#biting teachers

[inbabylontheywept]

Would you mind sharing the psalm and why you felt that person was the most humanist Mormon? I'm not religious at all but I find these sort of things very interesting.

In exchange I could offer the reason for my url ?

I'm warning you, this is kind of a mega essay, and it's fucking unhinged. Click at your own risk.

(Alright. You clicked.)

Psalms 137

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept

when we remembered Zion.

There on the poplars

we hung our harps,

for there our captors asked us for songs,

our tormentors demanded songs of joy;

they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How can we sing the songs of the Lord

while in a foreign land?

If I forget you, Jerusalem,

may my right hand forget its skill.

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth

if I do not remember you,

if I do not consider Jerusalem

my highest joy.

Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did

on the day Jerusalem fell.

“Tear it down,” they cried,

“tear it down to its foundations!”

Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,

happy is the one who repays you

according to what you have done to us.

Happy is the one who seizes your infants

and dashes them against the rocks.

———

Mormonism has layers. Different cores of believers, cultures within itself. The largest group of Mormons also dominate its image within the larger culture. You know them as the nerdy, cheerful, bubbly dorks on South Park, or the hopelessly naive childlike weirdos from the Book of Mormon musical. Strangely sanitized, "wholesome" people that are, clearly, unwhole. Missing some essential part of the human experience.

(Pain, maybe?)

I think that embracing this image is letting Mormonism view itself as what it wishes it was. A group with all its rough edges sanded off, all its raw and desperate humanity scrubbed away. A clean and godly and slightly unsettling image of joy.

That isn't how it started.

Now, most people know the story of Joseph Smith. Fourteen year old farm boy starts a cult because the whole world if full of idiots, I won't repeat it because you've probably already got it from South Park. But at some point that weirdo cult did become a religion, and I would point to that moment as the Mormon War of 1838.

I don't know how far after the founding that was. Enough that Joseph Smith was a grown man. Enough that the Mormons had around 15-25 thousand members. They'd moved to the Illinois-Missouri area and were establishing settlements.

(They creeped the locals out. Of course they creeped the locals out.)

Eventually, they got pushed out of the county they'd claimed. Jackson County, it was. The state couldn't actually take that county from the people that expelled them, so to try and make the Mormons "whole" for the land they'd bought (ignoring the houses and farms they'd already set up) it gave them a new county.

Next election that came around, that county was sieged. Voting was blocked. Now, the people of the state were terrified that this weirdo voting block was going to take them over. They probably weren't wrong. Some former Mormons had straggled in from the county revealing a frankly corrupt land dealthat the early church had used to transfer resources to itself, and that served as a tipping point. To prevent their state from becoming a religious basketcase, a mob sieged the Mormon county during the next election.

The state tried to return order by sending the militia in to break up the siege, but the militia mutinied. They joined the siegers. A ground of strange, extremist violent Mormons known as the Danites rode out and attacked local settlements that were known to house the families of the militia members.

The Governor at the time - Lilburn Boggs - sent out an executive decree. The Mormons were traitors, and were to be killed on sight. It is the only religion in the US to have ever had such an order made against it.

The Mormons surrendered their county and went to Nauvoo, Illinois. There were again expelled from that city in 1846, and traveled west.

They died in great numbers and they never forgot the homes they lost.

———

I tried to tell the story as sympathetically to the people of Missouri as I could. The Mormons made messes wherever they went, and they unsettled everyone they interacted with. But they were attacked as well, and had a history of violence against them. It should not be totally surprising that they became insular and strange.

Many (most?) Mormons that learn all of their history wind up leaving the religion. It has twists and turns and knots and it is incredibly, overwhelmingly human. I think that's where the facade of Mormon perfectionism comes from - the shame of that. The desire to be something else. But being human is all I've ever wanted. And occasionally, there are people faithful in the church - layers upon layers deep - that know their history.

And they are angry about it.

