#I love Babylon as a symbol

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

This guitar blog fights fascists Babylon !

[noa-ciharu]

If we cast aside all ruthless, selfish, manipulative etc. stuff for a moment, sometimes I think about how actually sad and lonely Seishirou's life is.

Yes, that man's.

He's innately afraid of very thing he craves the most subconsciously: feeling connected to someone. And I like how he was never able to leave that (schizoid) split because conflict is so primordial it can never be resolved: he's forever stuck in the loop of deep craving he's unconscious of (hence very reason he made the bet in the first place) and just as unconcious fear of negative emotions and feeling of being 'caged' by them as result of caring for someone/something (resulting in him adopting 'I can't feel emotions' attitude as extremely sophisticated defense mechanism). To someone with that splitting view of reality every emotion towards another person equivalents to vulnerability and danger; which translates into defencelessness and general negative affect (which was never differenced); mature ways of dealing with negative emotions were ever developed hence every negative emotion is felt in extremely primal, intense and disoriented ways. Of course he'd do anything to prevent evoking said emotions in the first place.

It's the void that cannot be filled, primal loneliness that no amount of hedonism (nicotine addiction, his sweet tooth, rich lifestyle, eye for beauty etc.) can satisfy. Perhaps deep down he was looking for the 'cure' to inner conflicts he consciously wasnt aware of. But at same time part of him that views emotions as vulnerability and connections as prisons kicks in and never actually allows him consider if Subaru meant something to him on conscious level. Because accepting that would be equivalent of (ego) death. Split between "deeply embedded need for connection" and "need for emotional self sufficiency" would collapse and he'd have no way of getting out of it. And pride won't allow him to crumble and admit 'defeat' to what little of humanity he has left.

In that way Seishirou representing metaphor for larger than life Tokyo that seduces you with its beauty and intrigue but is actually empty and uncaring at core - it fits him to the T. Because no matter comes to pass, he remains unchanged. Must remain at status quo because anything else would be beginning of his end. In this essay I will -

[mylittleredgirl]

"atonement" is one of my very favorite b5 episodes, because it explains so much about delenn and her choices.

lennier is wrong when he suggests that her choice to marry a human stems from guilt, because she undeniably loves that man, but the fact that she was in a position to fall in love with sheridan is directly related to what happened in the past.

she instantly and fully believed that sinclair has a minbari soul at least partly because it allows her to end the war. she places herself on babylon five, then personally takes up the mantle of prophecy over the objections of the grey council to become (almost) human herself. she sacrifices her body and her identity because she has spent her life since the war trying to make up for her mistake.

the reveal adds so much to specific earlier episodes as well as her general story. her fully traumatized response at the beginning of "soul hunter" makes so much sense now.

and the lady of the lake scene from "a late delivery from avalon"...

delenn believes she is responsible for the war because, in a moment of grief and rage, she ordered revenge that turned into a holy war.

"king arthur" believes that he started the war because, under orders, he fired the first shot.

and she takes excalibur from him—the king's burden, the symbol of both the tragic misunderstanding and his personal guilt—so he can be healed and given back his life, reborn into a new purpose.

it's perfect that the scene is silent, and that it's delenn's only scene in the episode. i only wish that it could have happened after "atonement" in the chronology of the series, so that this act of symbolic forgiveness could have been framed as part of her silent deliverance as well.

[hannahlikeso741]

What perfumes do the HL boys wear, by a complete perfume lover who is not an expert.

Hello there. I have been inactive for too long. Ever since my label as a scent witch by @pandanscafanfiction and being bullied by @tennoujinerin to post this, here it is. What perfumes I think the HL boys would wear:

I know I have done this before but after some revision and seeing how each character has been developed, lo and behold my new choices.

Sebastian Sallow:

Ah, the one who stole our hearts at first when we played the game. I chose Cedarwood as his main scent note for it's association with healing and death. Sebastian is an all rounder, not the type to have multiple bottles, one scent will do the job. Burberry's Hero, YSL's La Nuit De La Homme and Margiela Replica's Whispers in the Library (I chose this on purpose) have Cedarwood as it's note

Ominis Gaunt:

Ominis is upper class but it doesn't strike me as someone who wants to shout his status. It is a kind of scent that is subtle but you know it comes from the upper class. For that I chose Leather fragrances as it usually wears slowly on the skin, but on the right person it comes across as a quiet strong person. Gucci's Guilty Absolute, Dior's Fahrenheit and Margiela Replica's Jazz club are a great reflection of this.

Garreth Weasley:

As a potioneer who relies on his nose a lot, Garreth wouldn't see the point of wearing perfume. At best he would just need something that smells clean and fresh, but I added some citrusy notes for his fun loving nature. For that Chanel's Allure Homme Sport and Dior Homme Cologne would do the trick. To get is attention, choose a scent that sits close to the skin in an almost intimate level that would turn his head, such as Margiela Replica's Lazy Sunday Morning.

Leander Prewett:

For Leander I actually went for "Annoying" fragrances at first but seeing how he has been developed into the fandom, I rearranged for scents that are fresh with a twist. I wanted something that comes across as a people pleaser but there is the note that you can't put your nose to it (It's Rosemary) that makes you take a second sniff. For that, Armani's Aqua Di Gio Porfumo, Bvlgari's Aqva pour Homme and Issey Miyake's Fusion d'Issey are my picks.

Amit Thakkar:

I really wanted to pay homage to India for Amit, as India is the land where scents are used quite frequently in daily life. I chose a sandalwood perfume (Diptyque's Tam Dao) for it's usage in the worship of the Hindu Gods and Goddess, Cardamom (D&G The One) for it's usage in food and Saffron ( Penhaligon's Babylon) for the colour worn by Hindu Priests ( it symbolic of Sunsets/Sunrise and healing, apparently).

Andrew Larson:

I am amazed at the headcanons for Andrew but I digress he doesn't smell like herbs. Instead I chose Juniper Berries! Is this an odd choice? Of course, but considering it's freshness yet spicy notes with medicinal properties (not to mention it being found in most parts of the globe) it is a timeless scent. I tried my best to find scents that are light, something not too strong as it will need to sit close to the skin. Take a peek with Blvgari's Glacial Essence, Gucci's Guilty Cologne Pour Homme and Penhaligon's Juniper Sling.

[ducktoonsfanart]

Donald Duck as Napoleon Bonaparte, Scrooge McDuck as Gaius Julius Caesar and Louie Duck (Quack Pack) as Alexander the Great - Conquerors - Real Ducks in History - History in Duckverse

I've always wanted to do a special project called Duckverse in History and my plan is to draw my favorite characters as redraws from famous works of art as well as famous historical figures. And since history is my favorite science, and my favorite field, I definitely wanted to do something related to it and related to one of my favorite historical characters. Since I don't want to complicate the situation, I will gradually publish a drawing related to that historical figure from time to time. I started this last year for Duckvember only to finish at the end of last month.

