Collar bone tattoos
A place for redditors to heal
2010.12.17 00:53 abj A place for redditors to heal
Posts asking, “Is this broken?”, “Does this look broken?” Will immediately be taken down as a violation of rule 1.
2011.11.26 03:58 lorenlogan Tattoo Designs
This sub is for sharing and discussing tattoo designs, whether it's your own tattoo, work you've done, or asking for opinions about a tattoo you want to get. All tattoos must be by a professional unless you're asking how to cover up a past mistake, scratching/unprofessional tattoos aren't welcome here.
2008.06.24 03:01 Tattoos
Welcome to the Tattoos subreddit community
2024.05.16 21:06 confessthestress Twitching in my neck: muscles or vein/artery? TRAVELING
27 F, 175 cm height, cca 75 kg weight.
I'm traveling right now and I don't have travel insurance. I'll post a vid to the comments, but 4 hours ago = I started to get a twitch above my collar bone. It quickly spread to the side of my neck and back of my head, too. It doesn't hurt. It seems to follow my vein in the front, but not the back.
It feels like a really, really strong eye twitch. But it's location is scaring the shit out of me.
Do I need to go to the e room? Is it worth it? I can't afford it rn, but I'd do it if needed....
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2024.05.16 20:38 lakeviewcountry We're Lakeview, a country/rock duo with 87M+ streams going on tour with Breaking Benjamin, Staind, and Daughtry this fall. Ask us anything!
| https://preview.redd.it/4bsqpw1uwt0d1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=007716a5278679b2cfe94a8d714f17154e84bf2a We're Lakeview, we first met touring in metal bands, started writing music, then made a spur-of-the-moment decision to move to Nashville, TN! At our heart, we're tattooed, rural, and blue-collar metal-core artists. Our transition to country music wasn't just a career choice but a testament to our unwavering faith in God, belief in family and community. Our new song "Money Where Your Mouth Is" is out now and you can listen here. Most of our early songs were written after we bounced at bars, built concert stages, dug in-ground pools, or landscaped backyards. We were still working two jobs in addition to pursuing music until October 2023. Having experienced a 2,000 percent spike in Instagram followers and 3 million percent growth in TikTok engagement in the past 12 months, it's allowed us to outgrow playing Chinese restaurants, church basements, and VFW halls to headlining dates at clubs and playing larger arenas, sharing the stage with renowned artists like Breaking Benjamin, Easton Corbin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Mitchell Tenpenny. We're best known for songs like 2023’s “Home Team” (20 million streams in less than a year) and our rising hit “See Me in A Suit". Our debut album comes out this summer and we're on tour through the end of October! Ask us anything! FOLLOW US: https://www.instagram.com/lakeviewcountry https://www.facebook.com/LAKEVIEWCountry/ https://www.tiktok.com/@lakeviewcountry https://www.youtube.com/c/LakeviewCountry https://www.lakeviewofficial.com/ submitted by lakeviewcountry to country [link] [comments] |
2024.05.16 20:00 310to608 Progress! - 48M, 6'0", SW: 278, CW: 249, GW:180-200?
| I've been using compounded tirzepatide from Valhalla for just under 3 months. My insurance refused to cover Zepbound, despite a prescription based on multiple non-Diabetic co-morbidities (obesity, sleep apnea, pre-hypertensive). I wasted months going through the teeth-pulling process of appeals. I chose Valhalla, in part, because they don't require a subscription, and my hope is that by showing meaningful success, I can push my insurance to approve the coverage. Valhalla sends the medication in vials calibrated to 10mg/.5ml, so 0.10ml = 10 units. I started low, at 12.5 Units and have ramped up to 20 units. That's below the 25 units suggested by Valhalla - but I am trying to keep the weight loss responsible, consistent and (hopefully) sustainable on a budget. I've seen an average loss of approximately 3lbs/week with some variation week to week due in part to lifestyle choices (sometimes there's just a lot of eating out at restaurants because of work). The first week was WILD. Like, the physical/mental sensation was so present. Not overly pushy...but very tangible. I COULD eat normally - I just didn't feel like it, and I also didn't feel weird at all leaving half of my food on my plate. I think the fact that I wasn't pysically incapable of eating was a huge relief. I was worried about side effects and discomfort. I haven't experienced anything bad (maybe some mild constipation, but also...I don't use the bathroom as frequently as I used to?). I was worried about consequences from overly greasy foods like hamburgers, etc., but have not experienced that at all. I certainly spend a LOT less on food. I definitely noticed the drop off of effects as the week went on. In a way, that was actually helpful because it let me mentally dial-in to what the medication was doing. I've never felt the medicine as strongly as the first week - but the results are consistent, so I am feeling good about it. The half-life makes it tempting to adjust my dosage to every 5 days instead of every 7, but I haven't done that yet because I'm just smart enough to know I'm not smart enough to really understand what I am doing. There's a reason I didn't go to Med School. Some weeks have been better than others. I've had a few days when I ate too much and felt pretty stuffed (for like a full day). I sometimes get pretty fatigued on day 2 post-dose. I also really need to drink more water. I'm down almost 30lbs and starting to see the difference in the fit of my clothes (t-shirts are shirts again, not sausage-casings) - my stomach is finally noticably smaller, which is great because that's where I carry the bulk of my weight. My face doesn't seem different. The skin on my torso definitely jiggles more (gotta drink more water). I used to have these weird fat deposits above my collar bones, but they are gone now. It's hard to imagine that I'm finally back to the weight where I first thought to myself, "oh shit, I'm fuckin' fat." (which is not nice, but sometimes we aren't nice to ourselves). I feel very good, and am kind of giddy at the anticipation of being closer to (or under!) 200lbs for the first time in 25 years. Possibly by the end of the summer? What?? I'm trying to remind myself to eat. It's very easy to skip meals, but I know that's not healthy. Small portions, regularly. That helps with the fatigue too. For additional context, I work a desk job. I have kids. Life moves fast and doesn't offer much opportunity for deliberate self-care. We've never been huge fast-food consumers, but we started cooking at home a lot more a few years ago, just trying to eat a more balanced diet. I haven't changed the way I cook at all, but I don't snack at all any more (except on the day before dose-day!). I also have a much easier time not having that evening cocktail. I started going to personal training sessions 2-3 times a week two years ago, and while I was getting stronger, I also kept getting bigger. I am still going to training sessions. I hope my insurance sees the value in supporting me on this journey. But if not, I'm increasingly happy to pay out of pocket because this is working where diet and excercise alone were not. I don't need to have a 28" waist ever again, but if I can avoid destroying my knees, stop snoring and maybe even see my junk again without leaning over, this is worth it. https://preview.redd.it/a6keisskvt0d1.jpg?width=3210&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d23e492cb7566617b7101bff79def0b021249cdf submitted by 310to608 to tirzepatidecompound [link] [comments] |
2024.05.16 19:34 sailormoonbeam Sneezed my throat in?
OK so I'm a non smoking/non drinking 28yo female and I have been having throat problems. It all started about 3 months ago I had a really bad bug where I was vomiting blood (ER confirmed it was from my throat). I have since then had a few things really weird...
***my throat clicks when I turn my head/eat/cough/speak like its skipping over a lump or something in the Adam's apple kind of area this is audible especially if I am speaking at that exact moment my whole voice glitches out....
***I get random choking fits that seem to be originating at the base of my neck kind of just above where my collar bones meet. It seems like a little burst of fluid or something maybe?....
***general weakness in my throat and jaw when eating/talking/swallowing/chewing. This is not all the time but periodically happens......
And then here's the kicker last night I sneezed and choked on my own throat!!!! It felt insanely uncomfortable it was a clicking sensation and felt like the mid-section of my throat was trying to fold inwards and upwards... my hubby could hear my throat collapse in on itself momentarily. I'm having a hard time putting it into words but it sounded disgusting to say the least like I was choking on myself. What could this all be?
Medications/diagnosis: Verapamil (SVT), Ubrevly (migraine disorder) and before anyone says to go to the doctor to get it checked out, I'm already on it and soonest I can get in is 2 weeks away. Just looking for input in the meantime.
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2024.05.16 16:58 East_Alternative_538 Best Porn Subs 2024
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2024.05.16 16:20 Federal_Machine692 Payback
I was just returning back from another interview. It has been the third one this month.
I failed to make the cut yet again.
Life hasn’t been easy for an ex-soldier with the economic downturn currently underway.
The COVID pandemic had also wiped out all my savings.
So I was open to securing any job that would help me pay my bills.
I hadn’t eaten all day and just passed by a McDonalds. It was crowded and I thought to myself, ‘Let me just order a takeout’.
I could see a few vehicles waiting in front of me.
There was a guy in his motorcycle honking incessantly demanding the customer in front to keep it moving.
He was a tall man with long hair and clearly looked edgy and irritable. Both his arms were heavily tattooed. He stepped down from his bike and started to walk towards the car in front of him.
I couldn’t make out what he way saying but I could see the conversation was getting heated.
I got down from my car and walked towards the biker guy.
As I got closer, the biker banged on the hood of the car and was pointing his finger at the man threateningly.
The guy in the car was looking a little alarmed. He had a young boy seated next to him.
The woman working at the driveway counter appealed to the biker to maintain his cool. He would hear none of it.
She then proceeded to call the police and this made the biker more irate. He snatched the receiver from her and hit her face with it. She fell backwards and started bleeding from the nose.
The biker then proceeded to turn his gaze towards the man in the car. He opened the door and dragged the guy outside.
He drew his hand back to throw a punch at him.
I caught his arm from behind and kicked him hard in the shins. He yelped in pain and let go of the other man.
He then turned back angrily to take a look at me. He was wearing a black jacket with the name Kenny embossed in front.
I said, “Listen Kenny. I have had a really bad day. So you either stop this madness or I am going to break your bones.”
He snarled and threw a punch at me with all his might. I swerved to the right and ducked just in time, causing him to miss completely.
Next, he whipped out a switch blade from his pocket and lunged towards me with it. I side stepped him and counterattacked with a punch to his plexus. He went down on one knee.
I caught hold of his knife arm and ordered him to drop it.
“Drop the knife kenny!! This is your last warning”, I repeated.
He started to fidget with his other arm around his shoe. I realized he had another weapon hidden in his sock.
So before he could attempt anything else, I twisted his forearm and landed a crushing blow to his elbow. It snapped into two and he lay on the floor yelping in pain.
By this point, other people came forward to intervene and help with the situation.
As Kenny was being led away by the police, he kept staring at me with madness in his eyes.
“I am coming back for you. This is going to be the biggest regret of your life”, he yelled.
I didn’t care and started going back to my car.
Then the man who was threatened by Kenny came forward and shook my hand.
“Hi. I am Rupert. That is my son Henry”, he said.
I waved my hand at the boy and he waved back.
“I would like to thank you for what you did for me back there”, he said.
“You not only helped me maintain my dignity but also helped me save face in front of my son”, he continued.
“This means a lot to me as a dad” he said.
I nodded in acknowledgement not sure what I was to add to the conversation.
He then reluctantly asked,” Is there anything I can do to repay the favour? Please feel free to ask . Anything. I would be most grateful.”
I thought for a moment. I could see the man was wealthy.
“If it’s not too much of an ask, I would appreciate a job if available. If you feel that is difficult, no problem. Forget I asked. No worries.” I said.
He smiled back at me warmly. He reached into his pocket and handed me a card.
“Please come to my office tomorrow. We can talk” he signed off.
From that moment on, I became the personal bodyguard and chaperone of his 8 year old son Henry. We immediately hit it off and became pals. I looked after all his son’s travelling arrangements.
We would also go to McDonalds every week for his favourite Burger and fries. I later learnt that his father was a very wealthy man who made most of his money during the dot com bubble.
I also became friends with the female employee at the driveway counter who had earlier been attacked by that biker punk Kenny.
Her name was Stella and it didn’t take very long for the two of us to start dating.
With a fulfilling job and a loving girlfriend by my side, my life was finally back on track. I couldn’t be happier.
And then one day - it all came crashing.
Henry and I as usual visited the McDonalds joint and I was surprised to see Stella missing at the counter.
I asked the staff about her and they said she hadn’t turned up today.
I thought that was weird. She had stayed over at my place and I saw her leave for work in the morning.
I tried calling her number but it was unreachable.
I dropped Henry at home and headed towards Stella’s apartment.
