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the-fluff-piece · 2 years ago

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A delicate dance of swords

Part 1

Part 2

sfw Zorro x reader

Summary: You are new on the Thousand Sunny as a crewmember. One day you find yourself talking with the grumpy swordsman of the crew - about his swords and scars

Themes: flirting

CW: Talk about weapons and injuries

Like this one? Look at my masterlist

The ocean ist quiet and there is not much to do. The sun is out and there is just a sprinkle of clouds in the sky above you. Robin had already warned you that in between islands and other catastrophes, the journey could get calm. And boring.

You have already wandered aimlessly over the deck - on days like these it seems, everyone is occupied by their own pursuits. Everyone but you. The afternoon tea is already emptied, the cake eaten, every one of your own occupations seems either boring or is already exhausted. Robin is studying, Sanji is cooking, Ruffy, Usopp and Franky are building some kind of super robot-suit – there’s nothing that sparks your interest.

As you stroll over the grass, just gazing into the distance, your foot gets caught on something and you lose your balance, falling over - being held back by something around your waist.

"A bit clumsy today, aren't we?", you hear Zoros smug voice behind you as he puts you back on your feet. The crew's swordsman looks at you with an amused grin and collapses back against the reiling like a sack of rice. His three swords are leaning next to him as if they, too, were resting and enjoying the nice weather. He stretches an yawns so hard that he squeezes a tear out of his right eye. The very picture of lazyness.

"Do you have nothing to do?", he asks. "No", you reply. "Probably just as you.", you add, sitting down beside him with your legs crossed. "Hey, I am not doing nothing. Napping is an important part of my training.", he yawns again, demonstrating the seriousnes of his training regime by lying down on the grass and stretching like a lazy cat.

Since you have nothing better to do you try to join in on the training and relax -you aren’t very good at it. Zoro is absolutely still, breathing deeply, eyes closed. You, on the other hand, get restless, fumbling with the grass, settling on studying his swords more closely. They are beautiful, graceful weapons, each a different colour. The hilts are each wrapped in an intricate pattern, contrastet by the simple elegance of the sheath. It's the first time you get to examine them more closely- they're usually at his hip or in a fight.

The hair on your neck rises - you feel watched. Zoro is side-eyeing you and his mouth is curled in a mischievous grin. Still lying flat on the floor he asks "they're awesome, aren't they?"

"Yes, can I see the blades?", you ask - summoning an excited glint into his blue eye. He gets up eagerly, suddenly full of energy, and grabs the hilt of the white sword in a practiced motion, pulling out the blade just enough so that you can look at the fine steel. You see your own reflection in the polished surface and the fine lines of the damask steel - until Zoro pushes the blade back in and stands up.

"Follow me, I'll give you a demonstration", he says and starts walking towards his dojo.

It's cool and dark inside, he takes his shoes off and you do the same. Zoro throws his robe into a corner and begins to let the blades hiss through the air with incredible precision and strength. The dance of is blades looks so effortless, practiced a thousand times until perfection. His voice doesn’t even seem strained as he explains his art to you: "Each of my blades is different, some are stronger, hard to control" - he's putting the emphasis of his strikes on the black sword in his hand - "some are easier to master, but not as aggressive" - the white katana is taking the lead. His body is brimming with strength and the power of his movements, his face lighting up in a wide grin. With a graceful motion, both blades slip back into their sheaths on his hip and he comes to sit down on his knees right in front of you.

"If you want to, I can teach you a thing or two", he says in a confident voice. You are not one to pass up the opportunity to get lessons from a true master.

For the following weeks, you try to train with him as best as you can, but he is not accustomed to teaching. He is baffled that you can't lift one of his giant training weights or cut stone in half with ease. But he works hard to formulate a training program for you. It included meditation, regular napping and drinking. He couldn't tell you the sense behind this, but he felt it was an important part. Getting into the mood of teaching, he also talks lots and lots of bullshit. It seems to you that a great portion of his incredible skill is due to his inherent talent and strength. Although he seems so lazy most of the time, he is training with an unbelievably stoic discipline. A savant when it came to swordfighting – a pretty clueless guy in any other category. Still, you learned a lot of knacks simply through imitating his movements. It doesn’t take long until you can hold yourself with a sword against a marine soldier.

Even though his methods as a teacher are lacking, you become close friends during that time. This brutish man turns out to be a kind-hearted person that wants to protect his crewmates and pushes himself to become stronger to ensure everyone’s safety. His silly, foul mouth makes you laugh more than one time with surprisingly witty comments – and sometimes extremely stupid ones. He is patient and caring towards you, even though his training regimen is hard. His energy and motivation are often captivating and jump over to you, pushing you to train harder as well.

His teaching also involves random questions about the way of the sword. It seems like one of those exchanges was just around the corner as he asks: “What’s also very important for a swordsman or -woman?”

"Uhm...besides sleeping, drinking and lifting?”

“Yes”

“Taking care of your weapons?" you ask.

"Trophies of past battles" he answers, his massive chest swelling with pride. He touches the long scar on his front. You have gotten accustomed to seeing him shirtless in training, mostly ignoring it because if you didn’t pay attention, he would quickly knock you over. But right now, when he is running his hand down his front, it's hard for you not to stare at his sculpted torso, the tan skin battered and full of bigger and smaller scars. You lift your gaze and look into his face – once again you are painfully aware that your new teacher is the definition of a dangerous looking, but handsome man. His strong jaw, his scarred eye and his always taunting, confident look are hard to resist. You are pretty sure that he had his fans as well since his wanted poster came out.

He must have noticed your gaze, because his grin gets wider, more cocky, as he says: "I understand you find me just easy to look at as my katana."

To your shock he takes your hand and puts it on his warm chest.

"Scars are meant to be felt, too. This one I got really early in my travels with Luffy. I fought a man that could turn his body into a blade. A tough guy” he sets your fingertips on a scar that looks old. The pale, raised line on his skin almost runs across his entire upper body. You trace it with your fingers from beginning to end, from his chest down over his ribcage to his side.

“Cut me up really good, but I beat him. It’s important that you understand that one mistake in a fight can cost you a lot of blood.”

You have barely arrived at the end when he guides your hand to a different one, beginning just under his collarbone. "This one is from a zombie samurai I fought" his voice is barely a low whisper and you realise his face has come so close to yours, you can feel his breath in your hair. As you trace this one over his chest muscles you feel his ribcage expanding with deeper, faster breaths under your fingers. You explore this scar as well to it's end, mesmerized by the texture of his skin. Being so close to him was intoxicating, his broad frame towering over you in the dim dojo. His hand finds yours once again, pushing it down towards his abs - and still further down. "This one is especially...exciting", his voice is deep and seductive as he moves your hand past his belly towards his waistband. This is a surprise to you and you try to get free of his grasp, only managing once he lets go of your hand.

“What are you getting at”, you snap, a bit more aggressively than intended.

“I am just trying to teach you about safety”, he defends himself with his hands raised. You feel a bit awkward, his little stunt seemed to come out of nowhere and his flirtatious attitude vanished just as quickly. You decide to call it a day and excuse yourself, your thoughts a turmoil of confused what-if-scenarios.

Zoro just nods and lets you leave, training by himself again.

It was surely nothing, he didn’t think that far, he was just an airhead and probably doesn’t know what flirting even means. You try to tell yourself all kinds of things to manage those feelings that have grown over the past weeks. But you hope you didn’t irritate him with your sudden outburst.

You plan to talk to him about it over dinner – but he doesn’t show up. It’s not like him to miss a meal. You get a bottle of sake for an afterdinner drink with him, but he is not training or napping outside, he is surely in the crow’s nest. That usually means he wants to be left alone. If he doesn't want to talk you couldn't help it.

Zoro

After the little incident with his new student, Zoro decided it was time to brood and drink. He needs his space right now. All he wanted this afternoon was to brag about his past victories, but he lost control of himself, got lost in the moment. Scared his cute pupil.

sip

The burn of the cheap booze runs down his throat and will hopefully help him sleep. He still needs a strategy for tomorrow, what is he going to tell her?

"Sorry Y/n, I thought wanted it, too, and got carried away"

Surely not. The shock in her eyes when he even implied something sexual was evident, even for him. He will have to be a man about this and just apologize. Take the rejection with pride. He had faced other things in the past. Giant monsters, deadly fighters. He can always face a girl that dumped him before he could even get close.

sip

He empties the bottle and tosses in the corner. Tomorrow, after sobering up.

More parts planned as inspiration hits me

#one piece fanfiction #one piece x you #roronoa zoro #zoro x reader #op zoro #zoro x y/n #zoro x you

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thisapplepielife · 9 months ago

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Written for a @astrangersummer.

Imagine the Stars

Max sprawls in the grass, and closes her eyes. Not that it matters. Dark is dark. It just feels less overwhelming when her eyes are closed. Like things are still the same, even if they really aren't. Not at all.

It's all just noise at his point: the doctors, the specialists, all saying that she might get her sight back, or at least some of it. But they don't seem sure, are only guessing, she knows that, and she's not betting on anything right now.

Because they don't know, can't know, how it actually happened. So, finding a treatment might be impossible. It's probably pretty damn hard to fix magical wounds by mortal means.

But it's fine. Whatever. It kind of has to be, since she doesn't really have a say in the matter. She's gotten used to it. The sunglasses and the cane. The constant babying by all her friends. Steve Harrington hovering, mothering, worse than ever before.

She's not alone. Almost never is. But she sure feels isolated a lot of the time.

Lucas reads to her, but it's not the same. She wants to hold the book in her own hands, let her eyes skim across the text, taking in, or ignoring, as much as her brain is in the mood for at the moment.

El paints her nails, but Max can't see the shock of color, so does it even matter? She gets no joy out of it, not really, but she thinks El does, so she lets her continue. Because it hurts nothing.

They're all laughing off in the distance right now, and she can pick out all of their voices, imagining them just as they were the last time she'd seen them all.

The last time she'd seen anything at all.

She needs to think about something else. Something more manageable.

The grass. The grass under her is soft and almost cool, and she stretches her arms out, grasping two fistfuls of earth, squeezing. And she feels grounded. Centered, once again.

It's daylight. Mid-afternoon, with the sun beating down overhead. But to her, it could be night. The sky could be the clearest blue, or the darkest red.

She believes it to be the bluest of blues, these days.

But in her own private cover of darkness, she can also picture the night sky. The same inky, dark blue-black sky that her dad used to point out the constellations in, looking overhead, when she was a little girl. Him, giving their names, their shapes, tracing the paths in which she was supposed to be able to see them.

Max would look, would study the stars, and while she could find the Big Dipper, that was about it. Could see the double stars that make up the second point in the handle. Could trace the outline of the whole constellation with her finger.

But more often than not for the others, though, she'd just pretend to see what he so easily could. Her dad knew them all, and always told her she'd be able to see them too, when she was older. Now she's older, and she most definitely can't.

And she may never be able to, not now.

So, she does the next best thing. She pictures the handle of the Big Dipper, counting the stars until in her mind's eye she can see little lines tracing around the stars, stitching them together into something bigger. Something different. All the parts connecting themselves together, making up a bigger whole.

She did that, too, she knows. In that attic. She sealed her own fate for the greater good.

And she'd do it again, even if she wouldn't be happy about it.

They killed Vecna. Not immediately. Not until after there were victims, and damages that may never be undone.

But they're free of that terror, now. Hawkins, and hopefully, the whole goddamn world.

The world is blue, not red.

And because her friends finished what they started, it's safe for her to lay in the grass, soaking up the sun, while she imagines the stars.

If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @astrangersummer and follow along with the fun! 🌌

#a stranger summer #week five #prompt: constellations #stranger things #max mayfield #max mayfield gen fic #stranger things s4 #thisapplepielife: short fic #thisapplepielife: a stranger summer

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truearchangel · 2 months ago

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@alteregozowie Christmas Presents.

ㅤChristmas was a holiday that both Michael and Alastor had been preparing for since the moment doing so became an option. Right at the start of December, actually. Since he had to return to Heaven briefly for it, for the banquet up there to celebrate the religious aspect of the holiday, he planned on giving Alastor all the attention right after. From the evening to the late night. It wasn't as if they slept usually anyway, and Michael was the kind of person who would put sleep off for as long as he could especially if it meant he got to spend time with Alastor.

