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maguro13-2 · 7 months ago

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Demons Unleashed ~ Origins of the Ink Demon Gaiden Pt.20 ~

Iris : ...Where...Where am I? Am I...dead? Where did I even lived? where did I even started? What am I going to do without Shinra? I thought that hope would able to benefit all of mankind, but we led ourselves to be killed, I should've known that I would doomed from the start and it's all our fault that we led ourselves into the lying. Shinra-Kun, gomenasai...!

??? : Who goes there? State your name and your position

Irisi : Sister Iris, Ex-Fire Soldier and former inhabitant of Shinra's world.

??? : Sister Iris of the former world of Shinra, do not fret yourself with despair.

Iris : You...Who are you?

??? : I will be the one who will restore your life and give you one of our finest powers to be resurrected after the annihilation of the universe you lived that was erased from near-ceasing it from existence. I know that you lost everything when the Time-Eater came to your world and began to annihilate everyone or some that have escaped with the powers of the Ocarina. This will be your first time only to be resurrected to the real world where your loved on ended up through the stages of reincarnation from his resurrection.

Iris : ....

??? : Okay then...I will give you the demonstration of our power. And I meant to say...[with a distorted voice] Eldritch Power.

*heartbeat echoing*

[Dolor Odor - Kenichi Tokoi]

??? : This power will let you live and will make you even human again when you return the to real world as an eldritch god or an otherworldly being that is capable with the promising powers that I have gived you as a gift for your resurrection. You will become powerful instead of being the weakest being in Shinra's world and you will be reborn, you will become known as the Angel of Death! You will feel...worthy!

Iris : (screaming and moaning) Shinra-Kun...Shinra-Kun....!

Shinra : Iris...Iris...IRIIIIIS!

??? : (snickers)

Iris : Shinra-Kun...Aishiteru yo. (demonic shriek)

(Shinra wakes up from dream)

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : Gaaah!

Saber/Arthur : Oi, Devil. You finally shown yourself to wake up. Tamaki made us food.

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : Well, Okay, Arthur. If you insist.

*Sizzling*

Tamaki : Oh, Good morning, Shinra. You must've had a pretty bad dream. I made us food that we all must prepare for reunion meal.

Lisa : Oi, Shinra. Remember me?

"Lisa Isaribi : Part-time member of Oze Industries".

Shinra (Devil Chaos Cha) : Lisa, it's been 1000 years since my death. I see that you're a construction worker like your partner, Maki Oze was it?

Maki Oze : I'm right here, Shinra. It hadn't been last time since we all died during the annihilation and all Fire-Soldier service have been wiped clean by the Time Eater, you know, something like taxes.

"Maki Oze : Captain of the Oze Industries."

Maki Oze : Let me remind you one thing, Shinra. We're not just construction workers, we're industrial workers and we make good work on part-time construction. I even worked a muscle to bring out the guts! Take a look of this picture that I had it from the mid 2000s. (shows a photo of her and Minako naked with green "X"s on their muscular bodies) Despite being a little girl, I was age-progressed into a female bodybuilder and became a huge hit on industries and constructions, her name was Minako Takahara, she told me in the ways of being a professional bodybuilder and a part-time construction worker. Pretty cool huh, guys? Must've been a good work out for me.

Lisa Isaribi : You do realize she's from a porno called the Gattsu, otherwise known as Women at Work, that was two years ago. Anybody in Real World AU can be from a hentai, an eroge, or a porno, that is literally not the smartest idea, but some hentai characters keep a secret from their real jobs of hentai stuff in the Japanese skin-flick industry of making hentai out of real porn on the internet.

Maki Oze : Do I look some kind of joke to you, or do I make myself...

Lisa Isaribi : Oh, right! You know, muscular girl that takes in the form mating small body men with the sexual desires of how Women at Work feels like there's real construction porno outside the adult industry. No offense, but I'm not going into that district.

Tamaki : Hey, Less talking about adult stuff, more focusing on eating your food, I made it exquisite for all of us so that we can all enjoy a feast for our reunion. So, dig in, shall we?

Lisa Isaribi : Oh, right!

Lisa & Maki : Itadakimasu!

Saber/Arthur : Hey, Shinra. How come you haven't taken a bite of this food? This is really tasty!

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : I've been stuck as a worthless lifeform that couldn't eat and I forget that I have no mouth to feed! Here, watch this of me drinking a glass of Orange Juice over ice. (drinks the orange juice by absorbing it)

Maki : Woah, freaky! How are you doing that without making a mess?

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) Easy, I absorb juice to drink it, but I also absorb the food, (absorbs the food) *munches* this body isn't worthless at when it comes to chowing down on things that I eat. I wonder how I floss like this?

Saber/Arthur : That's a funny solution, you eat like a Waddle Dee that doesn't have a mouth to feed on.

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : Just to believe that it's cool! Although, I was wondering about the person that I had something important to me. See those Black-Eyed Susans from the Maryland Gardens?

Saber/Arthur : They reminded you of those sunflowers. Just like Iris, who was your sunflower. They were truly a sign for her gift.

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : True that Boyle, the Sunflowers were one of Iris's greatest treasures that we used to have in our world before it was destroyed by the Time Eater, they remained in Kansas, Ukraine, and everywhere as a part of her heritage.

[PigeonBlood BGM : Discretion]

Maki Oze : Are you saying that the Sunflowers are part of your lover's hertiage?

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : That's right, Iris and I used to be in the Sunflowers field when it our first time going through the fields of the Holy Sol Temple before I created Maka's World or before the Time Eater destroyed our universe. Iris was like a sister, a girlfriend to me, she was the only lover that I knew from the start, and because of Demon Vibe and Sephiroth, she was killed by the Time Eater along with me and all of you guys.

Saber/Arthur : Oh yes, we remember. It was several days, no....it was mere days after Demon Vibe used all of your hearts as keys in an attempt on unleashing the darkness into the galaxy.

*flashback*

[Commander's Memories - Jun Senoue]

"Iris was the angel that I always wanted to protect as a hero, she was the only part of my story when it comes heroes and comrades fighting for our ideals of me being the hero who led the creation of Soul Eater, but after that, it went to a true disaster when the Time Eater came and scolded us for creating a entity and a new world I made, it unleashed a divine fury, annihilating us and would have the universe be destroyed, that the was day we would never forget. Until, Tamaki, Maki, and Lisa, all manage to survive the annihilation by playing the song of time and came to Real World AU as your age progressed form during your childhood years as the ones you used to work with me for the past years and I had to resurrect myself to get into reincarnation."

"That is the real reason that I Shinra Kusakabe, had to used the seven sol emeralds to regenerate my powers."

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : Tho the Time Eater may have lost everything including my original body, but I'm still getting the process of being human again, if I wish to continue, I won't be appearing this body much longer, but still, I have an urgent mission to fulfill if I know to do the differences between me and this perfectly mutated form a worthless lifeform, going back from Zero to Hero, Hero to Zero, and then another Zero to Hero.

Tamaki : Hey, guys. It's from NHK!

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : NHK? But that's the new station in Japan!

Tamaki : Well, yeah, we're in the U.S State of Maryland and you should get a load of this.

News Reporter : According to the reports, we have confirmed that there was a ravenous monster attack at Kazami Sunflower Fields in the countryside of Japan, where a mysterious nun attacked and killed several farmer who are field workers at the sunflower farm owned by the Relative of the late Kansas Sunflower Girl, Yuuka Kazami. The two heard that the creature itself proclaiming what it appears to be a girl with blonde hair that is known as Sister Iris.

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : No...Iris?

News Reporter : According to Eyewitness, the suspect was nowhere to be on the scene from the Sunflower Fields before local authorities could find and capture the girl for any further details, will do anything for the girls hardwork on the sunflower community to get a fresh glass of--Hey there, young nun lady, are you Sister Iris, the beloved nun who--hey, uhh, why did we stopped rolling? (Iris growling) OH F*** ME RIGHT IN THE P--(gets eaten alive)

Tamaki : Oh God, that girl who attacked a Sunflower Community, that was Iris-Chan, our member of Company 8, we've always stick together as comrades who can put out the spontaneous combustion, but after you stopped it, it turns out that the spontaneous combustion on humankind was simply Firaga caused by black magic from the Final Fantasy Multiverse.

Saber/Arthur : I know it, she happened to be Shinra's "Beloved". But we all died and the three of you survived.

Maki Oze : We all did! And it's basically our fault that we were the ones who made Shinra spread the influence and got us killed, thus of resulting 50% of the Ohkuboverse erased by the Time Eater's powers. But you resurrected through the stages of reincarnation since we used the song of time to get us to Real World or something happened. I know someone who sent us to the Real World by the Song of Time, the hero of time.

Lisa Isaribi : That's his idea of bringing us into Real World AU with a better timeline, all of these Dark Fantasy stories were meant to be edgy for us and not that edgy, can't say the difference how we manage to make ourselves dark and edgy, is it because religion have to do with fantasy stuff and there was never really real religion in the Ohkuboverse, those were lies made up from Demon Vibe when we discovered that the same universe as Soul World was created by Demon Vibe itself!

*DBZ SFX : Suprise!*

[PigeonBlood BGM : Night Moorning]

Lisa Isaribi : That's right! Demon Vibe was the one who created the Ohkuboverse and we were all doomed from the start, but then Angel Vibe helped us and punished "him" for the misdeeds that he manipulated us and for the one winged angel that sabotaged our world with that so-called despair, a key to the door to Darkness. So he was banished to another dimension that is filled with evil and torment where he would not be forgiven after what he did to our world. The same dimension that is a concept made by 4Kids.

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : The Shadow Realm! Zorc Necrophades of Yugioh was the one who created that dimension to banish Demon Vibe and I was the one who blinded our own eyes from the truth that hope that I found was a gift from Angel Vibe. All these lies, and all of this "lying" that I was spreading. What kind of imbecile would want to live in a fantasy doesn't exist anymore after the Time Eater erased all of it!? I will never forgive Demon Vibe and Sephiroth for ruining my world, my life, and my everything! If my people hadn't been an arrogant species, I would've spread the truth to the people of our world that is now erased due to the entity's powers that annihilated us.

Saber/Arthur : Which is why you led us to the creation of Soul World, and it also led us to the end of our tale, our tale does not end with you being the boy who saved the world, our tales ends with us being annihilated with a retconned plot and a rewritten story! We would all blame our author for using us as his pawns and slaves! We wished would never stop hating each other if it means to saving Real World AU from the deadly forces of True Evil that is Demon Vibe! But they bleed out to resist thinking that the forces of evil from Soul World was only a diversion and Demon Vibe was trying to spread it's influence, why did we even think about saving a world for you just to recreate it?

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : Cause that's how life in the story does, a world without a story and none of the seven world rings will reach the end of his or her tale. That's why I created Soul Eater, a name that originated from PSO, so you see, guys. We all know that the name "Soul Eater" does not belong to Square Enix, it belongs to SEGA, the company that destroyed 50% of our universe!

[Phone ringing]

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : Phone call? I'll go get it? (answers phone) Hello?

Haumea : (Via phone) Oi, Shinra-Kun. Guess who's back from the dead~?

Shinra (Devil Chaos Chao) : Oh no... I don't believe it, It...It's Haumea!

~ Stage 24 : The Cursed Truth ~

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caranfindel · 4 years ago

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Take these broken wings and learn to fly (15.20 coda)

het, but Wincest-compatible | about 2300 words | PG-13 for language | characters: sam winchester, sam’s blurry wife |

Julia has been widowed (God, what an awful word, widowed) for three years when she meets Sam. It’s a work-based friendship at first. She’s kind of lonely and sad, he’s kind of lonely and sad, and they gravitate toward each other. And then one evening they’re at a bar, the last ones left from an after-work happy hour, both of them drinking more than they should, and she thinks he’s kind and thoughtful and smart and he may be 10 years older than me but he’s still hot as hell and I enjoy being with him and I look forward to seeing him and maybe I should just… and she kisses him. He’s shocked; shocked enough to confirm that he wasn’t just hanging around hoping to make it out of the friendzone. And then he’s holding her face in his hands and he’s kissing her too.

It’s good. They’re good together. It’s not the earth-shattering, all-encompassing romance she had with Shaun. Julia knows she’ll never have anything like that again. Most people don’t even get one soulmate in their lives; no one gets two. And she knows Sam doesn’t have that same desperate love that Shaun had for her; she knows she’ll never have his whole heart. (She knows the woman he intended to marry was killed in a fire, she knows another woman he loved went back to her ex. She doesn’t know which of these women still owns that last piece of Sam’s heart.) But she loves Sam, and he loves her, and they get married.

(The sex is amazing. Sometimes he’s gentle, almost reverent, as if he’s afraid he’ll break her, and other times he’s fierce and passionate and almost tries to break her, and she loves both ends of the spectrum.)

She suggests they melt down her old wedding band to make a new one. It was an heirloom from her grandmother, a plain wide band of yellow gold that she loves, that she thought she’d wear for the rest of her life. But Shaun is the one who put it on her finger the first time. It doesn’t seem right to ask Sam to accept it now. A new band from the old gold seems like a good compromise. No, Sam says, I couldn’t ask you to do that. I know a way we can make it ours. He has the inside of the band engraved with the same symbol he wears tattooed over his heart, and makes her promise to never take it off. Bad luck, he says.

He’s such a contradiction. Scary smart, but as superstitious as an Appalachian grandmother. Calm and unflappable, but with a weirdly hyperactive startle reflex. Kind and empathetic, but capable of extreme violence when pushed to his limits (seriously, don’t walk your drunk ass up to Sam Winchester’s wife and lay hands on her, and don’t get mouthy when she tells you to back off) and just really, frighteningly skilled at that violence.

(A little frightening and also very sexy. Julia’s always had a thing for the hero type.)

They both have nightmares. One night Julia watches Shaun’s face melting under his gear and wakes with a cry of horror. Sam holds her as she tearfully describes living on the knife edge of constant fear that comes with loving someone whose job is literally running into burning buildings. I know, he says, over and over, even though he can’t possibly know. The irony of their first loves both dying in flames is not lost on her, but it’s not like his college girlfriend was a firefighter. It’s not like he watched her go to work every day and prayed she’d make it home alive.

Julia’s pregnancy is a wonderful surprise. She and Shaun had tried for over a year before she was widowed, and she just didn’t count on it happening with Sam. They agree not to name the baby after anyone they’ve lost. Let’s not name him after our pain, she says, and Sam is okay with that. (Or he isn’t. But ever since she showed him the positive pregnancy test, she’s known she could ask him for anything. She’s known he would rip out his heart and serve it on a platter if she asked for it.)

But they haven’t decided on a name yet when her water breaks four weeks early. When their perfect baby boy is born at 12:10 a.m., the nurse announces the date and time and Sam looks up at her in shock and blinks away happy tears and says it’s the 24th. It’s my brother’s birthday. Julia is flying high on endorphins; she loves this baby and she loves this man and she even loves his dead brother she never got to meet, and she says it’s got to be a sign; let’s name him Dean.

She takes off her wedding ring, just this once, to have Dean’s birthdate engraved on the inside. Sam does the same with his own ring. He insists they go to a jeweler who will engrave while they wait, rather than leaving the rings there. She waves a hand at her lumpy postpartum body. You afraid someone’s gonna make a move on all this if you don’t keep a ring on it?

He laughs at her and says you’re onto me, even though he’s the one who needs to be locked away, still with that long lean runner’s body and the amazing shoulders and the goddamn dimples. I just don’t like us being without them, he says. He is a sweet, sentimental fool and she adores him. He bends down to kiss her, carefully maneuvering the baby he’s wearing in a sling, and Julia looks at this man and this baby and this life she didn’t think she was get to have and knows she’s happier than she has any right to be. And she’s relieved when Sam slips the ring back onto her finger, this ring imbued with the men she loves, so maybe he’s not the only sentimental fool.

(One thing she loves about Sam is that he understands why she feels guilty that Shaun didn’t get to share this life with her.)

In July they light a little candle for Dean’s six-month birthday. When Julia wakes the next morning, Sam’s side of the bed is empty and cold. She finds him cuddling their sleeping baby in the living room. I got up to give him a bottle, Sam says. I guess I just fell asleep out here. His red-rimmed eyes and empty coffee mug suggest he didn’t actually sleep at all, but, well. They’re both battling their own private demons. If a night cradling the baby gives Sam some peace for whatever reason, she’s glad of it.

Sam’s fierce love for their child takes her by surprise. If Julia has 90% of his heart, his son has 110%. He parents with a vengeance, is the only way she can think of to describe it. Like he’s making up for something. She doesn’t feel slighted, but it’s impossible to ignore that ever since Dean was born, Sam’s prime objective has been to make sure the boy is happy and safe. Everything else comes second.

(When she notices Sam has been carefully marking his tattoo symbol onto Dean’s clothing, hidden near seams and always in a color that almost matches the fabric, she decides not to say anything. He gets a little funny about his superstitions sometimes.)

Sam desperately wants Dean to have a sibling, and they try for another one, but it doesn’t happen. Julia reminds him that they’re lucky to have even one child. That having a sibling is not a lifetime guarantee of companionship and love. She should know, after all, since Stephanie cut her off after she married that asshole Scientologist and decided she couldn’t have a relationship with anyone who wasn’t also in their stupid cult.

Dean has plenty of friends and tons of activities, which Sam encourages with an almost religious fervor, but he never pulls away from his parents. They have so much in common, Sam and his son. Instead of rebelling as a teenager, Dean seems to grow even closer to his father. They spend hours together, paging through the ancient books in Sam’s study (she hates them, they smell musty and make her sneeze) or driving in the old Chevrolet. They even travel together sometimes, visiting those friends of Sam’s that live up north somewhere. Julia met them at the wedding and they were perfectly nice, thrilled to death that she and Sam had found each other. But she always feels like an outsider when they’re around, like they’re part of something she’ll never understand. So much history, with Sam and the brother she never got to meet. They absolutely dote on Dean though, and he seems to love them too, so the boys’ trip to Sioux Falls becomes an annual event.

(Dean is 14 years old when he comes home from one of these trips with his own version of the tattoo.)

