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ceciliablossoms · 3 years

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sazerac with zhongli, diluc, and kaeya? congrats on 100 followers!! 💕

Thank you so much! 💞💞

Sazerac: “I don’t… feel very….-”

TW: Mentions of Alcohol Consumption and Intoxication (Diluc), Mentions of Injury (Kaeya), Mentions of Illness (Zhongli)

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Zhongli

It was little before midday when they met up for their daily luncheon. Zhongli was already sitting at a table on the restaurant patio waiting for them, already having ordered their beverages as they both always got the same thing every time without fail. They were running a tad bit late, however, he paid no mind since he knew they were quite busy.

He drank from his small teacup as he waited, and it wasn't until they called his name that he looked up. They were jogging in his direction, dominant hand up in the air in an exaggerated wave. With a chuckle, he returned the wave, albeit more proper. He knew though, that something was wrong the moment that they sat across from him.

They had a sweaty sheen to their skin despite it being chilly out and sported a tired look on their face. At first, he chalked it up to the word they had been doing but the lack of appetite the food was served confirmed some suspicions. They hardly touched any of their food despite it being such a small portion and he eyed them with worry.

After the meal, he had proposed that they go home and rest a while but they happy insisted on walking with him back to the funeral parlour before doing so. But the walk was a struggle for them. Their movements were sluggish and they had trouble keeping up with him.

They grabbed his sleeve and tugged on it gently to grab his attention. He glanced over at them, his expression turning to one of surprise when he saw how much worse they had looked now than they did earlier.

“I don’t… feel very….-”, They promptly fell over.

He was quick on the draw and caught them before they hit the ground. He scooped them up gently as to not jostle them too much and touched his forehead to theirs. It was very clear that they had a fever but when he felt how warm their skin was, he realized how bad the fever actually was.

With great care, he carried them home and lied them down in their bedroom then immediately set out to speak with Baizhu about getting them some medicine. He also alerted Hu Tao to the predicament which she allowed him to take care of.

When they awoke, Zhongli was at their bedside, with a novel in hand. They looked around and took in their surroundings, relaxing when they realized that it was just their bedroom. The moment they made a move to sit up, the book in his hand was closed on the bedside table and he was gently pushing them to lie back down.

"Now, now, you mustn't overexert yourself. You will only feel worse if you do not rest. Stay put." He left the room only to return with a small bowl of water, a clean towel, and the medication Baizhu had prescribed earlier. He propped them up so on their pillows so they could take their medicine then immediately lied them back down.

They watched as he dampened the towel in the bowl before wringing it out. A soft sigh escaped their lips as he placed it over their forehead. The cold water did wonders to cool them down. He returned to his seat at their bedside.

"If there is anything at all you need please do not hesitate to let me know."

They smiled. "Thank you, Zhongli."

Diluc

The evening was in full swing, all the usual customers in their usual seats ordering their usual drinks. It was Diluc's turn behind the bar tonight, and as irritated as he was by the drunkards that didn't compare to the irritating he felt when the bard walked in with them on his heels.

Diluc heaved a sigh as the two took their usual seats at the bar, unknowing that this would turn out how it always did when Charles was present. They would tag along to make sure Venti wouldn't drain Diluc's entire stock of wine and pay for whatever the bard couldn't, so DIluc wouldn't be mad. Then Venti would persuade them to drink with him, and they were such a lightweight that they would end up getting so drunk they blacked out.

He rubbed his temple as Venti ordered his usual favourite but served him nonetheless. They noticed how annoyed he was already and tried to spark up a conversation with him to ease his nerves.

He visibly relaxed, mostly doing the listening as he never was one for talking more than he had to. Occasionally, Venti would interrupt to tease them or order a refill, and every time he did they would hand Diluc more Mora to which he would roll his eyes.

"You should be making the bard pay for his own indulgences." He commented after Venti's 9th refill. At this point, they were getting tipsy too, as the bard would occasionally offer them a drink of his alcohol.

"It... It's fine. I don't... mind." He could tell that they were trying their hardest not to slur their words

He had hit his 13th a while ago and was even more giggly than normal but otherwise still relatively sober. They, on the other hand, were rather inebriated, their sentences completely incoherent. Diluc had long since cut Venti off, highly irritated that he continued to share his booze with them.

Their voice was quiet when they spoke, “I don’t… feel very….-” The faceplanted onto the counter, the noise of their head hitting the bar startling both men. That was when Diluc closed the bar, forcing everyone to leave immediately and with gentle hands scoops them up and carries them back to the winery.

The next morning, the headache they had was the worst one they think they've ever had, and they held their head in their hands. The curtains were still closed to limit the light exposure as post hangover sensitivity can be an issue and on the nightstand were pain killers and a glass of iced water. They downed both needily and stayed in bed not quite trusting their legs just yet.

Not longer after Diluc came in with a small tray in hand, figuring having the maids do it would be strange to them, "Do you think you can eat?" He kept his voice down so any loudness wouldn't make the migraine worse.

With a hesitant nod, they gave him the okay and he set the tray of food in their lap. The portions were small so it wouldn't make them ill. Their stomach churned but they ate nonetheless, albeit extremely slowly.

They thanked him quietly and he sat on the foot of the bed with a nod. "You needn't let that bard talk you into drinking if you can't handle it."

With a sigh, they nodded slowly, already knowing that Charles had told him of the previous encounters. They took a slow sip of water. "I know..."

He waited until they were finished before taking the tray from them and setting it on a dresser near the door. "Is there anything you need?"

They patted the spot next to them, "Will you stay until this headache subsides?"

He nodded again, sitting next to them, wrapping an arm around them as they curled up against his torso.

Kaeya

The task was simple. Just the normal routine of clearing out some hilichurl camps with Amber then report back to the Headquarters. The two slip up, Amber took everything to the right of the bridge and they took everything to the left.

The Whispering Woods were relatively empty but beyond that was a different story. There was a large gathering of hilichurls and it seemed as though multiple tribes had converged into one. They watched for a bit from the bushes before deciding to clear out the massive group.

Having dealt with many hilichurls in their time they didn't think that solo clearing the camp would have been that big of a deal. What they expect, however, was to be completely and utterly overwhelmed. The smaller hilichurls and samachurls was no issue, but the sheer amount of mitachurls began to cause problems.

There were many at a time, swinging in sync from different angles in an attempt to cut them down where they stood. Adrenaline pumped through their veins as they fought with vigour. Mitachurl after mitachurl was slain and even after Amber had come to aid them they were still slaying the beasts.

Amber was worried, to say the least with the amount of dirt and grime that coated their clothes. They insisted, however, that they weren't injured as they felt no pain. The two went back to the town together, and they had said they would take care of reporting to Kaeya as Amber had stated she was hungry. The duo parted ways.

They found the walk to the headquarters to be more burdensome than normal, movements usually more sluggish. They ignored the worried glances from passersby and continued on their way. By the time they had entered Kaeya's office, their skin was significantly paler, all of its colour drained.

They called his name as they entered, ready to give the report when a sharp pain made them gasp. Kaeya looked up from his desk, expression changing to one of shock. They had been unaware that they had been bleeding through their clothing. He quickly stood and caught them as they fell forward.

“I don’t… feel very….-”

He keeps forces a smile and keeps his tone level, "Stay awake, hm?" but it all crumbles the moment they fall unconscious.

He called for either Wyratt or Wood down the hall as he placed his hands on their injury to staunch the bleeding. The blood was seeping from a gash on their side that he was assuming they didn't feel because of adrenaline. The two knights ran in and he demanded they fetch one of the sisters immediately. The two jumped at the tone of his voice, scrambling to the church.

He didn't know if he was angry with them for being reckless or the mitachurl that gave them the injury but regardless he was. Scooping them up with one hand he applied pressure with the other, deciding that he would at least try to meet them halfway as other Knights ushered away any prying eyes.

When the sisters got their hands on them, they were in shock, namely Barbara who was very clearly stressed out by the look of their injury. They were sweating and their skin was clammy. She worked diligently to clean and take care of the injury as best she could to get them into a state where they could be taken back to the church.

It took a while but she succeeded, stabilizing them and carrying them as carefully as possible to the infirmary in the back for the cathedral. Hours passed before they awoke and their pain was unbearable. Kaeya sat next to them, feet kicked up on the foot of the bed. He stood the instant he noticed them wake up.

The relief in his eye showed exactly how he felt despite not showing it outwardly, "How are you feeling?"

"Much better." Their voice sounded weak and they were still very pale.

He grabbed their hand gently, placing a kiss over their knuckles with a light chuckle, "You gave us all quite the scare." He flashed his usual smile but it was also noticeably relieved. The report could wait. Their recovery was more important.

#mine #anon #drabble #100+ followers event #genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact #gi x reader #zhongli x reader #genshin zhongli #zhongli #diluc x reader #genshin diluc #diluc #diluc ragnvindr #kaeya alberich #genshin kaeya #kaeya x reader #kaeya

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sadoeuphemist · 4 years

Text

“So this is a library,” said Shaw, wrinkling up his nose at the faintly musty smell of parchment. He peered up into the high arched ceilings, the flat of wrymsbane resting cold against his nape. “Not particularly defensible, what with all these massive windows and all.” He felt obligated to end on a complimentary note. “Lots of books, if you like that sort of thing.”

“Oh, yes, and it’s in these archives that I’ve discovered exactly what we’ve been looking for,” said Annalthea, bustling between the rows and rows of shelves. The librarian was a plump, unimposing woman who, as could be expected, looked utterly unsuited for the task of dragon slaying. “If you’ll just give me a minute - I’ve got them right here …”

“Take your time,” said Shaw. He casually twirled his blade, admiring the gleam of it. “We’ve got this whole ‘chosen one’ business down to a craft. Sure, you’re the one fated to kill the Writherdrake, but no one said you had to do it on your own, yeah? You say the word, I can put together a party of the finest dragon slayers you ever seen. You want ballistas? Faefire? You want a team of trained harriers to claw his wings to shreds?” Already his blood was pulsing with the possibilities. “I promise you this: I’ll have you driving a blade into the dragon’s heart even if I have to hold the bastard down myself.”

Annalthea poked her head out from between the shelves. “You ... you did read that part in my note about the Amulet of Destiny?”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, boss told me about that. Amulet, that’s fine too. Always did admire that sort of sideways thinking, not letting fate box you in.” He stood in the open lobby, taking a few practice swings. “So if it’s a heist we’re planning, I know just the rogue for it, Sylvas Slyphfoot, fellow could steal the shadow off a cat. But if we’ve got magics involved, temple guards and that sort, we’re going to need to be recruiting a Gray Warder - there’s a few of them to be found in Breath’s End, but you generally need a line with the Underguards for that -”

He fell silent as Annalthea emerged from the shelves, hidden behind a massive stack of books that she set down with a thump on one of the tables, dusting her hands off triumphantly. “Uh,” said Shaw, looking the pile of books up and down much in the way a man might scan a corridor for traps. “What’s all those for, then?”

“Research!” Annalthea said, swiftly subdividing the stack into smaller piles, flipping books open and arranging them in front of her in quasi-military formation. Finally satisfied, she sat down, surveying her domain as if preparing to march into battle. She turned to Shaw. “Shall we begin?”

---

“Now, the Amulet of Destiny,” Annalthea said. “Of course, everyone’s heard of it, it’s appended to the end of all Skein prophesies - ‘and so the Amulet of their Destiny shall weigh heavy around their neck.’ The current High Knot of the Priesthood of Ludd is claiming it’s nothing but a metaphor, that every prophesy they make is immutable, but even a casual perusal of Ludd’s 64 Strings - much less the entire history of the Priesthood! - shows that’s clearly not true! The Amulet was considered for centuries to absolutely be a real artifact, with multiple Knots affirming the fact of its existence. Ludd himself writes in interweaving 9, verse 4 of the Strings that ‘the Amulet hangs on the Skein, and only by grasping this may a man change his fate.’” She looked up expectantly at Shaw.

Shaw furrowed his brow, made himself look as serious as possible. “Mm. Yeah. Like you said.”

“Now the thing is, mentions of the Amulet of Destiny actually predate the creation of Ludd’s Blood’s Skein - it’s part of a much older tradition that got absorbed by the Ludd Priesthood. I was cross-referencing different versions of the legend -” She held up a thick volume bound in dull red leather - “Geoffrey Rymer’s Assorted Tales and Legends of the Northern Isles - an invaluable resource - and the Amulet has been placed everywhere from Mount Hyperboreax to the Living Tombs of Ebon. So, using Parcefalus’ A Genealogy of the Second World - plus a bunch of other minor historians who aren’t part of the standard curriculum,” she added apologetically, as if she was depriving him of a particular involved leg of the hunt - “I’ve traced the earliest oral traditions of the legend to the Chalk Giants, who according to Rymer say - hold on -” she said, darting to the left and flipping furiously through another book, finding her place and putting on a scholarly affect- “’say in their dusty tones that the amulet is buried in the barren cleft of the earth, and is so responsible for the slow advancement of the continents upon one another, in that dreary part of the world we call the Wastes.’”

Shaw blinked. “Uh-huh,” he said, leaning over her shoulder and squinting at the incomprehensible squiggles she kept eagerly pointing out. “Okay, so, it’s in the Wastes, right, that’s the whole upshot of that?” He put his thumb to his chin. “Bit more complex than I thought, then, we’ll need a Waste-tracker for that -”

“But that’s not all!” Annalthea said. She slid to another section of the table. “So, Wastern literature is notoriously inaccessible, and what little we do know about their culture has been filtered through the self-serving biographies of would-be colonizers, like Castafez and Pinafetta. Notorious stories about rampant cannibalism, sacrifices to the Elder Wurms, the supposed ‘canals of blood’ made famous by Pinafetta’s infamous Report to the Imperial Committee - ”

“Hold on,” said Shaw. “Supposed? So you’re saying the canals of blood and all the rest, that’s not true?”

“They’re unreliable sources!” said Annalthea. “What I wanted to do was find firsthand sources for Wastern culture, because if the Amulet of Destiny is indeed buried there, surely they’d have some native accounts of it! Now, in the Chronologies commissioned by High-Mother Gortel, who was of course sympathetic to Wastern culture, having a son-in-law from those lands, it says - Hold on a minute,” said Annalthea, scrabbling for another book.

“Is this - Is this all relevant?” said Shaw, looking with a growing dismay at the massive expanse of words across the table. “We started with the Ludds, fair enough, but now I don’t know why we’re talking about that Gortel, and Parsifus or whatever his name is -”

“Parcefalus,” she said, looking at him concernedly. “You know, the Genealogies? Indirectly responsible for the whole dynasty of the Sun-Kings, it’s where they drew their authority from?”

“Whatever,” said Shaw, ignoring her tone. “And that old witch Gortel’s been dead for ages! Ruled over a completely different continent! What are we doing, hopping around the world, then?”

“Oh, but don’t you see!” said Annalthea, looking up at him brightly. “If we’re assuming the Amulet is in the Wastes, we need to find accurate accounts of the region to make our plan, and that involves a marshaling of historical data in order to figure out which sources can be trusted! There’s really no other way to do it other than going through the archives.”

“But we could just hire a Waste-tracker …” Shaw protested weakly.

Annalthea raised an eyebrow at him. “Have you read the Travelogues of Hyxeramminnieax? Across the Boiling World by P’tarri Fnordottir? Fnordottir in particular exposes the Waste-tracker system as little more than a fraud, perpetuated by generations of liminists who make their living as glorified tour guides showing off deserted portions of the Wastes!”

She stood before him, backed by her tremendous ramparts of books, and Shaw found himself utterly unarmed on this particular battlefield. “All right,” he sighed, and reluctantly sheathed wrymsbane, slumping down on one of the library’s many chairs, “Go on, then.”

“Right,” said Annalthea, already drawn as if magnetized to another tome. “Now, as I was saying, we see the Amulet of Destiny reappear in the Chronologies, obliquely, this time, in the form of a logical paradox supposedly etched into stone by the Oracle of the Wastes - no such etching is actually known to exist, of course. But the riddle, I think, is informative in how Wastern philosophy was viewed at the time. It goes, essentially: How can such an amulet ever change your destiny unless your destiny to begin with was to obtain the amulet!” She looked to Shaw, and not finding the reaction she had been expecting, turned back to the books. “Hold on, I suppose it loses something when not in the original Diretongue, let me find the translation by Aoi Iidii here - it’s by far the best attempt to really grapple with the lexicon, I think, by throwing some Quaennya into the mix -”

Shaw could feel the library’s shelves implacably closing in on him. The entire world could be bound between the covers of a book, apparently, and soon so would he. “Uh-huh,” he said.

“- but how could they have claimed such history with Wastern culture?” she was saying. “If we go back to Parmodines’ accounts, and all the others contemporaneous to him, there’s no trade, there’s no cultural exchange, there’s no nothing! The most there is, is this text supposedly dictated by the blind philosopher Jaenus to his disciple -”

Shaw looked on with glazed eyes. “Uh-huh.”

“- the direct words of the Oracle Morag herself! See, according to Torvid of Irridia’s writings, his master Jaenus would slaughter sheep and drag them out into the Wastes for her, and while she sucked the bones clean they would discuss philosophy, and he would memorize each word precisely as she said it! Of course, she also ate him eventually -”

“Absolutely fascinating,” Shaw said, stifling a yawn.

“- amulets made from his bones being sold, according to Torvid’s journals, which were called aloun, meaning protection, supposed to protect their bearers while journeying into the Wastes. Now, if we trace the original legends from the Chalk Giants about the Amulet of Destiny, we can see that Torvid’s mission to Qarilan coincided with the earliest recorded mentions of the legend -”

“Uh-huh.”

“- Torvid, being the tutor of the Princess Catalana, is widely accepted to have influenced her religious awakening and the subsequent founding of the Flower of the Eternal Now, a short-lived cult during the Majal Period. Rumor has it that he even had an affair with her, although this of course cannot be proven -”

“Mrhmm.”

“- and here, in Book Four of The Bliss-Touched Nectar, she says, ‘Cede not the desires of your heart, for it is the shell’ - and that’s how Poryphys translates it, shell, but in the original text it’s aloun! Torvid’s aloun, and Jaenus’ aloun!” Her voice rose in excitement, and Shaw was roused blearily from his stupor. “See, she says, ‘Cede not the desires of your heart, for it is the shell, aloun, that shall be consumed in the blooming of the seed, to form the plant that grows without restriction!’“ She was beaming at him. “Don’t you see? That’s it! That’s the Amulet of Destiny! It’s the answer to the riddle! How can you come to possess the seed of your fate, unless it was your fate to possess it to begin with?”

