#I love drawing them as religious paintings you have no idea

[tapeworm-loser]

|For I have betrayed innocent blood|

[ididdedurmom]

More evil head cannons

I have silly ideas about the gang after the event of the story, everyone lives, except Bob

PONY:

Has a thousand yard stare when he zones out

Has the loudest, most disgusting, mucus filled cough ever

Actually really good at drawing

Has drawn every member of the gang at least twice

Loves physical touch, he leans on his friends when their sitting next to him.

Actually screams during horror movies, like loud genuine screams

Loves play fighting with Darry, like full on wrestling

Steve taught him how to drive

He either walks like a ghost or stomps, there is no in between

He can play one song on the guitar, and that’s it

His legs are super strong, so his kicks hurt really bad

He would be better at track, but his smoking habits hold him back

He feels jealous of Soda and Darry because they had more time with their parents

He and Darry have matching reading glasses

SODA:

He says “I’m just a girl” anytime he gets in trouble

He has used his pretty privilege to get out of being arrested multiple times

Despite how handsome he knows he is, he still feels super insecure about his looks

He steals from the DX station constantly

He and Steve spend hours gossiping about their customers once both of their shifts are over

A dog bit him when he was a kid, now he’s deathly afraid of them

He loves physical affection, hugging him is the best way to cheer him up

Absolute candy addict

Candy is the #1 item he steals from the DX

He broke his dominant hand once, and now his handwriting is permanently ruined

He reads insanely slow and monotone when he reads out loud

He either sleeps like a rock, or wakes up from the slightest sound, there is no in between

He lives in his flannel, that thing hasn’t been washed in literal years

He suffers from middle child syndrome, he knows his brothers love him, but they don’t pay enough attention to him

DARRY:

He hates his jobs, he knows he has to go but he can’t stand them

All of his coworkers are old and they treat him like a child (which he’s kind of okay with in a way)

He loves watching cartoons but he feels like he’d be wasting his time

He sneezes like a dad

He wakes up at 4 am and works out immediately

Loves compliments and words of affection

Doing favors is his love language

He has the whitest legs ever, he’s all tan on the top and snow white on the bottom

His tan ends where his pants start

Small bits of his hair are grey, he doesn’t know

He has a fear of abandonment

He is insanely flexible for a man of his size, like he can touch the floor standing up with ease

He hit a dog with his car once and cried for 2 hours straight

He loves cuddling on the couch with his brothers, it helps him relax

He despises Curly Shepard, he’s civil with Tim, but he HATES Curly

When he comes home from his ski trips with his old friends, he actually looks his age

A woman once assumed he was Pony’s father, and it made him die inside a little

He can’t stand Mother and Fathers Day

He was mad at Steve when he found out he taught Pony how to drive

TWO-BIT:

He and Dally bond by harassing women

He has a box full of things he’s stolen

His slight alcoholism stems from his father

He let’s his sister paint his nails, and he shows them off proudly

He gets his nails painted before rumbles

He watches soap operas with his mother every night

He can play the trumpet

He has never purchased a pack of cigarettes, only stolen

He listens to metal

When he passes Johnny’s house, he has to actively stop himself from walking in and beating Johnny’s parents half to death, especially his father

Its not that he doesn’t want a job, I mean he doesn’t, it’s that he thinks he’d only mess up whenever they had him do

He constantly forgets to brush his teeth

Pop and beer are the only things he drinks, he doesn’t touch water

He religiously wears Mickey Mouse merch, you will never catch him in a plain shirt

Baby Pony and him got along really well, he was kinda like Pony’s goofy cousin

Two-Bit and Darry have been friends since they were little kids

Two has no plans for his future, and it weighs on him

He broke both of his elbows once

His teachers have kinda given up on him, they just treat him like a bother instead of a student

STEVE:

He messes up Pony’s hair every chance he gets

He uses the most hair grease out of everyone

He has had the same comb for 3 years

He constantly smells like oil

The underside of his nails are always black, no matter how much he washes his hands

He and Soda have matching scars from a shared failed attempt to climb a barb wired fence

He is terrified of the police

He and Soda make your mom jokes at each other, despite neither of them having mothers

His voice is scarily deep when he wakes up

He and Two-Bit have an inside joke no one in the gang understands

He, Soda, and Two-Bit all have matching stick and poke tattoos

He hates his father, and by extension the fathers of Johnny and Two-Bit

He and Dally don’t hang out much, but when they do they are absolute menaces

Dally and him steal cars and hub caps together

He is genuinely upset by the size of his nose

JOHNNY:

He’s dyslexic

His handwriting is atrocious

His best subject is math

He and the gang all picked out stickers to put on his crutches

He loves sleeping around his friends

His hands are rough

He can’t stand the smell of beer, unless it’s one of the gang

He and Curly hate each other for literally no reason

Pony has slowly been teaching him to read better

No matter how much grease he puts in his hair, it won’t stay back

He hates going out in public because people always look at him funny

He hates looking at his burn scars

He, Dally, and Ponyboy watch sunsets together

He either sleeps at the Cutis’s house, Two-Bit’s house, Steve’s (very rarely), or Dallas’s place.

He’s not allowed to sleep in the lot anymore

He has tons of freckles, you just can’t see them against his skin

He loves sleeping outside when he wants to

He never wants children, he’s to scared he’ll become his father

His pain tolerance is so high that sometimes he won’t even notice when he gets injured

He likes how defensive Dallas is of him, makes him feel confident

He smokes marijuana with Dally sometimes, he’s super anxious when they do though because he doesn’t want to get arrested

DALLY:

He will not talk about his feelings

The cops forced him to go to therapy, it didn’t fix anything

He is amazing at lying

The police know him by name

He hasn’t told the gang much about the past other than where he came from and that he doesn’t talk to his folks

Darry nicknamed him “Rat”

He actually feels bad when Darry yells at him

He gets sun burns very quickly

He has his own personal stench

He doesn’t want Johnny to end up like him

He cried for 3 hours straight when he found out Johnny was still alive, it is his most embarrassing moment

He chugs drinks insanely fast

He can’t read very well

He needs glasses but he thinks he’d look like a wimp if he had any

Even though he knows he could have an asthma attack from coughing to hard, he still doesn’t carry his inhaler

He was happy when he thought he was going to die

Then he woke up and had an epiphany about life, it didn’t do to much, but now he knows death isn’t the only option

He proudly shows off the burn marks on his arm

He loves pushing Johnny around in his wheelchair

He listens to outlaw music and Frank Sinatra

He loves horror movies

He toned down his bad behavior once he got out of the hospital, he’s still a dick though

That’s it or whatever. I hope you like them, I’m sorry if some of them don’t make sense. I’m just so silly. I apologize for my horrible grammar lol. Feel free to tell me some of your head cannons!! :D

[channelinglament]

I LOVED your SAHSR thoughts so please hear me out.

I actually doubt that HSR will understand what God means, like, they're in space and modern tech and with all the things they have encountered, I just feel that they have never understood "God" like in SAGAU. The only being that closer to a "divine being" being is aeon.

So my brainrot is, the player as aeon, who's just mindlessly flying across the Herta's Space Station that currently being invaded and taken interested in MC (who's literally stellaron) and favored them.

HSR characters are aware, that something powerful is actively watching and taking care of them. They are wary because aeons are areas they know very little about and have no control over.

