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blackswaneuroparedux · 1 year

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Les aspirations les plus absurdes et les plus téméraires ont parfois conduit à des succès extraordinaires.

- Vauvenargues

St. Moritz has been a famous health resort in Engadine since the 19th century. At first, it was only frequented by spa guests, before the village developed into a high alpine sports centre, and for a time it was a playground for the rich and famous. There’s still some of that element present but not as in its hey day of the 70s. For nine months of the year it’s just another picturesque village in the gorgeous Swiss Alps, with Lake St. Moritz lying at its heart.

Crucially it is quietly forgotten by the outside world. Residents can breathe and go about their daily chilled out lives. For those precious nine months it was great to hike and ski there as my boarding school wasn’t too far away from getting there. But the other four months of the year, the high season, it gets flood with skiers and altogether more showy crowd.

The frozen surface of the lake, which can only be described as a desert of snow, now serves as a symbol of the resort itself. From nine months of natural bliss to four months of chaos and madness. Every time the ice lends its surface to polo tournaments, horse races, and the wealthy and beautiful make the pilgrimage down the mountains from their grand hotels, St. Moritz seems to transform. St. Moritz’s newest ‘gimmick’ for the past three years or so has been to serve the International Concours of Elegance St. Moritz - or The ICE St. Moritz - as a kind of classic car museum with an adventurous character.

Since the first ever The ICE St. Moritz in 2019, historic rally cars have been exhibited to the sports car-crazy public on the opening day, before demonstrating their horsepower on the ice racetrack on the second day of the event. However, the fact that The ICE is taking place on Lake St. Moritz, of all places, is no coincidence. In 1985, a group of Scottish and British sportsmen drove their vintage Bentleys to St. Moritz to celebrate the centenary of the Cresta Run (an eccentric and high spirited toboggan amateur race). As part of the festivities, they drove their cars on the racecourse across the frozen Lake St. Moritz.

This year, however, the ICE St. Moritz evolved slightly differently. For the first time, the event was held on two days: Friday 24 and Saturday 25 February. On the first day, the lake was transformed into an open-air museum, where the jury evaluated the cars on display from an aesthetic perspective. Then, on the second day, the actual race took place, whereupon the jury evaluated the classic cars from a performance perspective.

This year there were five category winners. In the ‘Open Wheels’ category, the 1958 Maserati 420M/58 “Eldorado” held its own. Meanwhile, the ‘Barchettas on the Lake’ category crowned the Ferrari 500 Mondial Series II from 1955 as the winner. My personal favourite, the aforementioned Ferrari 250 Testarossa ‘Lucybelle’ emerged as the winner in the ‘Le Mans 100’ category. As expected, Lancia Strato’s HF Zero of 1970 came out on top in the ‘Concept Cars & One Offs’ category. Last but not least, judges crowned the 1958 Bentley S1 Continental Drophead Coupé as the winner of the ‘Queens on Wheels’ category.

The evening gala took place at Badrutts Palace, which towers over the city like a castle with its high stone walls. In the stimulating semi-darkness and under shimmering candlelight, riders, collectors, enthusiasts, the public and media from all over the world celebrated the conclusion of one of the most anticipated competitions in the Engadine. Overall it’s spectacular fun and contrary to what one might believe it really does draw the car enthusiast crowd rather than the snob mob. It’s a very chilled event and bags of fun.

#ICE st moritz #vauvenargues #quote #french #sportscar #racing #racers #driving #drivers #ice #st. moritz #snow #switzerland

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soufflegirl · 7 months

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Jandy Nelson, The Sky Is Everywhere / The X-Files: Conduit / Sue Grafton, M is for Malice / The X-Files: Apocrypha / The X-Files: Paper Clip / The X- Files: Redux II / marjorie, Taylor Swift / The X-Files: Christmas Carol / The X-Files: Closure / Big God, Florence + The Machine

#the x files #txf #txf web weaving #fox mulder #dana scully #samantha mulder #melissa scully #on siblings and grief

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athena-gunpla · 1 month

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RG 1/144 Celestial Being Mobile Suit GN-001 "Gundam Exia"

Another Real Grade!!! I've been working on this one for quite some time, and applied a lot of new techniques when weathering it. One which i found pretty cool was using a lead pencil over raised edges to add paint chipping and wear - I found this gives a really really cool effect.

Like a lot of older RGs, the Exia has a pre-built inner frame, which can become a little loose with manipulation. Like my RG Zaku II, I tried to stiffen it with PVA glue, however, I still feel like the shoulders and hips are a little weak.

In terms of build quality, this kit is a much better build than the Zaku. The panels sit a lot more securely, and the small little details really pop and look amazing. The colour separation is excellent, although there are a lot of very small parts that can be difficult to deal with.

The kit has a lot of really cool gimmicks, including the deployment of the beam daggers on its back skirt, the GN drive being able to open and close, and holographic stickers over the exposed GN particle conduits.

The kit has great articulation and can hold some pretty impressive poses, which is good because Exia is animated in a very fluid style. The articulation helps match some of the on-screen poses.

Overall, the RG Exia is a great kit and a really enjoyable build with plenty of fun gimmicks and details that any 00 Gundam fan will enjoy. Despite issues with older RGs this one definitely holds up.

#gunpla #plamo #gundam #mobile suit gundam #model building #rg gunpla #my gunpla #00 gundam #gundam exia #exia #gn-001 #setsuna #setsuna f. seiei

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carefulfears · 10 months

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i hope someday he reads this and knows

(the x files little green men / ? / the x files closure / ann brashares my name is a memory / the x files dreamland ii / anne carson antigonick / the x files my struggle i / jandy nelson i'll give you the sun / michael dickman killing flies / the x files amor fati / the x files closure script / the x files conduit, redux / the x files conduit script)

#thinking today about how badly these two missed each other for their whole lives #she was so little and being literally tortured and all she wanted was her big brother #he spends the REST of his life trying to be there for people like he couldn't be for her #this show is a tragedy etc etc #kae web weaving #she wrote in her journal that she just wished she could see his face for REAL and she never did!!! she only saw him again in death!!!!#when her 'ghost' comes out of the woods and she just sees him and smiles and Runs to him. yeah.#in his mind he'll always be a Failed big brother but to her he's just Her big brother #she was 14 and a human lab rat and the memory of him was literally the only thing that she had to hold onto. i'm making myself insane #she just wanted him to know someday. that she wished she could see him #he blamed and hated himself for his whole entire life and she literally didn't think anything more than Missing his face.#wanting him to know her story #writing it all down and hiding it for him #good morning everyone

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polutrope · 10 months

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Melkor indeed declared afterwards that Fëanor had learned much art from him in secret, and had been instructed by him in the greatest of all his works; but he lied in his lust and his envy, for none of the Eldalië ever hated Melkor more than Fëanor son of Finwë, who first named him Morgoth; and snared though he was in the webs of Melkor’s malice against the Valar he held no converse with him and took no counsel from him. The Silmarillion, Ch. 6 'Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor'

I think it's so interesting that Fëanor apparently never spoke to Melkor.*

But what I find even more interesting is this passage in 'The Later Quenta Silmarillion (II)':

And lo! Melkor then set new lies abroad, and whispers came to Fëanor that Fingolfin and his sons were planning to usurp the leadership of Finwë and the elder line of Fëanor [etc., more lies]. But to Fingolfin and Finarfin it was said: 'Beware! Small love has the proud son of Míriel ever had for the children of Indis! [etc., more lies].' It is told also that when Melkor saw that these lies were smouldering he began to speak, first to the sons of Fëanor, and at other times to the sons of Indis, concerning weapons and armour ... Morgoth's Ring, 'Later QS (II)', §52-52a (p. 276)

This is pretty similar to what's in the published Silm (much of which is closely derived from this text; I'll put the passage below the cut if anyone wants to compare), but the bit about "to the sons of Fëanor" does not appear.

Fëanor refused to listen to Melkor, but Melkor definitely got at him other ways. One might conclude based on the published Silm that his sons were a logical conduit for his lies, but I love that it's stated outright in the Later QS. Juicy.

*Other than, I suppose, the incident when Melkor shows up uninvited and has the door slammed in his face.

Second passage as it appears in the Silmarillion (Ch. 7):

Then Melkor set new lies abroad in Eldamar, and whispers came to Feanor that Fingolfin and his sons were plotting to usurp the leadership of Finwe and of the elder line of Feanor, and to supplant them by the leave of the Valar; for the Valar were ill-pleased that the Silmarils lay in Tirion and were not committed to their keeping. But to Fingolfin and Finarfin it was said: ‘Beware! Small love has the proud son of Miriel ever had for the children of Indis. Now he has become great, and he has his father in his hand. It will not be long before he drives you forth from Tuna!’ And when Melkor saw that these lies were smouldering, and that pride and anger were awake among the Noldor, he spoke to them concerning weapons; and in that time the Noldor began the smithying of swords and axes and spears.