Shaw stumbled to his feet, groping vaguely for his sword. He was certain he had missed something terribly vital. “Uh, so?” he said. “What’s the answer to the riddle, then?”

“It’s in the desires of our heart,” said Annalthea, earnestly pressing both hands to her chest. “The Amulet of Destiny, it was a metaphor for free will all this time, corrupted by centuries of oral folklore into an actual mythical artifact! It was in us this whole time!“

Shaw blinked at her, his hands falling to his sides. “Uh...”

“That’s how we change our destiny!” Annalthea said. “Of course, it’s such an obvious philosophical and narrative tradition dating back to the Irridians! The artifact, and then the quest, only to discover in the end that you were the bearer of the sacred truth all along - That’s the true value of an archive like this one,” she said with satisfaction, “being able to see how people before us went through their lives, pick out the patterns, so that we can learn from what’s come before! To think, we might have spent weeks on some fruitless quest, exposed to the elements, harassed by all sorts of ne’er-do-wells, only to learn what was available to us this whole time! Entire continents and centuries are accessible to us, just by opening a book!”

“Uh, of course, of course,” said Shaw, befuddled. “So, I - Well we’re not going after the Amulet now, definitely -” She beamed at him, tapping a hand over her heart. “So …” He struggled to get back on familiar ground. “We’re back to the slaying the dragon plan, then?”

“Oh!” she said. “Heavens, no!”

“Then, uh, what?”

“Well, I don’t need to do anything now, do I?” Annalthea said, and began briskly stacking the books back in piles for reshelving. “That whole prophesy nonsense - I’ve already changed my destiny by refusing it.” She bustled past him, her arms full of books. “I’m sure you’ll be much better off without me getting in your way, anyhow.”

“But -” said Shaw. “But, no, you can’t -” His hand went instinctively to the hilt of wyrmsbane, and he found himself wishing that there was something productive to stab with it. “But what about the Grey Skies! The Writherdrake! The only one who can pierce his heart!”

“Oh, goodness,” said Annalthea, and put a hand on her cheek, looking at him sympathetically. “I’m just a librarian, dear. I tend to the books. What would I ever have to do with a dragon?”

---

Annalthea stood over the smoldering remains of the library, her clothes and skin stained with soot, ash gritty beneath her feet, raised blisters on her hands. She was looking into the depths of a building that no longer existed: every rafter, every shelf, every floorboard, every scroll, every page, incinerated and reduced to ash.

Her fingers were hooked into rigid claws, lined with weeping blisters. A low moan came from her throat.

Shaw came running up, There was a wound across his scalp, his hair dangling gristly with blood, scorch marks streaked across his armor. Blackened burned flesh bubbled across his left arm. “Oh good, you’re alive,” he muttered. “Dragon’s gone. Razed us clear to the ground and veered off to the west. More safeholds to pillage, I suppose.” He peeled his hair out of his face, taking in a breath, and found a bit of rubble to sit on. He grimaced at his left arm. “It’ll heal. Didn’t even give me the chance to stab him a good one, the bastard. I mean, town’s burning, but any fight you can walk away from, right?” He looked over to Annalthea, let his gaze drift over the former site of the library. “Ah.”

A tremor began in Annalthea’s shoulders, shook her rib cage, made her hands tremble so badly that she clenched them into fists. “Look,” Shaw said awkwardly, half-standing to raise a hand over her shoulder, and then deciding better of it and sitting back down. “You can’t blame yourself for this, all right? You weren’t trained for this at all, and these prophesies - well, I don’t hold much stock in them myself! Chosen ones, huh!” he said, and snorted. “Why’s it never a professional who gets chosen, I ask you? You, and your books - Why, no one could have expected it of you, it’s a completely unfair ask -”

“I’m going to kill that dragon,” Annalthea said.

“Uh?” said Shaw.

“I’m going kill. That fucking. Dragon,” Annalthea said, each word forced viciously out of her throat. “Every book. Every last one of them. Burnt. Burnt to the ground.”

“Oh,” said Shaw, and then leapt to his feet. “Oh!”

“Lost,” said Annalthea. “All of it. The irreplaceable archive of generations. Burnt to the ground by a fucking overgrown lizard.” She looked at Shaw, her eyes blazing through her blackened face. “I’m going to slit his fucking throat.”

“Yeah,” said Shaw, nodding along. He drew wyrmsbane again, slightly tarnished but still deadly. “Yeah!”

“I’m going to kill him. I’m going to claw out his eyes. No - I’m going to carve out his heart and make him watch as I eat it while he’s still alive, make him watch each bite with his last gasping breaths as I taste the brimstone on my tongue. And then I’m going to kill him,” she said, “and then I’m going to rend. His. Soul.”

“Yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah!” said Shaw, excitedly kicking up ash. “I can still get a party together, won’t take two ticks - I know this warlock, you should see what her eldritch blasts can do to dragonscale -”

Annalthea swung her head to him. “You said he went west?”

“Uh-huh,” Shaw said, “but if you just hold on -”

She was already heading westward, trailing a cloud of ash in her wake, moving quickly but implacably, as if she would never tire. Shaw watched her in wonder, his spirits much buoyed, and was about to run to catch up with her when he let his gaze drift once more to the ashen field, the burnt remains of the library. He felt, vaguely, like he ought to say something in memorial of his encounter with this odd and fateful institution, some testament to the fallen before embarking on their valiant quest.

He bowed his head, put one hand over his chest. “Too bad I never learned to read!” he said, and set off.

#fiction #repost

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lostlastsforever756 · 3 years

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Ok, so bare with me...

1. Medusa was not the only woman in ancient Greece with snakes for hair

When you think of Medusa, you immediately picture her horrific hair made of snakes. However, Medusa is wrongly signaled out as being the only woman in ancient times to have this look. Don’t forget that Medusa was merely the only mortal of the three Gorgon sisters; the other two sisters, Stheno and Euryale, also had snake hair.

2. Zeus: The serial womanizer

Zeus was known in his time as much more than being the father of the gods. He was also a womanizer, and as such, he fathered many, many offspring! He would transform into an animal form to fulfill his desires, therefore his ‘children’ are quite interesting. In all, he seduced both Demeter and her daughter Persephone—who later married his brother—while he had transformed into the form of a serpent. He also charmed Asteria and Aiginia while in the form of an eagle, Boetis as a goat, Europa as a bull, and even fooled some women into letting them believe he was their husband!

3. Pandora is the grandmother of mankind

Pandora is often mentioned in reference to the infamous box. However, Pandora is actually the grandmother of the human race! It’s not really discussed often, however, Pandora was the wife of Epimetheus and mother to a mortal daughter, Pyrrha. When Pyrrha married her cousin Deukalion, the gods sent a massive flood to destroy the earth and the mortal. However, Pyrrha and Deukalion managed to survive, and after seeking help from the Oracle at Delphi, they cast the bones of Pandora to the ground so that the world would be repopulated.

4. The story of the first Immortals

In fact, it all begins with Chaos, Gaia’s (mother Earth) father and Eros (love). It sounds simple enough, but then, Gaia gave birth to Uranos (sky), the Sae and the Mountains. It gets complicated as she then later married Uranos and gave birth to Titan Cronus. Cronus married his sister, Rhea, giving birth to the original Olympian immortals: Poseidon, Demeter, Hera, Hestia, Hades, and Zeus. And that’s the complicated, true version of this story!

5. Theseus was a self-serving jerk

Moving beyond the story of Theseus slaying the Minotaur in Crete and managing the difficult exit of the Labyrinth, which cost numerous lives, Theseus also had a tendency to make decisions based on what best served him at the moment. An example is when he took Crete’s princess Ariadne when he left the island, only to late abandon her on the island of Naxos. Also, according to Plutarch, upon founding today’s Greek capital, Athens, he took it upon himself to populate the city by raping women.

6. Artemis held a grudge and would kill over it

The goddess of hunting is known for her shrewd skills and for being the protector of animals. However, while she is known as the goddess of childbirth, she is also the destroyer of young women. In fact, she killed six of Niobe’s daughters for insulting her mother, Leo. Clearly you didn’t want to get on her bad side!

7. Ares wasn’t such a tough cookie

Apparently, the god of war had a soft spot: his sister Athena, the goddess of war. Ares obeyed his sister’s orders as she was also the goddess of defense and righteous battle. This can be seen in the Illiad, when Athens often intervenes to ensure a fair battle and Ares always bows to her command.

8. Hades wasn’t such a monster…really!

The god of death and the underworld wasn’t really such a bad guy. Specifically, it wasn’t his choice to rule the underworld. Call it bad luck, getting the short end of the stick, whatever it was, Hades’ fate made him appear as pure evil. After all, Hades wasn’t the one who was responsible for the redemption of souls; the three demigod brothers, Minos, Aiakos, and Rhadamanthys had that fun job!

9. Mamma mia! There is one main mother to many monsters

There might be many monsters in Greek mythology, however, most of them share the same mother, Echidna. She was the sister of Medusa and the wife of Typhon, who happened to be a hundred-headed dragon! Together, they spawned many of the most terrifying and famous monsters, such as the Nemean lion, Cerberus, Hydra, and Ladon. She was also mother of the Chimera, the Sphinx, Scylla, the Colchian dragon, and the eagle that ate Prometheus’ liver every day for an eternity as was his punishment!

10. The goddess Aphrodite had a hidden side

The goddess of love and beauty had a hidden side due to her romantic relations with Ares, the god of war. She bore three children from Ares, Eros, Phobos, and Deimos. So, surprisingly, there were several statutes and other depictions of her found in many port cities, showing Aphrodite armed and in armor.

And this is my short list..... I have many problems but being uneducated on Greek Mythology is not one of them... Also i hyperfixated on this as a child....

I do remeber reading something along the lines of Hercules being an ass, but i am going to read some more about it and get back to you... I dont want to missinform you.

Random question of the day number 3: Did you ever read/watch Percy Jackson?

Xoxox all my PTSD and trauma ❤️Aka Humble Anon

I knew of the first two! And that zeus was a womanizer, but goodness, you're so smart! It's crazy how much information there is on greek mythology. If I had more time in the day, I would read up on it more 🙈 I appreciate you giving me the correct education cuz I definitely know nothing about Greek mythology. It so interesting ❤️

I did read all of percy jackson, and I watched the movies which we're obviously not good. I mean, as stand alone movies, and if you pretend the books don't exist, they are decent movies, but the books do exist and... Yeah :/

❤️💕 I seem to have woken you up with greek mythology, hmm?

#replies #late night asks #humble anon #greek mythology

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rw-deactivated · 3 years

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The Queen and the Witch: A Tale

This tale is one of the installments of my tales collection, Orcune Tales, haunting tales from Orcudes.

Genre: Dark fantasy

Word Count: 1.2k

Warnings: blood, murder, violence, death, let me know if i missed anything :)

A/N: This story is in a fairytale writing style and I might edit it soon to fix errors in the way I wrote it.

Once a beautiful queen lived in the highest castle among the land and willed herself to serve the needy. Her skin was ivory, soft as silk, her inky black hair falling on her shoulders, and her lips were red as cherries in spring. The people loved her because of her beauty and kindness that made their land rich and tranquil.

One day, the queen went to a strange village laden with gnarled trees more than houses. Most houses were empty and when the queen decided that her journey was hopeless, she spotted a woman as fair as her living in a hut.

And so she went to her and befriended the woman. The queen secretly envied the beauty of the woman for she looked more like a queen than she was. Her fiery red hair, fox-like eyes, and firm build fitted not just a queen, but a courageous warrior fighting for her kingdom.

But the queen shook her envy away and went back to her castle with a light heart.

Little did she know that the woman in the woods was the most powerful witch to ever live and she wasn't just filled with envy but with anger and greed.

Discreetly, the witch plucked a strand of hair from the queen, slashed her palms and poured her blood to a boiling concoction, cursing the queen in her wake.

A week later, the queen had fallen ill and was weak enough not to manage her land. The people mourned for her until the witch in the woods followed the queen's path and arrived on her land.

She executed wonderful things that made the town abundant. The people cheered for her beauty and abilities, and insisted on replacing the ill queen with her.

The previous queen gave her throne with a heavy heart, although she wanted the best for the land, she couldn't help but think how ungrateful her people had been. She made the land healthy with fairness and humility, enough to sustain their needs but the new queen let the people lavished with abundance, denuding trees and slaughtering animals for daily meat.

But the old queen was now powerless and alone compared to the new queen.

Though the witch had become the most powerful queen of the kingdom, she still felt hollow and discontented.

The new queen sought to empower the kingdom, and make the people rich. She went blind to the needs of the poor and was too occupied fraternizing with huge kingdoms rather than helping her people.

One day, she crossed an old fountain in the castle and to her surprise the water hissed at her, “Thou wretched witch! Thou may be the most beautiful among the land but thou have the most wicked and greedy heart!”

The witch was furious and when she looked at her reflection, it showed her beautiful face adorned with horns and her eyes were empty. She found a way to drain the fountain and the water gurgled, shrieking for help.

“You may be right that I'm a wicked witch. But you were wrong for saying that I have a heart.”

She ordered two of her servants to demolish the fountain and replaced it with a marble statue of herself.

The next day, the old queen ventured through the strange town and found the witch's old hut. There she found the potion the witch used to make her ill. The old queen was enraged and brought the cauldron to the nearby river to drain it but the water spoke to her.

“No, no! My queen, no! The potion was a weapon against the wicked witch, dip your dagger with the potion and kill the witch with it and she shall perish! But do remember that the potion can kill you both, drain the potion in this river after you killed her and cleanse the dagger. Your curse will vanish and you will be the queen once again.”

The old queen, still ill, unsheathed her dagger and dipped it in the potion. She took a flask with her, poured the remains of the potion and went back to her former kingdom.

She spotted the witch musing to the statue erected for her. The old queen was saddened to see the fountain gone for the magical water always spoke to her as a friend, and she thought to herself that maybe it was the same water that spoke to her in the river. Somehow it found its way back to her.

In no time, the witch noticed her and drew her scepter made of bones and obsidian gems. The old queen, driven with rage and grief, lunged to the witch and raised her dagger, aiming for her heart.

The witch dodged, immediately knocking the dagger from the old queen and bludgeoned the hard scepter to the queen's knee.

The old queen shrieked, and crawled for the dagger, persistent to kill the witch and set her kingdom free. But the witch showed no mercy and stained her scepter red with the old queen's blood. She picked the dagger from the ground and stabbed the old queen's cheek, the dagger's tip protruding to her skull. The witch found the flask of potion in the old queen's frock and emptied it on the grass.

Soon the townspeople will see the bloody murder near the fountain, but the witch was too clever to let her ruling position slipped.

She took the dagger and opened a small door to her statue's chest with the hidden key in her bone scepter. Inside, was a shallow water storage where the remaining magical water shrieked, “You slayed my queen! You slayed my queen!”

But as the witch cleansed the dagger from the old queen's blood, the water quieted and was too murky to utter a word.

“I am your queen,” said the witch. “I'll always be.”

With that, she drove the dagger on her shoulder and shrieked for help. She released another dagger from her dress and dipped it with blood to turn the scene in her favor.

The servants and her people came to her aid as she told a convincing story of how the old queen tried to kill her. The crowd cheered for their queen's success and wished her good health.

The witch became the queen of the town as long as she pleased, and the magical water in her veins made her immortal.

She went back to her old hut, polluted the magical water for it will serve her no good again, and commanded the gnarled trees to fold themselves and closed the path. The trees moaned and wailed, the boughs snapping, as they wrapped the path along the witch's hut.

No one knew that the trees were once humans that had been cursed as trees by the witch. And so they served as her watchful spies that overheard the old queen's conversation with the magical water, leading to the witch's triumph.

The queen's witchcraft has fooled the people for a long time until she fell off her towering castle and died.

The people found what remained of the queen splattered on the ground but they never found her heart. It was rumored that someone took it or ate it.

They buried the queen near her statue that still stood to this day.

#the queen and the witch #rw writes #tw blood #tw violence #tw murder #tw death

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psyentifically-minded · 5 years

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The Semites and later Hebrews had a large number of humans recorded into their mythologies and whole lists of generations can be found throughout the Old Testament in the Bible. Some notable figures are as follows:

Aaron: The Hebrew brother of Moses. Aaron became the first priest of Israel.

Abel: Abel was the son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain. Abel was killed by his brother Cain over jealousy because God approved of Abels offering of lamb but not Cains offering of vegetation, this is said to be because Abel gave his best lamb while Cain gave only the crops he didn’t want for himself.

Abraham: Abraham (depicted top row and central) founded the Hebrew faith after being commanded by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, Abraham proved his willingness to do Gods work and so God sent an angel to hold back the hand of Abraham before he could thrust his knife into his son. God then gave Abraham a set of laws and told him he would found the nation of Israel. The site known as the “dome of the rock” in Jerusalem is the only site sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims because it is supposedly the site where Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac meaning that it is the common root of all three of these faiths.

Adam: Adam (depicted top left) is the first man created by God according to Genesis, Adam is created from clay called Adamah in the likeness of God, in Kabbalistic tradition this is because Adam is a microcosm reflecting the macrocosmic divine being known as “Adam Kadmon”. In early Hebrew writtings Adams first wife is Lilith but she fled from him because he refused to accept their equality as both were made from the same clay so God made Eve from Adams rib to be more subserviant to his will which worked out untill the serpent in the garden of Eden convinced Eve to eat the fruit of knowledge/death causing their mortality, expulsion from Eden cursed to toil the earth for food and birth the children Cain and Abel. Adam and Eve eating the fruit of knowledge offered by the serpent is likely an ancient Semitic Kundalini mystery where the tree symbolises the Kabbalistic Tree of Life/Death as well as the human spinal cord and nervous system while the fruit represents the third eye that gives knowledge explaining why the Bible states that when they ate the fruit of knowledge their “eyes were opened”.

Aqhat: Aqhat was given a marvellous bow made by the God of smiths, Kothar in Canaanite mythology. The war Goddess Anat coveted this weapon. When Aqhat refused Anats offer of immortality in exchange for the bow she had him killed by a soldier called Yatpan. Aqhats body was then eaten by Samael. As a result darkness descended on the earth and plants and animals began to die. With the help of El, Anat rescued Aqhat from the underworld and restored the bow to its rightful owner whereupon all things returned to normal.

Balaam: Balaam was a prophet and diviner who was said to know when Gods anger was raised, Balaam sought to destroy the Israelites by temptations of the flesh and food offered to false idols which caused God to send a plague upon them.

