#no offense but i cannot imagine being an only child

[respectthepetty]

Gosh I’m so curious about your insight into why Juyeong removed his cross again in episode 6 and how Dohoe noticed it and became upset. I am so confused

IT'S ABOUT GOD!

Okay, gather 'round, you heathens (affectionately)! Let me school you in religious righteousness and shame.

Although I questioned if what Ju Yeong wore was a cross,

If it is a cross, Ju Yeong took it off BEFORE he confessed to Do Hoe.

He was using that moment to confess not only his love for Do Hoe, but also his sin.

So now, act like you were raised in a super religious family and truly believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord and savior who died horribly on the cross, so YOU could get into heaven one day.

That's right! God sacrificed his only son, so YOU wouldn't have to go to hell.

It's a heavy cross to bear, the weight of knowing someone died for your sins. Someone scarified their child, so you could have eternal happiness. God condemned his only son to be executed for you.

However, the catch is that you cannot sin in order to get into heaven.

You have to obey your parents.

You can't commit murder.

You can't idolize anyone above God for there is only one God, and he willingly allowed his son to be killed FOR YOU!

Oh, and you cannot lie because that's a slippy slope to hell.

So, once again, imagine you are that boy who wears a cross necklace and truly believes you will go to hell for your sins, so when you confess to the boy you like, you take off the necklace, because God should not bear witness to this offense.

But then, you sacrifice your body for that boy to be happy. You also take care of that boy's father to make up for the sin. You become the prodigal son, so the boy you like can live in eternal happiness even if it's without you.

And you keep wearing the cross, so God is with you in all you do and He will see the good in your heart.

God is with you always, in everything you do because the necklace is always on as a reminder of the one time you liked a boy and almost sent both of you to an earthly and eternal hell.

But the thing is, we know Ju Yeong takes the necklace off, and so does Do Hoe.

So how must that feel to Do Hoe to know that Ju Yeong removes his necklace when he is with him? How must that come across? Probably as if Ju Yeong carries shame about Do Hoe, or specifically about their relationship with each other and that Ju Yeong does not see what is between them as godly, but rather sinful, shameful, and even more, wrong.

When Do Hoe told the truth about the night of the incident, he looked at Ju Yeong's neck.

And it could come across as sexual, like he wants to kiss or touch Ju Yeong after such a brutally honest moment or when it's snowing, but in the context of the argument, that is an odd time to fantasize about wanting someone in such a sexual way.

But it's because Do Hoe is looking for the necklace. And it's there.

Ju Yeong had it on the first time he kissed Do Hoe, but he didn't wear it when they kissed in the van nor during their first time, so Do Hoe is checking to see if it's okay to kiss him now, with the necklace on.

Because if the necklace is off, he knows Ju Yeong will allow himself to be selfish, abandon God, and accept the sin.

But that has to be a fucking awful feeling, no?

To believe that you, a person who probably lied about your schooling and now sit in a fancy apartment with your nice car and cushy job because of that lie, are in love with a man who is so morally righteous that even your relationship with him is so sinful that he has to take off his cross and forsake God to be near you.

Once again, Ju Yeong could not be wearing a cross, but imagine being a liar in love with a saint.

Hell, I'd hate myself too.

@heretherebedork, @benkaben, @chicademartinica, @anxiouswannabe90skid

[ikemenomegas]

Levi decides he wants a baby. He doesn't have an alpha, but this is the modern era. Who needs an alpha to have a baby...

But the thought of a total stranger siring his child doesn't satisfy him either. After a year of thinking it over, he finally brings it up in front of his friends and someone recommends

You

Deeply suspicious of an alpha "chill" enough to simply stud for free, and recommended by his friends no less, he accepts an invitation to a group gathering where he spends the whole time not so subtly eyeing you and then pretending not to.

And when you finally get the opportunity to talk to him, you're so offensively nice, Levi has to hold himself back from ruining the encounter

But you can tell he has something on his mind. He doesn't tell you, but your receptiveness, laughing at his clumsy attempts at humor, it all lower his guard.

So when he finally meets you, formally, at a cafe with plenty of private space for you to talk, it's just a tiny bit less awkward.

He reminds himself that he doesn't even need your body. He just needs you to agree.

And he's so frustrated, because you don't. You want to "get to know him", whatever that means. And he knows it's reasonable. He does. But he's waited for so long. He's not getting any younger. And he's waited so long to bring it up and it cannot be so easy yet so impossible.

And again, you're so patient with him, with this frustration so deep that it nearly brings tears to his eyes.

Levi has spent his life carving space in the world for himself, surviving things that aren't so hard for other people, and it's painful, knowing that this thing is so important, that he can't just do this himself.

But you meet again. He wonders, mutinously, which of his acquaintances (...friends, temporarily downgraded) has turned rat on him to make you so nice, kind, patient, attentive, interested. In him.

Yet somehow, before he knows it, you've gone six months. Somehow, it's nothing like he'd expected.

"My answer is yes," you said, in a gap between conversation, cupping a lavender latte, a travesty but so far his only complaint today, between your palms. "But..." you hesitated, but then your resolve seemed to crystalize before his eyes, "I'd like to be involved. With the baby. If you'll let me, if you're open to it."

Levi knows his eyes go wide, and he knows he all but flinches, because he's never even imagined you asking this, never imagined asking you. That's not what this is. You're a donor, a practical stranger. That's what he keeps telling himself rather than wonder if he's just someone you humor on the weekends or odd weekday morning, rather than wonder if he'd rather you actually spend a few nights with him, instead of going through the procedure Hange had told him about, rather than wonder if the kid's going to have your eyes or your smile or your way of folding a napkin with perfect corners after a meal.

His heart is pounding and you look obviously worried, like you've gone too far. It's just...

"A baby is a lot of work," you say, waving your hands like you're showing him you're not a threat. Your scent turns placating, when did he start being able to scent you even under the scent patches? "Even with your family helping. And even if we're not mated, I've been doing research. They say having the donor alpha offer pheromones can help your recovery, and if the kid is omega or alpha, it helps them bond stably." You're babbling. This is surely not what he wants.

"You know what, never mind. I'm sorry. I know you value your privacy, and you won't need another person intruding on your space after the birth. It was wildly out of line for me to--"

"Can I think about it?" he chokes out before you can rescind the offer. "If you, if I, shit," he curses, his cheeks are flushed, but he's cold, but he's not scared. It's just unexpected.

You relax, but he can still see that you're uneasy. He's so stupidly grateful when you nod though and he wonders if you can scent him too, if you can taste it wafting faintly from his neck, that relief.

Neither of you manage to stomach anything more than another tea, and your smile is as weak as his joke about the second latte you order. When you turn your wrist, he can see the rapid flutter of the pulse there and he knows your heart is hammering. He blames it on the caffeine.

You give him space, although you continue to text him regularly. He's stupidly grateful that your texts are normal, even though he appreciates the effort it must take to pretend - because he knows you, and he feels the same way. It takes effort to reply, but he does, because he doesn't want you to think that he wants this to be over.

He's not running away. He's just thinking.

Erwin is no help, happily mated as he is, but he is comforting and encouraging, and being around Erwin's two-year-old, which is really not as bad as people say it is, helps.

Seeing Erwin's alpha doing the normal childcare things Levi has seen a hundred times and thought nothing of helps too.

Hange is clinical and excited about it, spouting unhelpful statistics about post-partum alpha-omega bonds, even between unmated pairs, and mentions studies done with surrogate couples. That makes Levi flush, briefly imagining he's having your baby and not his own, something he quickly shakes off.

Mikasa is surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, level headed about the whole thing. The only thing she's never normal about has been her own mate anyways.

And she asks him the question everyone else may have also been asking, but he hadn't heard.

"What do you want?"

And then he gets to sourly sit through dinner where Mikasa looks at Eren like she wants to literally eat him, like down to the bone, and he excuses himself, wondering how long it will take until he's soft and sluggish, until he can't move so fast that Eren can't tell when he's moved.

Then he sits in his house for a week. He asks you not to call, not to text. To give him time. And you do, and he hopes that you hate it, at least just a little.

At the end of that week, he can't eat in the morning. He turns his phone over and over in his hand before he takes a deep breath, feeling like he's going to throw up.

And then he calls you.

[baerverteidiger]

Warning - What you are about to read may be offensive to you.

"The Truth"

In the United States, we live in a society that "promotes" pedophilia.

Why would I say this?

I live in the United States and have grown up watching television, movies, media, and more.

Most of the people on television and movies are young men and women in high school/college and/or they resemble someone of that age.

