#I get people love and worship him but ffs

[dirtwormpile]

rant about how ppl portray the gods,,, (yes this includes hellenists)

something i wish people understood is that gods are symbolic, especially in their stories. with the introduction to science and technology, we can see clear as day that the mythos were the ancient greeks trying to understand the world around them.

why does europe look like a bull? why does the weather change every few months? how does daytime occur and how does nighttime occur? why are some marriages and relationships toxic but some very healthy? if there are nine stars, where is the ninth?

they justified these questions via stories and used the gods to understand them.

they thought europe looked like a bull because it used to be a bull. they thought the seasons changed every few months because demeter loves her daughter to the point she will stop letting plants grow when she has to leave. they thought some relationships were toxic and some werent because aphrodite would play matchmaker without considering the consequences. there are nine stars but the ninth is hiding.

and this is the case for so many myths! this also shaped how we see the gods.

zeus was a tyrant in the myths because that was what kings were like in the ancient times. how do we know? agamemnon, gilgamesh, and so many more ancient kings are like him, they dont even have to be hellenic.

thanatos was cold and cruel in contrast to hypnos who was gentle and calm, because death is cruel and sleep is gentle. we fear death and try our hardest not to get into it, but sleep is an escapism. even though theyre both forms of escapism (one permanent and one temporary)

aphrodite was an overprotective mother because thats how mothers are, they often love their children to the point they will go lengths for them (yes, even if they have to torture their child's lover.)

hermes was a clever trickster because he was one of the youngest on olympus, and thats how young people are. they pull tricks and pranks for the fun of it.

apollo was the leader of the nine muses but had many other relations and was a fighter because he was the ideal man. at that time men wanted to be surrounded by women without having to be faithful to all of them, and they wanted to be strong.

and another thing, the gods arent just identified by their flaws.

zeus is a father, a host, and a king.

thanatos is death, thats what creates the cycle of life.

aphrodite is a mother and a lover.

hermes is a multitasking messenger.

apollo is a leader and a fighter.

gods are symbolic, and we need to consider this whether we worship the gods or no.

thank you for coming to my ted talk, i just wanted to get this off my chest.

edit: i forgot to mention this but kronos counts. hes not evil ffs! he ate his children (-2) to stop the prophecy. hes also not in tartarus as far as im aware, zeus let him out. why do you think we have a day called saturday and a festival called saturnalia?

[anti-starscream]

Pov : Watching Star//scream steal, yet again, the spotlight of literally anything that didn't have anything to do with him

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/769048948715520000/i-was-having-a-stupid-argument-about-a-piece-of?source=share

Everyone has probably forgotten this but I have to deal with this overly pretentious snot of an early 20-something in social situations where people treat him like he's actually got useful things in his brain instead of just fluff and it's very frustrating.

Anyway, the media adaptation he thought was transcendentally good that didn't work for me at all as a fan of the book was the Ghibli Howl's Moving Castle.

--

Ahahahaha. Oh my god.

I've never seen the film. I read the book once, years ago, and didn't totally get it at the time, nor am I part of the vast and devoted fanbase that worships everything the author ever touched...

But ffs, of course lots of book fans aren't going to be that into an adaptation that is that flagrantly unfaithful. Anyone with a single brain cell should have predicted this no matter how much they love the movie.

Also, it lacks Sosban Fach, as The Welsh Viking pointed out. A travesty!

[unclewaynemunson]

Jeff is one of my favorite characters and I think we should start a post of all our favorite Jeff headcanons. He and Freak get left out in almost every Eddie-centric fic I read, with his "best friend" being either Gareth or Chrissy, and I'm tired of it. Jeff is wonderful. Here's my hc's:

- Jeff and Eddie have been best friends since middle school. They started CC and Hellfire together.

- they went to the Snowball together and rigged the bubble machine to spew bubbles during the slow dance songs. The dance had to end early and Jeff and Eddie never got caught

- Jeff's parents loves Eddie. They used to have sleepovers at each other's place almost every weekend.

- Jeff was the first person Eddie came out to. Jeff tried to be surprised and "that's great, man, thanks for telling me!" But Eddie saw right through that.

- Eddie is afraid of geese and spiders. Jeff thinks this is fucking hilarious.

- post-Vecna, Jeff is the one Eddie reconnects with first. Eddie tells him everything, despite the NDAs and Steve's warnings. Jeff believes him, because he knows there's wacky shit going on in Hawkins, and he's seen Eddie's wounds.

- they have that kind of friendship that nothing can break. Even if they don't see or talk to each other for years, because Life Happens and people lose touch, they'll always have part of themselves carved out for their best friend.

Ok, that's all I got for now, and sorry for the long ask! I just love Jeff so much and he (and Freak, too, because Freak gets ignored because of fatphobia) deserves just as much love and attention as Gareth gets.

What are your Jeff and Eddie headcanons?

I am loving this Jeff love and your headcanons, thank you so much for sending this to me!!! <3

I think with Unnamed Freak things are a bit different bc, yaknow, he doesn't have a name. For me at least that makes me hesitant to write about him so I don't wanna go as far as to say it's all bc he's fat (even though I'm not gonna deny that that probably also plays a part in how popular he is in this fandom urgh). Anyway, yes this fandom certainly does Jeff dirty. I think it's this gross combination of racism and people copying a lot from already existing stories, characterizations and headcanons without much critical thinking of their own (which baffles me, if you're creative enough to write a story please use that creativity for some originality ffs). Anyway, this is gonna turn into a rant again can you tell I'm still annoyed? so let's turn to something more positive now, like my headcanons for our beloved Jeff:

He was the first person in Hawkins (after Wayne obviously) that Eddie got close to. For Jeff it was kinda the same, being a black, nerdy boy in this town had been very isolating for him and Eddie was his first real friend.

Unnamed Freak made their duo into a trio a bit later. All the others in the group (including Gareth) were Eddie's "lost little sheepies" who he sought out to protect. This means that Jeff and Unnamed Freak are the only people who don't borderline worship Eddie but see him (and love him) for who he is including all his flaws. They're also the only ones not afraid to call him out on his bullshit.

Jeff's mom is really cool. Her name is Pauline and she's not like Jeff at all (she was a cheerleader in high school). Despite their differences they love each other a lot. (Jeff's mom is actually heavily featured in one of the fics I wrote so I got her all fleshed out lmao)

He has two little twin sisters. They're friends with Erica, one of them is one of her friends we meet in the mall in s3. He has this typical hate-love relationship with his sisters: they fight a lot, but at the end of the day, he would die for them.

HE'S BISEXUAL

While he can't wait to get out of Hawkins and to a place that'll be more accepting of him, he doesn't want to move too far away from his family.

He's the most loyal friend in the world, 100% a ride-or-die kinda guy

While he does love metal a lot, his guilty pleasure is Tina Turner

Tell me all your Jeff headcanons i wanna hear more about him!

[gildeddlily]

I don't want Gojo suffering more and more for Geto's deflection, thinking ab their youth, I want their youth.

I just want Suguru with pierced ears and long hair meeting unhappy with his pathetic and lonely life Satoru Gojo. I want Gojo to be flabbergasted by Geto, and hate him for a bit, and fell in love with him after another bit.

I want Satoru-fell-first and Suguru-fell-harder.

I want Satoru being alone in the world, isolated by weak people who worshipped him and then finally meeting his equal, Suguru not understanding how much he matters to Satoru until he gets injured and Satoru's miserable and like "how can I be the strongest now that I've know this thanks to you" and Suguru's like "you can have both dw".

I want Satoru calling themselves the strongest in public for the first time, Suguru not believing him in his self-deprecating mind, ppl underestimating him bc of his origins and Satoru "think I'd have someone unworthy at my side? he's ten times what you are" and Suguru crying and Satoru being like "...what am I supposed to do"

I want Suguru comforting him when the Six Eyes overwhelm him.

I want Satoru discovering music and books, going to festivals and living thanks to Suguru, him meeting Suguru's family and watching films with him in his childhood room.

I want drunk Suguru flirting with Satoru, Satoru absolutely loving it but rejecting him cause the faintest smell of alcohol disgusts him.

I want sixteen Satoru realising his feelings and his latent homosexuality and being like "oh thank god I'll never have to marry some girl to have an heir.

wait what does it mean Suguru is-" and having gay panics over it.

