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lailoken · 3 years

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“The Lady of Norfolk: Our Lady of the Chalk

Twice in any twenty-four-hour period, it is possible to watch the Lady of Norfolk stepping from the sea. As the tide recedes, just to the East of Sheringham, She begins to appear, in the form of an outcrop of rocks, sometimes white and gleaming in the sunshine, but sometimes more subtle, and draped in seaweed. This small sliver of rock provides us with a little glimpse of Norfolk's Chalk reef, which is a rich and diverse marine habitat, our Lady's submerged treasury, from which she offers many magical gifts, and tells her wordless story of the ancient history of the landscape. For the physical aspect of this technically and unromantically given the chemical name of calcium carbonate, is made up of the solid remains of millions of creatures, whose lives and dramas unfolded long before the Ice Age, when most of the land was still beneath the sea. So, every piece of Chalk we casually pick holds within it something of these ancient memories.

Of course, the concept of a White Goddess of love, beauty, caring and nurturing, stepping from the sea, is found in other traditions worldwide. I have been fortunate enough to visit the birthplace of Aphrodite, in Cyprus, and to see the brilliant white rock which represents her emerging from the blue green of the Mediterranean, lapped all around with perfect white sea foam. She is indeed grand and dramatic, and tourists arrive constantly to see her and pay their respects. Our Lady of Norfolk is much quieter, less theatrical, and only ever whispers her secrets. However, there is nothing more lovely than watching her appear from a cold, grey North Sea, when only a few dog walkers or beachcombers are around, and far too distant to disturb our musings. The Lady of the Chalk, our White Lady, is Mother of the Flint, although precisely how the Flint forms within the Chalk remains a mystery, as so it should. It has been suggested that burrows within the Chalk become filled with dissolved silica, which is derived from the skeletons of sponges (Hart, 2000). These form nodules which become freed from their Mother over millions of years of erosion.

We see the Lady of Norfolk as a nurturer of crops and a nourisher of the creatures and the people of the land. This is reflected, in practical terms, in the process known as "marling", which was particularly popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, when Chalk was dug from pits and spread onto the fields to enhance the soil structure and to neutralise acidity (Williamson, 1993). We may not need to spread physical Chalk on our own small areas of land, but we can certainly call on the Lady to bless our gardens and the places for wild fruits, nuts, herbs or craft materials, for on all levels, she can help make the conditions right for things to thrive. She can do this on the inside as well as in our environment, since Chalk tablets are taken by many people as an antacid, and many toothpastes contain finely ground Chalk.

The Lady of Norfolk is also associated with the white milk of fostering, for just as she is Mother of the Flint, she is also a Mother to us all. It is interesting that, at the Christian shrine at Walsingham, there was a vial of "Our Lady's Milk", brought to Norfolk from the Holy House at Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. This "milk" was long regarded as a precious relic, full of miraculous potential. Yet, what it appears to have been (and even modern Christian scholars agree on this point) is scrapings of Chalk from the walls of the place of the Nativity (Spencer, 1980). So, powdered Chalk, from a distant Holy Land, representing another White Lady, has been brought to a hallowed place within our own sacred, Chalk landscape (Wood, 2017). From a magical point of view, this adds many more layers of meaning and interest, and merits much thought and meditation.

Like a good Mother, the Lady of Norfolk is one who can hold together her magical family, just as the mortar, of which her physical being is a part, holds in place the Flints or the bricks of the buildings which shelter us. We might barely notice her in this aspect, but she is there, informing the subtle patterns which we create together, as she fosters cooperation and community.

The Lady may also be called upon to protect our communities and our own hearths and homes. This is enhanced by chalking protective symbols onto fenceposts, doorsteps and pathways. Various runes may be used for this purpose. Particularly popular is the bindrune known as the Helm of Awe, although "running eights" work especially well on doorsteps. Although it is sometimes tempting to create the more elaborate patterns from colourful, commercial chalk (which is usually made out of gypsum or talc), to invoke the Lady's protection to its full extent, it really needs to be worked with Chalk found locally.

Because it is physically possible to write with Chalk, the Lady can also be called upon to assist magically those of us who work with the craft of writing, while the practical uses of her gifts in numerous other crafts (for example, tailor's chalk for those who sew, checking the fit of joints in woodwork) provide a route to summoning her assistance in all the skills of the hand and the imagination. Thus, both the Lord and Lady of Norfolk have very strong associations with the practical crafts, which are so embedded in the magical work of the county.

Chalk carving is a craft which can certainly be said to have been associated with the Goddess in ancient times, and one controversial depiction of her was "discovered" in 1939, in Pit 15 of Grimes Graves, by the archaeologist A. Leslie Armstrong. She was sitting on a Flint plinth, with antler picks, and a Chalk vessel beneath it. There was a carved Chalk phallus on the floor and Flint nodules arranged, in a phallus shape, in a gallery not far away. This "Venus of Grimes Graves", or "Chalk Goddess", became an iconic figure, appearing on the official site guidebooks and attracting much academic speculation about her role as an Earth Goddess, reminiscent of other European, Palaeolithic "Venus" figures. She is indeed very well rounded, with large, pendulous breasts, and appears to be pregnant. It was also suggested that she might have been placed in the pit, to petition for a more abundant seam of unweathered floorstone in the next excavation. However, there have been many questions raised about the authenticity of the figurine. Armstrong, who had been implicated in other fraudulent finds, had been alone in the pit, prior to the discovery, having forbidden other colleagues from joining him. Then, when he brought his finds to the surface, his friend, Ethel Rudkin, angered him by making a copy of the figure from a discarded piece of Chalk, using a Flint knife, thus proving how easy it was to make a "goddess" of this kind (Russell, 2000).

For historians and archaeologists, the matter of whether or not the Chalk Goddess is real is obviously of importance. However, for magical practitioners, this need not necessarily be the case. Even if the figure was made by Armstrong or any other hoaxer, it has already developed a considerable aura of power and presence. This was evident from her appearance at the Unearthed exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre, in Norwich, when this Chalk Lady returned to the county, from the British Museum, where she currently resides, to take her place amongst a wealth of Japanese figures, known as dogu, and a collection of South East European figurines. She was placed in a large glass display cabinet, some distance from the other exhibits, in an area of dim lighting. Rounding the corner, and coming face to face with her, was a breath-taking experience. She exudes enchantment and significance, small and simple as she is in mundane terms. Of course, she could well have the ability to embody the Lady, however recently she was made. Magical practitioners are well aware of how quickly depictions of deities can become ensouled, and it must have delighted her to return to Norfolk, if only on a temporary visit.

The face of the Grimes Graves Goddess is very simple and plain, with no adornments. However, the Lady of Norfolk most definitely has an aspect as a horned goddess. Sometimes these are the antlers of a Deer, unusual in Does, of course, but an apt crown for a one of such quiet power.At other times, she appears to bear upon her head the points of the crescent Moon, reflecting the soft whiteness of her stone.

Although the Lady of Norfolk is a gentle and approachable deity, abuse of what she offers us met with retribution. Her gifts have been quarried and mined for centuries, and the city of Norwich still has many places where it is obvious that quantities of stone have been removed, leaving strange, scooped out forms in the hillside. Chalk mining was at its height during the industrial revolution when large quantities were required for quicklime, and an unmapped labyrinth of old mining tunnels extends for miles underneath the city. Occasionally, one of these tunnels collapses, opening up a vast chasm in someone's garden, bringing down part of a building, or stopping traffic, as famously happened in 1988, when a bus fell into a hole which opened up on Earlham Road, not far from the city centre.”

—

Of Chalk & Flint:

A Way of Norfolk Magic

by Val Thomas

#of chalk & flint #Val Thomas #witching goddess #traditional withcraft #Norfolk Magic

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bittybattybunny · 4 years

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technically this was day 18 but I somehow skipped it!! So while I’m working on other things enjoy this!

Craft. buddy. Fix your shadow mate. You’re trying to not get exposed as a shapeshifter.

Ficlet go go it’s a little long whoops

Also the reason craft refers to eclipse as “moonsong” btw is because it was her childhood nickname. While the moon jumper brothers refer to her as “song bird” due to her mother being a nightingale, Craft preferred ‘moonsong’ because the implications of calling a child a nightingale are not so good. moonsong was the name her father would use as well.

She doesn’t mind moonsong. but snaps at badgeseller for calling her songbird.

“hey … um… Eclipse…” Snatcher scratched his cheek as he leaned over her as she sat near the pool reading.

She peeked up curiously at the prince, head at an angle. “What’s up, Prince?” she mused, shutting her book.

He frowned, “Um. Just. You know how we were. Going to watch, Kiddo’s new movie together?”

“Yes?” she moved to stand. Taking his extended hand as he smiled. She laughed as she was pulled.

“Well. I was thinking.. Maybe I should.. Change?” he scratched his cheek nervously, “I… I’m already going to look odd enough… being purple… but do you think…” he grimaced, “your friend.. Who helps you with clothes could maybe help me… find something.. Modern?” he finally got out with a bright yellow flush.

She stared in confusion, “You… in modern?” she put a hand to her mouth in thought, “I… I wonder…” she frowned with a sigh, “The issue is how to contact them…” she scratched her cheek with a chuckle, “Normally they just---”

“MOONSONG~!”

The duo whipped their heads towards the violet haired individual who came sauntering over.

Snatcher scowled, “W-when did you enter the forest?!”

“Good question!” Craft snickered and opened their arms to hug Eclipse with a big grin, “just now really. Maybe.” they snickered with that overly wide grin.

“Oh! Craft! Question! You actually have perfect timing!” she giggled as she was spun around. “Prince wants modern clothing! Can you help?”

They stopped twirling the woman and went wide eyed, “Ohhh~!?” they sang in excitement, “Clothing? For a prince?” they snickered, “I think I can handle that~! We’ll have to go to town, I only really have clothes I’ve made for you, my Moonsong.”

“Do you realize how odd it is you have clothes for her?” Snatcher grumbled. He shuddered when he was glared at by the individual.

“She’s a good muse. And she’s got a good smile.” they admitted stroking her head gently as she laughed, “I want to make her shine so she’s never forgotten again is all…”

“Again?” She asked curiously but they simply smiled at her.

“Alright, so clothing! Any preferences?” they clapped and set the bag they carried down, “Moonsong that’s a new outfit for you, feel free to try on at your leisure.”

“Okay!” she laughed as she turned to grab Snatcher’s hand and pulled him forward, “But let’s focus on him! Should be fun to get new clothes after 300 years, right?” she beamed.

“Yeah.” he chuckled as he looked at Craft with a small frown, “I’m in your hands today, Craft.”

Craft couldn’t help chuckling, “About time! I’ve been dying to dress you up as well!” they admitted and got behind the prince whose face had a look of shock, and began to push him, “Let’s go!”

----

“How do I put this on?” Snatcher looked at the modern shirt with a frown, “is it a pull over?”

