#apostate on main

[hypo-critic-al]

There’s something so astounding about working in a job that has ties to a catholic church, looking up icons of saints (work related task), sipping from a bottle with a virgin Mary sticker, all while being an atheist and listening to Genetically Modified Skeptic’s videos about satanism.

[hypo-critic-al]

i’m going feral.

I don't know, I think there's just something really interesting about the disassociation of romantic love and devotional worship, like those nuns who married jesus

like, as long as he's an idol, as long as he's a god, your particular feelings don't really matter either way, so it doesn't matter if what you're feeling is homosexuality or gratitude or devotion or whatever you want to call it, because the object of your affection is so many leagues beyond your realm of comprehension

so like it's a way of side-skirting the difficult questions in a relationship, it's putting him on a pedestal (and on a tapestry, and on a rug, and in figurines, and in the stained glass windows) a way of allowing you to express this very deep emotion without actually having to put a name to it

honestly, it's a form of cowardice

yes, of course this post is about billford

[veilstricken]

❝ i do sometimes miss the dangerous dance of life at court ... though everyone knows it is the intrigue that highlights the experience, moreso than the party itself. ❞

He's thinking about it, though.

[warrenwaskilledbyadeer]

Headcanon #2 time (I'll keep churning them out until I feel like a person lol)

I don't think Alexander is dead

I know how it sounds but think about it think about it

In Agrippa's Letter Regarding the Discovery of an Orb, he describes what it felt like to be consumed by the Shadow. "I could hear pleading screams in the distance and I joined in as pain and fear overtook me. I fell to the ground gasping for air." This sounds just like what happens to Daniel in the endings where he is consumed by the Shadow. But Agrippa goes on, "This certainly must sound strange, but I had been carried miles away across the Alps to a grassy field outside Genoa." So just like Daniel, Agrippa feels this all- encompassing pain as the Shadow consumes him, but then barely even a moment later from his perception he's back, he's alive again after existing in whatever limbo the Shadow holds you in until being spat back out.

Now, if you will, please listen to descriptions of people who are killed or attacked by the Shadow: "He was badly injured, as if maimed by a lion." "Limbs scattered, heads split down the middle, their skin flayed as if boiled." "Their skinless bodies torn apart." And indeed in the game the Grunt in the Sewers has been accordingly ripped to pieces

But this is not what happens to Alexander. Alexander seems to endure intense agony for a few moments before simply dissolving into blue light. This is something else Agrippa mentions in his account, "Suddenly a blue shimmering light engulfed me and the colors of the forest were washed away before my eyes." We don't see Alexander get ripped to shreds, or flayed, or boiled, or any of those things. He seems to be consumed in the same way Agrippa and Daniel both have been. Agrippa was consumed, and he's still alive. Daniel was consumed, and he's still alive (in the Agrippa Ending at least). And Alexander was consumed, so it stands to reason that he's still alive, stuck in the limbo of non-existence within the Shadow until somebody proficient with the Orbs has the Shadow spit him back out (like Weyer with Daniel)

[lncarnon]

10. [thigh touch] - Your muse slides their hand slowly up my muse’s thigh, gazing at them the entire time to gauge their response. (your choice / muse roulette etc hehe)

He'd never indulged her, or her ladies. An amusing thought considering their line of work and his own place of power, one might assume his every visit was begot by the throes of pleasure, lust, and money. Yet, every single person who thought this would be wrong. Shay never went to see Melissa for the simple want of the body. No, his time spent within her place of business was strictly that, a partnership between the two of them, information for protection.

He kept the thugs at bay, and she told him whatever he wanted to know.

Their conversation had started much the same as it usually did. Idle talk of any changes to their lives, his fearsome adventures upon the seas, her irritation with patrons misbehaving. She moves closer, he thinks nothing of it. For a man who placed his faith in no one but the Order he certainly had become quite comfortable around Melissa. Enough so, that when she reaches out and places a hand upon him, he does not shy away from the physical contact.

Rather the action snares his attention and keeps it in a vice, whatever he'd been saying trailing off into silence as his eyes follow her motions. It'd been something that they had spoken of in his prior visitations, that he needs no payment, no favors, no bodily attention. Still, she seemed keen on testing the boundaries.

Flicking his attention upwards to meet her intense gaze as fingers creep ever higher, a smile tugs along the corner of Shay's mouth.