I want him talking with Yaga, Yaga being miserable and saying things like "it's not something accepted" and Satoru being like "do I look like I care. do yk how yk, sex works for two g-" "SHUT UP"

I want him talking to Suguru ab it and out-since-twelve-Suguru being like "dw Satoru that's normal", and Satoru shouting out of the blue "make out with me"

I want existential crisis, and a lot of kissing, and comfort, and making out for the first time after killing a grade one curse together, and crying after fighting and giving each other gifts.

them being young, stupid and in love

(the plot of my next ff ofc)

[ca-suffit]

It's so annoying when Nalyra and this book group use excuses like this as if we're all dumb. There's lots of people who talk about the books and the show without being racist about it. The deeper issue here is not because people haven't read the books and think what you're saying is shocking.... What's really happening is that this group of BFFs loves to remove all mention of race from everything. They love pretending you can just overlay the books to the AMC show and it's a perfect match. Then, when anyone mentions how important it is to factor in race when discussing these things, here comes the screaming victimhood and all the "it's what's in the book" gifs. The "I'm sorry you just can't handle gothic literature SWEETIE" attitudes that are v tiring. Any race can be racist too (isn't that this group's favorite line too, they should know....) and only care for the wellbeing of white fandom, so these brown emojis or black fans who will make callout lists on other black fans under the language of calling out "fandom issues" or "antis" aren't fooling anyone to what the real motivation is behind it. People who worship Anne Rice are always going to be airheads who can't take criticism because look at your girl and all she was ever doing. Any adult who wants to defend her or the books is not a critical thinker or an intellectual. It's v possible to discuss her and the books without the stan goggles on. The black fans this group is always sneering at do it all the time. That's probably where the real issue lies, because it's done much better than the horseshit fanon Nalyra, Virgnia, and the rest are slinging and thinking is epic meta or something. I lurked for a long time before coming here to start pointing this out. I've seen these egos get bigger since the show has been off the air and book people crawled out from the depths to try and tell everyone "what's going to happen." It's a stupid power trip and nothing else. This group doesn't have the ability to analyze anything like they think they do, so they've grown together since the show stopped airing to start harassing other fans and pretend they're the victims just because they don't think talking about race is important in their....erm...."analysis" lol. They only think they have power because the fandom became smaller when S1 ended. They're gonna be muted again when it comes back because they aren't keeping up with the themes of the show and their takes aren't interesting. Saying the white man is always innocent, the black man is lying, the brown man is manipulative is what society already does. It's boring and it's not what the show has shown us in its own canon that it's doing. This group and white fandom in general love to take an inch and run a mile with it. Whenever anyone (but especially Jacob) mentions Louis might be a liar or an unreliable narrator they're jumping on the chance to spread that statement over every part of the story. They want so much for all of it not to be true because they need Lestat to be the good guy. They always claim they love stories about monsters except their favorite white guy can't even stay a monster for them to adore him. He can't ever even be any kind of fuck up and grow from it, he's just supposed to immediately be perfect. What's the point of the story then ffs? This is why you need to read other books that aren't written by idiot, egomaniacal authors who don't have editors and are in love with their own creations. If you always find a way to excuse the white characters, say all the black and brown characters are the unreliable, scheming ones, and scream and yell "it's what's in the books" whenever anyone reminds you to notice race......then you're just racist, girl. It's not even a mystery lol so stop this crap like you're fooling anyone. You can be as loud as you want but it doesn't mean you're actually a victim of anything but your own racist stupidity. Just because Anne Rice didn't get as much pushback as she deserved in her dumb life doesn't mean you're going to get the same treatment. It's 2024, bitch.

[nicki0kaye]

expand on your zagreus pissing off asterius tags pls i would like to hear them :3

Just like!!! the implication that Theseus is a 'bad influence' on a guy who has clearly been in Elysium longer than Zag's probably been alive

and take all this with a grain of salt, I haven't replayed Hades in a hot minute, but I've had this opinion since I got into the mf

like, I'm sure Zag doesn't mean anything by it, if you read the codex, there is no real mention of what Asterius went through, he clearly has no idea what actually happened during either Asterius' or Theseus' lives and cannot follow why certain things piss Theseus off so much

so Zag has no idea he's talking down to a guy who ate people to survive. There's a lot of hero worship getting in the way. And Asterius is polite to him out of a sense of honor, but it's clear he doesn't consider Zag a friend. Asterius doesn't have issues with chatty mfs, he's in an eternal fraternal bond with Theseus ffs, but he keeps his conversations with Zag curt and to the point, and imo it's bc he's sure Zag sees him as a poor babby who is being led around by the nose and had/has no actual agency in his relationship with Theseus.

When Theseus is losing his shit over Zag replacing him, Asterius says something along the lines of "he's no threat to our bond; he doesn't even understand it." Like...to Asterius, Zag serves his purpose. He's a fun kid to spar with. That is the extent of their relationship in his eyes, bc he isn't going to degrade himself to get this kid to understand he is right where he wants to be, doing what he wants to do, and no one has caged him or manipulated him to get him here. If Zag can't see that using his own eyes, he isn't worth the wasted breath to explain it, beyond correcting direct statements. Theseus is the man he respects most, not because Theseus is his king or bc he owes Theseus for bringing him to Elysium (though he may site that as means of shorthand), but bc Theseus has earned that respect and trust through action.

I wrote a whole fic trying to deconstruct this idea that Asterius would only know Theseus in Elysium, that he only learned about the world through Theseus' guidance--and also the idea that Asterius is an inherently noble soul who had no issues adjusting after spending his entire mortal life in periods of isolation broken only by having to murder for food and survival. I like the idea that Asterius chooses to be noble and polite, chooses how he presents himself to others, makes those choices based on years of experience and trial and error in socializing from an extremely unique and disadvantaged position as a literal monster in paradise. And yes he chooses to emulate Theseus, but that's still an informed choice. He loves and respects that idiot, and he keeps Zagreus at arms length. What's the difference? Theseus actually knows who Asterius is and respects him in turn.

If you want more Zagreus slander, I wrote another fic that diverges halfway through to drag him for not understanding dick about shit

[convexicalcrow]

Love how Pharaoh Cub and Scar's relationship is in your stories. Defiantly want to see Scar being smug when he wins against the Pharaoh, only for it to vanish when he still gets dominated by that man. lol. (Side note, can I ask for some details on the Pharaoh's personality vs Cub's? And in how they differ in treating people?)

Oh yes, when I have the last chapter of the first part of the Lost Prince AU posted tomorrow tomorrow, I'll have to get back to the Pharaoh TCG fic, now that Scar's finally won. I have a few ideas brewing. >:D

As for the Pharaoh vs Cub, I have some thoughts. Here I'm talking just about them as characters and how I tend to write them. And this does touch on shippy things and D/s dynamics but more to illustrate the differences, just as a head's up for ppl not comfy with that kind of thing. <3

in the context of the Pharaoh as his own separate being, he's very... domineering, in a way. He's a god, of course he's better than everyone else. He knows his own power and how to use it. This is not to say he's just a tyrant, because he's not. He just demands respect and will punish anyone who fails to give it. In his land, in his pyramids, the Pharaoh's rule is absolute and you will obey him. But he will be sweet to those he cares about and loves. Even in submission to, say, Beef, it's a choice, a command, he's setting the rules of their engagement and their dynamic so he gets what he wants out of it.

also ofc he possesses Cub, he IS Cub, he knows what that boy likes ffs. XD

Cub isn't like that. He's more of a brat. Maybe he'll obey, but maybe he won't. He does his own thing, but it's not coming from a sense of divine authority, of being over everyone else. He's just entertaining himself. Cub's the 'seek forgiveness rather than ask permission' kind of brat (most of the time anyway). He's also not a mouthy, loud brat either. He's the quiet type, the ones you don't really notice until you realise the mess they've caused lol. Not really interested in leadership; more interested in building secret tunnels and stealing artefacts lol. He's a sneaky boy. :D But he also cares a lot too. He knows their boundaries and where to draw the line, because he's silly but he's not stupid.

Unlike the Pharaoh who is in control when he submits, for Cub, he really isn't. At least, obedience is earned (or taken) by higher powers, whether that's King Ren or Scar or the Vex or the Pharaoh, it doesn't matter. For the Pharaoh, there is no higher power than him; for Cub, that isn't the case. Lack of control is what he likes.

You can contrast this nicely with Cub and Scar and their relationship with the Vex. For Scar, there's a more business-like feel to their arrangement. He doesn't kill Vexes bc he's not allowed, and they give him all the riches he could ever want and place him in positions of power like the Mayorship. For Cub, it's totally different. It's subservience to a higher power, a possessive power, something deserving of worship and respect. It brings power too, and magic, and prosperity, as long as he gives his body to the Vex to do with as they please.

This is why Scar is the Power, and Cub is the Vessel. Scar represents the power and magic of the Vex, and Cub is what that power fills and is channelled through. Adding False as the Will gives that magic purpose and direction. She makes their work more effective, though they've done plenty on their own.