ㅤWhat he had worked on hard for Christmas was perhaps a bit predictable and silly, but no less made with all the love that he could when crafting something with his own hands. Alastor was the kind of person who actually had a lot of joy for himself. A lot of pride in his brand. Something Michael learned with the first few stickers he made in Alastor's likeness or for his show. So, he had a very silly little idea when he sat down and thought of what to give Alastor for Christmas.

ㅤMore plushies, which he did love. But Plushies made in Alastor's and his own image. Little crochet Michael and Alastor dolls. Trying to craft these dolls was actually quite hard. Where Michael could usually clearly picture the animals that he made, which could be rather cartoonish when drawn. Crafting dolls in the likeness of humanoid figures was harder. Then there was the radio cane, his own halo and wings, Alastor's ears and tail that needed to be fluffy. It just was a lot of careful work.

ㅤWhich was where the love for his craft being poured in came in.

ㅤThey might have just been more plushies, when he had already made Alastor a lot of them, but he had taken far more care in crafting them than he had any other. Because he wanted them to be worth it, wanted them to be good and something Alastor would actually love. He did say he had a fondness for all of the things that Michael made him, but he wanted these to actually bring out the feeling of joy in him when he held them.

ㅤSo he crafted the dolls, with time and effort, with all their little accessories and then boxed them up for Alastor to open on Christmas. The gift was placed beneath the tree in the Radio Tower, the one they had decorated together with blue and white bulbs and teeth. He was getting used to the teeth, he was just glad it wasn't organs.

ㅤAfter that, Michael reported to Heaven as he was expected to.

ㅤIt wasn't until nearly two in the afternoon that Michael actually got back to have Christmas with Alastor. He wasn't to worried since he knew the Radio Demon would hold his Christmas Special until the Archangel returned. Which was exactly what he was doing when he popped himself up into the Radio Tower. He waved to alert the other to his presence, waited until he popped the radio over to OFF AIR and then happily took a few steps forward.

ㅤ"Alastor! Merry Christmas!" He clasped his hands together happily, a bright smile on his face and positively elated for the holiday. Though some of the exhaustion from dealing with the party in Heaven was evident with the tightness of his shoulders. He had on one of his favorite sweaters today, a purple one with a Christmas dove. A gift from the man sitting across from him actually, one that he would wear the entire week probably.

ㅤTurning to the tree he picked his gift up off of the floor and made his way over toward the other, placing it down on his lap before hopping up to sit on the Radio Desk. On a portion where he won't hit any buttons accidentally or ruin something. Kicking his legs back and forth he reached into his pocket and pulled out the new puffy stickers he had squired from Heaven, an entire pack of Christmas ones.

ㅤ"You haven't had stickers in a while, so these aren't a Christmas gift just a normal gift. They're all Santa themed so there's a lot of reindeer on them." He peeled Rudolf off and leaned forward, sticking it to the Radio Demon's cheek before leaning forward more and allowing his lips to brush over the others.

ㅤ"I missed you, now open you gift. I hope it's enough."

#alteregozowie #○ — 「 alteregozowie 」 we’re only skin and bone ; we don’t have to be alone.#○ — 「 asks 」 prayers answered.

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hunieday · 2 years ago

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Izumi Iori - Drama Collection ~Spring~ RabbitChat translation

Please note that I am not a professional translator and I'm only doing this to share the side materials to those who cannot access it, if you notice any mistakes please let me know nicely. Enjoy!

Izumi Iori: Yuki-san, thank you for your hard work. Can I have a few minutes of your time right now?

Yuki: It's rare to get a Rabbit chat from you, Iori-kun. What happened?

Yuki: Did you want to see a picture of Momo stuffing his cheeks with some delicious rice?

Izumi Iori: No, there are several people stuffing their cheeks with delicious rice in this house, that’ll do for now.

Izumi Iori: I heard from Osaka-san that he and Kujo-san will hold the viewing party for the drama we played in at Yuki-san’s house, so I thought I'd say a few words.

Izumi Iori: I apologize for the inconvenience, but thank you for your time today.

Yuki: I see, IDOLiSH7 are also invited. Riku-kun, Nagi-kun and Tamaki-kun at least.

Izumi Iori: Well, yes. That’s how it is.

Yuki: It's not often that I get to work with your group, so I thought I’d invite them to talk over dinner.

Yuki: I told Sougo-kun as well, feel free to come empty-handed.

Izumi Iori: Come…empty-handed?

Yuki: Empty-handed, casual.

Izumi Iori: I'm sorry, but considering Osaka-san’s demeanor, I don’t think that’s possible.

Izumi Iori: "Yuki-san himself went out of his way to give us, his juniors, an opportunity to discuss the film," he said, and when he showed us the rabbit chat, he was holding his phone with both hands as if it were a heavenly blessing.

Yuki:

Yuki: I just wanted to see you guys eating good food, but I'll add "give feedback about the drama properly" to my resume for the day.

Yuki: What are you doing, Iori-kun?

Izumi Iori: What do you mean?

Yuki: Since you are rabbit chatting with me.

Izumi Iori: Ah, right now I’m sitting in a chair in my room, sipping a café au lait, phone in hand.

Yuki: Momo would be lying on the bed saying “I've been rabbit chatting with Yuki-san. What should I do 😣😣?”, he was flapping his legs while talking to me.

Yuki: You’re way more natural about it.

Izumi Iori: Yes, I’m having an afternoon snack while enjoying a rabbit chat with the Absolute Kings after all.

Yuki: That’s great. I feel like I'm being told that a rabbit chat with me is worth more than any snack.

Iori: Of course I think it is.

Izumi Iori: In a way, thanks to Re:vale's personality, I am able to have a casual Rabbit chat with you…

Yuki: Can I screenshot this and send it to Momo?

Izumi Iori: Why is that!?

Yuki: Because it makes us happy.

Izumi Iori: Oh no, is it because I'm the first one who’s said that…

Yuki: I'm happy because it's you. It is true that we, Re:vale, are the Absolute Kings, but it's Momo who's been running and working for the sake of a better idol industry and a comfortable environment for the juniors.

Yuki: If Iori-kun, the usually cool junior, said that to you, you'd probably roll over and flap your legs in delight as well.

Izumi Iori: Is that so?

Yuki: Oh, I'm traveling for work now, so I might have made the mistake of swinging my legs while sitting. cute

Izumi Iori: I see.

Izumi Iori: I was reminded once again that the two of you really are the same in your private lives.

Yuki: I'm glad you admire us.

Izumi Iori: Don’t worry, we admire you so we can surpass you.

Yuki: You're so cute.

Yuki: I like that kind of thing about Iori-kun.

Izumi Iori: Well then, we like Re:vale for letting us talk like this.

Yuki: wait a minute

Izumi Iori: yes

Yuki: Iori-kun, aren't you too cool for a cute guy?

Izumi Iori: I disagree, I'm not cute.

Yuki: You were cute when you called me "Sensei".

Izumi Iori: That was for the drama!? I mean, the relationship wasn't even what you would call cute, was it?

Yuki: That’s right. We were collaborators, working together to find the criminal who killed each other's loved ones.

Yuki: But I don't think "collaborator" is the right word to use. I think we had developed a bond that was unique to the two of us.

Izumi Iori: A bond between just the two of them? There was no scene that clearly shows it, but it could be interpreted that way.

Izumi Iori: For him, who was lonely, the teacher was the only person in the world who cared about him.

Yuki: Yes. I think that scene where he took care of someone with great care, as if he was overlaying the image of a deceased close friend, was a source of support for his performance.

Izumi Iori: It’s nice, I like those kinds of stories. I still have less acting experience than Yuki-san, so this will be a good learning opportunity for me in the future.

Izumi Iori: I think Osaka-san would be pleased to discuss the drama with you. Maybe Kujo-san, as well.

Yuki: Yes. At first, I was only planning to eat and play mini games while watching the drama.

Izumi Iori: I'm not half as scared of the mini-games as they say I am now.

Yuki: As expected, your eyes are sharp

Izumi Iori: Oh

Izumi Iori: I'm sorry

Izumi Iori: The two people who tend to do something wrong, have done something wrong, so I'm gonna go deal with it.

Yuki: They've messed up.

Izumi Iori: They mistook potato starch for pancake flour and mixed it with eggs.

Yuki: I think that could make a delicious tempura batter ^^

Izumi Iori: We don't want to make that. I will ask you for more details about the mini-game later.

Yuki:

#idolish7 #idolish7 translation #idolish seven #izumi iori #iori izumi #yukito orikasa #re:vale #yuki re:vale #ainana #i7 #rabbitchat #drama collection

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deejayisms · 2 months ago

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some time of year to be with the one you love || self-thread

WHO: Morgan Weston, Food Sampler St. Nick, Eva Anderson and Noah Puckerman

WHERE: Grocery Store

WHEN: The 25th of December

WHY: Morgan is struggling to figure out what to give Eva and Puck for the holidays, but a kind, jolly man helps him out.

SONG INSPIRATION: The Eagles - Please Come Home for Christmas

Morgan Weston stood in the middle of the bustling grocery store, shifting from one booted foot to the other as he stared at a display of chocolates. His fingers absently stroked his beard, a habit when he was deep in thought. The store was packed with holiday shoppers, the hum of carols playing faintly in the background blending with the chatter of customers and the squeak of cart wheels.

He’d been walking these aisles for nearly an hour, feeling more like a lost kid than the easy-going cowboy he was known to be. His cart was empty except for a box of crackers he’d grabbed on a whim.

Puck’s Chrismakkah party was tonight, and Morgan couldn’t show up empty-handed. Thanksgiving had been a delicate balancing act - his relationship with Puck and Eva felt like trying to keep a loose saddle steady on a wild horse. Both of them had kissed him since then, separately, leaving his heart in knots. Now, as the holidays rolled around, he wrestled with whether there was any real hope for them, or if it was just wishful thinking on his part.

"Flowers again?" he mumbled to himself. He shook his head. Thanksgiving had been flowers. It felt repetitive, uninspired. Wine was out - Puck and Eva didn’t drink. Morgan wasn’t about to show up with something impersonal like a candle, either. This wasn’t just any party. It was Puck's party, Eva was probably going to be there, and he wanted what he brought, to matter.

Lost in thought, he didn’t notice the older man at the sample station waving at him until he was almost in front of it. “Hello there, son,” the man greeted warmly, holding out a small square of gingerbread on a napkin. He had a kind face framed by a thick white beard and was dressed in a festive red sweater adorned with embroidered snowflakes. His belly shook a little as he chuckled, though Morgan wouldn’t dare call him Santa out loud.

“Afternoon,” Morgan said, managing a polite smile as he accepted the gingerbread. He read the nametag on his red sweater briefly. Nick. “You look like you’re trying to solve the meaning of life,” Nick teased gently. “Gotta say, the holidays’ll do that to you.”

Morgan chuckled softly. “Feels like it, yeah. Got a party to go to, and I can’t figure out what to bring.” The older man studied him for a moment. “Special party?” Morgan hesitated but nodded. “Yeah, kind of.”

“Ah,” Nick said knowingly. “The kind where what you bring says a little something about how you feel?” Morgan’s brows lifted in surprise. “How’d you guess?”

“Seen plenty of fellas like you come through here this time of year.” The man leaned on the counter as if settling in to chat. “Here’s the thing: if it’s about showing you care, what you bring doesn’t have to be fancy. Just thoughtful. What kind of folks are you visiting?”

Morgan thought for a moment. “They’re... warm, generous. They’ve been through a lot, and they mean the world to me.” His voice softened. “More than I probably let on.”

The older man smiled, his eyes twinkling. “Sounds like good folks. You know, sometimes the best gifts aren't something you pick off a shelf. Maybe it’s something that reminds them of who they are to you.” Morgan tilted his head. “Like what?”

