#oops guess hes religions now

[tekitothemagpie]

Zoro after seeing Gear 5 Luffy

[cconfusedkat]

Wanted to infodump a bit about mystic pursuit Shamura's character :-Dc

So apart from being not only the eldest sibling of the bishops as well as (or really 'used to') being the most intellectual and rational one, things weren't always like that beforehand

Growing up in silk cradle they had heavy expectations being considered a gifted child and a prodigy. Constant stresses back and forth with juggling different tasks, with the most important one of all: the church (cirice).

Shamura grew up in not only just a family who only 'cared' about ther achievements all at 16 years old, but they were very religious to a point where even silk cradle itself was most likely the most religious domain there was out of the other six (including archangelo and columbidae, with their own religions regarding the archangelic sheep and paloma,,)

One day, shamura snapped against the cirice, that no one to this day knew they were the one that burnt the church down. Their pastor was the only one inside the building as well, and they hated him. They didn't know why or what motivated them to burn the cirice down

But boy was it fun for them to get away with something so insane and unexpected of an angry 16 year old who was sooooo calm and peaceful ???????? Riiiight ????????

It was an 'everyday feels the same' type deal that eventually lead them to realize what they did, thus dissapearing for a week into the caverns out of fear their family would imprison them. Their (biological) family never made a guess about it, so they didn't have much to worry about OTHER than that heavy burden they carried over burning down a sacred building,,, oops

When they fled to the caverns and got stuck there just in the same week, that's where they found the purple crown,, the purple crown latched onto their head immediately after shamura placed their claw onto it.

After they return from the caverns with a bunch of bruises on their body as well as a dirtied outfit, their family caught them and scolded shamura. It wasn't until their family actually started to like,, care about them seriously when shamura began to cry from not being able to take their crown off ,, shamura wasnt allowed to have emotions nor were they allowed to express their thoughts without permission (which lead to 16 years of major stress and lack of proper care about themself ,,, being the smartest child with heavy expectations had lead them to not make the smartest decisions for themself ,,, they were very lanky and often extremely tired where they passed out randomly out of forgetting to eat and doing things to . Yknow . Take care of themself)

But with the purple crown.... of both war AND wisdom..... they began to lack the ability to needing to do anything normal for mortals. Thats when their family grew more concerned for them. They didnt need to eat anymore, they didnt need to sleep anymore—hell, they didnt even need to worry about their mental health AND emotions. What good did that all matter when they were an infant bishop recognized by the gods? Everyone was below them now.

Though unfortunately this lead to like. A religious psychosis? If you dont know what religious psychosis is its mainly the hallucinations and beliefs of being the next chosen one,, stuff like that,, they sorta began to grow a god complex from actually having the power of learning all the wisdom in the world along with the art of war

Sometimes they did still miss their old life. Now they were 18 and on the run from their hometown,, eventually just. Bumping into heket and kallamar who found eachother first.

^ (heket ran away from her hometown because there was a voice telling her to meet "someone" who had a dire urge to meet her, while kallamar swam his way out of his hometown because he was trying to swim his way up to the mainlands. The two siblings were the first ever bishops to find eachother)

But if were gonna talk about after indoctrination shamura? They dont remember ANY of this. Not their twisted childhood, not their genocidal bishop form, and not who they were before. Ever since they were born, they've been dying.

Yeahhhh, so ,long story short, the first time they burned down their cirice/church which was sacred, thats where everything went wrong for them 😭 they lost their sanity even more for the millenia they spent away from narinder from locking him away, and being the one to implement the torture/execution method of beheading people,,,

Its not like they completely forgot everything unfortunately,, they often find themself staring at the scars on allures neck and tracing over them ,, allure finds it ticklish and funny that shamura does that but shamura isnt doing that just to like. Get a reaction out of Allure. Theyre doing that because its subconscious and they claim to feel a guilt that they dont know how to describe

Same for narinders scarring on his body; narinder has stitches on his arms, hands, elbows, legs, knees, thighs, tail split into four sections, literally just about everywhere theres stitching for him ,,,,

because on the day of the betrayal , when narinder fell down to his knees and cried for forgiveness after realizing the injuries hes given to his siblings ,,, shamura grabbed narinders scythe of death and proceeded to not only cut off and behead Narinder but they were so angry and no one stopped them that they literally gave him the most brutal death ??????

So shamura still often finds themself tracing their claws over narinders stitching ,,,, narinder didn't like anyone touching him because of the fear hes grown over physical touch but after some years hes managed to grow okay with phys touch ,,, unlike allure who doesnt question them , narinder knows why theyre always so levitant towards any presentation of scars or keloid bumps etc ,, because they cant help but feel melancholic over it

Melancholic is a weird word to use, but its genuinely how they feel ,plus physical touch had managed to be a major love language for them anyways because they often feel lost and feel no sense of direction on a daily

Leshys love language also happens to phys touch !! So as much as shamura scolds him ,they often hold his arm or hand ,,, wondering if that was how it felt to hold little leshys hand again ,,, They still look at leshy like hes a baby 😭😭 ...

Anyways this is their song-andddd i also wanted to make an animatic with the first min and 42 seconds with it soon so >:-]

[hinamie]

oh my god ok so i know im late I didn't talk about it because it happened during one of my Offline Eras but . but listen ok lisn the new former vandal album sent me THROUgh the FUCKINNG ROOF to be fair i knew it would like i joked about going upstairs to listen to it and cry when it dropped but i didn't think that every fucking song would hit me so hard in the kokoro it made me wail because I too have immense religious guilt ANYWAY im gonna rant incoherently and at length now hope u all missed me

ok first of all gotta shout out the fuckin album title i knew it was gonna be devastating when I saw it . fuckin. divine interference????? music for god's playthings indeed i eat that shit up i was like yoooooo hes also got a bone to pick with jesus go off bestie <333

so former vandal are artists visionaries kings so ofc tracklist is all mythology n religion-inspired (lazarus/goliath/ouroboros etc) and i think its so cool that theyre all in caps until u get to the end and the final song is denial and it's in lowercase and maybe its simple but i was like ART. ARTTTTTT. and it made me go back and look at the tracklist of their previous album and I realized that the whole thing was about vices and unhealthy coping with an overwhelming and forsaken existence but then the final song was Get Right (still my go-to comfort song to this day tbh tbh tbh) and it's like an acknowledgement that ok maybe none of this is the answer and something has to change anyway wrong album oops back 2 divine interference

i made a point of listening to the songs that hadnt been released as singles first so the first song i listened to was Lazarus and tbh probably my fav song on the album maybe tied with parables and maaaaybe even icarian. BUT LAZARUS SLAPS SOS SOSOOSO HARD god the theme of not knowing how to leave something behind even when it's bad for you,,, both criticizing but also mirroring the actual story of lazarus in the lyrics being like "wow kinda fucked up of god for resurrecting u without ur consent" but also acknowledging that he himself is guilty of holding onto the things that kill him.,,, GOD ITS SO FUCKING G GOOD I FDFGSADFGDG

salt also !!! BANGER not quite up there with the likes of lazarus but it gets bonus points because a. i lov the idea of starting to recognize that you're coming into yourself n an identity apart from your vices n traumas and b. for having two of the most RAW lines in the entire album imo which is reaaallly saying something: "now that everything's bright I guess I'm fine/but there's an art in the dark that took years to refine" and "the spark of divine intervention/that I'm still terrified I've left behind" (ALBUM TITLE DROP ALBUM TITLE DROP) god these two just dont miss and i love it but i am far too neurodivergent to contain myself they need to give me a break pls i am v i b r a t i n g

ok gonna move into the Chill(tm) tracks I think with goliath as well as shame/rotten I vibe more with the lyrics than the actual songs because i prefer my angsty alt pop to be Upbeat thank u very much but can i just say. the lyrics of these two songs ESPECIALLY SHAME/ROTTEN LIKE ok first of all i love the tonal shift halfway through that manages not to make them feel like completely different songs it's just jarring enough like there's been an acceptance of sorts,, like omg same i too am like 'god i feel like the scum of the earth might as well own it a bit',, "the fear of god/the need for blame" fuckin bullseye ow,, "I starve to feed the parts of me/far from who i oughta be/tell me are you proud of me yet?" FUCKIN BULLSEYE OWW

