#with my lighting studies i tend to focus more on shadows

[deer-a-day]

062

rendering? possibly. Lighting pt 3? maybe.

[zerun0]

"Between Shelves" - Viktor x Y/N (Female)

I don't tend to write any sort of stories or one shots. But i decided to give it a try after getting inspired by other users such as: ZauniteArchives & gaybybirth English is not my first language. Feel free to comment on any of my mistakes and i will update the post. — ! WARNING NSFW(+18): ! — Sexual themes, Sex, Flirting, Making out, Teasing, Public space, Dom!Viktor. — Word count: — 2.3k (Full uncut version on AO3)

The Piltover Academy library was quieter than usual, the last rays of the setting sun casting long shadows across the marble floor. Stacks of books lined the towering shelves, their spines worn from years of use. The scent of old parchment hung in the air, mingling with the soft sound of pages being turned by the few remaining students scattered in the vast room. Y/N sat at a corner table, her head bent over a book, but her focus was entirely elsewhere. Viktor was late. They had planned to study together, but as the minutes ticked by, she found herself growing restless, her mind wandering. The air between them had been charged for days now, filled with lingering glances and moments that stretched too long. Tonight felt different though... something about it felt heavier, more electric. She was about to give up on him, disappointed and hurt... But deep down she understood that the unexpected could happen sometimes. As she got up, a familiar, soft tapping of a cane was heard. Her heart skipped a beat. She glanced up just as Viktor rounded the corner, his intense gaze locking with hers. He didn’t say a word, but there was a look in his eyes that made her pulse quicken. He sat down across from her, the soft rustle of his coat the only sound between them. His usually calm, collected demeanor seemed frayed at the edges tonight. There was something in the way he looked at her—more than curiosity, more than the usual academic focus. His golden eyes were darker, and his lips were pressed into a tight line, as though he was holding something back. “Viktor,”— Y/N said softly, trying to cut through the tension with her usual lightness. “I thought you’d gotten caught up in one of your experiments.” “I nearly did,” he admitted, his voice low, almost husky. “But something else has been on my mind.” There was no mistaking the way his gaze lingered on her lips when he said that. Her breath hitched, and she felt her pulse quicken, heat rising to her cheeks. They had flirted before, tiptoed around the edges of something more, but this… this was different. Her voice came out quieter than she intended. “And what’s that?” Viktor’s eyes flicked around the library, taking in the few scattered students still studying in distant corners. His gaze returned to her, and something in it had shifted—there was a hunger there, restrained but barely. Slowly, deliberately, he stood up, gesturing toward the far end of the library where the shelves grew thicker and the dim lighting offered more privacy...

“Come with me,” — he murmured, his voice low and commanding, a rare edge to it. They walked between the shelves until they reached a secluded corner, far from any prying eyes. The shadows were deep here, the dim light from the high windows casting an amber glow over the rows of books. Viktor stopped abruptly, turning to face her, his expression unreadable. “Viktor…?” — Y/N’s voice came out as little more than a whisper, her heart racing. She could feel the heat radiating from him, the charged energy that seemed to hum between them. He stepped closer, his hand reaching out to gently brush a strand of hair behind her ear. His touch was soft, almost reverent, but there was a fire in his eyes that set her blood alight. “I’ve tried to keep my distance,” Viktor said, his voice rough, as though he was struggling to maintain control. “But I can’t. Not anymore.” Y/N’s breath caught in her throat. She had known, deep down, that something had been simmering between them, but hearing him say it out loud made her heart race. Without thinking, she stepped closer, her body nearly flush against his. “...Then don’t,” she whispered. That was all it took. In a heartbeat, Viktor’s lips were on hers, hot and urgent, his hands slipping around her waist, pulling her against him with a force that left her dizzy. The kiss was nothing like she had imagined—there was no slow build, no gentle teasing. It was pure fire, raw and consuming. Y/N moaned softly against his mouth, her fingers tangling in his shirt as she kissed him back with equal fervor. Viktor pressed her back against the bookshelf, the cool wood hard against her spine, grounding her even as her mind spun. His hands roamed over her body.

Viktor met her eyes, his own dark with desire, and for a moment, it seemed like he might pull away, like the logical, measured part of him might win out. But then his expression hardened, and his lips were on hers again, more insistent this time, more desperate. Y/N gasped against his mouth as his hands slid down her sides, finding the hem of her shirt and slipping underneath. The feel of his warm hands on her bare skin sent a shiver through her, her body arching into his touch. Viktor groaned softly, his grip tightening on her waist as he pressed her harder against the bookshelf. The weight of him, the heat of his body against hers, was intoxicating. Y/N’s mind was spinning, lost in the feel of his hands, his lips, the way his body seemed to fit perfectly against hers. She had wanted this for so long, had dreamed about it, but nothing could have prepared her for the reality of it—the urgency, the heat, the sheer intensity of the moment. “Someone… could walk in,” Y/N whispered, though there was no real concern in her voice. Viktor’s lips brushed against her ear as he spoke, his voice low and rough. “Then... be quiet.” Y/N shivered at the sound of his voice, her body tingling with anticipation. She could feel the heat pooling in her core, her body aching for more of his touch, more of him. Her hands slid down his chest, her fingers fumbling with the buttons of his shirt as her breathing quickened. Viktor’s hands slid lower, his fingers slipping beneath her skirt, his touch sending a jolt of pleasure through her that made her gasp. The risk only made it sweeter, the thought that someone could walk in at any moment, catch them in this forbidden moment. But the danger only fueled the fire between them, making every touch, every kiss, feel more intense, more urgent. “Viktor,” she whimpered, trying to keep her voice low, but the feeling was overwhelming, making it nearly impossible to stay quiet. He chuckled softly against her neck, his breath hot on her skin. “Shhh… we don’t want anyone to hear us, do we?” Y/N bit her lip, trying to stifle another moan as Viktor’s fingers teased her, expertly working her closer and closer to the edge. His other hand slid up her back, pulling her even tighter against him, and she could feel how much he wanted her—pressing hard against her thigh, straining through his trousers. The realization sent a fresh wave of heat through her, and her body responded instantly, her hips moving against his hand, seeking more. Viktor’s restraint shattered, and before she could even catch her breath, he was lifting her, his hands sliding under her thighs as he pressed her back against the nearest study table. Y/N gasped softly as she wrapped her legs around his waist, the heat between them building to a fever pitch. He kissed her again, hard and desperate, as his hips pressed against hers, his breath ragged against her lips. The feel of him, hot and insistent against her, sent a shudder through her, her body arching into his, craving more. She tugged at his shirt, pulling him closer, needing to feel every inch of him against her. Viktor’s hands gripped her thighs, his fingers digging into her skin as he positioned himself, his movements quick and efficient despite the overwhelming need that radiated off him. When he opened his pants and revealed the growing erection. He could not contain it anymore, allowing himself to finally press it into her, Y/N’s head fell back as she arched her back, a soft gasp escaping her lips as she tried to keep quiet. The sensation of him filling her was almost too much, her body trembling from the intensity of it. Viktor groaned softly, his breath coming in short, uneven gasps as he began to move. The slow, deliberate thrusts sent sparks of pleasure shooting through her, and Y/N bit her lip, trying to keep herself from crying out. “Gods,” Viktor groaned, his voice a rough whisper against her ear. “You feel so tight”

Y/N felt herself teetering on the edge, her body trembling as Viktor’s hips slammed against hers with a force that sent waves of pleasure crashing through her. She bit down on her lip, trying to stifle the moans that wanted to escape, but it was no use. The pleasure was overwhelming, and when Viktor shifted slightly, angling his hips just right, it was all she could do to keep from crying out. Viktor wasn’t far behind, his movements becoming erratic, his breath hot and heavy against her skin. With one final, deep thrust, he groaned softly, his body tensing as he came, his grip on her tightening as he buried his face in her neck, their made mess dripped down the wooden table, a friendly reminder of their passionate encounter. Slowly, Viktor pulled back, his eyes meeting hers, and for the first time since they started, a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. He leaned in, brushing a soft, almost tender kiss against her lips. “I think…” he murmured, still slightly breathless, “we may need a new study plan.” Y/N laughed softly, her body still humming with the aftershocks of their encounter. “I think you’re right.”

[saturnianprincess]

Jupiter in Taurus

Jupiter is finally in Taurus, now is the time when all those fast paced decisions and rewards with Aries energy will be solidified and made more permanent.

A/N: I am so excited because it is my Jupiter return which will happen in a week! Usually a Jupiter Return starts with things working against you in order to align you to your destined path.

Here is my short analysis on how transit Jupiter influences you based on the house its stationed in your chart. Please note this is just a general theme, situations may change due to Natal and other transit aspects.

-> Do not copy/plagiarize my work <-

1st House

Major glow up, feeling more encouraged to try out new things to change your appearance etc. Channeling a lot of self-love energy and focusing on self development.

2nd House

Lots of financial gains and benefits. You may even spend more on some luxury products or make significant investments. Your surrounding aesthetics and style may change.

3rd House

Your communication and speech will become more profound and you may read and write a lot of spiritual and enlightening stuff. Possibly reconnecting with your school friends, siblings and childhood friends.

4th House

You may either out of home or relocate. Familial bonds which don’t serve you anymore may either break or get better. You will feel more connected to your roots and feel inclined to learn more about your ancestral heritage.

5th House

You will want to have fun and truly romanticizing your life. You will get into a serious romantic relationship and/or meet your soul family. Creativity will be at its zenith during this period. Lots of opportunities and doors opening up for you.

6th House

Lots of new changes to your daily routine, health and dietary habits. Will get improvements in aspects related to job and money. Your productivity levels will be higher than usual so be sure to care for your mental health.

7th House

Your existing relationships will get much stronger and reach a new level of commitment such as marriage, living with your S.O. also possibly relocating depending on other aspects. You will also have favorable outcomes when it comes to legal/business matters.

8th House

Major spiritual awakening. You may feel very enlightened and focus on soul-searching. Getting into occult and esoteric practices. Lots of shadow work and healing yourself. Learning to be more intimate and vulnerable with your partner/yourself. Major Karmic cycles ending for you.

9th House

You may want to pursue higher education or learn something new. You may tend to question beliefs and traditions you were taught. Your optimism and outlook on life is unmatched. You can settle abroad or migrate for work/studies. Lots of traveling in general and meeting foreigners.

10th House

Rise in career and social status. You may work or meet very impactful and powerful people. You will gain recognition for your hard-work and achievements.

11th House

A very social year! Joining a friend group or being part of a large community. Can meet your platonic soulmates/soul tribe.

12th House

Spiritual transformation and massive change of your own beliefs. Connecting to your higher self. Betrayals and hidden enemies coming to light but in a more of blessing in disguise.

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©️saturnianprincess 2023 | Pictures from Pinterest

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[epphfervescent]

weird question but. Where have you found good refs of the kind of hooked noses you often draw?? It’s my favorite nose shape but there’s a few angles I always struggle with and you seem like an expert

not weird at all!! I lovvve noses they’re my favorite feature to draw. I use Pinterest p exclusively for refs; maybe try search terms like roman nose/grecian nose (obvs they mean different things/denote diff facial structure, but search results tend to lump all hooked-shaped noses together). Also try looking up the ‘before’ images for rhinoplasty

Re: angles, once you’ve scrolled to a face u like, find out the person’s name and search for them specifically, to see pics of the same feature at different orientations. For my Nose Gang (tm) I’m looking at Vanessa Axente, Numan Acar, Alba Flores, Eugene Hutz, Louis Garrel, & Hasan Ali

If the pickings r slim try search terms for photoshoots/editorials, bc sometimes photographers will get funkier with lighting/pose angles for magazines than, like, red carpet pics. (Re: funky lighting, remember that shadow-shapes change how features look—which is good practice for learning the versatility of a nose, but try to also find some neutrally lit reference, to add the base construction of a nose to your shape-vocabulary)

ik u didn’t ask for drawing tips per se, but! When I was having trouble making different angles look natural, I started paying attention to brow ridges! Ppl with hooked noses usually (tho not always) have a prominent brow///which in turn influences how the eyes are ‘framed’. So if you’re struggling maybe try zooming out to the whole ‘t-zone’ of the face to make sure everything’s balanced?