When Julia is diagnosed with cancer, Dean is 16 years old. Sam does his best to ensure life goes on as normal for their son but somehow never neglects Julia’s needs. He throws himself into research and is always on top of the latest treatment, always at her elbow with the top internet-recommended remedy for her side effects, making sure both she and Dean have everything they want and need, all the attention and support they can tolerate. She doesn’t know when, or if, Sam actually sleeps. When she feels up for it, he arranges experiences for the three of them. A week lying on the beach, a weekend in New York City, a night in the mountains looking at the stars. When we look back on this time, he says, I don’t want us to only remember how much it sucked. I want us all to have good memories too.

(She doesn’t know why he’s concerned about her memories. There’s a good chance she won’t have much time to enjoy them. But it’s good for Dean. She doesn’t want this to ruin Dean’s childhood.)

Sam insists Dean go away to college as planned. Julia agrees, although she’s kind of surprised he’s willing to let the boy out of his sight. Aren’t you going to miss him? she asks.

So much, he answers. But this isn’t about me, and what I need. It’s about him. They drive Dean to school in the ancient Chevrolet. Supposedly because the trunk has room for all of his stuff, but Julia is pretty sure it’s just one last sentimental road trip in the old thing before Sam retires it. When they pick Dean up at the end of the school year, it’s in her SUV. Dean promises his father, more than once, that he’ll restore the Chevy someday.

Five years after Julia’s diagnosis, she’s sitting in the doctor’s office learning that her last remission was her last remission. There are no more options. She has months, not years. Sam clutches her hand and nods, once, as if to say I should have known this would happen; I should have expected something like this. Then he takes her home.

It’s a blessing in a way, he says late that night, after a little too much to drink. Knowing what’s coming. Having time to say goodbye. You don’t always get that. And yes, she knows this as well as anybody does.

Sam has always been supportive of her choice not to contact Stephanie, but one day he says Jules, I promise I’ll never bring it up again. It’s just that I don’t want you to have any regrets. I don’t want you miss the opportunity to say things that you’ll wish you’d said. Julia isn’t sure Steph will speak to her. She’s not even sure she’ll have the same phone number — they haven’t spoken since Dad’s funeral, a year after she was widowed — but she makes the call. And Steph answers. And cries. And comes to visit, where she hugs and cries some more. Sam watches it all with a sad smile for a while, then disappears into the garage to sit in the old Chevy.

When Julia takes her last conscious breaths, Dean is holding one hand and Sam is holding the other. She squeezes her son’s hand and thinks I love you, dear boy, and I’m sorry I have to leave you. She squeezes her husband’s hand and thinks thank you for giving me this, thank you for taking care of me, thank you for loving me and letting me love you. Then she closes her eyes and lets the soft, warm darkness take over.

And then. Then she wakes to a cool breeze and the sound of chirping birds. She’s standing at a lake she recognizes. It’s Shaun’s favorite fishing spot. And Shaun is there, waiting for her. And everything is okay.

Sam does show up eventually. Julia’s sitting on the porch of the cabin with Shaun, enjoying the perpetual nice day (sometimes a spring morning, sometimes a fall afternoon, but always nice) when she hears the familiar rumble. It cant be, she thinks. It can’t be that old car. But it is.

I’m glad you found someone with good taste in cars, Shaun says, as Sam unfolds himself from the driver’s seat. He looks exactly as he did the day she met him; no glasses, only a little grey at his temples. Still tall and strong and beautiful. She runs to meet him and embraces him as Shaun watches from the porch.

You found Shaun, Sam says. I’m so happy for you, Jules. I really am. He doesn’t seem to have any intention of joining her (their) Heaven permanently, but he doesn’t seem to have anyone else with him either. Where is the dead girlfriend? How is this fair?

They talk about Dean, and Julia’s heart swells with pride over her strong, smart, kind, brave son. He’s like you, she says. He’s just like you.

Sam shrugs. He’s a Winchester.

But what about you? she says. You’re not — you’re not alone here, are you?

Nah, he says. I’m good. I promise.

(Eventually Julia meets the first Dean, and she understands.)

===

I know a lot of people have mocked Sam's blurry wife, but I actually have grown to love the concept. Because it means she can be anything we want her to be. And yeah, initially I liked the idea of her being Dr. Cara, or Eileen. But now I don't think that would happen. I think Sam would have to start fresh to have that kind of relationship. And I also like the idea of Sam's wife having her own soulmate somewhere, waiting for her, so she's not a huge part of Sam and Dean's shared Heaven. I mean, they're gonna visit, obviously. And then they'll go home to their soulmates.

The title is from "Blackbird" by the Beatles.

#spn #15.20 #my fic #episode coda #sam winchester

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darkdevasofdestruction · 4 years ago

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Spark, Ignite, Detonate, Explode ~ Mammon x Reader

Trust is such a feeble thing to have in someone - It is build up and takes so long, and yet, it disappears faster than the blink of an eye.

It starts off with only something little, yet repeated, like the spark you get from hitting stones together to ignite the fire inside someone’s heart. And yet, few know that the heart is a fragile gunpowder bag, that one detonated, it shall explode and destroy everything in its proximity never to be restored to its former glory again.

Only ashes, ruin, waste and death...

---

“Yooo, how’s my fave human doin’?” Mammon’s usual lighthearted voice echoed through the halls as he rushed to your side, putting his arm around your shoulder, pulling Y/N closer into his side as they walked together to the next class. “Nothing out of the ordinary, Monnie. You, however, seem rather happy. Did something good happen to you recently?” Y/N lifted her head up to gaze at him with her usual, passive smile. “Yeah, actually, it did! I just got a great deal on an Akuzon item I sold! I got 500 thousand Grimm! Isn’t that awesome? I can go get new brand jacket and shades!” he laughed in glee, making her clap as a congratulation. “That’s awesome, Monnie! You gotta show me what you’ll be getting! I’m sure your next photoshoot is gonna be so great that your pics will get on the cover!” She grinned, which made him flustered, and yet, his grin was even wider. “Hahaha, of course! I am THE Great Mammon, after all! How ‘bout this - After my next photoshoot, when I get paid again, I’ll take ya out for dinner. How’s that sound, hmmm? Just us two, at Ristorante six, my treat.” he smirked, trying to look macho, but it only made her chuckle at his poor attempt. “No, that’s too expensive. How about going to the pub for a drink? We can go to The Fall, if you want! They have great music, and the drinks are good, and at a reasonable price!” Y/N winked at him, which made him blush harder. “You’re the perfect being, Y/N! Always thinkin’ of me!” he gave the girl a side hug, as they got in their shared desk in the classroom.

The girl, as she wrote her notes diligently, knowing very well that the white haired demon never bothered, and would always borrow hers, started idly pawing at the neck of her shirt, as was her habit, to play with her dangling necklace...

Only to realise there was nothing hanging around her neck.

A pang of panic shot through her veins as she hit her back on the chair seat, touching her neck, and inside her shirt, realising that it was gone. Frowning, she tried to remember if she even put it on in the morning, before getting dressed, but there was no memory of it. She was certain, however, that the previous day, she placed the necklace on her study desk, before going to take a bath...And since then, she has no more recollection of its presence.

Waiting nervously, bouncing her leg, tapping her fingers and biting her lip so hard that she drew blood without realising, making her friend concerned, yet not figuring out the cause for her concerns, as soon as the class was over, she sprung out of that place faster than the speed of light, rummaging through her whole room, yet finding absolutely nothing.

Taking a few deep breaths, to keep herself level-headed, she went to the brothers, who were having lunch, and took out her D.D.D., showing them a selfie she took, where the necklace was easily noticeable - Silver chain with an emerald stone.

“Have you guys seen it around? I’m afraid I might have lost it or misplaced it...” she asked, clutching the phone close to her chest in worry. “I haven’t seen it, sorry.” Satan said, thinking back on all the steps he took that day. “Are you sure it’s not in your room? It could have fallen behind the bed, desk, or some furniture, right?” Asmo asked, frowning a bit. “No luck...I searched every inch of the room, and nothing. I’m at my wits end...I tried using all spells I know, and still nothing. It’s almost like it’s not in RAD or the Dorms anymore...” her bottom lip quivered softly. “Hey, Levi, didn’t we see this necklace somewhere on the internet last night, when we searched Akuzon?” Belphie turned abruptly to his brother, who gasped, nodded, and ran to get his laptop. “Akuzon...? It couldn’t be...It’s was a very cheap necklace from the human realm...Well, it’s very old, and handmade, but still.” Y/N sighed, putting her phone back in her pocket. “Here, Y/N, drink a glass of hot chocolate, it will help you calm down a bit.” Beel raised, handing her a cup of hot chocolate. “Thank you, Beel, I appreciate it.” she smiled softly, looking down at her mug. “Ah, you were right, Belphie! Look, this is it, right?” Levi turned around the laptop for everyone to look. “Huh...? It even has the engraving on the back of it...How...Could this happen...? Yesterday it was in my room, I’m certain of that, so...?!” she freaked out, especially looking at the price at which was sold, and something clicked in her mind, making her gasp in realisation. “Ahhh, great, I’m late for lunch again. Beel, you better not have eaten everythin’!” Mammon’s cheerful voice seemed to make everyone go silent, and it was like a common thought in their mind. “Mammon...Can you tell me what exactly did you sell on Akuzon that you got so much money from it?” Y/N muttered, gritting her teeth, trying to keep herself grounded. “Huh? Why d’ya ask? T’was some necklace I found layin’ around. Why?” he asked, sitting down at the table to eat. “I can’t believe it...” her voice was soft, yet full of rage, almost destroying the mug in her hands. “Of course it had to be him...But to think he’d steal from the only person who defended him...That’s a special kind of scumbag.” Asmo groaned, shaking his head in disbelief. “You really are the worst, Mammon. I can’t believe we are related.” Belphie glared at his elder brother. “Huh?! Whadya mean?! Shouldn’t y’all be happy for me, for getting such a great deal for a cheap necklace?!” he yelled at them, not realising the dark aura surrounding the person behind him, “He really is an idiot.” Beel’s eyes softened, looking with pity at the girl. “I can’t say that I’m surprised...Maybe just disappointed.” Satan looked at him in disgust, then shifted his gaze away, unable to look at him any longer. “Oi, what the hell’s wrong with y’all?! What’ve I done?! Y/N, help me out here, give ‘em a piece of your mind!” Mammon turned around to look at the girl, only then realising that she had tears streaming down her face, and her small form was trembling softly. “The Lord of Shadows would never do something to hurt Henry..But what can you expect from someone who would sell Seraphina’s UR+ figurine anyway?” Levi shook his head. “What have you done...? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! YOU SOLD MY NECKLACE ON AKUZON, THAT’S WHAT YOU’VE DONE, YOU STUPID, SCUMMY, BRAINDEAD DUMBASS!” she yelled at him, pouring the hot chocolate on his head, making everyone gasp in shock at her reaction. “So what?! It’s just a cheap necklace! I can buy you 5000 ones just like that! Even the stone wasn’t genuine! I made you a favour by riddin’ you of it!” he got to his feet, arguing with her, not expecting her to get violent, grab him by his uniform blazer, shaking him with all the force she could muster. “YOU CANNOT BRING THE MEMORIES BACK, YOU DIMWIT! It was a goddamn family heirloom! It was the only thing I had from my family! My mother gave it to me before she died! How could you do this to me, Mammon?! I thought we were friends!” when her all her strength left her body, she started sobbing softly, which made the demon stiff as a board. “I-I-I...H-How was I supposed to know that?! C’mon, I don’t read minds, y’know?” he argued, but his voice was nothing higher than a mutter. “I told you...I told you before...I told you, god damn it...I told you my mum gave it to me on my birthday...And then she died...I told you I have no family to return to...I told you all the women in my family had the same nickname, and it’s engraved in the back of the pendant...I told you...But you never listen, do you? All you care about is money...Money...Money...And only money...You are such a disappointment...I can’t believe it...” her voice held a myriad of raw emotions, ranging from hatred, disappointment, confusion, rage, anxiety, nervousness, sorrow, nostalgia and many more - All that seemed to transfer to Mammon right away, as he started panicking. “Look, I-I’m sorry, okay?! I didn’t mean it! I screwed up, I’m sorry! Please don’t be mad at me!” he looked like a kicked puppy, but the girl didn’t care anymore. “I take back all the good things I said about you. I take back all the times I bothered to defend you from the insults and bullying of your brothers. I take back all the pity I had for your stupid puppy face. I take it all back. You are nothing more than a greedy disappointment. I am no longer your friend, I never want to see your face again, nor hear your voice, and I refuse to be anywhere near your. Goodbye, Mammon, we are never going to be friends again.” she roughly pushed him on the chair, making everyone look at the scene, speechless. “I respected you, cared for you...Fuck, I really loved you, Mammon, more than anyone would know...And look how you treat me. I guess that’s what I get for trying to babysit some braindead fuck up who cares for no one but himself. Disgusting.” she sneered, glaring at him with dead eyes, before turning on her heel and going to her room, passing by Lucifer, who looked at her with confusion. “Did something happen...?” he asked, unsure of what to do. “I won’t be going to class tomorrow.” she muttered, passing by him and going to her room.

For the remainder of the day, she answered no texts, nor calls, and ignored everyone who tried to enter her room, going as far as to put spells on her door so that if they tried entering her room would get transported in the underground pool, and the yelling and knocking on the door wouldn’t be heard, no matter how hard they tried.

All the time, she tried her best to track her the person who bought the necklace, explain to them that it’s not magical and that it’s just a cheap, old accessory with emotional attachment, and that she will pay them all the money back in return for it.

500k for a necklace...What a robbery...

And the respective witch asked for double, to compensate.

That’s double the robbery.

But what could she do...?

Y/N checked her bank account, realised that she has already 800k Grimm she held on, to buy everyone gifts at the end of the year, to thank them for being such a great family for her, but that was going to be for another time.

The witch said they should meet at the end of the week, so she had enough time to raise at least 150k...And for the rest of the 50k, she’ll have to borrow from someone.

At school, every time she saw him, Y/N ignored Mammon, or did a spell to push him away, doing exactly as she promised she would do, and it was clearly affecting him.

It went the same in the classroom, as they were deskmates...

“Hey. Hey, Y/N. Y/N, listen to me! I’m sorry, okay? Don’t be mad! I-I’ll make it up for ya, okay?! How ‘bout I take ya to a Karaoke night at The Fall, as we said? O-Or lemme treat ya at Hell’s Kitchen -...Or better, Ristorante Six!” he kept rambling, which made the girl tsk, take out the scissors she had in her bag, cutting her finger and drawing a blood symbol on the back of her notebook, slammed it with her palm, before touching his cheek, and so, no matter how much he tried to speak, he wouldn’t be heard.

And when eating meals together...

“Yo, Y/N, my favourite human! Look what I brought! There’s this super VIP place that makes the best pizza, and I got one of each taste, so ya’ll see which is your fave!” he chirped, trying his best to stay cheerful as he sat down to her left, only to see he stop chatting with Asmo, raised her plate, and sat on his right, between the 5th and 4th eldest brothers, completely ignoring him.

It continued when he started getting bullied again, for who knows what reason...

“Not so smug now that Y/N isn’t taking your side anymore, huh? Well, you deserve it, after all. You really fucked up with her, y’know?” Belphie glared at his brother, leaning on Beel. “I know, okay?! I keep tryin’ to make it up to her, but she doesn’t even hear me out! What can I even do?!” he asked, obvious desperation in his voice. “Nothing, at this point. She’s working all night to get the money to pay the witch who bought the necklace from you. I don’t know how you can make up to her.” Beel shrugged, munching on his goat cheese tartar burger. “I heard from Satan she has to pay double. If I had to throw away all the money I kept for safe keeping, then have to be forced to work and borrow more to get to 1M Grimm just to get my prized possession back...I’d have killed you.” Belphie scoffed, putting his pillow on Beel’s shoulder, ready to take a nap. “Oh...I...Had no idea...” the white haired demon muttered, hanging his head, feeling his heart being ripped apart at the suffering he caused the person he holds so dear to his heart. “You never know anything you should know, why are you surprised.” Belphie muttered, shrugging “Imagine all the food you could buy with that much money. Maybe I should bring her a burger too, it may make her smile. Haven’t seen her smile since that day.” Beel nodded, getting up, with his younger brother in one arm, while the other hand held a take away food bag.

And the only one who managed to give him any sort of advice was Lucifer...

“I’m at my wit’s end, Lucifer! What can I do?! Nothing I try works! I feel like I’m losin’ her more and more with each minute...And she’s already gettin’ her necklace back, there’s nothin’ I can do to make her at least stop ignorin’ me...” Mammon sighed, sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace, in Lucifer’s study room, his head held in his hands, gripping at his hair, barely stopping himself from outright sobbing. “Keep on trying. I’m sure she will appreciate the effort you’re doing, even if she’s angry at you now, and rightfully so. The fact that you realised your mistake, and the gravity of it, is the first step towards redemption and forgiveness. Don’t give up...There’s no one who cares for you as much as she does.” the eldest brother sat down next to him, putting his hand on his shoulder and squeezing it reassuringly. “Thanks, Lucifer...I guess it takes time to heal...” he muttered, nodding as a way to thank him.

For the rest of the week, he continued to try to apologise in all the ways, imaginable and unimaginable he could muster, trying his best not to get discouraged by her ignoring him and going out of her way to stay as far away as possible.

However, he noticed how Beel was right, and he hasn’t seen a single uprise in the corners of her lips, there was no glint in her eyes, no warmth in her presence, and no life in her movements. She was tired, and rightfully so, considering the amount of work she’s doing, while also going to classes...

She’s just a frail, little human, she’s going to overexert her brittle body and break! Y/N already sprained her wrist by falling in her plight up the stairs once, a long time ago, and he has already seen her overworking on studying and doing multiple things to please people...

He can’t let that happen again!

But what can he do, anyway...?

On the last day of the week, he desperately tried to search for her, only to overhear a conversation in the library, between her and one of her brothers, and his heart started breaking even more, if that was possible.

“Hey...Satan? Can I ask for your insight on something?” Y/N asked, sitting on the couch next to the blond, who was reading in the library, as per usual. “Yes, what is it?” he asked, closing his book, giving her his undivided attention. “I managed to track down the witch who bought my necklace, and she said she will agree to an exchange deal, if I give her the money back...In double. I need 50k for this afternoon, and I don’t have how to get so much in such a short time, so I’ll have to borrow from someone. Any idea?” she sighed, her lips turning into a self-pitying smile. “I see...Well, honestly, anyone you ask would lend you money, but since you have to hurry, then here’s I’ll transfer you the money you need in your account.” he pat her head, doing as he said. “Thank you, Satan, you’re a true life saver. I owe you everything.” she sighed in relief, hugging him tightly.

