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reality-detective · 2 months

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Questions To Ask Ourselves:

1. What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on a US dollar bill?

2. Why did 56 countries sign a treaty not to take risks and enter Antarctica?

3. Why do planes never fly over Antarctica?

4. How did NASA "lose" the photos of the moon landing, one of the most important moments for humanity?

5. If Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon, who held the camera?

6. Why haven't we gone back to the moon?

7. If monkeys evolved into humans, why are there still monkeys?

8. Why does 95% of our DNA exist as "junk"? Who decided it was actually "garbage"?

9. How were huge, symmetrical, detailed, sacred, and geometrically regular structures such as cathedrals and parliamentary buildings created by people who lived in log cabins, rode horse-drawn carriages, and had no machines or lasers?

10. How is it that similar pre-Columbian architecture is found all over the world?

11. Why are there images in ancient Egyptian art that resemble "spaceships"?

12. Why were remains and images of giant people found? And why do different ancient scriptures from various cultures, including the Bible, talk about giants?

13. Why are there images of mushrooms in ancient Christian art? And why does the Pope dress up like a giant Amanita muscaria mushroom?

14. Why do ancient Egyptian artworks show jaws, and is it a coincidence that the pineal gland resembles jaws?

15. Why are there descriptions of dragons all over the world and in different cultures, thousands of years apart, and also mentioned in the Bible?

16. Why is there so much blatant satanic symbolism in the music and entertainment industry?

17. Why do most video games revolve around killing?

18. How is it possible that movies and cartoons like The Simpsons can predict certain cultural events so accurately?

19. How do forest fires melt cars but leave trees intact?

20. What is the national debt? If there is a borrower, there must also be a lender: who is it?

21. How is it that the so-called "national debt" has increased despite tax increases? Where does the taxpayer's money go?

22. Why is alcohol and tobacco poisoning considered "normal" and referred to simply as "drinking" and "smoking"?

23. Why are alcohol and tobacco shown in almost all shows and movies?

24. How do news presenters around the world and on various channels say and repeat the same script word for word?

25. If we are more progressive and informed than ever before, why do we have the highest rates of obesity, cancer, and heart disease, not to mention depression?

Questions you should have already been asking yourself and there are many more you should be asking. 🤔

#pay attention #educate yourselves #educate yourself #knowledge is power #reeducate yourself #reeducate yourselves #think about it #think for yourselves #think for yourself #do your homework #do your own research #do some research #ask yourself questions #question everything #ask questions #fitfo

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cherubispunk · 3 months

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NEPHILIM - Jackson-era!Joel Miller x AFAB!Reader

summary: the disturbing comforts the disturbed.

a note from Lucy: I swear there is fluff! I swear, I swear, I swear! You just have to squint *reeeeaaaalllly* hard. Yes, I read the book of genesis and the book numbers along with some extensive Wikipedia deep diving for like…a paragraph of lore. But is it really ever enough?

playlist | moodboard

wc: 2498

Warnings: 18+ MDNI DARK CONTENT! no use of y/n, I tried to keep her body type as generic as possible but he might be slightly skinny coded so please let me know and I’ll change it in edits, reader is referred to as ‘Bambi’, verbally constipated Joel Miller, brief gore descriptions, heavy religious imagery and references to the bible, biblical lore, bombastic age gap!!! yahhhhh! (reader is in her 20’s/ Joel is in his late 50’s), smut, p in v sex, creampie, fingering, rough sex, possessive!joel, dom!joel/sub!reader dynamic, you know the drill with my writing, there’s probably some form of cannibalism as a metaphor, or brutal violence as a metaphor, religious imagery as a metaphor, etc. (aka, fancy word vomit)

series masterlist | m.list

Genesis 6:4 The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.

The reality of it was, you and Joel were two people who lived in the same small town. Who’s paths crossed once to save your life, and the others when coincidence would grant you that small pleasure. He carried you to the care of an old man with blue eyes now milky in cataracts. Jude. Who nursed you to health in a metal framed bed of an old family home— now the town clinic. The knife that sliced open your side had been dirty, and sepsis soon spread in the bloody gash. Only with Joel finding you in the snow, and Jude delivering you antibiotics, did you recover back to health.

