#pillar 93
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🌇 factored-antagonism 🔁 three-pronged-spears Follow
🌫️ three-pronged-spears Follow
DNI if you support Peripherism. It's literally just Slab Mongering but worse and with less effort
#wait peripherism is still a thing?????? #meaning collector point inversions havent been the norm in like 350 years afaik
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💟 pleading-intellect
GUYSSSS my overseer found a clutch of baby green lizards today they're so CUTE
#inty.txt #and BEFORE anyone accuses me of not iterating im literally running 55,458 processes rn
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❇️ string-of-pearls 🔁 rippling-shadows Follow
👤 forspoken-antiquity Follow
hey FYI everyone if you receive an ask about transcendental inversions it's a troll. i've gotten 3 asks in the last cycle
#signal boost!!
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🌁 nineteen-afterthoughts
"ohhh Triangulation is outdated" "ohhh Triangulators dont even factor noise milking into their research theyre a bunch of idiots" im literallu just a little guy im 4 feet tall why do you hate me
⬜️🔁 erratic-pulse
Irrelevant tangents and jokes don't help your case. Triangulationism is simply an objectively moronic take on an already superfluous train of thought. How are you supposed to find the Solution if you can't even properly look for it?
🌁🔁 nineteen-afterthoughts
you literally have Sliverist in your bio but go off
⬜️🔁 erratic-pulse
The minutiae of my theoretical inclinations are irrelevant. Your dogma is blatantly incorrect regardless.
🌁🔁 nineteen-afterthoughts
your group senior and i are raising a family together
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💽 slowly-advancing-mist
a band of scavengers literally just stole my last vat of holy ash thats it im seeking personal ascension
#vent #dont rb
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🚹 untoward-foresight Follow
Anyone else gotten really into Gold Hegemonic epic poetry recently? This one dude Eight Brass Whistles has a bunch of crazy quasi-Regeneratist stuff, it's actually really cool
🎹 east-facing-pillars
wasnt Eight Brass Whistles a heretic???? i heard he refused to shed the 3rd attachment or something like that
🚹 untoward-foresight Follow
Nah that callout post got debunked 533 cycles ago lol
🎹 east-facing-pillars
ahhh ok thanks for clarifying! ill let you know if i find anything :)
#thanks for being polite haha #lesson learned i gotta check this forum more LMAO
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⬜️ erratic-pulse
anonymous asked:
Transcendental Inversion! Transcendental Inversion!
Only someone with a fundamentally false understanding of inversion modes would send this. You can't even do such a thing without sufficient trailing bonds, which entropy renders impossible.
#Why do I always encounter idiots on this pseudonym?
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Positioning, Market Dominance, And Having A Conversation In A Loud Room
So I'm reading Middle Earth Roleplaying 2nd ed. It's part of giant stack of tabletop I got from a publishing friend---and one of many systems I probably wouldn't be reading if I hadn't gotten it as part of a giant stack of tabletop from a publishing friend.
MERP 2e was released in '93, by Tolkein Enterprises, and is a pretty thorough book. It's packed full of nice B&W art. It lets you play as everything from a hobbit to an olag-hai. It uses a d100 system that allows for success with a complication. It's a book that feels intensely and simultaneously like it's ahead of and behind its time.
But that's not what I want to talk about.
MERP 2e has an alignment system, much like dnd at the time, but with twelve axis instead of two. Everything from whether your character is a metaphorical thinker to whether they're a literal thinker to whether they're a socialist or a libertarian is tracked.
Similarly, MERP has a classic six stat spread, but the explanations of the stats are all like "Strength(ST): Not brute musculature, but your ability to use your muscles to your greatest advantage."
And MERP has classes, called Professions, that each come with a little parenthetical explanation after their title. The Warrior's is (Fighter). The Scout's is (Thief). The Animist's is (Cleric).
What you might notice is that this is an officially licensed Middle Earth game *aggressively* defining and contextualizing itself vis a vis DnD. "Here's how our stats are different. Here's why our skill rolls are more granular. But don't worry, you can still play the same party roles. We promise we're not unfamiliar, just different."
Now, I don't know how intentionally-as-a-market-strategy the designers and writers were doing this---DnD's headlock on the industry was certainly less intense then than now---but it's reflective of a kind of design pressure that not only hasn't gone away. It's gotten way more intense.
DnD is roleplaying games. Anything that's not DnD might not be roleplaying games. Or at least, it's suspicious, it might taste weird, it might ruin your ability to have fun or speak english forever.
So in order to be a roleplaying game, you have to ask yourself "how do I fit into DnD?"
A critique I've seen leveled at indie systems sometimes is that they don't properly represent all of the three pillars of DnD. The three pillars is a modern creation. It's a 5e thing. It's specific to DnD. But DnD is roleplaying games, and to be a roleplaying game you need to be DnD.
So you get games as chameleons. You get endless "DnD killers" hoping that what people like about DnD isn't the name but the mechanics, and if you can just do the mechanics *more*, people will like you better. You get five hundred 5e splats. Power Rangers and GI Joe and Stargate all trying to fit into the same engine about swinging at and then missing a large rat. You get Adventure Time throwing out its original system and self-converting into a 5e hack because the market doesn't want things that don't look like DnD---even things that already look like DnD.
And back in '93 you get MERP 2e telling you don't worry, we still have the Thief, we just call it something different in our house.
#ttrpg#ttrpg homebrew#ttrpgs#ttrpg design#indie ttrpgs#rpg#indie ttrpg#tabletop#dnd#rpgs#merp#merp 2nd ed#middle earth#lotr
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Saturday Morning Session
Come Ye That Love the Lord
Conducting: Dallin H Oaks
The Morning Breaks
Sustaining vote – in the morning session? Normally afternoon
Church audit report – in the morning session? Normally afternoon
Did You Think to Pray
Jeffrey R. Holland
Awwwww the most fortunate of men!
More concentration, focus on the Savior, hope on His word, etc.
“Thanks are the highest form of thought. Gratitude is Happiness doubled by Wonder.” – Chesterton?
God hears every prayer we offer.
- Prayers are often answered differently than we expect
Our prayers are our sweetest hour, our most sincere desire, our most purest form of worship
Hesitation to pray doesn’t come from God.
Prayers should be spoken out loud.
-It is a conversation with God
Listen to the spirit to know how to pray
If you don’t know what to pray for, just pray anyway!
Even the Savior had to pray to be closer to His Father – even He could pray “more earnestly.”
J Anette Dennis
You can look for a deeper meaning in all the things you read – how does this bring you closer to the Savior?
Jesus Christ is the center of ALL covenants we make.
Covenant relationships bless us, but it is out choice as to how,
Everything done in the Temple points to Gods plan for us.
-Prayerfully seek the further meanings
Our symbolic outer clothing is only worn in the temple. Other than the garments, although those show that Jesus covers us.
Armor of Light – which is Christ
Choose to have a relationship with God by making and keeping covenants with Him
Alexander Dushku
Restoration began with a boys desperate prayer and a pillar of light
Rather than a pillar of light, the Lord sends us a ray of light – and then another, and then another
How do you experience the rays of light from the Lord?
-Peace, impressions, desires, testimonies, hopefulness, prayer, feeling the love of God as you serve others
If we’re believing and repenting, we ARE living in revelation, even if we don’t recognize it or think we are experiencing it.
You cannot always expect big miracles and pillars of light – the Light comes line upon line, precept upon precept, here a ray and there a ray
Experiencing depression and anxiety make it difficult (sometimes impossible) to recognize the Spirit
- Sometimes we don’t even know we are feeling the Spirit at all until after the fact!
Perhaps one ray is not enough for a Testimony, but together they can become a Light that will scare away the darkness.
D&C 93:36 “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.”
D&C 50:24 “That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.”
