#mass incarnation

[an-onyx-void]

Disclaimer: I am not the original owner or creator of this content. The source is listed below.

[apenitentialprayer]

In the first image, we see a theme to which [Maurice] Denis will return again and again: the depiction of the Archangel Gabriel as a deacon bearing a book, almost as if Our Lady is the priest at the Solemn Mass to whom the book is being carried to her to kiss. In this very early depiction, painted when the artist was 19, he has even included a couple of acolytes bearing tapers. We something similar in this depiction ca. 1914, except that here the deacon-angel bows his head and raises his arms in a gesture of homage, while Our Lady bows her head in a reciprocal greeting. She is dressed as a bride.

One of my favorites is a depiction in which we see the familiar deacon-archangel holding a Gospel book, accompanied by the candlebearing acolytes, approaching the Blessed Virgin on what appears to be a rooftop terrace, with the sun streaming behind her (which is somewhat unconventional; usually the beam of light comes from across the scene from the other direction). The sublimity of the setting and its vertiginous perspective hint at the lofty grandeur of the miraculous conception.

Top Image: Mystère catholique, oil on canvas, 1890. Middle Image: Annonciation d'Assise, oil on canvas, 1914. Bottom Image: Annonciation à Fiesole, oil on canvas. Quotations by Peter Kwasniewski, "A Modern French Painter in Love With Our Lady: Maurice Denis' Remarkable Annunciation Paintings"

[abyssalpriest]

Damnit lev lmfao. I was thinking about Shiva wearing corpse ash being resonant for other reasons, something about his relationship with the Bright Skinned Ones and death and whatever. No, no. More fucking importantly: Oh I wonder why Shiva is known for. you know. wearing bodies. his appearance is a mass of bodies joined together. yeah

[rackartyg]

struggles of making zanarai Smol: astarion can't sit in their lap

[crescentbunny]

No Good Day

In honor of my favorite Commander's birthday coinciding with not just mine, but my bestie @mallaidhsomo's birthday, I decided a mash-up was overdue.

So, happy birthday Molly, and happy birthday Commander of my heart! Here's a little snippet of our chaotic Shepard's if they had been earth born twins in another universe. <3

__________________

Emery fisted her hand in the hem of her dirty tank top and stretched it to his nose. “Here.”

He smacked her hand away and wiped his arm across his face, smearing blood all the way to his elbow, and shot her a glare she rarely ever saw directed at her. 

“This woudna happened if you’d left well enough alone,” he said angrily.

Guilt clenched through her belly, but a dark dribble sped past his lips, so she tried again to hold her shirt hem to his bleeding nose.

Eric sighed, but he didn’t yank away from her this time. “Why’d you go and do that anyway? You know what messing with Lark means.”

Her tears welled, hot and angry immediately. “Because he’s an asshole,” she spat.

He fixed her with a look, despite his swollen eye that was already purpling. “I should’ve just let him hit you.”

His mumbled words hung visibly in the cold air, and somehow she felt like she’d gotten that punch anyway.

The rain was the only sound between them, loudly pinging off the metallic awning of the stoop they were huddled in.

He was soaked to the bone, his baggy clothes sticking to him and black street grime went all the way up his thin legs. He looked so small and miserable, and she probably looked exactly the same.

This was not how she’d been thinking this would go at all. The entire day had been a fat mess.

Just like her.

She opened her mouth, but a Lonestar shuttle blasted by somewhere close, its siren and thrusters seeming to rob her of the right words as they drowned out even the pounding storm.

Rain was pouring down her face in thick streams, and plastering her ponytail uncomfortably to her neck - and that suited her just fine, she could let the tears go and he wouldn’t even know.

“He took my money,” she grumbled, then turned away from him to blindly watch the tourists shuffling by the dim alleyway.

“What?!” Eric exclaimed. “God, Em, I got socked because he took a measly coupla cen—”

“No! He took 10 whole credits from me!” she cried. “And they were mine! I spent all day helping Mrs. Lee clean that shitty little shack to get that!”

He blinked up at her, but before he could continue she put her foot on her sopping windbreaker and yanked it to them, then bent awkwardly to scoop it up off the toe of her boot while keeping her shirt firmly under her brother’s nose.

Emery shoved the jacket into his lap. “Here. It’s for you.”

He sucked in a shuddering breath around her wet shirt and gently unwrapped her present.

