#its the perfect thing for weak liberals to attach to

[coyoxxtl]

tumblr centrist liberals stop acting like voting is the most influential and important political activity you can participate in challenge

#me donating to mutual aid posts on tumblr and donating esims to people in gaza has done worlds more influence than any vote i ever did #people who risk their lives in protests do more than voting #i firmly believe that #this isnt a Voting is Pointless post this is Voting is the Barest Minimum #voting is easy. when there’s no outside barriers its so fucking easy. #you fill in a card and call it a day. its easy to feel like you made a difference when all you did is fill in some dots. #yall barely even follow up on who you vote for or even Care if the people you vote for fail you #its the perfect thing for weak liberals to attach to #treat it like the be all end all with activism and you have the easiest get out of real political action card #no need to get your hands dirty if you did all you needed to #as someone who DOES vote. voting is the easiest political thing i engage with. everything else is a risk. or at least a sacrifice. #voting is barely anything to me. i dont feel like i do Anything with it. but donating. making political art. THATS something. thats REAL. #i would go to big protests if i lived somewhere with them #like i understand. wanting voting to be enough. im a heavily depressed bitch who feels like they cant engage with anything big or important #i know tumblr is full of those types. yall dont want to do anything. yall dont want to be uncomfortable or upset or anything negative. #personal comfort above all else. thats what tumblr is. thats what centrist liberals are. there’s no real desire to break out- #of the comfort zone or status quo respectively. yall are scared to get Involved. and i am too. but with how current events are going… #i can see that i don’t want to be that anymore. i know i need to be more than that. its hard and risky but i Need to. #and so do yall. yall NEED to engage with activism outside of voting. or you’re doing nothing. #txt

[steak-n-popotoes]

FFxivWrite '23 - 23

Stress and anxiety charged a constant electric surge through Caranar's body.

Never had he foreseen anything like this.

Still he felt that familiar instinct to look over his shoulder while he still could - to spot the thief in the night, the knife in the back, the blood in the wine, the pitfall, the curveball, the trick, the hitch, the catch.

When you've spent so long being toyed with by fate, the one outcome you can never have faith in is a happy ending.

Really.

Liberating two nations, no strings attached? Burying that bastard Zenos, completely unscathed?

And now this? Things were going too well. He was too happy. Overindulgent in his joy; there had to be a reckoning.

"You have got to relax," L'kozu scolded, "you've already sweat through the undershirt and if it reaches the jacket it will show through."

Caranar shuffled under the formal attire. He knew it was important to Eryna, and he had to admit he was feeling swept up in the ceremony of it all, but that didn't mean he liked wearing the suit any more than he would have were it for some stuffy political banquet.

L'kozu held their stern silence while they inspected the vest for any loose threads or other imperfections. They found none, of course. "If Beef can deal with it, you can."

"Are you kidding? Beef loves playing dress-up." The flower boy had been twirling in his skirts from the moment Kozu had shown him how to get them on. "The suit's nothing. Well, it's great, I mean. It looks great-"

"Then what's actually bothering you?" Kozu asked. They stopped fussing over Caranar and fixed their eyes on his.

Sweat continued to bead along Caranar's brow under the shadow of his tamed hair. Of course they could tell.

Caranar struggled to coax words from his lips.

"It's just... I feel like I can't-"

A rush from within raced through his mind, forcing him from it. Oh gods. This was it.

"Caranar? You can't what? What's wrong?" The sensation of L'kozu taking his hand and bracing his shoulder reached Caranar from across the divide.

His stress turned to panic as that damned pain spiked into his skull again. He knew it couldn't last. He cursed all the gods he knew as he was stricken by their blessing.

A vision of the future danced before his senses.

Sweat rolled down his brow as he reentered the room. L'kozu had given him the boot, knowing he wouldn't be able to contain his anxiety.

They slipped past, returning to the bedside, and spoke to its occupant in a low, soothing tone.

Though he was only mere steps away, Caranar couldn't hear what they said. He had miles to cross before he was there himself.

"Caranar?" came Eryna's voice, exhausted and weak.

Suddenly he was standing alongside the curtain.

"I let him know." L'kozu said. "He's right here, Eryna."

Eryna reached a hand out for Caranar's, which he took gently in his own. His eyes were locked on the bundle in L'kozu's arms.

Before he could protest or shy away, L'kozu responded by holding the little thing out for Caranar to take. He cradled it - cradled her - in his other arm, close to his heart. Dark hair was curled around long ears atop her head, and a few soft, dark scales mottled her arms, legs and face.

"So much of the world to see, yet they're both already asleep." L'kozu said. "Asleep, but in perfect health." they added. "I suspect their first bath was more excitement than they were prepared for."

L'kozu's words reached Caranar from within his daze. "Both?"

He tore himself away from the newborn he held to look up at L'kozu, who then nodded to Eryna.

Cradled against her was another sleeping baby, a mirror image of the first.

Caranar felt a swell within his breast; warmth spreading to every edge of his being.

"Twins. A boy and a girl." said Eryna, breathless. "Like Alphinaud and Alisaie."

"Delivered without a hitch. You've earned some rest yourself, Eryna."

Caranar had no words. He still couldn't believe it had come true.

There was wet upon Caranar's cheeks as he returned to the present.

He had been moved to a chair with his collar and neckerchief undone as L'kozu held a cold compress to his head. His best man looked him over with unguarded concern.

"Are you alright? Was it the Echo?"

Caranar struggled to compose himself, and ultimately failed. Tears fell unhindered onto white silk. "It-it was."

"What did you see that was so sad?"

Sad? Caranar thought, was he sad? Caranar searched the vision for some angle, some hidden tragedy. Healthy, Kozu had said. Without a hitch. No matter how he tried, he could find none. Yet each drop fell after the other.

"No... it was nothing." He sniffed loudly. That vision, the sensation of holding his own child he still felt in his arms and within his breast, he clung to as it burned white-hot amidst all of the other dark and miserable glimpses of the future he had endured over the course of his life. It was for him, and him alone. It burned bright enough to chase the shadows away.

