#Theology of Theater

[garthnadermemestash]

defund trump

[saintqueer]

i'm losing my mind at this musical adaptation of the queer romance between Jonathan and David in the bible, it made me burst out in sobs

just watch it, TRUST ME

[dreamy-conceit]

As the Bacchae knew, we always tear our gods to bits, and eat the bits we like.

— Adam Gopnik, 'What Did Jesus Do?', The New Yorker, 24 May 2010

[mask131]

While checking around for my “Roman gods are not Greek gods” posts, I found back this tripartition of mythology, which is actually a fact that everybody should kno about if they want to dabble in Greco-Roman myths (especially Greek myths).

We know that, during Antiquity, the Romans and the Greeks thought that there wasn’t just one, but three different types of “theology” - three different views, perceptions and reception of the gods.

The first theology was the theology of the priests and of the state - aka, religion. The Greek gods as perceived and described by religion, as honored through rituals and festivals.

The second theology is the “mythic theology” - what we call “mythology today”. It is a set of legends, folktales and stories that are not part of religion, but rather used and carried by art - it is the gods are seen, perceived and described by the poets, by the epics, by the theater plays.

The third theology is the theology of the philosophers - who used the gods and their tales as images and allegories for various abstract or concrete topics. It is the gods as depictions and description of natural phenomenon, or the myths as a way to actualy exemplify a social fact or explain psychological workings. 

For the classic Greeks and Romans, there was a clear divide between those three very different point of view of the gods. It was basically three different versions of the pantheon. This is notably why you will find texts noting that priests disliked and condemned the poets’ mythological works, due to them being blasphemous and making the gods too human when religion described them as perfect ; and it is also why the philosophers of old dissed on and rejected the literary works of mythology as nonsense only good to feed superstitions, because for them the gods weren’t characters or realities, but rather abstract concepts and rhetorical allegories.

This is something I feel needs to be reminded, because today these three different theologies have been mixed up into one big mess - as literary myths are placed one the same level as philosophical “myths” (actually texts taking the shape of myths), and both considered of outmost religious importance. When in fact, things were quite different... 

EDIT: I was asked if there was a myth that could illustrate the three different theologies, and on the spot I would say “the affair between Aphrodite and Ares”.

This story originates from the “mythological theology”. It is primarily a story, and a good one. It is the story of a husband who discovers his wife is unfaithful and tries to get revenge, it is the story of an extra-marital affair gone wrong, it is typical set of divine shenanigans ending on a grotesque display of divine humiliation - it is an excellent narrative material for plays and poems (and the legend does originates from poems).

The story was also dearly beloved and reused by the “philosophical theology”, because the philosophers adored the idea of the love between Ares and Aphrodite - for them it was the perfect depiction of how the concepts of “love” and “war” , despite being seemingly opposite, attracted each other and were closely tied. For them, this story isn’t to be taken literaly as “a god cheated on another god”, but rather as “this is an allegory showing that love and war are two sides of the same coin, which is why Aphrodite falls for Ares despite being married to Hephaistos”. But for them the whole net part is just poetic nonsense invented to make people laugh ; or maybe they will reinvent them as a moral, cautionary tale that should be used to warn people of the dangers of unfaithfulness. 

And then there’s the “religious theology”, the point of view of the priests - for whom such a story is mockery and sacrilege. You can imagine them saying: “You are making the gods look like fools! Gods don’t cheat on each other, gods don’t get captured in nets while butt-naked, gods don’t even sleep on beds - GODS DO NOT EVEN HAVE HUMAN FORMS IN THEIR NATURAL STATE - what the heck is this bullshit you’re saying, you’re just insulting the gods by turning them into lecherous humans and grotesque clowns for your vulgar story!” (This is a reconstitution and not the actual words of an Ancient Greek priest)

[aziraphales-library]

Hello beautiful human !

Can I find in, your glorious library, stories where Crowley has good friends who care for him deeply? Aside from Aziraphale, ofc.

Thank you so much in advance ❤️

Hi! I would recommend our #apocalypse buddies, #crowley & muriel, and #friendship tags for fics to enjoy. Here are more fics in which Crowley has good friends...

Angel, Please by GhostOfCallisto (M)

Crowley and Aziraphale are both regular old humans who met under human circumstances. Crowley is a part of a struggling band called Hellish Rebuke with the demon crew, Aziraphale is a former drag queen named Angel Fell attempting to be a professional dancer. Maggie and Nina are best friends with Crowley and big fans of his band.

I'm Gonna Set Things Right Again by iocallistoeuropa (G)

Aziraphale has gone off to Heaven, Crowley is driving around the country aimlessly, Muriel has learned how to have a "cupperty", and Give Me Coffee... or Give Me Death has now been expanded and renamed Give Me Coffee, Give Me Records... or Give Me Death. Some things have changed for the better, but others have turned into quite a mess. Is there any way to set things right again?

Who Am I Without You? by Lainey_Marie (T)

After Aziraphale left for Heaven, all Crowley wanted to do was lose control of himself and spiral until he couldn't feel anything anymore but there is an angel needing his help to adjust to life on Earth and a pesky coffee shop owner who just won't let him drown in his immense sorrow. With the help of his new friends, Crowley attempts to figure out who he is when he isn't living for Aziraphale or to do Hell's bidding. But what happens when that very same angel returns in desperate need of a hand to save the world once more?

You're Just a Little Under Rehearsed by MickyRC (T)

Drama teacher Crowley loves directing the Tadfield Community Players' shows—interacting with the rest of the staff at the community center, not so much. So when he meets the new accompanist for this year's musical, he's shocked to find that he might actually like him. Possibly more than like, if he's being honest. Aziraphale is fresh from leaving a long career as a church pianist, and hoping that a new job will get him out of the lonely rut he's found himself in. The attention and kindness of the flashy community theater director are unexpected, but not unwelcome. Far from it. But with a community theater to run, a show to put on, and a disgruntled R.P. Tyler looking for any excuse to get rid of Crowley and his theater program, will they be able to make a relationship work? And, more importantly, can they make sure the show still goes on?

