#Such a hated letter it doesn’t have a Greek root because there is no Greek equivalent

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

can someone tell me what Tolkien had against the letter j

[jayoctodot]

The Silent Patient vs The Maidens

I will start by saying that I understand the appeal of these novels as page-turners. They are easy to read and if you want a twisty reveal at the end, you will probably be entertained and satisfied. That being said, I am SO CONFUSED by the near-universal adoration of The Silent Patient and the reasonably positive reception of The Maidens. The weaknesses of the two are strikingly similar, as well, which doesn’t give me much hope of seeing improvement from this guy, though I am intrigued to see whether he keeps repeating the same (apparently successful!!) patterns. These books were at least super fun to hate.

(For context, I read The Maidens for a bookclub I'm in, because several of the members had read and loved The Silent Patient, and one of them gave me a copy of the latter to read on my own time. I loathed The Maidens and then read The SP for comparative purposes. And because I'm a masochist, apparently.)

SPOILER WARNING! Do not read on unless you've finished both books (or unless you care not for spoilers). Sorry if it gets a bit shouty.

Here are the similar weaknesses I noticed in both:

PSEUDO-PSYCHOLOGY

-> Weirdly similar “group therapy” scenes early on where a cartoonishly unstable patient arrives late, disrupts the meeting by throwing something into the middle of the circle, and is asked to join the group after the therapist(s) speechify on the importance of boundaries (HA! None of these therapists would know an appropriate boundary if it kicked them in the ass) and debate whether to “allow” the patient to join. Both scenes are so transparent in their design to establish the credibility/legitimacy of the narrators as therapists, but instead both Theo and Mariana come off as super patronizing. The protagonists are less and less believable as therapists at the stories progress (though at least Theo’s incompetence is explained away by the “twist” at the end; Mariana, on the other hand, is confronted in the opening pages of the novel by a patient who has self-harmed PRETTY extensively, and rather than ensure he get proper medical attention, she essentially throws him a first aid kit and tosses him out the door so she can pour herself a glass of wine and call her niece... and it devolves from there).

-> Ongoing insistence throughout the narrative that one’s childhood trauma entirely explains the warped/dysfunctional way a character behaves or views the world, which is why the books go out of their way to give EVERY potentially violent character a traumatic childhood; when Theo insists that no one ever became an abuser who hadn’t been abused themselves, I wanted to throw the book across the room. (That is a MYTH, SIR. GET OUT OF HERE WITH YOUR ARMCHAIR PSYCHOLOGY.)

-> Female murderers whose pathology boils down to “history of depression” and “traumatized by a male loved one/family member.” Because, as we all know, depression + abuse = murderer!

-> The “therapy” depicted in both books is laughable and so so unrealistic, mostly because neither narrators function as therapists so much as incompetent detectives, obsessively pursuing a case they have no place pursuing (or skill to pursue - both just happen across every clue mostly by way of clunky conversation with all the people who can provide precisely the snippet of info to send them along to the next person, and the next… until all is revealed in a tired, cliched “twist”). Their constant Psych 101 asides were so tiresome and weirdly dated (also, the constant harping on countertransference got so ridiculous that at one point during "therapy" Theo literally attributes his headache and a particular emotion he feels to Alicia, as though the contents of her head are being broadcast directly into his mind... and I'm PRETTY SURE that's not how it works???)

CHARACTERS

-> Psychotherapist narrators with abusive fathers and pretensions of being Sherlock Holmes, which results in both characters crossing ALL KINDS of ethical lines as they invade the personal lives of everyone even tangentially connected to their cases (and, in Theo's case, violate all kinds of patient confidentiality. Yeah, yeah, by the end, that's the least of his offenses, but before you get there, it's baffling that NO ONE is calling him out on this).

-> All female characters are either elderly with hilariously bad advice, monstrous hulking brutes, or beautiful bitches (except for ~MARIANA~, who is Bella Swan-esque in her unawareness of her own attractiveness, despite multiple men trying to get with her almost immediately after meeting her. I'm so tired of beautiful female characters being oblivious to their own hotness. Are we meant to believe all mirrors and male attention have escaped their notice? If it’s to make them “relatable,” this tactic really fails with me).

-> All characters of color are shallow, cartoonish side characters, and most of them are depicted as unsympathetic minor antagonists (the Sikh Chief Inspector in The Maidens continuously drinks tea from an ever-present thermos, and his only other notable characteristic is his instant dislike of Mariana, whom he VERY RIGHTLY warns to stay out of the investigation that she is VERY MUCH compromising… the Caribbean manager of the Grove is universally disliked by her staff for enforcing stricter safety regulations at the bafflingly poorly run mental institution, because HOW DARE SHE. There's a very clear vibe that we're supposed to dislike these characters and share the protagonists' indignation, but honestly Sangha/Stephanie were completely in the right for trying to shut down their wildly inappropriate investigations).

-> "Working class" characters (or basically anyone excluded from the comfortably upper-crust, educated main cadre of characters) are few and far between in both stories, but when they show up, he depicts them as such caricatures. We got Elsie the pathologically lying housekeeper in the Maidens, who is enticed to share her bullshit with cake, and then a TOOTHLESS LEPRECHAUN DEALING DRUGS UNDER A BRIDGE in the SP. I kid you not, a man described as having the body of a child, the face of Father Time, and no front teeth, emerges from beneath a bridge and offers to sell Theo some "grass." I was dyinggg.

-> There are no characters to root for. Anywhere. Partly because they’re all so thinly drawn �� and because we’re clearly supposed to view almost ALL of them as potential suspects, so they’re ALL weird, creepy, or incompetent in some way.

-> The flimsiest of flimsy motives, both for the narrators and the murderers. Theo fully would have gotten away with his involvement in the murder if he hadn't gone out of his way to work at the Grove and "treat" Alicia and his justification for doing so is pretty weak; his rapid descent into stalking and murder fantasy and his random ass decision to "expose" Alicia's husband as a cheater with a spur-of-the-moment home invasion and staged attempted homicide is ONLY justified if the reader hand waves it away as WELP, HE'S CRAZY, I GUESS (after all, he DID have an abusive father and a history of mental illness, and in Michaelides novels, that's ALL YOU NEED to become a violent psycho). I guess we're lucky Mariana didn't also start dropping bodies (because the logic of his fictional universe says she should definitely be a murderer by now... maybe that'll be his Maidens sequel?). But she especially had NO reason to randomly turn detective - and she kept trying to justify it by saying she needed to re-enter the world or that Sebastian would want her to (??), even though she had no background in criminal psychology... or even a particular fondness for mysteries (really, I would've accepted ANYTHING to explain her dogged obsession with the case. WHY were Sebastian and Zoe so certain she would insert herself into the investigation just because one of Zoe's friends was the first victim? WHY?). As for Zoe and Alicia, their motives are mere suggestions: they were both abused and manipulated, and voila! Slippery slope to murder.

WRITING STYLE

-> Incessant allusions to Greek tragedy and myth, apparently to provide a sophisticated gloss over the bare-bones writing style, which opts more for telling than showing and frequently indulges in hilariously bizarre analogies. Credit where credit is due — the references to Greek myth are less clunky in the SP, and I liked learning about the Alcestis play/myth, which I hadn’t heard of before - but OMG the entire characterization of Fosca, who we are meant to believe is a professor of Greek tragedy at one of the most respected universities on the planet, is just absurd. His "lecture" on the liminal in Greek tragedy is essentially the Wikipedia page on the Eleusinian Mysteries capped off with some Hallmark-card carpe diem crap. The lecture hall responds with raucous applause, clearly never having heard such vague genius bullshit before.

-> Super clunky and amateurish narrative device of interludes written by another character; Sebastian’s letter reads like a mashup of Dexter monologues and Clarice’s memory of the screaming sheep, but by FAR the worse offender is Alicia’s diary, where we’re supposed to believe she painstakingly recorded ENTIRE CONVERSATIONS, BEAT-BY-BEAT DIALOGUE, even when she’s just been DRUGGED TO THE GILLS with morphine and has mere moments of consciousness left… and even before that, she literally takes the time to write “He's trying the windows and doors! ...Someone’s inside! Someone’s inside the house! ETC ETC” when she thinks her stalker has broken in downstairs. WHO DOES THAT?)

-> Speaking of dialogue, the dialogue is so bad. Based on his bio, Michaelides got a degree in screenwriting, which makes his terrible dialogue even more baffling.

-> HILARIOUSLY rendered voyeur scenes where the narrators spy on couples having sex. Such unintentionally awkward descriptions. First we had Kathy’s climax sounds through the trees and then the bowler hat carefully placed on a tombstone before the gatekeeper plows a student. Again, I died.

PLOT/"TWIST"

-> The CONSTANT red herrings make for such an exhausting read. Michaelides drops anvils with almost every character that are so obviously meant to designate them as suspects in our minds. There is absolutely no subtlety in his misdirections.

-> The “crossover” scene between the SP and The Maidens makes no sense - when in the timeline does Mariana’s story overlap with Theo’s? They confer just before Theo starts working at the Grove, obviously (though Mariana appears to be the one who alerts Theo to the job opening there? Whereas in the SP, Theo has been obsessively tracking Alicia since the murder and had already planned to apply to work there?), but then are we supposed to believe that while Theo has been psychotically pursuing his warped quest to “help” Alicia, he’s also been diligently treating Zoe, so invested in her case that he repeatedly reaches out to Mariana to get her to visit Zoe and even writes Mariana a lengthy letter to convince her to do so??? And then a couple days after The Maidens ends, Theo is arrested???

-> But the thing I really did hate the most is how Michaelides treats his female murderers (who are both also victims themselves) as mere means to deploy a “twist”; there’s no moment spared to encourage our sympathy for Zoe, who was groomed and manipulated by the only trusted father figure in her life, and even after spending a decent amount of time getting to know Alicia via her ridiculous diary, where it’s so apparent that she’s been demeaned, objectified, manipulated, gaslit, and/or used by EVERY man in her life, she’s sent packing to spend the rest of her days in a coma… HOW much more satisfying would it have been for her to succeed in exposing Theo and reclaiming her voice? But no, she basically rolls over when he comes to finish her off (SPEAKING OF — ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THERE ARE NO SECURITY CAMERAS IN THIS INSTITUTE FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE????), writes one last diary entry, and drifts off forever. And then a couple pages of nothing later, the story is over. GOODNIGHT, ALICIA!

Both books kept me rolling throughout (by which I mean eye-rolling but also rotfl). Maybe I will check out his next effort ��� I’m morbidly curious what he’ll turn out. It does leave me wondering whether I should give up on thriller novels entirely, though. Are many of the weaknesses of these novels just characteristic of the genre? Maybe I'm just holding these books to unfair standards? I'm mostly only familiar with thriller films — many of which I think are amazing — but maybe you can get away with more in a film than you can in a novel.

...I really only intended to write a handful of bullet points, but more and more kept coming to mind as I wrote, to the point where subheadings became necessary. Whoopsie.

[axwalker]

Meet my MC: Alexis O’Brien

Thank you for the ask @mskaneko  .  This was so fun!! I got a little carried away...  🙈

Thank you for the tag @debramcg1106​ ❤️

Alexis’s life changes deeply in every AU so I used my canon Alexis to answer these questions. 

1. Name (+ bonus why did you choose that name?)

Alexis O'Brien.  I've always liked the names 'Jade' and 'Alexis.' The last name was a momentary inspiration because I love Ireland.

2.    Faceclaim

The beautiful Valerie Dominguez (aka my on-line girlfriend)

3.    Nicknames

O’Brien / Lexie/ Lex/ Blossom.  

4.    Birthday

April 30th (I headcanon that she's 23 when the Social Season starts.)

5.    Height

She's 1,70 cm (5'57")

6.    Eye color

             Brown

7. Hair color

           Light brown

8.    Love interest (why did she choose this person?)

Drake Walker is the love of her life. Alexis felt deeply attracted to Drake since she met him. Something about the deep voice, the chocolate eyes, and his strong arms. When they started to spend time together, she realized how much they had in common. Their connection quickly became a solid friendship as they confided in each other while drinking whiskey together after every event of the social season. Alexis fell for Drake's sarcastic sense of humor, flirty banter, and intelligence. But her favorite thing about him is his fierce protectiveness and how he tries to act tough and brooding around everyone except for her. Now that they're married, they form an exceptional, unbreakable team.

9.    Best friend

Olivia Nevrakis and Maxwell Beaumont.

10. Personality traits

Alexis is a free-spirit. She's idealistic and passionate about her beliefs. She's very kind and generous, but once her trust is lost is very difficult to get it back. She's adventurous, loves to travel, and has surprised Drake more than once with last-minute weekends and trips. She's very competitive, she and Drake play all the time. She loves books and writing; ancient libraries are her happy place. She's very disorganized and unpunctual. Her head is on the clouds, and she always forgets her keys, or where she parked her car. Her emotions are powerful, she feels everything very intensely.

She's fiercely protective of Drake and her children and would kill for them if necessary.

11. Family background

She's half Mexican, half Irish American.

Her parents, Elena Ortiz and George O'Brien, met in High School. After a five-month relationship, Elena got pregnant. As they both came from an extremely religious background, they got married.

George turned out to be an abusive, rigid, sexist husband. They wasted 10 awful years together, but one morning George left Elena for his assistant and never came back. He has a son with his new wife and rarely sees Alexis. She tried to have a relationship with him until she realized the kind of man her father is.

Alexis grew up happily with her mom and widow grandmother. They had a small Mexican Fonda in Brooklyn.  When Alexis turned 18, her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died only six months later. Her grandmother passed away two years later from an aneurism.

She has a deep-rooted abandonment issue.

12. Hometown

Brooklyn, NY.

13. Education

She has a degree in English Literature. She sold her family's small restaurant and got a job as a waitress to be able to afford a small college in NY. When she met the guys, she was working three different jobs so she could save money to study a master's degree in Literary Translation.

14. What languages does she know?

Alexis is bilingual in English/Spanish and speaks good French. Her French teacher in high school was a sort of mentor for her. She loves languages, so now that she lives in Cordonia, she's trying to learn Greek too. Drake is a great teacher 😉

15. Occupation

Before flying to Cordonia, Alexis gave private Spanish lessons to kids, worked as a waitress at the dive bar where she met Drake, and, on the weekends, she worked as a bartender at an Irish Pub.

In Cordonia, she was the Duchess of Valtoria for a while, but after two hellish years, she and Drake left the 'noble' life. With Drake's support, she went back to school in Cordonia and got her master's degree. For the moment, she works as a Literary Translator, but eventually, she will become a writer.

16. Dream job

Her dream is to write children's books. Her absolute personal hero is J.K. Rowling.

17. Hidden talent

Dancing. Alexis doesn't hide it, though. Dance is her passion, especially Latin music.

She has a superhuman resistance to alcohol. Irish genes.

18. Her strengths

She's hardworking.

She’s determined. 

She's empathic.

She can make friends easily.

19. Her weaknesses

She's very disorganized.

She's stubborn and doesn't forgive easily.

She's highly emotional, which can be a source of anxiety and stress.

20. Pet peeves

People who are rude to waiters or any other person in the service industry. She can't stand it under any circumstance.

People who cut lines.

21. Guilty pleasure

Mexican soap operas. Alexis used to watch them with her mom and grandma, and now she's addicted. Sometimes, she convinces Drake to watch one with her; he needs to practice his Spanish anyway.

22. Ideal outfit

In the summer, she loves wearing short, flowy dresses with leather, flat sandals.

In the winter, cozy jumpers, skinny jeans, and low black boots.

23. Favorite season

Fall. The colors, the soft sun rays, the crispy atmosphere, the smells. Everything about it.

24. Favorite vacation spot

Ireland, her grandfather’s country. He used to tell her a lot of stories about it when she was a child, when she finally went she absolutely loved it. 

25. Celebrity crush

Michael Fassbender

26. Who is her inspiration

Her mom. Elena was a single mother, but she never felt sorry for herself. She worked hard at her restaurant all day, then studied at night to get her college degree on-line. She loved life and was protective and generous. Alexis has never really got over her death.

27. Whats is the craziest thing she has ever done?

She took a plane with two strangers to a country she had never heard of before.

28. Describe her dream date

A late-night picnic under the stars with a good bottle of whiskey, some cheeses, and Drake. In a very secluded, private place.

29. What's more important for her in a relationship: physical attraction or emotional connection?

Both. The physical attraction is what first drew her to Drake. They're profoundly attracted to each other, and that sort of electrical, physical connection is very difficult to find. After years together, they still can't keep their hands off each other, and it has always been helpful when they're going through a rough patch.