But, who could resist the constant warmth and kindness of this peculiar aeon, plus, this aeon seems having no bad intention. Just some harmless mischief (scaring a cleaning service; those trash bing thingy; destroying property for some cash; etc)

Sorry if there any grammar mistakes. English is not my first language.

THIS ^

THIS IS AMAZING

TW:some religious themes, yandere

I agree, they indeed would think you're an aeon.

Some sort of highest of aeons.

AND THE MISCHIEF PART IS SO TRUE

They wouldn't understand why are you so different from all the aeons, but you don't cause trouble, and seem to actually care for them, make then stronger.. You really aren't that bad. And just like that, after their observation on you, their obsession began!

Considering what destruction everything else causes, you're the safest one, so some of them might even worship you. Admire you while being obssesses with divine aeon. Y-You even saved Belobog! And Herta's station.. They really should thank you, but how? Maybe offerings will do...?

Oh, some would be obsessive about you! Everything you do is absolute perfection! How could they not love you? Would keep a journal and take pictures/draw/paint you.

Some would be protective, you always look after them and their backs, so they are doing the same for you. "Just like in some romance book!" They say.

Others would be possessive (obv). They don't wanna share you with anyone. You're too special. They're the only ones who deserve you/ They may not deserve you but no one else is, so they'll try to isolate you. They want to keep you to themselves, you're to good for everyone and anyone else anyways.

Some are Manipulative and Cunning. This being paired with what I stated above is not a great idea. Thankfully, not everyone is like that.

Others are Clingy and Delusional. Would not recommend, as, if their delusion would shatter...the result would be..messy. you'll be alright tho. But everyone else won't.

Some would definitely share with each other and work together. Use their strong traits and cover the weak ones of others (and vice versa).

Running away? Kinda impossible, you're in space..

BUT

Hear me out, if in sagau we are sometimes ACTUALLY a God with gold blood

What if we are actually an aeon?

(We can talk and speculate about it more, I'm really interested about you're thoughts hehe. Everyone is so cool ><. Imagine being in both, SAHSR and SAGAU universe, both sides loving you, worshiping you and pursuing you. Oh it won't end well, and if it will, it won't be for you-)

[aahsoka]

one thing i think is very funny about severance is them redoing famous paintings to fit into their whole founder cult thing.

like them stealing the pose from “Wanderer Above a Sea Of Mist” . Also Irving and the O&D guy having an almost…… obvious reaction to the ‘sublime’ (as in they found it beautiful but terrifying) which was a big theme of Caspar David Friedrich’s art and especiqlly evident in this piece. but also it is unlike Friedrich’s work because it turns his rükenfigur (a figure facing away from the viewer which is also a recurring theme in his works) into a figure that Does indeed look back at you.

German Romanticism was also very focused on finding God in nature (it was a kind of attempt at reigniting christian religious fervor) so its apt to include it in the way that Lumon’s whole deal seems to draw very heavily from christianity.

No idea if the background is taken from somewhere else (they look like the great lakes to me?) I just really love Caspar David Friedrich.

also the mussolini facade vs that big relief sculpture. maybe theres a better analogue but this was my first thought.

anyways I think its fun in the way that the symbolism is kinda heavy handed lol. Or maybe I only feel that way as an art history student idk. But I do enjoy when a show can give me a little of that kind of reference …… IF they do it well.

also disclaimer: I am only on season 1 episode episode 5 as of this post! Please do not discuss beyond that episode with me until I catch up thanks <3

[pixeltwix]

Ciphertology 📻 The Patriarch

Welcome one and all to ‘Ciphertology, the second ‘tri’ (which is essentially Silas Birchtrees biggest kiss ass, Dale Dixon, taking over the cult after the fall of the cult in the 50s)

This technically isn’t relevant and is mainly just me rambling on my own interpretation of Ciphertology after the fall :P briefly

I’ve always been fascinated by cults and enjoy studying them extensively. Growing up in a religious based one myself before my family left it when I was young I gotta say- it makes it that more intriguing to dive into fictional based ones

A lot of my base stuff for ✨Ciphertology, the second ‘tri’✨ I take from a handful of cults I’ve studied, but the biggest one I model it off of in terms of religious based domineering patriarchy’s has been the FLDS cult (ifykyk)

Naturally the new leader, Emma May’s father, fits into the staple mold of this in his efforts to become ‘half the man Silas was’

I think I honestly refuse to ever draw Emma May’s father’s face directly because he as a force feels far more intimidating as just?? A giant painted eye on the back of a head-

Plus idk it feels correct narratively to only ever show this one facet of him when it would be the main thing Em would remember of her father/and just him looking like in general

Also hi I needed an excuse to use this doodle again bc I just love this image?? I don’t often draw younger Em in the cult, but I’d like to do more backstory stuff in the future

Ironically enough even those most cult leaders take all of the things for themselves I actually don’t envision Dale Dixon to participate in everything Ciphertology ‘has to offer’ ie the multiple wives thing

Like he only keeps his one wife, but everyone else is free to have ‘as many wives as they want’

But when it comes to his children bro is quick to play favorites and put them in line wherever it makes the most sense in the community

Emma May unfortunately is not a favorite

But also hi?? Madeline Dixon as Dale Dixon’s younger sister is so real to me

I know I’ve already elaborated on this and the family a bit more in my ‘Emma May and Ciphertology’ post, but I sWEAR I wanna delve further into Madeline in the cult fr

Cause like..Lowkey lowkey I enjoy the idea of Dale running it as a puppet figure and Madeline being the one to truly be pulling the strings

Honestly this has been less me rambling on anything and important and more so a ‘yall this is all the stuff I wanna doodle and elaborate on in the future’ :3

As always thank you for reading if you’ve gotten this far in my nonsense!!

[ultrone]

I’m up late so here are some HC’s I have of the girlies

Nat:

- You get her one of those “back off, I love my gf” shirts as a joke, expecting her to never put it on and she wears it RELIGIOUSLY. She is so proud to wear that shit

- (If you’re lucky enough to have a positive male figure, a grandfather or father in your life) one time overhears Nat talking about her home life and now that male figure is determined to make her feel safe and happy. He’ll insist that you both join him for fishing and while you’re apprehensive, Nat is 100% down.

-She never has water or lunch because she forgets/chooses to not take care of herself so you drop it off to her at practice everyday

- She sleeps with a stuffed animal but will not let ANYONE know

Shauna:

- Early riser, even when sleeping w you but she will just happily lay next to you, holding your hand, admiring you while you sleep just taking you in for a few extra moments.

