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adultfork53 · 2 years

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Professional Community Administration Names Lydia Huh As Enterprise Growth Supervisor

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You can’t afford to have a set-it-and-forget-it strategy to social media if you would like to grow socially.

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passionate-reply · 3 years

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This week on Great Albums: one of my favourite “hidden gems” of the mid-1980s, Blancmange’s *Mange Tout* is about as extra and in-your-face as it gets, full of dense arrangements, gender-bending bombast, and musical instruments from Southern Asia.

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! This time around, I’ll be taking a look at one of my favourite hidden gems from the mid-1980s, the sophomore LP of Blancmange, entitled Mange Tout.

Despite their relative obscurity today, particularly in comparison to many of their contemporaries, Blancmange weren’t total strangers to the pop charts. Their first full-length LP, 1982’s Happy Families, would yield the biggest hit of their career: “Living on the Ceiling,” which peaked at #7.

Music: “Living on the Ceiling”

While it never got to be a chart-topper, “Living on the Ceiling” is still an unforgettable track in its own ways. Perhaps its most distinctive feature is its use of the traditional Indian instruments, the sitar and tabla. While 80s synth-pop is certainly full of Orientalism, most of the references you’ll find are pointing to the Far East, and the perceived aesthetic sophistication and techno-utopian futurism of China and Japan. Aside from certain works of Bill Nelson, Blancmange were pretty much the only ones engaging with South Asian musical themes. Blancmange’s instrumentalist, Stephen Luscombe, grew up in London’s Southall neighbourhood, which had a high population of immigrants from Southern Asia, which led him to a lifelong interest in Indian music. Combined with electronics, it makes for a totally unique sound, which ends up sounding better in practice than it might in theory.

While any time White European musicians turn to alternative cultures as artistic tools, there’s a valid cause for some degree of criticism and concern, there’s also an artsy, left-field un-hipness about Blancmange, who seemingly drew from Indian music not only alone, but purely for sonic enjoyment. Unlike the exotic fantasies spun by groups like Japan, none of Blancmange’s songs seem propelled by any specific idea or ideology about India, but rather seem to tackle common pop themes of love and heartbreak against a seemingly *non sequitur* musical backdrop. While we, as listeners, might have strong associations with particular sounds, this is ultimately more cultural than innate, and there’s really no reason why a composition with Indian instruments must revolve around some theme of “Indian-ness”; it isn’t like people in India don’t also fall in love. However you feel about these influences, the role of Indian instruments is only increased on Mange Tout, where they appear on multiple tracks, including the album’s most successful single, “Don’t Tel Me.”

Music: “Don’t Tell Me”

On Mange Tout tracks like “Don’t Tell Me,” not only do the instruments return, but so do the session musicians who had performed on “Living on the Ceiling”: Deepak Khazanchi, on sitar, and Pandit Dinesh, on the percussion instruments tabla and madal. “Don’t Tell Me” is a track with a lot of pop appeal, lightweight and singable, which makes it a bit surprising that it was actually the final single released from the album. It certainly impresses me that Blancmange managed to create such bubbly and finely tuned pop, given that neither of their core members came from any formal or technical background: Luscombe had had a history in avant-garde music ensembles, and vocalist Neil Arthur became interested in music via the DIY culture of punk. Their first-ever release, the 1980 EP Irene & Mavis, sounds more like Throbbing Gristle than Culture Club, but they somehow managed to arrive at something quite sweet and palatable in the end. That said, it’s also possible for sweet to eventually become too sweet--and this line is provoked on the album’s divisive second single, “That’s Love, That It Is.”

Music: “That’s Love, That It Is”

In contrast to the lighter “Don’t Tell Me,” “That’s Love, That It Is” is utterly bombastic, with a vicious intensity. The instrumentation and production style is dense to the point of being borderline overwhelming. By this point in his life, Stephen Luscombe had recently discovered that he was gay, and his time spent in nightclubs that catered to the gay community provided another pillar of Blancmange’s signature sound: the influence of the queer disco tradition, which is almost certainly the source of this tightly-packed instrumental arrangement style. Blancmange never seem to be mentioned in the same breath as other stars of queer synth-pop like Bronski Beat, Soft Cell, and the Pet Shop Boys, presumably due to the combination of their overall obscurity and the fact that Luscombe was never the face of their band, but I see no reason not to include them in the same pantheon of camp. Speaking of queerness, it’s also worth noting how Blancmange played with gender, particularly on their cover of “The Day Before You Came.”

Music: “The Day Before You Came”

A solid eight years before Erasure’s iconic Abba-Esque, Blancmange offered their own interpretation of an ABBA classic with “The Day Before You Came.” In their hands, it’s a languid dirge, and a meditation on quotidian miseries for which the titular event seems to offer little respite. The unchanged lyrics, portraying the narrator working in an office and watching soap operas at night, are subtly feminine-coded, but the deep and unmistakably masculine voice of vocalist Neil Arthur seems to muddle those connotations. While it is a cover, I’m tempted to sort it into the same tradition as Soft Cell’s “Bedsitter” and the Pet Shop Boys’ “Left To My Own Devices,” as a work which musically elevates the everyday life of a campily self-obsessed character to the sort of melodrama the narrator perceives it to have.

I’ve spent a lot of time praising the instrumental side of their music so far, but it’s also true that Blancmange wouldn’t be Blancmange without Arthur’s contributions. The presence of his rough and untrained voice, with the added gruffness of a Northern accent, draws a line between these tracks and a typical pop production, and he sells us quite successfully on the gloomy, ominous feeling of tracks like “The Day Before You Came” and the album’s lead single, “Blind Vision.”

Music: “Blind Vision”

On the cover of Mange Tout, we find an assortment of seemingly unrelated items, which form a sort of graphic wunderkammer against a pale beige backdrop. Perhaps the best theme that could be assigned to them is that of travel--we see several means of transportation, such as a boat, a motorbike, and an airplane flying above a map, as well as items that can be taken as symbols of exotic locales, such as a North American cactus, and an elephant and Zulu nguni shield from Africa. Only the harp is clearly evocative of music itself--and this instrument won’t even be found on the album! The album’s title, “Mange Tout,” suggests that we are getting “full” Blancmange, or “all of” Blancmange. Taken together, the cover and title seem to imply that this album is stuffed to the brim, and contains a whole world of musical ideas. I would definitely agree that that’s a major motif of the album: it’s audacious, explosive, and free-wheeling. It very much feels like an album that was put together on the back of a first initial success, with a pumped-up budget and bold creative vision, and hence pulls no punches. Perhaps the most compelling feature of Mange Tout, and the primary reason I recommend this album so highly, is its unbridled enthusiasm for what it’s doing. Even in its ostensibly experimental moments, Mange Tout feels not like an album that is “trying” something, but rather one that boldly and assuredly proclaims the things it does, and embraces a kind of “more is more” maximalism.

In hindsight, it’s easy to see Mange Tout as the creative as well as commercial peak of Blancmange’s career. Their follow-up release, 1985’s Believe You Me, is far from the worst album I’ve ever heard, but it definitely doesn’t feel quite the same as the “classic” Blancmange works, adopting a more middle-of-the-road, radio-friendly synth-pop direction, with less of the South Asian influences and experimentation that really set them apart in the saturated synth-pop landscape. While not a work devoid of merit, Believe You Me was a relative commercial dud, and the duo would split soon after, chiefly citing personal and creative differences--though they did have a brief reunion in the early 2010s.

Music: “Lose Your Love”

My favourite track on Mange Tout is “All Things Are Nice,” which, alongside the neo-doo-wop “See the Train,” would be classed as one of the more experimental tracks on the album. Full of tension, “All Things Are Nice” alternates between eerily whispering vocals from Arthur, and a variety of samples from other media--which was still a relatively cutting-edge technique for the time. “All Things Are Nice” is almost certainly the most conceptual track on the album: as samples discuss world war, and Arthur whispers that “we can’t keep up with it,” the song is probably to be interpreted as a commentary on the runaway nature of technology and so-called “progress” in the modern age. The titular assertion that “all things are nice” seems to be ironic--or perhaps it embodies a sheer love of chaos and unpredictability, for their own sake, which would certainly fit the album’s mood. It also feels like it might be a sort of defense of the album itself: like I said, *Mange Tout* is serving us “all of Blancmange,” and isn’t it fun to get to have all of something? That’s everything for today--as always, thanks for listening!