Press Forward Saints
Ulisses Soares
Covenant confidence through Christ
When we enter the Lords house, we embark on a sacred journey to become like Christ
What happens IN the temples is important
Remain Confident in Christ
Confidence in the covenants made with Jesus Christ is something you should pass on to your children
“My disciples shall stand in holy places and not be moved.”
Go to the temple with confidence and humility
- Make preparations to go – not just for those going for the first time. We should be perpetually preparing - Will help with anxiety about worthiness
Home centered, Church supported, Temple Bound
- Being Temple bound connects us to the Savior
Cast not away your confidence, instead let your confidence wax strong.
Jack N Gerard
Jesus Christ is our exemplar.
- Integrity means being true to God, to each other, and to our identity.
Do what is right, let the consequence follow.
Exercise integrity in your choices
Would others see God through my conduct?
A life of integrity is not a life of perfection
- Due to the fact that during this life you literally cannot be perfect
- Perfection exists but not in me
Christian kindness is not a substitute for integrity
- Meaning don’t be fake in your kindness?
- Don’t be hypocrites?
I Know that My Savior Loves Me
Henry B Eyring
Story about going to the temple and finding out after the sealing that people have lost houses (teton dam break) and they left their kids at home and had to spend the night in a hotel and couldn’t make it home
“How can you sleep at a time like this?”
- Whatever the outcome, all will be well because of the temple. We have made covenants
- Apostles at gethsemane
John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
God will not abandon His relationship to all those who have covenanted with Him
- He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His willingness to support us
Light and hope can come from keeping covenants, and they are opportunities to draw closer to God
We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet
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See this man?
His name is Piero Angela.
Some say he's the italian David Attemborough.
I say David Attemborough is the british Piero Angela.
He's a journalist. Tv host. Science journalist. Jazz pianist.
He was born in Turin in 1928 and, it is worth noting, his father Carlo has been awarded the Medal of the "Righteous among the Nations".
Last year Piero Angela celebrated 70 years (don't know if you heard me right: 70 YEARS!!) of non-stop collaboration with italian national TV and radio broadcaster RAI. Hell, when he started working for RAI it was still a radio only broadcaster... tv didn't even exist in Italy yet.
He's been anchorman, reporter, war correspondent... but what's most famous for is QUARK.
The scientific TV program that turned the air of Bach's Orchestral Suite no. 3 in D major into "The Quark Music"! That's right. No one in Italy knows what's the air of Bach's suite n.3 in D major is, but goddammit, everyone knows the "Quark Music"!
That's because the man himself, the program and its intro are such a huge part in the life of every italian, even of those who are not interested in science. Piero Angela and his angelic intro are one of the pillars of italian modern culture!
Proof to that, another pillar of italian culture, Topolino, celebrated Angela's 90th birthday in 2018 with a story, an interview and a very cool cover! Here's to you Peter Quarky:
Why am I telling you all this?
Because Piero Angela passed away today, aged 93. But not before having written a really touching letter (like a boss!) thanking everyone who worked with him and all the common people who let him bring knowledge and science into their home with his very savoy care and kindness.
Right now for me is like loosing a very dear member of the family... you know, an odd granpa fixated with dinosaurs, planets and bacteria (I've still the complete collection of vhs he made on the dinosaurs and the one on the solar system) and I just wanted everyone to know about him, his impressive career and simply what a cool and kind person he was. A gentleman of old days.
To the stars, Piero... to the stars!
Piero Angela plays "As time goes by" in the program "Che Tempo Che Fa" in 2018.
#piero angela#bye bye piero#see you on the other side#quark#super quark#rai#science journalism#science#topolino magazine#mickey mouse#italian tv#italian celebs#johann sebastian bach#bach suite n.3 in D major#jazz#jazz pianist#as time goes by
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R.I.P. John Romita, who passed away on June 12th at the age of 93. Romita Sr. was a pillar of the Marvel Universe as an artist and art director whose talent defined decades of Marvel’s most well-known storytelling. His work spans hundreds of unforgettable comics that brought to life iconic characters like Wolverine, Black Widow, the Punisher, Kingpin, Luke Cage, Spider-Man and Mary Jane.
#marvel comics#john romita sr.#marvel masters#spider-man#gwen stacy#wolverine#black widow#luke cage#mary jane watson#kingpin#punisher#the punisher
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Play Action - Teaser
Football Player!Jung Jaehyun x Sports Analyst!Fem!Reader
Genre: grump x sunshine, falls easily x doesn’t know what love is
Warning(s): none
Teaser WC: 1.5k
Projected WC: 15k
Play Action Playlist
Part of the Picture Perfect Image Universe
Summary:
Jung Jaehyun wouldn’t know hard work if it slapped him in the face. He has an unnatural talent as a Tight End- I should know- but he has gotten off easy. So when a drunken night leaves his image in a lest-than-stelar light, who better to fix it than the Angel’s exclusive date-for-hire. I would not let myself be pulled into a football players life again, but Jaehyun makes it hard to stay away.
A/n: rough edit sorry :/
~~
I have loved Jeno Lee for 93 days.
I love the way he makes me laugh and how he is always attentive to me. He never makes me feel bad when I don't want to go out or if I am feeling so overwhelmed with work that I can't make myself function properly. We weren't best friends, it was something different between us.
Mutual respect and appreciation drove our relationship. I could not put my heart in more capable hands. They were more competent at steering that bus than any other emotion I know.
We were steady and knew exactly what was expected of each other. With him, I feel happy and in control of my life, of the future and what it holds.
There weren't many times Jeno wasn't smiling, but I liked to think that I only added more joy and happiness to his life. I celebrate his victories and let him lay his worries on me.
Celebrating is what we were doing tonight. No matter how much I tended to avoid crowds and large gatherings, I would put on my brave face. This was important to him, and me, to us. Months had been put into this to make it possible.
He wouldn't judge me for my tardiness- much. No one likes to admit their faults, but luckily when they are on display, you don't have to. Which is why I'm sure he already assumed that I was going to be late, but the street vendor had been busy and I couldn't resist the roasted pecans.
Adrian Young Memorial Stadium was magnificent. Tall pillars and exterior walls built of locally sourced quartz and the limestone exuded the quiet strength that came from the neighboring mountains. It held a long tradition of hosting some of the most spectacular moments of football history, a tradition that the Angel’s intended to keep.
A long quiet hall greeted me as I pushed through the authorized personnel only hallway. It wasn't unfamiliar, but as I took in the boards boasting years of excellence and the man that made this team great it was hard to not feel small, insignificant.
Glancing at my watch, my groan echoed around me.
It was official- I was the worst girlfriend ever. If I ever had any doubt before, it was now gone. 20 minutes late and showing up nearly empty handed to the biggest celebration of the last 20 seasons.
Maybe nobody would notice the slightly disheveled woman racing down the hall. It’s not like I was an important figure that would be missed, not in a room full of professional athletes. Stopping where laughter and cheers spilled from the doors, I counted back from 10, pulling lightly at my shirt to straighten it. Calm, cool, composed, that was me. I was a woman that exuded confidence. They would not see me faulted. Which is why I decided that 5 more minutes without showing my face would be better than arriving looking like I had just been caught in a wind tunnel.
I wish I was one of those women who always had it together. They could run 5K and jump into a board meeting right after. These were the women that ran the world, and made sure everyone around them knew it.
The cool sink water trickled down my scalp as I worked to slick down the curls that had broken free of the updo I had twisted my hair into. Bathroom mirrors had a good way of letting me know that I looked worse than I felt. Splotchy red cheeks and a slight runny nose no amount of paper towels shoved up my nose would solve was really the look I was going for tonight. Thank you, January.
Reapplying the light layering of makeup I had slapped on this morning didn't take long, but I couldn't convince myself to pull away from the vanity. My lipstick was perfect and not an eyelash was out of place, yet I couldn’t push away the gnawing that I would never hold up in the eyes of those in Jeno’s circle, in Jeno’s eyes.