The Pharaoh would never bow to the Vex the way Cub does. He has his own magic that is just as powerful, if not moreso, than that of the Vex. He sees his Vex magic as useful, but he has better tools at his disposal, so he uses them instead. After all, he is a god. Gods do not bend their knee to silly creatures like Vex. But he does lean on it a little with Cub, because Cub is weak to it like Scar is.

The Pharaoh's magic is also very hot and fiery, whereas the Vex prefer ice and coldness. They are opposites in that regard. The Pharaoh's magic simply burns all the effectiveness of Vex magic away, which is why he doesn't really use it himself. He's the son of Ra, the sun god. Ice magic is useless against him. The Vex can't possess a god either; he's not a player, in the way Cub was a player before he was Pharaoh. I mean, he IS, but he also really isn't. The Kingly Ka, the divine soul of Horus that makes someone Pharaoh, is what makes him divine. He's no longer simply human after that point.

The Kingly Ka was never passed on to young Cub tho. It's not young Cub we see as the Pharaoh in the TCG arena, but old Cub. Pharaoh Cub. The one who is divine. It's on the card, too. Cub is not the Pharaoh, he's a separate being now. He died at the end of s7 after building a pyramid, which is traditionally the tomb for a king, and s8 is Cub's metaphorical journey through the afterlife before he returns for s9. This is me getting back on my Book of Caverns bullshit, but it is the title of a real Ancient Egyptian book of the afterlife, and what did Cub spend s8 building? A canyon filled with caverns! The moon crashing into the earth can be seen as his way of understanding his death and transformation/rebirth into his young skin in s9. bc that's how I'm dealing with the whole 's8 was a simulation' lore from RenDoc.

Anyway. I think that's enough brainrot for now. I don't want this getting any more unhinged than it already is lol. :D If you have further questions, please do ask! I'd love to ramble about this some more. <3

[depressedhatakekakashi]

sakura on the list of the most hated characters in fiction, I had kind of moved away from her fandom especially here because it's full of self inserts but it still irritates me,And I know it happens here too, but especially on Twitter/TikTok/reddit There are Naruto incel/nar*sasu/hin*ta fans who have entire accounts dedicated to hating the character and harassing those who like her, There is literally an naruto/incel who hates her and Sasuke he has his main twitter account and about 30 private ones that he uses to like all anti/hate content about them both, grown-up women over 30 who ship n*rusasu(which was my first ship) and make the personality's hate her character because she gets in the way of their ship, Naruto literally has one of the dumbest and most miserable fandoms on the internet(sorry for the English)

Honestly the hate for Sakura is so overblown.

Of course there will be people who don’t like her, and ya she did stupid shit in the show, but i don’t think anything she did deserves the sheer amount of hate she has gotten

There are character’s who have done way worse who are loved

But then those who do love Sakura are 80% of the time self inserts who don’t even like the cannon character but instead change her into whatever bad ass they want

Like, enjoy the character

Enjoy what she is, where she could learn and grow, and ya obv call Kishi out on his absolute shit treatment of her. She’s the main female character and wasn’t even allowed to actually be as strong as the two male characters. That’s BS

But people always blow out of proportation the things she did, and just endlessly bash on her. I get why her fan’s are so protective and reactive. They have to be.

That being said, they can also be just as bad with their hate for Hinata and other female characters.

This fandom treats hinata like trash for not being super out going and choosing to be a housewife (a valid life choice for someone who was never actually interested in fighting) and the Hinata and Sakura fandoms are constantly fighting over the stupidist shit

The incels are the worst though by far cuz they dumb down Hinata to her looks, which isn’t even something that’s focused on in the manga (she wears baggy clothes. The fact she has tits isn’t even all the evident in her design ffs) and they tear Sakura down for saying stupid kid/teenager things and not worshipping the ground Naruto walks on, while ignoring the times that she is actually nice and respectful and open with him.

Like JFC Chichi is far worse at times with her actual husband than Sakura is with Naruto but sakura gets more hate (to be clear i LOVE Chichi. This is not a bash. She’s just super harsh with goku at times)

[siravalondulac]

v. why do crazy people love fire so much

a heart so golden, a sun so bright

asoiaf ff | fem!oc centric

summary: elle is tasked with rescuing a maiden during a full moon word count: 2805 warnings: explicit descriptions of pain, blood, injury; intrusive thoughts

masterlist

previous | next

Her reputation preceded her.

“My brother saw you at High Anura. Please, you have to help us.”

The woman, who had introduced herself as Jozefina, looked at her with pleading eyes.

“Do not worry,” Elle said. “I will not leave you to deal with this alone. But a magic sect?”

“I swear it is the truth! They took my daughter and they want to sacrifice her to their heathen god-”

“Alright, alright,” she interrupted the woman. “Calm down. I believe you.”

Elle took a deep breath.

The woman, along with the rest of her family, stared at her. Some in desperation, some in anger, some in hope.

“I will bring your daughter back to you. But I need you to tell me everything you know about this… sect.”

Trekking through the forest in the dark, she wished once again for a horse. Perhaps she should have asked the villagers for one.

Jozefine had told her of the people who had kidnapped her daughter.

Allegedly, they were a group of heretics who had forsworn the Seven to worship a god long forgotten in Westeros. And now they desired to resurrect him by enacting a ritual involving blood magic.

She had heard weirder shit.

They had made their camp in an abandoned fortress near Sallydance, which had been reclaimed by the forest around it. This was where they took Jozefine's daughter. And this was where she was headed now.

She was glad for the full moon this night. Not just for the light it provided her on her journey, but because it meant she could sleep safely for the coming weeks. Safe from any nightmares. Safe from herself.

The ruin stood proudly atop a cliff. Light shone through the damaged roof and multiple windows, though the rushing of the river at its bottom toned out any sound she could have made out from the distance.

Luckily, the greenery at the bottom did not include any thorns, so she could wade through it to the foot of the castle wall. The vines even helped in her climb.

When she finally reached one of the windows, she gripped the sill and slowly pulled herself upwards, peeking over the edge, fully prepared to drop herself.

Which hadn’t been necessary, as it turns out, as the window sat below the ceiling of a massive hall, where no one could possibly spot her. Especially due to the walkway beneath it.

She swung herself through the window and landed with a small thud on the wooden platform. It creaked below her feet, swirling up a century of dust. Hopefully it would not break while she was on it.

Creeping towards the railing, she carefully looked through in between the half-rotted wooden pillars and down on the main floor.

People in black robes stood around a table in a spiral-like pattern. Seven torches were alight around them, bathing the area around the tied-down girl in a golden light, so very different from the silver moonshine Elle had to rely on on her platform.

She looked around the wooden pathway for a way to get to the floor as quickly and as quietly as possible. A narrow staircase nestled against the wall to her left seemed like the best option, even though as she inspected it she noticed the gaps in the wood. Most likely termites.

Best be extra careful, then.

Even through the wall she could hear the singing start. Chanting, more like it. She sped up her steps, desperate to get down before something happened she could not reverse.

The stairs lay in complete darkness, the meagre light from the moon not reaching her, so it was only a matter of time until she stumbled, or broke a board, or fell.

None of those happened.

Instead, when she skipped a step, she found no footing, the stair already missing. She fell forward, the wooden boards creaking and squeaking underneath her feet as they threatened to break fully. Even though she managed to pull herself together and not scream out, she could not suppress her loud intake of breath. Desperately, she tried to cling to the walls, which only led to her scraping her right hand over something sharp, again forcing her to pull herself together and not give her location away. If she had not already done so.

Luckily, she managed to catch herself quickly, pressing against the wall she had crashed into.

She mentally went through her entire body, the way Oberyn had thaught her, starting from the bottom and going to the top, analysing if her pain was actually something to be concerned about or if she could ignore it in good conscience.

Almost everything - her bruised knee, the pounding in her foot - she could brush aside. Except for…

Her hand fucking hurt. Hurt like the seven hells, and she could only pray that it was nothing serious. The blood quelling down her arm and soaking her sleeve did not give her a lot of courage in that regard, however.

She cursed as she closed her left hand around the wrist of her right to try and stop it from moving. Pressing both against her chest, she continued her descent downwards.

Once she had reached the bottom, the light of the torches finally reached far enough that she was able to see where she put her feet, though not far enough for the zealots to spot her. Hopefully.

Their chanting had become somewhat comprehensible. She tried to decipher their words as she snuck closer.

Ashes to ashes, blood to blood. Let spring wane, let you take its place. Accept this chosen, take her sacrifice.

Something about their words seemed off, as if they were not truly speaking the common tongue. As if they spoke something older, something ancient.

