#is fire safety a good career

[pacificsafety]

It has taken centuries for fire safety to evolve since the Great Fire of London in 1066. The Diploma in Fire and Safety is becoming more relevant in every city due to the construction of high-rise buildings and modern infrastructure.

#diploma in fire and safety course duration #diploma in fire and safety course in lucknow #fire and safety institute in lucknow #fire engineering course in lucknow #fire and safety management institute in lucknow #what is cisf #tips for fire safety #is fire safety a good career #fire safety course in lucknow #diploma in fire and safety salary #diploma in fire and safety course #fire and safety course fees details

[inkskinned]

at the end of the day it's not that you hate your job - actually, you like working, you like routine, you like feeling like an adult - it's that any time you fuck anything up, you feel like you're fucking dying.

because you could be actually fucking dying. because if one day you wake up and you misunderstood something - you could lose your job, and nobody is hiring, and nobody is paying, and nobody takes people like you, and that job you want hasn't gotten back to you. and what exactly are you going to do without insurance? good luck with those meds. you should have thought of that before being a person.

so it's not just that you forgot to CC someone on an email, it's that if you don't have this job, you can't afford rent. it's not that you misread a comment, it's that if you get fired, you will be in massive amounts of unpayable debt. it's not that you are bad at your job, but here are the stakes as they have been decided for you: be perfect or fucking die. like, literally, die. that is how much safety net you have: none.

it's not burnout, technically. but you literally just had two typos in your work, and you're already picturing the ending. you want to throw up & curl up & make it all go away. it is two typos. if he decides he is mad at you, you lose literally everything.

your mom says that you seem stressed. the thing is that you have never known a job that isn't stressful. welcome to capitalism. there is no other road, only this one. what the fuck is a career. you come here, and we hold your life against the barrel of a gun, and somewhere someone is spinning the chamber and pulling. eventually the bullet will come.

you live in a mugging. your boss owns three cars and has four kids. you worry about having enough to feed your dog. good luck. beg for forgiveness. CC the right people next time and be grateful, kid. somebody has it worse than you. someone, probably, has it worse than you. so what if you can't sleep or eat or focus. your work chat sound literally makes you panic. you had to change the sounds of computer notifications so you'd stop having such an upset stomach.

welcome to the real world! the rat race! the dog eat dog circus!

your doctor studies the results and frowns at you. "it's bad for your heart," she says. "try to reduce your levels of stress."

#spilled ink #warm up #i am OFF MY MEDS AND I FUCKING HATE IT #WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING #NOT GOOD FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[phantomrose96]

Thinking about Edward Elric as the Amestrian Military's specialest little unfireable boy

State alchemists can be fired for underperforming. We know this up front from the likes of Shou Tucker. And this makes a ton of sense from the homunculi's standpoint since the state alchemists are sacrifice candidates, and the homunculi would want to cull the weakest candidates and focus only on cultivating the strongest ones who stand the best chance of opening the portal.

........Then there's Edward. Who's already opened the portal.

There's no need to cultivate him. No gamble taken on whether he's good enough to open the portal. He passed the final test already. Graduated 4 semesters early.

And as such, has a free pass to do Absolute Fuck All.

And I'm imagining how funny this is from like an outside perspective.

Some newish state alchemist who'd only ever read up on the stories of Edward Elric, ready and excited to start their career of being paid handsomely with endless freedom to research and travel and do anything they want in the pursuit of science... surprised and confused to find themselves put on probation their first month for things like "ignoring orders." Which is, as best they had thought, a famous Edward Elric pastime.

Roy showing a slight bit of stress about his yearly state alchemist report, and Ed just snorting and rolling his eyes at Roy because every year HE just hastily does his on the train ride over (canon in the manga, a travesty it was left out of the anime) and it gets rubber stamped. Ed not realizing that other alchemists' reports get genuinely scrutinized and torn apart while Ed is free to turn in whatever absolute bullshit he thinks of 36 hours ahead of time. One year his report was about whether alchemy could be done via dance (conclusion: no it can't) and no one cared. Roy WANTS to tell Ed there's some kind of unknown favoritism around Ed making him literally bullet-proof but Roy has no way to phrase this that doesn't sound like he's just in denial and mad at how good Ed's train-reports are.

Guy from the Internal Amestrian Affairs sector who's responsible for auditing other internal military personel for any suspicious activity hitting about 1 million red flags for Edward Elric, issuing a STRONG and URGENT recommendation to suspend the alchemist pending further investigation into things like "literal bunk-buddies with two members of the Xingese royalty (enemy nation)" and "spent $10,000,000 of his stipend on a librarian to make her re-copy (what he seemed to interpret as?) military records in some extremely transparent effort to unearth state secrets (it was a recipe book but he was literally asking her about state secrets)" and "literally has never once obeyed an order, ever, not even once in his career, and is on public record having said 'I do not care about the goals and protections of the Amestrian Military. I am in fact only pursuing my own interests several of which are diametrically opposed to the safety and well-being of the governing body of Amestris'"

The issued recommendation is intercepted before it even reaches its intended desk. President Bradley himself has taken issue with it and denies it before a single set of eyes has seen it. The President's veto stamp is a terrifying hammer, used rarely, and it is now sitting on the auditor's desk.

The auditor sleeps with one eye open from then on out.

#fma #fullmetal alchemist #fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood #fma:b #literally anything about the dynamic between edward and the amestrian government is so so so funny to me #im begging you to come pick up your alchemist he keeps committing treason #Roy: absolute perfect ass-kisser and career-man playing the part 24/7 to disguise his treasonous ambitions and still #not flying under the radar #Edward on his public Twitter: bored. might tear down the Amestrian government for fun.

[leviathanspain]

his embrace

finnick odair x reader

synopsis: finnick odair, capitol sweetheart and the thorn in your side

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

standing on the plate, you nearly broke your neck looking for him. frantically you looked, your eyes straining to see across the water, it was no use as the timer went off, and you had forced yourself to dive into the water.

your lungs felt like the could burst, but you ran towards the cornucopia, lifting yourself just over the edge only to be pulled back into the water. a career tribute was on you, you could tell as you fought him in the water. but you were losing, as you weren’t able to catch your breathe before you had been pulled back in.

only did the sight of a knife though the career’s chest did you feel some relief. someone had saved you. your body relaxed slightly, and your chest stopped trying to fight for the oxygen, and your eyes closed, your body feeling heavy as you passed out.

the buzzing of arguing flooded your ears. water had them plugged, and as you sat up, coughing up water, you heard the arguments cease, as other tributes rushed to your aid.

finnick was the first you saw, and he grabbed your shoulder, patting your back as you tried to spit out all the water.

you took a good inhale of the air and realized that you were deep in the jungle. along with finnick was katniss and peeta.

without saying anything, you embraced finnick. finnick laughed, hugging you tightly.

you pulled back and kissed him, “i thought i was dead. no one this pretty would be in my version of the afterlife.”

finnick laughed, “you wound me, darling.”

katniss and peeta shared a look, but stayed silent. suddenly the reasonings for why finnick had argued with them to keep you alive was now ever so obvious.

you looked at them, almost forgetting they were there. “katniss, peeta. normally my greeting wouldn’t be so half assed but, then again i’m not normally fighting for my life.” you offered a smile and only peeta gave back a weak one.

days and events had passed by you, and you were getting more and more irritated with your situation. you didn’t think that you would end up arguing with finnick over your safety, after offering to head into the jungle for some wood to build a fire.

“i can do it, finnick.” you rolled your eyes, hoping that he would relent as he usually did. but he wasn’t going to this time, especially with such danger all around.

“no. i alreayd lost mags, i cant lose you.”he shook his head, and you rolled your eyes, “finnick, do i have to remind you that i’m not entirely defenseless? i won my games too.”

but finnick wasn’t budging, and instead he pulled you back towards katniss and peeta, “i said no. im not letting you go in there.”

“if you’re jealous that i’m the one with a cool nickname just say so, don’t start acting like some sort of keeper.” you grabbed one of the knifes he had lying around on the beach and moved into the jungle, “don’t wait up.” you called.

finnick had followed you in, but you had mastered silent footsteps, and you were hard to track.

as you ventured deeper into the jungle, you felt regret in your stomach as you thought about finnick. you had disregarded his comment about mags, and you felt like an asshole.

you stopped, and thought about going back. but you had already left, and you couldn’t go back empty handed. but the screams are what sent you into a run. his screams, your name in the screams had you screaming back.

“y/n! help me!” his voice was on your ears and you ran, “finnick? finnick where are you?” as you tried to run back to camp, you heard birds wings flapping, and you realized that it was jabberjays, and as you swung your knife around to get them to stop, all you could do was listen to the rest of his screams, his mixed in with your families screams.

finnick had heard you scream, and realized he was a lot closer than he thought. you were crying, sobs recognizable as he ran, seeing you cursed up in a ball with a group of birds flying over you.

he realized as your screams intensified what they were. he pulled you up to your feet and practically picked you up, running with you back to the beach.

as he ran, you clutched onto him, crying and muttering apologies, he set you down just a few feet away from katniss and peeta, “stop. it’s not your fault. it’s okay, see? im fine, i’m right here baby.” he kissed you, and finally you calmed down, nodding as tears fell from your eyes.

“oh, finn.” you hugged him, “that was so stupid. im sorry, i promise i won’t do that again. i won’t leave you again, finnick.” you reassured, and hugged him, just as katniss and peeta neared the two of you, questions about your well-being buzzed in your ears.

#finnick imagine #finnick odair smut #finnick odair #finnick odair oneshots #finnick x you #finnick x reader #finnick odair x reader #finnick odair fluff #finnick odair angst

[homunculus-argument]

I was born and raised American, but with everything that's happened over the past few years I've been considering moving to another country. but I don't know if this is just "the grass is greener". Not sure if this really fits with your blog, but as someone from Europe what's your attitude towards living in the US?