The emotional connection is what makes them happy and crazy in love. They trust each other, make each other laugh, and they're best friends. What they share is unique, and they're aware of it.

30. Three things she would take to a desert island

Things, not people? Ok:

Her first copy of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude.' A gift from her mom.

Her illustrated collection of Harry Potter's books, a gift from Drake.

Her family album with her children's pictures and gifts (cards, letters and drawings.)

31. What is one thing she could never forgive?

Cheating. Never. But she has nothing to worry about 

32. What gets her out of bed in the morning?

Sex with Drake, one of her children crying, strong, black coffee.

33. What does she use more often: her intuition or logical reasoning?

100% intuition

34. Would she rather be alone doing something she enjoy, or doing something she does't like with her best friends?

Difficult question. She loves reading and writing, which are 'alone' activities. But she'll do something she hates for her friends if they really want to.

35. What's her biggest regret?

Accepting the Duchy of Valtoria and making her child the heir. She got out of it, but there were terrible years.

Bonus: three random facts about your MC

She was arrested once while she was in a protest for Women's Rights

She LOVES to eat. Passionately. 

She loves big dogs. They have one Labrador and one Golden retriever.

[rebellect-writes]

[SIZE=1][b]Name:[/b] Jess. [b]Age:[/b] 21. [b]How did you find us?:[/b] I didn’t. You found me.

[b]Name:[/b] Ripley York. [b]Nicknames & Aliases:[/b] Rip, Ripper. Yorkie. [b]Age:[/b] 37. [b]Date of Birth:[/b] 12th of April 1975. [b]Gender:[/b] Male. [b]Sexual Orientation:[/b] Bisexual, though he’s more comfortable with males. [b]Occupation:[/b] Works in a bookshop in town.

[b]Animal Species:[/b] Spotted Hyena. [b]Animal Description: [/b] [IMG]http://i672.photobucket.com/albums/vv90/bloodwillout/app%20pics/spotted-hyena_1.jpg[/IMG] He’s your typical spotted hyena. Standing at 3’1 at the shoulders and from snout to rump, he’s 5’5. Ripley’s not very heavy though, only weighing in at 130lbs at large. His coat’s a lot softer then it looks, though don’t get any bright ideas and try petting without asking because his strong bite is worse than his bark. [b]Do you have a hybrid/alpha form?:[/b] Nope. [b]Rank:[/b] Rogue. Will join if the group returns.   [b]How long has your character been a lycanthrope?:[/b] 16 years. (Infected at age 18.) [b]Mindset:[/b] Both. [b]Power level:[/b] Beta.

[b]Face Claim:[/b] Matthias Streitwieser. [b]Description:[/b] [IMG]http://i672.photobucket.com/albums/vv90/bloodwillout/app%20pics/2e2j6md.jpg[/IMG] [i]Height:[/i] 6’2 [i]Weight:[/i] 178lbs. [i]Eyes:[/i] Blue. [i]Hair:[/i] Brown. [i]Build:[/i] Average, muscled in all the right places. [i]Visible marks:[/i] He has a small black star on the inside of his right wrist, and the Chinese characters for ‘Ruby’ at the nape of his neck. Ripley also has faint bite marks along his neck and wrists that you can't really see unless you're looking close. [i]Style:[/i] Jeans, t-shirts and a thrown over jacket. Anything comfortable and practical is best. He will wear suits if he has to do so.

[b]Special Skills:[/b]  [LIST] [*] He does know Greek and Spanish, and he’ll remember how to speak it in his own time. [*] He does know how to hold his own in a fight thanks to AJ helping him out. [/LIST][b]Personality:[/b]   Ripley’s quiet and laid back most of the time. He’s been trained to value manners so you’ll rarely hear him forget them. He’s also been known to lapse into old tricks, where he won’t speak until he’s spoken to. If someone that’s a clear alpha or Master speaks to him, he will rarely look them in the eye unless they say he can do so and it’s little things like that that make things bearable for him. The last thing that he wants is someone to rip out his throat for something he didn’t even mean to do. On saying that, that doesn’t mean he’s completely submissive when it comes to those with more power than he has. Ripley has a deep rebellious and stubborn streak that shows its face at times, mostly when he’s in a sticky situation.

Some may even say that he gets mouthy and sarcastic when this streak of his rises to the surfaces, but Ripley hasn’t honestly noticed anything different except when people give him odd looks. When he’s around people that are younger than him in power, Ripley’s a little more open about things. He likes to laugh and joke around and even though he doesn’t out right say it, he’s the type of person that will give others another chance even though they’ve burned him in the past. Trust is something special to him, There’s only a couple of people that have his trust however, at times when he’s in pain or upset, he even closes down on them to protect himself. Maybe he doesn’t open up fully, but that still doesn’t stop him from being unspeakably loyal to the people that do him a good turn.  

What people don’t know is, and what Ripley doesn’t remember is that he’s got a bad side. He won’t hesitate to do something if an orders given, if that means attacking someone and drawing blood, so be it. Sometimes an order doesn’t have to be given, he’ll go on the defensive if he has to, and the offensive if he needs to, to protect himself and those around him. It’ll hurt him, sure, but half the time he doesn’t even register that pain. He doesn’t like seeing people in pain, but it’s a trigger that’s so deeply rooted in his subconscious that he jumps before he really thinks. Another thing that hasn’t shown itself is that he’s addicted to a vampires bite, craves it and has for over twelve years, will do anything to get the fix. No doubt it will show, but for now, Ripley’s just a mite emotionally retarded and no one’s complained so who knows what trouble he’ll get into.

[b]Likes:[/b] [LIST] [*] Curling up with a good book when it’s raining. [*] Being bitten by a vampire. [*] Cooking. He’s a natural in the kitchen surprisingly. [*] Being stroked in his hyena form. [*] Watching a movie when he can’t sleep. [*] Exploring Jackford when he’s not working. [/LIST][b]Dislikes:[/b] [LIST] [*] When he can’t sleep because of tension headaches. [*] Drama. He can do without it. [*] Others shedding blood for no reason. [*] When he’s reprimanded. [*] Loud annoying music. [*] When he’s talked over by people but he won’t say anything. [/LIST][b]Strengths:[/b] [LIST] [*] He knows when to keep his mouth shut and eyes on the floor. [*] Can follow orders to the letter. [*] Doesn’t let how much pain he’s in show. If he’s in pain. [*] Good at giving people a shoulder to cry on if they need it. [*] He’s got all your standard shifting abilities. [*] Keeping his inner hyena on a short leash and away from others. [*] Giving people what they want to hear most of the time. [/LIST][b]Weaknesses:[/b] [LIST] [*] Won’t hesitate to put himself in the line of fire for someone else. [*] Doesn’t have an alpha form. [*] Can’t repeatedly shift repeatedly in one day, the most is five times back and forth. [*] He’s a bite addict. [*] Silver. [*] Hasn’t even known a true cackle. [*] Doesn’t always tell people when things are bothering him. [/LIST][b]Family:[/b][LIST] [*] Manuel Lagana; Father, died in an RTA. [*] Lucinda York; Mother, died in an RTA. [*] Dominga Lagana; Grandmother, died of natural causes. [/LIST][b]History:[/b]  

During April of 1975, one man’s life came crumbling down around his ears because of a drunken one night stand with his best friend’s younger – and underage, at the time that things got hot and heavy in the bathroom – sister. Manuel came home one evening to find Lucinda on the couch, screaming and hollering as his mother and uncle scurried around trying to stop the baby that was coming one month early. One call was all it took when his common sense kicked in at the sight of the blood, to get Lucinda to the hospital and the help the teenager deserved. Despite the few complications with the birth and the consequences that followed, the baby now named Ripley, was allowed to come home just a little over a month later with Dominga Lagana – the baby’s biological grandmother on Manuel’s side – as the legal guardian, Manny and Lucinda being more babysitters than parents.

Growing up in Leeds; Ripley felt at home in the urban wilderness and it was the only thing that he knew. Lucinda always told him that she was his mum, he believed her, and he’d seen the pictures on Dominga’s albums. What he didn’t get though was why the York’s didn’t approve. They made it known that he wasn’t wanted when Lucinda had to take him along when she went to see her brothers or parents place. In the end, the strain that Lucinda was under, forced her to dump Ripley on Manuel and Dominga more and more, much to his Grandmother’s delight. She didn’t like the prissy little white girl or the judgmental patronising parents that sneered and crossed the street when they were walking the same way as them.  The tension lasted for almost three years and everyone suffered for it, Manuel tried to patch things up and show to Lucinda’s parents that he wasn’t trash and Lucinda tried to show her parents that she wasn’t a child anymore and could look after herself, it was a bit redundant really, Ripley’s mum was twenty and legally an adult capable of looking after the five year old boy with Manuel who was twenty nine at the time. Dominga didn’t like that one bit but there wasn’t much that she could do at the time but sit back and make sure they didn’t kill Ripley by mistake by giving the kid drain cleaner or something instead of milk over his cornflakes in the morning.

Even school wasn’t a big thing in Ripley’s eyes; he was in and out of it for a lot of reasons. The majority of the time though, was for medical reasons; sometimes he wasn’t there because of life at home. By the time he was fourteen years old, he’d been permanently excused from physical education due to his poor health, expelled from two schools and facing being kicked out for the third time because of his slipping grades and general attitude to authority figures in his life. Lucinda even went as far as to send him to see a therapist because of these things and it just sent Ripley spiralling down a path of rebellion and hate to for the world around him. In fact, the only time he really seemed at peace was when he was with Granny Dominga’s dogs and the old gal used that to her advantage. He didn’t go to college, there was no point. Education wasn’t really something he’d excelled at and he didn’t want to stay at home for the rest of his life, so when Granny Dominga offered him a place to stay and work in her small greasy spoon cafe, he snapped it up and moved in with her. It really wasn’t that exciting afterwards; he lived with his Gran and saw his mum and dad every other day when they stopped by after their shifts at work. Basically, it was a rinse and repeat life and that suited him fine.

Fine, until just after his eighteenth birthday. His parents had ‘kidnapped’ him away for the day to have some good old fashioned bonding time; the truck that hit them came out of nowhere. One minute Ripley had been groaning about Britney Spears on the radio and the next there was chaos and the world was spinning as the car was pushed off the motorway and then there was simply silence. Lucinda and Manuel had been pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital and Ripley was rushed into surgery for multiple internal injuries and head trauma.  He didn’t even know that his parents had died until he came around a couple of days later, and he’d had to plead with his Gran to find out what had happened to them. It was a shock, something that shocked him to his core because no matter how much of a brat he’d been to them growing up, he’d still loved them.

No one bothered to inform him, that the blood that had been used during one of several transfusions had been contaminated with lycanthropy. Maybe no one knew, but that was the hand that he was dealt. It probably would have been better if he’d know though, while he was healing up, because the following full moon after a particular nasty bought of the flu – or at least what he thought was the flu, little did he know that his body was changing and if he had, he’d have probably mad a joke about puberty hitting twice. – Ripley was locking up the cafe for the night and the hyena made itself known. It ripped its way out of him and destroyed the cafe when it found there was nothing to eat. The morning, once the animal had gone back, Ripley woke up in the remains of the cafe, sore and confused but feeling better than he had done in weeks, didn’t have a clue that he’d turned into a hyena though. When Dominga demanded to know what had happened, he told her that someone had broken in and trashed the place and that it had probably been a junkie looking for a fix.

The following weeks became a blur, more rinsing and repeating until one evening he felt an unmistakeable pull to just leave work. Just like that. There was no warning, no nothing. He just felt the need to go. He walked across the city to some seedy back alley dive that was home to all the drunken scum of the nation, or well, the city if you wanted to be technical. Defiantly not his place, and from the few others that were milling about that he noticed didn’t fit in, not theirs either. He found out exactly what was up though when they came in, lanky crew, pale, avoided mirrors and standing directly under lights, looked like the supporting act for the guys that did the YMCA. For a moment Ripley had thought that he was being set up by his friends, because bikers with fangs? Really? It was so wrong. So out there, so unnatural, and yet so normal all at the same time, and it just made Rip curious and scared for what was happening next. The crazy red headed chick in the corner that was cackling and stroking a flipping big hyena was even more out there and put the fear of God into him.

Ripley York never came home that day and wasn’t seen by his Gran again.

He was dragged down to Cardiff with the vampires and the red headed bint with a few of the other guys that had ended up in the bar with him. Mistress Ruby – the self proclaimed Queen of the merry little band – told them what was happening, how he’d service the vampires just like the others that had come to her call. Ripley refused and started mouthing off, and so he was punished. Ruby ripped his inner beast out repeatedly before forcing it back over the space of three days. Then Theodore – the king of the band, a big guy that could’ve snapped Ripley over his thigh for disobedience – decided that that wasn’t enough and decided he wanted a taste, and a taste he got and then some. Just like the rest of the rogue band that called the Hyena Queen and Vampire Master their leader because to them, Ripley and the hyenas that had been Called where nothing but animals meant to be used in anyway their Masters saw fit. Theodore didn’t just have hyenas at his beck and call, there were other shifters as well that were pets to the thirteen vampires that he ruled, while he was a rotting vampire, there were Belle Morte rogues and fear masters and beast masters to boot and each and every one of them where young enough to be a power to be reckoned with and still hate the way that the vampire council did things.

Over the next twelve years, between Ruby and Theodore the young hyena started to lose himself. The rebellion and need to fight what was happening to him died, painfully and slowly, but it did die. Gone were the days he had to go around wearing a collar and on the end of a leash and had to be escorted by one of Ruby’s older and more treasured pets. He was no longer handcuffed to the bed of some two-bit vampire Rogue. He was allowed to come and go as he pleased, because they had something he needed, something he craved so badly that he broke out into cold sweats, shakes and shivers. He craved them. Needed them just like the air he breathed some nights that he would go down on his knees and beg to be bitten. It wasn’t always easy either; Ripley would have to do things that he didn’t want to do but did it anyway. Mistress Ruby explained it one time when she’d been waiting for Theodore to wake, she told him that it was them simply asking for a favour because they’d given him a gift.  

That wasn’t to say that it was all doom and gloom, despite his current situation, Ripley made friends. One such friend was Sissy. It wasn’t exactly a fun evening for the both of them. Ruby and Theo’s second in command dragged him along to a local tattoo parlour that had a decent reputation in the inked circles. The Mistress wanted something new and exciting, and the vampire and Rip were only sent along as bodyguards for the crazy bitch. Ripley wouldn’t have done anything if the beast master male hadn’t taken a shine to the girl, oh he’d seen her, she’d been chatting with an artist or something, but the vampire took an instant dislike to her for some reason. The artist was rolled, mentally told to forget that they’d ever existed as the vampire went after Sissy. Ripley was left with Ruby and boy, did he want to help the girl.

The moment blood was drawn; he had an idea and turned to the bitch queen that had sat giggling the whole time. He bargained for her safety, offering Ruby anything she wanted in return. Liking that idea, Ruby pulled the beast master off the red headed girl, and after checking on Sissy to make sure that she was ok, Ripley turned to get what was coming his way. All she asked was that he get a tattoo of her choice in return for the girls life and safety, Ripley didn’t even question it and let the Mistress do what she wanted, sat through the rolled tattoo artist branding him with the Chinese characters for ‘Ruby’ at the nape of his neck, after his Mistress and the beast master got theirs. Theodore never noticed that his servant and queen had left her permanent mark on another man,  if he had then they would have destroyed the parlour, killed Sissy and the artist that had done their work, instead they stayed in town, the vampires and shifters coming and going as they got new ink and Ripley got to know Sissy a bit more.

Eventually the group moved on to a place called Jackford at the back end of 2010; they rolled into town and found that there was so much chaos they could create. They didn’t have to do anything; there was no time because Ruby, during a Christmas shopping break, was smacked down by a blonde harpy. The Oba of Jackford didn’t like another in her territory and she made that clear when she drew first blood, Ripley had grinned at that, seeing the scarlet streaks down on freckled cheek. Ruby didn’t have time to defend herself, and even if she had, Theo was the ruler and he declared no one was to help and Ruby was furious. She gave it all she had, but on her own with no vampires or hyenas to help her, Petra Graves whooped her skanky ass fair and square then told the rest of the mob to take Ruby and leave her town. Theodore was fairly reasonable, as an Old World gentleman at heart, he agreed and they made plans to leave though he requested a little time from Petra because it was Christmas. His logic being that it would be their first proper Christmas together and sadly, Petra agreed.

