#eternal happiness is a lie and not actually all that desirable

[not-poignant]

19 and 20!

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

Oh this is... this will be long and it's 12.13am and I don't want to write long, so I'm going to shorthand it:

Started writing as a kid, liked it, pure escapism and needed that shit because real life sucked. Enjoyed reading and though 'I could do that' before anyone told me no. Wrote several novels as a 10 year old before I realised actually you're supposed to learn how to do it first. I still like those stories. Finished my first epic fantasy trilogy by the age of 12/13.

Lots of bumps, including some creative writing at university which killed all my passion to write. The long and short of it is that I could write award-winning short stories and poems, but I hated all of it and judged and edited everything I wrote to the point where I...stopped.

Stopped all writing. For many years. Became pro-artist. Occasionally write very short fanfics that only ever got posted on Livejournal or Schnoogle. Never liked any of it.

Quit art, had a mental breakdown, needed that good good pure escapism again. Read a lot of fanfiction. Made a fandom Tumblr. Watched Rise of the Guardians, went to town on AO3, wrote literally whatever the fuck I wanted even though I was sure people would hate it and hate me. Some folks said 'hey these OCs are alright' and I went 'sure okay.'

Here we are. :)

20. If a witch offered you the choice between eternal happiness with your one true love and the ability to finally finish, perfect, and publish your dearest, darlingest, most precious WIP in exactly the way you've always imagined it — which would you choose? You can’t have both sorry, life’s a bitch

I don't want both. I don't want either. Fuck monogamy, lmao. (For me! Not for anyone else reading this! I am a walking caveat!!!)

I don't want perfection. I don't have a 'most precious WIP.' Stories are easy to come by, and they're all fun. Characters are easy to come by, and you can hurt/comfort nearly all of them. There is no 'dearest, darlingest, most precious WIP' like damn.

I also...don't want eternal happiness. Like Arden, in FFS, I do not believe that the goal of life is eternal happiness. That's literally not the way our brains are built. Emotions are meant to transform. The good news is - that means all the ones that make you feel like shit. The bad news is - that means all the ones that make you feel good. That's why it's so important to learn how to tolerate and sit with all your emotions free from judgement, because the sooner you do that, the more often you'll feel happiness in general.

We're not made, as a species, to feel happy all the time. You ever see people shaking their indoor plants to mimic wind because otherwise they grow all weak and shit and die early because they had no challenges? Yeah.

And yes, I've had challenges, and I'm also not an indoor plant, I just don't believe eternal happiness is the goal here.

Also I'm polyamorous so this whole 'one true love' thing can fuck right off. This question just reads a little like 'u have one true love story and u have one true love person' and folks can live like that but a bitch could never (it's me, I'm bitch)

--

From the Weird Writing Asks meme!

[yandere--stuck]

NEED to know your thoughts on a yandere bill cipher

⚠️ Listen, pal, I KNOW why you're reading this. You've got a crush on YOURS TRULY! That's right, buddy, the cat's outta the bag! Well, not like the cat was ever really in the bag to begin with. What? Didn't think my all-seeing eye would spy you making goo-goo eyes at artistic depictions of me? AHAHA, aw, hey! Nothing to be embarrassed about. It's not like I can blame you, I mean, have you met me? A winning personality, great sense of humor, beautiful singing voice - I'm a total catch! And between you and me, you have better taste than the rest of your species’ population.

👁 There are probably numerous reason why you like stuff like this: The obsession, the possessive behavior, the VIOLENCE. Sure sounds like romance to ME! But as for you… Is it the abandonment issues? Lack of validation in your life? Feeling misunderstood and ostracized by the world? Loneliness? A desire for an escape into a fictional world? Or are you like me? Is romance just no good without the true passion of twisted devotion and obsession? There's no need to LIE! We're kindred spirits, you and I.

⚠️ I know just how you feel. You've been kicked down, laughed at, and made to feel small. You've gone unappreciated by blind MORONS who wouldn't know greatness if it melted their eyeballs out their ears. Because you are MEANT for greatness. You are meant for something more, and I bet it burns you to know that. That you're better than all of them. That they're nothing without you, and they DESERVE nothing. They deserve to BE nothing. I know just how you feel because I was in your place. Surrounded by flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams. HA, and I sure showed them. WHO'S LAUGHING NOW, HUH? ME!!!!!!

👁 The point is, I know you. I've had my eye on you for quite a while, kid. Q U I T E A W H I L E. And might I say, out of all the flesh bags that have clogged my vision over the centuries, YOU'RE clearly the best looking outta all of ‘em, hot stuff. But looks aren't everything, of course! You've got a personality to match. Gotta admit, it's cute how you get so invested in your interests, the little hobbies you pick up, just watching you go about your day is like the universe’s greatest reality TV show starring my favorite person in the multiverse! OH, I could just decaptiate you and nuzzle your fleshy little head in an approximation of a kiss right now!!!

⚠️ So, c'mon, just let me in. Shake my hand! Let's make a deal. No matter how big or small! And it’s not just for the purpose of liberating your dimension, no. I want to really get under your skin. To feel what it's like to be in the body of my favorite person. As close as two beings can get, closer than you can get with unworthy specimens of your own kind, more intimate than any experience in the world. I want to be that close to you. Because you're mine. You're MY HUMAN and NOTHING WILL CHANGE THAT. Y'HEAR ME?

👁 So, you might as well accept that you and me are destined, kid. The signs are all there. So, if I were you (and I could be, if you'd just let me), I'd do this the easy way. Because right now, there's two ways this can go down. The easy way: You summon me, and we make a deal. Anything your precious human heart desires - and more! You'll be my precious human pet, my puppet, my toy. Mine to own and have rule beside me! You'll prove everyone who put you down wrong! Anything you want - love, money, fame, worship, vengeance - it'll all be yours, and I'll give it to you. Because I want you to be happy. Because I want what's best for you. Because I’M the only one who actually cares about you. Everything you wanted will be yours. And there'll be an eternal party to celebrate our eternal love… Or, you could do this the hard way. Cause I'm gettin’ outta here one way or another. And when I do, well… I don't think you'd like being locked up in The Love Cage to be TORTURED until you reciprocate my feelings and see the light. I'd say I wouldn't want to, but that'd be lying. So, it's probably not a good idea to give me more of a reason to. So, whaddaya say? You know you deserve the best. Shake my hand and join the winning team. Either way, you're mine.

[flightfoot]

You know, I love seeing Alya in a lot of different fics, and I've seen her depicted in a few different ways.

I enjoy seeing her just being there, taking on a similar role to what she does in the show, helping out when needed, and overall being a kind person who enjoys helping others.

But while I like seeing her in that capacity, since it's a positive portrayal that is nice to her, it's not the sort of portrayal that really gets me excited. It's a kind of "background, supporting character" kind of portrayal, and while that's needed sometimes, it doesn't really develop her all that much.

The depictions of her that really get me excited, that make me gush about how well the fanfic's treating her, are the ones that don't just portray her positively, but instead treat her like a full person. Ones that delve into her emotions, her viewpoint, and even her biases, that let her make decisions based on what's best for her personally, and maybe even regret them later. But importantly, she's not treated as being bad or evil for this, but instead as a person who's muddling through life as best she can, who has things she wants and values in conflict.

Actually the show touched on this sort of thing as well, it's one of the reasons I really liked Alya in Rocketear. We got to see her struggle with her conflicting loyalties to both Marinette and Nino, with wanting to follow Marinette's orders while also not wanting to lie to Nino and potentially damage their relationship. And I liked her eventually telling Nino that she's helping Ladybug, because she didn't want to continue lying to him after that particular lie had already caused damage in their relationship. And while Alya later was dismayed at how things went down in the finale, Marinette didn't blame her, understood where she was coming from, and wanted her to continue.

That's the sort of thing I want to see. For Alya to have her own viewpoint and to make decisions based not simply on eternal loyalty to one person, but as a result of weighing her different values and wanting things to work out in the best way she can make them. And for her to sometimes be wrong or for something to have negative consequences, and still have her treated with kindness and respect. For her desires to be treated as being a worthy reason to do things, because her desire to be happy matters.

Like... with Marinette, I'll see this represented in fanfiction frequently. Marinette can be snappy or irritated, or even lie and hide things because she thinks they'll lead to a better outcome, and even when she hurts others in the process, the narrative is often sympathetic to her and gives credence to her thoughts, emotions, and viewpoints, and depicts her trying to make things better for herself as an understandable thing.

While for Alya, it's a lot harder to find something like that. Most of the time she's in a supportive role where any personal issues she has aren't focused on and she's mostly there to help out Marinette with whatever she has going on. In a lot of fics where she DOES do something for her own personal benefit, when she prioritizes herself at all or simply weighs all her different relationships and balances them as best she can, but in a way that's detrimental to the person the author likes the most, she'll be portrayed as a horrible, cruel person deserving of punishment, or at the very least as needing to learn a harsh lesson to become a better person. Any desire to do something for herself or to help maintain relationships she values is looked at in the worst possible light.

Just... I love stories that allow Alya the same sort of grace and understanding as most main characters are afforded.

[dee-morris]

Aziraphale's Anxiety

There's something I feel like we don't talk about enough when it comes to things that Aziraphale is afraid of. Fanfictions, especially human AUs, interpret his fears and his "rejection" of Crowley as a form of internalized homophobia, and given the strict oversight and corporate-megachurch-coded supervisors I get it. A lot of us have had similar experiences with religion, except Aziraphale gets the added perk of knowing that what they're threatening him with is actually real and not an abusive power play.

But anyway.

Setting side the Final Fifteen for the moment because I stand by my hypothesis that we don't know everything that was happening in that scene or exactly why the characters behaved the way they did, Aziraphale's fears have been primarily guided by a desire to protect. Usually Crowley, but not always. He meddled in Elspeth's situation to try to protect her from going to hell. And if you do the math, he wasn't wrong to do so. A couple of years of misery and poverty against an eternity of torture? For an immortal creature who actually understands the concept of eternity, it checks out.

When he said no to the holy water he wanted to protect Crowley. When he gave him the holy water, it was to protect Crowley, in a lesser of two evils kind of way. When he broke up with Crowley at the bandstand, I think several things are going on: he wanted to protect the earth, he wanted to protect Crowley, and he knew that ultimately leaving the planet wouldn't guarantee their safety because when the end came the ENTIRE universe was getting shut down, not just the earth.

And here's my favorite example: the Job minisode. We really do not talk enough about the fact that Aziraphale could have walked away from this situation at any time without consequences. He never broke the rules. Gabriel told him, All we're doing is not stopping hell. And Aziraphale didn't stop Crawley, technically; Satan's diabolical minister had already decided he wasn't killing anyone. All Aziraphale did was help him, which wasn't the same as stopping him. Rules lawyer Aziraphale my beloved.

So he didn't lie to the Supreme Archangel's face to protect himself or the kids (unless he thought they'd off the kids if they knew they had survived, but that seems unlikely, the trials were over at that point); he did it to protect Crawley. And he was fully prepared to go to hell over it. Not happy about it to be sure, but resigned. And I believe that it wasn't losing his status in heaven that upset him but losing his role as Earth's protector.