Him! She should have picked him! He would give her his heart on a platter to sell, if she asked for it! He would sell every possession he had, including his organs, just to make sure she got her necklace back! Nevermind that it was his fault, even if it wasn’t, he’d have still given you everything he had to make sure she stops destroying her health and start glowing with happiness again.

He missed her angelic voice when speaking to him, he missed the glint in her eyes whenever she hung out with him, or helped him hide from his brothers, he missed the soft kisses she gave on his cheeks whenever she congratulated him on something great he did, and he missed how little and warm her hand was, in his, fingers intertwined, whenever she’d walk side by side. He missed how cute she was in his arms, whenever he’d crash at her place and want to cuddle, and how she was a feisty firecracker filled with justice when he got bullied and insulted by everyone.

He missed her so much...

Now that he had her around him so much, he felt it impossible that she should disappear just like that...And yet, she did, and nothing in his life hurt Mammon more than Y/N hating him.

She’s now on her way to meet the witch, get her necklace back, and here he was, a failure... But a failure who felt like something wrong was going to happen, while he was pacing, and looking at the watch, he noticed it was about time the exchange was to happen...Yet he never picked up where it would be...?

He called all his brothers, one by one, and only Satan seemed to know where she was, so Mammon ran there as fast as the fastest demon could.

Y/N was skeptical, nervous, and afraid to deal with this witch, as she was radiating an evil and intimidating aura, and it was obvious she was heavily overpowering her with her magic.

“I’ve got your money...It’s on my credit card. I will transfer it right away...But please show me the necklace first.” she muttered, holding up her phone, showing the 1M Grimm account she owned. “Good...VERY Good, little mouse. Here is your little necklace...I will give it to you as soon as you transfer the money.” she smirked, making Y/N nod and bite her lip, but doing as she was told. “Here. Did you get it? It says it got sent.” she showed her phone screen again, letting the witch check. “Perfect~! What a good, obedient little human you are...I should have you around as my lackey more often. You’re much more reliable with bringing me money than that stupid Mammon.” she scoffed, using her hand to roughly squish Y/N’s cheeks. “Can I have my necklace now, please?” she tried to say, despite looking like a fish. “Yeah, sure, here you are....Oops! Oh, no, it broke! What a pity~!” she giggled darkly as she she destroyed the necklace, letting the pieces fall to the ground, along with Y/N’s paralysed form. “NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! You promised you’d give it back! I have you the money you asked for! Why did you do that?!” Y/N groveled on the ground, trying to desperately pick up pieces of the broken necklace. “You’d think someone who spent so much time with demons wouldn’t be so stupid! Didn’t I just say? You’re so much better than that failure of a Greed demon! You KNOW him! And you KNOW all the brothers! You are that exchange human Diavolo is protecting! Hahaha...! Imagine everything I could do if I held you hostage! I can force Diavolo to marry me, I can have Lucifer and Satan be my consorts, Mammon to constantly give me jewels and clothes, Asmodeus to please me, Beelzebub to bring me food, and Belphegor to make sure my room is always perfect! And that’s only thanks to your idiocy, you little, worthless human!” her grin was wide and scary, as she suddenly grabbed Y/N’s hair, roughly pulling her up, before using her hand to grab her slender neck and squeeze, as a threat and a warning. “Keep on dreaming...That will never happen...And leave Mammon alone, he’s not stupid.” Y/N tried to claw at the witch’s hand, only to get roughly slapped, then got a pain curse put on her, which made her fall to the ground, gritting her teeth to keep from wailing in agony. “Don’t tell me...This stupid little human is in love with that waste of space? Did you know what I fucked him? Long before you even existed in this life. He cried and screamed so much that night, it was pitiful, but also amusing. You’re nowhere close to even be in my league, but you think you can please the Avatar of Greed? You’re really pathetic and delusional, darling.” the witch’s banshee-like laugh resounded through the abandoned field, amplifying the curse, as her voice was only beaten by Y/N’s stifled cries of pain. “You will pay for this.” she managed to say, before she felt a sharp pain in her side, which proved to be a kick in the ribs. “I already did, darling, the moment your stupid Mammon sold your necklace, and you tracked me down, instead of letting him try to get it back. He’s already high in debt with everyone, but he wasn’t stupid enough to be in my debt too...But now, for your sake, I WILL get him, and all of the others!” her voice was dark and menacing...Only for it to suddenly stop, as sudden the pain from the curse.

And yet, a much darker, stronger, overwhelming, suffocating aura seemed to make the whole place look as the abyss just took over.

“There’s one thing to mess with me, Maddi, but it’s another to mess with the girl I love. I don’t care what ya put me through, but as soon as ya try to even look Y/N’s way, I’m killin' ya, and ya did much worse than that. Say goodbye to your life, ‘cause I’m truly pissed off.” next thing that the human eye could comprehend was a flash of black, then a screech, and the sound of flesh being ripped. “Shit, I made a mess...Not very like me...” he muttered, before dropping to his knees in front of Y/N, pulling her into a protective embrace. “I’m so sorry ya had to see me like this, Y/N. I ain’t like this, I promise. I couldn’t stand seein’ ya gettin’ hurt, especially knowin’ it was my fault and I caused all this mess. I did all that, and yet, ya still defended me in front of her...I don’t deserve ya, Y/N, you’re too good for me.” his voice was so soft, so full of pain and regret, that she couldn’t help but throw her arms around him, letting the tears she held on from fear. “I love you so much, Mammon, you have no idea. And you saved me now...Gosh, I was so scared...I’m so glad you got here...I’m sorry I got so mad at you, Monnie, and it was all for nothing. She broke it. I ruined everything.” she sobbed, holding onto him as if to dear life, and he could only cradle her, cooing soothing words into her ear to calm her down as much as he could. “It’s fine...I screwed up, ya did nothing wrong, I promise. I ain’t mad at you, I deserved everythin’. Trust me when I say it, no matter what, I will always love ya, y’got me? Never forget that. You’re my favourite human, and nobody’s ever gonna even dare to think about approaching ya with bad intentions.” he kissed the top of her head, feeling her heart beat at a more normal pace. “I forgive you, Monnie. You will always be my favourite person in the world.” she muttered, raising her head to look at him, wiping her tears with her sleeve and smiling softly. “Eyyy, that’s the smile I was waitin’ for! I missed it so much. I can’t stand ya bein’ sad.” Mammon confessed, his face burning with a blush, but not being able to feel Tsundere in any way, and instead, he held her hands, kissing her knuckles. “I’m really sorry about your necklace. I’m sorry I forgot what ya said, and that I stole it from your room. I promiseI won’t do that again.” he squeezed her hands, looking at her with a sincere look in his gorgeous blue eyes. “I know you’re sorry, Angel Eyes. It’s fine...It’s just a necklace, after all. It’s not good getting overly attached to material things...And I have you, I don’t need any necklaces.” she confessed, fighting to keep the pain away from the thought of the broken necklace.

As she smiled, she quickly took her hands from his, cupping his face and pulling him into a passionate kiss, letting out all the pent up emotions they both had stored in their hearts for so long - All the love, the softness, the gentleness, all that as if afraid the other was a mere illusion and they were afraid they’d wake up and everything happy will disappear.

Mammon knew what Heaven was, and nothing felt better than kissing Y/N and having her close to him, that much was certain for him.

Still in his demon form, he picked her up and quickly got back home, since, after all, he wasn’t the fastest demon for nothing, and brought her back to her room, preparing a hot bath to her, proceeded by lots of good food, snacks and drinks, cuddles and a movie marathon of any film she wishes to see. As long as she was in his arms, safe and sound, happy and smiling, then he couldn’t care less about anything around him.

One week later, unbeknownst to her, things started shifting in her favour, as when she checked to see how much money she had left, she found the whole sum back into her account, then, when she went to Satan to give back the borrowed money, he chuckled, saying the debt was already paid...

And obviously, that was all Mammon’s work, no doubt, and at this point, she knew she shouldn’t even bother trying to find out how he managed to do that, but she was still thankful and decided to order the jacket and shades he knew he wanted, packed in a beautiful yellow and blue package, resembling his eyes.

She left it in front of his door one day, knocking before running away, giggling childishly to herself, and her heart started racing at dinner when she saw him wearing the gifts from her, and he looked gorgeous.

“Woaw, Mammon, that’s a really nice jacket. Where’d you get it from?” Asmo asked, his eyes wide at the obviously expensive item he was wearing. “Quite a lot, but you gotta say, he it suits him perfectly, don’t you think?” Y/N stifled her chuckle, leaning back on her chair with a smug expression seeing everyone’s shocked faced. “Whaaaaaaaaat?! So you made up?! For real?!” Levi gasped loudly. “Yep. I can’t stay mad at him.” she shrugged simply, winking at the white haired demon who was the only who knew the secret. “Why can’t I say that I’m surprised?” Satan chuckled with his usual, passive smile. “What about the necklace?” Beel asked, looking at her with a worried look. “Ah...About that...It was broken by the buyer. Nothing else to be done, unfortunately, so they gave the money back.” Y/N gave him a side smile, coming up with a milder version of the story. “Uhm...A-About that...Uhmm...Y-Ya see...Lucifer’s real cool, y’know? He’s like, super smart, and, uhh...I managed to...Y’know...I-I-I...” Mammon kept stumbling over his words, walking behind her, putting the necklace around her neck that had no more marks from that witch. “I fixed it for you.” he muttered, trying to hide his face in her hair so nobody could see him. “Would you look at that? It looks as if it was never broken in the first place. Who’d have thought.” Belphie let out an amused breath looking at the two lovebirds. “How...? But...It was in so many pieces...Some that we didn’t even find...This is impossible...?!” she kept staring at the necklace, not believing her eyes. “W-Well...Lucifer helped me find the lost pieces...And taught me this spell to get it back to its original form. Wasn’t simple, but...I-I think it’s okay.” he spoke in flustered voice, making the girl squeal with absolute glee. “You’re the best, Monnie! I can’t believe it...! You’re truly the best!” she jumped from her chair, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down in another mind blowing kiss that made the poor demon completely forget himself. “Hahahaha, y-yeah, o-of course I’m the best!! I-I’m THE Great Mammon, after all! Haaaaa!” he tried his best to appear boastful, but the fact that he was flustered beyond belief, making his brothers chuckle at how cute they were.

What a surprise, the cutest human being such a great pair for the cutest demon ( at least by Lucifer’s standards, anyway. )

So maybe, after all, if you have enough will, and a brother who knows great magic, you can reverse the outcome of an explosion of that caliber.

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thesassenachswiftie · 4 years ago

Text

Chapter 2: “You Need To Calm Down)

Read on AO3

Summary:

Chapter 2 is here! It's time for Claire and Jamie's first fight but that also it's time for their first make-up sex. This is my first time writing Smut but @statell assures me I did a good job. If that's really not your thing (I mean you are reading OL fanfic so it probably is), it's all the big paragraph near the end and the two dialogue paragraphs after you can easily skip to the last 3 dialogue paragraphs without losing the plot. Big thanks to everyone following along on this journey and all the kudos and comments on the last chapter.

This chapter is not only inspired by "You Need to Calm Down" but also by "The Reckoning" any quotes borrowed from either of these works belong to their respective author whom I am indebted to and admire greatly.

Notes:

First of all, I’m on Twitter now @sassenachswifty.

Second of all, There was a short lived comment on AO3 about Jo's pronouns on my last chapter. I genuinely think the commenter realized their mistake and deleted it before I had a chance to respond--which is fine and good, heaven knows I've made mistakes with pronouns and felt weird and caught of guard about them and all of that. Basically they were saying the they/them pronons were not grammatically correct and were distracting to the reader. I get that, I totally do, it feels uncomfortable because we were never taught about the singular they in school and it looks/sounds weird if you're not used to it. However, the sigular they has been recognized by APA, MLA and I believe Chicago style and is, therefore grammatically correct. It's something I'm getting used to as a writer and it's something we can try to get used to as readers as we move forward into a more progressive society. Our grandkids are going to make fun of us someday for struggling with pronouns. I just wanted to say it's ok to struggle, it's not ok to dismiss (which I genuinely believe the commenter was not doing). Jo came to me as a nonbinary character, and while it is a good exercise in pronoun usage for me as an author, that is not their primary function in the story, they are there to be Claire’s friend first and foremost. They/them are Jo's pronouns and I cannot and will not call them anything else because that would be disrespectful to them. My only other option would be to use "Jo" in every instance where he/she/her/him would come up which would be annoying, repetative and frankly, bad writing. Thank you for coming to my TED talk, now on with the show!

Chapter 2: “You Need To Calm Down”

Claire awoke in Jamie’s bed early on Saturday morning. It was graduation day, but she was definitely not walking the stage. Still laying on her side, she picked up her phone off the nightstand and began mindlessly scrolling Facebook, stopping at a collection of photos from an end of semester happy hour the night before. Frank was there as well as several of their mutual friends. Were they still friends? Probably not anymore, who knows if they ever were. Claire tapped from the photos posted by Gillian to the tag that took her to Frank’s profile. She scrolled down his feed to see if there were any new updates. Other than the pictures, it was the same barely cryptic statuses that were clearly throwing shade her way to anyone that knew. In a tweet? That’s a cop-out. Taking shots at me like it's Patrón, she mused to herself, recalling the pictures from the night before. Claire began swiping through Frank’s photos going back further and further. Her and Frank in front of the house with the “sold” sign in the yard. A candid picture she took of Frank in a coffee shop one day. Brilliant, smiling faces of them and their friends all dressed up at their New Year’s Eve party--many of the people pictured in the photos from last night. Frank proudly standing with his arm around her, Claire beaming and angling her hand just so a few days after they got engaged. Claire was so engrossed in these images she didn’t realize Jamie had awoken behind her. He leaned over to plant a kiss on that spot just behind her ear, pausing when he saw what she was looking at, “Damn Sassenach, it’s seven AM for Chrissakes” he hissed.

Claire’s face flushed immediately. She had been caught. She didn’t even know why she was doing what she was doing, but she felt ashamed, defensive, embarrassed, and justified all at once. She swiped out of her Facebook app instantly but it was too late. He had seen and the damage had been done. She couldn’t speak, she didn’t have any good excuses, and she definitely couldn’t turn to look at Jamie. She set the phone back down on the nightstand and burrowed her curly head under the pillow trying to avoid his gaze. She couldn’t see his face, but she knew Jamie was watching her intently waiting for an explanation.

“Hey, are you ok? I dinna mean to snap at ye Claire, It’s just early and I dinna expect to see ye looking at pictures of your ex after what I thought was such a satisfying night. Am I not good enough for ye Claire?” His tone started gentle and caring, but his veins were pulsing with jealous rage and his voice got more angry and frantic as he continued. “Look at me, Claire!”

Claire didn’t like being told what to do, especially not with the newfound feminist energy Jo had ignited in her. She hoisted herself out from her cocoon, and sprang up to face him. “I don’t have to do what you tell me to. You need, to calm down, you’re being too loud!”

He made a distinctly Scottish noise--“Hmpph. That’s not what ye said last night Sassenach” he growled. He couldn’t help flirting with her even in his anger. She looked so bonny, bare-breasted with her curls splayed every which way, the fire of her anger alight in her whisky eyes--frightening and sexy at the same time.

Claire wasn’t amused by his quip, or by the tone of voice in which he said it, “you need to just stop, like can you just not? I don’t like it one bit!”

“Not what, Claire? Not want ye only for myself? Not feel jealous seeing pictures of that rat bastard with his smug grin and his arm around ye to be the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning? You do belong to me, whether ye like it or not. Why are you mad? I’m the only one allowed to be mad, Claire! Yer mine, damn ye Claire! Mine, and I wilna share ye, with a man or a memory or anything whatsoever”

Her glass face broke before his eyes as he raised his voice louder. Her anger had turned to something fragile, something Jamie was afraid he would break. Even still, she spoke softly, but confidently, “I don’t belong to you or anyone, I’m my own person. You need to just take several seats” She glanced away from him, trying to keep her composure.

Controlling his urge to scream, he replied “I know that, that’s not what I meant. I ain’t trying to mess with who you are or your self expression, I mean that I am yours just as much as you are mine”

Damn, he’s good, thought Claire as she met his gaze again. His passion, even when directed towards anger, was still sexy.

“Claire, I see you over there on the internet all the time, this isn’t the first time you’ve done this is it?”

She nodded in agreement, embarrassed, but somehow she felt safe admitting it to Jamie. She was beginning to realize just how much he truly cared about her. As strange as it seemed, through this small fight, their relationship was moving from simply mutual, passionate attraction to something deeper. It might have been there all along beyond the urges of the flesh, but she was just now truly seeing it. It was exciting and terrifying all at the same time.

“Listen, I’ve learned a lesson that stressing and obsessing about somebody else is no fun.” Jamie disclosed, trying to restore the peace. “He’s not worth your time if he let a girl like you go on the drop of a hat like that.” This made Claire wince internally, hoping he didn’t see, there was more to it than that. He didn’t seem to notice and continued, “What we have is like sunshine, but you act like you would rather be in the dark.” He reached for her arm, caressing it gently.

“You’ve figured me out. You’re right, I don’t know why I keep checking on him. I guess I’m hoping I’ll find out something horrible has happened to him; but I promise, only you have me.”

“I mean to have you Claire, I am your master and you are mine. It seems I cannot possess your soul without losing my own.” Both of Jamie’s hands were on Claire’s arms now, gripping her more firmly now. They were drawing closer to each other, the passion of their anger still surging in their veins. “I want you Claire, I want you so much I can scarcely breathe. Will you have me?”

“Yes.”

