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serpentpatrol · 5 months

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⚔️Martian/Plutonic: Fearlessness to Face Death/Struggles and Come Back Empowered⚔️

🔎Discretion: consider zodiac signs, aspects, and placements in a birth chart as a map of the soul, it gives you direction on how to recognize its influence or impact within you, as the saying goes: "the stars impels; they don't compel". These observations also depends on degrees, houses, aspects to planets and mostly the free will of the person. Your birth chart gives you information about the pattern of how your energy plays out in the universe but in the end it's your own free will which is the one that decides on how to manage the energy.

🎶 Angel Sanctuary OST 《Rociel - Inorganic Angel》 *play the music to feel the vibe of Martian Plutonic energy 🩸🔥⚔️*

🩸There is something about the principles that the spartan soldiers upholds that I really admire and this movie titled 300 is based on real spartan soldiers and it's about how King Leonidas strategizes to defeat his enemies. He followed his own method when he killed the big wolf by leading the enemy to a smaller corner. It's similar to the movie titled Revenant, the main character, was nearly being killed by a bear, left to die by his comrades, and he had to survive in the wild forest alone, he was dying, but that isolation in the state of dying transformed him and as if was being resurrected back to life. He was then targeting his enemy to exact his revenge from what the enemy had done to him, and it made that enemy scared. There's a quote from the main character, "He's afraid, he knows I have come so far to find him". This is a tactical terror that scared enemies, people thought the person was dead, but he survived as if he was being revived back by the God of Death, this is very martian or plutonic. When a martian/plutonian person being thrown into danger, it won't easily defeat them, they will take it as a challenge and it ignites the inner beast to tackle that challenge. Martian energy is about aggression, reaching goals through strategized actions, tactical methods, modus operandi, how we behave when we are angry or when we want to handle things or solving problems, how we express our motivation or inner drives. While Plutonic energy is about death and rebirth process of transformation, something that might kill or obliterate you only make you even stronger and empowered, depicted precisely in the myth of Phoenix which resurrected itself and rose above its own ashes after death. I truly admire these militaristic survival themes, be it through movie scenes, animes, fictional or historical novels or books, even games that tell stories about the journey of the soul against death, when you are ready to die, you live, but when you are blind to death, you experience transformation through it. (Another example of Martian/Plutonic themes in movies are Deadpool, Taken (all sequels), Sicario, Dont Breathe 1 & 2)

(watch the video here where King Leonidas must defeat the big wolf in the wilderness as part of his initiation to become the man of Sparta). 👇🏻🐺

youtube

🩸Having Martian and Plutonic placements combined and aspecting to eachother could really create an empowering energy that the person will always carry within them in their lifetime, it is not a calm harmonious energy, its energy is similar to war zones, chaos. In Greek Mythology, the planet Mars symbolized God Ares, the God of War and planet Pluto symbolized God Hades, the God of Underworld. These two planets combination would be majorly related to themes of life that change the person through chaos, exposure of transformative events or encounters, power struggles, conflicts, wars, things happening around them that would drive them to activate the survivalist primal instinct just to survive from the attacks or triggers. Anyone who has this placement probably had experienced unfairness, or they became the target of unscrupulous judgement or treatments because when this energy is dormant within them it is somehow attracting things around them to trigger and activate the mars-pluto energy. Sometimes attracting abuse to them or the person themselves becomes the abuser if they still have not enough strength yet to control, contain and manage this enormous primal energy within, its uncontrollable! Themes of near death experience could also be present where the person survived from accidents or encountered dangerous events. Or the person somehow has this big energy which can destroy things around them or even be destructive to others with or without intention. Having this energy feels like dealing an unexpected war or being present in a constant battlefield.

🩸If this energy could be controlled and the person understood on how to manage the energy, it could then be used more properly for leadership, the beastly instinct transmuted and be used to help others who are weak, afflicted or underdogs or could even be used to defend some belief systems or good moral principles, become a professional focused surgeon who could perform meticulous physical operation for a patient, etc. It all depends on which house the mars and pluto are placed in, that can represent specific life themes playing out in the person's life event. Mars and Pluto combined is symbolic to represent fearless resilient warrior archetype who protects, defends, is a fierce executor, courageously thrives when life circumstances gets tougher and extreme, is alert in emergency circumstances.

🩸Every person who has this aspect should take care of how they express themselves because this is a powerful combination which cannot be taken lightly. The person could easily lose control, causing accidents or destructions and the power of that inner dragon could drag him to a state of powerlessness when facing those out of control circumstances. So, by doing positive healthy activities, it could help the person to tame that inner dragon and made it stable, the activities that can transmute this energy to a more productive rather than destructive way would be highly recommended: martial art, artistic expressions through painting/music/fashion, meditation, sports, intensely dive deep to learn topics or subjects which later be internalized, spiritual pursuits, defend helpless fellow human beings, animals, or a cause.

🩸These people may seem gentle or not revealing any power in their expression or it could be the opposite where these people exudes steel-like presence, leader vibe, militaristic primal energy. Nevertheless, they will encounter challenging and intense experiences that could transform them to be more refined and sharp in their awareness to the darkness or chaos of the world (depends on the aspects and house influence), they are resilient souls, having sophisticated mentality like a military war general or just have a very empowered spirit.

🩸Individuals with prominent Mars-Pluto aspects have to learn on taming their own inner beast/inner dragon in a way like what Jordan Peterson had taught and said: "Those who have swords and know how to use them but keep them sheathed will inherit the world. You should be a monster, an absolute monster. And then you should learn how to control it." It is the same analogy with this quote: "It's better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war"; emphasizes the necessity to have consciousness, alert, and well prepared over the surroundings both in peace and chaos. While in peace you sharpened/trained your sword/weapon/instinct, so then in battle you could apply what you have learned or practiced. By doing this, you wouldn't let the destructive instinct take control over you but instead you are in control of that instinct. This made you more empowered because you could understand the chaos of the world and could pass through the calamity, so you wouldn't make yourself the victim which led to your own demise/self-annihilation.

©SerpentPatrol

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viviseawrites · 9 months

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Steddie Twister AU

Part 1 | Part 2 — Twin Twisters | Part 3 | Part 4 |

Before that storm, Steve had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. After, though. Well, after—after the Steve-and-Nancy of it all, after the breakup, after the next tornado, and the next, and the next—he follows her to college.

Nancy dedicates herself to meteorology and the study of tornadoes especially. Early warning systems are shit, and maybe if they’d gotten more notice, maybe if they knew, Barb would still be alive. Maybe they wouldn’t feel responsible for her death.

And there’s nothing they can do for Barb, but Nancy makes it her mission to save others. She furrows her brow and faces down any man stupid enough to stand in her way. Steve is not that stupid, not anymore.

He’s become fascinated with weather patterns himself, with how quickly things can change. He needs to understand how a tornado can just appear and touch down and then dissipate, a path of destruction in its wake, leaving scars across land and hearts alike.

He still feels the need for penance, too. Sometimes he wonders if he should have let Nancy go that day, if they could have saved Barb too, like they saved Will. Even another minute might have made all the difference.

Steve gets his degree in Meteorology and Climatology alongside Nancy. In the summer break before he’s set to enter his graduate program, he signs up to lead the university’s Storm Chase Team. Only, he gets a co-leader.

Robin Buckley is sarcastic, intelligent, quick, and passionate. She hates him. They butt heads constantly, and Robin makes fun of him in front of the younger students, including Will Byers and his group of undergrad friends.

Despite that, he can’t help but admire her. Few women are stubborn enough to succeed in this field, with all its ingrained misogyny and bullshit. Steve knows that from Nancy. But Robin makes her own rules.

Steve and Robin are with the Party when the team is deployed to observe a severe weather event. They advise, but let the kids lead. Dustin Henderson is a computer and radio whiz, and he’s the one who picks up the anomaly. He calls it D'art.

What follows is a mess that winds up with Steve in the hospital nursing several wounds. He doesn’t blame the kids—he and Robin chose to go with them, and Steve chose to protect them over himself when they got caught up.

It seems almost overnight that they all become a constant in his life, Robin especially. She sticks near him as he recovers from the crash. She’s everything and nothing like he thought she was for so long. She knows exactly how he thinks.

She comes out to him in the hospital bathroom, helping him shower, and Steve slips and nearly brains himself. For years, he blames pain meds for his response: a horrifying rendition of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” She sings it back.

Privately, the head trauma all seems worth it if it means he gets Robin Buckley as his platonic soulmate. And while storms have always taken from him in the past, this one also gives him something else: a gaggle of too-smart undergrads.

#steddie twister au #vivisea writes #steve harrington #nancy wheeler #robin buckley #stobin #idk why it needs clarifying but obvs stobin is always platonic #twister au #pre-steddie #i'm pretty sure eddie arrives in part 3 #steddie #steddie fic

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frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe · 1 year

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A Recipe for Disaster

The Princess Diaries 2 steddie AU no one asked for but that i couldn’t get out of my head!!

On AO3 here

It had taken a lot for Steve to get to where he is.

As a person, not like, “in life”-wise

He was most definitely better off than most, he was about to be King of a whole ass country for fucks sake, but the internal shitstorm he had gone through to become the person he is today...was a lot.

He was 16 going on 17 when his long lost aunt showed back up in his life. News of his birthright hitting him like a ton of bricks.

Queen Joyce Renaldi was his father (Stephan Artur Renaldi II)’s older sister, and became Genovia’s ruler when her father passed away shortly after Steve’s.

She had sat down with him and patiently explained everything to him, that since he was the sole male heir to the throne, the crown’d be his when he turned 18. If he wanted it. That she’d train him in everything he needed to know to get him ready and if she had anything to do with it, he wouldn’t be alone in this. He’d have her to guide him as long as he needed her.

At that point in his life, he had already: lost his dad, learned how much of an ass his father really was (and how much people were glad he was gone), and completely shut down. He used to be the King of his school (ironically) but after his dad died, he dropped the façade and became friends with Robin Buckley, local freak.

It didn’t take long before they were the literal best of friends, joined at the hip and at the braincell, platonic soulmates. She became everything to Steve and even after one bad drug trip, finding out he was a royal (for real), their first fight, and his stupid brain thinking that his old best friend Tommy Hagen wasn’t just flirting with him to capitalize on Steve’s newfound status, but because he actually did like him back only to be caught by paparazzi making out in a boathouse at his school’s beach party…Robin was still there. She was always there for him.

She even decided to pursue her degree in languages at the same college; and not just her own degree, but also took another major in international and public affairs, same as him. Fully intending to stay by his side in Genovia.

Steve loves her so damn much (a fact she says he reminds her of all too often).

Which brings him to today. Graduation day.

Finally, finally, he’d be returning to Genovia. With Robin and their co-parented orange cat named Concrete by his side, he’d finally be returning to the country he loved. That he had loved since first landing there the summer after junior year.

He was looking forward to his 21st birthday coming up in a few weeks, nervous about being completely ‘of age’, and the upcoming coronation, but Aunt Joyce had assured him that he would rule at her side before officially taking over.

“Your highness, Lady Robin, look out the window,” Jim Hopper: head of security, local badass, and great friend and father (to his own kids, and a welcome father-figure to Steve these last 4/5 years), interrupted Steve’s tired thoughts and worries, “Welcome back to Genovia.”

Steve looked up at Hopper, grinning, and turned to the window closest to their seats where Robin was already holding Concrete up by his armpits to look out the window too. Steve loved seeing the palace as they flew over, but now all he saw was two-day old, travel-mussed, blonde hair and the bottom half of a very fat orange cat.

—--

The few weeks leading up to his 21st birthday went by in a flash.

The first couple days were appointments with the Palace’s medical team, introductions to the newer members of the staff that Steve would be seeing around daily, official introductions of Robin (and her official titling as Steve’s Royal Advisor) to the staff, fittings for his attire for the ball (a maroon tuxedo, subtly patterned with branches of the Genovian Pear tree in a slightly darker shade, a golden sunflower yellow bow tie and matching waistcoat, Genovia’s royal sash and medals, and a smaller crown of his grandfathers who, like Steve, was partial to warm tones than to cool ones. This crown looked like if the circular backsplash pattern of a drop of water was cast in gold. The peaks of the crown were each adorned with a ruby, which just barely poked out above Steve’s hair like a halo), and multiple small family dinners, just Steve and his two favorite ladies (Aunt Joyce and Robin) plus Lord Concrete and Joyce’s beloved mutt Maurice. The latter of the two being sworn enemies.

Soon (too soon), it was the night of his ball. Joyce was to enter first with Hopper, and after her speech, would lead the attendees in a toast to Steve as he entered the ballroom. Steve could hear Joyce making her speech though the heavy oak doors, her voice carrying easily though the hall as if the palace itself wanted to send her voice as far as it could.

To top off the pile of anxiety growing in the pit of his stomach, Robin wasn’t with him at the moment. She wasn’t allowed to make the entrance with him, but knowing she’d be just on the other side of the door and down the stairs, gave him little reprieve.

He was pacing between the two doormen on his side of the door, twisting his grandfather’s signet ring worriedly on his left middle finger. The ring was a gift from Joyce for his birthday, said she wanted Steve to have it because “He would have absolutely adored you, Steve. He’d be so proud to see such a handsome, well-rounded young man wear it.” She had his face cupped in her small hands and wiped away his tears with her thumbs when they made their appearance. The ring was too big, big enough for Steve to be constantly worried about losing it right off his finger at the slightest movement. He is already planning on sending it off to be resized, but wanted to have it with him tonight.

Again, too soon, there was no more time to panic as he could hear the announcement of his name coming from the ballroom.

“Presenting, His Royal Highness, Stephan Artur Harrington-Renaldi, Prince of Genovia.”

At the bangs of the announcer’s staff, Steve stepped forward on shaky legs, the double doors opening before him by the ballroom’s doormen just as rehearsed. He dusts off his old “King Steve” mask and smile from his time in high school, puts them on, and walks through the threshold and out to the short balcony created by the twin staircases, beaming at the gathered dignitaries.

“To Prince Steve.” Joyce calls and lifts her glass of champagne.

“To Prince Steve!” The crowd parrots.

Steve lifts his right hand and gives them all a wave, then switches it out for his left, waving a little bit too vigorously toward where he’s spotted Robin who’s grinning at him, looking stunning in the sparkly golden yellow gown she had to almost be wrestled into. He must’ve waved too hard because he feels his grandfather’s ring fly directly off his sweaty hand.

He turns, eyeline chasing the flight path of the ring only to see it land safely in one of the doorman’s grasp.