“Yeah.” Craft stood in the dressing room with him looking at the man with a scrutinizing glare, “Your outfit, is it a part of you?” they had their hand under their chin

Snatcher turned a light yellow, “N-No it’s not. I can just.. Why would you ask?!”

“Well aren’t you normally a giant furry noodle? Do you strip each time?” Craft asked point blank to the ghost’s shocked face.

“H-How did…”

Craft pointed at the ghost’s face, “Easy, honestly.”

He scowled, “Y-You don’t…” he sighed, “I’m not going to win this argument.” he grumbled and chewed his thumbnail annoyed, “Don’t tell her.”

“My lips are sealed.” Craft closed one eye as they held a finger to their lips. “That’s a thing you need to do.” They snickered.

Snatcher huffed, “I… I’ll deal with it when it’s an issue.” he sighed and brushed his long hair back, “To answer, no. my clothes are NOT part of me. More or less. I can shift shape with them on but really only the outfit I died in. I think it has to do with whatever made me… me in the first place.” he crossed his arms, using one hand to gesticulate his points, “I can take it off and be as nude as the day my mother birthed me or I can shapeshift into my normal form.”

“I see.” Craft put their fist under their chin, “Fascinating. But I do get it. It’s similar to a nth dimensional being’s clothing then.” they huffed.

“A what?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Craft studied his outfit, “Strip. I want to see what I’m really working with then.”

“E-Excuse me?!” Snatcher gasped, hair fluffing up.

“Hrm. is that annoying?” Craft reached and took a strand, bringing it to their mouth with a frown, “I have a hair tie.” They reached into their pocket and produced a bright blue hair tie with a slight glow to it.

“Ah, that color…” Snatcher turned a light yellow, “You…”

“It was for her hair yes but. Until the horizon dissipates her hair won’t let itself be tamed.” the sighed and grabbed the man’s shoulders spinning him and began to comb his hair with their fingers.

Snatcher was a bit shocked feeling the weight come off his shoulders a bit as his hair was pulled up. He looked at the mirror in the dressing room and blinked a few times, playing with his bangs, “Huh… I don’t... Think I’ve ever worn it this way.”

“I bet she’ll think it looks nice, now she can see your face~!” Craft sang with a bit of a finger guns motion pointed at the ghost, “Now get stripping prince boy. Crafty needs to see what material there is to play with.”

“W-why are you wording it like that?!” Snatcher snapped.

“Are you guys okay?” Eclipse asked from outside the dressing room, “Prince? Craft?”

“We’re fine, Moonsong!” Craft peeked out with a smug smirk, “I’m just teasing him.” they stuck their pointed tongue out with a snicker.

She huffed, “D-Don’t do that.” she crossed her arms, “S-Snatcher could hurt you if he found out!”

“Right.” they grinned, “moonsong, why don’t you go find a new outfit as well?”

“I don’t know. I mean I thought my outfit was fine.” she frowned as she looked down, “It’s not like I stand out.” she scratched her cheek nervously, “It’s fine.”

Craft scowled hearing her words, “That means it’s not fine.” they sighed and moved back into the room, “Hey.” their voice seemed to drop annoyed, “What do you want to see her in?” they asked the ghost who was busy unbuttoning his over shirt.

“Eh?” He stared confused.

“Eclipse. What kind of outfit would you want to see her in?” Craft sighed and looked at the open shirted specter, “oh. Those are interesting scars…” they noticed an area on the ghost’s chest and reached out, “I see…”

Snatcher flinched pulling away, “It’s just from my death. Don’t think on it. I have other scars on my arms.” he pouted, “Outfit…” he turned bright yellow and shook his head, “W-whate---”

“Don’t tell me whatever. Right now she’s feeling left out because I’m playing with you and she’ll act like it’s fine. So just tell me flatly what kind of outfit have you wanted to see her in?”

The ghost was taken back by the other’s seeming hostility, “Craft… who ARE you?”

“Someone who cares very much about Moonsong and if I could I would be doing a lot more than playing dress up.” they sneered, “tell. Me. what. You. like.”

“I-I don’t know! She looks good in anything!! But I guess…” he peeked at the mirror and at the hairband, “maybe something blue? But long sleeves. A skirt? She always wears pants… just… something comfortable.”

“Skirt, long sleeves, blue, comfortable. I can work with that.” The lavender haired person sighed and looked at the ghost, “I’m going to grab a few options for you as well. Wait here.”

“Yeah because a purple half-dressed ghost is apt to walk around a store.” he snorted.

-----

“Alright, come out!” Craft grinned like a madman as the ghost peeked from the dressing room. He couldn’t help turning yellow at the sight of the woman in the overall dress. He took a breath and stepped out. He reached to fix the sleeve cuff as he looked at the floor embarrassed.

“How’s it.. Look?” he asked finally peeking up to see that Eclipse’s face had become bright red as she looked him over. He felt his chest pinch and rubbed his neck.

“I-It’s good. Y-You look good in modern clothes!” she finally got out, stammering the whole while.

“Y-You too.” he grinned as he walked closer to her and smiled, meeting her eyes.

She gave a small grin with a laugh.

Craft grinned from the corner watching. Smile stretching over their face. They coughed and wiped the viscous fluid from their mouth with a huff, “Bother. I hate this dimension.” their shadow flickered with multiple eyes as they walked over, “Now you two are perfect for your date! I’ll pay for the clothes as a treat~!”

The couple both started blushing harder looking away from each other. Craft couldn’t help laughing loudly with a content sigh, “Come on let’s go check out!” they sang pushing the couple towards the front, “I’ll grab Prince’s clothing while you get rung up!”

“O-Oh.” Eclipse stammered as she and Snatcher headed up front, peeking back worried.

Craft waved and headed into the dressing room. They removed their gloves and sighed looking at the inky tone and rubbed their temples, “I’m going to have to go home for a bit and solidify again.” they grumbled, scooping the clothing up. They paused a moment as they looked at the ghost’s clothing curiously.

“How strange.. I would think it’d be the same outfit Sena has but…” they scowled, “Oh well. Not my issue.” they folded it over their arm and headed back out to the waiting flustered couple. At least they were heading in the right direction, Craft thought happily, seeing the two holding hands. He hoped the ghost wouldn’t peck this up for them all.

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kkysolo · 3 years

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Stuck on You / Chapter One

You curse him for it, sometimes. Loathe him for it - for how he’s made you, his parents, his friends feel. How he’s broken them. Reduced all of you to nothing but fickle fragments that pass through time and space with little awareness, with little recognition, of what’s happening to them. At least, that’s how you feel. But the bitterness, the fury - it doesn’t last long. It never does.

Prologue

Pairing: Ben Solo|Kylo Ren/Reader Setting: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, dystopia, modern, gangs. Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, war, gang violence, emotional hurt/angst, codependent relationships (eventual fluff, smut, romance).

A/N: Tense change from past to present because we’re shifting into the present timeline of the story. Also, if you’ve read any of my other work, you’ll know I tend to write in second person omniscient. I love a bit of head-hopping, keeps us on our toes, lol. It won’t appear in this chapter, but bear it in mind for the future.

Chapter under the cut, and also here, on AO3.

Summary: The year is 2084.

Despite its advances, society has collapsed on itself. The world is crooked, damaged, dying. Rezoned into new territories, separating the elite from the unworthy. Civilization is crumbling at your very feet, and in the midst of it all, your best friend, Ben Solo, has been missing for three years. You desperately cling to what’s left of him, hoping that he’ll come home, praying that things will fall back into place.

And then he does. And they don’t. Because life is different when you’re a scoundrel in the midst of a class war.

Now: 2084, Spring

You’ve always hated spring.

They used to call it the season of new beginnings, and new beginnings were good. But that was before. Now, starting over is nothing more than an expected, quotidian task each time the Empire rezones the land. Which is often. Too often to ever feel at home. Too often to ever really feel as though there’s a new beginning to be had.

“It was the right thing to do, you know,” Rose smiles sympathetically in that way that she does, the kind of way that doesn’t make you feel pitied, but loved. “Hm?” “Breaking up with Jon.” “Oh,” you hadn’t actually given the situation much thought. He’d already retreated the back of your mind, an unimportant speck among an ocean of stress. “Yeah, I know.” “Because you didn’t love him.” “I know.” “Because you love Ben.” “Rose,” you hiss, your head flying around the dimly lit room. Because that’s all it is, really - a room. They’d outlawed bars (at least, in the rezoned areas) six months ago. Your shabby little makeshift basement bar - ran by Ben’s mother, nonetheless - was an illegal, yet necessary sanctuary. “Would you stop? Someone will hear.”

“Oh, stop,” she scoffs, taking a sip of highly illegal (and cherished) gin and lemonade. “As if everyone here doesn’t already know.”

“Well it doesn’t matter now, does it?” you mumble, twirling a bottle of beer between your hands. It’s a good one, not badly brewed and watered down. Leia, she gets the good stuff. How she gets it, you aren’t sure. “It’s not like he’s around.” “He’s not dead,” Rose affirms. “He can’t be.” “What makes you say that?”

Because you believe it, too, you do. He can’t be dead - couldn’t possibly be gone. Because Ben, he’s strong. He’s good and he’s kind and he’s funny and brave and men like him don’t just die unknowingly. Men like him go down in glory - of that, you’re sure.

“Because it’s Ben,” she shrugs. “He’s supposed to be running this place one day.”

You nod, still dragging your bottle across the uneven wood of the table.

“It’ll be awkward, though,” you sigh. “With Jon.” “You think so?” “I mean, yeah,” you lean back in your seat. “He’s still with the Resistance, I’m gonna have to see him all the time.” “Yeah, I mean, maybe missions will be awkward but,” she shrugs. “He’s not an idiot, surely he knows to, you know. Stay away.”

You hum in agreement, taking a swig from your bottle. Ben would like this beer, you think. It’s bitter, like he likes.

“Sweetheart,” Leia is behind you now, a gentle hand on your shoulder. “Could I ask a favour?” “Of course.” “Could you watch the place for me tonight?” She has that apologetic expression on her face she so often bears, and it pains you to think of her worrying to ask you something. “Han is home from his mission tonight, and I’d just love to see him, honey.” “Leia, of course,” you place your hand atop hers. “You deserve all the time together you can get.”

And they do. They’d separated for several months after Ben’s disappearance, neither of them able to cope with the weight of it in a manner that allowed them any semblance of intimacy, any notion of peace. But they’d rekindled as much as they could of their relationship, and despite Han’s long missions, continued to work on it.

“Thank you, honey,” she smiles softly, squeezing your hand before turning to a demanding patron. She gives so much of herself to so many people, you wonder how there’s any of her left.