She had given me a spare key and I opened the door with it. Everything was in its place.
I tried her number again. It remained not reachable.
I decided to go back to my apartment to check if she might be there.
When I reached the door, I could see the lock had been smashed. The door was left slightly open.
I took out my side arm and slowly entered the apartment.
I could see a life size figure of Ronald McDonald the clown sitting on my sofa.
The famous mascot was sitting cross legged with one arm resting on the backrest. Just like how he likes to sit on benches outside McDonald outlets all across the world.
I was a little taken aback, but quickly switched on the lights to take a closer look.
As I moved closer, my knees buckled under my own weight.
It was Stella. She was the one who was dressed as the clown.
There were injury marks around her neck. She had been strangled to death.
I managed to call the cops while still reeling from the shock.
I also noticed her right hand which was resting on her thigh, was close fisted. When I pried it open, there was a crumpled piece of paper inside.
It read -
“She was really begging me for mercy.
Where was soldier boy when she needed him huh?
Boo Hoo….I’m Lovin It!!
I’m Lovin it!!
Signed Yours Kenny”
I could feel a surge of anger envelop me. And yet I lay there helpless.
Had it not been for the surveillance cameras at the entrance of my home, I would have been in jail by now.
The police could clearly see Kenny carrying Stella’s body and breaking into my apartment.
They put out a nationwide notice for Kenny and he’s been on the run ever since.
Even after 2 months following Stella’s death, the police were not any closer to catching the culprit.
But I did apprise Henry’s dad of the situation. His life was also at risk after considering what happened to my girlfriend.
But our collective worry was for Henry. We didn’t want to see him suffer for no fault of his.
So I started training Henry to take his own safety seriously. I devised multiple safeguards to keep him protected while being outdoors. Always ensured that I was personally there to drop and pick him up from school.
My boss appreciated all that I was doing for his son. He knew I had taken Stella’s death hard.
He was a generous and compassionate man and I liked working for him.
Although he did notice I wasn’t my usual cheery self anymore.
One day when I was waiting at the office, he tossed the keys of his new car at me.
“This should perk you up. Take her for a spin” he said.
“And also go pick Henry up from school”, he finished as he left for a meeting.
I got down to the parking lot, and there she was … waiting. The new Bugatti Chiron.
I opened the door and took the driver’s seat. The fresh smell of the leather upholstery was already lifting my spirits.
‘Boss was right! I am perking up’, I thought to myself.
I drove around the block and stopped by McDonalds to pick up the usual order for me and Henry.
I felt a tinge of sadness when I could no longer see Stella at the counter.
Anyways, I picked the order and started my way towards school.
As I went past the restaurant, I saw an old jeep parked by the side of the road. I didn’t think much of it at that moment.
When I reached Henry’s school, I parked the car a few feet away from the entrance. A couple of minutes later, I noticed the same jeep I saw at McDonalds go past me and park 20 mts in front.
I would have never given it a second glance had I not spotted it at the restaurant.
The jeep had 3 passengers. They looked like bikers with tattoos, beard and long hair.
And then there was Kenny standing behind a tree to avoid detection. But I spotted him.
He was gesturing towards them to get ready. I could see his Harley parked just a few feet away.
They were planning some kind of ambush.
The school bell rang and the children were already out on the streets.
I could see Henry at a distance in the courtyard. He was slowly making his way towards the gate.
I immediately called him on the phone and told him to go to the Principals office and stay there. I made it clear under no circumstances was he to venture out until I gave him the all clear. He understood.
He was safe as long as he was within the school’s premises.
The next thing to do was move to another location. The children were already pouring onto the streets, and the last thing I wanted was to see a child getting hurt.
I started the car and went past the jeep before taking the next turn. I kept driving.
Few moments later, the jeep caught up with me and the driver violently swerved towards the left causing me to go off course. My car came to halt.
The guys quickly alighted from the jeep and they were all armed to the teeth.
Kenny came in his motorcycle and stopped his bike a few feet ahead of me. He took out his shotgun and had it aimed straight at my chest.
The firing started before I even had the time to react.
I instinctively ducked for cover with my eyes closed.
But in my heart, I knew my time was up!!
As the seconds went by, even with all those bullets being sent my way - my body felt strangely light.
‘Am I in heaven already?’ I thought to myself.
I slowly opened my eyes and tilted my head upwards to take a peak.
And I realized I was sitting in an armoured bullet proof car.
The entire biker gang were mad with rage, doing everything possible to penetrate that thick armour plate.
Kenny was barking orders at his gang to continue the onslaught. He then pointed his finger at me and yelled, “I am coming for you.”
I looked down at the seat next to mine and saw the takeout I had ordered.
Just to piss him off even further, I took out my Big Mac and slowly took a big bite.
I sat there in gastronomic bliss savouring my burger, while being under a continuous hail of bullets.
The firing suddenly stopped. Kenny the psycho was livid as hell - to see me have a good time.
I looked him in the eye while I took a sip of my favourite milkshake.
And then, continued to chomp on my burger.
He looked a little crestfallen at how his plan was misfiring and then frantically gestured his troops to keep at it. The firing started again.
But it didn’t last long. They eventually all ran out of ammo and his buddies began to flee the scene, as we could hear sirens at a distance.
The attack had taken a toll on the car. But it managed to withstand all that damage. All that firing.
A life saver!
I looked at Kenny again. Only one thought was running through my head now.
‘My Turn’.
I switched on the ignition and rammed the car straight into Kenny. He hit the bonnet hard while the car continued to race forward.
He was clinging on to dear life with his outstretched hands desperately clutching at the sides of the car.
Next in the demolition line, was his prized Harley Davidson.
I hit it full steam and watched it smash to smithereens - with parts scattering all across the road.
Then, I hit the brakes and Kenny was sent flying 10 feet forward.
After impact, he slowly staggered to his feet - all bloody and bruised.
His face was swollen like an apple.
He was pleading towards me with folded hands to show him mercy.
‘This is for Stella. And She’s lovin it’, I said out loud.
I hit the accelerator again.
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2024.05.16 15:27 SCGwyer0 I lost my childhood dog today
My dog has been ill for the last two weeks and the first vet appointment we took him to just said it was infection and we didn’t bother to take him for more bloods the next day as he was getting better, at least that’s what it looked like. Then yesterday he got worse again so we took him to the vet, he was there for half an hour, and we found out he had cancer and he had to be put down today. He went this morning and I still can’t even process it. Last night I tried to get a print of his paw so I could get it as my first tattoo but he had too much fur around his paws so I took some photos of his face and his nose so I could get that instead. He always used to leave fur everywhere so I brushed him and kept it, just so it would always remind me. This morning I came downstairs and he wasn’t there and I just couldn’t take it, he’d always be wagging his tail or whining at us in the morning for food and now it’s just silent. Even our other dog knows what’s happened, and he’s sad and I just can’t believe that after 13 years of waking up and him being there, I had to do today without him waiting for me to walk through the door. I got to keep his lead and collar atleast.
I just needed to rant about it, It’s just not fair that he didn’t get to go peacefully in his sleep like any old dog should.
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2024.05.16 15:02 Both_Material_4892 What do I say?
My niece loves softball. Her coach has been hitting the girls when the mess up mostly hard smacks on the back but one girl was grabbed neck near collar bone and he squeezed. She told her parents who went to the school. The entire team was questioned over and over that’s when my niece reported her getting smacked. She’d told no one till then. The school “ investigated” with with attorneys found it wasn’t bad enough to do anything and also he’d been fired from his former job at a local college for same but there not doing anything. The girls that reported him or said anything during the school investigation are now being targeted at the school. Bullying by class mates for snitching and treated badly by coach. She’s a junior but wants to transfer schools. Shes worried she never get to play the sport she loves again. Not being picked most likely senior year meaning she won’t get to play college either. What can I say to a girl that feels her world is over for something she didn’t do.
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2024.05.16 06:57 ExQueenOfDoublethink Can neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome cause artery compression and not be ATOS?
Just a quick sanity check question. I was told by a vascular surgeon that TOS is only considered ATOS if there is a bony structure involved in compressing the artery, regardless of whether there is some artery compression. I've never seen that in everything I've read online but I'm definitely not a vascular doctor.
Background: So when I raise my arms above my collar bone my arms/hands turn ghostly white immediately and I can't hold them up for more than 30-60 seconds without feeling extreme fatigue and other weird sensations. I've had a decent amount of imaging now and most all of it has come back normal. The orthopedic doctor was pretty convinced I have ATOS so sent me to a vascular surgeon. They did an ultrasound and I don't remember the exact results (they showed me a diagram with some numbers on it) but from what I remember they said there is arterial compression (I think there were some blood pressure readings and the numbers changed?) but that I didn't have ATOS because I don't have any bony structures and I should be fine to use my arms (other doctor told me to avoid triggering symptoms). I asked him if NTOS would explain why my hands went as white as they do and he was like well you still probably have some artery compression. He said that some compression in different parts of the body is normal for a lot of people when they go into certain positions and isn't necessarily a cause for concern. I totally agree with that but the color my hands turn and the sensation in them is pretty extreme and makes me not able to use them in an elevated position for very long which does impact my day to day life. Everyone I show it to including other doctors are usually a little unnerved by it.
The doctor did say though he was pretty confident I have NTOS and that I would probably be a good candidate for surgery based on how long I have been trying to get relief (going on 2 years of PT with little success but only the last few months with a suspicion of TOS). In a few weeks they're going to try a scalene block and go from there.
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2024.05.16 06:46 SubMod5555 "they almost tore off her right ear, partially crushed her skull, and tore her front right shoulder muscles almost off the bone." (Pittsburgh, PA - first week of May 2024)
The moderation team does not vet or endorse crowdfunding campaigns. Link to page She was out walking with her humans a couple of days ago when she was set upon by a pair of spike-collared pit bulls. The pit bulls went after the humans and then really took a bite out of crime with Mishka; they almost tore off her right ear, partially crushed her skull, and tore her front right shoulder muscles almost off the bone. The good news: doggo is going to be okay. She's still a bit scared of going outside, but she's in good spirits.