When we watch commercials and media, children are put into these advertisements to "entice" us to buy and/or eat their product.

When we watch the "new" Star Trek Movies... we ONLY see people that look to be fresh out of highschool or college (some of the actors look like they could still be in high school!)

To me... Every single place you look, every single person looks to be young, skinny, and child-like.

(My examination of media)

-----

Why would I say all this?

First... we have thousands and thousands of individuals in prisons and jails convicted of pedophilia.

We have TONS of people whom have sexual ideations for the youth and SOCIETY wonders, "Where did all of these pedophiles come from?"

In my honest opinion, I believe all this pedophilia comes from "Media."

----

If I was a straight man and had a wife, I would imagine that I would want a woman with large tits and wide hips.

Why?

Women are meant to have wide hips. Women have wide hips so they can give birth to children.

Women are also meant to have large tits. Women use their large tits to feed their child after giving birth.

We NEVER see women with wide hips and big tits on television ANYMORE!!

A classic example of this was in, "Star Trek: Voyager"

Seven of Nine used to be put into a TIGHT FITTING outfit that accentuated her big chest and her wide hips. Not only that, but much of the cast were all older individuals that DID NOT look like young adults.

Nowadays... EVERYBODY looks like YOUNG ADULTS whom are pre-pubescent! Even Star Trek actors all look FRESH OUT OF COLLEGE and glamourized!!!

What ever happened to glamourizing "ADULTS!"

To all those women whom COMPLAIN about women ALWAYS being sexualized... Wouldn't you rather ADULTS be sexualized and NOT children?!

We in the United States... DO NOT HAVE ADEQUATE MODELS FOR ADULTS ON TELEVISION!!

We do NOT see VOLUPTUOUS FULL FIGURED WOMEN ON TELEVISION AND MEDIA!!!

----

Society really wonders... "Why is pedophilia SO RAMPANT?"

The truth is RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE!!

I am going to say this plain and simply... Hollywood, FCC, and the powers that be... ARE PROMOTING PEDOPHILIA!

I cannot tell you the last time I saw a FULL FIGURED woman that was voluptuous and sexually appealing on television... EVERYBODY LOOKS LIKE GODDAMN CHILDREN.

------

There are many examples in the "Animal Kingdom" that correlate to what I am saying.

Many animals STRIVE to mate with the largest and most beautiful male or female.

But... the example that I think of the most...

Humans are like flowers.

Flowers start off as a small seed, which geminates and starts to grow. As time goes on, flowers become BIG and BEAUTIFUL.

This analogy of flower to humans is THE EXACT SAME.

--------

Another major reason why I do NOT like our society living in this "pedophile society"....

We are making "under-developed" and "under-fed" people... OUR ROLE MODELS.

These role models are UNREALISTICALLY skinny! They do NOT eat ENOUGH FOOD to sustain a GROWING BODY!

I have heard conversations of adult women whom say, "I couldn't even eat a whole "Happy Meal" and look at how skinny I am!"

That bitch is being serious?! A "Happy Meal" is meant for CHILDREN! An adult woman will NOT even finish a meal for a CHILD?! This is NOT my type of ROLE MODEL!!

Don't you see what is WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE!!!

Everybody resembles high school kids and under-developed young girls.

And... Society wonders, "Why there are so many pedophiles around the world?"

----

Now... I am going to play "Devil's Advocate"...

Young girls start having periods around the age of 10-16. This fact alone MUST mean... that girls reach sexual maturity at the age of... 10 or 16, right?

WRONG!!

Girls still have to GROW and DEVELOP their mammory glands. They also need to grow to their physical potential to GIVE BIRTH.

-------

When I walk into a crowded room of people... I see young kids and scrawny puny little punks, whom think they are tough shit and everybody wants their genitals.

Society glamourizes these young adults...

I find it to be APPALLING that some meek and meager little runt is being "glorified" for being a dweeb with no muscle mass and looks like some pre-pubescent cunt.

--------

Like I said...

People will likely find this post offensive, but the fact is real...

Pedophilia runs rampant in society and around the world.

There are NO SEXUALLY STIMULATING FULL FIGURED MODELS, because we live in a "Pedophile Society."

----------

This post is NOT about hate. It is about EXPOSING pedophilia and EXPLAIN how our ROLE MODELS and MEDIA creates THESE MONSTERS whom kidnap little boys and girls WORLDWIDE!

Tumblr employees whom do NOT Blaze this are ENCROACHING ON MY FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!

[autisticlancemcclain]

fic rec friday 37

hello and welcome to fic rec friday! where, on friday, i rec five of my favourite fics.

1. Fade to Black by @yokohogawa

Things between Keith and Lance are changing but Keith is restless, especially with Shiro still weak, and ends up taking a bad decision: he leaves Lance alone in the Castle with a Lion he cannot pilot. Unable to form Voltron without the newly appointed Red Paladin, the four Paladins left struggle against the sudden attack of a Galra ship and later on take damage from the explosion of a star in close proximity. Lance, on the other end, is left to defend the Castle by himself and has little time to succeed: without energy, the Lions have only 6 hours of breathable air. Beyond that point, his friends will be dead.

okay yes technically this series is unfinished. HOWEVER the first two works ARE finished, and they are amazing showstopping incredible etc. tbh im not much of a black paladin lance fan, i genuinely think solo leadership is not what he is suited for, but this fic made me way more open to it. the way he handled severe crises was as fear stricken as it was awe inspiring highly recommend

2. once again i am a child by @lilaclavenders

“You’re not a spare tyre,” Adam interjects.  “I know that,” Lance says, too unsure to sound completely defensive.   “That almost sounded like a question.” “No... it didn’t,” Lance says.

Lance and Adam talk.

i have always been a fan of lance and adam even tho its the most evidence lacking fanon thing in this fandom. its truly just so interesting. and to have lance as a young cadet getting slammed so badly just in so many different directions being given at least one grownup in his corner...its a good read.

3. Lance the language man by @irish-vampire-blog

Lance didn't really try to learn a language. He just, kind of, picks up the basics and then works from there. Its usually unintentional. Ish.

He isn't stupid though. He isn't an idiot. He just isn't the same kind of smart as his friends are.

this kind of smart for lance is so REAL bc no he cannot do like quantum physics or whatever probably but the way he seems to have a pretty innate ability to successfully do many things that he tries. he just can u know?? thats the autism with the gay audacity i would imagine but i love seeing fics like this

4. my boyfriend's back (and you're gonna get in trouble) by teacupfulofbrains

hey la, hey la, my boyfriend's back

Keith Kogane has never heard of Vine. Lance McClain takes personal offense to this, and makes it his personal mission to teach his boyfriend to meme. Keith is confused, mostly.

(OR: several instances of Keith not getting the meme™ and two times he did)

I LOVE THIS FIC SO BAD I CANT BELIEVE I HAVENT RECCED IT BEFORE. yes i am a cringe zillenial who still finds vine funny and quotes it on the internet but truly idc idc. this fic is funny. this fic is cute. established klance my love and light. also keith comparing lances eyes to the star of bombay is some of the gayest shit ever and also the only time i will entertain blue eyed lance

5. The Most Dangerous Thing is to Love by running_downn

Last time something like this happened to Lance, Keith wasn’t there. He’d thought he would have been able to do something if he had been there, or at least if he was, the guilt wouldn’t be so heavy on his chest. But this time he was there. He was right fucking there and he decided that it was infinitly worse.

~

Basically there's a new threat after the Galra and it almost kills Lance. Desperate making out ensues, but it's okay to recognize when it's not the right time for it. Keith cries a lot cause he's older and grizzled and therefore not as emotionally stunted.

green sock reality? team still out fighting as adults and lance isn’t a fucking farmer while the rest of the team isn’t? keith’s abandonment issues treated with respect and dignity and also the acknowledgement that he’s older and therefore mature enough to handle those issues in a way that doesn’t risk a relationship that is important to him? lance understanding all this and using the supportive nature he is known for??? yes yes yes. stellar fic that should have way more hits than it does

that’s it for today!! i’ll see y’all back next friday for the next fic rec post!!!

[aucatgirl]

I'd like to hear your complaints about mha please. I think rei should've rolled her ex husband off a cliff.

