#be queer do heresies

[rijl]

Happy Palm Sunday

[rijl]

Me this past Monday explaining to the poor cringing church lady that we named our monthly creativity/embodiment church gathering "Meaty Mondays" because "inCARNation" means "becoming meat/flesh." Shout out to the other young adult who then suggested alternatively "Fleshy Fridays," thus making my contribution comparatively less creepy.

[thepostburningash]

i love my medieval lit module bc in the hour so far we have called st. paul gay and talked about 3 separate heresies

[missnekonyan]

The whole "humans were made in the image of God" thing hits differently when viewed from the angle of gender. As an entity, God is technically beyond gender. But They use gendered language as a means to connect with humanity.

In that same vein, a [tumblr] post once opened my eyes to how the perception of gender and how it works is technically different for everyone. People use the construct and concept of gender to connect with each other - to express themselves. I think it's a beautiful thing.

In that sense, humanity is like God. The creation reflects the Creator. Gender isn't inherent, but it helps explain concepts that may be difficult to describe without it.

This is especially fitting since my view of my own gender is linked to my belief in divinity. Like God, I am beyond such conventions. But for simplicity's sake, gendered terms can help relay it to people.

[mactiir]

I know the average reading comprehension on this site is zero but I'm different. I'm applying wildly inappropriate analysis lenses to popcorn media. I'm doing a queer theory reading of Horus Heresy novels. Now I'm doing feminist analysis of Warhammer 40k canon. Now I'm applying Marxist analysis to The Outsiders. Time for a historical analysis of The Locked Tomb. A post-colonial reading of the entirety of Doctor Who. A psychological anlaysis of Twilight. On the horseshoe scale of reading comprehension I'm at "so much reading comprehension that it loops back around to not understanding books at all actually". You can't stop me. I'm literary analysis Georg

[littlestickfish]

Pope Francis removed him for being ridiculously and virulently hateful toward the LGBT and other minority communities, going so far as to say they don't belong in the Church--the Church Pope Francis is currently endeavoring to make safer and more welcoming to these folks.

The misleading part has nothing to do with whether or not it's legal by secular standards. The misleading part is the implication that this was some sort of arbitrary and unreasonable move instead of a rogue bishop who preached hate facing consequences for his actions.

The man was a menace, and this level of disciplinary action is the least he deserves.

im fucking sobbing why did they kill him twice in a row in the community notes

[laurashapiro-noreally]

Looking for something to read?

Oh look, it's another recs post! This time I'm featuring two stories per author. These are writers I always make time for, whose work stands out as unusually hot, clever, funny, or smart -- sometimes all of the above.

I'm gonna start you out strong with two by @werpiper: After Hours takes Aziraphale and Crowley to the baths after their oyster supper, and all sorts of interesting pleasures are there for our angel to sample. Piper's Crowley is one of my favorites: always evaluating the situation, not quite aware of what his own heart is doing but feeling it anyway.

Fitting In is a new story, still a WIP, but I am utterly tantalized by Muriel's first taste of love -- and tea. This is already rich in detail, soft and fragrant, and I can hardly wait for the action to get going in earnest. The pairing seems surprising but when you think about it for ten seconds of course it makes sense. Sex workers help the curious, the awkward, and the inexperienced every day, bless them.

If you enjoy these, check out @werpiper's back catalog -- they have done a ton of ineffables-through-the-ages, and their series Miracles and Heresy is worth many delightful hours of your time.

I love what @copperplatebeech has been doing lately:

He's Not My Friend is a T-rated story that explores Aziraphale's constant refusal to acknowledge his relationship with Crowley, and Crowley's mirror of that, and how things glacially shift over time. It is subtle and yet specific, it will make you ache and smile.

All Of The Above, also T-rated, is a warm and fuzzy alternative to that, a hilarious celebration of true friendship that made me laugh out loud and still got me right in the feels.

@copperplatebeech can do everything, from quiet, gentle, and romantic to devastating plotty AUs to extraordinarily horny established relationship to absolutely ridiculous humor. Do dive in if you haven't already.

Next up, @cumaeansibyl, master of kink:

better living through technology manages to shove everything I want in a dirty story into less than three thousand words: uptight Aziraphale reduced to sodden wreck, Crowley gleefully showing him what he's been missing, character-driven erotics, and exceptionally funny dialogue.

indulgentiam peccatorum nostrorum is somehow all that and more, turning the "I was wrong" dance into a kink (something I can't get enough of, recs welcome). This one is post-Bastille so it is extra-juicy. Mind the tags!

