#{IC: An Eternal Dreamer}

[samantabrzozowska]

"Eat to have a power to love me."

With love Sam

[pirateborn-a]

❛ Is there anything I can do to help? ❜ { from Zeff! -indomiitas }

SHORT SENTENCE STARTERS   —   @indomiitas​

✧.    The question drew our boisterous laughter, bright and untouched by the fit of coughs he'd gone through mere moments prior. The recent news of his sickness was kept private, held within the crew until they had further information. He wasn't sure what had compelled him to tell the other, but now that he had, he couldn't say he found himself worrying in the slightest. A pleased grin stretched across his face as another, quieter chuckle fell out.

     The man was far softer than rumors and news would have him believe. Roger couldn't help but respect him all the more for it.

“ You could join my crew, ”   he offered again, playfully with a wide grin, contrasted with the disappointment entering in his tone as he continued, drumming his fingers on the table,   “ I still don't see why you're so adamant against it. We're leaving soon, you know. I'm going to find it before my time's up. ”

     There wasn't a trace of doubt in his tone, a simple statement and truth. Whether he had years or weeks left to live, he was going to find the final island.

     But for now, he would focus on the present and the company it held. After all, in all likelihood, this would be the last time they would ever cross paths. Meeting Zeff's face again, an understanding —  although clearly reluctant —  look appeared alongside a wry smile.

“ But I suppose you have your own goals to chase, eh ?  Can't be cooking for one living on stolen time with such a wonderful goal to find. ”

     A part of him wondered if he'd come across the All Blue near the last island. It was possible; anything in the New World was. But even if he did, he wouldn't be able to tell the cook about it, whether he wanted to or not. Fate was in such ways.

“ There is another thing you could do, ”   he said abruptly, straightening in posture in his chair, eyes shining with familiar anticipation and his smile bright in excitement,   “ One more story, Red-leg. One more time before we part, real or your hopes, tell me about what lies within the All Blue. ”

      After all, dreams were by far the most precious treasure a man could offer.

[gentlexheart]

Tag drop. My blogs are included too. Most of them are the same as Aexther.

[warpcursed]

"Just be glad you haven't had to eat the rations from the ship I was on. It tasted like a bookshelf; books included!"

it tastes like a boot. a size 10 boot. ((Ozy has eaten worse))

"The fact that you can tell its size by taste alone concerns me."

[sarandipitywrites]

Friday Kiss Tag

i've gotten a few tags for this one: @winglesswriter (here), @mysticstarlightduck (here), and @willtheweaver (here). thank you! here's an early scene from Spark Signature:

An old fashioned: a drink they couldn’t associate with Julián any less. Maybe he’d just been in a rush to order, and didn’t know any other drinks by name. If his aversion to it was any indication, he still has a massive sweet tooth—Vy’s inclined to just slap together a hurricane and call it a night. “So this is all yours, huh?” “Mine and the crew’s.” Or. Or maybe Julián thought he had something to prove. Some people still think a booze-forward cocktail is somehow more proper or noble or what-the-fuck-ever than an easy sipper. And it isn’t as though Vy’s been around to teach him right. “…I like it. It suits you.” “It does, doesn’t it?” Vy snags a lime from the citrus box as well as the bitters and simple syrup from under the counter. From the wall, they retrieve a bottle of rum. “Decrepit, trashy. Visually, socially, and olfactorily offensive.” At the wine fridge, their hand hovers over the champagne for a moment before they grab the prosecco instead. “Fun. Fascinating.” Vy scoffs as they shake up the drink on ice. They strain it into a chilled coupe glass, top it with the prosecco and, after a moment’s consideration, finish it with a sprig of mint. Brownish, frosty, with a sophisticated pop of green: a sipper in disguise. Julián accepts it and, without so much as a ‘you better not be poisoning me,’ takes a generous sip. His eyes widen. “…Kind of genius, even if they won’t say it.” “Genius? Are we still talking about the bar?” “Were we ever?” “Julián Quintana Benoit, are you flirting with me?” “Jules.” The overhead light reflects off the surface of his drink, into his eyes. An amber halo in the dark. Ecliptic. “Call me Jules.” They shouldn’t do this. They shouldn’t reach across the bar and hook their fingers through one of the myriad holes at the collar of his shirt. The give of the fabric—the quiet, creaking rrrip of the tear deepening—shouldn’t send a bolt of heat straight to the pit of Vy’s stomach. The taste of him, of Jules—rum and mint and the faintest whiff of ozone because of course he’d taste like magic—shouldn’t warrant the noises Vy’s making, the whine as they pull away, their lips unaccountably cold without his. Sex won’t fix this. Vy knows it, even as they’re guiding Jules up the lift, down the hall, into their bed. Whatever’s tethering Vy to him—whatever it is that Vy can’t sever by ritual or alcohol or time or distance or anything fucking else—won’t be banished in a night. Maybe it can’t be banished at all.

tag! @sarahlizziewrites, @daisygrayce, @dyrewrites, @just-a-local-dreamer, @breath-of-eternity, and an open tag

Spark Signature taglist (ask to be added or removed): @leah-yasmin-writes, @unrepentantcheeseaddict, @ceph-the-ghost-writer, @mundanemoongirl

[skyclan-funny-name-squad]

Im thinking about my own starclan rework again, specifically the replacement dark forest, the Glittering Frost (Names for all the areas are a wip)

In my starclan rework starclan is split into a zone for each season, the worse you are in life, the further down the chain you go with most cats ending up in green leaf unless they broke the code, which case they may get moved back depending on the extent of the crime

The Sunlit Meadow, The Blooming Dew, The Dappled Tree, and The Glittering Frost

What my brains twisting about is like I said, the Glittering Frost, aka leafbare.

It's an endless snowy landscape, the sounds are muted and it's always quiet as snow gently falls. Its cold, always cold, but starclan cats never freeze, they never get frostbite, they are simply cold.

A visitor though, a visitor is not so lucky. Rare is it for cats to dream or enter into The Glittering Frost, but they will feel the cold, it chills them to the bone in a way a starclan cat cannot feel (likely due to a lack of bones) for a short while this is fine, if they stay close to the border of The Dappled Tree and only stay for a short while. Then while frostbite may nip their noses a bit, it should clear up when you return to The Sunlit Meadow.

However, what if a visitor did not stay? Instead tempted deeper in by something in the distant, lost in the constantly falling snow and turned around to go further in instead of out. It is beautiful after all, the perfect look of leafbare, shiny and beautiful with snow so soft and a seeming endless expanse to explore of rocks and a few spruce trees. Perhaps even a tunnel or two carved out by long forgotten cats to better take shelter from the endless snow. It's tempting, whether those lost or just those curious, to keep going, to push through the way your paws freeze, and your whiskers crystallize, to explore. Even as their vision darkens, as it gets harder to move, they keep going forward.

If they're lucky, a calmer cat bound to the snow will lead them out, hoping for some favor for return, if they're not....their bodies will be found cold as ice in their nests, yet not dead, breathing weakly with puffs from their mouth as if it was the middle of leafbare's cold, their self left frozen solid in that pretty glittering snow, not dead, but not alive either. Stuck in between until they are either rescued, or their bodies fully give out in their absence.