“Oh…Em…” he trailed off.

“It wasn’t a waste,” she vomited the words at him, knowing his likely protests and trying to head them off. “It's not replicated - I went all the way up to Greenwich for it.”

He held up the clear plastic container to the flickering stoop light to get a better look at the dark piece of chocolate cake inside of it.

“Why?”

Emery shuffled her feet. “Well, it's our birthday right? You said it was probably sometime in February.”

Shadows of emotions passed across his face, but with his fat eye she couldn’t tell if they were good or bad.

The container crinkled and popped in his grip.

So, she hurriedly continued. “And you’re a teenager now. That seemed….” she trailed off.

Eric tugged on her arm until she sat next to him, then he popped open the lid of the cake and eagerly shoved a goey piece into his mouth.

“Mmm,” he hummed, then held the container out under her chin and impatiently shook it. “You’re 13 now too, you know.”

Emery’s stomach growled loudly as she stuck her fingers into the frosting. It was every bit as soft and perfect as it looked in the glass case, but nothing prepared her for the absolutely overwhelming creamy sweetness of real.

So she savored that bite, curled shivering into her brother’s side while blood dried on his face.

“Worf it?” she asked with her mouth full.

Eric nodded and swallowed another bite. “Yeah. I’m sorry I said that — I’m glad I didn’t let him hit you, Em.”

She snorted. “Because I'm the most thoughtful sister ever?”

He stuffed another piece in his mouth and talked around it. “No, becuf I still look goof even wif a black eye — you’f look like a vorcha.”

Emery punched him in the arm, and they both dissolved into laughter muffled by chocolate cake.

[antisocial-author]

So are we as a fandom finally ready to discuss the fact that the way Chara has been regarded by said fandom is heavily ableist or are we going to keep treating them like the root of all evil

[lee-hakhyun]

oh booy i love getting fixated over minor characters in orv. no content for them at all. i am alone in my thoughts

[jaggedwolf]

I have never met a game whose story is fighting its open world concept as hard as Red Dead Redemption 2 does.

I've reached Chapter 6, and so far the main story of the game is the gang drawing too much attention to their crimes, getting into an epic shootout, and then having to shift camps, towns, even states, because they're wanted men.

It's 1899. The Wild West is dying, the strength of federal and state governments and their collaboration with Pinkertons is growing, an outlaw can't simply shift to the next town over with a different name. We're losing people, the law is closing in on us, everyone is feeling desperate. It is literally the story of our protagonist losing his old way of life and his world getting smaller and smaller.

But like. His world isn't actually any smaller.

How am I supposed to take Arthur saying "I'm a wanted man in two states :(" seriously when I have the whole map at my disposal, with any of the bounties I get (including ones from main story missions!) easily paid off at the local post office.

This is way worse than when open worlds make it seem like the protagonist is fucking around while the world is on fire! At least then it is merely that the open world is orthogonal to the main story, and some games even throw in a token reason to go running around (see: closing portals in Dragon Age: Inquisition). But here the open world actively fights against the deliberate claustrophobia and panic that the main story is trying to induce in us, which is the worst interplay of open world and main plot I've seen.

[salts8tr]

Bought 'the new jim crow' at a thrift store the other day and opened it today and can someone tell me why the fuck the previous owner pressed flowers into that book? In the new jim crow? Flowers?

[blackvahana]

I really do just need to get over the fact that my stuff is going to drive people mad

I had to actively stop working with the DAY because the wide open reality of being the Dreamer being incarnated into like millions of people at once, incompréhensible unimportant and yet all important, was like... its not good for navigating reality. It's still at the back of my brain where I've had that experience and... I mean for some reason it's more unsettling than nondualist Shaivism stuff is. All Are One Being is somehow more normal than Dreamer stuff but anyway

That was like... the one time I really scared Hermes when I woke him up as DAY and you know I think that's fair first of all and second of all... indicative that if I can scare gods then my existence is just going to scare people who aren't gods nor on the path to godhood

Anyway. These creatures definitely have been trying to tell me they're moving towards Dreamer things. Should've known! Should've seen it coming with Lev throwing Kos back at me but I don't associate bb Dream stuff with what I call Dream stuff irl, I associate bb Dream stuff with nondualist Shaivism-esque stuff... Anyway. Guess I now associate the two

Because. really. they're feeding on impulses... I hope that they'll be gentle. I hope that they won't be as raw and rip-tide-esque as the Tree of Madness and my usual Madness energy but I don't... think they're very Madness heavy actually. They're. very quietly something else in an obvious way. probably Day lmfao. yeah. They are aren't they

[tenth-sentence]

Perhaps there was a critical mass, beyond which a hole became unstable, ready to be detonated.

