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pandorasworkshop · 8 months

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💀Pick a Poisonous Flower - Pick a Card

Pandorasworkshop

Pick a poisonous flower to find out who's your hidden enemy?

Datura Foxglove Belladonna

Datura

Datura is a hellish plant that can bring about nightmarish hallucinations and dehydrate your body past no return.

Cards: queen of cups, devil, death, king of pentacles, moon, eight of pentacles .

Readings: Be careful of a blonde? women who you may work with or go to school with. She is highly manipulative and has a sweet girl act down to every last detail. She's convinced the people around her of this act as well. This person may be jealous of your success, hard work, talent and patience. They may want to push you out of your position, get you fired in the worst case scenario, get your promotion or steal your light. Be careful not to tell people too much jealous eyes can give you bad luck. Your advice is king of pentacles which means someone in your higher up will help you but first you need to balance yourself. Do not react to anything. I can see this person using your anxiety/depression/paranoia against you. Stay calm and collected. This person is really obsessive. She may even try to take your ideas and pass them off as hers. Make sure things are in writing always. Be very careful. These cards are heavy major arcana.

Signs: rainbows, number 8, magic 8 ball, masquerade mask, growing pains, scones, chai tea, wanting to cut your hair, police sirens, cold beer.

Foxglove

Foxglove is a poisonous plant that it's affects are similar to that of a cardiac arrest. It's called foxgloves because it was thought to be fairies gloves.

Cards: Seven of pentacles, three of cups reversed, nine of swords, nine of cups

Reading: You have a lot of envy for simply being yourself. Someone in your friend group is really jealous of you and may be unintentionally sending you negative energy your way through the evil eye. All the cards in this reading are minor arcana so I feel like this person won't do anything really impactful? Or anything that will make a dent in you. They are jealous of how happy you seem in yourself and how you seem to persevere through things. You have confidence that they don't have and it causes them to be self conscious. Your energy may be picking up on this if you are highly intuitive and it makes you feel worried almost but don't be. Your advice is to cleanse yourself and any gifts you may get and stay protected however you may do that. Your guides got yoy

Signs: gigs, snow, thunderstorms, starting your period, icicles, haunted houses, fairy themed stuff, feeling sick to your stomach, warm cup of tea, brown boots, brown sugar, angel statues.

Belladonna

Belladonna is a poisonous plant that if ingested can cause lethargy and comas if ingested. It got it's name from 'beautiful' and 'woman' because it used to be made into a topical cosmetic foundation and increased pupil size. Obviously this has been out of practice now.

Cards: Three of cups, three of swords, judgement and five of pentacles

Reading: You may have broken someone's heart or broken off a friendship. This person feels veryyy resentful of you. Even if you were just asserting your boundaries. You may actively know this person dislikes you but may not think they are wanting to see your downfall but this person is very much in their emotions and feels very hurt by just your presence. They may try to use your past against you like past trauma, occupations or things you've done when you were younger. They are beating a dead horse and I feel as if this person will get tired of it eventually. They could even be a step sibling? Whoever this person is they can't take no for an answer and aren't the type person you want in your life.

Signs: Romeo and Juliet, Wattpad fanfics, opera, Chocolate cake, crepes, feeling really hungry, parrots, 421, 444, journaling, listening to classical or instrumental music.

#tarotblr #pick a pile #tarot pick a pile #pick a photo #pick a picture #pick a card #tarot tips #tarot witch #tarot reading #tarot cards #tarot #witchblr #witchcraft #folk magic #spellwork #divination

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neptunes-sol-angel · 1 year

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This is going to be different from my other pick a piles. Instead of using cards, I solely channeled these messages with shufflemancy. I loved doing this reading because I've always imagined myself composing music for a movie or at least deciding which songs to use for scenes if I ever got the chance to have a job in that field. While you're thinking of the scenes and how they parallel with what next year could be like for you, definitely give those songs a listen, as if they'll be in the background.

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Pile One 🍿

The Beginning Scene:

Provoker - Dark Angel

(That's a bad ass song for an intro!)

I see a montage of a person (the main character) arriving to a new city that has some sort of cyberpunk aesthetic. The locals aren't very welcoming to this person, but the main character isn't exactly fond of them either. It's dark and gritty despite the showcasing of colors from all sorts of gadgets, lights, and holographic displays. This place is big, with a lot to glimpse at and discover, and crowds of individuals who could potentially be a rival, enemy, lover, or even a friend.

I feel like this pile is going to be starting the new year in a different environment, possibly a new place to call home, but for a lot of you, I'm getting school. For the scene I visualized for you guys, there was this building tension that I kept feeling. Like you guys are not really happy about this new beginning, but you're here at this destination to have a more discreet life with no ties to your past. You guys could feel like a lone ranger, who's lost in life, but isn't necessarily trying to be found or have an obligation to anything. It seems like you're really looking for peace, and aren't trying to make yourself popular amongst people or make connections. I see people sizing you up to intimidate you, but they aren't aware that you aren't the one to mess with, they will though. I also see you being active in this new environment, and people boasting about how helpful and talented you are, but you aren't accepting these compliments. You guys could be dealing with an ego death at the beginning of this year and are having trouble seeing the good that people see in you, whether they're genuine people or foes. Its like you're trying to keep yourself in the dark of this new place, despite running away from your past, and this year is throwing a lot of intervention in your way to bring you out of this self-loathing mindset and to stop running away from fate.

The Middle Scene:

SWANES - Cozy

I see the main character attending a nightclub party, and the appropriate attire for entry is masquerade themed. The main character is looking for someone or something but unexpectedly encounters someone else. Someone from their past, but before they could really catch up with each other, a fight breaks out.

I'm seeing this as a lot of chaotic events that you'll have to deal with in the middle of the year to the point where it's hard for you to focus on anything or anyone else, besides a way to end all of the drama that keeps unfolding. It's like in the middle of this storm, you feel like this is its peak, but then you come across someone from the past that you absolutely don't have time for or want to be bothered by or finding a new love interest that brings you both joy and stress because it all feels like the wrong time to have them. For a lot of you, I feel like this reconciliation with someone you've either dated or never got the chance to but definitely had strong feelings for. But then again, this could really mean, finally finding someone that understands you on an intimate level in this new place that you're in, or allowing yourself to put your guard down and and be in the embrace of someone who will give you comfort for being yourself, instead of giving you more reasons to not like yourself.

The Ending Scene:

Naja Young - Brighter Days

A bittersweet sight to see. For the first time in the movie, in sadly the last scene, the main character stands in front of a golden‐amber sky instead of the clouded and dull atmosphere that they were used to seeing in the city. There's no one else around them, only them, but they're finally content and at peace, with a welcoming smile, staring out in the open, but no long moving. No longer walking or running away from anything.

The genre that I felt for this movie was action. A lot of jaw-dropping fight scenes, and cool neon futuristic weapons and stuff. So I'm getting that the year could feel like endless fighting for you guys, even if you guys are winning, there's still this exhaustion with even having to fight still. This could symbolize being tired of not fitting in with a community but could also symbolize not understanding why you can't fit in with yourself. The Scene doesn't include anyone else, because it represents the main character (you), finally ending this battle that they have within, moreover, finding and attaining peace with themselves that didn't include what they did for other people or what other people did to them. The thing about action movies is that they tend to rank lower than other genres because the fights water down the plot, so I think this means that you're still not really attached to finding or working towards your purpose this year, or even the potential drama with other people in the future, you're OK with where you are now and aren't concerned about anything other than what makes you happy. So regardless of the pain you've experienced in the past, recently, or will experience, in the future, this year will teach you how to not let it consume you or keep you in a panic of how to survive rather than how to live.

The Grammy Award Winning Scene:

Family Time - Magic Abyss Hotel

I'm seeing this fight Scene where it looks like you're losing and about to be killed, but you're smiling and chuckling? The person fighting you is confused, and that creates an opening for you. It's your rhythm while you're fighting that makes this scene the star of the movie, it's like your fighting is almost like dancing with the way it syncs with the song.

This could represent a tower moment that could feel like an inevitable end for you or maybe something that could potentially put you at rock bottom, and it just feels unbelievable. So you laugh because this isn't how you envisioned your end to be, but I feel like the irony of it gives you strength to keep pushing and know that it's not over for you and you won't go out from what you're currently facing. The main character (you) creates visual of what's familiar to everyone which is resilience, but also an inspiration of what triggers a person to keep fighting for their life.

Pile Two 🍿

The Beginning Scene:

Winter - Bonsai

I see the main character being a famous musician in a band performing in front of a huge crowd of people. They're really feeling what they're singing and playing on their instrument that you would think it's real, but it's not. This is a dream. They know that though. It's an awesome dream that they have most of their nights of sleeping, it's just painful when they have to wake up. But they wake up, and then they carry on with with their normal life that isn't as colorful and exciting as the dream that they were in.