EDIT—2 more things! Try tracing over pics as an exercise. Focus on the underlying construction shapes as well as the details.

that can be hard, bc there’s a lot of distracting things going on in a face, SO—find an artist that you like and study how they simplify their nose shapes/what lines they use. (Rn I’m into these dudes)

EDIT AGAIN—the channel ‘proko’ on yt has good stuff abt portraiture/how to study features generally

Good luck!!! Feel free to ask more stuff//i hv clarity issues sometimes so if u want/need I can post some examples.

[blackcataugury]

Back from the Grave 💀

Greetings, friends! ✨

It’s been a long-time coming, but I’ve finally decided to revive the Black Cat Augury pages and rebrand as a blogger and educator, more than anything else. I wanted to take a moment to re-introduce myself and my particular craft of magick here for those that take interest and want to come along for the ride again.

To start, I’m Connor – the main diviner, crafter, and blogger here at Black Cat Augury. As a proudly queer and transgender man, I bring my eclectic style and unwavering beliefs to the table when it comes to my craft. I am constantly pulling from the variety of traditional and new-aged practices of metaphysics and witchcraft that inspire me. I am a spiritual satanist, first and foremost, and I have been practicing for almost 15 years now, dedicating much of my time to my studies of the occult and meditation. My craft incorporates aspects of shadow work, divination, medium work, and voodoo, typically. My talents lie in divination and a combination of clairsentience and clairaudience to commune with spirits or other entities. I primarily work with spirits of the dead and demons, and I seem to have a knack for performing home cleansings, warding, and banishing negative energies or entities for those that are in need of it. I am also a certified master practitioner of traditional Usui Reiki, though I often find ways to make use of it with clients specifically for shadow work.

If I really had to label myself, I would have to say that I am more of a gray warlock than anything else. “Do no harm, but take no shit” – that’s the dogma that a satanist most often follows. While a lot of spiritual guides and practitioners focus on being “all love and light,” I acknowledge and wholeheartedly embrace the darkness that is present within myself and the universe that surrounds me. I strive to teach all my clients and students to do the same, thus attaining balance and harmony in some of the areas that others tend to shy away from. In the words of Carl Jung, “There is no light without shadow, and no psychic wholeness without imperfection,” and I try my very best to be mindful of this concept in all that I do because I truly believe that there must be a stability of both light and dark in order to achieve wholeness as both a person and a witch. We have to acknowledge and face the parts of ourselves that we may instinctively want to turn away from, because from there, I believe we have the power to change ourselves for the better.

Stay tuned for more posts about any and all areas of spirituality and witchcraft that I partake in, as well as announcements for the witchy Discord server that I’ll be doing a soft launch for soon, for those that practice and take interest. 👀

[hexedrosel-arts]

Carrie and the rain

and a shadow boy :), wonder who it is?

oc rambling under the cut, just me being me

So Carrie is a god in my universe, a very new, very young one of course. She's the god of magic. Her range is small currently as trying to learn all the variations of magic would take years and she's got plenty of time. She's not the first god of magic, she's just the recent one.

Magic in my universe is very soft and very fluid, you can use it however you please. But humans are limited by the years they have and their energy. I'll say that humans can use at most 2 different types of magic without burning up. Higher beings(gods and angels) can use magic as much as they want(they have limits, but it's harder for them to hit them), but they tend to focus on one type to make them much stronger. Carrie is the exception as gods like her have to study, not necessary use, all types of magic to keep them alive.

The magic she uses the most is ice(mostly using it to freeze people who bother her) and lighting(she heard that lighting looks cool and she wanted to look cool even if she can't see it). She can detect magic from other people, or at least if someone has it. Her and Cosmo have become friends for this reason :3(also the poll made me think of them being friends)

Carrie's umbrella has many uses. Her walking stick and her magic staff. While Carrie can use her hands for her magic, she prefers to have her umbrella. If her magic goes haywire for any reason(being young and inexperienced as god does that) she would rather her umbrella blows up than her hands.

Cosmo uses shadow magic, he can hide in shadows and disguise himself as people's shadows(basically as the person but he cannot mimic their voice), he tends to make his shadow look like space and the universe as he loves space(he even named himself after space). As long as he can use his magic he will look as his cosmic self, the space buns and the stars in his eyes will be there. Carrie helps him keep the magic going as too much magic use does strain a person and make them tired. Way too much use can cause death as well so Carrie keeps him well, even if his magic is very weak(at least to Carrie) as Cosmo is young, she wants him around.

Cosmo likes to hide in Carrie's umbrella(a shadow is always cast on Carrie because of it. Why not hang out there?), he talks to her while there, mostly about space and space facts. Carrie is bothered by noise but as long as it's Cosmo, it's fine.

3 Carrie funfacts:

If Carrie was human, she would want to become a train driver, even if the noise of trains is loud, she likes the idea of doing so(she knows she can't see, but she trusts that if she was human, human things like surgery would be more effective on her.)

Carrie is technically Ray's aunt. Winter sees Ray as his kid, so Carrie is Ray's aunt who is only one year older than him.

Carrie's more mythical(god-like?) form would be very bat like. A steampunk vampire bat!(steampunk vampire i guess?)

Also a silly thing, they nap together, usually Cosmo in her umbrella.

I will ramble more about magic in my universe another time but this was supposed to be a Carrie and a little bit of Cosmo so whateves whateves it is (❁´◡`❁)

[barkspawn]

I know it's super common but could you do the "who hurt you" trope with Harvey? I'm a sucker for it. Loved the Elliott one 😍

I'm legit so happy with this one and tbh it's been a long time since this was the case. That means "thank you" in Tori. I hope you enjoy!

Amelia exhaled, her breathing labored as she used what she could of her energy to close the gate for the elevator. She drew in a rattled breath as she recalled the events of the past hour. 

She was getting a good haul in the mines, more than capable of defending herself as she so often had. 

This time was different. She had made a stupid, stupid mistake. She went far enough down where monsters were smarter and let her guard down for a chunk of ore. The bats came out of nowhere and were quickly followed by a shadow brute at the sound of her cries. Thankfully, she fought them off long enough to pull herself into the elevator. 

Her vision was fading and she was remarkably dizzy. She felt blood oozing from a cut on her forehead and right arm and she wasn't quite positive but her side was hopefully bruised and not burned. 

She groaned as the elevator came to a stop, resting for a moment before slowly hobbling her way to the entrance and out the cave entrance. She coughed once and winced, earning the attention of Demetrius who was studying the flora on the other side of the bridge. 

She heard him call her name.. then call for Robin. After that was a quick burst of pain as she fell to the floor and passed out. 

———————❖———————

Harvey was tired. It wasn't a particularly busy day at the clinic, but still, he saw George and Shane today. The two always tended to be a handful. He had regretted giving Maru the day off, but she had deserved it after how hard she had been working. 

He sighed deeply, filing away the last of the charts and switching off the small radio by his desk, the light jazz falling silent. Standing, he moved to turn the light off, his phone buzzing in his pocket just before he could reach it.

Vincent probably burned himself or scraped a knee. 

With another sigh, he opened the emergency phone. "This is Dr. Harv-"

"Harvey! Oh yoba.. we can't wake her up.. we.." Maru panicked on the other end, someone in the background barking orders he couldn't make out. A chill ran down his spine as he tried to gain her attention back.

"Slow down, Maru. What's going on, who's hurt? Tell me where you are."

Maru took a shaky breath, clearly still shaken as he heard Robin yell something in the background,  "right.. sorry, Doctor. It.. its Amelia.. the farmer. Dad saw her come out of the mines and she just.. collapsed."

Harvey knew he must have gone pale. Amelia? They couldn't wake her up? She collapsed? He shook his head, trying to force himself to snap out of it, "it's okay, breathe. I'm on my way," he said, his voice low and dark. He couldn't stop the tense undertones. He moved, already pulling his coat on and grabbing his medicine bag. 

"No! Mom is bringing her there now!" Maru cried as he heard Demetrius console her, telling her they'll stay behind. It was barely five minutes as Robin came around the corner holding the farmer, limp and covered in blood and soot.

"Dear yoba.." Harvey muttered to himself as his heart dropped. Panic started to set in then, though he tried to focus the energy on treating her, "in the exam room, Robin, on the right."

He was following behind her, dropping his coat on a chair in the waiting room and donning his gloves as he moved to the back room. Robin had started rambling off the list of events, but Harvey couldn't hear her. He moved to Amelia's side and gingerly touched her face, "Amelia, can you hear me? I need you to wake up."

Nothing. 

He cursed under his breath before turning to Robin, growing frustrated with the noise, "Robin, thank you for bringing her, but I need you to leave. Go to the waiting room or home. You're covered in blood," his voice was softer at the end. It had to be jarring for everyone.. and it was Amelia's blood. Everywhere. He started again, "I promise I'll update you with what I can. I just need to focus now."

She wiped tears from her face and nodded, sparing the farmer one last glance before turning and leaving the room. Harvey turned back to Amelia, his own eyes threatening tears as he started to evaluate her wounds and stitch her up. He spoke to her the whole time, just in case. 

———————❖———————

It had taken about an hour and a half to carefully stitch up her lacerations and to evaluate the many bruises to her entire body; the worst by far the one on her left side. She had broken two ribs and had three cuts that needed stitches. The small cut on her forehead just by her hair line was difficult as he didn't want to mess up a single stitch and ruin her self image. 

He looked over at her as he finished everything, gently touching her face once more, his voice a whisper, "you have to wake up.. I don't know what I- the town would do without you."

His voice cracked at the end and he knew he needed a moment. He tore himself from her side and stepped into the hallway, tossing his gloves in the hazard bin as he passed. No sooner than he stepped out of the door did the tears spill over. His hands moved to pull his glasses off and set them aside before sliding down the wall, his hands over his face. He couldn't stop the small sob that escaped him as his panic took over. 

He adored Amelia. He may have been awkward at first, blushing wildly every time she brought him a coffee or met him outside for their morning stroll. Yoba knows his face turned a new shade of red when he found out just how much effort she went through to find out he loves pickles and then learned to make them. However, he became comfortable with her. The awkwardness faded and they held easy conversation where, shockingly, even Harvey had the guts to flirt every so often. She came in for a physical at one point and he swore they almost kissed. He's almost certain had Maru not come in, it would have happened. He had even planned on asking her to dinner, though his confidence hadn't grown that high yet. 

Yoba dammit, she has to be okay. I can't be the one to.. to let her..

He was met with another sob before he took in a deep breath, running his fingers back through his already messy hair. Once he regained his composure and put his glasses back on, he walked back in the room, frowning at the sight of her still lying there. The redeeming factor was the rise and fall of her chest, steady and strong. 

