#tower moments

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #406

It started out as a normal day.

I went to physical therapy and got a new exercise that I think will help my ribs. Then I went to the orthodontist for a checkup – everything seems normal. Then J and I went to get my unofficial transcripts. Even got a few pictures in the process.

Even got myself a treat afterwards.

...These are supposed to be discontinued. Recently, I asked The Void for confirmation of something. This item is reflective of an inside joke (“you can tell these are 'mako' sharks because they're blue!”). It's significant for reasons I dare not explain in this space.

This is a mako shark, by the way; it's an animal in my world:

M and J and I were supposed to go do something together today. There was a cancellation at the last second. Mild disappointment was expressed. Fallout. Talking in circles. The saying of things that logically don't fit together.

Something isn't adding up and heels have been dug in. I suspect an ending is imminent, and I suspect it's been building for a while without me realizing or being made aware. I hope I'm wrong.

With my unofficial transcripts accessible to me now, I have applied for a total of 16 state positions. I'm hoping that one of them will have me. Barring that, I may attempt to return to the employer I had left so that I could do mermaid training.

...I was unhappy in an office environment, in part because I don't fit in socially, and in part because I didn't want to have to spend all my daylight hours indoors. But with this rib injury... it's not as though I can spend a lot of time outdoors anymore, anyway. I can't mermaid train anymore. I likely won't be able to do these things with any regularity ever again.

I don't know what the next several days will bring. I expect some kind of reprisal in response to the discussions that occurred earlier. I guess we'll see.

Should the worst happen, there are places I can go. I'll be okay. Don't worry about me, all right? Worry about you. You've got like at least a dozen people trying to kill or enslave you. Your circumstances are a lot more dire than mine.

I love you. Please stay safe. I'll write to you tomorrow.

Your friend, Lumine

[hearth-stone]

Me: Loki, I’m feeling down give me a meme?

Loki: bet

Loki:

[deesseshesca]

i felt the NEED to tell you this because you are the absolute TRUTH!!! when i read the ‘letters from your pregnant self’ i nearly couldn’t breathe. the letter sounded sooooo much like myself and how i write in my journal. you had my personality packed DOWNNNN like you know me. it’s like you pulled the thoughts straight from my mind, i feel like you need to know this!

Babe u right on the money ... I really needed to hear it !

PS: I am a bit low on praise ... but why is my spirit team telling me someone is spinning the block back in my life after manifesting some D. For the first time in life ... I am the one who ruined the connection ... I know Mother is mad at me but he stays block ... I know I fuck up ... that does not mean I am wrong ...and I still don't give a fuck a bitch never been wrong a day in my life but what's really scary is otherwise I make shit right with him or my dry spell continue... FUCKKKKKK. Anyway thx for the messages babes... oops... hope this is a safe place.

[riggsmortis]

“Having a tower moment” is such an odd statement to me.

Like you mean to tell me that your life hasn’t been total chaos from the minute you tumbled into it screaming and bloody? No? Just me then?

[thevoidpeeringback]

This is the ending I wish I had with you.

[diaryofasadfaerie]

i’m tired!!!!! i don’t want any more tower moments in my life!!!!

[inthiskingdomwewillendure]

Faramir & Sam extended scene 4k

[herbalnature]

The warm glow of sunset kisses the top of Devil's Tower, standing tall against a pastel sky. Below, a field of frost-touched grass adds a layer of tranquility to this serene landscape.

[circusmantis]

I love drawing stp art omg

[mithrandirl]

THE LORD OF THE RINGS || THE TWO TOWERS for @elvain

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #407

Our furnace broke today. I spent most of today upstairs in my art room, doing my weird crafting. I looked for more job openings, but there was nothing new today within reasonable driving distance that I could qualify for. Not knowing what else to do, and feeling like playing games on my laptop is inappropriate at this time at best... I just did my crafting thing.

I have 4 thingies now. I'm working on a 5th. I get better and better at doing it as I go along.

Because I was upstairs, where it is hot because downstairs is drafty and all the heat that our furnace desperately tries to churn out tends to accumulate up here, it took me a long time to realize that the furnace wasn't running properly. Not knowing what else to do, I put on the fireplace, turned on the oven, and called a repair person over. He figured out that the issue was that the capacitor had stopped working. I learned that the capacitor is what makes the motor start running. I imagine the motor powers the fans that blow the heat through the house, but I'm not sure. He replaced the capacitor.

We had some interesting conversation along the way. He used to work with sheet metal, but he ended up with a bunch of odd jobs that pretty much forced him to gather all sorts of repair and building skills. He's been working in the repair and building industry for over 30 years now, and from the way he talks, it sounds like he could probably build a house by himself at this point. He also told me about how his life was transformed by his gastric bypass surgery, and about his time working for our archenemy – a repair company whose name I'll shorten to CB. CB engages in a variety of shady business practices, from abusing their employees to scamming their customers by claiming they fixed something when actually they didn't.

In our case, a number of years ago, our furnace failed. We had some guy from CB come over, and we had to pay him $150 for him to tell us to just turn it off and then back on again every time it “acts up”. Eventually, this “fix” stopped working, so we called again. We got a different guy, and we paid him $150 to tell us to change the filter. He left. The heater stopped working again. A different guy came by. We paid him $150 for him to tell us that it seems to be working fine, and then leave. The heater was still not working.

