#and needs forgiveness and grace

[loveerran]

In 2011, Brad Wilcox gave a devotional at BYU titled “His Grace is Sufficient”. It has since garnered over 1.4M views on YouTube. This devotional served as the text in a sacrament meeting I recently attended. A central metaphor of the lesson compared the Atonement to a mother (Jesus) paying the price charged by a piano teacher (Justice) for piano lessons for a child (us). After the piano lessons are paid for, the mother asks the child to practice. The following questions are then asked and answered:

Does the practice pay the cost of the piano lessons? No.

Does the practice repay the mother for the lessons? No.

What, then, does the practice do? It transforms the child. This is why Jesus asks us to practice in higher and holier ways, so that we may be transformed

During this sacrament meeting, I asked myself “What does the Lord want of me? How am I being invited to become better and live (or practice) in a higher and holier way?”

Ultimately, I think that is a good question for any of us. And to be clear, I am interested in the Lord’s list for me and not just a set of recycled answers from a typical Sunday School class. I desire personal revelation, the Mind and Will of God for my individual needs and path.

A quote from the same talk went as follows “When a young pianist hits a wrong note, we don’t say they are not worthy to keep practicing. We don’t expect them to be flawless. We just expect them to keep trying. Perfection may be their ultimate goal, but for now we can be content with progress in the right direction… When learning the piano, are the only options performing at Carnegie Hall or quitting? No. Growth and development take time. Learning takes time. When we understand grace, we understand that God is long-suffering, that change is a process”

I have relied on, and continue to rely on, the Grace of God, something I was reminded of when we sang this verse from Amazing Grace:

Through many dangers, toils, and snares,

I have already come;

’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home

[areyoudoingthis]

I am SO grateful that ed and stede exist as characters exactly as they are. I'm so grateful for these two men who are traumatized and messed up and struggle to even like themselves, who are terrible at communicating, who make enough mistakes between the two of them to fill an entire ocean. I am so grateful to watch them struggle and be seen and be loved and reach out for the things they want and are maybe starting to believe that they deserve. I'm so grateful that the show lets them fall in love and get together exactly as they are, that it doesn't say they need to wait until they've become some unattainably perfect version of themselves before they have permission to have that. i am so grateful for ofmd

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

not every character who does something wrong needs a redemption arc. btw.

[deiaiko]

#23.1 Prank

Grace didn't know what to make of this situation.

One moment he was bringing Agni his lunch, and now he was in one of the bathroom stalls with Endorsi. 

Endorsi had asked him if she could use the tag to talk with him, and he agreed to her request without any questions. Agni had begrudgingly sent him away with her, which was fair. But then she chose the bathroom, out of all places they could talk.

Grace was sitting on the closed-lid water closet, while Endorsi stood in front of him with her hands folded over her chest. The way she towered against him felt like he was about to get scolded or interrogated.

"Well…" She leaned closer. "We only have three minutes, so let's not waste any time and get started, shall we?"

Grace could only sit there awkwardly. "What…do you have in mind, exactly?"

"Huh, I hinted at it in our conversation earlier. Did you not catch it?"

Grace tried to recall. Something about Endorsi wanting to make someone jealous? Was that it? "Sorry, I spaced out earlier. Can you refresh me on that?"

"I want to prank your team." She lowered her voice, and only then did Grace catch the playfulness in her tone. "I just need you to look a little messy."

Grace raised an eyebrow. He knew what she was implying, and this didn't look like it would benefit him in any way. He knew how much Gyetang and Dan idolized her, and what would Agni think if Grace let her do anything to him?

"Look, I'm not going to steal you from your man. So I will keep my hands to myself, but you'll have to comply." She said that as if she just read his mind. "If anything, it might make him more clingy if he takes our bait. What do you think?"

He was still not convinced that this would be a fun prank. But one thing he learned about Endorsi was that once she set her goal, there was no changing her mind until it failed to meet her expectations. Well, as long as no one was harmed, he would humor her. "Okay. How are we doing it?"

