#which is also the feeding place

[scarefox]

POV you turn around and realize you are late with their dinner

Why are buns like this?? Just sitting there and silently staring at you instead of coming over and demand food. (they still have hay it's not like they are starving)

But I swear rabbits are into telepathy and telekinesis. Maya also stares at doors when she wants them open....

[lexsnotdead]

so it can't be a coincidence that flies commonly tend to represent death decay and black magic in mythology and that bloodflies also seem not to harm the witches (and respectively delilah) right. right??

[serpentface]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[sharksonfire]

Ik Pyro is from Sydney in the comics (most likely Woolloomooloo specifically since he mentioned his grandma lives there) but I have a really in-depth headcanon about him being from somewhere in Tasmania (in-depth enough to include animal motifs and broader historical things lol I thought about this way too hard) and I really want to form it into a proper fic but I really don't think it would be that interesting to anyone other than, well, me...

[uncanny-tranny]

By implying that children are too stupid and rude to learn about the world and learn how the world works and how to interact with others, you are casting responsibility away from the people who are responsible for that child's upbringing and placing the blame on the children (who don't have the autonomy given to them to be allowed to decide what they want) who can't help what they do and do not learn, often.

If the children aren't okay, then investigate why before turning to thought-terminating clichés of, "Well, the kids are just stupid and dumb and aren't even worth the effort because they're lazy!"

[fluffypotatey]

you ever think about how MK never gets a chance to really define himself?

[vanmarkus]

Snippet Sunday 🎿

I was tagged by @jamespearce9-1-1 @disasterbuckdiaz and @malewifediaz thank you lovelies 💛

So I thought I'd give you the opening of the fic I have planned for Christmas~ (It's meant to be a sweet oneshot, but the research going into it is already getting out of hand lmao)

The whole thing started with Youtube — as most things do when 12-year-olds are concerned. Christopher shuffled into the living room with determination where Eddie was trying to figure out the settings of his new smart TV and Buck was folding and flipping the instruction manual back and forth, trying to find the beginning of it when Chris shoved his phone under his nose. “Look.” Buck frowned at the screen with intrigue. It was a video of people skiing; more precisely it was a prelude montage shot for an interview with a ski instructor who had Cerebral Palsy. “I wanna go skiing.” Chris announced without leaving much room for argument. Eddie looked back at them, momentarily forgetting the TV and straining his neck to see the video. Christopher, ever the sweetheart, put the video back to its beginning and held it out high enough for Eddie to see. “Huh.” “I wanna go skiing.” Christopher repeated and Eddie looked at Buck and Buck looked at Eddie — and the near silent conversation went as so: “You think this is a good idea?” Eddie hissed, keeping his lips as flat as possible, distorting the words to near incomprehension. “Well, it’s clearly something he wants to try.” Buck followed his lead and tipped his head into Chris’ direction by his side. “But what if he won’t like it? Maybe it’s not worth the risk…” “He loved skateboarding, would this be all that different?” Eddie just stared at him, chewing on his lips thoughtfully. “Come on, Eddie. Did he even see snow before?” “I can hear you, you know.” Chris chimed in with an exasperated huff and Eddie’s shoulders sagged in defeat.

✨no pressure tagging: @spagheddiediaz @daffi-990 @jesuisici33 @jeeyuns @ladydorian05 @steadfastsaturnsrings @eowon @heartshapedvows @nmcggg @rainbow-nerdss @evanbegins

[asleepinawell]

the fuck did they do. why would you move the tags button. why would you put something else in its place so people click on the wrong thing every time. I hate change I'm dying blood is pouring out my eyes and ears this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my life etc etc ad nauseam

[beyond-far-horizons]

I know I’m spiralling because of depression and burn out right now and I’m trying my best so I’ll just check soon and get what passes for tlc in my life right now. But I just gotta say this:

So many things in my life esp my work feel like a series of doors 🚪 slamming in my face. I’ve spent SO LONG struggling away at the coal face researching and working towards meaningful employment- things that not only feed my soul but could really make s difference in the world. And it’s just really f*cking hard…

I hate feeling hateful and resentful towards older people who hoard wealth, even if they are basically decent people. It’s just ground in your face over and over and over again that the world is unjust and unfair and you’ve just got to take it. They’ve taken so much that my generation and younger can’t better themselves or even survive and it means me so angry.

All I want is the basic resources I need to survive and dare I say thrive and they are so little! But yeah, honestly gotta vent because I’m losing faith here. I’ve got so many good things developing but it’s taken so long to get them anywhere close to fruition and so hard to struggle daily in the mean time.

Honestly f*ck capitalism!

Ps I’ll probably be okay and I’m not looking for advice. Just gotta vent because I’ve been holding on too long.

[thelaurenshippen]

Do you have any idea when/if ARCS will come out hiatus?

and I love all you pods and audio dramas they are so amazing❤

thank you so much, I'm so glad you love all of them! Arcs is sadly over for good as far as I know, though if Jordan ever wanted to revive it, I'd be there in a heartbeat! and, actually, I did recently dig up some unedited sessions on an old drive, so the atypipals have access to a few more episodes than were ever released.

[orcelito]

Did driving practice today. Actually did parallel parking practice this time, even tho I really didn't want to still. Finally got it into my head that I can maybe do this.

SO......

I have scheduled my driving test. For November 13th, 3 weeks from today.

[anghraine]

For some reason, I woke up thinking about Elizabeth and the sort of physical dimension of the novel.

To back up a bit, Elizabeth's physicality as a character is pretty widely acknowledged. We know more about her appearance than that of any other character in the book, to begin with. She's the only character in P&P whose coloring we know anything about (she has beautiful dark eyes with fine eyelashes), while we repeatedly hear about her light figure, her summer tan, and her general attractiveness—she's not stunning, but pretty.

There's also a sense of physicality in terms of her actions and reactions. She habitually walks and runs. She blushes frequently; at Pemberley, before Darcy shows up, she blushes as she admits to knowing him, concedes that he's very handsome, and shortly thereafter blushes deeply again upon encountering Darcy himself. Her impression of Pemberley is powerfully affected by the physical features and aesthetic of it, more than by its grandeur. Upon meeting Georgiana, Elizabeth likes her but also can't seem to help noticing that Georgiana isn't as good-looking as Darcy. Later, when Darcy shows up in Hertfordshire with Bingley, Elizabeth blushes again, smiles with delight, and her eyes shine.

But something else I find interesting is that Elizabeth is also linked to physical things to some extent. There are the infamous muddy skirts that she drops her overskirt down to conceal. There's her book at Netherfield. She preserves Darcy's letter until their engagement and only destroys it for his peace of mind. She rushes to find her parasol for her confrontation with Lady Catherine. She wears a watch.

IDK, this isn't going anywhere in particular, but I find it interesting that we get this paraphernalia alongside a comparatively distinct sense of Elizabeth's physicality and how she interacts with the outside world. At the very least, I think the paraphernalia reinforces the sense of Elizabeth as a very physical presence in the world.

[rainedroptalks]

The silt verses is definitely made for me, as someone with an interest in theology and a moderate amount of religious trauma

[infizero]

showing my growth by rejecting the “every ship gets happily married and becomes wonderful parents to lovely children” mindset and admitting that many pairings should just not be parents

[bardicious]

Might do something crazy, and take the whole month off posting to create art. 🤔 I need a bigger deadline to refocus my goals.

[jankillbride]

There’s a couple of interpretations of Gotham that I’m keeping in my back pocket and now one of them is pre-Batman Gotham as the Twilight Zone