The elderly man approaches Steve “It happens all the time.” he drops the ring into Steve’s palm and smiles. “And Happy Birthday.”

“Thank you very much.” Steve returns the smile

The titter and giggles from the crowd subdue back into easy chatter as Steve comes down the stairs to his left, and grasps Robin’s hand on his arm as soon as she weaves her arm with his.

“You must be the clumsiest royal to ever grace these halls, Your Royal Dingus.”

“You’re absolutely right, now every important person in the literal world knows it.”

"You are incorrect, Lady Robin,” Joyce calls from behind the two, who turn to face her. “My father was just as clumsy as our Steve, perhaps even more so.” Her smile is polite and loving, but the teasing smile on Hopper’s face betrays exactly what she is thinking.

‘Those two are just as symbiotic as Robin and I, I swear.’ Steve thinks to himself.

“Gee thanks,” Steve rolls his eyes but detaches himself from Robin “Care to be my first dance, Aunt Joyce?”

“I thought you’d never ask, my dear.” She similarly unweaves her arm from Hopper’s and places her palm atop the back of Steve’s downturned one.

Steve leads her to the middle of the ballroom, their guests parting like the red sea in front of them to give an open area to dance. As if they could read their minds, the band starts a classic waltz and Steve leads his Aunt around the outer edge of the circle.

Hopper soon joins them with Robin, and slowly, more and more folks spin themselves into the dance. Steve smiles at Prime Minister Wayne Henderson and his wife Claudia as he and Joyce spin past them, and when the song ends, it’s like the ice has been broken and the party can actually start.

People approach him from all angles to wish him a happy birthday, and make their introductions, including quite a few members of parliament, recognizable by the Genovian Crests pinned to their suits. Robin latches back to his side, they fend off the “Oh, how cute of a couple!” comments as usual, and Robin gets to flex her dignitary muscles. He catches a few excerpts sometimes when she is speaking to foreign dignitaries in their native languages. Steve feels very lucky to have her.

He’s whisked away soon after to start the part(s) of the evening he’s dreading the most. Prince Stephan is expected to dance with all the eligible persons of Royal descent. He starts with Robin first, just to get his nerves out of the way.. Then it’s off to the races.

It’s really like they all just expect him to be only a Prince Charming, He asks many of them questions about their own countries/principalities or their interests and they look at him like they'd rather he just tell them how nice they look.

The only one that doesn’t fit this mold so far, is a woman about his age named Nancy. Her small and petite frame is definitely in that mold of most of the attendees he’s expected to dance with, but she tells Steve immediately about how she’d love to be a journalist if it weren’t for her royal expectations.

“I just love to get down to the bottom of things, you know? I like digging in and finding out anything and everything about a story.”

“That sounds fantastic, I’d love to read some of your work sometime.” Steve smiles at her and is rewarded with a small smile and blush. “Actually,” he continues “Our head of security’s oldest son is a photographer, I’d love to introduce you. His work is really good; I feel like your writing and his photo skills could be a great combination.”

He wasn’t lying either, from the few minutes he’s spent with Nancy, he can tell without a doubt that anything she wrote would be fantastic, and though Jonathan and he have always been kinda weird, his photography is plastered all over the Palace’s media releases and he definitely has talent.

“Really? I would love to meet him.”

“Come on, I need a break from dancing anyhow.” They step apart and he offers his arm to her, which she takes. Steve can easily spot Hopper from across the room, easily a head taller than most.

Hopper greets them as they approach, “Good evening your highness, your highness.” directing their titles to each of them.

“Hi Hop, is Jonathan around today? Nancy here is an aspiring reporter and I’d love to introduce them.”

Hopper smiles warmly down at Nancy, “Ah, is that so! Well it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Madam Nancy, let me radio Jon.”

“Thank you Mr. Hopper.” Nancy beams at him

“Please, your highness, Hopper or Jim is just fine with me.

“Just don’t call him Jimmy.” Steve stage whispers to Nancy, loud enough for Hopper to hear and shake his head at him. “Are Will and Ellie around tonight?”

“Ah yes, they are around here somewhere. I think they and Mr. Henderson have met the young Lord Sinclair, so I’m sure I will have to respond to one of their messes here sooner than later.”

“Your other children?” Nancy asks, genuinely curious.

“Yes ma’am, the wonder twins themselves.” His close-lipped smile makes his mustache scrunch on his face along with causing his well-worn crows feet to make their appearance.

“Whadja need…dad?” Steve hears Jonathan call out then trail off when he catches sight of Steve. “Good evening your highness, happy birthday.” He quickly catches himself and greets Steve with a short bow, “Is there something wrong?”

“Not at all Jonathan, I just wanted to introduce you to Princess Nancy here.” He gestures at Nancy, who’d mostly been hidden from sight behind Steve from where Jonathan had approached. She releases her hold on Steve’s arm and extends her hand for Jonathan to take.

“Many apologies your highness, I didn’t see you there. How do you do?” He takes Nancy’s extended hand and bows with a light kiss to her knuckles. “Is there something I can help you with?”

Steve watches this exchange and immediately the arrow on his brand new internal ‘Nancy’ dial flops from where it was in the “Interested in Nancy” section, to the complete opposite “Get Nancy and Jonathan together at all costs” section.

Nancy’s whole face and neck are blushing a wonderful shade of pink (Steve can even see some dripping down onto her collarbones since the navy blue dress she wears is sleeveless). Steve smirks and is about to cut in to tell Jon all about her, but she gets to it before he can, still eloquent and in command of her words despite her obvious flustered mood.

“I was telling Steve about my wishes to become a journalist and he said your photography work was very good. I am assuming you are on the palace’s public relations team?”

Jonathan still hasn’t let go of Nancy’s hand, and it doesn’t look like he’d like to anytime soon. “Y_yes, I am the lead photographer.. Steve said that?” Jonathan glaces at Steve disbelievingly.

Nancy nods, “He did. I would love to see what you’ve been able to capture so far.” She gestures to the heavy-looking camera around his neck.

“Uhh..” Jonathan looks to Steve worriedly, who quickly mimes standing up straight and offering his arm. “O_of course, I’d love to show you, your highness.” He offers his arm to her and she takes it excitedly.

“Please, just call me Nancy.” she smiles at Jon and his face flushes red.

About an hour later, Steve is starving and starting to get hangry from lack of food. He really doesn’t want to accidentally snap at someone important, so he sneaks over to the corner where his towering birthday cake has been mocking him, picks up one of the tiny serving spoons, and spoons out a mouthful of the cake from behind one of the fondant flowers.

Someone taps him on the shoulder “I saw that.”

Steve looks over, ready to apologize, and has to look down a bit more than he thought. “Uh, it’s my cake.” He tells the younger man. He must be at least 18, he’s definitely not a young kid. Curly light brown hair, slicked backward on the sides, like a fake mullet. “I like your hair dude, very 80s.”

The kid looked embarrassed, “Yeah my mom did it, it’s not what I would have done but I’m not the best at maintaining my curls myself. Our deal is if my mom does my hair, she does all of it. Style and all.”

“It looks really good, I promise, you should tell her thanks.” Steve says, taking another bite of cake.

“Dude.” the kid says incredulously, “Save some for the rest of us.”

“Dude.” Steve parrots back in the same tone “It’s my cake, I can eat as much as I want.” He pauses for a second, and thinks ‘Reel it back in Steve, you don’t even know who this kid is or who this kid’s parents are. Don’t be rude and start a war accidentally.’

“Sorry, I haven’t eaten anything all night and I can feel myself getting hangry. I’m Steve.” Steve switches the small spoon into his left hand and extends his right to the kid

“Yeah, I know who you are, you did make a pretty grand entrance earlier; don’t know if you noticed.” He takes Steve’s hand and gives it a strong (but somewhat clammy) shake. “I’m Dustin Henderson.”

“Ah, so you’re Wayne’s kid.” Steve drops Dustin’s hand.

“No, Claudia’s kid. Wayne is my Step-dad.”

“Oh, sorry...Wait, is that a bad thing?”

“God no, Wayne is the best. Quiet, contemplative, you know he loves you no matter what. And he’s been around as long as I can remember.”

Steve nods along to what Dustin is saying, picking up a second spoon and pulling out another spoonful of cake for Dustin, handing it to him while he’s still talking.

“He even took my Mom’s last name when they got married. He said that he’s the one joining our family, not the other way ‘round.”

Steve has that much more respect for the already well-respected Prime Minister.

“Plus I heard him tell my mom once that his family are a bunch of sleezebags so he’s happy to be rid of his own name anyhow.”

“Wow really? Who’s his family I wonder?”

“Dunno, never asked him and I don’t really want to bring it up if he hates them all, you know?”

“True, true.” Steve agrees. “I like you kid, (“Kid?? I’m only 3 years younger than you!”) I hope to see you around again if I don’t die of boredom talking to all these parliament geezers.”

Dustin grins a big squinty grin at him and extends his hand to Steve again. Steve smiles and shakes his hand, then Dustin puts on a fake, very haughty voice and says “I’ll have my people contact your people.”

Steve throws his head back and bellows out a laugh, “Sounds good man. C’mon, I wanna introduce you to my best friend, Robin. She’s the coolest, I think you guys will like each other.” He pats Dustin on the shoulder, stepping out around the table to lead him across the room where Robin is chatting with Murray and Hopper.

“Oooh, best friend only?” Dustin asks suggestively

“Nuh-uh don’t even go there little man, Steve looks back at the teen, “I am SO not her type and___oh shoot, your..foot” Steve looks up at the person whose foot he just crushed, and his hazel eyes meet chocolate brown. “Are you alright?”

“I’ll survive, your highness.” the man says, standing to his full height, Steve also rises to keep his gaze. “The fault was entirely my own. I apologize.”

The man is just slightly taller than Steve, and has dark brown, almost black, curls. They cascade onto his shoulders, and Steve has the overwhelming urge to reach out and see if they are as soft as they look. Only half of this hair is down, the top half pulled back away from his face.

He is drop-dead gorgeous.

“Are you sure you don’t want to exchange licenses and proof of insurance?”

“No, no, these shoes were a little big anyway, the swelling should help them fit a bit better.” he grins and Steve feels his heart palpitate at the sight.

“Please, excuse me..” He says, stepping back and to the side to squeeze through the crowd.

“Sure.” Steve says, whisper quiet, but dreamboat is already walking away.

As usual, Steve just knows exactly where Robin is, and he turns to meet her gaze (she had already been watching the interaction from her spot across the room).

The two of them mouth “What the fuck?” to each other before Steve’s attention is pulled back to Dustin quietly saying "Holy shit.."

"You saw nothing, that was nothing." Steve points at Dustin accusingly.

Dustin puts his hands up in mock surrender "Okay, okay, that was nothing..."

A couple dances later, Steve finds himself dancing with one little girl that honestly, he’d dance with all night if he could. She’s a sassy little thing, a princess from a neighboring country, who calls herself “Lady Applejack” with all the conviction in the world (Steve thinks her name is really Erica though). She stands on his toes while he spins them in dance like she is trying with all her might to crush the digits below her own into the floor for offending her personally.

When he asks about her interests, she tells him almost reluctantly about her love for Dungeons and Dragons, but insists that she’s NOT a nerd. He’s not sure what Dungeons and Dragons even is, but he has an overwhelming feeling that Dustin actually might. Steve tells her as much, and she looks excited that there may be someone else here to talk to about her game.

Steve feels a tap on his shoulder and when he turns, dreamboat is smiling down at Erica.

“Pardon me, Lady Applejack, may I cut in?”

“I’d be mad if you didn’t.” And with that, Erica nearly wrenched herself from Steve’s grasp, and strutted off, looking for Dustin.

“I would say thank you for saving me, but she’s the best dance partner I’ve had so far.” Steve tells the dreamboat, sliding into his arms like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“I believe you wholeheartedly, Your Highness.” He chuckles

“Steve. I prefer to be called Steve. And you are…?”

“Eddie. Just.. Eddie.”

Steve laughs “Well, Just Eddie, I’m glad to see that my clumsiness hasn't affected your dancing.” Eddie spins them in a lazy circle, “I’m sorry I stepped on your foot.” he whispers

“You can step on my foot anytime.” Eddie says, a promise.

They had stopped twirling, more or less just swaying back and forth in one spot. Steve was suddenly hyper-aware of how close they had gotten to each other, and how much closer Eddie’s forehead was to his own.

Suddenly, Eddie’s head spun to look at something. It was Dustin.

“It’s Sir Dustin’s turn.” He says to Eddie in that same fake-haughty tone he’d used before.

“You’re quite right, Sir Dustin.” Eddie says, stepping away from Steve and giving Dustin a quick bow.

Steve finds himself missing his closeness when his whole front goes cold in his absence.

“Your highness,” Eddie smolders at him through his lashes with his own bow to Steve, which he returns. And then. He’s gone.

Steve automatically takes Dustin’s hands and starts up the waltz once again, mood soured completely and vaguely aware that Dustin is trying to get his attention.

"Dude. Steve!”

Steve looks down at Dustin, hoping his calm face portrays how pissed he is.

Dustin rolls his eyes, “Look, I know we just met but please just play along here, pretend like you and I both know this is a joke. Laugh or something.”

Now Steve’s just confused.

“With all respect your highness, really and truthfully, love who you love, but the old guys that will end up making decisions for you are not all as cool as Wayne, and would probably have an aneurysm if they think you’re actually making googly eyes at the eligible bachelors here.”

Steve laughs uncomfortably, “Uh, I’m not_”

“You and I both know you were. C’mon man, you know I’m right.”

Steve actually starts laughing at the absurdity of it all. He’s grateful for Dustin, Steve knows he’s right, but he also wants to cry and bury himself in the garden out of embarrassment.

“You’re right, you’re right! Damn it… He was a total dreamboat though, wasn’t he?” Steve waggles his eyebrows at Dustin and laughs again at his disgusted expression.

“Want me to save you, little man?” This time, it’s Robin who cuts in, moving to take her turn as Steve’s dance partner.

“Ugh. Please.” Steve lets Dustin go. “Don’t say I don’t do anything for you.” he says as he walks away, waving at Steve and Robin over his shoulder.

“Tell me everything right now or I swear to god I will throw your shoes into the fountain.” Robin demands as soon as they start spinning.

“You saw how hot he was! And literally so smooth..”

“What was with the kid?”

“I was mooning over Eddie.”

“Oh, his name is Eddie huh?” She grins at him slyly “And what about it?”

“Dustin, rightfully, pointed out that the peanut gallery wouldn’t be too keen on me dancing with all the hotties in the room, not just the lady-type ones. He cut in to cover for me.”