Anyway, that's just something that's been kicking around in my head. We've spent so much time between seasons reveling in fanfiction that it's easy to lose track of the canon characters. Aziraphale's anxiety has rarely been on his own behalf, and higher self esteem won't fix his problems.

I stand by my belief, however, that a roll in the hay might help. There fanfiction and I are in complete agreement.

[kepler-station]

HII girl I love how u write and how accurate they look and I saw y do requests too! Sooo could I ask golden cheese x reader (hcs or shot idc) in the virtual world?? Like a bit of fluffy-angsty thingy idek (plus pls pls pls dead reader pls pls)

౨ৎ.𖥔˚ golden cheese cookie — fluffy & angsty relationship hcs in the virtual world

— 𝜗𝜚 hiii thankyou so much for requesting !!! 🥹🫶🏻 here u goo !!

— this is a sad one, this is actually my first time writing angst for goldie but it made me tear up 🥲🙌🏻

— maybe i went to hard on the angst ?? sorry that there's so little fluff 🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

໑ৎ ׁ  ׅ♡ tw !! — delusional goldie. dead reader.

• most of the things that you and her do while in a relationship don't change but some things will definitely change and some new things will start to appear

• truth be told, you crumbled in the dark flour war along with the golden cheese kingdom when goldie was away

• in the golden city, she becomes more clingy and protective to the point it looks possessive and greedy: she refuses to let you go out without her and is reluctant to let you out her sight because she fears that the next time she looks at you, you'll be gone

• goldie has definitely told mozzarella cookie to have marzipan cookies accompany you when she isn't able to to keep you safe, fix your errors and injuries immediately, and to act as a security camera to keep you in her sights even if you're away (you can overlook the last part, it seems a little ooc and leans more into yandere territory which i dont like *shrug*)

• she still spoils you rotten and everything you desire will be laid out just for you: clothing plated with gold (or whatever design you want) that suit your body type perfectly and cater to your interests and what you tend to look for in clothing, cheeses and your favorite foods for every meal, whole sections of the castle which are designed and catered to your interests and desires, her servants wait on you hand and foot to ensure your comfort in every way possible, and anything else you could possibly want! after all, everything is possible in a virtual kingdom!

• when smoked cheese cookie reveals the truth of the golden city, goldie is quick to try to convince you that he's lying about it all, that you shouldn't trust in what he's saying

• but it gets hard to believe her when everything you've went through in the dark flour war starts flooding back to your mind

• you confront her about it and the truth is eventually revealed to you when the entire city disappears and the citizens (and you) fall into the ruins

• she's quick to check up on you for any injuries and apologies spill out of her mouth that she's been hiding this the entire time

• she knows you're dead, she knows you're gone and that you've been gone for a long time, but she loves you too much to let you go

• she knew this was bound to happen, but she can't imagine living without you; countless nights with her dutiful servants researching ways she could save everyone — and by extension you, the virtual world was the only solution she could muster up

• but it still broke her seeing how hurt you were that everything had been a lie, that you were actually dead the entire time (everyone was...)

• as you fall into a deep slumber, she spends your last moments with you, holding and caressing your hand in hers, wrapping you in her wings, telling you that her greed is too large to let you go, that you're her eternal greatest treasure, that she'll come back for you and find a way to bring you back with a life that matches the infiniteness of hers

• you fall into a deep slumber as did everyone else, reassuring her that she's in good hands before your virtual form fades away

• when she fights against dark enchantress cookie and her forces, her motivation to win this fight is you, imagining how you'd hug her when she comes back alive, happy she won and that she saved everyone

• imagining you congratulated her after she won in the war when no one did (other than her friends and the other cookies, ofc)

• imagining how happy you'd look seeing her alive and victorious at the end of the war

• imagining that you're there for her when she has nightmares and when she's at her lowest like you were in the virtual city; holding your hand and caressing it, hugging her, hushing her tears and reassuring her that it's over now, that she saved everyone and granted them the perfect utopia they count ever want

• imagining you were by her side as she walked about in the republic, gazing in awe at the new things you'd see in the republic outside of the virtual city, clapping at her when the trains her strength and attacks, eating the new foods with her in the republic

• imagining that you're still by her side when deep down she knows you aren't, that deep down she knows you're dead and that you've been dead for a long time, that she's just being delusional and that it's all in her head

• but she just can't let you go, after all, you would act the you she imagined if you were really here... right?

• she did promise you that she'll come back for you in the end to a new and safer world with you in her arms

• her friends have tried to help her, but her heart just can't let you go

• not until she crumbles with the real you in her arms, together forever in every timeline she exists in, in every timeline you exist and in every timeline you exist together

• in the end, you two reunite in the physical golden city finally together again, achieving the final happy ending you two both wanted and deserved

• or maybe it was all just another one of those imaginations goldie makes up so much?

[2af-afterdark]

do u have any dark hcs for whb? and please go wild with it

You sure? You absolutely positive? I have quite a few that cover various topics so... general content warning. I just... do not have the head space to list them all, but assume that this will cover sexual themes, eating things, violence, and the like.

I admit that... these are more of a... dark au sort of thing than actual headcanons. I do think whb has some potentially dark content, but I am just going wild here and throwing out the whole fucking mess in my head. It's not everything, but it's a start.

If you click the read more, that's on you:

Devils have been making deals with humans for millennia and not all of those deals are fair. In fact, I would argue that very few of them are far. Devils don't lie about their end of the deal, but they can sure as hell twist what the truth is. Think about old school fae and their carefully worded deals.

That said, since all things in the human world originate from Hell... that must include tragedies. I think that some tragedies are the result of devil interference, whispering to humans to do awful things. Note: not all terrible things are the result of devils. Humans are just... fucked up like that.

Consent is... optional for a lot of devils. Since devils are honest with themselves, that includes their desires. I think many devils just sort of... don't think of non/dubcon as that big of an issue. Some of them definitely buy into that "isn't it a compliment" mentality.

Cannibalism! Okay, technically it's only cannibalism if a devil eats another devil (and I'm sure some do out of curiosity or because it's a delicacy) but I mean to say that devils definitely eat angels and humans. Heck, there are probably restaurants that specialize in human meat and serve it without a second thought.

On that same note, at least one of the Avisos devils is going to feed MC some questionable meat without telling them what they ate. They would probably learn what they were fed later when another devil either slips and says something, or when someone like Glasyalabolas wants to fuck with them.

Listen... you've seen some of the kinks already in this game. I have no doubt that some devils have far worse or more gross kinks. I will not elaborate because... the thought of some of them makes me sick. Not all of them are gross as much as they are... strange. Point is, I think the devils probably cover the gambit of kinks.

For our yandere lovers... a devil will get far crazier than any human ever could, to the point that it isn't sexy or fun anymore. Some yandere will surely want the best for you, but others will literally break and mold you into their ideal, some are quick to sawing off body parts, some will use punishments more than any kindness, some will beat and torment you just for the fun of it.

Making a deal for immortality? Worst possible move. I don't think many devils can make that deal, but the ones that can? You should be worried about them. Immortality makes you the perfect punching bag and toy. After all, if you never specified that you want eternal youth or to live a happy life, you are at the devil's mercy.

Devils can very easily snap a human in two. Literally. They have so much more strength than a human that it is not a contest.

Psychologically tormenting other living creatures is just a fun little game. Like "who can make someone commit suicide first" is a game that devil school children play.

Angels are just as bad as devils, but humans are brainwashed to think they are better and moral, which is somehow worse.

Angels are a little murder happy when it comes to humans who do not follow God, but they also try not to have too much interaction with humans because...

Angels see humans and devils as a lesser life form. Think... humans are basically ants to angels. They think themselves so above it all but also are aware that humans are an important part of the ecosystem. Doesn't stop them from crush humans under their heels or seeing them as pests though.

Angels picked up this attitude from God. God probably didn't see humans as anything more than cute pets or entertaining wildlife. Solomon was the one exception and, like, that's the angel equivalent of a very illegal kink I will not be naming. Yet the angels blame Solomon for tempting God...

Angels are also cannibals! They prefer devil meat though.

Since angels and devils cannot have children within their own species now that God and Lilith are missing, they will have to start breeding with other species. Again... consent is optional. I actually think Devils are slightly better is this department, but only "better" in the sense that devils are least see humans as a sentient and sapient species in the same sense as they and probably lean more into dubcon (instead of straight noncon). Also, they will at least like the children both from those unions. Angels though? Neither humans nor devils are on the same level as them when it comes to sentience or sapience, so... everything they so is disgusting in their own minds. And those kids? Those poor kids will be absolutely looked down upon, even if the angels thought it was necessary.

Genocide! But that's just canon. I mean... fuck. Angels committing genocide is just canon.

That's all I'm gonna say for now. It's a good start. Remember, some of these are more dark au than actual headcanons I actively hold... some of them are actual headcanons though.

[tangibletechnomancy]

The thing is, I 1000% acknowledge and respect that a lot of art communities have damned good reasons to be wary of AI, because a lot of commission economies - especially furry and furry-adjacent communities - are already constantly, CONSTANTLY under fucking siege by assholes who hear of their reputation for being willing to spend a lot on commissions and try to muscle in on the action while actively showing disdain for the communities they're blatantly trying to exploit for that sweet sweet "freak" money. Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone who has ZERO respect for furries - thinks they're all a bunch of freaks playing chicken with zoophilia, treats furries as a punchline in that kind of way that sounds like they might be in on the joke but when prodded further you realize no they're really not - say "hmm maybe I should learn to draw furry art, that pays well", well, I would have enough money to commission actual furry artists.

It fucking sucks. It's an eternal frustration to be surrounded by a bunch of fucking assholes trying to milk your community for money while still pointing and laughing at you like you're some kind of sideshow attraction, taking your money and then calling you a freak in the next breath, but they GUESS they could DEIGN to claim to respect you because you pay so very well. It's cruel and shitty and should not be abided, and it's painful that there's no real way to protect a community against that kind of behavior other than essentially playing whack-a-mole as long as you're there and concerned about it - and AI art absolutely does have the power to enable these assclowns, because before AI, these types had to do a lot more work to learn to draw some new subject matter, do studies on what makes it tick and what the community values about it - AI dramatically lowers the skill floor to get a passable result, and while this is a huge positive from most standpoints...well, most of the time, through the process of doing these kinds of studies, your typical greedy asshole will realize that oh shit, there actually IS work involved in this and unique skills and a community that's not just a bunch of gullible freaks but PEOPLE with inner lives as rich as your own and either find some passion for a community they once felt that disdain for, or just balk at having to ACTUALLY work for it and burn out before they even get off the ground; AI is not SO easy as to eliminate this completely but it may make it more likely that these types could get a foot in the door and...essentially Funko Pop-ify even custom art. We already see people trying it in certain adoptable communities and it fucking sucks.

This is why I'm 100% comfortable with, and even tentatively encourage, sites and events geared toward communities frequently targeted by this kind of assholery banning AI art - I have my reservations about it as a long-term solution, as it's only going to get easier and easier for people to just lie (and this is why a huge aspect of my personal approach to keeping things as ethical as possible is to be as transparent as I can be about my processes) and AI is commonly used as an accessibility tool, but at the very least in the short term I see those policies and usually my first thought is "yeah that is absolutely, completely, perfectly fair."