He pulled the chair up beside her and took her hand, which had small lacerations, but no more than the callouses from farming. He hesitated before he took her hand into his, resting his head just beside her. He hadn't meant to, but he drifted off into sleep, though it was light. 

———————❖———————

Amelia took in a painful breath as she started to open her eyes, the bright light blinding above. Opening her eyes to let them adjust to the room, sha gasped in pain, her ribs crying out in warning. At the sound of her gasp, she heard a shuffle next to her, warmth pulling from her hand that she didn't know was there until she felt the cold of its absence. She looked over, Harvey standing fretful over her bed, checking every monitor and drip around her. He looked horrible. Bags under his eyes, his hair utterly disheveled, his tie loosened and the top button undone. She stared for a moment longer than she needed to before making the mistake of taking a deep breath causing her to wince in pain. Still, she reached over and touched Harvey's arm, causing him to finally look at her. He really looked exhausted. 

"Harv.. what.." Amelia frowned looking over her own arms, covered in bruises and bandages. There was a long pause before she continued, voice low and ashamed, "they really got me, huh? I'm guessing I passed out and Linus found me again..?"

Harvey looked angry, but only for a split second. He knew of the dangers the mines held: slimes, bats, creepy crawlies. But to have done this? There must be far more dangerous beings down there. Slowly, he stepped forward and shifted to sit on the side of her bed as gingerly as possible. As she was about to say something, he touched her face, hand coming to rest in a gentle caress of her cheek. He couldn't stay in doctor mode. Tears threatened his eyes once more as he spoke, "Amelia," his voice cracked slightly, low and strained, "who… what did this to you…?" 

A tear escaped his eye then, her hand moving up to wipe it away almost immediately as she leaned into his touch.

Damn it, Harv… you're gonna make me cry and then it'll just be a snot fest..

She thought about it for a moment, offering a weak smile, "monsters in the mines," she started, sighing before regretting that decision. He deserved to know, "There are.. creatures down there. Shadow people. I usually take care of them right away.. but I didn't see it coming.. I.."

She stopped then, feeling his touch growing fuller as he gentle moved his thumb over her cheekbone, "would it be selfish if I asked you not to go back down there?"

She gave a coughing laugh, also a mistake, turning to press a kiss to his palm before she had any time to stop herself. Still, she smiled, "I think I might have to. How else will I find an excuse to come see you?"

That earned a laugh from Harvey, his cheeks tinged pink from the kiss, "alternatively, Ms. Rowe, you don't need an excuse. You can come see me whenever you'd like to. Free of charge," he gave her a small smirk before deciding to take his own chance to show his feelings in a new way. He shifted off of the bed before turning back and bending to press the most gentle kiss to her forehead. His face must have been red as hell, as he could see hers was. He lingered for just a moment, his voice soft, "i'll be right here if you need me, okay? Get some rest."

As he started to pull back, her hand moved to his cheek as her eyes met his, "Harvey.." her voice came out in the smallest of whispers, her eyes flicking down to his lips before meeting his eyes again. 

His face had never burned warmer,  but still he stayed, mere inches from the woman he had grown to love. Whether it was impulse or a calculated decision, he didn't know nor did he care. He closed the miniscule distance between them and kissed her then. He could feel the relieved sigh she released as her hand moved back to brush through his hair. He was gentle though, not at all able to forget the state she was in. The kiss was slow. Loving even. It lasted for both an eternity and seconds.

Much to his own dismay, as her tongue brushed over his lower lip, requesting more, he pulled back, forehead resting against hers. He could practically hear her pouting as he let out a breathy laugh, "get some rest. I need you to get better so I can take you on a much less.. stressful date."

He pulled back just a bit to look over her face. He wanted to spend all of his time telling her how much he adored her and how beautiful she truly is. After a moment her pout faded to a tired smirk, "Dr. Harvey? Your pulse is quite elevated. Are you nervous?"

His smile grew wide, happier than he's been in days, "you could say that."

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Questioning the “survival” narrative

After studying Cold-War, Canadian post-apocalyptic science fiction, I have decided that I don’t want to survive the post-apocalypse.

Or at least, I don’t want to do what it takes to survive. Not according to the tenets of the classic non-solarpunk sci-fi narrative, that is.

Hear me out: I’m all about making a better future according to the values of solarpunk. I choose to focus on and pay attention to the actions that are taking society towards a radically just and sustainable world, that sow the seeds of a brighter future by the dim light of the present. It helps me cope with the fact that it’s pretty dark out there right now. It helps me keep the shadows away from my soul; they might have slipped into the crevices of my brain, but solarpunk helps me to keep my heart clear. Mostly.

Some would say we’re living through an apocalypse. Some would argue that our society (as with many cultures around the globe) already experienced an apocalypse and is living in the aftermath, though many people are unaware of it. Because this apocalypse was of the revelation sort, many of us don’t have the ability to recognize the violence that has been done to us. The violence that we have done to ourselves. The violence that we now embody.

Have you read (non-solarpunk) post-apocalyptic novels? Have you watched the movies? What tends to happen to the characters? What do they do to survive? How do they make their way in this changed world, which is often more brutal?

Now think about those stories again, and this time think about the supporting characters: the young, the assigned-female, the gender-non-conforming, the racialized humans. In the dominant science fiction narrative of the post-apocalypse, what happens to those characters? What do they do to survive? How do they make their way in this changed world, which is often more brutal?

I’m already seeing some of the tropes coalescing irl, and I don’t like it. I’m thinking specifically of two that have made the jump from (science) fiction to real life - the assigned-female humans who take on the violence and domination of the patriarchy, proving that they are “one of the boys” and can hold their own in a fight (whether verbal or physical), and the assigned-female humans who escape into traditionalism, trading in freedoms for the assurance of economic, social, and/or physical safety from the violence of other humans (usually assumed to be the assigned-male ones).

These aren’t great options. They also are based in an understanding of the way that humans work that is faulty, that is perverse, that assumes violence is the answer even before posing the question, that thinks that obviously people will turn to fighting, chaos, and ruination as soon as the enforcement of civil law is taken away.

Have you heard the references to nature, red in tooth and claw? To how life is nasty, brutish, and short? Life is pain, anyone who tries to tell you different is selling something? Who killed the world? These make up the background chorus of post-apocalyptic narratives in my mind; pop culture has thoroughly commodified my imagination and thus is an informing factor of my thoughts and actions. I suspect this is the case for many.

It’s appealing, to rest the axioms of irl human behaviour on the literal worst way that we can treat each other and our selves. It’s so easy, to choose the violent way out. To give in to our base emotions, to let negative affects overwhelm us and carry us along in their flood, consequences be damned. When our adrenaline is up, the energy necessary to carry out terrible things is at most humans’ fingertips, and it’s not a difficult thing to unleash.

(I say this as an average-height, disabled ciswoman who is super out of shape. I’m not going to be beating anyone up physically any time soon because I am angry. But could I bully? Could I viciously tear down my conversational partner if I believe them to be an opponent? Could I make them feel awful? Yeah, probably. Sometimes, it’s hard not to cut someone down verbally, whether in real life or on social media or an anonymous messaging board. You know of what I speak, reader.)

Post-apocalyptic fiction that is gritty, that is dark, that is “realistic” - these stories assume that, in both fiction AND real life, humans are inherently lazy. Well, all humans except for our noble protagonists who, for some reason, have the fortitude and willpower to overcome this urge to easy violence in order to … do whatever it is that merits the win condition for the story medium they find themselves in, I suppose. Conversely, if we’re following an anti-hero, we may gleefully delight in their giving in to their urges to dominate others, as it reaffirms to us that even the most relatable of people can be cut down, brought low enough that their humanity no longer provides a constraining, conscientious barrier to violence.

Is the post-apocalyptic setting that operates according to these rules a fun one to romp around in fiction? Heck yes! Do I want to live there full-time? Hell, no.

I don’t want to continue to survive in a world where the dominant consensual hallucination has agreed that humans operate according to these narratives of lack, meanness, violence, scarcity. I don’t want mine to be a bare life. I don’t want to be forced to operate according to kill-or-be-killed, survival of the fittest, power-struggle logic that operates strictly in punitive hierarchies. So many of our post-apocalyptic settings demand this sort of action from characters, scripting violence and domination into their interactions.

I am a firm believer in the fact that fiction influences us in a myriad of ways - some overt, some so subtle we cannot even recognize them until they are pointed out to us. The dominant imagination of the post-apocalypse has been beholden to these non-solarpunk stories for so long that fiction is starting to bleed over into reality. And survival is not enough* - it was never enough to begin with, and it’s really not enough now. Instead of imagining humans surviving, let us imagine all beings thriving. Solarpunk stories, in my opinion, do that very well. Is it unrealistic to thrive in the wake of disaster, or to make the best of a bad situation? Is it naïve to hope that there is more to life than a continuous power struggle, only temporarily driven under the surface of consciousness by the strictures of society, but ready to reassert itself the minute something happens to upend that society? I sure hope not.

I want that negative version of the post-apocalypse to stay in the world of fiction, safely, where it cannot twist the way that we think of others, the way that we think of our selves. Instead, I hope we invest more in real life examples of communities coming together in the aftermath of disaster, like the examples in Rebecca Solnit’s A Paradise Built in Hell. Like I experienced in Japan after 3/11. All humans do not naturally react to the misfortune of others with indifference, with violence, with destructiveness, but many react with compassion, empathy, and solidarity. I would say, based on this, that the non-solarpunk post-apocalyptic setting is the exception, not the rule.

As I was writing, I was thinking of an anecdote about anthropologist Margaret Mead, who purportedly claimed during a lecture that the earliest sign of “civilization” was not tools, nor weapons, nor pots, but a healed femur. Ira Byock describes how

“Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said.”

This is a really nice anecdote, a wonderful sentiment, and something that points toward a truth, to me; however, that anecdote is very contested, and cannot be attributed to Mead at all. I was surprised to find this out, but even more intrigued by the critique put forward by anthropologist and physician Gideon Lasko. Lasko, writing for Sapiens in 2012, called out the inherent anthropocentrism of the anecdote, asking if medicine, healing, and helping others can really be thought to only be exclusive to Homo sapiens. He goes on to talk about how, not only are healed bones found in many species across the animal kingdom, but evidence shows that many species like chimpanzees, elephants, and wolves practice some form of self-medication and care for wounded members of their group.

This illustration points out rather succinctly that the non-solarpunk default of “survival” is a human construction, not the inherent truth of being “civilized” - which is a super problematic concept in and of itself - or indeed “human”. The dichotomy that the negative version of the post-apocalypse draws between civilized/uncivilized, human/animal, man/woman, etc is a hierarchy that is too often perpetuated in non-solarpunk science fiction stories, especially in those narratives we would consider classics of the genre. I’m looking at you, “Farnham’s Freehold.”**

It is useful to be able to take what we have been taught to be / passively absorbed from cultural worldview as a fundamental truth of nature (that survival is a struggle that continues up through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs past the first level) and carefully detach it from the other assumptions that make up our worldviews and look at it from all angles, recognizing what is true, and what is a result of invention. These ideas didn’t just come from nowhere.

So I return to my original statement. I don’t want to survive in a post-apocalyptic setting that operates according to the negative, binaristic logic that dictates that all interaction between humans is necessarily violent. I don’t want to struggle for power. I don’t want to be a victim. I can see my role, and it looks grim. I would rather just nope out of the situation entirely. There’s a reason I don’t read/watch most sci-fi post-apocalypse media. Solarpunk gives me an alternative, something that assumes people will act with care for others, with respect for their selves and nature, with good intentions despite the fact that we’re already in hell.*** I don’t think, if the world were solarpunk, I would need to want to survive, because the philosophical groundwork would already have been laid to enable me to thrive.