Endorsi dug through her pocket and pulled out a lipstick. "Do you know how to apply this?"

Grace blinked, suddenly unsure if it was what he thought it was. "Uhm…by smearing it on your lips?"

"So you know. Good."

"Well, I have my own." Not exactly lipstick though; Agni said it was a tinted lip balm. But anyhow, it should work about the same.

Endorsi didn't look surprised, but her expression turned thoughtful. "Huh, that could spare you some work. But I don't think it would make a convincing story…"

She started mumbling something that made less sense the more it went on. So instead, he started to take note of her appearance.

Today she chose to wear a sporty bra, leggings and shoes, which meant she came prepared for some exercise. He looked forward to sparring with her after lunch, curious on how powerful she currently was. The ponytail also suited her, although it couldn't tie all of her shorter hair on her nape. It reminded him of the time when his and Agni's hair was at her length.

"–Yeah no, that won't do." She turned her attention to him again, pulling him out of his thoughts. "You should use mine."

She took out a tissue paper and cleaned the tip of her lipstick before handing it to him. Grace examined the light shade of pink and thought that it was a lovely color, very Endorsi-like. He glanced at her once again to make sure, before using his lighthouse as a small mirror and applied the lipstick on his lips. Turns out, the color didn't suit him that well.

"Ehh." Endorsi seemed to have the same opinion, taking back her lipstick. "Well, that doesn't matter. Now, kiss the back of your hand, and then transfer the mark onto your cheek. Can you do that?"

Grace had no complaints doing so. Endorsi was thoughtful enough to respect his boundaries this time. If anyone asked, he could confidently say that she did nothing to him.

As Grace was doing as told, Endorsi cleaned the tip of her lipstick again and applied it on her own lips. He noticed that she deliberately smeared it a little on the edge.

"Here." Endorsi handed him a new tissue paper. "You should wipe your lips and hand."

"Okay."

"Hm…Maybe make your hair a little messy too?"

Grace pulled his ponytail to make it a little undone. 

She smirked after giving him a once-over, satisfied. "Yes. That should do it."

Grace smiled politely, before checking the timer on his pocket and found out that it had only a few seconds left. "We should go back."

"Okay." She said easily and made her way out of the bathroom. "Remember the rule. Whatever happened earlier stayed only with us."

"Yes. I know." It was the rule that Agni made for this 'private time' reward, and it was only fair that he followed it.

"Oh and, that mark stays until someone points it out. Just pretend you didn't know it exists." She pouted playfully at him, before turning back to a cheerful mood. "I can't wait to see everyone's reaction!"

As they walked back to the cafeteria, Endorsi flashed him a grin –this time a gentle one that he rarely saw. "Hey, thanks for indulging me."

Grace felt a smile tug on his lips. It probably was the first genuine smile he had from her, ever since he came back to the past. He hoped it'd stay that way from now on. "No problem."

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[fantasticgothicpeachsludge]

Help! I’ve fallen for a rarepair from a show that ended 6 years 1 month and 7 days ago!

And by rarepair I mean there is one singular fic about them where they’re not a side ship or in a collection of smut drabbles

[jankwritten]

Jasico Bingo Challenge: love letter

A sheet of paper, folded into thirds, dotted in places with what must be water and grass stains. The handwriting is legible in some places, and shaky in others. In the margins are small doodles of birds, clouds, trees, and other miscellaneous, abstract shapes, as if the writer’s mind kept wandering. 

TO: Nico di Angelo 

FROM: Jason Grace 

Hey, Nico. If you’re reading this, something probably happened to me. Maybe I hit my head again and lost my memories, or something, and you went through my stuff to try and find things to remind me of who I was. Maybe this fell out while we were hanging out, one day, and you saw it was addressed to you and you picked it up. Maybe I died—

However you found this, I guess, surprise! :) 

First thing’s first: I’m sorry for leaving. I know I begged you to stay, and then turned around and left, and I really hope you understand - I didn’t leave because of you. I needed to find Leo, and leaving with Piper was the easiest way to do that. I had to try and get him back. 

