#(this is the same guy who thinks religion is stupid so i should probably just stop watching his videos)

[ioannemos]

some jackass (who really should know better by now bc of all the true crime stories he's read about high-risk lifestyles like prostitution leaving people vulnerable) while reading a true crime story about a different jackass who murdered multiple women who were prostituting themselves (usually to pay for the hardcore drugs their boyfriends got them on): sex work should be legal tho :/ isn't it proven that legalizing it makes it safer?

me, who has seen the Receipts that what he just said is 100% wrong but can also follow basic logic:

[theteasetwrites]

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon | S1E1 Thoughts

Okay I am gonna list all my positive and negative thoughts regarding each episode (I know no one asked but I feel like this is the only thing I am somewhat “qualified” to talk about ad nauseam on here).

⚠️ SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️ do not read below the cut unless you’re okay with spoilers

Positive Thoughts

Norman’s acting is so good like?? Listen we all know he’s not Laurence Olivier and he doesn’t claim to be but goddamnit he nails the subtleties of Daryl’s expressions and conveys his emotions really well I think! I’m very impressed

Daryl hot

Obviously the cinematography, setting, and aesthetics are really cool. It’s both gritty but pretty!! I love the gothic architecture and how OLD everything looks, which is only exacerbated by the apocalyptic feel

Everyone in the cast is so good in terms of acting (well, I mean… Laurent is certainly there but he’s a child so we’ll be lenient)

Daryl hot

The walkers are great as usual. I love the burners. Really interesting! I’m kind of wondering if the “experiments” the people on the ship refer to relate to the burners? Maybe they’re making them like that idk.

I love the religious imagery. We have had cults and stuff in TWDU before but I don’t think we’ve had this Catholic vibe going on. I’m a sucker for anything nun related because I have a weird infatuation with them, so I’m all for it.

DARYL BATHTUB SCENE??? They put that in for the girls and the gays and we are LIVING for it

Daryl hot

Daryl is so reminiscent of early seasons TWD era with his witty lines and snark remarks. I feel like we don’t get to see this side of Daryl very often anymore, but now that he has his own show and is THE main character, we get to see those sides that have been neglected again. I also love how much he sort of scoffs at the nuns and their religion. Atheist Daryl we love to see it

It’s cool seeing people in France dealing with the same things our characters have dealt with since the beginning. It’s interesting to see these new parts of the world in this universe for sure

Daryl hot

I honestly just love thinking about how when Daryl gets home he is gonna have such a crazy ass story to tell everyone! It’s gonna be so cute to see him telling all the kids about how heroic he is and ugh yessss

Daryl deserves his own show. He deserves to be THE main character. People who said he can’t lead a show? Nah. Reconsider

I also love that Daryl MIGHT potentially save the world. Cool asf. And if anyone from the original series should save the world, I think it’s him.

Daryl hot

Negative Thoughts:

Okay. I have some very petty/subjective critiques. I realize a lot of you guys probably disagree with me but that’s okay! Don’t read my negative thoughts if you aren’t prepared to be annoyed with me lol. Once again, a lot of these are super petty/nitpicky

First thing that bothers me is that Daryl says he is from the Commonwealth. No. He is from Alexandria, thank you very much. Well, at least he should be. He should’ve been living at Alexandria imo but the finale didn’t really make it explicitly clear where he was living in that year time jump. Basically I just hate the Commonwealth because I have zero attachment to it and it’s just a stupid ass place that I wanna forget about

Daryl seeing Carol in his haze 🙄 … just annoys me solely because Carol annoys me. They could’ve just shown Judith because that would’ve made more sense to me. But don’t get me started, I don’t even want Carol in season 2. Anyway.

Laurent isn’t terrible but he’s kind of annoying in that “I’m so smart I know everything” way. Just very annoying smart kid at school who everyone hated vibes. Plus I just don’t think it’s realistic that he would be THAT smart just from being raised in a convent of nuns

I also fail to understand what they’re doing with Laurent. Is he just some kid that the nuns think is the messiah or is he ACTUALLY the messiah? Like are they gonna throw in a whole other supernatural religious element? Because Laurent conveniently knows Judith’s line from the finale “you deserve a happy ending too.” Right down to the letter. I find it cheesy as hell because I’m so tired of these blatant in your face parallels that are trying to be clever, which always involve children too like we get it children are basically the duck tape of TWDU. Don’t know what to do for this plot? Throw some kids in there!

Neither Positive nor Negative Thoughts:

I don’t trust the nuns. I think they’re gonna use Daryl to get what they want and they don’t really care about getting him home. Worse, I think it could be possible that Isabelle won’t let him get home. She already tried to keep him from using the radio. I’m not saying I hate her character or anything (I actually like her so far… as long as she stays friendly and not… overly friendly), I just think she’s way too invested in this “messiah” stuff to actually care about Daryl so I fear she will take advantage of him. We shall see.

Ok, those are pretty much all of my thoughts!

[littleapocalypsekitten]

So, I feel like ranting a bit about something that annoys me. So, a youtuber I watch frequently for politics and interesting religion-stuff took some calls and talked about Islamophobia and some contradictory things he' said. He is an atheist youtuber, but known for tolerance and being all "I don't care if you're (moderately) religious, I want allies to go after the fanatics." At the same time, he openly wants everyone who is religious in any way to "wake up and realize that it is all false." You have no idea how condescending I find that.

First, the take on Islam. (I personally do not have much familiarity with the religion), but this guy I watch seemed to fall into the trap of seeing Islam as "especially dangerous" - (the video was titled "Islam is a problem, how to solve it") which I clicked on because it seemed... kind of out of character for him to have a video titled that. He made clear that he didn't want to see Muslims hurt but saw the religion a above-and-beyond dangerous, like a bit more than Christianity. My first thought is that he only feels that way because he was formerly a form of Christian (JW) and because he lives in a society where it predominates, so, of course, like most Americans, he's not going to see the background-radiation he lives with as nearly as "dangerous" as the foreign thing he is unfamiliar with and which get a lot of war-coverage and propaganda against it. He seems to think that Islam is mostly terroristic, has fewer moderates. Second... it's the take on other religions as an "I'll work with you, but wake up" attitude. The idea that the entire world will be a better place once everyone becomes atheist. Blah! Not with some of the jerks I've known. I truly believe that the solution to religious extremism ISN'T pushing the world toward no-religion, it's fostering and encouraging BETTER religion. Also, just a good, humble, general uncertainty on all our parts. Back when I was more religious than I am now - back when I was Evangelical rather than Progressive/Universalist in my own religion (Christian-based, although I am questioning now), I encountered a lot of people who treated me like I was stupid for believing in a God at all. I encountered people who said that if I wanted to be respected as an intelligent, full human that I needed to give up my faith. This was "the world" that I was warned about on Sundays. I saw people who wanted me to conform to the world. I saw a danger to my soul. Predictably, I dug in, and was like that for a long time. Do you know what got me to mellow out? Not "Be an atheist / be a wan deist." It was... other forms of Christianity that I'd discovered. I disliked what I felt like I "had to believe" and sought out, on my own, online generally, other ways to do Christianity. I discovered the *concept* of LGBT+ Christians, for example - that Church was wrong about being gay being inherently a rebellion against God. And not just "I'm gay but I'm chaste" people, but you know, people who scholared out some of the probably-original-words of Scripture with arguments of them being mistranslated over the centuries. The same with the concept of Hell, which I'd believed in for far too long not just because of dogma, but because of depression, low self-esteem and ideas I had about the inherent cruelty of Nature. (Yeah, I'm weird). I saw people arguing against Hell USING THE BIBLE. (Talking of original languages, and of scriptures that even in English seem to counter the eternal torture idea). The people telling me "just be atheist" scared me, pissed me off and got me backlashing. It was the "Keep your faith, but you're allowed to do it kinder" that got me, well, kinder, more open, and more questioning. And, no, it does not (nor should it) inherently lead to atheism. I've seen atheist into fostering moderate religion because they think they'll eventually "save" the religious people. And on the fundie side, that's exactly why they warn against moderate religion ("you'll lose your faith and lose your meaning.") I DEPISE the idea that both drawn up "sides" seem to think of it having a single direction. Humans are more complicated than that. From one "side" (fundie) there's a scare-tactic. From the other, they may think they are being favorable, but they are being insulting.

[kaeyapilled]

u should tell me more about asa PRETTYPLEASE

AUGH I REALLY DONT HAVE MUCH. does it have to be only the genshin related parts? well yes ill stick to that because he has like four different flavors depending on what universe i put him in. okay so

this is roughly what he looks like. i thought i had more good picrews of him but i dont apparently<//3 well heres some fun facts about him like in general to start

- best friends with my oc sofia who. i haven't really put into the genshin universe. but if the people ask i can talk about her too loll

- ambulatory wheelchair user, typically uses a cane, has Some chronic illness that i dont really know which,, pots probably. unspecified chronic pain. but the thing is im not chronically ill or disabled myself so i need to search more stuff before im super confident exploring this side of his character lmao

- sadly he is just like baizhu. the chronically ill doctor trope is already filled in genshin but there's always space for someone else! right!

- not pictured here but sometimes i make him have wings. i still haven't decided if he should actually have them or not. when he has wings only one is functional so he can't quite Fly

- wings or no wings he likes birds a lot!

- i chose his name because it means healer or doctor in....hebrew i think? according to google? and it also means just. "wing". in my mother tongue portuguese so kshdksh hitting two symbolisms with one stone

- now focusing on the genshin part. his father is the actual doctor in charge of the cathedral infirmary but is currently on the varka expedition (look this guy's father is. I don't know what to do with him. like in any universe. idk if i give asa oc syndrome and make him a full orphan or if i just leave the man alone because he's a solid guy! a good father! anyways i digress) and asa is in charge sort of in a similar situation to jean being acting grandmaster.