I feel like at the beginning of the new year, you will feel like it's any other year, where it's the same stuff and you are no longer expecting anything to change or get better. This could make your attitude appear very nonchalant, but inside you're actually angry over how can reality be so monotonous. As you're reading this, you probably won't believe my word, but I have a feeling that this year could actually be the one where you experience a different tune, something life changing, but only this time, will there be positive transformations. I must add though, that this doesn't mean you won't face anything bad or that the year will be 100% good, but I do see improvement that will make you pleased. If you guys are maladaptive dreamers, you could experience a lot of deja vu in the beginning of the year. Where the opportunities and people that you meet aren't as exaggerated like in the scenarios that you imagine, they will still scarily resemble too much of the things that you wished for or dreamed of experiencing. The start of your year, could be the opposite of boredom that you were expecting. It will start off eventful, that could be overwhelming to keep up with, but I feel like it will only be the tip of the ice berg. Momentum for something exciting that'll give you that new start you were craving, but most importantly, real.

The Middle Scene:

Saskatchewan - Venom

I see someone in front of a computer, looking for answers, but are heavily frustrated with what they can't find. I see them moving onto books and old articles, but still they can't find anything. Then I see them in front of a mirror, with tears falling down their face. They're just not sure about something anymore. I see a scene of this person trying on makeup that changes their looks drastically, but it doesn't satisfy them, so they immediately wipe it off. I see another scene of them shaving their head, but it's the same result. Another, where they're getting a piercing, but no luck. Last, a scene where they get a tattoo, but futile. And then, the person is back in front of their mirror, eyes red from crying, and then they grab something to shatter the mirror with.

There could be something about your existence that's bothering you. This feels like imposter syndrome, or not quite figuring out what's dragging you down and making you feel like there's something missing. Or maybe you'll come across some new information about yourself or your family that you weren't expecting, that shatters who you've always known yourself to be. Maybe you're haunting yourself with things from the past that make you overthink about where you fit in with people or what about you just doesn't resonate with people anymore. Maybe you're losing friends or even broke up with someone, but this seems a lot about blaming yourself for what you've lost, or why you don't feel cut out for a project or role thag you were chosen for. This could also symbolize stress over school or work, where you question if you're good enough for something or if signs are showing you to change your route. I definitely see you recovering from this phase of uncertainty, but for a lot of you, the solution is to move on to something else that makes you more sure of yourself without any pressure, or away from people that discourage you about your dreams because of an unconventional calling or path that you're on.

The Ending Scene:

The Macho Ache - How Did I Get Here

I see the main character (you) in their own place, somewhere that they're proud to call home. The place is cluttered with beautiful Christmas decorations. There's this huge window with a beautiful view of a city, probably somewhere that they've always wanted to live in. They're dancing in front of that window, in front of that skylight view, with stars in the background, twinkling just like the main character who has now finally become their own star in reality, not a dream.

I see success. Success that the main character (you) wasn't expecting, that feels like night and day compared to last year. They are happy. You are happy. You're overwhelmed with how much your life has changed but it's different from the kind that you were experiencing earlier in the year, this feels like like relief that didn't seem possible.

The Grammy Award Winning Scene:

Surf Curse - Labyrinth

I see the main character driving with an adrenaline rush that's emphasized in their eyes. They've had enough and are madly driving driving away from people. This could be from a job that they've quit, their parents, a friend or group of friends, or a lover. The main character is slowly breaking down crying as they're still driving away, but eventually they start crying happy tears.

This Scene represents the pain and grief after someone makes a decision that they didn't want to make but feel as if they needed to. The Scene represents regret after walking alway from someone that they've known for the longest but can no longer handle anymore hurt from them. The sad tears could represent their life flashing in their mind with these individuals, both happy and sad memories, and this pulling feeling that wants them to stay because it's familiar, but the happy tears symbolize that what's done is done, and the joy from their emancipation.

Pile Three 🍿

The Beginning Scene:

Ordinary Child - Float On

I see the main character in an aftermath of the world as we knew it, destroyed. They're the last human. They're laying down on what's left of a rooftop, staring up in a daze, at the sky filled with aurora lights.

At the very beginning of this year, you could be fearful of what's to come because you're still processing all that has happened to you in 2022. For you, you just don't feel right about this year, as if the world is ending, so you could be disassociating a lot. Or maybe you're confused about your surroundings. How people can still go off living their lives when there's so much going on in the world, so it's like you're anticipating something and you're just wondering when other people will catch up. You could be internalizing too much of the world's pain, so I'm seeing that there could be lessons brought to you on how to place boundaries with how much you're feeling from other people and situations, but reminders to stop moving so fast trying to find out how everything is going to end, because you have a life that still needs to be lived now. Maybe you're also being nudged with experiences that bring you back to appreciating what life has to offer now, but it doesn't move you completely. It seems like you'll feel like a ghost. Nothing makes you feel much anymore or everything around you just doesn't feel real.

The Middle Scene:

Easy Life - Wet Weekend

I'm seeing the main character encountering an alien that arrived on earth as a new home. They're just as confused as the main character, but the main character puts their guard down, and shows the alien around earth despite what has been destroyed.

I'm picking up that you could be around younger individuals. There's a baby, child, or someone that's around your age who's naive that you'll meet and be around a lot. Somehow, you're both learning a lot from each other, but most importantly, this is making you regain your humanity or at least faith in humanity. Because I was getting maybe a baby or child, they could represent a newfound perspectives and appreciation for living, and allowing yourself to recieve and give. This could also mean using your knowledge and awareness to find inspiration for a new lifestyle or philosophy. There's something about your beliefs changing a lot in this part of your year, where you're no longer obsessing over other people's enlightenment or lack thereof, but focusing on how there's still much to learn than just concluding that the point in life is to die and that's it. You could also find newer communities to be in, that will put you at ease, and make you have more fun.

The Ending Scene:

Slchild - Maybe We Need a Break

After separating from your alien friend due to an argument or one of you guys being captured. You guys are reunited again, and are walking together with your shadows signifying the strength of your friendship.

For some reason, I feel like this represents feeling like yourself again. Like no longer feeling outside of your body with no confusion over your life and why things happen the way that they do. You're feeling very whole even amongst the people that you couldn't understand before. I'm getting that you're also no longer caring about your pace by realizing that we all move at different tempos. This could also mean no longer feeling like the world is out to get you, and there are other people who share similar traumas that you've faced, despite what they look like on the outside. I also interpret this as creating something that substantial that surpasses time and death. This can be finding new friends and "family" and making memories with you that they will always remember and keep close, or this could represent strong progress in healing through grief that you've been experiencing with a loved one that died. People may not live forever, or happiness may not be a constant thing, but you're learning how to immortalize things that you love about living or that you loved about someone who passed away.

The Grammy Award Winning Scene:

VACATIONS - Steady

The main character (you) is scavenging through old remnants and belongings of people that didn't survive the apocalypse. They're mourning over both people that they've known and haven't even met.

I feel like grief is a big message in this pile. Grieving through your loss for wanting to life, grieving through dreams you may have missed out on, grieving through people that you've lost to death or other reasons. This is a powerful scene for the audience that knows what it's like to have feelings of emptiness and no idea left on where to go. I feel like if this pile is going through a loss, please know that you will get through this, even if it feels endless. I feel like the year of 2023, will evoke the recovery that you need to find your way back into the world again.

#divination #intuitive #psychic #pick a card #oracle #tarot #spirituality #pac #pick a pile #pick a picture #psychic readings #psychic reading #tarotblr #the tarot community #tarot community #tarot reader #music #movies

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stories-and-chaos · 2 months

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Some Hazbin Hotel head canons/theories that have been bouncing around my brain

Charlie is scared of fire/her own powers. She completely loses her composure in Masquerade and Dad Beat Dad. Given her magical girl transformation in the final battle, it seems like fire can’t hurt her, so why would she freak out the way she does? Because she’s panicking over what the fire does to everyone else. My headcanon is that when she was little, she got upset and lost control of her powers. That caused property damage and/or hurt someone else. Which would be terrifying for any kid. It may play into why she strives to be so upbeat. She knows what can happen when she loses her cool and it scares her.

Why Adam is in Heaven: he’s the baseline to qualify for entry. Not his current self, but how he was when he died. I’m guessing he wasn’t terrible before he died, just...a basic guy. As the first human soul in Heaven, he set the lowest bar. If you behaved equal to or better than he did in life, you get in too. Worse than that? To Hell with you. But millennia of having the status of First Man and First Soul in Heaven has just fed his ego and narcissism. When he dies at the end of the season, he would not qualify for Heaven, his behavior had deteriorated so much.

This is why Sir Pentious goes to Heaven. He died and his soul passed the bar. Related to that, he didn’t die to an angelic weapon, rather a light blast. Adam is the only one we see using that so it’s unlikely the rest of the exorcists share that power. They’d absolutely use it if they could; Lute would be lasering Sinners down just to get her kill count higher. But despite the millions of souls eliminated over the exterminations, no other demon has been redeemed. It seems likely that being killed by an angelic weapon prevents entry into Heaven. Evaporated by holy light doesn’t seem to stop a soul from being re-judged however.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin headcanons #hazbin charlie #hazbin adam #hazbin sir pentious #hazbin spoilers #charlie morningstar #hazbin hotel adam #headcanon

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ines2925 · 3 months

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Angel Dust – representation that was needed

youtube

It's a little different kind of post for me. Not only because it's about a different angel than usual, but because it's very private as well. But I'm obsessed with Hazbin Hotel, and watching it meant so much to me, so I thought I would share.