— *I’m not referencing Star Trek, I’m referencing Station Eleven, which references Star Trek. **Some narratives (especially in feminist, post-colonial, and more contemporary narratives) invoke this hierarchy precisely to critique its irruption in the present day, and point out how false a narrative it is. I am not talking about these cases. ***Apparently the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but if you’re already there, can you just take the road made of good intentions back out of it? I don’t see why not, since metaphors are also malleable.

[wise-reflections]

Cognitive psychology: a fascinating journey into the depths of our minds

Cognitive psychology as a science has the incredibly interesting goal of tapping into the mysterious depths of your brain. It deals with the perception and memorization of information, as well as the process of thinking, cognition and decision-making.

In other words, it is the science of how our "brain computer" works - our most complex and unique "computer" in the world, in the entire universe.

Therefore, this information is simply essential to know. After all, who would refuse to have a guide to themselves!

Knowledge of cognitive psychology helps you understand yourself better, learn and work more effectively, and find creative solutions to problems.

For me personally, getting to know this science was a real discovery. I began to notice how my thoughts and feelings influence my behavior, learned to manage my attention and memory.

Cognitive psychology is the key to unlocking the limitless potential of our minds! Feelings and perception: how we know the world around us.

Have you ever wondered how amazing the workings of our senses are? We perceive only a fraction of the information that is actually around us. Our brain, like a skillful magician, creates the illusion of a complete picture of the world, when in fact it is full of gaps and inaccuracies. Every phenomenon of our perception sometimes makes us doubt the reality of what is happening.

For example, the famous optical illusions in the form of impossible figures, distortion of perspective, and the play of light and shadow. These and many other such examples show that our perception is subjective and does not always reflect the truth. Indeed, numerous experiments show that knowledge, attitudes, expectations, and past experiences can influence how we perceive unfamiliar sensory information.

We see what we expect to see and sometimes overlook obvious things.

In one study, participants didn't notice a gorilla walking across a basketball court because they were focused on counting the passes of the ball. Amazing, isn't it? Attention and memory: the secrets to effective memorization and concentration. Our attention is a limited resource.

We cannot focus on many things at the same time, although sometimes we think otherwise. Scientists distinguish different types of attention: selective attention (when we single out the right stimulus among others), sustained attention (the ability to maintain focus for a long time), and distributed attention (the ability to do several things at once).

By developing each of these skills, we can greatly improve our performance. Memory is a huge library with many halls and repositories. We remember not only facts and events, but also motor skills, emotions, images and sensations. Short-term memory allows us to retain information briefly, while long-term memory allows us to retain it for many years.

Procedural memory is responsible for our habits and automatisms, while declarative memory is responsible for conscious memories.

So how can you improve your memory and attention? Cognitive psychology provides a lot of practical advice. To memorize information, it is important to create vivid images, link new knowledge with already known, use mnemotechnics.

To train attention useful exercises for switching between tasks, meditative practices, games and puzzles.

The main thing is regularity of exercises and gradual complication of the load. Thinking and decision making: how we cope with complex tasks.

Our thinking is an amazing tool that allows us to find non-standard solutions, make predictions, and grasp abstract ideas. However, it is not always rational and infallible. We are subject to cognitive distortions - systematic errors in reasoning that affect our judgments and decisions.

One such distortion is the confirmation effect. We tend to notice and remember information that is consistent with our beliefs and ignore facts that contradict them.

Another distortion is the availability heuristic: we overestimate the probability of events whose examples come readily to mind.

Being aware of these and other cognitive traps helps us make better decisions. Cognitive psychology offers different models and strategies for problem solving.

Some problems require a logical, step-by-step approach, while others require creative insight and bold guesswork. By developing flexibility and fluency of thinking, the ability to look at a situation from different angles, we become more effective in solving various life and professional problems. The prospects for the development of cognitive science are truly breathtaking. Scientists are already working on brain-computer interfaces that will allow us to control technology with our thoughts. Research on artificial intelligence is bringing us closer to creating machines that can not only process information, but also think like a human being.

Perhaps in the future we will learn to "read minds," record and transfer memories, and enhance our brain's capabilities with the help of technology.

This is only a small part of what cognitive science promises us. To summarize, cognitive psychology is a fascinating journey into the depths of the human mind. The more we learn about the workings of our minds, the better we understand ourselves and the world around us. I encourage you not to stop there, to continue to explore your inner cosmos, to push the boundaries of what is possible.

Use the knowledge you have gained for self-development, effective learning, fruitful work and harmonious relationships. Let cognitive psychology become your reliable compass on the way to success and personal growth!

I apply the principles of cognitive psychology to my life every day. Knowing how memory works helps me to memorize information faster, and understanding the mechanisms of attention helps me to focus on the main things and not get distracted by trifles. When I face difficult tasks, I try to look at them from a different angle and apply a non-standard approach. Most importantly, I have learned to better understand myself, my thoughts and emotions, and the motives behind my actions. This is a priceless gift that cognitive science gives to everyone who is ready to immerse himself in its study.

So feel free to embark on a fascinating journey through the labyrinths of your mind! Explore, experiment, ask questions and seek answers. I'm sure you will have many amazing discoveries and insights. And let cognitive psychology be your faithful companion and assistant on this path.

Bon voyage!

[aemiron-main]

Are you an artist? Do you tend to do flowy lineart-focused work and you want to get into doing more painterly work but you’re having trouble bridging the gap between the two?

Try using a textured square brush to do the sketch for your painting. For example i personally use a thin airbrush for my sketches and lining when im doing my regular art but Try doing it with a textured square brush (and ideally get one where its like. minimal pressure opacity if the pressure opacity is doing that weird see-through overlap thing like try and avoid that bc imo it makes sketching harder), it made a big difference for me last night in terms of how my brain approaches sketches for paintings vs for lined pieces which for me at least is necessary bc my sketch style for lined pieces ends up with me sketching the wrong areas/not shadow mapping because with lined art sketches, the lines are part of the final product, but with paintings they need to act as a guide more than they need to look pretty & ive had issues trying to separate the two in my brain and swapping to a textured square brush with minimal pressure opacity has helped me do that/made it click in my brain so that i focus on different areas of subjects when sketching them for paintings vs when sketching them for my regular lined work.

And before someone says something about “lineart focused work is great” yes it Is i love it i do it all the time this is just specific advice for a specific problem that’s plagued me and may be plaguing others bc i love lineart focused styles but sometimes i want to go more painting-mode for studies. This is not criticism of anyone’s technique, this is me explaining what made things click in my brain. For me personally, the soft airbrush sketch technique i usually use ends up making shadow mapping difficult which is why i struggle with figuring out lighting when approaching painting studies and end up muddying it/not being able to include effective contrast.

[stromuprisahat]

Her whole answer is a whole lot of nonsense.

[Alina's power is] different, but it isn's actually that big. If you remember from Shadow and Bone, it's actually an issue.

What I remember from Shadow and Bone, is her lack of training and her fucked up state of physical and mental health due to years of suppressing. But that goes back to LB’s lack of understanding, what is learning curve and that even young people suffering chronic illness cannot be free of its effects the moment said illness is discovered...

She's powerful Grisha, but she isn't as powerful as the Darkling.

The man, who had centuries to hone his skills and as far as we know never got weakened by their disuse...

She knows without the first amplifier she can't enter the fold.

Not even the Darkling can, since volcra like him a bit too much AND entering it isn’t exactly the issue, is it?

“No Grisha is powerful enough to face the Fold. Not even me.”

Alina could light up just fine, her endurance is the problem and we’re back to lack of training:

“More!” Baghra demanded. “What’s stopping you?”

I dug deeper and the circle of light swelled past the island, bathing the whole lake and the school on the opposite shore in gleaming sunlight. Though there was snow on the ground, the air around us shone bright and heavy with summer heat. My body thrummed with power. It was exhilarating, but I could feel myself tiring, BUMPING UP AGAINST THE LIMITS OF MY ABILITIES.

“More!” Baghra shouted.

“I can’t!” I protested.

“More!” she said again, and there was an urgency in her voice that sounded an alarm inside of me and caused my focus to falter. The light wavered and slipped from my grasp. I scrambled for it but it rushed away from me, plunging the school, then the island, and then the lakeshore back into darkness.

“It’s not enough.” His voice made me jump. The Darkling emerged from the shadows onto the lamplit path.

“It might be,” said Baghra. “You see how strong she is. I wasn’t even helping her. Give her an amplifier and see what she can do.”

... and her mental state, since she already decided she can’t do it, it makes sense she won’t be able to. Perhaps is she wasted less of her strength on being ordinary, she might have unlocked her full potential. She survived over ten years of starving herself to death after all. Anyone weak would simply stop, or die.

Also- either powerful Grisha are immortal, or anyone “weird” is. Does that mean Genya will outlive everyone? Oh, wait! Tailoring is no longer unique... *eyeroll*

LB tends to want things, then writes something completely different.

That woman! (derogatory)

No wonder a huge chunk of fandom is like THAT...

black-rose-writings:

How does she summon at night? Starlight, moonlight.

But I do think it is largely psychological.

Alina doesn't understand her powers, at all, basically until the very end.

We're told part of Grisha training is understanding their element and how it works, with and without Grisha interference. Corporalki study anatomy. All the others learn to percieve and control their element on a molecular scale.

Alina should be studying optics as part of her Grisha training. She should be learning how light works. Obviously, the Grishaverse likely hadn't discovered photons yet (irl, they were discovered in the early 20th century, though the ideas of it existed since 17th century and having her learn both the Light particle and Light wave theory just in case would probably not hurt anything), but they would probably have a lot of figured out. Hell, they might even have photons figured out already, because realistically, the Fold and attempts to safely cross it would probably be a fuel for a lot of optics research.

But she doesn't. She just gets hit with a stick and learns all about the other orders' elements. The only real education she gets on how light actually functions is when David helps her learn how to do invisiblity. Which, once she understands the principle, she's able to do very efficiently, very fast. Meaning that if she knows what the fuck she's doing, she's much better and efficient at doing it. What a shocker /s

Like, if I wanted to take the anti narrative I would say the Darkling was specifically not having her learn that, because he wanted to keep her weak, or something.

So that mental block is, probably related to her lack of understanding of her power. If she believes that she's only able to control natural light (being a Sun summoner), then she won't be able to intentionally control fire-light or any other kind of unnatural light. (I say intentionally, because I 100% believe she summons "unnaturally" created light at some point, without realizing it).

Plus, being extensively injured and drained of her life-force (or whatever it is that Merzost does) at the initial attempt may have factored into the block as well. Alina jumps to conclusions so fast it's unbelievable. So if she can't summon at first when she's underground, she just decides that the underground is the problem, and not, IDK, Merzost done fucked her up.

Alina's self-gaslighting and jumping to conclusion is honestly a massive issue when I try to write fanfics for either version of her, because it's so hard to believably make her do anything but what she does in the books or show. Every change to her story has to be external, because, with few exceptions, Alina can't really make difference choices without being massively OOC. It's honestly kinda tragic - and also not relevant to this topic, so I apologize for the tangent.

Tbh I've always seen a paradox in that Alina can summon the light even during the night, right?

But when she's locked in White Cathedral, even during the day she can't get *any* light out of her. Like, I'm sorry, but how deep it has to be to be making it harder than...sun being literally on the other side of the [I assume] globe? Maybe I overdo it, but...ehhh.