Bazaleel: The architect of the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. Bazaleel was a priest or mason also in charge of sacred oils, incense and vestments.

Boaz: Boaz was a wealthy landowner and husband of Ruth. The name Boaz is derived from the left pillar of the temple of Solomon as opposed to the right pillar Jachin, these concepts are important in both Freemasonry and Kabbalah although Boaz as a person is of unknown connection to these concepts.

Cain: Cain is the brother of Abel and as such is often thought to be a son of Adam however some interpret the act of Eve eating the serpents/magicians fruit to be a sexual act and state that Cain is the result of this forbidden union, this is often refered to as the “Serpent Seed” mystery. In any case jealous of God looking favourably on Abels offerings and scoulding Cain for his, Cain commits the sin of murder killing his brother Abel and hiding his body, when God discovers Cains deeds he is punished by being exiled to the land of Nod but begs God for mercy saying the other peoples living in the wilderness will kill him and as such God marks Cain with a sign on his head and a form of immortality that means anyone who kills Cain will inherit a greater curse. Cain takes a wife and sires children. In Hebrew “Cain” is rendered “Qayin” which means “Spear”.

Canaan: The founder and father of the Canaanites who inherited a generational curse from Canaan who had been hexed by Noah for the actions of Canaan’s father Ham, Noah cursed Canaan as a servant of servants to serve his brothers.

Daniel: Daniel was a prophet held captive in Babylon after the Babylonians looted the temple of Jerusalem he was able to divine the meaning of the Babylonian kings dreams and to explain the meaning of miracles he observed.

Deborah: Deborah whose name means “Bee” was an Israelite prophetess who lead a rebellion when the Israelites were captive in Canaan, the Israelites crush the Canaanites in battle as she predicted and the Canaanite king Sisera escapes to the tent of Jael where Deborah lays him to rest giving him milk before driving a tent peg through his temple. This may be a Kabbalistic/Alchemical mystery since Deborahs name means bee, she gives milk inside a tent (often symbolically synonymous with the tree of life) and drives a tent peg (which is a symbol of the Hebrew letter and pathway of Vau) through his temple which may refer to his spiritual makeup rather than his physical skull.

David: David was a shepherd who became famous for his musical talents and later became a favourite of King Saul for his heroic act of slaying the Philistine giant/nephilim Goliath with a slingshot. King Saul and his son become concerned that David plans to steal the throne however when both are killed in battle David becomes King of Israel and Judah, he went of to conquer Jerusalem and seized the Arc of the Covenant, he was however denied the honour of creating the sacred temple because he commited the sin of adultery, his most notable son is his successor King Solomon. The six pointed star symbol known as the “seal of solomon” is also known as the “magen david” or “shield of david”, David is a prominent figure in Judaism and the twelve tribes of Israel are thought to connect to his bloodline, Jesus Christ was also said to be a relative of King David in later history.

Elijah and Elisha: Elijah was the father of Elisha, both sought to end the worship of the Canaanite God Ba’al. Elijah was suddenly taken up into heaven by a chariot of fire which may relate to Merkaba mysticism or an ancient account of alien abduction.

Enoch: Enoch (depicted ascending top right) was the son of Jared, father of Methuselah and grandfather of Noah. In the Biblical accounts of Genesis and the Talmud, Enoch is said to have died before his time where as in Kabbalistic texts he was said to be the first man to transcend physical existence ascending to become the highest angel “Metaton” meaning “voice of God” by forming a cube from his soul later known in sacred geometry and Kabbalistic works as Metatrons Cube or “the lily among the thorns” and the Tree of Gra. Enoch was also the reported author of ancient gospels left out of the Bible called the “Book of Enoch” which goes into greater detail about the fallen angels and Nephilim and what had inspired them to commit the sin of interbreeding with humanity.

Eve: Eve is thought to be the mother of all humanity as backed up scientifically to some extend by the existence of the Mitrochondrial Eve. Eve is possibly where we draw the word “evening” which is interesting since her early forebarer Lilith’s name means “of the night”, unlike Lilith who was made from the same Adamah clay as Adam and thus his equal who fled from him, Adams second wife Eve was made from Adams “Tsela” meaning “Rib”, “Temple Face” or “Side” and thus subservient to Adam. In the Genesis narrative Eve is seduced by the words of the serpent/magician/fallen angel and eats from the fruit of knowledge/death and convinces Adam to do the same which is a sin since she held the words of the serpent above Gods, God curses then serpent to crawl on its belly all its days eating dust and puts animosity between the serpent seed lineage and humanity saying the former will strike at mans heels and the later will crush the snakes heads under their feet. God then exiles Adam and Eve from Eden placing a Cherubim in the form of a two-bladed flaming sword at its entrance. Since Adam and Eve had eaten “Da’at”/“Daath”/“Death” they had added mortality to their spiritual makeup causing the division of their unified being into male and female who realised they were naked upon seeing eachother and constructed aprons out of figs to cover themselves, this meant that having also obtained knowledge they were no longer ignorant or their nakedness and with the implimentation of the Sephira of Hessed and Gevurah into their spiritual makeup they were able to determine between good and evil for themselves and had gained freewill able to work against the whims of God/natural order. As punishment Adam would have to toil the fields to sustain himself and Eve would experience great pain in childbirth, eventually mothering Cain and Abel. Adam and Eve eating the fruit of knowledge offered by the serpent is likely an ancient Semitic Kundalini mystery where the tree symbolises the Kabbalistic Tree of Life/Death as well as the human spinal cord and nervous system while the fruit represents the third eye that gives knowledge explaining why the Bible states that when they ate the fruit of knowledge their “eyes were opened”.

Ezekiel: Ezekiel was a prophet who had Merkaba visions of God on a throne surrounded by light in a great cloud flanked by four-headed Cherubim and Ophanim “wheels within wheels” (both types of angels). In this vision God hands Ezekiel the scroll of Lamentations which Ezekiel eats describing it as sweet like honey. Ezekiel then saw visions of a third temple prophecised to be build in the future on the mountain of Jerusalem which he describes in great detail. Some believe that Ezekiels encounter with the Merkaba of God is actually an alien encounter.

Goliath: Goliath was a Philistine (Palestinian) giant or Nephilim slain by King David via a stone launched from a slingshot.

Hiram Abiff: Hiram Abiff (depicted bottom left) was the architect of Solomons temple and the leader of an early Hebrew group of masons. Hiram Abiff was grand master of this primitive masonic lodge and along with Solomon and one other was said to know one third of the great mystery for which he was attacked one night as he fled the temple by three masonic initiates who sought these secrets threatening him at each exit with a different weapon until the last struck him dead with a club blow to his head, the three assassins then burried Hiram in a shallow grave marked with an acacia sprig. Solomon comands the masons to find Hiram Abiff and they find the grave and his attackers hiding in a cave who are all put to death since Solomon declares the secret to be lost having died with Hiram. This story is central to modern Freemasonry and is enacted by initiates to the Masonic orders who play the role of Hiram Abiff in ritual retelling being struck over the head and the raised back to life with the lionspaw handshake. Some equate Hiram Abiff with one head of the great beast that rises from the pit or ocean in revelations since this particular head is said to be bashed in as though struck with a weapon.

Jacob: Jacob was a prophet who married into the Canaanite tribe and who made a covenant with God he was later known as “Israel”. Jacobs twelve sons became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob userped his brother Esau by fooling his blind father into bestowing his blessings onto Jacob instead of Esau. Jacob recieved a vision of a ladder upon which many angels ascended and descended this is often taken to be related to the Egyptian ladder of ascension Shu and the later Jewish Kabbalah in which the tree of life is often refered to as “Jacobs Ladder”.

Job: Job was a man who was seen as good in the eyes of God however Satan suggested that Job only loved God because of the great life God had afforded him and so the two made a wager on if Job would still be righteous if his blessings were stripped away, eventually after the deaths of his family, the loss of his health and his land Job turns from God cursing him, God then speaks with Job directly rebuking him for his folly and restores his health, wealth and a new family to repay his loses. In later Kabbalistic texts Moses is brought into heaven where he witnesses the angel of death Samael on route to claim the soul of Job, Samael is so ferocious that Moses prays to God a different angel will be sent to claim his own soul when he dies.

Jonah: Jonah was given a prophecy to deliver the word of God to powerful enemy nations however in fear Jonah fled and was swallowed up by a whale and only released when he agreed to do as he had been commanded. In studies of the tree of death/Qliphoth and its Qlipha the Qlipha of Gamaliel has an outer cortex called “Ogiel” which refers to the trap of those who “flee from God” just as Jonah had.

Joseph: Joseph was a Canaanite and the most beloved son of Jacob who gave him a many coloured robe, Joseph had prophetic dreams that he would become superior to his brothers however his jealous brothers sold him to Egyptian slavers ripping the robe and smearing it in blood they convinced their father that Joseph had been killed by a bull. Joseph was sold to an Egyptian guard of the pharoah whose wife tried to seduce him and then claimed he had raped her when he refused her causing him to be falsely imprisoned. In prison Joseph interpreted the dreams of the pharoahs imprisoned cup barer and baker correctly and years later pharoah had dreams that on the cup barers advice were interpreted by Joseph to mean seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine and advised the pharoah to stock up on supplies for. Joseph was released from prison and given wife and property and appointed as an advisor of pharoah and master of the food stores, when the famine came the people of Egypt sold their land to Joseph who then implimented a tax on behalf of pharoah. Eventually Josephs brothers came to Egypt seeking food and did not recognise him though he recognised them he accused them of being spies and had them imprisoned for three days but released them when he heard them speak of the wrong they had done to their brother Joseph and so gave them free grain. The brothers returned to Canaan and then back to Egypt for more grain bringing their oldest brother Benjamin with them as Joseph had requested them to do in their last meeting, during their stay Joseph gave the brothers more grain and gold but planted his silver cup in Benjamin’s bag so that he could accuse him of stealing and force him to become his slave to pay off the crime. The other brothers protested that they should take Benjamins place and Joseph wept revealing his deception in that he was infact their brother and explained to them the story of what had happened to him after being sold into slavery in Egypt, he told the brothers to bring their father, other brothers and possessions back to Egypt to live with him and survive the rest of the famine as family together.

Lot: Lot was the nephew of Abraham and traveled with his family to the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, in Sodom the people who practiced sodomy sought to rape Lot and his family however they escaped on advice of angelic messangers who spoke to them telepathically of the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah they were warned not to look back less destruction fell on them which they all obeyed except Lots wife who looking back was turned to a pillar of salt. It was described as raining sulphur in Sodom and Gommorah as Seraphim had opened their wings on the cities destroying them, this account is sometimes considered to be an ancient account of nuclear weaponry as Lots wife is seemingly vapourised and Sodom and Gomorrah are seemingly inexplicably destroyed in a burning rain not disimilar to nuclear fall out, archeologists have also found sites in the deserts of the middle East where these cities might have stood finding that the skeletal remains seem to indicate sudden deaths from their positions along with fragments of fused glass which happens when the sand is exposed to sudden extreme temperatures. Lot is later made drunk and raped in his sleep by his two daughters so that they could bare children. The telepathic angels in human guise are often believed to be aliens and the use of nuclear weapons in the ancient world are seemingly hinted at by other religious texts such as the later Hindu concept of Brahmastra.

Naamah: The sister of Tubal-Cain of some interest to the Serpent Seed mysteries since in Tubal-Cain bares Cain’s name and Naamah is later equated with the demonic succubus Lilith in Hebrew demonology.

Nimrod: The Babylonian king who sought to build the tower of babel to reach God (likely an Alchemical or Kabbalistic ascension mystery surrounding the concept of a ladder of ascension). God cursed Nimrods workers confusing their language so that they could not work together and the building was abandoned.

Noah: The Hebrew version of the Sumerian Atrahasis. Noah was given the commandment by God to build an ark storing his family, seeds and two of each animal in order to spare them from the flood God was going to send to destroy the Nephilim, fallen angels and evil generations of man/serpent seed lineage.

Paqhat: The sister of Aqhat who killed Yatpan in vengeance for her dead brother.

Samson: Samson was the last of the Israelite judges who due to his mythical strength is often equated with the Sumerian Enkidu or Greek Hercules. Samson was so strong that he killed a lion with his bare hands and massacred an entier Philistine army using the jaw-bone of a donkey as a sword. Samsons weakness was that if he cut his hair he would breach his sacred vows and lose his strength this was exploited by his treacherous lover Delilah who cut his hair and gave him up to his Philistine enemies who blinded him and forced him to grind grain as a slave during which time he prayed to God and his hair began to regrow, the Philistines eventually brought him to the temple of Dagon where he pulled down the supporting column killing himself and his Philistine captors.

Sarah: Sarah is a beautiful woman described in the book of Tobit, Sarah tries to marry seven different men who are all slain by the demon Asmodeus on their wedding night because they had evil intentions causing God to allow Asmodeus to strike them down, Tobit prays to God who sends the Angel Raphael to interceed and prevent Asmodeus from attacking and so Sarah marries Tobits son and Tobit who was previously blind regains his sight. This is interesting since Asmodeus is known as the “blind God” however the story also alludes to the way in which demons, as fallen angels, are still without freewill and must therefore act under the will of God and do Gods bidding just as other angels must.

Saul: Saul was the first king of Israel and was succeeded by King David after Saul died in battle having commited suicide by falling on his own sword preventing the Philistines from capturing him. In his earlier life Saul had been anointed King by the prophet Samuel.

Solomon: King Solomon (depicted bottom right) was a son and successor of king David. Solomon was offered any gift he chose from God and chose wisdom knowing all other gifts would follow it, Solomon was said to be a great and powerful magician known to summon and bind demonic and angelic spirits to his will, with the help of Hiram Abiff and demonic forces he built the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem and with the help of local Galla tribesmen and angelic forces built the sister temples in Lalibela in Ethiopia. Solomon was said to conjour demonic spirits and then imprison them in a brass vessel in one myth one of these vessels is discovered and demons were unleashed. The magical formulas associated with Solomon are recorded in the lesser key of Solomon and the great key of Solomon, including the rites involved with the evocation and exorcism of demonic spirits, these rites call for aprons to be worn and along with their close association with the temple of Solomon may bare associations with modern Masonic rituals, during Solomons reign he was said to have had all of the Occult texts in his kingdom collected up and burried under his throne. King Solomon was said to have been married to the queen of Sheba who is sometimes equated with Lilith, the Biblical “Song of Solomon” is also a text known to deal with sacred marriage and Hieros Gamos. It is said that Solomon died during the building of his temple and that God sent the Shamir worm he had been gifted by the demon king Asmodeus to alert the demons to their freedom by tunneling through the staff that was proping up their dead master causing Solomons corpse to fall over and allowing the spirits he had conjoured to escape.

Tubal-Cain: Tubal-Cain was a metallurgist known as the “first artificer of metals” he is an important character in Freemasonry used as the third degree password and symbolised by two balls and a cane making the shape of an “f” between them. In Hebrew mythology Tubal-Cain is taught to work metals into armour and weapons by the angel of death Azrael.

Yatpan: Yatpan was a soldier. The war Goddess Anat collected him from Abelim when he was drunk and carried him to kill Aqhat who had refused to give Anat his marvellous bow. Subsequently Yatpan was himself killed by Paqhat.

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theultimateegghead-blog · 6 years

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Blood boiling and bone chilling Chainsaw Users!

The Chainsaw is a horrendously misused item in horror. While in real life it is a tool for lumber in horror it is an unstoppable weapon of mass destruction. Chainsaws can cut through flesh like hot butter and will obliterate all who stand before its might. Ill lay down some rules, not everyone on this list will be from strictly horror games. Second, they don’t have to just use chainsaws, they can use other weapons, but the chainsaw should be a major part of their weaponry. Finally, no chainsaw users that originated in movies such as Ash or Leatherface. Let’s take a look at some chainsaw users in video games! Rip and Tear!

Chainsaw Majini - Resident Evil 5

Now we already covered Dr. Salvador in an earlier list, now we will look at the Resident Evil 5 counterpart. The Chainsaw Majini is a deadly mini-boss that is never seen without his chainsaw. Much like Salvador, he can easily down the player in one shot. He will pursue you aggressively until he is either downed or you escape. He has quite a bit of health and can endure damage before staggering, if he collapses there is a good chance that he is not dead. Once downed, if his chainsaw is still on, he will get back up and enter an endless fury of slashes. If his chainsaw stops revving, then he is done. Luckily he is one of the rarer enemies in the game, but is dangerous nonetheless.

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Sawrunner - Cry of fear

Sawrunner is one of the most harrowing and dangerous foes in Cry of Fear. The Sawrunner will ambush Simon at several different points of the game. He is nearly unkillable and is extremely powerful, being bale to down Simon in one slash. This insane monstrosity is fast and very loud, the best way to survive is to run. The Sawrunner likes to appear out of nowhere and let out a bloodcurdling scream upon seeing you. Even if you do best him, it does not stop him from returning later. The only times he is set up as a slayable foe is in the custom stories.

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Piggsy – Manhunt

Piggsy is a deranged mass murderer and a “actor” in a large underground snuff film ring. A extremely mentally unstable man, Piggsy wanders the attic, armed with brute strength and a Chainsaw. He plays a deadly game of cat and mouse with the main protagonist and is shown to be incredibly resilient to damage. Piggsy acts almost like a child, pretending to be a pig. He attacks and stalks the player in a very violent manner and squeals when attacked. He is eventually sent plummeting to his death. Also he doesn’t wear pants…please get him some pants…

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Marcus Fenix - Gears of War

Marcus Fenix is the main character of the original Gears of War trilogy. A disgruntled COG soldier with a troubled past who is fighting desperately against the Locust Hoard. Marcus loses much in the war. In combat Marcus uses the standard COG weapon known as a Lancer. The Lancer is a machine gun with a powerful Chainsaw attached to the end. The chainsaw is strong enough to cut through most things, including the various Locust.

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Jack – Madworld

Jack is the main character of Mad World and is known for having a chainsaw strapped to his arm. A recurring fighter in the gruesome Deathwatch games, Jack slays hundreds of foes in order to win the prize. His reasoning, past and desires are largely unknown. What is known is that he is a brutal fighter who isn’t afraid to get bloody. He uses the chainsaw to great effect when he finishes off his foes.

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Juliet Starling - Lollipop Chainsaw

Juliet is a bona fide monster hunter who comes from a family of monster hunters. Juliet is a high school cheerleader who seems blissfully unaware of the madness unfolding around her. Her entire town is engulfed by legions of vulgar, evil zombies and it is up to her…and the decapitated head of her boyfriend to stop them. Hyped up on lollipops and using colorful pom poms, she is exceptionally skilled at cutting down the hordes of the undead.

