#book: sinful like us

[darkdragon768]

Various doodles of the Dorito Twins.

I just like to play with them like dolls and put them into situations.

[a-heart-of-kyber]

I can only speak as a person raised Catholic (heh...), but let me present a wild scenario.

Could you imagine the actual Holy Spirit having a clear and direct sentient influence in your child's life?

With this connection to the Holy Spirit, he starts performing absolutely insane miracles that a Child shouldn't be capable of and by the age of 8 God's chosen priest shows up like "Hey kid, have you heard of our lord and savior Jesus Christ? In my day, he was super sexy. You’re special. I'm going to train you and later you should probably go to a religious school."

And then, by age 17ish, Jesus himself shows up like, "Yes, twas me the whole time. Let me train you one on one my child." And then a year later, your son tells you he's sleeping with Jesus?

Like...does this help anyone understand what happened to Gale better? Or does it help that the Mystra analog is depicted as a man? Do you need me to hold your hand and tell you that even if Gale showed interest, it was on Mystra, as the omniscient god with all the power in the relationship and Future sight?!, to not fucking sleep with the mortal who maybe became an adult 5 minutes ago?

[queenerdloser]

i just finished dark heir

[quatregats]

I'm rereading Master and Commander and I'm deeply in danger of just posting every single passage from it ever but I did love the way that the capture of the prize in Chapter 6 was framed on either side by the logbook's entry, and also the way he transitions out of it to set the scene and tone:

Sunday, July 1 … Mustered the ship’s company by divisions read the Articles of War performed Divine Service and committed the body of Henry Gouges to the deep. At noon dº weather. Ditto weather: but the sun sank towards a livid, purple, tumescent cloud-bank piled deep on the western horizon, and it was clear to every seaman aboard that it was not going to remain ditto much longer. The seamen, sprawling abroad on the fo’c’sle and combing out their long hair or plaiting it up again for one another, kindly explained to the landmen that this long swell from the south and east, this strange sticky heat that came both from the sky and the glassy surface of the heaving sea, and this horribly threatening appearance of the sun, meant that there was to be a coming dissolution of all natural bonds, an apocalyptic upheaval, a right dirty night ahead. The sailormen had plenty of time to depress their hearers, already low in their spirits because of the unnatural death of Henry Gouges (had said, ‘Ha, ha, mates, I am fifty years old this day. Oh dear,’ and had died sitting there, still holding his untasted grog) – they had plenty of time, for this was Sunday afternoon, when in the course of nature the fo’c’sle was covered with sailors at their ease, their pigtails undone. Some of the more gifted had queues they could tuck into their belts; and now that these ornaments were loosened and combed out, lank when still wet, or bushy when dry and as yet ungreased, they gave their owners a strangely awful and foreboding look, like oracles; which added to the landmen’s uneasiness.

[...]

Jack leant back against the curved run of the stern-window and let Killick’s version of coffee down by gulps into his grateful stomach; and at the same time that its warmth spread through him, so there ran a lively tide of settled, pure, unfevered happiness – a happiness that another commander (remembering his own first prize) might have discerned from the log-entry, although it was not specifically mentioned there: 1/2 past 10 tacked, 11 in courses, reefed topsail. AM cloudy and rain. 1/2 past 4 chase observed E by S, distance 1/2 mile. Bore up and took possession of dº, which proved to be L’Aimable Louise, French polacre laden with corn and general merchandise for Cette, of about 200 tons, 6 guns and 19 men. Sent her with an officer and eight men to Mahon.

[juanabaloo]

HC for Faith in 3x14 Bad Girls: i don't have any real quibbles with Faith's spiral / reaction to accidentally killing Finch the Mayor's aide. i think it is logical. but i think it adds a delicious layer (JUICY ANGST) to her reaction if it reminds her of a previous death.

pre Sunnydale back in Boston maybe she doesn't know her own strength, esp if she recently got her powers. maybe she accidentally kills some guy she just means to shove, bc Slayer strength and all that. like she meant for him to take a step back and instead he goes back like 20 feet and gets accidentally impaled. later she figures it out (maybe Diana helps, maybe not) - and she says "i didn't know."

or perhaps it's a truly similar situation, Diana (her watcher) is keeping an eye as she patrols but these vamps come out of a club into the alley and there's vamps and regular people running around and she accidentally stakes a human.

Diana assures her it was just an accident and calms down a very upset Faith. Diana disposes of the body, telling Faith after how she did it. they talk about it at length afterwards, back in the safety of Diana's place (where Faith is living). says all the same stuff Giles does about how this has happened before. "how many people do you think a Slayer saves? it is terrible and regrettable but sometimes there are casualties" etc.

"you should not pretend it didn't happen but you cannot think about it while you are out on patrol. you have to move past it Faith. a moment's hesitation is all a vampire needs to kill you. you have to stay focused, this is your work, it is not meant to be carefree fun."