@cumaeansibyl has a gift for established relationship one-shots, which readers of mine will know are my entire jam. They also have a mind-meltingly hot inverse!omens AU that features different variations of angelic/demonic Crowleys and Aziraphales for our ineffables to play with.

A new-to-me author, Calico, has me hanging by a thread with their Ineffable Romans series. If you want to remember that your ineffables aren't human, that they are inordinately clever but very stupid, that the feelings they have for each other are truly beyond what anyone alive has ever felt, Calico may be the writer for you. This stuff is deep. Also hot af.

Sub Rosa reads like a nasty shag at Petronius', but there's so much more going on here. It is Extremely Queer, driven by power dynamics, and Crowley is fully demonic here and absolutely in control...or is he?

The Intemperance of Liber Pater continues on this theme, with dialogue-driven smut that reads less like a seduction than an inevitability. There's another story in this series, unfinished, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Last but not least: two short pieces by @ineffabildaddy. I stumbled on their stories just this week and I absolutely love their approach, which I've not seen done quite this way before.

take me as your wife has a tight first-person perspective as Crowley meets Aziraphale for a meal and imagines (or is it his imagination?) that Aziraphale is suggesting Certain Things about how they might occupy themselves later. Indeed, is he suggesting even more? Something about their relationship? Or is it all in Crowley's head?

Only in Dreams is kind of a companion piece, from Aziraphale's point of view -- though hundreds of years later. This one's set after the events of S2 and although just as romantic as take me as your wife, it also offers an ineffable take on the ol' glory hole concept. Just in case you thought I was getting soft. 😏

@ineffabildaddy has a whole series of poems and ficlets like these and I can't wait to explore them all.

[pagesandpothos]

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

Official Summary:

The Goblin Emperor meets "Magnificent Century" in Alexandra Rowland's A Taste of Gold and Iron, where a queer central romance unfolds in a fantasy world reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire. Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court—the body-father of the queen's new child—in an altercation which results in his humiliation. To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing and bring about its ruin.

My Thoughts

A Taste of Gold and Iron is a book I've had on my TBR for a long time. It's a book I knew I would love, but I kept putting it off, waiting for "the right time." Then, last year, I saw a copy of Running Close to the Wind at my library, and it instantly became one of my favorite books of the year. I knew I needed to stop being silly and finally read A Taste of Gold and Iron.

A Taste of Gold and Iron is my favorite kind of "romantasy." It has an excellent romance at the center that features many of the best romance tropes, but it also has intricate world-building with an engaging plot that had me just as invested as the romance.

The plot centers around Kadou, the spare prince of Arasht. After a hunting accident results in deaths, he is assigned a new guard named Evemer. Evemer, like much the rest of the kingdom, harshly judges Kadou for his part in the incident. However, the two slowly grow closer as they work to unravel a financial conspiracy that could have wide-ranging consequences.

As someone with anxiety, I adored Kadou. He second-guesses himself, often worried that it's just his anxiety making him paranoid. I've never read a book that captured that part of anxiety so well, and I related to it strongly. He's also kind and intelligent but struggles with how he should be of use to the sultan (his sister) and their kingdom.

Evemer's points of view were some of my favorite parts of the book. I enjoyed reading his internal monologue so much. I love a stuffy, rule-abiding character who finds something that matters more to him than strictly following protocol. He grows so much throughout the book, and it was a really enjoyable journey. He's also an excellent romantic lead. Some of his quotes are so incredibly romantic that they took my breath away!

The romance starts pretty rocky. At the start of the book, Kadou has a casual relationship with another character, Tadek (who is a delight!). Evemer thinks the spare prince is flighty and irresponsible. Their romance is a real slow burn with yearning, jealousy, and forced proximity. I loved their gradual and growing understanding of each other. There are so many incredible and memorable scenes between these two. I've said in previous reviews that pinning is critical for me to truly love a romance. This pairing gave me all the yearning I could ask and I loved every second!

I realize I'm late to the party and a lot of queer romance and fantasy fans have already read this, but if you haven't, I highly recommend you do. This is beautifully written and plotted. This is one of my favorite books of the year (and of all time).

