#but sometimes the comments section really gives me hope for the human race again

[siristaci]

Nothing quite beats that feeling when the comments section of a 'controversial' facebook post passes the vibe check. Especially when the page that posted it is clearly run by bigots.

[there-must-be-a-lock]

Blind Spot

Spencer Reid x (Gender Neutral) Reader

Word Count: 2640

Warnings: Hair pulling kink! Bucketloads of sexual tension but no actual sex. Gratuitous facts about bird nests. Dorks being oblivious. Lots of fluffy heart-eyed banter. Accusations of intercourse with fictional tree-beasts. 

A/N: I saw a gif that made me want to pull Spencer’s hair. That’s it. I have zero shame. 

For the “friends to lovers” square on my @cmbingo​ card! Proofread by @fangirlxwritesx67​ because she’s the best. 

“You look like you fucked an Ent,” you commented cheerfully, stealing sideways glances at Spencer while you waited for the light to change.  

“Thanks, that’s helpful.” He grimaced, trying to tug another burr out of a snarled curl. 

“Oh my god, you’re just making it worse! I’ll help you when we get back to your place. Leave it, you goober.” 

“Did you just call me a goober?” Spencer asked, trying not to laugh. 

“You’re like the dictionary definition of a goober,” you said fondly. 

“I have three PhDs!”  

“I really wish I’d gotten a video of that tumble, Doctor Goober.” 

Spencer was blushing, grinning down at his lap as he shredded a piece of leaf. It was hard not to stare at him when he smiled like that. 

He’d essentially face-planted into a burr bush earlier, somewhere in the Virginia woods — he’d been so excited about explaining some wonky bit of Star Trek physics theory to you that he just forgot to pay attention to his feet — and he’d floundered out with half a hedge stuck in his hair before picking up exactly where he’d left off. 

In other words, Doctor Spencer Reid was a ridiculous human being. You knew that, objectively. It didn’t stop you from having a massive crush on him. 

Either he was pretending not to notice, to spare your feelings, or he was socially oblivious; you tended to believe the former, considering how well you’d seen him read other people, but you appreciated it. There was a chance you’d make it out of this — if you could just get over it already — with your friendship intact. 

You cleared your throat and told him, “You look like the bastard child of Grandmother Willow and the Wizard of Oz scarecrow.” 

“Even if they were real, the anatomical —” 

“You didn’t mention that when I brought up the Ents. Something you want to tell me about you and Treebeard?” 

“You’re ridiculous,” he huffed, trying to sound exasperated, but he could barely keep a straight face for a second before he was laughing, that scratchy sunny childish giggle that only came out when he was really relaxed and carefree. 

“Close the window before a bird sees you and decides to take up residence.” 

“How about you watch the road?”

“What, no facts about bird nests?” 

“Is that a rhetorical question?” 

“Nope.” 

“Well in that case… gyrfalcon nests are frequently re-used and passed along for generations. The oldest one that’s been discovered was in Greenland, and it was actually estimated to be approximately 2,500 years old.” 

“Seriously?” 

“Yes! In fact…” 

You had to remind yourself, yet again, to stop staring. 

Maybe someday you’d get sick of hearing Spencer talk, but you couldn’t really understand the way most of your teammates reacted to his rambling. Even if you didn’t care about what he was saying, there was something amazing about the way his eyes lit up and his hands fluttered around to illustrate his point.

You parked in front of his building and followed him upstairs. His apartment had become comfortingly familiar — ever since you and Spencer bonded over a shared love of sci-fi, you’d taken to driving him home and, if it wasn’t too late, sticking around for an episode or two of Doctor Who.  

He got his ancient little DVD player up and running, and you settled on the couch, fluffing pillows and shoving aside his nest of colorful crocheted blankets, getting cozy. There was something about Spencer’s space that always felt like home; maybe it was the smell of books, or just the general Spencer-ness of the whole place. 

Just being around him had always kinda felt like home, too. Sometimes you forgot you’d only known him for six months. 

He disappeared into his room for a second and came back with a comb. It was cheap plastic, missing a couple teeth, and looked like it hadn’t been used in a while. You looked from him to the comb and back again. 

“That actually explains a lot,” you said, grinning. Spencer rolled his eyes and sat down on the floor in front of you, leaning back against your shins, and after a dismayed glance at his curls, you commented, “We could always just shave it all off.” 

“I’m not going to dignify that with an answer,” he said primly. 

You started with a couple of the less tangled pieces, finger-combing carefully through one soft lock at a time. You half-expected some comment about primates and social grooming, or at least a few facts about the quantum theory behind the TARDIS, but Spencer was uncharacteristically quiet and still, his eyes fixed on the TV. 

You separated out one of the worst knots, and he tilted his head to the side to give you better access. You were being as gentle as possible, but you knew you were hurting him at the first tug — he sucked in a breath, knuckles going white as his fingers clenched on his knees. 

“Sorry, I’m trying,” you sighed. 

With his head tilted like this, you could see the muscle clenching in his jaw and the way his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. 

“S’okay,” he whispered hoarsely. “It’s not — not your fault.” 

He sat there stiffly as you worked. His hair was silky, where it wasn’t hopelessly knotted, and you were close enough that you could smell whatever clean, sweet shampoo he used. Something about it made you want to hold your breath; it felt like you were too close. Spencer rarely let you inside his little bubble of personal space. 

Maybe that was why he seemed uncomfortable. He was usually so fidgety, tapping out a rhythm or twirling a pen between his long fingers, and it was strange to see him motionless like this. 

You ran your fingers through a de-tangled section, slow and careful, and Spencer shivered, his shoulders trembling for a moment before he went unnaturally still again. 

Spencer blurted out, “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

At the same time, you asked, “Are you cold?” 

You paused for a moment, surprised by the reaction, but after hesitating, Spencer just muttered, “Yeah. Cold.” 

You couldn’t shake the feeling that you were missing something. It was too warm, if anything; Spencer had a patchy flush crawling up his neck and over the sharp lines of his jaw and cheekbones. 

“Here you go, goober,” you said, awkwardly cheerful in an attempt to cover your uncertainty as you grabbed an afghan from the couch and draped it around his shoulders. 

“Thanks.” He pulled the blanket down onto his lap without looking at you. “But maybe I should just do this myself.” 

“You’re never gonna get this loose on your own, not without scissors,” you warned, plucking at the knot around the last burr in his hair. “I’ll just, um — I’ll try to be more gentle.” 

“Maybe just go for it,” he said. “Get it over with.” His voice had gone all high-pitched and strained, like he was on the verge of a panic attack. If this was how much he disliked physical contact, no wonder he always avoided hugging you. 

You tried to go quickly, figuring that one quick moment of pain was better than another ten minutes of making Spencer uncomfortable. In your nervousness, you ended up tugging the burr out much more abruptly than you’d intended, and Spencer let out this rough, low, choked-off sound. Before you could apologize, he was jerking away from you, curled in on himself with his shoulders up around his ears like he was worried you were going to hit him, and — 

“Sorry,” he said, voice cracking. 

— what? 

“Spence?” you said tentatively. “What—”

He was still just curled up on the floor in a ball of gangly limbs, but he half-turned to you, twisting around. He wouldn’t make eye contact, though; he was staring intently at the pillow that was on the couch next to you. It felt weird, looking down at him like this, so you slid down onto the floor, hoping it wouldn’t spook him. He shifted back slightly, but at least he didn’t flinch away. 

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I didn’t — this was a bad idea.” 

The profiler in you couldn’t help but notice a few details. He was blushing, for starters. His lower lip was red where he’d been biting it, and — this was the part that surprised you most — his pupils were huge. 

You knew what Spencer looked like when he was panicking, and this wasn’t it. 

“Oh,” you breathed. “Oh.” 

He looked down at his lap, frowning as he played with the loose thread in the cuff of his sweater. 

“Sorry,” he repeated. “I know you don’t feel the same way, I wasn’t trying to — I didn’t realize it would be like that, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, and—”

“Wait, what?” 

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable! I shouldn’t have asked—”

“I don’t feel the same way about what?” 

“I know you’re not attracted to me,” Spencer said, barely audible. 

“You’re… you…what?” 

He looked up, at that, genuinely startled. There was something sweet and vulnerable shining in his eyes, and your heart was racing. You slid a little bit closer, so that your knees were almost touching Spencer’s as you faced each other, cross-legged. 

“I thought you knew.” His hushed, croaky voice broke on the last word. “I thought I was being obvious.” 

You gaped at him for a second before letting out a sharp, hysterical giggle. 

He ducked his head again, hiding behind a curtain of hair, but not before you saw the hurt expression that flashed across his features. 

“No, that’s not—” you blurted out. “Spence. Spencer.” 

“Forget it,” he said sharply, his body going tense like he was about to bolt. “Can we just forget this happened?” 

Before you could think better of it, you reached out and pushed a few curls back behind his ear, and then you grabbed, twisting your fingers in his hair to tug him forward. You cut off the startled noise he made with a clumsy, eager kiss. 

The angle was all wrong, both of you leaning forward awkwardly, but it felt like sparks all down your spine.

You pulled away just far enough to get the words out: “I thought I was being obvious.”  

Then Spencer was surging closer on his hands and knees, crowding into your space, until you had a lapful of rumpled doctor pressing you back against the couch. He cupped your jaw with gentle spidery fingers, gaze locked on your mouth, and leaned in slowly like he was still waiting for you to push him away. 

There was nothing awkward about it this time. If the first kiss was sparks, this was fireworks — it was such a goddamn cliche you wanted to kick yourself for thinking it, but it was true. Your head was spinning. Every pillowy press of his lips and soft slide of his tongue seemed to steal the breath from your lungs. 

By the time you broke apart you were panting, but at least you weren’t the only one. Spencer’s chest heaved as he pulled away. He was still staring at your mouth like he couldn’t help himself. Part of you wanted to kiss him again and maybe never stop, but another part of you was paralyzed, trying to process the fact that this was actually happening. 

You just wanted to put the world on pause so that you could memorize everything: the way he licked his lips, the smell of his laundry detergent, the barely-perceptible movement of his pulse — you’d never seen that before because you’d never been this close to him before. You wanted to hold onto it, even the less-than-perfect details — the soundtrack of buzzy Dalek screeching in the background — the way you were folded together on the floor, all too-long legs and bony elbows, which was going to get uncomfortable fast.  

Spencer seemed to feel the same way. He grazed the pad of his thumb over your lower lip, then followed the curve of your smile out to your temple and traced the shell of your ear with careful fingertips. When he brushed his curled-up fingers along the ridge of your cheekbone, you turned your head and kissed his knuckles.  

His hand came to rest on your shoulder, and you wrapped your fingers around his wrist, holding it in place, feeling the blood and bones shifting under the skin.  

“You really didn’t know?” you whispered. 

He shook his head shyly and gave you one of those incandescent smiles that always made your heart race. “No idea.” 

“I thought you were just ignoring it to spare my feelings,” you confessed. 

“I thought you were doing that.”  

“I thought you were good at your job!” you laughed. “Aren’t you supposed to be a genius or something?” 

“I think I have a blind spot, where you’re concerned.” He was blushing again. “But I was so distracted by you that I walked into a bush! How did you not —” 

“I’m the one who stares at you all the time like a creep.” 

“You thought you were being creepy?” he said sheepishly. “As soon as you started touching my hair — oh my god that’s embarrassing.” 

“That’s not the word I would’ve used.” 

You tangled your fingers in his curls, tugging experimentally. His breath hitched. 

Both of you were utterly still for a moment, watching each other, and the tension between you seemed to fill the air like a living thing. You were excruciatingly aware of all the places your bodies were touching.

You considered all the places you could touch. It would be so easy. You could tug him in, kiss him, melt into each other… there were so many possibilities, suddenly, and there was something incredible about that: the electricity, the excitement, the moment of pure potential in the pause between certainty and action. 

Spencer sighed, long and shaky, and you were so close that you could feel the current of exhaled air. 

“I couldn’t think straight,” he murmured, with a twitch of a smile. “That doesn’t happen to me often.” 

“So you didn’t know…” 

You scritched your fingernails down his scalp, marveling at the way he shivered and swayed closer like he was hypnotized. He curled his hand around the side of your neck, thumb slowly stroking the hinge of your jaw. 

“I knew I liked it,” he confessed. “But — within a certain context? Not out of nowhere like that. I didn’t think it would be... like that.” 

“Like what?”

“Intense.”  

“Yeah?” 

“But I think maybe it’s just you.” His eyes had gone all glassy and heavy-lidded, and you could barely breathe. “Maybe you drive me crazy no matter where you’re touching me.” 

“I can think of a few ways to test that hypothesis.” 

You caught a glimpse of his grin, but then he pressed his forehead to yours and his features went blurry, too close for you to focus.

“Never really thought I’d be into dirty talk, but if you’re going to start quoting the scientific method…” 

“Funny, most of the time you never shut up,” you said, giddy and overwhelmed. 

The tip of his nose brushed yours. There was maybe an inch of space between your mouths, and you wanted to close that gap so badly it felt like a physical ache. 

“I mean, if you want me to start rattling off statistics—” 

“Spencer.” You fisted both hands in his hair, tugging sharply, and he shuddered. “Take a hint.” 

“Blind spot, remember?” he whispered, lips brushing yours as they shaped the words, feather-light and maddening. 

“You know, for a genius—” you started, but he kissed you, hungry and sweet like he was making up for lost time, until you’d completely forgotten what you were going to say. 

.

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There is now a sexy follow-up here! 

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If you enjoyed this, please reblog or leave a message! 

[ffwriterbts]

Lunar- BTS Werewolf AU Part 4

AN: As I’ve said before, if slowburn BTS werewolf AUs that have springlings of angst, smut, and fluff, this is the story for you! Other than that, please leave a like or comment so I know you’re enjoying the story!! The sections should start getting longer as I keep updating :) 

Also! Let me know if you want to be on a tag list for this story! 

Word Count: 7.7k

Warnings: General angst; slight medical talk; mental health issues; soulmate themes if you squint

Posted: 31 Dec 2020

Masterlist

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When YN wakes up, she is lying in what looks like a fancy hospital room. Her shoulder is on fire, there’s an IV in her hand, her leg is propped up in an almost uncomfortable way, and all the rest of her feels like she was repeatedly hit by a cement truck. 

YN tries to sit up, but only makes it a few centimeters before pain wracks her body and she stops in her tracks. Her eyes snap shut and she takes a few deep breaths, doing her best to remember what happened and where she was.

And- nothing. YN doesn’t really remember anything that happened. 

That is, until Jin walks into the room, and everything hits her all at once- how Jin and Yoongi came to cook, how she was going back to the garden to grab her phone when a mystery wolf tried to harm her, how Yoongi transformed into a giant black wolf, how he fought for her, how Jin helped her. 

“I didn’t expect you to wake up so soon. Welcome back, YN.” Jin breaks the silence, and YN’s eyes snap up to him. 

“I-” YN starts, taking a second to collect her thoughts before continuing. “What happened to me?” Her voice is gruff, hoarse. 

“You were attacked.” Jin gives a little shrug before continuing, “Your shoulder was bitten, your ankle broken, you have three cracked ribs, and deep tissue bruising on the side with the bite. Other than that, you’re covered in scratches and bruises from the dragging and the nasty fall you took.” 

“Oh.” 

“Don’t worry, you have the same blood type as Jimin, and he was more than happy to donate for you. The wolf blood will have you healed by the end of the month for pretty much all of it. The ankle will take a little longer.” Jin shrugs again, going around and checking all of the monitors, making sure everything was good before he makes small talk with YN and helps her sit up, giving her water. 

Once he is sure she is as fine as she can be, he takes a seat at the end of the bed. YN can feel her ears get hot as she realizes that he has plenty of room, seeing as her legs don’t even reach three-fourths of the way down when she’s lying, much less when she’s sitting up. She doesn’t know why she feels this embarrassment, but she does anyway, and she silently hopes that Jin doesn’t know. 

“You must have questions, so why don’t I give you the full story?” Jin lightly pats where YN’s good foot is, smiling warmly at her. “If you want me to, of course.” 

“Please, I feel like I’m going crazy.” YN’s voice is much softer now, as she looks at him with those big, innocent eyes of hers, sipping water. 

“Well, I hope you’ve figured out by now that we are all werewolves.” Jin lets out a little laugh as YN nods softly. 

“We are a hidden race among humans, almost extinct. There are a few large groups over in America, there’s a couple here, a few somewhere in Europe, and a whole bunch over in Africa. There’s also a city of only wolves and special, trusted humans in China, which is also hidden from the world. We are bigger, faster, and stronger than even the very best human. We have the ability to change into wolves whenever we want, so long as we are fully healed.” Jin takes breath, looking to YN to make sure she was following along. 

YN nods, eyes trained on Jin as she listens, and he continues. 

“In order to survive, we had to breed with humans, muddle the gene pool. The fastest, strongest, largest of the humans, they are all part wolf. Our pack is one of the purest here, genetically speaking, but we would be considered basically human by our ancestors. But, to be fair, some humans are able to be welcomed into packs.” 

“Packs?” YN asks, head tilting slightly to one side as Jin smiles. 

“Yeah, like wolf packs. There are Alphas, Betas, and Omegas, which are basically what you think they are, though there is a lot more variation than you would think. Each designation is on a sort of scale, though that scale is not something that can easily be explained.” Jin gives another half shrug, glancing up at the IV, before standing and doing something that YN didn’t understand. 

“Here, let me get this changed so your body doesn’t starve or dehydrate. And I’ll let the rest of the boys know you’re awake, they’re excited to meet you and make sure you’re okay.” Jin clearly makes the move away from the subject of werewolves, and even though YN’s mind is swirling with questions, she doesn’t question the dropping of the subject. 

YN assumes (correctly) that any and all questions she possibly has will be answered in time, because something about the way Jin putters around the room doing this or that feels like coming home. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the next week, YN steadily gets better. Whatever it is about the werewolf blood that makes healing kick it up into overdrive was working better than expected, which all of the boys were grateful for. She had visitors every day, for most of the day, and she quickly got along with each of them. 

Jin, who YN found out was actually a fully licensed medical doctor and surgeon, mandated that the boys were only allowed to go and see her in pairs, so she wouldn’t be overwhelmed. 