“Come on, Y/n,” there was nothing to be worried about. Jeno would be patiently waiting, not worrying in the slightest that it would look weird that his date was missing. His teammates would be too focused on getting as much alcohol in their system in as little amount of time as possible. I would not be participating in that endeavor. Getting plastered in public is asking for something to go wrong. I did not need my image having “party animal” attached to it.
“Who does he think he is demanding that I quit my job? That bag of shriveled up- oh,” wide eyes blinked at me as the door to the bathroom slammed open. The badge that hung from her hip confirmed that she was a member of the Angel’s team. If I remembered correctly, Marketing and PR, under that brick Vanessa. “Sorry, I didn’t realize anyone was in here. I find that venting is best performed in front of an audience and I thought that it was just going to be my reflection tonight But now you’re here. Do you mind? It’s just-there is this man that I was trying to help- if he would just let me, but apparently all my ideas are stupid and not worthy of a mighty Angel. See if I try to help him again. I mean what kind of person says that ”
“You’re fine,” the timid smile I tried to give looked more like a grimace as I glanced one more time in the mirror. She had steamrolled me and there was not an inkling idea how I was supposed to respond to that. Rushing to the door I considered thanking her for finally kicking my feet into gear. Even if it was by the desire to get away from the word vomit she had thrown at a virtual stranger. “I am just going to leave.”
She cringed at me as if realizing her faux pas, “Have a good night.”
I had to get out of there.
Now I was definitely not running down the hall, but I could have broken the record for fastest speed walk I’m sure. So much for freshening up. It wouldn’t matter, most of the people I was going to be interacting with would not remember this night anyway.
Pausing in front of the door, I tried to fix my face to exude happiness and openness. I was inviting. I was there to celebrate and have a good time. I would not make people think I was trying to escape the entire night.
“No,” the woman’s voice barely rose above the music blasting through the music. My stomach dropped at the panic lacing that word. “You need to stop. Don’t say it.” The cracked closet door in the hall pushed just farther open. If something happened to her then-
“What? You don’t want me to tell you I love you? I have been in love since before I had a name for the feeling I get in my chest when you are around. There has not been a time that I have not loved you. You must see that.”
Blood rushed to my ears as I approached the door. Fear poked the back of my skull and my throat went dry.
“Jeno,” my heart sank as her voice cracked. “I can’t”
“Why?” There it went. My heart shattered on the floor, stomped on by a man who loved someone else.
“There are so many reasons! Your job and reputation, mine, the fact that you have a girlfriend!”
"She's not you!" Heat raced up my chest and ignited in my face. My chest heaved as I pulled in a wet breath. I watched, aching, as he leaned forward, cupping her cheeks, “She’s a fake girlfriend. You know that Y/n is a fake girlfriend. She is a friend. All I see is you.”
Right.
Fake.
As I wipe at the tears that have pressed at the corners of my eyes, I spin away from the door and scowl as I come face to face with Jaehyun, the Angel’s laid back Tight End and one of Jeno’s closest friends.
I would not look foolish in front of him, getting teary-eyed at the knowledge that my fake boyfriend loved his social media manager. Look him in the eye, raise your chin, don’t let it wobble, keep your feet straight and limbs loose. I knew about this, Jeno has not taken me off guard. I would convince myself of this and Jaehyun would be none the wiser.
“Excuse me,” voice clipped, I pushed past the man that towered over common-folk. “I have a party to be attending.”
Finally pushing through the doors a grin presses at my teeth and I mentally correct my mantra for the night, reset my racing thoughts and remember that I am there for one reason.
I have faked being in love with Jeno Lee for 93 days and everyone was going to believe it.
#jaehyun x reader#jaehyun fic#jaehyun fluff#jaehyun angst#jung jaehyun#nct 127 fluff#nct 127 fic#nct u fic
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Chapter Eighteen (Part 2)
There are no family photos on the walls of this house, which is entirely different to my home. My mother framed everything, because I was the only child, and therefore everything I did and every milestone I achieved was wonderful and amazing. There’s a photo of me, eight and smiling on the day of my first communion that has pride of place on the mantelpiece next to my parents wedding photos, as though my first reception of the body of Christ (a wafer) was as important as their vow to each other. I was cute back then, but it’s easy to track my progression from cute child to awkward teenager by simply following the path of photos on the wall above the television, where I am immortalised forever in my school uniform, picture day after picture day, year after year until they mercifully stopped taking them at the end of primary school and I was free to duck away and hide my braces and acne from any and all cameras.
There are no such records in the Turner house. There are no notches on the door frames that measured the growth of the children, no ancient crayon drawings still stuck to the fridge, or, for the extra special ones, framed on the wall where visitors can see them. There’s no sad, punctured football in the back garden, or Ribena stain on the carpet, and I can’t see what’s inside the cupboard under the stairs, but I guarantee there’s no outsized roller skates or fad toy from Christmas 2002 stuffed in there either. This house is like somebody opened an interior design magazine and bought everything on the page.
Jude climbs on a chair to reach a box, way up high on the very top of a bookcase. He settles next to me on the sofa and lifts the lid without any of the reverence or intentionality I feel it deserves, and hauls out a handful of photographs.
“There are before me.” He says, and I don’t care about those ones. His mother is very beautiful, and when she’s young even more so, but Collette Turner is of about as much interest to me as I am to her. When he hands them to me I just leave them on the coffee table and poke my fingers around in the box with him until we find the ones from November 1991.
“There I am.” He says, and rightly so, there he is. A tiny baby screaming in his mother’s arms as she, looking like a child herself stares bemusedly down at the pink, squirming thing in her arms. “Apparently all I did was make noise.” He says. “Nothing has changed there. I also wasn’t cute.”
“You weren’t.” I agree, but I like the photo anyway. Even in these first minutes of his life there’s something furious and uncompromising about him, all clenched fists and red face. He’s so tiny. My heart swells for him.
“I did get cute though.” He says, putting another photo into my hands of him at maybe two years old, wearing nothing but a nappy and a pair of cowboy boots. He’s standing on wobbly little legs on some dirt path, while sandstone pillars and jagged rock formations soar up into the sky behind him. It’s the kind of landscape that you only see in cartoons.
“Did you see the road runner when you were there?” I deadpan.
He smirks. “That’s Bryce Canyon. My great aunt brought me along on a trip with her kids. I think I was two.” He flips it over to where Sept. ‘93 is scrawled in blue biro. “Almost two. Her kids were in college at that point. I think there’s photos of us all.” He has a quick shuffle through the stack and withdraws several more from Utah, mostly of him being held, or cuddled or kissed on his chubby cheeks by four twenty somethings who look like extras from Seinfeld. Looking at their faces, their patterned jumpers, their floppy haircuts brings back a sense-memory of what it felt like to exist in the nineties. That pervasive smell of cigarettes and the old, brown plastic ashtray on my uncle’s table. The cuffs of light wash jeans and the creases in my cousin’s white sneakers as I tied and untied his shoelaces beneath the kitchen table, and Paul Simon’s Obvious Child, and our old TV that spit out white noise and wobbled until someone banged it with their fist to set it right again. I feel as affectionate towards those snippets of memory as I do about this tiny, cowboy boot wearing Jude, perched high on his cousin’s shoulders.
“Is that your great aunt?” I wonder, pointing to a ruddy cheeked woman in her early forties that crouches down with her arms around him at the base of a sandstone pillar.
“Yes, Maureen.” he’s mentioned her before in passing. I know that her husband was in the military, and that they lived all over the world for years. When he retired they settled in New Mexico, and she and her family were in the picture a lot when Jude was a child.
“When’s the last time you saw her?”
“When I was fifteen, but it’s not always easy to find the time anymore. She calls me every Christmas and on my birthday, and sometimes she sends me gifts.” He brushes his thumb thoughtfully over the photo. “You know, I miss her. She was kind of like my other-mother for a while.”
