#but I am spreading my old man propaganda

[radishearts]

Still fleshing out the fintan design but i inch closer every day 🗣️🗣️

My (second) favourite old man who gardens 🫶

[despairforme]

[saintsenara]

rare pair tag game

thanks for the tag, @said-snape-softly :)

i'm pretty sure everyone has done this by now, but if you'd like to, please consider this a blanket tag.

apart from all the tomarry and the odd dabble in remadora, i am a rare-pair enthusiast, so i am delighted to spread some propaganda here... the criterion i've used for a rare-pair is less than 2500 works on ao3.

pairs, little metas, fic recommendations, and some suggestions for authors to follow under the cut.

sirius black/severus snape

why i ship it:

this one can just about claim to be a rare-pair.

sirius and severus are narrative mirrors, whose complicated relationship to themselves and to each other is crucial for driving several of the most important arcs in the series.

in particular, sirius - constantly haunted by guilt and grief over his role in the death of the man he loved [you can decide if his love for james is platonic or not, but i definitely think the text thinks it isn't...], trapped in his childhood home, unable to have his real loyalties acknowledged before his death by the fact he's on the run - leads harry through his journey in hero-worshipping, then being disappointed in, then forgiving james. and then promptly dies.

this is one of harry's most significant areas of personal growth - it begins to chip away at his rather black-and-white morality, which is finally destroyed by his ability to confront the complexity of dumbledore in deathly hallows - but it is also key narratively: harry coming to understand james starts to hint to the reader that it is lily - otherwise absent from her son's conception of himself - who is the key to the mystery...

which brings us to severus - constantly haunted by guilt and grief over his role in the death of the woman he loved, trapped in his childhood home, unable to have his real loyalties acknowledged before his death by the fact he's a spy - who gives harry, and us, the final piece of the puzzle. and then promptly dies.

put them together, though? well, you get the delicious tension of two fundamentally broken people - who cannot comprehend the possibility of their own redemption - bound to each other. can they forgive each other and themselves? is it a disaster? the story can go either way.

and even in fluff there is so much potential for d r a m a between sirius' recklessness and severus' cunning, sirius' emotional control and severus' temper, the fact that sirius is canonically hot and severus is canonically not, how they react to harry and draco [i don't usually accept the fanon that severus is his godfather, except when it means snack can be fighting about it], and so on.

and i'm a sucker for two bitter old men getting a happy ending. sue me.

want to give it a read?

if you trust nothing else i say in my life [and why should you] you can trust this - second life by nwhiker and cassandra7 is one of the greatest pieces of writing i have ever seen, not only in this pairing but in this fandom full stop. it's a profound and solemn meditation on loving and grieving, choice and chance, and the great pain caused by the divide between the magical and the muggle worlds.

then, for gorgeous angst with a happy ending - two boys kissing by @writcraft and the merit in trying by brightened

albus dumbledore/tom riddle | voldemort

why i ship it:

the facetious answer is because they wouldn't be so obsessed with each other if there wasn't some sexual tension underneath it.

the facetious and nsfw answer is because it appeals to the part of me whose favourite book aged 11 was lolita

the serious answer is that they should be horrifying together: they're both liars; both incredibly self-righteous; both living behind masks which conceal their true emotions and motivations; dumbledore took one look at tom as an eleven-year-old, said "he reminds me of gellert", and then did nothing about it; tom thinks dumbledore's a hypocrite and is right, although not for the reasons he thinks; there is a colossal age gap; there is virtually no scenario in any timeline where they could be openly in a relationship unless one of them is concealing his identity; and - really, this seems quite minor in the grand scheme of things - they are constantly trying to destroy each other.

but.

intellectually, they are the only two characters in the series who could be the other's equal - i'm sure that violent arguments about the twelve uses of dragon's blood trigger the majority of their sexual encounters, and a man who's passionate about your research is hot.

if either of them ever fancy being honest - so, no - there is a shared cavernous [although, in tom's case, unacknowledged] grief in their lives which has shaped their not-as-divergent-as-the-text-thinks-they-are views on death, love, duty and so on. their active refusal to understand each other [i.e. dumbledore entirely misreading voldemort's motivations in the job interview scene] and commitment to constantly underestimating each other [i.e. voldemort bouncing around like an idiot in the chamber of secrets instead of using his brain and remembering what a phoenix is] could, in time, lead to something almost resembling acceptance. i mean, just imagine the hurt/comfort sex which happens when voldemort finds out about grindledore.

the way dumbledore describes the young riddle - "self-sufficient, secretive, and, apparently, friendless" - is also an exact description of him. that each sees himself in the other canonically drives their hatred of each other, but it could also appeal to two very vain men in a much racier way. after all, who doesn't want to bang their narrative mirror?

and being an orphan probably doesn't seem so bad when you realise your boyfriend's family is aberforth.

want to give it a read?

i can't recommend concordance by @laeveteinn enough, particularly for one of the best-written dumbledores i've ever seen. i find dumbledore is often written either as far more whimsical than i'd like, or far more fiery and radical [when one of his most interesting personality traits in canon is his tendency towards inaction], but this dumbledore is the perfect balance of contradictions, while tom is his canonical feral self, longing to perceived, rather than the emotionless sociopath of so many other stories.

i also recommend as an entire ocean in a drop by eldritcher, which really leans into just how similar these two are underneath all the artifice.

albus dumbledore/severus snape

why i ship it:

well, we've had dumbledore with one lost boy, let's have him with another [i haven't been brave enough to venture into dumbledore/harry yet, but i'll take recommendations...]

as with riddledore, we have the potential for horror here: a vast power imbalance; enormous age gap; the fact dumbledore sends snape out to potentially die every time he goes off to voldemort; and - this is the crucial one - the fact that dumbledore's recognition of himself in snape is pure self-loathing ["you disgust me"] manifested in punishment [allowing snape to be humiliated in front of fudge, not stopping the presumed-to-be-real moody searching his office, making him give harry occlumency lessons, not letting him teach defence against the dark arts].

but then this stops, when snape does the tremendously brave thing of agreeing to kill dumbledore, and their dynamic equalises, as dumbledore recognises that snape is courageous, steadfast, and redeemed. i'm always struck in half-blood prince by the fact that dumbledore has it with harry's sniping about snape and straight-up tells him to shut up, as well as by the fact that he very nearly gives the game away and confesses why snape switched sides [the thing he promised not to do] when harry finds out it was snape who gave voldemort the prophecy.

and within this equalised dynamic - so this hot geriatric sex is happening in the afterlife, i guess - we have two men who are intellectual close-to-equals, who understand grief and guilt, whose aesthetic senses are charmingly mismatched, who are rarely honest but might be for each other, and who have lots of profound similarities which might lead somewhere...

want to give it a read?

cheerfully disregarding everything i've just said about how snumbledore could work, i highly recommend in infinite remorse of soul by @perverse-idyll, which is a chilling look at how dumbledore uses the power imbalance between the two to assuage his own guilt through snape's humiliation.

for something much more wholesome, i'm a big fan of byzantium by eldritcher

petunia dursley/severus snape

why i ship it:

because vernon is a dick.

i'm fond of petunia, who i think is one of the most interesting characters in the series because of how full of contradictions she is, and who i think is also a victim in fandom spaces of how the adult cast was aged up for the films [in canon, she's only in her early twenties when lily dies, and the implication is that vernon is a good deal older than her)] which makes her inadequacies, such as her inability to truly care for either child in the household, seem much more nuanced than they do if she's pictured as a middle-aged woman with considerable life experience.

like snape, she teeters on a knife edge between various chasms: she is a working-class girl from the midlands made good in middle-class surrey, he is a working-class half-blood boy who spends most of his life in pureblood circles; she ends up with her whole life wrapped up in a square little house when she's barely out of her teens, he ends up with his whole life wrapped up in spying at the same age; she hates the wizarding world and yet covets it, he hates the muggle world and yet cannot escape it; she loves lily and she hates her and she loathes her for dying, he... well, you know the rest.

want to give it a read?

i was first convinced by this pairing by the lovely regretfully yours by @maria-de-salinas, which takes both snape and petunia's awkwardness and bitterness and moulds it into something really tender.

i also highly recommend barking at the moon by rinsbane, the summary of which speaks for itself.

merope gaunt/tom riddle sr.

why i ship it:

our first canon pairing, and probably the most problematic of the canon relationships, since the series never acknowledges that tom sr. is a rape victim.

but i have found myself recently in my merope era and, in particular, in an attempt to give her more nuance than she gets in canon. as i've said to anyone who'll listen in the three broomsticks discord server, i loathe the implication in canon that merope dies because she just cba to live [since it directly justifies voldemort's belief that her death was shameful] and prefer to see her as someone who was desperate to escape a truly horrifying life [the fact she's going to be forced into an incestuous relationship with morfin is right there in canon...] and so did something she didn't have the capacity to understand the implications of [this is not a woman who's ever heard of consent] because she thought it would give her the first chance to be happy in her life, watched it all crash and burn around her, and would have very much liked to have lived to raise her son.