And thus, YN met Hobi and Jimin almost as soon as Jin opened the door to let the boys know she was accepting visitors. She could see who she would later find out to be Jungkook and Taehyung peaking in the doorway, wanting to be included but not being allowed to be. 

Both Hobi and Jimin very enthusiastically introduced themselves, taking no time at all to occupy the end of the bed that YN was far too short to occupy herself. Talking to them felt like talking to people she had known for years, and they had YN almost rolling with laughter within the first five minutes. 

It was almost an hour of not-so-patient waiting on behalf of Taehyung and Jungkook before Jin came back and kicked Hobi and Jimin out, scolding them half-heartedly for not letting the other two have their time yet. 

With quick apologies, those two boys slipped out of the room as two more replaced them. Again, just as enthusiastic, the two boys introduced themselves, and had YN in stitches almost too quickly. 

Without a second thought, YN is talking with them for almost two hours, before Namjoon comes in and cuts them off. He kicks the two youngest out of the room, telling them that YN needs to rest sometime, that she has to heal. 

Namjoon in turn takes the same spot at the end of the bed, but he is bearing gifts. Namely, the gift of her electronics from her home, a nice lap desk, and some of her very favorite sour candy.

“I figured you would want these things, seeing as you’ll be here for a while.” Namjoon smiles softly as he almost sheepishly rubs the back of his neck. 

“Oh, thank you!” YN is much more animated than she was even an hour ago, snatching the sour candies from Namjoon’s hand as quickly as she dares to, trying her best to open the bag without moving her one arm very much. 

“Do you want some help YN?” Namjoon’s voice is soft but deep, and YN nods without even a second’s hesitation, holding out the offending bag with a small pout. 

Namjoon just chuckles, making small talk as he easily opens the bag, carefully handing it to YN. She lets out a grateful sigh, carefully balancing the bag in her hurt hand, and throwing candies into her mouth. 

“How’d you know I like these?” YN asks absently, paying far more attention to the wonderful flavor than to Namjoon and his response. 

She was tired, her body was sore, and honestly, she was more excited for her candy and the prospect of a nice long sleep than she was about anything Namjoon had to say. That was, at least, until she actually heard the words that came out of his mouth. 

“Oh, we can read minds. We know all sorts of things about you.” His voice was that same even calmness, to the point that YN didn’t actually register what was said for almost a whole minute. 

“You… you what?” YN pauses and looks up at Namjoon, shock and confusion written so clearly on her face that Namjoon didn’t even need to read her mind to know exactly what she was thinking. 

“Hyung was supposed to tell you, but yes. It’s an innate ability of ours, and once you present you’ll probably be able to do the same.” Namjoon gives a little sort of half shrug as YN’s face just scrunches up more as she tries to fully process what Namjoon actually said. 

“I can see you’re confused.” Namjoon speaks again and YN rolls her eyes without taking a second to think about how that might be perceived. Sure, the men she had met had all been incredibly kind to her, but that doesn’t mean that they’re comfortable enough to start with the half-bratty sass that YN was known for with her close friends. 

“Yeah, I wonder why.” YN speaks for the first time, her eyes locking up onto Namjoons in a way that seemed out of character for the girl that he had begun to get to know. “It’s not like this is a lot to process or anything.” Sarcasm seems to drip from every pore like venom, and Namjoon pauses for the first time, slightly confused. Again, this was unlike the character that he had come to know as YN.

He’s sure YN doesn’t mean any harm by what she’s saying, that much is clear to him because of her thoughts, but he was under the impression that YN was just a sweet, mild mannered woman. Silently, Namjoon chides himself for allowing himself to believe that YN, a fully functioning adult woman, was something other than a three dimensional person with multitudes to her personality. 

“May I ask some clarifying questions?” YN asks after a short silence. For the first time, she felt slightly uncomfortable in the silence, wondering if she had actually offended Namjoon inadvertently. Usually, she tried to tame the more bratty side of her personality for fear of being hurt by someone she completely offended, and it seemed to hit her all at once that these men, who were already giant in comparison to her, also held an unknown strength.

YN’s fears are assuaged when Namjoon gives her a beautiful smile, nodding his head and motioning for her to ask away. 

“How much of my head can you see?” YN tilts her head to one side, not catching how strange her phrasing is until Namjoon lifts an eyebrow. By that point, too much time has passed for YN to really change her statement, and she can feel her ears getting hot as she waits for Namjoon to actually respond. 

“Well, any of us can read basically any thought you have. We can also access memories, though it is incredibly frowned upon to do so, as it is sort of like torture for the person whose mind you look into for that one. But, we can also teach you how to make sure we can’t see inside your mind, and when the door to the room closes, we can’t see into anyone inside the room.” Namjoon answers with a sort of practiced nuance, which is comforting to YN in a strange way. 

“Do you look at my thoughts all the time?” 

“No, of course not. That wouldn’t be fair, and honestly, we don’t really look in your mind at all. You do throw off emotion, but that’s different in the first place.” Namjoon gives that same little half shrug. 

“How’s it different?” YN’s voice is much softer now. There’s something about the way Namjoon speaks that makes her feel like she’s coming home. 

She shakes the feeling, instead trying to focus on what Namjoon has to say.

“When in the pack, emotions are shared and felt by the other members of the pack, to varying degrees. When it comes to other wolves, we are sensitive to their emotions and have a large amount of completely non-verbal communication. Part of why you’re so interesting to us is the fact that we can feel your emotions, though you clearly aren’t fully wolf.” Namjoon pauses, brow furrowed. 

“What does that mean?” YN’s expression turns to match Namjoons. 

“It means you’re one of us. But also that you’re not.” Namjoon brings a hand up to rub the bridge of his nose. “I’m not sure what it means, honestly. You smell like an Omega. You act like one, mostly. But you clearly won’t be able to turn once you finish presenting, you know nothing of our world or customs, you’re absolutely tiny.” 

YN shifts uncomfortably when Namjoon looks up at her, her ears heating up again, though she has no idea why she’s embarrassed. It’s not her fault she didn’t know about a hidden society of werewolves, after all. 

Namjoon opens his mouth to say something else, but the door opens and Jin steps in. 

“Namjoon, go separate Taehyung and Yoongi. They’re at it again. Both of them are acting like children.” Jin lets out a deep, exasperated sigh. “And you need to leave YN alone, she needs to heal. Didn’t you say the same thing to Tae and Kookie just a bit ago?” 

YN can’t help but smile softly at the familiar interaction, almost laughing when Jin shoos Namjoon out of the room. 

“As for you, Miss YN, you need to actually rest. Don’t be afraid to tell any of the boys to leave, they know full well that you are here to heal.” Jin gives YN a bright smile as he reaches behind her to make sure her pillows are arranged correctly. 

YN nods, a grateful smile on her features. “I’ll do my best to heal well, thank you.”  She speaks softly, her thoughts a jumbled mess after everything Namjoon told her, her prior annoyance and attitude melting away.

“Do you need anything else? It’s getting late enough I’m going to leave you, I know Namjoon set you up with your technology and chargers.” Jin stands in the doorway, facing YN. 

“No, thank you! I’m good until tomorrow.” YN answers quickly, arranging herself so she can rest comfortably for the night. 

“I’ll leave you then. If you need anything through the night, there’s a call button on the side there. Good night, YN.” 

“Good night!” YN calls, watching as Jin flicks off the light and closes the door. She then proceeds to lay there, in the strange bed, and stare up at the ceiling. 

It was a lot to process, everything that she’d been told. 

“I’m fucking crazy.” YN groans, sighing deeply and checking her phone for the first time in what could have been weeks. 

She was unsurprised to see that the only notifications she had were from her editor, sending back things for her to work on and asking for the corrections and newest works.

YN can’t help but sigh again, throwing her phone to one side and settling in better. She was thankful to the men who had saved her, and she knew somewhere deep down that she could trust them, but it was just a lot to deal with. 

What did it mean that she smelled like an Omega? What the fuck did it mean to present? What did Namjoon mean when he said that she threw off emotions? 

YN was confused, to say the least, but as she relaxed more and ignored the aches of her body, she realized just how tired she was. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep, even with her mind swirling with question after question about what everything meant.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It was three weeks before YN had the use of her arm back, her shoulder only stinging slightly when she actually used her arm properly. It was another month after that before YN could walk on her ankle, which had been almost shattered from the attack. And that whole time, YN was bonding with the boys. 

She quickly found that the three youngest were incredibly physically affectionate, which YN just adored. She quickly found herself curling up beside Jimin, playing with his hair and feeling completely enveloped in his arms. Or laying across Jungkook’s lap, laughing at his facial expressions as he played his games. Or jokingly having Taehyung carry her around, lovingly calling him her “trusty steed” from her perch on his back.

She found that Jin’s love language was acts of service, which usually translated into him cooking this or that for the group. YN quickly fell into the habit of helping Jin as much as she could sitting at (or on) the counter, laughing at his dad jokes and making some of her own. She made sure that Jin didn’t forget to serve himself as well, always sneaking some of the best parts that he gave to her back into his own portion.

She found that the best way to bond with Namjoon was to just talk to him, about anything and everything, especially philosophical topics. Both YN and Namjoon loved the debate of this or that, the exchange of ideas, the passion of discussing things that others find to be boring. They would spend hours sitting in the library and reading this book or that novel, just to discuss it as soon as both of them had finished, getting off topic in that special way that isn’t really off topic, if you think about it on a deeper level. 

She found that Hoseok loved to dance, loved to explore music and feel it through the movement of  his body. While YN wasn’t able to stand and actually dance with him, even though she would have loved to, she did suggest new songs for him to try making routines to, bringing him water and snacks every so often. He would always ask her to stay and watch, which she did, always giving him the biggest applause she could at the end of the beautiful dances, talking his ear off about her love for movement like that, even if she couldn’t ever really do it herself. 

She found, however, that it was with Yoongi that she felt the most at peace. She quickly gained access to his ever-so-exclusive “genius lab,” where he made his music. Most of the time, YN would work on her writing as Yoongi worked on his music, the studio space filled with the soft sounds of YN’s typing and the sounds of whatever Yoongi was working on. They didn’t need to talk, instead the two sat in silence most of the time, just enjoying the fact that there was someone else there who understood that being together was all that was really needed.

Every so often, Yoongi would spin around in his chair and capture YN’s attention, asking her to listen to something and give her opinions on what could be improved or changed to make the song sound better. While YN didn’t have a lick of musical experience, she was sensitive to sounds and could pick out parts that didn’t quite mesh correctly with ease, which is just what Yoongi needed. 

On the flip side, when Yoongi was taking a bit of a break to stretch, YN would ask him to make certain motions or how to say certain things in different accents to help her be able to write this or that out in a way that actually made sense. Her editor was praising the way her work was coming back with less mistakes and awkward parts, and YN was absolutely loving the way she and Yoongi got along. 

And yet at other points, when neither Yoongi nor YN could seem to focus long enough to get anything done, the two would lounge side by side on the couch and just talk. They never really had something specific to talk about, but YN would find herself opening up about things that she had never told anyone else. She would find herself listening intently to whatever Yoongi decided to open up about, carefully choosing her words in a way that was meant to make him feel better, without making it feel like she was dismissing the feelings that he had in the first place. 

It was a system that worked, with YN falling into the routine of the home far quicker than any of them would have ever expected.  She found joy in helping Jin cook, she felt loved at the unashamed touchiness of Jimin and Taehyung, and again in the much more shy touchiness of Jungkook, she found quiet appreciation in sharing music and watching Hobi, she felt wanted during the long conversations and debates with Namjoon, and she felt at peace with Yoongi. 

She felt like she was home.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But nothing can last forever, can it? YN knew just as much as the rest of the boys that she would have to go back to her own home eventually. 

And so, after two and a half months of living with the seven men, YN was taken back to her own home. 

Jin’s the one who drove her, with Namjoon riding shotgun. There was an aura of sadness the entire time, like none of them really wanted to go anywhere, but it wasn’t like YN could just move into their house. 

This wasn’t a movie or some crappy romance novel, after all. It was real life, and in real life, people don’t just pack up and move into the home of people who were basically strangers. 

The whole parting was quiet. YN couldn’t bring herself to actually say the word “goodbye” to either of the men who had come to make sure she got home safe, instead throwing her arms around their necks and giving them a good squeeze, wishing that she didn’t have to leave. 

The whole thing rang the same as the way she had parted with the other boys before the drive, the ache settling into her chest like someone had ripped out her heart and thrown it under the tires of the car as it pulled away, tears falling freely as a sharp longing settled in her stomach. 

It wasn’t until Jin and Namjoon left that YN actually cried, sobs tearing out of her throat as she crumbled to the ground, knees hitting the hardwood sharply. 

She had no idea how long she stayed there, feeling like there was a hole ripped into her very being, wishing for the comfort of Yoongi’s words, or Jimin’s wonderful hugs, or of Jin’s gentle prodding to “eat well.” 

Eventually, YN drug herself to her feet, stumbling to the kitchen and chugging some water before grabbing the bag she had borrowed to take her things back to her house, deciding she needed to put things away. 

“Why did I let them pack the bag?” YN groans, finding quickly that she is wholly unable to actually pick the bag up, and instead has to drag it to her room. She’s silently thankful for the wood floors because she can actually slide the bag. 

It isn’t until she gets to the last couple sweatshirts in the bottom of the bag that YN realizes she’d picked up a few presents from the boys. Shaking her head, she realizes why they had insisted on helping her in the first place, each of them had gifted her something small and they didn’t want her to refuse them, like they knew she would. The knowledge of how kind they were being was completely bittersweet, however, because they felt like “goodbye, at least remember us” presents.

From Jin she got the knife she quickly claimed was her favorite because it was the only one that was properly sized for her. There was a small note attached tha read “For my favorite kitchen helper, since it’s too small for me, -Jin” 

YN felt the tears well up in her eyes as she carefully set the knife to the side, not wanting to accidentally hurt herself. She then reaches back into the bag, wondering what else she might find. 

Hobi’s gift was next, giving her the one black headband of his that she always stole and jokingly wore around. It was wrapped around an adorable little teddy bear, with a note saying “For my favorite dancer, even if you couldn’t really do anything. Next time, I’m sure you’ll show me up -Hobi <3” 

Tears were flowing down her face now, but YN couldn’t stop looking for what was next, no matter what kind of feelings arose from it. 

Next she found one of the small figurines from Jungkook’s games, the one she always told him was her favorite because of it’s cool jacket. The note simply read “He might be your favorite, but you’re mine.”

YN smiled at the lack of signature, getting up and placing the figure on her nightstand, carefully angling it so it could watch over the room. Taking a seat on the edge of her bed, she reaches into the bag again, pulling out a gift that couldn’t have been from anyone but Namjoon. 

It was a book that was equal parts old and beautiful, and as YN ran her finger down the spine, she took out the note that was sticking out of the book. She wiped the tears from her face before she read the note, not wanting to drip tears onto it.

“Our Miss YN, 

Please don’t take this as a goodbye, but as a promise for the future. You’re just as important to us, to me, as we are to you. Remember us, remember the good, and look to when we can be together again. 

-Joon” 

It’s with this that YN starts sobbing again. They’re so sweet, those boys, and YN couldn’t help but feel almost lost without them. Her chest hurt like someone had shot her, a strong sort of longing that seemed endless settling into the pit of her stomach. 

It takes a while this time, before she can reach into the bag again. When she does, she almost immediately has renewed cries falling from her lips. 

She had pulled out the one super soft sweater of Jimin’s that she absolutely adored. She had told him that she was going to steal it from him whenever he wore it, twisting her fingers in the material and snuggling closer to him. It was soft, it smelled nice, and she knew that it would make her both look and feel tiny. 

There’s no note with this one, but YN can feel the love and sincerity behind the action, draping the sweater over her legs for the time being. She reaches into the bag again, smiling as she pulls out one of Taehyung’s million beanies, wrapped around a small toy horse. 

There is a note with this one, which simply reads “Horse.” It’s the most Taehyung thing YN can think of, and without a second thought, she places the horse next to the figurine, pulling the beanie on. 

She doesn’t find anything else immediately, taking a minute to put the things she had gotten in safe spots and going to put away the last couple hoodies, which she knew were hers. 

It isn’t until she reaches the last thing in the bag that she finds what Yoongi left her. At first, she thought it was just one of his hoodies, which she absolutely adored, but when she took it out to lay it next to the sweater Jimin had given her, something fell out of the folding. 

Quickly, YN picks up whatever fell, and finds that it’s a CD. She shakes her head, knowing that Yoongi would be the kind of person to share music as a gift. She sets the CD carefully on the bed, gathering up her shower supplies and a towel, both because she needed to take them back to her bathroom, and because she needed to actually shower. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Once she’s freshly showered, using Hobi’s headband to keep her hair out of her face, wearing nothing but the amazingly soft sweater Jimin left her, YN settles into her bed with a CD player she found, Yoongi’s hoodie layed out beside her. Now that she had calmed down, she could smell the boys on the things they had given her. She would have been lying if she said that it wasn’t incredibly comforting to have their scent around her. It made the gaping hole in her chest feel a little less bloody, for whatever reason. 

Pressing play, YN settles in, not knowing what to expect. Neither the CD nor the CD cover had any sort of writing on it, so YN had no idea what was going to be playing, or for how long. She can’t help the small smile that graces her face as Yoongi’s voice fills her space, speaking deep and slow in that comforting way YN loved. 

“YN, my lovely secret keeper. You’re hearing this now because the day has come that you had to go back to your own home. I know none of us want you to leave, and if your actions have anything to say about it, you don't want to go.

You know as well as I do that things don’t always work the way we want them to, though.  We will be coming to visit you, as much as we can. And we will keep an eye on you. 

YN, please listen to me when I tell you I won’t let anything happen to you. It broke my heart, letting you get hurt once. And I’m not sure what I would have done if Hyung and I weren’t there when you were attacked. 

If you need me, if you need any of us, we will be there. Always.” 

YN curls up in a ball, hugging Yoongi’s hoodie to her chest, breathing in his scent deeply. She knew that he meant every word, that he truly would never let anything happen to her on purpose, but she also felt abandoned by him. By all of them. 

She had spent the last ten weeks of her life talking to Yoongi or Namjoon when she felt bad. Going to Jimin or Taehyung for cuddles when she was lonely. Gaming with Jungkook when she was bored. Laughing with Jin while prepping meals. Doing what little dancing she could with Hobi when she was restless. Laughing as Taehyung insisted on carrying her from one room to another, even once she had healed enough to walk. 