Their lips met with a fervour unlike any they had experienced before, hands caressing everywhere. Claire moaned into Jamie’s mouth as his hand cupped her breast, stroking her nipple vigorously with his palm. His lips moved to her neck, that spot behind her ear that made her giggle and squeak. He was ravenous, consuming her flesh with his lips, making his way down to her other breast, sucking her nipple as he ran his tongue around it, willing all sorts of noises to emit from her mouth. She was straddling him, grinding against him, feeling his wanting against her in just the right spot. She thrust her hands into his boxer briefs, tugging at his hips to bring them even closer. He responded in kind, slipping his hands into the lace waistband her cotton panties and grabbing that arse he loved so much. He moved one hand around to her front and started stroking her most sensitive area and slipped a finger inside her. “Oh, Jamie” she moaned as she began to ease his waistband down. She allowed herself to let him go for a moment, releasing him to remove his underwear, as she did the same. As soon as they were fully exposed to one another, she was on top of him again. She moved herself up and down his length, feeling him rub against her, igniting a euphoric sensation in her core. When neither of them could take it anymore he slipped inside her, and she took him in to the hilt, riding him almost violently. All the anger and shame she had felt moments ago had transformed into a primal lust unleashed on him. He responded in kind, kissing her vigorously across breasts, neck and shoulders until she shoved him back on the bed to gain a better angle. Pushing her hand to his chest for leverage, she rode him harder than she’d ever ridden anyone before--not even the vibrator she used to experiment with in college. She could see he was close, his face contorting as he resisted the urge to finish before her.

“Sassenach, you’ll be the death of me” he groaned.

“Just a little more, Jamie” she panted, just before crying out, “Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh”. Seeing her satisfied, he allowed himself to finish as well. Claire gently detached from him and collapsed beside him, breathless, resting on his chest, hair sprawled across him.

“Oh Sassenach, ye keep that up and I’m liable to pick fights with you more often” he sighed.

“You better watch out before you start something you can’t finish” she quipped in response.

Jamie simply made a Scottish noise in reply, staring at the ceiling stroking her hair, wondering if he had, in fact, done just that.

End Note:

I try to slip in as many lyrics from each song as possible and make it still "work", occasionally changing tenses or adding/subtracting words to make them work. Claire's orgasm moans are the "oh oh's" in the chorus of YNTCD and I'm simultaneously proud of myself and ashamed.

#lover #outlander fanfic #outlander fic #jamie x claire #claire beauchamp #jamie fraser #modern au #inspired by taylor swift #you need to calm down #smut

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greensydney · 4 years ago

Text

Wellness Segments from The Friend Zone Podcast

This is where I’ll be listing Fran’s Wellness Segments. It will be updated regularly. Any specific products/stores mentioned will be linked :)

Ep. 1: It’s Ok to Log Off

Being the first episode, Fran starts us off easy with a loving suggestion to take a social media break. At the time of this recording, “Twitterless Assante” was reaping the benefits of taking mindless twitter scrolling out of his life for some time.

Ep. 2: Family Matters

This is where we start digging in and doing the work. Here, Fran asks us to look within to resolve family disputes that have gone unchecked. Have the talks that you have been avoiding, even if it feels uncomfortable. Remember to come from a place of compassion when approaching loved ones, and to not take anything personally. Which is a theme throughout many of the early episodes, as it’s the 2nd agreement in The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, one of the many books Fran has suggested.

Ep. 3: Take 5

Work on building and maintaining a healthy morning routine. This helps set the tone of the day. By leaving our phone out of this part of the day, we can avoid things like waking up to a long, angry text or some other drama and letting that guide how the rest of day goes. Basically, set the tone of your day before taking in information from anyone else.

Ep. 4: Surrender

Meditate, meditate, meditate.

Osho books are great for learning more about quieting the mind, as recommended by Fran. Sadhguru is another great teacher who I look to for insight on meditation, mindfulness, parenting, and just life in general. He has a channel on YouTube with tons of videos. Fran also recommends trying Mala beads to assist with meditation, or maybe journaling afterwards. She really just stresses the importance of beginning a meditation practice, without fear of doing it “right” or “wrong”.

Ep. 5: Even Martha Went to Jail

No clear-cut Wellness Segment for this week, but the main gist of things was: create what you want, what feels good for you. Critics will appear for everyone, no matter how great they are, so do you. Don’t keep yourself from creating things because of fear of how others will receive it.

Ep. 6: Tacos & Quickweave

In your journal, dissect the relationship you are in. Asking questions like, “Why are you with this person? Who are you *really* doing this relationship for?” For singles, ask questions like, “What am I *really* looking for, in a person? How do I want to feel when I’m with them? How do I want to show up in their lives? How do I want them to show up in my life?” For those resistant to relationships, ask yourself why and really work through it to get those answers that you seek. ~meditate, meditate, meditate ~

Ep. 7: The Choir & The Competition Are Out

Parents: Sit with our children and start asking them questions about their interests. Fran shares how she was impacted by her mom not being more encouraging about her becoming a singer, so she wants us to know how important it is to truly listen when our kids ask to pursue new things, even if it isn’t exactly what we pictured for them.

For everyone, even those who don’t have children or maybe they aren’t quite at the age to start discussing these things: we were all a child at some point. Many people can benefit from asking ourselves if the profession we are in is for you, or if you were just trying to please our own parents. It’s never too late to begin learning more about anything that excites you.

Ep. 8: Fitness Regine Hunter

(I’m pretty sure they purposely didn’t spell it “regime” because of the difficulty for many in pronouncing the word. lmao)

In this episode, Fran speaks on the importance of holistic health and wellbeing, sharing how much it has shaped who she is and improved her life. She wants us to really sit with ourselves and think about the things we want to work on. Ask, “What can I do to ensure that I’m being the most beautiful *me* possible?” From skin and hair care, to diet, to fitness, to the way we talk to ourselves or others. All the little things that make up holistic living. No quick fixes! We’re here to werrrrrrk, hunty.

“Forget the internet for a second. Forget what the Instagram models look like, we’re talking about YOU...” - Fran the MF Goat.

Implement a fitness regime that works for you. Maybe it’s part of your morning routine, maybe it’s an after dinner thing; everyone gets to choose what is best for them and that’s part of the beauty of this life. :) Try a few things and see what works. There is an emphasis on the importance of starting slow, allowing your mind and body to get used to new activity. Fran started off with walking, increasing her distance over time, and then turned that into jogging when it felt right for her. Blogilates and Yoga With Adriene are YouTube channels she mentions here. I have been hooked to yoga ever since trying a few videos from Adriene. Yoga by Biola is another great channel to check out. Biola has this video, “Restorative Yoga for Collective Trauma”, which I love. I learned of her from The Friend Zone earlier in 2020.

Skin and Hair: Check out Frans YouTube channel to see all the informative videos she has on all-natural beauty and health tips. Personally, I really like Naptural85 for hair videos as my curl pattern is very similar to hers. Click around on suggested videos to find the ones that speak to you.

Ep. 9: Don’t Forget the Feet

OIL UP! From head-to-toe. Get that moisture. Especially in these colder months. Hands, feet, nails, toenails...literally everywhere. Dustin cannot get over the importance of the feet. Fran says this aztec healing clay is great for dry, cracked feet, and she hinted at its ability to fix some facial skin woes as well. Extra Fran tip: put a small amount of oil on your nail beds before painting them. This protects the skin and promotes nail growth. I tried this myself and it’s a game changer in my nail health! They used to get cracks in them once they start getting to a certain length, but if i keep them oiled up, they are smooth as precious little stones. :)

Ep. 10: A$AP Shirley Caesar

This episode reminds us that finances, too, can impact our total feeling of well-being. The Friends all want us to get our finances in order, taking the tiniest of baby steps, if needed. Fran’s 3 things to cut back on:

Eating Out

Online Shopping

Places like Target, where you go for 1 thing and leave with a full cart.

Making these sacrifices adds up. The goal is that eventually, any big things that are weighing on our mental due to finances can more easily be dealt with.

Ep. 11: And I’m Telling You, I’m NOT Going!

It’s all about skin-care in this wellness segment! Starting with what goes into your body, and ending with what goes on your body. First off: DRINK LOTS OF WATER! This not only promotes healthy skin but as we all know, it’s just good for the body in general. The body runs nice and smoothly when it’s hydrated from the inside-out.

If you need to cut down on your caffeine intake (I’m right there with ya), Fran suggested Yerba Mate. It’s a natural source of caffeine and much cleaner than what comes in other energy drinks. I must say, I feel like the naturally occurring caffeine just hits different. I was hyyype the first few times I got a Yerba Mate instead of my usual orange Red Bull! Energy drink isn’t the only form to get your Yerba fix, thankfully. It’s sold as a loose leaf tea, or in bagged tea as well. I LOVE coffee though, and I am not giving that up so easy. I find that bringing mindfulness to my habits with it, helps me to not consume too much.

Now, for the outside of the body: washing and moisturizing daily is imperative. This may be obvious to some, but it can also feel difficult for those with a really busy schedule. I know for me, as a mom, there has been many times when I only had one chance to take a shower on a given day, and if I didn’t take it, I was always sorry. Or I would take a rushed, half-effort shower and get dressed immediately after without oil, lotion, anything. Having a routine in place for daily washing and moisturizing (that works with my sporadic life) helps me make sure it won’t get missed. Again, as with episode 9, OIL UP! Coconut oil is a great choice, but my skin just drinks it up like water. Sesame oil is a nice alternative because it’s a bit thicker. It was hard for me to get used to smelling like a huge sesame seed though, not gonna lie. But there are so many different oils and butters out there to love our bodies with, just use some trial and error to find which one(s) work best for you.

Last thing: Bedding. Change it at least once a week. Get on the silk pillowcase train! Or if you real fancy, like Fran, get you a full-on silk sheet set. Cotton sheets soak up all the moisture from our skin that we work so hard and lovingly on.

Ep. 12: The Shut Down Mixtape

House cleaning time! Clean your fridge, clean your closets, clean your desk drawers. Clean everything! Trying to especially bring focus to areas that are often overlooked in your regular daily cleaning. By doing this, we clear out old energy, removing heaviness from our homes that we may not even realize is there. I personally can vouch that this helps with anxiety and even lifts my depression symptoms as well. It feels good when the space I live in looks and smells nice, so taking the effort is more than worthwhile.

Ep. 13: Oh God…

Get in touch with what religion/spirituality mean to YOU. This one was hard for me because I wasn’t raised with much knowledge of (or respect for, sadly) religion. As I grew, I became super interested in the various religions and how they affect the lives of others - good or bad. I’ve now learned to adapt my own spiritual practices that support me and help me get by. And this is life changing.

Ep. 14: Say It Like You Mean It

Here, we are instructed to find out what our individual love language is. This comes from the book The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. The 5 Love Languages are:

Quality Time

Acts of Service

Receiving Gifts

Words of Affirmation

Physical Touch

You may already have an idea of what your primary love language is, but you can get some more information on that by reading the book or by taking quizzes on the book’s website. Knowing your love language, as a single, can help you define what you need from a partner. As someone in a relationship, it can help both partners learn how to best make sure everyone knows they are loved and valued.

Ep. 15: Yo Mama

Scalp Care for Winter Weather!

½ Cup Olive Oil ~ Seals in moisture

2 Tbsp. Honey (Fran uses Raw honey) ~ Creates pretty shine

½ Cup Coconut Milk ~ Adds protein

½ an Avocado ~ Healthy fat

½ a Banana ~ Softens hair

Blend all ingredients into a creamy conditioner, which should come out a nice light greenish color.

I keep forgetting coconut milk at the store or else I’d have been tried this one, smh *face palm* But I will edit to add my review after I finally do this. :)

Ep. 16: Non Profit & Chill

This episode had no segments, but we can still gain a wellness tip from it. Recorded right after Fran returned from a trip to Africa, she had a ton of insight to share on why it’s so important to be an ethical consumer. This episode was a great one to re-listen to as it reminded me that I am reading labels and the “about” pages on brand’s websites for a valid reason that is important to me, not just following trends. Dang imposter syndrome, always trying to step in and ruin everything (shoutout to the Friend Zone for teaching me about that as well, in a later episode.)

Fair Trade Errything !!!

Ep. 17: There’s A Song For That

No wellness segment this week, per say, but again I’ll summarize the episode to make it wellness for us all. The friends basically dode over their favorite break-up songs, from the deepest of soul, to the pettiest of rap songs. Many genres listed, and many bangers. This episode is a great listen for those going through a breakup, or even if you’re a big fan of the episodes where the Friends just let loose and have fun.

Ep. 18: Don’t You Go To Work?

Inspired by Assante and his newly purchased stones, which he is carrying safely in his pocket, Fran suggested that us listeners get in on the magic as well by getting our own stones. Starting with Citrine. This stone is a light orange color, and can be found online or in local crystal stores in most cities. Often referred to as “the merchants stone”, Citrine is believed to attract success. Fran offered the idea of laying it on some money, because she did it and got a random check in the mail soon after...And I kid you not - I did it, and the saaame thing happened to me. I was shook and beyond grateful!

Other stones mentioned here are Lapis Lazuli and Black Tourmaline. Lapis is a pretty, royal blue shade, usually with gold flakes in it. Lapis is known as the “communication stone”. Black Tourmaline is, you guessed it, black, and often found in shiny pieces. Fran says she keeps one of these by her bedside to absorb negative thoughts; letting it cleanse her energy before bed.

Stores mentioned on this episode: Rock Star, and Namaste shop. Both New York based but have online shopping available. Personally, and this is gonna sound real woo-woo, but I prefer picking out stones in person because then I can actually feed off of their energy to pick the right one for me. Those living in a small town, there is probably a crystal shop not too far away.

Ep. 19: The Friend Zone & The Read Mash Up Pt. 1

Wellness this week: be messy and silly with your friends. For me, I don’t currently have any real life friends to hang out with, plus COVID, so my family gets to enjoy all my silly mess. Life just cannot be lived being serious 100% of the time!

Ep. 20: 2015, I’ma Let You Finish, But 2016…

I loved this episode because it brings us back to our journals. Fran asks the guys and us listeners to reflect on two simple, but powerful questions to answer at the end of each year:

What are 3 things you discovered about yourself this year that you love? Things that you feel will propel you into the next year, as a person, career-wise, and as a whole. Write freely about how you plan on maintaining and evolving.

What are 3 things you discovered about yourself this year that you did not like? Maybe some of these things are hard to face. Reflect on how you’ve allowed them to hold you back and what you are doing to adjust them.

#friendzonepod #wellness #holisticliving #forthe #hoodhearted

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jpaulfontan · 3 years ago

Text

Clinging to the

Promises of God

You remain in control In the middle of the war You guard my soul I take great comfort in knowing God’s in control, Don’t you? Hello! You’ve found the Senior Adult Sunday school class for Corinth Baptist Church in Singleton, Ms. The title of our lesson for today is:

Clinging to the

Promises of God

This will be the 2nd in a

5-session series under the general heading of; Facing Adversity.

We’ll be drawing Scripture from the 27th chapter of the Book of Acts.

You know, there are more than 7,000 promises from God to us written in His Word. One of the 1st things that came to my mind when I read that was the question: ”Why? I mean, why would God make so many promises to humanity?” The overriding answer to that would be that He wants for us to simply………….. trust Him. So, how can we know that this Bronze-Age book, the Bible, is really God’s word to us? That would be because the Bible proves itself. I don’t know of another book ever written that declares future events with unerring accuracy. Over 25% of the Bible is prophetic. Peter wrote in 2nd Peter 1:19-21; 19. So we have the

prophetic word

strongly confirmed.

You will do well to

pay attention to it,

as to a lamp shining

in a dismal place,

until the day dawns

and the morning star

rises in your hearts.

20. First of all,

you should know this:

No prophecy of Scripture

comes from one’s own

interpretation,

21. because no prophecy

ever came by the will of man;

instead, men spoke

from God as they were

moved by the Holy Spirit. God spoke through men the words of prophecy. But, can we really believe the prophesies, or the promises of God to us? Well, if many of the prophecies actually did come to pass when and where they were foretold, I’d say that was confirmation that the words of the Bible are true. To this day, we remember what happened on Palm Sunday. Jesus fulfilled the prophecy that He would come into Jerusalem riding on a donkey and be hailed as the King of the Jews. But did you know that He did this on exactly the day that Daniel had prophesied he would? Daniel made the prediction more than 500 years before it happened. Think about it. 500 years before it happened, a man wrote down the prophecy that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey. AND, he predicted the exact day it would happen. That’s just one prophecy that was fulfilled exactly as it had been predicted. Anyone can go onto the internet, search for fulfilled prophecies, and discover that there are many, many of them. Many more are yet to be fulfilled; but they will be because so many of them have already proven the fact that the Bible is completely accurate. If the prophecies are true, certainly the promises are as well. And if the promises are true, then why wouldn’t we trust God completely? In today’s lesson we’ll be learning of Paul’s shipwreck as he is being taken to Rome. Paul demonstrates his unshakable faith and trust in God through this harrowing situation.

Section 1: Acts 27:21-24; 21. Since many were going without food, Paul stood up among them and said, “You men should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete and sustain this damage and loss. 22. Now I urge you to take courage, because there will be no loss of any of your lives, but only of the ship. 23. For this night an angel of the God I belong to and serve stood by me, 24. and said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. And, look! God has graciously given you all those who are sailing with you.’ Finally, after two years of

being under arrest in

Caesarea, Paul was, at last

on his way to Rome.

But these folks

weren't on a sleek

catamaran zipping over

the waves and making

short work of a voyage

from Caesarea Maritime

to Rome.

Instead, they were

transferring from one

large, slow moving,

grain vessel to

another painstakingly

making their way

to their

destination.

It's late autumn and

their progress was

being hindered by

unfavorable winds.

The captain of the

vessel they were on

had intended to sail

west from Cnidus,

but instead had been

forced to sail

southwest toward

Crete.

They had sailed around

the southern coast of

Crete and landed at the

port of Fair Heavens.

The Roman Centurion

that was in charge of

the prisoners had

decided that this

would not be a good

place to hold up for

the winter; and the

captain of the grain

ship they were traveling

on said he was

confident that he could

make the crossing to

Italy.

The problem was that it

was late fall.

At this time of the year,

that region of the

Mediterranean experienced

seasonal storms called

Euroclydon, (U Rock Lee Don).

Like the American Nor'easter,

these storms were fierce and

could last for many days.

Paul had been warned in his

spirit to try to dissuade

the centurion and the captain

from attempting the crossing,

but didn't prevail.

Now they found themselves

in the midst of one of these

terrible storms.

The ship was being battered

and the 276 passengers and

crew were wrestling with

the very real fear that

they might not survive.

It was at this time that

Paul stood up and told them

that they should have

listened to him.

He didn't say that as an

"I told you so" but rather

that they might now

believe the words coming

out of his mouth.