- i think he's besties with barbara. she's like a younger sister. because i think hes around jeans age. (and dilucs and kaeyas i think all of them r around the same age)

- he has an anemo vision but don't ask me how he got it

- catalyst user and healer but do not ask me like what sort of talents he'd have i dont know. don't ask me if he's a 4* or a 5* either i don't know,, but if he were to have a banner his like. title? idk? would be, and this is kinda stupid, Healing Winds of Birdsong - does it not sound like something you'd read on a genshin banner. i think does

- hes very devout to barbatos but at the same time i kinda enjoy the idea of him. questioning some stuff about the archons and gods too. like those medieval(? do not quote me on this) philosophers who thought extensively about religion and the human condition and. etc. does this make sense

- if he knew the annoying bard is no one other than the anemo archon i think he'd combust

- he picks up his fantasy testosterone prescription at the alchemy shop. the image of albedo and sucrose coming up with hrt is just too dear to me

- i want him and kaeya to kiss just because im a kaeya lover and. why not. but i don't have anything developed about them At All forgive me

do you want to see my cringefail voicelines i wrote?

Something to Share: Did you know that Mondstadt alone has over three hundred species of birds? Around the city area, you mostly see pigeons and falcons, but the diversity in places with less human activity is much bigger. Also, a lot of the birds migrate during the winter months, towards warmer climates like Liyue and even Sumeru. Oh, and— um... Forgive me, I seem to have been talking for a while... It's a topic that interests me.

Favorite Food: I tend to like more savory dishes. In fact, Sofia won't let me cook anymore, because I "put too much salt in the food". You know, I don't see the problem. It tastes fine to me.

- oh!! on the topic of favorite foods! i tried coming up with a special dish for him and i ended up picking northern smoked fowl because. vibes. but its a stamina dish and i kinda wish his special dish was a hp one.,, but anyway:

Special Dish: Doctor's Orders

Asa's specialty. The same recipe for smoked fowl with vegetables that's been passed down in Mondstadt for years, with the doctor's own twists. It's a little heavy on the salt, but it tastes really good overall.

plus character voicelines

About Barbara: Barbara? Oh, we wouldn't manage at the cathedral if it wasn't for her. I have taught her a lot, but the healing techniques she comes up with never fail to amaze me. Her presence always brightens up the place and soothes even the most ill of patients. I hold her in very high regards.

About Rosaria: I can't say I approve of Sister Rosaria's negligence towards her duties in the church, or of her blatant disrespect towards the Anemo Archon. That being said... I think I admire her conviction to simply do whatever she wants. Perhaps trying to force her into the role of nun is a bit foolish. This is the city of freedom, after all, is it not?

About Venti: The bard? *sigh* Archons above. He'll sing beautiful melodies about Lord Barbatos, then turn around and immediately slur out the most sacrilegious things I have ever heard in my life. Being around him for too long is exhausting and he always brings trouble. Yet, I find that I can't truly dislike him. Heh, he's an interesting one for sure.

and my entirely self indulgent and overly long About Kaeya voiceline:

About Kaeya: Sir Kaeya? Way too much of a charmer. That overly confident attitude ought to backfire on him sometime. It's easy to get swept away in all his smooth talk, but after a while you start to see it for what it is: a convoluted way to either change the subject or make you the center of his jests... *sigh* Well... I suppose that, when he wants, he isn't entirely awful to talk to... Hm? What? Who– who told you that? No! Why would I go to the tavern "just to see him"!? That's– *ahem* It isn't like that. Is it that far fetched that I might enjoy a drink during my moments of leisure? It's not my fault if the Captain is there all the time... Hmph, did Sofia put you up to this?

yeah. what else can I say about him. i thought of writing character stories for him but couldnt find enough ideas. here's the only salvageable paragraph:

... Asa can recall exactly what Mother Maria told him when he came to her, realization still fresh in his mind, desperate for some sort of guidance.

"The winds lead each of us through different paths. Barbatos has granted you with the power to choose whoever you wish to be; that is part of His gift of freedom."

Like a gust of cool wind that brings with it epiphanies, something clicked inside his chest, like the pieces of a puzzle falling into place.

And it was on that day that the little girl who used to dream of nunhood grew into a sharp young man who named himself "Asa."

okay this is all I've got. for now

[junsei-draws-rotasu]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of The Ooze 1990 movie

So, I never received any spoiler for the other parts of this Trilogy. So, my prediction would be the Krang is here or somehow Shredder lived.

Ah yes, I think this Film might be sponsored by pizza

I think April might be the one who sponsee this pizza place on how many times she ordered for the guys

Keno, cool name, but Keno. No. Just stick to your route and you won’t get mugged or smth

Keno, how old are you? Maybe 15 from what I see… that might explain the impulsiveness on doing something this stupid

Oh wow, Leno got some moves

I’m not sure if they’re running away from being knowing their asses being kicked or the fact there are 4 large turtles

Oh! At least you didn’t slap yourself to know reality! That is a far more better way to do so!

Raph, don’t you, that kid might’ve suffocated there?

That thief is an idiot thinking Donatello is that back and forward toy.

If the turtle left Keno stuck there, he’ll die. Thanks to Dazai from BSD, that is one painful death to be in

Is Mikey always the smallest turtle now matter what iteration? I think Raph might be the tallest one here.

Mom April. At least she isn’t yelling. But yeah, it’s ironic the rat is the cleanest one

I swear Donnie needs to be diagnosed, I’m not in the spectrum meaning I’m not qualified.

Since when did you guys become religious–oh, smelling it… I guess Pizza might be the turtles religion

Splinter, why’s re you wearing your shredded robe? Get some new clothes please.

Oh wow, so it’s the 1990 and 2012 turtles had only begun their adventure at the age of 15. The only difference is the fact the 1990 turtles knows pizza before the 2012 turtles.

I should pay attention to the poster more. So, Godzilla would be in this movie? How meta

Raph is the tallest and Mikey is the smallest. And Donnie and Leo have the same height.

Donnie is jokingly religious here since he did the sign of the cross for praying

So I was right on Shredder being alive

Shut up Tetsu, and why are we calling Shredder father??? Are we really in deep that cult mindset?

Oh, yah no. You’ll be called Tetsu instead Tatsu, that one is reserve who I actually respect. 2012 Tatsu.

Why are you talking like the stereotypical Caveman who talks in English but not supposed to

I like the new helmet design, but seriously. Get a new mask. And an overreaction to his face guys, he’s not ugly as 2012 Saki

TGRI sound awfully like TCRI. Don’t tell me this company is experimenting the Ooze on the water

Annoying little sibling Mikey

The professor sounds condescending. Getting bad vibes

“I’m paid to be suspicious” - April O’Neil 1990

What kind of worker are you?! Don’t you know safety first if it’s suspicious stuff??? YOU USE GLOVES OR ANYTHING TO COVER YOUR HAND!!!

Ngl, crunchy dandelions sounds satisfying

Oh nvm, Shredder your helmet is worse than your mask, I take back my compliment.

Same gurl, we both knew it

I have never seen you guys question yourself until you brought that up Donatello

Popping off Donnie!

Feels like they’re treating this like a game (no Shet Sherlock) shut up sergeant sarcasm

Tetsu, your very incompetent when you could’ve vanish when they were making a game plan. You could’ve vanish by not confronting them. This is why you can’t have your name correctly spelled from me

It’s in my head for a while, but is the Professor Baxter Stockman? Since the 1987 Baxter Stockman is a white man.

Keno, you can’t just go in someone’s apartment!

April you could’ve done with your cousin stayed over and forgot about them excuse, or saying it’s a collection

Yeah, fainting seeing a giant rat makes sense than fainting seeing a giant turtle

When are we getting Casey?

Especially teenagers… Probably for easier manipulation

Ugh, it looks like vomit 🤢

I’m not sure white coat is good to wear during the rain, April

They sure hit the jack spot

I like this Professor, despite being shifty, he got some balls to being sassy to the Shredder.

Pft—Oroku Saki, the Shredder, a mother of two mutants. Next thing we’ll know, Saki might win the milf award

That’s how infants are

What the hell?! I’m with the professor!

Well, the professor at least tried to make sure he’s sons aren’t killed the moment they were born.

Give them praise Saki, this is an important development for their age to be praised

Keno, NO! Raph, NO!

At least team work makes the dream work? Seriously, a bad plan.

I swear, Tetsu and Saki are boyfriends, like the minute Raph makes fun of Tetsu, Saki immediately went between them like protecting his bf

Leo, cut the rope! You still have your swords!

Splinter looks like Weasel or an Otter than a Rat

Tokka and Razhar… I can see Tokka being scary because the gimbal episode but Razhar? Nah, Chris Bradford got it

You know, I just realize this turtles fights individually and flashy like season 1 2012 turtles

In defense of the Professor, he thinks he’s being kidnap again

Aw, Donnie

Would you look at that, Saki is trying to be a mother for these mutant babies

What a prick

They should’ve frosted it instead

“Go ninja go! Go ninja go!” Didn’t realized this came from the 1990 tmnt

Damn look at those moves

The band is quite talented to make up this song on stop

The crowd thinking they got a play plus a musicale in this club

“I learnt that from a rat” - Keno 1990

This film has one of the best absurde lines

Now he looks cool and intimidating. Props to the costume team. Especially to Jim Henson

Did Shredder drown?

Of course Baxter couldn’t be the professor, Professor Perry is too cool

Oooh, here comes the scolding

[bells-of-black-sunday]

For muns with multiple muses, past and present, on any blog. Rules: Fill out the form according to which muse suits each title best. (The same muse can have multiple titles.) Repost and tag. Feel free to add more!