When Leia finally bids you farewell, you’re already shuffling around behind the badly crafted bar, held together precariously by planks and rusted nails. You’re not sure who built it - though you expect it may have been Poe - but you’re surprised it’s still standing after only one week of use. You pull another bottle of gin from a box on the concrete floor, and you scoff at the icy feel of it. The wicked cold from the exposed ground has kept it remarkably cool. You hope you’ll be able to shut the refrigerator off, in that case. It’s far too expensive to run.

“Here,” you pour Rose another glass. She sits at the bar now, resting her chin in her palm. “Perk up a little, you’ve gotta keep me company.”

Rose sticks her tongue out playfully.

“Did you get settled in your new place?” She speaks into her glass and the sound of her voice vibrates through the liquid.

“Mhm,” You sigh, pouring a drink for yourself. It’s your second move of the year already - the Empire having pushed you out of every zone you’ve ever called home. When they come, ships and tie-fighters blackening the sky above you, you’re herded like goats to whatever new (and smaller) zone they deem suitable for nuisances such as you. For peasants such as you. “You?”

“Meh,” she shrugs. “I wish they kept me with you this time. I hate being by myself.” “Me too,” you murmur. And you do. You really do. “But it is what it is.”

You glance to your left, eyeing the stacks upon stacks of boxes that pile up against the wall. All labelled ‘bottles’, ‘glasses’, ‘coasters’ in Finn’s terrible handwriting. There’s one that sits at the bottom, labelled only ‘our stuff’. Back in the old bar - the real bar - you’d had CD players (the old kind, from decades ago - you couldn’t afford anything else). You’d had string lights and flowers and Sabacc tables. You’d decorated the walls with photos - of you, of Ben, of the resistance. Of the people who owned and worked at the only establishment for fucking miles that conceived any happiness. And it was beautiful. It was perfect.

“When’s Poe back?” Rose hums. “I think he’s coming back with Han tonight,” She takes a sip of her drink. “Why?” “I really wish he’d move those fuckin’ boxes,” you grit. “Hide them in the back or something, but I can’t stand the sight of them.”

Rose nods sympathetically.

“He will,” She turns, then, as the sound of rain pummels against the ground outside. Though it’s a basement, there’s still windows, the kind that sit more toward the ceiling, the kind that are awfully awkward to open. She squints at them, and your eyes catch how she leans closer to get a better look.

“You alright?” You lean toward her, resting your elbows against the bar. You can hear how it creaks with the pressure. “Y-yeah I just,” she drags her eyes away, bringing her attention back to you. “I just thought I saw someone outside.” “There’s lots of people outside,” you smile. “There always is.” “No, I know, but they were like…” She looks back to the window. “They were crouching, looking in.”

You sigh.

“Hopefully not an inspector for the Empire,” Rose turns back to you as you speak, and you smirk at her reassuringly. “That Armitage Hux prick has always had it out for me.”

She laughs in that airy kind of way that she does, the kind of way that makes you bubble with gratitude - because you know her. You’re fortuitous enough, privileged enough to be around such a light, such an ethereal soul. You often wonder what you ever would have done without her. You often wonder if you’d have survived it - survived this, survived the loss of him, without her.

“Maybe if you wouldn’t rile him up, he wouldn’t hate you so much.” “But it’s just so much fun to piss him off,” You grin. “He gets so flustered.”

You stay like that, laughing together, until well after midnight. You’re glad for it, the distraction. You need it, even now. Even after all this time. Being alone - with your thoughts, with the gaping hole that sits inside your chest - doesn’t get any easier. They say time heals all wounds. You wish it would. It’s only made yours worse, only further infected it with spores of him, that burst and spread the ache right down into your bones. You curse him for it, sometimes. Loathe him for it - for how he’s made you, his parents, his friends feel. How he’s broken them. Reduced all of you to nothing but fickle fragments that pass through time and space with little awareness, with little recognition, of what’s happening to them. At least, that’s how you feel. But the bitterness, the fury - it doesn’t last long. It never does.

When you trudge inside your new apartment (though new doesn’t seem very apt, perhaps crumbling would fit better), you feel him. He’s never been there, of course, but you feel him nonetheless. You feel him everywhere. In everything. And it haunts you - he haunts you. And he has no right to, because you know he’s not dead, he can’t be.

You run through your nightly routine, finally readying yourself for slumber. You hope you’ll see him there, when you close your eyes and drift from hell into harmony. You hope you’ll find him nestled in the crevices of your subconscious. Because you know he’s there. He’s always there. And when you unlock your front door, when you prop open the windows before crawling under the sheets - you hope he’ll find you here, too. Nestled under the covers, waiting for him.

And when you fall into deep sleep, into a dream - or a memory - of long ago, a dream of smiles and laughter and his honey-brown eyes, you don’t hear the door as it creaks and clicks open. You don’t hear the windows as they fall shut, the frigid breeze no longer assaulting the room. You don’t hear the footsteps, nor do you hear the breathing - panicked, rushed.

When you’re asleep, you find him. And when you’re asleep, he finds you.

#can you tell that i just REALLY fucking love rose tico #i literally would sell my soul to be her best friend lol #anyways #moving along #my writing #stuck on you #ben solo x reader #ben solo x you #kylo ren x reader #kylo ren x you #ben solo #kylo ren

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fratresdei · 4 years

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Spirituality Defined

Where did our working definition of spirituality come from? How has it evolved over centuries of research, ritual and belief? Philosophy grad Brayte Singletary stopped by the blog this week to take us on deep dive into the ever-elusive meaning of spirituality. Enjoy!

What even is spirituality? Rachel asks that very question in one of this blog’s first posts, and gives her answer there too. It’s one of the fundamental questions of spiritual direction. Those seeking or giving spiritual direction are liable to stumble on it sooner or later, through education or reflection. This post is one of those trips—and since it’s a bone we may need help chewing, I attempt to shine some Sirius-light on the best research I could dig up. Hopefully it’s illuminating.

In 2016 some researchers in Germany and the U.S. published the results of a formal investigation into the meaning of spirituality [A]. They based their investigation on a 2011 survey of Germans and Americans that asked, among other questions, “How would you define the term ‘spirituality’?” Approximately eighteen hundred different definitions came back, about forty percent German and sixty percent American. Quantifying these samples, the researchers started running statistical analysis.

First they looked for categories of response, grouping similar categories together and narrowing the list down to just those that make the most sense of overall response patterns [B]. They found that ten basically distinct concept clusters [C] come under the heading of spirituality, almost always in some combination [D]:

A keenly-felt connection to and harmony with nature, humanity, the world, the universe, or the whole of reality.

Dependence on, relationship to, or union with the divine; a part of religion, esp. Christianity.

A search for one’s higher or true inner self, meaning, purpose; knowledge of these things; attainment of peace or enlightenment, esp. in terms of a path or journey [E].

Holding and daily acting according to ethical values, especially in relation to others, one’s community, or humanity; a moral way of life [F].

Faith or belief in transmundane forces, energies, beings, a higher power, gods or God.

A noncommittal, indefinite, but intensely emotional, maybe loving sense that there is some thing(s) or being(s) higher than and beyond this world, this life, or oneself [G].

Experience and contemplation of reality and the truth, meaning, purpose, and wisdom, esp. if considered beyond scientific or rational understanding, inexplicable and indemonstrable.

Awareness of and attunement to another, immaterial or supernatural realm and its denizens (spirits, angels, ghosts, etc.); feeling their presence; using special techniques to perceive and interact with them (tarot, crystals, seances, etc.).

Opposite religion, dogma, rules, traditions; unstructured, irreverent, religious individualism.

Individual or private religious practice; prayer, worship, or meditation; relationship-deepening or connection-fostering personal rituals and devotional acts.

Doing the same grouping and narrowing to unearth anything deeper, they found that all of these ten clusters fall somewhere on three scales, which they call the dimensions of spirituality [H]:

I. Vertical vs. horizontal general terminology for transcendence [I]

II. Theistic vs. non-theistic specific terminology for transcendence

III. Individual vs. institutional mediation of transcendence

Finally they found that this analysis confirms their larger research team’s theoretically-grounded hypothesis that the root definition of spirituality is:

Individually-mediated, experience-directed religion, esp. among religious nones [J]: i.e., religion oriented away from mediation through institutions, dependence on organizational structures and absolute authority claims, toward the immediacy of firsthand experience, emancipatory independence and value relative to the individual [K].

All this verbiage cries out for explanation. But for the moment let’s step back to marvel at our good luck in having research like this. Its conclusions about the meaning of spirituality—at least the ten concept clusters and three scales—came through something nearer experimentation in a laboratory than reflection in an armchair. In philosophical jargon, this argus-eyed approach was a posteriori rather than a priori; in anthropological jargon, emic rather than etic. As a result, we better see wrinkles in the meaning of spirituality, including internal inconsistencies that a cyclopic definitional scheme might smooth over, e.g., as a part of religion (2) and as opposite it (10).

For starters then, we see that this definition of spirituality is tripartite: “individually-mediated”, “experience-directed”, and “religion”. Since spirituality here is a kind of religion, religion is the core concept, so we’ll take it from there. That will lead to the three scales of spirituality, ‘vertical vs. horizontal terminology’ (I), ‘theistic vs. non-theistic terminology’ (II), and ‘individual vs. institutional mediation’ (III). “Individually-mediated” will come along with the third. That leaves only “experience-directed” and closing remarks. Now where did I put my patience for dry exposition…?

If none of it jibes with your own sense of spirituality, all the better! We all have much to learn, and outliers—you whose lives are led under stones yet unturned by science—have much to teach us.

First “religion”: For these researchers religion is any socially constructed system of symbols and rituals that interprets transcendent experience in ultimate terms [L]. This applies even to people who don’t consider themselves religious, including those who would self-describe as “spiritual but not religious”. But precisely what do transcendent experience and ultimate mean here? Transcendent experience—or simply ‘transcendence’—is any experience of “distance and departure from [the] everyday”, above and beyond the boundaries of ordinary experience [M]. More than just extraordinary, it exceeds our expectations of life and the world as we know it, e.g., by excelling in its class or defying classification (almost) altogether: the weirder and more wonderful, the more transcendent. So transcendent experience is often what we would traditionally call ‘religious experience’, but they make the distinction that it only counts as religious if on interpretation it’s cast in ultimate terms. Turning to “ultimate” then, here this is really elliptical for ‘of ultimate concern or importance to a person’. The ultimate is what “gives depth, direction and unity to all other concerns”, as theologian Paul Tillich puts it, from whom they draw the idea—e.g., our answers to basic questions about the world and our place in it [N]. Bringing these ideas together, a merely transcendent experience becomes genuinely religious when we see in it something all-important to us, and it becomes full-fledged religion when we build around it a symbolic-ritualistic framework of beliefs and practices. One’s framework needn’t be grand or widely-shared: it might be a slim private affair, like a single-person tent that’s as easy to pitch as to pack up and carry. Likewise a person can bring to transcendent experience a religious interpretive lens, or craft one afterwards just to come to terms with it. Either priority fits.