Some of the biggest fools whisper amongst themselves, and ask if perhaps...this freezing could be the key to something bigger, if a creature not dead yet not alive, is something that can be...eternal.

The cats of the glittering frost tend to not like when cats get stuck though, because that leads in rescue patrols and its REALLY annoying to deal with and get bothered by them, so most will either lead a cat out or drag their frozen selves back to the border so they can be more easily found. Though some cats, some cats may perhaps be bitter enough to try.

Each land is beautiful, the perfect encapsulation of every season's beauty and its flaws, and while a starclan cat as a spirit tend to only lightly brushed by the flaws, simply annoyed by the inconvenience, death and injury can only do so much to the already dead, but visiting dreamers or prophecy seekers are not so lucky and must take careful steps to avoid the worst of it.

Starclan is not inherently safe, nor is it inherently cruel, it simply just reflects what is true.

[hyukalyptus]

I’m just gonna list my favorites and least favorites then. 😭

FAVS: wishlist, trust fund baby, skipping stones,new rules, puma, maze in the mirror, way home, force, ice cream, loser-lover, 0x1=lovesong, ito, farewell never land, goodbye now, back for me txt ver, deep down, dreamer,the killa, eternally.

Songs I just don’t like because I don’t like them: opening sequence, cat& dog (people are gonna kill me), ps5, valley of lies that’s it 🧍‍♀️

Every other song would just be in the it’s alright category 🤷🏼‍♀️ I like all their music but this is just my least favs and most favorites

i totally understand not vibing with cat and dog. but it is straight up unironically one of my fave txt songs. like when i first heard it (at debut) i was like ah yes...this is my shit. i LOVED it from the beginning. but it is weird ill be fr.

surprised u also hate valley of lies!! i notice you were quiet about that until now hmm

and most of ur faves are correct (exept tfb, ice cream, the killa, and goodbye now)

[battleangel]

Life Is Nothing But A Dream

The Big Bang was actually a Kemetic Explosion that created everything. At the instantaneous moment it occurred, it shot eternally into the past and eternally into the future, so that it always was, always is and always would be in that moment in time that created time itself while collapsing it.

Paradoxes, duality, yin and yang, opposites attract, magnetism, chemistry, polar opposites, twinflames, reality and untold countless trillions of individual dreamscapes were created in that moment.

We are all dreamers, the mind is limitless and imagination is limitless. They can make laws about what you wear, eat, smoke, drink, say, write -- but not about what you think, dream and imagine.

You dont have to tell a child that their imagination is limiltless, thats why they have real imaginary friends, but you have to convince an adult that they "have what it takes" to pass a job interview -- why do you think that is?

The Kemetic Explosion was a prismatic supernova that created all realities, multiverses, universes, galaxies and dimensions in one timeless and eternal moment.

There are two existing dual realities that fit the universal theme of duality -- hot and cold, fire and ice, sugar and spice, black and white, yin and yang, good and evil, love and apathy (not hate), sun and moon -- so on and so forth.

The two realities are the current simulated reality we are all living in now that I am currently typing this in, but it is only a simulation, a facsimilie, a virtual reality, a fax machine copy of our actual reality, which is the eternal dreamscape we all came from.

We are all eternal energetic beings, we are nature, this is why nature heals us -- why do you need a scientific study to confirm that?

We are magical, alchemical beings with the ability to naturally heal ourselves within ourselves with nature -- Pfizers got nothin on you.

We are trees, water, streams, rivers, grass, ganja, sun, moon, stars, skies, comets, milky ways, galaxies, oceans, waves, gardens, flowers, petals, dragonflies, fireflies, butterflies.

This is why it is so unnatural for us to exploit, pillage & rape Mother Earth, overextracting & depleting natural resources, destroying rainforests, deforestation, overfilling landfills with unused SHEIN clothes & unopened Amazon products, greenhouse gas emissions, unclean coal, oil, gas, nuclear energy, toxic chemicals, smoke, smog, industrial waste & pollution -- they get artificially richer with capitalism's monopoly money while they do nothing but harm the planet, the air, the water, the ozone layer, literally harming themselves in the process yet they still think they are "winning" as their total destruction of Earth via climate change is continuing unabated as they march on in their shiny spacesuits to colonize Mars with Elon Musk without even giving their destruction of Earth a second thought.

We have all existed eternally forever in the dreamscape.

The dreamscape is very similar to "What Dreams May Come" if you want a visual representation of what it's like.

Lush, visceral, lucid, explosive colors, 10 dimensional, multidimensional, all dimensions coexisting at once at the same time.

You can walk through walls, you can walk on water, you can fly, you can fall through the sky without dying.

What are our individual dreamscapes?

Simply our imagination.

It's our thoughts. It's whatever our mind can conjure up. Its limitless expansiveness.

We go there every single night when we dream, whether you remember it when you wake up or not, you visited your dreamscape and that is the real reality, then you woke up to "go to work" in this fake reality.

How did we get here?

When you sleep, you go to your eternal dreamscape, where your eternal energetic being originally originated from. All of us were created in the instant the Kemetic Explosion (aka "Big Bang") happened.

So, how did we get here, into this fake ass virtual reality simulated upside down?

When people talk about your soul, when your physical body perishes, and only your energy and essence remains, they are actually talking about you returning to your original state, which is the eternal energetic being you were when you were created during the Kemetic Explosion.

You existed in your own eternal individual dreamscape -- literally your imagination -- for untold milennia until your human parents fucked.

This created your physical human incarnation. Once this happened, you as an eternal energetic being were taken from your individual dreamscape and you physically incarnated as a human being inside of your mother's womb.

Once she gave birth to you, you had now transported from your individual limitless dreamscape to our virtual reality as a mortal physical being in a very limited 3D reality, an upside down that is the opposite of the dreamscape in every way.

The next question would be, why does this happen? What is the point of us coming to this virtual reality?

The entire point of life in this simulated reality virtual reality video game is just to open and activate your third eye, spiritually awaken, experience ascension, self-actualize and realize that you are actually a limitless eternal energetic being and that you are only temporarily manifesting in a physical human form.

This is also referred to as an ego death, killing your human ego, and realizing that you are actually a limitless eternal energetic being.

Once you realize this, physical death no longer scares or frightens you, it is simply you permanently returning to your eternal dreamscape, which is where you originated from anyway.

Why would you be afraid of death when it's simply a permanent return to your own mind, your own imagination, your own 10 dimensional dreamscape which is where you originated from and you currently temporarily visit each night when you sleep anyway?

The place you are in now, this current hellscape, full of injustice, racist cops, terroristic militaries, empire building, religious dogma, abuse, rape, sexual violence, pointless wars, genocide, racism, hatred, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, conditioning, grooming, sex trafficking, molestation, child abuse, greed and environmental destruction, doesn't scare you yet you fear a physical death that simply returns you to your original limitless eternal energetic self and dreamscape?

Yo, who taught you to fear death and why?