SIGH. Here is my official diatribe against MHA’s ending. This is definitely not my first rodeo with a series I love and had hope for having a bad ending but wow this one stings harder than usual

What’s craziest about all this is how much I defended this manga up until the last ten chapters. I loved this manga so much and had such high hopes for it. My own MHA social circle was nothing but huge fans that also had high hopes, some criticisms about things but willing to give the benefit of the doubt… But then 420 happened and I snapped out of it (and then my mutuals also snapped out of it, one by one, lol). It was so rushed and baffling that it actually ruined my day when it released, lmao. Deku regaining his arms via Eri ripping off her horn via child mutilation was only the beginning and I was not prepared for the everything else that would happen

The biggest issue starts and ends with Deku, who apparently got a secret lobotomy during the dark Deku arc and has not been written the same since. He completely loses his ability to be introspective in any capacity. “I’ve been having these thoughts about Tenko too” where?? Where is it??? Where is literally any of your real thoughts on Tenko or losing OFA or anything??? This manga used to have such an interesting insight into Deku’s mind. And it’s just, gone. A big issue with Shigaraki’s death goes back to that. Where’s the reflection?? “Show don’t tell” doesn’t work that well with a protagonist that barely shows any emotion at all!!

When it comes to the saving Shigaraki plot, I saw some mutuals suggest that Horikoshi changed his mind on the ending at some point between the togachako fight and 423. I reread those chapters and disagreed. Deku being unable to save Shigaraki is a plot twist and it’s a BAD one. All of the build up leading to 423 is that Deku would save Shigaraki, not just his soul, full stop. Unless it really was a last minute change or pushed by editors/SJ, I cannot imagine that this ending was not planned the way it was, so I will criticize Horikoshi as such. The twist was ass. And now we’re left with an ending of “well we can try to prevent villains, but if they’re already villains, beat ‘em up!” which is just.. AUGH!!! Completely throws Twice’s death down the drain!!! I can’t believe we were left with “we’ll do better next time” when the whole point was that the next generation would do better than the previous… Deku’s generation was supposed to be that one!! Not to mention that All Might seemingly forgot about his personal connection to Shigaraki…

It’s also wild that the togachako plot was the best written tragedy while also being the most offensive of all of them. I don’t care how many people Toga killed 😭 she was explicitly queer. At least izuocha didn’t happen, that would’ve made things so bad I don’t think I would’ve been able to interact with the series anymore. It was a one-off line but Toga’s death had the most direct impact on improving society, however, it was a ONE-OFF LINE, there is zero indication that Uravity is as prominent of a hero as this line makes you believe, which sucks. Also, the fact that the cameras got retconned is ridiculous, just another knife twist of completely gutting the theme of rehabilitation and societal changes on how people view villains

And… that’s not even mentioning what the fuck happened with 3baka. I understand the rush. Horikoshi has health issues, there are time limits for endings. I would’ve been okay with just the rush. But the writing decisions that were made… why the fuck did Kurogiri die like that?? In the most baffling, inconsequential way possible? Aizawa wasn’t shown, Mic didn’t react, it’s never brought up again except for a tiny, tiny panel of Shirakumo’s grave. I guess the whole plot with nomu and how they’ve slowly been humanized was just completely scrapped, because Kurogiri’s death was more inconsequential than Hood’s. If you’re going to kill Kurogiri, make him die by AFO’s hands. It would’ve worked a lot better as a tragedy rather than random and unnecessary Bakugo moment

This is honest to god one of the worst pages in the entire series:

Finally okay I honestly don’t care for the Todorokis so I don’t really have any strong thoughts on their ending. The ending Dabi got is actually better than I expected after Shigaraki died lol. Though I do agree that Rei pushing around Endeavor in his wheelchair is a hilariously bad look and I don’t know why Horikoshi thought it was a good idea

Here is one thing I will say, though. One final word:

Foster brothers Shigaraki and Kurogiri never got debunked!! Can’t have your theories be wrong if you get no information about a character!

[koukouture]

Ok no because hear me out-

When Emet Selch/Solus first appears near the end of Stormblood his conversations with Varis make me think a little y'know. Idk if I hallucinated this, but I think he says something along the lines of "you were always so emotional" to Varis. Or like, he insinuates that Varis has always had little control over his emotions.

(I haven't gotten to shadowbringers yet plz do not spoil too much. also apologies in advanced if I am wrong abt Solus/Emet Selch)

Solus was undoubtedly a horrible father and grandfather- and Varis is too- but Varis was sensitive as a child. Like he's genuinely just a guy- according to the wiki, like he denounced a massacre and disbanded the legion responsible. Also, his dad died and that kind of left Solus to be his paternal figure which was definitely super fucked up. Given how much Solus belittles him even in death and when he's the emperor- he was no better in life.

And idk where I saw this, but I think he actually genuinely loved his late wife? Y'know, Zenos' mom who died in childbirth or something? And listen, he's only twenty years older than Zenos- he was a young father. Can you fucking imagine that? Being raised by your asshole grand daddy, and then your loving wife fucking dies and leaves you with an entire new human being at like twenty.

My point is that Varis isn't a monster like the rest of the imperial family. No I'm not defending him, but he somehow just turned out pretty normal compared to the other two memebers of the royal family we know of. He has sympathy, he has morals, he has (or at least, used to have) a line he will not cross. Yeah he turned out a militaristic tyrant, but he was a normal fucking guy at one point and we definitely see that it peeks through a bit. Like I kinda remember he at least tries to be diplomatic when he meets with the alliance and the scions, and he still seems hurt by Solus' words. Idk man I just- he's not completely gone. He has some humanity left in him and he isn't as unapologetic as Zenos or Solus/Emet Selch.

And listen, I'm not defending his parenting style either- but I do understand why he just had no desire to be present in Zenos' life. After having Solus as his parental figure for most of his life, I think he has a fucked up idea of parenthood.

See, I think he loves Zenos somewhere deep down but yk generational trauma and maybe he's even a little envious of what Zenos is. Zenos is this paragon of mortal strength; a prodigy. Varis was no doubt great when he was younger as well, but Zenos is just so strong, unfeeling, and self assured- things Varis was expected to be when he was younger. He wasn't any of that though because we know (or I know because I hallucinated it) that he was emotional when he was younger. Also, Varis was just kinda neglectful towards Zenos, no? He never outright abused him or gave Zenos reason (for most of his life at least) to believe that Varis hated him. Idc if it's not canon, to me, I don't think he hates Zenos. Hates what Zenos had become maybe, but he seemed genuinely distraught or at least shocked when Elidibus was in Zenos' body. Like he took offense to it so you cannot tell me he doesn't at least care a bit.

Idk man. I don't even think I was able to get my point across that well?? I have lotsa thoughts bc I'm writing a little thing. Once again, not defending Varis, but he's very interesting to me in this regard because generational trauma is a song and dance any ethnic child is familiar with so I just had to share my two cents.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous asked: I appreciate that you are a very thoughtful and clever commentator on culture even when you have strong conservative views. So let me ask you where do you stand on the censorship of Roald Dahl’s books by his publishers?

Although he was never knighted nor awarded any significant distinctions by the government, turning down an OBE in 1986 as insufficiently impressive, Roald Dahl was by far the most popular children’s writer of his generation, and continues to be totemic for both readers and authors. Indeed I read all the Dahl books as a child and had fun doing so. It is debatable how much of a career David Walliams would have if his books didn’t overtly pay homage to Dahl’s, even down to hiring his regular illustrator Quentin Blake for some of them. And yet Dahl’s recent public reputation has been chequered enough throughout his own lifetime for the Royal Mint not to issue a coin commemorating his centenary, as they described him as not being “an author of the highest reputation” – an excellent piece of bureaucratic double-speak.

So I was surprised to see how viral the controversy regarding the rewriting of Roald Dahl’s books, to make them more commercial sensitive, had crescendoed in the media in the UK and abroad. In all honesty I find the whole thing rather tedious.  It’s been discussed to death and my feelings are predictable - you can already guess that I’m against the changes, the people who read me already agree, and the people who disagree would never listen to me anyway. I’m against any censorship of Dahl’s books on the grounds of morality and also quality.

Sometimes they’re editing Dahl-as-such and sometimes his characters. The gluttonous Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is no longer described as “fat” but rather as “enormous,” thus leaving readers free to imagine that he’s a powerlifter in a high weight classification. Dahl himself is the insensitive one there. When a character says of another character “I’d knock her flat,” Puffin’s so-called ‘super sensitivity readers’ (hired within the publisher’s staff to weed out things each would find ‘problematic’) replace that fierce language with “I’d give her a right talking to.” But what if the character speaking is the type to use strong language? Or do bad things? Shall we have a version of Crime and Punishment in which Raskolnikov skulks around St. Petersburg fantasising about giving his landlady a right talking to?