The Prize by Caedmon (E)

Need a car? Date my brother. My brother is a real angel but needs a helping hand in the social/romance department, so I’m trying to help him find a good guy. Ages 35-50, employed, good looking, emotionally stable. After an entrance interview, if you successfully date my brother for a set amount of time and pull him out of his shell, I will give you my garage kept 1933 Bentley. Serious inquiries only. Contact gabriel@messenger.com

love like yours (will surely come my way) by CCs_World (T)

Dr Zira Fell is a new professor of theology at St Beryl's University. His first day there he meets the mysterious and enchanting Dr AJ Crowley, an art history professor and a painter. They almost immediately become friends, and spend most of their time getting lunch together, talking, drinking wine, making art, and falling slowly in love with one another. Featuring cameos of everyone's favorite (and least favorite) characters, gratuitous descriptions of paintings, long text messaging conversations, and one cranky cat.

- Mod D

[shatar-aethelwynn]

The Bible is not like American Gods. The Bible is not like Aesop's Fables. The Bible is not historical fiction in the modern sense. The Bible is not a book of fairy tales. The Bible is most definitely not child-friendly. The Bible is not a history or science textbook. The Bible does not support or endorse any modern political party.

The Bible is a complex anthology of texts written over hundreds of years. The Hebrew Bible was written in 2 different languages, and under the influence of at least 4 major world empires. The Christian addition adds a third language and a fifth empire. IT IS COMPLICATED OK?! It's not something you can sum up with some derogatory "oh, it's no different than - " any more than you could say that all of English language theater for the past few centuries is "just retellings of Shakespeare's plays."

I love comparative analysis as much as the next person, but it has destroyed the willingness of most people to think critically about individual sources. And to be honest the prevelance of Systematic Theology in mainstream American Protestantism hasn't really helped either.

[anonymous-gambito]

RGU is a lot to take in on the first watch, but after a few months, understanding rgu became easier to me when I realized that:

– It's not that every object of symbolism means its own thing, but that a lot of them are simply different ways of expressing similar ideas

– This is an oversimplification, but a lot of characters in rgu are basically just AUs of each other, so if an aspect about a certain character suddenly becomes clear to you, that means you start understanding like 10 more mfs better by default

– 💖Everything💖 is about Revolutionary Girl Utena actually, so you're watching/reading something about politics, theater, biology, greek mythology, fairy tales, feminism, theology, astronomy, astrology, history, etc? Apply rgu to that and you'll probably find something interesting

[peach-and-bugs]

I have been wondering what you think the girls would study in college (if they were teenagers in 2021 and no crash happened) (including Jackie obvs)

oooo! This is actually such a fun idea!!! I'm also adding Laura Lee bc she deserves it and I love her! I also kinda went into what they would do with their degrees after school

What would the Yellowjackets study and major in college (no crash)

tw: religious themes with Laura Lee

Jackie

✰ So, Jackie is a hard one. She's the kind of girl who goes into school thinking she's got the world figured out, only to realize that no, she doesn't, and get hit with quite a rude awakening

✰ She'd go in choosing something rather ambitious, having a hard time with it, and possibly taking a gap year to figure herself out

✰ Ultimately, I could see her as an early education major. She didn't think it would be something she'd enjoy, but to her surprise, she does, and eventually, once she graduates she becomes a kindergarten teacher at Wiskayok Elementary

Laura Lee

✰ Laura Lee Is so dedicated to her religion, and I have to have respect for that. But I could easily see her going into youth ministry with a degree in theology and possibly a minor in religion studies

✰ However, I could also see her minoring in music because of her piano! While she doesn't like her teacher much, I really do think Laura Lee enjoys the piano itself and I could see her leading a youth choir in her church

✰ She's definitely working in a progressive church. personally, I think she was raised to be more conservative, but in a world where she gets to go to college and grow more away from her family, she developed her own opinions and becomes a far more open person, viewing god as someone far more excepting then what she was initially taught

Lottie

✰ I fully see Lottie going to college knowing from the start that she wants to study teaching/education. She'd go back and forth about wanting to teach little kids and older kids, but she'd ultimately settle on teaching middle schoolers

✰ I could see her being an English teacher or possibly a history teacher! She loves connecting with kids and giving them a voice and lending an ear, especially with them being at such a frustrating age

✰ I can also see her minoring in French! Yes, Lottie isn't supposed to be good at French, but I think that's a complete lie. If her school doesn't have a French program, she'd 100% start an after-school club or run summer classes for students interested in learning

Misty

✰ I could see Misty sticking with nursing, but she's also a giant theater kid. She seems like the type to go to a small liberal arts school for musical theater or improve with huge dreams of acting on stage

✰ I really think she'd find a great community in a theater/arts program because even though she's always gonna be a weirdo, she'll definitely find more weirdos to be her friends (this is coming from someone who has theater majors as friends)

✰ This could be some of my own self-projecting, but I think she'd get really involved in the nightlife of college and eventually frequent the drag scene with her friends. She's also always going to rocky horror. Ultimately that's how she realizes she's gay

Natalie

✰ I think the only way Natalie is going to school is on a full-ride scholarship, but even then, college doesn't seem like her thing. I could see her following one/some of the girls to their college campus to screw around and figure herself out, living some of the college life without actually going to school

✰ Natalie would try to pursue a music career, no questions asked. She's shown to have a love for music and she already looks like a rock star, so it just makes the most sense for her. She'll crash on couches, eventually getting her own apartment while she writes her own music and I think she could eventually really take off

✰ she'd get a band together and eventually tour, writing music kinda along the lines of classic rock and grunge with some riot girl in the mix. Think pearl jam, foo fighters, and le tigre (all great groups that I highly recommend)

Shauna

✰ Shauna is 100% getting a Literary Arts degree, no questions asked. Or an English degree with a focus on creative writing

✰ She gets to explore herself, take her semester abroad in Paris like she'd hoped, and eventually she becomes a New York Times bestseller for her works of poetry

✰ She'd also delve into fiction and I could even see some of her work getting turned into limited series or films eventually. She's quite humble and lives a quiet life, though she enjoyed being in the spotlight for her work

Taissa

✰ I still think Tai would study law and become a Lawyer and potentially still go into politics. But part of me kinda wants to say she'd take an interest in environmental science and possibly become an environmental lawyer?