My Rating: 🌕🌕🌕 🌕🌕 (5/5 stars)

Pages: 503 (Standard Hardcover Edition)

Tropes/Tags: Queer, Achillean, Romantasy, Slow Burn, (mild) Love Triangle, There's Only One Bed

Romantasy Scale: This is equal parts fantasy and romance. The romance is a crucial part of the story, but detailed world-building and a layered plot are not sacrificed.

Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5. There are kisses and some mild spice.

Content Warnings: Anxiety (including panic attacks), Death, Kidnapping

Links: Storygraph | GoodReads | AlexandraRowland.net

[ See Everything I’ve Read in 2025 ]

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

Want to be super clear here folks. This is a queer slut blog. I have been what I am for as long as I have known how to be at all, and while that presents itself to the world in all kinds of ways, it will never go away.

Yall really want the secret to healthy, happy slutting about? Know thyself.

I am flesh, soul, mind, and more, and I must know each and every piece of myself as I give them to others as gifts of my time, my love, my pleasure, and my trust. I do not call myself a slut because I sleep around (and in fact often I do not!) But because I relish every experience of my sexuality, regardless of the context, and I refuse to allow anyone to denigrate that joy by deciding that the word they use to describe it should insult me. The word will never matter because they simply reject the idea that I am allowed that joy in the first place.

But folks, when I fuck, it is holy. When I allow a partner to lose their pains in my body for a while, we are divine, human, and present in ourselves in a way that matters to me. This is what it means to make sacred the mundane, to pray to the vulgar flesh as communion with whatever higher power you do or don't feel in your life. Sex is fun and silly and lighthearted, and it is also the act of worship through pleasure. I am not the first to believe this and I will not be the last.

I fuck as a form of worship. Within my faith, it is divine to love what our deity has facilitated the creation of, divine to see it as perfection in its uniqueness and flawed survival. Within my marriage, it is worship of a woman I loved on sight who has been to me more than I could ever imagine. It is an act that mimics the emotional commitment we made to each other, and it is a declaration of my faith in her every time I allow myself to come undone in her arms. Within my relationships of play it is, above all, an aria to myself. When I play, it is because I feel desire and joy to do so and love myself enough to choose that desire and joy over other, more responsible things in my life. Every time I choose to spend a night on pleasure, I name my own delightful vulgar divinity. If I were catholic I'd be committing SOME kind of heresy but thank fuck I come from a spiritual tradition that wrote Song of Songs into their religious canon and MEANT it, so when I worship my deity by loving myself and my pleasure and my joy as divine, I am right to do so. When I worship my deity through the pleasure and joy and divinity of my partners, I am right to do so.

And so until the day I fucking die, I will love the varied, incredible bodies I have been lucky enough to fuck with, I will worship the divinity of the people who inhabit them with prayers of pleasure, both theirs and my own. I will ensure that the self my deity inspired me to be is made real by my own machinations and my faith and love for my world, and I don't give a flying fuck who thinks I shouldn't be allowed the gender affirming tools to do so. I will worship by whatever means I desire with whoever desires to worship with me, and there is no world in the before or after that could stop me just because they decided my gender shouldn't fuck my partner's gender. I will pray at my pace with whoever delights to pray with me, and my physical limitations will never be anything less than enjoyed as they per.it me to be enjoyed, tolerance of the divine creation that is me, you, my wife, my partners, my loved ones, my enemies, ANY OF US, is no one's to judge but our own.

And if you can't handle that, you aren't my comrade, but I will still be yours.

[polyamorousmood]

why the hell not. Happy spooky season, everybody

Werewolf Polyam Flags!

Free to use!

[rijl]

Pietà with Mohammed Salem's photo of Inas Abu Maamar embracing the body of her 5-year old niece, Saly. Saly was killed on October 17 in an Israeli airstrike on Khan Younis.

"In this season of Lent, it seems to many of us that Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him. It only takes people of insight to see the hundreds of thousands of crosses throughout the land, Palestinian men, women, and children being crucified. Palestine has become one huge golgotha. The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily. Palestine has become the place of the skull."

(From the 2001 Easter message of Naim Ateek, Palestinian liberation theologian and Anglican priest.)