"Incarnations of Immortality: Bearing an Hourglass" - Piers Anthony

[apenitentialprayer]

Christ is Truly One With Us, By His Flesh and Blood, and Also One With God, by Elizabeth Wang.

Eternal Truth united with us to reunite us with It. vérité éternelle . . . ne s'est unie avec nous . . . pour nous réunir avec elle.

Nicolas Malebranche, Conclusion of Book VI of The Search After Truth

[paularoseauthor]

What is the meaning of Christmas for Catholics?

Christmas for Catholics is a sacred and joy-filled occasion that centres around the theological understanding of the Incarnation.

Christmas holds profound spiritual and theological significance for Catholics as it commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, the central figure in the Christian faith. The celebration of Christmas in the Catholic Church is not merely a cultural or secular event; it is a sacred and joyous occasion that unfolds within the framework of religious traditions and liturgical practices. Here are key…

[theglamorousferal]

Immortal Everlasting Trio who have been exploring the Infinite Realms for the last few centuries. The three of them are flying, braiding their paths as they make their way through the Realms.

“How do you think Ellie is doing in her current incarnation?” Nightshade asks of her partners,

“Hmm probably well, she was exploring the galaxy this time right? I could always check?” Pharaoh responds, a keyboard made of sandstone appears at his fingertips.

“She feels content.” Said Phantom, soothing the worries of the other two. The stars that are freckles on his face brighten with the comment.

They swirl around each other in lazy patterns, unknowing of the passage of time, when Phantom feels a tug at his core. The trio circle up, his partners noticing the shift in mood.

“I don’t recognize this one.” He mutters to himself, placing a hand on the center of his chest. “It’s none of the family, but it is a bit familiar.” He furrowed his brow, trying to trace the sensation to its source. He closed his eyes and felt the pull of magic. “It doesn’t feel malicious, there’s desperation and curiosity for sure, but I feel no ill intent.” He thought for a moment. “I’m going to follow it. I want to know why this feels familiar”

Nightshade formed a purple bloom and tucked it behind one of his ears and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. “Be safe.”

Pharaoh gently took his hand and kissed it, bestowing a glass bangle to his wrist. “Don’t make stupid decisions,” he smirked, “without us.”

Phantom laughed and in a flash of bright white light he was gone.

* * *

With a flash of light so bright it temporarily blinded, Phantom appeared in a summoning circle. The room he now occupied was large, a massive sofa made up a good portion of the room and there was a kitchen off to the side. Turning around, there was a large screen with even larger windows behind it. He turned back and now saw the people in the room.

One was green with a unitard on, one was sitting criss cross in front of some candles, a book and a small cauldron, one was floating and had a mass of bright pink hair, one was a cyborg of some kind and stood at the ready with a cannon for an arm and the last was shielding his eyes with a black cape.

“Who summons me?” Phantom asked in a far quieter tone than the teens apparently expected.

The one who appeared to have done the ritual stood and spoke first. “Mighty Phantom, we seek your assistance in dealing with a massive threat to our world. The demon Trigon looks to the Earth as his next conquest.” They took a breath and looked down. “He intends to use my power to do it, and I do not have the strength to stop him.”

Phantom settled his feet on the ground and placed a hand on their shoulder. “Peace young one. Why don’t we start with introductions? As you know, I am Phantom, he/him, now who has managed to summon me?”

“I am Raven, she/her, the rest here are my team the Teen Titans.” She turned to her team, they all seemed shocked. “I apologize for them, usually they take things in stride a lot easier. This is Beast Boy, he/him, Starfire she/her, Cyborg, he/him, and Robin, he/him.”

“Hmm, may I see the text you used to summon me?” He gestured to the book on the floor. “I was not aware of anything that could summon me in this realm. It is familiar to me though, I can’t place why.”

Raven raised the book into his hand. He leafed through it humming to himself before stopping on a photo of a note that looked familiar. He smiled to himself, remembering the time a century ago to him that himself and his partners helped a small civilization and they left a way for the leader to contact them if they needed help. He skimmed the next few paragraphs and then laughed and closed the book.