He wouldn’t visit you directly. He would visit Jude and glance at you through the doorway as he passed the hall to the elderly Man’s office. To distract from the man you read stories when bedridden. Parts of biblical scripture; Read the book of Genesis; Read the book of Numbers. Jude being a religious man who had the fortune of holding God in his heart, kept them among his medical journals and books. And the former was far more interesting than the later in your opinion. For in them were mentions of anthropomorphic creatures born of flesh, blood and divinity. Towering tall over common trees and temples built in the name of Lord God. You were no religious woman, but you found comfort in the fables of the Old Testament. And likened Joel to the Nephilim in all ways.

Joel Miller was something of a biblical figure to you. A small glimpse into the past of something archaic, untold, and harbouring on the dangerous. You liked to imagine him as one of the Nephilim. A son of god, offspring borne of a fallen angel and man. A giant of misunderstood nature. Who’s soul had been cast down on earth in punishment. His large hands had bloodshed on them, or so people had said. They whispered it quietly in the spaces between. The places he didn’t occupy often. But he was always on your mind…so there was no place for those whispers there. If he was all that bad…why did he save you? You saw his need to care, protect, understand. Not be understood. But just understand. You would let yourself dream of taking his rough edges to the smooth plane of a whetstone. People claimed you cannot buff brass into gold. That it will only be as such in your head. That it was a fools game, but the fool is rich in content, and poor in sorrow. For the fool has little to worry about while they live in ignorant bliss.

What wasn’t written in any of the books of the holy scripture was this; ‘The disturbing comforts the disturbed.’ But it might as well have been. It was practically the way god intended life to be. You are shaken, and you are weaned on being shaken, until stillness is a discomfort and your body begs to be rattled again. But harder.

—

You took a while to find your feet. Joel took it upon himself to wordlessly help you with any medial or manual task. You were given a house on the edge of town, up a hill in some remote street that was always quiet. It seemed the less social souls resided there. Not that you minded. It was jarring to say the least. Being cast out into the hostile wild. And then brought back into the warmth. Here you had clothes, food, a roof over your head, and community. It stung in the same way it does to run your hands under a scalding tap after labouring out in the cold. It made your fingers numb before they regained feeling. Stiff. And a trouble to flex them back and forth, closed fist, open palm; Closed fist, open palm.

It’s how you earned ‘Bambi’. A name only Joel would ever call you. Dear doe on her wobbly, spindly legs. He’d keep you upright. Despite being a good thirty year sicker than you. Dirty old man. Ditsy little girl.

Your time together was silent. And while he never said he cared, he showed it. By waiting for you each time you were in the stables. And he would walk through town with you a safe distance from his side, up to the top of the hill your house was on. The snow would crunch under his heavy boots and he wished he was lighter on his feet like you. Not a large bulk of a man with heavy feet and even heavier hand. Maybe Joel wasn't large by the world's standards, but he was still a giant to you- muscular, and broad shoulders. With hands that could engulf yours, or cradle the entire crown of your head with a single palm. His arms were strong, and large from manual labour, and tightly knotted with tendons and grizzly muscle like thick twisted ropes that held up sails. What you liked most, however, was his softer belly. Perhaps the only soft thing about him from what little you had seen, or heard, or assumed. You felt an intrinsic satisfaction in knowing he was well fed. And Joel didn't mind it either. It was a reminder to himself what he was in fact as safe as he could be. Anything to not go hungry again. He still kept his brawns either way. Kept his hands and mind busy with patrols and the odd job around town. Fixing roofs, garden sheds, building tables with spare lumber from the woodhouse, and chopping firewood for the colder months. At the beginning of winter he would spend most of his free time ensuring you had enough. He spent hours out in his backyard, swinging that axe down on log, after log of wood. Then carry it up the hill in a wheelbarrow to your front door. He did it for nothing. Nothing but the peace of mind that grew from the seed of knowing you were warm. But he was greeted with something you had baked, or sewn, or knitted, or grown in your empty hours alone. Apple and rhubarb pie, thick woollen gloves, sourdough bread with crunchy, thick crusts that crunched when he broke his bread.

“It’s nothin’.” He would say, and shrug, hands on his hips while he looked back at the finished product of whatever work he’d slaved over that entire afternoon. Be it a pile of firewood, raised garden beds, or a fixed gutter. “Just…do me a favour?” He asked.

“Yeah?”

“Keep that smile on y’face, Bambi. Don’t let anyone take it away from ya.” His face was stern. As if he was telling you, not asking you. But if you were to ever stop smiling he thought he’d keel over and die a little bit inside. Or part of him would anyway. The part of him you now had in your chest unwittingly.