We've recently came to the conclusion it was just another psychological block of hers.

Not only she lacks imagination to use her powers in more than two, three ways, so it's likely no sunlight underground would be enough for her not to be able to summon, but also her defencelessness against the Apparat and his organization might have manifested in physical incapability to do so.

[devildomimagines]

Could you do the brothers (Lucifer especially) reacting to an MC who jokes all the time, seems carefree and stupid but eventually they find out that MC is actually a very deeply caring, responsible and intelligent person. They act like an idiot likely as a response to some adversity in their own past. Sorry if its complicated, i just like the idea of the brothers almost discounting MC only to realise they weren't looking deeply enough

Hi Anon! Thanks for the request! Sorry it took me so long to get to, it's been busy in my personal life. The older brothers are under the cut so this post isn’t a mile long lol. I hope this is worth the wait!

Belphegor

King of rolling his eyes at your antics.

Belphie is maybe the most knowledgeable about humans so, of anyone, he might be able to see a little deeper than the surface.

On one of the rare occasions you got Belphie out of the house, you two came across a Little D that was clearly lost.

He didn’t pay it any mind since he figured the Little D would just teleport to their master but you insisted on helping.

As you knelt down to the creature Belphie stood back and watched as you quickly soothed the Little D’s worries and it hopped into your arms. 

You brushed past Belphie to carry the spirit across the street and start talking to the shop owner. The two of you laughed and Little D hopped over to the shop owner’s hands.

“The shop keeper knows that Little D’s master and will give them a call,” you explained as you wrapped your arm around his and began leading him down the road.

“You’re amazing MC,” Belphie murmured, such a small act really changed his view of you.

Where he thought you were foolish in trusting him after what happened in the attic, he realized that he wasn’t a special case of forgiveness, you were just a truly caring person. 

“Hm, what was that Belphie?” You asked but he wasn’t sure if you actually didn’t hear him or if you were teasing.

He wasn’t too proud to admit his feelings but his face did heat up a bit, “I said you’re amazing.”

Beelzebub

He’s pretty caring for a demon so he could see you were too, although maybe he didn’t know the depth until today.

The two of you were enjoying a meal in Hell’s Kitchen. Beel was absorbed in the food that he didn’t at first notice you were distracted.

When you asked for a moment and got up to grab the attention of a waiter. Beel watched on curiously, he was hoping you were asking for more food.

The waiter nodded along and ducked into the kitchen. You waited in that spot and you caught Beel’s stare. You waved at him with a smile.

He waved back with a fried shadow bat in hand.

You laughed and then the waiter was back. They handed you a to-go container, you talked for a second, probably thanking them and then made your way across the restaurant, walking right past your table.

Beel thought to call out to you as if you had somehow accidentally overshot the table but you made your way right out the door.

He started to get up to go after you, he shoveled a few things in his mouth not totally satisfied but more confused why you were leaving.

Then he saw you through the window. He stopped moving as you approached a small demon looking into the restaurant through the window. Beel sat and watched the scene unfold.

It jumped back away from you, probably not having seen a human before, and was clearly defensive as you talked. You then offered the to-go container, popping it open so the demon could see the food contained.

The little demon inched closer, clearly hungry and tempted by the food you offered. You nodded and the demon took the container and ran. You watched for a second and then came back into the restaurant to join Beel.

You sat down like nothing had happened and went back to your meal. When Beel didn’t start eating you asked,  “What is it? Do I have something on my face!?”

He shook his head no, “You’re incredible.” He picked back up eating but he would not forget this moment.

Asmodeus

You watched on as Asmo was applying his make-up. He always enjoys your company when preparing for the day but he noted you were reading the ingredients pretty seriously.

“What’s got you frowning MC?” 

“This is from the human realm, right?” you held up the bottle so he could see the label in the mirror.

He hummed, “That’s right, I get products from all over so that one is definitely from the human realm. Have you used it before?”

“Um, no I tended to stay away from their brand.” You put the bottle back where you found it.

“Why’s that? It is kind of expensive in Grimm, was it the same in your currency?”

“Not really, it’s just that…” you paused trying to think of the most sensitive way to put it, “there are make-up brands in the human realm that test their products on animals before marketing it to humans.”

“How cute!” Asmo giggled at the thought of bunnies in blush.

“No Asmo, it’s more like they are testing if their products are safe for humans by using animals as a proxy. It can be brutal and even unnecessary and could result in the animal’s death.”

Asmo had stopped and turned to look at you as you explained. His face was slightly troubled.

“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable! I just tried to use products that didn’t use that as a part of their process in manufacturing so as to not cause any unnecessary distress.”

He nodded understanding your thought process. The Devildom didn’t have such markers since suffering was the norm.

The fact that you were thinking about what products you used and their impact on others, even just some animals, had him reassessing you.

It was more thoughtful than he originally credited you. When you and him were joking around and gossiping, he figured your interests were more superficial.

It was refreshing that not only could you keep up with the most recent hot news around town but you truly cared and respected your impact on others.

“Asmo?” You asked, he had been quiet for a while lost in thought.

“It’s nothing!” He recovered but he kept peeking back at you with a mysterious smile.

Satan

The two of you were studying in the RAD library.

There was a particularly tough exam coming up, notorious for dropping the GPA of 75% off the class.

Satan was confident in his abilities but he agreed to come study for your sake. He didn’t have access to know your grade like Lucifer did but he assumed you were struggling by your pleas for his help and deprecating jokes about failing.

He watched as you diligently took out your books and notebook. You flipped through a few of your notes and then shifted your focus to your textbook. Satan shrugged as he opened his own books, you seemed to be off to a fine start.

After about an hour you asked, “Can we quiz each other?”

He agreed and flipped to the end of the chapter he was on for the review questions. Satan took a question and asked it in a slightly different way so you couldn’t rely on memorized answers. 

To his surprise you answered correctly and made up a question for him that he thought was actually pretty difficult. 

Of course he got it right but shrugged it off as a fluke that you didn’t mean to ask such a hard question. The next one he asked you was harder, not from the textbook in any way, it was something that the teacher had mentioned offhand in class.

You got it correct again. With your turn next, you asked another complex question.

Satan answered properly but was now on the edge of his seat, surely twice in a row was not a coincidence.

His next question, he matched your difficulty. You thought for a few minutes and dived into explanation with examples and even a source that you quoted off the top of your head. Your answer was insightful and succinct.

You were waiting for Satan’s assessment of your answer but he sat unmoving.

“Was I mistaken?” You asked, and started frantically looking through your notes.

While you reviewed your materials, Satan was seeing you in a new light. He figured you got along so well with Mammon because the two of you could joke and slack off with the best of them. He thought that you and Asmo got along more as a pair of airheads. But here you were, in this moment your intelligence came off as easy and effortless.

“No, you were right.”

“Really?” you looked up surprised but happy.

He smiled back, but wondered, “What is your current grade in this class, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Last I checked, like 96?”

Satan laughed and shook his head, unbelievable that he thought otherwise.

Leviathan

He already thought of himself as a charity case. The fact that you would be willing to sacrifice your time to be with him was a miracle in his eyes.

No matter how many times you told him you wanted to hang out with him, it wasn’t a sacrifice, he still didn’t believe you.

When he gets more comfortable around you, he let’s you see his uglier sides when the envy consumes him.

You were a safe space he could vent to and you took that responsibility seriously. You listened and he felt the things he shared never left his room when you left.

It was after one of those vent/gaming sessions that you had to excuse yourself.

You had never gotten up in the middle like that and it scared Levi, had he gone too far? Did you actually hate him?

He watched silently as you left the room. Once the door closed, he was on his feet, what was so important? He decided to follow you.

Levi followed about a hallway behind you, as you turned a corner he would sprint to the corner to watch where you go next.

He followed all the way to the kitchen? He didn’t want to peek in fear of being caught but he listened as you greeted Beel.

Beel asked what’s up and you answered you were getting snacks for an intense gaming night with Levi. Beel must have perked up with the snacks you grabbed and you shooed him off, “If Levi’s up for it, you can join us but you can’t have that snack, I made it for a special occasion.”

Special… special? Levi couldn’t wrap his head around it when he thought of himself but the silence in the kitchen meant you must be leaving… meaning you were heading right for the door he was cupping!

He turned around and found a hiding spot on the other side of the hall behind a vase.

The door swung open as he held his breath. You started the way you came. You were heading for his room and he wasn’t there!

Cue montage of Levi comically running through the halls of HOL to get to his room before. He jumps into his gaming chair seconds before you open his door quietly.

He was panting and sweaty when he turned towards you with a smile, totally failing to act natural.

“Sorry I got up so abruptly but I just remembered I made you this!” You presented a cupcake exactly replicated from the anime the two of you watched last week.

Levi’s heart melted, he felt bad that he had second guessed you. He reached out for the cupcake with one hand and with the other he took your hand to pull you to the bean bags. He was blushing but still said, “Let’s put on that anime while I eat it.”

The level of detail that you had gotten correct showed how dedicated you had been to paying attention to his interests and how much you cared for him in turn. He was also impressed with your baking knowledge, it takes a decent level of skill to be able to replicate something just from seeing it.

The scene was coming up where the protag was going to give the cupcake and Levi was struck with the most embarrassing thought. But if anyone would indulge him, it was you.

As the protag took the cupcake, Levi copied their posture. Then he copied their words in unison they both said, “Thank you, no one has ever made me anything like this before.” The two of them ripped the cupcake in half in the same spot and he extended the half to you as he protag did, “Will you share it with me?”

“Of course!” You and the character answered together then giggled as Levi blushed and hid behind the half cupcake as the two of you returned to sitting on the beanbags.

There was no way he was ever going to forget this moment, his eyes opened to how much you did care for him. Even if he was doubtful of others by nature, he would never doubt you again.

Mammon

People always write Mammon off as dumb and because you have a pact with him, you’re often included in that assumption. The two of you get along like peas in a pod. You’re here for a good time and Mammon can definitely provide that. 

His schemes to make money keep things interesting so you usually go along unless you have other commitments. Today’s work was clean-up in the local park. Not because it was lucrative, but because this was a punishment from a prank that backfired.

You had pleaded with Diavolo for a lighter sentence on Mammon’s behalf as his pact partner and Diavolo indulged you.

Mammon was brooding on your way to the park but you were looking forward to being outside in nature for the day so you chattered aloud to fill the silence.

Barbatos was waiting for you two with the materials you would need. He gave you a look of pity when you turned but Mammon caught it and knew Barbatos was probably feeling sorry you had to be punished when you didn’t do anything. Mammon ripped the rake out of Barbatos’ hand and sulked off after you.

You each set to different tasks, Mammon raking leaves and you weeding the flowerbeds. 

Demons and spirits passed with a few snickers, definitely not the first time Mammon had been sent to do community service but he hated that you were now a laughing stock with him. You didn’t seem phased by it though, even flashing him a bright smile when you two made eye contact. 

Halfway through the day, the two of you were taking a break for a snack and fluids, you shared a bench and admired the work so far. “We might even finish early!” You shared your optimism.

Mammon nodded but still kept quiet. It was so unlike him and you were hitting your limits of how to try to get him out of his own head, you figured he would be back to normal tomorrow but missed hearing his voice.

You two split the last of the duties, you were now cleaning equipment and decorations while he was trimming bushes and trees.

While Mammon was trimming a nearby bush, he heard your voice, then heard his name. He peeked through the bush to watch you talking with a crow.

