Djinn

Work, Run, Study. Statistician, Runner, Grad school.

[jrastegar]

A Venn Diagram. All of it.

It's all here and finished. I definitely have to work on my dissertation now that my excuses are gone. I hope y'all like it.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[jrastegar]

A Venn Diagram, Ch. 4

As the weekend came to a blessed end, she was gifted with the monotony of corporate America. A needy company, clutching onto her coat tails to ride the consistent stock rebound as it had not in years under Lex. Though she did not micromanage, she did have overview of everything under her purview. “Exhausting,” Jess had once described her oversight, but Lena did not possess the privilege of ignorance if she was going to reverse the descent into madness her brother had set the company on a collision course for.

Lena Luthor’s relationship with scotch continued, undisturbed, as her secretary topped her off before taking off for the evening. She turned from her desk, spinning in her chair to the sizable aerial view of National City.

The twilight hour, she thought to herself. Only there was no glow to speak of from the dying sun. No, it was dark. There was no light to warm the surface of the earth outside of the cold, remote Moon.

Her eyes drifted from the skyline to the glass resting in her hand, and she scoffed dryly. “You’ll keep me warm, won’t you, Macallan?” She imbibed and emptied the glass. It skewed her thoughts from the updates of various projects to the Venn Diagram idling in the back of her mind. Setting down the empty tumbler, she rose from her seat, determined.

She reached back and gathered her thick black hair into a ponytail. Shrugging off the navy suit coat, she tossed it on an empty sofa and pressed a button beneath the light switch. A clear whiteboard lowered in the center of the room. She pulled the magnetically-held black marker from the cold surface and began to write.

Union of Super = Union of all subsets

Super with subsets {Courageous, Strong, Liar, Cold, Distant}

Kryp Kara with subsets {Courageous, Strong, Liar, Tepid, Absent}

Human Kara with subsets (Courageous, Strong, Liar, Warm, Friendly}

She then threaded the intersections, the places where Super and Human Kara overlapped only to pause and note that the overlap also included the overlap with Kryp Kara.

Kryp Kara intersects Human Kara intersects Super = {Courageous, Strong, Liar}

Perhaps, she considered, she was giving the Kryptonian version of Kara too much credit. Perhaps, instead, the remote Kryptonian was closer to her costumed version. A thought surfaced, a memory that she had witnessed played out on the 5 o’clock news of Supergirl in robes, walking hand-in-hand with counter protestors.

She took a step back from the set theory on her whiteboard and considered this new information. Lena lifted the cap of the marker to her lips and studied some middle distance through the whiteboard. She gave herself several moments to dissuade her instinct before, like a mathematical proof, the evidence was too overwhelming to reject. Stepping forward, she begrudgingly erased the end of the brackets beside Kryp Kara and wrote the word, “activist”.

Human Kara, her Kara, had found the ability to remain unbiased as a reporter. Lena appreciated her ability to take arguments in context, and expand her understanding to give credit to other opinions she may not considered of value. This gave the sickening realization that Supergirl, too, protected without bias. It was both nauseating, and relieving. Lena wrote in the intersection between Human Kara and Super the word “unbiased”.

It was nauseating because it was another unexplainable discrepancy between the triad of personalities. Relieving, though, to know this exercise was not futile, and adding Kryp Kara was not without merit. It validated Lena’s instincts to treat all three as separate facades. Facades that she foolishly believed at face value.

Moving around the desk, she fetched her bottle of scotch and re-filled her glass. The second glass never scorched her throat as painfully as the first, and absently, she missed the heat. She missed feeling… anything.

If she were less cerebral, she would find other ways to fill the spaces left in Kara’s wake.

The rogue thought caused her breath to catch and her eyes to flicker between useless objects on her desk. Where did that come from?

She erased the conjecture as if with lye and cleared her throat. She pressed a button on the side of her desk and the whiteboard disappeared behind a slot in the ceiling. She took her seat at the helm once more and buried her attention in work.

In doing so, Lena missed the warmth of eyes idling in the air fifty paces from the glass doors of her balcony at L-Corp.

[jrastegar]

A Venn DIagram, Ch. 3

Who's got two thumbs and isn't working on their dissertation?

----

It was not improbable that sleep would not come to Lena Luthor, especially since Kara’s proverbial unmasking, but in light of her evening’s victories, she had hoped to be spared from insomnia. Unwilling to leave the warmth of her bed, she rolled onto her side and clutched a spare pillow against her chest.

