#NOW HES TALKING ABOUT A BUNCH OF CHRISTIANITY STUFF

[fandomonic-plague]

I've been in the car with two of my housemates for a while, and I've had headphones on the whole time. I started listening when out of nowhere I hear housemate (D) start speaking about the army.

And he says: "They don't actually want all the strong people, they just want people who can follow instructions, or in (deadname)'s case, people who will follow instructions when given them, not argue about it for..." and then I said "i haven't been listening this whole time but the first thing I hear from you is me being just dissed."

Anyway! Anyone know a good way to keep yourself from crying?

[thatringboy]

A Body Built for an Undeserving Soul, A Boothill Theory

My definitely sober thoughts while grinding for the eventual Ruan Mei rerun and writing some robinhill have led me to a startling train of thought. I’ll do my best to sound sane as I say this, but the 18 minute discord voice memo I originally made is definitely anything but. Spoilers for Boothill’s backstory, character stories, and other lore, and no I’m not really gonna be citing things because it’s 3 in the morning and I’m high. If at any point I say something that isn’t really supported by canon, please be nice i’m a little silly boy

Anyways

I don’t think Boothill is a Pathstrider.

Let me cook, please. Here’s my reasons why:

The way he talks about Aeons and Paths

The way his body is designed

And 3.

Enjoy the madness below the cut

So, there’s not really a proper way to word any of this without it being an ADHD word vomit. Bear with me. Please.

Penacony has been a fantastic update for those of us waiting for worldbuilding. We’ve learned a LOT about the many factions in the cosmos, the true nature of the IPC, the powers of the Aeons, and that the Paths are tangible things in the universe. The Luofu arc opened up a bit about this, but since it was so focused on The Hunt and The Abundance and The Permanence, we sort of fell back into the same story beats as the Herta Station arc. Either way, Penacony has been amazing for little lore bugs like me.

So what does this have to do with the wild claim that Boothill somehow isn’t a Pathstrider?

Let’s touch some grass for a minute and consider our places in the irl universe. Hi, I’m Perseus, a young transmasculine white adult guy from South Texas who grew up reading too many Rick Riordan books and now has a complicated relationship with both the christian god and the greek gods. It’s an autism special interest of mine to learn about the greek pantheon and while I don’t know everything about it, I’m a silly little guy and can recite fun facts about dozens of gods. I can also recite fun facts about the christian bible and christian mythology because I was forced to study christianity when I was younger. Nice to meet y’all. Now, when I, Perseus, talk to people about the various religions I know a thing or two about, I infodump. A lot. I think I once ranted about Dionysus for 20 minutes before my sister told me to shut up. It happens.

Now focus back in on the important topic: the fictional cyborg with jiggle physics. I’m working purely on memory, but I’m pretty sure when he first meets Dan Heng and Pom-Pom, he does go on a spiel about the Aeons and Paths as he tries to prove his identity as a Galaxy Ranger and Acheron’s identity as Not a Galaxy Ranger. The way he describes The Hunt, The Nihility, Emanators, and Paths, it all just sounded… i don’t know, canned? It came across as very emotionally disconnected, even as he talked about The Hunt, but he was saying all the right words. Like someone who studied a religion but isn’t actually a part of the religion. 

On its own, this means absolutely nothing besides just reminding us of his home planet’s hostile takeover by Qlipoth-worshiping IPC workers. If you haven’t seen the post yet, I really recommend reading the So, Honkai: Star Rail made a cyborg cowboy... an INDIGENOUS cyborg cowboy. post by @ahworm I’ll link it here, please check it out because it recontextualized a lot of how I viewed Boothill’s actions and mannerisms

So the way Boothill talks about the Path he should be a Pathstrider of sounds more like an encyclopedia than a follower. Now, maybe this can be explained by the fact that Galaxy Rangers aren’t the most zealous bunch, especially when standing next to the Xianzhou Alliance who worship Lan as a deity more than The Hunt itself. The Galaxy rangers are the opposite, they are hunters first and last regardless of what Lan in THEIR “greatness” does.

But if Boothill is just a normal Galaxy ranger (whatever that means), then how does he recognize the Jade Abacus of Allying Oath instantaneously? Dan Heng’s barely put the damn thing on the table and Boothill’s already jaw on the floor amazed. One could make the argument that, well, Boothill’s a well-traveled guy, of course he’d know the most valuable artifact to his Path. To that, I say: there’s more to it.

Boothill’s main accusation against Acheron in the beginning is, what? “An Emanator that shouldn’t exist.” He talks about The Nihility and Device IX the same way he talks about The Hunt; learned and detached in an agnostic way. He’s aware these are real concepts and beings, he’s crossed paths with an Emanator of Elation before so he can’t deny the existence of literal gods in the universe

We also know that it’s canon in the star rail universe that there are planets who haven’t heard of the Aeons before, like Sigonia - Aventurine’s planet. Instead of Aeons, we know the Avgins worshiped the goddess Giathra Triclops. I’ve seen the argument that Giathra is just another name for Xipe since THEY have three faces, but Aventurine’s flashbacks are very clear in showing that the worship of Giathra was very different from the worship of Aeons. We don’t know much about Aeragan-Epharshel, but from how the IPC described the indigenous people as needing civilization and other disgusting things (not to mention how they forced a synesthesia beacon into boothill when he was maybe like a teenager? And then his brain nearly broke from the influx of information?), I think it’s safe to say that the tribes of Aeragan-Epharshel also didn’t follow any specific Aeon.

But Aventurine is now a Pathstrider of Preservation, so why can’t Boothill be a Hunter Pathstrider too? Well, dear reader, allow me to bash my head against the wall trying to form words. Aventurine doesn’t believe anything about the sovereignty of The Preservation, just like the rest of the Stonehearts. He has his agenda, and if he has to play Preservation to do so, then he will. I think Boothill is the same, which is also why I can’t wait to see what happens in the upcoming quests with the two of them in the same room. That being said, Aventurine’s Preservation powers only come from his Cornerstone, crafted by an Emanator of Preservation. It’s how he and Topaz and Jade can all be such different people but all be classified as Pathstriders of Preservation, the sheer proximity to an Emanator’s powers canonically give them powers equivalent to actual Pathstriders.

So… what about Boothil? This leads me into my next point: Boothill’s cyborg body. By looking at his Character Story Part 3, we learn that Boothill VOLUNTARILY became a cyborg to become stronger. He literally shed the skin and name from an ancient, dead tongue to become a real loaded gun. His voice lines in combat talk about death a lot, his name literally is in reference to a graveyard - this man cannot wait to finally die in some sort of blaze of glory and vengeance. I say that with a little bit of sarcasm, but Boothill designed his body to be a weapon. 

In a lot of parts of the USA, it’s illegal to even insinuate that you have a firearm as that constitutes as the crime of  “armed robbery”, even if you don’t even have a gun. The threat alone is enough to warrant a higher penalty. But Boothill is already a great shot with a gun, why does he also need augmented teeth and crosshair eyes and hips that can fold his body into any sinful shape he needs? Because the threat alone is enough to give him power over his prey. Almost as if he’s compensating for a lack of magic godly powers. He needs to be able to keep up with even the strongest IPC goons, to pierce their Preservation shields with his bullets so that he can get closer and closer to Oswaldo Schneider.

But how can I prove that Boothill doesn’t have any Path magic? Well, let’s take a spin around his character model. What’s that thing sitting snugly against his exposed asscheek? His pistol? But that’s not weird, Perseus, most cowboys hold their guns there!

But what other playable character has their weapon on their actual model like him?

There are so many in-game cutscenes showing that, canonically, the Pathstriders summon their weapon from some sort of unseen storage or hammerspace. I like the term hammerspace, let’s use that. The playable Pathstriders all use hammerspace to easily summon their weapons. None of them actually carry their weapons on their model. Even Welt Yang has scenes of him summoning his herrscher cane (I’ve never played hi3 please forgive me for using incorrect terms) from his hammerspace. But not Boothill. He has his arm gun and he has his trusty 9 millimeter pistol on his little slutty hip. His idle animations involve reloading his weapons and putting them back on his person. No particle effects, no vanishing tricks, just a man sticking his tongue out to catch a bullet for a snack.

So what have we learned?

Boothill doesn’t have an emotional connection to his Path, it most likely is just the Path he figured met his needs and decided the philosophy was good enough

Boothill’s body is designed to perform specifically to kill Pathstriders, especially sturdier Pathstriders of The Preservation

Boothill either can’t or won’t use the same hammerspace the other canonical Pathstriders use

Each point by themself means nothing, or can be chalked up to unique character designs. But together? My intoxicated mind theorizes that Boothill is not a Pathstrider, merely a broken man trying to play the game according to the rules of the oppressors that colonized his planet and bombed his tribe into reservations and the dirt. Thank you for your time.

[lucienarcheron]

SJM Live Event 9.26.2023

This was so fun! I loved the questions and rapport between Christian Lauren and Sarah. Below is a recap of what was discussed :)

She looks great!

They met years ago when SJM was still writing TOG (on book two)

COURTOFMASS helped narrow down the questions so AYY fandom

CL likes to see when people try to summarize the SJM’s books so they asked SJM to summarize CC

SJM’s palms were sweating (LOL) and she summarized it as “a mix of urban fantasy, fantasy, fantasy but modern world - kick ass snarky heroine who goes on a journey of self-discovery and healing with hot ass dudes and hot sex”

“Doesn’t look any family members in the eye” because of her smut (lol)

SJM doesn’t look at any theories. “I say no in the most loving way”

She doesn’t have social media on her phone so she’s not lurking around on the internet. She just wants to stay in her creative bubble. Every now and then a friend will send her something “lol look at this crazy theory” 

Creating CC / what was that like? 

It was a year-long process and ongoing as she was writing it. She’s back living in NYC and growing up in the city inspired a lot of this book. The idea came to her on a plane while on tour (possibly HOF) and she heard a piece of music, and saw Danika’s voice reaching out to Bryce. It’s when she burst into tears and Bryce came to life (she’s told us this before). She kind of worked in reverse as it unraveled in her mind. It’s something she thought about for years and it was her “fun” / side project. Over the course of a bunch of years, until TOG was starting to wrap up, she kept coming back to it. 

This was the story she wanted to tell because she loved Bryce and Hunt so much by that point. It was over the course of years daydreaming about this story and peeling away the images of the story. She had a lot of fun writing this book.

How does she keep track of the worlds she creates?

Publisher has an official bible which they constantly reference and she has an awesome editor that remembers all the important stuff and small moments/lines. She has a terrible memory in real life but SJM keeps all her stories occupied in her brain. Also keeps a bunch of notebooks.

We don’t know much about Hunt’s origin so are we going to find out about his parentage and background in the next book? 

We will learn more about Hunt in the next book. As for his well-being, “I make no promises. I’m not saying anything about anything.” LOL. “I will say that when I was working on HOSAB my editor and I were thinking about what was the most horrible thing that could happen.” Originally she considered him getting his wings chopped off again but her editor was like “what can be worse” and it’s the slave tattoo again. A new level of trauma for him to unload in the next book. “He has a lot of room to grow and shit to deal with it. Poor Hunt, he’s in for a journey coming up.” 