#feanor #morgoth #sons of feanor #meta #quotes #the history of middle-earth #morgoth's ring #working on a Feanor bio so don't be surprised if you see random Feanor musings on this blog between now and November

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randomfoggytiger · 5 months

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X-Files IWTB: First Time React (Part II)

Okay everyone, back for Part II! Hopefully I’ll make quicker progress because all the BIG problems were parsed over in the Part I, right? …They were parsed over in Part I, right?

To catch up: IWTB is broken 10 minutes into the movie-- the FBI’s helicopter flying TO Mulder’s house destroyed that hiding place; and if he were to back out of the case at Scully’s say-so, he’d likely have been captured within days or weeks and been forced to broker a deal to help, anyway-- and further broken not even 20 minutes in-- destroying new characters in seconds, out-of-place dialogue, and skewering both Mulder and Scully by placing their in-character reactions in wrong scenes and scenarios.

Reaction below the cut~

Not even two seconds into my watch we have Mulder avoiding the “Your sister’s dead, isn’t she?”-- which is fine-- only for Whitney to be featured prominently, sympathetically watching him gaze at the missing agent’s picture. I'm. Annoyed.

The writers are setting up Agent Drummond? to be a Samantha replacement, that Mulder is so driven on this case because he wants to save a lost girl, etc., etc. But… that was put behind him in Closure; and it tears away the nuances and layers of Mulder’s character leaving only a simple “I help people ‘cuz my sis disappeared once” to motivate him. Mulder has gone above and beyond the call of duty to help people from monsters and men countless times; and the only cases that made him lose his objectivity were when the victims' stories exactly mirrored Samantha's circumstances, i.e. a little girl was abducted (Conduit, Oubliette, Paper Hearts, etc.) Furthermore, Mulder only ever lost himself "in the darkness" ONCE on a case, and that wasn't even about a little girl: Grotesque. Losing himself in the darkness is not Mulder's norm or even, really, in his wheelhouse (which was the entire point of the Bill Patterson storyline.) To make this a problem NOW in order to create a nonsensical wedge between he and Scully is... not laughable, but snortable.

The obvious cracks in the writing shine through again. Mulder only rode in the car without Scully so Father Joe could be there to open old wounds, the male agent could be there to poke them, and Whitney could be there to observe his silent, bleeding heart and fall more in crush with him. In order for this scene to happen, we have to think that: A. Scully would rather ride with random FBI people than with her partner (despite her natural suspicion of them-- though that’s missing in the movie and breaks her character, discussed in previous part) and B. Mulder, despite stipulating that she join him on the case, was just fine and dandy riding beside and playing nice with a pedophile rather than sticking by Scully’s side even though they’re going to the same place, not splitting up to look for clues.

Whitney hasn’t been given focal characterization yet, which is fine for now since she’s displayed character trait specific responses (her reactions to Mulder, to male agent, to Scully in the FBI building and at Father Joe’s and here.) It’s obvious she’s being set up as a person more-than-interested in Mulder; but that would require an explanation as to WHY. If that’s not given… then what’s the point of her crush in the narrative? It, like Father Joe’s pedophilia, would serve no purpose other than a footnote or perhaps an implication (i.e. her expressions remain intact but are not given their own camera focus as if it’s plot relevant, etc.)

It’s… not good.

The music’s still really good; and the shots are gorgeous. And that’s it. Oh, wait, the acting is good, too.

The FBI taking Father Joe to a false house is a good idea… except there’s no warning tape wrapped around one house but IS decorated all over its neighbor’s house. How is that important? Father Joe would have been facing the neighbor house covered in yellow warning tape when the vehicle drove past it and up the drive. The characters-- trained FBI agents-- don't notice or comment on this.

Screenshots in order:

You see, kids? This is why locations and camera angles and shots are so important-- they cut you off at the knees if the movie isn’t shot in a logical way.

WAIT. CHARACTER BREAKING MOMENT.

Whitney brought Mulder on the case because of the paranormal aspect, Whitney sent a helicopter out to fetch him, Whitney has been crushing on him this entire time (silently), Whitney is being set up as a powerful woman who can tell people what to do and when-- Mulder’s exact type ala Phoebe Green, Detective White, Diana Fowley, etc.-- and… now she’s denying the paranormal angle???? AGAIN WITH THE MILLISECOND CHANGES: awed that Father Joe sensed their fake out house was a trick, then denied his intuitions with a bogus excuse the next second….

Wait. Chris (and the writers.) Did you set her up to be a powerful, skeptical woman who’s into Mulder (ala Scully) ON PURPOSE. CHRIS (and the writers.) We need to talk.

This movie’s going to kill me: I’m only 23:07 into the watch time.

Wait. WHERE’S SCULLY?? IS SHE JUST SITTING BACK THERE IN THE OTHER TRUCK?? WHERE’S SCULLY??

ALSO, WHY ARE WHITNEY AND MULDER BACK-AND-FORTHING “IS HE OR ISN’T HE”S ABOUT FATHER JOE WHILE FATHER JOE IS IN HEARING DISTANCE.

I’m now 23:34 into the movie and it’s going to kill me. Very pretty, lethal poison.

Also, Father Joe still wants to work with the Church? FAT. CHANCE.

YAY, GERALD SCHNAUZ MENTIONED.

Also, finally getting some backstory on Whitney (even if she’s not 'fessing up to having more than a professional interest in Mulder, ala Diana Fowley’s close-to-the-chest-but-really-is-overt-with-her-intentions style.)

“Yeah, well, I’m only half the team.” YEAH, AND WHERE IS THE OTHER HALF OF THE TEAM, MULDER? WRITERS??

I don’t have complaints about Mulder not batting back Whitney’s “But it’s your insights I need” because flattery gets him everywhere, always, and he’s not leaning into it, BUT, again, where’s Scully. This would be a great time to establish that Scully isn’t the type to sulk in the truck by showing off her chops as a professional while she and he banter back and forth about this information. Mulder could be telling it to her, filling her in on the relevant details she missed during the interrogation and truck ride. Meanwhile, we can establish Whitney as an individual by showing how she deals with Father Joe rather than letting her male agent nanny the old pedo around.

WHITNEY’S YELLING AT FATHER JOE FOR NO REASON WHILE HE’S IN THE MIDST OF A VISION-- THAT'S SO STUPID.

He’s already giving her the information; and her heightened aggression will probably stress him out and lose whatever he’s telling her. I know they were meaning to establish her as a ruthless skeptic who thinks Father-- you know what, I’m calling him Joe from now on-- who thinks that Joe’s faking it and is pressing, pressing, pressing for him to crack because he’s “vulnerable” right now… but this is just stupid, and likely against a ton of FBI regulations.

I'm torn about Mulder not telling her to stop because he's put immense pressure on psychics or other suffering victims in the past if they had time-sensitive information (ala Space)... so, I think? it could be in-character. ...EXCEPT he's soft on Joey, Whitney is not, and that dynamic would make him advocate for the pedo more (wow, what a sentence.)

Wait, now male agent disbelieves??? WHAT. BUT YOU ESTABLISHED BACK IN THE FBI… uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh.

WAIT, SO SCULLY WASN’T OUT IN THE CAR??? SHE JUST DITCHED ANYWAY???? SHE’S BACK IN THE HOSPITAL??

Wait, wait, so:

Last night, she and Mulder are flown into the FBI.

She decides to ditch the case because she doesn’t believe in Joe.

That’s stupid because it puts Mulder’s safety on the line and breaks her half of the deal-- that she come with him.

As she’s leaving, Mulder convinces her not to go. She sighs and heads for the trucks.

It’s daylight and there’s two FBI trucks. Mulder is with the two agents and Joe in one truck, and we’re not shown who’s in the other (likely Scully and some escorts.)

Scully doesn’t follow Mulder onto the crime scene.

BUT SHE’S NOT IN THE TRUCK ANYWAY BECAUSE SHE’S BACK AT THE HOSPITAL EVEN THOUGH THE ENTIRE ESTABLISHING SCENE PRIOR WAS ADDRESSING THE FACT SHE WAS LEAVING THE CASE.

BUT SHE STILL LEFT THE CASE. Yes, she has a patient to worry over; yes, that is important to her; but NO, she did not discuss this with Mulder when he stipulated he needed her WITH him on the case.

Mulder asked her to stay, she implicitly agreed, took his documents, seemed to be going with him… but nope, went home, went to sleep, went to work without discussing things further. What.

I feel like there were rewrites and it was just… never addressed on screen.

So, Scully agreed to help the case, took Mulder’s papers, walked to one of the trucks and… teleported back to her clinic? Went home? Never went to begin with? …Why did she need the file if she’s just going to take it home?? She’s not FBI anymore, the FBI wouldn’t let her do that. She can’t take the papers home as a civilian especially because-- okay, here’s another list:

Scully is a civilian who was not asked on the case. She’s only there because Mulder stipulated he wanted her to work on it with him.

She ditched THAT part of the bargain, but regardless--

Scully went home (WHY) and took FBI documents with her because…?

The FBI would never let that happen: they didn’t seek her out, she’s a civilian, they have other medical experts to consult with about their cases.