- she has a scrapbook of everything you guys have done (movie tickets, Polaroids, etc), and she also keeps all the flowers you’ve ever gotten her in there after they’ve dried and withered

- She loves stargazing, she knows astronomy and can and will point out the constellations to you

- Reading to or with each other is common and probably a love language, especially reading the other to sleep

Lottie:

- Surprisingly very good at all the fine arts; she can draw well, she definitely can play the piano bc her rich parents paid for her to have lessons, etc

- Blanket stealer; she insists on having the AC CRANKED at night, then steals the blankets while you both are sleeping and you wake up with hypothermia while she’s snuggled up in all your blankets

- She wasn’t allowed to have a pet so you buy her a single goldfish once and she loves it so much, she let you name it (you named it something stupid but she still calls it what you want) it dies in like 2 days because as intelligent as she is she is incapable of taking care of another living thing and she is inconsolable for days. You got her a succulent to make her feel better

Jackie:

- Clingy (derogatory) sure it’s cute of her at first until she’s waking up at 5 am for her morning practices and wakes you up too so you both can “brush your teeth together”

- She will always ask for your old marked up books to read and she makes small notes in the margins in a different color before giving them back (She has reading glasses too, and she looks gorgeous in them)

- She asks you to help her stretch, or roll out her muscles before practice but she doesn’t need help she just wants to get you flustered and have your hands all over her

I LOVE THEM 🤭

nat would wear that shirt 24/7 istg 😭 especially as her pjs, and omg i love the idea of your male parental figure inviting nat to everything as well 🥹 even if it’s just something simple like going out for brunch, it’d make her feel way better and more welcomed. and her forgetting to bring lunch everyday is SO REAL 😭 then she’ll prolly buy a bag of chips and a soda as her first meal of the day and then complain about having a stomach ache 🙄 GIRL… also for sure, i bet her plushy is a little white bunny with long ears that was given to her as a toddler.

shauna has always given me the vibe that she wakes up at 9am idk but yeah she’d def just lay there looking at you 😭😭 and the scrapbook thing is SO TRUE, i bet she also adds entries of everything you do together 🫣 since she loves stargazing you got her one of those custom star maps of your anniversary day and she LOVED IT 🥹 and she for sure loves reading to you and hearing you read her favourite books to her

i def see lottie being good at drawing and playing the piano 😌 i also bet she’s especially good at painting landscapes and stuff like that. whenever u complain about her taking the blankets, she’ll just tell you to snuggle up to her to get warmer instead of actually sharing her blanket with you 🙄🙄 but if you’re the one stealing the blankets she’ll pout and whine for hours until you share them with her… the AUDACITY 😒 my girl came back from school on a random day and realized the goldfish wasn’t there anymore, she got concerned and asked the domestic helper what had happened, and she told her that the fish died like two weeks ago ☠️☠️ when i tell u lottie was SHOCKED… she was so embarrassed that she told you that it got a weird disease and died from natural causes LMFAOO

jackie waking you up so you can brush your teeth together is so real 😭😭 my girl doesn’t get the concept of having “alone time.” i just know it takes jackie an hour to read 3 pages, i bet she spends half of that time drawing silly little doodles all over the margins ☠️ and for sure, she also asks u to rub sunscreen on her body even though she could do it herself, she just wants to feel your touch 🫣

[dicediceking]

DICE!!! GIVE ME MORE PAINTBRUSH MOM!! (Makeupbrush)/ PAST AU LORE

AND MY LIFE!! IS YOURS!!

/hj /nf i love ur art sm dhaixjakwk

Oh Makeupbrush, you awful woman that I love (and hate)

Here are some drawings of her, both human and object. And one of the siblings. I love my past au and nothing will stop me from making content of it!

Anyway, lore undercut. It gets angsty

I'm gonna summarize (yes this is the story summarize lol)

Makeupbrush (Persephone in human) met Paint Can (Pierre) at work. He was her boss. She loved him for the security and money he provided. But he started to realize he didn't feel the same and wanted to leave her. She couldn't have that and essentially baby trapped him (she got pregnant on purpose so he couldn't leave)

They got married and had Paintbrush (who in human was named after their mother, but goes by Percy). MB quit her job to raise her child. 6 years later had Paint Palette (named after his father)

Now, Paint Bucket had terrible anger issues that he would often take out on his wife and kids (verbally). But when Paintbrush was 14, he abandoned them. Then PB ran away at 17 and never looked back

Fun fact: in this au bfdi and ii are in the same universe. PB gets their fire ability from their mother, it skipped a generation, but she got it from her family. Somewhere down the line she and PB are related to Match from bfdi (or it was Firey but I don't remember lol)

Makeupbrush tried to understand Paintbrush but she couldn't. She grew up in a toxic religious family, and their beliefs had been drilled into her since day 1. And she did the same to her kids. She was a "It's just a phase" kinda mom.

Paintbrush didn't try to come out to their family until they were older, so their father has no idea and never will. They don't know what his reaction would've been.

Paint Palette was supportive though

Okay anyway,

Painty's backstory is inspired by a few different backstories. First off, they take a little inspiration from Bea from NITW, not too much tho. There's Grace from Infinity Train. And finally the song Our Word from 36 Questions

[rainpelt25]

Okay so what if I told you I did a really silly thing and made a Star Trek tos medival fantasy AU.......

More info under the cut smirk

OKAY SOOOO 😍 basically I had this image of kirk in a suit of armor but that kind of half armor where the other half is a dress and thag kinda spawned everything else

The AU doesn't exactly stick to the typical medival fantasy world, I had an idea about vulcan/elves and humans not coexisting very well. And vulcans can do the typical magic spells so humans have to make manmade magic (ie. That big thing on scottys back and all of mcoy and chapels potions)

ANZYWAY here are some facts about them in the order they are presenteddd bc ik it's kind of a random set to start with lol I'll post more later

Kirk-

A knight from a kingdom (starfleet) that worships stars (?) Hes a captain and got separated from his troops. He looks a little grumpy in the image hes very sweet very himbo I was just concentrating on his outfit drawing that so I didn't think of the pose lol. Also! The way I og imagined him was with those two painted on dots, it could be a religious thing from the kingdom or something idk but I just rlly wanted them to stick so yeah!!

Scotty-

A blacksmith and all around inventor!! He specializes in man made magic, something very powerful and dangerous in the wrong hands but he just finds it useful to power his machines while he's on the go :) so of course he just pretty much PERFECTS IT IMMEDIETLY because he's scotty!! This probably got him attention from the wrong crowd and his moving from place to place life style becomes more of a on-the-run thing. Oops!

Mccoy-

OK I KNOW THIS IS A LITTLE WIERD IN A FANTASY but this was around the time I was leaning more medival than fantasy (because I love history) and was thinking- what did medival doctors do? Medival times was kind of the plague era.....riiiiighhttt..?? Anywaayy there's some magical plague going around in the background probably more near where Chapel and Mccoy are from. He travels the lands in search for people to help! He specializes in potions- thought not his favorite medicine but the only thing that can combat the sickness. He's just a very tired old man that wants to help people <3

Chapel-

OK SO UM THIS ONES VERY MEDIVAL BUT WHATEVER WERE ALREADY DOING IT!! Chapel lived in the same area as Mccoy, living as a nun (secrets out I don't care about history I just love nuns) Among the many nun things her favorite was helping the local doctor out as a nurse. She grew very knowledgeable about medicine, and with her previous knowledge of magic as a nun they both came up with a (sort of) cure to the plague. But oops! Blasfamy! As the church decided the plague was actually an act of God! So with the help from the doctor they both ran away, searching for people that needed (more like wanted) their help!

