#Hardened Hearts

[chrisengel]

"The real weapons of mass destruction are the hardened hearts of humanity." Leonard Cohen

[beautyqueenproblems]

Enjoy this aesthetically pleasing photo of me in a random alleyway in Kentucky

[bookkats]

Prayer for when we legislate things..

This is a prayer for those who needLegislate posting the ten commandmentsand the denominations that need to expel womendefine “marriage”in ways the devalue personhood This is a prayer becauseGod melt the heartsof those who only have one hardenedunderstanding of scriptureGodhumanity God I pray that you melt their hearts God I pray that you sing poetry to themin their dreams And show them…

[lordgodjehovahsway]

Joshua 11: God Defeats The Northern Kings For Israel

1 When Jabin king of Hazor heard of this, he sent word to Jobab king of Madon, to the kings of Shimron and Akshaph, 

2 and to the northern kings who were in the mountains, in the Arabah south of Kinnereth, in the western foothills and in Naphoth Dor on the west; 

3 to the Canaanites in the east and west; to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites in the hill country; and to the Hivites below Hermon in the region of Mizpah. 

4 They came out with all their troops and a large number of horses and chariots—a huge army, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. 

5 All these kings joined forces and made camp together at the Waters of Merom to fight against Israel.

6 The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, because by this time tomorrow I will hand all of them, slain, over to Israel. You are to hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.”

7 So Joshua and his whole army came against them suddenly at the Waters of Merom and attacked them, 

8 and the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel. They defeated them and pursued them all the way to Greater Sidon, to Misrephoth Maim, and to the Valley of Mizpah on the east, until no survivors were left. 

9 Joshua did to them as the Lord had directed: He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots.

10 At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword. (Hazor had been the head of all these kingdoms.) 

11 Everyone in it they put to the sword. They totally destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed, and he burned Hazor itself.

12 Joshua took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. 

13 Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their mounds—except Hazor, which Joshua burned. 

14 The Israelites carried off for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but all the people they put to the sword until they completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed. 

15 As the Lord commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses.

16 So Joshua took this entire land: the hill country, all the Negev, the whole region of Goshen, the western foothills, the Arabah and the mountains of Israel with their foothills, 

17 from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, to Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and put them to death. 

18 Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time. 

19 Except for the Hivites living in Gibeon, not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites, who took them all in battle. 

20 For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

21 At that time Joshua went and destroyed the Anakites from the hill country: from Hebron, Debir and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua totally destroyed them and their towns. 

22 No Anakites were left in Israelite territory; only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any survive.

23 So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war.

[orphiclovers]

han sooyoung, on being the villain

[comatosebunny09]

Imagine being longtime friends with Zayne and harboring deep feelings for him, but having no idea how he feels about you because he keeps you at what feels like arm’s length.

Sometimes, you feel like a nuisance.

An annoying sister-figure Zayne deals with because he has to. Because he’s known you since you were children, and now he’s your doctor, so he’s obligated to be nice.

But sometimes, he confuses you because did he just compliment you unprovoked? Go out of his way to meet you for dinner? Give you his coat when the cold whisper of the breeze touches your spine? Stay in your living room late into the night talking with you, knowing he has to be up early tomorrow for work?

Whatever’s going on, it’s confusing as all hell. His signals are jumbled like spilled jigsaw pieces, and the accidental touches and the fleeting glances and the way he murmurs unguarded things to you in the dead of night makes your head fill with static, and—

You don’t think your heart can take much more of this push-and-pull, this game of hot and cold.

Besides, who would Zayne be to give someone as plain as you a shot in hell at him? He’s all big-time cardiac surgeon. All modelesque and incredibly smart and made of money, and you’re just a humble, nameless Hunter.

Enter Sylus.

Damn, he’s an asshole at first.

Sure, his beauty is otherworldly, and his voice makes your knees all wobbly. And he’s tall and masculine in every sense of the word, and fuck, he smells good.

But you typically wouldn’t give someone like him the time of day. He’s a criminal. Damn near mafia-affiliated. Talks too much shit, and your morals warn you against falling for him.

But, well…

You kinda…

Do.

With time you notice, hey, this guy isn’t too bad. He’s still the leader of Onychinus. Still a murderer and a thief and you’re still low-key traumatized from your first encounter with him.

But he’s not all jagged around the edges like he initially let on. Doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to what he wants. Wears his heart on his cuffed, designer sleeves when it comes to you.

There’s no riddle to his words. No mistaking how his hand sits possessively at the small of your back when he takes you with him to conduct business. No missing how he blatantly flirts and has even come close to kissing you once or twice.

He likes you, goddamit, if the PDA and the unguarded smiles and overprotectiveness are anything to go by.

