#Eden Moriah

[ersatz-colubridae-888]

paper doodle collection of varying ages

[tendarozu]

Trigger warning: self-harm, gore.

I also decided to draw all the characters from Tboi and it took me a lot of time, I think I've never spent so long drawing arts.

If you look closely, many of them have the same eyebrows, which suggests that these characters are Isaacs in disguise. Lilith, Apollyon, Jacob and Esau are not Isaacs. The thing is, I just don't see them as individual characters. I like to follow the canon more than to invent mine own story for them.

I don't really like the second part of the drawing, the characters are positioned very unevenly and I admit it.

[yourfaviseverything]

Isaac, Eden and Rainmaker from The Binding Of Isaac are genderfluid, nonbinary and gay respectively and you are gay for playing Isaac!

[tailsdollr]

lgbtq characters of tboi!

[stargarnet03]

I keep forgetting to post this GUH

Here are the isaacs ig lol

[miguelstarr]

4 horas de desenho pra isso(o apollyon 💀)

------------------------------------------------------------

4 hours of drawing for this(apollyon 💀)

Translation:

Eve drawing:

Eve:Stop!

Azazel drawing:

Azazel:Do you accept this rose Eve?

Bethany drawing:

Bethany:Amen

[slobfern]

i fucking love tame impala

[clarkes-and-god]

"So Morgan, you excited about the new wife? I remember I was when I was engaged, and goodness, marriage doesn't disappoint, dude."

"Yeah, it sounds pretty darn great, I'm just tired of waiting, you know?"

"I get you, man. Bowie, did you ever wait? Oh right, gays don't do that."

"I know your wife is a bitch, dude, calm down."

"Oh no, are you scared because your boyfriend isn't here to protect you?"

"I'm literally dating your sister-in-law."

"And she dresses more like a dude than you."

"I bet your wife lays out your outfits for you every morning."

"As she should, to be honest. I'll be so annoyed if Eden doesn't look after all that domestic stuff. A pansy like you probably likes that stuff though."

"Morgan, I'm being so serious right now, where were you on January sixth?"

"That's none of your business, you liberal. I bet you have AIDS."

"Guys, I feel like this is going a bit far. We're all brothers in law, you know? Or at least in the future."

"Tony, bro, you've admitted to having gay sex on national TV like at least 3 times. Don't tell us what to do."

"I'm not gay."

"Wow, why are you being so defensive? Bit weird. Maybe put some of that energy into getting Joanna pregnant."

"I'm just saying, the Bible says we shouldn't argue like this."

"The Bible also says not to bang dudes."

"Right, you guys can stay and argue about banging dudes, but I'm going to go save my girlfriend from your batshit wife."

"Haha, even the gay dude is calling you gay."

"He called you gay too, dumbass."

"No he didn't"

[nighhtwing]

LOVE IS A LEASH THAT PULLS BOTH WAYS OR, A STUDY OF BRUCE AND DICK’S RELATIONSHIP

mabel podcast, episode 30 / nightwing (1996) #2 / traci brimhall, “lullaby on mount moriah,” come the slumberless to the land of nod / grayson (2014) #5 / martin eden (2019) dir. pietro marcello / otto künzil, ring für zwei (1980) / outsiders (2003) #21 / yusef komunyakaa, “april fools’ day,” neon vernacular: new and selected poems / batman (1940) #416 / bianca stone, “other wound,” what is otherwise infinite / the new titans (1988) #61 / let them live! unpublished tales from the dc vault #2 / rivers solomon, model home / nightwing (1996) #15 / donna tartt, the secret history / this post / robin & batman #3 / gus moreno, this thing between us / forever evil #6 / birdcage

[saturniasxenos]

Eternaunivian & Cosmos ID/NPT Pack

Ee - Tur - Nuh - Yoo - Nuh - Vee - Ihn

Eternaunivian is ETERIN and a subterm of the Eternalgender System. Those who identify as eternaunivian may feel as if their gender, or even their whole identity, has a deep, never-ending connection to the universe and anything apart of it (including but not limited to: Dark Matter, Stars, Planets, Galaxies, Black Holes). This can be used as an umbrella term for any space-related eternic genders. You could be a star and eternal, an eternal quasar, an eternalized planet, an eternal that likes the cosmos, a constellation eternal, and similar.

This gender may be constantly fluctuating and fluid between any space-related and eternic genders. This gender would be considered under the agender umbrella, but can be used by anyone regardless of femininity, masculinity, and neutrality.

Created and Coined by me. There is no correct way to use this flag and term.