Over the next three months, the rogue band drifted apart. There’d been moments when Ripley had wondered if he could just slip away and make a run for the Kiss that had been reconstructing itself from the ground up. However he didn’t have to. In February, one of Ruby’s other pets made a big fuss about not being marked in front of Theodore of all creatures. Ruby, desperate to shut the idiot up, snapped his neck but it was too late for that. Theo had heard enough and dragged Ripley close to check and sure enough, the Master saw the tattoo was there. Theodore crushed Ripley’s throat and tossed him aside like trash to die in the gutter, before dragging his whore-queen off to deal with her. The two hyenas bodies where left in a semi completed housing estate, but that wasn’t the end of them, nobodies in a sea of silence.

Ripley should have died, except he didn’t. The male had no idea what had happened but one moment he was choking and struggling for air that wasn’t there and then the next it was daylight and he was blinking up at the faces of two werewolves that called the Fun House home. One of the wolves, Eric, had ripped Ripley’s inner beast out to try and save him and it had worked, mostly. As a result from the event, Rip didn’t know what had happened, who they where, where he was. Nothing at all except his name, and the flashes that he gets sometimes when he’s stressed, he hasn’t spoken of them to anyone at all. So here he is, in Jackford, a ward of the kiss and still a nobody.[/SIZE]

[nic-mharta]

“Just take a break from your phone for a while ...”

... and other well-intentioned anti-tech prejudices

Here’s the thing. ���Phone” is a stupid name for this wee computer that we now hold in front of our faces, not up to our ears. “Phone” comes from the greek root phōnē meaning "sound, voice," and it’s not the sounds and voices that judgey grandparents are objecting to. “Take a break from your phone for a while.”

Should I also take a break from reading books? Because my books aren’t made of paper and sitting on a shelf somewhere. I mean, paper books are nice and all that. The leather bindings feel and smell wonderful, and the smooth sheen of high-quality paper and crisp print is a pleasure to the eyes. But I’m not getting any of those pleasures from the cheap paper of a perfect-bound paperback which is unsustainably manufactured and carbon-intensive in its transport from factory to printshop to warehouse to bookshop to me. I’ll save my bookshelf space for the rare hand-bound and antique book that comes my way. It’s the ideas expressed in the book that truly matter, and those come across just fine in the e-books that are stored on my “phone”.

“Take a break from your phone for a while.”

I could do that. I might have to go out and buy a radio so that I’d be able to hear the weather report and plan my day accordingly. And a newspaper subscription -- I hate the waste of having to recycle a bale of newsprint every week, but a person needs to know at least a little of what’s going on in the world. And a walk-man so that I can carry my tunes with me -- although finding audio-tapes to feed it doesn’t sound very easy. And a paper engagement book to keep my appointments in. I might miss a few at first since paper engagement books don’t go “ding!”, and I might need a bigger purse to accomodate it -- MUCH bigger, because I’ll also need to carry a Gaelic-English dictionaryfor my studies.

“Take a break from your phone for a while.”

I really like not losing my keys and purse (thank-you, Tile!) and not getting lost when I have to take a new route for some reason (thank-you, Google Maps!). I’ll need to budget extra time for hunting things up every time I step out, along with the extra stress of not knowing whether I will EVER find my keys. Shedding that stress was great for my mental health, but I suppose I could pick it back up. And they still do print those city-map books so I could carry one in my new oversized purse, and pull over every few blocks to check the paper map, since it doesn’t have turn-by-turn voice directions.

“Take a break from your phone for a while.”

My grocery list is on my phone. I mean, I could certainly carry around a paper list -- and while I’m at it, paper grocery coupons and physical loyalty cards and payment cards. That’s what I did in the 90s and they aren’t so long ago. A paper list doesn’t automatically sync with the other members of my household, so we’ll go back to having those occasions when husband and I arrive simultaneously at the refrigerator, both carrying four litres of milk. Of course, I could just phone him and let him know I’m picking up milk -- but there aren’t any pay-phones at the grocery-store exit doors any more, which would be required since I’m taking a break from MY phone for a while.

“Take a break from your phone for a while.”

I’ll have to take a break from my daughter for a while too, and from a lot of other friends and family, since people are spread out a lot farther across the world than they were in a less global age. I can send them letters: we used to do that on a weekly basis, complete with envelopes and stamps. Of course, back in those days the post offices guaranteed next-day delivery so that you COULD actually “exchange” letters within a one-week timeframe. Letters are great: they are still an option and I still send them from time to time. But the reason that we now use email, text, and facetime far more often than letters, is that they are more intimate, more timely, and more versatile. And, that letters nowadays may take a month to be delivered.

So sure, I could take a break from my phone for a while. But try to imagine my great-grandfather saying to his offspring, “Take a break for a while from reading, research, debate, story-telling, current affairs, ideas, the weather report, appointments, shopping, music, letters, and friends.” My great-grandpa would never have  made such a suggestion, because he was a reasonable man who hated looking ridiculous. Or, I could start calling my device something more accurate, like “tricorder”. Then when someone suggests I take a break from my “phone” for a while, I can answer “sure, it’s not like I use voice much anymore anyhow: texting is so much more convenient.” And then people who really mean “make wise choices about how you spend your leisure time and about how and with whom you socialize”, could say what they really mean.

[loretranscripts]

Lore Episode 32: Tampered (Transcript) - 18th April, 2016

tw: none

Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!

I grew up watching a television show called MacGyver. If you’ve never had that chance to watch this icon of the 80s, do yourself a favour and give it a try. Sure, the clothes are outdated and the hair… oh my gosh, the hair. But aside from all the bits that didn’t age well, MacMullet and his trusty pocket knife managed to capture my imagination forever. Part of it was the adventure, part of it was the character of the man himself – I mean, the guy was essentially a spy who hated guns, played hockey and lived on a houseboat. But hovering above all those elements was the true core of the show. This man could make anything if his life depended on it. As humans, we have this innate drive inside ourselves to make things. This is how we managed to create things like the wheel, or stone tools and weapons. Our tendency towards technology pulled our ancient ancestors out of the Stone Age and into a more civilised world. Maybe for some of us, MacGyver represented what we wanted to achieve: complete mastery of our own world. But life is rarely that simple, and however hard we try to get our minds and hands around this world we want to rule, some things just slip through the cracks. Accidents happen. Ideas and concepts still allude our limited minds. We’re human, after all, not gods. So, when things go wrong, when our plans fall apart or our expectations fail to be met, we have this sense of pride that often refuses to admit defeat. So, we blame others, and when that doesn’t work, we look elsewhere for answers, and no realm holds more explanation for the unexplainable than folklore. 400 years ago, when women refused to follow the rules of society, they were labelled a witch. When Irish children failed to thrive it was because, of course, because they were a changeling. We’re good at excuses. So, when our ancestors found something broken or out of place, there was a very simple explanation – someone, or something, had tampered with it. I’m Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.

The idea of meddlesome creatures isn’t new to us. All around the world, we can find centuries-old folklore that speaks of creatures with a habit of getting in the way and making life difficult for humans. It’s an idea that seems to transcend borders and background, language and time. Some would say that it’s far too coincidental for all these stories of mischief-causing creatures to emerge in places separated by thousands of miles and vast oceans. The púca of Ireland and the ebu gogo of Indonesia are great examples of this – legends that seem to have no reason for their eerie similarities. Both legends speak of small, humanoid creatures that steal food and children, both recommend not making them angry, and both describe their creatures as intrusive pranksters. To many, the evidence is just too indisputable to ignore. Others would say it’s not coincidence at all, merely a product of human nature. We want to believe there’s something out there causing the problems we experience every day. So, of course, nearly every culture in the world has invented a scapegoat. This scapegoat would have to be small to avoid discovery, and they need respect because we’re afraid of what they can do. To a cultural anthropologist, it’s nothing more than logical evolution. Many European folktales include this universal archetype in the form of nature spirits, and much of it can be traced back to the idea of the daemon.

It’s an old word and concept, coming to us from the Greeks. In essence, a daemon is an otherworldly spirit that causes trouble. The root word, daomai, literally means to cut or divide. In many ways, it’s an ancient version of an excuse. If your horse was spooked while you were out for a ride, you’d probably blame it on a daemon. Ancient Minoans believed in them, and in the day of the Greek poet Homer, people would blame their illnesses on them. The daemon, in many ways, was fate. If it happened to you, there was a reason, and it was probably one of these little things that caused it. But over time, the daemon took on more and more names. Arab folklore has the djinn, Romans spoke of a personal companion known as the genius, in Japan, they tell tales of the kami, and Germanic cultures mention fylgja. The stories and names might be unique to each culture, but the core of them all is the same. There’s something interfering with humanity, and we don’t like it.

For the majority of the English-speaking world, the most common creature of this type in folklore, hands down, is the goblin. It’s not an ancient word, most likely originating from the middle ages, but it’s the one that’s front and centre in most of our minds, and from the start it’s been a creature associated with bad behaviour. A legend from the 10th century tells of how the first Catholic bishop of Évreux in France faced a daemon known to the locals there as Gobelinus. Why that name, though, is hard to trace. The best theory goes something like this: there’s a Greek myth about a creature named kobalos, who loved to trick and frighten people. That story influenced other cultures across Europe prior to Christianity’s spread, creating the notion of the kobold in ancient Germany. That word was most likely to root of the word goblin. Kobold, gobold, gobolin – you can practically hear it evolve. The root word of kobold is kobe, which literally means “beneath the earth”, or “cavity in a rock”. We get the English word “cove” from the same root, and so naturally kobolds and their English counterparts, the goblins, are said to live in caves underground, and if that reminds you of dwarves from fantasy literature, you’re closer than you think. The physical appearance of goblins in folklore vary greatly, but the common description is that they are dwarf-like creatures. They cause trouble, are known to steal, and they have tendency to break things and make life difficult. Because of this, people in Europe would put carvings of goblins in their homes to ward off the real thing. In fact, here’s something really crazy. Medieval door-knockers were often carved to resemble the faces of daemons or goblins, and it’s most likely purely coincidental, but in Welsh folklore, goblins are called coblyn, or more commonly, knockers. My point is this: for thousands of years, people have suspected that all of their misfortune could be blamed on small, meddlesome creatures. They feared them, told stories about them, and tried their best to protect their homes from them. But for all that time, they seemed like nothing more than story. In the early 20th century, though, people started to report actual sightings, and not just anyone. These sightings were documented by trained, respected military heroes. Pilots.

When the Wright brothers took their first controlled flight in December of 1903, it seemed like a revelation. It’s hard to imagine it today, but there was a time when flight wasn’t assumed as a method of travel. So, when Wilbur spent three full seconds in the air that day, he and his brother, Orville, did something else: they changed the way we think about our world. And however long it took humans to create and perfect the art of controllable, mechanical flight, once the cat was out of the bag, it bolted into the future without ever looking back. Within just nine years, someone had managed to mount a machine gun onto one of these primitive aeroplanes. Because of that, when the First World War broke out just two years later, military combat had a new element. Of course, guns weren’t the only weapon a plane could utilise, though. The very first aeroplane brought down in combat was an Austrian plane, which was literally rammed by a Russian pilot. Both pilots died after the wreckage plummeted to the ground below. It wasn’t the most efficient method of air combat, but it was a start. Clearly, we’ve spent the many decades since getting very, very good at it. Unfortunately, though, there have been more reasons for combat disasters than machine gun bullets and suicidal pilots, and one of the most unique and mysterious of those causes first appeared in British newspapers. In an article from the early 1900s, it was said that, and I quote, “the newly constituted royal air force in 1918 appears to have detected the existence of a hoard of mysterious and malicious sprites, whose sole purpose in life was to bring about as many as possible of the inexplicable mishaps which, in those days as now, trouble an airman’s life.” The description didn’t feature a name, but that was soon to follow. Some experts think that we can find roots of it in the old English word gremian, which means “to vex” or “to annoy”. It fits the behaviour of the creatures to the letter, and because of that they have been known from the beginning as gremlins.

Now, before we move forward, it might be helpful to take care of your memories of the 1984 classic film by the same name. I grew up in the 80s, and Gremlins was a fantastic bit of eye candy for my young, horror-loving mind, but the truth of the legend has little resemblance to the version that you and I witnessed on the big screen. The gremlins of folklore, at least the stories that came out of the early 20th century that is, describe the ancient stereotypical daemon, but with a twist. Yes, they were said to be small, ranging anywhere from six inches to three feet in height, and yes, they could appear and disappear at will, causing mischief and trouble wherever they went. But in addition, these modern versions of the legendary goblin seem to possess a supernatural grasp of human technology. In 1923, a British pilot was flying over open water when his engine stalled. He miraculously survived the crash into the sea and was rescued shortly after that. When he was safely aboard the rescue vessel, the pilot was quick to explain what had happened. Tiny creatures, he claimed, had appeared on the plane. Whether they appeared out of nowhere or smuggled themselves aboard prior to take-off, the pilot wasn’t sure. However they got there, he said that they proceeded to tamper with the plane’s engine and flight controls, and without power or control, he was left to drop helplessly into the sea.

These reports were infrequent in the 1920s, but as the world moved into the Second World War and the number of planes in the sky began to grow exponentially, more and more stories seemed to follow – small, troublesome creatures who had an almost supernatural ability to hold on to moving aircraft, and while they were there, to do damage and to cause accidents. In some cases, they were even cited inside planes, among the crew and cargo. Stories, as we’ve seen so many times before, have a tendency to spread like disease. Oftentimes, that’s because of fear, but sometimes it’s because of truth, and the trouble is in figuring out where to draw that line, and that line kept moving as the sightings were reported outside the British ranks. Pilots on the German side also reported seeing creatures during flights, as did some in India, Malta and the Middle East. Some might chalk these stories up to hallucinations, or a bit of pre-flight drinking. There are certainly a lot of stories of World War Two pilots climbing into the cockpit after a night of romancing the bottle – and who can blame them? In many cases, these pilots were going to their death, with a 20% chance of never coming back from a mission alive. But there are far too many reports to blame it all on drunkenness or delirium. Something unusual was happening to planes all throughout the Second World War, and with folklore as a lens, some of the reports are downright eerie. In 2014, a 92-year-old World War Two veteran from Jonesborough, Arkansas came forward to tell a story he had kept to himself for seven decades. He’d been a B-17 pilot during the war, one of the legendary flying fortresses that helped allied air forces carry out successful missions over Nazi territory, and it was on one of those missions that this man experienced something that, until recently, he had kept to himself. The pilot, who chose to identify himself with the initials L.W., spoke of how he was a 22-year-old flight commander on the B-17, when something very unusual happened on a combat mission in 1944. He described how, as he brought the aircraft to a higher altitude, the plane began to make strange noises. That wasn’t completely unusual, as the B-17 is an absolutely enormous plane and sometimes turbulence can rattle the structure, but he checked his instrument panel out of habit. According to his story, the instruments seemed broken and confused.

Looking for an answer to the mystery, he glanced out the right-side window, and then froze. There, outside the glass of the cockpit window, was the face of a small creature. The pilot described it as about three feet tall with red eyes and sharp teeth. The ears, he said, were almost owl-like, and its skin was grey and hairless. He looked back toward the front and noticed a second creature, this one moving along the nose of the aircraft. He said it was dancing and hammering away at the metal body of the plane. He immediately assumed he was hallucinating. I can picture him rubbing his eyes and blinking repeatedly like some old Loony Toons film. But according to him, he was as sharp and alert as ever. Whatever it was that he witnessed outside the body of the plane, he said that he managed to shake them off with a bit of “fancy flying”, and that’s his term, not mine. But while the creatures themselves might have vanished, the memory of them would haunt him for the rest of his life. He told only one person afterwards, a gunner on another B-17, but rather than laugh at him his friend acknowledged that he, too, had seen similar creatures on a flight just the day before.

Years prior, in the summer of 1939, an earlier encounter was reported, this time in the Pacific. According to the account, a transport plane took off from the airbase in San Diego in the middle of the afternoon and headed toward Hawaii. Onboard were 13 marines, some of whom were crew of the plane and others were passengers – it was a transport, after all. About halfway through the flight, whilst still over the vast expanse of the blue Pacific, the transport issued a distress signal. After that, the signal stopped, as did all other forms of communication. It was as if the plane had simply gone silent and then vanished, which made it all the more surprising when it reappeared later, outside the San Diego airfield and prepared for landing. But the landing didn’t seem right. The plane came in too fast, it bounced on the runway in rough, haphazard ways, and then finally came to a dramatic emergency stop. Crew on the runway immediately understood why, too – the exterior of the aircraft was extensively damaged, some said it looked like bombs had ripped apart the metal skin of the transport. It was a miracle, they said, that the thing even landed at all. When no one exited the plane to greet them, they opened it up themselves and stepped inside, only to be met with a scene of horror and chaos.