I think it's more common than people realize. Did you know that until 1930 Mormons swore literal religious oaths of vengeance against the US government for the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith?

I always felt like these were, in some way, the real Mormons. They knew their history, and they loved their church, and they hated what it had suffered all those years ago.

They scared me, those people. But they seemed complete. More complete than the people that had carved out everything that didn't make them smile. They'd walked into the mirror, and touched their shadow, and danced with. Melded with it.

And I knew a few like that. I was taught by one. And he didn't convince me, but he interested me. Gave me some respect for the people I left behind.

———

In the game Fallout: New Vegas, there is a character named Joshua Graham. He's a Mormon. Not like the silly children in adult bodies that they always use on TV. He has gravitas. He has put away his moral compass before, to pursue the dream of one powerful man. Poured his soul into it, helped that man conquer the whole west in piecemeal. He's a somewhat on the nose analogy of the Mormon people themselves, following Joseph Smith. And when he finally failed, when he fought a battle he could not win on the gates of the Old World Hoover Dam, he was lit on fire and thrown into the Grand Canyon to die.

But he did not die.

He says he survived because the fire in him burned brighter than the fire around him. And it seems that way when you speak with him in game. There is something compellingly bright to him. Not shiny like a new toy, or a Utah teenager that hasn't seem just how grim the world can be. He's something blinding, compelling.

But that brightness casts shadows.

He is vicious. He was saved in the canyon by the family he left, the old Mormons of a new world. And he's trying to find that part of him again, regain the soul he lost pursuing someone else's vision. But that old vicious animal part of the covenant is with him. I see Joshua Graham and I see the animal that the Mormons became to survive the West.

And in the game, there is eventually a choice given.

You can lead the tribe Joshua has joined up with out of their Zion. Their Jackson County Missouri. Peacefully and perfectly and inhumnanly transcendant, the way the Mormons wish they actually were about everything. You can give him the chance to be what Mormonism has always wished it could be. Or you can fight with them and help them reclaim their paradise, but get your hands stuck deep in the muck of this world.

Joshua Graham knows his history. He knows all the homes his people lost. And whatever brightness he's trying to regain, whatever soul he's trying to win back from the world that takes and takes and takes and takes - he wants to give it all up again to let these people keep their home.

He knows his past and he is angry.

And as the player, you help him make peace with one of two things: Being human by being fallen, or keeping his soul at the cost of reliving the ancestral trauma of losing Zion yet again.

Both were pretty visceral decisions for a Mormon teenage Babylon to make.

(Tagging @boonebignaturals in this because I need a witness to my madness.)

[mysandwichranaway]

SOME BAGGINSHIELD FINALLY YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[originalaccountname]

I'm sure everyone has an old dead author/poet/playwriter/etc. that they have personal, probably unreasonable, debatably irrational beef with because of their life/writing/etc. or because schoolwork made them hate the author by association.

What's the author that, should a character based on them appear in BSD, would have you hissing and biting and scratching the walls (derogatory)? What caused this personal grudge? Did it already happen to you and your dreaded author freely walks the BSD world?

I'll start: I have beef with early 1900s French novelist Émile Zola because he came up with naturalism, which is fiction with the pretense of being "scientific" through "objective" observation of the human nature (ignoring that the author has the power of god over their story). If a character based on him showed up in BSD I'd drop-kick them on the spot.

[iite-cool]

simon the type of menace that fucks you silly with his fingers and his tongue on your clit while you're crying and begging for permission to cum ("c-can i cum, sir?") and the very second he says yes, your toes start curling and your back arches. but just as you're about to go careening off the edge, he pulls away. he kisses away the tears streaming down your heated cheeks as you thrash under him and whispers, "it's may i cum actually."