I know i just said i prefer my angst upbeat but crocodile tears (very upbeat very rock wuaw) is probably my least favourite track if i had to pick but it does have a lyrical BANGER of an opening verse ("holding the hand that's holding me under" g o d) i think i just don't dig the overall melody too much and find the ending a bit repetitive fr my tastes,, who knows though it took a while and many re-listens for ouroboros to grow on me maybe this'll b a similar story ,, but then again ouroboros had the advantage of echoing mine own mental health and self-destructive behaviours shdgj

ok so i was crying from the beginning right but the songs that made me ugly bawl were growing pains (very similar vibes to get right but in a "i know that i'm healing" way rather than a "i need to heal" way) and denial,, but starting w growing pains,, my god idk What they did with the mic/vocals after the bridge but it felt like the music was being injected directly into my ears secret direct path 2 my bloodstream god I hadnt felt chills like that in such a long time and idk just the whole Mood of the song having been hurting for so long and only now starting to recognize the damage you've done but also appreciate the progress youv made,,, i have so so many emotions but DENIAL (its funny saying it in caps bc its the only track in lowercase getit getit) oh my god ths going straight on the list of Songs That Make Me Think About My Relationship With My Dad but also Songs That Make Me Emo About All The People I've Grown Apart From and i think its so powerful to frame a personal transition away from faith as growing apart from an old friend and missing them despite any hard feelings holy shit though holy shit . the first listen by this point i had already been emotionally devastated by the Whole Album so i was like ok surely ill get a break by the last song lol nope sorry i ended up crying so hard i think i gave myself a headache

I think I must have yelled about the songs that they released as singles when they dropped individually but it's been so long that i forget what i said but honestly parables and icarian are still just as good as when i heard them for the first time (when parables dropped i spilled my tea on my fucking notes bc i was vibing too hard),, I love parables' msg of accepting the lessons ur (traumatic) past taught u and how it shaped u as a person even if u recognize that that person is someone hurt and in need of healing and maybe that has to happen alone! and i know for a fact i've gushed about icarian (still one of the most gojocore songs Ever imho dont fight me on this) but now looking at it in the context of the rest of the album i love that it's first cause it really frames the whole icarus thing of having flown too close to the sun or to god and getting burned and that pain essentially being the catalyst for the entire Journey tht the rest of the album outlines (obsessed w the fact that the next song is jaded like fr having these two songs one after the other is literally "fucked around/found out" gsfhjsh)

but all that being said not to b dramatic but this album destroyed me it rearranged something deep in my soul and i don't know who i was before it but i probably wont ever be the same :) i literally love these two so much im so appreciative of them its so rare to feel so Seen by a piece of media so to have an entire album hit so incredibly close to home for me and slap while doing so????? i feel so lucky . this entire album feels like taking the first step to address years of hurt and self destruction it feels like losing a friend it feels like finding yourself and i just . i love it so much

[xamaxenta]

Oops chagrined is not the word I meant to use for the maid. I guess the right term would be... exasperated? The clothing is among the prince’s laundry meaning he wants it to be treated as his own, but the quality of the fabric is noticeably lesser so really he’s just making more work for her by having her wash someone else’s clothing. It’s not until it happens several more times that she clocks in exactly the owner of said less expensive more hardy durable clothes and starts separating Ace’s clean laundry from the prince’s when she finally returns them. (Really it’s just practice for when they’re the king and crown prince and have one room and share everything between them. But it is annoying for now strictly because the disinfectant process differs for the attire of knights, strong enough to easily wash away blood and caked-on grime and would ruin Sabo’s delicate fashion tastes and strip the vivid dyes he so often adorns. Twice the load and twice the work unfortunately but that’s just another great example of Sabo’s selfishness winning out when he demands what can’t possibly be refuted by someone of lower status than he.)

You mentioned wedlock which is funny so now I’m curious if you had any other thoughts on marriage? I guess I’ve always associated marriage with religion and didn’t want to think about god/s for this AU so I disregarded it as something unimportant to the kingdom/culture. If two people are living together then they’re romantically involved and all that shiz yeah? No deep thoughts my head is a vacuum ready to be filled.

I was jesting about chagrined maids but you came back with such a thoughtful follow up about different fabrics and linens that it was such a delightful addition to the initial concept, i love how detailed you are, thinking about the soaps and difference jn treatment that both Ace and Sabos clothes would require, and having to sort those and the effort someone of the servitude status would have to undergo

And of course the fond/exasperated (yessss beautiful word) resignation of this maid to have to do both sets of laundry because Sabo IS so selfish, he is the prince after all and this is his lover’s, his personal guards garments too, they should be treated with just as much care

About marriage: GOOD QUESTION!!! i dont personally tie marriage with religion i see it as a title that officiates two or more persons love for one another?? Really basic view tbh , when logically now that youve brought it to my attention it really is a religious based ceremony huh

I get you, i didnt really think much about god/s for this au either, when people can cast world shattering magic n all theyre basically “divine” in that aspect already haha

But for funnnn… what if there is theology or whatever, old old gods, and perhaps… this is an old maid (i am losing my shit over this lady being Dadan or something CAN YOU IMAGINE LMAO 😭😭😭) and she was raised religious so shes there thinking these brats r being real scandalous about their relationship when i really do like the whole when people are living together like Ace and Sabo, its so plainly obvious theyre involved romantically, id say the kingdom roger and soon sabo will rule is not a holy kingdom or anything but people believe what they choose

[tsuki-sennin]

Hail to the King, baby! Ohsama Sentai! Kingohger! ...or is it King Ohger? I'll tag it both just in case. It's a brand new Sentai, for a brand new tag!

"Rejoice O Swarming Evil! You're My King!"

I am immensely excited, so no more delaying.

Spoilers, I guess...

-Five Heroes, and their God.

-Well, the CG is certainly... better!

-I love the look of this planet.

-Tikyu, I believe? Might as well just call it Yarph.

-The Bugnarak are coming back!

-Pardon you?

-It's all very stylized and detailed, I appreciate that a lot.

-Shugoddam! A... very funny name, I hope it's not foreshadowing.

-Ahhhh, a festival~!

-I feel at home already.

-Lots and lotsa bug folk!

-A ceremony?

-The kings are comin'~!

-A whole roundtable, coming forth.

-Hello, you must be Lord Racules.

-I am honored to make your presence.

-This is Queen Himeno of Ishabana.

-Oh lord, that's so much shiny.

-I mean no offense, your majesty, but this is almost certainly going to be the most CG heavy Sentai season yet.

-Toufu! ...that might be the dumbest name for any of these kingdoms.

-Kaguragi Dybowski! ...I didn't realize Poland was a country Toei even knew existed.