Inside, they discovered the bodies of 12 of the 13 passengers and crew. Each seemed to have died from the same types of wounds, large, vicious cuts and injuries that almost seemed to have originated from a wild animal. Added to that, the interior of the transport smelled horribly of sulphur and the acrid odour of blood. To complicate matters, empty shell casings were found scattered about the interior of the cockpit. The pistols responsible, belonging to the pilot and co-pilot, were found on the floor near their feet, completely spent. 12 men were found, but there was a thirteenth. The co-pilot had managed to stay conscious despite his extensive injuries, just long enough to land the transport at the base. He was alive but unresponsive when they found him, and quickly removed him for emergency medical care. Sadly, the man died a short while later. He never had the chance to report what happened.

Stories of the gremlins have stuck around in the decades since, but they live mostly in the past. Today they are mentioned more like a personified Murphy’s Law, muttered as a humorous superstition by modern pilots. I get the feeling that the persistence of the folklore is due more to its place as a cultural habit than anything else. We can ponder why, I suppose. Why would sightings stop after World War II? Some think it’s because of advancements in aeroplane technology: stronger structures, faster flight speeds, and higher altitudes. The assumption is that, sure, gremlins could hold on to our planes, but maybe we’ve gotten so fast that even that’s become impossible for them. The other answer could just be that the world has left those childhood tales of little creatures behind. We’ve moved beyond belief now. We’ve outgrown it. We know a lot more than we used to, after all, and to our thoroughly modern minds these stories of gremlins sound like just so much fantasy. Whatever reason you subscribe to, it’s important to remember that many people have believed with all their being that gremlins are real, factual creatures, people we would respect and believe.

In 1927, a pilot was over the Atlantic in a plane that, by today’s standards, would be considered primitive. He was alone, and he had been in the air for a very long time but was startled to discover that there were creatures in the cockpit with him. He described them as small, vaporous beings with a strange, otherworldly appearance. The pilot claimed that these creatures spoke to him and kept him alert in a moment when he was overly tired and passed the edge of exhaustion. They helped with the navigation for his journey and even adjusted some of his equipment. This was a rare account of gremlins who were benevolent rather than meddlesome or hostile. Even still, this pilot was so worried about what the public might think of his experience that he kept the details to himself for over 25 years. In 1953, this pilot included the experience in a memoir of his flight. It was a historic journey, after all, and recording it properly required honesty and transparency. The book, you see, was called The Spirit of St. Louis, and the man was more than just a pilot. He was a military officer, an explore, an inventor, and on top of all of that he was also a national hero because of his successful flight from New York to Paris – the first man to do so, in fact. This man, of course, was Charles Lindbergh.

[Closing Statements]

[electrakarasu]

❛ she is a knight polishing her amour, carrying her own sword. fighting her own battles. making her own glory. ❜

SIMAY BARLAS? No, that’s actually ELECTRA “LEXI” KARASU. Only TWENTY-ONE years old, this SLYTHERIN alumni works as a CURSE BREAKER and is sided with THE NEUTRALS. SHE identifies as CIS-WOMAN and is a HALFBLOOD who is known to be ARROGANT, SCRUTINISING, and DETACHED but also CLEVER, DETERMINED, and ENTERPRISING.

links: stats, pinterest character parallels: jane villanueva ( jane the virgin ), jessica huang ( fresh off the boat ), valencia perez ( crazy ex-girlfriend ), lu ( elite ), lucifer morningstar ( lucifer ), annalise keating ( how to get away with murder )

ELECTRA KARASU : ON HER LIFE

tulip karasu never did have an off-switch. she danced through life like it was a party, she broke every rule the world set out for her and she made reckless decisions with the fury of someone who was so sure of what they were doing. was she so sure that sleeping with a man twice her age, a man who had a wife, was the right thing to do? maybe not. but she did it anyway.

antigone, tulip’s first child, was six years old when tulip gave birth to electra. electra. another name from an old greek play tulip had only half understood. people tried to warn her that naming your child after a woman who attempts to murder her mother was bad luck, but tulip refused to listen — she liked that it sounded alive, crackling with intensity.

one week after electra was born and seven months after she had left christopher harris, tulip reached out to the married man to let him know of the birth of his daughter. christopher, being the ceo of a well-respected company in london, was absolutely mortified and agreed to pay a generous portion of child support if tulip didn’t tell anyone who was the father of her daughter — especially not his wife. he arranged to have the money transfer out of an account his wife could not see, set it to wire to tulip once a month and then never spoke to her again. tulip didn’t much mind — she was on to her next affair anyway.

and so electra was born into a world of chaos, a world without rules or order. tulip wasn’t much of a mother, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t kind — it just meant that as electra grew up, as her smarts began to build, she had to learn how to raise herself. she changed her name to lexi when she was just six, finding the name electra to be too stormy, too out-dated for a girl such as herself, and with that she formed the first step to navigating the world on her own, separate from her mother, from ‘ electra ’.

you see, lexi was something of a prodigy in every sense of the word. she was intelligent and cunning and emotionally mature, showing skills far beyond her age range from the time she could walk. she was nothing like her wild mother or her scruffy older sibling — she had the genes of her father, and from a young age she knew she could build an EMPIRE on that. she understood that she was better. she embraced it. she scolded her mother and her sibling, she corrected her teacher with a squeaky little voice, and by the time she was ready to be shipped off the hogwarts, she knew she was the best of the best.

and so she proved it. having been sorted into slytherin exactly thirteen seconds after the hat had found her head, lexi thrived both academically and socially. within months she was top of her class, she was the most popular girl in her grade and she knew, oh she knew she had the world wrapped around her little finger. this self-importance only grew as she flew through each year, passing every subject with flying colours and proving herself to be one of the brightest and most talented witches the school had seen in years. she finished on a high when she was elected her years head girl, and promised to stay in contact with everyone after graduation. ( spoiler alert: she didn’t. )

leaving hogwarts, lexi knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life. anywhere she went, they’d be lucky to have her, and in fact the ministry had tried to recruit her in any capacity, but she refused, telling them outright that she wouldn’t align herself with a corrupt organisation running over with power-hungry white males. she instead headed straight for gringotts, slotting in easily with the dangerous and fast-paced job of a curse breaker. she would travel the world and learn new languages and collect priceless treasure. within months she was trusted, she proved herself to be worthy of the dangerous title and she wears it with great pride.

ELECTRA KARASU : ON THE WAR

lexi wasn’t daft — she’d always known that some people looked at her differently, as if she were tainted, not worthy of the numerous titles that were being thrown at her. and she knew what it was rooted in, too — for years people would try to undermine her achievements because she had muggle blood, because she wasn’t as pure in her magic as, say, her housemates at hogwarts. and she knew that simmering hate could only last so long before it burst — so she knew what was here when the war finally arrived.

just because lexi is a halfblood, does not mean she is about to storm the streets with signs painted in large letters campaigning for MUGGLE RIGHTS. she thinks it’s ridiculous she should be seen as lesser than, of course, but she’s no fool — war is toxic. no side can claim innocence because anyone who participated in nameless violence, something this war requires, is corrupt. she sees right through the orders facade of innocence and believes them to be just as reckless and one-sided as the death eater’s. she refuses to join, to participate in something that is so clearly below her. let them fight — they can’t touch her, anyway. she’s smarter than any of them, quicker than any spell that can be thrown her way. she can defend herself without a cult.

perhaps subconsciously — though she would never admit it — lexi doesn’t care for the war either because she doesn’t particularly care for muggles. after all, the one muggle that always comes to mind for her is her father. and she hates that man more than she hates anyone else on this earth. her father, power-hungry and drowning in his white privilege, thriving off his success and not giving a fucking damn about anyone other than himself. not even his wife. christopher disgusts lexi, and she is vehemently in agreement with him on one thing — they will never meet.

ELECTRA KARASU : ON FAMILY

despite any apathy that lexi might try and push when it comes to her mother and her sibling, lexi would do anything for her little family. especially antigone — certainly not a role model, nor a particularly good older sibling, but a force and someone lexi would defend until the ends of the earth.

from a young age, lexi had to take on a leadership role in her family — the only one with realistic, practical common sense, the little girl keeping her family from blowing up the earth. she’s very good at it, too, with the emotional maturity to keep it together, but sometimes she can’t help but resent tulip and antigone for leaving it up to her to pick up the pieces. tulip is supposed to be a mother. antigone is supposed to be older. and yet both of them can’t seem to hold it together long enough to stay sane when lexi is gone. sometimes she wonders how they’re even alive, but she’ll do it. her job. her job to keep them together. she might not love it, but she’d rather be caught dead then see her family crash and burn.

lexi is incredibly protective over antigone and so had her doubts when antigone decided to push themselves into the spotlight. they’re obviously talented and incredibly good at what they do, but lexi worries about what might happen should antigone be caught slipping up. after all, they’re all in the spotlight now, no matter how small. lexi isn’t a fan of fame, and she’s certainly not a fan of how antigone deals with their success. throwing your money away and screaming political opinions on stage is certainly no way for a sensible adult to behave. she’ll support her siblings career, always, but of course she’ll worry — and worry she did when antigone disappeared.

to say that lexi nearly lost it when antigone disappeared and returned as a vampire would be an understatement. she was so overwhelmed with grief when they were gone, and then when they returned to live a new truth — lexi could barely handle it. she is so worried about how antigone is handling things, whether they’re dealing with this appropriately and whether or not they’re keeping safe. of course, she got somewhat of an answer when they announced their vampirism live on stage for the world to hear after the announcement of the new creature registry — clearly they are not keeping safe. and lexi doesn’t know how much longer she can keep her sibling truly safe before they get themselves killed — really killed.

ELECTRA KARASU : THE REST

born in 2002, lexi is the absolute epitome of a gen z kid. she’s still not over vine’s death, she’s over dramatic and sarcastic and has a very dry sense of humour. and of course her wardrobe is a complete mess. ( check out her pinterest for more wardrobe inspo. )

obviously incredibly self-important when it comes to her smarts and her skills with a wand, but is also equally aware of just how beautiful she is. she doesn’t exactly strive to accentuate anything in particular, but she knows that eyes are on her almost constantly, and while sometimes she revels in it, other times she gets frustrated and wishes people ( men, in particular ) would see her for more than her looks.

she’s pansexual but very, very tired of men. any man talks and she instantly turns into the eye roll emoji. men exhaust her! she’s attracted to them but at what cost!

multilingual! she says it’s part of the job, but honestly she’s known italian and french since she was 12 and it’s not even necessary to speak the languages of the places she travels. it’s just another way to challenge her brain.

[gladlyhumbled]

Dear Generation: To The Youth

Here lays an address to a group of people like myself: young, Christian, and eager for a revival.

It seems quite absurd to believe that the Church is taking a step back in faith and leadership, yet that seems to be the case. Pastors are manipulating the Word, leading others astray, and the walks of many Christians have grown cold. There are more variables that should be taken into account; regardless, the significant issue is that the once firm roots of Christianity appear to be weakening, the fruits of God’s people lessening, and the soil of their faith eroding. This alarming implications caused can be conveyed by the “domino effect.” Weaker faith produces weaker relationships, weaker relationships lead to weaker boundaries, and weakened boundaries creates susceptibility to  weakened morals. But since we have been called to be newly transformed, shouldn’t our actions affirm that? Shouldn’t we be progressing instead of regressing? Before going any further, I want to mention that I am by no earthly or heavenly means perfect. No one is perfect. I’m still learning to deal with these uncomfortable--borderline overwhelming--truths, however if I’ve learned anything, it’s to take them in in little by little, because they are the ones that produce the greatest spiritual results when you align your life with them. That is why I sought out to write this “letter”  to you all as to speak. The truth is, I believe that we, with the grace and power of God, can create the ripples of change needed to heal our nations and its hurting people. Without no more time wasted, let us begin to be the people this world, and the Kingdom, needs.

The next generation should be outcasts. One of the hardest truths to swallow, considering it is of human nature to desire acceptance and approval from others. Unfortunately, when we live to please the world, we certainly are not pleasing God because He is not of the world and He calls us to that same conduct (1 John 2:15, John 17:14-16). Another issue that is commonly associated with non-conformity is self-image. We don’t want to seem idiotic, weird, or flat-out atypical in the eyes of others. Truthfully, the solution is adopting a renewed mind. We must not decide our actions based on what would please the world, but on what would please God. When fear kicks in and condemns us saying, “Do you really want to say this/do that? Don’t you fear what everyone will think of you?” we need to be able to believe and confidently respond, “Flee from me, Devil! For God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).” Then we should do what we are called to do, no matter how silly or downright dumb we look doing it. It is very important to remember that the greater the call, the greater the opposition. In other words, it is silly to think that Devil is going to rest while God is working through you to impact the future; he is like a prowling lion, always seeking to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). He’s the god of this world, already leading countless unbelievers down an eternal path of destruction, how much more is he determined to lead the elect astray in order that God’s light and glory is diminished?  Now more than ever, for the cause of Christ, we need to step out when we feel uncomfortable. Speak out even when we don’t feel confident (if it’s God’s message, you don’t need to delay it reaching the heart of someone else due to your emotions). Live loud even when everyone around us is barely living. Why? Because we are qualified. We don’t have to be skilled or the best at what we do, just willing and assured that God will work through us (2 Corinthians 4:7). At schools, they can get rid of the anthem, but they can not rid us from acknowledging our God. No one can stop us from carrying the powerful, living, breathing Word of God to our classes--no one but ourselves. No longer should fear hold the keys and determine our outreach before we’ve even given it a chance, because indeed we have the power of God dwelling inside us. So if the world chooses to hate us for being Christians, then how much more will they condemn us for living out the life God intended for us? A life that requires a readiness to be an outcast. However, if they love us for who we are, then they’ll be transformed by the richness of God’s love and grace. We should be ready to be outcasts and live according to God’s will regardless of how the world perceives us. In a hundred million years into life in eternity, all of those things that held us back will be for naught. The next generation should be outcasts.

The next generation should be lovers. Let’s radically change the genuinity of that word...by living it out. Live with our hearts on our sleeves, aware that it could get broken, but comforted that it could be the very reason a lost soul finally finds his or her way home. Even if someone doesn’t get saved, you’ll be reminded of the great joy that you were able to plant a seed of hope in a life that wouldn’t be the same without it. Let us love when we are happy, and even more so determinedly when we’re sad. Let love be our greatest weapon when we’re attacked, belittled, and rebuked. For if love is greater than faith and hope, and it covers a multitude of sins, than such an anthem is needed to bring God’s salvation to a dying world. Let us extend our Father’s love to the homeless and homeowners, rich and poor, reserved and vulnerable, humble and haughty alike. Our love should know no boundaries in gender, class, religion, appearance, beliefs, personality, sexuality, political stance, and race. Whatever flaws we see in ourselves, may we fully surrender them to God to love them out of us, and may we do so for those who don’t have that liberty. To believe or not believe isn’t the dilemma (we aren’t penalized for their ultimate decision), it is to love or not to love, because there is so much power every human has when it comes to loving, so many chains we can break.The next generation should be lovers.

The next generation should be worshipers. This alludes to more than just reserving one’s praise for the Lord on Sunday and then returning to silence on the rest of the weekdays. Let us enter into a state of constant praise. We ought to know when God deserves to be worshiped: at all times and in all situations (Hebrews 13:15-16). When we wake up in the morning, let His praise spill from our lips. Before we drift away in our slumber, let our last words be reserved for Him and His goodness. When our insides are rumbling with joy, let us praise Him! When we are troubled, may our praises ring even louder. For the little things, big things, and everything that falls in between, let us bring Him praise. Let. Us. Bring. Him. Praise. And may we all be wise in understanding that God always deserves to be worshiped because He is eternally good.Even though our emotions are fickle, God does not change: who He promised to be thousands of years ago still stands true. He doesn’t change in goodness, just because our life meets with turmoil. No matter how frustrating it may be to us curious beings, we are not entitled to know why God does what He does, and we are definitely not capable of fully understanding His ways. Isaiah 55:9 states, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Interestingly enough, the Greek word for higher is gabah, meaning to be high, exalted, and exalted means to be highly regarded. God’s ways and thoughts should be respected in that manner. Maybe one day everything will all make sense, but until then, the next generation should be worshipers withstanding,and may it be evident to all who are watching.