It's a little wierd but I hope atleast somone found this intresting!! It's all I could think about for days lol😭 if anyone wants to talk about it or just their own ST AUs I would be SO open for that PLS

[t34-mt]

maanul colony, a rough idea of how the build against the cliff parts looks like, the rest of the village is on top of the cliff. These are flexible plant fiber that creates platforms/structures, and there are also tunnel systems. also, black sand! More text and information under ->

this is a western colony (maak'thao), other colonies have that same similar structure but have regional differences in architecture/ the way of making certain things. This is just one side, id imagines it expanding widely on the side cliffs. Maybe kilometers long for the largest colony of each wind? (west, north, south, and East all have a "main colony" which is just the biggest of the region. Cardinal directions are called "the 4 winds" for maanuls.)

while a portion is on the side of the cliff, build against roots or just on the top of the cliffs as regular houses, a part of the structures is hidden. And is directly carved into the rock, as tunnel systems to access some specific parts easier. Carved storage rooms, small gathering places, rooms for religious practices like wall painting, and so on. this is roughly how the tunnel stuff would look like ->

id also imagine some tunnels being decorated with shells, sadly the examples I found are not the exact color I imagined because i think they would pick stupidly colorful ones since they are very fond of shiny things with color(like a magpie!). And once they start losing their color for x reason they would repaint the shells. A main tunnel leading to an important place would be highly decorated, while smaller narrow tunnels would have just a little bit of shells on the sides if none.

now with specific details id like to point out from the bottom part!

First, the statues (in yellow). The statues are placed all around in front of the habitations, they are deeply set in-ground and are lightly carved in, enough to tell a specific shape but still retain a square figure. here's a closer look at them, with additional text!

Now onto the roots (red) and the bottom platforms (white), these root-like structures are actually a sort of tree that grows down to the cliffs, not every colony has that these are mostly found in west and south. Colonies that don't have these growing around will have bottom platforms made out of wood and will be raised up from the sand floor.

The bottom platforms here are also made out of somewhat flexible but strong plant fiber. These large platforms are not made to live but more for some community gatherings. like for example teaching young ones about sea navigation! Down there is used to store some fishing equipment and boats. And when I say boats you should think of canoe-like ones, used for fishing.

And last is that large fish-net decoration in blue, that thing is used to attach many things, like sand down glass pieces that with the light give a fun colorful reflection effect around. But that fishnet thing can also be used to mourn. By that, I mean in the West if they lost a loved one to the ocean they can take a personal shiny belonging and attach it there. So they will always be remembered by everyone even if they didn't have a body and couldn't do the usual way of mourning.

now for the middle section, starting with these "flags"

the enormous "flag", takes decades to make and are a thing you find in each "main colony" of the 4 winds, the immense rope will harbor at least 3 of those and the things represented in it can sometimes be related to a local folkloric tale, symbolic drawings that each bring a good thing to the colony. Like for example one drawing of fish and waves to bring good luck to fishermen! these are much more like tapestries than flags.

extra images about the nest-like structures, id think of them being made out of leather, various plant fiber, and a bit of wood for support.

and a bit about the top layer, which extends much more but on this drawing you only see the beginning of it.

now with the high tide, there it does not get high enough to swim but still enough to take off to the sea with a canoe, id say it arrives at waist level for an adult maanul. Not every village/large colony have the tide flooding around like this, sometimes it might stops where the statues are placed. since altuyur has 2 moons (maanuls and kyhuines say 3 moons but in really the third, or also called "the infant" is an asteroid caught in the first moon, also called "night mother") i was thinking it would affect the tide cycle tho im not sure yet how it does that since im not that good at astrology.

thank you for reading!

[revlyncox]

The Art of Spirituality (2025)

Creative arts and spiritual practices have a lot in common, and we need both to cultivate connection, resilience, and courage for the difficult times in which we find ourselves. This sermon was delivered to The Unitarian Society in East Brunswick on February 9, 2025, by Rev. Lyn Cox. A recording is available.

 

I have this habit of bursting into song at unexpected moments.  Sometimes it’s disconcerting to people around me.  Usually I’m able to contain it as humming when I’m out in public or in polite company.  When I’m around people with whom I’ve become comfortable, though, they’ll ask me how I am and I’ll say [starts singing], “When tyrants tremble as they hear the bells of freedom ringing.” 

I don’t think I have a great singing voice.   It’s just that the world makes more sense to me when it’s framed musically.

When I had been away from organized religion for awhile and I knew I needed more community in my life, one of the things I missed the most was shared music.  I missed singing in a congregation.  I missed the common language of a hymnal.  I missed hearing children learn mythic stories by singing in the children’s choir.  I wanted to think about big questions like life and death and the Divine, and I needed music to do that.  I took the risk of exploring a religious community because of that.  And because the Unitarian Universalist congregation I found was using music in worship, I could stay. 

Spirituality is an adventure for our whole selves, all the aspects of our being.  We go through our day-to-day lives solving problems and creating things with words, with actions, with space, with sounds, with emotions.  We wrestle with moral and religious questions in every one of these arenas.  Art and spirituality depend on each other so that we can engage with moral and religious questions anywhere and anytime we meet them. 

The arts have helped me engage with religious questions.  I’ve drawn some conclusions about spirituality based on my experience with different kinds of arts.  Spirituality is deeper than words. Spirituality grounds us in relationship. Spirituality moves us toward ethical action.

Deeper Than Words

Spirituality and art both invite us to dwell more deeply in our minds, hearts, and environments. Both spirituality and art can help us to let go of quick answers or surface-level noise. They may even help us to become more comfortable with silence, or to be open to the still, small voice within. To be clear, I love words. Words are very useful to me. On the other hand, every asset has its shadow side. I am really great at generating words when there is something I would rather not let myself feel. But even I sometimes can’t come up with words when I’m overwhelmed by events. Art and spirituality can help us to dwell in the place of no-easy-answers.

I used to work for an art museum affiliated with a university. I coordinated educational programs, managed volunteers, and talked with teachers about integrating museum tours and images from our collections into their curriculum. From abstract outdoor sculpture to Renaissance European paintings of saints to carved reliefs of the Buddha from India, our goal was less about conveying information than getting visitors of all ages to engage with the art, bringing their own questions and ideas. We wanted visitors to be fully present, to bring their whole selves to the encounter.

The Curator for Education taught us about the work of Philip Yenawine and Abigail Housen. Yenawine and Housen conducted research about how people engaging with visual art make meaning, and how to help people grow in their capacity to engage with art. Based on their work, the docents in their tours and I in our educational brochures posed three questions: What’s going on here? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can we find? Visitors were encouraged to trust their own experience of the art and to draw from that experience in a discussion. Information and context is useful at some point, but it does not help anyone to use that information as a barrier to prevent someone from having their own experience with the art.

The university museum’s collection included outdoor sculpture all over the campus. Some of my favorites were large, abstract pieces. I could approach them and wonder what was going on in that sculpture and pay attention to the experience rather than what I thought someone else wanted me to think about it. I could notice the strong visual lines in one sculpture having a conversation with the tall trees around it. I could notice the way the sunlight and shadows in a courtyard fell on a sculpture, adding to the drama of a piece. The question, “what more can we find,” kept my attention on the art for a little longer, helping me settle into quiet engagement with meaning.

Similarly, spirituality invites us to a place that is deeper than words. Sometimes this is serene and blissful, sometimes it’s just sitting with things that are difficult. When we face the most difficult transitions in our lives, sometimes there is nothing we can say, no way to explain or to bargain. These are the times when we need a spirituality beyond words. In her book, Glory Hallelujah!  Now Please Pick Up Your Socks, UU writer Jane Ellen Mauldin talks about such an experience. She writes:

A number of years ago, my brother lay dying in the hospital. He spent days in the intensive care unit while members of my family, including my mother, sat for many long hours on chairs in the hallway outside his room. Among visitors who came to share the vigil was a member of our church.