The first drawing is a redraw from Jacques Louis David's famous early 19th century artwork depicting Napoleon Bonaparte crossing the Alps in 1800 before the Battle of Marengo. Napoleon Bonaparte was the most famous French military leader, general, consul and emperor who waged war with all of Europe at the time and managed to subjugate it in its entirety except for the Ottoman Empire, Russia and Great Britain. He is from Corsica, but he left a lot for France and proved that France is not worth messing with easily. He also gave many reforms and his Civil Code which spread throughout Europe and brought order in France after the French Revolution. Napoleon's nature is very similar to Donald Duck and I drew Donald as Napoleon since he was created for that role and I drew him riding his horse Marengo in my own style, but in a realistic way and that Donald has five fingers.

The second drawing is a redraw of a statue made by Nicolas Coustou at the end of the 17th century for the decoration of Versailles, which depicts the greatest Roman, Gaius Julius Caesar. Although he was not an emperor, certainly many presented him, but he was a dictator, consul, general, writer, historian, engineer, constructor, and a great military leader who changed the Roman Republic into an almost Roman Empire. His fights against the Gauls, as well as the conflict with Pompey and his love with Cleopatra, are known, but he also changed a lot in Rome and was extremely rich. And he lived during the first century BC. That's why I drew Scrooge McDuck as Gaius Julius Caesar since Scrooge is a great leader and he also strived for fame and fortune and to be remembered in the future and he plays the role of the best Roman. Behind it are the Colosseum (built a century after him), the aqueduct (then irrigation) and the Pantheon (built two centuries after him), as well as a Roman temple that symbolizes Rome at that time, as well as the roads themselves. In addition, Topolino (Italian comics) are showed Scrooge as Caesar two or three times so that's where my inspiration came from.

The third drawing shows Louie Duck (the Quack Pack version, not the Ducktales reboot) shows Alexander the Great, another brilliant conqueror from the fourth century BC and I drew it as a redraw from the mosaic of Alexander the Great from the battle of Issus in which he confronts the Persian king Darius III from Pompeii, probably from the first century BC. Alexander the Great was the son of Philip II and the king of Macedonia who united Greece and fought against Persia and managed to conquer an entire empire in his twenties. He traveled through the Persian Empire and reached India and wanted to continue, but his soldiers did not want to continue, so he returned to Babylon, his new capital. He certainly changed the world at that time and introduced a new culture, called Hellenism, as a combination of ancient Greek culture and the culture of the Ancient East and ancient India. I drew Louie as Alexander because as a young man he is a great adventurer and rides his black horse Bucephalus and is eager for extremes, yet unlike Alexander, Louie shows a bit of his shyness, but is still brave enough to take on new challenges. I also added a helmet as worn by Alexander III in his time. Behind Louie are the pyramids from Egypt, the Ishtar Gate from Babylon and the imperial palace from Persepolis where the Persian rulers lived and it actually shows the lands that Alexander the Great conquered.

I certainly hope you like these drawings and these ideas and that these characters have such historical roles. Of course, Duckverse in history I combine mostly everything related to Duckverse (Donald Duck comics, OG Ducktales, Three Caballeros, Darkwing Duck and Quack Pack) and it's mostly my version and my idea. By all means if you like this and support these ideas, feel free to like and reblog this, but please don't use these same ideas without mentioning me and without my permission. Thank you!

[aois-amaterasu-painting]

The GazettE symbolism analysis - part 3 - black, red and 13 stairs

DAWN lyrics translation:

I sing, digging up [memories of] my past I’d loved so completely From within the depths of the void Time stood still while the distorted dark clouds swirled all around I was bound up in innumerable shackles And I want to lose myself in the reality reflected in the chaos around me I’ve already had a lethal dose of misfortune The ruined gallows towers above me Overcast sky, Counting song, the sound of approaching footsteps Wild party with emotions running high A merry-go-round of deepest red unfurled That day was the beginning of it all 13 stairs foretell the metamorphosis

Moving past my momentary confusion, these roiling emotions rise up Hung up high on that 13th stair The beautiful answer redefined becomes the new dogma I was bound up in innumerable shackles And I want to lose myself in the reality reflected in the chaos around me I’ve already had a lethal dose of misfortune The ruined gallows towers above me Overcast sky, Counting song, the sound of approaching footsteps Wild party with emotions running high A merry-go-round of deepest red unfurled Accompanied by the end of  peace I lay my hands on the blackened altar Wild party with emotions running high A merry-go-round of deepest red unfurled That day was the beginning of it all 13 stairs foretell the metamorphosis An evil spell my life

So I was watching DOGMA preview vid and DAWN featured the Scarlet woman from the 13th anniversary teaser. That's why I got interested in the lyrics. The one frame where she is going up the stairs is the most significant and sums up the whole song. (The text is the song lyrics but translated with google lens).

Now this is 13 STAIRS[-]1 performed in Venomous Cell finale (2012). It left a massive impression on me because Ruki used this 7 pointed star (Star of Babalon) background. I couldn't figure out the exact connection from her to the song at the time, but I see it now. 13 stairs have been his symbol for the whole thing all along. Also from Venomous Cell:

The hexagram has been a recurring symbol throughout DOGMA and the Mother of God statue is very reminiscent of the NINTH cover, except NINTH cover is red + green specifically. Scarlet red is the colour of Babalon (I talked more about it in the 1st part of the analysis) and emerald green is associated with Daleth and Venusian sephirah Netzach.

The Reita pick saying CATALYST is very interesting. A catalyst is something that initiates or accelerates an (al)chemical reaction or transformation. His is the only 1 in full NINTH colors. Uruha with white/red, Aoi with black/green - the yin yang guitars + goddess colors.

Seeing these picks made me think the 3 songs composed by Uruha (99.999, The Mortal, Babylon's Taboo) are the 3 Red goddess songs. (Fun fact: I was googling Netzach for the preceding paragraph and came across this sentence "The sephirah of Netzach stands firm forever and never regrets. Netzach is not a mortal who fears death and would feel regret in the face of death" and I was like... That's.. a song title.. The song meaning seems to be about the Red goddess slipping away especially if you look at how it was performed in NINTH final)

(the hand is so reminiscent of Babylon's taboo, except then she actually goes into the heart - link to my post about this)

DAWN - 20th anniversary:

Babylon's taboo - 20th anniversary:

13STAIRS[-]1 - Mass Final:

NOX - Mass Final:

Ninth Odd Smell - Mass Final:

NINTH ODD SMELL lyrics translation:

First　「disorder」　is an ignorant blade Heresy raising its middle finger in rebellion Reverberation running rampant heading towards the ninth stair of desire Second    「nil」     the future that tore through the darkness Nameless lights The grim precursor soon becomes Stacked up, wriggling Rubbish Draped in crimson despair crawling from the murky depths A tower of fear and doubt looks down upon the world Poison gripping your voice as the days jumble around you Your heart painfully being sliced to shreds Exhilarating in the feeling of destruction Filled with strange distortions You fight your way to the 13th stair So embrace the black black black darkness [Die] We fucking never die This soul can never die We fucking never die Can’t never die

The beginning of NINTH ODD SMELL is referencing all the previous albums. And the overall meaning of the song sums up the message of all their music.

