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cocklessboy · 11 months

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The biggest male privilege I have so far encountered is going to the doctor.

I lived as a woman for 35 years. I have a lifetime of chronic health issues including chronic pain, chronic fatigue, respiratory issues, and neurodivergence (autistic + ADHD). There's so much wrong with my body and brain that I have never dared to make a single list of it to show a doctor because I was so sure I would be sent directly to a psychologist specializing in hypochondria (sorry, "anxiety") without getting a single test done.

And I was right. Anytime I ever tried to bring up even one of my health issues, every doctor's initial reaction was, at best, to look at me with doubt. A raised eyebrow. A seemingly casual, offhand question about whether I'd ever been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Even female doctors!

We're not talking about super rare symptoms here either. Joint pain. Chronic joint pain since I was about 19 years old. Back pain. Trouble breathing. Allergy-like reactions to things that aren't typically allergens. Headaches. Brain fog. Severe insomnia. Sensitivity to cold and heat.

There's a lot more going on than that, but those were the things I thought I might be able to at least get some acknowledgement of. Some tests, at least. But 90% of the time I was told to go home, rest, take a few days off work, take some benzos (which they'd throw at me without hesitation), just chill out a bit, you'll be fine. Anxiety can cause all kinds of odd symptoms.

Anyone female-presenting reading this is surely nodding along. Yup, that's just how doctors are.

Except...

I started transitioning about 2.5 years ago. At this point I have a beard, male pattern baldness, a deep voice, and a flat chest. All of my doctors know that I'm trans because I still haven't managed to get all the paperwork legally changed, but when they look at me, even if they knew me as female at first, they see a man.

I knew men didn't face the same hurdles when it came to health care, but I had no idea it was this different.

The last time I saw my GP (a man, fairly young, 30s or so), I mentioned chronic pain, and he was concerned to see that it wasn't represented in my file. Previous doctors hadn't even bothered to write it down. He pushed his next appointment back to spend nearly an hour with me going through my entire body while I described every type of chronic pain I had, how long I'd had it, what causes I was aware of. He asked me if I had any theories as to why I had so much pain and looked at me with concerned expectation, hoping I might have a starting point for him. He immediately drew up referrals for pain specialists (a profession I didn't even know existed till that moment) and physical therapy. He said depending on how it goes, he may need to help me get on some degree of disability assistance from the government, since I obviously shouldn't be trying to work full-time under these circumstances.

Never a glimmer of doubt in his eye. Never did he so much as mention the word "anxiety".

There's also my psychiatrist. He diagnosed me with ADHD last year (meeting me as a man from the start, though he knew I was trans). He never doubted my symptoms or medical history. He also took my pain and sleep issues seriously from the start and has been trying to help me find medications to help both those things while I go through the long process of seeing other specialists. I've had bad reactions to almost everything I've tried, because that's what always happens. Sometimes it seems like I'm allergic to the whole world.

And then, just a few days ago, the most shocking thing happened. I'd been wondering for a while if I might have a mast cell condition like MCAS, having read a lot of informative posts by @thebibliosphere which sounded a little too relatable. Another friend suggested it might explain some of my problems, so I decided to mention it to the psychiatrist, fully prepared to laugh it off. Yeah, a friend thinks I might have it, I'm not convinced though.

His response? That's an interesting theory. It would be difficult to test for especially in this country, but that's no reason not to try treatments and see if they are helpful. He adjusted his medication recommendations immediately based on this suggestion. He's researching an elimination diet to diagnose my food sensitivities.

I casually mentioned MCAS, something routinely dismissed by doctors with female patients, and he instantly took the possibility seriously.

That's it. I've reached peak male privilege. There is nothing else that could happen that could be more insane than that.

I literally keep having to hold myself back from apologizing or hedging or trying to frame my theories as someone else's idea lest I be dismissed as a hypochondriac. I told the doctor I'd like to make a big list of every health issue I have, diagnosed and undiagnosed, every theory I've been given or come up with myself, and every medication I've tried and my reactions to it - something I've never done because I knew for a fact no doctor would take me seriously if they saw such a list all at once. He said it was a good idea and could be very helpful.

Female-presenting people are of course not going to be surprised by any of this, but in my experience, male-presenting people often are. When you've never had a doctor scoff at you, laugh at you, literally say "I won't consider that possibility until you've been cleared by a psychologist" for the most mundane of health problems, it might be hard to imagine just how demoralizing it is. How scary it becomes going to the doctor. How you can internalize the idea that you're just imagining things, making a big deal out of nothing.

Now that I'm visibly a man, all of my doctors are suddenly very concerned about the fact that I've been simply living like this for nearly four decades with no help. And I know how many women will have to go their whole lives never getting that help simply because of sexism in the medical field.

If you know a doctor, show them this story. Even if they are female. Even if they consider themselves leftists and feminists and allies. Ask them to really, truly, deep down, consider whether they really treat their male and female patients the same. Suggest that the next time they hear a valid complaint from a male patient, imagine they were a woman and consider whether you'd take it seriously. The next time they hear a frivolous-sounding complaint from a female patient, imagine they were a man and consider whether it would sound more credible.

It's hard to unlearn these biases. But it simply has to be done. I've lived both sides of this issue. And every doctor insists they treat their male and female patients the same. But some of the doctors astonished that I didn't get better care in the past are the same doctors who dismissed me before.

I'm glad I'm getting the care I need, even if it is several decades late. And I'm angry that it took so long. And I'm furious that most female-presenting people will never have this chance.

#transgender #queer #transmasc #lgbtqia+#trans man #sexism #medical sexism #feminism #male privilege

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thebibliosphere · 3 months

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If you feel like talking about it — what’s the *aftermath* of anaphylaxis like? I know that an epipen is just step one, and further treatment and observation follows at a hospital, but I’m curious about what the subjective experience is like in the longer term; whether one can bounce back fairly well or whether there’s lingering unpleasantness.

So with the caveat that everyone experiences things differently (and putting this under a cut because I don't want to trigger anyone):

After epi is administered, you're usually put on a cocktail of drugs ranging from several different IV antihistamines (typically a mix of h1 and h2 histamine blockers and a giant whack of benadryl), anti-nausea meds, a beta-agonist to assist with breathing, and a shit-whack of steroids.

Once you've been stable for a few hours and discharged, you'll be told to watch for symptoms for up to 72 hours, which is the period in which a biphasic reaction can happen. (For me, it's always within 20 minutes to 8 hours after rescue medication is administered if I'm going to slip back into an allergic response, but everyone is different.)

Depending on your symptoms, you'll sometimes be told to take an antihistamine for up to 72 hours (if you're not already taking one daily), but the one thing they always send you home with is a steroid like prednisone. I usually need a 5-7 day dose because I need to taper off it or my adrenals crash, but some people get a 3-day dose and come off it with no problems.

Body-wise, it's a draining experience, and the medications often leave you both tired and wired. It's an odd sensation.

Mentally and emotionally, it takes me a lot longer to recover because I've just been smacked with a proverbial mallet of stress hormones and adrenaline, and that can often lead to depressive moods and even rage for some people. The prednisone also heightens emotions, so it's not unusual to be having some of the wildest mood swings of your life while also processing the stress of what just happened.

It takes me a while to bounce back, typically about a week on full rest, but I know some people who claim to feel fine in a couple of days. Couldn't be me, haha. My body goes into hibernation mode for quite a while, and I'll be lying in bed exhausted and jittering like I've had ten espressos, but I don't know how much of that is general anaphylaxis or how much of that is specific to my mast cell disorder.

So, for me, it's a desperate need to sleep, jitteriness, depression, and rapid mood swings from the prednisone followed by a general feeling of blegh. It also takes me about 72 hours to be able to eat solid foods again because of the effect anaphylaxis has on the digestive tract (the esophagus is lined with histamine receptors; that's why some heartburn meds are actually antihistamines.), but I suspect that's my MCAS.

It's basically just a bit shit, lol.

#chronic health tag #anaphylaxis #personal experiences

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songmingisthighs · 8 months

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Heaven's Haven

group : ateez

pairing : jongho × reader

genre : smut, romance

wc : 3.6 k

warning : explicit smut; oral (f receiving), face sitting, unprotected sex (ykw if you're financially ready for a kid and is no longer obsessed with supposed time travelling pirates, go for it), pwp ?, softer sex with a lot of description bc... it's jongho, have you looked at him? lmk what i missed

a/n : to those of you who encouraged me to give into my impulses, you'll be hearing from my lawyer. it's san. san is my lawyer. btw happy haribo day !!

a/a/n : at this point let's just agree that smt overdoes shit

buy me coffee ?

Every night you were reminded of how hardworking your boyfriend is. Most days you're proud of him while some days you were just worried. While he's not a workaholic with a hyperactive artistic brain like his captain, Kim Hongjoong, Jongho works when he's not even working. His whole life revolves around being a singer and a performer; his diet, his aversion to certain foods, and his workout regime. Frankly, the only thing that could stop him was when he went through surgery for his legs. While fans were disappointed when he couldn't join the tour, it was the best month of your life. You love taking care of him because he has been taking such good care of you. Which was why you designated his room as a no-outside-life zone. You made it your duty to rid Jongho of his responsibilities when he's in his room. Also his pants.

So coming into his room to find him sitting on his bed still clad in a suit after an interview he did, texting away on his phone, was not really surprising. You simply closed the door, put your bag down near it, and walked over to your boyfriend who was staring at his phone screen with his bottom lip jutted out adorably. "Jjongie, baby," you called out, barely getting a reaction out of him save for a low hum. You slot yourself between his legs while pushing his half-gelled back hair out of his face, can't stop smiling at your adorably sexy boyfriend, "You need to get out of these clothes, you've been in it the whole day and we need to get your cute butt into bed," you cooed, using the voice you would usually use on little children. "No need baby, I had dinner already," he replied, head tilting at his phone screen, way too preoccupied with whatever it is he was doing.