-Ah yep, this one! Everyone was talking about them a hell of a lot.

-King and Chief Magistrate of Gokkan. Has so much GNC swag that it practically emanates off them.

-Thank you for this, Toei, seriously.

-Chief Justice Rita, I love you already.

-And of course Yanma-shachou. Cyberpunk himself.

-I might end up calling you Yanmega by accident, sorry in advance.

-Oh fuck, he lives in Peta, run my lord, they're gonna use your autism to lie about milk!

-Here they come. Royalty in a procession of CGI.

-Legendary Swords~!

-Considering how big and important it seems to be, I'm assuming Shugoddamn's also the center of the land's religion?

-That's pretty neat, kinda like the Theocracy of Allistel from Radiant Historia.

-Oh shit, real location!

-Sorry, I don't mean to harp on the CGI so much, it's honestly not bad at all, but goddamn.

-I suppose this was the blood price to pay for the demand of real suits for every ranger.

-Gira! King of Evil!

-Conquer the world!

-Oh come now Kogane-san, you gotta get into it!

-Oh fuck, taxes.

-Hmmm... I'm sensing a corrupt bureaucracy in our midst.

-Gira comin' in to commit a crime.

-Too cringe for Kogane-san.

-Yeah! Get fucked!

-Doing it for the people!

-Quite a good guy, this King of Evil.

-No more petty squabbles. Now is the time for unity.

-King Racles, offers is life for the people of the world.

-Oop.

-Seems like we've already broken down.

-"You need me. You need my power."

-Yeah, I don't trust you, Racles.

-Damn, Rita don't fuck around, do they?

-"I'm the top", yeah that's what they all say.

-Jururira?

-Sounds tasty.

-Oh fuck, here they come.

-The bad guy bugs!

-Big Daddy Desnarak.

-"Move out, my minions- I mean, my friends! Royal Arms!"

-Have to admit, the CG's at least growing on me a lot more than I expected it to.

-Kogane!

-Homegirl's dying!

-"The King... he'll protect us."

-...seems like that was an empty lie.

-Dickhead king.

-Jesus Christ, this man is heartless.

-"Once Emperor Desnarak's head rolls, Yanma Gust's and the people of N'Kosopa shall soon follow."

-Right, you're super evil.

-Hotdamn, Himeno's kicking serious ass.

-Everybody is, holy crap.

-Damn Toei, I see you.

-Hohohohohoho!

-Yanma's haxxor powers are no match for divine tradition.

-So that's why they pushed the whole King of Evil thing so hard.

-All the world shall be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies.

-Gira! Conquer the world in the name of God and people!

-Big Bug!

-"HOW!?"

-Qua God!

-March for the King of Evil, my friends!

-Royal Arms!

-Oooooooh, I love the amber

-You Are The King!

-Kuwagon! Let's fly!

-Oh my lord

-Okay, that's cool

-Shugod!

-Right out the gate! Time to combine!

-God has descended!

-Hot damn, I'm enjoying this a lot.

-Oh God, where did the Spider Shot come from

-"Insignificant worm! Bow before your King!"

-Yeah, this is gonna be a fun ride.

-Thank you, Kuwagon.

-The kings

-"Bring the traitor's head to me, minions!"

-Headed to N'Kosopa!

-Oh shit, ad read.

-OH FUCK ACE

-Ohhhhh, this is the SHT bumper.

-Sorry, the subs I usually find omit these.

-That's pretty sick.

-Love how he brought Big Sis Tsumuri with him, that's cute.

[paranormeow7]

CAN I PLEASE HEAR ABOUT GAVIN AND SAM.... i saw eating corpses and angels and went oh! well i must know

yes absolutely I’m so glad u asked!!!!!! i love talking abt my horrible ocs LAWLZ- I actually have Gavin’s backstory in my writing tag but I would love to talk abt him and Sam more now bc they are very dear to me… basically Sam is one of the last remaining members of an ancient alien race that are like planet sized and have crazy magic and shit. They sort of just hung out in space until people on other planets begun to notice them and worship them as gods, with the aliens deciding to try and fill the role, watching over the planets and their inhabitants. Sam and Gavin live on a fucked up post apocalyptic future earth populated with spirits and demons and shit but more on that later. A big reason the planet is so fucked is that Earths inhabitants began to fear Sams species and decided to try and kill them, mostly succeeding, except for one child who rocketed to Earth and got stuck in a much smaller and more comprehensible form until their “awakening”. Sam always felt connected to the deities though, and became one of the last remaining believers. He would always go out and look at the corpse of Earths former protector in the sky and pray before going to bed. One day, a single tear fell from its eye and splashed Sam and all the memories just flooded back. She basically went like “OH SHIT IM GOD I GUESS” and became a biblically accurate angel kaiju thing because cringe culture is dead lol. It doesn’t make a lot of sense but hey we ball- I don’t have a lot of the story planned out OOPS, but a lot of it is based on spirituality and how religion can’t solve your problems, you have to take care of them yourself, meant in a literal sense, because Sam waited most of their life for someone to save her, but ended up becoming the very thing he prayed to every night. Idk man I’ve had this OC since 2017 maybe I get to go a little wild

about Gavin, this is where we come back to the spirits and stuff !!!! he shares his body with a demonic cat spirit in a sort of parasitic symbiotic relationship. This cat was literally just some roadkill stray, but as the fury and ambition built up in its soul, it became a horrific and tyrannical monster with no trace of its older self. It believed that since it’s life was taken away with such little care, it should be allowed to do the same to others in order for its power to grow, so that eventually it can get back the life it believed it was owed. This demon stalked Gavin his whole life because he saw the spark of that same ambition and rage in him, and decided to get him killed so it could take his body and use it for its own gain. Gavin also believed that he deserved to continue living as long as he wanted to, so when this spirit offered to bring him back for the price of complete control over his own soul, he took the deal. The demon needs living souls to be able to gain enough power to communicate with the higher level spiritual beings, so he would make Gavin eat animals and people in order to get that from him. After a while though, Gavin started to kill by himself. He was abused for most of his life leading up to his death, so he started to kill and eat random people that he saw his abusers in. He believes that not only do these people owe him their lives, that he’s doing the world a favor by getting rid of them. Over time, he loses most of the compassion he had in the past and becomes more and more like the demon he shares his body with, because after everything he’s been through, the world owes him that, doesn’t it? Basically, he’s awful, but he’s also very silly and he has a partner who’s the only person he actually likes LOL

This is incomprehensible I’m so sorry I hope this made even a shred of sense- whablalgavkq

[wander-wren]

oc game: i was tempted to just send you all the emojis but 🧠🌼✨ those are in reverse order from how they appear in the game i think oops anyway these are ones we dont usually get in character questions i genuinely dont think I know their ages soooo enjoy

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

inari- she's very, very attached to her home country of skalmere, even though it's illegal for her to exist there and she'd likely be killed if she ever went back. she has a little skalian flag sewn on the inside of her jacket, over her heart. idk, something about it is really compelling, i guess i connect it to being a minority in a conservative area but not wanting to leave.

daci- okay, i love her bc she's a sweetheart, but i think what i like most is that her magic (empathy, literally) is very sensory-based, so if she chooses to use it around a lot of people she gets sensory overload, and sometimes there's so much she can't fully turn her magic off, and idk, i like angst, i like magic drawbacks, i like people who refuse to let their friends know their magic has drawbacks.

cas- he projects this image of himself as really dark and edgy and scary but he actually has the lowest self-esteem known to man (well, second to inari) and if ollie so much as looks at him sternly he will fold and walk back his most recent bad decision. he's so funny to me for that.

ollie- they're literally just this happy-go-lucky artist kid from the backcountry that you would never expect to be the right hand of mr edgy up there ^^ its a really fun character type to play with

eira- she's this small, babyfaced, anxious girl that literally everyone estimates, kind of rightfully bc she's very out of her depth, but from the first page she's got this undercurrent of strength and ambition and i really love balancing those two things (or unbalancing them and causing her problems)

tyrian- he's the most Some Guy ever, the ken to eira's barbie if you will, and he's the only one without magic or a significant amount of trauma, so he's even more out of his depth than eira is but doing his best. and i love him.