Favourite Muse: Danny, Tarhos, Frank, and Aita they're all super easy to write and I get some fun interactions out them. People seem to like them too, so its a win win,

Most Character Development: Probably Danny, Tarhos, Frank, and Julie.

Trash Muse: Jerry, I love him, but he canonically went on a rant about his math "religion" and then almost spiked their ashes at their funeral. (3rd book)

The Meme-Lord: Danny always has really fun interactions especially in modern where he can just be stupid as much as he wants.

Most Likely to Start a War: Tarhos- He did actively start one and then got pulled into the fog during it.

Worst Personality: Yijun, but fuck I love him. He's a snake oil salesmen and him being what he is he literally survives off of attention and the greed he accumulates. He is literally just one of those Instagram models that push fad diet scams, mlms or sigma male audiobooks.

Most Attractive Muse: I think it really depends on a persons taste? But personally for me it's Aita, Luka, Luanne or Yijun, But I also know some people who really like Angel or Pearl too so.

Falls in Love Quickest: Pearl, but he's mostly just into guys with money.

Most Likely to Drop Their Phone in the Toilet: Aita he's the most likely to be drunk in public where that could happen easily.

Ice Ruler: Renata or Luanne they're both women that hold power and will not let even an inch of it go. They're cold and callous.

The Edgelord: FRANK my sweet baby boy who listens to metal and breaks into homes and businesses for fun.

Most Tragic Backstory: I feel like a lot of my d.bd muses have tragic backstories? That's just how the lore tends to go, but Frank if you stop to think about it is tragic. He's a kid whose bene in the foster care all his life passed from home to home and when he finally gets to Ormond his adoptive dad just wants the government money to go get drunk at the bar so he's left by himself.

Best Case of Puberty: Probably Tarhos??? To go from being a broad shouldered lanky kid to looking like a fucking bear is certainly an achievement.

Most Awkward: Susie, she's got anxiety and a lot of it except with her mask on.

Busy Bee: Viktor fucking lives at his lab, he will not stop working even when he should.

Most Clueless: Pearl except most of it is an act, because everyone loves a clueless blonde.

Most Likely to Forget Their Wallet at Home: Kazan in modern au, he's a grandpa leave him alone.

Best Dressed: Yijun, he's got big ass fur coats and lots of silks. Gold and fine jewels, he likes to flaunt what he has.

Biggest Flirt: Aita, because it gets him free things. That's it. If it gets him free food or drinks he'll do it.

Most Dramatic: Ji-Woon he's so full of himself even in his own tome, he physically cannot put others above himself. Like content warning for animal death in his tome but like- yeah he literally did that just because a hamster was getting more attention than his flute solo in class.

Least Likely to Show Up Late: Tarhos is bare minimum 40 minutes early to everything he has to go to-

One with Weirdest Habit: Anna hums lullabies to herself to pass the time, but it's not that weird.

Most Likely to Be Caught at the Gym: Tarhos, Frank, or Kazan. Frank just likes to stay in shape, but Tarhos and Kazan are jus- huge.

Tagged by: @misstantabismuses (Thank you!) Tagging: anyone who wants me to idk how many multis follow me-

[the-firebird69]

LUXURY LIFESTYLE ★ OF ZEUS ⚡️ THE ★ BILLIONAIRE ★ #shorts #zeus #billion...

We're preparing a lawsuit now and it's in Monaco and Billy your father and mother pissed off and what you said is it's a religion and some people still worship it and he's using the name in vain he's also calling himself God and many people are killed who do that so they're going to bring it up and he'll probably get killed just for doing that he's an idiot it's not even what it just looks like in any of the statues this this man is a fool and he needs to be pointed out it's just being a bum he smells he's wearing a burlap sack I think she looks cool you're a f****** moron I mean the name is he and the moron won't let us change it to that I mean what kind of f****** off is he for the loser now we're going to go after him and for the swearing and we're going to take him to court for using the same this name Zeus and he's using it on legal documents and that's how and he is also impersonating a diety and it's in Greece that they have this religion and they're not to talk about it and they're also not to present it and then definitely not to have the name used and he's not considered to be Greek at all and he's not considered to be part of their religious order and he's not to use the name. There are laws against it in Europe and we're going to use them on this idiot they were tired of seeing him run the stuff in her son's face as he's the one not letting him have money the guy has to go and we said it too it looks like Lily finally gets rid of him a little bit and so other people get rid of him for real and gets the car down here and the two people fighting in the movie is Tommy f versus Trump whose Big Daddy and she gets sick of Big Daddy because you're a loser and a gimp and an a****** and you have nothing and you should have stuff because you have all this money but you're so stupid that you don't know how to use it and I went out of this you can see her at the end of the movie save it to him and it's in code but he's standing there staring in disbelief it says we did all that stuff and he went out of this says you can't cuz of course you can and she says just watch me and you're a f** I'm going to report you too for all your indiscretions against this realm it's been a big list together and our son says you need dirt Lily because you need to release it on this jerk to stop him from doing stuff to you and she says I actually agree with this this is damn tiring s*** and you need out pal and we need dirt and he wants to go to a new place anyways the septic is so screwed up then we can figure that s*** out I'm there for a day and it stinks and I want to be there take a shower it smells like s*** everyone in town is embarrassed because of use three morons yeah you too Stan you're a pig you're a s*** head by the way everybody knows what the Max and you don't seem to know anything you're a loser he said he was telling you the stuff to look at oh boy he can take over the max this is great news you haven't even scratched the bunkers I know why they do it they can't do anything so they're looking at it this is the stupidest thing I've heard we don't have worms here like that and we're going to go get them and release them crazy s*** and it looks like he does it to try and grab our friend here and the worms go to instead they go to Saudi Arabia and we think Jason does that. I'm afraid to say I think that you have to die for him to get anything you're such a freaking moron but then again it's like your car and you'd hate him to death and you love that stuff cuz you're such a loser and you were the worst actor in history screech was doing a better job and his lines are terrible but he had to do his horrible but people couldn't stand you not friendly or nice you're just a****** this pasty face from fear he's going to look it up and post it show it kind of jerk you are

Lily

[transsexualhamlet]

okok 10 + 25 for bsd 17 for tolkien stuff n 19 for ons

choose violence ask game

ohohoheuehe yes indeedy

(bsd)

10. Worst part of fanon

oh god there's so many ofc. Obviously it has to be said the "sigma is three years old" thing is SO fucking tiring and everyone knows it. But also for the love of god the people who've gotten ahold of nikolai and fyodor who've made them "immature insane sadist with no inner thought" and "russian stereotype" i hate them i hate them i hate them you're the only one who's allowed to say things about them you're rhe only one who's right

25. Common fandom complaint you're sick of hearing

I have to say I just. Scroll past most Fandom Complaint type things because usually they're. Stupid as balls or I've heard them a thousand times before but. Can people stop complaining about Mori it's just time to move on from Mori

I also like, I get the point of them but I'm beginning to get really tired of the constant complaints about people not appreciating the female characters, I'm not gonna lie? I literally see stuff about them all the time this happens in legit every fandom especially anime ones

(tolkien)

17. There should be more of this type of fic/art

I'm actually kind of surprised that there seems to be so little fic/art that explores the real original aspects of Tolkien's world. Most notably, the physical environment of Arda, especially in the eras prior to the sun and the moon when everything was so significantly different than what we're used to. For a fandom that puts so much effort into creating personalities and rich inner lives for characters that are mentioned maybe three times, I rarely see people delving into the aspects of like, what it's like to live under the light of the trees (the direction of shadows are literally always the same, night is almost equally bright to day, how much light you get depends entirely upon where you're geographically located, if ur on tol eressea all ur light is coming from a tiny slit in the mountain) and how that would probably affect people's lives and what it looks like to live there. I see people try to work around it more than they explore it and I think it's a lost opportunity for some real interesting stuff. In that same vein, I would love to see more imagined about how Maiar and Valar work biologically and how life is different for elves because those guys are straight up real. It's really the imaginative bit of this fandom that I so rarely see showing up, and I think there's a potential for so much more of it!!

(ons)

19. You're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

THE WHOLE THING. THE WHOLE CONCEPT. OWARI NO SERAPH

I love ons and it just is so sickening that the concept and the world and the magic and the characters are so intriguing and then the execution still has to be DOGSHIT . i love the integration of science and religion I love the exploration of the horrors of living in a postapocalyptic military society I love the horrors of guren's situation and the body horrir and the queer longing and then the execution os SO BAD AND WRONG i just AUGH

Also Mahiru. Its such a problem I wish she was a girlboss but she is Not.

[writingwithcolor]

What Does Our "Motivations” PSA Mean?

@luminalalumini said:

I've been on your blog a lot and it has a lot of really insightful information, but I notice a theme with some of your answers where you ask the writer reaching out what their 'motivation for making a character a certain [race/religion/ethnicity/nationality] is' and it's discouraging to see, because it seems like you're automatically assigning the writer some sort of ulterior motive that must be sniffed out and identified before the writer can get any tips or guidance for their question. Can't the 'motive' simply be having/wanting to have diversity in one's work? Must there be an 'ulterior motive'? I can understand that there's a lot of stigma and stereotypes and bad influence that might lead to someone trynna add marginalized groups into their stories for wrong reasons, but people that have those bad intentions certainly won't be asking for advice on how to write good representation in the first place. Idk its just been something that seemed really discouraging to me to reach out myself, knowing i'll automatically be assigned ulterior motives that i don't have and will probably have to justify why i want to add diversity to my story as if i'm comitting some sort of crime. I don't expect you guys to change your blog or respond to this or even care all that much, I'm probably just ranting into a void. I'm just curious if theres any reason to this that I haven't realized exists I suppose. I don't want y'all to take this the wrong way because I do actually love and enjoy your blog's advice in spite of my dumb griping. Cheers :))

We assume this is in reference to the following PSA:

PSA to all of our users - Motivation Matters: This lack of clarity w/r to intent has been a general issue with many recent questions. Please remember that if you don’t explain your motivations and what you intend to communicate to your audience with your plot choices, character attributes, world-building etc., we cannot effectively advise you beyond the information you provide. We Are Not Mind Readers. If, when drafting these questions, you realize you can’t explain your motivations, that is likely a hint that you need to think more on the rationales for your narrative decisions. My recommendation is to read our archives and articles on similar topics for inspiration while you think. I will be attaching this PSA to all asks with similar issues until the volume of such questions declines. 