You wanted to get him to relax but knowing your boyfriend, you first need to detach him from whatever it is taking his attention. So you began your attempts. Rather pathetically because even with eyes glued to his phone, Jongho managed to evade your hands catching the device and even foiling your fake easily. Huffing and puffing, you were determined but so was Jongho. Had he ever given you any reason to suspect infidelity, you would've been very mad for a whole different reason.

After a solid 5 minutes of failed attempts, you detached yourself from your boyfriend with a glare, cursing him and his entire coming bloodline (that you may or may not consider being involved in) for being... Well, him. At this point, he must've known what you were doing right? "Jongho," you called out but were met with silence, "Choi Jongho," you tried again but no luck.

In a desperate attempt, you decided to take some drastic measures that might or might not work, depending on Jongho's mood. You shimmied out of your pants quietly, leaving your panties on purposefully in case your plan failed yet again. You were attempting to give Jongho a pouncing as the element of surprise might give you an upper hand. Boy, you never realized how much planning goes into this part of the relationship. And by 'this', you absolutely mean taking care of a grown adult.

Without further ado, you walked back over to your boyfriend who seemed like he had no plans of letting his phone go and jumped right into action. Jongho yelped slightly when he felt his left shoulder pushed down out of nowhere and when he looked up, he realized that you had used your leg to maneuver him into lying down on his back and plopping down on his chest. The look in his eyes was rather priceless and it took everything in you to not celebrate your half success just yet. Instead, you used your knees to hold his large shoulders in place as your shins pressed his wrists down, preventing him from moving. Or so you convinced yourself. You've seen him carry his members around like a sack of flour, you were sure that he could at least flip you over. Not that you would mind.

In his position, Jongho tried to break free (barely) but you only pressed him further to the point that he let his phone go. "Okay, hi?" he grinned cheekily, looking innocent as if your cunt wasn't a flimsy fabric away from being completely exposed whilst being at eye level with Jongho. "Hi?" pouting, you slapped him on his chest, "You have been ignoring me since I stepped into this room, Choi Jongho and I don't like it!" you complained. "Is that why you're rewarding me?" Jongho asked with an eyebrow raised in question. Your eyebrows furrowed, unsure at what he meant and just as you were about to ask him, you felt his body jolt up slightly which caused your ass to slide forward and your clothed cunt to make contact with Jongho's mouth, effectively causing you to freeze in shock. Your reaction then wasn't as bad as the next though because when you felt the vibration from Jongho humming into your cunt, you gasped and your thighs tensed. "Look at my baby trying to take care of me by giving me something so sweet," he said, the movement from his lips was so palpable on your nether ones that it made your breath catch in your throat, intensely heightening Jongho's effect on you. Just as you had taken Jongho's shock to your benefit, Jongho too took your hazed state to slip his hands from your hold. When you realized what he did, you whined in protest, not wanting him to push you off just yet. But much to your surprise, you found his left hand cupping your ass as the other found purchase on your inner thigh, his thumb gently caressing the bit of skin under the shirt you were wearing, just above your underwear line. The touch left you tingling, your spine shot up as if electricity shot through you straight from where Jongho's tongue was tasting you over your underwear.

"J-Jongho," you whimpered, wanting to say something that you yourself can't figure out, you weren't even sure you should be saying anything but you were sure that some form of response should be given. Jongho had managed to melt your brain with his kitten licks to your covered clit. He somehow managed to find it easily despite not being able to get a visual. Seems like he just knew you that well. Just to be a complete ass about it, Jongho hummed into your pussy again for good measure, causing you to let out a shuddered sigh and making your head drop back. Whatever it was you thought you needed to do when Jongho began to get his taste of you went out the window, you convinced yourself that teasing the fuck out of you count as a non-working activity because it truly was and he was doing such a good job. Your mind shattered when you felt his thumb move your panties to the side and you felt his talented tongue slither between your lower lips. "Fuck!" the sound you make felt perfect to Jongho, enough to drive him to take your pulsing clit between his teeth and lightly nibble on it. Pain isn't something that you always liked during sex with your previous partners. You had had some experiences but none of them resulted in you feeling that good. Sure, there was some pleasure, but not enough to make the pain worth it. But for some reason, with Jongho, the pain he gave during sex only heightened as pleasure. You love the edge it gave you, that bite he gives be it literally or figuratively.

Your boyfriend is someone who is always in control and when he does it, he does it so seamlessly that it wasn't even obvious that he had control. How you love the showcase of subtle prowess like how he was gripping your hips so tightly, making sure that you wouldn't be able to chase your high by riding his face, making sure that you were completely dependent on him, that you were in his mercy. "Jongho, more!" you moaned, groaning when Jongho let his blunt nails dig into the skin of your thigh possessively. You looked down to see Jongho raising an eyebrow from between your legs, "Look at you forgetting your manners after being given a little taste of pleasure," a rush of warmth rushed to your cheeks when you heard the teasing edge in Jongho's voice. Jongho wasn't one to be into degradation, he had drawn a certain line on the matter because, in his own words, he cared about you too much to put you down. So your shyness was based on the knowledge that he found you endearing, precious even when you were so affected by him. Unintentionally, your cunt clenched as his tongue grazed upon your opening.

In a flash, you were suddenly under Jongho. His face was still level with your cunt but he was now hovering above, looking at your dumbfounded expression with a satisfied look on his face. Jongho didn't try to hide his amused chuckle when he saw you pouting but he bit his bottom lip to stop himself from actually laughing as you reached to grab the lapels of his suit with both of your hands after managing to take off your own shirt and saliva-slicked panties.

"You need to lose at least one article of clothing. It's not fair," you muttered at him, trying to tug his clothes off despite the struggle due to your position. In his mind, Jongho had considered ignoring your request, wanting to tease you more or at least make you wait. But how can he do that when he knew you had his best interest in mind? Surely, it's also because you want to see his beefed build but he liked to believe that it was just your way of telling him that it's time for him to shed his responsibilities and just rest. So with a nod, Jongho pushed himself up slightly so he could take his suit jacket off and tossed it to the side haphazardly. "Better?" he asked but you immediately shook your head, "I swear, you better be as naked as the day you were born just as God intended or so help me I will find the strength to rip your shirt off of you," you huffed. It was obvious that you were getting impatient and despite your threat and the absolute seriousness in your voice, Jongho knew that you'd just ended up making him undress himself. You were so adorable in Jongho's eyes, he didn't know how you could be so whiny and bossy at the same time. It made his cock twitch in his pants.

Slowly, Jongho crawled up your body to pepper tiny butterfly kisses all over your face, distracting you from his undressing. "I'm sorry for not giving you attention right away, baby. I was too wrapped up in my work, wasn't I?" he softly asked against the skin of your cheek, making you whimper and try to bury your face in his shoulder. "That's okay, Jongho. I just worry about you," when Jongho pulled away slightly, you couldn't help but push the fallen hair from his forehead and cupped his face, "I love you so much," you smiled.

As soon as your profession of love slipped your lips, you felt something hard and heavy enter you. Jongho was halfway inside you when you gasped, hands dropping to claw at his arms that were holding himself up on your sides. Inch by inch Jongho nestled himself inside you as he watched how your face changed the more he pushed. At this point, Jongho's breathing had changed; he inhaled more sharply and exhaled longer, eyes clouded with lust as he paid you all the attention he could muster. He loved watching you unravel under him, it was his favourite thing to watch and he loved savouring each moment, taking in the way your eyes clamped shut and eyebrows furrowed that would usually be accompanied by whimpers that escaped your lips. It wasn't like you both jumped on each other's bones every night as you both considered sex to be a very intimate activity. But by no means do you not do it often nor do you schedule or even make an appointment for sex. What kind of a lunatic would have a calendar for coitus? No, Jongho loved the organic way you and he reacted to each other. When it's time, it's time and the spontaneity tends to egg his exhilaration.

"I'm sorry, (y/n)," he grinned cheekily once you seemed more relaxed, adapted to having him once again wholly inside you, "But you can't expect me to not do anything after you told me you love me." Looking over briefly, you noticed that Jongho managed to unbutton his shirt completely, showing you his beautiful chest and firm abdomen muscle paired with unbuttoned and unzipped pants shoved just a little bit past his cock so the appendage would be completely out. You simply pouted and clicked your tongue at him, "Not undressed and no warning, what kind of boyfriend are you, Choi Jongho?" Chuckling at your protest, Jongho ducked down again to brush his lips against yours, "The best kind, of course," once his lips melded with yours, your annoyance immediately melted, opting to wrap your arms around his neck loosely instead. "And I love you too," he added against your lips.