You watched the mountain of a man, Big Bad Joel Miller, warm up. Day by slow day. He was on the threshold of it. Right there. But the toe of his thick winter boots never ventured onto floorboards. He stayed out in the cold. After a while you dared Joel to touch you. Tired of him only meeting halfway. He was a man of few words, but a man of so much action. And when you challenged him with your tongue, he countered with his touch. That night was hell under the guise of heaven for his restraint.

“Y’so bad for me, Bambi.” Joel grunted, his entire weight smothering you against the mattress of his bed. His cock dragging in and out of you slowly. “Old sinner like me ain’t made for you.” So slowly the anticipation ached in the joints of your toes that curled. His grip on your hips casting his handprint in a watercolour bloom. “That’s it, fuck– takin’ me so well.”

You whimpered, eyes fluttering shut, back arching in a deep curve off the bed while his hips altered their pace. Just a tad quicker as you bucked up into him. The two of you climbing in tandem to the high. “That's it,” He repeated in a hiss, followed by a growl into your neck, “Keep archin’ that back for me.” You did just that, holding onto his forearms for leverage as you curled your spine a little deeper. A word came to mind. One you’d heard once before. Only once. But I held such a comfort to be able to label it. Hiraeth. He was that. And what you felt was that. A longing for a home. He treated you like you wouldn't break. But spoke as if words would lacerate you. One punctuated thrust, aided by your own slick was all it took, a moan for him deeper. A tear slipped from your eye and you let gravity do its work, pulling it from you. It slipped from the corner of your eye, and down your temple. “Good girl, Bambi.” He crooned, splaying both of his palms over your hairline and sweeping the hair that stuck to your forehead in the sheen of sweat atop your skin. His large hands dragged over the top of your skull to the crown of your head, down the back of your neck, and gripped. That soft fleshy part at the base of your skull and the top of your still curved spine.

It hurt. It deeply hurt. His calloused fingers, textured by the trigger of a gun, or the handle of an axe, pressing into your malleable skin. But you’d let Joel drag you to hell if it meant he would hold your hand. You didn't care how he touched you– how he was inside you. He could be buried to hilt in your cunt, or knuckle deep in an open wound. As long as he was there. You'd give the heavens, and the earth, and rot in hell if it meant he stayed. Joel swore you had the space for his heart next to yours. But you didn't have the stomach.

You gripped the skin of Joel’s back. Searching for a part of him to hold that would turn off the cynic in him. Or at least try. You gave up on that idea. Because the man that fucked you— the man that loved you in action and not words— was not kind. He was not gentle. He was bold, and sharp as broken glass, and blunt all in the same being. You knew the crease of his brow. You had it memorised.

He hooked a leg over his shoulder, opened you up to his greedy eyes. They misted into dark hickory at the sight of you taking him so well inside of you. Messy little cunt for him to play with whenever he pleased. His nostrils flared as he pressed deeper. And your reaction was as he planned. A cry of his name. Your sex drenched and accommodating every inch. “A cunt made for me.” He gritted through his teeth, leaning forward to sink his teeth into your bottom lip and lick into the wet cavern of your mouth; Take the taste of you back with him when he retreated again; Righting his hips and the angle he fucked you in.

“Made for you.” You agreed in a garble and a slur. As if drunk off the last dregs of his kindness that lay at the bottom of the bottle. Licking it dry for all it was still worth.

“Say it again.” Joel grunted, demanded.

“Made for you.” You repeated.

“Good little Bambi.”

From there it was the crescendo. And it came broken in two halves of two separate waves. The first wave was one of numbing pleasure. The one that fizzled through your legs until you were nothing but a mere speck for a second. And the second was the one that broke you. Had you shattering. It tightened in your womb, behind the mouth of your cervix, and then released in slow flutter; Your walls relaxing and then contracting. And he came after with a groan and spilled inside of you.

He was no gentle lover. In fact, he wasn’t a lover at all. When he fucked you that night…it felt like he was trying to love you— but couldn’t. He was too conditioned to violence. It showed the ache he left behind. Nevertheless, you would take more than he was willing to offer. But what he dropped in your palm you stored away and hoarded like a greedy magpie with shiny little trinkets. He was warm. But not warm like a campfire. He was warm like hellflame. And you were okay with that. You would take your time with him, and slowly pry open a gap in his ribs to slip past. To love him to the marrow. Even the mangled parts. Find him at his very worst — The part humanity suffocated in. And love him there. Silently.