“Maybe you should go and visit again.”
“Yeah, I’d really like to.” He digs through the box and pulls out a more recent one of them both from 2007. They’re standing in her kitchen with their arms around each other, and she’s short and round, and he’s so tall and gangly with a wooden beaded necklace on, and they both have the biggest smiles. “Maybe I’ll go in the autumn.”
“Definitely! I think that’d be amazing.”
“It’s just weird because it’s hard to know where I’m going to be then, you know? Now that I’m graduating from college I’ll have to, like, look for a job.” He says it like it’s a dirty word, and there is the tiniest twinge of anxiety in my belly.
“Something will work out.” I say passively. I’ve tried not to think about what’s going to happen after college, and whether or not he’ll decide to move back to Ireland again once he finishes his final project. We’ve just avoided the conversation, even though sometimes during our long talks we bring us right up to the knife’s edge of it before we stealthily change the subject, but I soon have to acknowledge the elephant in the room, and it’s that we don’t know where he’ll be in six months. We don’t know what things might look like between us, and neither of us knows yet what he wants.
“Yeah, definitely.” He says hopefully, and I take the photo of him and Maureen so that I can take a closer look.
“2007.” I murmur. “You were so dreamy. I wish you’d seen what I looked like in 2007, it’d be like a jump scare.”
He chuckles. “No way, Evie.”
“I had cystic acne and braces,” I confess. “I was so ugly.”
“You haven’t even brushed up against ugly in your entire life. And I had braces once too, believe it or not.”
“Oh I’d believe it.” I feast myself on the view of his immaculate teeth. “Did your dad do that?”
“He did, and funny you should mention him, because he’ll probably be home soon. Do you want to endure an awkward, socially inept conversation with him or do you want me to take you home?”
“Oof, tough choice.”
Jude takes all of the photos from my lap and from the table and taps them gently into formation before stacking them back into the box where they’ll no doubt sit there unbothered for another few months or years, dusty and forgotten atop the bookcase.
“Let’s get moving.”
Jude’s car idles outside my apartment for half an hour, because every time I try to get out I look over my shoulder at him and feel compelled to kiss him goodbye, just one more time.
“Jesus Christ, you’re a great kisser.” I say as his lips slide from my mouth to the curve of my jaw, and his fingers caress the nape of my neck. “Where did you learn to do that?”
“Back of my hand.” He murmurs. “Glad you’ve noticed, I’ve actually never kissed a girl before.”
“Oh shut up.” I snicker.
“You know, if you think I’m good with my mouth you should see what else I can do with it.”
I breathe out a laugh, and my body shivers so intensely from head to toe that I have to twist out of his grip. This is full-on dirty talk. I don’t know how to do that. I should probably give him a slow, seductive smile and say something like “Well why don’t you come upstairs and show me?” But I obviously don’t. I say “Oh.” and then laugh way too loudly which completely dissolves the sexual vibe and he goes from looking flirtatious to amused. “What?”
“I mean, you can come in if you like, I know I owe you one but full disclosure I haven’t shaved in days.”
“Are you trying to lure me in with handjobs and hairy legs?”
“Feeling enticed?”
“You bet.”
I lean back against the passenger door and wrap my arms around myself. “Well, whatever you want to do is fine.”
His expression is funny as he takes me in, my body language, the metre of space I’ve managed to carve between us, and his eyebrow twitches sceptically. “I don’t want things that you don’t. You know that?”
I nod.
“When you want me to come in, I’ll come in, but you don’t have to do things for me just because you think you owe me.”
“I will want to.” I say. “Just later.”
“Well lucky for you I’m busy the next while. I’m in the last weeks of my thesis and I really need to buckle down, so if we’re fooling around it will probably not do wonders for my concentration.”
I pout. “But I’ll still see you?”
“Of course, I’ll always make time for you.” He pulls me into him by my wrists and kisses me one last time, and I’m starting to wonder how I’ll ever be expected to kiss another man again when he pulls away from me. “It’s time for you to get out of my car. I’m wasting diesel.” He teasingly shoves me away and I scramble for the handle and scurry out onto dark streets wet with rain as he springs forward to smack my arse.
“Later, alligator.” He says, and I shut the door behind me with a thunk.
Beginning // Prev // Next
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PIZZA TOWER SPOILERS AHEAD!
The following includes content from the Noise update! Do not click if you haven’t finished it yet! This sums up my experiences with it! So prepare to see me ramble how much I LOVE this update! Feel free to skip this post entirely if you’re here for my art!
~MY THOUGHTS ON THE NOISE UPDATE~
Hey, I’m back again! I just wanted to share my thoughts with the update! I will eventually try to make an art piece about it soon! There might be multiple! This update can’t leave my damn brain.
General Thoughts on the Noise:
We finally get to see the Noise as a playable character! This update made like the Noise even more! There’s too many screenshots to count. I think he’s now one of my favorites! I can totally see his personality and quirks throughout his sprites! God, he’s such a piece of shit and I love him for it! I love how he breaks a lot of the rules here (I’m not going to list it, you can see for yourself). I also think it was cool to see the entire game just being played as a movie but Noise is the “star” of the show (as shown in the ending screen). Also, you couldn’t tell how happy I was seeing Noisette having more of a role here! Grahhh I love her so much! Fuck I gotta draw these two together more! They’re way too cute! What a fun and silly update! I might draw them next!
Playing as the Noise:
Getting used to this guy’s moveset took me a while! He demands significantly more button inputs than everyone else. He can also feel quite fast and slippery! I definitely got bumped into a wall many times after he finishes his skateboarding bounce move (no not the one where you have to press the grab button) But I have to admit, once you get used to the little tricks he has then you should be fine! His transformations also play very differently so that’s also something to consider.
For my first play through, I decided to aim for all the secrets and treasures! I already know where everything is at this point since I practiced it multiple times! I managed to get three P ranks (John Gutter, Fun Farm, Gnome Forest). I wasn’t used to his moveset yet so a few levels in World 4/5 were only A ranks. I aimed for the secrets and Gerome but I didn’t take the second lap.
The bosses were also fun to try! Definitely easier to P rank than Peppino’s for sure! I just didn’t care much about the ranks the first time I played it. I gotta say the end part gave me chills! I don’t know it felt trippy for a moment!
I ended the first game with 93% damn Noise fuck you and then I replayed to get the 101%. Seeing Pillar John in a Noise costume was unexpected but funny!
After practicing his moveset (& attempting to get the Tower Guy clothes which I STILL haven’t because some levels are a pain in the ass), I was able to P rank the rest of the levels! I also got the funny Snick outfit. He turned out to be faster than I thought. I think he’s now my favorite character to play in Pizza Tower! Oh and there’s swap mode! Pretty neat feature! I don’t have much to say about it. Seeing Peppino’s house was cool though… I also had to tally Peppino because I didn’t feel like doing the chef tasks again.
But yeah pretty cool update. The devs cooked on this one and the music’s great! Can’t wait to see where it’s going to head next!
#not an art post#gaming#game screenshots#pizza tower#pizza tower spoilers#the noise#Noisette#ashleander speaks#night guys
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Every Dredge Aberration (2023), Part 3
Tusked Grouper
Encyclopedia #91
Aberrant form of black grouper
Description:
Pig-like tusks protrude from the mouth of this ravenous brute. With no eyes to speak of, it attacks indiscriminately.
Comment: Is it my leaping to association, or does there seem to be a peculiarly common theme of the Marrows aberrations and the loss (or hypertrophy) of their eyes?
How to catch: Being night-swimmers, there lies a small, but manageable risk in fishing for grouper in The Marrows. They dwell in the shallows, and will take to rod and net alike.
Voltaic Grouper
Encyclopedia #92
Aberrant form of black grouper
Description:
An unknown green energy arcs and crackles over this fish's scales. It thrashes ceaselessly, even hours after being pulled from the water.