When she had her apartment furnished, there wasn’t an option for a smaller bed than King. But in moments like this, she felt acutely aware of how little space she covered. Like being lost in the middle of an ocean, stranded, and lost. It was not the first time Lena had felt the cool bite of loneliness, but Kara’s warmth had been so acute that its loss made this all-the-more painful for its absence…. For her absence.

She let her eyes drift open. They were not wet, no, they had been emptied of moisture from some mix of forced dehydration and unbidden emotion.

Instead of fixating on the pain buried somewhere in the mess of viscera in her body, she thought to her diagram. In the past, in moments of despair, she could glance at pictures of puppies in various dog parks captured in selfies across National City and sent from Kara’s phone. She would let her eyes drift over whatever devilry the poor dog was subjected to in terms of costume, before spending the next several fold interval of time investigating the details of Kara’s face. She had memorized the distinguishing features of moods in the tells of Kara Danvers.

She felt ill, again. She had never flagged hidden identity as one of those features and the miscalculation still stung as sharply as it did when it tumbled from Lex’s dying mouth like a death knell of cruelty. Very on Luthor brand, she thought idly.

Even still, Kara Danvers was a friend to every living and non-living thing in National City. She remembers Kara insisting on gifting her own scarf to a naked statue in the middle of downtown because Lena, it’s the middle of winter! She’s a statue, not an ice sculpture! Lena chuckled to herself, absently.

Turning over, she reached across the endless chasm of sheets on the bed and lifted the tablet from its charging dock and quickly pulled up the diagram. She fetched her stylus from its magnetic grip against the tablet, and scribbled in the Kara-only circle, “friendly”, then moved the tip of the stylus to the Super circle and wrote in “distant”.

She considered Kryptonian Kara, and suddenly the little she knew of her solved that portion of the equation. “Absent”, she wrote in the circle that was only Kryp Kara and studied the developing Venn Diagram.

A picture was beginning to form, an image, she thought to herself. Kara Danvers was a cover for the cold, judgmental sentience in the other conjoined circles.

It brought no joy to Lena. The equation was far from solved, but the data was going to be difficult to counter. Absently, she scolded herself for holding out hope that these individuals were all the same person, just in different color wheels. Lena Luthor would follow the math no matter where it led. She couldn’t… she wouldn’t be a fool again.

A profound fatigue settled on her shoulders as her mind warred with itself. Some vague, unfortunate hope had yet to be extinguished, despite overwhelming data to the contrary. She tapped the button on her tablet, powering it off, and re-attached the stylus to its magnetic vice.

Her thoughts waged war until the ache in her soul, and weight on her shoulders became too much to bear without at least a couple hours of dreamless, non-restorative sleep.

[jrastegar]

A Venn Diagram, Ch. 2

The following week, Lena’s emotional-support tablet was utilized for schematics, file-retrieval, reading emails, and beating the tar out of whatever algorithm her various chess apps employed as AI these days. As the next weekend approached, and L-Corp employees exercised their various rights to a social life, Lena found less distractions to busy herself with. The equation drifted from subconscious thought to the forefront of her mind.

Lena Luthor found herself opening the file and viewing three conjoined circles once more. Perhaps, she considered, instead of defining the set directly, I could define the contrapositive—what is the set not.

A slow curve coiled her lips as she felt a well of pride rise in her chest. Not to be out-smarted by petty human emotions of regret and loss, Lena found an opposing tactic to define the breaking of her heart. She sat back on the cushions of her sofa, and began listing off the qualities of National City’s own home-grown hero, herself, Supergirl.

The words came unbidden, aloud, “Courageous and strong.” She considered moral but there seemed too many nuances to allow the Kryptonian hero that many platitudes. No, Lena decided to stick with the uncomplicated—the irrefutable givens any mathematical equation required.

After a beat, she placed the tip of her stylus in the disjointed portion of “Super” only to freeze.

Her eyes began to burn in a way that heralded the regret of a perfect smoky eye. She swallowed down the forming lump. Courage…. Strength. She lifted the stylus from the “Super” only circle and placed it in the union of “Super” and “Human Kara”. She paused another moment, considering the life of a young Kryptonian girl who watched the destruction of her society somehow managing to withstand the trauma, the loss.

Her body had betrayed her numerous times in the past, but this one stray tear felt particularly villainous. She wrote those words in the union of all circles.