Keep reading for Etymology & Cosmos ID Pack (Titles, Names, & Pronoun suggestions)

Etymology: Eternal, Universe, -ian (suffix),

Pronoun Suggestions:

Uni/Unive/Universe/Universes/Universeself

Sta/Star/Stary/Stars/Starself

Co/Cos/Cosmo/Cosmos/Cosmoself

Co/Cos/Cosmic/Cosmics/Cosmicself

Qu/Qua/Quasar/Quasars/Quasarself

Gal/Galae/Galaxy/Galaxys/Galaxyself

Ne/Nebulae/Nebula/Nebulas/Nebulaself

No/Novae/Nova/Novas/Novaself

Or/Orbi/Orbit/Orbits/Orbitself

An/Andro/Andromeda/Andromedas/Andromedaself

Mi/Milky/Milkyway/Milkyways/Milkywayself

Pla/Plan/Planet/Planets/Planetself

Sa/Satu/Saturn/Saturns/Saturnself

Plu/Plut/Pluto/Plutos/Plutoself

Jup/Jupi/Jupiter/Jupiters/Jupiterself

Ne/Nep/Neptune/Neptunes/Neptuneself

Ma/Mar/Mars/Marsics/Marsself

Co/Com/Comet/Comets/Cometself

Met/Meteo/Meteor/Meteors/Meteorself

Inte/Interstell/Interstellar/Interstellars/Interstellarself

Ast/Aster/Asteroid/Asteroids/Asteroidself

Su/Sunspo/Sunspot/Sunspots/Sunspotself

Celes/Celestiae/Celestial/Celestials/Celestialself

Zo/Zodi/Zodiac/Zodiacs/Zodiacself

Sco/Scorp/Scorpio/Scorpius/Scorpioself

Le/Leae/Leo/Leos/Leoself

Vi/Vir/Virgo/Virgos/Virgoself

Ca/Can/Cancer/Cancers/Cancerself

Astro/Astrol/Astrology/Astrologys/Astrologyself

Astro/Astron/Astronomy/Astronomys/Astronomyself

Au/Auro/Aurora/Auroras/Auroraself

🌕/🌕's

🪐/🪐's

☀/☀'s

⭐/⭐'s

☄️/☄️'s

🌙/🌙's

🌌/🌌's

🌠/🌠's

Title Suggestions :

(X) Who Watches The Stars

The Guardian of The Quasar

Emperor of The Moon

(X) Who Dances Amongst The Galaxy

The Child of Andromeda

(X) Who is Made of Stardust

The Lover of The Cosmos

The Will of Luna

The Eternalized Constellation

Song of Neptune

Melody of Jupiter

Love of Venus

The Flame of The Sun

(X) Who is Infinite

The Eternal Galaxy

(X) Who Was Born From Black Matter

Name Suggestions:

Some names may not be fem or masc, I just organized what I thought sounded the most masc, neu, or fem!! Many names originate from named stars in the galaxy! See this site for more named stars.

Fem: Ankaa, Aniara, Alasia, Aurora, Ayla, Astrid, Astra, Astraia, Ariel, Andromeda, Arista, Bellatrix, Danica, Dawn, Calypso, Celeste, Celestia, Cordelia, Cressida, Electra, Eris, Estrella, Gaia, Helene, Irena, Itonda, Luna, Lunar, Lyra, Maia, Merope, Mimosa, Mira, Nova, Nervia, Pleione, Phoenicia, Phoebe, Pandora, Seren, Selene, Stella, Starla, Solana, Star, Sunniva, Shaula, Thea, Umbriel, Venus, Vega, Veritas,

Masc: Alpheratz Archer, Apollo, Aries, Atlas, Ash, Altair, Altais, Antares, Arcturus, Taurus, Cyrus, Cosmo, Castor, Cepheus, Celestio, Draco, Eros, Fafnir, Felis, Galileo, Hunter, Jericho, Kiran, Kepler, Leo, Luca, Mars, Nox, Neptune, Oberon, Phoenix, Perseus, Pollux, Sterling, Sirius, Sol, Stellan, Titan, Theo, Zenith, Veritate,

Neu: Ancha, Aiolos, Artemis, Aster, Acrab, Algieba, Acrux, Atria, Achrid, Axólotl, Borea, Borealis, Cetus, Chertan, Comet, Cassiopeia, Crescent, Eden, Europa, Eclipse, Fulu, Funi, Galaxy, Graffias, Haedus, Io, Libra, Lynx, Lesath, Libertas, Moriah, Musica, Orbit, Orion, Polaris, Polis, Pisces, Phobos, Regulus, Rasalas, Denebola, Saturn, Solstice, Seraph, Scorpius, Scorpii, Soleil, Sargas, Spica, Sceptrum, Solaris, Tevel, Virgo, Vesper, Zephyr, Zosma

[pennysperfectpolls]

With one hour remaining

Here is the current list of submissions, remember having multiple submissions is a good thing here

If there’s a number after their name that’s how many times they’ve been submitted, np stands for no propaganda

1: Gregg Lee (night in the woods)

2: Liir Thropp (Wicked (Novel))

3: Arven (Pokémon) 3

4: Kyusaku Yumeno “Q” (Bungo Stray Dogs) 2

5: Kristen Applebees (Dimension 20: Fantasy High) np

6: The girl (fear and hunger)

7: Shane (Stardew Valley) np

8: Waluigi (super Mario)

9: Nahida (Genshin Impact)

10: Sachi Shinozaki (Corpse Party: Blood Drive)

11: Qiqi (genshin impact)

12: Rob (the amazing world of Gumball)

13: fred jones (scooby doo mystery incorporated) (that version specifically)

14: Shoto Todoroki (My Hero Academia)

15: Vivi Ornitier (Final Fantasy IX)

16: Harrowhark Nonagesimus (The Locked Tomb) 3

17: Essek Thelyss (critical role) np

18: Adrien Agreste (Miraculous Ladybug) np

19: Hunter (The Owl House) np

20: Mafuyu Asahina (Project SEKAI)

21: Mashirao Ojiro (My Hero Academia)

22: Luke Skywalker (Star Wars)

23: Hitori "Bocchi" Gotou (Bocchi the Rock!)