We have answered this in three parts.

1. Of Paved Roads and Good Intentions

Allow me to give you a personal story, in solidarity towards your feelings:

When I began writing in South Asia as an outsider, specifically in the Kashmir and Lahore areas, I was doing it out of respect for the cultures I had grown up around. I did kathak dance, I grew up on immigrant-cooked North Indian food, my babysitters were Indian. I loved Mughal society, and every detail of learning about it just made me want more. The minute you told me fantasy could be outside of Europe, I hopped into the Mughal world with two feet. I was 13. I am now 28.

And had you asked me, as a teenager, what my motives were in giving my characters’ love interests blue or green eyes, one of them blond hair, my MC having red-tinted brown hair that was very emphasized, and a whole bunch of paler skinned people, I would have told you my motives were “to represent the diversity of the region.” 

I’m sure readers of the blog will spot the really, really toxic and colourist tropes present in my choices. If you’re new here, then the summary is: giving brown people “unique” coloured eyes and hair that lines up with Eurocentric beauty standards is an orientalist trope that needs to be interrogated in your writing. And favouring pale skinned people is colourist, full stop.

Did that make me a bad person with super sneaky ulterior motives who wanted to write bad representation? No.

It made me an ignorant kid from the mostly-white suburbs who grew up with media that said brown people had to “look unique” (read: look as European as possible) to be considered valuable.

And this is where it is important to remember that motives can be pure as you want, but you were still taught all of the terrible stuff that is present in society. Which means you’re going to perpetuate it unless you stop and actually question what is under your conscious motive, and work to unlearn it. Work that will never be complete.

I know it sounds scary and judgemental (and it’s one of the reasons we allow people to ask to be anonymous, for people who are afraid). Honestly, I would’ve reacted much the same as a younger writer, had you told me I was perpetuating bad things. I was trying to do good and my motives were pure, after all! But after a few years, I realized that I had fallen short, and I had a lot more to learn in order for my motives to match my impact. Part of our job at WWC is to attempt to close that gap.

We aren’t giving judgement, when we ask questions about why you want to do certain things. We are asking you to look at the structural underpinnings of your mind and question why those traits felt natural together, and, more specifically, why those traits felt natural to give to a protagonist or other major character.

I still have blond, blue-eyed characters with sandy coloured skin. I still have green-eyed characters. Because teenage me was right, that is part of the region. But by interrogating my motive, I was able to devalue those traits within the narrative, and I stopped making those traits shorthand for “this is the person you should root for.” 

It opened up room for me to be messier with my characters of colour, even the ones who my teenage self would have deemed “extra special.” Because the European-associated traits (pale hair, not-brown-eyes) stopped being special. After years of questioning, they started lining up with my motive of just being part of the diversity of the region.

Motive is important, both in the conscious and the subconscious. It’s not a judgement and it’s not assumed to be evil. It’s simply assumed to be unquestioned, so we ask that you question it and really examine your own biases.

~Mod Lesya

2. Motivations Aren't Always "Ulterior"

You can have a positive motivation or a neutral one or a negative one. Just wanting to have diversity only means your characters aren't all white and straight and cis and able-bodied -- it doesn't explain why you decided to make this specific character specifically bi and specifically Jewish (it me). Yes, sometimes it might be completely random! But it also might be "well, my crush is Costa Rican, so I gave the love interest the same background", or "I set it in X City where the predominant marginalized ethnicity is Y, so they are Y". Neither of these count as ulterior motives. But let's say for a second that you did accidentally catch yourself doing an "ulterior." Isn't that the point of the blog, to help you find those spots and clean them up?

Try thinking of it as “finding things that need adjusting” rather than “things that are bad” and it might get less scary to realize that we all do them, subconsciously. Representation that could use some work is often the product of subconscious bias, not deliberate misrepresentation, so there's every possibility that someone who wants to improve and do better didn't do it perfectly the first time. 

--Shira

3. Dress-Making as a Metaphor

I want to echo Lesya’s sentiments here but also provide a more logistical perspective. If you check the rubber stamp guide here and the “Motivation matters” PSA above, you’ll notice that concerns with respect to asker motivation are for the purposes of providing the most relevant answer possible.

It is a lot like if someone walks into a dressmaker’s shop and asks for a blue dress/ suit (Back when getting custom-made clothes was more of a thing) . The seamstress/ tailor is likely to ask a wide variety of questions:

What material do you want the outfit to be made of?

Where do you plan to wear it?

What do you want to highlight?

How do you want to feel when you wear it?

Let’s say our theoretical customer is in England during the 1920s. A tartan walking dress/ flannel suit for the winter is not the same as a periwinkle, beaded, organza ensemble/ navy pinstripe for formal dress in the summer. When we ask for motivations, we are often asking for exactly that: the specific reasons for your inquiry so we may pinpoint the most pertinent information.

The consistent problem for many of the askers who receive the PSA is they haven’t even done the level of research necessary to know what they want to ask of us. It would be like if our English customer in the 1920s responded, “IDK, some kind of blue thing.” Even worse,  WWC doesn’t have the luxury of the back-and-forth between a dressmaker and their clientele. If our asker doesn’t communicate all the information they need in mind at the time of submission, we can only say, “Well, I’m not sure if this is right, but here’s something. I hope it works, but if you had told us more, we could have done a more thorough job.”

Answering questions without context is hard, and asking for motivations, by which I mean the narratives, themes, character arcs and other literary devices that you are looking to incorporate, is the best way for us to help you, while also helping you to determine if your understanding of the problem will benefit from outside input. Because these asks are published with the goal of helping individuals with similar questions, the PSA also serves to prompt other users.

I note that asking questions is a skill, and we all start by asking the most basic questions (Not stupid questions, because to quote a dear professor, “There are no stupid questions.”). Unfortunately, WWC is not suited for the most basic questions. To this effect, we have a very helpful FAQ and archive as a starting point. Once you have used our website to answer the more basic questions, you are more ready to approach writing with diversity and decide when we can actually be of service. This is why we are so adamant that people read the FAQ. Yes, it helps us, but it also is there to save you time and spare you the ambiguity of not even knowing where to start.

The anxiety in your ask conveys to me a fear of being judged for asking questions. That fear is not something we can help you with, other than to wholeheartedly reassure you that we do not spend our unpaid, free time answering these questions in order to assume motives we can’t confirm or sit in judgment of our users who, as you say, are just trying to do better.

Yes, I am often frustrated when an asker’s question makes it clear they haven’t read the FAQ or archives. I’ve also been upset when uncivil commenters have indicated that my efforts and contributions are not worth their consideration. However, even the most tactless question has never made me think, “Ooh this person is such a naughty racist. Let me laugh at them for being a naughty racist. Let me shame them for being a naughty racist. Mwahaha.”

What kind of sad person has time for that?*

Racism is structural. It takes time to unlearn, especially if you’re in an environment that doesn’t facilitate that process to begin with. Our first priority is to help while also preserving our own boundaries and well-being. Though I am well aware of the levels of toxic gas-lighting and virtue signaling that can be found in various corners of online writing communities in the name of “progressivism*”, WWC is not that kind of space. This space is for discussions held in good faith: for us to understand each other better, rather than for one of us to “win” and another to “lose.”

Just as we have good faith that you are doing your best, we ask that you have faith that we are trying to do our best by you and the BIPOC communities we represent.

- Marika.

*If you are in any writing or social media circles that feed these anxieties or demonstrate these behaviors, I advise you to curtail your time with them and focus on your own growth. You will find, over time, that it is easier to think clearly when you are worrying less about trying to appease people who set the bar of approval so high just for the enjoyment of watching you jump. “Internet hygiene”, as I like to call it, begins with you and the boundaries you set with those you interact with online.

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

Thank you so much for the tag; this is exactly the kind of stuff I like to talk about lol. As I said in the tags, I also watched a video about this same exact topic yesterday (Redeemed Zoomer; my favorite guy that I disagree with constantly lol) and loved it a lot.

In the video I watched, the guy basically uses progressive and liberal interchangeably (like most people do), but as you already know I like to differentiate between theological liberals (who are not Christian because they hardly even believe in God and deny stuff like the virgin birth and the resurrection) and progressives (Christianity was mocked as the religion of women and slaves for a reason).

As such, I am firmly on the side of "Christ above culture" alongside my beloved Roman and Eastern brethren. I think the line between "Christ above culture" and "Christ/culture paradox" is something I struggle with at times and sometimes have trouble differentiating but I know that even if sometimes I may act or speak like the latter, I fundamentally believe scripture and much of church history supports the former.

My understanding of the relationship between the people of God and culture of the world is rooted deeply in what I refer to as "Exilic Philosophy", or what some other scholar (who's name escapes me) called the "Way of the Wisdom Warrior" which sounds a lot cooler lol. Basically though it is rooted the instructions of Jeremiah to the exiles, the behavior of Daniel and Friends in Babylon, and the way of Jesus and his followers as shown in the Gospels, and the letters of Paul and Peter (and to some extent the Revelation as well).