This is from Stacked Rubbish finale [RCE] 2008:

The Scorpio which they used as a backdrop is a symbol of death and transformation, in astrology it rules the 8th house. 8 was on the cover of that DVD. Ruki doing the Jesus Christ pose has been a constant for years, and that crucified Jesus was shown on the screen for a really long time.

But let's go back to MASS:

These 2 pages from MASS limited edition are quoting NOX. NOX lyrics translation: Sorrowful enough to kill The unquenchable flame burns up Thoughts that cannot be put into words Hold you the answer A color that cannot be yielded Spit out your choking heartbeat Peel off your bloodshot eyeballs I will not hesitate anymore

And these pages have all the members on the red page while their shadows are on the black one. Except for Aoi, the Yin guitar, but his red page is Red circling back to Black. So from black to red and back to black again. Unlike everyone else's who's just simply black to red. And the lyrics book has the negative image of the cover art. They did a similar thing with Dogmatic final poster being white and then the DVD booklet having the negative version of that.

This is the Yin triangle from To Dazzling Darkness live:

When I 1st saw that Yin triangle I knew that they know the Goddess like I know her. That's what made me start looking deeply at what else they are doing with symbolism.

To Dazzling Darkness lyrics translation:

The colors bleed from the landscape You hope you’ll wake from this dream The light Vanishes completely before your eyes Let’s have these hearts Now join together as one

The Sacred Heart represents the long-suffering love and compassion of the heart of Christ towards humanity. (This symbol comes from mystics and not the bible)

They played all 3 - DAWN, NINTH ODD SMELL and 13STAIRS[-]1 at MASS final and they were pretty much the only non MASS songs:

DIE is always shown on screen in red and black when NINTH ODD SMELL is played. It's important to remember it's meant like the symbol of the Death tarot card (associated with Scorpio and number 13) - meaning strong emotions, transformation, major change.

Link to my 13STAIRS[-]1 post Link to my Project: Dark Age post

13th anniversary poster vs MASS final. Both at Nippon Budokan:

Part 1 of the analysis Part 2

[angelthefirst1]

Norman just posted this photo from Paris, which includes a dinosaur 🦕 wearing a beanie and it has love ❤️ heart nostrils.

His post is pointing to Emily's song about a dinosaur 🦕 in the museum of her broken 💔 hearted past.

Read about Emily's broken-hearted dinosaur ��� 💔 museum here.

Norman's photo also shows symbolism of a bird 🐦 (Emily is marked as the hummingbird or song bird) "nesting" on a diamond 💎

Diamonds are pyramid (Louvre) symbols

You can read more on that here and here.

While the nest symbols are related to where Daryl will find her X.

My personal thoughts are that Daryl will get a clue to her survival at the Louvre and will then have to track her down.

We saw a mini template of this in Consumed (The book of Carol 1.0) when Daryl and Carol entered this office building filled with artwork (representation of the Louvre)

We also see "wing-back" chairs 💺 in this room, significant to Daryl getting his "Angel" or wings back.

Here, Daryl finds a picture 📸 picks it up and looks at it...I personally think this is a shadow of him finding a clue to Beth's survival at the Louvre.

In the next scene, he and Carol look out the window, Carol says, "How did we get here?" A clue to the future and to being in France.

In real time, they do get a clue to where Beth is...the + ambulance 🚑 on the bridge... The bridge symbolism is Jacob's (Israel's) ladder. 🪜

As @bethgreeneprevails has mentioned, the echelon briefing means ladder 🪜

@galadrieljones has done some amazing posts on Jacob and Jacob's ladder. She first clued me into the Leah/Rachel, Jacob (Daryl/Israel) connection.

I talk about how Daryl is Jacob/Israel here and will talk more on it in future posts.

But inside this room, we see a Meridian globe, giving us a hint and pointing to a different time and location.

The Meridian wheels are a representation of the Ferris wheels 🎡 symbolism we see in the show, and Norman recently posted about that too...

Ultimately, these are all symbols of Ezekiel's "wheel within a wheel" vision, which represents a birds eye view (God's view) of everything happening past, present, and future at once - being outside of time.

Interesting Ezekiel 10.10 is where we find this vision.

This Meridian symbolism doesn't just point to France, it points to shifting locations depending on what story they are telling. Which is the biblical end times.

Ezekiel’s Wheel Within a Wheel: What Does It Mean?

Ezekiel, one of the Jews exiled from Israel to Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem, receives this vision as a sign that God has not abandoned him (or the people). The wheels are a sign of God's omnipresence, for he can move anywhere; the height of his throne illustrates that he is always watching from high above us. Another decoration of the wheel chariot was numerous eyes, for God sees everything.

The wheels within wheels allowed the spirits to immediately go in any of four directions where they were told to go (Ezekiel 10:16 - 17).

There is a Ferris wheel in Barcelona, Spain, on the way to the Windsor bridge. It will be interesting to see if they film in a Ferris wheel location at any point when Beth comes back.

I've talked many times before how the "Nest" in France represents Israel, protected by the Archangel Michael, who have a leading role in biblical end time events.

Well, in this room that Daryl and Carol find a Beth clue in, we also get a depiction of Carol's Balaam's donkey symbolism used for DD2 advertising.

Daryl tells Carol that the painting looks like a dog sat in paint and wiped it's ASS 🫏 all over the place...

Dog backwards is god with a little g. This can represent an angel (it can be either holy or fallen depending)

It dipped it's ASS (donkey 🫏) in paint...

Angel donkey painting...numbers 22-Balaam's donkey. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you, a promise made to Abraham's line. X

It wasn't an accident they gave Carol the Balaam's donkey symbolism for DD2. It's so important, and as I've mentioned, it's all related to the biblical end times.

The alcohol symbolism we see around Beth is related to the "spirits." Which I will go into more another time.

Before Daryl spots the ambulance 🚑 on the bridge, we see Daryl and Carol look out the window and see this sign...

This muse sign is pyramid symbolism - as above, so below.

If you read it from top to middle and bottom to middle, you get the word MUSE. Something Emily has written about in her song Jonathan from the album "OH" Jonathan album. Something I have talked about here and here.

Oh Jonathon is about Daryl and Beth.

MUSE is related to art, obviously, so it's just another hint to the Louvre.