She might be a villain to her former friends, but no one could ever accuse her of fudging the numbers. She pushed the moisture from her cheek and ignored the tremble in her hand. “Cold,” she whispered as if willing the tears to stop, “Supergirl is cold. Kara is warm. Two contrary facades—two entirely different faces.” Triumph.

A smile broke the sculpture of ice across her face, and a laugh-half-sob followed. She wrote, proudly, in the spaces outside Supergirl and Human Kara the two contradictory words. Her gaze flitted to “Kryp Kara”. Having never met Kryptonian Kara, nor was that an avenue of lie Kara took part in, Lena found conjecture difficult. Was Kryptonian Kara warm or cold? Instead of leaving it blank, she married the two; “tepid”, she wrote.

She studied the circles proudly, feeling for the first time validated by the forming equation. Kara’s numerous lies are a testament to the fracture in both their friendship, and Lena’s heart. She reached across the sofa, to the coffee table and fetched her woefully under touched tumbler and lifted it to her lips. The bite of the scotch entered her lungs with its proximity, and it may choke another, lesser, person, but not Lena Luthor—for she was already drowning.

High off her validation, she pettily wrote in one word beneath Courage and Strength in the intersection of all circles—she wrote “liar”. It brought her no pleasure, but pain. Like pressing your fingers into a bruise until the sting returns in full force, reminding you of the weak, human, tissue beneath. Absently, she wondered if Kara had ever bruised, the thought that followed was natural. The desire, the urge to trap her under a red sun and dig her fingers into flesh until they sported pretty purples and blues. Before the last thought played out like a fantasy, Lena returned her attention to the Venn Diagram in her lap.

It wasn’t complete by any stretch of imagination, but it was promising. It was a start.

A start of what, though?

[jrastegar]

A Venn Diagram

Just a little thing I've been thinking about. --

In Lena Luthor’s freshman year at MIT, she took an introductory Probability and Statistics course. The syllabus consisted of rudimentary topics like probability theory, combinatorics, probability distributions, and hypothesis testing. These topics required a fundamental understanding of Set Theory which studies collections of objects and how they relate.

In general, when attempting to take sums or differences of sets, you must acknowledge whether they overlap, and where they fail to intersect.

These facts were simple to conceptualize when you were staring at circles labeled with various letters of the alphabet. They become more complex when you attempt to sum up the parts of a person, or person(s).

--

Lena studied the photograph of the two smiling faces; her own she recognized, but the face beside hers was an enigma. She knew who it was supposed to be, but as if staring at a double-exposed picture, failed to see only one person. Instead, she saw a Venn Diagram. Lena had taken the image from its frame, as though concerned the layer of clean glass might obscure a detail in her calculation. But as the pressure behind her eyes grew, she couldn’t account for the missing variables.

Dropping the near-weightless photo onto the coffee table, she reached for the crystal glass of scotch. It was heavy, and solid in her hand and the burn of alcohol it left with a generous drink was also tangible.  This glass, this scotch, this interaction was as real as a cast-iron pot. There were no fuzzy edges, no ambiguity. It had a measurable proof that could be consistently relied on, and the weight-to-alcohol percentage that never failed to perform its task of, humorously enough, fuzzing her edges.

Lena replaced the crystal tumbler on the table and rose from the sofa.  Though her nerves were settled with her second glass, it did little to abate the oncoming headache. This always happened when there was an equation she couldn’t solve expeditiously. She moved to her tablet charging on its docking station and pulled up a blank page. Here, she drew two overlapping circles. She labeled the one of the left “K” and the one on the right “S”. After a beat, her eyes narrowed and erased the circles. With her jaw clenched, she re-drew three overlapping circles. The first one she labeled, “Human Kara”, the next one she labeled “Super”, and the final she labeled “Kryp Kara”.

She moved back to the sofa, perching on one leg and chewed her bottom lip. Unbidden, the equations came to her mind—

Set difference is the difference between one set and other, adjacent sets. So if I wanted to define the differences between my best friend Kara, pre-lies, the one she wanted me to believe—

Human Kara – Super

She bit her lip, because that wasn’t exactly true. No, there was overlap between Human Kara and Kryptonian Kara, which means she needed to remove elements of both of those.

In Set theory, I can treat Super and Kryp Kara as a Union, then,

Human Kara – (Super)Union(Kryp Kara)

For the first time that evening, some of the pressure eased. The equation, simplified in concept, put mathematical form to her frustration.