“I thought it would make the day more fun if I was here with him because he always makes me have fun but it’s like I’ve made his mood worse…” You looked down at the bird bath you had been polishing and knelt down. The crow watched your movements from it’s perch on the top. “Maybe he hates that I intervened with Diavolo, I probably overstepped. I don’t know what I can do to get Mammon out of this funk. What do you think?”

The crow outstretched it’s wings and took off. You pouted, but continued polishing. Mammon was about to push through the bushes to comfort you, his mood wasn’t your fault and he felt even worse that you thought that but then the crow returned.

It swooped onto your shoulder and dropped something into your hand. You jumped with surprise and it scared the crow off your shoulder, it resettled on the bird bath. “This is perfect! Thank you!” The crow let you give it a few scritches and took off once more. You looked around for Mammon.

He nonchalantly rounded the bush so you would notice him, “Mammon! Look!” You rushed over and handed him the object.

It was a golden grimm coin. You explained, “A crow gave it to me, that has to be good luck! Take it and your luck will change, you won’t be punished forever!”

He wrapped you in a tight hug. What did he do to deserve you? Why did you care about him so deeply that you’d give him your treasure and good luck?

You laughed into his hug and he pulled back, “Alright, let’s finish this up and go home, I’ll treat ya to some ice cream on the way back.” He ruffled your hair but your shining eyes and too big smile made him blush and turn away.

Lucifer

He questioned if putting you under Mammon’s care at first was a mistake.

It’s not that you didn’t get along, in fact you two got along too well. Was Mammon’s stupid tendencies to slack off rubbing off on you?

You had been coming back late without being accompanied by one of his brothers and he was determined to find out what you were up to.

For the morning, he watched as you and Mammon walked to school. Lucifer stayed far enough away so he couldn’t be sensed so he couldn’t hear what you two were saying but it was clear you were having a good time. Mammon was snickering as you animatedly gestured and walked backwards. Lucifer’s heart warmed that his brother was genuinely happy then realized he was getting distracted.

You sat through your first class diligently taking notes and participating. The same for most of the classes that day. Lucifer started to acknowledge your responsibility to learning but it made him all the more curious as to why you skipped your last class. 

He watched you look around for any onlookers and dipped into the library. He was both surprised and amused that you were meeting with Simeon. The angel was leading you astray? 

Simeon didn’t look happy about it either, probably scolding you for missing class, but he was a pushover and your pathetic look won him over. The two of you sat as Simeon talked. You were taking notes on whatever Simeon was lecturing on. 

You left the interaction and Lucifer took the chance to talk with Simeon himself. He learned that you were asking about stories from the Celestial Realm. Simeon offered that it was just human nature to be curious what lays beyond life. Lucifer, the ever-skeptic, didn’t believe that was it.

He had lost your trail by talking to Simeon so he went home to wait for your return.

Lucifer intercepted you as you tried to sneak in. “MC, this way please,” he led you to his office, “How was today?”

“Good?” you answered but was unsure why he looked so serious.

“How was class?” 

You got nervous but answered, “Fine, same old same old.”

“Ah,” Lucifer smirked, “And how was Simeon?”

Your attempt to play dumb failed spectacularly when you stammered, “W-who’s Simeon?”

“Lying to me won’t do you well,” Lucifer reminded.

“Sorry, it’s just it wasn’t an approved activity so I didn’t want anyone in your family to be implicated…” you scratched the back of your head and looked away.

“And what activity is that?”

“Oh I thought you knew since you caught me,” you laughed, “Solomon and I were going to play with young demons at an orphanage in town. We were telling them stories from the Human Realm but I thought it would be nice to incorporate stories from the Celestial Realm too.”

Lucifer sighed.

You took that as a sign he was disappointed so you continued, “Let me explain, I know I should have asked permission first and for that I’m sorry. Solomon and I just stumbled on the place one day and the kids bombarded us with questions, never having seen humans before and before I knew it we were going almost everyday. I guess I thought it wouldn’t be bad because exposing the next generation of demons to humans would help Diavolo’s mission to strengthen relations between the realms. And I asked Simeon for stories so we could share Celestial Realm things too without getting Simeon in trouble or putting him in an uncomfortable position.”

Well that was definitely an eye opener for Lucifer. What you said made sense that changing minds starts with the youth. His original assumptions that you were just shirking responsibilities was way off base. He didn’t want to but admitted to himself he was wrong. Not only had you been doing something charitable but you were furthering Lord Diavolo’s message in a different way.

“You’re correct, you should have asked permission,” he started and you sank in your seat, “but I don’t see any harm in what you’re doing except for missing classes.” You sank further in your seat. “For skipping class, you’ll need to do extra studies,” he paused to make sure you knew this was a punishment, “I think a fitting topic would be interracial communication with a focus on the youth of Devildom.”

You perked up with a smile, “So I can keep going to the orphanage?”

Lucifer fought back a smile himself, trying to continue to be stern, “Yes, but that’s only if you don’t skip class and you have one of my brothers accompany you. As competent as Solomon is, he is also human and I would feel better if you had a demon escort.”

You were absolutely beaming now. “I’d like that but I don’t think you brothers would be interested.”

“They’ll do what they’re told but I think the twins would enjoy it the most,” Lucifer offered.

“Thanks! I would like if you could join us sometime too,” you suggested shyly.

He did smile at that, “If my schedule allows,” He didn’t finish before you were hugging him. He stiffened, not used to being hugged after doling out a punishment but softened and returned your hug, “I’ll make time to join you.”

[leo-interactive-fiction]

Something else I haven't seen before. What would the MC's parent from each background think of the ROs? Who would they approve of and who wouldn't they? I guess in the case of orphan MC, what would E's parents think? Since they kinda maybe vaguely adopted orphan MC?

Hmm, interesting! Since I did the opposite, I should have seen this one coming haha

-----------------------

Storm's comments:

E: "Rose has had that expectation for some time. This is preferable to the alternative. I know you will be in good hands. Rose raised them well."

R: Your father doesn't mince his words, a clear disdain evident, "Valleford. See that you don't take after your father, or there will be less than pleasantries next time we meet."

L: "Scio. I assume your father...?" Storm's lips pull in a small frown as L gives a small nod of confirmation, "I understand if you cannot forgive me. Your father is a significant asset to the Hospian war effort. If I find him, I will kill him."

V: "You've seen enough at your age," Storm says quietly, looking into the hollow glint in V's eyes, "I'm sorry. Those were battles that should have ended with my generation, not yours."

P: Storm's brow furrows as he makes a cordial greeting, "I assume your father is well? He does not speak of his second child often, but you seem more spirited than the other. That will make the greater difference when it matters."

M: Storm's brow furrows as he makes a cordial greeting, though there's little sentimentality in his voice, "I assume your father is well? He expresses confidence in your upbringing, but I can't say I share the sentiment. You lack something fundamental. Something to drive you to achieve more than what's expected of you."

Ra: Storm's eyes lock onto Raven with a harsh intensity, "Your eyes are filled with blood and you conceal weapons. Tell me your intentions or I will kill you right now."

S: "I admit I am unfamiliar with Orden. The conflict never reached that country, but I understand there are many hardships there already," Storm says, looking the brightly grinning student up and down before his lips pull back in small contentment, "You come out better than most. You have impressive strength."

F: Storm holds a frown as he takes in the vivid green hair, "Many allowed Frenza to claim their distance due to their significant contribution to Triaina's independence, but it doesn't absolve you of everything," he says in warning, "Don't step over the boundaries you've been afforded, or the military will have no choice but to respond."

------------------------------

Scurra's dialogue:

E: Scurra makes a grimace as he recognizes E, "Damnit, you've gone and done it now," he grumbles as he pulls out his wallet and hands a fold of bills to E, "Give that to your mom, will you? She's worse than a debt collector with bets..."

R: "Valleford! There's a name I haven't heard in a while. I knew they had a black sheep in the family, but I guess they couldn't take away the infamous good looks," Scurra chuckles, his eyes lightening reminiscently, "They've put me in a good bit of trouble on more than one occasion. I guess I should consider it a family curse now that MC is involved with you."

L: "Oh, I know those eyes," Scurra says wistfully, "Coming to find the world is a bigger place than you imagined, aren't you? It's even more expansive than that, too. I had that same look when I traveled overseas. I hope MC is being a good guide for you," he looks to you, and gives a knowing wink.

V: Scurra gives a meandering hum as he looks at V, "I've been all around, but I've only seen natural hair color like that a handful of times. They all had your same stare, too." He closes his eyes thoughtfully, "None as young as you though. I hope you're the last I have to see with those eyes. They're a bad omen."

P: "A fiery one, aren't you! Has no one ever told you not to say bad words in public?" Scurra laughs, "You should stop while you can. You're so transparent with your feelings that I almost mistook you for a window, so there's no point to pulling a tough act."

M: A small, genuine smile rises on Scurra's lips as he inspects M, "How interesting. You're so similar to your twin, but you're definitely the better actor. As I think about it, you remind me of MC's mother in many ways..."

Ra: "What are you doing here?" Scurra frowns, staring harshly at Raven. A silence passes and eventually he looks away, messaging his jaw, "Oops, guess I was mistaken. You looked a little like someone I know."

S: "You've got Orden written all over you, don't you?" Scurra says cheerily, "It's been a while since I've visited, but I have to say it gave me the most enjoyment. You all certainly know how to keep it lively."

F: "Your family has always been so hauty!" Scurra covers his mouth to suppress a chuckle, "But I think it would be a mistake to talk down to everyone you meet. I happen to be on great terms with your mother. If I took the opportunity, you two would have been siblings!"

------------------------

Xero's insight:

E: He smiles warmly to E, "It's good to see you again. I'm afraid there was little I could do for you: your mother has already found out about your relationship. I expect she'll make it as embarrassing for you as possible, if I know her well. I hope you're mentally prepared."

R: Xero studies R with a faint curiosity, "I'm afraid your father and I are on less than speaking terms due to some...past difficulties, but I understand you are more than simply your father's child. You may be villianized for your differing viewpoint, but aren't we all? I don't find it is so bad," Xero gives R a knowing small."

L: Xero's eyes widen upon seeing L, then falls into a soft smile, "To think history would repeat so aptly. To see you two now reminds me of my own school days," Xero closes his eyes and releases a light sigh, the smile still present, "I pray you'll also find the same happiness I did, and that it lasts longer."

V: Xero's grip tightens on an file in his hands as he sees V, his voice meticulous, "You are...Wolfe, correct? I'll admit the what I've heard and read of you is...less than appealing, but," he casts his gaze between you and the ex-Jagd member, a faint smile growing on his lips as V steps cautiously between you. "You seem to have a strong sense of duty. I hope you will be a good pillar for MC."

P: He looks disaprovingly, "In my field, words are paired with intention. To speak is to lay bare your thoughts. Why would you neglect your intent by forcing a negative connotation where it doesn't belong?"

M: He seems slightly more on edge than with P, "I don't believe I should offer my approval to someone unwilling to determine a focus. It's a testament to your negligence."

Ra: Xero crosses their arms, his face skeptical,"Marriage? Your lack of detailed forethought and hyperfixation gives me the impression of an unhealthy mind. As it stands now, I will refuse to give you my blessing."

S: "I'm afraid I'm ignorant to everything Orden related," Xero says sheepishly, "I am happy to learn all that I can, though. Perhaps you would like to bring your family at some point? I would be happy to host them here." Xero smiles warmly, clearly unknowing of the chaotic rabblerousing he's invited into his home.