Before we move on to the next concept, let’s clear up some potentially misleading language in this definition of religion. To start, “socially constructed” here doesn’t necessarily mean ‘made up’, ‘fake’, or otherwise unreal. It just means that if nobody thought or talked about religion, there wouldn’t be any: its existence depends on its exercise. Likewise the claim that it “interprets” transcendent experience doesn't imply that it therefore misinterprets it. Indeed the opposite may well be true. Even elementary sense perception needs interpretation to become understanding: naked experience unclothed by categories or classifications is at best a muddle—e.g., in rounding an unfamiliar corner in the city or in coming out without warning on an open expanse in the country, when the sudden change of scenery produces a visual experience of undifferentiated shape and color, it’s all just optical nonsense until reason and intellect, as it were, catch up, and organize this sense data into a coherent picture: only then when interpretation goes to work does one finally know what she’s looking at. Although we may at times be apt to make meaning where there is none, often enough we find it right where it belongs. So this definition doesn’t debunk religion; it merely says that, assuming it has this experiential basis, it’s imbued with the meaning we give it, veracious or fallacious.

The terminology of our interpretation, i.e., our way of using terms for and ideas about the ultimate, admits of a couple distinctions. These are also the first and second scales of spirituality above (I-II): vertical-horizontal, and within that, theistic and non-theistic [O]. The former measures the metaphysical distance transcendent experience crosses. The latter measures the unity and personality and sometimes also the clarity of the religious object. Vertical terminology characteristically evokes what we would traditionally call the transcendent, e.g., God and heaven—generally, the otherworldly. It aims at things other than and over this world and oneself in it. Horizontal terminology tends the other way, toward the traditionally immanent, e.g., nature and humanity. Leaning this-worldly, it aims at things in and of the world and the world itself. Notably, whereas the vertical is often explicitly religious, the horizontal’s religiosity can even escape the notice of the person professing it [P]. Within this distinction is that between theistic and non-theistic terminology. The apparent presence of God, gods, and god-like beings or forces maps an important area of vertically transcendent experience, as their apparent absence does an antipodean area of horizontally transcendent experience. But this also sheds light on terminology between vertical and horizontal. This family of views sees the ultimate as in neither our world nor a world beyond, but rather in “a world behind”, i.e., behind and beneath the world’s surface appearances [Q]. Typically this is non-theistic, e.g., about ghosts, spirits, energies, or forces.

A gloss of the third scale (III) now moves into view, and with it “individually-mediated”: Individual-institutional mediation of transcendence measures the directness or indirectness of a person’s access to transcendent experience, i.e., the extent and power of the gatekeepers standing in her way. As these researchers put it, “Institutionalized mediation says that ... there is no other way to transcendence than through the church, sacraments, and priests; that there is no other truth than the sanctioned teachings; and that the ultimate concern is determined by the institution and its tradition” [R]. By contrast, and often in vociferous reply, individual-mediation says, “there is no or very little mediation of transcendence, but rather the experiential immediacy of the individual; there are no claims of absoluteness, but the individualistic evidence of experience; there is no or very little organization or structure" [S]. In this way, against so-called organized religion’s usual mediation by institutions, esp. hierarchical structures operating them, spirituality favors an unpatrolled, gates-wide-open setup. Yet it doesn’t follow from such independence that spirituality is therefore a lonely pursuit—though “flight of the alone to the Alone”, i.e., hermetic mysticism, is surely right at home here too [T]. We’re able to have experiences with others, just not for them, so it can be equally possible to pursue direct experience of transcendence with others as by oneself.

Lastly, “experience-directed”: This means that, whereas transcendent experience might play no ongoing role in a religion’s usual exercise, e.g., as none other than an oft-remembered historical event, in spirituality it takes the lead. Ritual, symbol, etc., become at best aids to pursuit of transcendence, but at worst impediments. Therefore spirituality in its purest, i.e., barest, form may focus on such experience exclusively; and since “directed” here means both ‘directed to’ and ‘directed by’, the religious ideal may resemble an upward spiral of being led from transcendence to transcendence by transcendence. Still this isn’t to say that spirituality takes direction from nothing else, or that by focusing on transcendence even exclusively, the rest of familiar religion vanishes. A spiritual purist may disavow religious side projects in pursuit of her wonted mode of transcendence, or she may simply subordinate them to it as various means to this end. Yet while she might style herself as therefore unencumbered in her pursuit of raw experience, her religious interpretive lens remains ever-present, however unwittingly. It must, or else her chase after the spiritual would be of the wild-goose variety. E.g., someone undergoing a crisis of faith might discover to her horror that she’s no longer able to participate in her favorite religious exercises, since the vinegar of doubt now spoils every well from which she used to draw joy. Since her experiences can’t mean what they used to, they can’t be what they used to either.

Let’s sum up with a little illustration. Consider this spiritual foil: one an atheistic nature lover, the other a Catholic anchoress. The former’s approach is thoroughly horizontal and non-theistic. She takes regular hikes to feast on natural beauty and sublimity, but deems it all mere serendipity in a chaotic cosmos. She’s a proficient adventurer, as comfortable with friends as without. She might not spurn a Beatrice to guide her through some earthly paradise, but her trust would be that when she came face to facelessness with wild abundance, her delight would need no shepherd. The abundance itself would call out of her everything necessary for its appreciation. In this way she mediates her own pursuit of these experiences. Their ultimacy for her comes not only from her denial of the otherworldly, but also from her judgment that nature is intrinsically, i.e., ultimately, good—or at least, that immersion in it stirs and sustains her is. Conversely, the latter’s approach is thoroughly theistic and vertical, and manifestly ultimate. She spends her life in solitary prayer. Sometimes during contemplation of the divine she has ecstatic visions or auditions. But whatever happens, her daily goal is total abandonment to God. Still even with the individuality of her self-mediating lifestyle, it retains considerable institutionality. She holds fast to piety towards the Church, its orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Yet despite this rigid adherence to ecclesiastical authority—or, she would say, because of it—, she lives as a recluse whose sole aim is attaining union with Him Whom she worships as Transcendence Itself. Both in their disparate ways are individually-mediated, experience-directed religion.

Here we are then! We’ve gained at long last the real meaning of spirituality, right? Well, maybe: We have to trust not only that German and American ideas of spirituality are the same as everybody else’s, but also that the notions of these particular people are the same as those of other Germans and Americans [U]. Moreover we must take for granted that what they put in Tweet-sized writing when a survey bluntly asked them their opinion is the same as what they think all the time, even when they’re not thinking about what they think [V]. Still science has yet to master the art of mind-reading. So even if this isn’t the definitive definition of ‘spirituality’, it’s got my money for our best guess yet.

In Rachel’s post, she’s wise to the width of variety, saying, “Spirituality has been defined and redefined throughout human history, and it is now my intention to shout yet another definition to the abyss.” For her, its definition is: “the practice of deriving any amount of meaning from any event, thought, or activity.” Looking back at the ten concept clusters above, this bears striking resemblance to parts of (3) and (7). She’s in good company. Clinicians and care professionals typically promote this conception: e.g., psychological measures of wellbeing that account for spirituality usually cast it in these terms, viz., purpose and meaning. Though some have wondered whether this confuses spirituality with a part of mental health, the findings above resoundingly vindicate it as an important part of the spiritual puzzle [W]. If they also solve that puzzle, hopefully they do so more in the spirit of Ariadne’s clue out of the Labyrinth than Alexander’s sword through the Knot. At the very least, such research is a waypoint on the path to understanding. If none of it jibes with your own sense of spirituality, all the better! We all have much to learn, and outliers—you whose lives are led under stones yet unturned by science—have much to teach us. So it’s still worth asking:

What does spirituality mean to you? Please share your definition in the comments.

Unpack what spirituality uniquely means to you through the ancient practice of spiritual direction. Schedule a free online session through the link in the comments.

Endnotes:

A. Eisenmann, Clemens, et al. “Dimensions of “Spirituality”: The Semantics of Subjective Definitions.” Semantics and Psychology of Spirituality: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, ed. by Heinz Streib & Ralph Wood, Jr., Springer, 2016, p. 125.

B. Op. cit., pp.129-35. Before grouping and narrowing them together and down, these were the forty-four recurring categories they found:

Faith and belief, believing, belief system

Connectedness, relationship, in touch with, harmony

Individual, personal, private, subjective

Everyday, daily life, way of life, to act

Values, (higher) order, morals, karma

God (also the Father, Lord, Creator, the Divine)

Unspecified transcendent: something bigger, beyond, greater; “may be”

Feeling, emotion, intuition, empathy, heart, love

Within, self, higher Self, inner core, essence

Seeking, path, journey, reaching, to evolve, to achieve

Awareness, consciousness, sense of, feeling a presence, in tune

Supernatural, non-material, cannot see or touch

Transcendental higher power/forces/energy

Thinking about, to understand, to reflect, contemplation

Relation to the world, nature, environment, universe

Cannot be explained or scientifically proven, beyond understanding

Higher/beyond/greater/other than oneself/humans/this life

Relation to others, community, all humanity, humankind

Experience, sensory perception Spirit and mind

Rest (i.e., the remainder of uncategorized responses)

Practices, to practice (one’s faith), music, prayer, worship, meditation

(Inner) peace, enlightenment and other attitudes and states of being

Guided, destined, controlled, saved, healed, dependent

Part of religion, Christian, biblical

All-connectedness, part of something bigger

Meaning and (higher) purpose, questions and answers

Transcendental absolute, “unity of existence,” omnipresent and indiscriminate, the one

Otherworldly, beyond this world, “spiritual” realms Acknowledge, to recognize, to accept, to realize Vague, unclear, unsure; bullshit, fantasy, hocus pocus Without rules, tradition, norms, dogma, structure, directions (21) Something else than religion, without worship

Energies, vital principle, ghosts, angels and demons, spirits

The truth, true nature of existence, wisdom, reality (4) Jesus, Christ, Holy Spirit, the Son Greater being/person, deities, gods Soul

Universal category, basis of mankind Esoteric, occultism, spiritism, mystic, magic (39) Deal with, interest in, engagement, focus

Part and beyond religion Obedience and devotion Life after death.

C. I borrow the notion of concept clusters from passing familiarity with Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language.

D. Op. cit., pp. 137-8. Paraphrase.

E. Whereas spirituality conceived of as a part of religion (2) fits nicely with its mostly premodern history as just that, the conception immediately following of it as a journey to one’s true inner self (3) sits well with modern social movements toward individualism and subjectivism: op. cit., p. 146.

F. Spirituality conceived of as living out one’s values may partly underlie the self-identification “spiritual but not religious”. Here ’spirituality’ primarily indicates an ethical concern that being merely ‘religious’ doesn’t—not just talking the talk but walking the walk: ibid. More clearly this identification involves some combination of clusters with (9).