i doubt there was anything real or tender in her relationship with tom sr., of course, and his escape - while merely a brief stay of execution from his son's perspective - is tremendously brave. it's impossible to write tom/merope fluff [although i respect you if you're inclined to try] but fanfiction gives a space to explore the intricacies of their relationship which canon doesn't allow, and i'm obsessed.

want to give it a read?

i'm recommending myself here, and assuring you that you will enjoy: enchanter's nightshade, which explores how merope's attempts to keep her husband enslaved fail; the snow child, which treats the relationship as folk-horror; and the shack at the end of the lane, in which there is redemption, in the end.

the best exploration of tom sr. dealing with the fallout of the relationship is @phantomato's exquisite ganymede, which feels so truly embodied that you can't pull yourself away from the page.

bellatrix lestrange/tom riddle | voldemort

why i ship it:

our second canon pairing, i am obsessed with these two and the tragedy and - to some extent - tenderness bound up in their relationship [which can be proven to be there because noted softy @whinlatter loves them].

i've written before about my conviction - in contrast to a lot of bellatrix fans - that her relationship with rodolphus is utterly miserable, and that voldemort is the only man in her life who can understand her desire to make a life for herself which is not constrained by the gendered expectations of her social class.

obviously, lord voldemort is not a shining paragon of a boyfriend [and he is an awful choice as a baby daddy, bella, get it together], but i think the enormous power imbalance is perhaps slightly less enormous than is sometimes assumed - certainly, she tells him to his face in half-blood prince that he's wrong to trust snape [she's a clever woman], voldemort never physically punishes her for anything [rip to lucius malfoy, who seems to get picked for this in her stead], and voldemort tolerates a surprising amount of nonsense from her which shatters his mystique.

all of which is to say... the scream when she dies isn't just because he's losing the war.

want to give it a read?

tee hee, i'm recommending myself again, and encouraging you to take a look at: atramentum, bellamort's last afternoon together before voldemort goes to the potters; nor all that glisters gold, bellatrix's life - including her relationship with voldemort - through sirius' eyes; and death (eaters) in paradise, because murderous psychopaths deserve crack fics too.

draco malfoy/tom riddle | voldemort

why i ship it:

because the ship name is taco.

these two are a pairing which i enjoy with my tongue firmly in my cheek [and tom's tongue firmly in draco's], as i do with most other things in which draco is a main character [do i want to read drarry angst? no! do i want to chuckle? absolutely!], although this should not be taken as saying that many of taco's fabulous authors don't manage to make the pairing entirely plausible.

in fact, consensual taco [non-con is, of course, its own beast] often has some of the best characterisation of both tom [fretful, mercurial, stubborn, and nowhere near as charming as he thinks he is] and draco [prissy, a very good judge of character, someone who likes being taken care of, and much braver than he appears if he absolutely has to be] i've seen in the fandom, largely because - unlike other voldemort-centric ships [especially tomarry, but also voldemort + any of the adult death eaters] - there's no sense of inevitability there. these two aren't connected by a shared bit of soul, or a prophecy, or having gone to school together, or having been hooked in by voldemort in the first war when he was unassailable.

they have to choose each other. or, more accurately, draco has to choose tom, and tom has to get chosen.

and the results have me entertained.

want to give it a read?

then you will want to have a look at the travelling cabinet by @the-paper-monkey [and its sequel, bluebeard], truly the gold standard of taco content with an absolutely brilliant draco, whose sheer capacity to cling on and make himself an irremovable part of tom's life may just end up changing the course of history.

narcissa malfoy/severus snape

why i ship it:

because i am in deep with the conspiracy theory that it's canon. i am absolutely certain that narcissa is the person that voldemort is referring to at the end of deathly hallows - "he desired her, that was all, but when she had gone, he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him". it seems highly unlikely to me that the canonical voldemort would give a shit about snape fancying any random pureblood [although the snapemort version is, naturally, hugely jealous], but snape having had some sort of liaison with narcissa, and the ability knowing this gives voldemort to humiliate snape, narcissa, the memory of lily, bellatrix, lucius, and draco is definitely information he would go out of his way to remember...

plus, how do you know where he lives, babe? v suspicious.

want to give it a read?

if you want some fluff, you will very much enjoy the incredibly sweet the reformed man by gingertart50, which features narcissa nursing snape back to health post-nagini and is a favourite re-read for me when i'm drunk and it's christmas.

if you want some very-much-not-fluff, other women and of purer blood by yours truly will scratch the itch...

minerva mcgonagall/severus snape

why i ship it:

because i'm an equal-opportunity age-gap fan, and there is far too little older woman/younger man in the fandom.

and look, i'll admit it, i'm a fan of the fanon that snape and mcgonagall are friends prior to dumbledore's death - i'm not sure it's canonically plausible, but this sign can't stop me because i can't read - and i like the idea of that blossoming into something more, especially in fics where snape survives the second war. after all, he is a man who definitely needs to be treated quite strictly [and i don't just mean in the staff room], there is a shared loneliness and grief to them both, they're intellectual equals despite the age gap, and bickering about quidditch is absolutely fine as a method of foreplay.

plus, you can't tell me dumbledore's portrait doesn't ship it.

want to give it a read?

for a fic which shows minerva at her acerbic - and yet still sensual - best, always but not necessarily forever by gingertart50 is an old, fluffy, and very funny, favourite.

for something much more bittersweet, that good night by kelly_chambliss has my heart.

severus snape/tom riddle | voldemort

why i ship it:

because voldemort is canonically down bad for it - there is no need to believe snape's ridiculous cover story for not attending his resurrection, to try and spare lily as a treat for his man, and to give him a nice, painful death which allows the narrative to move on and harry to defeat him if the dark lord isn't firmly in his simp era.

more seriously, they obviously have an enormous amount in common, particularly in terms of their backgrounds [harry draws a connection between all three of them, but actually the fact that harry is rich in the wizarding world, not a slytherin, and with a muggle mother, therefore giving him a pureblood name, means he can't relate to the post-childhood experience of both halves of snapemort].

as a result, i think snape is the death eater who comes the closest to understanding voldemort's motivations - above all, the fact that he's not seeking an oligarchy, which the malfoys etc. obviously believe - while voldemort is someone snape feels understands his intellectual interests and his creativity.

want to give it a read?

boy, are you in luck, because i myself have a snapemort wip - scylla and charybdis. it is not wholesome.

tom riddle/myrtle warren

why i ship it:

because it started as crack and now i love them.

in particular, i just have so much respect for being incredibly annoying as a method of seduction, and i think myrtle's commitment to just following tom around chattering at him - and, therefore, without her realising it, preventing him from committing all sorts of crimes - is iconic.

want to give it a read?

then my unhinged rom-com - bookbinding - shall provide.

tom riddle | voldemort/ginny weasley

why i ship it:

because i enjoy seeing my dear friends who ship hinny shake and cry.

but also because ginny and tom have an enormous number of similarities, right down to the fact that they both have yew wands [if you're sick of people saying harry has an oedipus complex, you'll be delighted to be confronted with the mountain of evidence ginny reminds him of the villain who keeps trying to kill him instead].

they are both very good liars, quick thinking, remarkably resistant to shame, possessed of nerves of steel, predisposed to violence, brown-eyed, so hot they have harry gagged, and the profound enemy of someone whose surname is smith.

despite what he claims, tom was absolutely not just sat politely in that diary gritting his teeth while ginny complained about having second hand robes and idiot brothers. as he says, he opted "to start feeding [her] a few of my secrets", and i think it's justifiable from canon that they were at the very least half-truths [for example, i would not be shocked to discover he tells her he's a half-blood orphan brought up against his will in the muggle world - there's no other reason, i think, for him to successfully make her tell him these things about harry without it], which means that ginny has lots of lovely emotional leverage over him.

plus, as with tomarry, you have the element of "this is kind of inevitable" in the relationship, and the mysteries of fate are always sexy.

want to give it a read?

this is a tommary/hinny/tominny triad, but it has had me in a chokehold since the first time i read it - shameful company by merrivale, which, truly iconically, manages to be epilogue compliant.

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

Ok, I wrote a lot in the post, but the drama that made me roll my eyes was the drama about the Olympics and the fact that "They insult the Christian image" (Even though the painting was not "The Last Supper", but "The Feast of the Gods"), this drama simply distracted attention from the fact that Israel was allowed to take part in the Olympics…

There are two paintings with a similar title, but I'm somewhat sure this painting was parodied by a drag queen

Yes, the images are similar, but not the same

And yes, the Internet mainly parodied "The Last Supper", but the drag queens chose a similar image, so you see… This drama made no sense and distracted attention from the fact that Israel was allowed… Which is depressing on many levels

Now that I have your attention:

---------------------------------

There are simply many dramas that distract from what is happening in the world, yes, there are dramas that I support and understand (like this drama with this man who spread pro-Putin propaganda), but many dramas are just so… Trivial

Don't forget about the collections at the top!