Robin winced in understanding “Oof.. yeah I should’ve caught that too, honestly.”

"Yeah, me too.”

After this leg of the Prince Stephan World Waltzing Tour, Prime Minister Henderson tells Steve once again that “There’s a member of Parliament you should meet.” and heads off to go grab said member’s attention before Steve follows. Murray, Joyce’s #1 and palace scheduling wizard, passes by and Steve stops him with an uncomfortable “Murray, how many more members of parliament are there?”

“Only six left, sir. You’ve got it this.” He claps his hand on Steve’s shoulder.

‘Oh. That’s not too bad,’ Steve shrugs to himself as he and Murray part ways. Someone calls his name from behind him and when he turns toward the voice, he feels a tug at his hair and a weight sliding from his head at the same time.

Whirling around, Steve’s hand flies to his head to try and catch the crown before it falls completely off, but is met with the faces of a very apologetic waiter and a very cold-looking member of parliament who had already saved the priceless item from hitting the floor. The waiter whose tray had knocked the crown off his head is apologizing profusely, and the other man is making what Steve thinks is a very rude shoo-ing motion towards them.

He focuses his attention on the gangly looking waiter. “I am so sorry, It was only an accident!”

“No, No, it’s perfectly fine I promise. I am all good, no harm no foul.” Steve smiles genuinely at them.

The waiter clasps his hands together and smiles gratefully before turning and rushing from the room. ‘I’ll have to make sure he’s not fired for this, that’d be shitty.’ Steve thinks to himself.

“Thank you for catching that.” Steve tells the cold-mannered man, crouching down a bit so he can place the crown back on his head.

“You should be more careful, your Royal Highness.” He tells Steve, fixing the headpiece into position, “someone may try to take that from you.”

“I sure hope not,” Steve says with an awkward laugh, lightly touching his head “thank you for all your help!” and turns back to Prime Minister Henderson, intending on asking who the cold-mannered man was.

Pt. 2 here!

Tagging the couple folks that showed interest on my original post, hope you don’t mind! @totallybitchin, @potentialheartofdarkness, @steddieasitgoes, @princessstevemunson

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fanficwriter284 · 19 days

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here's a angsty fic idea for ya, human jig encountering jill tuck (before her death) and her not recognizing him from his former puppet self

This prompt is god tier (I had no idea what to write but this is what I got) Sorry it's so short!

Sunday Afternoon, 13:30 hours exactly. Not a minute before, not a minute after. Exactly 13:30 hours when Jig stepped into the local cafe, his right foot was always leading. His seat untouched and adjusted 58 degrees north just as he left it. He stepped up to the register no line, without speaking, the cashier immediately filled in his order. He paid and that was that. Before sitting he removed his pocket handkerchief and wiped down the area, delicately folded it and set it aside and immediately replaced it with another handkerchief that resided in his pocket. Then quietly sat himself down in his chair adjusting his bowtie to ensure it was perfectly aligned. The barista handed him his usual order and left him alone. No dialogue needed, just a simple nod of acknowledgement sufficed. The less interaction the better. He sipped his jasmine tea, allowing the taste of herbs settle on his tongue, waited 4 seconds and swallowed. Following this pattern religiously until he finished his beverage. However something was amiss, something sat beside him…Someone familiar. He didn’t bother turning his head, he knew her presence all too well. Jig knew it was impolite to stare at someone, however nothing was said of peripheral vision. From what he saw was a woman. Older, a darkened blonde hue that complimented her eyes, and that same warm smile she carried. One that he hadn’t seen for years and one he hadn’t known he missed so much. Much to his surprise he found himself fiddling with her old pocket watch that he always carried in his right pocket.

Its presence brought him ease and close to a sense of connection. However with Jill Tuck a near 4 inches away from him the sense of dulled connection intensified to a feeling that made him uneasy. A feeling that he wasn’t fond of and one that stifled his normally confident demeanor. He noticed his palms were damp with cold sweat, and his ears had begun to heat.

“You okay there?”

Her voice nearly knocked him out of his seat and on the ground. Such a dramatic reaction was so foreign to him…so unbecoming…

“Yes…Fine thank you for your concern” Jig uttered, ensuring their interaction was quick and brief. He’d always wondered what it would be like to interact with his mother, recalling her gentle nature, and lovely voice but he never imagined an interaction would be possible especially with the fact that he was a doll…but now…He was a human. A creature of flesh and bone.

“Are you sure you took quite the tumble?” she continued reaching out toward him. Before she could touch him he immediately pulled away. He didn’t know why he was so bashful around her. She was his mother after all…But he wasn’t her son…Not the son she pictured…He was dead.

“Y–Yes I am fine. Nothing of serious injury” he spoke once more refusing to remove his eyes from his tea cup.

Jill pulled away adjusting her seat, “alright then, I’m Jill by the way”

Jig fought the urge to adjust his tie once more, "She seeks to be acquainted” he thought to himself, giving into his compulsive urge to fix his tie.

“My name is Billy however I prefer to go by the alias of Jig” he spoke finally looking her in the eye.

“Nice to meet you” he smiled, shaking his hand.

Jig’s throat tightened at the contact. This all felt so surreal that for a moment he thought he had been experiencing a dream for the first time, but no, it was true reality.

“You don’t know me…do you” he whispered looking her in the eyes, feeling a sense of aching sorrow in his chest. He hadn’t known why but the feeling only continued to manifest.

Jill gave another naive smile, “can’t say that I have!”

Jig gave a slight nod before turning back to his tea cup, taking a final sip trying to wash away the dread with the warmth of jasmine; however the tea had run cold leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.

“It was lovely meeting you Jill…but I’m afraid I must go” Jig spoke, removing himself from his chair, leaving a 6 dollar tip.

“Oh nice meeting you too! Have a nice afternoon” she smiled once more waving him off.

“You as well”

#Jig #Jig angst

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matan4il · 1 year

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You have such great insights about Eddie Diaz and his parents! I was watching another show where a man was telling his young son that he needed to be the man of the house while he was away because his mother was struggling with depression. The shows a couple decades old, and the spirit of this interaction was not intended to be toxic and was portrayed as “sweet.” On the same show, one of the female characters was telling her daughter that if something happened to her, she would have to take care of her father. But no child, male or female, should have that idea put in their head, even if it is meant to be symbolic (because let’s face it, a child’s not going to suddenly learn to drive before their time or start paying bills!). Very few, if any, children under 17 have the emotional intelligence or capacity to shoulder an adult’s burden, no matter how “mature” they might seem. I think Ramon’s behavior is indicative of a pattern of parenting that was just sadly common in the 90s, and still might be in some families. But good on him for trying to correct it. It is Helena’s turn right now, I know we’ve had limited screen time of her, but she epitomizes toxic femininity IMHO

Hi Nonnie! Oh, thank you so much for the kind words! I appreciate them SO much! And I’m so happy you like my views on Eddie. They’re just my own, and people like @gatergirl add their own invaluable insights, so I’m really grateful to everyone talking to me about our fave boys! ^u^

I’m wondering whether you wouldn’t mind telling me which show it is? I’m just so curious if I might have come across it. On the one hand, it sounds familiar. On the other hand, you’re right and it was a very common mentality in older TV show, films and books, just this idea that a kid stepping in for an absent parent is a wonderfully mature step. I think the movie Finding Neverland does a decent job at deconstructing that idea and pointing out that the moment a kid actually has to do that, they have something stolen from them for good. A piece of childhood and of innocence that they will never get back, a sense of security, of being protected by their parents, that’s gone forever. And now I’m thinking of little Eddie forced into that position (and in a different way, Buck as well, since without an actual parent, and Maddie only being able to step in to a degree, he also kinda had to become a bit of his own parent) and my heart breaks all over again.

I’ve not heard the term “toxic femininity” before, but I think we can all instinctively get what it means, and I agree with you so much. It would explain so much about Eddie’s mother, for example it would be a part of why she was giving Shannon a hard time, ‘coz Shannon was “failing” her “duties” as a wife and mother in Helena’s eyes. And then without that feminine mother figure there, Helena wouldn’t be able to conceive how her son would be able to raise Christopher on his own, let alone do it well. Which also fits with why in 315, it very much felt like she was the one leading the Diaz parents’ charge on their son and the pressure to hand over Chris. This POV really makes me wanna see some insights and a breakthrough on Helena’s part even more.

Thank you so much for sharing your own thought about Eddie with us, lovely Nonnie! Hope you have a good day! And as always, here is my ask tag! xoxox)

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justanothercmblog · 1 year

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Coffee Shop - Chapter 5

Previous Chapter / Coffee Shop Series Masterlist

Summary: Spencer and Marie have their second coffee date and it gets a little awkward.

______________

Today she wasn’t going to be late. She told herself that as she slipped into the outfit that she had decided on last night already. It was a flowy midi skirt with a flowery pattern which she paired with some white vans and a tighter white top and her usual gold jewelry. It was casual but just a tiny bit nicer than what she would usually wear on a work day. As usual she let her natural curls flow down her shoulders and just pinned back the strains in the front.

It was 7:55 and she stood in front of the coffee shop, waiting for Spencer. *Look at me being on time.*, she had texted him as soon as she got there, just to prove a point.

At 8 am sharp, she saw him. His messenger bag was over his shoulder and his hair flopped with each step. She got nervous again, a good kind of nervous though. He peaked up and smiled at her warmly as he got closer. She felt it bubbling inside of her stomach, would he go for a hug? Would he just open up the door for her again? She always hated these situations but with Spencer somehow it was even more awkward, maybe because they both were like that. He stopped a few feet away from her and she felt his gaze on her, making her cheeks flush.

“You uhh.. you look really pretty.”, he finally said and if possible she grew even redder and looked down at the floor. “Thank you… you uhm you look good too.”, she bit down on her bottom lip and looked up at him. He really did look cute in his lavender dress shirt and soft-looking brown sweater vest.

He didn’t go for a hug like she had secretly hoped, but he opened up the door for her again after a second of awkwardness. She stepped in slowly and suddenly felt his hand on her back gently leading her in. Her whole body felt like it was on fire at that short and gentle touch and she was convinced she was a tomato by now.

“Same order?”, he asked and she nodded. “I’ll save us a spot.” She said and headed towards the booth they had sat in the day before. “Tomorrow I actually pay for those!”, she said as Spencer placed the cup in front of her. His eyebrow raised up. “Tomorrow?” Again, Marie blushed. “Oh uhh... you know if you want to.”

Spencer grinned and watched her fiddle with her cup. He had noticed that she did that a lot. Play with anything that is close to her. “I would love to, but I was thinking since it’s Saturday tomorrow and I don’t have to work we could maybe go grab lunch.” She looked up at him with a smile plastered on her face. “That sounds really good”, she smiled. “I would like that!” “Then it’s a date.” He grinned and her blush deepened as she grinned back at him.

“Hey I forgot to ask yesterday, you mentioned your work, what do you do besides Uni?”, hea started off their conversation now. “Oh I got a job as a teaching assistant at a local school, it’s perfect actually, I only work a couple of hours two or three days a week so I still have enough time for my classes but get to earn some money in the field I’m going into, I actually went there yesterday, today I got off, long weekend and all", she told him excitedly. There it was again that sparkle in her green eyes when she talked about things she cared about.

“What is it? You kind of stare at me.” “Oh! Sorry, you just, kind of light up when you talk about this, it’s really cute to see.” She looked down again, Spencer could clearly see her blush. “Yeah I guess I kind of really like the job. What about you?” “What about me?”he asked, confused. “Do you like your job? I mean, probably, otherwise, you wouldn’t do it with all those degrees but you haven’t really talked that much about it”, she said a little more serious now.

He knew that she was going to ask about the job, it was honestly later than he thought and not even the usual question. He was truly surprised by that question, he hadn’t been asked that before, people always just assumed he must like it. “I do. I like it very much actually, it can just be a little much at times so I enjoy talking to you and about stuff that has nothing to do with it”, he tried to explain and she nodded. “I'm sorry if you don’t want to talk about it we don’t have to. I just … I didn’t want to ask about it earlier but.. What exactly is it that you do? I mean the name tells me that you look at behaviour and you talked about cases but what do you really do?”, she asked so innocently Spencer almost wanted to lie to her but he knew that wouldn’t be a good start. So he sighed and put his hands on the table similar to like she was doing.

Her words got Spencer thinking for a second. She was right. It was crazy how many monsters there were out there, how many he had come face to face with. What stood out to him though was that her first thought was how hard it must be for him personally. After barely knowing him she was worried about him having to deal with what seemed so normal to him and his team.

“My team is really good at what we’re doing and as terrible as it is, it's really rewarding when we get to reunite families and catch these people.” Marie smiled softly at how sure Spencer was of this. “I guess that’s true.” He could tell she was holding back questions. “You can ask if you have questions, you know.”, he said and almost reached out for her hand, but decided not to. She was still fidgeting but stopped and smiled at him now. “I think I’m okay. So your team, you like them?” The question came out of nowhere and Spencer had to chuckle. “I do. They are like family, we’ve been working together for years now and in this job you grow really close. We are away on cases a lot.” Marie nodded. “I get that you’d be close then.”

Their conversation trailed off again and soon they were deep into a discussion about the topic of Marie’s term paper. The two of them didn’t realise how fast time was passing until Spencer’s phone rang and he saw what time it was. “Shit!”, he jumped up as he saw the time and Hotch calling. Marie noticed that they had been talking for a while too, yesterday he was long gone to work at this time. “Reid where are you? Everything okay?” “Hotch! I am SO sorry, I … I overslept, I’ll be right over!”, he rambled and Marie furrowed her brows. He overslept?

Spencer hung up and looked at her. “Sorry, that was my boss I was supposed to be at work half an hour ago.” She nodded. “No, yeah sorry, I didn’t mean to hold you up.” She shook her head and Spencer noticed that she looked different, like she was sorry, yeah and disappointed too.

“You didn’t!”, he quickly reassured her. “It’s so great talking to you I just completely lost track of time, it’s not your fault and they’ll be fine, I stayed late last night so I am ahead with paperwork anyways,” he explained and quickly got up. Marie got up too so they could head out together.

Once outside they stood awkwardly again. “Uhm okay, so you better go then”, she said and gave him a tight-lipped smile. “Yeah... I really should go uhm... I will call you about tomorrow, okay?”, he asked softly. He was standing closer to her than before and smiled down at her encouragingly. “Yeah.”, she said softly, looking up at him and meeting those honey eyes that made her melt in an instant.

