#communal mourning

[todaysjewishholiday]

9 Menachem Av 5784 (12-13 August 2024)

Tisha b’Av is the deepest day of communal mourning in the Jewish year. Like Yom Kippur, it is observed by many Jews with a 25 hour fast. However, rather than personal penitence, the purpose of this fast is primarily collective remembrance. In the Babylonian exile, Jewish communal leaders were deeply aware of the danger of their children and grandchildren forgetting a land that they’d never seen and assimilating fully into the culture of the empire that had uprooted them. Establishing the Ninth of Av as a fast day was a way to remind generations of exiles that no matter how prosperous or settled they were, something crucial was missing.

The Talmud says that five catastrophes befell the Jewish people on the ninth of Av. The first was HaShem’s decree that the generation of adults who had left Egypt and mutinied in the wilderness would not enter the promised land. The second was the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash by the Babylonian army. The third was the destruction of the restored Mikdash by the Romans. The fourth was the capture of Beitar and with it the final end of the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the days of Rabbi Akiva. And the fifth was the Romans completely destroying Jerusalem after that revolt, and forbidding Jews from settling there. In the generations since the redaction of the Gemara several antisemitic governments have deliberately chosen the ninth of Av as the date for expulsions of Jews or attacks on the Jewish people, studying our traditions just enough to use them to increase our pain.

On Pesach we become one with our enslaved forebearers as they enter into freedom for the first time, and we rejoice in our liberation. On the ninth of Av we unify ourselves with our ancestors as they enter captivity again. We remind ourselves that grief and sorrow are as much a part of life as joy and celebration. Mourning is not shameful, not something we must hide or shrink away from. Our griefs, collective and personal, are something we have every right to and which we can enter together. We must allow ourselves our grief in order to have hope of being comforted.

[bebs-art-gallery]

Art by Richard Tennant Cooper (1885-1957)

[firedragon1321]

[flwrkid14]

Danny and Tim have this unspoken bond, both of them constantly walking the line between life and death—Tim with his brushes with danger as Red Robin, and Danny being, well, half-dead. You’d think that shared experience would bring them closer, but instead, it’s just one more thing that separates them.

Tim feels like he can never fully reach Danny. There’s always a distance, an invisible wall between them, and it eats at him. Danny can phase through walls, but somehow, the emotional ones are harder to break down. Tim’s used to distance, though—he’s felt it his whole life—with Bruce, with the Bat family, and now, with Danny.

Danny tries to reassure Tim, tells him that he’s always there, but Tim can see the cracks. He knows what it’s like to hold everything together, to be the one everyone depends on, and Danny’s doing the same thing. Tim sees the strain in Danny’s smile, the way his eyes glaze over when he thinks no one’s watching. But what kills Tim the most is that Danny won’t let him in—not fully. Not in the way Tim wants.

Some nights, it feels like they’re both ghosts. Tim, drifting through the Batcave like a shadow, barely noticed, and Danny, flickering between his human and ghost forms, unsure where he belongs. They’re both alive, but neither of them really feels it. The constant brushes with death, the danger—it’s left them numb in different ways.

Tim wonders if Danny’s afraid of hurting him, afraid of getting too close. Danny’s power—his half-dead nature—it’s a part of him, and Tim knows he doesn’t want to accidentally phase through Tim’s life, leave him behind, like he’s done with so many others. But Tim’s already used to being left behind, and maybe that’s the worst part. He’s so used to it that he’s convinced himself it’s just how things are meant to be.

They don’t talk about it, about the distance or the loneliness, but it’s always there, lingering like a third presence in the room. Danny, half-dead. Tim, feeling like he’s not fully living. Both of them too scared to confront it, to say out loud what they’re both thinking—that maybe they’ll never really fit anywhere. Not with the Bat family, not with the ghosts, not even with each other.