"It's alright." Caranar said. "I'm alright."

~~~~~

Though many would have given anything for the right to claim they were present when the Warriors of Light were wed (a right which was oft exercised by the youngest son of House Fortemps), L'kozu and Tataru had flexed quite a lot of power in ensuring the ceremony was attended by close friends and family only.

On one side were seated Eryna's relatives, while the other was filled out by the Scions and their associates. Beef was sitting with Popola and Renaud whenever he wasn't gleefully scattering flower petals; Popola bouncing in her seat with excitement while Renaud slumped in his chair looking annoyed that her attention was somewhere else. Thancred was inconspicuously holding his head, still reeling from the previous night's festivities. Alphinaud was busy assisting L'kozu with directing while Alisaie, Y'mhitra, and maid of honor Y'shtola were off with Eryna and the rest of her bridesmaids. Representing the Steppe was Cirina of the Mol, who looked a mite overwhelmed as she placed an ornate stringed instrument at a table loaded down with gifts for the bride and groom. Those with sharp eyes even insist that the Azure Dragoon himself was spotted lingering against a wall at the back of the venue.

Caranar's tears threatened to spill over once more throughout the ceremony, pausing only briefly to laugh when he saw Sidurgu stuffed into a suit himself, sitting with his arms crossed while a halo of moogles harassed him overhead. Rielle carried herself with smug poise as the ring bearer, no doubt aware of Sid's plight.

The brief reprieve came to an end when Eryna approached the altar escorted by her father, and Caranar's emotions struck again with strength tenfold.

Eryna, on the other hand, had spent the day certain she would not cry and ruin the effort her bridesmaids had poured into her appearance, but found that resolve sorely tested when she beheld her groom wearing the tear-stained tuxedo L'kozu had drafted and tailored for him. His usual charming, stoic self she had been prepared for, but this... smiling through his outpouring of love, of feeling. It was so unlike him. Vulnerable and free.

They shared the same wishes for their life together as they shared a kiss.

#FFxivWrite2023 #FFxivWrite #Caranar #L'kozu #Eryna Spellgrave #Beef Broganoff #Renaud-Elouan Cledwyn #Popola sil Pola

[thyandrawrites]

Things that hit different after Touya's backstory reveal

I gotta give credit where credit is due. MVA is one of the best and most well written arcs of the series not because it's villain focused but because Horikoshi truly built it well. There's a lot of foiling going on and each League member gets a turn at being confronted by their shadow, or in other words, by a certain narrative they're trying to reject. For Toga, it's the idea that she's a deviant, someone whose "normal" isn't normal for everyone else. For Spinner, it's the fact that he's weak on his own and can only lend support to others. And for Dabi, it's the desperation to prove the worth of his quirk to someone who wants to exploit it for their own gain. But this scene in particular really hits different now:

when you have the full context for it. Before the reveal, the most commonly accepted theory concerning Touya's "death" was a training accident. Basically, the result of Endvr pushing him too hard. So the foiling with Geten worked, but not 100%. You saw Geten's desperation to prove his worth to an army that just considers him a pawn and thought: well, for Dabi the training had to be a duty. Surely, there was never a point in time where Touya decided to train on his own in order to satisfy his abuser's wishes and make him proud.

Right?

Well, Hori says. Think again.

And the foiling doesn't even stop there, but it's also told in the small details. For example, it's the fact that Geten had enough of an emotional attachment to Redestro to unlock a power up of his quirk in order to be helpful, to be of assistance to Redestro in times of need.

… In a fashion that's not too dissimilar to how Touya unlocked the blue flames in a highly emotional situation where he just wanted to prove useful to his father.

Another prominent aspect of the foiling between those two is the pressure to achieve perfection and how much it shaped their whole life. Those who get to sit at the top of the Liberation Army are held to a standard of “worthiness” and strength that's frankly inhumane. And they're asked to keep it up to avoid "disappointing" their boss, because, hint hint nudge nudge, they'd be replaced. We can infer this from a number of hints:

It's the fact that Skeptic frenetically insists that he only ever failed once, and then promptly tries to turn his shortcoming into a chance to succeed and make Redestro proud again.

This insane standard of perfection is also shown in Geten's words:

If you don't have a strong enough superpower to be of use to the cause, then your existence is as good as meaningless. Sounds familiar, yet?

To Touya, his life lost all its purpose when he was tossed away, because Endvr held all his children to the impossible standard of carrying his ambition without any “imperfections”:

And being unable to meet it meant being worthless. Cause again, for pre-atonement Endvr and the Meta Liberation Army, “a person's only worth lies in the strength of their superpowers.” As further emphasized by the way Geten's words directly parallel Endvr's mindset.

So when Dabi reacts with homicidal rage to Geten's taunts, he's not just reacting to the umpteenth reminder of his status as a “failed masterpiece”. He's also rejecting the naivety of his past self, and of that boyish wish to please his father that never quite got fully overwritten

So basically... chapeau, Hori. You got me there. Well done foreshadowing only hits you at your second reread, and I have to admit that mva really delivers on that front

#bnha #bnha spoilers #bnha meta #meta:dabi #geten #my post

[kindaeccentric]

When I was writing my university bachelor's degree thesis (that I'm still to defend) about Penny Dreadful as a modern adaptation of Frankenstein I noticed how the original novel's homoeroticism is realized by the series in an interesting way.

In the way he is presented, it seems to me that Victor secretly desires men, but thinks that only through creating a perfect one by himself he's allowed to touch other man's skin. His endeavour to pierce the veil between life and death is an excuse, since Victor from the series grew up lonely after the death of his mother and he searches for companionship, for someone who would love him unconditionally, like his mother used to. He believes he can find such love only in a person he creates himself, brings from the dead, and who would see him as his only friend, calm and obedient. Yet his first instinct is to make a man, not a woman, and a handsome man at that.

I can imagine both Rory Kinnear and Alex Price are not everybody's cup of tea (I do find them attractive, they are quite charismatic), but the way the original Creature and Proteus are shown makes them attractive. Proteus we see through Victor's eyes, when he is tending to his body before its even reanimated, when he sketches him (a sure sign of affection) and when he teaches him how to eat in a way that becomes seductive, because of how the camera lingers on his lips and then, in a closeup, on his fingers running down his long throat, immediately bringing to mind erotic imagery. Some may argue that Victor tries to emulate the relationship between his mother and himself taking the parental role and projecting onto Proteus the role of his childhood self, and as much as it is partially true, their relationship bears these marks of hidden desire on Victor's part from the start. The image at the end of the first episode when Proteus is born shows Victor trembling, teary-eyed, looking at the body, a torn and stitched back together, but human body, of a naked man. He's afraid, but not necessarily of the man, but of finally getting what he wanted, it's a fear resulting from excitement. Then the man is touching his face tenderly and Victor, still trembling, cannot stop himself from a little smile. Their faces are softly illuminated by the orange light of the gas lamp, creating an intimate atmosphere of a warm bedroom. Victor practically gasps hearing his own name smoken by Proteus. I doubt all of it was intentional in the way I read it, but it doesn't change the fact that the final scene can be easily interpreted this way.

Then the original Creature, with the violence surrounding his return, presents him as highly masculine, smart, powerful, a direct opposite to the delicate, clueless Proteus Victor could easily form into whatever he wanted. The Creature throughout the entire series is perceived as ugly by some and easily tolerated by others, making his ugliness purely subjective, since, despite his small deformities he remains strangely alluring with his gothic qualities (black long hair, black lips, white skin, yellow eyes, proportional features) of a dark brooding gentleman. With blood on his face he becomes vampire-like (vampires always a symbol of hidden desires and 'depraved' sexuality, the Creature and Victor becoming a mirror image of Vanessa and vampire Mina, both Creature's and Mina's monstrosity an indirect result of Victor's and Vanessa's desire towards having a same-sex companion). The Creature touches Victor's face, a callback to Proteus doing it, but the Creature is not gentle, he smears blood all over Victor's face (blood in vampire narratives was always a symbol for other bodily fluids, that's why it seems so sexy, it also gained another meaning in the 80s, due to the HIV epidemic, which no filmmaker can shake off if they tried, I could discuss it more with The Lost Boys, but no time for that right now).

The dynamic between Victor and the Creature is a reversal of Victor's budding relationship with Proteus, experience winning over innocence. Victor is under another man's rule, and it terrifies him, because it would force him into a position of having to admit his attraction, whereas as the one in control he could have still easily deny it. The Creature, with all his attributes, symbolizes carnal love, he's all 'body', where Proteus was virginal, pious love (to an extent). In one of the scenes where we see Proteus he looks up into the skylight at Victor's apartment and appears angelic, as if in a halo of white light.

It's revealed Victor never had a woman, and the series wants the viewer to believe it's because of his awkwardness and passion for science that consumed him, but his dedication to creating himself male companions instead of searching for a living female one is exactly what makes him seem more queer coded.

It's clear that the lack of paternal figure results in Victor quickly becoming close with older men he encounters (Sir Malcolm, Van Helsing), but it also puts him into a position where he's constantly surrounded by men, with whom he feels more at ease, and is intimidated by women. The rivalry between him and Ethan is that of siblings, until the moment when Ethan teaches him how to shoot a gun. It might be a stretch (it is a bit of a stretch, I admit), but a gun often, especially in horror, alongside a knife, represents manhood and masculine power. Victor allows Ethan to touch him and encourages him to show off with the gun, which is a scene all too familiar from many other movies where the role of Victor is reserved for a woman and the interaction is flirtatious (can't pull examples out of thin air, but if you saw over 1400 movies like me you know I'm not lying). All this adds to the general image of Victor.

The Creature and Victor, when they are on a walk, have a very revealing conversation in which the Creature points out how quick Victor was to grow attached to his more perfect man, and Victor doesn't deny it, he admits that he did in fact feel affection towards Proteus, although the meaning of it as the scorned past partner expressing jealousy over the love he didn't get while someone else did is largely subtext. When the Creature says that he's lonely, Victor answers 'I cannot love you' (paraphrase, because I can't find the exact quote right now) and the Creature, disillusioned, mocks him, 'I do not want what you cannot give' suggesting that Victor, by making himself a meek obedient man, is selfish, cruel, manipulating, and a coward, therefore could not have loved Proteus truly. Then again, Victor cannot bring himself to love his original Creature, because he's not the ideal man he envisioned and by then the Creature being too aware of his flaws of character. The Creature/Caliban/John Clare knows that Victor is 'monstrous', not just because he's someone who desecrates dead bodies, plays God and abandons his creation, but because of his queer desire. It's important that in the case of Penny Dreadful 'monstrosity' signifies many different things, literal (being a vampire werewolf, witch, and so on), metaphorical (bad deeds, like letting your son die a horrible death, cheating, killing etc.) and wholy subjective, merely condemned by ignorant society (Sembene's blackness, Brona's sex work, Lily's want to be equal or greater than men, Vanessa's want for sexual freedom, the Creature's ugliness, Angelique being transgender and other cases), so it's NOT that much of a stretch this time.

We also have the whole problem with Lily. Victor is so attached to Lily (who takes up both Elizabeth's and creature's bride parts in the novel) because he believes that only by possessing a good woman he'll be redeemed for his 'sinful' desires, but he's foolish to think that. This belief reduces a woman to a semi-maternal, semi-virginal angelic ideal with no sexual urges or agency, like virgin Mary. Lily is a true replacement for Victor's mother, and his imagined redemption. As long as she's similar to Proteus, in that she's not sexual, and pure like an angel. Yet Lily is not a woman in that sense. She is another of Victor's creatures, so she partially also takes over the role of the original Creature from the novel, a male. She's not an ideal of a Victorian obedient wife, she has power, or tries to have it, but power in the context of patriarchal society is masculine by nature. The moment she drops her pretenses of a weak delicate wife-like girl Victor does not want her like this. He doesn't want a woman that is sexually liberated, because he doesn't like women in this way, and yet, by being similar to the first Creature (from Victor's perspective, from hers John Clare is similar to Victor-a man, I could delve into Brona's sexuality, but later, this thing is already way longer than I intended) she's 'the man' he wanted.

There is also Henry. Henry Jekyll takes the role of his namesake in the novel, Henry Clerval, Victor's closest friend, and a character most often cited to have homoerotic tension with Victor. It's true that some of the eroticism might be accidental, stemming from the prevalence of homosocial interactions in 'Frankenstein' which in turn is a result of misogynistic nature of 19th century Genevian society and in-novel universe reflecting it, but like I mentioned before, it still feeds into the queer reading of the text and translates beautifully into Jekyll and Victor being both extremely misogynistic towards Lily and their mutual homoerotic tension. In the scenes where Henry purposes his plan to Victor he practically seductively purrs it into his ear, Lily becomes merely a female buffer that allows for that interaction, a female presence which is an excuse for male closeness (here I have a couple of examples actually: Dead Ringers, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Scream (in a roundabout way, through murder) and a couple others, but that deserves its own article). I won't even mention more references to the novel, because that's a lot already.

Penny Dreadful, although I believe largely unintentionally, expands on what is already there through the changes it introduces in relation to the novel's plot. I have nothing else smart to say, I just think it's worth considering.

*I use the word 'queer', because that's the umbrella term we use in academic writing for years now and even our lgbt+ group at university is called 'queer', so don't come at me with stupid takes

#Penny Dreadful #queer readings #Frankenstein #Victor Frankenstein #lily frankenstein

[class1akids]

Idk if this is unpopular but I think quirk singularity is a dumb plot device. What is the need for it in the story?

I feel the opposite - I think Quirk Singularity is absolutely necessary at this point to make the OFA-AFO plot at least somewhat interesting. 

1. Let’s recap what is quirk singularity?

Quirk singularity means that (1) with each generation powers become more complex and stronger (2) this means quirk will be more difficult to control, since the human body doesn't evolve quickly enough to keep up (3)  there will come a point when Quirks will become too overpowered and complicated, and no one will be able to control them anymore.

Basically, quirk singularity puts a limit on the power a single person can hold and poses an interesting and complex ultimate threat at the level of society that relies on ever-increasing powers to solve its problems. How can you solve the problem with more power if more power is the problem itself?

2. How the limits quirk singularity presented manifest in the story and why they are important?

Powers having a drawback is essential for good the story-telling. There is nothing more boring than characters who are so powerful that they can always do whatever they want, there is no real danger, real stakes and at most they are inconvenienced from using their power. It’s difficult to put such characters in suspenseful or dramatic scenarios where the audience really feel that they may lose or fail.

So in the BNHA universe, generally, all people have a single quirk. All these quirks are limited in some way or have some built-in drawbacks:

- Top-level quirk with versatility, but still with soft upper limits (there is always a plus ultra at a price), the holder’s personality flaws lead to self-sabotage (e.g. Bakugou, Endeavor)

- Top level quirk with versatility and no hard upper limit, but the holder can’t fully wield it unless they overcome underlying trauma linked to the power itself (e.g. Todoroki)

- Top power-level quirk with a single ultimate weakness (Hawks, Tokoyami, Aizawa) or the use of which starts a cooldown period (Kaminari) or the power is limited for stockpile resource (Eri, Momo)

- Mid-level powers that can do one thing really well (Kirishima, Iida, Mina) or more support nature powers that are versatile but do not have a lot of raw output attached to fragile users (Froppy, Jirou)

- low-level powers.

But the Top Good (OFA) and Top Evil (AFO) are not limited to a single power - they can acquire multiple powers. 

AFO’s power limitation is how much quirks his body can absorb. As evidenced by the existence of the nomu - multiple powers usually come at the price of losing one’s humanity. But luckily for AFO, he has Evil Scientist as sidekick, who can find a way around this problem by evil sciencing (modifying a body to create hosts for AFOs upgrades).