Her voice escaped her before she could consider it, “And this is why I hate liars.” Licking her lips, she considered the aspects of Human Kara that did not overlap with the other two sets. The first thought that came to mind was honest, and she felt ill. In no world, could she conceive of any of these sets containing that word. Instead, she reached for the glass of scotch again and set her tablet to the side.

There would be no solving this equation tonight.

[ruinsoftheempire-deactivated202]

What more did Tilda want? Marriage, kids, for Lis to leave Miriam Technologies and join Far Zenith? How long did their relationship even last? Would have been nice if we had gotten literally any kind of backstory that didn't involve being told super vague statements that are probably all lies by Tilda.

[blackexcellence]

CONFIRMED 🎉👩🏾‍⚖️

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will become the 116th Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court and the FIRST Black woman to sit in the highest court.

image source

[tildavandermeer]

[jrastegar]

Inherited Bondage Completed!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33318445/chapters/82739632 It was a blast. Hats off to @hezjena2023 for the inspiration.

[caffeinatedrogue]

Empress of fire, Believe in us all. Embrace us with arms, And dress us with swords And light up our hearts with blood so bold. We are forever In your graces

[hezjena]

Aaaa thank you so much @kittynomsdeplume for the WIP Wednesday tag!

Tagging forward @sidhelives, @piecesofsolaswriting, @jrastegar, @the-cryptographer and @enby-hawke

I was left alone and I started on a new Anora/Celene…

Celene padded barefoot across the guest suit in Halamshiral, wearing nothing but a silk robe de chambre loosely thrown across her shoulders and tied with a single knot at her waist. Her bare skin showed from clavicle to curved, subtle cleavage. As she moved she kept her hands behind her back, hiding something. And she stopped in front of Anora, peering down at the visiting Queen, her pale blue eyes twinkled with amusement. Her question sounded innocent as her words dripped from her painted lips like honey; “are you still reading, your Majesty?”

“How did you get into my rooms?” Anora scowled at the intruder.

[sidhelives]

Chapter 7 - You Can Count on Me to Lie When it Matters

Luckily Hawke was easy to find.

Even more luckily, the elf woman Aveline wanted to speak to was still with him.

She didn't so much push through the crowd as the occupants saw her armor and shuffled out of her way, quickly clearing a path between the door and the only reason the Guard Captain was ever in the Hanged Man: Garrett Hawke.

Varric spotted her first. "Uh oh, here comes the law to ruin our fun," he said, hands not stilling as they shuffled a deck of cards.

Everyone else looked up at her, their expressions varying from disappointment to curiosity. Aveline supposed that was fair, she didn't often turn up for good reasons.

"Don't worry, no one is in trouble," she led, stepping up to the table. "I just need to ask the lady some questions." She nodded her head in the dark-haired elf's direction.

Anders glowered at her. "So what you really mean is that no one is in trouble yet ."

Hawke placed a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down Anders, no reason to get ruffled. I'm sure Aveline has noble intentions."

"Right," Isabela barked. "It's not like she'd make an example of an elf rather than acknowledge the consequences of her own incompetence. Oh wait —"

The truth in the whore's words stung more than Aveline liked to admit. "This afternoon was not my finest moment," she admitted, cutting off any further antagonization. "I'm only here to clarify details for my report. Nothing else."

"Well, that's just fine then." Varric began dealing cards. "As long as Nobody is willing to answer your questions."

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[7serendipities]

Wep Ronpet: the Kemetic New Year

I usually do a follow-along cycle on the tumblr e-shrine, but I thought this year I might aggregate all my prayers and images into one large recap post. I meant to do it earlier this month, but it kind of got away from me, and then I was at a funeral last weekend, so I skipped this past Bright Moon, and I’m finally posting this, instead.

For each of the five Epagomenal Days, the intercalary period of the Ancient Egyptian calendar, I queued an image that served as a votive offering, and captioned it with an original prayer. I have also written an original prayer to Sopdet, a prayer for a Wep Ronpet execration rite, and a prayer to all the Netjeru for the Wep Ronpet celebration.

The morning prayers all follow the same format, and I’ve copied them below. I’ve also added this year’s blessing omens, which were drawn from the tarot cards included in the slideshow to the left.

Feel free to use these prayers in your own practice, or use them for inspiration to write your own. Please refrain from using them commercially, however, and contact me to ask before using them in a group ritual. I’ll probably give permission if you’re willing to credit me!