I do like Scully’s interactions with Christian, probably because it smacks of her old self (disguising the world-weary attitude of an adult for a child’s sake…) and was more in-character with her regular pre-S9 character, which is… weird for me. I’ll take it, I guess.

I’m only 25:33 minutes in.

ANOTHER TERRIBLE FATHER??? WHY???????????

“We are here to heal the sick, not prolong the dying” ummmmmmmmmmmm what. This is a Catholic hospital, is it not? Isn’t that strictly against Catholic dogma? …What is this mafia low beat and why is everyone in this hospital bent on the kid dying and being taken off their hands?

I know, I know: Chris is a Catholic of sorts with his own criticisms and stories to tell, etc…. And here it comes, BUT two overheads trying to pry this dying child off of Scully’s hands because he’s “incurable” doesn’t make sense here. It wouldn’t be to their benefit, would probably cause quite a scandal, and, overall, would probably result in a report and a lawsuit. Perhaps this is a big issue in private hospitals; and humans are humans and full of corruption, etc. etc. BUT I assume the boy’s parents are paying the bills on time sooooo… it would be against the hospital's? clinic's? best interest to want to kick Christian from the facility. Again, it’s stupid and makes no sense.

26:27.

Scully crying in her office was the best scene of this movie, hands down. It’s perfect for this moment, perfect for her character…

BUT. It comes after she walked out on a case of a missing-possibly-dead FBI agent, so it makes her look like a woman who only hands out sympathy or empathy to those people SHE deems worthy of it. Yes, a child dying is tragic; yes, he reminds her of William; yes, she lived through this with Emily… all of that is tragic and heartrending (and her Emily arc could have been mentioned in the movie to give her dynamic with Christian more weight), BUT it ends up hurting her character in the long run. Why? Because she sacrifices Mulder’s chance for freedom AND separates from him because she wants to save this child while ALSO accusing him of doing the exact same thing.

So, while it’s one of the best scenes in context, it’s also one of the worst overall.

People are swimming now. Ohhhhh, noooooo, run off the road, dead.

30:35.

Here’s the thinking scene between Mulder and Scully.

The delivery from DD and GA is top-notch-- did not imagine Mulder’s “thank you” to be as upbeat and humorous, expected it to be more drawn out and monotone. I like it better this way. And Gillian is doing a fantastic job with the scripts she’s given: thus far, she’s selling this version of Scully (MINUS THE ENORMOUS MISCHARACTERIZATIONS)... but her performance (and DD’s) is constantly undersold by the script. It’s sad, man… well, it’s not sad because I’m not invested in canon post S8; but it’s something.

“Rare brain disease” great acting on both their parts, excellent and in-character, nice.

Also: child, boy, sick child, brain disease-- I see what you did there, Chris Carter and writers, and it would have been very cool except. To be fair, I don’t mind the Christian side-plot: it gives Scully a chance to be in her element, and the boy actor is nice. Again, BUT, it also has hokily evil villains and destroys other likable aspects of Scully’s personality, soooooooooooooo yeah.

“Why haven’t you told me about this before?” / “I thought there was something I could do.”

BINGO, I’LL GIVE IWTB THIS ONE THING, THIS MOVIE WAS WORTH THE WATCH FOR THAT LINE. Here’s why: because that’s always been Scully’s M.O.: she hides her problems under the surface hoping to solve them herself, not wanting to be a bother (ex. Irresistible, Memento Mori, Elegy, Gethsemane, A Christmas Carol, etc. etc.) At least I have it said in black-and-white to reference.

ALSO, this is why Mulder’s brain disease makes no sense: Mulder is a secret keeper but only about his past, not his present or future. Example: he never mentions former partners but will yell to the sky about current crises or injustices against himself and others. If Mulder had a bad scan, he’d draw Scully into it IMMEDIATELY because he believes their unconventional ways would be able to cure anything-- ala Demons and Biogenesis; and would make a mission out of it to try to take down what’s left of the Syndicate. If he’s given a death sentence, it would then become a struggle or fight between his desire to keep crusading and her insistence that it's only killing him faster (again, ala Demons.)

Mulder’s quip about God not losing any sleep is so Mulder, that’s great.

Scully’s “Why bring a kid into the world just to make him suffer?” is another symptom of her leanings away from strict Catholicism; BUT, more importantly, it’s not God making him suffer in this case, it’s her private medical system who won’t even TRY because of the bottom line? I guess? Though that’d make them more money?? Seems rather weird that Scully wants to cure this boy and she’s not really that Catholic whereas the Catholic facility just wants him dead for no explicable reason other than he’s going to die, YOLO.

Also… we’re just going to skip right over Emily and the fact you two already had this conversation before, aren’t we? Yep.

“I don’t know, Mulder, I’ve got such a connection to this boy.”

ANOTHER great piece of dialogue, because this plugs into Scully’s biases in past cases and Mulder’s twitchiness when he senses said biases. BUT IN THIS CASE IT’S GOOD: it highlights how far they’ve come, that Scully discloses this detail and their further conversation to Mulder without batting an eye and he has the learned patience and understanding in order to gently peel back her layers and get to the root of the issue.

“I think our son left us both with an emptiness that can’t be filled” and that’s GOOD, that’s a GOOD piece of writing, GOOD FOR YOU.

HOWEVER, like everything else in this movie it gets lost in the ridiculous drama coming up; but further, it’s undercut because of the stupid choices that they made in the past that led them to this moment. So… sympathy low.

Acting’s excellent as always, though.

And look at that crazy comforter-- that’s a Scully thing if I’ve ever seen one.

Despite the staggering flaws of the script, I like how the writers wrote Mulder and Scully's domestic dynamic, specifically that Mulder let Scully completely decorate the house (everything's in her style) and even snuggled up with her under a blue, swirly comforter (that she very obviously picked out) without a fuss. And maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I believe that came straight from Chris Carter's brain; and I also believe it's something he likes about Scully, that she puts Mulder (i.e. her thoughts in the Pilot script while batting back and forth with Mulder) or Mulder's stuff in his place (his office pre-and post Ghost in the Machine, her hints about his shoelaces in Bad Blood, and the house now.) There's a give and take, of course; but Mulder's chaos is delegated to specific areas of the basement (and their house); and the compromise between the two people in their partnership and relationship comes together perfectly here... in moments.

I’m stopping after Scully’s pouty “Scratchy beard” and Mulder’s playful response and Scully’s GIGGLE since it’s nice and I don’t have to think about the plot--

“Oh! There’s something weird on the toxicology--”

LALALALALALLLALALALAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Also…

Sigh……………………….. one last rant:

ALSO, you’re telling me that the dastardly Catholic overlords at the private clinic WANT TO TOSS A DYING CHILD OUT BUT THEY’LL JUST LET SCULLY DO A WILL NILLY RANDOM TOX SCREEN THAT HASN’T BEEN AUTHORIZED BY THE FBI TO DO IN THE FIRST PLACE OR IF SO ONLY OFF-SCREEN??????????????

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy???

I’m out, I’m done, will finish the next parts sometime later.

…Ugggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

#txf #X-Files IWTB: First Time React #Part II #mine #analysis #xf meta #meta #xfiles #x-files #the x files #Mulder #Scully #Dakota Whitney #Father Joe #thoughts #IWTB #movie

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haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll · 5 months

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Tracklist:

Tortured Bitch • Black Cloud in the Sky? [NO SPOILERS] • Conduit - (13th Song About *****) - Anything Else. [Unfinished] • Reverie [JH Ligation Experiment 1] • Total Paralysis at the First Notes of Immaterial Crying and Ashamed And Wishing I Could Disappear Into the Lights [JH Ligation Experiment 2] • (Lost Kids) The Juvenile Hormone. I. Endocrine Activity of the Corpora Allata of the Adult Cecropia Silkworm • 2,020 Knives • 2,020 Hands • (From A Different World) The Juvenile Hormone. II. Its Role in the Endocrine Control Of Molting, Pupation, and Adult Development in the Cecropia Silkworm • Glass - Remain[fSl]Rust (,,Fade Away'') • I Don't Want to Hurt You (14) • Wake [Psychography Experiment 24-04-19 I] - World Doesn't Hold Together • Breathe [Psychography Experiment 24-04-19 II] - NONE OF THIS IS ABOUT TR**S SHIT • Someday (Dear ******) - World Doesn't Come Apart • September (***e* **** *a***m* Chambers **** ????) - Distance Holding World Together • Strangers - Silk Thread Growing Through the Glass Tube Bisecting the Abdomen of a Cecropia Moth Hatched in Captivity - DNA - Nothing Here. • broken wires • An Ocean

Spotify ♪ Bandcamp ♪ YouTube

#hyltta-polls #polls #artist: ada rook #language: english #decade: 2020s #Electro-Industrial #Post-Industrial #Glitch Pop #Electroclash #Electropop #Noise Pop

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homomenhommes · 3 months

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saga: SOUMISSION / DOMINATION 101

Samedi matin.