Music: “All Things Are Nice”

#music #great albums #blancmange

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constablegoo · 3 years

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@astralglam filed a report .

mint: does your muse view themself as virtuous & moral? what do these words mean to them?

OHOHO. hey hi ily. this is, of course, one of odo’s deepest ongoing battles, and the moment he stops questioning it is the moment he becomes a founder.

the founders grant themselves god status. GOD! status. they just reach out and pluck it. Within their range of power, the founders become unquestionably Just and Virtuous and Moral, their Word becomes Law, it becomes “the way things are” and “fact” and they create their own reality stemming from thousands of years of intense xenophobia. they’re above it all. gods don’t make mistakes, right? sure, maybe changelings were hunted and feared ages ago but they still fear it, and that drive for Order and Control over the galaxy is now encoded into their genes and they place a companion structure into the genes of every other species they control, subjugating them to the founders’ own cozy position as Gods, or-- ‘gods’. the founder (i rly don’t like saying “female” founder so she’s THE Founder. she speaks for the link.) makes it quite clear on many occasions that the founders are not here to negotiate. they fully intend to control EVERYTHING at any cost. it is absolutely chilling when she cuts garak down with: “they’re dead. you’re dead. cardassia is dead.” and draws the line between the dominion and everyone else miles deep into the sand.

that same genetic coding is one of the first semi-concrete things odo comes to understand about himself and, horribly, he’s landed into conditions under the occupation that very easily could have taken advantage of a less meticulous or stubborn changeling. no, odo says initially (and incorrectly), i am not bajoran** and i am not cardassian and i stand apart from either side of this conflict and so i am bound to PURE Virtue and Morality because of it. he can’t be bribed or bought or won over, and he won’t allow for anything less than a kind of incorruptibility. this effectively wins him allies (and enemies) on both sides, however -- that’s just not how the universe works. the truth of it is that no matter how much he tells himself he is not a part of their regime, his working with the cardassians makes him a collaborator in that he has then recognized their authority and ultimately upheld their legitimacy, even if he never agreed with the cause, even if he was also on some level a casualty of it. at some point when he moves past ‘contract’ investigation and begins to work permanently, he falls into the trap of thinking Order is the same thing as Justice... huge yikes. in that moment he becomes a true and apathetic villain, but he’s subsequently haunted by the resulting execution of innocents. it shakes something up in him. years pass and he still wonders, what other mistakes has he made? what other less direct consequences of his ‘neutral’ arbitration exist? he (and everyone around him) has to live without really knowing, and it’s a constant reminder to him of the power he holds and it informs his understanding of what Real (and imperfect) Justice Means.

**sidenote but later in s7 he introduces himself as ‘from bajor’ and AAAAAA. its good. very good. yeah, you’re bajoran, odo. he gets it now.

Mirror odo is really the ultimate example of an odo having taken those instincts to extremes in an environment that rewarded him for them -- there is no guilt there, and even a sadistic kind of pleasure in it. i’d argue that gaia!odo is another, less extreme example of an odo who’s been alone too long and lost sight of things when he single-mindedly (and against kira’s wishes) chooses her (one person) over 8000. like holy shit? NOT ok? uhhuhhhhfff. anyway. very fortunately, neither of these are OUR odo, but act as great foils to reflect on the worst (bastard cop) qualities or potential qualities of our goo pushed to highly visible extremes, which star trek just loves to do all the time.

but regular/prime odo isnt exactly a rule-follower, either. throughout his life, he frequently takes things into his own hands, uses his abilities to his advantage, spies, wiretaps, eavesdrops, and yes, harasses [quark] sometimes -- he develops his own set of values and personal rules and follows them; even starfleet comes in wary of him and how he operates and hes on thin ice. but because of possibly his most redeeming quality, odo is able to adapt those self-ordained values toward something increasingly honest: for how rigid he can be in personality, he is HIGHLY influenced by the world around him, listens hard to what his friends and allies have to say and adapts that feedback; this allows him to evolve and grow and take important matters to heart. he becomes more flexible and better able to hold onto what’s really most important after locking into a decision, because above all else, he is passionately committed to doing the Right Thing. he PLEADS with himself in things past, “your job is to find the truth, not obtain convictions.” by his tendency to push back against what is laid down as ‘law’ (something he becomes more and more aware of and effective at doing) as not always being good or right, or necessarily even creating Order (the thing he’s driven genetically to want), he prepares himself to challenge the most deadly voice of authority -- that of his own people.

so... yes and no. odo’s role and persona as ‘your average security chief’ might dictate that he be virtuous and moral, but he so obviously can’t fit the same exact mold as others in his position -- he has these insane abilities and this mind-consuming nature and it requires he tread with extra care, but he also has a potential for more adaptive, more nuanced morality. he has to build up his own definitions to the words, constantly examine and tease and test them, or else he risks straying too far from what he really wants to achieve -- harmony, honest justice. he has to accept that he’s a part of the system he operates in (not, in fact, alone or isolated! something he actually wants), and know that he is not exempt from making the wrong choice, just like anybody else.

carnation: what is your muse’s relationship with their gender? how do they express or not express this relationship?

ODO AND GENDER!!! i love odo and gender. let’s take this one step at a time. he starts out as an amorphous glob -- he has no gender. there’s no basis for assignment, no culture of difference, and all the goos are goo. odo takes on the shape of the first living thing he sees / the thing he sees most frequently: dr mora. he adopts an image of masculinity from mora and he adopts the hair. that’s about it, and it’s pretty much arbitrary. (maybe the hair is simple enough for his skills, too?) the next people odo meets are also these very masculine, military, cardassian leaders, so again -- this is all he knows! this is neutrality. i imagine it takes him some time to work out what the differences in gender are, and sex, and orientation, romantic vs sexual stuff, all of that. it’s all got cultural baggage he knows nothing about and does not experience, and he’s also dealing with multiple, clashing cultures to boot. since he doesnt have any strong inherent leaning, he simply opts out. he/him becomes his default because thats where he started, thats what he’s been able to successfully present and how people know him, and, terrifyingly, under cardassian rule, it probably offered a bit of safety, too, which was obviously something he needed at the time.

way way way way way down the line in season seven, odo asks kira to (paraphrasing) look at me. what do you see? [i see you.] but this is NOT me, this is only a shape ive assumed in order to fit in. she says, yes, i know that. but this is who you have chosen to be. “a man. a good and honest man.” (i knowww shes not really talking abt gender here BUT) its hard as a trans person not to read the metaphor. he’s chosen to express SOMETHING. he’s chosen something other than what he was given (neutrality) and although he doesnt personally buy into what ‘masculinity’ “should be” (ie the ferengi, smh) / would certainly not argue he doesnt feel non-binary, this is how he has presented all his life, its how hes been treated, and it is what he has chosen to adhere to. there’s a choice in that, kira’s right, and now it reflects something about him.

parallel this, i’ll mention the “female” founder again bc of course there is no discernable reason for her to have a gender -- other than to appeal (im not talking sexually here although there’s,, obviously weird shit happening with the link... yike) to odo in the sense that until that point odo has lived with “gendered” individuals and, i think importantly, kira is with them when they first meet. i think its safe to say the founder saw her, figured she was a friend/ally to odo or at least familiar to him, and took her general representation to appeal as a friend/ally.

otherwise... why, honestly? the founder’s got NO love of humanoids lmao why would she bother.

anyway i’d like to see odo experiment a bit. because when hes safe, he can!! aside from his own doubts and insecurities about shapeshifting, at some point he really has no reason not to, at least a little bit. really, it should just be another thing to practice, much like becoming a convincing rock or a leaf, its just that there are other significances in the cultures around him. i’d just like to see him loosen up a little. have fun. grow ur hair out a bit, odo, why are u still looking like ur terrible dad.

#astralglam #geez ok anyone who reads these are gods #thanks for letting me let some frogs out of my brain #like a lot of frogs #⌀ EVERY SIXTEEN HOURS I TURN INTO A LIQUID! [ about. ]#⌀ YOU HAVE NO SECRETS FROM ME. [ asks. ]#long post /#long as hell post /#sorry hopefully everyones asleep i dont wanna do readmore bc im a nuisance asjdfa

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separatepath · 4 years

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AU Life: Clan Traditions #1 - How Clans appoint their deputies

Spoiler warning: To avoid, skip over ‘Clan In Action’ sections!