Comment: Now THIS is an interesting fish, both in look and in the possibilities. To butcher this one feels like a waste. I would adore to explore captive sea lanterns and dark apparatus powered by these energies.
How to catch: ^^^
Shard Ray
Encyclopedia #93
Aberrant form of stingray
Description:
The stone skin of this ray is moulded around a black crystal shard. The rock fragments articulate and grind together.
Comment: Notably the first, although far from the last case where we will witness the transmutation from biology to something that should, by all logic, be inorganic and still. Keep this specimen in the when we move onto the Gale Cliffs section of the encyclopedia. If there was any fortune for the ray in this turn of events, it would be in the fact that its kind were already bottom-dwellers. Most curious here is the semblance between those black crystals and the igneous basalt pillars that are so ever-present across the sea.
How to catch: Marrow stingrays are available to cast for at any time of day or night. True to nature, they prefer the shallow ends. Be on the lookout for this oddity in the early game, as they can fetch a decent sum going towards ship upgrades.
Sallow Sailfish
Encyclopedia #94
Aberrant form of sailfish
Description:
A sickly, pallid color coats the scales of this normally sleek and shiny fish. Clouded eyes belie the disease spreading underneath.
Comment: "Sallow" describes the yellowed complexion of a very unwell person, most literally in one showing the telltale signs of jaundice. My nostrils themselves cringe to brainstorm of the malodor that accompanies this snag.
How to catch: Like all sailfish, they feed diurnally in the deeper, oceanic biome around The Marrows. A suitable rod or trawl net will be needed to start pursuing this awful sight.
Hooked Sailfish
Encyclopedia #95
Aberrant form of sailfish
Description:
Spindles of bone protrude from discolored muscle. A hooked bill curves inward - a lure for something greater.
Comment: With a description like that, it makes the fact that this fish cannot actually be used as some manner of bait or ultimate hook to use against a true monster sound like a missed opportunity. Half of me wants to mock it for its ridiculous little shrunken expression, but my other half can't help but compliment the concept and chosen colors of its body.
How to catch: ^^^
Bloodskin Shark
Encyclopedia #96
Aberrant form of Bronze Whaler
Description:
Tendons and sinews stretch over the fins of this bloodied predator. Powerful jaws are clad in exposed muscle.
Comment: Reminder that another term for this individual when it was healthy was the copper shark. Poetically, I can vividly imagine the taste and smell of copper reeking from this savage demon. With no regret I can say I actually prefer this specimen over the more popular reef shark variant. A sucker for crimson and reds, I'll stay predictable to the end.
How to catch: Only bother once you have access to equipment that can handle casting after oceanic dwellers. Searching outward from the Marrows coastlines should find a harvesting spot of shark in no time. These may be hauled or trawled under the daytime sun.
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👣. !!: HOSEONG WITH BTS ‧₊˚
⊂ JIN ✶ SEONG ⊃
╭・ฅ🕸﹕popularity - 6O / 1OO !
JINSEONG ACCOUNTS FOR majority of the group’s love/hate dynamic. jin is great at keeping his cool and sporting the older brother role; he would add portions of his food on hoseong’s plate during their trainee days and would help him study when he was still attending school, but hoseong, grateful as ever, always paid his hyung back with mischievous pranks.
HOSEONG HAS A CHILDISH soul so he keeps to a role of fake maknae, sometimes bullying seokjin about his age and then on other days clinging to his side like a koala would a tree. seokjin is the hyung that taught hoseong a lot of the dad jokes he religiously tells the members, usually leading to the two laughing at the jokes by themselves as the rest watch on in embarrassment.
╰・ฅ🕸️﹕dynamic - worried x reckless !
⊂ YOON ✶ SEONG ⊃
╭・ฅ🕸﹕popularity - 86 / 1OO !
HOSEONG has a slightly more special type of bond with yoongi. the older seems to understand hoseong without him needing to speak his feelings into actual words, helping him describe things he finds a hard time explaining ( which the others have dubbed as ‘seonguage’ ) as well as helping him with his homesickness by relating to him and making him feel more seen.
HOSEONG usually repays the favour in his own way. although yoongi tends to find him a little immature sometimes, he knows a certain wisdom sits beneath that even surprises him. hoseong was the first member he had confided with about his depression, his mental state, something which hoseong has come to notice the telltale signs of whenever they occur. the other members agree that hoseong knows best about what it is that yoongi appreciates most in these times.
╰・ฅ🕸️﹕dynamic - sun x moon !
⊂ SE3OUL ✶ HOPE ⊃
╭・ฅ🕸﹕popularity - 73 / 1OO !
WITH SE3OULHOPE, you either hate them or you love them together. they’re the type of boys that tend to amplify each other’s energy, creating a chaotic whirlwind of positivity that brings groups of people together in harmony. sometimes they can be considered obnoxious or even intimidating to approach, but upon starting a conversation with them it’s easy to recognise how dorky they really are.
SE3OULHOPE ARE pretty big hype men of each other and are unafraid to show one other off. it’s even an ongoing joke with army and the other members that these two have “been around” because of how socially flirtatious they can be when they know the other has their back. they’re great at diffusing situations and earning laughs from colleagues.
╰・ฅ🕸️﹕dynamic - chaotic x chaotic !
⊂ NAM ✶ SEONG ⊃
╭・ฅ🕸﹕popularity - 72 / 1OO !
NAMJOON IS LIKE hoseong’s pillar that keeps him grounded. hoseong learns a lot of valuable insight and broadens his wisdom through the things he does together with namjoon i.e reading books, taking long walks, visiting museums and watching documentaries. namjoon thinks hoseong is pretty good company, appreciates that the male goes the extra length to please him as the leader and make him proud.
NAMJOON HAS ALSO realised it’s almost impossible to not get attached to their group’s fake maknae. the way hoseong is an eager beaver, always so responsive to namjoon’s words has him indulge in skin ship and praise with hoseong more than he would in a general sense, wanting to return the favour and make their younger happy.
╰・ฅ🕸️﹕dynamic - smart x keen !
⊂ JI ✶ SE3OUL ⊃
╭・ฅ🕸﹕popularity - 93 / 1OO !
JIMIN IS definitely a little possessive but in a way that hoseong finds cute. these two are very fond of showing affection through silly insults and play fights, almost like a push and pull duo, where jimin is clingy and attempts to get hoseong’s attention at all means whilst the older pretends to be a tsundere who doesn’t know what a smile is.
THIS ALSO leads into their bizarre love for role playing, be it on camera or during concerts, they always like to put on a little act for army, usually reenacting famous korean dramas or movies. hoseong likes to think jimin is the real fake maknae because of his natural aegyo, especially when he’s able to make jimin blush and look away.
╰・ฅ🕸️﹕dynamic - big flirt x big flirt !
⊂ SE3OUL ✶ V ⊃
╭・ฅ🕸﹕popularity - 95 / 1OO !
HOSEONG holds taehyung near and dear to his heart. they weren’t the first to meet during trainee days but they definitely ended up being one of the closest, developing this sort of connection that they swear is something uncanny. they share a lot of the same thoughts, often times speaking each other’s minds and uplifting each other’s moods just by being in the same room together.
DURING an interview they were both asked, “don’t you get tired of being together all the time?” to which se3oulv had certainly been passionate in denying. they don’t think they spend enough time together, even if they spend majority of their days hauled up playing video games, cuddling and basically living with each other.
╰・ฅ🕸️﹕dynamic - twin flames !
⊂ SE3OUL ✶ GUK ⊃
╭・ฅ🕸﹕popularity - 9O / 1OO !
DUE TO jeongguk being the youngest in the team, hoseong vividly remembers their first ever meeting where an awkward, pre-pubescent maknae was far too shy to introduce himself or really make conversation with anyone. he had dubbed jeongguk “blushing bunny” back then, and still calls him as such today. hoseong was considered the friendliest face, tasked with getting people to open up and was someone jeongguk slowly grew to trust first.