(Sorry if it's weirdly structured, it is a bit of a stream of consciousness, really.)

CW: sexual abuse

Spoilers: Hazbin Hotel "Masquerade" (s01 e04)

Trauma response

I'm absolutely grateful to the creators for giving us Angel Dust and impressed by how they handled his story.

Seeing a character that is hypersexual because of their trauma was extremely cathartic for me. And watching how Angel kept getting himself in dangerous situations and sexualised himself to regain control over his body, made me feel seen.

I think when it comes to sexual abuse, what we see most often in media is how someone completely draws back from all forms of intimacy after the assault. This is a valid experience of course (we process trauma in so many various ways!), but it can be really alienating as well.

Rejection

Another aspect the creators executed really well was Angel's initial dynamic with Husk. The way they showed how there is something addictive in constantly getting rejected was excellent.

Angel knew how Husk would respond to his flirting, and it was exactly what he was looking for every time. Something that could be transparent when he escalated their fights in the "Masquerade" episode.

Rejection means that someone sees how broken you are, how disgusting and undesirable. At the same time, it can power your need to use your body even more because you need confirmation you are still someone who could be wanted by others.

Regaining control over your body

I didn't know I needed to see someone who had the same reaction as me – who tried to use their own body just to feel like the choice was theirs, to prove that not every act of intimacy had to be something that was done to them. But it helped me see my own experience in a completely different light.

I thought that as long as it was my choice I would feel fine. And I thought that as long as I made someone desire me, I was the one in control of the situation. It made me blame myself for what happened to me even more because I now had proof, that it could be my decision, something I could change if I wanted to.

It made sense in my head, even after spending a lot of time on healing. But it fell apart after seeing Angel's story.

Re-learning empathy

I think this episode is truly important and eye-opening. Even though I thought I understood my self-destructive tendencies, what I needed was to see someone else in that situation to be able to show them empathy I didn’t have for myself.

Because there is always the matter of a 'choice' that makes it hard not to blame yourself. Especially after the assault when you feel the weight of your own decisions even more because now you should understand what is right and what is wrong. The wrong happened to you, after all. It should be easy to recognise situations when something feels off, shouldn't it?

But throughout the whole episode, I was screaming in my head: “It’s not your fault” at Angel, and I just wanted to embrace him and assure him of that.

And I guess it finally clicked that it was the same for me. That I deserved this kindness as well. And today I feel like I'm a step closer to actually giving it to myself.

So hey, if you somehow read it and haven't watched Hazbin Hotel yet, give it a go. I think you won't regret it! It has great depth, amazing songs and a unique style. And I think we still need more stories that explore the idea of Heaven and Hell! Especially as excellent as this one.

#hazbin hotel #angel dust #sexualassault #trauma #trauma response #trauma recovery #empathy #healing #Youtube

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anna-scribbles · 10 months

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was about to read chap 2 of call it even but ao3 decided to self destruct anna how will i go on

that is so tragic that i will just have to post a whole sneak peek of ch 2 for you here!!!!

Adrien loved Ladybug.

He loved the smooth timbre of her voice and the firm set of her eyes, the way her mouth would dig its way deeper into a scowl the more she tried not to laugh at one of the rare jokes he managed to pry beneath her red-and-black spotted armor. He loved the way she spoke of justice with such reverence, of peace with such passion. Adrien loved the idea of Ladybug, at least—the thought that there could be a person who embodied so much of what he cherished, the grace and goodness and compassion of his childhood. He loved what Ladybug stood for. What she pretended to stand for.

Sometimes, Adrien thought that he could have loved Ladybug if he didn’t hate her so much.

There were times, though—like now, her red fist redder with his blood, cold disdain smeared across her face—when Adrien thought that he’d have hated her regardless, this nameless thief who masqueraded around his city as a hero. There were times when Adrien was certain he could never have ended up anywhere but at the other end of her fist, if only so that no one else would have to bear the brunt of her brutality.

“Get up,” his father’s voice hissed into his earpiece. “Don’t just lie there like an invalid. Take her miraculous!”

“Me-ouch,” Adrien wiped some of the blood off his face and grimaced, rising to his feet. “I guess your pledge to protect the citizens of Paris from danger doesn’t extend to animal cruelty.”

Fury lit up across her face, instant and red. Of all her buttons he’d learned to press, none ever worked quite as well as calling her out on the hero facade. And today, now that he was getting a good look at her, she was more agitated than usual, all her movements impatient and sharp.

“Don’t you talk about danger and cruelty,” Ladybug spat, setting her yo-yo spinning in a razor-sharp circle of light. “That misunderstood-tragic-kitty act is as fake as your stupid smile. We all know you could put an end to the danger anytime you felt like it.”

“Then you have misunderstood me, my lady,” He watched the time-worn nickname worm its way beneath her skin, upheaving a vulnerable, messy sort of frustration. Adrien lengthened his baton and lowered his stance. “This can’t end until I have your miraculous.”

Ladybug let out a yell and swung her yo-yo in a blinding arc at his torso. Adrien intercepted it mid-air with his baton, pulling the staff loose from the wire and scampering past her to the other end of the rooftop. He would do almost anything to avoid getting entangled in that thing; it was near indestructible and Ladybug wasn’t usually very keen on treating her captives kindly. His father, also, was not very keen on his cataclysm being used outside of their specific battle strategies. Adrien, in general, was not very keen on making either of these people any more angry at him than they usually were.

“Eat up, my angels!” M. Pigeon yelled up from the sky, riding atop a massive cloud of pigeons. “Taste the delicious cuisine you were always meant to have! No longer will the pigeons of Paris be resigned to breadcrumbs and cat food!”

“Hey!” Adrien yelled indignantly. “Nothing wrong with cat food!”

Ladybug made a sound that could almost be taken as a snort, but when he looked back, her expression had schooled itself back into righteous anger. She lifted an eyebrow, challenging him, but pulled herself into more of a defensive stance. She always liked to take everything in before she made a move.

“It’s okay to laugh, you know,” Adrien grinned wide and assumed a jovial stance, taking stock of the angle of her feet, the aim of her gaze. She was smarter and stronger than him; he’d always known that. But he was quicker with words and knew where to aim them. “It must be an incredible drain on your energy to keep pretending you don’t find me funny.”

“You sure think a lot of yourself for someone who just admitted to eating kibble,” Ladybug scoffed, eyes trailing the flock of birds passing over their heads.

“Don’t knock it until you try it, my lady,” Adrien said. “For a hero, you’re incredibly quick to judge.”

“For a villain, you sure do love stupid small talk.”

“Well,” Adrien mused, “Maybe there’s more to both of us than meets the eye.”

“Doubt it,” Ladybug said lightly, and she spun out her yo-yo, knocking Adrien’s feet out from under him and leaping to the roof of a neighboring building.

Just then, a fleet of pigeons swooped down from the sky and descended onto a nearby outdoor restaurant, littering the rooftop with feathers in their wake. Pulling himself up, Adrien watched with a measure of horrified wonder as the pigeons devoured all the food on the tables in a matter of seconds like a pack of feathered piranhas.

“Are they supposed to be, like, carnivores?” Adrien yelled, the image of a pigeon tearing through a sausage burned into his mind. Ladybug, predictably, didn’t answer.

He vaulted after her, trailing her from rooftop to rooftop as they both dodged the swarms of pigeons terrorizing tourists and stealing every bit of food in sight. Sometimes, the akumas remembered that they were on Adrien’s side and actually tried to help him take Ladybug’s miraculous. But just as often, it seemed, they were more interested in general destruction and chaos, causing as many problems for Adrien as they did for Ladybug. The pigeons, Adrien tended to think, were more of a personal handicap than anything.

“ACHOO!” Adrien sneezed, his still-broken nose sending an unexpected jolt of pain through his system. “Ow,” he groaned.

“Ha!” Ladybug spun around and kicked him in the chest, flinging him several meters back and over the edge of the rooftop. Slamming into the side of the building, Adrien dug his claws into the brick to slow his fall, pulling himself back up. When he finally made it over the ledge, Ladybug had her feet planted firmly and was throwing her yo-yo into the sky.

“Lucky charm!” she yelled.

In a shower of luminescent pink and white light, a polka-dotted Easy-Bake Oven landed primly in Ladybug’s hands. The way the hope sort of died on her face was almost enough to make Adrien burst into laughter, and it was really only years of media training that kept his expression schooled.

“Happy… ninth birthday?” Adrien offered, and the glare that Ladybug shot him honestly made the whole thing worth it.