Will we find out more about the Autumn King? Does he connect to the Autumn Court?

Yes, we will learn more (about him not necessarily yes to the Autumn Court connection). “He’s not a father in any way.” In the process of writing and editing, he’s become one of her favorite to write because he’s so horrible and terrible. He’s capable of doing the right thing but doesn’t. He’s just a fucked up, horrible person. It’s a lot of fun to put opposing characters in a room to see what happens (bryce vs autumn king). It’s so satisfying for her to see a woman get one up on a douchey asshole.

Ruhn question - Some headcanon in the SJM fandom (that I didn’t quite catch but it made them all laugh) Something about Ruhn and vibrators? Sarah nearly fell down the stairs laughing about this. Now that she’s thinking about sweet Ruhn and where he is, she feels bad. (SARAH NO).

Talked about her writing process - Sometimes she will write a whole draft and realize it’s not what she wants. When she was working on HOFAS, she was going through some shit (didn’t want to elaborate) and she wrote the whole thing but then she didn’t like it. She was “meh” about it. She knew she hadn’t found the right story and it wasn’t good enough. She is very intense about her writing and wants to put her very best writing out there. 

There’s a little bit of an extra gap between the books because she had her baby but also she went through the first/second round of edits with other things going on that she wasn’t in the right space. She felt like she needed to throw out the whole thing and start over. She wrote a brand new draft in 4-5 weeks and then she found the story. A couple of scenes stayed from the first draft but almost of it is new. She never wants to put out any work she doesn’t believe in. “You can’t fix a blank page.” so it’s all part of the writing process for her. 

For example, the book she’s working on now - spent the whole day writing a scene but she doesn’t like it and it’s part of the process. 

What it was like waiting for readers to get to the ending of HOSAB / Another author asked about when she decided to crash her worlds together the author can’t fathom that Sarah didn’t plan this out from the beginning so when Aelin went through the worlds and Rhys sees her - “Are you some crazy genius where all these little breadcrumbs come into your brain or was it intentional?” 

Not a genius in any way. Talks about her son and how he says “I’m Sarah J Mask” - her kids keep her humble (lmao). Her son is obsessed with Taylor Swift so it doesn’t matter what she does, she’ll never be Taylor Swift so she’ll never be cool (lol). She loves Taylor and has so much respect for her and now she knows all her songs because they only listened to her in the car. She has the little golden book of TS for her son (LOL). In the eyes of her son, TS is the only creative genius and she is all for it. 

When it comes to the ending of this book, she knew for a while and knew these worlds overlapped before she started working on KOA. She knew Aelin was going to crash through these worlds and had already started daydreaming on CC. When she wrote that scene of Aelin, she wanted her to go through the ACOTAR world and see Feysand then had her go through the CC world. When she was really working on CC officially, while daydreaming about it, she got into this idea of the worlds and how they’re all technically connected. She remembered having this “what the fuck” moment of HOSAB’s ending. “I don’t know what’s happening to my body” and everything clicked in. While working on CC1, she was able to plant some seeds.

When she finally wrote the end of HOSAB with Rhys, she cried. Things had just completely gone to shit in CC and “my wonderful Rhys” comes in. One of her favorite parts that she’s ever written. 

Will we see ACOTAR characters coming in/having POVs? - “I’m not saying anything about anything.”  We will see some of the ACOTAR world. It basically picks up close to where we left off.

Is Dankia really dead - “Um, yeah.” LOL “She is dead and as much as I wish was miraculously living, she’s dead.”

Is Connor really dead - “Yes?” LOL

Does Emil really have no powers? - Passed on answering this. “I like it.”

With magic being weaker in the modern world, do mates mean the same thing in the fantasy (ACOTAR/TOG) as they do in the modern world? - Pass because (they started speaking over each other here but I assume it will be because we will understand more of this in HOFAS). 

Is Hunt really Bryce’s mate - “Am I going to destroy some kind of theory?” She answered, “YES, HE IS HER MATE.”  She talked about how she’s changed the LI in her other series (the FMC’s first LI not being her last one) but with CC she kept the same LI from the beginning to the end -  “If they both make it to the end.” (she’s so mean for this LOL)

When the first ACOTAR book came out, it was hard for her to keep Feysand a secret because people would tell her how much they loved Tamlin and she had to just smile awkwardly about it (lolol).

How much of Bryce’s power has she accessed? - We’ll see in the next book!

They talked a little about parenting and their kids aging and personal stories for a bit. 

CL mentioned SJM previously saying that people won’t need to read ACOTAR to read CC and vice versa. Is that statement still true? - “You should read ACOTAR and if you haven’t read ACOTAR and get to HOSAB, it’ll make you want to read it.” She had them put an AD in the back of HOSAB for people to read ACOTAR. She then said, “I do not stand by that statement. I renounce this statement. Read ACOTAR first.” (👀)

Discussed the cover of HOFAS and whether the cover has a dragon head - “I am not saying anything. There are always easter eggs.”  She added, “We made sure there were many easter eggs.”  It’s probably her favorite cover. It came together so beautifully. 

Did she write HOSAB in order? - She’s always super pumped to write her endings. She has to write in a linear/chronical fashion and she dangles the ending as motivation. She was powering through the rest of the book so she could get to writing the endings of HOSAB. It was the same with ACOSF with Nesta in the Blood Rite and saving Feyre. 

What were some of the most fun/favorite/hardest scenes- In HOEAB, when Hunt discovers Bryce’s unicorn collection. Sarah has collections of My Little Pony and has been in bidding wars for them. She loves them LOL.  Another scene will always be Bryce and Danika doing the drop. She still cries thinking about it. “Call me sentimental, cheesy, or whatever - I believe in our darkest moments we aren’t alone.”  That scene means a lot to her. 

In HOSAB - she loved the opening of the book where they’re basically at a frat party “Wonder where the inspo for that came from” LOL / She loves the little moments of them living their lives and getting to be themesleevs in between disasters. She loved it when Ruhn was super stoned lmao. She also loved the scene with The Hind and Ithan in the bar as well as the end of HOSAB with the Hind revealing herself to her Ruhn; she cried a lot while writing those scenes. 

She gets so emotionally involved with her books/characters. Most of the book is what she loves. She needs to be obsessed with her book because she has to read it over so many times and stay in love with it as she rereads it.

She remembers seeing tear stains on copies of her manuscripts. She loves all her characters so much and they make it worth it across all the series. They feel real to her.  She’s getting to see them in all aspects of their lives. 

Three Bigger Questions - 

One of the reasons they clicked as friends is because they have the same fangirl heart - CL loves her passion for things. How does it feel to have this fandom follow her the way she follows her favorites? Sarah mentions how she was a fangirl of CL first. 

It feels weird to even say fandom for her books. It’s beyond anything she’s ever hoped for herself. There’s no ego here but she grew up as a fangirl for so many things so it blows her mind that people connect with these characters and worlds and that they mean something to them. She also has a profound sense of gratitude that she gets to do what she loves because of the people who read her books. She’s deeply appreciative of the joy and enthusiasm we bring to the books. It’s a very humbling and moving thing to inspire someone. 

Every time she sees someone reading her book, she walks up to them and talks about it apparently! One girl on the street walked by her and Josh and they saw a tattoo of the mountain with three stars and they wanted to ask her about it. Sarah sent Josh to ask her about her tattoo. “He wasn’t cool about it, he just blurted it out.”  She then introduced herself but the girl didn’t seem to believe her HAHA. “No makeup and in regular street clothes. I think she thought I was a lunatic on the street. I don’t think she left the encounter believing it was me.” “I’m going to be quiet and not scare people anymore.” 

She saw a guy on the subway reading ACOMAF “Is he reading some sexy ass stuff on the subway?” but he was reading it because his gf was reading it.

It blows her mind seeing people read her books in real life just like seeing her book on shelves never gets old. 

Now that CC3 is done, what are you working on now? 

Currently working on/drafting the next ACOTAR novel! That’s all she will say. She has become so focused and excited writing this book. She described it as the feeling when you’re first obsessed with someone and all they’re thinking about. For the next god knows how many months or “a million years”  LOL

[janegorelove]

so, an important part of my lore is that I'm a weeb by succession. my dad was a weeb himself for a good few years during my growing up (he's not anymore), so I was introduced into all of that culture kind of by osmosis, and later more directly. I had a waifu before I knew what death is (it was sailor moon btw), have watched the original ghost in the shell around the ages 9-10, and read a bunch of stuff regarding zen buddhism and japanese medieval history before I learned anything specific about christianity.

now can we call each other sisters while we make out and talk about our problematic kinks? that would be really cool I think.

𓁺

[sunny-marl]

you can't fucking believe How Many Headcanons i have for this little shit called Julius Oppenheimer Jr., and about his family. and for what. i don't know.

maybe you'll enjoy one or another idfk????

starts with • <- "main" headcanon, not really linked to other with •

starts with "-" or "--" <- "sub" headcanons of main headcanon

• Mrs. O.'s full name is Jean Mary Oppenheimer. (maiden name is Morgan!!). Seniour is. just Julius Oppenheimer Senior. 👍

- Julius' family, doesn't matter what side, mostly only calls him nicknames and stuff. mostly Jul, Junior, Lil' Julius/Jul, Jul/Julius Junior. they mostly call Senior just Julius.

-- his mom almost only calls him Junior, besides his full name when she's like angry, or stuff like sweetie and dear. she called him Baby Boy a lot when he was a baby/little kid 🫶 she still does it sometimes, and Julius gets embarrassed Every Single Time.

-- his dad mostly calls him Son, My (Little) Guy, Little man and Jul. Young man soooometimes.

•Julius' maternal grandmother is a cat :•]. i'm thinking of her name being like. Felicity.... she's an old Siamese Cat. i'll draw her sometime but basically she's white with small stripes in the dark areas(not including her Old Grandma clothes)

- Jean's fuse moves just like of a cat's actually!!! Senior doesn't have this "tail language" thing, but it does light up when he's really mad.(Jean's doesn't lit without an external force at all)

-- i think it'd be cute if Julius had his own fuse language 😳. like like wagging when happy and shit. he'd absolutely hate it. but idk if I'll actually make it part of my gumball art or not 😭😭😭😭

• when Julius was very young his body was basically. big round head and little bean body. it slowly changed to his current Funny Stick Body with time. i think it'd funny if in da futura gets kind of a upsidedown isosceles-like triangle body + his round. hips?????? he has now idk 👍

- also talking about Julius as a baby. since that time he was a Little Devil. he was not only a troublemaker, but also a drama king and lied way too much(sometimes he didn't even have to lie and lied anyway). if he didn't bite someone at least once, or had a full tantrum in daycare at least 2 times a week. Something Was Wrong.

-- his parents ARE the ones that Will show you his baby photo album even if he begs them not to. he looks like he's crying and/or pissed on most of them. tehehehe.

• Julius is friends with Rotten Cupcake since little kids. and nowadays they're still very close. Evil Besties!!