“How are you doing?” the friend asked.

My mother was too exhausted to tell anything but the truth. “I’m tired,” she said. “I’m very, very tired. I’m too tired to even pray anymore.”

“But don’t you see,” her friend replied, “your very presence here is a prayer.”

There are times when all words fail us, all forms seem hollow, and no one out there or inside seems to be listening. At those times, our presence, just our presence, is prayer. Our bodies, our actions, become our prayer, our connection to God, whatever God may be.

So ends the reading.  Mauldin alludes to the reason why it’s useful to have worship that uses arts not limited to words, and this is why it’s helpful to have an embodied spiritual practice.  When we come to a place when the only prayer left is our actions, it’s good to have practiced. In these times when the pace of evil seems designed to overwhelm us, being able to operate in a place that is beyond words gives us another avenue for resilience. Let’s be creative with our questions, our doubts, and our silence.

Grounding in Relationship

Something else that art and spirituality do is to ground us in relationship. The relationship may be with others around us, with history, with other practitioners, with our own souls, or with the ground of our being. In this congregation, we have learned over and over again that our relationships are enhanced through music. We have been learning to sing together again in our recovery from the social distancing phase of the pandemic; and as we learn to sing, we find more joy and a greater sense of community. Choir members and song leaders lift our spirits and find a deeper sense of connection. Creating things with our hands, bodies, and voices increases our sense of collective power, and helps us to pay attention to each other in the here and now.

This might be what Lewis Latimer was getting at in some of his creative writing. In addition to being an inventor and a scientist, Lewis Latimer also wrote a play that got produced in his lifetime and he wrote poetry. Here’s one of his poems, “Love Is All”:

“What is there in this world, beside our loves,

To keep us here?

Ambition's course is paved with hopes deferred,

With doubt and fear.

Wealth brings no joy,

And brazen-throated fame

Leaves us at last

Nought but an empty name.

Oh soul, receive the truth,

E'er heaven sends thy recall:

Nought here deserves our thought but love,

For love is all.”

(“Love is All” by Lewis Latimer, p. 39 in the anthology Been in the Storm So Long, edited by Mark Morrison-Reed and Jacqui James)

Latimer suggests that our loves, plural, collectively form the strongest force that keeps us “here.” I can imagine several meanings to where “here” might be. It is not a fixed point. “Here” moves with life and time. Here is where we put one foot in front of the other. Here is the present moment, this time and place and plane of existence. Here we are, gathered in strength, rooted in the world as it is. Love keeps us grounded in relationship in the here and now. 

In these times, it is our relationships that will sustain us and give us the strength and purpose to go forward. In healthy relationships with each other and with the Spirit of Life, we will remember our values and we will remember what is true in history, even when warped and cruel misinformation is surrounding us. When we create, when we find the ground of our being in the present moment, when we find beauty together, we can overcome the trauma response that certain elements are trying to evoke as a way of undermining our power.

People need each other. For those of us who have marginalized identities, it is essential that we have place where we show up regularly, where people will miss us and follow up if we disappear. For those of us with relative privilege, it is essential that we pay attention to the people around us and follow up when someone is missing. Investing in relationships through art and spiritual practice is a form of resistance to tyranny. Love is all.

Moving Toward Ethical Action

A third thing about both spirituality and the arts is that they can move us toward ethical action. The Poor People’s Campaign understands this. They have a songbook for their movement, and they have special training for song leaders. The campaign is inclusive of people of many faiths and no faith, and they accomplish this by being multivocal, not by asking people of faith to hide their differences or their spiritual perspectives. Art, music, and spiritual practice help us to commit things to memory, to learn them by heart, and to let our hearts thus instructed to lead us toward right action. Spiritual practice and the arts share this quality of cutting through the illusions of systemic injustice and drawing out the power we have within.

The author Toni Morrison (of blessed memory), speaking in 2016 at the Stella Adler Institute of Acting, spoke about the role of the artist. She said:

I want to remind us all that art is dangerous. I want to remind you of the history of artists who have been murdered, slaughtered, imprisoned, chopped up, refused entrance. The history of art, whether it's in music or written or what have you, has always been bloody, because dictators and people in office and people who want to control and deceive know exactly the people who will disturb their plans. And those people are artists. They're the ones that tell the truth. And that is something that society has got to protect.

In our own time and context, book bans and curriculum purges and attacks on libraries are just the beginning of another wave of attacks on the arts. Just this week, we learned that the Kennedy Center is under threat. Art and artists need us. It is important that we support artists with our attention and kindness; that we purchase art and music created by real, live artists and not corporate-owned large language models; and that we use our own powers of creation to tell bold truths.

Just as engagement with the arts can prepare us to speak truth to power, so can spiritual practice. Yes, it’s also true that faith can be co-opted for imperialism, so we need to be accountable to each other and to the people who are most impacted by systemic oppression. That being said, throughout human history, spiritual practice has been one of the resources that strengthened people who were making change toward love and liberation. In recent weeks, we have seen the courage of the Right Reverend Mariann Budde, who drew directly from sacred text to urge the administration to practice mercy. For this, critics called her all kinds of names, and one legislator even suggested that she should be deported. The un-elected shadow President openly accused Church World Service and various Lutheran aid organizations of criminality. Even the Vice President, who calls himself a Catholic, characterized the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as helping refugees in order to pad their “bottom line,” and implied that helping refugees was illegal. Just like art, spirituality when practiced with integrity and compassion is dangerous.

If we are going to choose the path of integrity and compassion, which we are; if we are going to put love at the center of our Unitarian Universalist faith, which we are; if we are going to risk speaking the truth, which we are; we need practices that will keep us connected to our paths and to each other. We need ways of committing our values to mind and heart. We need to invoke the memory of our ancestors, and we need to commit to being the kind of ancestor that the people who come after us can be proud of. Practices of art and spirituality will give us courage.

Practices that help us to sustain ethical action come in a lot of different forms. Embodied or interactive practices have a lot to recommend them. Your practice might be hiking or baking or crocheting blankets; whatever it is, if it helps you connect with that which is larger than yourself and to tap into your human power to thrive and make change, go for it. Your practice might be meditation, prayer, dance, or chanting; something that reminds you of sacred text or spiritual lineage or your deepest values. Let’s lean into our practices to help us to speak the truth, do justice, and love kindness.

Conclusion

In the end, artistic practices and spiritual practices have a lot in common. Both can lead us to a place deeper than words, a place where we can sit with lamentation and pain and growth; a place for our doubts and questions; a place where silence can make room for what hasn’t yet emerged. Both art and spirituality can ground us in relationship as we create and engage together, as we connect with the transcendent and with the deepest truths we hold within. Both art and spirituality can move us to ethical action, giving us inspiration and courage to be our whole, authentic selves, even in times such as this.

May you find and sustain practices that are deep, connecting, and encouraging. May creativity nourish your path. May we align with the Love at our center and with the Spirit of Life in our habits of the heart.

So be it. Blessed be. Amen.

[retrowaving1]

I noticed people creating such descriptions on Tumblr, I assumed that I could do the same so that the people who visit my blog would be less confused about what they're seeing here. After all, I'm really open to communication, but it's probably better if you know what to expect from me:)

So, who the h am I?