F: "Ah, the royal line," Xero says in recognition of F, "Your own mother was a classmate of mine as well. To think one of her children would grow so closely with mine. Please give her my regards, would you? She has always kept herself closer than others, so I was happy when she took an interest in my friend. He's a lucky man."

---------------------

Mr. Razor's thoughts (if he was alive)

E: He bows his head gratefully, "Thank you for taking care of MC all this time. Your selflessness has saved me a lot of worry, and I doubt I'll have any more leaving them in your hands."

R: Razor's eyes bore a hole through R, "To defy your father was a considerable risk. And not knowing what the academy had planned for you, you still allowed yourself to be incarcerated for an indeterminate amount of time," Razor taps his fingers to his chin, a smile spreading over his lips, "I enjoy those that stick to their principles, but what say we work on your jailbreaking?"

L: "Your father's quite an important man. He's lucky I was never contracted to kill him," Razor says matter-of-factly. A chilling air of silence deafens the room until Razor holds up his palms, "Just kidding. I've never killed anyone. They all died mysteriously."

V: "How's Jagd doing?" Razor narrows his eyes keenly on V, "I'm surprised they were able to bounce back after what I did to them. I guess they filled the empty spaces with whoever was able...or moldable."

P: Razor smiles sadly, "It must be difficult to be given another person's expectations and do well with them. You're like a fish trying to climb a tree. But I enjoy how far up you've climbed despite that. Would you like a reward? I know, how about...your father's weakness?"

M: Razor seems disinterested, "You're not worth the words, Crater. You're nothing more than what your father made you to be: a simple shadow to live vicariously through."

Ra: Razor's eyes have an approving glint, "The one that slipped through the cracks. How very odd. MC's mother was quite odd too. It's an endearing quality, isn't it? Yes, I think you'll make a perfect companion for MC. You've already been looking over them all this time, haven't you?"

S: "Earnestness is one of the first qualities people tend to throw away when faced with hardship. It is impressive to see how you've progressed through your poverty and discrimination so aptly. Perhaps you have a hope that things will get better?" Razor's mouth spreads in a wicked smile, "I do enjoy seeing how people struggle for such a small glimmer of light. I think I'll offer my aid."

F: "Ah, it's always cute to see people play at royalty," Razor smiles at F's exasperated face, "Why do you seem so angry? Do you actually believe your position has meaning? I'll assure you it doesn't," Razor casts a darkening stare towards the royal, "To me, you're no harder to kill than a beggar on the street. The power you attempt to flaunt means nothing, because in the end it does nothing to elevate you beyond a simple street urchin."

----------------------

End

Thank ya for the ask!

[dreamingpartone]

hi i love your art so so so much it's so warmy and nice <333

also wanted to ask if you had any tips for lighting? cuz yours is so so warm and soft and beautiful so any tips no matter how tiny at all would be swaggy xx

hi!! thank you so muuch, I’m very glad you enjoy it <333

and ahhh lighting tips! I could probably talk for ages about how much I love lighting, but I’m not sure how many useful art tips I actually have for it haha 🤔 let’s see….

✦ I suppose, to start with my usual art advice: observation! I haven’t done a lot of actual study when it comes to lighting, but I have spent hours and hours of my time just staring at/admiring light in real life and in media. (Which, again, I could ramble about examples of cool lighting in art/games/tv/films etc that I enjoy but we’d be here all day :’))

One practical thing I do is that I take photos, like…all the time, everywhere. Which a) is great for later reference if you want it, but also b) I think the act of photography is quite handy at training your eye to see the effect of light and shade.

Just for fun, here is a brief light-focused selection from my camera roll:

In particular, I think it’s really useful to observe how light acts on different surfaces (e.g. water and glass can get quite complex, but even when it comes to hair or skin, it varies; look at where it reflects or is absorbed, at how it shines through thin surfaces (a leaf, an ear!)) and how it changes the look/mood of an environment — either with natural light shifting throughout the day, or using different types of artificial light.

✦ The next thing I would say is (especially when it comes to intensity of lighting), don’t feel constrained by what’s “realistic”. Of course, what you aim for in your art is entirely up to you, but (I think I’ve said this about colour too) I am personally way more interested in using lighting to express a mood/idea/story than exactly replicate reality.

So, I tend to make the contrast between light and shadow more defined, and also like using as much colour as possible in them. (Which is another thing I think I’ve said before: try not to use pure black for shading! My go-to is blue or purple, but you can have fun experimenting with different colours!)

Like, for a recent example, how often does sunlight actually make everything this bright yellow/orange/red? Very rarely, but accuracy is not my purpose in using it :-)

✦ The other important thing, particularly when it comes to bigger pieces (i.e. art with backgrounds): don’t let lighting be an afterthought! I think when it comes to digital art especially, it’s easy to fall into the trap of going sketch -> lines -> flat colours -> maybe now I need to consider lighting? But if you think about it early, you can plan ahead to implement it best.

In recent years, I tend to approach lighting from a set design angle more than anything else. I don’t just go, “Ok if the window I drew is here and he’s standing there, then the light will have to hit him like this…” Instead, near the beginning of an artwork I tend to think about it like, “Where do I want the focus to be? What do I want the lighting to say about the mood/atmosphere/etc? Ok, here’s where I’m gonna put a light source, here’s where I want shadows, these are the colours I’m using.”

Often that initial planning stage is very rough and just looks something like this:

(final version)

Or this:

(final version)

But it’s honestly super helpful to get even a vague idea of lighting early so you can figure out how the scene is going to work as a whole. (Rather than get annoyed later when you realise you could’ve done something different....I have been there....)

Anyway, I think that’s all I have right now…! TL;DR: take some time to look at how light works in different ways! Don’t let the pursuit of accuracy hinder your vision! And remember light is a tool for you to use! It takes some practice and experimenting, but it can be really fun imo :>

[samwisethewitch]

Divination Basics

From the Roman priest reading auguries to interpret the will of the gods to the modern fortune teller reading with a deck of playing cards, divination has been a part of human spirituality for thousands of years. Today, divination is an important part of many witches’ practices, and can be an important tool for self-reflection and analysis.

Merriam-Webster defines divination as, “the art or practice that seeks to foresee or foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge usually by the interpretation of omens or by the aid of supernatural powers.” Divination can be used for many things, not just to predict the future. It can be used to understand the past, identify patterns at work in your present, or as a tool for working through trauma.

In the book You Are Magical, author Tess Whitehurst describes divination as, “a way of bypassing your linear, thinking mind and accessing the current of divine wisdom and your own inner knowing.” As I’ve discussed in a previous post, all of us are receiving psychic information all the time, though many of us don’t realize it. Divination tools like tarot cards or rune stones act as triggers to help kickstart our natural psychic gifts.

Divination relies on the use of our intuition. Intuition is defined my Merriam-Webster as, “the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference.” These are the things you know without needing to be told. Another way of thinking of it is this: your intuition is the way you interpret the information you receive through your psychic senses.

The most important thing to remember when doing divination is that the tool you are using isn’t giving you information — it’s simply helping you to access information you already know. The revelations come from you, not from the cards or whatever other tool you may be using.

When using divination to foresee the future, it’s important to remember that the future is never set in stone. These tools can only show you the most likely outcome based on your current direction.

 Beginner-Friendly Divination Tools

These are the divination methods I would recommend for beginners. For one thing, most of these systems are fairly easy to learn and use. For another, these are some of the most popular divination methods among modern witches, so it’s easy to find information about them and/or talk to other practitioners about their experience.

As you’ll see, each divination method has its own strengths and weaknesses, so you may choose to learn several methods that you can combine to get stronger readings. Or you may find that you can get all the information you need from a single method, which is also okay.

Tarot. This is my personal favorite divination method, but it’s also the one with the most misconceptions surrounding it. Tarot cards do not open a portal to the spirit world, and they probably didn’t originate in Ancient Egypt. In fact, evidence suggests that the tarot comes from a medieval Italian card game called Tarocchi, although the modern tarot deck as we know it didn’t come around until the 20th century. Tarot cards are not any more or less supernatural than ordinary playing cards. (Which, incidentally, can also be used for divination.)

Tarot makes use of archetypes, and many readers interpret the cards as a map of an archetypal spiritual journey. For this reason, tarot cards are especially useful for identifying the underlying patterns and hidden influences in any given situation.

Most tarot decks follow the same set of basic symbolism. Unfortunately, this does mean that new readers will need to study the accepted meanings. This isn’t to say that your readings will always match up 100% with the standard meanings of the cards — you may receive intuitive messages that deviate from tradition. Still, it’s helpful to know a little of the history and traditional symbolism behind this powerful divination tool. The good news is that, since most decks use similar symbolism, once you learn the traditional meanings you can successfully read with almost any tarot deck.

I’m planning to post a more in-depth introduction to tarot very soon, but in the meantime, if you want to learn this divination method I recommend starting with the book Tarot For Beginners by Lisa Chamberlain and/or with the website Biddy Tarot.

Oracle Cards. Oracle cards have been rapidly gaining popularity in the witchcraft and New Age communities in the last few years, and it’s easy to see why. One major appeal of oracle cards is how diverse they are — there are countless different oracle decks out there, each with its own theme and symbolism. Another big plus is how beginner-friendly they are; Oracle cards are usually read intuitively, so most decks won’t require you to learn a complex system of symbolism. (Of course, the fact that every oracle deck uses different symbolism can be frustrating for some readers, because they have to learn a new set of symbols for every deck.)

Some readers (myself included) also find that oracle cards usually give more surface level information. Tess Whitehurst says that, “While oracle cards can help us answer the questions ‘What direction should I take?’ and ‘What is the lesson here?’ tarot cards are more suited to helping us answer the questions ‘What is going on?’ and ‘What is the underlying pattern at work here?'” For this reason, many readers choose to use tarot and oracle cards together to get a more well-rounded look at the situation.

Another common complaint about oracle cards is that many decks are overwhelmingly positive and shy away from dark themes or imagery, which creates an imbalanced reading experience. I think this is best summed up by one Amazon review for the Work Your Light Oracle, which says: “Basically, this is very much a deck for Nice White Ladies(TM) who like crystals and candles but aren’t ‘super into all that witchy stuff.'”

There ARE oracle decks out there that address darker themes, but many of the most popular decks on the market are overwhelmingly positive. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes a little positive encouragement is more helpful than brutal honesty. However, too much focus on the positive can lead you to ignore your problems, which only makes things worse in the long run. For this reason, finding balanced decks is important — if you’re going to use a very shiny happy deck, my advice would be to alternate it with more grounded decks, or with a deck specifically designed for shadow work.

That being said, oracle cards are a great divination tool if you can find a good deck, especially for beginners who are intimidated by more structured systems like tarot and the runes. If you’re interested in working with oracle cards, the best way to start is to find a deck that 1.) you feel a strong attraction to, and 2.) has a good guidebook. (My favorite oracle deck is the Halloween Oracle by Stacey Demarco, which I use for readings all year.)

Runes. The Elder Futhark alphabet is a runic alphabet that originated in ancient Scandinavia around 200 AD. While this was an actual writing system, it also had magical and mythological associations in the cultures that originally used it. While using the runes for divination is a modern practice, it is based on the historical sense of magic surrounding these symbols.

Like tarot, the runes have a traditional set of meanings. However, because there are only twenty-four runes, there aren’t as many meanings to learn as there are with tarot. Some rune sets also contain a blank stone, which has its own special meaning. I have personally found the runes to be a great source of wisdom and insight, although they do tend towards “big picture” messages rather than small details.