One aspect of the dinosaur 🦕 key and the Seahorse key symbolism that I never went into in my previous post on Emily's dinosaur beanie.

Is that it all relates to the rise of the beast as described in Revelation 13.3

🦖🐉🦕🐲

The First Beast

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it, the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marvelled as they followed the beast. 4 And they worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

Beth's two "clue" cars, have both dinosaur 🦕 and a Seahorse symbolism.

Dinosaur can also mean dragon 🐉 and so can sea dragon, which is a Seahorse. Notice the yellow and blue on the Seahorse key... It's to tell us specifically that it's a sea dragon.

And again, Beth's mortal head wound and her survival, combined with the dragon/beast and sea dragon symbolism, points to her story being linked to the rise of the beast and the biblical end times that revolve around Daryl (Jacob/Israel)

[megarahmoon]

Name change!! And I am so happy with it. You already know my BP as Monty, but I've decided to name her after one of my most loved goddesses, Tiamat. This is going to be a bit long winded because I'm obsessed with ancient goddesses (and goddesses in general) and I love to share their ancient history because not many people in this modern world know too much about goddesses and gods.

In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat is a primordial mesopotamian goddess of the ocean and personification of chaos. evidence of Tiamat is the oldest known. It dates back to 2000 B.C.E. from Sumer and Babylon. At the beginning of Tiamat’s story, she personifies young and fertile motherhood, giving birth to a multitude of deity offspring. During this stage, Tiamat is described as calm and loving, she gave birth to the first generation of gods, but when her offspring turn murderous, killing her husband Apsu, Tiamat enters her second phase — her anger transforms her into a vengeful monster with five independent heads. Ultimately, this stage is Tiamat’s undoing, as her need for revenge and her formidable power leads her into battle with the storm god, Marduk, who split her body in half, the top portion of her body becoming the sky and the bottom became the earth and her tears created the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. She is considered the Mother of All and all Babylonian gods are her descendants. As described by the New World Encyclopedia:

“The entirety of the material creation was thus generated, with half of her body as the sky, the other half as the Earth, her ribs (or thigh bones) as the vault of Heaven and Earth, her monstrous udder as the mountains, her weeping eyes as the source of the Tigris and the Euphrates and her poisonous spittle as the earthly moisture (clouds, winds, rain, and fog).”

Tiamat’s multiple personalities represents the many stages of in a woman’s life, as well as prescribed gender roles relating to power and sexuality. Society negatively stereotypes older women, ultimately punishing them for their independence and ambition. Tiamat’s violent end is identified with the often complicated role powerful women face, both in ancient and modern times. Tiamat has the appearance of a dragon or a serpent. Sometimes, she is multi-headed, due to the modern influences from the Dungeons & Dragons, though there is no image dating to Mesopotamian times which has been identified as depicting this goddess. She is the elemental powerful force of chaos, the Mother of Everything, the self-procreating womb, the source of all life and all manifestation. Tiamat’s themes are history, change, spirituality, fertility, birth and creativity. Her symbols are reptiles and seawater.

I've always wanted to name my own snake after Tiamat and I should have just changed her name years ago after my brother gave her to me ✨

[pugzman3]

This is just a few of the pieces to this. There is a lot more: symbols, sharing of religious areas and artifacts, the coexisting between churches and mosques, none of it is a coincidence. When you get this fact, the direction of things will start to make sense.

John 14:6

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

King James Version (KJV)

John 3:16-18

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

There is zero question what these verses mean. Jesus is the ONLY way. Belief in the heart and confession with the mouth is the absolute one and only way to the Father. The path is clear and simple so that everyone can see it themselves, without men with degrees, or ordained "holy" interpretation from another man. Jesus is the only way and anyone who says otherwise is antichrist 1 John 2:22 & 4:3.

This unholy alliance of Chrislam is going to happen and then keep mutating into something worse. We will each stand alone before the Father to be held accountable. Not with friends, family, or a church....alone. So will people come out if Babylon and follow the words of God? I know it is a foreign thought for many; but apostacy is apostacy, whether it be new, or generations old.

So to all who worry, I remind you of the blind man Jesus healed in John 9. Remember, he was kicked out of the synagogue. And what did Jesus do when he heard it? .....he went and found him. He didn't leave him alone, he didn't go about his ministry, he went and found him and revealed to him who he was.

Jesus will not leave you stranded.

[the-gateway-to-madness]

Akiridion Courtship

I've seen a bunch of takes on this, so given what little we know of Akiridion culture, what I've seen in the fandom, and what ideas I've picked up from other shows, I'm going to slap together some of my own thoughts.

Starting a Romance on Akiridion:

I think there would be some manner of tradition regarding this. Akiridions being as long-lived as they are, I think the basic, more commonly accepted idea would be that Akiridion relationships are started with eternity in mind, with shorter, more passionate relationships being more of a product of active rebellion than a common thing like they are on Earth. Akiridions are built to last, and I think their love and marriages would be too.

So, how would Akiridions begin a relationship, is the obvious question?

They're a culture with a very particular concept of honor, as we can see from Varvatos and from the way other warriors behave. They're also an immensely creative people, as we know from Krel and how advanced their technology is. The little shrine to the Royals we see in one of the episodes has its own sort of artistic beauty.

And so, I think hand-crafted or self-designed gifts would be a way to begin an Akiridion courtship. I also think secret courtship wouldn't be considered shameful on Akiridion like it sometimes is on Earth, especially for royals; I think it'd be considered a perfectly reasonable act of protecting personal privacy.

Anyway, I think that a series of three gifts, from the person initiating the courtship to their romantic interest, is customary. The first is to express interest (called a "muryt"), the second to express intent of building a solid relationship (called a "dibir"), and the third to ask the romantic interest to accept them (called a "kveca"). The romantic interest is free to reject any of the gifts, whereupon the gifter is expected to back off. This has a certain influence over the dynamic of the more traditional aspects of the relationship moving forward.

Process of Courtship:

In an effort to build a lasting relationship, Akiridion dates, I think, would be more practical than not. I think they'd be focused on cooking and creating things together, learning about each other and learning new things together. They'd be to facilitate interpersonal connection and to figure out what the couple has in common. Of course, these are the focus, but romantic gestures are welcome and encouraged, too.

Akiridion Dancing:

I don't think Akiridions dance to music. I think they have very precise, fluid dance forms that facilitate closeness and conversation. Circular steps and a lot of mirroring movements and hand touches.

Breakups:

There's a couple ways for Akiridions to break up. One is for the receiver of the courtship initiation gifts to return the kveca. One is for the gifts-receiver's House to compensate the gifter's House in some way. One can also just break it off verbally, but it's considered more impolite.

