from a specific type of fear, danger, and calamity.

In Vajrayana Buddhism, various colors represent different facets of awakened awareness and how we experience them on an ordinary level. The color green is associated with enlightened activity, wisdom, and compassion in action. So Green Tara is the embodiment of enlightened activity; her unimpeded action is instantly and precisely attuned to the needs of each moment. She knows just what’s needed to facilitate our liberation. Green is also associated with the wind element, and Tara’s green form expresses her unwavering commitment to act for the benefit of beings with the swiftness of the wind.

Beyond her color, every aspect of Green Tara’s appearance is imbued with meaning. Her boundless, unbiased generosity, joyful diligence, patience, ethical conduct, concentration, and wisdom adorn her as fine silks and jewel-encrusted earrings, necklaces, and bangles. Her golden crown expresses her realization of the five disturbing emotions as being wisdom in their essence. Her black hair is partially drawn into a topknot symbolizing that she’s attained full realization, while the rest of her hair flows down her shoulders and back indicating her commitment to benefit all beings mired in suffering.

How to do Green Tara Practice

1. Take Refuge

Find a quiet place to sit and settle into a posture that allows you to be alert yet relaxed. Take several breaths. Let go of any thoughts or concerns and welcome the present moment. When settled, take refuge in all awakened beings and your innate basic goodness by reciting: “Until awakening I take refuge in the Buddha, dharma, and noble sangha. By the merit of my acts of generosity and other awakening qualities, may I attain full awakening for the benefit of all beings.”

2. Visualize Tam Turning into Tara

With eyes open, gaze into the sky in front of you, taking in the openness of space with a sense of receptivity. Visualize that unconditioned compassion emerges from that openness in the form of a green Tam, the mystical seed syllable associated with Tara. (See the script on top of the lotus at right.) The Tam instantly transforms into Green Tara who sits upon a luminous disk of the moon atop a fully blossomed lotus. Her body is made of blue-green light, the color of a clear, alpine lake. Like a rainbow, she appears, yet her form is not substantial.

3. Empower Your Visualization

Visualize rainbow-colored light radiating out from your heart. It purifies the world, makes offerings to the awakened ones, and invokes Green Tara’s wisdom and compassion to be present with you. In response, many forms of Tara rain down and dissolve into the Green Tara that you originally visualized, empowering your visualization. Have confidence that all your teachers’ mind streams are united with hers and that she’s truly present in the sky in front of you.

4. Chant Green Tara’s Mantra

Begin to chant Tara’s mantra Om Tare Tu Tare Ture Svaha as a way to connect directly with her. The mantra is Tara’s wisdom and compassion manifesting as sound and vibration. Feel the vibration of the mantra in your body and feel that resonate with Tara’s body. As you chant the mantra, visualize that a stream of wisdom-awareness nectar begins to flow from her open right hand. It’s like liquid light that’s blue-green in color. This river of nectar flows into the crown of your head and removes all fear, gives protection, removes obstacles and obscurations, and transmits awakened awareness to you and all beings. Make any prayers to Green Tara that you would like, and allow yourself to receive her blessing.

5. Know That You Are Tara

See Green Tara dissolve into light and that light dissolve into you. As it enters your body, it illuminates you from the inside out, and your ordinary body now arises in the form of Green Tara. Experience your blue-green body of light as being emptiness and form inseparable. Your awakened qualities adorn you as silks and jewels. Your hands and legs rest in the same gestures and manners as hers. Experience your mind as being inseparable from Green Tara’s mind. In your heart area is a blue-green Tam. As you continue to chant the mantra, light radiates out from your heart, sending joy, compassion, loving-kindness, strength, and equanimity to all beings without exception.

6. Dissolve the Visualization

When you’re done reciting the mantra, take a moment to sit and feel the impact. Then, gradually dissolve the visualization until there’s just a drop of blue-green light left in your heart center, radiating brilliantly the essence of your true nature. Then the light dissolves into space, like a rainbow disappearing into the sky. Rest your mind naturally for a few minutes or longer.

7. Share the Benefit

End this practice session by sharing with all beings any benefit that came from your connecting with Green Tara. Do this by reciting: “Through this goodness may awakening spontaneously arise in our streams of being. May all obscurations and distortions fall away. May all beings be liberated from suffering and the stormy waves of birth, sickness, old age, and death.”

Green LOTUS Tara --Mahaboka

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

Maybe this question is more on me but my brain seems overwhelmed with possibilities and contradictive ideas I can't seem to sort out. Though, my main goal right now is to create the world - actual plot/story can come later. So the key to my world building is the idea of having diamond rains on ice planets being important to the world. So here comes ideas about whoever can get there and farm them for the universe is rich and powerful. But this seems to make it like not many can go there since if space travel is easy for many, would it truly be a monopoly? It would sound more like the world wouldn't be very peaceful with such a precious resources in one hand. Another idea is that the majority of worlds do not have space travel and those that do generally don't care about uniting the whole universe but travellers exist and its diamonds get around. And all ideas in between.