Sometimes it’s hard to tell what offence the super-sensitives imagine: It’s not clear that calling someone a “trickster” rather than a “saucy beast” makes an improvement in manners; what is clear is that the meaning is completely different. But: while Dahl referred to Mrs. Twit as “ugly and beastly,” she is now just called “beastly,” though I cannot imagine why calling someone a “beast” is unacceptable but calling them “beastly” is hunky-dory.

One could go on about this silliness all day, and many are doing so, but I actually think there’s an important point to be made in response to these changes: the people doing it have no right to do so. They have the legal right, but what they’re doing is morally wrong.

It’s morally wrong first of all because it’s dishonest. The books will still be sold as Roald Dahl’s - it is his name that will draw readers to these volumes - but they are in fact Dahl’s involuntary collaboration with people who find some of his words and phrases intolerable. That this is so should be announced on the book’s covers – but you may be sure that it will not be. If you own the rights to Dahl’s books but passionately believe that what Dahl wrote is too offensive for today’s readers to face, then your only honourable option is to stop selling the damn books.

This may sound like an odd digression, but bear with me: I’ve been reading a bit of John Ruskin and in his The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Ruskin confronts the widespread practice, in the England of his time, of either dramatically renovating or tearing down old buildings.

First, Ruskin says, when a building is stripped down to its shell and given an entirely new interior, those who do it should call it what it is: destruction. “But, it is said, there may come a necessity for restoration! Granted. Look the necessity full in the face, and understand it on its own terms. It is a necessity for destruction. Accept it as such, pull the building down, throw its stones into neglected corners, make ballast of them, or mortar, if you will; but do it honestly, and do not set up a Lie in their place.”

So also I say: Do not set up a Lie in place of Roald Dahl’s actual books. If they are intolerable, do not tolerate them. Let them go out of print, take the digital editions off the market, and force those of us who are bad enough to desire the books to scour second-hand bookstores for them.

But let’s pursue Ruskin’s argument a bit further. Sometimes a building is torn down altogether, razed to the very ground. What does Ruskin say about that?

“Of more wanton or ignorant ravage it is vain to speak; my words will not reach those who commit them, and yet, be it heard or not, I must not leave the truth unstated, that it is again no question of expediency or feeling whether we shall preserve the buildings of past times or not. We have no right whatever to touch them. They are not ours. They belong partly to those who built them, and partly to all the generations of mankind who are to follow us. The dead have still their right in them: that which they laboured for, the praise of achievement or the expression of religious feeling, or whatsoever else it might be which in those buildings they intended to be permanent, we have no right to obliterate. What we have ourselves built, we are at liberty to throw down; but what other men gave their strength and wealth and life to accomplish, their right over does not pass away with their death; still less is the right to the use of what they have left vested in us only. It belongs to all their successors. It may hereafter be a subject of sorrow, or a cause of injury, to millions, that we have consulted our present convenience by casting down such buildings as we choose to dispense with. That sorrow, that loss, we have no right to inflict.”

As astonishingly eloquent and impassioned declaration, which, in regard to architecture, one might plausibly disagree with. Buildings take up a good deal of space, and the maintenance of them can be expensive; there certainly are circumstances in which demolition is indeed necessary. Ruskin, remember, grants this point, though not without a bit of hedging and tweaking.

But Ruskin’s argument is irrefutable when it comes to the other arts of the past – poetry, story, music, painting, sculpture. There can be no justification for mutilating or destroying them to suit “our present convenience.” We do not know whether later generations will think as we do, will share our preferences and our sensitivities; to preserve the art of the past is to show respect not only for that past but also for our possible futures. And it is to establish a standard for how we wish to be treated by our descendants.

Even the Victorians (and some of their successors) who thought sculptures of naked men too offensive for ladies to see merely covered the pudenda with plaster leaves - the penises themselves remained untouched, for later generations, and less delicate viewers, to see if they wish.

The second domain argument I have against censoring Dahl’s book is the patent drop in linguistic quality. In other words, they patently degrade the quality of the text. Witness how Dahl’s mild comic surrealism gives way to a joyless lecture:

No one would deny that Dahl was a rather scabrous and even sadistic writer. But part of the fun of reading him, as a child, is grappling with the darkness - beginning to comprehend the shadows one has glimpsed around the world. These small-souled artistic vandals are flattening out those interesting quirks in the grip of a paralysing fear that someone, somewhere might read it and then take or give offence.

If Roald Dahl cannot even say that Mrs Trunchbull has a horsey face - because nobody has unsightly features or because we are forbidden from noticing them - what else could be changed? If books like Matilda and films like Gone With the Wind are being sliced and diced, what could happen to less famous and more genuinely provocative books, films, opera, even songs? Indeed, look at how Dahl’s publishers have decided that authors as illustrious as Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling - referenced in Matilda but now replaced with Jane Austen and John Steinbeck - are too dangerous to even mention in front of kids. Do these literary scolds actually think there is no literary value in reading Heart of Darkness or Kim? Jesus wept.

The final clinching argument I’ve heard from critics who want to censor Dahl and his books is because he was an alleged anti-semite. And if he was, so what? If that’s the standard then we should be binning every author, artist, composer, musician for any kind of transgression or character flaw against some absolute moral standard.

As the great pianist and conductor, Daniel Barenboim, once said of Wagner, that it was reductive to say that Wagner was a terrible man with reactionary ideas in general, and therefore his music, no matter how wonderful, is intolerable because it is infected with the same poison as his prose. How would that be demonstrated? How many writers, musicians, poets, painters would be left if their art was judged by their moral behaviour? And who is to decide what level of ugliness and turpitude can be borne in the artistic production of any given artist?

Once one starts to censor, there is no theoretical limit. Rather, I would think that it is incumbent on the mind to be able to analyse a complex phenomenon such as the question of  such creative artists whether they be a Wagner, a Celine, or a Dahl; or indeed, to give another example, Joseph Conrad as analysed in a famous essay written by the brilliant Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, reading Conrad's Heart of Darkness for an African today. With all these artists the challenge is the same: to show where the evil is and where the art is.

The truth is for a mature mind it should be possible to hold together in one's mind two contradictory facts, that Dahl was a great writer, and second, that Dahl was mean spirited shitty human being. Unfortunately, one cannot have one fact without the other.

Does that mean, therefore, that Dahl should not be read as he wrote his books? Most assuredly not, although it is obvious that if an individual is still troubled then there is no need at all to inflict Dahl on oneself - but you can’t make that choice for others.

An open attitude towards art is always necessary. This is not to say that artists shouldn't be morally judged for their immorality or evil practices; it is to say that an artist's work cannot be judged solely on those grounds and banned or censored accordingly.

Now I’ve heard from Dahl’s supporters that there are excuses that can be made. Dahl’s publisher Tom Maschler, who died in 2020, was a notoriously difficult and egocentric man, as well as being Jewish, and it could be argued, somewhat tendentiously, that many of Dahl’s attacks on Jews could be interpreted as necessarily veiled expressions of his venting his frustration with Maschler. Hmmm, yes, well.

More persuasive is Dahl’s friend Isaiah Berlin’s comment that, “I thought he might say anything. Could have been pro-Arab or pro-Jew. There was no consistent line. He was a man who followed whims, which meant he would blow up in one direction, so to speak”.

Dahl was a peculiar man whose richness of imagination went along with deep personal eccentricity. This was both tolerated and facilitated by those around him. Although JK Rowling raised eyebrows with her first post-Harry Potter novel, The Casual Vacancy, containing swearing and sex scenes, it seems extremely unlikely that she would have interrupted her career as one of Britain’s most successful ever writers to produce an erotic novel aimed at adults, as Dahl did with his (excellent and deeply un-PC) 1979 book My Uncle Oswald.

Likewise, the macabre violence visited upon children in books such as The Witches and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory suggests an ambivalence towards his readership that may have been borne out by one of the more eyebrow-raising anecdotes in Kingsley Amis’s Memoirs. Upon meeting Dahl at a party and being asked if he has any ideas for children’s books (“that’s where the money is today, believe me”), Amis regretfully replied that he did not, saying “I don’t think I enjoyed children’s books much when I was a child myself. I’ve got no feeling for that kind of thing.” To his surprise, Dahl replied “Never mind, the little bastards’d swallow it.”

Yet, just as Berlin suggested that the writer would switch from one persona to another on a whim, Dahl later collared Amis again at the party, and, apparently sincerely, informed him:

“If you do decide to have a crack, let me give you one warning. Unless you put everything you’ve got into it, unless you write it from the heart, the kids’ll have no use for it. They’ll see you’re having them on. And just let me tell you from experience that there’s nothing kids hate more than that. They won’t give you a second chance either. You’ll have had it for good as far as they’re concerned. Just you bear that in mind as a word of friendly advice.”