[litrallytyrus]

if troy was still in community for the gay dean episode where the word “gay” is said maybe 100 times he would’ve had some sort of revelation like the cogs would have been turning

[pierkyn]

just recruited Emmrich and my Rook's already recreating the "twink boutta pounce" meme

just

[antianakin]

I feel like I've seen a lot of "Empress Padme" or "Sith Padme" stories where Padme's gets pushed to a breaking point and becomes evil or convinces herself into doing evil things in the name of justice, and while that's all entirely valid, I feel like I need more Empress SATINE stories.

Because Satine is, canonically, someone who is absolutely willing to go for torture and wrongful imprisonment when pushed far enough. She is someone who will performatively destroy things just to prove that she's "against corruption." Satine is someone who will see the consequences of her own choices happen and refuse to take an ounce of responsibility for it.

So I can absolutely see Satine becoming a violent tyrant while convincing herself and telling everyone else that she's just getting rid of corruption, she's just doing what has to be done. She will purify the world and anyone who tries to get in her way is just part of that corruption and will be eliminated.

Like maybe this is in an AU where she doesn't die during the attack by Maul and Death Watch, she manages to survive, but then she lives through the rise of the Empire and instead of being deposed by Gar Saxon, she fights back and fights back hard enough that Mandalore gets glassed early. And that pushes her to a breaking point because she REFUSES to let her people just... scatter, she WILL hold them together if it's the last thing she does, and she WILL get vengeance on the Empire for what it's done to Mandalore.

And poor sweet pacifist Duchess Satine just spirals further and further into her own darkness, convinced that she's just doing what she has to, swearing that it's necessary in the name of justice. But if her own people start questioning her, if they try to stop her, well they're probably spies for the Empire and she's promised to take out the Empire as vengeance for what was lost.

[beautyofaphrodite]

Types of Doves

Look, I know this post isn’t specifically about Lady Aphrodite, but because I love Her and I love doves and She’s associated with doves, here y’all go! There are so many types of doves so this isn’t an extensive list, but here you go!

Columbidae

Colombidae is a bird family that is doves and pigeons. As far as I know, pigeons and doves are the same, but pigeons are domesticated doves. Birds in this family are stout-bodied with short necks and slender bills. They feed on plants, specifically seeds and fruits. There are 352 species in this family, 13 of which are extinct.

Rock Dove

Stock Dove

Lemon Dove

Malagasy Turtle Dove

European Turtle Dove

Dusky Turtle Dove

Adamawa Turtle Dove

Oriental Turtle Dove

African Collared Dove

Mourning Collared Dove

As you probably noticed, none of these are the “classic” white dove, which is usually the domesticated rock dove, specifically bred to be white and small.

I enjoyed making this, hope you enjoyed looking at pictures of cute doves!

[daniswoso]

If only I could hold you.

Lionesses x Teen!Reader

Warnings: Angst, mentions of death of a family member, comfort, Lionesses team being sweethearts, Loss, death, mourning, grief.

Summary: In which Reader loses her sister and crumbles, but thankfully the girls are there to pick her up.

*******

You burst into tears when you got the call.

Your sister was gone.

You remember being sat around in your’s and Lj’s shared room at camp when your phone rang out around the empty space, having been at camp for the last few days, taking you away from your sister. The only family you had left.

You picked up, confused at the sight of your sister’s caller ID, then even more confused at the fact it wasn’t her voice.

Then you felt your throat get scratchy and dry, painfully so, your eyes watering, your jaw dropping and your jaw clenching.

“We’re sorry, Miss Y/L/N.” The doctor said.

You didn’t respond, instead going to the hospital to say goodbye.

Your sister had been sick for a while, you knew she would pass soon, but you hoped it wouldn’t be before your first major tournament with the National team.

You didn’t know what to expect when you arrived. But you didn’t expect to see her lay on a table like a slab of meat, sheets covering her body.

That’s when the dam broke, you collapsed into a fit of sobs by your sisters bed, clutching her lifeless hand while you sobbed into her chest.

