#[ promotion. ] never forget your purpose. it is a noble one; even if this world does not understand.

[iniziare]

Slowly but surely, as I'm dying listening to ZL voice-overs in a playlist. Tag drop #1: OOC.

[absolutepokemontrash]

The Brothers and Side Characters Play the Sims

I don’t know what possessed me to make this but WHATEVER. I’ve been playing the Sims since I was a wee little girl, and I’ve seen my fair share of weird Sims stuff that I feel would fit these bozos perfectly.

My Sims have a Functional Family Life Because I Don’t (Lucifer)

God dammit Levi’s obsessed with another game... ugh.

Spends 5 minutes in Create-a-Sim and hops into a starter home.

Lucifer’s the type to start with all the average stuff and then build their stuff up as his sim gets promotions.

It’s just... so peaceful...

...he’s adopting a dog.

Look at his new little virtual family... his sim-kids are self sufficient and getting A’s in school, his Sim spouse MC or Diavolo take your pick loves his Sim-self, his sim-dog-

WAIT NO- THE DOG’S AN ELDER?!

AAAAAAAAAAAAA-

...

He’s fine. It was just a virtual dog. *sniffle*

He’s now spending his free time drinking Demonus and playing the Sims.

What’s a mod? Levi why does your sim have gun?

Behold, My Gorgeous Home... It’s a Box (Mammon)

Mammon, like the rest of the HOL, is mooching off of Levi’s Origin account.

“AW SHIT! This house looks awesome! I’m gonna build it for Sim-me to live in!”

Mammon proceeds to build a box with rooms. Yay...

He just picks the funnest sounding job if he picks any job at all for his Sim. That’s how he ended up making 9 dollars an hour in the criminal career.

Didn’t stop Mammon from buying that solid gold bathroom set from Get Famous... a box with solid gold bathrooms.

His Sim is broke send help-

“Leviiiiiii my sim needs money... the people my sim kidnapped and is forcing to paint aren’t making enough money...” “Ugh... press control shift C and type ‘motherlode’.”

...Levi made a mistake.

“FUCK YEAH! MOTHERLODE!”

His sim’s life is so chaotic, he has a piranha pool that his sim has almost died in twice, the sim is carrying on several torrid love affairs, his sim got struck by lightning, his sim has nearly died in a grilled cheese making accident twice... in the same day.

At least once Sim-Mammon and Sim-MC get married things calm down a little.

Mammon finds out what custom content is and proceeds to download EVERYTHING HE CAN FIND.

And now he’s asking Levi why his computer is running so slow.

Expansion Pack King (Leviathan)

He got into it back when the Sims 2 was new, he’s a veteran fan.

“Bro remember when Agnes Crumplebottom would show up and whack the shit out of your sims if they were flirting?”

“Remember when that witch would show up randomly on the lot you were on if you had Makin’ Magic?”

“Remember when Bella Goth was abducted by aliens and we just... didn’t question it?”

He whines about the Sims4 and how crappy it is but still buys every expansion pack, game pack, and stuff pack.

This boy watches like 40 hours of built tutorials and ends up sobbing over his weird roofs.

“WHY DOESN’T IT LOOK AS NICE AS THE ONE I’M LOOKING AT?! THIS ISN’T FAIR!”

The mod folder is so full istg-

Levi gets custom content for the sole purpose of making his favourite fictional characters.

This is why Henry and the Lord of Shadows are married and Ruri-chan and Sim-Levi are roommates.

Oh my god they were roommates-

Levi also added his brothers to the world and uh... Sim-Mammon died in a tragic pool accident F.

Levi then proceeded to befriend the Grim Reaper.

He’s anxiously awaiting the release of Paralives.

Wait Gameplay? In This Build Simulator? (Satan)

Satan’s here to build and leave. Gameplay who?

Our favourite bundle of rage is a master architect and the amount of followers on the Gallery he has shows it.

He takes up those build shell challenges and always ends up making them look positively perfect.

Asmo’s always using his houses, and Satan often takes requests when he gets bored.

No Mammon, he reserves the right to refuse to build a golden castle for you- YOUR SIM HAS 40 SIMOLEONS-

No mods, no CC, he’s building with what EA gave him.

...and EA gave him debug objects, and he’s not going to explain how to get them.

The one time he did actually play with a family... it was one sim and seven cats.

He tries to play without cheats... and ends up getting frustrated and turns on cheats.

All hail the Pets Expansion Pack.

Custom Content Soap Opera (Asmodeus)

Asmo spends 5 hours in Create a Sim then just... clicks out of the game.

That’s how it goes most of the time, buuuuuut when he gets super invested in a family he’s made, boy howdy is he INVESTED.

Sim A is carrying on an affair with Sim C who’s in love with Sim B who’s married to Sim A but Sim D wants to kill Sim A and C even though they’re the illegitimate child of Sim C-

When Asmo realizes that in the Sims 4 he needs to manufacture all the drama himself and he can’t just sit back with a glass of wine and watch the fireworks, he switches to the Sims 2 and 3.

“...why is this old lady beating up my Sim..?”

He immediately recoils in horror upon seeing how ugly the Sims are pre Sims4.

HE NEEDS TO FIX THIS-

Ah, there we go, perfect. Custom Content to the rescue!

He ends up remaking the entire world just so he doesn’t have to look at weird looking Sims.

Asmo is the only one to have finished a proper Legacy Challenge, but it gets crazy chaotic after gen 3.

“My sim just got abducted by aliens and now he’s pregnant- WHAT?!”

He has about 40 saves and only two he actually plays.

Just a Big Ol’ Happy Family (Beelzebub)

Beel found the game, proceeded to make everyone in create-a-sim to the best of his abilities, and made everyone get along.

That’s why Sim-Lucifer and Sim-Belphie are on a swing set together, they’re friends :D

“Hey Luke do you think you can make this?” “I-is that a cake shaped like a hamburger?” “Yes. Please make.”

He took one look at the cooking options and decided to max out his Sim’s cooking skill to unlock all the options.

Beel proceeded to drool all over his keyboard. Gross...

Boy howdy did he have some crazy dinner suggestions!

Overall, very wholesome Sim-life, except for the time Sim-Levi died because the toilet caught fire, don’t worry, Sim-Beel knows how to make ambrosia.

All is good in the Sim save...

...until Sim-Beel ate pufferfish nigiri and fuckin died-

Wait Did I Not Pause- (Belphie)

Huh, this game looks fine... I’ll play for a little- *SNORE*

Belphie makes some sims, plops them into a starter home, plays for an hour, then falls asleep.

He wakes up five hours later to absolute carnage.

Three sims have died because someone decided to make Mac and Cheese and the oven caught fire, the kids were taken away by social services, and the dog ran away.

“...heheh, holy shit everyone look.”

He doesn’t play often, but when he does, death occurs. He has found out every death method for every game from Sims 2 to 4.

And that INCLUDES the Sims Medieval! You guys remember that game?

Sometimes it’s not intentional, but Belphie got bored with the totally normal life his sims were living and decided to spice it up.

“Why are the ghosts breaking my showers..?”

Help There’s a Bug- (Diavolo)

The Crown Prince started playing when he noticed Lucifer was playing it.

He was immediately obsessed.

Dia mostly plays the Sims Medieval because he likes the feeling of achievement after completing a quest!

“Barbatos... why isn’t my Sim completing their task? The icon won’t show up.” “My lord it appears the game is bugged.” “:(“

No one thought to tell Diavolo that EA doesn’t plan on offering bug support to a game made in like... 2009

This doesn’t matter! Look at how great his kingdom is doing- oh no his hero has the plague-

He plays through the Pirates and Nobles expansion and manages to get the peaceful ending, he’s so proud of himself.

“MC! Look! My Monarch’s sword is permanently on fire and I’m fighting an evil wizard!”

When he does play the other Sims games he’s pretty basic, though, he does a great job at furnishing!

Dia gets crazy sad when his Sims die... he turns off aging.

Builder no. 2 (Barbatos)

Barbie doesn’t have time for this... but when he does, he builds.

No create a sim.

No playing the game as intended.

Just builds.

It’s relaxing, okay? A nice little suburban house he’s never going to play in, maybe a treehouse, maybe a big Hollywood Mansion...

The only time he actually plays the game outside of build mode is when someone needs his help to fix something in-game.

He does download custom content build items if he feels bored by the current selection.

Oh Crap What Am I Doing?! (Simeon)

Help him. Please.

He’s so confused.

“Luke, why is my sim upset?” “He’s hungry, Simeon.” “Oh, how do I fix that?” “...Simeon-”

There’s a toilet in the middle of the living room.

The fridge is facing the wall.

There’s no bathtub or shower.

The house is on fire- there is no god- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Okay, once he gets the hang of it he’s sitting pretty. His sims have good jobs, the kids are getting good grades, everything’s fine.

...

But Simeon won’t forget the nightmares.

What Even is This Save? (Solomon)

Solomon’s save is the definition of chaos.

One sim’s a vampire, the other is a spellcaster that really wants to fight the Callientes for some reason, there’s one normal sim that’s always sick for some reason,

It gets weird, confusing, and horrible.

Just how Solomon likes it.

His house makes no sense, like, what even is architecture?

Money cheats are needed because Solomon‘a goal of chaos and confusion is proving to be kind of expensive.

Square up Mortimer Goth, Solomon’s sims are here to steal your weird knight statue that’s worth a shit ton of simoleons for NO REASON.

He joined the scientist career for the sole purpose of getting to the alien planet and kidnapping adding an alien to the household via cheats.

The vampire ended up dying on their wedding day because Solomon forgot that he gave them the sun weakness.

Oh well, the ghost got added to the household! VAMPIRE GHOST!

The Child (Luke)

Before you say Luke’s too young to play the Sims, you should know that I was nine when I first started playing, and I turned out fiiiiiiiiiine.

He’s just happy to be playing.

Look, his sims are gardening :D

Look, two of them are getting married :D

Look, they had a baby :D

Look, his sims are building a rocket ship :D

Look, his sims’s rocket just crashed-

The concept of death hit the little angel right in the face that day.

“*sniffle*... my sims...”

Don’t worry, with tears in his eyes, Luke quit without saving and everything was fine!

Speaking of My Sims, Luke played MySims Sky Heroes and that was when Luke had his first bout of gamer rage.

MC came over to hang out with Solomon and Simeon, and in the distance they could just hear:

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY TIME WASN’T FAST ENOUGH TO CONTINUE THE STORY!? I’LL SHOW YOU FAST ENOUGH TIME!”

Okay, maybe Simeon should take the game away... just for a bit... he should take heed not to be bitten by the incredibly angry chihuahua.

Bonus:

MC: Why are our Sims married?

*Insert Boy Here*: Uh... that’s weird... I have no clue why they’re doing that...

[draven-imani]

Journal 5 (Part 2)

So. Yeah. Commander Irabeth Tirabade gave me a temporary field promotion. Although she said there wasn’t much of the Raven Corps left to speak of at the moment. Apparently, a certain Golden Boy had commandeered as many people as he could convince to come with him on a mad quest into the Worldwound after the attack and our group fell underground. He has an entire legion following him, which he dubbed the Silver Legion. She said it was likely he’d be back soon for a supply run.

Damn. I always knew Leto would go far. But to rally the troops on his own without any preestablished backing and just…go for it? I don’t know how he does it. We walked the same path and yet somehow he’s always been in a completely different league than me. I don’t envy him, not in the slightest. I’m in awe, more like. It’s like looking at the sun. It’s incomprehensible.

Ah. I wish he were here instead of there, though. He’d know how to handle this whole ‘Acting Captain’ thing. I feel in over my head already. I don’t want a position of power. I don’t want people’s lives in my hands. I only thought I wanted to go up the ranks when I was an idealistic kid with no idea what that meant. Now…the idea of giving the order that gets someone killed sickens me���

But if Commander Tirabade is the one who gives me that responsibility, I don’t think I’ll be able to say no.

I was starting to doubt…a lot, the last couple of days, honestly. Everything about Luna threw things into question. And then we found out Baphomet cultists infiltrated the church. And then Auriel died. And then I first talked to Radiance…and heard their threats. The threats from a holy weapon that sounded like they should have come from a demon. That stung. That shook me.

But then we met Irabeth Tirabade. And even in person she represents everything I have ever strived to be. Both in the sense of a former Raven Corps member who pulled herself out and into a position to actually be of use to the world, but also in the sense of how an Iomedae worshipper should carry themselves. She’s noble and strong and honorable, but she’s not quite so stuck in her ways as Auriel was, she seems to see things the way they are, and have been in the past, and she seems to be willing to admit when things are rotten and need to be fixed. I respect her. A lot. I…don’t want to disappoint her.

Aaaaand that means, if she gives me a responsibility, I have to rise to the task…even if I really really reeeeeeeeally don’t want to.

Commander Tirabade told me to give her a full report of everything that had happened. Which is exactly what I’d been keeping this journal for. So I gave her my report, and had the others chime in where my memory or note taking didn’t serve adequately. Then I showed her Radiance. I didn’t really think about it, because I thought since she was a paladin that Radiance wouldn’t be quite so ‘I’m going to flay you alive’. Or maybe I just wasn’t thinking, because she was Irabeth Tirabade and I’m dumb. That’s more likely. Anyways Radiance started burning her hands, so I quickly took them back.

And I may have admonished them out loud for doing that. To which Radiance basically asked ‘what part of chosen wielder don’t you understand?’ which…fair, but I guess I kind of thought Radiance was the one deciding whether or not to start hurting someone for touching it with how they’d worded it last time. I didn’t think it just happened.

The others were looking at me like I was crazy and asked if I was talking to my sword. So then I had to explain that Radiance is a magic intelligent weapon and also really picky about who wields them.

(And I got a little off track figuring out Radiance’s pronouns here. The answer boiled down to ‘I don’t conform to your mortal view of gender, call me whatever you want’, so I’m sticking with they since it’s neutral. Must be nice being a formless weapon spirit who can just give a copout answer like ‘I don’t conform to your mortal view of gender’. I’d not conform to my mortal view of gender if I could, but I have a flesh prison with all that gender-y stuff that comes with it.)

So then one of them, I forget who, commented about me being the chosen wielder of Radiance. And I think I laughed. I corrected them. No, I wasn’t the chosen wielder. The others pointed out I was wielding them, it sure looked like I was. So I explained what Radiance had already explained to me. That Auriel had been meant to wield them. That I was only holding them now because Auriel didn’t make it this far, and because Auriel’s soul vouched for me.

Commander Tirabade gave her condolences to us about Auriel, and asked that I tell her as much as I could about him later, as someone was going to give a eulogy for all who had been lost in the battle against the demons soon and she would make sure given his heroic sacrifice that he was given the send off he deserved.