✰ I really don't know why I thought of that, but I think it would be really interesting for her. I think she'd still end up with Simone and Sammy and she'd go to New York for work a lot of the time

✰ If she did run for office again, she'd have a heavy focus on environmental conservation. I could also see her getting into National Park works

Van

✰ So, originally I kinda thought Van would be a dropout, which sounds bad, but I was thinking about her store. But then I realized that she'd only got her store because she was stuck trying to relive her life before the crash, so no crash, no store

✰ Ultimately, she's a film major. She's either getting a film studies or production degree. Van loves movies and would want to get involved with that world, creating movies like what she grew up watching, like The Goonies and Alien

✰ She absolutely hates remakes and remasters, so if she's directing or writing her own films, they're going to be originals that still hold the nostalgia of the 80s and 90s

[whencyclopedia]

Søren Kierkegaard

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a Danish philosopher and is considered to be the first existentialist, influencing such notable philosophers as Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) and Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). His works are a reflection of alienation, angst, and absurdity, and include Either/Or (1843), Fear and Trembling (1843), and The Concept of Anxiety (1844).

He was embraced by his fellow existentialists for his belief in the importance of the individual against an apathetic, hostile society. However, unlike other existentialists, his body of philosophical works has a strong theological vein. Denise Despeyroux, in her book The Philosophers, wrote that Søren's life was filled with painful experiences, which colored his works – works that displayed "great dramatic and poetic power. They are filled with parables, aphorisms, fictitious letters and diaries as well pseudonymous and fictitious characters" (110). She added that his struggles with religious questions served as a "potent stimulus" for other writers and thinkers of his generation.

Birth & Education

Søren Kierkegaard was born on 5 May 1813 in Copenhagen, Denmark, to an affluent family as the youngest of seven children. His father, Michael Kierkegaard, was a successful businessman, while his mother, Ane Sørensdatter Lund, had been the one-time maid of Michael's first wife. Søren claimed his father was the most influential figure in his life. Unfortunately, he suffered terribly from anxiety and inner turmoil, and this Søren 'inherited' from his father. Michael was deeply religious, a member of a pietistic form of Lutheranism, and was convinced that because of his past sins – he had once cursed God – none of his children would live past the age of 33, the age of Jesus Christ when he was crucified. Coincidentally, five of Søren's brothers and sisters, as well as his mother Ane, would die before Søren turned 21. Only Søren and his brother Peter survived. To Michael, it was a sign of divine retribution. According to Jeremy Stangroom in his The Great Philosophers, Søren maintained that his childhood was "insane" and "he had come into the world as the result of a crime" (100). Regrettably for Søren, his father passed on his "pessimistic and gloomy religious outlook to his son" (ibid).

Despite a chaotic childhood, his education was "surprisingly normal," attending a distinguished private school – the Borgedydskolen – where he was considered an outsider, "lonely, aloof, and intellectually the superior to his classmates" (ibid). Hoping to become a pastor as his father had suggested, at the age of 17, he entered the University of Copenhagen, where he studied theology, philosophy, and literature. In 1838, while he was attending university, his father died, leaving him with a large inheritance. After graduating in 1840, he began the life of an independent thinker and writer, but it would be a life consumed by inner torment and angst, evident throughout his writings.

Shortly after graduating, he made the mistake of getting engaged to Regine Olson, ten years his junior. He regretted the engagement the moment it was made. One year later, in 1841, he broke off the engagement, believing that his melancholic temperament made him unsuitable for marriage and he considered her to be intellectually incompatible. The affair with Regine had a lasting effect on Søren and would appear in both his journals and other works. Free from an unwanted engagement and with a large inheritance, he was free to begin a career as a writer. Oddly, throughout his life, he only left Copenhagen three times, spending most of his free time walking the streets of the city or attending the theater.

Continue reading...

[thealmightyemprex]

IDEAS FOR DC COMICS X-MEN

Storm: Aina Akinrotimi, aYoruba woman born in Nigéria, is a spiritual daughter and reencarnation of the orisha deities Oiá (Iansã) and Xangô, inheriting their powers to control the thunder, lightning, wind and rain.

Can also spit fire from her mouth.

Has great ability with the sword, the dagger and the double ax.

Is claustrophobic due to having been a prisoner of the Shadow King in her childhood.

Phoenix: An Alaskan born doctor in Psychology and Genetics, airplane pilot,  computer comunications officer and lieutenant of NASA, Madeline Jean Grey Pryor was born a mutant with strong telepathic and telecinetic powers. During a mission in space, the spaceship suffered an accident, and Madeline assumed the pilot duties to save the crew, doing an emergency landing that crossed trough the cosmic rays of a solar storm and falling in the planet Mars. As she recovered, Madeline discovered that the survival of her crew and herself was helped by the fact that a cosmic entity named the Phoenix fused itself with her, enhancing her powers beyond telecinetic control and reading human minds, but also reading the minds of animals and the memories of people contained in inanimate objects, flight, building and transforming objects trough the control of invisible molecules, and healing. Assuming the codiname Phoenix, Madeline started acting independently as a superheroine and political activisit for mutant rights, before joining the X-Men.

Wolverine: The 5'3 tall James Logan Howlett , who prefers to be called Logan, is a mutant with the powers of a fast healing factor, longevity, enchanced senses and bone retractible claws in his knucles born in Canada during the mid 19th century. Veteran of the American Civil War, Crimean War, First and Second World Wars and the Korean War, his longevity prowess in the battlefield made him a target of the High Evolutionary, who captured him to make a subject of his experiments, inserting adamantium to cover his bone claws (but avoiding doing the same to the rest of his skeleton, so as not to slow his healing factor and erase his agility).

Logan escaped before the High Evolutionary could furter experiment on him, living for years as a mercenary spy for the Canadian and British inteligences, until befriending and joining the X-Men, who remind him how fight for something bigger than mere survival: an ideal, to help others find freedom, justice and equality.

Nightcrawler: A kind hearted, romantic and adventurous blue fuzzy, point ears, pointy tailed man, looking like a mix between an elph and a demon, is a circus acrobat, aeriealist and trapeze artist who became the founder and leader of the X-Men. Has teleportation powers, and is a fast and graceful swordsman, who can pilot airplanes and zeppelin airships, acting as the captain of a pirate crew.

Archangel: An Earth born descendant of Tanagarians, kidnapped as a baby and raised by Apocalypse to be his Emissary of Death, a young Angel revolted against his adoptive father when he saw the complexity of human lives and how many people are determined to fight in protecting Earth and its inhabitants (even when many humans act prejudiced and ungrateful against metahumans, mutates, mutants and aliens). Behind the brave and stoic Avenging Archangel, is the adventurous archeologist, history and theology professor Warren Hal Warthington.

Dazzler: A competent, graduation diploma aprooved  lawyer, the passion of Alison Blaire always has been performing. Dreaming of becoming an aclaimed singer and actress, she naively signed a contract to perform in an underground theater.