I just wish I was better at finding an appropriate time and place to point out to people who are taking those concerns to the level of outright lying or otherwise blaming the tech more than the assholes, that There Are Many AI Artists Who Hate Those Types As Much As You Do And There Are Many Other Approaches To AI Art. When I started this blog, I, too, thought I was nearly alone in my desire to see AI tech used ethically, for both accessibility and its own unique features as a medium, and I've rarely if ever been happier to find out I was wrong. If there's one emotional skill I wish more people had, it is this - please...learn how to be happy to have been wrong when a situation turns out to not be as bad as you thought it was.

tl;dr: It's not wrong at ALL for people to want to protect their community from people who just see them as a crowd of walking ATMs. If you're looking at AI somewhat favorably because you see it as an easy way into those communities for their commission money, you're a piece of shit and I hope you break your fingers so badly you can't even type anymore, let alone noise paint, which you're gonna have to do if you want to get a result to exact specifications.

Just, if you're in one of those communities...please don't invent, and try to stop spreading misinformation about the tech, because the collateral damage is...A Lot.

[noxiatoxia]

even as a small kid i felt like i didnt belong in this world. not in qn edgy way either but genuinely in a "i was born in the wrong lifetime" sort of thing. and then as i got older i got obsessed with the idea of stories and characters and people that were fixated on suicide from the moment they were born or people who never felt like they should have been brought into society or be human. i got obsessed with stories about unconventional means of happiness and love and living. ways of living life or being happy that most people would be perplexed at, i found comfort in those sort of stories, because i felt it was the closest id ever get to feeling like i belonged.

noww not to say i DONT like living. in fact i do. i have fun & despite all the bullshit in my life i do not want to end it all or w/e. i can have fun and be happy but that does not change the fact it all feels like a lie to others. hanging out with friends and talking to family feels like an eternal game im playing, never actually connecting with anyone or anything. and thats fine, bc its still fun and i still have fun, but living life day to day feels as real and sincere as a video game. i could play games for hours, get immersed and invested in them, fall in love with those pixels on the screen and cry at the story, but theyre still made up lives inside a digital world at the end of the day. thats what my life feels like. a very very fun video game! but its all shallow anyways. idk if that really bothers me exactly. i do often times find myself yerning for that place i belong that ive dreamt of before i could even read. as an abstract concept, one with the earth, or somewhere in the atmosphere, in space, dunno. i know ill never find it in this lifetime, and thats fine, as long as i can have fun and adventurw right now. and then when i die, i hope i can find where i truly fit in, and what my soul truly was meant to be.

i could go on abt how its likely this is a big reason i project myself through media and rely on it heavily to express myself, since im not really myself in real life, dont really have a being in real life, so i can pour my base desires and wishes into a fictional world where it all makes senae to me. and i could also acknowledge that i might be a bit mentally unwell, but if i have felt this way my whole life, perhaps this is just who i am. as ive always felt, some people simply are not destined to be human or to be alive. what some people want or how thwy feel cannot be changed through reprogramming or drugs. they are "lost causes", those who want nothing more than to dedicate their lives to killing, to killing themselves, to drugs, to living in the woods, to living with wolves. their happiness and desires are unconventional and perhaps can never be changed. maybe theyre "broken", but theres a lot of them out there, and i feel a connection with them. we get one life, lets live it how we want, theres so much more outside of this constructed society. normal is weird and weird is normal. for me, ill just wait.

[notasapleasure]

I'm asking aLL THE FIC WRITER MEMES!!! in reverse order from current WIP back through your published works

Omg thank you, you mad man! But you know now I’m wondering just how much homework you set your actual students… ^^;

So I’ve chosen to interpret this in a very literal way. I started with the bottom ask and applied it to the current WIP, and worked backwards through my fics as I went up the list. I didn’t answer any of the ones that needed a trope or ship picking, but am still open to being asked if anyone wants!

★ what was the scene you most wanted to write in [fic]? what was the hardest scene to write?

(Whumptober 2022 day 31: Comfort | Bedside Vigil | “You can rest now.”) The whole thing is really just one scene, but it really did epitomise the eternal problem with writing Francis/Jerott, which is how do you get them to stop being smart with each other and just. Open up a little? Of course this opening up is also the scene I want most to write at any given time. Though any and all Jerott whump makes my horrible little gremlin brain happy, so to be able to include various flashbacks to times Jerott was having an even worse day was fun. And Francis feeling guilty about the kiss in Anemone was also fun >:} But I think finishing this one was hard. I wanted to push for more intimacy between them but that isn’t where either of them is at this point, but Francis’ care for Jerott even in his disappointment – AND VICE VERSA – is honestly one of my favourite things about Checkmate, so it was trying to do that justice while keeping them in-character.

✿ did anything major change when you started writing [fic] to when you finished?

(Only Ever Just One Night). I initially thought I’d write follow-up chapters. I had a mean little desire to whump Brasso and have Cassian get him out of a Situation. But it would have meant Plot, which I never fully managed to figure out, and then I got distracted writing lead-up smut to the friends-with-benefits situation instead. But on the whole what’s posted wrote itself really easily – it’s often the way with my first fic in a new fandom, all the initial impressions and headcanons come gushing out before I can start making problems for myself by overthinking.

☉ what do you do when you get stuck writing?

Ahhh, sulk? Nah, it doesn’t happen too often, and usually I manage to knuckle on through. A tried and tested method is a two hour bath lol. Lock the door, turn my music on, nothing to do except figure out that tricky bit of bridging. Usually results in fewer words than it feels like, but gets me through sections I’m struggling with. Also just leaving gaps and continuing to write the bit I want to write, knowing I can go back and join things together later. Making a playlist to remind myself of vibes helps, too.

✄ what’s your editing process?

I re-read quite a lot and tinker with things as I go. I quite like editing (good job as I do it all day), and I like seeing things come together, but I am awful at kill your darlings. I’m writing for fun so I just leave it all in – ‘sure this might not be relevant relevant but it adds fLAvourrrr!!’ I will stick a bunch of line-breaks in or use highlighting/bold to remind myself that a section doesn’t read well or needs adding to, though, and try to go back and figure it out before I let myself continue much further.

✦ what was your easiest fic to write & your hardest?

Some of the Whumptober days were like pulling teeth and I think it shows. I think the sweet spot is when I have a pretty clear idea of vibes and outcome and it’s not had the chance to outgrow containment – some scenes (e.g. the chapters at the summer house in Inchoate) lie in wait in my head and when I get to that part of the fic they practically write themselves (sometimes it’s nice stuff, sometimes it’s DDDNE, but it’s basically kind of scene or action with a concrete beginning and ending). But often fitting these scenes in – what comes just before and after – is a nightmare. And like. Yeah ok, I could just write one-shots of the scenes I want to write without the thousands and thousands of words of context but – and you might have noticed this – I am a CONTEXT FIEND. In terms of stand alone fics it’s like I said above about Only Ever Just One Night – fresh in a new fandom and determined-to-get-my-thoughts-down fics are usually dead easy to write.

✎ how do you think readers would guess a fic was yours if you posted anonymously?

Ah this one’s easy: it would be LONG. Probably at least three times as long as it needed to be. For a long time very little would happen, but the minutest detail of everyone’s body language would be described and everyone would probably be in denial about their emotions/circumstances. Most likely they would fuck nasty about it.

♡ pick a fic and I’ll pick a comment that made me really happy

(Escape Velocity) Well OF COURSE I am happy the person it was dedicated to left lovely comments. But especially where you picked up on Brasso being worried about flying in ships because he knows how to take them apart, and even more especially the idea of Cassian ‘stealing’ Brasso temporarily at the moment it’s paralleling the light on Kassa’s face when he leaves Kenari :’) it’s especially pleasing when readers pick up on stuff like that.

▵ pick a fic and I’ll tell you my favorite line

(Counting on You) Still a wip, so subject to change, but I’m very pleased with ‘something crueller than punishment - the certainty that Cass is loved’ and utterly delighted that @elwenyere picked it out in a comment <3

♫ send a fic and i’ll make a 3-5 song playlist for you

(Brassian saga au) Thankfully I already have a 3 hour playlist for the vibes, so to cherry pick some essentials, here we go…

Kate Bush – Get Out of My House Sam Lee – The Devil & the Huntsman Björk – Pagan Poetry Nikniume – Nonantzin Anna B. Savage – Crown Shyness

[flyingraijinguy]

ASH ETERNAL DREAM:- STORY THAT ALSO HAUNTS POKEMON

*What if everything you knew about Pokémon was a lie? What if Ash Ketchum, the eternal 10-year-old boy who’s traveled through countless regions, caught legendary Pokémon, and faced off against powerful foes, has been dreaming all along—trapped in a coma from which he may never wake?*

This is not just a fan theory. It's a *nightmare* that casts an eerie shadow over the colorful world of Pokémon.

---

**The Accident That Changed Everything**

Let’s go back to Episode 1, where it all began. Ash, filled with excitement, embarks on his Pokémon journey, only to be electrocuted by Pikachu during a wild encounter with a flock of Spearow.

> **Some believe that this is the moment Ash fell into a coma.**

Sure, it looked like just another adventure in the world of Pokémon, but was it actually the start of his eternal sleep? The coma theory suggests that the rest of Ash's journey is nothing but a vivid hallucination, a fever dream born out of his deep subconscious desire to become a Pokémon Master.

> *A dream that keeps him trapped in a state of suspended animation.*

#### **Time Never Moves Forward**

One of the eeriest aspects of this theory is the fact that Ash *never ages*.

> **How is it possible that Ash has remained 10 years old for over 20 years?**

While characters like Brock and Misty fade into the background, seemingly unchanged by the passage of time, Ash continues his journey with an almost supernatural resilience.

What if this agelessness is proof of his coma? In his dream world, time is frozen, and he remains in the same state he was in before his accident. The world around him evolves, but he never truly grows, forever suspended in a childlike state.

#### **The Unending Loop**

Ash's world, though filled with endless adventures, is stuck in a loop. *He never achieves his goal.*

> ***What if the Pokémon League losses, the never-ending search for legendary creatures, and his constant rotation of friends and rivals are all projections of his own mind, desperately trying to break free from the coma?***

#### **The Friends Who Fade Away**

What’s even more haunting is how Ash’s companions seem to fade into the background after each region. Brock, Misty, Serena, Dawn—they come and go, as if they were never really there.

> **Could it be that Ash’s mind creates these characters to give him company, only to discard them once their purpose in his dream has been fulfilled?**

It’s as if his brain is cycling through familiar faces to keep his dream alive, pulling them in and out of existence.

> *But in reality, they don’t exist at all—just figments of his imagination.*

#### **The Legendary Encounters**

Now, let’s talk about Ash’s interactions with legendary Pokémon like Ho-Oh and Mewtwo. Some fans believe these encounters are not just rare, magical events, but symbolic of something darker.

> **These Pokémon represent his mind trying to reach consciousness.**

Take Ho-Oh, for example. After seeing the legendary bird in Episode 1, Ash never truly forgets it. In Japanese folklore, the Ho-Oh is known as a symbol of eternal happiness and rebirth.

> *But what if, in Ash's coma state, it represents his subconscious mind's attempt to wake him from his slumber, offering him a path back to life?*

Each encounter with a legendary Pokémon could be his brain's way of breaking the barrier between dream and reality. But tragically, each time he comes close, something pulls him back into his dream world.