[silvcrignis]

Claude Frollo Out of Context Sentence Starters || Part I/?

I have a divine mission to spread the Our Claude > Canon Frollo propaganda. What better way to do so than by making various quotes of his a sentence meme?

Clowning

 “What the FUCK is Bible Study & Chill?!”

 “Do you lot think the Booberry ghost is blue because he died by strangulation???

“I was absolutely high as shit last night. The Warwick Davis leprechaun himself could have started playing knick knack on my lung & I likely would not have noticed.”

 “HOW MANY OF YOU FUCKERS SAW ME EVERYDAY & KNEW I WAS GAY & DID NOT FUCKING SAY ANYTHING?!”

 “MA’M/SIR THAT IS FOUR MILLION DOLLAR MERCHANDISE DO NOT BREAK WHAT YOU CANNOT BUY!” 

 “...Why do you smell like Nesquik Strawberry Milk?” 

“The asshole you are trying to reach is not available. Please disconnect the call & do not try again.”

“Also the day you catch me living in a shack is the day to lock me up because that would mean I finally went clinical, pal."

“Quit talking about shoving things in my ass, you perverted old man/woman!” 

 “Well. You are BORING me right now. I cannot relate to your poor person problems.”

“If I could physically meet myself I would beat the shit out of him.” 

“…I am not sweet, __. Slander me again & I will take legal action.” 

“Her vagina could probably host a fucking bounce house for all of them.”

“Na fam. Delete it right now.”

“Nearly every single time you speak you bring this family great dishonour.”

 “There is only so much suffering I can endure.”

 “I FOUND A CAT!

 “You would end up being spilt worse than my firewood.

“You cannot do coke, that is illegal!

 “Down to fucking kill myself.”

 “If you are so insistent on sucking my cock this often you ought get some knee pads.”

“I like snow. It is a good way to hit your enemies with glass shards before they realise what is happening.”

 “Do you want bullshit or the truth?”

 “I am seconds away from a brain aneurysm, son.”

 “You would be a wonderful addition to someone’s mantle. In an urn!”

 “Shut the fuck up, old man!”

 “I do not use Faebook. Faebook is for losers & old people.”

 *sarcastically* “I went out to the woods. Pretended to be a forest nymph for a few hours.”

“That is… Not my problem.”

 “Did the vibrating make it better or worse, son?”

“New Jersey’s state fruit is blueberry, you fucking crackhead.”

“No no. Continue squabbling, bottoms.”

“Like what the fuck like I can say hoe if I want to! I am a hoe, I have the pass!” 

“I want no part in your cockles, __.”

“That is too many babies, Miss/Mister.”

“Ugh no.”

“Pull up then, Fuckboy.”

“Actually I was thinking about that one medieval meme about the leggings.” 

“You cannot cancel me. I am a bad bitch.” 

Being Fucking For Real

“… Unless… Oh fuck… I must be having another psychotic break.

“Would not be the first goddamn time I had a hallucination…”

“Those were the last words I ever said to my own son’s face… Then I never saw him again.”

“... Tell me you love me again? Please?”

“What the hell was I supposed to say to you that would not sound fucking weird & desperate?”

“You know, wills to read & a little brother to parent…”

“… It was always you but… You deserve someone normal.”

“I will be perfectly fine alone, the way I always am.”

*wryly* “Ah yes, because everyone keeps their promises, __.”

“I am going to beat his ass. The next time. I see him.”

“God, I know I do not deserve it but I love you so fucking much.”

[shiyorin]

I just want to know what mommy Kether will say about primarchs, and what primarchs will say about Kether!!! 🙏

Bruh, you found my oc fics? Right?

But if you curious, then here we are.

Lion El'Johnson: Edgy loner, very original. Try socializing sometime.

Fulgrim: For one so obsessed with perfection and beauty, you sure make ugly decisions.

Perturabo: All that angst and bitterness will give you wrinkles. Oh wait...

Jaghatai Khan: Gotta go fast! Wise enough to stay out of your brother's squabbles.

Leman Russ: You'd be the lovable yet stupid sidekick in any story. Woof woof.

Rogal Dorn: Rules were meant to be followed, not taken so literally. Lighten up!

Konrad Curze: Creepy goth freak hiding behind "justice." Get some sunshine!

Sanguinius: Looks like an angel but hides devil horns under that halo of hair.

Ferrus Manus: Ah yes, hands man, very creative name. I bet you have awesome handshake skills.

Angron: All that rage will give you an aneurysm. Oh wait...

Roboute Guilliman: Mister Perfect falls for every propaganda leaflet. So gullible!

Mortarion: All that gloom and bitterness will spread like a plague. Oh wait...

Magnus: Your huge ego has blinded you to common sense. Literally!

Horus Lupercal: Traitor, hope you enjoy the hell you deserve.

Lorgar Aurelian: Spend your entire life searching for the right god to tell you what to think. Why am I not surprised.

Vulkan: Too nice for your own good. The universe will take advantage.

Corvus Corax: Your excuses for hiding in your room are getting old. Get a life!

Alpharius/Omegon: Who are you again? Doesn't matter, you're irrelevant.

Malcador: I thought you raised me better.

The Emperor: The absentee dad who somehow spawned this bunch.

***

Lion El'Jonson: Even the Dark Angels have more warmth.

Fulgrim: Beauty is wasted on her.

Perturabo: Studies philosophy just to have something to criticize.

Jaghatai Khan: When life gives her knives, she stabs life.

Leman Russ: The only thing sharper than her tongue is her combat blade.

Rogal Dorn: Always seeks to upset the order and tranquility I establish.

Konrad Curze: Her heart is blacker than a night on Nostramo.

Sanguinius: Beauty often hides a cruel heart.

Ferrus Manus: My hands build, hers only destroy.

Angron: Another kindred rebel, who chose a different path.

Roboute Guilliman: Criticizes everything, yet never offers a better solution.

Mortarion: Sneers so often it's become a permanent facial expression.

Magnus: Acts like she's better than everyone when she's just as flawed.

Horus Lupercal: Takes joy in needling others just to make herself feel superior.

Lorgar Aurelian: Seeks meaning and purpose, yet denies the truth right before her eyes.

Vulkan: Could lighten up a little? Life's too short to be so grim.

Corvus Corax: Flits in the shadows laughing at others' misfortune.

Alpharius: The book she's writing is titled '1001 Ways to Annoy People.

Omegon: I told you, I'm Alpharius.

Malcador: I thought I raised you better.

The Emperor: I thought Malcador raised you better.

[thirdandabooknerd]

The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival

Author: Terry Roberts

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 321

Release Date: 2018

Rating: 4.5/5

First off, I know this isn't a "Booktok" book, or a popular one that gets noted on this site. However, I encourage you to reach out beyond what is popular to find a hidden gem like this book. I could not put this book down!

Jedidiah Robbins is a preacher traveling along the Appalachian region of Western North Carolina during the prohibition era. His mission is to spread the good word in various cities and towns in an exhilarating outdoor revival. In addition to this, he is a con-man (debatable) bootlegger. With his team of ex-carnival workers turned speakeasy, Jedidiah, his daughter Bridget, and his new love interest, Cassandra, travel by train to make sure the country folk repent their sins of drinking alcohol that was sold to them the night before.

It is so difficult to review this book without reciting the whole thing. These characters are complex and multi-surfaced. Jedidiah comes across as a con man but then really begins to wholeheartedly believe what he is preaching. He is a man of God, who just so happens to behave in a way that is human as well. He drinks, he helps to commit adultery, and he has contributed to the death of a few characters. It is interesting to see Jedidiah go back and forth between his almost alter egos.

Though this book mentions religion, it is not preachy. This point of this book is not to convert you to Christianity (I am still not). I believe the point of this book is to tackle human desires - alcohol, money, sex, all while managing your own moral complex and need to survive. This book is also about the deep-rooted culture in Appalachia. There are experiences with the KKK, racism, out-of-wedlock children, the old railroad, deadly floods, and just country folk who live a different life than most.

I am biased, as I picked up this book not realizing that I was born and raised where the setting was. That is what initially got me hooked into this book. Then, meeting characters such as Boss Strong, Bridget and Gabe, and Fingers swept me away into 1920's Appalachia.

My Pros and Cons:

+ Accurate representation of culture

+ Jedidiah is not seen as, "Holy than thou". He is a "sinner", or at least, a man who could make improvements in his moral decisions.

+This book can make you laugh and cry within the same paragraph.

+ Language is written in a relevant way that is similar to how us Appalachian people speak.

Cons:

-- We read chapters about Jedidiah visiting Festus and what is presumed to be God. This is not negative, as these are metaphorical dreams for Jedidiah. However, I originally did not initially grasp that these were supernatural dreams. This may have been a reader error, and I did enjoy unpacking these chapters with Festus following Jedidiah or "God" working in a barn.