24: Freminet (Genshin Impact) 3

25: Shilo Bathroy (Just Roll With It)

26: Shijima Tsukishima (Shimeji Simulation)

27: Nona (The Locked Tomb) 2

28: Isaac Moriah (The Binding of Isaac)

29: Dimitri alexandre blaiddyd (Fire emblem) 2

30: Angela (Lobotomy Corporation/ Library Of Ruina)

31: Natural Harmonia Gropius “N” (Pokémon) 2

32: Charger (Voidpets)

33: Eunyung Baek (No Home)

34: Riven (Winx Club)

35: The Being (The Dragon Prince)

36: The Collector (the owl house)

37: victorian child (the “This would kill a Victorian child” meme)

38: Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)

39: Hypnos (Hades)

40: Marianne von Edmund (Fire Emblem)

41: Syaoran Li (Cardcaptor Sakura) np

42: Sakura Kinomoto (Cardcaptor Sakura) np

43: Luke (Obey Me) np

44: Ortho Shroud (twisted wonderland) np

45: Tony Tony Chopper (One Piece) np

46: Child Emperor (One Punch Man) np

47: Kenzie Martin (Parahumans)

48: Kakashi Hatake (Naruto)

49: Mizuki Okiura (AI: the Somnium Files)

50: Cody Hackins (Ace Attorney)

51: Chazz Princeton (Yu-Gi-Oh! GX)

52: Martin Blackwood (The Magnus Archives)

53: Candace Flynn (Phineas and Ferb)

54: Shin-Ah (Yona of the Dawn)

55: Kyoka Eden (Scarlet Nexus)

56: Kasane Randall (Scarlet Nexus)

57: Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb)

58: Emil Sinclair (Limbus Company)

59: Cove Holden (Our Life: Beginnings & Always)

60: Zuko (Avatar the Last Airbender)

61: Ashe Ubert (Fire Emblem 3 Houses)

62: Alphonse Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist) 2

63: Killua Zoldyck (Hunter x Hunter)

64: Zhang Chengling (Word of Honor)

65: Falst (Aurora Webcomic)

66: Venus (solarballs)

67: Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto)

68: Rui Ayaki (Demon Slayer)

69: Gyutaro (Demon Slayer)

70: Blackmore (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)

71: Gin Ibushi (Your Turn To Die)

72: Sirin (Honkai Impact 3rd)

73: Kai Satou (Your Turn To Die) np

74: Rio Ranger (Your Turn To Die) np

75: Hod (Lobotomy Corporation/ Library Of Ruina)

76: molly blyndeff (Epithet erased)

77: Mami Tomoe (madoka magica)

78: “Tails” miles prower (Sonic)

79: Pearl Fey (Ace Attorney) no

80: Lillie (Pokémon)

81: Jane Doe (Ride the cyclone)

82: Netzach (Lobotomy Corporation/Library Of Ruina) np

83: Chesed (Lobotomy Corporation/Library Of Ruina)

84: Gebura (Lobotomy Corporation/Library Of Ruina) np

85: Furina de Fontaine (Genshin Impact)

86: Natsuki Subaru (Re: Zero)

87: Sayo (I Need To Suck Blood Tonight)

88: Ciel Phantomhive (Black Butler)

89: Kokichi Oma (Daganronpa V3)

90: hal 9000 (2001 a space odyssey)

[dorsey-divine]

The Binding Of God

Content Warning: Mentions of child death, religious trauma

Audio

-----

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”

And he said “Here I am.”

Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

“Why do you desire Isaac, my Lord God?” asked Abraham.

“Do you not trust me Abraham?” asked God in return, surprised that His command was not immediately heeded.

“I do Almighty Father, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, but before a ram was the sacrifice to your most holy Heavenly Father. Why now must my son be sacrificed?” Abraham asked again.

“Because I command it so.” Answered God. “Will you disobey my command?”

Abraham did not answer the Lord’s question, instead he asked, “If an earthly Lord ordered a son to be sacrificed in his name would he not be evil?”

“He would.” God told Abraham, “The killing of an innocent is a most high sin.”

“I would not obey that command from an earthly Lord.” Stated Abraham. “Whether it was my son Isaac or another man’s, for I follow your teachings and wisdom Lord.”

“That is noble and good Abraham.” Commended God.

“Yes it is. You are my Lord, and you command me to kill my beloved son in your name.” Abraham said, “Do you see now why I hesitate?”

“I do,” said God, “but I am not an earthly Lord. I am the most high God. I ask for your trust and faith Abraham.”