Then Anevia rejoined the conversation, having been listening in on the sword talk. She called Irabeth over and asked her about the sword she had lied about selling. Anevia proved even with a sweet voice and a smile to be scarier than the much larger and more fearsome looking commander. Commander Tirabade admitted that she had sold her sword in exchange for an anniversary gift for Anevia. A potion that permanently changes one’s gender.

Aaaaand looking back I really hope the talk about pronouns was not uncomfortable, I was legitimately trying to be polite to the sword, despite Radiance never once extending the same courtesy to me.

Anyways.

By the end the Commander determined that it would be a good idea for us to continue taking out the safehouses, but she had another mission for us as well once that was done. Something big. She told us that another of Deskari’s generals was on her way here—the witch Arelu Vorlesh. We had heard rumors of this from drifters on the streets as well. The crusaders had managed to get information that Deskari’s cult had holed up in Old Kenabres, making a stronghold of a temple to the Inheritor known as the Grey Garrison. There was a piece of the wardstone left still intact, and Arelu was coming to corrupt it. If she was successful, the Commander believed Arelu was going to turn the wardstone into a weapon that would decimate the crusaders on the battlefield.

With that in mind, she had a librarian from the Blackwing come forward with a magical rod. I’m not one for the arcane, but Hiskaria sounded extremely in awe and almost equally disturbed by the implications of the rod, a ‘rod of cancellation’. The important part I gathered was that if Hiskaria used the rod on the wardstone, then it would destroy it.

Melody was hesitant, wondering if there was any way to eventually fix the wardstone and restore the barrier to save the city. Commander Tirabade said no. It had been created hundreds of years ago, when times were less turbulent, and with divine intervention. We had neither the means nor the time, and every moment we left the wardstone intact was a moment Arelu could return to attempt to corrupt it to her own purposes. Better that it was destroyed than in enemy hands.

We agreed. The Commander said that she would not order this strike until we had cleared out all of the safehouses, so that they had nowhere to fall back to, and no reinforcements to call upon, or else the strike would be a suicide mission. But once we had finished ridding the city of their other bases of operations, she would have an army march on the main forces of Deskari, drawing their attention, while our small strike force took the Grey Garrison.

With a plan in place, we decided that today we would at least take down one more safehouse before we rested. I was the only one really in need of any rest, and Commander Tirabade offered that the clerics of the crusades were at our disposal before we left so that we would not have to use our own limited supplies. Once my remaining injuries from those blasted vultures were healed, we set out.

We came upon some looters, who had overturned the caravan of a handful of survivors and were picking through it. We discussed, and decided we didn’t particularly want to kill these guys, just spook them. So Luna pulled up her hood and donned her Butcher persona, then went after the looters, threatening that she would add them to her pile of the dead if they didn’t abandon this cart to her. It worked, and they fled for their lives.

Luna removed her hood and we approached the survivors. They were frightened after that display, but glad to have their supplies back. We pointed them in the direction of Defender’s Heart and gave them the passcode, and told them to let them know we’d sent them, as we’d seen a number of refugees being housed safely there.

After that we continued on our way, until we came upon the Tower of Estrod. From the note we’d gotten off Hosilla, there was a passcode, “I’ve new material for the archives”. Since we knew this, and we knew Hosilla’s face, we formed a plan. Melody was able to use the magic of her scale of Trendalor to disguise herself as Hosilla. I was to pretend to be one of the Baphomet worshippers who was a false Iomedaen. And Luna was merely being a more exaggerated version of herself, using her infamy as the Butcher of Balestreet to her advantage. Hiskaria didn’t want to go inside and be stuck in close quarters, so she remained outdoors on lookout, listening for any sign of things going badly. After some discussion, Melody had handed off Auriel’s scale to Hiskaria, and explained how it worked to her. The scales couldn’t be used together, so Melody needed to hand it off regardless, and it seemed right that since Hiskaria was going to be helping us for the foreseeable future, she should be the one to hold it. And as an archer the levitation ability it granted would be of more use to her than to any of us.

With a plan in mind, the three of us walked into the proverbial lion’s den. Two cultists of Baphomet were lounging about on the bottom floor. Believing they recognized Melody as Hosilla, they let us in, and told us to meet with a man on the upper floor by the name of Faxon. We followed Melody’s lead, and went up the stairs. At the top of the tower, we found a tiefling with a scorpion upon his shoulder. He spoke smugly to ‘Hosilla’, and had a very…slimy feel about him. I got the impression that he and Hosilla were not on good terms, perhaps even that Stauton Vhagn pit them against each other and that’s why he was having Hosilla check up on him, just to rub salt in the wound. Unfortunately, Melody didn’t quite know how far to press, and backed down too soon, after making her ‘report’, agreeing to return downstairs with little bite back. When questioned about what I knew, I did the safe thing and pled ignorance, claiming to merely be Hosilla’s guard and not someone in a position to have information. When asked, Luna said she was just there for the kills, nothing more nothing less.

As Melody went to have us return downstairs, Faxon called Luna back to him. I had a bad feeling, but Luna shrugged it off and said to go on without her. Melody decided that maybe we could take out the cultists downstairs quietly while he had whatever discussion he wanted with her. I agreed, although we never got the chance. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, the sound of violence broke out upstairs, and the two downstairs were alerted that something was amiss. Melody and I decided it would be best for us to guard the stairs and make sure these two couldn’t sneak up on Luna from behind first before going upstairs to try to help her finish with Fenox.

I took care of one of the cultists swiftly, with Radiance spurring me on, the both of us eager to put an end to the evils of these worshippers of the Minotaur. The sounds upstairs began to die down, as Melody took a stab at the other from the stairs with Hosilla’s glaive. He tried to flee. Melody wasn’t going to allow that. She leapt from the stairs, and with far less regard for a glaive that isn’t her family’s sentimental one, she used it to pole-vault at the cultist, landing behind him and swinging around to stab at him once again. Still he was up. He almost made it to the door.

Just in time for Hiskaria to open the door and shoot an arrow in his face.

Somehow by some twisted luck he was still going, but Melody caught up with him once again, and maaaay have decided to show off a little to our new companion as she leapt in the air and skewered the man, finally dead.

All was quiet. I was about to be concerned about what might have happened to Luna, but then Hiskaria told me about the absolutely ridiculously amazing one sided one on one ‘fight’ she’d had with Fenox. As if I should have been worried about Luna. Hiskaria had heard the commotion and used the scale to levitate up so she’d she the last half of the fight. The upper floor didn’t have a roof, so she had been intending to shoot an arrow right into the other tiefling’s skull, but it ended up not being necessary.

See, there was a wall bisecting that room, with a door. He’d shut and locked the door to put it between him and Luna when things started looking bad. Luna had shown yet again just how little walls meant to the Butcher of Balestreet when she used the glaive she’d been holding holding for show as a means to pull herself up and over, then came down on Fenox with her axe. The Butcher one, Baphomet zero.

We met with her upstairs, where we found a shrine to Baphomet and a minotaur shaped object on the wall that was causing the room to be desecrated by its mere presence. There was also a treasure chest, so we decided that while the others went through the loot, I was going to take Radiance and have a bit of fun.

It took some time, that minotaur head was damned sturdy. But when it did break, Radiance’s voice echoed through the room. It wasn’t just me that heard it that time, but everyone. Their voice faded after only a moment. The others seemed a little shaken by that. I don’t really blame them. Radiance is…a lot. They’ve gone back to just being in my head now, which is probably for the best. Them quieting down entirely would probably be better, but I’m not lucky enough to have a normal holy sword that doesn’t demand the blood of demons and cultists as we fight. Ah, well. At least we agree on who our enemies are.

The chest had holy symbols and the favored weapons of multiple faiths, pointing towards the cult’s penchant for infiltration. We decided we would return them to the clerics at Defender’s Heart. Looking back I kind of wish I’d asked if they’d be okay with me keeping one. My wooden holy symbol’s seen a lot of use, and isn’t exactly the sturdiest material. Silver to match Leto’s wouldn’t have hurt. Ah, well. Hindsight and all that.

We were feeling really good after how well that went. We’d been planning on calling it a day after the tower, but since we’d used virtually none of our resources we agreed that unless we ran into particularly nasty trouble on the road we should try to clear out Topaz Solutions, report back to the Commander, and prepare to storm the Grey Garrison tomorrow.

Topaz Solutions was quite a bit farther than the tower had been from Defender’s Heart. Which meant more time for attacks from demons or other things lurking about.

First we were attack by two barbed creatures which made a terrible howling noise. Their barbs were painful when we got too close, but we cleared them out quickly enough with little trouble to speak of. No one ended up with any of the barbs stuck in them, which was a blessing. That could have proven difficult.

Then…we came to Balestreet. The demons had left the street as much a gory horror scene as one might have expected of Luna’s namesake. Here, two cultists of Baphomet tried to ambush us. Big mistake. Luna decided she was eager to make true to her nickname, and took her axe to them. They didn’t go down.

Then two arrows went straight through them, ice burst from one’s injuries, and both fell dead on the road. Hiskaria looked a bit sheepish, asking Luna if she shouldn’t have done that, since Balestreet was supposed to be Luna’s thing. Luna shrugged it off, saying it worked either way.

Remind me not to get on the bad side of the ladies in our group, they can cut quite the fearsome characters.

With that we were on our way, the rest of the walk to Topaz Solutions uneventful. The apothecary was being looted by a couple of thugs when we arrived. Luna decided to do her thing and scared them off with a few threats from the Butcher. Then we started looking around. The looters had taken anything of value, but Luna after some poking around found some ‘really nice door technology’, and opened a secret passage that led into a hidden basement. Luna and Melody snuck down first.

After a minute of waiting, Hiskaria and I heard Luna and Melody call us down, saying there was a strange mechanical doll and an image on the wall they couldn’t identify. I went down first. As Melody stepped forward to let me in, the minotaur head on the wall began to speak. It taunted us, saying it hoped we were Iomedaens so that this surprise from Baphomet wouldn’t go to waste. Then the doll began moving, and smashed a bottle, releasing a small plant creature.

There was also some kind of…gas I think? Something was in the chamber after that which was causing us various issues. Melody and I both started finding it hard to breath for instance—not so much that we were suffocating, but enough that we were wheezing and likely would have been unable to easily move stealthily.

Worse was that plant. It was in a thick patch of vines that it could move through with ease but which we struggles in. It screamed in such a way that it caused both Melody and Hiskaria to become nauseous, forcing them to flee upstairs to safety and leaving me and Luna to deal with it by ourselves. And it was small and tricky, dodging around many of our attacks in the most frustrating manner. Luna did finally squash the blasted thing, and I went over to the minotaur head and broke whatever the device was that was releasing gas into the room.

Then we searched the room and found a chest with a mocking note claiming we deserved a reward for besting the trap. Within were a number of stolen holy symbols. Luna stopped us from taking them, noting that they were covered in a contact poison.

I have decided I rather dislike this Igon Topaz, and do hope he survived the attack on the city. If only so that I may someday bring judgement upon him myself.

With all three safehouses cleared out, we’ve returned to Defender’s Heart for the night. We reported back to the Commander, and we spent some time unwinding and preparing for tomorrow. There are some merchants set up so we were able to get some supplies. And, more importantly, we got some drinks.

And even more importantly, Leto’s back.

He showed up while we were making preparations, all smiles and charm as always. He thought I’d died in a pit, I thought he’d been killed by demons, same old same old.

He looked amazing. He’s been doing well for himself. He really was the picture of a paladin in that silver armor riding up on a holy steed. Although I guess to him I must have looked maybe a little impressive with the holy sword Radiance at my side. Ah, if only he could have a conversation with them, he’d quit being impressed real quick.

Leto played up his knight in shining armor role well, flirted with Hiskaria even though she’s twice his age and a convicted murderer, and got on well with Melody. He…did not get on well with Luna. He tried, certainly, at first, but then she threw some misplaced insults about him being Raven Corps which I corrected, and then she brought up how all the reports of her being a murderer are vastly exaggerated by the Raven Corps and…it was just all around awkward, I think.

So then he introduced us to his horse, Charles, instead. He got a kick out of the fact he’d given his holy mount such a mundane name instead of something more heroic like—

Hold up. Charles.

Charlie.

Chalie Horse.

…that blasted tiefling, I’m going to wring his neck next time I see him.

I can’t decide if I’m mad about the pun, mad I didn’t catch it when we were talking about it, or mad that I didn’t think of it first.

Named his holy steed a pun, the nerve of that man...I wonder if anyone else has caught on. Commander of the Silver Legion, Leto Jules, the tiefling so charismatic he managed to sway 50,000 people to his banner…named his holy steed Charlie Horse. Inheritor help me I don’t know what to do with him.

Or how to outdo that.

Which is frustrating.

Oh well. What’re you going to do? Some days you find out your brother is not just still alive but now leading a legion on the back of a horse named Charlie and you just roll with it.

I’m glad he’s okay.

His Silver Legion is going to be joining the fight against the main forces tomorrow while our strike force goes into the Grey Garrison. So that’s more for me to worry about. But Leto’s always been a lucky bastard unlike me. He’ll be fine.

After the fact Melody, Hiskaria, and Luna decided it was really important to whisper amongst themselves and to send me away. So apparently it’s rumor time again. Yay. I’m fairly certain with them it would be nothing bad…but I can’t fathom what they could have possibly been whispering about. I suppose if they think Leto and I are related by blood it could have been about that, if they think I share his demonic bloodline…but Hiskaria is a tiefling as well, I see little reason why they would need to be secretive about it if that were the case. And quite frankly Leto and I don’t look alike. At all. Even if he weren’t golden, we don’t share even close to the same features. So I don’t think we could be mistaken for blood relatives.

I don’t know, and there’s really no use in speculating. It’s growing late, and we have a temple to siege in the morning.

[kuiperblog]

Plugged In

Vision and Scarlet Witch drop off the grid and spend a couple of weeks in Scotland, and we see the two kiss. (They're obviously sharing a hotel room as well.) Two other prominent characters kiss and express their undying love. Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanov bat their eyelids at one another.

Here’s a quiz: was the above written by a fawning teenager posting on their MCU fanblog to report on their favorite Marvel moments, or is it an excerpt from a Christian movie review written to warn parents about the potentially lewd and lascivious content in Avengers Infinity War?

“Plugged In” is a movie review/screening site run by the conservative Christian organization Focus on the Family, presumably for the purpose of allowing parents to check to see whether movies have objectionable content before allowing their kids to see them.  (For example, the section above, detailing some of the “sexual content” present in Infinity War.)

Captain Marvel spoilers below the fold:

Plugged In’s movie reviews come with detailed content warnings about things like Sexual Content, Violent Content, and Crude Language, along with a “miscellaneous negative content” section to capture anything that doesn’t fit into the above categories but could be a negative influence on kids (e.g. shoplifting or other immoral behavior).

Here’s a sampling of some of the objectionable material noted in their review of Captain Marvel:

It’s important to remember that children are influenced by the media they consume, and coughing up an infinity stone” is not the kind of behavior you would want your son or daughter to try to imitate at the dinner table, I guess?