[queerliblib]

Do you have any philosophy books or queer philosophy recs for Pride Month? I want to beat my philosophy professors over the head (metaphorically of course)

oooo fuck yeah okay so first thoughts are:

Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer - envisioning new futures through environmental justice, reproductive justice, cyborg theory, transgender politics, and disability (oh here’s the audiobook of it)

Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Walker - link is for the audio book (available) our ebook copy has a 6mo wait time 😬. By a queer autistic scholar, contains notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities

The Queer Art of Failure by Jack Halberstam - about "finding alternatives-to conventional understandings of success in a heteronormative, capitalist society” through an investigation of ‘low theory’ (in contrast to ‘high theory’/‘high culture’)

okay so not all of these are traditional philosophy, per se, however they are heavier on the theorizing so if you’re hungry for more queer theory I also recommend these:

Queering Anarchism

Cruising Utopia

Identity Poetics

Who’s Afraid of Gender (any Judith Butler is worth a read though, also in audio)

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on our Sex Obsessed Culture (also in audio)

Y’all Means All: The Emerging Voices Queering Appalachia

[charlenasaxen]

Jekyll and Hyde Quotes

“backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable”

“though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years”

“in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove”

“I incline to Cain’s heresy,” he used to say quaintly: “I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.”

“it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of downgoing men”

“It was a nut to crack for many, what these two could see in each other, or what subject they could find in common”

“the two men put the greatest store by these excursions, counted them the chief jewel of each week”

“nothing but a door on the lower storey and a blind forehead of discoloured wall”

“It is connected in my mind,” added he, “with a very odd story.”

“Street after street and all the folks asleep—street after street, all lighted up as if for a procession”

“at last I got into that state of mind when a man listens and listens and begins to long for the sight of a policeman”

“then came the horrible part of the thing; for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground”

“He was perfectly cool and made no resistance, but gave me one look, so ugly”

“every time he looked at my prisoner, I saw that Sawbones turn sick and white with desire to kill him”

“just as he knew what was in mine; and killing being out of the question, we did the next best”

“If he had any friends or any credit, we undertook that he should lose them”

“that a man does not, in real life, walk into a cellar door at four in the morning and come out with another man’s cheque”

“You start a question, and it’s like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others; and presently some bland old bird (the last you would have thought of) is knocked on the head in his own back garden and the family have to change their name. ”

“I make it a rule of mine: the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.”

“I can’t see what harm it would do. It was a man of the name of Hyde.”

“He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something down-right detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why.”

“He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity”

“what’s more, he has it still. I saw him use it not a week ago.”

“sit close by the fire, a volume of some dry divinity on his reading desk, until the clock of the neighbouring church rang out the hour of twelve, when he would go soberly and gratefully to bed”

“in case of Dr. Jekyll’s “disappearance or unexplained absence for any period exceeding three calendar months,” the said Edward Hyde should step into the said Henry Jekyll’s shoes without further delay”

“hitherto it was his ignorance of Mr. Hyde that had swelled his indignation; now, by a sudden turn, it was his knowledge”

“worse when it began to be clothed upon with detestable attributes”

“Henry Jekyll became too fanciful for me. He began to go wrong, wrong in mind”

“tossed to and fro, until the small hours of the morning began to grow large”

“the sleeper recalled, and lo! there would stand by his side a figure to whom power was given”

“still the figure had no face by which he might know it; even in his dreams, it had no face”

“If he be Mr. Hyde,” he had thought, “I shall be Mr. Seek.”

“it was with a strong, superstitious prevision of success that he withdrew into the entry of the court”

“the look of him, even at that distance, went somehow strongly against the watcher’s inclination”

“as if upon some sudden reflection, fronted about with an air of defiance; and the pair stared at each other pretty fixedly”

“Jekyll, for instance,” said the lawyer.

“He never told you,” cried Mr. Hyde, with a flush of anger. “I did not think you would have lied.”