OFA is a power that started out weak and has been built through generations through self-sacrifice to reach the point where it could compete with AFO, but not quite eliminate it (All Might era). 

Without quirk singularity, this battle of evil and good would continue forever without stakes until AFO and OFA-users are chucking planets at each other, but now OFA has reached it’s full potential and the tipping point where it cannot be transferred anymore, creating a now-or-never situation to defeat AFO. 

This puts the protagonist under some pressure and creates some stakes. If he can’t win, everyone is doomed. (Unfortunately we already know that Deku will not fail because it’s stated in Chapter 1, so it’s not exactly the biggest suspense, but better than nothing)

3. How could quirk singularity apply better to OFA ?

So we saw with AFO, how quirk singularity is a real barrier to his continuous power-ups. Failed nomu, the damage to Tomura’s body, the mental problems caused by the quirk upgrades are all interesting limits. 

In contrast, OFA’s limits I think were not very well handled. Especially, because of who Deku is as a protagonist. 

His goal is to become like All Might - the hero who was the ultimate Deus ex Machina of the universe, so powerful that he inadvertedly created a terrrible system reliant on that incredible power of a single person. Deku is trying to follow in his footsteps.  

So where lies Deku’s conflict or challenge or limitation?

He’s morally perfect - already surpassing All Might in character from the start (as evidenced by his positive influence on people All Might failed, including All Might himself). He has no conflict as regards his goal - he’s not a reluctant chosen one - his goal is aligned with the power and legacy he gets. His power is a stronger version of All Might’s. So logically, he should be able to do everything alone that All Might could. 

So the limit doesn’t lie in Deku’s character, nor in the goal, nor in the power. So where is it? 

Because of quirk singularity, OFA has become more difficult to handle than it was at All Might’s time, which in the beginning gives Deku all kinds of limitaitons and broken bones, that he could only solve by lowering his power-output. He had to nerf himself to be able to continue. 

This is a good limitation, but unfortunately the story didn’t deliver so far on the consequences. While in the Muscular fight Deku permanently damages his arms, this damage didn’t really hold him back so far in a credible way. He wins against Overhaul with the biggest plot-device ever (Eri-backpack), and he manages to smash ShigarAFO endlessly without much visible harm. 

Also, because of “plot”, OFA underwent an evolution where it opened up the actual quirks of the previous users to Deku. This was in my view a very bad development, that made Deku less interesting. Suddenly, he had all these extra powers for free (so far neither Black Whip, nor Float came with any drawback whatsoever) that means:

- he can do everything better than other characters, making their niche powers redundant and sucking the oxygen out of their arcs (how could a Sero, Froppy or Uraraka fight look cool now that Deku can do all that but better and on a grander scale)? He has the most power, the most speed, long range, short range, snare, flight - basically the best of everything.

- he has a convenient tool for everything that gets him out of every situation and makes it so that the consequences he suffered because of OFA-singularity to his body don’t apply anymore - he could use Black Whip as a brace and continue smashing with broken arms, and even when his body was broken, he could help Todoroki with his tongue (unlike before in the Forest, when Bakugou was kidnapped).

These upgrades don’t come from any personal development or growth, but all come from OFA’s evolution. Deku also doesn’t struggle much with the extra powers (masters Black Whip in a week and Float instantenously - with some pre-training). 

Plus, in the latest chapters his quirklessness has been retconned into making him the perfect vessel, pretty much abandoning the physical consequences as a limit to OFA singularity. Whatever damage his body sustains is always repairable or can be overcome with new gizmos or using the extra quirks. 

So did multi-quirk OFA ruin the OFA plot irrevocably?

I think it did a lot of damage to Deku as a character (no growth, no conflict, no clear story-reason why he should be his own hero relying on others rather than still wanting to be an upgraded All Might-god), and to the story overall, by trivializing and making useless other characters who we as audience were invested in. Seeing everyone becoming nothing but fodder sucks big time in my view. 

But I think there could still be interesting things be done with OFA due to quirk singularity. As we’ve seen with Shigaraki and the nomu - multiple quirks come with a price to be paid not only physically, but also mentally. 

So far Deku is not paying any price for it though. All the extra quirks have come without drawbacks. Danger Sense has the potential to start wearing Deku down mentally though - due to sensing the crisis situations but not being able to be everywhere at once and wearing himself out.

Another thing I’d like to see is the pain and self-sacrifice of all the previous users taking a toll, as well as finally having some of these randomly chosen people to be not perfect. I think having multiple personalities living in Deku’s head shouldn’t look like a peaceful royal tea party. 

All these users gave up a lot to get Deku here, so I feel like there should be some pressure on him from inside to get the job done or at least some disagreement about Deku’s plan to make nice with Tomura instead of eliminating AFO (remember, it’s the last chance!). So I think maybe whatever chat he had with 2nd and 3rd provided some conflict between the wills of the previous users, resulting in conflicting wishes for Deku. 

All these could lead towards a mental exhaustion or breakdown that could be an interesting moment for Deku as a protagonist and really give him the clarity that repeating history is useless, a solo saviour is not the right answer, but changing the system and empowering everyone else is. 

Since the power-scaling of OFA is already off the charts, I think it would be good to make it hurt more. It should  feel like a terrible mental and physical burden (something like Frodo with the One Ring) to mirror Tomura being suffocated by AFO, so when the two powers destroy each other (which I really hope is the endgame), it will feel cathartic - that giving up and destroying that great power liberates Deku and saves his life so he can continue as a great hero (but scaled back towards the other in-universe top powers) who kept his humanity and his chance of a normal life full of meaningful bonds. 

I’m also wondering how the story will close the society-level quirk singularity plot. One option is that all quirks are somehow tied to AFO (it being the original source) so AFO’s destruction leads to the elimination or gradual decline of all quirks - which would be cohrerent with Deku being the “greatest” - he would hold the peak power at peak quirk level. 

Or it may be left unresolved, leaving the door open for a sequel where the ultimate “evil” is quirk singularity doomsday itself. 

#bnha meta #bnha endgame speculation #ofa #midoirya izuku #quirk singularity #afo #ofa plot

[randomvarious]

SWV - “Right Here” 18 Top Hits 1/94 Song released in 1993. Compilation released in 1994. R&B

The first wave of R&B girl groups in the 90s was dominated by three separate entities: first, there was En Vogue, who were responsible for starting the whole craze, and then came TLC, who were then followed by SWV. And since this is a post that’s gonna be littered with a bunch of fun, little trivia nuggets, here’s your first one: SWV, which is an acronym for Sisters With Voices, originally wanted to call themselves TLC, based on the first initials of their three members, Tamara, Leanne, and Cheryl. But they received a cease & desist letter from Epic Records, who had the TLC name locked up for the soon-to-be sensational Atlanta trio that was on their own roster. And so, Tamara, Leanne, and Cheryl begrudgingly settled on calling themselves SWV instead.

They began in 1988 in New York with two members, Leanne and Cheryl, who both sang at church, and were in search for a third girl to finish out the group. After going through auditions, they chose Tamara, who, according to a Rolling Stone article, was really shy and originally would only sing with the lights off. The three girls also donned stage names. Leanne would be Lelee, Cheryl would be Coko, and Tamara would be Taj. As a quirk, they sent out demo tapes with bottles of Perrier because they couldn’t afford to send champagne. They would end up catching the ear of legendary producer, as well as the father of the new jack swing fad, Teddy Riley (more on him later), and he would end up getting SWV inked to a ridiculously terrible eight-album contract, which the group never completely fulfilled. But at least they got themselves signed to a major, right?

In 1992, SWV released their debut album, It’s About Time, with most of the production coming from a guy named Brian Alexander Morgan. Morgan has gone on to produce, remix, write, and arrange for a bunch of music superstars, including Usher, Drake, Wu-Tang Clan, Mariah Carey, and Ariana Grande. But his first big opportunity came from...right here...with SWV’s debut album.

In fact, it was “Right Here” that would kick things off for SWV, becoming the group’s first single, before their debut album ended up hitting the shelves. But here’s where it might get a little confusing. That first single isn’t the version of “Right Here” that everyone would end up remembering SWV for. Actually, almost no one remembers the original version of “Right Here,” which is an excellent song on its own. Morgan laced his new jack swing beat with organ, electric guitar, and ringing bells that remind us of Run-D.M.C.’s “Peter Piper” and Snap!’s “The Power,” which both trace back to Bob James’ “Take Me to the Mardi Gras”. And Taj raps, too!

The original version of “Right Here” would peak at #92 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #16 on the R&B/Hip Hop chart. The next pair of SWV singles, “I’m So Into You” and “Weak” would fare much better, both reaching the top ten on Billboard’s Hot 100, with “Weak” going all the way to #1. These singles would then set the stage for the release of a new version of “Right Here,” the one everyone knows and loves, which is credited as a Teddy Riley remix, and was fresh for the summer of 1993. It’s commonly dubbed as the “Human Nature Mix” because of its liberal sampling of the Michael Jackson song off Thriller. That particular mix would also feature on the Free Willy soundtrack, which would also contain and lead with Michael Jackson’s “Will You Be There”. 

(Another famous sampling of “Human Nature” would happen in 1994, too, with Nas’ “It Ain’t Hard to Tell,” which was produced by Large Professor. Now, you could be thinking that the “Human Nature Mix” might’ve provided some inspiration for Large Pro to conjure up that particular beat, but as it turns out, “It Ain’t Hard to Tell” was actually recorded in ‘92.)

So here’s the coolest piece of trivia you’ll run into today. Know who’s delivering that catchy “ess, double, you, vee” line throughout the “Human Nature Mix”? Pharrell. And it’s his first vocal credit, ever! One day, he was performing in a high school talent show with his R&B group, The Neptunes (not his production project with Chad Hugo), and guess who was in the audience? Teddy Riley! Riley’s studio just so happened to sit next to Pharrell’s high school. How’s that for luck? Pharrell would end up writing Riley’s verse on Wreckx-N-Effect’s old school hip hop summer classic, “Rump Shaker,” and the following year he was on the “Human Nature Mix”. There’s also a captivating, “give-it-some-time-to-work-itself-out” kind of “UK Remix” of “Right Here” on which Pharrell raps, and in 1996, The Neptunes (now just Pharrell and Hugo) would receive their first production credits for two songs (and an interlude) on SWV’s second album, New Beginning.

And now for something probably even less people know about. Although the “Human Nature Mix” is credited to Teddy Riley, it’s not his work. It’s Brian Alexander Morgan’s, the guy who also produced the original version. Riley’s name was merely attached for marketing purposes only. The label probably thought that if they sold the single as a remix that was made by a production superstar who was using a Michael Jackson song(!), it would move more units than if they said it was by Morgan, which is a name that barely anyone knew. And it seems like the label was correct in its calculus. Even though it didn’t end up hitting #1 (it hit #2), the “Human Nature Mix” remains SWV’s most remembered song, and you can credit it for leading to a re-release of SWV’s debut album, which at that point would add the remix, and would help generate over two million copies sold.

And come to think of it, how many songs can you name in which the remix ended up becoming far more popular than the original version? Before the advent of EDM, anyway. And “Ignition (Remix)” doesn’t count, by the way. That totally misunderstands what a remix is. There’s like a handful of tracks that come to mind: a pair of Amber remixes by Hani and Thunderpuss (”One More Night” and “Sexual (Li Da Di),” respectively), another Thunderpuss remix of “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay” by Whitney Houston, a Latin house remix of Madonna’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” by Pablo Flores and Javier Garza, and of course, Todd Terry’s remix of “Missing” by Everything But the Girl. But the “Human Nature Mix” of “Right Here” might be at the top of the list. Lots of people aren’t even aware of the original’s existence. When you say the words “’Right Here’ by SWV,” everyone just assumes you’re talking about the “Human Nature Mix”. When the song is included on compilations, a lot of times the words “Human Nature” aren’t anywhere to be found, like on this random German comp I have that gathered 18 of the top songs from January of 1994. That’s how much more popular the “Human Nature Mix” is than the original. Let me know if you can think of any other remixes that hold a similar status.

One more thing before I get to the music video. This mix is so different from the original. The original version has a much harder edge and clearly took way more thought and effort to put together than the “Human Nature Mix” since the “Human Nature Mix” primarily just coasts off of the Michael Jackson sample. It doesn’t mean the original’s better though. It’s definitely great, but it’s trapped in the new jack swing era, and for that reason, it doesn’t have the staying power of the “Human Nature Mix”. Sometimes a producer finds something that’s easy enough to cobble together and it just manages to hit really good. That’s definitely the case here. The “Human Nature Mix” is just so fluffy; it was perfect summer radio then and it’s perfect summer radio now. It’s like an R&B counterpart to DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’s “Summertime,” which came out a couple years beforehand. In fact, if I were doing a nostalgic 90s summer mix, I would probably line those tracks up back-to-back (”Rump Shaker” would be somewhere in there, too). There’s just a super relaxing, enjoyable airiness that both songs seem to possess. Oh, and speaking of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, you know who provides the background vocals on Will Smith’s “Men in Black” song? Coko from SWV. Wild, right?

So, anyway, the video. It sucks. It just does. It’s not memorable at all, besides the awkward, intermittent slip-ins of footage of Michael Jackson performing “Human Nature” from his Dangerous tour and some clips of Free Willy swimming and breeching. It’s really a missed opportunity for the group. Apparently, there’s another video without Michael and Free Willy, too, but I can’t find it. It sounds like it’s boring though. Oh well.

The first single off of SWV’s next album (”You’re the One”) would do very well for itself, too, and that album would manage to go platinum. But they’d get lost in the fold soon after, while En Vogue and TLC would end up building much more on their prior success. And TLC would come out on top for the late 90s with songs like “No Scrubs” and “Unpretty”.

SWV made good songs, but they weren’t marketed well, at all. Case in point, your last bit of trivia: Taj was a contestant on Survivor in 2009. No, not Celebrity Survivor. Just regular-ass Survivor. No one knew she was Taj from SWV and she didn’t tell anyone on the show either. This lady helped sell millions of records for fuck’s sake. I guarantee you every contestant on that show knew an SWV song and they had no idea who this woman even was. Isn’t that kind of insane? I mean, SWV were by no means one-hit wonders, and they weren’t super popular for that long, but they were definitely an early 90s R&B staple. Anyway, for what it’s worth, Taj ended up finishing in fourth on Survivor. She’s also married to soon-to-be Hall of Fame running back Eddie George. 

So, there it is. One of the greatest and most popular tunes of the 90s. A song everyone likes that has a lot of fun, interesting facts that surround it. Shame that these girls couldn’t sustain their success for the remainder of the decade, but at least they and Brian Alexander Morgan gave us this indomitable classic.

#r&b #rnb #r&b music #rnb music #r n b #r n b music #rhythm and blues #rhythm n blues #rhythm & blues #music #90s #90s music #90's #90's music #90s r&b #90's r&b #90s rnb #90's rnb #90s r&b music #90's r&b music #90s r n b #90's r n b #90s r n b music #90's r n b music #90s rhythm and blues #90's rhythm and blues #90s rhythm n blues #90's rhythm n blues #90s rhythm & blues #90's rhythm & blues

[heli0s-writes]

Cut

Pairings: Reader x Bucky Barnes Summary: You impulsively make a change. Bucky appreciates it.

Bag of Tricks One-Shots

There was always something about women’s hair that caught Bucky’s attention. 

Perhaps it was the latent memories of his sisters and ma doing their hair every night and fixing it each morning in perfect coiffed rings- something about the smell of hairspray and the curling iron, hot and sizzling, barely burnt into the ether.

Women these days probably didn’t spend as much time on their hair, Bucky thought— but well, maybe they did. The Widow changed her look every few years and The Witch spent quite a while on perfecting those waves. Regardless, he always appreciated when a gal walked by with shiny, long, locks, bouncing against her back.

He often regarded his own hair in the mirror, taking note of its length. He wondered if he should cut it again like in those old pictures, but something about the shortness made him feel insecure and too open. He liked to be covered up now—as a reminder of who he’s become.