Here’s some of the “negative elements” present in Captain America: Civil War:

These actually seem to be content warnings in the style of trigger warnings: this comes across much like an admonition of a film for showing characters being denied due process, and more a little, “Heads up, if seeing people denied due process is a particular pain point for you, maybe avoid this one.”  Oh, and if you’re sensitive about adoption jokes, you might take issue with the first Avengers ensemble movie:

(Until reading this, I had never even stopped to consider that Thor, in saying “he’s adopted” to try and distance himself from Loki, might actually be making the kind of remark that could be a pain point for adoptees or adoption advocates.)

While content warnings and “negative elements” are a big part of their movie reviews, the site seems equally interested in praising movies for their positive elements:

Vers may be a little uncertain about who she is, but she knows what she is: one of the Kree’s “noble warrior heroes,” and she does her best to live up to the part. She fights the Kree’s enemies with courage, aplomb and a bit of sass. Surely Yon-Rogg would be proud.

But as she learns more about her past, she comes to a better understanding of who and what a hero should be. It’s not all about taking on and taking out the “bad guys.” It's also about saving and protecting the innocent, be they just a handful of refugees or a whole planet of sentient beings. And she learns that it’s not her near-divine superpowers that make her a hero: It’s her frail, sometimes fallible humanity.

We see plenty of flashbacks to Carol’s childhood—flashbacks that focus especially on her failures. She flies off a go-cart track in one such miscue, gets brushed out of a batter’s box in another. Her critics seem legion, telling her repeatedly how weak she is, how she’ll never succeed. But each time, Carol climbs back up and digs back in. It’s not about how many times she falls, but how many times she gets back up.

And here, she always gets back up. That’s a nice message for all of us, I think: Sometimes we imagine that our greatest achievements are, naturally, our successes. It’s easy to forget that we are more shaped by our failures—and that our character is formed in the resiliency we show in the face of them.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, they seem to like Captain America quite a bit, as expressed in this review which I surprisingly found to be as well-written as it is fawning:

By definition, superhero movies are about … heroes. We've seen a bevy of them walk, run, jump and fly through our movie theaters during the last several years, and there's no sign of them stopping.

But we haven't seen a hero like Captain America in a long, long time.

Cap traces his comic book roots to World War II, when he was created to take on Nazis and fight for the American Way. He was always an unapologetically nationalistic figure, and in this new movie he still is. As such, the film is an intentional throwback to a more innocent, more optimistic time, before scandal and cynicism and cable news shout-fests had beaten our national character beyond recognition. This movie recalls the days when Americans—most of them, anyway—truly considered the country a beacon, a city on a hill. And Captain America represents what we've long thought to be what's best about us: Strength. An uncompromising spirit. Bravery, sometimes brash, but polite and self-effacing too.

"You don't give up, do you?" Schmidt groans at Cap during a climactic melee.

"Nope," he says.

How very "American" his response is. Simple. Straightforward. This is a guy who lets his actions speak for him.

Now, we need not say Cap represents an America that, for the most part, only ever lived in its national imagination. We must point out that the film has a few troublesome problems, including its love of wall-to-wall violence and the fact that our main hero is partly the product of (when you really sit and think about it) some potentially problematic chemistry. It's a little weird to cheer for a guy who got strong through scientific alchemy when most of us are warning our kids about the dangers of body- and mind-altering drugs.

And yet there's an inescapable optimism here, a goodness. Captain America tells us that muscles and nifty shields are great and all, but true heroism comes from within. And that it never goes out of style.

Some of the content reviews are quite amusingly detailed and over-the-top in what they consider to be objectionable content, but this review is actually the first place I encountered the idea that Captain America might inadvertently be promoting steroid use, as Steve Rogers goes from scrawny to brawny by getting injected by a miracle drug, rather than engaging in athletic practice or strength training.  That’s an interesting and new take I didn’t expect to find while reading a movie review site for Christian parents. Even if he is a stand-up guy, Steve Rogers kind of got to take the easy way out. 

Obviously, that’s not the message of the movie, and in fact it’s sort of implied that Steve Rogers does sort of “earn” his powers by being the only one sufficiently “pure of heart” to not be corrupted by power.  But it is the kind of thing that, if seen in a certain light, could be viewed as kind of problematic.  And I wonder if perhaps Plugged In might be exactly the kind of movie review site that would appeal to the puritans that seem to be so common on tumblr.

[pathofcomet]

bride of ice (4)

{dragon age: inquisition | g. | female trevelyan/iron bull | 8.9k}

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23533642/chapters/59122414

The first time she allows herself to move further from the camp on an actual Inquisition-related business is to find Mother Giselle. Besides the new-born Inquisition, all other organizations, religious, political or otherwise, have blown up alongside the Temple of Ashes. Usually, when one constant of the world collapses, all the other start at least being questioned, if not following in its steps.

She takes Cassandra, because she’s already used to her fighting style, and Varric because his aim never fails. Solas, because the blanket of his magic is so familiar to her brain already. Scout Harding is already hard at work, a presence so chatty and positive that for a second, the Herald forgets that she’s supposed to get her supplies and head into battle. The minutes are passing by, and each one counts – so Cassandra pulls at her elbow, and hurries her along unmapped paths.

She hasn’t trained for long, but she trained often with the best fighters in the Inquisition – and the difference is already telling. Her skin is rough on her palms and at her heels, and the armour is now more comfortable, her weapons more familiar. She ducks out of Cassandra’s way, to let her bash an enemy to the ground with her shield, and throws one of her daggers between the eyes of another, right as they were getting too close to Solas. She can feel a burst of flame at her back, and she hurries to pick her dagger, refusing to look back at the damage the magic has done.

When she’s in a battle, like this, her life on the line and everything too real, her body’s movements too acute, the sounds too loud, she feels detached. It’s almost mechanic, the way in which she stabs and jumps and drinks her potions. Up until this point, everything in her life has been simulated, and her brain takes a while to catch up with the fact that whatever is happening around her, it is in real time, all stakes raised. So the five seconds after the last of their enemy falls to the ground, the silence that follows feels like her head is underwater, a static noise at the back of her thoughts, a brief pause before she gets moving towards the refugees and Mother Giselle, Varric searching up the corpses for valuables.  

The path opens up before her, people hurriedly making way. She doesn’t know if it’s because of the glow in her palm, or the blood splattering her shirt. If there is one thing that the Herald of Andraste does not doubt is the ferocity of people’s feelings. Though she is never sure if they hate her or if they love her, and when.

Mother Giselle, however, is one of the most levelled headed people from the Chantry that she met, and she had enough money and fame hungry individuals search for her attention during her life. The older woman takes a look at this wide-eyed, straight-backed girl and already makes her mind up about humanity’s hero. Around her, people are suspiciously eyeing the both of them, but a smile from her immediately calms them.

She raises a hand, pats the Herald’s head, watches as the younger woman almost breaks down under the kind gesture. Trevelyan feels suddenly so comforted, in a way that all her attempts never managed to. There’s something about a sister of the Chantry, moved simply by her want to do good, that picks her undone. The somewhat reminder that this could have been her life, or her place of belonging.

But then Mother Giselle speaks, and the illusion is shattered, even if her touch never leaves the Herald. Of course, there are people she has to convince of the authenticity of her Mark, and the purpose of the Inquisition – even when she herself doubts them.

“They have heard only frightful tales of you. Give them something else to believe. You don’t need to convince them all, you just need some to doubt.”

Well, that can’t be too hard, can it? After all, she works with spies and seasoned authorities. After all, they need only one look in her direction to realize that the Fade has a claim on her. After all, she’s been a noble, and nobility is notoriously good at bargaining and lying.

The soldiers are busy setting up camp, and the Inquisitor sits next to Mother Giselle, listens to her calm voice as she recites the prayer of the story of how the world came to be; probably a subtle reminder that this is what they’re all fighting for.

The Hinterlands are a calmer area than Haven, the Trevelyan thinks, the weather just a tad bit warmer during the day, though there’s need for blankets and for food – and in the midst of it all, the war between the mages and the Templars rages on. She remembers, how the Templars are supposed to want to protect the common folk, nothing quite like those going on rampant, killing off anyone even accidentally crossing their path. There are enough people hurt in the camp, even more separated from their families and friends, even more just too tired, too traumatized to care.

She wants to focus on finding supplies and food for them first. Slowly, the wounded ones will recover, and they’ll accompany their trek back to Haven, alongside Mother Giselle. All these people called her Your Worship as she passed by, reverently touching the ends of her leather armour; look up to the organization, to her for help. Disappointing them, in this case, means their death. And she knows it’s just the first of such heavy failure burden.

She thought she’s fought her worst when that huge monster popped out of the breach. Turns out, one of the most terrifying sights she’s seen is that of a bear charging at her. For a second, she freezes on the spot: she’s seen a bear in real life only on a visit to Orlais, where one of the eccentric nobles kept one as a pet, chained by heavy iron and scared with magic into submission. Like this, the animal is freaking terrifying. Of course, they bring it down eventually, and Varric carefully puts the fur away. Yet, the tremble in her bones doesn’t succumb for a while. Just another reminder that there’s nothing even similar to her usual normality to be found in the midst of the Inquisition – and sometimes it’s a good thing, sometimes it’s a bad thing. Whichever it might be, she has to adjust, shake off the fear, ignore the pain, and move on.

She’s already tired.

She realizes quick into their Hinterlands exploration how narrow her life has actually been so far. Not only is her entire body aching and sweating by noon, the terrain difficult at times, way too many groups to fight on the way. By the third day, she loses count of people she’s killed, she stops feeling like throwing up when she washes away the blood and grim of the day by the end of it. Sometimes she gets lost into the action, scrubs so hard that the tip of her fingers bleed. There’s rumours of a cult – and her hand slips when sharpening her daggers. Then there’s an organized presence entirely too bothered by the Inquisition’s troops – and she slips on her way down a hill, directly into the cold waters of a lake. Even with all the pain, a pain that is vibrantly real, all the other things don’t feel like it. Sometimes, when she tells Cassandra something, she stops mid-sentence, questions if her story and information is actually a thing that truly happened, or she made it up in a dream and never realized the difference.

Eventually, it is her companions that snap her out of it, slowly and patiently. Varric can recognize a girl haunted by terrors from a mile away at this point, and he gives her his tastiest part of the hunt, starts telling one of his favourite stories. Cassandra is, without failing, always at her back as they charge side by side into battle, and it’s a more comforting act than she probably knows. Solas explains to her about the Fade without being asked before, if only to diffuse her own anxiety over the green glowing mark that is anchoring her to all of this, that is anchoring part of another world to theirs, through her.

However, for her, the Fade is still a foreign, scary realm. There’s nothing that she wants to do with it, and the reverence with which Solas speaks about it, the soft edge in his voice when he talks about the spirits that he encountered, makes her skin crawl with fear and discomfort.

They close rifts, one after another. They set up camps, conquer territories in the name of what they believe in, what they promote as their truth. Trevelyan’s hand itches with the magic it used, and after a week and a bit, they return to Haven for an afternoon, making sure the people under their protection have enough resources, asking Mother Giselle what else she might need in her care for the refugees, setting them up inside the town’s chantry and along the camp.

It’s truly fascinating how, despite the Mark, people still come up to her, ask her if she is the supposedly holy figure at the backbone of the organization. It’s like they can’t quite believe the plain looking woman could stir up so many rumours, could have survived so much in such a short span of time. When she looks down in her water basin, or when she checks her image in the window at night, Trevelyan has the same problem. Still, whenever stopped, whenever asked, she denies any relation with Andraste. Time and time again, she crushes hopes or she strengthens beliefs with her words. It’s a heavy weight to add to her speech.

But, she starts recognizing, as she meets more and more allies, people believe in way more than religion. They believe in other people, in made promises, in their own two eyes, in their ideas about the world, in the force of their weapons way before they trust other’s words. The Templar, Lysette, choosing to be part of the Inquisition, rather than join her people in a self-destroying war of righteousness, makes this very obvious to her.

“I did not join the order to adjust my faith so easily, but I appreciate what the Inqusition’s trying to do, and your role in it. One person trying to do something can make a difference. You should keep that in mind, Herald.”

Trevelyan wonders if this is about herself, and she just uses the Herald as a mirror. Or if this is about the young noblewoman in front of her, pushed and shoved in every direction by the circumstances around her – and her words are just an attempt at comfort. But another thing that she starts recognizing is that one can understand whatever they please out of the words they hear. So the Herald chooses to straighten her back, and received some strength from this – a reason to keep going, when she was almost done with wanting to move at all.

She leaves her findings to Maeve, greets Josephine in-between the messengers making their rounds in her office. She does not expect the direct question about her family, and whether they will be willing to give official support to the Inquisition. She stops, stares at Josephine, heir to her own house, out here doing a job out of her own want – and doesn’t know how exactly to answer.

Of course, her entire house is scrambling for status like they’ve been born and raised in Orlais. Depending on what kinds of words about the Inquisition reached them, her father might be interested to associate his name with their still new organization. Considering one of their sons, a Templar no more, died at the Temple of the Sacred Ashes, they might feel responsible to support the one institution who actively tries to find a culprit for that genocide, and who is devoted to stopping anything like that happening again by closing the Breach. The Chantry is probably equally in shambles back home as well, so there is not much organized action taking place otherwise, and there might be merit in getting involved with the situation early on. And then there’s this – the Mark, her new title, and the honour that comes with having the Herald of Andraste being a Trevelyan, if it’s proven that it is true, that there’s Maker’s touch in her new power, that she can actually seal the rifts and fight the demons.

And then there’s the absence of letters actually intended to her, and she wants to scream in frustration or howl in pain. Instead, she gives the ok to Josephine to reach out to her family. Something must come out of it, in the end.

Her first question to Mother Giselle is about the people; those right here under their symbol, and those far-away who feel equally as lost and pained at the loss of their Divine. If she cannot properly mourn her losses, then at least she wants to allow this luxury to others. And if she is to find comfort in a new purpose, then at least someone (like Mother Giselle with her kind words, or like Leliana with her eye for potential, or like Cullen with brightly burning determination) maybe will be able to offer the same thing to these people as well.

“A task such as closing the breach is a heavy burden. I hope you do not carry it alone. We remember Andraste, but Andraste did not carry the Chant of Light alone. She had generals, advisors… even her husband, for a time. Do everything within your power… but remember those who would help you.”

The Herald thinks of the many people she has met during this time, each with their own individual worries and tasks, fears and motivations – and how she cannot possibly dare to add to their own hunched backs, to their already full schedule. Everyone in the Inquisition has been running around the clock, catching naps in uncomfortable places and at odd times, taking away the piece of bread at their mouth to share with whoever passes their door. Anyone willing to help, is already helping the tens and hundreds asking the Inquisition for protection and guidance. Their last worry should be the religious figure they’re trying to build – when she is just a mere human on top of that. The young Trevelyan shivers in her coat, stares at a statue of Andraste, thinking of Mother Giselle’s words.