Addy: So first, diamonds are actually very plentiful, even on Earth. They're expensive due to a variety of reasons that I think other folks can cover better. Also, gems can be grown in labs, so the price of various gemstones is going down IRL.

I think this can be expanded to a more general question of "space is big, how do limited resources stay limited?"

Like say you've got some dilithium equivalent, something that's important for making spaceships or for fuel or for whatever. How do those resources stay scarce?

Generally, that's by

1) the resource doesn't occur on all planets or in all systems

2) the resource can be difficult to process or procure, or perhaps requires safety equipment or training for proper handling. Dangerous substances can still be very valuable and useful, even if they're also expensive to process/handle/make less volatile. So there is a limited pool of people with the capabilities to process/use/extract this material/resource -- even if the material itself is plentiful, you're still limited by your ability to process it

3) the material is common in low-quality forms, but is rare in high-quality forms. Higher-quality forms require less processing, which drives up value (see #1 and #2)

4) hidden locations. Space is big! Even on Earth, people didn't know where the cinnamon sellers got their cinnamon from for... a very long time. You hide the source of the substance from the buyer, limiting their ability to cut through the middleman. It is a lack of knowledge about where to find the resource. The resource could be plentiful, it could be scarce (see #1), but where it comes from is a trade secret.

5) processing the material requires another, more rare material. Material 1 is cheap, material 2 is expensive. *jazz hands* supply lines!

6) Processing the material is expensive. That's it, that's the only limit. Where it comes from is known, how to get it is known, how to process it is generally known (like making cake vs making Grandma's cake, there might be some tweaks between groups, but the general process is known), but it's just really really expensive and capital-intensive to process. If you don't have the necessary materials & equipment, you just don't have the physical capability. This can also get into travel costs, as just getting somewhere can also be expensive. Think of taking a plane between major airports vs booking a private flight to take you to a specific island where there's no runway.

Some combination of these.

So why do people want [resource]? And what's stopping people from starting a gold rush on it?

[readingwithemi]

The Women | Kristin Hannah

I fell victim to the hype around a book and, friends, it was not worth it.

THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah is a book about the women who served in Vietnam and their experiences in the war and afterwards. Specifically, it's about Frances "Frankie" McGrath a nursing student who enlists in the Army and goes to Vietnam to serve as a combat nurse. While she's there she makes friends, falls in love, and finds her true calling in nursing. When she comes back home, she struggles to adjust to a civilian world that is, itself, struggling to understand this war.

Great! Good! I like this premise! There's alot to work with here! Frankie is a fairly naive young woman who goes into war with a very idealistic world view - War is honorable, the US is doing the correct thing, she will be helping people - and then immediately has it shattered by the realities of combat in Vietnam and its aftermath.

The problem is Kristin Hannah is not a good writer. She is either lacking the ability - or the desire - to closely examine any of this. The Vietnam War is presented without comment or examination (which is WILD to me) and in a very shallow "This Is Vietnam. It Is Hot. It Is Raining." sort of way. Frankie sees horror after horror in the operating room and doesn't form ANY sort of opinion about the war machine that is killing and maiming young men and boys.

You know what she DOES have thoughts on? The married surgeon who wants to sleep with her! We got more moralizing and examination on the rights and wrongs of a wartime affair than we did about the actual war itself.

The whole book is written in this weird shallow, superficial way. There's pop culture references and fashion descriptions so you know it's the late 60s or the 70s - there's hippies and protestors - but it all feels so empty. Nothing has any substance! Hannah continually TELLS you things but she doesn't seem interested in SHOWING you anything or digging into any idea or anything more complex than "should Frankie sleep with this guy?"

Like, OK, one of Frankie's friends from Vietnam is a fellow nurse named Barb. Barb is a black radical - She's got posters of Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali. After the war, she joins various protest groups and is incredibly outspoken about the war. Hannah also has her spouting dialogue that is - straightforwardly!! - a conservative talking point from Ronald Reagan!! What are you doing!!

Related to this, the only real view point that Hannah seems to hold and make is this - the only moral and correct protests against Vietnam were the ones held by veterans. Civilians - especially college students - should not have been protesting because they were not affected by the war. This is a point that Barb explicitly expresses (and a point that Reagan argued to end free college in CA) and it is implicit throughout the book as a whole. It's gross!

This book's other great sin is that Frankie is an unlikable, uninteresting, uncompelling main character. She drifts through her own story, propelled only by the men around her. A man gives her the idea to go Vietnam. She's given the self confidence to be a combat nurse by a man. She's saved from addiction by a man. She gets her final validation from a man. For a book that purports to be all about women and centering them, men sure do play an outsized role.

I'm not even going to get into the final third or so which is just an unending soap opera revolving around a man and whether or not he's going to leave his wife for Frankie - it dragged on and on and on and I hated it!