Je suis le premier à ouvrir les yeux. Jimmy dans la nuit est venu coller son dos contre mon ventre, en cuillère. Ma bite raide du matin tape contre la base du plug. Avec une main, je tire doucement dessus. Le plug coulisse bien je le sors totalement, ce qui fait frissonner Jimmy. Je ne laisse pas le trou se refermer et enfile ma queue raide à la place. Elle entre toute seule profitant du reste de la graisse du plug. Je ne bouge pas. Il ne se réveille pas. Très lentement je fais quelques aller et retour avant qu'il ne se réveille. Il tourne la tête vers moi et ouvre un oeil. Je lui prends les lèvres et nous nous roulons un patin.

Nos mouvements s'amplifiants, nous finissons par réveiller Marc qui nous mate jusqu'à ce que je me vide au fond du cul. Je me retire bascule Jimmy pour qu'il présente son cul à la vigueur de Marc. Mon homme le prend alors dans la même position que moi, couché sur le coté. Jimmy tire ses jambes sur son torse pour améliorer l'accès à son trou. Je mate à mon tour. Après mon limage, il se prend sans soucis les 22cm de Marc. Il gémit doucement que c'est trop bon de se réveiller pareillement. Marc accélère et finit par se déverser en lui. Alors seulement, Jimmy porte une main à sa bite pour recueillir les quelques millilitres de sperme qui en sortent. Comme il ne voit rien pour essuyer sa main, il la lèche pour la sécher.

Quand nous descendons, une bonne odeur de café sort de la cuisine. Samir et Ammed sont déjà debout, en uniforme (shorty cuir moulant). Le café est prêt et des viennoiseries fraîches sont sur un plateau. Jimmy saute au cou de Samir et je l'entends lui glisser à l'oreille un -merci tonton, c'est trop bon de se faire enculer.

Nous les remercions et Marc prend un pot à biscuits vide et place de l'argent dedans pour les besoins de la cuisine et divers. Il avise nos nouveaux employés que c'est à leur disposition pour ce genre d'initiative.

Je pars donner mon cours de gym / muscu suivit de l'enculage en règle de mon boss, pressé de rentrer à la maison retrouver Marc et Jimmy.

Après le déjeuner, avec Jimmy collé à mon coté, je commande sur internet une bonne 20aine de slips, jocks et shortys à sa taille. Puis nous allons " à la ville " l'équiper pour maintenant. Passage chez Slipissimo ou nous trouvons de quoi couvrir ses fesses avec quelques Calvin Klein et deux maillots de bain, au magasin d'équipement de sport, je lui prends deux jocks et nous terminons notre tour chez mon concessionnaire moto pour lui trouver un casque à la taille de sa petite tête. Après bien des essayages c'est chez Shoei avec un XR 1100 Conquista qu'il trouve son bonheur. Quand il voit le prix, il veut refuser mais je lui faits remarquer que sans casque pas de moto et comme le printemps arrive les transports seront plus souvent moto qu'auto. Je me laisse tenter et pour changer de mon propre Shoei, je m'achète la nouvelle version du mien soit un X Spirit II Martyr.

Nous rentrons avec nos achats. Il court les montrer à son " tonton ". J'entends ce dernier lui dire qu'il faut mériter toutes ces attentions et bien obéir à Marc et Sasha. Jimmy lui promet qu'il fera tout ce que nous lui demanderons. ; Merci Samir !

Avec l'accord de Marc j'appelle Eric pour qu'il vienne nous aider à formater Jimmy. Il me répond qu'il passera en soirée après ses cours de conduite moto.

En attendant, nous passons l'après midi dans l'eau. Il adore ça Jimmy. Son maillot mouillé le colle comme une deuxième peau et on peut carrément voir tout les détails de son anatomie. Nous chahutons ensemble et j'en profite pour lui passer la main sue son sexe. Il bande continuellement. Bientôt, il me demande quand est ce qu'on va l'enculer de nouveau, il aime trop ça ! Je l'attrape, le colle contre moi et je passe une main dans son maillot, poussant mes doigts jusque sur sa rosette. Elle est là palpitante de désir.

Je me décide à le préparer pour Eric. Je crie à marc que nous allons au donjon. Il me répond qu'il nous rejoindra avec Eric.

Jimmy est intrigué et se demande ce que cache ce mot. Nous traversons s la cour et je le pousse dans les tentures pour entrer. Il fait encore noir. A tâtons je trouve les interrupteurs et déclenche quelques spots. Jimmy est bloqué. Il regarde partout essayant de deviner ce qu'il y a dans les parties obscures de la salle. Je le pousse jusqu'aux sanitaires pour lui faire un lavage interne. Un peu de gel sur la canule et je l'enfonce dans son cul. Remplissage, vidange, remplissage, vidange, jusqu'à ce que sorte une eau aussi claire qu'elle est entrée.

Je lui dis de me suivre et l'installe dans un des slings. Je règle les menottes pour ses poignets et fait de même avec ses chevilles. Je descends l'ensemble pour que sa tête soit à la hauteur de ma bite et le cul beaucoup plus haut. Je m'approche et il aspire ma queue dès que mon gland touche ses lèvres. Je me penche un peu et j'ai accès direct et à la bonne hauteur à son trou. Quelques crachats dessus et je lui enfonce mes deux majeurs. Je fais des va et vient, rajoute de la salive. Bientôt son anus se détend et quand j'écarte les mains, son trou s'ouvre et je crache direct dedans. De son coté, il me tête comme si sa vie en dépendait. J'accompagne sa bonne volonté de coups de rein pour l'aider à me prendre en entier.

Il m'excite grave et je dois sortir de sa bouche pour éviter de juter. Je calme le jeu. Je tire su les chaines de suspension et remet le sling à l'horizontal. Avant de l'élargir pour Eric, je veux me le faire. Autant j'aime me faire enculer par les mecs plus âgés que moi, autant j'adore enculer une jeune salope.

Je me graisse la bite et pose mon gland sur son oignon. Je résiste quelques instants à le pénétrer mais je ne tiens plus et m'enfonce dans son intimité. Les sensations son trop bonnes. J'ai juste mis ce qu'il fallait pour glisser mais pas plus. Je me concentre sur mon sexe et je ressens ma pénétration comme jamais. Son boyau colle à ma bite. Je pose mes mains sur ses épaules et d'un coup plus sec, l'empale jusqu'aux couilles. Il gémis de plaisir tout au long de ma progression. Comme mon torse est arrivé un peu près de lui, il tend la tête et attrape un téton avec sa bouche. Ça lui vaut quelques millimètres de plus dans le cul ! Je me redresse et les mains sur ses cuisses, je balance le sling pour limer son trou.

Il aime ça ! Son visage montre le plaisir qu'il prend à la chose. Merci Samir pour cette bonne salope ! Je le lime jusqu'à ne plus pouvoir me retenir et lui envoi tout dedans. Je me couche sur lui, les jambes momentanément coupées. Il en profite pour m'embrasser le front, les joues, les yeux et pour finir il me roule un patin à croire qu'il a fait ça toute sa jeune vie.

Je me redresse et sort de lui. Il serre els fesse et garde tout. Je lui dis que ce soir un ami à nous va venir le tester et que nous devons se préparer. Je lui détache les membres mais lui dis de rester sur le sling. J'approche un tabouret et prend un pot de graisse chauffante. Assis, les yeux à hauteur de son trou, je peux commencer le travail de dilatation. Après mon enculage, les deux indexes et majeurs de chaque main entrent facilement. La graisse chauffante qui les enduit commence à faire son effet et le petit trou rougit bien. Il se tortille sous mes doigts et je remplace les 4 doigts par trois de ma seule main droite. Je les fais tourner tout en faisant un mouvement de va et vient pour faire entrer la graisse. A ce stade je passe au gode. Direct celui de 22cm, après tout e vient de lui enfiler mes 20. Il prend vaillamment le morceau de plastic. J'augmente progressivement la taille du jouet que j'enfonce dans son cul. Pas un mot de refus, pas un cri, mon ptit beur accepte la domination avec un naturel qui force mon admiration. Je soumets son corps une progression rapide de dilatation mais il accepte sans rechigner.

Je m'arrête au gode de 23 x 5,5. Il faut bien qu'Eric ai encore un peu de travail à faire et je sais surtout qu'il aime les anneaux qui le serrent encore.

Je n'ai pas vu le temps passer et c'est la main de Marc sur mon épaule qui me prévient qu'ils sont là.

Je m'écarte et ils peuvent admirer Jimmy. Pendant qu'ils se mettent nus, je rattache les poignets et les chevilles en haut des suspentes et retire le gode pour que son anus se referme un peu.

Marc le premier s'enfonce dans son cul. Il le trouve un peu large, normal ! il cède la place à Eric après que ce dernier se soit kpoté. Je demande à Jimmy d'être forte et de se laisser faire (comme si il pouvait s'échapper !). Eric place son gros gland contre son anus et commence à pousser. Vite, je fais passer le flacon de poppers sous le nez de Jimmy. Sans douleurs, il se laisse empaler sur la bite noire de 26cm. Pour prendre les derniers cm (les plus larges), je lui repasse un peu de poppers. Il en profite pour me dire -merci c'est trop bon.