I've visited there a handful of times and most of my thoughts are "damn bitch, y'all really live like this?" People in Finland like to complain about the climate, the taxes, and how stingy the welfare systems are (if you currently rely on them) or how costly they are (if you're currently not relying on them), but honestly most of the time that's because people are used to having it so good, or don't really have a perspective of how bad everyone would be doing without the infrastructure that everything runs on.

Sure, nowhere is perfect, and there's always room for improvement, but honestly the people I've met in the US only really seem to think that their system is good because they've never been anywhere else and don't know any better.

Mostly it's stuff that you'd never think about if you hadn't been to both places, like being able to trust that tap water is drinkable or that you can safely walk/bike to wherever you need to go. The US really doesn't have the kind of ability to just hang out in public places, just walking to the town and sitting on benches. Having public parks and libraries isn't really the same if you can't just walk there, and you genuinely need a car to go anywhere.

I moan and lament a lot about how the winters here are hard to endure - at the darkest time of the year the sun rises at 9 and sets before 5 pm - but I wouldn't move from here just because of that, mainly because of how reliably everything is structured here. Sure, it's all run with funds from relatively high taxes, but that is a self-feeding loop on its own. The tax-paying workforce isn't a disposable resource that's wrung dry once and tossed out when it's broken, but even when you're just another cog in the machine, you're one that's maintained, not replaced if broken.

I had a lot of breakdowns when I was younger, largely due to depression and other mental issues I had due to the undiagnosed ADHD. When I started breaking down at work in my old factory job, they couldn't just fire me on the spot because of the workers' union fought tooth and nail to make sure that you can't throw people out for getting sick, and mental illness is treated no different from other health issues. I was allowed to take two years off work in order to study into a career I thought would fit me better. That didn't turn out well either, but I was still allowed to bounce back and forth between odd jobs, sick leave, and studying - all on government pensions during the spots when I wasn't working a wage - until I found the right diagnosis, the right medications, and the right job.

It's not a hyperbole to say that I owe my life to the ample and studry social welfare systems that Finland has in place. Sure, you're just another brick in the wall, a cog in the machine, but if you keep breaking down, it takes a long time until they completely give up on you if you can somehow make them believe that you're trying, because it's cheaper for the tax system to figure out how to make you fit into the machine than just toss you out. A human being is an expensive investment and if getting you to the right job, education, diagnosis, medication or even arranged housing is what it takes to get your ass back into the workforce, they'll at least try.

I'm perfectly happy to pay the taxes here to fund the system that helped me onto my feet when I was in no condition to function, and to support the people who never do recover, find their place, or be able to support themselves on their own. And I can live with the peace of mind that even if I fall apart again, that safety net is still there. It's brutal, pragmatic, and regards your health and welfare as a means to an end - to get you working and paying taxes again - but they still do prioritise your welfare. Cogs are cheaper to maintain than replace.

[attichaos]

Colour Magick Correspondences & Ideas

*longer read*

Pretty easily applied for both beginner, closet and experienced practitioners alike! Can be used in most areas of mundane and magickal life (with some ideas listed below).

White

→ Cleansing, clarity, blessing, healing, innocence, truth, connection to spirits or the spiritual world, divine connection, consecration, dream work, psychic connection, purity, rest, moon magic, angelic work, devotion, harmony, prayer, peace, purification, universal truths. White can also be used as an all-purpose color for your intention when the color you want is not available.

Black

→ Banishing, transformation, uncrossing, endings, domination, protection, reversing, repulsion, freedom from evil, cursing, cloaking, sophistication, security, emotional safety, closure, breaking patterns, grief, mourning, absorbing, removing, trapping, encasing, the unconscious, mystery, shielding from the evil eye, *similarly to white - as black is an absence of colour it can be used for any colour if you don’t have them available* - personal opinion

Red

→ Passionate love, energy, action, attraction, sexuality, magnetism, will, force, anger, fire within, courage, warmth, lust, drive, pleasure, vitality, vigor, excitement, desire.

Orange

→ New opportunities, new ventures, new beginnings, change of plans, encouragement, opening the way, removing blocks, physical comfort, warmth, security, ambition, creativity, courage, optimism.

Yellow

-> Optimism, prosperity, happiness, good luck, attraction, success, confidence, visibility, fame, self-esteem, communication, concentration, focus, inspiration, intellect, logic, memory, knowledge, learning.

Green

→ Prosperity, abundance, wealth, generosity, money luck, career, growth, fertility, gambling luck, business, a good job, harmony, balance, healing, self-love, altruism, universal love, contact with fae and nature spirits.

Blue

→ Reconciliation, harmony, peace, kindness, healing, ideas, intelligence, wisdom, loyalty, sleep, meditation, communication, creativity, dream work, trust, blessings, calm, forgiveness, truth, bliss, inspiration, fidelity, honesty.

Purple

→ Healing, calming, tranquility, spirituality, meditation, pacification, cooperation, sensitivity, compassion, empathy, selflessness, empowerment, controlling, commanding, mastery, power, ambition, achievement, charisma, luxury, expansion, psychic ability, spirituality, authenticity, truth, transformation, insight, justice, wisdom, politics, divination, ESP, intuition, wishes, influence.

Pink

→ Romantic love, friendship, soul mates, sweet feelings, emotional healing, heart connection, affection, family love, admiration, physical tranquility, nurturing, warmth, youthfulness, healing grief, compassion, forgiveness, beauty, unconditional love.

Brown

→ Justice, balance, grounding, court cases, legal matters, being down-to-earth, practical matters, seriousness, reliability, support, stability, safety, earth, nature, animals, home, nostalgia, basic needs being met, balance.

Grey

→ Neutrality, neutralizing, invisibility, working in “gray areas,” anonymity, hiding from others, working in-between worlds, secrets, occult and arcane wisdom, reversing, uncovering mysteries and secrets, lifting curses, undoing prior spell work.

Silver

→ Dreams, intuition, psychic work, courtesy, honor, moon magic, rhythm, cycles, divination, illusions, glamour spells, wisdom.

Gold

→ Prosperity, fame, luxury, generosity, optimism, wisdom, enlightenment, victory, sun magic, confidence, life force, power, attraction, magnetism, vigor, charisma.

*highly recommend Madame Pamita’s Book of Candle Magic - covers colour magic especially in relation to spell work with candles.

Ideas

→ candle magick

→ glamour magick - also wearing/makeup using a colour which corresponds to the property you desire (good for closet witches)

→ sigil magick

→ craft magick

→ kitchen witchery - eg. Putting a specific colour food dye in a cake or drink etc

(Essentially anything you want!)

Merry meet,

Atti <3

#witch blog #witchblr #witchcraft #witchythings #eclectic witch #beginner witch #baby witch #cottage witch #hedge witch #kitchen witch #closet witch #colour magic #candle magic #sigil witch #chaos witch #glamour witch #witchcraft 101 #witch stuff #green witch #witchery #witch #witch community #crystal witch

[autumnmobile12]

Hisashi Midoriya Does Not Exist

I’m officially calling it.

We’ve seen no photos or flashbacks of the man.

Inko is the only character to mention him and only does so once during a flashback from when Izuku was a toddler. Deku does not talk about his father, so either he doesn't remember him all that well or...seriously, not even a happy birthday, Happy New Year, congrats on getting into UA, etc call?

He hasn’t had any input about this hero career his son is taking on even though it's proven to be increasingly more dangerous as the situation unfolds.

He has not visited once during one of Deku’s many hospital stays, including the one where he was comatose and people weren’t sure if he was coming out of it or not.

Izuku straight up went missing for a time and Hisashi didn't return to be there for his wife, who was definitely freaking out over their missing son.

And now with Japan in total chaos, he did not returned home to be there for his family pre-Final War nor was there ever a point where he attempted to get them out of Japan for their own safety. This seems like it would have been a good time to mention a panicked father phone call. Japan closed its borders to contain said chaos. Was that not a concern for expatriates who have family back home?

So either he is the worst dad/husband in the series, a series that already has a pretty high bar as far as worst dads go, or he doesn't exist. I think Horikoshi forgot he said he was going to reveal him, and is it even worth revealing him at this point? We're coming up on the end of this ride unless there's a whole other lengthy post-finale arc we're getting in which we see the full step-by-step recovery process of society and what to do about the remaining LoV members, provided they even survive this. (Bit anti-climatic, but there's still a lot to wrap up, I guess.)

I understand if the guy just wasn't all that necessary to the story, but why not just have him be a character who passed away before the plot began? Widowed Inko and be done with it.

...

Still, if he doesn't exist, who's Deku's dad? Inko didn't do this herself.

Or maybe she did and all hail the real Freckled Jesus.

Sorry Marco. (<--That meme is so old, I'd half-forgotten about it.)

Anyway, the only information we really have on 'Hisashi Midoriya' is that he has a fire-type Quirk and he's allegedly working overseas.

So on to the insane theory that occasionally haunts my brain. It doesn't just live rent free here, it is a registered ghost that hangs out.

Due to the fire-based Quirk (yes, I know Hisashi is listed as having a 'fire-breathing' Quirk, but then we're just splitting hairs,) I personally think Horikoshi is lining up a shot that will nuke the Shouto/Deku ship by revealing Endeavor was Deku’s father all along for no other reason than to troll both the fandom and his own characters.

...

I also kinda just picture the rest of the Todoroki family, including satanic charcoal Dabi, with this reaction:

So much for that redemption arc.

The only thing I don't like about this is knowingly sleeping with a married man is not a good look for Inko's character.

Okay, that's not the only thing I don't like about it. I would be disturbed if this was the plot twist. Please don't.

#my hero academia #deku #izuku midoriya #hisashi midoriya #is not real #theories #shitpost #humor #old memes #marco bodt #attack on titan #reference #inko midoriya #father figures of dubious quality #hazbin hotel #boku no hero academia #bnha #mha #deku's father #the guy who didn't like musicals

[lua-magic]

Pisces ♓🐟 and what to let go.

I firmly believe that, astrology should not be only used to know the mind and body but also to manifest an ideal life, name, fame and success. You get things in life easily when you are aligned with the energy.