She had spent the last ten weeks evening out their teams when they played games, singing off-key on karaoke nights, fielding Taehyung’s touchiness before he got on Yoongi’s nerves (because for some reason, Tae insisted on trying to cuddle Yoongi at every opportunity), celebrating with them, helping to clean the wolves if there was a fight, stealing blankets off of every surface she could, curling into the side of whoever sat beside her in the name of stealing their boundless warmth.

She had spent ten weeks creating a space for herself in their lives, in their home. And now, it was back to living in a house that was way too big for her, with nobody to keep her accountable. 

It was because of this that she cried herself to sleep, even the sound of Yoongi’s beautiful music filled the room. She missed them, more than anything. She felt like she was crying more than she ever had, and it had only been hours since she left their home.

What YN didn’t know was that the boys were missing her just as much back at their home. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jin had decided to make a fancier meal than usual, because it would take more time and take his mind off of everything, but as he went about getting things done, he couldn’t help but miss seeing YN, perched precariously on the counter, babbling away about this or that as she carefully cut whatever needed to be chopped up. 

He internally cringed as the thought of the time YN had slipped and almost fallen on her hurt ankle, his own quick reflexes being the only thing that had saved her from weeks of extra healing. Honestly, even though it stressed him out to no end to have her cutting things balanced the way she was, it was also something that he had come to expect. Secretly, he wished she had fallen on that ankle, because that would mean she would have still been right there, trying to out-joke the dad joke master himself. 

Jungkook had holed himself away in his room, going to game, setting out a second controller without thinking about it. He had been in the middle of teaching YN how to play his favorite game, so that they could properly play together instead of having her just watch him play all the time. It felt wrong for him to have to just put away that second controller. 

The feeling was just exasperated when he went to start the game and it came up with the section that they had been working through. Fondly, Jungkook remembered the way YN would bring her bottom lip between her teeth as she concentrated on doing things correctly, bouncing in her seat when she finally figured out how something worked. Despite the fond memories, he found himself close to tears, staring at that second controller. 

Jimin and Hobi both went to the studio, deciding to dance away the hurt. Without thinking, Hobi went to ask YN what song they should freestyle to, the words dying in his throat as he turned around to talk to the girl that just wasn’t there. Jimin can see just how much pain Hobi is in, not even speaking as he brings the slightly taller man into his arms, feeling the same sense of loss. 

They sunk down to the floor, neither of them wanting to talk, which in itself was strange for the two normally boisterous men. Jimin missed the feeling of having YN curled up beside him, stealing his heat. Hobi missed being able to talk to her about the dances he was doing, getting a perspective from someone who didn’t really know anything about dance. They missed her. 

They didn’t realize until that moment, when the two were both trying to get the same sort of comfort from each other that they had begun to seek out YN for, how much of a hole there was in their group. Sure, they had been just fine before YN, and would be fine again without her, but there was a comfort with her that they didn’t know how to replace. Things just weren’t the same.

Taehyung busied himself with a book that Namjoon had been recommending to him about one artist that he recently found, but he couldn’t focus on the words or pictures in front of him. Instead, his mind was preoccupied with the fact that, for the past two months, he had spent this lazy time in the afternoon helping YN get from place to place, laughing with her as the others did this or that. He missed those moments, with YN laughing in his arms or on his back, even though it shouldn’t have been long enough for those feelings to settle in. 

He closed the book, flopping down onto the sofa he had settled on and trying not to think too hard about what he could have been doing with YN. If he was being honest with himself, he liked having someone who was so small and easily carried around, because he liked feeling big and important in comparison to her. It was an added bonus that her personality meshed so well with his own, and that she seemed to just understand  the weirder parts of his personality, instead of being put off by them like so many others. 

Sure, he was one of the largest of the pack, but that didn’t mean he felt like it. By wolf standards, he was pretty close to normal, but for whatever reason, he loved the way YN would curl into his side when they were seated next to each other, mumbling about being cold, looking absolutely tiny in comparison to his own body. 

Or how she’d sigh dramatically whenever she had to stand to do something, hopping around the room and never asking for help, despite the fact Taehyung would be the first to jump up and whisk her off her feet completely, just carrying her to wherever it was she needed to be, chiding her for not asking for the help she so clearly needed. 

Namjoon decided to go to the library, curling up in the chair that YN usually occupied in the mornings before everyone else woke up. His mind was swirling, automatically analyzing why he felt the way he did, instead of really feeling those feelings. Absently, he stroked the spine of the book that YN had been reading, a soft smile gracing his face when he realized that it was the one he had recommended when she was still completely bedridden during those first few days. 

He glanced down at the small table beside the chair, realizing for the first time that YN had left a little notebook under the book. He picks it up, flipping through it and quickly realizing that she had been taking notes over things she was eager to discuss with him, which should have made him happy, but in reality just made him feel worse because she wasn’t there to actually follow through. 

Namjoon chuckled to himself as he imagined YN, absolutely tiny in the chair, curled up in one of the fluffy blankets she always seemed to be wrapped up in, lovingly devouring the book that he had recommended to her, scribbling notes onto her notepad for later. He realized absently that he had missed one of the ways that she showed her growing love and appreciation for him was through this small action, making sure that she knew what she was going to say before their discussions. Namjoon was surprised when a drop of water fell onto the page in the notebook YN had marked, not realizing until he sniffled that it was his own tears. 

Yoongi locked himself up in his Genius Lab as soon as YN was in the car, headphones on as he did this or that to the song he had been working on. He tried to ignore the fact that he couldn’t hear the soft clicks of a keyboard behind him. He tried to ignore the sinking feeling of being lonely.

 He had never once felt lonely in his studio, not before he started letting YN hang out on the couch as he worked.

 Not until he got used to spinning around in his chair and seeing YN there, typing away on her laptop. He remembered hearing her little sighs of frustration or exasperation when something doesn’t work out quite right, her brow furrowed, her tongue sticking out slightly, with a growing fondness.

Yes, Yoongi liked being alone. He enjoyed the silence, he enjoyed his own company. He had always liked being alone, it was how he recharged. And it wasn’t until he let YN into his most private sanctum that he had ever really felt lonely. 

It wasn’t until Jin rounded all of them up for dinner that they realized that every single one of them were missing YN. 

“This is bullshit.” 

Yoongi is the one who speaks, heads turning towards him. None of them had really been in the mood for much talking, but none of them had figured Yoongi, of all people, would be the one to break the tense silence. 

“What, I know you’re all thinking it too. This is bullshit.” Yoongi glares at his plate, taking a deep breath before he looks up at the others. 

“None of us wanted YN to leave. YN didn’t want to leave. And now we are all miserable.” Yoongi stands now, not bothering to push in the chair he had been sitting on. 

“I don’t care what any of you do. I don’t care what the consequences are. I’m going to YN’s.” Yoongi’s eyes sweep the faces of the six boys he loves the most, a fiery intensity radiating off of him in a way that has them all flinching away from him. 

“Yoongi you can’t ju-” Namjoon starts, standing and going over to try to calm Yoongi down, but a sharp growl from Yoongi makes him stop in his tracks. 

“No!” Yoongi’s voice drops an octave as he steps closer to Namjoon himself, squaring up with the leader in a way that could very easily lead to a fight.

 “You know as well as I do Alpha,” Yoongi spits the word like it’s acid on his tongue. “she smells like one of us. She has our scent all over her. If they find out we let her go, that we aren’t around her all the time anymore, they’re going to kill her.” 

Namjoon opens his mouth to say something, anger bubbling up in him like a cursed well, when Jin stands, pushing himself between the two Alphas. 

“Both of you! Stop it!” Jin stands, making sure each of them are an arm’s length away from each other. “We all miss YN, but there’s a reason she’s not here. As much as it might seem like it, she isn’t one of us. She doesn’t belong with us.” 

The other boys are all standing now, helping to make sure Yoongi and Namjoon stay away from each other, trying to calm both of them down. A fight between the Alphas would not end well.

“How could you say that?” It’s Hoseok who speaks this time, his voice sounding oddly small. 

“Because it’s been almost a hundred years since there was a lost Omega! You all know how rare they are, seeing how strong the Omega gene is. We knew her uncle, and he didn’t have a lick of wolf in him, even if she managed to somehow get some wolf in her, it can’t be enough for her to be able to pack bond.” Jin flicks his eyes between the other boys, focusing his attention on keeping Namjoon behind him. 

It’s silent for what feels like hours. 

“Then why do I feel like I lost a piece of me, huh?” It’s Taehyung who speaks up this time, his hands clenched into tight fists at his sides, tears rising in his eyes. “Explain that, Hyung.” His voice is barely above a whisper, choked out over a growing lump in his throat. 

“I-” Jin starts, the words dying in his throat as he watches Taehyung turn into the closest person, seeking the comfort of someone else. 

For once, Yoongi opened his arms to Taehyung, glaring at Jin from over the other man’s shoulder, trying to comfort him. 

“I don’t know.” Jin finally admits, his face falling. 

Again, the room falls silent, only the soft sniffles of Taehyung breaking the deafening quiet of the room. 

“I think we all feel the way Tae does, don’t we?” Namjoon speaks for the first time in a while, the anger he had felt having finally subsided almost completely. There are nods from everyone. 

“The feeling is new, and we don’t want to make a mistake. If we report YN as being lost, she will become a target. If we don’t, we will. Let’s wait for at least a week before we approach her again.” Namjoon eyes the others in the room. “But let’s keep patrols heavy in her part of the woods.” 

Yoongi glares at Namjoon, thoughts swirling. A whole week without YN, knowing that she’s in pain being away from them? It sounded like downright torture to him. 

“Yoongi, Hyung, you know how big of a deal it is to be the pack with a lost Omega. She’ll become a target, just because she can’t handle half as much as we can. It’d be easy to not only to just kill her, but to break her spirit, to force her to tell them about our weaknesses as a pack. She’d have to be with at least one of us almost all the time, have to live with us. She’d have to give up big parts of her freedom, and the YN we know wouldn’t enjoy that at all.” Namjoon pauses, taking a deep breath. 

“We have to be sure before we approach her with this. For all we know, she won’t ever fully present and YN isn’t really one of the lost at all.” Namjoon brings a hand up to rub at his temple, a headache starting from the strong mix of emotions. 

Yoongi sighs, Taehyung finally detaching himself from the smaller man as Yoongi runs a hand through his hair. 

“You’re right Joon. I know you’re right.” He lets out another, more exasperated sigh before he continues, “It’s just hard, ya know? Waiting another week feels like torture, because I know, I know, that YN is hurting. And we caused it.” 

The other boys nod, giving murmurs of agreement as they start to dissipate, their meal forgotten as they begin to retreat again. For whatever reason, even the most other-person oriented of the pack wanted to be alone, wanted to have a minute to process everything that was going on by themselves. 

“Jin, Yoongi. Can we go talk further in the office? We need to actually figure out what to do next.” Namjoon catches Jin by the shoulder before he walks out of the room, reaching for Yoongi as well, even though he was across the room. 

Yoongi just nods, Jin letting out a short hum of approval. The trio then turn in unison, heading out towards the office space that Namjoon used so often. 

[carols-review-box]

My Thoughts on Ginny & Georgia: Season 1 

These are my thoughts.

Right off the bat, I want to address that this is, by no means, a comprehensive review. I’m not even sure if it can be called a review. These are just my thoughts on the show, and it may or may not cover everything (in fact, it most certainly won’t cover everything), and I’ll try my best to write it out in an organized manner, but I can’t make promises. (Though, in all fairness, this is just a blog for my own entertainment, and I don’t expect anyone to actually read it.) 

Now, moving on. Ginny & Georgia, season 1. Where do I begin? 

First Impressions 

I first encountered Ginny & Georgia on Netflix when the website decided to auto play its trailer while I was scrolling through it. I watched--almost begrudgingly-- a short, 1 minute clip of Ginny complaining to her teacher about how all the books on the curriculum were written by white men. While I understand where Ginny was coming from, and while I understand that a lot of high school literature is written by authors who sometimes are not representative of their audience, Ginny’s introduction just came off as obnoxious and annoying. I thought, “Imagine moving to a new school, and that’s the first thing you say to the teacher.” I rolled my eyes, wrote the show off as another try-hard feminist woke piece (or something like that), and didn’t think I’d watch it. 

Well, at some point, I obviously decided to give the show a try. And by the middle of the first episode, I was actually really surprised when Ginny didn’t turn out to be insufferable in the beginning. I say in the beginning-- because her character really slides downhill past a certain point.

Plot 

Throughout the entire show, I was probably a thousand times more interested in Georgia’s plot than Ginny’s. 

It makes sense-- Ginny’s plot is... well, pretty much a generic teen soap opera that I’ve seen hundreds of times before. There are some unique themes to her story that I’ve rarely seen portrayed in other shows, like her experience as a biracial person, but other than that, it seems to be your run-of-the-mill drama. 

On the other hand, Georgia’s plot is fresher. I haven’t personally seen any black-widow narratives (if Georgia could be called that), so I was intrigued and curious by how her story would play out. Not to mention, I liked Georgia’s love interests far better than Ginny’s, but maybe that’s just my personal taste.

In comparing these two plots, I do feel like the writers did Ginny wrong. Georgia is given an interesting storyline with a relevant backstory and plot points that actually make sense, whereas Ginny’s story is mediocre, we rarely get to see her side of the past, and half the stuff that goes down in her life is either unrealistic and overdramatized or it just makes no damn sense. 

Characters 

I could probably talk a great deal about the characters in this show. I have the most to say about Ginny (75% of it is criticism, honestly), so I’ll dedicate an entire section to her later. For now, I’ll start with these characters:

Georgia: Georgia, oh Georgia. To put it simply, Georgia is a psychopath hidden behind a large smile and a buzzing Southern accent. For the first 5 episodes, I was so fooled by her act (and her beauty) that I forgot she’s a literal murderer and most likely not a good human being. But I guess that’s, in part, what makes her very interesting to watch. 

Hunter: I literally felt nothing but a mixture of boredom and pity whenever Hunter was on screen. For the first 8 episodes, he is just an extraordinarily boring character-- and his boringness is used as a justification by Ginny to cheat on him (that’s where the pity part comes in). I enjoyed how how he got more character in the ending episodes, and I could understand his struggles when he fought with Ginny (in that scene). But if he wasn’t dating Ginny, then he would’ve been a completely forgettable character.

Marcus: Marcus ALWAYS looks like he’s high. I don’t think there’s a single scene in the show where he doesn’t look like he just smoked something. He also has little personality, other than being the “bad boy.” I guess his hotness makes up for it, or something?

Maxine: While I enjoy Max overall, I think she can be really annoying, talkative and insensitive at times. Emphasis on the last part, because she does this irritating thing where she says something racist, and then asks if she just said something racist. 

Abby: Out of the friend group, I feel like Abby is the most dramatic without being overdramatic. She experiences things that a regular teenager would. However, she can be a bad friend at times, and I don’t like how the characters gives her a pass on some questionable choices she makes. 

Paul: I like Paul. It is a little bit hypocritical of me to say Paul is a good character when he basically has the same exact personality as Hunter, but I’m going to say it: He’s a good character.

Zion: Zion is smooth, and I enjoy his little wisdom bits with Ginny. But he was introduced too late into the show, and I can’t see him being a good fit for Georgia. 

Joe: I love Joe. Just like some of the other characters, he is kind of plain. Kind of vanilla, daresay boring, but for some reason, I love him. Maybe it’s because of his adorable connection with Georgia. Maybe it’s because he offers some much-needed comedic relief in this overdramatized show. Maybe it’s because he has attractive qualities, like running a “successful” business, or maybe he’s just my type. For many, many episodes, I wanted Georgia to get together with Joe the most. 

Austin: I forgot Austin existed for half the time. Like, I know the kid stabbed someone, but in the grand scheme of things, he’s just so forgettable.

Character: Ginny

Ginny. Ah, where do I even begin with Ginny? 

First, I’m just going to say this: I know the writers intended to depict a biracial person’s experience in America through Ginny. I’m not biracial myself, and I don’t fully understand the issues that biracial people go through, so I’m not going to comment too much on how the authors managed to fuck up. I say “how” and not “if,” because a lot of biracial people have said that Ginny & Georgia is kind of a bad example of their life, and also because even I can see the problems with the show from a mile away. 

Getting that out of the way, I’ll start with Ginny’s overall character. 

One would think that a character who is depicted as-- for a lack of better words-- as “woke,”... as in, a character who is supposed to have better moral values than others (the definition comes from the word’s general connotative interpretation from leftist media), would be a good human being. But time and time again, we see that Ginny is everything but. 

These are my biggest issues with Ginny’s character:

1) She acts like she’s better than everyone else, but also like she’s super oppressed. I know these two personality traits aren’t mutually exclusive, but they’re not a good combination either. 

2) She thinks she’s the only person in the entire town who has real issues. Other characters confront her about this, and she eventually mellows down, but it’s astounding to me the amount of people she had to offend before she got the point.

3) She can be really ungrateful and rude towards her mom. I know Georgia is not a perfect mother-- not even close-- and she can be genuinely crazy at times, but Ginny is very rarely appreciative of her mom’s efforts. 

4) Despite Ginny’s intelligence, she is not smart. She commits a bunch of dumb mistakes. Now, some of these can be attributed to her just being a teenager-- like having unprotected sex, sending nudes, being peer pressured into stealing, etc. Whereas other choices-- most notably cheating on her boyfriend-- are just a product of her shitty personality.

5) There is a really bad implication concerning Ginny’s views on race. I can probably talk a lot about race in this show, but true to my word, I’ll keep this short and talk about the one thing that really bothered me: Ginny ignores the black kids. There’s a line in the show where Ginny says she’s too white for the black folks and too black for the white folks... and she uses this to justify never having any friends or not fitting in. But when she gets to Wellsbury, she’s accepted by everyone, including black people, yet she chooses to ignore them. She only sits with them near the end of the show when her friend group kicks her out. And she looks miserable. 

Ginny likes to complain a lot about her white side, but all things considered, I think she has an issue with her black side instead. I don’t know if this is representative of the biracial experience, but I imagine this can’t be a good thing to portray on screen. 

