#parental emorality

[zestydistress]

•°∆Looney Tunes Marvin the Martian headcanons∆°•

My brain is fucked, so I'm writing Marvin the Martian lore late at night. I'm forcing you to read my headcanons.

MARTIAN HEADCANONS

Words for a Martian child (and/or like- daughter or son or something): neonate, scion, larva, pupa, bairn, fledgling, successor, stock, begat, brood, young, hatch, posterity, spawn, progeny, sprog, raise, and xerox. (Xerox is very frowned upon, and you would be scrutinized if you refered to a scion, or any martian, as a xerox.)

Words for a martian "parent": guardian, forebear, roots, engender, begetter, wellspring, watch, exemplar, sire. (Sire is also frowned upon.)

Words for a Martian "sibling": issue, kin, rings, latches, gilds, heir, stock, cognate.

Most martians have a biological need to take care of their own kind. Larva specifically. And it has become law on Mars that once a martian who lives on Mars reaches 1,000 years old they must take in a larva as a progeny and raise it.

Neonates are born from martians, the same as all creatures, but not in the way you think. Martians asexually reproduce, but only during death. As the final stage of death, instead of decomposition, a new martian is born from their ashes and is taken to "The Stock Center" whenever found. (The stock center is essentially an orphanage.)

Larva are not copies of their predecessors, they often hardly ever have anything in common with their source. What mostly affect a pupa's mind and body is their environment. This is why calling a martian a "xerox" is scrutinized and offensive. A xerox is a clone. A copy. They are not copies. Martians don't have blood relatives at all. I put parent and siblings in quotes when saying the word meanings because that's not really what they are.

There are many neonates in the stock center, because that is where every martian "child" goes as soon as someone finds them. There are too many, which is why it is mandatory. Martians don't have children nor parents, but what they've made is close.

The stock center is like an orphanage, but doesn't function like one. Instead of the "parent" picking a child, the Larvae(baby-ish -> child-ish) and Pupae(preteen-ish -> teen-ish) pick their guardian themselves.

Martians who work for/have worked for the monarch wear articles of clothing similar to that of Mars: the Roman God of War. It is known to bring them good fortune and prosperity in their battles. The first time martians had invaded earth was in Rome, and they had taken to the clothing and culture quickly, quite a few even stayed to just study the earthlings. (I had learned that Marvin's helmet and skirt were based off of Mars, the Roman God of War. I knew his outfit was roman inspired, but I didn't realize it was because of the MARS GOD.)

What always bugs me about how Marvin is sometimes portrayed: he celebrates earth holidays, specifically Christmas is what I see most of. But he wouldn't. I mean he might have started to celebrate with others because he's been on earth, but he would not want to go home to mars for Christmas because he does not have holidays. So:

Martians don’t celebrate earth holidays or anything(Though Marvin does like to attend the occasional holiday party, just to catch up with his enemies and study traditions of earthlings.), but they do have celebrations on certain dates. The Forebears(The day where the scion chose their roots, it is celebrated every year, like a birthday), Spawn Raise(an informal term for The Forebears), Emor(Their first attack to Earth, martians soon learnt after this first attack that most earthlings write from left to right), Revital(A week off of duties, 4 times a year, it differs from everyone when it will be depending on their job, and obviously things will change for legionaries, auxiliaries, velites, hoplites and other soldiers, but it is a mandated honoring), and more that I have yet to come up with. These "Holidays" are called Honorings on Mars.

Martian gender/sex. Doesn't exist. They don't have sexes or gender. They're more like bees, there's always a queen, workers and drones. The "drones" are called Roman soldiers(will give a list of types of Roman soldiers later, and that will be what everyone is called depending on what the drones do.) Drones protect the queen and carry out their bidding. Then there's workers, those are ones who are sent out to gather recourses and information. Workers are called proles. Martian's bodies have nothing to do with gender, their forms slightly mimic their guardians as they are larva. It's only slightly though, and then their body grows on its own without mimicking their watch. Most martians are smaller, like Marvin, but many are still quite tall, like the queen. And how drones & proles are chosen, it is completely up to the queen. A variety of martians even bounce from drones and proles if it is necessary. Also, all martians use any pronouns. They don't even use pronouns, they simply call them by rank or name, I just use pronouns for ease and so that you understand who I mean-

Proles often keep "pets," to help them with retrievals.