Overall, I beg you to read this book. It had me reflecting a lot about my beliefs, how I was raised, and who I will continue to be. This is NOT a book that is a "Christian" book. Christianity is a theme, but not the genre. This book also does have a couple vivid sex scenes. This is just a warning to anyone who thinks this book is propaganda. This book is a journey.

[genderlessjacky]

Hello I am here to spread my dungeon meshi propaganda

In dungeon meshi we have:

lesbians (bird)

Grumpy old man (who is short and bisexual)

Autism

Girldad

The other girldad

So many queers

Cat girl (she's aroace)

you have successfully shared it , I will be adding to my "TV shows to binge-watch after my exams" list

[tacticalhimbo]

Rainbow Six

OOH yea babey time for me to spread some dudebro propaganda

[send me a fandom]

The first character I first fell in love with: jäger. he just had some vibes and what do ya know, it comes out years later he is, in fact, canonically autistic. and i love that for him <3

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: osa. nothing against her but i kinda was just like "ok" with her character. but i've been researching more of her lore for... something. that y'all will see later this month. but!! i really do love her now i hate that she's nighthaven's right hand (so to speak) but i do really love her and how she's grown out of the things she's been through.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: there isn't one! afaik the most popular characters are glaz, kapkan, the gsg9 crew, and doc. and i do enjoy them all so!

The character I love that everyone else hates: again, don't think there is one? if i had to pic... maybe sledge??? i don't see a lot of stuff for him so i don't think people hate him as much as they're like. indifferent to that bald man. unfortunately for everyone in proximity to me i am abnormal about bald men���

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: like many of my answers, don't not love her but also not obsessed with her. ela. love her vibes but i am just. normal. about her. her sister however—

The character I would totally smooch: the entirety of gsg-9. jäger? smooching the visor of his aviation helmet. bandit? smooching his tattoos forever. iq? smooching her forehead. blitz? making out sloppy style i mean smooching his cheek

The character I’d want to be like: hmmm thatcher. part of it is absolutely stemming from the fact i headcanon him as transmasc pesonally but. besides that. i just fuck with his vibes. he's old and cranky and honestly has good vibes despite it all. hates having people rely on him but is a paternal figure for his brother and for mute and for dokkaebi like. ok i see you <3

The character I’d slap: i had to think for a hot second but i don't think i'd slap any of the operators. actually. they made deimos an operator. him. i will take him 1v1 in a cage fight and get my shit rocked. all i need is one hit. 👊

A pairing that I love: iq/blitz. i have seen exactly one (1) fanart of it and that was what got me in on it it forever changed my psyche and i have not been able to stop thinking about it.

A pairing that I despise: i don't think i have any besides like. zofia/ela (which i have seen. y'all are fucking weird they are sisters)

[someone-you-do-not-know]

You know what. As a self proclaimed Pathologic girlie, I am going to argue my boy's demise. Daniil propaganda, HERE WE GO!

Daniil Dankovsky, a man who has made it his life mission to end the very concept of death, has been threatened to have his life work destroyed unless he brings some proof. By the (un)luckiest coincidence, his old friend who lives in a backwater town in the middle of absolutely nowhere has written to him about an immortal man! What a coincidence! Surely, he must go, this is the proof that could give him the freedom to continue his research! So he finds himself in The Town near the Gorkhon river. Mind you, he doesn't arrive in town or steps foot in town. He's already there. Because he was already doomed the moment you opened up the game. The immortal man he was supposed to meet? His friend who wrote to him? They're both dead. He's not even allowed to see the body of the immortal man, because of traditions. He went all this way for nothing. Even worse, he realises there's a plague in town, and he's a doctor – so this is his problem, since the local doctor died. One of his colleagues in the capital writes to inform him that it's a setup and their school of thought is once again being persecuted. This is Day One.

On Day Two, Daniil might as well start digging his own grave. After a bunch of hard work to make the ruling houses of The Town realise they have to do SOMETHING to prevent the spread of disease, those very same measures he approved and installed is what prevents him from leaving. At every turn throughout the game, people lie to him, manipulate him, and on Day Six, halfway through the game, he has to come up with a culprit, a carrier, a solution – OR ELSE. It's not as if he doesn't have a number of people to choose between. But Daniil can't just blame who or whatever, so he goes through all the options scientifically. Only to find that the infection is caused by NONE of it. None of the suspected women, not the weird steppe creature, not the so-called Harbinger. He fails. The next day, the inquisitor arrives, and not only does she tell him that his efforts were in vain: "However, I am absolutely positive that there is not and could not be a human carrier of the disease." and even worse, his life's project is in RUINS. Because he left. To get proof of his theories. Not only is Daniil told that, the woman who informs him deceives him through the rest of the game, pretending to be his friend while plotting against him. The destruction of his life's work is the one thing she doesn't lie about.

Daniil loses sight of everything as the situation around him deteriorates. Everything he does seems to be for naught. He tries to instill safe areas, but the plague knows no bounds, he tries to get the means for a vaccine, accidentally causing the premature death of a young girl (who was going to die from the plague either way), when he gets permission to enter the abattoir, he is brutally beaten by the butchers there, and only rescued by the military. Do note that an inquisitor and the military has been sent to this backwater town to stop a plague, but not a single doctor, nurse, or any other medical or scientific personnel is there. That's because The Town was doomed from the moment you started the game too. The Powers That Be don't care to preserve Daniil or The Town, it's a game of everyone dying slowly. So Daniil puts his hope, faith, and dreams in the last thing that isn't dying around him – the giant construction named The Polyhedron. And he's willing to die for that construction to still be standing. Because we actually don't know if he survives his own ending – if we can even call it that. His ending is not his vision or his dreams coming true, it's those of one of the ruling houses. Daniil was just there, unwittingly helping it along. It's been twelve days, and if you kill yourself, you get an achievement.

You might say, "that sounds pretty bad, he's certainly in a bad spot and has no way of escape, but in universe, he's not that doomed." Well, here comes the spoilers – in universe, there's nothing outside of The Town. It's a sandbox plague within a sandbox town, and Daniil is just a doll forced to play by cruel children – so is everyone else around him. On the last day, he can even be told so to his doll face. Get his own lack of being human thrown at him in the worst ways: "And if you keep being naughty, I'll take you with me next time and leave among the wreathes so that you know better!", "We never liked you all that much anyway... You've always been the scary doll. Playing with you was no fun." and "You're a doll -- ask anyone! Your name is Bachelor. You're the scary clown. You're always the evil guy when we're playing." Every person he has met and interacted with are the throwaways, the unwanted dolls from the bottom of the barrel. He is the evil guy, and the Haruspex (another protagonist from the game) is the bad guy. There's no good guys, only the dolls the two kids don't care for.

Throughout the entire game, even Daniil's quest log taunts him, reminding him of his original purpose of speaking to the immortal man, who is now dead. First after everything has been revealed to be a game does it change. Reminding Daniil and the player of the futility of his plight:

[T]he hero has been bitterly deceived! All this time, the hero took himself to be a living man who was trying to rescue his fellow human beings. Beyond doubt, this belief has filled him with fervour; helped him to reach the finale, and even be somewhat triumphant. In vain, it was all in vain. The hero was but a puppet, striving to help the imaginary population of a town that was nothing more than a drawing. Strangely, there is still not a word to be heard from the Powers That Be. Perhaps they became bored of it all... or were called back home for supper.

When he speaks of his revelation to his fellow healers, one makes it into a joke, while the other knew all along (since Day Nine, at least). Daniil knows at this point there's no winning, only losing, because their gods are unloving children who decided to play a game of epidemic: "You lose. They don't love us, by the way. They're fed up with us. That's why we're stuck here... they've stuck us here." and "You're having fun... Somehow I fail to join in." The only two dialogue choices when asked what he would have done if he knew beforehand are "I would have acted more confidently." and "I would have shot myself." There's nothing for this man to live for, and he was never truly alive in the first place. In the Changeling path, the creators of the game themselves describes Daniil as "A tempted destroyer. He could have accomplished a feat of moral heroism. The strongest, the most straightforward, he was too strongly tempted by vengeance and destruction for his not going through with it to be anything less than... miracle, or something close to one." In this path too, he realises he is a toy, but The People Who Executed The Whole Thing are unconcerned: "his trajectory is so designed as to make it difficult for him to abandon his arrangement. Except by a lapse of judgement-but we're not concerned with that." He is so doomed that even when he gains sentience, there's no reason to worry that he'll undoom himself.

Because they "[planned] beforehand which decision will be free and which won't be? There's no escaping from this loop! So long as you're here, this will last forever."

Vote Daniil Dankovsky!

Doomed by the Narrative: FINALS

If I see ANY of you being rude to the other contestant or getting unreasonably upset at whatever the results are, you are being blocked on sight. Be kind, and bring up your OWN guy without tearing down the OTHER guy.