The performance in question was actually  fighting to the death in a gladiator arena against other mutants for the amusement of rich patrons of the Hellfire Club.

Finding the situation revolting, Alison encouraged and led the other gladiators into a huge revolt.

This was the moment in which she decided to adopt the codiname  Dazzler, both as a feisty superheroine, and as a performer who uses her music both to touch listeners with beauty, and to inspire compassion, solidarity and social change.

Colossus: Born and raised in a collective farm in Soviet Russia, Piotr Rasputin is a tall, strong, yet calm and gentle man, with a great talent for drawing, spinning, weaving and sewing. Has the mutant power to transform his skin into a strong, impenetrable organic armour, similar to metal. Captured by agents of the Hellfire Club to become a gladiator, became a great friend of Dazzler after she helped him and the others to fight back and escape. Is the person who makes the clothes for her to perform on stage, as well as all the X-Men's battle uniforms.

Beast: Found trapped like an animal in a zoo cage and rescued by Phoenix, Henry 'Hank' Philip McCoy, is a mutant with long arms of large hands and long legs of large feet, that make him move with great agility, balance and dexterity, gifted with genius level scientific intelect, a healing factor, enhanced senses, super strenght, fangs, an ability to emit mood altering pheromones, and a body fully covered in thick greyish-blue fur, acompanied by black hair with shades of dark-blue and silver over his head.

Is an athlete experienced in American Football and wrestling, an expert in biology, genetics, chemistry, eletrical and computer engineering, always curious to learn speaking new languages, and a lover of classic literature and the arts.

Showing a light hearted sense of humor, overall prefers to behave in a level headed, diplomatic way ... but knows how to use violence when necessary, and his strenght in combat must not be underestimated.

Banshee: An irish woman who has powers of releasing thundering sonar waves with her scream, originally was a sailor before joining the X-Men. Is a great navigator and cartographer, and the person who gives a home for every X-Men to live, in an old Castle fused to a Lighthouse known as Cassidy Keep, located in County Mayo, Ireland.

Rogue: A young woman who survived hiding in the sewers after her parents rejected her for being a mutant. Has the power to take away other people's memories, abilities, energy and powers with the touch of her skin, along with super strenght and the gift to fly. Slowly learns to trust other people, loose her fears and insecutirities and control her powers with the help of her new friends of the X-Men. Loves trains, collecting and playing with trail models, having dreamed in her childhood of being a condutor, and plays folk, blues and rock music in an acoustic guitar that has written over its surface "This Machine Kills Fascists".

This is awesome

[planetofsnarfs]

So, OK, we need to talk about Katie Britt.

The Republican junior senator from Alabama was tapped with giving her party's official "response" to President Joe Biden's State of the Union address and, basically, Katie Britt managed to creep out most of America.

She also lied. Aggressively. Katie Britt's transparent lie was both hateful and nonsensical -- a stupid story that forcefully suggests the opposite of the meaning assigned to it by Katie Britt and those she invited to be as willfully stupid, cruel, and dishonest as she was eager to be.

As Alabama newspaper columnist John Archibald  put it, "America was looking for proof of normalcy. Instead it got The Three Faces of Eve."

The weirdly staged, grimly lit "kitchen" setting didn't do Britt any favors. The barren kitchen showed no sign of human habitation. It didn't look like a room that anyone you know would feel comfortable in, but more like an unfinished theater set for some low budget crime-reenactment show or maybe the kitchen where the To Catch a Predator guy was about to come out and tell some caught-red-handed perv to "take a seat."

It looked just barely enough like a kitchen to make viewers realize that's what it was, and then a beat later to wonder if Republicans were staging a woman in a kitchen to suggest that women belong in kitchens.

And then Britt started talking and everyone realized that, yes, that was exactly what this hideous un-kitchen was meant to suggest. Because Katie Britt started talking like Michelle Duggar. Despite being a United States senator, she spoke in a voice that says that she and all women belong only in the kitchen, serving men, obediently.

This is "Fundie Baby Voice" -- the breathy, stylized, submissive, Stepford accent given that name by Jess Piper in a video that went viral last year.

Piper wrote about Britt's use of Fundie Baby Voice here, offering a description that helps explain why this voice makes most normal people squirm:

I threw so many folks for a loop last year when I discussed the voice in a video. I used my “training” as a former Evangelical, a Southern Baptist, to describe the breathy cadence and the soft, child-like high pitch. Folks outside of Fundamentalist culture had never heard the term — they just knew the voice made them uncomfortable. ... You all know Michelle Duggar. Remember her voice? Too high pitched? Too much like a little girl? Too breathy. That’s purposeful. Michelle has to show submission to her husband in all interactions public. She stared at Jim Bob anytime he spoke. She was quiet until given a question or prompt. She was also harboring secrets and that’s something I can’t forget. Terrible secrets behind that voice. ... Some women use their fundie baby voices from habit. From years of lessons, but some have something to hide which they cover for in fundie baby voice and a good-natured temperament. From an abusive husband, to a drinking problem, to hiding a pack of cigarettes in the kitchen, it was often something.

Outsiders -- people who lack the subcultural context that Piper understands as a native -- may not be as well-versed in the "complementarian" white patriarchal theologies and kinks underlying this overwrought mannerism, but they still pick up on the general sense of it enough that it gives them the heebie-jeebies. "I have no idea what Katie Britt is saying," Jeb Lund joked on BlueSky, "but I am absolutely convinced that her husband is a good man, and the allegations of those assaults are untrue ..."

Many of the jokes flying around social media focused on this same unsettling aspect of Britt's delivery. "Getting strong 'mommy blogger who's about to be arrested for child abuse' vibes from this," someone said on Xitter. Another wrote, "I am not interested in joining NXIVM but thank you for the pitch." For those unaccustomed to seeing it performed regularly, Fundie Baby Voice is suspicious as well as off-putting -- it seems to hint at some menace behind its forced, unnatural smiles.

I think that suspicion comes from realizing that behind every woman who talks like that there is a man who wants her to talk like that -- a man who expects her to talk like that or maybe even makes her talk like that. That man is creepy. He creeps people out.

The only people who don't think that man is weird and off-putting are other men just like him. To them, Katie Britt's fundie baby voice seemed perfectly normal. She talked just the same way their wives do, just the same way they want and expect and require their wives to talk.

And that means these women have to sound child-like and baby-ish, but also breathy and submissive and quivering with emotion. As Tia Levings puts it, "They want us to sound like sexualized children."