Jongho's hips begin rocking seconds later, setting a slow pace for him and you to enjoy. The arms that anchored his weight on the sides of your head soon moved; one was carefully cradling the back of your neck as the other slipped around your waist. The more Jongho rocked his hips, the closer you both became until eventually you were chest to chest. In the position you both were in, there was not much room for movement but God, when you slipped your hands under his shirt, the feeling of Jongho's warm skin directly on yours was wonderful. Not to sound like an absolute pervert, but you've always found Jongho to have the softest back. While people expected you to feel his muscles first (which are bulging, thick, and aesthetically pleasing), you shattered all expectations behind closed doors. Even Jongho was surprised when you mentioned the softness of the planes of his entire back. It became a habit for you to let your palm drag along the expanse, making Jongho shudder and allowing his muscles to tighten in desire. To add to that, when you buried your face in his shoulder, you could smell his natural musk. It's not sweat per se, it's just... Jongho. Maybe it was his Diptyque Do Son that clung to the fabric of his clothes mixed with pheromones wafting in the air that gave off a sweet floral scent that had an edge of sharpness to it, but he somehow smelled like home to you. If you could, you'd gladly drown in the scent and evaporate along with it when the time comes, refusing to part. To make things worse for you, the sounds Jongho made were just heavenly. While your past partners had ruined sex by saying stupid things like 'I will wreck you' and 'I'll make sure you're ruined for other men' and not delivering, Jongho was on the quieter side. He almost never moaned out loud, only letting out grunts and huffs and occasionally whimpers when he was needy. Maybe it was because he's a vocalist, a damn great one at that, but even the softest sounds he made gave off vibrations that travelled to you, sending your pupils shaking and stomach tightening. Especially like this, when you both were chest-to-chest, faces on each other's shoulders, the effect of the sounds Jongho made shot right through your cunt, making you clench over and over when the vibrations hit just right. You pity his fans who didn't get to feel what you felt.

Sex with Jongho is not just sex, it's not even just lovemaking where everything is romantic and meaningful. It's a whole experience that left you dizzy and craving for more yet you know that if you had too much of it, it would just drive you absolutely mad. While it isn't much of a conversation topic, you had spoken about your sex life with your friends and most (if not all) stated that it sounded rather vanilla and uneventful. But they don't know what kind of intensity sex with Jongho bring. It's not balls slapping, sweaty bodies sliding off of each other, and drool splattering everywhere as he made you squirt your release over and over again like the damn Bellagio Fountain. The experience was beyond words but you definitely felt vulnerably close to Jongho and you could feel him being so close to you too. Everything was laid bare for either to take. Figuratively and literally. Though the occasional crazy monkey sex filled with experiments and teasings still happened, on the norm, this was your heaven.

You wondered how Jongho hadn't lost his pace. Sure, his thrusts became more powerful as his drive was reignited, but the pace was steady yet not monotone. To add to your own pleasure, you lifted your legs slightly, casing Jongho's hips between your knees. The position allowed your hips to be more open to Jongho, letting your clit make direct contact with his pubic bone so each thrust he delivered came with your clit being rubbed just right. "Fuck!" you exclaimed, head burying deeper into Jongho's shoulder as your hands pressed down his back; from his large shoulders to the dip in the middle, and finally arriving on his exposed ass. You joked that he has an adorable tushy on a daily basis at random times, causing him to cover your mouth whilst blushing because he was embarrassed at how cavalier you were with his gluteal area. But when you showed appreciation to his ass during sex, it proved to make him confident, proud of himself and how hard he worked to have an ass deserving of appreciation by his lover. A confident Jongho is a sexy Jongho and a sexy Jongho always rocked your world in his own way.

Jongho absolutely loved this position as he felt so close to you. While it was a shame that he couldn't see you, the fact that he was able to feel all of you made up for it. From the way your knees tried to close in on his large frame and the way your hips rocked along with his, he knew you were close. His favourite feeling however was the feeling of your stomach muscle tightening under him because it made your back arch and your body to be pressed even closer to him (not that it was possible). Jongho could feel the coil building in your core, ready to be released with just the right persuasion.

"You can cum, I'll help you cum," he grunted into your ear as he allowed the hand that was cupping the back of your neck to somehow slip between your bodies. Your eyes shot open when Jongho simultaneously pulled your hips to meet his completely while his hand pressed to your lower stomach. Immediately, the tension intensified due to the added pressure, forcing a jolt out of your body. All over your body, your muscles tensed which caused you to cling onto Jongho desperately. "Jongho!" you whined accidentally, immediately biting down on Jongho's shoulder to muffle your sound once your coil finally snapped and you came hard. Jongho's eyes shut close at the pleasure of your cunt sucking him in with its grip as if preventing him to get away even just momentarily. Jongho kept thrusting to help you ride your high as he chased his own, movements a lot more fluid thanks to your release. Thanks to your spasming body that added tactile pleasure from skin-on-skin stimulation, Jongho was able to release inside you. Your eyes fluttered open slowly and your pupils dilated when you saw the muscles of Jongho's entire backside tense as he came and even more so, his ass. The sight got you grinding back on Jongho as if returning the favour of him helping you ride your high.

Once both of your bodies relaxed, Jongho sagged and let his weight drop on you, positioning himself so that he wouldn't crush you with his weight but still enough to cover you with his warmth. You winced and whined when Jongho pulled his cock out of you, your hips chasing after him made Jongho grin. With his newfound freedom, Jongho pushed his pants completely off and kicked them to the floor and the garment was soon joined by his now wrinkled shirt. Just as quickly as Jongho took his clothes off, he returned to his spot whilst pulling his blanket, covering you to your chest before pulling you into his arms.

"I don't know how I got so lucky with you," he said as he pressed a kiss to the side of your head. You bit back a smile that may threaten to split your face to reciprocate, kissing him right on his neck mole. Despite it being a gentle kiss, Jongho still shuddered and you adored him for that. "And I don't know how I got so lucky with you. I love you, Jongho, so much," you said, resting your cheek firmly on his chest which allowed you to feel how hard Jongho's heart was beating.

"I love you too, my love. More than you know," he said before letting his eyes close to rest for the night.

Although you were laid in his arms, Jongho felt as if he was the one being embraced, enveloped in love and affection. It was the kind of feeling that encompassed him so comfortably that it lulled him to sleep. In the safety of his haven.

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@cultofdionysusnet @sandsofire @kflixnet

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plutosfallenangel · 1 year

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Astro thoughts + takes | Random observations

(*from personal experience + knowledge, please do not copy+paste as these are my own words*)

• Uranus aspecting one's moon can make them prone to mood swings, yes, but I never hear about how this aspect can make it easier to overcome tough emotions. Since Uranus represents innovation + breakthroughs an individual with a moon-uranus aspect can power through them quickly, and sometimes in very odd ways. Can have different coping mechanisms than most around them.. one that will really stand out apart from the rest. Now, keep in mind that this can be great in many ways.. zipping through emotional turmoil can be a breeze for these people, they just have to make sure to slow down once and a while and ACTUALLY process what they're feeling. Those with moon sextile uranus can actually work through tough emotions when they get outside of their comfort zone.

• Moon sqaure saturn can indicate emotional immaturity until the individual works on their relationship with authority / authority figures, amongst other things..

• Neptune square asc can give one the desire for escapism through substance, any harsh aspects neptune makes to the moon or venus can also indicate this (no hate.. I have this aspect)

• Virgo mars and planning when to have xxx (this is where they clash with fire/air mars signs.. they thrive off spontaneity which this mars lacks unless the chart indicates otherwise ofc)

• Mars in the 6H and being turned on not by a specific area of the body, but what sensations can be created by it (nervous system)

• Mars in libra vs being turned on by reciprocity

• An unevolved lilith in libra/7H can be the typical womanizer/maneater until they learn that there's power in standing on their own, not feeling complete only when in a relationship. some may use others to try and "heal" themselves too

• Virgos actually spend their past time connecting the dots

• One of the things that cancer and taurus placements share in common is that they'll be in a DEEP sleep, wake up, and randomly start making a 4-course meal (yum, can I sleep over?)

• The galactic center of the milky way is stationed in the constellation of sagittarius, which has up to 400 BILLION stars.... and you still wonder why they act like that?

° Saturn conjunct asc means everyone giving you responsibilities because you always look like you can handle them (even if you can't or the responsibilities have nothing to do with you) however, in return it does grant the individual with passing authority (I also have this.. even when I'm not the one "in charge" people come to me like I am)

• The house that Saturn is in can show you which area of life you'll feel most restricted in (ex: 3H- trapped within the local community or bound to siblings in some way. 10H- bound to work, restricted in some way to get away from it. 12H- trapped in your mind/subconscious)

• Sun in 8H individuals may gain more recognition after death / possible famous after death ( check for more fame indicators )

• Scorpio + 8H placements will put people through trials and tribulations because they want to see if they are worthy enough to see their innermost self and deepest desires. this is because these placements experience the most rebirth (and their own trials and tribulations... quite often), they want to make sure you love them down to their very core, so when they morphe into their next "self", you won't leave

• When the south node transits the 7H one will notice past-life partnerships coming back into their present life. Note that this may not always come in the form of a lover.. but if it does.. your working on releasing patterns of behavior with said person. Unfortunately, once the transit south node exists the 7H there may be a parting of ways. This could be completely flipped however, some may meet a past life partner that they end up working on these patterns together and stay together (depending on synastry). And then you even have some people who will experience repeating events and patterns from outside forces but don't actually align with a specific past partner. As of right now taurus risings are letting these lessons wrap up, if you are a Taurus rising comment below with your take on this! Scorpio risings are shedding an old identity.. I know this can appear to be typical Scorpio behavior but because this is affected by the nodes, it's a deeply submerged part of themselves they're FINALLY learning to let go of and release control. Let me know if this resonates- Scorpio risings! 🫶

• Whichever house the south node transits in your chart will be the area of life you will experience "letting go" of what no longer serves you (Ketu=deflation)

#astrology #astrology observations #astro community #astro observations #moon signs #astrology transits #astrology community #astrology research #taurus #taurus rising #scorpio #astro posts #zodiac #zodic signs #astrology predictions #predictive astrology

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glowingbadger · 3 months

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Which of the Three Houses guys will watch their beloved go off on an enemy and have the reaction of "Well mark me down as scared AND horny", do you think?