But she had to be imagining it. She understood them, after all, and she only spoke the common tongue. Perhaps this place was making her go mad.

She blinked and took a silent breath, trying desperately to ignore the throbbing in her hand.

Focus.

One of the hooded figures stepped forward, raising his arms next to the girl. The others went silent.

“Tonight fate shall take its course! Tonight the prophecy shall come true! Tonight we shall witness His return!”

The girl on the table sobbed. “Please let me go!”

“Hush! You are lucky to have become part of something greater than yourself.”

There had to be a way to get the girl out of here. Quickly, and without killing anyone. Quietly would not be possible.

She studied the torches standing around the table. They were not fixed to the ground, instead each standing on their own wooden stilts. And the ground was overgrown with plantlife. If she could somehow throw one of the torches down…

She did not like fire, but this seemed like her only option.

The man unsheathed a dagger from his hip and held it above the girl. She started thrashing in her restraints again.

“Let this knife herald Your return!”

Now or never.

Elle rushed forward, past one of the zealots, and jumped at the torch, kicking it to the ground. The fire spread almost instantly and would have surrounded her had she not immediately ran towards the girl.

Screams echoed around the grand hall. The man stared at her in shock, though not yet lowering the knife. The growing flames illuminated his face as his gaze flickered between her and the girl, knowing apparently quite well what Elle had come here to do - and why she was running at him like this.

The determination returned to his face as he tried to bring down the dagger on the screaming girl. But before he could succeed, Elle had crashed into him and brought them both to the ground.

She barely evaded the dagger as she tackled him, the heat of the blade next to her face sending a shiver down her back. The man tried to bring it up again, tried to cut her, to stab her, to fulfil the ancient prophecies of his religion. But she did not let him.

Kicking his right arm and punching his face, she jumped up and drew her dagger, managing to cut the rope around one of the girl’s arms quickly. But as she went to cut another, the man grabbed her from behind, snaking his arm around her middle and pressing the dagger to her throat.

They must have warmed the blade in the flames beforehand, she could not explain its unbearable heat any other way. Even the rising flames around them did not compare.

Not her throat, she begged. Not there, not again-

“You cannot stop the inevitable,” he hissed in her ear. “Just let it go, your life will be much happier for it.”

Breathe, she had to remind herself. Breathe, stay calm.

Why had she come here on a full moon?

She grabbed the man’s arm the moment she stamped down on his foot. He took in a sharp breath, trying to swipe the dagger across her throat, but she had it pressed away before he could even attempt so. The pain in her right hand flared up again, but she ignored it, the blood now soaking the man’s sleeve. She quickly kicked him in between his legs, then in his stomach, and slammed his face down on her knee. He cried out, though she still heard the sound of his nose breaking.

No, no, no. She did not mean-

It did not matter right now. The full moon shone through the windows, and there was nothing she could do about it. She just needed to get out of here, then she could stay away from anyone for the coming day.

Grabbing the dagger he had dropped - it laying closer than her own, though it took a lot out of her to ignore the burning it did to her skin - she rushed to the girl again.

Who had not remained passive, having freed herself from one of the restraints even without the help of a dagger. Elle finished her work for her, cutting through the remaining two ropes without much trouble with the dark-bladed knife.

The girl had tear streaks on her face, and trembled as she climbed off the table. Elle threw the dagger into the flames and picked up her own, quickly sheathing it.

As she looked to the flames, already having spread throughout the hall and forced the hooded figures to flee, her eyes briefly interlocked with those of the man, still laying on the floor and clutching his bloody nose.

He looked at her in disgust. Anger. Recognition.

A shiver ran down her back.

She grabbed the girl’s arm and pulled her after her, to the staircase. There was no way for them to reach the main entrance with the fire blocking their way, so this was their only chance.

The girl stumbled at several points, delaying their flight, and due to their interlocked hands almost making Elle fall over as well. She wanted to scream at her, curse her out, but realised that when she had been the girl’s age she had not acted any differently.

How much could change in three years.

They finally reached the top and Elle pulled her down the walkway, towards a window at the opposite end of it.

“Why didn't you kill them?!”

Elle almost fell over her own feet.

Why had she not killed them? Because she did not kill, simple as that, she wanted to answer. Because taking a life is a sin. Because they had not yet taken a life themselves. Because, because, because…

Oh, she had wanted to kill them. To rip out the throats of each and every single one of them on her own, and see their blood soak the earth beneath her feet. There had been no innocent in that hall, as far as she was concerned. Anyone who took that name in their mouth deserved nothing less than the most painful and fear-inducing-

Stop! She screamed at herself to stop, just stop. This was not her! She knew she should have never done this on a full moon. Why they had insisted on performing their-

“I am not here to enact justice on them.” Elle skittered to a halt before the window. “I was sent to rescue you and that is what I am doing right now.”

She climbed onto the sill and looked down into the dark, the distant rushing sound the only giveaway of what laid at the bottom.

“We need to jump.”

“What?!” the girl cried out, jumping back a step. “This will kill us!”

“There is a river at the bottom, deep enough to save us.” She reached out her left hand. “Please, this is our only way.”

The girl seemed like she would rather do anything else, but one short glance at the fire behind her reminded her of their situation. She hesitantly came closer, pulling her skirt up slightly, and climbed up beside Elle.

“Can you swim?”

She hesitated. “A bit.”

Elle took ahold of her hand. “Just hold on to me, I will get us to safety.” She looked down again. “We jump on three, alright?”

The girl nodded.

She took a breath herself, then started counting down.

“One.” She did it. “Two.” She did not lose control. “Three!”

She pushed herself off and disappeared into the night.

She was soaked to the bone as she stumbled onto shore, the sun crawling over the horizon behind her and slowly bathing the forest in a soft, golden light. Her arms hurt, her legs hurt, and if she did not soon find someone to look at her hand she might go fucking mad with worry. But she did it.

The girl laid on the grass, eyes closed and breathing deeply. Elle sat down beside her and stared out at the Red Fork.

She already felt the headache approaching. Perhaps this time it would not be as intense considering she had been awake the whole night and distracted herself properly. She just had to wait and see. Hopefully bringing the girl home would not take much time.

Elle looked over at her.

The girl had curled up on her side, blonde hair sticking to her body, blue eyes open and staring at her.

“I never asked for your name,” Elle said quietly.

“Cerelia.” She slowly sat up. “What's yours?”

“Elle.”

“Thank you for saving me, I suppose.” Cerelia wrung out her hair and started combing her fingers through it. “Though it could have gone quicker. And I don’t understand why you had to set the place aflame considering it blocked our escape.”

“I tried my best.” She truly was not in the mood for a discussion. “I was alone and had little time. We can be glad we got out with all of our limbs intact.”

“Who are you, anyways? Some sort of… hedge knight?”

Who was she? That was an interesting question. She had pretended to be so many different people all of her life, sometimes there was no telling anymore. Cerelle the princess. Elle the bastard. The orphan. The ranger. Saviour. Criminal.

“No one special. I am merely travelling through the lands, trying to help wherever I can.”

“Sounds like a hedge knight to me.”

“If I could be a knight, I would be. But there is too much stopping me.”

“Mayhaps you should cut your hair, then.” She rested her chin on her hands, clearly mistaking her apprehension. “I mean, I almost mistook you for a man back there.”

Cerelia’s voice was grating on her brain, and she did not know if it was the girl or merely her own headache.

“What did those people want from you?” she diverted. Best not entertain these ideas in her current state.

“My blood, my life, my body. I am not quite certain.” She went back to playing with her hair. “They came in the night, bound and gagged me, and brought me to that castle. Their leader was rambling about the signs having been right, that some prophecy was about to become true.” She shrugged. “Apparently he was wrong. Thanks to you.”

Elle thought back to the man lying on the ground, beaten and bleeding, staring at her.

She almost jumped up from the ground.

“That does not matter now. Let us bring you back to your family, and we can all forget this nightmare.”

Cerelia grumbled about being tired and wanting to rest, but she rose as well and started following her.

The sun started shining more brightly with every step they took, golden rays breaking through the forest canopy and lighting up their path.

Everything would be alright. She had survived this night, and she would survive this day as well. Even though the fog was already settling on her mind.

previous | next

[anarcho-sexual]

hoooollly fuuuuuuck dude

it’s so agonizing

it’s so infuriating being smarter than 99% of the strangers I interact with

It’s miserable

I don’t know how these people come up with such utterly stupid things that make no sense & also aren’t connected in any way to what the topic is

It’s so agonizing & I don’t care if I’m being arrogant I wouldn’t say I’m smarter than someone if I weren’t.

No need to be afraid to interact with me cause I’ll think you’re stupid. I won’t most likely. If you’re just kind I have no issue with you.