“But I am an earthly man, just as you made me.” Responded Abraham. “Would you kill your son Lord, if you had one?”

“I will one day.” Said God. “He will be your savior, delivered to your wretched and sinful earth by a virgin mother, and He will die for the sins of all humanity. Not only Him, but you humans are my children, made in my image.” God told Abraham.

“A father willing to strike down his child is no father at all.” Responded Abraham. “You say we humans are your children, but you call our home wretched and sinful. If you love us Lord, why leave us here?”

“Eve disobeyed me in the garden, do you not remember?” Asked God.

“The Original Sin, I remember Lord. She disobeyed your command not to eat the fruit of knowledge and was cast, along with her husband Adam, from Eden.” Abraham paused and seemed to weigh his words. “Her sin tainted us all Lord?”

“Yes.” Answered God. “Do you fear being rejected from my light as well?”

“I do.” Abraham told God, and his voice began to shake.

“You may weep Abraham.” God said to Abraham. And he did, for many hours, the terrible love and wrath of the Heavenly Father overwhelming him completely. Once his tears had run dry Abraham looked to the sky where the Lord was, waiting for his words. The Lord did not speak, so Abraham did.

“You truly are omniscient my Lord, so you know my heart.” Said Abraham. “I regret what I must say now.”

“I know Abraham.” God told his once faithful servant.

“I fear you Father,” Abraham began “I know you love me despite my sinful flesh and soul, but I fear you.” Abraham stood up straighter. “You are the one who taught me that fear is not the most powerful emotion, but instead forgiveness and love, and I have taken that lesson to heart.”

“I know you have Abraham.” Interrupted God. Abraham did not heed Him and continued to talk.

“I love you God. I love you for your grace, for your glory, for your patience, and for your love. My love for you is unlike what I feel for any other, but that does not make it the strongest love within my heart and soul. I love my son beyond what I can describe even to you Lord, and I choose him.”

This angered God. “You would damn your immortal soul and refuse to obey me?” His voice thundered throughout the Heavens and the earth.

“Yes Lord.” Said Abraham. “I would die one thousand deaths and suffer eternal damnation for my son.” And with that, Abraham walked away from God and back into his home.

After some time stewing in anger, the Lord sent an angel to speak to Abraham.

“Abraham! Abraham!” Called the angel.

“Here I am.” replied Abraham. “Why do you seek me angel?”

“I am a messenger of God,” said the angel, “He has asked me to speak with you. Will you still disobey him?”

“Yes, messenger of God, if he still commands me to sacrifice my only son.”

“He does.” Spoke the angel. “Do you not trust His purpose?”

“I trust His purpose as the creator and ruler of all time and space, but my son is mine, to do with as I will.” Abraham told the angel, as he had told God. “If my punishment is to be struck down and delivered to Hell do so now, if I am to die I do not want to linger.” Abraham dropped to his knees and looked up at the angel.

"I swear by myself,” declared the angel, on behalf of God “that because you have done this and have withheld your son, your only son, I will surely curse you and make your descendants as few as the stars on the earth and as the grass on the seashore. Your descendants will slave away in the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be condemned, because you have disobeyed me." After these words the angel flew back to Heaven and Abraham was left alone to weep for the future. He wished he had never doubted his Lord, and that his descendants would not be punished for it.

“Isaac!” He called out, rising to his feet.

“Here I am.” said his son, having run to meet Abraham’s call. “Are you alright?” he asked upon seeing his father’s face.

“Yes my son, I am, because you are here with me.” Abraham told Isaac, remembering why he had strayed from God. He stepped forward and took his son by the shoulders. “I love you more than anything Isaac.”

“I love you as well father. But why do you weep?”

“God has cursed my descendants, your children, and their children and all after. They will be few- and slaves to their enemies and bring misfortune upon all nations of the world. I disobeyed Him by denying to sacrificing you.” Abraham drew his son into an embrace. “I am sorry Isaac.”

Isaac thought for a moment, then spoke. “It is alright father, for if God has given us free will, and in His grace He has, then we may disobey his plans. I shall have many children and they shall bring joy and love to the world, and their children shall do the same, and all after. God’s light may no longer shine on our family, but your love shines on me, for you did not kill me. God’s love is mighty, but it is not yours, and yours is all I need.”

[pandorafallz]

Vampire AU | Quad's escape

Amanda walked with a high head through the SecOps canteen to start their plans of action now they were set. Thea trailing behind, looking busy with her tablet. She had gone through her mind on what they were doing, and how they were going to go about it and so far, nothing had changed timetable-wise this time around to throw them off their game like Augustine had kindly done.

Perhaps it was a small blessing in disguise, they had a connection back to the RDA for supplies they couldn’t get out in the wild which may come in handy later on. They wouldn’t have had that before if they left back at Hell’s Gate. This land would take some time getting used to but… they had to get out before they could settle down out there. The avatar would be useful, although it would be helpful if she and her sisters had Lilith’s spare avatars grown as well… there should be three others left (one for each of them) but… it was unlikely to get the spares from Hell’s Gate and to grow them without any knowledge of how to do so and supplies. Maybe later, once they figured something out.