#### **The Villains of His Mind**

The recurring villains in Ash’s life, particularly Team Rocket, may also be projections of his struggle.

> **Jessie, James, and Meowth are not just comic relief; they symbolize the constant obstacles preventing Ash from waking up.**

Their persistence, their refusal to ever truly give up, could be *Ash’s mind fighting against his own reality*.

> *They’re the voices in his head saying, "You’re not done yet. You can't leave this world."*

#### **The Darkest Truth**

The darkest part of this theory is that Ash might *never wake up*.

> **He is forever stuck in a world of his own creation, battling foes, catching Pokémon, and traveling endlessly, without ever reaching his goal.**

What if Ash *has no hope* of ever escaping his dream? The longer he stays asleep, the deeper he falls into this false reality.

> *The Pokémon world may seem vibrant and full of life, but for Ash, it’s nothing more than a mental prison—a beautiful, endless nightmare.*

---

### **Final Thoughts**

Whether you believe the coma theory or not, there's no denying the eerie similarities between Ash’s eternal journey and the signs of a trapped consciousness. **Is it all just a dream?** Perhaps Ash will wake up one day, realizing that his adventures were never real. *Or maybe, just maybe, he's destined to sleep forever, lost in his own imagination.*

***What do you think? Is Ash Ketchum living the dream—or a nightmare from which he’ll never escape?***

---

This theory has haunted fans for years, creating an unsettling layer to the otherwise joyful Pokémon series. If you're a long-time Pokémon fan like me, you can't help but shiver at the thought. Whether it’s true or not, it adds a chilling depth to Ash’s story, turning his eternal quest into a race against time he’ll never win.

> **For more spine-chilling theories and anime spooks, follow FlyingRaijinGuy, where the darkness of your favorite anime worlds is just the beginning.**

[graciousheaven]

The Tragedy of the Fall of Man

     When God made Adam and Eve, they were holy, just as the Lord is holy. They lived in the presence of God, enjoying His blessings, and were pleased to live, to the glory of the Lord, under His authority and according to the rules established by Him. They had no hostility toward God in their hearts, no conceit, but love, reverence and submission. They gloried in the LORD God and obeyed Him. Therefore they experienced no adversity but prosperity, happiness and health, and fulfilled their responsibility as God's stewards with great joy, ease and satisfaction. There was no disunity between God and them but unity. They enjoyed a life of peace, joy, love and abundant blessings in the glorious presence of God the Eternal; they had fellowship with God and enjoyed the rest of God’s creation as well. 

     Moreover, the relationship between the man and the woman was peaceful, free of conflict and opposition. There was harmony, mutual respect, intimacy, and trust between the man and the woman – “the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25). Lastly, the relationship between men and the rest of creation was good, and they perfectly fulfilled their role as God’s stewards, ruling “over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28) as God Himself would. Man was God’s faithful deputy regent on earth, for he ruled over the earth to the glory of the Lord and gloried in Him; he ruled with uprightness and perfectly cared for God’s creation. Therefore God’s favor rested upon him, for he was holy in all his conduct. But this blissful life in the glorious presence of the Most High was swiftly forfeited by man, when he deferred to Satan’s lies and rejected God’s rules and authority. 

     When the LORD God made men, He put them in the garden that He Himself planted to supply them with food for their sustenance. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam and his wife kept this commandment that the LORD God gave them to preserve them from death, they joyfully lived under God’s rules and authority and enjoyed God’s blessings and His presence until the day the serpent came to the woman and incited her to doubt the goodness of God. “He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1-5). 

     Thus the serpent deceived the woman and she ate the forbidden fruit and gave some to her husband. The man and his wife thus defied the Lord’s authority and violated His commandment. Their desire to be like God was an act of treason against Him as it defected from the chief purpose of mankind, which is to glorify God and rejoice in Him. Their deference to the serpent’s lie was an affront to God’s goodness, for the Lord had commanded them not to eat “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” to protect them from death; but the serpent gave them a distorted meaning of God’s prohibition, thereby calling into question the goodness of God. 

     God’s goodness guarantees blessing, comfort and blessedness; but the serpent caused the man and his wife to doubt this reality and incited them to believe that God's prohibition was designed to do them harm rather than good, to withhold something good from them rather than preserve them from something bad. The serpent said, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” He distorted the meaning of God’s prohibition in order to tarnish the beauty of the Lord. This led to man having a distorted view of God, a misunderstanding of God, which created in his heart the desire to live independently of God, outside of God's rules and authority; for the God of love was now seen by man as an oppressor. Hence his desire gave birth to sin, and as a result, peace was lost and death entered the realm of man. He severed himself from God and His blessings. 

     The effect of the fall of man is apparent in the degradation of men’s relationships with God, with one another, and with the rest of creation. For every faculty of their being has been utterly altered: their minds have become depraved and dull, their volition perverted, their hearts hardened, their eyes blinded, their ears stopped and their tongues inflamed – “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes”(Romans 3:10-18).

     Such, then, has been the state of men since sin entered the world, and every aspect of their lives since then has been seriously stricken; for in their desire to exalt themselves rather than God, men defiled themselves and incurred divine curse. Therefore they can no longer enjoy God’s blessings and love, but suffer the effects of the curse: “To the woman [God] said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam [God] said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:16-19).

     Thus man traded a life of blessedness and comfort for a life of pains, miseries, drudgeries and sorrows; he lost his moral purity and fell into depravity, giving up life and offering himself, body and soul, to death. Man was originally created to live forever in the presence of God: neither his body nor his soul was to see death. But once man became tainted by sin, he died spiritually, that is, his soul died to the things of God. Man’s rebellion against God led to his depravity. “Every intent of the thoughts of his heart [is] only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). He has become an enemy of his own soul, for all his deeds are evil and his wage is death. He hates God and the things of God. The mind of man is no longer set on the things of God but on the things of the flesh, “which are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19-21). And as it is written, “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are of the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8). 

     Man by himself can no longer walk uprightly, for his heart has a propensity to do evil. And not only has man become dead to the things of God, but also “to dust [he] shall return” because of his sin. Which means he will also experience physical death. In addition, if a man returns to dust while still spiritually dead, he will also experience the second death, also called the eternal death, which is eternity in hell. For although the body perishes, the soul lives forever, and once the coming bodily resurrection is wrought by the Lord, each person’s soul will be reunited to their body and they will live forever, either in heaven or in hell.

      In his rebellion against God, man traded his freedom in the garden of Paradise – where life abounds – for slavery to sin, Satan and the system of evil in a cursed realm – where death prevails; he turned from God and His authority to Satan and his lies; he traded God’s blessings for curses, and fellowship with God for friendship with the devil. Because he became spiritually dead, man no longer desires nor is he able to submit to God’s rules and authority. Hostility, pride and wickedness now rule in his heart, and God has become his enemy. He can no longer enjoy the presence of his Maker but constantly hides from Him. Adam and his wife never hid from God until they committed the first act of treason against God, and “they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8); they had never failed to revere the LORD God, but when their first act of rebellion occurred, instead of taking full responsibility for their wrongdoing, the man and his wife declined it and ultimately put the blame on God. For when the LORD God asked Adam, “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (v.11-13). 

     When God made Adam and put him in the garden, “the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18). “So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man He made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (v.21-23). 

     So, before the fall, Adam delighted in his companion and was grateful to God for the woman He had created to be with him. Because he was unstained by sin, his judgment was not clouded and there was no conceit in his heart. He had a proper view of God and himself, and he loved the things of God. But when he fell into sin, his view of God and himself was completely altered. Therefore, his first reaction was to hide from God. And when he was confronted by the Lord about his sin, instead of confessing it, Adam blamed the woman, ultimately accusing God for giving him a companion. The man said to the Lord, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate” (v.12). As if to say, if You, God, had not given me this woman, I would not have done evil. But the truth is this: Adam was fully culpable, because he freely and willfully chose to defy God’s authority; he acted in violation of the commandment of the Lord without being coerced or deceived. As written in 1 Timothy 2:14, “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.”  Moreover, Adam failed in his role as head of the woman, a role which endowed him with the responsibility to lead, protect and care for his companion. If Adam had properly held his position as head of the woman, he could have protected his wife from the temptation of the serpent. He was with his wife when the serpent enticed her and she ate the forbidden fruit and gave some to him and he ate without any resistance. 

     The woman, on the other hand, not only disregarded God’s commandment, but also did not respect the leadership position of her husband; for when the serpent started talking to her, she did not judge it necessary to retreat so that her husband could lead the conversation, but chose to pursue the dialogue with the serpent. And the serpent seduced and deceived her with empty words. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6). And when she was confronted by the Lord about her sin, “The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate”  (v.13). Like Adam, she declined her responsibility by putting the blame on the serpent, ultimately accusing the Lord – He who created the serpent. It is true that the serpent was guilty, but Eve was nonetheless responsible for her action, because she willfully defied God’s authority and disregarded His rules. 

     The fall turned men into enemies of God and fugitives. They now have a distorted view of God and themselves due to their moral corruption. When men were morally pure, they enjoyed the presence of God, but they now hide themselves from the face of God, because He is holy and they are not. For no man tainted by sin can stand the glorious presence of the holy God. Because of their utter depravity, men were cast away from the presence of God. For “nothing unclean [can] ever [dwell in the presence of the Lord], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false” (Revelation 21:27). Men have plunged themselves into a darkness from which they cannot save themselves. They have a propensity to do evil, are blind and helpless, dead to the things of God. Therefore, they will not and cannot turn to God, but conceal their wrongdoings and pride themselves on their destruction. After Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, “they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8). 

     Adam’s sin nature has been inherited by the entire human race. Therefore, like their forefathers before them, all the sons of men are by nature dead in their trespasses and sins, unable and unwilling to turn to God. They are characterized by conceit and do not admit their guilt nor confess to God their wrongdoings unless they are supernaturally made alive by God. 

     The effect of the fall on men’s relationship with God is tragic. In addition, the rupture between God and men, which resulted from human rebellion, has a ripple effect on men’s relationships with one another. There is no longer intimacy, trust and admiration, but secrecy, distrust and shame – as seen in the garden. “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” (Genesis 3:6-7). Moreover, there is now enmity, hate, slander, gossip, rivalry, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, wars, constant frictions, and the like, among the sons of men. 

     Furthermore, the fall has tremendously affected men's relationships with other creatures on earth. Before the fall, animals, birds and sea creatures were not food for human beings, but “every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit” (Genesis 1:29). “And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, [the Lord gave] every green plant for food” (v.30). But after the fall and the flood that swept away the ancient world population, except for eight people, the Lord said to Noah and his sons, from whom the whole earth was populated after the flood, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything” (Genesis 9:3). 

     At first man posed no danger to other creatures on earth and they posed no danger to man. But the relationship between the two groups has changed since the Lord gave man permission to eat animals. As sovereignly decreed by the Lord, “The fear of [man] and the dread of [man is] upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. [For] into [his] hand they are delivered” (v.2). While many animal species are now endangered due to human activities, on the other hand, men are physically attacked or killed, their crops are destroyed and their homes invaded by animals. This starkly contrasts not only with how men ruled over the earth before the fall and cared for everything in it, but also with how they cohabited with animals on earth before the tragedy. 