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

in age order: cas (19), ollie (18), daci (18), tyrian (17), inari (17), eira (16)

i started this story when i was 15 and younger than them all, and in 8 months i'll be older than all of them. which is insane.

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?

there's a forum on the nanowrimo website, where i was spending most of my time back in 2019 (you know this, lexi), and there's a category in there to adopt character names. someone made a list of fantasy names and their meanings, which i went back and found just now:

inari, daciana, eira, and cassian (cas's full name) are all up there. i actually almost named him caspian, bc it means sea, but i had an inkling that "hollow" would be more fitting. also, there's narnia.

fun fact: isleen and isleen wer taken for tyrian's older sister & younger brother, dyah (which i'm now tweaking to either dyha or dyja, but it was dyah for four years) was taken for inari's little sister, and valens was taken for eira's father.

i don't remember where tyrian came from at all, except that two posts above that post someone suggested "tyr?" hm. also, i pulled several names from other posts for the eight gods of daci's religion, as well as alarik for her dog and kiver for a kid who will be important near the end. no one needed to know all of that, i'm just realizing now that this thread was absolutely instrumental to olt's beginnings, lol.

oh, also ollie/oleander isn't from there! they came when i sent a picrew to some friends on a discord server and asked for naming help. i'm no longer in that server, nor do i remember who suggested the name, but i am forever in their debt bc it is incredible.

oh, and last names i just COMPLETELY made up based on vibes, except for gatien. i remember googling for that one, i don't remember what, and i selected it bc it means "watchman," tho i'm not sure what i was going for there anymore. also inari and daci's last names have been nixed bc i grew to hate them, so....i still need to replace those.

[keyofshadows]

So I was in the hospital for three weeks in May with severe fungal pneumonia. I needed to have a bronchoscopy and they found my right lung completely blocked with phlegm. No breath sounds. Super fun, let me tell you.

I actually ended up telling my nurses and the charge nurse that I was autistic when they wanted to move me to a louder, busier floor. Thankfully they let me keep my quiet room on the quiet floor.

While I was in the hospital I got a call from my brother (who I live with), checking up on me and letting me know that he was super pissed about the state my room was in (papers, stuffed toys everywhere, unmade bed, clothes folded in a corner because I have no dresser, which he's responsible for). He told me that he and my sister-in-law were going to clean it for me. I told him not to touch anything, my therapist was helping me with it and we were making progress. He said they were starting next weekend whether I was there or not. Of course I wasn't there in time because I developed a secondary infection and needed to stay longer.

After I was released from the hospital, I found most of my bedroom in the living room. Bags of clothes, bags of stuffed animals, blankets, pillows, medical papers, my stories, almost everything. Despite me being exhausted and just wanting to nap, my brother gave me a bunch of my papers to sort through. Then he dragged in bags of stuffed animals. The rule! He'd dump out a bag, I could pick one toy. Each bag held about eight. I had around thirty stuffed animals. These were all important to me. They all had names, some I'd had since childhood, all were great for my anxiety and doctor appointments. It was really really difficult, and I lost my words and could only point. Some choices I made, he wanted to know why instead of just setting them aside. I made myself talk because the thought of losing them because I couldn't speak was intolerable. He gave me a couple extra here and there and then accused me of trying to manipulate him.

After the stuffed animals we went through my baby dolls which is a whole other level of trauma. I still have some of them, thankfully. I'm working with my therapist regarding this because I'm so incredibly angry and depressed about it. I'm an adult and he has no right to my stuff even if he does pay the majority of the rent, but I get SSI and can't afford to move out. I'm here as long as they'll have me.

All my stuffed animals are in a scented garbage bag in my closet (brother and sister-in-law know I have asthma in addition to pneumonia recovery, but nah, why not).

Other annoying and frustrating bullshit relating to this:

- I'm not allowed to close my door anymore unless I need to change. I thought it was because he was worried I would pile junk up again. Nope. It's because "you don't deserve privacy". Wow, flashback to my actual childhood. At least he hadn't taken the door off the hinges like my loser father did. Anyway, brother dearest wanted me to keep it all the way open minus changing, and I had a panic attack because I hate being stared at/NEED PRIVACY GODDAMIT and he just blew it off. I begged all day and finally got the okay to keep my door closed halfway. I'm still completely screwed when perfume/smoke/garlic wafts in, but whatever. Better than nothing I guess.

Things I lost:

About 15 books out of roughly 170. I got lucky here, he wanted to cut my books way down. Yes, they were all already in bookcases.

35 stuffed animals. This includes my bulbasaur, eevee, umbreon, and beanie baby collection (new, not vintage) that he 'accidentally' threw out before he let me look at them.

My Monster High dolls, because they're against his religion? I guess? He just grabbed them and told me, "You know why these are going" and threw them in the trash.

Five or six of my Funko pops. I actually only have a few displayed now because I hid the rest.

My three extra backpacks, which used to come in handy for clinic/hospital shit, but oops, not anymore.

MY WHOLE ASS SQUISHMALLOW COLLECTION, WHICH WAS MAYBE FIVE, HE JUST THREW THEM THE FUCK AWAY.

ALSO WORTHY OF SCREAMING: THE LOSS OF THREE OF MY BABY DOLLS.

ALSO ALSO FUCKING STITCH

Stuff I still have:

Lots of books, thank God.

My six American Girl dolls and one bitty baby.

All of my current barbies and some of my vintage.

My Polly Pocket collection (new, not vintage)

My Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy figures

My L.O.L. dolls, but only because they were in my backpack.

The rest of my Funkos

My dvds

Gundam model kits

15 stuffed animals/childhood cabbage patch doll/rainbow brite

Bumbly is at the bottom of the godforsaken scented trash bag (I think. I hope so. I need to look when my lungs get back to baseline), but he's gonna need to be washed anyway. So as some form of rebellion, I bought another Bumbly bear. Her name's Elora.

[signalwatch]

Tarzan Watch: Greystoke - the Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)

this is the most pretentious possible Tarzan poster

Watched:  04/10/2023

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Director:  Hugh Hudson

I can only imagine what the pitch meeting was for this movie, and I can totally see how it happened.  

In 1981, Hugh Hudson had directed Chariots of Fire, a movie that was a smash hit about pasty British guys running foot races and worrying about religion.  Like, you couldn't escape the movie, which I watched on TV once when I was sick as a kid and immediately erased from my memory.  But it was a big @#$%ing deal when adults went to the cinema.  

I'm sure it's great.  But it was an unlikely hit, and won Best Picture.  Career made for somebody.