We can't change the planets in our chart but we can surely align our energy to it, so we get atleast what we deserve easily in our life.

I have already discussed the importance of third house and how you could manifest your desires by Aligning with third house Planets. I have written two blogs on it, please check both the blogs.

Third house is of subconscious, while piesces sign is of ancestors or DNA, our past life beliefs that we need to let go in order to evolve, ie colour of Pisces is black because it is deep ocean 🌊 which is beyond your concious, subconscious and even your mind and body.

Which ever planets going in Pisces they are completing their one cycle, that is why it is sign of liberation.

Venus and south node is exalted and Jupiter is the lord of Piesces, because Venus knows how to give and south node knows how to let go.

When you let go the significance of planets sitting in Pisces, then you can manifest easily the things that you Desire, that is why Piesces comes after Aquarius, which house of desire and north node gets exalted in Pisces.

For desires, to manifest you need to let go certain things.

In astrology everything is aligned, we have Capricorn which is house of karma, before Aquarius, so you have to perform your duties first in order to manifest..

Pisces sign has two fishes in opposite direction it means what you give is what you get.

Jupiter in Pisces ♓

Give people free knowledge, don't hold your knowledge and don't get obsessed with the idea, of exchanging money from knowledge. Distribute your knowledge, as much as you can.

Saturn in Pisces ♓🐟

Saturn is slow moving planets hence, doesn't like the idea of letting go.

But, here if you don't let go people, things and even emotions Saturn will trouble you.

Saturn is trying here to pull you towards liberation from all your karmic connections, so listen to it and let go.

The more you let go more Saturn will benefit you, come out if hoarding mentality and distribute things freely, that is why Piesces is sign of charity, do some charity give things freely for Saturn to bless you.

Mercury is Pisces ♓

Don't take it personally but Mercury is selfish planet, it always think about himself/ herself first, that why gets debilated in ♓ Pisces because it house of giving.

I hope, you got what I want to say, give rest to your logic mind and Me first mentality and think about others and do things for others.

Give skills to the people freely so that they can prosper in life.

Mars in Pisces ♓🐟

My Martian guys and girls please don't run back of bed pleasure alot, because more you run back of it, more you will loose your money and career.

Mars is energy and passion, use your energy and passion to build others, use your energy to protect someone ie such native could work in hospitals, and in police or with fire safety easily.

North node in Pisces ♓🐟.

As I mentioned why south node gets exalted because it knows how to let go, so learn to let go your emotions and also your things.

Don't treat your mind and house as store room and keep accumulating stuffs.

What ever you don't need, give it or let go

Moon in Pisces ♓🐟

Moon has lot of past life memories here, and native with such placements usually comes back to same place where they were before death.

Such natives gets Deja Vu, dreams of past life, and premonition easily.

Let go your emotions and hurt, if you died painfully, then let go of all fear and hatred from you, every life is different, so here you are so that you can free yourself from bondages of past life.

Sun in Pisces ♓🐟

Why sun loses all its light in Pisces ♓🐟 because enemy is not outside it is inside you in form of ego.

Only when you let go all the ego inside from you and become grounded and humble sun gives good results.

Here, sun will pull you towards spirituality so that you can learn to detach and become more humble.

#occult #spirituality #vedic astrology #astro community #astro observations #astro notes #astrology

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Jon Haidt

Published: Mar 9, 2023

In May 2014, Greg Lukianoff invited me to lunch to talk about something he was seeing on college campuses that disturbed him. Greg is the president of FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), and he has worked tirelessly since 2001 to defend the free speech rights of college students. That almost always meant pushing back against administrators who didn’t want students to cause trouble, and who justified their suppression of speech with appeals to the emotional “safety” of students—appeals that the students themselves didn’t buy. But in late 2013, Greg began to encounter new cases in which students were pushing to ban speakers, punish people for ordinary speech, or implement policies that would chill free speech. These students arrived on campus in the fall of 2013 already accepting the idea that books, words, and ideas could hurt them. Why did so many students in 2013 believe this, when there was little sign of such beliefs in 2011?

Greg is prone to depression, and after hospitalization for a serious episode in 2007, Greg learned CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). In CBT you learn to recognize when your ruminations and automatic thinking patterns exemplify one or more of about a dozen “cognitive distortions,” such as catastrophizing, black-and-white thinking, fortune telling, or emotional reasoning. Thinking in these ways causes depression, as well as being a symptom of depression. Breaking out of these painful distortions is a cure for depression. 

What Greg saw in 2013 were students justifying the suppression of speech and the punishment of dissent using the exact distortions that Greg had learned to free himself from. Students were saying that an unorthodox speaker on campus would cause severe harm to vulnerable students (catastrophizing); they were using their emotions as proof that a text should be removed from a syllabus (emotional reasoning). Greg hypothesized that if colleges supported the use of these cognitive distortions, rather than teaching students skills of critical thinking (which is basically what CBT is), then this could cause students to become depressed. Greg feared that colleges were performing reverse CBT. 

I thought the idea was brilliant because I had just begun to see these new ways of thinking among some students at NYU. I volunteered to help Greg write it up, and in August 2015 our essay appeared in The Atlantic with the title: The Coddling of the American Mind. Greg did not like that title; his original suggestion was “Arguing Towards Misery: How Campuses Teach Cognitive Distortions.” He wanted to put the reverse CBT hypothesis in the title.

After our essay came out, things on campus got much worse. The fall of 2015 marked the beginning of a period of protests and high-profile conflicts on campus that led many or most universities to implement policies that embedded this new way of thinking into campus culture with administrative expansions such as “bias response teams” to investigate reports of “microaggressions.” Surveys began to show that most students and professors felt that they had to self-censor. The phrase “walking on eggshells” became common. Trust in higher ed plummeted, along with the joy of intellectual discovery and sense of goodwill that had marked university life throughout my career. 

Greg and I decided to expand our original essay into a book in which we delved into the many causes of the sudden change in campus culture. Our book focused on three “great untruths” that seemed to be widely believed by the students who were trying to shut down speech and prosecute dissent:

1. What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker 2. Always trust your feelings 3. Life is a battle between good people and evil people. 

Each of these untruths was the exact opposite of a chapter in my first book, The Happiness Hypothesis, which explored ten Great Truths passed down to us from ancient societies east and west. We published our book in 2018 with the title, once again, of The Coddling of the American Mind. Once again, Greg did not like the title. He wanted the book to be called “Disempowered,” to capture the way that students who embrace the three great untruths lose their sense of agency. He wanted to capture reverse CBT. 

The Discovery of the Gender-by-Politics Interaction

In September 2020, Zach Goldberg, who was then a graduate student at Georgia State University, discovered something interesting in a dataset made public by Pew Research. Pew surveyed about 12,000 people in March 2020, during the first month of the Covid shutdowns. The survey included this item: “Has a doctor or other healthcare provider EVER told you that you have a mental health condition?” Goldberg graphed the percentage of respondents who said “yes” to that item as a function of their self-placement on the liberal-conservative 5-point scale and found that white liberals were much more likely to say yes than white moderates and conservatives. (His analyses for non-white groups generally found small or inconsistent relationships with politics.) 

I wrote to Goldberg and asked him to redo it for men and women separately, and for young vs. old separately. He did, and he found that the relationship to politics was much stronger for young (white) women. You can see Goldberg’s graph here, but I find it hard to interpret a three-way interaction using bar charts, so I downloaded the Pew dataset and created line graphs, which make it easier to interpret. 

Here’s the same data, showing three main effects: gender (women higher), age (youngest groups higher), and politics (liberals higher). The graphs also show three two-way interactions (young women higher, liberal women higher, young liberals higher). And there’s an important three-way interaction: it is the young liberal women who are highest. They are so high that a majority of them said yes, they had been told that they have a mental health condition. 

Figure 1.  Data from Pew Research, American Trends Panel Wave 64. The survey was fielded March 19-24, 2020. Graphed by Jon Haidt.

In recent weeks—since the publication of the CDC’s report on the high and rising rates of depression and anxiety among teens—there has been a lot of attention to a different study that shows the gender-by-politics interaction: Gimbrone, Bates, Prins, & Keyes (2022), titled: “The politics of depression: Diverging trends in internalizing symptoms among US adolescents by political beliefs.” Gimbrone et al. examined trends in the Monitoring the Future dataset, which is the only major US survey of adolescents that asks high school students (seniors) to self-identify as liberal or conservative (using a 5-point scale). The survey asks four items about mood/depression. Gimbrone et al. found that prior to 2012 there were no sex differences and only a small difference between liberals and conservatives. But beginning in 2012, the liberal girls began to rise, and they rose the most. The other three groups followed suit, although none rose as much, in absolute terms, as did the liberal girls (who rose .73 points since 2010, on a 5-point scale where the standard deviation is .89). 

Figure 2. Data from Monitoring the Future, graphed by Gimbrone et al. (2022). The scale runs from 1 (minimum) to 5 (maximum).

The authors of the study try to explain the fact that liberals rise first and most in terms of the terrible things that conservatives were doing during Obama’s second term, e.g., 

Liberal adolescents may have therefore experienced alienation within a growing conservative political climate such that their mental health suffered in comparison to that of their conservative peers whose hegemonic views were flourishing.

The progressive New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg took up the question and wrote a superb essay making the argument that teen mental health is not and must not become a partisan issue. She dismissed Gimbrone et al.’s explanation as having a poor fit with their own data: 

Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012. In 2013, the Supreme Court extended gay marriage rights. It was hard to draw a direct link between that period’s political events and teenage depression, which in 2012 started an increase that has continued, unabated, until today.

After examining the evidence, including the fact that the same trends happened at the same time in Britain, Canada, and Australia, Goldberg concluded that “Technology, not politics, was what changed in all these countries around 2012. That was the year that Facebook bought Instagram and the word “selfie” entered the popular lexicon.”