The only time he really thought about cutting it for good was when you’d snatch it by the handfuls during a fight. It started off as a mouthy little spat where you threatened to rip out his hair for looking better than yours, then slowly transformed into actual pulling, then a few weeks later you were bold enough to use it against him.

You’d gotten him pretty good, all five fingers deep, and brought him down by slamming him against the wall. The face bruise was nothing compared to the tender welts on his scalp for the next two days.

He didn’t let himself stoop to your level, but it started becoming a signature move for you, and you were ballsy enough to try two hands. Of course, it left the rest of your body wide open and he easily kneed you the hell out of the way.

Bucky always appreciated eagerness, but sometimes you could be such a... pain.

You had pretty gorgeous hair, yourself, Bucky admitted. It was impressive: long, thick, and he couldn’t remember if he’d ever seen you fiddle with it after a shower other than wringing the hell out of it with a rough linen towel. You’d brush it loosely with your fingers and then leave it there. Somehow it dried every time into a beautiful pile of wavy locks that was envied by many female agents. You were smart enough to pull it into a tight bun before a fight, but since there was so much of it, it generally flopped out of the band anyway.

Lately it’s grown so long that it was touching your lower back and getting caught in the damndest places, like car windows and doors and the constantly shifting plates in Bucky’s metal hand. You had gotten so upset when he snagged a few strands during a routine grapple in the spaces of his knuckles; you’d stormed off the mat and slammed the door on the way out. The mental chart in Bucky’s head where he kept tally of how often you baffled him earned another strike.

Half an hour later as the last shot emptied in his pistol, he pulled his earmuffs off to find you leaning against the door, choking as he briefly wondered if he’s hallucinating. Your signature unruly mane had been completely buzzed off and left with a close crop of even dark stubble all around your crown. He couldn’t pinch it between his smallest fingers if he tried.

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah. I know. I got tiny little bits all over me. Let’s go wrestle. I’m so gonna kick your ass.”

“Holy shit.”

You pulled a face somewhere between disgusted and amused. 

“My buzz cut getting you randy or what, dude? Jesus.”

You turned away with a suspicious eye before walking back towards the gym. Bucky easily caught up, lost in thought about how quickly a simple haircut could change not only an appearance, but someone else’s notions.

For example, he first thought about how much he missed the very specific way your hair shimmered under the fluorescent lights of the hallway— a dull shimmer, but it still did. Or how the curve in your waves would flick against your shoulders when you’d brush them out of the way. Or how lately, the tips of your hair would sway along your lower back, threatening to brush up against your bottom.

Your long hair had given you such a strange feminine grace, making all of your movements fluid and enthralling-- beautiful and strong the way ballerinas are.

But suddenly, none of that existed. 

Bucky watched as you marched through the compound, surprised to see, for the first time, that your gait matched his own. People were swerving to the sides of the halls as you walked past, either balking at your lack of locks or your vicious stomping.

When he squared up in the training room, fists raised, he couldn’t help but notice that you had exceptionally thick eyelashes and such sleek and shapely brows. Even the tip of your nose and cheekbones seemed more prominent, and hell, you sported a smattering of barely-there freckles across the side of your left cheek. Bucky thought they looked like the scattering of constellations in a night sky.

He didn’t even see you coming until your weight was already thrown over his chest and he was knocked back onto the mat with you sitting on top of him, knees to the side of his face, right hand on his neck.

“You didn’t even try that time, man. Usually you catch me at least halfway.” You gave him a perturbed look, followed by a strange realization, “I’m riding your collarbones, Barnes.”

Bucky shifted beneath you, mouth hanging open ever so slightly as he crunched forward, the movement of his abs threatening to pitch you over until you felt his wide metal hand splayed out on your spine. The flesh hand palmed the side of your head, brushing over until it rested on the back of your skull, heel of it on your neck. You were surprised when his fingers continued to massage and were even more shocked when the rubbing motion started to feel so good that you leaned into his hand every which way.

He couldn’t help but touch your scalp, the bristles of short hair scrubbing against his palm. It felt so silly, but there was something so deeply liberating to see and feel your mane gone. He saw you in a completely different light- more feral and real.

It had previously shrouded you in his mind under a notion of femininity— one he attached to his sisters, to all women with long hair. It didn’t mean that you were weak, or lesser than him, it was just... something. And seeing you without it was something else.

It stirred him even more so that you had forgone any semblance of style- maybe a fringe, or a bob, a short pixie would have looked nice. Instead, you just... took it all away. 

A slow strike was being carved on his baffled list once more.

Bucky pulled all the way up, sliding your body down his chest to straddle his waist with your legs.

“Uh,” you intelligently posited, glancing awkwardly at the intimate position, “What is going on?”

“Why’d you shave it all off?”

“What? Dude my buzzcut is making you randy.” You struggled against his grasp on your back, trying to free your legs until he placed his warm hand on your thigh, quieting your movements.

“I’m just wonderin’.” His voice was so soft you had to lean closer to hear it.

“I dunno,” you shrugged, “Tired of it. Bored of it. Might as well. Kept getting stuck everywhere. It’s just fuckin’ hair. And honestly, it feels great. Badass.” You swatted a few stray bits that had lingered on your shoulder, turning side-to-side. Bucky watched in awe of your striking portfolio- the gentle slope of your nose, your prominent cupid’s bow, the sharp angle of your jawline from your chin... he always thought your hair was a necessary addition to your essence, but without it, you were breathtaking.

“You are obviously a fan.” You laughed sarcastically.

He could only stutter, “Y-yeah, I am.”

You reeled back in response of his admission. Bucky’s eyes kept roaming over your face and it was honestly freaking you out. He looked like he was going to kiss you.

“Christ, Barnes, what in all of hell is--”

His lips descended on yours, the air around you shifting as Bucky sucked in deep breaths, parting and then coming back for seconds, both hands tight on your neck and even harder on your upper thigh. You pulled away, eyes absurdly wide, trying to understand the situation, “Bucky?”

He stopped, cheeks flushing bashfully as if you’d caught him red-handed elbow-deep in the communal Stark Tower cookie jar. “...’m sorry...”

You shook your head, licking your lips over the remnants of his touch, trying to catch your breath.

“You’re a great kisser, Barnes, but honestly, I really want to wrestle. I think the lack of hair is going to make me fucking slippery. Hella aerodynamic, you know?”

He laughed and cuffed you on the back of the head, spine tingling as your hair sandpapered against the inside of his wrist, “You’re on.”

As he watched you rise, your hand swiftly running up the back of your own neck, curious to feel what he felt, Bucky added a new mark to a new list of things you did to him. He mused over the subject matter- hesitant about lingering on it for too long.

You were still a pain, after all.

#bucky barnes x reader #marvel #mcu #reader insert #fanfiction #bucky barnes

[the1rei]

Little Moments: Reboot Chapter Nineteen: Speaking my Language By  Ericobard and shadows59 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Fandom: Ben 10 Series Relationship: Ben Tennyson/Gwen Tennyson Some Additional Tags: Bullying, No proofreading, Family is Drama, Long burn

Summer’s over and school is in session, made worse as it is middle school.  Amidst the troubles of the new year Gwen finds something she’s always wanted and was beginning to fear she would never have, a friend.  Except Ben of course. 

Read my review below:

Why is Gwen still going to an elementary school?  It is directly stated in the story that Ben is in middle school, "Middle School blows. You're so lucky you don't have to deal."  They are identical ages, so they should be in the same grade as they were in the original, or an explanation should be given as to why they aren't in the same grade.  Gwen's school is a K-12 school; it wouldn't be called an elementary school.  

Gwen answering her phone in school and her receiving no repercussions for throwing away the note Mrs. Adams wrote to her mother shows that scene in chapter eleven was completely needless.  It should have ended after Gwen's viable scolding.  

" - even old Squid Face was this horrible!" I suspect Shadows59 meant to say 'wasn't' here.

The phone call in the middle of school and the deluge of texts that they exchange is supposed to show that they are a sweet couple that is very affectionate with each other.  But it ends up coming across as they are obsessed with each other in an unhealthy way, so much so that they can't go very long without contact of some form.  Even with young infatuation, couples need time apart so they can continue to be individuals, but Ben and Gwen come across as clingy and co-dependent.  She even calls the phone a 'lifeline' to Ben as if she'd die without him.  This wasn't the case in the original, and Shadows59 came across as a much more mature author in how he depicted a healthy but highly romantic love between two kids.  

Flint continues to be a caricature of a creepy guy.  He just says disgusting, hateful things so the reader will be disgusted by him and hate him, but any reader that understands this will just see him as a shallow character with no substance.  Antagonists need to have well-reasoned motivations behind their actions, and yet for all the times the story has brought up Flint, it never tells the reader why he is the way he is.  

Additionally, the things Flint, an eleven-year-old, says are highly sexual and complex suggestions.  It's not the mere perversions of a boy who would say something such as 'show me your panties.'  Instead, he suggests an advanced form of sexual degradation play, which further raises questions about why he is the way he is.  

Even non-prestigious schools had computer labs and teachers who were experts to deal with them long before 1999.  Even with her affinity for computers, it's unrealistic that Gwen would have then said teacher or would be called in to deal with an administrator's computer.  Said computer might even be too old for her to understand at all.  Honestly, I feel like I would let this pass if the story was more like the show and not trying to be a serious story.  

Gwen comparing the reactions she gets from kissing Ben, her love interest in the story, to the reaction a younger brother gives to his older sister when she kisses him is, odd to say, incestuous.  These two reactions should not be comparable because the reaction she should be getting from Ben is one of a peer who hasn't come around to discovering the romantic feels he has for another peer.  The other is the reaction of a younger sibling at getting a kiss from an older sibling who is, in this case, Gwen peer.  So not only does this compare Ben and Gwen as sister and brother but also Ben as being younger than Gwen, making their romance come across as highly inappropriate.

In the original, Gwen has social anxiety, which prevents her from talking to Michelle at first, and it's only when she thinks of Ben is she able to encourage herself to be open the new girl.  This is a very relatable problem, and Gwen displays her courage and willingness to follow another's example, like a hero, overcoming it.  In the reboot, Michelle asks one innocent question, the first thing she has ever said to Gwen, and Gwen is ready to judge her as being like Marci.  Prejudging anyone is a very unheroic act, and Gwen has to remind herself that Ben wouldn't do something like that to convince herself to give Michelle a chance.  

It's unclear why Michelle finds what Gwen says funny, why it makes Gwen "crazy," or why this makes Michelle like Gwen.  In the original, Michelle is shown to be as lost and alone as Gwen, so it's natural to her to like the person who reaches out to her, on Gwen's own accord, and offers to show her around.  In the Reboot, Gwen has been conscripted by the principle to interact with Michelle and show her around.  That can be a fine way to bring to people who will be friends together, but the story of the original is stronger.  

Having Ben's liberal parents protesting a new army base is a weak stereotype.  It is a stereotype as no reason is given for them not to want the base built.  

It makes no sense that Michelle, probably before she was 11, would be able to sneak out and go to a protest that turned violent given that when Gwen came near violence in this story, teenagers and adults treated her like a toddler.  

Gwen comes across as bad friend allowing Marci to pull Michelle away from her with putting up a fight to get her back even though she knows Marci is lying, and she is abandoning Michelle to Marci's lies and possible bullying.  Instead of doing anything to stop this, she just sits down and feels sorry for herself, thinking badly of other people, especially Ben.  Gwen isn't concerned with Michelle; she'd not watching the new girl make sure Macri's not making her feel uncomfortable or anything, instead just assuming that she would fall for Marci's corruptive influence.  

There is more overuse of italicized text in this chapter where it displays translated speech.  First, this visual clue that Gwen hears translated speech weakens the story, because in the original, where the speech was not emphasized, the reader is confused with Gwen as to what is happening, but because we already know or can guess that something is happening we're just waiting for Gwen to figure it out.  This distances the reader from the character's situation unnecessarily.  Second I am left wondering what would happen if Gwen was in her plumber suit, speaking to someone on the phone, in a different language, and emphasized what she was saying.  I assume the universe would implode, or explode, or both.

Marci's using the word cousin in place of boyfriend as a jab at Gwen's relationship with Ben would be good if it didn't require Gwen to understand french to be effective.  Marci has been established to be able to speak some french, but Gwen hasn't, so there is no way that Marci would know Gwen would understand her.  If Gwen couldn't understand what she said, then it would lose a lot of its punch.  It's a cause of the scene being written from the author's perspective instead of the character's.

"she was going to drive through a perfect little nose" Don't try to blame reflexes when there is clear intent on the part of the character.

Gwen anticipates that Michelle is going to leave her for Marci several times, and it's only after she refuses to several times that Gwen starts to trust her.  The foundation of their friendship is Gwen constantly mistrusting Michelle.

Every time Gwen nearly explodes on Marci, I'm just reminded of how much healthier she dealt with her anger in the original, channeling it into little pranks she pulled on Marci with her magic.  

"I kind of like the one I have - " Shadows59, you probably meant to say 'ones' here.

The previous chapters had Max leave and created a great deal of drama.  Erico even stated, "Grandpa is gone... They have nobody else they can turn to... They only have each other..."  Every indication in the story and the co-author indicate that Max is gone, and yet he just shows back up in the story like none of the drama of him leaving in the previous chapters occurred.  The original lacked that overly dramatic element, so when Gwen calls Max to find out why she can speak french, it makes sense they can just talk to him, whereas in the reboot, it doesn't.  There's no pay off for all that drama.

"Some part of her - most of her was sure it was Grandpa saying that something came up and she felt sick at the idea. She missed him. She'd been missing him since he disappeared and how could he? None of the eight weeks made that bit any smaller..."   Shadows59, you should consider revising this section.  It isn't clear what is meant by 'Some part of her-'  Because that is unclear the 'None of the eight weeks made that bit any smaller...' part isn't clear either.  Additionally, the sections are separated, but they feel like they are part of the same thought and are referring to one another without clarification.  

"No!" "No!" Shadows, you either repeated the "No!" accidentally here, or the two knows don't need two sets quotation marks.  

"He was just Ben and hers and she wasn't going to share him, not even with Michelle..." This shows that Gwen has a very unhealthy attachment to Ben that goes far beyond romance and young love.

"He was just Ben and hers and she..." There should probably be commas after 'Ben' and 'hers' as they are separate statements.

The added content for Michelle doesn't add much to the story of their friendship.  Some might have found it sudden that the pair met in this chapter, and one chapter later, we're best friends, but that at least was marked with a time jump, so the development of their friendship could take a mundane pace normally in the skipped time.  Here their transition from strangers to best friends really does seem sudden, and there's no real reason why these two because so attached after just a few hours.  There's no real reason for their closeness save on Gwen's part because she notices that Michelle is somewhat like Ben, an unsettling fact given how obsessed she is with the boy.  

Ben and Gwen sound like old people talking about 'kids fashion these days.'

"she was so much faster and back on her feet before she even got any water on her skirt." It's physically impossible to pour water all over someone's head while their head is in your lap and not get wet.  

I'll just say there is a big difference between Gwen staring a little because Ben is shirtless and her ogling him while describing droplets of water running down his muscles.  One is appropriate for an eleven-year-old, and the other is not.  Once more, I just think these characters are older in Shadows59's mind, not that he's trying to be inappropriate.  

That ending is so cute, I love it.

-Erico

"...carries much more depth and heart because Michelle's first day and Gwen's first day back address it from Gwen's perspective." This sentence makes no sense.

You make it sound like Gwen is taking advantage of Michelle's uncertainty.  