1/5 stars - do not recommend - at least it was easy to read - I will never read another Kristin Hannah book ever again!

[tatters-the-bat]

Hi there!

Figured I should make a proper pinned message at some point.

I'm Tatters, your local fluffy flying fox! :3 Main fursona is the bat in question, secondary is a honeybee named Lore.

I go by she/they/it, and post all my art on here as well as reblogging stuff I like. Multifandom and my hyperfixations change often lol, my top fandoms are FNAF, Undertale/Deltarune, Pokemon, Crypt of the NecroDancer, MLP, Rain World, and Hollow Knight.

Big fan of small animals, especially bugs! (As such, trigger warning for bug and spider pictures, i usually tag them with #bugs and #spiders but i might miss 'em!)

If you like my work, following and/or reblogging helps a lot! I love getting comments on / asks about my stuff too!! :3 My comms are usually open. If you're interested or just want to support me, check out my Ko-Fi! Thanks for reading!

Original Universes:

Fauxtail City - A large, sprawling city where most of my anthro OCs live. Set on the scenic Ambiscale Bay, the city is - uniquely compared to other cities in its world - divided into districts that accommodate the needs of different species. There are five - Woodland, Aquatic, Polar, Mountain, and Desert. While it is mostly a nice place to live, behind the scenes there is a power struggle, between the crime organization known as the Butterfly Knives, and the mildly corrupt, cheap, and lazy City Council.

Synfall - The underworld of a realm known as Eclypson. It is similar to many other Hell depictions, fire and brimstone, except that its leaders have discovered how to harness thermal energy and have built a capitol metropolis! There's a very strict social hierarchy, with imps at the waaay bottom and the archdemons and King Lucifer at the top. (Lucifer and his cabinet are merely named after demon princes; they are not one and the same.)

Floristead - Set in a future long beyond an apocalypse that left human civilization barren to be reclaimed by nature, Floristead is a land centered on the worldtree Serarchbor. Sentient plant creatures, Botanomorphs, have risen to become the dominant species thanks to its influences on the land.

Ectopolis - A spectral city only visible and tangible to ghosts. Newly dead souls make their way here in order to visit The Pool, a large, mysterious collection of colorful Ectoplasm that souls then use to make new ghost forms for themselves. The spectral plane has other settlements and is spread all across Earth's atmosphere, but Ectopolis is the biggest by far due to the presence of the Pool. It is run by Mayor Hyper, who is one of the only ghosts to be formed by the high-energy splotches of Ectoplasm that rarely form on the surface of the Pool, called Hyperplasm.

Tag Stuff:

#my art - My own artwork! - #oc art - For all my various original characters. Feel free to send in asks about any of them, I LOVE rambling about literally all of them!!!! - #sona art - For specifically art of Tatters, Lore, Mally, and Glimmer. - #fanart - For stuff I make that's based on existing properties. - #ship art - For any fandom shipping, I don't do it often but i love a choice few :3 - #art comms - Comm work I've done for other people! #tatters squeaks - Usually general rambles that may or may not mean anything.

#bat mail - Any answered asks. Feel free to send in stuff!! #my writing - Links to my fanfics and stuff. - #oc info - OC lore and whatnot #bats - Bat pics I find/reblog! #bugs - Same but insects and arthropods in general! #aquatic - Anything related to water critters! All three also can include art I find of such! #cute art / #cool art - Reblogged art tags! I didn't have foresight when making the cute art tag that I would reblog art that isn't necessarily trying to be cute, so I just threw on "cool art" as a more generic one xD

[veradragonjedi]

👕:16, 🌤: 3, 4, and 13, 🤝: 7, 20 for maxwell 👀

:D MAXWELL LUKAS BABEY

👕16. Is your character's appearance more telling or deceiving?

Telling, honestly! Not that there's a lot of people to tell. He's a sailor, or in training to be one, so he's often wearing the uniform, or oceanic-themed outfits. When he isn't, he's wearing something unnecessarily expensive... and that's very very telling.

🌤3. What season would your character say they're most similar to?

Okay, this one is interesting because I think I would say winter, and so would literally everyone around him, but Maxwell? He may have to think about it, and he may even end up describing autumn instead. Something cold and crisp, that makes its way from heat and takes control regardless of what people want, but with the beauty of the dying leaves, and the deceitful comfort of holidays, family, and early nights. Shrug! :)

🌤4. Is there a natural phenomenon that scares your character?

The patron that his family worships takes the form of mist settling over an open sea, or soft, all-enveloping clouds that choke you and hide you from others. So, I think he'd be chill with those. Volcanoes?? Man I'm sure they'd at least freak him out.

🌤13. What element best represents your character?