• (HUMAN. AU.) Senior is mixed, american black + european. he's quite dark in skin, curly hair(that isn't very noticeable since he combs it with lots of hair. clay?) while Jean is very pink-ish pale and has straight hair.

- Julius is almost as pale as his mother. He does have curls in his hair but since he gets it buzzed almost making him Bald it's not very noticeable (he has a rat tail but it's always braided)

• Jean's family side is basically all catholic. Sr.'s have a bunch of family members with different christian religions.

- Julius Jr's parents themselves aren't much of "stricly christians", even if they have some "catholic tendencies" n stuff. Jean's has more of this "tendencies" than Seniour though haha. these two are lgbt allies!!! from a bit of many insistence from Rotten and Julius trying to justify why being Queer. isn't a real sin.

•Julius' uncles and aunts (2 bio uncles from Jean, 3 bio uncles + 2 bio aunts from Sr.'s) that Did have Kids have more than one. there's like two that didn't have any?. sooo yeag he's the only cousin that is an Only Child 😁

[slyfire]

Connection between Kuras & the Soulless?

So I had a little thought that could easily be/mean nothing, but I thought to share anyways.

Note that I've not a great theory person, but I hope to at least give a general sense of what I'm talking about. Also this isn't really a theory per se, but more just a couple observations. The basics of what I wanna talk about is related to when we see Kuras in-game, along with some design things.

I first started thinking about a 'connection' between the soulless that attacks the MC at the start (that's later killed by Mhin), and our lovely angel-doctor Kuras simply based on Kuras's first and second appearance.

We first meet Kuras after (I believe?) an unknown amount of time after the MC (the player character) is almost killed by the soulless. MC regains consciousness, and finds themself in a clinic in Eridia, being watched by Kuras. MC finds out Kuras both saved their life, and also somehow stitched their arm back on.

I brought you to my clinic, of course. You were the only survivor from the caravan, barely clinging to life. You needed immediate treatment.

Which...you provided?

Yes.

This entire first meeting doesn't really give any meaningful connections, but does raise some questions.

How did Kuras find the MC? Was he just out & about, and noticed the attack? Was he told? Could he sense it? ...etc.

But from I get from the opening scene, MC was close to Eridia, but not that close, so the question of how exactly Kuras found the MC still twirls around in my head a bit.

So the story so far is.... Caravan Attacked by Soulless > MC left for dead > Saved by Kuras, and wakes in Eridia.

Eventually, Caravan!Soulless makes it's return, but it's cut short by Mhin who kills the soulless for good. But more importantly, Kuras also shows up.

Thematically, his appearance is most likely just a 'Hey, you've met all the LIs!', but plot wise, it's never really explained. Kuras just sorta shows up. You could assume where MC was attack was on the way to The Wet Wick, or assume this attack happened near the clinic's location. But there's no mention.

So both times we see Kuras is after an almost-lethal confrontation with the soulless.......yes that's all I had when I got thinking. I wasn't gonna dwell on it more, until I looked at the soulless & Kuras's 'true' form side by side...

There's two main elements both share.

Eyes all over body

Many fingers Starting with the more clear one, both figures have eyes/eye-likes things all over their bodies. Placements are different, but both are about the same shape. The soulless's eyes are a yellow colour, and while we can't really exactly say for the eye colour on Kuras, if his 'human' appearance is anything to go by...

We know Kuras is an angel, and angels in Christianity are often associated with eyes, so it being a key feature in this 'true' form makes a lot of sense.

We also see two crying eyes on Kuras's 'true' form's lower torso which have a different look then the rest, and the Soulless also has two round-shaped eyes on it's head.

Now this is a bit more uncertain since Kuras's true form is only a silhouette for now, but from the looks of it, the hands have fingers with longer claw-like nails. On the back of the Soulless, there's a bunch of sharp shapes that as you get closer to the head, look more and more like human fingers with longer claw-like nails.

There's a few more loosey-goosey stuff, like the shoulder areas or upper thigh areas, but nothing certain.

...and that's all have to say!

Quick summary, but there might be a connection between this Soulless and Kuras because...

Kuras always seems to show up after an encounter with this Soulless without any given reason

There are some design similarities between Kuras's 'true' form and the Soulless

I'm not saying anything like I think Kuras is the Soulless, but it's food for thought.

Well, to me it is. I mostly made this for myself so I could put my thoughts together, so please don't take this super seriously, That being said, if you have any further thoughts, I would love to hear them too!

[hunter-slime-660]

HI HELLO YES IM INSANE HAVE A DESCRIPTION OF MY SALUBRI'S HAVEN AND OTHER FUN STUFF ABOUT HIM

POSITION: his haven is situated underneath milan, probably in some unexplored part of the paleo-christian chatacombs. It hasnt been found as of the 2010's because he set up several wards against people, kindred and wraiths.

THE HAVEN: the room is fairly small, damp and dark, although the dampness seems fairly new. the only source of illumination is a series of pine tar-based torces along the wall and small cndles around the room. the room itself is basically a single chamber with a rounded ceiling, like a chapel; the walls are covered in drapes of various quality, subjects and ages, once often taken care of, now suffering from mold. in the center of the room theres an altar with a lot of catholic memorabila (including dried olive and palm branches, several eucharistic chalices and several rosaries, etc) stacked both around and above it, the altar IS covered by a red drape. in front of it a small pillar holdin a bowl filled with with rancid blood. one of the walls is carved in to "shelves" hosts a great collection of books and srcolls of different shape, dimension and lenguages, some leather bound, some cardboard bound, clearly from different time periods, so many of them, in fact, that a lot of extra ones are stacked at the feet of the library. one shelf sticks out for what clearly looks like "hand made" leather books: his personal diaries, of different ages, some more consumed then others, clearly showing their age. In front of the library, a lecturn with an open book, incomplete, a collection of various legends and myths of kindred (basically a homemade book of Nod), and traditionally made quills and ink(?). the lecturn looks pretty messy as if often and repeatedly left in a hurry; a bunch of partially to completedly consumed candles all around it. in a corner a simple mattress, clearly overused, over a stone slab; funnily enough covered in regal and expensive sheets, now patially covered in humidity stains. around the bed, a lot of crosses and pictures of saints, of different materials, age, dimension and conservation state. The last wall is once again carved in to "shelves", but this time it holds a lot of memorabilia of different kinds: jewels, cups, statuines, clothing, paintings, perfumes, small books, religious items from different cults, straight up artefacts both of human and supernatural origin. its clear looking at it there at a time, in the past, there used to be system of organization for these memorabilias, that with time was abandoned as there was less and less space for the different artefacts that were now covering the floor in piles.

THE DIARIES: from oldest to newer, some, more recent, dated most not. In the oldest of diaries there is a lot of talk about prayers, recipies on making bread, cooking in general and eucharistic food, as well as instructions on how to make books, weaving, falconry and animal care and medicine, but also they talk a lot about mistreatment, although its fashioned as if it was "deserved", Elia often refers to himself as "a child of evil that needs redemption". From the time of embrace, the diaries speak of a woman, Mikal and how she promised Elia redemption and "sainthood" through the embrace and apprentiship. still in the early diaries there are written a lot of stories, parables and teachings about golconda, often accompanied by crude-ish illustrations (probably made in haste) as well as mention of the persecution both him and his sire were facing. while all of the early diaries are very worn and damaged, one among them clearly stands out for the type of damage, seemingly deliberate: most pages have been torn out, the few that remains seem to have been soaked in blood or staind by bloody tears and the whole book seem to have suffered severe fire damage. the few readable sentences are either insults towards that woman, Mikal, or read something among the lines of "SHE LIED" and "SHE DAMNED ME". From then on most diaries talk of sabbat practices, rituals, specifically some speak of thaumaturgy rituals and how to hold them, as well as their effects, the time it takes to hold them (usually measured in prayers, such as "3 Angelus") and the materials needed; as well as the inners thoughts of Elia that in this time period go from angry and vendicative to resigned and tired. reading them it becomes clear how Elia was initially just very suggestible, the diaries betray how him believing in "im a child of evil" gets used to push him to think along the lines of "im a child of cain and as such im above cattles", but it also becomes clear how with time he starts to build his own line of thought and how he becomes aware of the predatory tactics of the sabbat and how he plans on leaving it. The latest books seem to write of a un-life of isolation after leaving the sabbat. for most of the diaries from here on, Elia talks a lot about moving, as well as rewriting about pages from past diaries or rewriting the same events multiple times (as if he either lost cognition of time or has been having memory issues); he also writes a lot about "visions of death plagueing his slumber". all of the writings in these diaries are dated and its very obvious he would write very sporadically. it is also to note that in these diaries are the first without any addeed notes or pictures stashed between the pages. although all diaries seem full they seem to cut off when he moved to Florence, the entire part of his un-life spent in milan seems to be completely missing (see section: LAST DIARY)

OTHER ARTEFACTS: Upon his final death, Elia left some artefacts outside his have, either because they were on his person when he was killed, or deliberately left to kindred close to him. To Rhadamès: being his "partner" in his last years, Elia left him several jewels, necklaces especially. Is of note a pair of brass hair pins decorated with amaranth flowers made of silk thread. To Amelia: being the kindred that killed him, Amelia got everithing Elia had on his person. of note are his last diary and his skull, left behind after his death.

LAST DIARY: the one diary missing from the collection in Elia's haven and now among Amelia's possessions. in his last diary he talks about moving to Milan and his last couple years there. in this diary he seems extremely disillusioned and tired of his unlife, often writing something of the sorts of: "at this point either i reach golconda or i let myself die". the dates are very sporadic, only writing of important events, sometimes alternated by prayers or reminders on how to create the wards he placed on his haven. of note are the parts where he speaks of Rhadamès. notably he never calls him by name, referring to him only as "the serpent", but does include medieval-like illustrations of him. within the book he writes of his meeting with Rhadamès, especially the moths leading up to it where he was stalking him. in this period Elia writes of how he wouldnt mind being killed by this "serpent" and how he hopes that being killed by the "embodyment of evil" might grant him some mercy after his death. the following entries, tho, speak of various conversations he had with Rhadamès, as well as a renewed desperation, as he realises the Ministry is not gonna be his end.

THE LAST ENTRY: (not dated) "[...] ho sentito di questa Magister della Piramide. Dicono che abbia fatto ricerche sul Golconda. È arrivato il momento di stare a quanto promesso. Le farò visita stanotte.

Deus meus, ex toto corde pǽnitet me ómnium meórum peccatórum, éaque det��stor, quia peccándo, non solum pœnas a te iuste statútas proméritus sum, sed præsértim quia offéndi te, summum bonum, ac dignum qui super ómnia diligáris. Ideo fírmiter propóno, adiuvánte grátia tua, de cétero me non peccatúrum peccandíque occasiónes próximas fugitúrum. Amen." translation: "(in italian) [...] I heard of this Magister of the Pyramid. They say she researched Golconda. It is time to fulfill my promise. I will visit her tonight.

(in latin)(Act of Contrition) O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen."