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2024.05.16 05:55 Pathometer Immortal Set Combos
| Just gonna drop a bunch of set combos that I think work best with immortals on various heroes. These are all mixed set in some way shape and form and all of the skins shown should be relatively affordable (ranging from $3-$15 on any given hero). Please feel free to let me know if there are any better set combos you found or what you think of these. Earth Spirit (immortals: Jade Reckoning) (other pieces: Vanquishing Demons Ornaments of Annihilation, Ritual Headgear, Earthcore Belt, and Arm Guard) Treant Protector (immortals: Stuntwood Sanctuary and Symbiont) (other pieces: Arms and Roots of Eldritch Gnarl) Death Prophet (immortals: Mask of Mortis, Fluttering Mortis) (other pieces: Dark Realm Oracles Armor and Belt, Outland Witch's Tatters, and Spirits of the Mothbinder) Arc Warden (immortals: Wraithbinder) (other pieces: Cosmic Wanderer Back, Arms, and Head) Clockwerk (immortals: Rabid Watchdog, Paraflare Cannon) (other pieces: Cap, Gear, and Cog of the Keen Commander) Enigma (immortals: World Chasm Artifact and Geodesic Eidolon) (other pieces: Jewels and Armor of Endless Stars) Jakiro (immortals: Pyrexeac Floe, Flux, and Forge) (other pieces: Tail of Elder Convergence Nyx (immortals: Latticean Shards and Hierarchy) (other pieces: Sovereign of the Menacing Guise, Deviant Shell) Oracle (immortals: Alluvion Prophecy, Sagas of the Cymurrin Sage) (other pieces: Armor and Adornments of the Crystal Path) Nature's Prophet (immortals: Fluttering Staff, Monarch of the Sapphire Glen) (other pieces: Primeval Horns, Beard, and Bracers alongside Shoulders of the Eternal Seasons and Bonsaiko) Crystal Maiden (immortals: Yulsaria's Mantle and Glacier, Ice Blossom) (other pieces: Glacial Gardens - Back, Roost of the Winter Raven - Arms) Shadow Demon (immortals: Mantle of Grim Facade) (other pieces: Plate of the Summoned Lord, Wake of the Stygian Maw, and Tail of Depraved Malformation) Timbersaw (immortals: Rectifier, Controlled Burn) (other pieces: Style, Joints, Core, and Shell of the Raucous Gatecrasher) Keeper of the Light (immortals: Prominence, Wings of Daybreak) (other pieces: Repose of the Defiant, Robes of the First Light) Enchantress (immortals: Virga's Arc, Flourishing Lodestar, Flutterstep, Harborblossom) (other pieces: Song of the Solstice Arms) Lifestealer (immortals: Golden Dark Maw Inhibitor, Golden Profane Union, Golden Dread Requisition) (other pieces: Belt of the Transmuted Armaments) Slardar (immortals: Fin of the First Spear, First of the Flood) (other pieces: Pike and Arms of the Breach Warden) Zeus (immortals: Righteous Thunderbolt, Tempest Revelation, Immortal Pantheon) (other pieces: Symbol and Belt of the King Restored) ps ideally you have infusers for this but infusers expensive Silencer (immortals: Glaive and Aspect of Oscilla, Dam'arakan Muzzle) (other pieces: Shoulders, Armguards, and Robe of the Silent Edict) Tusk (immortals: Piscean Pulverizer) (other pieces: Mace, Helm, Cape, Tusks, Harness, and Sigil of the Weathered Storm) Wraith King (immortals: Unbroken Fealty) (other pieces: Helm, Pauldrons, Scabbard, Gauntlets, and Armor of the Sundered King) Dragon Knight (immortals: Draconic Divide, Kindred of the Iron Dragon) (other pieces: Sword, Helm, Tassets, Cuirass, and Armlets of the Eldwurm Crest with Executioner style) ps helm was accidentally not executioner style in the screenshot Legion Commander (immortals: Baneful Devotion, optional Almond the Frondillo) (other pieces: Lineage Lance, Banners, Mantle, Bracers, and Legs of Desolate Conquest) Lich (immortals: Shearing Deposition, Glare of the Tyrant, Perversions of the Bloodwhirl) (other pieces: Robe and Cloak of the Rime Lord) Lion (immortals: Horns of the Betrayer) (other pieces: Scepter, Gauntlet, Mantle, and Shoulders of the Infernal Rambler) Doom (immortals: Zeal of Omoz Arkash) (other pieces: Whispers of the Damned Sword, Head, Pauldrons, Wings, Belt, and Tail) Centaur Warruner (immortals: Infernal Menace, Chieftain, and Cavalcade, optional Almond the Frondillo) (other pieces: Belt, Bracers, Plate and Tail of the Vicious Plains) Lycan (immortals: Bloodmayne Avenger) (other pieces: Winter Lineage Pauldrons, Armor, Claws, Belt, Form, and Companion of the Grey Ghost) Storm Spirit (immortals: The Lightning Orchid, Mandate of the Stormborn) (other pieces: Robe of the Raikage Warrior) Terrorblade (immortals: Scythes and Span of Sorrow) (other pieces: Collar, Horns, and Form of Eternal Purgatory) Night Stalker (immortals: Crown, Span, Strap, and Sweep of Black Nihility, Shadow of the Dark Age) Batrider (immortals: Ghastly Nocturne) (other pieces: Firestarter Gas Mask, Fuel Cannister, and Gas Pump) Clinkz (immortals: Maraxiform's Fate Bundle) (other pieces: Lineage Mask, Gloves, and Kit of the Hunt Eternal) Bloodseeker (immortals: Maw, Main. and Off-hand Thirst of Eztzhok) (other pieces: Winter Lineage Shield, Tattoo, Gauntlets, and Belt of the Primeval Predator) Meepo (immortals: Everglyph Goggles, Colossal Crystal Chorus) (other pieces: Blade, Armguards and Tail of the Fractured Order) ps ideally you'd get the blade infused but Fall 2016 Infusers are a bit above budget Razor (immortals: Severing Lash and Crest) (other pieces: Armor, Braces, and Skirt of the Revenant) Troll Warlord (immortals: Scale of Bitter Soil and Bitter Lineage) (other pieces: Head and Armor of the Icewrack Marauder) Sniper (immortals: Muh Keen Gun, Full-Bore Bonanza) (other pieces: Cyclopean Helm, Heavy Plates, and Lucky Bullet of the Keen Machine) Pugna (immortals: Chalice and Eye of Ix'yxa, Draining Wight) (other pieces: Cape, Belt, Sleeves, and Armor of the Narcissistic Leech) Weaver (immortals: Crimson Pique and Cyrridae, Skittering Desolation) (other pieces: Limbs and Stinger of Entwined Fate with Scrambling Limbs and Pointed Stinger respectively) Winter Wyvern (immortals: Iceflight Edifice) (other pieces: Aurora Pyre's Back) Viper (immortals: Malefic Drake's Hood and Strike) (other pieces: King of the Corrupted Nest Back) Sand King (immortals: The Barren Crown and Vector) (other pieces: Tunnel Raider Shoulder, Legs, and Back) Templar Assassin (immortals: Focal Resonance, Golden Seclusion of the Void) (other pieces: Pauldrons and Armor of the Timekeeper with Golden style selected) Riki (immortals: Golden Edict of Shadows, Golden Shadow Masquerade, optional Almond the Frondillo pet) (other pieces: Golden Siblings Dagger and Offhand with Heir's Gift and Step) Leshrac (immortals: Tormented Crown and Staff) (other pieces: Shards, Cluster, and Tail of Chronoptic Synthesis) Spirit Breaker (immortals: Savage Mettle, Iron Surge) (other pieces: Tail of the Ironbarde Charger alongside Pauldrons, Bracers, and Belt of the Elemental Realms) Ember Spirit (immortals: Apogee of the Guardian Flame) (other pieces: Main Sword, Off-hand Sword, Cap, Armguards, and Belt of the Smoldering Sage) Luna (immortals: Twilight Schism, Moonfall) (other pieces: Helm, Armor, and Mount of the Winged Sentinel) Chaos Knight (immortals: Chaos Arbiter and Fulcrum) (other pieces: Head, Shoulder and Mount from Melange of the Firelord) Naga Siren (immortals: The Bell of Meranthia, The Order of Cyprin) (other pieces: Main and Off-hand Infused Blade of Prismatic Grace, Winter Lineage Dress of the Allure) Anti-Mage (immortals: Main and Off-hand Basher of Mage Skulls, Origin of Faith) (other pieces: Hood of the Clergy Ascetic alongside Bracers, Belt, and Shoulders of the Witch Hunter) submitted by Pathometer to dota2fashionadvice [link] [comments] |
2024.05.16 05:45 larki18 [DUMMY MAGAZINE, 2006] "The people who criticise us for being too poppy don't get it. People are afraid to write a song any more, or they can't...The best bands ever have all written great songs. You can still do it and do it intelligently and it can be original."
Cigarettes and rebellion have always gone hand-in-hand, and in an age of cigarette packet-sized health warnings, now more than ever, smoking a fag says: 'I do not give a fuck.' But if Brandon Flowers is hoping to strike a seditious pose by sparking up at the start of the interview, it's not going according to plan. The Killers' frontman is on all fours rooting through the junk that carpets the anteroom at the band's rehearsal space. "Has anyone seen my lighter?" he asks, rocking back on his heels. The question hangs in the air while Brandon cocks his head, waiting for an answer like a meerkat listening for a predator. Twenty-five years old and with a delicate bone structure, there's something almost dainty about him. Receiving no response, he returns to his search. "Oh, Jeez," he sighs. "I had it just a minute ago."
It's a scene that emphatically does not suggest a rebel without a cause. The mess isn't helping. The Killers' HQ - an industrial unit sandwiched between a construction supplier and the offices of a housing development just off Dean Martin Drive in West Las Vegas - is ankle-deep in designer clothing. A Dior Homme suit lies crumpled by the door; there's a pile of shoes topped like a sundae by a pair of Marc Jacobs trainers; and anyone wishing to enter the shoebox room the band use as an office must negotiate a mountain of discarded jeans. Many items are identifiable as coming from the wardrobe of Hot Fuss, The Killers' hugely successful 2004 debut album - triple platinum in the UK with two weeks at Number One and five million sold worldwide. Look! There are the shirts, ties and suit jackets they wore when they thrilled Glastonbury 2005 with indie rock anthems Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me. That was the crowning moment of a two-and-a-half year tour that finally concluded in October of last year. It seems that after playing that final date in Miami, they returned to Vegas and shrugged off their image onto the floor of this bland white box.
Now a fine layer of dust covers the dead clothes. The Killers have no further use for white tuxedos on their second album, Sam's Town. Today, Brandon wears a black polo shirt, black pin-stripe waistcoat, black jeans and black boots. Where there used to be a layer of foundation, there is now a beard - an untrimmed beard at that. Dave Keuning (30, guitar), Mark Stoermer (29, bass) and Ronnie Vannucci (29, drums) all echo Brandon's black ensemble. Ronnie has added Aviator shades and a handlebar moustache for a dash of motorcycle cop, Dave's frizzy bubble of hair gives him a Marc Bolan-ish air, and there's something very teenage about Mark's scuffed Vans.
Short of walking around wearing sandwich boards saying, "Our new record is a bit heavier than the last one," The Killers couldn't hope to communicate that message more effectively. And they have gained some musical girth on Sam's Town. The pop hooks that made Hot Fuss so irresistible survive intact - see the ringing guitar riffs on first single When You Were Young - but there's a newfound punchiness, coupled with an epic sweep. The minor-to-major uplifts on Bones are fabulously dramatic, the coda to Why Do I Keep Counting? thrillingly intense. Comparisons to Bruce Springsteen have been made. If they overstate the case a little, they are at leaset qualitatively accurate. The Killers are back and this time it's serious - they've got the bootlace ties to prove it.
"Hey, it says here that Springsteen's headlining Glastonbury next year," shouts Ronnie, who's flicking through the NME. He nods sagely at the page without looking up.
"Really?" asks Dave, nicknamed Crazy Dave on account of his alledgedly volatile nature.
"The Boss is headlining one night, we're playing second on the bill the next night and Kylie's headlining the Sunday," says Brandon, charging like a bull through Michael Eavis' as-yet-unannounced line-up with what subsequently proves to be a characteristic gaucheness.
But that lighter is proving elusive. This being America, none of the people hurrying to-and-fro prepping the world for the release of Sam's Town smokes. Manager Robert Reynolds - Bobby Rey to the band - barks into his mobile, booking his band onto eye-wateringly demanding tours. "We're going to make a lot of money," he cackles to himself before switching calls to make a series of stern pronouncements on legal matters. Dave, Mark and Ronnie disappear for a jam session. Artwork is approved, B-sides are decided on and schedules are hammered out.
"I can't find it," Brandon says, finally. But he's not going to be denied the opportunity to underline The Killers reinvention with a puff of smoke. "Let's go to the gas station. I'll have to buy one. It's too busy to talk here anyway."
+
Brandon's black (of course) Volkswagen Touraeg four-wheel drive is barrelling down West Flamingo Road into town. "I was a bell boy there," he says, pointing out of the driver's window at the stucco facade of the Gold Coast casino. "I was working there when we were signed."
Coming from Las Vegas, it is perhaps inevitable that casinos play a big part in The Killers' story; not only is Sam's Town named after one, it was recorded in one, too.
The band began writing songs while on the road with Hot Fuss, turning up early for soundchecks to run through new ideas. On a trip home to Vegas, George Maloof, a hotelier known for cultivating famous friends, invited them to record the album in the new studio he'd built at The Palms, his flagship hotel-cum-gambling den. When the tour finished in October 2005, they returned to Vegas and spent five month finessing the songs they'd sketched out on the road. Then, in February, they decampled to the third floor studio at The Palms and recorded Sam's Town over 11 weeks.
Producer Flood (U2, Depeche Mode) encouraged them to experiment. They overdubbed, fiddled with synthesizers and played with new equipment. It took them five weeks to get the backing vocals right. The band sang the harmonies, then double-tracked them four times. The end result recalls Queen wondering, "Is this is the real life? Is this just fantasy?" When Ronnie, a trained classical percussionist, brought some kettledrums down, eyebrows were raised; but the fabulously bombastic coda on Why Do I Keep Counting? vindicates his indulgence.