Amis records Dahl walking off “with a stiff nod and an air of having asserted his integrity by rejecting some particularly outrageous and repulsive suggestion”. What he hints at, but does not explicitly state, is that Dahl was perfectly sincere in both statements, switching with no apparent contradiction in his own mind between the personae of cynical exploiter of the young and heartfelt creator of magical stories.

This ability to snap between attitudes and personae might be described as sociopathic, and indeed much of Dahl’s life and career does hint at an unbalanced and inconsistent mind, both when it comes to attitudes that most people would find repellent and in the richness and immersive nature of the characters and worlds he created.

Like his great hero Lewis Carroll, another visionary eccentric, the wonder of Dahl’s writing is that he believed wholeheartedly in a fantastical universe, and the books represent that universe committed to paper. They are less a creative feat, and more a marvel of reportage, from the most vivid of imaginations.

None of which excuses his anti-Semitism. It is nonetheless the case that we should regard Dahl’s often provocative and thoughtless public statements in context with his imaginative genius. Rather than castigate him as yet another privately educated racist, we should instead treat him, like so many of his characters and peers, as a naïve and unworldly man who never entirely left the realm of make-believe.

We should neither censor Roald Dahl, nor celebrate him unreservedly, but instead treat his life and work with the careful consideration that it deserves, never forgetting the joy that it has given many millions over the decades.

The immediate and most important point: buy your kid a different book. Just buy your kid a different book! There are tens of thousands of children’s books out there that are inoffensive by anyone’s definition. Just buy those books. Exercise your choice. Not everything is made for you. I get that people feel that they are nothing but their consumption, that they have no identity but that which they buy. But not everything is for you. Buy something else. Buy something else!

But the cynic in me thinks this is all playing quite nicely into Puffin’s hands. It’s one great way for Dahl’s publishers (and Netflix) to make a killing because they have in effect sanctioned two versions of Dahl’s books now: the censored line of books and the original unedited books under the ‘classic collection’ label. It’s like New Coke and Coke Classic, clearly differentiated by label.

In this new woke world it wouldn’t surprise me if they did advertise the one and not heavily advertise the other; they could make their preferences clear; they could say “If you are a Good Person you will purchase our sanitised versions rather than the nastiness written by Roald Dahl himself.” And then people could buy the version they want.

I know which version children and adult readers would want. The so-called in’-house ‘Super Sensitivity Readers’ would choose the sanitised version because they believe in the one canonical rule of their world view: the reader is always wrong. Because any genuine reader is, by definition, not a super sensitive.

Thanks for your question.

[livlepretre]

I know we’re way past it, but that miscarriage Elena had just messed me up.

Is Klaus going to ever find out? Tyler?

And will maybe Elena ever get pregnant when she with klaus because a girl need her HOPE lol

The miscarriage is the darkest point of this story-- it was also the hardest part to write, but something I also felt couldn't be shied away from just because it was hard-- one of the core missions of this fic is to write about hard things in a real way, despite the supernatural trappings-- and to try to give them the emotional weight they deserve, which is so often glossed over in media. (Like, depression and grief are not story arcs. They cannot be resolved in 4 or 5 episodes, and it's offensive how often those things are treated that way with a simple solution. The reality is there is no single solution. Time doesn't heal all wounds. We just hope and pray that we grow strong enough to hold those things, that we find room inside of ourselves to hold them.)

Anyway.

The miscarriage is not "over" as a story element. Elena is still grieving it, but she's grown able to bear the burden of it. That happened over the years and years alone at the manor when she had to find a way to do that or else give up and die. It could certainly come up again in the right circumstances.

I'm not entirely sure whether either Tyler or Klaus would ever find out. If Elena sees Tyler again, she might tell him-- or she might decide to spare him the grief of a child that died years ago, and keep that pain to herself. Especially if she thought he had a chance of being happy. I'm not saying I think that is the right thing to do, just that I could see her choosing to do that. And also... because I think she might be afraid to open that door inside of her heart again, to crack it wide open as far as she would need to to tell the father of her lost baby what happened. But who knows. Maybe sharing that with Tyler would bring her some catharsis, and maybe she would do it because she thinks he has a right to know, painful as the knowledge is.

As for Klaus. I also don't know. The thing about the miscarriage is that the entire grief of that episode-- the entire existence of this child she loves despite not even knowing she existed until after her death-- belongs to her. Solely to her. Right now, it's not something she would ever want to share with him. Perhaps she might in the future. She would have to both want to tell him and need to tell him, for her own reasons, emotionally. He's certainly not going to find out otherwise. I don't think Rebekah would tell Klaus casually-- even she understands what a confidence Elena was sharing with her, and besides-- she thinks it was a normal pregnancy with Matt or something.

What happens exactly with this thread is something that I'll only know for sure once I get there. It's going to depend on what is right.

(I also thought Elena would tell Klaus about her suicide attempt in New Orleans in chapter 41; that happened in the original draft, but I realized as I was working on it that she would keep that back from him-- it wasn't the right time emotionally for her to share that with him, if she ever does.)

As for whether she will ever get pregnant again in this fic-- it's certainly possible. She knows that hybrids are fertile, or at least, they are fertile when sleeping with her. (She might not realize they are generally able.) It might be something on her mind were she to sleep with Klaus again. (when, lol)

But whatever the case, as I have promised many times before, Elena herself is going to have some version of a happy ending when all is said and done. Whether that includes having children with Klaus is something I will leave as a "read and find out!" (But: can you imagine having children with FE!Klaus????? YIKES)

[the-owl-tree]

As little as I trust the Erins, maybe Dovewing won't die? We know how reckless Lightleap is being (or at least, from the earlier books. I don't know if she's still like that because I hate Nightheart so much I haven't been able to motivate myself into reading the rest yet). As much as I don't want her to die either..it wouldn't be out of the question for her to see something she wasn't meant to see and be killed for it. I mean, if Frostpaw's attack was from Berryheart and Splashtail's collaboration, I don't think Berryheart would be above killing her own clanmates if she had to- or at the very least, keeping silent even if it wasn't her idea. Plus, while killing off Dovewing would 100% be an exilable offense (besides y'know, the xenophobic group she formed), killing Tigerstar and Dovewing's daughter would serve well too. But I think that would be just as stupid, I think Lightleap should live forever and do whatever she wants. <3

I think the 'Dovewing might die' comes from that paranoid little seed in me that's only been egged on by the Flutter Debacle. Like, I would not mind Dovewing dying (and would even enjoy it) if it served her arc and was a respectful goodbye to the character. If it's a death that serves Tigerheart or Ivypool's characters or is so underwhelming and drab that it rivals Sandstorm, that's when I'm not feeling peachy.

But maaaan Lightleap cannot die her arc has just began, they can't take her out. I actually think, in this scenario of Berryheart trying to kill someone, Fringewhisker is the most likely candidate. Berryheart just lost one child to "clan-swapping", imagine if she forced Fringewhisker into one last trial and killed her. Hoping not because Fringewhisker deserves way better than that!! But if murder is the route they take, I could see (a hopefully attempted) murder of poor Fringe.

[thesilverlady]

I really loved your headcanons about helaena so may I ask of you headcanons about Aegon ii if you don't mind ofc!!! You know his upbringing, his relationships with siblings+dragon..etc anything that comes in your mind!

agh, I'm so sorry for the late reply anon 🙏 I thought I had published my response but it was camping in the drafts all along 💀 I'm so happy to hear you liked my headcanons. I'm always so nervous with sharing them 'cause I never know how ppl will react. so really, thank you for being so nice.

Aegon II Targaryen headcanons (I tried to keep them a bit generic similar to how I did with Helaena)

1) Aegon was a very lively, active child. Adventurous, curious, stubborn and loud, he loved being the center of attention as his mother showed him off and bragged about her firstborn living son.

2) After Helaena was born Rhaenyra quit any attempts at bonding with him. Not even their father's gentle encouragement could keep her long. So Aegon figured annoying her and picking up fights with her were the best way to notice him.

3) Aemond is definitely his favorite sibling. Their shared temper and ache for recognition and attention serves quite the bonding experience. They got along much smoother when they were younger however, because back then he was the main male figure Aemond had to look up to and his brother always followed him around without trouble. Aegon used to pretend it annoyed him but now that it no longer happens, he can admit to himself he misses it quite a lot.

4) Sunfyre is his pride and joy and he never misses an oppurtunity to praise and show her off. Oftentimes he enjoys talking privately to his dragon, speaking up everything that's going on in his mind.