He was about a foot taller than her and she could stare up at him all day if he'd let her. “Okay then.”, he trailed off. He had really wanted to give her a hug goodbye but just couldn’t muster up the courage to do so. So he stepped back, smiled again and gave her an awkward wave before hurrying off without saying another word. Marie looked after him, utterly confused and slightly disappointed. He didn’t even turn around again and the girl couldn’t but feel irrationally insecure about what Spencer was really thinking about her

_____ a/n: let me know if you'd prefer longer chapters! Like I said, this story is really no masterpiece, I just enjoy reading and writing these kinds of stories and Marie is really close to my heart.

#spencer reid x oc #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid #criminal minds fanfiction #cm #dr spencer reid #spencer reid x original female character #spencer reid x fem!reader

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fideidefenswhore · 2 years

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Thoughts on the new AB series trailer?

general thoughts before i dive in,

this project is from the same creators/producers as the last czars about the romanovs, which was...trash, respectfully (tbf, they did actually cover the pogroms, which was shocking but, uh...other than that), so i don’t have high hopes. my expectations are that this will, to some extent, be trashy. there are some historians as panelists on this series whose work i really admire, i’m looking forward to hearing from them, but ultimately they didn’t have creative control, so i’m tempering my expectations with that knowledge.

so...yeah, it will probably be sensationalistic and trashy to some degree (i mean, i think that they’ve cast two soap stars as the leads is...a hint unto itself), i will probably have some issues with it. and yet, i don’t really mind, as i have that buddha nature ❤️

*cracks knuckles*

ok, let's begin:

the headband of maroon pipecleaners, the camo-esque pattern of the gown, the weird glitter-sequin coupling on the square neckline... my eyes are starving for beauty.jpeg

i’m guessing this is mary boleyn, but the way she’s asking it does not give off the vibe that she’s asking about someone mary herself has slept with before? more on that later (altho if this docuseries is going to argue the possiblity that mary boleyn wasn’t henry’s mistress, i believe it’ll be the first...beyond that, if they argue their affair ended before her marriage to carey, the same)

what if i told you i’m a mastermind? kinda vibe.

tbh, the idea that anne mandela effected henry viii into proposing marriage (second only to the depiction that she mentioned it as a joke, he took it seriously, and then she couldn’t back down from it...i mean, i would sort of potentially enjoy watching this even more, so long as it wasn’t some kind of TOBG bullshit, if only because it affords her more agency and that’s always more compelling to me than a character falling into something ipso facto ‘accidentally’) is so batshit that i’m kind of here for it (i mean, this is a docudrama, so. potentially i could enjoy that even if on the face of it is ludicrous; beyond marrying anne of cleves after their first meeting, there’s few times one can point to where henry did something he didn’t really want to do)

then again, given that this season will be three episodes, as per one of the contributors on twitter, this ☝️ exchange could just as easily be about henry percy. i almost think it fits that better.

this 👇 could be about settling for being henry viii’s mistress, or it could be about james butler (also in wolsey’s household at the time) versus henry percy as marital options for anne (assuming this is wolsey, which...yeah, i’ll go out on a limb, lol:

and one assumes this is henry percy:

particularly because she’s wearing the B necklace here...

whereas it seems like in scenes where she’s queen, she wears the HA pendant:

let’s continue.

well, she’s not wrong.

‘in an age’, well, i’d like to say we’re well beyond that age. but!

ok, let’s get down to the crux of the matter-- this seems to primarily be a documentary about henry & anne’s relationship (to call it a ‘romance’ has earned several, including the above, accusations of ‘abuse apologism’... even by one of the historians on the panel, so . interesting they wanted to contribute to this, but whatever). a lot of panic has been made about this, but the last on the subject, LWCH, did, by all accounts, treat anne’s predecessor fairly and poignantly? lipscomb said henry&anne were cruel to catherine, and even visited and paid reverence to her memorial. anne’s stepdaughter was not derided by the presenter, but was, for the most part, ignored (sort of an issue in and of itself, but i’m failing to recall any recent AB-centric drama that did not depict her fairly...the recent amc-adapted series was a very sympathetic portrayal, if not an in-depth one, but then, it was a miniseries)

so, getting into that (considering the focus on him in the promo photo releases, he seems to dip in and out scant times):

me @ the possibility of an actual portrayal of the “great reverence and a joyful countenance” moment 👇

SO IT’S GONNA BE FOREVER

OR IT’S GONNA GO DOWN IN FLAA-AAMES

real talk, there were two recorded fires during the time in which anne was queen. the first, in the summer of 1534, took down the charing cross mews/stables, which were adjacent to whitehall. the second, more infamous, was the ‘fire in her bedchamber’ of january 1536. considering the first is very little-known, the shot is of a bed and its hangings, and the second incident is now firmly a part of the tudor zeitgeist, my money is on the latter.

that, or it’s a heavy-handed metaphor for an incendiary sex life. which, like...

and then i peeped the borman influence (borman and weir are thick as thieves, fwiw), and i believe i’ve tracked it down to the second:

going for the recusant tradition, are we?

henry in black, anne in yellow...it’s pretty easy to ascertain what/where/when this scene is meant to be.

poor harried henry, won’t anyone think of how he’s suffered? /s

in the end, chapuys’ interpretation of this dynamic seems to be the one that wins most docuseries:

the king himself is not ill-natured.... it is this Anne who has put him in this perverse and wicked temper, and alienates him from his former humanity

for whatever reason, the concept/framing of this narrative is very attractive/appealing to people. the idea that henry was innately good and evil temptress anne just did her utmost to divorce him from his humanity dies really, really hard, it’s...biblical, really. isn’t it sad that this harridan henpecked him into exiling catherine, executing thomas more, etc.

track it all the way down, though, and you see the cracks. was there animosity towards, and blame placed upon, anne after, say, the execution of thomas more? probably, but there’s more that indicates henry defended from her that (violently, even, is the implication, by contemporary report, during the same month: “[the king] nearly murdered his own fool, a simple and innocent man, because he happened to speak well in his presence of the Queen and Princess, and called the concubine "ribaude" and her daughter "bastard” [....] he has now been banished from Court” ) than encouraged it/partook/ than otherwise... (the story of him tearfully blaming her for that execution during a game of dice arrives only in the 17th century). the truth, as lucy wooding has said, is really more intricate than most narratives about henry allow.

anyway, for whatever it is worth (considering all he did regardless...probably not very much) i do think henry wanted to be good, but i don’t agree that anne alienated him from his humanity. i think kingship/royalty did a pretty bang-up job of that on its own. the only grain of truth to this is that, i think, in henry becoming an even more supreme authority (a process/progress in which anne was very active), it enabled him to come to the place where he was the ultimate arbiter and this is, ultimately, other factors aside, what killed her. it was his judgement, as ultimate religious authority, that their marriage was invalid and his that she wanted to kill him and would have first, his convenient acceptance of a story that tied loose ends and absolved him of any blame: that their failure to have sons was hers alone, that the miscarriages were not lost children of his own but products of her adultery (i don’t think enough attention is paid to that the adultery accusations only begin on october 1533, i think that’s monumentally important re: his psychology on this).

stray observations until i move to under the read-more for sensitive subject matter:

uncanny.

my initial reaction to the casting of henry was, probably not beefy enough to play even GM henry. then i peeped his insta and went...maybeso.gif

he’s posted about this project a fair amount, whereas the actress that plays AB, while very active on social media, has not, afaik..idk what to make of that, if anything.

wolsey, wyd?

if they do this well, emotional catharsis. if not, voyeuristic.

arriving at what i’m most concerned about in this trailer:

so... i mean, potentially i am reading this wrong (im autistic, so tbh, i don’t always pick up emotional/tonal cues well, whether onscreen or otherwise) but he looks very sexually intense/angry here and she is...crying?

so. not great, admittedly. the sun is trashy enough that they would call this series ‘steamy’ even it includes scenes of a dubcon nature. i hope i’m wrong.

okay. i believe i have extrapolated as much on this 30 second trailer as was humanly possible. see you all on boleynsgiving, and may the odds be ever in the favor... of those who favor this concubinage ❤️

#anon

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straightfromthetorturedpoetsdept · 1 year

Text

Totally Nuanced Tuesday Topic: Autism, Extremism, and Whiteness

At some point, we're going to have to accept that autism is a valid reason for past bigotry, to a certain degree. I see the popular take on here and on tiktok is that there is never a valid reason behind bigotry and autism doesn't exclude you from accountability and yes, I agree that you should always be held accountable for bigoted statements.

However, having a valid reason for something is not the same thing as asking for an excuse from consequences and this is an inherently ableist thought pattern to engage in and uphold as a standard of communication. Autistic people are not inherently asking to be excused from accountability, but it is important to recognize that Autism is entirely dependent on cultural norms and telling autistic people that "autism is not a valid excuse for bigotry" is asking them to deny seeing a bigoted cultural norm in society that influenced them to think a certain way to begin with. After all, how can an autistic person have racist thoughts and opinions if everyone else wasn't behaving in racist ways leading them to think this is how people SHOULD behave in social situations?

Take me, for example, I was very fortunate to grow up in the bronx during the early 00s and 10s. If I didn't have black friends since pre-school, I would have easily succumbed to my mother's beliefs (and I did for a hot second after we moved to an entirely white neighborhood in bumfuck mass and my social circle became insanely racist naturally) growing up. Instead, I spent my childhood getting into fist fights over whether or not black people had a natural chemical in their skin that made them smell bad or whatever my mother would throw at me. After being diagnosed, my brief stint into anti-feminism and racism (I say this like it lasted for longer than six months and wasn't just my "not like other girls" phase) made a lot more sense especially after I moved away for college and returned to the socialist I was as a child and even more radical. Like, I'm not saying that I didn't say fucked up shit (nothing I can remember now, mostly slut shaming other people and there's only 2 genders, etc. i was more of a truscum than anything, which makes sense since I was the most ignorant on trans people at the time when I was 13). But what I am saying is without my autism diagnosis, I don't know if I could have ever overcome the shame I feel now looking back if I didn't have the tools and language to describe ~why~ I was so sexist and thus, racist, as being part of my mask.

I see a lot of people say that "autistic people should be better at recognizing patterns of bigotry because they're good at recognizing patterns" and this ignores the fact that autistic people are human beings, and the fact that "pattern recognition" is a trait inherent to ALL humans not just autistic people. Like, by this logic, shouldn't all humans be good at recognizing patterns of bigotry especially after they are informed of the existence of bigotry? This is just more ableist rhetoric that stems from the "savant or savage" stereotype of autistic people. We're not allowed to fuck up because if we're "normal enough" to be racist, then we MUST know being racist is wrong? Like, do you see the ableism here- the othering of a neurotype, in this case- or do I need to continue spelling it out? I think I've debunked this argument enough. Moving on.

Another argument I see is "well autistic people have an innate sense of justice." No, we are highly sensitive to injustice perception. This means that if we feel like we are on the right side of history, we feel righteous anger and can be slow to persuade otherwise. This says nothing about what the individual autistic person is PERCEIVING as being "unjust." Again, you are dehumanizing a neurotype that's different than yours based on bad stereotypes and ignorance on not only autism but systematic oppression in general.

Because here is the uncomfortable truth about autism and bigotry. A lot of us adopt bigoted masks as a SURVIVAL TOOL in a violently ableist society. When we talk about intersectionality, it's important that we don't fall into the trap of stigmatizing certain oppressions as not "that" serious or life-threatening. Ableism is just as harmful, just as dangerous as racism as sexism as homophobia is. Autistic people die if they can't mask properly, either by socially-assisted suicide or homicide, and in the society that we currently live in, being a bigot is the fucking standard. You're ostracized as a kid if you're not normal, and racism is normal. Sexism is normal. Transphobia is normal.

Saying autism isn't a valid reason for bigotry is saying that we should've known better than everyone else who is saying and behaving in much worse ways and gaining social clout as a result. It's cool to be a bigot and autistic people need to be cool to survive. By refusing to hear out an autistic person who tells you their autism is why they were racist or sexist or homophobic etc, you are asking them to ignore the truth of the situation and minimizing the necessity of masking as a survival tactic for many autistic people.

#autism #bigotry #socialism #queer discourse #personal

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fallenstar1996-blog · 6 months

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I don’t think love is for me.

And if you knew the amount of pain and suffering it took to come to that conclusion, your stomach would lurch and your heart would break -

Because for much of my life that was the only thing I held on to.

Hitching my star onto somebody elses. Coregulation. Savior fantasies. Waiting for someone to come through who perhaps would of saved me as a child should they had the chance- dressed up in darkness and toxicity from their own trauma - which I excused them of wholeheartedly.

I have so much to say and I don’t know how to say it. I have 10 movies playing inside of me. Most of them tragedies - maybe a couple indie films.

I have always seen the best in people. I have always been the one who sat next to a fucked up man and saw the sunshine in him. But the worst part was - I truly believed this encounter was a deviation from that pattern. To think I was actually proud of myself…

Historically I’ve dated career criminals and gang members - even my sons dad belonged to that category, although he worked a recovery program and was not active in his prior misdeeds.

So when i fell for you - my twin, my savior, my deepest delusion and biggest break - I was astonished at the growth. Here is a man with a college degree - a counselor, a clinical supervisor - not my type at all - but man did I feel divinity when we sat across from each other. Spilling the secrets of my soul, wondering what it would be like to touch your hand, wondering what terrible misdeeds I had enacted in a different life that found me in the circumstance of knowing you but never being able to love you the way I knew I needed to.

Things changed. I believed that the universe shifted to support this fateful meeting. For the first time in my life, i contemplated what it would be like to wholly give myself to somebody - for the rest of my life. I was never the marriage type - but for you, it played on the back of my eyelids like a dream waiting to unfold. October 4th of last year I told you I was in love with you. You loved me too. And in my childlike naivety I believed that maybe this was going to be the beginning of the happy ending I had long beseeched myself of. Because girls like me- women like me- our life goes one way. We walk the path of woes.

I should of known better.

I looked past all of your red flags. I looked past your actions not matching your words.

Your popping in and out at will, but never showing up when I needed you the most.

I looked past the casual cruelty and indifference, because in between those were pockets of good. High highs and low lows.

I was experiencing the insanity that comes with being half loved and everytime you’d leave or tell me you wanted to be done or didn’t have the capacity or the availability to sit in that space with me I only half believed you because you would come back a few days later, apologetic, broken hearted, saying that you missed me.