So when the director of the footrace movie comes to you and says "we're gonna do Tarzan.  But now it's a prestige costume drama about how Tarzan is, in fact, a very sad ape man.  He is not a super-human living among men, continually pursued by hot women and fighting weird alien threats and large animals.  Instead, he's a kind of skinny French guy who does stuff you've seen apes do at the zoo.  But, you know, it's quite sad" I guess you trust and give that guy a sack of cash to give it a go.

A bunch of other people had seen this movie, and had more or less ape-blocked me from seeing it over the years as every time I said "I've not seen this, but I'd like to" I'd be told "No.  It is not good."  And I was like "okay, fair enough."  But tonight that didn't work, and I settled in for 2 hours and 15 minutes of sad Tarzan.

Look, at the end of the day, someone needed to realize a grown man imitating an ape is not what Tarzan is, exactly.  Or that this would be a good thing to see on screen when it did happen.  I don't know if they thought they were getting the magic on camera by having Christopher Lambert oop every time he felt an emotion, or basically having him play an ape who occasionally mutters short sentences.  Frankly, this Tarzan seems positively ready for an institution, and so it makes for an utterly unbuyable love story between John Greystoke and Jane Porter, but it's the sexy 80's, so you know they're gonna bang.  And, indeed, they do.

I've read the first Tarzan book, seen a few other Tarzan movies and read (and re-read) a Marvel comics adaptation of the first part of the first novel a fair bit, and you kind of realize the quick pitch version of the Greystokes winding up in Africa and their time there before things go sideways is more crucial than this movie thought.  Add in that this movie really, really struggles with whether Tarzan is a feral person or has the astonishing intellect of the Tarzan of the novel in order to hew closer to a very 1980's story about man and nature, man's nature and nurture, and lacking basic reasoning skills in early 20th Century Scotland.

I can maybe get with a "but what if Tarzan really happened?" angle, but you're in a constant state of "yes, but..." regression that more or less flatlines at baby John Clayton dead in the jungle two days after his discovery by Kala.  So you have to maybe accept even more, but more nuanced, absurdities than even the original novel doles out in order to buy the film.  The casting of Lambert is odd, in part because he's not exactly Johnny Weismuller, and it's difficult to believe this guy survived in the jungle against apes and leopards. But it's the fact that when Tarzan is home, he's both utterly alien to himself and the world around him, but no one seems to notice?  As he's all but flinging poo, people are just jabbering away at him.  

What's oddest is that because Lambert is fairly successful at becoming an ape(mentally), it feels as if there's no inner world to Tarzan in some ways.  We have no idea if he understands anything said to him, or the complexity of his predicament.  He self soothes by ooping and rolling around.  It's incredibly weird that the movie doesn't seem to think this is a problem.  Or maybe it's an unsolvable problem?  There's just a peculiar distance between the characters and the viewer, all of them - not just Clayton, that it's a bit odd.  

All of that is, in it's way... kind of passable.  But the movie is also morbidly predictable.  Maybe it's the era, or maybe it's that they treat Tarzan more like a cub in Born Free than a human character, but you know this shit ends with Tarzan seeing his kindly grandfather/ benefactor croaking and the demands of the world becoming too much so he wanders back into the jungle to sweeping orchestral music before our ape man ever leaves the jungle.  You know Jane will stand there impassiveley while Tarzan chooses a swift death in the jungle over endless food, luxury and sex with an actual human.  You know the noble Belgian will try to get him back to the jungle when, frankly, he's probably gonna get killed after living soft for a year.

I am sure this felt mind-blowingly clever as they were making it, but the end result is a sad man making monkey noises for 90 minutes, and then running away.  And that's maybe not what people were thinking of when they showed up to see a Tarzan flick with a budget.   

Jamie mentioned the movie felt weirdly disjointed, and upon review...  yeah.  It kinda was.  The movie can feel like it's borrowing from movies you already know, but doesn't do much with those storylines, so it's like these barely realized vignettes.  Like - the entire storyline of Jane having a suitor goes nowhere and doesn't really do what it's intended to do - ie: show Jane how Tarzan is more noble than the nobleman.  She doesn't see him beat the young helper guy.  She doesn't see Tarzan save the day.  She just dumps the guy for reasons that are vague (I mean, except wanting to live in a sweet mansion).  That's just an example.  The movie kind of does a lot of this.

It's a shame, because there's maybe a path for a Tarzan movie that tries to ground itself a bit more.  But the 1980's was probably the last decade to tell a story about Tarzan without culture's need to navigate and acknowledge Europe's fuckery in colonial Africa.  I think now you'd need to set the story post WWII or something and be careful.  ERB's original prose isn't quite as racist as you'd expect, but it's certainly a product of its time (ie: it's still racist, just not as nut punchingly straightforwardly racist as other things you'll stumble over).  

I kinda liked the 2016 Tarzan, because (a) the casting was rock solid (b) 3rd reel animal rampage and (c) making Lord Greystoke here anti-Colonial and giving a convincing argument for his desire to return home.  It's got issues, and I wanted more monkey-business, but it was all right.  That said - it was still mostly a reminder:  oh my god.  This is really hard now.

Anyway, I'm glad I finally watched it.  It made excellent use of Andie McDowall's frankly stunning hair.  Rick Baker's ape suits were everything I'd read about.  The set and locations look phenomenal.  There were genuine moments of hope for me that this might be better than expected.    

https://ift.tt/m9dawB2

from The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/2mAZjzG

[hummingbirdsinjune]

I can't sleep!! Midnight Museum Ep 9 it is

- what am I supposed to make of this

- oh yah that's our disheveled Triphob

- naw something is definitely going to happen to Bam or Triphob she's gotten too much character development way too suddenly

- I'm about to absolutely riot over Bam

- man just put me in my casket now I cannot live with what's coming

- should I believe these colours represent the parallel universes, for who is controlling who? Which one is Dome from? How does One know so much about Khatha?

- June my love where did you get that machete

- wanna take bets on who is about to steal Dome's body? I mean, it's not really his body either. On that note, why hasn't original Dome taken back control of his body now that Dome 2.0 has been kicked out?

- man I KNEW Triphob could fight.

- ): he's gonna think he did that

- the homies are in a real bad spot right now

- "you don't know how powerful faith can be" Antika, June was LITERALLY made up in the imagination of a ghost that wanted her to be real.

- June said "violence is the answer"

- oop it's the dismantling of religion

- weeeell guess we all could have seen that coming.

Kinda wild tho that Chan didn't seem evil when he was alive, but now he's real evil coded.

[billconrad]

Are Today’s Writers Spoiled?

    My father was a hard-core author who published from the mid-70s through the 2000s. He began with an IBM Selectric II typewriter and sought out the only publisher, McMillan, willing to take on a ceramic textbook. Later, he used this same typewriter to typeset and self-publish his books, which were sold mail order from our garage.

    Today, publishing is quite different. A person can use a free online word processor like Google Docs to write a book, convert it to an eBook, or print on-demand book and publish it online where millions of people can download it.

    And the tools we have? Word, Front Page, Excel, Visio, Grammarly, Photoshop, ProWritingAid and Hemmingway. There are even AI-powered resources like ChatGPT. Plus, the internet is a research powerhouse that can fact-check, locate information, find existing works, locate publishing resources, correct flaws, and inspire ideas. Well, I guess that is it. Anybody can publish a book without any effort and make millions of dollars. Umm, no.

    Take the topic of Nelson Mandela. With a few minutes of internet research, ALL the essential facts about this amazing man are available. Are they accurate? Multiple sources can easily confirm the vital facts. What can be done with this verified information? Write a book, report, article, educational pamphlet, children’s book, or fantasy story with Nelson as a character or a parody based on researched facts.