5) He absolutely loathes his uncle Daemon, and it's possibly the only thing he shares common with his grandfather. Aegon doesn't consider him a threat but he thinks it's ridiculous how everyone always bends over for him. He may have had a reputation once upon a time, but his uncle is now old and completely cunt struck with Rhaneyra. It's embarrassing he doesn't even bother to hide it.

6) Like Aemond, he also dispises the green colored clothing his mother's nags them to wear. His younger brother claims it's ridiculous that his bratty nephews can dress as targaryens while they (Aegon & Aemond) who are the sons of the king, cannot. His mother and grandfather claim its important to honor their hightower side but neither gives a fuck. Aemond is more vocal about this issue but Aegon always agrees and backs him up. needlepoint

7) When he was a child he tried to mimic Sunfyre's roar because he thought it'd be more effective way of communication than learning the Valyrian language

8) His first time with a woman was actually with a lady who served his mother. She wanted to gain power and influence with having a young boy prince favoring her but she was in for a rude awakening. Aegon never cared for promises or honor. And he found he quite enjoyed this side of power he could have over lesser people.

9) He used to wish for Aemond to find a dragon to claim soon so he could have someone to race with up in the skies. Helaena never flew and Daeron was too young, but when eventually Aemond claimed Vhagar he became quite insufferable about it. Still, their races was something he was fond of

10) Among the whores he visits, his favourite one happens to be one that bears a strong resemblance to his older half sister. It's hard not to imagine what ifs- scenarios every now and then. Aegon knows how much his mother and grandfather tried to push for a betrothal between him and Rhaneyra. And as relieved as he now feels for not having to deal with Rhaneyra's bold, bitch attitude, he still finds it quite offensive and telling that his father picked a velaryon to give his sister to instead of him.

11) Few nights before he married Helaena, Aegon sneaked a whore into his chambers and ordered her to show him how he could be gentle for the first wedding night

12) During Helaena's first pregnancy, her fingers and legs begin to swell. And after some careful nagging Aegon was convinced to try to complete her needlepoint for her. Surprisingly he's very good at it

13) Before his son's death, the war was about winning everything he should have had. While he never longed for the throne, he had to live his entire life with being a firstborn son of a king and being passed over for his elder half sister. In his eyes the war was about protecting his family from his uncle who would surely kill them and to give himself and his brothers everything they were owned. After his son's death, it's about revenge. He doesn't waste time to find someone to blame, and he won't fall into the madness his wife has. Anger & hate are easier to embrace than grief & guilt.

14) After Blood is tortured to death and announcing to Helaena he ordered every ratcatcher in the city to be hanged, the two sleep on sperate chambers and it's the last time he sees his sister.

15) Prior to everything, he had never felt any ties to his youngest brother, Daeron. The boy didn't grow up with him and Aegon never got to know him. It is only for his wife's memory - who used to talk about Daeron and yearn for his return - that now Aegon orders better guards to fight alongside him.

16) Rook's Rest is the turning point when he's left with his half body burnt and his body so broken to the point it'd remain bent and twisted for the rest of his life. For the moons he remains in bed and the rare hours he happens to be awake, bitterness and hopelessness find their way to his head and he's never been more envious of his brother Aemond who glows and stands strong like he's the personification of the Valyrian God of death himself.

17) Post the fall of Dragonstone, when Aegon had shuttered both of his legs, the reason he'd go on refusing the milk of the poppy until the day he died isn't only due to his experience with it from his recovery from Rook's Rest, but also because he had noticed how mistrustful the maesters were when they were treating his father. And his recovery from Rook's Rest showed they'd treat him the exact same way. That ignites lots of paranoia from his part

[literategoblin]

5/52 "Kitchen" By Banana Yoshimoto

God, that's such a fun pen name isn't it? "Kitchen" Is Yoshimoto's debut work, a novella that in the release I read was also accompanied by another very short story called "Moonlight Shadow". "Kitchen" was written during their downtime as a server in a restaurant, which I cant help but find incredibly endearing. It is a short work, only stretching to the 150pg mark with the help of a smaller than normal formatting and an attached story. And it moves briskly enough in the way that Japanese novels tend to. Briskly and to the point this is a story that delves into loss. What it does to us, how we deal with it, and how we are ultimately shaped by the partings in our lives. We follow the main character after losing her grandmother, her last blood relative close to her. The loss threatens to tear her apart before she is invited to life with a family friend. In moving in with them, she grows, heals, and ultimately changes. As they navigate complicated new feelings and losses. That's the novel in a bottle. Something of note that cannot go unstated that I struggle to find my feelings on, is the handling of the family friends transgender mother Eriko. This book was published in the 80's and one could argue that their handling of such a character was well done and progressive for its time, but even with this knowledge at hand at moments it just feels . . . in poor taste. While Eriko is referred to as "she" and "her" by main characters and others, it is her son Yuichi that will still refer to them as "My mother. . . No, my father." And while the main character seems constantly in awe of how beautiful and graceful they are as a person. It's often through the lens of "Even though they were a man. . ." The fact that the novel is translated does not help it in this regard, its hard to tell how much of those bits is culture at the time, translation, or poor choice. There is one joke in the book made between the main character and Yuichi that struck me as just offensive, but it was hard to tell if that was the translation getting in the way of the prose. Eriko themselves has mixed feelings and talks about their transition in interesting monologues, talking about the "male" them and the "woman" them but acknowledging that they are them, regardless of when in their life they are referring or looking towards. The events surrounding Eriko's transition, the perspective of Yuichi as a child of a transgender parent, and the main character seemingly having had minimal to no interaction with transgender people in their own life leads to interesting moments and conversations. But, be warned. While in its time the book was progressive through a modern lens I don't think it holds up as well as one might expect. Especially when filtered through a translation. Ultimately, I feel a combination of being written in the 80s, a different culture, and a translation on top of it all resulted in this aspect of the book stumbling more than it walked. But, there is grace in my mind in how the book never feels outright disrespectful or de-meaning in it's handling of Eriko. Aside from this. The story itself is a hauntingly familiar account of what it means to lose those you love and how life often hands us things we couldn't even imagine and expects us to simply deal with them. For those familiar with Japanese novels and the associated writing style, they will find it easy to slide right into Yoshimoto's style. If this is your first time, it may take some getting used to, but once you do you will find a touching, quick moving story that might just reach out and grab you if you relate to the material. 3.5/5 This book is so close to a 4 for me, and I can see how to the right person its a very high 4, could be a 5 to the right person. But there are just enough stumbling blocks that I found myself unable to FULL immerse myself in the work, though, I can say that I recommend it to those familiar with Japanese novels, as long as one is aware that while it may have been progressive for its time, it might not hold up in the same way today.

[theprayerfulword]

October 05

John 8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ

2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Colossians 1:13 For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves,

Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

May you press in, with a sense of desperation, to know the Lord and to walk in His wisdom, for the hour is late and you will need His understanding to know how to do the good that will testify to others of the love and goodness, acceptance and mercy of the Lord when dark and difficult times come into people's lives. Jeremiah 4

May you desire to know the way of the Lord, seeking Him while He may be found, that you may draw near the Lord in repentance and humility, where you will find acceptance in His Spirit, and can take on the yoke and bonds of the King Who protects and cares for you. Jeremiah 5

May you fear the Lord your God, and tremble in His awesome presence, for He is the One who gives autumn and spring rains in season, assuring the regular weather for each season, and setting the boundaries for the sea, preventing its encroachment on the land, but unless you plead the case of the fatherless to win it, and defend the rights of the poor to establish His justice in the land, He will remove the barriers and release the schedules, bringing chaos to the land. Jeremiah 5

May you hear the warning of the Lord without offense, and may you listen to the Word of the Lord with joy, understanding the seriousness of His charge and the deep, desperate need for healing in the people, but knowing His power to save and the strength of His truth to set free, so that the desire for gain and the practice of deceit, which is the target of God's wrath, may be removed far from the hearts of the people. Jeremiah 6

My child, the salvation you have received from My hand is much more than the feeling of joy that fills your heart in My presence and relief from the burden of sin and fear which is removed from your life. That is your experience of salvation, but know that My salvation is so much more than your experience. It is not an idea you suggested to Me and I agreed to. The Godhead, in entirety, from eternity past, has devised and agreed upon the parts We each would fill and the costs We each would pay to see the vastness of the reach and the immensity of the depth of the concept come to pass. Such an idea had never been conceived that Divine Holiness would redeem fallen creation by discharging the debt in full and join together Creator and creation. You are an integral part, My precious one, of the plan that is beyond the scope of your imagining. You are being trained, My dear one, in ways you do not understand for work so much larger than you know so that in time you will eventually grasp the shape of it. Remain focused on Me, My love, and simply reject the accusations of unworthiness and thoughts of doubts that flit around you. Do not be distracted by them, for you know their source; they can do you no harm for you are sealed by My Spirit to show My ownership. The only purpose they serve is to draw your focus from what the Spirit is saying to your heart by causing you to beat the air ineffectually. You are Mine. Hear My Word. I will direct you when it is time to fight; until then, learn of Me, My redeemed one, for I have much to tell you.