And in those moments everything was okay again… I told myself that I loved you unconditionally. And that you were mentally ill and psychologically unwell; you’re doing the best that you can. I told myself that it’s not my job to decide who is worthy of unconditional love, it’s my job to release it from my heart and let it shine out into the world. And so I shined on you. I shined on you. My first thought in the morning, my last one before I go to bed. Occupying the space between my moments.

I had become to realize that a relationship between us would never look how I thought it would, that you would never be able to fulfill my needs. And despite the fact that I could try and accept that, I knew that I would love you forever anyway. There is a pathway in my heart that leads to you. And it’s not all based in delusion, either.

You yourself stated that nobody has ever known you as deeply as I have, in your 47 years. Nobody has ever had as witty of banter with you. We transcend planes of being with our communication and we transcend planes of being with our bodies. These things are irrevocable truths. I can remember you holding my face in your hands, staring into the depths of my soul. When I close my eyes I can see what your eyes look like, staring at me. I could make a list of your shortcomings and of your positive traits, what you bring to this world, analyze it and truly believe that the good outweighs the bad - even if I sometimes cry myself to sleep.

What madness is this. I have probably cried myself to sleep over you more than I have actually fallen asleep next to you and yet I grieve and grieve and grieve at the fact that it will probably not work out. I cry and cry and cry. It feels wrong. It feels like a horrible mistake is being made. I feel paralyzed by the wrongness of it all.

I would of done everything for you.

The mundane things. Learned to keep my room spotless, up to your standard. Worked everyday even on the ones where I’m losing my mind because we need to save money to work toward our monetary goals. I would of cooked for you, danced with you, learned how to read your cues and respected them. I would of raised your daughter with you. I would of watched you get old and taken care of you. I would of given up what’s left of my youth and spent it loving you and it would of been a worthy trade. I would of held space as you cycle through your manic depression and fucking loved you anyway.

Laughed at our inside jokes, explored the secrets of the universe and the human condition, laughed and cried, laughed and cried.

But just because you’re willing to do those things doesn’t mean you get to. All that love, all that power, all those unlived moments and alternate timelines begging to get a chance to come to fruition. All the lives where we met each other and got to be different things to eachother - I am deeply saddened that this one, meeting here again, the story is that of the one who breaks the other.

There is a part of you that loves me. I know there is. I’m an intuitive energy reader, I can feel it, it’s tangible. And yet you are so wrapped up in past hurts, selfishness, crippling anxiety, and the belief that you are not worthy that you cut the branch off the tree before the fruit is born. Being radically loved and taken care of doesn’t fit into your worldview so you hurt any who dare to come to close.

I think perhaps letting me love you would of been too dangerous for you. Caused you to expand past your limits. Or maybe there is something wrong with me that I can’t see. Maybe the age gap makes you feel like accepting my love is taking something away from me. And again I am the child with no say.

And so I say goodbye. Not to you, you will always hold a cherished place. The kind of connection that lingers long past the extinguished flame- tucked away into your DNA.

I say goodbye to my concept of love. It’s been a wild ride, but I cannot survive the flames. I think that perhaps my level of love is akin to madness, just a little bit, and when I get to close I begin to be engulfed and lose sight of myself. Lose sight of what matters outside of my passion. Even this - “the healthiest man I’ve ever loved” has brought me to relapses on self injury and fantasizing about bridges to fling myself off and put an end to it at last.

And before you? Men have taken. Men have taken, and fed on me, betrayed me, used my softness to torment me. And what was your crime - wanting something different, wanting to disconnect, not being well enough to do the work to rise up and meet me - taking the easy way out. Those things are forgivable. I’ve had dark nights of the soul before. I’ve walked around this world with a broken heart before. I know what grief feels like - I know how to try and build around a dark hole. But I will never do this again. I am closing down my heart once more, it is not safe for me in my fragile mental state to play with such powerful things. I will build around the dark hole and I will throw away the keys to the city, save none. Well maybe save one, should someday you change your mind…

#soultie #trauma #heartbreak #twinflame #karmic relationships #love

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cathartes-aura-shitposting · 9 months

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ARGONUS INFO: the other aeronoids

(NOTE: description copy-pasted from DA where i normally post my works. any context that is missing here on tumblr can be found on my DA [linked here and on pinned post] )

[this image is best viewed when opened in a new tab.]

AAAAAND like with the elkinets, i go more into detail about the other members of the order aeronoida.

the aeronoids are the other species of "living aircraft" on argonus. alot about their biology is similar, if not the same as the elkinet. if you want more details on that (and the elkinets themselves), look at this post here [tumblr edit: this leads to the DA post, not the tumblr one which you should be able to find via the search bar]. but, i'll go over the basics:

1-they're entirely biological, with the exception of their semi-mechanical engines.

2-sometimes there exist pygmy versions of them, usually due to lack of resources. a-however, pygmies tend to be more common due to purposely breeding them.

3-colorations is usually based of respective aircraft's, though can be almost anything. a-and like with the elkinets, there's only colors, patterns and markings.

4-hybrids can exist, and have similar statistics of getting a hybrid as the elkinets (primarily with size differences between the parents) a-however naturally speaking, it only exist within two parents of the same genus. b-there tends to be a higher chance for a hybrid for the other aeronoid species, regardless of the size difference.

[tumblr edit: most aeronoid groups are monotypic, consisting of a single genus, if not a super genus at the largest]

5-their engines are more resilient than a normal, non-living aircraft. they don't fly faster than 210mph. a-while on the topic of flight, aeronoids aren't always flying as their top speed. they only have their engines at full power for long enough to get sufficient air. after that, they lower the speed so that it's just enough to keep them in the air. b-however, there are two main groups that don't have engines, later on those.

6-they have a similar lifecycle to each other, though with varying degrees of each stages length. a-these lengths obviously vary depending on lifespan. 7- there are some foot variations with the other aeronoids, like their is with the elkinets a-however, these variations are usually either your standard anisodactyl feed or webbed feet. this is dependent more on the environment they've adapted for than it is the aircraft type.

8-they're around the same length as their real-life aircraft counterpart a-exact sizes vary between individuals and species b-some aeronoids, however, are smaller than their real-world counterparts now, before we can truly get into the four main groups of non-elkinets, we first have to go through the evolutionary tree first, so you get a good idea on who's related to who.

EVOLUTION AND BASIC TAXONOMY it all starts with the bird ancestor, a sort of stem-parrot, which may have looked similar to your average passerine, or maybe a bit like a mimicoot minus the crest and pseudoteeth. after all, on my post about the mimicoots [tumblr edit: also a link to a DA post], the tomium is purely convergent to the aeronoids. the superorder would then split into two groups: the mimicoot and the aeronoids.

there haven't been any clear fossils of an intermediate aeronoid (at least at time of posting, maybe i'll make one later), thought most people agree it may have looked like a weird theropect-bird hybrid. between the bird ancestor, the intermediate form and the basal aeronoid, a couple major things have happened: 1-the loss of feather covering the body 2-wings becoming more thicker and longer in the absence of flight feathers 3-the loss of the secondary eyes (the smaller bottom eyes that most vertebrates have) 4-the appearances of prop engines both on the back and on the wingtips.

after the intermediate form came the basal aeronoid, which looked like a theropect with an engine on it's back. it's guessed that this basal aeronoid uses all three engines to fly, though speculatively rather poorly. that didn't matter, though, since most aeronoids later down the line would develop better flight in there own unique ways.

the earliest group to branch off from the rest were a group that started using less of the engines in more favor of flapping their first forelimbs. these intermediate gliders would become the avibels, the aeronoids that returned to their flapping winged ways of their ancestor, minus feathers.

the next branch would lead to the theropects, which further developed their wing engines as their primary scource of flight, as well as re-evolving them as another set of "arms". however, before true theropects came along, another group close to them would split off and start using those arms more often than their original first forelimbs, causing those forelimbs to reduce in size. these aernoids would be the elkinet ancestor, as as they further developed their wings, not only did those vestigial arms completely disappear, but also the prop blades since they started using the actual wing itself to grab and manipulate object. this would eventually lead to the elkinet we all know and recognize. despite the multiple arms of multiplanes (biplanes, triplanes, ect), they're not a separate group as the elkinets. the multiple wings are more of a mutation that stuck around than something that was ancestral.

the final branchoff would lead to a quadrupedal aeronoid that had lost the prop engines on the wingtips in favor of the one on the back. one group would ditch the wings entirely and become the carnivoran-like stunits. the other, however, not only lost wings but also the engines entirely. what the intermediate "flightless" form looked like is also under debate, though it may have had small, vestigial wings and a heavily reduced engines. in any case, the aeronoid would instead opt for completely gliding and loosing powered flight, leading to them becoming the rodads.

alright, natural history lesson over, time to continue on.

most aeronoid species are relatively smart, and have been kept in captivity by both elkinets and later down the line humans. while most of them are really tame, some species have been fully domesticated. their reasoning for being kept by elkinet usually is companionship, though some secondary usages like hunting, transportation, eggs and meat are also common. in addition, their pygmy variation are also common due to intentional breeding. aeronoids tend to fill in similar niches to other existing animals. despite this, they rarely do ever go into direct competition with other animals of the same niche, probably due to argonus's size which allow the aeronoids to take over a niche of their own in certain areas.

ok, ok, NOW we can get into each individual (extant) groups of aeronoids.

THE STUNNITS (helicopters)

wild ranges: the stunits are found almost worldwide, but are most common in the temperate and lush habitats. they can also be found in civilizations as strays/ferals. general diet: most stunnits are generalist omnivores, but there are some variations to exactly what they eat. some of the smaller helicopters have a more carnivorous diet, as they'll hunt smaller animals and eat carrion as part of their diet. on the otherhand, some of the largest helicopter species are near-entirely herbivores, having plants as a main staple of their diet. captive stunits are usually fed their own diet-specific kibble, though with the more omnivorous / carnivores species some good grain-free dogfood have been used as a cheaper alternative. behavoir: most stunnits are social to some extent, at the very least they'll tolerate each other if food and water is plentiful. armed and attack helicopters have a more vulpine-like role, being carnivorous loners that only really get together to mate and raise young. larger helicopters have a more canid-like behavior. much like other aernoids, the stunnit's tail and prop blades can be an indicator of emotions. for example, their tails wag when happy or exited, or their props could twitch around to show frustration or annoyance. stunnits raise their young in the late spring. they'll create a shallow "nest" that's either loosely made of nesting materials or no nesting materials at all. the mother will lay about 3-5 eggs, and then both parents will protect the eggs until they hatch. the babies are precocial, meaning they're born in an advanced state to where they're able to walk, run and to some extent drink/eat on their own. the parents still have to protect them and feed them until they're truly ready to be on their own. stunnits, both in the wild and with feral colonies, have a set territory that that chase intruders off of. these fights rarely end in severe injuries/death. feral colonies tend to be less territorial. stunnits communicate with growls, howls and "groarks" (barking, but with a slight growling/roaring tone to it; best example i can give is the mane wolf's roar-barks).

additional stuff: the stunnits get the title of "man's best friend" of argonus, and it's no secret why. they're the aircraft analog to carnivorans, more specifically bears, canines and felines. most species have been kept in captivity and used for a variety of tasks, such as transportations, guarding, herding, hunting, pest control, ect. they have an actual full body. helicopters with a lattice tail (Like the bell 47 tail here) have an actual full tail, and like the cockpit/canopy the lattice rods are just extra ornaments. even with the skycrane, they're a more fuller body. just like their real-world counterparts, they're incredible fliers that can hover in places, as well as dive and make hairpin turns. when they fight in the air, most of it is just them chasing eachother around, maybe even pushing eachother a few time before one of them leaves. these fights usually dont last too and and almost always ends with both parties leaving with little to no injuries. most species of stunnits (excluding the mostly-herbivorous ones) have a serrated beak, which is good for cutting into their food whether that's be the flesh of an animals or the flesh of a watermelon.

THE AVIBELS (sailplanes and gliders)

wild ranges: they were originally found throughout the old world, more specifically nylus and sonias. however, thanks to the elkinets they can be found anywhere where there's civilization.

general diet: while the avibel are considered generalist omnivores, they're more in line with being an opportunistic carnivores and have at least 50% of their diet consist of meat. most of the meat they eat are usually animals smaller than them, with their favorites being rodents, lizards, frogs and fish. the plants they eats, on the otherhand, are often fruits, grains and seeds of various plants. they've also been known to have an incredibly strong sweet-tooth from time to time, having been known to raid maple buckets and beehives for the sweet, sugary treat insides. this sweet tooth is most common in the spring. avibels that are kept in captivity are typically content with eating a high-quality dogfood since most contain all the essential nutrients to keep the gliders happy. however, there do exist more specialized feed for avibels, especially for ones who want them to start producing more eggs. this feed usually contains a mixture of insects, dried meat, dried fruit and grains.

behavoir: the avibels are best described as being "bootleg crows". they have the intelligence just slightly under that of actual crows and ravens, able to learn and adapt to various environments. the avibels are very social animals and are commonly seen in small groups of 3-7 (Though larger groups do occur). they're monogamous and mate for life; if one partner dies, the other will become depressed and will refuse to mate with any other glider for a while (sometimes never). avibel are expert hunters, and can be seen actively hunting small animals and insects. these aeronoids have a decent vocal range. they made a wide variety of sound, usually consisting of hisses, screeches and "chirps", all reminiscent of various bird-of-prey. they'll also slam their tails on the ground to show anger and frustration (this is especially true to broody hens). when raising young, the two parents will create a nest usually under a tree or any other covered places. unlike alot of other aeronoids, baby avibel chicks (which they have 1-2 of) are born both blind and deaf for the first week or two, much like some bird species. the parents swap places and take turns caring for the babies until after two months when they're ready to be on their own. sometimes the offspring will stay with the parents to help care for the next generation.

additional stuff: unlike most other aeronoid species, the avibels typically don't have any form on engines whatsoever. instead, the go the old-fashion route and fly by flapping their wings to take off. once in the air, they'll uses a mixture of powered flight and rising thermals to stay in the air. despite their appearances as a more bird-like elkinets, they're only distantly related to them like we are to baboons. also unlike alot of aeronoids, their beaks have sorta re-evolved into...beaks. more specifically, their beaks are curved and sharp, with the top one having a point not unlike an eagle's. the beak is much like a multitool, being able to tear, shred and cut not just their food but also really anything. elkients have raised avibels for centuries as a source of eggs, meat and companionship, and the gliders often double as a form of pest control too. humans also took a liking to them, as their intelligence and easy tamability made them great mounts as well. however, avibels have been known to act aggressive towards humans and anyone who disturbs their nest while they're raising chicks.