Most to Least Democratic!

RiverClan (Democratic)

When the time comes for a deputy to be chosen, the leader will put out the vote to the clan. They will often visit a den or small group of cats at a time, and speak with each cat one-on-one to find out what they think and the traits required. This process will often take the whole day.

At the evening of the day after the previous deputy leaves, the leader will announce the new deputy, based upon who the people voted for when talking with the leader.

If the vote is equal for the top two or more candidates, the medicine cat has the final say.

This tactic requires the leader to be believed, and otherwise not manipulate the vote, however as this leader was previously voted in, this is highly unlikely and most of RiverClan will blindly trust their leader.

This changes in the following conditions:

When doubt is cast onto the leader’s/med’s decision. The elders must bring it up with the leader to reconsider in a talk that day or the day after.

When the leader dies at the same time as the deputy. The whole clan will go to counsel, led by the elders, and decide with majority vote, unless a sign from StarClan is given.

RiverClan in Action:

When Shellheart retires, the clan is surprised when Oakheart and Crookedjaw turn out to have even votes, especially since Oakheart was often viewed more favourably, meaning that opinions changed in private. However, Brambleberry chose Crookedjaw, feeling that he deserved it after all of the pain he went through with Rainflower. There was no surprise when Oakheart was voted in as the first deputy under Crookedstar, and one to remain for a very long time.

Leopardstar’s choice for deputy after the battle with BloodClan was Stonefur, and everyone knew that, and wanted him back. However, Stonefur made a public announcement that he no longer wanted to be considered, losing trust in Leopardstar after Mistyfoot’s fate. This was taken into consideration, although resulted in a longer deliberation than usual, ending with the clan voting for Blackclaw.

Once Hawkfrost perishes, despite Stonefur’s reluctance to take over, even though it would be under Reedstar, the clan votes for him anyway, and he becomes deputy so as not to let the clan down, as they chose him.

SkyClan (Democratic unless otherwise required)

When a new deputy needs to be chosen, the leader, senior warriors and elders will generally gather to decide on the best candidate. To do this they will listen to the opinions of the clan, and take this into high consideration.

Once this has been decided, the Clan performs the old Sorting of the Stones tactic from the past, which came to Echosong in a gift from Clear Sky. All cats of the clan, on the eve after the deputy leaves, will place a stone in the area which is marked for the candidate of their choice.

If a tie ends between two or more candidates, the leader has the final say.

This tactic requires the senior members of the clan to consider all of the other’s opinions equally, and not favour their own personal choices. It also requires all cats to answer honestly despite being known what they vote for.

The leader’s special control over the ceremony is due to SkyClan’s scattered past. Many cats come from different backgrounds and have different opinions, meaning that some may absorb into factions and not mix easily. The leader has to control this, and take control if necessary eg. if a deputy cannot be agreed. This is the only case where they do so.

ThunderClan (Dictated with counsel/Selectively Democratic)

In ThunderClan, the leader often holds most of the power when choosing their next deputy, as they are seen to be open and truthful, considering what is best for the needs of their clan and not hiding their intentions.

Before the choice of deputy is made, the leader will often call in the candidates, as well as a few other warriors, to hear their opinions. It is expected that all cats will be truthful in this phase, speaking of what truly happens within the clan and what they truly think, to aid the leaders decision.

On the eve of the deputy leaving, the leader will make the choice, but extremely close to moonhigh to allow them to talk. This leads to vigils starting late, and a late night for all of the clan.

This tactic incorporates the law of leaders being the ‘be-all-end-all’ of the clan, but also allows for some expression from members of the clan. One-on-one sessions ensures that the truth is spoken.

The leader will ultimately hold power of the deputy, and if needed can throw them out without hesitation, unlike SkyClan and RiverClan. However, if enough of the clan protest, they will be forced to accept them back as deputy.

ThunderClan in Action:

When the time comes for Tawnyspots to retire, Whitestorm visits Sunstar despite not being asked to tell him his opinion - to not choose Thistleclaw since Tigerclaw has changed so much. This influences Sunstar’s decision a lot, and he has only told Whitestorm that he would have made her deputy despite her having her kits, before they were lost. Whitestorm never told anyone so Bluestar never suffered over her decision.

When choosing the succesor after Lionheart, Bluestar took opinions of those who were preparing to sit vigil, but didn’t listen to Firepaw’s reserved thoughts. Her idealisation of her nephew overtook any rationale she had, using the more dictated side of the choosing.

Tigerstar and his supporters were never truthful with their opinions, swaying Bluestar’s decision and going against the general beliefs of the clan.

Whitestorm’s appointment was made at dawn of the next day, so it could not be excused of being just after moonhigh as it was way afterwards.

ShadowClan (Royalty/Dictatorship unless otherwise required)

ShadowClan is the only clan to have not accepted the law that requires a deputy to be chosen and not given the position due to their blood, if possible. They try to stick to leadership within one bloodline, through a kit from the first litter, chosen by the leader.

The Clan have no say in who takes leadership, due to not sharing the blood of the current leader.

This tactic is often met with stark disapproval from the other clans, viewing that ShadowClan has not stuck to the code, and will refuse to do so despite many moons passing. Apprentices from other clans are taught that this way is unfair and wrong, and ShadowClan’s crashes in the past are used as proof.

When there are no heirs, this rule is not applied, and the leader will choose a deputy themselves, from someone they are close to and trust. This is only used if all close family is exhausted, dead or too old. The Clan has no say over the chosen deputy.

If the leader is dead and the current deputy is not a direct heir, the bloodline of leadership will change, if no heirs exist, to the deputies. If there is an heir, but they are a kit or apprentice, the deputy will become a temporary leader until this heir reaches warriorhood, at which point they go back to being a deputy.

ShadowClan in Action:

Cedarstar did not have any kin when he passed, and given that he made Raggedpelt deputy, he ultimately defaulted to becoming leader.

Raggedstar made Brokentail leader despite having not yet revealed that they were kin, making many cats question the motive until it was revealed.

When Tigerstar died, the cats worked their way back along Raggedstar’s lines. As Rowanpaw and Cedarpaw were still apprentices, Russetfur took over.

The leadership passed to Rowanclaw upon Russetfur’s death, but he refused, instead letting his mate Tawnypelt take over due to her relations to Tigerstar, and that their kits are still related to Russetstar.

WindClan (Dictatorship)

The most like the canon books. Leaders have all say in choosing the next deputy, and will only seek other’s opinions if they so please. They can change, remove or alter the deputy at any point, and the deputy will take over once the leader dies.

WindClan pride their tradition as being closest to StarClan’s chosen laws, as it is the only one that strictly adheres to both ‘the deputy must be chosen’ and ‘the leader’s word is law’, so they view themselves as superior to other clans in this regard.

I don’t think this needs an In Action!

#warrior cats #warriors #warrior cat #warrior cat au #warriors au #warrior cats au #a separate path #spoilers #au life #clan traditions

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alexsfictionaddiction · 4 years

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Alex Recommends: May and June Books

I must apologise for the late arrival of this post. It should have been up days ago but I’ve been struggling to read much for the last month or so. My head has been very foggy and dark with all of the confusion, anxiety and hate that has been filling my news feeds and I’ve been filled with a desire to combat it. Before this month, I’d have run in the opposite direction from any kind of confrontation but recent events have given me the kick up the butt to actively do better. I’ve been calling out bigotry when I come across it and I’ve noticed that some people, notably my older relatives, haven’t necessarily reacted favorably to the changed, more outspoken Alex. It has been pretty daunting and I’ve worked myself up into fits of rage and tears several times over the last couple of months.

A lot of things have changed for me since my last Alex Recommends post. I’m currently temporarily living in Staffordshire with my boyfriend because my depression got too bad for me to stay at home for much longer. I missed him unbelievably much and I knew that spending some prolonged time with him would help -and it has. Both him and I have spent 12 weeks religiously following all of the rules, so we’re both extremely low-risk for catching and spreading COVID-19 and being together was something that we simply really needed to do. Please don’t hate me for it! In other news, I have also started writing again, which feels amazing. I’m now a few thousand words into a queer Rapunzel retelling that I have lots of ideas for. Maybe I’ll even post an extract or two, when I feel it’s ready to show you.

