Mediaeval Battle of French and English — The Surrender of John II of France at the Battle of Poitiers.

English School, (19th century)

I like to wonder what must have been going through Jack Crawford's mind when he witnessed this scene.

Like— A dangerous criminal, the Chesapeake Ripper, surrenders outside the home of your most valued criminal profiler, saying he wants the said profiler to always know where he is and where to find him, while looking at him like a kicked puppy?

Jack: Good job, Will. What you two are tho, gays?

Obsidian Grove

power signalling

Kneeling.

Ordered to kneel as punishment or as a show of deference.

Shoved physically to the ground by hands on their shoulders, maybe a kick to the back of the knee.

Picking themself up off the ground but only getting as far as hands and knees.

Crawling because they haven't got the strength to stand anymore.

Dropping to their knees from exhaustion or despair.

Personal space.

Casually invading it.

Uninvited touch - from the deeply creepy to something as simple as a firm hand on the shoulder.

Standing too close - especially if taller or otherwise physically stronger.

Conversely, hurrying to get out of someone's way.

Eye contact.

Staring someone down. Who is the first to look away?

Averting eyes for one's social superiors. Trying to de-escalate by avoiding eye contact.

Too frightened or ashamed to look someone in the eye.

Insisting that someone maintain eye contact while you're talking to them. Insisting that someone never look you in the eye.

Singling someone out just by looking at them.

More generally, Attention.

The room falls quiet when they walk in.

Who cuts in, and who gets talked over. Ignoring those who are beneath your attention.

The excited attention given to the object of respect and idolization.

The careful, wary focus given to a potential threat.

Deliberately attending to something else to appear less threatening. Deliberately burying oneself in something else to avoid attracting unwanted attention.

Codified status behaviours.

Bowing to one's superiors. Bonus points if there are differentiated kinds of bowing for different status differentials.

Soldiers coming to attention when a superior officer comes.

Saluting. Who greets whom first?

Serving food in a particular order.

Standing up when a respected person enters the room.

Non-verbal threats.

Just resting a hand on a weapon, or perhaps even just near a weapon.

Cracking knuckles or rolling shoulders. Clenched fists. The little come-get-some-then life of the chin.

Stepping from a conversational stance into one that's balance for fight or flight.

Pointing a weapon at someone. Casually brushing aside a weapon.

Conversely, de-escalation and surrender.

Open hands, spread in front of them. Hands above head.

(Raised slowly, transitioning from the simple whoa-calm-down gesture to full on surrender as the situation gets tenser.)

Going still. Slow, careful movements being sure to keep hands where they can be seen. Laying down weapons.

Hands on head. Getting down on the floor. Deliberately making oneself vulnerable to prove non-hostile (or non-resisting) intent.

Alternately, deliberately showing "vulnerability" to demonstrate how little of a threat you consider the other person.

The slouch of villainy. Open posture, casual, relaxed in the face of apparent danger.

Casually putting weapons away or turning one's back, confident that they won't do anything.

Signs of fear.

Flinching. Trembling. Closed defensive posture. Tension. Backing away. Fidgeting. Lip-biting.

Arms hugged close to chest. Or refusing to lower defences. Checking for escape routes. Trying to insist that they don't come any closer.

Offer of or requests for help.

Extending a hand to help someone up off the ground. Reaching out a hand in silent plea.

Do they have to ask for help? Are they willing to accept it? Do they get a choice? Who has plenty and who has to rely on the other's goodwill?

Picking someone up off the ground. Carrying them. (Dropping them?)

Adjusting someone's clothes. Withholding aid.

credit:@just-horrible-things // @whetstonefires suggests:

A character can vastly expand their area of influence by laying a hand on a table, for example. If you're standing on opposite sides of a large table, and one of you puts your hand down, that can symbolically take you up into the other party's personal space in a much subtler and more deniable way than actually getting up in their face.

This can be used equally well to convey affection or threat.

A defiant whumpee, thrashing around, grunting, fighting as much as his body allows, kicking, punching, biting, crying, screaming, spitting. Whumper removing every bit of freedom with chains, ropes, gag/muzzle, blindfold, and putting whumpee in a severe stress position until he realizes there's only two options; to surrender or pass out and do it again until whumper gets exactly what he wants, whumpee's complete surrender.