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Bladewolf - Metal gear Rising

Blade Wolf is a powerful AI weapon that is under the control of Desperado and serves as an early boss. It attacks with a chainsaw like bladed tail sword. It battles Raiden and summons waves of allies to help it in a somewhat tough battle. However, Raiden emerges victorious. Blade Wolf is subsequently rebuilt and changes sides, though once he joins Raiden he loses the chainsaw sword tail. He serves as a voice of reason for Raiden at times and proves to be a very faithful ally. In the end he gets a happy life at Sunny and Otacon’s air base.

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Hillbilly - Dead by Daylight

The Hillbilly is a deranged killer with a tormented past. He was tormented by his parents until he finally snapped and killed them. He is extremely territorial and will slaughter anyone who dares encroach his territory. The Hillbilly is very strong, nearly impervious to pain, and intelligent enough to make weapons out of scrap. He primarily uses a hammer and a chainsaw; the chainsaw needs to be charged but can be devastating. His disfigured visage is a homage to Leatherface.

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Doom Slayer – DOOM 2016

I know what you’re thinking, he isn’t holding a chainsaw! Well, The Doom Slayer has a large arsenal of weapons ranging from a pistol to a powerful energy cannon. However, the Chainsaw can be a very helpful tool in his arsenal. The Chainsaw in DOOM is a mighty weapon that can kill most enemies instantly in a brutal fashion. It runs on fuel and its use is limited, but it can be helpful for taking down some of the bigger baddies in the game. I could not ignore the DOOM chainsaw’s might.

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Stanley Decker - Zombies Ate my Neighbors

Some people want to cause havoc. Stanley Decker is one such person. With the zombie apocalypse ravaging a neighborhood, Decker decided to adorn a mask and chainsaw and go on a murderous rampage. Decker is strong and can deal heavy damage. He can kill innocents and tear through walls with his saw. While he cannot one shot the player like many other chainsaw enemies, he can still lay the smack down. What’s worse is when there is somehow more than one…

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Hopefully we are all still in one piece. Now that they have been talked about its back to the level grind, this time with ghost towns! Those are spooky right?

#chainsaw #resident evil #cry of fear #manhunt #gears of war #marcus fenix #madworld #lollipop chainsaw #juliet starling #metal gear rising #blade wolf #dead by daylight #DOOM #zombies ate my neighbors #horror #slasher

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elizabethhollowswriting-blog · 6 years

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Lady Knights - Tale 1

I recently discovered @caitlynkurilich‘s amazing art and specifically this post of her “Lady Knights”. I couldn’t resist writing something about the ladies she created, and after gaining her permission, I put fingers to keys.

I hope to write little ficlets for all five women, but this story is meant to be about the first Lady Knight.

Please be warned, there are some brief but graphic depictions of violence.

Lady Katherine Ashmore was an unusual woman.

She dressed in the red, gold and blue ceremonial garb worn by The Knights of the Crown; modified slightly for her smaller, womanly build. She carried a sword and a pistol and she walked the streets of London, turning heads and causing whispers wherever she went.

Her brunet locks were artfully tied under her fashionable hat. Her boots were well made and allowed her to run unimpeded through the streets. Her eyes were as cold as flint and there were rumours she had cut off the hand of a man who had dared to tell her she was unworthy of her stance as a knight.

**click the cut for more text

Lady Katherine was the only child of Lord Vernon Ashmore and therefore, was the heir to his title and his duty. The Knights of the Crown had sworn an oath to serve Queen and country and when not reporting to Queen Victoria herself, they assisted Scotland Yard with their protection of the people.

Scotland Yard, however, refused to listen to or ask the help of Lady Katherine. It left her with little choice but to demand their case files and seek criminals on her own. When she provided them tied up and squirming under the heel of her boot, they had little choice but to arrest the captured villains.

Lady Katherine, unlike many of The Knights of the Crown and other aristocrats, had the respect and assistance of the poor. They would offer her honesty words and advice in exchange for her coin. They knew she was always good on her word and that she had helped many a child or woman in need.

Lady Katherine did not just cut down a criminal but she tended to the ill and abused, finding them better shelter and donating her money and her time. Where The Knights of the Crown took pleasure and comfort in their status, she took pleasure and success in her duty. Lady Katherine would walk a hundred filthy streets to protect the poor rather than dance at a dozen lavish parties where her gun and sword were little more than golden ornaments.

Where there was a crime to be solved and murderer to capture, Lady Katherine made it her business to be involved.

When she first overheard talk of a murder occurring in Whitechapel Lady Katherine was at Scotland Yard. There were other Knights of the Crown heading to view the body and she had followed them. She could only grit her teeth and clench her sword at the sight that she had seen. The woman’s throat was severed by two cuts, and the lower part of the abdomen was partly ripped open. They were told that there were other incisions on the abdomen that were made by the same attacker.

Scotland Yard were searching for witnesses and she and her two fellow knights were quick to join them in Whitechapel. The victim was a lady of the night, but no one had any information on her attacker. The trail quickly ran cold and many of the knights and police turned their attention from the case to other business, but Lady Katherine was not dissuaded. The brutality of the attack had her worried it was not an attack of passion or familiarity, but opportunity.

Her fears were only confirmed when, just over a week later, another woman was found mutilated. It was someone Lady Katherine had seen mere days before. It infuriated and disgusted her. Lady Katherine became determined to protect these helpless women from a madman.

She began to walk the streets each day and night, becoming as familiar with each cobblestone as she was the rooms in her own house. Lady Katherine learned the names of many of the people who lived there. She saw their fear and she saw the women of the night continue to earn their trade despite knowing their next gentleman caller could be a killer.

Lady Katherine barely slept, hardly ate, she stalked the Whitechapel streets as a silent phantom; her gold finery glinting in the lights of the streetlamps, her gun held firm in one hand while a lantern was carried in the other.

It was in the earlier hours of Sunday morning over three weeks later that Lady Katherine finally found her man. She had heard a muffled cry and pleading off the street she was on and rushed to the scene. She found a woman tearfully begging as a man raised a bloody knife to her throat. Lady Katherine aimed her gun and fired without mercy; killing the man with dark and deadly precision.

The woman let out a fearful shriek but Lady Katherine ignored her as she slowly stepped forward, her gun still pointed at the man’s still form. The closer she came, the more she was able to observe; he was most certainly dead. He was also shabbily dressed but in clothing that still indicated he was from a different, more upper class part of London.

When she felt a trembling hand grip her arm, Lady Katherine turned back to the terrified woman who was frantically gasping out her gratitude, tears running down her face.

Lowering her gun back to her side now that she was assured of the man’s death, Lady Katherine took the woman from the alley and hailed the first person she saw, demanding they call Scotland Yard and the Knights of the Crown.

The body, when it was identified some time later, belonged to a doctor and when his home was investigated they found a uterus in a jar, something that had been taken from the second victim. It made Lady Katherine certain she had found and stopped her madman.

The young woman who had been saved found Lady Katherine in Scotland Yard, clutching her hands and thanking her profusely once again. Lady Katherine had merely patted her arm and sent her on her way. She had done her duty as a Knight of the Crown, and she could rest easy tonight, knowing that no more women would be harmed by this murderer.

The head of the Knights however, was not impressed by her actions.

He called on her the following day, her servants leading him to her parlour where she was cleaning her blade and her gun on the table. He took a seat and eyed her shrewdly as he chastised her for the actions she had taken by walking Whitechapel streets without another knight and with no regard for the appearance of the order. Lady Katherine had listened with a half-ear as she continued to clean her sword, long used to such remarks.

“You are a lady, and should act accordingly,” he reprimanded her.

Lady Katherine’s lips thinned and she finally looked at him. “Elizabeth Stride is grateful I was nearby to aid her, Lord Kenward; were I being more demure, she would be one more body in our morgue.”

He stiffened in his seat, glaring at her. “You should not be unaccompanied, had you failed you would have disgraced our order with your death.”

“When the knights don’t defend the innocent and allow them to die,” she told him; the sound of her blade being resheathed loud and sharp in the quiet of the room. “That is a day when our order is disgraced.” She stood and it forced the Lord to do the same for the sake of propriety. She just eyed him coldly. “Mary Ann Nichols and Annie Chapman are dead, but Elizabeth Stride lives; today, I live up to my oath.”

Lord Kenward gritted his teeth, but he had no way to rebuke her; instead he was forced to praise her with a tight voice, “The Knights of the Crown honour your work.”

Lady Katherine gave a soft incline of her head in appreciation. Lord Kenward nodded back before wishing her clipped good day and leaving her home. Lady Katherine merely waited until he had departed to focus back on her gun.

The streets of London were only temporarily safer, and Lady Katherine would be ready for whatever new threat came to haunt them. She was a Knight of the Crown and whatever dared to attack her people and her city, Lady Katherine would hunt and she would slay.

Thank you for reading!

Please feel free to like, comment and reblog but please don’t respost/take credit for my prose :)

I really hope you liked what I did with your character @caitlynkurilich and are happy for me to keep playing around with backstories for your other lovely ladies!

And kudos if you got the historical references woven into the story!

If you like my writing and want to support my work please check out my published works and see if anything strikes your fancy :)

#ladyknights #caitlynkurilich #inspired by art #original writing #my writing #ficlet #badass female characters

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leechangjoons · 6 years

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The Dawnbringers

The Dawnbringers (known in Korean annals as 빛의부활 자 Bichul Buhwalja) are a mythical order of paladins, borne of the union between a human and an heavenly creature (widely assumed to be angels). After swearing an oath to their superiors, labeled exclusively ‘higher beings’ by them, they descend upon various realms to serve their purpose and only that- the only way to slay such celestial beings is to tip the blade with necrotic energies and attack them when their guard is down. When they bleed, their blood is capable of healing diseases and curing curses, making them highly desirable by mortal scientists for their incredible self-healing capacities.

Every Dawnbringer appear mostly human, but are able to manifest large, glowing wings at will that will grant them flight- upon swearing their oath, they are also each granted a sword hilt that will burst into blades of light they can use to defend themselves. Their eye colour is always a distinct color- glowing bright golden that illuminates their surroundings as they channel divine energy. A Dawnbringer can take any form they desire, and age as they feel comfortable with to fit in with the mortal realm.

A Dawnbringer’s true form usually involves them in full armor, with three sets of distinct wings and six arms wielding various weapons. Eyes cover their bodies, allowing them to see in all directions, and burst with searing radiance that makes them difficult to behold. They also grow in size doing so, reaching to heights of 2-3m when they do so and yet also remaining as light as they were before in their humanoid forms.

Very rarely, a Dawnbringer turns their back against their oath and break away from the order, becoming Fallen in the process. Their energies shift and turn into a terrifying necrotic force, but being unbound by their only purpose of life can often become too crushing for such Fallen to persist in existence. Many of them, overwhelmed by choice, attempt repeatedly to end their own immortality. Most are hunted relentlessly by the order they forsook and killed before they are able to escape into the mortal world.

Name: Hyanggi Appearance: Hyanggi is a young woman with black, slightly curled hair that falls over her shoulders, which she usually ties up in a simple ponytail. She usually wears a maize-coloured blouse and khaki slacks, along with a comfortable pair of running shoes for easy travel. On her belt the hilt of her sword is visible, but is usually covered by her apparel. She’s almost always smiling, and it is obvious that her right arm up to slightly below the elbow is a ‘prosthetic’ of solidified light.

When she transforms, golden streaks line her hair and her eyes burst into white light as spectral feathered wings unfurl from her back that measure more than 2 meters on either end. Her hilt also transforms into a beam of concentrated light at will, which only she can command and wield. Personality: Hyanggi is eternally curious and optimistic of the mortal world, constantly asking questions about everything she sees and trying to gain as much information as she can. Naive as she is, she often inevitably ends up in trouble trying to be her best self and fails to grasp the complexity of mortals compared to how straightforward she is about herself. Her inquisitive nature is a stark contrast to her obsession to 'follow rules’, having been used to it as a member of her order, and due to being mostly isolated has grown to imprint upon Jongwoo for having a striking resemblance to someone she believed was her father. She often reveals the true emotions and thoughts of her companions and despises lying from her friends as it was. History: Hyanggi’s oath was to compile and track every single available Totem and Chosen in the world of mortals, and she bounced around from world to world in order to fulfil her responsibilities with eager resolve. This changed when she came to the mortal world in order to warn Jihoon, a Chosen she recognised that his Totem would inevitably turn against and try to kill him, and in a bid to maintain order in her own way, made the choice to stick with Jihoon and Jongwoo (who had been struggling with his gauntlet, an ancient artefact Hyanggi recognised) to protect them.

In this process, she bonded with Jongwoo, sensing a kinship with the vulnerable man who struggled with his short-term memories, and attempted to drop hints about his wife (whom she could easily tell he still pined for, even if he didn’t remember). Her help backfired when she attempted to remove Jongwoo’s curse, which worked for a time until Jongwoo remembered his wife’s sudden demise and was overwhelmed with grief. Horrified by her actions and deeply conflicted from hurting her friend, she went off with the mad scientist Gwangseob, now under his alias of Nomin, only to accidentally annoy him into letting her go from her incessant questioning of her motives and exploitation of his weaknesses (purely from her own concerned standpoint).

Eventually, as Hyanggi predicted, Jihoon was trapped in a fight for his life against his own patron, but with her help in exposing his own weaknesses, Jihoon felled the massive ice golem and gained power over his own destiny. She now lives comfortably with Jihoon, Jongwoo and Kyuhyung in Jihoon’s mansion near the corn farm, delving deeply into research about more of the Totems and Chosen in the process while meeting them eagerly.

The contingent of Dawnbringers that came to retrieve Hyanggi would’ve been successful if they hadn’t murdered Jongwoo in the process trying to do so. Consumed by righteous fury, Hyanggi donned his gauntlet before subduing them all, then used the powers in it to heal Jongwoo and bring him back to life. For this, however, the gauntlet soon ate through her right arm, forcing her to amputate it. Hyanggi is unperturbed, however, growing a brand-new arm effortlessly and only happy to have her ‘father’ back. Powers: Like all Dawnbringers, Hyanggi is functionally immortal and heals very quickly from injuries. Her aura also suppresses curses and diseases, and her Oath allows her to immediately recognise any Chosen or Totem no matter how much they try to hide it. Hyanggi is also inherently an empath and walking lie detector, being able to project her emotions to calm and soothe others as well.

Hyanggi is also able to glean a part of the memories tied to the last person who owned a certain object or through speaking to the person themselves. She often mentions this.

In terms of general abilities, Hyanggi is a very well-read historian with vast knowledge of the cosmos as well as her chosen job of librarian and skilled with the light sword she carries on herself. She is also able to speak or decipher any language required of her, including ancient runes. Alignment: Lawful Good Other: -

Name: Kyuhyung Appearance: Kyuhyung is a short man with dark hair, his tan skin marked with several black runic tattoos that ring his arms and neck which seem to shift and move across his skin. He’s usually clad in a grey cardigan over a light blue shirt, along with office pants and black platform shoes that surprisingly do not hinder his running speed. Unlike Hyanggi, he has no sword hilt, instead opting for a pair of padded and fingerless gloves he never removes.

When he transforms, Kyuhyung’s hair is streaked with grey and his eyes darken to pupilless darkness as black leathery wings that drip ichor unfurl from his back. The black runic tattoos begin to trail across his entire body, channelling necrotic energies in his kicks and strikes. Personality: Unlike Hyanggi, Kyuhyung views the mortal world with more cynicism, but is determined and devoted to his current purpose. He values atonement more than anything, and puts in steps to be able to fit in better in a world that view him with curiosity but this does not put a dent in his aims to purge the world of any evil he comes across. Kyuhyung is ruthlessly efficient in pursuing his oath despite losing most of his abilities to do so, and his methods often inevitably end up too extreme by mortal standards (and thus socially unacceptable). His often dry and cautious takes of the world around him is a sure sign of his lack of personability. History: Once Kyuhyung was a paladin in the order, who had sworn an oath to purge the mortal world of evil and protect them from dark forces. This changed when he descended to the world in search of a powerful blade, which he easily located. The blade, however, corrupted him, seeking vengeance for its abandonment in a wasteland and using Kyuhyung’s hand to slay many an innocent who dared stand in his way.

Kyuhyung believed the blade for a while, dutifully carrying out the blade’s commands until the day he consumed the soul of an innocent young man, the son of a powerful mafia boss. Horrified by his behaviour and finally snapping out of his trance, Kyuhyung sought to destroy the blade and succeeded, releasing all the souls it had obtained through his work- but the corruption had already been done, and Kyuhyung was now Fallen, branded a traitor.

To prevent the darkness from further consuming him, Kyuhyung tattooed magic runes upon his neck and wrists, casting aside his blade and training himself in the art of unarmed combat instead. Tracking down Hyanggi on the belief that she too was Fallen, he was surprised to see her in the safe care of two others and grudgingly threw his lot in with them on the pretence of ‘keeping an eye on her’, but more to observe mortals around him and pick up their habits.

Recognising that the vessel of the man from before being corrupted, however, Kyuhyung took it upon himself to purge Sangyeob from them- and failed, making enemies of Sangyeob’s entire family in the process. He refuses to give up, however, believing it was only the right thing to correct his mistake.

This train of thought was interrupted by a contingent of Dawnbringers, led by Kyuhyung’s ex Joonhan. They had arrived to kill him and take Hyanggi back, but when Jongwoo was murdered from protecting him, Kyuhyung chose to seek penance alone- what he didn’t expect was Hyanggi to follow him with Jongwoo’s gauntlet, subduing the contingent by permanently sealing them back to the order and taking Joonhan prisoner. Kyuhyung now mulls over his definition of mercy, knowing very well that if he did not make a decision quickly, Joonhan would too lose faith and become Fallen. Powers: Kyuhyung is functionally immortal and heals very quickly from general injuries. His aura, unlike Hyanggi’s, temporarily incapacitates anyone within range, and his original Oath allows him to recognise anyone who can count as ‘evil’ (undead, Dark or Light Wizards, revenants, etc) to purge the corruption from them. He too is an empath and able to recognise when one is lying- Kyuhyung however is able to subtly influence them to choose the more selfish or self-serving path offered to them.

Kyuhyung is also able to glean a part of the memories tied to the last person who owned a certain object or through speaking to the person themselves. Unlike Hyanggi he doesn’t draw allusions to this ability.