He told them to take courage

because he had been informed

by an angel that though

the ship they were on was

going to be lost, none of

them were going to die.

Because they were all

aware of Paul's warning

not to leave Fair Heavens,

what he was now saying to

them carried the

weight of credibility.

Now, last week I pointed

out that Nero had ordered

the Christians in Rome

to be killed.

In the telling of that

episode, I voiced my

opinion that Paul had

probably not had the

opportunity to stand

before Caesar.

But in verse 24 of our

lesson for today,

the angel talking to

Paul on that storm-tossed

ship, told him that he

must stand before Caesar.

I don't know it he ever

actually did, the Bible

doesn't tell me one way or

the other.

But I want to make something

perfectly clear here.

Like an onion,

the Scriptures and God's

Truth comes to all of

us in layers.

When God so chooses for

each of us to discover

something deeper in His

Word, He'll peel back

another layer for us.

Who knows?

Maybe, some day, God will

show me in His Word,

of by His Spirit,

that Paul did, in fact,

have the opportunity to

stand before Nero.

Now, back to the Scripture

of today's lesson.

The message that Paul relayed

to the others on the ship

was a reassurance that they

were all going to survive

this terrible storm.

And it's the idea that

leads us into the next section.

It's entitled....

Section 2: Encourage Others to Trust in God. Acts 27:30-38;

30. Some sailors tried to escape from the ship; they had let down the skiff into the sea, pretending that they were going to put out anchors from the bow. 31. Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32. Then the soldiers cut the ropes holding the skiff and let it drop away.

33. When it was about daylight, Paul urged them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, having eaten nothing. 34. Therefore I urge you to take some food. For this has to do with your survival, since none of you will lose a hair from your head.” 35. After he said these things and had taken some bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all of them, and when he broke it, he began to eat. 36. They all became encouraged and took food themselves. 37. In all there were 276 of us on the ship. 38. When they had eaten enough, they began to lighten the ship by throwing the grain overboard into the sea.

So, there again,

we see that they were

indeed on a ship

capable of carrying

over 250 passengers

and its very large

cargo of grain.

These weren't the

little boats

used by the fishermen

on the Sea of Galilee.

They were large,

sturdy wooden sailing ships

capable of

handling rough seas.

Before studying for

this lesson,

I just didn't know

what to make of

verse 30.

The author of

the lesson brought

out something interesting.

Verse 30 says that

"some sailors tried to

escape from the ship by

pretending they were

taking a skiff to put

out anchors."

These sailors were

trying to abandon ship.

From what I can see here,

Paul didn't tell the soldiers

what he knew the sailors

were really doing.

Instead, he just stopped

them from doing it by

warning the soldiers.

What the author of

today's lesson pointed out

was that these sailors

most likely were not

believers nor worshippers

of the God you and I

place our faith in.

For them,

salvation from their

gods had not come and

they had chosen to flee.

It would be tempting,

he goes on, to look down

our self-righteous noses

at them.

But the truth is that

all of us are prone to

a lack of faith during

times of trial and

difficulty.

But the thing is that

our God has proven His

faithfulness over and

over again.

When the Hebrews

cried out to God

from their bondage

in Egypt,

God sent Moses.

When Peter denied

Jesus, just as He said

he would,

Jesus was gracious and

restored him.

The Scriptures are full

of examples of this truth.

In our own lives,

over and over again,

all of us can point

to times when God

has proven Himself

trustworthy.

Even though we

know God is faithful,

Christians can struggle

to act in faith

in the moment,

especially in extremely

difficult situations.

When we're facing trying

times, right along with

unbelievers,

these are opportunities

for us to encourage them

to look outside of

themselves for hope to the only One

who can give it and

back it up.

This was what Paul

was doing onboard that

doomed ship that day.

Even though he was

a prisoner,

he rose above his

position and became

a fearless leader and

a beacon of hope for

everyone on-board.

The others on the ship

could see his confidence

in God.

When the rest of them

had lost their faith,

Paul was able to point

them to his God.

Section 3: Recognize the Fulfillment of What God Has Promised. Acts 27:39-44; 39. When daylight came, they did not recognize the land but sighted a bay with a beach. They planned to run the ship ashore if they could. 40. After casting off the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and headed for the beach. 41. But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow jammed fast and remained immovable, while the stern began to break up by the pounding of the waves.

42. The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners so that no one could swim away and escape. 43. But the centurion kept them from carrying out their plan because he wanted to save Paul, so he ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. 44. The rest were to follow, some on planks and some on debris from the ship. In this way, everyone safely reached the shore.

God’s angel had promised Paul that every one of the people on that ship were going to survive, even though they were going to lose the ship. Paul had told this to those on the ship. We serve a mighty God who says what He means, and means what He says. As the day broke, land was sighted, but they didn’t know where they were; they didn’t recognize it. But they did see a bay with a beach. The storm was still raging, so they decided to ram the ship onto it. But, as they tried sailing to it, they ran aground on a sandbar. They hit it hard and there was no way of getting free of it. The waves were hitting the stern, (the rear of the ship), with such force that they were actually tearing the ship apart. If they stayed on the ship, they’d all perish. The soldiers, knowing that they, themselves would be killed if the prisoners escaped, had already decided to execute them. But their commanding officer, the centurion, stopped them because he wanted to save Paul. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard and make for the beach. The rest would have to use boards and anything else that would float to get to land. Just as God had promised, everyone made it to safety. Yes, God was in control through it all. He had worked in the heart of the Centurion to preserve the lives of all of the prisoners. The Bible tells us the centurion did this to save Paul’s life. All of the prisoners’ lives were saved because of Paul. Everyone’s lives were in peril as the ship was being torn apart by the waves. But, in breaking the ship apart, God was providing the very thing those who couldn’t swim so desperately needed at that time…… planks. God gave Paul through the angel a specific promise; he would preach the gospel in Rome, and that everyone on the ship would survive the storm. Like Paul and his companions, God doesn’t give us the details of how He’s going to accomplish His promises. One promise that God makes to all of us is; ”We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.” God will take all the nuances of our various stories, both the good and the bad, and work them together for our good. That phrase, ”all things,” means just that, every experience in life that we have encountered. So, if you find yourself in a storm, a really difficult time in life, recognize that it won’t last forever. If you’re enduring a season of deep pain and woundedness, realize God’s promise to work all things for good remains true. God comforts us during our seasons of affliction so that He can heal us and we can, in turn, pass that comfort on to others who are suffering, knowing that God always keeps His promises.

God requires His followers to place their trust in Him, not only for the salvation of their souls but also for the care of each of their steps. We must be unwavering in our commitment to

Call upon the Lord when we’re struggling with trusting Him. He’s worthy of our trust, and we must fight to remind ourselves of this truth. Because God’s fulfilled His greatest promise in providing salvation through Jesus, we are now free to live fulfilling the great commission without wavering, even when our work seems futile and the future unsure. We can remain faithful even when we don’t have all the details God has prepared for us in the future. His Word tells us that He has prepared good works for us to do. We can be confident in God’s protection and preservation over His people to complete His mission. Let’s pray: Help us, Lord to cling to your promises

Help us Lord to Trust you and boldly proclaim your truth Help us Lord to Encourage others to trust in you. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.

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arcticdementor · 4 years ago

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Recently, a lot of you who told me I was insane when I said that Winnie the flu was all theater and though it existed and was a flu and would probably take “severe flu, no vaccine numbers” it was and is stupid to lock the sick and the healthy in, destroy the economy and make everyone wear a mask, have come back and ask how I knew. And apologized.

Well, attention in the isles, my friends on the right: you are falling for the same king of bullshit diversion. You are being spun like a top. And you’re falling for it and falling in line.

I blame you and I don’t. You didn’t grow up with the constant-pretend-reality of communist psi-ops, and you haven’t learned to smell it.

Over and over again, you condemn Trump and the “rioters.”

NO ONE RIOTED. Not compared to this summer. THERE WERE NO RIOTS. And the protesters were treated with an iron fist and live ammo, btw.

There are videos. I don’t know which ones are still live. They keep removing them. There was no riot. There was a protest. You know, those things that are vital for public health?

Did they go into the Capitol? Yes they did. You know what? It’s a public building. WE PAY FOR THE F*CKING CAPITOL’S UPKEEP.

But, but but…. the congress critters ran. They were scared!

Were they now? WHY? No, seriously, why were they scared, if the people they work for want to watch the deliberations. They’re in our presence all the time. You know the worst thing we do — or used to do — we called them traitors. That was it.

But they vandalized Nancy Pelosi’s office! Oh, my stars and garters? Evil people. Was that before or after she vandalized our constitution and sank a knife in the heart of the republic? Is the evil bitch dangling from a lamppost this morning? No? They were civilized beyond all hope.

But Sarah, you’ll say, this will give them the excuse to avenge themselves on us.

Dear idiots, you’re like the wife with her arm in a sling and both eyes blackened telling her husband “Please don’t say anything to Joe. He’ll be mad.”

In other words, are you out of your ever loving little minds? These people STOLE two elections — it’s now absolutely obvious the nominal right is fine with this. They hope for crumbs from their masters’ tables. The left is more likely to kill them, but never mind — in a row, in full view, and refused to let us have our day in court to show the evidence. Because the American people are now peons with NO STANDING and can be disenfranchised with no punishment. But you’re afraid that largely (truly) peaceful protesters “made them mad?”

Withdrawing the objection to the fraudulent votes due to the riot? That only makes sense in the mind of an abuser. “I stole your thing, and I was going to maybe give it back, but you cried, so now you don’t get it back.” Are you all actually out of your ever loving minds to blame the protesters and Trump for this?

These people are saying “You peasants dared to show up in our presence. We’re now going to take away even the illusion of franchise.” And…. you’re cool with this? It’s the protesters fault?

Get up off the floor. Wipe the blood from your lip. KNOW WHO YOUR ABUSER IS.

And BTW it’s not Trump. Trump thought maybe if congress saw how ad people were, they would play straight. I said before that’s all the protest was about, and that’s all it was. He told people to go home when it was obvious it had failed.

And I hope to G-d someone with access to him reads this and tells him it’s time. Take the family NOW and go to an undisclosed location. As much as it hurts me to say this, because I want him to continue harassing the left, he has to realize this is no longer the sweet land of liberty. This is now a tyrannical third world shithole. Or will be within months from the way our occupiers are behaving. They will find a way to kill him and his whole family, or kill him and turn his family against him. Go Mr. President. G-d bless. You’ve done all that you could. If the so called right in this country will pearl clutch and blame even people who engage in a very mild protest, they deserve what’s to come.

He now promises an orderly transition. I will tell all of you that DEAD is the most orderly of all states. And right now the Republic is effectively dead. There might be a hope for CPR, but I’m not sure there’s the will to apply it. Pence has joined the rats fleeing to the lefty rotten ship. because he hopes that will save his life. Spoiler, it won’t. The left will kill all the right who turns their coat. Because they can’t trust them. Good. They deserve it. I shall eat popcorn.

Do we ever get the republic back? I don’t know. I think the most likely thing is that we fall apart into separate states while around us the world falls into chaos, famine and misery. We’ve been feeding the world for a century. The world had better look to itself now.

What do those of us who’ve sworn an oath to the constitution do? I don’t know. Most are still busily doing a Peter in Pontius Pilates Yard “I was never with him.”

Oh, and there’s talks of rounding up Trump supporters. Of denying them flights and hotels and the ability to engage in commerce.

I suppose that’s the “protesters” fault too? Except that that, like the paper to withdraw objections because of the “protest” were already written. They would have found an excuse.

I don’t want war. But I liked having a homeland. To everyone who, like me, came here as the last place of refuge: I’m sorry. I don’t even know what to tell you. We need to fight this, but even if we do, unless the natural-born citizens see what they’re losing, it’s unlikely we’ll ever get our country back.

This morning, in DC, the police are beating down what remains of protesters. A young woman was murdered in cold blood yesterday.

And our side is pearl clutching and tut tuting, and hoping the abuser won’t get mad. Oh, and talking about 2022, because seeing two elections frauded RIGHT BEFORE THEIR EYES and courts refusing to let anyone see evidence of it is not enough. They need to be stomped on some more before they believe they’ve lost the franchise.

Me? I’ve seen what happens when your votes don’t matter. Elections will continue as a form, possibly for fifty years, if we let this bullshit go on that long. Your next president after Commie laWhorish is Michelle Obama, because the ignorant bitch hasn’t shit on us enough. She felt stupid and inferior at Harvard, and by gum, she’s going to make you grovel to pay for your sins.

But your real masters are now Winnie the Pooh and his merry band of fascists. And we know what they do and how.

I can’t get the order, but we’re about to see: social credit; the banning of conservatives from the internet; branding us as terrorists, just as they’re doing to innocent protesters; show trials; people disappearing; our money confiscated; our houses confiscated; more lock downs, to prevent revolt; more masks to promote alienation; more lies.

When people die in the famine to come, it will be Covid-19 and Trump’s fault and you’ll be required to repeat it publicly.

It wont’ last. These commies are industrial-level STUPID. It won’t last. I give them ten years, maybe, before most of the country is starving, and they have no clue what to do about it. And then it all falls apart, because unlike Venezuelans, we have no one to help and no place to run to.

Or, you know, we can stop pearl clutching and say “Hell no.” and “Molon labe” and stop repeating the lies the left wants written into history.

To lefty idiots: yes, the election was stolen. Because if it had NOT been, the left would have joined the right in demanding the courts take the case, and that it be shown to all as an honest election. Also, to lefty idiots, what the protesters — and all of us at home — want? ANOTHER ELECTION with minimum accountability. I mean, we can’t even clean the roles. There wouldn’t be enough time. We just wanted to make sure each person voted only once, and the votes were counted with full supervision.

Instead, you’re handing off the country to China, via their bought and paid for man, Biden. Yes, I know you heard good things about China. You’ll find out, along with the craven right that the leftist press makes Pravda seem honest. Enjoy the ride.

As for you and me, my friends. We’re going to eat the bread that the devil baked. Save what you can from the ruin. It won’t be much. And don’t let them into your head. NEVER let them into your head. They’re invaders. They’re oppressors. They’re thieves. Treat them as what they are. Do not comply unless you have to, and then engage in malicious compliance.

Keep the republic in your heart. Maybe there are enough of us left that it will rise again. But in the meantime, this is going to hurt and hurt badly. And the longer the restoration of law takes, the higher the butcher’s bill.

Most of you have no idea how bad it will get. Imagine your worst nightmares. Then double them. Prepare for that as best you can. You won’t be able to do much. If you’re lucky they’ll leave you your conscience.

Your country was invaded (even if the invaders were born here, their masters aren’t) and is about to be raped. The least you can do is not cooperate.

#sarah hoyt

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owlsbride · 4 years ago

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This Too Shall Pass

Chapter III: The Reaper.

London was no longer London. At least not the London he had come to love. Now it was a mix of modern buildings as tall as the sky itself. The old carriages over the years had been replaced by modern cars much faster and more compact at the same time. Now there were buses and even high-speed subway trains. Modernity was a new world and infinite possibilities. There was no misinterpretation, he had adapted well throughout all these years. He had learned to use every technological advance that came his way: cell phones, computers, the glorious internet, television. He even enjoyed from time to time going to the movies. He had learned that the latter was not significantly different from how people's cinematics records worked and that in a way filled him with pride. Even if he was a deserter, he had to accept that his people were far more intelligent and advanced than humans. He was used to modern life; it could be said that he even enjoyed it. He had come to learn some of the little pleasures that this era could bring him. He could sit for hours in some trendy little cafe, (where in order to pay a cup of tea, a regular person would have to consider selling a kidney on the black market) just to watch humans live their lives as fast as possible, coming and going without even pausing for a second to look to the side or behind, without even having the slightest consideration for what they did to the other or to the world in which they lived. These people lived oblivious of the finiteness and fragility of their bodies. They walked around proud of their cars, their clothes, their lovers and their promising careers, never stopping to look at or ask the needs of the others, never acknowledging that in the end death was inevitable and that at the last breath she equalled them all. Royalty, politicians, businessmen or beggars, they would all follow the same path and some of his former colleagues would be willing and able to judge them and take them without the possibility of the slightest protest. Oh these humans, they would never know what they got till is lost forever. He had lost everything once, even his sanity, and he was sure he would not do it again. Not now that he saw things as they were. His obsession with death had long been replaced by his obsession with life. That was what had driven him away from what had made him a legend so long ago, and what drives him crazy every time a little more. It was the burning desire to know what life was afterlife itself. How to prolong it, recover lost moments, and why not, create new ones. How to find once again what was lost and how to restore it as an exquisite work of art. Ironically, to reach his goal, he needed death: he was tied to it, and just today, in these times, the business of death was dying. Hilarious. Something as simple as passing, now it was complicated. In the good old days, when he had decided to turn his back on everything he knew, he had become London's best-known mortician. With his small business in Camden Town, he had had access to the most extraordinary elites of English society, and yet also made important contacts with simple commoners. As an undertaker, he had connections, the most varied and they all turned to him. Of course, he was not moved by money, he had never cared, he simply demanded in return a good joke that would make him laugh. After all, even death was not to be taken too seriously. He ran his business diligently getting to know more people than he ever imagined, one more curious and entertaining than the other. As an informant for the queen's watchdogs, he had managed to get into the elite, and thus each subject of study reached him without significant problems. He was happy, Oh what wouldn't he give for listening to the Earl's little voice once more asking for information? That butler was an incredible specimen, and he would have loved to dissect him. Oh lord, if only the little boy wouldn't be so stubborn about his stupid vengeance. Today the Parlour was not enough. Undertaker knew that if he wanted to continue his investigations even nearly 200 years later and with many incredible technological improvements, he had to be able to access another source of income. Modern times meant diversifying. Today, everyone's favourite mortician was no longer called to make arrangements for the afterlife. No. Now there were hundreds of other undertakers who did the same as him. Therefore, a place in the hospital morgue had been secured for some time. Who better than him, after years and years of seeing corpses to perform an autopsy and making himself time to take a look at his hidden agenda secretly? So yes, Undertaker was happy. Even if he missed the old times sometimes, he still ran his Parlour in the afternoons and was a forensic doc in the mornings. Just like a superhero with a secret identity, thinking about it, too many identities. Undertaker was sitting on the counter at his place, his long booted legs swinging lazily. The newspaper rested next to him, he had just finished reading the news, and they were hopeless, people in London were dying in droves, more like hundreds a day and that sort of hurt. Of course, he had witnessed other pandemics and knew very well what the consequences were. Not only did people die from the disease itself, but the devastation left, and the collateral damages were incalculable. It was as if the Horseman of the Apocalypse from the bible really put his feet on the slaughtered Earth. Undertaker knew that by now his fellow shinigamis would be desperate from overwork and felt sorry for them. How much would the lists of people to die have increased in recent months? He also felt sorry for the doctors who work non-stop to save lives. Two sides of the same coin: medical services and shinigamis, both barely surpassed by an infamous virus invisible to everyone's eyes, even his own. He regretted his work in the hospital too, it had been interrupted in these months, and he no longer had access to people's bodies for security measures. Obviously, the virus did not affect him in the least, but he had to keep up appearances. He sighed bored as his black nails drummed on the surface of the counter, he had no pending work, and he only had to wait. Sighed and wait. No more laugh, no more research, no more hilarious strange glances from his fellow doctors, nothing. Just desolation in every corner. His day couldn't get any worse, he burnt his bone-shaped cookies and was running out of tea. He would have to go to the store soon. He hated the store, he much preferred Lau's herbs, even the funny ones, those who made people laugh and relax when used in the right amount, and if not, still, he was not one to judge. So picking up the keys, he was ready to go out when something or somebody took him by surprise. "Heh heh, but if it's none other than the red shinigami ~ Tell me, sweety, Dear William gave you some free time?" "Undertaker, always a pleasure ..." Grell began nervously. Being in front of the legend of the shinigamis made him nervous "I have a favour to ask you." "A favour? Hmm ... How long has it been since the last one?" The silver-haired man chuckled, removing his bangs from his eyes. "You know what to do ~ give it to me first. Come on, you know what I want." "Undertaker ..." Grell pleaded "Now is not the time, besides you know I don't know how to do it." "My my, your face is priceless; you are still a nervous wreck." The Undertaker smiled almost fondly at the younger reaper. "What do you want?" "I need you ..." Undertaker raised an interested eyebrow, putting the keys back where he had found them, the tea could wait. Not every day a Shinigami would show up at the doors of a deserter asking for help. "I mean... WE need you." "You mean the London Despatch?..." Disbelief in his words, Grell nodded "Now, that's the joke of the century Grell, come on, I don't have time, I'm running out of tea". Grell Sutcliff rolled his eyes. He hadn't changed in years, Undertaker was just the same and he kind of like it. If it weren't for his relationship with William, Oh, the things he could do to the revel grim reaper in front of him. "Really, Undertaker? Is that what you do now? Take tea like an old lady?" the red-head spoke loudly, pointing at Undertaker's hidden scythe. "Well ... I'm quite old after all" Undertaker smiled and Grell pouted. "Ok, Ok. Why don't you take a seat on one of my special coffins and explain yourself?" Grell blew out the breath he didn't know he was holding and accepted the invitation. It was his idea after all, and he couldn't bring a no for an answer to his beloved William.