Marc veut lui faire la gorge. Je règle les hauteurs et fait descendre sa tête.il la rejette en arrière et Marc s'enfile en lui.

Le spectacle est superbe. Ce petit corps imberbe soumis à deux mecs virils. Je le caresse sans toucher à sa petite queue. Ma main sur ses abdos, je sens la bite d'Eric aller et venir. Il faut dire qu'elle ne doit être qu'à 1 ou 2cm sous la peau. A son oreille je lui chuchote qu'il est superbe, qu'il me rend fier de lui, qu'il sera une bonne pute à l'avenir.

Après un limage en règle d'une bonne demi-heure, Eric se lâche dans sa kpote alors que Marc qui s'est retiré de sa gorge lui jute sur le visage. Jimmy ouvre grand la bouche pour en avaler le plus possible. Excité moi aussi, quelques coups de poignet et j'ajoute ma crème à celle de Marc. Jimmy avale le tout. D'un doigt de pousse le sperme déposé sur ses joues jusqu'à sa bouche, il me le suce avec avidité !

Eric sort bite. Il se tourne vers moi et me félicite pour ma nouvelle pute. Ça faisait longtemps qu'il ne s'était fait un trou pareil. Quand je le charrie en disant que parmi ses élèves de scooter ou de moto il devait avoir le choix, il me répond qu'effectivement il ne manque pas de jeune mec à mettre sr sa bite mais que Jimmy est une pute née. Il a senti pendant tout l'enculage son anneau palpiter et le serrer régulièrement. Ses élèves ne lui ont jamais fait ça avec autant de naturel et sans qu'il le demande. Je caresse la joue de Jimmy et lui dis qu'il m'a fait honneur. Il rougit et me dit merci.

Je crois que Samir m'a trouvé la perle rare. De plus à son âge, sa croissance est terminée et il devrait garder cet aspect juvénile un bon nombre d "années.

Nous rentrons à la maison où nous attend un diner préparé par nos beurs de service.

(Pour éviter un élargissement trop constant, je le plugge avec l'engin d'exercice et lui dit de serrer son anus dessus. Ça m'a bien réussit, y'a pas de raison que ça fasse autrement avec lui).

JARDINIER

Valentine's approved

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night-dark-woods · 4 months

Text

Yet she had also decided that she felt a strange kinship and sympathy for it, this cornered, desperate god, making infinite sacrifices out of its people.

I'm on a "rereading Forsaken loretabs" kick and I'm rotating this line in my head. Mara constantly sacrificing herself and her people to protect the solar system as a whole. Her sense of duty. Determined and deadset on saving everyone and the thing is she does she DOES save everyone!!! But does that make it worth it does that make it right!!!

What got me started again was the last line on the loretab of this year's Dawning ship (Hiera Hodos - which also... thats the Sacred Way from Athens to Eleusis, as in the Eleusinian Mysteries that Mara's throneworld is named for...):

And Mara walks alone, between the City and the dark outside.

Which made me think about this part of the Savin loretab (Title is also from this loretab):

Perhaps the Earth would be better off if the Traveler vanished or was destroyed, she thought. Even in the Reef, she felt as if she were living next to a torch held up in a dark wilderness, calling out across the galaxy to hungry things with too many eyes.

And so now I'm down the "Mara and her god complex" rabbithole again. Under a readmore because it's long:

If you have grace, then see our sorrows, but swallow back your tears. We were made to pay this price. I led us to our fate. (Archiloquy)

She feels this absolute guilt from the very beginning because she saw deeper meaning in a freak accident:

Because I asked us to leave, Mara thinks. Because something came out of deep space and killed the man next to me, and I saw the omen, and I said we should go. And now I feel like a coward. (Cosmogyre II)

And then you combine that personal guilt with her mother and Alis Li telling her she's responsible for what others think of her and that she is capable of more than those around her:

"It is one thing to have a particular power over people, Mara. But it is another to deny that you are using it." ... "Mara, you are an Auturge, a volunteer. I cannot order you to stop, and your work is exemplary. Are you putting anyone else in danger with your… art projects?" "No," Mara says. "Just myself." "False!" Li barks. "That is a selfish answer. You are now a symbol to my crew, a house god. If you were to die, they would lose something important, something Human that they have created out of loneliness and void. It would be an unforgettable reminder of the hostile nothingness that surrounds us. When you endanger yourself, you endanger that symbol. You are part of this mission's behavioral armor, Mara." Mara is thunderstruck. She's never thought about it this way. "All I did was take some captures. I didn't ask to be anyone's… mascot." "You presented yourself as a conduit to secret knowledge," Captain Li counters. "People made something out of you, Mara. Please take this from a starship captain: What people make of you, what they create of you—even without your consent—becomes a kind of responsibility. If the Mara they see when they look at you is good for them, then you have some duty to be that Mara." (Brephos III)

And you put all of that on the shoulders of an already self-important and borderline suicidal 19 year old who is convinced she's seeing secret meanings in things (and she is!!! Is the thing!!!) You cannot tell me she's not, given that her favorite enrichment activity is going on EVAs and taking off her suit in order to experience this:

The void boiled the water off her skin. Her body swelled with unchecked pressure until her undersuit forced it to stop. Alarmed cytogel crawled down her throat, hissing emergency oxygen: not enough. Her skin blued with cyanosis. She was bathed in the most profound emptiness. She recorded all of it at the neural level. The exquisite darkness. The sense of fatal independence from all things. There are those who will give anything to feel that void. (Brephos II)

And then after they are in the Distributary she keeps her idea of the duty of the Awoken to herself for so so so fucking long and plays such a long game and sacrifices her own people in that game to keep the Awoken from being truly comfortable in the Distributary:

"I have worked for many hundreds of years to arrange this outcome," Mara says, forthrightly, but without the courage to look Alis Li right in the eyes. "I have nurtured and tended the Eccaleist belief so that there will always be Awoken who feel uncomfortable in paradise. Guilty for the gift of existence in the Distributary. People who'll come with me." (Nigh I)

And all for the sake of her eventual goal of returning to the real world and saving the solar system that she is absolutely completely incapable of abandoning, regardless of the cost:

"Do you understand what you've done? Have you reckoned the full cost?" She has convinced tens of thousands of Awoken to abandon their immortality. She has deprived the Distributary an infinite quantity of joy, companionship, labor, and discovery: all the works that might be accomplished by all the people who will join her in her mission to another world. When she lies awake at night, seized by anxiety, she tries to tally up the loss in her head, but it is too huge, and it becomes a formless thing that stalks her down the pathways of her bones like the creak of a gravity wave. "Some infinities are larger than others," she tells her old captain. "I believe… we are here for a reason, and this is the way to fulfill that purpose." "And how much would you sacrifice? Your mother? Your brother? Are the Awoken real to you at all?" Alis leans across her pinned hand, viper-fierce, striking. "Do you think my people were made to die for you? "Not for me. For our purpose. For our fate." (Nigh II)

And she is so so so deeply aware of that cost, in Fideicide II Alis Li knows that "Mara knows the unthinkable value of even a single Awoken life," and she is so deeply deeply guilty about that. Like when she does tell Alis (and Sjur, eventually) we get to see her the most fucking vulnerable we ever do and GOD.

"No," Mara says, with her heart in her throat, with trepidation bubbling in her gut. You cannot keep a secret buried like a vintage for so many centuries, and then unbottle it without any ceremony. "The boon I ask is your forgiveness." Then she explains the truth. She tells Alis Li what she did: about the choice Alis Li would have made, if Mara had not made her own first. It's only an extension of what Alis has already deduced. When she's finished, her ancient captain's jaw trembles. Her hands shake. A keen slips between her clamped teeth. The oldest woman in the world conjures up all the grief she has ever felt, and still it is not enough to match Mara's crime. "You're the devil," Alis Li whispers. "I remember… in one of the old tongues, Mara means death. Oh, that's too perfect. That's too much." She laughs for a while. Mara closes her eyes and waits. "You realize," Alis Li says, breathing hard, "that this is the worst thing ever done. Worse than stealing a few thousand people from heaven. Worse than that thing we fled, before we were Awoken—" "Please," Mara begs. "Please don't say that." Alis Li rises from her chair. "I'll support your fleet," she says. "I'll use every favor and connection I have to get your Hulls completed and through the gateway—and I will do it so that I can hasten your departure from this world. I will do it out of hate for you; I will do it so that every good and great thing we achieve here will ever after be denied to you, you snake. No forgiveness. Do you understand me? It is unforgivable. Go. Go!" "I'd be very glad if you didn't tell my mother," Mara says. (Nigh II)

The last line there fucking kills me. "I'd be very glad if you didn't tell my mother." God. And then when she is brave enough to tell Sjur, to try again after last time backfired so fucking spectacularly, Sjur forgives her:

"I was first," Mara says. And she explains the missing half, the first half of the sentence: I made the rules and initial conditions that deceived her into believing she herself had decided It ends like that, where the rest picks up. Sjur Eido looks at her in expressionless silence. Sjur Eido's hands stroke the seam between Mara's skinsuit and the glassy petals of her helmet. Long ago, this woman betrayed her oath and went to serve the Diasyrm, a woman who cried out in anguish at the curse of physicality and the possibility of suffering. Long ago, this woman threw away her whole life to punish the highest crime she could imagine: the denial of transcendent divinity to those who might have claimed it. "You're the devil," Sjur says. "You're the lone power who made death. You allowed the possibility of evil. You might be responsible for more preventable suffering than anything that has ever existed." Mara cannot shake her head or even nod. "Well," Sjur says, "if you hadn't, none of us would be here. I guess I don't see what else you could've done, if you cared about those we left behind. If you wanted us to be able to go back and help in the fight." She leans forward and very gently kisses the inside of her helmet, where it meets Mara's: in her mind, in that place that is bound to all other Awoken, Mara feels the touch of gentle lips. (Tyrannocide III)

And like, those chapters also make me lose my mind because of the twofold meaning of the title- Tyrannocide because she is killing Oryx, yes, but also because she herself is dying. The self-appointed (and only ever real) Queen of the Awoken:

We are risen from man and fallen from heaven. We are made again in the fall. What was once us will not ever again be us. I am the uncrowned ever-Queen and my only diadem will be the event horizon of the universe, which is my dominion. By falling, I will rise. (Palingenesis II)

"Mara, with all my respect, all my genuine gratitude for bringing us here," Esila sighs, "who died and made you Queen?" Mara says nothing. But she thinks: Everyone, Esila. All of us died and made me Queen. (Revanche II)

On the day the Fallen struck, Mara was proclaimed Queen. It happened swiftly, though after no little debate among the people, for everyone was afraid of a monarch who could speak to their thoughts. Yet they feared more to deny her power and sovereignty, for they had come between worlds in her name. To refuse her would be to refuse their choice. (Revanche V)

And the thing is that she is their queen in such a real and tangible way like she made them she made their fate she can sense every single one of them and feels their deaths and at the same time as she is sacrificing them for The Greater Good she would do anything to save them:

Mara crawls through compartments choked with vaporized coolant. She keeps low and clutches the breather to her face. All she can think of is Kelda Wadj's last message and the data attached. "Mara. The paracausal effects are strongest around you. Whatever's happened to us, you are the locus. I cannot overstate how subtle and how important this discovery might be. Mara, when we use radioactive decay as a trigger for simulated bombs—bombs that could harm Awoken—the trigger atoms are a thousandfold less likely to decay near you. People are literally safer when you are around." She has to get into the riot. She has to protect her people. A horrible groan vibrates through the habitat structure, and then, with an apocalyptic shudder, something tears off the Reef. A ship. A ship is leaving. Mara has failed. ... She rolls onto her back and stares up into the swirling vortices of coolant, seeing faces, futures, the lives she has just lost, the lives she might yet lose. She brought her people here to die in the sense that she brought them into mortality—but she never wanted it to happen quickly. (Revanche IV)

And she keeps losing people and losing people and losing people. So many of the Distributary Awoken defect and go to Earth:

Nasan purses her lips. "I want them to understand that you are—that you—that you are good. That you aren't what they think." Seeing Sjur bristle, she holds up her hand. To her relief, Mara makes a slight warding gesture as well. "And if they know that and still wish to live apart from us on Earth, that's fine. That's their choice." "I don't need them to understand that," Mara says softly. There is the faintest husk of grief in her steady voice. (Chords of Meaning)

And then she loses Nasan too and she comes back as Orin and the Traveler has taken yet another of her people from her (and brought them back wrong!):

"Woof," Sjur Eido says when she sees Orin for the first time, "Mara's gonna hate this." She crosses the detainment cell to get a better look at Gol. "Figured this might happen eventually, but I'd always hoped…" She pulls at the nape of her neck, then gives a little half-shrug: well, what can you do. (Queenslaw)

And then she loses Sjur when she is taken/killed by the Nine:

"This was on her body, Your Grace." A strange coin lay at the center of Abra's outstretched palm. Mara took it between thumb and forefinger and held up it to the cosmos with dainty contempt. Weregild, she thought. Powerful grief filled her chest, as thick and caustic and heavy as unset concrete. (Oathkeeper)

And she turns to Orin for assistance with that and then because of that (!!!) loses Orin again as well:

On the day that Sjur Eido dies, she receives a call from Mara Sov. "I would ask for my boon," the queen says with shaking voice. It is the first time she dares to trust a Guardian. It will not be the last. (Debt)

On the day she leaves to find the Nine, the Techeuns name her Orin the Lost. (Synesthesia)

And then she answers the question Alis Li asked her so long ago about whether she is willing to sacrifice her brother (a resounding, grieving, determined yes):

Mara will begin the end of that Queen's brother today. She knows what that means for the fate of her own. An eye for an eye. She must think now of the fate of entire cosmos—and of her tender, half-assembled answer to the cold sword logic of the Hive. She must not grieve. She must not fear. (Tyrannocide IV)

And then at the Battle of Saturn all of this loss she has been dreading and yet causing for millenia finally comes to fruition and she then will have a good long time just sitting with that in Oryx's throne world:

This is the moment of absolute sacrifice, the incarnation of Awoken doom: to give up their lives in defense of the world they once abandoned. The sense of their great dying rips at Mara like a sob. (Tyrannocide V)

It's just like. Such a classic and compelling and well-executed examination of do the ends justify the means? (Seth Dickinson at it again! In so many ways Baru is Mara is Baru is Mara!!!) Every one of her actions led to this point, to defeating Oryx, and was that not worth it? And yet how could it ever be worth it?

I think especially the outside perspectives from Earthborn Awoken & Guardians are really interesting on that front because while they still have the connection to Mara - "However, there was always in their souls an itch, a vector pointing to a distant place in the Asteroid Belt, where their Queen still dwelt." (Revanche V) - they did not choose to follow her and they do not have the same loyalty:

Zavala:

"She was a charlatan," Zavala says, quietly. "Fighting a war that existed only in her mind. Dragging you all behind her. Any of you who will admit that are welcome in my City. But I will not take in whatever conspiracies she left unfinished. If you come to us, you come to join the City." (Refusal)

Arach Jalaal:

She speaks. "Earthborn. Did you mourn for her?" He thinks she will know if he lies. "I respected her, yes, but I despised the way she seemed… entitled… to us all. I never regret choosing the path I did. I was Awoken to continue the search we started long ago. The quest for worlds worthy of our lives." (Fleet)

Master Rahool:

We long feared that if it were intercepted by her Majesty your Queen, it would be denied or manipulated to serve some need of her own. (Of Earth and the Reef)

Mara is just such an incredibly compelling and complex and interesting character and she is so stubborn and full of herself and self-righteous and she saved the solar system and she doomed her people to mortality and she's always right because she has to be and because she makes it so and she keeps secrets from everyone and has lost more people than many people ever meet and she has felt every single one of their deaths. She is everything to me.

#my posts #loreposting #hi. im sooo stable and normal about this character.#im sure there are more things i missed that would fit really well in here but ive been at it for like. 4 hours lol.#i also have a separate sticky note with a truly unhinged number of petra and sjur lore tabs. god.#do i dare put this in the main tag. i dont have a separate tag so i think i have to for organizational purposes.#destiny #mara sov

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qui-rault · 7 months

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Dard on Herault's Library

Updates from Qui live-blogs reading Dard (sort of). I might actually make this into a tag.

After Herault's death, a list of his books titled 'Notice des livres apres le deces du citoyen Herault de Sechelles' was published - as far as I am aware, this notice has not been digitized, but I do intend to figure out a way to see it in Paris.

However, Dard gives a brief summary of some of Herault's personal collection of 4000 (four thousand!!) books, as follows:

A few religious/spiritual books, including, the Bible, 'L'Annee Chretienne' (Letourneux), 'La Conduite de Noailles', 'L'Essaie de Morale' (Nicole), 'La Vie des Peres du Deserts' (Arnauld d'Andilly).

500 volumes of jurisprudence (being a lawyer myself I understand).

Greek and Roman texts both in their language and in translations by the Abbe Auger.

The works of Voltaire in 92 volumes (the edition known as "papier a la Croix").

Rousseau in 34 volumes.

Buffon in 56 volumes.

Descartes in 7 volumes.

Leibnitz (no further info).

Spinoza (no further info).

Bacon (no further info).

Locke (no further info).

Pascal (no further info).

Malebranche (no further info).

Tacitus (no further info).

Thucydides (no further info).

Complete collection of 'Memoires sur l'Histoire de France' (I cannot confirm who the author of this would have been).

'Oeuvres de Frederic II' in 15 volumes.

Montesquieu (no further info).

Raynal (no further info).

'Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grece' (Barthelemy).

Various volumes on physics, medicine, and mathematics

Several accounts of travel stories, especially in Italy.

80 English volumes "dans leur texte" (I'm not sure what this means, I am assuming it means that they are in English not translated).

Don Quixote (Cervantes).

Torquato Tasso (referred to as 'Le Tasse') (no further info).

Ludovico Ariosto (no further info) (translated by Mirabeau) (Dard makes awful use of commas so its not clear if translated by Mirabeau refers only to Ariosto or other works).

'LHistoire du Theatre-Francais' in 3 volumes (Demouhy).

'Administrations des Finances' in 30 volumes (Necker).

The 'erotiques aniens' and their Gallic imitators (literally no clue what this refers to).

Also, Herault apparently kept a note titled "Livres qu'il faut relire sept ou huit cent fois" but Dard gives no further information about what books were listed!

Source: Herault de Sechelles par Emile Dard

#qui reads dard #that will do for now #4000 books!#SIR!#werent you just talking about people who have 2000 or 3000 books in theory of ambition #anyway #qui posts #frev #herault de sechelles

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bisexualfbiagents · 9 months

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on the topic of 5 episode runs in txf (my opinion being that the first 5 episodes are some of the best of the whole series, on their own and as a collective) i was wondering if their were other sets of 5 that would come close to that. mine are:

pilot deep throat squeeze conduit and the jersey devil, as mentioned above, are quite literally peak television and set up the series perfectly (@cutemothman sums it up very well here)

drive triangle dreamland I dreamland II and how the ghosts stole christmas from the beginning of season 6 is also very strong, drive being the only weak episode for me (though still a good episode, i just think the others are on another level) (i'm watching htgsc right now, it's also peak television imo)

there has to be a perfect set in season 3 but it's tricky for me... i think my pick would be jose chung's from outer space avatar quagmire wetwired and talitha cumi, a good set to finish off the season

anyway i'd be interested to hear if y'all have other sets of 5!! maybe a silly prompt but fun to think about :)

#the x files #gabby.txt #i also think there's gotta be a good set in season 5 but s5 has some random stinkers thrown in between some perfect episodes lol #there might also be another set in s6 tbh #i always think i don't like season 6 and then i watch it and remember that it's actually pretty good lol

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carefulfears · 1 year

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i’ll rewrite this whole life

(warsan shire’s “backwards” / the x files “dreamland ii” / the x files “conduit” / the x files “paper hearts” / the x files “demons” / the x files “biogenesis” / the x files “little green men” / adrienne kalfopoulou’s “poems in pieces, a log” / jandy nelson’s “i’ll give you the sun” / the x files “herrenvolk” / the x files “redux ii”)

#fox mulder #the x files #txf #samantha mulder #dana scully #web weaving #msr #kae web weaving #mulder

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mahayanapilgrim · 7 months

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The Significance of a Root Teacher in Tibetan Buddhism

Root teacher (Tib. རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་, tsawé lama, Wyl. rtsa ba'i bla ma) — main teacher, especially the one who introduces you to the nature of mind. In Yeshe Saldrön, his famous commentary on the practice of guru yoga, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö writes: "The root lama is

* the one from whom we receive complete empowerment into the great mandalas, or

* the one grant us the three sets of vows, or,

* most especially, the one who introduces us to the fundamental wisdom of the nature of mind."

In Tibetan Buddhism, the concept of a root teacher, known as "tsawé lama," holds profound importance in a practitioner's spiritual journey. The root teacher is not merely an instructor but a spiritual guide who plays a pivotal role in introducing individuals to the nature of mind and guiding them along the path to enlightenment. This essay delves into the multifaceted significance of a root teacher in Tibetan Buddhism.

I. Transmission of Empowerments and Blessings:

One of the primary roles of a root teacher is to transmit empowerments and blessings to their students. These empowerments grant access to sacred teachings, practices, and deity mandalas, allowing students to engage in advanced practices that lead to spiritual realization. The root teacher serves as the conduit through which the blessings of the lineage flow, enabling students to connect with the wisdom of their spiritual tradition.

II. Bestowing the Three Sets of Vows:

The root teacher is responsible for granting the three sets of vows in Tibetan Buddhism:

1. Pratimoksha Vows: These are the vows of individual liberation, focusing on ethical conduct and discipline. The root teacher guides students in maintaining moral purity and avoiding negative actions.

2. Bodhisattva Vows: These vows emphasize the altruistic intention to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. The root teacher imparts these vows, inspiring students to cultivate compassion and engage in bodhisattva activities.

3. Tantric Vows: In Vajrayana Buddhism, the root teacher introduces students to the esoteric practices of tantra and bestows the tantric vows. These vows enable practitioners to work with subtle energies and transform ordinary experiences into paths to enlightenment.

III. Introduction to the Nature of Mind:

Perhaps the most significant role of a root teacher is introducing students to the fundamental wisdom of the nature of mind. This is a profound teaching in Tibetan Buddhism, as it leads individuals to recognize the innate luminosity and wisdom within themselves. The root teacher guides students through meditation and direct experience, helping them uncover their true nature beyond conceptual limitations.

IV. Personalized Guidance and Mentorship:

A root teacher offers personalized guidance and mentorship to students on their spiritual journey. They provide instruction, answer questions, and offer support tailored to the unique needs and capacities of each practitioner. This one-on-one relationship fosters trust, devotion, and a deeper understanding of the teachings.

V. Preservation of Lineage and Tradition:

Root teachers are instrumental in preserving the authenticity of the lineage and tradition. They ensure that teachings are transmitted accurately from one generation to the next, maintaining the purity and integrity of the teachings. This lineage continuity is vital for the vitality and authenticity of Tibetan Buddhism.

Conclusion:

In Tibetan Buddhism, the root teacher is not a mere instructor but a spiritual guide who plays a multifaceted and indispensable role in a practitioner's spiritual journey. They empower students, introduce them to the nature of mind, bestow vows, and provide personalized guidance. The relationship between a practitioner and their root teacher is marked by trust, devotion, and a profound commitment to the path of enlightenment. It is through this connection that students can access the wisdom of their tradition and progress on the path toward ultimate liberation.

#buddha #buddhism #buddhist #dharma #sangha #mahayana #zen #milarepa #tibetan buddhism #thich nhat hanh

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violettduchess · 2 years

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A/N: My 2nd contribution to the Different Universe Same Love Content Creation Challenge, Day 5 Academia / Small Shop AU (I combined them), hosted by @xxsycamore and @queengiuliettafirstlady

Leonardo and f!Reader

Word Count: 2332

Fluff, Romance, First Kisses

“And the sunlight clasps the earth And the moonbeams kiss the sea: What is all this sweet work worth If thou kiss not me?” -Percy Blythe Shelley, from "Love’s Philosophy"

The little brass bell over the book shop door chirps out a greeting as a customer walks in. You hear it from all the way in the back, your ears honed to the sound as a conductor to each instrument in his orchestra. An exhale, a quick brushing down the front of your sweater. Excitement buzzes through you. Your heart is an eager child with its face pressed to the car window.

Is he here yet? Is he here yet?

He is here, his large hands and sculpted fingers splayed out on the wooden counter as he waits for you.

God, he is beautiful with his tousled hair and whiskey-colored eyes. He elevates everything around him, even his white button-down shirt and brown leather jacket feel elegant and worldly because they are touching him.

You pause a moment, hidden by a bookshelf, fingers wrapping around the edge to watch him, to enjoy this tiny bubble of time where he does not know you are there, his expression relaxed. He reaches down, picking up one of the small business cards of your bookstore, Parnassus. You remember the first time he walked in and had immediately known the reference to Christopher Morley’s 1917 novel about a bookshop on wheels. That was the moment you had heard the faint thrum of cupid’s bow string, the second you began falling in love with Professor Leonardo Da Vinci.

You breathe out once and then pop out from behind the bookshelf, the smile on your face completely genuine. He is the sunshine that will always coax the shy flower to open itself to the light and blossom.

“Good morning Professor!”

He pockets your business card (he must have hundreds of them by now the way he plays with them and tucks them into the infinite pockets of his jacket) and returns your smile. Your heart falls into stereotype and skips a beat.

“Hello cara mia,” he answers, his lightly accented voice running over you like warm water. “How are you this morning?”

“Great.” You keep your tone breezy, an unconscious way of shielding him from the depth of your feelings. “I finished that edition of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ you recommended.”

He grins slowly, dipping his chin and looking at you through those long lashes, dark frames to golden pools of light.

“And? Did true love prevail?”

You know you can’t stop smiling when he’s around, you feel it in the way you want to smile and realize there is no where else to go with it. You’re already there.

“Sadly, the play still ends in tragedy. But I did enjoy the variations of the lines in Acts II and III.”

“Of course you noticed them right away,” he teases. That honeyed dip in his voice, that winking grin on his lips….they should be illegal. Out of nervous habit, you brush your hair away from your face and then lean down, picking up a small package from under the counter.