“You keep talking as though I’m the equal of Andraste. Do you know how unnerving that is?”

“I can only imagine. But we are all given to our purpose under the Maker. A sword does not ask to be forged. And frankly, if such a comparison gives you pause, I do not see that as a bad thing.”

She thinks if this is truly her supposed path; if the Maker plucked her out of her past life, taken from her what she treasured the most in this life, and put her in this role of sainthood, testing her and the world at the same time. But it seems like such a cruel method, and she doesn’t want to believe that a god would be so happily throwing away its own people. She doesn’t want to believe there’s any higher purpose to her being here – she wants to believe that just wanting to help is enough to justify her presence, or others’ acceptance of her.

She looks at Mother Giselle glistening eyes, as she speaks of her faith, and she knows it’s just wishful thinking, for sure. So she picks up her daggers, gathers her usual teamp, and goes once more on her quests for more power and more influence, more and more.

 ***

She is tired, hungry and dirty. Ever since they put together their first camp in the Hinterlands, neither her hair nor her clothes had felt the sweet relief of warm water and soap, and it’s been a couple of weeks already. Not only is the area humongous, place after place added to a map that spreads more and more over the table that her captains bend over, but the mages and Templars war is only one of the many threats plaguing it. Bandits and religious cults and organized criminal trade, all blended in with some good old elven magic, berserk lyrium and sacred artefacts and you’ve got the recipe for a very beaten-down Herald.

No wonder people do not believe in her and their institution, when they’re scrambling so hard just to survive. An arrow passes by her head, gets stuck in the neck of the man she was fighting against, who falls to the ground with a strangled noise.

“I doubt that’s the last of them,” Varric says, putting his weapon away, as she searches the pockets of the fallen bandit.

“Thanks, Varric. You really know how to make a girl feel special.”

He grins back at her, and Cassandra makes a disgusted noise, wiping the sweat off her brow, leaving behind a dirty streak. The last of Solas’ healing magic pulses at their muscles, and she gets ready for the waves of pain, to feel her actual pain unmuted by magic. Maker, she’s so tired.

They meet Mihris near the entrance to the cave, fighting against a shade. Trevelyan is just happy that there’s only one, the Fade thin, but not shredded enough to create a rift. She’s searching for the elven artefact that Solas mentioned, so it makes sense that they should look for it together. It certainly sounds worth investigating.

She’s mourning that, in-between her good teachings, no one ever thought that Elven would come in handy during her life, because she’s sure Solas will never translate his conversation for the rest of them. and neither Mihris will mention exactly what their companions told her. The velfire is just as creepy as anything else stuck in the fade: a memory of a flame that burns in this world only where the veil is thin. She hopes that when it’s her time to go, she won’t have any part of her stuck in the Fade. She’s had her fill of it already.

And yet, she trusts Solas, and his immense knowledge. It’s impossible for one person in the Inquisition to know everything about everything, and so his presence is as essential as that of Cullen training their army, as Leliana gathering spies and secrets, as Josephine speaking beautifully. She has no qualms about asking him to intervene in getting the artefact, exactly because she knows he is the better trained person to figure out its purpose.

Rather than being scared or disgusted at the power that he yields through magic, she is just fascinated. The possibilities of it are endless, and there is much threat in that, but equal opportunities. And if even Cassandra can see that, when one evening in the camp she seriously says your position is a honourable one, and well earned, then there’s much quality in having someone like Solas to call their companion.

Only after they set up all the six big camps for the Inquisition’s forces to get a foothold all across the Hinterlands, do they return back to Haven properly. There’s so much grim under her armour, that Trevelyan almost plunges into the snow for a made-up bath. Instead she grabs at a messenger’s arm, asks for any news or letter, receives his shake of the head instead. Cassandra wants to call her name, but she passes by, furious at her parents for making her wait, furious at herself for still waiting.

“See you at the council room in an hour,” she throws over her shoulder, and moves towards her room, prepares a pot of snow to melt over the fire, for a bath. She asks Harrit to tweak one of the armours she picked in the Hinterlands, because she is not sure the last one can keep up with their battles anymore, or have its stains ever removed. She stops by the tavern just enough to grab half a loaf of bread. She spends maybe a bit too much time on washing and brushing her hair, her semblance of normality and calm in the one braid that she knots together at her back.

She feels more human when she enters the Chantry again, though more rattled by the small conflicts appearing here and there, between the Templars and mages in their own ranks, fuelled by the hate in the Chancellor’s words, in his presence at all. She’d like to throw him out, nothing but a random cleric that’s all bark and no bite, a rat using up their own resourced to be kept fed, only to have the power to complain about their mere existence. She is starting to understand her father’s tantrums at nearby nobility, or how their new task is supposed to be filled with such people.

The rest of the advisors are already waiting for them, and she is glad to see that she’s not the only one who took some time for hygiene, Cassandra’s shirt a new one, her short hair still wet. She drops over one of the chairs, head spinning just a bit with the sudden movement, with how in need of a good sleep, good meal or good coffee she is. She blinks once, hard, focuses on the candlelight – as Cullen moves figurines across the table, updating it according to Leliana’s reports.

Josephine clears up her throat. “Mother Giselle is right; the people should see the Herald for more than just the rumours. Having her address the clerics is not such a terrible idea.”

Everyone in the room erupts at the same time, agreeing and disagreeing at the same time.

“I will go with her,” Cassandra steps in, and now the only one daring to say something back is Leliana, though Cassandra looks at the map on the table, at the calculations scrambled over several pieces of paper, and they all understand what this is actually about before she even continues her idea.

“What choice do we have, Leliana? Right now we cannot approach anyone for help with the breach. Use what influence we have to call the clerics together, once they are ready, we will see this through. We must convince the Chantry to permit us entry into the city so we can show them the Herald of Andraste is not the monster they believe.”

Easier said than done. But after all, what choice do they have? As long as the Chantry publicly works and speaks against the Inquisition, there will be no possible alliances, and most noble houses will avoid any connection with the organization. They’re already struggling as it is, to give enough supplies to their soldiers, to feed all the people in their ranks, to provide for all the refugees seeking their help. If they can make all of it just a tiny bit easier, then they must hone their words and swords and travel to the capital city of Val Royeaux.

 ***

“Did I tell you I hate this city?” she murmurs next to Varric, at the entrance to the city, as she feels the stares of the people around her at the back of her neck.

He snickers next to her, but it’s broken by a woman’s scream, as everyone else scrambles away in a panic once it dawns on them exactly who the colourful group is. One person trips, brushes past her shoulders, and for a brief second, she makes eye-contact with them, the horror so profound despite the mask they’re wearing, and she feels her skin crawling.

“Just a guess, Seeker,” he calls out to Cassandra, walking a few feet ahead of them. “but I think they all know who we are.”

“Your skills of observation never fail to impress me, Varric,” she sighs.

The only one welcoming them is one of Leliana’s spy, updating them on the situation in the city. There shouldn’t be anything surprising in the Chantry being together with the Templars, if the latter weren’t stuck in a war already, supposedly to have other priorities.

“People seem to think the Templars will protect them from… from the Inquistion.”

But Trevelyan isn’t blind; she caught the way the spy looked her over for a brief second, and knew its meaning.

“From me, you mean.”

She’s glad she decided to wear the leather gloves today, Mark hidden underneath it. More of a mere human, and less of a religious herald. Whatever these people understood from the events that spread throughout the entire Thedas, Trevelyan is not so certain she will be able to change their minds. She knows from her own experience that the strongest believers are the most resilient to change. Her showing up, wearing their saint’s name like only she owns it, will do nothing to make them have more faith in her.

It doesn’t help that the city is still mourning, bells going off at all hours of the day or the night; those suffering are most eager to find someone to point their finger at. She’d like a bit of respite, maybe just half an hour – disappear for a bit inside the Chantry, pray for her dead brother properly, light a candle in his memory. But that’s a luxury that she cannot have, especially, especially not after becoming the Herald.

There’s already a small audience gathered in front of the Mother, though if it’s curiosity or belief, she cannot tell, especially here in Orlais. As soon as she steps in the market, a finger points at her.

“Behold the so called Herald of Andraste. Claiming to rise where our beloved fell. We say this is a false prophet! No servant of anything beyond her selfish greed.”

More words put into her mouth, and now she cannot chew them down, swallow them whole, and her throat constricts with the indignation at such lies being presented as irrefutable truth. She tries though, to say the right words, in the right way, wills her voice not to weaver in front of anyone, puts a bit of her noble voice in it.

“I am simply trying to close the Breach. It threatens us all!”

Cassandra pushes forward, comes to stand next to her.

“It’s true! The Inquisition seeks only to end this madness before it is too late.”

Relief washes over her: here is someone with so much blinding faith in the purpose of their organization, that they might actually have a chance.

“It is already too late.”

No, Trevelyan thinks, her hand pulsing and itching with the remains of unclosed rifts, her head hurting with the absence of a memory, a phantom pain of something she doesn’t remember owning in the first place. It’s only the beginning. She wants to scream, frustrated. How come no one else sees something that is so obviously true? Whatever the Conclave was, it was only the start – and whatever is to come, must for certain be bigger and worse than that, for it was only a failed attempt.

For a brief moment, as the Templars come up, she thinks this is it. The Templars will just fight them, win by numerical power, and their organization shut down, the war fought to its very end, the breach swallowing up the entire world in the end. Instead, the Lord Seeker simply strikes down the revered Mother, announces his own plans to gather power, and refuses to hear out anyone else. Trevelyan feels like she is a patron at one of Orlais’ absurd theatre, for all she knew about real life up to this point has been once again turned upside down.

Cassandra still tries, because she is Cassandra so of course she does.

“Creating a heretical movement, raising up a puppet as Andraste’s sent. You have shown me nothing, and the Inquisition… less than nothing. You should be ashamed of yourself. If you came to appeal to the Chantry, you are too late. The only destiny here that demands respect is mine.”

A young Templar at his side intervenes, eyes going from his superior to the members of the Inquisition in a panicked dance.

“But what if she is really chosen by the Maker? What if – “

“You are called to a higher purpose. Do not question.”

And so, they leave. But it’s that last sentence that sounds so familiar to the young lady. She’s been spoon-fed the same idea ever since she was young, reproached with it at each question that had no immediate explanation. If the Lord Seeker is trying to keep the people in his ranks together with that type of mantra, then he will most likely have many non-believers in his midst, or at least enough to question if there are better things to be found somewhere else. If Lucius won’t be reasoned with, then there are surely others in the Order who don’t feel as he does.

And yet, something about the descriptions about him – and his actions now, doesn’t really sit well with the Herald. If he was truly a power-hungry man, then for sure he would have raised to this rank earlier in his life, or at least shown signs of ambition earlier in his ruling.

“Do you think red lyrium might be involved?” she asks, mainly Varric, though she is sure everyone else is also familiar with the Kirkwall story. She remembers those days turned to weeks turned to months, when the Order was in such hectic panic, that her brother couldn’t visit home at all until things calmed over. How scared she was, next to her mother, that her own brother’s addiction might have fallen down the same path.

“Couldn’t really tell, but it’s definitely a theory worth taking into consideration.”

She nods at the answer, turns around so that she can help the revered Mother up. Even if she knows the older woman probably won’t accept it, she stills picks one of her potions and holds it out to her. The woman is bitter and judging, but more than anything else, defeated. Not only have the Templars she was supposed to rely on made a show of abandoning the Chantry and the city, but now the only mercy and understanding she gets is from the underdog organization that she was trying to destroy just a few moments before.

Trevelyan smiles down at her.

“Just tell me one thing,” the Mother says, now helped by other clerics back to her feet. “If you do not believe you are the Maker’s chosen, then what are you?”

“Someone who can help close the breach and end this madness.”

It’s the only still standing truth of her life.

“That is… more comforting than you might imagine.”

“You’re obviously sceptical. What do you believe I am?” She cannot hide her bitterness.

“Our Divine, her Holiness, is dead. I have seen evidence for everything except what would comfort me. For you to be true, a great many things must be false. If you are false, a great many things must have failed.”

The strongest believers are the most resilient to change, of course. But just because the world has been the same during one’s entire life, that does not mean it cannot change. And how easily so many things have blown out like a candle, when the Temple of Sacred Ashes blew up. There is a lot of chaos ahead, for all of humanity – and everyone’s fate is sadly just in the hand of the Maker now. But before the terror comes to all, if there is something that can be done to stop it, then it must be done.

It’s such an obvious, but rare thinking, that when the merchant Belle offers her help, the Herald almost refuses because she is suspicious. So far, almost all the people she interacted with have been more concerned with other matters, than the obvious, glaring gap in the sky. She turns towards Cassandra, asks for her input. I believe she asks you, not me.

Yes, because she is the Herald. But the Inquisition is running on the everyday decisions of way more people than just the Herald of Andraste, and she would have been dead long ago by stress alone if it would have been any different. And yet, there’s something about the bitter, vicious way in which Cassandra said those words, that Trevelyan wonders, if maybe, the Seeker wouldn’t prefer her title instead.

“We need good people,” she tells Belle, and writes a short message for her to show to Cullen when she arrives there, for easier access and a good place to set down.

“I don’t know if I am that, but it will be nice to see.”

An honest Orlesian, well if that ain’t a surprise, she thinks, and just as she is about to leave – an arrow passes by her, missing her cheek by millimetres only. She reads over the note, and turns around to her companions, holding it in-between her fingers. She grins at Varric, a tired thing.

“See? This is why I don’t like Val Royeaux.”

Somehow, from the second you stepped into the city, someone knows your name, your travel purpose, your past, your alliances and where to find you at all times of the day and the night. Some proceed like this mysterious arrow shooter, secret notices in dubiously empty places of the streets. Others prefer flair and style, and send official invitations, much like Madame Vivienne.

Since they are here anyway, they might as well chase down the red handkerchiefs, and attend a dinner party and escape mercenaries sent to kill her before she becomes an even bigger thorn in someone’s side. Trevelyan looks down at her attire, and knows she is about to become the laughing stock of the city for the next month, at least. Orlais is not forgiving even to most religious of the holy figures. And having people wanting to kill her is not a nice feeling, not at all. The fights in the Hinterlands were less about who she was, and the political machinations that come with that, and more about the muscle-memory want and need to remain alive in a battle. She cannot believe she is already missing that place.

Sera is a storm of a woman; not only an incredibly skilled shooter, but absolutely rampant in her speech and actions as well. She is entirely unlike any other young woman Trevelyan has ever met in her life, but it’s the freshness of her that eventually makes her smile at all that speech about breeches.

The blonde lowers her bow, scrunches her nose.

“You’re kind of plain, really. All that talk, and then you’re just…. a person. At least you do the whole glowing thing, right?”