G. The much-maligned vagueness of spirituality’s meaning may come from this conception of it as a sense of something indefinite and beyond: ibid. N.b., philosophers of language usually distinguish vagueness, i.e., unclear meaning due to imprecise extension over borderline cases, from ambiguity, i.e., unclear meaning due to polysemy—having multiple meanings.

H. Op. cit., p. 143. Paraphrase. Their dimensions are: (I) mystical vs. humanistic transcending; (II) theistic vs. non-theistic transcendence; and (III) individual “lived” experience vs. dogmatism.

I. I use “transcendence” and “transcendent experience” interchangeably throughout this post. Though there may be other forms of transcendence than experience, talk of ‘transcendence’ as an event and not, e.g., as a divine attribute, usually means ‘experience of transcendence’, i.e., ‘transcendent experience’.

J. Religious nones get their names from those who answer “none” to demographic polls asking their religious affiliation. In other words, they are the religiously unaffiliated. Cf. unchurched.

K. Op. cit., p. 148. Paraphrase. Their definition is privatized experience-oriented religion, following research by other members of their team: Streib, Heinz, & Wood, Jr., Ralph. “Understanding “Spirituality”—Conceputal Considerations.” Semantics and Psychology of Spirituality: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, ed. by Heinz Streib & Ralph Wood, Jr., Springer, 2016, p. 9. Ensuing fns. refer to that ch.

L. Op. cit., p. 11. Cf. Emile Durkheim’s definition of religion, popular esp. in U.S. religious studies depts.: “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them”: The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. trans. Carol Cosman, Oxford Univ. Press, 2001, p. 46.

M. Op. cit., p. 10.

N. Op. cit., p. 11.

O. Strictly speaking, non-theistic terminology could be either vertical or horizontal, while theistic terminology is by definition vertical. As it happens however, or at least according to this research, our thinking about spirituality typically separates out the theistic and vertical from the non-theistic and horizontal.

P. Op. cit., p. 12.

Q. Ibid.

R. Op. cit. p. 14.

S. Ibid. They also mention here sectarian middle mediation “through a prophetic and charismatic person”.

T. Famous last words of the Neoplatonic classic: Plotinus. Enneads. VI.9.11. trans. Andrew Louth, qtd. in The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys, Oxford Univ. Press, 1981, p. 51.

U. Cf. WEIRD bias (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic), an ongoing problem for representative sampling: Henrich, Joseph, Heine, Steven J., & Norenzayan, Ara. “The weirdest people in the world?” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 2-3, 2010, 61–83. In fact there were some statistically significant differences between German and American responses: American definitions of spirituality were more Christian or otherwise traditionally religious, mentioning Jesus and the Holy Spirit much more, but God only a little more—presumably because theism goes beyond Christianity. Still when they did mention God it was more often in Christian terms of a personal and sovereign lord. Likewise they mentioned faith and belief much more often, and this was more often faith or belief in something beyond, higher power(s), god(s), or God (5). Their notions of spiritual power were also further outside and over themselves, as in talk of guidance or obedience. By contrast German definitions of spirituality were warier of dogma and authority, whether religious orthodoxy or scientific consensus. They mentioned experience, as opposed to belief, more often, and were generally more esoteric, occult, and magical in their terminology, talking of the otherworldly in more universal but impersonal or abstract, terms. They were also more critical of spirituality, oftener complaining of its vagueness or even dismissing it as bovine fecal material. Still despite all this the researchers noted that American and German definitions were much, much more alike than different. These differences should therefore be understood as in emphasis, not substance. Their considerable overlap, striking in itself, forms the basis of the ten concept clusters and the three scales.

V. We must also assume that the scientific method deserves our confidence, and that the concept of spirituality, if not spirituality itself, is amenable to investigation by it. Other assumptions include those about word meaning, natural kinds, and other hot topics of debate in the philosophy of language and science—all of which would take us far afield of the present discussion. May curious readers experience transcendence of this post!

W. Eisenmann, Clemens, et al., p. 147.

#spiritual #spirituality #Religion #religious #theology #philosophy #Religious Studies #spiritual but not religious #spiritual direction #spiritual director #spiritual direction denver #denver spirituality #history of religion #spiritual journey #faith #belief #soul care

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ithinkthingsaboutstuff · 5 years

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The Grace of motherhood (TUA)

I wanted to do a character deep dive of my new favourite robot Mother

Grace Hargreeves, i just love that a small character like this got so much detail and crafting put into them when it was not necessarily needed.

were to start, lets start with how she looks,

the style of her look and how the change in her wardrobe showed her development. I will be looking at this in the timeline of the show not necessarily ep by ep.

The style and what it says about her.

very 1950′s no surprise but lets look at it deeper, when grace is created (by Hargreeves) she is shown wearing (i can’t find a pic of it anywhere) in the opening of 1x09 ‘Changes’

in something not dissimilar to this

the look is a long skit (dark brown) and a shirt with long sleeves (white with dark striped) and hair up in a very tight bun, like so

now theses are NOT graces clothes this is the uniform that the other nanny's where wearing as well. so this means grace did not chose to look like this, also in this scene we see her look over to Hargreeves and Pogo for approval she smile’s at a job well done and they nod to her. (i will come back to this)

so when Grace is first introduced (shows timeline not ep order)

she is Hargreeves perfect uniform robot nanny that dose what she’s told with a smile.

the next time we see her in ‘I heard a rumour ’ (again show’s timeline) she’s wearing this

this Scene is also when Vanya is getting Rumoured, so Grace gives Vanya her Favourite food (grilled cheese) and her “medicine”.

in this short moment and change of wardrobe we can concluded that

1- she now cares about what the kids want to a point , because there is no way Hargreeves told her to bring Vanya’s Favourite food, (even if he did tell her to bring food)

2- she was more control over her self with being able to pick her own clothes, they have colour (not a lot or bright but more than before) and her hair is a little lower but still heavy made up.

3- the kids (Vanya specially) trust her enough to take something from her and believe her without questions or a fight (Vanya takes her medicine quietly, because Vanya can still toss Grace out the room at this point)

so grace is gaining a little more self identity but still very much live under Hargreeves thumb, because she dose not question or bring up what she was told to do and is still doing what she dose for Hargreeves and what he wants (get rid of Vanya’s powers)

Now here’s where it gets interesting her next bunch of appearances go roughly in this order, (I am guessing the order but from what I've talked about the first two do seem to line up this way, but the last two are certain and canon)

This dress is a step away from what we’ve see up until this point, it’s still a darker colour (silver,even if glittery) like a metallic and the ribbons and other fetchers are very streamline, makes it look almost robotic (see what i did there) she is also wearing shorter selves and a wider skirt the look she favours

so this looks like her first step towards what she wants to look like, also note that

1-she also talking to Vanya directly this time, Hargreeves is not even in the room, so she doesn't have to say anything to Vanya if she didn’t want to

2-Vanya went to Grace’s ‘room’ or area to show her the violin

3- Grace encourages her ‘that wonderful Vanya’ or something to that effect

4- and the line that kills me every time i hear it “i’m going to be extraordinary” is Vanya speaking to Grace

(BTW this is a part of a wonderful gif set by tuagifs link on gif)

Classic grace or most common outfit she has,

the look itself is light and colourful but still has black spots (apt metaphor if ever i’d seen one) now I’m sure this one comes second here because this is when grace starts to have more, awareness of Hargreeves BS towards the children and her feeling about it

1- “the kids wanted to say good night” she is now going out of her way to do what the kids want even if it means interrupting Hargreeves

2- she dose not know how to handle his response or lack there of,

3- leaves with the kids as apposed to staying with Hargreeves and she dose not turn back to him when she leaves

this is were the shift starts in Grace’s personality, she is no longer looking for Hargreeves approval and has shifted her focus to the kids

The day five goes missing, this how see looks when he runs out the door (damn,buffering much)

she say nothing in this scene, but if we are looking just at the outfit here, it’s the most bright and colourful in the show and she wears it later. so i will talk more about them, note that the hair is still in the middle length and made up to perfection and she is behind Hargreaves (a few feet at that).

Grace doing her rounds, here is when she is fully there mother, putting out fires everywhere for her kids (literal in Klaus case). her clothes are more simple but not as conforming as they once were, so they are for mobility and movement and not a uniform (ironic since the kids are putting on there’s)

now she is with her kids 100% here and the scene ends with her being proud of Diego and Hargreeves walking in unapproving, we did not see the conversation that follows but we do see adult Diego’s reaction to it,

mournful maybe, but he did say she was treated worst then anyone, so this may have been an off screen example of that. who knows?

ok time skip to the present

I will skip the Luther surgery, for the sake of time, and lack of pic, but i will note that this is when grace official didn’t have any of her children with her anymore.

at the funeral

not much to say about this one, sorry.

but i will say that, when she is looking at the painting this dress is similar colour to the one in the painting, since Grace is projecting herself onto this painting in that ‘she’s lonely’ also now that Hargreeves is gone and he took her mind with him, she is at her darkest.

also note that

1-Hargreeves messed with her mind he didn’t just get Pogo to turn her on then off again

2-Hargreeves set her up to take the blame for his death, thus being the murder mystery to get them all working together Pogo was talking about.

3- that was when Hargreeves saw Grace as reaching her usefulness, the kids where grown, he was going to kill himself and Pogo never needed her. so the only thing left for her was to reunite the kids to save the world, by making her his murderer

We go back to classic look Grace until after her death

after she’s is back, in 1x06 ‘the day that wasn’t’

she is moving around and back in classic Grace clothes but this time she has her hair down and she is moving freely, Diego talks to her about what she remembers and Pogo appears out of a bookcase to instruct her not to say anything, now what dose Grace do she takes Diego out of the grounds to tell Diego the truth,

this was it

true independence her first real act of which we saw anyway. Hargreeves is dead and Mama’s going to do what ever the fuck she want’s

now this didn’t happen in the main plot line but this independence remained not in obvious way but still there.

this is show though her hair being down and her clothes being lighter and her make up being lighter neural colouring as well

compare the pair

before

after

1- same outfit, years apart

2- what she doing is the same serving food who she is with is different

3- why she’s there is different to she is doing what Hargreeves told her to do vs getting Diego food because she wants to cheer him up

4- she is close to Diego puts her hand on his shoulder vs being a few steps away from Hargreeves

this right here in two frames you can see a whole characters transformation form one mans automaton to a loving mother,done without even a complete change of wardrobe

damn.

and that’s one aspect of Grace

we also know she

1- named the kid’s

2-she took care of all there injuries(so she was most likely the one who wired Klaus mouth shut)

3- did not even try to stop Diego from turning her off in fact she was encouraging him with is specking, mush mind or not that was her priority

4- put smiley faces on her food, Hargreeves would not have told her to do this

Now this all leads me to my final point about Grace and honestly what i find the most interesting about her. Her whole housewife identity, more specificity when it comes to motherhood. what do i mean,

we have all hear this narrative before of a women trapped in a marriage with a man she doesn't love, stuck in a house to do nothing but cook, clean and care for the kids.