In terms of general ability, Kyuhyung is an excellent strategist and charismatic influencer from his original affiliation as a general as well as skilled in not only various blades but also melee unarmed combat. Alignment: Chaotic Good Other: -

Name: Joonhan Appearance: Joonhan is a tall, almost willowy-looking man with tousled, shortly cropped hair that almost seem unkempt, with a black hearing aid adoring each ear like an earring of sorts. He often obscures the lower part of his face with a mask of some kind, which is obvious when he lounges without it: the lower half of his face appear to have white tattoos upon them that stretch to the rest of his body, and at closer glance is actually light leaking from his skin. He usually wears a fuzzy maize-coloured trenchcoat over an orange collared shirt, along with long pants- his weapon of choice is a whip that is loosely coiled around a strap on his belt he can easily get to.

When he transforms, light bursts out from Joonhan’s orifices, and he manifests a set of spectral dragonfly-like wings to fly with. Golden streaks line his hair as his tattoos all start to glow with bright light, and his whip turns into a streak of solidified light he can use to attack others with. Personality: Joonhan is intellectual and ruthlessly efficient in getting what he needs, but like Kyuhyung suffers from a void where a personality should’ve formed. Learning from the others around him has made him develop a dry snark that only few can muster, further amplified by his superiority complex over humanoids, but he can be surprisingly naive of the needs of the mortals he lives with. His loss of hearing greatly frustrates and inconveniences him, but he hides his need for help through using sign language and second-guessing the intentions of others using his natural empathetic abilities, but he is deeply scheming and cautious of others precisely because he knows of how they feel. History: Joonhan, like Kyuhyung, was also a general of his own army, and the two share an on-and-off romance stemming from rivalry and mutual respect. His oath to the order was one of conquest- to clear all obstacles from their path and take over any hostile establishments in their name. Of course, when Kyuhyung broke off with him and vanished, Joonhan threw himself deeper into his work and soon was tasked to enter the mortal world to rid the order of a Fallen who had aligned himself with demigods.

To his surprise (and chagrin), it was Kyuhyung, and bound by his oath, he duelled the unarmed Kyuhyung while the rest of his army sought to lay siege to Kyuhyung’s allies. Joonhan had every intention to kill Kyuhyung and rid himself of this inconvenience, but when Jongwoo was murdered in the process throwing himself in Hyanggi’s path to protect her, Hyanggi had had enough and wielded her adoptive father’s gauntlet, banishing Joonhan’s troops and forcing him to use his power to revive Jongwoo for her. Going against his oath impacted Joonhan significantly, and he was soon taken as a prisoner by the others when he was weakened by things.

For straying from his oath, Joonhan’s hearing deteriorated severely and was no longer able to hear his order calling for him, nor those around him. He bickered with Kyuhyung for a long time before finally seeking help for his condition, getting hearing aids fitted for his troubles. Attempting to seek forgiveness from his god, however, Joonhan chose to take an oath of silence and only speaks through sign and telepathy, while trying to adjust to human life in the process.

His consistent meddling and involvement with humanity however led him to Destiny Liminal and the remnants of mutants that were formed from it. Bound by his oath to protect and serve those who were weaker, he took it upon himself to rehouse those affected, starting on his own personal journey outside of Kyuhyung and Hyanggi’s sphere of influence. Powers: Like all Dawnbringers, Joonhan is functionally immortal and heals very quickly from injuries. His aura also suppresses curses and diseases, and his Oath is able to spurn others to action and heightens their bloodlust, as well as temporarily ward them from being stunned or intimidated. Joonhan is also inherently an empath and walking lie detector, being able to project his emotions to have them think more logically and even encourages productivity in the process.

Joonhan is also able to glean a part of the memories tied to the last person who owned a certain object or through speaking to the person themselves. He adamantly refuses to mention this ability.

In terms of general ability, Joonhan is an immensely well-read general who is skilled in strategy and influence. He is also a skilled orator, often being able to pick out the best traits of a person and apply them to their strengths. Alignment: Neutral Good Other: -

#the Dawnbringers #radiant soul #necrotic shroud #radiant consumption

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rinahayashi · 7 years

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Saizo’s Timeline

Saizo’s age in his MS and during the major events that have been revealed to us, so far, including: his love for dango and his swords.

“Age is just a number, little lady.”

OMFG! >_<;; Saizo... stop staring at us like that...

Well, yeah, I get it... you love Saizo and want to know every little thing about him. Sure, okay, he’s dashing, mysterious, daring, and he’s pretty much god-mode with a sword, but you know you’re in for a tough morning when this is the main screen on your cell phone:

Well, f🌸ck! Continue Romance... oh, yeah.. sure, let’s, um, let’s get right on that... *ghosts flies out of mouth* 👻

Spoilers for Main Story as the ‘age markers’ are revealed. It’s not a plot reveal, per se, but some minor plot points pertaining to Saizo’s character development will be shown. If you know nothing about Saizo and want to figure it out on your own, do not continue.

Timeline:

Main Story - Saizo is about 29 years old. His MC is about 20.

SLBP Saizo has had two birthdays since SLBP launched in English, so that makes him currently 31, which he joked about in his last birthday story release stating that he was officially old now.

Saizo was about 14 when he started working for the Sanada clan. Yukimura was 10.

The Sakura Tree Story - MC was about 5 years old, when she met a crying boy under a tree and gave him dango.

By the end of his MS route, Divine End, we learn that event was 15 years prior to the Main Story’s “present”. So, that makes tearful Saizo “boy” about 13 or 14 years old when he met a 4 or 5 year old MC. In another event story, it’s revealed that during their little snack break he also stole, I mean “found”, five-year-old MC’s little flowered hair comb and kept it FOREVER! WTS! He could have found her house and given it back, but nope! I bet she cried when she realized she lost her favorite hair comb, too. *smh* Outstanding moral fiber...

Bish... stop!! (my heart is fluttering)

He freaking bought the restaurant that had the cherry tree outside where he met MC and had a happy memory of someone giving him dango. Obsessed much? *holds my head* Apparently, in Iga Village, no one gave anyone anything. So, that passing act of kindness really made an impression.

Best Friend’s Death - Ten years before the Main Story’s ‘present’, he killed his best friend. So, he was about 18 or 19 when that happened. They were going to go see the sakura blossoms before it happened, so it might have been before his late April birthday that year making him 18 at the time.

Story event - a demon sakura (yomi-zakura) shows him the “spirit” of his dead best friend, which reveals the season of his death. The “three” of them, his best friend, best friend’s lover, and Saizo, could not meet in the Spring, presumably, because of his best friend’s betrayal of Iga Village and subsequent ordered execution:

And we know, certainly, it was raining when that went down. So, perhaps it was still winter. Ugh. That rain tho...

Why he did it: The “IT” being the Oda clan had his best friend’s lover as a hostage and forced his best friend to betray Iga village. Even though, his unnamed best friend was forced to do it to save the woman he loved, Saizo was compelled by the elders to slay the one who betrayed them and reaffirm his loyalty to Iga Village. (Historically: This was WAY different btw. But it was Oda Nobunaga who did eventually conquer Iga, after his son’s failed attempts.)

Possible misunderstanding: Event story - Akane’s story - her “brother” / potential “lover” was the best friend Saizo killed. No, completely different ninja clan and killing Akane’s “brother” was an unrelated job Saizo had.

Reasoning: Saizo killed Akane’s “brother” right in front of her, and she just about lost her sh🌸t swearing to kill Saizo. Whee! He just about let her, too. *smh* However, since Akane is from another clan of ninja, that is, by the time her event story happens, almost extinct, she’s the last female in her clan btw, it’s impossible. She’s not an Iga Village ninja, that’s all we know for sure.

Misunderstanding: Saizo was under the sakura tree crying, when MC found him with her magic dango, because he had just slain his best friend. Oops!

I thought this for a long time, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but it’s impossible because Saizo didn’t kill his best friend till five years after that event. I know the Noble end states this:

but the math does not work with his MS route which leads to the Noble & Divine ends.

If that Noble end clue is the proper math and Saizo ate the dango the first spring after he killed his best friend, MC is only 14 or 15 >_<, Saizo is 23 or 24, Yukimura is 19 or 20, and he met MC ~9 years ago, a few months or one year after he killed his best friend, which was 10 years ago. WTS!! Sorry I just... no?!

Remember, main story route MC remembers giving him the dango at about age 5, twice we’re told his best friend died 10 years ago, and the Dango diary tells us Yukimura knew him before and after he developed his love for dango, which means he was at least 14 when he had the dango. So, LOL! I just can’t with this, but I misunderstood for a while. 😂

At the end, the Noble end again says it was 15 years since he first had her dango anyway...

It makes more sense: We know his best friend died 10 years before Main Story “present”, but he ate MC’s dango 15 years before Main Story “present.” The Divine End math & end of Noble End math works better. But, then we don’t know for sure why he’s crying because the memory of his best friend’s death no longer fits the timeline. :\ Maybe he’s just having a tough time, bad hair day, or fed up and frustrated with his life.

He’s definitely had a hard life growing up as a ninja. He’s had to fight for everything. And in the Event story with baby Hime, he reveals that he has no idea how to care for children because no one ever cared for him. Kids are left on their own in Iga Village. Other than cleaning their butts and being fed, the kids, according to Saizo and Kiyohiro, are on their own. Well, that’s pretty awful. It’s a wonder they aren’t all messed up in the head because raising kids without touching or interacting with them during their ‘baby years’ doesn’t work. Luckily, Saizo turned out to be a genius!

Oh well, that whole story was worth it just for this scene:

That’s right! Who’s your daddy? *blushu* Saizo...

The Dango: Yukimura relates the tale of Saizo’s love of dango. One day he came back from Kyoto and really loved dango. Well, okay then! It had never been a ‘thing’ for him until he returned to the Sanada from the capital one day. This happened when they were still ‘kids’, but since Yukimura knew him when it happened, it had to be when Saizo was a teen.

Just imagine kid Saizo demanding it as payment for favors... awww! “That’ll be 10 dango, little lord.”

It’s highly probable that Saizo’s love of dango started with MC giving him some along with Yakichi’s (MC’s dad) message: “if you have the will to eat, you have the will to live,” and if you can’t find one, then you can do the other even if the only thing that keeps you going is the next bite. Then smol Saizo took a bite of the dango, stopped crying, and smiled. I guess he never told the little lord this story. He kept it, along with MC’s hair comb, to himself. *sighs*

The Sword’s Secret: Saizo had been serving Lord Yukimura for a long time, probably those 5 years before his best friend died, before he ‘changed’, he was kinder or perhaps, at least, smiled and meant it more often. In MS chapter 8 “His Weakness,” Yukimura mentions in passing that Saizo didn’t always used to be that way. Meaning, the rain didn’t affect him like it does now, and, presumably, he was not always so cold and distant.

So, Yukimura isn’t the only one who used to be ‘cute’ 15 years ago. It’s hard to imagine a Saizo who wasn’t so cold, but Yukimura knows him not just for how he is now but how he used to be. It’s why Yukkin can put up with Saizo’s bullsh🌸t with boundless patience. Yukimura also knows why he changed, the sword’s secret, which he doesn’t openly tell anyone.

I get it, symbolically, he carries his best friend’s sword in his memory. But, I also call story line BS about not using it because almost every action shot we have of Saizo has him poised to go death-blender on someone with both katana.

Surprise! *snaps pic & posts on instagram* ...! *dies promptly afterwards*

Anyway... as you can see, he uses both.

#SLBP #Saizo Kirigakure #Saizo #timeline #just how old is this guy anyway #well now you know #you know some of those silver hairs could be legit by now #old man Saizo #Saizo's dango #two swords #all the time #damn Saizo so kinky...#meta #I was told to write this up as an article #so I freaking did!

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phgq · 3 years

Text

Christine Dacera case not yet closed: Roque

#PHnews: Christine Dacera case not yet closed: Roque

MANILA – Malacañang believes that the death of 23-year-old flight attendant Christine Dacera in a Makati hotel is not a "case closed" despite the Philippine National Police (PNP) saying that it has “solved” what it declared as a rape-slay case.

In a Palace press briefing on Thursday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque explained that the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office said it needs more evidence to prove that 23-year-old Dacera was raped and killed.

“As of now, it’s a continuing investigation, the [National Bureau of Investigation] has gotten involved in it. So, hintayin po natin na ma-conclude iyong imbestigasyon. Obviously po dahil mayroon pang hininging ebidensiya ang ating fiscal (So let’s wait for investigations to be concluded. Obviously, because the fiscal is still asking for more evidence) case is not yet closed,” he said.

Since certain matters still need to be clarified, Roque said additional evidence would help the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office determine how Dacera died.

“I can only agree with the decision of the fiscal na kinakailangang isumite ang physical evidence nang sa ganoon kapag naisampa ang kaso, hindi po iyan madi-dismiss for lack of evidence (that it is necessary to submit the physical evidence so that when the case is filed, that will not be dismissed for lack of evidence),” he said.

To date, police had not yet submitted DNA analysis results, toxicology/chemical analysis, and histopath examination.

“Naghahanda lang po tayo, hinahanda lang po ng mga fiscal na kapag naisampa sa kaso, tuluyan pong mapapatunayan ang liability or ang guilt beyond reasonable doubt ang mga nasasakdal (we are just preparing, the fiscals are just preparing so that when the case is filed, the court will be able to prove the defendants’ liability or guilt beyond reasonable doubt),” Roque said.

Roque, meanwhile, said President Rodrigo Duterte assured that justice will be rendered for Dacera and her family.

“Ang pangako naman po ng Presidente ay makakamit po ang katarungan sa Pamilyang Dacera. Malalaman po natin ang katotohanan at sa administrasyon po ni Presidente, dahil siya’y abogado at dati pang piskal, hindi niya hahayaan na ang mga kriminal ay hindi po mapaparusahan (The President's promise is that justice will be served to the Dacera Family. We will know the truth during the administration of the President because he is a lawyer and a former prosecutor, he will not let criminals go unpunished),” he said.

Dacera was found lifeless in a bathtub of a hotel in Makati City after celebrating New Year’s Eve with friends. She died in a hospital.

Makati Police chief Col. Harold Depositar said the initial report of the cause of death was a ruptured aortic aneurysm, which may be caused by various factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, infection, or sudden traumatic injury.

However, there are other factors at play as Dacera had lacerations, contusions, and scratches on her body and lacerations and sperm in her genitals

On Tuesday, the PNP said the identification of suspects was enough to consider Dacera's case as "case solved."

Makati City Prosecutor General Ben Malcontento on Wednesday ordered the release of three suspects in Dacera's death after finding that police had submitted insufficient evidence.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra earlier said the NBI will be working closely with the police in connection with Dacera's case.

"The forensic medicine team is providing assistance to the Makati police to determine the real cause of death of flight attendant Christine Dacera," Guevarra told reporters. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "Christine Dacera case not yet closed: Roque." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1126691 (accessed January 08, 2021 at 02:17AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "Christine Dacera case not yet closed: Roque." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1126691 (archived).

#Philippines #News #Filipino #Pinoy #Tourism #Politics #Culture #Editorial #Environment #Society #History

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star196 · 7 years

Text

Late Night Training

The lands of Lucis are filled to the brim with adventure and danger, travelers known as Hunters travel the kingdom protecting its citizens from daemons and any other threat that stands in their way. Currently the kingdom is under foreign occupation by the Niflheim Empire, having finally succeeded in the long bloody war they waged against Lucis. Despite the sudden change in power, the people still love their lives as best they can. Completely unaware of what truly is going on with the empire.

Somewhere near the Kelbass Grasslands, a group of four friends are traveling by foot across the plains in a hurry. The sun was setting rapidly which meant that the daemons would be appearing to cause recklessness across the kingdom. Being caught out in the dark by a daemon would mean instant death for a normal person, but a trained Hunter or members of the royal guard are more than capable of handling themselves. The four continued to run along the grasslands, attempting to reach the safety of the parking spot.

“GAh! I told you we shouldn’t have gone into that cave! We wouldn’t be rushing back to the car at this hour if we hadn’t!” Prompto shakily said.

Noctis rolled his eyes, “Cool it will you. It’s not like we’ve done this before.”

“Indeed, but it’s this same recklessness that gets us into more trouble than we should.” Ignis stated, “I highly suggest next time we go ‘treasure hunting’ that we at least plan to find a safe place to camp.”

“Or we could park the car much closer to the cave.” Gladio sarcastically said.

“It’s not like we can simply go off road, now can we?” Noctis said, a tone of annoyance in his voice. “Look, we got what we came for and we’re going to be fine.”

Prompto sighed, his sights focusing on the dark area around them, “At least nothing has appeared yet. That’s a good thing right?”

As if on cue, a pool of darkness appeared a couple of meters ahead of the group. They came to a halt, the other three glaring at Prompto.

“You just had to jinx us.” Gladio said.

Prompto rubbed the back of his head, “It could be w-“

“Shut it, Prompto!” Noctis hissed, conjuring his sword.

The other three readied their weapons as two Red Giants emerged from the pool, a ferocity like no other emanating from the creatures.

“Noct, we are severely outmatched. It’s best we retreat!” Ignis instructed. Noctis waved him off, glaring at the Deamons in front of him.

“I’m not going anywhere. We’re standing our ground!” Noctis ordered.

Gladio swung his sword over his shoulder, “Works for me.”

Noctis instantly tossed out his sword to one of the daemons, warp striking the forearm. Ignis followed suit and began striking at its feet. Gladio and Prompto dealt with the other daemon as best they could. Prompto shooting it from afar while Gladio swung his massive sword against the creature’s legs. Try as hard as they could, their split efforts were not enough to even put an injury on the creatures. In fact, it only angered them even more and attacked furiously at the group.

“Are we doomed? I think we’re doomed!” Prompto shouted, dodging the giant’s fist.

“Noct, I suggest again that we should retreat.” Ignis suggested, tossing his daggers at the creatures.

“We can’t run! These things will just chase us!” Noctis said.

“I think we got another problem above us!” Gladio alerted, motioning to the imperial drop ship above them.

“Imperials?! At this hour?! Can’t we just get a break?” Prompto whined, reloading his gun while watching the dropship open its hatch.

“Be prepared for anything, with luck we might be able to have the daemons focus the imperials.” Ignis stated.

The four gathered around each other, looking up at the drop ship while the daemons slowly closing in on them. A figure soon leapt out from the ship, rapidly hurtling down towards them. They rolled out of the way in order to avoid the attack, but to their surprise the figure had attacked the daemons instead.

“Wait, is that…” Noctis mumbled.

“That’s Aranea!” Prompto said with a cheer.