The Herald sheathes her daggers, removes one of her gloves, to prove to this rogue, in the simplest way possible, that she is indeed the woman that the rumours keep talking about. But in fact, she does it out of gratefulness. In the midst of all the people that already know her as this holy figure, she’s had no time to consider herself normal again. And yet here Sera is, first time looking at her, and calling her plain. It’s what she has been all her life, really no noticeable feature on her face, a kind of washed-up beauty fitted more for dark portraits than real life attraction, and yet so many people threw away the commonness of her appearance in favour of the blessings the Maker supposedly bestowed upon her, something that she indignantly fought against at each turn.

If someone as scared of the Breach can judge the Herald so clearly, then she is clearly needed in their ranks. Trevelyan feels the acute need to have someone who can look at her, and see beyond the allegations of the faithful – and Sera is the closest thing she has to that, now, even if her eyes glint in a particular way each time she stares at her hand. Then, her arguments are also irrefutable. Even in their own ranks, it’s impossible to know all the people that pass through their camp, and it takes only one low level desperate servant to take apart a month’s worth of work.

Solas shifts at her back, not entirely pleased at the erratic speech or all over the place fighting style of this elf in front of them. But as Cassandra said, they don’t have any real choice – and anyone who is willing to help, is more than welcome. So Sera leaves for Haven, just as the rest of the gang waits for the party to start.

Trevelyan immediately grabs at a drink, no other way to get through an Orlesian party than at least a little bit tipsy – especially as her companions had to stay behind at an inn, invitation extended only to her. Cassandra almost tied her to a chair in an attempt to keep her from going, but Varric helped her see the potential in this partnership, if it was truly extended in true. What’s a bit of life risking, when they could gather the resources of a well-standing mage tied with the Orlesian nobility and one of the last standing Circles, invaluable to their battles and influences?

Still, an Orlesian party is the worst of social gathering, what with their masks hiding their facial expressions, the airy accent in their voices, the way their insults are never spoken like such, so there’s no way you can act offended. Her second brother is somewhere in the city, playing the Game, and she cannot understand what in the Maker’s name he finds interesting at a bunch of political and personal issues being passed around in gossips and love-making.

Of course, usually people in Val Royeaux are never so fast in helping her out. And while the Marquis’ words are indeed offending, he hasn’t done much worse than anyone else she has meet this entire day – so she is ready to brush it off, just as the man is frozen in place by Enchantress Vivienne. The woman is elegance and poise and beauty all in one, and the Herald finds herself taken aback by her presence. She’s also obviously incredibly powerful, both in magic and politics, to have made such a scene, even at her own party, and have none of her guests panic in any way.

She allows the Marquis his life, because really, it’s not like his words were harsher than others’, and follows Vivienne to a more secluded place, to talk. She moves her hands at her side, feels the hilts of her daggers, takes comfort in that, even if she knows she would have been dead already, if Vivienne wanted it.

It’s impossible for the other woman not to know that she talks with a daughter of a Trevelyan, and yet she remains true and proud in her being a mage, and in the places she has reached thanks to that.

“Not all mages have forgotten the commandment, that magic exists to serve man.”

And indeed, what better time to serve, than when the Breach is threatening mankind as a whole? But Trevelyan looks at this gorgeous and deadly woman, who probably has whatever she wants at the tip of her finger, and cannot imagine her in Haven, in the midst of all that chaos and dirt.

“What’s in it for you?”

Vivienne’s expression darkens. “The chance to meet my enemy, to decide my fate. I won’t wait quietly for destruction.”

Isn’t this what all of them are doing, one way or another? And yet, how much courage and pride to actually acknowledge it, deep to the rawest part of it.

“We’ll see each other in Haven then,” the Herald says, curtsying before turning around and leaving the estate, to relay the news to her people.

 ***

When they arrive, they move directly into a council. Leliana’s spies sent word ahead of their actions in Val Royeaux, but even if they were already aware of the situation, it seems like the advisors have not reached a common ground in the Templar-mages war. Each side is equally powerful and desperate now, and with the Chantry on the brink of falling apart, the Inquisition is the only faction that can still intervene in-between the two of them. The balance is weighing, uncertain in the air, and there’s no side heavier than the other, just yet.

And what’s more troublesome is that all Grey Wardens vanished – and Leliana asking for her help in the matter is a certain sign of things going wrong. If the people working with their spy network, one spread all across Thedas, cannot find a hint as to what is going on with that order, then the issue must be very suspicious indeed.

“Ordinarily, I couldn’t even consider the idea they’re involved in all this, but the timing is… curious.”

Trevelyan shivers under Leliana’s hand, where she stopped and held her close to whisper of her suspicions, and after all who is not involved in all of this, now?

Growing up in a noble household, and one that also prides itself on its religious beliefs, the want to help is somewhat rooted in her upbringing. When Cremisius Aclassi hovers at the entrance to the Chantry, she stops to ask him what his purpose in being here is in the first place. The Inquisition isn’t seeing people in such fine armour every day. Though, true to her noble status, she is also annoyed at the fact that after days of the poor guy trying to reach someone in the organization to listen to him, he somehow ended up to her as well. And yet, the Chargers don’t sound quite that bad. There’s no shame in paying for your help, especially if it’s as good as Cremisius makes it up to be.

“We are loyal, we’re tough, and we don’t break contracts. Iron Bull wants to work for the Inquisition. He thinks you’re doing good work.”

Trevelyan looks around her, at the constant bustling of Haven, at all of her people going about their duties, and realizes that maybe this praise is actually well-deserved.

“What about this Iron Bull?”

She gets the impression that this man in front of her loves to talk, and is honest in his words – especially if he can go on and on about people he’s known for year, who fought by his side and who saved his life more times than he can remember. The cheer and admiration in his voice is so noticeable, that she burns with curiosity by the end of it. The guy surely knows how to sell his job.

“Best of all, he’s professional. We accept contracts with whoever makes the first real offer. You’re the first time he’s gone out of his way to pick a side.”

Well, that’s surprising. Lately, it’s been her having to chase down allies.

“I look forward to meeting this Iron Bull.”

She moves away before he has time to say anything else. She’s pressed by time; she’d like a change of undershirt before she reads over the records from the Storm Coast and visits the place herself.

 ***

The sea back at home is calm, and the sun is gentle on most days, the smell of sand and spices filling the air near the open market. The sea on the Storm Coast is an angry, bellowing monster – and the Herald takes no comfort in being present here. The rain falls in such a heavy curtain that it almost hurts where it hits her bare skin, at the nape of her neck and over her hands, and she is immediately miserable and cold. She feels like one of the kittens her brothers loved so much to torment by dunking them in rain buckets. Harding attempts to smile at her, and she’s such a pretty sight.

“Enjoy the sea air. I heard it’s good for the soul.”

Again, Trevelyan wants to say, it’s the sea back at home that always calmed her heart, not this tempest raging on and on, unmerciful. She is glad she decided to go with her lightest armour, because anything heavier would have had her toppling over once wet. And yet, despite being entirely uncomfortable, and despite having her discomfort so obvious to her companions, her interest is stronger, as she considers exactly what the Chargers are capable of.

Bull ducks from an incoming attack, lips pulling into a smirk as he hears the battle growing in numbers, his guests finally making their appearance. When he rises, axe held up ready for a blow, his enemy falls to his feet, and in the blink of the eye, where before there was nothing but air, the Herald of Andraste appears, dressed in blood and looking up at him with the widest eyes he’s ever seen. She looks determinedly torn. Her instincts always at war with her reason, and it seems like she is walking, talking, breathing on eggshells, trying to maintain the balance of her inner self, even as she slashes at the guy’s throat, keeps an eye on her people all the while as they take down another smuggler.

For a moment, as she straightens herself back up, the Herald of Andraste looks like she’s on the brink of collapsing. Then she sheathes her daggers, carefully wiping off the blood on her pants, pushes away the hair falling into her face, braid coming undone in the midst of fighting, and there’s an easier air about her.

“Nice one, Chuckles!” he can hear one of her companions addressing her, and he’s storing that nickname for a later time, but since both of them are busy assessing the other, none turns.

She’s not scared, he realizes. Her pupils are blown open, but it’s just the excitement from the battle still bursting in her veins. She stares at him, but she does not shy away from meeting his eyes, and there’s no second where her gaze strays anywhere else but his face or his weapon.

Smart girl, Bull thinks.

He can notice there’s already a strain forming in her neck, from looking up at him, and he grins. She barely reaches his chest, just a tiny frail human – exhausted from fighting, probably not as well-fed as she should be.

“So you’re with the Inquisition, huh? Glad you could make it. Come on, have a seat. Drinks are coming.”

“You are the Iron Bull.”

There’s something in her voice that he doesn’t know where to place exactly, so he pushes it to the side. She’s really quite plain, as far as women go. There are many mingled stories in her body language, but whatever she’s managed to rewire, her manners are not one of those things – as she takes a seat as far away as possible from him on the tree trunk, head nodding politely in Krem’s direction when he comes up to proclaim his job already finished.

Yet, the Bull wants more time with this holy figure of the Inquisition’s. “I don’t want any of those Tevinter bastards getting away. No offense, Krem.”

“None taken, least a bastard knows who his mother was. Puts him one up on you Qunari, right?”

Bulls laughs, warmly, and the Herald wonders how much history exactly do these two share to be so comfortable passing around offences like the kindest of words. She is reminded of her brother’s favourite sayings; one he would always mention whenever he’d refer to the other Templers as his other siblings: Constant companionship is the strongest sign of affection. These two, with nothing in common and all the possible reasons to hate each other, instead choose, each day, to fight by each other’s side, to listen to one another and honour their bond above anything else.

She burns with yearning.

“So, you’ve seen us fight. We’re expensive, but we’re worth it… and I’m sure the Inquisition can afford us.”

“How much?”

“It wouldn’t cost you anything personally, unless you wanna buy drinks later. Your ambassador – what’s her name – Josephine? We’d go through her and get the payment set up. The gold will take care of itself. Don’t worry about that. All that matters is we’re worth it.”

Trevelyan thinks of the Inquisition’s coffers, not much over the sum the Iron Bull asks in there. But as much as they’d be lacking, she’s sure with such a mercenary company in their ranks, they’ll replace the coin in no time – and she can’t even imagine how easier they’ll go through missions and demands with fighters just that good.

“The Chargers seem like an excellent company.”

Cassandra, from a distance away, looks like she’s about to have a seizure, no doubt having made the same calculation as the Herald to what Krem told her, but coming to a way different conclusion. Varric laughs in the background.

“They are. But you’re not getting the boys. You’re getting me. You need a frontline bodyguard, I’m your man. Whatever it is – demons, dragons? The bigger the better.”

It’s been weeks since she’s felt at ease on a battlefield, but just one shout from the Iron Bull, his lance high in the air, put most of her worries at ease. He is a man who obviously knows what he is doing when he fights, and this is exactly the type of people she desperately needs during her missions. She’d stand behind him in front of anything, and although it should scare her how willing she is to entrust her life over to someone she has just met, she is just so tired of coming close to dying in each of her battles, of struggling so hard to bring down men bigger than her, or fear for her life even as she walks on an evening stroll. Iron Bull, acting as her bodyguard in all Inquisition matters, sounds like the best thing that has even happened to her since coming alive out of that damned blast.

Her shoulders sag in relief, there’s a breath of air that comes easier. He is everything she is not. She finds that the most incredible, best thing about him.

“There’s one other thing. Might be useful, might piss you off. Ever heard of the Ben-Hassrath?”

Trevelyan thinks back to her studies; when Qunari showed up in the Free Marches, on Kirkwall’s shores, her afternoon studies were almost immediately including Qunari culture and history as well, though at that moment she didn’t know she’ll ever need it, directly, like this.

“They’re a Qunari organization, right? The equivalent of their guards and city watch?”

An almost perfect quotation of her teacher, that she is painfully aware, now, was neither Qunari, neither travelled to Par Vollen.

“I’d go closer to spies, but yeah, that’s them. Oh, well, us.”

She appreciates that at least Iron Bull is obviously trying not to piss her off when choosing his words, his tone perfectly neutral, no stray expression on his face. It’s like she is listening to a report, and she cannot quite understand why a Qunari spy just admitted, outright, on their first meeting, to being a Qunari spy tasked to do exactly what he is doing right now. She thinks of his offer, of how good it sounded –

“Whatever happened at that Conclave thing, it’s bad. Someone needs to get that Breach closed. So whatever I am, I am on your side.”

Is she okay with that whatever being a spy? Is that promise, of him standing by her side and protecting her, enough to erase the fact that he is a trained spy? Is she okay with knowingly having reports sent about her actions and her choices and herself, about the Inquisition and its people – all of them that she just tentatively learnt to know? And does it make it better that she knows it from the start? That he’s been honourable enough to tell her from the beginning, just like that? And is their information valuable enough to get something equally as valuable from the other Qunari spies across Thedas?

The scale tips in her mind, from one side to the other, yes and no, getting heavier and heavier with each passing second, getting lighter and lighter with each of Bull’s arguments.

“Very well. You’re in.”

Bull smiles at this uncertain, poor woman in front of him, torn apart already by the expectations that her people put on her – and he is trying to calculate for how long is the Inquisition supposed to last like this. Whatever the humans call her, she is nothing but a terrified and overworked noble, who blushes prettily at the simple mentions of his preferences in redheads, who stares after the Chargers with something like jealousy on her face. Then the moment passes, and she starts moving, and there’s nothing of her past burden visible on her while she’s on the go, as she takes the trek back to the Inquisition’s camp, falling in row with the dwarf, nodding her head at Dalish.

She’s a figure who learnt of his secrets and chose to forgive him in advance and to trust him with no basis for it. Peculiar and desperate at the same time, lessons that he thinks she learnt only recently – no real noble would have agreed so easily, with so little coating.

He recalculates the odds of success, now that he is part of the Inquisition too.

[aruneshgoyal]

T

TEN INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS  

INSPIRATION 1:  

Pride, Ego, Anger DOWNFALL 

Time spent in company of GOD (Sat_Sang) is Time well spent! 

Control DESIRES 

God’s LOVE IS MATCHLESS! 

If you have to yearn for anything, Aspire for HIM “Only & Always”! 

Don’t allow your Divinity to Rust in Sensual Pleasures! 

“AS YOU SOW, SO SHALL YOU REAP” Good Actions ------------- Good Results &  Bad Actions --------------- Bad Results (Shrimad_Bhagvad_Geeta ordains this Principle.) 

N.B Do all actions in the spirit of service & devotion.

Name of God & Love of God Sustains Life {In fact, is the life breath} [Sole Wealth, which can easily be trusted upon] 

LOVE ALL, SERVE ALL! 

Life is a pilgrimage from Self to Self in which God is the Candle Light to tear apart the dark thorny bushes & hurdles along the way! 

INSPIRATION 2: (It’s Christmas Time!!!)   