Keytruda is a cancer drug that was $100k when it was first released that only allowed you to live for an extra 30 days.

Just how brainwashed are you?

Look at all of the endless medical interventions, look at the slashing and the burning, the chemical radiation, the buzz saws, the hormones, the endless surgeries, triple bypass, open heart, remove a lung, non-stop prescription medication, opiates, oxy, perc, tylenol with codeine --

For what? You're going to fucking die, anyway.

Have you figured that out yet?

They have you so afraid of death yet you're not afraid of the current hellscape you currently live in.

Objectively, we are in hell by now, by any observable metric.

We are surrounded by mindless destruction, endless exploitation, wars, expansion, greed, capitalism, corporatism, environmental destruction, overconsumption, materialism, consumerism, unnecessary and needless starvation, houselessness & poverty, no living wage, no universal health care, no universal education --

Apple is a trillion dollar company and you think we don't have enough resources for every American to be housed, fed, educated, paid a living wage and receive medical care?

We're the richest planet on Earth and you actually don't think we have the money to house, feed, educate, pay a living wage to and provide medical care for every American citizen?

Globally, the richest 1% control the majority of the money.

Even a child could figure out if we evenly spread the resources, nobody would have to starve, nobody would have to die from hunger, houselessness and poverty.

We see what the Bezoses and Musks and Apples are making.

We see the corruption in "poorer" countries where the leaders all tend to be rich.

Why is that, that the leaders in "underdeveloped" countries are never starving along with their subjects?

Because they hoard the money, the charity donations, the money from the US, these leaders hoard it for themselves and dont give it to their citizens so they become richer while their citizens become poorer and many die.

It doesnt have to be like this in America or anywhere else.

The global elites want it like this. They want their mansions, their private jets, their Epstein pizzagate islands where they can rape children.

You dont really think Bob Iger needs $78,000 a day to survive, do you?

They want it like this and they collectively want us to barely make a living, work for a minimum wage, work a "salaried" job with thousands of hours of UNpaid overtime, kill ourselves for scraps for a CEO that isnt working and is making 1000xs more, spend the majority of our lives at a corporate 9 to 5 -- more time then we spend at home, with family, friends, loved ones, living, reading, singing, dancing, expressing, being alive -- you will spend the majority of your life working to make a CEO you will never even talk to richer -- the majority of each day at work and the majority of your life since you wont get to retire until 65 then "you can do what you want" for 10 years then drop dead -- are you actually okay with this?

The point of this virtual reality videogame is for you to open your 3rd eye, realize you are much more than just the physical human you are currently manifested as, ascend, spiritually awaken, self-actualize and realize you are actually an eternal energetic limitless being -- made from the same energy that created the Kemetic Explosion Big Bang -- you are energy, you are source, you are universe.

Realize this place we currently and very temporarily reside in is nothing but a dream and a virtual simulated reality of the actual reality which is the dreamscape you visit every night when you experience REM sleep, its simply a shift in consciousness that allows you to travel to your dreamscape, then when you "wake up", you are back here in the virtual reality.

But when you actually wake up, meaning you open your third eye, you will realize your human ego is as false as this virtual reality is and as limited as your physical human body.

Wealth, status, prestige, brand name company, fancy job title, fancy car, fancy house, luxury vacations, fancy furniture, all to impress other people, keeping up with the joneses, keeping up appearances, climbing the corporate ladder, high net worth, liquid assets, being an executive --its all bullshit and ego driven, its all driven by a desire to impress, be important, be admired, be liked, be respected, be feared -- its all external, nothing internal -- its all surface and not substance, its all gloss, its all photoshop, its all airbrushed, its all comparison driven, its all a dick measuring contest, its all Im more successful than you, Im a bigger deal than you, I drive a better car than you, I have more money than you, Im number 1, I finally made it, its 500+ likes for a LinkedIn employment update, its working for big tech, working for FAANG, working for FAAMG, working for Disney, its all I got mine, its all Acknowledge me!, its all Im a big fucking deal, its all I am important and people know who the fuck I am, its all I run this meeting, I run the show, I am impressive, important, my accolades and achievements precede me, people respect me, I got into a prestigious company, I got into Goldman Sachs which has a 4% acceptance rate, I got into Amazon and passed their interview where they interrogated me with their endless Leadership Principles, I have the golden star, I am a capitalist success, I am a six figure earner, I am in the $100k+ club, Im an executive, Im a VP, I made it, I am the American Dream...which is nothing but a fucking nightmare.

How do you like those golden handcuffs?

What happens if you're one of the 2 to 3 million more layoffs LinkedIn is predicting is going to happen this fall?

Kill your ego so your ascended self can be reborn.

Induce your own ego death so your ascended self can live.

Once you do, you'll be fully awake and fully alive and physical death will no longer scare you because it leads to the true eternal life which is just you returning to your eternal dreamscape and returning to the eternal energetic being you always were after shedding your temporary physical human self and shell.

Thats the true Kendrick Lamar Metamorphosis.

Your physical human manifestation is the caterpillar shell you must shed by inducing your own ego death and killing your own ego to become a butterfly, which is your ascended spiritually awakened third eye activated self-actualized self and this metamorphosis from your ego-driven caterpillar self to the ascended third eye activated butterfly is a metaphor for the final transformation which is actually only the beginning of when you shed your caterpillar physical human manifestation, so the ego death foreshadows the physical death, and you transform into a butterfly limitless energetic being, and this current physical virtual limited caterpillar reality is a metaphor for the ascended butterfly limited eternal dreamscape, which is just your individual imagination.

Love is eternal and limitless. Energy is eternal and limitless. Imagination and the mind are eternal and limitless.

Who is in your eternal dreamscape?

Your soulmates (platonic, familial and romantic) and twinflame (if you have one -- this is two souls that were fused together into one yin yang soul and one eternal energetic being when the Kimetic Explosion happened and then, when they physically manifested as human beings, their one soul split into two physical human beings that are fated and destined to be together in the virtual reality as best friends, romantic lovers and a sexual couple then, when they physically die and return to their eternal dreamscape, their souls fuse back together into one eternal energetic being that is simultaneously one being while still being two beings at once as both energies reside in the one soul being -- Yin Yang Twinz.

Thats duality.

There is no judgemental asshole in the clouds sitting on a throne judging people for having sex -- do you actually believe those lies that were packaged to you to control you with fear?

You really think God has a long white beard and is sitting on a throne like Santa Claus at the mall?

The only hell that actually exists is your own mind, if you refuse to kill your own ego, if you refuse to cause and experience your own ego death, if you keep living an empty life fuelled by your ego desires, when your physical self dies, and you return to your dreamscape, it will be as empty and shallow as your life was.

You failed to beat the virtual reality game.

You failed to ascend and open your third eye.

You failed to reject capitalism, consumerism, overconsumption, materialism, greed, wealth, status, privilege, corporatism, profiteering, superficiality, environmental destruction, industrial waste, big pharmas lies, exploitation, excessive medical intervention.

You failed to accept death as the natural outcome to life versus unnaturally doing everything possible to avoid it extending your life beyond all reason.