It's funny, the train of thought I had here. Are we looking for one of the traditional earth, fire, water, air ? If so, water, probably. Smooth, cold, manipulative, vengeful, confident, and unpredictable. However, I also thought "the elements", like, outdoors. In which case, mist! Or fog, or rain. Then I thought about the Elements, from the hit show the Periodic Table, and so I thought of silver, or carbon. One is useless, doesn't conduct electricity, malleable, but expensive if kept pristine, and the other is dangerous, able to latch itself onto groups of other elements, such as oxygen, with ease and difficult to remove, but — again — expensive when formed into a specific shape (diamond).

🤝7. Who is your character most honest with?

Probably his uncle, Peter, by choice, and his other uncle, Elias, by accident. Peter is flesh and blood and shares similar motivations, ideals, while Elias has the convenient power of Knowing every thought that enters his dear nephew's brain. It sucks but it's life, and Elias isn't there half the time before his death, so it doesn't matter to Maxwell. I wouldn't say that he and his uncles are close, but I would say that Maxwell finds an irritating sort of comfort with people of the same mind. Maxwell wants to control the world and believes that the god his family worships, the Lonely, should rule, and Peter isn't eager to dissuade him... for obvious reasons.

🤝20. What would it take for your character to get into a fight?

A looooot... Maxwell is clever about the way he negotiates and mediates situations, making the fact that he is essential to any operations that he is involved in front and centre. He twists the minds of his companions (or at least, one of their's) into believing that he is absolutely necessary to their plans if they want to have any hope of rescuing one, preventing an apocalypse, and keeping themselves alive, as he knows the most about the fourteen gods and their various rituals and powers. He is excellent at keeping himself just useful enough, without doing too much, in order to stay in circles where he can see that his goals are achievable. It takes over a year for his patience with the others to wear thin! Plus, eventually, he is beaten to death with a crowbar, so he probably isn't very good with weapons anyway.

@airlocksandaviaries @many-legged bc you love my irritating man.

[talonabraxas]

Tara’s name is derived from the Sanskrit root tṛ, which means “to traverse” or “to cross.” Tara guides and protects us as we journey across the ocean of the suffering of cyclic existence and arrive at the shore of enlightenment. In Tibetan, she’s known as Jetsun Drölma. Jetsun means “noble, revered” and Drölma means “she who liberates.” Tara is the noble one who liberates us from the ocean of suffering.

She arises in many forms of varying colors and demeanors, each of which has a specific way of supporting us on the path to liberation. Green Tara is a principal form of Tara whose activity is to remove obstacles and protect us from fear and danger. Green Tara has an entourage of twenty-one forms, each of which protects us from a specific type of fear, danger, and calamity.

In Vajrayana Buddhism, various colors represent different facets of awakened awareness and how we experience them on an ordinary level. The color green is associated with enlightened activity, wisdom, and compassion in action. So Green Tara is the embodiment of enlightened activity; her unimpeded action is instantly and precisely attuned to the needs of each moment. She knows just what’s needed to facilitate our liberation. Green is also associated with the wind element, and Tara’s green form expresses her unwavering commitment to act for the benefit of beings with the swiftness of the wind.

Beyond her color, every aspect of Green Tara’s appearance is imbued with meaning. Her boundless, unbiased generosity, joyful diligence, patience, ethical conduct, concentration, and wisdom adorn her as fine silks and jewel-encrusted earrings, necklaces, and bangles. Her golden crown expresses her realization of the five disturbing emotions as being wisdom in their essence. Her black hair is partially drawn into a topknot symbolizing that she’s attained full realization, while the rest of her hair flows down her shoulders and back indicating her commitment to benefit all beings mired in suffering.

How to do Green Tara Practice

1. Take Refuge

Find a quiet place to sit and settle into a posture that allows you to be alert yet relaxed. Take several breaths. Let go of any thoughts or concerns and welcome the present moment. When settled, take refuge in all awakened beings and your innate basic goodness by reciting: “Until awakening I take refuge in the Buddha, dharma, and noble sangha. By the merit of my acts of generosity and other awakening qualities, may I attain full awakening for the benefit of all beings.”

2. Visualize Tam Turning into Tara

With eyes open, gaze into the sky in front of you, taking in the openness of space with a sense of receptivity. Visualize that unconditioned compassion emerges from that openness in the form of a green Tam, the mystical seed syllable associated with Tara. (See the script on top of the lotus at right.) The Tam instantly transforms into Green Tara who sits upon a luminous disk of the moon atop a fully blossomed lotus. Her body is made of blue-green light, the color of a clear, alpine lake. Like a rainbow, she appears, yet her form is not substantial.

3. Empower Your Visualization

Visualize rainbow-colored light radiating out from your heart. It purifies the world, makes offerings to the awakened ones, and invokes Green Tara’s wisdom and compassion to be present with you. In response, many forms of Tara rain down and dissolve into the Green Tara that you originally visualized, empowering your visualization. Have confidence that all your teachers’ mind streams are united with hers and that she’s truly present in the sky in front of you.