The once familiar body now felt foreign. Stiff. She was cold and rigid, her lips parted slightly and eyes shut. She was your sister, but she wasn’t the same. She had lost her spark.

You buried your head into her chest, sobbing and mumbling about anything and everything to her, begging her to wake up. You tried to seek out her familiar scent, warm and welcoming only to be met with the cold stench of death that seemed to permanently linger in hospitals.

You stayed like that, begging and begging her to wake up under your breath and praying to whatever God above that this was all just some sick and twisted dream until a doctor told you she needed to be taken to the morgue so she could await cremation.

Somewhere in between the sobs and cries, you called Lucy, desperate for a warm, familiar feeling in a time of such uncertainty and despair.

You stayed curled up by your sisters belongings on the once occupied hospital bed. You stared at a picture of the both of you, the tears falling again as your run your thumb over her face.

The room was no longer lively, filled with your sisters presence, now empty and dark. The sky outside had settled into a vast grey, something you felt was fitting considering the awful occasion.

That’s when Lucy, followed by every other single member of the Lionesses came piling into the room. You turned and all your emotions surged to the surface as you practically fling yourself into the older woman, seeking solace in her embrace.

“Hey, hey, we got ya. We’re not going anywhere.” Lucy soothed, and for a moment you allowed yourself to believe it could be okay.

And maybe it would.

******

A/N: sorry for the angst, felt like it lol. english is not my first language! please correct my grammar or spelling in places i’ve missed it.

[bebs-art-gallery]

Art by majara__

[just-your-average-tangerine]

Seeing the increase of vitriolic hatred directed at trans men from other queer people both online and what I've seen in person has left me pretty much convinced that I'm never going to have that feeling of community I see so many queer people enjoying.

But then again, that's always how it's been, isn't it? Yall hate us and use us as punching bags until we leave and then blame us for not being there.

[bottomvalerius]

Coffee and weed time as I ponder how I can manage to get a hysterectomy this year before time runs out lmfao

Actually I’m not putting this in the tags: any trans person who is grappling with the idea that you may need to speed up your transition, may need to elect to undergo surgeries you did not originally or were on the fence about getting, all because of the real fear your hormones may be taken away from you: I see you. I feel you. I have no other words than I am so sorry this is what these systems were designed to do to us

[sassenashsworld]

RIP FALLOUT LEGEND

I share the posts of @chadfallout76podcast because he express what we all feel

(Discord)

CHADFallout76Podcast🎙🔉Spotify — Yesterday at 8:12 PM

@everyone I am crying as I am writing this, but I am sadly reporting that Jason Damron, better known as the Fallout New Vegas Storyteller has passed away. After struggling throughout this year with his health, he was diagnosed on August 17th of stage four adrenal cancer that spread to his liver quickly.

The Storyteller is one of the most iconic and well known content creators known for his work with the Shoddycast's Fallout New Vegas tales. He had a masterful delivery, and his manner of presenting Fallout lore had a style so distinctly his own. I first stumbled on him years and years ago and not only did I love his work, but he helped inspire me in so many ways years later.

I am…all the more crushed because he was coming back to be part of Fallout Day with something special he was going to do with Austin. We were planning what they would do and how we would bring back the Storyteller just one day before he passed away and I'm just reeling at the moment. This event was meant to be a homecoming for everyone, everyone who helped make this community what it is. That includes all who came before and I wanted so badly for people to see him again for one more story.

I'm not about to let him be forgotten and want to include something special in remembrance of him in our October 23rd Fallout Day broadcast.

In the loudest possible voice: fuck cancer.

[deathdetermineslife]

does your f/o have a favorite bird? what is it? if they don't have a favorite bird, what do you think their favorite would be? if your f/o doesn't like birds, why?

[timslaughlin]

Jonathan Bailey as Tim laughlin in episode 7, "White Nights", of "Fellow Travelers".

[transgendercastiel]

in my beautiful mind the reason Jeff hates the idea of Annie dating rich is because he thinks he’s too old for her