Women Mothers Make the Destiny of their families and, whence the country Should teach noble virtues& lives of great men of yesteryears Thereby, fostering the spirit of love and compassion, so much required in this Kalyuga.   Even in enemies, spirit or soul is the same! Whence, what a man does may be wrong! But, how can a man, A spark of the Divine, Himself be ever wrong? 

Self Control is the key! (Less Desires /   Less Luggage)  More Comfort!! ) 

Humility, Patience, Reverence o Just bywords of yesteryears! Who cares? 

Purify yourself and your body, mind, and everything 

Ray of hope! God’s Grace Depth of Devotion! 

Body Utilized for Sacred Purpose! 

See and visualize the same immortal spark of the Divine in everybody and everything, tangible or intangible both! 

Devotion Highest form of Love & Worship! 

INSPIRATION 3:  

Sanctification / Purification  LOVE, PEACE, NON-VIOLENCE (The innate attributes of man)  

SELF-REALIZATION  PROSPERITY  Good Thoughts Good Actions  Meditating & Contemplating upon God   o Good Life  Be always happy, afraid of sin, and keep steady faith with discipline in God!  Cleanse yourself of lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride, and malice. Then, you will be unaffected by honor or dishonor, profit or loss, joy or grief etc.!  

LOVE: Universal without any distinctions…. Divine 

Physical ……..Root cause of all that is evil in the world. It must be confined to its boundaries lest it may destroy you!

NO triumph more praiseworthy than “Complete Surrender” to God! Then, everything (good / bad) becomes a gift from Him!  

The world is His play (Cosmic Drama / ‘Leela’). You can enjoy it only when you have faith in Him with the spirit of surrender& devotion.  

Reduce your wants and consumption as resources on the earth are limited and whence, precious.  

You can have bliss (ananda) if you turn your vision inwards towards God.  

Joy of giving is much more than joy of taking.  

Jesus said – “Ask and you will get it!” Similarly, yearn & pine for God and you will get Him! Life’s foundation must be based on Dharma (righteousness). Earn your bread following the path of Dharma.  Happiness by Controlling desires  (Not fulfilling them but limiting and starving them)  

Contentment Bliss  No use searching for the Divine vainly externally. 

Spirit (consciousness) is the God inherent that lights the body! 

N.B: Be in harmony with yourself and nature (prakriti).  

You must learn the art before teaching anybody else. Can a blind man show the way to others? One who has a cataract must first remove it from his eye before giving grand sermons and lectures to everybody else.  

One must recognize the Brotherhood of mankind and the Fatherhood of God!  

Help Ever, Hurt Never!  Faith in God; Contemplation on God; and Constant prayer to God; Are the vital links in reducing the distance between man and God!  

God permeates everything and everybody. 

Try to do something good every day, howsoever, big or small, it may be! This way, you shall redeem your life; God gives us the Guarantee Card!  

Give up bodily attachment. Live eternally present in the consciousness. What has happened in the past and what future holds doesn’t matter. Try to live in the present. Be contented with what you have and don’t lament over what you do not!  

Self-confidence is the key to peace of mind.  Time is precious; don’t waste any of it!  How can the world be reformed? First and foremost, reform yourself, then your immediate environment, and then, the world at large!  

Love is the Atmic principle. Live in love. Cherish sacred good thoughts.  

Selfishness is the root cause of all afflictions plaguing man today. Try to be selfless. Cherish noble human values discarding evil qualities like jealousy, hatred, hypocrisy etc.  Have clarity of vision and goals. Ultimate goal has to be self-realization. Make strenuous efforts for that by clearing the clouds of doubt & confusion and instilling the feelings of love, faith, compassion, and service.

There is a Golden saying – “Help Ever, Hurt Never!” Try to help anybody in dire & genuine need.  Fill your heart with Divine Universal Love.  Only God can be a TRUE and trustworthy Friend (sakha). His love and compassion is matchless. In his company, everything is Divine. HE is the ONE behind all Zeros. Without Him, there is NOTHING!  

Your thoughts must be good. Good thoughts harbor good and meritorious deeds and actions. Thought power guides our lives. So, be positive in your good and noble thoughts. 

INSPIRATION 4: 

Faith Eliminates Jealousy & Hatred

Love/Grace of GOD Bestows Equal Vision Fleeting nature of worldly pleasures!

Learning from Jesus Taking both criticism and praise as gifts from GOD, loving both friends/foes equally by praying for both of them to grant them ‘Good Life/Gyan’ in equal measure!! 

Five vital things:- True Renunciation Fear of sin Morality in society Gratitude Good conscience

Fearlessness

Do work in society ……. But, Hands in society, head in forest! Maintain poise, balance & equanimity; With a feeling of detachment; Get hold of GOD. 

Man breathes 21, 600 times a day and repeats ‘So-HAM’ WITH EACH BREATH unknowingly; 

Devotion (Bhakti) doesn’t mean a journey of comforts; We must express our gratitude to the Divine constantly for whatever we have and keep on trying for what we don’t, leaving the results to the Almighty Lord; 

Feelings of Mine & Thine (Mamkaar) have to be given up. 

Depression by any unexpected loss or calamity can be overcome by remembering the Lord, i.e. Namasmarna; 

Difficulties must be borne with steadfastness, valor & spirit; 

Don’t get annoyed when people laugh at you; rather, pray for them as they are ignorant of the ways of the Divine;

  A woman brings a pot of water on her head, all the time talking with others but keeping her attention on the pot only; a dancer keeps attention in dance & just keeps on moving his limbs; similarly, keep your Focus on GOD and keep doing work in society as per its laws. 

Bhaj GovindamMoodh Mate! Bhajans/Devotional songs help in softening the cobra like senses and still their fangs and passions. Become a master of your senses, not their slave. 

Finding faults in each & everything makes life useless, listless, and meaningless; eliminate this tendency and lead a worthy life. 

Activity is sacred if it does not promote bondage&greed.

Spirituality means living in spirit of love & brotherhood; rooting out the animal nature, violence, et al. Don’t seek happiness outside; seek within! Search for GOD/Atma within, not outside! 

The greatest Triumph is “Complete Surrender” to GOD! 

Lamp remains same; its users are many in many ways; Culture is not different from Spirituality; they are one and the same thing! 

Intelligence doesn’t mean cunningness but cleverness that bestows wisdom and all noble virtues and must flow from the heart outwards!         World + Divinity = Spirit! Sugar has to be thoroughly mixed water to make it sweet; similarly, the nectar of Divinity has to be thoroughly mixed with worldly chores to turn it into Spirituality! 

One who has conquered Desire is the Master-Mind! 

AS you Deposit your money with a bank, so should you deposit all your wisdom etc. with GOD! This sacred money shall continue to grow forever and you can draw upon it anytime in need! 

Whatever happens is GOOD! 

LOVE is selflessness! 

Life is a Challenge; you cannot meet it without the Grace/Love of GOD! 

Strive to earn the LOVE of GOD; it’s the most important wealth that one can have! 

Remember, real education is not one that Binds; rather, it is one that Liberates! 

Do rightful acts in the Present; Past has gone and Future, you can’t perceive! Fulfilling your desires can never give you absolute satisfaction; limiting & consciously starving them can; put a ceiling on your desires AS ‘Less Luggage; More Comfort’!! 

Never pray for the sake of praying; do it sincerely with a feeling of “Complete and TOTAL Surrender”!

Full Work Full Pay; Half Work Half Pay;

Full Grace of GOD, Complete & Full Surrender

Seek good and holy company AS Company determines who you are!

GOD is the resident & indweller of every being; love everybody with no hatred/ill-will towards anybody!

Keep Mind In Control Along the Right Path!

How can you ever forget your parents who have brought you up through so many trials & tribulations? Especially, the mother who has borne you in her womb for nine months! 

You have to pay four debts: Mother, Father, Guru/Teacher, & GOD With a feeling of togetherness and LOVE towards everybody! 

Sectarian tendencies have to be checked and wiped out! 

Foundation of everything has to be LOVE!

Live for others; not for yourself!

Bear actions of past births with a smile!

Life is Expansion of LOVE; Contraction is Death!

HAPPINESS & PROSPERITY [With] Only one Religion - Religion of LOVE! &  Only one Caste - Caste of Humanity! 

INSPIRATION 5: 

Body is meant to cross the ocean of transmigration, not to fulfill sensual pleasures overboard;

The main problem plaguing the world today is “EGOISM”. Unless and until one gets rid of his ego, self-realization is just not possible. Even Lord Ram had to give up and sacrifice His ego to establish Ram_Rajya.

Individuality Humanity Divinity

the need of the hour is to think about others, not just for one’s own sake; as in the Ramayana.

No Sacrifices; NO Ram_Rajya

For any relationship to last, it must be founded on Love & Truth.

Righteousness {Dharma} [Basis for] Peace & Bliss!

Thoughts; Actions

Bad Thoughts; Bad Actions 

Good Thoughts; Good Actions 

INSPIRATIONS 6-10:  One must have the uncanny ability to differentiate between one’s desires and needs; Less luggage more comfort Less desires more happiness

Body should be taken care of till one fulfills the mission of his life, viz. Self realization/God-realization/Moksha/Nirvana or Kingdom of God, as it is said.

Love lives by giving & forgiving.  You must be able to derive happiness from even a state of misery!

Silence is the ‘golden’ language of the heart; we should try and observe silence at least for one hour each day.

In ‘Kal_yuga’, “Name” of God (Nama_Smarna) is the source of liberation! 

What we want from others, we should try and do unto them ourselves first!

We must try to see the world as God_Swarup (Krisanmay).

We should neither worry about finishing our work nor about the results thereof!

You cannot always oblige; but you can surely speak obligingly!

Contentment o Equanimity

“Rama_Nama (name of God) is the Divine Nectar”!

God Helps Those Who: o Help Themselves o Help Others. o (The Choice Is Yours!)

Remain unaffected by gain/loss, praise/blame, positive(s)/negative(s) with steadfast faith in God and engage in good deeds constantly to attain Divinity!

Don’t meet hatred with hatred, anger with anger; meet them with love & prayer, with brotherhood & fellowship, for the betterment of everybody to build a ‘harmonious’ society; start now from this moment on!  

True Leadership entails Service to Mankind!  Prayer reaches God only when it carries the Stamp of Bhakti, Devotion, and Sincerity!  Love shall carry you on the road to God!  

| Faith  o Love |  

Bad is bad & good is good; nobody can question the bona fides of good/bad. Even if one person is speaking the truth, and a thousand others are speaking lies, ‘truth’ shall always remain “truth”!  

Devotion comes easily through the Rambaan Medicine of Kalyuga – Naamasmarna (repetition of Lord Rama’s name)!  

Contentment and a firm resolve to attain the Divine are quintessential for SelfRealization!  

Even if you wish to reap only the fruits of good actions, your bad actions have to be borne by you!  

Develop proximity to God; treat Him as you best friend, philosopher, and guide; and, you shall never have any reasons to complain/repent about this.  

Be like the light of a lamp moving upwards and banishing darkness (read ‘ignorance’)!  Grace of God only can burn your sins! It can be won only by complete and ‘true’ surrender at His feet!  Use your art of Viveka/Discrimination lest the insects of desire, anger etc. might harm you!  

Man is wandering aimlessly in worldly goals forgetting the real ‘Spiritual Goal’, i.e. “Merger with the Divine”! 

GOD always protects the righteous & the virtuous; detachment is one of the sweetest virtues!  

Have reverence for your elders; friendship with those equal to you; and, affectionate love for those younger to you!  

Forgetting worldly concerns, one should cling to the Divine; thereby making sure that he shall attain Divinity some day!  

GOD is above everything; place HIM right on TOP of your Agenda! 

Love should be for Love’s sake only without any motive; Love is Selflessness! o (“Love KO Love HI REHNE Do; KOI NAAM NA Do”! - {‘KHAMOSHI/Silence’} even our film-makers portray this!)

Be always alert lest there be some avoidable mistakes!

LET THY WILL BE Done!

Things & Persons are not the Cause of Bondages; rather, Attachment to them IS! Things are better than Money, Persons better than Things, Wisdom/Detachment better than Persons; GOD is the BEST, better than even Wisdom/Detachment! 

The Root of Evil is the Desire of ‘Sensual Pleasures’!

How can the Company of Perishable things make/render you Imperishable/Immortal? 

That what is for everyone is ours too; and, ‘That’ what is for No one cannot be ours at any cost!

GOD IS OMNIPRESENT; only, One Needs the Eyes to Perceive & Feel HIM!

WE ADORE STATUES OF God BUT IGNORE LIVING BEINGS IN WHOM THE SPARK OF THE SAME Divine IS LATENT! 

NO Penance Higher than Fortitude; NO Happiness Higher than Contentment; NO Merit Higher than Mercy; NO Weapon Higher than Patience!

Body is the Field, Good Deeds are the seed, Heart is the Root; you have to Cultivate the Name of the Lord in order to Reap the Harvest – the Lord HIMSELF!

| Effort  o Experience |

Always be engaged in “true” satsang! Pray to GOD always & for everything!

Spirit is Love of Spirituality! Knowledge of MANY is ‘False’; Knowledge of ONE is ‘True’!

The external world is very tempting but hollow from inside; on the other hand, the soul within is fulfilling and lasting.

Without Faith you cannot prosper; if you allow the seeds of doubt to sprout, they shall bite you into abject misery!

Laziness is rust & dust; self-realization is must & best! 

Main use of a tree is the fruit it bears; similarly, the primary aim/use of the human body is God-Realization; the rest is all accidental & illusionary!  

God is LOVE!, Love is GOD! [Properties are same.] 

God is ‘HridayNivaasi’; you are a devotee only when you receive an ACK from HIM!

Love can melt the Hardest of Rocks! Self-confidence is the key!

|Expect Respect from Others Learn to Respect Them First |

Sugar is present in all Candies; likewise Ishwar_Tattwa is present in all Individuals!

Love is vital for Peace and Peace is vital for Happiness!

Each religion is a part of the Elephant created by man; the Real ‘Religion’ is that one of “humanity”!

Reduce your desires progressively in Life; the Key is to control your eyes and tongue, keeping them in check, constantly on the vigil!

The spirit of worship must emanate from the Heart.

Wherever there is egoism, God’s Grace cannot flow; humility and discipline with goodwill towards all are the essential prerequisites to earn the Grace of God!

Karma & Upaasana must move hand in hand away from the field of ‘Sensual Pleasures’ as much as possible!

What is Meditation? [It is the process of focusing your scattered thoughts at one point/goal – the Divine!] 

***

[THINGS to REMEMBER, in general, for an Article]:

1. Creating a suitable title ……………………………………………… ……………………………… 2. Using sub-headings wherever possible (as it attracts the readers) ……………………………………………… ……………………………..… 

3. Headings & sub-headings to be properly put in bold ……………………………………………… ………………………………. 4. Points to be numbered or bulleted ……………………………………………… ………………………………… 5. Underlining all the keywords 

……………………………………………… …………………………………. 6. Using keywords throughout the content and not just in the beginning Paragraphs ……………………………………………… ………………………………….