Ahh, see my dear Friend Anon, this is a nuanced spectrum- but I'll do my best to break it down as I see it:

Scared and Horny:

Claude - has enough common sense to be scared, but definitely hot-blooded enough to be horny about it. A beautiful balance, frankly, though he may tease you about how wild you were.

Raphael - soooo close to qualifying for the "just horny" category, but he is a sweet boy and still wants to check to be sure you're alright (mentally, emotionally, physically) after the battle.

Ignatz - soooo close to qualifying for the "just scared" category lmao. However, as you all know, I see our boy Ignatz as very repressed and very kinky, and seeing you be so powerful and passionate definitely stirs some part of him.

Ferdinand - practically the poster-boy for "scared and horny" tbh; he feels sheepish about it, but he just can't help how your strength and force of will arouse him.

Seteth - also strangely close to the "just horny" category, not that he wants to admit it; seeing you like this really awakens something primal in him from far in his past. Still, his concern for you is ever-present and ultimately pushes aside how entrancing you look conquering your foes so thoroughly.

Sylvain - I almost don't know how to elaborate on this one because, I mean, of course, right? Of course Sylvain is worried, but also just burning inside watching you flushed in the face, damp with sweat, muscles tight, hair wild.......

Just Scared:

Lorenz - oscillating wildly between worried for you and worried for every person around you. Definitely impressed, don't get me wrong- he appreciates battle prowess. But if you're really going berserk, he's worried.

Dedue - while he's likely right there beside you in the fight, he worries about seeing you get particularly aggressive. He's seen what bloodlust has done to the other most valued person in his life, and never wants to see you go too far down that path.

Ashe - it's not as though he can't stomach violence, he just feels that there's a certain responsibility and necessity for rules of engagement when it comes to combat, hence his proclivity for chivalry. Seeing you completely lose yourself worries him, and he'll want to be with you and hold you and make sure you're okay as soon as he can.

Just Horny:

Hubert - I feel like this is more or less self explanatory lmao. Though he does still hope you'll be rational and not do anything unnecessarily risky while eviscerating your foes.

Caspar - again, an obvious choice. Honestly, I think Caspar wants to fuck after just about every battle you two come back from, provided neither of you is hurt too badly.

Jeritza - this is the most obvious one so far lol. Though, when he's more 'himself,' he does silently worry about you sharing in his bloodshed and provoking the Death Knight part of him.

Felix - honestly, it's probably even fiercer than Hubert or Caspar; the lust he feels for you in the heat of battle is both primal and nearly spiritual. This is about his whole life philosophy, after all. After a particularly tough and gruesome fight, he wants nothing more than to absolutely ravage you (and might need to be talked down if he has wounds to attend to first)

Outliers:

Linhardt - ideally, he is not present, as the sight of you "going off" on an enemy is likely to involve waaaaay more blood than he's comfy with. He'll definitely tend to you afterward, and wryly scold you for going overboard (secretly, he was super worried when he heard from your comrades of how ferocious you were out there)

Dimitri - he's in different categories depending on where he's at in his arc tbh. Feral Dimitri is obviously just horny about you diving into the bloodshed with him, while "redeemed" Dimitri has some measure of restraint about it

Yuri - it's more like "amused/impressed and horny," tbh. Though he never looses his head about it- he's still keeping a close eye on you to make sure nothing goes awry. But he won't deny that he enjoys watching, nonetheless.

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copperbadge · 6 months

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Hey Sam, I remember reading a post or response from you about how to give to charities anonymously, but now that I’m searching, I’m finding a few different responses but still have questions. Any chance you could do a round up post? Wondering about the following:

1. How to give cash

2. How to give small amounts anonymously (e.g., if you can’t set up a DAF)

3. How to opt out of being sent branded junk if you can’t give anonymously, because it will end up in the garbage (seriously, no more pens, stickers or magnets please)

4. In giving anonymously, how important is the tax receipt? I only take the standard deduction on my taxes… is there a reason to bother with tracking the receipts?

Appreciate your help!

Ah yeah, it's rough knowing how to do some of these things. I've written about some of them, probably most of them, but disparately over several posts, so let me see if I can answer succinctly and all in one place.

How to give cash: You are pretty much confined to two options, giving cash to a staffer in person or mailing cash in an envelope. If you have access to the office of the nonprofit you may be able to swing by and drop the cash off, but it's not super convenient and often not possible. If you're at an event you can hand it in an envelope to a staffer, and that's really the only way my organization gets cash donations, but that requires you to be at the event. And technically I can't recommend mailing cash since the risk of theft is a real one. Giving cash is fine legally, but nonprofits often aren't thrilled with it because it can put their staff at risk and also there's, well, there's no way to track that donation to a person. But yeah, throw them dollars between two thick sheets of paper and mail that in with a note saying "This is for the XYZ organization" so they know they can accept it.

2. Giving small amounts anonymously: It depends on how you're defining 'small'; I have a DAF (for the readers: a Donor Advised Fund -- I talk a little about them here but I've never gone indepth) which has no minimum deposit or minimum monthly contribution, but they do have a minimum donation amount of $20. To me that's not especially large, but I know to many people it can be. Pretty much the only way to give an amount smaller than $20 anonymously is to give online through the nonprofit's website using a cash giftcard (like a Visa gift debit card), and just not give an address. If you custom-order checks you can sometimes order checks without a home address, or with the bank's address, and pay with one of those, but I've never tried that.

If you do use a DAF (and I can recommend Charityvest, they've been mine for several years now) you can always set up to pay small amounts into it and just have them send all that money in a lump sum once or twice a year. I pay in $75/mo and from that they pay out three $20 donations a month, and at the end of the year the extra $180 that has just sat there becomes a nice extra donation. Always bearing in mind of course that once you pay into a DAF that money is gone, you can't claw it back even if you haven't "donated" it yet -- just putting money in a DAF is considered a donation. Readers, if you're curious about DAFs I recommend googling, lots of banks have "what is a DAF" pages, but if you're not finding what you want to know do feel free to come ask me.

3. Opting out of swag when not giving anonymously: I'm tempted to just say "Ya can't" because it's hard, especially with larger orgs. Even if you opt out, often you'll still get mailings that are considered "stewardship" (maintaining a relationship) rather than "solicitation" (asking for giving) and swag counts as stewardship. You can always start with sending the org a letter saying "Please put me on a Do Not Contact list, I will continue to give but don't want to get your swag". If that doesn't work, start returning mailings -- if you get something from the org don't even open it, just write "return to sender -- no longer resident" and drop it in the mail. This is not guaranteed effective; some places will either just change the name to 'resident' or retry every so often just in case. You can call the org and ask to speak to "records" or "data", and then just be super up front: "I want to keep supporting you but I really don't want the swag, how do I get that turned off?" They can help, but if you give to another similar org, a lot of times orgs will do "list exchanges" where they swap mailing lists, and if the org does that and you're on the other org's list, you get put right back on the "ok to mail" list for the first org.

I will say, swag is very, very cheap and gets results, so you can also look at this as "well, it was wasted on me, but the five cents this pen cost will get them $1 from someone, so in accepting it, I am still helping them to gain donations." This depends on your tolerance for waste, of course, which I'll talk more about in a minute.

(I personally like getting magnets, because I put stickers over top of whatever's printed on the magnet, cut it out to the shape of the sticker, and behold! I have a cool magnet!)

4. Tax receipting: I'm not a CPA or a tax lawyer and I fucked this up the last time I talked about it, so take this with a grain of salt, but there is an "above and beyond" deduction -- after the standard deduction I believe you can deduct an additional up-to-$300 for charitable giving, and if you were to be audited you'd need receipts to prove that. (As I said, if you're planning on this, fact-check first, I am not a strong source for this information.) (Edited to add: comments informed me this is no longer the case, so I'm glad I added in the disclaimer :D) If you give via a DAF, no problem; the DAF tracks where and when and how much you gave, so I could use my DAF's records as "receipts". You can also, if you lost or didn't get a receipt, contact the org and ask them for your giving record for the year. Here's the problem -- if you are giving in a way that allows you to avoid giving your address, there may be no way to get those receipts, since you can't prove their record with your name on it is you. So if you want receipts but want to give semi-anonymously definitely make sure they have your email address. If you're giving $300 a year, you probably want to take that deduction; if you're giving $20 a year, probably it isn't worth it. But yeah, to get a receipt you generally have to give them enough information for them to identify you, but you don't need giving receipts if all you take is the standard deduction.

All in all, the options are -- give cash and get no receipt, give via DAF or using a giftcard and get receipts to your email, give with your address attached and just hope they honor your request to be removed from swag mailing, or give however you want, put up with the swag, and bear in mind that them sending you the pen or magnet or keychain wasn't much of a problem or cost for them and will get them money from someone.

Honestly, option four isn't the least irritating, but it's probably the least labor-intensive for you. But it really is a question of what you want from your relationship to the nonprofits you support, and how passionately you feel about the "waste" status of swag they send. Only you can determine where your tolerance point is between "having to put in so much effort not to get this stuff" and "having to throw this stuff in a landfill". It's a regrettable part of being a donor and building a relationship with a nonprofit, but we in the nonprofit field do appreciate your giving and your tolerance :) While there are some outlier bad-actors in the space, trust me, for most nonprofits, nothing we do is gratuitous. Almost all of us are on such a thin wire that if something costs us money and doesn't get us more money, it gets binned very quickly.

#nonprofits #charitable giving #donation

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lutawolf · 8 months

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Dear Lutha,

Thank you very much for your kind and quick response to my previous (and very first) question, which was about 'caging' in D/s relationships. I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to reading your post on the topic.