TOWARDS their later years, the two were basically a pair of mischievous brats that enabled each other to cause absolute mayhem. as jeongguk’s first friend within bangtan, they would usually spending a lot of time daring each other to pull dumb pranks but to also inspire and fight for a cause. se3oulguk are very passionate about giving to charity and the community. they encourage army to be good humans.
╰・ฅ🕸️﹕dynamic - cute x protective !
#( 🩻 ) ───── hoseong’s relationships !#bts 8th member#bts 8th male member#kpop added member#kpop added male member#kpop addition#kpop male addition#kpop additional member#kpop additional male member#bts additional member#bts additional male member#bts added member#bts added male member#kpop member au#kpop male member au#kpop oc#kpop male oc#bts oc#bts male oc#bts addition#bts male addition
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Summary of Tesilid’s regression rounds, with sources
Contains major, MAJOR, MAJOR spoilers for webtoon-onlys.
I recommended you read this only after the Mermaid Dungeon arc (chapter 156) or at least after Ailette talks to the Pope (webnovel chapter 140).
---
[Source chapter in square brackets]
Feel free to let me know if there's any mistakes or missing info! (Last updated: 31 Dec 2023)
Tesilid wakes up in the Sculptor’s Atelier with the Pillar of Light each time. The time between each loop is “less than taking a nap” [136].
Rounds 1-7: Died because of the Order of the Pillar of Light [84]
3x because of the Captain Gadville’s stupid decisions
1x because of Vice Captain Lecto’s tricks
3x because of mistakes, betrayal and coerced sacrifices
Not clear if all of these deaths occurred in the Sculptor’s Atelier dungeon
//
Bandit Village / Harpy Queen Dungeon
Round 8: Gave in to the hostage threat and was killed by the bandits [84]
Round 9: Wiped out the bandits, but was lured by the village chief (bandit leader) into a trap and died [84].
Even in the present round, Tesilid can remember the sensation of being hit in the back of the head by the bandit chief [88]
Attempted “something like suicide for the first time” [88]
Round 10: Killed the village chief. Summoned back to the Vatican, disciplined and demoted on the grounds of fighting the bandits while ignoring the hostages [84]
//
Round ?? but before 16: Goes to Magic Republic as a diplomatic envoy, gets captured by the princess (Odellit Marcellion) and becomes an experimental subject [84]
Round 14: Raises his aura and divine power; devotes his life to training. Discovers that his natural lifespan was longer than average [152]
Round 16: Discovers his familial roots, but is killed by his brother the prince of the empire [84]. 3rd Prince Ligares bears a grudge against the Vatican because he believes they kidnapped the 2nd Prince (Tesilid), so he killed Tesilid as the wielder of the Holy Sword [160]. Tesilid dies with a stab wound in his chest in the heavy rain & in the wilderness [84].
Round 17: Killed by Reed in the Sculptor’s Atelier. Was physically dragged to Reed by the other knights of the Order of the Pillar of Light. Was unable to resist because of the shock [93]. (Not sure if the author made a mistake here, but this round was also described by current Tesilid as an “ordinary” round where Tesilid “wandered about” [156])
Round 18: First time challenging for the right to open the Bible of Truth [120]
Asked “Why do I return?”; receives the answer “To save the world”.
Round 19: Asks the Bible of Truth, “How do I save the world?”. Until Round 89, all subsequent questions to the Bible of Truth (to Ailette's knowledge) were about clearing dungeons [120] (Tesilid's question in Round 94 deviates from the OG!Novel)
//
Round 85: First time saving the world
Defeats all 3 demon kings, seals the Chaos and Evil. No more dungeons and demons can appear on the continent [136]
Cardinal-class divine power, aura master who has double-digit aura blades. [136]
Dies soon after the battle but is satisfied. [136]
Round 86: Second time saving the world [136] and first round where the Saintess appears [154].
Did not get life-threatening injuries in the final battle [136]
“Handed over his lifespan for the Saint who had been in an unfortunate accident” [136].
Ailette calls this round the end of Tesilid’s puritanical life [154] and the point at which she would no longer be able to tease him for his lack of romantic experience [164].
Round 87: Third time saving the world.
Died in place of the Saint who was caught in a trap and was falsely accused because of a power struggle. (unclear if it was Tesilid of Muriel who was accused) [136]
Round 88: Fourth time saving the world, now with minimal damage to allies. Visited the Saint seeking a quick way to die [136]
Saint accuses Tesilid of heresy. As he was about to be burnt at the stake, she smiled kindly at him and said, “This world needs your death. I’m sorry, and thank you, Sir Tesilid.” [136]
(Note that Ailette refers to Rounds 86-88 as the ones where Tesilid “dies after being stabbed in the back by the woman he loved with all his heart” [84] even though Tesilid’s POV [136] as recounted above seems more neutral)
Round 89: Asks the Bible of Truth, “How do I stop regressing?; is told, “You just need to save the world”. Destroys the Library, hacks Demon King Inferinos to pieces, and commits suicide [120; 136]
Round 90-92: Asks the Bible of Truth, “How do I stop regressing?”; is told, “You just need to save the world” [136]
Round 93: Saves the world, then asks the Bible of Truth, “How do I stop regressing?” as the dungeons started collapsing; is again told, “You just need to save the world”. Dies when the dungeon collapses. [136]
Round 94: Goes to the Bible of Truth again out of habit. Asks, “Where is Ailette Rodeline?” [136]
Saves the world just to have something to do, and because he was good at it. 5th time saving the world. [136]
Does not go to the Bible of Truth again until Round 99 [137]
Reed places Round 94 as the last timeline where he would have been willing to take Ailette’s hand [138]
Rounds 94-98: Saves the world just to have something to do, and because he was good at it [137]
Round 98: 10th time saving the world [137]
Took less than 5 years because he only thought about efficiency and did not spare a thought for human life.
As soon as the world was saved, the Church tried to kill him in a variety of ways including arson, pushing him off a cliff, and surrounding him with paladins who did successfully stab him.
Was put in a coffin while asleep after drinking poison and given a grand state funeral.
Round 99: Walked into the final battleground with “Chaos and Evil” himself and talked to it.
Is called the “Clock Axis of the Strict Order and Goodwill”
Told to ask the Bible of Truth, “What is the truth?” [Ailette POV in Library arc, 120] or “Why is the world ending?” [Tesilid POV, 137].
Prayed until he died [137].
Round 100: Reed
Offers himself to “Chaos and Evil” and loses his holy power. Holy sword becomes corrupted. Is banished to the dimensional rift where time stops. Rips through the dimensional rift after less than a hundred years, compared to the estimated few hundred years. [137]
Finds a point in time before the loop starts and sees Ailette’s Descent of Divinity (current Reed only). Kills Tesilid (and everyone else in the Vatican) during the New Year burnt offering ceremony. Gives sincere prayers for the regression to end. Week of regression starts as the world rewinds and Reed kills Tesilid again [79; 138]
“I can’t save the world and I can’t save myself either. What am I supposed to do?” / “My salvation is in finding true death. Then what about the salvation of the world? Perhaps…Wouldn’t true destruction be salvation?” / “Yes, that was it. If the world is destroyed, then I who belong to the world will also be destroyed.” / “I was so happy when I realized it. I’ve hated this world for a long time.” [138]
Subdued by 5 humans who became legendary heroes [138] including Cardinal Cartelyena [139]
Tesilid calls this round the last one where he lived like a human [139; 156]
Early stage: insomnia, nightmares, hallucinations, confusion, mental weakness [153]
Middle stage: Emotional wear and tear, loss of memory, loss of three major powers [153]
End stage: Spiritual collapse [153]
“Even if you give up on holding on, life will continue as long as you breathe. And when the symptoms get worse and memory damage starts to set in, it gets much better. Because those hours are cut off as if they never existed.” [154]
#s-class heroine spoilers#a transmigrator's privilege#the perks of being an s class heroine#tesilid argente#mash potato#roast potato#made this for easy ref when i try to write fic
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Sam Claflin on Rotten Tomatoes
I thought I'd do a post on Sam's RT ratings. He has FOUR films rated at 90% or over: Journey's End and Enola Holmes both have 91%, and Their Finest and Hunger Games Catching Fire have 90%.