Joel ran a hand over the flank of your ribs and then curled around your navel to pull your back to his chest. Then kissed the crook of your neck in a silent apology to your skin for each mark or tender bruise he may have left. One that wasn't really needed, but you accepted it by reaching behind you and running your fingers through his thick greying curls. In times like these after it all, in the clot and space in between, you came to realise loving him was like loving being hungry. It felt good to want things. To feed yourself you swallowed your fear instead. You lay there, exhaustion heavy in your bones, a hand of his slipping between your legs to feel the evidence of him being there inside you. His spend sticky and thick and warm between your legs. You couldn't fight the impulsive twitch that jolted your spine when he pressed on your swollen, slick clit and drew lazy circles. “Mine now, Bambi.” He murmured into the skin of your shoulder. He didn't kiss the skin there, but rather trailed his chapped lips over your flesh in such a light touch it felt like it was hardly there. More a trick of the sex hazed, lust crazed mind. “Understand that?” And you nodded in silence with a small smile, watching out the frosted up window pane as the dawn stained the sky a burnt orange and angry red. It refracted and smeared in the crystallised ice. A thin sheet that obscured the image of the sycamore tree outside his bedroom window. The bare branches looked far more like the bones of skeletal fingers than a tree bare of leaves. Its bleach white bark only emphasised your image of it. Your vision. Nevertheless; The blackbird would sing, once again on its branch, a morning song you knew by heart.

#joel miller #joel miller x reader #the last of us #joel miller smut #joel miller fanfiction #joel miller x y/n #joel miller x you #joel tlou #joel x reader #joel the last of us #joel miller fic #joel miller fanfic #joel miller tlou #joel miller imagine #nephilim

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rolainisblessed81 · 9 months

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Don't Let Fear Win

Choose faith over fear today, tomorrow and every other coming day of your lifeChoosing fear must not be an optionFaith in God is what will get you through the storms that come your way When you are walking in fear, faith is not present. And that’s what the enemy wants for us to be controlled by fear. But if we are filled and controlled by fear then we cannot also walk by faith and that is the…

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#believe #encouragement #faith #giants #lie #scripture #trust God #truth

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yoga-onion · 1 month

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[Image above: Gobajo statue with a crown of elephant, the largest animal on land, on its head. One of the Eight Legions.]

Legends of the humanoids

Reptilian humanoids (10)

The Eight Great Dragon Kings – Dragon tribes who listened to the Buddha's teachings.

They are the eight kings of the dragon races, who belong to the Eight Legions of Buddhist dieties. They protect the Buddha Dharma.

In Buddhism, Nagaraja (lit. 'king of the nagas') in Hindu mythology was incorporated as various dragon deities, including the Eight Great Dragon Kings.

Nagarajas are supernatural beings who are kings of the various races of Nagas, the divine or semi-divine, half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human form. The duties of the Nāga Kings included leading the nagas in protecting the Buddha, other enlightened beings, as well as protecting the Buddha Dharma.

Some of the most notable Nagarajas occurring in Buddhist scriptures are Virupaksa, Mucalinda, Dhrtarastra, and the following Eight Great Dragon Kings:

Nanda (Ananta, lit. joy): Ananta and Upananda were brother dragon kings who once fought against the Dragon King Sagara.

Upananda (lit. sublime joy): Brother of Nanda. Together with King Nanda, he protected the country of Magadha, ensuring that there was no famine, and when the Buddha descended, he sent rain to bless it and attended all the sittings where he preached. After the Buddha's death, he protected the Buddha Dharma forever.

Sagara (lit. 'Great Sea'): king of the Dragon Palace. King of the Great Sea Dragon.The 8-year-old Dragon Lady in the Lotus Sutra was the third princess of this Dragon King and was known as the Zennyo Ryuo (lit. "goodness woman dragon-king").

Vasuki (lit.'treasure'): sometimes referred to as the Nine-Headed Dragon King with the 'nine' meaning the extremity of yang and extremely large and powerful in number. Thus, he was thought of as the "Nine-Headed Dragon King". In the original legend, he was seldom called the 'Many-headed Dragon King' because there were a thousand of heads. Originally, he protected Mt. Meru (Ref1) and took tiny dragons to eat.

Takshaka (lit. ‘polyglot' or 'visual poison'): When this dragon is angrily stared at, the person is said to die out. From the Golden Light Sutra, the Seven-faced Tennyo is said to be the daughter of this Dragon King.

Anavatapta (lit. "cool and free from heat"): was said to live in the mythical pond in the northern Himalayas, Anuttara (lit. "free from heat"), which emitted great rivers in all directions to moisten the human continent of Jambudvīpa. A pond that stretches for approx. 3142 km, the banks of the pond were said to be made of four treasures, including gold, silver and others. This Dragon King was venerated as an incarnation of a Bodhisattva.