"That's kind of the Ben Hur of the album," he says. He's not wrong. Sam's Town is a record on an epic scale. "Yeah, it has drama," he continues. "But, at the same time, I think it's a little more exposed than Hot Fuss. It's a little more naked. Last time it was about a lot of fictional things." By "fictional", Ronnie means that Hot Fuss wore its predominantly British influences for all to see. Brandon's taste in music is rabidly Anglophile - he constantly references The Smiths, The Cure and Joy Division - and it showed. By contrast, Sam's Town is an unequivocally American record. The lyrical imagery is pure American dream - cars, girls, wide-open spaces and escaping to a better life. "We're burning down the highway skyline/On the back of a hurricane that started turning/When you were young," sings Brandon on When You Were Young. That's the basis of the Springsteen comparisons then, though the lack of pathos more closely recalls another blue-collar rocker from New Jersey - Jon Bon Jovi.
The phrase "this town" recurs throughout the album, and it's always receding into the distance as The Killers escape to a new life. "This town was made for passing through/I never did get along with everybody else," sings Brandon on This River Is Wild. On Read My Mind he "never really gave up on breaking out of this two-star town", while on the title track he offers something of an explanation: "Nobody ever had a dream round here."
"With the first record, there was this feeling that there was this world out there that we didn't know," says Mark later in the day. Before The Killers, he studied philosophy: now he's their quiet one. "We wanted to get out and away from this and be somewhere else. We hadn't had a lot of experience - hadn't travelled much - then we were gone for three years. We didn't sit down and say that we wanted to make a record about how we're glad to be home, but that's what happened naturally."
It's not an angsty record. The Killers have already escaped with Hot Fuss, and, having done so, they view the experience fondly now they're back. There's a mistiness to Brandon's eyes as he explains how the album got it's name.
"Sam's Town is a casino on the edge of Vegas," he says. "I grew up in Henderson, which is out on the way to the Hoover Dam. My mom and dad lived in a trailer park, and my dad used to hitchhike up and down Boulder Highway, which is the only way you could get to Vegas. Sam's Town was the first thing you saw on your way in to town. So, when you're driving down Boulder Highway from Henderson, I always thought you finally knew you were getting somewhere when you saw Sam's Town. It was kind of like a beacon."
"It's not a completely American album," contines Brandon. "We still have our English influence, but we're also from the Wild West. Somehow we've managed to unify all that on this album. it's just such a perfect resemblence of what we are."
At the petrol station, Brandon rummages through the glove box looking for change to buy a lighter. "This is a great album," he says, pointing at Highway Companion, the latest from iconic American rocker Tom Petty. "I've always been a big fan of his. He's such a great American artist."
Yes, Brandon: we get the point.
+
When Brandon finally lights his cigarette, he smokes it awkwardly, like a child mimicking something he's seen the grown-ups doing. However, when he cheerfully admits that, "I feel the same mentally as I did when I was 12," it's not a knowing nod to the fact that he sometimes behaves like a loveably precocious child, but a reference to an unusually comprehensive grounding in pop music at an early age.
When Brandon sings about "this town", he doesn't mean Las Vegas. He means Nephi, Utah or Henderson, Nevada, where he spent his childhood. His parents are Mormon and he is the youngest of six children. "I was a surprise," he says. "I've got a 42-year-old sister." If he was issues about his "surprise" status, he chooses to gloss over them. "It turned out perfect because my brother was a teenager when I was a kid," he says. "He would bring home things like Rattle And Hum by U2 and I would watch it. I remember he bought Live In Dallas by Morrissey. It was always him watching these things, or his door was shut and you'd hear The Head On The Door by The Cure blasting through the house and rattling the walls."
The Killers were formed when Brandon answered an advert Dave had placed in a local paper in late 2002. Dave cited Oasis as a big influence; Brandon had seen them play recently and responded; and, as Dave has said in previous interviews: "He was the only person to reply to my ad who wasn't a complete freak." However, the band was born in Brandon's brothers bedroom.
"His room was like a shrine," enthuses Brandon. "It was a holy place. I wish I could show you a picture of it. It was covered in posters. There'd be a big picture of Elvis wearing a bow tie that just said 'The Smiths' [the artwork for The Smiths 1987 single Shoplifters Of The World Unite]. You had The Cure wearing face paint [the artwork to The Cure's 1985 single In Between Days] - all that kind of stuff. I remember Morrissey being on the cover of the NME, with the halo [from 1985] - stuff like that. You just wanted to know about these people 'cause they were so cool. My brother seemed like such a cool person. But he was a teenager, so he wasn't going to be that nice to me, a kid."
Brandon was fascinated by his brother's collection of music, magazines and posters, but he was denied access to them - officially, at least. "I would sneak in," he says. "I knew he'd be angry if he found out, but I would go in as soon as he left the house." For a long time Brandon was too scared to actually play anything. "That didn't come 'til later. I just used to go in there because I liked it. Then I got to the point where I'd actually take a tape out and put it in. It took more guts to do that."
It was a life-changing moment. "I was ten and the first song I played was Sing Your Life by Morrissey. I remember dancing about to it."
The lyrics to Sing Your Life include the lines, "Sing your life/Just walk right up to the microphone/And name all the things that you love/All the things that you loathe." It's intriguing to wonder what Morrissey makes of the neophyte he inspired with these lines.
Eventually, Brandon inherited his brother's tape collection. "It was around the same time CDs started coming out in a big way. He started buying CDs and gave me his tapes. And that was it: it took off from there. I got a hundred of the best albums - all the New Order, all the Morrissey, all The Smiths, The Beatles. I started buying posters. I went to see The Cure in concert. It was just kind of a continuation of my brother. And it was nice because, though my parents were strict, they were already used to it from him. There was no, 'My dad doesn't understand me,' or any of that kind of stuff. My mum likes The Smiths."
Brandon was 13 and his favourite band was late-'70s/early-'80s American new wavers The Cars, and particularly their jaw-droppingly catchy 1979 single Just What I Needed.
"I wouldn't exist without that song," he says. "That was the one. I remember driving around with my mum when I was 13, and we're living in Nephi - a really small town - and I felt so cool when I put that song on. Like: 'I have something that none of these kids I'm going to middle school with tomorrow have.' That excitement is what music's about, isn't it? That's why I understand the mentality of people that don't like us because we've sold so many records. I used to like it when no one else knew about a band. So I get that - I do."
+
Brandon's first band was called Blush Response. It was never going to work out. Not because he refused to move to Los Angeles with them, but because he is utterly - comically - shameless. He's given to making outrageously boastful statements like: "It's not like the '60s, '70s and '80s now. There are only a few bands around that are really good, that just do it. I mean, there's what, five or six of us?"
For the record, in Brandon's estimation, those bands are Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight, The Strokes, The White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and, of course, The Killers.
"I don't want people to think I'm lumping myself with other people just to make us sound cool," he says. Really? It sort of sounds like you are. But he just steamrolls through it. "Yeah, but you know what I mean," he says, grinning at his own cheekiness. He's so disgracefully forward you can't help but laugh along with him - Oh you are awful, Brandon! But joking aside, The Killers are the most commercially successful of all the bands he mentions.
Later, back at the rehearsal space, the band run through Sam's Town at deafening volume in preparation for the forthcoming tour - first the US, then the world. The infectious, almost contagious, chorus of When You Were Young sounds fabulous, as do the U2-like guitars and Twin Peaks synths of Read My Mind. Meanwhile, Smile Like You Mean It and Somebody Told Me benefit from the newfound harder edge.
They somewhat heavy-handedly underline the new direction by playing Paranoid by Black Sabbath and Get It On by T Rex. That's the thing: The Killers are not a subtle band. Their songs are like a wet kiss from a girl who's a bit too drunk. They are big and brash, and not everyone loves them for it. Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me might go down as well at hip nightclubs as they do on the festival circuit, but the DJs play them with the same guilty look they wear when playing a pop record.
"I hate that," says Brandon. "Like writing a song you can hum somehow cheapens it? It makes me think of this quote by Morrissey. Everybody knows how he read Oscar Wilde, Keats and Yates when he was growing up and that he wanted to be a writer. He was talking to this journalist who asked why he hadn't become a writer, and Morrissey said: 'What I do is more powerful than what you do because I can write down these words and you get it to a melody. How can you beat that?' I'm of the same opinion. I don't understand why a good melody that's memorable is a bad thing."
Being dismissed as pop particular aggrieves Ronnie. "When we first came out we got compared to Duran Duran all the time. Jesus Christ! We got a keyboard player now all of a sudden he's Nick Rhodes! Come on!"
"The people who criticise us for being too poppy don't get it," agrees Mark. "I think that's the problem with a lot of rock music. People are afraid to write a song any more. Either that or they can't. And that attitude hurts music in general. The best bands ever have all written great songs. You can still do it and do it intelligently and it can be original. This isn't a studio creation with a producer writing these songs for us. We're not Avril Lavigne, or something like that. We're a real band writing real songs, just like a punk band would do, except that we write pop songs."
You get the impression that The Killers knack for showboating pop hooks that border on vulgar is inextricably tied up with the brazen side of Brandon's personality. But while his ebullient charisma, not to mention the songs themselves, mitigates his outrageousness, there is a less attractive side to his ego. He has a combative streak. He can't resist taking pot shots at emo bands, notably Fall Out Boy, whith whom The Killers share an A&R man.
Has he heard how many emo kids it takes to change a light bulb? "No." None. They just sit in the dark and cry. It's a full 30 seconds before he stops laughing. When he does he admits: "Yeah, we've had problems with other bands. You know, when you walk in the room it's like..." He whistles the theme to The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. "We're like gangs."
And while the other members of the band are diplomatic on the subject of Brandon, you don't have to read too deeply between the lines to conclude that there have been internal issues, too.
"Some people will think Brandon's the big genius," says Dave, visibly bridling. "There are songs, such as Why Do I Keep Counting?, where he's written every note. But there are others, like When You Were Young, that were more of a collaboration - like Mr Brightside, where I had some of the music and Brandon came up with the lyrics. We always have arguments about who wrote what. The truth is that we all help in that process."
When asked how success affected them, Ronnie says: "There were certain things that needed adjusting. When you're on tour for two years, people can get a little needy. It doesn't help that you're surrounded by yes men and everybody's working for you. At times we've had to say, 'Who do you think you are?' to people. No one wears the trousers, but some people would like to. I think if it wasn't for the people in the band kicking each other in the ass... Let's just say there was some ass-kickin'."
It doesn't take a genius to work out whose ass needed kicking most often.
+
It's the following day and The Killers are back at their rehearsal space. The topic of discussion is what to wear in the video for Bones, the second single. It's a big deal: the director is Tim Burton. "I feel like Frank Sinatra when I sing it," announces Brandon. "With maybe a little bit of Morrissey and a little bit of Elvis, too."
Of course he does. But if securing the services of Tim Burton tells you one thing, it's that The Killers are about to get even bigger, perhaps even make the leap to the same level as Coldplay et al. Already stars, they are about to become superstars. Brandon can hardly wait.
"Do you know that Rolling Stone didn't want to put us on the cover last time," he says indignantly. "They didn't think we were stars. We sold five million albums! What more do they want from a band?"
Whatever was required, Brandon would be happy to do most things. "I'll do stuff that some people don't want to do, 'cause I want people to hear the music," he says. However, even he has limits. "The Rolling Stone thing made the record label think: 'What can we do to make them stars?' If I go on vacation with my wife, do they have to send somebody to be there to take pictures of me? Is that how you become a star? I don't want that. I walked down the red carpet one time and I realised I don't like it. But you don't have to walk down the red carpet for people to hear your music. We do still have some of that indie blood running through our veins."
He heads off at a tangent: "When you walk around Liverpool, you think of The Beatles, or you go to Manchester and you think of The Smiths or Oasis. I want you to come to Las Vegas and think of Sam's Town. And I think we've started to capture that, which is a truer version of The Killers, 'cause that's where we're from."
He pauses.
"I used to live across the street from Sam's Town. Maybe it'll be like our Abbey Road where people go to take pictures."
Is that what he'd like?
"I wouldn't mind it," he says, desperately hoping it will come true.
He puts a cigarette between his lips, looks down at his trouser pockets and pats them in search of the lighter he bought yesterday.
"Hey, I don't suppose you've got one?"
submitted by
larki18 to
TheKillers [link] [comments]
2024.05.16 04:45 semiurge D20x5 Staristocrats of the Faufreluchean Future
Inspired by
Solomon VK's Faufreluche posts.