“Don’t just stand there, we have to help her!” Ignis stated, rushing in to assist Aranea in battle. The other three quickly joined in the attack, assaulting one of the giants in a combined effort. The daemon was unable to fight back as quickly as its assailants and was rapidly defeated. The group focused their attacks on the second giant, defeating it with relative ease thanks to the help of Aranea Highwind. With the daemons disposed of, the four regrouped to take a breather. Aranea laughed at the sight, strutting her way towards them.

“Couldn’t last any longer than that, boys?” she said in her usual tone, hand on her hips as she eyed them closely.

“Aranea, what are you doing here?” Prompto asked. Trying his best to not look out of breath.

“I figured I’d start hunting daemons again, I spotted you having a little trouble with these giants and thought I’d lend a hand.” She said.

“Yea… trouble.” Noctis mumbled.

“It’s good to see you again, Aranea. Thank you for your help.” Ignis said.

Aranea smiled, “Any excuse to slay a few monsters.”

Gladio eyed her closely, his arms crossed. “This is the imperial general?”

“Captain, to be more exact. Don’t be so suspicious big guy, I don’t follow everything the empire says.” Aranea reassured.

“It’s alright, Gladio. We can vouch for her.” Noctis iterated.

“So where are you boys headed? A little late to be out for a stroll.” She joked.

“Back to Lestallum.” Noctis said, beginning to walk past Aranea.

“Noctis! I suggest we make camp for the night, it’s far too dangerous to go on the roads.” Ignis called out to him.

“I agree with four eyes, not exactly ideal conditions to be driving.” Aranea said.

“What about your airship?” Prompto asked.

Aranea smirked, pointing upwards to the now empty sky. “They won’t be back for a while. I guess I’m stuck with you for the time being. I saw a decent place to camp just south of here.”

Ignis nodded, motioning for the others to make way. Noctis groaned and trailed behind them, not exactly thrilled to be spending the night out. Eventually they reached the campsite and set up their supplies. The setup was left to Gladio and Ignis, while Prompto and Noct relaxed in their chairs. Aranea kept watch while the boys prepared camp. After everything was set Ignis began preparing his cooking station, searching through his recipe book for the perfect meal for the night. The other three were chatting by the campfire, Aranea simply eyed them. She admired how close they all were and how they acted as a team, even though their fighting style could use a little work. She made her way towards Ignis, not wanting to disturb the others from their conversation.

“What’s on the menu for tonight, four eyes?” she asked, leaning against the edge of the table.

Ignis chuckled, quickly glancing up at her, “I was thinking perhaps we could all have toad-steak drumsticks. We certainly have a surplus of that.” He said.

Aranea nodded, watching him beginning to prepare the food. “Well I certainly am looking forward to tasting your handiwork. Blondie over there raves about your cooking.”

“With Prompto around I have to make sure that each dish comes out the best they can be. But I have to watch how much I give him.”

Aranea gave a soft laugh, “And why’s that? Was he fat before?”

Ignis gave her a look that answered her question instantly. Aranea covered her mouth as she stifled a laugh. “No! Scrawny Prompto was fat?”

Ignis nodded, chopping the steak against the cutting board. “Yes, it is true. Our very own Prompto was in fact overweight. I have to keep him in check to not be constantly buying food on our pit stops.”

Aranea brushed her hair aside, leaning closer to Ignis. “And what about you, four eyes? Got any dark secrets?”

“I’m afraid I do not. But I have heard my fair share of royal secrets. None of which I can disclose of course.” He stated.

Aranea rolled her eyes, “Come on, not even one?”

Ignis simply shook his head as he tossed the meat onto the grill. Proceeding to chop a few lemons while they sizzled. Aranea sighed and looked at the other three, a small smile appearing on her face. She focused her sights back on Ignis as he put the finishing touches on his meal. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off when Ignis brought out five plates.

“Would you be kind enough to place a lemon on each plate.” He requested of her.

Aranea nodded, reaching for the slices of lemon. “Sure thing, four eyes.”

After she was done Ignis placed two drumsticks on each plate. He turned around and called everyone to grab their plates. Noctis and Prompto instantly bolted towards the table and grabbed their plates before rushing back to their seats. Gladio slowly made his way to them and took his, eying Aranea closely before walking back to the campfire. Aranea’s smile faded, giving him a small nod before he walked away.

“You’ll have to forgive Gladio, like I once did, he’s just making sure to keep a close watch you don’t slit anyone’s throat.” Ignis said, handing Aranea her plate.

Aranea gave a fake laugh, “I give a lot of people the same impression. I don’t mind.” She took a bite from her meal, her eyes widening as she chewed on the food. She wanted to voice her opinions but was too caught up in chewing. Instead, she simply pointed at the food and gave Ignis a thumbs up.

Ignis gave a small smile, “I take it that the meal is ok?” he asked.

Aranea swallowed her food and cleared her throat, “Ok? It’s beyond incredible! SO much better than the slop they serve in the army!” quickly she took another bite of her food, rivaling Prompto and Noctis on who can eat their food the fastest. The group ate their meal contently, light conversation being traded amongst them. Once they were all done, Ignis gathered the plates while the other three headed inside the tent to sleep. Aranea stayed outside to help Ignis clean up.

“I apologize that we do not have room for you in the tent. I’d let you have it all to yourself but a few of our members ‘desperately’ need to sleep in a tent.” Ignis said, the last bit carrying a hint of sarcasm.

Aranea smiled, “It’s alright, my men should be arriving back anytime soon. Our airship was in need of repairs, but I insisted they drop me off when we spotted you.” She said.

She handed him the last clean plate, placing it back into his container to be used the next time they make camp. Ignis wiped his hands on a rag, handing Aranea a separate one to use. They walked over by the fire and took seats across from each other, gazing at the night sky. Ignis focused his sights on Aranea while she was lost in thought.

“Aranea, the last time we spoke you expressed interest in leaving the empire. Have you decided what you’ll do?” he asked, snapping her out of her trance.

Aranea shook her head, “I have not. I… I most likely won’t.” she admitted.

“How come?”

Aranea took a deep breath, “I’m not sure what I’d do. I could hunt daemons again but being with the empire allows me access to so many resources I’ve never had.”

Ignis readjusted his glasses, relaxing in his chair, “I’m certain you’d be able to manage without the empire, I’ve seen you in action after all.”

“I’ve been with the empire for so long… I don’t know what they’d do.” Aranea said.

Ignis nodded, he stood up and took a seat next to Aranea. he took her hand and held it tightly. “I don’t blame you for worrying about that, the empire have done a number of hideous things. I can assure you though that if you ever decide to turn against them, it is more than likely that it will be them that turn tail.”

Aranea smiled at Ignis, she pulled her hand away and fixed her hair, “You have very high expectations of me.” She joked.

She stood up and motioned for Ignis to follow “Come on, I want to see you in action.”

Ignis followed her out into the dark field, close enough to the campsite in case a daemon showed up. “Itching for a bit of sparring practice?”

Aranea smirked, “You could say that.” She took hold of her lance and pointed it at Ignis, “I hope you don’t intend to fight me with those daggers.”

“If I had more time to analyze your fighting style, I most likely would.” He said, conjuring a lance of his own.

“Come along with me and you’ll be able to analyze me all you want.” Aranea said with a wink.

“I appreciate the offer, but I have a duty to uphold here.” Ignis said with a small smile.

Aranea swung her lance around and motioned for Ignis to strike, “Come at me, pretty boy.”

With his swift feet, Ignis launched himself at Aranea. Swinging his lance to strike at Aranea’s side. She quickly blocked it with her own and parried his attack, swinging him around to face her. She kicked him away and thrusted her lance at him. Ignis quickly brought up his own lance to block her attack but the sheer force was enough to knock him backwards. He landed on his feet and took a battle stance. Aranea smirked and began to circle him. She then suddenly launched herself in the air and came hurtling down to Ignis. He rolled out of the way and in retaliation he hocked his lance against Araneas and tugged it towards him. Aranea gasped and stumbled, holding onto her weapon tightly. She tugged it back and slashed at Ignis who sidestepped the attack.

“You’re not so bad on your feet.” She said, “You have a lot to learn though.”

Ignis readjusted his glasses and motioned with his digits. Aranea smirked before launching herself at Ignis once more. The two clashed their weapons repeatedly. Sparks erupting from the metal, a result of the ferocity from their training. With one last swing, Aranea hocked her lance onto Ignis’ and tugged him towards her. He was pulled up close to Aranea, their weapons at their sides as they stared into one another’s eyes. Aranea eyed him closely, unaware that she bit her lip while staring back at him. Ignis held his composure, however a light flush appeared on his face that betrayed his outward appearance.

“It’s a shame you won’t come along, but I respect the loyalty you have for the prince of edginess.” She leaned in closer, their noses only centimeters from touching. “I guess it’s time for me to… reconsider my own alliances.”

“I could always use an extra hand around here.” Ignis looked deeply into Aranea’s eyes, unaware that he was leaning closer to her. “Perhaps you could join us, if you ever decide to defect.”

Aranea smiled, leaning in closer. A rush of wind suddenly came upon the two. Aranea’s hair being tossed by the strength of it. The two slowly separated and looked upward at the airship that had appeared. A look of disappointment washed over Aranea, she softly nodded before giving Ignis a small smile.

“I’ll think about it. Thank you, Ignis.” She said, she prepared to jump onboard the airship before she heard Ignis speak.

“Aranea, wait.” He said. She turned to look at him and was suddenly pulled by the arm. Ignis pulled her into an embrace before closing the gap between their lips. Aranea’s eyes shot open, a dark shade of red appearing on her cheeks. She relaxed into the kiss, closing her eyes and held Ignis closely. They soon separated, gazing at one another once more.

“What was that for?” she asked playfully.

“Stay safe, Aranea. I hope we can see each other soon.” Ignis said, a smile on his face,

Aranea nodded and walked away from Ignis. “I’ll try and drop by frequently, pretty boy. Oh, and keep those kids safe.” She winked at him before leaping onto the airship. Ignis watched as it flew off into the night sky. A heavy sigh escaping his lips as he walked back to camp, his mind racing after the events that transpired.

“Don’t worry man, you’ll see her again soon.” Prompto said, hiding from behind the table.

“Prompto, get back to bed!” Ignis ordered.

#ffxv #ignis scientia #ignis x aranea #highspecs #ignea #final fantasy 15 #aranea

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leucinxandorath · 4 years

Text

"Look out!"

The blade from a gigantic sword had swung down and crashed onto the earth, missing it's target as the Hunters quickly dashed away.

Their foe was as they suspected: a Pit Lord. The assault on the Citadel itself was a hard fought battle, with many casualties, but this Pit Lord was a living fortress. Massive and thick demonic armor throughout its body, powerful with its abilities to cast spells, and a controlled rage made this demon a formidable foe against the Illidari.

It often growled and roared, "Give him back!" With each attack,the Demon Hunters were constantly dodging and making attempts to take it down. The battle was a perpetual stalemate with no side finding an advantage over the other. That is, until Asinn discovered a new method of approached. It unintentionally caught her attention but it was, no doubt, the best option in this fight. She scanned around for something specific until she finally got it.

"Leucin, keep holding him off!" She ordered.

Leucin and the others continued their attack, keeping the demon's focus on them, while Asinn worked on her plan.

"Give him back!" It roared again.

He swiped at the Pit Lord's body with his warglaives, but its armor continued to hold its form. He was beginning to wonder what this woman was doing, when suddenly, cannon fire ripped into the air.

It was Asinn.

She had made her way up the citadel wall, onto the controlls of a felcannon, and aimed it at a colossal spire that overlooked their battleground. She continued to fire at the spire until the structure began to crumble and collapse, falling towards the direction of the fight. It fell with its top end pointed towards the group and the Hunters immediately realized what her plan was.

"Push him back!!" Leucin yelled.

They continued to hack and slash at the demon, forcing it to step backwards, until finally its body was pierced by the giant spire and the rest of the structure falling on top of it. When the dust settled, a pile of rubble buried the Pit Lord, thus signaling their victory over the incursion.

"Who was he referring to?" Leucin asked Asinn as she landed from her glide to them.

"Az'vuizora." She stated. The demon she slayed. The demon who's heart she ate.

The world itself was already corrupted, so it was decided by the leaders that it would serve as an outpost for the Illidari. This would allow Asinn and Leucin to return to the ship, and eventually, Azeroth.

------

Returning to their world, with the time passed while away, would equal to two weeks having gone by. Asinn went off on her own, as she always does, soon after they passed through the city gates of Silvermoon; and Leucin would make his way back towards Alis'synthara's estate to visit her again. She was mixed within the crowd, mingling with others, when they would catch each other's gaze finally. It seemed like everyone around just faded away as all he could see was her as he came closer. She had a smile upon her face, one that would only be reserved for lovers, as was she eager to embrace him.

As they came closer, something changed. Her face morphed into an expression of shock, with a gasp that only he could hear, as she grew closer to embrace him. Instead, she more collapsed into his arms and her legs buckled as he caught her. Setting her down, he could feel the rush of warm liquid through his fingers: her blood. She coughed. Blood escaped her mouth. Someone in the crowd had stabbed her and by now screams of shock and claims of accusations began to cry out. Her guards were both shoving people away and searching for the culprit at the same time.

She couldn't mutter a word, there was too much damage done. She placed a hand on his cheek, looking at him one more time with teary eyes and a smile, before her head slumped into his chest, embracing him as she passed away.

Leucin was silent as he held her. It seemed like everything was silent.

"Murderer! It was the Demon Hunter!" Accusers began to yell within the crowd.

It began to sway the others mindset as they too joined in with the accusations.

"They are nothing but demons! Monsters!"

As the cries began to become violent, they immediately quieted down as a section of the crowd parted, intimidated and scared by the presence of Hunters arriving to the scene. They motioned for Leucin to join them.

"This woman was killed by no Illidari; and if you wish to challenge that, step forward now."

The crowd remained silent. That was their answer. Lady Alis'synthara's guards came to retrieve her body and soon departed. The Hunters led Leucin to an alleyway while a few remained behind to disperse the crowd and speak with the city guards. Asinn was waiting for him. She was leaned up against the wall with her arms crossed and silent for a moment.

"So long as we live, they will never trust us. They will never fully accept us. Remember that."

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captainlenfan · 5 years

Photo

New Post has been published on http://websiteshop.network/episode-435-qa-with-robb-and-nicki-28-2/

Episode 435 – Q&A with Robb and Nicki #28

http://robbwolf.com/2019/07/12/episode-435-qa-with-robb-and-nicki-28/

We’re back with more of the Q&A you crave! Episode 435, Q&A #28

Submit your own questions for the podcast at: https://robbwolf.com/contact/submit-a-question-for-the-podcast/

If you want to see the video for this podcast, be sure to check out our YouTube channel.

Show Notes:

1. Overeating On Keto [2:08]

Steve says:

Hi Rob,

I don’t want to take too much of your time. But going Keto for me has found me doing exactly what I feared I could do. I have been Paleo for five or six years and so has my wife. We have no kids at home so grains and junky carbs are not and issue or even a temptation. I am in the middle of doing the keto masterclass, which I am savouring because I have been making some mistakes.

I am 50 years old and work out regularly doing either mixed kettlebell workouts or if I do weight and resistance training at the moment I like to do whole body workouts 3 X a week and can mix in some cardio in between. I have kept fit most of my life, my goal is as I age to stay lean and keep mobile. Pretty simple goal.

We live in Perth in Western Australia so we have great weather and lots of sun. I work as a gardener in a private school, a job I love doing as I’m outside and moving all day, not as hard as say some sort of construction worker but that can happen on a given day just not every day.

Coming from eating paleo the transition for me has been pretty easy. As I went low carb and increased the fat I was eating my wife liked the sound of it so she hopped on board. She is doing great and in fact better than me. We aren’t really that worried about measuring ketones at this stage, it has been more about getting the diet right.

My issue is, I love the food. For some reason it has made me hungrier. Stocking our fridge and cupboards I made sure that we had all we needed and I wanted to see what I liked to eat also.

So I have blown it on all sorts of things. I have had days where I ate too much thickened cream, one tub has 800 calories and it is so easy to eat. I have blown it on nut butter and blown it on cheese. I can’t believe it.

At first it was wrapping my head around the fat content. I think I get it now. But I have put on body fat, which is so annoying. It’s not a train wreck but I feel like I am in a rut now and it’s hard to get out. I don’t want to quit because I can see and have felt the benefits. It’s just with the fat content and my physiology there seems to be no room for error.

I listen to your podcast and since listening I have gone to the ketogains website and worked out my macros. I was still tracking somewhat but some days I may have blown it by 5 or 6 hundred calories.

I have come so close to quitting as for me it seems to have been an easy way to get fat rather the leaner.

I’m not sure that you can help and not sure what else that I could tell you. Diet wise I have intermittent fasted for 3 or more years with differing protocols. Doing 16 – 20 hours is pretty comfortable. I workout in the mornings and often don’t eat until lunch time or when I get home from work.

My diet hasn’t changed too much except I have eaten cream, which I am now over. Adding more fat to my meals. Cooking in butter eating nuts and doing other keto style things. Apart from that my diet is still pretty primal. I love veggies. I have for years done a version of Mark Sisson’s big ass salad. Which would be my daily staple. Evening veggies could be broccoli with brussel sprouts maybe some Kale and mushrooms. Also we do milk Kefir but I try to keep that to a minimum.

If you have any suggestions that would be great. Are there others that have had this sort of issue, going keto has made them fatter?

Really enjoy your podcast and thanks for all of the really useful info that you have put out. I have also read your books.

Best regards

Steve

2. What’s Up With Fiber & Kids? [8:58]

Rory says:

As part of restoring my own gut health, I’ve used prebiotic fibers in various doses based somewhat on Grace Liu’s advice, and I’m curious if and when supplemental fiber would be beneficial for my daughter?

Again assuming that she started off at a disadvantage because of the antibiotics, it seems to follow logically that prebiotic fiber would help her gut bacteria develop, and increase her overall health and resilience.

Is that actually logical?

And are there any cautions? Is there a certain dose that’s age-appropriate, or do I just slowly increase until she has digestive upset?

Should I mix fibers in order to feed a variety of bacteria, or are there certain fibers that are optimal for a young gut (i.e. what would a cavebaby be most likely to eat chew on for fun?).

3. Tips For Increasing Testosterone [13:07]

Mads says:

Hey Robb,

In a previous Q&A, you talked about how muscle gain/hypertrophy is caused by calorie surplus and progressive overload. You also mentioned that gaining muscle is, without a doubt, easier if you have High testosterone. Calorie surplus and PO is easy, but how do I increase my testosterone? You mentioned that there are a number of different tactics that you can use?