I wanted you to come with, but you were still healing and things were going really well with you and Will. I hope things still are, in fact. Wherever I am, I’m so proud of you for how far you’ve come, and how much I’m sure you continued to grow even after I left. 

I really love you, man. I never got to tell you that, but you’re one of my best, closest friends. You mean so much to me. You showed me a side of the world that I never would’ve seen otherwise, and gave me a space to be myself, and I will never, ever know how I deserved that. How I deserve you. 

Is that out of left field? Haha it definitely is. Sorry. 

I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Nico. I didn’t want to leave. I’m so sorry for leaving you. I’m sorry I had to go and I’m sorry it had to be me, but it couldn’t be her, Nico, it can’t be her, it can’t be. It has to be me. 

It has to be. 

Here, some of the words are smeared from the water marks. Lines cross through some words that have then been re-written, as if in after-thought the author realized they were too important to delete. 

If you really are reading this, after the worst case scenario, I understand if you’re angry. I understand if you never want to think about me again, after what I’ve done. I’ll understand if you storm to your father’s palace and demand I be placed in the worst of the worst punishments for being so stupid. 

Gods. Gods, Nico, I’m never going to get to tell you how I really feel. About all of this, about everything I’m going through, I’m never going to be able to tell you and that hurts. It hurts more than knowing I’m going to die, it hurts more than getting stabbed and poisoned. I’m going to die loving you and you won’t even know until it’s too late. 

Maybe this is a stupid bad idea. Maybe I should let it die with me. Is it cruel, to tell you how I feel if I’m gone? Does this make me an awful person? 

Shit. I think I’m an awful person, Nico. I’m awful and I’m selfish and I can never choose things for myself, it always has to be for the greater good, so this is it. This is as selfish as I can be. This is all I can be for you. 

I want to see you on the other side. I want you to punch me for getting myself killed and hate me for being a hero and I want you to know that I didn’t want this but it needed to be me. It has to be me. 

I’m still wrapping my head around it, but it has to be me, okay? So if I’m really gone when you’re reading this, okay, you have to let me stay gone. Please. If you get hurt, if you die, and it’s my fault, I could never— 

Here, the letter abruptly stops. Then, it continues: 

That’s all I wanted to say, anyway. That I love you. I love you in any way I can, and even if I’ve done it silently, and stupidly, from a distance, just know that it was there, the whole time. It’s still there, wherever I am. Dead, or lost, or whatever. I love you, Nico. I’m sorry.

-- Jason Grace :)

[mymitochondriaforpresident]

Simon: *being treated with anything less than optimal love, happiness, care, kindness, adoration, protection*

Me: 🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪

@anonfromtheflight: 🪓🪓🪓🪓🪓🪓🪓🪓🪓

[dawnbreakersgaze]

Sometimes I feel like I accidentally catfish the Zayne girlies into following me bc they see all my Dawnbreaker shit and they assume I'm also a Zayne stan but like

No no, I'm head over heels for a completely different doctor, and I'm so sorry you had to find out like this 😓

I literally JUST am here for DB. Please forgive me if you thought there would be Dr. Zayne content on the reg because that's not gonna happen 🫠

[scarysanctuary]

trying not to defend a fictional character cuz someone said theyre actually irredeemably evil and deserve to die challenge: impossible

[magistralucis]

Every time I think about Neth I want to eat my hands.,,.. even accounting for his troubles Oltyx King was No Good Incredibly Fucking Terrible to that dude!!! It's maddening because Neth triggers Oltyx's compassion almost as often as Yenekh does, Oltyx just feels inherently entitled to treat him like dirt because 1) Neth's station is lowly, 2) his engrams are degraded, and 3) he's a constant reminder of Sedh which Oltyx holds three centuries' worth of rage about. Oltyx finds the idea Neth achieving anything ridiculous, even reading this contempt into other people's reactions (e.g. 'Pakhet’s razor-edged faceplate did not even twitch in the degraded old soldier’s direction'), and acts like every good thing Neth does is against expectations (e.g. 'Neth had only underperformed slightly', 'even Neth had managed to contribute'). Oltyx fundamentally refuses to believe in this man because he can't face what Neth represents in his broken mind: his exile, then the loss of hope for his dynasty. When in reality, every other word out of Neth is hope!