"Your pick of men and ya' still try t' choose me."

[daz4i]

how do i keep forgetting this frame exists. why ddid i never post about it. i'm ashamed. and sucking him dry as we speak

[curiouslavellan]

re: the daI:multiplayer post I am your guy for dai:mp chitchatting bc I play it a lot (yes its so mid but. cool characters in there)

No judgement for playing mid games (I love me: andromeda lol I have no room to judge)

But fr all those characters sound awesome and the only one I've ever even heard of is the bard, and I don't remember knowing he was a mage! That's so COOL why can't we do that stuff in the main story 🙄

So yeah please tell me about the cool multiplayer people!

[grapecaseschoices]

[supermarine-silvally]

Saw this going around and thought I'd do my own! This is my "canon" worldstate, though I actually have 5 Origins OCs and 2 main Inquisitor OCs lol

[drowningworms]

My personal take that that makes the most sense to me anyway, in light of all we know of history, scripture, context, God, and empires is this:

The Beast from the Sea is the representation of an empire's mix of Oppression/Colonialism/Capitalism

The Dragon-tounged Beast that tells the world to worship the first beast is the Empire's religion.

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

Here's why:

For John of Patmos, that religion was a dragon in his future.

For us, we can look back upon the emergence of the Dragon-like Beast. We see an empire worshiping religion that twisted a beautiful, liberating story. Enslaving all the world to the Empire Beast and forcing them to worship the Empire Beast and approve or even join in on it's exploitation and oppression.

A dragon-like beast that eventually got reformed a bit here and there to become one of the most pervasive world religions today.

Forms of that reformed religion of empires and oppression are practiced all over this world. A more or less reformed religion also practiced with varying levels of reformation in America that most of us now just call "Christianity".

I wonder how reformed our dragons are.

[pavloving]

ok well that mando ep was IMMENSELY better than last week wow

[vilnan]

skip fights mod my beloved <3

[uchidachi]

Time to speculate wildly!!

Given that we’ve just been told that “yes, you can romance the companions you want” in Dragon Age Veilguard, plus we have that concept art that could be the main character + 7 companions…

[lncarnon]

« i might get used to have you under me, you know? » (for Shay - maybe something happened and he just cushioned her fall but y'know :3)

He could feel his heart skip a beat, an unsettling feeling that mimicked dread and not something that often found itself nestled into his chest. She had tripped and in his attempt to save her from falling entirely, it resulted in the both of them landing onto the floor. Shay had twisted just enough that Melissa wound up on top of him so he took the brunt of the floor to his back. It was quite alright, really. He had spent so much of his younger years falling out of trees, off rooftops, that this short distance had been nothing.

Then she speaks, and the comment might have gotten Shay's cheeks a nice flushed pink had he still been just a young man. Instead he only allows a breath of a laugh to escape him and lays his head back against the floorboards. That sense of worry had been for her safety, and she seemed more than content despite what had happened.

"I won't argue, th' view from down here is mighty fine, if you are ever inclined to have it happen again."

[captainjonnitkessler]

I understand if you want to stay out of it but I’m curious as to you’re thoughts on this discourse

https://www.tumblr.com/dappercat123/737173649266737152/your-arguments-sum-to-in-my-perfect-world-there

Anon, I'm going to be entirely honest with you. I have been waiting for an excuse to put my thoughts about this down. Forewarning that this is going to be long and take a dim view of organized religion.

TL;DR: I think everyone in that thread is maliciously misinterpreting evilsoup's point, which is basically that they think Gene Roddenberry was right about what a post-utopian society would look like re: religion. And you can agree or disagree about whether a post-religious utopia is likely or desirable, but to say that anyone who thinks it is is actively calling for and encouraging genocide is a gross misuse of the term (especially coming from at least one person that I'm pretty sure is currently denying an actively ongoing actual fucking genocide).

@evilsoup can correct me if I'm misinterpreting their points, but as far as I see it there are two main points being made:

A) In a perfect utopia with absolutely no source of oppression, marginalization, or disparity, religion would naturally whither away with no outside pressure being applied.

B) This would be a good or at least a neutral thing.