Preparing for Marriage:

This one is a modified version of a Minbari tradition from Babylon 5. If an Akiridion couple decides to consider marriage, the gift-receiver and gifter spend three nights together, wherein the latter sleeps, and the former watches. The belief is that, at some point during those three nights, the gifter's "true face" or true self is revealed to the gift-receiver while they sleep. If the gift-receiver likes what they see, they get married. If they don't like it, they get to decide the future of the relationship.

Proposal and Marriage:

For the proposal, the initial gift-receiver creates three gifts to give to the initial gifter, symbolizing promising themself to them like the initial gifter did at the start of the relationship.

The marriage is an occasion that's taken seriously to a degree, but treated with lightheartness. Mostly it just finalizes if one member of the couple or other is going to choose to join the other's House, or if they'll choose to create a new House together.

Variation for Royals or Nobles:

Not that different, really. Nobles or commoners marrying royals become part of the royal House. Commoners marrying nobles join that noble's House. If royals marry each other, as in the case of Aja and Krel's parents, a new House is formed.

Here's a compilation of all the posts I've done analyzing Akiridions:

[malewifemanhunter]

what biblical couple is macdennis coded? i wanna make a poll and this is what i have so far

the sons of god (angels) and the daughters of men - in genesis 6 they left heaven because they fell in love with men's daughters, and god punished them and took away their immortality

2.david and jonathan - the bible says their souls were bonded and david says he loved him more than women

(context: this was after jonathan died in battle in a psalm called david's lament)

3. king solomon and the shulammite: - there's a whole book in the bible where it's them just talking about how much they wanna bang

(kinda hate this translation wtf is a delectable maiden lmaooo)

--some of the jesus ships r not that based in verses it's more in the subtext--

4. jesus and peter - peter betrayed him 3 times and jesus forgave him

5. jesus and john the beloved - out of jesus's 12 apostols, he loved john the most. john was also the only one from the 12 that didn't die as a martyr, but of natural causes

6. jesus and judas - judas sold jesus to be killed, and he kissed jesus to show the soldiers who they should arrest. judas felt so guilty after jesus died that he tried to give the money back, then killed himself

--now back to ships that are not with jesus--

7. the beast and the whore of babylon - they appear in the book of revelations, like the one that is super gruesome and talks about the apocalypse. fun fact, this used to be my fav as a kid

8. and of course, adam and eve. no need for introduction here i think, the original sin, eve was tempted by the devil to sin, and she tempted adam to sin, leading to them being banished from the garden of eden

to be perfectly honest, i get why this would be popular, but it's not my favourite biblical couple. even tho i love the symbolism of it and how it applies to mac and dennis

[queer-geordie-nerd]

A nuanced and insightful interview with Mira from November 1996, in the middle of filming S4 of Babylon 5 - it touches on her war time experiences in Yugoslavia and the events that drove her from her home, and the similarities between her own life and that of Delenn. Once again, I am bowled over by the incredible integrity and courage she possessed:

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

It's the one subject that pains Mira Furlan to discuss. The one subject that invades her privacy. The one subject that so violates her very soul.

And yet, it's the one subject that can't be avoided.

Nearly five years to the day of this interview, Furlan left her homeland of Yugoslavia, which was about to be engulfed in a bloody and horrific civil war. Ethnic passions restrained by decades of Communist rule had been unleashed by its collapse. Fascistic Nationalists arose to take its place, many of them former Communists. In their lust for power, they tore apart a nation of disparate republics and peoples that had once been a dream of poets, intellectuals and writers.

As one of Yugoslavia's most prestigious actors, Furlan risked her life and fortune to perform in cities on both sides, in Croatia and in Serbia. She hoped that she could be a bridge of unity, a symbol of pacifism, a clarion warning what terrible price their country would pay for unleashing the war their leaders were about to start.

Except for her husband, Goran Gajic, no one supported her.

Her colleagues abandoned her. Nationalist demagogues threatened to have her killed. Anonymous death threats were left on her answering machine.

She could not go silently. Before she left Yugoslavia, Furlan picked up her pen and wrote a farewell letter to her country. The letter was published a few days later in Zagreb (the capital of Croatia) and Belgrade (the capital of Serbia), cities on opposite sides of the coming war. It began:

“I hereby wish to thank my co-citizens who have joined so unreservedly in this small, marginal and apparently not particularly significant campaign against me. Although marginal, it will change and mark my whole life. Which is, of course, totally irrelevant in the context of the death, destruction, devastation and bloodchilling crimes within which our life now goes on.

This is happening, however, to the one and only life I have. It seems that I've been chosen for some reason to be the filthy rag everyone uses to wipe the mud off their shoes. I am far too desperate to embark on a series of public polemics in the papers. I do, however, feel that I owe myself and my city at least a few words. Like at the end of some clumsy, painful love story, when you keep wanting, wrongly, to explain something more, even though you know at the bottom of your heart that words are wasted; there is no one left to hear them. It is over.”

In Yugoslavia, Furlan was a leading actress of film, television and stage. She appeared in over 25 films, and won two Golden Arenas for Best Actress, their equivalent of the Oscar. Among her acclaimed theatrical roles were Ophelia in Hamlet, Celimene in The Misanthrope, and the title role in Euripides' Helen.

Under socialist rule, the arts were state-funded. "Your star status didn't mean that you were making money. But there were other advantages. Money was not the main obsession. The absence of money gave you a certain degree of creative freedom. We had all the time in the world. Movies were shot forever. Theatre plays were rehearsed forever. I personally was bored with that; things were not quick enough for me. But you had the luxury of having time to explore, to enjoy the creative process. These were the few advantages of living in socialism."

The notion of "freedom" in the arts in a socialist country may come as a surprise to Americans raised on Cold War propaganda asserting the opposite. "With my generation, the Communists were dying off," Furlan said. "Their grip on the artists' community was not as strong as after the war (World War II), when you could be in prison for just saying the wrong sentence. So we didn't feel it. I grew up totally despising them - the so-called them - and not having anything to do with them. And they left me alone. So there was relative freedom. Theatre was free because no one cared, basically. It was so marginal to the cause of the regime that people were left to do what they wanted. Film was much more dangerous, thus much more controlled."

That started to change when the Nationalists came to power. "The Yugoslav Communists didn't have the force that these new Nationalists now have, because these new leaders feel that the world is starting from them. They're creating new realities, new history, new language, new values. There's always this passion in the beginning; as a citizen, you don't want to be touched by that passion, because it can cost you your life."

Life in the former Yugoslavia was a political lifestyle largely unknown to Americans. "It was a double life. People had their own private thoughts. Publicly, they behaved as was prescribed; the majority were members of the Communist Party. Opportunism ruled. I think all Eastern Europeans have that built in — no confidence in any government, in any politicians. But, a contradiction! When Communism collapsed, Nationalism was born out of the old Communism. Trained in opportunism, people easily converted from Communism to Nationalism. That's the irony of it. Nothing has changed. The same people, the same names. The same faces. They just converted, switched just like that. That's what's so ugly in that whole situation. You just watch it and cannot believe that people don't remember what they were saying just two months ago. They didn't learn anything. They actually jumped into the first trap, completely surrendering to those new Nationalist leaders that brought them only pain lsss and devastation."