    For example, an author could use Google Docs to write a time travel story where the main character meets Nelson Mandela. Then, check it with Grammarly, import a table from Excel, and use free online tools to place their book on Amazon. Heck, the cover design could be done by the AI image generator SDXL. The resulting book would be wholly fact-checked, grammar-checked, and properly formatted with excellent cover art. The apex of the spoiled author is to use an AI program like ChatGPT to write the entire book. Truly remarkable.

    All true, but there is a problem my father never faced. Readers have a thousand time travel books to choose from or can download a free time travel story from many sites. Do you like horses? “Hey, ChatGPT. Write a time travel story with Nelson Mandela riding horses.” Done!

    This wide variety makes it nearly impossible for an author to get a potential reader’s attention. I did an Amazon search for “Nelson Mandela books,” and 409 results appeared. Poetry book? 80,000 results. Religion book? 100,000 results. Harry Potter book? 4,000 results. Side note: When I did this search, I found “Welcome to Hogwarts (LEGO Harry Potter).” Lego publishes books? I do not even know what to say…

    It gets worse. A nobody reader can leave a scathing review that stays public until the last hard drive in the universe stops spinning. And oops. The server crashed, and your Google Docs book got deleted. Plagiarism? It is now easier than copying files off a floppy disk.

    Alright, I’m getting lazy. “Hey ChatGPT. List the problems facing modern authors.”

1. Oversaturation of the Market: With the rise of self-publishing and digital platforms, more books are being published than ever, making it harder for authors to stand out.

    Discoverability: Competing for attention in a crowded marketplace requires significant effort in marketing and branding.

2. Financial Instability

    Low Royalties: Traditional publishing contracts often offer modest royalties, and self-published authors may struggle to make consistent sales.

    Pressure to Write Quickly: Authors may feel pushed to produce content rapidly to keep up with market demand, which can lead to burnout.

3. Marketing and Promotion

    Lack of Support: Many authors, especially in the self-publishing world, must handle their marketing and promotion, which requires time, money, and expertise.

    Social Media Pressure: Authors are often expected to maintain a solid social media presence to engage readers, which can be overwhelming and detract from writing time.

4. Changing Reader Habits

    Shorter Attention Spans: With the dominance of digital content and streaming services, some readers may have shorter attention spans, impacting interest in lengthy works.

    EBook vs. Print: The shift to eBooks and audiobooks changes how books are consumed, and some authors struggle to adapt.

5. Technological Disruption

    AI and Automation: Tools that generate content, like AI-written texts, are emerging, potentially altering how stories are created and valued.

    Piracy: Digital piracy remains a significant concern, with unauthorized copies of books cutting into authors’ earnings.

6. Diversity and Representation

    Gatekeeping: Some authors face barriers related to race, gender, or identity when trying to break into traditional publishing.

    Pressure to Represent: Authors from marginalized backgrounds may feel obligated to focus on specific narratives, limiting creative freedom.

7. Creative Challenges

    Writer’s Block: Pressure to produce can exacerbate creative blocks.

    Balancing Art and Commerce: Authors may struggle to balance writing what they are passionate about with what sells.

8. Mental Health Concerns

    Isolation: Writing can be a solitary profession, leading to feelings of loneliness or disconnection.

    Public Criticism: Negative reviews, online trolls, and cancel culture can affect an author’s mental health.

9. Industry Gatekeeping

Traditional Publishing Barriers: Many authors face rejections or long waits for decisions from conventional publishers.

Focus on Trends: Publishers may prioritize trendy genres or themes, making it harder for unique or unconventional stories to find a home.

10. Sustainability

Environmental Impact: Authors may grapple with the ethics of traditional publishing’s reliance on paper and physical distribution.

Cultural Shifts: Trends and norms evolve quickly, requiring authors to adapt their writing styles and themes to remain relevant.

    Today, authors face many challenges my father could not have imagined in the seventies. When he started, there were only TWO ceramics textbooks. I searched Amazon for “ceramics textbook,” and 242 books appeared. This number is incorrect because my father amassed over 500 hardcover ceramics textbooks during his writing effort.

    And the quality of the modern ceramic textbook? Nearly every new ceramic textbook, potter’s manual, glaze recipe cookbook, reference book, or guide has my father’s books in the appendix or bibliography. So, I know they must be good.

    My father faced many technical and economic challenges that today’s authors can only read about in history books. Instead, our challenges are the extreme competition, cut-throat marketing, developing new ideas, and utilizing new technology. So, today’s authors have many tools at their fingertips that my father could only dream about, but we face sophisticated modern readers and mountains of existing work. We certainly are not spoiled, but neither was my father.

    You’re the best -Bill

    November 27, 2024

    Hey, book lovers, I published four. Please check them out:

   Interviewing Immortality. A dramatic first-person psychological thriller that weaves a tale of intrigue, suspense, and self-confrontation.

    Pushed to the Edge of Survival. A drama, romance, and science fiction story about two unlikely people surviving a shipwreck and living with the consequences.

    Cable Ties. A slow-burn political thriller that reflects the realities of modern intelligence, law enforcement, department cooperation, and international politics.

    Saving Immortality. Continuing in the first-person psychological thriller genre, James Kimble searches for his former captor to answer his life’s questions.

    These books are available in softcover on Amazon and in eBook format everywhere.

[blackboxtheatrecrew]

🐾🍀🧵

Hello hello! This was sent to me for a system ask game. I have saved this in my drafts for a rainy day when I felt my blog needed more positivity. Thanks for sending this ask and waiting so patiently for a response :D I can't find the original game anymore sadly but I did put in what all the emojis went ahead of time, thankfully!

~~

🐾 Is your system mostly human or inhuman members? Somewhere in between?

I would honestly say it definitely feels like close to a 50/50 balance of human and nonhuman members, but the actual numbers might say differently. We have many different types of folks here, and while there's a lot of non-humans, but a good deal of human folk here as well. There's also some who's connection with humanity is blurry. It's nice to have all these different perspectives up here.

🍀 Do any system members practice a religion or belief system? What about spirituality?

It's funny you should ask that, as we had a member go through questioning her religious beliefs lately. We are collectively ex-Christian, and a lot of us are atheists or eclectic witches. This system member in question was considering returning to Christianity. While we support/supported her journey, I'm glad she concluded she didn't want to return to the church or Christianity, as we have trauma related to that religion.

Some spiritualities that stand out to me is TT:Miyurn and 🐛Gamzee, as they have the same source and more or less the same religion, but one of them has left the Church of the Mirthful Messiahs while the other hasn't, which makes how they actually practice their faith different and interesting. TT:Miyurn (before he went dormant(?)) would paint for the Mirthful Messiahs, while 🐛Gamzee, to my knowledge, is a lot more comfortable with internal expressions of devotion. 📍Rose is another member here with an unconventional faith, as she worships the horrorterrors in exchange for his dark powers. He used to leave offerings and things to charge in pitch blackness. It's very interesting to me&

Overall, we do try to give system members the space to practice their spiritual beliefs if that's what they want.

🧵 How does your system handle the body's / vessel's appearance? Does everyone dress the same, or is there a broad range of styles?