However, there is one major stain on the runes’ history; they were studied and used by Nazi occultists before and during World War II. Like many symbols associated with historical Germanic paganism, the runes were appropriated as part of Nazi propaganda — for example, the Sowilo rune was incorporated into the SS logo. This isn’t to say that you can’t reclaim the Elder Futhark alphabet, but I do think it’s important to know the history going in. Because of their association with Nazism, it’s best to avoid wearing or publicly displaying the runes.

There are other ancient alphabets that are used for divination, like the Anglo-Saxon runes or the Irish Ogham, but the Elder Futhark is the most popular.

If you’re interested in learning divination with runes, I recommend the book Pagan Portals: Runes by Kylie Holmes.

Pendulums. Pendulums are interesting because, unlike tarot, oracle cards, and runes, they can be used to answer yes or no questions. For this reason, many readers use pendulums to get clarification on readings they’ve done with other divination methods, but you can also use pendulums on their own.

A pendulum is any small, weighted object hanging from a chain or string. You can buy a pendulum made specifically for divination from a metaphysical shop or an Etsy seller, but you can just as easily use something you already have: a necklace, your housekey, or a small rock or crystal tied to a string.

Pendulums may be the easiest divination method to learn. The only thing you need to do to learn how to interpret a pendulum is ask it what its “yes” and “no” motions look like. To do this, simply hold your pendulum in your hands and focus on your connection to it. Then, let the pendulum hang from its chain or string so it can swing freely. Say or think, “Show me ‘yes’.” Allow the pendulum to swing, and pay attention to its movements. “Yes” is often a forwards-and-backwards swing or a clockwise circle, but your “yes” may look different. (Some witches even notice that different pendulums in their collection have different “yes” and “no” movements!) Once you’ve gotten the pendulum to show you its “yes,” ask it to show you its “no.” For many readers, “no” is a side-to-side swing or a counterclockwise circle, but again, yours may be different.

The biggest downside to pendulums is that because they typically only answer “yes” or “no,” you have to be very specific with your questions. Pendulums aren’t the best tool for general energy readings or open-ended advice. However, that specificity makes them great for validating your gut feelings, interpreting your dreams, identifying a deity or spirit that you think may be reaching out to you, or any other situation that requires a little clarification.

[asahipleaseloveme]

A Light in the Dark

Soulmate AU

Asahi x reader

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: None

Author's Note: this is my piece for @gg9183 soulmate au collab! Congrats on your milestone and thank you so much for letting me join 🥲. In this AU, people see the face of their soulmate in their dreams. Some people see a face sooner than others. As always, feedback is appreciated!

"I don't know, Asahi. I think this whole soulmate thing is just a bunch of bs," you stated matter of factly. "Everyone claims that they see the face of their soulmate in their dreams. And it’s the only face they see until they find them. Pff, yeah...okay. I'm sure some people do. But there's no way everyone can see it, right?" You questioned more to yourself than to your companion who joined you for coffee.

"Maybe you're just a late bloomer? Or it could be that you're a little impatient. But it’s most likely because you’re a goober,” Asahi playfully ragged on you. “I'm sure you'll see a face in no time," he reassuringly stated.

"That's easy for you to say. I bet you've already seen your S.M.'s face. And they are probably beautiful and perfect. I wouldn't expect anything less for you, ya big softy," you teased as you poked him in the side, causing him to jolt away from the sudden contact.

"Hmph, even if I told you I haven't seen a face yet, you wouldn't believe me. But, you're still dreaming about nothing? Just total blackness?"

You stared at your drink for a few seconds to think of how you wanted to answer his question. It's true; for the past six or seven months you've been dreaming in total darkness. It's like you're in there, but there's just nothing. Almost like a void. For a while you were really concerned that it meant you didn't have a soulmate. No one you've talked to had experienced what you were currently going through. Everyone has been dreaming about a face. Some of them have been united with the person in their dreams, while others were still waiting to find theirs.

"Actually," you cleared your throat, "last night was a little different. A light started to shine through the darkness. I woke up before it could get too bright. But I don't know what it means, you know."

You looked up at Asahi sheepishly. You felt a little silly talking about this with him. You know he's been dreaming about his soulmate, but he's just too polite to tell you.

"A light, huh. Maybe that means your soulmate is a lightbulb or something. Ohh, or the sun!" Asahi chuckled.

"Shut up, Asahi," you chuckled along with him.

Your laughs subsided, and your eyes focused on his face.

"Hey, we will still be friends after we both find our soulmates, right," you broke the silence. You panicked as you didn’t want to come off as needy or jealous. "It's just that, I've had some friends who broke off their friendships with others once they found their S.M.'s. I was hoping we wouldn't have to. You're, like, my best friend," your face was getting hot and you could tell it was glowing red.

"______, you're my best friend, too. I'd like to keep it that way," Asahi smiled so softly at you. Even though he was usually the anxious friend of your group, his words felt so relieving and calm. You let out a sigh and smiled back.

"Oh, shoot. I gotta run or I'll be late for work!" Asahi said in a panic. "Uh, I'll text you later. See ya, goober!"

“Bye, goof. Have a good day at work!”

You spent the rest of the day at the library scouring through any book or online article you could find regarding dreams. Specifically soulmate dreams. You couldn’t be the only person who was experiencing the weird phenomenon of dreaming of nothing. The more you searched, the more disheartening it became. There were plenty of stories out there. Articles about people dreaming about a face for a few months before finding them. Articles about people dreaming about a face for decades and not finding them. Accounts of people marrying someone who they didn’t dream about and still finding happiness. Even reports about people who got married to someone other than their soulmate and divorcing their “non-soulmate” once they found them. There were even studies that gave the percentage of the likelihood of ending up with a soulmate. None of these findings were able to quell the uneasiness in your mind.

You threw your hands up in the air with a disgruntled sigh. “This is hopeless. I’m hopeless.”

You began packing up your things when Ashai texted you.

~You shouldn’t worry about this whole dream thing. I’m sure it’ll come to you soon 😊 ~

-I doubt it 😠-

~Lol you’re just grumpy. Go eat some food.~

- >:P -

~Are we still on for the park tomorrow grumpy pants?~

-Duh, goob. The park is the best part of my week. I wouldn’t miss it.-

~Me neither. I was just making sure.~

You grabbed a quick bite to eat at the convenience store around the corner from your apartment building. You made your way up the three flights of stairs to get to your little flat. “Home” was starting to feel a little lonely. Maybe that’s why you tended to spend most of your days somewhere else. You chucked your keys on the counter and tossed your shoes off by the door. As you were heating up your microwaveable meal, you received another text from Asahi.

~______, I know it’s easy to say, but keep your head up. I have faith you’ll see your soulmate 🙂. ~

You smiled at his kind words. He’s always been such a good and supportive friend. He’s always so patient with you. Hell, he’s even started to tease you back when you initiate it. You weren’t lying when you told him that he was your best friend. You didn’t want to imagine him not being in your life. Maybe that’s why you were so worried about the whole soulmate thing. Once he found his soulmate, he would probably start to treat you differently. Would you do the same when you (if you) found yours? What if-

Your thoughts were disrupted by the microwave going off. You quickly ate your dinner and then got ready for bed. You stared at Asahi’s text before deciding to just leave it alone. Sleep soon hit you. Again, you started out in the darkness like you have for the longest time. A light starts to appear and the intensity is getting stronger and stronger. It’s almost too bright for you to even look at. Suddenly, a fuzzy shadow of a head blocks the view of the light. The face begins to come into focus when you wake up with a shooting pain in the back of your head.

“Are you...kidding me? A blurred out face? Typical,” you rubbed your eyes and stretched. “Can’t wait to tell Asahi about this one.”

Asahi was waiting for you by the entrance of the park with a coffee for you in one hand and a coffee for him in the other. You called out to him and ran over to meet him.

“What’s this, Asahi? Need that extra dose of caffeine to walk with me today,” you smirked.

“Oh, I-I just felt bad about poking fun at you yesterday. I just wanted to make it up to you, so you know that I was just kidding.”

You giggled, “Asahi, we poke fun at each other all of the time. I think we know each other well enough that we understand it’s just in good fun. But I will gladly accept your peace offering this time.”

Both of you turned into the park and you began your weekly stroll. Ever since the two of you met years ago, you had a weekly walk through the park to discuss anything that was on your mind.

“So, uh, I saw a face in my dream last night,” you stated ever so shyly. “But, I didn’t actually see the face. It was blurred out. I don’t even know what that means!” You expressed the words with such anger, you stopped in your tracks. “Ugh, I’m sorry. I know you must be tired of me talking about this all of the time. I’m getting kind of tired of it, too. But this whole thing has me scared. What if my soulmate is someone who I won’t even like? What if they hate cats? What if they won’t even remember my favorite coffee order? What if they are mean to other people? I just don’t think I can handle that. I-”

“______, it’s alright. I know it can be scary, but you just have to believe that your soulmate is someone you’ll like. Even if you don’t like them, there’s nothing that states you actually have to marry them, ya know? I think that-” Asahi was cut off with the warnings of distant Heads up shouts, but by the time they were heard, a soccer ball crashed right into the back of your head.

You found yourself on the ground, coffee spilled all over your pants, and a massive pain shooting through the back of your head. You can faintly hear Asahi calling out for you, asking if you are okay. You look up at him, but the sun shine was so intense that you had to squint. The shadowy figure, the same figure from your dream, blocked out the sun and your eyes started to focus on the face. The figure blocked out more of the light, the face becoming more in focus.

“Asahi?” you sat, puzzled.

“______, oh my gosh! You don’t remember me. Did the ball hit you that hard? Oh no, we need to get you to a hospital now!” He panicked as he grabbed you around the waist and lifted you up to your feet.

“No, no, no. I remember you, ya goof. It’s just that...you...your face was...is...you’re my soulmate,” you stared at him with doe-like eyes.

He smiled down at you and wrapped you in a warm embrace.

“I’ve known for a while that you were mine,” he stated with happiness erupting from him.

“How long have you known?”

“Do you remember the day you spilled coffee all over my pants? Yeah, I started dreaming about you that same night.”

“Asahi, that was the first day we met...that was over two years ago! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I guess I didn’t want you to feel pressured to like me. You could have been dreaming about someone else and I didn’t want to get in between that. And part of me wanted you to like me because I’m...me. Not because you felt obligated to. ”

You smiled at him, “You’re, like, the biggest goof I know. How long would you have waited for me to, you know, finally catch up?”

“For you,______, I would’ve waited forever. Because there is honestly no other goober out there for me.”

You laughed as you gave him a hard nudge to the ribs. All of the fear and anxiety you had melted away the longer you were wrapped in his embrace. Your head started to go fuzzy and you weren’t sure if what because you were so relieved or because you just got donked in the head with a ball. Either way, you knew that you and Asahi were going to make each other happy.

“Thanks for waiting for me, Asahi. And thank you for liking me as I am. I know I can be a little overbearing and grumpy at times. I’m glad that you’re my goof. Oh, my head,” you sighed before letting out a groan.

Asahi looked down at you and smiled. “Let’s get you to a doctor, goober. You got hit pretty hard.” He kissed you on your forehead gently before scooping you up in his arms. This wasn’t how he had imagined this reveal going down, but he couldn’t help to be happy that he was your soulmate and you were his. He couldn’t wait to spend the rest of his life making you happy. And you felt the same way.