reapersun:

~Support me on Patreon~

A patron suggested I draw Louis/Lestat and mentioned Anne Rice’s ideas for their wedding and it blew my mind. I’m still not the biggest fan of Rice but man I still love these sad vampires~

aceofaro-dhearts:

So I saw a post about wanting to read/hear the narratives of ace and aro people of colour. How the “feeling broken” narrative doesn’t sync with the experiences of aces and aros of colour, specifically those living in diasporic communities.

As an aro ace of colour myself, I’m not sure if my experiences would fit in with that. I mean, I’m a descendant of Chinese immigrants, and I was born in Canada. My experiences growing up as a Canadian-ized aro ace might be different than those who are first generation aces/aros of colour living in the diaspora. But anyways, here I go.

I can agree with the OP of that post, because (from my understanding of their post) growing up with “traditional” Chinese parents, I realized that my parents didn’t really.. talk to me about things like romance and sex. Throughout my childhood there was literally no mention of any of them. Like OP in that post, I also grew up in a diaspora community, and went to school with these people. They barely talked about marriage, too.

It’s like somehow, romance, sex, marriage and all that should be placed last on the list of my to-do things to lead a successful life, at least according to my parents. I’m suspecting this partially explains why it took so long for me to accept that I’m aro ace. I thought I was straight, and that I’ll be sexually attracted to my future husband when I’m an adult. I didn’t grow up in an environment where I could freely explore my sexuality, let alone question it. It was always about focusing on school.

Even with surfing the big wide web, the amatonormativity present in media and online communities didn’t bother me. I was like, “Hmm yes I’ll get there when I get older, have a university degree, and a full-time job”. From my experience, there seemed to be so many people looking for romantic relationships, and couples who are in their adolescence or early adulthood–at an age where my parents would still tell me that I can’t have a romantic/sexual partner, and I must focus on my education.

For a while, I thought everyone was like me, in a sense where the last thing on everyone’s to-do list in life is to have romance or sex. But when that time a boy turned my words, which were “I did it!” (after solving an elementary-level math problem), into a sexual statement, that was when I wondered if everyone did have the thought of sex last. (Though he was the same age as me at the time, which was 7 years old, it’s probably due to the media putting a huge emphasis on sex and he was exposed to that early on?) I was indifferent to the sexual context, and from my indifference to sex, I also wondered if I would experience sexual attraction in the future.

I found out about asexuality when I was in middle school, but I didn’t really think it would describe my sexuality. I think the absence of conversations about romance/sex in my household also contributed to that, and I kept thinking that it’ll be different for me when I get older. Not to say that romance and sex (read: getting married and starting a family) are off the list for any Chinese person growing up in a conservative household, living in the diaspora, but it’s like… they expect you to fulfill those expectations, but after getting all those “important” things done. If that makes sense? Yeah, frankly I can’t word it any better than that.

The standards I grew up with implies the pursuit of a romantic/sexual relationship is only acceptable after getting a stable job, so basically I was expected to pursue these relationships in my mid-twenties or older? Which was partially why coming to terms with me being asexual took a while: I grew up with expectations that didn’t push me as fast to be in a relationship (where I’d have to be romantically and sexually attracted to my partner), and I didn’t have the opportunity to learn about my sexuality.

Through my rambling, I want to make a point that asexuality is intersectional. That “feeling broken” narrative isn’t the only narrative that exists among the ace and aro communities. To be honest, I felt confusion for most of my journey to self discovery, and then I felt broken after I accepted that I’m aro ace.

sxlentblue:

nana shimura

heirofgold:

satsuki ! trying to get myself out of art block but doing a redraw
original from 2014: https://www.deviantart.com/xpavlove/art/satsukiii-460897144

Ways to Use Crystals

witchtips:

From Crystal Cure

Put them around your home!

Place a protective stone, such as black onyx, hematite, or
black obsidian, outside by your front door to prevent negative energies,
including burglars, from entering your home.