In the centre of the renewed energy of Black Lives Matter and the undeniable exposure of the horrors that is police brutality, the book blogging and BookTube worlds vowed to uplift Black voices. I wrote a very long, in-depth blog post full of Black-written books and Black book influencers. Please check it out to diversify your TBR and educate yourself on Black issues, which is what every white person should be doing now and always.

June was Pride Month and I tried my best to compile a series of recommendation posts in honour of it. These included gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, ace, pansexual and intersex lists. I’ve had some great feedback on this, so I hope you find some fantastic new reads. It felt especially poignant to put them together the same year that one of my childhood heroes came out as an ignorant trans-exclusive feminist. As a lifelong Harry Potter superfan and someone who has repeatedly publicly supported Rowling in the past, I feel the need to clarify where I now stand. I do not support or agree with a single thing that she has said in recent times with regard to transgender people. I’ve never felt my own status as a cisgender female threatened by trans people wanting more rights or believed that children or women were at risk due to their existence.

I read her words more than once and struggled to find any semblance of the woman who wrote the books that have most defined my life. I’m hesitant to say that we can always successfully separate the art from the artist but I will say that it makes sense to me that the Rowling of 2020 is not the same Rowling that wrote Harry Potter. She was a destitute single mother when Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997 and of course, she is now a million worlds away from that lifestyle. It breaks my heart but it makes sense to me that she has changed beyond belief because her life has changed beyond belief. I’m not and never would make any excuses for her recent behaviour and I have stopped supporting her personally but I will not be getting rid of my Harry Potter books and I will undoubtedly re-read them several more times. However, I am now hugely reluctant to buy any more merchandise or special editions of the books, which saddens me but at the moment, it feels right. There is no coming back for her from this and I will make a conscious effort to keep Harry Potter and Rowling away from my future content. It can be really tough to admit that the people you once really admired aren’t great humans but it’s something that we all have to acknowledge in this case, in order to move forward with our own quests to become our best selves.

It didn’t feel right to post my May recommendations last month as I didn’t feel comfortable promoting my own content in the midst of boosting Black voices. So today I’m bringing you a bumper edition of Alex Recommends. Here are 10 books that I’ve enjoyed since the start of May that I’d love to share with you. Enjoy! -Love, Alex x

FICTION: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Set in the affluent neighbourhood of Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1990s, two families are brought together and pulled apart by the most intense, devastating circumstances. Dealing with issues of race, class, coming-of-age, motherhood and the dangers of perfection, Little Fires Everywhere is highly addictive and effecting. With characters who are so heartbreakingly real and a story that weaves its way to your very core, I couldn’t put it down and I’m still thinking about it over a month after finishing it.

FICTION: Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

When coding nerd Chloe Brown almost dies, she makes a list of goals and vows to finally Get A Life. So she enlists tattooed redhead handyman and biker Red to teach her how. Cute, funny and ultimately life-affirming, this enemies-to-lovers rom-com was exactly the brand of light relief that I needed this month. The follow-up Take A Hint, Dani Brown focuses on a fake-dating situation with Chloe’s over-achieving academic sister and I can’t wait to get my hands on that.

FICTION: The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montimore

Just before her 19th birthday at midnight on New Year’s Eve 1983, Oona Lockhart finds herself inexplicably in 2015 inside her 51-year-old body. She soon learns that every year on New Year’s Day, she will now find herself inside a random year of her life and she has no control over it. Seeing her through relationships, friendships and extreme wealth, this strange novel has echoes of Back To The Future and 13 Going On 30 with a final revelation that I certainly never saw coming.

NON-FICTION: The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

Atmospheric and engaging, The Five details the previously untold stories of Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Kate and Mary-Jane -the women who lost their lives at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Full of fascinating research and heartbreaking accounts of what these women’s lives may have been like, Rubenhold paints a dark immersive portrait of Victorian London and gives voice to these tragic silenced lives. Although we can’t know for certain if these accounts are entirely accurate, they feel very plausible and in some ways, The Five exposes how little time has moved on, when it comes to the public portrayal of single, troubled women.

NON-FICTION: Unicorn by Amrou Al-Kadhi

From a childhood crush on Macaulay Culkin to how a teenage obsession with marine biology helped them realise their non-binary identity, Unicorn tells the story of how the obsessive perfectionist son of a strict Muslim Iraqi family became the gorgeous drag queen Glamrou. Packed full of humour, honesty and heart, this book will give you the strength and inspiration to harness what you were born with and be who you were always meant to be.

MIDDLE-GRADE: The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates by Jenny Pearson

When fact-obsessed Freddie’s grandmother dies, he discovers that the father he has never met may actually be alive and living in Wales. So he has no choice but to grab his best friends Ben and Charlie, leave his home in Andover and go to find his dad! I laughed so many times during this madcap adventure and I know the slapstick crazy humour will hit the middle-grade target audience just right. It’s also a wonderful depiction of small town Britain with a focus on the true meaning of family.

MIDDLE-GRADE: A Kind Of Spark by Elle McNicoll

When Addie learns about her hometown’s history of witch trials, she campaigns tirelessly to get a memorial for the women who lost their lives through it. This wonderfully beautiful novel gives a unique insight into the mind of an 11-year-old autistic girl with a huge heart. Busting myths about neurodiversity while tackling typical pre-teen drama, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry but most of all, you’ll close the book with a huge smile on your face.

HISTORICAL FICTION: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

In 16th century Warwickshire, Agnes is a woman with a unique gift whose relationship with a young Latin tutor produces three children and a legacy that lasts for centuries. This enchanting, all-consuming account of the tragic story of Shakespeare’s lost son, the effects that rippled through the family and the play that was born from their pain will send a bullet straight through your heart. Wonderfully researched and beautifully written, Hamnet is worth all of the hype.

HISTORICAL FICTION: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

When a vicious storm kills most of the men of Vardø, Norway, it’s up to the women to keep things going but a man with a murderous past is about to come down with an iron fist. At the heart of this dark tale of witch trials, grief and feminism, two women find something they’ve each been searching for within each other. Gorgeously written with a fantastically slow-burning queer romance, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s first adult novel is an addictive, atmospheric read with a poignant, tearjerker of an ending.

SCI-FI: Q by Christina Dalcher

When one of Elena’s daughters manages to drop below the country’s desired Q number, she is sent away to one of the new state schools and Elena is about to find out something she’d really rather not know about the new system. Packed full of real social commentary and critique of life as we know it while painting a picture of how things could be even worse (yes, really!), this pulse-racing, horrifying sci-fi dystopian gripped me from the first page and refused to let me go.

#book recommendations #recommended #recommendations #may #june #books #bookworm

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moonlitjade · 4 years

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Hallowed Mother, our deliverer, I come to you in our time of need. Guide us so that we may seek our paradise.

> Character Info

NAME / ALIAS: Yona Uyehara AGE: 29 GENDER / PRONOUNS: Female Host (She/They/Us) HEIGHT: 202cm/ 6′6″ WEIGHT: 80kg/176lbs VOICECLAIM: Goblin Slayer — Purple Mage SPONSOR: Techico Labs

> Lore

SPECIES: Kishi (Carnasite Host)

Pureblood Kishi are a noble, but delicate species. They are defined by pale, slightly luminous doll-like skin, translucent flesh, dark sclera, and fine, straight hair in light colors. As a prideful and insular species, they take great care in their ornate grooming and presentation, with ornaments and hair styling a symbol of both status and class. They often adorn themselves in simple painted wooden beads, made from the native black wood, and the many pale gemstones abundant in their soil, along with layered silken fabrics.

The Kishi are also extremely photo-sensitive, hailing from the moonlit planet Asmodia. They are a minority species on Asmodia, and stay tightly clustered in small clans. Though their night-vision is nearly impeccable, they are extremely susceptible to blindness and UV burns. They have additional eyes embedded in their palms, enhancing their night-vision, with the ability to see auras and spiritual energy. Those gifted amongst their communities may even be appointed as Seers, with brief insight into the future, or the nature of a path a particular choice may take the Kishi down.

They are deeply devout to their Supreme Mother, a spiritual being named Cosmos, who they believe is deeply intertwined with their lives, and actively guides them. As their species has an extremely slow reproduction rate, and a high rate of birth failure, they have deep reverence for the matriarchs in their clans, and often look to their female counterparts for leadership and direction. Alongside this, they do not eat meat on principle, and prefer mushrooms, and other strongly flavoured plants and fungi.