“I’ll help. In fact, my partners and I will help. It’s been a long while since we were in a mortal realm. I will return in a week’s time your time to discuss what we need to do. This will work to summon us if we forget or if your danger arrives early.” He magicked a paper with a seal on it and handed it to her. “I must discuss with my partners and will do research on this Trigon. Thank you for calling us, we’ve been aimless for too many decades. Have a good night.” He vanished in another flash of light.

* * *

Phantom appeared in a flash of light cackling as he tumbled across the chess board his partners were playing on, scattering the flowers and sandstone pieces across the green sky.

“Beloved you know not to do that,” Nightshade gathered the giggling king into her lap, Pharaoh moving to lean against her shoulder and push the hair from the eyes of Phantom, “but what has you laughing so?”

Phantom mimed wiping a tear from his eye. “Remember that civilization we helped out a century ago? Well apparently a few hundred years have passed in that world and the people we helped revered us as gods. A sorceress summoned us for help defeating a demon. They were so cute, little teenage heroes like we once were.” He sighed and settled into the arms of his lovers. “Have either of you heard of Trigon?”

[dxrknessembr8ced]

Far from the distance where everyone with in the reach of miles upon miles could see a large beaming light from the direction of the jiangshi and Nemesis which then the light have suddenly produced a thick red mist like fog covering the entire area as the red mist is the fog formation of the T-Erebus virus contaminating the entire area possibly killing thousands within their reach infecting the human survivors into the undead and kill darkstalkers through inhaling the virus with symptoms similar to that Ebola. From above the sky nighthawk and the crew within the chopper watched and record everything that is happening. The fight between her and nemesis became far more nightmarish than they believe. Hsien-Ko no longer hold back her pain, she is giving everything she had against Nemesis as her body gave out a dark menacing aura as her body once more begun to mutate and placing her into a more grisly metamorphosis.

Hsien-Ko gritted her sharp teeth stomping her feet onto the ground as sharp rows of spike like dorsal plates emerged from right behind her back all made from her flesh, her bones, and gore.

' PRAAACCCKKK!!! '

' PRAAACCKKK!! '

' PRAACCKKK! '

' PWAACCKK!! '

Then came a long tail to go along with her inner animalistic side fusing with her skin, flesh, and bone to create such a grotesque and grisly mess of a tail as at the end of her new tail is a horrid face with one eye and half it's skull exposed as the face is none other than, the face of her beloved older sister Mei-Ling which could symbolized that at thus moment no matter how much of a monster she has become her love for her older sister will always be eternal, for she is the only family she have. This could also be symbolizing how much humanity she has left, a small fraction of humanity slowly drift away from her body and mind and in those golden eyes tears of blood begun flooding down to her cheeks. Once her change have completed, there are voices in her head that echoed within, they are the cries of blood and wrath. The song of death and all of the destruction around her, the song that tells the wrath of the god incarnate.

" Persecution Of The Masses, sacred blessings count for NOTHING..... "

Nemesis watched what is happened as he cracked his knuckles preparing himself for the worse, though the tyrant have to admit this is far beyond anything he has ever seen but despite this, despite knowing he will not win nor will he survive he will continue on to fight and push forward, just as how will she will push on despite her immense suffering and constant state of agony. Right there as Nemesis begins to attack he paused as the woman is, glowing? Hsien-Ko's body slowly begun to glow again but this is something else entirely. Even her sharp dorsal spikes all the way down to her tail began glowing as she slowly opened her entire mouth as she unhinged her jaw exposing rows of sharp jagged covered in blood as blue glowing circles began to form in front of her acting as an odd particle accelerator all while the tyrant Nemesis watched on in confusion and caution. What Hsien-Ko is going to do, is unleashing a powerful condensed beam of ionized energy so powerful it will kill all and everything in her path in a single blast radius leaving nothing but just destruction in her wake. Upon unleashing the beam of such destructive power towards the tyrant, Nemesis try to get away by his whole entire body....

' KROOOOOOOSSSHH!!!! '

.....is sliced in half by the powerful beam as his entire body then exploded into nothing but charred ashes, leaving nothing behind the devastation finally killing him. The fight was no fight at all, it was an execution and though she had won and granted justice she could not stop here path of destruction as the voices within continued to sing the song of god's wrath from the voices of the people she has wronged, begging for god to grant them protection from Hsien-Ko's wrath all while setting the entire area to a fiery blaze loosing control of herself once more.