4. Chant Green Tara’s Mantra

Begin to chant Tara’s mantra Om Tare Tu Tare Ture Svaha as a way to connect directly with her. The mantra is Tara’s wisdom and compassion manifesting as sound and vibration. Feel the vibration of the mantra in your body and feel that resonate with Tara’s body. As you chant the mantra, visualize that a stream of wisdom-awareness nectar begins to flow from her open right hand. It’s like liquid light that’s blue-green in color. This river of nectar flows into the crown of your head and removes all fear, gives protection, removes obstacles and obscurations, and transmits awakened awareness to you and all beings. Make any prayers to Green Tara that you would like, and allow yourself to receive her blessing.

5. Know That You Are Tara

See Green Tara dissolve into light and that light dissolve into you. As it enters your body, it illuminates you from the inside out, and your ordinary body now arises in the form of Green Tara. Experience your blue-green body of light as being emptiness and form inseparable. Your awakened qualities adorn you as silks and jewels. Your hands and legs rest in the same gestures and manners as hers. Experience your mind as being inseparable from Green Tara’s mind. In your heart area is a blue-green Tam. As you continue to chant the mantra, light radiates out from your heart, sending joy, compassion, loving-kindness, strength, and equanimity to all beings without exception.

6. Dissolve the Visualization

When you’re done reciting the mantra, take a moment to sit and feel the impact. Then, gradually dissolve the visualization until there’s just a drop of blue-green light left in your heart center, radiating brilliantly the essence of your true nature. Then the light dissolves into space, like a rainbow disappearing into the sky. Rest your mind naturally for a few minutes or longer.

7. Share the Benefit

End this practice session by sharing with all beings any benefit that came from your connecting with Green Tara. Do this by reciting: “Through this goodness may awakening spontaneously arise in our streams of being. May all obscurations and distortions fall away. May all beings be liberated from suffering and the stormy waves of birth, sickness, old age, and death.”

"Om Tare Tu Tare Ture Svaha" Green Tara by Talon Abraxas

[cryptidsurveys]

Thursday, September 5th, 2024.

Who do you talk to about personal problems? Mainly my dad and my therapist. I have started opening up to my mom a little bit (not only with problems, but with things of a personal nature, the past, etc), but I'm trying to do it in small increments that way I can draw back at any time if things get too uncomfortable. And I could go to Oliver, but I prefer not to. There was a time in our friendship when I leaned on them far too heavily; it wasn't healthy and I don't want to repeat it. I know that they would be there for me if I needed them, but it's enough to simply feel their supportive presence while chatting about random whatnot, laughing over a silly video, or something like that.

Do you wear make-up? I haven't worn makeup for years. This is apparently how my brain works: I would wear it if I had any actual skill, but I'm not willing to practice in order to develop that skill. So…barefaced it is.

Do you shower daily? Not quite. There's usually one day a week when I don't bother, and today was that day. My dad and I went to the Mountain Park and aside from a brief stop at Carl's Jr. I wasn't planning on being around anyone long enough (or close enough) for it to matter.

Do you think any guys are going to take this survey? It's possible. I know of at least one guy in the survey-taking realm, but will he take (or has he taken) this survey specifically? Idk.

Do you love to shop? I actually really enjoy going grocery shopping, especially during the holiday season. I go a little bit overboard when it comes to holiday treats. When it comes to other things, it's like a potential addiction that's reasonably well-controlled. I know I don't truly need (or sometimes even want) new things. It's just my brain looking for that dopamine hit or attempting to fill a void, and I can usually catch myself before making a pointless purchase.

What is your favourite accessory? Do lip piercings count? I've had them for so long that I wouldn't feel like myself without them. I have an Italian charm bracelet that I wear all the time as well. Rings are also nice, but I only wear them occasionally.

Tampons or pads? Blah.

How old were you when you had your first boyfriend? I was just about to turn 13. I'm not even sure if I should count it because it was a middle school relationship, but we did date for a little over a year. It also raises the question of which relationships should count because it's not like there was a hard line between serious and unserious. Although, tbh, I don't think I've had one that was truly serious… I loved those people, sure, but damn - none of those relationships were mature, healthy, or sustainable.

If you were to have sex right now, would you use a condom? I don't want to have sex with anyone.

Do you think it’s bad to have sex at your age? No.

Would you cry if you got pregnant? Yeah. Definitely not happy tears. This is why I would probably refrain from sex in certain situations - I just don't trust various forms of birth control to do their job and I don't want any surprises.

Do you have real or fake fingernails? Real.

Are you content with the current weather? Yesss. It's cool and cloudy and it's been raining on and off all day. Perfect Mountain Park weather with undeniable hints of autumn.

Do you own many pairs of shorts? No.

Is there a place you’d rather be right now? I'm fine with being here for the time being, but I am serious when I say I'm going to take some extra time off here and there to get out to the mountains. At least…I hope I'm serious. Future Me, don't let me down, okay? Take some fvcking TIME for YOURSELF.