Maybe they could find those other defectors who shot their way out?

Amanda knew all about that now but as much as she was curious about that group that had the Na’vi kids, she’d wager the risks if they came face to face with this other group. It would…be beneficial to team up with other defectors but… these ones had killed.

Was it wise to do that? Would they post a risk to them?

From what she had heard, Mercer was a prick and deserved his death, maybe it was justified? Those Na’vi kids had to come from somewhere and it brought up a lot of…interesting wonders which opened a lot of questions. After all, as the leader of this base, Mercer would have had to have known about those kids. The fact Colonel Quaritch had plundered out the SecOps soldiers seemed to say a lot too.

Maybe they were desperate?

Either way, she’d have to see once she got there.

From her pant's large side pocket, she pulled out the thick bag of herbs that Lilith had retrieved from their last sampling outing. Inside the bag were two small ones from the desired herbs Moriah and Eden listed.

The initial payment.

The bag itself was wedged into some trash; a squashed box with some tissue lining it that just so happened to have a certain someone’s name on it.

“Dyer,” She called, not too loud but enough to sound unfriendly as she dropped the ‘trash’ beside the woman. “Clean up your own trash, don’t leave it where anyone can trip over it or do we need to get the crayons out with signs.”

“Oh, fuck you.” Dyer huffed, leaning back from her bowl in disgust.

“You’re not my type, bitch. Clean up after yourself.” She didn’t give the SecOps officer a chance to respond before she turned and hurried away.

“Oh, god. I’m so sorry!” Thea whispered, sounding mortified.

“Beat it, Freakshow.” Dyer snarked back distantly, the sound of her chair scraping against the floor echoed.

Amanda kept her face composed as she headed out of the canteen and towards the amour bay for the next part of the plan.

Thea caught up quickly before she giggled a little once they were out of sight. “They bought it.”

“Good.” The RDA couldn’t know they were buddy-buddies right now. As long as they thought they were fighting or hated each other, then they were all in the clear. Dyer had given them the code word as well; Lilith was gone and no one was any wiser.

It meant Castel had been successful in smuggling her out on his morning patrol in his scorpion and Lilith was safe in the link-shack if Dyer received a message from their contact phone. Grace was already in the lab, pretending to be Lilith. Now all the pieces were in place, all they had to do was go. For that, Amanda would take over as ‘Thea’ and Thea would be ‘Grace’ and no one would know who was truly who and who was actually missing. It worked well in school and their escape form home and they saw no reason it wouldn’t work now. As long as Lilith linked up and got her avatar in the scorpion then they were in the all-clear.

“Once you’ve done your patrol, come to the airfield and leave when we’re called back in for the night. We leave two hours after dark. I’ll stay in the scorpion and install the pager equipment for us” It was gonna take a while but she had most of it ready now for installation and with those spare hours before they’d ditch, all the better.

“I’ll get more supplies.” Thea agreed. “Beep us when you’re ready.”

“Copy.”

-

So Amanda spent her afternoon and evening shift in her scorpion, allowing the general maintenance crew to help repair some damage back to its former glory but she also made sure to remove all the trackers as well, super glueing them into the underside of the tool tray that her co-workers were using when they weren’t looking before they went to tend to another ship that arrived a little worse off.

Thea arrived so Amanda tucked herself into the cockpit’s floor, allowing her sister to take over and resupply their ship with typical resupplies like ammo and with extra stuff like tools, wires, customisable motherboards and the extras it needed to be functional for what they needed.

Amanda took the time to get into the radio systems before the echo over the airfield called for the end-of-shift recall for all outsiders and she watched Thea take her leave in plain sight. Frontier West wasn’t nearly as secured as Hell’s Gate since the arrests were made so there was no night working for staff in the airfield until they could up their SecOps numbers again for more patrols.

So, as silence fell and the airfield lights dimmed, Amanda continued on with her installations. Pagers were antique technology, long gone out of typical life by the late 2020s but crime circles had them for far longer. Thea had hand-built these ones based off the old blueprints the RDA had and crafted five of them; one for all of them and the fifth for the avatar. Using the scorpion as a transmitter also ensured that they had both means of privacy and no one would be monitoring the scorpion for these types of outdated frequencies. Pagers couldn’t be traced like this and certainly not on home-made ones.

Amanda grinned in success as the transmission began to light up with life before she fumbled for her pager. Only a beep pager for now but she sent three beeps to all and stealthily slipped from the cockpit and did a last-second secure of loose items and removed the engine and exhaust covers.

It didn’t take long in fact for the other two to arrive, bags on back, hers included and quickly secured them to the spare seats. A few extra masks were tossed into the fray. She began the scorpion’s warm-up as Thea took a seat beside her as her Co-pilot

“Lilith’s linked up but has sneaked out north where there’s little traffic or attention. She figured it was easier to get out of the compound than it was to sneak to the airfield. She can’t get out of the fencing alone. I slipped the guy who was gonna patrol some laxatives at dinner to be late just to be safe.”