Christians are exiles. Pilgrims and refugees and aliens. Citizens of the Kingdom of God, but scattered across the world in Babylon. I could probably go on for a while about this but I'll try to keep it condense by just going thru the list

Christ Against Culture: So in the context of the Babylonian Exile (be it Judah or Christians) I feel like this was primarily lived out through violence. Revolts, rebellions, stuff like that. Which the prophets and the apostles vehemently condemned. "Slaves, do not rebel", "Women, don't be contentious", "Saints, lay down your lives. Don't take up arms." Stuff like that. In modern times it's different but fundamentally the same as far as I'm concerned. Also it smells of gnosticism. Diet gnosticism, but gnostic still. Lord knows I cannot stand gnosticism. Edit: another problem I have with this take: Daniel and Friends worked for the government. They worked for Babylon. They worked for the very guy who destroyed their home, dragged them into exile, murdered their friends and family, looted their temple, etc. They worked for him. Let that sink in for a second...

Christ of Culture: This is what people accused Paul of being, and something Paul was very much against. Peter warned that those who were uneducated would twist Paul's words to mean something other than he preached. This is (imo) part of why Paul told women not to preach. Why would you want a bunch of uneducated and unschooled people shepherding you? Also why Paul commanded that women learn. Ironically, women pastors/priests are part of the degeneracy of American protestantism atm cause for the most part, mostly liberals teach women and let them preach and thus most the women pastors are really liberal (this is not as much of a problem in the african american community for some reason tho i don't know why yet). Anyway. Unbiblical. Ridiculous. Heretical. "Christ is of the culture" Yeah this is why the (liberal) German Christians sided with the Nazis. Get outta here. Hate this. Burn this.

Paradox: Christ should trump the culture. No further comments.

Redeemer of Culture: .......... These people sound like a secular leftist. I'm sorry, I really am, but they do. "Oh we'll just fix the economy/racism/misogny/nationalism/insert evil here" No! Who built the system? Who built the economy? Who built the nation? Humans. Images of God, yes. But also stupid, foolish, arrogant, and rebellious people who need Jesus. The Anointed One is the redeemer of human beings and thru that redemption will the culture be redeemed. Why did [insert movement or revolution here] not work? Cause human beings that's why. Crowned in glory and majesty, but tragically fools nonetheless. This is why even tho in the ideal I would advocate for anarchism and communism (maybe? undecided) in reality I think both are stupid. Fallen images are gonna fallen image *shrugs*. Also: I am in direct opposition to forcing non-christians to do anything. What non-christians do with their lives and bodies is not our primary concern, nor should it be. What members of the church do, yes. Nonbelievers, no. That's dangerously into "treating people like objects" territory which is, according the Jesus, the primary reason for being thrown into gehenna.

Christ above Culture: I love the idea natural law and am a firm believer in the universality of the truth and beauty of God in some degrees. There is a reason all culture agree murder is wrong and all cultures create beautiful art. And it's because some things, some laws of truth and beauty and goodness, are written in the fabric of the cosmos (see: Proverbs). This is just part of what it means to believe in an intelligently designed cosmos. Which I do believe. Also, I'm pro-scholasticism, what do you expect? Ofc I believe that there must be some natural good. My motto, like a good Aristotelian lol, is that all truth is God's truth, all beauty is good's beauty.

Now, this mindset is said to also support so called "necessary evils" like the death penalty. I think support is too strong of a word but... kinda? I am totally opposed to the death penalty and all other forms of using death as a weapon. BUT I also understand that seeing it totally eradicated is, realistically, not realistic. Not until Jesus comes back. The biblical view of justice and righteousness will probably never be seen until heaven marries earth. Until then tho, I think it is the Christians job to live like that reality is already here. So I am against the death penalty. I also don't have an exception in like "worst case" offenses. If that's what I have to settle for, then I'm fine with that, but that's still not what I think the ideal should be if that makes sense.

Also I am amillennial so yeah *shrugs*

Views of Christ and Culture

So, this morning I was watching a video on Reinhold Niebuhr's typology of five views of Christ and culture. They are:

Christ against culture: the culture is seen as something bad that Christians are to avoid interaction with as much as possible. The most obvious form of this is Anabaptist groups like the Amish, but less extreme versions of it can be found among most Baptists (and related groups like Pentecostals and Evangelicals) and form the basis for monasticism.

Christ of culture: the culture is seen to be basically good, if flawed, and working for the same things as Christ. This is most associated with liberal theology, although I'd argue that the prosperity gospel is the most prevalent form of this.

Christ above culture: the culture is seen to be good, but its natural, temporary good must not be confused with or used as a substitute for the supernatural, eternal good of Christ. This is the view of Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

Christ and culture in paradox: Culture and the church are two separate institutions that, though Christians have duties in both of them, are not to be confused or allowed to dominate the other. This is the traditional stance of Lutheranism and Radical Two Kingdoms theology among the Reformed.

Christ as the redeemer of culture: the culture is seen as basically bad, but Christians are to put it under Christ's dominion for Him to redeem. This is the view of the Theonomist and Kuyperian theologies among the Reformed.

Everyone who'd like to, respond with which one you support and why! Tagging @sapphosremains and @idylls-of-the-divine-romance to see if the "progressives support Christ of culture" is accurate to the ones I know.

[jackrrabbit]

🤍 Haikyuu WIP excerpts

preview post for hq because recently i showed sara a list of my works in progress and she laughed at me and then made a dn joke like this is 2015 or something. we got:

🤍 communal property /// ushijima x f!reader x tendou 🤍 sunshower /// atsumu x f!reader x osamu 🤍 corporate ethics /// kuroo x f!reader

anyway these are all terrible first drafts and i'm not sorry. however i am very very into these pieces and if you're interested in seeing them finished, you should tell me fr fr

🤍 communal property /// Ushijima x f!Reader x Tendou

Summary: Tendou shares everything with Ushijima—his food, his dorm room, even the AVs he likes. Why not his girlfriend, too?

Tags/warnings: poly relationship in progress (only you and Tendou are dating at this point), mild suggestiveness ??, s*ze k*nk

Status: 10k words written (holy fuck lol) out of ~11k total? this bitch better get finished is2g

After the match, your voice is hoarse from screaming but you still manage to yell congratulations for your boyfriend when you meet him and Ushijima outside the locker room in the stadium. You’re pumped on the adrenaline of the game, so you don’t even protest like you usually would when Tendou picks you up in the middle of your hug and lifts you off the ground effortlessly. “How was I? Awesome, right? I told you we would beat them!”

“You did, you so did—“ Even though your throat hurts, you can’t help gushing about every rally, every soul-crushing block, every impossible spike. “—and then the guy on the left thought he was clear to shoot it but you just—“ You throw your arms in the air and mime hitting the ball down like a blocker. “Wha-bam!—and the look on his face! I thought he was going to punch you!”

Tendou laughs and lays a sloppy kiss on your cheek, just as thrilled as you are by the win. “You really liked it that much? I thought you weren’t into sports.”

“I loved it! You were so cool! I can’t believe I’m dating someone so cool!” You wrap your legs around his back and hug his face close to yours, reveling in the fact that this weirdo belongs to you wholly and entirely, that you get to have him to yourself (well, other than his roommate). “And I’m not into sports, I’m into you.”

Tendou smiles in a way that makes the sides of his eyes crinkle up and little red patches bloom over his cheeks, a look that says, I like you so much (Y/N), I like you I like you I like you, except he’s probably trying not to be mushy like that since Ushijima is standing off to the side.

You feel a little bad for ignoring him (no one likes being the third wheel, even if he never shows signs of caring) so when Tendou sets you down you turn to Ushijima. “And you! Holy shit, Tendou said you were good, but I didn’t know you were that good. The ball when you hit it was super loud—honestly, how are your hands okay? If I hit it that hard I’d probably break something.”

“My hands are fine…this is normal for me.”

But just because you’ve got them here in front of you and you’re still pumped from the exhilaration of the win, you can’t help grabbing Ushijima’s hand and flipping it palm-up to inspect. True to his word, there’s no redness, just the calluses he’s built up on his long fingers. “Wow.”

“You don’t need to worry about Wakatoshi,” Tendou tells you, grinning and then making a face. “He’s a monster, he can handle it.”

“No kidding. You’re both monsters.” You put the base of your palm up against Ushijima’s to gauge the size of his hand against yours, and without prompting Tendou grabs your other hand to press against his own. Tendou’s fingers are a bit longer, but Ushijima’s are…thicker, more solid. Your hands look like a little kid’s in comparison. “Can I be honest? Half the time I was thinking I actually feel bad for the other team. If I had to take on both of you at the same time, I’d probably cry.”

You’re (mostly) joking, but it’s still a complete shock when you see the side of Ushijima’s mouth curl up a tiny bit. You’ve known each other for months at this point, but you’ve never seen him smile until now. Half of you is wondering if this is some kind of optical illusion caused by the atmosphere and the dim light of the stadium cutting through the evening, but the other half of you enjoys it. You made Ushijima smile. You did that.

“Don’t sell yourself short, (Y/N).” Ushijima says, tipping his head to the side.

“Yeah!” Tendou chimes in, resting his chin on top of your head and folding his arms around your neck from his place behind you. “I’m sure you could take both of us. Right, Wakatoshi?”

So that’s probably a sign.

🤍 sunshower /// Atsumu x f!Reader x Osamu

Summary: [Kitsune AU] You find an old Ō-Inari shrine in the woods that may not be as abandoned as it looks.

Tags/warnings: Shinto religion, this preview is biased toward tsumu oops, yearning/soft vibes

Status: 3.9k words written out of 5–6k? total

Atsumu was the one who found you.

That’s how he likes to talk about it, that he found you, like you’d still be wandering around lost in the woods if it weren’t for him. Osamu thinks you would have found your way back home eventually but Atsumu likes it better this way, this framing that makes it seem like they saved you.