“snarled aloud into a savage laugh; and the next moment, with extraordinary quickness, he had unlocked the door and disappeared”

“is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires”

“warmed (after the fashion of a country house) by a bright, open fire, and furnished with costly cabinets of oak”

“tonight there was a shudder in his blood; the face of Hyde sat heavy on his memory”

“must be that; the ghost of some old sin”

“pede claudo, years after memory has forgotten and self-love condoned the fault”

“raised up again into a sober and fearful gratitude by the many he had come so near to doing yet avoided”

“black secrets, by the look of him; secrets compared to which poor Jekyll’s worst would be like sunshine”

“It turns me cold to think of this creature stealing like a thief to Harry’s bedside”

“I must put my shoulders to the wheel—if Jekyll will but let me”

“For once more he saw before his mind’s eye, as clear as transparency, the strange clauses of the will”

“every mark of capacity and kindness—you could see by his looks that he cherished for Mr. Utterson a sincere and warm affection”

“I tell you so again,” continued the lawyer. “I have been learning something of young Hyde.”

The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale”

“the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde. I give you my hand upon that”

“I think you would, if you knew all; and it would be a weight off my mind if you would promise.”

“I only ask for justice; I only ask you to help him for my sake, when I am no longer here.”

“It seems she was romantically given, for she sat down upon her box, which stood immediately under the window, and fell into a dream”

“Never (she used to say, with streaming tears, when she narrated that experience), never had she felt more at peace with all men or thought more kindly of the world”

“the girl was pleased to watch it, it seemed to breathe such an innocent and old-world kindness”

“The old gentleman took a step back, with the air of one very much surprised and a trifle hurt”

“he could doubt no longer; broken and battered as it was, he recognized it for one that he had himself presented many years before to Henry Jekyll”

“This was the home of Henry Jekyll’s favourite; of a man who was heir to a quarter of a million sterling”

“Ah!” said she, “he is in trouble! What has he done?”

“there lay a pile of grey ashes, as though many papers had been burned”

“Only on one point were they agreed; and that was the haunting sense of unexpressed deformity with which the fugitive impressed his beholders”

“I swear to God,” cried the doctor, “I swear to God I will never set eyes on him again.”

“I am done with him in this world. It is all at an end. And indeed he does not want my help; you do not know him as I do; he is safe, he is quite safe; mark my words, he will never more be heard of.”

“I have grounds for certainty that I cannot share with any one”

“he shut his mouth tight and nodded.

“I knew it,” said Utterson. “He meant to murder you. You had a fine escape.”

“O God, Utterson, what a lesson I have had!” And he covered his face”

“possibly, indeed, it had been written in the cabinet; and if that were so, it must be differently judged”

“the glow of hot autumn afternoons on hillside vineyards, was ready to be set free and to disperse the fogs of London”

“Is that from Dr. Jekyll, sir?” inquired the clerk. “I thought I knew the writing.”

“there’s a rather singular resemblance; the two hands are in many points identical: only differently sloped.”

“What!” he thought. “Henry Jekyll forge for a murderer!” And his blood ran cold in his veins”

“Now that that evil influence had been withdrawn, a new life began for Dr. Jekyll”

“having now been used for the last two months to see his friend almost daily, he found this return of solitude to weigh upon his spirits”

“a look in the eye and quality of manner that seemed to testify to some deep-seated terror”

“it was with an air of great firmness that Lanyon declared himself a doomed man”

“I shall never recover. It is a question of weeks. Well, life has been pleasant; I liked it; yes, sir, I used to like it.”

“if we knew all, we should be more glad to get away.”

“I beg that you will spare me any allusion to one whom I regard as dead.”

“Some day, Utterson, after I am dead, you may perhaps come to learn the right and wrong of this”

“if you cannot keep clear of this accursed topic, then in God’s name, go, for I cannot bear it.”

“must you doubt my friendship, if my door is often shut even to you”

“If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also.”

“Dr. Lanyon took to his bed, and in something less than a fortnight he was dead”

“for the hands of G. J. Utterson alone, and in case of his predecease to be destroyed unread”

“another enclosure, likewise sealed, and marked upon the cover as “not to be opened till the death or disappearance of Dr. Henry Jekyll.”

“Yes, it was disappearance; here again, as in the mad will”

“He thought of him kindly; but his thoughts were disquieted and fearful”

“To tell you the truth, I am uneasy about poor Jekyll”

“sitting close beside it, taking the air with an infinite sadness of mien, like some disconsolate prisoner, Utterson saw Dr. Jekyll”

“Come now; get your hat and take a quick turn with us.”

“You are very good,” sighed the other. “I should like to very much; but no, no, no, it is quite impossible; I dare not.”