" Oh god give us you're protection.... "

Hsien-Ko's Path of destruction continued, her Humanity is drifting away further and further down her path of destruction all the way to the abyss, her older sister from in her mind tried to stop her, trying to snap her out of her monstrous rage and animalistic side of T-Erebus, but the urge became stronger than anything and she must pressed on to bring more suffering and misery into the world as the voices continued singing into her mind.

" Let no blame lie at the innocents who have prayed... "

Through the path of destruction there were no survivors, the BSAA, New shadow law operatives and everything else died at the path of destruction she made with her beam of pure ionized energy from with set this entire village to the ground as it sliced into the houses, causing powerful explosions similar to that of an atom bomb. Everyone from both sides including and shockingly Seth watched in absolute horror to what had happen and what have the virus itself done to Hsien-Ko that destructive power while it is fascinating but it is also terrifying for even the machine to take as the voices inside her head sing one last chorus as Hsien-Ko now finished her path of her destruction and she screamed in agony and regret for she finally became the very thing she feared the most.

" If your high praise is all we have, let us not be WITHOUT YOU! "

Hsien-Ko screamed into the darkness of the red mist, tears of blood flooding down in her eyes snapping out of her monstrous side as she come to her senses of what she did to everyone around her. Through the eyes of the people she's a monster, everything she feared becoming a reality. A darkstalker.

[thefiresofpompeii]

We Invest Things With Significance, or: Why Sutekh Isn’t Sutekh, But Death Itself. alternative title: Fear Is the Mind Killer.

the Doctor Who Series 14/1 thesis statement

i don’t think that sutekh has literally been attached to the TARDIS since Pyramids of Mars. i think that the salt at the edge of the universe — the grievous mistake that caused all myths to become a reality — was what made him appear. and he’s not the same character as sutekh the osiran, a powerful alien that delusionally believed himself to be a god. he *is* a god. nuwho-Sutekh is Death Incarnate.

ergo, this version of Sutekh is the literal psychic manifestation of the Doctor’s deep-seated, guilt-motivated fear of the idea that his arrival brings death wherever he treads. this death-anxiety was turned into a physical presence, haunting the TARDIS all through the Doctor’s timestream, because of the salt. that’s the reason why the Doctor didn’t spot any Susan Twists before Wild Blue Yonder…

there are two timelines in Doctor Who — relative time and universal time. universal time is the history of the universe. relative time is how the Doctor experiences it. in universal time, Sutekh has supposedly been hitchhiking through the vortex for millenia. in relative time, he has only been doing so since Fourteen accidentally invited myths back into the world.

the Doctor was insecure and afraid and believed the above quote (from the very first episode!! spoken by the very first named character in nuwho to die on screen, no less!) to be true. but until WBY it had only been true on a symbolic, metaphorical level. myths, legends, concepts and stories becoming real after the salt caused the Doctor’s anxiety about being a death-bringer to take the shape of a black dog — a universally recognised symbol of death — wearing the name and voice of his most formidable enemy, Sutekh.

in a way, this plotline mirrors The Woman from 73 Yards similarly being a manifestation of Ruby’s worst fear — that of being abandoned by everyone she loves for something intrinsic and incorrigible inside her that she cannot change. Ruby fears being left completely alone, so “The Woman” causes everyone in her life to leave her. the Doctor fears that his coming always heralds mass destruction (“maybe i’m the bad luck”), so “Sutekh” makes sure that the TARDIS literally becomes an altar of death.

ever since Wild Blue Yonder, stories in doctor who have become sources of immense power. the worst, most potent stories we tell ourselves are the lies that our sick brains whisper to us — secret anxieties that we’re not good enough, that all our loved ones will inevitably leave, that we carry nothing but bad luck in our wake. what better clay to mould a monster from than the protagonists’ own neuroses?

and if anybody’s still in doubt, here’s the plain text, all laid out below:

we invest things with significance. that’s what the salt at the edge of the universe really meant. that’s what almost every episode this series has been about, thematically — the imaginary kastarions, the cosplaying chuldur, the bogeyman written into life because kids need a scary story. myths become real to us because we believe in them, love and death and monsters too.