Journalist Matt Yglesias also took up the puzzle of why liberal girls became more depressed than others, and in a long and self-reflective Substack post, he described what he has learned about depression from his own struggles involving many kinds of treatment. Like Michelle Goldberg, he briefly considered the hypothesis that liberals are depressed because they’re the only ones who see that “we’re living in a late-stage capitalist hellscape during an ongoing deadly pandemic w record wealth inequality, 0 social safety net/job security, as climate change cooks the world,” to quote a tweet from the Washington Post tech columnist Taylor Lorenz. Yglesias agreed with Goldberg and other writers that the Lorenz explanation—reality makes Gen Z depressed—doesn’t fit the data, and, because of his knowledge of depression, he focused on the reverse path: depression makes reality look terrible. As he put it: “Mentally processing ambiguous events with a negative spin is just what depression is.”

Yglesias tells us what he has learned from years of therapy, which clearly involved CBT:

It’s important to reframe your emotional response as something that’s under your control: • Stop saying “so-and-so made me angry by doing X.” • Instead say “so-and-so did X, and I reacted by becoming angry.” And the question you then ask yourself is whether becoming angry made things better? Did it solve the problem? 

Yglesias wrote that “part of helping people get out of their trap is teaching them not to catastrophize.” He then described an essay by progressive journalist Jill Filipovic that argued, in Yglesias’s words, that “progressive institutional leaders have specifically taught young progressives that catastrophizing is a good way to get what they want.”

Yglesias quoted a passage from Filipovic that expressed exactly the concern that Greg had expressed to me back in 2014: 

I am increasingly convinced that there are tremendously negative long-term consequences, especially to young people, coming from this reliance on the language of harm and accusations that things one finds offensive are “deeply problematic” or even violent. Just about everything researchers understand about resilience and mental well-being suggests that people who feel like they are the chief architects of their own life — to mix metaphors, that they captain their own ship, not that they are simply being tossed around by an uncontrollable ocean — are vastly better off than people whose default position is victimization, hurt, and a sense that life simply happens to them and they have no control over their response. 

I have italicized Filipovic’s text about the benefits of feeling like you captain your own ship because it points to a psychological construct with a long history of research and measurement: Locus of control. As first laid out by Julian Rotter in the 1950s, this is a malleable personality trait referring to the fact that some people have an internal locus of control—they feel as if they have the power to choose a course of action and make it happen, while other people have an external locus of control—they have little sense of agency and they believe that strong forces or agents outside of themselves will determine what happens to them. Sixty years of research show that people with an internal locus of control are happier and achieve more. People with an external locus of control are more passive and more likely to become depressed.

How a Phone-Based Childhood Breeds Passivity

There are at least two ways to explain why liberal girls became depressed faster than other groups at the exact time (around 2012) when teens traded in their flip phones for smartphones and the girls joined Instagram en masse. The first and simplest explanation is that liberal girls simply used social media more than any other group. Jean Twenge’s forthcoming book, Generations, is full of amazing graphs and insightful explanations of generational differences. In her chapter on Gen Z, she shows that liberal teen girls are by far the most likely to report that they spend five or more hours a day on social media (31% in recent years, compared to 22% for conservative girls, 18% for liberal boys, and just 13% for conservative boys). Being an ultra-heavy user means that you have less time available for everything else, including time “in real life” with your friends. Twenge shows in another graph that from the 1970s through the early 2000s, liberal girls spent more time with friends than conservative girls. But after 2010 their time with friends drops so fast that by 2016 they are spending less time with friends than are conservative girls. So part of the story may be that social media took over the lives of liberal girls more than any other group, and it is now clear that heavy use of social media damages mental health, especially during early puberty. 

But I think there’s more going on here than the quantity of time on social media. Like Filipovic, Yglesias, Goldberg, and Lukianoff, I think there’s something about the messages liberal girls consume that is more damaging to mental health than those consumed by other groups. 

The Monitoring the Future dataset happens to have within it an 8-item Locus of Control scale. With Twenge’s permission, I reprint one such graph from Generations showing responses to one of the items: “Every time I try to get ahead, something or somebody stops me.” This item is a good proxy for Filipovic’s hypothesis about the disempowering effects of progressive institutions. If you agree with that item, you have a more external locus of control. As you can see in Figure 3, from the 1970s until the mid-2000s, boys were a bit more likely to agree with that item, but then girls rose to match boys, and then both sexes rose continuously throughout the 2010s—the era when teen social life became far more heavily phone-based. 

Figure 3. Percentage of boys and girls (high school seniors) who agree with (or are neutral about) the statement “Every time I try to get ahead, something or somebody stops me.” From Monitoring the Future, graphed by Jean Twenge in her forthcoming book Generations.

When the discussion of the gender-by-politics interaction broke out a few weeks ago, I thought back to Twenge’s graph and wondered what would happen if we broke up the sexes by politics. Would it give us the pattern in the Gimbrone et al. graphs, where the liberal girls rise first and most? Twenge sent me her data file (it’s a tricky one to assemble, across the many years), and Zach Rausch and I started looking for the interaction. We found some exciting hints, and I began writing this post on the assumption that we had a major discovery. For example, Figure 4 shows the item that Twenge analyzed. We see something like the Gimbrone et al. pattern in which it’s the liberal girls who depart from everyone else, in the unhealthy (external) direction, starting in the early 2000s. 

Figure 4. Percentage of liberal and conservative high school senior boys (left panel) and girls (right panel) who agree with the statement “Every time I try to get ahead, something or somebody stops me.” From Monitoring the Future, graphed by Zach Rausch.

It sure looks like the liberal girls are getting more external while the conservative girls are, if anything, trending slightly more internal in the last decade, and the boys are just bouncing around randomly. But that was just for this one item. We also found a similar pattern for a second item, “People like me don’t have much of a chance at a successful life.” (You can see graphs of all 8 items here.) 

We were excited to have found such clear evidence of the interaction, but when we plotted responses to the whole scale, we found only a hint of the predicted interaction, and only in the last few years, as you can see in Figure 5. After trying a few different graphing strategies, and after seeing if there was a good statistical justification for dropping any items, we reached the tentative conclusion that the big story about locus of control is not about liberal girls, it’s about Gen Z as a whole. Everyone—boys and girls, left and right—developed a more external locus of control gradually, beginning in the 1990s. I’ll come back to this finding in future posts as I explore the second strand of the After Babel Substack: the loss of “play-based childhood” which happened in the 1990s when American parents (and British, and Canadian) stopped letting their children out to play and explore, unsupervised. (See Frank Furedi’s important book Paranoid Parenting. I believe that the loss of free play and self-supervised risk-taking blocked the development of a healthy, normal, internal locus of control. That is the reason I teamed up with Lenore Skenazy, Peter Gray, and Daniel Shuchman to found LetGrow.org.) 

Figure 5. Locus of Control has shifted slightly but steadily toward external since the 1990s. Scores are on a 5-point scale from 1 = most internal to 5 = most external. 

We kept looking in the Monitoring the Future dataset and the Gimbrone et al. paper for other items that would allow us to test Filipovic’s hypothesis. We found an ideal second set of variables: The Monitoring the Future dataset has a set of items on “self derogation” which is closely related to disempowerment, as you can see from the four statements that comprise the scale:

I feel I do not have much to be proud of. Sometimes I think I am no good at all. I feel that I can't do anything right. I feel that my life is not very useful.

Gimbrone et al. had graphed the self-derogation scale, as you can see in their appendix (Figure  A.4). But Zach and I re-graphed the original data so that we could show a larger range of years, from 1977 through 2021. As you can see in Figure 6, we find the gender-by-politics interaction. Once again, and as with nearly all of the mental health indicators I examined in a previous post, there’s no sign of trouble before 2010. But right around 2012 the line for liberal girls starts to rise. It rises first, and it rises most, with liberal boys not far behind (as in Gimbrone et al.).

Figure 6. Self-derogation scale, averaging four items from the Monitoring the Future study. Graphed by Zach Rausch. The scale runs from 1 (strongly disagree with each statement) to 5 (strongly agree). 

In other words, we have support for Filipovic’s “captain their own ship” concern, and for Lukianoff’s disempowerment concern: Gen Z has become more external in its locus of control, and Gen Z liberals (of both sexes) have become more self-derogating. They are more likely to agree that they “can’t do anything right.” Furthermore, most of the young people in the progressive institutions that Filipovic mentioned are women, and that has become even more true since 2014 when, according to Gallup data, young women began to move to the left while young men did not move either way. As Gen Z women became more progressive and more involved in political activism in the 2010s, it seems to have changed them psychologically. It wasn’t just that their locus of control shifted toward external—that happened to all subsets of Gen Z.  Rather, young liberals (including young men) seem to have taken into themselves the specific depressive cognitions and distorted ways of thinking that CBT is designed to expunge.

But where did they learn to think this way? And why did it start so suddenly around 2012 or 2013, as Greg observed, and as Figures 2 and 6 confirm?

Tumblr Was the Petri Dish for Disempowering Beliefs

I recently listened to a brilliant podcast series, The Witch Trials of J. K. Rowling, hosted by Megan Phelps-Roper, created within Bari Weiss’s Free Press. Phelps-Roper interviews Rowling about her difficult years developing the Harry Potter stories in the early 1990s, before the internet; her rollout of the books in the late 90s and early 2000s, during the early years of the internet; and her observations about the Harry Potter superfan communities that the internet fostered. These groups had streaks of cruelty and exclusion in them from the beginning, along with a great deal of love, joy, and community. But in the stunning third episode, Phelps-Roper and Rowling take us through the dizzying events of the early 2010s as the social media site Tumblr exploded in popularity (reaching its peak in early 2014), and also in viciousness. Tumblr was different from Facebook and other sites because it was not based on anyone’s social network; it brought together people from anywhere in the world who shared an interest, and often an obsession.

Phelps-Roper interviewed several experts who all pointed to Tumblr as the main petri dish in which nascent ideas of identity, fragility, language, harm, and victimhood evolved and intermixed. Angela Nagle (author of Kill All Normies) described the culture that emerged among young activists on Tumblr, especially around gender identity, in this way:

There was a culture that was encouraged on Tumblr, which was to be able to describe your unique non-normative self… And that’s to some extent a feature of modern society anyway. But it was taken to such an extreme that people began to describe this as the snowflake [referring to the idea that each snowflake is unique], the person who constructs a totally kind of boutique identity for themselves, and then guards that identity in a very, very sensitive way and reacts in an enraged way when anyone does not respect the uniqueness of their identity. 