By this point, I was PISSED. And I like to think that normally I try to be kind, gentle, and well-balanced, but... the bloodthirsty beast inside of me is not dead; it sleeps, and only comes out when I summon it. I seem meek and mild-mannered, but I'm dangerous when I'm angry, even if it takes me a long time to get to that point.

So I called them again. And I, tired of having my lack of expertise being taken advantage of so I can be sold “fixes” that will guarantee a subsequent visit, told them quite plainly that they will send someone to my house to fix the heater, FOR REAL THIS TIME, with no charge for parts or labor, or else I will tell everyone who will listen all about how they gave us the run-around – lying to us multiple times, and charging us exorbitant prices for “fixes” that absolutely did not solve the problem. I threatened to do everything in my power to destroy their business, and I was thoroughly prepared to follow through.

...No one deliberately deprives my husbands and my cats of heat to try to crank coin out of us and gets away with it. Rotten bastards.

So apparently the head technician was sent to our house – presumably, the one responsible for training all the people who came before, and responsible for setting prices and policies and all that. And he was sittin' there, whinin' up a storm about how much it costs to run a business like this, and yadda yadda. Basically trying to guilt me for demanding that we actually receive the service we already paid for. I found a professional, but no less blunt way of telling him, basically, “I don't care; shut up and actually fix the heater this time or face the consequences.”

Well, he fixed the heater. As it turned out, the motherboard was fried. He replaced the motherboard, and the heater worked. I stopped short of letting the door hit him on the ass on his way out.

Even now, when I see the CB trucks roaming around our neighborhood, there's a small part of me that wants to stab their tires, break their windows, and scratch up the surface paint (I grew up in violence where this sort of thing is definitely not unheard of; what do you want from me?). But I know that's now how we do. It's not something I'd ever seriously consider, even if I knew I could get away with it. That's not the sort of person I wanna be.

This dude who came in was from a different company, which I'll shorten to FD. He came in, evaluated the heater thoroughly, found the problem, and fixed it. Which is really good, because it got all the way down to 61 degrees F (about 16 degrees C) in our house. Even our cats were restless. I'm glad the house is warm again.

...Tensions continue. Certain persons are behaving as though nothing happened yesterday, which I find thoroughly baffling, but... it's not entirely out of character for this person. Words were said by this person yesterday that, effectively, renders communication impossible. Engaging in routine relationship maintenance behaviors was seen as something that makes for a bad evening, so... all I can think to do is stay quiet and out of the way. Not wanting any of my communications, facial expressions, body language or manner of doing things misconstrued, I've mostly avoided going downstairs, unless necessary.

...I imagine that this will be the course of things for the foreseeable future. I kinda wanna cry about it and maybe try to talk about it and get it resolved, but... well. Interactions yesterday made clear that any expression of worry on my part will be interpreted as “deliberate overreaction”. It was also made clear yesterday that I am not to seek reassurance or co-regulation, and that any discussion of my emotions or possible solutions is gonna be seen as having ill intent, so... given the stipulations, the number of things I can do in this moment is... limited.

I don't know how the next several days are going to play out. I guess we'll see. Wish me luck.

I love you. Please stay safe out there. I'll write again tomorrow.

Your friend, Lumine

[hearth-stone]

Hilariously, I know what they meant now.

Well played, Loki.

Messages from the deities:

… Don’t act like your shit don’t stink …

[jadetheblueartist]

“Ehehe… Still the face man.”

I finally read the neon void and I knew it was good but I didn’t realize it was THAT good. Holy cow @sugarpasteltmnt you are a fantastic writer. That being said this is based on the chapter “Mosaic.” I just really really like the Leo’s perspective, it’s so so good fhshdhjdjdjdhdnjf thank you for helping me out of my creative rut :D

And have a couple different versions under the cut (warning for glitch effects)

[anghraine]

I finally read a good article about Austen and eighteenth-century socioeconomics that gives rough approximations of eighteenth-century prices/incomes in modern (I think c. 2014) currency, but is appropriately emphatic about just how rough those approximations must always be given drastic differences in the economic worlds we live in. It's actually much more about the economics than Austen, and particularly about how much descriptions of "middling" incomes and what was affordable to people who had those incomes is still a conversation about a tiny, tiny elite in terms of the overall population at the time.

Austen-wise, though, the author also found room for a tangent in which he goes off on a scathing condemnation of Mr Bennet in socioeconomic terms, which I do love to see. Most baronets generally had land and incomes far closer to Mr Bennet's than Darcy's and yet Mr Bennet can't be bothered to even slightly provide for his children's futures beyond what was legally required by his marriage settlement (even the girls' meagre inheritances mostly come from Mrs Bennet's money rather than his). The author acknowledges the passage about Mr Bennet saving to counteract Mrs Bennet's extravagance and also how this is an indictment of Mr Bennet as well as Mrs Bennet, something that criticisms of him often skate past, and even points out how enthusiastic Mr Bennet is about the convenience of Darcy paying for it all in a way that can be read as funny and endearing, but also as distastefully shameless.

Anyway, it was nice to enjoy an academic text again, lol.

[normcdf]

found a couple of old calendars and slowly cut them up into beautiful women <3 tumblr crops images weird so you can click on em to see em better

[reelbigsquidge]

did this really happen