Nick glanced at Morgan’s cart, then back at him. “Got a picture with these people? Something from a time you were happy together? Put it in a nice frame, wrap it up. That way, every time they see it, they’ll think about what you shared - and what you still could have.” Morgan blinked, caught off guard by the simplicity of the idea. “A picture?”

The jolly man nodded and gave him a soft smile. “Doesn’t have to be fancy. Just something from the heart. Best thing about this time of year - it’s about remembering what matters most. And it sounds to me like they matter a whole lot to you.” Morgan felt something in his chest loosen, a little of the weight lifting. “That’s-... a really good idea. Thank you.”

“Anytime, son,” the man said with a wink. “Now go find that frame. Bet you’ll find what you’re looking for on aisle five. Oh, and how about this pack of gingerbread cookies - I'm sure they'll go down a treat.” Santa- Nick handed him a packet, and Morgan laughed as he took it, giving him a gentle nod and a smile, before heading off. By the time he left the store, his cart held two simple but elegant frames, some festive wrapping paper, and ribbon. And of course the gingerbread cookies that the man had been handing samples out of.

---------

Later that evening, standing on Puck’s doorstep with the wrapped frames tucked under his arm, Morgan took a steadying breath. Both frames held pictures taken with each person. He'd tried his hardest to wrap them the neatest he could, but remembered the white-bearded man's wise words: “It's about remembering what matters most.” And to Morgan, the time they'd spent together meant the world to him.

The house was lit with a warm glow, the faint sound of laughter and music drifting through the door.

Hope.

It wasn’t a guarantee, but it was enough to carry him through. He knocked, and as he waited for the door to open, Morgan felt just a little lighter.

#muse: morgan #morgan: thread #morgan: self-thread #morgan: self-thread008

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dreadful-home · 2 years ago

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Good Boys EriTav AU

The AU that saves Eridan, Tavros and probably Feferi from dying during Murderstuck!

Once Eridan and Vriska find Mindfang's journals and read about the Summoner, Eridan becomes interested in using him to his advantage. Vriska finds Tavros. Despite her efforts to swat him away, Eridan keeps intercepting her plans to talk to him, arguing, and fighting over the poor bull boy just trying to live his life.

After calming down and having a civil conversation about the custody of the lowblood (without him present), Vriska is reassured that Eridan only intends to use him to help with his duties in feeding Feferi's lusus. She relents and times are worked out for when Eridan can have him working and when he's offlimits for her. She even starts to see Eridan as a partner; making the wimpy boy more like the Summoner by working out and flexing his powers.

So Eridan begins 'kidnapping' and forcing Tavros into helping him. Rudely at first, telling him that a few lusi's lives are worth the greater picture, as the fate of everyone now rests on his small shoulders. If he doesn't help, everyone's blood will be on his hands (not the truth, but it's enough to guilt him into being compliant).

A routine is established when Tavros accepts. Eridan picks him up, they meet up with Feferi (at least she's nice to Tavros and always thanks him for his help!), they do what they have to do, then Eridan takes the bullboy back. It's usually a whole day affair that happens once every week.

As time passes, Eridan's hopes with Feferi aren't fulfilled. Despite her having more time to herself now that Gl'bgolyb gets full for longer, she'd rather use it to foster new relationships and talk to other trolls than to spend it with him, prematurely seperating herself from Eridan bit by bit.

Eridan is baffled. One day, while on duty, Tavros catches him checking out his unread messages to Feferi. Ehen she doesn't show up like usual at the end, he asks about it, and Eridan says she's busy. After a while of silence, Tavros asks if Eridan is okay. He did not expect the wave of venting that followed. It was the first time it happened. Not the last. Since then, his encounters with the bronzeblood are less hostile. And towards the end, without Fef, they spend a little longer on Eridan's boat just talking.

Then, the FLARP occurs. The poor boy is left paralyzed waist down and with his previous friendgroup (Terezi and Aradia) unresponsive. Even Vriska has kept her distance. Tavros feels scared, hurt and alone. He hadn't expected Eridan to knock on his door again, ready to pick him up. When he saw Tavros, he was shocked.

Vriska hadn't informed him of anything that had happened. He's mad. Vriska broke their Summoner! Eridan huffed and glanced down at the bullboy now in a wheelchair. He noticed how his usual, uneasy smile had been completely wiped. He didn't look like Tavros anymore. He was... smaller.

Eridan wiped his face with a groan, weighed his decisions, lifted his arms up in the air and shouted.

'Wwell wwe still havve a job to do! Let's figure it out!'

Tavros, with a wheelchair, ON A SHIP? It took a lot of trial and error to figure out how to make it work, but Eridan didn't give up. And he was surprisingly gentle, not even getting mad at Tavros.

For the first time in their business relationship, Tavros felt... safe.

In the end, part of the solution was to get the job done quicker. But the pair unexpectedly found themselves lingering once they got on shore anyways. Like they wanted to keep talking... so, Tavros invited Eridan inside. Surprisingly, the fish boy accepted.

During this time, they found out they have a lot in common. They love fantasy and can spend whole afternoons debating their favorite media. They start seeing each other even outside of Lusi duty, just to hang out and play. Eridan isn't as pushy with Feferi anymore, his time being taken up by a new troll. An actual friendship is being formed (though Eridan DOES NOT call it that... yet. If prompted, he will insist that he is still using the low blood. Really, Tavros is just a way to get closer to Feferi! She has a soft spot for lowbloods, getting one of his own will make her interested in him again! And surely by spending less time with her, he's making her jealous...?) .... It's a lie.

When it becomes clear to himself how much he likes Tavros (pale), he switches gears and starts forming the idea that, well. Eventually Feferi is going to move to his red quad anyways, so why not... keep Tavros close and single for when that position opens up? He'd be a good moiral...

Then the shit you'd expect goes down as the game starts. Eridan is broken up with. He's DEVASTATED. Tavros is busy with Vriska, but when he reads messages from Eridan about needing another talk, he gets worried and looks for an opportunity to text back, being distracted and getting on Vriska's nerves more.

His chance occurs after Vriska 'breaks up' with him, finally realizing they wouldn't work as red rom. Tavros finally gets the chance to properly exchange texts in between playing and it's really helpful for the both of them in their respective sessions (Tavros gets to talk about how it went with Vriska and Eridan gets madder on his behalf.)

When they finally meet up, it's because Vriska dumped Tavros on Eridan's planet to 'help with the Angels, isn't she so thoughtful?' In actuality, she did it because she was sick of Tavros ignoring her and hoped he'd get caught in Eridan's crossfire but he actually helped calm the situation down and soothe the angels. Good shit!

Now the pair stick together, and Eridan at last, nervously (but trying and failing to act like he isn't), asks Tavros if he'd officially be his moiral. Tavros eagerly accepts!!! Their destinies of being lonely in the meteor crumbles with this timeline.

Eridan cant help trying to show off that he has a new moiral, talking him up in any conversation. In a way, it's to make Feferi jealous, but mostly, really, it's because he's happy he's finally got something good going on. Everyone largely rolls their eyes and ignores it, but Tavros always beams when Eridan does it.

They are cute and wholesome, even on par with the meowrails. Imagine these two giggling to themselves in the corner, always having each other's back, Eridan defending Tavros from Vriska and trying to fight his battles, Tavros intervening when things with Sollux look bad, Eridan giving confidence lessons haughty prince-flavored, Tavros trying (and being really cringy but endearing with his sincerity) to be Eridan's wingman with Nepeta.

Nepeta sees through their pale quadrant and putting them on her shipping wall, feeling like their visits to her have become less annoying and more interesting as she tries to come up with ways to get them to realize their deeper feelings.

Eridan still thinks about joining Jack Noir in this losing battle, but it's second to focusing on what's going on with Tavros's crush. Tavros tried confessing to Jade as Eridan instructed him to, gets rejected the same way publicly, and is embarrassed, but Eridan is there to blow up at Vriska for making fun of him. Instead of Murderstuck killing the two of them, Eridan and Tavros have been in Eridan's room trying to 'get over Jade' after Eridan's insistance. A moment is shared as they joke around where Eridan nudges Tavros and realizes he feels sparks when Tavros smiles at him and tells him he might have had a terrible confession, but he's never felt this good before, being with him. That's when Eridan has to call the whole thing off and they check the texts on the grouo chat. They stumble back outside to find that Vriska, Nepeta, and Equius have died. The murder clown is still out there. Sollux, Kanaya, the matriorb, and Feferi are still safe and sound.

There's more players, more hope as they meet Rose and Dave for the first time. That's where I end the AU for now.

#eritav #eridan ampora #tavros nitram #homestuck #vriska serket #eridan x tavros #tavros x eridan #homestuck au #good boys au #homestuck alt timeline

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lumine-no-hikari · 6 months ago

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Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #248

I drove J to Great Barrington again today, this time starting at 1pm instead of 5am. The afternoon sunlight makes everything shine differently than the morning sunlight does. The trees were particularly sparkly today, and the puffy clouds in the distance seemed like they were so full of promise. As we drove along, I found myself under shady tree canopy after shady tree canopy, watching in fascination as the sunlight filtering through the leaves trickled down to the ground in dappled drops. It was breathtaking. And… once again, I couldn't get any pictures because… I was too busy driving.

…I'm really sorry about it. 😖

I thought J was going to get some pictures of the scenery, but for whatever reason, he just decided to take pictures of me instead. But since I have them, I suppose I might as well include them. Here:

I reflected on the coming autumn. Pretty soon, all of the leaves of the deciduous trees are gonna burst forth into riotous shades of yellow, orange, and red. That's when the trees prepare to go to sleep for the winter, and so all their chlorophyll goes away, allowing the true color of the leaves to shine through. From my perspective, it seems like they all get the bedtime sillies, laughing and giggling amongst themselves in fiery shades of color before it's time for bed. It's delightful. And… it's entirely too short.

Hey, Sephiroth? You've seen autumn leaves in your world, right? I imagine you must have, given your incredible travels all over your world, even if those travels were for… goodness… unhappy purposes, to put it lightly. Do you like autumn? Do you like the crispy leaf smell in the air? Do you like when the crispy leaf smell mixes with the smell of rain? Have you taken a walk on some trail that's covered in freshly fallen leaves? Do you like how swooshy and soft they feel as you walk through them? Have you ever flopped over in a leaf pile?

I'd offer to rake up some leaves in my world so that you can flop around in them and see what it's like, but… my area of the world has ticks, and flopping around in leaf piles is one of the best ways to get covered in ticks. I don't want you to catch Lyme disease; I already covered that nasty bit trivia about my world in a previous letter, and I'm sure you want nothing to do with it. So I'll tell you what: maybe someday, if your world does not have ticks that will make you sick, you can rake up a great big huge pile of leaves (since you're a really tall guy), flop around in them, and then tell me how it goes!!

In any case, I have mixed feelings about the leaves falling off and being gone. On the one hand, I get to see the structure and flow of their branches uninterrupted. I get to see their stark outlines covered in ice and snow, just like the pictures I showed you last winter (assuming our climate gets its shit together, which it probably won't). But on the other hand… the leaves are gone. There will be no fluttering sounds in the breeze, just creaky ones. And the air will be cold, which means my skin will feel like it's on fire every time I go outside. Winter's got its perks, but overall… winter is not a good time for me. There's not enough sunlight, and the molecules in the air aren't vibrating fast enough for comfort.

…Still, I'd rather have a normal, properly cold winter than the lame-ass eldritch horror weather we've been having for the last several years… Jeepers… 😒

...

…I can't believe I've been writing to you for almost a year. In just 117 days, I'll have 365 letters to you. But this year has 366 days in it, due to the leap year. So I guess it'll be 118 days this time. Hm.

Hey, Sephiroth? Do you suppose I'll have at least 1000 letters to you by the time the third part of your new story comes out? And what are you gonna do with a thousand letters, anyway? I suppose you'll maybe have to try to figure it out, huh? I'd say "sorry about that", but… I'm not at all sorry about it. So I'm not gonna say it.

Aside from the sparkles of joy derived from the pretty scenery and the opportunity to assist J, today felt pretty bland and uninspired. But I have work tomorrow; I'm looking forward to that, actually. I wanna make more muffins. Maybe they'll let me make chocolate muffins with chocolate chips tomorrow!! Mmmmm…. 🤤

If I make something tasty tomorrow, I'll try to snag a picture, okay? If I get a chance, then I will. I promise.