“Shut up,” Ladybug snarled, and then she turned her gaze back to the battery-powered confectionery oven as if it might start speaking to her. “How the—”

“On your right!” Adrien yelled, and Ladybug glanced in his direction as a swarm of pigeons slammed into her from the left, knocking the lucky charm out of her hands. Adrien quickly scooped it up and vaulted to the next building.

“You menace!” Ladybug growled, swinging behind him in swift pursuit.

“Name-calling!” Adrien tutted over his shoulder. “Not very heroic of you, I have to say.”

“I’ll show you heroic,” Ladybug muttered, and then Adrien felt a sharp tug on his left ankle. He’d only just looked down to see her yo-yo line wrapped around his leg when she sent him flying backward through the air, the toy oven flung from his hands as he braced for impact.

Adrien slammed into the pavement, pain rocketing through his shoulder. His baton clattered down next to him, and he blinked the black away enough to see Ladybug standing up on the roof again, staring at her lucky charm like it was a math problem she was trying to solve.

“I, for one, am loving this game of kitty-in-the-middle we’ve got going,” Adrien called up at her. He extended his baton and vaulted back up to the roof where she stood, ignoring the splintering pain in his muscles. “My turn next?”

Ladybug groaned, shoving the oven under one arm and setting her yo-yo spinning with the other. She swung it out at him and he jumped, almost stumbling when he landed on his throbbing ankle. He could try using his cataclysm to disintegrate the roof and make her lose her balance, but he wasn’t supposed to activate it until she had three minutes or less left on her timer.

“Get it?” Adrien asked, swiping his baton at her legs. Ladybug jumped deftly away. “Because we’re throwing the lucky charm back and forth? Like, monkey-in-the—”

“I get it!” Ladybug snarled, wrapping her yo-yo line around a nearby balcony and tugging, hard. Adrien had only seconds to lift his baton up in a makeshift shield when the bricks all came clattering down on him, along with a few tables and chairs and plates of food.

Suddenly a swarm of pigeons separated from the huge flock in the sky and descended upon them, devouring the sandwiches and chips at alarming speeds. Adrien’s stomach panged with hunger—while the rest of him panged with pain—as he remembered that he hadn’t actually gotten to eat lunch.

“Hm,” Ladybug said decisively, like the feeding pigeons had imparted some sort of divine wisdom upon her. “Yeah, okay.”

She was gone before Adrien could dig himself out of the rubble, swinging away with her magic Easy-Bake in tow and leaving him to deal with her mess.

“What are you doing?” Father yelled into his ear. “Follow her! Don’t let her out of your sight!”

“Of course,” Adrien muttered, unearthing an arm from the mess of rubble and feathers. “Resident bug-catcher, on it.”

Loud-mouthed and brightly colored as she was, Ladybug could disappear when she wanted to. And, though he’d spent the better part of his teenage years committing her habits to memory, Adrien could swear that tracking her never got easier.

Sometimes, when she’d do this—try and shake him off while she figured out her lucky charm—Adrien would spend the whole five minutes looking for her, tearing through the city until a wave of light flooded the world and let him know that he’d lost without even putting up a fight. Those were the times he’d be punished the worst for losing. The punishments had only gotten worse as he’d gotten older; Adrien had a lot more to lose these days.

After the seventh or eighth building or alleyway Adrien had ducked into, he started to feel the familiar tug of dread in his gut, mud in his veins. There couldn’t be that much time left, now—he’d been stupid, and reckless, and now it would all have been for nothing. His father’s silence in his earpiece was deafening, ice-cold and heavy. He was doing it again. And especially now, especially today, he couldn’t—he swallowed down his panic.

On a whim, Adrien landed on the roof of a pavilion near the park, circled with concrete pillars and backed up to the brick wall of a building. He ducked his head in and bit down a gasp when he saw a flash of red inside. She was—she was here.

He waited, breath frozen in his lungs, but the attack didn’t come. Ladybug was murmuring to herself, fussing over what he presumed to be the lucky charm. Ladybug was here. And she hadn’t seen him yet.

“Cataclysm,” Adrien whispered, setting his palm alight with inky destruction. And then he charged.

In one swift motion, Adrien used his baton to knock both the yo-yo and the lucky charm from Ladybug’s hands, sending them clattering across the pavement as he slammed her body into the wall. She growled and pummeled her fists into his face and gut, sending stars of pain shooting through his vision.

Adrien extended his baton and smashed one end into the pavement at their feet and the other diagonally into a concrete pillar of the pavilion. He shoved the length of it as hard as he could acoss Ladybug’s torso, pinning her against the wall. She coughed and spluttered, ripping at the baton and hurling expletives his way.

It wouldn’t hold her for long, but maybe for long enough that he could—

Adrien lunged for the lucky charm—that stupid, polka-dotted Easy Bake oven—and scooped it up with his left hand, hovering his right palm in the air just centimeters above it.

“Careful,” Adrien warned, and Ladybug’s eyes widened.

“You evil, idiotic, worthless waste of breath—”

“Yes, fine.” Adrien waved her off. “I’m not interested in that. I don’t want to fight. I think we should talk.”

“What are you doing?” Father snarled in his ear, and Adrien winced. “End this and take her miraculous!”

Ladybug looked like she agreed; the glare she leveled at him sent ice down his spine.

“Talk,” Ladybug laughed humorlessly, fists still tight around the baton. “Right. You always want to talk.”

“I want to talk,” Adrien agreed, keeping his composure level despite the anxiety in his bloodstream and Father’s voice in his ear. He even threw in a smile for good measure. “Obviously we both know how this”—Adrien gestured to Ladybug and himself, and then to the greater generally-in-shambles city—“goes. And I imagine that it involves many more people than we’d both prefer.”

Ladybug looked at him with some intense combination of anger and bewilderment.

“Are you… trying to apologize right now?” Ladybug asked. “For being a terrorist? The thing you’re currently doing?”

“No,” Adrien said, taking a great deal of effort to keep the frustration out of his voice. “I’m not apologizing. I’m just recognizing that you seem to care about the safety of civilians, and so do I, and so I think we should be able to find some common ground and settle this in some way that doesn’t involve them.”

“The only reason they’re involved at all is because you keep attacking their city!” Ladybug shouted, her voice a lit flame. Her earrings beeped—two out of five. “What are you talking about?”

“Adrien,” Father growled dangerously in his ear, “stop this immediately.”

“Don’t play dumb, Ladybug. We both know you’re smarter than that,” Adrien pressed on. “There’s no one here to fool. If you give back what you stole, this can all end—”

“Adrien, stop!” Father yelled.

“You’re insane!” Ladybug shouted. “I never stole anything, and—and the very last person I’d ever trust to talk things through with is you.”

Adrien’s temper rose hot beneath his skin, his ears flat against his head. A rumbling began to shake the ground beneath their feet.

“And this is what you want instead?” Adrien shouted. “The whole city in danger? Us fighting like this, forever?

“Adrien!” Father seethed.

Something shifted in Ladybug’s gaze, her eyes set with an infuriating self-righteous zeal that dropped a rock in Adrien’s gut.

“I think forever is a gross overestimation,” she said. “In fact, I believe you’re already out of time.”

Ladybug smirked, and a high-pitched ding sounded in Adrien’s arms.

The Easy-Bake Oven exploded with popcorn all over the pavilion, and a torrent of pigeons descended on the microwaved feast, choking the air in beaks and feathers until cracks splintered through the pillars. Ladybug wrenched the baton from the pavement and jousted it into Adrien’s stomach, sending him gasping to the floor, but not before he kicked at her legs and took her down with him.

They tousled for a few seconds before a feather sauntered down through the air to brush right up against Adrien’s nose—he could swear his nose was like a magnet to the godforsaken things or something, seriously—and Adrien, with all his might, could not stop the earth-shattering, full-body sneeze that followed.

The sneeze—understandably—loosened his grip on Ladybug, who—also understandably—used the opportunity to pull her knee up to her chest and kick him in the stomach, sending him flying several meters into a pile of pigeons.

Adrien blinked, Ladybug’s red form hazy in his watery eyes. Why did the allergies have to happen, like, instantly? Why did it always have to be M. Pigeon?

“A ‘bless you’ would’ve been fine,” Adrien remarked, feeling around for his baton with his non-actively-cataclysming hand.

“Hmm. I’m not really in the mood to bless you, I think,” Ladybug said. Adrien blinked again, and she was closer than before, yo-yo spinning triumphantly at her side. “I’m thinking you could bless me instead.”

In a swift motion, she lassoed him by the waist and hurled him through the air, several seconds of freefall before he made contact with something warm and firm. He felt the moment his cataclysm was released and panicked for a second, thinking that he might have accidentally touched a person. But, no, when Adrien opened his eyes, he only found the ashy remnants of M. Ramier’s pigeon-feed bag in his palm. Despite himself, Adrien sighed with relief. Awful as she was, Ladybug was reliable. She’d never manipulated his cataclysm to hurt another person, only to deakumatize people. Though he knew Ladybug wasn’t above hurting innocents, she’d always seemed to care about her public image.