D20 | This staristocrat's badge of office |
1 | is a golden diadem which projects a hologram of Old Sol from its highest tine, as well as the rest of Man's Cradle-System orbiting about it. |
2 | is a hideous diamondoid mask made in the image of an alien demi-god from whom their esteemed house claims descent. |
3 | is an auroran magneto-cloth cape which flares with the oscillations of subtle fields. |
4 | is a porous meteoric amulet that echoes with the music of the spheres. |
5 | is a blade of enchained magnetic monopoles channeling ouroboric tangles of plasma - ever-glowing, their patterned glows expressing the cyclical yet self-degrading nature of the cosmos, able to cut through all but the most unnaturally enforced materials. |
6 | is a scepter containing a degenerate micro-verse within its topping globe. |
7 | is a battered helmet pulled from the suit of one of the first humans to reach outer space. |
8 | is a battle standard bearing the heraldry of their family, and topped with the head of a lion, preserved and animated to roaring unlife by cybernetic tubes woven through its flesh and bone. |
9 | is a halo of abstract mathematics, written directly on the fabric of space-time rather than mere matter. |
10 | is a pauldron of fused silicon, the remains of an artificial intelligence which almost overcame humanity. |
11 | is a dilating-lens lantern of an indestructible, orange-green alloy - fully unleashed, its actinic brilliance can guide in a ship from high orbit. |
12 | is a vial of their own, genetically-perfected blood, crystallized into a ruby-like gem. |
13 | is a crown of golden rings hovering about each other, each engraved with the zodiac of a different solar system. |
14 | is a famous artifact of Earth preserved within a temporal stasis-orb. |
15 | is a set of infrasonic pan pipes that can manipulate the minds of men and machine alike. |
16 | is a holy book written by the first settler of their world, in an eclectic script unreadable by anyone yet living. |
17 | is a shield with a brazen, hypercubic boss and a rippling purplish forcefield about. |
18 | is a labrys bearing edges honed to subatomic sharpness with whetstones hewn from the preternaturally dense heart of a collapsed star. |
19 | is a bowl holding a fractal bonzai grafted with branches of every fruit-bearing tree of humanity's homeworld. |
20 | is the head-sized smaragdine egg of some voidborne beast, the inevitable hatching of which is said to herald the end of the universe. |
D20 | This staristocrat's holdings |
1 | lie under a dimming sun, weakened by its fusion-harvest which forms the foundation of the staristocrat's wealth. |
2 | contain no life-bearing worlds, its population sustained only by technocratic hydro-pneumatic despotism. |
3 | bear the glassy-green sheen and asymmetrical mutations left by ancient nuclear war. |
4 | are mineral-rich but poor in organics and water, expending most of their export-wealth on life-giving imports just to survive. |
5 | produce a unique and inimitable spice, and are thus coveted by an extra-solar rival. |
6 | are either watery or gaseous, with dry, solid ground an unimaginable luxury - the populace living on great rafts or aerostats. |
7 | have recently absorbed a mass of refugees fleeing a black swan xeno-threat. |
8 | were enclosed from the common space of comet-cowboys, who plague it with their raids to this day. |
9 | are nestled among the ruins of an extinct alien civilization, probed only gently for fear of waking their automatic guardians. |
10 | are slowly but surely having their life-giving atmospheres stripped away by the rapacious solar wind of their red gigantism-suffering sun. |
11 | are deliberately kept ignorant of the wider galactic community to reduce their capacity to revolt, and so that the ruling class can portray themselves as deific through their technological capabilities. |
12 | are undergoing a long and delicate process of terraforming which structures cultural and religious cycles around these artificial seasons and critical thresholds. |
13 | are overgrown with a police state only nominally under the staristocrat's authority, and the computational bureaucracy that's arisen to process all their surveillance. |
14 | are infamous for their permissiveness, and abound in every sort of vice. |
15 | are torn apart on a planetary scale for the sake of resource-harvest and industry, and what unruptured ground exists is blanketed in choking smog outside sealed habitats. |
16 | were recently seized from a treasonous vassal and bestowed upon this staristocrat - the old holder's sympathizers still lurk within the population, evading the claws of inquisition. |
17 | exist mostly fictitiously, as moving shell-games of companies and titles. |
18 | are centered on an ecumenopolis with some roads paved with stones hewn before humanity's ancestors came down from the trees - its corners hide occultic dens of our darkest imaginings. |
19 | are generally scorching, deserts or liquid hells, their structures mirrored and extending tubes of heat exchanges and radiators like a seraphim wings. |
20 | are verdant in all forms of life - none go hungry, yet many are eaten, and a clan of masked physicians go about the populace to rebuke the tides of plague. |
D20 | This staristocrat is attended by |
1 | a harem of genetically-engineered Willendorfian Venuses, bearing a continuous stream of heirs who will duel over the matter of their inheritance in the arena of their crèche. |
2 | artful historians hunchbent over data-tablets, preserving every moment and detail of the staristocrat's life in imperishable crystalline records. |
3 | nigh-invisible bodyguards swaddled in light-bending metamaterial cloaks, heat haze auras ready to strike down any offense against their master. |
4 | clanking cyborg-knights - behind their cuirasses are tanks preserving the most loyal and chivalrous parts of their mortal brains. |
5 | slaves bearing explosive collars - the tribute of many conquered worlds. |
6 | a squadron of musclebound eunuch-janissaries raised from childhood with size- and strength-stimulating hormones and non-stop brainwashing. |
7 | clones of themself educated according to various traditions as diverse yet biologically-partial advisors. |
8 | the cryogenically-preserved heads of their forefathers, which sometimes dispense shivering, crackling counsel. |
9 | hovering laser-turrets fitted with targeting algorithms able to anticipate their master's desire to kill before it's consciously felt. |
10 | an enormous parrot with impeccable skill at mimicry, whose mind has been overwritten with every song recorded by humanity up until the time of its creation. |
11 | a pair of titanic wolfdogs, with metallic teeth that could rend apart a tank and hides that have turned aside artillery-shells. |
12 | the plush animatronic companion of their childhood, its digital personality updated to be a competent advisor. |
13 | a caste of butlers who've served their family for generations, bred like pedigreed dogs. |
14 | a choir singing their praises, the choir's lungs replaced with cybernetic jet-intakes slatted between ribs, so that they might sing unceasing. |
15 | a former whipping boy, their oldest friend, bearing the delicate scars of tremendously sophisticated tortures. |
16 | tumbling jesters dressed in patchworks of impossible colours captured from the coronas of half-real suns. |
17 | technotheologic angels dancing through the air on wings of incandescent blazons. |
18 | abductees from primitive worlds fitted with neural implants which make them believe they are simply in an extended dream. |
19 | a team of chefs who can prepare the delicacies of a dozen worlds, never repeating the same twice in their master's lifetime. |
20 | grey masters of anagathic science, whisper-arguing over the injections and ointments that will quicken them a while longer. |
D20 | This staristocrat's court |
1 | is entertained by a vapourous alien intelligence which takes possession of lesser courtiers through a fanciful hookah. |
2 | has its lesser members partially memory-wiped when they attend it - able to recall their skills, yet unable to remember much of their own identities, and so how to apply those skills for personal benefit. |
3 | is deliberately, performatively humble, held in barns and suchlike. |
4 | is overlooked by a cine-dome showing stars, moons, and constellations in fortuitous alignments. |
5 | is addicted to novelty, and constantly seeks new performances and grotesques. |
6 | is made up nepotistically of their siblings who did not win the contest to inherit the throne. |
7 | are waited on hand and foot by fragile ceramic robots imprinted with the tightly-enchained engrams of political criminals. |
8 | takes place entirely remotely - members are provided radio-devices with frequencies that trigger voice-like vibrations in great bells this staristocrat is in the constant presence of. |
9 | were at first ironically and now legitimately entranced by a bloody cult of sacrifice and agonies. |
10 | has been forced to accept elected representatives from among the populace by a revolt - to the grumblings of those who attained their positions through inheritance. |
11 | is wracked by a scandal involving mistresses overspending from public coffers. |
12 | is perpetually-wrapped in augmented-reality projections of mythic mimesis. |
13 | is burrowed among the roots of the biggest mountain of their throne-world, so that it could survive all but the most devastating attacks. |
14 | are all accompanied by a member of an order of courtesan-assassins implanted with acid-glands in case their charge shows overt disloyalty. |
15 | solve disputes among themselves with duels, and drill daily with various weapons and fighting styles. |
16 | is held within a hollow pyramid, with this staristocrat at the top point and many stairs and levels filtering petitioners between them and the entrance at the base. |
17 | is largely taken over by a conspiracy to poison this staristocrat, and even the uninvolved have begun to circle like vultures. |
18 | is a ring of stone thrones built to scale with the renown of the one who sits upon them - this staristocrat themself sits like a small child on a throne fit for giants - their seneschal on a stool. |
19 | is held around a colosseum, where gladiators and vicious alien beasts fight for their amusement and haruspexies. |
20 | is itinerant, a grand airship which hovers above the realms of hosting vavasours. |
D20 | This staristocrat's noble flaw |
1 | is hubris - they believe they can become like God by funding breakneck scientific process. |
2 | is bravery - they will fight to the last in the face of overwhelming odds, even if better options present themselves. |
3 | is honour - their thinking is rigid and totally un-utilitarian. |
4 | is generousity - they give without thinking, disrupting economies and fostering dependence with their largesse. |
5 | is parental love - they spoil their children on a terrible, cosmic scale. |
6 | is a thirst for justice - a continent has burned due to their need for a punishment fitting a truly awful crime. |
7 | is filial piety - their increasingly-senile dowager-mother has them tied around her bony finger. |
8 | is tolerance - they've cultivated cosmopolitan communities, yet failed to confront division and rising extremism. |
9 | is an aesthetic sense that is souring into decadence. |
10 | is persistence - they are a dogged obsessive. |
11 | is realpolitik - they've alienated possible allies with ruthlessness. |
12 | is faith - they lean often into outright zealotry. |
13 | is cautiousness - they often dive into outright paranoia. |
14 | is competitiveness - they're innovative, but often only in the tortures applied to defeated rivals. |
15 | is cleanliness - they have advanced to a purgative germaphobia. |
16 | is contentment - they have come to peace with all things, even if others demand their action. |
17 | is honesty - they will never lie, even if it benefits them and their people. |
18 | is is humility - they are overly-convinced of their own incapacity. |
19 | is romantic love - their spouse manipulates them to their knowledge yet total acquiescence. |
20 | is imagination - their fancies often end up unproductive or outright destructive. |
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2024.05.16 02:58 Charming_Bug5866 Pulsating carotid in neck on one side
I have been having health anxiety lately so I am hoping it’s just being hyper sensitive but lately I have been having this pain in my neck. My carotid artery on the right side is pounding hardepulsating than the right and is painful ache all the way down to right above my collarbone. Feels weird when I swallow as well. Any idea what causes this and if it’s a concern?
I’m currently 36 female, 126 lbs and 16 weeks pregnant. Blood pressure is normal. I am on lovenox, baby aspirin for pai-1 4g/4g and zoloft for anxiety. No smoking and otherwise healthy.
I will say I do have a pinched nerve in my lower neck on the right side which causes pain in my base of my skull and headache so wondering if that cause be radiating to the front of my neck/collar bone.
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2024.05.16 02:26 JustMediocreAtBest the longest my hair has been, the shortest and my hair current.
| *as an adult. I was given a horrendous bowl cut in kindergarten that was easier to deal with then the tangles. Most of my life I've gone through the cycle of growing my hair out to a bit past my collar bone, then getting bored of it and chopping it to a bob. The longest it got was around bra-strap/mid-back length in college when I wasn't getting trims that regularly. Trying to get it back to that length (or longer) currently. Letting the last of the layers grow out and trying to go longer between trims. It's hard to be patient. 2014: Natural color with a peekaboo purple direct dye (not sure what the brand was anymore. it might have been one in a foam can or color jamz?) 2020: I bleached my own hair 😬 had a friend touch up the roots once. In that pic it's prob faded Arctic Fox Frose and Virgin Pink. 2024: Professionally bleached and touched up every 8ish weeks starting mid-2023 when the 2020 bleach had grown out and my hair was around collar bone length. It's mostly AF Ritual diluted with white conditioner plus some AF VP (I do the dye, the fun part, myself). submitted by JustMediocreAtBest to longhair [link] [comments] |
2024.05.15 23:05 LinkLost380 Possible Matty References in Reputation
I’m so glad this sub exists because I’ve been annoying everyone in my life with my theories about these two … I figured this would be the right place to post my speculation/lyric breakdowns of songs that they may have written about each other, split into different posts for albums for ease of reading.