But these strangers that I’m arguing with about significant things are so dumb I can hardly handle it

Some guy tried to tell me BLM, yes the entirety of the BLM movement, is dumb because George Floyd was a bad person & we all worship him like a hero. Then after I explained that nobody worships him, we all know he was a shithead, & that the state murdering people isn’t okay just because they’re bad people, this dumb cunt cake back & claimed once more that Americans worship George Floyd. But it wasn’t like refuting my claim. No it was just another statement of the idea that he is worshipped. He just doubled down. We’re all fucking morons for being upset that police murder people for the color of their skin just because George Floyd was a bad person. Like holy fuck. I wouldn’t care at all if another citizen murdered Floyd for being a domestic abuser (if that’s even true). Wouldn’t care & would say he deserved it. But it’s never okay for the police to break the damn law & murder someone. That will never be justice. Besides, the cops couldn’t have known everything about Floyd when they killed him. But it’s okay i guess to murder people for being black if you later find out they were a bad person.

I just can’t stand it. & that guy was from fucking SWEDEN!!!!!!! I thought they had a good education system in european countries ffs!! & he told me that people will break the hands of theives & kill domestic abusers (he kept saying woman abuser cause i guess that’s the only person it’s wrong to abuse idk). Yeah that’s right he fucking compared private citizens hurting “bad” people to agents of the American state murdering people extrajudicially.

Sometimes i think suicide would be better than having to keep interacting with people like this

once again, if you want to interact with me please don’t feel nervous. I won’t think you’re stupid. It’s just these people I argue with & I most likely only argue with right wingers because I have productive discussions with leftists. I won’t judge you unless you’re a bigot & I truly love interacting with kind people as well as making new friends. Just don’t choose to be stupid & we’re good. I’m talking the level of stupid it takes to read something I said & then respond as if I said something completely 100% different & unrelated to the topic at all. If you can comprehend words & sentences at the level of at least a 6 year old we’ll get along just fine I promise.

& like i said stupidity is a choice that’s why it makes me so angry. being ignorant is not always a choice. being uneducated is not always a choice, especially when it comes to lacking a formal education. but stupidity is always a choice. can’t stand it.

[hadesoftheladies]

sexism only exists for women, because only women are discriminated against for their sex, and only men benefit from that discrimination.

it is not “some men” and it is not “all men” it is MOST men ffs. which is more than enough. I wouldn’t be drowning in woman-hating propaganda since I learned to read if it weren’t the case. if misogyny was in any form escapable.

about the war thing—I’m saying that women are talked about as untouched by the violence of war, who experience loss from a distance. when women are the ones kept alive for use, that is, sexual use, and are often brutally hurt in wars. I’m talking about men painting women as spectators in a war, when they are always in the heart of violence. lmao. “Reading comprehension” you guys are so cliché.

it’s hella annoying when people keep commenting on my posts like men as a group are somehow neutral and that their actions are committed by a minority, which is so fucking false.

I am sick of praising men for bare-minimum behavior, and talking about exceptional men like they’re the norm. Am I supposed to be grateful that a man sees me as a human being? Am I supposed to be FUCKING GRATEFUL?

Why defend men? No really, why? Do you think they need it? Do you think men pine for women’s validation? Do you think men need “safe outlets” for their emotions? Do you think they face more stigma for emotions than women? Do you think it’s women’s job to be nice and fix what they keep breaking? Fuck that, respectfully.

What’s even more annoying is that the SECOND the MOMENT a man does some bare-minimum shit, or parrots what women have been saying about themselves or their situation, SO MANY FUCKING WOMEN RUSH TO WORSHIP HIM. They’ll kiss his ass and thank him for being brave and they’ll be so busy praising him they won’t give half a thought to the women that have been screaming to be heard from the stage he’s standing on. I will NOT congratulate or praise a man for hogging spotlight from women who have been clamoring to be heard. I do not CARE what a man thinks, HE DOES NOT SPEAK FOR ME. If he’s a feminist, let him speak to men about it. If he is a feminist, he wouldn’t center himself on feminist issues, which is what so many of these “allies” do. He’s uplift feminist voices.

“I’m just projecting” LMAO FUCK OFF. You don’t know me. I have the most loving father and family ever. I have had male friends and acquaintances. I just happen to care more about women’s suffering than appeasing male ego or congratulating myself on being the “cool girl” that men like. I want women’s safety, not men’s approval. I just happen to prioritize my rights as a woman over bare minimum attempts made by men.

People like you keep trying to frame any woman that speaks out or grieves or rages at the VOLUMINOUS INJUSTICE AND HATRED THAT MEN HAVE SATURATED OUR LIVES WITH as cringe, hysterical women with fringe, deviant ideas. There’s a word for that: misogyny. You people will do anything to silence women speaking out to protect men’s feelings, and those men will still maintain systemic power over every one of us.

I dream of a world where girls don’t have body dysmorphia from as young as ten years old because of this patriarchal society. Where women and girls and little boys aren’t trafficked and raped to death because of ravenous male consumers. Where young women aren’t being sold ads of bodily mutilation as empowerment. Where girls aren’t forced into marriages with pedophiles. Where they don’t have to be beaten to death and raped to death because they took a scarf off their heads. Where women’s contributions to society and history aren’t erased and ridiculed and belittled. Where women’s art isn’t stolen by mediocre men and they die without recognition. Where women scientists can work and GET FUCKING PAID. Where female athletes aren’t dying of preventable injuries because so few people are doing any fucking research on women’s bodies. When girls aren’t forced to give birth to their rapists babies and die in their own blood. Where fathers can’t sell their girls to the highest bidder. Where male artists don’t get away with sexually humiliating and traumatizing females in public and getting paid for it.

When you speak about all this suffering without mentioning the aggressors (men) you are saying that women do this to themselves.

Women would not be suffering if men weren’t willfully victimizing them. I WILL ALWAYS NAME THE OPPRESSOR.

I am too busy thirsting for liberation for those actually harmed and oppressed to give a single flying fuck for people in an oppressor group that want sympathy and yet will do nothing to take a shred of responsibility and won’t change the status quo.

Men benefit socially and economically from exploiting women. Women are oppressed. Get that through your fucking skulls.

If you don’t believe that patriarchy or misogyny are real global human rights crises, or that men oppress women and not the other way around (or that there’s no such thing as “equal oppression”) then we can’t have a conversation on shit.

it’s so exhausting to be surrounded by men’s sick twisted fantasies, thoughts and feelings. i don’t want to watch you justify or romanticize your murder-suicide, greg. you’re not complicated, you’re just an entitled brat that gets away with shit. no I don’t think your objectification and voyeurism of the female body is poetic, louis. i don’t think your sermon about the “father’s love” and the “loving community of the trinity” is original or poignant or beautiful. your rationalization of god being whatever you wish you were, which is the most powerfulest man ever, isn’t the only logical explanation of the universe, smith. no i don’t want to hear about how moral subjectivism means we can harm whoever we like and it can’t technically be considered “wrong,” jason. no i don’t want to hear about how important your mother is to you when you can’t help her with the fucking dishes and are happy to watch her work for you, charles. no I don’t want to see your “poignant” photography of naked women, william. no I don’t want to hear you whine about your breakup with your girlfriend who’s definitely better off, michael. no I don’t want to read your poem about women grieving their sons in war like they’re just sitting nice and pretty and untouched by wars, paul. I don’t want to read about how beautiful you find you’re wife’s subservience, david.

you are all so so so boring to me and I hate what you put out into the world. it’s such a whopping pile of thoughtless, contrived, childish rubbish.

I abhor the male perspective. it perverts everything beautiful. men smear shit and mud on every beautiful thing. friendships, love, humanity, the world, family, god . . . everything. they are everything boring and regressive about the world.

better at destroying than creating.