“Got it.” Amanda nodded, though her attention turned as she heard someone try and radio her Scorpion as she began to rise from the concrete. “Grace cut the black box and hold on. We’ve been noticed.”

There was a thunk and a ‘shit!’ as they gathered momentum to rise and headed directly to the north side of the base to pick Lilith up.

“We lost the bolt cutters,” Grace called.

“And the Blackbox?”

“Yes.”

“Acceptable loss.”

It didn’t matter really, she doubted they’d need them again but if need be, they could always request for a new set when they were ready to trade. For now, Avatar, escape and link-shack move. Simple enough.

-

Mansk, along with Walker stared out the window overlooking the back of the base as the Scorpion dipped down and an avatar jumped up into it from the shadows and they were off, quickly crossing into the air turret range as they began their ascent up into the night sky rapidly.

Walker sighed deeply but made no remark as she set her hands on her hips.

He could readily hear the frantic talking as the team leaders scrambled to action before one had the sense to open comms to him.

“Sir! We’ve got a situation. An unauthorised engine start from a Scorpion leaving with defectors and an avatar.” An alarmed voice echoed into his office radio. “Turrets will be hot in two minutes. They’ll still be in range when they’re—“

“No.” Mansk decided, shaking his head. “No shooting them out of the sky.”

He felt Walker’s eyes turn to him sharply, her lips pursing but he ignored that for now.

“But sir—”

“That avatar is five billion dollars and the scorpion is ten million dollars. Shooting them now destroys all possibilities of recovering them. We can afford a temporary loss. Just keep tabs on them; their direction and their speed. We can try and catch up tomorrow, I can’t authorise a chase at this time of night. Their weapons are no doubt fully functional. We can’t afford to lose good men and women more than we already have.”

“Yes…Sir.” There was hesitance to the guy’s voice.

Mansk kept those facts as a major reason for the RDA interests. Shooting the scorpion would kill all the defectors and the avatar, which may in turn kill the driver in the link-bed. Sure, the defector problem would go away and he may be praised for quick thinking in stopping defectors and scaring those thinking about leaving as well.

But they’d still lose the avatar and scorpion, the deaths would damage the morale between comrades and those who knew the motivation behind the leaving.

In all honestly, those with exceptional hearing knew well in advance of the quadruplet’s escape plan, but no one else knew the context of it. He personally didn’t know why they wanted to leave, nor did he really care to. Based on their work, and general interactions with other staff, there were no ‘signs’ that they could use that would have been a missed ‘signal’ that they were going to bounce. If the reasons were close to the female group that bailed to escape their abusers and they killed them for escape… then they were fucked. Personally, Mansk didn’t think so but he’d check in the reports in case he missed something. Still, he wasn’t looking forward to letting Hell’s Gate know. Selfridge was gonna blow a fuse. At least Colonel Quaritch would have his back on it.

“I’ll do a sweep of the airfield. I get someone to do inventory so we know what else was taken.” Walker spoke, her ruby eyes lingering on the screen that began to light up with new notifications. “I think they got away with a lot less than we expected but they have that trade system they wanna do…”

 Mansk decided, leaning back from his monitor to start his report. “Let’s see how it goes, we still to RDA patrols and plans. We have no physical proof of anything.”

“But the trading system? That’ll lead to contraband and losses. If Hell’s Gate finds out then we’re in a lot of trouble. We can’t afford the heat.” Walker replied, worried.

“Again, no proof of anything. Until there is evidence, do nothing. Contraband can keep our people here happy. Happy people mean we can feed a lot more and stay fed for longer. The herbs they’re drinking benefit us.” Mansk explained. “I asked Augustine about the plant effects on humans after I heard what they wanted.” He added at the incredulous side-eye Walker gave him.

Walker let out a redundant huff of breath. “I better get to work.” She patted her pockets until she fished out her brown contact lens’s case and once again set them back in to cover the red, blinking a few times and went to duck to the antique mirror of Mercer’s to check.

It was a large mirror, full length and the fact it was in Mercer’s office seemed to suggest the late director had narcissist tendencies. It hadn’t been moved except to the corner of the room and there had been debate on what to do with it and where it was going. Honestly, Mansk kept it in the office for one reason only and that was curiosity (and fun).

Watching Walker duck in front had been worth the silence about it as she jumped back in surprise.

“Dude! What the fuck!” Walker blinked, her hand coming to the glass surface to check it. “Where is my reflection?!”

Mansk rose to his feet, picking up an untouched desk ornament and darted forward to hold it up to the mirror’s surface. The ornament remained in view, he also wasn’t visible which made her ogle a little.

“Damn… Vampire thing?” Walker calmed down, “Okay, get Augustine or Kamath to figure out why we don’t have a reflection in this when we’re good with every other mirror and reflective surface.”

“It’s a silver mirror. Silver is the problem” Mansk pointed out, knocking on the glass. “Antique. Mercer must have brought it from Earth. Mirrors nowadays don’t have silver backing to it.”