Let go of everything

Every position that you find yourself in, every situation that you find yourself in, with whomever you find yourself, the positions that you have or don’t have, whatever you may be in this world, is your right place at this moment. Bless this, love it. I know it sounds hard when you think of a horrible condition and you say, “I must love it?” Let me explain again. The reason you love it, is because God is all there is. Try to remember this. There is nothing but God. Therefore if you hate something, you’re hating God which is your Self. It’s all coming out of you. You are That. You must learn to trust and love your Self, your precious Self. When you become despondent, depressed, hateful, feeling sorry for yourself, this is what blasphemy really means, for you’re feeling this way about your Self. Can’t you see? There’s only your Self. If you think something is horrible, you’re speaking about your Self. You look at a situation, you watch it, you observe it, you never react, you leave it alone. And then you’ll be given the power that you need to handle it, to go through it, without thinking, without thoughts, without any commotion, without any noise. These are the things you must work on. Be that Self. Never be frightened again by anything. If I can make this perfectly clear to you, never allow anything in this world to ever frighten you. Allow things to unfold as they may. Remember, you just watch and observe. Hold on to the truth. Happiness will come of its own accord. When you hold on to the truth, when you do not react to life’s conditions, person, place or thing, when you leave things alone and you stop fighting life, you’re not giving up. I’m telling you there is nothing to fight. And the only thing you’re giving up is your ego. You’re giving up your body, your ego, your mind. You rise to a higher dimension where there is happiness, peace, compassion, love and joy, that is naturally yours. You begin to feel these things instead of the things you felt before, prior to this, when you were fighting life, when you were sticking up for your rights, when you were trying to get even, when you were working as an ego. Let go of everything. Do not hold on. Stand naked before God, without any crutches, without anything to hold on to. When you can do this, from this moment on you will begin to rise. And you will become aware that you are not the body or the mind or the world or the universe, but you are effortless, choiceless, Pure Awareness. You are boundless space, infinite like the sky. You have become everything, and everything has become you. There comes a time in everyone’s life when they have to stand naked before God. By standing naked I mean no scripture, no fancy words, no preconceived ideas, no spiritual intellectual knowledge. But to be totally naked, in humility and humbleness. Therefore when you can forget about your scripture, forget about everything you’ve learned, and become totally empty, you will then become full.

from Silence of the Heart - Robert Adams

a hero coming to a villains compound, surrendering themselves, their friends dead and gone, they’re giving up, falling to their knees, head bowed, wrists held aloft in surrender.

affirmations for inner child healing and supporting your adult self 💗✍🏼✨

I am no longer responsible for my parents or their happiness

I am fully capable of surviving and thriving without my parents

I am no longer waiting for my parents to change or give me the love, support or care I desire

I am releasing all the expectations of my parents to be someone they’re not

I am accepting my parents exactly as they are and that they give me all they’re capable of giving

I appreciate the love and support my parents give me in their own way

I am responsible to give myself the love, care and support I desire and need

I am committed to fulfill my needs and love myself unconditionally exactly as I am

I am responsible for my life, happiness and healing

I am fully capable of supporting and being there for myself

Through every transformation, a deeper love is possible.

luvcompass highlights: Surrender

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *. ♡ .* :☆ﾟ.･ ｡ﾟ☆: *. ♡ .* :☆ﾟ.･･ ｡ﾟ☆: *. ♡ .* :☆ﾟ.･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.♡ .* :☆ﾟ

We think that we are our mind/body (identity) and we try desperately to get away from "it" - that leads to questions like "How do I change my awareness?". By society, we're taught to make effort, try harder, do this, do that. But the funny thing is, what's required is "no" effort - the watercourse way - no effort from the side of the mind. Because "trying to change" is the equivalent of trying to fight a shadow. The identity is a shadow, it is not us. Analyze your mind briefly, and you will find that it is nothing but a byproduct of societal conditioning, peer opinions, books, movies, whatever content you've most willingly consumed. The mind is incessantly thinking 24/7, it never stops. It drags you into its each and every thought. It's not really you thinking, you are being thought. "I want to change my awareness" - who does? The mind? It is not even you. You merely believe it to be yourself, and let yourself get dragged away by the thought. How do we stop this? There's only one way: surrender. Stop fighting. You cannot fight a shadow, you will only look like a fool. When you surrender, you go beyond and you re-realize yourself. Surrender. Surrender to however you are, whatever state you are in. Surrender to whatever is going on, whether you believe it to be good or bad, it does not matter, because it is the mind putting these labels on it. Stop chasing, because there is nothing that you need to achieve. Not even awareness, because you already are. There is no need to "go beyond the mind" because you already are beyond it. Do not try to intellectually understand this, just accept it, because it is truth. Your blood is flowing now, but your mind is not controlling that. What is? Awareness. You are already aware. So leave it. You are perfect as you are, perfection, godliness, divine.

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