The chilly winter covered the city with a heavy mist. The sky threatened to snow at any moment. It didn't take long to convince him. Once young Grell Sutcliff had finished telling him his crazy plan and talked about how much the Despatch needed the help, he was ready to go. Plus, the red riper dared to say that the snob William T. Spears would have more than a headache knowing that he, the renegade shinigami, would accomplish the task better and faster, and nothing made him happier than bother poor Will. He was ready to wear the shinigami outfit one more time. He had to admit that he had missed it and that there was nothing like fieldwork. He was prepared to prove that no one could ever match him. Within just a few hours, he had been able to carry out the work of four shinigamis together and was just getting started. He caressed his lifelong companion with devotion, he had never gotten rid of his lover, and today they were walking together once more. His scythe was fantastic, and he loved her. Standing on the terrace of the hospital, he checked the list one more time. There were only two names left before the end of the shift when something caught his attention. She wasn't on the list moments ago. Her name had appeared suddenly, and she should not be there: Gwenhwyfar O'Doherty. He knew her, he had seen her from time to time in the corridors of the hospital. The young Irish doctor, lovely green eyes, cute freckles, she was so full of life. Working diligently every day to save others and yet here she was about to take the somersault that would make her, at best, one of his own kind. She wasn't ready to go, the world needed her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, dear~ You are very much need it right now~." and his soft chuckle got lost in the winter night.

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Cobra Kai and the Legacy of The Karate Kid

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Since Netflix picked up Cobra Kai it’s been sweeping up viewership like Johnny on Daniel-san’s leg. When The Karate Kid debuted in 1984, it was a smash hit, delivering returns of $100 million on a modest budget of $8 million. It also earned Best Supporting Actor nominations for the late Pat Morita (Mr Miyagi) from both the Oscars and the Golden Globes. Miyagi was a crowning achievement for Morita whose career spanned 175 roles beginning in 1964.

The Karate Kid was embraced by pop culture, redefining the martial arts genre. It had a profound effect on the practice of martial arts in the United States. The Karate Kid stands alongside Enter the Dragon and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as a film that reshaped the way Americans viewed martial arts. Martial arts made an amazing leap, one of the largest in U.S. history, boosting the whole economy. Everyone who ran a Dojo during the mid-80s remembers what a windfall it was.

The Karate Kid spawned three sequels, a cartoon series, a reboot, as well as several homages outside of the franchise’s canon that starred original cast members. Just like Bill and Ted Face the Music and Star Trek: Picard, the new series updates a time-honored franchise as Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) grapple with the drag of growing old along with a coming of age soap opera of the next generation. Easter eggs sell it to its loyal fanbase with nods of nostalgia while new teen characters share the spotlight to lure fresh viewership. The original cast keeps it genuine, abetted with cameos from other peripheral characters. Daniel and Johnny were career defining roles for Macchio and Zabka, something they’ve long embraced with many non-canon cameos since their last official appearance in these roles in 1989.

The Mr. Miyagi Tetralogy

The success of The Karate Kid guaranteed a sequel, so the bulk of the cast reassembled for The Karate Kid Part II two years later. It picks up immediately following the first film, in the parking lot immediately after the All-Valley Karate Tournament where Kreese (Martin Kove) punishes Johnny for losing, causing Johnny and his squad to leave Cobra Kai. However, Daniel and Johnny’s love interest, Ali (Elizabeth Shue), did not return. Ali is written out with a dismissive comment by Daniel about how she dumped him for a football player. Fans are clamoring for Shue to appear in Cobra Kai and the show references Ali repeatedly. Towards the end of Season 1, Daniel shows Johnny Ali’s Facebook revealing that she’s married and a doctor. The Karate Kid Part II, quickly narrows down to Daniel and Miyagi as they journey to Okinawa, where Daniel finds a new love interest in Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita).

The Karate Kid Part II did better than the original, earning $115 million worldwide. While it didn’t garner any major award nominations, it was well received. Since it was set in Japan, it hasn’t been referenced much in Cobra Kai beyond when Johnny’s son Robby (Tanner Buchanan) discovers Daniel’s den-den daiko (rotating hand drum). As an interesting side note, the sequel subtly revealed Mr. Miyagi’s given name in Japanese. When Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) picks Miyagi up, his name is written in Japanese as Nariyoshi Miyagi, which is only one character different than Morita’s actual Japanese given name, Noriyuki (Nari and Nori are alternate spellings of the same character, which means ‘completed’).

The Karate Kid Part III also picks up where Part II left off, but it drops the ball. It delivered a disappointing $38 million box office and was the final pairing of Daniel and Miyagi. Nevertheless, it is referenced by Cobra Kai almost as much as the first film. Daniel and Miyagi return from Okinawa to find the LaRusso’s residence at South Seas complex being dismantled. The implication is that it is to be demolished, and yet it appears in “Different but the Same”, the 9th episode of Cobra Kai (why the new owners kept that painfully 80s South Seas logo is incomprehensible, but it made for a good Easter egg). Daniel’s mom, Lucille (Randee Heller) appears in Part III, who has cameos in both seasons of Cobra Kai, but she is quickly written out, sent away to take care of Daniel’s Uncle Louie (Joseph V. Perry). It’s a short scene to set up Daniel living with Miyagi, but Cobra Kai picks up on it with Louie LaRusso Jr. (Bret Ernst), a pivotal character in Season 1.

Kreese is supplanted by his fellow Vietnam veteran, Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) and Karate’s Bad Boy Mike Barnes (Sean Kanen). Both Silver and Kanan had authentic martial arts backgrounds so this installment had the best fight choreography. Ironically, The Karate Kid has had mediocre choreography throughout the series. After the initial film, Zabka continued to train under Pat Johnson, a genuine master of the Korean martial art of Tang Soo Do. Johnson was the choreographer and played the referee for the first three films. Fans complain that in Cobra Kai, Macchio still lacks convincing martial skills (he’s had 36 years to train). However, the Season 2 finale fight in Cobra Kai redeems the franchise with a brilliantly choreographed long take scene in the center of a massive brawl.

Part III flops on several levels. The over-the-top villainy of Silver was too caricatured, complete with the hackneyed ‘bwahahaha’. Furthermore, without Shue or Tomita, there’s no romance. Robin Lively played the new girl, Jessica Andrews, but she was only 16 at the time, and while Macchio’s babyface still allowed him to play a convincing teen, he was 27 so romance with a minor wasn’t an option. Nevertheless, Cobra Kai references Miyagi and Daniel’s Bonsai tree business from Part III with a chiding comment from Daniel’s wife Amanda (Courtney Henggeler) and the special Miyagi-do Kata that Daniel learns in the threequel is the one recited repeatedly throughout the series.

The Next Karate Kid abandoned Daniel altogether to follow Miyagi’s new pupil, Julie Pierce (Hilary Swank). Despite being a total flop critically and financially, it’s Swank’s breakout role, and her budding talent shines, although not enough to redeem the film. What’s more, Miyagi’s given name is inexplicably changed to Keisuke. The new production crew apparently could not read Japanese.

The Saturday Morning Cartoon

Before Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, kids had to wait until Saturday morning to see cartoons. The Karate Kid was a 1989 Saturday morning cartoon series on NBC. It only ran for one season – thirteen 20+ minute long episodes – with none of the original actors voicing their characters. Daniel (Joey Dedio) and Miyagi (Robert Ho) were joined by a new character, kimono-wearing Taki Tamurai (Janice Kawaye), in a series-long quest to recover a small pagoda with magical powers. Their search took them around the world – London, Paris, Hong Kong, San Francisco, New York and more – a different location for each episode. The plots were all the same: the threesome almost recovers the pagoda, only to have it slip out of their hands again until next week’s installment. Again inexplicably, Mr. Miyagi’s given name was changed to Yakuga. In Cobra Kai, it is restored to Nariyoshi on his gravestone, meaning someone finally read the Japanese in Part II.

The Karate Kid animated series was available on several streaming networks like Netflix, Hulu and iTunes, but all those services have abandoned it. It’s a weak show. The cheap cell animation is poor quality and horribly dated. Episodes can still be found on the web, but it’s not worth the search. It’s clearly outside of canon because there’s no magic in any of the live-action movies unless you count Mr. Miyagi’s magic healing hands, parodied in the first season finale of Cobra Kai.

That Other Karate Kid

In 2010, a The Karate Kid remake starring Jaden Smith as Dre, the new Daniel, and Jackie Chan as Mr. Han, the new Mr. Miyagi. The project was met with intense internet backlash from the start. Even Macchio jumped on the critic bandwagon at first. In an MTV interview, as reported by Digital Spy, Macchio said “It feels pretty good that some people are pretty angry that they’re trying to remake The Karate Kid. It feels good that the public feels you don’t touch certain things. Sometimes you go back to that, and probably shouldn’t.” It’s ironic in the wake of Cobra Kai, but he changed his tune soon after Will Smith called him personally to ask him to advise Jaden. “He called and said, ‘Would you mind getting on the phone with my son?’ I felt like Yoda to young Skywalker.” Macchio confessed that his initial negative reaction was said too “candidly” and endorsed the project. As the film’s premiere approached, more reporters reached out to Macchio to get his take. The Sun asked him if he might make a cameo to which Macchio replied (again ironically), “I have less of a desire to be in it or do a cameo because no one wants to see Daniel LaRusso in his forties. It would be like robbing the Karate Kid fans of their youth for me to be in it so I think it’s best to keep it separate.” Given the success of Cobra Kai, fans clearly want to see Daniel-san pushing sixty.

Another major issue was that all Asians are not alike. Karate is a Japanese martial art. Jackie Chan is Chinese and propounds Kung Fu. In Hollywood, the whole point of a reboot is to capitalize on the brand name, but naysayers complained that Karate was the wrong title for the reboot. Jackie wouldn’t be a sensei. He’d be a sifu. The title became so contentious that even the Wall Street Journal chimed in.

Hollywood made a quick save for the title. When Dre’s mother Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) asks Dre about his ‘Karate,’ he replies, “It’s not Karate, mom.” The scene was strategically included in a Cinemark ‘First Look.’ And the title was changed for the Chinese market to Gongfu Meng (Kung Fu Dream). The Karate Kid was never released in theatrically China just like some 80+ Jackie Chan films were never released theatrically in the west so the brand name had no value. The Chinese version also added a finale fight where Han fights Li (Yu Rongguang), this version’s Kreese.

Jaden’s The Karate Kid is a complete reimagining of the story, like the Kelvin timeline in Star Trek or the Flashpoint timeline in DC comics. With a budget of $40 million, it earned $359 million worldwide making it the most financially successful installment yet. Naturally, talk of a sequel has been discussed, however last year, Jackie Chan said that any statements claiming that he would participate The Karate Kid 2 or Rush Hour 4 were “false”.

Beyond the Karate Kid Canon

Over the years, Macchio, Zabka and Kove have appeared in homages and parodies of the franchise. In 2003, Macchio and Zabka played themselves on How I Met Your Mother. The episode ‘The Bro Mitzvah’ was about Barney’s (Neil Patrick Harris) bachelor party where he wanted to have the hero of The Karate Kid attend, so his friends arrange for Macchio to join the festivities. However, in Barney’s perspective, Johnny is the real hero. This ‘Barney wax on’ viewpoint is held by many fans, akin to the ‘Jar Jar Binks is a Sith Lord’ theory of Star Wars. In the Cobra Kai episode ‘Molting’ Johnny explains his take on the events in The Karate Kid. Technically speaking, Daniel’s winning crane kick should’ve disqualified him because strikes to the face are illegal. Daniel steals Ali and provokes Johnny, drenching him in the bathroom while he’s trying to roll a joint.

For something completely different, an unauthorized musical spoof of The Karate Kid played at the off-Broadway Teatro la Tea in 2004. It’s Karate, Kid! The Musical featured Daniel-san, Johnny, Mr. Miyagi and Ali but Cobra Kai was replaced with the Bitchkicks. The show featured songs like “Damn You, Daniel-san”, “Wax On! Wax Off!”, and “The Way of Fisting”.

In 2007, Macchio and Zabka reprised their iconic roles for the music video ‘Sweep the Leg’ by No More Kings. In the video, Zabka is a has-been living in a trailer watching The Karate Kid every day with his Cobra Kai buddies. Spliced with clips from the film, all the original Cobra Kai squad appears, Kreese, Jimmy (Tony O’Dell), Bobby (Ron Thomas) and Tommy (Rob Garrison). Even the South Seas condos are shown. Zabka wrote and directed the video.

In another 2010 parody, Macchio plays himself in Funny or Die’s ‘Wax On, F*ck Off with Ralph Macchio’. Haunted by being typecast as squeaky-clean Daniel, Macchio struggles to sully his image to get more work in Hollywood. When Macchio tries to pick up a prostitute, she tells him to come back when he’s 18, to which he retorts ‘I’m 48!’ Molly Ringwald appears claiming that Macchio wanted to change the name of the Brat Pack to the Smile Bunch. There’s a reference to Jaden’s reboot too.

Kove dove into replaying Kreese in 2011 with Comedy Central’s Tosh.0. In a segment called Web Redemption, host Daniel Tosh mocks a viral video by Josh Plotkin where he tries to break a board over his head. Kove and Ron Thomas appear in Cobra Kai gis in a breaking competition with a scoreboard that echoes the All-Valley Karate Tournament. And just last year, Kove donned Cobra Kai colors again for a QuickBooks ad in which he blames his aggressive teaching style on stress caused by not being able to manage his school’s finances. He drops comments like “Support the leg” and “More mercy” and goes so far to change the name of Cobra Kai to Koala Kai.

Cobra Kai is exactly where it needs to be on Netflix. The series is beautifully written and performed, coupling drama and comedy with bumps of action, all within bite-sized 20+ minute episodes. As its fan base continues to expand, so does anticipation for Season 3. And please, bring back Ali. Can’t Shue can take a break from The Boys? The final scene of Season 2 is such a tease, and after all that Johnny has been through in this series, he deserves a little mercy.

Season 1 and 2 of Cobra Kai are now available on Netflix. Season 3 premieres on Netflix in 2021.

The post Cobra Kai and the Legacy of The Karate Kid appeared first on Den of Geek.

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anthelid-day · 5 years ago

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A holiday and birthday I’ll never forget.

We went to the coast to visit family despite warnings that we should reconsider our travel plans. There was a free highway with no fires in the area and, as it was Christmas and our families were on the coast, we found our way down the alternative and long route, meeting friends in Cooma along the way. The usual route was closed due to bushfires.

Christmas was a success and we were all having a great time! There was some smoke from the bushfires up north so we stayed inside but anticipated clearer weather to take the kids swimming for new year.

The night before New Year’s Eve, we noticed an orange glow in the sky and smoke. The RFS app showed a fire had started at Badja outside of Numeralla. It looked so far away at the time. We went to bed with the thought of swimming the next day. My birthday was on New Years Day. After we’d go for a swim we’d bake the cake and prepare the food and board games and get ready to do the tradition we do every year. We were to go outside, watch the new year end and the new year begin, start my birthday cheers and a dark male is to walk through the house before we re-enter. So when we went to bed, we imagined that that was going to be our New Years Eve.

The fire looked so far away.