Sure, deep down Oltyx doesn't feel great about treating Neth that way. He does find merit in Neth if he's allowed to think about it, and ultimately, Neth's end was a choice Neth himself made. But if every positive thought you've had about someone only appeared in hindsight, and if you never expressed said thoughts before that person was gone, that's a bell you can never unring. You only get so many honest loyal supporters with no blood pit in their closets in TDK, and in a world where said blood pit supporters are the best you have, to not do right by someone like Neth is an injustice. Neth was designed to be a morality pet and yet could not be saved and got plasma blasted for his trouble 😭😭😭

[hikaaa-bi]

so something that bothered me about the Infinity Train fandom is how they always seem to be on either of two extreme ends when it comes to judging Simon's character. it's either "Simon is an evil scum who deserved to die" or "Simon is an innocent misunderstood victim". like.. have you guys never heard of complex villains?

the worst take I've seen is people blaming the show writers for killing off Simon because "they're implying that he deserved to die". i just don't know how people jumped to this conclusion, it's a leap for sure. you don't kill off characters in a story because they deserve to die, you do it because that's the way the story goes.

and i agree that certain writers can have controversial ideals that reflect in their writing, but i really don't think that's the case here. Simon's death was never framed as satisfactory or victorious, it was framed as tragic. you don't see Grace and the Apex celebrating his death, you see them mourning it. he tried to kill Grace but she is still heartbroken and traumatized by his death. it's so clear that the narrative wants us to sympathize with him, but also acknowledge the fact that he did some pretty heinous stuff that can't be forgiven.

could Simon have been redeemed? yes. i think any character could be redeemed, regardless of how evil they were because as i've mentioned before, redemption ≠ forgiveness. but did he need to be redeemed? no. the point of this season was to show two characters who start off in the same place and end up in wildly different ones. two characters who are given choices and choose the one that decides their fate.

the truth here is that while Simon is a traumatized character that we can empathize with, he still chose the path that led to his demise. and believe it or not, people sometimes do that. for example, if a person with an alcohol addiction drank and drove, and ended up killing themself in an accident, that is the direct consequence of their actions. does that mean they deserved it? probably not. they may have had an understandable explanation to why they drank. they may have been depressed or peer pressured or trying to escape harsh realities, and none of it is their fault. but people die and sometimes it's a grizzly death. sometimes the nicest people suffer a lot, and it's not a testament to their character.

some fans may have painted Simon as a pure evil but the show certainly didn't, and it's stupid to attack the creators for killing off a character for narrative purpose. like.. is this the first time you've seen a fictional character die? i understand being upset about it, i was upset about it too. but it was the right decision in a narrative sense. Infinity Train has never shied away from touching on brutally realistic topics and this is just part of it.

my point is. sometimes people just die a brutal death. death doesn't have a specific meaning and it's not a testament to people's morality. it's just death.

[hopeforloveandharmony]

~ you , are good◇ {~ Hope,- she knows, thine heart Illum°, -shalt know. , the path..

[sotogalmo]

5:44

Rot For Clout by JamieP.... Luka ALNST.... It. I dunno

Title gives me that vibe, and a few lyrics (in tags). But who knows

[widowshill]

102.

[a-wins-a-win]

unpopular opinion?? maybe?

Matt & Ivy have a really interesting dynamic!! both pre- and post-canon!! with or without romantic undertones!! either reciprocal or one-sided!!

and obviously it has to be handled with a particular level of care/respect BUT I think if we allowed them enough grace there is space to explore a really interesting possibility for that relationship.

[wellthatsclever]

✴️