It makes no sense for Gwen's classmates to ostracize her for doing things for the school staff; all students get called to do such things.  So unless the faculty is ostracizing the other students and only calling on Gwen for help, the students' opinion of her shouldn't be affected by that.  You are also showing just as well as I that Gwen has an unhealthy attachment to Ben when her focus is getting the day to get back to him.  An attachment that again, goes far beyond healthy romantic attachment.  

So what I hear from you is that Michelle is guarded because the concern she sees from people is usually because she is her father's daughter, and its more their concern for him, or his opinion of them, then it is for Michelle herself.  This isn't expressed in the story, and while it would be difficult to do so while locked in Gwen's perspective without creating awkward dialogue, it is still possible to express it.  For instance, by Michelle extending her father's gratitude instead of her own, or assuring people that she will tell her father what a good job they did.  

You talk about Gwen and Michelle like they are going through the friendship equivalent of love-at-first-sight.  This is a trope that is used, most commonly, by poor writers to establish romance first and justify it later, but real friendship, like real love, is slow to start.  The original had that at least in feeling; the reboot has chosen to forgo it instead.

(As always, please go leave Shadows59 a nice positive review he won’t delete.)

#ben 10 #bwen #ben x gwen #gwen x ben #benxgwen #gwenxben #ben and gwen #gwen and ben #fanfic #review #Little Moments

[cloudbatcave]

Cloud Plays White: Finale

This is a long one, folks, since I realized I had a bit in my notes I had forgotten about and only found after I posted this, lol, so I have now edited it in.

when we last left off I was criticizing Alder for being useless in apprehending Ghetsis and Iris for not just taking me to Drayden’s house herself when it is Right Fucking There. 

So I’m still futzing around Opelucid here.

“No way, without pokemon, I’ll be lonely and sad! …but am I just using my pokemon, then?”

wow, seems there’s some brain cells there after all. you keep exercising those, brah.

I run into a guy who thinks that it’s okay for team plasma to take pokemon from weak trainers, even though he considers himself one and feels bad for the people they rob.

There’s another dude in the same room who used to be part of team plasma but left because it was weird for him that everyone thought the same way.

See, I appreciate this part of the game’s writing - I wish there was more stuff like this, people who are conflicted and their viewpoints being front and center instead of the simplistic garbage we’re fed by Iris and Alder and company.

Though there’s an absolute nut job who says that despite the years he’s trained with his pokemon he’ll let it go if it makes it a perfect being and I am just not even gonna unpack all the lunacy there.

There’s a kid who thinks that just because N has the legendary pokemon, he must be the hero.

I am very concerned about everyone in Unova being so gullible.

“Your Scrafty looks like it can try a little harder.”

WELL FUCK YOU TOO RANDOM LADY??? LAD DOES HIS BEST AND I WILL NOT HAVE HIM SLANDERED THIS WAY

I finally go to Drayden’s and get told how the original dragon performed mitosis and now we have two dragons and also they once destroyed the region with fire and lightning but it’s chill.

“People may hurt pokemon even more by imposing their selfish thoughts on them. But no matter what, Pokemon and people believe in each other, need each other, and will continue to live together…”

Drayden is smarter and more nuanced than like, anyone else, why is he not a main character.

Iris chips in about how much she can’t forgive Plasma and Drayden mentions they don’t know how to wake up Zekrom.

Well, to be fair, I’d be very surprised if they did.

Off to the gym, this’ll be interesting since I have no ice or dragon moves on my team.

I get through the trainers okay, now time to fight Daffodil.

Her Haxorus was a bit tricky but nothing I couldn’t handle, and when I walk out Juniper shows up.

And somehow she knows how to resurrect Zekrom. Cool!

She blahs about how it’ll wake up when it deems someone worthy and talks about how much I’ve changed and shows me to the gate where the route to the pokemon league is.

“Chirae? Do you regret setting out on your pokemon journey?”

UH.

MAYBE?

mmm, that’s not fair to my pokemon though - nigh everyone around me may be looney tunes or incompetent, but they’ve been good pals.

So I hit “no” after all.

and she gives me a master ball. dope.

I make it to the gates of victory road and I honestly really like the bit where each section of them is themed after the badges! That’s a nice touch, I think that was only also done in the FRLG remakes if I recall correctly. It makes it feel a lot more ceremonious and important.

Ah here come my two idiots.

Bianca asks Cheren to smile and he’d probably implode if he did. He finally isn’t an asshole though, good for him.

The bug badge guard tells me to “fight valiantly like an insect” which is funny but I guess does make sense. Ants can fuck some stuff up, man.

Honestly I want to be a badge gate guard, seems like a fun job.

Also, I caught an excadrill in a raid the day I wrote this, and caught an excadrill in this game. Their pokedex entry includes this gem:

“Their tunnels can be destructive to subway systems”

Given the battle subway exists in this game, their insurance payments must be obscene. Imagine getting your match interrupted by a giant mole with metal fists that doesn’t give a fuck.

I named her Beans. She looks like a Beans.

I also caught a Deino. The Irate Pokémon that can’t see and tackles people to learn about its surroundings. I feel a kinship with this creature.

I named him Mezzo for laughs.

And I managed to get myself back to the beginning of victory road. Good job, cloud.

Okay I think I’ve found the right path, found a new dude to beat up which is a good sign. Apparently he’s lost too.

Love when a trainer switches out to a Pokémon mine doesn’t have a type advantage against and it gets wiped in two hits anyway. Death is inevitable.

“I’ve thought about what I can do to help my Pokémon win and I finally figured out the answer!”

Is it git gud?

Flame charge raises my speed, opponent’s klang uses automotize to prove it can do that too, dies because it’s too busy trying to go fast.

Then I get nailed by a flare blitz. Darmanitan is toxic to gen 5 nuzlocke runs, I swear. Especially since I have no one on my hodgepodge team resistant to fire. At least my unfezant is faster.

“Read what your opponent wants to do. Your opponent is human and may change plans from moment to moment. Be careful!”

There’s some meta joke to be made there but I’m not thinking of anything witty. Something something AI having a point even if not in this context.

Back to the beginning again but I think I know what I need to do now.

I looked at a walkthrough to check, tho, lmfao. Was tired of climbing up there only to fall down the wrong spot.

“There’s an item at the bottom! Do you want to slide all the way down?”

You’re the devil talking and you tempt me but I will ignore your silver tongue for now.

So I’m at the league and I thought Cheran would pop out of the bushes before I got here. That’s weird. I could swear he fights me one last time before I challenge the elite four.

NO CHERAN. OKAY. WHAT. IS MY GAME GLITCHED??

I guess not! Huh.

All right then. Time to try and see if I can win with my very unbalanced team.

Lmfao yeah my first attempt against the ghost trainer crashed and burned. Literally, thanks to her Chandelure. Very glad I saved on the outside. TIME TO GO TRAIN MORE.

No Marty, you may not learn wild charge, this is a no recoil moves household, self harm is bad.

Some grinding later, I am ready to try again.

Shauntal gave me a little trouble but was much more manageable. Grimsley was easy, only his Krookodile gave me issues.

I really like the elite four battle areas in this gen, I do admit. Very aesthetic.

Ah shit I know that Musharna is coming.

Never mind, that pink and purple snoozeball went down easy. I didn’t have a single Pokémon faint.

Unless Marshal breaks the trend the fights have actually gotten easier as I went.

He actually was a bit tricky, gave me a good show.

Hello endless stairs, hello N and Alder, hello giant random castle that just explodes out of the ground somehow.

“What has just appeared is team plasma’s castle”

Thanks mate, never would’ve figured that out without you. Why do you need a castle. 

Oh wow, the gym leaders finally decided to be useful and fight the sages for me instead of letting extremists wander around unchecked.

Thanks y’all! Trying not being pointless more often!

“Ignoring team plasma...that would be a terrible thing for us gym leaders to do.”

You all already did that, Elena. I watched as Clay and Iris let these assholes go. We could have avoided this whole plot if literally any of you had done more earlier.

So the game says the castle was built by the Pokémon team plasma took but how the fuck did they like...work underground...you know what I’m not gonna even think about it too hard because it makes no sense and I know that. I must make my peace.

I also like how the castle is nonsensical and yet there’s a line of dialogue about how they’ll liberate the Pokémon in PCs too for their Master Plan(TM), which is surprisingly thoughtful. This game is so inconsistent with how much sense its lore makes. It’ll come up with something clever and then wear its underwear on its head the next minute.

“Will you go the Pokémon league?”

Hey what - WHY DID YOU TELEPORT ME HOW CAN YOU DO THAT. DO YOU HAVE AN ABRA OR WHAT

THAT WAS RANDOM

Well at least there’s someone there to randomly teleport me back too.

WHEEEEEE

Hi Reshiram, convenient how that mini fire tornado you made didn’t burn me or N.

Hi Zekrom, convenient how your lightning didn’t hurt us either, you’re a considerate chap

Aight, let’s see if I can catch this bastard

...I did and it only took me like five balls. Okay then.

N gave me a good fight, so there’s that.

Love how Ghetsis’s bouffalant kills itself via recoil from its own move and my scrafty’s rocky helmet.

He gave me a good fight too though.

I do like the ending, despite my issues with how the game presents its message. N is a great character and I appreciate what Nintendo was trying to do with the game’s plot, they just...didn’t really delve into it like they should have.

I’m glad I replayed it. I still have my issues with gen 5 but I see a lot more of its positives now.

We’ll see if I do any post-game content, I have gotten kind of attached to my grump-ass trainersona and his weird team.

#Chirae the mistrustful teen and his pokemon #cloud plays white

[creepy-witchy-af]

Guide to tarot cards & meanings (I)

I’ve been practicing Tarot for 3 years now and I thought I should share my personal notes from my Book of Shadows. These are my feelings about these cards and what I’ve noticed about them in spreads and how they relate to one another. This is part 1 on the Major Arcana and I’ll be posting a part 2 on the Minor Arcana (which are just as important!). Enjoy!

Note on reversals: If you draw a card and it is upside down, that doesn’t usually mean the opposite of the upright meaning. It more so indicates an excess of the qualities of the upright meaning. You’ll see what I mean by that below.

The Major Arcana

The Fool: Doesn’t necessarily represent foolishness, but more of an innocence to the ways of the world. Represents the earliest days in spiritual development/almost always a sign of new adventure to begin. Big time of changes. Reversed indicated “look before you leap”.

The Magician: A powerful card which tells of a warning of opportunity. Reminder to bring love, finances, morality and emotion together to prepare for a time of change. Reversed indicates a person who may be a perfectionist and may use power negatively.

The High Priestess: In a man’s reading, she indicates the woman of his dreams. In a woman’s reading, she is searching for herself in the high priestess. Reversed means logic/fact based decision making, or occasionally sensual pleasures & selfishness.

The Empress: Look for material wealth and abundance. Fertility for hopeful parents and creative folks, and a sign of a blissful marriage in more mature folks. Reversed indicates disharmony on the domestic front.

The Emperor: Domination of the material world. Authority. Law. Stable. Paternal power. Father figure. May be a highly controlled sexual drive. Reversed means immaturity, unable to leave the nest, loss of control, and passiveness.

The Hierophant: Appears as the “Pope” of orthodox teaching, which opposes the Priestess, who teaches secretly and to the initiated to her mysteries. Look for some indicator of a preference to ritual and ceremony, or he can mean a need of approval of others/society. Reversed tells you that it’s time for some unconventional thinking.

The Lovers: When the Lovers appear, it traditionally indicates someone who must make a decision to overcome temptation. We have choices, and we often struggle with sacred and profane love. Reversed it means a possibility of poor choices, quarrels, and infidelity. Get in check with rational self.

The Chariot: Indicates success and triumph over the forces of nature (ex. illness, natural disaster). Power over those who would cause us harm. When reversed it tells of victory with moral sacrifice, such as lying or cheating.

Strength: Triumph/need to triumph over carnal desires and focus on spiritual powers. Goals are in sight. Persevere and the power of your character will shine through. Nature of love has power over evil. Reversed indicates a person who is ruled by material gain and need to seek reassurances from others because of the lack of moral fortitude.

The Hermit: One of my personal favorite cards! Know you have a chance to receive wisdom from the divine/spirit world. Also indicates a meeting with a teacher or mentor - someone who can guide you through future endeavors (physical or spiritual). Reversed it indicates a tendency to ignore advice.

Wheel of Fortune: Reminds us we are NOT governed by chance or fate, and you have the power to change your future. Expect success due to intelligent decisions; a change for the better. Reversed indicates stagnation, setbacks, roadblocks.

Justice: Justice will be done, and balance will rule the day. A balanced person knows how to get rid of baggage and toxic relationships. May also mean a want for higher education. Reversed indicates legal battles/complications. Reminder to use mercy when judging others.

The Hanged Man: An evolution from the Fool. He is making a sacrifice, and his sacrifice will produce transformation. Shows us a suspension in time in our life and undiscovered wisdom. When reversed he shows us someone who is resistant to spiritual influences because they are wrapped up in the material.

Death: Represents transformation and rebirth, not physical death. Actually indicates new opportunity, even though there may be a period of upheaval or even destruction. But rebirth will follow. Note association with the number 13 here (13th card in the Major Arcana). Reversed this card shows stagnation and refusal to accept change.

Temperance: Depicting archangel Michael, this card shows us we must translate our imagination to activity. Also shows someone who uses wit/skill to adapt to new circumstances, or can show someone who needs to participate in team work for success. Look for Fire signs. Reversed it shows imbalance. Either a person who has poor relationships or may be corrupt, or it can show a bi-polar person or someone who has chemical imbalance.

The Devil: Opposes Michael in the Temperance card. Look for discontent/depression/emotional stagnation. Also indicates a materialistic person who resists spirituality. The card of addiction and bad decision making. When reversed, it shows overcoming material addiction and toxic choices in trade for spiritual understanding.

The Tower: Major life break down/crisis. Often associated with Satan’s downfall. Indicates big changes, conflict, and catastrophe. Look for a person who’s life is about to change. The change can be good as well as bad. Reversed it shows that freedom from detainment of either mind and spirit or physical detainment (ex. leaving an abusive relationship or bad job situation) can be achieved, but at great cost.

The Star: Stop. Listen. This is the card of mediation. Take a moment to reflect, and the truth will reveal itself. Shows someone who is attaining spiritual enlightenment, hope, and inspiration. Also indicates that great love will be given and received. When reversed, the Star shows doubt and pessimism, someone who has deep sadness from lack of faith in any aspect of their life, not just spiritual. Also indicates potential mental or physical illness.

The Moon: In a spread, look for someone who has or is developing psychic abilities. The Moon calls you to trust your instinct because of deception and hidden messages. Also represents general mental health. Reversed, it is a reminder that practical solutions may be better in your situation. Risks should be avoided, so just ride out the storm.

The Sun: The child shows perfect balance between subconscious and conscious mind. He is nearing the end of the Fool’s journey. Almost always a sign of good things to come - mental and physical health, reunions, good marriages. Also indicates completion of studying and learning. When reversed it indicates a cloudy future, a possible job or marriage that is on the line, or someone who is just meandering with no goals.

Judgement: The angel Gabriel blows his trumpet, liberating us from earthly limitations. Indicates life lived to its fullest with all the steps taken to advancement or a happy life. Indicates a new ability to blend with greater surroundings. When reversed, it shows a sign of weakness, failure to find happiness, maybe in part to a lack of readiness/motivation. Also indicates loss.

The World: Indicates the final stage to the Fool’s journey. Symbolizes completion and triumph in all undertakings. When reversed this card shows an unwillingness to move on/attachment, such as an artist who never feels like their work is finished. 

Happy reading loves!

#tarot #tarot reading #tarot readings #tarot masterpost #tarot meanings #tarot card meanings #tarot tip #witchy #witch #witchcraft #witch tip #witchy tips #witchy aesthetic #tarot aesthetic #divination #divination witch #divination tips #new moon #readings #major arcana #tarot part 1 #psychic #psychic witch #psychic ability

[thehappymessproject]

92/100 - On exploring our darkest corners

- On perfectionism and self-sabotage

Last week, I had the worst session I ever had with a patient. I always struggled with perfectionism. I was also raised to keep work as a very high priority. That means that I spent a lot of time over the years trying to be the best possible therapist, even after realising I couldn’t, that no one could. It also implies that having a big crisis at work can provoke huge melt downs. 