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[creature-wizard]

Yes, Gigi Young is literally just another conspiracy theorist.

Since I have this anon who's upset that I made a post awhile back criticizing some shit Gigi Young said, I figured I'd pop into her YouTube channel and see what she's doing these days.

I watched the video titled "The Occult Purpose of War & Satanic Super Technologies," which was uploaded in November of 2023, as well as the video titled The Esoteric Keys To Disclosure: 10.It's a Genetic Modification Cult, which was published back in September of 2023. So just to be clear, these are fairly new videos. This is basically what she believes and teaches right now, as of the time I am making this post. (December of 2023.)

Before I go into what she specifically says, I'm going to say right now that a lot of the stuff she's saying is basically the same stuff pushed by Fritz Springmeier, a far right conspiracy theorist with a history of extremely shady behavior and an undeniable mancrush on Dr. Joseph Mengele. (The guy really liked to talk about how handsome and irresistible this professional Nazi torturer supposedly was. I still feel queasy at the memory of reading what Springmeier said about him.)

Springmeier's work was influenced by the likes of Edith Starr Miller and Alexander Hislop. Edith Starr Miller was into all that Protocols stuff, and basically attacked anything that didn't conform to her ideals of what true Christianity was, claiming it was part of the Evil Conspiracy. Alexander Hislop was the Protestant dude who pulled a bunch of shit out of his ass about Roman Catholicism secretly being the continuation of an ancient Babylonian mystery cult.

Springmeier basically claimed that the world was under the control of thirteen Satanic bloodlines. In terms of what the conspiracy was supposedly up to, it was all a blend of the antisemitic hoax The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion with early modern witch panic and blood libel. He modernized it, of course. Springmeier claimed that the conspirators were experimenting with the creation of human/animal hybrids and developing advanced mind control technology.

It does not actually matter whether or not Gigi Young personally considers herself part of the far right in any sense. What matters - literally all that matters - is that she is spreading their beliefs and their rhetoric.

The impact and devastation is the same regardless of what Gigi Young personally considers herself.

She could hang a trans flag on her wall, wear an "I ❤️ Communism" shirt, spit on Hitler's picture in front of the camera, and it would not make a single iota of difference.

So in The Occult Purpose of War & Satanic Super Technologies, Gigi Young essentially proposes that a reason for Israel's assault on Gaza is that the satanic families supposedly controlling the world want to start World War III, for the purpose of conducting a massive blood ritual to summon the Antichrist. Here's a direct quote:

I absolutely think that they want to create World War III. World War III needs to happen for there to be enough blood in the soul for Ahriman to incarnate or for the Antichrist to incarnate. There needs to be a global war for the Antichrist to come into being.

The idea that there is a satanic cult that wants to bring about the rule of the Antichrist is basically the Christofascist conspiracy theory. The blood ritual element is another permutation of blood libel.

Young goes on to say that she believes that there's a faction within the dark elite that view nuclear bombs not as a weapon, but as an occult ritual.

She also makes indirect reference to the conspiracy theory that CERN was meant to open a portal to hell by claiming that particle accelerators tear a hole in the veil that allows demons to come through.

She repeats other common far right conspiracy theories, including the one where the conspiracy supposedly has Babylonian origins and practices dark rituals for the purpose of mind control over the populace, and that the conspiracy is genetically modifying plants and people for evil conspiracy reasons.

She also referred to elemental beings as "subhuman," which is a eugenicist term - literally a translation of untermensch. The fact that Young uses this word tells you something about the ideological bent among whatever people and literature influenced her beliefs.

In her video titled "The Esoteric Keys To Disclosure: 10.It's a Genetic Modification Cult," she talks more about this alleged satanic conspiracy. She claims that the conspiracy was told by demons and fallen angels that they were descended from alien gods, and that the conspiracy is all about genetic modification in order to become gods themselves.

So first of all, claiming that beliefs you disagree with came from demons and fallen angels is a move right out of the Christofascists' playbook. Normal people just accept and admit that people just come up with shitty ideas sometimes.

Secondly, Young's objection to the idea of alien ancestry and alien genetic modification in this video are very clearly part of her broader antivax and anti-GMO views. She believes that GMO foods are the work of the conspiracy, and that vaccinations were created by the conspiracy to modify people's genetics. She's literally an antivaxxer, y'all.

And like. The way to handle these conspiratorial alien origin myths isn't to reframe them in a slightly different conspiracy theory. The way to handle it is challenging and destroying the conspiracy theory altogether. It literally makes no different whether Young believes humanity is descended from aliens or not, so long as she's pushing this kind of conspiracy narrative.

Her views on GMOs and such this are pretty obviously informed by an attitude that natural = pure = good. What she's trying to pass off as anti-eugenics is actually a kind of belief in genetic purity, which is itself a form of eugenics.

She even claims that the downfall of Atlantis was caused by genetically modifying organisms. She claims that genetic modification actually "degenerates" the form. (For someone who claims to hate Nazis so much, she sure does use their language.)

She apparently believes that the conspiracy has a depopulation agenda. This one's been circulating far right conspiracy theory circles for decades.

She makes some bizarre claims about New Age alien beliefs. She tries to pin the whole thing on Scientology, which she claims was Nazi esotericism. While it's true that Scientology and New Age alien beliefs are similar, the latter were developing well before Scientology was a thing. Scientology, rather, was influenced by the ideas of its time. And while it's true that Nazi ideas have influenced New Age beliefs, Gigi Young cannot actually point to any specific cases; instead, she acts like the entire thing is ultimately a Nazi conspiracy, which is bullshit.

She also acts like New Age spirituality is extremely materially reductive. While I do think that New Age spirituality can be somewhat materially reductive, it's nowhere near to the degree that Gigi Young is describing. She seems to think that New Age ideas will somehow lead to people accepting DNA modification through vaccinations, which is just bizarre given how New Age is also rife with antivax conspiracism.

Her radfemmy gender essentialist shit comes back when she blames the world's condition on the overgrown and distorted male impulse that wants to control the feminine and take over creation, and says that if you're creating something in a petri dish, you're not allowing the holy womb of the woman to create life, which is what it's for.

So yeah, no, Gigi Young is not better than these New Age conspiracy theorists out there, not even a little bit. She's every bit as bad. Don't be fooled by the fact that she's dunking on people you hate; she's still pushing the same kind of conspiracy crap they believe in.

[differenteagletragedy]

so… idk how interested you are in stuff like bridgerton/pride and prejudice/etc, but i’ve been obsessing over the idea of like a Regency au ever since my friend was like “baxter is in the wrong genre. that man is suited for historical romances. he dreams of writing by candlelight and fainting onto couches.” so do you have any hcs on a regency/historical romance au? assuming you do aus? thanks :)

I haven't watched Bridgerton! It's been many years since I read/watched Pride and Prejudice so apologies if this is a little too Darcy, but I think there would be some similarities between him and Baxter!

-- Baxter is a fancy man now, so living in a time period when men dressed fancier in general, he's going to have to kick it up a few notches. I'm thinking flashier colors, maybe some floral patterns.

-- Those little dances they threw all the time? You know he's there all the time. He has tons of one night stands with people he meets there, but then he meets MC and they are Different.

-- Baxter on a horse Baxter on a horse

-- Does he need a cane? No. Does he have a fancy one anyway. Yup.

--You're not going to catch him in a hat. He knows he's pretty and he doesn't want to take attention away from his face.

-- Basically this version of Baxter is unbearable lol but he does have his charms! Maybe he's playing charades with MC and throws the game just to be a silly little guy and make MC laugh. Or maybe they're playing cards and he keeps pretending to make dumb mistakes, again for a laugh.

-- Everybody talks with that flowery language, so he's going to have to lean on something else to make him stand out, and I think it would be his goofiness. Like he's still charming, of course, but he's not going to be a weirdo in the way that the Baxter of today is.

-- He'd still go on a walk with MC and make up a bunch of nonsense about the things around them.

-- Why am I researching this like I'm writing an essay

-- He would very much want to court MC, but he wouldn't feel like he was worth it. So what I think would happen would be that he began the courting process with the knowledge that he'd eventually just stop.

-- Liz is their chaperone lol

-- Baxter and MC are going for a walk and Baxter is running his mouth and Liz is just like "good god this guy ..."

-- A historian spoke to PBS (this is getting so serious) and explained, “You would initially address one another as sir, my lord, or madam, depending on rank, and then progress to Mr. and Miss So-and-so, or Lord and Lady So-and-so. To use a person’s Christian name during courtship was a special mark of intimacy. And we can often see the moment in their letters when someone asked to be called by their first name, signaling that a relationship was becoming much more serious and, in fact, might later progress to pet names and things like my dearest love or my dearest life.”

-- So the first time MC actually says Baxter's name it's just going to absolutely wreck him, it's going to hit him right in the heart.

-- And when they end up together Baxter calls them "my dearest life" CAN YOU IMAGINE

-- Apparently if you ended a courtship then the proper thing to do was return the letters you'd sent each other, Baxter cannot do this emotionally

-- He'd be like "I burned them they can't have them" and keep them like under a floorboard so he could read them at night and cry.

-- MC's reputation is definitely going to take a hit. Baxter's was already bad but now it's worse, and now he feels guilty for messing with MC in the first place.

*a few years of mess*

-- Baxter has traveled, seen places and done things, but he finds himself back in his hometown. There's a ball. He'd decide to go for old times sake, and you were probably married by then so nbd

-- There you are though!

-- He wants to throw up, but he asks you to dance anyway because he can't help himself. MC agrees because dang that Baxter is smooth.

-- Ok ok, so back in those days if you danced with somebody twice then people thought that was a Big Deal and that you basically wanted to marry them.

Baxter: I would ask for another dance, but I don't deserve it.

MC: Why don't you try asking anyway.

Baxter: But if we have another dance, people are going to talk ...

MC: Let them talk ... Baxter.

Baxter: *swoons*

-- Yeah that's corny and silly, but we're just having fun here.

[heatwa-ves]

I am SO GLAD that you gave me the green light. Now, this isn't a myth, but more of a curiosity relating to how we know about these myths, and something interesting about Loki specifically. Now, context: we have a whopping total of two (2) major sources on norse myths, the poetic edda and prose edda. They were both written around the year 1200, which, you may guess, is pretty late. Scandinavia was fully Christiansted in 1000, so the people writing the myths down were very much Christian, and thus had a bias. This means absolutely everything of the very little we know needs to be taken with a MASSIVE grain of salt, because it's very visible that both have a heavy Christian influence. Problem is we will never be able to know for sure. However, if we look across most germanic countries, you'll notice a bunch of familiar figures and stories popping up, because all these mythologies are very similar. So if you go to Germany Odin becomes Wuotan, etc etc. This is true for the vast majority of gods, even more niche ones. However, here's where this gets interesting: none of these other versions have any equivalent to Loki. And that is STRANGE. because in the poetic and prose eddas, Loki is a very major figure, showing up in the vast majority of myths, even bringing on ragnarok. So, for him to not appear anywhere else, at ALL, is very strange. This makes it very likely that Loki was originally a more minor deity that was blown out of proportion because he fit a Christian narrative: he serves as a scapegoat for Asgard (which is NOT put in a good light in either edda), and brings about Ragnarok. The eddas imply REALLY hard that we live in a post-ragnarok world and Baldur is the Christian God with a big G who took over after everything died. Another thing which seems to show that Loki was not a major god is his complete lack of deific designation. Even though he is such a prominent figure, it's never stated what he's the god of. (He's only half god but then again so is Thor so we can look past that). A lot of modern adaptations make him a god of trickery or illusions, but that's never really said. He likes trickery and illusions, but it's more of a personality trait than anything else. I'm not the god of begging my friends to listen to me talk about books written in the 1200s.