“Why is silver such a problem…. Here I thought we didn’t have any weirder vampire shit to deal with. I thought the whole ‘no reflections’ was a myth. Nine years like this and this is new!” she gestured to the mirror wildly.

“I don’t know but it’s been fun to stare into it.” Mansk chuckled, earning a soft and annoyed elbow to the gut. “Since there’s no next of kin to claim it, Selfridge wants it for his office. It’ll be gone by the end of the week. You're fine, by the way.” Motioning to her eyes before he flickered back towards his desk.

“I hope so.” She slipped the case away back into her pocket. “I’ll keep you informed. Good luck with the Colonel…. Or Selfridge, I should say.”

 “Thanks.”

“Cover that mirror too, we don’t need people to notice.”

No, they didn’t but it would be really funny.

-

Alex examined the link-bed half as he set down the top lid off to the floor but he had faith his simulations would provide a working piece soon enough. Scrap metal was all the extra they had to work with and the few abandoned and broken AMP suits from years back in the wild provided them with enough material to create a frame for the cryo-pod top.

The internal body framing was done, as was the crown, as Alex aptly named it was also done. The pod he had modified wouldn’t fit into the torus of the link bed and the link bed still had a lot of work to make it work in cool temperatures. Cutting it up was only one part of the work.

Still, three weeks should be enough and the nutrient packs for the avatar were going to run out sooner rather than later so any time before they were forced to decanter it. They had to make this work.

“How is it going? You’re up very early.”

Alex’s head rose to see Teylan poking his head into their junk bay of a maintenance room was. It probably looked like a mess. He smiled warmly at the young Na’vi, waving him in nonetheless and straightened up.

“Well, we’re a while away before we get anything functional but this is good progress,” Alex said with a chuckle. “I wanted to make a start with the bed since we have them. I’ve got a lot to do to make the link-bed portion workable in low temperatures.”

Teylan peered down curiously before he reached forward and poked the gel padding. “Oh, it’s squishy.” His finger sunk into the gel before he pulled his hand back to pat across the surface.

Alex laughed. “yes, these beds are designed for the human body to rest but to prevent bed sores and discomfort, the bed is padded out with this specially designed gel-padding. Heat and cold resistant so when it’s working and Alma’s in it, it should still be comfortable.”

Teylan’s eyes flickered at him. “The others haven’t told me much but… is Alma really that badly hurt?”

Alex’s good mood tampered a little, his face falling. “It’s… not for me to say, Teylan. I can’t judge much but without a fully trained medical doctor, we don’t know for sure. Until there’s a doctor who can give a prognosis, this is Alma’s only chance at having a life.” Gesturing to the junk pile.

“Isn’t Hajir and Nalin a doctor?”

“Hajir’s medically trained but he’s mostly zoologist. He can run a medical bay but he’s not a fully trained surgeon. Nalin is a medical researcher. She can patch up a lot but not extreme wounds like Alma’s. They’ve already given their assessments. I can’t disclose, unfortunately.”

Teylan remained quiet for a moment. “Would… a Tsahìk help her? The Aranahe’s Tsahìk, Asahe is probably very skilled and could help her?”

“I don’t doubt a Tsahìk’s ability to heal but… I don’t think a Tsahìk knows how to tend to a human body, Teylan.” Alex crouched down beside the upper half, reaching for his screwdriver. “If it was the avatar hurt, I’m sure that would be easily tended to given it is almost identical to a Na’vi form.”

Teylan deflated a little. “Can I help?”

“If you want? I’ve got to strip the wires and remove the tech from the top lid. I can repurpose them for the bottom. If you could help pile all the wires and separate the metal from the glass and tech, that would be extremely helpful. Once we’re done, we can have breakfast.”

With a curt nod, Teylan grabbed a tool, knelt and began to help peel off wires that were still attached to the scraps they had pulled together. A few AMP suits had good canopies and some left in the wild were intact.

“Ri’nela wants me to go down to Hometree again today but… I don’t want to go. I heard from Kieotey from another hunter yesterday that there are new predators in the forest that we should be careful of. What if I run into it?” Teylan worried.

“New predator?”

“Well, she said the hunter saw it when he was hunting a yerik. Two fur creatures, one orange and black and the other white and grey. Same energy and size as Viperwolves.”

Alex frowned as he gently set the screw he had pulled out into a pot. “That’s unusual. Most Pandoran creatures have some fur but are not covered unless, of course, they’re from a cold biome. The colouring isn’t native this this forest either.” Must not be easy hunting but still, it was… odd.

“I know! It’s possible the creatures left their native environment for some reason. Maybe the sky people displaced them?”

“It’s possible, there’s only a few RDA installations in the Upper Plains and one north of the clouded forest in this region. We’re above the equator. They couldn’t have come down from the north but maybe they came up from the south?” Still, a long way to travel.

“Maybe. I guess we’ll have to see if the Aranahe capture these creatures. Maybe they will help them. But it’s still unsafe. I still think it’s best if I stay out here and help.”

Clearly, Teylan as trying to keep himself focused and with human things. Alex didn’t mind the help but… he’d probably have to ask someone to try and push the kid back to Na’vi stuff. It was only right to do that. Maybe they had to play subtle and get interested in Na’vi stuff first themselves and get him to help with Na’vi’s things.