     Men’s living conditions in general have also taken a serious hit as a result of sin. In the garden, men suffered neither cold nor heat, nor disease or pestilence, nor famine, nor natural disaster. But all these affections and adversities have become as common in our realm as the air we breathe since sin entered the world. People die of hunger, from virus attacks and all sorts of diseases. There are devastating windstorms, rainstorms, snowstorms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, droughts, floods and all kinds of natural disasters that constantly hit the earth and cause many casualties or affect our living conditions in one way or another. As a result of all these plight, there is always sorrow, depression, mourning, weeping and groaning. As written by Paul in Romans 8:22-23, “the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves.” 

     The fall also plunged mankind into very difficult working conditions. When the Lord made man, “the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates” (Genesis 2:8-14). Apart from these four rivers that flowed in the garden, “a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground” (v.6). Which means, the garden of Eden was well watered throughout the year and extremely fruitful. And the Lord gave this beautiful garden to man to work it and keep it, a task that the man performed with great satisfaction in the days of his purity. For his working conditions were very pleasurable, extremely comfortable, exceptionally propitious, exceedingly enjoyable, and stress-free. 

     Sadly, because of his disobedience, the garden of Paradise was lost to man. When he ate the forbidden fruit, “The LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:23-24). Thus the lushness and blessedness that man experienced in the garden ended with his expulsion from the garden. He is now exposed to scarcity, vain pursuit and drudgeries. There is no more ease, joy and satisfaction at work. Man must work hard because of the curse of the ground – “in pain [he] eats of it all the days of [his] life; thorns and thistles it [brings] forth for [him]; and [he] eats the plants of the field. By the sweat of [his] face [he] eats bread, till [he] returns to the ground, for out of it [he was] taken; for [he is] dust, and to dust [he] shall return” (Genesis 3:17-19). 

    The tragedy of the fall has a universal impact: all the sons of men, throughout all generations, have suffered its harsh consequences. No man has ever lived on earth who has not suffered the tragic effect of the fall in one way or another. Because the sinful nature of Adam has been inherited by all men, all are subjected to the curse that befell him, for all fall short of the glory of God. As it is written, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The implication is that no one is innocent. So lest we be mistaken about our own corrupt condition, we must not conclude that the miseries and troubles in our lives are all the result of the one sin of Adam. Romans 3:23 reads, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Isaiah 53:6a, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way.” We are all by nature puffed up with pride, haters of God and disobedient. Which is to say, we are just like our first parents, Adam and Eve. For every time we sin, we declare ourselves, and not God, worthy of honour.

     So none of us is better than our first parents. Just like them, we do not comply with God’s standard. Rather, we decide what is good and what is evil according to the sinful inclination of our fallen hearts. By nature, we do not seek to honour God but to satisfy our sinful passions and lusts; the motives of our hearts do not pursue the glory of God but our own interests. We need to remind ourselves that any thought or word or action done to exalt oneself rather than God is sin. And the truth is this: in our natural state, none of our thoughts, actions and words is done for the glory of God, for our motives are evil. There is a lack of congruence between our ways and the ways of God. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). And the lack of the necessary congruence between a man's ways and those of God can only lead to his estrangement from God. In other words, man's utter depravity creates a huge chasm between him and the thrice holy God.

     Our fallenness has estranged us from God and deprived us of His blessings. We now live in  a sin-cursed world, with broken relationships, away from our God, away from the glory of His might, subjected to His wrath because of our rebellion. But that is not the end of the story. The fall of man did not take God by surprise, for nothing takes Him by surprise – “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all My purpose”, declares the Lord in Isaiah 46:9-10. The fall of man happened according to God’s sovereign decree and providence. Satan meant it for evil, but God meant it for good: to display His glorious grace to the created universe. Therefore, in His pronouncement against the serpent, God promised to deliver the sons of men, saying to the serpent in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

     God foretold the defeat of the serpent by the Seed of the woman. And the serpent Crusher is God’s own Son, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the only righteous person who has ever walked upon this planet. He did not inherit the sin nature of Adam because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. Thus He was fully God and fully man. He was sent by His Father some two thousand years ago to set us free from the curse of the fall. Jesus, the God-Man, came into this world “to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8); God the Son left His throne on high, taking on flesh, to deliver us from our sins. “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:19-20). 

   Human depravity has created a huge chasm between God and the sons of men and subjected the creation to futility. Cursed is the world we live in, and separated from the Creator God are the sons of men because of sin. As Isaiah 59:2 declares, “[Our] iniquities have made a separation between [us] and [our] God, and [our] sins have hidden His face from [us] so that He does not hear.” Thus the rupture of our relationship with God is all due to sin. Sin has hidden the light of the face of God from us, plunging the entire human race into darkness.  But thanks be to the LORD our God! For in eternity past, He had purposed to restore His presence to the midst of His people, He had predetermined our deliverance from the darkness, in order that we might be restored to the light. And when the fullness of time had come, God sent into the world His Son Jesus Christ, the True Light, the Light of the world, to enlighten all those overcome by darkness. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). 

     Whoever beholds the face of Christ the Son of God beholds the face of God (John 14:9). He is “The light [that] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). Christ is the foundation for the new relationship between God and mankind, the Mediator who brings us peace. In Him alone there is reconciliation and healing. It pleased God, according to the riches of His grace, to grant forgiveness, on the basis of the person and work of His Son, to everyone who forsakes his sins and turns to God in humble repentance. By the blood of His Son, God ransoms us from the curse and cleanses us from all our impurities. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7). 

     The Son of God came into the world and willingly delivered Himself up as a propitiation for our sins, in order to give us life in the Spirit and restore our relationship with God. On the basis of His person and work, repentant sinners receive by grace the free gift of righteousness through faith in Him and are sealed by the Holy Spirit into the family of God, being made alive by Him. They thus become a new creation in Christ Jesus, free from sin and its penalty, free from the wrath to come. They will not see the second death, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.

     Having been subjected to futility as a result of human rebellion, the creation itself will be liberated from the bondage of corruption. Yes, the day is coming when this cursed world will be destroyed by fire, and with it all those who continue in their sins and reject the Son of God. “Like a robe [the Lord] will roll up [the heaven and the earth that now exist], like a garment they will be changed” (Hebrews 1:12a). The system of evil which lies in the power of the evil one will also be destroyed. 1 John 2:17 says, “The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” On the great day of the Lord Almighty, He will unleash His righteous wrath upon the ungodly, that is, those who have loved their sins and rejected His grace. And after He has rid the earth of all the ungodly, He, who made heaven and earth and all that is in them and who subjected the creation to futility because of human rebellion, will make all things new; for thus says the Lord God in Revelation 21:5, “Behold, I am making all things new.” 

     Surely, the Lord will restore all things. On that day, a new earth and a new heaven will come down out of heaven from God; “the dwelling place of God [will be] with [His saints, that is, those who have purified themselves with the blood of His Son]. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things [will] have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4). The Edenic blessedness lost as a result of the fall will be restored and God’s people will enjoy Him and His blessings forever in the new Jerusalem. “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:3-5). V.8, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death”; they will be thrown “into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:42).

       No one can reverse God's curse or cancel its effects on the sons of men. As Job 12:14 puts it, “If [God] tears down, none can rebuild; if He shuts a man in, none can open.” From the womb we are held captive by death because of sin. But we cannot deliver ourselves from this bondage. As Psalms 49:7-9 points out, “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.” No human exertion, no amount of good work can save a person from the guilt and penalty of his sins, for it is against an infinitely holy God that they have sinned. And every sin deserves an everlasting punishment in the hell of fire. Therefore, in order to escape the pit, sinners must rely solely on the grace of the One they have offended. For He alone can open the prison door of death where He has cast them and restore them to freedom.

     It was God who cursed man because of his disobedience; hence God alone can remove the curse and its effect. We can only be saved from the wrath of God by God Himself. Our deliverance from the sting of death is achieved by the work of God alone, and no one can be delivered without an atonement for his sins being made. Therefore, “By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3b), in order that we might be graciously justified through faith in His Son, on the basis of His substitutionary death on the cross. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). 

     Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God, the Holy One, God the Eternal, He “without [Whom] was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3), came into this world in the flesh: truly God and truly man. As the God-Man, Christ lived the perfect life that we can never live and was nailed to the cross as a substitute for all those who would believe in Him. He lived under the law of God like the rest of mankind; but unlike them, He perfectly kept all the requirements of God’s law and bore the sins of many upon His sinless flesh. “For our sake [God] made [Him] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). All those who turn away from their sins and put their trust in Jesus Christ the Son of God, are freed from the curse of sin; for Christ’s righteousness is graciously imputed to them and God treats them as righteous. As it is written, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). 

        If the weight of your sins still clings to you, I urge you today to lay your burden at the foot of the cross of Christ in exchange for eternal peace with God, lest you be consumed by the wrath to come because of your iniquities. Repent of your sins, for the time is near, the time of the end, the day of the great wrath of God the Almighty. I plead with you to turn to Christ now and trust in Him alone for the salvation of your soul. He alone can free you from the tragic effect of your iniquities. Come to Him without delay and He will make you heir of His Kingdom, a citizen of heaven. Christ will take you to the great city of God’s people, the new Jerusalem, away from every corruption, away from the curse of the sin, if you repent of your sins and put your trust in Him alone. 

     Christ alone restores that which is broken, makes the filthy clean, the profane holy, the corruptible incorruptible, the defiled pure, the reprobate a child of the Most High and the accursed a citizen of the Jerusalem of God. Come to Christ, and He will restore your soul. He who is mighty to save, rich in mercy and grace and who does not let the guilty go unpunished is calling you, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Run to Him now and do not delay. For today is the day of salvation, and the great day of the wrath of the Almighty is near. 

[childofchrist1983]

A beautiful and inspiring Psalm. I will not lie awake at night, watching with fear as time goes by. I will peacefully lie down, calm, quiet, sleeping. I will have no thought of fear in the night, because I know that the LORD is with me and will keep me safe. There could be bars on my windows, armed guards at my door, but nothing keeps me truly safe than the knowledge that the LORD is the Almighty and He is with me all of my days. I will eventually lay down to sleep and join God in Heaven. Shall I fear this day? No! For God dwells with me in safety. Happy am I to go to sleep with this Bible verse in mind before bed, knowing full well that God is with me. The meditations of my heart and soul shall be protected and acceptable in the sight of the LORD Jesus Christ, through who all things are justified.

We sleep everyday. Nearly one third of our life is spent with our eyes closed in slumber, but how many of us are truly peaceful during these times? Many of us toss and turn or have difficulties actually going to bed each evening. Take this Psalm to heart as you prepare yourself for bed. David was comforted in knowing that his body and his soul were protected by God and His angels of Heaven. Take this Psalms to heart as David did, rest peacefully, and be mindful of the LORD God Almighty even while you are asleep. Thank Him for inviting us to rest in the true peace that only comes from Him. This life is fleeting, and danger is never far. But in Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ, we can have eternal security, which brings us true comfort and peace each day, no matter the circumstances around us. Focus your heart and mind on Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ and His Truth. Let us humble ourselves before God daily, asking Him to forgive us and to strength and teach us to view life through the lens of God and His promises. May He guard our hearts against Satan and the temptations of this world and our flesh. May He give us the peace to find full satisfaction in God and His peace and promises, so that we may live our lives daily in ways that honor and pleases Him. As we seek Him daily, may He reveal Himself to us through the words He has provided and use it to conform the desires of our heart to Him and His love and compassion and grace.