Nagle described how on the other side of the political spectrum, there was “the most insensitive culture imaginable, which was the culture of 4chan.” The communities involved in gender activism on Tumblr were mostly young progressive women while 4Chan was mostly used by right-leaning young men, so there was an increasingly gendered nature to the online conflict. The two communities supercharged each other with their mutual hatred, as often happens in a culture war. The young identity activists on Tumblr embraced their new notions of identity, fragility, and trauma all the more tightly, increasingly saying that words are a form of violence, while the young men on 4chan moved in the opposite direction: they brandished a rough and rude masculinity in which status was gained by using words more insensitively than the next guy. It was out of this reciprocal dynamic, the experts on the podcast suggest, that today’s cancel culture was born in the early 2010s. Then, in 2013, it escaped from Tumblr into the much larger Twitterverse. Once on Twitter, it went national and even global (at least within the English-speaking countries), producing the mess we all live with today.

I don’t want to tell that entire story here; please listen to the Witch Trials podcast for yourself. It is among the most enlightening things I’ve read or heard in all my years studying the American culture war (along with Jon Ronson’s podcast Things Fell Apart). I just want to note that this story fits perfectly with both the timing and the psychology of Greg’s reverse CBT hypothesis. 

Implications and Policy Changes

In conclusion, I believe that Greg Lukianoff was exactly right in the diagnosis he shared with me in 2014. Many young people had suddenly—around 2013—embraced three great untruths:

They came to believe that they were fragile and would be harmed by books, speakers, and words, which they learned were forms of violence (Great Untruth #1). 

They came to believe that their emotions—especially their anxieties—were reliable guides to reality (Great Untruth #2).

They came to see society as comprised of victims and oppressors—good people and bad people (Great Untruth #3).

Liberals embraced these beliefs more than conservatives. Young liberal women adopted them more than any other group due to their heavier use of social media and their participation in online communities that developed new disempowering ideas. These cognitive distortions then caused them to become more anxious and depressed than other groups. Just as Greg had feared, many universities and progressive institutions embraced these three untruths and implemented programs that performed reverse CBT on young people, in violation of their duty to care for them and educate them. 

I welcome challenges to this conclusion from scholars, journalists, and subscribers, and I will address such challenges in future posts. I must also repeat that I don’t blame everything on smartphones and social media; the other strand of my story is the loss of play-based childhood, with its free play and self-governed risk-taking. But if this conclusion stands (along with my conclusions in previous posts), then I think there are two big policy changes that should be implemented as soon as possible: 

1) Universities and other schools should stop performing reverse CBT on their students

As Greg and I showed in The Coddling of the American Mind, most of the programs put in place after the campus protests of 2015 are based on one or more of the three Great Untruths, and these programs have been imported into many K-12 schools. From mandatory diversity training to bias response teams and trigger warnings, there is little evidence that these programs do what they say they do, and there are some findings that they backfire. In any case, there are reasons, as I have shown, to worry that they teach children and adolescents to embrace harmful, depressogenic cognitive distortions.

One initiative that has become popular in the last few years is particularly suspect: efforts to tell college students to avoid common English words and phrases that are said to be “harmful.” Brandeis University took the lead in 2021 with its “oppressive language list.” Brandeis urged its students to stop saying that they would “take a stab at” something because it was unnecessarily violent. For the same reason, they urged that nobody ask for a “trigger warning” because, well, guns. Students should ask for “content warnings” instead, to keep themselves safe from violent words like “stab.” Many universities have followed suit, including Colorado State University, The University of British Columbia, The University of Washington, and Stanford, which eventually withdrew its “harmful language list” because of the adverse publicity. Stanford had urged students to avoid words like “American,” “Immigrant,” and “submit,” as in “submit your homework.” Why? because the word “submit” can “imply allowing others to have power over you.” The irony here is that it may be these very programs that are causing liberal students to feel disempowered, as if they are floating in a sea of harmful words and people when, in reality, they are living in some of the most welcoming and safe environments ever created.

2) The US Congress should raise the age of “internet adulthood” from 13 to 16 or 18

What do you think should be the minimum age at which children can sign a legally binding contract to give away their data and their rights,  and expose themselves to harmful content, without the consent or knowledge of their parents? I asked that question as a Twitter poll, and you can see the results here:

Image: See my original tweet.

Of course, this poll of my own Twitter followers is far from a valid survey, and I phrased my question in a leading way, but my phrasing was an accurate statement of today’s status quo. I think that most people now understand that the age of 13, which was set back in 1998 when we didn’t know what the internet would become, is just too low, and it is not even enforced. When my kids started 6th grade in NYC public schools, they each told me that “everyone” was on Instagram.

We are now 11 years into the largest epidemic of adolescent mental illness ever recorded. I know so many families that have been thrown into fear and turmoil by a child’s suicide attempt. You probably do too, given that the recent CDC report tells us that one in ten adolescents now say they have made an attempt to kill themselves. It is hitting all political and demographic groups. The evidence is abundant that social media is a major cause of the epidemic, and perhaps the major cause. It's time we started treating social media and other apps designed for “engagement” (i.e., addiction) like alcohol, tobacco, and gambling, or, because they can harm society as well as their users, perhaps like automobiles and firearms. Adults should have wide latitude to make their own choices, but legislators and governors who care about mental health, women’s health, or children’s health need to step up.

It’s not enough to find more money for mental health services, although that is sorely needed. In addition, we must shut down the conveyer belt so that today’s toddlers will not suffer the same fate in twelve years. Congress should set a reasonable minimum age for minors to sign contracts and open accounts without explicit parental consent, and the age needs to be after teens have progressed most of the way through puberty. (The harm caused by social media seems to be greatest during puberty.) If Congress won’t do it then state legislatures should act. There are many ways to rapidly verify people’s ages online, and I’ll discuss age verification processes in a future post. 

In conclusion: All of Gen Z got more anxious and depressed after 2012. But Lukianoff’s reverse CBT hypothesis is the best explanation I have found for Why the mental health of liberal girls sank first and fastest.

#Jonathan Haidt #Greg Lukianoff #Reverse CBT #reverse cognitive behavioral therapy #cognitive behavioral therapy #emotional fragility #fragility #emotional reasoning #external locus #internal locus #victimhood #victimhood culture #Generation Z #Gen Z #anxiety #depression #mental health #mental health issues #trauma #personal identity #hellsite #Tumblr culture #religion is a mental illness

[fatalism-and-villainy]

While talking to @menciemeer, something came up re: Jack’s motivations for being in Italy in season 3 that I haven’t seen discussed much - and that is that he’s explicitly there not to catch Hannibal, but to save Will. Here’s his dialogue with Pazzi in Secondo:

Jack: If he hasn’t already, Il Mostro will return to Florence. Pazzi: Come back with me. We have a chance to regain our reputations and enjoy the honours of our trade by capturing the monster. Jack: I’m not here for the monster. Not my house, not my fire. I’m here for Will Graham.

This is even more striking in light of the context for his character that the very next episode gives us - his conversation with Chilton in Aperitivo establishes that he’s been forced into retirement with the FBI, but he’s not interested in regaining his standing or reputation. (Very odd in light of the fact that come the Red Dragon plot, he seems to still have his old job in Behavioral Science). Chilton tries to get him to use Will as bait to find Hannibal:

Chilton: Will is going to lead you right to him. Jack: Oh, no, he’s not. Not to me. I’ve let them both go. I’ve let it all go. Chilton: You dangle Will Graham and now you cut bait? You’re letting Hannibal have him hook, line, and sinker. Jack: You’ll excuse me, Dr. Chilton. I like to be home in the evenings when my wife wakes.

What stands out about this exchange is Chilton’s “letting Hannibal have him” phrasing. It foregrounds not subduing Hannibal, but preventing Will from succumbing to his worst impulses, as a central motivation for Jack in 3A. It’s also significant that it’s his need to care for Bella that leads him to defer pursuing anything relating to Hannibal or Will, because her death is framed within the episode as the impetus for his investment in following Will to Europe - as he tells Will in the funeral scene, “you don’t have to die on me, too.”

So much of Jack’s character arc in the first two seasons is juggling his repeated sacrifice of others for the greater good. His guilt over what befalls both Will and Miriam features prominently in season 2, and during Will’s trial, he’s already prepared to put his career and reputation on the line to stand up for Will and atone for what he feels is his role in Will’s downfall. Both the traumatic events of Mizumono and Bella’s death bring about more of a full turnaround in that direction - Jack becomes less invested in apprehending killers in service of public safety, and more invested in saving the specific person who’s been harmed by that project.

I think this motivation doesn’t always stick in people’s minds because these exchanges get eclipsed by Jack beating Hannibal to a bloody pulp a couple episodes later, as well as his inexplicable return to working for the FBI in 3B. But even in the former altercation, his fight with Hannibal feels personal, more about venting anger and grief than actually apprehending Hannibal. In Dolce, when Will asks why Jack didn’t kill Hannibal, Jack responds “maybe I need you to” (in the same exchange, of course, as “you need to cut that part out”). That scene also establishes clearly that Will and Jack are, like Pazzi, “outside the law and alone.” As in Mizumono, they’re effectively vigilantes - and Jack’s mission is not serving justice for the FBI, but in saving Will from Hannibal’s influence.

This is why, despite the fact that Jack is once again embroiled in FBI business in season 3B, I always envision his role post-canon as being a continuation of what haunts him in the first half of the season - less about catching or killing Hannibal than about rescuing Will. It’s a lot more compelling to me, at least, than him simply continuing to be the face of law enforcement.