> Obviously, Ohiko Amok is not my real name. I don't want to go by my real name on the internet unless it comes up in conversation with my mutuals.

> I'm a person of many professions: (1) personal tutor teaching adults with dyslexia, adhd, Asperger's etc.; to speak English (2) Marketing professional; (3) Graphic designer;

> I have lots of hobbies; I like cooking (I'll gladly exchange recipes with anyone interested in mine), I like painting and drawing (both digitally and traditionally), I do yoga, I like reading (and sometimes even writing) and I like learning about skin issues (lol, I even have a certificate that I finished a course teaching about acne and how to properly deal with it xd). I also play a number of very simple computer games and enjoy board games, but I wouldn't call myself an enthusiast of neither. What I do adore is music - I'm the only person in my family who haven't had any musical trainings in the past, but I do have a strong appreciation for music.

My taste in music is very vast and it'll be difficult to limit it to one genre or a group of artists, but I can easily name some of the most influential performers for me: Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, Dusty Springfield, Judy Garland, Fleetwood Mac, Czesław Niemen, Marek Grechuta, Magda Umer, Tori Amos, Volodymyr Ivasyuk, Okean Elzy, Skryabin, Shocking Blue..

I would love to bond over music with anyone with similar tastes <3

> I do not identify myself through pronouns, sexuality, belonging to a certain movement. I think all of those labels are secondary and often limit person to a certain degree. Biologically, I'm a woman. I'm bisexual, but I do not consider myself to be a part of LGBTQ community. I'm not religious. I'm not a feminist of any kind. I have my own strong ideas developed through the years living in a certain context, my own preferences and worldview, but I don't want to label them in any way, as it seems redundant.

> I come from Poland<3 Currently, I live in the Eastern Part of the country.

If at some point you might get confused by my posts' being inspired by both Polish and Ukrainian popular culture and historical background, it's because I was born in Ukraine (albeit in a Polish family) and feel a strong connection and love to both countries.

> Since I've started to post on Tumblr regularly, I very often get some horny messages (i'm talking about real people, not porn bots), so here's one bit of information which I feel obliged to add to my account description: I'm currently engaged and I'm not looking for any relationships aside from friendly ones!

> I don't reply to messages in russian

> I've recently created another blog called @retrowaving-vents to just write random stuff and repost meme I find funny. Welcome, if you are interested in some random stream of consciousness.

Cheers, if you've managed to read this whole post, I hope you'll enjoy the content I post on this account<3 Feel free to ask any questions that might come to your mind, I really like talking xd

[eros-thanatos89]

La Santa Muerte and the Salamanca Twins

I'm so obsessed with the way Marco and Leonel Salamanca are first introduced in Breaking Bad.

They are so mysterious and ominous. I had forgotten too, about how Lalo Salamanca's later attempted border crossing into the US after the attack on his Chihuahua hacienda mirrors the twins' crossing in the hay truck. Except, Lalo actually shows some mercy and spares all of the innocent people attempting to cross the border after killing the coyotes who were driving the truck, whereas the twins decimate everyone inside after one young man clocks them as cartel by the silver skull-tips of their boots. It's such a good, chilling moment when the young man shifts from proudly boasting about his car painting skills and how he did work for the cartel in Michoacan to suddenly recognizing what those cool boots he was just contemplating mean...you see the color drain from his face and he instantly goes rigid and quiet. And then, a few moments later, we hear pops of gunfire from inside the hay and no one is left standing but Marco and Leonel. They are cold, expressionless, and unbothered by the extraordinary violence. A very powerful introduction!

And I'm so obsessed with the scene when we first see them drive past a stream of pilgrims crawling on hands and knees through the desert, to then get out of their vehicle in their pristine, flashy suits, and join the pilgrims crawling to the altar of La Santa Muerte, where they leave a drawing of Heisenberg. Ostensibly, praying that La Muerte will take Walt in revenge for him causing their beloved cousin Tuco's death.

When I first saw it when the episode aired, I had never heard of La Santa Muerte, and I was so intrigued by the devotion of her pilgrims. These scary, suave cartel assassins. But also all of these poor farmers and ordinary folk who had clearly been crawling through the desert a long ways to pray to their saint.

So I consulted scholarly journal Wikipedia and then fell down a bit of a rabbit hole researching her. I love that she is a folk-Catholic figure who represents a blend of Catholic beliefs and older pre-Colombian indigenous Mexican beliefs. The Church doesn't recognize her, but Santa Muerte has gained a growing following in Mexico and the US. She is revered by the poor, the desperate, and yes, also by narco-traffickers; it seems anyone who lives on the edge of death feels drawn to her. In Mexico City, the concentration of her worship is in the neighborhood of Tepito, also known as Barrio Bravo; one of the poorest barrios (neighborhood) in CDMX.

I'll link some articles, so I won't go too deep into it. But I just love this idea of La Santa Muerte. I'm not religious myself, but I think if I were, I might be a devotee. I like how she blends imagery similar to the Virgin Mary with pre-Christian attitudes towards death as a natural part of the life cycle, and something to be revered and respected rather than feared or hated. La Santa Muerte seems to be a source of hope to her followers.

And I love the idea of Marco and Leonel as devotees. As cartel sicarios (assassins), they are constantly dancing on the edge of death. They could die at any moment. So it makes sense that they would appeal to her for protection. And also, that they would seek her aid in vanquishing their enemies, as we see them doing in this first seen, as they search out Heisenberg to enact their revenge.

I like to think that the twins are the most devout worshipers of La Muerte, but that maybe the other Salamanca cousins have a more casual relationship with her. I doubt that Hector would participate; he strikes me as the type of Catholic who was raised in the faith and nominally belongs to it, but doesn't actually believe and never attends Mass outside of the high holy days. He'd probably scoff at the twins' genuine faith. But I like to think that Lalo occasionally prays to her in the sort of "I don't really believe, but hey, why the hell not; it can't hurt, and who knows, maybe it'll help" kind of attitude. And maybe Tuco has a similar attitude to that? Maybe they'd wear her icon or have a prayer candle somewhere in the house, but not really do any acts of devotion? As cartel members, it just seems fitting for them to have at least some passive respect for La Santa Muerte, even if they aren't true believers in the same way that Marco and Leonel are.

I just like to consider who the Salamancas are outside of their roles in the cartel. Do they show up at Catholic mass ever? Regularly? What are their beliefs systems and values beyond "sangre por sangre" and "la familia es todo"?

I like that they are mysterious (so we fans can project onto them, haha) and I understand that the stories of BB/BCS were not centered on them, and narratively, they didn't need to be filled out more.

But I do think it's a shame that the Salamancas and the cartel members (outside of Gustavo Fring, of course) are the. only characters in the shows who are really just one-dimensional "bad guys". Tuco does have some complexity, as we see softer sides of him in some moments. And we know they all do genuinely love their family and are devoted to one another.

But I'd love to know a little more about them, as people. So the small glimpse into the twins' genuine faith in this renegade saint, and their willingness to join the pilgrims in crawling to her altar, was a very satisfying little glimpse into their worldviews and values.

I'll link some interesting articles that help get a quick intro into La Santa Muerte here:

Also, shameless plug for one of my older fan fics, but I wrote a bit about Lalo's relationship to La Santa Muerte in my fic Unholy Communion. It does feature smut (Lalo x Nacho), so heads up if that's not your thing. But if you want to give it a read, here it is:

Ok. Enough rambling, and now that I have shamelessly plugged my own writing in addition to rambling about this fascinating folk-Catholic saint and the Salamancas, I will show myself out...