The future generation should be intentional. Being intentional is one of the greatest lacks of this current society--even in the church. Once our decisions are rooted in intention--the ones that Jesus wills for us--we will not only glorify our Father in Heaven, but we will saves ourselves from unnecessary hurt. We are imperfect beings and many of the choices we make are based on our own carnal knowledge and desires, bound to cause us great harm in the end. So avoid brash impulses, steady yourself in the heat of peer pressure, and trust wholeheartedly in the knowledge of the One whose thoughts are greater and ways are higher, for obeying Him brings a future better than anything one could imagine. Reflect and thoughtfully deliver each word you speak with love, truth, and care. Treat everyone, no matter their character, with the respect you would want bestowed unto you. With every partner, be intentional, working prospectively towards marriage while glorifying God. Every act should work to bring God delight, no matter how “starved” your flesh feels in some aspects of life. It may be overwhelming, frustrating, even treading the lines of sacrificial, however, once we submit to the will of our Father, we will find joy in doing what is good. The next generation should be intentional. 

The next generation should be holy and blameless. Do not worry, He’s already got you covered on that (Colossians 1:22). However, to be an effective witnesser you should always strive to live righteously, pleasing God by living out what is right. Again, that calls for a life of intentionality. The next generation should be holy and blameless.

The next generation should be prayer warriors. As expected of Christ followers, prayer should  be a priority. In the morning, afternoon, and night, let prayers and praise always spill out from our lips, directed to our good, good Father in the name of Christ. When we are happy, pray. When we are sad, pray. When we are anxious, pray. When we are angry, pray. When we are trailblazing through trials or have found our way through them, pray. Before and after we have exhausted every effort, pray. Pray for the lost, the hurting, and the needy, and the hopeless. Pray without ceasing, as 1 Thessalonians 5:17 encourages, always returning to it for any and everything. It should be a habit instilled in our minds, and an observance for all of time. With consistency, a man or woman of God can also be known as a man or woman of prayer, and all the glory goes to God for that! The next generation should be prayer warriors.

The next generation should be a people hungry, eager, and, on fire for Jesus because guess what? 

The next revival is coming and we are going to be the ones leading it.

[tgarnsl]

Thoughts on Beat to Quarters:

wow... just... wow. What a book. What a start to a series!

I regret starting reading the Hornblower series by going straight to Lieutenant Hornblower - I was absolutely spoiled by Bush’s POV and to suddenly go from Hornblower and Bush being all chummy to Hornblower barely speaking to Bush was jarring to say the least

Hornblower: Bush? Who’s Bush? Me: He’s your BEST MATE. 

I haven’t read Crisis or Atropos but honestly, the only way I can explain it away is by thinking Hornblower did his usual thing of “oh no I’m getting close to someone I should back out before they see my Imperfect Soul” when he and Bush parted ways. Bush probably wrote him loads of letters. Hornblower probably let them sit on his desk and never opened them and tortured himself over them. 

It’s a shame Forester didn’t write their friendship into BtQ - would Hornblower have told Bush about the deaths of his children? To be honest I doubt it. It’d be more in character for Hornblower to keep a lid on it so he doesn’t have to talk about *shudder* FEELINGS. 

and speaking of feelings LADY BARBARA. I honestly thought I’d hate her going into it - I find adultery to be a trite plot device in literature, and so I disliked the idea of having to read about Hornblower pining after this Perfect Lady when he has a perfectly lovely wife and yet... Babs won me over. She’s a terribly flawed character; she’s proud, arrogant, snobbish, and yet she’s not an awful person, casual racism and brutality towards her maid aside. She’s 27, single by choice, well-read, brave, and intelligent - she travels halfway around the world with only a maid for company and seems to rather enjoy it, yellow fever aside. She’s also very much in charge of her sexuality - she is unafraid to strike up a dalliance with a married man far beneath her station. While I will say that Forester’s handling of their romance was awkward (though I tend to have a distaste for romance in adventure books) I will begrudgingly admit that I mostly like her. She’s a free-spirit in many ways, and I imagine she must have found it stifling being an earl’s daughter in 19th century England, where she was expected to look pretty and not be much else. I think one of the main reasons she falls in love with Hornblower is he sees beyond her sex to the person she is. 

(as a fun aside, Barbara as a name means ‘strange’ or ‘foreign’, deriving from the same Greek root as ‘barbarian’) 

for a villain who spends as much time has he does offscreen, El Supremo is a fantastic villain. He reminds me of Mr Kurtz from Heart of Darkness - a man so drunk on his own divinity it causes his downfall. He’s so powerful he is, in essence, a god, because both his own followers and Hornblower must acquiesce to his demands or else lose everything. 

Hornblower is a Hot Mess of a man, and while I don’t like Book Hornblower as much as I like Film Hornblower, he’s an interesting character. Selfish, vain, neurotic... he’s a disaster. Get over yourself, pal. You’ve got a war to fight. 

the battles with the Natividad were gripping. I gasped out loud reading them. Rowing the Lydia under fire from the Natividad? What I wouldn’t do to see a film of this book. 

the only big drawback to BtQ is the period-appropriate racism and sexism, which is u to this modern reader. While I will not decry this book as racist tosh, I do find those elements uncomfortable. 

I’m sorry, this is WAY too long and I should probably edit it. Ah well! 

[aestherians]

My response to this video is gonna be ridiculously long, so hit J if you want to skip it

“Fictinkin is Terrible” Bad grammar. Should either be ‘fictionkin are terrible’ or 'fictionkinity is terrible’. But I digress.

“I actually used to be fictionkin” It’s generally agreed that if you’re 'kin, that’s what you are. It’s an inherent trait, like a hair color, and you can’t just quit it (though you can realize you never were 'kin in the first place or you can stop associating with the community or you can refuse to use any of the labels). A better wording would probably be “I used to think I was fictionkin.” This is just nitpicking, honestly, as it doesn’t change the experiences you’ve had with the community.

“[The otherkin community consists] of people who believe they are the spirit of a species besides human, born into the wrong body.” Not exactly wrong, not exactly right. This describes a lot of otherkin but by far not all. I believe my soul is partially that of a bison but I don’t believe I should’ve been born in the body of a bison. I also feel like I’m a gnoll (you know,, those fuckers from D&D) on a psychological level, which I chalk up to a lot of weird things in my late childhood/early teens, such as roleplaying werewolves and imprinting on the art of DarkNatasha. It’s not play-pretend, it’s just a… character trait, I guess you could say. Like being Pagan or being really into knitting. A large portion of otherkin believe it’s a purely psychological phenomenon or that the cause is a mix of spiritual and psychological stuff. Likewise, a lot of otherkin don’t feel like they’re born into the wrong body. It’s very subjective how each individual describes their otherkinity.

“It’s origins are mainly from tumblr” Not really… The current otherkin community has its roots in the elven communities from the 1970s (namely the Elf Queen’s Daughters and the Silver Elves). The EQD have letters dating back to 1973 detailing their nonhuman identities and can trace the origins of their organization back to the late 1960s. The word 'otherkin’ was coined by Torin in a mailing list (hosted by R’ykandar Korra’ti) in 1990. This is around the same time that the therian community appeared (seperately from the elvenkind/otherkin community) in the newsgroup Alt.Horror.WereWolves. For more information, check out “Otherkin Timeline - The Recent History of Elfin, Fae,and Animal People” By O. Scribner.

“Nowadays, the otherkin community has actually been pretty dead recently…” Again, not really… If anything, there are more otherkin actively discussing their identities and connecting with each other now than ever before. The community is just isolated to private chats and servers (mainly on Discord) and heavily moderated forums like WereList, Therian-Guide, and Fictionkin Dot Com.

“…and in its place has arisen something far worse: This is the fictionkin community.” Though some of the elves of the EQD and the Silver Elves would technically be classified as fictionkin today (as they identified as canon characters from Tolkien’s Middle-earth), the fictionkin community as we know it dates back to circa 2001. In other words, it’s not a replacement for the otherkin community specific to tumblr, and it is probably older than a lot of the people watching this video. For more info, check out “A History Of The Fictionkin Community” by House of Chimeras.

“Otherkin actually has [sic] some basis in spiritual beliefs like reincarnation and spirit animals” Otherkinity has nothing to do with having a spirit animal and an otherkin have nothing to do with spirit animals. If someone isn’t first nations they shouldn’t even touch that term. I understand where the confusion comes from, though. When you’re just getting to know your animal guide/spirit guide you think about them a lot, and when you think about something a lot you’re bound to experience things that are reminiscent of otherkin experiences, such as dreaming that you are the animal or taking on the mindset of the animal. The author Lupa used to think she was a wolf therian but a couple of years down the line recognized that she’d mistaken her spirit guide for a theriotype. You can read about it in her article “Letting Go of Therianthropy For Good.”

“Fictionkin, however, these people lack any actual reasoning behind why they think they’re a fictional character. They’ll often run around in circles, trying to come up with explanations for it, usually quoting the multiverse theory.” Archetypal connection, dissociation, energetic resonance, imprinting, mental fabrication, psychic connection, differently shaped soul parts, soul shattering, spiritual links, trauma, a coping mechanism turned into an involuntary identity, astral shapeshifting, neurodivergence, developmental issues in one of the critical periods of identity formation… Need I go on? There are plenty of things (both spiritual and psychological) that could explain why some people are fictionkin.

“At least the otherkin community tries to explain their logic with actual spiritual and religious beliefs.” What’s the difference between an “actual spiritual belief” and what fictionkin believe in? Hopefully you’re aware that all religious and spiritual beliefs were created by people. Superheroes are the modern day Greek gods, and fictionkinity isn’t really different from Alexander the Great believing he was a demigod. At least I don’t see the difference, except in the number of people that believe it (and I think we can all agree that the number of subscribers a belief has does not determine how real it is, otherwise we’d all have to accept the Abrahamic god as real and atheists would be seen as delusional).

“But the fictionkin community preaches a theory with no actual evidence behind it like it’s fucking fact.” And what exactly is the evidence behind non-fictionkin beliefs about the cause of 'kinity…?

“How do you actually determine that you are these characters?” I’m not fictionkin, so I can’t speak for them, but I identify as a bison and a gnoll because I experience a lot of things that fit into either narrative more comfortably than it does a human narrative. Body dysphoria, homesickness after places I’ve never been, impulses/urges, supernumerary phantom limbs, periods where my mindset feels less human and more animal, and flashing images of being my kintypes. Am I literally a nonhuman creature in a human body? Who the fuck knows. But it feels good to me to put those experiences in that narrative.

“It’s really concerning that these people would base their entire identities around something so vague.” Assuming someone’s kintype is their entire identity because you only know them from their 'kin blog is like assuming Drea Renee’s entire identity is 'knitter’ because she runs a big knitting blog. It doesn’t really fly. I’m otherkin, sure, but I’m also an animal science student, an aspiring amateur entomologist, a collector of old books, a fantasy fan, a cat lover, a scourer of thrift stores, and I could go on. Old books isn’t my entire identity. Insects aren’t my entire identity. Otherkinity isn’t my entire identity. I understand the assumption as you only see most 'kin on their blog devoted to otherkinity, but trust me, they will 9 times out of 10 have a private main blog where they post about all the other stuff that interests them.

“Let’s assume these memories are real. Don’t you think it would be possible to have memories of a character you aren’t even familiar with?” Plenty of people do, actually! They usually only find out when their source comes out, though. A somewhat famous example is Ebony who identified as a thestral a few years before Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released. You can read about this in their essay “Fangs, Flesh and Flight” on House of Chimeras’ Livejournal. I myself have had several 'memories’ (I’m reluctant to call them that for personal reasons) of being an elderly woman in various situations. I’ve looked everywhere for something that matches those images, but I’ve pretty much resigned myself to it just being a 'normal’ past life.

“They pretty much make their self-indulgent canon” As a canon-divergent gnoll, I am Offended™. Nah, but honestly, canons and people’s relationships with them are weird (and I have a gut feeling that non-'kin would call our experiences fake whether we adhere to canon or not). Some people swear up and down that Shiro from Voltron still loves his ex, others claim the opposite. And neither of them are wrong since it’s all about the media consumer’s own perception of what they’re shown. Then there are people like me who just go off whatever gut feeling they have, so whatever kind of gnoll I identify as doesn’t show up in any tabletop canon that I’m aware of. I technically identified as a gnoll before I knew what a gnoll was and on my blog there are plenty of posts where I list my traits, asking if someone knows a creature matching them. In the end a kind Anon pointed me towards gnolls.

“According to these people you don’t even have to have memories to be kin. Actually, there’s no real determining factors for how to be kin and nothing is stopping you from being kin with every single fictional character that you like. As a matter of fact, people who are only kin with one or two characters are the minority.” You don’t need memories to be 'kin as there are many other factors that could cause you to feel nonhuman/like a fictional character. I’ve already gone over this in “How do you actually determine that you are these characters?”. What stops you from having a billion characters as your kintype at once is the simple fact that only a smaller number can really be significant enough parts of your personality to constitute kintypes. There’s no set upper limit, but somwhere around 5 is usually where you should start to get really skeptical. The people who have a list of 100 supposed kintypes have just really misunderstood what other-/fictionkinity is and need to be gently corrected. I hate to sound like I’m yelling ‘no true scotsman’ but among genuine otherkin, you’ll rarely find someone with more than 10 kintypes. Past lives, sure, but not kintypes.

“…delusions of being fictional characters.” 'Kinity is not a delusion. Please don’t downplay mental health issues by comparing them to a subculture. The DSM-IV classifies a delusion as “A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everyone else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture (e.g., it is not an article of religious faith). When a false belief involves a value judgment, it is regarded as a delusion only when the judgment is so extreme as to defy credibility.” Otherkinity is an identity, not a belief, and it is in identity that makes no claims about the external world (with the exception of a select few elves and fae in the 80s/90s who claimed to be genetically otherkin). The beliefs surrounding otherkinity, however, can be delusional in rare cases like physical shifting. But in almost all cases the beliefs would fall into the culture/subculture category like religions do.

"And as they always say, anyone can become kin! You don’t even need to take it seriously.” The people who say that are going against the +40 years of established knowledge about the community and the otherkin experience. They’re wrong. You can not 'become 'kin’, only realize you were 'kin your whole life. You can, however, choose to become a copinglinker, which I believe a lot of the kids on tumblr actually are. If you chose your kintype, if you can drop a kintype all willy-nilly, or if you’re “kin to cope,” you’re a copinglinker, not otherkin. It’s a matter of misinformation and a lack of resources (and of kids refusing to listen when more knowledgeable people correct them).

“Eventually you’re gonna have to grow out of this.” Why? I’m happy the way I am (and functional, if that’s what you’re worried about). I’ve got friends, hobbies, and goals. I recently quit my job to focus on my studies, but up until then, I had no problems keeping it. I go to college. I go to parties. I’m going to Pride in a few hours. I’m not exactly secret about being otherkin, and all the people who’ve found out or who’ve been told that I am, have just shrugged and accepted it. If it doesn’t interfere with my day-to-day, there’s no reason to 'outgrow it’. For the record, I know plenty of people in their 30s and 40s (even a few upwards of 70) who lead completely normal lives and happen to be other-/fictionkin.

[25000yearcycle]

*This piece was sent to us and is directed at Black fraternities and sororities—Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Delta Sigma Theta, Omega Psi Phi, Zeta Phi Beta, Phi Beta Sigma Sigma Gamma Rho, Iota Phi Theta and any other Blacks who don't know their history—that bein' a Black greek is an oxymoron!!            xxxxxx -- M'Bwebe Aja Ishangi, DaGhettoTymz.com      

Among the usually lame messages left by fraternities and sororities on campus sidewalks, there have been some interesting phrases left by Western Michigan University's new colony of the national fraternity for openly gay and bisexual men.

Delta Lambda Phi's official national slogan is "What others hide in shame, we boldly embrace with pride," despite what the sidewalks say. With 20 active chapters across the country, Delta Lambda Phi is proving homosexuality and fraternity life can actually mix. However, the Greek community has not been known for its liberal acceptance of homosexuals. WMU's chapter of Delta Lambda Phi was organized after its president said he probably wouldn't be able to get a bid at an established WMU fraternity because he is openly homosexual. He did not want to go back into the closet in order to join the Greek community.                    

At other colleges, Greeks have made an effort to welcome homosexuals. Cornell University, has an organization called Greeks United Against Homophobia that is "committed to making fraternities and sororities a safe place where the true ideals of brotherhood and sisterhood can emerge."              

Homosexuals are still one of the most openly discriminated-against groups in society. They are the subject of ridicule, prejudice and hate. There certainly will be Greeks that will accept Delta Lambda Phi into the community without a question, but there will probably also be some ridicule and resentment.              

There really shouldn't be. Any Greek that would not accept homosexuals into the community would not only be exhibiting bigotry, but outright ignorance of the fact that the term "Greek" implies a long history of accepting homosexuality.              Perhaps it is due time we examined the true nature of Greek brotherhood by taking a little trip back in time.              