“indeed, Utterson, I am very glad to see you; this is really a great pleasure”

“the smile was struck out of his face and succeeded by an expression of such abject terror and despair, as froze the very blood of the two gentlemen below”

“God forgive us, God forgive us,” said Mr. Utterson”

“doggedly disregarding the question, “and I can bear it no more.”

“his face was white and his voice, when he spoke, harsh and broken”

“they had all started and turned towards the inner door with faces of dreadful expectation”

“you come as gently as you can. I want you to hear, and I don’t want you to be heard. And see here, sir, if by any chance he was to ask you in, don’t go.”

“Sir,” he said, looking Mr. Utterson in the eyes, “Was that my master’s voice?”

“master’s made away with; he was made away with eight days ago, when we heard him cry out”

“who’s in there instead of him, and why it stays there, is a thing that cries to Heaven, Mr. Utterson!”

“All this last week (you must know) him, or it, whatever it is that lives in that cabinet, has been crying night and day for some sort of medicine”

“This drug is wanted bitter bad, sir, whatever for.”

“should any of the same quality be left, forward it to him at once”

“the writer’s emotion had broken loose. “For God’s sake,” he added, “find me some of the old.”

“The man at Maw’s was main angry, sir, and he threw it back to me like so much dirt”

“He looked up when I came in, gave a kind of cry, and whipped upstairs”

“the hair stood upon my head like quills. Sir, if that was my master, why had he a mask upon his face?”

“it is sad enough, Poole, ay, and appalling to consider; but it is plain and natural”

“No, sir, that thing in the mask was never Dr. Jekyll—God knows what it was, but it was never Dr. Jekyll”

“let us make a clean breast. This masked figure that you saw, did you recognise it?”

“if you mean, was it Mr. Hyde?—why, yes, I think it was!”

“that you felt in your marrow kind of cold and thin.”

“Well, when that masked thing like a monkey jumped, it went down my spine like ice”

“but a man has his feelings, and I give you my bible-word it was Mr. Hyde!”

“Ay truly, I believe you; I believe poor Harry is killed; and I believe his murderer (for what purpose, God alone can tell) is still lurking”

“you and the boy must go round the corner with a pair of good sticks and take your post”

“the stillness was only broken by the sounds of a footfall moving to and fro along the cabinet floor”

“tell me, is that the doctor’s foot?”

The steps fell lightly and oddly, with a certain swing”

“Once,” he said. “Once I heard it weeping!”

“Weeping? how that?”

“Weeping like a woman or a lost soul,” said the butler. “I came away with that upon my heart, that I could have wept too.”

“Utterson,” said the voice, “for God’s sake, have mercy!”

“Ah, that’s not Jekyll’s voice—it’s Hyde’s!” cried Utterson. “Down with the door, Poole!”

“A dismal screech, as of mere animal terror, rang”

“there lay the body of a man sorely contorted and still twitching”

“Utterson knew that he was looking on the body of a self-destroyer”

“We have come too late,” he said sternly, “whether to save or punish. Hyde is gone to his account”

“in place of the name of Edward Hyde, the lawyer, with indescribable amazement read the name of Gabriel John Utterson”

“Your unworthy and unhappy friend,

“HENRY JEKYLL”

“I must go home and read these documents in quiet; but I shall be back before midnight, when we shall send for the police.”

“I cannot remember, at least on my side, any break in our affection”

“never a day when, if you had said to me, ‘Jekyll, my life, my honour, my reason, depend upon you,’ I would not have sacrificed my left hand to help you. Lanyon, my life, my honour”

“all at your mercy; if you fail me to-night, I am lost”

“a man who will present himself in my name, and to place in his hands the drawer that you will have brought with you”

“by the neglect of one of them, fantastic as they must appear, you might have charged your conscience with my death”

“Think of me at this hour, in a strange place, labouring under a blackness of distress”

“if that night passes without event, you will know that you have seen the last of Henry Jekyll”

“plain they were of Jekyll’s private manufacture”

“even granting some impediment, why was this gentleman to be received by me in secret?”

“I went myself at the summons, and found a small man crouching”

“the odd, subjective disturbance caused by his neighbourhood”

“believe the cause to lie much deeper in the nature of man, and to turn on some nobler hinge”

“there was something abnormal and misbegotten in the very essence of the creature”

“conscious at his touch of a certain icy pang along my blood”

“will you suffer me to take this glass in my hand and to go forth from your house without further parley? or has the greed of curiosity too much command of you? Think before you answer, for it shall be done as you decide.”