And when you’re tucked away all safe in your bedroom, tuckered out from killing Wanderers and battling with your own emotions…

When you’re clad in your soft PJs and hugging your pillow to your bosom with your brain all fizzy as the sun seeks refuge beneath the horizon…

When, in your peripheral, your phone glows on your nightstand. And you worry your bottom with your teeth, scrutinizing the picture flooding your screen—sea-green eyes, kohl black hair, a name flanked in big red hearts.

He’s calling you. Again. Texting you, filling your watch with notifications, filling up the idle space of your home with the insistent hum of your phone, and it’s uncharacteristic of him to be so active.

As your phone forwards him to voicemail and he becomes another missed call in your notifications, you realize.

Sigh.

You fitfully realize that Sylus is everything you want.

Everything you want from Zayne.

You fall back into the serenity of your bedsheets with a wail, muffling such a pitiful sound behind your pillow.

Maybe, just maybe Sylus is your punishment for being too pussy to confront Zayne.

[cookiescr]

Baby girl thinking about that chocolate while reporting to you about stopping a resistance

[novelconcepts]

Something about Dani and Jamie, Bill and Frank, love stories cultivated in the heart of horror. Something about finding queer love, gay love, human and fallible and worth cupping hands around and protecting even in the darkest of times. Something about stumbling into your person when you least expect them, when your mind is fixed firmly on pain and survival, and letting their light open you up. Something about choosing to wake up every day and cherish this person, even when it’s hard, even when they’re being broken down right before your eyes. Something about saying “I am marrying you, not in the eyes of others, but in our hearts where it matters—legality be damned”.

Something about gay love being worth all the strawberries, all the moonflowers, all the persistence and the endings chosen on your own terms. Something about that hits me where it counts.

[narniadynasty]

six of crows | leigh bardugo

[softchouli]

[kugamoogle]

Happy belated Collections Day! Hoping more new fans means more people will end up going just as insane over these two as I have

Mostly off topic ramble about AAI and Badd in the tags!

[esmes]

i know you fancy him, but men ain't like women. they ain't like what you can trust. as i've lived and learned!

[mostly-mundane-atla]

I've been on an unofficial hiatus for a while because recovery and adjusting to disability are both really hard, but i feel i do have to say something.

I am not pro-Israel. It's not just my political allignment that makes it impossible, but also my moral code.

Palestinian civilians have been displaced, wrongfullu incarcerated, killed, and otherwise subject to the Israeli government's military violence for decades now, plenty among them for peacefully protesting. Mandatory military service for Israeli citizens means any young adult who isn't willing to face jailtime for refusing to enlist is expected to be a tool of that military violence, and any who do enlist and say something in poor taste or genuinely offensive about it on social media becomes a much easier target than the ones actually in charge. Israeli soldiers ar facing depression and suicidal ideation from this war and Palestinian civilians are resorting to eating animal feed due to aid being cut off.

It is not Holocaust Inversion to say that the state of Israel is oppressing Palestinians

It is not Blood Libel to say Palestinians have had to look through rubble to find their dead childrens' body parts

Jewish people who cannot condone the actions of Israel for moral reasons do not deserve to be called self-hating for it

A massive loss of lives is never good, and it saddens me to hear of Israeli civilian deaths. I wish all those peaceful protests worked and this level of desperation had never been reached, but i cannot, in good conscience, condemn violent resistence to occupation, no matter who it comes from. Doing so cracks open the door for anyone to condemn any group they have a political grudge against for the same thing, and also to claim that they also deserve the total anihilation Israel seems intent on inflicting upon Gaza.

I hope that this war is called off. I hope that all of the hostages can return home. I hope that the brave and compassionate Israeli citizens who see the cruelty people inflict in their name for what it is and try to put a stop to it are victorious. I hope that from the River Jordan to the Mediteranian sea, Palestinians can walk freely among their grandparents' land without fear of bullets, bombs, or violence.

[fincalinde]

I see you have done some really thoughtful metas. What're your thoughts on Nie Mingjue? IMO he's a lot more complicated than he's usually assumed to be...

One of my classic absurdly late ask responses! Glad you enjoy the meta.

I think NMJ occupies a fascinating place in the narrative, because his ultimate fate is inevitable despite the fact that he theoretically has more agency than most (all?) of the rest of the main cast.

For a start he becomes clan leader at a young age, and while that comes with its pressures it's undeniably an influential position. He's the leading general of the Sunshot Campaign. Then, after the Sunshot Campaign, the Nie and the Jin are by some margin the most powerful clans. So, in a political sense NMJ has immense power. In theory he has the ability to make far better choices. He could stop persecuting JGY, who literally has no choice but to follow his father's orders, and he could choose to focus his ire where it belongs: on JGS. And he could also choose to counter JGS in ways that don't push the jianghu back to the brink of another devastating war.