“Chat Noir!” M. Ramier screeched, now that all the black bubbles were gone. “What are you doing here?! Help! Ladybug!”

“Hey, I’m not gonna hurt you!” Adrien put his hands up, placating. M. Ramier’s eyes were still wide with fear. “Let’s get you down from here, okay?”

“You’re safe now, M. Ramier,” Ladybug landed firmly on the rooftop, polka-dotted Easy-Bake in tow. She snapped her yo-yo around the black butterfly and gave Adrien a pointed look. “He won’t hurt you anymore. Stray cats know when to scram.”

“I’m harmless as a declawed kitten,” Adrien told M. Ramier, pointedly ignoring Ladybug. “I wish you well.”

read the rest on ao3 (when it comes back up)

#call it even #asks #ch 3 tomorrow!!!!!#(if ao3 permits)#ty ao3 workers u are the strongest people on earth #ml #miraculous ladybug #mlb

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clover-the-awesomest · 3 months

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Talkin bout Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel) for a hot sec okay thanks

Okay. Listen. This is a pretty big topic I’m gonna be delving into, and it’s a topic I’ve had no real exposure to until recently, so a lot of the things I’ll be saying is of my own opinion. I will be talking about SA, child abuse, abuse in general, alcohol, self-destructing, SH, and Hazbin Hotel in general. All of these are very big topics (Yes, including Hazbin lol) so if you are not keen on listening to some outsider talk about these things, please leave. I don’t want you reading something that will actively make you uncomfortable.

And again, let me reiterate: I am an outsider looking in. I have had no real exposure to any of these topics until I watched Hazbin Hotel episode 4. This is not meant to be a call-out or me making any educated guesses. It is purely just for my sake and so I can say my piece about these topics. DO NOT, IN ANY CASE, ASSUME I KNOW 100% WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT. I AM YOUNG AND DUMB, AND I AM VERY LIKELY TO MAKE SOME HOT TAKES HERE. IF I MAKE A MISTAKE OR SAY SOMETHING CONTROVERSIAL, DO NOT HESITATE TO HARRASS ME, BUT BE WARNED THAT I WILL NOT ENGAGE.

One final disclaimer: If you know anyone. ANYONE who is going through a rough patch, or someone who has experienced any of these things before or are currently going through it, please please PLEASE just at least reach out. Say hi. Make them a gift. Listen to them talk. Sit with them for a while. Stay on call with them for a while. Just… Just be there for them. Please. Even a little can go a long way.

With all that out of the way, here is my very overdue take on Hazbin Hotel episode 4: Masquerade.

———

====

It is depressing. Genuinely, it is a very sad and very raw episode. And honestly? It does not deserve any of the hate that it is most certainly receiving.

Masquerade is an episode all about the horrors of an abusive (Sexually and otherwise) relationship and how it affects the one being abused. Angel Dust, who’s been shown before this episode to be very toxic and sexual, is once again given the spotlight that he very much deserves, shedding light on his behavior and why he acts the way he acts.

What is genuinely saddening about this episode is that we know that what Angel goes through is not far from reality in the slightest. If we take away the magic and the soul contracts, we get a day in the life of a real human being in the world right now as you are reading this. Someone is out there being hurt, being abused, by someone they once looked up to. They are being manipulated, being slapped, being thrown against the floor, and all the while they are powerless to do anything. It’s such a sad, sickening reality that I wish wasn’t true, but it is, and that’s that. I want more than anything to be able to help these people who are being hurt and are being used, but I currently have no way of doing that and I feel so so terrible and wrong for saying that but it’s true and I just… Ugh. It’s so depressing, really. The lengths that other human beings are willing to go to just to have someone under their control at all times. I hate it, truly.

“When I say ‘Come,’ you say…”

“Yes, Valentino.”

“When I say you are fucking 20 guys before lunch, you say…?”

“Y-yes, Valentino…”

…

Valentino wants money and control. That is all this fucker wants. The moment he laid eyes on Angel’s desperate drunken ass he instantly knew he struck gold, and just like that, the spider was under his control. In the beginning, Angel did just as he was told with little pushback, because he was looking to make a quick buck and this was also literally a goddamn overlord he was working with. Disappointing his boss could spell disaster! After a while though, Val’s demands became much more intrusive and much more harsh than they were at the beginning, and Angel’s hope for a fresh start began to slowly fade away. Soon enough, he got to where he is now. Still working with Valentino, but wanting desperately to find a way out. To be free from this double-hell that he’s dug himself into. To be happy again. But of course, now that he’s dug himself a grave and has already lied in it for some time, he can’t exactly escape. Valentino has seen his work first-hand, has experienced it with his own disgusting fuzzy body, and loves it all with every fiber in his bones. He doesn’t just want someone to fuck 20 guys before lunch. He wants Angel to fuck 20 guys before lunch. He’s found his new favorite toy, and he intends to keep playing with it.

Now this is where the manipulation comes in. Angel wants to leave, he knows he does, but he also knows that he can’t. Literally, he can’t, because his soul is bound by a contract that only Val has access to, but even without that in the picture, he cannot leave. It was shown via a previous episode (I forget which one I’m not sorry) that Valentino cannot and will not let go of his favorite toy. He sends Angel text after text after text, voicemails, emails, calls, you name it. We see a clip of him sending Angel a large amount of voicemails, and in each one he switched between being nice and caring to his spider baby to going full on insane! He yells at Angel in one voicemail, then starts cooing and whispering in kindly tones in the next. It’s such a terrifying way of showing the abused that the abuser can change their mood on a dime and that they can’t control it. That they need an out, something to let their frustrations out on. It terrifies the abused into staying, leaving them both to fester in this cycle of cat and mouse for a while before one of them inevitably breaks said cycle. Though it usually isn’t broken until it’s too late.

There is one upper hand that Angel has over Valentino though, and it’s that he knows what Valentino is doing and doesn’t fall for those kinds of tricks. Angel is a spider, and spiders are well-known for being tricky and sinister and gross, so naturally he’d pick up on Val’s manipulative behavior. This then leads Angel into another issue in his life though, and that’s his coping mechanisms.

Since Angel knows how terrible Valentino’s treatment towards him is, and since he knows how much it hurts him, he turns to other things that don’t exactly help. Alcohol, drugs, clubbing, more goddamn sex like can this man please just stop having sex if he wants to get away from it please can he just have a break por favor-

These are good substitutes for the pain. They are like numbing agents, or more questionable anti-depressants. Angel goes to the club to forget it all, to forget how much everything hurts. He goes to get heavy drinks so that he can forget. He gets high so he can forget. He has sex so he can forget.

He hurts himself more so that he can forget.

Rather than talking with someone and dealing with his stress and emotional turmoil head-on, Angel pushes it away. Off to the side. Bottles it up in a small plastic container where he’ll never have to see it again! But when leaving a glass of water under the tap for too long, it’ll quickly begin to overflow, and that’s what we see happen with Angel in Masquerade. It’s been so long of him using his illegal methods of forgetting, of numbing the pain and ignoring it, that everything just begins to spill over. He starts losing his touch, starts affecting those around him who clearly had nothing to do with any of it in the first place. He oversteps Husk’s boundaries, is constantly rude to Charlie and Vaggie, and just straight up ignores everyone else. (As far as I’m aware. Not mentioning Pentious in this btw cuz he’s a temporary resident at the hotel.) Even when Husk calls Angel out on his behavior, even when he calls the guy fake, the spider does not, CANNOT, budge. He remains indignant, is still a cocky little bitch, and just tries his hardest to not drag everyone else down with him. It backfires horribly, of course, and Husk soon ends up dragging him away from his escape, from his anti-depressant. And Angel snaps.

”IT’S NOT AN ACT!! It’s who I need to be…! And this? This is my escape! Where I can forget about it all, how much I hate… EVERYTHING. A place where I can get high and not have to think about how much it hurts.”

And then… We get this line.

“And maybe, if I can ruin myself enough in the process, if I end up broken, I won’t be his favorite toy anymore.

And maybe he’ll let me go.”

…

This line hurts me so much. My chest aches every time I hear it. Because what it entails is genuinely horrifying. Angel is telling Husk that he is literally just a toy to Valentino, just a perfect plastic doll that he loves in a perfect plastic house that he owns. The spider doesn’t know how much it’ll take to full break himself, doesn’t know if he’s even able to do that, but at this rate he is very ready to see if he can. He wants to do that, he wants to break himself. Angel wants to become physically unable to do Valentino’s dirty work, to get thrown away just like all of Val’s previous toys did. He wants, more than anything else, to just get tossed into the trash and get crushed by the truck that collects him, just so he doesn’t have to be hurt by Valentino anymore.

But the part of his speech that truly hurts me is when he says that MAYBE Valentino will let him go. If Angel was so sure that his idea would work, that breaking his boss’s favorite toy will get him to lose interest, he would’ve said “And then he’ll finally let me go.” But instead he says Maybe. Because Angel isn’t even sure if Valentino will let him be free after all this. He is unsure if Val will lose interest, if he’ll be tossed aside, if he’ll be able to find happiness in his afterlife once he is broken. He’s so far from what he dreamed of that he is more than willing to hurt/kill himself, even when he’s unaware if it’ll even help him in the first place.