I know it’s crazy of me to say this right after I just ripped Ginny apart. However, despite everything, I actually like Ginny as a character. Do I like her as much as I like Georgia or Joe? No, but she swings more good than bad. What can I say? She’s entertaining (in the same way that Cheryl from Riverdale is entertaining). She’s at least somewhat relatable, and I wouldn’t have watched the entire season if I truly found her to be unbearable. 

That being said, Ginny does have a lot of potential to grow, and I sincerely hope the writers do her better in the next season. 

Themes 

*At some point in the future, I may add more to this section.  

Family: Despite a significant portion of this show being terribly unrealistic, I appreciate the show’s overall depiction of family and separation. For one, the show represents families who aren’t stereotypically nuclear. Our main protagonists are a single mother-daughter combo. The Bakers next door have a deaf father and a mother who doesn’t fit into a perfect mold. There’s a biracial family (Hunter) who connects far more with their American side than their Taiwanese-- so much that Hunter and his sister don’t even speak a lick of Mandarin. The small details and nuances which are added into the show makes them far more representative of the general American population. 

Conversations: This show gives conversations that are far overdue in media. While Hunter and Ginny’s fight scene is 98% pure cringe, the remaining 2% of it is an important reminder on being biracial (or a person of color) in America. Many of us struggle with our racial identity, and it’s unproductive to compare who has it worse. 

Overall + Rating 

To me, the first season of Ginny & Georgia is a 6.5/10. (Five being the average; so this would be a little better than average). While it showed a lot of potential at the beginning, the show eventually devolved to nothing more than a standard melodrama-- even on Georgia’s part. It tried hard to be another Gilmore Girls but ended up falling quite short. I am looking forward to its second season though; and hopefully, it’s much better than the first. 

[modmamono]

Why Space Channel 5 is one of SEGA’s best dumbest games ever, no questions asked. (Report 1 & 1/2.)

Space Channel 5 on the Dreamcast is one of my favorite things ever, let alone favorite video games. Though I more often watch it on YouTube then actually play it.

For those not in the know, Space Channel 5 is a game series developed by United Game Artists and published by parent company SEGA. And that’s the most Wikipedia quoting I’m gonna do in this gush piece.

There aren’t many games quite like this rhythmic, Simon says game. At least in style because this game has that in spades, the gameplay anyone can do. And I am not at all qualified to explain its style because I wouldn’t how to describe it as besides maybe very 70s?

Point is there’s something charming about this game, and I think SEGA agrees with me on that. The lead character, Ulala (seen above), appear in these games to name a few years after new Space Channel 5 games stopped being made after 2002:

2004: Sega Superstars

2006: Sonic Riders

2008: Sega Superstars Tennis and Samba de Amigo

2010: Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing 

2012: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Project X Zone

2015: Project X Zone 2

And not to mention the invading aliens have been skins of the titular Puyo Puyo in that series for a while I can’t determine. Possibly since at most 2007 up until current day with Puyo Puyo Champions in 2018/2019.

ALSO not to mention the VR game that came out recently! (How could I forget that? That’s the main reason I’m doing this.)

So it is clear SEGA loves this game and it’s sequel a lot. I don’t think their most beloved cult classic NiGHTS: Into Dreams gets that much love from the company though it certainly does get a lot itself, most games wish their parents still loved them that much long after they had a game. Anyway...

Now the part where I actually talk about the game.

I wanna say, first and foremost. This is not a review of the game. This is just gushing about why this game makes me happy.

And everything I’m gushing about is just what you get from the from one playthrough of the game. Save for one exception, I will not be talking about supplementary material, nor Space Channel 5′s lore.

And yes, this colorful dancing/rhythm/simon says game has lore. Basically any non-repeated character model has their own biograph. So I will not go into that.

You’re not missing too much, there are interesting tidbits, sometimes they fill you in on background details of the story.

Speaking of the story. I’ll start in a second. But if this is new to you, you can watch it here first (The first playthrough is only half the video):

Prologue:

We start off with a bunch of alien sitting on a space couch watching space TV. These aliens are known as the Morolians and they’ll be the main antagonists for the evening.

This cutscene has no dialogue, so this is all open to interpretation for a first time viewer. Though I do enjoy this split second foreshadowing:

And that’s when the title screen appears. Blasting you with the series’ main theme Mexican Flyer. Look it up if you must. You’ll be hearing it a lot, it’s the game and Ulala’s leitmotif.

Report 1: This is terrorism attack on an airport... I’m gonna ignore that.

This is the only piece of supplemental material I’ll talk about, as it’s present in the game itself, but not elaborated on, and it is important to two of the character.

The game starts in a flashback. In the year AD 2489 a spaceship exploded. Everybody on board died safe for a little girl.

She was rescued by a man working for Space Channel 5. A news organization that with a specific focus on dancing. That last bit is nothing special though, as everything in this galaxy revolves around dancing.

After the little girl is saved by this kindly Channel 5 Gent (Age 25) she knew what she wanted to be after she grew up. She wanted to be a sexy dancing reporter for Space Channel 5 just like him (presumably). And to meet him so she can thank him in person.

10 years later......

It is AD 2499! And the Morolians attack a space airport and their ray beams hypnotize people to dance silly.

THE HORROR!

And that’s when Space Channel 5 sends in Ulala to report on the progress.

But what they’re actually doing is for Ulala to solve the problem instead of the Space authorities.

One character I do wanna mention now is that Ulala’s producer, Fuse, is an unseen character yet is important later. He’s the one briefing Ulala in the screenshot above. And oversees Ulala’s every move.

Also Ulala never got to meet her rescuer. He either left shortly after Ulala got rescued, or shortly before Ulala joined. Given what we learn later, likely the former.

Anyway onto the show:

BAM!

BAM!!

BAM!!!

I will always love that. Ulala got down on the ground in the panicking space air port to coolly report on the panic.

As quick aside, I wanna mention that Ulala doesn’t run in this game, she slowly struts and all of her struts are simply majestic. And those amazing struts lead her to the first gameplay section of this game.

Some Morolians hold a few hypnotized people hostage. This is is a dance battle. Meaning you got repeat exactly what the aliens do in the exact rhythm they did it in order to save the hostages. And I love this gameplay. It’s simple yet fun (provided you got minimal lag, you should look into that if you wanna play this game).

The controls are:

Up: Up

Down: Down

Left: Left

Right: Right/Light

Button 1: Chu (Aliens)

Button 2: Chu (Humans)

And this is how normal people settle things in this world apparently:

Party 1 (usually the Aliens) make up a tough but fair pattern for Ulala to copy in the hopes of psyching her out.

Party 2 (Ulala & Co.) gets as many chances ad she got. And the better she does more people tune into her news report. If she wins she gets what she wants. Saving the hostage and getting Party 1 out of her hair.

Every single one lives by this code of honor and I honestly have no clue if there’s an in-universe reason. But I love it regardless. I love it when people say: Up Down Chu Chu Chu. And the Ulala repeating it.

Though frankly, I don’t like it when the Morolians issue the commands. I like it when others do the exact same commands in this same game, so it’s a little bit of a bummer the Morolians do it.

Anyways. You save the hostages and they join in on Ulala’s unstoppable strut as will always happen if you rescue people. And they strut to the second gameplay type: The Shoot-out.

The controls are the same as the above but now you gotta watch out for humans in the mix.

In general these are trickier. And I might go into that later. But they do work on the same rules.

Don’t worry I won’t go over every dance or shoot-out unless there’s something special about it.

Also I’m pretty sure you kill people if you push the wrong Chu. Don’t do that, it’s bad for the ratings!

Skipping over three battles.Something new happens, rival space news station: Space(?) Channel 42 has a reporter of their own out on the field. And that reporter is planning to steal Channel 5′s viewership. And this is HER!

You do a dance battle and she dies.

Though seriously, I like this game does this. It’s not only aliens you fight, but other factions of the Space News Media. And it’s always a nice shake up when someone besides her shows up.

You see, for the most part any reoccurring enemy has recognizable mannerisms you gotta batlle, and her is no different. It’s hard to describe for me. You kinda gotta play or watch the game for yourself to see what I mean, but I think it’s best exemplified in Report 2. And the following games.

Though one thing’s for sure, each non-normal Morolians or rival reported does bring their own genre switch with them. Heck sometimes even normal battles have unique genres. I’m am not musically inclined so I wouldn’t know hers or most others. 

Any way, before she dies she give an emotional speech and gracefully suggests to take her Channel 42 guitarist with her and Ulala accepts that’s the least she could do for a lousy reporter like her.

And then it’s boss time!

Yeah, actual bosses with actual boss characters. And not like the recently deceased as shown above. She’s practically for all intents and purposes another Morolian dance battle.

And it’s down to funky jazz music, not unlike what you’d see in Sonic Adventure! Even Ulala comments on it, confirming it’s dietetic  Where does it come from? Not sure, there might be an explanation somewhere. But do keep that in mind. That the music we hear is also the music the characters hear as well.

Anyways:

Not Pictured: Super Stretchy Arms.

I think it’s a bit of a misnomer. Invader is correct, that’s what it’s here for. But is it really a robot? It moves like an organics and is a bit rubbery. This basically goes for all Morolian robots.

I can suspend my disbelief. You shouldn’t nitpick too much about Space Channel 5, it doesn’t want you to think too hard about it’s world even if there’s a lot to it. I’d be concerned if Space Channel 5 did wanna put its story and world building first and foremost.

But “Hypnotized Robot Invader”?

What?

Spoiler.

Robots and hypnotism... I’m pretty sure a sign that we made perfect human-like Artificial Intelligence if they can fall susceptible to Hypnosis. Even then I doubt it.

Sorry, that’s always bothered me, I get what they mean by it. It’s just the word choice... Did they mean Hypnotizing Robot Invader? This boss is great.

It starts off with a normal dance battle, but you get to watch a new Morolian enemy’s moves. It’s also quicker on the draw along with a few softballs to throw your timing off. Pretty good stuff.

And that applies to the next phase as well, where the the shooting starts.

I don’t have much to say.

Unlike the robot’s final phase where it’s the first phase again, but with guns and the robot goes to berserking speeds with the input commands.

And after you beat it, it joins you in a strut.

As does everyone you saved, No matter the gender, nor age, nobody is embarrassed imitating Ulala no matter what she does. We’ll be half as lucky to get a cool future as cool as 2499.

And with that the first report is over.

Report 2: (Age 35)

At the Morolian HQ (Presumably), their boss doesn’t like failure.

But like a good boss he doesn’t dwell on failure and moves on to the next plan. One of his lackeys has this plan: Another boss battle dance robot who operates on:

The everyone at the table is impressed. So I guess Ulala is screwed, game over.

This level is more of the same as the last one more or less, it’s possibly the most boring level in the series in that regard. It’s not bad, this is just the game bulding enough a status quo before they change things up in Report 3.

But that doesn’t make this level any less interesting to talk about, so I won’t go over it much.

The short story until something new happens is: Space Ship (think of it as a fancy yacht but in space) is being attack by Morolians, Ulala is send to report on it, and being the professional she is saves hostages as well.

She saves the captain, crew members, stewardesses, waitresses, the Space Diva (OH NO! NOT THE SPACE DIVA!), passages and the like.

UNTIL!

He voice says “I’m gonna steal you show, Space Channel 5”. And you see this ship flying by:

Another rival reporter, this one a pirate broadcasting station.

Side note: That’s sounds like the most important kind of pirate ever. Alternative news/non-mainstream with no money/rating motive blinding everything with journalistic integrity? Yes, by all means. If they’re pirates then so are Secular Talk & The Humanist Report.

Back to the silly dance game. The Pirates either jam or hack Channel 5′s signal and the Ulala is stuck with them for a while.

And then we meet that where we meet the gent above.

“[His] name is:“

“JAGUAAAAARRRR!!!” “JAGUAAAAARRRR!!!“

(Age 35)

LET’S DANCE!

Dude, I love Jaguar (Age 35) he’s gotta be my second favorite character in the series on account he’s just cool and incapable of embarrassment.

Remember the deceased of the last report? The Channel 42 reporter in the blue dress? He’s her counterpart for this chapter.

But whereas the deceased’s gimmick sounded air headed for a lack of a better term. Maybe, girly? Point is, battling her didn’t feel too dissimilar to battling Morolians despite her rhytmic mannerisms.

Jaguar (Age 35)’s gimmick is that he just adds. He starts with a simple Up. And then he adds a Chu, and another Chu. Eventually it becomes a really long chain of commands, it has to be some of the longest in the series. And you have to do them all from start to finish because he does them all sequentially. Can you repeat?:

Up. Chu. ChuChu. Right. Left. Down. DownDown. Down. Chu. Chu. Chu.

He is easing you into it, but it is by no means an easy fight. Because after the chain is at its longest, he just spamming ChuChuChu in quick succession. And then a simple Chu.

After defeat Jaguar & Co, escape by jet-pack, saying they will meet later.

This battle is a highlight for me. Coco Tapioco and the big bosses to come are better if you ask me (with exceptions). But Jaguar (Age 35) is some of the best the normal gameplay goes.

And you could argue what normal means in the context of Space Channel 5. But effectively, like Channel 42′s deceased, functionally he might as well be another Morolian if he wasn’t there to be set up for later. Because you do get person that just joins your Strut Club like everywhere else.

You gain his Jazz Man and you get a great sax solo as a reward beating him. Like how you got Channel 42′s guitarist for beating them. I like the think the Jazz Man can work for Jaguar (Age 35) again while the Channel 42 Guitarist is blacklisted.

And before we move on from Jaguar (Age 35) check out his Chu pose:

BOSS TIME!

Jaguar (Age 35): The alien mothership is retreating. Don’t you have to follow them, Channel 5? Fuse: Blast you, Jaguar [Age 35].

With the pirates giving chase, Ulala is left with the cowardly alien robot to elegant music.

Ignoring the robot’s title, while silly, its cowardice is its greatest asset. For it has kidnapped some space schoolkids, making their space teacher worry. Their space teacher can actually be seen at the start of the report.

Space fashion, am I right?

I’ve exceeded Tumblr’s invisible limit of what to put in a blog post. I’ll have to rewrite this boss what I have to say for this boss. So full, can’t spell check! We’ll be back!

[spooky-chapscher]

I want to talk about Steven’s comments in the latest HWYD. There are apparently quite a few posts cancelling him and I have seen many more fully supporting his comments. I don’t agree with either.

For context, here is the moment of discussion, which occurs at 53:22 in “Surviving a Boring Job” in response to a submitted question where the writer, Janette Shortlocker, wants to cut ties with a racist, homophobic friend but isn’t sure when or how to do so. Steven says the following:

“I have a lot of friends who are a little bit racist and a little bit homophobic and I’m still friends with them. And I’m not saying that I’m friends with them because of their values*, I just value them as people themselves and I try to keep them around and try to, you know, educate them with what I can, but it’s not something that… I don’t want to cut ties with everybody because of their belief system*, because, frankly, I have a different value system than Katie and Shane and Ryan.”

*In his apology (found on the podcast video’s comments section), Steven apologized for his word choice here. He writes, “Racism and homophobia are not values, belief systems, or ideals, they are simply hate and nothing more. Furthermore, there is no amount of intolerance that is okay when it comes to validating someone’s humanity and identity.”

I am not here to discuss the unfortunate word-choice, which I will generously frame as an unfortunate byproduct of this sort of off-the-cuff podcast format. Why he would associate the words “value” and “belief system” with bigotry I’ll get into in my main point.

 -

I’ll come out and say that I do not agree with the message of what Steven was trying to convey on the podcast. I will say, as a queer Latino, that if you know someone who has embraced racism/homophobia/etc… that person isn’t your friend. This person either rejected you or will reject you eventually based on some other thing they can hate. You can know them, you can have a history with them, you can want to help them, you can try to help them… but you are not “friends.”

I say this as someone who has fully dropped people from my life because of shit like this. Friends, mentors, family members. It might sound cruel, but after knowing someone endorses shit like this it leaves a sour aftertaste to every otherwise fond memory I have of them. Like, “wow, I thought things were great but it turns out that they were hurting other people and I had no idea.” That sort of shit really bothers me.

Note that these people I cut out “embraced” bigotry. I do have friends who have occasionally said some kinda prejudiced shit and I have said “whoa, what?” Sometimes it led to earnest discussions of race or class or religion. Sometimes it prompts them saying “oh shit, you’re right. I didn’t think that through. I guess I don’t know that much about it.” But, you know what, the prejudice goes away after this talk and doesn’t rear its head again. Because the prejudiced shit was something that was offhandedly said and normalized by society, not something my friend genuinely believed. And when your friends do this, confront it in (initial) good faith that they didn’t mean what they said. I mean, you probably made mistakes like this too, I know I have, and every time I feel like my friends have made me a better person by calling out some ignorance that I wasn’t even aware of.

But when you try to address prejudice and a bigoted person stands their ground or, even worse, tries to counter with “well, agree to disagree;” then I think that’s the time to start distancing yourself from this person. The “friend” in Shortlocker’s letter is this type of person, and I hope that Shortlocker is able to cut them out of their life as quickly and cleanly as possible. But that’s just my opinion.

Cutting people out can be a very difficult decision, especially if you’re younger and the person in question is a family member. For people of any age, it’s a difficult call to make when the bigoted friend holds some kind of position of power over you – be they a boss, a landlord, a mentor, a spiritual leader, or just someone who can make you miserable or put you in danger if you get on their bad side. All I can say is that you do not need to announce to someone that you’re done with them. You can become “busy” with a project or another friend who “needs help” and then steadily grow apart from this hateful-ass friend until they’re only a hateful-ass acquaintance. Please stay safe.

 -

Why I’m this way goes into where I think Steven’s coming from. Some people have commented that holding onto racist and homophobic friends is “unlike” Steven. I disagree. If anything, I think this is very on-brand for him, if only because I know quite a few religious Midwesterners and almost all of them are like this. I have seen my parents try to hold onto friends who once marched with them for civil rights but the friends ended up radicalized by racists after moving to small towns. I have seen friends try to maintain work friendships where my friends would have to remain closeted or risk losing their job. My parents and these friends? All quite religious. And none of the “friends” they tried to change ended up changing, which left the people I care about miserable and hurt.