Manasvin (lit. 'giant' or 'great power'): When Asura (See2 & See3) attacked Kimi Castle with seawater, he twisted himself around and pushed the water back. Kimi Castle is the castle in Trayastrimsa at the top of Mt. Meru, where Sakra (Indra:Ref) resides.

Uppalaka (Utpala: lit. blue lotus flower): blue lotus flower dragon king. He is said to dwell in a pond that produces blue lotus flowers. In India, the shape of the petals and leaves is used metaphorically to represent the eye, especially the blue water lily (nilotpala), which is a metaphor for a beautiful eye. In Buddhism, the Buddha's eyes are considered to be dark blue (nila), one of the 32 phases (ref4) and 80 kinds of favourites (ref5), "eye colour ".

伝説のヒューマノイドたち

ヒト型爬虫類 (10)

八大龍王〜釈迦の教えに耳を傾けた龍族

彼らは、天龍八部衆に所属する龍族の八柱の王である。仏法を守護している。

仏教では、インド神話におけるナーガラジャ (ナーガの諸王の意) が、八大龍王をはじめさまざまな龍神として取り入れられた。ナーガラージャとは、冥界 (パタラ) に住む神または半神半人の蛇のような存在であるナーガ (参照) の様々な種族の王であり、時には人間の姿をとることもある超自然的な存在のこと。

ナーガ王たちの任務は、ナーガたちを率いて仏陀や他の悟りを開いた存在たちを守護し、仏陀の教えを守ることであった。

仏教経典に登場するナーガラージャの中で最も有名なものには、ヴィルパクサ、ムカリンダ、ドルタラストラ、そして以下の八大龍王たちである:

難陀 (ｱﾅﾝﾀ:歓喜の意): 難陀と跋難陀は兄弟竜王で娑伽羅 (ｻｰｶﾞﾗ:大海の意) 龍王と戦ったことがあった。

跋難陀 (ｳﾊﾟﾅﾝﾀﾞ: 亜歓喜の意): 難陀の弟。難陀竜王と共にマガダ国を保護して飢饉なからしめ、また釈迦の降生の時、雨を降らしてこれを灌ぎ、説法の会座に必ず参じ、釈迦仏入滅の後は永く仏法を守護した。

娑伽羅 (ｻｰｶﾞﾗ:大海の意): 龍宮の王。大海龍王。法華経に登場する八歳の龍女はこの龍王の第三王女で「善女龍王」と呼ばれた。

和修吉 (ｳﾞｧｰｽｷ: 宝有の意):「九頭龍王」と呼ばれることもある。「九」は陽の極まりを意味し、数が非常に多く強力であることから、「九頭龍王」と考えられた。そのため、彼は「九頭の龍王」と考えられていた。元の伝説では、頭が千個あったため、稀に「多頭龍王」と呼ばれることもあった。もともとは、須弥山（参照1）を守り、細龍を捕らえて食べていた。

徳叉迦 (ﾀｸｼｬｶ: 多舌、視毒の意): この龍が怒って凝視された時、その人は息絶えるといわれる。身延鏡と金光明経から七面天女は、この龍王の娘とされている。

阿那婆達多 (ｱﾅｳﾞｧﾀﾌﾟﾀ: 清涼、無熱悩の意): ヒマラヤ山脈北部にある神話上の池、阿耨達池 (無熱悩池) に住み、四方に大河を出して人間の住む大陸閻浮提 (えんぶだい) を潤していた。全長800里 (約3142 km)にも及ぶ池の岸辺は金・銀などの四宝よりなっていたという。この龍王は菩薩の化身として崇められていた。

摩那斯 (ﾏﾅｽｳﾞｨﾝ: 大身、大力の意): 阿修羅（参照2 & 参照3）が海水をもって喜見城を侵したとき、身をよじらせて海水を押し戻したという。喜見城とは須弥山の頂上の忉利天にある帝釈天 (梵: インドラ参照) の居城。

優鉢羅 (ｳｯﾊﾟﾗｶ: 青蓮華の意): 青蓮華龍王。青蓮華を生ずる池に住まうという。インドでは花弁や葉などの形状を比喩的に眼を現すことに用いるが、特に青睡蓮(nilotpala)は美しい眼に喩えられる。仏教では仏陀の眼は紺青色(nila)とされ、三十二相八十種好（参照4）の一つ｢眼色如紺青相｣となっている。