It’s hard for him to tell time linearly the way humans do but you mention once that you’ve known them for a year and that seems to fit. It’s spring now, almost barely tipping into summer, and it was spring when Atsumu found you. He remembers because of the way it was raining: light and tender, a summer rain early in the season, each little drop tapping off a leaf and then rolling into the forest bed to be eaten up by the grass and the soil.

Atsumu likes the rain, likes the sweet earthy smell it makes and the way the plants look so lush and green and alive, like they’d bleed if he sunk his teeth into them. He was out in the woods because of the rain ('Samu was in the shrine, as usual, attempting to set buckets under the millions of holes in the roof so the rainwater wouldn’t pool and rot through the wood underneath). But Atsumu was half asleep in a tree when he heard you crashing through the undergrowth, tripping over ferns and snapping every twig in your path (thought ya might be a bear, he tells you later, that’s how loud ya were) but he wouldn’t really have woken up if he hadn’t heard you singing.

(The odd thing is, you weren’t actually singing. You remember that day as vividly as they do: the warm, humid air making your skin feel sticky under your yellow raincoat; the tiny raindrops filtering through the canopy and kissing your cheeks; the ink feathering out on the damp xerox of the old map you found in your great-aunt’s attic so you could barely make out the “X” that was supposed to mark the location of the lost Inari shrine… You were cursing how stupid you’d been to go on a wild goose chase into the mountains with no cell service and no marked trail to look for a shrine that no one had seen in decades. You definitely weren’t singing.)

But Atsumu remembers it differently. No matter how many times you explain that you were just talking to yourself, when he replays the sound of your voice back then (reaching and lilting and falling, the way the birds talk to each other in the early morning, except the music of it was poured into syllables and words), it sounds like you’re singing. He wasn’t sure at first, hadn’t heard a voice that wasn’t Osamu’s in so many years that he gets tired counting them, but then he saw you push into view from between two bushes and he thought, a human!

A girl, too—it was hard to say at first because you were wearing that weird, slick jacket of yours, so bright yellow it was like an oversized flower blooming out of the grass, but then you tilted your head up to feel the rain on your face and the hood fell down and he knew. Not just a human, a girl! Atsumu wanted to yell for Osamu, make him come and confirm that there was a person wandering around not a mile from the shrine. A real person! Singing and smiling and wiping the rain off her cheeks (does that mean you like the rain, just like he does? did you come out to feel it too?) But he also wanted to surprise Osamu so he hid his tails and his ears and came down from the tree and asked if you had lost your way in the forest, since you were so far from any path…

When you think back on this yourself you’re amazed that you just went with him: a strange boy (man?) wearing a fox mask and traditional Shinto priest robes, which were somehow pristine white and red despite him having appeared from nowhere in the middle of a dense forest, who told you he had no idea what direction the village was but he could take you to the Inari shrine you’d been searching for…well. Maybe you were too surprised to be wary, or maybe you were just exhausted and lost. But you like to think you had a sense of it even then, the irrational belief that the boy in the woods was not just a boy in the woods.

Atsumu thinks you knew. Humans always understand, even when they try not to… He remembers, he took your hand that day in the forest and you saw that the claws on his fingers were too long to be human, and you said nothing because on some level you already felt it. Your skin was cool then, smooth and damp from the rain; he wanted to stop, run his hands up your arms, touch the places on your face where your mouth had been turned up at the corners and press his fingers into your cheeks.

🤍 corporate ethics /// Kuroo x f!Reader

Summary: [Office AU] The new junior marketing associate just happens to be Kuroo’s favorite camgirl, and he’s having trouble keeping his hands to himself.

Tags/Warnings: boss/employee, businessman!Kuroo as a reformed player, camgirl reader, this excerpt has a lil bit of 18+ content 👀

Status: 1.2k words written out of 4k? words total

Kuroo doesn’t watch porn.

It’s not, like, a moral principle or something. He has nothing against pornography. As far as he knows, it’s perfectly normal for single men. He just doesn’t like it…unless it’s you.

When he was in school it was easy. Being a teenager meant being so flooded with hormones that a warm breeze could get him up, and the adrenaline rush of winning a game was better than any big-titted porn actress faking moans into a shit-quality boom mic. Sure, he watched porn back then (what teenage boy didn’t?), but it was more out of curiosity than necessity. It was all kind of a mystery at that point, the way it can only be when you’re a clueless virgin and you and all your friends are too busy practicing for the next game to get girls.

Somehow Bokuto was the first one in their friend group to lose his virginity, and the memory of the dumbass self-consciously describing the experience has been lodged in Kuroo’s brain for the 10+ years since. “It was…I don’t know. She smelled good. You know how girls always smell good?” Bokuto’s hands twitched and his face was pink. “It’s just really…soft.”

Soft was right, Kuroo would reflect when he got laid for the first time a few months later. Soft, warm, wet. Sex was awkward at first, but before he knew it it was more natural than breathing.

It didn’t change much after high school, either. He didn’t get into volleyball for the groupies, but they didn’t hurt. There were girls when he played for his college team, more girls when he joined a business frat, so many girls he couldn’t keep track…they blurred together after a while. It didn’t take effort. You don’t need game when you’re 6’2 and you’re in the gym 40 hours a week, and you definitely don’t need porn.

So he never got into it. Now that he’s promoting volleyball instead of playing, things are more complicated. Kuroo’s never been the type who expects things to fall in his lap, but there are so many rules when it comes to dating in the real world. Good morning texts, anniversaries, flowers, parents. It’s exhausting. One time—seriously, just one time—Kuroo misses his girlfriend’s birthday to go watch a Jackals game, and the next time he sees her she throws her drink on him in public and keys his car. After that, Kuroo decides that until he’s ready to settle down there will be no more girlfriends. Which means no more reliable sex. Which means resorting to porn.

Which means you.

You, batting your eyelashes at the camera and biting the side of your lip. You, purring and mewing like a kitten. You, lying back on your pretty pink bedsheets in your pretty pink lingerie, sliding your hands between your legs. It takes Kuroo a full month to decide to pay for access to your website (Kenma’s unsolicited recommendation) but it takes less than five minutes for him to upgrade access to premium. You look like a wet dream—no, you look like the centerfold of every dirty magazine Kuroo managed to get his hands on when he was younger. Pristine and alluring and so deliciously out of reach.

And you make it so simple. No delicate emotional games with rules Kuroo never bothered to learn. No pretending to care how your day was. You untie the little bows on the side of your panties and lick your fingers and Kuroo just has to take his dick out and watch you. Getting off hasn’t been this easy for him since college. You’re a camgirl, you exist on his computer screen, and that’s how he likes it.

Which makes it a lot more awkward when Kuroo finds out that the only woman he’s gotten off to in the past…year, maybe?…somehow just got hired in JVA’s sports promotion department as his junior associate.

Your prim work blouse is buttoned up to the collar and your makeup is different, but he knows it’s you. You have to tell him your name twice because he’s too stunned to respond the first time, and even then he can’t summon up more of a response than a curt nod because his mouth tastes like dirt.

You smile a little awkwardly at his cool reception, and the hand you’d extended out to shake swings back down to your side. “Um, the guy at HR said he sent up my info yesterday…I’ll be working directly underneath you?”

Directly underneath me. Kuroo is taking a sip of his coffee when you say this. He doesn’t spit it out, but it’s close.

[diavolosthots]

this MAY be triggering but I HAVE to know how the brothers reaction to the bibles story of lillith it has two mane versions all horrible punishments to her the most used one is that she was the true first woman. Made the same way Adam was and was built perfect in every way. She didnt bend to man though and denied Adam when he wanted sex so he raped and she got pregnant but didnt want the child so she was kicked out and sent to hell for not fallowing mans needs and not fallowing the guide she was given. It also says in some Shes Lucifers wife. I just have to know how theyd react to that news

Yeah I know the stories and have thought about it too

Warning: mentions of religion

THE BROTHERS reacting to the human story-versions of Lilith

Lucifer:

Firstly, she definitely wasn’t his wife. As much as he loved her, that’s pure and utter nonsense and he absolutely is disgusted at humanity for making that up. As for the other idea, yeah he could see that. She definitely wouldn’t have bended to Adam’s will and lord knows Lucifer would love to see Adam suffer by Lilith doing some reckless act, but sadly that didn’t happen either. Humans are silly in their assumptions, but sadly they’re also dumb and none of that ever happened. Try again next bible story. 

Mammon:

Oh he’s more than offended. Lucifer’s wife? IF Lilith would have chosen anyone, it would’ve been one of the twins, definitely not Lucifer. That dumbass theory aside, she definitely wasn’t Adam’s wife either. Adam didn’t deserve her; why do you think he got that idiotic sub, Eve? Honestly, the lady was so far up his arse, it was funny to watch. “Oh Adam! Whatever can I do for you today?” Yeah, no thanks. His sister was strong and independent and the last thing she needed was a shrimp dick like Adam’s. 

Leviathan:

He doesn’t know how to feel about any of this except that it reinstates the fact that humans are clueless about anything beyond their own selfish minds. First of all, they can’t even prove the existence of God, so now they’re making up lies about his sister? Oh he’s angry. Second of all, why should he care what some brainless apes think? The planet will blow and the species will go extinct. You know what won’t go extinct? Demons. Good and Evil will always be there. Although he’s absolutely disgusted at the thought of Lilith being Lucifer’s wife. 

Satan:

He actually laughs, but not in amusement. Lucifer couldn’t score a girl like Lilith even if he wanted to, so that’s already out of the question. Secondly, although he doesn’t know Lilith as well as the others, he doubts that the woman would’ve been anywhere near Adam to begin with. According to his brothers, the guy was repulsive and too controlling. Who would like another Lucifer? Gross. Honestly it’s just funny how humans make up things to fill the holes in their brains. That’s not knowledge or beliefs; that’s stupidity. 