Fraternities are said to have their origin in the Middle Ages when young men would go off to foreign countries to study in the new universities at Bologna or Paris. Men from the same countries clung together in the notion of brotherhood.              

In early America, the founders of collegiate fraternities chose to name their organizations using Greek letters (Phi Beta Kappa being the first, in 1776), drawing upon the high culture of ancient Greece. Fraternities slowly spread across the United States, and what we know as the "social fraternity" has its roots in the mid-to late 19th century. Following tradition, these men chose to name their organizations using Greek letters.              

Because Western civilization has chosen to emulate and draw upon the accomplishments of ancient Greece doesn't mean that the cultural standards in their society were comparable to ours. In fact, the Greeks were far more modern in their acceptance of homosexuality. Most of the greatest Greek citizens were active participants in homosexual sex.              

Manly love was a common fixture of everyday Greek life. The Greeks practiced what was called pederasty: open sexual relationships between older men and adolescent boys. Both Plato and Xenophon explored the beauty of this love in their "Symposiums."              

Distinguished Athenian citizens would stand around the gymnasium, where young boys ran naked, and the men would pick and choose a boy for a lover. This was all very legal, as long as the boy had reached puberty. Solon the lawgiver, himself a pederast, imposed strict laws against children being included in this practice. Boys were only attractive to older men if they had no hair on their face, thighs or buttocks. There were many arguments among the philosophers about which was greater: sex with a woman or sex with an adolescent boy. Achilles Tatius wrote, "Boys' sweat has a finer smell than anything in a woman's makeup box." In mythology we see such relationships between Zeus and Ganymede, Dionysus and Ampelos and Apollo with Hyacinthus and Cyparissus.  

           While what we consider homosexual sex (sex between men of the same age) was relatively the norm in Greece, the heroes made it into an art. Theseus and Peirithous, Orestes and Pylades, Achilles and Patroclus and Heracles (Hercules) and Iolaus all shared what the playwright Aeschylus called "the sacred communion of thighs." In pederasty, the boy was not supposed to receive any pleasure, which was reserved for the man. But among the heroes, sex was mutual and fulfilling. Only death could end such relationships.

The Spartan soldiers [immortalized by the 2006 movie release '300' (added by M'Bwebe)]--some of the most heroic and masculine warriors in history--participated actively in homosexual sex. Alexander the Great had a longtime male companion. When the corpses of Theban soldiers were found on the battlefield at Chaeronea, they were found in couples. Each loving pair of men fought bravely to their deaths, back to back.              

So to the Greeks of old, sex between males was accepted. Only time will tell if the members of Delta Lambda Phi will be accepted and taken seriously by the Greeks of new. The Greek community does a lot of good at WMU. They should be lauded for their community service, academic achievement and commitment to excellence.

But bigotry in any form is never excellent. For any Greek that opposes the existence of Delta Lambda Phi, every time he sends a younger brother out for a "naked run," he should think about the Athenians. Every time an older member of the frat uses a paddle adorned with Greek letters to strike young pledges in the bum, he should think of the Spartans. And every time a Greek proudly displays his letters on his clothing or writes Greek letters all over campus, he should understand that in using the Greek name and alphabet he is representing a society with a rich and beautiful tradition of homoerotic sexual idealism.            

By James Griffioen        Opinion Columnist        Western Michigan Herald        10 February 1998

Black / Afrikan / Moor stop practicing a culture that is not your own. You are not Greek, nor should your lifestyle be.

 Accept your Own and be Yourself!

[dfroza]

knowing truth renews the heart & mind

because this world is a war for truth vs. deception.

and who is known as the father of lies?

the great deceiver who opposes Light, a lying dragon who has already been defeated with a fate that is sealed.

and so the heart needs honest connection. it needs spiritual truth (rebirth) and the presence of the Spirit (inside, Anew)

because we live in the physical and temporal world, but Love is eternal. and our thought-lives truly matter:

For although we live in the natural realm, we don’t wage a military campaign employing human weapons, using manipulation to achieve our aims. Instead, our spiritual weapons are energized with divine power to effectively dismantle the defenses behind which people hide. We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.

The Letter of 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 10:3-6 (The Passion Translation)

with the whole chapter here in The Voice as Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament:

I, Paul, appeal to you in the same gentle and loving spirit of the Anointed—yes, I who am humble when I’m face-to-face with you but audacious to you in these letters when I’m away (I know what they say). If it were up to me, I’d rather not have to be so bold when I’m with you, especially with the kind of forceful confidence I can work up when I confront those who have accused us of walking in a worldly way. For though we walk in the world, we do not fight according to this world’s rules of warfare. The weapons of the war we’re fighting are not of this world but are powered by God and effective at tearing down the strongholds erected against His truth. We are demolishing arguments and ideas, every high-and-mighty philosophy that pits itself against the knowledge of the one true God. We are taking prisoners of every thought, every emotion, and subduing them into obedience to the Anointed One. As soon as you choose obedience, we stand ready to punish every act of disobedience.

Look at what is going on right in front of you. If anyone is convinced that he belongs to the Anointed, then he should think again; even if he belongs to Him, so do we. I’m not embarrassed, even if it seems to others I have gone overboard in speaking about the power the Lord has given us to edify and encourage you and not to destroy anyone who strays. I don’t want it to seem as if I’m simply trying to scare you with my letters; they are not hollow. For some people are saying, “Paul’s letters sound authoritative and strong, but in person he just doesn’t measure up—even his speeches don’t deliver.” They need to understand this: whatever we say through our letters when we are away, that is exactly what we will do when we are looking you in the eye.

For we would never dare to compare ourselves with people who have based their worth on self-commendation. They check themselves against and compare themselves with one another. It just shows that they don’t have any sense! So we will carefully limit our boasting to the extent only of what God has done in and through us, a reach that extends as far as you. For it wasn’t as if we were overreaching into someone else’s territory by reaching out to you. Weren’t we the first ones to bring you the good news of the Anointed One? We carefully put limits on our boasting and avoid taking credit for what others do. But we do hope to see your faith grow so that we can watch our mission really expand all the way to the limits God has set for us. The plan includes taking the good news to people and lands beyond you. We’ve no interest in or intention of staking claim to other people’s accomplishments in their arenas. As the Scripture says, “The one who boasts must boast in the Lord.” Now let’s be clear: it’s not the one who commends himself who is approved; it’s the one whom the Lord commends.

The Letter of 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 10 (The Voice)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 61st chapter of the book (scroll) of Isaiah with a portion that was read by the Lord in Israel in its fulfillment about 2,000 years ago:

The Spirit of the Lord, the Eternal, is on me.

The Lord has appointed me for a special purpose.

He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to repair broken hearts,

And to declare to those who are held captive and bound in prison,

“Be free from your imprisonment!”

He has sent me to announce the year of jubilee, the season of the Eternal’s favor:

for our enemies it will be a day of God’s wrath;

For those who mourn it will be a time of comfort.

As for those who grieve over Zion,

God has sent me to give them a beautiful crown in exchange for ashes,

To anoint them with gladness instead of sorrow,

to wrap them in victory, joy, and praise instead of depression and sadness.

People will call them magnificent, like great towering trees

standing for what is right.

They stand to the glory of the Eternal

who planted them.

And they will rebuild this place from its ancient ruins;

they will restore the ages-old, once-splendid structures;

They will renew Israel’s ruined cities

from the ashes and debris that laid untouched for many generations.

And people will come from all over to serve you:

Outsiders will tend your flocks, plough your fields, and prune your vines.

You will be known as the ones specially chosen by the Eternal as priests;

people will speak of you as ministers of our God.

And the wealth of nations will come to you for your delight and enrichment.

Many called you disgraced and defiled and said that shame should be your share of things.

Yet you suffered doubly and lived in disgrace;

So double will be your share, and with joy everlasting.

Eternal One: For I, the Eternal, love justice.

I hate stealing and all manner of wrongdoing.

In faithfulness to those who do justice, I promise they will be rewarded for their work;

and I will establish an everlasting covenant with them.

Furthermore, I will promise them My support for their children,

so that all nations and everyone around

Will see that they are the children blessed by the Eternal God.

I am filled with joy and my soul vibrates with exuberant hope,

because of the Eternal my God;

For He has dressed me with the garment of salvation,

wrapped me with the robe of righteousness.

It’s as though I’m dressed for my wedding day,

in the very best: a bridegroom’s garland and a bride’s jewels.

The whole earth sprouts newness and life in the springtime,

and green shoots break through the well-seeded garden soil.

That’s what it is like with the Eternal’s victory—

the Lord will cause justice and praise to sprout up before all the nations, for all peoples to see.

The Book (Scroll) of Isaiah, Chapter 61 (The Voice)

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures for Sunday, August 8 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms

A post by John Parsons that looks into the “inner room” of the heart and its treasure:

God's Name is "I-AM-with-you-always," imanu-El (עִמָּנוּ אֵל) - always in the midst of you, your heart, your Center (Matt. 28:20; Isa. 41:10, Psalm 23:4, etc).... The LORD is so named because he is never without his own, and we are who we are in relation to his presence in our lives. Yeshua is not simply the Lord of the past or the Lord of the future, but the Lord of this moment, this "here" and this "now." He is the same yesterday, today, and forever - the breath of life, our sustaining hope, the Shepherd of our souls... Whatever else may come of this day, this is the day that the LORD has made, and we find peace in God’s Presence... Let us look to Him in this hour! [Hebrew for Christians]

8.6.21 • Facebook

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

August 8, 2021

Rejoice in the Lord

“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4)

The Christian has a compelling duty to rejoice. Paul stresses the Christian need to rejoice by using the tense in the Greek that specifies a continuing and habitual action. This instruction follows his mention of otherwise faithful believers in the church who were unfortunately pursuing disharmony and dissension. Believers are reminded to restore broken relationships, follow after harmony, and rejoice.

Perhaps the best reason to rejoice is that all our names are written in the “book of life” (v. 3). This precious book was mentioned from old times as “a book of remembrance...written before him for them that feared the LORD” (Malachi 3:16). Christ mentioned this book as a cause to “rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Our rejoicing will continue throughout eternity, for only “they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27) will be permitted into the Lamb’s presence. Our love for the brethren and our hope for eternity are reasons to rejoice, indeed.

Paul told the Philippian church they were among the reasons for his joy. “I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace” (Philippians 1:7). Those who had a heart for the things of God were important to him. Therefore, “fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind” (2:2). “For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me” (2:18).

Their joy of fellowship was rooted in the love and service of Christ, as well as His sufferings, “that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (3:10). So, rejoice! JDM

[fantroll-purgatory]

@time-is-still-a-waste

(This is gonna be fun! I’m sorry if she seems boring though!)

She’s definitely not boring! Themeatically a tiny bit of a mess, but this blog’s got a broom and a dustpan, so we’ll sweep her right into line. From reading through the profile, different things I noticed you mention were optimism, fire/fireworks/explosives, baking, painting, carnivals, phoenixes and therefore implicitly rebirth, a soothing nature and desire to help others… 

When you list them all out like that and realize you don’t have a connecting force, it can quickly get a little cluttered-seeming, right? 

Well, I have a connecting force. One that’s going to seem like goofily obvious. She should be An Actual Circus Clown. Like not just a fun juggalo ex-cult member but someone who truly believes in the humanesque Principle Of Clownery. 

It jives with her optimism and desire to help others because she just wants to make ‘em see the sunny side, she just wants to make ‘em see the funny side! She wants to make ‘em laugh until they cry with- okay I’m done making this carebears joke no one will understand. 

Fire easily works for a circus performer, paintings and carnivals obviously work, and rebirth? Well, just take one look at Pennywise.

So now that we’ve got that idea locked in here, we can begin!

Universe: Alternia!

Name: Raizna Ashraz. 

“Raizna” was made to sound similar to the word “Raising”, which always seemed to fit her, due to her baking themes (Raising agents), and her optimistic personality (Raising spirits)! Ashraz, simply means “A bundle of torches”, which fits with the fire theme she shares with her Moirail.

I liked the Ra sound and the justification behind the first name, so I wanted to keep it, but I want to do you one better, themeatically. How about Ramkin Ashraz? 

Ramkin comes from Ramekin, a small ceramic bowl often used to bake souffles, which, as anyone knows, tend to Rise in the oven. But sometimes they can get too hot and deflate. So, y’know. A fun fact is that etymologically it can be read to mean “little battering ram.” 

Age: 8 sweeps, close to 9

Story!: Raizna never really had much luck, with things that happened to her. Being quite unusual for her caste, she (due to no fault of her own, might I add), ended up living with a rustblood, who would later become her moirail. These two, often team up, to set things on fire, but mostly just like fireworks. Preferring to be passive, she tries to hide her own nature, to try and keep her friends safe, to various degrees of success, often baking, and painting to keep up this appearance. When things just started to seem good for the troll, the meteors began falling. This time? She is refusing to think of them as the end. If it would take fighting to survive, then fighting she would do.

I don’t know what the circumstances are, but maybe I can make some recommendations based on the circus clown suggestion I made? She could’ve been a performer for a higher-ranking purple. Then she ditched the church and is here to party with a pal and try to reform himself into someone happier and more pleasant to be around. Getting her anger under control is hard when it was something so accepted as part of a wider cultural persona, but… Baking helps!

Strife Specibus: Bakingkind. (Formerly, Clubkind)

Raizna’s whole theme, was based around baking, and art. So, with a little bit of help, she worked out ways to weaponize her own baked treats.. if only mostly for the aesthetic. She has a set of various pies, filled with explosives, weights and sharp shards of glass, so whoever gets hit with them, gets a nasty (and hopefully explosive) surprise. However, if those aren’t available, she will use a rolling pin, and quite gladly bash people around the face with it.

She could still have a clubkind specibus, since she uses rolling pins as a bludgeon. I think it’s nice for her to keep it on hand. Then she can also utilize, like, juggling torches to whack with.

Fetch Modus: Painting.

Raizna, always finds painting relaxing and loves doing it whenever she can! So, whenever she goes to take something out her modus, she has to paint an image of whatever she wants to get out. The worse she paints it, the worse the condition the item comes out in.

Blood colour: Purple

Raizna, is somewhat of a classic Purpleblood, although she tries her hardest to hide it… to a degree. She still wears her self designed paint with pride. She’s ambitious, stubborn, and a bit emotionally messed up, often hiding her own disappointment with dry and self depreciating humour. However, she is still quite.. volatile, becoming extremely violent when people she cares about are threatened. 

Symbol and meaning: Being both Rage, Prospit and Purple, she’s-

TRUE CAPRICORN- THE CAPRICOUS

Honestly I think she might be better off as 

CAPRINIUS- THE CREDULOUS. 

But we’ll talk about that in a minute.

Trolltag: candiedCarnival [CC]

Candied, is used to reflect her sweet themes, and also to tie in with her sweet personality. It could also reflect her tendency to sugar coat things, that are going on in the world. Carnival, reflects the truth of herself, but also occasionally the fun of them, being places of joy and laughter, things she strives on making people feel.

how about conffectionateCarny, conffectionate is a portmanteau of confection and affectionate, which is a clever way to combine the idea of carnivalous cakes with the idea of her being a sweet person. Carny’s fairly straightforward, but it puts a singular person identifier on it instead of implying she’s the Whole carnival.

Quirk: Raizna isz szuper cheerful! Szo szhe talks with a ton of exclamation marks!  Szhe likes adding letters when szhe talks to fit with her name! It’s not like szhe’s bragging or anything! Szhe just likes how it szounds! :} 

I gotta be honest, I can’t tell where the sz comes from. She had z’s in her original names I guess? But certainly no sz’s. 

What if instead, she replaces her o’s with  °‘s? It’s a good reference to her baking interest as well as the theme of fire and heat. Maybe replace P with п? It’s derived from the greek letter Pi, which is a sly reference to Pie! And the letter name means ‘peaceful state’, which implies her interest in making things nice. 

Ex: Cheer uп, buttercuп! °r I’ll have t° thr°w a пie in y°ur face!

Special Abilities (if any): Raizna, if perhaps only by sheer nature, is ridiculously resilient . It’s incredibly hard to hurt her properly, or at least. Keep her down. But, if that isn’t counted, she’s just really good at calming people down. It’s like her words have something soothing about them. She does, however have a tendency to get increasing annoyed when doing this, almost like she’s taking their pain, or anger and keeping it for herself.

Now, this isn’t… Purpleblood abilities manifest as a way to keep the lowbloods down. That’s what it’s supposed to be. So maybe you could alter this to be something she really hates having? Something like hideous laughter, maybe? She can use her abilities to make people absolutely lose it with uncontrollable laughter. Maybe she’s trying to work on blunting the effect, somehow? Like making it so that she can make people giggle a little but, but having to suppress the power like that has a negative effect that makes her irritable and headachey?