You failed to reject prejudice, close mindedness, us vs them, stereotypes, political propaganda, religious dogma, dehumanization of vulnerable populations that need community, socialism & a universal basic income, housing and medical care -- basic needs that could be met today instead they die needlessly of hunger, starvation, houseleness and very treatable illnesses and medical conditions while you sit there willingly oblivious and obtuse with your upper middle class income, your McMansion, your Lex Coup Beema & Benz, your yearly summer vacations self turning a blind eye to all of the unnecessary suffering under capitliasm that you endlessly benefit from and refuse to call it out for the bullshit system it is that is responsible for the death of millions.

You bought into all of the carefully packaged lies and rejected introspection, because you didnt want to give up your VP spot, your executive title, your 401K, your stock options, your unrestricted stock, your luxury vacations, your sports cars, your investment portfolio, your big ass house, your clout, your impressive career, your status, your wealth, your prestige -- you bought into capitalism because it financially and materially rewarded and enriched you but you ended up mentally, emotionally and spiritually bankrupting yourself but you refuse to admit any of this because you dont want to fuck up and fumble the bag.

But all that fake stuff doesnt exist in the non-simulated non-virtual real reality of the dreamscape, so when you get there and its just you, since expanding and exploring your mind is the one thing you avoided the entire time you existed as your physical human self, you refused to look inwards, you refused to look inside, you refused to question yourself and the unjust capitalist system that props up all of your status wealth and success, you refused to get deep, to ask yourself who you are outside of the impressive job, fancy title, brand name company, fancy house, fancy car, careeer accolades and accomplishments, luxury vacations and cruises and beach house rentals, flexing for the gram, clout chasing, pillar of the fake ass church, deacon, deaconess, trustee, respected church elder, queen bee, queen bitch of every social circle, king of the hill, alpha male, alpha female, you liked all the clout, people kissing your ass, impressing people on LinkedIn, the likes on the gram, the attention, the semi-celebrity local celebrity, the social currency and cache, everybody knowing your name, the HBIC in all your cliques, the bfd in your family, board member, committee member, non-profit volunteer, recognized at church, in the community, tons of friends, tons of clout, mystique, aura, presence, bank account, return on investment, hybrid electric sports car, vanity plates, vanity life.

You never looked within. You spent your entire life chasing and fucking and sucking dick for clout.

And in the literal instant of your physical death, with all of the fake stuff in this virtual reality video game is instantaneously stripped away in a moment, you sit and blankly stare in silence and you realize without all the virtual reality simulated fake stuff, that there is no "there there", because you never took one moment out of your entire physical existence as a human to look inside, introspect and think.

That is what this current hellscape is a simulation of -- actual hell, the eternal torment of never actualizing the self.

Wake up. Life is but a dream.

Wake up so when you actually permanently go back to sleep then permanently wake up you're now permanently awake in your eternal dreamscape to dream and imagine limitlessly forever.

Dream on, dreamer 🌌

[wowbright]

Fic: Crazy Dreamer

Klaine Valentine’s Challenge 2023: “Us Someday" by Thomas Rhett (Day 12 prompt)

Words: ~2,800 words

Rating: Teen and Up

Summary: The aftermath of Kurt’s post-dinner-with-lesbians breakdown.

I’m back with more vignettes from my Mormon!Klaine universe for Klaine Valentines 2023! This vignette takes place after Enough.

My Mormon!Klaine Masterpost. (Klaine Valentines 2023 posts are bold and italicized.)

--------

Blaine got breakfast ready as Kurt finished up in the bathroom. Nothing fancy—muesli with milk and a side of microwave sausages—but the familiar motions of preparing food helped his thoughts settle in place after a restless night of only intermittent sleep.

He wasn't sure how Kurt had slept. Whenever Blaine had woken in the night and looked over at him, Kurt had lain still with his eyes closed. But for all Blaine knew, Kurt had faked sleep just to keep Blaine from worrying or trying to make things better.

Sometimes you just had to let yourself feel things, without fixing them.

Blaine hadn't always thought so. In his childhood, he had absorbed from his family and ward that Mormons should always radiate happiness. When his grandmother died, he'd been allowed to cry a little, but he wasn't supposed to express any more sadness than he would at a friend moving away to another town.

“You’ll see her again,” his mother told him. “And just think, now that she's on the other side of the veil, she doesn’t have to suffer with pain or sickness or any of the other struggles we have here on earth. It's hard to do at first, because of course you'll miss not seeing her so often, but we should be happy for her.”

His dad’s advice was more focused on doctrine. “You see, Blaine, death is a necessary part of the Plan of Salvation. This life we have on earth is meant to be temporary. And that's a wonderful thing, because that means we only have to be away from our Heavenly Father for a short time between our preexistence and our real life—our eternal life in the Celestial Kingdom. Death allows us to grow into our full potential.”

But recently, Blaine had started to learn the importance of sitting with things that made him uneasy. Just like the pain of a stubbed toe was a reminder to look where he was going, uncomfortable emotions were a signal to pay attention to his thoughts, his reactions, and his desires.

It had been hard to see Kurt struggling and have no way to fix it. His grief over Finn was still so raw—which made sense, given everything the church taught and the brevity between Finn’s death and Kurt leaving on his mission. But Kurt’s pain went deeper than grief. It stemmed from the quandary the church had put him in. It was impossible for Kurt to follow the church’s teachings, as he understood them, and also follow the promptings of the Spirit. The contradiction was tearing him in two.

Compared to Kurt, Blaine had it easy. Either because of his ignorance about himself or some other quirk of his upbringing, he had never internalized the condemnatory side of the church's teachings. God is love was the whole of his faith. Other teachings, like the Word of Wisdom or the law of tithing, had their place. They could teach people skills that helped them to love others, like self-discipline and self- sacrifice. But they weren't universal laws. If a person developed heat exhaustion and the only thing available to drink was iced tea, then they should drink the tea. If parents needed to choose between feeding their children and tithing, they should feed their children.

And it came to pass, that Jesus went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.

The Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?

And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.

Wherever implementing the church’s teachings might distance someone from God's love, they needed to be set aside.

It wasn't like that for Kurt. In his heart, Kurt knew love was the ultimate law. Love one another—he’d said himself last night. But knowing something in your heart was different than knowing it with your whole being.

And that’s where Kurt got hurt. Love and orthodoxy and obedience tangled up in his mind, none taking precedence over the other. Kurt believed those three principles could always exist in harmony, in every situation, if only he figured out how to wedge them in place.

It was similar to what Blaine had seen in countless investigators. The Holy Ghost whispered the truth of the gospel to them, but they couldn't move forward. Their minds were cluttered with reasons not to accept the testimony of their hearts: they'd already been baptized in another church, or it seemed antisocial to forsake beer and coffee altogether, or they didn't want to hurt the feelings of family members by taking a different path.

Blaine never pushed these investigators. He accepted them as they were. The path they chose to take was between them and God.

He had to give Kurt the same grace.