Asmodeus:

He’s offended but only because humans think Lilith would’ve chosen Lucifer over him! Absolutely not. Humans are so silly and so weird in their stories. What a bright mind and creativity, right? He’ll tell you the true story about Adam and Eve and how Lilith wasn’t even there. Humans’ Biblical are comical at best and pathetic at worst; barely any of it is true and he’s so glad to not deal with that. 

Beelzebub:

To say he’s offended is an understatement, although he keeps his anger at bay. Lilith loved one man and one man only, and that guy was human. As for the Adam thing…. He can proudly say that they weren’t even allowed near the garden and the only one who actually ever went inside, besides Michael, was Lucifer, and no, he wasn’t the snake, either. Honestly he can feel his blood boiling now and probably is going to throw himself into some workout to get the stress out; humans are stupid. 

Belphegor:

He’s beyond pissed that people would think that about his sister. Lilith was better than anyone will ever be, and certainly better than those closed-minded humans who need everything handed to them. This isn’t about his hatred toward Lucifer, either; people are just ignorant. No, she wouldn’t have chosen Lucifer, or any of them for that matter. Simeon would’ve had a better chance than them. As for Adam, the guy was a complete douche, yes, but he never laid a hand on Lilith and if he did, he would’ve been dead and the seven of them would’ve been kicked out of heaven for a different reason. Thanks. This just proves why his hatred toward humanity is justified. 

[apteryxdrake]

I actually think this whole issue is far more complex than a single person who is just wrong or right.

Yes, it sounds like he threw a tantrum because his religious needs weren't met by default, and that's something irritating and stupid. But he's not refusing service to individuals from a group of people he hates. So he's not the one being bigoted, entitled, yes, but not bigoted.

Yes it's annoying that he got his religious rights met positively by a particular ruling and it's likely that the rights of other non-Christian groups won't be upheld in the same way due to systemic bigotry in the US around non-Christian faiths. It probably also feels like a slap to the face for all those groups who have just had their legal discrimination protections stripped from them by your version of the high court. "Oh, right the Christian dude gets his rights upheld but we can just die and the authorities won't help." Yes, that's bitter and unfair and fucking typical.

But the other element in the situation is that if the US legal and governmental systems gave a flying crap about equal human rights, he would have the right to negotiate his contract to enable him access his right of freedom of the religion. He should have the right to go to church by default. And those of us from various identities that just lost their protection rights, should have those rights back, and have the protection laws enforced.

He's not really the bad guy in this situation. He's not personally to blame for all the bollocks going on in the US right now with regards to human rights. He's advantaged on many levels, obviously, but he's not to blame. The real bad guys are the fucking right wingers, and capitalism. People should be able to work and retain their rights to religious practice, and their rights to not be discriminated against or lose their job due to bigotry. We all deserve our equal human rights, even the entitled jerk who made a decision to put himself in a situation where he expected his employers to keep giving him Sunday's off when that's not how the industry currently works.

Instead of us getting angry at the one single dude throwing a tantrum, hows about we get mad at the governmental forces stripping people of their rights, and the capitalism which fuels those hateful people? Why waste energy on one dude, when the problem is systemic?

Another case where a Christian picks a job they know in advance they were going to refuse to do and then they don't have to do the job and somehow the people expecting them to do a job they took of their own free will are found to be in the wrong.

[the-firebird69]

They bring the family they bring the family in front of that woman and they locked him into the house and they shot the doors and locked it and it was for no reason at all and it was Men of Stalin the clones and that was what it was said for a while and then it was Max people and find out it was this mix and I'm tired of hearing people you're in such a sad state that they can't do anything and it is that group Max people the clones and morlock in uniform. And our son said it's people who put them there that are responsible for their situation that they are sickened and weaker and shorter and the bugs are in the field and you brought the bug zone and you fertilizer like kill and compost approved for fertilizers started looking into it it's true. I know son says that they're doing it to me and I'm stuck here and I'm injured and they're forced me to be here by messing with me a lot and they do it to other people and they come down on them for what they've done to people of their own cuz they are the same religion. And our son is very intelligent and they need him around and he hates them very badly for it and he knows what sugar can do and things like that it's evil as hell and to save them the trouble they took their sugar out and dumped it out at night. The whole city did it and it starts spreading and it actually put some nutrients to the ground after the chlorine went away but they didn't see it spread until our son did the chlorine thing

We want people to know that we can't stand these people anymore we have to stop them here they're all done I don't care for their talk you need people poor and you make them sick and you go around and you get rid of them and take their stuff in some cases you just get rid of them and we don't want ours to suffer that because you're an a****** or very stupid and incompetent and you are but comparison to US you're nothing you should understand the attitude, ok Mac men. Just remember it when it's your time.

Thor Freya

I swear to get something they're taking over all the businesses all the equipment in the military bases and pretty soon they'll have everything we haven't done anything to stop them or any of our so-called plans I don't understand why we're doing this to him he's an inventor I'm going to pile of s*** for doing it a lot of people have worth we found out those women made a whole bunch of food and they using the fertilizer I was trying to help them and we got attention and Stalin start to be mad I just started going after Stalin and for real it just took the shake of a lamb's tail and it was over no he just helped them I feel sorry for him he helps a lot of people and people are mean to him all day long you won't lock for me and Stalin is a more like two and those are Mac women no before your women can do stuff and you people you men you can't you're incompetent and this guy is a complete different person than other people for some reason and he did the right thing by stopping the fight I was there inside you can go on and I saw who it was it's just Billy z idiot and he was probably heading up the group that are in those people and usually influences people too and she just did that since real simple you can't talk about it out loud at all it's a secret still so she got it and she said wow I bet you he doesn't even know it and you should take her out of there we went down there and saw them doing it and she came by and she said I have a message. For you from God no she said a voice she came up and said it's really a grand nephew and she told it to him and she said I already know and she said I'm supposed to take her out of there no but Matt said I'm supposed to rescue you she took him to a different place and they're okay and healthy and happy you said this this guy's cause misery everywhere and she's actually a better looking person than you'd ever think it's amazing and he thought it was the greatest thing he's ever done that was me she didn't say either one she said in our language okay and she told me and her language she told me down there but really deep and I didn't really get it till later I sent them thank yous and they're still around and they're working so he's going to go look for them and we're going to protect them and get them their group they should know they hurt them bad and it was just them they look like others

Mac

[khodorkovskaya]

okay here we go.

(translated with deepl)

here is my first impression of oxford bestie. when i read this i died. like who is this bella swan mysterious and lonely not-like-other-girls icon???

As I listen to other girls' stories, I look away. There I notice a cute girl with brown hair and fringe. I vaguely remember her from last year. I remember noticing her in maths class. She was sitting so lonely in the corner of the classroom that I thought. felt I felt a little sorry for her. That day, she stood out from everyone I'd seen. That's when I decided that when I moved to this school, I'd try to make friends with her. Today, she looks the same lonely, even though she's surrounded by people. I find it strange that, instead of standing with everyone else, it's like she's trying to fit in with the guys. I'm gonna have to find out more about her.

this is the part i read and wanted to kms. what in the weaboo emo teen is this somebody kill me.

The atmosphere of the new school distracts me from bad dark thoughts: that no one needs me; that I'm making things worse; that I should die.

"You like anime, don't you? - smiling sweetly *Manchester bestie* asks me before class starts.

"Yeah, I love it," I exclaim.

dEeP dArK tHoUgHtS ahhhhhh

After taking a warm shower and turning off the light, I lie on my side, staring at the wall, and listen to my roommates talking as they listen to music in the same bed. They're talking about virginity and how it's stupid to wait to get married. I think of Yasmin, who is adamantly against it.

"How long do we have to wait?" says Clara in a whisper. "I'm ready now!"

there's something so cute about this idk. like we were such babies.

"Oh my God!" gasped Yasmin horrified, looking at the mailbox. "That's Vladimir Stosic! The crazy Serbian who teaches us chemistry." Yasmin had told me a lot about Stosic. According to her, he's a Satanist and a member of the Order of the Dragon. They say he even has a devil tattoo! His daughter is in sixth form and it turns out he drove her into depression and she shaved her head. Even though he teaches chemistry, he's a bit of a mess and all he's told his students is that he killed his wife, by throwing a plugged-in light bulb into her bathtub.

bro whatttt what is this lore who tf is vladimir stosic 😭😭

then there's the scandalous berlin trip! and there's a passage about how my london bestie and my oxford bestie went to KDW to buy bras and it's so funny to read about bc it was such a scandal back then! like that's so cute. then we play truth or dare and i have to kiss my crush! 😱😱😱 also very cute and very much like "aww baby me, you were adorable".

then we go to the holocaust memorial and take very disrespectful photos that facebook never fails to remind me about every year. like "x years ago you took these super quirky photos" and every time im like oh god.

then oh my god! i put my head on my crush's shoulder!!! wowwwww (tbh that's more action than im getting these days, so 14 yr old me was winning)

then fuckkk okay i can't read this part. i had a north korea phase so i go on about american propaganda and how evil capitalism is. but not in a based way, but in a "im 14 and this is deep" way. fuck. and then i go on about gay marriage and how im such a passionate ally but not because im gay or anything i just like gay people and i believe in equality haha ha ha im not gay what. and then i talk about atheism and how religion is evil.

and then there's this

I've never been fallen in love with a guy before, and I don't know what kind of feelings are called love. Maybe I was in love with someone and I didn't realise it, thinking I just wanted to be friends with them, because you can feel that way about girls, too, right? Right?

and like bestieeee that's the gayest thing anyone's ever said, sorry to break it to you.