Is there an article of clothing you need to buy right now? There was an article of clothing I wanted to buy, but I ended up getting it for free thanks to Veronica (a board member at the animal shelter). She was in the other day and saw me wearing a staff shirt, so she asked, "Does that mean…or are you just…?" And I was like, "Yeah, I'm still just a volunteer, ahah." But she had me go up to the front where they have some shirts and merch and such and pick out a few things, one of which was a pine green sweater I had been eyeing. I was planning on buying it once the weather cooled off if it was still there, so…score! :')

Is there a situation you currently feel hopeless about? Kind of, yeah, which is funny because this situation is going to end come September 21st. Alex is leaving!!! My brain just can't seem to comprehend that it's going to be over sooner than I think, and then I'll never have to deal with her again. I am so excited to see how our little cattery group will develop after she's gone. I feel like it's going to be so much more supportive and chill.

Have you ever wanted to get drunk and take your mind off of everything? In the past, yeah. Nowadays, getting drunk just sounds…ugh. Fun in theory but probably regrettable in reality.

How long does it take you in the shower? 10-15 minutes.

Does your password have to do with a person? One of them does.

Do you believe that it is best to have a friendship first then love? I don't know what's "best," but I would like to take things slow in future relationships.

Do you have any fun plans for tomorrow? I'll be at the animal shelter for a full day.

Have you ever had to choose between two people? Maybe kinda sorta.

Do you think 2018 will top 2017? 2018 was an absolute dumpster fire. Probably the rock bottomiest of all my rock bottoms. The following years were a jagged climb, but THANK GOD I am so far away from that place now.

Have you ever been in a hospital? Yeah.

[numericalbridge]

TOH rewatch semi-liveblog. Season 1 part 1b

episodes 4-5

Episode 4

- So, how do they make the forcefield against the Boiling Rain once Eda loses her powers?

- Yeah, i love that sometimes Luz and King and Eda are allowed to be mean or insensitive. What i don't like is Eda starting to say that she will 'break every bone' in King's body because he stole the elixir, and that it is not shown as something unusual and instead the story just moves on. With the knowledge that King is meant to be equal to an elementary school kid that kinda crosses the line. He is 8! (as in - i see it is a writing choice that doesn't really fit what season 2 does with Eda and King, not like anything that i hold against Eda as a person)

- But curious whether the King's plotline was changed between seasons because of the way the storyline here connects him with the plight of the demons.

- He also says that the demons are underappreciated, yet all the one-off villains in season 1 are demons or creatures☹️

- AU potential for King and Eber interactions is also golden.

- Transition between episodes from the dream-like sequence of Eda wondering who cursed her to Lilith's introduction in episode 5 is really good.

Episode 5

- Interesting how excited Willow in particular seemed to be about the Covens. Would've been interesting if the development from this point onwards got more focus, and if she had some kind of connection and confrontation with Terra. Or, alternatively if the dynamic between Eda and Willow&Gus that exists in season 1 was continued in season 2 with Eda working on becoming a mentor figure for various kids, leading to her opening the school in the epilogue.

- Tbh i think some of the one-off villains in season 1 could've been replaced by the Coven Heads.

- Mason's cameo. He seems very stoic and rather chill about getting thrown around. Interestingly he is the only Coven Head present at the convention. So maybe the newest Coven Head duties, or maybe he actually cares about his Coven.

- Not an actual criticism - it's just genre conventions, and too much exposition would've dragged the whole thing down, but i confess it always amuses me when very important bits of information about the world - for example how the goverment works - are not explained to the main character until much later even when the absense of that info is dangerous (same happened with WHA too)

- What track is fire spell magic or is it a general thing?

- Luz seems quite reasonable when she explains why she wants to check the EC to form her own thoughts (especially with the info that is available to her and the viewers at this point), and i find it interesting the way she says 'individualism' specifically (and not 'individuality' or 'independence') when describing Eda's aproach and how that connects to Eda's overall journey towards opening her institute of wild magic. I initially had conflicting thoughts about that development because i liked that Eda was allowed to be angry at the school system and never want to do anything with it ever again, but on this rewatch i definitely see how the arc is forming, so i warmed up to it. It's a pity that because of the shortening it feels like a part of her journey is still missing. And also it would've been nice to see why she doesn't seem to connect much with other wild witches - are they just scattered around and in hiding? Or is Eda shunned because of her curse?

- Why doesn't Eda ever use illusion magic?

- No, but all Eda and Lilith interactions are golden! And then season 2 happened.

- They should have, imo, shown Willow's reaction to Luz vs Amity fight, even if brief.

- Luz and King's developing relationship is also very good.