Last year, I started this therapy focused on trauma and attachments wounds. Since then, I’m having those very intense moments sometimes, where something very hard happens, and I react in a very old and new way at the same time. 

The old : I react with a lot of emotional intensity, like I used to years ago, before my first therapy. When I look at it from closer, I’m not just reacting about what happened, I am also reacting to a lot of similar events in my life. Parts of me, of my identity, break down. I am suddenly filled with doubt about many many things. 

The new : First, I can feel really quickly that it’s not just about the one that triggered my emotional response, and calming down. The pieces that break down are much smaller, and don’t stay broken for long anymore. A calm voice replaces the resenting panicky voice running the melt-downs. The quiet confident voice is making the doubts slowly subside. 

I am a bit thrown by that mix between familiarity and newness. Familiarity brings us comfort, even when it feels bad : we know how it feels, and often even how it will go. Newness is exciting and full of possibility, but also the root of uncertainty. Unless we were lucky enough to be wound-free as a child, emotional uncertainty can get scary, and often leaves us feeling vulnerable and fragile. 

A few years ago (the last time I had such a crisis at work), I would have been devastated for weeks. I would have completely doubted my ability to be a good therapist, bordering on having difficulty to see how I am even a good person. Having such an awful encounter with a patient I appreciate a lot would have meant that I am clueless about what is good for my patients. Which would have surely slipped towards the belief that I am clueless about everything.

Here’s the first thing : by wanting so badly to be perfect and doing things perfectly, we always close ourselves to the ability to actually see our flaws and all the ways we are far from perfect. We also close our hearts from seeing how we hurt the people we love the most. We cannot change anything we refuse to see. 

Brene Brown did an incredible job studying shame, and busted forever the idea that perfectionism has anything to do with pursuing excellence. Perfectionism is about avoiding shame at all cost. We get so obsessed by being good and right, that we end up doing a lot of bad things, and be really wrong : we’re just not able to see it. 

Learning how to see how flawed we are is one of the most precious skill we can ever develop. We all feel at some point dumb, clumsy, awkward, incompetent, needy, weird... If we can’t see all that and still love ourselves, we won’t be able to change in the ways we want, to connect deeply with others, to truly love. 

A team of Harvard researchers studied something they called Immunity to change. When we operate in ways that aren’t good for us, it is generally assumed that it is because of a lack of awareness, knowledge or skills. What their method is showing to us is that in fact, we are feeding a certain pattern. 

Here is the second thing : when we resist doing certain things or changing in a certain way that would be good for us on the long run, it is helping us going toward a certain goal. This unconscious goal that we don’t really know we have, but that is more precious for us than what we would accomplish by doing otherwise right now. 

This secret goal is often related to identity : “If I do that, it will mean I’m weak/bad/wrong/out of control/rejected...”. It is generally about avoiding feeling bad in some way. These parts of ourselves want to protect us. They love us in their own sabotaging way, but they are well intentioned. We need to see them for what they are to live at peace. 

I could have found a million reasons why my patient reacted so strongly and ended up very hurt, to blame her for what happened. I could ignore my guilt and the shame of not being perfect by directing them at her, finding all flaws in her and her reactions. There always are some. 

Instead, I’ve spent a good amount of that past week reflecting over how I felt, what I didn’t like in my own reaction and behaviour, and what I was considering as problematic or not aligned with my values. I got upset, I cried, I journaled, took really good care of myself to heal the wounds. I spent most time looking at my shadow right in the eye. 

Looking at our flaws can be an evil tool of self-persecution, or the magical tool of our emotional freedom. We can choose. We can cultivate the latter to transform the former into an asset. 

By making it all about me, since it is MY experience of it, and I know hers will have to be different, I allow myself to question what I did, without questioning who I am. To see that we were both trying our best, and couldn’t come up to a more comfortable ground, without attributing fault. I can feel that blaming, as seductive as it can be, will also bring me nowhere useful. 

Seeing our flaws and darkness for what they are and not for the fantasy we wish they really were liberates us from repeating the same mistakes and patterns. 

By facing what we are the most afraid of, we always discover we made it bigger in our head. We can finally see the cheap tricks our mind is playing. And learn how to free ourselves from them. 

We can do hard things. 

We can look where it is scary to look inside of us. 

We deserve to be able to look at ourselves with love, and pride. 

We can free ourselves.

Speak soon, 

Love, 

L.

#darkness #perfectionism #shame #guilt #relationships #personal #100 days project #100 days of writing #the happy mess project #counselling #psychologist #nonfiction #therapist #writer

[lunartryptamine]

COSMETIQUE ASTROLOGY

The Libido Fuels Spiritual Growth, Intelligence, and Beauty. Don't Sever Yourself from it. 🔥🐍

The lunar masses prefer and relish hypocrisy and duality when it comes to sexuality, the libido, and the female body. These masses seek to punish, criticize, degrade, and demonize anything that pulls on their libido, stirs their animal nature, and make them feel out of control of themselves. For this reason, often times it is the women who are most in touch with their sexual power who are most violently criticized, simply for refusing to hide their unique sexually-centered strengths and suppress their magnetism to protect others. All of the comments on social media that are violently judging models, instagram models, and sexualized women follow the same pattern, which revolves around beauty or sexuality as being inherently "morally" bad, and implying that there is a trade off in a spiritual sense if you are physically attractive or enjoy your form. The idea pushed on women like it is the gospel, not by complete and satisfied people but by those who are bitter, is “I’d rather be self-realized than beautiful.” Or, “I went to college and am smart so I don’t have to degrade myself and show my body.” as if a female had to be ugly to liberate themselves, or that having plain features or an unfit physique is necessary to go to college. This link between beauty or sexuality and stupidity is all done as a mental censor on their part, and has no basis in scientific studies or physical reality whatsoever (in fact, science proves quite the opposite; in reality, science confirms the doctrine implicit in the Sanskrit language that a persons vibrational and spiritual essence is perfectly represented in their physical form). True female strength isn’t the sacrificing of beauty to attain “higher” things of the intellectual or spiritual realm, but of embracing femininity and its power so fully that you laugh at people’s attempts to suppress or shame your unique beauty and body and you show them that, instead, aligning yourself with your feminine power

and severing yourself from these childish & primitive dualities actually brings you the #spiritualgrowth & intelligence that they will never have. It brings fast transformation and growth fueled by the fire of your satisfied, uniquely expressed libido (connected as well to your improving intuition) growing hotter and stronger in response, burning away your dualistic perspectives, hangups, and jealousy. This all relates to the fact that the chief difference between true occultists or tantriks and the common masses is that tantriks do not create a distinction between reality and their sexual libido, but actually worship the generative force for what it is. An Occultist understands that their balanced sexual desires are inherently connected to Truth, and the root of all life and goodness. This underlying sexual foundation behind any relationship is actually the basis of the relationship, just as the Muladhara center is the base of the body. In reality, the male body is projecting and its first “attachment” to a female is to her form, which then leads to deeper levels of love. if a man chooses a woman only rationally and is not attracted to her body, he is living in a fantasy without having made the first important energetic connection for the male sexual flow, and this is why masturbation to porn is rampant in sexual relationships. There can be no stable relationship without a pure and strong sexual foundation, and everything else grows out of it. All emotions and even the intellect are powered by the sexual foundation, and if there is a false sexual foundation, the relationship will not last no matter how much you want to delude yourself. Sex is the primary and first consideration for a romantic relationship and if there is not sexual compatibility, there is no hope of spiritual development, because spirituality in a nutshell is the control and worship of your sexual energy.

This is why a big part of spirituality, especially in the modern world, revolves around returning back to the truth and root of reality, which revolves around one’s own sexual energy, due to modern society spinning so much illusion and falsehood around this subject and driving a huge wedge between a person and their own life-force. From an elemental perspective, it must be understood that the Earth element is the most complete element, being a condensation of all the preceding elements. The earth element is, of course, shown as our physical body, which becomes beautiful only if we have elemental harmony. A truly “beautiful” person has the intellectual capabilities of having a harmonious air element, the emotional articulation and communication skills of a harmonious water element, the drive and ferocity of the fire element, and the stability and sensuality of the earth element. All of these internal elements then go on to produce beautiful physical features, the air element creating subtlety and length to the appearance, the fire element creating luster and vibrancy, the water element creating magnetism and charm, and the earth element creating voluptuousness or muscular size. Without the corresponding internal virtue, there simply cannot be the physical or external sign of beauty. On the contrary, any distortion of the physical form is a result of an internal moral defect. A person who is always angry or never angry will have a distorted fire element and lack bodily luster in the case of a weak fire element, or will develop acne or oily skin from an overactive one. This is the theory and practice of #Ayurvedic treatment, which teaches a person to achieve and maintain an elemental balance and harmony within their own body for health. This is also the basis behind exercises in #Occultism like the observation of the elemental "tides" that flow at the different times of the day, and also of rituals that utilize visualization of the elements to balance them like the "lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram”. In Freemasonry, we find the metaphor for spiritual practice being likened to the shaping of a crude, ugly stone into a beautiful and perfect one.

This metaphor is most appropriate and the crude, ugly state of the stone initially represents our own #Muladhara center and libido, which must be worked on carefully through our spiritual practice to refine into into a perfect and balanced one. This "cornerstone" is like our libido, the foundation of our practice, not something to be thrown away or neglected. So, you will aways find that Adepts who are the truly "spiritual" people, are not frigid individuals with no life force, but very sexual in a refined sense, and possessing beauty. Upon viewing most individuals who place a severe division between libido and moral goodness, they often look unshaped or unsculpted or dull, in that they neglect their own vitality in fear or hatred of their libido. On the contrary, those who embrace the foundational fires of the libido are “burned” and shaped in accordance with its harsh truth, producing distinct vitality, symmetry, and beauty. This is why #Tantra and Occultism are elitist in nature; it is not that they exclude the common masses from worship, but that the masses exclude themselves from their own dualistic mentality towards sex. The masses fear their own sexual nature and so view the idea that it is holy as blasphemous, and so think Tantra or Occultism is impure or debauched. An Adept indulges the senses and engages in sex in a way that produces liberation, and so they do not fear it or anything else. In Hermetic Qabalah, if we examine the Tree of Life diagram, the sexual foundation is known as Yesod and this sits directly below the center known as Tiphereth or “beauty ”. In this way, it is explained that any expression of sexuality that is not directed towards beauty or #Tiphereth leads eventually to imbalance and evil, due to the departure from the middle pillar of equilibrium, and balance which these two centers sit on. CLAIRE NAKTI 

[musicallisto]

Hello so I’m female, bisexual, either ship gender works for me. Could you do endless summer, the maze runner, and divergent?I am 5’9 I have black hair and brown eyes.I love to swim, practice shooting my B.B. gun, draw, sing in the shower NEVER in public , do photography, read,cuddle, go to the movies and get lots of candy, shop, binge watch tv, listen to music more like pop a lot.I keep my promises and stay loyal to others, at first I’m quite but I eventually come around to be sweet and caring.

I Ship You With…

E S T E L A   M O N T O Y A

• I ship you with Estela! Okay buckle up because this is going to be a tough, but fun ride. As you know, it takes a lot of time for Estela to open up, but when she does, it’s just so rewarding that it’s worth all the efforts you put into it. She’s actually a huge softie deep down, and I totally headcanon that you would be the first person she would ever fall in love with. She would be super awkward in her head about it, completely lost, and she would obviously not confide in anyone about it, not wanting to be judged or percieved as “weak” - because she believed her feelings and attachment to you made her weaker, since they could be used against her. She spent months stuck in that mindset, and it took her long hours of convincing that it wasn’t a weakness and it could actually make her even stronger than she already was. The first person who would know would actually be Jake, I think; he would discover it by accident, maybe because Estela would let something compromising slip and his arrogant wit would definitely piece it all together and figure out that she had feelings for you. He would get cocky about knowing at first, but she would make sure he understood that if he DARED spill her secret, she would personally rip his guts out, and he knew she was perfectly capable of doing so. That’s why he didn’t brag about it too much, and tried to hit on you for her as much as he could, though. It often led to awkward situations, but at least you would catch the drift pretty quickly, at least much more quickly than if Jake hadn’t intervened. Estela NEVER would have thanked Jake for doing something, but she was relieved, to be completely honest.

• There’s something in both of your personalities that makes me think that you would work so well together? Like you really remind me of her and I think you would teach each other amazing things. First of all, you would teach her how to shoot with a gun. I can see her being very good with spears (obviously) and knives and weapons like that, but kinda sucking at firearm. She would struggle quite a lot at the beginning, trying to replicate her uncle’s position that she had seen when she was younger - but what she didn’t take into account was that her uncle was much more experienced than her, and her memories were a bit foggy since the revolution had happened so many years before. You were patient with her, even when she got angry at not succeeding - something that happened often, despite her best efforts not to take out her anger on you. Not being the best was something that really, really frustrated her. You would also teach her how to draw! She would also get a bit impatient with it, because her first attempts were a little… hazardous, but you explained to her that drawing, just like any other art or activity, was something that you learnt through years of practice and couldn’t master in one setting only. It was still a bit irritating to her, but she understood perfectly, and came back every day to draw something. After a few weeks of training, she would wake up one day before you (just like every other morning), take her sketchbook and draw your sleepy figure, while you were unaware of it. She would spend hours perfecting the drawing, and letting all her emotions flow in a much less violent way than everything else she had been used to. Drawing was like a liberation: you were Estela’s liberation.

M I N H O

• I ship you with Minho! It would also be a bumpy road, but definitely an amazing one. You would compliment each other very well and with your sportiness, I can definitely see you being a runner in the Maze A. At first, Minho would be a bit wary of you, not knowing anything about you, and because he definitely couldn’t trust a girl, especially not one who had just arrived after only boys were sent for years. But you would prove your worth day after day, in the Maze and the Trials after, and Minho would quickly develop deeper feelings for you, ranging from admiration to incomprehensible lust - and then, he had to face the truth: he had fallen in love with you. You would be the hyperactive couple, always trying new activities and being super adventurous in general, fighting alongside each other and protecting each other. When Minho would get captured by WICKED, you would be the first one to leave no stone unturned to find him. Your strength was what kept him grounded in his period of captivity: he would cling onto the memories of the two of you and ask himself “what would Y/N do in this situation?”. That’s how he would end up making most of his decisions… sometimes stupid, yes, but always led by your voice in his mind.