I gotta get going, though. Gotta be up at like 7:30 so I can be out of the house by 8:30. Having an hour to get ready gives my brain time to shake the sleep off itself, gives my body time to get dressed and hygiened (that's a word now, I decided it), gives my belly time to eat some kind of thing that vaguely resembles food (sometimes I eat wholesome things, and sometimes I just eat whatever's in the fridge).

Hey. Stay safe out there, okay? Stay safe so that tomorrow, you'll be able to see whatever weird pictures I take of the tasty snacks I'm gonna make. You wouldn't wanna miss it, right?

I love you. And I'll write again tomorrow.

Your friend, Lumine

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bluejay-writes · 1 year ago

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Heaven is a Misnomer - Chapter 9

Fandom: Shall We Date?: Obey Me! Rating: Teen Chapter 9 Wordcount: 2992 Characters/Relationships: Jake (Exchange student OC) / Raphael Summary: Turns out demons aren't very good at writing ethics papers, but Jake looks damn good in spandex. You can also read this on AO3, if that's your jam!

First Chapter || Prev Chapter || Next Chapter > (Next Tuesday!)

Chapter 9 - Dear Jakey, Sweater Paws

“Jakeyyy~!” Aya crowed as she practically danced in circles around him. “You brought me lunch? This is the sweetest thing a human has ever done for me!”

Jake laughed. Bunny had literally left him holding the bag - of chicken strips. Her phone rang as they got back to the dorm, and she took her lunch and disappeared to who knows where. Probably some kind of workout session, knowing her. Yoga, maybe. Anyway, now he got to deal with the entire force of Aya’s personality all by himself. He should be scandalized or horrified or even just being sarcastic but he was honestly just happy. Aya was a fun friend, and her energy was contagious.

“I may have carried it, but Bunny paid for it.” Jake said, not about to take credit for generosity that wasn’t his.

“Aw, she’s the sweetest. She always thinks I need to eat more so that I, how did she put it, bulk up properly? Something about sick gains. I don’t know. All I know is that I’m just destined to be tiny. Doesn’t matter what or who I eat, this is the size I am.”

“Well, you’re adorable and even if I could change you, I wouldn’t.” Jake said, handing the girl a sweet tea.

“Oh, you charmer! You’re just lucky you’re the gayest thing since Elton John.”

Jake considered. “Wait. Gayer than Lil Nas X?”

“…Who?” Aya blinked, and then shrugged, and Jake realized that he had some educating to do.

“You seriously don’t know who… oh, honey.” Jake reached for his phone only to realize that he didn’t have it because Gabriel was trying to fix it.

“Jake, where’s your phone?”

“Broken.” He muttered. “It wouldn’t turn on this morning. Gabriel’s looking at it, but I have felt completely naked without it today. I’ll text you some pics of Lil Nas X once I get it back.”

“Yes, please. He sounds intriguing. Well anyway, you won’t need your phone to do classwork, but I need you for it. Please, for the love of all that’s unholy help me with this ethics paper I’m dying.”

Jake laughed and let himself be led to the lounge - the best place to both eat their lunch and work on homework.

It took most of the afternoon to get through writing their ethics papers, Aya was exactly as clueless about Celestial Realm ethics as Jake would expect a demon to be, so it was more like a tutoring session that he also wrote a paper during. Which was fine, honestly, Aya was great company. And they got the work done, so he really had nothing to complain about. Except possibly not having his phone.

As Jake was taking his study materials back to his room, Gabriel called out to him.

“Hey, Jake. I’ve got your device.”

“Oh, cool!” He said, glad that he would soon be able to message his family again. And text Aya those pictures. Seriously. How did she not know modern rappers? “Let me just set these things down. C’mon in.”

Gabriel followed him into the room, waiting patiently while Jake set his armload of notebooks and study materials on his desk before turning back to the angel.

“So, what was wrong with it?”

“I have no idea.” Gabriel said, a vague irritation in his tone that Jake knew wasn’t at him, but at the vagaries of broken technology. “I tried everything I could to diagnose the issue, but you may as well have handed me an expensive brick this morning for all the good it did me. Luckily, I could swap the storage media into a new device, so you’re back up and running relatively quickly.”

“Huh. Uh, well thanks for getting me a new one, then? And if you ever do figure out what I did to break that one, let me know? That way I don’t give you a second expensive brick.”

Gabriel grinned at that, and Jake was happy to see it.

“Gabriel.” Michael called from his office, and the angel stepped inside.

“You called, Michael?”

“Yes. Sometime last night I lost my connection to Jacob’s C.C.C. I think something may have happened to the oversight application.”

Gabriel winced. He was hoping that Michael wouldn’t notice the change, because it would mean that the angel wasn’t as obsessively cyber-stalking their new exchange student as much as Gabriel just knew he would be.

“Ah, well, actually…” He sighed. “The C.C.C. that Jake was using broke, and so—“

“It broke? Did he throw it against a wall or something?”

Gabriel cleared his throat, adjusted his glasses, and continued what he was saying. “Something in the internals fried overnight while it was charging. I haven’t had a chance to pinpoint the exact problem, but I moved his data into a new device. Unfortunately, I forgot about the oversight application as I had too much on my mind today. I can get it back from him for some ‘preventative maintenance’ if you would like me to get the application added back, but I can’t guarantee he won’t notice at that point.”

Michael muttered something under his breath that Gabriel didn’t catch, but shook his head. “No, it’s fine. The oversight of the exchange students is Raphael’s responsibility now, I suppose I should have transferred the oversight application to him regardless. Do check in with him, he may want you to add it back.”

“I’ll check with him this evening, then. Is there anything else?”

“No, that was all. Thank you, Gabriel.”

Free time wasn’t something that Jake got a lot of, and so on nights like tonight when he had all of his homework done and had nothing else going because everyone else was busy with their own things. So there he lay, like a starfish on his way-too-big bed, thinking about the mischief he, Nia, and the girls could be getting up to if only he weren’t in this hell masquerading as heaven called the Celestial Realm.

Nia > Jake: Jaaaaaake Jake > Nia: Hey girl, what’s up? Nia > Jake: I need help

Jake stared at his phone. How was he supposed to help his bestie from all the way up here in the Celestial Realm? He supposed he could call her mother and exert some influence that way.

Jake > Nia: Are you hurt? Should I call someone? Nia > Jake: No. I… I kissed Satan tonight.

Oh. OH. That kind of help. He was here for this. So much better than any other conversation he could be having at this point.

Jake > Nia: Tell me everything.

For the next hour, Jake and Nia talked back and forth. She’d found herself falling in love with the very demon she’d sent her first Devildom-selfie of. But he’d known that she had feelings for Mammon as well. Add that to the amount of time she’d been spending working out with Beelzebub (mirroring his own time with Bunny, he’d not hesitated to tell her in his amusement) and it was a very complicated time for his naïve bestie.

After hearing her out, he gave her the best advice he possibly could in the situation. He didn’t know really anything about Demon relationships, but he knew that Nia was an incredibly open-minded but self-sacrificing girl, and needed to be encouraged to do things that were good for her and not just for everyone else. Also, she was going to be there an entire year, but only a year. So she should live it up and not be afraid to make mistakes.

Jake > Nia: Girl, you’re far too caring for your own good. You’re in literal hell. If you feel like kissing boys, kiss boys! Jake > Nia: But if you feel more than just kissing, if you actually think you might like one of them, you have to talk to them about it. I bet there’s a lot more to it for them to be with a human.

Nia didn’t respond after that, but given how late it was, he wasn’t really surprised. She’d probably fallen asleep. Which was a thing he should probably also think about doing, because he had a run planned with Bunny and Aya bright and early in the morning.

Jake woke, hopped out of bed and into his workout clothes. Which were the jeans and t-shirt he’d been wearing when he got teleported here. He still hadn’t figured out if there was a way for him to go shopping - he didn’t have any spending money. Well, he had the $10 that lived in the coin pocket of his jeans for emergencies, but he had the distinct impression that human world money was going to be useless here.

A soft knock at his door told him the demon girls had arrived, and he swung the door open, waving as he bent down to tie his shoes.

“Glad to have you joining us this morning, Aya!” Jake said quietly but energetically.

“Jake.” Aya said, and the deadpan tone of her voice made him stop and look up at her. “You are not seriously working out in jeans.”

“Yep.” he said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s that or uniform khakis, and…”

“Ew.” Aya said with a shiver. “I have spare workout clothes. They’ll fit you.” She grabbed his hand and practically dragged him behind her up the stairs to her room. She didn’t seem to care that his shoes were still untied. Maybe it was for the best, if he was changing.

Aya let him go once they were in her room, pulled out one of the drawers of her dresser and threw a pair of black/white/vibrant blue color blocked leggings and a practically paper thin long-sleeved top in a coordinating black at him.

“Change.”

Jake blinked. “Here?”

“Duh, idiot. I’m not into you, you’re not into me, get on with it we’re wasting day— shit, I was going to say we’re wasting daylight but I could just dump all the daylight out and still have too much.”

“I miss the moon.” Bunny said sadly from the doorway.

Jake pulled his top and jeans off in record time, and shimmied into the spandex-heavy leggings that fit him like a surprisingly comfortable glove, at a nice capri-length. Then he pulled the top over his head. It did not fit him near as well, seeming more 3/4 sleeved and crop-top length.

“Uh… I’m not sure if…” He said, awkwardly, trailing off less because he didn’t know what to say and more because he got to watch Aya shift into and then promptly right back out of her demon form.

“Be sure. Those look better on you than they ever did on me. They’re yours now. I never want to see them unless they’re on your body or the floor.”

“Wait, why the floor? And are you okay?”

“She lied about not being into you. She thinks you’re sexy, but she respects that you’re gay. Don’t worry about it.” Bunny said with a chuckle. “Can we run now?”

One good run later, Jake and his demon girls were heading back to their rooms to change for breakfast. It was a day off of classes, so Jake had agreed to not only the morning run but also spotting weights for Bunny after breakfast. He wasn’t going to change out of his workout clothes, but he wanted to grab his hoodie to keep his midriff covered for breakfast. And, because the cool indoor temperatures were going to chill him down pretty fast, so he needed something more than an almost-present workout top.

He said ‘his hoodie’ but of course it was one of Bunny’s that she’d loaned him early on when she learned he didn’t have one. So, he was practically drowning in the oversized thing, conveniently hiding most of his workout clothes from his dormmates’ prying eyes. Which, if Aya’s reaction when he’d first put them on was anything to go by, was probably a good thing.

Just as he was picking his phone back up with his sweater-paws, it chimed in his hand. Nia was awake, and messaging him. He pushed his sleeves up so he could type back to her, leaning on the wall while he waited for Aya to come back downstairs so they could walk to breakfast together.

Nia > Jake: Thanks, Jake. You’re the best, you know that? Jake > Nia: Of course I know that! I’m happy to help, just keep talking to me okay? Nia > Jake: Duh! Oh, hey, I’m gonna ask Diavolo if I can get some of my books from home, is there anything you want from home while I’m asking? Jake > Nia: Girl Scout Cookies? Nia > Jake: I will do my very best to acquire cookies. Jake > Nia: Thanks!!!!

As Aya started down the stairs in front of him, Jake went to put his phone in his pocket. Of course, he fumbled it, sending the brand new device skittering across the floor.

“That’s why we have cases.” Aya said, bending down to pick his phone up from where it slid to a stop by her feet, unashamedly reading the messages from Nia that were up on the screen. Jake was suddenly glad that a majority of their conversation about kissing demons had scrolled off the top with their talk about home.

“Oh! I always wanted to know this, and you can tell me!” She said, as she handed him his phone back. “Are girl scout cookies made with girl scouts, the way chocolate chip cookies are made with chocolate chips?”

Jake looked up at her, suddenly wondering if she meant literally. The shit-eating grin on her face told him she definitely didn’t mean it.