The Carnasite is a highly malicious and infectious parasite that rapidly mutates the host. It begins as a microscopic organism that grows in size and influence the more it eats. A diverse diet of strong and hardy species will cause it to mutate and strengthen further, and potentially even take on characteristics of the species it consumes to follow unique evolution pathways for each host. Periods without food will cause it to devolve and revert to a more primitive state.

Note for Body Horror: The mutation period for a Carnasite infection is usually 2-3 days. Initial symptoms of a Carnasite infection include insatiable hunger, irritability, fever, flushed skin and psychosis. Delusions are usually focused around incessant whispering and paranoia.

As the infection progresses, the host will begin to experience blurred vision, jaw pain, festering sores on the sides of the lips, and increasing hunger. Small wounds will also appear across the body, particularly on the bulk of the limbs, with accompanying bumps around the wounds. Within a day, these wounds will expose teeth and begin producing a sticky adhesive saliva, not unlike spider silk. Large fangs will also split the skin around the mouth.

At this stage of infection, the host will enter a frenzied state, in which they will consume anything nearby, organic or inorganic. Some hosts may not return from this state, and remain crazed. If they are starved or without sustenance, they will ultimately self-consume and perish.

Those with a high rate of biological synergy with the parasite may retain enough of their mental faculties to return from a frenzy, and suppress the physical appearance and needs of the Carnasite to a degree.

A Carnasite infestation will cause the host to crave satiation, particularly from new and foreign organic flesh, to diversify its own genetic code and abilities. It speaks in an unknown language, and can be heard whispering at times to the host when the hunger cravings are particularly strong.

Consuming the flesh of an infected individual will pass on the infection.

There is currently no known cure or extraction method for this parasite.

HOMEWORLD / PLANET: Asmodia — Caelia Cluster

Originally, the Kishi lived on Asmodia, a beautiful bioluminescent planet with two moons. Populated by lush towering flora and a diverse range of fauna, Asmodia was a thriving planet in perpetual moonlit darkness. The Kishi lived comfortably in ‘tree-top’ communities amidst the tall fungiform plants, using the planet’s low gravity to drift between establishments. The planet is now barren after a foreign disease from a merchant ship crash ravaged the flora, and left it incapable of supporting the Kishi species.

Cygnus — Caelia Cluster

A nearby planet with a complex underground cavern system and an empty surface, covered with thick toxic fog. There are signs of long-forgotten settlers scattered across the surface, obscured by the fog and acid rain.

However, underneath the adverse surface of Cygnus is a stunning and complex system of caves, lit by luminescent crystals and moss-like flora. The caves are characterised by their large columns made of thick fleshy roots, opening out into webbed shelters at the base, like mangrove roots. These basket-like shelters usually form around geode rocks full of precious mineral ore, and shallow caustic waterways carrying small bioluminescent insects that glow when disturbed. The parasitic Carnasite species lay undisturbed on Cygnus for an unknown time, dormant in the lush moss of the caves.

STATS: ATK (4) / DEF (6) / DEX (4) / CHR (10) / INTL (10) / HP (8)

SECONDARY JOB / PROFESSION: Botanist — Yona takes it upon herself to explore, collect, and cultivate the flora of any new planet she visits, to see if it has any viable medicinal or sustenance purposes for her people.

> SKILLS / ABILITIES:

> Siren Song: (CHR) Those lucky enough to have heard the secretive Kishi sing will speak of the enchanting power their voices hold. They hold a hypnotic quality that may lull a relaxed or vulnerable listener into a hypnotic state, leaving them open to suggestion. A loud noise or persistent outside distraction can break this effect. They have great control over their vocals as well, and can emit loud ear-piercing shrieks and a vast range of frequencies.

> Insatiable: (ATK/DEF) As a Carnasite host, Yona has been granted the ability to consume anything. Anything. She may also temporarily take on some of the physical characteristics of what she eats, such as hardened or jagged skin, heat resistance, color change, or other limited samples of foreign abilities. As her symbiote is still relatively young, it reverts from this evolved state rapidly unless it has a large and constant source of the same food. While she can still experience the taste sensation of adverse experiences such as bitterness or spiciness, she will not experience the attached side effects of food. Poisons, allergies and digestive incapabilities will be nullified by the parasite’s adaptive appetite. As a drawback however, she is truly insatiable, and constantly plagued by hunger.

> Spider Silk: (DEX/INT) Yona is able to produce a durable and adhesive silk-like thread from the saliva of the Carnasite mouths. She can control the nature of the thread, like how quickly it dries, how sticky it will be, and/or how brittle it will be, which makes it uniquely suited to a variety of tasks. Primary uses include snaring/immobilising prey, repairing or making clothing, creating traps, binding items together or creating constructs like nets.

> Seer Sight: (INT) When deeply involved in prayer and thought, Yona may briefly glimpse a vision of the future, or experience a feeling as a premonition for the possible pathways an action may take. She is not as skilled as some of her species at this, so her visions often appear scattered, obscured and vague. She may also accurately locate bodily or spiritual injury using this skill, to better treat an individual or locate a bodily weakness.

> Night Vision: (INT) Kishi have pristine vision in darkness. They thrive in dimly lit settings, and may even become luminous themselves if they have been exposed to enough moonlight. Briskly rubbing their skin may accentuate this effect.

> PERSONALITY

{ Peaceful // Gentle // Nurturing // Resolute // Contemplative // Trusting // Conflicted // Compulsive // Fretful // Melancholic }

Yona tries to embody many of the best traits of her culture. She is gentle, nurturing, and extremely devout to their Supreme Mother Cosmos, whose belief system encourages many maternal and guiding qualities. She believes in striving for true harmony with one’s environment, and always being respectful to one’s ancestors and the history of the land she encounters. Though somewhat skittish when first experiencing new things and meeting new people, Yona’s patience and kindness knows no bounds once she is familiar and comfortable.

Despite the fundamental conflicts between her morals/values and her current predicament, she remains resolute and steadfast to her goal of finding a cure for her people from the Carnasite plague. She is utterly selfless and willing to be a martyr for the sake of her species’ future, even if it means casting her own quality of life and happiness to the wayside. She has extreme mental fortitude in the face of hardship, which is one of the main contributors to her survival thus far. The burden of this mission however leaves her contemplative most of the time, and melancholic when she dwells on the Kishi’s plight.

She views bounty hunting as a necessary evil, in order to balance the hunger-driven compulsions from the Carnasite living inside her, and views many things in the universe as such. She tries to find a uniquely balanced perspective on all the conflicts in her life, striving to see both sides of the equation. As such, she finds it easier to sympathise with the motivations of a villain or a bounty, no matter how nefarious. She tends to rationalise all actions of others, no matter the underlying morality or general acceptance of such actions, and believes all things have a reason and explanation for happening.

She also has a tendency to sympathise especially with those who have wronged her, even when they have few redeeming qualities. She may excuse their actions or even try to justify them, despite them having brought harm to her. It is in part how she has coped with the events of her life up to this point, but it also leaves her open to suggestion and manipulation from others, as she fails to and even sometimes outright refuses to see bad quality in others.

Despite this, the Carnasite finds ways to prey on the weakest points of her resolution, so she often has moments of paranoia and fretfulness. She struggles deeply with personal guilt over her actions as a result of the parasite she is host to, and sometimes has difficulty separating herself from its intentions.

Her infallible optimism towards others is one of her defining qualities. She believes there is light in every situation, no matter how bleak it may seem. She tries to hold team situations together, mediating issues where they appear, and seeking a diplomatic pathway where she can. The only exception to this rule is her own fate— though hopeful, she is also bleakly fatalistic about the likely prognosis. She speaks about death and addresses it with a numb callous that may be morbid and unnerving to some.

LOVES: Kiyumi, Cosmos LIKES: Flowers and pretty new plants, gemstones, moonlight, children, music DISLIKES: The state of her people, eating, caves HATES: Sickness, hunger EXTRAS: Yona lives with immense survivor’s guilt. She also has an extremely distracted manner of speech, and pauses at odd moments in her sentences. This is in part habitual, due to their species’ naturally slow and careful speech style to avoid inadvertently enchanting listeners, and also a personal affect, as she finds the Carnasite’s voice very distracting and overwhelming when she is trying to conduct conversation.