Since I appreciate your thoughts so much, I am writing to you on another topic. In some dramas with strong D/s elements (such as Cutie Pie, Love in the Air, My Personal Weatherman, You are mine and even sometimes in KinnPorsche), infantilization dynamics are to be seen. This element is all the stronger as the age gap is marked, even though it can still show up anytime.

I'm not necessarily talking about the Dad/little dynamics, but of a more general Adult/minor type relationship, where the former leads and protects the latter through the usual parental tools (like scolding, giving lessons, correcting, punishing, rewarding etc.. .).

For me, this pattern is for example very strong in a series like My Personal Weatherman, where Segasaki assumes a parental role towards Yoh, who often acts and speaks like a child (either spontaneously or in reaction to his partner's attitude). If I understand them correctly, @notfreetoday's detailed and fascinating posts on language(s) in My Personal Weatherman tend to validate this impression.

So, I wanted to ask you a/ if you would also describe parts of these relationships as consensual infantilization and, b/ if so, if they are in your opinion different from common D/s dynamics. Or whether they should be seen as a particular expression of a mere D/s dynamics.

If you have time, I would be happy to read your thoughts on this matter. Thank you once again for your delightful posts.

Best,

Yassa

Hey Yassa!!!

I'm so glad you enjoy my writing. It means a lot!

"Where the former leads and protects the latter through the usual parental tools (like scolding, giving lessons, correcting, punishing, rewarding etc...)."

Labeling discipline as infantile is limiting. We use corrective tools even in the work place. If you mess up then you get scolded, given a lesson, correcting, and so on. We all need correction at any stage of age. It just depends on your hierarchy on how that correction is given. With a D/s relationship, the hierarchy places the Dom at the top. Therefor, if a Dom just like a Boss is found to be wrong, the consequences will be far different from those given to a sub or subordinate. It's an imbalance in power control.

However, I think I'm capturing what you are really trying to ask. All the shows you just mentioned are BT/b relationships. Which is a D/s relationship involving a Brat Tamer Dom and a brat submissive. This is the type of Dom that I am. We are typically very cool, calm, and collected. We are protective but much more loose on the leash than other Doms. We will often engage in romantic play or play fighting, but push us too far, and you will see an intensity in us that will send shivers down your spine. Regardless of how gentle we seem, we will gladly give it to you if you deserve punishment. Due to our submissives liking to push our buttons, you'll see a more tug of war relationship. Depending on if we want to get ahead of it or let it play out is how you'll see us lead. Which is why you see more disciplining in a BT/b relationship.

The Brat Submissive - Brats in general are overly-aggressive, sarcastic, sassy, and your general coyote. They have no intentions of submitting to anyone's authority or discipline if you have not earned their respect.

The SAM Submissive - The SAM is a type of brat. A SAM type submissive, also known as a Smart-Assed Masochist, is just that, a smart-talking submissive with a quick tongue. Usually, their Sammie behavior isn't actually a cry for attention; it's just their way of being playful. In fact, most SAMs when actually threatened with punishment will back off, saying that they were only playing and that they didn't mean anything by it. Occasionally, this behavior can be incredibly frustrating to their partners, but the rewards far out weigh the negatives.

My Beautiful Man: Starts out as M/s which is Master slave and moves into a deep D/s. No BT/t in this relationship.

Not Me: This is a soft D/s relationship, but it's there. White is a little bit of a brat but much more subservient.

Love In The Air: Very much BT/b relationship. With a Primitive Brat Taming Dom and SAM submissive.

Until We Meet Again: I recommend this one for seeing the difference between a deeper D/s relationship that is Dean and Pharm. In comparison to Win and Team who are BT/b.

Between Us: WinTeam's story. Brat Tamer with a SAM submissive. The difference in Team is that he is a Dom outside of their relationship. So what is called a Sexual Submissive Only.

I Will Knock You: Deep D/s with large age gap. The youngest being the Dom.

Stay By My Side: D/s relationship with a stricter Dom but a brat of a sub.

My Personal Weatherman: A Deep Brat Tamer with a brat submissive.

Hope this was helpful! 💜💜💜

#luta question and answer #luta talks kink #coconuts mafia

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erazonpo3 · 2 months

Text

Erazon's Characterisation Essay (Part 1 - Cynthia Edition)

General preface; This is me snowballing on a thought I had earlier about canon v fanon trends given that it's a pretty evergreen topic. Without getting too much into the subject itself, I made the point that you can use the source material as a starting point for analysing characterisation, but in a lot of cases it's highly interpretive; using Pokemon as an example, most of the non-player characters exist to enable the player's autonomy throughout the game's storyline, and only a small handful have their own detailed arcs and backstories.

Therefore if you want to build on characterisation for them for transformative fanworks, you only have a handful of dialogue lines and some environmental storytelling that borders on olympic levels of mental gymnastics. Things like backstory and character motivation needs to be invented, to which end the concept of 'canon' characterisation becomes pretty insignificant in comparison to the story you are trying to tell, and whether or not that characterisation is thematically appropriate and compelling. Everyone is going to have a subjective opinion about the 'essence' of a character, the core traits that make them who they are, and how integral those traits are for it to be a 'canon' or 'fanon' interpretation.

And yet there's still ways to analyse the games to draw some conclusions that aren't always obvious straight away.

I'm going to go into how I draw characterisation for Cynthia for Way Out, but keep in mind that I don't consider my characterisation perfect or the One True Depiction To End All Others etc and so on and so forth. There's things I need to discard in favour of the story– adults in the Pokemon games, including Cynthia, have a pretty laissez-faire attitude when it comes to kids handling crises so that the target audience (kids) can feel acutalised as they play through the story, but it's not always what I consider a core character trait so much as a function of the medium.

I play up a sense of responsibility and duty that isn't really depicted in the games but is nevertheless an easy takeaway in order to give her character a bit more depth and relateability. And when other people take her character in a different direction, I try to keep an open mind about what they're saying about her character in their story, because their story is not a video game for children nor a webcomic, and they will need to do different things depending on her narrative role.

(I don't have to like it, but I'm no less a subjective soul than anyone else).

I also pull here and there from other sources of inspiration, one I've mentioned before is a meta-analysis of how she's treated by the fandom in general, assuming she'd be treated a similar way as a public figure in-universe. A lot of my character work is about peeling back that legendary status and asking who the person underneath is and how she might deal with the pressures of being expected to consistently meet other people's high standards, and how to balance a healthy competitive streak without it becoming toxic.

But more to the point– here's some material exclusively from Platinum that I think collates to a pretty consistent depiction of her character, to keep in mind and interpret any which way, arranged into some key traits.

She is the granddaughter of a village elder in a traditional rural town.

"My grandma has this sort of bossy atmosphere about her. I think you'll recognize her right away. Yes, I'm sure you will. She's the elder of Celestic Town"

An overlooked aspect of her character that I think holds some of the ripest potential for her character is that we know a fair deal about where her family is from, potentially where she was raised. My personal conclusions are:

It is likely she has an ingrained sense of cultural values of humility, respect, duty, and tradition. While she may not be ruled by these traits, they would influence the way she interacts with the world.

Her interest in mythology is likely inspired the mural in Celestic town, and reflects a value of heritage and history.

It's a common 'fanon' that her grandmother was her primary guardian through much of her childhood, which isn't substantiated anywhere (just because we don't meet her parents as NPCs doesn't mean they don't exist) but this idea strengthens the connection she has to Celestic town and emphasises her position as the elder's heir.

Cynthia introducing herself as a trainer and not a Champion suggests humility; she positions herself as an equal to the player as opposed to a superior.

2. She is earnest and sincere

"...The places we are born. The time we spend living... The languages we speak... We are all different. But the presence of Pokémon unites us. We share our lives with our Pokémon and our happiness grows as we all become greater than we were alone. That is why we can battle and trade with anyone we choose..."

This is a reflection of her position as a narrative foil to Cyrus; where he dismisses the importance of emotion and 'spirit', she holds it in high regard. Thus;

She sees strong emotions as the source of her bond to her Pokemon and therefore the source of her success. While it's not to say she's an overly empathetic person, I think it follows easily that is generally emotionally intelligent (generally).

I think she's self-aware about how emotional she can be too, which is to say it's something she consciously embraces despite knowing she comes across a little overly earnest (and cheesy) sometimes.

"I love the sound a piano makes. I savor every note with my entire being. It's not only my ears; my spirit hears the music it makes... Ehehe, I made myself cringe saying that."

3. She is intelligent

"I think I let myself get carried away and talked for far too long. I'm sorry, and thank you"

This feels like a no brainer (ha) but it's also easy to take someone who comes across as emotional and write them off as being illogical or not having the depth for complex thought. To me, her emotional intelligence goes hand in hand with her analytical intelligence.

Her fascination with mythology is one of her defining traits, and her dialogue is the source of much of the lore surrounding the Sinnoh legendary Pokemon.

Her pursuit of knowledge is one of her defining traits; her interest in mythology and the distant past is referenced more frequently by herself and other NPCs than the fact of her being Champion. "My big sister is studying the myths of Sinnoh. She wants to know how people and Pokemon interacted in the days of myths."

As a Champion, I consider that she's very calculating and analytical. Even without the strategic held items given to her in BDSP, her Pokemon have perfect stats and have solid type coverage. It's not something she would accidentally stumble onto.

"When you are facing a Trainer in battle, you can learn everything about them. What Pokemon they have. What moves they've taught. What items they make Pokemon hold."

4. She is kind

"I want you to keep traveling to many far-off places. I want you to keep meeting all kinds of people and Pokémon. I came all the way here just so I could say that to you!"