Morning Prayer to Wesir (Osiris):

DUA WESIR! First born of Nut and Geb, we celebrate your birth today. We give you offerings of bread, beer, cool water, sweet scented oils, and praise! Eldest-Born, we salute you! Brilliant One, we rejoice in you! Lord of Eternity, we honor you! You Whose Places are Mysterious, we extol you! Wesir, Bless us.

Blessing from Wesir:

He offers guidance in the ways of emotional balance and maturity, and he offers his superlative assistance, that our harvests may be abundant.

Morning Prayer to Heru-Wer (Horus the Elder):

DUA HERU-WER! Second born of Nut and Geb, we celebrate your birth today. We give you offerings of bread, beer, cool water, sweet scented oils, and praise! Great One of Speckled Plumage, we salute you! Wings of Protection, we rejoice in you! Lord of Terror, we honor you! Mighty Falcon, we extol you! Heru-Wer, Bless us.

Blessing from Heru-Wer:

He offers his help in all our struggles, that we may find respite from them.

Morning Prayer to Set:

DUA SET! Third born of Nut and Geb, we celebrate your birth today. We give you offerings of bread, beer, cool water, sweet scented oils, and praise! Overthrower of A/p/e/p, we salute you! Red Haired One, we rejoice in you! Lord of the Storm, we honor you! You Who Are in the Heart of the Northern Sky, we extol you! Set, Bless us.

Blessing from Set:

He blesses us with the ability to turn chaos and competition into a powerful force for positive change.

Morning Prayer to Aset (Isis):

DUA ASET! Fourth born of Nut and Geb, we celebrate your birth today. We give you offerings of bread, beer, cool water, sweet scented oils, and praise! Giver of Life, we salute you! Great Lady of Magic, we rejoice in you! Mistress of the Stars, we honor you! Fiercely Bright One, we extol you! Aset, Bless us.

Blessing from Aset:

She offers a portion of divine inspiration, and her guidance along the path of wisdom and magic, for those who seek understanding of the sacred mysteries.

Morning Prayer to Nebthet (Nephthys):

DUA NEBTHET! Fifth born of Nut and Geb, we celebrate your birth today. We give you offerings of bread, beer, cool water, sweet scented oils, and praise! Lady of Dawn and Dusk, we salute you! Mistress of Renewal, we rejoice in you! Averter of Evil, we honor you! Friend of the Dead, we extol you! Nebthet, Bless us.

Blessing from Nebthet:

She offers advice encouraging us to be strategic in how we engage with our obstacles, and she offers to help make luck be on our side.

Execration Inscription:

(to be inscribed on something red along with a drawing of A/p/e/p and ritually destroyed) Obstructing, Obnoxious, Objectionable, Obfuscating, Obscuring, Obscene, Obtrusive, Obligating, Obstinate OBSTACLES!

Prayer for the Heliacal Rising of Sopdet (The Star Sirius):

DUA SOPDET! Today you rise before the sun, ushering in the new year! We give you offerings of bread, beer, cool water, sweet scented oils, and praise! Harbinger of the Nile Flood, we salute you! Bringer of the New Year, we rejoice in you!

Wep Ronpet Prayer to All the Netjeru:

Great Ones, we salute you! Bright Shining Ones, we rejoice in you! Mightiest Ones, we honor you! Most Powerful Ones, we extol you!

Lords and Ladies of the Heavens, Netjeru of all Places and Delights, Today is your feast day, Today we give you praise, for a new year is dawning!

You who protect us from isfet, You who perpetuate ma’at, We offer you the best of our feast, And we revel in your names! As we share our gifts, We ask you to gift us your blessings!

Omen for the New Year:

Things may seem obscured and uncertain now, but they are coming to a resolution faster than it appears. All cycles end; all things change in their time. Turn your attention to new opportunities. The natural order of ma'at will return.

[jrastegar]

Ch.5 of Inherited Bondage is posted!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33318445/chapters/83552389

[jrastegar]

Update for “Inherited Bondage”

Ch. 4 is posted! I hope you enjoy.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33318445/chapters/83451670

[al-norton]

Hey I’ve just finished The Masked Empire and it was great. I didn’t expected Celene and Briala getting so deep into my heart…

[possumsinatrenchcoat]

Best queer Orlesian ladies

Deviantart Commissions Painting process

[jrastegar]

omgggg so pretty