[jadzio]

My costume submissions for pansear-doodles halloween contest!

@pansear-doodles made a contest some time ago and since its over now i wanted to post my submissions and talk a lil abt them

Artificer

This is a costume of arti as Artemis from Hades. I love goddess Artemis and i thought it fitted arti pretty well, as well as hunter tho i had a different idea for them. I wanted to experiment a bit with maybe just being inspired by the Hades version, with some sort of creature bone/skull mask/helmet, as well as adding a bit more flare. I love Hades god designs, but Artemis was always my least fave ngl. tho i wasn't able to experiment much and stuck around to the Hades version due to time and not having many good ideas.

Enot

Im so glad the Once-ler Enot got through and the other shown costume ideas i love em so much. I love joke characters, but i'm clearly isn't the best at designing them heh. This is gamer Enot with all the cringe gamer merch, dressed up as their computer having an LED gamer keyboard and mouse. Maybe now looking at it i should have added maybe some consol (tho they struck me as a religious pc gamer) or some LOL or other popular game merch to sell the gamer look. Maybe also add some doritos and mountain dew.

Gourmand and their pups (matching set)

I for the longest time could not decide, if i wanted to put gourm as dt asgore or ut asgore. Because it had to be asgore no questions asked, i mean look at the guy! I choose ut cause the way asgore is treated in dt just kill me internally. Also ut asgore family is much more functional. For the pups I wanted them to look like they’ve been face painted. Idk if chara and asriel really work for their personality, but i didnt really have any other idea with them. Also the one as asriel could’ve brought those like galaxy swords and some cool stuff from asriel dreemurr fight.

Also i wanted the drawing to resemble those monarch painted family portraits, so that’s why this style.

Hunter

I didnt have any good ideas for hunter, until i was scrolling through my reblogs and saw puss in boots the last wish fanart. It worked so well with the hunter's personality i had to!

Iterators (matching set)

It was so hard to have a good idea for those 4, because tere were 4 of them. You have so many trios everywhere, but 4 gang nahhh. I thought at first to dress them as their slugs u know a classic really, but too basic for me i knew someone would submit that. Maybe cult of the lamb bishops not a bad idea either tbh, but something didn't vibe right. So

I shit u not

the iterators were suppose to be

for the longest time

glamrocks from fnaf sb

yeaahhhhhhh i did have any better idea for a 4 gang and fnaf franchise was the only thing coming to my mind that vibed with me. But then i was scrolling through my alt for reblogs and i saw inscyption fanart i reblogged at some point, and i had that moment: NEURONS ACTIVATE, and decided to not be cringe and make them into scribes ighodghgdoa. I had i lil moment wondering between srs and nsh and leshy and magnificus, but it was quickly resolved by pushing nsh into a bush. and 5p as po3 and lttm as grimora was a no brainer.

Martyr

i dont know why i thought this was a good idea, but i vibed with it. I thought to make them a Julius Caesar from asterix and obelix comics.

This guy:

Monk and the lizards

Monk was always supposed to be a pokemon trainer. It works so well with them. At first i thought to give them Reds outfit, but then i decided to make them an N, a character from Black and White. His closeness and kindness to his pokemon, tie well with monk and their lizards.

Lizards are painted as spindas. i thought abt giving each individual pokemon, but i also wanted to make it quick and easy for the comics, so spindas! infinite patterns for an infinite amount of friends.

Survivor and Nightcat 9matching outfits)

Okay so this reference is like really obscure. It's the main characters from the movie Mune: guardian of the moon. I think i watched it only one time, long ago, i think the plot is really basic, but the lore and the art from it is great. it's one of those: if it was 2d it would’ve been so beautiful.

Anyway i wanted to do a lil swap: survivor is mune and nightcat is glim, cause it worked better personality wise.

anyway go watch it or look up art for it, its really cool

Rivulet

Big big thanks to @kociamieta, because i really could decide where i wanted to go with this. I had an idea for a shark hoodie, undyne, a sci fi speedster and perry the platypus. (if it comes up that someone submitted perry the platypus costume and it didnt go through, idk what i will do) So they were like: why not combine the shark hoodie and a sci fi speedster and jaga u are a genius. im not too proud of this one, the colors could be a lil better and the suit needs some work, but it was the last day of the competition and didn't have that much time.

Saint

Saint as snufkins, very original (i wanted for the Jessica Rabbit costume to win). i don’t have much to say here other then my 10000 environment brushes as always carry the piece

I wondered for a bit if I should make them some cosmic horror god. Not with body horror, but those gods that will stand in the middle of the forest and just look at u.

Scav king

Very basic, jack sparrow inspired scav king costume, inspired by the helm comic part.

(king julien for the win lets gooooo)

Spearmaster

My personal proudest one. A simple spray painter, but i put much care into this one. Now looking at it, I should rethink some colors, but i still like it. The spray cans could’ve been swapped out for needles (optional, not a correct). The tail is a paint brush with a swirl that isn't very visible in the colored piece.

Wanderer

Hollow knight gang! I think quirrel works well with wanderer. I mean the name, the character, the mission. They work well, I think.

Thanks yet again to @pansear-doodles for organizing the whole thing. It was very fun! Congrats to all the other winners too!

[vote-gaara]

This is neither here nor there but I love the idea of gaara being super into music but *solely* to have deep thoughts about the lyrics while almost disregarding the music itself entirely. mcr famous last words 'I am not afraid to keep on living/ I am not afraid to walk this world alone' 🤔 wow just like when I spoke to kankuro. carly rae jepsen call me maybe 'before you came into my life I missed you so bad' 🤔 the depth of yearning for a precious thing missing from your life that you dont even realise you're missing. billy joel piano man 'they're sharing a drink they call loneliness/ but it's better than drinking alone' 🤔 the pain of loneliness leads one to seek companionship in the most unlikely of places. Do you see my vision

Thank you for this ask as it has allowed me to consider aspects of Gaara I would've never thought of.

Mostly, I think Gaara is a little...hmmm....BORING! But then again, I don't think that's true, either. Let me explain:

I don't think that, according to his "default", he has appreciation for things like music, art, fiction or movies. Likely this is the result of how he was raised in isolation, where the feelings conjured by artists eluded him because he couldn't relate to the characters nor appreciate the source the story came from. This habit of disregarding things that weren't "more serious" or "relevant" to his everyday life then carried over to his current self, as since becoming Kazekage, he really has no time to partake in leisure (but very necessary) practices like experiencing art.

Now here's where the complexity of Gaara's character really comes into play:

I believe, wholeheartedly, that Gaara would actually make a FANTASTIC artist, and that he could learn to be moved through art with the right guidance and proding.

Gaara has poor art literacy. He doesn't see a movie or read a book to explore themes; rather he sees them as very objective plot lines such as "first A happened, then B, then C, then it ends."

Basically, Gaara can parse through a story for information but he needs to work on tapping into his empathy for characters that may not exist.

I guarantee that if you get this man into a book club, he would show up to the second or third meeting after reading a few chapters and he would be BLOWN AWAY by what other people had observed; the emotion, the themes, the ambiguity, the subtle things he missed because he wasn't reading the book "correctly."