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[faithfacts-blog1]

Five Rules of Loyalty

No Matter What You Do, Some People Will Be Disloyal

o matter what you do, some people will become disloyal in the process of time – so pray that it will not be you! This is what a pastor friend of mine said and I agree wholeheartedly with him. Work on yourself so that you do not fall prey to the deceptions that lead to disloyalty.

Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

John 6:70, 71

Jesus asked a very important question, “Have I not chosen you?” Jesus chose Judas Himself. He had selected him from among many others. Before Jesus took His final decision as to who should be His apostles, He went up to a mountain and prayed all night. Many of us do not take such care when making important decisions. 

And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and CONTINUED ALL NIGHT IN PRAYER to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples; and OF THEM HE CHOSE TWELVE, whom also he named apostles; Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, And Judas the brother of James, AND JUDAS ISCARIOT, WHICH WAS ALSO THE TRAITOR.

Luke 6:12-16

I want you to notice how much care Jesus took when He chose the apostles. Did you know that the apostles were chosen out of a larger group of disciples?

What else could He do to prevent betrayal and disloyalty? What could go wrong when a leader as wise and as anointed as Jesus takes a decision? What could go wrong when a leader spends so much time in prayer? And yet, something went very wrong! Three and a half years later Jesus was betrayed by one of these apostles.

If this happened to Jesus, it can happen to you! You are not greater than your master!

Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

John 15:20

No matter your leadership abilities or strategies, some disloyalty is virtually inevitable. One out of the twelve disciples was a traitor. This is why I say that disloyalty cannot be prevented per se. However, it can be minimized greatly.

A good leader should be conscious of this principle. When you know that someone from within may one day fight you, you will be more careful about how you conduct your affairs. It is a very sobering thought to think that a familiar friend you eat with could one day turn against you. Such people may take things you said out of context to misrepresent you. They may re-describe events to give a wrong impression.

Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.

Psalm 41:9

When you are conscious of the fact that potential traitors are in your midst today, you conduct your affairs with even greater circumspection! When you are aware that there is bound to be a traitor, you make extra precautions to ensure that you do not become that traitor!

The Betrayal of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar was Rome’s most successful general. After returning from battle in Spain, Julius Caesar was given a rousing reception. The pomp of his reception made two leading senators, Caesar’s old friend Brutus, and the envious Cassius, fear that Caesar would declare himself emperor. Caesar himself did not trust some of the people. He saw in them the signs of disloyalty.

Julius Caesar said: Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights; Yond’ CASSIUS HAS A LEAN AND HUNGRY LOOK; HE THINKS TOO MUCH: SUCH MEN ARE DANGEROUS. 

Brutus reluctantly joined Cassius and other conspirators in a plot to murder Caesar. Although Julius Caesar was warned by his wife Calphurnia not to step out of the house on that day, he refused to listen. His wife spoke of graves and horrible sights she had seen in the night. But Julius Caesar would have none of that. 

He said, Julius Caesar said: What can be avoided whose end is purposed by the mighty gods? Yet Caesar shall go forth; for these predictions are to the world in general as to Caesar. Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come. 

Julius Caesar attended the senate and was brutally assassinated. Julius Caesar did not know that his closest aides were plotting his death. He had several close friends and assistants. Everybody expects their closest friend to expose wrongdoers and conspirators. A truly loyal person will save you by telling you what is going on behind your back. When your closest aides fail to do this your demise is imminent. Your business could collapse. Your company could go bankrupt. Your factory could register losses. Your church could split up! 

When the conspirators attacked Julius Caesar, he was startled. But his greatest surprise was when he found Brutus to be part of the conspiracy. 

He said, “ET TU, BRUTE?” (You too Brutus?)

When Julius Caesar realized that Brutus was part of the conspiracy, he knew that all was lost. He said those famous words, which meant that it was all over. If your associates and trusted friends turn against you in ministry, your dreams of growth and expansion often end. Your vision for a great business often ends at the feet of disloyal people. 

Julius Caesar said, “Then fall, Caesar!” (Then it’s all over) 

2. Teaching Is Immunization against Disloyalty 

Teaching cannot totally prevent disloyalty but can minimize it greatly. Teaching is like primary health care that seeks to tackle health issues from the preventive point of view. 

In September 1978, the International Conference on Primary Health Care met in Alma-Ata, and defined primary health care nicely.

 “Primary health care includes at least: EDUCATION concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them; PROMOTION OF FOOD SUPPLY and proper nutrition; an adequate supply of SAFE WATER and BASIC SANITATION; maternal and child health care, including family planning; IMMUNIZATION against the major infectious diseases; prevention and CONTROL OF LOCALLY ENDEMIC DISEASES; appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries; and provision of essential drugs” (Caps mine).

Primary health care was to form an integral part of the country’s health system and become the central function and main focus. Health workers have realized that the mainstay of successful medicine is in the preventive dimension. You will notice that primary health care involves providing education, safe water, basic sanitation, immunization and a reliable food supply. These things are very good at improving the health of the nation. These things are also much cheaper to provide than costly surgical treatments. 

I have said all this to say that the Church must see the wisdom in preventing spiritual problems. We must rise up and provide a good supply of food and spiritual immunization. Spiritual immunization involves teaching directly and unambiguously against disloyalty, betrayal, rebellion and ingratitude. Some pastors do not like facing issues head on. Immunization is not an injection that generally treats all diseases. It is a direct attack on a specific disease with the intention of preventing it.

Primary health care has not eradicated all diseases because, it cannot. However, it has definitely reduced the incidence of certain diseases. It has improved the general health of many nations.48 Those Who Are Ignorant God has shown us the way to prevent the destruction of his church. Let us embrace the wisdom of God and it will take us forward. Let us teach faithfulness and loyalty until the deception of rebellion is eradicated. 

3. Teachings on Loyalty Must Be Remembered in the Hour of Temptation 

And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, SATAN HATH DESIRED TO HAVE YOU, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I AM READY TO GO WITH THEE, BOTH INTO PRISON, AND TO DEATH. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

Luke 22:31-34

 Like with all temptations, it is important to remember the things we have learnt when it really matters. I have heard people make profound declarations of commitment. That is exactly what Peter did. 

But when it really mattered, Peter forgot all the things he had said. You must remember the things you say. You must remember the pronouncements you make both in public and in private. What use is a husband who says sweet words at his wedding reception but forgets them two years later? Of what use is a man who says on his wedding night, ‘I will love you forever’ but dumps you after seven years? Forever does not mean seven years! Forever means forever!

You must remember the letters you write. It is easy to write things and to make promises. But it seems we all have a tendency to forget what we have said in the past. Thank God, Peter had a second chance. Peter was the most vocal apostle. 

Everyone remembered Peter’s declarations. All four Gospels record this incident and that is significant. You must realize that the writers of the Gospel did not always record the same events. For instance, Matthew, Mark and Luke recorded practically the same healings. They all recorded the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. But John, the writer of the fourth Gospel, did not. John recorded a number of healings. But most of the healings he recorded, such as the noble man’s son in John chapter four, the lame man at the pool of Bethesda in chapter five, the blind man in chapter nine and the raising of Lazarus from the dead in chapter eleven were not recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke.

However, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John did remember the incident of Peter’s betrayal vividly. That is why it is reported consistently in the four Gospels. People will remember you by the things you said. Be careful to remember your commitment in the hour of temptation. You must be loyal to your promises. You must be loyal to your own words and pronouncements. You must be loyal to your written words. 

Many of the people who have been disloyal to me in life and in ministry, said many positive things to me in the past. They were often the most vocal in their expression of commitment. I remember the things they said to me as though it were yesterday. They truly encouraged me at that time. As the years have gone by, I have become a little unimpressed with what people say. Like Jesus, my attitude is more of wait and see. Let’s see what you will say when things get rough. I pray for my children in the Lord that they will be stable and faithful to the end.

Then took they him, and led him, and brought him into the high priest’s house. And Peter followed afar off. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together. Peter sat down among them. But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with him. 50 And he denied him, saying, WOMAN, I KNOW HIM NOT. [First Denial] And after a little while another saw him, and said, Thou art also of them. And Peter said, MAN, I AM NOT. [Second Denial] And about the space of one hour after another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with him: for he is a Galilaean. And Peter said, MAN, I KNOW NOT WHAT THOU SAYEST. [Third Denial] And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly. 

Luke 22:54-62 

Be a man of honour. Stand by your words. If you said you would be faithful to the end, then do so. Be a woman of virtue. Do not be erratic, unpredictable and wavering. It is in the hour of temptation that you must remember your sweet words of commitment. 

4. Your Loyalty Is First to Jesus Christ 

For there stood by me this night the angel of God, WHOSE I AM, AND WHOM I SERVE. Acts 27:23 

The Apostle Paul in the midst of his crisis, announced to everyone that he belonged to God and that he served the Lord. This fact must be at the forefront of every minister’s mind. You are the Lord’s, you have been bought with a price and you are to serve only God. If you are a minister of God, your service must be to God and not to politics or any other such thing. 

A politician once approached me and asked for my support for his party. I told him, “I have learnt a few lessons in my short life. I cannot support you or any other party per se. I am a pastor and not a politician. No one should try to turn me into a politician for his own gain. I cannot give my support to you just because you ask for it or because you claim to be a Christian.” I encouraged him, “If you tow the line of truth, freedom and justice you will naturally gain the support of Christians. I cannot give myself and my church wholesale to any political group.” I do not belong to any political group; I belong to God! I belong to God and I serve God!

…whose I am, and whom I serve, 

Acts 27:23

5. A Loyal Person Does Not Destroy What He Builds 

For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Galatians 2:18 

There are many destroyers in the church. Many years ago, a large programme was organized on the university campus with the aim of winning all the unbelievers to Christ. A great man of God was invited as the main speaker for this programme. The crowds gathered in the Great Hall of the university. There was an air of expectancy on campus. To our surprise, when this man of God preached, he lashed out at Charismatic Christians. 

He made a mockery of prayer meetings that were being held in the botanical gardens of the university. He said, “Christians were roaring like lions.” He commented that no one could meditate peacefully in the gardens because the Charismatics were roaring like lions. This generated peals of laughter from the assembled students. 

He continued to emphasize that loud prayer in the gardens was superfluous and backward. The people who had prayed for the souls to be saved and for the programme were being ridiculed. Maybe he forgot that Jesus prayed with loud cries and tears. 

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up PRAYERS AND PETITIONS WITH LOUD CRIES 52 AND TEARS to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard…

Hebrews 5:7(NIV) 

Very few people were saved in those meetings! How would unbelievers be attracted to Christ when the pastor was taunting and sneering at Christians? We cannot destroy what we are trying to build. There was no significant addition to the Body of Christ. The destructive words cancelled all the efforts to build. When pastors who claim to be called to the ministry deride and denigrate other ministers, I ask whether they are building or destroying the Body. Choose whether you are a builder or destroyer and stay within your calling. 

The most wicked and destructive statements I have ever heard about the Body of Christ have come from pastors. Ministers spread reprehensible stories about each other. They ridicule one another privately and from their pulpits. They blacken the reputation of other ministers. Then on Sunday morning they mount their pulpits and try to build the Body they have destroyed during the week. 

Do not break down somebody’s house in order to build yours. You will only reap what you sow! Do not break down someone else’s church in order to build yours. How do you destroy a church? With your mouth of course! Let us choose whether we are building or destroying.

by Dag Heward-Mills

[fashiontrendin-blog]

What the Zodiac Says About Your Family Dynamic

http://fashion-trendin.com/what-the-zodiac-says-about-your-family-dynamic/

What the Zodiac Says About Your Family Dynamic

Astrology is but one small block in the massive Jenga tower of family dynamics, but let’s poke it loose anyway — just for fun. It’s the holidays! With respect to our post-nuclear-family landscape, I don’t presume to know anything about your domestic life, but for our purposes, your “family” can be any group of people with whom you feel safe and loved. It can be your little brother and single mom, the funky cousins who only come around once a year, the group of ladies that you get drinks with every Friday night or your significant other. I’m not here to judge your familial crews; I’m just here to interpret what random star patterns might say about your place in them. So grab some eggnog and your sun sign and join me below for a reading of your family role.

Aries

It’s probably fairly easy to spot the Aries in your family. They’re the ones who get super-competitive during the innocent tradition of New Year’s Eve charades or come to the annual reunion with a fully rehearsed skit. This is the cousin that’s always Instagramming new tattoos or the older sibling who tries to persuade you to go skydiving.

Aries is a striking, daring sign that isn’t afraid to be the center of attention. These people will say how they feel in any situation — and that includes family dinners, get-togethers and group outings. This brash nature can rub people the wrong way sometimes. But Aries is also a fiercely loving and generous sign. You can always count on the Aries in your family to take risks for you and support you through big decisions. They’ll let you crash on their sofas anytime — just be prepared for frequent pep talks and soliloquies along the way.

Taurus

As a typical earth sign, Taurus needs structure and routine on a regular basis. But Taurus is unique in that this sign also exercises daily creativity. You probably go to a Taurus’ house every year for Thanksgiving because the meals are consistently excellent — and there’s always an extra surprise dish waiting for your approval.

Taurus often gets the reputation of materialism. In reality, Taurus simply values comfort and luxury. Their homes are always impeccably decorated; their holiday parties have perfectly curated gift bags; the presentation of the buffet table would make Chopped judges cry. Taurus revels in sharing this lifestyle with the people they love, and so they play the role of host with unmatchable grace.

Gemini

Gemini is the stereotypical fun-loving, rule-breaking family member. This is your parent’s sibling who gave you chocolate donuts for breakfast when you weren’t supposed to have sugar. This is the aunt who wears all black and travels the world, bringing you unexpected and exotic gifts on your birthday.

Geminis are highly social, attentive and energetic. Gemini is the most restless air sign, which means that both their minds and their bodies are constantly in motion. They’re always spearheading the conversations as well as the weekend outings, so don’t let this sign’s flighty reputation fool you. Chances are, the Gemini is the person blowing up your family group chat — and they’re always the one who follows through on the wildest and best plans.

Cancer

Cancer is the classic “mom” of the zodiac — they’re protective, supportive and highly expressive. If you’re blessed enough to have an actual Cancer parent, whether mother or father, you probably lived in the designated playdate house among your friends. If you have a Cancer in your friend group, they probably have the coziest, most welcoming apartment for movie nights.

Cancer is the sign that will care for you and look out for you, no matter what. They will text you after an exam to ask how it went, and they’ll offer to role-play with you to practice for a big date. If that sounds weird, Cancers are kind of weird. But they’re mature and sentimental and everything you want a family member to be, too.