“you who have derided your superiors—behold!”

“the features seemed to melt and alter—and the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and leaped back”

“O God!” I screamed, and “O God!” again and again; for there before my eyes”

“like a man restored from death—there stood Henry Jekyll!”

“I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul sickened at it; and yet now when that sight has faded from my eyes, I ask myself if I believe it, and I cannot answer.”

“I feel that my days are numbered, and that I must die; and yet I shall die incredulous”

“the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, I can not, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror”

“The creature who crept into my house that night was, on Jekyll’s own confession, known by the name of Hyde and hunted for in every corner of the land”

“with even a deeper trench than in the majority of men, severed in me those provinces of good and ill which divide and compound man’s dual nature”

“I was in no sense a hypocrite; both sides of me were in dead earnest”

“the perennial war among my members”

“that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck”

“I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements”

“life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin”

“doing the good things in which he found his pleasure, and no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence”

“Certain agents I found to have the power to shake and pluck back that fleshly vestment”

“a second form and countenance substituted, none the less natural to me”

“bore the stamp of lower elements in my soul”

“when the ebullition had subsided, with a strong glow of courage, drank off the potion”

“I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil”

“I determined, flushed as I was with hope and triumph, to venture in my new shape as far as to my bedroom”

“hence, as I think, it came about that Edward Hyde was so much smaller, slighter and younger”

“It was the hand of Edward Hyde.

I must have stared upon it for near half a minute”

“My blood was changed into something exquisitely thin and icy. Yes, I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde.”

“with another bound of terror—how was it to be remedied?”

“seemed, like the Babylonian finger on the wall, to be spelling out the letters of my judgment”

“I were conscious of a more generous tide of blood; and I began to spy a danger that, if this were much prolonged, the balance of my nature might be permanently overthrown”

“seemed to point to this; that I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse”

“Jekyll had more than a father’s interest; Hyde had more than a son’s indifference. To cast in my lot with Jekyll, was to die to those appetites”

“the terms of this debate are as old and commonplace as man; much the same inducements and alarms cast the die for any tempted and trembling sinner”

“it fell out with me, as it falls with so vast a majority of my fellows, that I chose the better part and was found wanting in the strength to keep to it”

“But time began at last to obliterate the freshness of my alarm”

“praises of conscience began to grow into a thing of course; I began to be tortured with throes and longings”

“I struck in no more reasonable spirit than that in which a sick child may break a plaything”

“in my case, to be tempted, however slightly, was to fall”

“Hyde had a song upon his lips as he compounded the draught, and as he drank it, pledged the dead man”

“Henry Jekyll, with streaming tears of gratitude and remorse, had fallen upon his knees and lifted his clasped hands to God”

“still, between the petitions, the ugly face of my iniquity stared”

“problem of my conduct was solved. Hyde was thenceforth impossible; whether I would or not, I was now confined to the better part of my existence”

“ground the key under my heel!”

“I resolved in my future conduct to redeem the past; and I can say with honesty that my resolve was fruitful of some good”

“as the first edge of my penitence wore off, the lower side of me, so long indulged, so recently chained down, began to growl”

“Not that I dreamed of resuscitating Hyde; the bare idea of that would startle me to frenzy: no, it was in my own person that I was once more tempted”

“it was as an ordinary secret sinner that I at last fell before the assaults of temptation”

“yet I was not alarmed; the fall seemed natural, like a return to the old days”

“spiritual side a little drowsed, promising subsequent penitence, but not yet moved to begin”

“I began to be aware of a change in the temper of my thoughts, a greater boldness, a contempt of danger, a solution of the bonds of obligation. I looked down; my clothes hung formlessly on my shrunken limbs”

“now I was the common quarry of mankind, hunted, houseless”

“A change had come over me. It was no longer the fear of the gallows, it was the horror of being Hyde that racked me.”

