Until I turn to dust, with You

《If you're too proud to follow rivers, how you ever gonna find the sea?》I won't be active here anymore but I can't delete this account (too many precious memories) so this is now an archived account

[joesalw]

An opinion/theory I have that is based on nothing but vibes, my opinion on relationships and and my love for armchair psychology is that I don't think Joe ever really planned on settling down with Taylor. I'm not saying he wasn't in love with her or wasn't committed to her when he was with her, but I think deep down he knew (maybe only subconsciously) that this wasn't going to be forever.

I remember as early as 2021 there were rumours that the two of them were engaged and last year there were "secret marriage" rumours. When me and my brother would have our celeb gossip sessions he was the one who said they probably were married and would announce it at a later date, whilst I didn't really buy it I did think that it might be a possibility given how long their very serious relationship has been going. Like in 2017 you had Taylor singing about wanting to be his endgame and their sex life. Then in 2019 she mentioned marriage several times and how she'll never get over it if she loses him, and then the following year you had her mentioning giving him a child. After all this you'd be forgiven for assuming it means that they've had the conversation about marriage and children being a foregone conclusion.

Because of this, plus them both being in their 30s last year there was no reason why there wouldn't at least be a ring given on bended knee. But then midnights came out and after listening to it, especially to lavender haze, I realised that man don't want her and that relationship isn't going to last all that much longer. That post where his inner circle knew the breakup was coming for a while does go well with my theory so I choose to believe it. (Confirmation bias and all that)

People who think that maybe it was Taylor that didn't want to settle down or get engaged or that she was okay going that long without a ring really need to look at the kind of woman Taylor is. She was raised in a wealthy white conservative republican environment where girls are taught your achievements are nothing unless a man has married you. She's been looking for a husband since she came of age which is maybe why she gets attached so easily and is so bitter when it doesn't work out. Or maybe because everything else came to her so easily without much work she thought a man would too. There is no doubt in my mind about who wanted out in that relationship.

I honestly understand why she's probably so embarrassed right now. Girl really went from "he better lock it down or I won't stick around" to "all anyone wants to know is if I'm your wife". And then she got dumped. She could have saved herself the trouble by putting her money where her mouth is and dipped.

When you get anons asking why someone who seems like a great guy would be with someone like her, I think whilst she did probably pretend to be someone who wanted the same things he did and he was in love with her so he went along with it, but I also think he wasn't 100% fooled which is why their relationship ending was just a breakup and not a divorce.

Sorry for this essay, my cats asleep on top of me so I thought I'd kill some time waiting for her to wake up. If I can make another prediction, I think when Joe finds his "one" (if you believe in that) he'll be locked in pretty quickly and will probably be more open about their relationship whilst still being private.

he wasn’t 100% fooled. nice observation anon.

[do-everything-with-meraki]

But also consider at the start he mentioned about the fame that he would see how much he could take of it. It's ok to change his mind about not wanting all this attention especially if they have kids. Swift is letting the media feed on her current relationship every single day now. It's part of her Empire. She wants her and Travis to be a "power couple." Meanwhile Joe has a more simple view of what he wants his relationship to be like. There is no need to be a "power couple" for him. I do agree though that Joe realized that they were not compatible for a chance at a lasting marriage. Plus each preferring different places (América vs. London) it's best to just breakup. He's definitely the type to marry though, and by age 34/35 i expect he will.

[do-everything-with-meraki]

It's been 84 years, how is everyone?

[cremedelacoeur]

There’s a blizzard outside so today is for Tolstoy and tea

[like-fairy-tales]

By: Mazale

[ryannotations-deactivated201908]

↳ thursday 18.09.06.

worked a super long and suuuuuper slow shift at the welcome table for incoming international students, but had the best time bonding with my shift mates! always try and make connections with your colleagues, it makes work feel like play~ now i’m jumping between chinese vocab review on quizlet and finishing moving back into my old room at my parents’ house (which i’m moving back out of in like three weeks lmao why am i even trying?)

[do-everything-with-meraki]

Double Standards Hino

So, these people behind everything plan the murder people to insight hatred so vampires can be killed off in a bid to protect the human race and they are definitely deemed bad...this reminds me of Kaname, and how he did the same think to people all for Yuki (just one person) then goes on a killing spree and he gets a sloppy redemption that's still continuing. Readers are constantly reminded of his better qualities and everything else gets thrown out the window, unaddressed. Like VK never happened. Well then I hope all the antagonists in VKM get redemption arcs too Hino. I really do. I want to see if you'll show these characters the same treatment. But it's most likely not going to happen right Hino?