Starting with Reputation (2017) – I imagine the failed relationship with Matty was still fresh for Taylor during the writing/recording of this album. Her reference to her “longings locked in lowercase inside a vault” definitely made me look back at Rep in a way I hadn’t before (and I do think we’ll see some Matty-coded vault tracks on TV”. That said I don’t want to erase her other relationships, especially with Joe, so I’ll make notes of where I think I’m either stretching for a Matty connection or I think there are multiple muses.
Special mention to
“Getaway Car” which feels like another (fictionalized?) response to Robbers but the story she tells is very similar to her fling with Tom, especially given the third man in the song. I usually claim it for the maylors anyway bc who cares about Tom. Let me know what you think.
“...Ready For It?” Knew he was a killer first time that I saw him / Wonder how many girls he had loved and left haunted / But if he's a ghost, then I can be a phantom I can't ignore the connections here to two other songs thought to be written about M - Ghost (2014) and Haunted (2015) by Halsey (I won't bother going into the HalseyMatty lore here but I could in another post...)
"You're a Rolling Stone boy, never-sleep-alone boy / Got a million numbers and they're filling up your phone, boy" (Ghost) "I'm begging you to keep on haunting me" (Haunted) "My ghost / Where'd you go? / I can't find you in the body sleeping next to me" (Ghost)
I can be a phantom holdin' him for ransom / Knew I was a robber first time that he saw me / Stealing hearts and running off and never saying sorry / But if I'm a thief, then he can join the heist / And he can be my jailer Robbers is one of The 1975’s most famous songs. In the music video two lovers stick up a convenience store - definitely worth a
watch if you haven't seen it. In 2014 M dedicated the song to T in Dallas in November 2017 (a week after she attended the concert in LA)
here and
here Burton to this Taylor One of my favorite references that I think reveals a lot about the messy but irresistible relationship M and T seem to have.
Here's a link to a great article about the wild love affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Every love I've known in comparison is a failure / I forget their names now, I'm so very tame now / Never be the same now This sentiment is repeated throughout many of the songs I believe are about M. The idea of a life altering love is obviously prevalent across TTPD but also in folklore, evermore, and Midnights. ex. "I'm never gonna love again" (cowboy like me), "I don't remember who I was before you painted all my nights a color I have searched for since" (Question...?), "I felt aglow like this / Never before and never since" (loml)
Also want to mention This Must Be My Dream from 2016, which M has said is about an older gf but may fit: "Let me tell you 'bout this girl / I thought she'd rearrange my world"
No one has to know / In the middle of the night, in my dreams / You should see the things we do, baby See Guilty as Sin? lol
Baby, let the games begin Taylor in an
interview with Glamour in February 2014:
TS: [Nods. Pauses.] I think everyone should approach relationships from the perspective of playing it straight and giving someone the benefit of the doubt. Until he establishes that this is a game. And if it's a game, you need to win. The best thing to do is just walk away from the table.
CL: Is that winning?
TS: It is when they come back. [Laughs.] And if they don't, then they didn't care enough to begin with.
conclusion: I believe ...Ready For It? is a response to Robbers and reveals M and T's similar romanticism (sometimes toxic but so addicting). The mirrored stylization of ...Ready For It? and Question...? makes me think the latter is a continuation of the former. The mentions of “island breeze” and “we’ll move to an island” have made people believe this song is about Tom Hiddleston but other lyrics, namely “younger than my exes” pretty clearly contradicts that.
"End Game" I wanna be your end game / I wanna be your first string /I wanna be your A-Team Funny reading this after The Alchemy and So High School.
Big reputation, big reputation / Ooh, you and me, we got big reputations / And you heard about me / Ooh, you and me would be a big conversation And they were! Especially because T hadn't been really linked to anyone after Harry, the speculation about her and M came hard and fast. M especially was inundated with
questions in the months after the LA and NYC shows.
And I heard about you / You like the bad ones, too Another possible reference to a Halsey song, this time Hurricane from 2014: "He says, "Oh, baby, beggin' you to save me / Well, lately I like 'em crazy/ Oh, maybe, you could devastate me"
I don't wanna touch you, I don't wanna be / Just another ex-love you don't wanna see / I don't wanna miss you / Like the other girls do Very reminiscent of The 1975's song Somebody Else, released in 2016, speculated to be about T: "I don't want your body / But I hate to think about you with somebody else"
I hit you like bang, we tried to forget it, but we just couldn't "Flashbacks waking me up / I get drunk, but it's not enough" (Death By A Thousand Cuts)
And I bury hatchets, but I keep maps of where I put 'em "I circled you on a map / I haven't come around in so long" (The Alchemy)
Reputation precedes me, they told you I'm crazy "And they tried to warn you about me" (The Albatross)
And I can't let you go, your hand prints on my soul "Marked me like a bloodstain" (Cardigan)
It's like your eyes are liquor, it's like your body is gold So many of the songs speculated to be about M reference his eyes but the most relevant (not the starry eyed motif which we'll get to in the future) are: "Eyes like sinking ships on waters / So inviting I almost jump in" (gold rush) and "But your eyes are flying saucers from another planet / Now I'm all for you like Janet" (Snow On The Beach)
"Deep blue, but you painted me golden" (Dancing With Our Hands Tied)
You've been calling my bluff on all my usual tricks / So here's the truth from my red lips From the same
Glamour article, Taylor talking about her 'trick' when dating:
CL: What's the freeze-out?
TS: You don't respond to any of his texts or calls until he does something desperate [like] shows up. Or he calls and leaves a voice mail. Something that makes it very clear to you that he's interested.
disclaimer: I am someone who thinks the Tom relationship was not that serious for T, so this song imo fits what she may have told us about her relationship with M more, though the beach reference does point to Tom in a way.
"Don't Blame Me" I've been breaking hearts a long time / And toying with them older guys / Just playthings for me to use See the quotes from the Glamour article above. "Younger than my exes, but he act like such a man, so" (...Ready For It?)
Something happened for the first time / In the darkest little paradise May refer to the dark concert venue where they met for the first time (see So It Goes... for more)
For you / I would cross the line / I would waste my time / I would lose my mind / They say, "She's gone too far this time." Sentiment that is repeated throughout TTPD, but most clearly in But Daddy I Love Him
My name is whatever you decide / And I'm just gonna call you mine Though this could be a stretch, in the spotify storyline for The 1975's Oh Caroline (2022), speculated to be about T, M said "It's an invented character, where the cadence really mattered. It couldn't be "Oh Linda" or "Oh Jane" [or "Oh Taylor"] - you had to have a 3 syllable that really works. I knew what the song was about, I had felt that about someone before and I got to write an episodic, mini movie about the subject"
disclaimer: If about M, this song is very on the nose with the drug references. Generally it's a very vague song and could easily be about Joe or another ex.
"So It Goes..." See you in the dark / All eyes on you, my magician / All eyes on us / You make everyone disappear Likely refers to the first time T saw M in person, when she was front row at The 1975's LA show. All eyes were on M then (including T's)
"Once upon a time, the planets and the fates / And all the stars aligned / You and I ended up in the same room / At the same time" (Mastermind)
Tripping, tripping when you're gone May relate to Don't Blame Me: "Trip of my life / every time you're touching me"
'Cause we breakdown a little / But when you get me alone, it's so simple Maybe a stretch but M famously had a breakdown on stage in Boston on December 6, 2014. In an interview with the
Guardian he said: “There was girl stuff. There was family stuff. There was financial stuff. There was drug stuff. I remember hearing the crowd and having an identity crisis. I thought: ‘If you want to see a show, I’ll give you a fucking show. If you’ve come to see the jester drink himself into a slumber, I’ll give it to you.’ I felt like I’d become an idea as opposed to being a person.”
“And I was 25 and afraid to go outside” (Give Yourself a Try)
And all the pieces fall / Right into place "I laid the groundwork and then, just like clockwork / The dominoes cascaded in a line" (Mastermind)
Getting caught up in a moment / Lipstick on your face "I said, "Don't fall in love with the moment" / She said I've got a lot to learn / Don't fall in love with the moment /And think you're in love with the girl" (She's American)
Come here, dressed in black now "Yeah, we're dressed in black from head to toe" (Chocolate). Taylor was also wearing all black the night of the
LA show.
conclusion: You did a number on me / But, honestly, baby, who's counting? / I did a number on you / But, honestly, baby, who's counting? (3)
"King of My Heart" We met a few weeks ago / Now you try on callin' me "baby" like tryin' on clothes The reason why I don't necessarily think Joe fits. They met at the Met Gala in 2017 and she very quickly started seeing Tom, obviously it could still be him but I wanted to note this.
"Don't call me 'kid,' don't call me 'baby' / Look at this idiotic fool that you made me" (illicit affairs)
And you move to me like I'm a Motown beat M loves Motown, even sampling a track by
The Temptations on Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy). He's also always loved dancing, which you can see in the videos for
A Change of Heart and
Oh Caroline.
Salute to me I'm your American Queen / Say you fancy me, not fancy stuff He's English, obviously.
And we rule the kingdom inside my room / With all these nights we're spending / Up on the roof with a school girl crush Totally speculation but M and T hiding out in her NYC home makes a lot of sense from other pieces she has shared about the relationship “My kingdom come undone” (Hoax)
Late in the night, the city's asleep / Your love is a secret I'm hoping, dreaming, dying to keep Speculation again but fits with the story of M and T as mostly loving each other in secret (see Dancing With Our Hands Tied and Dress)
Is this the end of all the endings? / My broken bones are mending As mentioned above, T had seemingly taken a break from dating after the breakup with Harry.
disclaimer: Definitely not 100% sure on this one as there is convincing evidence that it is about J
"Dancing With Our Hands Tied" I, I loved you in secret / First sight, yeah, we love without reason / Oh, 25 years old M and T were both born in 1989, M was 25 when they first met and dated and T was turning 25.
My, my love had been frozen / People started talking, putting us through our paces / I knew there was no one in the world who could take it / I loved you in spite of / Deep fears that the world would divide us “A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground / With no one around to tweet it” (The Lakes)
In an interview with the
Guardian Matty said: “The day after she’d been to a show of ours, someone sent me a screenshot of E! News with the headline ‘Who is Matt Healy?’ That freaked me out. I’m not ready to indulge in that world and I’m not ready to be judged by that world.” So sad to read knowing that they dealt with a similar situation nearly a decade later.
Picture of your face in an invisible locket “Wear you like a necklace” (So It Goes…)
And darling, you had turned my bed into a sacred oasis “Now you hang from my lips / Like the Gardens of Babylon / With your boots beneath my bed” (cowboy like me)
I'd kiss you as the lights went out / Swaying as the room burned down / I'd hold you as the water rushes in / If I could dance with you again Reminds me so much of the music video for
cardigan, where T slips into a rough ocean and hangs on to a piano. Also from cardigan: “Leaving like a father / Running like water”
“Dress” Our secret moments in a crowded room / They got no idea about me and you "Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room / And every single one of your friends was / Making fun of you" (Question...?)
There is an indentation in the shape of you / Made your mark on me, a golden tattoo M seemingly makes a lasting impression: “Deep blue, but you painted me golden” (Dancing With Our Hands Tied) “The mark they saw on my collarbone” (Maroon) “Marked me like a bloodstain” (cardigan)
'Cause I don't want you like a best friend T often seems to refer to a friendship with M, perhaps they tried it a few times: “We were supposed to be just friends” (Glitch) “Like you were my closest friend” (Maroon) “Just say when, I'd play again / He was my best friend / Down at the sandlot” (My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys)
And if I get burned, at least we were electrified “I'd kiss you as the lights went out / Swaying as the room burned down” (Dancing With Our Hands Tied)
I'm spilling wine in the bathtub / You kiss my face and we're both drunk Many of the possible M songs refer to M and T’s love of wine. “And I can see us twisted in bedsheets / August slipped away like a bottle of wine” (august) “The burgundy on my T-shirt when you splashed your wine into me / And how the blood rushed into my cheeks, so scarlet, it was (maroon)” (Maroon)
disclaimer - Obviously most likely about Joe given the reference to the 2017 Met Gala but I think it was worth a mention!