Place a rose quartz on a table or shelf in a frequently
used room, such as a living room, family room, or den, to fill your home
with love and harmony.

Decorate with seasonal stone colors.

Put them in your car!

Placing a golden tiger-eye in your car will help to protect
you and your car against accidents. Place the stone in a secure place
where it will not roll around or get lost. I suggest wrapping it in
wire, attaching it to a cord or chain, and then hanging it from the
rearview mirror.

Bring them to work!

Place a quartz cluster or purple fluorite cluster next to your computer to help protect you from its electromagnetic field.

Place a smoky quartz on your desk or in your work space
to protect yourself against the stress and frustration of your coworkers
or clients.

Keep a rose quartz or amethyst with you. When work is stressful, hold it in your hand or rub it with your fingers.

Bring them with you on your next vacation or business trip!

Carry an aquamarine or moonstone with you for protection while traveling.

Clear the air!

To disperse negative energy, use a black or dark stone, such
as onyx, obsidian, tourmaline, jet, apache tear, smoky quartz, or
hematite. These stones, when placed about a room, home, or other area,
work as environmental cleansers that purify the area and protect it from
negative energies.

Fight pain!

Lapis, malachite, and bloodstone are good pain relievers.
Place them on the affected body part or area of the body until the pain
lessens.

Tape a carnelian to your lower abdomen to relieve the pain of menstrual cramps.

For a headache, place an amethyst, amber, or turquoise
stone on your forehead, or, if you have multiple stones, place them
around your head.

In the case of a migraine, lapis has been used since the time of the ancient Egyptians, if not longer.

Get a good night’s sleep!

Place an azurite, amethyst, or sugilite on your forehead or under your pillow to increase your dreams.

A garnet or amethyst under your pillow will help you to remember your dreams.

A black tourmaline, smoky quartz, or amethyst will chase away any nightmares.

Can’t sleep? Place a rose quartz or amethyst by your bed or under your pillow to combat insomnia.

Get in control of your emotions!

Moonstone, chrysocolla, aventurine, rose quartz, and blue
lace agate are all stones that help to balance emotions. You can wear
them in jewelry, keep them on your person, or take a bath with them.

Use a rose quartz for emotional healing.

Aquamarine, aventurine, moonstone, rhodonite, and rose
quartz are calming stones. Lie down and place one over your heart, or
bathe with them, or massage yourself with them.

To relieve stress, worry, fear, and anxiety, use one of
the following: aventurine, black tourmaline, black onyx, lapis,
sodalite, chrysocolla, rose quartz, citrine, or snowflake obsidian. Use
one as a “worry stone”. A worry stone is a stone that you keep with
you, and whenever you feel worried, stressed, or anxious, you take it
out and rub it with your fingers. You can also wear it in jewelry,
bathe with it, or massage with it.

For depression, use amber, smoky quartz or citrine in any of the aforementioned ways.

To help control anger, keep a red garnet, amethyst,
snowflake obsidian, or sodalite with you. Take it out, hold it, and rub
it whenever you feel the need.

Increase your brain power!

Use citrine, fluorite, lapis, pyrite, or sodalite to stimulate the intellect.

For focusing thoughts and concentration, use citrine, hematite, lapis, black tourmaline, or fluorite.

To bring mental clarity, use sapphire, peridot, or gold (Imperial) topaz.

To increase memory, use citrine, amber, black tourmaline, hematite, or fluorite.

Use amethyst, bloodstone, hematite, or lapis to relieve mental stress.

For help with problem-solving, use green tourmaline, or citrine.

To help with decision-making, use azurite, fluorite, or sodalite.

To use any of these “thinking” stones, wear them as earrings or a pendant, or place them on your desk or workspace.

Spark your creativity!

Carry or wear an amazonite, azurite, carnelian, chrysocolla, or citrine to get your creativity flowing.

Improve your communication skills!