[dyke0clock-deactivated20210226]

Fall sets in 🍂

[faheys]

anyone else just really love the sun so much 

[do-everything-with-meraki]

Sure but not when it wants to kill me...

[kittendreamz]

VKM Chapter 23

Post with 1 views. VKM Chapter 23

VKM Chapter 23 raws. I didn’t separate the pages because /waves hands at work

[yume4evere]

OoO H MY GOD.OOOOH MY GOD

VAMPIRE KNIGHT MEMORIES spoilers

https://twitter.com/Noah_Tsukiyomi

[kalesbug]

[sartorialadventure]

The Himba (singular: OmuHimba, plural: OvaHimba) are indigenous peoples with an estimated population of about 50,000 people living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene Region (formerly Kaokoland) and on the other side of the Kunene River in Angola. The OvaHimba are a semi-nomadic, pastoralist people, culturally distinguishable from the Herero people in northern Namibia and southern Angola, and speak OtjiHimba, a variety of Herero, which belongs to the Bantu family within Niger–Congo. The OvaHimba are considered the last (semi-) nomadic people of Namibia.

The Himba often cover themselves with otjize paste, a cosmetic mixture of butterfat and ochre pigment, to cleanse the skin over long periods due to water scarcity and protect themselves from the extremely hot and dry climate of the Kaokoland as well as against mosquito insect bites. The cosmetic mixture, often perfumed with the aromatic resin of the omuzumba shrub, gives their skin and hair plaits a distinctive orange or red-tinge characteristic, as well as texture and style. Otjize is considered foremost a highly desirable aesthetic beauty cosmetic, symbolizing earth’s rich red color and blood the essence of life, and is consistent with the OvaHimba ideal of beauty. The OvaHimba are also accustomed to use wood ash for hair cleansing due to water scarcity.

Hairstyle and jewelry play a significant role among the OvaHimba, it indicates age and social status within their community. An infant or child will generally have his head kept shaven of hair or a small crop of hair on his head crown. This soon is sculptured to one braided hair plait extended to the rear of the head for young boys and young girls have two braided hair plaits extended forward towards the face often parallel to their eyes. This style is called ozondato, the form of wear being determined by the oruzo membership (patrilineal descent group). The style remains during preadolescence until reaching puberty. Some young girls, with exception, may also have one braided hair plait extended forwards, which means they are one of a pair of twins.

OvaHimba girl

OvaHimba girl dancing

OvaHimba boy

OvaHimba girl, one of a set of twins!

OvaHimba children, both boys and girls, removing ticks from goats.

From pubescence, boys continue to have one braided hair plait.

A young man wearing a braid known as ondatu. Namibia. Photo by Nigel Pavitt

Once they reach puberty, OvaHimba girls will have many otjize textured hair plaits, some arranged to veil the girl’s face. 

This girl is going through puberty, a fact made plain by her hairstyle, which has been designed to cover her face and help her avoid male attention. The puffs at the bottom are either goat hair or synthetic.

(In daily practice, the hair plaits are often tied together and held parted back from the face.) 

This girl’s braids are arranged to reveal her face, indicating that she’s ready to be married.

Women who have been married for about a year, or have had a child, wear an ornate headpiece called the Erembe, sculptured from sheepskin, with many streams of braided hair, coloured and put in shape with otjize paste. 

Married women wearing erembe

Unmarried young men continue to wear one braided hair plait extended to the rear of the head. When Himba men marry, they start wearing turbans, which they never take off unless someone in the village dies. After a death, their heads are shaved.  Because the turbans are never removed, things can get a little itchy underneath, so men carry pointed arrow-like instruments to scratch it with.

Married OvaHimba men. #s 1 and 3 wear a scratching implement in their turbans.

Widowed men will remove their cap or head-wrap and expose un-braided hair. 

Himba widower. The habit of using a head-scratching implement is hard to break.

[Source]

[baldbeauxs]

Wow this is the first time I’ve seen a culture where men are required to wear a headdress after marriage.

[thechronicleofshe]

every single person in this post is absolutely stunning

[jenniferrpovey]

Nnedi Okorafor’s novella trilogy Binti has a Himba main character. Otijze is even a plot point.

[do-everything-with-meraki]

Purgatory & Zero’s Final Wish

“The Place where you must endure the purification of your soul through suffering, during the time between the end of your life until the day you can reach heaven---Purgatory.” 