this story is one that has been explored in shows like Mad Men (i have not seen a lot of mad men just a disclaimer)

Betty Draper for example

these character’s usually look at how the superficial can shape and destroy a life. and how in order to find anything real you have to broaden your horizon’s by going out into the world and opening your mind and therefor being more than a mother and a housewife, and you’ll be free of your superficial life. (and yes i know it dose not go this way for Betty but this was the overall idea of the arc)

this is a strong narrative don't get me wrong and it should be shown

but what i find interesting but Grace is that, yes she is basically trapped in just about every single way but her freedom dose not come from the outside world rather it comes form her.

she becomes a mother.

that’s where her freedom comes form.

every step she makes towards person-hood is form her decision to be a mother. she care’s for these children because that’s what she was made to do and she owns that, to the point that as i have already said she turns against her creators wishes in ‘the day that wasn’t’.

she gets her strength for being a mother it’s her identity and she love’s it because she is no longer a thing, a robot or vacuum cleaner you can throw in a closet

she’s someone’s mother.

but when her kid’s are gone she dose get lonely she said so herself in so many words (about painting)

but she’s there for them and they love her and that’s the one thing that Hargreeves never expected, when he set up his little plan to get them back together and take Grace down as his murderer. he never thought for a moment that the Kid’s would try and protect Grace (see my post about Diego’s Day) and that lead to his plan failing (also he’s an ass-hole)

so by embracing motherhood Grace able to turn her prison into her freedom and her programming into her life and she did it all without taking a step outside.

so when Grace answer Diego’s question of why she did what she did all theses years with

“because being your mother is the greatest gift of my life”

she meant it, boy oh boy did she mean it

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ofieugogyshz · 4 years

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🌻 uwu

🌻 describe what home is like for you and your f/o. (do you live together? would you like to? how do you decorate? what makes it comfortable for you both?)

I'mma allow myself a little bit of freedom with this answer, as a treat

We live together! It's been difficult to find a balance between our design... Aesthetics i guess? I have a lot of butterfly decor [or i guess they'd be pokemon in this case], we have some fairy lights on the pretty patio, a room for our trophies (Actual trophy roon) but he also uses it for a work room if he's behind on any paperwork, and we have a library of books there, organized by genre. fic and nonfic on different sides of the wall, and the space in the middle that hasn't been filled in yet has figures we like why yes my idol kids are next to some cool dragon figures, we can do both. Even though Lance winds up doing a lot of his work in here, the room manages to keep some semblance of relaxation. I have a small altar in there as well, incense and candles stored in there, as well as the unfortunate amount of tarot decks i own. (Several others have been strewn about the house, to wherever I took them, with probably seven or ten in the living room, and three or five somehow in the bedroom, leaving Lance curious as to how that always happens whenever it's time for me to round them up.)

There's another room for me to do crafting in, and a lot of my fiction actually winds up in there, as well as cosplay/craft reference books, and any art design/myth/ancient history books i might be borrowing for inspiration. And then forget to put back until he asks where it's at.

The patio is as wide as the house, the backyard unfenced as it goes into, like, idk a meadow/prairie that ends with a forest and eventually runs into the indigo league's mountainside.

It looks very domestic on the outsideand then you see the inside and you are like, "ah. Yes. They do indeed live here". My apt gets that comment a lot LOL but thats bc i have a lot of shit on display.

The living room has a gaming center for me, mostly organized by me since i'm the gamer here. Stuff like big controller accessories are hidden behind entertainment consoles' doors, along with spare cables and controllers. There's a glass coffee table in the center of the room, with navy/dark blue couches and a corner table connecting the two as they angle towards the coffee table and tv.

There is a fireplace off to the side that lacks a couch, that is not in use except during winter.

The kitchen is one that has one of those... I don't know the name for it, but a counter that connects to the kitchen? Not an island but kinda technically yes. You could technically sit and eat here. There's a dining room/table a bit behind it, sort of sandwiched between the kitchen and living room.

There's an upstairs behind the entertainment console wall, which sometimes i regret having, especially when i'm tired. But upstairs is different sort of rooms, especially one used as a supplies sort of room for various things (usually for our pokemon). One or two are guest bedrooms, though we don't always have people over; it's nice to have and if one of us doesn't want to wake the other at any point in the night, we might sleep in one of those rooms. Though one of those rooms probably got redesigned recently by lance so if silver stays over for training he can have a space that's not the couch. Apparently he deserves a proper space to sleep or something :p so more like one guest bedroom by now. I feel embarrassed just saying this but there's also probably a workout room mostly used by him and some of our pokemon. ;>>

There's also a pc/pokemon transporter somewhere around the house, mostly for me to use since i've caught a lot of Pokemon, and we like to let our Pokemon roam around freely. It's not nearly as varied or big an area as Oak's Lab is known for, but for where our house is, it gets the job done. Especially since we're not housing an innumerable amount of Pokemon.

As for the master bedroom, all i have in mind is a big canopy bed, since i've always wanted one, with plenty of room for us to sleep, especially if any Pokemon come in the middle of the night. Pika technically has her own little bed, but she usually winds up curled up on a pillow next to me, or next to my torso. The bed is super plush and the comforters are a big comfort when one of us isn't there before we fall asleep. The bed frame itself manages to look simple but ornate. We put glow in the dark stars along the canopy curtains because I saw some one day and bought them, half jokingly asking if we could put them on there, and he said yes. The canopy curtains are a dark, regal blue; the bedsheets an amalgation of ones that i've kept over the years or saw and wanted, though Lance has managed to prune the amount of blankets kept in/on the bed, since I'm bad at deciding these things myself. The pillows are a mix of shaped ones and plush ones, couple of plushes i've snuck in there while he's gone, just bc i could.

There's of course a walk-in closet, or at least one big enough that you could technically walk-in, and I told him to get a separate closet for all of his capes. He still keeps some in the bedroom. I have a separate one in the craft room for all of my costumes and fabric. You have to.

There's one of those makeup dresser things with the big mirror, a vanity? but I don't often use it for its intended purpose, aside from my minor makeup collection being stored on there. My two hanging nail polish racks are on each side of the mirror, which DOES see more use than the eyeshadows and lipsticks I have. A handful of tarot decks also sneak their way onto it, mostly bc i wanted a flat surface instead of the bed to read on, even tho i could have used the coffee table in the living room, but i wanted to read in the bedroom. There's another small, personal altar here, on a wooden table under the bedroom window, with picture frames of us, a couple of candles and incense holders, one of which is that really cool dragon one from the in-verse equivalent of Wal-Mart, a mixture of fairy and witchy [or i guess fairy, ghost, and dark type ] aesthetic knick knacks, a simple incense holder in the middle, which burns quietly, slowly, as smoke trails upwards and disappears into the bright, sunshine creeping in from the window above the table

Of course im just talking about a dream house of a sort here, since i won't get to have any irl.

Despite what sounds like a lot of space, we still manage to keep it very homey for us, with little touches of decor that remind us of the other. There's always room for two in any room if we wanted to hang out together, and a couple of places we make cozy regardless.

Our Pokemon all have a place to roam about; any that are small enough to be indoors that we're currently training or working with have their own food bowls that they share from.

The place never feels too big, even when one of us is missing the other, because of all the personal touches. All of the Pokemon that are free to wander and keep an eye on things when we're both out. Things we all have to keep busy. Work, training, hobbies, etc. It always feels like home whenever we enter. And we never fail to find each other in our house; like two magnets, we'll just know which room the other might be cooped up in.

Maybe this isn't quite what the ask was going for, but i needed the reprieve from "shitty ass 1bdrm crowded apt in vegas", so i took it and ran. Thank you.

Oh and we'd still have a landline phone, with an answering machine, and a phone in most of the rooms. But it sees less and less use since smartphones became commonplace. But we still have them, just in case.

#long post #i sure hope tumblr doesnt eat this #but i took screenshots just in case #bc i worked on this answer for like an hour on phone LOL #no there is no phonograph in the bedroom but i'm a little tempted now that i think about it #my champion

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stcviewren · 4 years

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[ STEPHANIE “STEVIE” WREN BLEU. 23. NONBINARY. SHE/THEY ] is here! They’ve lived in Silver Lake for [ 1 YEAR ] and are originally from [ SAN FRANCISCO ]. They are a [ BASS PLAYER ] and in their downtime love [ THRIFT SHOPPING ] and [ MAKING PLAYLISTS ]. They look a lot like [ DIANA SILVERS ] and live [ IN OASIS APTS ].

hello ! i’m sam or if ya feeling crazy sammy works too. i’m 23, i reside in the currently cloudy but usually sunny southern california (so, pst timezone!), and i’m being the worst employee ever by joining rps instead of working from home !! quick get to know the mun: i’m a cap sun, i eat too much pasta, i like to listen to 50s r&b, and i’ve worn the same pair if sweatpants for the past week and a half. anyway, pls see below for more about stevie!!

Full Name: Stephanie Wren Bleu

Nickname: Stevie only, pls. Their mom calls them Steffie.

DOB: December 1, 1996

Zodiac: Sagittarius Sun, Aquarius Moon, Libra Rising

Religion: Jewish

Gender: Nonbinary, demi girl. She/They.

Romantic/Sexual Orientation: Homoromantic/Homosexual

Occupation: Bassist

Alignment: True Neutral

Personality Type: INFP-A The Mediator

Hogwarts House: Slytherpuff (but more Hufflepuff)

Five positive traits: idealistic, open minded, generous, gracious, diplomatic

Five negative traits: impractical, impatient, takes things too personally, indecisive, will hold a grudge for 15 years

Character Parallels: Amy (Booksmart), Stevie Budd (Schitt’s Creek), Donna Pinciotti (That 70′s Show), Phoebe Buffay (Friends)

background

Originally from a small suburban town on the outskirts of San Francisco (she’ll tell you she’s just from San Francisco)

She has a little brother who is 4 years younger and who she thinks is a complete twerp but she loves him anyway I guess

Her parents were fairly lenient growing up. If they showed interest in anything, their parents would encourage them to pursue it, but they never pushed too hard. No ideas were put to shame in the Bleu household. You’re 13 and want to splatter paint your room because you saw it on Tumblr? Sure, creative expression. In the same vein, they weren’t punished for not excelling. They expected their kids to try their best, but never expected them to be the best. So when Stevie got a C in Algebra in the 10th grade, they kind of just said — at least you tried your hardest!