My testosterone is not low, but definitely not high either. I’m 27 and my testosterone is 640 ng/dL and my free testosterone is 16.36

4. SHBG Elevated On Keto/Carnivore [19:47]

Eoin says:

Since switching to keto I’ve noticed an increase in SHBG levels which brings down my free test. Total test has stayed high normal but was wondering how functional it is with the free portion bound up. DHEA is a bit low too. I feel great all in all but was just wondering what your thoughts are on that

5. Are Chicharrones (pork rinds) a Healthy Snack? [22:47]

Isaac says:

Hi Rob,

Chicarones (pork rinds): are they a healthy snack?

I’ve heard you indirectly mention them on the podcast some time ago, but I wasn’t able to infer whether your opinion is favorable or cautionary.

I’m an ultra-runner, and during peak training season will spend about 20 hours per week running. In the bad old days I would top off my calories with a gigantic bowl of cold cereal in the evening, or an enormous serving of lentils and rice. But then I got woke, started monitoring my blood sugar, and started looking for low-carb options to fuel. I’m already having two salads each day, huge amounts of veggies, and as much meat as I can stomach. So I’m just looking for some calories to fuel the movement.

So are pork rinds okay? I avoid the flavored variety – the bags I buy just say “fried pork skin” on the ingredients list, and I dip them in sour cream. The best part is how easy it is to get an extra 1000 calories. And the flavor.

Am I headed towards clogged arteries? Are pork rinds actually healthy in the way that bacon is healthy…?

Thanks!! Love the show.

-Isaac

After submitting my question about whether pork rinds are an acceptable snack, I realized that Robb’s answer might be ‘we’d need to see your lab work’…

So, in case it is relevant (and in case my question is selected for the show), here are some details. (I’d be glad to share the rest of the lab results, if they’re relevant.) Thanks!

*****

Cholesterol, Total: 249 mg/dL

HDL: 71 mg/dL

Triglycerides: 71 mg/dL

LDL-Cholesterol: 161 mg/dL (calc)

Apolipoprotein A1: 186 mg/dL

Omega 3 (EPA+DHA) Index: 7.1 %

Omega 6 / Omega 3 ratio: 3.7

EPA/Arachidonic Acid Ratio: 0.4

EPA: 3.0 %

DHA: 4.1 %

Lipoprotein (a): 99 nmol/L

Apolipoprotein B: 107 mg/dL

Nonesterified Fatty Acids (Free Fatty Acids): 0.12 mmol/L

LDL Particle Number: 1149 nmol/L

LDL Small: 116 nmol/L

LDL Medium: 229 nmol/L

HDL Large: 5144 nmol/L

LDL Pattern: A

LDL Peak Size: 225.5 Angstrom

HS CRP: <0.2 mg/L

Where you can find us:

Submit questions for the podcast: https://robbwolf.com/contact/submit-a-question-for-the-podcast/

Transcript:

Download a copy of the transcript here (PDF)

Robb: Welcome back, wife.

Nicki: Hubs.

Robb: What’s new?

Nicki: A lot.

Robb: I always love asking that, because we just spin in the same four walls all day long.

Nicki: So, you know everything that’s new?

Robb: We have nothing new. Well, we’re in the process of packing, getting ready to move.

Nicki: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Kids are out of school.

Robb: Kids are out of school. So we’re swimming, and the kids are walking the dogs around on leashes, and basically torturing the animals. Nicki’s been watching the wild kingdom that is our backyard, and our cat slaughtering all of the baby birds in the backyard.

Nicki: We have this wonderful nest, a robin nest up in the tree, and I’ve been watching the parents come and feed the babies, and then yesterday morning there were no parents.

Robb: Silence.

Nicki: It was silent, and I think our cat slayed the whole family.

Robb: The cat’s been eyeballing this thing for probably a week, and I think he just waited for the baby birds to get fat enough to make it worth his while to climb the tree.

Nicki: Those ones I was particularly attached to, because I was watching them every day in the morning.

Robb: Oh, so the cat was pretty attached to them also.

Nicki: All right, let’s jump in on our questions. Okay. Let’s see. Our first question this week is from Steve. He says, “He keeps stuffing up and it’s driving me crazy. Hi, Rob. I don’t want to take too much of your time, but going keto for me has found me doing exactly what I feared I could do. I have been paleo for five or six years and so was my wife. We have no kids at home, so grains and junky carbs are not an issue or even a temptation. I’m in the middle of doing the keto masterclass, which I’m savoring, because I’ve been making some mistakes.

Nicki: 50 years old, workout regulAarly, doing, either mixed kettlebell workouts, or I do weight and resistance training. I like to do whole body workouts three times a week, and can mix in some cardio in between. I’ve kept fit most of my life and my goal is, as I age, to stay lean and keep mobile. Pretty simple.

Nicki: We live in Perth, in Western Australia, so we have great weather and lots of sun. I work as a gardener at a private school, a job I love doing, as I’m outside and moving all day. Not as hard as some sort of construction worker, but that can happen on any given day, just not everyday. Coming from eating paleo, the transition for me has been pretty easy. As I went low carb and increased the fat I was eating, my wife like the sound of it, so she hopped on board. She’s doing great, in fact, better than me.

Nicki: We aren’t really that worried about measuring ketones at this stage, it has been more about getting the diet right. But my issue is I love the food. For some reason, it has made me hungrier. Stocking our fridge and cupboards, I made sure that we had all we needed and I wanted to see what I liked to eat also. So I’ve blown it on all sorts of things. I’ve had days where I ate too much thickened cream, one tub has 800 calories, and it is so easy to eat. I’ve blown it on nut butter and blown it on cheese. I can’t believe it.

Nicki: At first, it was wrapping my head around the fat content, but I think I get it now. But I have put on body fat, which is so annoying. It’s not a train wreck, but I feel like I’m in a rut, and it’s hard to get out. I don’t want to quit, because I can see, I have felt the benefits. It’s just with the fat content and my physiology, there seems to be no room for error.

Nicki: I listened to your podcast, and since listening I’ve gone to the Ketogains website and worked out my macros. I was still tracking somewhat, but some days I may have blown it by 500 or 600 calories. I’ve come so close to quitting. As for me, it seems to have been an easy way to get fat rather than leaner. I’m not sure that you can help me, and I’m not sure what else I could tell you. Diet wise, I have intermittent fasted for three more years with different protocols. Doing 16 to 20 hours is pretty comfortable. I work out in the mornings, and I often don’t eat until lunch or when I get home from work.

Nicki: My diet hasn’t changed too much, except I’ve eaten cream, which I’m now over. Adding more fat to my meals, cooking in butter, eating nuts and doing other keto style things. Apart from that, my diet is still pretty normal. I love veggies. I have for years done a version of Mark Sisson’s, Big Ass Salad, which would be my daily staple. Evening veggies could be broccoli with brussels sprouts, maybe some kale and mushrooms. Also we do milk, kefir, but I try to keep that to a minimum.

Nicki: If you have any suggestions, that would be great. Are there others that have had this sort of issue where going keto has made them fatter? Really enjoy your podcasts, and thanks for all of the really useful info that you’ve put out. I’ve also read your books. Best regards, Steve.”

Robb: You know, it’s funny when we were going through this, when I saw stuffing it up, I thought it was going to be a sinus issue. Do you have any thoughts on this? Like shooting [inaudible 00:04:30]

Nicki: The thing is he didn’t mention protein at all, and he seems pretty focused on the fat, which as you talk about in the keto masterclass, fat is a lever. Protein is first, because it’s the most satiating macronutrient. You know, he says he’s hungry, so I’m wondering if he’s not getting enough protein.

Robb: Right, right. That’s kind of my first thought as well. The protein leverage hypothesis. It’s so hard to unpack this stuff, because a lot of people, if they come from a kind of a traditional western diet, they shift to low carb or even paleo, but let’s just say low carb. Instead of being on these carb roller coasters all the time, you just get this nice, even energy, even blood glucose levels. Whether it’s ketone fueled or not, it’s just like you’re not on the ups and downs. Generally, they notice that they’re not as hungry. But I think that that can kind of give way over time to being low protein.

Robb: Again, with that whole protein leverage hypothesis idea, whether you eat low carb or low fat, if you eat adequate protein, you’re probably going to be pretty good, you know, all other things being equal. But if you’re skinny on the protein, then your body is going to stimulate hunger and you’re going to tend to eat more food. There is kind of a reality that one of the dangers of kind of keto eating is that the bulk of the food is pretty calorically dense, you know? I mean, you could go pretty crazy on plain sweet potatoes or something like that. You know, I mean, just the calorie density is not any-….

Nicki: An extra wedge of cheese, depending on how you measure a wedge.

Robb: Right, yeah, wedge. Yeah.

Nicki: Is a significant number of calories.

Robb: A significant chunk of calories. So the protein would definitely be a thought. An additional thought, he seems to be kicking the bulk of his calories to later in the day. So I would, following a lot of Bill Lagakos’ work, and things that we’re learning around time restricted eating, I would try shifting more of the calories earlier in the day. All things being equal, it seems like people generally do better with that.

Robb: Then one final piece, is thinking about your electrolyte intake, in particular, sodium. So Tyler and Luis shot me an interesting paper the other day. So, there’s a lot of folklore in the keto world, which I kind of alluded to, that we get this kind of appetite suppressing effect while in ketosis and while fasting and stuff like that, and there’s definitely truth to that. But, when ketone salt had been studied, kind of head to head with ketone esters, it’s interesting, the esters produce higher levels of blood ketones, but they do not have an appetite blunting effect, not the way that ketone salts do.

Robb: Now, this is totally speculative, but one of the key features of ketone salts is they have a shit load of salt in them. We’ve often kind of joked that, you know, when people are like, “Man, I feel great using ketone salts.” It’s because they’re actually getting a decent wack of sodium, in particular, in addition to the other electrolytes. So, I would really be fastidious on protein, and then also make sure that you get at least that five grams per day of sodium specifically-

Nicki: Especially because you’re in a warm climate, you’re outside all the time, you’re … yeah.

Robb: Yeah. So those are some biggies in that. So I guess the three are be on point with protein, make sure that you’re getting your electrolytes addressed, and then finally, try shifting more of the calories earlier in the day, versus this later in the day eating schedule.

Nicki: Okay. So Steve, do all that, and then report back.

Robb: Ping back and let us know. Yep.

Nicki: Okay. So our next question is from Rory. “What’s up with fiber and kids?” Rory says, “As part of restoring my own gut health, I’ve used prebiotic fibers in various doses based somewhat on Grace Liu’s advice, and I’m curious if and when a supplemental fiber would be beneficial for my daughter?

Nicki: Again, assuming that she started off at a disadvantage because of the antibiotics, it seems to follow logically that prebiotic fiber would help her get bacteria develop and increase her overall health and resilience. Is that actually logical? Are there any cautions? Is there a certain dose that’s age appropriate? Or do I just slowly increase until she has digestive upset? Should I mix fibers in order to feed a variety of bacteria? Or are there certain fibers that are optimal for a young gut? I.e. what would a cave baby be most likely to eat or chew on for fun?”

Robb: Man, that’s a lot going on there. So, I think I’ve mentioned the Sonnenberg Lab a couple of times. I got to speak with Erica Sonnenberg at the event that Akil Palanisamy puts on each year with UCSF. They’ve done so many different things, but just consuming fermented food, this was one of the studies. Folks were consuming fermented food and they looked at their gut microbiome profile, the diversity, and the, you know, various ratios before and then during, and after the intervention of adding fermented foods like kimchi and sauerkraut, and stuff like that.

Robb: What was interesting is that the gut diversity increased while consuming the fermented food, but it wasn’t any of the bacteria that were part of the fermented food. It’s been understood for a long time, or at least somewhat understood, that that bacteria doesn’t necessarily play a role in populating the gut, at least not longterm, but it seems to tune the immune response, and perhaps creates an environment that’s more amenable for other organisms to occupy the space.

Robb: So that’s an interesting thing. It seems a little bit more holistic, and kind of leaves all the information processing up to the gut and the ecology of the gut, instead of trying to, you know, have this notion that we’re going to pinpoint, you know, fix anything that’s going on there. We’ve talked about this in previous episodes, supplementation with prebiotic fibers, it seems to be a little bit of a mixed bag. Some people do great with it, some people do terribly. The point about having a really diverse mixture I think makes a lot of sense.

Robb: Garden of Life, like Dr. Perlmutter’s prebiotic fiber, is a really nice spectrum. It has acacia in it, and lemon and orange peel pulp. It just has 20 different things in it. So, something like that could potentially be something that you add to maybe some apple sauce or something like that. I would probably keep the doses a little on the smaller side. I don’t know that I would really want to run a GI, you know, pressure test on that. But those are the things that I would noodle on with all that stuff.

Robb: If you’re doing white potatoes, cassava, white rice, going through the whole process of cooking it, chilling it, you know, improving the resistant starch profile, I think that stuff makes sense. But I would be a little bit careful doing outright supplementation beyond that. Do you have any additional thoughts?

Nicki: I got nothing.

Robb: Okay. Yeah. But our kids love both kimchi and sauerkraut. They eat it. If we put it out, they will eat it. We just sometimes, in putting out the meal, forget to, but most kids will gravitate towards that pretty well. So I think that that’s kind of a nice, simple baseline that you can have that-

Nicki: Just get the mild one.

Robb: Yeah, just get the mild one. Yeah, yeah. Every once in a while I mess up and get the red lid. Even though Sagan has a pretty spicy palateYup.

Nicki: Alrighty. Let’s see. Our next question is from Mads. Tips for increasing testosterone. “Hey, Rob. In a previous Q&A you talked about how muscle gain in hypertrophy is caused by calorie surplus and progressive overload. You also mentioned that gaining muscle is, without a doubt, easier if you have high testosterone. Calorie surplus and progressive overload is easy, but how do I increase my testosterone? You mentioned that there are a number of different tactics that you can use. My testosterone is not low, but it’s definitely not high either. I’m 27, and my testosterone is 640 nanograms per deciliter, and my free testosterone is 16.36.”

Robb: Man, this is a good question. So a young guy, it’s-

Nicki: His testosterone is lower than my dad’s.

Robb: Yeah, who’s 70.

Nicki: 70.

Robb: Yeah, yeah. Which he’s just kind of a stud, so you’re-

Nicki: Well, no, but, I mean, also, I know you’ve talked before about how our parents and grandparents generation, as a baseline, had higher testosterone than-

Robb: Yeah, Kirk Parsley has some numbers that he quotes that, my grandparents’ generation, both men and women, appeared to have testosterone levels about three times on average what we’re seeing today. So, yeah, I mean, it’s probably not optimal from a recovery standpoint. This is the thing, again, we don’t really know why this is changing. Is it xenoestrogens? Is it a change in the gut microbiome? Is it all of these things?

Robb: The stuff that can definitely help, usually something that looks kind of akin to a lower carb diet tends to help, because people lose body fat. It’s interesting, on the testosterone story, specifically with men, being super lean is antagonistic towards testosterone. So once you get below about 10%, maybe 8%, as a baseline, your testosterone will tend to start dropping because of some stress response issues.

Robb: Some people run leaner and high testosterone, but this is, again, you know, kind of generalization. But then once you start cresting up above maybe about 14%, 15% body fat, you have enough fat mass, which contains an enzyme called aromatase, which can convert the testosterone into estrogen. The interesting kind of downward spiral with that is the brain doesn’t sense testosterone levels, it senses estrogen levels.

Robb: So with estrogen levels are high, the brain says, “Oh, we’re good with testosterone, I don’t need to stimulate luteinizing hormone, and, you know, ping the Leydig cells to, you know, release the precursors and co-factors involved with the whole testosterone production cascade.”

Robb: So someone who is overweight will have low testosterone, which tends to feed into overweight, which then elevates their estrogen levels, which suppresses testosterone production at the brain. Then even if they go and get some sort of testosterone replacement therapy, if the doctor is ham-handed with this, they just give them a big huge dose of testosterone, which further suppresses indogenous testosterone production.

Robb: So, with someone like this, some things like zinc citrate have been shown to be pretty effective, about 50 milligrams per day. You have to be careful with doing that consistently, because it can deplete your copper levels.

Nicki: So when you say careful doing it consistently, like once a week? Every other day?

Robb: You could do it maybe four or five days on, and then take four or five days off, and or you could use a supplement like Jarrow’s zinc citrate, which comes with copper, five milligrams copper. So, that’s something to do, is to make sure that you’re supplementing with that. If your body fat levels are north of about 14, 15, if they’re in there, then I would try to do some things to get leaner and see if that improves testosterone levels.

Robb: Sleep is going to be a huge factor. So, what time are you going to bed? What time are you waking up? What’s the sleep quality? Completely black room.

Nicki: Getting in bed before midnight.

Robb: Earlier is better. Yeah, yeah.

Nicki: As many hours asleep before midnight as possible.

Robb: Yup, yup, ideally. Which is harder in the summer months, depending on where you are, and what latitude you’re at. But improving sleep, improving body composition. Those are the places that I would look first, and I would really dig into the diet and lifestyle features first and figure out what if any bump you can get from that.

Robb: Only then, if we aren’t seeing favorable changes, do we start working with a knowledgeable functional medicine doctor, like anti-aging doctor. Starting with things like Clomid and some mild aromatase inhibitors and stuff like that to try to goose endogenous production first. Particularly someone that’s 27, you do not want this person getting into a, you know, a testosterone replacement therapy scenario.

Robb: I guess one other question is for Mads, has he ever suffered a significant traumatic brain injury? Sometimes you may not be aware of that, but if you played youth football, if you played hockey, if you fell off of a trampoline. So this could be something too that is part of the sleep piece. If sleep seems to be pretty good, but, you know, everything isn’t really kicking over, then there can be some sleep studies, there can be some brain imaging and some testing to look at what’s going on between the pituitary and the other elements of the story. So that’s kind of getting in another layer.

Robb: It’s going to be awhile, but we will have some material that’s going to really help people unpack this stuff in a completely systematic process, because there’s so much shitty information on this and it’s so confusing and you need a lot of nuance. There is never a one size fits all approach on this, other than maybe sleep better. That’s about the only one that, you know, that’s going to benefit virtually everybody. But occasionally, you have these outliers of people who have a particular type of depression or mania and they actually benefit from certain periods of sleep deprivation.

Robb: So again, there’s an exception to fucking everything. This is why when people just paint everything with these broad brush strokes, there’s just seemingly an exception to everything. So yeah, I know that I was kind of all over the map on that, but it’s a lot of stuff. We’ll be doing some work with Kirk Parsley in the future to get some materials so that people can really navigate this story in an effective way.