I woke up at about 5am or 5:30am and looked at my phone. The RSF app told everyone in Cobargo and Coolagolite to evacuate towards Bermagui. We had my mums partner in Coolagolite and so I immediately called them to wake them and told them to get out of there. They raced right over to ours. I went to wake my mum to let her know what was happening. Just then a knock was heard on the door. I go outside to find a woman with a hose, she’s frantically waking everyone. “Cobargo is on fire right now. People are coming here. We might have to run next. We just need to wake everyone up.” I looked up to the sky and there was nothing but darkness with a deep, red glow. Burnt leaves and ash fell from its darkness. I open my RFS app to look and the fire had actually grown so much in a few short hours, it was practically at our doorstep.

A new notification comes in at that moment instructing Bermagui to evacuate to the beach. The Surf Life Saving Club was the evacuation centre so we decide to make our way there. We pack up the car and wake the kids. We tell our oldest that we are off to watch a sunrise and that worked well because skies are also shades of red and orange during a sunrise. We didn’t want to freak her out yet. Our son is a baby so his only concern was his bottle. We’d eventually have to tell our daughter the truth when the daylight doesn’t come after the sunrise but for now we had to get them out as calmly as possible.

The streets were lined with cars and people. Emergency vehicles passed by us occasionally. “Look at all the people here to view the last sunrise of the year!” I said. “Why are there nee-naws, mummy?” “Well even emergency services enjoy a sunrise!” I countered. She seemed happy with that answer.

We’d also come to the coast with our guinea pigs as we had no one to babysit them in Canberra at the time. So we were carrying a baby, our bags with the things we needed, a tired toddler, the toys she wanted to bring to view the sunrise with, blankets to keep warm (we had learned that it can actually get very cold when the smoke is so thick it blocks out the sun and it’s warmth like it’s midnight), food for the kids and a giant carry-cage with three guinea pigs. We checked ourselves in with the volunteers and then collapsed on some grass outside, still maintaining that we were “watching the sunrise”. When I told her the truth later, she calmly asked her questions and then went off to play with her new Barbie Ambulance. She dreams of being a doctor one day and the thing folds out into a doctors office. It’s a real hit.

Sitting on the lawn and trying to feed a baby who was suddenly aware that he was in a loud space, he cried while my daughter tried to calm him and my husband and I silently fretted, wondering if other family members were safe. My husbands grandparents live near Batemans Bay and the fires were escalating there. My mother sat in the grass with her partner at another location convinced things would be fine while I’d occasionally yelled at her via text to get up to the SLSC to check in. I just wanted to be sure that everyone could be accounted for. She’d tell me not to worry and we’d see each other later. It had begun to rain lots of ash and leaves so we took the kids, the guinea pigs and all of our stuff inside.

Finding and collapsing on a miraculously free couch inside the centre, my husband settles the kids while I go out to get some space. Crowds in these situations make me feel like I’m in a small space and I had to step out periodically to calm down. On one of my excursions out I took a video of the evacuation that’s blowing up on my TikTok and some photos that ended up being in a news article later that morning. People on TikTok who had family in the area wanted to know the situation and I’d spend the rest of the day informing them of what was going on. There’s something about being on the scene and letting people know the situation that makes me feel like I should have possibly been a reporter. So begins a moment of existential crisis before I notice I’ve got ash and burnt leaves in my hair and I head back in.

We remained at the centre until mid afternoon when we were told that those with residences and accommodation within the town were cleared to go home. We were relieved! So on New Years Eve, mid afternoon, we went home, settled the baby down for a nap and started planning the next day. The baking we could do while we wait this thing out. I plugged my phone in to charge and the power went out moments later. Baking was suddenly off the table.

The fires had knocked out the electricity. But we still had reception. I sat in the car to charge my phone there and was responding to comments to let people know the situation. The sky turned this incredibly dark red and then went black. It was about 5:15pm and we lost reception. That meant no internet as well. I go back into the house. “We have no power and no communications. We have no way to let those worrying about us in the outside world know that we are okay and we can’t check on those who we are worried about in Batemans Bay.” I said. The word at the time was that they may not be able to restore power until the weekend but they actually couldn’t for an entire week.

On top of that, the petrol stations were all closed and our tank didn’t have enough to get to a town an hour away that had no guarantee of petrol. The radio repeatedly told people to leave despite no guarantee of petrol and that wasn’t realistic for us. We were to stay put until the petrol stations open and do our best.

We sat in darkness with some torches, playing scrabble, watching the world outside get darker. The quiet was very unusual. There were no birds singing, no crickets or frogs and the town was closed off. No one could travel so there were no cars. There was nothing. Just silence with an apocalyptic view. When the smoke accumulated enough to create its own thunder storm, it felt like we were dropped right in the radioactive badlands of Fallout 4 with a more reddish hue. The blue skies and turquoise waters we paddleboarded on were a distant memory all of a sudden. It was freezing. Of course, I only packed summer clothes.

New Years Day arrived and my family was trying to celebrate my birthday the best we could but with such wide windows built for a view, the apocalyptic view outside and the reminder that a fire was by our doorstep drowned any feeling of joy. We were scared. I kept thinking about a week earlier, looking at the map and seeing nothing of concern and racing down to see our families. How could we stay away from our families for Christmas? But here we were a week later. There was a road briefly open to Tathra and it was nose-to-nose for hours. Cars slowly lined the main road as frightened tourists and residents fled with their things. Destination - Bega, Cooma, Canberra. And we stayed and watched with our nearly empty tank. “You wouldn’t want to be in that with a baby.” Mum said. She was right.

Our baby is bottle fed and so we’d make the trips up to the SLSC to get boiled water to make bottles with and for some coffee. I found a spot of reception and quickly let my friends know we were okay via Facebook before it dropped out again. They had been worried. Without communication, no one knew the full extent of the situation. Night time was hard because the baby wakes and the bottles had to be heated with whatever hot water was left in the hot water system and it barely warmed a bottle. We couldn’t shower or only jumped in for 30 seconds so we could save the hot water.

Without power we couldn’t cook and our fridge wasn’t going to refrigerate anything. We kept cool some milk the best we could and stocked up on canned goods. We ate baby corn and sardines, fruit and anything else we could get from the supermarket. The supermarket remained open with shelves that were emptying fast. It reminded me of abandoned supermarkets in Fallout. A lot of Fallout happening, I thought to myself. The staff worked while not knowing if their houses were still there. In a neighbouring town they had to close the supermarket as people began walking off with trolleys full of stuff and looting upon hearing that there was a problem with transaction processes. “People have got to eat” a friend later would say. People were trapped and scared with limited food to give their families. Things were bound to take a turn. Some days later the supermarket in Bermagui would be closed due to being understaffed as people fled or staff defending their homes. Thankfully the SLSC has donated food to give out.

The day after New Year we were all on edge. The smoke stayed thick, the kids were scared, the toddler hated being stuck inside and the baby was scared from the smell of smoke. Our throats and eyes hurt. Coffee was limited. My husband and I went to get some hot water when a neighbour said there’s a line at a petrol station. As we went past we saw the tanker. Oh my gosh there’s a tanker!! We got some hot water, I passed a bird in a cage, dropped the hot water off at home and raced to the line.

We were around the 100th car in line. My husband waited in the car while I went up to grab us coffee while we waited. I passed by the bird again. It had a note that it belonged to a Cobargo resident and the person who had dropped it off couldn’t find the owner and couldn’t fit it in her car so begged that someone feed it and give it water at the centre. It sat there with it’s cover and a box of its food, tweeting at anyone who passed it. I took the coffee back to the car and raced up to the centre a final time. I was going to evacuate with that bird. The volunteers didn’t really know how to look after it and, with everything going on, couldn’t have the time to give it what it needed.

A news station had found its way into Bermagui to show the line to the petrol station in their segment and had reported that the petrol was free. People began getting news that they had free petrol as those who overheard the report started to tell the line of cars. It wasn’t free though, and you had to pay in cash. Thankfully we did have cash on us, a rare thing for us. We wondered about those who had none, what they’d do if they were told they had free fuel only to find that they had to pay - and had no cash on them. I later corrected the news channel on my Twitter, disgusted at the irresponsible reporting.

It took 3 hours to get fuel while we waited for the generator to work at the station, then raced home to grab the kids, who mum was watching. There was a window of opportunity to escape and we were taking it. Mum took the opportunity too. She grabbed petrol before the pumps ran out and then fled to my brothers place in Bega. She’d stay there several days until she was allowed to go home.

Our drive home was slow. There were jams at several points and the smoke was so thick we had to close the aircon entirely. We watched as small fires still burnt so actively under trees and people cried outside the smouldering rubble that used to be their home. Animals sat in paddocks with burnt legs and we knew they’d likely be shot later. A lone alpaca sat on blackened paddocks and I hoped it wasn’t burnt, it’s fluffy face looking on to the distance as if it already knew its fate. Our baby cried for his bottle but they went cold in the traffic jams. There was nowhere to heat it until we met up with our friends in Cooma, the ones we met on the way down a week earlier. We fell through their doors looking worse for wear as they made us coffee and gifted us shortbread. We fed the kids and stretched our legs. We got home after 9 hours. My husbands family didn’t want us to worry and filled our shelves and cupboards with food and turned the aircon on to give the house clean air. We sat on our bed in an unchaotic house and wondered if we really did just go through all of that.

Mum was able to go home this past Wednesday and they switched the power back on. Mum was glad the place wasn’t looted as there were looters in the area. The fires brought out the best and the worst in people. While we were raising money and donating, others looted the cars of those who had already lost everything. When in Bega my mum, at one point, hid under a bridge with my brother for hours while it rained live embers. An old colleague of my brothers took them in until they could go back to my brothers place.

When we got back home to Canberra, I started the search for the birds owner and found her after a big community effort. She had gone to Melbourne for Christmas to see her daughter and her neighbour looked after the bird. The owner had lost everything. Her house and all her belongings and important documents. It would take a while to get back on her feet and so I’m watching her bird for her while she does so. I felt so sad to hear that she lost everything. What we went through was so small in comparison. We had a home to run away to and my mum got to go home to her house. But this bird and his owner have lost everything but each other and their dog. The bird gets along with our guinea pigs. They all chirp together while sitting inside waiting for the smoke in Canberra to die down. It’s really very cute.

It’s been very emotional. I have been crying at odd moments. We’ve seen a lot. This past week my husband and I have been struggling with how everything was supposed to be normal again. He’d go to work and I’d look after the kids and do my hobbies except it’s smokey outside and we have P2 masks on whenever we went out and the house is taped up to keep smoke out.

We are still processing a lot but I think typing it here helps in that process. Thank you if you read all of this. I will be resuming the bug photography soon. There’s no real conclusion yet and that’s because the fires rage on. There won’t be a real conclusion for a while yet. I guarantee it’ll remain devastating. We’ve lost lives and wildlife. We’ve lost treasured places and homes. Pets die from respiratory distress from being left outside. Stock are being put down from being injured in the fires. So we all cry from time to time while trying to do our best daily.

Much love,

Anthelid-Day

#nsw bushfires #bermagui #cobargo #evacuation #australia #australian bushfires #nsw #south coast #fires

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bard-llama · 4 years ago

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That Wild Blue Yonder Ch 3

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First Chapter | Previous Chapter

When Jaskier woke, it was dark outside and he felt groggy in that weird way where he wasn’t really tired anymore, but he also didn’t feel awake. He yawned expansively and rolled himself out of bed. After a shower and some breakfast, he felt a lot more alive, but he was also kind of convinced he’d had a really intense dream.

This wasn’t Narnia. Wardrobes didn’t just lead to magical worlds.

But it wouldn’t hurt to check, right?

Jaskier hummed to himself as he leisurely walked down the corridors of the somehow-still-hot castle. Wasn’t stone supposed to insulate? Why was it still so muggy and hot inside?

Well, Jaskier told himself, if it was real and there was a magic world through the closet, then he could go somewhere nice and cool. He skipped around the corner and stopped abruptly in front of the stairs he’d fallen down before. He preferred not to repeat that bit of the dream/potential cool new reality. His shoulders ached with the memory of busting through the wooden wardrobe door.

Which was why the sight in front of him was so disappointing. The wardrobe was there, but the door looked good as – well, not new, because the whole thing looked really, really old, but it wasn’t broken. If it was real, the door should have been broken.

Mood suddenly sullen, Jaskier pulled the door open with more force than necessary. He took a deep breath and then pushed the hangers aside.

It was real. He felt like he might cry at the sight of the stone castle on the other side of the passageway. Mood immediately restore, Jaskier wiggled through the passageway and rolled into a cartwheel when he emerged on the other side.

“Madeline~” he called. “It’s Jaskier! From last night! I’m so glad it wasn’t a dream!”

There was a high pitch squeak from the next room and Madeline’s voice called out, “hold on.” After a few moments, she emerged, looking surprisingly put together considering she was followed out by a woman with long hair who was wearing clothing that was much drabber than Madeline’s.

She curtsied to him, and walked quickly past him until she disappeared from view. Jaskier turned to Madeline with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “So who was that?”

Madeline rolled her eyes and waved him into her room. “That was Genevieve, and dammit, before you interrupted, I was soooo close to her saying yes.” She dropped onto her bed and sighed dramatically. “She responds so well to my flirting, but I don’t know if she’s just that shy or if I’m seeing things.”

“Well, how long have you been flirting?” Jaskier wandered over to her actual wardrobe – why did she have another in a separate room, anyway? – and started looking through her clothes, holding a few dresses up to himself consideringly.

“Three years.”

“Wow.” Jaskier blinked and turned to her, a long sleeveless off-white dress in hand. The fabric of it was soft and he couldn’t stop running his fingers over it. “You’re sure she knows you’re flirting?”

Madeline shot him a long suffering look. “I gave up being subtle after the first year.” She shook her head. “Why is dating so hard?”

“Amen to that.”

Her brow crinkled. “A-what?”

“It’s – eh, nevermind. Just a way to say, ‘I feel ya’.” Jaskier held up the dress. “This is so soft. Can I try it on?”

Madeline blinked in surprise, but shrugged. “Go for it. Do they not have satin in your world?”

Jaskier shrugged. “They totally do, I’ve just never worn it, I guess. But I’m definitely gonna start!”

He shucked his t-shirt and skinny jeans and pulled the dress on over his head. Madeline laughed when he got stuck, but she got up and helped him until he could stand in front of the ornate floor length mirror. Jaskier grinned at himself – he was still very clearly masculine, with his chest hair on display from the bias cut neckline, but the hem of the dress fell just above his ankles and there was a long train attached to the dress. He picked up the train and spun in place.

“What do you think?”

Madeline grinned. “Better with make-up, I think.” She laughed at the way his eyes lit up and dragged him over to her vanity. The makeup she had looked completely different from what Jaskier was used to, but Madeline handled the brush expertly as she drew it through the paint and applied it to his eyes and lips. “There. Perfect!”

Jaskier fluttered his eyes at himself in the mirror. He looked downright ravishing, if he did say so himself.

“Oh! I forgot to tell you! Time passes differently in my world! Even though we hung out all afternoon yesterday, only a few hours had passed in my world! Isn’t that crazy?”

“Seriously? So what does that mean? For you, I mean.” Madeline asked.

“Well, I was thinking. What if I went out and really explored your world? Like, if a whole day is only a few hours, then I have tons of time!”

“Hmm,” Madeline tilted her head in thought. “You don’t exactly fit in, though.”

“I mean, I could just be really eccentric?”

“You’re not old enough for that.” She tapped her lip in thought. “Artists are always peculiar. Most actors travel with a troupe, but you play music, right? You could be a bard!”

“Ooooooh!” Jaskier leaned forward in excitement. “That sounds awesome. I just get to go around singing all day? That’s the dream! But, uh...I don’t really write my own music. I mean, I write lyrics, but like...parodies, you know?”

Madeline shrugged. “It’s not as if we’ll know your music, will we? Just maybe try to avoid mentions of your technology. Speaking of which…” She turned an expectant look on him and he made her wait for a bit before grinning and reaching for his discarded pants.

“Okay,” he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “If this works, you’re watching my videos first.”

“Deal. Show me how it works!”

“Okay – shit. There’s no signal. I didn’t even think about internet.”

“What’s internet?”

“It’s like – these satellites are in orbit and – somehow that means I can watch youtube videos?” He shook his head with a wry laugh. “I honestly don’t how it works, I just know what it is.” He pursed his lips in thought. “If it’s just internet, I wonder if my laptop will work with an ethernet cord?”

“I have no idea what that is, but yes. Worth a shot, right?”

He returned Madeline’s grin and got up. “Okay – wait, shit, the whole reason I didn’t have my phone yesterday is because there’s no damn wifi here. But, maybe if we’re close enough to my MiFi, it’ll work?”

Madeline gave him a blank look. “I’m not so sure we speak the same language anymore.”

He laughed. “No, hold on, c’mere. We gotta get close to the wardrobe. The MiFi has to be in my world, but if it’s close enough, maybe my phone in this world can use it!”

He bounced with excitement and tugged on her hand to get her to follow him. It took longer than he thought to get a signal – Madeline got bored and started painting her toes on the floor – but finally, he pulled up his youtube channel.

“Okay, let’s start with Ye Olde Toxic.” Jaskier clicked on his most-liked video and mouthed along to the song.

Madeline’s face morphed from confused and kind of horrified to absolutely enamored as the video went on. “You absolutely have to perform this stuff here. I need everyone to experience this.”

Jaskier laughed brightly. “You’re right – everyone should experience me.”

She punched his shoulder with a chuckle. “Show me more.”

They spent the morning crowded in front of Madeline’s wardrobe, holding his cellphone high to try to get the best signal possible until they got tired of sitting on the floor.

“Can we go into town?” Jaskier asked, eager to truly see this magical world. And also to see a monster. He really, really wanted to see a monster.

Who wouldn’t?

“Not dressed like that, unfortunately.” Madeline frowned. “But I think I might have something that will work for your bard persona.”

“Yessss! Can it also be soft like this?” He swirled around in the dress one last time and almost tripped over the trail. “And maybe not as long.”

“No no, I got it. I have the perfect look for you.” Madeline’s smirk was not at all reassuring, but Jaskier figured she knew her world best.

He was less sure when he actually saw the outfit. It looked nothing like either Madeline or that girl Genevieve’s clothes. He wiggled, testing how he felt. The pants were loose, tapering in towards his ankles, and Madeline had dug out boots that fit him from somewhere. He was wearing an embroidered silk shirt and a blue jacket with red design details. “I like it!” He declared, turning to check out his ass in the mirror. Jaskier unfastened the first several buttons of the jacket and made sure some of his chest hair peeked out. He’d been told it was one of his best features – after his face, his voice, and his hands, of course – and he enjoyed showing it off.