Blaine had been pushing Kurt too hard, trying to speed them both toward the place Blaine longed for—a place where Kurt loved himself without exceptions and could decide, without guilt or shame, whether he wanted to extend that same love to Blaine.

It wasn’t fair to Kurt. Blaine had allowed his emotions to get the best of him, without thinking of Kurt’s.

Blaine needed to cool off. He needed to set aside what he wanted and focus on what Kurt needed: A friend. Someone who loved him without demanding he change. Someone who reminded him of God's love without forcing him to accept it.

*

“I did enjoy dinner with Liesl and Jana,” Kurt said, stirring his spoon in his muesli. “They’re good people. I'm sorry I lashed out at you. It wasn't right.”

“It's understandable, though,” Blaine said, resisting the urge to reach out and give Kurt’s shoulder a reassuring rub.

“It's just, all my life, whenever I’ve had a doubt or a question that couldn't be answered, I've followed the advice to set it aside on a mental shelf and not worry about it, because a deeper understanding would come eventually. And it was fine. I set aside all my questions about being gay and my mom being dead and my aunt being an alcoholic and why people in other churches seemed just as good and happy as us, and I figured, if I keep doing what the Lord asks of me, I'll get my answers. When I get my endowment, when I go on my mission, I'll get more clarity. But I swear, as much as I've had faith-affirming experiences on this mission, there have been even more I've had to put on the shelf. And I think, last night, it got too crowded. The shelf collapsed. All these things I've tried not to think about—they're all over my brain now. And I don't know how to shove them back. But I can’t deal with them, either. Because I still don't have answers.”

“You don't have to, Kurt.”

“Yes, I do. I'm a missionary. How can I teach people the Plan of Salvation if it’s stopped making sense to me?”

Blaine didn't have a ready answer for this question. He took a handful of raw muesli straight out of the box and chewed it until the rolled grains dissolved. The Plan of Salvation made sense to Blaine, but he realized now it was only because he had never understood it the way Kurt did. “You know, the way we teach it—I'm not sure I've ever taken it literally.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you know how we say the ordinances are necessary for salvation? I don't think I actually believe that.”

Kurt swallowed heavily. His eyes went wide. “But that's �� that's like, the main thing we teach people.”

“I know. But I guess—I guess I've never really thought that it's actually the physical act of being baptized that washes away a person's sins, or the confirmatory prayer that gives them the gift of the Holy Ghost. It's more like, their willingness to do that—that's what saves people, not the form of the ritual or the specific words that get said.”

Kurt's eyes were no longer bugging out of his head, but he still looked doubtful.

“I'm not saying that baptism or confirmation or the endowment are useless,” Blaine said. “I think they facilitate a change in heart for a lot of people. And I guess that's what I'm teaching when we talk about the ordinances. That you can have a change in heart without the ordinances, but for certain people—for the investigators who respond to our message—going through the prescribed steps is a surer way of drawing closer to God.”

“Huh.” Kurt stirred his muesli thoughtfully, staring at the whirl of raisins and nuts and raw oats and barley as if they were the elements of the Milky Way, spinning through the vast unknown, and could lead him to Kolob if only he read them right. “You know, my mom believed something like that. She said the work we did in the temple was for ourselves more than for the people for whom we did the work. She thought God had created it as a way to show us that all people were deserving of heaven, not just those of us who belonged to the church.”

“Wow. She told little Kurt that?” Blaine was in awe. He couldn't imagine anyone in his family saying such a thing. He wished he could meet her.

“If she did, I don't remember it. But she wrote about it in a letter to my dad while she was on her mission. My dad gave it to me when I left for mine.”

“And what do you think of that idea?”

“I don't know. It sounds beautiful. But maybe it's too beautiful to be true. I'm pretty sure it's not what we're supposed to believe.”

A pang went through Blaine’s heart. “Beautiful things can be true, too.” Like the way I love you. But of course he wasn't going to say that. He was giving Kurt space to be.

Kurt smiled. A real smile, soft and affectionate; his eyelids squinting at the corners; the eyes themselves seeming to sparkle as they met Blaine’s gaze. For a moment, it almost seemed as if he knew what Blaine had wanted to say, and was glad for it. “You would say that,” Kurt said in teasing tone that seemed to say, You’re ridiculous, and that’s why I love you.

Blaine heart felt light. He shrugged—an invitation more than a dismissal. “Call me a crazy dreamer, then. But I’ll still dream away. Because believing that every human being who ever lived on earth needs a literal baptism, a literal confirmation, a literal washing and anointing, a literal endowment, and a literal temple sealing in order to return to our Heavenly Father doesn't make sense to me. I mean, sure, the ordinances we do by proxy cover some people who have passed on. But what about the very first humans, when there were no scribes to record their names? Or all the other people who’ve died without anyone writing down that they existed? Without those names, how can we do temple work for them?”

“You know what they say. It will all work out in the Millennium.”

“Is that what you believe?”

“I don’t know. I told you, everything is sliding around my brain like bits of broken glass. I don’t know what to believe about the Millennium, or about spirit prison and spirit paradise, or about the kingdoms of glory. The more I think about them, the more it all sounds like Joseph Smith really didn't know what he was talking about. I mean, I do believe he was a prophet. But that doesn't mean he understood things perfectly. He saw these little glimpses of truth and wrote them down. But he never claimed to tell us everything. He always talked about how there were things he saw that just couldn't be put into words. But we’ve taken those glimpses as the whole story. And we've had other prophets to fill in the details, but they haven't given us much. And a lot of it doesn't fit together with the other things we know.”

Kurt stared at the center of the table, chewing on his bottom lip. “You know how you’ve said that the kingdoms of glory are all in one place? That we won’t be separated from anyone we love after we die? Are you ever scared you’re wrong?”

Blaine shook his head. “I know it's not what we’re supposed to teach to investigators. That we’re supposed to tell them the only way for families to be eternally together is for everyone to go to the Celestial Kingdom. But that’s not what God revealed to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon in Doctrine & Covenants 76—it says nothing about separating families. It says that residents of each kingdom minister to each other—which means it's not God's plan to separate us. I think we've come to interpret it that way just because it's so hard to visualize what Joseph Smith saw. But he himself said he was talking in metaphors. We think kingdoms have to be separate because that's what it's like on earth. Here, if you want to go to a different country, you need a treaty between nations that allows free movement, or you need a valid reason and a stamped passport. But it doesn't have to be that way in heaven. Like any metaphor, it works if you focus on the salient points. But you can't take it too far. Like, the comparison of the different kingdoms to celestial bodies is lovely. But if you think about it for just a minute, we know the Celestial Kingdom can’t literally be as bright as the sun, or no one would want to go there because they wouldn't be able to see anything in the presence of that much light.”

Kurt didn't respond immediately. He's eaten the rest of his muesli. There was only milk left in the bowl. He raised it to his mouth and drained it, then set it back on the table with a decisive click. “I do like your beliefs about heaven. They make sense. More sense than what I've internalized. And I want to believe what you believe. But I keep forgetting it's an option. How do you hold onto things you know are true when everyone else tells you you're wrong?”