Leo

Leos are strong, willful and impossibly proud. This is the family member to go to if you need someone on your side — whether you’re fighting with a sibling, trying to persuade your mom to let you go to a party, or still waiting on your friend to fulfill a Venmo request. If you manage to convince a Leo of your position, you have an ally for life. They stand their ground, and they’re not afraid of a debate.

This sign is also extremely affectionate. Leos enjoy displaying their affection in tangible ways — and while they don’t necessarily expect anything material in return, they do expect gratitude and appreciation. They feel threatened by apathy. So if you’re near a Leo this holiday season, make sure to smile extra wide when you open their present; it’ll make all the difference.

Virgo

I once described the Virgo in my friend group as “the glue that holds us together.” Four years later, it’s still completely true: Virgos are the voices of reason for many families and group dynamics. They’re the ones who will step in and mediate when you’re having a ridiculous argument about travel plans or where to eat — they’re known for their reliability and tranquility in the face of stress.

That being said, earth signs value ambition and drive, so don’t be surprised if your Virgo parent is always asking about that “upcoming promotion” or if your Virgo sibling is a straight-A’s shut-in. While those are stereotypical readings of the Virgo sign, it’s true that these people are usually meticulous, organized perfectionists. They hate useless squabbles, but they’re happy to squabble for a noble cause.

Libra

If your holiday season is typically tinged with family stress, I’d be surprised if you have a Libra in your group, as Libras are unnaturally gifted conversationalists. They are excellent at diffusing tense situations, and their optimistic outlook tends to saturate any social gathering. Unlike Virgos, Libras won’t try to face the problem head-on, mediating a situation through rational discussion; rather, they’ll distract the group with board games or memes or a particularly charming anecdote. Libras work efficiently and subtly to barter peace.

Occasionally, a Libra will come off as a try-hard. But that’s just because they hate confrontation and love to feel loved. With a Libra in your group, you’ll have access to a gym buddy, a style consultant, a person who remembers to bring your favorite wine every time they come over — and if that’s what a notorious try-hard brings to the table, who would refuse?

Scorpio

The Scorpio vibe is very much “the sibling who’s barely left their room in months and it’s becoming vaguely worrisome.” This sign can be a little angsty, intimidating or difficult to talk to. But at its core, Scorpio is a water sign that values and seeks human connection. Water signs are famously sensitive and family-oriented; Scorpios in particular possess an extremely acute intuition and can easily detect insecurities in other people.

Scorpios are contradictory in nature; while they can be highly selfish, they’re also sympathetic. This can manifest as martyrdom, particularly in familial structures. They’re very sensitive to tension and may have difficulty vocalizing their emotions to their parents (as children) or to their children (as parents). However, they’re extremely honest and spontaneous people, so be careful not to fill a Scorpio with too many secrets before they serve the wine at your family dinner party.

Sagittarius

Everyone has that family member who plans sporadic trips, builds forts for the kids’ sleepovers and always tells the best jokes — the family member who starts the party but is occasionally the reason why it ends, too. This is the essence of a Sagittarius. They usually don’t know their own power. Sagittarius is an outgoing, charismatic sign with an undeniable streak of recklessness.

Sagittarians are independent and adventurous from the get-go. If you have an archer sibling, like I do, then you may remember that they tried to run away as a child for no particular reason. Or perhaps they threw raucous parties while your parents were away but never seemed to suffer any consequences. This confidence, this lust for life, lends itself to the Sagittarian magnetism. They’re always the life of the party — even if the party is at your grandma’s house.

Capricorn

I can imagine that having a Capricorn in your household is a little like living inside of Jay Gatsby’s head. The decor is purposeful and pristine; even your parties are carefully mapped out so as to achieve a specific goal. Capricorns are hard-working, self-sufficient individuals who have a plan. I don’t know what the plan is or what it’s for — does anybody, really? — but I know that they have one.

This is why Capricorns make excellent caretakers. They’ll pour their whole heart into making sure you feel loved and safe. They’ll do anything to make sure you succeed. This is true whether you have a Capricorn for a parent, best friend or wise neighbor whom you go to for advice. A Capricorn will listen carefully and help you map a plan of attack. They’ll make sure that both your coffee and your morals are strong.

Aquarius

If you want to understand the Aquarius’ role in a family, look no further than the hero of the holiday classic Home Alone. We can debate this movie’s true intended audience until the McCallisters come home (it seems a little gory for children, no?) but Kevin’s Aquarian spirit is undeniable. First, he’s a little strange. Second, he embraces his independence from a very young age. Third, and most importantly, he’s ingenious.

An Aquarius may find themselves misunderstood within their own family dynamic, acting as a sort of outlier — perhaps not to the extent that their parents will forget them while going on vacation (twice), but an outlier all the same. Aquarius is the sign that embraces individualism and uniqueness more than any other in the zodiac. As with Kevin, this is what affords Aquarians their resourceful, inspired nature; he may be the family loner, but that’s what makes him an icon.

Pisces

Aquarius may be famously unique, but Pisces is the true eccentric of the zodiac, adorned with a deeply compassionate, understanding soul. The Pisces in your group is the person who gives you a crystal to help you ward off negative energy, or makes extremely accurate Netflix recommendations. More than anything else, Pisces is a perceptive sign. Even if your Luna Lovegood-type cousin only comes to your house once a year, she probably knows you better than you may feel comfortable with. That’s how they’re such excellent gift-givers.

Water signs, and Pisces in particular, can usually be counted on for a sympathetic ear. If you need to rant or unload — but don’t necessarily want advice — a Pisces is your best bet. They have advice, sure, and it’s probably really good, but they’d never insert themselves into your life without your explicit permission. They often prefer to remain on the outskirts, calmly observing and absorbing the emotions.

Illustrations by Allison Filice. 

[sarkarimirror]

Excerpts of PM’s address on the occasion of the Platinum Jubilee of the Daily Thanthi in Chennai

Excerpts of PM’s address on the occasion of the Platinum Jubilee of the Daily Thanthi in Chennai At the outset, I express my condolences and sympathies to the families of all those, who have lost their loved ones, or faced immense hardship in the recent incidents of heavy rain and floods in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu. I have assured the State Government of all possible support. I also express grief at the passing away of senior journalist, Thiru R. Mohan. The Dina Thanthi has completed seventy five glorious years. I commend the contributions of Thiru S.P. Adithanar, Thiru S.T. Adithanar, and Thiru Balasubramanian ji, for the successful journey so far. Their stellar efforts over the last seven and a half decades, have made Thanthi one of the biggest media brands. Not just in the State of Tamil Nadu, but in the entire country. I also compliment the management and staff of the Thanthi group for this success. 24 hour news channels are now available to millions of Indians. Yet, for many, the day still begins with a cup of tea or coffee in one hand, and a newspaper in the other. I am told that the Dina Thanthi offers this option today, through seventeen editions, not only in Tamil Nadu but also in Bengaluru, Mumbai and even in Dubai. This remarkable expansion over seventy five years, is a tribute to the visionary leadership of Thiru S.P. Adithanar, who began this newspaper in 1942. Newsprint was a rare commodity in those days. But he began the newspaper by printing on paper made by hand, from straw. The font size, simple language and easy to understand narrative made Dina Thanthi popular among the people. In those times, it brought them political awareness and information. People used to throng the tea-shops to read this newspaper. Thus began the voyage, that continues till today, when its balanced coverage makes the Dina Thanthi popular, from a daily wage earner, to the highest political functionary in the State. I came to know that Thanthi means telegram. Dina Thanthi means “daily telegram”. Over the last seventy five years, the traditional telegram, delivered by the postal department, has become obsolete, and gone out of existence. But this telegram, continues to grow every day. Such is the power of a noble idea, backed by hard work and commitment. I am happy to learn that the Thanthi group has instituted awards for promoting Tamil Literature in the name of its founder Thiru Adithanar. I whole-heartedly congratulate the awardees: Thiru. Tamilanban, Dr. Irai Anbu and Thiru. V.G. Santhosham. I am sure, this recognition will be a motivating factor for those who have taken to writing as a noble profession. Ladies and Gentlemen. Mankind's quest for knowledge is as old as our history itself. Journalism helps quench this thirst. Today, newspapers do not just give news. They can also mould our thinking and open a window to the world. In a broader context, media is a means of transforming society. That is why, we refer to the media, as the fourth pillar of democracy. I am fortunate today, to be among those who demonstrate the power of the pen, and show how it can be the vital life-force and conscience of society. During the dark days of colonialism, publications such as the Sambad Kaumudi of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the Kesari of Lokmanya Tilak, and the Navjeevan of Mahatma Gandhi, lit a beacon, and inspired the freedom struggle. Across the country, there were pioneers in journalism, who often gave up a life of comfort. They helped create a mass consciousness and awakening, through their newspapers. Perhaps it is because of the high ideals of those founding pioneers, that so many newspapers established in the days of the British Raj, continue to flourish today. Friends, We must never forget that successive generations performed the duties required of them, towards society, and the nation. That is how we achieved freedom. After independence, the rights of citizens gained importance in public discourse. Unfortunately, over time we seem to have neglected our individual and collective sense of duty. This has in some way contributed to several ills that plague our society today. The need of the hour is to create a mass awakening towards "engaged, responsible, and aware citizens." The civic sense of “entitlement” must be suitably balanced by a civic sense of “responsible engagement.” This should happen, of course, through our education system, and the conduct of our political leaders. But the media too, has a key role to play here. Ladies and Gentlemen. Many of the newspapers that shaped the discourse for freedom, were vernacular newspapers. In fact, the then British Government was fearful of the Indian Vernacular Press. It was to muzzle vernacular newspapers, that the Vernacular Press Act was enacted in 1878. In our diverse nation, the role of vernacular newspapers - newspapers published in regional languages - remains as important today, as it was then. They carry content in a language that is easily understood by people. Very often, they cater to vulnerable and socially disadvantaged groups. Their strength, their impact, and thus, their responsibility, can never be under-estimated. They are the messengers of the intent and policies of the Government, in far-flung areas. Equally, they are the torch-bearers of the thoughts, feelings and emotions of our people. In this context, it is indeed heartening to note that today, among our vibrant print media, some of the largest selling newspapers, are published in the regional languages. The Dina Thanthi, is of course, one among them. Friends. I have often heard people wonder, as to how the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper. On a serious note, we are all aware, that there is just too much that happens in the world everyday. It is the editors who select and decide what is important. They decide what should be given space on the first page, what should be given more space and what should be ignored. This, of course, casts upon them, a great responsibility. Editorial freedom must be used wisely, in public interest. Equally so, the freedom to write, and to decide what is to be written, does not include the freedom to be "less than accurate," or "factually incorrect." As Mahatma Gandhi himself told us: “The press is called the Fourth Estate. It is definitely a power, but, to misuse that power is criminal.” Even though media may be owned by private individuals, it serves a public purpose. As scholars say, it is an instrument to produce reform through peace, rather than by force. Hence, it has as much social accountability as the elected government or the judiciary. And its conduct must be equally, above board. To recall the words of the great saint Thiruvalluvar, “There is nothing in this world except ethics, which would bring both reputation and wealth together”. Friends. Technology has brought about great change in the media. There was a time, when the headlines of the day, written on a village blackboard, carried immense credibility. Today, our media spans the entire range, from that village blackboard, to online bulletin boards. Just as education now focuses a lot more on learning outcomes, our attitude towards consumption of content has changed. Today, every citizen analyses, discusses, and attempts to cross-check and verify the news that comes to him, through multiple sources. Media, therefore, must make an extra effort, to maintain credibility. Healthy competition among credible media platforms is also good for the health of our democracy. Renewed emphasis on credibility, brings us to the subject of introspection. I firmly believe that reform in the media, whenever required, can only come from within, through introspection. Indeed, we have seen this process of introspection happen on some occasions, such as the analysis of the reportage of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. Perhaps, it should happen more often. Friends. I recall a quote our beloved former President, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam: “We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?” I observe, that a lot of the media discourse today revolves around politics. It is only fair that politics be discussed at length, in a democracy. However, India is more than just us politicians. It is the 125 crore Indians, which make India what it is. I would be happy to see media focus a lot more, on their stories, and their achievements. In this endeavour, every citizen with a mobile phone is your ally. Citizen reporting can be an important tool in the sharing and dissemination of success stories of individuals. It can also be of immense help in directing relief and rescue efforts in times of crisis, or natural disasters. Let me also add, that during times of natural disasters, media usually does its best to cover various aspects of the incident. Natural calamities seem to be occurring with increasing frequency and intensity across the world. Climate change is a challenge for each one of us. Can media take a lead in the battle against it? Can media devote just a little space, or a fixed time daily, to report, discuss, or increase awareness about what we can do to combat climate change? I take this opportunity, to appreciate the media's response to the Swachh Bharat Mission. As we strive to achieve Swachh Bharat by 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, I am touched by the constructive role that media has played, both in generating awareness and mass consciousness towards cleanliness. They have also pointed out the work that remains to be done, before we can claim to have achieved our goal. Ladies and Gentlemen. There is another key area, where media can play an important role. This is the initiative of Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat. Let me explain this with one example. Can a newspaper, devote just a few column inches of space, each day for one year, to this cause? Every day, they can write one simple sentence in their language of publication, along with its translation, and trans-literation, in all major Indian languages. At the end of the year, the readers of the newspaper will have been exposed to 365 such simple sentences, in all major Indian languages. Imagine the positive impact this simple step can create. Further, schools can be encouraged to discuss this in their classrooms daily for a few minutes, so that children too, are exposed to the strength and richness of our diversity. Hence, this step will not only serve a noble cause, but will also increase the strength of the publication itself. Ladies and Gentlemen. Seventy five years may be a considerable amount of time in a human life-span. But for a nation, or an institution, it marks just a significant milestone. About three months ago, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement. In a way, the journey of the Dina Thanthi, has mirrored the rise of India as a young, vibrant nation. Speaking in Parliament on that day, I gave a call for creating a New India by 2022. An India that is free from the evils of corruption, casteism, communalism, poverty, illiteracy, and disease. The next five years must be about Sankalp se Siddhi - accomplishment through resolve. Only then can we create the India of the dreams of our freedom fighters. As a newspaper that was born when the nation embraced the Quit India Movement, may I suggest that the Dina Thanthi has a special responsibility in this regard. I hope that you will use this opportunity, to reflect upon what you can do for your readers, or for the people of India, over the next five years. Even beyond the immediate target of five years, perhaps on the occasion of its platinum jubilee, the Thanthi must think of what the next seventy five years will be like. What is the best way to continue to remain relevant, and serve the people and the nation in the age of instant news at the fingertips. And in doing so, continue to maintain the highest standards of professionalism, ethics, and objectivity. In conclusion, I once again appreciate the efforts of the publishers of Dina Thanthi in the service of the people of Tamil Nadu. I am sure, they will continue to constructively help in shaping the destiny of our great nation. Thank you. Read the full article