It would be a borderline religious experience for him, I swear to you.

Even with music, as you suggest. Gaara would see it as "noise" but you get him to really think about what emotion in conjures - what power can be moved through lyrics - and suddenly his mind would be completely and totally blown. Especially if you get him with the symbolism of different instruments. He would suddenly see it as a language that he didn't even know existed (which he would find really cool)!

As I said before, he would probably make a really great artist himself. If you sit him down and you tell him to paint, draw, sculpt, or even write a poem about his life you would get something very moving and powerful. The type of art that brings you to your knees. But alas, he wouldn't really be moved by his own piece, either. Sure, it would be lightly therapeutic for him to have created something from his soul, but it would seem almost mundane to him.

Any art he creates he would see as just being a reflection of his life - or at least how he would see it - and it wouldn't mean anything to him passed "this is what happened to me, and it hurt, but things are better and the world is a better place."

Which begs the question:

Is Gaara really artistically illiterate? Or has he experienced so much in his life that anything that would move the masses, emotionally destroy you or me, simply be too elementary to him?

Either way...I vote that you drag him to concerts and plays, and you share music with him. At the very least, he would (as his current self) appreciate the bonding moment.

[fleamontsoleil]

Hello people!

I'm a guy who fell in love with stories at a young age, and decided to make their life about them.

I’m a genderqueer, bisexual mess born on april 15th, which makes me:

an aries

using they/he pronouns,

coming from poland, 

speak polish, english and basic german, spanish, french and danish, which means i can wish you a happy birthday and order coffee, and also talk about the weather and describe my outfit, but i will not get into the depths of quantum physics. 

i’m also autistic.

more info lower!

Other random things about me:

i love writing

lemons, ginger, cinnamon, pears, pasta

i have a sweet tooth

i’m getting back into drawing and watercolour painting

i love flowers, my favourite one being a carnation

i’m basically 24/7 in headphones, music always on

i like learning new languages (if you haven’t figured that out yet)

i enjoy reading, watching movies and tv shows

i can play on ukulele and i’m getting better at guitar and bass

i love stickers and pins

kinda obsessed with angels and religious symbolism while being an atheist, idk how i did that

i can trauma dump without realising, sorry for that

i love sticking things to my walls

and also telling stories

travelling

coffee

chocolate

green

robin williams

On this blog, I reblog/post things related to writing and relatable things I see. Sometimes share a snippet of my writing or freak about an idea I'm having. I’m thinking about separating this side blog into two, one for fanfic (this one), and one for my original work (with my pen name) but idk. Maybe when I have more time.

What do I write?

I write mostly fiction and fantasy, usually gory.

I write things that are inspired by things I know. I have a great imagination, which sometimes is not so fun, but when I write it's really useful. I can sit in any place and make it into a story.

All my works include queer representation.

Some of my works might be graphic, but I will put trigger warnings before any of them.

My current works:

If it comes to longer WIPs, I am used to working on one/two at once, but giving it my whole attention for the time of writing. Even though I can read seven books at once, I can't write them at once.

I also write a lot of short stories, but I will not be listing them here.

"The Tangled Sun" (working title) - a fantasy novel (1st dratf) tag: wip : tts queer, pirates, magic

"Darksun" (working title) - a post apocalyptic novel(1st draft) tag: wip : darksun angels, queer, gore, horror

Fanfiction:

you can find me under cowboymorpheus on ao3

All of Us, Strangers - an AOUS deancas AU 24,095 words “How do you cope?” he asks. “With what?” “Listen?” he says, almost asks, and sticks the hand with the bottle up, one finger pointing at the ceiling. Dean doesn’t hear anything. The silence fills the entire space. “It’s so quiet,” he says, and his voice is slightly broken up, as if he’s mourning the sound that isn’t present. “The city’s out there, but we can’t hear a fucking thing.” Castiel leans even closer, as if he was about to tell Dean his deepest, darkest secret, and Dean backs away. His hand tightens on the doorknob. “I play music, but it’s worse when it ends. I even bought one of those white-noise machines. It’s like someone’s in the corner of the room, whispering about me. We can’t even open the windows, but I guess they don’t want us to jump.” he pauses for a while. “Bad for business. Broken bodies on the concrete. Who’s gonna move in then?” he asks, but he doesn’t expect an answer.

Dean Cas Big Bang fic - estimated word count 27k

on the road - WHICH IS A WORKING TITLE - estimated word count is 60k After John dies, Dean has no more reasons to be trapped in his hometown. With the encouragement of his friends and family, he hits the road, where he meets new people and learns new things about himself, finally being able to explore himself as much as he always wanted to. Not having to hide, being able to just be his own person is something he didn't know he would ever be able to do. Little does he know, it's only the beginning of the good things to happen.

stained white roses - a darkfic basically

-----

My other account is @cowboymorpheus. you'll probably find out some more on the intro post there. It's where I reblog and sometimes post fandom stuff, here it's just, I don't know. Writing, ao3 and the rest of random stuff like that.

That's pretty much all. Like I said, I'm open to new conversations, so don't hesitate to message me or send asks anytime. And I'm ask/tag game friendly!

Have a nice one!

[miriasuu]

Posting OC stuff because i love her ^q^

Her name is Maeve di Angelucci, the sole princess of the Italian monarchy in my little universe ^q^ She's (un)happily married to her yandere hubby, Noël von Weissmann ♡

To sum it up, he's an angel (as a race, rather than a 'divine religious being') and told the King and Queen of a false prophecy that their daughter would be taken away on her 18th birthday and killed so they raised her in total captivity from the outside world. while he made his schemings to steal the German crown prince's identity and plan to get married to her since her hand would be offered much earlier (ye olden times, at 14) so they could avoid the prophecy. but he's the menace here! and he killed all the other candidates. oopsie

I'll put more art of her under the line~~ otherwise the post will be too big. More art (that cannot be posted here) on her Toyhouse! Plus i'll update it with her entire bg + noël later ♡ just uhm. be advised some quiiiiiite unnerving stuff below. not gore violence or anything but theres 1 uhm. well just to sum it up she has a lot of pregnancy themes, is all

Royal Wedding (TL would be too extensive, sorry!)

Maeve at 14ish (L) and 18~20 somethings (R)

happy family?

quick sketch to demonstrate height diff (ssorry for the yaoi hands. im not. fixing it) and discarded sketch of a previous height diff of them

M: "Ah! That's right, you don't pray... In fact, there's no reason to... I'm sorry... (Christian)" N: "You realized that just now? I'm only making company... (Angel)"

Although their marriage is a very disturbing and manipulative one, I still like to imagine some rare casual moments between them. They mostly occur later, when she's past 24 (which is when she finally mentally breaks and gives in for this sick love and becomes equally yandere). Did I say? They eventually have like, 5 kids total. LOL all before that though.

("How cute... It's like a puppy...)" "Maeve~, what are you doing?"

Generic yes but bunny x wolf, it's cute

A discarded idea of an unicorn au or. something. i still like the idea but hmmm. nah. or maybe yay? i don't know tbh

Oh and a little preview for her general reference for Artfight! I still need to finish painting, but hehe :3c it's only for general conception because i like varying her with dresses but im not gonna draw like. 5 diff ones for 1 ref lol

Anyway if u saw all thank u look at her TH theres like looots of love between them 2 ( ^_^)b oki ily byee