Blaine felt a pleasant fluttering in his stomach. It wasn't pushing if Kurt asked. “I don’t, always. Sometimes it comes to me very, very slowly after a lot of denial. But I guess it comes back to listening to the Holy Ghost. Remembering the times I’ve felt his presence clearly, and holding onto that. And questioning, too. If there’s one thing that I know, growing up with a dad who was climbing in the church hierarchy, and a granddad who already had, and our family being friends with various apostles—I could see firsthand that they were just human. Most of the things the brethren say, when it’s not a direct quote from scripture, are conclusions they’ve drawn based upon their life experience. And a lot of those guys have had very limited life experience. They've grown up in these insulated, politically and socially conservative Mormon communities. And they think that because interpreting the gospel a certain way has worked for them, then it should work for everybody. And it does work for a lot of people—people who are just like them. I don’t want to call them arrogant. It’s more like … ignorance, I guess? They can’t see what they can’t see. Which is exactly why God has given us our own minds to think with, and the gift of personal revelation, so we can apply the gospel to our own lives, in situations the brethren don’t know how to imagine.”

Kurt stood up and rinsed his bowl in the sink. He took longer than usual, staring as the stream of water hit the ceramic and slid over its surface.

Eventually, he turned the faucet off. “Okay, then. A change of plans for companionship study today. You’re going to walk me through Doctrine & Covenants 76 and show me what you see.”

Blaine’s heart leapt. He couldn’t remember the last time Kurt had asked him to teach him anything about doctrine. This was big—not because he was turning to Blaine, but because he was willing to consider a more expansive understanding of God.

Blaine’s love for Kurt grew impossibly deeper.

[dreamir]

' blessed    be    the    daughters    of    cain    ,    bound    to     SUFFERING ETERNAL    through    the    sins   of    their    fathers    committed    long    before    their    conception. private independent writing blog for multiple characters from various fandoms. mature and triggering material present. written by emily. [she/her / 27] ' using the beta editor.

the study of:

rules & characters below .

general roleplay rules apply here. no god-modding, force shipping, etc. i will not follow if harmful content such as racism, pedophilia, homophbia, and transphobia.

mature and triggering material will be present. therefore minors should not interact! the triggers found within g.r.r.m's works, such as violence and incest, will be touched upon on this blog. please do not follow if it makes you uncomfortable. that being said, i will try to tag what i can.

the psd that i am using is by jessource & the icon border is by supersources.

feel free to continue any ask memes that i respond to! they are a great way to break the ice. i just ask that you make a separate post instead of reblogging the ask.

if you wanna ship, just let me know and we'll try to work something out! i'm pretty much shipping trash so.

my portrayals are headcanon based and a mixture of show & novel. if you have any questions about my muses, do not hesitate to ask.

characters.

aleera. dracula's bride. van helsing & dracula. fc: jessica brown findlay. primary.

alicent hightower. the dowager queen. from fire & blood. fc: olivia cooke & emily carey. primary.

helaena targaryen. the dreamer. from fire & blood. fc: maria valverde. primary.

jean grey. the dark phoenix. from marvel. fc: sophie turner. secondary.

josephine montilyet. the ambassador. from dragon age. fc: charithra chandran. secondary.

serafina of clan lavellan. the inquisitor. from dragon age. fc: poppy drayton. primary.

[fallen-grace-smd]

I passively use something called the Galbraith Scale (named after the Eldritch author Robert Galbraith).

It is a a rough scale to measure how Eldritch, someone or something is in relation to other things.

It isn't numerical it's less objective and more subjective. I need to work on it but here is a rough scale underneath.

1. Newcomer: A mysterious figure in town, a past you don't know but might figure out. You don't know what they want, or what you want from them. Doesn't have to be human.

2. Secretive Stranger: Similar to a Newcomer, except they might have been around for years. Everyone knows about the stranger, but no one knows the stranger. They may or may not be supernatural and the very fact you don't know makes it weirder. Doesn't have to be human.

3. Clandestine corporation: A mysterious organization that has so much power that it doesn't need to be supernatural to do something supernatural. They are believed to run the world, or possibly multiple worlds. Doesn't have to be a corporation.

4. Hidden Haunt: Something unquestionably supernatural. It may be a house, it might be a ghost, a vampire, a monster, it might be something else entirely. You don't know the rules when you first meet it but the rules can be figured out or written down.

5. Fickle Fae: A trickster with power you can't gage. You can't tell if it is good, evil, neutral, or something else entirely. It might be a fairy, djinn, magical merchant, or the devil in a lot of tales.

6. Devious Demon: Similar to a fickle fae but only worst of intentions towards humanity and order. It only desires chaos and it will do so by any means. It creates, craves, and consumes chaos. Not necessarily powerful, gremlins, would be considered devious demons.

7. Avenging Angel: you right wrongs, you fix injustice, whether that means destroying everyone in your path including those you swore to protect you don't care you only avenge.

8. Tumultuous Tome: Something that can't be fully understood and yet even partial decoding or understanding creates great power or knowledge. Usually represented by a book but full understanding is beyond human comprehension and it very likely will destroy you if you tried. Has no real intents and nonetheless it influences. Infinity stones, Necronomicon, and sky net fit under this.

9. Possessive power: Great power comes great responsibility sometimes it consumes you far more than you could consume it. You may have been a person once but the power has you now. The Ice King, Galactus, fit under this.

10. Old Ones: You're an ancient being so old that your ideals, thoughts, and language has been ground into the finest of sand. Yet you endure. Your plans are unknown even to you, you don't have any role to play, your goals of there are any is nebulous, and your just as likely to simply age to dust.

11. Eternal endless: You're a part of the universe, maybe beyond that. Your desires if any are meaningless to what role and goals you have. You're involved in so much by removing you, you will change everything in a fundamental way. You were here before everything and you'll be here afterwards.

12. Absolute Autocrat: You're the one who made everything, you are everything, from the smallest grain of sand to the most vast cosmos. Fate, universe, good, evil, all are held in your hands and yet you can feel none of it. There is no difference between plans, goals, and what is. You don't want, you just make things what you want it to be. You're a God above all other gods and every plan is yours, free will is meaningless except for yours.

13. Drowsy Dreamer: Don't wake up.

[whatthecrowtold]

#unhallowedarts "Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs / Upon the slimy sea" Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner"

Coleridge's memorable Night Mare Life-in-Death by Sir Noel Paton

"Her lips were red, her looks were free,

Her locks were yellow as gold:

Her skin was as white as leprosy,

The Night-mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she,

Who thicks man's blood with cold."

"'God save thee, ancient Mariner!"

From the fiends, that plague thee thus!—

Why look'st thou so?'—With my cross-bow

I shot the ALBATROSS."