THE RODADS (lifting bodies) wild ranges: rodads originate from the woodlands and mountains of sonias. just like with the two other aeronoids here, the elkinets and their civilizations have made them a world-wide city animal.

general diet: the rodads are generalist herbivores, generally speaking. the specifics of what plants they eat can vary by the region. naturally speaking, they eat leaves, flowers, fruit, nuts and seeds, but they'll also take grass, twigs and really any plants they can get their forepaws and mouths on. they'll also take on insects and small animals occasionally. during it's waking hours, a rodad will spend at least 70% of it's time foraging for food. behavoir: rodad's aren't the most smartest animals out there. rodads are also not very social animals, and at most in the wild they'll tolerate each other if they're enough food and water around. however, in captivity they're alot more easier to get along with each other. wild rodads are territorial, and they can be seen fighting for the best food and mating rights. when not eating or fighting, rodads are rather slow and chill animals, and can be see climbing and/or sleeping in trees (or any other high, enclosed place), or wonder around to make sure no rival steps foot into their territory. if disturbed, they'll either run or (if in a high place) jump off and glide to safety. and if they're really cornered, they'll try and bite/scratch the threat. they're rather tolerable around other smaller animals that don't pose much threat to them. rodads are also surprisingly good swimmers, and many species have at least some semi-aquatic lifestyles. with their combined behavior and occasional affinity for the water, some humans called they "citybaras", seeing them as the capybaras of the city. the aircraft are ok parents. males usually make a small cavity in the ground, just big enough for a female and her clutch pf 4-5, and he'll mate with first female that comes in. after that, he'll make sure no other guys take his girl while she lays her eggs and protect them. once the eggs hatch, he leaves her to do the rest of the work. thankfully, the babies are born precocial, so there's not much to be done other than making sure they learn how to eat and drink on their own. rodads don't make much noise. at most they've been known to hiss and softly squeak. however, during fights they'll scream and squeal not unlike that of koalas.

additional info the rodads are the only aeronoid, both presently and within fossil records, to ditch true flight entirely. instead they use their weird body shape to glide from one place to another. they can actually glide long distances, and in addition are surprisingly good jumpers and climbers. unfortunately, they often fall prey to many predator, stunnits and avibels being a common foe. although they have no wings, rodads still have a small, thin tail. rodads also have evolved whiskers, which they uses to sense their surroundings since their vision isn't the best.

THE THEROPECTS (tiltrotors)

wild ranges: theropects are strictly restrained to the jungles and rainforest of sonias. unlike most others here, feral population are actually rare and only confined to equally warm habitats. all other theropects outside of sonias are usually part of zoos and sanctuaries, sometimes as exotic pets, too.

general diet: theropects are all around generalist omnivores. they eat anything that's edible to them, but fruits and leaves make up 60% of their diet. sometimes they'll pick up some invertebrates, small animals, and eggs to round out their diet. they're rather infamous for raiding fruit farmers and stealing the food they grow, especially during peak ripe season.

behavoir: one of the most intelligent species of animal on argonus, the theropects are only second to their civilized relatives, the elkinets. as a matter of fact, they're the closest thing argonus gets to chimps and gibbons, since when it comes to primates no hominoids themselves haven evolved on argonus (Only lemur, new world and old world monkeys). despite the likening to chimpanzees, they're more like gorillas, being plant-eating pacifists that rather would scare it's enemies than to actually attack. theropects are not only bipedal like their relatives, but are also very good a manipulating objects. they use both their forelimbs and their wings (or more accurately their prop blades) to grab, hold and move things. their prop blades are especially good at this, since they move very much like the elkinet's wings. they even have a bit of gecko-padding to further hold things. the tiltrotors are very social and very good parents. they make a very simple nest to lay their eggs in. the mother usually only has one baby, rarely ever two. while the babies are born with their eyes open, they still cling onto mom (or any other females' if she's not round) for at least two years. during that time both mother, father and other members of the group will help take care of them and the mother, and later down the line teach the offspring how to survive. theropects make a wide array of barks, screeches, whistles, coos and hisses to communicate with each other.

additional stuff: since argonus lacks any apes, this is the closest they got to gibbon, gorillas and chimpanzees. in captivity, they're about as pleasant to own as a cockatoo or macaw (aka don't get one unless you're very experienced). they've been used in laboratories and scientific studies, and are common info the film industry as animal actors. however, they're not all sunshine and rainbows, as they're very noisy, nippy and often can be seen stealing things from their owners. however, with enough proper love, care, toys and attention, those issues are brought down to a minimum. still, there is alot of legality issues when it comes to owning theropects as pets, so usually it's better off to leave it to zoos and sanctuaries to take care of them.

aaaaand that's it for the aeronoids! any other information regarding them will probably be in other post.

#aircraft #aviation #airplane #avigeek #weird aircraft #speculative fiction #speculative biology #speculative zoology #speculative evolution #helicopter #lifting body #glider #sailplane #tiltrotor #worldbuilder #worldbuilding #argonus #planet argonus

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maocin · 10 months

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My Aim Is True, 1977, Elvis Costello

If you subscribe to the notion that there is such a thing as power pop, you would likely consider Elvis Costello among its practitioners. He's never been a household name in music in the same way that other, more established power pop bands are (Cheap Trick, maybe), nor has he influenced generations of musicians like Alex Chilton did with Big Star. He certainly wasn't the face of punk in Britain. There are some hits -- maybe you've heard "Pump It Up", or "Oliver's Army"? But we're not interested in hits around here. My Aim Is True, his debut album, offers easy listening, digestible power pop, while still maintaining the snark and consciousness that makes punk meaningful. It's a front to back delight, and the radio hits don't give you even half of the full experience. I want to talk about why this is one of my favorite albums of all time.

Opening Quartet

"Welcome To The Working Week" absolutely fucks. Who among us hasn't felt like a "juggler running out of hands?" This song is less than two minutes long, and in that time span -- less time than I've spent writing about it, by half -- we get a complete, mournful picture of a dead-end job with all the infectious speed of the rat race. This song walked so "Life in the Fast Lane" could run, except this one also ran, and did so five years earlier, and accomplished just as much in a fifth of the runtime.

It also blends perfectly into the next track, "Miracle Man," which is less incisive but equally enjoyable. Melodic bass and simple drums complement clean lead and distorted rhythm guitars. Focusing too closely reveals how simple everything is at its core, but overall, the song comes together perfectly and achieves much more than the sum of its parts. "Miracle Man" slows down slightly from the hectic opener, leading perfectly into the even slower "No Dancing," which even has a breakdown in the middle. These first four tracks aren't much to sneeze at, but they're maintainers of the vibe, and that's an accomplishment in and of itself. The vibe is immaculate.

Finally, we get to "Blame It On Cain". This is the clearest example of Elvis Costello's favorite lyrical trick -- writing a song that sounds complex, and just about is, but doesn't actually carry any meaning on its own. Just the shell of an interesting thought for you to fill in. It's much like (and here I brace for the gunshots) T.S. Eliot's poetry, "famously" parodied in Henry Reed's "Chard Whitlow," which you should go read right away. Pay attention, because he's gonna use this trick over and over again. Now that you see it you can't unsee it. Miracle Man and No Dancing change their tones. What does "everybody has to feel his pain" mean? You tell me. Frankly, I don't care. Four songs have gone by, and not a single syllable has been out of melodic place.

2. Wait, Not A Single Syllable Has Been Out Of Melodic Place

Have you ever tried to write music with english words? To get them aligned in the right time and key and rhythm and melody? It's next to impossible. Now take a look at the beginning of Blame It On Cain:

Once upon a time I had a little money/Government burglars took it long/Before I could mail it to you still/You are the only one Now I can't let it slip away.

How the fuck did he do that. Government is a pickup, which you think can't possible be rhythmically valid, but then the pattern is legitimized by its repetition with "before I could" and "you are the". He shifted his line endings! What the fuck! And by the way, the three syllable pickup persists through the WHOLE SONG. Blame it on Cain, then don't is on a square beat, then blame it on me. Oh oh it's no-body's fault? What? How!?

This is what I find special about Elvis Costello. He writes arguably the best lyrics in the history of the practice. Not because they're deep or interesting or good or anything like that, although we'll see some serious contenders later in the album. Simply because they always fit the music to a degree that most other artists can't begin to approach. Furthermore, he does it in one of the most rigid and difficult genres there is. You don't get room for time signature tomfoolery, messy line endings, raw vocal delivery, etc. Not in power pop. Everything has to work together tightly. If you're into theory (and I am, but I won't bore you here) you'll find Elvis Costello also has a penchant for interesting chord progressions and nontrivial song structure. Half the time you're listening to his music, though, you don't even realize. Each song is a verifiable monument to pop perfection, but still rough around the edges enough to retain the 70's Britain punk crowd. I'm sorry, but I love this album. Anyway, carrying on through the tracklist.

3. Alison And The Love Songs

Let's talk about the hit. I like it, I really do. It's slower, it's ballad-y, his voice is less than impressive (unless you're into that sort of thing, which, hey, you're in good company because I happen to have a soft spot for this guy's goofy vocals), it's a simple song, sure. But besides matters of taste, find something wrong with it. Maybe you think "can't stand to see you this way" should be delivered on the square instead of the upbeat? You've gotta reach pretty far. These kinds of songs are what should have by all rights made Elvis Costello famous: perfectly engineered, neither condescending nor overly vague, a depth of feeling matched with wonderful musical backing from the tightest band in Europe.

But it's also this kind of song that belies the real serious good meat on the album. I promise, we will get to the stuff that gave him the punk creds that validate my treatment of Welcome To The Working Week. While we're here, though, take a moment to appreciate the mixing of the vocal harmonies on the chorus. Sing the album title along with him. Bang the steering wheel in time with "stop you from talking." It's just a really, really good song. I won't say it rocks, because it doesn't, but I maintain that it's an absolute delight to listen to.

Now going on to "Sneaky Feelings," we get another gem of a guitar riff with a beautiful vocal melody, tight rhythms, and simple structural language. It's clean. It's radio presentable. Unfortunately it ends in a vamp (that piano!) and is about homewrecking. Surely relatable to many, this is nonetheless a slight putoff -- to understatate -- which prevents its being a radio hit.

But hang on, all of that was true of Alison! These two tracks are situated next to each other on the album and I don't think that's unintentional. Why is Alison an obviously acceptable radio hit, and Sneaky Feelings an obviously (at least a little bit) offputting deep track? Well, one ends with "My aim is true," and one ends with "I've still got a long way to go." Maybe the average person really does appreciate good intentions, even when the situations can only ever be identical. We get two takes on the same song, a little meta-snark from the king of being musically semiprofound.

And speaking of semiprofundity. With "(The Angles Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" Costello delivers again a metaphor that you cannot by any means put a serious definition to. I choose to read it as a third take on the same song as Alison and Sneaky Feelings. We can learn something about writing, here. People prefer characters to concepts, and although they prefer metaphors to direct statements, invoking pathos trumps both. Sneaky Feelings is pretty upfront (theme in the title) while Red Shoes never neatly delivers its point. Indeed I'm not quite convinced it has a point at all, but I'm going an assumption in order to make a point about the precision involved in power pop. When you have all this rigidity, you need every possible choice to convey meaning. No track placement is thoughtless.

4. The rabbit hole

See how we're getting sucked down? At the beginning of this album, you might think No Dancing just carries the vibe and theme from Miracle Man so we can get to Blame It On Cain. But now you might want to pause, go back, listen to them again, see what else you can tease out now that you're aware of the depth that goes into every tiny decision on this kind of record.

Unfortunately we lack the technology to do this, rendering such a review impossible. Let's get to the damn punk already.

5. Less Than Zero

This song flopped in America. But if you're aware of World War II era British right-wing politics, you will understand a little more of what's going on. Oswald is of course Oswald Mosley, a shit-stain fascist who manages to give even the average British person a favorable comparison. That man was a despicable blight on society in inter-war Britain, and when he came back to spread more shit in the 70s, Elvis Costello wrote "Less Than Zero" as a reaction. This song is nothing less than the worst slander he could possibly come up with, plus a chorus. There's nothing inherently punk about hating fascists (everyone should hate fascists, and yet not everyone is punk) but Less Than Zero certainly does its duty in a punk way. These are the aforementioned chops and creds. Less Than Zero was his first ever single! It didn't chart, but this was how Elvis Costello chose to introduce himself to the world: as a sneering nerd in glasses ready to snort cocaine and dunk on fascists. Phenomenal work. If we could all be so lucky.

6. Does He Get The Benefit Of The Doubt?

After Less Than Zero, do you believe he's a punk firebrand? Will you find social commentary in his possibly false profundity? Let's take the next track as an example. Obviously the "Mystery Dance" is not hard to identify, but what does the song actually mean? Is he chronicling young people who grew up repressed? Is he lambasting British censorship for disallowing education in that area? Poking fun at the suggested abstinence-only practices of most churches in England? How far are you willing to read into it, how much will you pull from what he might have been talking about to combine with the scant few things that he actually is? Is "Pay It Back" about healthcare? Predatory payday loan practices? Student debt? The general idea of living by relying on promise? Trauma? Is it even from the perspective of a single person, or is the evaporating social safety net of Britain itself singing? However much rope you give him, these songs have an interpretation available.

I wish Pay It Back was the hit off this album! I wish it was Less Than Zero, or even Red Shoes. There are so many phenomenal and possibly even meaningful songs on this album. But no matter what means what, one thing is constant: the music is good. It's easy listening, it's tight, it's well-written and well-executed. That's the only kind of thinking that lets you gloss over "I'm Not Angry" without feeling somewhat sad, like you lost a half decent USB cable or maybe dropped a potato chip somewhere you know you won't be able to eat it from once you pick it up. On a great run of maybe-profound songs, we have to come to an end with this one, which is definitely and totally just about a girlfriend.

There's nothing wrong about it -- indeed, it's got some redeeming compositional qualities. Meta-snark again, albeit basic: he says he's not angry, but the song sounds angry. Don't ever let anybody say he's not clever.

Look, it's not a perfect album. The songs are really good (many are arguably perfect, depending on what you believe they were intended to accomplish) and the pacing is great, and the tracklist is intentional, but this all depends on the dance of how much do I believe Elvis Costello. Do I think he's a literary genius, or just a musical one?

It's hard to end the album. If you're thinking this constantly, arguing with yourself constantly about what you will and won't allow to be an intentional piece of artistry, you'll be so tired by the end. "Waiting For The End Of The World" is one of those profound songs, too. Try to solve the roman a clef with no brains left. See how that works out for you. "Watching the Detectives" is surely easy to figure out, too. Oh wait.