Levings wrote about this imposed, unnatural mannerism last year, referencing Piper's video in the title of her post, "Why Kelly Johnson Sounds Like Michelle Duggar":

Why do so many Christian women think it’s a good thing to sound like a little girl? The breathy gasps, whisper voices, and baby-high pitch are on purpose. But what would make a grown woman think it’s attractive to modulate her voice that way? While the long answer might include cultural norms, southern manners, Baby Doll nighties, Marilyn Monroe to Paris Hilton, and social media, the short answer is quick and to the point: we’re taught.

Levings points to a once-popular, still influential book, Helen Andelin's 1963 best-seller Fascinating Womanhood, which explicitly instructed women to act and speak in child-like ways to help their men feel manlier, more like the big, protective, decisive adults in the room.*

The underlying idea there, again, is irreducibly creepy. It's that same idea of men wanting women to be sexualized children -- the idea that men are threatened by adult women and thus can only be attracted to those who are child-like or baby-ish.

And so here we are, again, in that kitchen set from To Catch a Predator.

"I believe there’s a correlation to sexual abuse in religious environments where women behave like children, and children are prematurely told they’re women," Levings says. How could there not be?

But all of this became more explicit once viewers realized that the centerpiece of Britt's speech was a horrifying, real story about the exploitation of sexualized children.

Britt presented this story as somehow an indictment of President Biden's policies on "the border." America's Southern border, Britt said, was in "crisis" because of Joe Biden, who created this crisis when he took office in 2021. And because of this Biden-created border crisis, children were being forced to perform sex work. Britt told the story of a woman she had met who recounted being forced to work in a brothel when she was only 12 years old:

We know that President Biden didn’t just create this border crisis. He invited it with 94 executive actions in his first 100 days. When I took office, I took a different approach: I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas. That’s where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at the age of 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped. The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoebox of a room, and they sent men through that door over and over again for hours and hours on end. We wouldn’t be okay with this happening in a Third World country. This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it. President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace.

Do you see the problem there? Do you notice the impossibility of Britt's arithmetic?

If Joe Biden's policies resulted in a 12-year-old being forced to work in a brothel then how could that 12-year-old now be an adult woman when Biden has only been in office for a little over three years?

Journalist Jonathan Katz wondered about that:

I was watching live, and this anecdote immediately struck me as odd. ... Who was this trafficking victim? What side of the border did these crimes happen on? When did they happen? And how did an Anglophone Republican senator get an apparent migrant victim of horrific trauma to share such a deeply personal story? Also—and not for nothing—wouldn’t a victim of such horrific abuse be a good candidate for immigration protection, if not asylum? I’d like to say that it took hours of exhaustive, painstaking research to answer all those questions. The reality is it took about twenty minutes. ... It also turned out that Britt had been telling—and usually misrepresenting—this story over and over again, for more than a year, with no one calling her out on it. What I found was that, in January 2023, Senator Britt indeed traveled to the Del Rio sector of the U.S.-Mexico border, with her fellow Republicans Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi. During that trip, they held a press conference — a “roundtable,” as they called it in a press release — with Fox News contributor Sarah Carter, a former Mexican legislator, and a woman named Karla Jacinto Romero. Jacinto’s story—which the senators conveniently linked to in the press release—fit Britt’s description almost exactly: She was sexually trafficked from the ages of 12 to 16, a period in which she says she was subjected to multiple rapes every day. But contrary to Britt’s implication, those crimes did not take place in the U.S., nor even near the border. (The abuse seems to have happened mostly in Guadalajara and Mexico City.) Nor in her testimony does Jacinto mention a drug cartel as having been part of it; she describes her abuser as a “professional pimp.” In fact, Jacinto says that many of the men she was forced to sleep with were “foreigners visiting my city looking to have sexual interactions with minors like me.” As it happens American men make up a large percentage of sex tourists in Mexico — including in the child sex trade. So if there was a border aspect to this story it was ex-pats moving the other way. Most damningly for Britt’s political purposes, Jacinto’s trafficking happened from 2004 until 2008, when George W. Bush, a Republican, was president. ... In other words, Britt took a story she heard at a press conference near the border last year -- but which actually took place over six hundred miles away in central Mexico twenty years ago, when a Republican was president, and didn’t concern international human trafficking at all -- and dressed it up as evidence she had personally collected that “President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace.”

It was an audacious, bald-faced lie -- one that involved further exploiting a woman who was horribly exploited as a child.

But it is also a lie that makes no sense. Britt worked hard to create a general vibe that would appeal to xenophobic white voters, stretching and straining to create an association between Joe Biden, sex trafficking, and Scary Mexicans just by mentioning all of those things in one short period of time.

But anyone outside of Britt's bubble -- anyone who didn't already associate all of those things because they had already actively chosen the white nationalism Britt was selling -- would hear such a story and think: That poor child! Did anyone help her? We should help her!

That's how normal people hear this story. As Katz wrote: "Wouldn’t a victim of such horrific abuse be a good candidate for immigration protection, if not asylum?"

Katie Britt traveled to Del Rio, Texas, near the border, and heard Karla Jacinto Romero's testimony of fleeing horrific abuse and violence. But rather than resolving to do more -- or to do anything -- to help those like Jacinto, Britt has repeatedly stolen that story and turned it into a weapon to deny asylum to Jacinto and to everyone like her.

What is Katie Britt actually arguing should be done with human trafficking victims fleeing rape and abuse in Mexico? Katie Britt wants to see them rounded up and deported -- sent backto the very place they fled.

Britt's cruelty is, like her dishonesty, difficult to overstate.

Both of those registered with viewers during Britt's SOTU response -- even before any of them watched Katz's video or read any of the later reports debunking her cruel lie.

And I think that cruelty and dishonesty -- more than Britt's painful overacting or the strangeness of her fundie baby voice -- was what skeeved people out even if they couldn't articulate what it was about this senator that was making their skin crawl.

Brazen dishonesty and gleeful cruelty make us angry. But if you start with those two things and you add in that dangling cross and that extravagant, smug performed piety then our reaction shifts from straightforward anger to also having the creeps. This woman, whose disconcerting smile stops before it reaches her eyes, is telling transparent lies about innocent victims in order to further harm those victims ... and all along she's condescendingly suggesting that she is our moral superior?

As Levings wrote:

To anyone who’s been on the inside, we recognize the signs. The fundamentalist world is all about knowing how right you are, how wrong everyone else is, and how if they’d only listen to you, you could lead them to the light. We’re astonished when someone disagrees with us. That soft voice sounds so patronizing because it is.