As true and spiritually reborn Christians, we love, trust and believe in Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ. Thank Him for calling us to faith and imparting us with salvation and righteousness. May He empower us to live in His will and righteousness, so that we may testify to His soul-saving power as our faith carries us past all doubt, fear, and failure. May He grant us the grace to forgive others who have wronged us, and the humility to seek forgiveness where we have caused strife. We must ask Him to help us grow spiritually in our relationship with Him and strengthen us and the bonds of love that He has given us, so that our unity may glorify and testify to His power and goodness. Seek, follow and trust in the LORD God Almighty always!

We choose to keep Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ first in our hearts and lives and all other worldly desires behind us. He extends salvation to everyone, and we want to show the world the freedom, hope and peace they can have in accepting and following Him. May we follow and serve God daily with love, trust, awe and wonder. May Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ strengthen our faith, lift our spirits, protect our hearts, and show us opportunities to help bring others to Him and His Gospel Truth daily. May we do this duty boldly, humbly and faithfully. To God be all the honor and praise and glory!

We must come to Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ with sincere hearts to ask forgiveness and follow Him and His Holy Word and Spirit always. We praise Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for the mercy He bestows upon us and we are grateful for His grace and mercy and infinite blessings. By surrendering our hearts and our lives to His will, we see all the blessings He has bestowed upon us. God our refuge and our salvation and our constant provider. We lift our voices to Him in praise for His steadfast love, mercy and understanding. May Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ open our minds and hearts more and more to perceive and embrace Him and His truths. May He help us to find time to pray and read and study the Holy Bible daily and to find power in prayer, praying according to His Holy Word and will. May He help us to come to Him in true repentance and with faith in Him and His grace and merciful nature. May He give us the grace, courage and strength we need to walk with Him and do His will daily. May He teach us to watch our words when we pray to Him and to speak reverently and rightly. May we continually ask God to transform our hearts and make us faithful and humble as we walk with Him daily. We must come to Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ with honest, humble and repentant hearts. We must seek Him and His will and choose to follow Him all the days of our lives. May He help transform our hearts, help us to seek and live for Him above all else and to grow spiritually and build our faith and relationship with Him with each passing day. May He forgive our sinful nature and help us always make Him and our relationship with Him top priority.

As true and born-again Christians, we choose to walk in His righteous path and lead a life that is pleasing to Him. We desire Him and His will above anything else. We desire to walk in accordance with the love and light He has shown to us through His Holy Word and Spirit. We long for a deeper relationship with Him and a deeper fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ as well. When we fall into temptation and sin, we must turn to Him for forgiveness, strength and guidance. When believers learn to walk in accordance with God's Holy Word and Spirit, they have deeper fellowship with both God and one another. And the sin that could threaten to destroy that fellowship, if confessed (1 John 1:9), is covered in the blood of Jesus Christ and no longer a barrier between us and God. May we ask Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ to forgive us for any sins we have sinned this day or in days past. May we be faithful to Him and His Holy Word always. May He help us to walk more consistently in the light and to not neglect long to confess and forsake any sins that hinder our walk with Him. May He lead us in the direction He wants us to go so that we may seek and serve Him faithfully. God is holy and almighty and deserving of all praise honor and glory. We rejoice in Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ, knowing He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He is the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 1:8). May our hearts always be filled with thanksgiving and rejoicing. May He help us to praise Him freely and honestly like all believers who came before us. May we live a life that showcases our love and trust in Him and His Holy Word and Spirit as He uses us draw others to Him and His soul-saving Gospel Truth daily. May He continue guide, correct and protect us, so that we continue to grow in Him and not weaken and stray. May we all remain faithful to Him and to this duty and purpose He has called us to. Seek and put your faith and trust in Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ and let Him do the rest. May He humble our hearts and help us focus on following and serving Him daily and helping others with joy and happiness. We lift our voices in praise to Him for His love, mercy, peace, faithfulness and grace - For EVERYTHING!

It is vital that we remain rooted in Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ through prayer and His Holy Word and Spirit and that we live and walk as a beacon of His light and love and share and spread the Gospel Truth daily, so that the lost souls in this world can come to know Him and be saved. The more we focus on Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ, growing spiritually by building our relationship with Him, leaning on Him and His Holy Word and Spirit, the better off we will be. Thanks to this and our faith in Him, we know that everything will be alright. And we will forever be grateful to Him. As true and born-again Christians, we believe in Him and His Holy Word and we strive daily to walk in His Holy Spirit. We know though our mortal bodies should die, He will raise us up and into new and glorious bodies (The Rapture). We who are truly His and alive at His second coming will never die, and our bodies will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and so shall we ever be with Him in His Kingdom of Heaven forevermore (1 Corinthians 15:51-52, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). This is one of many promises given to us by God Himself. Thank God for His strength and guidance when we are faced with sin and temptation. Thank Him for His mercy and grace. Through Bible study and prayer, God reveals His wisdom and guides us to see opportunities to grow closer to Him and grow spiritually. He gives us direction to live our lives daily according to His will.

Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to Heaven (John 3:5, 14:6), the ONLY way to salvation (Acts 4:12, Ephesians 2:8-9) and He is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25-26). Jesus Christ the LORD of lords, the KING of kings, the GOD of gods (Deuteronomy 10:17, 1 Timothy 6:15, Revelation 17:14, Revelation 19:16) - He is the Living, Almighty and Everlasting God (Isaiah 9:6, Revelation 1:8, John 3:16, John 3:36, Jeremiah 10:10). There is no other God besides Him (Isaiah 45:5). We MUST humble ourselves before Him, turning our backs on false teachers, false gods and idols and our sinful ways. We MUST repent and turn back to God and recognize who He is and love Him in return for His great love for us. We MUST make God top priority everyday! May we be motivated to spread God's Holy Word and Gospel Truth to all the Earth, knowing that it is the only hope of all those lost in their sins. Let us not hold out a false hope for men to be saved without the Gospel, but instead, strive to do our part to get the Gospel out to a lost and dying world.

Leaning on Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ through prayer and His Holy Word and Spirit strengthens us and our knowledge and wisdom about God and His Gospel Truth, exposing these imposters. May God help us to seek and lean on Him daily to gain the strength, wisdom and spiritual discernment needed to expose Satan and his imposters who seek to destroy us and God's ultimate Truth. Everyday, we must remember to share Jesus Christ's Gospel Truth with the world and to thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for the grace that He poured out for us on the cross at Calvary. He has freed us from the burdens of sin and from the eternal damnation of Hell. In all we say and do, may all praise, honor and glory always be given to Him and His Kingdom of Heaven.

With renewed minds, hearts and wills, let us serve Him humbly and faithfully out of pure love and grateful rejoicing. May He remind us of His presence and to remain at peace, fully knowing that all will be well because He is always with us. Let us seek Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ today and everyday with all our heart and being, looking for His love, light and will for our lives with each step we take. Let us seek to please Him with our thoughts, words, and deeds and seek to advance His Kingdom of Heaven and His glory with our lives. Let us seek Him from a pure and humble heart, and when we so seek, we believe Him and His promise that we will find. May He help us all to be more sensitive to the teaching ministry of His Holy Word and Spirit, relying on Him and allowing Him to speak to us and guide us every step of our Christian journey.

God gave us the Holy Bible - His living and Holy Word - to let us know of Him and His abiding love and care as well as guide and prepare us for all our lives. May He help us encourage one another as we continue our walk with Him and our duty to Him daily. Thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for being present for all our new beginnings and all our lives. May He redirect any anxiety we feel as He provides countless opportunities for growth and change. May we humble ourselves before God always, asking Him to forgive our sins and make our hearts and lives anew through His Holy Word and Spirit. May He help us make Him and His Holy Word top priority, so we can grow spiritually and grow in our relationship with Him as we apply it to our daily lives. Thank God that we can focus on Him and everything about Him, for that is what keeps us sane and at peace. May our words and actions always be a reflection of Him and His Holy Word and Spirit and will.

May He help us to always walk in His grace and Holy Spirit, not by our own measure. May He give us the humble humility to know that our freedom and eternal salvation is found only in Him, so that His grace may sustain us, and we may never lose sight of His love and light and mercy. Thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for calling us to Him and to serve Him. May He equip us to do all that He has called us to do so that as He works through us, He may use us to produce fruit, to reach others, and to encourage all brothers and sisters in Christ. May He work all of these things in us and through us for His Kingdom and His glory. Thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for all His creation, for His miraculous ways and for everything He does and has done for us! Keep the faith and keep moving forward in your walk with Jesus! He loves us and He knows what is best for us. Seek, follow and trust in Him - Always!

Thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for His Holy Word and for sending His Holy Spirit so that we might have His grace, not only to awaken us and transform our hearts in our spiritual rebirth and guarantee our eternity with Him, but to also call upon Him whenever we are in need. Thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for all the reminders of His love and mercy and faithfulness within His Holy Word. He is bigger than any challenge or circumstance in our lives. Knowing this within our minds and our hearts, nothing can deter our faith in Him and His Truth. May we all accept Him and His eternal gift of salvation and ask that He would transform our hearts and lives according to His will and ways. Thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for His Holy Spirit who saves, seals and leads us. May we always thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for His almighty power and saving grace. For He is our strength, and He alone is able to save us, forgive our sins and gift us eternal salvation and entry into His Kingdom of Heaven.

May we make sure that we give our hearts and lives to God and take time to seek and praise Him and share His Truth with the world daily. May the LORD our God and Father in Heaven help us to stay diligent and obedient and help us to guard our hearts in Him and His Holy Word daily. May He help us to remain faithful and full of excitement to do our duty to Him and for His glorious return and our reunion in Heaven as well as all that awaits us there. May we never forget to thank the LORD our God and our Creator and Father in Heaven for all this and everything He does and has done for us! May we never forget who He is, nor forget who we are in Christ and that God is always with us! What a mighty God we serve! What a Savior this is! What a wonderful LORD, God, Savior and King we have in Jesus Christ! What a loving Father we have found in Almighty God! What a wonderful God we serve! His will be done!

Thanks and glory be to God! Blessed be the name of the LORD! Hallelujah and Amen!

[komotionlessqueenmm]

Imagine # 882

Pictures NOT mine.