There’s this sort of attempt to turn the other cheek, because that’s the righteous thing to do. It is what my parents and people like them genuinely believe. So no, they wouldn’t approach hatred with hostility or indignation, as I would, but instead approach it with the genuine belief that this “friend” is misguided and needs to be shown the light, an action which requires love and patience. Perhaps it’s because it’s how it was raised, but I think that’s a very noble approach, despite the obvious roots in evangelism. Part of me wants to believe that with enough time and love (and therapy) that someone can unlearn their own hatred. That’s a beautiful thing. There have been stories of a number of people who truly have turned their lives around after being helped by a friend… I just have yet to ever see this actually happen.

With this in mind, it makes sense to me why someone who believes this will find ways to rationalize keeping someone so hateful in their lives. On one hand, staying with this hateful person in order to help them is an act of charity, which is a good thing. On the other hand, staying with this hateful person might make them think that their behavior is appropriate, which is a bad thing. However, having healthy debates and discussions with someone with different beliefs than you and trying to find compromise and common ground is a good thing. It’s certainly easier on the conscience if, during these discussions, you think of your friend’s hatred as a “value” that you need to learn to see from their perspective in order to fully understand and confront properly. And when someone is so far into this line of thinking, it’s sometimes difficult for them to remember that there are people on the outside who are still being hurt by this person. It’s easy to forget, when trying to salvage a relationship, that ignoring the hurt of others is itself an act of cruelty.

 -

The root of this discussion is “why do people hate” and, basically, I think it’s because they have found some kind of community in their bigotry. Their family is like that or their friends are like that or their neighborhood is like that or their online circles are like that or their entertainers are like that. There are so many people telling them “everyone in the circle is good and everyone outside the circle is evil and untrustworthy and will hurt you.” Some people, like my parents and other religious Midwesterners, will think that the way to confront this is by repeatedly demonstrating that “no, there is nothing inherently wrong with the people outside the circle,” in hopes that their dissenting voice will overwhelm all the other insider voices.

My approach is that if you make the circle as small as possible then eventually they’ll have nobody to talk to and start rethinking the whole “outsiders bad” thing. I’ve gone back and checked on a few people I cut out. Some of them are still in their hate circle. Some of them have left the circle and started a new life and I’m proud of them and if we ever meet again I’d give them another chance. 

-

The heart of Steven’s sentiments come from a place of good intentions and reflect a philosophy that firmly believes that people want to better themselves morally. I do not share this philosophy and think that his approach minimizes and risks trivializing hateful actions. It puts far too much of an emphasis on making sure the bigoted person is comfortable and not enough emphasis on defending the targets of the bigot’s hatred.

Our aim should always be to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. 

I disagree with Steven’s approach and hope that he will do better in the future when discussing things like this. Hopefully he’ll take the time to consider how his actions impact those he means to defend.

-

(If you’re curious, my philosophy is that we all want to make each other happy the best way we know how. Self-betterment has only a minor role to play in all this. For some people happiness means helping others and telling jokes and making art and cooking and all that good stuff. For some people this “happiness” comes from keeping those closest to them inside their walled-off circle, firmly believing that the outside world would hurt them. These people far too often go out of their way to harm outsiders, be it through verbal abuse, physical violence, or systematic violence - leading to larger societal issues such as legalized discrimination, redlining, and corrupt law enforcement).

 -

(Oh, and regarding Shane and Katie’s lack of comment to this… at first I was let down and hoping that they just wanted to avoid a very long debate at the end of a podcast that was already approaching the hour mark. But, after giving it a little more thought, it would be kinda gross if Katie and Shane went out of their way to police how Steven handles his racist friends, what with them both being white. I understand their reluctance to speak up on this matter but still feel that there should have been a better way to deal with it… although I don’t know what that way is.)

[bangtan-gal]

Wide-Eyed Wonder pt. 2

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You thought there were only four Archangels, but you didn’t even know the extent of the realms beyond the human world. 

Jisung was like a ghost that you easily forgot about. He was there at all times, you knew that much, but the majority of the time you couldn’t see him. He liked to pop into appearance randomly, sometimes with a startlingly loud “hi!”, It didn’t help that he lacked basic human manners. It took forever for him to fully understand that showers, going to the bathroom, and changing were private matters. 

“So you’ve never eaten before?” You asked, waving your pastry at him. The Archangel nodded, not showing a single bit of interest in the delicious treat in your hand. He seemed more interested by the people around him, eyes narrowed on anyone who dared walk too close to your table.

There was, of course, worse things than lack of privacy when it came to Jisung. He wasn’t lying about you becoming a beacon for bad things. The first week, it had just been constant bad luck. Then it really began. 

The first had been a woman dressed completely in black, void of a mouth with purely white eyes. Jisung had thrown her out the window of your hotel room and explaining that to Mark was almost harder than accepting the truth. The second was a young boy who was way stronger than he looked. Your ribs had broken and your face had been badly bruised. Jisung had managed to reduce the pain and damage, but then explained that a human body couldn’t handle a complete healing session. 

There had been others, although they hadn’t done as much damage. Although Jisung understood your need for privacy, he also was adamant about keeping you safe. You had to pee with the door open and during your showers, he would sit with his back to you. 

“Hey, Jisung!” You snapped your fingers in front of his face. “I’m sure we’re fine. None of them have openly attacked in front of other humans.”

He frowned, fingers tapping on the table.

“They’ll only become more radical as time goes on. They’re only thought is to destroy you and soon they won’t care about the Rules of the Veil,” he said.

It was your turn to frown and suspiciously glance at the people around you.

“But I thought all supernatural beings were scared of the Rules of the Veil,” you whispered, “I mean…”

“Demons don’t have minds for themselves,” he reminded you, “Hell thinks for them as one. Eventually, the desperation to please their King will overtake their fear of the Veil. They see it simply: their mission gets completed and only one of them gets punished.”

You still didn’t completely understand what exactly the Veil was. Jisung had explained it as some superior being that had been placed when humans came to exist. From the messy explanation, the Veil had no actual body, but it was extremely powerful. The Rules of the Veil were rulings that were set in place to stop demons and angels from over interacting with humanity. There were a few exceptions, such as angels being stuck in a weird situation where they can save someone. 

Your’s and Jisung’s situation. 

There were some things he purposely wasn’t talking about or explaining. He confirmed that people had guardian angels, but then avoided the topic of yours. He’d mentioned something about chances of fate but didn’t explain what the other possibilities were that day. You were curious, but Jisung was an Archangel. He could disappear when he didn’t want to talk about something.

“But, with that being said, we should probably go,” Jisung sighed, “if we do get attacked, we don’t need other humans to get attacked.”

You didn’t argue. Sure, you wanted a normal life back, but you also didn’t want to be the reason a bunch of humans got smacked by some psychotic demon. Jisung’s hand wrapped around yours and then you were brushed with cold as you walked through time and ended up back in the hotel room. 

You looked around and then caught him staring at you.

“What?”

He blinked,

“I’m just surprised by how well you handle the traveling,” he commented.

Then he paced away, eyes darting towards the window. He was tense today. Jisung was normally more talkative and always adamant about staying outside. For such an almighty being, he reminded you a lot of a little kid. He barely knew anything about humans and everything they did intrigued him… including sex.

It had been a couple days ago when the angel randomly asked the question of “what is sex like?” After several seconds of choking and coughing, you had managed to give a brief idea of what it was like. He hadn’t seemed satisfied with the answer, but he had muttered something about it being like showering and then went quiet.

You looked back over at the boy, watching as he leaned toward the window, eyes narrowed.

“Jis—”

“Y/N get down.”

“What?”

“Get down!” He shouted.

You complied, dropping to the floor. The whole hotel room shook as the wall started breaking apart. Jisung backed away, a ring of blue and white starting to glow around him. It looked as if someone was taking a jackhammer to the wall as it fell away in sections. The angel continued to back up until he stood just in front of you.

“Another demon?” You whispered.

His fists tightened.

“I fear the worst.” Then he bent down and grabbed your hand, quickly pulling you up. The two of you disappeared and this time you felt woozy when you stepped onto different land. His hand held fast to yours as the two of you raced down an alleyway. 

Something wasn’t right. Jisung never runs. He always stayed and fought; always proved to be your protector. But as you kept glancing at his face, you saw something you never thought you’d see in his face: fear. It was bright and obvious as he kept glancing over his shoulder.

“What is it?” You asked. 

He pursed his lips.

“Tell me dammit!” 

“It’s the Legion,” he replied, coming to a stop. You then noticed the sword he held in his other hand. “It’s… it’s really hard to explain, but it’s like multiple demons inside one demon and I alone can’t take care of it.”

That was when you saw exactly who or what he was talking about. It stepped into the alley, red eyes glowing. Although it looked just like one person, your gut screamed that it definitely wasn’t. It was like an unnatural energy you could vibrating off it.

“Are they seriously that desperate to kill me?” You asked, looking at Jisung in disbelief. 

“It’s a mix of that, but also to spite Heaven.” 

Then he grabbed your hand and you started running again. Your mind was racing. If Jisung couldn’t defeat them, then who could? The two of you stumbled out into a busy street and Jisung cursed, trying to look for a vacant place. You looked behind you, meeting the demon’s stare. Then you got a stupid idea.

You pushed away from Jisung and ran towards a random lady. You grabbed her arm, screaming and desperately pointing towards the red-eyed monster moving towards you. She stared at it, eyes darting between you and the hell-sent.

“Don’t you see that? It’s a demon you psycho!” You shrieked, “we’re screwed!”

When she looked at it again, it was almost as if she understood exactly what was happening. A scream ripped from her throat and she ran the other direction. You weren’t exactly sure if this was how the Veil worked, but you continued to point out the demon to people and watched as horror poured over their features.

“What are you doing?” Jisung snapped, dragging you away from the crowds.

“You said you can’t defeat it!” You retorted, “and the Veil kills demons and angels that violate it’s Rules right?”

He stared at you. 

You started to lose confidence. “It… it won’t kill me, right?”

His eyes moved past you and focused on something else.

“Let’s hope not.”

You tried to look behind you, but Jisung covered your eyes and continued walking away. Your body felt like it was vibrating and the air grew unbearably hot. Whispers were crawling along the street and then there was a loud roar. It sounded like a bullet hit a metal shield and then everything disappeared.

Your eyes opened and you stood in Jisung’s embrace amongst a bunch of dazed humans. Scorch marks lined the ground and where the demon once was, there was a splatter of suspicious gold ink. You didn’t realize you were crying until the angel wiped away your tears. He smiled down at you and his hands cupped your face. 

“We’re alive,” he breathed out.

Then he kissed you and you were certain the world was about to explode. He tasted like something beyond this world and his touch was electrifying. You pushed deeper into the kiss, hands gripping the front of his shirt.

He pulled back.

“Sorry—I shouldn’t hav—”

You cut him off by kissing him again.

“We’re alive,” you confirmed with a smirk. “All thanks to me of course.” 

[pamphletstoinspire]

BOOK OF JOB - From The Douay-Rheims Bible - Latin Vulgate

Chapter 7

The Book of Job shows how human affairs are ruled by Divine Providence using probable arguments.

"Although you hide these things in your heart, I know that you still remember everything." - (Job speaking to God)  

***

INTRODUCTION.

This Book takes its name from the holy man, of whom it treats; who, according to the more probable opinion, was of the race of Esau, and the same as Jobab, king of Edom, mentioned Gen. xxxvi. 33. It is uncertain who was the writer of it. Some attribute it to Job himself; others to Moses, or some one of the prophets. In the Hebrew it is written in verse, from the beginning of the third chapter to the forty-second chapter. Ch. --- The beginning and conclusion are historical, and in prose. Some have divided this work into a kind of tragedy, the first act extending to C. xv., the second to C. xxii., the third to C. xxxviii., where God appears, and the plot is unfolded. They suppose that the sentiments of the speakers are expressed, though not their own words. This may be very probable: but the opinion of those who look upon the work as a mere allegory, must be rejected with horror. The sacred writers speak of Job as of a personage who had really existed, (C.) and set the most noble pattern of virtue, and particularly of patience. Tob. ii. 12. Ezec. xiv. 14. Jam. v. 11. Philo and Josephus pass over this history, as they do those of Tobias, Judith, &c. H. --- The time when Job lived is not clearly ascertained. Some have supposed (C.) that he was a contemporary with Esther; (D. Thalmud) on which supposition, the work is here placed in its chronological order. But Job more probably live during the period when the Hebrews groaned under the Egyptian bondage, (H.) or sojourned in the wilderness. Num. xiv. 9. The Syrians place the book at the head of the Scriptures. C. --- Its situation has often varied, and is of no great importance. The subject which is here treated, is of far more; as it is intended to shew that the wicked sometimes prosper, while the good are afflicted. H. --- This had seldom been witnessed before the days of Abraham: but as God had now selected his family to be witnesses and guardians of religion, a new order of things was beginning to appear. This greatly perplexed Job himself; who, therefore, confesses that he had not sufficiently understood the ways of God, till he had deigned to explain them in the parable of the two great beasts. C. xlii. 3. We cannot condemn the sentiments expressed by Job, since God has declared that they were right, (ib. v. 8) and reprimands Elihu, (C. xxxviii. 2.) and the other three friends of Job, for maintaining a false opinion, though, from the history of past times, they had judge it to be true. This remark may excupate them from the stain of wilful lying, and vain declamation. Houbigant. --- However, as they assert what was false, their words of themselves are of no authority; and they are even considered as the forerunners of heretics. S. Greg. S. Aug. &c. T. --- Job refutes them by sound logic. S. Jerom. --- We may discover in this book the sum of Christian morality, (W.) for which purpose it has been chiefly explained by S. Gregory. The style is very poetical, (H.) though at the same time simple, like that of Moses. D. --- It is interspersed with many Arabic and Chaldaic idioms; (S. Jer.) whence some have concluded, that it was written originally by Job and his friends (H.) in Arabic, and translated into Heb. by Moses, for the consolation of his brethren. W. --- The Heb. text is in many places incorrect; (Houbig.) and the Sept. seem to have omitted several verses. Orig. --- S. Jerom says almost eight hundred, (C.) each consisting of about six words. H. --- Shultens, in 1747, expressed his dissatisfaction with the labours of all preceding commentators. To explain this book may not therefore be an easy task: but we must be as short as possible. H. --- Those who desire farther information, may consult Pineda, (W.) whose voluminous work, in two folios, will nearly (H.) give all necessary information. C.

The additional Notes in this Edition of the New Testament will be marked with the letter A. Such as are taken from various Interpreters and Commentators, will be marked as in the Old Testament. B. Bristow, C. Calmet, Ch. Challoner, D. Du Hamel, E. Estius, J. Jansenius, M. Menochius, Po. Polus, P. Pastorini, T. Tirinus, V. Bible de Vence, W. Worthington, Wi. Witham. — The names of other authors, who may be occasionally consulted, will be given at full length.

Verses are in English and Latin.

HAYDOCK CATHOLIC BIBLE COMMENTARY

This Catholic commentary on the Old Testament, following the Douay-Rheims Bible text, was originally compiled by Catholic priest and biblical scholar Rev. George Leo Haydock (1774-1849). This transcription is based on Haydock's notes as they appear in the 1859 edition of Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary printed by Edward Dunigan and Brother, New York, New York.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

Changes made to the original text for this transcription include the following:

Greek letters. The original text sometimes includes Greek expressions spelled out in Greek letters. In this transcription, those expressions have been transliterated from Greek letters to English letters, put in italics, and underlined. The following substitution scheme has been used: A for Alpha; B for Beta; G for Gamma; D for Delta; E for Epsilon; Z for Zeta; E for Eta; Th for Theta; I for Iota; K for Kappa; L for Lamda; M for Mu; N for Nu; X for Xi; O for Omicron; P for Pi; R for Rho; S for Sigma; T for Tau; U for Upsilon; Ph for Phi; Ch for Chi; Ps for Psi; O for Omega. For example, where the name, Jesus, is spelled out in the original text in Greek letters, Iota-eta-sigma-omicron-upsilon-sigma, it is transliterated in this transcription as, Iesous. Greek diacritical marks have not been represented in this transcription.

Footnotes. The original text indicates footnotes with special characters, including the astrisk (*) and printers' marks, such as the dagger mark, the double dagger mark, the section mark, the parallels mark, and the paragraph mark. In this transcription all these special characters have been replaced by numbers in square brackets, such as [1], [2], [3], etc.

Accent marks. The original text contains some English letters represented with accent marks. In this transcription, those letters have been rendered in this transcription without their accent marks.

Other special characters.

Solid horizontal lines of various lengths that appear in the original text have been represented as a series of consecutive hyphens of approximately the same length, such as ---.

Ligatures, single characters containing two letters united, in the original text in some Latin expressions have been represented in this transcription as separate letters. The ligature formed by uniting A and E is represented as Ae, that of a and e as ae, that of O and E as Oe, and that of o and e as oe.

Monetary sums in the original text represented with a preceding British pound sterling symbol (a stylized L, transected by a short horizontal line) are represented in this transcription with a following pound symbol, l.

The half symbol (1/2) and three-quarters symbol (3/4) in the original text have been represented in this transcription with their decimal equivalent, (.5) and (.75) respectively.

Unreadable text. Places where the transcriber's copy of the original text is unreadable have been indicated in this transcription by an empty set of square brackets, [].

Chapter 7

Job declares the miseries of man's life: and addresses himself to God.

[1] The life of man upon earth is a warfare, and his days are like the days of a hireling.

Militia est vita hominis super terram; et sicut dies mercenarii, dies ejus.

[2] As a servant longeth for the shade, as the hireling looketh for the end of his work;

Sicut servus desiderat umbram, et sicut mercenarius praestolatur finem operis sui,

[3] So I also have had empty months, and have numbered to myself wearisome nights.

sic et ego habui menses vacuos, et noctes laboriosas enumeravi mihi.

[4] If I lie down to sleep, I shall say: When shall arise? and again I shall look for the evening, and shall be filled with sorrows even till darkness.

Si dormiero, dicam : Quando consurgam? et rursum expectabo vesperam, et replebor doloribus usque ad tenebras.

[5] My flesh is clothed with rottenness and the filth of dust, my skin is withered and drawn together.

Induta est caro mea putredine; et sordibus pulveris cutis mea aruit et contracta est.

[6] My days have passed more swiftly than the web is cut by the weaver, and are consumed without any hope.