A Champion in this game being kind isn't really a revolutionary idea, but it's still something I consider very integral, particularly in conjunction with the prior traits; there is diplomacy and there is compassion, and to me Cynthia balances both.

She is something of a mentor figure to the player, giving them the solution to obstacles on multiple occasissions (HM Cut, the Secret Medicine), and imparts a lot of lore to them. Notably she gives them an egg which hatches into a Togepi; while this event doesn't happen in BDSP and Platinum doesn't have the Fairy type, it's still retroactively made more interesting for the fact that Togekiss' modern Fairy/Flying type grants perfect immunity to her Garchomp's Dragon/Ground typing.

Some of the few interactions the player will have with her is giving medicine to the Psyduck blocking the route to Celestic town, and then delivering a charm to her grandmother– it gives an impression that she is regularly invested in small acts of kindness.

5. Other tidbits

Every time she interacts with you as the player, it is always through the lens of an adult with a public position speaking to a child; I take it as a given that all her interactions have a slight amount of professional distance, and a formality she wouldn't have if speaking to an adult friend.

She reveals that she went on a similar journey as the player character after being given a Pokedex by Professor Rowan, which could imply she experienced similar experiences to the established protagonist journey formula.

There's a slight goofiness to some of her dialogue that suggests she doesn't always take herself too seriously. "You've seen that group of Psyduck huddled with their heads in their, uh, hands...?"

It's a pretty common 'fanon' for Cynthia to have known Cyrus in her childhood, but this isn't really substantiated in text; her dialogue towards him would be a lot colder with that context as opposed to a stranger. It's a common headcanon because giving them a history together strengthens their position as foils, but in my opinion it's equally as interesting that Cyrus succeeds as far as he does because he exists in Cynthia's blind spot- she admits she didn't pay enough attention to what Team Galactic was up to, and can only stand in opposition to him ideologically, unwilling to entertain (or empathise with) his perspective. It hints at a certain stubbornness she has when she believes she's right and someone else is wrong.

This is just what I personally glean from the text; it's possible I've missed something that somebody else considers ultimately integral. But I hope that my writing in Way Out speaks for itself in how I apply all this to her character in the story, and why I feel it's important to do so. Cynthia is the character I second-guess the most in her characterisation because she should always be recognisable, even while going through different arcs. Her values, her intelligence, her sincerity, and her kindness are all things that need to be balanced with the needs of the story; how strong she is is just a relative thing to what any particular scene demands.

There's a lot I could still elaborate on but for the sake of at least attempting to keep this (relatively) concise, I wrote all this to highlight how I try to stay on track with consistent characterisation, which may not be the perfect ideal for this character but nevertheless is the best version for my story. There's nobody I hold to a higher writing standard than myself, and I try to constantly ask myself if I'm really writing what's best for the narrative or if I can do something better. I'm not interested in the most canon depiction that exists for another story, I'm interested in what's right for my story.

And uhhhh peace ✌️

#long post #like long long #it's a whole read #but if you like reading do i have good news for you #pokemon #cynthia #characterisation #tangential enough to way out that i can tag it #way out #im also open to discussions about this because it's just my ~opinion~ and again i like to keep an open mind

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villainessxassassin · 2 years

Note

Hello and how are y'all doing? If the requests are still open for me, I was hoping to ask for a similar request as a previously written one about Grim pushing an easygoing and patient fem s/o to the point of grounding him in front of Lilia, Riddle, Epel and Jade? Figured that'd be fine. If not, then that's okay too. I can only imagine Riddle being surprised because s/o is normally the calmest and most down-to-earth out of the two. Not today, Grim. Idk thought it'd be cute. Please and thank you :)

Seperate! Riddle, Lilia, Epel and jade x reader

Part 1 here -> ft Malleus, Ruggie, Kalim, Vil, Leona

warnings: none unless you count grim abuse, cough.

Riddle always saw you as the calm and collected one out of the group, so imagine his suprise when he saw grim almost cowering in a corner after he just witnessed your sweet smile disappear after what seemed to be the final straw for you.

You'd expect him to be disappointed that he saw you in such an indecent state, but what came was the opposite. If anything, he was nothing but impressed you were even able to hold out that long with such a troublemaker like grim as your companion.

Grim crossed the line resulting in you giving him the consequences of his actions so he had it coming, a very valid response in Riddle's eyes (his eyes are sparkling btw). He might also even take turns in giving grim some well needed discipline.

Will encourage you to show this side of you more but only when necessary because he doesn't want you too keep all that pent up frustration to yourself, no matter how easy going or calm you are.

And he'll surely collar grim the next time he makes your calm exterior break.

He'll be making the 😶☺️ face if he catches you breaking off from the calm y/n you portray infront of others.

You sound angry, so it's only reasonable he waits until you finish, but if he's feeling in the mood he might discreetly add more fuel to the fire just to see what more reactions he's able to pull out of you.

Curious, a word he finds himself associating with you often. What else are you hiding? Which emotions are how you truly feel? Have you been suppressing them all this time for it to all just finally break?

All he had to do was use his unique magic and he can get the answers directly from you if he wanted, but that wouldn't be fun, so why not poke you a few more times and see how you'll react to his different schemes.

Overall, he doesn't really mind that you have this side to you. As entertaining as it is he also knows when not to cross the line. He'll indulge himself whenever the time comes, just as much as he enjoys the sweet, sweet calm y/n that he knows and loves.

He's kinda scared but at the same time he really can't decide if he should interfere before things escalate more quickly or just stand there in awe while he applauds you a thousand times over in his head. (he actually did the latter first before going onto the former😭)

In fact he doesn't even know why he should be amazed at all when grim already looked like he was about to pass out.

He just thinks you look and sound so cool right now? The way you switched up from all gentle smiles to the fed up look you had on right now just has his blood pumping.

Has newfound respect for you. I mean he already respected you alot before but it's just more different, even more meaningful now you can say.

Epel is a very (in some cases it's not there but in most cases yes) gentle person too, so seeing you have this side to yourself eases his spirits since he atleast now knows he doesn't have to be all dainty and charming all the time.

Just watches the scene unfold, doesn't do anything, doesn't plan on doing anything, he just wants to watch honestly.

He'll feign a Suprise look at your sudden outburst when grim finally dropped your last cup of patience. I really just see him standing there trying to contain the small smile that's creeping up his face.

Whether he's smiling at grim's despair or this new side of you it all really depends, but you can be positive that he's happy your getting it off your chest instead of extending whatever's left of your spilled patience.

Humans really are quite the spectacle and fascination, so he will observe a little while longer before deciding when grim has had enough. He'll give little words of comfort to grim but they are nothing compared to the intense gaze you had, but it was the least he could do.

And now he shall indulge himself in teasing you for the rest of the day, mentioning how cute you looked akin to a little kid loosing it's temper.

✧

covering up for Guinevere until she finishes the request she's working on ehe- kishira

what I write is quite long guys that’s why its taking so long TT- Guinevere

#twisted wonderland x reader #twisted wonderland #twst x reader #Twisted wonderland x yuu #twisted wonderland x you #twst headcanons #riddle rosehearts x reader #Lilia vanrouge x reader #Jade leech x reader #epel felmier x reader

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transsunwukong · 5 months

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randomly thought about something that hasn't really occurred to me before: the difference in how yang expresses her confidence depending on who she's with. we all know and love her attitude when she's dealing with some stupid asshole, but that's more of an intimidation tactic than anything else - it's just her style. what i wanna talk about here is more about who yang really is when she's not putting up a front. not consciously, at least.

it's apparent in a lot of moments, but i wanna highlight this by comparing 4 specific scenes, all about the concept of (her) strength:

in v4c9, she has her talk with tai after their sparring match. it's pretty clear that yang and her father have a lot of mutual respect for each other in spite of their complicated history. i feel like tai is the only person who can really get away with criticizing yang on something so personal and essential to her identity as her fighting skills, especially with how much of an inspiration he's been to her on that front.

and she listens, because she knows he's right (even if she's sad and a bit sarcastic about it) - but also because, at this point in the story, she's still recovering from the lowest low of her life and her dad is currently the only one she can seek solace in. that's what this scene is all about! you can tell she's not happy with letting her guard down and being lectured/psychoanalyzed like this, but this is the one place where she can do so guilt-free.

her time back in patch is as much of an opportunity to reconnect with her family and sort out everything she's been dealing with alone in her head, as it is a literal recovery and training period. it's sad to see yang like this, but she's not really self-deprecating here - she just finally has a breathing room, and someone there to listen, who already knows and understands her better than she does herself sometimes, which i think is a really important part of it.

in v5c14 and probably one of my FAVORITE scenes in the entire show, it's the other way around, as yang is the one confronting her other parent. this scene beautifully mirrors her previous conversation with tai and shows how much she took it to heart.

the whole back-and-forth between yang and raven is so good. there's just something so satisfying about yang finally tracking down her mom, being the one to ruin everything she's planned up until now, standing her ground and calling out raven on her hypocrisy and cowardice in such a tense moment without letting her feelings get the better of her - and ACTUALLY getting through to raven. "yeah, i'm scared, but i'm still standing here. i'm not like you, i won't run." what else can i say?

and of course it's not until raven has left and yang retrieves the relic herself that she falls to her knees and cries. this isn't yang putting up a front to scare someone away, this is yang taking matters into her own hands because she knew she was the only one who possibly could. this is yang choosing to be the bigger, braver person, knocking some sense into someone who failed at that responsibility her whole life, because there was no other option.

even though she WAS terrified and heartbroken, raven didn't -deserve- to see her cry.

in v6c7 after That Whole Ordeal, everyone's still a bit on edge. this is such a small blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but i think it's still relevant to point out.