She is also curating a garden her most favourite plants she’s collected on her ship.

> PERSONAL GEAR

Yona carries with her a meagre supply of spare fabric rolls, hand-twined ropes, a collection of painted wooden and avelite stone jewellery, painfully inherited from her beloved priestesses. Thanks to her sponsorship, she also now possesses a (mind and soul adapter, more tba)

SHIP: RAPTURE — A ship that bears the scars of great hope, and great sorrow.

A rudimentary patchwork ship, with many elements pieced together from merchants and travellers who visited Asmodia. Similar to an old Ark ship, it is an extremely slow vessel, and barely furnished aside from the most necessary technology inside. It has enough space inside for a sizeable crew and passengers. Some of the wall covers are missing or damaged, and the interior shows signs of a terrible struggle. There is faded purple blood splattered on some of the floor and walls, with apparent bite marks in some of the panels.

The bottom of the hull is decorated in luminous ink, detailing the handprints of her late clansmen. These were placed on the eve of their departure from Asmodia, as a sign of respect for their heritage and future.

WEAPONS: Much to her distaste, her body is currently her greatest weapon. If she had her time again, perhaps she would choose an elegant war-fan or battle hammer. In time, she may explore her options, but she is currently exploring how to weaponise the Carnasite silk in order to execute the most painless and humane bounty capture and extermination possible.

COMPANION: She does not trust herself enough at this point for any long-term companions. Unfortunately, her resident parasite keeps her enough company for the moment. SHOP ITEMS: TBA

> HISTORY

( There is graphic content beyond, detailing death and violence. Such is the nature of life in this universe. A censored TL;DR has been included at the end. )

GENESIS

Life on Asmodia was idyllic and peaceful. Situated in the Caelia Cluster along a common trade route, the Kishi clan would occasionally have passing ships stop and offer trade goods like technology and fabrics in exchange for the luminous gems and ornate wooden jewellery they curated. Aside from these brief interactions, contact was fleeting and rare with outside species. They led a life of devout isolation and symbiotic harmony with their land, never taking more than was necessary, and always finding ways to give back to their surroundings.

Yona was sheltered from all but the occasional exotic tea blend the clan would trade for, or foreign fabrics. Within the clan, daily life consisted of a balance of fine arts, prayer, and gathering and preparing food and resources from their surroundings. As a youngling, she was fascinated by the work of the priestesses and Seers in their clan, and spent much of her youth following them around in their daily rituals. In particular, one of the younger priestesses Kiyumi took a liking to Yona, and became a mentor and an elder sister figure for the young Kishi. She dearly loved her mentor, and spent long hours watching her work, aiding her chores, and talking about anything and everything that came to mind.

Yona was a quiet youth with a delicate constitution, considered too fragile by many of her peers for the food gathering aspects of the clan. Instead, she was encouraged to learn the decorative sewing and rope-twining skills they prided themselves on, and help with the preparation of the various medicinal herbs and meals. She proved to have good hands and concentration for the tasks, content to fulfil menial roles to pass the days and assist Kiyumi.

Life should have continued in simple bliss, if it weren’t for the crash of a large merchant ship near their settlement. It had been fleeing pirates with a cargo of foreign foods, exotic species and assorted ‘medicines’. The crew was almost entirely killed on impact, and those who survived were finished soon after as the pirates descended for their bounty. The initial impact wiped out a significant part of Asmodia’s landscape, but it was the following weeks in which the true impact of the crash showed.

They had inadvertently brought with them disease, scattered from the alien goods into the fragile and sensitive flora of Asmodia. Much of the Kishi’s food sources became tainted with a black pox, turning the plants to soft slime with a sour smell. It spread like wildfire, from the smallest of foods first, and eventually into the plants in which the clan lived. It toppled the towering fungi with rot at the core, and sent the clan fleeing across the planet in search of a stable home and reliable food source. Each new hopeful settlement dried up shortly after their arrival.

It became apparent that there was no hope for survival left on Asmodia. It was a dying planet, crumbling at the seams as a plague ravaged the very ground beneath their feet. Like a poison, the lack of food sent many species spiralling into madness, starvation and desperation causing some to even eat their kin, a grave omen for things to come.

EXODUS

As a predominantly homebound group, the Kishi only had limited and primitive spacefaring technology. With their weakened and diminishing clan numbers, they had just enough resources to take the youngest and the strongest of them out into space, leaving behind those too ill or elderly to join them at the Seers’ suggestion. In spacecrafts patched together from traveller’s technology and salvaged fuel from the crash, the remnants of the Kishi clan fled into their nearby star cluster and drifted. They drifted, until at their ship rasped a soft ping, a blip on the dash for a small planet. The systems had been dead until this point, but it only offered a name — Cygnus.

They had no star maps, no knowledge of the surrounding stars or planets, and no connections to gather information from. Was it a distress signal? Or a buried log, too corrupted now to reference? They landed blindly in the swirling mists of Cygnus, and prayed to Cosmos that she would guide them safely in their journey. A small search party braved the acrid smog, stumbling upon the weather-worn remains of old ships and the broken skeletons of crews long forgotten, stripped bare. They were jagged wrecks, apparently savaged by large beasts. It was impossible to tell how long the wreckages had been left, all identification worn away, bones broken and strewn about as though hunted by some vicious monster. The party paid their respects, giving them a brief prayer burial to rest their souls with their Supreme Mother.

And still, the Kishi searched onwards, undeterred by the corpses, seeking shelter or any kind of resources. They found respite in the gaping maw of a cave, cold and damp, with the sound of running water and wind whistling deeper into the tunnel. It seemed at last they had found promise of shelter.

As they travelled deeper, the found lush moss lining the walls, flowers growing out from the seams in the rocks, and running water. The plants were beautiful, with teal petals dangling down from their stems like little bells, leaves thin and curled around the base on delicate vines. They were reminiscent of the flora from home, and upon investigation, deliciously edible for the Kishi. The water, though bitter and strongly flavoured, was also good for consumption. The glow of the crystals embedded in the many rocks and cavern pillars also emulated their beloved moonlight.

The weary and diminished clan had found the first thread of hope since leaving their home, and were eager to find a way to settle the caves beneath the hostile surface. The initial party was joined soon after by the remnants of the clan, setting up rudimentary settlements around the brightest rocks and the thickest moss. Cygnus might have lacked many of the comforts from Asmodia, but it was a promising start.

PESTILENCE

Their first days were focused on procuring as much food as possible to begin a small stockpile, and exploring the extent of the Cygnus caves. Despite how promising their new settlement seemed, the Seers in the group were restless, Yona included. The priestesses complained that their sleep was disturbed, and their dreams were plagued with horrid visions of bloodshed and death. Yona’s visions had never been strong, but she claimed when she had meditated by the cavern’s glowing stones, she had been seized by terrible and vague premonitions.

The more fierce of the clan simply brushed off their concerns, reminding them of how stressful and perilous their journey had been, and how they were likely just haunting after-images of their exodus from Asmodia. The debate did little to soothe their concerns. They took small comfort in the steady flow of food and water, which assuaged most of their fears as it had been many cycles since they had last had certain supplies.

Strangely, regardless of how well fed they were, members of the clan began to weaken inexplicably, wasting away feverishly. They all complained they were plagued by the paranoia and whispering visions the Seers had first experienced. Next, they noticed the painful sores on their lips and the insistent thirst that sent them crawling to the steams to slake their parched throats. A mysterious illness had seized the clan, not unlike the plague that had cast them out of their homes.

Those who remained well stayed by the side of each one who fell ill, gently tending to each flickering life. They were well aware deaths on a scale like this could obliterate the few strong that remained of their clan. Yona noticed her own symptoms later than the rest, forgoing her own food and drink in favour of tending her most beloved priestess. As Kiyumi tossed restlessly and babbled in her troubled sleep, the Seer continued to warn of the water. The eyes in her palms, usually so bright and focused into the spiritual world, rolled dull into the backs of her hands as she reached for clarity. ‘The tide of death will come, and we will be swept, all of us, in the undertow. All of us, drowned.’ Yona put it down to the illness speaking, but the visions spoke true.