Dies mei velocius transierunt quam a texente tela succiditur; et consumpti sunt absque ulla spe.

[7] Remember that my life is but wind, and my eyes shall not return to see good things.

Memento quia ventus est vita mea, et non revertetur oculus meus ut videat bona.

[8] Nor shall the sight of man behold me: thy eyes are upon me, and I shall be no more.

Nec aspiciet me visus hominis; oculi tui in me, et non subsistam.

[9] As a cloud is consumed, and passeth away: so he that shall go down to hell shall not come up.

Sicut consumitur nubes, et pertransit, sic qui descenderit ad inferos, non ascendet.

[10] Nor shall he return my more into his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

Nec revertetur ultra in domum suam, neque cognoscet eum amplius locus ejus.

[11] Wherefore I will not spare my month, I will speak in the affliction of my spirit: I will talk with the bitterness of my soul.

Quapropter et ego non parcam ori meo; loquar in tribulatione spiritus mei, confabulabor cum amaritudine animae meae.

[12] Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou hast enclosed me in a prison?

Numquid mare ego sum, aut cetus, quia circumdedisti me carcere?

[13] If I say: My bed shall comfort me, and I shall be relieved speaking with myself on my couch:

Si dixero : Consolabitur me lectulus meus, et relevabor loquens mecum in strato meo;

[14] Thou wilt frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions.

terrebis me per somnia, et per visiones horrore concuties.

[15] So that my soul rather chooseth hanging, and my bones death.

Quam ob rem elegit suspendium anima mea, et mortem ossa mea.

[16] I have done with hope, I shall now live no longer: spare me, for my days are nothing.

Desperavi, nequaquam ultra jam vivam; parce mihi, nihil enim sunt dies mei.

[17] What is a man that thou shouldst magnify him? or why dost thou set thy heart upon him?

Quid est homo, quia magnificas eum? aut quid apponis erga eum cor tuum?

[18] Thou visitest him early in the morning, and thou provest him suddenly.

Visitas eum diluculo, et subito probas illum.

[19] How long wilt thou not spare me, nor suffer me to swallow down my spittle?

Usquequo non parcis mihi, nec dimittis me ut glutiam salivam meam?

[20] I have sinned: what shall I do to thee, O keeper of men? why hast thou set me opposite to thee, and I am become burdensome to myself?

Peccavi; quid faciam tibi, o custos hominum? Quare posuisti me contrarium tibi, et factus sum mihimetipsi gravis?

[21] Why dost thou not remove my sin, and why dost thou not take away my iniquity? Behold now I shall sleep in the dust: and if thou seek me in the morning, I shall not be.

Cur non tollis peccatum meum, et quare non aufers iniquitatem meam? Ecce nunc in pulvere dormiam; et si mane me quaesieris, non subsistam.

Commentary:

Ver. 1. Warfare. Heb. "is it not determined" (H.) for some short space, as the Levites had to serve from 30 to 50 years of age; (Num. iv. 3. and viii. 25.) and the days of a hireling are also defined and short. Isai. xvi. 14. Amama. --- No soldier or hireling was ever treated so severely as Job. Yet they justly look for the term of their labours. Sept. have peirathrion. Old Vulg. tentatio. "Is not the life of man a temptation?" C. --- Palæstra, school, or time given to learn the exercise of a soldier and wrestler; or of one who has to prepare himself for a spiritual warfare, and for heaven. H. --- Are we not surrounded with dangers? and may we not desire to be set at liberty? The Vulg. is very accurate, (C.) and includes all these senses. H. --- A soldier must be obedient even unto death, and never resist his superior. W. --- Hireling, who has no rest till the day is spent. C.

Ver. 3. And have. Heb. "they have appointed for me." C. --- God treats me with more severity, as even the night is not a time of rest for me, and my months of service are without any present recompense. H.

Ver. 4. And again. Heb. "and the night be completed, I toss to and fro," (H.) or "I am disturbed with dreams, (C.) till day break." Vulg. insinuates that night and day are equally restless to a man in extreme pain. H. --- As I find no comfort, why may I not desire to die? M. --- I desire to be dissolved, as being much better, said S. Paul.

Ver. 6. Web. Heb. "the weaver's shuttle." C. xvi. 23. Isa. xxxviii. 12. H. --- The pagans have used the same comparison. But they make the three daughters of Necessity guide the thread of life. Plato Rep. xii. Natal. iii. 6. --- Sept. "my life is swifter than speech." Tetrapla, "than a runner." C. --- Hope. Heu fugit, &c. Ah! time is flying , never to return! H.

Ver. 7. Wind. What is life compared with eternity, or even with past ages? C. --- "What is any one? Yea, what is no one? Men are the dream of a shadow," says Pindar; (Pyth. viii. SkiaV onar onqrwpoi) "like the baseless fabric of a vision." Shakespeare.

Ver. 8. Eyes, in anger, (C.) or thy mercy will come too late when I shall be no more.

Ver. 9. Hell, or the grave. M. --- He was convinced of the resurrection. But he meant that, according to the natural course, we can have no means of returning to this world after we are dead.

Ver. 10. More. This may be explained both of the soul and of the body. Ps. cii. 16. The former resides in the body for a short time, and then seems to take no farther notice of it (C.) till the resurrection.

Ver. 11. Mouth. I will vent my bitter complaints before I die. H.

Ver. 12. Sea. Ungovernable and malicious. Some of the ancients looked upon the sea as a huge animal, whose breathing caused the tides. Strabo i. Solin xxxii. --- They represented its fury as proverbial. "Fire, the sea, and woman are three evils;" and they call the most savage people sons of Neptune. Agel. xv. 21. --- Am I so violent as to require such barriers? Am I capacious, or strong enough to bear such treatment? C.

Ver. 15. Hanging. Prot. "strangling and death, rather than my life," or Marg. "bones." H. --- Any species of Death would be preferable to this misery. C. --- Who would not entertain the same sentiments, if the fear of worse in the other world did not withhold him? But Job had reason to hope that his sorrows would end with his life. H. --- It is thought that he was dreadfully tempted to despair. C. --- Yet he resisted manfully, and overcame all attempts of the wicked one.

Ver. 16. Hope of surviving this misery. H.

Ver. 17. Magnify him, or put his to such severe trials. He is not worthy of thy attention. C. --- Heb. ii. 6. H.

Ver. 18. Suddenly. During his whole life, he is exposed to dangers; (C.) of if, at first, he taste some comfort, that is presently over. The greatest saints have experienced this treatment. H.

Ver. 20. Sinned. I acknowledge my frailty. M. --- How may I obtain redress? C. --- Job's friends maintained that he was guilty. But he does not acquiesce in their conclusion, that these sufferings were precisely in punishment of some crime, though he acknowledges that he is not without his faults. H. --- Shall. Heb. also, "what have I done to thee?" I have only hurt myself. But this reasoning is nugatory. Though God loses nothing by our sins, they are not less offensive to him, as the rebel does his utmost to disturb the order which he has established. The sinner indeed resembles those brutal people, who hurl darts against the sun, which fall upon their own heads. C. iii. 8. C. --- Opposite, as a butt to shoot at. H. --- Myself. Heb. was formerly "to thee," till the Jews changed it, as less respectful. Cajet. --- Sept. still read, "and why am I a burden to thee?" (H.) as I am under the necessity of complaining, in my own defence. C. - I throw my grief upon the Lord, that He may support me. Ps. liv. 23. 1 Pet. v. 7. Pineda.

Ver. 21. Be. He lovingly expostulates with God, and begs that he would hasten his deliverance, lest it should be too late. C.

[dailyaudiobible]

11/15/2017 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 31:1-32:32, Hebrews 12:14-29, Psalms 113:1-114:8, Proverbs 27:18-20

Today is the 15th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today around this global campfire that we share together, where no matter where we are, no matter when we’re listening, someone else is as well, and we’re never alone here. And it's a beautiful. It's a beautiful thing. And we’ve come together to take the next step forward in the Scriptures. We’re reading from the common English Bible this week and we’ll continue our journey through Ezekiel and Hebrews. Tomorrow we’ll conclude the book of Hebrews, but Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Ezekiel chapter 31 verse 1 through 32 verse 32.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Hebrews we’ve been talking for the last couple of days about faith and the fact that its presence in our lives is a necessity to operate in this kingdom or to enter into this new covenant. And we went through many examples from the Old Testament of biblical people who were regarded as the most influential people to the Hebrews. And they were all used as examples of people who had faith, people who saw something that they could not see, and hoped in it, hoped in the promise. And then we were led into the understanding that we find ourselves in the same place. We have to have the same kind of faith in what we can't see but in what we know is coming, because at the time of this writing those were following Jesus were being marginalized and sidelined and persecuted and it didn't feel like things were getting better, it felt like things were getting worse. And, so, that's where faith comes in. And Hebrews counseled us on perseverance and discipline and the fact that what we can see right this minute isn't all there is there is, there’s much more going on, there's a larger story happening, but the only way to renew our hope in this coming thing is through faith. And so, today we’re kind of reaching the climax. We’re just about done with the book of Hebrews. We’ll complete it tomorrow. And so, we’re instructed on how to navigate, how to navigate life, and how to look at things. And, so, we’re instructed and we should pay attention to this because it applies to our lives. ‘Pursue the goal of peace along with everyone and holiness as well because no one will see the Lord without it. Make sure that no one misses out on God's grace. Make sure that no root of bitterness grows up that might cause trouble and pollute many people. Make sure that no one becomes sexually immoral or ungodly like Esau’. These are postures. These are instructions on what our lives are supposed to be shaped like in order to cultivate faith that will bring hope. And then we’re led into a contrasting example of Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. Mount Sinai, of course, representing God meeting with the people in the wilderness, and giving the 10 Commandments, and instituting the first covenant. And the writer of Hebrews reminds them that everyone was freaked out. Like, no one could even touch the mountain. Even Moses said that he was terrified and shaking. And that was brought up to represent the institution of the old covenant, but then the writer says ‘but you have drawn near to Mount Zion’ and goes on to explain how this represents this new thing that God is doing, this new covenant through Jesus. And then we’re given a warning and a hopeful picture. The warning is that everything is going to get shaken up because of this. And certainly 2000 years later, we can see that Jesus has indeed shaken the world. Before the Hebrews, at this time, it’s just counsel. Everything that can shake his calling to get shaken up because of this new covenant because it's a new era, a new dawning of a new day. Things among the human race have profoundly been changed. So, it's going to shake things up but that’s necessary. Everything that can shake is going to get shaken and the things that aren't shaken are the things that will remain. And because of this new covenant we are entering into and receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and our response to that can only be gratitude. And we can take the last statement from our reading today and place it in our hearts as we move forward in our lives. ‘With this gratitude let's serve in a way that is pleasing to God, with respect and awe because our God really is a consuming fire’.

Prayer:

Father, there is no doubt that we experience shaking and shake up in our lives. And most of the time we see this is a horribly bad thing. And rarely do we look at it as everything that needs to be shaken lose. Everything that needs to fall away is falling away because of the shaking and rarely do we run to You and embrace the process and move through it by the council and power of Your Holy Spirit. Usually we’re asking You why You let this happen. And from the book of Hebrews today, we can see that things need to be shaken up. Things need to fall away so that that which is stable and solid and cannot be shaken is what remains. And Your kingdom cannot be shaken. And You have invited us to participate in it. And, so, we embrace all of the things that we are going through. And we invite Your Holy Spirit. We run to You, not with accusation, but with gratitude. We express our gratitude that You can continue to pursue us and to shake loose the things it will only take us down in the end. We are grateful that You are a consuming fire, You consume the things that do not belong in and around us, and You consume us with the power of Your Holy Spirit to operate as Your image bearers, ambassadors, and representatives on this earth. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to give us this awareness, a much larger perspective on all of the issues that we face in our lives. Come Holy Spirit, give us the eyes and the ears of Your unshakable kingdom. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Community Prayers and Praise Reports

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is ___ from Maryland. Just wanted to say, this message is for Jill. Jill, I hear everybody talking about you when they thank Brian and Jill. And I’ve heard Brian’s voice and I haven’t gotten to know you yet. But yesterday I started listening to some of the resources that are on the app, the first videos and the women resources, it was your interviews with Stacey. If I am saying her name wrong, I’m sorry. But you are awesome Jill and it was so great to get to know you. I was listening to the interviews that were from 2014, but so profoundly, exactly what I needed here in the moment that I heard it. And I could hear your heart and your love of God and I just wanted to thank you, and nice to meet you, Brian and Jill, both of you. Thank you for everything. I'm overwhelmed with gratitude for God and for you all for the resources that you’ve provided us with to be in his word every day. I cannot thank you enough. Just thank you. And anyone who feels inspired to tap into the resources that Jill has put forth through DAB with Brian, just do it. I highly recommend it. Love you guys.

Windows of opportunity surround us each day Choices are chances to do things God's way Is there healing or venom in the things that you say Help us sweet Jesus to do things your way Do you do unto others before they do you Do you render to Caesar the all that he’s due Do you humbly ask Jesus your strength to renew Are you really for God or is it all about you Storm clouds may gather but they will not prevail God has all power and his word will not fail Satan is a liar, a robber, a thief Help me sweet Jesus with my unbelief Windows of opportunity surround us each day Choices and chances to do things God's way Is there healing or venom in the things that you say Help us sweet Jesus to do things your way Mom was a Christian and daddy was too They did all the good things that parents can do Sometimes we’d listen and sometimes we’d stray But we always had chances to do things God's way Jobs, friends, and family, they all have their place They all can add balance if we run the good race But they also add attention and trials each day Help us sweet Jesus to do things your way Do you encourage your family Do you uplift your friends Do you know that your jobs are just means to your ends Do you glorify Jesus in all that you do Are you really for God or is it all about you

blindtony1016@gmail.com. Victory S. I missed you last week, I didn’t hear your voice last week and I definitely missed it. Hope all is well. Anyway, thank you once again Brian for this wonderful Podcast for Gods Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ y’all. Alright. Bye-bye.

This is Peg in Texas, praying with the DAB family. Almighty, all-powerful God, who loves with an everlasting love, I come asking, asking for Sharon in California whose daughter is bipolar. This diagnosis is up and down and so often unstable Lord. I ask, Father, for all that is needed for stabilizing the brain of this loved one. For Zander, the one man who is missing the blessing as Tony said so well in a poem, show him to Yourself, open his eyes to his own addiction and open his heart to see you, to find Christian friends, to remove himself from a harmful relationship. Oh God, in the name of Jesus, redeem the child in the situation. For Sandy in Arkansas, help her to see that this playing of marriage and playing house but living in an abusive and sinful situation is not in accordance with Your will. The culture may say it is but your word does not give proof. Give her the courage to leave, to walk out and away from a man who is taking advantage of her availability. Yes, we do ask for his salvation, we ask for his healing, but at the same time, I ask for Sandy’s healing for she is helping to create a sick and really a sinful situation. And, oh Lord, for Gloria in New York and her deep concern for her mom. She wants to move her mom to New York. If this is for the mother’s situation to be greatly bettered, for stability, for peace, for kindness or attentive care or more attentive care, maybe I should say Lord, I ask that the move will be made. I pray for brothers, that Gloria sees as controlling and cruel and abusive, that in the name of Jesus, You will work powerfully, bringing healing in lives between siblings, for I believe it to be Your divine will. And for Jordan the teacher, give him the desire and ability to firmly hold onto Your word…

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. I’m asking you to please, please pray for my husband. We’ve lost two daughters to gun violence and now my husband, John, has been diagnosed with cancer. I can't describe the pain and anxiety we’re feeling right now but God showed me in a dream to call Daily Audio Bible and ask for prayer. So, we trust in the power of prayer and the power of the blood and the power of God’s love. So, I’m asking all of you guys out there to pry for us. And I want to thank you in advance for covering us in prayer

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Hola Booklovers,

In this article, I would be sharing famous love quotes from young adult fiction series. Love quotes makes you feel good and bitter, both at the same time. But, one cannot deny the feelings of a heart that has loved. Some of these quotes are tangy, sour and sweet. Check out these beautiful, heart touching quotes which can lighten your mind, savor the body and enrich your soul. So, grab your coffee, relax and enjoy the quotes 🙂

Here goes the list of famous quotes from YA Fiction novels.

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han

Never say no when you really want to say yes.

Being vulnerable, letting people in, getting hurt… it’s all part of being in love.

Music makes everything more romantic, doesn’t it? One second you’re walking your dog in the suburbs, and then you put on Adele, and it’s like you’re in a movie and you’ve just had your heart brutally broken.

I like the way he looks at me, like I am a wood nymph that he happened upon one day and just had to take home to keep. 

She always picked love; she always picked adventure. To her, they were one and the same. 

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

You are my life now.

You’re not like anyone I’ve ever known. You fascinate me.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I hope our paths will cross again. Really? In that case, I guess I’ll keep following you.

 Fallen by Lauren Kate

Trust is a careless pursuit at best. At worst, it’s a good way to get yourself killed.

You know everyone loves to hate a happy pair of lovebirds. 

We meet. We always meet, somehow we’re always thrown together, no matter where I go, no matter how I try to distance myself from you. It never matters. You always find me.

Her heart was pounding impossibly fast. Then she realized She was feeling both of their hearts, racing each other. A kind of desperate conversation, one they couldn’t have with words. 

Love is Fallen…. Like *FALLEN* ANGELS…

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

I’m oxygen and he’s dying to breathe.

Raindrops are my only reminder that clouds have a heartbeat. That I have one, too.

Ignite, my love. Ignite.

Hope is hugging me, holding me in its arms, wiping away my tears and telling me that today and tomorrow and two days from now I will be just fine and I’m so delirious I actually dare to believe it. 

  Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

He made her feel like more than the sum of her parts.

I don’t like you, Park. Sometimes I think I live for you.

Can’t you just like a girl who likes you back?

  I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo

I believed, and still believe, that you can build your dreams brick by brick. That you can accomplish anything with persistence.

Real love: It was all about risk and having faith. There were no guarantees.

I believed, and still believe, that you can build your dreams brick by brick. That you can accomplish anything with persistence. 

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

No relationship is perfect, ever. There are always some ways you have to bend, to compromise, to give something up in order to gain something greater…The love we have for each other is bigger than these small differences. And that’s the key. It’s like a big pie chart, and the love in a relationship has to be the biggest piece. Love can make up for a lot.

Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone’s bad qualities because they somehow complete you.

The fate of your heart is your choice and no one else gets a vote.

Everything, in the end, comes down to timing. One second, one minute, one hour could make all the difference.

Love is so unpredictable. That’s what makes it so great.

Love is an excuse to put up with the shit that you shouldn’t. That’s how it gets you. It throws off the scales so that things that should weigh heavily don’t seem to. It’s a crock. A trap.

You know, when it works, love is amazing. It’s not overrated.

 The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.

The marks humans leave are too often scars.

You realize that trying to keep your distance from me will not lessen my affection for you. All efforts to save me from you will fail.

You are so busy being YOU that you have no idea how utterly unprecedented you are.

You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.

I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia

I never loved you any more than I do, right this second. And I’ll never love you any less than I do, right this second.

Even lost in the darkness, my heart will find you.

Darkness can’t drive out darkness only light can do that, Hate can’t drive out hate only love can do that.

Mortals. Everything is so black and white to you.

The thing about fate is, are you the master of your fate, or are the stars?

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” 

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

I love you more than I think I should.

…I need a boyfriend. And to get a boyfriend, you have to look good. Doesn’t hurt to smell good too.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Frostbite by Richelle Mead

When Love And Jealousy  Collide On The Slopes,  Winter Break Turns Deadly

You can’t force love, I realized. It’s there or it isn’t.

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead

You will lose what you value most, so treasure it while you can.

You might be surrounded by clouds, but you’ll be like sunshine to me.

 We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

There is not even a Scrabble word for how bad I feel.

Silence is a protective coating over pain.

I love him, but I am not sure I like him.

Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

You’re burned into my mind forever. There is nothing, nothing in this world that will ever change that.

Alive or undead, the love of my life was a badass. 

 Matched by Ally Condie

Every minute you spend with someone gives them a part of your life and takes part of theirs.

I am trapped in glass and I want to break out and breathe deep but I´m too afraid that it will hurt.

 Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

It is as great a thing to love as it is to be loved. Love is not something that can be wasted.

Whoever loves you now—and you must also love yourself—will love the truth of you.

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Love shouldn’t hinge solely on exposing your physical body to another person. Love was intangible. Universal. It was whatever someone wanted it to be and should be respected as such. For Alice, it was staying up late and talking about nothing and everything and anything because you didn’t want to sleep—you’d miss them too much. It was catching yourself smiling at them because wow, how does this person exist?? before they caught you. It was the intimacy of shared secrets. The comfort of unconditional acceptance. It was a confidence in knowing no matter what happened that person would always be there for you.

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Thanks for reading 🙂 🙂 🙂 Hope you have loved these quotes. 🙂 ❤

What are your favorite quotes? Let me know in the comments section below.

If you have enjoyed this article please feel free to like, share and subscribe.

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61 Upbeat Love Quotes in YA Fiction Hola Booklovers, In this article, I would be sharing famous love quotes from young adult fiction series. 

[thecosydragon]

My latest blog post from the cosy dragon: Interview with Emi Louise Croucher (Part 2)

An Interview with Emi Louise Croucher (Part 2), author of The Butterfly on Fire

Did you miss Part 1, where Emi introduces herself? If so, you’d better go back HERE now!

Everyone has a ‘first novel’, even if many of them are a rough draft relegated to the bottom and back of your desk drawer (or your external harddrive!). Have you been able to reshape yours, or have you abandoned it for good?

The Butterfly on Fire is definitely linked, in some ways, to a draft I started a couple of years ago for what would have been called Serendipity. It was similar in its narrative structure; in that it followed the stories of a few different lives and linked them all up together at the end. I think what stopped me from completing that old draft was the fact that I was trying too hard and ended up making it all too complicated. That, and of course the fact that I hadn’t progressed through my own personal story, and therein didn’t have the same motivation at that point. Once I realised exactly what I wanted to write about and cleared up in my head what message I wanted to send out into the world, it all fell effortlessly into place. I used the older draft as a kind of reference, and some characters are in their in one way or another, but The Butterfly on Fire sort of grew its own pair of wings and really took off by itself (pun instead!). 

Some authors are able to pump out a novel a year and still be filled with inspiration. Is this the case for you, or do you like to let an idea percolate for a couple of years in order to get a beautiful novel?

As above, I am someone who needs to let the idea percolate and I cannot write without motivation. Some of the readers of this debut novel have asked “when is book two coming out? I need to know what happens!?” Unfortunately, I just have no idea. I know I will write a sequel, but until the ideas and the emotions start to flow in the right directions, I don’t feel as comfortable writing. I think a large part of that comes from my protagonist and main characters channelling my inner voice, depending on what different aspect of that character matches my personality.

I admire those who can just start writing without years of pretext, and hope to one day be able to do the same!

I have heard of writers that could only write in one place – then that cafe closed down and they could no longer write! Where do you find yourself writing most often, and on what medium (pen/paper or digital)?

I wrote a large proportion of The Butterfly on Fire at my ex-boyfriend’s house, so I can imagine how problematic it would be to not be able to write anywhere else! Ouch! Sunday mornings would be filled with cups of tea, comedy programmes in the background and the sound of my keyboard clattering away.

The other main location that I found inspiration (and time) to write was on my two hour commute to and from work. That train and bus journey was great for getting out the thoughts and feelings that I had gathered through the day into the book.

Yes, as mentioned above my medium of writing was my small laptop. But that’s not to say I didn’t have tons and tons of paper notes, drawings and hand-drawn maps! In fact, by the time I started editing the novel with E Goulding I had to carry around a full blown A4 folder with all my notes as well.

Before going on to hire an editor, most authors use beta-readers. How do you recruit your beta-readers, and choose an editor? Are you lucky enough to have loving family members who can read and comment on your novel?

In my case I was particularly lucky. I started The Butterfly on Fire whilst I was working at a legal translation company in central London. Within that company there was a proofreading department, and so I approached the lovely E Goulding with my novel when it was about three quarters of the way done. I asked her to give it a read, and if she liked it then would she mind editing it? She ended up becoming a virtual business partner! We then worked together to send specific sections to certain people; friends and friends of friends, when it was ready to be read by the world. One of the main goals we had was to send specific parts to random people (that don’t know me or my story) to see at what point they “worked out” the main part of the narrative. It was great to get feedback from a range of people, as it really brought the book to life. Overall, having a true friend help me edit The Butterfly on Fire will be one of my fondest memories in this entire process.

 I walk past bookshops and am drawn in by the smell of the books – ebooks simply don’t have the same attraction for me. Does this happen to you, and do you have a favourite bookshop? Or perhaps you are an e-reader fan… where do you source most of your material from?

My heart is truly torn with this question. On the one hand, I am a millennial. We breathe technology, and I cannot deny the convenience of having a book I want to read on any device, instantly. It’s just so easy! Life should be easy, right?

But then again, nothing beats the smell of a good book. As an indie writer who is self-published, it is a huge honour to have a physical copy of my very own novel. Every time I see it, I just smile! Technology will overtake and outdate many things, but I think the paperback will be on this planet for as long as the human race is.

So I will have to answer this very carefully! I do buy ebooks, and enjoy the ease of reading on my commute. However, nothing will ever get me to digitalise that old copy of Harry Potter that I use to sleep with under my pillow when I was a child.

I used to find myself buying books in only one genre (fantasy) before I started writing this blog. What is your favourite genre, and do you have a favourite author who sticks in your mind from:

childhood? J. K. Rowling

adolescence? Cate Tiernan

young adult? George R. R. Martin

adult? Still George R. R. Martin (It’s a long series!)

Judging from the above I guess you could surmise that I too only buy fantasy novels. As much as that’s not my intention, the evidence says otherwise! I guess for me, a large part of why I love reading and writer is the escapology. More specifically the ability to be something other than myself and almost pretend to “be” the character I’m reading about. I would be Hermione Granger, or I would be Daenerys Targaryen.

Social media is a big thing, much to my disgust! I never have enough time myself to do what I feel is a good job. The more I think about it, the more I hate it! What do you do?

Again, as a millennial, social media is a necessary evil that we are all brought up with. I admire those people who actively choose against things like Facebook. It must be annoying every time someone asks for your Facebook details!

For me, I have a wordpress blog, and use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (@thebutterflyonfire) to try and promote it. I’m now also on Goodreads, but I’m keeping that in its own bubble for now. I manage them myself and do what I can to keep the pages alive. As a self-published author it’s fully up to me to market the novel, so I have to use social media for that. Whilst this can take a lot of time, I like that I get to keep control of the marketing of this book by doing it myself; as it’s such a personal story that I wouldn’t want to give the work over to someone else.

I spend a good two to three hours a day on checking notifications, coming up with new content and sharing the process of my novel out into the world. Sometimes I spend money on advertising and sometimes I just use word of mouth to get the novel out there as well.

I hope that my social networking is helping towards getting The Butterfly on Fire known in the world, and if not then I need to re-think what to do going forward!

Answering interview questions can often take a long time! Tell me, are you ever tempted to recycle your answers from one to the next?

I personally try to answer every question in the state of mind and emotions that I’m feeling at that time. I’m a true believer in the notion that everything happens for a reason. So, things that happen may change how we feel, and I see within myself very frequently that I feel differently about things as I get older. This is all coming from the 25 year old me though, and as time goes on I may just rely on the copy and paste buttons when I have toddlers running around and dinner to cook!

from http://ift.tt/2ueFbav

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: "Mass Effect: Andromeda" Review

Before we begin, fair warning: I am a massive, unapologetically biased Mass Effect fanboy. It's easily my favorite new game franchise in a long while, and I've spent more time playing and replaying the original trilogy than I care to admit. I have very strong opinions on its world, its story (I legit liked ME3's ending, but I'll discuss that in the comments), and had very high expectations for Mass Effect: Andromeda, the newest chapter in BioWare's space opera RPG. Were those expectations met? Well... yes and no. Let's start from the top:

    Sometime during the events of Mass Effect 2, four massive ark ships, each carrying 50,000 individuals from representative races of our galaxy, departs for the distant Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light years away. 600 years pass, and the crew of the human ark Hyperion reaches Andromeda, and things go immediately wrong. The promised "garden world" humanity was supposed to colonize is an uninhabitable hellscape, the first aliens they meet say hello with gunfire, and nobody has any clue where the turian, salarian, or asari arks are. From here, it's up to you, the human Pathfinder, to make things right.

    Instead of the entire Milky Way Galaxy from the previous games, Andromeda focuses on one section, the Heleus Cluster, and two new races: the vicious, militaristic kett and the family-oriented angara, who've been stuck fighting the kett for longer than they can remember. Like past games, there are plenty of political entanglements to navigate, like rogue angara who (thanks to the kett) distrust all aliens, humans who want to say "screw the rules" go all Mad Max in this new galaxy, and of course, all the racial tensions from the Milky Way rearing their ugly heads all over again. It's smaller, but feels more intimate--I did miss how special humanity wasn't in the original Mass Effect and getting to learn about all these new, different races, but appreciated how Andromeda very specifically focused on handling the conflict between the angara and the kett.

    Putting things bluntly, much of your time in Andromeda is going to be spent doing the same things you did in the previous trilogy: negotiate tense situations, survive double and triple crosses, take sides in a gang war, and help your nakama crew with their personal quests. Between all the big choices and the main quest of finding new homes for 200,000 displaced Milky Way immigrants, there are plenty of smaller, personal errands to take on: get a movie night together for your ship, find the perfect ingredients to create booze, help a particularly doofy colonist find a career path (and not get killed in the process), and of course, try to hook up with everyone that gives you the dialogue option. It's a Mass Effect game, and it's all familiar to a point. It's not all dead-serious survival stress, though, and I really appreciate Andromeda's lighter, more adventurous tone.

    As opposed to the huge, sprawling cast we'd grown fond of (to varying degrees) over the initial trilogy, Andromeda starts small, with six squad members and a handful of crewmembers on your new ship, the Tempest. You've got your standard pair of human starting partners, like "I'm really not mad at you, I promise" Cora Harper and "I keep forgetting where I left my shirt" Liam Costa, a grizzled old krogan, a very business-first turian, and an asari Zooey Deschanel. The most interesting new face is Jaal, a member of the new angara race, and getting to know this new alien species on a personal level and earning his trust really adds to the feeling of being a total stranger in this galaxy. Rather than being tied down by "Paragon" or "Renegade" options and limiting responses based on your level, you can choose between Professional, Casual, Emotional, or Logical responses (with the occasional "Impulsive" interrupt) to determine your character's reputation, and a very clear Romantic option during dialogue whenever you feel the need to hit on Space Antonio Banderas Reyes.

    The biggest changes come on the other side of the action-RPG coin: the combat. As mentioned in my preview a few weeks back, combat is faster, more streamlined, and expects you to be faster on the draw and smarter with your ability use. Enemy AI isn't the smartest, but the fact that they hit harder and always, always have the numbers advantage make you want to end fights as quickly as possible. Instead of being locked into one class like Soldier or Vanguard for the entire game, you're encouraged to have a mixture of combat, biotic, and tech abilities, and switch classes ("Profiles") as needed for your playstyle or different situations. I ended up favoring the Explorer Profile, which is a perfect balance between the three, and provides strong bonuses across the board, but dedicated individual skillsets like Engineer and Adept gave huge bonuses to specific biotic or tech loadouts. You're given full freedom to build your character's abilities the way you want, and with no level cap (and the usual medbay respec option), you don't have to stress over being stuck with upgrades that aren't working out.

    That freedom extends to item creation as well--the sheer amount of junk you collect can seem daunting, but the game's crafting system will cause you to burn through it pretty quickly to create new, better weapons. If you spent a lot of time playing Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, you'll be right at home putting together your kit, weapons, armor, vehicle and all--I'm a big fan of the new melee weapons, like the asari and kett swords. Building planets' livability also allows you to customize what bonuses you get, like regular credit and resource packages, as well as upgrading your APEX strike team.

    Feeling a lot like Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker's Extra Ops, your APEX teams can be called in to take care of side missions while you're playing the main story. Teams have different perks affecting their chances of mission success, and completing these missions earns you more credits, resources, and occasional weapon and armor drops. Some missions can also be played by you, and that's where Andromeda's addicting multiplayer mode comes in. Just like Mass Effect 3, you'll work together with other players and hold off waves of enemies, but this time you won't need to touch multiplayer to finish the main story (but you'll be missing out-it's fun). While there are a few missing classes (sadly, no more volus adepts), I was able to unlock a few more good ones after only playing a few matches--I'll be coming back pretty regularly to Andromeda's multiplayer just for how damn fun it is to run people over with a krogan.

    But even with all the cool new stuff, there's a lot of problems with Andromeda, and not all of them can be fixed with a day-one patch. Character animations are unsteady and jittery, with characters popping into movements or just twitching for no reason during cutscenes. At one point, my Ryder was flirting with Cora, and his head started slowly turning 180 degrees before immediately snapping back to normal, just like I do when talking to women in real life. In a few instances, enemies got stuck in level architecture, completely catching me by surprise when a door started shooting at me. Other enemies wouldn't even respond, just standing in an idle animation while I ran up and punched them repeatedly. In one particularly infuriating issue, a quest update wouldn't trigger, but showed the next step available. When I finished that step, the last one still showed, and blocked me from further progress in the quest.

    Andromeda's issues run deeper than just technical screwups. While the overall story is cool, moment-to-moment writing can run from bland to trying-too-hard-to-be-Joss-Whedon dumb. Some characters will constantly speak like they're trying to be the coolest person in the room (hi Liam), and when dealing with more minor technical flaws like characters not even looking at the people they're talking to (just in their general direction), it can really break that feeling of immersion. Back on the characters, there are a few truly tone-deaf attempts to be inclusive and show a better future--the intent is there, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The new, villainous kett--and their dickhead leader the Archon--are more annoying than threatening until the game's halfway point, but I can't stop thinking of the Archon as Sarris from Galaxy Quest.

  "YOOOOOU AAAAARE OOOOOUR LAST HOPE"

  Even with all that, though, I can't say I had a bad time with Andromeda--at all, really. It's funny how the game's launch kind of parallels the game's story: after a long wait, we're finally here, and nothing's the way it should be. Everything's going wrong, it's not quite matching up to how we expected, and there are a lot of good reasons to be pissed off. Thankfully, sticking with it doesn't just open the door to a rich, fantastic adventure. Mass Effect: Andromeda brings us new friends, new memories, and--most importantly--a new home.

  REVIEW ROUNDUP

+ Brings you right back to that familiar Mass Effect sweet spot between in-depth roleplay and satisfying action

+ Lots to do across a half-dozen hub worlds and your ship, that never feels like busywork or filler

+ Aims for a lighter tone and mostly succeeds, making its emotional moments stand out more clearly

+ Faster, more intense combat is a step up from previous games

+ "Tone Wheel" adds more flexibility and better roleplay options compared to binary "Paragon/Renegade" responses

+ Fun, addicting multiplayer is also 100% separate from the story mode

+/- Lighter tone does come with some less-than-hilarious attempts at humor and quirkiness, but your mileage may vary

- Constant technical glitches and errors, likely due to me playing a pre-release build, but I'm surprised it's this broken

- Inconsistent UX decisions: why can I equip something from a chest, but not from my inventory?