"especially since some of you are clearly stronger already." it's no coincidence that the focus is on yang here, when maria talks about her guilt as a failed hero/role model for the next generation, but it's even more important how yang reacts to it.

for one, yang can relate to maria's guilt (even if she really shouldn't have to). we know how important it is for her to be viewed as someone strong and reliable - as a protector of the people, as a friend, as a teammate, and ESPECIALLY as an older sister (this just in: self-destructive hero complexes aren't just limited to the team leaders!!). despite how much ruby looks up to her, there's still a part of yang that won't forgive herself for not always being the person ruby needed her to be, and the same can easily be said for her other loved ones. especially here in v6, when she's still not really There Yet when it comes to the old team rwby dynamic. it's a complicated time.

she says nothing, but you can tell she's interpreting this like it's pointed directly at her. when yang feels exposed like this, she tends to either dodge it with humor or lash out, so in a way it's refreshing to see her just kinda....sit on this, silently and out of view, even if it's not necessarily a good thing to sulk about.

and of course there's this little bit in v8c9, courtesy of ren and his WONDERFUL AND HILARIOUS VIBE CHECK ABILITY!!!!

yang, jaune and ren are all -friends-. not necessarily teammates or family, but very close friends who understand each other. and they may be in some deep, awful, super scary shit at the moment, but that's nothing they're not used to. it kinda does feel like Just Another Situation With The Bros.

of course yang tries to lighten the mood! that's what she DOES with her friends, and they know this! i don't think it even OCCURS to her that the others might take it the wrong way, or pick up on why she's doing it. i don't think that she, in the moment, really thinks about why she's doing it, either. this is yang after all! confident, cool, funny, bright and happy yang. right?

so when ren of all people is the one to call her out on it, it catches her off guard so badly that it takes her a few seconds to even process it, and then she can't help but sigh and smile. it might have been a little embarrassing for her, but above all i think it's actually a relief for yang to be seen like this, especially from someone so unexpected. a less outspoken friend who she might not be as close with as some of the others, but who can therefore genuinely relate and sympathize with her anxiety in this moment without making her feel too self-conscious about it.

it's nice. it's just really cute and nice.

#leo.txt #text #yang xiao long #rwby #v4 #v5 #v6 #v8

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tobiasdrake · 3 months

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Going deeper into the House of Change can wait. There are more important matters to attend to: Break time!

I don't like different. Different usually means a rock smushes my face into substandard beef chili. The kind that makes everyone at the cookoff give you this quiet look of disapproval until you pack up your things and pretend you're just there to eat.

But if y'all are sure nothing is going to explode and kill me, then....

You know what, you're right. We just fought a boss. Now's a good time to stop and eat. (And maybe I'll catch one of you ripping bread.)

Valuable lessons being taught here. We are all competent adults who are more than qualified to be responsible for a grade schooler.

...which sounds sarcastic but honestly this group is fine. Out of all the parties I've adventured with, this might be the party most suited to taking care of and providing adequate role models for a growing child. We can be a little silly at times but everyone here has their shit together pretty well.

It's almost like we're at the Final Dungeon and everyone's undergone their full stretch of character development already.

@_@ Madame Odile, I did not take you for the kind of person who is... uh... who is interested in... in, uh....

...

Fun. Like. I genuinely thought you were violently disinterested in merriment of any kind. What is--

Ohhh, okay, now that makes a bit more sense.

...wait. Shit. Nobody tell Bonnie but this might mean their sister is screwed.

WHO TOLD BONNIE

Good job, Isa. You lie to that child like your life DEPENDS on it. So help me, if Bonnie starts crying, I will slit my own goddamn throat right here and now in the middle of snack time. And then I will go back in time and punch Odile in the fucking face before she flips her stupid coin.

I am deathly serious! Nobody will have any idea why that just happened. Everyone will think I flipped out for no reason and I will have to lie like I've never lied before.

But in the commotion, Bonnie's childish idealism will be spared.

Crisis averted. Snack time may now commence in earnest.

You know, I've never had plantain chips before. But I've been curious about them ever since I started eating dried fruit. I should give them a try some time.

I mean. I come from an eventful but delicious home, where the food is amazing every night but also we have a lot of family emergencies and crises and insecurities to worry about. I would kill to reach a point of boring-but-delicious stability.

Don't knock it, Bonnie. I know you're still young and the idea of a tumultuous future sounds exciting, but as you get older, you reach a point where you just want a warm hearth, a nice roof over your head, and a soothing plate of orange-flavored cinnamon rolls.

Tolkien was right. Boring but delicious is the domestic ideal.

Bonnie, I appreciate that you care so much about being multicultural that you'll eagerly prepare food you can't even pronounce. That attitude will take you far in life.

Also, Odile deserves this after that stunt she just pulled.

Well. I, for one, salute our Sovereign of Snack Time. Regent of Recipes. Monarch of Meals!

Truly, we all know who the real MVP of this team is.

(It's me, but I'll let Bonnie have this moment. *nods sagely*)

#in stars and time #drake plays in stars and time

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misc-obeyme · 6 months

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my dear loyal cohorts and author of many good scripts

the illness consumes me once again and i must beg for your ideas on how these scandalous deamons would comfort a particularly ill MC

i blame going to UC to get my fainting problem checked out for the illness ive received. why are masks not required in the hospital.

🐈‍⬛

Hello there, dear 🐈‍⬛ anon!

Ahh, I hope you get well soon! Being sick is the worst. And truly, I wish I knew why masks are no longer required in hospitals because they should be.

As for the boys, I can't help imagining them having some kind of group meeting about it.

Asmo: MC is sick! We have to do everything we can to make them feel better soon!

Lucifer: Perhaps if you all leave them alone for once...

Beel: We should give them soup.

Belphie: We should make sure they sleep enough.

Satan: Did you know that a cat's purr has healing properties?

Levi: So does the Ruri Hana theme song!

Mammon: Nah, I'm actually with Lucifer on this one... nobody but me is allowed near MC's room!

Aaaand then it devolves into arguing. But once they get their act together, I think they'd overcome their differences of opinion in order to take care of you, each in their own way. I also like to think the side characters might step in to help, too.

Lucifer would check in on you when he's sure you'll be asleep. He doesn't want to disturb you, but he wants to make sure you're resting and not being bothered by his brothers. He'll glare down any of them that get too noisy near your room. Leaves random things by your bedside that he thinks you'll need (such as a box of tissues or a glass of water).

Mammon gets clingy as usual. He's the one who's always sitting by your bed. Almost every time you wake up, you find him there. Sometimes he's scrolling on his phone, sometimes he's just watching you, and sometimes he's straight up fallen asleep. Always asks you if you need anything. If you do suggest something, he goes out long enough to get one of his brothers to fetch it.

Levi brings you things to do while you're in bed. Piles of manga, all with your favorite kind of story. Video games, anime, anything to help keep your mind off the fact that you're bedridden. If you let him, he'll sit by your bed and give you summaries of the animes he's been watching lately.

Satan reads to you. If you request something specific, he'll read whatever you like, but he also knows your preferences so you can let him choose if you want. He might also try to sneak a cat in for the express purpose of using its healing purrs, but if he can't manage it, he'll have you watch cat videos instead.

Asmo obviously pampers you. Does your nails, your hair, probably gives you healing facials and the like. If he's there while Mammon is, the two of them banter back and forth, partly because it's them and that's their natural state, but partly on purpose to entertain you. Asmo will also bring you all the softest of pajamas.

Beel actually does bring you soup. He got help from Barbatos to make it - straight up brings you the most human world healthy soup he can, which varies depending on where you're from. If you're from the US for instance, he's gonna bring you chicken noodle soup. He ate half of it on the way to your room, but it's the thought that counts.

Belphie helps you sleep. When you're finding it difficult to rest because you feel like crap, he will snuggle up with you and ease your body enough that you find yourself drifting off into peaceful slumber. He will stay to keep any bad dreams at bay, too.

Diavolo will stop by the House of Lamentation to check on you. When he does, everyone leaves the two of you alone. He's quick to tell you not to worry about your responsibilities. It's more important that you focus on getting better.

Barbatos regularly portals himself to your side just to bring you healing teas and decent food. He doesn't trust the brothers to feed you correctly while you're ill, so he takes it upon himself to bring you what he knows you need. He will sit on the edge of the bed by your side and chat with you about what's going on at RAD and various other places, to keep your mind off of your sickness and help you feel like you aren't missing out. He also brings you fresh flowers to keep your spirits up.

Simeon also comes by regularly to tell you stories. Some of them he makes up on the spot, which are always fascinating and leave you hanging on every word. But sometimes he tells you stories about the Celestial Realm. If you ask him about the brothers, he'll tell you all kinds of anecdotes from when they were angels.

Luke sometimes comes with Simeon, too, and always with boxes of some kind of treat he's made for you. Another one who will likely bring you flowers or sometimes just things he's found that remind him of you or that he thinks you'll like. He's worried that you're stuck in bed and wants to bring some of the outside world to you while you're sick.

Solomon probably brings you some potions to help speed your recovery. He's not sure about how well any of them work, so you get to decide if you test them out or not. Either way, he's going to entertain you with some spells, especially if there happens to be a brother in your room when he visits. (For instance, he would probably curse Mammon to meow for a few hours just to make you laugh.)

Oops that turned into a mini headcanon thing, huh? Well it's not my usual format, but I just think they'd all have cute little unique things that they would do in order to take care of you.

Anyway, I wish you a speedy recovery, 🐈‍⬛ anon! And I hope whatever issues brought you to the hospital to begin with are resolved as well!