I'd say whoever dresses us generally gets the say in what we wear, lol. It used to be up to the host, and then he tried to get more input from others, and now we don't really have a host anymore, so it's kind of a free-for-all. We generally dress alt and have a lot of fandom things we like to wear. When we dress, it feels more like dressing a singletsona rather than ourselves if that makes sense. Internally our fashion senses vary, but I'm glad it hasn't made dressing too much of an issue-- aside from when some clothing choices of some system members sometimes make others dysphoric. Oops.

Admittedly, it would be nice to dress more that feels like us individually, but that unfortunately takes a lot of time, energy and money that we don't have. We have been thinking about getting personalized Kandi bracelets that we would swap based on who's fronting. I hope we get to make that idea a reality at some point :]

Side note: I just remembered a few system members here used to wear wigs that looked more like their hair in system, and one of us had a favorite pair of shades that I think he felt a lot more like himself when he wore them. We don't really do things like that anymore and cope with the body being different in other ways. Idk if that's a good or bad thing, kinda miss it. We're more functional than we used to be, but sometimes some of it feels like at the cost of being able to express ourselves :/ something to think about, I guess. I hope that we as a system can find our way to expressing ourselves in a healthy way while keeping all the other progress we've made since those days.

~~~

Thanks so much for the questions! If I still had the system ask meme link, I'd put it here in case anyone else wants to ask us something. Since I can't find it though, i may just reblog another one later d:

🪳Maker (& 🧨Tate(?))

[kill0mtr]

you ever play a roblox game thats story is so good and so fruitful that you wanna make fanart but literally no one else Cares about it so.

the game was called "life purpose" and it went from a trolley problem to a guy burning down his entire village, so. 10/10 game i recommend it

tw for: heartbeat sounds, feeling of being watched, one (1) jumpscare, murder, blood, war, depression, psychological horror (?), religion (mostly buddhism and talk of rebirth and that stuff), it switches from third person to first person for the Spook sometimes (mostly in The Cave)

ahh god nevermind im just. im gonna talk about this under the cut Just. spoilers for the game if you wanna play. it took me around 30 - 45 minutes (i didnt really have a timer so it mightve been less/more idk) its Really good

^ the link. okay imma ramble about this game. play it for yourself if you wanna not get spoiled cuz imma about to do a play by play

--- IF I GET THE TIMELINE WRONG I APOLOGIZE!!! ---

okay okay so. it starts off with a trolley problem. this red ball thing (imma call him Red from now on) is here, telling you that "oH whAT a cLASSIc tRolLey prOblEM !! :)" and theres 4 people on one side, one on the other. you, the mc, cant really move anywhere, theres invisible walls. Red keeps going on and on about how this guy, the one guy, is such a loser, and nobody likes him. and oh, hes a serial killer, so he DESERVES to die, and oh, Red changed the body of the one guy into a more curvy body (im guessing male to female, congrats on the transition) and is all like "😳 i bET yOu doNT wANNa pULl tHE lEVer nOw" and then at the end, when Red is done explaining how this guys a loser and nobody likes them and theyre a serial killer yadda yadda yadda, he then goes "You have no choice. Pull the lever." and then you and the mc are forced to watch the guy plead for their life, as the train squashes them.

but good news! it was just a dream. :) he awakes in the afternoon in his cottage, on top of the hill. he looks down below at the village, monologuing about how hes alone and how the villagers probably hate him. the mc then says he wants to go to the cave. this is where it gets spooky.

he gets down to the cave. as you go forward, the perspective shifts to first person, and the movement slows. you get down to the bottom, to see a body hanging from a rock. the mc says "he got what he deserved". he exits the cave, now nighttime. the villagers are shooting fireworks. he sleeps, disgruntled.

Red is here again, and we are now in the barracks. a line up of soldiers and one of them is looking over the edge. Red then says like, "oH thIS gUy iS verY hOPEfuL" blah blah blah (sorry Red i dont really wanna paraphrase everything you say) and then the guy gets shot in the head and Red laughs about how he falls in a weird way. and then all the soldiers charge and you are forced to just... stay there. Red mocks you for that.

the mc wakes up. checks the cave. a woman has found the cave. he decides he need to kill her. he chases her, but the woman is too fast for him. he checks the house she ran into, and oops! both you and the mc get jumpscared by a cat. you cant find the woman anywhere. we then go home and sleep, anxiety building.

another dream. the mc is in a room, thats a jail. a guy is laying on the ground, kinda out of it. Red says he was framed, but he'll die because the "good" people thought he was a "bad" person. hes been in the cell for 9 years. "hE is aLIvE, buT heS bEeN dEAd a LONg tIMe" <- Red wtf does that mean. the cell then breaks, revealing three statues; a buddha, a cross, and the kabba (Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam). the screen fades to black after a couple of seconds.

a buncha stuff happens. The Spooks increase. i dont remember much for this section, it kinda just blurs together, sorry. but i do know that there were black roses that kept whispering threats, giant heads that smiled at you, and the moon was a giant face that was too scary to even describe. ughhh i hated that. i hated the moon face >:( but it fit! it fit the story!! oh and also the mc killed a monk in his dreams before that.

cut to the mc talking to his dad on a bench. they talk about life, its purpose, and then like, at the end of the convo the dad is like "what did you do after i passed away" and the mc lied and said he did good. then it cuts again, dad gone and the village burnt down, with everyone dead. Red is here, in the real world, and they talk about starting over. Red, despite loving chaos, agrees that the mc should be better. they agree to travel to a new village, where theyll be good this time. screen fades to black.

the end. :)

can you tell i loved this game. i didnt tell you NEARLY enough about this game, but if youre okay with psychological horror and a weird red energy ball calling you a loser, i think its Great!!! (also me he/him-ing Red is purely the vibes i got from Red, i dont think that thing has a gender)

[taffywabbit]

this is exactly correct in my experience! and one of the dumbest things about it is that you can't actually apply the usual conspiracy-debunking logic to The Devil himself in these discussions, cuz if you ask "how does The Devil benefit from [x]?" or "how exactly does [x] have anything to do with Good or Evil?", it'll lead to further questions like "since The Devil apparently frequently succeeds and gets what he wants, does that mean he's capable of achieving happiness?". at which point you'd have to also wonder why any reasonable interpretation of God would let him run around freely like that if he's supposed to be "punished" or "fallen" or whatever, or frankly why an entity like The Devil would even be allowed by God to exist in the first place. and THEN you either gotta ask a) if The Devil's power somehow rivals that of God, or b) if The Devil is given power/influence BY god (to test people's faith or whatever? i guess?? i've heard a few takes that dance around this in different ways). but both of these ideas will quickly land you in OOPS THAT'S BLASPHEMY territory with folks from pretty much any Christian denomination, instantly ending the convo and preventing them from considering anything you said further (because now you're DEFINITELY an agent of The Devil sent to tempt/deceive them).

a lot of Christianity just inherently isn't built for close scrutiny. it often doesn't hold up very well if you squint at the cracks, and of course squinting is strongly discouraged. which is why it so frequently overlaps with people who don't make a habit of scrutinizing any of the other beliefs they hold either! in most Christian sects "curiosity killed the cat" may as well be gospel. if you have 'faith' you shouldn't need to ask prying questions, right? maybe some sects purport to have lots of cool clever answers and thus do encourage questions, but only as long as they're the RIGHT questions and not the kind that are at risk of poking holes. so it's a short hop from there to "The Devil is also the one who wants to tempt me to question all my conspiracy theories", because if they spend long enough in that environment and their "unwavering faith" becomes intertwined deeply enough with their sense of identity, then critical thinking and basic research into ANYTHING they personally believe can start to feel sinful and dangerous. for folks who are in deep enough, interrogations of themselves are seen as an attack by Sinister Forces on everything they are and believe, whether it's their religion or some Flat Earth/anti-vax/Deep State nonsense they soaked up.