“No, and they aren’t even baked by girl scouts anymore. They’re just small batch shelf-stable cookies that support little girls doing outdoorsy shenanigans.”

Aya stuck her tongue out at him for not playing along, and they shared a laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Bunny asked, as they met up just outside the dining room.

“Jake’s friend is going to have cookies sent for him!” Aya said, and Jake mirrored her previous action and stuck his tongue out at her.

“I’m trying to. Who knows what Nia can pull, you know?”

For not the first time, Jake wished that he could leave a meal early. He’d finished eating five minutes ago, but he wasn’t allowed to leave for another five. It felt like an eternity and a waste of his precious, mortal life. He dropped his super-long sleeves over his hands, returning to his comfort-place of sweater-paws, and put his head down on the table where his plate used to be, before Bunny swiped it to steal his leftover syrup. After the day she’d eaten an entire bottle of syrup on her pancakes they started limiting how much she could have, and Jake hated that, so he always took too much so she could have his extra.

He chuckled behind his sleeves, remembering the first time he’d offered his extra syrup to Bunny, the way Gabriel’s face had tensed up. The IT angel thought the idea of sharing the leftover syrup on his plate was the grossest thing he’d ever seen. Jake was just glad he didn’t let his squicks about food keep him from being willing to fix Jake’s tech when it failed him.

When he looked over to see if Gabriel was being grossed out as usual, instead his eyes caught on Raphael’s. The discipline angel was looking curiously at his sweater-paws, so Jake flopped them out at the angel and made a face. “Nyaa.” He winked, causing Raphael to look away awkwardly. Well. Maybe he wasn’t a fan of sweater paws. Why did I wink at him?! Well, that was obvious. Because that was his usual. Being a bratty kitty with his sweater paws at Nia’s sisters, and then winking at Nia when she teased him about it. It was reflex. Just reflex.

When lunch finally adjourned, Jake helped clear the dishes to the kitchen - he was on dishes duty with Azrael today.

“Hey, Az. Erm, Azrael, sorry.” He said, greeting the angel who was transferring any leftover food into containers to store in the refrigerator.

“Jake.” She smiled at him, not acknowledging his slip into habitual nicknaming. “I saw you take too much syrup for Yboun’dih again this morning.”

“What can I say?” he shrugged. “Gotta look out for the little guy.”

“I don’t know whether to take that as that I should keep my guard up around you, or that you somehow consider that demoness the underdog in the situation. She certainly isn’t little.” Azrael was laughing softly, so Jake wasn’t worried that she was actually concerned, and flailed his sweater-paws in her direction. “Okay, and also where did you get a sweater that is that large on you? Oh wait. It’s in return for your syrup tithe, isn’t it.”

Jake chuckled and shook his head. “Bunny just realized I was cold one day and didn’t have a sweatshirt, so loaned me one of hers. If I tuck my knees up to my chest I can basically hide all of me inside of it without stretching it, it’s great!”

“Okay, Sweater Kitten. Come dry dishes so we can both get on with our day.”

Jake set his sweatshirt aside and worked side-by-side with Azrael on the dishes in companionable silence. He really felt like he’d made friends with the angel of death. Though, just thinking of her as the angel of death made him wonder if he’d somehow dreamed the whole thing. He should ask her about what it meant to be the angel of death at some point. Like, she’d said she didn’t like talking to mortals because of it, but he knew nothing about what she actually did, and he cared enough about her to want to find out. Next time, though. He wanted to give the conversation the time and attention it deserved, and Bunny was waiting for him in the common room.

#omswd #obey me shall we date #chapter fic #longfic #fic update #obey me!#obey me raphael #celestial realm #om celestial realm #om raphael

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whiskeysmulti · 8 months ago

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Tell Her (a 5986 drabble)

Word Count: 751 Characters: Hibari and Gokudera Summary: It takes a cloud to stir up a storm and finally get Gokudera to get off his ass and confess his feelings for Haru. From this ASK!

"God damn it she's so fucking frustrating!"

Once again the Storm guardian was furious over something and from what Hibari could deduce it had something to do with a girl. Not that he really cared at all for Gokudera's romantic relationships but at the moment it was keeping him from his peaceful afternoon nap. The Cloud sighed, this was going to be a pain, but apparently the other male needed to get something off his chest.

"What is it now?" He closed his eyes and lay back on the rooftop, he wouldn't start a fight with Gokudera, but if he turned violent, Hibari wasn't afraid to finish it.

"Haru, she pisses me off so much sometimes!"

A small slight smile curved at the edge of the Namimori Prefect's lips, he called it, relationship drama. However, the entire school knew Gokudera and Haru were close, but not quite together yet. Stupid boys with thick skin sometimes needed it spelled out for them, but it wasn't exactly his place to tell Gokudera to chill out and just tell Haru how he felt for her.

Hibird landed on his finger and Hibari stroked the soft feathers, as he listened to the woes of the Smoking Bomb.

"She can be so stupid sometimes, throwing herself at the 10th when everyone knows she doesn't stand a chance. She's not good enough for him." Denial, Hibari had seen it since the damn day they met the girl from Midori, anyone with eyes could tell Gokudera had it bad for her and wasn't seeing the full picture.

While Gokudera was in the process of lighting a cigarette, Hibari took the one second of silence and peace as his opportunity to talk.

"You're an idiot." Leave it to the ever all of Cloud to point out the obvious to the furious Storm.

"Hibari…" Gokudera growled, just to be shushed by the man before him.

"Shut up. You know I'm right. If you didn't want her, why do you get so angry when she shows the other herbivore affection? You're jealous that she likes Sawada." He just wanted a peaceful nap, that was all Hibari had asked for today, if there was any shred of hope for him to get his rest then Gokudera needed to see the god damn light and get off his ass and finally tells Haru how he felt.

Gokudera's mouth dropped at the audacity of this fucking Cloud and his claims. "Hmph, it's not like she's going to get the 10th anyway." Gokudera protested as he hid the blush on his face at the realization that maybe, just maybe he did like Haru.

"Probably not, but that doesn't mean there aren't other guys with their eyes on her, the longer you leave her single, the more chance someone else has of catching her." Hibari smirked, if their Storm guardian had even a shred of intelligence to him he'd catch on. Haru was starting to catch the eye of a lot of guys around her so if Gokudera did want her, he needed to make a move and he needed to do it fast.

Jealous rage coursed through Gokudera as he tossed his cigarette and exhaled sharply taking in what Hibari had just said. "You really think it's that fucking easy to tell someone how you feel?"

"You do it all the time when you're angry with her, that's still a way of telling her how you feel is it not? How is this different?" Smugly Hibari smirked and lay back down to hopefully get his nap now. He struck the match and hopefully it lit a fire under the other's ass to get him to move and finally tells Haru how he felt. and if that wasn't motivation enough, then perhaps a little competition would be. "I can always tell her for you." Hibari took the ten seconds of silence as his opportunity to leave while Gokudera thought it over.

Realization hit Gokudera as what the other had said sank in. If he didn't confess to Haru, one of two things would happen. Another man would come and take her in the meantime, or Hibari was going to go behind Gokudera's back and tell her for him.

Gokudera was pissed. He'd call Haru later and see if she wanted to hang out, and maybe get off his ass and finally tell her, but right now he only had words for one person, a skylark that left him absolutely furious.

"Hibari! Get your ass back here!"

#whiskey speaks; ooc #whiskey writes #KHR fanfic #5986 fanfic

1 note · View note

salsa-and-light · 2 years ago

Text

"See, this is EXACTLY what I knew would happen when I saw that “Read More” break at the bottom of a post with nothing below it. And this is why I was VERY careful in what I said and what words I used:"

Well I figure if that were true then he would have blocked me before I reminded him how buttons were used.

He blocked me so this is just for me and the audience.

I am sorry for how this variety of Christian acts, I'm tired of it too.

I'm going to add another page break here because not everyone has the patience to read this or scroll through all this, and I'm polite.

Not that it particularly matters when people add collages of photos and walls of text with no break but I try.

"I obviously know what a read more break is"

Oh REally>

Consider this enrichment.

Those definitely aren't the words of someone trying to cover their ass or anything.

I certainly block people when they do what I expect and not when I'm caught in a massive assholish blunder.

"(not to mention that I’ve probably been using the internet longer than this SJW has been alive)."

Ohhh, are you oooold?

What 30? 32?

Truly I am but a babe before you and the wisdom of the ages.

How old do you think I am?

"When they can’t beat the facts, they try to get away by claiming that they had some brilliant point that their opponent either didn’t understand or didn’t address because of a technical issue or some kind of cheating."

Listen, I'm more than willing to take the compliment; if you think I did all that research on Mister Gagnon and checked your sources and added pages of text in the two hours between my first and second post(can't see his post I'm blocked) well then go ahead, think I'm a brilliant speed demon all you want.

Why I would do that instead of just waiting two more hours to respond to an already old post is mystery to me but this imaginary version of me is clearly working on levels that I can't fathom, so who could say.

"And no, it isn’t “courtesy” to use read more breaks. It’s actualy super annoying, because it forces a person out of their own blog and dashboard to instead visit the other person’s blog to find out what they said"

Well I'm very sorry that it takes a second or two of inconvenience for you before you settle in to read a long post but the rest of the userbase still exists and they don't want to see pictures of the same uninspired book for six pages.

I don't know where you get the self importance to call me rude for not wanting to subject people to this when you yourself decided to move to a second blog that you made for arguments, presumably so that it wouldn't clog up your main argument blog.

Unless "argument side blog" is some ironic artistic choice, in which case.. far out man

"Suddenly there is something after the read more break, in the exact location which was empty when I checked it before. Funny that."

Yep I did all that work just for your tootsie pop, I dropped everything in the early afternoon just to write all that.

Maybe this is a cultural difference or maybe I'm just ~crazy~ but I don't actually care what you think of me. I'm on the internet to have fun.

"Since my arguments don’t need to rely on speculation, lies and petty insults"

Awww, someone thinks that because their insults are subtler they're more academically valid, so precious.

People were supposedly getting in fist-fights at the Council of Nicea, scholars have never been impartial, there is almost no correlation to being right and being nice.

I'm here to have fun, so if you want a polite discourse be polite and we can have a good time.

And if you want to dish it out, learn to take it.

I'm very fair😉.

Kisses

"I won’t hyper analyze how this happened."

-Negative self-awareness-

"“Monolignual American” = Assumption"

It was a hypothetical.

"...low-key racism"

Against whom?

Monolingual Americans‽

That's not a race.

It's a condition, a curable one at that. Get a duolingo, hire a rosetta stone, kiss the Blarney Stone if you're desperate.

Is it also "racism" to be biased against medical advice from people with no experience in medicine‽

Even then, I'm no going to trust a podiatrist over a cardiologist when it comes to heart health.

"& Ad hominem insult."

It was a warning darling, I don't trust people who don't know about what they're talking about, in this case translation and linguistics, if you chose to take that personally that's a reflection on you and sources you choose to believe.

"Firstly, it’s an admission of guilt that he has already made an a priori judgment"

Yeah, just like you made an "a priori" judgment that a lack of sources was uncompelling to you.

I was being nice by telling you the standards that would convince me, which I didn't have to do and perhaps shouldn't have.

Since you got'yer panties in a wad over it.

But if you can't meet the standard of expertise that I require then I don't know why you bothered anyways.

"and will refuse to be swayed by any argument, no matter how well researched or authoritative,"

Notice how I was specifically saying that I would only be convinced by arguments that were well-researched and authoritative. But way to admit that your standard for authoritative is so much lower than mine.

"This guy is using my status as an “American” against me,"

Oh yeah, the most oppressed minority, Anglophone Americans.

I didn't know you were an American, although it's a hardly surprising.

This particular brand of Christianity tends to only survive where people have limited contact with people with different religious ideas.

Everyone's a evil heretic except for you, or so you can convince yourself if you leave every church you disagree with and never talk about God with anyone you actually have to live with.

"as though he can simply dismiss all arguments from Americans on the basis of their place of birth,"

I learned linguistics in America, and some of the best universities for linguistics in the world are in Pennsylvania, notably a place in America. Some of the most renowned Linguists were American, Noam Chomsky, both Sapir & Whorf.