And, as usual, the prideful righteousness of this white fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong about right and wrong. Britt "knows" she is right and everyone else is wrong, and "if they'd only listen to her, she could lead them to the light."

And that "light," not for the first time, turns out to be Herrenvolk privilege and white nationalism.

The smugness is a pose, a pretense, and a defense mechanism that functions to distract others -- but primarily to distract oneself -- from the morally indefensible position one is advocating.

It muddies the waters enough so that instead of walking away thinking "That pretty lady in the green shirt is a vicious racist" they walk away thinking "That pretty lady in the green shirt gives me the willies."

* Jess Piper and Tia Levings were both born and raised in the white fundamentalist Christian world described here. Cheryl Rofer was not. Rofer is a nuclear research scientist retired after a long career at Los Alamos, but she was fascinated by "Britt’s highly gendered performance" and how it provided a window into "Worlds in Collision":

The folks I follow on social media were aware of a separate culture of evangelical Christians, Southerners, MAGAs. We had read articles about their culture from those who had ventured forth anthropologically or escaped. Hmm interesting, but reading about and actually seeing are two different things. We had been in a bubble. Conversely, a United States Senator who presents herself with a dipping blouse neckline showing a gleaming stone-encrusted cross, speaking in a breathy childlike voice from a darkened and apparently unused kitchen was in a bubble of her own, along with a Republican Party that thought this would be appealing. ...

[davenswitcher]

Some headcanons for the BG3 characters as university teachers

Astarion: subjects are law and economics (maybe throw in linguistics too); he's rather strict but doesn't want his students to fail either; as soon as he knows his students better he's a little more laid back but still tries to push you through and have you excel since he has high standards not just on you but also himself as a teacher

Alfira: she is the music teacher in this faculty and loved by ALL

Gale: subjects are physics and chemistry; he also works as a social worker and finds time to listen to his students needs and problems, always

Halsin: his subjects are biology and mathematics; he surprises new students every year anew that he's not a gym teacher but in fact biology and mathematics; he is just as Gale a social worker in his free time and is just like him a best buddy kinda social worker

Karlach: subject is gym class; she absolutely loves and adores her students and wants no one to fail. She does everything in her might to give you at least a B+

Lae'zel: also gym class and cultural education; she's very strict and has a soft spot for teachers pets

Shadowheart: her subject is of course theology; she takes her subject very serious and cannot stand lazy students

Tav: my Tav is a druid so her subjects are biology and physics. She is a no nonsense kinda woman and has high standards. She cannot stand laziness but she also becomes quite laid back as soon as you know her better. She tries to hide the fact that she's besties with Astarion and everybody else in her faculty act like they don't know

Volo: as a former theater kid of course he educates the youth in arts. He cannot stand uneducated cretins and does everything in his might to teach you EVERYTHING he knows even if his students are having a massive headache from cramming in all this knowledge

Wyll: his subject is literature. He's one of the most passionate literature teachers you'll ever find. He advocated for a book club and regular visits into theatre, where Volo teaches his lessons

Feel free to use this and if I have more to add I'll do a pt. 2 🫶

Edit: how could I forget Wyll... 😭

[shamandrummer]

The Seven Principles of Hermeticism

Hermeticism is an ancient religious-philosophical tradition based primarily upon writings attributed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus, an amalgamation of the Egyptian God Thoth and the Greek God Hermes. Hermeticism was largely a product of religious syncretism, drawing together themes from Judaism, Hellenistic philosophy and mythology, and classical Egyptian religion. The surviving writings of Hermeticism are known as the Corpus Hermetica, which is composed of a series of letters from Hermes Trismegistus, wherein he tries to enlighten his disciple. These letters were lost to the western world after classical times, but survived in the Byzantine libraries.

Throughout its history, Hermeticism was closely associated with the idea of a primeval, divine wisdom, revealed only to the most ancient of sages. In the Renaissance, this developed into the notion of an ancient theology, which asserted that there is a single, true theology which was given by God to some of the first humans, and traces of which may still be found in various ancient systems of thought. As a divine fountain of writing, the Hermetic texts contain the natural laws of the Universe. Knowing these principles will broaden your viewpoint, expand your horizons, and aid you in the pursuit of fuller, happier, more meaningful life. The Seven Hermetic Principles are:

1. The Principle of Mentalism: All is mind, the Universe is mental. The structure of our Universe is thought, mind and consciousness. Consciousness determines the form of our experience. Consciousness is the "theater of perceptual awareness." It is the collective consciousness of humanity that shapes physical reality. We are the Universe made conscious to experience itself. We are mind. We live in a Universe of mind. From photons to galaxies, life is conscious intelligent energy that can form itself into any pattern or function.

2. The Principle of Correspondence: As above, so below; as below, so above. Humanity is a microcosm of the macrocosm we call the Universe. Each human being is a hologram of the Cosmos, a weaving together of universal information from a particular point of view. Essentially, we are the Universe experiencing itself in human form.

3. The Principle of Vibration: Nothing rests, everything moves, everything vibrates. The Universe is made of vibrational energy. Everything in the Universe, from the smallest subatomic particle to the largest star, has an inherent vibrational pattern. The entire Universe is created through vibration and can be influenced through vibration.

4. The Principle of Polarity: Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of complementary opposites; like and unlike are the same. A dual or binary progression underlies the structure of reality. At a fundamental level, the laws of the Universe are written in a binary code. The binary mathematical system forms the basis of computer languages and applies to everything from crystalline structures to the genetic code.

5. The Principle of Rhythm: Life is a rhythmic existence. Polarity gave birth to the pulse of life. Pulsation gave birth to time and material form, while the intervals of pulsation remained timeless and formless. All things are born of rhythm and it is rhythm that holds them in form. Rhythm and resonance order the natural world. Dissonance and disharmony arise only when we limit our capacity to resonate totally and completely with the rhythms of life.

6. The Principle of Cause and Effect: Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause. Nothing happens by chance. Everything that we see in our world is a result of causes. For every effect in your life there is a specific cause. The intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect). 

7. The Principle of Gender: Gender is in everything; everything has its masculine and feminine principles; gender manifests on all planes. In the Hermetic texts, masculine energy is described as active, projective, expansive and corresponds to spirit. Feminine energy is described as passive, receptive, nurturing and corresponds to matter.