Year posted - 2021

----

"She loves me! She could never love someone like you!" Time shouted at the taller man, who in turn scoffed at him. "She could never love a thing like you, you are but a machine. What could you possibly offer her?" Stayne argued, making Time growl in annoyance. "I could offer her anything she desires." Time fired back. "And if she desires a child, how will you give her that?" Ilosovic smirked. And Time stood frozen, unsure of what to say. "What is going on in here?" (Y/n) asked with a stern look upon her face, as she barged into the room. Stayne froze in place the same a Time who remained stunned by Staynes previous question. "Well?" (Y/n) crossed her arms waiting for an answer. "We were just-" Time tried, putting on a false smile. "We were just talking about relativity." Stayne cut in, throwing out a random response. "Don't lie to me Ilosovic, I heard what you said, what you both said." (Y/n) hissed at the pair, taking a step back when Stayne tried to approach her. "(Y/n) please." Time tried as he rose from his seat. "Darling." Stayne reached out for her only for the pair to freeze when (Y/n) shouted. "ENOUGH!" She uncrossed her arms, glaring at the pair. "But I love you." Both men replied in unison, their confessions making (Y/n)'s heart ache. "And I you, but I cannot choose between you." She responded softly, her heart torn between the pair. They stood silent, both aware of the truth behind her words. "What if..." Time tried, freezing for a moment when Stayne glared at him. "What if you didn't have to?" Time questioned with a sheepish look upon his face, his words confusing (Y/n) and Stayne both. "What do you mean?" (Y/n) questioned. "Stayne is right... I cannot give you everything... I cannot give you children... But I can love you for all of eternity." (Y/n)'s eyes softened at his words, while Stayne glared daggers. "Stayne could give you children... And though I hate to admit it... He can also offer you happiness." Time continued, trying to ignore the cocky grin that bloomed on Staynes face. "But I cannot make you choose between us... So what if perhaps... Perhaps we could..." Time tried, suddenly finding himself unable to say the words aloud. "Out with it." Stayne insisted. "We could share?..." Time whispered meekly. "Share?" Stayne questioned, tempted to laugh at the notion. "Would both of you actually be willing to do that?" (Y/n) questioned almost as meekly as Time had suggested it. Her question freezing Stayne in his thoughts, wondering if that was something he would be willing to do. "I would." Time insisted, the two of them casting their eyes to Stayne. "Ilosovic?" (Y/n) called to him, his eye snapping to her face. "If it means you'll have me." Stayne smiled at the hopeful look upon (Y/n)'s face. "Then yes I would." He agreed. An uncharacteristic laugh escaping him when (Y/n) hugged him in her excitement.

[animeyanderelover]

💕Can I request all the senjus,orochimaru,shisui and itachi with a s/o who managed to make themselves immortal with out consequences and they did it without experimenting but they can make other people immortal but people keep trying to kidnap them for it,also they don’t age anymore?💕

This is what pretty much Orochimaru’s dream is.

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessiveness, obsessiveness, delusions, kidnapping, manipulation, clinginess

Immortal s/o

Hashirama Senju

🌳He is quite the more supporting and encouraging person. But in this situation even he finds himself a bit unsure how to feel. Your jutsu is quite amazing and something marvelous, but Hashirama is someone who wants to spend his whole life with his darling and die later on when both of them are grey and old together, that is his dream. But with you who stopped aging long ago and will never die, this is something impossible. The clan has definitely a huge interest in you, even though they are aware that your ability will end up being terrifying if it goes into the wrong hands which is why the Leaf guards you very observingly, not wanting to risk that a rival village gets their hands on you. If their strongest shinobi would be made immortal, that would end in a catastrophe. Hashirama himself makes sure that even in his own village no one plans on abusing your powers.

🌳I do not think that Hashirama would force you to either make him immortal nor to somehow tell you that you should try to stop your powers and start aging again. Not like he won't try to convince you to eventually consider finding a way to stop being immortal and instead settle down and live with him. Given the fact that are immortal, you might lived longer than he did and for that have knowledge he and his clan do not possess which is why you're treated from the Senju and the whole village really respectfully, if they need advice they will go and ask you. Hashirama can also only do this much and so he grows more clingy since he knows that he will die whilst you will live. And so he wants to be able to have a place in your heart for all the time to come and alongside with his brother and future generations, he trusts you to protect the Leaf Village once he dies. Even if his darling is immortal, he still wants to marry them since he is traditional.

Tobirama Senju

🌊Despite him being the harsher and much more intimidating and blackmailing guy from all the Senju, he has a rather simple dream as well. He wants to marry his darling and live with them together and one day die. And his dream is messed up with all of this as well and he is quite irritated by the knowledge that you made yourself immortal. On the one hand Tobirama is eager to invent new jutsu himself so from that perspective this is beyond fascinating, a wish many people before him had and tried to work on. But in a way this is honestly way too mocking for him as well because even if his darling might have to endure harsher lessons with him, they might honestly have the relieving thought that he will die one day anyways and then they're free. It is angering because it is true and depending on how old they are, they might nag him because of his behavior and he won't be able to say much against it since he knows they have more experience than him in life.

🌊This might be an advantage you have against him next to the whole being immortal thing. He will start being more respectful once he finds out how old you really are. He literally can not help it and that is why he sometimes, under the risk of his pride, asks you for some advice. He doesn't really want to be immortal either, even though he is more curious about it than his brother is. But what he has to do is always guaranteeing that you are under high protection because he know what terrible things your powers can do when being wrongly used. He might actually try to create a jutsu similar to yours because in a way you have been inspiring him. He also will end up marrying his darling. For starters he is a pretty traditional guy so marriage has a high meaning for him as well. Additionally he is not willing to let you that easily get away with your long life, he is possessive. He just kind of wants to set a mark on you for as long as you're part of the Leaf.

Orochimaru

🐍You have literally achieved what he has been trying to complete his whole life time without even having to experiment on anything and it is thrilling for him. No wonder he is after you as soon as he has heard the rumors, being in his way fervent about it and his obsession starts before he has even met you in person. And oh, he will hunt his darling down, no matter where he has to go and who he has to kill. He wants that jutsu and that talent who created it and no one will stop him. Not going to lie, at the beginning he is a bit salty, mostly because he feels like he has been beaten since you didn't even have to use anyone, you just had pure skill. But whilst he might have lost this, he still can owe the person who had the skills and intelligence and since he will totally force you to teach him that power and make him immortal as well, you might be stuck with him forever if you do so. And the bad part here is that if you don't, he will have no problems torturing you or using you as his next vessel.

🐍You're immortal, so it's not like you will die and he takes advantage of that if you refuse to lend him a hand. If you do help him, he will show his gratitude in a rather odd way, but it's better than his sadstic side. He simply keeps you, that much has to be said already. He can't effort to lose a talent like you, the experience not even to mention. His darling becomes his very special treasure who helped him earning immortality and in return he offers them a place to stay and protection. He knows that everyone wants to have that sort of abilities and he gets rid of all of them all to gladly, he won't let anyone dare to take his special underling away from him. He just always has you tagging along with him. Sasuke gets kind of interested as well since you are indeed powerful and you might as well get close to him since he is together with Kabuto and Orochimaru the only person you will see for a long time. Depending on how long you are already alive, Orochimaru also wants to know pretty much all jutsu and other knowledge you might have.

Tsunade Senju

🐌She looks quite young for her age which comes from the fact that she uses a jutsu that makes her appear young, but she is just like everyone else. She ages and is bound to die one day. And Tsunade handles this maybe a bit worse than some others do. You gotta understand, she just thought that she finally found the one person she can manage to live together with the rest of her life only to discover that they will continue living forever. And to know that she might be only one of many to come and that she might be forgotten one day is truly not very pretty, it makes her a bit more desperate. At first she was probably scared that you used to do the same things Orochimaru did to reach your goal so she was definitely more at ease when hearing that you succeeded without having to go with such drastic methods. For that reason she refuses to let her old teammate find out about you, knowing that he will be after you if he hears that you're in the Leaf which would only give him more reasons to attack.

🐌Tsuna might find herself tempted by the thought to be made immortal from you and live for all eternity together with you, simply because she is possessive as well and wants to be finally happy with the person she loves after all her beloved people dying on her. She's not completely sure, she knows that being immortal can be as much of a curse as it can be a blessing. The the council from Konoha is quite possessive as well, knowing how valuable you are and so they might want to use your powers for more selfish reasons from time to time. This leads to arguments between Tsunade and them because she is often against such decisions, seeing that they plan on making use of you. But one thing they do agree on is keeping you save from all other forces who want you in their grip. Funnily you might be a part of the eldest yourself if you lived long enough which gives Tsunade an advantage since you are on her side and not that narrow-viewed like the other eldest are.

Shisui Uchiha

🍂At this point in his timeline his darling might as well be already part of the village or at the very least known everywhere in the hidden villages for their special jutsu which is why everyone is on some sort of hunt for them. Shisui himself honestly probably never really saw himself falling for someone who constantly dominates the spotlight like you do, maybe also because he thought, despite the fact that you look young, the age difference would make him view you more as a admirable sensei because being able to make yourself and others immortal without having to do experiments on humans needs skill and wisdom. Shisui also just knows that even if you like him as well, this is a completely impossible love since not only might the superiors forbid it, but he does not desire to be made immortal. He already knows that everyone dies sooner or later and given his job being ready to die is a must since he is constantly exposed to danger.

🍂It would only break your heart in the end which is why he kind of feels like it might be best if he stays silent about his feelings at first. He just focuses on protecting you from potential enemies who plan on kidnapping you and tries to be someone who can leighten your mood up a bit since he sympathizes that life for you must be quite tricky. If he does confesses to you because he feels like you really like him as well or you tell him you like him first, he might hesitate and voice his doubts, but can be more easily manipulated since he loves you. Shisui kind of knows that he might not be the last since he doesn't want to be made immortal and you might find after his death a new person you love. And he accepts that, he doesn't want his darling to be alone only because they can't die. But he can make sure that he leaves some sort of impression on you so you will remember him. He wants at the very least a special place in your heart.

Itachi Uchiha

🍡He did not kidnap his darling so he could have their jutsu for himself, he definitely didn't. He did it because he lost control over his emotions and given the fact that you are constantly being chased by other power-hungry persons, he got triggered too much because he knows that some will hurt you to get what they want since you can not die. And afterwards Itachi just has to be really careful so that no one will find out because you are no ordinary person. You are famous and a living legend for your achievement and it'll cause a huge motion if he is being sighted with you because everyone will know afterwards, including the Akatsuki and he can expect that Pain will definitely want you to be a part of his organization since you not only have a very gifted ability, but might also possess knowledge and forgotten jutsu from long time ago. And Itachi doesn't want to force you to live the same life as him, even if you can't be killed on such missions.

🍡Itachi knows that he doesn't have long to live anyways and he already accepted that fact, he has his plans in mind for this. So he knows he won't be there for too long to protect you from all the greedy and selfish people which is why he might plan on making Sasuke look after you once he dies and he tells you about this as well, even though he knows you can handle yourself very well on your own as well. He respects people who are older than him and for that reason he might be far more respectful to the s/o than he would be already and he isn't embarrassed about it. Similar to Shisui he also knows that after his death his darling might find someone else and he won't be angry with them for it. They shouldn't spend their whole life grieving over him since he wants them to be happy. The only person he might ever tell willingly about his darling is Kisame since he is next to his younger brother the only person he really trusts with his darling.

[hamliet]

Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls and It Dies...

Or, why I am pretty optimistic about the fates of Jean, Connie, Gabi, and all titanized people this chapter, which is also an excuse for me to talk about SnK’s allusions to Russian literature. 

There are strikingly parallel ideas The Brothers Karamazov and Attack on Titan, as well as parallel plot points and imagery to the point where if it isn’t deliberate, it’s uncanny. (NB: before people yell at me about comparing a Japanese and Russian work, Isayama has used Russian names since the start of SnK--Shiganshina is a Russian name.) In particular, there are narrative allusions to a portion of the novel known as “The Grand Inquisitor,” which is a short story within a novel. The central thesis of “The Grand Inquisitor” is as follows: 

nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom. 