Who knew? Maybe Alma would be able to help once they got her linked up. They would respond well to her. Teylan certainly might.

Masterlist

[micha-phone]

Chayei Sara

This week I was taken in by the phrase וַיֵּצֵ֥א יִצְחָ֛ק לָשׂ֥וּחַ בַּשָּׂדֶ֖ה “and Isaac went out to לָשׂ֥וּחַ in the field.” There is a lot of debate about what this word לָשׂ֥וּחַ means. Some say it means he went out to pray, to pour his heart out before Hashem. This is where we get the afternoon prayer, each of the patriarchs is associated with one of the three prayer services: Abraham with morning, Isaac with afternoon, and Jacob with evening. Rashbam though says that Isaac went out to the fields to check on the plants – how are they growing is the work being done correctly. But then there is the most interesting, to me interpretation, which combines with the previous verse “Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi, for he was settled in the region of the Negeb.” This interpretation says that Isaac had not been living in his father’s house, he had gone to the field to pray, but not from his home but was rather returning from further afield. Chizkuni says that Isaac had just left Eden where he had been for the three years after the Akeda. Others say that he was returning from Mount Moriah, another spiritual site. He is just now returning to his father’s house. He stops to pray, to pour his heart out, maybe processing his anxieties about seeing the man who almost sacrificed him. Going back to his home, where his mother isn’t anymore, just him and his father. And then before he can return home, he sees Rebecca. They go to his home together, “Isaac then brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he took Rebekah as his wife. Isaac loved her, and thus found comfort after his mother’s death.”

Okay, so what? Why does it matter that he returns home with Rebecca, with a stranger he barely knows to a house he has barely spent time in? Maybe it’s saying you don’t have to do hard things alone? That there are others who are just as nervous (while what we see of Rebecca suggests that she is confident over making this match it also must be a nervewracking situation)? Or that you can make a new home with someone? I don’t know. But I think there’s something to say about Isaac not having to face it alone, and for that matter for Isaac and Rebecca to have a moment, not alone, but not planned to meet each other for the first time. Going to make a life together, going from the field, from a holy place, from a connection with Hashem immediately to a connection with another person and moving into the world of humans. Facing our families or past trauma with someone else by our sides.

[captainkawaii666]

Isaac Moriah

I’ve talked about my Godzilla AU a good bit, and my Mega Man AU a little, but I haven’t touched on the Spider-Man, Isaac, or Nuclear Throne (which I was originally not gonna post about but I changed my mind) ones at all. So, without further ado, it’s Isaacing time!

Isaac Moriah is a creative and inventive child, who also suffers from anxiety, depression, social anxiety, and constant mental breakdowns. He’s older than in the canon here (12 or 13) but still only 3 apples tall. She’s genderfluid and uses he/she/they pronouns.

Unlike in the original game, in my AU project Isaac didn’t venture into the Basement just to escape from their mother (though that was still a part of it). He was also trying to find her sister Magdalene, who had vanished about a year earlier and who they believe is in the Basement.

Something about Isaac separates him from the rest of the people and creatures in the Basement, and this makes her a target for many dangerous individuals, including Eden, Satan, Greed, and Rag Man. They’ve also begun hearing a strange voice he believe belongs to her father, which has been guiding them through the Basement to an unknown location…

[apilgrimpassingby]

Here's my attempt to articulate what I think he means:

I'll start with analogy from the other area of supernatural belief I'm enthusiastic about: British folklore. One of the constants of faerie lore in the British Isles is that faeries live in barrows and mounds - it's found from Cornwall to the Shetlands and most places in-between. However, people knew that digging open a barrow wouldn't reveal a group of short people with strange powers dressed in green; they'd been digging barrows to find treasure in them since at least the Late Middle Ages [1]. Indeed, a close-reading of faerie lore shows that people didn't literally believe they lived underground; while they're strongly associated with barrows, they're very rarely associated with caves, including in areas like North Wales with a lot of cave folklore [2].

The point of all this is that "faeries live in barrows" didn't literally mean "cut open a barrow and there'll be flesh-and-blood faeries inside"; rather, the barrow acts as the touchpoint between the human dimension and the faerie dimension. And (again, I'm expositing on what I think Kaleb is saying) Eden's the same way - it's the touchpoint between the human and divine worlds.

This also applies elsewhere in the Bible. Mount Sinai is the most famous Mountain of God, but there are several others - Mount Moriah (in Genesis), Mount Horeb (in the rest of the Pentateuch), Mount Paran (in Deuteronomy 33 and Habakkuk) and Mount Zion (in the Psalms and Prophets). But they're all the Mountain of God because they all act as the touchpoint between humanity and divinity.

Tabitha Stamore, 2024, Cunning Folk: Life in the Age of Practical Magic, pp.138-142

Jeremy Harte, 2022, Explore Fairy Traditions (second edition), p.8

Trying to articulate the concept of the Garden in Eden as a type of reality instead of a place in space-time is really h a r d T-T