"Has anyone seen my T-shirt?" asks C suddenly, returning from the lake shore, where he was probably looking for it.

I look around, following the others' lead, and suddenly realise that, somehow, I've had his T-shirt all along! And how is it that after spending half an hour here by the fire, I hadn't realised I'd been clutching it to my chest. I hand it to C immediately, looking up into his eyes, the reflection of the fire playing in the muted blue.

"I'm sorry I didn't give it to you sooner," I tell him, putting my hand on his shoulder. "You must be freezing cold!"

"It's nothing," he waves it off.

you know, as cringe as it is like... there's something so cute and pure about this. like i want to hug my past self and tell her that everything is gonna be okay. and that it's okay to be in love. and that he's not worth it. like. i want to cry a little bit. </3

and then it gets even more heartbreaking for little me:

Suddenly, Dixie, a cute girl I had met long ago in my first German class, runs up to C. In her manner, she laughs loudly and hugs C, saying how cold he must have been the whole time. She strokes his head, pulling him tight against her.

"Dixie, Dixie," C resists, "I'm uncomfortable! I'm not cold at all!"

"Oh, come on, come on," she interrupts him. "Let's go to the tents at once! You're shivering, for heaven's sake!"

And with both arms round C, she leads him away from the fire.

It is sometimes embarrassing for her, for she, in her childish naivety, never hides her emotions. She probably doesn't even realise that such a thing is even possible.

I catch myself thinking that for the rest of my life, or at least for the rest of this school year, I'll be cursing myself for that I wasn't in Dixie's shoes at that moment.

babyyyy 🥺🥺🥺🥺 it's okay, you'll survive </3

and then! my bestie and C get together! and the book ends!!!!!!!

(and then there's an epilogue where i get into communism again and talk about how i hate rich people. no, literally, i fucking say that.)

so yeah....

honestly now im glad that i wrote it bc it's like a little time capsule of what being a teenager was like. like a pre-teenager id say. bc that was before my weird sugardaddy phase and sex and alcohol.

it's extremely badly written, but there's a charm to it. like i know 14 year old me was sincere when she wrote it and you can feel her pain and it's so precious. the overall ~vibe~ of it reminded me of elif batuman's the idiot (not literally. this "book" of mine is a 3/10 at best, meanwhile the idiot is a solid 10) in the sense that there's this awkward tension between me and my crush and it doesn't go anywhere and it's very pathetic and you just want to shake her and say "he's not worth it!!!". but it's so sincere and innocent and she just wants to clench his tshirt against her chest and look into his deep blue eyes, like that's so adorable.

anyway, yeah. what an experience.

my london bestie's family is moving (mum got remarried so the family house is going to her older sister, long story) and so she was going through her old stuff. and she found the book i wrote when i was 15 and gave it to me.

and i wanted to maybe translate some parts of it and put it on here bc it just feels appropriate. but im reading it now and it's so cringe like i am in physical pain reading it.

here is how i summarised it on my insta yesterday:

im in year 10. i befriend *oxford bestie* who's like this bella swan mysterious lonely brunette who's friends with boys

we go to berlin and it's like hbo euphoria but even more dramatic! there's erotic dancing and suicide tw

i develop a massive crush on C. guess who else has a crush on C? oxford bestie! 😱

i become a communist as a coping mechanism

common themes: lust, homosexuality, wealth inequality, alcoholism

3/10

[coffeeman777]

I don't mean this hatefully I haye when people get pissed in random peoples inboxes if I do that sorry feel free to ignore it's early I havent slept much and I'm being a penis but how do you worship a God who allows children to be raped and doesn't help them no matter how hard they pray? It's probably irrational on my part and I know that but when I see Christians talk about how great God is I get so angry because it's like you're praising the guy who stood there for years and let that happen to me. Like you might as well preach about what a fantastic guy my rapist is, they're one and the same to me. I'm just so sick if you people going on and on about how great he is when he hates there est of us like don't you see how lucky you are? Dont yoou see that the rest of us aren't lucky enough to have gods love? All the explanations Christians have for why those things happen (and I have heard them all) don't mean anything to me. They don't excuse what happened or fix anything because ultimately it all boils down to the fact that God could have helped and he didn't and yet I'm the one who's supposed to ask him for forgiveness instead of the other way around. I don't understand how you all can stomach it, like, is it something you have to work through in your religion? Does it come naturally to you to trust god? Don't you ever hate him? How does anyone walk into a church and not be filled with rage and terror? Does he just love you guys more than the rest of us and that's why you can make peace with him? Like oh because he loves YOU because he's good to YOU he must really be a good guy? Like fuck the rest of us right? That's the whole point of the bible is soem if us matter and some of us don't and since youre one if the people that matter you get to live your life thinking that god really is as loving and wodnerful and perfect as he says he is because he saved you while he lets the rest of us rot. I don't understand how you can look at God and not see what a monster he is, how do Christians live every single day of their lives worshipping someone like that knowing that he's abandoned the rest of us? Don't you feel guilty? Knowing he only picked.you becsbe he was in the right mood for it and now you're sooo special while the rest of us just suffer and die and he never loves us? He doesn't deserve praise. He left me behind. He's proven to me that he hates me he hates me so much and he doesn't care and yet I'm supposed to just set that alllll aside and fall madly deeply in love with him and spend the rest of my life going on and on and never shutting the fuck up about how incredible and amazing he is and there's always some stupid piece of garbage christian wisdom to explain away all the horrible cruel evil things he does knowing the whole time that there are little kids out there begging him for help while he stands there and laughs and doesn't do a single thing. I hate him and I .miserable and I don't understand why Christians can't hae the decency to see how evil he is. And he even made suicide a sin so now I cant even kill myself which for the record is so rich thag god never loved me and he csn't even let me kill myself without going to hell for jt how can you love him knowing th rest of us get to go to hell because he hates us so much

Heya. I understand your frustrations and questions. I'm not offended at your message, there's no need to apologize. I know you've already heard a lot of answers to the questions you ask, so I'm not sure if anything I have to say will help you. But I'll give it a shot.

I'm so sorry that you went through what you went through. No one should ever have to experience anything like that, much less children. I want you to know that I really can understand how you feel. I was molested as a kid. It's a terrible thing, and I want you to know that I'm not making light of it.

God hates evil, with a passion. He hates every act of sin and wickedness. He despises it. So why does it exist? Why do evil things happen, if God hates evil, and God has the power to stop each evil act before it occurs? Well, it happens because humans have freedom. We have free will. In order for us to be what God made humans to be, in order for any love to be possible, we must have the capacity for free choice. That means that some will choose poorly and abuse the freedom God gave us, which is evil.

And no evil act escapes God's notice; each evildoer will suffer for his evil deeds, God will see to it. God gave us His commands, which, if followed, would prevent all human evil from happening. The Lord is always working in and around us to influence humans toward Himself. When a person ignores God's influence and rejects His commands, evil results. We should therefore place the blame for the evil at the feet of the evildoer, rather than at the feet of God.

The world is twisted up and corrupted by sin. The Lord has told us to expect hard times. Many Christians around the world are dirt poor, are abused and mistreated, exploited, robbed, or killed by the people around them. This is exactly what we're told to expect. God is with us in the midst of it all, however, eventually turning all the hard stuff we go through into blessings for us, as He promised. Christians are able to endure and trust God through all of it because of our experience of God with us, and His promises about the future. We know what eternity will bring, and we keep our minds and hearts fixed on it. Some day, Jesus will return to Earth and destroy the wicked. He will establish His throne in Israel and rule the Earth for a thousand years, permitting no evil, and creating a genuine utopia where everyone is blessed, and no one suffers lack. And after that, God will make for us a new Heaven and new Earth where we will live with Him in boundless joy forever.

There's a purpose in our suffering, a method to the madness if you will. Our true life is in the next age, not in this present world. This fallen place is only the preliminary round. Once Jesus returns, the evils we've suffered will fade away. They're only temporary and will soon be gone for good.

It makes no sense to be mad at God once you think things through; God didn't cause the evil, and if the evildoers would obey God, the evil wouldn't occur. God will judge every evildoer justly, and each one will pay the price for what they've done. On top of that, God will help us through the pain, heal and restore us, and then use our circumstances to help bless, protect, and heal others. When you consider that God doesn't owe any of us anything, and that if He allowed all of us to just die, He would be entirely justified in doing so (because all of us are fallen in sin), every act of mercy on God's part is an absolutely unmerited blessing that demonstrates His genuine love. And speaking of love, God does love everyone. You, me, and everyone else. And God will save anyone. God will respond to anyone who comes to Him in humility and faith.

We don't know why God permits some things to happen, or why He doesn't intervene sometimes when we think He should. There's a very complex web of interconnected variables that we can't see, much less understand. Our perspective is extremely short-sighted. But God sees it all, and God understands. He has demonstrated His faithfulness a thousand times over. We can trust that He knows what He's doing. His end game is to produce a family, people made in His image, called by His name, who freely choose to love Him when they could have done otherwise. This world is the best of all possible worlds to produce that family, with the maximum number of people saved, and the minimum number of people lost.

God is not evil, in any sense. Satan and his angels are evil. Fallen humans are evil. But God is not, and never could be. Rather than blame God for your circumstances, it would be so much better for you to run towards God. He will receive you. He won't reject you. He'll embrace you and make you part of His family. He'll help you deal with your pain and rise above it. He'll give you peace of mind and heart, as well as the promise of eternity with Him and the rest of us. He'll help you to see how suicide wouldn't be a good choice at all, even if it weren't sinful.

Please consider it. Believe in Jesus and swear fealty to Him as King. Ask His pardon, and you'll have it. Turn from your sins and embrace the Lord's instruction. Find a good church and connect with other Christians. You won't regret it, I promise you.

I'll keep you in prayer, friend. Be blessed.