- Ahhh, but Lilith is also shown to hold some bad beliefs - looking down on humans more aggresively than other witches, throwing words like 'degenerate' around. It is clear that she wasn't just some poor nerd whose only problem was that she had to supress her real nerdy interests in the Covens, and it would've been nice to see her progression and bettering herself in s2 instead of just focusing on her relationship with her family and her geeking out. Like, Oh, Titan episode is right there to show the progress! Never understood why it prioritized Steve over Lilith, when Steve didn't even need to be deprioritized, just have all 3 travel together, show Lilith reacting to common people and helping out in the montage, then learn her lesson regarding King by the end in an actually serious manner instead of making it a joke. It is so frustrating, because I never doubted she would be redeemed, and after season 1 i was excited for her development and to see more of her, and then season 2 just went in the direction of my least favourite writing choices with her😞

----

Conclusion:

Overall episodes 1-5 mostly hold very well on the rewatch, and i found episodes 1-2 much easier to follow this time. But some problems are already obvious like Gus having less attention compared to others, and problems with certain character designs.

[acertainmoshke]

Happy STS, Moshke!

Please tell me more about the slimes' society?

Oi, I hope you know that you are singlehandedly forcing me to actually develop this society.

They prefer to eat things very acidic or otherwise strong--spicy, sour, or what would be basically poison to other species. They often don't cook their food, but they do prepare it for consumption. They chop it up, mix it together, and add various additional flavorings, often in liquid and pourable form.

Because slimes reproduce asexually, they have no built in romance or sexual pairing into their culture. Traditionally, in a slime-only village, they would all share a large multi-room building dug underground with an aboveground roof. They would sleep and eat in this building together and take shelter from weather--rain is not good for their slimy constitution, but the time just after rain is perfectly rejuvenating. Strong direct sunlight isn't good for them either, but that isn't a big problem in the forest. For a long time, slimes would rarely if ever leave their own villages. They didn't need clothes or many goods, which freed them up to do other things. They did make and use tools, which due to their (relatively) poor fine motor control tend to be chonky to human eyes, but work just fine for them.

Slime art, unlike human art, tends to be not portable or even moveable at all. They would make patterns in the dirt in clearings, filled in with dyes for color, or designs of planted flowers that take a year or two to even appear. The tiles of their communal buildings would similarly be in patterns. Sometimes the patterns are meant to represent tangible things, or less tangible ideas, and sometimes they're just pretty.

In their own language, slimes communicate just as complexly as anything else but using only vibrations and specific patterns of movement. Although they do have sensory organs for seeing and hearing, they do not have the equivalent of vocal cords and naturally only make noise, by forcing air through temporary tunnels left when they stretch out their limbs to hold things, when in distress or otherwise in need of immediate attention. However, unlike other beings' visual sign languages, the subtleties of slime language were too difficult for non-slimes to grasp. They first made up their extremely simplistic audible language when needing to talk to the elms. Although they learned to understand spoken Halaran, they can communicate basic questions, requests, demands, and information, but nothing complex. Because of this, many other beings have the incorrect idea that slimes only think of things in simple and concrete ways. Their lack of home decorating and tendency towards the most efficient and practical actions didn't help this stereotype.

When slimes moved into the cities, they began to live alone or in much smaller groups to accommodate the available houses and apartments. This left many of them despondent and lonely, so slime community centers sprung up where they can cook together, relax, and have space big enough for their art forms.

Let me know if I left out anything you want me to confidently make up on the spot!

[unbindingkerberos]

Companion

Word(s): 1299

Warning(s): Animal death at the end

Tag(s): @scentedcandleibex @shegetsburned @poisonedtruth

The Pitbull pup whines in his arms.

She looks so beautiful with that gray and white coloration. He traces the outline of the small white heart-shaped mark on her forehead. The pup moves her head and sniffs the tip of his thumb. A smile spreads on his face.

The door closes and his sister warily approaches him. "You need to hide her. Now." His face drops completely and he puts the pup on the laundry basket, adding some clothes on top. Before he could ask her what's going on, they both freeze on the sound of large heavy steps making their way to the stairs.

He hides behind his sister whose hand has connected with his.

The door swings open.

--

"Oi Lt. Didn't know ya were a dog person."

A mastiff had been following them for some time now-- or rather specifically had been following Simon. The dog looks up to the skull clad man, tongue lolling out. Despite numerous attempts to shoo it away, the dog would always return. The Ghost had himself a Shadow. The man in question groans, trying his best not to trip over as the mastiff was practically all over him. 

"Have you fed him somethin' or what?" There is an amused and teasing expression in the Scot's face. "I don't know. The mutt started tailing me-- stop that." Simon gently pushes the mastiff's muzzle away from his arm. The mastiff whines and lays its form on top of Simon's foot. Soap snickers to himself as they carry on to their destination.

"Can't believe Lt's a fooking princess now." Simon groans as he withdraws his feet from the dog's laying form and follows John from behind. "You stop it now."

They had received an anonymous tip from an unknown source that details an auction involving arms dealers from various countries and automated rocket launchers. Now this was enough to get Price and Laswell's attention but both stressed out that this could be a trap and urged John and Simon to be on their guards. 