#eight dragon kings #dragon #humanoids #legendary creatures #hybrids #hybrid beasts #cryptids #therianthropy #legend #mythology #folklore #nature #art #reptilian #snake

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years

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Guide to a ripoff-free funeral

In the decade-plus that I’ve been reading and watching Caitlin Doughty, I’ve become increasingly aware that even death is no escape from late-stage capitalism — indeed, if you have the misfortune to die unprepared, you will pass out of this world attended by a monopolistic, rapacious, price-gouging monopoly.

https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/

Indeed, the situation is so grim that I’ve often joked about leaving my body to med-school pranks: corpse at the alumni dinner, arm hanging from a toll-booth, etc. But for the mourners whose grief is turned into cash, this is no laughing matter.

Writing today for Propublica, Carson Kessler delivers an essential piece of service journalism: “How to Avoid Being Overcharged for a Funeral,” whose advice and analysis is exactly the kind of clear guidance needed to carry you through a very difficult moment:

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-negotiate-funeral-costs-qa

The funeral home industry is governed by a set of reasonably good regulations, but you only benefit from this if you know about them. Kessler turns to Joshua Slocum, of the Funeral Consumers Alliance to explain them:

You have the right to get a quote by phone;

You have the right to an itemized, printed price-list;

You have the right to order a la carte; funeral homes can’t force you to buy a bundle of products and services.

When your loved one dies, the first thing to remember is that “death is not an emergency.” Don’t let yourself be hurried (this is harder for people planning Jewish burials, which are scripturally mandated to take place within 24 hours of death).

If your loved one died in hospital, check whether the morgue will keep them for a few days while you check with funeral homes in a 20–30 mile radius. Set a budget. Under no circumstances should you tell a funeral director, “Money is no object, she deserves the best.”

Funeral home pricing can vary wildly — businesses within a few miles of each other will often charge thousands of dollars more or less than one another. Don’t imagine that you have a “family funeral home.” The funeral home you used last time is not part of your family — they’re a business.

As mentioned, funeral homes are actually the best-regulated part of the death industry. Far worse are cemeteries, which have transitioned from being largely nonprofit providers of public goods to for-profit ventures frolicking in an unregulated ocean of easy money.

https://www.propublica.org/article/cemetery-long-island-pinelawn-lockes-pinelawn

Cemeteries don’t have to show you price-lists and they can bundle products and services as a condition of doing business with them. If you buy a third-party tombstone and avoid their price-gouging, they’ll hit you with an “inspection fee” to make up the difference.

Thankfully, the FTC has taken up the long-neglected question of cemetery and funeral home regulation. A new docket seeks public comment on the question; the Funeral Consumers Alliance comments are an excellent template to start with:

https://www.regulations.gov/comment/FTC-2020-0014-0656

They call for an expansion of the rule requiring funeral homes to give you a printed price-list, so those lists would have to be published on funeral homes’ websites. More importantly, they’re calling for the extension of funeral-home rules to cemeteries, forcing them to disclose prices and unbundle services.

Private equity has rolled up funeral homes and cemeteries into massive, national chains of hundreds of businesses, and the giants of the industry, like Service Corporation International, have doubled their earnings between 2019 and 2021:

https://filecache.investorroom.com/mr5ir_scicorp/237/Investor%20Fact%20Sheet%201Q22.pdf

Caskets are also a monopoly. Hillrom is a private-equity backed rollup that has cornered the market on both hospital beds and caskets (talk about “complementary businesses!”), using its market power to jack up prices:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/05/hillrom/#baxter-international

Slocum advises that the best way to avoid funeral ripoffs is to shop around and skip the price-gouging funeral homes. Failing that, you can ask the funeral home to meet their competitors’ prices — even if they’ve already picked up your loved one’s body “as a courtesy.”

It’s not cheap or gauche to want to avoid having your pocket picked when you plant a loved one’s remains. Your mom might have wanted a decent burial, but she didn’t want you to hand over thousands of dollars to a hedge-fund-backed monopolist.

Remember, “everything is optional.” No US state requires embalming. This is an emotional moment, but that’s why it’s become a robber-baron racket.

Image: Eugene Peretz (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/peretzpup/3370664952/

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

[Image ID: A graveside casket. Dancing atop it is a drawing of Monopoly's Rich Uncle Pennybags, but instead of a cane, he is wielding a scythe. His face has been turned into a skull.]

#pluralistic

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mushroomates · 9 months

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fellowship lisence plants

Frodo: B4GG1N5, bag3nd, theshre, very wholesome and personal license plates. has a custom license frame with elven scripture saying something vaguely offensive about the driving of other cars on the road.