"Water, water, everywhere / But not a drop to drink". Famously misheard. But probably not quite the condition of Coleridge’s, when he opened the gates for British Romantic literature with his famous piece of seaman’s yarn. Opium dissolved in alcohol, laudanum, was the propellant of choice to drive the Lake Poets to bizarre, picturesque landscapes, dreamscapes, when Romanticism dawned upon the Northern hemisphere and Coleridge consumed it quite like a sailor on shore leave. Or a depressed poet with a writer’s block, along with the travelogues of actual mariners and their journeys to the eternal ice of the poles. A heady mixture. And he became a dreamer, Coleridge did, grasped his Homer and set forth on a journey to the icy poles of his own imagination, populated by Gothic ghosties and ghoulies and other things that did go bump in the mindscapes of most of the age’s writers worth their salt.

"The souls did from their bodies fly,—

They fled to bliss or woe!

And every soul, it passed me by,

Like the whizz of my cross-bow!"

(Probably not Coleridge's most sure-footed lines...)

The sea herself, the natural habitat of Ancient Mariners, becomes a backdrop, a scenery for crime, curse and punishment and a low road to bring on the horrors and, at last, redemption for the titular hero. The Ancient Mariner. Who foolishly and famously shot an albatross and brought bad cess galore on himself and the ship’s company. The sea, the sun, stars and the moon, especially the moon, become symbol-charged stage props on the poet’s and his not-so-jolly tar’s Campbellian journey inwards, “white” as a colour of ill omen shimmers through Coleridge’s historising lines, a rare occurrence in Western literature and enthusiastically seized on by Poe and Melville from across the pond, in their maritime tales.

"The spirit who bideth by himself

In the land of mist and snow,

He loved the bird that loved the man

Who shot him with his bow.'"

But like his Bostonian admirer’s naval narratives from more than a generation later, Coleridge’s “Ancient Mariner” is spooled seaman’s yarn and not exactly Marryat or Conrad. But it apparently does not want to be a log at all. Even though Coleridge read at least some of those for inspiration. It is Gothic imagination and its set pieces of angels, demons, death and femmes fatales where Coleridge’s manifest dream content leaves the most lasting impression, even two centuries after its publication.  

"Upon the whirl, where sank the ship,

The boat spun round and round;

And all was still, save that the hill

Was telling of the sound."

Instead of the world-famous take on Coleridge by Gustave Doré from 1866, yours truly chose the less known but still quite evocative ones by Sir Noel Paton's, published three years earlier.

A complete edition with the full set of Sir Noel's artwork for Samuel Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1797) can be found below as facsimile:

[frozenwolftemplar]

ON THIS DAY TEN YEARS AGO A MOMENTUS THING HAPPENED: 

THE WORLD GOT ITS FIRST LOOK AT ‘FROZEN.’

‘This day in history’ mini-essay below the break! ❄

Disney had announced ‘Frozen’ six months prior (June 12), releasing the names of two cast members (Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel), Chris Buck as the sole director, the songwriting team (who I knew only from the 2011 ‘Winnie the Pooh’ 🤦‍♀️), and a synopsis that now serves to illustrate just how much changed during production in a year: “In Frozen, a prophecy traps a kingdom in eternal winter, so young dreamer Anna (voice of Bell) must team up with Kristoff, a daring mountain man, on the grandest of journeys to find Elsa the Snow Queen (voice of Menzel) and put an end to the icy spell. Encountering Everest-like extremes, mystical creatures and magic at every turn, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom from destruction.”

Nothing else was said until ^this^ concept art was released along with an updated synopsis and the addition of Jennifer Lee as a co-director: In Frozen, Anna (voice of Kristen Bell), a fearless optimist, teams up with extreme mountain man Kristoff and his sidekick reindeer Sven in an epic journey, encountering mystical trolls, a funny snowman named Olaf, Everest-like extremes and magic at every turn in a race to find Anna’s sister Elsa (voice of Idina Menzel), the Snow Queen, and save their kingdom from eternal winter.

When it came to getting excited for movies, 2012 me was a cautious person. I hadn’t loved most of Disney’s CG output as of late (’Tangled,’ and ‘Bolt’ were pretty much it) and kept any excitement strictly curbed until a month or two before release. Accordingly, I did not fangirl super hard at this and mostly treated it like I would any ‘first look’ at an upcoming movie. However, I distinctly remember there was something about this that held my interest longer than any ‘first looks’ for an upcoming movie ever did (helped in part by the Internet having fun doing things like zooming in on Anna to get a better look or pointing out what would be Elsa’s signature snowflake embedded in the ice), as well as being particularly intrigued by the whole ‘sister’ angle. It was enough to make me think:

Huh. This sounds like it might be kinda good.

[sparksinthenight]

Aflame

I was a bad, bad daughter

But you loved me anyways

Until you didn’t

But I’m the fire’s bright sparker

I’m the wood that lays

Down in the fire pit

And as the flames come to life

As my ashes bring a new world

As the people gather round

As our destiny is unfurled

——— Technically

I didn’t let you down

Sir

So you’ll see

The thing I become now

Were

We going to be

The only ones unbowed

But

My destiny

Is in my own hands now

Technically

You said you wanted this

Sir

Luckily

I found someone to kiss

Her

Mouth on mine

Oh gods it feels divine

And we erase each line

And we erase each line

———

I was a sad, sad dreamer

And as you were watching plays

I truly wasn’t

But I’m my own redeemer

I set myself ablaze

Without regretting it

And as the flames come to life

All the dead they join the new war

All the chaos, fire, ice

Will the primal being restore

———

Technically

I didn’t let you down

Sir

So you’ll see

The thing I become now

Were

We going to be

The only ones unbowed

But

My destiny

Is in my own hands now

Technically

You said you wanted this

Sir

Luckily

I found someone to kiss

Her

Mouth on mine

Oh gods it feels divine

And we erase each line

And we erase each line

———

The future in the hands

Of all the ones who take a stand

I’m a girl who understands

We shouldn’t do it like you planned

The ashes of this earth

Will a living world rebirth

And this galaxy

It will finally break free

My life force is in the hands

Of all the ones who you command

The ashes of my life

Will take all people from this strife

And eternity

It will finally be free

You cannot eat money

You cannot eat money

———

Technically

I didn’t let you down

Sir

So you’ll see

The thing I become now

Were

We going to be

The only ones unbowed

But

My destiny

Is in my own hands now

Technically

You said you wanted this

Sir

Luckily

I found someone to kiss

Her

Mouth on mine

Oh gods it feels divine

And we erase each line

And we erase each line

———

I am a girl

I’ll find my world

[wyrmfedgrave]

Pics: Some amazing auroras.

Output: Short Takes.

1. During Lovecraft's "Great Retreat" period, around 1910 AD, he cultivated the image of a "Boston Brahman" - America's answer to British nobles.

At only 5 foot & 10 inches, Howard's thin frame & broad shoulders gave others the impression of height.

HPL dressed conservatively, using his grandad's 19th century clothes as his style guide.

Lovecraft loved wearing grey striped slacks. With a black coat, bow-tie & high buttoned shoes.

This austere look would only soften with age.

But, Howard wasn't ever a fan of modern styles.

HPL thought that his clothing choices gave him the appearance of maturity & restored his lost aristocratic flair.

But, alas, it was only a wish to be like his grandad.