The villa comes into view. Cars are lined outside and multiple armed men are scattered throughout the area. The plan was to pose as potential buyers and--if all went according to plan-- would extract the cargo as soon as possible. 

But the moment they step foot, the guards scramble to their positions. 

"That's them-- OPEN FIRE!" 

In an instant, a barrage of bullets rained down upon John and Simon who took cover behind a wall. "How the fook were they expecting us?!" John grunts, returning fire at the enemy. Simon does the same, taking out a few men in the process. "We've been screwed over, Johnny!" John groans angrily, his bullets taking out three men. "Well thats just fookin wonderful now, innit?!"

His comms crackles alive. 

"Bravo 0-6, this is Bravo 0-7." 

"Come in Bravo-07." 

"We've been compromised. Our cover's blown, sir!" 

Price curses in the background. "Do you have a visual on the cargo?" The shootout intensifies and bullets clatter to the floor. "Negative, sir!" 

The Captain's voice glitches and the radio goes silent. "Captain?" No response. This was a really shitty situation they were in. Outnumber and outgunned, relying on a fucking wall to keep them bulletless was just great and that they had no other way of communicating with the Captain. When he finds the bastard that ratted them out, Simon will make em wish they never did so.

A bark draws their attention to the left. The same mastiff is there on the other side of the wall, completely unfazed by the ongoing chaos. "Oi, git!" John motions for the mastiff to run off. The mastiff tilts its head before sitting comfortably. "If you want that mutt not have a bullet lodge between 'is eyes, then I suggest you make it quick, Johnny!" Simon chimes in. Hearing this, John grits his teeth and his motions now desperate and fast. When the dog stands and begins walking away John sighs on the inside.

That was until the mastiff took a turn and came running towards the danger, biting one of the men in the crotch. The man screams and instinctively fires his gun in all directions. A couple of stray bullets find themselves hitting some poor unfortunate blokes.

"Well that just happened." Simon muses to himself.

Using the enemy's confusion to their advantage, John and Simon advance. A masked man notices them and shifts his gun to Simon's head. He was a bit slow on his reaction when a knife is lodged to his chest and he drops to the ground. The mastiff was quick to help. Pinning down a couple of blokes letting John and Simon finish them off. Silence soon befalls on them. The mastiff happily pads to Simon with an arm in his jaws, dropping it some meters away his feet. 

"Good boy." 

The mastiff sits in contempt, barking. John crouches down and showers the canine with pets. "You were bloody amazing, boy!" Something catches Simon's eye and he realises that the mastiff had a bulletproof vest strapped on. "Check if he has a name tag or somethin'." John palms the vest and shakes his head. "Nothing Lt." 

Simon narrows his eyes. There was more to their little friend than meets the eye. Suddenly, the mastiff stands and runs off towards the villa, following behind were him and John. Perhaps this night of questions will end with answers. Or maybe even meet with the mutt's owner.

The villa is awfully quiet and the mastiff is nowhere to be seen. They scan the interior and find that the villa completely empty until they come across an elevator with a single button going down. Simon and John glance with one another.

"Ladies first."

The trip down was tense. Both men ready themselves in case they recieve another bouquet of bullets for the housewarming party. The elevator pings open and they step out. "Fuck, I can't see nothin'." John whispers. The elevator doors shut and sooner than later the darkness engulfs them.

Suddenly the lights flash on and they are greeted with a sight. They found the arms dealers: bound to their chairs with bloodied plastic bags over their heads circling one of the missile launchers. "What the fuck?" Simon watches John approach one of the bodies and check for a pulse. 

"Whats your verdict, doc?"

"Dead as ice."

How have the men outside not know the fates of their employers? Were they simply told to stay outside and used them as bait to hold em off? That simple? "I think me head's startin' to spin for how confusin' this shit is." John gives a look at Simon. "Watcha think happen 'ere, Lt?" Simon shakes his head. "Not a clue, Johnny." He sighs, eyes landing on each body. "Not a clue." 

Jumbled and glitched words fill their ears. "Cap'n is that you?!" John presses the comms closer. 

"Soap you there?" Price sighs. "What the fuck happened back there? Are you lot alright?" 

"We are," Simon joins, "we got sum good and bad news.."

"Spill."

"We found one of the missile launchers, sir." Simon replies. "The bad news?" Simon looks over to John who fills the rest in: "Well that's the problem, Cap'n." Both find themselves staring at the looming and menacing weapon. "We found one of the missile launchers."

--

He lets the tears fall down his cheeks then unto the limp body of the pup. 

She was just. She just…. Just.

"Its okay, Henry…" His sister lets his head rest on her chest, shushing him quietly. She takes the body off his hands into the stained carpet. "She was a good dog, Henry.." She rocks him back and forth. "She's done her job well."

He moves a bit and glimpses at the body.

Trying to protect me.