Started playing clarinet in the 4th grade and yes she was in marching band in high school and no we do not talk about this time

Also she went to a private Catholic school. This had less to do with religion (she was raised Jewish, actually) and more to do with the education that the school offered

She picked up playing bass when she was 14 which is the instrument she ultimately ended up sticking with

Went to NYU for college, lived there for 4 years, became the embodiment of a Williamsburg hipster

Moved back west after graduation, so she’s been living in Silverlake for just under a year

She’s the bassist in a small indie band called Free Prophets. They sound like Allah-Las and they have virtually no following lmao. They mostly just play bar gigs, Sofar Sounds shows in people’s living rooms, and Concerts in the Park during the summer days. That being said, Stevie isn’t really chasing fame in the slightest. She kinda just likes grooving and jam sessions, she’s not really interested in playing stadiums and all that BS anyway

Obviously that is not enough to make a living so she also works at funkytown thrift store during the day, and teaches clarinet/bass/guitar/piano to kids.

details & tidbits

Stevie never had a questioning phase they pretty much always knew they were into girls. And being from a family that was so communicative and open, she never really felt the need to hide anything. She came out as gay in 10th grade whens he was 15

Always has been unapologetically herself. Not about to change for anyone

Cool girl vibes...idk how else to explain it

Pretty tall standing at 5′11′’

Wears a lot of denim and flannels, converse, clips in her hair. Loves a good pair of overalls

Drinks a lot of craft beer. Take her on a date to a brewery you’ll have her heart!

Cat mommy! Has bengal cat named Tofu (no reason), a sphynx named Dragibu (her favorite French candy as a kid), and a burmese named Pierogi (her favorite food to get at her favorite diner in NYC). They are her babies.

Also a plant mom but her cats always eat her plants and it’s a vicious cycle. But her apartment is in fact covered in plants anyway

Big Stoner Energy

Obsessed with horror movies and true crime

wanted connections

roommate(s)? i can see stevie having 1-2 roommates at the oasis apts so if anyone has a spare room... :) (she’s been in silverlake for about a year now)

band / jam sesh pals! stevie is in a band called Free Prophets, she’s the bass player, they’re not famous at all (probably have less than 1,000 followers on insta). They sound like Allah-Les.if this works for your muse...let’s make a band! if not, jam session buddies would be awesome, because Stevie just likes to groove

tinder hook ups ?? i meeeeean. yeah. self explanatory. *billy eichner vc* let’s go lesbians

nyu friends / nyc friends: if anyone’s muse went to nyu during 2015-2019 let’s talk college pals! or anyone that lived in nyc during those years where it makes sense that they might’ve known each other...let’s run with it

san francisco friends: stevie grew up in san francisco and lived there till she was 18, so if it makes sense for them to know each other from the bay area LES DO IT

ghost hunting friends: listen there are a lot of haunted landmarks in la and it’s stevie’s mission to visit all of them. gimme some pals who are as obsessed with horror flicks so they can bond over it

and as always i am very much up for chem !! but if any of these plots work, pls lmk! i’m available via im here or on discord @ capricornmom #1278 :)

#slintro #i maybe got carried away w this but i'm so excited to be here !!#have i had this prepared since saturday #maybe so..maybe so #♡ ˖ ° 𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮 𝔀𝓻𝓮𝓷 𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓾 ⟫ ꜰɪʟᴇᴅ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀ — intro

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crownedcroweprince · 5 years

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A1, B1, C1, D1, E1, F1, G1, H1, I1, J1, K1, L1 for Una'to because I'm evil and want to ask all the questions c:

It got long so I put it under the cut.

A1) What of the Meyers-Briggs personality types they most fit into? INFP, ENFT, et cetera… :

I just did the test for him and he got ENTP which is so far from my INFP/INFJ/ENFP that’s it’s kind of surprising. It makes sense he’s the debater. Look at him. He’s mostly going to try and figure out the best way to get what he wants and what he wants out of others. He also just really likes to poke at people to get reactions from them and figure them out. So it fits.

B1) Do they believe you have to give respect to get it, or get respect to give it?:

Not particularly. He’ll give basic respect, but he doesn’t expect it back particularly. It just serves him better to give it, but if someone is too awful in respecting him they can expect some amount of retaliation. He doesn’t need it to give it really, he just... doesn’t care.

C1) Does your OC have a moral code? If not, how do they base their actions? If so, where does it come from, and how seriously do they take it?:

He doesn’t have much of one. He toes the line between Chaotic Neutral and Neutral Evil for a reason. Most of his actions are based on what will entertain him, what will give him what he wants the most, or what may save his skin in the long run. He mostly decides to stick with things out of self interest more than morals.

D1) How religious is your OC? What do they practice, if anything? If they don’t associate with any religion, what do they think of religion in general?:

He’s largely agnostic. After all the twelve weren’t there for him and his siblings. Though he does keep to some of the beliefs he was raised with regarding Menphina and will once in a while do the rituals himself as a comfort, mostly because he enjoys them and has a small hope that they make his condition slow. More than anything he practices witch craft learned from his time back home with ties to Menphina. So gathering and crafting are religious in a sense.

E1) Would you say that your OC is intelligent? In what ways? Would your OC agree?:

I would say that philosophically and in a common sense way he’s intelligent. But he also goes chaotic stupid and self destructive when he gets too bored. Most of his fun is derived from having a quick wit and using it to play word games with others.

F1) What sort of home do they live in now, if at all? How did they end up there?:

He lives in an apartment in the Goblet with his partner, though he still tends to stay in a lot of the Inn’s of Ul’dah out of fear of people trying to follow him home, due to his own paranoia of what he’s suffering and some run in’s he’s had before with unsavory types. Fueled all the more from said partner learning he lives in an apartment by breaking in through the window, and his friends with benefits doing something very similar. He mostly ended up there as a way to stay close to the South Shroud without actually living in the area. It’s proximity to Ul’dah also serves his divination business well, and should he need to perform old circus acts as a street performer, Ul’dah is the best place to do it.

G1) Is your OC close to their family?:

TW for child murder mention and child abuse mention. Generally? NO. Not at all. He ran away when he was ten as his mother tried to kill him out of her grief from losing his sisters to the “disease” they suffered from a year prior. His clan didn’t help when he was suffering with his mother either, so he’s really not fond of most other Bajhiri that could know or could have helped him. He is still in contact with his brother, his half-sister who is more child hood friend than sibling, and has recently started to interact with one of his distant relatives. He’s only really close with his brother however, and tends to push his half-sister away when ever she tries to establish sibling bonds.

H1) What is your OC’s orientation, romantic and/or sexual? Has it ever been a source of stress for them? Have they always been pretty sure of their orientation?:

Una’to is polyamorous, pansexual, and pan romantic. It really hasn’t been a stressor for him, and didn’t require much soul searching on his part. It just is what it is to him. He was figured this stuff out as some kid being raised by and working for the circus. They didn’t particularly care as long as he was good at his job and listening to all his mentors.

I1) What are their favorite kinds of flavors– Sweet, salty, sour, spicy, creamy, et cetera?:

Rich foods and foods that are kind of heavy. He’s had a lot of points in his life where food was scarce so to him the foods that are the best are those that make you feel full, even if it is a small portion. Otherwise he does enjoy spicy and creamy foods. The latter of which tend to be rich.

J1) Where does your OC stand most politically? What would they align with most?:

Mostly, he doesn’t want to engage with politics. He doesn’t trust the systems in place for most of Eorzea as they struggle to help their own people more often than not. Though he is not a fan of Garleans and what they’ve done to the area’s he calls home. Were we to put him on a compass I would generally say he’s very left leaning. While not morally inclined, he’s not fond of people suffering since it breeds violence and problems he’d rather have a better chance of avoiding.

K1) Does your OC have to keep their paranormal aspect (PA) a secret from general society? If so, how? I.e., they can’t discuss their abilities, they have to hide a tail, they have an alter-ego, et cetera. What would happen if society found out about it?:

He feels that he has to due to his half-sister Vizha putting it in his head that if he’s figured out he could get in trouble within the confines of Ul’dah or even be killed or quarantined in other city-states. Which is hard when he needs to poke at others to try and figure out a way to deal with it. He isn’t that well versed in voidsent or adventuring after all, so he needs to reach out for help. People are scared of voidsent after all, and he’s not too sure how many steps away he is from being considered one, even if he hasn’t fallen completely yet. Having others know can also just end up being a nuisance for him, as people, even strangers, are apt to worry which can make some of his methods of getting information in my dangerous places harder to do.

L1) How have your characters changed since you created them?:

He’s made to change as he interacts with others and with which ever end it being approached. For example since it’s moving towards a bad end for this arc he’s getting more jaded, less trusting, and being more closed off to others. Giving warnings to stay away from him or they may get hurt should he fall. He’s more callous and less caring towards violence done towards him and others. The last one is only slightly, but it’s something that will germinate should this road be followed further. Originally he was just an ass who liked to flirt and torment people for his own amusement who was hiding their past and trauma. Now he’s desperately reaching out for help as fear threatens to devour him. A lot of pieces of him are the same though, such as not letting on his more negative emotions outwardly since he has weird control issues about his emotions, body, and the situations he ends up in.

[BIG OL’ HONKIN’ OC QUESTION LIST]

That took a little while, but I hope it’s a fun read into one very cursed catte. Thank you for the ask @gildedandgolden!

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lastsonlost · 5 years

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What does Christopher Priest see when he looks at Vampirella?

Loneliness.

And in his new Vampirella ongoing launching July 17, the veteran writer will give Vampi the human connection she craves... before ripping it all away.

Illustrated by Ergun Gunduz, Dynamite's new Vampirella relaunch begins with the alien vampire as the last survivor of a plane crash which took away any friend or acquaintance she had. Now she's here on Earth and all alone. And this isn't a fictional world known to have vampires, witches, warlocks, or werewolves - this is the real world, and you know how real people would take to someone like Vampirella?

... but do you, really?

As Priest tells Newsarama in an email interview, Vampirella's supernatural abilities are "a metaphor for a univeral human condition, for being either rejected or idealized (or, in the case of our series, both) because you are different. Anyone who’s ever moved to a new town or a new school or taken a new job should be able to identify with Vampi’s challenges."

Priest, an ordained Baptist minister (as a reminder to readers, prefers to be addressed as 'Priest'), shared his thoughts with Newsarama on how the prospect of writing Vampirella was first received by him, how it fits within his religious life, and how he's using it to examine humanity.

Newsarama: Priest, what makes Vampirella interesting to you?

Christopher Priest: The fangs. Definitely the fangs.

When DC Comics approached me about writing Deathstroke, I’d really never thought much about the character. It wasn’t a book I’d normally read because I probably wasn’t the audience the book was targeted toward. But it presented an interesting challenge: what new things could I find to say with this character and what unexplored areas of the character were there to develop?

When Dynamite Publisher Nick Barrucci said “Vampirella,” I had nearly the identical reaction. I was, of course, familiar with the character but wasn’t a Vampirella fan, wasn’t the audience for that book, which made me an odd choice. You’ll have to ask Nick why he made it.

My immediate reaction was exactly the same: what new thing could I bring to this property? Where is the untapped potential? That, for me, is the interesting part; craft a Vampirella narrative that broadens the audience for the property while (hopefully) not putting off the hardcore Vampi fans.