7. Why Do All This To Yourself?

Stop it!! Stop overanalyzing an old British guy! If you want to go hear a profound and meaningful album, shudder and headbang your way through Disapora Problems. Who cares about what British political figures might be the "bride", "groom", "congregation", and "beast"? Does it matter? Listen to the way the bass is mixed with the floor tom. Listen to the lead guitar wailing in the background, sliding around and twirling. Dance to that, or just tap your feet with the drums. Sing the easy lines and skip over the careful four syllable deliveries. This album is not supposed to be hard.

That's our departure from punk. That's what makes this power pop, and indeed this album is the very one that made me, personally, one of those musicians who believes in that vague vague vague genre's existence. There's nothing challenging about My Aim Is True. Nothing that warrants this many words about it. Maybe you came to that conclusion already or maybe you're just reading to hear my thoughts. In either case this is a chronology, not a final piece. I went from A to B and back to A on this album. I started thinking he just had a nice vibe going, and I could have fun listening through the album during my morning commute with "Welcome To The Working Week" to start off my day with an appropriate bang. Then I learned about Oswald Mosley and thought whoops, gotta take him seriously now and proceeded to come up with some seriously overreaching analyses that (thank goodness) have been left on the cutting room floor here. Now I've listened to this album maybe two dozen times. I love it, I think it's one of the finest offerings of any power pop artist, I think the band is perfect and the writing is stellar. I think it draws you in and tests you like very few projects to. I think it's a little much half the time and not enough the other half. It's never perfect. But it's deep, deep, deep, and you can take the rabbit hole all the way down if you want. Been there done that -- not worth it. Nothing of value is buried here.

That said, this is a phenomenal fucking album with one of the best and most consistent sounds in the genre. You WILL enjoy listening to it if you have any love in your heart for music of its ilk.

8. Postscript

Reasons you might not like this album:

You think his voice sounds weird.

You know who Big Star is and you hate them.

On a more serious note, if you expect explicitness in your authenticity, you might find this to be the work of a poser. Nothing could be further from the truth, but it's a feeling that you might have, which is perfectly capable of turning you off from the album.

This is at its core a decent album with outstanding music and sound. In the event that you don't like the music itself, just turn it off and call it a day. It's consistent across the whole album, and you will NOT find this record's salvation in its lyrics or any sort of political commentary. I recommend it because it's got the depth to stay interesting while also being a power pop musical tour de force. If you're not sure what I'm talking about just listen to Pay It Back first, and if that doesn't do it for you, don't sweat it.

However, if it does, drop a note. I'll make fun of you for reading this far.

#elvis costello #power pop #music #music review #albums #album review #music recs #song recs #70's music #punk #my aim is true

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missmentelle · 3 years

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Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things

If you’ve been paying attention for the last couple of years, you might have noticed that the world has a bit of a misinformation problem.

The problem isn’t just with the recent election conspiracies, either. The last couple of years has brought us the rise (and occasionally fall) of misinformation-based movements like:

Sandy Hook conspiracies

Gamergate

Pizzagate

The MRA/incel/MGTOW movements

anti-vaxxers

flat-earthers

the birther movement

the Illuminati

climate change denial

Spygate

Holocaust denial

COVID-19 denial

5G panic

QAnon

But why do people believe this stuff?

It would be easy - too easy - to say that people fall for this stuff because they’re stupid. We all want to believe that smart people like us are immune from being taken in by deranged conspiracies. But it’s just not that simple. People from all walks of life are going down these rabbit holes - people with degrees and professional careers and rich lives have fallen for these theories, leaving their loved ones baffled. Decades-long relationships have splintered this year, as the number of people flocking to these conspiracies out of nowhere reaches a fever pitch.

So why do smart people start believing some incredibly stupid things? It’s because:

Our brains are built to identify patterns.

Our brains fucking love puzzles and patterns. This is a well-known phenomenon called apophenia, and at one point, it was probably helpful for our survival - the prehistoric human who noticed patterns in things like animal migration, plant life cycles and the movement of the stars was probably a lot more likely to survive than the human who couldn’t figure out how to use natural clues to navigate or find food.

The problem, though, is that we can’t really turn this off. Even when we’re presented with completely random data, we’ll see patterns. We see patterns in everything, even when there’s no pattern there. This is why people see Jesus in a burnt piece of toast or get superstitious about hockey playoffs or insist on always playing at a certain slot machine - our brains look for patterns in the constant barrage of random information in our daily lives, and insist that those patterns are really there, even when they’re completely imagined.

A lot of conspiracy theories have their roots in people making connections between things that aren’t really connected. The belief that “vaccines cause autism” was bolstered by the fact that the first recognizable symptoms of autism happen to appear at roughly the same time that children receive one of their rounds of childhood immunizations - the two things are completely unconnected, but our brains have a hard time letting go of the pattern they see there. Likewise, many people were quick to latch on to the fact that early maps of COVID infections were extremely similar to maps of 5G coverage - the fact that there’s a reasonable explanation for this (major cities are more likely to have both high COVID cases AND 5G networks) doesn’t change the fact that our brains just really, really want to see a connection there.

Our brains love proportionality.

Specifically, our brains like effects to be directly proportional to their causes - in other words, we like it when big events have big causes, and small causes only lead to small events. It’s uncomfortable for us when the reverse is true. And so anytime we feel like a “big” event (celebrity death, global pandemic, your precious child is diagnosed with autism) has a small or unsatisfying cause (car accident, pandemics just sort of happen every few decades, people just get autism sometimes), we sometimes feel the need to start looking around for the bigger, more sinister, “true” cause of that event.

Consider, for instance, the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II. In 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot four times by a Turkish member of a known Italian paramilitary secret society who’d recently escaped from prison - on the surface, it seems like the sort of thing conspiracy theorists salivate over, seeing how it was an actual multinational conspiracy. But they never had much interest in the assassination attempt. Why? Because the Pope didn’t die. He recovered from his injuries and went right back to Pope-ing. The event didn’t have a serious outcome, and so people are content with the idea that one extremist carried it out. The death of Princess Diana, however, has been fertile ground for conspiracy theories; even though a woman dying in a car accident is less weird than a man being shot four times by a paid political assassin, her death has attracted more conspiracy theories because it had a bigger outcome. A princess dying in a car accident doesn’t feel big enough. It’s unsatisfying. We want such a monumentous moment in history to have a bigger, more interesting cause.

These theories prey on pre-existing fear and anger.

Are you a terrified new parent who wants the best for their child and feels anxious about having them injected with a substance you don’t totally understand? Congrats, you’re a prime target for the anti-vaccine movement. Are you a young white male who doesn’t like seeing more and more games aimed at women and minorities, and is worried that “your” gaming culture is being stolen from you? You might have been very interested in something called Gamergate. Are you a right-wing white person who worries that “your” country and way of life is being stolen by immigrants, non-Christians and coastal liberals? You’re going to love the “all left-wingers are Satantic pedo baby-eaters” messaging of QAnon.

Misinformation and conspiracy theories are often aimed strategically at the anxieties and fears that people are already experiencing. No one likes being told that their fears are insane or irrational; it’s not hard to see why people gravitate towards communities that say “yes, you were right all along, and everyone who told you that you were nuts to be worried about this is just a dumb sheep. We believe you, and we have evidence that you were right along, right here.” Fear is a powerful motivator, and you can make people believe and do some pretty extreme things if you just keep telling them “yes, that thing you’re afraid of is true, but also it’s way worse than you could have ever imagined.”

Real information is often complicated, hard to understand, and inherently unsatisfying.

The information that comes from the scientific community is often very frustrating for a layperson; we want science to have hard-and-fast answers, but it doesn’t. The closest you get to a straight answer is often “it depends” or “we don’t know, but we think X might be likely”. Understanding the results of a scientific study with any confidence requires knowing about sampling practices, error types, effect sizes, confidence intervals and publishing biases. Even asking a simple question like “is X bad for my child” will usually get you a complicated, uncertain answer - in most cases, it really just depends. Not understanding complex topics makes people afraid - it makes it hard to trust that they’re being given the right information, and that they’re making the right choices.

Conspiracy theories and misinformation, on the other hand, are often simple, and they are certain. Vaccines bad. Natural things good. 5G bad. Organic food good. The reason girls won’t date you isn’t a complex combination of your social skills, hygiene, appearance, projected values, personal circumstances, degree of extroversion, luck and life phase - girls won’t date you because feminism is bad, and if we got rid of feminism you’d have a girlfriend. The reason Donald Trump was an unpopular president wasn’t a complex combination of his public bigotry, lack of decorum, lack of qualifications, open incompetence, nepotism, corruption, loss of soft power, refusal to uphold the basic responsibilities of his position or his constant lying - they hated him because he was fighting a secret sex cult and they’re all in it.

Instead of making you feel stupid because you’re overwhelmed with complex information, expert opinions and uncertain advice, conspiracy theories make you feel smart - smarter, in fact, than everyone who doesn’t believe in them. And that’s a powerful thing for people living in a credential-heavy world.

Many conspiracy theories are unfalsifiable.

It is very difficult to prove a negative. If I tell you, for instance, that there’s no such thing as a purple swan, it would be very difficult for me to actually prove that to you - I could spend the rest of my life photographing swans and looking for swans and talking to people who know a lot about swans, and yet the slim possibility would still exist that there was a purple swan out there somewhere that I just hadn’t found yet. That’s why, in most circumstances, the burden of proof lies with the person making the extraordinary claim - if you tell me that purple swans exist, we should continue to assume that they don’t until you actually produce a purple swan.

Conspiracy theories, however, are built so that it’s nearly impossible to “prove” them wrong. Is there any proof that the world’s top-ranking politicians and celebrities are all in a giant child sex trafficking cult? No. But can you prove that they aren’t in a child sex-trafficking cult? No, not really. Even if I, again, spent the rest of my life investigating celebrities and following celebrities and talking to people who know celebrities, I still couldn’t definitely prove that this cult doesn’t exist - there’s always a chance that the specific celebrities I’ve investigated just aren’t in the cult (but other ones are!) or that they’re hiding evidence of the cult even better than we think. Lack of evidence for a conspiracy theory is always treated as more evidence for the theory - we can’t find anything because this goes even higher up than we think! They’re even more sophisticated at hiding this than we thought! People deeply entrenched in these theories don’t even realize that they are stuck in a circular loop where everything seems to prove their theory right - they just see a mountain of “evidence” for their side.

Our brains are very attached to information that we “learned” by ourselves.

Learning accurate information is not a particularly interactive or exciting experience. An expert or reliable source just presents the information to you in its entirety, you read or watch the information, and that’s the end of it. You can look for more information or look for clarification of something, but it’s a one-way street - the information is just laid out for you, you take what you need, end of story.

Conspiracy theories, on the other hand, almost never show their hand all at once. They drop little breadcrumbs of information that slowly lead you where they want you to go. This is why conspiracy theorists are forever telling you to “do your research” - they know that if they tell you everything at once, you won’t believe them. Instead, they want you to indoctrinate yourself slowly over time, by taking the little hints they give you and running off to find or invent evidence that matches that clue. If I tell you that celebrities often wear symbols that identify them as part of a cult and that you should “do your research” about it, you can absolutely find evidence that substantiates my claim - there are literally millions of photos of celebrities out there, and anyone who looks hard enough is guaranteed to find common shapes, poses and themes that might just mean something (they don’t - eyes and triangles are incredibly common design elements, and if I took enough pictures of you, I could also “prove” that you also clearly display symbols that signal you’re in the cult).

The fact that you “found” the evidence on your own, however, makes it more meaningful to you. We trust ourselves, and we trust that the patterns we uncover by ourselves are true. It doesn’t feel like you’re being fed misinformation - it feels like you’ve discovered an important truth that “they” didn’t want you to find, and you’ll hang onto that for dear life.

Older people have not learned to be media-literate in a digital world.

Fifty years ago, not just anyone could access popular media. All of this stuff had a huge barrier to entry - if you wanted to be on TV or be in the papers or have a radio show, you had to be a professional affiliated with a major media brand. Consumers didn’t have easy access to niche communities or alternative information - your sources of information were basically your local paper, the nightly news, and your morning radio show, and they all more or less agreed on the same set of facts. For decades, if it looked official and it appeared in print, you could probably trust that it was true.

Of course, we live in a very different world today - today, any asshole can accumulate an audience of millions, even if they have no credentials and nothing they say is actually true (like “The Food Babe”, a blogger with no credentials in medicine, nutrition, health sciences, biology or chemistry who peddles health misinformation to the 3 million people who visit her blog every month). It’s very tough for older people (and some younger people) to get their heads around the fact that it’s very easy to create an “official-looking” news source, and that they can’t necessarily trust everything they find on the internet. When you combine that with a tendency toward “clickbait headlines” that often misrepresent the information in the article, you have a generation struggling to determine who they can trust in a media landscape that doesn’t at all resemble the media landscape they once knew.

These beliefs become a part of someone’s identity.

A person doesn’t tell you that they believe in anti-vaxx information - they tell you that they ARE an anti-vaxxer. Likewise, people will tell you that they ARE a flat-earther, a birther, or a Gamergater. By design, these beliefs are not meant to be something you have a casual relationship with, like your opinion of pizza toppings or how much you trust local weather forecasts - they are meant to form a core part of your identity.

And once something becomes a core part of your identity, trying to make you stop believing it becomes almost impossible. Once we’ve formed an initial impression of something, facts just don’t change our minds. If you identify as an antivaxxer and I present evidence that disproves your beliefs, in your mind, I’m not correcting inaccurate information - I am launching a very personal attack against a core part of who you are. In fact, the more evidence I present, the more you will burrow down into your antivaxx beliefs, more confident than ever that you are right. Admitting that you are wrong about something that is important to you is painful, and your brain would prefer to simply deflect conflicting information rather than subject you to that pain.

We can see this at work with something called the confirmation bias. Simply put, once we believe something, our brains hold on to all evidence that that belief is true, and ignore evidence that it’s false. If I show you 100 articles that disprove your pet theory and 3 articles that confirm it, you’ll cling to those 3 articles and forget about the rest. Even if I show you nothing but articles that disprove your theory, you’ll likely go through them and pick out any ambiguous or conflicting information as evidence for “your side”, even if the conclusion of the article shows that you are wrong - our brains simply care about feeling right more than they care about what is actually true.

There is a strong community aspect to these theories.