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

Don't let anyone tell you that Putin is a good man, he attacked Ukraine, Putin is using support for Gaza to spread propaganda that he is the good guy, Putin is a bad man who has a lot of blood on his hands, do not praise this man, I am begging you

Now that I have your attention:

[pesterloglog]

Vriska Serket, John Egbert, Gamzee Makara

Candy, page 31

VRISKA: John, I need to see!

VRISKA: How do I get 8ack!?

JOHN: um.

JOHN: i don’t think you *can* go back.

JOHN: i have no idea what the exact scientific mechanism behind falling out of the sky is, but so far it’s proven to be a one way trip.

VRISKA: Noooooooo!

JOHN: welcome to earth c, ha ha.

JOHN: it fucking sucks!

VRISKA: Oh my god!

VRISKA: This is the worst thing that could h8ve possibly h8ppened to me.

JOHN: are you sure about that?

VRISKA: Yes, I am a8solutely... w8.

VRISKA: Why are you so... so????????

VRISKA: John, are you old?

JOHN: um. a little, i guess.

JOHN: i mean, i’m going to live forever apparently, so in that respect i’m still pretty young.

JOHN: but compared to the average human lifespan, i’m like... about three eighths of the way dead?

VRISKA: I can’t 8e here.

JOHN: vriska...

JOHN: wait, actually, i guess i shouldn’t call you that?

JOHN: it might get confusing.

VRISKA: Wh8t?

JOHN: well, see...

JOHN: rose and kanaya’s daughter is also named vriska.

VRISKA: WH8T????????

JOHN: and since you didn’t come to earth c with us, that means technically she was here first.

JOHN: so that would make you...

JOHN: (vriska)?

(VRISKA): That’s fucking un8ccepta8le!

JOHN: sorry. but i think that’s probably just how it has to be.

(VRISKA): John, you accused me of talking nonsense, 8ut you’re the one not m8king any d8mn sense.

(VRISKA): Where AM I?

(VRISKA): Why are you OLD?

(VRISKA): Why do Rose and Kanaya h8ve a DAUGHTER n8med after ME!?

JOHN: oh, it’s because they thought you sacrificed your life heroically defeating lord english.

JOHN: so they found a baby clone of you and named her in your honor.

JOHN: personally, i thought the whole thing sounded like bullshit?

JOHN: but, you know. whatever makes them happy.

(VRISKA): ...

(VRISKA): ...

(VRISKA): That’s...

(VRISKA): Th8t’s the........

(VRISKA): Stupidest *F8CKING* thing I’ve ever heard!

JOHN: yeah, i know! i tried to tell them.

JOHN: man, it’s been a while since we’ve agreed on something, hasn’t it?

JOHN: so, um.

JOHN: not to be nosy, but...

JOHN: DID you defeat lord english?

(VRISKA): Of course not!

(VRISKA): Why do you think I’m so desperate to go 8ACK!?

(VRISKA): The 8attle was hitting its clim8x when I got hit in the head with... with...

(VRISKA): Wh8tever the fuck it was that hit me in the head!

JOHN: do you wanna see a doctor for that or something?

(VRISKA): No!!!!!!!!

(VRISKA): I w8nt to know what the fuck is GOING ON!!!!!!!!

JOHN: ok, sure.

JOHN: so about fifteen years ago, jane started spreading all this xenophobic propaganda about trolls.

JOHN: and eventually she and her corporation became so entrenched in financial dealings with basically every societal institution with power on earth c that she became this unstoppable lobbying monolith that can more or less tell the government what to do.

JOHN: so now she may as well be writing all of these xenophobic policies into law directly.

JOHN: oh, jane’s a huge xenophobe, by the way?

JOHN: i probably should have started out with that fact.

(VRISKA): John, this story fucking sucks.

JOHN: oh, and then karkat had this really catastrophic breakup with jade and dave, so he ran off to spearhead a troll rebellion against the xenophobic government.

JOHN: to be honest, the rebellion was pretty lame in the beginning, but then, um... meenah?

(VRISKA): Meenah?!

JOHN: yeah! meenah. she fell out of the sky, like you just did, and helped him actually get good at revolutionary stuff.

JOHN: so now both sides are all maxed out with space ships and weapons and stuff, and are on the brink of war.

(VRISKA): Holy shit. That’s even dumber than Rose and Kanaya naming their shitty kid after me.

JOHN: oh man, their kid IS shitty. you have NO idea.

(VRISKA): How the hell did you all fuck this up so much????????

JOHN: oh.

JOHN: that’s my bad.

(VRISKA): YOUR 8ad?

JOHN: yeah. i made the wrong decision and totally blew it.

(VRISKA): HOW?

JOHN: i was supposed to go fight lord english, but i didn’t. so now we’ve gone beyond, like, the event horizon of canon.

(VRISKA): What the fuck does that even MEAN????????

JOHN: i don’t know, really.

JOHN: rose explained it all to me once, but i pretty much forgot what she said. i didn’t actually think it was that important at the time.

JOHN: all i know is that all of this is my fault.

JOHN: it’s been turning around in my head like this for a while. i thought...

JOHN: why does everything here fucking SUCK so much?

JOHN: how the hell did we even make it from point A to point festering clusterfuck?

JOHN: it doesn’t follow any kind of logic i understand, or any sort of basic sense i have about who we are as people...

JOHN: and why? why have we all ended up so unhappy and... twisted up?

JOHN: i got everything i wanted. everyone got what they—

JOHN: what i thought they wanted.

JOHN: and that’s just it, isn’t it?

JOHN: the more i think about it, i’m the only factor that matters to anything.

JOHN: whatever i did, or didn’t do, just... destroyed reality’s ability to, like, substantiate itself, or whatever.

JOHN: like there’s a bug in the operating system of whatever force in this world that regulates cause and effect.

JOHN: everything’s been unraveling. nothing that happens makes sense anymore.

JOHN: and now i’m the only person out here who’s even real at all!

JOHN: hahahaha.

(VRISKA): Hahahahahahahaha... Wow, I’ve never seen a guy get his 8ulge all the way down his own swallow chute 8efore!

JOHN: wait, what?

(VRISKA): Good fuck. Do you actually think reality gives that much of a shit a8out you?

(VRISKA): Get real, Eg8ert.

(VRISKA): It’s not like you’re me.

JOHN: ok, well.

JOHN: that’s fair i guess.

JOHN: but whatever it was that caused this, it’s pretty obvious that all of this is just kind of dumb and fake.

JOHN: so don’t worry about it.

(VRISKA): I kind of H8VE to worry a8out, it considering you just expl8ined to me that I’m TR8PPED here!

JOHN: nah, it’s fine. it’ll all work out.

JOHN: or it won’t. it doesn’t really matter either way.

JOHN: um, so we should probably get out of here soon.

JOHN: or not. we’re both god tier, so as long as we don’t do anything cool or evil, i guess we’ll be fine and not permanently die.

JOHN: hehe... it’s almost like the god tier rules were designed to reward us for being useless pieces of shit?

JOHN: heheheheh. i think i get it now.

JOHN: it’s a pretty good joke actually. nice.

(VRISKA): FFFFFFFFUCK!!!!!!!!

JOHN: oh, hey. that reminds me.

JOHN: did you ever see terezi out there?

(VRISKA): No????????

(VRISKA): Why would I h8ve seen Terezi? Didn’t she go with the Striders to fight six hundred versions of J8ck or something?

JOHN: well, yeah. but then later, she went back out there to find you.

JOHN: (vriska), she searched for you for YEARS!

JOHN: i mean, years from my perspective at least. i dunno about hers.

JOHN: but, we used to talk sometimes. it was fucked up how sad she was without you.

JOHN: i don’t even know what happened to her. the last time i talked to her she... she thought she was about to die.

JOHN: for a long time i liked to pretend that maybe you two found each other after all. but if you’re here now, and she isn’t, that means...

JOHN: ugh, who knows what it means.

(VRISKA): Wow. John, you sound pretty 8roken up a8out this! Were you in love with her or something?!

JOHN: well... i don’t know.

JOHN: what does it even matter!

JOHN: like everything else, it was just some more stupid crap that happened, which technically wasn’t even “canon.”

(VRISKA): Oh my fucking god.

(VRISKA): I CAN’T T8KE THIS ANYM8RE!

(VRISKA): I don’t c8re a8out wh8tever the FUCK “c8non” is supposed to 8e!

(VRISKA): I don’t a8out your dum8, unrequited crush on Terezi!

(VRISKA): I don’t C8RE a8out this stupid, pointless w8r!!!!!!!!

(VRISKA): Someone get me the hell out of this fucking NIGHMT8RE 8efore I re8lly L8SE MY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GAMZEE: WoAh, HeY, lEt’S aLl CaLm ThE mOtHeRfUcK dOwN.

GAMZEE: VrIsKa My MaIn BiTcH, lOnG tImE nO sEe.

GAMZEE: YoU SeEm aLl dIsCoMbObUlAtEd tHeRe, SiStEr. JuSt fUcKiN BeSeT WiTh tHe pOoRlY ReGuLaTeD EmOtIoNs tHaT CaUsE a MoThErFuCkEr nOtHiNg bUt pAiN.