Seriously. How sickening is that??

And again, one of the saddest aspects of all this is that real people experience these things in real time, in the real world, right now, as you are reading this. It’s terrifying, scary, downright depressing to think about! How so many people are willing to kill themselves just for the slightest chance at grasping freedom, yet are unsure if they can even reach it once they have that chance.

The worst part is, though, is that before opening up to Husk, this was literally Angel’s only way of finding freedom. To break himself apart so that he couldn’t be used anymore. If he can’t be broken, if he can’t die, then Val will just keep using and using and using Angel. He’ll keep hurting him and abusing him and manipulating him, and the poor guy is very unable to do anything about it at the moment. It’s so sad and so twisted and I hate it so much.

This episode of Hazbin Hotel has been getting a pretty fair amount of hatred just for existing, and honestly for once, I can see why. It touches on a very, very heavy subject that not too many people are fully familiar with. And even if there are people who are familiar with/have experienced SA before, they most likely did not have the same experience as Angel does in the episode. Which, yeah duh, of course they didn’t! We’re not in Hell yet! But the way they go about it is horrible. I’m assuming people are hating on the episode for both painting SA in a terrible light, and also not being true to their specific events. So, in response to this, let me just say this…

Nobody, no matter what, no matter what you do or where you go or who you are, is gonna have the same exact experience. For example, I went on a big hiking trip with my dad over the summer, and I saw many other families go on the same exact path we did. And yet I could tell they all were doing fine, and they all enjoyed themselves, while I was feeling like I was gonna fall and die at any fucking moment and I just wanted to get back on solid ground. The view was nice but the journey honestly made me think I was gonna go splat right then and there and I was not too happy about that.

What I’m saying is that I did not have the same exact experience to anyone else on that trail. Everyone else except for me was doing fine, yet their experiences were all purely their own. This is what makes us human. The difference in appearance, expression, and experience. Thus, for people to come out and watch an episode all about SA and for them to expect it to be exactly as they imagined… No. just no. Get a therapist, please, because you clearly have something wrong with you.

And as for painting SA in a terrible light… That’s… That’s good though? SA is genuinely a horrible thing and I do not, under any circumstances, want anyone ever to go through anything remotely like it. We are human beings! We have compassion in our blood! Use it, for fuck’s sake! I do not want anyone to ever be hurt by anyone else that they know or love dearly. That is a thought I’d never wish on even my greatest enemy! So yes, it should be painted in a horrible, terrible light! It’s bad!

====

———

This episode was… It was a lot. I still get sad and depressed to this day whenever I watch it. What I watch Angel go through makes me sick. However, I’m glad that issues like these are being addressed and that people are talking about it. I don’t like it in the slightest, but that’s why it should be talked about more. We need to be able to help more people, and even though I can’t right now, I pray to God that someone out there is hopefully getting the help and love that they truly do deserve.

Thank you so so much for reading through that whole thing, I know it was a long one. I just have so many thoughts on episode 4. I’ve been working on this for almost an hour and a half now btw so I am very gladly going to end it here. Hope you show some love and respect to those close to you and I really do hope you keep the negative thoughts to yourself. Now go get yourself a drink of water, go eat a banana or a bowl of cheerios, text your loved ones and hug ur stuffed animal, and have a great day/night! Thank you.

#That was… That was a lot. Yeah.#Come harass me all you want idgaf #wordz #random shit #angel dust hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel #has been hoe tell

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golvio · 3 months

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As a companion to my notes post, here are my favorite BPAL perfumes out of the ones I've tried so far, in no particular order:

Menage A Trois: Golden Amber, Oak, and Muguet (A light, fresh, clean, and warm scent. Pleasant and lasting, but not obtrusive or overbearing.)

Jazz Funeral (The magnolias mixed with the booze and earth notes are heavenly!)

Tomie (Creamy and a little unconventional, floral without smelling like a granny perfume.)

Virahotkantita (Unfortunately discontinued, but I got a bottle of leftover stock for free with my big Christmas order. A lovely lilac and violet medley with some colder notes.)

Plague Doctor v10 (A prototype not for sale, and another free sample with the previous perfume. It's a fresh, clean aquatic scent that reminds me of my dad's aftershave.)

Titus Andronicus (Another "aftershave" scent, but warmer and spicier than Plague Doctor. Great for when you want to feel masculine but also a little bit regal.)

Shoggoth (Really weird and morphs a lot, but all the notes are pleasant. For me the lemon and floral notes were strongest.)

Arkham (Wildflowers and overturned forest dirt, how you'd smell after a strenuous but overall satisfying hike through the New England woods in springtime)

Envy (This one depends on what mood I'm in, but when I am in the mood, the lavender and lime hits the spot)

Cleric (Gorgeous, long-lasting, great throw)

Scherezade (Warm and sweet. Gives me comforting memories of the hippie granola health store I bought the lemon balm tea I self-medicated with in grad school, or that one time I tried burning my own incense as a teenager in my goth phase.)

Juke Joint (Basically a mint julep, very delicious.)

Diana (A little like Juke Joint, strangely, but with a touch more amber & aged leather.)

Endymion (Very sweet and beautiful, but it fades too fast.)

The Bow & Crown of Conquest (I like it for a lot of the same reasons why I like Envy, but it also has incense smoke.)

Masquerade (A beautiful, sparkling, orangey scent, but like Endymion fades too fast.)

Dee (All the things I liked about Endymion's rosewood, but less floral and more like incense and gentleman's cologne. Seems like something a 19th century mystic would wear to seem more "exotic.")

The Lady of Shalott (Really gorgeous, delicate florals and musks)

Chimera (Starts spicy with cinnamon, but then morphs in fascinating ways as the honeysuckle becomes more obvious.)

Lawful (Another gorgeous, incense-y scent.)

Les Bijoux (Sweet, sparkling prosecco with a crisp crunch of tart green apple.)

Rakshasa (Gorgeous rosy scent mixed with sweet patchouli and handsome, down-to-earth sandalwood. Feels like a beautiful masculine and feminine scent simultaneously. If you're being seduced by an otherworldly shapeshifter, they probably smell like this.)

Water of Notre Dame (Very sunny floral, reminds me of when I'd shower with my special Angel's Trumpet soap bar I splurged on as a treat for myself.)

#perfumes #bpal #long post

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borgiabarbie · 1 year

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Wild DLS theorising incoming...

So... Since we discovered this in the update:

It seems extremely likely that in addition to Mephis and No. 44 (assuming they aren't one and the same) there's also a bright one after Laia.

Could No. 44 be a fallen angel looking to steal Laia's soul light in order to regain power among the bright ones? 🤔 It would definitely fit with the references to Mark Twain's No. 44, the Mysterious Stranger where No. 44 is the biblical Satan, a fallen angel. (Off topic: has anyone else seen that super creepy Mysterious Stranger claymation from The Adventures of Mark Twain? *shivers*)

Anyway, it might make sense if this villainous angel was the mysterious benefactor who gifted the six paintings to Brașov Museum, setting off the entire chain of events. There's plenty of references to the benefactor seeming initially angelic before revealing their true diabolic self.

Also Kudos to the Custodian for identifying Laia's angelic soul back in Season 2.

It would also make a lot of sense for Mephis and No. 44 to work together to steal Laia's soul light. In the Faust legend Mephistopheles is the devil's agent, harvesting souls on his behalf. Perhaps back in S2, when Gabi recalls seeing No. 44 with a black dog, that is the form in which Mephis appears to humans with whatever gift Gabi possesses. It also makes sense given that Vlad's brand from Mephis was a black dog.

It's interesting that Gabi describes number forty-four as having "a scary face" and being "really, really old". Meanwhile our mysterious benefactor is described as a "young man" and a foreigner. This suggests he might be able to change his appearance (if they are indeed one and the same) 🤔 an ability we know both dark and bright ones possess.

This would explain why Vlad hasn't recognised Mephis if he's masquerading as someone else (an ability possibly boosted by the energy artifact that he's stolen from Noe's grandfather).

In S4 E1 we get our first glimpse of the mysterious ambassador (presumably No. 44 or Mephis) outside of the opening prologue.

Later on in the chapter Lale and Mehmed encounter a sinister stranger who refers back to Mehmed's childhood accident and is fixated on Lale's beautiful soul.

Presumably they're the same person under those robes? Maybe their fashion sense just became less elegant over time. But it's also not impossible that one figure was No. 44 and the other was Mephis.

This still leaves the question: Who is the mysterious benefactor/No. 44?

A quick look at my list of suspects:

Hasan/Ezel: The name Hasan can mean benefactor in Arabic, but I really don't think he's our villain. He was killed by the dark powers (because of Huma's deal) which seems pretty inept if he was actually working for them. I do wonder if he's potentially another azure though, given his apparent reincarnation 🤔 We did find out in S4 E2 that Ezel has been travelling in Europe, so he could have potentially been in Romania during the events of S1, but he's still low on my suspects list.