Cool it with the victim mentality, your sources were just bad.

"while simultaneously ignoring the fact that I actually have formal education"

You'd have to tell me that for me to ignore it, unless your "formal" education was supposed to be you reading books from your library.

"I’m citing the works of other well-respected experts"

Respect is useless currency when it comes to the truth.

People thought that Germ theory was crazy.

I warned you off the most blatantly wrong "experts"(people with limited linguistics training or knowledge) and that didn't seem to work so I'm not sure how I should explain to that I also want the research to be good.

Opinion pieces are not valid evidence.

"Insulting the design of a website rather than responding to the actual content of the site."

Yes, but you see, I'm here to have fun. So I'm going to share my personal opinion too.

It's one of the perks of being able to write whatever I want😘

I'm not positing his bad website design as the fundamental flaw of his argument.

I'm saying that It's an ugly website.

It's not that deep.

"Also, his objection to the “content” in this context simply reeks of the fact that he has already a priori eliminated any"

Blaah blabla.

I didn't even object to the content, though I would be within in my right to(my blog- doing this for fun remember) but I think we can all appreciate how unsurprising people are, the homophobe thinks that God has instituted complementarian gender ideals. What a non-shock that is.

Never mind that he also says that be believes in "gender stratification" but who needs to dwell on that little horror when the rest of him is exactly the same.

If you didn't want me to comment on his views or be amused that this is exactly what I expected then you really shouldn't have put the man in front of me and implicitly asked me to take him seriously.

Even you did the same thing as me with your "On brand so far!" because yes, Mister Gagnon is on-brand too; and I think that's funny.

It's about the only funny thing, but you know, I have to entertain myself somehow.

"It’s also worth noting that “homophobe” is a completely vapid and empty insult of no real weight."

Yeahhh.. kind of like calling the KKK racist.

It's True- yes, but it's a bit redundant

But hey, I was adding a dramatic flair.

Some Queer people are dramatic,

It's been known to happen.

"SJWs like this “part homosexual” use it at every possible opportunity to mindlessly slander anyone who even..."

It's called a read honey,

Like how you gonna dress like a gay man and be homophobic.

It's hilarious to me.

It'd be like if Miss Piggy were homophobic

I'm having fun, you sound miserable.

"quoting his comments would become redundant and needlessly stressful due to his bizarre formatting choices."

I like to call them artistic choice but I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much we're alike in our formatting: indented quotes.. elipses to switch topics between paragraphs..

All the hits, makes it a bit easier to sift through the silt.

You're a bit overzealous with the CAPS and the Bolds and the ITalics, but we all have flaws.

"he found a partial copy of Gsgnon’s book in PDF format, didn’t object to the obvious intellectual property theft issues"

Yeah, that doesn't sound like someone who "formally studied" much of anything; do you know how much textbooks cost‽

I, in fact, do not have any objection to pirating, of all things, the table of contents for a treatise on bigotry.

Take the whole book if you can stand to read it. I've read all those same ideas from the YouTube comment sections for free.

"and proceeds to hurl various additional ad hominem insults at sporadic areas of the book"

✨Correct✨.

I think complaining about the tribulations of being a homophobe is whiny, comparing that to coming out of the closet is gross and I think that trying to use scripture to justify sexism is shameful.

Bad behavior and bad ideas deserve criticism, and if I'm the one to dole it out today.. then baby hand me another tomato.

"The author isn’t wrong just because you were personally offended by what he had to say."

Bolds again, tsk tsk.

But I'd have to be surprised to be offended honey🚬

"I am not an arbitrary internet user, because: My blog is actually dedicated to discussing religious topics..."

Showing that you have a vested interest.

Some might say that you're too close to the issue, sunk cost fallacy being what it is.

Tell me, when was the last time you changed your mind on something more serious than your favorite flavor of ice cream?

Do you remember? If you can't it's probably been too long.

But in any case, your still just some guy, on the internet, you could be a Russian bisexual transvestite hooker for all anyone knows.

"This is the second such blog I’ve operated here on tumblr over the last decade."

Oh so you're Re-aLly invested, Okay "Dude" whatever.

"I’ve addressed this exact argument many times before."

And so have I, what of it Viceroy, do you think that repetition gives us legitimacy? -because I don't.

"I responded to and was involved in the original post back when it was first made in 2019."

Yeah, just another rando to me bud, just because you have the dates memorized doesn't mean that I care more.

"I have an actual Master’s Degree in this topic, therefore giving me legitimate credibility to discuss the topic."

And I also have a Master's what a super~crazy coincidence.

You're really building this up aren't you, it's kinda cute.

"I’m citing authoritative sources from other experts."

That's very good, that's very good sweetie.

I don't care, you're still just some guy, just like I'm just some guy.

And as I've made abundantly clear, I think your experts are speculating at best.

"And on top of all that, I provided actual arguments"

Ooh they're arguments, not good, not new, not based in the linguistic evidence that's relevant to translation,

But they're arguments

"...instead of just engaging in diversionary rhetoric and hurling insults at my opponents."

And what a good boy you are Jack Horner.

But the problem is that you're very impolite, and you arguments are bad and rage-fueled.

I don't owe a serious reply to bad ideas just because someone created a discipline out of discussing bigotry.

🎶A communist- with tenure is still just a communist🎶

And you don't get civility when you offer none

"who clearly does not have even rudimentary knowledge of the subject material"

That's very funny,

"and is running a generic blog of no particular theme,"

By Jove!, you're right.

Oh my gosh what can I be without a theme, does my whole life need a theme too‽

"opinion on a post he necromancered out of 2019."

You know for someone who's supposedly old enough to have been on the internet longer than I've been alive you seem to be wholly unfamiliar with the concept of things coming back.

Skinny jeans are back FYI.

Sorry that I'm late💎✨, if you wanted me sooner you could have tagged me back when you first tried to criticize me.

Besides, the color of the Sky post is from 2012, if it's still on tumblr, safe to assume it could pop back up.

Also the word is "necromanced", "necromancer" is a person who necromances. And why you're referencing a old website filled with socio-political caricatures I have no idea.

"This commentary is quite amusing to me, because I can just envision this SJW putting on his rainbow flag pins and heading out into the woods to get his hoe-down on with the Duck Dynasty characters. Yeah, that would pan out great, I’m sure."

I find this funny for two reasons, one because it's a tacit admission that Queer people are in far more danger than homophobic professors and two because he clearly doesn't understand how being in the closet works and imagines Queer people as something closer to a cartoon than real life.

I'm an expert with a bulldozer and I know how to build a chicken coop, I'm also Queer.

It happens,

Any illusions that you had about being far away from Queer people are a myth, they're there, if you don't know it's probably because your untrustworthy, or perhaps just unpleasant.

"tumblr users would refer to as a “weird flex.” Particularly when he immediately follows it up by trying to inflate his own association with intellectual society."

Hell yeah it's a flex.

Do you know how few people where I'm from even make it to College? Sorry if this is too complex for you but I can be happy about my achievements while also recognizing the power of class privilege to buoy unremarkable academics.

"Last time I checked, theological seminaries weren’t counted among the ranks of “Ivy League” schools. Of course, this really just means that this SJW has no idea what “Ivy League” means and uses these kinds of snappy comments with no knowledge of what he is implying."

Well apparently I'm the only one who does any research before I open my mouth.

Mister Gagnon works at Houston Christian University and so he has a faculty page detailing his education as is customary for universities. Predictably there was nothing in the study of ancient languages or linguistics but last I checked Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton were all Ivy League schools.

Didn't you say this man was your favorite author? Has he never mentioned his education? I'd find that odd; he seems the type.

Unless of course he's lying about being educated in Ivy League schools, which I highly doubt, but wouldn't it be funny?

A gal can dream can't she?

"Yeah, I bet! You all got together at those “Ivy League” schools to swap stories about how much you developed your racist hatred of “Monolingual Americans” during your “poor” upbringing in the “backwoods!”"

This is bad enough I don't think I need to say much, but just for the viewer they have these things called "conferences" where people in a given field come together to share ideas and the like.

Given how Mister Gagnon works in Texas and I've been to the rather informal affair of a theological conference in Texas before, I imagine that he was probably nearby.

But hey, maybe the expert theologian never attends theological conferences, who am I to say what he does in his semi-personal life.

In fairness I wouldn't invite him more than once if I were an event organizer.

Though I also appreciate that this man acknowledges the classism that's latent in academic circles.

"Every SJW always denies being an SJW, while in the same breath expressing the most far-left political views possible."

Let's just say that if the most far-left positions in America are being anti-communist and pro-gun that we're living in a very different world than I thought.

"Conceding one of the points of my argument. Good job."

I often do that when people are right.

I'm glad that you could experience it.

"The examples he cites are still between one man and multiple women,"

Yes, which is not "1 man + 1 woman".

Which means you were wrong, that's not a rule; tell me where I'm losing you.

"The claim that people can have multiple wives is a very commonly asked about issue in scripture and there are many readily available sources that explain why marriage is limited to one man and one woman in spite of the limited Old Testament examples of men taking more than one wife."

I mean I could give a nuanced breakdown of the arguments made by this opinion piece article.. but I think it would be wasted effort, (if someone else has a question LMK) but for our purposes here I'll simply say that a lot of the claim are editorializing at best and it doesn't matter regardless.

Even if you were able to prove that marriages that aren't heterosexual, monogamous and outside the household of the patriarch are inferior in some capacity it doesn't change the fact that scripture still calls them marriages.

Which means that scripture does not also claim that non-monogamous marriages can't exist.

"He also makes the error of proof texting in this argument."

And yet.. you try to imply that the Bible does say that non-monogamous marriages can't exist.

Tell me what context was missing from the verses explicitly stating that these people were married to multiple people

Was there some super secret verse right after that said "just kidding"?

Making abstract accusations of being "out of context" for verses whose meanings don't change in context is bottom of the barrel snottiness; pre-teens at Wednesday church do that.

" “Nowhere in the Bible does it say [sex outside of marriage is a sin]” Yes, it does. Many times. Over and over and over."

Not one of those passages ever mentions pre-marital sex, we've been over this.

Proverbs 6:32

This passage is talking about adultery, not premarital sex.

Matthew 15:19, Acts 15:20, 1 Corinthians 5:1, 1 Corinthians 6:13, 1 Corinthians 6:18, 1 Corinthians 10:8, 2 Corinthians 12:21, Galatians 5:19, Ephesians 5:3, Colossians 3:5, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, Jude 1:7(this one alludes to attempted rape), Revelation 21:8

These passages are talking about sexual immorality, not premarital sex.

Hebrews 13:4

This passage is just talking about how marriage should be respected.

1 Corinthians 7:2

This passage is explicitly telling already married couples that they should have sex, they incorrectly believed that sex was dirty. Imagine that.

Romans 1:29

This passage doesn't mention sex or marriage at all.

Song of Solomon 4

This passage is used as evidence that God likes sex "as long as it's in marriage", even though this passage is about a man(Solomon) who has hundreds of wives and hundreds of concubines and we actually have no idea if he and this woman are married. The ESV translation that the site links to uses the word "Bride" but they could be married, engaged, betrothed or it could be poetic language just like is used in the rest of the chapter.

Needless to say though it's highly unlikely that this was his first wife.

It's also worth mentioning that these blogs(mostly the first link) repeat verses multiple times to give the impression that there's more evidence than there is and that they know what they're talking about.

I've done it too, I needed to hit those page counts on those academic papers, but it's a little sleazy when you're doing it to convince people to make major life decisions.

....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......

Now the viewer might have noticed that most of the verses mention sexual immorality but don't mention premarital sex, the blogger foresaw that rather glaring issue and adds this line:

"Sex before marriage, or premarital sex, is not addressed in that exact term, but it does fall within the scope of sexual immorality."

What is immoral about pre-marital sex⸮ Why is pre-marital sex in the category of sexual immorality at all⸮

Because they say so.

And isn't that just rich.. rich and morally repulsive.