GENOCIDE

There was sickness in the water. Namely, a long forgotten and undisturbed parasite they would later dub the ‘Carnasite’, for the carnage it left in its infectious wake.

The condition of the ill worsened rapidly until they lay in moaning heaps of tangled limbs and wounds, their very skin crawling with the hungry presence growing underneath. Yona held enough clarity to witness her kin’s bodies erupt with teeth and starving alien maws, their faces disfigured beyond recognition as their minds deteriorated to base beastly instincts. Long gone was the gentle grace of her mentor, the wise calm of their elder, the stoic measure of their bravest warrior – even the soft mewling cries of their young were morphed into wails of starving distress.

As she lay on her side, heaving and fighting against the whispering in her mind, she held Kiyumi’s hands like they were her lifeline. It wasn’t enough to drown out the sound of familiar screams as she watched her kin descend upon one another, tearing at flesh like they had never known a kind touch. She saw mother devour child, friend betray friend, the warriors feast upon their own flesh in mad, senseless rage and craving.

So she prayed fervently to Cosmos, through her tears and her own screams as her body tore apart at the seams. She prayed that their Supreme Mother would protect them, and deliver them somehow from this nightmare. She felt her mind slip away, and something else, something malicious and cruel and unholy take the reigns as the last of her prayers drifted away.

SACRIFICE

When Yona regained her mind, she was curled into Kiyumi’s empty chest, the priestess’ arms wrapped around her in weak embrace. A sense of foreboding lurked at the hazy edges of her mind, the rancid smell of death filling the cavern. She sat up weakly, gazing at her hands smeared with lavender gore.

She first noticed Kiyumi’s prayer beads clutched in one hand, and then she noticed the soft suckling noise of something feeding.

And then it dawned on her that she was making that sound. Spiralling mouths had opened along the length of her limbs, silken drool running glistening rivers to where they had attached themselves to Kiyumi’s corpse.

Yona shrieked and scrambled backwards in horror, backing into the desecrated body of the elder, unrecognisable now, stripped back to the bones. Everywhere she looked, she saw the mark of death, staining the walls and the lichen floors of this cursed place. She cradled her face in her hands and felt the spokes of teeth protruding through her cheeks, still slick with blood. Everything ached, but nothing hurt more than the mangled sight of her beloved spirit-sister Kiyumi. She wept abruptly. Was this truly deliverance? She had regained her mind, but at what cost? Kiyumi had always had wisdom and foresight, why had she been the one to perish, and Yona the one to survive?

Distantly, she could still hear the sounds of her beastly kin lumbering, the splash of disturbed waters and hungry wailing like tormented souls. The cavern felt at once sinister and claustrophobic. She staggered to her feet, whispering a prayer for repentance as she fled the graveyard buried under Cygnus.

SALVATION

At the mouth of the cave, she found several others gathered, each at varying stages and severity of mutation. They loitered in the shadows, away from the glowing lights they had once embraced, full of self-loathing and despair for what they had become, and what they had done to each other. Some had more mental presence than others, but it was clear they were all in a poor state. This was all that remained of their clan, aside from those they had abandoned on Asmodia, and those mutated beyond recognition or salvation deeper within the caves.

They knew next to nothing about the sickness that had made them such monsters. They called them Carnasites in hushed voices, as though whispering the name could give power to the unknown disease. All they knew was that the hunger was connected to the maws that appears and closed across their body, and feeding them could help stave off the madness some of the others had succumbed to. They had no expertise on how to reverse the effects, or if that were even possible. It was clear they couldn’t stay here if they wanted any of their lineage to survive, and they certainly couldn’t return to Asmodia. Their only choice was to venture onwards, out into the universe in search of knowledge.

They made a sombre pact there and then that they would not meet again until they had found a cure, lest they turn on each other again. Those too weak to maintain their form and mental faculties resigned themselves to a fate in the caves. The resolute few who were left trudged through the mists, past the ruined relics of other travellers who had perhaps fallen to the same fate long ago, to their awaiting ships. They split a small crew amidst each. Yona was assigned to Rapture, a sizeable vessel, with a few others from her clan.

The journey was not easy. It was long and arduous before they found a place where they could find resources and repairs, a shady black market den where few questions were asked about the sorry state of the ship and the group. Their main point of conflict was where they would find food. The plant food they had become accustomed to no longer seemed to appease the hungry maws, but neither did the purchasable meats satiate them for long. Much to their chagrin, it seemed the maws craved fresh meat and new types of organisms, which staved off the symptoms of madness the longest.

Unable to come to terms with this, their crew dwindled as some would rather starve than face their apparent future. Eventually, Yona found herself alone on the ship, with the bitter knowledge that cannibalism provided the longest relief. Fuelled by memory of Kiyumi’s sacrifice and the bodies of her kin on board, she continued ever onwards, no matter the cost, determined to find a way to exist as a symbiote in her newfound identity. Despite her own abhorrence at her predicament, she continued until she heard word of a promising career. Bounty Hunting. With the support of Fortune and their sponsors, bounty hunting could provide a source of legal food, and a means of searching for a cure on a larger platform.

She pursued Fortune, registering herself and taking on as many small-time bounties marked WANTED : DEAD as possible to find food for herself and work up the ranks. No matter the moral cost, no matter the danger, Yona vowed to Cosmos that she would find salvation for her people, and a future for those they had left behind.

TL;DR — The Kishi species led a content and insular lifestyle on Asmodia before a merchant ship crashed on the planet, releasing a foreign disease that eradicated most of the plant life and food sources. Using primitive technology, a large group of Kishi fled to the nearby planet Cygnus, seeking a new home. There, they accidentally awakened a dormant parasite species that mutated them into insatiable monsters. A majority of the clan died in the days following the outbreak.

The surviving few left Cygnus and went their seperate ways, scattered across the universe in an attempt to find a cure for their species. Yona sought out bounty hunting and the expertise of Techico Labs as a sponsor, in the hopes that she could find help for her people there.

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lovehaswonangelnumbers · 5 years

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New Post has been published on https://lovehaswonangelnumbers.org/new-moon-in-leo-turn-up-your-light/

New Moon in Leo ~ Turn Up Your Light!

By Dana Mrkich

August feels like it is on fire right from the start! On August 1 (July 31 in the US) we had Mercury turn direct with the New Moon in Leo.

The overall message for this month feels very much to be “turn up your Light!” Leo is the Lion, King (or Queen) of the jungle. This is a month to step up and stand up for what it is you DREAM OF. This is going to mean a different thing for everyone. This could play out in your work life, career, business or finances, in your relationships, love life or with family. It could mean being more vocal about things you care about or noticing where you no longer want to hide or play it small.

Leo is connected to the Solar Plexus and the Sun, so power can come up as a theme this month especially connected to seeing your Light as Power. Seeing your Truth as Power. We’ve received all sorts of negative messages about what Power is – that it is dominating and controlling for example. Likewise, we’ve also received some pretty diluted messages about what “Light” is – that it’s “spiritual” but has very little connection to life in the “real world.” Your Light is who you are at a core, soul level. When you feel connected to your core, soul self, when you truly live life from this space, that is what healthy, authentic power looks like. It has nothing to do with having power over anyone outside of yourself. So remember this as you step up and stand up for what it is you want. Do it assertively, yet not aggressively.

Journalling Prompts:

This month I would like to step up in the following areas: _________________

Imagine yourself connected to your Light/Soul in a deeper way,

and living your life, your power and your truth from that space.

With each area, you’ve written above,

how would it look were you to live from this space more often?

Either in your journal or by closing your eyes and listening for inner guidance,

ask yourself:

What is ONE thing I can do in each of these areas,

so that I am living more in alignment with who I know myself to truly be?

Global Stage

Leo is a fire sign, all about strength, courage, and bravery and that is exactly what five New York Fire Commissioners are showing with their call for a new 9/11 Investigation. They unanimously passed a resolution claiming that “overwhelming evidence” of “pre-planted explosives and/or incendiaries”…” caused the destruction of the Three World Trade Center buildings.”

Mainstream media are not covering this.

Please watch and share their moving statement.

As the Fire Commissioner says, it is time to bring Truth to Light.

Awakening is not just a personal, individual process. When awakened individuals gather together, our awakening changes our families, our communities, our workplaces, our societies, our media, our governments and eventually, our entire world. The more of us that speak the truth, question what has been fed to us as truth, investigate, or even be open-minded enough to listen to what others have to say, the more that our personal and collective courage around the truth is multiplied, amplified, strengthened and supported.