May you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel, for God has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation. Colossians 1

May you proclaim Christ, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that everyone may be presented perfect in Christ, even as you work to this end, laboring with all His energy, which so powerfully works in you. Colossians 1

May you be encouraged in heart and united in love with the rest of the Body of Christ so that you may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that you may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2

May you continue to live in Christ Jesus as Lord, just as you have received Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2

May you cry out to God for help when you are in distress and seek Him, stretching out untiring hands at night when your soul will not be comforted, that He may bring to your recall the mighty deeds of the Most High and remind you of His miracles of long ago, so you can meditate on His compassion and mercy, His unfailing love and favor, and once more you may rejoice in Him with songs in the night. Psalm 77

May you be reminded that God's ways are holy, for there is no god so great as your God, Who performs miracles and displays His power among the peoples, redeeming them with His might arm. Psalm 77

[crushed-oranged-angered]

Ted Lasso AU

It feels like I have to have a basic understanding of Lacrosse to actually write this (spoiler: I don't have this) but here's everything I've got for the Ted Lasso-esque AU for Coach Finstock (cause I think about it all the time):

Werewolves and average (?) people sort of coexist (with a lot of discrimination against supernatural creatures cause this is Teen Wolf) but pack systems are really important to this. Really leaning on like the 'lone werewolves are dangerous' ideology that Gerard tried to spread in season 2if.

Team sports are a way for a supernatural person to demonstrate that they can function in a pack, and therefore function in society. Often times the success of those teams can impact this (an obviously and intentionally flawed view, as seen with the swim team at some point -> more on that later)

Bobby Finstock (not supernatural) is hired by Peter Hale to coach the local ((almost) entirely supernatural) college Lacrosse team. Not only has he never coached a college team, he has never coached an (almost) entirely supernatural team

"What's your experience working with werewolves?" "I was shot with an arrow in the stomach by a nogitsune once" "...Oh"

In my head, Chris and Peter have this weird on again off again (and also coworkers! cause I like it when things are messy) relationship. Chris is director of Athletics and Peter is head of HR (mostly cause GOD can you imagine).

During an off patch, Peter hired Finstock out of spite because the athletics department is under observation.

Gerard (booo booo tomato tomato), President of the University, would like to cut the program because he's a hater, because he would like to see all werewolves dead, because it's not 'properly' demonstrating that the students can work together as a pack. The lacrosse team has been really struggling to demonstrate adequate teamwork recently. If they do not have a successful season, not only will the lacrosse program be cut, all students will be expelled from the university if they cannot find another sport to join (assuming that sport hasn't already been cut as well).

Finstock is like the Anti-Ted Lasso (canon) so instead of leading the team with kindness, he leads them with ridicule and also ridiculousness. With the stakes feeling so high, the end goal would be that his general *gestures to all of him* thing would help the team feel like they are playing a game again (for FUN!) instead of playing for their future (real). This allows them to actually form relationships with one another and build trust.

Enter: Derek Hale (Our Roy Kent-ish sort of guy... all of these character connections, if they even exist, are so so so vague). Overall good guy with like. very prickly exterior.

"You seem a little old to be on this team" "I'm a grad student" "Oh my bad what do you study?" *growls* "... Fair it's none of my business. You want to be offense or goal?"

He's been on the team the longest but is also like one of those guys who's a little afraid to graduate. Derek hasn't really felt like he belonged to a pack since most of his family died in the fire and, despite this sports thing not being a literal law, he is worried about how he will be viewed if he graduates without this feeling. He's also got a bit of a misconstrued understanding of what pack is because the last time he was in one, he was a child.

Overtime, Derek learns how to form positive connections and trust again.

Scott is the freshman with a heart of gold! Since recently becoming a werewolf (against his will still) and curing his asthma, he's developed a real talent for the sport but with like. Generally, very little idea of how to play it. He's an over-passer!!! Often at the cost of the team and to himself

Fun bonus to this is Scott will pass to Stiles literally all the time in practice because that's his best friend (and I love them). Everyone is like very sick of their shit

I really want to include Scott's sacrificial tendencies in this and that seemed the best way to include them. I also have thoughts of him bonding with everyone REAL QUICK (yes even Jackson) and when things look rough, trying to make some sort of deal with Gerard to save the lacrosse program. 50/50 on whether it works (like in the show) or if the deal is like he has to leave the school and everyone is like WE HAVE TO GET SCOTT BACK (cause I am a Scott McCall supporter first and foremost and a Scott McCall 'angst with a happy ending' lover second)

Scott McCall and Sam Obisanya are the same TO ME! I also like the parallel of Scott eventually learning to lead and becoming Team Captain ⭐️

Stiles (also a freshman) snuck onto the team in order to go school with Scott (💖BESTIES💖!!! also he's worried about his friend recently turned werewolf and feels a responsibility to him)

Also sneaking cause like ->"What about you?" "I used to be possessed by a dark trickster spirit." "Okay and what are you now?" "better?" "HOW. ARE. YOU. HERE?"

Stiles has a lot of skill for a human but everyone else on the team and most of the opposing teams are all supernatural, so at times it's hard for him to measure up. But his strategizing is unmatched

Coach Finstock HATES this once everyone figures it out but his plays always work so he can't kick him off the team (cue mutual sassing)

I also have like a trick play moment in my head where maybe this is SUPERNATURAL lacrosse and mountain ash comes into play at some point and they pull one over on the other team because they think Stiles would be trapped by that and he's not? idk more on that later mayb

Jackson is our Jamie Tartt. He's clearly the best asshole player on the team but also has a desperate need to please. He's not worried about getting expelled because he also is the star of the swim team. Under the direction of Coach Lahey (BOO BOO TOMATO TOMATO), who is buddy buddy with Gerard (cause tbh that's for real how people who suck keep jobs on college campuses) the team is really successful and is not remotely at risk of being cut. As a result, Jackson doesn't really give a shit about the lacrosse team at first, aside from it being a place for him to show off.

Eventually, Jackson has his self-discovery phase, makes friends on the lacrosse team and realizes he can just be himself around those people instead of perfect caricature of a success story. He quits the swim team when he realizes that while they win a lot of meets, it doesn't foster any sort of comradery or belonging

I've got like WAY more but this got like so aggressively long so let me know if this is like a thing people want to hear about and not just like me screaming into the void

[kath-artic]

i have the same sort of feeling that im a very reserved and in control of myself person that occasionally breaks on something that by itself doesnt seem like a huge deal. i always understand it as being a result of putting up with so many "little" things for so long that eventually i cant take it anymore and snap. so i think youre not imagining things and youre not crazy or anything, its just that you need to remember the wider patterns you have to deal with instead of just one event

yeah, i think the thing that really makes me question myself is that my mom would never take accountability for the things she said and did to me when i was growing up and would just play the "i had so many other things on my plate and i just snapped" card and like. maybe im wrong but i dont think that justifies the way she would treat me. or my friend who recently went on a tirade and said some of the cruelest things anyone has ever said to me because she imagined i did something and it sent her over the edge and now im at fault for something i didnt even do. so what makes me so special? if i cant justify the way they treated me even though it was the sum of a great many things and they supposedly couldn't help themselves, then how can i justify it when i snap? and i get that theres the nuance of a parent-child relationship to consider and also the fact that my freakouts are mostly defensive while the ones i struggle to justify are more offensive, but in those moments i did hurt the people on the receiving end and is there any way for me to justify that? me jumping out of that car made everyone who saw it happen think my mom was probably abusing me and i just dont know if i can say with my whole chest that thats what was happening, but i also dont know if me questioning myself like this is just another sign of abuse. i just dont know. i have no desire to be cruel to anybody and i certainly cannot find it in myself to hate my mom. i can't really find it in myself to hate any of the people who've hurt me. but i bet if you asked my mom she'd say the same thing.

i guess what im afraid of is that im perpetuating a cycle of cruelty and justifying it by saying i couldnt control myself. if i work on this, do i end up being more of a passenger in my life or will it actually make me a better person? i'm not even sure if there is such a thing. the only conclusion i can comfortably come to is that she isn't someone i should be around as often as i am. regardless of right or wrong, we at the very least butt heads with each other. i just dont know how to go about getting myself out.