[captainjonnitkessler]

Guy at my union meeting tonight got pissed off that the union endorsed Biden and made a motion that nobody be allowed to talk about politics at any of the meetings. His reasoning was that he didn't want the meetings to be derailed with long-winded discussions or fights about politics. He is the only person to have brought up politics the whole meeting, he got into a ten-minute fight with the business manager about it, and he was wearing a "Biden is a communist sell-out" t-shirt the whole time.

[the-witchhunter]

DP x DC: Cyber Six AU

So Idea, take some aspects of Cyber Six and make it a Danny Phantom in Gotham situation

For those who don’t know, the basic premise is that Cyber Six is the creation of this mad scientist that escaped. She needs a substance that only the bad guy can produce to live and has to fight the creations of the bad guy in order to stop evil plans as well as get the substance. In the comics it’s more of a vampiric feeding. During the day she poses as a male English teacher while hiding her identity from her love interest. The love interest is in love with her as Cyber six, and friends with her as her teacher identity. The whole thing has a lot of trans themes and is totally worth watching the cartoon, but do you see where I’m going with this?

Danny in Gotham, hiding as a teacher by day, and fighting the artificial ghosts Vlad or the GIW send after him by night as Phantom. Gotham doesn’t really have much Ectoplasm, and Danny needs to feed on it. He’d move to a place with more, but Batman is a major deterrent and hiding in Gotham is keeping the people chasing him from coming themselves and risking getting on the Bat’s radar. Luckily, instead of realizing they could starve him out, they send their creations to drag him back, providing a guilt free source of ectoplasm

Danny get’s work at Gotham Academy as one of Tim’s teachers while hiding out. It would be just fine, he has a degree in chemistry and one in engineering. The issue? They gave him an English class, a subject he struggled with in school. Lucky for him while lamenting this fact to a stranger, one Jason Todd, he finds out the other man is a literature nerd and would be happy to go over his curriculum with him. Jason is just happy he has someone to info dump about Jane Austen to while he waits for Tim to get out.

Meanwhile, Red Hood is dealing with the sighting of odd creatures in his territory when he comes across Phantom. The two strike up a friendship while dealing with the threat to Hood’s territory, Phantom gets to feed from the artificial ghost, and so it goes on. 

Jason gets feeling for the mysterious Phantom, While Danny gets feeling for the charming literature nerd Jason. That’s right baby, the love square. They’re in love with their other identities. Meanwhile Tim is dying inside as his teacher is making goo goo eyes at his brother.

[wordfather]

got punched today for the first time ever. always thought it would be kinda cool. i could've been the mysterious one with the blackeye but noooo. im so embarrassed. the person who punched me is 8

[dont-hug-me-its-yuri]

Day 14 of Dhmis oddtober: Healthy!! (Happy birthday to Dhmis 5!!)

(@persy-r-bozo)

[saggitary]

Some headcannons I have about Echo :)

Once he joined the 501st Ahsoka found him reading reg manuals and gave him a few books to read instead, he promptly became a bookworm and joined Ahsoka and Jesse’s book club

He was the better strategist and close combat fighter while Fives was the better shot and better with changing conditions

can hold his liquor surprisingly well

is responsible for 1/5th of Rex’s gray hairs

after joining the Bad Batch it took him a while to start gaining his weight and muscle back as well as his coordination

however once he did start to gain some strength back he basically put himself through his own version of ARC training to get himself back to fighting form

he is the best sparrer on the Bad Batch, something Crosshair learned the hard way when was in an argument with Echo and challenged him to a sparring match

The sniper was down in less than a minute

As Echo recovered the Bad Batch realized they might have bitten off more than they bargained for by taking on the ARC trooper

He challenged them all not just because his skills usually match up with theirs, but because he grew up being challenged by his vod, and the Bad Batch was largely sheltered from the other clones

None of them know how much older Echo is than them and he plans on keeping it that way

The batch regularly refers to Echo has mom, including Hunter

Hunter was actually happy they took Echo on because his plans were beginning to get predictable and Echo head a lot of experience, he also didn’t take shit from any of the bad batch and helped keep them in line