“gratitude for my escape shone so strong in my soul that it almost rivalled the brightness of hope”

“drinking the chill of the air with pleasure, when I was seized again with those indescribable sensations that heralded the change”

“alas! six hours after, as I sat looking sadly in the fire, the pangs returned”

“only by a great effort as of gymnastics, I was able to wear the countenance of Jekyll”

“above all, if I slept, or even dozed for a moment in my chair, it was always as Hyde that I awakened”

“ay, even beyond what I had thought possible to man, I became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak”

“solely occupied by one thought: the horror of my other self”

“the pangs of transformation grew daily less marked”

“The powers of Hyde seemed to have grown with the sickliness of Jekyll”

“and was co-heir with him to death”

“shocking thing; that the slime of the pit seemed to utter cries and voices; that the amorphous dust gesticulated and sinned; that what was dead, and had no shape, should usurp the offices of life”

“that that insurgent horror was knit to him closer than a wife, closer than an eye; lay caged in his flesh”

“at every hour of weakness, and in the confidence of slumber, prevailed against him”

“he resented the dislike with which he was himself regarded. Hence the ape-like tricks that he would play me, scrawling in my own hand blasphemies on the pages of my books”

“indeed, had it not been for his fear of death, he would long ago have ruined himself in order to involve me in the ruin”

“when I know how he fears my power to cut him off by suicide, I find it in my heart to pity him”

“You will learn from Poole how I have had London ransacked”

“I am now persuaded that my first supply was impure, and that it was that unknown impurity which lent efficacy to the draught”

“This, then, is the last time, short of a miracle, that Henry Jekyll can think his own thoughts or see his own face”

“Should the throes of change take me in the act of writing it, Hyde will tear it in pieces”

“And indeed the doom that is closing on us both has already changed and crushed him”

“when I shall again and forever reindue that hated personality, I know how I shall sit shuddering and weeping”

“continue, with the most strained and fearstruck ecstasy of listening, to pace up and down this room (my last earthly refuge)”

“Will Hyde die upon the scaffold? or will he find courage to release himself at the last moment?”

“this is my true hour of death, and what is to follow concerns another than myself”

“Here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end”

[cowman17]

And here we have a wild Vulcan supporting the queer folks of the imperium

In case you have a hard time picturing how tall the primarchs are, here is my neighbor's 12 ft tall gay skeleton for reference

[laziestgirlintown]

4 (of 8) eps in I want to recommend Netflix's Kaos. N's trailer would have you believe it's "What We Do On Olympos" but it's darker than that. It's for the Greek mythology nerds. (Well, it's for me.) I don't want to look for gifs to not be spoilered (Fated?). But the gods are cruel and the people are queer, and hubris and heresy is punished, and people are cruel and the furies do not relent, and your prophecy is bullshit until it isn't, and no one gets out of Hades, including Hades. Or? Also, importantly, there's a kitten.

[meanderingmedievalist]

In the middle ages, clerics were actually the most likely to practice necromancy and it was their heavy use and dissemination of magical texts by these clerical men led to the rise in blaming women for witchcraft — leading to the mass, female-dominated "witch" burnings in the 1600s. From Richard Kiekhefer's introduction to Forbidden Rites: “To the extent that these early witch trials focused on female victims, they thus provide a particularly tragic case of women being blamed and punished for the misconduct of men: women who were not invoking demons could more easily be thought to do so at a time when certain men were in fact so doing.” “The study of late medieval necromancy gives an exceptionally clear and forceful picture of the abuses likely to arise in a culture so keenly attentive to ritual display of sacerdotal power. Our own society, more fascinated with sexuality and its abuse, has its own concerns about miscreant priests and their abuse of young boys; the clerical misconduct most feared in the late Middle Ages was of a different order.” During the middle ages, the church controlled through the lens of spiritual and magical power: women's use of herbs and medicines to control reproductive rights and bodily autonomy was marked as witchcraft. Queer folks' identities and lives were marked as demonic possessions & expressions of devilry. Ideas not in line with Church doctrine were marked as heresy and marks of moral corruption - to believe in heresy was to risk your eternal life. Books deemed too dangerous for "the masses" were burned. Meanwhile, clerical men were summoning demons and using their role as spiritual leaders to coerce women into romance or marriage, to control their congregations, to defeat and punish their opponents and enemies. Does it not sound familiar? Perhaps they did learn from the devil. After all, the devil speaks in inversion.

To quote my cohost over on @maniculum: "History doesn't repeat; it rhymes."

Never forget: every accusation is a confession.