“I have no other way of thinking. I cannot accept war as the only solution, I cannot force myself to hate, I cannot believe that weapons, killing, revenge, hatred, that such an accumulation of evil will ever solve anything. Each individual who personally accepts the war is in fact an accessory to the crime; must he not then take a part of the guilt for the war, a part of the responsibility?”

"Historically, there were all kinds of frustrations on all sides, among all the peoples of the former Yugoslavia. There was a general feeling that each of these peoples who lived together in the former Yugoslavia had been somehow abused by the others. And there was a lot of truth in that. Nationalism is always partly grounded in truth. The Nationalists' politics manipulated the existing anger and frustration of the people and put their emphasis on that, and that's how the war started. The new Nationalists, who were for the most part converted Communists, took all the media. Journalists, I think, and media in general, bear an incredible responsibility for what happened."

The Babylon 5 episode being filmed during this interview, "The Illusion of Truth," has some eerie parallels. An ISN news crew films a documentary on B5, only to use the footage in a propaganda film for President Clark's fascist regime. It's an allegory for how America was consumed by Senator Joe McCarthy's witch hunts in the 1950s. "Sometimes I'm so appalled by what Joe (Straczynski) knows. I happened to experience a witch hunt — as an object! — but it's nothing new. Old stuff."

Furlan drew the attention of the Nationalists after she travelled from her home in Zagreb, Croatia to Belgrade, Serbia to perform at the annual BITEF Festival. BITEF was an international theatre event attended by actors from across Europe. She believed that her participation was a statement that her profession should not be drawn into supporting any political or national ideas. She felt it was her responsibility to establish bridges and ties, "for the sake of something that would outlive this war and this hatred which is so foreign to me," she wrote at the time. But the political leaders in Croatia were furious with her — and targeted her as an example of what would happen to others who chose the same path. Fearful for their careers, if not for their lives, and perhaps even sympathetic of the Nationalist cause, none of her colleagues spoke up to defend her.

“I think, I know and I feel that it is my duty, the duty of our profession, to build bridges. To never give up on cooperation and community. Not that national community. The Professional community. The human community. And even when things are at their very worst, as they are now, we must insist to our last breath on building and sustaining a bond between people. This is how we pledge to the future. And one day it will come . . .

I was willing and I would still be willing to undertake all and any efforts, if the hatred hadn't suddenly overwhelmed me with its horrendous ferocity, hatred welling from the city I was born in. I am appalled by the force and magnitude of that hatred, by its perfect unanimity, by the fact that there was absolutely nobody who could see my gesture as my defense of the integrity of the profession, as my attempt to defend at least one excellent theatre performance.”

"People's behavior is mainly built on fear. People think, 'Let them destroy her but just leave us alone.' When the media went crazy in Yugoslavia, I was a good example. I was a perfect target. I was a totally unprotected woman. Woman, that's very important. The war propaganda was constantly in search of 'internal enemies' just to homogenize the people, and to put fear in their heads so they could manipulate them. It's interesting that the majority of the 'internal enemies' were women. It's a very misogynist culture. It's a very misogynist world. I happen to be partly Jewish, and that came into the picture nicely. And I was never very obedient in my life and career. I left projects that I didn't really believe in. I made some unexpected choices in my work and in my life. All of that got wrapped up - Liberal. Feminist. Whore. Jew. Everything. The media combined it into this juicy bundle and served it to the people, who devoured it."

Abandoned by her friends and colleagues, and living with the threat of assassination, Furlan and her husband left Yugoslavia on November 15, 1991 for New York. She left behind the open letter explaining her departure.

“I am sending this letter into a void, into darkness, without an inkling of who will read it and how, or in how many different ways it will be misused or abused. Chances are it will serve as food for the eternally hungry propaganda beast. Perhaps someone with a pure heart will read it after all.

I will be grateful to that someone.”

American life and culture were a difficult adjustment, both in her profession and her personal life. Furlan has found the acting profession, indeed the entire entertainment industry, radically different from what she knew. Unlike in Yugoslavia, she found that diverse acting talents in the United States were rarely appreciated, much less rewarded.

"It's a European tradition among actors. Serious actors build their career in the theatre," Furlan said. "It's a completely different thing in America. The theatre is so marginal. The theatre doesn't matter because it's not mass culture. It's not the money-making machine. So yeah, I've learned that. We had a crash course in capitalism in the toughest spot. Hollywood is probably the toughest spot on Earth that way, the most cruel. It's a struggle, it's a fight. It's all about publicity and agents and names. That's what I really hate about being an actor here. I hated many things about acting in Yugoslavia. I was frustrated, and felt hopeless as an actor in socialism. I hated many things there, but I really miss concentrating on my work, which should be enough ideally, and it's not. Here, it's just a tiny part of everything else. Everything else is much more important, and you have to do so much of it yourself because no one else cares. Doing stuff that takes away your energy and your concentration and your precious time. These telephone conversations with people who have no interest in you, who don't have interest in anything but quick and easy money."

Babylon 5 is Furlan's first major television role in the United States; in fact it was one of her first auditions. It was also her introduction to science fiction. "I'm completely new to this whole thing. I knew the basics of science fiction literature — Bradbury, Clarke, just general culture — but there wasn't anything remotely similar to this. I was shocked when I went to my first convention."

The similarities between Furlan's life and Delenn's travails are striking. But it seems that it's no more than an amazing coincidence. According to Furlan, Straczynski didn't even know about her personal history when she was hired to play Delenn. "He surprises me so many times. And sometimes I feel as if he's written something directly for me. But he didn't know anything about me. Nothing. When the series started, we talked and he found out."

Furlan was an only child, raised among adults in a family of university professors. What was it that led her into acting? "It was a game! I always wanted to study languages. I studied English and French when I finished high school. I did them together, languages and acting. I went to the Academy for Film, Theatre and TV, and the University. But it was the other part of me, the part that wants to play, that finally won over the serious part, the one who sits at home and reads and learns and does research. It started as a game, it started as 'Let's play.'

"When I started at the Academy, they always used me for comedy, for light, playful stuff. Then I did a play in which something clicked in me. It was an English play in a famous little avant garde theatre, with only me and another actor. It was a very heavy play about marriage, marriage in three stages, which ends with this woman committing suicide on stage. I was so much younger than the part I played, but it completely opened this world of reality in acting. It started a journey inward for me. Once you experience that, once you open up in that way - people talk about getting in touch with your emotions, that's what you do in acting. That's your main job. That's your profession.