2. Lovecraft dreamed of recovering the family estate & making a name for himself in chemistry or astronomy.

But, Howard's lack of a formal school education, his few social skills & having so little income, all conspired to prevent him from ever attaining his goals.

HPL couldn't compete as a sportsman - because he didn't like dogs.

He was a total cat worshiper!!

Even after Lovecraft's s own cat (the infamous N_rman) disappeared 1 day, he took to caring for the neighbor- hood cats.

And, though Howard inherited a fine gun collection, the killing of a squirrel drove him to give his weapons away.

Except for an old show piece flintlock musket...

Worse, HPL wasn't very athletic - sleeping most of the day away.

He rarely went out in the sun...

And, his diet consisted of self-made meals - often made up of sweets & ice cream!

It's amazing that he survived as long as he did...

Quotes:

1. "Because the cosmos is meaning- less... we... secure our... illusions of values, direction & interest by up- holding... artificial (cultures). (And,) since nothing means anything... we must preserve the... arbitrary back- grounds which (seem to) make things mean something."

2. "Our (sensory) means... are few & our ideas of objects (is) narrow. We see things only as we are (built) to... We can (not know) their absolute nature with (just) 5 feeble senses. (In- stead), we comprehend the... complex cosmos (only dimly)."

3. "Good & evil, beauty & ugliness are only (the) fruit of (perception), whose sole value lies in... what chance made our (fore)fathers think & feel... Whose finer details are different for every race & culture."

4. "With feeble senses we pretend to (know) the... complex cosmos. Yet, other beings - with (other) senses - might... see... things differently. (They) might... study... matter, energy & life... close (by). Yet, never be detected (by our) senses."

5. "In my... life, I am... more responsive to beauty than horror. Indeed, I (have) never experienced real cosmic horror - except in nightmares. However, I... find that only horror... has any unique- ness or originality."

6. "The appeal of the... macabre is (usually) narrow because it demands... a certain degree of imagination &... detachment from (the) everyday."

7. "Pleasure... is to wonder (about) the unexplored (&) unexpected... (What) is hidden & the (eternal) thing that lurks behind superficial (changes)."

8. "Some (dreamers) awake... with... phantasms of enchanting hills & gardens, fountains... singing in the sun, golden cliffs (above) murmuring seas, plains that stretch to... sleeping cities of bronze & stone, of... heroes... riding along... thick forests."

"(But,) then we (see) that we... looked back... into (the) wonder that was ours - before we (grew) wise & unhappy."

9. "The ignorant &... deluded are... to be envied. That which is not known... does not bother us. An imagined... peril (can) not harm us. To know the truth behind reality is the far greater burden."

10. "As for... Republicans - how can one regard seriously (the) frightened, greedy (& power hungry) idlers who shut their eyes to history & science. (People who) steel their (hearts) against decent human sympathy."

Enjoy your Memorial Day...

End.

[watcherintheweyr]

Lucien couldve been a moral check but instead the author decided to have feyre and Rhys demean, belittle, and mock him, his abuse and trauma, completely ignore everything he's ever done to help them, and the author... glorifies them doing it. They are never ever held accountable or face repercussions for how they abuse the people around them and its exhausting to read.

Hell, Eris could be the moral check because he is **everything Rhysand thinks that he is.** he's the heir to a massively powerful court who has to play act as a villain to protect the ones he loves, and even those he doesn't from the monster that is his sire. But beneath that he is constantly scheming and acting and plotting to help those around him- subjects and family both, and genuinely cares for the fate of Prythian. But the IC is literally obsessed with hating him. They LIKE hating him, so they'll ignore all the truths of his nature- even the ones they're slapped in the face with- because it doesn't fit their self righteous superiority complexes.

NESTA should have been a major moral reality check. Despite her prickly nature, she cares deeply- so, so deeply, and not only for herself and not even only for her family. But instead they literally battered and exhausted and isolated her until she broke down and became compliant to what they wanted, which the narrative then praises.

Rhys 'plays' as the villain- and has in fact committed monstrous acts as the 'mask'- but he's eternally defended and given a pass because of his trauma. Any time someone tries to hold him accountable for his actions he either has a panic attack, belittles them, threatens them, or flat ignores them, and everyone around him trips over themselves to defend him and his ego. He exhibits sexism, he exhibits major controlling and egocentric traits and they're all excused. He literally commits several of the exact same acts Tamlin is demonized for- and he's praised for them by the narrative.

Sjmess preens so proudly that he's morally grey, an antihero with a heart of gold- but that isn't the case. And any character who sees through that, like Nesta, like Lucien- is broken down and gaslit into seeing themselves as a problem, and then basically just letting themselves be used as tools for him and his inner circle.

He cares SO MUCH about Velaris, but he and Feyre are building a fifth home while there's slums in Velaris. He cares SO MUCH about equality for the Illyrian women and better conditions for the mistreated children but makes a million excuses for why he can't enforce his own laws or act to prevent atrocities he is fully aware are happening. He knows that Keir is a monster but lets him live and have control over the Hewn City- punishing everyone trapped there for the actions of those in power. Night Court citizens who have lived and died all without ever seeing the night sky.

His entire inner circle is actively horrible, immature, petty people who only care for sex and drinking and appearances (but then judge and condemn others for doing the same things) and yet they're 'the most powerful' they're 'the dreamers'. The narrative does nothing but stroke and prime and praise their choices and their egos and excuse the horrors they commit. Ever since Feyre truly became one of them, she's spiraled down a worse and worse path, becoming a person that ACOTAR Feyre would be disgusted by- and even despite all of that and the truth of it, despite being the fucking 'High Lady' she only truly has power if Rhys decides she does, if Rhys agrees with her. And with all of that, she is also still and ever a victim of the inner circle and their control, manipulations, and disrespect.

It's so disappointing. The whole world and series had so much fucking potential. So many of the characters have **so much potential.** but it's squandered.

I don’t think people get it. There is nothing wrong with liking something in fiction that you would normally despise in real life. That is not my problem with Rhysand and the Inner Circle. My problem is when an author writes a story in a way that clearly shows they agree with these characters. I love a little freak as much as the next person, but not when you’re trying to convince me every two seconds they’re the good guy while they’re simultaneously doing bad shit. And yes it’s first person POV, so of course Feyre will think she’s right. This is why there needs to be a moral check. Suzanne Collins did this really well with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Even without the existence of the OG series, you can tell the author/narrative does not agree with Coryo even though he thinks he’s right because Sejanus acted as a moral check, someone to challenge the MC’s view. Lucien could’ve been a moral check for Feyre. He so damn nearly was when he said “The girl I knew died under the Mountain.” BUT SJM DIDN’T COMMIT TO IT. Feylin could’ve been the tragic romance, Feysand the villain story. BUT SJM DIDN’T COMMIT TO IT. So instead, we have a half-baked hero who SJM clearly believes is in the right and not only is that poor writing but it reflects her irl beliefs. The way you think is reflected in the way you write. This series is targeted at impressionable teens when it’s clearly dark romance and I see people defending Rhysand and shitting on Tamlin and calling Rhys the hero. It’s ridiculous.