This definition of Seiren’s state comes during a tragic night in her life, portrayed in chapter 4, just after Kaname turns her into a vampire---a creature which he himself doesn’t wish to be---and he conveys this (aside from his precise description of what hell feels like to him) by telling her that this would be her cross to bear until her final death.   To Seiren, living as a vampire and serving Kaname is a insignificant price to pay because she and her sister had been raised to believe that being sacrificed was the only way for them to enjoy heaven.   Since it seemed that she wouldn’t be able to if she died without being a proper sacrifice it was the best thing to do:

Of course, by the time Seiren relates this story to Ai, she realized that all she had believed was just to ensure the children eagerly co-operated until what would be an untimely death one day, and Seiren doesn’t regret becoming a vampire.   Purgatory had become the time during which she does something worthwhile in her life; it doesn’t cause the suffering Kaname mentioned.   It’s clear that Yuki’s current state within Kaname is also a state of Purgatory, and this is something that makes makes very plain in her narration after Zero’s death:

Yuki considers her time within Kaname as a temporary state before hopefully going to heaven, and this ties wonderfully into the imagery shown on the cover of volume three where Kaname and a butterfly (a symbol for Yuki) is depicted with a background reminiscent of vk’s figurative dark forest which makes sense---Kaname has yet to find his way out of the state he was in before becoming the parent metal, which imo means he has to assure readers that he won’t repeat past choices and the first step to doing that is facing them to see them for what they are, and showing genuine remorse which is something he was shown on the path to accomplishing.   

Zero knows that Yuki has been bound to Kaname from birth, and her time with him later on served to complete this bind characterized in the art of this pairing through chains which doesn’t suit the freedom and lightness that her butterflies symbolize, so despite being able to find happiness with Zero by the end of her life on earth, she places herself in the position of ensuring that Kaname has another chance.   Similarly to Seiren being placed in “purgatory” despite not having done anything drastic to deserve it, Yuki is also unavoidably placed into this state within Kaname even though it’s possible that Yuki doesn’t feel any ‘sin’ weighing her down, and I think Hino pointed to this possibility through her recent art since it is possible that Zero is also sharing Yuki’s temporary state:

Source

Here Zero and Yuki are within the ice while Kaname isn’t.  Kaname was atoning for his sins as he slumbered within the ice made by Aidou, and now they have replaced him.  What sin does, if not Yuki, a character like Zero have to atone for? None. Yet Hino portrays him beside Yuki because she devoured him upon his request and it’s possible that this result is why being devoured is something that had to be Zero’s choice.   He chose the path of being with Yuki in death no matter what happened to her, and for now it means being there while she accomplishes whatever she would have to so that Kaname can finally move on from his past.

On the flip side, this image could just be a symbol of Kaname’s hidden/frozen memories of Yuki and Zero which he is clawing at so anything is possible, but at the same time it’s still a big arrow pointing at the purgatory issue, especially when Kaname’s time in the ice was his time in that state before getting a clean slate.

[imaginarylights]

[ x ]

[nostalgic-scent]

Little by little, the gear started to lose its track. The warmth mom equally gave... it belonged to Ichiru and it was for Ichiru, but I took it away from him.

自分は愛されてはいけない. I must not be loved. -- Zero Kiryu

[findyouwithme-deactivated201212]

[justimeter]

This is the cutest thing ever!  I can’t even handle the cute!  <3

[---serena---]

😂😂😂😂😂😂❤️❤️❤️cute

[do-everything-with-meraki]

omg you totally don't know Japanese. Don't change the meaning of ai as per your convenience. Ai is the highest form of love. Yuuki doesn't use ai for zero, only for Kaname. Yume fruit of love is Ai. Yuuki misses Kaname's scent. She gushes about his soft hair. Zero got laid after 70 long years and she still won't commit to him because her heart belongs to Kaname. Whatever buildup it is that you were ranting about? Zero mauling Yuuki out of sexual frustration in VKM 13 is not buildup. Gross.

Anon, just five seconds of research will show you that Ai is unconditional meaning it can be used to show love to anything and anyone. There is a form of ai though that does speak of love shared by a couple. It's aishiteru, like I said, and in chap. 1 of vkm, Yuki smiles at Zero whole-heartedly when he tells her that he knows she loves him specifically in that way. Her love for him is set apart and different from the love she has for Kaname and Ai and all the other people she loves. And dear anon, it's proven in the fact that he alone is able to satisfy her with his blood. Aisuru literally means to love something, and can be used for anyone she loves--Yuki can say that to her daughters and anyone she cares for. She says it to Kaname and well of course she loves him, like all the people she loves. But the only persons who is her irreplaceable partner, the boy she grew to cherish is Zero, and he's the only one ai in the romantic sense is used by Hino to refer to. Now, you see chapter 13 as zero mauling her, while I see him trying to fulfill her wish for him to live forever, plus she legit asks Zero to keep drinking her blood when he's done and he's the one having to restrain himself, ok. Keep dreaming anon, and get out of my inbox.