[really this works either way, the "don't know my own strength" version or the "vamps and people running around" version. bc Diana can help her process and learn from both.]

and Diana's reaction - calm and reasonable and supportive - really shakes Faith. she is NOT used to this. Diana did not assume the worst of her, didn't ignore her mistake but also assumed Faith would be better next time. Diana trusts her, doesn't limit her patrolling at all, and Faith gloms onto Diana even harder than before. (until ofc Diana dies, when Faith couldn't save her from Kakistos)

and then she and Buffy are in the groove and it's so much fun and then Bad Girls Finch happens and it immediately guts Faith. it reminds her of how alone she is, bc Diana is not there to help her, even just talking to her. it reminds her what a failure she is bc this is now THE SECOND time it happened. that she should have learned from before and she did not. it reminds her how she will never be as good of a Slayer as Buffy, bc ofc Faith doesn't know about how Buffy killed humans* before bc the show pretends it never happened and oh yeah CEO of repression Buffy never talks about it.

( * ) for the fact checkers: i believe the list is Ted (before she knew he was a robot), the zookeeper in The Pack, the coach in Go Fish, the germans in Homecoming, and a Knight of Byzantium. sure some of these are more passive and all IMO deserved but Ted is the biggest one for me.

Faith still blames herself for Diana dying bc she couldn't stop Kakistos. AND NOW it doesn't even matter that her and Buffy killed Kakistos and she "avenged" Diana (her words, not Diana's). bc the best things that Faith learned from Diana don't matter anymore. they aren't true anymore. Diana believed in Faith, believed Faith could become a better Slayer, that Faith could learn from her mistakes. Faith let Diana down (again) when she accidentally kills Finch. Faith now believes Diana was wrong to believe in her, and Faith loses all faith in herself. (sorry there really isn't a better word)

[essektheylyss]

ngl, mentioning one of my hyperfixations does not necessarily activate my trap card. mentioning a book or media that I LOATHED, on the other hand,

[frobby]

i love madoka magica however i dont think we as a fandom talk enough about how tragic madoka herself is. probably because the narrative itself steers you away from thinking about her personally. shes not a character shes a desire that homura has, shes a force of good, shes homura's foil. but those are all madoka's narrative roles but madoka herself as a person is not really looked at because we are viewing this world from an unreliable narrator(homura) who only sees madoka as those things. The best thing homura could have done for madoka was give up on her, to let her go. because every time we go back in time the image of madoka is distorted, she loses more of herself every regression of homura's as she tries harder and harder to save her. We don't even know what madoka originally wished for to become a magical girl in the original timeline. and she actually acts quite differently than the madoka we meet. shes a lot more honest and caring and bold. by the time homura's has reached the actual anime madoka has been reduced by the sands of time to a figment of herself. she has no wants or desires of her own beyond wanting to do good and help her friends and when all her humanity is stripped away is when she finally acends to godhood because thats all thats left of her. an ideal and a faith in her. madoka kaname died a long time ago and all that is left is her ghost.

[corellianhounds]

And we didn’t even get to see Boba and Mando kvetch over ships like a couple of old men

[toastedcinnamonflakes]

Throwback to the time I told part of my family about No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, was really excited about it and told them not only the story but also the circumstances it was written under.

And my aunt nearly breaks down crying because "How can young people read something so horrible :c" and "suicide is a sin!!!"

I genuinely had no words, because what the fuck.

[valentinesparda]

Hey Valentine!! Been thinking about DMC lately and was wondering if you could tell me some stuff about your DMC s/i? :0 perhaps what their relationship with Vergil is like? -[Wayfinderships]

@wayfinderships OH BOY OH BOY IVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT DMC RECENTLY TOO !!!! i miss my half demon husband. it sure has been a whole hot minute since I talked about gabriel in general, and it sure has just hit me that you and most of my current mutuals completely missed my dmc era, so!!

gabriel is my self insert, and they are a collector of demonic goods, a purveyor of powerful artefacts, and they meet vergil shortly before dmc3 is taking place, mostly because their paths cross through happenstance and they offer up information for him. they're around the same age as the twins at this point during the timeline, the two of them are kind of friends and kind of bickering back and forth, and eventually when Vergil Goes To Hell, they kind of dig themself into a hole of work since they're the apprentice to the actual collector they have been working for

um to make a long story short these are bullet points:

find a particular artefact associated to a general of hell named haures, who has his own little plans and manages to take possession of gabriel gradually over time, for the most part they function like they green goblin talking to his own mask

haures corrupts them and essentially demonizes them so they functionally stop aging / age so slowly that it isn't really noticeable

they are also hearing from haures about mundus and sparda and are doing their own little research, maybe in hopes of coming across that one weird white haired dude they met before

their research brings them to fortuna when nero is a little kid !! will expand upon that when i get back around to dmc4

they cross paths with dante a lot!! and he is their friend somewhat

the whole time they're doing all of this they are like actively dying from haures and have to stay in tip-top shape otherwise he will actually kill them!! but no one else can communicate with haures so he's just kind of their intrusive thoughts