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[dailyaudiobible]

10/25/2017 DAB Transcript

Jeremiah 48:1-49:22; 2 Timothy 4:1-22; Psalms 95:1-96:13; Proverbs 26:9-12

Today is the 25th day of October. Welcome to the daily audio Bible. I am Brian and is great to be here with you today for the next step forward in the scriptures this year. And it’s a special day because we will conclude Paul's second letter to Timothy in today's reading and, as we mentioned when we began this letter, this is the final writings of the apostle Paul's life. So, we will come to the final word written by the apostle Paul in today's reading. But first, reading from the names of God Bible, Jeremiah chapter 48 verse 1 through 49 verse 22.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we concluded Paul's second letter to Timothy, which is also the final writings of the apostle Paul's life. And, you know, these are the final things that he has to say to Timothy. Obviously, it's full of melancholy because Paul knows he's going to die and he's hoping to see Timothy again and Paul is sending Tychicus to represent him at the church in Ephesus, to give Timothy the opportunity to come, if possible. And he’s even asking Timothy to bring the warm coat that he left with Carpus in the city of Troas. Right? So, winter’s coming and he’s in a dungeon and his execution is eminent. And ya, so, there's just a lot of melancholy in all that. And it's within that that we have the famous quotation, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race’. And, so, Paul's, kind of, final instructions to Timothy are, listen, things aren't always going to be good. People will abandon you. People are going to say all kinds of things and teach all kinds of things and you need to be patient and just continue to teach the truth even when people, you know, even when people shop around looking for someone to tell them what they want to hear. You need to just patiently continue to teach the truth and you’re going to have to endure some suffering. It may get rocky out here. Consider yourself a missionary and devote yourself to this work and keep your head clear. And then Paul says, my life is coming to an end and it’s now time for me to be poured out as a sacrifice to God. I have fought the good fight, I have completed the race, I have kept the faith. That verse has always flattened me ever since I really began to understand the context of this letter. When I began to understand that it had come down to abandonment, that this great apostle, Paul, who we revere and who is responsible for so much of the New Testament that we read, that it all came down to a dungeon with winter coming on and pretty much everyone gone. And Paul warns Timothy and he talks about these kinds of things in his other letters, that this is not an unopposed life, that even though the good news of the gospel is the hope of the human species and the integration of God and people can once again happen and this world could begin to flourish, most people are going to ignore this and some are going to be hostile. And Jesus warned the same thing. And, so, Paul's words are humbling and give us a lot to contemplate. Because this is a guy that is going to be executed, who was able to say, I did what I came to do, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. And the way that I did that wasn't through grand spectacles, it was that I kept the faith until the very end. I want that to be true of my life. Don't you? Like, at the essence, at the core, no matter what happens, I want that to be true. And it's pretty clear that Paul wanted that to be true in his life and he wanted to transfer that conviction to Timothy so that it might be true of him. And that as this letter spread around that it might be true of all. And, so, here are the final words of the apostle Paul and may they be spoken over us each. The Lord be with you. His is goodwill be with all of you.

Prayer:

Father, we come into that. It is a baseline heart cry - that we can fight the good fight, that we can finish the race, that we can keep the faith. And we have to also acknowledge that so many times we've measured that by how much we feel You are blessing us, like, that has become our measure, when we see that that is isn’t the measure at all, when we look at the apostle Paul and we look at your life Jesus. That isn’t the measure at all. This isn’t a fight for how much exterior blessing we can have. It is a fight for our heart and soul. And, so, as battered as we might be, with the circumstances that swirl around us, we regroup and center ourselves in you once again. We stand up once again and start fighting the good fight and we will finish this race and we will keep this faith by the power of your Holy Spirit, and by no other power is it possible. So, come, Holy Spirit, and help us to move forward as we honor those who have gone before us and finished the race, those who have finished the race by giving their lives so that we might have this treasure. Come, Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hello my Daily Audio Bible family. My name is Rayna here in California, Los Angeles area. I’ve called before. I listen daily. I don’t call in often but I do pray and listen and pray along with all of you. Today, I have to reach out. Again, I’ve called before. I’ve gotten really sick with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue and other ailments in my body due to severe stress that I’ve ensured over the years and especially this one long year. It’s now taken its toll on me. The fibromyalgia pains are just extreme to the point where I can’t even think and work right. I draw blood for a lab. So, I have to be steady. I have to be focused. And I’ve found it very difficult to go to work lately. And it’s just been really hard to focus and feel like I'm worth anything. I don't like to hear questions like, what's wrong with you? Because it makes me feel like I’m not good enough anymore. So, I’m just asking God to just take this away from me completely. I’ve been liberated from it before but it’s just come back with full force and…I just…sometimes I wonder why I am still here. I struggle with also being alone in the house. I just want to go to work. I really love my job and ask you to please pray for me. I’m beginning to feel worthless. That God would just give me a new body and reinvigorate me and give me health again. Thank you, my Daily Audio Bible family, for just being there.

Oh God, I thank You for our churches and our church community. Thank You Lord so much for what they are doing and Father God thank You so much for the work you’ve laid upon their hearts to do. Father God I pray especially now for the children’s relief work of our church communities of our Christian communities Lord. Whether it be part of the DAB or DAB Kids or DAB teens or whatever or whether or it be the midweek Friday clubs or Tuesday clubs evening clubs or the Sunday morning clubs that people can learn, get to learn about You Lord. Thank You so much for what you are doing. Thank you for people who you’ve laid on their hearts to be a children’s worker or relief worker in their spare time to volunteer Lord. Father God, I pray that you’d be leading those people that you be leading those churches, giving them wisdom on how best to help children find you, how best help them grow, how best to disciple them. Please be blessed in these works Lord. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Hey family. This is Melissa again. I have a prayer request. My oldest daughter, her name is Darion, we call her Pudding. She would kill me if she knew I told ya’ll this. She will be going to China for a year to work. So, I need you all to pray for her. Me and her dad are, kind of, ya know, iffy about this, but this is something she wants to do. She’s 28 years old. She’s a good girl and I need to ya’ll to please keep her lifted up in prayer. Joselyn, you called in and were talking to a lady about her kid being sexually abused, and you said you didn’t let your kids spend the night, go to sleep over. I’m so glad you called in and said that because I don’t let Gabby spend the night with people and it’s just cause of things that happened to me. Allot of times when ya’ll call in to talk to other people and encourage them you don’t realize you’re encouraging other people too. So, thanks for so much for that. I love ya’ll. Ya’ll have a great day. Bye-bye.  

Hello Daily Audio Bible you make this family such a big, big lovely family. Brian, I just want to say thank you. For the last 5 years five years that I’ve listened to the Daily Audio Bible I love the fact that you get to this point in Jeremiah 29:11 and to take a pause and expand and expound and just tell us how great it is to have context. Yes, that’s one of my favorite versus as for many I know it is. It is great to understand context. In the bible, it will give us a big picture of what God is trying to tell and teaching us. So, I just wanted to say thank you Brian. And it’s great to know God has plans for us but whatever situation He has placed us, whether we like it or not, He is going to use that. So, we should try our very best to praise God, to flourish in all those moments. I am very happy that I am a member of this very wonderful family. Each one of you are loved by God. I really mean that. God loves us. And if God never did anything else for any one off us more than he has already done, the death of His son, Jesus Christ on the cross is good enough. It is the best gift anyone of us could ever receive - the gift of salvation, the gift of His undying love. Her pursued…

[pamphletstoinspire]

BOOK OF JOB - From The Douay-Rheims Bible - Latin Vulgate

Chapter 17

The Book of Job shows how human affairs are ruled by Divine Providence using probable arguments.

"Although you hide these things in your heart, I know that you still remember everything." - (Job speaking to God)  

***

INTRODUCTION.

This Book takes its name from the holy man, of whom it treats; who, according to the more probable opinion, was of the race of Esau, and the same as Jobab, king of Edom, mentioned Gen. xxxvi. 33. It is uncertain who was the writer of it. Some attribute it to Job himself; others to Moses, or some one of the prophets. In the Hebrew it is written in verse, from the beginning of the third chapter to the forty-second chapter. Ch. --- The beginning and conclusion are historical, and in prose. Some have divided this work into a kind of tragedy, the first act extending to C. xv., the second to C. xxii., the third to C. xxxviii., where God appears, and the plot is unfolded. They suppose that the sentiments of the speakers are expressed, though not their own words. This may be very probable: but the opinion of those who look upon the work as a mere allegory, must be rejected with horror. The sacred writers speak of Job as of a personage who had really existed, (C.) and set the most noble pattern of virtue, and particularly of patience. Tob. ii. 12. Ezec. xiv. 14. Jam. v. 11. Philo and Josephus pass over this history, as they do those of Tobias, Judith, &c. H. --- The time when Job lived is not clearly ascertained. Some have supposed (C.) that he was a contemporary with Esther; (D. Thalmud) on which supposition, the work is here placed in its chronological order. But Job more probably live during the period when the Hebrews groaned under the Egyptian bondage, (H.) or sojourned in the wilderness. Num. xiv. 9. The Syrians place the book at the head of the Scriptures. C. --- Its situation has often varied, and is of no great importance. The subject which is here treated, is of far more; as it is intended to shew that the wicked sometimes prosper, while the good are afflicted. H. --- This had seldom been witnessed before the days of Abraham: but as God had now selected his family to be witnesses and guardians of religion, a new order of things was beginning to appear. This greatly perplexed Job himself; who, therefore, confesses that he had not sufficiently understood the ways of God, till he had deigned to explain them in the parable of the two great beasts. C. xlii. 3. We cannot condemn the sentiments expressed by Job, since God has declared that they were right, (ib. v. 8) and reprimands Elihu, (C. xxxviii. 2.) and the other three friends of Job, for maintaining a false opinion, though, from the history of past times, they had judge it to be true. This remark may excupate them from the stain of wilful lying, and vain declamation. Houbigant. --- However, as they assert what was false, their words of themselves are of no authority; and they are even considered as the forerunners of heretics. S. Greg. S. Aug. &c. T. --- Job refutes them by sound logic. S. Jerom. --- We may discover in this book the sum of Christian morality, (W.) for which purpose it has been chiefly explained by S. Gregory. The style is very poetical, (H.) though at the same time simple, like that of Moses. D. --- It is interspersed with many Arabic and Chaldaic idioms; (S. Jer.) whence some have concluded, that it was written originally by Job and his friends (H.) in Arabic, and translated into Heb. by Moses, for the consolation of his brethren. W. --- The Heb. text is in many places incorrect; (Houbig.) and the Sept. seem to have omitted several verses. Orig. --- S. Jerom says almost eight hundred, (C.) each consisting of about six words. H. --- Shultens, in 1747, expressed his dissatisfaction with the labours of all preceding commentators. To explain this book may not therefore be an easy task: but we must be as short as possible. H. --- Those who desire farther information, may consult Pineda, (W.) whose voluminous work, in two folios, will nearly (H.) give all necessary information. C.

The additional Notes in this Edition of the New Testament will be marked with the letter A. Such as are taken from various Interpreters and Commentators, will be marked as in the Old Testament. B. Bristow, C. Calmet, Ch. Challoner, D. Du Hamel, E. Estius, J. Jansenius, M. Menochius, Po. Polus, P. Pastorini, T. Tirinus, V. Bible de Vence, W. Worthington, Wi. Witham. — The names of other authors, who may be occasionally consulted, will be given at full length.

Verses are in English and Latin.

HAYDOCK CATHOLIC BIBLE COMMENTARY

This Catholic commentary on the Old Testament, following the Douay-Rheims Bible text, was originally compiled by Catholic priest and biblical scholar Rev. George Leo Haydock (1774-1849). This transcription is based on Haydock's notes as they appear in the 1859 edition of Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary printed by Edward Dunigan and Brother, New York, New York.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

Changes made to the original text for this transcription include the following:

Greek letters. The original text sometimes includes Greek expressions spelled out in Greek letters. In this transcription, those expressions have been transliterated from Greek letters to English letters, put in italics, and underlined. The following substitution scheme has been used: A for Alpha; B for Beta; G for Gamma; D for Delta; E for Epsilon; Z for Zeta; E for Eta; Th for Theta; I for Iota; K for Kappa; L for Lamda; M for Mu; N for Nu; X for Xi; O for Omicron; P for Pi; R for Rho; S for Sigma; T for Tau; U for Upsilon; Ph for Phi; Ch for Chi; Ps for Psi; O for Omega. For example, where the name, Jesus, is spelled out in the original text in Greek letters, Iota-eta-sigma-omicron-upsilon-sigma, it is transliterated in this transcription as, Iesous. Greek diacritical marks have not been represented in this transcription.

Footnotes. The original text indicates footnotes with special characters, including the astrisk (*) and printers' marks, such as the dagger mark, the double dagger mark, the section mark, the parallels mark, and the paragraph mark. In this transcription all these special characters have been replaced by numbers in square brackets, such as [1], [2], [3], etc.

Accent marks. The original text contains some English letters represented with accent marks. In this transcription, those letters have been rendered in this transcription without their accent marks.

Other special characters.

Solid horizontal lines of various lengths that appear in the original text have been represented as a series of consecutive hyphens of approximately the same length, such as ---.

Ligatures, single characters containing two letters united, in the original text in some Latin expressions have been represented in this transcription as separate letters. The ligature formed by uniting A and E is represented as Ae, that of a and e as ae, that of O and E as Oe, and that of o and e as oe.

Monetary sums in the original text represented with a preceding British pound sterling symbol (a stylized L, transected by a short horizontal line) are represented in this transcription with a following pound symbol, l.

The half symbol (1/2) and three-quarters symbol (3/4) in the original text have been represented in this transcription with their decimal equivalent, (.5) and (.75) respectively.

Unreadable text. Places where the transcriber's copy of the original text is unreadable have been indicated in this transcription by an empty set of square brackets, [].

Chapter 17

Job's hope in God: he expects rest in death.

[1] My spirit shall be wasted, my days shall be shortened, and only the grave remaineth for me.

Spiritus meus attenuabitur, dies mei breviabuntur, et solum mihi superest sepulchrum.

[2] I have not sinned, and my eye abideth in bitterness.

Non peccavi, et in amaritudinibus moratur oculus meus.

[3] Deliver me O Lord, and set me beside thee, and let any man's hand fight against me.

Libera me, Domine, et pone me juxta te, et cujusvis manus pugnet contra me.

[4] Thou hast set their heart far from understanding, therefore they shall not be exalted.

Cor eorum longe fecisti a disciplina : propterea non exaltabuntur.

[5] He promiseth a prey to his companions, and the eyes of his children shall fail.

Praedam pollicetur sociis, et oculi filiorum ejus deficient.

[6] He hath made me as it were a byword of the people, and I am an example before them.

Posuit me quasi in proverbium vulgi, et exemplum sum coram eis.

[7] My eye is dim through indignation, and my limbs are brought as it were to nothing.

Caligavit ab indignatione oculus meus, et membra mea quasi in nihilum redacta sunt.

[8] The just shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall be raised up against the hypocrite.

Stupebunt justi super hoc, et innocens contra hypocritam suscitabitur.

[9] And the just man shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

Et tenebit justus viam suam, et mundis manibus addet fortitudinem.

[10] Wherefore be you all converted, and come, and I shall not find among you any wise man.

Igitur omnes vos convertimini, et venite, et non inveniam in vobis ullum sapientem.

[11] My days have passed away, my thoughts are dissipated, tormenting my heart.

Dies mei transierunt : cogitationes meae dissipatae sunt, torquentes cor meum.

[12] They have turned night into day, and after darkness I hope for light again.

Noctem verterunt in diem, et rursum post tenebras spero lucem.

[13] If I wait hell is my house, and I have made my bed in darkness.

Si sustinuero, infernus domus mea est : et in tenebris stravi lectulum meum.

[14] If I have said to rottenness: Thou art my father; to worms, my mother and my sister.

Putredini dixi : Pater meus es : mater mea, et soror mea, vermibus.

[15] Where is now then my expectation, and who considereth my patience?

Ubi est ergo nunc praestolatio mea? et patientiam meam quis considerat?

[16] All that I have shall go down into the deepest pit: thinkest thou that there at least I shall have rest?

In profundissimum infernum descendent omnia mea. Putasne saltem ibi erit requies mihi?

Commentary:

Ver. 1. Spirit. Heb. "breath is corrupt," (H.) or spent. I cannot breathe without the greatest difficulty. C. --- Only. Sept. "But I want the grave, and do not obtain it." H.

Ver. 2. Not sinned. That is, I am not guilty of such sins as they charge me with. Ch. --- Heb. "the wicked were not with me" in friendship at any time. Prot. "Are there not mockers with me?" H. --- Job was doubly afflicted, with corporal pain and calumny: yet hopeth in God. W.

Ver. 3. Fight. I am secure under thy protection. Heb. "who will strike hands with me?" or stand bondsman for my debt?  Prov. vi. 1. Who will take my place? You accuse me of weakness and of impiety: but how would you act, if you were treated in the same manner? C.

Ver. 4. Understanding. They will not answer for me. They are not of such a generous disposition; nor can they distinguish between the punishment of guilt and the trial of virtue. C.

Ver. 5. He. My friend. C. --- Heb. "speaketh flattery," (H.) or promiseth to caress me, while he neglects his own children. But the sense of the Vulg. and Chal. seem preferable. My friends speak as if they could do any thing, and as if no trial would stagger their resolution. But they durst not be in my situation for a short time. C. --- Like hunters, who have promised their children some prey, my friends will not, however, gain the victory over me. M.

Ver. 6. Example. Prot. "a tabret." H. --- The people sing over my misfortune. Lam. iii. 14. I am represented as a victim of God's just indignation. C. --- Sept. "a laughter," or laughing-stock. H.

Ver. 7. Indignation of God, or of myself. M. --- Nothing. Heb. "as a shadow." C.

Ver. 8. Hypocrite. If you condemn me, I shall comfort myself with the approbation of the righteous, and still maintain my station. H. --- Men of sense and virtue will tremble at the judgments of God, and will never join the crowd of scoffers. C.

Ver. 10. Man. He offers to dispute with them again, and convince them of folly; (M.) or rather he here concludes his address to them, and invites them to change their preposterous judgments.

Ver. 11. Thoughts, or fine projects of living happy a long time. C.

Ver. 12. Day. Sleep flees from me. M. --- All is in confusion. --- After. Heb. and Sept. "light is near in the face of darkness." H. --- I still hope for relief.

Ver. 13. Hell. Seol. The region of the dead. Ch. --- Prot. "grave." H. --- But this text proves that there was a place of rest called hell. W. --- He speaks here chiefly of the body. C. --- Mors ultima linea rerum est. Hor. --- "Death is the end of all." H. --- If I refrain from complaining, still I cannot expect to be restored to health.

Ver. 14. Sister. I am nearly related to such things, and ready to drop into the grave, as my flesh is already devoured by worms. M.

Ver. 15. Who. Heb. "who shall see my hope?" I wish all might witness it. H. --- But I expect no redress on this side of the grave. C.

Ver. 16. Deepest pit. Literally hell. Ch. - Heb. "We shall go down to the bars of the pit, when we shall rest together in the dust." My hope may be frustrated by death; (H.) or you, my friends, must also go to the house of eternity. C.