[mask131]

Thinking about it, I do believe that the big misunderstandings of the Greek gods on the Internet today (or in media recently) is due to a problem of... let’s say “character VS personification”. 

People have grown too much accustomed to the consumption of Greek myths and legends as... not so much “stories” but... as fiction. Which leads them to treat the Greek gods as characters of tales and stories. Which leads people to treat them like... well, like people. Like full humans. Thinking about their actions only in terms of human/social/psychological reasons and consequences. And people forget the very essence and nature of the gods...

The Greek gods are personifications. They are allegories, and their actions always reflect their actual nature as a part of the world or a human phenomenon. It is true that when you read the Greek myths as they reached us today, you will read what seems to be stories about super-humans, because said stories were given to us through epic poems and theater plays. But there was a whole theology and religious thinking behind those myths (to the point some of the ancient litetature of the Greeks was criticized by religious authorities for deviating from their actual beliefs) ; and there was an entire philosophy surrounding those myths. Literal philosophy - with Ancient Greek philosophers not only re-reading and interpreting the myths in the lights of their teaching, but also inventing their own “philosophical myths”. The Greeks had time to read and rewrite and discuss their own myths and stories for centuries and centuries - and thus these stories ended up with numerous layers of meaning and interpretations woven through them.

Which is why to fully understand a myth, one must look behind the simple story. A god in the story is never just a character, but always something else. Poseidon is a grudge-holding, monster-birthing deity prone to mood swings which place him alternatively as an ally or an antagonist - but it isn’t just because “he is like that”. He is like that BECAUSE he is the god of the sea, and the Greeks, as sailors and explorers and island-dwellers, knew very well that the sea was a changing and treacherous thing, the sailor’s best friend and worst enemy at the same time. The fact that Apollo is at the same time the god of truth, the god of beauty and the god of art isn’t just because it’s his hobbies - it is because for the Greek all these concepts were inter-connected, art being beauty, the truth being beautiful, the best art being the truthful art, etc... And as a result myths are always about something else than their own story. The most famous case being Persephone’s abduction. People keep treating it as just being a love story - forgetting that, beyond the story of a guy in love with a girl and a mother worried for her missing girl, it is actually also a fable for the brutality anf unfairness of death striking young people, and how a mother can deal with her grief. It is literaly the story of “Kore” (which isn’t a proper name, but just means “maiden” or “young girl”), being ravished by Hades (whose name is ALSO the name of the Underworld), of a young girl plunged from the world of the living to the world of the dead, and a distressed mother crying for her disappeared daughter... 

I can list on and on the examples, but I think you get my point. Yes, it is nice to know the story. It is better to try to understand them. The topic came when I read something about Zeus recently... It talked about the gods embodying “order” - and it listed Zeus, for after all he was the ruler of the cosmos, punisher of wicked ones and fighter of monsters, the god of justice overseeing all oaths and the basic principles of Greek society... But this text added that however, his behavior character wise was “much more chaotic”. Notably pointing out towards Zeus’ wild behavior around females of all kinds. It is true that a serial cheater with a HUGE number of lovers of all kinds, and lots of “bastard children” everywhere seems to contradict his role as a god maintaining order and morals... But again, the key is looking beyond that. Yes, Zeus is massively unfaithful on his wife and seemingly can’t keep his thunderbolt in his pants - if you pardon me the expression. But the question that nobody asks is... Why is he like that? Why does he do that? Just because he is a horny guy? That’s the superficial explanation, that’s the joke explanation. That’s not what the Ancien Greeks would have answered you. This precise topic is one I like to reuse frequently because it illustrates perfectly something that feels natural to those that read about Greek mythology from experts, and yet can seem like a sudden mindblow for those that only know Greeks myths from popular fiction. 

I do not recall where exactly I read this explanation - but I am certain it was in one of the books about Greek myths written by famous French experts, so it was probably from Jean-Pierre Vernant or Pierre Grimal, or someone of those waters. Why is Zeus such a horny dog? We have to think about his titles. “Father of Men and Father of Gods”. It isn’t just a nickname or a title, it describes what he does: he birthed most of the major Greek gods, and he birthed many ancestors of humanity. It also makes you think: what was Zeus’ first action when he became king of the cosmos, when he took over the world after fighting the Titans? He married, several times, and had numerous lovers, with which he birthed some very important gods. Through sex he actually created important elements needed for the world. Not counting the other Olympian gods, he gave birth at the beginning of his reign to the Arts (Muses), the Seasons (Horae) and Fate itself (the Moirai), basis for the civilized world and an ordered, stable cosmos. And who are the other children of Zeus, all those “bastards” children he got out of being unfaithful? Heroes. Heroes who build principles of civilization, heroes who destroyed monsters, heroes who threw down criminals and tyrants. Good things. That’s the thing with Zeus: he constantly lusts after women, yes, and he constantly has sex, yes... but most of the time, if not always, it is to create something good. He keeps procreating beings, things and people needed for the universe to form itself, for civilization to form itself, for the world to get better and evil/chaos to be defeated. Herakles and Athena and Perseus... Even through his unfaithfulness, Zeus keeps creating new agents and champions of order, law and justice. 

It is in fact quite interesting to look at Tumblr here, because on Tumblr there are favorite deities who are depicted right because people love them enough to go dig into their symbolism and their religious festivals and their philosophical meaning. Dionysos is the one that comes to mind. And then other deities whose deeper meaning gets thrown out of the window. 