“Call It What You Want” My baby's fly like a jet stream / High above the whole scene Probably a double-entendre. M
considers himself slightly on the outside of the ‘scene’ but this can come across as self assurance. This also could refer to literally being high on drugs
Loves me like I'm brand new After T’s clever use of The Starting Line in TTPD I’m convinced she’s referring to the band Brand New. M posted a Brand New album on his
ig story in 2020.
All my flowers grew back as thorns An interesting contrast to “I once was poison ivy, but now I'm your daisy” from Don’t Blame Me
Windows boarded up after the storm “I look through the windows of this love / Even though we boarded them up” (Death By A Thousand Cuts)
I'm laughing with my lover “Laughing with my feet in your lap” (Maroon) “Please don't ever become a stranger / Whose laugh I could recognize anywhere” (New Year’s Day)
Making forts under covers Matty famously built a fort in
ATPOAIM 3. “I'll build you a fort on some planet / Where they can all understand it” (Down Bad)
Trust him like a brother “Like I lost my twin” (Down Bad)
Starry eyes sparking up my darkest night So many starry eyed references which is terribly romantic and terribly sad. “Do I really have to chart the constellations in his eyes?” (High Infidelity), “Your opal eyes are all I wish to see” (ivy), “Eyes full of stars” (cowboy like me), and “Gazing at me starry-eyed” (The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived)
I want to wear his initial on a chain 'round my neck “Picture of your face in an invisible locket” (Dancing With Our Hands Tied) “Wear you like a necklace” (So It Goes…)
I recall late November, holding my breath Late November fits perfectly into the timeline of M and T’s 2014 relationship. Late October to Late DecembeEarly January makes the most sense.
Slowly I said, "You don't need to save me / But would you run away with me?" “You're mad thinking you could ever save me. Not looking like that.” (A Change of Heart)
disclaimer: Again lots of Joe references in this as well so take this with a grain of salt.
“New Year’s Day” You and me from the night before, but / Don't read the last page From Me and You Together Song (2020): “I think the story needs more pages, yes.” The reference to “the last page” also makes this song feel like more of a reminiscence than a song about a current lover.
I want your midnights / But I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day Impossible not to reread these lyrics after Midnights was released as a nod to M: “When the morning came we / Were cleaning incense off your / Vinyl shelf ‘cause we lost track of time again” (Maroon)
You squeeze my hand three times in the back of the taxi / I can tell that it's gonna be a long road / I'll be there if you're the toast of the town, babe / Or if you strike out and you're crawling home Especially after the release of TTPD it seems that both T and M made many promises to each other that they couldn’t keep
Hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you / Hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you / Hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you / And I will hold on to you The reference to memories here creates a bit of a confusing feeling about the muse for this song. Although T seems to be talking in the present tense I do think these are memories and dreams for a past relationship.
“Hold on and hope that we'll find our way back in the end / Do you think I have forgotten? / Do you think I have forgotten? / Do you think I have forgotten / About you?” (About You)
Please don't ever become a stranger / Whose laugh I could recognize anywhere / Please don't ever become a stranger / Whose laugh I could recognize anywhere Not much to say about this but ow!
You and me forevermore Again reminds me of Me and You Together Song (which I do buy as a song at least partially about T). And of course links to Evermore.
disclaimer: This could absolutely be about Joe but it does feel almost like a goodbye to M, closing the album. It’s as if she is reading “the last page”
Congrats if you read this lol. I clearly have too much time on my hands submitted by
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2024.05.15 22:37 astonesthrowaway127 Underwalking, my necromancy-based magic system
SOURCE In my setting, there is a realm called
the Underway, or simply
the Way, which is located beneath the mortal realm. This place is an endless, droning, blurry-edged liminal space of grayscale colors, populated by the ghosts of the dead. Some even say that the Way is ruled by Death itself.
People called
underwalkers or just
Walkers undergo training to see ghosts and to see down into the Way, and even to send their souls out of their bodies into the Way (which is considered risky). Walkers gain power by making
pacts with ghosts, in which the ghost does something for the Walker in exchange for blood sacrifice (whether taken from the Walker or from another source, willingly or not).
Once a Walker and a ghost make a pact, a
pact seal appears on the Walker’s body: a bleeding wound that heals into a tattoo-like geometric pattern, and literally bleeds out of the Walker’s skin if the pact is ended or violated. Each pact has a unique pattern for its seal; the markings are believed to be a visual representation of the ghost’s soul. If a Walker is covered with many different patterns, they are considered very powerful and skilled.
MECHANICS When a Walker is sworn to a ghost, they use formulaic, prayer-like spells called
axioms to draw on the ghost’s power. Axioms can be verbally recited or written down. The basic structure of an axiom is:
- Addressing the ghost, either by name or another suitable title
- Recounting a notable or distinct deed the ghost did while alive
- Asking the ghost for some sort of service
- Vowing to offer a suitable blood sacrifice in return to honor the ghost
APPLICATIONS Walkers have a variety of capabilities:
Dead Communication: A fairly basic but useful ability. However, death changes people, and some ghosts are driven mad by it, making them incoherent and even dangerous. This is why it is so important to properly venerate the dead.
Divination: Some Walkers are trained in divining insights about the truth/future from ghosts, often by casting bones.
Invigoration: The power of another soul can allow Walkers to gain increased strength, speed, endurance, healing, etc. This ability extends to allowing the Walker to manually grow and shape their own flesh, blood, and bone, which can lead to painful and debilitating tumors if not properly controlled. This ability can also be used to treat and heal the wounds of other people.
Apparition Summoning: Walkers can raise one or more ghosts from the Underway as incorporeal apparitions.
Resurrection: This ability relies on the sacrifice of another human being to work. The resurrected person (known as a
Body) will not age, feel pain or temperature, nor need to eat, drink, or sleep. They will also not decay while resurrected, but if they are killed again, they will resume decomposing from wherever they left off. Walkers can’t sacrifice a Body to resurrect someone; it has to be a truly living person.
Soul Eating: Walkers can consume a soul and absorb it into themselves. This allows them to permanently absorb the knowledge, memories, and vitality of the eaten soul. This ability is extremely taboo and difficult to achieve, so not much is understood about how it works.
Environmental Manipulation: Especially powerful Walkers can extend the combined power of their and the ghost’s souls beyond the body and into the surrounding environment. There are stories of Walkers creating fire, summoning lightning, and sculpting solid rock like wet clay with the help of their sworn ghosts.
COSTS The main cost of underwalking is blood sacrifice. The exact amount of blood varies depending on the service asked of the ghost. For example, divination would require a small amount of blood (like sacrificing a pigeon) but a resurrection requires an entire human’s worth of blood. Ghosts tend to become very dangerous when not given their due, and may possess the Walker in retaliation.
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2024.05.15 22:02 GrabbaGottaJiggy Odd question for the no assed among us ergonomics solution
I’m having some somewhat concerning problems with my hips/ass from sitting and moving in the same positions so often. Especially during a tattoo I get all contorted. Note I’m a pretty big guy with no ass to speak of. My bones are just grinding away at the seat. To the point of hematomas and scar tissue. Anyone know of a better ergonomic solution for someone in my position ?
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2024.05.15 19:54 Charming_Bug5866 Throbbing pulse/artery in neck and collar bone pain
I have been having bad health anxiety lately but now fixated on this neck pain and throbbing pulse on the right side. The pain goes down right side of the front of my neck to the top of my collar bone. I made the mistake to google it and am now scared. I want to believe it’s just me being hyper aware and health anxiety but no idea what this is. Anyone else feel this?
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2024.05.15 19:36 micktalian The Gardens of Deathworlders (Part 72)
Part 72 Gene mods (Part 1) (Part 71) [Support me on Ko-fi so I can get some character commissions done and totally not buy more Gundams] “Alright, calm down. It's really not that serious.” Though the holographic representation of War Chief Neshkaname, complete with ocean blue eyes and linear facial tattoos on his tan face, looked quite noticeably tired, his overall demeanor seemed fairly positive. “I just got out of a meeting with representatives from the different protesting groups and all of them agree with the general idea of what we're trying to do with our united defense fleet. There's just quite a bit of disagreement about how our Confederacy should approach the questions related to Earth, Mars, and everyone in Sol.”
“What kind of questions are we talking about here?” General Robert Andrews, the now former General of the US Army, was the first to speak up amongst the crowd of military leaders. “Nothing about invading Earth, I hope.”
“Well…” Though Rob was only half serious about his comment concerning Earth, the way the commanding officer of the Nishnabe Militia’s Blue Fleet began his response put a genuinely concerned expression on a few faces from Sol. “It's only a small percent of our population who are calling for war to reclaim land. A few million people at most, none of whom hold any positions of leadership in our military. Luckily, there are far more people calling for boycotts, embargoes, or blockades as opposed to anything direct.”
“War Chief, to many governments on Earth, an embargo, and especially a blockade, would be considered akin to a direct declaration of war.” General Renee Descartes, the former Chief of Defense Staff of France and Second in Command of the European Union's Unified Military, despite the dark bags under her eyes implying she hadn't gotten anywhere near enough sleep before this meeting, retained her rather elegant poise when adding that bit of necessary context. “You see, the economy of Earth is highly reliant on importing raw materials from space. With the climate being as delicate as it is, no one is willing to risk the kinds of planetside resource harvesting necessary to keep the thirteen billion people in the Earth’s Sphere of Influence employed, fed, and happy. More importantly, we are starting to run out of easily accessible mineral deposits in space.”
“Yes, the lunar mines and the near-Earth asteroid colonies still under UN-E control simply aren't producing nearly enough material to meet growing demand.” Admiral Nathaniel Adeoye, who had also given up his position as the Chief of Astral Naval Staff of the African Federation, chimed in with a clearly worried tone in his deep voice. “While I can understand the rage some of your people must feel, especially towards Americans, the many different people of Africa were in no way responsible for the colonization of America. In fact, we were subject to colonialism ourselves.”
“At least y'all still got yahr homelands!” Commandant General Daniel Chasinghorse, the former Commander of the entirety of MarsGov's Void-Marine Corps, didn't mean for his statement directed at Adeoye to sound as vitriolic as it did. However, the idea of him, his Lakota people, and all the displaced Native American Nations who were now mostly living in space or on Mars potentially being included in the Nishnabe’s reasonably negative reaction towards the people of Earth had put him on edge. “Sorry for snappin’ at yah like that, Nate. But the people livin’ on Mars ain't nothin’ done to deserve bein’ restricted by an embargo or blockade. We need all the extra-Solar tech we can get if we're gonna keep our population's health from declining even further. And I’m sure the African Lunar colonies could really use that medical and gravity tech too!”
“Nothing's been decided yet, and most people on Shkegpewen want peace, we just haven't reached a consensus on how that peace will look.” War Chief Msko Pkwenech, the commander of the Nishnabe Militia’s Red Fleet, interjected while making an open gesture with his hands to try to pat down the tension building up in this meeting room. “And if helps at all, we did take quite a few public votes concerning technology sharing for things we consider essential. But Maser probably has quicker access to the results than I would.”
“About ninety percent of respondents voted to immediately authorize and start sending out medical and gravity tech, including a production ship to come out and make things in-system, which is well above the seventy-five percent consensus needed to move forward.” As soon as the Light-born AI holographically representing their consciousness as an androgynous human began to speak in an incredibly soothing tone, the stress levels in the room began to fall. “There are currently a few councils debating the finer details and arranging logistics of what will be sent. However, the specifics of who gets what and when they get it will be negotiated between the respective governments in Sol and the Nishnabe Intergovernmental Council. Our job as the United Human Defense Fleet is not to interfere with diplomacy between nations, just to ensure that diplomacy is handled in a reasonable and non-threatening manner. Now, with that said, the vote to provide essential assistance was just one if a few taken over the last couple weeks. And while that poll was overwhelming and definitive, the ones concerning visas, immigration, galactic trade, and interspecies relations all fell below the consensus threshold for the Confederacy to adopt an official policy. When we say embargoes and blockades, we are purely referring to trade interactions between species, not between humanity and your economic exclusive zone. Once the relevant councils develop updated options for people to vote on, the next vote will be held.”