[atrashcanraccoon]

i'm haunted by this book it made me feel feelings

@chifuyuuuuuuu-simp suggested this book and i got amma to buy it (bc i'm broke) and i read the whole thing in one sitting and let me tell you- this book hit me in the right places.

now i'm gonna talk abt it and hope i don't fall into another rabbit hole of thoughts bc ffs this book MAKES SENSE.

kinda not spoiler free, emphasis on the kinda

the only spoilers are the things that happened in the ramayan (og)

fun fact: w karkidaka month (last month in the malayalam calendar) going on, my ramayan era is here and i'm thriving

so the concept of this book is fairly interesting and as someone who ADORES different interpretations of hindu myth (looking at you, meluha), this is spectacular. SITAYAN bro, it doesn't get any better than that.

sita as a character who has conflicts in her mind, who works like all of us do, who isn't made out to be an untouchable goddess is p awesome to see. she's like so fucking strong, mentally, physically and emotionally and it makes me wanna cry istfg- she's intelligent, resourceful and you can see the love and care she feels for everyone and for her husband, the most. she didn't deserve the agni pariksha or the second exile fr

there's this running theme of different types of love. it deals the way love is felt by different people, how people react when in love, what different meanings can love take on, all of this. it resonates within you.

the author makes sita an introspective character and her thought process is glorious. love makes you afraid. love makes you hurt others and/or yourself and it'll blind you as much as it makes you see things that others cannot. love is powerful and scary and it'll make you feel like you're being drowned in the deep end and then set aflame.

moving on

ram is duty bound, loves his wife, but he's selfless to a fault- he can't be selfish and he believes the same extends to sita, but while ram is still pleased if his subjects are satisfied (and he isn't), sita wants everyone to be happy and content by meeting in the middle. this is a huge point that's seen throughout the pre-second exile arc (your relationship includes you and your partner(s), please do not bring in random citizens into it- remember, communication is key)

LAKSHMAN (sorry, he's my fav) slays. he's devoted to ram and that extends to sita but their dynamics are intriguing. a protective younger brother and the older brother's wife- quite fascinating, if you ask me

urmila the real mvp, gives edwina sharma, bc sita is literally adopted and is amazing in general. supportive sisters bro i'm in love. the concept that she was in a 14 year long sleep instead of her husband is dope asf i've read it somewhere before

dasharath is a good king and a shitty husband. partiality isn't good, he does that only. four kids you have sir, you can't just give all your attention to one. three wives and he can't respect them equally pshh

kaikeyi is one character that i've been huuuugely invested in, considering her part in the whole 14 years of exile in the forest and all. she's a powerful woman, by herself and in the eyes of her husband. she's spoilt (?) and rather malleable opinion-wise- ergo manthara could formulate most of her opinion. kaikeyi was flawed and it showed, but somehow, it was alright.

hanuman is sooo unproblematic and i love him sm (both as a character and a god to be worshipped). he's literally called the perfect devotee and he's legit too good to be true vibes. he's my life and that's all that there is to it

the author stated in her a/n that she'd been heavily inspired by the adbhut ramayan than the considered og and by virtue of that, ravan and mandodari make it into the major character list

mandodari is a p important character in this book. she's a queen, through and through. she endures, she listens, she loves, she's lost and her spirit's taken so much but she's never truly broken, or atleast until the plot twist

like clint, i did NOT see that coming.

but like i said, this book makes a whole good lot of sense and PLOT TWIST, once introduced, is very easy to digest. once you've understood the whole scenario, the lanka arc gets a million times worse and you're stuck overthinking abt the why and how and what the bloody dingle bottom fuckity fuck ever

it's beautiful.

now to the main antagonist. ravan. he's so complex, makes me wanna throw him under a microscope and study his nuances. he's terrorised gods, he's humiliated and vexed them, including his half brother kuber. he's also a great devotee/follower of lord shiva, he's a scholar and one of the most intelligent people on the damn planet.

he was brought to his knees by greed.

the first time i found out abt ravan's entire story, i was shocked fr. i mean, someone this accomplished and he pulls off shit like this?? but then greed has the potential to be one's undoing and that's what happened. it's like watching a train wreck in slo-mo. gah the character is so fucking complicated and i love the way he's been written.

the whole 'ram-sita are incarnations of lord vishnu-lakshmi devi' and 'ravan and kumbhkaran being jaya and vijaya, the dwarapalakas of vaikuntha but reincarnated' is seamlessly added into the story in the forms of visions and dreams and it's amazing.

lanka arc is painful and hits you in the feels bc sita's stuck there, sad and alone and she's not given up like ma'am, hat's off.

the whole 'society's opinion is important' is all well and good and the way the author shows the effect of that in the lives of our main characters is wonderful and honestly, while reading that part, i thought i'll have more time before the dhobi makes ram rethink his decisions.

then the second exile arc arrives and everything's back to shit again.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY.

please talk to your partners, everyone.

if only ram had talked to sita, if only lakshman had succeeded in convincing his brother, if only, if only-

lav and kush are the only kids i like bc irl kids are a hard pass (i'll take toddlers and babies but 9 y/o and up? i'll giggle if they fall down)

they're the sweetest kids okay? they're precious, and even though they didn't know their dad or aunts or uncles or other family members in ayodhya, they had valmiki, they had the people in the surrounding ashrams and they grew up w their found family. it's really sweet.

then the ashwamedha yajna and subsequent drama.

ram was like "one more agni pariksha so that the people of ayodhya would be satisfied for good" and sita was like "i'm done, we're done, no more." she's done seeing women being blamed for things that aren't in their hands, she's done seeing all the struggles that women go through that could've been avoided had there been better circumstances created. she's done giving in and compromising.

she's been wronged against and she'd proved herself once before and in this situation, there are no winners.

sita in this part feels emotions viscerally and everything is INTENSE and dukh dard peedha and then she's just so angry and sad and the firewood kept around her starts to burn, the ground splits and she knows this is the last of her that anyone will see.

lav and kush were held back by their uncles bc i think somewhere, even they realised that sita needed to do what she did.

the last lines of the book slapped me and said poignant.

"Because this is the most important aspect of love, whose other face is compassion: It isn’t doled out, drop by drop. It doesn’t measure who is worthy and who isn’t. It is like the ocean. Unfathomable. Astonishing. Measureless."

guide to wtv different language(s) i've used:

karkidaka month: karkidakam is the last month in the malayalam calendar during which people read the ramayan in their homes, it's going on rn i'm having fun

agni pariksha : trial by fire (like literally walk through fire to prove chastity and purity)

dwarapalakas of vaikuntha : according to hindu myth, vaikuntha is the place where lord vishnu resides and jaya and vijaya were two heavenly beings who guarded the gates (dwarapalaka is a gate-keeper) of vaikuntha- now their story is really interesting

dhobi : washerman

ashrams : group of hermitages

ashwamedha yajna : a ritual in the vedic period where a horse accompanied by a king's warriors would be released to wander for a year, if the horse is stopped, it is seen as a rebellion against the sovereignty

dukh dard peeda : dukh is sorrow, dard is pain and peedha is suffering (there is no english phrase that can give the same effect as this phrase in hindi- this is also a meme)

i didn't know i could write this much abt a book that i've read ONCE.

feel free to ask me abt shit and lmk if there's anything that's wrong? bc i really don't wanna spread wrong info sjhdjdjs

alr thankyou if you've made it till here, go read this book now <3

[abbatoirablaze]

My Girl

Word Count: 635

Warnings: body insecurities, body worship, oral (f receiving), lesbian relationship (I’ve received hate messages before about not including the warning for ff/mm relationships)

“That fucking asshole,” she growled, more to herself as she rubbed at her wrist.  You shrank back into the corner of the local bar, wishing you could disappear, “should have stabbed him with a screwdriver for trying to touch me…the fucking nerve of some people.”

“At least you’re getting attention from guys other than your mom’s friends,” you muttered softly, “m-my mom lets her friends get away with more shit than a regular customer.”

“You need to move in with me and Coco,” she said quickly, “he made Celia leave me alone…just stop doing that shit, Mika.  Let me take care of you…Coco don’t steal my money like Celia did neither…so I got some saved up.”

“An-and what am I going to do, huh?” you ask, gesturing to yourself, “if I looked like you, maybe I’d have a chance…but…Letty, I-“

“You’re beautiful,” she said, interrupting you.  Her hand reached down and touched your thigh, and you held your breath.  She stroked your thigh and moved up to your hips, before sliding up the curves of your torso, “you’re amazing…my beautiful, sexy girlfriend.”

“Let-“

But you stopped speaking when Letty’s hand brushed your cheek, and she leaned forward until her lips pressed to yours.  You melted against her, your insecurities about everything, your body included, fading away.  You heard someone cat-calling off to the side, but you both ignored it. 

“I love you,” Letty whispered, when she pulled away from you, “and I don’t want to hear any of that self-loathing shit.”

“The mouth on you!” you teased. 

She smiled, licking her lips, “I happen to remember you liking this mouth of mine.”

You blushed, your eyes widening slightly, “Leticia.”

“What?” she grinned, “like anyone is even paying attention here…”

“I-“ you stuttered, “someone just watched you kiss me.”

“Come on,” she grinned, grabbing you by the wrist to pull you out of the booth and down the hall, “let’s go, scaredy cat.”

“Wh-what?  Where are you taking me, Letty?”

“Somewhere where I can show you just how much I love every bit of you.”

Had you not been on the peak of your second orgasm, you might have cared about being pressed against the brick wall behind the bar. 