A good counterpart to Greek mythology, in the approach of “character vs personification”, is Norse mythology. Because the Norse gods, as depicted and represented in mythological texts such as the Eddas, are actually “characters before the personifications”, the reverse of Greek gods which are “personifications which were given character”. I am not saying that the Norse gods aren’t personifications, that would be a stupid claim. But what I am saying is... Often people try to enter Norse mythology asking “So, this god, what is he the god OF?” because they assume Norse gods are like Greek gods, defined by their field of action and what they represent or rule over. When in truth, the Norse gods are defined by who they are, not so much by what they are. Odin is the one-eyed wanderer, and the eight-legged horse-rider king of the Aesir, and the cunning rune-master ruling over Valhalla. Thor is the very strong god, and the hammer-wielding jötunn killer riding on a goat-chariot, and the red-haired hero of Asgard who fears nothing and fished Jormungandr out of the sea once. Everybody knows today that Thor is the god of thunder and lightning - but it isn’t said, or explicitely spelled out in most of the Old Norse texts. It is not like Zeus who is explicitely said to use thunderbolts on his ennemies - Thor’s hammer doesn’t have lightning shooting out of it. To get this, to get what a Norse god is the “god of”, there is a work of research that needs to be done. For a Greek god it can be obvious due to their attributes and names (Hestia for example - her name literaly means “hearth” and she started out as the hearth being venerated, before being personified). For a Norse god, to get the “what” of the deity, you will need to look at the archeological remains of the religion and cult of Norsemen, you will need to theorize based on the etymology of the deity’s name and its relationships, you will need to collect the kennings and local expressions and other folk-sayings and interpret them. It is a para-characterization that isn’t obvious, or sometimes doesn’t even appear, in the Norse texts per se. Because in the Norse legends as they came to us, the gods are mostly defined as characters - by their function (guardian, warrior, king), by what they do (power to see far-away, power to know the future), by what they look like (missing one hand, or golden hair)... For exampe, for a very long time it was thought that Loki was the god of fire. It was a strong, popular and famous interpretation - but research and experts have proven that it is a late re-interpretation of the deity, who originally probably didn’t had anything to do with fire and was just mixed up with other fire-figures (like Logi) with time, the same way Loki was mixed with Utgard-Loki as a “master of illusions”. 

This phenomenon of inversion can be summed up quite easily. In Greek mythology, we have TONS of secondary and tertiary deities who are basically personifications without any kind of legend or myth to them, uncharacterized allegories that sometimes are just a name appearing in a list of concept. In Norse mythology, you have tons of secondary and tertiary deities without myths or legends, who are just names in a list - but this time, we have their names, we have a basic characterization, we know who they are, and the problem is that we don’t know what they are supposed to represent. You have tons of small Norse gods about whom people keep asking and searching “What did they embody? What did they personify?”. The character without the personification. 

[procrastinatingsoicanreadfanfics]

Vikings + modern!uni students

Summary: Vikings as modern!uni students

Notes: I love this so much, so it’s a bit long, with a bunch of characters. Always included the major/subject I think they’d pick too.

Taglist: @batmandallyboy @bragisrunes @demon-of-the-ancient-world @deans-ch-ch-cherrypie @punkrocknpearls @alice-dopey (hmu to be added!)

Masterlist | based on this request | requests are OPEN!

Ragnar

I think Ragnar would be the worst kind of dormmate

He never gives you a heads up when someone is over, he smokes weed in the room and he’s very chaotic

But he’s also smart

Only fails the classes he hates

Wide range of interest, switches majors all the time

Major: Business + International Relations (ends up giving into parent’s pressure, but it works out)

Lagertha

She’s the perfect dormmate

Cooks enough for both of you, very clean, very considerate

I’m not sure what she would enjoy studying, or if she’d even study

I think Lagertha would be a firefighter or so

Major (if she did study): Geology or Norse paganism/history

Aslaug

I think she’d be in a sorority for like two weeks before she moves out

Aslaug is super extravagant

I know for a fact what she would study

And she excels at everything she does

Except cooking

Good dormmate

Major: fashion (obvi?!)

Bjorn

He’s a frat bro, throughout the entirety of uni

Ragnar wants him to study finance, and Bjorn makes that his persona for a while

Is absolutely miserable and fails all his classes

I just don’t think it’s for him

He’d end up opening a construction company or just starting to work for Lothbrok Inc. in a more practical job

Alternatively I think he could be a pro athlete

Ubbe

Works towards a scholarship and gets it

Does all the work too: volunteers, he’s on a sports team (American football, soccer, maybe track or some martial art), excellent grades

I think he’d enjoy uni very much, and like being more independent

Definitely meets his future wife in uni

Major: Business

Hvitserk

I have two careerpaths for Hvitserk

Either he goes to culinary school

Or, and this comes from one of @bragisrune ‘s fics

He wants to do nursing

I think he’d be a fun roommate, but a total slob

Parties hard

Major: medicine/nursing

Sigurd

Goes from theater kid straight to broadway

Or well, tries

Definitely an arts major

Roommate that just. Disappears for weeks at a time

Major: Music/performing arts/theater

Ivar

Snob roomie

Absolutely horrible, until you like, defend him from someone while depressingly drunk

You have to be liked by Hvitserk in order for him to like you

Idk what he’d study, I feel like he has a big range of interests

Major: history or maybe one of the sciences. Also learns a language in uni

Athelstan

He kind of has an Amish experience going to college

Grew up very sheltered in a tiny monastery in Great Britain, goes out into the world

And boom, everything hits at once

Very quiet and pleasant roommate

Major: Theology or history

Floki

The chaotic guy that’s always late to class

Aces tests without studying

Okay roommate, it’s honestly 50/50 every night

Knows every plug around uni

Has these giant barbecues for everyone to attend and talk

Major: theme park engineering (it’s a real thing)

Helga

Also an amazing roommate

She totally brings you treats and bakes you something for your birthday

Helga is another one of those characters where I know for a fact what she would study

If she didn’t want to work in a kindergarten

Major: education (best elementary/middle/high school teacher ever)

Alfred

Another theater kid

However, I think he doesn’t want to be in the center of attention, but more ‘behind the scenes’

Most definitely, 1000% on tumblr, chronically online

He writes fanfiction.

Would make moodboards for @bragisrunes

Major: film/photography/art history

Elsewith

She’s a girly in STEM

On her way to get a PhD, valedictorian, just everything

I think she’d be a good roomie, but she studies a lot and expects a quiet environment for it

Has her standards for everything, very clean

Major: either biology or engineering

[erisenyo]

Hi, I come here from the plumbing fixed which I have read at least seven times in the past week. Anyway, I saw a zukki post and… what if nerd!Zuko and nerd!suki are both into theology and talk theology during post sex cuddles “ you know it’s interesting that the sun and fire are both seen as Agni because really the sun can create fire…” and Sokka’s just like ‘I love my nerds.’ actually, this could also work w Sokka and Zuko doing city planning. Anyway, team nerding out as seduction

Ahh I'm so thrilled you loved Part Time Plumber, Full-Time Problem so much! Rereading is honestly such an amazing wonderful thing to hear about!

Second off, the lot of them in any combination are absolutely all nerd4nerd for each other. Like Sokka is a classic nerd (science, math, engineering, logistics) and Zuko is a humanities nerd (theater, history) and Suki is a jock nerd (knows all the ways to fight and styles and masters and history and intricacies of different weapons). And you bring them together and they just bask in each other's enthusiasm.

Nerding out as seduction is exactly it :)