GAMZEE: NoW WhY DoN’T LeT’S CaLm tHe fUcK DoWn, TaKe rIpS OfF ThIs dOpE BoTtLe oF FrEsH AsS TiTtYdAiRy, ThEn sHoOt ThE WiCkEd sHiT AbOuT ThE GoOd wOrD.

(VRISKA): The... the “Good Word”?

GAMZEE: It bE CaLlEd rEdEmPtIoN, mOtHeRfUcKeR!

GAMZEE: AnD YoU GoTtA GeT ThAt sHiT LoCkEd aLl tIgHt iN WhErE YoUr hEaRt’s aT, tO GeT YoUr mOrAl cOmPrOmIsAtIoNs tO ChIlL ThE FuCk uP.

GAMZEE: CaUsE I CaN’T ThInK Of a sInGlE NoThEr mOtHeRfUcKeR WhO CoUlD UsE A RiGhTeOuS DoSe oF ThAt sWeEt, SwEeT ReDeMpTiOn rIgHt dOwN ThE ShAmE HaTcH MoRe tHaN (vRiSkA) mOtHeRfUcKiNg (SeRkEt). :o)

(VRISKA): ...

(VRISKA): ...

(VRISKA): ...

(VRISKA): Wh8t the F8CK did you just s8y to me?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[barely-in-one-piece]

Okay, I just need to spread some Luffy propaganda because I am of the opinion that this is way too close.

Now I appreciate the national security risk posed by our other two contestants, but Luffy? My man is a different level.

The other two are relatively sane about their national security threats.

Luffy has broken down tyrannical dictatorships and kingdoms down to their bare bones (sometimes even less. Sorry Dressrosa), razed entire cities, crushed misled rebellions, destroyed creatures thought to be undestroyable, broke in and out of Alcatraz on crack while freeing a bunch of other lunatics unintentionally, and declared war on the ENTIRE WORLD GOVERNMENT.

The reason rarely ever goes beyond "someone gave me food" or "you made my nakama cry. >:("

idk man I just feel like if an evil organization bought Luffy a Big Mac he would do a hell of a lot more damage to any country they asked him to target than Ed or Jester, who would probably be like, "lol why? Thanks for the burger tho."

Also side note, Luffy punched God.

And then became a god. But only because he was hungry as a 7 year old and then died 12 years later.

This man's ADHD is a national security threat.

BIGGEST RISK TO NATIONAL SECURITY BRACKET FINAL ROUND

Ed Elric- child soldier uncovers national conspiracy and aids rebellion/government takeover

Jester Lavorre- involved in several wars on the side of herself and her friends, started a cult, tricked fairytale tricksters

Monkey D Luffy- pirate captain tries to find world government's biggest secret and exposes/stops all their bullshit along the way

[utilitycaster]

Wizard Breakdown Tracker, #135

Each week I think “man it would have been cool if I had thought of this idea, in which I make jokes about how stressed out the wizard NPCs are, during, you know, the Vergesson heist or something when we were interacting with more than one wizard NPC instead of during a dungeon crawl with only one wizard NPC, emphasis on crawl” but you know what, I persevere, because where else am I going to put song parodies about the death of Vess Derogna that are literally only funny to me? Twitter?

Anyway while I am personally team Jester, in that the faster Lucien is simultaneously disintegrated, run through in the chest with both a vestige and a holy avenger, shot through the heart (and Veth’s to blame), beheaded with a hand axe, banished, punched in the face, and sent into a black hole the better, the party has other plans. Thanks to the long rest though it has been about 12 hours, plus the 4-ish from last week, so I guess we’ll check in with a few of our other wizard friends as well.

As a reminder Caleb Widogast is a PC and thus excluded from this list.

Currently sidelined

Presumably having a good day: Pumat Sol (blissfully unaware of all of this); Allura Vyesoren (saint-like patience and a wealth of experience with disaster adventuring parties; at least this one has a cleric at more than 0.33 FTE, a wizard, and some lesbians), Ludinus Da’leth (this miserable pile of power plays wakes up every morning and is like Isn’t it Grand to be head of the evil wizard council and no one realizes I probably destroyed the first non-drow elven civilization on the continent to arise after the calamity! Fetch me more pastries!).

No idea but here’s hoping he found the cat portion of ScryTube: Oremid Hass

Lady DeRogna, taken off the scene, sorry that your murder happened while off-screen.

Trent Ikithon: I’ve established that I think the only real things that can damage Trent emotionally are Caleb paying too much attention to him so as to destroy his standing within the empire, or else Caleb ignoring him. Honestly if Trent would not continue to torture students and spread propaganda if left unchecked I think he could be slowly murdered solely through Caleb expressing apathy. So despite the amulets of nondetection I like to imagine that somehow, somewhere, Trent felt Caleb reaffirm to Essek that his top priority is still stopping the city from returning, not Trent, and it necrotized just a little bit more of his liver.

Conclusion: 7/10. I went to the OG evil mageocracy and no one knew who you were.

Essek Thelyss: Well on the one hand he’s still flirting but on the other imagine spending a literal century being like “what if we’re wrong about how we approach the fundamental basis for our society” and he just got proved right. I have to imagine he’s got that kind of stress where suddenly everything becomes dead calm and also this explains why he unnecessarily cast a 3rd level spell, which he knows could in theory cause him to lose all his hair, to impress a boy. I didn’t even get into the conversations he had with Caleb, the bad dreams and eyeballs, Fjord teasing him, Yasha being like “ALRIGHT ALREADY”, the horrible Aeorian creatures, the fact that robots might be back(?) or his ongoing terror that the Assembly is after him!

Conclusion: 8/10 but he’s like, kind of having a good time. Essek is in all ways but physical in a Hawaiian shirt right now drinking a Mai Tai and going Nothing Matters; I presume he will have a full breakdown following the boss battle and honestly he deserves it.

Astrid Beck: Others have already established the parallels between Essek and Astrid but honestly I want to highlight it because really, on the one hand we have Essek, whose world is crashing around him because he was right all along and is in terrible immediate danger but surrounded by friends, and on the other we have Astrid, whose world is crashing around her because she was wrong all along and she’s probably not in immediate danger but Eadwulf is the only person she can trust and we don’t know all the details about that either.

Conclusion: 8/10 but in the bad way, not Essek’s kind of fun way.

Wulfpupy:

Conclusion: 3/10. You know that tiktok with the blonde woman with glasses who has a lot of highlighter on her nose who talks about how sometimes if you have guy friends they will say something deeply fucked up and you’ll be like “oh my god do we unpack this right now” and then you look over at them and the only thing in their mind are the lyrics to Kokomo? That’s Wulf. He will activate the second Caleb comes back in town or Astrid actually falls apart but until then he is on Island Time.

Yussa Errenis: I wonder if there’s a small part of Yussa that is part of the city’s awareness and, moreover, can see what Beau and Caleb at least are doing, and he’s like “I’m so simultaneously proud and impatient, also we live in a world that does not have IV fluids so like, hopefully my body still exists in some kind of functioning state when I am rescued” (note: did I google “how were coma patients kept alive in olden times” for this? Perhaps.) Anyway if he is aware he’s also just like, watching all this like “I WILL GET YOU SO MUCH PAPER OH MY GOD CAN YOU JUST KISS THE OTHER WIZARD SAVE ME FROM THE EVIL HIVEMIND CITY.”

Conclusion: I mean still infinity/10, he is still trapped in the city of madness and also if he does have a small part of his mind that is sane and able to observe the material plane he also is aware that Trent and the Volstruckers broke into his tower.

Known Gem Wizard Hotsauce Lutefisk: I know, I know, weird that I brought him up. However consider: Yussa’s wizard tower now contains two wizards in suspended animation, their consciousnesses trapped in eldritch astral sea-related spaces. This is incredibly funny to me. We’re in a real Old Lady who swallowed a fly scenario except it’s centuries-old wizards getting sucked into traps because of their own hubris. The reason why mageocracies no longer exist isn’t the lack of magical knowledge or even because power corrupts absolutely, it’s because literally just put some lightly fried forbidden knowledge under a box with a stick propping it up, add your parody of Long-Term Nuclear Waste Warnings above it, and a wizard will be like “that sign won’t stop me because I CAN read and what’s more I’m better at reading than you are!” And then they get trapped in a box.

Conclusion: what is a breakdown tracker to a man whose mind has been stuck in a gem for, from his perspective, at minimum about 35 years?

[nickyhemmick]

A Very Stressed American Jew here again,

Hi! Thank you for taking the time to respond to my ask and yes, I’m someone who loves hearing as many perspectives as possible so I’d love some sources from you. I also very much appreciate the fact you are being very careful to only reblog posts that are anti Israel, not antisemetic (which is frankly a breath of fresh air, the internet has been a bit exhaustingly full of both antisemitic & Islamaphobic content these past feel days as I bet you’ve seen)

I’ve also been to Israel on a Birthright trip. We met people who ( both Palestinian and Israeli) on various sides of the conflict and learned a ton about it, from both perspectives which I was lucky to have the opportunity to do. We even went a little into the Gaza Strip to talk to these people running a pro Palestine peace movement and it was so important to me hearing those stories.