IMO you can't say anything coherent about most US-based right wing conspiracy theories without understanding how seriously the diehards in these movements believe in The Devil

the obvious question, "who benefits from maintaining this elaborate lie," does not stop people like Flat Earthers because many of them are young earth creationists who believe in powerful spiritual forces whose only goals are

1. convincing people that Christianity isn't true

2. the proliferation of largely symbolic Evil, which they enjoy tricking you into supporting

"tricking" people into believing the earth is round is enough of a goal for The Devil to go to all that trouble. if people don't believe in God's perfect little flat earth then they're also free to believe in things like evolution and the big bang

practicality and material concerns are usually irrelevant. the lie is worth maintaining because The Devil has near unlimited time, resources, and human servants, and his top priority is Getting You

[itsavgbltpta]

Should You Watch KamiKatsu?

(Full English title: KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World)

(Japanese title: Kaminaki Sekai no Kamisama Katsudou)

A Brief Summary

Protagonist Yukito has been raised his entire life as part of a muscle-man obsessed cult that worships a single goddess, due to his father being the leader of said cult.  During a ritual, Yukito is stuffed inside a barrel and thrown off a cliff into the sea to survive.  When Yukito wakes up, he doesn’t seem to be in Japan any more.  Instead he’s now in a world where religion doesn’t exist, and where the population accepts any order from the government to die when given - all except for a few spunky weirdos who are cast out into remote villages.  Luckily, Yukito winds up at one of these villages and is taken in by the townsfolk.

Through plot, Yukito ends up with the power of a real god on his side - but how will he use this advantage to live out life in this new world?  That’s what KamiKatsu aims to find out.

So, should you watch the anime?

Probably not, unless you’re open to a lot of jank.

I won’t lie, KamiKatsu is a mess.  But it’s the kind of mess I like.  The kind of mess where I don’t know if it will hit the same on a second viewing, but it kept me on my toes enough to enjoy the ride the first time around.

Shock value is a big player in KamiKatsu.  You know, things like the main character getting jerked off in an effort to revive him within the first 10 minutes of the first episode.  That kind of thing - where you raise one, or possibly both eyebrows thinking “that couldn’t possibly be what just happened” - happens quite a bit.  I get the feeling the creative team for the show was like “fuck it, why not” to a lot of ideas that were thrown out there.

To make a comparison, the closest thing I can think of is a B-team version of The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace.  So if you enjoyed that show, KamiKatsu might give you a bit of the same WTF feeling.  And fan service moments.  Oh man, there is a lot of sexual… flavorings in KamiKatsu.  A little too much, honestly, but “in for a penny, in for a pound” was their motto, I guess.

Again, this kind of attitude works for me personally as I was also morbidly curious as to where they were going to go next, but this show is not for everyone.  However, I’m still not sure why all reviewers at ANN (Anime News Network) hated it with such vitriol.  Like, it’s dumb, but fun in weird, wacky, inappropriate ways.  Then again, ANN tends to frown on anything with inappropriate fan service situations, and KamiKatsu has that in spades.  To each their own - but if you rely on ANN reviews and skipped watching this anime because they hated it so much, maybe give it an episode or two to figure out if it’s your brand of fun.

I found myself snickering most episodes - and I downright lost my mind when they rolled out the rotoscope/photoshop head on a dude riding a tractor bit.  I had to pause it and immediately share that absolute stupidity with my anime club - half of which didn’t believe it was real.  

Speaking of that, the animation veers wildly back and forth between very pretty (usually when breasts are involved), typical isekai (serviceable but stiff), cute retro 16-bit style (sometimes for no apparent reason), and godawful CG (for animals/monsters).  Like the rest of the show, it’s a real mixed bag.  I’m not sure if that adds to the flavor or if I was just ready to accept whatever KamiKatsu decided to throw at me.

Plot-wise, KamiKatsu is ok.  There are some intriguing ideas about gods and how to get people to join your cult- oops, I mean religion - and there’s a twist part-way through that I won’t spoil here.  The plot isn’t really why I looked forward to watching KamiKatsu though - it was more a means to create insane moments and character interactions.  That’s what powered my enjoyment.

What flavor of characters can you hope to enjoy?

A loli goddess (Mitama) who’s obsessed with getting the protagonist to believe in her.

A pair of sisters that run the local inn (Al and Sil) - one who is infatuated with the protagonist and the other infatuated with getting drunk.

The absolute scummiest human being in the show- which is actually impressive (Roy).

Clen, who seems a little too normal…

A kuudere powerhouse that will do anything for ice cream (spoiler, so no name here).

And a former knight who has fallen into disgrace for various reasons (Bertrand).  Those reasons are giant gazongas, by the way.

Plus more!  I don’t want to give away too much because a lot of the fun in this show is experiencing what random wacky things happen each episode.

If any of that sounded appealing, I say you should give KamiKatsu a watch.  Maybe a good old 3 Episode test.  For those not intrigued, you may want to skip this one.

Where does it rate on my personal scale?  

S: I will buy it at full price (unless it’s released by Aniplex USA, because fuck their pricing).

->A: I will buy it on sale sometime down the line.

B: I had fun watching it, but don’t need to own it.

C: It’s not my cup of tea, but wasn’t awful.

D: Dropped it.

X: Finished it out of spite, but did not enjoy it.

KamiKatsu nets a low A.  It might have to be a pretty good sale for me to pick it up.  I will definitely watch a second season if it ever gets made though!

[strangeandun-muse-ual]

𝟓 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄

The Cult of Dionysus || The Orion Experience

So let's make a decision, start a new religion Yeah, we're gonna build a temple to our love Orgiastic dances, nymphs in trances Yeah, we'll be the envy of the gods above

I'm feeling devious You're looking glamorous Let's get mischievous And polyamorous Wine and women and wonderful vices Welcome to the cult of Dionysus

Big Bad Wolf || Johnny Wright

Have you heard about the big bad wolf 'Bout the big bad wolf, oh my! He walked into the club with his big bright eyes sublime Then he approached the bar with his teeth so pearly white And now the big bad wolf is in your bed tonight--oop!

Attention Seeker || Felix Hagan & the Family

When I hear people stand and cheer, it's The dawn that shimmers in the dark And if they hate me my heart breaks With such an earth-shakin' sound So turn and face me for my sake You can save me if you come around And I don't like to bare my soul to strangers But show me yours and I'll show you mine And we'll dance together one more time, come on!

Don't Lose Ur Head || Six

(Uh oh...) Here we go... (Is that what you said?) And now he's goin' round like "Off with her head!" (No!) Yeah, I'm pretty sure he means it... (Seems to...) What was I meant to do? (What was she meant to do?) Like what was I meant to do? (What was she meant to do?) But what was I meant to do?! GUYS SERIOUSLY HE ACTUALLY WANTS TO CHOP MY HEAD OFF!!!

I Just Had Sex || The Lonely Island

Have you ever had sex? I have, it felt great! It felt so good when I did it with my penis! A girl let me do it! It literally just happened! Havin' sex can make a nice man out the meanest! Never guess where I just came from--I had sex! If I had to describe the feelin', it was the best! When I had the sex, man, my penis felt great! And I called my parents right after I was done!

Tagged by: @frestoniia Tagging: Steal it!