It's like saying "👆🤓 actually the Bible never said you had to share your stuff with me but the Bible said not to be greedy and not giving your stuff to me is greedy"

It's quite stunning the boldness that people have to just say things knowing that there's no proof.

"he then goes into an angry rant about the “purity movement” and how it has “fallen apart” as if this is proof of anything."

I'm sorry that you don't think it's important that Christian doctrine works in application and not just in theory.

Meanwhile the damage is done and people like you seem to content to ignore and repeat it.

But for those interested there is a fantastic documentary which follows Joshua Harris the Author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye(one of the most popular Purity Culture advocacy books) where he follows up to see what damage his book, and by extension the purity movement has done. He diplomatically rejects the ideas of his previous book and the culture it fostered.

Quite admirable given the circumstances really.

"this is another example of him using the bandwagon fallacy by appealing to what the majority of secular society believes"

No.

I was talking about the Purity Movement, and almost entirely Christian movement which decades later has been revealed to be a damaging social liability that gives adults permission to control the clothing and behavior of women, demonize the human body and poison gender relations.

Unsurprisingly, sexual ethics were the vehicle for enhanced social control and a culture of shame and degradation.

I don't personally find that trivial.

But where have I seen that before.

It's not as if people's "moral objection to homosexuality" has ever been used as premise to punish anything else right?

Oh wait, it's always been used for that.

Men can't have sex with other men and suddenly Susan and Sally can't hold hands.

He can't walk like that, she can't have that haircut, they can't play that music, he'll never be taken seriously with that voice, she shouldn't stand that way, men shouldn't dress like that, women shouldn't live alone and on and on it goes.

It's never been just about the sex, it's always been about a whole host of other issues, sexual ethics is just the prelued to justify their pre-existing prejudices so that people don't realize how it looks to say "oh this man is too pretty" and "this woman wearing shorts looks like a man".

"And since I proved that the premises in question are accurate, he effectively concedes another of my major bullet points."

Do you want a cookie for understanding a hypothetical?

It's like watching a rat in a maze be satisfied by imagining the cheese at the end.

"He then follows this up with some more angry ranting about how I’m being mean to “queer” people. I’m going to classify that as a very feeble appeal to emotion fallacy, not worthy of further response."

Oh.. you would say that darling.

The angry ranting in Question:

"But way to reduce Queer people to sex, that’s real cute of you."

Yeah I seem pretty incensed, just boiling really. That's not a casual comment at all.

In any case I that was a footnote, and he spent longer talking about how ridiculous it was than the actual statement.

The oversexualization of Queer people is a real issue, I didn't expect this person to care about that. I expected him to ignore it, not blow it out into some unjust crusade that I'm inflicting upon him.

I'm being dramatic on purpose; but him, I don't know what his deal is.

It's probably because, even if the previous hypothetical were correct it doesn't even remotely touch Queer Love, Queer relationships or any non-sexual form of physical affection.

"Lie. I provided sources that explain in detail how the statements of Jesus and his citation of the Genesis narrative are in opposition to homosexuality."

Ehh, writer's privilege, I'm ignoring that.

To quote myself, because I'm brilliant and fun at parties:

"As I have said previously, the idea that Genesis 2:24 and its requotes are “definitions” contradicts scripture.

But even so affirming heterosexual marriage does not condemn all other relationships or statuses."

"His only rebuttal against my sources and Gagnon’s arguments is to engage in shallow and meaningless insults against our character,"

Not in that section. Though I'm sure your character merits it.

But if you wanna' kvetch I'm not your friend, find someone else.

"Another lie. Once again, I provided ample sources which validate the translation as condemning homosexuality beyond any doubt."

And yet I remain here chancellor, with plenty of doubt. I don't suppose any of your "ample sources" address why the English translations of Leviticus 18:22 translated the noun "מִשְׁכְּבֵ֣י" as a verb?

I thought not.

"He brings up some variant of this claim several times during his rant,"

No, no darling.

You're ranting, I'm stirring the pot.

I usually know that people who archive their arguments aren't that willing to hear any new opinions.

I'll admit that you're incensed beyond what I expected but I don't usually aspire to lay my sorrows at the feet of prickly personalities anyways.

I'll admit there are some things that a person could say to hurt my feelings, I'm only human after all, but I don't think I'd trust any criticism coming from you about my appearance so better luck next time.

"For example, I addressed this type of argument on my old blog as Ignorant SJW Arguments #1, #14, #23 and several others,"

I think it's fun that you've spent so much time arguing on the internet that you have to catalogue it. Like a hidden library of obscure sorrows..

Or obscene sorrows, take your pick.

You know most people aren't as gracious as me, most people aren't receptive to new ideas and they don't take an attitude sparingly.

You're just lucky that I find the attempts to insult me funny otherwise I might have blocked you first.

Aww, we could have done a little couple thing, "block me, no you block me, block me first XXOO😋"

I did poke around on your defunct little archive though, some of your links were broken but I managed to find a few of the people you got into spats with.

Includding a horse blog.

What did the ponies ever do to you John?

I follow them now.

But I did find this old line

"Now normally, I wouldn’t resort to a “call out” post like this, except..."

different times eh.

Oh well.

"You can also find simple explanations on mainstream Christian websites and apologetics sites."

Yeah sure, only trust the good Christians that believe what we believe, don't want to check in with the bad Christians, what we believe is objectively true so you shouldn't check in with any other viewpoints otherwise you might not believe what is objectively true because objective truth can't be found anywhere else.

Anyways, I encourage everyone to check a variety of viewpoints, I don't care if you've never set foot in a church, the priest, the preacher and the pastor are all just some guy(including the women) just be curious and critical, the culty ones tend to tell on themselves.

This man moved cross-country to escape people he disagreed with, that's usually a red flag: not playing well with others.

There are Christians all over the world who live in majority non-Christian spaces, many in more hostile places than "secular America".

"To briefly summarize, there is a difference between ceremonial laws given explicitly to the nation of Israel (such as Orthodox Jewish practices of not cutting their sideburns) and moral laws (such as the prohibition against sexual immorality) that still applies to us today."

Does the Bible say anything about this?

No it's doesn't this is arbitrary distinction so that people can ignore some parts and enforce others.

The blogs you linked says as much

"The division of the Jewish law into different categories is a human construct designed to better understand the nature of God and define which laws church-age Christians are still required to follow. Many believe the ceremonial law is not applicable, but we are bound by the Ten Commandments."

Meanwhile the actual scriptures say this:

"Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian." - Galatians 3:23

"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." - James 2:10

So it appears that you're breaking the Law too. Shame.

But then again, we're not bound by the law, so it doesn't seem to matter.

And of course:

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” - Matthew 22:36–40

Love God, Love one another, I can manage that, doesn't that just put things in perspective?

Isn't that better?

Looks like I'm done worrying about ethics, at least at this level of bad-faith minutiae.

And considering the quite literally millions dead from Christian homophobic propaganda and violence over the past several decades.. Let's just say that if being Queer were a sin Christians are still in a far worse state.

And I'm not willing to follow that trend -thank you very-much.

"So wrong again, SJW."

Does that term bring you joy?

Does it spark Joy?

I hope so, I imagine that being homophobic isn't getting any easier so I hope you can find some joy.

Maybe a healthier hobby too.

I liked therapy but I wouldn't call it a hobby🤔

-though I definitely recommend it if you're on the fence

You've implied that you're like.. ~totally ancient~ so.. maybe golf?

Put-put is the better type for the environment and urban planning..

I knew this one guy who was just- insanely good at ping-pong, you'd surprised how easy it is to make friends when you have a good bit.

I steal most of my bits from drag queens on the internet so I don't think that's your thing but.. hey, I'm not a miracle worker. Someone you're age can think of a good bit if you redirect your efforts.

One of my favorites is to go up behind someone when I'm about to start drinking something and I say in a lackadasical voice:

"I don't think there's anything wrong with having a cool-refreshing-drink after a long-hard-day"

The earlier in the morning you can say it the better.

"Not even going to let him finish that sentence, because he is about to tell another lie that has been denbunked for a long time. Gagnon specifically refutes this argument in detail on his website and in his book. I have also refuted the argument in the past."

I like how he writes like we're speaking in real time or if he's playing some recording of me talking, it's not quite camp but it may be picnic,

Remember how I said I've heard most of his arguments before, that's true, I've actually read this exact article before, bad formatting and all; but boy when I tell you that it hits every time,, uy/

"not only that but attempted same-sex sexual intercourse that dishonors the visitors by treating their maleness as if it were femaleness? After all, Jones has already acknowledged that the Levitical prohibitions have as their implicit motive clause the putting of a male in the position of a female sexually."

The man-

kggghhh

The man thinks that certain sexual positions are demeaning-

Ahhh, talk about being a product of the fifties.

A pallete cleanser, isn't he cute, and well-cared for judging by the look of is eyes.

"I’ll give him some minor credit"

"that this is a variant of the argument I haven’t heard before, but it’s also incredibly stupid,"

Oh well, can’t win’em all.

"The rapists in Sodom didn’t know the angles had supernatural powers. They were asking for “the strangers” who they assumed were just ordinary men from another town"

Okay..

Well Gagnon certainly rejects the notion that appearance carries an affect on gender, I assume he thinks that there's some nebulous transcendant quality of gender that belies appearance.

If you think anything remotely similar it's hard to argue that the appearance is all that relavant.

In any case it's clear that if the rape attempt had been successful it wouldn't be gay.

But props for understanding the basics of gender performativity theory 👍🏻.

"If the Sodomites had even remotely suspected the “men” were actually supernatural beings with no gender, then they obviously wouldn’t have been trying to rape them in the first place."

You don't know that, you don't know what they're into🫦-

"If the Jews who wrote the bible and other associated religious scriptures considered homosexuality a sin, then that obviously supports the conclusion that their scriptures would be correctly interpreted to confirm their opposition to homosexuality."

That would true if A) homosexuality was an extant concept and B) these anti-gay sentiments were contemporaneous to the period where the passages were actually written.

Neither of which we can confirm, so we're dealing entirely in the realm of speculation.

There's a reason I put “the period” in quotes, because the reference point for this claim(made without source) was "before Paul" which very much sounds like in the period immediately preceding Paul's use of the term. I don't usual to refer to something as "Before 9/11" and then talk about the Medieval period.

But despite the lack of source I already knew that 1st century Jews were anti-gay, a rarity for the period, but I can also do math and happen to know that 1st century Jews were not contemporaries of the Levitical writings. In fact the most recent piece of scripture accepted by Protestant Cannon was written in the 5th century BC.

With Leviticus and the rest of the Pentateuch being written a Thousand Years before That.

So congratulations, yes; I understand and acknowledge that Jews of the first century were homophobic but I also understand that 16th century Christians believed that the Bible supported racial hierarchy.

I don't consider the opinions of people a millennia and a half after a text was written to be authoritative, so pardon me if I don't give a damn.

"Secondly, he claims that the Jewish authors of scripture don’t have “authority”"

Well random Jews a millennium later don't have any authority, you're damn right I said that and I'll say it again.

No person outside of the living memory of a work's author has any special claim to understanding their text, and even then.. eugf who knows who to trust besides the author.

Poor Ray Bradbury has been fighting with people about the meaning of his own book for decades so people are very stubborn.

"One of the most important rules of hermeneutics is to understand the culture and intent of the original authors of scripture"

No, there are no hermeneutical rules, there are only hermeneutical norms, I don't even disagree with them most of the time but they're still not rules.

Regardless what you're trying to talk about is semantics, because you(like me) value the authorial intent of the writers.

Meanwhile you don't seem to consider any distinction between Jews of the first century and their ancestors a millennium and a half prior.

Which is rather important context-

"Again, this amazingly ignorant argument is just further proof that this guy knows nothing about Christianity, the bible or how to interpret scripture."

Just wait it's about to get Good.

"I won’t bother to quote individual points from this section, because he totally fails to address the fact that I already debunked this: Because “Arsenokoitai” is a combination of two HEBREW words,"

Oh boy, oh boy!

Christmas came early, this is delicious.

You remember This Page you linked when you were arguing about the etymology of "Arsenokoitai"?