Mehmed: He was the reason Huma made her deal, and we see him interact with the sinister stranger in S4 E1, so it's pretty safe to assume he's neither No. 44 nor Mephis. Plus if Mehmed *has* been trapped in a wall this entire time he definitely wasn't roaming around Romania making deals with Sandra's father and spooking Gabi during S1. It's clear that Mehmed's got his own darkness going on, but I suspect that was acquired after Lale's death.

Councillor Septentrion:

Septentrion is possibly too obvious a suspect? 🤔 But I definitely don't trust him. On the Noe route he was the only person who knew about Noe's romantic feelings for Laia, information I presume he passed on without Noe's knowledge (to someone else in the dark world) so that Noe could be blackmailed into accepting the Aditum position. He also took a suspiciously long time to get help when Aditum Procol was dying. And we know that he can make human bodies, they're just not as good as the ones Noe can create. Maybe someone is impersonating Septentrion, and the real one is locked in a cupboard somewhere.

Henry: He's a young man so he made the suspects list, but I think he's just kinda inept rather than suspicious. Poor guy just wants to be Leo 😔

Aquil: Okay, he's not exactly young, but he is sinister. I can definitely imagine him maybe betraying Laia and Leo at a later date, but I don't think he's Mephis/No. 44/the benefactor.

Ruthven: I'm discounting him on the grounds of being dead.

Ted: As above (at least on some playthroughs).

Asmodeus: Probably too busy being a terrible stage magician with a monumental ego to mastermind anything.

Jean: Yes, that art lawyer from S1. Admittedly he was Romanian so there's no reason the Custodian's granddaughter would describe him as a foreigner, but he still seemed somewhat suspicious. I wouldn't be surprised if he reappears before S4 is over.

That's it for my suspects list, but the brilliant @nesrinslittleworld has a great theory based on the latest update.

TLDR: I love DLS and can't wait to find out what S4 has in store.

#dracula a love story #romance club #Dracula a love story theories #long post #laia x noe

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wingfell · 2 years

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“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

#idkdikdik #if you saw me post this before i decided i needed to crop it no you didnt #//promo #masquerades as an angel of light//self

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silmarwentelrunya · 11 months

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Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💗

Oh no, I've been hit with the self-promo beam! I need to think. It's almost 8 am I don't want to thing, I say thinking over my answers. Also everything is gonna be Dimiclaude cause I only write one thing. xD

Chasing Ghosts (Dimitri/Claude, 53558, M) This is my masterpiece, my dimiclaude long fic that I adore! A what if Claude was kidnapped by TWSiTD during the 5 year timeskip golden route-ish fic. Also contains wonderful art as a banner for each chapter.

To Catch a Fallen Star (Dimitri/Claude, 49502, E) My dimiclaude bigbang piece which I also love and I love the wonderful art that got done for it too! A dimiclaude demons and angels au with demon Dimitri and angel Claude and the friends they make along the way.

Of Mask and Marriage (Dimitri/Claude, 4452, G) A short masquerade and arranged marriage dimiclaude piece that I love dearly.

No Need to Say Goodbye (Dimitri/Claude, 4461, E) Mer-au dimiclaude where Dimitri is a pirate and Claude the merman he rescues and they fall in love. :3

To Light A Dark Sky (Dimitri/Claude, 4360, G) A fairy tale au dimiclaude where Dimitri goes on an adventure to save the Sun god from a Mage who years ago stole the Moon god from the sky and runs into Claude along the way.

#fire emblem three houses #fic by me #dimitri #claude #dimiclaude

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kumamoto-division · 11 months

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SOMETIMES GOOD THINGS CAN FALL APART SO THAT BETTER THINGS CAN FALL TOGETHER-Marilyn Monroe

Introduction

Aoba Yamamura also know as guinevere in the rap battles is a librarian and the leader of the kumamoto division strange magic

From a family with a alcoholic mother his father raised him but he died when Aoba was a teenager being the beginnind of a spiral of sadness where he fell deeper into after some bad events that ended with his mind slowly fragmenting,now he's embraced his growing insanity when during the night he provoke chaos with fire and bombs under an alter-ego but he have new conflicts

...Starting with a conflict with his own feelings

Aoba is a young man in is 20s of somewhat tall stature he has blue, tousled hair with bangs and pale yellow eyes with long eyelashes,he also has pale skin ("colder than ice" according Kunio and Natsume) he has a beauty mark next to his mouth and a burn scar in his right eye,and has a slim figure with slight curves and wide hips

Usually in his job as library he wears a tight black dress pants,black peep toe shoes with 4-inch heel,a black casual shirt and a jean jacket with a gold necklace along silver earrings as accessories and black glasses,he use lipgloss in the job too

When is not working in the library usually he dress with a provocative gothic-grunge and a little femenine with ripped jeans,combat boots,heels,fishnet or lace stockings and a leather jacket along accesories

His mainly outfit consist of skinny black jeans and heeled doc.Martens boots,a silky sleeveless grey shirt,he also wear black nail polish and a light purple eyeshadow with the same black glasses

As Bluefire Aoba look like someone going to a masquerade ball with black shorts with lace stockings,a off-shoulder black shirt with bell sleeves and a black longcoat. He wear a long turquoise wig decorated with a white flower hairpin

As Bluefire he usually wear one of two masks. An black lace mask or a black and blue porcelain "half mask" that cover his left eye

Aliases

"bluefire"

The librarian

Living corpse (by Natsume)

Sadako (by Kunio)

Empress,war criminal,the wife of the angel,assasin (in the high school)

Biographical info

Gender-male

Age-21

Birthday-july 24nd

Ethnicity-japanese

Hair color-blue

Eye color-yellow

Height-169 cm/5'7 /173cm/5'8 (in heels)

Weight- 90lbs/40klg

Star sign-leo

Piercing-lobes,tongue

Markings-burn scar in his right eye,old self harm scars in the wrists, tattoo of a triqueta in the palm of his left hand, Tattoo of fallen angel wings all over the back,blue fire tattoo on the abdomen,name on his wrist, burn scars on all the left leg

Family

Father (deceased)

Mother (deceased)

Younger sister

Younger half-brother

Biological daughter-(desceased) (never born)

Voiced by-YOHIO (rapping and singing)

Fun facts

MC name: guinevere

Occupation:librarian

Division:kumamoto

Team: strange magic

Position:leader

Favorite food:chocolate-strawberry cake and katsudon

Least favorite food:garlic

Likes:books,music,butterflies,the moon,the stars, songwritting,nocturnal sky,drink tea,the library,fireworks,astronomy,cold,

Dislikes:heavy loud,sun light,neglected books,coffee,bugs, think on his miscarriage

Hypnosis microphone

Aoba's microphone is a handheld mic that looks like it's made of sapphire with a coiled silver snake

His speakers take the form of stacked books with black and purple covers, when Aoba starts rapping, the books open revealing blue butterflies with a circular speaker on each wing

His rap ability is called bluefire that letting him cover the arena with a mist of dry ice giving his opponents frostbite Aoba just can using his ability once in battle,when he use his abilty he's surrounded for blue fire and his words look like it are made of ice

Personality

Aoba is a person who seems quiet a first glance but no one takes him for shy because he is not he just don't say enything if he don't want despite he always almost have a blank or emotionsless look on the face and speaks with a pleasant clear voice

With the people closer to him (like Kunio and Natsume) he is more expresive and talkative, showing more emotions and teasing people with no fear of make jokes and often saying blasphemies or sarcastic comments showing the fact he have a noticeable viper tongue

As a librarian he is an intelligent and cultured person with great appreciation for knowledge and the books and he dislikes when someone is careless with the books or is loud in the library

Yet underneath all that he has his traumas, starting with the dead of his father,the guilt for having been an accomplice in the revolution planned by his ex-boyfriend during his time in the school, everything he did during the revolution war marked him the last straw for his mental stability was his miscarriage,in fact his terrorist acts are (in part) a way of stay stable even for a moment

As Bluefire Aoba is visibily more unstable and emotionless but also more destructive and maniac showing all his pyromania,Kunio Natsume even Kururi describe him as "unstable and emotionless but only when the place that he set fire down burn on his cold blue fire or explode he looks calm and happy" Aoba is aware that his mind is slowly fragmenting and that sooner or later it will be break so he used the destruction of his fire and explosions for stay stable

His rap themes are things like "feeling lost" Aoba raps about he feel lost in this worl and how he don't understand why he also raps about the "blame", about feels guilty for something and how he knows that the weight of guilt one day be too much form him

And sometimes he raps about his dislike to the "stupid people" who despises knowledge and about his misery for the dead of his father,the lose of his daughter calling himself someone with a "iced-heart" and "colder than ice" or someone "dead in life" he also make references to his state of mind and the concept of "madness" or how he feel his emotions out of control and about the episodes where feel how sanity left him