Also certified fresh are The Nightingale (86%) and My Cousin Rachel (76%).
The highest rated thing he was in is Peaky Blinders at 93%. As a guest star, he can hardly claim credit for that, but it's not like any amateur can be cast in such a prestigious show! (Plus it's one of his best performances. At least according to me. And I'm right.)
Riot Club, Adrift, the two Mockingjays and Charlotte are all fresh.
The lowest rated are Huntsman the Winter's War (it used to be 19%, now showing as 20%), in which he only has a short appearance, and Every Breath You Take (also 20%). The rest are 30% and above.
Sam's very first acting job, Pillars of the Earth has 77%, so not a bad start. Daisy Jones and the Six has 70%.
Link
#sam claflin#samblogging#rotten tomatoes#films#i actually agree with most of them#hence why i discard imdb ratings#also imdb ratings are wrong. at least in sam's case#i wish my cousin rachel was higher and i don't get enola's high score but whatever#i like snow white & huntsman and book of love but i wouldn't expect them to get critically acclaimed#tho snow white could have done better but it was a bit clumsy#also the corrupted was a wasted opportunity but i'll always like sam in it#same for potc4. not a good film but sam & mermaid have my heart!#mypost
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A Series of Reminders About The Month of Ramaḍān - No.4
❌Ramaḍān Kareem❌
Shaykh Muḥammad Ibn Ṣāliḥ al-‘Uthaymīn رحمه الله said:
The ruling concerning this is, this phrase Ramaḍān Kareem is not correct, and the only phrase that should be said is Ramaḍān Mubarak or what resembles that.
Because Ramaḍān is not the one that gives such that it can be called generous (Kareem), rather it is only Allaah the Exalted that put virtue in it and made it a virtuous month and made the time period for performing (the fasting) a pillar from Islam.
● [Majmoo’ al-Fatawa (20/93-94]
اللهم بلغنا رمضان بالصحة والعافية
#ramadan#sunnah#dawah#islam#islamicquotes#welcome to islam#manhaj salaf#salaffiyah#sayings of the salaf#salafushalih#hadith#salaf#quran#fasting
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Sception reads Cass Cain #8
Azrael: Agent of the Bat #60, 61, 66
written by Dennis O'Neil, pencils by Roger Robinson
The last time Cass appeared in A:AotB it was for a pretty goofy and very 90s little side story. Not much was done with Cass but it established a pretty nice baseline of what ~Comics Were Like~ at the time to contrast Cass's eventual solo title against. This time I'm getting the rest of Cass's A:AotB appearances out of the way. #60 is a fun stand alone story in its own right, and there's actually a fair bit more going on with Cass in #61. They each could have been their own post, but I'm eager to get to Cass's Solo title, so this will just be a long post.
It took a while for the Joker to show up in NML, but by A:AotB #60 he had claimed a territory of his own, and gathered a small gang of Harley & some clown goons. Right now they're rounding up street people - homeless, starving, mentally ill, anyone too out-of-it to resist - and painting them up in joker faces, too. Later on they'll be used as decoys when the police raid their territory. Pretty grim stuff, but that hasn't happened yet.
Batman knows the police are planning to raid the Joker's territory soon, and sends Jean-Paul and Cass get to evacuate as many innocent people from the area as they can before the shooting starts.
They get the order on this page from Batman: Shadow of the Bat #93, which we looked at last time.
In this issue, Jean-Paul and Cass evacuate like a dozen people including some kids - so much for the 'over a thousand people' bit. Then they fight some of Joker's goons in clown makeup, one particularly eager volunteer in a full joker get up, purple suit and all. Jean thinks it's actually the joker, until Cass knocks the guy out and he realizes the white face was just makeup.
Meanwhile Joker finds a kid who was left behind, and grabs her as a potential hostage. Jean-Paul and Cass bump into them when they come back looking for the girl.
I think I mentioned this last time we looked at Azrael: Agent of the Bat, but Robinson draws some ridiculous facial expressions and I kind of love them.
Jean-Paul assumes the real joker is another fake, and Mr. J. is so affronted that he just sort of stands there while Azrael and Batgirl take the kid and walk off. It's honestly pretty funny, just a stand alone comic story that doesn't really advance the overall mega crossover narrative much. I think it was even left out of the trade compilations, but it's also a more enjoyable issue overall than the Nick Scratch stuff from Cass's last guest appearance in Azrael's book. There's something to be said for plain old one off comic book adventures, even in the middle of a mega crossover event.
That said, it is a bit of an odd, brief, rather underplayed encounter for what is technically the first meeting between the new Batgirl and the Joker. Something you might otherwise expect to be treated with a bit more gravity given the Joker's history with the previous Batgirl.
Later on there is a stand alone comic making a bigger deal of that, so it's not like we're missing out or anything.
...
As for Cass, well, as with her previous appearance in Azrael's book, she doesn't really get to convey much of her personality here. But we do get this nice moment of Barbara worrying about her, in particular with regard to the Joker and her own past there. It's a nice little character beat, touching on a relationship that would be one of the pillars of Cass's solo title.
...
The real meat in terms of characterization for Cass out of all of her A:AotB appearances is here in issue 61.
In the time since the last issue, the Police raided Joker's territory and murdered a bunch of innocent hostages in clown makeup while Batman's crew struggled to stop the bloodshed. With the cops and the capes tied up, Joker's actual crew spread out through the city kidnapping as many infants as possible, with Joker's plan being to kill them as sort of a holiday prank.
Yeesh. Very dark, especially coming off the relatively lighthearted previous issue. He was stopped in the end, of course, but ended up killing Commissioner Gordon's wife in a pretty shitty bit of fridging, and frankly it was such a huge mistake to end No Man's Land on such a downer. I don't always hate dark or violent moments or deaths in superhero books, but the whole year-long No Mans Land crossover had been this struggle from the darkness of the Cataclysm into a long midnight of Batman and his crew and the Commissioner being at each other's throats into an eventual dawn of everyone starting to work together again and the eventual daybreak of hope and restoration for Gotham. The mean-spirited ending was a sour note that deeply undermined the entire thrust of the story.
But back to this issue, Jean-Paul is spending more time with Bat-Clan "moral conscience" Dr. Thompkins when Cass shows up with orders from Bruce. This art for her... again, it's not ~bad~ by 90's female character standards, but it doesn't really convey Cass's age or personality very well, imo.
I'm mostly here just to talk about Cass, but these panels of Jean-Paul reacting to the news really does capture the gravity of the situation. Just some good comic art worth calling out, since I've been maybe a bit overly critical of this team.
This issue puts a lot more effort into characterizing Cass, and building something like a meaningful rapport between her and Azrael, starting by explicitly calling out the parallels in their backgrounds. Also, again, I really like the art in these panels. The coloring work by Rob Ro and Alex Bleyaert is very nice here, with the stark white snowfield contrasting sharply with Azrael's red and Batgirls deep blue - which in turn contrast nicely with each other - Azraels angelic aesthetic against with Cass's more demonic look, with the extra twist of their personalities kind of being opposite to that, at least in costume.
Speaking of, there's even some personality showing on Cass's face as she's turned to look up at Jean-Paul here, like she's realizing this aspect of shared history or trauma for the first time.
It's good. It's actually good.