“An’ how long's all that gonna take?” Commandant Admiral Carol Nez, as the former head of MarsGov’s Astral Intelligence Collective and Councilmember in the Navajo Nation of Mars, was keenly aware of both the pressing urge of many on the red planet to live on a world with a breathable atmosphere and how just long it often took to for Native Nations to build a consensus. “Everaday we got at least a thousand babies born in Martian maternity stations an’ at least thirty percent ‘ave some kinda health issues. The sooner we get y'all's medical tech, the more kids that're gonna grow up to be happy an’ healthy!”
“We are well aware of the negative health implications of trying to raise children in low-gravity.” Msko already had his tablet out and was in the process of sending over the relevant information to his counterparts from Earth and Mars. “Our genetic modification technologies require individualized sequencing but they can be applied before or after birth to correct any serious issues. They can even be used well into adulthood. I got my eye color changed when I became an adult, so we can help anyone who hasn’t already gotten cybernetic replacements for affected body parts. All of our ships still in Sol are actively trying to produce as much of the base materials as they can and are working with doctors from your stations to get everything deployed as quickly as possible.”
“Why don’cha just teach our docs how to do it?” As soon as Carol got the question out, Msko and Nesh shot each other cautious glances before they both looked towards Maser.
“Well, Commandant Admiral Nez…” As soon as the hologram of the AI began to speak, it was clear their words were directed at everyone present from Sol. “To be completely blunt with all of you, we have reason to believe that the moment people from either Mars or Earth got full access to the genetic manipulation technology the Nishnabe utilize, someone would begin conducting experiments to turn humans into living weapons even more dangerous than the cybernetic ones you already produce. The cybernetics sported by many of your civilians would be legally considered military-grade combat modifications, and individuals with those cybernetics would be barred from entering many GCC standard space stations. We know there are doctors within both UN-E and MarsGov already working on projects to modify your species genome to produce what you call super soldiers, which something which is generally highly illegal under GCC laws. In fact, the genetic manipulation done to Sarah and Johnathan McAfree would likely be considered combat adjacent modifications according to GCC standards, and they would also be subject to various limitations due to their enhanced physiology.”
“Hey, now! Spooky an’ ‘er brother ain’t that scary!” Though he had been spending most of this meeting quietly sitting in his corner of the round table and trying to stay out of things he considered to be beyond his expertise, Professor Mikhail T. River felt compelled to say something now that his ex and her brother had been brought up. “Sure, she can bench press me. An’ Johnny can pick up the stove to sweep under it. But that ain't the gnarliest I ever seen! I mean, jus’ look at Comandante Harrison over here!”
/----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While the members of the United Human Defense Fleet Council were in their meeting and discussing the rumors of Nishnabe protests Sarah had also caught wind of, that was far above her paygrade. Despite a tinge of concern fluttering away in the back of the unusually tall and rather athletically built Scotswoman’s mind, she wasn't worried about the things she had no control over. At the moment, she, her rather short and somewhat pudgy mother, and her colossal but cognitively limited brother were relaxing in the stables of the opulent nature area aboard UHDF DS-1 and spending time with the unicorn-like kaehi'xito that Mik had gifted to them. Though the three gingers were each busy with different things most of the day, Donna and Johnny with their Nishnabemwin and remote job training courses while Sarah performed her role as an intelligence analyst, the small family from Glasgow truly cherished this time they got to spend together. And the fact they were bonding with the closest living creatures in the galaxy to unicorns only made this even better for all of them.
“Hey Sarah! There you are!” As soon as Miakorva's voice called out from the entrance to the stable building, Sarah, her family, and the three unicorn-like creatures turned to see the Qui’ztar approaching them with familiar canine at her side. “And look who I found wandering around the ship! Did you know that Mikhail lets her walk around unsupervised?”
“Hiya Mia!” Being the closest to the entrance, Johnny was the first to greet the lanky and seemingly muscular blue woman before he crouched down low and extended a hand towards the Cane Corso. “An’ Micky lets her roam cuz she's a good girlie. Isn't tha’ righ’, Terry?”
“Terry Good dog!” Terry’s soft but deep whine was translated by her collar while she approached the man with her tail vigorously wagging.
“Terry's a trained station guard dog, Mia.” Sarah added while shooting the Qui’ztar intelligence officer a cheeky wink and coy smile. “It's ‘er job to wander a station, ‘r in this case a ship, an’ be on the lookout for trouble. An’ now that she can talk, she's a perfect workin’ animal. But wha’s up? Were yah lookin’ for me?”
“Oh, yes. Yes, I was. But… uh…” Mia paused for a moment as she watched the massive beast of a dog place her paws on Johnny's shoulders and begin licking the man's face as if he had smothered some kind of invisible but quite tasty treat across his skin. “Isn’t there a concern that Terry may… Well… Hurt someone? Her species are non-sapient apex predators with strong hunting instincts, correct?”
“Tha's why she and most other workin’ dogs ‘re so well trained, love.” Donna replied with a giggle, the adorable display of affection between her son and Mik's dog forcing a massive smile across her freckled and slightly wrinkled face. “There's always a bit o’ risk with dogs, especially the biggins like Terry ‘ere. But if these unicorns aren't freakin’ out cuz o’ ‘er, then we don’ gotta be worried.”
“Kaehi'xito didn’t evolve with canine predators, so they likely don't even recognize her as a potential threat.” As Mia watched the beast of a dog lean more of her weight on to Johnny, she half expected the large and well-built man to fall over from the force. However, much to her surprise, the man stopped his energetic scratching on Terry's sides, wrapped his arms around her waist, and effortlessly lifted the gargantuan animal into the air, all the while it continued to lick his face. “But seeing you carry that creature like a baby would be enough to make almost anyone with caniphobia be cautiously curious about these creatures. And they must not be as heavy as they look if you can pick one up so easily.”
“Oh, Terry’s a thickin! At least fifteen stone!” In a motion that seemed in utter opposition to Johnny's comment, the man half-tossed the Cane Corso into the air so that he could reposition his hands to cradle the massive canine as if she were a literal baby. “But she's still a good lil pupper, ain't yah, Terry?”
“Terry, good baby!” Though Terry hadn't started flailing or showing any obvious signs of discomfort, she suddenly turned her head towards Sarah with a longing look in her golden eyes. “Pack-mother cuddle?”
“Yeah, sure, yah big ol’ lunk.”
Though Mia could believe a man as impressively large as Johnny may not have much difficulty in lifting a hundred kilo canine, she was completely flabbergasted by Sarah's ability to simply pull Terry from Johnny's grasp and continue to hold the animal up without even the slightest indication of strain. Not only had she just gotten confirmation that this creature was just as heavy as she thought, Miakorva was now being faced with the fact that the woman she had been cuddling with a night for quite some time was significantly stronger than she had realized. According to all the interspecies education she had received, which may have been slightly biased by the Qui’ztar professor teaching the courses, her own species had the highest ratio of strength to body mass of any Ascended species. And while she was aware that this woman she had formed a relationship with weighed about the same as she did despite being several centimeters shorter, Mia had yet to witness Sarah's capabilities demonstrated in such a casual manner.
“By the Matriarch, Sarah!” The lanky blue woman couldn't help herself as her bioluminescent freckles lit up at the shocking display of strength. “How are you that strong?!?”
“Gene mods.” Though Sarah didn't hesitate in her answer, she did wince slightly as she did so. “Me muscles’re almost twice as dense as the average human's. Tha's actually somethin’ I had to talk to Maser an’ NAN abou’ the other day. ‘Parently tha’ ain't a thing most species do for some reason. Bu’ I'm pre’y sure we talked abou’ tha’ already.”
“You did mention it but… Well… I didn't realize your people's genetic engineering was that sophisticated. But I guess that does confirm a couple of the rumors I've heard that I was going to ask you about.”
“Wha’ rumors?” Donna blurted out with a bit too defensive of a tone as her eyes fell upon her son who had gone back to brushing his vaguely moose-like unicorn. “An’ who's spreadin’ ‘em?”
“Well…” Mia hesitated for a moment, causing the two Scotswomen to shoot her suspicious looks. “I was assisting with the logistical planning with the Nishnabe in charge of the distribution of medicine to people on Earth and Mars, most of which involved genetic modification serums. And when I asked why there was no plan, or even consideration, of passing on the technology so it could be locally produced, the people I was working with told me there were rumors of… Well… My people would call it Qui'kijarto niko'txo, which would roughly translate to an enhanced soldier project.”
“Yahr people tried to make super soldiers, too?” Sarah asked with a laugh that implied a sense of relief.
“No!” The instant denial caused Sarah to cease her laughter and forced a slight frown on her rather pale and freckled face. “As soon as my people began developing genetic engineering almost thirty thousand years ago, our government and scientific community came together to completely outlaw any attempts to enhance our form in a way that would make us even deadlier in combat. Besides that, even after thirty thousand years of research, we have only recently mastered the ability to stabilize our genetics and guard against speciation due to diverse environmental conditions.”
“Yah really tryin to tell us yahr people never tried to improve themselves?” The older Scotswoman chimed in with a clearly doubtful expression. “No one ever tried to give their kids an advantage in life? Super soldiers experiments ain't the only thing we use gene modding for.”
“Well… No… I don’t believe we ever have.” Mia hadn't really put much thought into it, even when she and Sarah had talked about it before. But now she was starting to realize that an attempt to give a child an advantage in life by increasing their physical capabilities could directly translate to turning that child into an ideal soldier. “As far as I know, very few other species have engaged in that form of genetic modification. And the ones who have tried struggled to produce anything truly successful.”
“Gene mods ain't always successful, Mia.” Johnny didn't bother to look away from the unicorn he was brushing as he made the comment lest he see the sadness that suddenly appeared in his mother's eyes. “Bu’ I learned the other day tha’ Nishnabe gene tech is way better than wha’ we got on Earth. Maybe they'll ‘ave some stuff to teach us after they feel we're trustworthy enough to learn it.”
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2024.05.15 19:08 greendead16 First steps?
Bear with me here, I’m making this post for my fiancé because he (and I) am not sure where to begin. We have an appointment at the VA on the 18th of this month to apply for disability for him. We are unsure how to go about the process of what to ask fo claim? He broke his collar bone on duty and was flown back from deployment for surgery twice in regards to that- it causes him daily pain and sometimes effects his ability to pick up our children or do his job properly. He also has sleeping issues where he will talk yell jerk and punch the air and has hit me in his sleep on accident before. He seems to have light ptsd and anxiety (yes we have been to a psychologist this is not self diagnosed)- he also has knee pain ankle pain and regular back pain- there is a record of him complaining about that during deployment. Lastly his sinuses are f*cked up and he was exposed and contracted covid during mandatory training.
(Forgot about this) He was in Kuwait and if I remember correctly he is apart of the PACT act what do we need to know in regards to that?
If you can help guide us in any kind of direction before we go to the appointment that would be really appreciated. Thank you for reading this if you made it this far.
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2024.05.15 18:33 PandaMontana1212 Lymphoma or something else?
29F I see Hematology/Oncology this coming Monday 5/20 but am trying to ease my mind a bit until then. I originally got referred to hematology/oncology because I’ve been having blood clots including multiple SVTs, DVTs, and a PE. I failed Eliquis and now I’m on Warafrin and had a couple other blood thinners in between. I just saw Vascular and they said to keep going with the blood thinners.
I’m starting to put together my symptoms I’ve been having over the last 9 months and I’m starting to get worried. I’m having terrible night sweats where my clothes and sheets are soaked, a dry cough, fatigue even when I get a full 7-9 hours of sleep, back pain, slightly decreased appetite, arm and leg swelling (roughly where the clots were located), chest/collar bone pain/discomfort, pain/discomfort that starts in my left underarm and extends into my upper arm, that same area feels weird (like full) when I lay down on that side, quick light headed episodes, and recently started getting low grade fevers that last a day or so even though I’m not sick.
I went to the ER a couple weeks ago because my chest pain and coughing were getting worse and I was worried my PE was getting worse. They did a CT of my chest and thankfully the PE had resolved, but my lymph nodes under both my arms were “reactive”. I know this could be a weird combination of symptoms or something more serious. Has anyone experienced this before? Could this be anything else besides lymphoma or cancer? Any input would be appreciated!
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http://rodzice.org/