There is no one quite as supportive or as understanding as a conspiracy theorist - provided, of course, that you believe in the same conspiracy theories that they do. People who start looking into these conspiracy theories are told that they aren’t crazy, and that their fears are totally valid. They’re told that the people in their lives who doubted them were just brainwashed sheep, but that they’ve finally found a community of people who get where they’re coming from. Whenever they report back to the group with the “evidence” they’ve found or the new elaborations on the conspiracy theory that they’ve been thinking of (“what if it’s even worse than we thought??”), they are given praise for their valuable contributions. These conspiracy groups often become important parts of people’s social networks - they can spend hours every day talking with like-minded people from these communities and sharing their ideas.

Of course, the flipside of this is that anyone who starts to doubt or move away from the conspiracy immediately loses that community and social support. People who have broken away from antivaxx and QAnon often say that the hardest part of leaving was losing the community and friendships they’d built - not necessarily giving up on the theory itself. Many people are rejected by their real-life friends and family once they start to get entrenched in conspiracy theories; the friendships they build online in the course of researching these theories often become the only social supports they have left, and losing those supports means having no one to turn to at all. This is by design - the threat of losing your community has kept people trapped in abusive religious sects and cults for as long as those things have existed.

#missmentelle #askmissmentelle #conspiracy theories #cults #psychology #science #neuroscience

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chrissshub · 2 years

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ADORATION

ft. Daichi Sawamura

cw: body worship, oral(f. receiving), fingering, soft Daichi for the win :)))

tags: @dejwrites @gabzlovesu @nanaminshousewife @angwritez

To simply say that Daichi Samawara loved every inch of you would be an understatement of sorts. Why, he loved every curve, crevice, even down to the follicles of hair that adorned your body with such passion that it could only be translated through his touch.

He reminds you on a daily basis on just how beautiful you were, telling of how you needed to held to the highest degree of worship. You push it off, claiming that it was Daichi's kindness that dictated his words.

Of course. he had his way of proving his statements to be true.

When spending mornings with Daichi, it follows the same route before he’s off to work to serve the fine people of the land. Yet these same mornings with Daichi never lacked having those large, calloused hands of his latching onto your figure, hugging your body in pure bliss.

His lips ghost past your skin, pressing tender pecks to the curve of your shoulder to the indent of your collarbone, leading up to your lips. He always leaves the best for last, beginning with soft, lingering brushes along the corners of your lip to the center, sinking into the plush masses. Gentle moans pour from his throat, relishing in the way your lips welcome his own.

When you jolt awake from the stirring of his mouth, Daichi gives you a soft grin. “Morning,” he croaks with sleep still drenching his tone, pulling away from the sweet kiss he laid upon you. You cup his cheek gently, immersing yourself back into the kiss. You call his love of you an innocent obsession, the way he can’t seem to keep away from you.

From the hold around your waist, he starts to get a little curious, drifting down to the clenching mass of your thighs. He knows just how sensitive you are, the prickling of your blood reacting to his touch. So when he finally slips pasts the waistband of your panties, a delicate gasp can’t help but fill your lungs.

He’s so faint with his touch, the tips of his fingers sinking past the puffy lips of your cunt. When your stomach caves in from the sudden brush of friction, he’s immediately meeting your gaping mouth with a kiss. Daichi’s always so curious to discover what makes you quiver, cry out or even just beg for more of him.

That’s why when he finally grazes the hooded nerves of your clit, he watches for even the slightest twitch of your legs beneath the thick duvet. When he gets his desired results, he turns to you, a thin-lipped grin creeping onto his lips.

“Feels good, Princess?” he checks, only to earn a mere whimper back. Your lithe digits latch around his wrist, encouraging him to use a bit more force than the fragile flicks he’d been using. He notices how needy you are, hips rolling against the flat of his broad fingers. He lets you get a feel for rhythm, keeping a steady pace that had your mouth parted and those heavy pants warming the air with its purity.

It was only a matter of time before Daichi was nose deep between your thighs, admiring the viscid mess of your arousal painting your folds. A masterpiece was the only word fit to describe this timeless moment to Daichi, using the strokes of his tongue to draw frail lines and patterns along the delicate bud. He has no intention of even overstimulating you, just basking in the flavor he savors a little too much.

Why once Daichi gets a taste of you, he’s drunk off you for the hours to follow. It clouds his mind, nothing of real importance ever comes to his thoughts whenever he’s so focused on receiving his fill of you, cautious enough not to miss a drop of you.

The broad of his tongue flatten your folds, revealing the innocent shade of pink to his eye. Those dark earthy hues lull to the back of his skull, It’s so cute to him, all of you. He can’t help but massage at the plush of your inner thigh, so much warmth and conforms to the shape of his palms without even the slightest bit of effort.

When he pulls away from you for a moment to catch his breath, Daichi studies the fruits of his work, allowing for your body to calm itself before returning to his heaven. He’ll lay his cheek against your inner thigh, thumbing at your slit to keep the pooling high of your orgasm at bay.

“You’re twitching, so fucking cute, Baby,” he coos, the flat of his tongue laving in the essence of your cunt. He’s ready to bring his mouth back to the raw of your cunt, of course, not without placing a sloppy kiss as a sign of his gratitude.

That’s what happens when Daichi absolutely adores you.

#anime #reader insert #x fem!reader #x female reader #x black fem reader #haikyuu x you #haikyuu!!#haikyuu #haikyuu smut #daichi x you #daichi x fem reader #haikyuu daichi #hq daichi #daichi sawamura #daichi smut #daichi scenario #daichi imagine #x black reader

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astrologyandlife · 3 years

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29° and 0° in astrology

the 29th and 0 degrees are said to be "critical" degrees in astrology, meaning that anything sitting in these degrees have a special influence on its expression and impact on the rest of the chart. so, i thought it would be a good idea to explore these two degrees and what they could mean for you guys!

part i: the 29th degree

the 29th degree is the very last degree of any zodiac sign. it is said to be the anaretic degree. here, the most difficult challenges related to the placement in question are presented, as everything else has been mastered. there is also a sense of inevitability with this placement. this is often marked by a turning point in the individual’s life.

sun – the ego and identity are strong, but there could be external circumstances that don’t allow the individual to express themselves in a completely authentic or transparent way. they must reconcile who they are inside with how they act. at times, they feel like an imposter, or like they are selling out to others. they know who they are, but do other people? this feeling that something is physically blocking them from existing impacts every action they take. they must figure out what is holding them back from complete self-expression and give themselves permission to be themselves in spite of this.

moon – this is where the most complex, desolate emotions a person can feel lie—the kinds of emotions that make you think nobody could possibly understand your experience. as a result, there is a profound sense of isolation and a difficulty integrating their emotional experiences into their self-expression. this only increases the intensity of the emotions, creating many situations of turbulence. sometimes the individual ends up completely blocking their emotions off to cope. only by facing their emotions head-on can they assuage these feelings and achieve a balanced state.

mercury – there is a tendency to get stuck in vicious cycles involving self-doubt and overthinking here. as a result, they sabotage their own efforts to make good decisions and communicate clearly. even a genius can make a fool out of himself. there can be this issue where they overthink sometimes and don’t think enough other times. they have this nagging feeling that they are missing some piece of information that is undiscovered or concealed from them. the final lesson is to trust the knowledge and experience they have to make the right decision.

venus – a profound sense of loneliness is pervasive throughout their life, as though every relationship they could have now would be empty and devoid of true connection. it’s entirely possible for these individuals to have trust issues, fall into unhealthy patterns in their relationships, and avoid intimacy. perhaps there is a part of themselves who feels they are unlovable in some way, or there is this one thing wrong with them, which they must forgive completely, the same way they would forgive and love another person.

mars – a desperation to act conflicts with a lack of confidence in their capability to do so. often this leads to them being frozen in the headlights like a deer, thinking, I have to do something but what if it’s wrong? the balance between too much and too little is blurred, leading to inconsistency and turbulence in their lives. they often end up in situations where they are forced to make snap decisions. re-calibrating their approach to conflict and matching their energy to the situation will relieve this problem.

jupiter – without thinking, these individuals over-indulge and rely on their luck and natural talents in some way. they want more of something, and it’s almost as though there is no satisfaction through receiving it. there is both a sense of hollowness and complacency that permeates as a result, and they forget how to materialize success through their own efforts. to remedy this, they must seek out growth, exploration, and expansion in its purest sense, to open their minds to a higher being or knowledge.

saturn – restrictive patterns are almost always the issue here. these individuals deprive them of something in their lives, not allowing even a moment of pleasure or reprieve from the overwhelming sense of responsibility they feel. external circumstances, especially in early life, have placed an undue burden on them, in some cases leading them to do anything to escape any responsibility placed on them later in life. to fix this, they have to let go of the guilt and fear they feel to give themselves back their agency.

uranus – how can they move forward? where is there to go that hasn’t been gone to before? in the same way that the sun in this degree struggles to find true authenticity in this liminal space, so too do these individuals struggle to find progression. somewhere they got stuck and stopped embracing their own unique qualities, which has made it impossible for them to then accept anything else. the final turning point here is to open their mind completely, to embrace entirely the open possibilities of the world.

neptune — this is the deepest recesses of this planet, where material reality as we know it does not even exist. at its most extreme, these individuals find it hard to live in this world because reality is simply too harsh for them in some way. escapism exists in its most extreme form, and the subconscious is too influential. and so, they need to escape themselves. here, the power has been given to a force that is not the individual, but rather something external to them. the task is to give this power back to the conscious individual, to escape the dream they have created for themselves and return to reality.

pluto — here, the complete death has occurred for the person. they have experienced the transformation, the change, and the end of the cycle. perhaps they have experienced in many times in their life. but the last stage hasn’t occurred yet. they become stuck before the rebirth stage, unable to complete the process. thus, the same situation happens over and over, re-opening wounds. the final turning point is to accept the change and open themselves up completely to renewal, to move on for good. lay it to rest.

part ii: the 0 degree

in contrast, the 0 degree is the very first degree of any zodiac sign. this is where the traits of the sign are most clearly and cohesively expressed, and also where there is the most to learn. you express this placement in a very raw, almost untouched way.

aries – there is a childlike innocence and naivete here, as well as an exaggerated impatience and sense of urgency. they feel that there is no time to wait. strong desire to be first and be a leader, even if they don’t know how to be one. there’s almost like a reckless quality to them. extremely assertive to a point of being hostile when others tell them what to do.

taurus – they are stubborn and fixed to the point of being unable to budge. it’s essentially impossible to stop the momentum once they’ve started, and they’re in it for the long haul. they can get stuck in their thinking and behavior patterns, doing the same thing over and over. absolutely must have stability and security in situations or they won’t commit.

gemini – absolutely no tolerance for boredom or lack of activity. they have to be doing something at all times, and often more than one thing. they’re extremely scattered. their curiosity drives them and they’re always asking questions or trying to learn more. they are constantly taking in information and changing their mind, never able to “settle.”

cancer – sensitive and emotional to the point where they can’t hide their feelings. here, there is someone who is very shy, cautious, and puts a protective shell around themselves. they have an intuition that is spot-on. very needy and moody. plays the role of caregiver and can be seen as a motherly figure. empathy is turned up all the way.

leo – they are completely self-focused and wants to be the center of attention. they want people’s eyes on them at all times, and they know how to light up a room. natural actors and tend toward being extremely dramatic. there is a sense of complete confidence in their abilities and pride in themselves. they refuse to settle for less than what they believe they deserve.

virgo – devoted to the service of others, typically in the form of providing feedback, criticism, and a helping hand. very critical and vocal about imperfections. they have an eye for detail that is unmatched. any form of disorganization or chaos is distressing to them, and they have highly specific routines and rituals. mind is constantly running to analyze and process information.

libra – cannot be alone whatsoever, and they are constantly seeking out connections with others. they are a complete pushover and seek out compromise in every situation. there is a desire to always seem agreeable and likeable. they often find themselves mediating for others, and there is an extreme need for harmony and balance. indecisive to the point of being paralyzed/hurt.

scorpio – the most private you’ll ever meet, and it’s impossible to get information out of them. feels the need to keep everything to themselves. has tons of secrets. they are super obsessive and will latch on to things quickly. needs control or to feel powerful in any situation. constantly on the defensive and trying to psychoanalyze the situation.

sagittarius – have an attitude of “it will all work out, don’t worry” even when they should be worrying. it’s impossible to tie down or get them to settle, because they have an intense need for freedom at all times. blindly faithful and optimistic. have a tendency to do things completely spontaneously. can feel claustrophobic when unable to freely act.

capricorn – absolutely rooted in tradition, even to the point of being narrow-minded. they constantly have to be going after success or achievement. the sense of responsibility is always present, which can lead to feelings of guilt or failure. an old soul from the beginning. a sense of “I have to get this right and prove myself” in anything they do.

aquarius – always has to be moving forward and making progress. extreme quirks are very possible here. highly open-minded and non-judgmental, and almost nothing surprises/shocks them. a savant, genius, or revolutionary. always at odds with figures of authority or traditionalists. a humanitarian to the extreme. they are ahead of their time.

pisces – hyper-sensitive to subtle influences and can be very spiritual or superstitious as a result. there’s an ever-present need to escape in some way, and they usually and have vivid imagination/rich fantasies. there can be a sense of directionlessness or shapelessness. the ultimate chameleon.

sun - feels the need for validation of who they are from others, projects a ton of confidence that they may not really have, very performative and forthright in expression. moon - often blindsided by their emotions, has difficulty realizing their needs and wants, less polished about handling their feelings. mercury - always curious and wants to know more, may present as a know-it-all or assert authority over topics, venus - loves the newness of relationships, craves connection and romance, wants to be well-liked by others, rejection is hard for them. mars - always in "go" mode, lots of energy and motivation, can be quick to anger or rile up, ends up in dangerous situations a lot. saturn - inherently assumes responsibility, has to learn lessons multiple times, tries to be disciplined and fails often. jupiter - lots of faith and optimism, definitely naive at heart, open to new experiences and chances for growth. uranus - has a lot of small quirks, open-minded and progressive, has a mindset of wanting to keep moving forward. neptune - rich imagination and a love for fantasy, feels directionless or like the possibilities are endless. pluto - may struggle with changes or transformations, lots of growth ahead of them, a strong presence that is very raw.

finally, i'd like to link some resources for further reading:

· https://www.astro.com/astrology/aa_article190801_e.htm (my favorite--super in-depth and peer-reviewed/published!)

· https://advanced-astrology.com/anaretic-degree/

· https://www.astrologyweekly.com/blog/29-degrees-the-anaretic-degree/

#other #this one took a couple months to put together due to needed to do heavy research!#astrology #degree theory #degrees #astro #natal chart

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