Anyways, in conclusion, Loki is very interesting from a historical point of view, because we have no idea where he came from but we might know why he's here. And also the vikings should have really. Yknow. WRITTEN THIS STUFF DOWN. WE HAVE LIKE THREE REFERENCES TO LOKI BEFORE 1200. TWO ARE A STRETCH TO CALL LOKI AND ONE LOOKS LIKE THIS

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk <3

ooh this is really interesting!! thank u for telling me <33

[scribeforchrist-blog]

All or Nothing

MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK

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+ Habakkuk 3:19: “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to tread on the heights.”

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VERSE OF THE DAY 

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+ Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he will be with me.

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SUBJECT:  All or Nothing

=========================

** SAY THIS BEFORE YOU READ; HERE’S SOME CHRISTIAN TRUTHS **

I AM GIVING GOD ALL OF ME 

I AM LISTENING TO THE SHEPHERD 

I AM OBEDIENT 

I AM NOT REBELLIOUS 

********************************

THOUGHTS:

=======================

  We can try our best with anything we do; sometimes, we have days when we don’t just feel like doing anything. Still, when we go to work, we go to school, whatever we do, we must do everything in a way that pleases God, so we must give all or nothing because if we give God pieces of our life to heal and fix, it won't help the rest of ourselves we must give him every aspect of ourselves so that he can show us a better way. 

   Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he will be with me.

     It's just like when I was younger, my mom showed me how first to separate clothes; that was my chore. I had to get all the clothes and separate them, and maybe a few weeks later, she showed me how to wash, and a few weeks later, she showed me how to fold, and those were the steps to wash the clothes.

   Could you imagine she just stopped there? She just gave me ½. Could you imagine how would I figure out the rest if she gave me that tiny bit? I would be lost, but she had to give me all of it so that I could better take care of myself because I needed to know how to do this so when I got older, I could take care of myself; she wasn’t just looking at the moment she was looking for my whole life and tools I needed to take care of myself.

     That’s precisely what God is doing now. Sometimes what is keeping us in a certain sin isn’t just because of this happening; it's a whole bunch of stuff that’s keeping us in that mindset, that dependency on that particular sin; maybe it’s comfortable, maybe it’s all we know, maybe we can’t see a life without that particular sin, because we feel this is who we are and truly it isn’t, we talked a couple of weeks about what is our true identity. Our time entry is free, delivered, and a child of God. God wants to heal all of us at his timing to cure us of what we are doing; he wants to give us the right steps into righteousness. It’s there; it’s up to us to use it; it’s up to us to choose it. 

  Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

    God is always going to be gentle with us, and we will be able to find rest in him because we are allowing him in; we are giving him  every part of ourselves to him, and when we do, his yoke isn’t hard, his ways aren’t complex, but the more we resist it’s hard because we aren’t allowing him to change us, we aren’t taking his corrective criticism and it’s hard to take criticism from anyone, it is because we feel the way we do things are the right way. 

   Plenty of times, as I got older, my mom would say, Lui, you're doing this wrong, and because I felt my way was right, I would ignore her. I would have my father come right back around and warn me I was doing it wrong or that I was in the wrong; as I grew and got it wrong for not listening and got it right for listening, I learned that corrective criticism isn’t design to break a person confidence it’s built to make sure they can grow and build from there. That’s what God wants to do with us when he corrects us; it isn’t to break us; it’s to show us the way, and if we aren’t following the good shepherd and we aren’t learning from what he says is wrong we won’t grow nor learn. 

     In life, it will always be a manager or supervisor; if you own your own business, it will always be someone telling you what you can't do. Still, in all things, when we give ALL OR NOTHING, we learn the correct way, and we begin to see it in his sight; learning something the right way from someone doesn’t make you less. Still, it makes you a person who sees you can’t do this without help, and God wants to help us; he wants to show us the way to righteousness, holiness, and love. 

    We must remember that our heart leads us astray because we have not given it to God. Our heart can deceive us if we haven’t submitted it to  God, or maybe we let our heart do all the thinking for us, and it leads us a whole different way; look at Samson; he allowed his heart to please a woman cause him to lose his strength, Samson knew what was right and wrong, and he knew what he didn’t supposed to tell anyone about which is where his strength comes from. 

  Judges 16:17 So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”

     Samson was all in before he allowed his heart to listen to Delilah. Sometimes, we are like Samson; we just take a wrong turn, and sometimes, some of us are lukewarm Christians; we aren’t all in; we are half in, and we think this is enough; no, my friends, we must give every bit of ourselves to God because as long as we are lukewarm and we are not listening and we aren’t doing what he wants. We are doing everything to say I will give him just a little; we will always not please God.

   This is why we must give him all of ourselves every day; it's so easy to be lukewarm , it's so easy to give ONLY half of ourselves, and it's so easy to do because if we only give half, we can keep the other half to do what we want right? We think we can keep this half so he won't have to bother this half, but if we don’t give God every side of ourselves, we won't be complete; we will always be walking in a way that doesn’t please him.

   ***Today, we can think we can learn half of what he wants, and that will please him, but it won’t; we must learn to give every side of ourselves; we must learn to do this so he can correct and show us the right way.  Are we willing to be corrected? Are we willing to allow him to show us a better way? Being Lukewarm doesn’t qualify us for heaven; it doesn’t help us walk in the right way, nor can we see that we are Luke-warm. Some people live their whole lives this way because they are trying to give God half.

   God is looking for us to give All and not on the easy things but everything because as God prunes us and washes us, those things must go, but we must be willing to let go so that he can strengthen us and show us the right way. We don’t know the right way, our flesh and mind might think it knows the right way, but we don’t until we ask God to open our eyes and ears and hear and see what he’s trying to remove; we won’t change completely. We must give ALL , it might seem hard, but whats hard is living a life without the presence of God in it ©Seer~ Prophetess Lee

========================

PRAYER

========================

Heavenly Father, I thank you today; I ask that you give us the correct criticism we need to grow and learn. Lord, we want to learn, so help us not to be stubborn and disobedient. Help us be filled with you and treat others how we want to be treated every day. Lord, we love you so much and ask you to help us grow in you and give us ALL of ourselves. In Jesus' Name Amen 

========================

REFERENCES 

========================

+ Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.

 

+ John 8:47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. You do not hear because you do not belong to God.

 

+ Genesis 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the garden's trees.

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FURTHER READINGS 

=========================

Proverbs 11

1 Samuel 31

Psalm 138

Ecclesiastes 5

[milos-lil-corner]

kidneystitches posting aka ej and liu being cute together as a couple post

Been playing around with it in my head, but EJ finding Liu's chill and comfortable attitude around him, laying comfortably next to him or even not seeming afraid of him while they talk, is undeserved. The self-loathing and the loss of his humanity makes em think he doesn't deserve the other's comfort - if that makes any sense.

I don't think either of them would be comfortable around each other when it comes to their bodies - EJ for the, y'know, gestures towards demonic figure. And for Liu, its the gestures towards stitches and scars all over him. EJ is blind and Liu doesn't care what EJ looks like, but they still have that hidden feeling of shame about each other - self-loathing yippee.

Dunno if crosses or Christian stuff would effect EJ, but if it would, I think Liu would remove that kind of paraphernalia unconsciously. Even if it doesn't effect EJ, I think he would still do it. Maybe EJ comments on it like "...Liu, I don't combust into flames when you wear a cross. You don't have to take off your stuff every time we hang out" and Liu would get flustered about it.

If this relationship were to exist within a universe where all the creeps live in a mansion-type thing, I think Liu would not step foot into that house - mostly cause the house is weird or because his brother is there ( and he does NOT want to talk to his ass ). So either EJ and them plan something to do together out of the house or they do phone calls like lovesick teenagers.

However, since I interpret Liu would just drive around in different cars he stole, maybe he would tolerate the house. At least for a temporary home if he needs to just, not drive around like he's on the run all the time. Maybe in that scenario, they could hang out face to face more.

I do headcanon that EJ has that classic interpretation of him having interesting anatomy ( multiple tongues, demonic appearance, etc ). I don't think Liu would really question it cause he would pick up EJ doesn't really wanna talk about it, and if EJ won't question his scars, he won't either.

Though, that does give me a cute thought of them feeling each other's scars in a tender moment of vulnerability. Very rare moment of them just being alone and safe enough to actually, I dunno, actually see each other equally ( EJ only hearing, but not exactly being brave enough to actually touch Liu - again, old wounds he won't even dare touch without making sure it's completely fine)

I don't think either of them would be comfortable with PDA, especially when it comes to a universe where all the creeps live in a house. I don't think they would be overly defensive about their relationship, but if someone were to confront them about it, they would deny it. I don't think they would be comfortable exposing a bunch of creeps to their shit, man.

Tbh, other than their trauma and both of their situations, they are generally just a regular couple. Or they treat each other like a normal couple. None of them kill together cause Liu is uncomfortable with that and EJ already feels bad enough killing someone for survival - why subject someone he cares about to that brutality ( even if Liu has seen enough of it, but its the thought that counts )

Smooches and cuddles are behind a locked door and key. Fucker's are serious about privacy, even if it's just innocent cuddles. Just, no.

I think the two would listen to audio books together - maybe Liu not being interested while EJ listens intently, so Liu just kinda enjoys the company instead of listening to whatever medical thing EJ's watching.

kay thats all i have for now. feel free to give me thoughts in asks or something - i wanna hear more thoughts about this relationship and your interps of it tbh

[prodigal-explorer]

to celebrate together - a sanders sides fanfiction

this is a cute fluffy fic (for the most part) about human versions of the sides discussing easter, ramadan, and passover, three very prominent holidays from three different religions during the springtime!

(cws -> brief mention of anti-semetism, brief mention of anti-semetic hate crimes, honestly there are brief moments of insensitivity towards all three religions mentioned (christianity/catholicism, islam, and jewish) but they are genuine moments of confusion and not in bad faith! this fic is about learning and growing and respecting other religions, so there is a bit of a learning curve.)

word count: 2.9k

(also, i know i usually write a lot of unsympathetic patton which may deter some people. it will comfort these people to know that patton is not unsympathetic in this fic! he's actually a cool guy! so don't worry about that.)