"That's why I miss theatre. That's the beauty of doing theatre. You are in touch with the greatest writers of world literature. Their thoughts, their characters. That's unbeatable. That's a pleasure in itself, no matter in what way it forwards your so-called career. I miss film. I miss having time to try things to discover subtleties, layers, little things. The comforting thing on Babylon 5 is Joe's writing, which sometimes touches the depth of the classic literature."

If Straczynski were to ask her to write a B5 episode, what story would she tell?" I have an image for some reason of the set for The Wizard of Oz. I'm in the middle, kind of a Dorothy figure. On one side is G'Kar, and on the other side is Londo, and we walk towards some incredible adventure. Having them on each side of me would make me feel strong and protected, and I would dare to go anywhere!" She suggests that her cat could play Toto, and we agree that cats are very Minbari.

Babylon 5 is fiction. But much of that fiction is rooted in reality, the reality of our 20th Century. It's easy to turn off the TV each week at the end of the hour, put away the popcorn bowl and say, "Aw, that couldn't happen here." But it has. It does. And it will.

Delenn is a fictional character, but Mira Furlan is not. It's easy for a fictional character to risk her life for a cause. For a living human being with friends, family, and a successful career, that decision is much more difficult. Fiction often poses for its characters the question, "Will you sacrifice all for what you believe?" In the fictional world of Babylon 5, that question is, "Who are you?" Reality rarely presents any of us with that challenge. Few of us will ever know what our answer would be.

All Mira Furlan ever wanted was to experience the pure joy of acting, the inward exploration of her soul, and to share that exploration with her audience. But history forced her to explore down unseen paths, paths of darkness, the same paths that took countless lives in her homeland. History demanded, "Who are you?"

Mira answered, and suffered for it. She and Goran have started a new life in America, strangers in a strange land. Their experience reminds us that life may one day demand a test of our integrity. If it does, let us hope that we are equal to their courage.

[story-weavr]

A Study in Astrology:

Arising from its ability to indicate the seasons and their respective natural activities, astrology has played a massive part in human cultures.

The importance of them even goes as far as to indicate what a person is like when they are born.

Rather than the stars being determinators of a person’s character, I believe astrology is a tool that God gave us to be more introspective of ourselves.

To honestly look inside ourselves and see who we truly are and what we need, whether it’s to enhance our strengths or address our flaws.

Below is how I interpret the planets and the stars. I highly encourage the reader to use this as a tool for their own interpretation of or investigation into astrology.

Planets:

I am only considering those planets that would have been visible to the naked eye as they would be the ones that would indicate events. I will also include which Babylonian god rules them.

The first three are what is considered the inner world of a human

Sun ☀️ _the ego, consciousness _ Shamash

Moon 🌙 _ Emotion, unconsciousness _ Sin or Selardi

Rising/ Ascendant/ 1st House ⭐️ _ expression _ as it the constellation that is rising from the horizon at one’s birth

The following are how one interacts with the world

Mercury ✍️ _ communication, logic _ Nabu

Venus ♥️_ expression of love _ Ishtar

Mars 🔥 _ passion, drive_ Nergal

The next two planets are both about growth as indicated by their brightness & must always be considered together.

Jupiter 💼_ ambition, “to reach” _ Marduk

Saturn 🧙‍♂️_ wisdom, experience_ Ninurta

Descendant/7th House/House of Balance_ the shadow self, the part of a person one doesn’t realize that they have_ the star sign which setting on the horizon at the time of one’s birth

Stars

Each constellation and their symbols are tired very closely with the mythology of different ancient cultures: Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek just to name a few.

They will be listed according the Babylonian New Year, which began in March-April

Aries ♈️ _ Babylon_ Agrarian worker -> ram due to association with Dumuzid, god shepherds & agriculture, 1st husband of Inanna, -> Canaanite = Adon -> Greek Adonis

Dumuzid spends half the year in the underworld and the other half above with his wife -> his yearly death brings hot dry summers

Egypt_ Amun-Ra = ram, fertility, creativity; Greek _ the ram who saved innocent children; Chinese _ cattle sacrifice, harvest

Bringer of plenty, self-sacrificing, adaptive to changing situations

Taurus ♉️ _ bull, related to “Seven Maidens”; spring equinox;

Heavenly Bull_ Sumerian-Inanna (divine wrath) & Egypt (sacrifice for sake of spring)

if provoked frightening

Gemini ♊️ _ the twins,

Babylon- minor gods guarding doorways or specifically Underworld or representations of major god Nergal, plague and pestilence & King of Underworld (warlike but necessary for protection of the peace)

opposing traits (peace & war, life & death) working in conjunction

Cancer ♋️ _ Greek-Hera’s crab, Egypt-Scarab (immortality/rebirth -Sirius), Babylon- snapping turtle (death, passage to underworld) + Enki,

initiate summer solstice

basically will justifiably bite a bitch; literally what turtle does to get rid of Nergal and summer; shell protects inner soft bits

Leo ♌️ _ lion, Egypt-Sekhmet or Sumer’s Inana

- protection, regality, Sun

- fierce hunter, passion, aggressive

Virgo ♍️ _ female (maiden or mother)

Demeter &numerous Greek maidens

Egypt = beginning of harvest

Babylon-Shala war of grain

Libra ♎️ _ Greek- Scales (Themis-justice); Babylon-claws of scorpion & the balance/ scales (Shamash- Sun, truth, justice)

Scorpio ♏️ _ Babylon = the Scorpion with Libra as its claws = scary guardians, serve higher beings

Sagittarius ♐️ _ centaur firing a bow & arrow

Babylon_ Nergal the chimera-centaur; Sumerian _ Pabilsag, elder/Chief & warrior/hunter; Greek _ centaur or satyr

The cunning intelligence of man and wild instinct of animal

Goal oriented, fierce

Capricorn ♑️ _ sea goat, Babylon- Enki = water+earth, fertility, hope

- stability, creativity

- high expectations, ambitions, standards

- sensitive and emotional;

- wary and kind(nurture in others/ survival)

Aquarius ♒️ _ water carrier, Babylon-Ea or Sumerian-Enki,

flood of water- positive or negative depending on region

Pisces ♓️ _ Greek - 2 fish, Babylon - 2 constellations: “the great swallow”(dove?) & “the lady of heaven” (Inanna?), Egypt - great fish who saved Isis

plentiful bounty _ the sun, wisdom, helpful

I hope this guides you on your journey of introspection, both of yourself and those around you. 🌌 🔮

If you want to find you’re birth chart, use the following site:

[rainmidnight]

i love you icarus symbolism in music. i love you babylon symbolism in music. i love you mythology and history symbolism in music.