Quote: "‘Arsenokoitai’ is a combination of the words ‘ársenos’ and ‘koitōn’ to form a word that the audience would clearly understand"

First of all, how would the Greeks understand a Hebrew word and second of did you even Look at that page‽

I would have figured that Mr. “Formally educated” and “Master’s degree in 'Christian Apologetics'” would be able to recognize Greek lettering.

And if that wasn't clear the URL has "greek" written right in it.

If that's not enough, feel free to look at the Wiktionary pages for "arsen" and "koiten" the word roots.

An while you're at it look up what the Septuagint is.

It's Greek, this should be the easiest part of this discussion but you've turned into some epic battle of truth and lies.

It's comically tired.

"this explains why it doesn’t follow normal rules of Greek “gendered” language."

Gendered languages adopt words from non-gendered languages all the time, often it is impossible to incorporate them into the language without gendering them.

I used the word "kleenex" as an example. It's a word from English, a language without gramatical gender, but in Spanish it has a gramatical gender so when the word "kleenex" was incorporated, it gained a grammatical gender(it's masculine if you care).

But I'm not even sure you understand the concept of gramatical gender soo.. eh unless you wanna' suck up your pride and read Wikipedia to figure out what a noun class is, you're just gonna' have to trust me.

" “have you ignored every other scholar who disagrees?” The problem with the other so-called “scholars” who support the pro-homosexual agenda is that they use the exact arguments we are seeing here in this debate. They lie, they obfuscate, they..."

So yes, you do ignore them, because you don't like their methods and their conclusions. Similar to how I also disregard shoddy evidence from bad scholars and academics.

But if I were to say that all the experts agreed, then I'd be lying; you see how that works

Just like you were lying when you repeatedly claimed that there was universal agreement.

"Again, I cite the fact that Gagnon and myself are both legitimately educated experts on this topic,"

Says the person who doesn't recognize Greek and doesn't understand the concept of a loan word.

Your claims of expertise were shoddy to begin with, but now your credibility is a pile of dust.

Dust honey,

~hhweewh~ gone. Gone gone.

Showcasing, in real time, why linguistics is basic to understanding language and translation.

That's such a basic and self-obvious statement that I never would have believed I'd have to say it, but here we are.

"we have read the “literature” on the other side of the debate"

Have you?

Or did you just sample them to argue with.

Apologetics is not usually interested in alternative views just destroying them.

The knowledge to conserve an animal is far more complex and nuanced than the limited knowledge required to hunt it.

And what?

"...and we have debunked all of those shallow arguments.."

Goodness you do love the word "debunked"

Does it inspire similar feelings as "vanquished" or "conquered"?

If you're arguing this much there must be something in it for you.

I'm getting the impression that "debunking" the "SJW" is kind of like "slaying" the "dragon" for you.

But I suppose we all have to tell ourselves some sort of narrative about ourselves.

"how Paul supposedly didn’t mean what his words obviously say"

I don't think that anyone has ever seriously argued that Paul didn't mean what he meant; just that we(in particular you) don't know what he meant.

"Obvious" is one of those words babe, like "clear" or "self-evident", you can't ever really use them during a disagreement.

Because if it really were "obvious", if it were really "self-evident" then no one would be arguing.

Chalk it up to a lack of empathy or depth of thought.

"or that Sodom was some some of allegory about bad hospitality."

Such passion, such rage or should I say such such rage?

But no, I think the rape was a pretty significant part, you would misrepresent the situation though.

"But to once again repeat the obvious, the SJW is lying and I provided sources which debunk his claims. What more can I be expected to say here?"

"Obvious", "SJW", "lying", "debunk"- maybe what should be expected is for you to say less not more; or at least be a bit more choosy.

Although I've already said what I expect, linguistic evidence, not the opinion pieces of monolingual theologians with a pedigree.

I know that I'm asking a lot, considering how someone doesn't even know what Greek looks like but what can I say?

Crazy claims require crazy evidence, and life's not always fair.

One of the many lessons you learn as a Queer person.

"Again, I’ve already addressed this. Claiming the bible was translated wrong and/or that the word “homosexual” was translated incorrectly is a common SJW talking point"'

That's the whole conversation buddy, welcome back.

"I’ve cited the sources and provided rational fact-based arguments."

This kind of person loooves being rationalll.

be rational harder daddy

"The SJW has lied and insulted everyone in sight."

Oh darling, not everybody just the people who desserve it

Do you think you've been polite‽

Although, while we're on the subject I would like to rescind one minor criticism I made of Gagnon, he is married, presumably to a real human woman.

So I would like to change my previous criticism of his ignorance of sexuality to the much worse crime of being a sexist man married to a wife.

I hope and pray she's doing okay, in fact I'd love it if God could give all the women married to sexist men a break.

"Gagnon IS an expert in the linguistics of biblical scripture specifically."

The only time language is mentioned in the first link is in the Wikipedia language options. I don't know why you would cite things that don't support your claims. Citation inflation? Citation kink? Inflation kink? I think I've heard of that one.

I am well aware of the fact that some theology courses have a rudimentary curriculum on ancient language, but I'm also aware that I have more linguistics education than he does, if by no other evidence than his casual disregard for connotative semantics.

It takes ~44 weeks of continuous full-time study to even gain basic reading and speaking proficiency for Modern Greek, let alone Ancient Greek, let alone ancient Hebrew a semitic language with no relationship to English.

These people are not becoming fluent in two ancient languages in the course of 2-4 years. Let alone learning words that have been lost to the historical record.

Learning words from a dictionary is different than learning words from context.

There is no dictionary for untranslated terms, you have to figure it out the old fashioned way.

"But the guy who doesn’t even know what “Ivy League” means wants to question that? No thanks."

Says the guy who didn't research the man he's defending and doesn't know what Greek looks like?

"And remember that picture I posted earlier of my bookshelf? That Interlinear Bible with Greek and Hebrew language isn’t just there for show."

It's not there for show but you can't tell the difference between Hebrew and Greek..

Why not?

I've always wanted to visit the state of delusion, I hear it has nice weather.

"This is called a “New Knowledge” argument. Already debunked. Nice try."

It's not "New Knowledge" it's a new concept that is anachronistic to the period.

Paul did not have a concept of atoms, of germs or of homosexuality, these were all ideas which either were created long after him or which have entirely different meanings from their historical counterparts.

Yes obviously Paul's statements might have implications for atoms, but it would be a lie to say he addressed them, this is relevant if you care about authorial intent.

"You have repeated all the same sorry arguments that leftist homosexual activists have been using for years, pretty much verbatim with only a few variances."

Hmm, lots of people from different groups and with different backgrounds coming to the same conclusion.. hmm..

"But these arguments have all been debunked by the actual facts and authoritative sources."

Goodness you love that word, how many times have you used it?

That's too many, you're mother and I are worried about you.

"And you did a worse job of presenting the homosexual agenda than most have done in the past,"

What can I say?

I'm bad, I'm a bad bad girl.

"since you immediately degraded to childish insults"

But baby, you started it, I thought you liked it dirty

"In between your petty insults and fallacies"

Boy, it's really gettin' to you huh

Sorry if your feelings are hurt, I don't owe people who peddle the work of sexist homophobes a calm and serious response.

Clowns might be good for teachable moments but you don't have a serious wrestling match with one either, you put a banana cream pie in his face.

"In between your petty insults and fallacies, you even managed to concede that the majority of my arguments are factually accurate."

I don't think you know what "majority" means. Or concede.

"All you really did was angrily rail against the fact that my position and the position of the experts was too “homophobic”"

I mean that's a problem but I've spoken to a rare few reasonable homophobes in my time. You're just not one of them.

"Also, before I conclude this debate by blocking you,"

Ahhh, there it is, this makes me think of the time I had a very nice date with this beautiful male model with hair like a Digimon character, we had a great time, he was a good kisser, I had him wrapped around my finger.

Then I didn't hear from him.

About four months later I find out from the guy I was dating at the time that the model was his Ex's Ex. and at the time of our date they had been together for two years.

Although they did break up less than two weeks after our date, so I take credit for that.

And like this situation, by the time an explanation has rolled around, it doesn't really make a difference.

Boo hoo, oh well.

"let me also point out that you failed to address my arguments in my earlier response to this post or when I tagged you on the Anti-Catholic Master Post."

Yeah, didn't feel like it.

I like to be involved, but eh, this wasn't that intriguing to me. You don't believe I'm a country boy, you don't believe I'm a Christian, You don't believe I'm not an SJW, is it really anything more than wasted air to say I'm not a Catholic either?

Besides, this is a fun little treat, but it's a bit like sugar, the time commitment is too much to bury yourself in it.

"So you effectively concede those points in the debate as well. Good job."

That's how it works, Silence is agreement.

That is sarcasm, which you seem to hate so I'll also say that actually silence is not agreement and in your normal life you should get explicit consent.

Although if you support Gagnon's views of "gender stratification" maybe you should just stay away from women altogether.

"I’m not asking you to agree with my morality, follow my religion or worship my God."

Yeah you are, you're falling into something called

🌈The Narcissism of Small Differences☁️⭐

You'd rather me be some pagan druid than be a Christian who doesn't agree with you.

Because you want to be in charge of your own special little camp.

You want the backing of millions of anonymous drones who you can use as source of validation and authority for whatever other wacky thing you wanna' say next; but dissenting voices shatter the illusion.

Guess what daisy-do a lot of people want the uncompromised backing of entire religious institutions, there's a reason the church is pushed into the crossfire of every political divide,

You're pretending to be gracious but what you're really saying is that you want to excommunicate me from the community of believers so that you can maintain ideological purity.

But I'm sorry to say, that there never was nor will there ever be ideological singularity in the church, barring divine intervention.

But from what Romans 14 says I get the impression that God's not overly fussy with the details.

"(In fact, talking to you really makes me feel a lot like Jonah when he was asked to preach to the Ninevites. Not that you will have any idea what that means.)"

Oh so it issss a holier-than-thou, crusader mentality thing.

I'm the big bad dragon, and your the little prince, come-to-tell-me how big and evil I am. You selfless soul, driving the dagger into the heart of evil.

Heyyy-

no judgment self-aware fantasy can be a healthy method to deal with unprocessed emotions, and I do mean that sincerely.

Though if I'm being sincere I don't think that you're self-aware enough for this to be healthy.

Like I said, I'm a much better because of therapy, and I highly recommend it, maybe the kids should go to therapy too, I can say from experience that homeschoolers usually need a little help after being isolated.

Especially if their parents are radical fundamentalists, the real world can be a shock so it's good to prep them for the emotional toll.

"But I am unequivocally not going to stand by and allow people to blatantly LIE about what the bible clearly says."

Well, you can sit down if you like- I'm not here to police anyone's body.

"If you don’t like what the bible says, go find some other religion that will put up with your sexual perversion."

You make it sound so much more provocative than it really is. Sex is just sex.

Of course, I'm more of a "whore in theory but not in practice" type of person.

I'm not sure if you've heard about the whole "written by a man", "written by a child" comments that are floating around on Tik-Tok but I think my life is written by a teenage girl who's a little too into Yaoi but still has a shaky grasp on what gay sex is.

But listen to me going on about myself.

"But don’t lie about my religion or what my God teaches in His scriptures."

Oh no bestie, Our religion😁🫶

...

This has been fun but we shouldn't do this again, I don't know if it's ethically responsible to try reasoning with someone who has "Anon hate encouraged, but be specific!" in their bio.

So I'm cutting you off, get help.

Arsenokoitai isn’t a mysterious word

“Arsenokoitai” is the Greek word Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10 to describe men who have sex with men. Anyone who maintains homosexuality isn’t a sin would tell you that this is a word that is difficult to know Paul’s intention in writing it. Except it’s pretty easy to know exactly what he meant.

This word is a word coined by Paul, that much is true, but it is made up of two words that already exist in Paul’s Greek Old Testament. Paul wants this word to act basically as a hyperlink to Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. He achieves this by essentially quoting those passages. Here’s a handy guide I put together:

‘Arsenokoitai’ is a combination of the words ‘ársenos’ and ‘koitōn’ which are literally placed next to each other in 20:13.

It’s that easy, folks.

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