#hannibal meta #hannibal #jack crawford #will graham #hannibal season 3 #i think a lot about how hannibal embodies and brings out everyone's worst impulses #but will is... more of a mixed bag. and brings out both alana and jack's saviour impulses at various points #(though of course for alana that impulse was itself a double edged sword) #and how that might play out in season 4. with players both old and new #also god laurence's delivery of 'i'm not here for the monster' is sooooo good #i mean. all of his lines really #my meta #hannibal talk #queue

[lynn-w3st]

Diet Mountain Dew

Do you think we'll be in love forever?

Do you think we'll be in love?

Pairing: Kuai Liang x OC, Bi Han x OC (implied)

Alternative Universe MK1

Warning ⚠️: Past Toxic Relationship, Game Spoilers, Mention of Death, Mention of Blood.

The lovely oc Kimiko Hasashi belongs to my dear bestie @khaotic-kris. ❤️❤️🥰

Sorry if this came out very cringe 🥺 I tried my best but hope you guys enjoy this story.

Kimiko Hasashi has always been a very bold, assertive and diligent personality and tends to be mischievous and hot headed like her father. In which many clansman in the Shirai Ryu clan would see her as very rebellious and aggressive.

Her fiery personality and fighting spirit had caught the attention of many suitors as one of them was the Grandmaster’s eldest son Bi Han.

He found Kimiko very attractive and beautiful in many ways but he wasn’t the only one attracted to her. The Grandmaster’s second son Kuai Liang had developed romantic feelings for her.

Since they both were old playmates before she was arrange into marriage with Bi Han at her eighteenth year birthday for the Lin Kuei and the Shirai Ryu to have a very strong alliance.

Hanzo and Harumi Hasashi wanted their own daughter to focus on her training and career as a medical doctor since she has a passion of learning medicine and helping people out.

So both parties agreed that Kimiko would be married to Bi Han when she turns twenty three. Over the months, she and Bi Han started to try getting to know each other as they both are now betrothed to each other and will wed soon.

However, in those months of getting to know each other Bi Han began to change more as the recent death of his mother had taken a toll on him as he no longer was man she once knew.

Bi Han became very arrogant and cold towards Kimiko, as he would often verbally bully Tomas for not being Lin Kuei blood and how his father was a fool for adopting him into the family. Kimi would spend a lot of time in Fire Temple after she decided to pursue her medical career.

Her parents were supportive of her decisions and decided that she’ll focus on her own things for the time being. Bi Han could care less of what his soon to be wife does as he only cares about the Lin Kuei and gaining the respect they deserve instead of being shackled to a God.

Then it happened, years later his father died from unknown causes (Bi Han killed him) as Kimiko realized this was not the man she once fell in love with. Her and Bi Han would have very nasty arguments which led her to seek comfort from Kuai Liang who loved and supported her.

Even if she chose his older brother as her soon to be husband, Kuai Liang never stop loving her and would do anything to ensure her safety and happiness. Hanzo and Harumi began to cut ties with the Lin Kuei after their new Grandmaster began to do some unquestionable decisions.

“Was all this nothing, Bi Han!” Kimiko yelled as her soon to be husband who scoff and gave a scolding expression. “I don’t have time for any romantic relationships let alone marriage.” He said angrily as Kimiko clench her fist tightly.

“So the love you showed me was fake! I thought you were good man but I guess I got my hopes up to quickly.” Kimiko said angrily as Bi Han felt something break inside him as he watch his ex fiancée walk away from him but quickly turned back to his usual cold and vicious demeanor.

So life continued on as Kimiko slowly began to distance herself from Bi Han and ignore him whenever he and his brothers would visit the Fire Temple or Wu Shi Academy. But she still spoke and hung out with Kuai Liang who was very supportive of her and was there for her.

She would often feel someone watching her every move as Kimiko knew that it was Bi Han. He watch in anger at how close her and Kuai Liang became over the years. He wish things would turn out differently but he can’t go back.

He watch from afar in anger and despair when his brother confess his love to Kimiko. She once belong to him but his ambition and pride drove her away and seek comfort from his brother.

“I love you Kuai Liang. I thought Bi Han would be a change man but he became a monster. I’m sorry for every pain I have caused you.” She said as she and Kuai Liang spoke privately after she, Kuai Liang and Tomas were casted as traitors.

“You don’t need to apologize, I’m here for you and I won’t leave you alone. I love you Kimi. You mean the world to me and my brother was a fool as he lost a beautiful and loving woman.” He said softy as he brought Kimiko into a hug.

“We will stop Bi Han and the Lin Kuei. Tomas, Riko and I are here to support you. I’m here for you and I will make sure that the Lin Kuei are stop.” He said as he gently kiss his wife before they sat in silence in each other’s arms. They will stop at nothing until Bi Han is defeated.

“How is she, mother?” Kimiko said softly as her mother place fresh new bandages on Riko who was injured very badly by Quan Chi. She had a large slash across her body and facial scarring.

Harumi Shirai sigh softly and gave her a sorrow expression. “She’s stable but she lost way too much blood. If you would’ve waited a bit long she wouldn’t have made it.” Her mother said.

Kimiko clenched her hands into a tight fist as her anger towards Quan Chi and Shang Taung intensified more as they hurt her little sister. Riko was family and means a lot of everyone mostly to Tomas who loves her unconditionally.

She watch in guilt and sadness at Tomas who held Riko’s hand tightly against his own cheek. Kimiko stood up and excuse herself to allow the two love birds some privacy as Riko means a lot to everyone especially to her brother-in-law.

As much as it hurts her to face Bi Han in battle, she won’t hesitate to spill blood to ensure the safety of others and will make sure he is stop.

Hope you guys enjoy this story that I made, very sorry if it’s about an oc. I wanted to do something different. The yandere story has started being work on but it may take some time for me to finish it. I’m very sorry for the lack of content as life has been bullying me.

Please don’t hesitate to message me if you guys have any questions or concerns about anything. Your guys ideas and opinions are very much appreciated and mean a lot to me.

#mk1 fanfic #scorpion kuai liang #bi han x oc #kuai liang x oc #mortal kombat #mk ocs #tomas vrbada x oc #mk1 2023

[themodernwitchsguide]

tarot reading patterns

SUITS

Cups= Water Signs -Communication and relationships

Wands= Fire Signs -Enterprise and love

Swords= Air Signs -Ideas and challenges

Pentacles= Earth Signs -Monetary transactions

UPRIGHT

4 Kings: great honor 3 Kings: consultation 2 Kings: minor counsel Majority Kings: meetings

4 Queens: great debate 3 Queens: deception, especially by a woman 2 Queens: sincere friends Majority Queens: gossip

4 Knights: serious matters 3 Knights: lively debate 2 Knights: intimacy Majority Knights: action, college

4 Pages: dangerous illness 3 Pages: dispute 2 Pages: disquiet Majority Pages: important new beginnings, news, working with kids

4 Tens: condemnation 3 Tens: new condition 2 Tens: change Majority Tens: endings and new beginnings

4 Nines: a good friend 3 Nines: success 2 Nines: receiving something Majority Nines: closure, endings

4 Eights: reverse 3 Eights: marriage 2 Eights: new knowledge Majority Eights: achievement

4 Sevens: intrigue 3 Sevens: physical/mental weakness 2 Sevens: news Majority Sevens: struggle, challenge

4 Sixes: abundance 3 Sixes: success 2 Sixes: irritability Majority Sixes: harmony, give and take

4 Fives: regularity 3 Fives: determination 2 Fives: vigils Majority Fives: chaos, change, difficulty

4 Fours: journey soon 3 Fours: subject of reflection 2 Fours: insomnia Majority Fours: stability

4 Threes: progress 3 Threes: unity 2 Threes: calm Majority Threes: giving birth, celebration, fun

4 Twos: contention 3 Twos: security 2 Twos: accord Majority Twos: important decisions, but you should take your time

4 Aces: favorable chance 3 Aces: small success 2 Aces: trickery Majority Aces: fresh start

REVERSE

4 Kings: swift movement 3 Kings: commerce 2 Kings: projects Majority Kings: career, work

4 Queens: bad company 3 Queens: gluttony 2 Queens: work Majority Queens: evil influences

4 Knights: alliance 3 Knights: duel/encounter 2 Knights: susceptibility Majority Knights: changes in relationships

4 Pages: absence of attribute 3 Pages: idleness 2 Pages: societal expectations Majority Pages: constriction

4 Tens: an event 3 Tens: disappointment 2 Tens: expectations justified Majority Tens: activity

4 Nines: extortionate moneylending 3 Nines: imprudence 2 Nines: small profit Majority Nines: bad money decisions

4 Eights: making errors 3 Eights: spectacle/absurdity 2 Eights: misfortune Majority Eights: failure

4 Sevens: quarrelling 3 Sevens: joy 2 Sevens: irreputable people (specifically woman) Majority Sevens: untrustworthy people

4 Sixes: care 3 Sixes: satisfaction 2 Sixes: downfall Majority Sixes: happiness

4 Fives: everything in order 3 Fives: hesitation 2 Fives: reverse Majority Fives: stagnation, but more in a positive sense

4 Fours: travelling abroad 3 Fours: disquiet 2 Fours: dispute Majority Fours: movement

4 Threes: great success 3 Threes: serenity 2 Threes: safety Majority Threes: peace

4 Twos: reconciliation 3 Twos: apprehension 2 Twos: mistrust Majority Twos: stagnation

4 Aces: dishonor 3 Aces: debauchery 2 Aces: enemies Majority Aces: mistrust in people around you

#pagan #paganism #polytheist #witchblr #witchcraft #polytheism #witch #divination #tarot #tarot cards #tarotblr #tarotcommunity #tarot reading #tarot reader

[punkpandapatrixk]

📝Your Ideal Self-Concept—Timeless Tarot Pick A Card

…you’d better exhibit a persona that matches your personal power, babe🌟

[Back to Masterlist] [Part 2] [Part 3]

Pile 1 – High-Class Bad Bitch

your personal power – King of Wands Rx

You’re someone who’s been misunderstood a lot in life. Either because you’re too powerful or too unique. Whatever you do, people think you’re too much of everything they’re afraid of allowing themselves to become. And they’re quite jelly of that, you know. You embody a singularly unique identity they crave for themselves.