“Actually, you should wear the doublet closed. Otherwise you’re showing off your underwear.” Madeline ruined his fun by pointing out.

“So?”

She raised her eyebrows with a laugh. “All right then. Let’s go!” She nearly ran to her bedroom door, but then she stopped and held up a finger. “Uh, I perhaps should have mentioned. I’m a Countess. This is my castle.”

“Oh. Okay, so you’re important?”

“Not really,” she scoffed. “I basically have all the responsibilities of holding a title and running and estate, and the only benefit is getting invited to all the good parties. Which, okay, is a pretty good bonus.”

“Ooooh, you should bring me to the next party!”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Let’s see how you do around people, first.” She turned the door handle. “Anyway, um, my household staff definitely know about you. Not sure where they think you came from–”

“Through the window, naturally,” Jaskier waved towards the window which had no convenient trellis or other architectural ladder up the wall.

“Sure. Anyway, I think I should be your patron.”

“What?”

“All artists – well, all good artists – have patrons! It’s how the arts are funded! Nobles with money to spare invest in an artist, and in exchange, we get something – commissioned art, a private performance, you get the idea. What do you think?”

“I mean, sure, I guess? What would I have to do?”

“Just perform.” She smiled. “Since I know the truth about you, this is a good excuse for you to be around my estate. And it means you’ll be able to eat while you’re here.”

“Oh. Yes, I would like that.” His stomach grumbled. “Maybe soon on that food?”

Madeline nodded. “Let’s go into town and eat that the tavern. That way you can be around people and watch them while you eat.”

“Sounds good to me!”

Epilogue

#my fics #that wild blue yonder #one more chap #then more short stories lol #I just needed the set up done #then we get to dive into canon 'verse stuff #jaskier #the witcher #fic #writing

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dailyaudiobible · 4 years ago

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06/22/2020 DAB Transcript

2 Kings 3:1-4:17, Acts 14:8-28, Psalms 140:1-13, Proverbs 17:22

Today is the 22nd the day of June welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it's great to be here with you today as we move into our time together around the Global Campfire and around the Scriptures. We’re in the book of second Kings. We haven’t been there long but we’re moving into the book of second Kings. And we spent a good…good-ish amount of time in the northern kingdom of Israel and their kings as well as the prophet…prophets Elijah and Elisha and we’ll continue with that. We’ll continue in the north and we’ll continue with the prophetic voice of Elisha today. Second Kings chapter 3 verse 1 through 4 verse 17.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we are on mission with the apostle Paul at this point in the book of Acts and they move through a city called Lystra and they preach and there is a healing. People witness this. They start freaking out and they decide that Paul and his companion Barnabas at this point, that they are gods that have come down in human form and they need to be worshiped. And, so, they're doing everything that they can, and they decide that Barnabas is actually Zeus and Paul is Hermes. And, so, there…there happens to be a temple to Zeus. So, they’re like going to the priest and…and saying “hey. Zeus is in town. Like he’s showed up in town in human form.” And, so, they’re bringing bulls out. They’re gonna do these sacrifices to the…to Paul and Barnabas. And, of course, Paul and Barnabas are like trying to stop everybody and are like, “hang on a second. We’re just humans like you. We’ve come here to tell you about the living God.” And, so, they begin to share the gospel, but the people still are convinced that they’re Zeus and Hermes. And, so, there like still trying to do the sacrifices until…until some Jewish people from nearby cities come in and they know who Paul is. And. so, they start to turn the crowd. And the next thing we know, Paul is stoned and left for dead. That…that’s the story of the early church. Like these are the stories of the early church. This is how things came to be. And, so, Paul went from being a God to being stoned to death and left for dead, as it appears, on the same day, which shows you a bit of the mob mentality at work, like how quickly people can be pulled together in one direction, even with a complete false word, a false story or declaration. People come around the stores. And, so, that's what happened. At first, they are absolutely convinced that the gods are among them, until the seeds of this story from the Jewish people spread through the crowd which turns the crowd murderous. That's not a new concept. Obviously, it’s an old concept because we’re reading it out of the Bible. So, we’re reading a story that’s a couple thousand years old. But this kind of behavior has always been going on. And it's interesting. On the one level it's interesting how compelling a narrative can be, like how concrete some sort of narrative can be when it pulls people together and ushers them to move in the same direction for a period of time. That can be for great good and for great evil. Often, it's for great evil, especially when there’s a mob involved like this. And we’ve seen these kinds of things in our lifetimes, but that…it's not new. Like this has always been happening. We have to admit that this is not unlike the mob mentality that ultimately condemned Jesus to the cross. So, we can see some pretty significantly negative things can happen when people are swept together without the whole story. And we have to look into our own lives at the way that we get swept into things the same way. And at times we get swept into things against our brothers and sisters in the Lord and people's lives get damaged or destroyed in the process.

This is essentially the words coming out of the Psalms today. So, going back even further, way further than the book of Acts. “Those who surround me proudly rear their heads. May the mischief of their lips engulf them. May burning coals fall on the. May they be thrown into the fire into miry pits never to rise. May slanderers not be established in the land. May disaster hunt down the violent. I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. Surely the righteous will praise your name and the upright live in your presence.” It’s like this kind of thing has always been going on, causing at minimum mischief and maximum total destruction to the lives of people in their path. It’s part of the Old Testament story. It’s part of the New Testament story. It’s part of the early church story. It’s still part of the church story. And we have to watch ourselves because it's really, really easy to get swept up into worshiping God for what He's doing through someone and then trying to destroy that someone because it turns out they’re a human being after all and not God. So there are times that we just…we need to keep our eyes on our own lives and the path that we are walking, and not get swept into someone else's story that's getting stirred up. Sometimes we need to ask ourselves, “yeah, that might be tasty to get into, but is that my battle? Is that even something I have anything to do with whatsoever? Am I getting involved to be seen here? Like, what's going on? Am I being invited to be an agent of the good to be Jesus in this situation or is it that I simply want my opinion expressed? What good can come from my involvement? These are good questions for the times that we are in and the times that we are going into. And as we navigate, may we remember the proverb today; “a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Let's not be agents dispensing crushing blows to people's lives. Instead, let's hear the first part of the proverb; “a cheerful heart is good medicine.” So, we can take that on board in our own lives and say, “okay. Whatever it takes I've got to find a way to maintain a cheerful heart. That’s medicine for me. But I also need to spread, like in every way that I can I need to promote a cheerful heart so that we all might experience this good medicine instead of being swept up into things that will only crush people and eventually crush us.

Prayer:

Father, we come into that and consider that. And it brings up all kinds of different scenarios and situations that we've experienced in our lives, times that we’ve hurt people, times that we've been crushed, times that even with our own brothers and sisters we’ve been at odds and swept into things we had no business being involved in and people got hurt. And this was…this was never Your way for us. So, Holy Spirit come and show us what it looks like to maintain a cheerful heart and made it become good medicine in our souls. And as we are transformed may that spill out into the world so that we aren’t being swept into anything, we aren’t crushing anybody. Rather, we are about the business of restoring things. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus. we ask. Amen.

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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There's a link on the homepage. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your partnership as we move into the summertime. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app which is little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning everybody. For as high as the heavens are above the earth so is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. Yesterday was a very upsetting day for us. Some of you will know from the Friend’s page. Our little ginger cat Loki went missing. He’d been __ too so where really concerned as the day and night was ticking on. He’d been gone nearly 20 hours and is very unlike Loki. I cried out to the Lord as we do, and I was listening to worship and they were singing about trust. And I said to the Lord, “I trust you Lord.” I didn’t have an outcome in my mind or in my heart, but I simply said I will trust you. It wasn’t long after that declaration that Peter went out searching again and little Loki appeared very thin, quite unwell. He’s just gone to the vet. But he was home. I’m so thankful to God. What’s precious to us is precious to Him. His love is…it just melts me. His care for us. The little things in life with all that’s going on in the world He was concerned enough about my heartbreaking over the…the gift of a pet he gave to me. And His love abounded towards us. Thank you so much. This is God’s Smile here sending my love and drying my eyes. Bye-bye everybody.

Hello this is Gloria from Uganda here in __. I’m really really very grateful for this Daily Audio Bible app and __ podcast. And I’m really really really very grateful because I had desire to study a Bible plan at the start of the year but I couldn’t go with the flow but I’m very excited and I’m really enjoying hope to review all the previous messages. I’m really really blessed thank you very much Brian. Thank you very much China. We…we love you. We…we ask you to pray for us. The situation and the pandemic with most of the people all around. And the closest family to me and all unemployed right now and it puts me in a state whereby I have to look after my family of 12 people. My mom and my dad are not working, and I really really puts me in a very very very difficult position right now. But I trust God and with your messages I believe my faith is going to rise higher and I’m gonna…I’m gonna…I’m gonna go through this __ first and with your messages I believe I will…I will move forward I will believe and I will grow. Thank you very much. We do really really appreciate it and ask you to pray for us. My job __ business is really slow, and I pray that our business visions and people came back __ because many of our staff were laid off because of the pandemic. And I also pray to get an increase in salary because I got a promotion, but __ an increase in salary. I need to have a family of 12 people behind me. Thank you very much. Thanks a lot.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Pam from Shasta County California and I am calling in for Patricia in New Orleans. And Patricia, I just want to pray for you. Heavenly Father thank You so much for Your goodness and Your mercy and Your love and thank You for how much You love Patricia. Thank You for her heart, thank You for her passion, thank You for her strength. Father I just pray in Jesus name right now that You would ease her pain Father. I pray for relief. I pray for healing in Jesus’ name that You would just pour Your healing out over her and that she would get immediate relief from this pain. Father, thank You for who she is Lord and who You are in her life. Father thank You that You are so close to her. I pray that she has people around her that are loving her and are helping her Father and are praying for her. And help us all to remember pray for her and everyone here and we thank You for Your goodness. We thank You for Your mercy. And thank You for Your healing in Jesus’ name.

[singing starts] Lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon you be gracious to you. Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. May his favor be upon you for a thousand generations your family your children their children their children. May His presence come before you and behind you and beside you all around you and within you he is with you he is with you. In the morning in the evening in the coming and the going in your weeping and rejoicing he is for you he is for you. He’s for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you he is. [singing ends] Just a sweet reminder DAB family. This is Abba’s Grace and He shines. Amen. Amen!

This is Vickie calling from Southern Oregon and I have been listening now for a few months and really enjoying reading Brian and I’m also enjoying the prayer community. Thank you so much. I’ve been struggling trying to call and not having the courage to do that. My son is an adult and having problems. He’s severely mentally ill and he’s also strung out on drugs. And I recently moved him out to Oregon trying to save his life and now I’m feeling overwhelmed and not really knowing how to help and it’s disrupting my life and, you know, risking my career and my home. So, I could use some prayer. His name is Eddie. Thank you.

Hi this is Brooke Right from Omaha Nebraska. I just want to pray for my mom because my grandma who came to take care of everybody, she…I don’t remember how long ago…is leaving tomorrow afternoon and my mom just had a major surgery taking out her…in which she had to take out her womb. A womb is a place with the babies come. So, it was very painful. She has a lot ohwees. She has to go on a walk twice a day which is kinda good for my dog Ella which I would show you but this is a recording not a video. And, well, just want to pray for my mom, my brothers and my dad because he’s in masters. Probably have a lot of more….no… wait…just quite a few maybe five which is…we count it quite a few…more…like five more chores a day because we have a garden that has like snow peas and tons of other things. So, yeah, alright I don’t have much longer on this call so I’m just gonna leave. Bye. Brooke Right.

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is God’s Light out in Portland Oregon, and it’s been some time. I’m responding from Ben in Columbus who called back in…maybe the 12th of June or probably even before that. His message was there on the 12th of June and I…I believe he was speaking to me and I was so taken aback that I needed to allow a couple callers in and hear a couple more prayer request just to confirm that he was speaking to me. I have tried to submit prayer requests and haven’t…and having…and fallen short and felt silly for doing it. I’ve really…I’m in a bad spot right now financially, physically, mentally, spiritually. Everything’s under attack and I have lost everything. I’ve lost my home, my children, my ex-wife. I’m soon to have another child, which I’m ecstatic about. So, the grieving process comes and goes with excitement but…but for the most part this grief and humiliation is following me. And if you could pray for me and I would…I would greatly appreciate it. I’ve been following the Daily Audio Bible since 2011 pretty much every day and I’m just so thankful for this community and thankful for you as my family. I’m very thankful to have you. Please stay strong and I pray for all of you.

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pastorjoshwoods · 4 years ago

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Everyone deserves a chance to fly...

This past holiday, I fell down a rabbit hole. (Or more rightly, I got swept up in a tornado YouTube tornado...) It started innocently enough: a friend posted a video on Facebook where a percussionist had a GoPro strapped to his head to show what the pit looked like during “Good Morning Baltimore” from Hairspray. It was awesome! ‘Auxiliary percussion’ may not sound as glamorous as ‘set drummer’, but it’s incredibly important to the full sound of the orchestra.

I watched one video, then another, and then I saw some videos of pit percussionists playing Defying Gravity—from a powerful musical about an incredible young woman who chooses to live for what’s right instead of what’s presently in vogue. Then I saw a few other songs from that musical, and finally an interview with the pit drummers for Hamilton.

I moved on with my day—even got to spend some time gaming on Zoom with my family. But later on that night, that song got stuck in my head again:

I’m through accepting limits ‘Cause someone says they’re so. Some things I cannot change, But til I try, I’ll never know.

Too long I’ve been afraid of Losing love I guess I’ve lost; Well, if that’s love, It comes with much to high a cost!

I’d sooner buy defying gravity...

It caught me again so powerfully that I scoured the internet for a pay-to-view copy of a full performance. And then, when I had exhausted my resources, I stumbled upon a bootleg copy. (Yes—they exist... and there’s even one of the Original Broadway Cast out there, although the video quality is rough [and there are some ‘oops!’ moments—must’ve been a preview...]) Why not just listen to the soundtrack? Because—I remembered there was more to the plot, and I had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to what it meant than I had previously understood.

You see, when I first saw the musical about the ‘untold true story of the Witches of Oz,’ I was thrown by its title: Wicked. As an evangelical teen/early twenty-something--and a pastoral ministry student to boot--I was extremely uncomfortable with the idea of a musical that I perceived as teaching moral relativism: "teaching us how bad wasn’t really bad”; that, in fact, being ‘wicked’ is in the eye of the beholder.

But I was wrong.

My perception of the point of the musical was about as far off as it could have been. I still believe that there are people who do objectively wicked things, but I had missed something. I had entered the theatre with a judgment already made, based on a label someone else had given to me. My fear of the word “wicked” had cause me to uncritically dismiss anything labeled as such. I had literally been the person the musical was trying to call out. Embarrassingly, I’m only just now grasping the power behind Elphaba’s story. She is remarkable: an exceptional young woman with a heart of kindness wrapped in insecurity, self-loathing, and abusive memories who finds strength to both love herself and stand against what is truly evil, even when vilified for it. Seething in righteous indignation over obvious injustices perpetuated both privately and in broad daylight, she chooses a life of exile and integrity--while evil people call her “wicked”--rather than one of popularity--through espousing what was truly detestable.

Yes—the Wicked one ends up not being the Witch of the West. It ends up being the Wizard: the charlatan that fortuitously blew into power and now works to keep up appearances by feeding public frenzy and twisting the truth. “It’s not lying—it’s history!” The underlying rationale of the swindler behind the curtain? Moral ambiguities are fodder for public control. [And the Wizard’s press team swirls around him like a tornado, tearing down opposition “with her calumnies and lies”--she lies.]

That never happens in real life, of course...

I mean, how often do we make villains of the very people suffering for doing good? How often do we paint a character over a person to satisfy our need to blame someone? How often does our togetherness come from hatred rather than love? (Those questions are rhetorical—but maybe you should answer them in your head...)

And how often are the people that we claim as “wonderful” indeed playing us?? When will we discover the difference between what’s really true and what we’re being told is true to manipulate our actions? What will we do?

As if to prove my point, if you’re still reading this, you’re probably trying to figure out which side I land on. You’re also probably thinking that the other side—the one you’ve always been taught to side against—is the one with the ‘wonderful wizard’ who’s really a first-class creep. But what if you’re actually on the ‘wizard’s’ side? What if you’re the one following the person manipulating public opinion (in part or on the whole) for the sake of personal gain?

Wizards will bluster in and bluster out. Some of them may run themselves out of hot air before they cause any harm. But some of them will irreparably hurt people while regularly inventing alternate narratives that say they are really doing right by those same people. Some of them will say anything to be able to take their place behind the curtain, pulling levers as “Oz the Great and Powerful.” And we shouldn’t let them.

But even if they do: we must not lose our sense of what is most right. And part of that is defending the dignity of those who are being trampled on by others. Whether they be mistreated captives, dehumanized to serve the agenda of the powerful, or individuals who have been silenced by fear for so long that they have forgotten their voice, we must restore the dignity of each individual through kindness and compassion. For those who claim to follow Jesus, this is not an option. No: it is, in fact, the surest call of the Savior who let himself be crucified as a ‘wicked man’ after having done nothing wrong.

So, this summer, when people on either side of the limelight lie, telling you how what you’ve heard them say and seen them do isn’t really what you heard and saw, try three things:

First, choose not to perpetuate the abuse by espousing the lie. Don’t bear false witness to your country, your friends, or your ‘enemies’ for the sake of your candidate.

Second, be a person who does what’s kind and good, even if people villify you. The real villains here are the ones who are telling people who to hate.

And finally, be a person who is willing to listen to the other viewpoint—and who will protect even the people they disagree with.

We need more Elphabas—more brave young women (and men too--and people of all ages!) who aren’t afraid to say and do what’s right. People who are willing to live out the ideals of honesty, decency, and respect for others, even when it costs them dearly. And people who are willing to fight to end lies, hatred, and abuse. We need them—and we need to celebrate them, too--because they call us back to our best.

It’s time to try defying gravity.

And when we do that?

Nobody in all of Oz No wizard that there is or was Is ever gonna bring [us] down

Post art from https://wickedthemusical.com/for-fans/

#Wicked #DefyingGravity #LoveNeighbor #LiveKingdom #SeekRedemption #ShareGrace #EndPoliticalGaslighting

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