Except he can't make those choices. And I want to make a strong distinction here: he is not like other characters such as JGY or LXC or JC, whose choices are limited by their clear understanding of their own limitations and the political landscape (including but not limited to the fact that a post-Sunshot descent into war between the Nie and the Jin would be catastrophic). No. NMJ's choices are limited because by the end of the Sunshot Campaign his mental capacity is irreversibly compromised.

Not only is NMJ terminally ill, but we're given clear examples of contrast between NMJ early in Sunshot and NMJ late- and post-Sunshot. Pre-Sunshot NMJ understands the Wen have political and cultivation power that utterly outclasses him and his clan, so he stands by and tolerates their existence. He knows it would be suicide to go up against them, and it's only when the Wen cross a line and all the clans unite that he's able to actually do anything about the fact that WRH murdered his father.

Contrast that to NMJ by the end of Sunshot, so irrationally obsessed with JGY that he's willing to jeopardise the hard-won (and fragile) stability of the jianghu by trying to kill him. Reminder: when NMJ kicks JGY down the stairs, he starts to follow him down with the express intent of killing him. As in, he fully intends to murder the legitimate son of his main political rival and an immensely powerful clan leader on the steps of his own home. That is ludicrous. Pre-Sunshot NMJ wouldn't have done something like that for his own beloved father, let alone for a grudge.

All of NMJ's flaws are obvious from the earliest point of his timeline: he's proud, he's inflexible, he's righteous but he's hypocritical. But early on we see examples of NMJ bending a little, of recognising nuance and showing, in his own inelegant way, his compassionate side. By the end, that's gone. The fan-burning incident alone (the fantrum!) demonstrates it. That's the way he treats his beloved didi, never mind how he treats his san-di.

Of course the narrative claims JGY can always talk NMJ round, but it's simply not true. In the end, the only way JGY can preserve himself is by making NMJ a promise he can't keep (to deliver XY's head) in order to buy himself enough time for NMJ to die and no longer be an immediate mortal threat. If JGY had not accelerated NMJ's decline, NMJ would have killed him and plunged the jianghu into another needless conflict.

I've spilled ink on the staircase scene already so I'm holding back on digging into this in more detail, but the fact is any discussion of NMJ's downfall is inextricably tangled up with JGY. The focal point of NMJ's descent is his obsession with JGY in particular, and it's important to remember what's relevant is not so much what JGY has or hasn't done but how NMJ treats him.

I do think one of the best ways to put it in context is to compare the way NMJ reacts to WRH to the way he reacts to JGY. WRH literally kills NMJ's father but NMJ has a cool enough head to know he has to bide his time. JGY on the other hand absolutely does betray NMJ's trust, in a situation where, again, if he does as NMJ wants (turns himself in) he's going to end up dead. And from that moment on, NMJ has no intention of giving JGY the benefit of the doubt. Yes, after LXC intervenes (remember, JGY would be dead without that intervention!) NMJ backs off and ends up agreeing to the sworn brotherhood, but he enters into the brotherhood in entirely the wrong spirit, seeing it as a way to monitor and subjugate JGY, who is already answerable to his father over and above any obligations to an elder brother.

Would NMJ at fifteen years old have listened to LXC and JGY's explanations in Qishan or later on the stairs at Golden Carp Tower? Possibly. But we don't have any examples of a time when he truly listened to JGY, and he was always going to end up this way regardless, taken out by a qi deviation and turned into the stuff of nightmares. JGY accelerated an existing process to save his own skin, but he didn't invent it out of whole cloth. So the tragedy of NMJ is not what JGY did to him. It goes back further than that, to when his ancestors first started cultivating the resentful energy of beasts.

Even then, contrasting NMJ to another character is illuminating. The text tells us NHS is in a bind: if he cultivates with his sabre, he's dooming himself. But if he doesn't cultivate with his sabre, he's pissing off his ancestors. The instinct then is perhaps to think—poor NMJ! He's in the same bind!

But NMJ never has a moment's doubt about sabre cultivation. NMJ knows the price and he pays it without question. NMJ doesn't agonise about how to balance his duty to his clan and his ancestors against his desire to not go violently insane. He accepts it as a fact of life and never thinks to question it or push back against it. He marches down the path that extirpates all his good qualities and leads straight to his worst self, and never so much as glances around in the hope of sighting a different way.

Again we're getting to that tension I find most interesting about NMJ: agency rubbing shoulders with inevitability. NHS finds a way to lead his clan and Word of God become Xiandu without cultivating with his sabre. Does that mean NMJ is responsible for his choices and he can't be absolved of his actions by blaming his inheritance? I don't necessarily have an answer for that, but I hugely enjoy exploring the question.

[butchtena]

thinking thoughts

"There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell." The Four Loves - C.S. Lewis

[lvstharmony]

wallahi, there’s nothing more comforting than knowing Allah is my witness