Ancestor: The Vandal [Aleyna Ashraz, Witch of Rage]

Caught in a war and several rebellions, Aleyna was right at home. Rebelling against her own kind, She’d paint messages of rebellion along the walls of the nobles, with blood that she could find, her own, if necessary. 

Quickly gaining fame as a rebel, she kept this image up, stirring up rebellions with her works, and sending messages of danger to those who ruled. This did however, end up with assassins, coming to find for her, only to be led on a wild goose chase. Any of those, that did find her returned back home, scared, although they couldn’t quite describe why.

When the law eventually caught up, she didn’t surrender, and was taken away. What happened to her, was unknown.

Raizna was always interested in her Ancestor, respecting her for speaking up about what she thought was right, in a non-violent way. She often hopes that she had survived, and one day, Raizna hopes that she could do something just as cool.

Ancestors need 8 letter titles! How about The Graphein instead? It’s a Greek word that means To Write and is an etymological root for Graffiti. It still implies the same writing on the walls that you desired, but fits the lettering rules.

Lusus: Her lusus, is a weird combination, of a phoenix and a cat, that she affectionately calls her Birdmum and loves dearly. Raizna often takes food both caught and made to her lusus, as an attempt to return the favour of being brought up by her. Often being very defensive of Raizna, Birdmum often has to guard their hive, meaning she isn’t around very much. They have a mutually caring relationship, and if anything happened to her lusus, Raizna doesn’t know what she’d do.

Purple lusii need to be creatures that cross the land-sea barrier, so Bird Cat doesn’t really satisfy that requirement. Hmm… How about a phoenix turtle instead? Half phoenix, half turtle. It could have feathers on its wings, long tail feathers instead of the short turtle tail. This is because turtles are known to be long-living, so it fits the immortal theme alright. It’s also a sly reference to The Phoenix and the Turtle, which is about a lot of things but The Death Of An Ideal is one of the core themes and it fits well with the hope switch I’ve given to her.

Personality: Raizna is obnoxiously cheerful. Or at least, that’s what most people think. She often goes out of her way, to make people happy, either by feeding away their woes, listening to them, or calming them down with soft words. Often doing things out of her own kindness, many people are drawn to her for aid. She does, have a fondness for helping people, and will often go out of her way to do tasks for people, even if that means beating the hell out of somebody who hurt one of her friends, or stealing. Normally quite calm, she’s often cheerful, always fighting with her own dark urges. When she’s angry, or if her own nature takes over, she can be brutal, murderous and cunning, all the things she often hates about herself. With a deep hatred of lies, and lying, she’s incredibly honest, to the point of being brutally honest sometimes. However, at the top of everything, she puts others first, with very little care for herself.

I really like this base for her personality, like a LOT. I think you should pull some of the clowniness I’ve suggested, though. Maybe have her crack jokes for her friends, or do little performances. Maybe she’s willing to sacrifice her dignity to make her pals laugh. Maybe she’s always willing to throw a pie in her own face to get a giggle. She wants to be a good friend, and she tries to keep up under wraps with these jokes, maybe sometimes with pranks? Just trying to vent it out in any way possible. 

The rest of the stuff is really good. Give her a STRONG conviction for honesty, helping people, and doing what’s right. Because convictions are very important with hope-aligned players.

Interests: Baking, Painting, Writing, FLARP (to a degree. She doesn’t play much anymore), Sociology, Fire and “Magic” .

Maybe she plays FLARP but she likes to change the F to mean Funny. Funny Live Action Role Play. You know those people in MMOs who are like high level and terrifying and you’re so scared they’re going to kill your weak little level 1 character? and then they roll up and hand you like 4000 silver for literally no reason and tell you to go buy a horse? That could be her. 

You should add a general clowniness here. If she used to use clubs, she probably knows how to juggle! Maybe she could like fire spitting as well. And some pranks! Harmless fun! Fire crackers and noise makers and confetti poppers!

Appearence: Raizna, has never been one to draw attention to herself.  She keeps her long curly hair, that’s practically impossible to brush loose. You could probably find a plushie or two in there, if you tried hard enough. Often wearing a plain black shirt, and fluffy black pyjama trousers, she often seems like a mess, to the annoyance of a few of her friends. Quite.. disturbingly, she’s often covered in bright colours, from her painting. However, some lowbloods mistake the paint, for being the blood of people she’s killed, causing uneeded fear. 

At all times, she wears her makeup, flame like patterns coating her eyes, and brim of her nose. Streaking down from her lips, are swirls of white and red that stand out against her skin. She virtually never takes off the makeup, and just puts more on each day, without washing the previous day’s makeup off. To keep with her messy theme, she wears soft slippers everywhere. I mean. Literally everywhere. Even when dressed up formally.

She seems cute! I’ll see how I can communicate this in sprite form.

Title: Thief Of Rage.

I’ve always had her, as quite a soothing character, so I figured somebody who stole peoples negative emotions, could be quite a good idea, which is why I originally started with a thief. I couldn’t decide on if I should make her a heart, or rage player. 

I eventually decided on rage, and although I don’t think the go to version of the aspect particularly fits her. She can be selfish in a way, so I suppose it still fits! 

I think that she’s in a kind of good place, theoretically, as a person. So I think maybe Rogue of Hope might be a good title for her. 

She’s someone who cares a lot about others, who has a strong sense of justice and what is right and what needs to be done, and she’s not afraid to do it for others. AND she moves the anger around via her powers. She passively moves hope and positivity and potential onto others, lightening their moods, while actively taking on rage, which she turns into a weapon.

Land: The Land of Fire and Fear.

Raizna’s hive was just destined to be something fiery. I mean, with a phoenix for a lusus that was just fate wasn’t it. She just wasn’t quite expecting it to be on an active volcano. So when she eventually left her hive, and got hit by the freezing cold winds, she decided immediately. Nope. Don’t like cold. Cold things are bad.

So she ran inside again. Like a coward. That was, until said volcano erupted, lava burning away and melting the ice that covered her land. Just her luck. Right? 

However, despite all that destruction.. there was something beautiful about the whole ideal. As fire and lava ran across the land that was home, she soon decided one thing.

Maybe destruction can be pretty.

I see what you’re going for here, fire that’s pretty, but… I want to try to push that idea further than just lava flowing over the ground. How about…

Land of Glass and Paraffin, a land where leaping balls of flaming accelerant jump across the land, melting down the glassed surface, creating beautiful swirls, an ever-shifting pattern, molten-hot and deadly, but so wonderfully beautiful you can’t look away. There is always potential for something new, something beautiful, in the mutating surface. But she also has to find hope for the consorts, who live on a molten nightmare planet.

Dream Planet: Prospit.

Raizna, is a Prospit dreamer to a point. She’s optimistic, bubbly and cheerful! However, she does hold some of Derse’s dissatisfaction towards the world, simply due to just how wrong she finds everything. Following what some people do.. would just be lying to herself. Fate, however she does believe in. Fate, and Miracles.

Design: 

Horns: I wanted to make them look like the new symbol I gave her. So very curly, fun, and huge. 

Hair: I made it a big curly mess just like you suggested. I tried to make the curls come off a lot of larger round shapes, mostly because I wanted to summon the image of a clown wig at least tangentially. 

Eyes: Because I liked my own joke too much, I wanted to base her eyes just slightly off of Funshine bear from Journey to Joke-a-lot. And to make her just a little goofy looking, because that was kind of my goal for the whole design, I made her almost cross-eyed. 

Mouth: I wanted her to have big scary teeth to hint at her more dangerous nature. 

Makeup: I utilized red for some flamey eye makeup, some lines down the face, and the outer part of some cheek dots. I used yellow for her lips and the inner part of the cheek dots to try to bring a bright cheeriness, to hit on some more fire-themed colors, and to make her look goofy, once again. 

Shirt: I made the shirt slipping off one shoulder, to aid her messy image. I also like how it bunched the collar of the shirt, because now it’s vaguely reminiscent of a clown frill. I only added a few splotches of blood because her design was already busy color-wise and I didn’t want to overwhelm it. 

Pants: I made some loose pajama pants from Karkat’s pants and edited them to be purple. I wanted to carry the yellow down here, too, so she gets stripey pants! 

Slippers: They’re just edited from a fan-troll spritesheet to be in her purple color-family. 

She’s a really cute character! Thank you for sharing!

-CD

[heartforchrist]

The Great Falling Away... Welcoming The Signs Of The End Times

Falling Away....

The Bible indicates that there will be a great apostasy during the end times. The “great apostasy” is mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 The KJV calls it the “falling away,” while the NIV and ESV call it “the rebellion.” And that’s what an apostasy is: a rebellion, an abandonment of the truth. The end times will include a wholesale rejection of God’s revelation, a further “falling away” of an already fallen world.

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first. 2 Thessalonians 2:3. The Apostle did not want the brethren to confuse the Rapture of the Church with the Revelation of Jesus Christ when He comes to set up His kingdom. God’s Word tells us that certain events will transpire before Christ establishes His kingdom on earth. “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [the day of Christ] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). Here the Bible tells of the sign of the coming of the Antichrist—apostasy. As we look at Christendom today, we see in many circles a departure from the faith, people turning away from God and holiness, often “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5). The falling away includes many who deny the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and deny that He is the divine Son of God. Some professing Christians have grown lukewarm, linking hands with the world. However, the Word says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). This “mystery of iniquity” (2 Thessalonians 2:7) was already working in the days of the Apostles, but there was, and is, a hindering power—the Holy Spirit in His present office as the reprover of the world and gatherer of the Church. When this restraining One is taken from the world at the Rapture of the Church, then the Antichrist will be revealed.

Referring to the false teaching he mentioned in verse 2, Paul tells the Thessalonians not to allow anyone to deceive them concerning the day of the Lord. Obviously, some of the Christians at Thessalonica had fallen victim to an erroneous teaching: that the day of the Lord was already in progress. Paul explains in this verse that it will not begin until two events transpire.

First, there will be "the rebellion." This likely means an overt and extreme revolt against truth. The word translated "rebellion" can also be translated, "the falling away," "the apostasy," or "the departure." The use of a definite article—"the" in English, from hē in Greek—attached to the word for "rebellion" indicates a specific event previously mentioned in the passage. It may refer to Israel's revolt against Old Testament teaching when the nation turns to idolatry. Perhaps it refers to the state of the world following the departure of the church due to the rapture. It is noteworthy that Paul describes the rapture in verse 1 as "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathering together to him."

The second event Paul mentions in verse 3 is the appearance of "the man of lawlessness," "the son of destruction." God will punish the man of lawlessness by consigning him to eternal punishment in the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20–21).

Throughout history there have been many times when more people chose wickedness than righteousness. When this happens, people often live without prophets or priesthood authority for a time. The Great Apostasy happened after people rejected and tried to change the pure truths and organization of the Church established by the Savior. The first to speak of apostasy in the end times was the Lord Jesus Himself. He prophesied that in a coming time of tribulation this would be seen in a particular way, “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people” (Matt 24:10-11). The same word is used in the parable of the sower and the four soils. From the seed that falls in stony places, it says: “But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away” (Matt 13:21). Although the Word of God has had some effect on them, they fall away as soon as there are problems. The Lord Jesus called deception one of the most important end-time signs before His coming in glory. It is the only sign that is repeated three times in Matthew 24 (verses 4-5, 11, 23-26). And, although the culmination of the seduction will come in the last great tribulation period, we already see the harbingers of it. Elsewhere Paul says, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Tim 4:1). Or, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Heb 3:12). And, in 2 Timothy 4:4, in the context of warnings about the end times, Paul declares: “And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” Christianity as a whole not only includes the true believers in Jesus Christ, but also all those who call themselves Christians culturally, but do not believe in their hearts. The whole West and many other parts of the world were influenced by Christianity and the Bible. We see this in history, literature, laws, habits, education, values and traditions, art, and in many other things…even in the division of our era into BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini, “in the year of our Lord”). It is frightening to see just how much has been lost in the last decades. Christian values are becoming a “scandal,” a motivation for mockery, contempt, and even persecution. Unfortunately, even true believers can be influenced by these worldly tendencies. In the context of 2 Timothy, Paul warns against a very dangerous time. If we now want to know whether the coming of the Lord is near, all we have to do is read the last words of the apostle Paul. In the second letter to Timothy, which could also be described as his will, the apostle shows the qualities that will characterize people in the end times. He introduces the subject with a grave warning: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come” (2 Tim 3:1). The qualities the apostle now begins to mention are not much different from those in Romans 1, where people are generally described who want to know nothing of God. Why, then, this serious warning? Not because the danger of the “last days” originates with people who are far from God, but because these evil qualities are visible where many consider (or considered) themselves Christians. The sexual and feminist revolution made fornication and infidelity something worth striving for, an expression of supposed authenticity and true love. The deliberate rejection of Christian thought exploded: on the one hand, more and more people turned to Eastern and demonic religions in their search for meaning; and on the other hand, the theory of evolution increasingly received the status of religious dogma. The decline in ethical reasoning has developed far-reaching consequences in the moral behavior of many. Drug use grew out of control. Open Satanism became “cool” (with the threadbare justification, “We don’t really believe in the devil”). All of this perverted so-called Christianity as never before. Some of the effects of this large-scale apostasy can be seen in 2 Timothy 3. When Paul speaks of the “last days,” he already means the time of Timothy (v. 5). But it is evident that the falling away has reached an unprecedented peak today. Paul starts with “lovers of their own selves.” The people of the end times are egocentric, selfish, and boastful. That is the essence of sin. The center of these self-loving people is themselves. It is the realm of the ego. And when the ego rules, there is no room for others. We see this today in many ways. Everything is about oneself, about self-discovery, about “my identity.” “I believe,” “I think,” “I want” is more important than the will of God. For self-loving people, there is no time for God and His interests. At most, He gets what still remains after the ego has been fulfilled. A profane proof of this development is self-portrayal online. We’ve become a selfie-society, where the big ego always appears first in the picture. This self-love is also expressed in an oversized love for one’s own body. Anyone today who doesn’t feel comfortable with it at best covers it with tattoos, undergoes cosmetic surgery, or, in the worst case, changes their sex. This self-love, in which man stands alone in the center and thinks himself the highest authority in heaven and earth, has long since infiltrated the churches. The feel-good theology of our time says, “God wants you to feel good. So only do what makes you feel good. It has to be right for you.” It gives license to do everything that brings fun, pleasure, or enjoyment. Whether it agrees with God’s Word is no longer important. Biblical principles such as devotion, being living sacrifices (Rom 12:2), or abstinence (Gal 5:24) are no longer modern and are barely heard from the pulpits. A steep falling away is occurring. Roman Catholics are now led by a Pope who denies cardinal doctrines and demonstrates his love for creation above the Creator. Protestants are led by mostly non-educated, self-centered, money-hungry false prophets whose only good use is to provide fodder for the Babylon Bee. Meanwhile, people in the pews are checking out, and this will only increase in the wake of the coronavirus. The mainstream media, once they start paying attention to the weakness of the modern church, will mount an all out attack. It is already beginning: "Some experts think the coronavirus could reshape the country's religious landscape and wipe out many small houses of worship." -- Washington Post, 04/24/20 This they said, I think, with glee. In spite of the fact that the Pope and the megachurch pastors get most of the religious press coverage in the world, the most common expression of the visible church is the small church, with 50-100 in regular attendance. If these can be wiped out, Christianity will be wiped out. But we will not fall or fail. The gates of Hell, the power of politics, and the mainstream media cannot stand against us. The best and strongest example of real, biblical Christianity will always be found in the small, Reformed, church. It is here that the Pastors and Elders and Deacons and Members know one another, love one another, help one another, and hold one another accountable. It is here that the Five Solas and the Doctrines of Grace provide a sure and solid theological foundation. It is here where the best defenses exist against the world, the flesh, and the devil. When it is time to come back to church, look for a small church sign in your community. It is a sign of the times. It is here you can find God, and find grace, to sustain you until the day you die, or until Christ comes again, whichever comes first.

[greywolfandmoon]

Okay. I’ll continue with the traditional Chinese translation, though I don’t have that much to analyse. To spice things up 🔥☄️🌶🌶 I’ll compare it with the simplified Chinese version and state my own preferences (though tbh I’ve never read the translated books myself... my knowledge of traditional Chinese HP comes solely from the films) , but no hate intended 😘

Overall, I feel like the traditional Chinese version tends to be a bit childish sounding compared to the mandarin version because the translators positioned themselves in the children books shelf and aimed at young readers when HP1 first came out. You know that HP becomes progressively darker after PoA, so my guess is that for the sake of consistency, the translators chose to retain the childish quality even though a more mature choice of diction was probably more desirable.