Everyone in the house knew that Easter was one of Patton’s favorite holidays by now. They had only been living together for a few months, but it was obvious from the new way Patton carried himself in the springtime. He bought a lot of Easter-themed furniture, so by the time March 1st rolled around, the house was covered head to toe in eggs, bunnies, baskets, chicks, and crosses. Lots of crosses. 

“Why are there a bunch of plus signs everywhere?” Roman had dared to ask one day, “Logan, is this one of your math projects?” 

“You seriously don’t know what a cross is?” Patton asked, his eyes wide with shock, “Oh, that’s right. You’re balsamic.” 

“Uh…Islamic,” Roman corrected awkwardly, “Me and Remus just say we’re Muslim. And I know what a cross is, I just didn’t know that it was one of those. They really do look like plus signs with a big tail. What are they all for?” 

“Well, they’re Easter decorations!” Patton explained readily, “Since Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, we have crosses here to commemorate all he sacrificed for his people.” 

“Wow,” Roman said, a smile forming on his face, “I guess Jesus must have been pretty brave.” 

“He’s not just brave, Roman,” Patton said, “He died for us. The least we can do is celebrate him.” 

“Yeah, that seems fair,” Roman said, still gazing around the colorful, decked out area with a gentle, somewhat cautious curiosity that was generally unlike him. He seemed to sense that this was sensitive territory. “So…why do you guys celebrate Easter the way you do? With the bunnies and the eggs? Did Jesus really like sunny side up or something? Did he have a pet bunny?” 

“Come on,” Patton said, “I want to tell everyone about this!” 

Roman grinned and followed Patton into the living room, where the others were sitting and chatting. Logan was on the recliner, working on a grocery list, while Janus and Remus were on the ground, playing Go-Fish. Virgil was spread across the couch, scrolling through his phone. 

“Guys, Patton’s gonna teach us about Easter!” Roman said, “Like, why they use the eggs and stuff.” 

“It’s because of Jesus,” Logan droned tiredly, staring up at Patton, “Is this really necessary?” 

“Of course it’s necessary, Logan!” Patton chastised, “It’s the most important event of springtime!” 

Virgil tilted his head. “But what about Passover?” 

“Pass-what?” Patton said, clearly confused, “No, we’re talking about Easter. What’s passover?” 

“I like Layat Al-Qadr best,” Remus shrugged, “It’s the only night of the year where I can get Roman to shut up.” 

“Hey!” Roman protested, “Oh, I have an idea! We’ll have a contest. Each of us will talk about what we think is the most important event of springtime, and then we’ll hold a vote!” 

“I suppose we can do that,” Janus said, “Logan and I don’t celebrate any of these things, so we will be neutral voters. We don’t have any emotional attachment to any of the options.” 

“Perfect!” Patton said, “And we’ll start with Easter, because Easter is-”

“Fat chance,” Virgil said, “Everyone already knows everything about Easter. It’s the only holiday that Americans give a shit about. It’s all over the supermarkets, it gets all the attention and respect. You don’t even know what Passover is, and do you even know that Ramadan exists?” 

“Of course I know what ramen is, I had some for dinner last night,” Patton said. 

The room was silent for a second. 

“Virgil has a point,” Logan said, but when Patton pouted, Logan continued, “But we can still hear Patton out. He may say something we don’t know about yet. Besides, if we’re going to keep this vote objective, we need to hear out every option with equal respect and attention. Can we do that?” 

“Yeah, sorry, Pat,” Virgil said softly.

“Sure,” Remus said, “Tell us about how Jesus got nailed on a cross.” 

“Why would I tell you about that if you already know that part?” Patton asked with a disgusted expression. 

“Cuz it’s the coolest part,” Remus replied with a toothy grin. 

“Well…you’re not entirely wrong,” Patton said, growing excited as he started again to speak, “Easter is the holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus! It’s celebrated every springtime, after the first full moon of spring. Jesus was arrested by Jewish leaders, and he was sentenced to death on the cross for trying to lead his people.” 

“Interesting,” Janus mumbled, narrowing his eyes a bit, “Jewish leaders. That was an interesting detail to mention. Why does that matter to you, Pat?” 

“Anyway,” Patton said icily before continuing the story, “A man named Joseph asked these leaders to take Jesus down from the cross after he died, in order to bury him properly. They allowed it, and Joseph buried Jesus in a stone tomb. But three days later, when people came to put spices on Jesus’ body, they found that he was gone!” 

“So Jesus wasn’t actually dead??” Roman asked, clearly shocked by that twist in the story. 

“Well, of course he’s not dead,” Patton said, “That’s the entire point of Easter, buddy! Jesus was resurrected. Easter is a holiday that represents rebirth. There’s always hope, and Jesus will always be there for us. Even during the darkest times, and even in the face of death.” 

“Jesus is badass,” Remus remarked, “But that still doesn’t explain why there are eggs, though.” 

“Oh! Another part of Easter is something called Lent,” Patton said, “In the 40 days leading up to Easter Sunday, Christians and Catholics celebrate Lent, which is a time of prayer and resisting temptation from sin. People sometimes give up things that they consider to be sinful during Lent. It’s a mindful thing. Right now, I’m giving up alcohol. And back in the medieval times, eggs weren’t allowed during Lent, so on Easter Sunday, eggs were used to signify that Lent has passed on by. Also, eggs…they represent rebirth in a way.” 

“Don’t they just represent birth?” Logan asked. 

“Well, I guess, but…come on, Logan! You like the egg salad I make every easter!”

“Your egg salad is quite good.” 

“That’s what I thought.” 

“Easter is pretty cool,” Virgil said, “That’s really cool, actually.” 

“So you think it’s better than your day?” Patton asked hopefully. 

Virgil laughed. “Good one. Easter sounds awesome and all, but nothing beats Passover.” 

“What’s that one?” Roman asked eagerly, “Why’s it called Passover? Do you play basketball or something?” 

“Okay, where the heck did basketball come from?” Janus asked. 

“I mean…you pass over the ball. In basketball,” Roman replied. 

“No basketball,” Virgil chuckled, “It’s actually called Passover for a bit of a complicated reason. I’ll start from the beginning. This story starts in Egypt. The pharaoh, who is basically the leader of Egypt, didn’t like Jewish people, and he didn’t want too many Jewish people living in Egypt. So he enslaved all the Jews who currently lived there, and ordered that all Jewish babies who are birthed in Egypt get killed.” 

Roman’s eyes widened, and he started to feel a bit sick. 

“But why?” he demanded, “The Jewish babies didn’t even do anything!” 

“You’d be surprised what people do to people who are different,” Virgil replied in a mutter, “Anyway, one Jewish woman decided that she wouldn’t let her baby die. She hid her baby in a basket and put him into the river, to float away to somewhere safer. The pharaoh's daughter found the baby, and decided to take him in. His name was Moses.” 

“Oh! Moses!” Roman cried out in recognition, “Like the movie, like the movie The Prince Of Egypt!” 

Virgil smiled slightly and nodded. 

“Yeah,” he said, “Yeah, like that movie. That’s a good movie if you guys want to learn more about Moses.” 

“And listen to some amazing songs by Stephen Schwartz!” Roman added. 

“Roman, let’s let Virgil finish, okay?” Logan said, and Roman reluctantly nodded, turning his attention back to Virgil. 

“Anyway, Moses grew up, and found out that he was Jewish, and he came from a Jewish family. He saw how horribly his people were being treated, and when he killed a slave master, he ran away to the desert,” Virgil continued, “There, he found a burning bush, and the bush talked to him. The bush basically said that he was God, and he was going to help Moses set the Jewish people free. But when Moses came back and told the pharaoh this, the pharaoh refused, over and over. And every time the pharaoh refused, God sent down a different plague, or curse, to Egypt.” 

“But that’s not fair,” Patton protested, “The rest of the people didn’t even do anything.” 

“Well, I don’t disagree,” Virgil said, “But God wasn’t feeling very forgiving after having his people enslaved for years. He knew that there was no other way to convince the pharaoh.” 

“Yeah, if you’re gonna get mad at anyone, get mad at the pharaoh,” Janus said, “He was the stubborn son of a bitch who wouldn’t set free the slaves. He put his people in danger by doing that just because he wanted more free labor.” 

“There were a lot of plagues because the pharaoh kept saying no,” Virgil explained, “And the tenth plague was a curse called the angel of death, a curse that would kill the first-born child of every home. In order to protect the innocent families, God told Moses to tell anyone who would listen to paint over their door with lamb’s blood. If the door was painted over, then the curse would pass over them, and nobody would die. Passover, see?” 

Roman nodded, his eyes widening as he was enraptured in the story. “Passover,” he repeated. 

“The Israelites listened to Moses, but a lot of others in Egypt didn’t, including the Pharaoh,” Virgil said, a bit sadly, “It sucked. They all had to learn the hard way. If they had just listened to Moses, nobody would have died. If the pharaoh had just let the Israelites go the first time, then none of the plagues would have had to happen. But stricken with grief after his firstborn son died, the pharaoh finally let the Israelites go, and they were freed from slavery.” 

“So that’s the story of Passover,” Logan said, “How is it celebrated?” 

“Well, it’s celebrated for eight days,” Virgil explained, “Seven if you’re in Israel. But here in America, it’s eight. On the first night of Passover, Jewish families have a Passover seder, which is a big dinner where we pray and sing, and we tell stories from a book called the Haggadah. All families celebrate a little differently, but for the most part, we do that stuff. I remember when I was little, my mom would always give me a sip of her wine.”

“Damn, just a sip?” Remus asked with a little laugh, “Shoulda given you a whole cup. Imagine a drunk little Virgil stumbling around.” 

“That would have been cool,” Virgil admitted, “Me and my cousins would drink grape juice and pretend to be drunk. After all the serious stuff was over, of course. A big part of Passover is discussing current events. Unfortunately, most places in the world aren’t very Jew-friendly. Even here in America, there are a lot of hate crimes. Actually…” 

Roman noticed with horror that Virgil was getting teary-eyed. 

“Virgil?” Logan asked quietly, “What’s wrong?” 

“I’m sorry,” Virgil said, trying to wipe away his tears before they fell, “This is hard to talk about. The synagogue that my family went to when I was a kid before I moved here, it- a few years ago- it- it got burnt down.” 

“Burnt down,” Janus realized, “As in…someone did it. On purpose.” 

Virgil nodded, his eyes completely downcast. He was crying, but his face was hardened, almost angry. But not quite. He seemed too sad to be angry. 

“All the drawings the kids made. All the food that people donated. All the copies of the Torah,” he whispered, “It was all gone in one night. My parents still can’t talk about it without crying. I guess I can’t either.” 

“I’ve never heard of anyone burning down a religious building like that,” Patton said softly, “That’s horrible.” 

“Yeah? That’s cuz they don’t burn down your stuff,” Janus said quietly, putting a hand on Virgil’s shoulder, “I’m sorry, Virgil. You…don’t deserve that. Nobody deserves that. No matter what.” 

“Don’t let me stop you from continuing the competition,” Virgil said, “Remus, I wanna hear about yours. What is this one day that can get Roman to shut up?” 

“Do we really have to bring that joke back?” Roman asked, too amused to be sore. 