As far as A) goes - a lot of the responses evilsoup got were basically "well *I* would never choose to be nonreligious, so therefore the only way to create that world would be by force, and therefore you are calling for literal genocide". But aside from the fact that evilsoup was very, very clear that they thought this would be a *natural* event and that trying to force people to be nonreligious would be evil - we're not talking about (general) you. You can be as religious as you want but you don't get to make that choice for your grandkids, or your great-great-great grandkids, or your great-great-great-great-great-etc. grandkids. Just because religion is an integral part of your identity doesn't mean it's something you can pass down, and if you're not comfortable with the idea that your kids might choose to leave your religion, you shouldn't have kids.

I personally don't foresee religion disappearing entirely, but it is pretty consistent that as a country becomes happier, healthier, and wealthier, it also becomes less religious. Religiosity is inversely correlated with progressive values. And the more democratic and secular a nation is, the less powerful religious authorities become - In the 1600s blasphemy and atheism were punishable by death* in Massachusetts and today I can call the Pope a cunt to his face** on Twitter with no repercussions whatsoever. Political secularism is an absolute necessity for true democracy and it necessitates removing power from religious authorities, which has and will likely continue to lead to a decline in religiosity - not just a decline in how many people identify as religious, but also a decline in how religious the remaining people are.

*Blasphemy laws and death penalties for blasphemers/apostates are still VERY much a thing in many places. It's hard to see a path where those places become more democratic but don't become more secular and repeal those laws.

**Well, to the face of whoever runs his Twitter account, but the point remains.

I also believe that many religious communities have been held together for so long via coercion - either internal coercion like blasphemy and apostasy laws, shunning, and threats of hell or other supernatural punishment, or external coercion like oppression from the majority religious group or ethnic cleansings. In a perfect utopia, neither form of coercion would exist and I don't think it's crazy to think that religiosity would drop severely and become a much less important part of people's identities, in the way I think the queer community would not exist in a world where queerphobia didn't exist.

ANYWAY, all this is actually kind of moot. It could happen, it could not, nobody is calling for it to be forced so we'll just have to wait and see. The real point of disagreement is on B).

I'm gonna be honest - I think a lot of the responders are rank hypocrites and are really hung up on the idea of cultural purity, which is something I'm wildly uncomfortable with.

First of all, the idea that a deeply-held religious belief could be diluted until it's just a cultural thing that nobody really remembers the origins of isn't some evil mastermind plot evilsoup is trying to concoct, it's just how cultures work. There's tons of stuff about American culture that are vaguely rooted in what were once deeply-held beliefs and are now entertainment. Halloween is rooted in sacred tradition and now it's a day to dress up and get candy. Christmas is one of the most sacred holidays in Christianity but nobody bats an eye if a non-Christian puts up some lights or decorates a tree just because it's fun. I have no doubt that every culture on Earth has traditions that used to be deeply sacred but are now just fun family traditions. People in Japan use Christian symbology as an "exotic, mythical" aesthetic the exact same way people in the West use Eastern symbology. And if you're okay with it happening to Christianity, why wouldn't you be okay with it happening to any other religion in the absence of oppression?

And there's the idea that if a culture fails to get passed down *exactly* as it is now, it's a terrible loss and the result of malicious outside influence. But . . . cultures change over time. No culture is the same now as it was two or five or eight hundred years ago and I don't believe that change is inherently loss. The things that are sacred to you may or may not be sacred to the people of your culture in the future. That's just the way things work, and I don't think it's inherently good or bad.

And finally, people keep accusing evilsoup of "just wanting everyone to assimilate to your culture", but it absolutely does not follow that a lack of religion means a lack of diversity. Different nonreligious cultures are every bit as capable of being diverse as different religious cultures, so it's weird to insist that evilsoup wants there to only be one culture when they never said anything to indicate that.

[iamafanofcartoons]

If you want to describe RWBY to your friends and get them to watch the show?Show them this.  Also? When they ask what is RWBY:  The name RWBY is derived from the four main protagonists' forenames: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long, And their respective thematic colors (red, white, black and yellow).

For the description of the show: Imagine a show that starts out like Sailor moon, only weapon specialists instead of magical girls, but still women taking on roles typically held by straight white males. Then it evolves into action-adventure where the four gay female protagonists have to deal with the drama caused by a divorce between a religious wizard and his apostate witch wife. Also everything are guns and gay.

https://www.reddit.com/r/fnki/comments/14m59l6/telling_stories/