That bit about 'Batman saved me... but never told me how to get my father's voice out of my head' bit is a good line in terms of conveying what Jean-Paul is about on a character level. It almost makes me care about this character who I have never had any interest in otherwise. And while this is mostly establishing Jean-Paul's character more than Cass's, the 'You're a good listener' line is treating Cass as more than just Batman's silent enforcer.
And it leads to at least one panel of Cass without the mask. It's a nice moment.
Jean-Paul and Cass stop off by Oracle for more detailed orders - they're to search Lex-corp's camp (it was a thing, don't worry about it) to see if Joker has the kids there. Which seems unlikely, but... Joker. There's also some additional bad news in that Batman believes Joker has somehow gotten his hands on a bunch of high explosives. Before they head out, Babs gives the two Christmas gifts - perfume for Cass, which, whatever I guess, and a harmonica for Jean-Paul.
Which leads to another nice moment outside. With her body-reading gimmick of course Cass would take to dance - something I think post reboot depictions of Cass made more and better use of. One area at least where the reboot improved on the original. That the A:AotB crew had thought of it as a natural character beat makes the relative lack of dance as a theme in Cass's own early book stand out more.
Anyway, Azrael & Batgirl make it to the Lexcorp compound, fight through some guards to get in, and find that someone has redecorated the Lescorp Christmas tree with what first seems to be babies as ornaments - though they turn out to be just dolls.
But the tree is rigged with the stolen explosives, And Azrael just barely has time to jump in front of Cass and Luthor's enforcer Mercy Graves - yet another character from the cartoons iirc.
Jean-Paul survives, barely, and even through the pain notices something and grabs it before he passes out.
Another nice moment between Jean-Paul and Cass to end out the issue on. I wouldn't have wanted to see a romantic relationship between the two, but this issue really goes a long way towards establishing what could have been a strong dynamic between them. I don't think I recall ever seeing the ornament in the background of Cass's book, but since this story is new to me I'm not sure I would have noticed it before.
....
Unfortunately, that was pretty much it for Cass and Jean-Paul working together. Injuries from the explosion basically took Valley out of the action for the remainder of No Man's Land, and after the mega crossover ended his and Cass's respective creative teams took their characters in different directions. We're skipping ahead a good bit to look at issue 66 here, but there's not much to her appearance here so I figure it's better to get it out of the way now.
Cass shows up for a couple pages in this issue to check on how Jean-Paul is doing...
But gets frustrated at his inability to understand her and leaves. As far as I know that's the last she shows up in his book, and I don't recall him ever showing up in hers.
Kind of a shame, honestly.
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Happy Golden birthday to you, Halsey. Thank you for introducing us into incredible realms— from a vacant room in Room 93, to gritty Badlands, and to a romantic Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. Thank you for showing us your Manic, and thank you for instilling into us that if [we] can’t have love, [we] want power. Thank you for being a pillar for Women’s rights and for fighting for the LGBTQ, the underdogs, the weirdos. Your music has always captured my feelings, my pain, my wonder, in ways I could never spew out myself. I scream your lyrics in my mind when I’m alone, I lull myself to them before bed. I speak them out loud whenever I feel doubt. You are truly one of the most incredible lyricists and musicians of our generation. I’m so thankful for the gifts you have given us thus far, and I can’t wait for the next chapter of your music that you share with us.
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What is your favorite manga panel or cover of teenage sakura haruno
Oh dear I have A LOT. By teenage you mean the whole manga right? She became a teenager by the time of the chūnin exams so I will count them as well. This is gonna be long.
1. Chapter 41 cover. I think it sums up Sakura’s strong point: her intelligence. It serves as an introduction of what Sakura Haruno is about to to in the first round of the chūnin exams, which is use her brain and slay the test. She also demonstrates that her brightness is so outstanding she has her enemies use her to cheat and actually find value in her.
This also includes all the times Sakura demonstrated her intelligence, which is a meta that you can find here.
2. Chapter 53. The moment Sakura stood up for herself and decided to stop being a nuisance or being in everybody’s way. She cuts her hair and then fights three sound ninja that were more powerful than her but she was brave enough to face them. This is such an iconic moment.
3. Chapter 56. Sakura being able to stop Sasuke, who was under the influence of the curse mark, with her feelings of love alone. Another moment where she was the bravest person in the world.
4. Chapter 93. I don’t need to explain anything she looks so pretty. A flower holding another flower. Also Sakura demonstrates she’s an expert in the language of flowers I love that.
5. Chapter 129. Sakura willing to fight Gaara is another moment of bravery. That moment also meant a lot for Gaara since he saw Sakura as an embodiment for love, which later led him to consider her as his pillars and closes allies.
6. Chapter 172 cover. She looks so adorable. I was a big fan of her large forehead.
7. Chapter 236 cover. She looks even more adorable here.
8. Chapter 236. When I say this chapter gives me a surge of energy and motivation I mean it. It gives me courage to meet my goals. The moment Sakura’s story began. The moment Sakura wanted to become the strongest kunoichi in the world.
9. Chapter 238. Sakura training with Tsunade and being a prodigy at chakra control.
10. Chapter 245. She looked so good in her debut.
11. Chapter 246. Sakura Haruno aka the queen of fists part 1.
12. Chapter 253. Sakura saving Kankuro’s life and finding an antidote for Sasori’s super poison when the old Chiyo couldn’t. That was a moment and she looked cute.
13. Chapter 263 cover. This would become one of Sakura’s most iconic poses.
14. Chapter 263. The queen of fists part 2.
15. Chapter 265. The queen of fists part 3.
16. Chapter 267. This moment of “I’m gonna haunt you even in your sleep”.
17. Chapter 269. The queen of fists part 4.
18. Chapter 270. The queen of fists part 5.
19. Chapter 272. The queen of fists part 6.
20. Chapter 286 cover. This cover describes Sakura perfectly.
21. Chapter 286. This panel is holy water.
22. Chapter 383. I don’t know I like her profile.
23. Chapter 409. Really low quality but another of Sakura’s signature poses.
24. Chapter 421. The queen of fists part 7.
25. Chapter 469. She looks so pretty here and the fact that this is her most iconic moment among the fandom. She makes people mad, Naruto blush and Rock Lee drop his mouth with her attitude. You can’t please everybody, but you can surely displease everybody and that’s my heroine.
26. Chapter 540. The queen of fists part 8.
27. Chapter 632 cover. She looks so good.
28. Chapter 632. The Hall of Fame. If you asked me my favorite Sakura Haruno manga panel ever it would be this one. This panel tops everything else. Finally completing the Strength of a Hundred seal, the most difficult sealing jutsu to be mastered. The Byakugō fits her color scheme and her forehead so well it was made for her.
29. Chapter 632. The queen of fists part 9. This one is special cause she did it with 100% of her strength and surpassed Tsunade.
30. Chapter 650. One of my favorite panels ever too. Tsunade and Sakura, master and student, mother and daughter. Also, that partial release of the seal is my favorite too I wish to see more of it, looks dope.
31. Chapter 663. One of Sakura’s best moments: saving Naruto from dying. There aren’t good panels of this but it’s a great moment.
32. Chapter 676. One more brave moment for Sakura. Many downplay this scene but Sakura actually wanted to be a distraction and let Madara hit her in order to leave an opening for Sasuke and Naruto. She survived being stabbed by Madara but guess who didn’t?
34. Chapter 685. A fan favorite, the fact that Sakura had that insane amount of chakra in her seal after using it twice with the whole Alliance is sick.
35. Chapter 689. The queen of fists part 10.
36. Chapter 691. Sakura looks cute smiling at Sasuke and he looks back. Get marries already please.
37. Chapter 693. She looks so pretty in this panel about to blurt out her thoughts.
38. Sakura Hiden covers. The epitome of beauty, the embodiment of spring and flowers. Sakura looks so beautiful here that it’s mind blowing. Her last image as a teenager.
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