People preach ‘be yourself’ all the time but it’s all just cheap talk for the most part. It’s a broken affirmation they can never live up to. And here you are strutting your unique identity and passion for life like it’s nobody’s business. People think you’re insulting their cowardice when all you do is just breathe.

You’re not the problem, they are. Weaklings see fire and they want to put it out because they’re scared. But that’s never gonna happen (and you shouldn’t let that happen) because you are a cosmic engine. You came into this world carrying such potent fire because you’re meant to cleanse the world of weakling mindset. You’re meant to eradicate poverty mindset.

But who’s to say you aren’t compassionate even when you’re gung-ho?

your communication style – 6 of Cups

In spite of appearances, you’re someone who holds deep compassion for other people’s hardships. When you connect with someone else, you feel their emotions as you listen to their stories. You can feel other people’s pain and you’re the type that wants to cheer or motivate others. Sometimes you might even be too positive and want to shun negativity—and that’s when you come across as stern or unempathetic. But that’s just sometimes.

If there’s anything to fix, in a manner of speaking, it is that you don’t always put other people in your shoes. Being born with power in your character, you might not always understand why other people can’t seem to help themselves. You want to help in a way that could be seen as a bit aggressive sometimes… but that’s really because you’re trying to motivate your own inner child.

You see, sometimes people are pathetic because when they were growing up nobody ever believed in their innate goodness. And I think you just need this tiny reminder of how you’ve grown up as well—when nobody believed in your capabilities. But different from others, you’re strong. If this resonates, all you need to do is develop patience. You’re already compassionate and understanding, but patience is a different virtue.

what is your Art? – Page of Pentacles Rx

You’re someone who just has this ability to break conventions. Seriously, no matter how small that convention is. You break rules, delight in taboos, engage in controversial activities. You could even be the black sheep of a family, neighbourhood, society, or even nation. But what’s all that for?

For adding flavour to this drab world. What else you think? You’re colourful and you say and do things others are afraid to admit they want to emulate. Fuck that. You’re the perfect example of freedom. As long as you’re responsible and maintain your own safety, I think you can do whatever you want.

Your true Art in life is breathing in all the world has to offer. Sometimes the good, sometimes the bad. But by not being afraid to face challenges head on, you learn to balance your perspective on power and how it is used in human interactions. If you develop correctly, you won’t become the type of asshole that wants to exert power over others. And that in itself, is your contribution to the healing of your society.

Field of Focus🔻❤️

In a manner of speaking, this could hint at your ideal career~

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 2 – Undercover Genius Inventor

your personal power – 10 of Wands Rx

You’re a whacko, admit it already. You’re just feigning normalcy. You know how to maintain a façade of someone boring, but you’re a born artist. You wear a polite monochrome mask but your Soul is made of colour and drama. Maybe for survival, you pretend to be dumb. But you and I know you’ve got this crazy keen analysis ability. You observe everything closely and notice other people’s likes and dislikes just by their behaviour. And then you adjust.

A chameleon, you’re a sly bitch that goes: ‘Bimbos are gonna rule the world.’ You just sit there and be pretty and act dumb and the world offers you melons. Little do they know, you’re a hard worker. You hustle with brilliant concepts when no one’s watching or expecting anything from you. You’re a true Artist of Life because the whole world is your stage/canvas/runway/what have you.

You’re not one to be tamed by other people’s demands and orders. You create your own T&C whilst pretending like you’re agreeing with what others are saying. But you’re getting under everyone’s skin. You’ve developed so much power purely from within yourself, maybe because you came from a past that had so many restrictions. Your biggest gift is your big brain, oh and, a sassy attitude towards Life.

your communication style – 5 of Pentacles

You keep your secrets close to your heart. You don’t even reveal how much you have. Whatever you show is just a portion of what you’re allowing others to see. In a way, there’s a lot of darkness surrounding the true nature of your force. And that’s intriguing to a lot of people. They want to know what makes you tick. And you guard yourself so well that you remain an exciting enigma.

More important still, because you’ve had a past that’s not so easy, you can instead easily connect with those who are struggling. You give realistic and practical advice that others can quickly grasp. It’s natural like that because you know the struggles of not having much. Some people can easily like you; but some could easily hate you for your power as well.

All in all though, for those that are on the same wavelength as you, you serve as a source of inspiration. There’s something mega unique and strong about your vibe that only those peeps can recognise. And they’ll want to emulate you. Some people might even worship you because you possess a special kind of sly charm when talking.

what is your Art? – 10 of Cups

Those who don’t know you may not recognise this right away, but you’re a loyal person. Yeah, you’re kinda guarded and enjoy flying solo like that; you’re also somewhat secretive, but your heart is actually very big. If only the world weren’t so dangerous you’d be so open with everyone and hug every person who’s hurting right now. Alas, the world ain’t like that.

Still, when you’ve become so much more developed than now, you’ll be a fount of healing for other Souls who are just as unique as you. You could have like a tribe or squad or sisterhood, and you act as the Goddess On Top that protects everyone’s wellbeing. Like you could even be overseeing other people’s development like a mentor. -Bro, are you in a cult or smt?-

There’s something quite parental about your vibe. And I think you’re meant to create a community of peaceful people whose focus is to have fun whilst being alive. Even by just doing your unique thing, as long as you’re not hurting people, you’re already contributing to the healing of this world~

Field of Focus🔻💙

In a manner of speaking, this could hint at your ideal career~

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 3 – Technomancy World Leader

your personal power – 6 of Wands

You may have a chill and serene exterior, but anybody who takes a peek inside your Soul will be astounded by just how hot your ambitions are. Your Life has not been easy and the struggles you’ve met along the way have become a fuel for your desires to achieve greatness in this lifetime. I think you’re frustrated with the status quo. To some extent, you may even hate this world. You hate it so much you want to change it (hopefully for the better).

You are a unique Soul. Your energy signature is so original that you shine a colour that is singularly yours. It’s almost like you’ve been singled out by the Universe itself. Everywhere you go, you attract attention and command respect without even trying. You can’t even hide this charisma. The more you try to blend in the more solitary you appear to be. And there’s a purpose to that.

Most people on this Planet are boring and they try so hard to fit into their societies just for survival. As cowardly that can be, deep down this world yearns for eccentric individuals to serve as a source of inspiration. Cowardly-but-honest people just need some kind of validation for their own weirdness. But those who are dishonest are probably gonna hate you. But who cares about them? You just shine anyway~

your communication style – XV The Devil

Power motivator. Seducer. Divine Jokester. You have a weird way of speaking and your sense of humour is either dark or inappropriate. You like to shock people with taboo questions and aren’t afraid to mock political correctness. What’s the point of being fake polite when behind the mask everyone knows the world doesn’t get better by polite and comfortable conversations?

Yet at the same time, you’re not prone to anger outbursts. You collect yourself easily and can deliver your scandalous points of view calmly and with precision. Your intelligence is both empathetic and piercingly savage. When you open your mouth, you’re not just doing it for the sake of having arguments. Every word you say serves to slap the status quo in the freaking face.

You show the authorities their own stupidity and the idiotic ways they think about shit and go about saving the world. Nobody’s doing it right because everybody’s got all their priorities upside down. And you’re here to tell them to fuck off and get their shit straight. You may gain enemies, but those who vibe with you are probably gonna worship you. You are the Muse of the world’s rebels.

what is your Art? – XVI The Tower

So obvious. You’re here to bring down the old regime of the world’s powers. You’re here to break conventions. Dare I say, you’re meant to lead a rebellion against the psychos that are destroying this Planet. Your personal rebellion could involve: championing environmental movements, flipping the power abuse within family settings, empowering youth innovation, revamping the education system, breaking down cultural/political barriers, and so on and so on. Oh, and…

Bridging spiritual knowledge with technological ways of seeing things. You just have that natural aptitude to understand the more cosmic nature of the world and how energies play out in the physical. You’ll be sharing knowledge and perspectives that are so fresh yet so nostalgic—like, they just make sense but most people didn’t see them before you opened your mouth.

Quite honestly, I see peeps who have chosen Pile 3 are leaders of the new Age of Aquarius. You are harbingers of a soft revolution. I think many of you are gonna leave important legacies and your names will be remembered for hundreds of years to come. You have the power to leave a lasting impact on the world’s stage and make it a better place for future generations.

Field of Focus🔻💛

In a manner of speaking, this could hint at your ideal career~

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Feel free to support me on Patreon if you love this kind of content🍑I create stories and tarot readings that calm the mind & heal from within🍒

[Back to Masterlist] [Part 2] [Part 3]

#Punk Panda Pick A Pic #pick a card #tarot pick a card #pick a card reading #pac #tarot pac #pac reading #astroblr #tarotblr #writblr #witchblr #tarot witch #witchcore #witchyvibes #faery witch #faery #punk aesthetic #solarpunk #cyberpunk #millennials #gen z #Youtube

[myfckingnameisnuwanda]

Handyman (Merthur)

Arthur notices that, when he complains to Merlin about something, anything, it mysteriously gets resolved within a week.

-> A small town in the outskirts of the kingdom is requesting food for the winter, since their crops burned down at the hands of bandal? And he doesn't have enough to spare? Oh, look, this theifs that assaulted a village in another kingdom and took their food, goods and money were found trying to cross the borders towards Cenred's kingdom, the knights have taken all their loot and are currently distributing it to the town.

-> There is a trial; a woman, a peasant, is accusing this noble of rape, but we don't have any proof or witnesses, what do I do, Merlin? She will lose. Well would you look at that, the noble, drunk out of his mind, has confessed his crimes in front of a whole bar full to the brim of people. Make sure he regrets it till the end of his days.

-> One of the nights has died, he was an only father, since his wife died due to a disease. The kid is now an orpha. I made him an orphan, what the fuck do I do? Oh my, one of the cooks, a widow, has suddenly found an interest on the child and is filled with motherly love. You have to approve the adoption, sire. Also, who tf said it was your fault.