You would have cared about your thick thigh being hitched around your girlfriend’s shoulder as her mouth pulled that orgasm from your body. 

Hell, you might have even cared about her pushing your dress up to your breasts, exposing your rounded tummy and heavy, swollen globes to the world as she kneaded the excess meat of your hip. 

“L-Letty,” you whimpered, your fingers tangled in her hair.  She only smiled as you moaned, your hips rolling against her mouth, “fu-fuck.  I can’t…no-not another.”

“Not until you tell me you love yourself!” she growled hungrily, “not until you make me believe you love your beautiful body as much as I do.”

“I-I can’t!” you mewled, still in the midst of your high.  She lightly nipped on your clit before rolling her tongue over it, and your legs shook as you came.  You felt your skin being bit by the unforgiving brick as your legs turned to jelly.  Letty moaned, holding you up with help from the wall, as your thighs jiggled, bent as you couldn’t even function enough to care about standing up. 

Leticia smiled, slurping lewdly at your cunt, accepting all the juices that you could offer her, a faint glow bathing her mouth, dripping down her chin. 

“I’ll always love you baby,” she promised, kissing your thighs.  You shivered against her touch as her hands slid behind you and cupped your rounded heart-shaped ass, “but you didn’t tell me you loved yourself yet…so I’m gonna help you lay on the ground…and then I’m pulling every last ounce of self-loathing from you through your pussy.”

[bluerosesburnblue]

Glad you enjoyed!

To be honest, my reaction even surprises me, because I don't normally care much for political intrigue stories. It's why I struggled to get into the plot of FF Tactics and most of the Fire Emblem games. But that section of the game has such strong characterization and such an interesting way of showing both the characters and the worldbuilding that I found myself missing it. I still think about that village where all of the sidequests are just about the atrocities being committed against Bearers and how commonplace they are. And the premise of us playing as a social pariah and needing to find ways to circumvent that to get anything done was really interesting, but that takes up so little of the game

It's interesting that you brought up both FFXV and FFX, since I was also thinking of those two games, specifically, when trying to sort out my thoughts on FFXVI. In a lot of ways, I feel like FFXVI was trying to be a counterpoint to FFXV, from things like it having a much more linear world structure vs. FFXV's open-world, and both of those worlds being hit by a slowly-encroaching apocalypse scenario (Starscourge vs. Blight), to giving us a more developed Ifrit/Shiva romance, and both games heavily featuring a black-haired male lead of noble lineage who loses his home and ends up on the run and who has a fair-haired love interest who's the princess of a smaller nation (and you could even make a case tying Noct to Ifrit via "uncle" Ardyn and Luna being tied to Shiva via Gentiana). Except this time, Clive can fight fate while Noctis could not (which, funny enough, kind of runs counter to the world design of their games, since FFXVI's linear nature doesn't give the player much choice, while FFXV's open-world design does. I just think that's funny)

And while I think those aspects are done better than in FFXV, ironically, despite FFXVI marketing itself as a story about brothers, I feel like FFXV did the "brotherhood" stuff much better. Noctis, Ignis, Gladiolus, and Prompto get so much time together to develop their dynamic that despite none of them being related by blood I can so easily see how they are brothers. Meanwhile, while Clive and Joshua are undeniably important to each other, I don't feel like they got enough time to show that on-screen and the game barely touched on how their dynamic shifted over the 18 years they were separated. I mean, hell, Joshua spent more of his life NOT knowing Clive than he did knowing him! Are we gonna address that? And I really, really wanted them to do more with the fact that Dion was literally their stepbrother! It was barely mentioned! It would have been so poignant for them to develop into declaring Dion their brother despite the fact that the marriage that made them brothers by law was something none of them approved of. And like I said, Olivier was so underutilized

Meanwhile, we have the FFX comparisons, where both worlds have an established religion (Greagor and Yevon) that are ultimately untrue and the truth is much more malicious than it appeared. But, in FFX, that religion was much more fleshed out and subverting it was the whole point. The ending of the game was explicitly about choosing to reject an authority only interested in its own survival to find the truth of the matter and fix it with your own hands. And while FFXVI is also about rejecting an authority that only cares about its own survival in the form of Ultima, it feels disconnected because of how little else we're given. We know that Yevon as a religion is ultimately a corruption of the story of Yu Yevon, the summoner who became Sin, but in FFXVI, what does Greagor have to do with anything? How did the story of the goddess come to be from Ultima? We know that people practically worship the Mothercrystals, so is Greagor the embodiment of the Mothercrystals or something? But, then, it's not like people really react to that other than a few instances of being upset that the Mothercrystal is gone and there's certainly no point where, like, Clive is trying to tell people about Ultima and they call him blasphemous because it rejects the religion of Greagor or anything

Not to mention that Tidus was a "chosen one" specifically because he was created by the Fayths to finally end the cycle, whereas I have no idea why Ultima picked Clive to be the vessel (and I will accept "because he's hot" but I don't think we even got that much). You'd think picking the most stubborn man who has no intention of being a vessel to be your vessel would be a bad idea. Even Xehanort had backups, man, come on

I think it's so ironic that when the game came out I saw a bunch of thinkpieces on how it "changed too much" and "didn't feel like a Final Fantasy," and yet by the end my complaints were that it didn't change enough and just fell back on classic tropes. It presents you with an interesting premise and then almost feels like it's scared to deviate too much, so the end result is that we get a half-finished GoT-esque political plot and a half-finished Final Fantasy "kill god" plot

Tales of Vesperia is an apt comparison, as both feel like they're changing their minds on what they want to be a little too often. I also get that "what are we building towards?" sense during most of the 33-year-old Clive portion, when most of the earlier parts I could see what they were building up towards (like Clive being Ifrit, Joshua being alive, the Mothercrystals being the source of the Blight, etc.). Then we hit this part where it's like... okay, Mothercrystals bad so we need to destroy them. Ultima seems to be trying to stop us from destroying them, so they must be important. What's that, Ultima NEEDED us to destroy the Mothercrystals because other parts of Ultima were sealed in them? Why? Is that what gave them the aether-draining power? Oh, we're just not going to elaborate? Hello? What happened to the whole story about Bearers being slaves? How are these countries still functioning when we killed off a lot of their leadership? I want to say that after the Bahamut Lost fight is when it started losing steam, and I'm not sure how much of that is because Annabella was just such a fun to hate character and losing her kinda killed the personal motivations of several other characters

And I could understand Jill getting benched because she overtaxed her power and was petrifying, but the problem is that they don't really show her doing so? They state it a whole bunch, but we literally see her and Clive naked together on a beach and she doesn't seem to have any visible petrification (which!!! They should have!!! Because Clive seeing it and Jill being forced to show the extent of it could have made the whole thing much more emotional). Meanwhile, Dion has also been fighting just as much as Jill (especially since Shiva vs. Titan and Bahamut vs. Odin are, like, THE two big Eikon fights of the early game), and yet he's just totally fine. Tragic love is fine, but not if doing so means that you have to just randomly make one character not have the rules apply to them

You're supposed to be able to choose for yourself what happened to them, like that whole thing about how Cid wanted to build a world where a man could choose how he died, but it wasn't how he met Clive that he realized he should be trying to create one where you could choose how you lived: Clive finally created that with the ending. And offering that choice through the player is just really genius.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's why I'm totally fine with the ending as it is, and when I first saw it I even had the thought that, like, the family we see at the end could have been Clive and Jill's descendants given that the brothers and dog were clearly meant to mirror Clive, Joshua, and Torgal and I liked being able to think that and give it meaning. Anything after that kind of defeats the themes (almost like how the Dawn of the Future plotline in FFXV ultimately contradicted the themes of the main game). I just wish that the lead-up to the themes that it completes was a little stronger

The last we talked about Final Fantasy XVI, you'd just seen someone get punched by a certain someone. Are you any further now? Like, have you seen the ending of the game? And if you have... I guess the developers of Final Fantasy XVI have said that this game has so much lore, they could make a sequel with it, which is most definitely true. LOL. Who knows if they'll ever actually do that (if so, it'll be very far off), but if they do, what do you think it'll tell? What would you want it to do?