“Well, the night I was talking about, Layat Al-Qadr, is just one night of Ramadan,” Remus started to explain, “Ramadan’s actually about a month long.” 

“A whole month?” Logan asked, “Wow. That’s a lot longer than Easter and Passover.” 

“Not if you count Lent,” Patton pointed out. 

“Layat Al-Qadr is the 27th day of Ramadan,” Roman continued, “And you pray the whole entire night, pretty much. We ask Allah to forgive us for the mistakes we made, and we hope that he says yes.” 

“How do you know if he says yes?” Logan asked, tilting his head slightly. 

Roman shrugged. “You don’t. That’s why you have to believe.” 

“That sounds kinda boring, praying for the whole night,” Janus admitted, “Is that seriously the only thing you do?” 

“I was worried it would be boring too,” Roman admitted, “But it’s actually really cool. You’d be surprised how therapeutic it is. It feels nice, talking to someone who you know will always listen. Reflecting on all the stuff you did, and figuring out how to do better without worrying about anyone getting mad at you or hating you.” 

“And we also have iftar,” Remus said, “It’s like a giant meal, and we get to spend time with family while breaking our fast.” 

“Wait, wait- you fast?” Virgil asked, “For an entire month?” 

“It’s not so bad,” Remus shrugged, “Especially because we have iftar, and we usually eat a little bit in the morning. Breaking the fast together as a family during iftar is cool, because, like, everybody’s breaking it at the same time. So it’s like- we all are hungry together, and then we all become satisfied together. It’s pretty cool.” 

“We also have five prayers that we say every day,” Roman added, “Along with an extra one at night. The prayers are the really important part because it’s so traditional. It’s been done for so many years before us, it’s like…passing down a torch. We don’t want to forget about it. So we do it to honor the people before us, so that hopefully, the people after us have something in common with us when they celebrate Ramadan.” 

“Well, when you explain it like that, it sounds really cool,” Virgil admitted. 

“I used to think prayer was weird, and kinda culty,” Janus mumbled, clearly a bit ashamed, “But…it actually sounds awesome. Mindful, you know?” 

“Wait, where does Ramadan come from anyway?” Patton asked, “Like the fasting and the praying. Who started it?” 

“It was started by the Prophet Muhammad,” Roman said eagerly, “He’s this really cool guy who told us what Allah wanted for the Muslim people. And Ramadan is the month on the Muslim calendar where Muhammad found the Quran, which is our holy book. It’s sort of like Patton’s bible and Virgil’s Torah.” 

“Oh, gotcha,” Patton said. 

“To be more specific, it’s the ninth month of our calendar,” Remus said, “But also, it depends on the moon. It’s like a thing. To try and spot the Ramadan moon. Roman and I did it a few times when we were younger.” 

“It’s hard to do it now,” Roman said, “There’s so much artificial light in this city. But once it’s high enough in the sky, we can see it great. It’s so cool, feeling like you discovered something.” 

“And we fast because Muhammad told us to, basically,” Remus said, “It’s one of the five pillars of Islam, fasting during Ramadan. And like Roman said, the Muslim people have done it for thousands and thousands of years. So it feels really awesome to continue it today. Even if it leaves us a little hungry and cranky sometimes.” 

“You guys should come to iftar sometime,” Roman said, “A bunch of our Muslim friends and us all come together and eat and talk and laugh, and just enjoy each other’s company.” 

“It sounds amazing,” Virgil said, “Kinda like Passover seder.” 

Remus nudged Virgil gently, smiling over at him. 

“Hey, yeah!” he said. 

“And Easter Sunday!” Patton piped up. 

“Maybe all our events have more in common than we think,” Roman said, “I mean, all of them have cool stories, and big dinners, and just…that festive attitude. That feeling of carrying on a tradition that’s so much bigger than yourself.” 

“Do we even need a vote, then?” Logan asked, “I don’t know what to vote for. All of those events sound lovely.” 

“I agree,” Janus said, “Maybe we can vote on something else. Like what movie to watch tonight?” 

“I vote The Prince Of Egypt!” Roman cried out, “Virgil made me think about it, and now all the songs are in my head!” 

“Oh! I’ll make some egg salad for dinner!” Patton said, “It’s the 21st century, we’re allowed to eat eggs during Lent now!” 

“Maybe I’ll bring in the leftover date cookies from yesterday’s iftar,” Remus said. 

“Yes, those are so good!” Roman agreed, “And I wrapped them in foil, so they should still taste fresh!” 

Virgil smiled and closed his eyes, wiping away his residual tears gently as he listened to his friends ramble and scramble to celebrate together. Maybe tonight, this strange amalgamation of Easter, Ramadan, and Passover, the mutual respect and admiration for these three holidays, was their most important event of the springtime.

--

(i hope you all enjoyed this fic!! during times like these especially, it is so important to remember that every religion is beautiful and valid, and every religious holiday ought to be respected! now, i am not catholic, christian, muslim, or jewish. i wrote about these holidays after doing extensive research from multiple sources for each, but if i got anything wrong, please please let me know and i will correct it to the best of my ability. i promise i want to learn and grow, just like these guys, so if something is inaccurate, please tell me if you feel so inclined, and i will take what you say into account!!)

(have an amazing spring, no matter what you celebrate!!)

[territorialufo]

i give in can you tell me about that little iphone binch

YESS YES I CAN TELL YOU ABOUT THE LITTLE IPHONE BINCH !!!!!!!!! this is literally just rambling im so sorry. There's a lot of text blocks in the beginning but the end has more pics and silly stuff 

Also ii spoilers but its hard to talk abt mephone without getting into the recent stuff so whatever 

Under cut cause this got. Really long. whoops

Context/background of II/mephone 

“Inanimate Insanity” (ii) is a web animation originally released in 2011, considered the second “major” object show after BFDI. btw an object show is a genre of web series that features anthropomorphized inanimate objects competing for some kind of prize. I am NOT the right person to ask about object shows cause the only one ive ever been invested in to this extent is ii and theres SOO many other ones out there LMAO. Ok sorry i sounded like a bot for a second there JUST PROVIDING CONTEXT!! Inanimate Insanity’s structure is kind of interesting because it starts out as a silly comedy in s1 and most of s2 before descending into a really drama heavy storyline, with tension caused both by mephone’s past haunting him and conflict between the contestants themselves. Then suddenly s2 goes on a four year hiatus and animationepic (main youtube channel) launches s3 with new characters and artstyle, seemingly completely ditching the plot they had in s2??? IM NOT GONNA GET TOO INTO ALL THAT but it all works out timeline wise so its chill the tone switch was just rly funny at the time 😭😭😭 

ANYWAYYYY mephone. Mephone4. Mister phone. Four. The one and only four. MeFon! MePhone4 (parodying the IPhone4) is the de facto host of the in-universe reality show “Inanimate Insanity”!! As the host, he has speaking lines in nearly every episode which is super awesome and epic for mephone4 enjoyers (me). His initial vibe was inspired by Chris McClean from TDI, and was even voiced by Christian Potenza in the first episode before being switched to Mark Katz, who is the father of the creator of II, Adam Katz, which is also pretty cool i think. Since Mark Katz is a grown ass dude, mephone just has. The same voice for like the entire series SHDHF everyone else’s voices are changing and stuff as the creators got older but mephone just sounds like a middle aged man for all of it 😭I love it tho this isn’t a criticism!!! As the years go by it gets more and more expressive :) s1 is. rough. considering it was made by a bunch of kids, its very much a product of its time lol

Lore/character 

Ok lore time cause the thing w mephone is most of his backstory was kind of just hinted at (or implied with the existence of Apple irl). Like in s1 there was the introduction of mephone4s and 5, but otherwise, not much (as far as I can remember. I watched s1 when i was a kid so its been a while lmao). Then there was s2e8 where the contestants go to headquarters and we meet steve cobs (yes, like steve jobs), who’s his creator and dad?? Again some hints are dropped but nothing concrete about their relationship. And then BOOM. SEASON 2 EPISODE 13. “Mine Your Own Business” was my fave II ep for sooo long (idk what my fave is now tbh) cause THE MEPHONE LORE DROP??????? IT WAS CRAZY and also the ending of the episode with fan’s monologue and the soundtrack “shell of a fan” is my fave in the show ANYWAY ANYWAY so begins the remembering of the Horrors. 

He was “born” in Meeple Headquarters, and PLEASE KNOW THAT HE WAS BORN AN ADULT OH MY GOD there are some clowns who think hes literally 14 years old bc thats how old the iphone4 is USE YOUR BRAIN USE YOUR BRAIN AAAAA right so he basically knows nothing about the world, confined to headquarters until his eventual escape. Cobs and mephone have a pretty interesting dynamic, where cobs has most of the power. The way Cobs praises mephone but later shoots him down is so AUHGHGHGH. It’s an oppressive environment he's living in, only expected to do assigned tasks and shamed for any genuine interests, while having the pressure to impress his creator on his shoulders at the threat of being discarded. Mephone grows to hate and fear cobs, but at the same time, cobs is the only person whos known him since the beginning.

The way literally every problem mephone has can be traced back to his origin/how he was raised is so crazy. Like even before the s2e16 twist, it was extremely prevalent??? There are a bunch of analysis posts that explain it way better than I could but MANNNN for a show that the crew started when they were literally 13, they were able to tie things together pretty well, i think! 

It’s been pretty obvious since s2e13 that hosting Inanimate Insanity is just one big escapist fantasy for mephone, one where he is free to do as he pleases while ignoring all the trauma he sustained in “childhood”. Cause it’s implied he escaped Meeple, deleted his bad memories, and then started s1 right after. I mean, it makes sense, since outside of the cold, mechanical nature of Meeple, the only warmth he got was from his enjoyment of reality tv shows. If s1 is an amnesia mephone, and s2 is a spiraling mephone, then I’d describe s3 as “escapism but worse” mephone. It doesn’t ever get as gloomy as s2, but s3 has steady background reminders of “hey guys remember mephone is running away from all his problems right now!!” until it all comes to head in the finale. Some ppl dislike how mephone-centric the show’s gotten, but honestly idgaf more for me

I do want to say that he is very flawed, though. Esp near the beginning, he is really fucking rude and does not respect his contestants at all and frequently belittles them and puts them in mortal danger. he tends to view them and everything that happens to them through the lens of “its just part of the show!!!!”. He tends to brush off everyone’s problems, no matter how serious, even when he’s the one that caused them.

His reality show host personality is all a very big facade to cover up how he feels about the past (thus further submerging him in the fantasy of Inanimate Insanity). Like previous users have mentioned, this is likely due to the fact that he had no one to learn HOW to be empathetic/kind from besides reality television (which is known to be exaggerated for drama) and cobs (who is his abuser) But I famously do enjoy characters who are kind of dickheads, the confidence being a mask is like a tasty bonus to me.