Echo can beat everyone in the Bad Batch except for Wrecker in an arm wrestling contest

Once told his squad to leave the droid base to him and they went “lol ok regy we’ll come help in 10 mins” and then 5 mins later the whole place blew up and Echo just strutted out and tossed the Tacticle Droids head to Hunter

Wrecker was jealous

Regularly scares the Batch with how well he holds his alcohol

Crosshair and Tech once challenged Echo to a drinking contest and got their asses handed to them

Was the only one that new anything about girls when they took Omega on because he spent so much time with Ahsoka

Does not like anything when it comes to water because he only has one arm and he weighs a lot more than he used to because of his metal legs

He got Omega into reading for fun when she got bored with the courses Tech made for her

[snobgoblin]

some of the most important things u can learn how to draw are fat people and textured hair. btw. your art style should not lack these things

[ask-player-baldi]

✨Remake✨ cuz I can

[pocketramblr]

Ask game, please! AU where Yoichi, back in the Dawn of Quirks, discovers that he does have a quirk. He can steal the quirks from anyone he bites. Please.

Ehehe ok, two people asking

1- Yoichi discovers this the first time he's kidnapped. (It's one of his brother's goons on order to scare him.) They cover his mouth with one hand, holds the other away from his face, igniting a fire on it and threatening to light the whole building up if he fights. Yoichi bites his hand at the same time his brother kicks in the door, so he assumes the fire flickered out in fear and barely even realizes his body runs a little warmer than it used to.

2- until a dinner with his brother turns into a screaming match and Yoichi slams his hand down on the table, ready to march out- and then smells smoke. AfO is stunned that his little brother has a metapower after all, and one... Familiar, to him, but Yoichi thinks it only makes sense and is so happy to finally have one of his own.

3- he talks about being a fire themed hero and teases that he should have had red eyes where his greedy brother had green. AfO doesn't want him to suspect that his quirk might be something more, so he acts like it's just a little fire quirk, nothing for Yoichi to get too excited about, it's not very strong and he's still sick, don't want to catch a fever.

4- but Yoichi did realize what his quirk actually was. He feigns ignorance as well, until yet another argument with his brother leads to AfO trying to steal his quirk- unsuccessfully. Yoichi bites him in retaliation. He can't steal anything from him either. AfO quickly locks Yoichi up so he can't interact with anyone he could potentially take a quirk from.

5- this leads to Second inheriting a stockpile of a couple powers from Yoichi (fire, and a limited stamina boost), as well as the ability to steal more by biting- but he realizes he can't use any he stole. When OfA is passed to Third, Third can use any quirks Second stole - but none from Yoichi or that Third takes. This continues until All Might, who's able to use all of the quirks in the stockpile, but can't seem to steal any. He wonders if the quirk is full. It certainly seems to be, and Izuku is under the impression he can't steal any more either, and wouldn't want to with how difficult balancing the huge amount of powers from All Might already is. That is until the Muscular fight, when Izuku gets desperate and bites- and is suddenly able to use the muscle quirk where the villain can't. (Izuku finds using any he himself steals easier than the ones given to him, but he's determined to figure those out anyway.)

[concha-de-mar]

Eragon cursing a baby to ill fate is making me so upset. That poor boy just tried his best with what he knew but that doesn’t change what he did and he’s blaming himself even tho he didn’t know and he’s not even able to fix his mistake bc he’s needed there and just fuckkkkkk I’m so sad

[whoa-where-did-the-pancakes-go]

I dont want to use the fuckingggggg ai pleaseeee. Pleassssseeeeee.

[gomacave]

Habfnvksiqjjfckisjsnfndkaksmfnf the theory that seph chest straps and bare chest r subtle cocky taunting/shinra propaganda like look our Unkillable Unstabbable TANK is so. SMILES. anyways. This is why we should give her epic boobs in this essay i will-