These Fire Commissioners are speaking out on behalf of their friends, colleagues and those who lost their lives. Ultimately, however, they’re speaking out on behalf of all of us, because we are all affected by decisions and actions that were, and are, justified by conditions that are planned and orchestrated then fed to us in a false way.

The Fire Commissioners’ call for a new investigation should be the leading story on all channels but it looks like only the alternative media are covering it. The majority of people have been under the illusion that the media are there to inform us. With mainstream media, that’s not the case. Today only FIVE corporations own 90% of US media (news and entertainment). Everyone under that umbrella is told what to say, what not to say, what to publish, what narrative to spin. It is a machine to influence social thought and behavior. It hides truths much more than it tells truth.

“Events and stories are manipulated and repressed more regularly than we know, portrayed in a way to provide maximum television impact and encourage minimum social action and debate not in alignment with the agendas of the elite. Rather than serving the public interest of ‘right to know’, they instead serve the media’s need to make a profit, the corporate sponsor’s need to ensure information shown doesn’t conflict with their sales, profits and reputation, and the government’s need to retain control and influence.

The book Into the Buzzsaw: Leading journalists expose the myth of a free press is a plethora of mind-boggling accounts from respected well-known journalists, detailing how state and corporate interference has resulted in the muzzling of their stories. It is important to highlight, they are not talking about mere influence or preference being exerted on them, but what seems to be direct interference and pressure with uncomfortable consequences if not adhered to.”

Excerpt from A New Chapter, Dana Mrkich (2008)

Thankfully these days there are loads of alternatives from huge alternative news sites and youtube channels, to regular people posting links and stories on social media. Obviously, always use your discretion.

Turn up your Light!!

~~~~~~~~~

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recommendedlisten · 5 years

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It was a week that belonged to the underground and beyond, with Western Mass dark wave duo Boy Harsher soundtracking ice cold climates astutely with their sophomore effort Careful leading the way as the latest Recommended Listen. DIY indie scene cheerleader Emily Reo also returned with a sweet pop anthem that rallied against toxic masculinity, rising emo rapper brought relational truths to light while resting with his roots on the latest glimpse into his highly anticipated effort Suffer On as a world over, Belgian post-metal et. als BRUTUS ushered in a “War” as a means to restore balance to chaos. It wasn’t all bleak, however, as experimental dance producer Octo Octa sought out strength in connection to get through these trying times in her latest single. Visual treats were in abundant as well, as Tamaryn drifted through the smoke and mirrors of alternative realities, Potty Mouth broke down the constructs of time. PUP traveled it 40 years into the future, and Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of their Better Oblivion Community Center.

Here’s the best of the rest from the week of January 27th, 2019…

Cass McCombs - “Absentee” [ANTI-]

“Absentee” is the final official preview off Cass McCombs’ new album Tip of the Sphere, due out on February 8th. Unlike its predecessors in international genre-hopping influence “Sleeping Volcanoes” and “Estrella” as well as the shaggy rustic rock folk tale “The Great Pixley Train Robbery”, the listen eases back into the waltzing pseudo-blues smoothness of the songwriting great’s craft while adding a small flourish in between the slumbering piano and organ hum with an undercurrent sax line. The song arrives with a great accompanying visual, directed by Lydia Greer and Caryl Kientz of Facing West Shadow Theatre, who -- along with McCombs -- cast shadows and don masks in small curtain form to tell a story based around McCombs ruminations of British, colonialist absentee landlords during the Irish Potato Famine. If you can’t wait until next Friday to hear the whole album, NPR is streaming it in full in advance.

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Field Medic - “Henna Tattoo” [Run for Cover Records]

The San Francisco alt-country DIYist Kevin Patrick, b.n.a. Field Medic, signed with indie tastemakers Run for Cover Records back in 2017, and released a collection of songs from his prolific catalog on the introductory compilation Songs from a Sunroom that same year. He’s readying his first proper album for the label, fade into the dawn, due out on April 19th, and what’s charming about “Henna Tattoo”, the first listen off the LP, is how close to his original, humbled design of songwriting he stays in its lo-fi fixtures. Tape hiss rests beneath its recurrent chords progression and heart-skip programmed beat. Still, Patrick’s voice sees its way through with a clarity in vulnerability in this a new age cowboy love song. “Your eyes close slow like / Poppies in starlight / And I feel your breath / White paper fan,” his descriptiveness pinpoints every memory with undeniable sincerity. “You’re my love, can’t you see? / I’m your man / Tell me, when you’re seeing me, you’re seeing it.” To not would be the definition of blind.

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HEALTH - “FEEL NOTHING” [Loma Vista]

Next Friday, Los Angeles noise enigmas HEALTH will release the fourth studio effort VOL. 4 :: SLAVES OF FEAR. Leading up to its release, they’ve warmed up listeners with a slew of collaborative singles with the likes of electronic producers NOLIFE and Perturbator, Soccer Mommy and Youth Code that helped give some idea of the stylistic range they were working toward, later revealed through the album’s official previews in its pseudo title track and “STRANGE DAYS (1999)”. The final glimpse into HEALTH’s latest comes by way of Adult Swim’s 2018 Singles series. It’s called “FEEL NOTHING”, and unlike the industrial crush of its predecessors, careens around the static guillotines in their soundboard in a way that punctuates Jake Duzsik’s numbed vocal dissonance.Their fearful presence will make itself known regardless come this spring when they head out on a massive world tour, with their U.S. leg bringing along collaborators Youth Code for the ride.

Jackie Mendoza - “De Lejos” [Luminelle Recordings]

Jackie Mendoza is a name that will likely spark intrigue in the musical universe in 2019. The San Diego-based singer-songwriter is of Mexican descent, and uses Latin music influences on guitar and percussion interwoven with a water sprocket ASMR-style of electronic art-pop. The fusion makes her latest single -- which she heralds as a “ukulele ballad” -- in “De Lejos” a sensory-opening experience. Even if you’re not fluent n the Spanish language, you can hear the longing in her echoed voice as she sings of missing her partner over long distances It should also be mentioned that the song alongside her forthcoming EP, due out later this year on the world beat label Lumenelle Recordings, were produced by Rusty Santos, who worked with Panda Bear’s classic Person Pitch as well as his forthcoming effort Buoys.

De Lejos by Jackie Mendoza

Nudie Mag - Demo 2019 [Triple B Records]

These pages have grown accustom to the Boston label Triple B Records releasing some of the best dial-shifting hardcore going right now. Sometimes what they put out is more so hardcore-adjacent than it is fit for the pit, however, as is the case with their latest signee Nudie Mag. The California trio is spearheaded by Colin Young, frontman for the brutal metalcore darlings Twitching Tongues and guitarist for the equally destructive unit God’s Hate, though Nudie Mag is where he flexes his pop chops the hardest on their three-song Demo 2019, with their sound being more indebted to Buddy Holly and the Nerves style of the perfect power-pop hook if it were ran through a grater and had all of its impeccable hooks ground down to grungy bits of a feedback. It’s loud and heavy with its dueling boy-girl harmonies, and hits you hard in the heart.

Demo 2019 by Nudie Mag

Stella Donnelly - “Lunch” [Secretly Canadian]

It was only a few short weeks ago that we were introduced to Stella Donnelly, the Australian singer-songwriter who mends together melancholy indie-pop with sharp, brave lyricism, just as she did on “Old Man”, the lead single from her debut full-length Beware of the Dogs, due out on March 8th. She’s already following that listen up with its latest preview, a song she refers to as her “favourite song on the record.” It’s beautiful in its simplicity, as it centers around Donnelly;s range in making an entry with hesitation before it eventually let’s go, lifts off above ground level and ultimately drifts away. It’s sound reflects the disconnect aptly as well as acoustic strums fold into strings, kickdrums and twinkling keys. “And I get homesick before I go away,” she long sighs in its chorus, all-knowing that what she’ll find when she returns from her long journey often means relearning her “old” life. Unfortunately for Donnelly, she’ll have to bare through that feeling for a little longer, as she’ll be touring the globe over starting this March.

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#the best of the rest #cass mccombs #field medic #health #jackie mendoza #nudie mag #stella donnelly #Songs #new music & videos

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