Nicki: All right. Let’s see. Our next question is on sex hormone binding globulin elevated on keto carnivore, and this is from Ian, Ian. I’m not sure how to pronounce your name. Ian says, “Since switching to keto, I’ve noticed an increase in sex hormone binding globulin levels, which brings down my free test, total test, or free testosterone. So total testosterone has stayed high normal, but was wondering how functional it is with the free portion bound up? The AGA is a bit low too. I feel great, all in all, but I was just wondering what your thoughts are on that.”

Robb: Yeah, and so the previous question, I should’ve mentioned the sex hormone binding globulin story as well. It’s interesting, generally when insulin levels go down on a relative basis, we tend to see sex hormone binding globulin go up. What’s unclear about that, is it’s somewhat similar to thyroid, specifically T3, decreasing on low carb, because you need more thyroid hormone to process carbohydrate. If you’re eating fewer carbohydrates, thyroid decreases, but is that clinically significant? We just don’t really know.

Robb: Another piece of this whole kind of androgen story, and again, this is true whether you’re male or female, is that you may have a particular level of a hormone that may look kind of low, but you may have particularly high receptor site density or receptor site affinity. So a little bit of the hormone goes a long way. The flip side, is that you could have quite high hormone levels and low receptor site density and or affinity, and so you’re still not getting, you know, an effective kind of story.

Robb: I’m not entirely sure how to fully unpack that, doing some side of full body radio immunoassay to determine what your receptor site density is. Receptor types change moment by moment too, they come online and offline all the time. So yeah, I mean, I guess the best answer that I have with that is that we could play around with titrating in more carbs, start with 50 additional grams of carbs a day, stick it in the post-workout window. Do you feel better? For both men and women, do you experience better libido? For men, do you wake up with morning wood and stuff like that? Whereas, perhaps previously you did not.

Robb: If we see those things improve, then we might make a case that the insulin levels were suppressed beyond what may be beneficial. So, we may have been getting an unfavorable elevation in sex hormone binding protein or globulin, whatever they’re calling it these days. So, those are some things to play with on this. These are the, you know, last 10% things for most people that we have to devote some time to unpack.

Nicki: Okay. Let’s see. Our final question this week is on chicharrones.

Robb: Cha, cha, cha.

Nicki: From Isaac. “Hey, Rob. chicharrones, pork rinds, are they a healthy snack? I’ve heard you indirectly mention them on the podcast some time ago, but I wasn’t able to infer whether your opinion is favorable or cautionary. I’m an ultra runner and during peak training season we’ll spend about 20 hours per week running. In the battle days, I would top off my calories with a gigantic bowl of cold cereal in the evening or an enormous serving of lentils and rice. But then I got woke, started monitoring my blood sugar and started looking for low carb options to fuel.

Nicki: I’m already having two salads each day, huge amounts of veggies and as much meat as I can stomach. So I’m just looking for some calories to fuel the movement. So are pork rinds okay? I avoid the flavored variety, the bags I buy just say fried pork skin on the ingredients list and I dip them in sour cream. The best part is how easy it is to get an extra thousand calories, and the flavor. Am I headed towards clogged arteries? Or are pork rinds actually healthy in the way that bacon is healthy? Thanks. Love the show, Isaac.”

Nicki: He says, “After submitting my question about whether pork rinds are an acceptable snack, I realize that Rob’s answer might we’d need to see your lab work.” So then he has his cholesterol and some of that stuff.

Robb: That’s doing some diligence. We don’t have an LEO. Oh, do we? No, we have lipoprotein, ApoB. Oh, he does, yes. LDL particle is 1149, that looks phenomenal. Quick triglyceride, HDL ratio looks great. C-reactive protein is tiny. Okay, cool. Those numbers we’ll put in the show notes.

Robb: So, this is one of these funny things. So, Rhonda Patrick, who I think is great, but pork rinds have been one of the things that she’s just gone after. She’s like, “Oh, it’s just still unhealthy, you know? There’s no nutritional value there.” Which I mean, there’s not a lot of vitamins, there’s probably not a lot of minerals particularly, but it is a really interesting source of collagen. When you’re in this kind of lower carb, unprocessed food world, there’s not much that’s crunchy. You’ll grab a piece of ice just to be like, “Oh, man, I want some sort of crunch.”

Robb: We’ll do some jicama thin sliced every once in a while. But you just kind of, you miss that crunch, and chicharrones are phenomenal for that. Typically, they’re cooked in pork fat. I guess you could make the case that maybe some of that stuff is producing some oxidized cholesterol. But I was just reading some stuff recently that people in ketosis, their liver preferentially identifies lipo proteins with oxidized cholesterol and removes them from the system.

Robb: So, it’s kind of an interesting story, where even though cholesterol levels, possibly even lipo protein levels may go up under a ketogenic or low carb diet, your body also seems to be more savvy about removing the offending particles that appear to be the most problematic. So, it’s kind of, you know, is that a wash? Is it a net win? A net loss?

Robb: With the option of always modifying my position in the future, I would say, in general, I can’t really see pork rinds in the context of a keto carnivore type diet being the least bit problematic. The cool thing here is that Issac has done the diligence of doing some good blood work that actually answers some questions. Even just glancing at it, it’s kind of like, okay, we’re pretty good to go. We don’t have any type of wacky discordance, we don’t have hidden insulin resistance.

Robb: There’s a few other things we could take a peek out if we wanted to. But from reading between the lines, it sounds like he’s looking, feeling, performing well, but he’s just kind of curious about like, “Hey, is this one thing that I’m throwing down the pie hole going to crush me?” So, I would just repeat this blood work, probably once a year or something like that, to just use as a baseline. Maybe at some point, additionally doing a coronary calcium, just so you’ve got that in your back pocket, and we can use that again as a baseline.

Robb: The CIMT can be handy also, but it takes a very skilled practitioner to do the CIMT well. So those are a little bit of a mixed bag and they’re a little more variable than the coronary calcium. But beyond that it seems good. You know, I will make a plug for the Epic pork rinds. They have a barbecue flavor, a sea salt and vinegar and salt and pepper.

Nicki: Salt and pepper is really good.

Robb: Yeah, and the barbecue one, the kids … It literally can-

Nicki: They have a baked one too.

Robb: Yeah, they do have a baked one, which I like less, honestly. I like the ones that are fried in pork fat. But either one of the flavors, but mainly the barbecue flavor will provoke the girls into a fist fight, practically, as they get down to the bottom of the bag. Which I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but they’re good, they’re tasty.

Nicki: The dog likes them too.

Robb: The dog definitely likes them too.

Nicki: The bag comes out and he hears it, and he’s right there sitting, pleading.

Robb: So Isaac, good question, and good on you for doing some diligence on your blood work. It’s incredibly frustrating when people spend time and money to go get an assessment that answers nothing. This is another area that we’re going to be dipping our toes into to help people make better decisions around the lab work that they’re choosing, why they’re choosing it. So keep your eyes open for that too.

Nicki: Making sense of it once they get it.

Robb: Yeah, because literally, 90% of the time, 95% of the time, people do blood work and they’re more confused by what is ordered than otherwise. It’s because it’s just not enough to really make a definitive call in general.

Nicki: All right. That was our last question for the week. Thanks everyone. As usual, if you have questions, you can submit those at Robbwolf.com on the contact page. What else?

Robb: Most of my online activity currently is over at Instagram at dasrobbwolf.

Nicki: D-A-S-R-O-B-B-W-O-L-F.

Robb: That’s it. So, thanks for the awesome questions. You guys are fantastic, and-

Nicki: We’ll be back next week.

Robb: We’ll be back next week. We may be a little bit hit and miss between now and August, mid August, because we’re going to be moving and stuff like that. We’re going to try to bank some of these so that we stay ahead of stuff. It’s possible that life may just grab us by the shorthairs, so in demand that that doesn’t happen. But we will do our best to stay on top of. Yup.

Nicki: All right. Thanks guys.

Robb: Bye.

Keto Masterclass

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20 Best Weight Loss Stories

Kim Kardashian Claims to Drop 70 Pounds

Whether or not you believe it, Kim Kardashian has repeatedly claimed that she dropped a whopping 70 pounds after having her baby last December. "I think dieting is so important to weight loss, whereas, I didn't really ever think that before," she told PEOPLE. "I thought, 'Oh, I can work out, I can just eat whatever I want.' But you have to work out all the time." Kardashian claimed that the low-carb Atkins 40 plan is what helped her shed the pounds, adding that she aimed for 1,800 calories a day, along with intense workouts. Intrigued? Then don't miss these 15 Amazing Weight Loss Tips from Kim Kardashian's Nutritionist!

Mariah Carey Only Eats Two Things

One thing is for sure: Mariah Carey loves attention. So, it's only fitting that her latest weight loss strategy would raise a few eyebrows. The strategy? Consuming only two foods. "It's really hard. My diet, you would hate it," Carey tells E! News. "All you eat is Norwegian salmon and capers every day. That's it."

Britney's Bod Slays

This one's more about an awesome weight loss maintenance and fitness story than a dramatic before-and-after transition. With her resident show in Vegas, it's no secret that Britney Spears has gotten back in killer shape and has been turning heads for well over a year. But she garnered more-than-usual attention earlier in 2016 after a smokin' hot performance at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards in May. (We know you wanna watch it!) And then she recently celebrated her 35th birthday with another sexy performance at the Jingle Ball in LA. How does she do it? It's not exactly a secret, people. As she says: "You wanna hot body? You better work…"

Kayla Itsines Helps Millions

There's no doubt that 2016 was the biggest year yet for Instagram sensation Kayla Itsines, who now has nearly 6 million followers. Known for her online fitness guides, Itsines hosted a massively successful '2016 Sweat Tour,' but it also made her second guess naming her guides "Bikini Body." She noted on Instagram: "I originally called it 'Bikini Body Guides' because when I asked my clients what their goals were, 99 percent said at some stage that they just wanted 'to feel comfortable in a bikini,' so I didn't think twice when I called it that." She told Bloomberg, however, that she now regrets the name since it's not only about looking and feeling good in a bikini, but it's about being strong. Regardless of the name, it's clear that this is only the beginning; just see how many hashtags #bbgprogress #sweatwithkayla there were this year for endless weight loss inspiration.

Khloé Kardashian Sheds Major Pounds

Kim Kardashian called Khloé her "weight loss idol" after the reality star shed a significant amount of weight. Unfortunately, she went from being body shamed for being "the fat Kardashian" to being body shamed for being "too skinny." Whatever your judgment may be, there's no denying her weight loss story has inspired many. She credits her drop in size to small tweaks in lifestyle and her diet, saying that her "biggest tip for starting off strong is to swap out some common foods you eat for healthier versions." Now that's a suggestion we can definitely get behind. Many of these 40 Ways to Lose Weight in 4 Seconds are along the same lines.

Revenge Body With Khloé Kardashian

She wouldn't be a Kardashian if she didn't capitalize on her media attention, so Khloé announced that she would have a new show on E!—Revenge Body with Khloé Kardashian. The show has enlisted a number of A-list trainers including Simone de la Rue, Lacey Stone and Gunnar Peterson to work with the reality star to help contestants overcome traumatic life experiences through fitness.

Bride-To-Be Loses Over 100 Pounds

After seeing her engagement photos, Texas bride Haley J. Smith set off on a weight loss journey that resulted in a 100-plus pound weight loss in 15 months. How did she do it? She enlisted a workout buddy (her husband), tracked her progress, ordered smart at restaurants (and tracked her calories), cooked more, and ate a diet rich in protein (think salmon and chicken). Sounds do-able, right? For more on Haley's incredible transformation, check out The 5 Tricks One Woman Used to Lose 100 Pounds!

Megyn Kelly Swears by the F-Factor Diet

Megyn Kelly was in the spotlight for many things this year, not least of which was her reliance on a fiber-rich diet prescribed by celebrity dietitian Tanya Zuckerbrot to stay trim. In fact, the 40-something Fox News anchor not only praised Zuckerbrot's F-Factor diet and book on her show, she mentions it in her new book, Settle for More. Don't miss these 9 Ways Megyn Kelly Stays Slim at 45 for more insights into this star's slim figure.

Guordan Banks Drops 70 Pounds

Singer-songwriter Guordan Banks started his weight loss journey in 2015 and he's now down 70 pounds. Banks, who is behind the #1 single "Keep You In Mind," says he credits his weight loss with moving more (he's a fan of basketball), cutting out certain foods (like soda, bread, and fried foods), and opting for a diet full of water and lean protein (like fish and vegetables). Check out these 23 Ways to Accidentally Start Your Diet Today to see how you may be on a weight loss track you didn't even realize you were on!

Drew Barrymore Sheds 20 Pounds

As we age, losing those extra few pounds gets all the more challenging since our metabolism slows down. But Barrymore worked with celebrity nutritionist Kimberly Snyder to go from 144 to 124 pounds, and she did it all while filming her Netflix show, Santa Clarita Diet. Snyder, who is the author of several books and a proponent of a daily green smoothie, prescribes vegan or vegetarian with her weight loss plans; Barrymore, a carnivore, followed Snyder's methods but added some protein like fish and chicken. Barrymore kept it real, though, when she admitted that she "dreams of pizza."

Adrienne Bailon Reveals Pre-Wedding Weight Loss

After headlines declared she might be pregnant (she was not), Adrienne Bailon embarked on a 15-pound weight loss, which she revealed on Instagram. "Well folks, I've lost 15lbs & counting! Can't stop. Won't stop. Focused! Ha. It's always tea time in my dressing room! Loving my detox with @fittea! Have you joined me?! Um, it's November 1st! The perfect time to start! Stay classy lol. XO." This post was also captioned "#ad" so we might want to take it with a grain of salt when she credits her Fit Tea with this pre-wedding weight loss.

Gabourey Sidibe Sets Out To Get Healthy

Gabourey Sidibe showed off her weight loss—estimated by some to be as much as 100 pounds—on Instagram in a snap from Watch What Happens Live's red carpet. While the star has been vocal about how much she suffered because of her weight growing up, she has yet to reveal exactly how much she lost and how. For someone who was accustomed to being overweight, we wonder if her motivation was anything that might be on our list of 33 Reasons to Lose Weight Other Than Fitting Into Skinny Jeans.

Oprah Backs Weight Watchers

After buying a stake in Weight Watchers, the superstar influencer and media mogul once again set off on a weight loss journey. By mid-June, she showed off a 30-pound weight loss and wrote on Instagram, "Best Health report card ever! Total cholesterol 180. LDL 82. thanks to #wwsmartpoints #ClevelandClinic #AnnualCheckup."

John Goodman Is Almost Unrecognizable

A 2014 knee surgery caused by his unhealthy lifestyle served as a wake-up call for 10 Cloverfield Lane's John Goodman, who in March 2016 shocked fans when he showed up at LAX looking thinner than ever. It has been an ongoing journey for the actor; Goodman credits the tried and true method of diet and exercise for his newly svelte physique.

Lunch Lady Loses 100 Pounds

In the fall of 2015, 260-pound Tammy McRae, who works at Carver Elementary School, decided she was going to lose weight. Instead of eating donuts for breakfast and frequenting Wendy's and McDonald's, she started eating off her cafeteria menu—and the results were staggering. For breakfast, her diet typically includes fresh fruit and cereal; lunch has a menu of things like broccoli and cheese, a baked potato, and boneless chicken wings. At night, she says she has a little bit of fruit or a little yogurt. By September 2016, McRae weighed in at 160 pounds and garnered some much-deserved attention for her resourceful strategy. Speaking of lunch, get some smart tips with these 18 Lunch Rituals to Help You Lose Weight.

Widow Heals Emotional Wounds Through Weight Loss

After her husband took his life in 2015, Justine McCabe ballooned to 313 pounds. With the support of her friends and family, McCabe began documenting her 124-pound weight loss journey on her Tumblr page, taking daily selfies (she now updates via Instagram @HairStarGetsFit). How did she do it? Motivated by the daily selfies, she got a gym membership, worked out six days a week and ate clean. She also challenged herself and faced her fears by doing things like skydiving, traveling abroad alone, and climbing the Eiffel Tower. What made this story so great is that it's not only about weight loss but about emotional healing, which is why McCabe uses the hashtag "#Ichoosetolive." Now that's a weight loss mantra we love!

Penn Jillette Lost 100 Pounds Eating Potatoes

Comedian and magician Penn Jillette released his book Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear this year, in which he chronicles his weight loss journey. His efforts kicked off in a very unconventional way, though; he ate nothing except potatoes for two weeks. About five naked potatoes a day to be exact, which resulted in an 18-pound weight loss. After that, he ate nothing besides vegetables for three months. He now follows a diet with no animal products, processed grains, or added sugar or salt—and has kept the weight off. The lesson of story? Do what works for you, as long as you get to a healthy, sustainable place eventually!

Rob Kardashian Begins His Journey

In a recent episode of Rob & Chyna, Kardashian says, "I'm not comfortable in my skin. I'm not comfortable with this weight. So, I feel like I'm not happy with anything I do right now." The reality star was reportedly around 300 pounds at his heaviest, and my how things have changed! He recently posted the above snap on Instagram saying: "Oh yeah we snapping back lol,,, baby will be here in 4 weeks and I'm done with carrying this pregnancy weight me and my baby gonna be righttttttt ,,, MOTIVATION TIME‼️ we almost there Chy FAAAAACK Chy looks so bomb here aghhhh ." Moreover, his type 2 diabetes is in remission, thanks to a low-carb diet and doing cardio at least five times a week.

New Zealand Woman Gets Honest About Weight Loss

New Zealand woman Simone Anderson has been chronicling her weight loss journey on social media—and after some backlash that claimed her images were Photoshopped, she posted a very honest image showing the excess skin gathered around her torso. Then, months later, she shared an unforgettable "before and after" comparison of her dramatic skin removal surgery.

Jonah Hill Gets In Shape

The comedian has seen his weight fluctuate over the years (he lost weight for his roles in Moneyball and The Wolf of Wall Street, but soon gained it back); but this summer, Hill seemed to be thinner than ever. Dr. Philip Goglia, who worked with the star, revealed that Hill would send him pictures of his food to prove that he was on track and eating healthy things like protein-rich salmon and eggs. Speaking of, find out the 26 Things You Need To Know Before Buying A Carton of Eggs now!

#20 Best Weight Loss #20 Best Weight Loss Stories.Kim Kardashian Claims to Drop 70 Pounds #Khloé Kard

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