Here come my biggest pet peeves: the incantations. Um, so, in English, you make up really difficult words with roots in Greek or Latin to sound really fancy. In Chinese, one way to do it is to make the incantations lyrical by repeating certain words or creating certain structures for so they sound like lines from a poem. However, we’re no Shakespeare. One doesn’t spill poems by simply repeating any words, not to mention the translators aimed to make things as childish and easy as possible to start with. The end result is that, they took the meaning of the incantations and repeated certain words so that at least readers know Oh this is a Spell!! While the mandarin version does this by simply describing the action of the incantations.

Examples:

Crucio 咒咒虐 (literally: curse-curse-torture. This is a non existent combination of words in Chinese).

Expecto patronum 疾疾，護法現身 (literally: quick-quick patronus come. Reasonably understandable though a little funny.)

Expelliarmus 去去，武器走 (literally: go-go weapon go.)

Now you get the feeling. It’s not that they’re not good, it’s only that they sound like nursery rhymes. However there’re some good ones too; this brings us to the discussion of ‘how do English-to-Chinese translation works??’ which @direwolf-summer did an excellent explanation: you do it based on how words are pronounced, but you can also embed their meaning in the translation. Examples are

Lumos 路摸思 (the mandarin pronunciation is more or less the same as in English, though I don’t speak mandarin myself. Literally, it is road-seek-thinking. Quite well translated I’d say.

Even better is the Mirror of Erised, 意若思鏡 (the pronunciation is close enough. Literally: the meaning is like your mind miror. Exactly what the Mirror of Erised is about, right!?)

Let us go to names. Ah, names. I know mandarin version readers ALWASY make fun of those simply because the traditional Chinese translators ran wild with their imagination and chose the rarest words even when they have much more common counterparts with the same pronunciation for our characters. Im guessing since HP is a magical world, the translators must be like hmmm we need to give them the most unique names!!!

Which is not a bad thing. The funniest and most ingenious one I find is Oliver Wood 木透. Literally it is wood-through (?) with a wordplay on its pronunciation close to the mandarin pronunciation of a plank/wood, but totally unlike its English counterpart. But then, no one gives names like that in Chinese because wood in Chinese has the meaning of being nerdy and dumb and stubborn. But then, I feel like Oliver is a kind of a liiiiiiiittle stubborn and nerdy as well?

In response to some of @direwolf-summer ‘s favourite names:

I much prefer the tranditional Chinese translation of Hermione 妙麗 despite it actually being the usual choice of translation for Muriel and sounding not even the slightest but like Hermione. It starts with the equivalent of the letter m in both mandarin and Cantonese, ha ha. Literally it means smart, great and beautiful, and I like how it sounds in my throat. So smooth, I don’t even have to move my tongue a lot.

Cho Chang is 張秋 (Chang Cho) while the mandarin version is 秋張 (Cho Chang). The characters adopted are the same but the order is reversed. Our version has the surname in front and the first name behind it, which is the usual practice in East Asia. I agree with @direwolf-summer about the beauty of the meaning, but I would prefer a culturally familiar translation although Rowling never specifies Cho’s nationality. In the film, she is played by Katie Leung, whose family is from Hong Kong and who was born in Scotland.

As for the marauders...

Again I much prefer the traditional Chinese translation because their codenames work so much better in terms of musical and artistic qualities. Musically, they are all made up of two characters unlike the mandarin ones (some are three worded, some four). Because these are codenames, being all neat and tidy and clean kind of make them more memorable as NAMES, and that being uniformly two-worded kind of shows to me that they’re a team. Artistically, the mandarin translation is a direct translation of the literal meaning, whereas the traditional Chinese version takes into consideration their connotations.

Prongs is 鹿角, stag antlers (vs mandarin: sharp fork).

Wormtail is still Wormtail 蟲尾, fair enough.

Padfoot is 獸足, beast (no negative connotations, beasts is an archaic term for animals with a neutral attitude just like in English) feet vs mandarin: big feet. The feet here being the more casual and modern form of the ‘feet’ in the transitional Chinese translation. No offence but big feet sounds a bit... funny? Like am I suppose to imagine how handsome and charming and fearful and formidable Sirius Black/Padfoot is from this? (Ok but Padfoot is pretty cute too so 💁🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️)

Moony 月影 is my favourite. Moon shadow. Moon shadow. Can you appreciate how beautiful this is??? Doesn’t this perfectly some up who Remus is?? Ever read , or heard of the fic Casting Moonshadows, no?? Compare the mandarin version: moon face. Er, I know this makes sense in English, like yeah Remus is all moon-faced for someone... but moon face doesn’t make the slightest sense in Chinese. Like, what the fuck does that even mean. The only thing that comes to mind is literally these 🌝🌚🌜🌛. See? The moon has a face. And that’s creepy af. Usually I send the black moon emoji when I think my friends are clowning.

I give up on their proper names. I’m tired af. Plus they are not easy translations. Anyway.

hiiiii! okay so not to be creepy but of course I checked your reblog of my answer about Spanish nicknames and the Marauders - and now I really wanna read your opinions about the Chinese version, so if you don't mind sharing it???? <3

Haha tysm I’m really flattered that you checked my tags in the reblog, V! I’m glad to see you talking about the Spanish translation of HP because translation has always been one of my biggest passions. I’ve done some professional translating here and there, but mostly I translate wolfstar fics from English to Chinese (not to embarrass myself here but I actually hold official Chinese-English translator certificate aka CATTI which means technically I can earn a living in translation if I want but hey, the only right way to use it is to apply myself in translating wolfstar fics right?). To my knowledge HP is probably the most translated books in the world other than Bible, so it would be fun if native speakers of different languages can gather together and compare notes!

Before we start, it should be noted that this is only the mandarin (simplified Chinese) version translated by Ma Aixin & Ma Ainong. There also exists a traditional Chinese version, and although I know most of the characters’ names and curses through indirect means I have never actually read the books, so I cannot in good conscience make a fair judgement. Friends from Taiwan and HongKong, the floor is all yours! @greywolfandmoon 😘

So, let’s start from the good things, shall we? I think it is fair to say that the simplified Chinese version of HP is overall well translated: the translator is a pair of sisters experienced in translating children’s books, the prose is plain but engaging enough for younger readers, and some of the proper nouns are translated quite ingeniously, if I do say so myself. For example, the name Diagon Alley is translated into 对角巷, preserving both the phonetics and the meaning, which is almost impossible in most cases and is therefore quite remarkable.

This is the thing with English-Chinese translation: because the two languages are so far away from each other in the language family tree, most of the time when you translate a proper noun (like a character’s name or the name of a place) you can only choose to preserve one thing: either how it sounds like, or what it means. That is why we Chinese readers never had the “aha” moment when Tom Riddle revealed to Harry that he was, in fact, Voldemort, about which I’m forever bitter. The general practice for translating a character’s name into Chinese is based on how it’s pronounced, but due to the multitude of Chinese characters under the same pronunciation, it is a test of the translator’s capability and imagination to choose the best one that can embody at least some of the meanings. Fortunately for the more common names like James and Peter, the Xinhua News Agency has published a reference list.

Sirius and Remus, on the other hand, fall into the more unfortunate category because their names are too unusual. 😂 Sirius is particularly unlucky (sorry handsome) because when his name first appeared (in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) it was written as “young Sirius Black”, so the translator thought, oh, it must the Junior one then, and went on to translate it into 小天狼星·布莱克, which literally means “junior celestial wolf star” - yeah we had wolfstar right there. 🤣 But it doesn’t make any sense to translate “Sirius” literally but “Black” phonetically. And for the record, Sirius is the only Black who has this kind of special treatment. The other Black family members, despite all sharing the weird posh naming tradition, were translated phonetically. I mean, we didn’t see Regulus’s name translated as 轩辕十四 (xuān yuán fourteen) and Bellatrix as 参宿五 (shēn xiù five), did we 🤷‍♀️

The only other character whose name was translated weirdly was Peter Pettigrew - his family name was translated as 小矮星 (junior dwarf star). Don’t ask me where the star comes from it only exists to make Sirius’s Chinese name less weird I guess

Annnnd on to the Marauders! *drumrolls*

In the simplified Chinese version, Prongs was 尖头叉子 (pointed prongs - ok fair), Wormtail was 虫尾巴 (surprise surprise -worm tail), Padfoot was 大脚板 (Big Paws), and Moony was 月亮脸 (moon face). Personally I wasn’t very pleased with this translation but I admit I couldn’t do better myself. I think my biggest issue, however, was that they completely erased the concept of the “marauders”, referring to the “Marauders’ Map” as 活点地图 (Moving Dots Map) instead. This is absolute scandal - how can you slaughter my babes’ intellectual property rights like that? And the beautiful alliteration was butchered in the process as well 😔

Honourable mention of some of my favourite names:

- Cho Chang 秋·张 (Autumn Zhang. The melancholy and maturity of Autumn just fits her character so much, no I don’t accept criticism)

- Hermione 赫敏 (赫 means remarkable, and 敏 means quick in mind. My cousin has 敏 in her name too!)

- Gringotts 古灵阁 (Ancient Souls Temple - to me a native Chinese speaker it sounds very mysterious and very splendid)

- Flourish & Blotts 丽痕书店 (beautiful trace bookshop - I just love the ring of it)

[live4thelord-blog1]

The Mystery of Iniquity – A Meditation on the Mystery of Rebelliousness

Msgr. Charles Pope • February 19, 2019 • 1 Comment

There is a phrase in the Scriptures that, while speaking of mystery, is itself a bit mysterious and is debated among scholars: the “mystery of iniquity.” St. Paul mentions it in Second Thessalonians and ties it to an equally mysterious “man of iniquity” who will appear before Jesus’ second coming.

The Latin root of the English word “iniquity” is iniquitas (in (not) + aequus (equal)), meaning unjust or harmful, but the Greek μυστήριον τῆς ἀνομίας (mysterion tes anomias) is probably best rendered as “mystery of lawlessness.” Many modern translations use the “mystery of lawlessness,” though it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Translation issues aside, Paul seems to be writing in a kind of secret code:

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don’t you remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming (2 Thess 2:1-8).

Although St. Paul tells the Thessalonians that they know what is holding back the lawless one, we moderns struggle to know. Some scholars say that Paul is referring to the Roman government (which I doubt). Others say that it is the power of grace and God’s decision to “restrain” the evil one and thereby limit his power for the time being. Of course, if Satan is limited now, what horrifying things will be set loose when he is no longer restrained! Can it get any worse? Apparently, it can!

But there it is in the seventh verse; even before the lawless one is set loose there already exists the mystery of lawlessness, the mystery of iniquity. That phrase comes down through the centuries to us, provoking us to ponder its rich meaning.

The danger is that we can focus too much on the “man of iniquity,” who is not yet fully here, and fail to ponder the present reality. As St. Paul says, For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Yes, the danger is that we focus on the future, which is murky, and ignore the present.

Hence, I propose that we ponder the “mystery of iniquity,” which is already here. I’d like to explore how it affects us, both personally and collectively. In doing so, we cannot ignore the operative word “mystery.” We must ponder with humility, realizing that some of what we are confronting is revealed, but much of it is hidden. Therefore, I do not propose to “explain” this phrase to you, but rather to ponder its mystery and confront its questions so as to draw us to reverence and a deeper understanding of our need for salvation.

Let’s look at the mystery of iniquity in four parts, wherein we ponder the mysterious reality of lawlessness that seems so operative among us, individually and collectively.

1. “Rational” Man’s Irrationality – Why do we, who are otherwise rational creatures, choose to do that which we know is wrong? Why do we choose to do that which we know causes harm to ourselves and others? Why do we do that which endangers us, threatens us, compromises our future, and further weakens us? Why do we choose evil, knowing that it is evil?

Some argue that our will has been weakened on account of original sin and thus we give way easily to temptation. While this offers some insight, it does not ultimately solve the mystery, for we consistently seem to choose to do that which we know is wrong or harmful.

Some contend that we are choosing what we perceive to be good, but despite our darkened intellects and our tendency to lie to ourselves, deep down we really know better. We know that choosing evil leads to harm in the long run. Our conscience tells us, “This is wrong. Don’t do it.” Yet, knowing this, we still do it.

Are we weak? Yes, but that is not the complete answer. We are staring once again into the face of the “mystery of iniquity.”

2. The Angelic Rebellion – The mystery only deepens when we consider that this is not just a human problem; it is also an angelic one. The presence of demons, revealed to us by Scripture and by our own experience, speaks to the reality of fallen angels.

There was a great rebellion among the angels. Scripture more than hints at the fact that a third of the angels fell from Heaven in this rebellion, before the creation of man (cf Rev 12:4).

Thus, ascribing iniquity and lawlessness to human weakness cannot be a complete answer.

How could angels, with a nature and intellect far more glorious than ours, knowingly reject what is good, true, and beautiful? Here is the deep “mystery of iniquity” having nothing to do with the flesh, or with sensuality, or with human limits. It is raw, intellectual, willful rebellion against the good by creatures far superior to us. The mystery only deepens.

3. The Corruption of the Best and Brightest – The intellect and free will are arguably God’s greatest gifts. Why, then, do they come at such a high price for both God and us? Surely God foresaw that many angels and human beings would reject Him.

Some answer that God also saw the magnificent love and beauty that would be ushered in by those who accepted Him and the glorious vision of His truth. Perhaps God, who is love, saw love as so magnificent that even its rejection by some could not overrule its glory in those who accepted it. Seeking beloved children rather than robots or animals was so precious to God that he risked losing some—even many—in order to gain some.

Others speculate that, at least in this fallen world, contrast is necessary to highlight the glory of truth. What is light if there is no darkness with which to compare it? What is justice if there is no injustice against which to contrast it? What is the glory of our yes if it is not possible to utter a no?

Even these reasonable speculations cannot fully address the mystery of why so many men and angels reject what is good, true, and beautiful; why so many prefer to reign in Hell rather than to serve in Heaven; why so many obstinately refuse to trust in God and obey even simple commands that they know are ultimately good for them. The glory of our freedom and our intellect are abused. Our greatest strengths are also our greatest struggles. Liberty becomes license; lasciviousness and intellect become insubordination and intransigence. Corruptio optime pessima! (The corruption of the best is the worst!)

4. The Final Refusal to Repent – Many today like to blame God for Hell, and they particularly scoff at the notion that Hell is eternal. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, the eternity of Hell is not due to a defect in divine mercy (CCC # 393). Rather, Hell is eternal because the decision of the damned is irrevocable.

The stubbornness and hardness of heart of the damned reach a point of no return. How does a soul end up in this state? Surely it happens gradually. Sin is added upon sin and the hardness of heart grows. Over time, the demands of God’s justice seem increasingly obnoxious. The hardened soul starts to sneer at God’s law, calling it intolerant, backwards, and simplistic. Of course, God’s law is none of these things, but as the darkness grows within a heart, the light seems more and more obnoxious and hateful. Soon enough, concepts such as forgiveness, love of enemies, generosity, and chastity seem “unrealistic,” even ludicrous.

When does a soul reach the point of no return? Is it at death or sometime before? It is hard to say, but here we reach the deepest mystery: the permanently unrepentant heart.

Our tour has yielded only crumbs. We are back to confronting our mysterious rebelliousness, stubbornness, and hardness of heart; our almost knee-jerk tendency to bristle when we are told what to do, even if we know it to be good for us and others. Even the most minor prohibition makes the thing seem all the more desirable to us. There lurks that rebellious voice that says, “I will not be told what to do! I will do what I want to do, and I will decide whether it is right or wrong.”

Yes, at the end of the day, we are left looking squarely at a mystery. It is the deep, almost unfathomable mystery of our very own iniquity, our lawlessness, our irrational refusal to be under any law or restraint.

Perhaps it is not a mystery that is meant to be solved but to be accepted and to cause us to turn to God, who alone understands. The mystery of iniquity is so profound and so terrifying that it should send us running to God as fast as we can exclaiming, “Lord save me from myself, from my obtuseness, my hardened heart, my rebelliousness, and my iniquity. Save me from the lawlessness in me! I cannot understand it, let alone save myself from it! Only you, Lord, can save me from my greatest threat, my greatest enemy: my very self.”

Yes, the great mystery of iniquity! St. Paul says, the mystery of iniquity is already at work, but he does not say why or even how. He only says that God can restrain it.

Yes, only God can restrain and explain.

More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it? I, alone, the LORD, explore the mind and test the heart (Jer 17:9-10).