Nrama: So what was the answer to that? What is the story?

Priest: I read this Bruce Springsteen Rolling Stone interview a couple decades back (yah... decades...) around "Born In The USA," where Springsteen said something remarkable that’s stuck with me all this time, about how each of us needs community. He said something like, “Without community (by which I presume he meant human attachment and interaction) we’d likely go crazy and kill ourselves.”

Over many interpretations Vampirella has developed many versions of a supporting cast, but she is fundamentally alone, one of few of her race living on Earth. Considering the Boss’s statement, I wasn’t eager to create yet another supporting cast and then echo adventures she’s had before. For better or worse, I wanted my at-bat with the character to be unique and in some ways challenging.

So the thought occurred to give Vampirella that community, that human connection... and then have it all ripped away. Our story arc revolves around a plane crash which effectively terminates many connections Vampi has built while forging new ones.

Nrama: You're setting this in the real world. A real fish out of water scenario, but one you're playing at for deeper cultural issues. What's a woman like Vampirella likely to face here on Earth?

Priest: With all due respect for the legion of much better writers who’ve handled the character, as I mentioned, I probably was not the audience for this book. Vampirella was created with a satirical flair and Vampi herself was in on the joke; not quite breaking the fourth wall but offering up a knowing come-hither smile. She’s existed in a reality that routinely and, for me, far too benignly, accepts the supernatural as fact.

Here in the real world, vampires are merely a thing of myth and the reality of hyperfactual supernatural events are subject to the interpretation of the particular tribe one belongs to. It bothers me that, in 2019, DC and Marvel universes are still mostly portrayed in an idealized hyper-reality where the average man on the street simply accepts superheroes as fact and, in fact, refers to them literally as “heroes” or “villains,” which is absurd. There’s no news anchor in the world who would start a broadcast piece with, “Arch-villain Saddam Hussein...” even though that description would be apt.

The world our Vampirella series takes place in doesn’t believe in vampires. Or witches or warlocks or werewolves. This world seeks rational scientific explanation for paranormal phenomena which it greets with enormous skepticism.

Which isn’t to suggest no one will believe Vampirella exists but that that acceptance is not as matter of fact as it seems to be in most of this genre.

In terms of what she’s facing, her number one enemy is loneliness. I am, hopefully, writing a woman first, a story about a woman who loves and wants to be loved but whose circumstances are complicated by the fact she has fangs and drinks blood. The supernatural attributes are a metaphor for a universal human condition, for being either rejected or idealized (or, in the case of our series, both) because you are different. Anyone who’s ever moved to a new town or a new school or taken a new job should be able to identify with Vampi’s challenges.

Anyone who wears their hair a different way, listens to a different kind of music, embraces a different religion, anyone who steps outside of or gets shoved outside of the so-called “mainstream” can identify with our take on Vampirella. I hope it is precisely this universality of theme that helps broaden her audience; the Vampi tent is large enough for everyone.

Nrama: Someone walking around in that Trina Robbins-designed costume is bound to get some headturns. If I know you as much as I think I do, you're going to tackle that head on, right? How are you getting into the subject of the costume?

Priest: Well, yes, we will have a go at it. The basic argument is simple: where do you draw the line between women’s liberation and women’s exploitation, and who gets to draw it? Who gets to define femininity and why should an extraterrestrial have to submit to that definition?

It’s like the world woke up in the last few years and realized we actually have two genders and both of them matter.

So we now have heightened scrutiny of themes and behaviors and that poor bastard Joe Biden gets caught up in the switches. I’ll confess, I’m terrified of women because I’m a Joe Biden. I was taught to pay a lady a compliment and open doors and I want to be friendly and accessible but I’m absolutely terrified of having my good intentions taken in a bizarrely paranoid light.

It is comical to me that I am far too often seen as creepy by women - especially black women - because they have been conditioned by their personal experience and their media consumption to misinterpret a simple "Hello." These days I cannot pay a woman a complement without a legal preamble and assurances that, no, I am not hitting on you and even then I get the skunk eye of suspicion.

Which is a little insulting because this “guilty until proven innocent” defensive posture presumes I am other people or that the bar is set so low for me that I’ll jump into bed with just anybody I happen to meet. It’s like we’ve just gone too far now to the point where women are not just being protected but being alienated to some extent because I have no earthly clue how to deal with them and I’m frankly scared to shake their hand.

So, is Vampirella’s wardrobe choice sexist? I don’t know. Vampirella obviously doesn’t think so. As I see her, she comes from a culture much like Star Trek’s Betazed, where people wear little or nothing at all. If anything, Vampi wonders why we humans choose to smother ourselves in so much fabric and why we’re all so bound by self-loathing.

There are hundreds of women who enjoy cosplaying as Vampirella, and maybe hundreds of thousands offended by the character. How do we reconcile all of that for the 21st century?

The one thing I won’t do is cover her up. I accepted the gig: write Vampirella. If you change the outfit, she’s no longer Vampirella. Frankly, her costume is the only thing about her (well, okay, that and her pansexuality) that makes her at all shocking or controversial.

My goal, and the readers will have to let us know if we’re passing or failing, is to make this a book as much about femininity as about bloodsucking. The storyline is driven by women, mostly populated by women, of all shapes and sizes and ethnicities, and most of them dress as sexy as they dare. The singer/rapper Lizzo is a terrific example of this. Is her blatant sexuality liberating or is she being exploited? How about Beyoncé? Do we put Vampi in a raincoat but cheer Bey on?

See what I mean? I’m screwed either way.

Nrama: So Priest - Vampirella's here on Earth. What would you do if you found yourself, I don't know, sharing a cab with Vampi?

Priest: I’d ask the driver to pull over and let me out. I’m a Christian, so I have these issues with all of that “fornicating in your mind” stuff. I don’t live a perfect life but I try to avoid cluttering up my conscience. Among the things the printed page cannot convey is the amazing, intoxicating glow and, yes, smell of a woman.

All women are beautiful, from 8 to 80, regardless of weight, height, or nationality. I wouldn’t share a cab with a woman as under-dressed as Vampi, which sounds hypocritical because I’m writing her. But I write Deathstroke, too, and wouldn’t share a cab with him, either.

Nrama: On the flip side of this, Vampirella's stranded on Earth. What's going through her mind in all of this?

Priest: How stupid and primitive we are. It’s not arrogance. I believe any visitor from another world would surf the net for a few hours and come away shaking their heads. I watched an episode of Little Miss Atlanta yesterday. Jesus. We’re just idiots. The moms fighting and bickering and cursing - cursing - in front of these little girls, berating the little girls. This sickening child abuse... That's entertainment?

I have Christian friends who will criticize me for writing Vampi but they watch that crap.

Nrama: This comes over a decade after your previous stint with Vampirella - Harris Publishing's Vampirella Revelations with artist Eric Battle. That run had some issues, but you're back here again. What makes is something you want to return to?

Priest: *scratches head* Really? I did a run...? I remember doing a silent issue... and vaguely remember doing something with Eric, a good bud. But that was way back. I really hadn’t considered this a “return.” I just pivoted and stared into Barrucci’s hypnotic vampire eyes and ran dozens of scenarios through my feeble brain, coming to one conclusion: this would be an interesting experiment, a writer’s challenge. Writers love challenges.

Nrama: Big picture, what are your goals with this ongoing?

Priest: To not have the women of America torch my house. This run will be as different a take on Vampi as any that have come before.

Which is not to say “better;” “better” is subjective. I’m sure a great many Vampi fans will hate what we’re up to. Maybe they’ll come along, maybe I’ll get fired. If I wasn’t nervous about it, it wouldn’t be worth doing.

Editor's Note: The above interview was conducted via email eariler this week, and we received all of Mr. Priest's responses along with all our original questions. Newsarama asked Priest if he would respond to follow-up questions Friday by email. He agreed and those questions and answers follow.

Nrama: Priest, our original questions to you were about the Vampirella comic book and our role is to talk about that and not audit your personal life, but your responses appear to be hyper aware of a social climate you seem to lament in terms of relationships between genders and conduct towards one another.

Priest: I lament the social climate in general, on all levels. I lament our lack of civility and lack of empathy, lack of patience and understanding. I hate the way we assassinate one another with our thumbs, all this hostility in social and other media. It's not just gender issues.

Nrama: Yet empathizing with Joe Biden without citing the actual specific behavior he’s under scrutiny for, stating things like "the amazing, intoxicating glow and, yes, smell of a woman" and by offering you’re “often seen as creepy by women,” it seems like intentionally inviting the sort of reaction/assumptions you state you’re “afraid” of and inviting the same scrutiny Biden is under.

Was this was your intent and are you prepared for pushback to your words and questions to be asked?

Priest: Wow, there's a lot to unpack, there. But let's start by saying I seriously doubt anyone reading this is NOT aware of the Biden issue to which I am referring.

I come neither to defend Biden nor to bury him, so I think you're probably taking my "poor" Joe reference a bit too seriously. I wasn't trying to litigate Biden, only to make a point about how hyper-sensitive and overly politicized our nation is and how this will impact Vampirella in her series.

Assembling disparate quotes to paint me as some kind of deviant makes that point for me. I stand by my statements. "...the amazing, intoxicating glow and, yes, smell of a woman..."

is something difficult if not impossible to convey in literature (which was my point), but your question was about me sitting in a taxi with a near-naked woman and I answered that honestly.

And my point was relevant to understanding the challenges and conflicts Vampirella will face in this series.

This is the environment Vampirella finds herself in, people misinterpreting her actions, words, and motives. This is why I mentioned it, to place the work we are doing with Vampirella into context.

Were a person like Vampi walking around in our world (or riding in a taxi with me), she would be misinterpreted, and every word she says would be drilled into looking for the worst possible interpretation of it. I can't help but wonder why anyone anywhere speaks publicly because no words spoken by anyone can withstand this level of ridiculous scrutiny.

Nrama: In another response you state “It’s like the world woke up in the last few years and realized we actually have two genders and both of them matter”. While not assuming your intent one way or another, it seems it to overlook genders outside the male/female paradigm. Can you speak to that?

Priest: Gender: noun

1. either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female. "a condition that affects people of both genders"

I wrote an ecumenical commentary in support of gender and and LGBTQ issues, Chris. I invite everyone to read it.

It was a simple interview. I was promoting a comic book and, as a really busy writer, I was typing really fast and speaking honestly while engaging with you. What I won’t do, not even for my own safety, is censor myself or try and anticipate every horrible way someone might choose to misinterpret something I've written or said.

If anything, that just makes my point for me about how free speech is being compromised. It's a tough environment to publish comic books in because every publisher is terrified by the spectrum of extreme possible reactions from an increasingly intolerant environment where everybody's playing "gotcha" and looking for the worst possible and most extremely negative interpretations of everything.

The whole point of free speech is my duty to defend others' rights to have it, not to shout them down or demonize them.

#Christopher Priest #vampirella #comics

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