The dichotomy between his arrogant host exterior and paranoid/anxious interior is really interesting and fun to watch. Compared to his relatively sweet/naive beginning personality, it’s wild to see just how much he’s changed since then because of everything that’s happened.  His relationships with the rest of the characters is also interesting, cause despite being their host, he isn’t very close with a lot of them. Other than maybe Bot, who I believe he feels kinship with since they're both robots who freed themselves from the expectations of others. Same with Mepad, since they’re both from Meeple. 

He’s a robot, but in an emotional/psychological sense, is basically a normal person/object (person is synonymous with object in this case). He feels like a person despite being an AI. which makes cobs a lot worse imo, he mistreats all his creations, but at least the other newer mephones are barely “feeling” at all, unlike 4.

Basically, 

Cobs: i have engineered a machine that is functionally a person

Everyone: you fucked up a perfectly good phone is what you did. Look at him. He’s got ptsd. 

Not to get too into ii16/17, but they basically recontextualized the entire series and made what we initially thought about mephone’s escapist tendencies and origins a million times worse. Bro was so tormented he subconsciously made his OCs come to life 😭😭😭all while projecting all his issues onto them??? Psychologically sound individual activities. Additionally, the way he was created is also. Terrible. Cobs basically invaded an alien planet, kidnapped an alien kid, and then presumably used its energy to create mephone4. Outer space colonization? In MY object show? yes!

Ok now im just gonna talk about random stuff i like about him  

His powers are so cool.,.,,. Esp as a foil to cobs/mephonex, who could represent destruction, he represents creation with his generation ability. Also something abt using his powers for non violent reasons when his creation was built upon violence uhh idk. And I think the screen turning green and the sound effect is very satisfying dlsjkfg. Oh and the fact that he canonically had to practice to get better at it? In the flashbacks he’s shown having trouble generating even a simple tree, and now he can make pretty much anything with minimal effort. 

Also MeLife, which allows him to bring contestants back from the dead, is an ability unique to him, which is super cool!!

He can create portals as well and this is never explained. He can just suddenly do it KDLJFGH this kind of renders Mepad’s teleportation ability useless but it's still fun. 

I like when he uses his face as an actual screen :)

Something something robot related stuff

He is not waterproof and will malfunction or even die when wet

His speaking function can be disabled by other people

Glitches while talking sometimes!! Delightful 

Something that gets overlooked often I think is the s1 finale, where mephone4S (mephone4's brother) basically killed himself to save mephone4 by downgrading his own OS. Technically, mephone isn’t even in his original body anymore, he’s inhabiting his brother’s. Fun!

this is unrelated but he got shot in the face with a gun once. there havent been any guns since unfortunately

Get yoinked idiot 

In conclusion, 

I heart him and im sad ii is gonna be ending soon thx for reading

[mlobsters]

supernatural s14e1 stranger in a strange land (w. andrew dabb)

pre-ep recap being ac/dc shot down in flames much better fit than metallica's nothing else matters from 13x01 vibe-wise and matching the pace of the clips. good job, guys. and smooth segue to it being on in the car

s14e1 / the matrix

wtf jackles, what is this speaking voice/cadence. reminds me of keanu reeves?? usually when i make really out there sound associations, i'm a little high. but that is not the case today. he's acting more like an agent than neo, but getting the keanu vibes :p i can't think of what movie specifically i'm thinking of. the devil's advocate and constantine are the other two keanu movies i've seen a bunch, but i dunno

never good when i'm pulling a clip in the first few minutes 🥴 gonna be a 2-3 day watch i'm guessing.

also don't really understand the styling choices. i get that it helps make a big visual difference between michael and dean, but like. dude wasn't dressing like this old timey fancy man with a flat cap in the au world. is this 20s-ish? never seen peaky blinders but this seems kinda similar? reading about collar pins and bars now. lol

is this the grief beard i've heard about. well maintained, if so

MARY Sam, we’re gonna find him. Ketch is working that thing in London. Castiel is in Detroit. I know it’s been three weeks since Dean… Something will break. It has to. SAM Yeah. Yeah, you keep saying that.

so like why does sam need to be in charge and involved in this vampire thing with this bunker full of people? they were fully self organized and fighting before they came here. even if sam is de facto leader for whatever reason; delegate, my guy. no help to anyone if you're not sleeping. call jody in, i bet she could talk some sense into him. also vaguely funny that we're all Team Family Go! but the family i connect with the most for them is jody and her girls

CASTIEL Does any demon know where Dean Winchester is? KIPLING I’m sorry, did you just say you lost a Winchester? Because, one -- that’s… interesting. And, two, how is that you lost Dean? I thought the two of you were joined at the… [Kipling glances down in a suggestive way.] …you know, everything.

in a way i wish i could have watched this without any knowledge of fandom because my knee jerk response is, ew. because i just don't see anything between dean and cas, i have a hard time grasping they're even close, i've just tried to accept it because the show tells us all the time. but maybe i could have come around to it more if i didn't know about the screaming zeitgeist that is destiel. or maybe i'd have the same reaction, i don't know. but anyway perpetually disgruntled knowing that my reaction is always colored somewhat due to fandom. i try to watch objectively but i know my feelings on things outside the show color my feelings of stuff inside the show

oh, cas. what have you gotten yourself into this time.

mmmk

SISTER JO Why would he say “yes” to you? MICHAEL Love.

short and sweet

man i know jackles is trying to do something different but i do not enjoy the way he's speaking as michael. ok now i'm getting umm. brad pitt in interview with the vampire?? like when he's talking to what's his face. for the interview. lol. christian slater! kind of slow, flat fairly emotionless narration.

um. how in the world is nick's soul in his vessel? didn't crowley remake it or whatever? or did he not die at any point in the ... 7 years intervening between lucifer dumping him in s5 and getting popped back in during s12

from 12x13 CROWLEY I managed to pervert that spell. So your essence wasn't sent back to the cage, but instead, we found your discarded vessel a few years ago… repaired it, improved it, making it a fitting final home for the real you.

whatever, man. nothing makes sense to me anymore. also thinking about jimmy novak called being possessed by castiel like "being chained to a comet" - for all those years

NICK Ow. I don't get it. I don't understand how Lucifer could die and I could live. SAM Yeah, um… I think that maybe it's because the archangel blades were made to kill the archangel inside a-and not the person they, uh -- NICK Possesses and uses to almost end the world twice?

sure. SURE. that makes sense. not at all how anything else ever works on this show, but sure! i mean, i love mark pellegrino too but come on, guys.

SAM Stop saying that, please. MARY What? SAM “It's gonna be fine,” that everything's gonna be fine, we're gonna find Dean, and -- MARY We are. SAM You don't know that. Dean's gone, and we have no idea where he is or -- or if he's even still alive. You know, Michael could have… burned him out or… worse, and… MARY I know. I know he's out there, scared and alone. I know. I know he might never come back. Never think I don't know that. But -- I can't -- I have to think about the good, Sam, because, if I don't, I will drown in the bad. For Dean's sake, I can't do that. We can't do that.

that's fine and reasonable but it's also reasonable that sam doesn't want to hear a baseless placation.

jack getting a grandpa bobby now too apparently

completely zoning out on this demon monologuing. why did they bring the girl along who isn't a hunter. what happened to the devil's trap bullets? and couldn't they make the bullets made out of the angel blades they had on the au world? because with all the dead angels they surely must have a stockpile. wouldn't get this several minute action sequence with fake tension though so

SAM Enough! There will be no new King of Hell. Not today. Not ever. And if anybody wants the job, you can come through me. Understood? (breathing heavily) So, what's it gonna be?

lol okay

SAM It's the -- It's the magic egg that kicked Lucifer out of the President. I thought we could use it on Michael, but -- Ketch can't find it. So, that's another dead end, which is just awesome.

i'm glad the show remembered because i completely forgot about that thing. thanks for preemptively ruling it out

CASTIEL Sam, are you all right? SAM Yeah, I've been better. I've been worse. You? CASTIEL I'm -- I'm just sorry. I should never have gone to those demons. SAM Cass, I -- No, I-I-I don't blame you. I… Honestly, I-I wish I'd have thought of it first. If it meant finding Dean, I-I'd work with -- I'd do anything.

❤️ take what i can get. (still need to sleep, sammy)

MICHAEL Now, you -- you know exactly what you want. You don't pretend to want to help people or save the world. Your want is pure and simple and clean. And that's why you are worth saving. That's why we are going to work so well together. Because you -- you just want to eat.

LOL what. michael loves vampires!

!! omg lol i just reread my 13x23 with my whole "can't kill michael now that he's wearing dean" is that the whole reason we get pellegrino back as nick, so we can find out that archangel blades don't kill the vessel?? 😂

[cardsagainstthelibrarians]

Hi! I always love your librarians posts so I wanted to ask but I hope this hasn’t been asked before. I know everyone is talking about how the next chapter could go since Jake stone is the only returning character. Do you think they’ll mention Eve at all? I mean I feel like Eve had such an influence on all the librarians so for Jake to be the only one returning I would hope they would reference his development into a librarian somehow (without just saying the others got killed off/ eve tied to the library etc). I think I’m just gonna really miss the mamma bear Eve energy with the other librarians. Jake will obviously be a more developed character depending on how long it’s been since the show has ended so I’m curious how they’re going to explain the new librarians and guardian. (@no-e-estelle posted something earlier about how there should be more librarians world wide so I’m hoping this might play into it and they’re all just fine and Eve is chillin in the library or something).

I hope this ramble made sense. Thank you for any response I love talking the librarians rn it’s time for a rewatch!

Okay so bear with me with me if I sound rambly...I just woke up and am lying in bed trying to pysch myself up to get up and get dressed for work but decided to answer this now.

I personally do agree that yeah it's gonna be kind of weird if they really truly do only show Stone and never even mention the others...and yeah, Eve, Jenkins, and Flynn were my favorites from the first TV series (okay, Eve, Jenkins, Flynn and Moriarty but I'm trying to think about the mains before I think of him) but I have a few theories about what could happen.

1. Theory one is the one we don't want which is that they really are just going to show mention Jake. I try not to think about this one too much because as mentioned before Jake is my least favorite and I see Christian Kane as a generic actor who plays the same general character over and over again. But also it would just feel...weird.

2. Theory two as to why they just seem to show/mention Jake. Most of the main actors in the new series are British. Maybe I'm the only one who noticed it because I got sucked into a bunch of British TV by random despite living in the Midwest, but this gives the implication that this new series might not take place in Portland...I guess Stone's the one they were able to put on lone and he might seem like a good supplement for busy Eve because she taught him the fighting stuff.

3. Kind of ties in with two, but what if Stone won't be the only one guesting at times, but he's the one we were told about. We know Noah Wyle will be there in a behind the scenes/brains capacity so he might be coming up with storyline. Also, not to circle back to British TV but there's a show I watch that finished the 13th season a couple months ago. At the start of the season a couple months ago. You know which notable guest star we knew about beforehand? One of the main actress's biological son (which no ragging on him...I was super excited to see him). You know who else appeared? Past character A who was giving birth on another continent. Past character B who lived on a different island. Past character C who had been traveling the world and is again a series lead. Past character D who had been in witness protection. Which is to say maybe there will be others but they're just good at keeping them under wraps.