Sam: worried he will offend someone and they will find him because of his vanity plate. alternatively, POT8035.

Merry: brndybck, brndybk, ppinsuks. has a baby on board sticker because he hopes people won’t hit him if they think he has a kid.

Pippin: keeps trying to get some version of ‘weed’ approved. they keep getting more creative, he keeps getting denied. some gems include: DEEW, b33M, ku$h, any iteration of 420. can not understand why this might get him pulled over.

Boromir: G0ND0R, obviously. odnswim (one does not simply walk into Mordor) has the tree of gondor sticker on his back bumper.

Aragorn: rvendll, r4ng3r, nmysword. loves to drive arwin around- she has her license, he just likes taking her places. <3

Legolas: anmybow, mrkw00d, has an army wife lisence plate in hopes it will get him pulled over less. several tree hugger hippie stickers and giant scratches adorned his car. looks like someone keyed it with an axe.

Gimli: galadriel. just, the whole thing. celebron is pissed. also WHOAXED, digdeep, moria. has taken out the muffler like an asshole and likes to rev the engine outside of legolas’s house.

Gandalf: Keeps tipping the cops off to Pippins license plates. 3AGL3S, shdwfax, mthrndr.

Gollum: preshus, pr3c10us, bdaygift. drives a golf cart on the highway. will tailgate. bites the cops that pull him over.

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bills-bible-basics · 19 days

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NEPHILIM: THE GIANTS OF GENESIS -- a Bill's Bible Basics Article This #BillsBibleBasics article by #BillKochman can be read at: https://www.billkochman.com/Articles/nephilm1.html https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/nephilim-the-giants-of-genesis-a-bills-bible-basics-article/?feed_id=156020&NEPHILIM%3A%20THE%20GIANTS%20OF%20GENESIS%20--%20a%20Bill%27s%20Bible%20Basics%20Article

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blueberrypancakesworld · 3 months

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Coldness is my love for you

Loki x fem!reader

warning : obsession, kiss, Loki using is powers, wounds, hurt/comfort kinda, kidnapping

Summary : What was supposed to be a simple meeting between the representatives of the twelve worlds. But an attack not only changes everything, the King of Jotunheim also strikes and finally takes what is rightfully his.

Info : The first Marvel work here wow finally a little motivation for Marvel eventho I'm not really anymore watching the latest movies and shows and stopped after Loki Season 1. I still wanna write for it so here we are plus the Fandom is still in me somewhere ;) Have fun reading.

Ps : Favorite movies : Thor.1 & Blade

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She had never seen him as cold. She never had. Ever since she had met him, the prince no the king of Jotunheim at a gathering of the worlds.

She, as a human representative of Mitgard, was also present, together with the Avengers, only as a legal representation, even if this seemed almost superfluous in the face of the gods. But then what? Right, the attack by someone unknown, something or someone who did not belong to the twelve worlds, someone from outside.

But the attack, even if the gods could defend them well, she still felt the fear as she faced these hideous figures. Herself without weapons, without strength and without a plan of battle.

She was a human, not a god or a super-trained assassin. She was just a damned substitute. She had seen Black Widow stand in front of her as the Avengers protected her agent and fought the creatures.

She could do nothing but clutch the pen in her hand tightly and hide behind one of the already overturned tables. Clutching her "weapon" tightly, she felt the floor vibrate as the powers of the gods and fighters seemed to break the room.

Her heartbeat was almost chewing the drones inside her as the battle went down. In her trembling hands the pen that had almost made her cry as she realized she should have stabbed the monsters with a pen. But in her fear she let out a scream as suddenly the wooden table was torn away. It wasn't one of the Avengers or well-meaning gods.

These creatures had found her in the turmoil of battle and made her the new target for death. Fear was in her eyes as she looked up and backed away, staggering and barely standing on her feet.

The pen in her hand all the more ridiculous as she held it in front of her. What was she supposed to do? But before she could even use the pen, something else reached her. Ice. Light and dark shimmering solid ice that had placed itself between her and the creature like a wall.

Her breath escaped in a cloud due to the rapid drop in temperature. ,,No monster should hurt a lady in my presence," she heard that voice, the silver tongue, the serpent, the god and king of Jotunheim. She saw the green eyes looking at her with amusement. This god of mischief was having fun with all this chaos as the scriptures and books always said.