badabadaba dmc5 rolls around and v shows up and suddenly it's like they're 20 again and experiencing feelings

anyways gabriel's relationship with vergil was initially a little fling for the short time that they knew each other when they were younger, and tidbits of that are echoed in meeting v. like gabriel wouldn't admit to it and they think they're doing such a good job of hiding it but everyone they know can SEE how they act

and then suddenly vergil is back!! and they are a dam in the process of breaking!! the two of them proceed to bicker like an old married couple and most of vergil's time spent as v winds up being mental anguish and maturity and confronting his own human emotions, so even though they are continuing on that leftover thread from when they were younger and they didn't spend very much time together, it's like they've known eachother forever. like they do care about eachother, clearly, but they're overall very sweet in their own ways and completely awkward in navigating their relationship and feelings. because they are eachothers first love or something. yucky. I'm not approaching the lady in red topic right now because if I do then I have to do mental gymnastics but it's fine, we'll just loophole it

anyways blah blah gabriel and vergil are like. aggressively embarrassed in how they interact with each other, because they're kind of too similar that it's funny, but they do genuinely like eachother. maybe it's just because they were each other's only friend when they were in their teens and were both being manipulated for someone else's gain lol. and after vergil's stay in hell and subsequent Speedrun of the human existence he calms down a little and lets himself learn to love, not just romantically but like, familially. he gets to learn about the people that he left behind again and the one he's never met before (his son), and that is just. so important to me

so gabriel is kind of the only person initially rooting for him, even if they would rather swallow glass than be vulnerable, but they can also have vergil help them control their corruption and possibly use haures to their advantage because i had it set up where he was yeah, a dumbass trying to usurp the throne, but I wanted to plan a whole plot surrounding him and maybe lore connecting him to sparda, specifically

I know i joke about them bickering and being unable to function as real people but i have a very special place in my heart for vergil, not just favourite character wise but also self ship wise. im personally very hardheaded and dragging my real feelings out of me is like literally pulling teeth, so I've hidden a lot of my affections behind jokes and that kind of is also reflected in how I talk about vergil. but i did eventually open up about it and that's where the handfasting ceremony came from. i finally just accepted that i loved him as a character and ive been trying to unlearn my bad behaviors and learn that it's okay to be vulnerable, and not to hold everything in all the time

i like. rambled but its to avoid having to voice how their relationship is in full detail, so all i really have to say is that it's complicated but also plainly simple how they work together, how they love. they do deeply care about the other, and while it takes some time to let the initial feelings go unsaid, they are at their center both very lonely people who have put their trust into someone that they can see themselves in, who know how the other one feels and expresses feelings, with the addition of v functioning as an a-ha moment for vergil while gabriel has had 30 years to think on the guy they first loved - and proceeded to immediately fall back in love with upon seeing again

[ace-trainer-risu]

sometimes I read a published novel and find myself wondering how an editor ever let it out the door

[ceramicbeetle]

my fatal flaw is that i love notebooks and i love taking notes and i love reorganizing files and love to rewrite things and so i am constantly fielding the impulse to do nothing but rewrite the same notes in new configurations in different notebooks all day long

[outlawssweetheart]

Bitches will see a character murder (often times, brutally murder) innocent people and ignore it or excuse it or even support it (fine, I do that too, they aren’t real). Meanwhile, that same character will do something else that is almost as bad, bad but not even nearly as bad as murdering innocents, or something that isn’t even bad at all, and they will FLIP THEIR SHIT! And suddenly, that character is a demon for that, but not for the homicide, and anyone who likes them is “Excusing this kind of behavior!!”

Like, honey, you just saw them mutilate an innocent bystander. 😒

Unless a character is on some fucking Freddy Kr*ger shit, I have to say the murders are at least slightly worse.

[peapod20001]

Shhh they don’t know my characters and stories have deeper meanings behind them...

[eleilinnrallin]

Realized that the main reason I hate the way a lot of conservative Christians talk about queer things is because they have made absolutely no effort to actually understand it.

And sure maybe they've read a book or two, but never with the intent to see "oh, what is this, actually?" or "what can I learn about these people?" It's always with the intent of "how can I learn why I am right?" "how can I more effectively argue against this ideology?" "how can I feel like the good guy for saying these things they say are hateful?"

There's several issues with this.

Going in with the intention of learning how to defend your point isn't going to lead to an actual understanding of the people you are claiming to try and learn about. It's only going to confirm what you believe.

Treating people as "ideologies" is flat out wrong. (This is why I hate the word "transgenderism", for one.) It is dehumanizing, even.

Never go to second-hand sources to learn about a group of people. Because those people will be wrong. I primarily learned this from being Mormon--people will say outright wrong and hateful things about Mormonism! And so if people are aiming to learn about Mormons they're going to end up with misinformation rather than real understanding. And this is true about queer people.

If you really want to understand queer people, talk to queer people. With a genuine interest in understanding, not in rejecting them and finding reasons they are "sinful" or whatever.

[timothyslucy]

why is that tiktok book icebreaker following me everywhere i go????