Sodalite, sapphire, aquamarine, blue topaz, and chrysocolla
are all great stones for communication. Use them to bring
self-confidence when public speaking, to help you to speak up for
yourself, to be able to explain things in an easy to understand way, to
overcome shyness, to be able to speak more clearly and freely , to be
able to express yourself better emotionally, and to improve your
relationships by keeping communication lines open. These stones work
best when worn as a pendant that hangs close to the throat, but they can
also be worn as earrings, or held, or carried in your pocket.

Strengthen your intuition!

To do this, hold a moonstone, chrysocolla, or amazonite to your third eye (brow).

Meditate!

Meditation crystals can be held, placed on the third eye, or
placed before you as a visual focal point. These crystals include:
clear quartz, amethyst, celestite, apophyllite, charoite, sugilite,
azurite, labradorite, and yellow calcite.

To get in touch with your spirituality, use amethyst or charoite.

To gain wisdom, use amethyst, charoite, lapis, sodalite, or sugilite.

To ground yourself (bring yourself back to Earth) after
meditating, hold a grounding stone such as, smoky quartz, black
obsidian, snowflake obsidian, black onyx, hematite, or jet.

Feel better about yourself!

To increase your self-confidence and feelings of self-worth,
use azurite, chrysocolla, aquamarine, ruby, moonstone, or rose quartz.

To raise your self-esteem, use hematite or rose quartz.

To improve your self-image, use moonstone, rose quartz, or pink kunzite.

To learn to love yourself, use rose quartz, rhodochrosite, or pink kunzite.

All of these stones can be held, worn, or carried.

Spread the love!

Rose quartz is THE love stone. Use it to attract love; to
increase romance; to strengthen love between friends, lovers, and family
members; to make a friendship blossom; to mend a broken heart; and to
keep any relationship balanced, peaceful, and loving. No matter what
the situation, if it has to do with love, rose quartz is the stone that
does it all.
But there are, of course, other stones of love.

Here are just a few examples:

To attract love, use magnetite or a tantric twin. A tantric
twin (also called a soulmate stone) is a stone in which two crystals,
such as clear quartz, amethyst, or citrine, of about the same size are
joined together side by side.

To heal the heart, place pink agate, pink kunzite, or
pink tourmaline over the heart, or wear as a pendant that hangs close to
the heart.

To balance relationships, use peridot or rhodonite.

To increase or enhance loving feelings, use emerald, ruby, garnet, or diamond.

Love stones can be worn, carried, held, or bathed with. Place
them throughout a room or home to create a more loving atmosphere. Put
one next to your bed to increase romance and intimacy.

Add some spice to your sex life!

Use carnelian, garnet, or red tiger-eye to increase passion, sensuality, and eroticism.

To increase sexual energy and stamina, use carnelian, bloodstone, ruby, red garnet, or pink tourmaline.

Use carnelian to stimulate sexuality.

Use red jasper to prolong sexual pleasure.

Pink tourmaline will release inhibitions.

For lack of libido, use fluorite or red garnet.

Place them next to, on, or around the bed, or wear them as jewelry.

Bring abundance, prosperity, wealth, and success into your life!

For prosperity, place a citrine in the “wealth corner” of your
home. This is the corner to the left of and furthest away from the
front door. If this is where your bathroom is, do not put the stone in
there, otherwise any wealth that you acquire will go right down the
toilet!

Wealth comes in many forms other than money and material
things. Being surrounded by a loving family can make someone feel
wealthy. To bring wealth of any kind, wear or carry green aventurine,
peridot, bloodstone, emerald, jade, or pyrite (fool’s gold).

Keep a green aventurine in your wallet or purse to make your money multiply.

Bring good luck!

Wear or carry a green aventurine or golden tiger-eye with you.

Bring a green aventurine with you to the casino. Wear it
in a pouch around your neck, keep it in your pocket, or hold it while
you are playing.