This parable is told within the story by Ivan Karamazov, a character whose intellectuality is his gift and his curse. He tells his brother Alyosha that the motivation for creating this parable is precisely the evils done to children (oh look, a major SnK theme) and specifically cites an example which was unfortunately taken from real life in Russia and which Isayama has an uncanny parallel:

I want to see with my own eyes the hind lie down with the lion and the victim rise up and embrace his murderer. I want to be there when every one suddenly understands what it has all been for. All the religions of the world are built on this longing, and I am a believer. But then there are the children, and what am I to do about them? That's a question I can't answer... If all must suffer to pay for the eternal harmony, what have children to do with it, tell me, please? ... if it is really true that they must share responsibility for all their fathers' crimes, such a truth is not of this world and is beyond my comprehension. Some jester will say, perhaps, that the child would have grown up and have sinned, but you see he didn't grow up, he was torn to pieces by the dogs, at eight years old...

... How are you going to atone for them? Is it possible? ... What do I care for a hell for oppressors? What good can hell do, since those children have already been tortured? ... I want to forgive. I want to embrace. I don't want more suffering. And if the sufferings of children go to swell the sum of sufferings which was necessary to pay for truth, then I protest that the truth is not worth such a price. ... too high a price is asked for harmony; it's beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it... It's not God that I don't accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return Him the ticket.”

The actual parable of “The Grand Inquisitor” is Ivan’s answer to Alyosha’s question about Ivan’s lines above. Ivan tells a story about how freedom is actually what dooms humanity: it is the curse. (Alyosha does not believe this.) Jesus comes back to earth and is promptly arrested, because his existence and return threaten the wellbeing of society. To be happy, one cannot be free, but one or two strong people in society should be free and bear the burden for everyone else (you can see the parallels to King Fritz/the Reisses). 

Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering... all his life he loved humanity, and suddenly his eyes were opened, and he saw that it is no great moral blessedness to attain perfection and freedom, if at the same time one gains the conviction that millions of God's creatures have been created as a mockery, that they will never be capable of using their freedom...

This is SnK’s thesis: to be free, there will be suffering. It is part of human nature, and yet to not have it is to be lost. But SnK, despite its explorations of human darkness and monstrosity, has a higher view of humanity than does Ivan. SnK’s view is more alongside Alyosha’s, who says what is honestly the truth about not just the Reisses, but Eren now:

"Who are these keepers of the mystery who have taken some curse upon themselves for the happiness of mankind? .... It's simple lust of power, of filthy earthly gain, of domination—something like a universal serfdom with them as masters—that's all they stand for.”

Mikasa is akin to the Christ figure in the story, akin to Alyosha: Christ is constantly asked to speak, asked to act, and he does not until the very last moment, when he kisses the Grand Inquisitor on the lips. After the story is over, Alyosha then does likewise to Ivan. 

Not to mention when Alyosha worries about Ivan’s mental state, he then answers with this:

“Listen, Alyosha,” Ivan began in a resolute voice, “if I am really able to care for the sticky little leaves I shall only love them, remembering you. It's enough for me that you are somewhere here, and I shan't lose my desire for life yet.”

A simple leaf can save a life. A leaf can save the world. A leaf, grown from a tree that started as a seed falling to the ground, dead, only to grow life from that death. Alyosha himself notes SnK’s central thesis of chapter 137 in the (very long) novel’s final pages:

...some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man carries many such memories with him into life, he is safe to the end of his days, and if one has only one good memory left in one's heart, even that may sometime be the means of saving us.

There’s a lot more to this, but this is the epigraph to The Brothers Karamazov, the central thesis of the entire novel:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." -John 12:24

Suffering can grow great fruit in an individual life, and by giving something up, by even death, something beautiful can come. Through cruelty, you can find life. 

This is not just a long-running theme in SnK, but a pattern in its plot. Often those who surrender then receive exactly what they had surrendered (but admittedly, not always, like Erwin). 

Mikasa accepted Eren’s loss, and got him back.

Mikasa let Armin go, and got him back.

Falco gave up hope of survival, and got another chance: 

Hange was going to die alone, feeling guilty for having failed her comrades, but saw everyone again, and they told her well done: 

Historia gave up being free, but now we know she will be.

Levi gave up on his revenge, and then got it. Annie thought she would never see her dad again, but she did. For Mikasa, accepting that she has to kill the boy she loves coincides not just with her acceptance of her love, but with the acceptance and knowledge that he loves her:

It always comes with sacrifice, increasingly hard sacrifice, but usually the seeds that are dropped grow and bloom. 

This chapter, everyone surrendered their hearts. They let their dreams fall to the ground, and I honestly think the story will allow it to plant life. Yes, the world as a whole is saved and that is enough to make thematic sense, but it works even better if the very people who were titanized this chapter also bloom again. They chose to trust Mikasa, Levi, Falco, and Pieck to finish the task.

The characters giving up their lives only to get them back make sense, and give Mikasa’s sacrifice of Eren. For Mikasa, Eren was her world, and she gave it up when she had lost everyone else. She had nothing left, and she still did it. I would hope she’d be narratively rewarded beyond just the world being saved, because Mikasa has always been motivated by her personal relationships.

Moving on from Mikasa: Connie’s mom has been kept alive and the concept of turning mindless titans back to humans was already brought up specifically in relation to her:

Connie giving up on his mother a dozenish chapters ago only to get her back now--not through sacrificing a child, but through saving the entire world--would fit the themes and patterns of SnK.

Thirdly, Gabi should not die. She’s Eren with positive development, and cannot meet the same end. Even people who are skeptical of every titan being saved seem to agree that she’ll be fine. It’s possible she’s the only one saved, but imo, not likely. 

See, the only shifter characters who are going to have the option of self-sacrifice are Falco and maaaaaybe Armin. The others look like they’re about to die right here and now, never mind choosing someone to save: the mindless titans are ripping at their napes. Armin also looks to be in bad shape. 

Yet Armin cannot narratively commit suicide; two chapters ago he was still screaming at himself for being useless and thinking he would be better off dead. He’s already tried the heroic sacrifice, too, so why would it work this time around? It does not work for his arc. Falco dying for Gabi was the plan without any freedom from the titan curse; it’s more powerful if ending the curse changes things, rather than forcing him to make the same choice that Reiner has always been trying to make: a heroic suicide. It could happen; it’s just not as narratively strong.

As for whether the worldbuilding rules, we know that mindless titans are not truly dead nor entirely mindless; they just don’t have freedom. Ymir’s case of getting herself back after decades shows that they aren’t quite dead or absorbed. They still have consciousness that can be awoken; Ymir described it as being in a long “nightmare.” Dina still went looking for Grisha. Connie’s mom remembered and recognized Connie, telling him “welcome home.” There is plenty of evidence that there are parts of these people that are still in there even if they are forced to become monsters (oh hey, it’s an Eren parallel; he was conscious of it and had choices while mindless titans do not, but the parallel remains).

[darling-archeron]

Lucifer Finale Thoughts

Okay, I've thought a lot about Lucifer s6, and overall I've been able to accept the whole time travel aspect, even if I didn't care for it. I think the writers did a great job with everyone else's storylines, I was extremely satisfied with them. That being said, I feel they kind of dropped the ball on Lucifer and Chloe's ending with the time loop. I'm a simple person. I don't think an ending has to be bittersweet or deep or whatever to simply be good.

I like the idea of Lucifer finding his true calling as Hell's therapist. I think it fits him really well. But the idea that he had to make a choice he only made because his daughter begged him and he knew he had already done it....felt so fucking tragic. This choice draws some parallels between Lucifer and God's parenting, and I don't think that's a good thing. This show has always been about choice, they even spend the last 2 eps talking about that, and Lucifer's final choice isn't one. Not really.

He straight up says that what he desires is to stay with Chloe and watch Rory grow up. And he doesn't get that. If he hadn't felt so compelled in the heat of the moment, I don't think he would have agreed. You can argue that it's because he had to make a selfless choice, but he already made that huge sacrifice in the s4 finale. (Also going back to Hell to protect humanity! For what he assumed would be millennia!) Lucifer has proven that he can be selfless, not just for those close to him, but for others. Testing him again was unnecessary.

Lucifer spends the first three seasons trying to escape his father's machinations, and two more accepting that he has more control than he thinks. But this finale completely upturned this message, to the point where I feel as though I have to erase it from my mind to enjoy the rest of the show. If this has all been God's plan - Chloe, Rory, the time loop - then what has the point of rebellion? For Lucifer, he has free will, until he doesn't.

And yes, it makes me happy to know that Lucifer and Chloe get to solve mysteries for eternity in Hell, and I guess they and Rory (Trixie???? though I know she wasn't in this season much due to covid restrictions and s5 was supposed to be the end) will get to make up for all that lost time. The thing that kills me is that you literally only live once. Yes, Lucifer found a calling, but I would say it's just as, if not more, important that he found his family. For a show that harped on a work-life balance for a whole season, Lucifer doesn't get one.

I think it would have been powerful to show Lucifer actively breaking the loop. Undoing it, at worst, means it takes Lucifer a little while longer to find his true calling. I 100% believe he would have eventually. Like, the idea of abandoning your kid so they can be angry with you and eventually travel back in time and help you realize you find your true calling seems so...over the top. Rory was already conceived, so she will still be born. Future Rory is a real person, but at the same time, she's a concept, one of a million possibilities.

When Rory begs Lucifer to leave, it felt as though it was framed for Rory to be making a big sacrifice so her Dad can have his purpose. But I would argue she isn't the one truly sacrificing - Lucifer and Chloe spend years and years apart. Chloe has to actively lie to her daughter, and while Rory doesn't know any better, it's almost blissful ignorance.

And not to be all deus-ex-machina, but Amenadiel, the former angel of TIME, is now God. Why could he not A) give everyone their time loop memories to keep so we avoided this whole kerfuffle, and/or B) changed how time works in hell, so Lucifer can come back to Earth without missing thousands of years of therapy in Hell.

Deckerstar has jumped through countless hurdles to make their relationship work, and they got...what, three months of being a real couple before being torn apart again?

To me, letting Lucifer and Chloe raise Rory and Trixie together, with them in their respective day jobs would work. In order for more souls to heal, the demons could spend time on Earth and grow a soul, as Maze did. Eventually, perhaps they, or some of Lucifer's siblings, could help him down there. Meanwhile, Chloe grows old, and maybe Lucifer self-actualizes an aging appearance too. When her time comes, they both move to Hell, and are partners til the end there. Lucifer popping back up to see Trixie and other friends left living.

This got much longer than I intended. Idk, don't get me wrong, I'm pleased with how everyone else's storyline wrapped up, and whoever decides on the music for the show deserves an Emmy. And I'm happy that Deckerstar eventually gets eternity together. But I can't shake the bitter taste of the series subverting it's core message all for the sake of a "bittersweet" and "heartfelt" finale.

And to the 95% of people who don't follow me for Lucifer, you probably haven't made it this far, but I apologize, and will be back to my regularly scheduled programming soon.