His words at that time were still full of goodness, so disturbing that she didn't recognize the lie. But she should have seen it. She was only half aware of the brutal, almost joyful act of killing the creature.

She saw exactly how the warm red blood ran down the ice, steaming slightly, but it was a minor matter in the sight of the god. Because the only thing that mattered was his beautiful eyes, the green that attracted her and slowly turned red, the red of his true form.

The red of the ice giant's true form before she felt his cool hand and her vision blurred. The last thing she saw before he took her in his arms and disappeared was her friends, the end of the fight and the feeling that she would never see them again.

A feeling she was to prove right.

Because even now, weeks later, they had never seen their homeland, the earth, the avengers, their friends or family again. The only thing she saw in this cold great palace was the ice, the green of magic, when she tried to get out his spell simply created a new door, wall or end.

As well as finding him sitting on his golden throne. ,,The throne that belongs to me" she heard his voice in her head, a painful memory as his hand gripped hers so tightly that his ice threatened to pass to her and she was reminded every day by the freezing burn of what that meant.

He was a god and a king of this ice planet, but she was sure he couldn't feel love, he was simply obsessed with her. ,,My dear, you quickly understand that here on this ground... you are my property" he had said to her after a few days when she still thought the Avenegrs would come or he would take her home.

But no. It was more her fear and questioning that annoyed him when he told her this. A fact she knew to be true. For he presented her with a room of considerable size with bookshelves, a bed and although not made of ice it seemed freezing cold.

The walls and floor, though barely visible, were covered by a sheet of ice that he could see. When she moved, walked around or just breathed, he saw everything. Like a bird in a cage. Like his property as he placed more and more precious jewelry on her body.

The gold rings, the dark red gemstones, the green of her rings or the blue on her necklace. No matter what he gave, it wasn't for her, it was for him to make his property even more beautiful. ,,I've brought you something pet," she heard, as she did every day, if you could call it a day on this planet. She was almost grateful for every moment she didn't spend sleeping when he let her sleep in peace. She didn't have his attention.

But even this was only at first. ,,Thank you" came from her lips, a word she had said too often recently. She did almost nothing else but thank him, thank him. Being grateful to him was the only important thing for him.

Because that meant her love it was not a question for him she had no choice and the sooner his darling would accept this the easier he would become for her in the long run. His steps came closer, his magic passed through the ice and a chair formed beside her.

His form, though now human, she knew that when the light of the other worlds shone through the ice, his emotions came out or when he frightened her. Which he did with every second. Ever since he had "saved" her.

She barely felt the cold of the jewelry because nothing could be colder than his love. The love he gave her, she tried to lie to him when he didn't care. But she knew she would be lying if she didn't respond to him. The beginning of the beginning that still made her heart beat.

His touch was warm and not cold, his love in the form of tenderness and understanding was attractive and there was even a moment when she had loved him. But now she was his pretty jewel. Feeling his cold blue hand on hers, she looked up and gazed into those mesmerizing eyes.

He licked around her jewelry, his touch gentle, and yet she felt the warning chill he could freeze her into a sculpture, and yet he didn't. ,,Fear doesn't suit you dear," he said and something stirred in her eyes and she came back from her aversion, her thoughts.

She was with him again and saw from his grin that he knew. ,,I'm-I'm not afraid," she said to him, but she knew that he didn't even hear it, on the contrary. His hand wandered further up her warm body, searching for her warmth, something he didn't have.

She knew she was tense, knew he still needed her as leverage for the other worlds, or at least her earth. His kisses, which seemed nothing but cold, were full of love. ,,Of course you didn't," he smirked, the green of his eyes returning as she saw his true form recede.

He knew that although it fascinated her, it was like an escape reflex. You could burn yourself on any fire and you could also get freezer burn on a cold blue flame like his heart of ice. But despite everything, despite everything, she leaned into his arms, let him hold her, let him kiss her, let him tell her stories.

Because something inside her was afraid that something worse than this would happen if he stopped loving her one day. ,,You know all this coldness is my love for you," he reminded her as he felt the goosebumps shivering a normal stupid human reaction he hated it made him realize they weren't right.

But it didn't matter, it didn't matter that she knew she didn't love him. Once he had the Infiniy Stone, she would be his one way or the other, then everything would be his forever.

He gave her one last kiss knowing that it was all just a game, a trick at the cost of time. But he was the god of mischief, he could play this game for a long time to come.

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#thor movies #thor 1 #marvel cinematic universe #mcu loki #loki laufeyson #loki x reader #loki x you #loki marvel #tom hiddleston

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