I have indeed seen the end of it by now! To be honest, I kind of have mixed feelings on the plot of the game as a whole. Love the characters, Clive especially is now one of my favorite Final Fantasy protagonists, but I can't help but feel that the game is a little disjointed in spots. They advertised it as the story of Clive's life spanning three eras, but those three eras don't have equal weight and end up coming across as Prologue #1, Prologue #2, and The Actual Game if that makes sense given that you've actually played the game and I've only seen other people play it. And, honestly, when I think back on it, I kind of liked what Prologue #2 with Clive in his late 20s was putting forward the best out of all three sections

I liked the darker and more personal angle that they were putting down, with a story about a man whose latent powers went berserk and he ended up hurting someone close to him, desperate for revenge without realizing that the one he wants revenge against is himself. But then it feels like they resolve that angle very fast and everything after that is a very classic "god is evil kill god" Final Fantasy plot. It's a well-done version of that plot to be sure, and I can really respect how well they tried to capture the feeling of old-school Final Fantasy games, but given how much of the marketing was about this game being darker and more mature, to me it felt like the themes got almost less mature as it went on, going from personal grief, this desperation to rebuild, the price of revenge, etc. to a more generic "free will good" story

Spoilers from here on out

That said, the developers are correct that there's so much lore, and to me that's the best part of the game. I've always found stories that heavily feature elemental-themed areas a lot of fun, like Avatar: The Last Airbender or One Last God: Kubera, so this game giving each summon a specific element and, for the most part, keeping it one summon/element per faction was really interesting to see brought to light. I think the fact that they touched on different factions viewing their Dominants differently was a good start, I just wanted to see a bit more of it on-screen because again, like I said, they started doing that at the beginning, but then it kind of got completely overwhelmed by the "Ultima wants Clive to have all of the Dominant powers" stuff and then never bothered to really look back at how the people felt about losing their nation's Dominants (also they way that they handled Clive taking the powers was kinda weird? Like, Dion carries on just fine and can still transform but Jill gets benched? What?)

Ahhhhhh I just... I almost wish that Ultima had just been an interesting background element and that the game as a whole had focused more on the infighting between the nations and Dominants and Bearers, rather than the other way around. I just found Ultima so generic and uninteresting, and that the game focused too much on making Clive this Super Awesome Chosen One because of it, when I found he was at his best when he was just a kind, awkward man struggling with this unprecedented power he was stuck with and the trauma it brought him

Because to be honest, at the start of the game I wondered if, maybe, what was happening was that they were gonna pull some classic Final Fantasy Dark World stuff and have it be that every Eikon had a dark counterpart. So Ifrit would be the Dark Eikon of Fire to Phoenix's Light Eikon of Fire and they could have used other classic FF summons as the Dark Eikons, like Garuda vs. Sylph. And the Light Eikons could bless people with their power like how Clive had the blessing of the Phoenix, while the Dark Eikons could steal powers. But, no, it's just Ifrit being Super Special and everything. Also... why... was Joshua the only one who could seemingly bless others with his power? Dion couldn't give Terrence a Blessing of Bahamut or anything and give him some light powers? Jill had to let Clive absorb her Shiva powers rather than blessing him with them becauuuuuuse...? And, man, it could've been so interesting if they had a sideplot on Anabella trying to force all of the Dominants to bless Olivier to match Clive or something. Or maybe not even a sideplot, that sounds like I would've liked it way more than the Ultima stuff because of how much more personal it has the potential to be and the game could've been a race to take the power of each Dominant before Olivier could get their blessings. Olivier was so underutilized

As for the lore, I think they do a really good job fleshing out Bearers, so really if they had more to look into, it would be the unanswered questions. Like, we know that Valisthea is only one continent on this world (Cid isn't originally from there, and IIRC neither was Barnabas's family), so what are the others like? Where is Leviathan? Are the theories that the Medicine Girl was Leviathan's Dominant, just not yet awakened, true? (Also, if Ultima needed Clive to have all of the other Eikon's powers, why were we even allowed to skip Leviathan? Shouldn't we have had to track them down? Why did they end up lost?) If the truth is that Ultima's people descended from another world and created humanity, then where did the idea of the Goddess Greagor come from? And what about the legend surrounding the star, Metia? Is Metia magical or is it just a cute legend thing?

Hmmm. If they ever did more with FFXVI, it would have to be a prequel, wouldn't it? Because I think where it left off was exactly where it should have, with some hope for the future and the world moving on, bittersweet with all of the losses that it took to get there but worth it all the same. (I know that there's a lot of theories about who "Joshua Rosfield" is in the end, and I actually prefer that it's ambiguous. Whether you think Clive succeeded in bringing Joshua back at the cost of his own life, or that Clive took Joshua's name which is the one that I think has the most in-game hints to it, or even if you want to think of a third option like one I've seen where Clive survived, but the "Joshua Rosfield" in question is actually his and Jill's son named in Joshua's honor, sacrifices were made and hope remains)

So I think the route with the most potential might end up being a Cid-centric prequel about what life on other continents is like. And I would never complain about more Cid, especially in regards to how he was chosen by Ramuh and what about how things are on other continents is that made him so averse to how Valisthea does things. I think that Cid is really something special due to his status as an outsider looking in on Storm and Ash and how his different perspective compared to everyone there is such a catalyst for what happens in the plot and it's a real shame that most of what we get of Cid is posthumous. So if FFXVI was to get its own sub-series, that's where I'd take it

[lunasun1verse]

Dear witches of the world,

I get it. I truly and honestly do. The religion of Christianity has hurt more people under the banner of their “god” and Jesus than seemingly all of the other religions combined (we’re going to leave out Islam and Judaism for the sake of this open letter). I truly get it.

I personally HATE what the church has done in the name of Jesus, and under the guise of bringing their god to the godless (who incidentally were not godless, but chose to worship another who was not the christian god). The more I read about it, the angrier I get. The more I think about it, the more I feel like crying because folks really think republican Jesus(tm) is who God is (and yeah I called him republican Jesus. Iywykw).

But that’s just it.

THE CHURCH DID IT. MAN DID IT, SPECIFICALLY INDOCTRINATED MEN. I DIDN’T DO IT TO YOU

The institution of the church has hurt everyone, including their own members.

One of the original teachings of Christ, a brown man who is considered by many witches to be one of the greatest sorcerers of His time, and one of the cornerstone that the original Ethiopian Christian church was built on tells us to love own another as we love God (1 John 4:21, Luke 10:27).

White men came and stole the teachings from the Ethiopians. They used those teachings and modified them to fit THEIR barbaric mentality of raping, looting, killing and pillaging in the name of the god they just Columbus’d and colonized. Let me say this again:

White men came to Ethiopia and stole their teachings and bibles, then mistranslated, rewrote, omitted, and added to the Bible to justify their barbaric behavior, only to REPACKAGE it back to their slaves and colonies to justify why it was ok for them to behave as they did.

The Bible should never be taken literally for this reason alone. Example: Exodus 22:18’s “thou shall not suffer a witch to live” is believed to have said originally “poison spitter”. The word witch was added because gay King James (yes the same King James who’s lover is believed to be the inspiration for what is now widely accepted as Charles Manson Jesus Christ) was being threatened by attempted poisonings, so he added it to the Bible to be able to eliminate any threats.

The “christians” you see in church are christofascists. Their god is disgustingly cruel, he’s mean, he’s a slave driver and all he wants is to subjugate folks in “love”. He is NOT the god of Christian witches. He’s the god of men who want power through fear and terrorist. He’s the god of grifters who have no fucking idea that THIS is what the fuck was meant by Exodus 20:7’s and Deuteronomy 5:11’s “you shall not take the Lord’s name in vain”. I mean ffs, they haven’t even read their bibles outside of Bible study…….

Christian witches have decolonized their christianity enough to understand that the shit you see today was NEVER what God wanted. He is love, kindness, and is fine with witchcraft. I mean seriously, one of the seals that supposedly tells us His name is a gd pentagram…… If He wasn’t, why in the WORLD would He have left us the tools to talk to Him? If Christians couldn’t be witches, why are their missing bible books that confirm witchcraft, witches and “lesser gods”??? Hell if witchcraft was bad, why are their books missing….?

A lot of witches also don’t stay Christian witches for long. This can be a transitional period for a lot of us. Anyway, to conclude…..

I am sorry. I truly am that the church has hurt every one it touches. I’m sorry that you can’t let that pain go, but I’m even more sorry that it’s made you hate God, but we are not the church, we aren’t currently doing it to you and I want you to really understand that. I found who God really was under all that colonized, barbaric bullshit that white men added to and omitted from the Bible, I’m happy with being able to worship Him in His entirety and be a witch. I’m happy knowing that I can be with Him, Mother Earth, Nyx and Hecate with no problems. I want you to know that I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not a threat to your beliefs. I’m not gonna convert you; prostelyzing is a christofascist tenant that we don’t believe in. I just want you to let me be, I’ll let you be, and we just be witches. Don’t behave like the christians you hate, because tbh, your hate toward specific types of witches is headed toward the level of how the church hated you you.

Sincerely, we’re both up shit creek in the eyes of the church.