• You would also teach him how to swim. After the eruptions, water wasn’t common anywhere in America, and especially not in the Scorch, but throughout your journey, you came across a few bodies of water and wanted nothing more than to clean off all the dust and sweat that you had been keeping in for weeks. Minho had never learned how to swim, being taken by WICKED at a very young age and right after the eruptions and the global droughts. You were older when WICKED took you in, so you had already learned, and that was when Minho timidly asked you if you could teach him. (and it would totally be an excuse to see you in your bathing suit, too)

E R I C

• I ship you with Eric! You would intrigue him as soon as his eyes would fall on you on the first day of training, at the Dauntless compound. You, the newest Abnegation transfer, in your old, crumpled gray clothes, but with such a fierce glint in your eyes that made you look a hundred times more intimidating than you actually were. Eric’s habits were to push every trainee to their limits, see their full potential, and eliminate the ones who couldn’t make it - it wasn’t a matter of being nice, it was a matter of deserving it. With you, however, he couldn’t quite tell if you, indeed, did deserve it, but what he would notice immediately was that you were damn willing to prove yourself and never abandon. You weren’t used to leave empty-handed, and your determination and combativity was something Eric admired in recruits, even if they weren’t Dauntless borns. You would notice him coming watch the combat training more often than usual, even if your Dauntless-born friends would tell you that he rarely showed up, having “better things to deal with”. Sometimes when you were sparring with some other trainee, you would notice with a quick glance his eyes fixated on you, him biting his lower lip and eyeing you up and down. You wouldn’t pay much attention to it at first: he was probably observing your strengths and flaws just like any other mentor would do. However, when you started snatching the first places of the ranking, his gaze would grow more insistant and more predator-like - finally, he would approach you a few days before your first time exploring the Fear Simulation. It would be the first time you would actually talk to each other and it would be clear he had started taking a liking into you: Eric wasn’t one to be shy about his feelings towards a pretty girl, especially not a pretty and badass girl.

• Thanks to your loyalty and your dedication, you would be the only person he would ever trust to show his Fear Simulation, a place he considered to be the most sacred of all, even if it wasn’t a physical spot. You would get used to his rather harsh and authoritarian tone, and even if at first it would rub you the wrong way, you would start to understand his bossy side. He, on the other hand, would soften it a little around you, because he would understand how precious your affection was and that it wasn’t something he could let get away. You felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity to Eric, as cheesy as it sounded - and goddamn if he hated being cheesy -, and he wasn’t ready to let you go. You would soon start to take private fighting lessons with him, sparring, shooting, training with bladed weapons… he would teach you everything he knew, and you would also show him a lot of things in return. Those after-hours sessions allowed you to get closer… a lot closer ;) at least close enough for Eric to finally shut up all the contradictory voices in his mind, and pin you up against a wall to kiss you right after you won a sparring match and a cocky smile crept its way to your lips. He was more than happy to wipe it off with his own. And you were more than happy to finally have succeeded in making all the walls of the cold, distant Eric Coulter, crumble down.

Moodboard

Playlist

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Can’t Stop

The Score - Unstoppable

Fox Stevenson - Trigger

Woodkid - Run Boy Run

ships are closed!

#ships #ship request #endless summer #playchoices #estela montoya #the maze runner #minho #divergent #eric coulter #moodboard #playlist #mywriting

[sowhatkorean]

Because This Is My First Life

Last month, I just finished this drama despite of being bombarded with my workload.*LOL* At first, I decided not to start watching dramas that haven’t finish yet because it gives me an unsatisfactory clip hanging and impatiently waiting for the next episode which will come up on the next week schedule. BUT, this drama became an exemption, from watching their previews I got hooked and I can’t control myself patiently waiting for the next episode. HAHAHA 

And now, I will tell you why I can’t get hold myself on watching this drama:

THE CONCEPT OF THE DRAMA IS VERY REALISTIC

Let’s put some rest to the fantasy themes and over flowered cliche stories. This drama tackles about the current issue where most of us *especially on their early 30′s*. Being on thirty, there are so much things that you must have to consider. Stable career, to own a house and getting married. It has been our norm that going on 30 is a very crucial part on our lives, no more teenage years, no more building up our career and no more twee-tums love story. But for some people, being 30 is just the beginning of their own life, they begin to realize what’s missing and what’s there to look forward for the rest of their lives. They begin to make decisions just for themselves and not for other people’s preference. This is how the story evolves to the main character, Yoon Ji-ho, who quit her job and packed up her bags away from her family and decided to have her own life independently. But that’s not what happened, due to the reality that owning a house in South Korea is a very big issue.

2. THE CHARACTERS DEPICTS DIFFERENT VIEWS ON LIFE

Kudos to the writers who wrote this epic and realistic love story. The story not only focused on its main characters but also, to the people around them. The different characters reflect on how society sees love, career and marriage nowadays. Let me introduce you each characters and their point of view:

This is Nam Se Hee, 38 years old. He led a very boring life. But for him, he’s having a happy life at the moment,watching a soccer game and drinking beer along with his cat. He is a house-poor and he is a picky perfectionist and very practical person. He sees his job as his source of income to pay off his mortgage loan and having a housemate as an additional income. He didn’t believe in love, because according to him, to be in love once is enough for a lifetime.He’s a brokenhearted guy who also didn’t believe in marriage, he believed it’s just an agreement for the two persons who met up their needs on each other, there’s no love involved.

This is Yoon Ji-Ho, 30 years old. Single since birth. She was an assistant scriptwriter on some dramas, who later quit her job for 10 years because of mistreatment. She supports her family and bought a house in Seoul but her brother got his girlfriend pregnant which led her move out and gave the house to his brother despite she’s the one who bought it. Having no job and no house to sleep in, she met  Nam Se Hee. They both agreed to marry each other just to fill up their needs. Se Hee, who is pressured by her mother to get married also needs a housemate, and Yoon Ji-Ho, who needs a house to stay and sleep with, are such a perfect combination to solve their problems. She value her career as her passion but because of cruel reality, she gave up her dream and set aside her career. She believes in love as a NBSB, she fantasies love like what she writes on the scripts. She also believes in marriage and giving it to the person she loves, BUT with her current situation,her point of view became just like Nam Se Hee, just a give and take.

This is Woo Su-ji, 30 years old, one of the two best friends of Ji Hoo. She was the coolest among the three of them. She has a stable but shitty job, who always sexually harassing her. She got the brains, height and also boobs. Though she has the nasty attitude, she has a warm heart when it comes to her friends. She dreams to be a CEO on her own business but got stuck up in a shitty corporate job, where everyone thinks that it’s a dream job and pays you a lot. It’s true that even if they pay you a lot, it doesn’t mean they can treat you like a shit. She doesn’t believe in love, she’s a liberated woman and she sleeps with anyone with no strings attached. She don’t want to get married, because that means, she can’t support her sick mother and also she got a trauma from her father who left them.

This is Ma Sang Goo, 38 years old. CEO of the company Se Hee worked in. He is slightly dumb person but also has a warm heart. He wanted to settle down and get his own family but he isn’t lucky on women. Not until he met Su-ji, whom he one-night stand once and they met again as a common friend of Se Hee and Ji-ho.

And this is Yang Ho-rang, 30 years old. She is bubbly and energetic person. Among these three girls I’ve mentioned, she was the only one who got luck in romance. Now, this is a loud shout out to those have a long-term relationship out there! They have been dating for 7 years with her boyfriend and already living on the same room. She’s dreaming about getting married since in her childhood years, she’s a big fan of wedding ceremonies and ready to start her own family.

And lastly, Sim Won-seok, 28 years old. He is Yang Ho-rang’s boyfriend for 7 years. Despite of a product of good university in Seoul, he’s struggling on sustaining his own business and end up with an unstable source of income. He was still an immature boy and not ready for marriage. They have an apposite view of marriage and family of Ho-rang but all in all, they stood for each other all the time.

3. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CHEMISTRY

OVERFLOWING CHEMISTRY! <3

I love how the producers got these two on the main roles. They really has a place on heart (well, Dukseon and Taek of Reply 1988 are still my #1). They shared a really good chemistry. The story was too cute for my weak heart~  

4. THE LINES AND METAPHORS

This is what I like for a certain drama, on how about the writer creates a good quote about real life. There are so many lines that will pierced in to your heart. Some are encouragement but mostly are the lines that will really hurt you. The writer uses a metaphor on how Ji-hoo looked at other people especially the “Room 19″. The lines reflects and will surely relatable to you.

5. VALUES THE FRIENDSHIP 

These three girls are inseparable. You can really tell that their friendship is genuine. You will miss your friendship out there.

6. IT HAS A MWEOTHHYY CAT~

And lastly, let’s take a moment of appreciation on this kitty. It’s so adorable and this is the reason why I love cats now!

BONUS:

Watch this eye-candy guy!

#because this is my first life #lee min ki #jung so min #kim ga-eun #kim minseok #esom #park byung eun #kim mingyu #2017 #kdrama #cats

[dfroza]

we need spiritual truth.

people cannot be their own god. and we cannot afford to choose ignorance over the majesty and grandeur of Creation of the heavens and beautiful earth where so many things grow from seeds... (A universal garden)

we need humility. and grace. and to believe that all things were originally made pure, and will return to be that way at some point. rebirth.

to erase all of the wrongs done on earth. because people want to be in control of themselves and others, even to their own destruction. it’s a mess. but there is hope. there is healing. there is freedom from sin and from fear.

and we see it clear as we continue in the reading of the book of Hebrews with Today’s chapter being the fifth:

Remember what I said earlier about the role of the high priest, even the ones chosen by human beings? The job of every high priest is reconciliation: approaching God on behalf of others and offering Him gifts and sacrifices to repair the damage caused by our sins against God and each other. The high priest should have compassion for those who are ignorant of the faith and those who fall out of the faith because he also has wrestled with human weakness, and so the priest must offer sacrifices both for his sins and for those of the people. The office of high priest and the honor that goes along with it isn’t one that someone just takes. One must be set aside, called by God, just as God called Aaron, the brother of Moses.

In the same way, the Anointed One, our Liberating King, didn’t call Himself but was appointed to His priestly office by God, who said to Him,

You are My Son.

Today I have become Your Father,

and who also says elsewhere,

You are a priest forever—

in the honored order of Melchizedek.

When Jesus was on the earth, a man of flesh and blood, He offered up prayers and pleas, groans and tears to the One who could save Him from death. He was heard because He approached God with reverence. Although He was a Son, Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered. And once He was perfected through that suffering He became the way of eternal salvation for all those who hear and follow Him, for God appointed Him to be a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

I have a lot more to say about this, but it may be hard for you to follow since you’ve become dull in your understanding. By this time, you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet I feel like you want me to reteach you the most basic things that God wants you to know. It’s almost like you’re a baby again, coddled at your mother’s breast, nursing, not ready for solid food. No one who lives on milk alone can know the ins and outs of what it means to be righteous and pursue justice; that’s because he is only a baby. But solid food is for those who have come of age, for those who have learned through practice to distinguish good from evil.

The Book of Hebrews, Chapter 5 (The Voice)

along with Today’s paired chapter illuminating the clothing of the High Priest in the instructions given to Moses and the completion of the work of building the ancient Sanctuary.

[Exodus 39]

Vestments. Using the blue, purple, and scarlet fabrics, they made the woven vestments for ministering in the Sanctuary. Also they made the sacred vestments for Aaron, as God had commanded Moses.

Ephod. They made the Ephod using gold and blue, purple, and scarlet fabrics and finely twisted linen. They hammered out gold leaf and sliced it into threads that were then worked into designs in the blue, purple, and scarlet fabric and fine linen. They made shoulder pieces fastened at the two ends. The decorated band was made of the same material—gold, blue, purple, and scarlet material, and of fine twisted linen—and of one piece with it, just as God had commanded Moses.

They mounted the onyx stones in a setting of filigreed gold and engraved the names of the sons of Israel on them, then fastened them on the shoulder pieces of the Ephod as memorial stones for the Israelites, just as God had commanded Moses.

Breastpiece. They made a Breastpiece designed like the Ephod from gold, blue, purple, and scarlet material, and fine twisted linen. Doubled, the Breastpiece was nine inches square. They mounted four rows of precious gemstones on it.

First row: carnelian, topaz, emerald.

Second row: ruby, sapphire, crystal.

Third row: jacinth, agate, amethyst.

Fourth row: beryl, onyx, jasper.

The stones were mounted in a gold filigree. The twelve stones corresponded to the names of the sons of Israel, twelve names engraved as on a seal, one for each of the twelve tribes.

They made braided chains of pure gold for the Breastpiece, like cords. They made two settings of gold filigree and two rings of gold, put the two rings at the two ends of the Breastpiece, and fastened the two ends of the cords to the two rings at the end of the Breastpiece. Then they fastened the cords to the settings of filigree, attaching them to the shoulder pieces of the Ephod in front. Then they made two rings of gold and fastened them to the two ends of the Breastpiece on its inside edge facing the Ephod. They made two more rings of gold and fastened them in the front of the Ephod to the lower part of the two shoulder pieces, near the seam above the decorated band of the Ephod. The Breastpiece was fastened by running a cord of blue through its rings to the rings of the Ephod so that it rested secure on the decorated band of the Ephod and wouldn’t come loose, just as God had commanded Moses.

Robe. They made the robe for the Ephod entirely of blue. The opening of the robe at the center was like a collar, the edge hemmed so that it wouldn’t tear. On the hem of the robe they made pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet material and fine twisted linen. They also made bells of pure gold and alternated the bells and pomegranates—a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate—all around the hem of the robe that was worn for ministering, just as God had commanded Moses.

They also made the tunics of fine linen, the work of a weaver, for Aaron and his sons, the turban of fine linen, the linen hats, the linen underwear made of fine twisted linen, and sashes of fine twisted linen, blue, purple, and scarlet material and embroidered, just as God had commanded Moses.

They made the plate, the sacred crown, of pure gold and engraved on it as on a seal: “Holy to God.” They attached a blue cord to it and fastened it to the turban, just as God had commanded Moses.

That completed the work of The Dwelling, the Tent of Meeting. The People of Israel did what God had commanded Moses. They did it all.

They presented The Dwelling to Moses, the Tent and all its furnishings:

fastening hooks

frames

crossbars

posts

bases

tenting of tanned ram skins

tenting of dolphin skins

veil of the screen

Chest of The Testimony

with its poles

and Atonement-Cover

Table

with its utensils

and the Bread of the Presence

Lampstand of pure gold

and its lamps all fitted out

and all its utensils

and the oil for the light

Gold Altar

anointing oil

fragrant incense

screen for the entrance to the Tent

Bronze Altar

with its bronze grate

its poles and all its utensils

Washbasin

and its base

hangings for the Courtyard

its posts and bases

screen for the gate of the Courtyard

its cords and its pegs

utensils for ministry in The Dwelling, the Tent of Meeting

woven vestments for ministering in the Sanctuary

sacred vestments for Aaron the priest,

and his sons when serving as priests

The Israelites completed all the work, just as God had commanded. Moses saw that they had done all the work and done it exactly as God had commanded. Moses blessed them.

The Book of Exodus, Chapter 39 (The Message)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for Saturday, April 25 of 2020 with a paired chapter from each Testament along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s reading of the Bible accompanied by a post by John Parsons shared this morning:

The Spirit speaks: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, and you are mine” (Isa. 43:1). God has personally redeemed you, friend; he calls you by name, and you belong to Him. The Lord loves you with an everlasting love and draws you close (Jer. 31:3). He will never leave nor forsake you, even if you might face waters that seem to overwhelm or fires that seem to devour (Isa. 43:2). The will of your Heavenly Father will never lead you to a place where his love will not there sustain you.