[haldora]

20 questions for fic writers

Got tagged by @inkpot-demigod! Took me a while to get around to it, but it was fun to fill this out, even if I'm not much of a writer anymore.

how many works do you have on Ao3? 13

2. what’s your total Ao3 word count? 122,503

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Most of my fics are Babylon 5, but the latest fandom I wrote more than one fic for was Pathologic.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

Despite most of my work being for B5, my top 5 fics are mostly for other fandoms, probably because of differences in overall fandom size. 1. Postprandial (Gotham) My sole fic for the fandom and probably the most indulgent thing I've ever written. I'm gonna be real here and say that I have a conflicted relationship with this fandom because I, uh... do not like the show and have little to no interest in DC media otherwise, but it was one of those things where a certain ship grabs me by the balls heart and pulls me into a deeply cringe obsession. But being cringe is the only way to make art, especially the kind of intensely gratuitous, unselfconscious, and joyful art that this turned out to be, and I'm still very fond of this fic and happy with the reception it got. It's my most popular work by far despite being a niche kink, which has contributed to me feeling a lot less self-conscious about my interests in general. 2. Shadowshow (Pathologic) A compilation of fics written for the Pathologic Kink Meme featuring a bunch of different characters and ideas. While I have no way of knowing which fic most of the kudos are in response to, I have a feeling that the fic with the most broad appeal is probably the Burakhovsky sex pollen twyre fic, which was a lot of fun to write. With porn tropes like this, I have a lot of trouble keeping a straight face, so I tried to lean into the silliness while keeping things broadly in character and I still like the result. It ended on a sequel hook, too, which I'm still surprised that nobody on the kink meme grabbed to follow up on. I'm generally very fond of these fics because they're symbolic of a really fun time in my life and the best fandom community I've ever participated in. <3 Patho Blocklist alumni 2020 represent 3. Suffer Your Excess (B5) This was the first B5 fic I'd ever posted and my first serious attempt at fanfiction in a long time. I still have a lot of nostalgia attachment to it and I see why people like it, but ultimately I think I explored similar themes a lot better in subsequent fics. But this was still vital practice in getting my bearings in a new fandom. 4. A Golden Autumn (Pathologic)

Ah, my tragically incomplete Burakhovsky longfic that I still have all outlined and plotted out and just never continued. I always have lots of ideas for long multichapter fics, but almost never allow myself to start them because I almost always burn out or get distracted by other things and then it haunts me for the rest of my life. Maybe one day I'll continue it, but I've come around to feeling like it was a product of the early Patho fandom and a lot of the themes and ideas in it have since been thoroughly explored by much better writers than me, which puts a damper on my enthusiasm, alas.

5. Every Shining Thing (B5)

Always happy to see this one breaking the top 5 because although it's one of my older fics, it still holds up for me. The fandom being as small as it is means that I can keep up with the tag pretty easily and while there's amazing stuff still happening, I can't say I've seen another fic with similar themes crop up in the fandom and while I of course would love to see other people exploring these ideas, it's kinda cool to be the person who wrote the definitive fic on this topic. When I'm feeling down on myself and wondering whether I'll ever manage to write substantively again, this is one of the fics I look to to remind myself of what I'm capable of.

5. do you respond to comments?

Yes! I love getting comments and try to respond to all of them.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I tend not to go for unambiguously happy or sad endings. I prefer something more bittersweet. A speck of light in the darkness or a note of unease in an otherwise harmonious resolution. But I think Open Wound, a Londo centered character study during one of the darkest periods in canon, has a pretty bleak ending.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

False Dawn, probably. A Londo/G'Kar fic that takes place in a happier fix-it AU. The closest I ever get to writing fluff. An objectively low stakes material problem with somewhat higher emotional stakes that ends on a pretty feel-good high note.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Never directly on my fics, thankfully, but I've been sent a few death threats and attempts at suicide-baiting for writing some of the things I do and supporting others who do so. I take it as a point of pride. <3

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes. Most of my work has some erotic undertone even if it's not explicitly sexual. I'm open to a lot of things and while I do have very strong interests in certain kinks, what I'm drawn to when writing tends to be more related to a certain character dynamic and the unique possibilities it offers. So basically, I write the smut I think is the most IC for whatever characters I'm writing and whatever serves as the best vehicle for the ideas I'm trying to get across. Which isn't a very interesting answer, but it's true.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

No. I prefer really diving into the specificities of a certain world and trying to deepen and intensify the ideas that are already there rather than trying to combine it with other things to make new ones. If I ever get to thinking that elements from different canons would be really interesting to see combined, that usually ends up as a launchpad for original worldbuilding rather than contemplating crossover possibilities.

11. has any of your work been stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I've had a few of my B5 fics translated into Russian by some wonderful folks and posted on FicBook! I always love going there and google translating all the comments. <3

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not really? I used to do a lot of RP, which is a similar activity, but not quite the same thing. I guess the closest I've come is some collaborative kink meme stuff where different writers build on each other's work. One of the fics in my Shadowshow Patho compilation is a kink meme fill that's framed as a sequel to a fill that someone else had written (and I'm still super flattered they liked it <3).

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Man, I have a new one like every month. Judging by my fic output, though, I think Londo/G'Kar (B5) is still my ultimate OTP. Love that toxic old man xeno.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

See Question 4 :c Aside from that, I've got a couple half-finished Patho kink meme fills I'd been working on that just never got done and they sit in a folder on my computer taunting me.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Voice. Character voice is often what makes or breaks a fic for me and it's a skill I consider especially vital for fanfic specifically. I care a lot about it and, according to the comments I get, it pays off. Character dialogue is where most of the action happens in my stories and it's something I put a lot of effort into, both in the sense of 'would they say this?' and 'how would they say it?'

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing :)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Is there controversy about this? If you're writing a multi-lingual character who speaks multiple languages in canon, then part of writing them IC is going to be replicating that, so yeah, break out your dictionaries and put out calls for fluent beta-readers. AO3 actually has some great tools for implementing this. I used hover-text for translations when doing some conlanging for a B5 fic and it worked really well.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Ooh, tough question. I started writing Sailor Moon fanfiction in paper notebooks in elementary school way back in dinosaur times. Never posted any of it, though.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Ahh, this is hard! I'm gonna be a shameless shill and mention the favourites I think are underappreciated, both B5.

First is The Sayonese Affair, which is the longest fic I've ever completed and am still very pleased with. It's a post-canon fix-it AU political comedy-of-manners. Porn with plot. If you can stomach the tags, I'd highly recommend it.

Next is Accidents of Gesture, a lengthier one-shot that stands as the fic that gets to the heart of what I love about this canon and this ship. It's got some painful conversations, some hurt/comfort, and musings on the nature of forgiveness. I tag... @ibenholt, @emblazonet, @wescravings, @strangestquiet, @gloriousmonsters and whoever else wants to do this!