Background

*coming soon*

Trivia

His burn scar was made by his mother while she was drunk

Aoba don't see anything wrong with the scars on his wrists but covers them in public (with long sleeves jackets or long fingerless gloves)

Aoba attended a perfoming arts school

Once he tried to commit suicide jumping off a bridge but Kunio saved him

He ocasionally accept modeling jobs (which led him to meet others models like Lola Takahashi of saitama or Yeong Hajoon of Meguro)

He likes to tease Natsume calling him "Natsume chan" and sometimes "big sis"

He was the one who gave the idea of singing not just rapping in the DRB to Kunio and Natsume

He calls Kunio "your highness" as a joke

He is called "Sadako" by Kunio because is lastname "Yamamura" is the lastname of Sadako from "the ring"

When he is write a song and feel inspiration for a new song Aoba fully concentrates on it (often forgetful of his surroundings)

He had a relationship with the high-rise bomber Rintaro Himura before his arrest

He's infamous in Japan underground as a terrorist with the name "Bluefire

He's intersex and can get pregnant

He have bipolar disorder

His zippo lighter was a gift from his father before his death

Aoba sometimes suffer auditory hallucinations due his bipolar disorder...and when happens he need set something fire...his the only way of silence the voices

The only person completely aware of Aoba's disorder are his younger siblings, Kururi and Eden

Aoba smokes menthol cigarettes but don't have a preferide mark

#hypnosis mic oc #hypmic #hypnosis microphone #hypnosis mic #Aoba Yamamura #character bio #kumamoto division #strange magic

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triviareads · 5 months

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ARC Review of Second Duke's the Charm by Kate Bateman

Rating: 3.75/5 Heat Level: 3.5/5 Publication Date: December 26th

Premise:

Tess Townsend, the dowager Duchess of Wansford, was widowed and left a virgin after her decrepit husband dropped dead before their wedding night. Two years later, Tess wants to learn about sex and intimacy, and finds a handsome stranger to do just that with at a house party. As it later turns out, the stranger is none other than Justin Thornton, the new Duke of Wansford.

My review:

There's a lot I enjoyed about this book— the friendship between Tess, Daisy, and Ellie was a delight to read. They are truly Tess's ride-or-dies and can be relied upon for anything from moving a dead body to giving sartorial advice on lingerie. And I loved the detective agency aspect, which made for a fun subplot.

This book is pretty sex-positive as far as historical romances go, which I did appreciate. A lot of it is about Tess's sexual exploration as a widow (all while her friends gleefully egg her on), and there's frank conversations about virginity being a social construct, contraception, and pregnancy.

Regarding the romance of it all, there isn't a lot of the conflict you'd expect between an upper-class aristocrat and a self-made magnate who is the heir to her late-husband's title, especially after their first encounter was anonymous. Justin is a very cool and rational sort, so he skips a the melodrama in the early stages of their relationship and immediately proposes a marriage of convenience (which, as one of Tess's friends points out, has as much to do with his dick as it does for "sensible" purposes, as he ostensibly claims). The drama only comes into play post-marriage as Justin starts to fall in love with Tess (which he swore he'd never do but... of course he does), all while growing increasingly paranoid about his wife's intentions towards him. Tess, on the other hand, is just vibing around truffle hunting and trying to foil blackmail plots lolol. Ultimately, Justin's big grovel (yes, there's a grovel) is about humbling himself by doing something extremely dumb and illogical after he spent the entire book trying to treat their marriage as a purely unemotional endeavor.

My one note regarding the plot is that there are lots of seemingly high-stakes situations initially set up: there's a blackmail plot, a possible attempted murder plot, plus, Tess hasn't told her husband she co-owns a detective agency (similar to the subplots in many a Grace Callaway Lady Charlotte's Society of Angels book). They were set up well, but as the book went on, I feel like they grew increasingly low-stakes and the outcomes were somewhat underwhelming.

The sex:

There are plenty of hot and inadvertently funny moments during sex scenes because Tess is trying *so hard* to seem like a sexually-experienced woman when she's very much.... not, but the greatest thing is, it mostly works. Like, starting from their first encounter at the masquerade, Tess has Justin (allegedly the smooth, unemotional type) WHEEZING after a mid handjob. And that sets the stage for their sexual relationship through the rest of the book. Some of my favorite moments include:

a) Their wedding night for the reasons mentioned above I won't spoil it but Tess's plan was hysterical), plus, I love a good "say my name" moment.

b) There is a great carriage scene, and I will say, I do appreciate the inclusion of dirty print images as a form of (inadvertently hands-on) sex education

c) For those of us who felt *cheated* by that scene in A Wallflower Christmas by Lisa Kleypas where St. Vincent insinuates he's going to use a pearl necklace on Evie, except we never saw the follow-through... this is your book.

Overall:

If you're looking for a fun, light historical romance centered around sexual exploration and plenty of girl-gang shenanigans, then I'd recommend this book!

#netgalley #arc #arc review #kate bateman #St. Martin's Press #romance novels #historical romance

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concerthopperblog · 2 years

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Erra comes to The Masquerade to Pull From the Ghost

Over the weekend, ConcertHopper was in attendance for the Pull From the Ghost Tour stop at The Masquerade in Atlanta. This tour featured Erra, Alpha Wolf and Invent Animate. Later stops of the tour will also include Thornhill who is finishing up a tour in Australia at the moment. In spite of the earlier threats of storms, the fans piled into the venue in droves for the show. As the lights prepared to go down for the show to start, if you took time to scan the venue, you’d see excited people packed from the floor to the top of the balcony.

First to take the stage was Invent Animate hailing from Texas. The hybrid prog and metalcore band formed in 2011 and then self-released their debut EP in 2012. After some localized touring, the band released their first full-length album Everchanger in 2014. The band tackles some complex subject matter and flashes technical prowess, filling the room in a way that few four-piece groups can.

Next up was one of Australia’s metalcore titans, Alpha Wolf. The band, not without facing some of the pitfalls we see too frequently in the metal community, parted ways with vocalist Aidan Ellaz (also of Dealer) was accused of sexual assault. Despite this, they found a charismatic front man in Lochie Keogh. The band has been of force of nature after the shackles on touring were loosened. They’ve made multiple trips across the oceans to the US and will even be playing the Blue Ridge Rock Festival in Virginia this upcoming September. The musical stylings of Alpha Wolf (fast, brutal and in your face) are matched by their on-stage performance. The band leaves it all in the spotlights on the stage for their fans, even talking about how they are exhausted until they step on the stage and the energy of the fans recharges them and they forget their exhaustion. The rest of this tour and Blue Ridge are in for a special treat from these fellows.

Finally, it was time for the headliners, Erra. The band, who hail from Birmingham, Alabama, have always been something of local darlings in the Atlanta metal area. Having toured with some of metalcore’s biggest acts like August Burns Red, TesseracT and Born of Osiris to name a few. The group carved a path of their own and created what others have described as an act that is the “spearhead of the whole modern/progressive metalcore movement.” The band has made some power moves, featuring Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox on their single “Vanish Canvas”. All of this culminated in a powerful set that swept through their catalog of metalcore masterpieces. Like Alpha Wolf, Erra will also be making an appearance at this year’s Blue Ridge Rock Festival.

The tour continues through late August including one date with just Erra and Beartooth in Ohio.

7/23 — Anaheim, CA — Chain Reaction 7/24 — Los Angeles, CA — Teragram Ballroom 7/26 — San Francisco, CA — Great American Music Hall 7/27 — Roseville, CA — Goldfield Trading Post 7/29 — Portland, OR — Hawthorne Theater 7/30 — Vancouver, BC — Rickshaw Theater 7/31 — Seattle, WA — El Corazon 8/2 — Salt Lake City, UT — The Complex 8/3 — Denver, CO — Marquis Theater 8/5 — Chicago, IL — Bottom Lounge 8/6 — Columbus, OH — KEMBA! Live^ 8/7 — Detroit, MI — The Shelter 8/9 — Cleveland, OH — Beachland Ballroom 8/10 — Toronto, ON — Velvet Underground 8/11 — Montreal, QC — Fairmount Theater 8/12 — Allston, MA — Brighton Music Hall 8/13 — New York, NY — Gramercy Theater 8/14 — Philadelphia, PA — The Foundry 8/16 — Pittsburgh, PA — Enclave 8/17 — Baltimore, MD — Soundstage 8/19 — Indianapolis, IN — Emerson Theater 8/20 — Nashville, TN — Basement East

— No Thornhill ^ — ERRA Only (With Beartooth)

As always, please feel free to browse around ConcertHopper’s website further and to check out our articles covering a wide variety of topics. Please also check us out on social media on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Life is a beautiful thing and music only adds to that beauty, take some time to get out and celebrate beauty and life with a community of like-minded individuals at a concert soon, it’s always worth the price of admission.

#2022 #concert photography #Concert #concert review #Concerthopper #metal #metalcore #music #Atlanta #georgia #The Masquerade #Review #concert

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