Worry is a place of exile and pain. We are commanded, al tira, “fear not,” because fear was behind the original sin in the garden, just as mistrust lies behind our own hiding and self-imposed exile from God... Since sin expresses a heart of fear (Rom. 14:23), the way of healing is to courageously turn back to God, despite our uncertainties. We can trust God’s love for us because of the cross of Yeshua our Lord. If we haven't received God's love and acceptance, we are still enslaved to fear and abide in a state of exile. The love of God casts out our fear because it casts out all our sins (1 John 4:18).

“God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a “sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7). The Greek word for “sound mind” means “safe” because of the restraining influence of the Spirit of God... If you sense fearful oppression within your heart, turn to the Lord and offer him focused praise. Lift up your soul to him and thank him for your trouble. This has the double benefit of confessing your trust in God’s care, as well as vexing the enemy of your soul. Come boldly to the throne of grace to find your help (Heb. 4:16); cast all your anxiety on him, for he cares for you (1 Pet. 5:7).

The Name of the LORD (יהוה) means “Presence” and “Love” (Exod. 3:14; 34:6-7). Yeshua said, “I go to prepare a place for you,” which means that his presence and love are waiting for you in whatever lies ahead (John 14:1-3; Rom. 8:35-39). To worry is to “practice the absence” of God instead of to practice His Presence... Trust the word of the Holy Spirit: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for healing peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope (Jer. 29:11).

Take comfort that your Heavenly Father sees when the sparrow falls; he arrays the flower in its hidden valley; and he calls each star by name. More importantly, the Lord sees you and understands your struggle with fear... Come to him with your needy heart and trust him to deliver you from the burdens of your soul (Matt. 11:28). [Hebrew for Christians]

4.25.20 • Facebook

“there is no fear in Love”

[readyaiminquire]

Part 1 - Homo Liberaretur

This is the first complete post in my series on human augmentation from the perspective of microchips. You can read the introductory post here, and the follow-up post will (eventually) be linked here as well. This particular post deals with discussions around the human body, what it is, and how this particular view can be problematised. Enjoy!

Note: All names are pseudonyms.

I was in Lund, a city revolving around its university. It is very near to where I grew up, so it seemed an appropriate place to find myself early on in my research. I was here to meet Harrison, grabbing a fika, or meeting socially for over a coffee - something unmistakably Swedish, and a good way to get to know someone new. Harrison was a self-avowed transhumanist, openly, vocally, and proudly. He held a deeply rooted moral conviction that not only does technology inherently lead to progress but if there emerged any technology with the capability of improving the human body or experience - the human condition, in short - there exist a moral obligation to use it. It later became clear that Harrison’s idea of ‘improvement’ was mainly rooted to the concept of extending the capability of the human body: seeing more wavelengths, hearing higher pitches, lifting heavier boxes, living longer. Adding technology, even replacing otherwise functional parts of our bodies was, according to my interlocutor, not only the next (and seemingly obvious) step in human evolution, but our fundamental raison d'etre. After all, he told me putting down a now empty cup, “we have always improved ourselves. Clothes, therapeutic tattoos, eye-glasses; and now wearables. Why stop outside the body? The human body is weak, fallible, and even though nature did an amazing job getting us this far, this obviously can’t be it. This can’t be the endpoint. Why should we be confined to this meat bag [sv: köttpåse] forever?

'Meat bag’ is a particularly jarring phrase. It certainly makes me wince every time I read it, if just internally. There’s something deeply undignified, rudimentary, and substandard with the phrase, made doubly uncomfortable by it describing the human body - my body. My knee-jerk was to reject the idea outright. The human body isn’t so thoughtlessly thrown together, so messy and disorganised, decaying and dysfunctional, and it most certainly isn’t something as disgusting and tragic as a sack of meat. It later became clear that Harrison wasn’t the only one to describe the body in these terms, these exact terms in some cases. The whole sentiment, it seemed was that the body we had today wasn’t the body we ought to have; it’s not 'even our final form’. During the same meeting, Harrison flatly told me that we are not what we have always been, evolution is a fact of life, of existence even, and we therefore shouldn’t be so attached to our current bodies. "Just as something has come before us,” Harrison said, sipping a second cappuccino, “monkeys and all that, something must come after us. There must necessarily be something post-human”. Though the statement, such as it is, holds up, there was something refined about it, something overly-thought-through, especially in the way he mixed English and Swedish as if to make the statement quotable. “Why not let evolution do its job?” I asked, naively. Based on what I had read previously, and what Harrison had told me, this was nothing short of a ridiculous suggestion. The answer was what I had, in many ways, expected: “Because evolution doesn’t know what it’s doing. It happens, random mutations, and it happens slowly. We have no control over it, we don’t know what’s going to happen, where things will go. It’s just not worth that risk.”

He seemed excited I had brought up this particular question, and quickly produced his phone, “Have you read or heard of Max More?” he asked while frantically poking around on the screen, before finding what he wanted, handing it to me, “read this”. I must admit that I only really skimmed it at the time, and only really read it in detail a few days later. The piece, A letter to Mother Nature, is one of the deeply influential texts in the transhumanist movement. It is clear why. It reads like a declaration of independence from biology itself. “We will no longer tolerate the tyranny of ageing” it pontificates, further demanding that “we will no longer be a slave to our genes”. Though More does somewhat thank this anthropomorphic Mother Nature for getting us this far, he makes it clear it is better if she retires (or else).

Max More, in his piece, makes it extremely clear that this sense of human empowerment, emancipation even, will stem from science and technology. This is how we will take control of our futures, of our collective destiny. When I found myself up in Stockholm a short time later, I had the opportunity to meet with Peter, a friend and colleague of Harrison. He without a doubt had bought into More’s argument, “You drank the Koolaid” I said, jokingly, “Yes”, Peter replied, “and this time the only danger is that not enough people will!”. We sat in a shared working space in the centre of Stockholm. It was a high-tech building, organised as a top of the line office for technology and innovation start-ups, and the hope was to bring together entrepreneurs from all facets to create a community out of which technological innovation can emerge. He showed me around, while we were looking for a free meeting room. The vast open space, interspersed with fish-tank meeting rooms made the space feel like a slice of Silicon Valley in the heart of Stockholm. Peter was a marketing man, and he had only really bought into transhumanism once he had met Harrison, but he was by now convert, in everything but name: “I wouldn’t go as far as to call myself a transhumanist. Why? I mean, I’m a bit older, I’m out of the loop in many ways, but I try to keep up. The point is, I don’t dare to call myself a transhumanist, because I wouldn’t have the balls to lead the charge into these new things. I’m a follower, I’m convinced without a doubt, but I won’t take that final plunge”. The proverbial plunge being human augmentation. In the most quotable way, Peter told me that technology is the future simply because “technology is clean, and biology is messy”. Besides, I was assured, we are already engaging in these forms of augmentation: specifically within the medical sphere. Pacemakers, hip replacements, cochlear implants, just to name a few. These were are all being done already, are major surgeries, and all carry out a form of “magic, but through science! Now all we need to figure out is how to take it to the next step.”

When questioned about bringing things to the “next step”, especially bringing up the discomfort around discussions of 'human improvement’ given its historical implications ranging from eugenics to concentration camps, the answer more often than not take a stance on the perfect opposite end of that spectrum. In other words, not to reconcile, but to outright dismiss. I was back in Lund now, meeting with a student at the university: Ethan. He was heavily involved with DIY science, and had a love from human augmentation after first being exposed to it through popular media, “in particular Deus Ex, the video game”. We sat at a cafe on a side-street, one of the first properly sunny days of the year, and despite the wind, the narrow medieval streets of Lund made it feel like high summer. Over a beer, our conversation went on. “There is this thing in the game that the characters to communicate telepathically, and I always thought that was so cool,” Ethan said, with a glimmer in his eye, “I always wanted to replicate that”, which it turns out he is attempting. This seemed outrageous to me, after all, he was 'just’ a physics undergraduate. He agreed but continued “it’s not really about completely doing it now, but someone’s got to start. I read a paper that showed that when you’re reading your throat muscles are producing micro twitches as if you were speaking. I’m trying to build electrodes that are sensitive enough to pick up the twitches, and then software to translate that to, like, a Word document or something”. Simply starting the process, making the first breakthrough was good enough.

“But aren’t you concerned when it comes to evening adding or taking things away from people, from humans?” I asked him. It was clear it was a question he had gotten a hundred times before, “I don’t think it’s reasonable to throw out an option completely just because it can be used for bad ends. I don’t think anyone reasonable wants to force people to get these augmentations, it’s more about giving people options. To expand what you can and cannot do, and to allow people to really be what they want to be”. The ideal sought after at the end of the day is what many within the movement call morphological freedom: the freedom to take on any form of existence you would like. On this note, a few months after my meeting with Ethan, I had the opportunity to see Max More speak at a conference in London. In his talk, he outlined morphological freedom as a fundamental human right that had been ignored for too long. If you exist, you have an inalienable right to take on any form you wish, he insisted. Simply abiding by the limitations - completely arbitrary ones, he added - nature has set for us doesn’t have any innate value or reason. It is, therefore, our responsibility to find a way to overcome them, the next step in our evolution. Evolution has brought us to the brink of being able to take control, so taking this control must now be humanity’s collective raison d'etre.

At this stage, it might seem a bit confusing as to how this at all has anything to do with microchipping - these high-minded ideals, talk of techno-utopianism, liberation from the 'shackles of nature’, or morphological freedom. Going back to my fika with Hannes, I asked him just this question. After all, his involvement with popularising micro-implants was why we had met to begin with, and the meeting immediately took a turn for the utopian. “These?” he said, pointing at his left hand as if there was something these, “oh, they’re just toys, neither here nor there. They’re just the beginning of something, the first steps, nothing to flaunt [sv. Ingenting att hänga i julgranen]”. Harrison, however, was very careful to point out to me that it wasn’t very long ago that wearable technologies were just as rudimentary, and though we now have smartwatches and fitness trackers, they are still in their infancy, however, “not even these would have gotten very far if people hadn’t used them”. It appears, then, that much of the high-minded idealism aims to convince people of the same future my interlocutors like to imagine.

The recurring image is of the techno-utopian future as inevitable, but that it is also being held back by people either not believing, or not realising its inevitability. When speaking to people outside of the movement, the reactions to something as minimally intrusive as a microchip in your hand (bearing in mind that it is injected into your hand through a syringe, and the procedure doesn’t take much longer than 15 seconds) the reactions are either neutral or steeped in horror. During a conversation with my sister and brother-in-law about my implant, my sister was made so uncomfortable by the very idea of it all, she refused to touch my hand where the chip was implanted. A bit melodramatic, perhaps, but by no means unique. If not met with cute visceral discomfort it is often understood to be unnecessary. It highlights the main tension that the movement is up against: that between therapy and enhancement. While the medical field is often highlighted as simply doing 'what we’re doing’ when it comes to medical implants, as outlined above, the difference is not only in context but also intent. A pacemaker, for example, might equate to an artificial heart, but it is nonetheless only administered when a 'regular’ heart isn’t working. In other words, it is therapeutic, and therapy inherently means to bring bodily functions in line with a normative socio-cultural view of what the human body is, and thereby what it ought to be able to do (have a beating heart, walk, breathe, see, hear, and so on). Enhancement exists to bring the capabilities of the human body above this normative view, thereby causing a 'break’ between how we view medical intervention compared to 'frivolous’ improvement.

Harrison, Peter, or Ethan and many more, are up against more than just technological limitations, they’re up against wider social and cultural forces. As they see it, they are working towards a solution to a problem that society at large doesn’t recognise. STS professor Steven Hilgartner have called these types of movements 'socio-technical vanguards’, or people who formulate and act to realise particular visions of the future, specifically visions that have not yet been accepted by wider society. However, the ideas being floated within these communities aren’t as radical as you might first believe. Though it is traditionally espoused that the Western view of the body and self is squarely rooted in the so-called Cartesian split (i.e. that the body and mind are two different 'entities’, and the mind controls the body), researchers have not only begun questioning this but have even started noticing a very clear shift towards 'datafied’ understanding of the body. The theory goes that everything about the body can be quantified, down to cell structures and DNA, even your mind is not different. In other words, you’re simply made up of code.

This shift has some clear implications for the typical transhumanist view of the body. It creates a more 'level’ playing field in communicating this particular version of the body. Arguing that we’re not much different than computers, whereby our bodies are hardware that’s running particular software becomes more grounded in the pop-sci understanding of the latest research. What follows is an understanding of the body being exchangeable as a matter-of-course. It is, after all, not much than a (granted, rather long) extension of the currently dominant discourse. But is it that simple?

Scholar and thinker Donna Haraway reminds us that it’s not only our current worldviews that matter, but also what worldviews lead their development. As she puts it, it matters what “worlds word worlds”. With the growth of wearables, social media, and other algorithms, there has been an inevitable shift in how engineers and developers understand the body, one that necessitated quantification. As this later spread to other communities (Quantified Self springs to mind as a very clear example), it became a more and more ingrained. However, there are some problems with this, given that this particular understanding is grounded in particular views of enlightenment philosophy and the scientific revolution, meaning that - in short - this particular view is far from as neutral as it might appear. As yet others have argued, this limiting scope of the body also helps to reproduce its views. More specifically through an example, the choices made as to what metrics to track in a fitness tracker invariably comes with an assumption that this aspect needs to be improved - steps taken, heart rate, sleeping patterns, and so on. Simultaneously, any such decisions will discount other 'metrics’, and by extension make (perhaps implicit) decisions as to what it means to be human.

It is through this process that speaking of a 'technologically improved human’ becomes problematic, as we are never asked to ponder the question: Whose human? Whose improvement? Whose technology? It does indeed matter what “worlds world worlds”, and what this shows more than anything is that these movements, organisations, and people do not operate after an objective understanding of anything, but rather operate under a very specific ideology.

An ideology of techno-utopianism.

Selected references

CERQUI, D. 2002. The future of humankind in the era of human and computer hybridization: An anthropological analysis. Ethics and Information Technology.

DELFANTI, A. 2013. Biohackers: The Politics of Open Science, 130–140. Pluto Press.

HARAWAY, D. 2014. Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene: Staying with the Trouble. Anthropocene:http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/anthropocene-capitalocene-chthulucene/, accessed 05/09/19).

HILGARTNER, S. 2015. Capturing the imaginary: Vanguards, visions and the synthetic biology revolution. In Science and democracy: Making knowledge and making power in the biosciences and beyond (eds) S. Hilgartner & C. Miller, 33–55. New York: Rob Hagendijk Routledge.

MORE, M. 2013. A Letter to Mother Nature. The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future 449–450.

TAMMINEN, S. & E. HOLMGREN 2016. The Anthropology of Wearables: The Self, The Social, and the Autobiographical. Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings 2016, 154–174.