I never said they were on equal footing militarily, they definitely are not, Israel definitely has that advantage. But you are incorrect about Israel always being the aggressor since 1948,they’ve defended themselves about as often as they’ve attacked. Isreal is a small country comparatively to the ones surrounding it, so it makes sense it defends itself heavily in case of an attack.

I 100% agree that there are too many people who are compliant with the mistreatment of many Palestinians! I’m not anti #freepalestine at all! I get why that is a thing. But I also stand with Israel( but that does not mean I condone every action they take. ) Overall I think the situation is extremely complicated and some sort of compromise should be reached.

It’s just been very frustrating to see so many people reblog things on a situation just bashing Israel because so many others are doing it. Especially when then don’t know what they are talking about or using big buzz words that they don’t know what they mean, or spreading misinformation. It’s been on both sides and has been very very draining. I just want peace and some sort of solution. It makes me extremely happy you know what you are talking about and can debate politely yet happily about it. The internet has been so ‘ either agree with me 100% or you a bad person’ about this so it’s refreshing to see you are not like that.

I’ve done a lot of research into it from as many perspectives as I can get my hands on.

Some extremest Israelis are hurting Palestinians

Some extremest Palestinians are hurting Israelis

Both sides are throwing rockets at each other and it’s terrifying.

Both sides claim the other side is brainwashed

There is so much biased propaganda out there on both ends it’s hard to know what is truly happening.

I know people living in Israel who have sent me videos they’ve taken of rockets flying over there heads and I’m so scared for them. I’m so scared for all the innocent people caught in the crossfire on both sides.

Thank you for a more nuanced response and I’d love some of your sources,

A Very Stressed American Jew

Hi anon, 

I wasn’t going to respond to this until after my math final tomorrow but I’ve spent the past two days thinking of your ask and the things I wish to articulate in my answer. 

I am going to start here: how can you say you support Israel but say you are also pro-free Palestine (as in, you said you are not anti free Palestine). In my opinion, these two ideas cannot coexist. Simply because, the entire establishment of Israel has been on violent, racist, colonial grounds. 

(Super long post under here guys)

You said you don’t support all Israel’s actions, and definitely, just because you support something doesn’t mean you can’t criticize it. However, in my opinion, if you do not support Israel’s actions against Palestinians there’s not much left to support? I admit this is a very biased view as I am Palestinian, but many things that people support about Israel have existed before its creation: as in, these are things and qualities that have existed in Judaism and are not due to “Israeli culture.” There is no Israeli culture. There’s Jewish culture--100%. But there is no Israeli culture, because Israel does not only steal Palestinian land, but Palestinian culture, too. Such as claiming Levant food is Israeli; hummus, ful, falafel, shawarma. I mentioned food from this article I know is culturally and traditionally of the Levant, and has been for centuries, it is not something that has come to culinary creation in the past 73 years. 

I do not think this is a complicated issue. I said that in the previous ask and I’ll say that again. Saying it is a complicated issue is trivializing the deaths of innocent Palestinians, the violent dispossession our ancestors endured, and the apartheid they live under. I hope if anything comes from this discussion it is you removing the “it’s a complicated issue” phrase from your vernacular. 

This is not complicated. A journalist reporting the death of martyrs only to discover that of them include two of his brothers is not complicated. The asymmetry of Israel vs Palestinian armed forces is not complicated, nor is the asymmetry in Israeli vs Palestinian suffering (which I will get to later). It is not complicated.  Destroying the graves of martyred Palestinians (or just in general, the graves of the dead) is not complicated. Little children being pulled from the rubble, children being forced to comfort one another as they are covered in the ashes of their decimated homes, attacking unarmed citizens in peaceful demonstrations (you can find videos before this attack where they were playing with kites and balloons), destroying an international media office and refusing to allow journalists to retrieve the work they are spending every waking hour documenting but claiming it was because it was a hide out for a “Hamas base,” fathers who are trying to cheer their frightened children up only to end up dead the next day, while many Israeli have the privilege and the option to go to hotel-like bomb shelters is not complicated. 

This brings me to my next point: the suffering of Palestinians cannot be compared to the inconvenience of Israeli’s. On one side, you have children who are happy to have saved their fish in the face of their homes and lives being decimated behind them to Israeli’s in Tel Aviv having to cut their beach day short to get to bomb shelters. You have mothers and fathers ready to set their lives down for their children to save them from bombs to Israeli’s enjoying their brunch only after making sure there are bomb shelters there. You have Palestinian children being murdered to blocking out the sound of sirens in the safety of your bomb shelters. (The first picture of the Palestinian child is not from footage of the recent problems). You have the baby lone survivor of a whole family recovered from rubble. His whole family, gone, before he ever had the chance to realize that he even exists, while Israeli’s decide to flee out of the country,(Translate the caption from Twitter, it checks out), or have to leave the shower due to sirens. Who is really suffering? 

I won’t sit here and pretend like the thought of rockets flying over my head, no matter which side I am on, is not terrifying. It is. It’s scary to just think about. But Israeli’s have protection beyond Palestinian’s, they have sirens to warn them (Israel does not always warn Palestinian building members that it is about to be bombed), they have the Iron Dome, they have simply the threat of nuclear power (which I am not saying Israel would use, but the simple fact they have it would make me feel a lot better if I were an Israeli citizen) and they have bomb shelters. What do Palestinians have? Hamas? That smuggles its weapons through the ocean? That only ever reacts to the action Israel instigates? And yet Gazans are branded terrorists and that it is their fault that they “elected” a terrorist organization that only was ever created due to no protection from any armed country? (There are so many links I want to add in this paragraph but it is simply impossible for me to add everything I want, a lot of what I’m referring to can either be found through a Google search, or you can stalk my Twitter account, all that I am posting now is about Palestine, and will include sources of things I cannot add in just this one post.) 

Look, I see myself in the genocide happening in Palestine right now. I see myself in this ten year-old girl. In this three year old girl. I see me and my family in videos of cars being attacked in Ramallah and Sheikh Jarrah (I cannot find the Ramallah video, should be somewhere on my Twitter), I see my father in the countless videos of fathers crying out for their children, of kissing the corpse of their loved ones (again, translate the Tweet, the man holding the body is saying “just one kiss”). I see my grandfather in videos like this (old footage). I see my younger brother, I see my grandmother, my mother, my aunts and uncles and cousins. I see myself and my life and my family were my father not lucky enough to get a scholarship to the UK and out of Palestine, were my maternal grandfather not been lucky enough to make it to a refugee camp and build a life in Jordan. I have an unbelievable amount of privilege to be born into the life I was born in to, in terms of I do not have the threat of bombs and violent dispossession around me, and I do not even live in the US. I have privilege and sheer luck that my parents were able to go to the US so that me and my brothers can be born, because now I have both the protection of the most powerful country in the world while at the same time being part of a people to have suffered so generously the past seventy-three years. 

On the other hand, you saying that Israel has “defended themselves about as often as they’ve attacked. Israel is a small country comparatively to the ones surrounding it, so it makes sense it defends itself heavily in case of an attack,” I offer you this question: why are they using military grade guns and stun grenades in mosques to “defend” themselves from rocks? And before you mention that Hamas hit Tel Aviv, I remind you that Hamas did that due to the violence in the Al-Aqsa mosque square and the attempted ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah. The violence didn’t begin with us; the violence was brought out of Palestinians in resistance to the generations of oppression we have endured and the attack on Palestinian Muslims during the holiest night of Ramadan. Hamas has since asked for a ceasefire multiple times and Israel is refusing. New reports say there is a possibility of a ceasefire in the coming days, but Israel could have decided this a long time ago and spared many lives. (Remember, no matter what resistance we make, Israel is the one in power).

Israel has been the aggressor since 1948. Just read up about the Nakba! 700k Palestinian families were dispossessed violently. The only reason Israel was established at all was because it simply declared it was now a country and the US and many other countries recognized it as such. (Of course, there are many other historical details here, like the British Mandate of Palestine, the Balfour Declaration, the Oslo Accords and many others. I am aware of them but these are for a different post all together). My paternal grandfather was a little younger than me when Israel as a state was created. The hostility that followed was due to this independent declaration being listened to over Palestinian voices. 

Here is a very, very simplified analogy, one that can also answer some people’s questions as to why Palestinians (not Arabs, we are Palestinian before we are Arab) did not like what happened in 1948 and why they refused a two-state solution (that Israel was never going to go through with anyway). (I am also aware other Arab nations got involved, and that is perhaps what you mean when you said they had to defend themselves, but my response to that would still be we didn't start it, that we only responded to it).