[parasit-kind]

2. welcome to 2014

almost 3 months into..2014!!! so it seems as the oldies of gen z begin to feel their age and yearn for their short lived memories... enter the 2014 revival. reborn are the lipsync tiktoks in imitation of musically and the carefully curated instagram layouts, but... doesn’t it all seem too desperate...

it’s a feeling that i have myself, the desire for these days to return. i have had conversations with my parents regarding the nostalgia they feel, and their responses have been fairly. mundane. to say the least. perhaps a human cannot voice their thoughts with the utmost emotion, but as to what i feel in the midst of the 2014 resurgence, i feel .. a bit desolate.

getting older is something that i have not been able to accept, and i may never ever accept it.. i cling onto this era as if i meant something to it, and not only it to me, as though i was one of the faces that appeared if one were to search ‘tumblr face model’. (remember those..) i wasn’t; in fact, in 2014, i was only 10. my tumblr era only came to pass two years later, and then, already, was my anguish and longing for a reversal back from 2016 to 2014 strongly present. the bands i admired had peaked and were on what i - and many other late comers to the tumblr scene would soon find out - the last of their short-lived fame. one direction had dissolved, the blurryface tour was over, fall out boy was about to change their sound forever, halsey’s badlands was already tiring out my ears after constant repeat... the offenses go on. i had arrived too late.

when the nostalgia begins in a desperate state, the feeling of “if only i had known a bit sooner”, of “it was just barely a year ago”, the sense of something being so close but absolutely impossible to meet, then the hopeless knot will only swell. hopelessly did i keep my grip on albums that had long phased out of radio play and on youtube videos that were beginning to accumulate dust (hah.. if they were old then, then what should i call them now? figments of the past? my imaginations?). the rebirth of 2014 is something i wish i could connect to, but it only makes me more and more sorrowful. a reminder of what i missed, what i will never get back. it’s a shame, living in the past like this, unable to accept age, can’t ever stand and move forward.

well. what do i do as a person living in 2014>??? explained!

youtube - old gameplays as my white noise. if its not stampy, its pewdiepie, and if not pewdiepie, it is markiplier. in reality, i used to watch exclusively dan and phil, though i say exclusively only in the sense that i cannot for the life of me remember who else i used to enjoy (oh child brain. small and discarding). dan and phil, however, are now intangible to me. i do not watch any new uploads, of course, not of any of the aforementioned creators, nor in general, but for the dan and phil duo, i find that their content has become for me unbearable. perhaps it is something akin to too intense a feeling. i’m uncomfortable with the elapsed time i spent with them previously. it’s like trying on pants meant to fit but being in reality too small; recognizable, something reliable, but a feeling that something is wrong, unusual. i find something else..

music - i praise music for its longevity. whereas youtubers come and go, and videos are deleted and forgotten, music seems to live on and on. take, for example, the life of a 70s tv shows versus that of a 70s song.. i would imagine the song has remained more potent. visual media tends to get lost, while audio travels by ear, and consequently, by mouth. songs of the tumblr era are in no way misplaced. rather, this is a medium that many seem to agree upon as having been of particular heavy influence. the 1975, troye sivan, one direction, twenty one pilots. mayhaps they’ve come and gone out of favor, but the recordings of old songs remain. it is strange indeed, the tolerance for old songs, but something in a tune is peculiarly able to trigger emotion within a human. 

clothing - my final reliable, and regretfully, the practice that has experienced the most shift in public opinion and execution. i find comfort in the articles of the tumblr era, but it is, for many in this day, a symbol of something far more sinister, a distress surrounding the romantic obsession with the sick and lifeless. perhaps i will cover this more thoroughly later, but really, if i was happier then than i am now, could it have been so terrible... fashion was an important indicator of the ‘us’es and the others in 2014, and so it remains now, but there is a feeling of shame to return to it. no longer are we, the ‘us’es, able to be understood by those younger than us. this was naturally not an issue in 2014, when we were the young ones, unable to judge ourselves. so again... we have gone from being oh so misunderstood to being such once again. it’s a futile cycle for those that long for the return of 2014, never feeling unity with the present world, yet never having been united with that moment of the past. it is, really, like standing in the middle of a zebra crossing, but the road is completely desolate. you’ve forgotten your directions, your lefts, rights, and norths, souths. you’ve misstepped and can’t recall if you were moving forward or backward. you’re thinking at once, “where should i go?”, “why am i alone?”, “what should i do now?”

time is the only stable value in a human life, but what is one to do when time has for them become distorted...

here’s to 2014 |-/ ✉️

>parasitka პარაზიტკა

p.s. i reckon i will make a post of some tumblr era interests of mine soon, something less fatalist...

[engeneous]

this is really long, but the votes are concerning to me, so i hope people take the time to read through it. i know my opinion is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things yada yada, but so is literally anyone else's other than riki's, and i address that at the end, so here's my two cents as an adult baby-engene and longterm kpop fan and general fandom-space dweller.

i'm not sure what age you are or for how long you've been a fan of enhypen, both of which are factors that could influence your stance on this issue, but whether riki is a minor or an adult is actually irrelevant to this conversation. arguably, riki has lived most of his short (and underage) life sexualized and objectified. even before debuting, he was no stranger to provocative dancing and expression. enhypen adopted a mature concept immediately after debut, when riki was barely 15.

this is all to say, this type of public attention and exposure really fucks you up a lot. being a celebrity is one thing which children should not have to endure, but being a sexualized celebrity is on another level completely. i was a sexual and sexualized (mostly by people older than me) teen, and it still haunts me now, in my early 20s. i cannot imagine how this would feel whilst ALSO being in the public eye 24/7, having to project a fake, perfect image of yourself for hundreds of thousands of people to see and scrutinize.

i think riki should've played with his legos and drawn and read manga more in his youth instead of hip thrusting on stage. now he's slowly growing out of his teens and entering a scary world where adults are validated and believe they are justified in sexualizing and fantasizing about him. from an ethical perspective, this is insane. child stars should not exist, but they do, so as adults we should do our best to protect whatever sliver of privacy and dignity they have left.

yes, riki is 18 now. this makes him an adult in some places on earth. this is also completely irrelevant in the conversation about whether it's moral or ethical to sexualize him. in the usa he would only be an adult when he turns 21, so all i would have to say to refute you is that we should wait until he's 21, but that's simply just not the point. riki shouldn't be sexualized because he's a human person and it's fucking weird and damaging to do that to somebody in the first place. with riki it's even worse because he's been pushed in this position in his formative years so he may not even see it as a problem now - having grown used to presenting himself in this sexual light. his affinity towards sexual self expression does NOT make it okay for anyone to write nsfw stuff about him and post it on the internet.

you can't write smut about riki because it's invasive and gross and you's be objectifying a real, flesh and bones human person who's just minding his business and living his life the best he can. just because he's hot, just because he's an adult, just because he's famous, that doesn't make it ok to strip him of his dignity like that.

i know it's really hard to adopt this perspective because it is so fundamentally opposed to the common kpop fan perspective, where it's totally a-ok to sexualize and objectify idols (who are, by literal definition of the word, objects of worship), but please try to understand. think hard about it. would you like to be in his place? would you feel comfortable with people you don't know and will never know writing out of character sexual pieces about you, drawing you in compromising poses and instances you've never been in publicly, taking noises you make out of context and zooming in on your private parts, jerking off to all of it? he can't even defend himself. i've seen people writing x reader non con idol smut and i feel like that should be a legal offense akin to defamation. how can you become so desensitized to idols' humanity to think that it's ok to project this sort of image/'fantasy' onto them? anyone who's done that should feel so incredibly ashamed. these are real people. if anybody wrote something like that about me, an ordinary-ass person, i would feel so incredibly betrayed and viscerally repulsed.

anyway, the main takeaway is that we shouldn't post smut about anybody who's a real person (and i've been guilty of that myself in the past), but with riki it's doubly horrifying, because he's been in such a vulnerable place for such a long time of his life. it's not for you or me to decide whether he feels comfortable with it: only he could tell us, and he never will, so lacking this crucial piece of information, the best course of action is to simply not do it. i promise you won't die if you refrain from posting riki smut. write it and keep it to yourself if you really must.

(keep in mind that he’s an adult, a literal man y’all are babying)