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sophieinwonderland · 7 months

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It turns out, I'm still not done venting about the SN's smear document and the grievances with my November posts they used to defend contextualize the fakeclaiming and misgendering posts from the admin about me.

A recent post from Lunastus reminded me of this bullet point.

This threw me for a loop because this quote isn't even mine.

It was from the Lunastus Collective who coined the term.

Sure, I reblogged it and defended it, but it wasn't my quote and it's so weird to see this attributed to me.

But with this latest round of drama SAS started, I also want to talk about the drama surrounding the word endogenic and its coiner.

Recap for those who missed that ridiculous drama: The LC coined the term in 2014. In 2021, SAS found a 2015 article that loosely associated the word "endogenic" with Freud supporting the fantasy model. SAS specifically claimed that "the term 'endogenic' can be traced all the way back to Freud's work in 1956!"

But on further investigation, every paper prior to that used a similar but different term, endogenous.

In the end, "endogenic system" is a term 100% coined by the Lunastus Collective.

Endogenic was never used to refer to systems before that.

Now, rather than admit they were wrong, SAS and their entitled cronies doubled down and claimed the words were still too similar, then had the gall to demand an apology from the LC for the baseless made-up manufactured drama.

I've seen some argue that their issue was less with the term and more with the response. That they felt their feelings were being dismissed. (And that part, yeah, was mostly me.)

The problem is that not all feelings deserve to be validated. Not everyone who feels they're in the right actually is. Sometimes in life, you're just on the wrong side, and humoring your feelings will do more harm than good.

Personally, I think The Lunastus Collective deserves an apology for the harassment they received over SAS's smear campaign.

Now, coming back to the latest round of manufactured drama today... let me tell you what these experiences have taught me.

These people don't have "morals." They have friends and enemies.

If you're lucky enough to find yourself on the former list, expect them to loyally turn a blind eye to your wrongdoings for as long as they reasonably can. And when they can't, you can depend on them to make a 20-bullet-point list of things your victim did to deserve it. (Much of which will be fabricated, twisted or taken out of context.)

If you're an enemy, expect them to comb over every word you say. Expect them to twist your words and outright lie about you. Anything to justify their hate of you and manipulate others to feel the same.

This is, unfortunately, their modus operandi.

The thing is, I think they overplayed their hand this time.

I don't think people are really buying the whole "wanting anti-endos to be ostracized is literally worse than death threats or suibait" talking point they have going on.

It's comically overdramatic and, frankly, minimizes the real harm of death threats and suibait in favor of a cheap talking point.

Obviously, people who hate me will continue to hate me and the usual suspects are jumping on it hard as always.

But their posts about this aren't generating much engagement, which SAS's usually do. Usually a couple days into one of SAS's smears, I might have lost a few followers that will take me a whole day or two to regain or I'll get a couple hate anons relating to it.

This feels different. Especially if people were buying the severity of the allegations SAS and pals are trying to push. I have no doubt everyone would be rightly enraged if I were sending actual threats of violence.

But I'm not seeing that here.

I hope this means people are waking up to the lies and manipulation tactics they use, and will start thinking critically about SAS's past smears of both myself and other systems. Admittedly, this might be too much to hope for.

Anyway, you can all can go home now.

This one's a bust.

But maybe you'll get me next time. 🤷‍♀️

#syscourse #pro endo #pro endogenic #survivor's network #survivors network #survivors' network

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jasper-pagan-witch · 2 years

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Pop Culture Deities & Spirits: Common Questions

Image description: A screenshot of a comment left by Runa from @serpentandthreads that says "What are the theories to explain pop culture deities and spirits? What qualifies as a deity in pop culture magic/religions? How does one go about forming their personal craft based on pop culture magic, when it is so new and has little resources?" End image description.

These are all such wonderful questions, Runa! So you'll have to forgive me for breaking these down bit by bit!

What are the theories to explain pop culture deities and spirits?

There are many! On account of not knowing them all myself, I'll just cover two - the egregore theory and my own theory.

Egregore Theory

To quote Wikipedia for a simple definition, an egregore is "an occult concept representing a certain non-physical entity that arises from the collective thoughts of a distinct group of people." Historically, this referred to the watchers of Enochian traditions, but I'm not getting into that because I'm not part of any Enochian tradition.

In recent times, the term also refers to figures such as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny - they're very easy to know about and run into (in the United States at least), and they have very simple jobs that they do for particular reasons.

So in this theory, the worship of a pop culture deity or spirit by multiple people would bring it into creation, especially if you count any worship in the source the deity or spirit comes from.

I've actually known people who wanted to work with a lesser-known pop culture spirit, so they started out by building up worship and offerings first to either bring the spirit into existence or to help them form a bit in our world. (Though out of respect for everyone's privacy, I'm not gonna name any of the people or pop culture entities involved in that.) It was fascinating to observe from an outside perspective.

My Theory

As I so lovingly and eloquently stated in the past, my theory for how this works is that magic and the universe and shit are already so goddamn weird. Another way I phrase it is "you can't prove that any of this is real, you can only prove the impact it has on the lives of you and other physical people", which also applies to questions about why appropriation is bad.

My craft runs on experimentation first and foremost, not what other people say is or is not possible. My little wizard heart continues my experiments and compares them to other experiences I've had.

If I reach out to Azura and get a response back, then clearly Azura exists in some meaningful way. Through experiments like these, I've come to find out that Azura has a similar energy to "historical" deities I worship, such as Athena and Aphrodite, so I've felt comfortable continuing my worship.

(Quick side note: I use "historical" to mean "deities not from a form of pop culture", such as the Greek, Norse, Egyptian, and Roman pantheons. We'll discuss this further down.)

My theory really is "fuck around and find out".

What qualifies as a deity in pop culture magic/religions?

This one greatly depends on the person and practice.

You have people who believe that any figure from pop culture can count as a pop culture deity. (While I was writing this, I found a post discussing Eevee as a pop culture deity.) You have people like me, who have a different idea of what a deity is and use "non-physical entity" as the catch-all term. Ultimately, the answer to this question is highly personal.

To me, "deity" has a particular connotation. If an entity is worshiped as a deity or deity-adjacent figure (the Aedra and Daedra, Legendary/Mythical Pokemon, et cetera) in the source, I’d consider that to be deity work.

If I were working with, say, Son Goku, I'd consider that spirit work or hero worship, because even though he has a Super Saiyan Shark-Jumping Bullshit- I mean, a Super Saiyan God mode, he's not worshiped as a god in the Dragon Ball series, and that's the primary difference for me. I actually mention in my post about Vadrok that I see Legendary MTG critters like him and Alesha to be spirits that you can holler at, not deities.

How does one go about forming their personal craft based on pop culture magic, when it is so new and has little resources?

This is an even more complicated answer because no two pop culture practices are going to look the same, even when drawing from the same source. For the low bar example, let's use me and @kaosmage aka Faust aka the @strixhaven-biblioplex for Magic: The Gathering-inspired spell work. We both draw from the cards of the game as inspiration for spells.

I take a more card-first approach, often using the card, its pictures and symbols, and its effects as the basis of a spell. For example, look at my Cradle of Safety spell, where I take inspiration from the presence of the feathers and heron medallion in the art to call on Sigarda (long story, look at the Innistrad lore, good luck) and incorporate the usage of feathers into the spell proper.

Faust takes on a card-inspired approach, as seen in his Curse of Clinging Webs spell. Sure, he's got the spider webs in there, but he doesn't have cheap Halloween spider decorations in there too (which is probably for the best because you can only get those between August and October from most retailers and he posted the spell in January). It's probably a good thing that he has significantly more chill than I do.

What was I talking about again? Oh, right, forming one's pop culture side of their craft. The great thing about pop culture magic and paganism is that it can blend almost seamlessly with almost any other practice because you can draw as little or as much inspiration from pop culture as you want. Find something you love, something that inspires you, and work from there using the same methods you'd use for non-pop culture magic.

Just want to loop the Streets of New Capenna OST during a ritual? Sure! Want to get a Daedric Artifact replica to put on your altar? Why not! Need a spirit pal or familiar and run into a Charmander? I've been there! Want to dedicate the next four years of your life to the study of pop culture magic and how it varies between different people? That means you're me and we must fight at dawn for the right to keep our names.

My advice? Just give it a shot. Only you can figure out what works in your craft.

Bonus section: Jasper babbles about "historical" deities and how pop culture is older than it looks.

Something that's always skinned my potatoes upside-down is how people treat pop culture paganism as something "harmful" but then those very same people turn around and worship Aradia, Eostre, and even Mesperyian, all of whom were made up for fake documentaries (Aradia), assumed to exist based on the name of something else (Eostre), or made up for a mythology writing assignment for class (Mesperyian). Does this mean they don't exist? No! But they're not "ancient goddesses". They're just a slightly older version of pop culture paganism (except for Mesperyian, who's one of the younger versions).

There are also historical deities who have fallen to the wayside, such as Cernunnos. We have little to no idea of what his deal was, which unfortunately left us to pick up the pieces later and have to work twice as hard to figure this mess out. So we're working on very little historical information and a pop culture understanding of this deity's "thing" - a god of wealth in the time of 14 CE Gaul has a very different understanding of what can be done and what is usually asked for do than a god of wealth worshiped in 2022 CE Missouri.

Anyway, that was my dive into "pop culture paganism isn't as new as people think it is so please stop being a dick about it to random pop culture pagans on Tumblr, thank you". I hope you enjoyed this bonus section, because this is a problem that comes up a lot in pop culture paganism discussions.

#jasper post #pop culture #pop culture magic #pop culture magick #pop culture pagan #pop culture paganism #pop culture witch #pop culture witchcraft #deity work #spirit work

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