-> An old man has died and now his descendants are fighting for the lands he owned. He had seven children, Merlin, and they are all so loud. Haha, Arthur, you won't believe what happened, three of the men have decided they no longer want the lands and the hard work they require, and have decided to follow a career on other options, like a priest, a teacher, a hunter or a carpenter. Two of the other men want to become knights and fight for the safety of the kingdom, now that peasants are allowed to try, and the remaining two have divided the lands on two, peacefully. How lucky!

-> There was a forest fire close to the capital and we are incredibly low on animals near us, hunters are complaining non-stop, they have to travel for weeks to find prey, including me! Well, maybe you and all those hunters should take a liking to herbal-related foods. We have enough beans and cereals to replace the meat lost for now. Meeerlin. Ugh. Arthur, guess what! There was a very rough winter at the north and all kinds of animals are migrating to Camelot, birds most of them, get your bow ready! You get my bow ready.

-> There are bandits continuously assaulting traders in the roads between kingdoms. I'm trying to reach queen Annis but it seems she is low on knights to dispatch them out. Oh, your lucky strike seems with no end, Arthur, as the bandits have already been captured by your knights. The traders are safe, once more. But maybe it would be wise to talk with the Queen about letting willing talented young commoners to join her army.

-> Merlin, the Council is demanding that I settle again. I don't believe there is anything I can do about it, sire. I believe you can.

#txt post #long post #merlin bbc #merlin #merlin emrys #arthur pendragon #king arthur #merthur

[silentreigns]

Random thoughts about this current F1 season that I have been meaning to write about but I keep forgetting so I am just gonna make this long post

Carlos has been the most consistent qualifier on the entire grid this season but this gets overshadowed by Ferrari finding creative ways to screw him and Charles over. I wish his consistency was praised more

Valterri has got to retire like there is not much else for him to do in this sport. He was in a top team for 5 years but Zhou has been out-performing him for a while now. I feel like it's time for someone else to start their F1 career. Like look at this graphic 😭😭😭

The lack of safety cars and all 20 cars finishing the races is simultaneously a good and bad thing. Good because it means the cars are more reliable, bad because race outcomes are way more predictable. Once Max builds a 20s+ gap it will be virtually impossible to close it.

I will be very surprised if Checo is still in F1 after 2024. He ain't doing so bad when it comes to points, but if your teammate has been in first place for more than half of the laps in this entire season and you can't come close to it, then you look even worse. He built a 50+ point gap to you , and at one stage y'all were just 1 point apart in the driver's standings. I would be shaking crying screaming throwing up

If they put Daniel in the RedBull seat after Checo's contract is up instead of Yuki I am going to be extremely salty. Yuki has been putting that car with no breaks in the points consistently like quit playing with him

Monza 2022 really tricked people because they thought Nyck de Vries would be more of a leader in Alpha Tauri. I ain't forger how he was shown in Drive to Survive. However, I don't agree with how people bully him like some people do too much

They should consider raising the cost cap because I know these teams know what the problem is with their cars, they just don't have the ~money~. And we all saw how useless the cost cap was last season

What is it going to take for Xavi to get fired like bro basically cost Charles a podium in Monaco. And he's just overall bad at communicating compared to the other race engineers.

Lando being stuck in McLaren and not even being able to fight for points consistently is heartbreaking. 😔. He is way too talented to be finishing like P17 all the time

Britcedes won't ever implode like Brocedes did but if George tries to suggest team orders for him and Lewis to swap places again I'm gonna cry. There's only so much I can take

Alex just might be the greatest driver of all time for being able to get the current Williams car a point and into Q3 in Austrailia. Out of straight line speed the car really doesn't have much going for it. I was gagged at how simple to floor is

I don't really have any huge observations about Aston Martin and Alpine but I do think it's cool to see how much their cars have developed and I hope they get to consistently fight for higher positions

#f1 #formula 1 #lewis hamilton #formula one #charles leclerc #max verstappen #george russell #checo perez #sergio perez #lando norris #nyck de vries #yuki tsunoda #valterri bottas #alex albon #carlos sainz #zhou guanyu #daniel ricciardo #this was just a stream of consciousness post i just needed to write my thoughts somewhere

[ghouljams]

I am giving the go ahead to go and analyze. For I too am foaming at the mouth for the info dump of analyzing and putting songs to fics. I can't not listen to hozier when i read your works now.

Your works are just hozier coded to me

(am gunna also start signin off uvu)

- a hungry raccoon 🦝

My Darling I am Hozier coded. I am in love with that man, and nearly all my WIPs have a Hozier title because I'm a huge nerd. (I even got to see him in concert in september AAAAH he was so good)

Actually the Cowboy AU is the only one that doesn't have a Hozier title. Ghost/Goose's official title it "Here's Hoping(Things Look Better on the Other Side)." Which I'm not planning on changing but "I'll Crawl Home to You" would also work really well. Anyway Ghoul being pretentious under the cut.

So I am going to preface this saying that I believe Hozier has said the song is about addiction, the way it starts sweet and then you can't get out. But I have my own thoughts because I'm a romantic, and you're going to listen to them. I am going to interpret this as Ghost telling folks about Goose.

"Boys, workin' on empty Is that the kinda way to face the burning heat? I just think about my baby I'm so full of love I could barely eat There's nothing sweeter than my baby I'd never want once from the cherry tree 'Cause my baby's sweet as can be She give me toothaches just from kissin' me"

OK verse 1. The first two lines are very much Ghost's time in the military. He's not really there, he's an empty person, a shell for the SAS to command, and he faces hell every day like that. He's hopeless, but he doesn't have a need for it, hell is an inevitability to him. Lines 3 and 4, I think that's again him in the military. He thinks about the life he's never going to have. He barely eats, he's in survival mode, there's not a life worth living for him so he only does what he needs to. Then with line 5 we meet Goose, and with line 6 Ghost decides he never wants anyone else. There's nothing sweeter than his baby, no one that takes him the way she does, she sees him for all that he is and she wants him anyway.

Then the last line of verse 1. UGH. The guilt. This is Price's kid. He loves her but she's bad for him, he can't have her. And Goose is still sweet to him, even when they both know there's no future for this, she still is sweet. AND IT HURTS. It hurts Ghost to be around her and so he pushes her away.

"Boys, when my baby found me I was three days on a drunken sin I woke with her walls around me Nothin' in her room but an empty crib And I was burnin' up a fever I didn't care much how long I lived But I swear I thought I dreamed her She never asked me once about the wrong I did"

Verse 2, we'll cover the chorus at the end. Yeah the sins. The SINS. Ghost pushing Goose away, but also a callback to how they met, to the bar and choosing each other. When Goose found him he wasn't a person, he was Ghost, he was bound for hell and nothing was going to lift him from the lake of fire. But then lines 3/4, Goose doesn't push to break his walls down, in fact she sets up her own. Stakes a flag on his head that say's "Goose's do not touch" and somehow that works. He has a safety net the likes of which he's never had before, and when he turns to look at Goose he realizes she doesn't have much either.

Line 4? She's given her whole life to a cause the same way he has, she's never made a choice that wasn't for someone else. There are expectations that she's taken on that no one should have asked her to. Ghost sees that, sees that he's a choice too and he has to decide if he's a good one. I think again(I know I've said this a million times) that Ghost has lived his career like he's dying. He's never cared about whether he makes it out alive, as long as the people he's watching over live it's fine. But Goose tells him, "you're not allowed to die" and he believes her. She never asks him what brought him to this point, but she's there when he's ready to tell her.

"My babe would never fret none About what my hands and my body done If the Lord don't forgive me I'd still have my baby and my babe would have me When I was kissing on my baby And she put her love down soft and sweet In the low lamplight I was free Heaven and hell were words to me"

Verse 3, lfg. Despite being a worrier, Goose really doesn't worry over what Ghost did in special forces. He served under her father, and that's worth its weight in gold. For all his "I'm dangerous" talk, Ghost has never raised a hand to her, never tried to hurt her, and never done anything to make her think that Price was wrong to recruit him. For all the bad he may have done, Goose holds onto Ghost's hope that it was all for the greater good.

They we wrap up the verse, lines 3-8, it doesn't matter if Ghost is bound for hell because he has Goose now, and whatever happens they're in it together. Goose accepts Ghost as he is, she loves him for all his flaws, and she has him body and soul. Lines 4 and 7 feel very much like an admittance from Ghost that Goose really wears the pants in their relationship. She's the one steering their ship, and he's perfectly happy to take her orders. It's freeing for him to put himself into the hands of someone who loves him so unconditionally that she would stand up at the gates of heaven and demand he be allowed in. She'd fight Gabriel himself for Ghost. But he'd never ask her to, because it doesn't matter anymore.

Heaven and Hell are just words, they're not a promise or a reward, or a weight around his neck. He has Goose, and she has him, and that's his heaven. He's free from trying to scrape a shred of forgiveness from a higher power, Goose is his God now.

"When my time comes around Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth No grave can hold my body down I'll crawl home to her"

Yeah Chorussss. We love the grave metaphors for Ghost, very cheeky little backstory nods. He's crawled out of a grave once, and he can do it again. Nothing will keep him from Goose, and the peace that she offers him. What's heaven, what's hell? He can find better rest in her arms, and he will always crawl home to her.

But also! "Lay me gently" GENTLY, he wants to be taken care of. Even in the lowest points of his life. He begs for it over and over between every verse. "Treat me gently, even if I leave it behind give me comfort." Over and over again. He doesn't expect comfort except in death, but by the end I have to think: who's laying Ghost to rest? Goose probably, and she will always treat him gently. Because for as big and scary as Ghost is, he craves softness. He's built tall walls to hide the cracks in his armor, to hide the delicate underbelly, but it's still there waiting to be loved. And Goose loves him, for all of it.

#ghoul speaks #simon ghost riley #cod x oc #x oc #cowboy!ghost #simon ghost riley x oc #oc: goose #anywaaaaaaaay I love work song #and I love doing ghost analyses