“So….I know you’ve been waiting…and here it is! It finally came.”

You know he is going to be excited. He always is when it comes to his purchases.

“Ah!” He reaches for the package, his fingers brushing yours in his haste. Your hands tingle, his skin a conduit for all the electric feelings you have coursing through you, circuits of admiration and desire. He doesn’t seem to notice as he eagerly begins unwrapping the book like a child on Christmas morning. You curl your fingers inward, ignoring the echo of his touch.

“A thing of beauty,” he says when he has freed the book at last. You nod, smiling at the pleased look on his face.

“The Selected Works of Christina Rosetti,” you read out loud as he touches the gold embossed cover. “You sure do like your love poems,” you say with a smile that doesn’t quite reach your eyes.

Since he wandered into your bookstore seeking shelter from a sudden downpour, every book he has bought or had special ordered has been about love. He can talk about other subjects for ages, certainly. He’s regaled you with stories about historical events, art, architecture. And he is a phenomenal listener. He’s spent hours, cup of coffee in hand, listening to you wax poetic about Whitman and Dickinson and Poe and Frost and countered with stories about Michelangelo, Goethe, and Gaudi, but when it comes to the actual purchases he makes in your little store, they have always revolved around love. You can recite them like a litany: “Shakespeare’s Most Romantic Sonnets”, “The Lord Byron Collection”, “Rainer Maria Rilke: The Essential Poems”, “Wordsworth’s Love Poems”. Clearly he has someone he is head over heels for and your tiny flame of love is destined to burn, unrequited.

He glances up from the book. “Do you like Shelley?”

You know only a little about the poet Percy Blythe Shelley and yet the words that fly from your lips like escaped birds from a cage are: “I absolutely adore Shelly!”

He smiles and it does nothing to stop the immediate panicked stumble your heart has just taken, first at your lie and second, at that look on his face.

“The university has a very rare copy of “Love’s Philosophy” on loan. Would you like to take a look at it?”

And that simple question is why you find yourself rushing through a downpour of epic proportions, heels kicking up rainwater, hurrying to meet him at his office. You ignore the looks from the people heading home, grumbling under their umbrellas. It’s been a long day and here you are, a banshee in a pencil skirt, flying past them as fast as two inches will let you through a rain so thick you could probably wear goggles and see better than through your squinted vision.

You run, nearly slip, your way up the steps and into the College of Arts and Sciences where Da Vinci is senior professor. The adrenaline rush that has been powering you began less than an hour ago when you realized you had spent too long picking what to wear, finding the right makeup tutorial on YouTube and searching for a hairstyle that would tame the lion’s mane on your head. Time had slipped so quickly through the cracks of your fingers that you ended up in the same clothes you had worn to work, your hair in a bun that valiantly tried and failed to hold all your locks, and a swipe of lip gloss that has long since faded. And now, on top of it all, you are late.

Leaving little puddles in your wake you manage to find the elevator and then drip your way down the hall to the door that says “Professor Leonardo Da Vinci.” You try to steel yourself, but the scaffolding is weak and you buckle, hands on your knees as you struggle to catch your breath. This is a bad idea. Maybe you should cancel. You exchanged numbers. You could just send a text that due to the weather, you weren’t–

“Oddio, come in!” The door to his office has been flung open and there he is. Concern paints his handsome face as surely as embarrassment is coloring yours. You have no choice now but to step inside, acutely aware of how wet you are. That is until you take in his office and momentarily forget anything else..

Bookshelves filled to overflowing line the walls, stacks upon stacks of papers and notebooks and are those scrolls? He has Post-Its all over with reminders, even the bottom of his monitor is lined with them. Pencils, pens, a tablet, even an old-fashioned inkwell and quill are arranged on his desk. It is so impressive, so overwhelming in it's chaos, you forget for a moment your resemblance to a wet cat.

He approaches you, holding out a small hand towel. Outside the rain pelts the glass window of his office, eager to say hello. Your heart hammers back that this is all its fault. The rain ignores your accusation.

“Here. Please take this. I know I must have something here you can….change into…” He trails off and it dawns on you that he can’t seem to focus. You follow his gaze, your head dropping until you realize the rain has soaked you so completely, your blouse and skirt are molded to you, like Ives’s famous sculpture of Undine rising from the water. Your eyes fly back to his and what you see in them burns through you so strongly you’re half-surprised all the water clinging to you doesn’t evaporate immediately.

You hurriedly grab the towel from his hand and it breaks the moment. Leonardo turns, clearing his throat as he makes a vague gesture toward the smaller, backroom of his office, words like “extra sweater”, “somewhere back here”, “right back” tumbling from his lips as he disappears.

Breathing out, you hastily begin trying to dry yourself off, your limbs as graceful as a marionette controlled by a drunken puppeteer. Of course you knock over a pile of books from the edge of his desk. Kneeling, you hurriedly try to gather them up again. When you notice what is in your arms, you can’t help but pause, a smile on your lips. All the books he has ordered from your store. You stand, carefully setting them back on his desk and breathe out. No one will be the wiser.

As you continue to try and make yourself somewhat presentable, your gaze begins traveling over the spines of the books in his impressively full bookshelf. You spot biographies of Renaissance greats, books on the cartography of Italy, engineering histories. Wandering further brings you to his collection of poetry. Whitman and Donne and Eliot. And then you pause. “The Selected Works of Christina Rosetti”. But this is clearly not the copy he ordered from your store. That one you just put back on his desk. This one has a cracked spine that tells a story of age and use and fingers that have turned those pages countless times. You scan the rest of his poetry shelf. “Shakespeare’s Most Romantic Sonnets”, “The Lord Byron Collection”, “Rainer Maria Rilke: The Essential Poems”, “Wordsworth’s Love Poems”. They are all already there, and all well-worn and older.

“I’m afraid all I have is this school sweatshirt the faculty was given for some reason or another and–” He pauses when he sees where you are standing.

You turn, confusion in the furrow of your brow.

“Professor-”

“Leonardo.” He is walking toward you, expression soft, the maroon-colored sweatshirt dropping from his fingers to the floor. “Call me Leonardo.”

He stops in front of you, closer than he has ever been. No store counter between you, no barrier. Your heart is the thunder accompanying the rainfall outside.

“Leonardo….” His name on your lips feels like a kiss. It affects him too, hearing you say it. He blinks those beautiful, golden eyes of his.

“Yes, cara mia?” He takes a step closer.

“Why….” Your head is tilted upward, eyes on his face, your true north in the storm of emotion inside you. When you speak, your voice is hushed, as if a whisper could help you as you teeter on the knife’s edge between hope and regret. “Why…do you already have copies of all the books you’ve ordered from my store?”

Hope presses itself into your heart, breath held. Could it be….

He reaches up, brushing back the damp strands of hair from your face. His hands remain, cupping your cheeks, gentle and reverent.

“Why do you think?”, he whispers, his voice husky with something that sends sparks of radiant want bursting through your veins.

“Leonardo,” his name is a breath, hope igniting into flame, as he leans down, brushing his lips against yours. Once. Twice. And then he kisses you. Soundly.

His mouth is on yours and his lips and tongue tell you a story: how he was drawn to you from the moment he saw you, how every order was just an excuse to see you again. He pulls you against him, wetness be damned, his hands running over you, joining in the telling. How he had hoped you would notice the topic of all his orders. How you would see how much he admired your quick mind and open heart.

And now, pressed against him, rainwater bleeding from your blouse onto his shirt, skin tantalizingly visible and yet not, covered by wet fabric that doesn't quite hide its heat, he hopes you feel how much he has longed for you. How nights were eaten alive by visions of just this, holding you, touching you, discovering the mystery of what it means to taste you. He is a man of knowledge and you are a subject he has been aching to explore.

Breathless, you break apart, the only sound in the office the intermingled rhythm of your breathing and the rain falling outside.

Leonardo brings his lips to yours again, as if even this short break is too much, speaking between kisses. “The rain….brought me to your store….” You interrupt him when you kiss him back, gripping the back of his neck. He laughs softly against your lips. "And now it brings you to me. Like this."

You blink against the fog of happiness as you, still in the circle of his arms, glance down to see how soaked you both are.

"I'm so sorry! I should go home and change and–"

He tightens his hold on you, eyes gleaming, grin slow and sweet and rich as molasses.

"You, cara mia, will stay right here." He lowers his mouth to yours once more, your body yielding to his as a tree that bends to the wind. "I'm certain we'll figure out what to do about all these wet clothes."

💜

Tagging: @aquagirl1978 @atelieredux @alixennial @alexxavicry @rhodolitesroseforclavis @somekidnamedkai @ikemen-prince-writers-posts @bellerose-arcana @thewitchofbooks @ikehoe @redheadkittys @themysticalbeing

#different universe same love ccc #ikemen series #ikemen vampire #ikevamp #ikemen leonardo #ikevamp leonardo #leonardo da vinci #leonardo x reader #academia au #small shop au #first kiss #ikemen fanfic #ikemen fanfiction #violettwrites

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