Let’s say you are a farmer. You have many fields of trees, ones you have taken shelter under from the sun since you were a child, or hid behind when you wanted to avoid your parents when you misbehaved. You have seen your trees grow from a seed, to a sprout, to a flower, to a large, beautiful tree with fruits the size of a fist. You pluck the fruits from one tree, and make a jam from it. I don’t know how to make jam but I know it takes a lot of energy. So, you make this jam and from it, produce a lovely, mouth-watering pie. Once it has cooled from the oven, you take it with you outside your balcony just so that you can admire the years, months, weeks and hours this one pie has taken to be created. Suddenly, a stranger walks past and yells to you, “That pie looks delicious, I want it!” And you, shocked at their boldness but ready to share, say, “I will give you a bite.” But the stranger says, “No! I do not want a bite or a slice or whatever you want to offer me, I want the pie!” And they grab it from you. You and the stranger start screaming at one another about who the pie is for, who is allowed to decide what happens to it, and who you can share it with. Then, another stranger comes by and says, “Why all the problems? Let’s cut the pie in half and the both of you can share it!” But why should you, who has spent years cultivating the fruit and grain inside this pie, share it? Why should you give up half of the 100% that you already owned? Of what you already had? So you disagree, and now a crowd has formed around you. “What’s the problem?” someone in the crowd calls. “They don’t want to share their pie!” another voice says. Then you become branded a selfish, mean bastard. Again, this is a super simplified analogy, so don’t take it too seriously, but I am trying to show you why Israel is the aggressor.

In addition, I do not know too much about the Birthright program, just that American Jewish people are sent to Israel, all expenses paid. I tried my best to find the Twitter thread but I read it so long ago, about an American Jewish person who went on their trip and they talked about the propaganda that they were exposed to on that trip. I can’t say for sure that it is true, because I haven’t been on it and never will, but that is the first thing I thought of when you mentioned your Birthright trip. Either way, I think it is still great you went and saw the country. However, I must ask you this: are the people you met ones you, yourself, sought out, or ones you were organized to meet?

Now, I haven’t been to Gaza, so I don’t know what you really saw or didn’t, but did you speak to Palestinians who lost their homes to airstrikes? Did you speak to siblings, parents or children of loved ones who had been lost beneath the rubble of buildings and towers? Outside of Gaza, did you speak to Palestinians that live in poor quarters? Ones who have been victims of an IDF soldier shooting them, or who have family members who have died from such attacks? Did they take you guys to Ramallah, to Nablus, to Beit-Imreen, to Jenin, to small villages in the West Bank, far away from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv? Did you speak to people there? Ask them their stories? Because if you did I have a very hard time believing you still think Israel is “defending” itself.

I’ve been to Jerusalem, many times, even Tel Aviv and Jaffa and Haifa. All the times I visited Dome of the Rock there were IDF soldiers with huge guns strapped to their person, standing menacingly outside the courtyard. For what? Genuinely, genuinely for what? It is nothing but an intimidation tactic. The same way we are not allowed in through the airport. If you could see the struggle some Palestinians actually go through just to get into Palestine, through the land border, you would be disgusted. I love Palestine, it is my ancestry land, it is my culture and tradition. But I always hated going to visit because I knew the way to getting there would be hell.

My father worked in Tel Aviv through the first Intifada. My maternal grandfather was forced out of his home in the Nakba and was forced to leave behind his belongings and the orange trees that have been in his family for generations. Hell, the town they lived in was destroyed! It doesn’t exist anymore except in the memories of my aunts and uncles, who never even saw it, but just heard of it from their father!

I’m not saying there aren’t Palestinians who are racist and anti-Semitic (though, tbh, I will direct you here for that) and who support Hamas in killing Israeli’s, but talking about how there are many “extremist” Palestinians who are hurting Israeli’s and in the next line say there are extremist Israeli’s who are hurting Palestinians is not correct. There are extremist Israeli’s killing, lynching, stealing the houses of Palestinians, and there are Palestinians who are fed up and fighting back. (I am not talking about Hamas vs the IDF here, I am talking about the citizens). I have not seen one reported death of an Israeli due to Palestinian violence (if you have, from a trusted source, send it to me), but I have seen countless of the other way around. I have seen images of charred little bodies, of a baby being dug out of the rubble, of a child’s body that had been so mutilated that you can literally see the insides of their body coming out. (I don’t know if it’s on my Twitter, I didn’t want to save that shit). If this was my country I would be absolutely ashamed of myself and my people and what they are doing in the name of my protection. So you have to forgive me, and forgive other Palestinians, who don’t give a fuck about Israeli’s having anxiety over rockets flying over their heads when we see these images. Where is the protection of our kids? Why does no one seem to mention them except when mentioning the poor, innocent ones in Israel? At least more than the majority of them have their parents to comfort and rock them. At least many of them will probably be saved of ever having to be beneath the rubble of a destroyed building, or digging in it, to hope to find the parts of their parents or siblings just so that they can bury them. Just the links from the start of my answer is enough to support what I am saying.

I have soooo much more I can say, like how Israel uses religion to distort the image of what’s going on (tbh, just check my Twitter for that: language is EVERYTHING), but you didn’t mention religion in any of this and so I won’t either. The only reason I decided to respond to you in such length was because you have been one of the few respectful anons in my inbox in the past few years of me being on here talking about Israel, so I appreciate that from you. 

As promised, some more sources: decolonizepalestine is a good place to start if you haven’t used it already, it has reading materials, myth busting, and more. Here is a map list of destroyed localities from pre-1948 until 2017, run by two anti-Zionist Israelis. Here and here are the articles I promised of a former IDF soldier-turned Palestinian activist, I read these two last year in June and remember coming out much more informed than before I read them. I suggest looking into the writer and his organization, which, if I remember correctly, collects accounts from previous IDF soldiers. I would suggest not to follow Israel and the IDF accounts on any platform, or any Israel times newspaper, simply because they will not tell you the truth. In fairness, you do not have to follow any Palestinian Authority accounts (which I am not even sure there are), but to follow on-ground Palestinians like Mohammed El-Kurd, who has been speaking out since he was 12 (he is now 22) and he is part of the families in Sheikh Jarrah. I have noticed that this and this account have been translating Arabic headlines and tweets for non-Arabic speakers, I have just started following this person but their bio says they are a Palestinian Jewish person so I am interested in their view of things. You can also follow Israeli’s on-ground and see their perspective on things, but I would also advise to compare the Palestinian and Israeli side of things from the people, and critically analyze the language used in each case. Also, this article references Jewish scholars opposed to the occupation (I have not looked into them myself but I plan to after my exams), and Norman Finklestein is another great Jewish scholar to look into if you haven’t. Twitter is better than Instagram and Facebook, so I would stick to getting live-info from there, Twitter does not censor Palestinian content as much as Insta and Facebook so you’re more likely to see things there.

I will end this by saying I personally do not see any other option for peace than to give Palestinians our land back. Whether we may be Muslim, Jewish or Christian, it has always been and will always be our land. I only hope to see it free in my lifetime. 

Free Palestine. 

[cyberdragoninfinity]

OK IM BACK once again here to draw my blade and spread propaganda for my GIGANTIC WONDERFUL ROBOT NICHEFAV APORIA!!!!!

look. i love ishizu, she's awesome, she's one of the best ygo gals I think. BUT. LISTEN TO ME. IN THIS MATCHUP SHE IS ABSOLUTELY NOT THE MORE UNDERRATED CHARACTER. ishizu has a behemoth of a 20+ year old fandom standing at her side!!! she gets FICS and BIRTHDAY ART and is a CELEBRATED AND IMPORTANT MEMBER OF YUGIOH DUEL MONSTERS' CAST. And NO important and reoccurring Duel Monsters character is ANYWHERE NEARLY AS UNDERRATED. AS APORIA FROM YUGIOH 5DS.

do you know how many fics are tagged with Aporia's name on AO3?? TIME'S UP IT'S

24. twenty four. total. over half of which he does not play a prevalent role. (source: i have read. all of them. i am starving.) TO PUT THIS IN PERSPECTIVE, MEANWHILE, ishizu has. um.

again, love ishizu to bits, i adore her. but THIS IS A BATTLE OF WHO'S THE LESS APPRECIATED CHARACTER. AND SHE IS APPRECIATED, VERY MUCH AND QUITE A BIT. PEOPLE STRAIGHT UP FORGET APORIA EXISTS. OTHER 5DS FANS FORGET APORIA EXISTS. they stuffed my big man in the back but baby that just makes him dessert at the end of a delicious meal and nobody but like 12 people know about this and care about him.

he carries on the torch of yugioh having cool as fuck villains and thoughtful character arcs and i love him so much. VOTE APORIA!!! SHOW SOME LOVE TO A BIG BEAUTIFUL YGO SPINOFF BEAST

ROUND 2 SIDE A MATCH 2

APORIA MEMBER OF ILIASTER FIGURE OF DESPAIR VS ISHIZU ISHTAR HOLDER OF MILLENNIUM NECKLACE