(A Roman soldier could be called: A legionary, if he was a Roman citizen and an elite soldier who served for at least 25 years.(make that 2,500 years.) An auxiliary, if he was a non-citizen recruit or conscript who served for less pay and often in more dangerous roles. A velite, if he was a light infantryman armed with darts and a wooden shaft. A hoplite, if he was a heavily armed spearman. A specific name based on his function, such as accensus, actuarius, adiutor, aeneator, or agrimensor. Will probably work on these more, as I've gotten them straight from Google.)

MARVIN/X-2/MARCIA/MELVIN HEADCANONS

Marvin is over 2,000 years old(this is canon)

He has 2 larvae, Melvin (eldest) and Marcia(youngest).

Marvin is a prole who was ordered to work as a drone due to the wars, therefore earning his uniform. He returned to being a prole after the wars. X-2 has and always will be a drone. Marcia will be a prole when she grows up, and Melvin won't have a proper role in Mars, as he decided to do what very few Martians do: go out on his own before being given his rank.

Marvin did not choose to keep K-9, he followed him into his spaceship when he was a pup. Marvin has been taking care of him since he was 457.

Melvin had requested immediately upon becoming 550 years old, that he be allowed on his own to explore, and Marvin was hesitant, but eventually agreed, IF! Melvin and him built the rocket he uses together, and Melvin would have never turned that down, after-all, he wanted to be just like his begetter so why would he not want to spend time with him? (I don't know anything about Melvin, I haven't seen loonatics unleashed)

Melvin joined Marvin to see who would be his cognate, and y’know, watch the process. He still feels he’s far too young to become an engender, despite being roughly the same age as his own, so he was content with watching the process and watching his heir, Marcia, and his progenitor, connect.

Marcia is very different from Melvin and Marvin, but they adore her either way. She doesn't care for needless destruction, but she does see the art in what Marvin does, and finds it entertaining to watch him and “Duck Dodgers” fight on the rare occasion. They are very funny, and she likes how Marvin shows off his weapons.

X-2 has ran into Marvin once. They stared at each other in confusion for a minute before carrying on their way, some martians look very, very similar, and it can be disorienting at first but you get over it.

Duck Dodgers often confuses Marvin and X-2, and the Martians don't really tell him their different because they don't know that he doesn't know. He figures it out one time when he's fighting X-2 and calls him Marvin.

Marcia loves earthlings and longs to study everything about them and their planet, she got this from reading Marvin's old notes on his findings on earth before seeking to explode it. She asks him to take her down there and show her the world, and he begrudgingly agrees. He doesn't like being on earth after the few bad things that happened the times he were on earth, but he'd do anything for his spawn.

Marcia often wears earthling clothes, and tries to play the games they took from earth but you can't really play baseball without gravity. Cards were more fun, though!

Marvin is called Antwerp by friends, and enemies trying to anger him.

You ever go insane late at night and create culture for martians in looney tunes? I'm n o t okay-

[skeezpyuff]

Concept of the third son of the litter (thinking about adding a female Mesmeryte into the bunch to top it off; I don't know). His name is Emor; and to sum him up, he is rather easily irritated when others react to his hybrid nature. This causes a bit of a rough relationship with his parents, mainly his mother since he actually prefers to identify as a Caandansaur (since he is basically one but with a tail). Nonetheless, he is devoutly loyal, and when it's questioned, he gets real upset. Like, REALLY upset! So, he's basically a mess of a boi lol; he resents his parentage and wants others to stop looking at him as 'different.'

[theatrenerd622]

Finished it! let's goo!

Bad Kids:

Drink some goddamn tea man!

Very disappointed in the lack of return from Drunk Adaine at Fabian's party

"I wasn't a virgin"

President

Yeah no, still the shirt thing

bitch gets her comeuppance // Dropout Daddy

Butt Crushers:

Puppydog Catlitter

*sung in cursive) I fell in love with an emor gorl // VSCO boy

SINGING KILLED MY GRANDMA, OKAY

Gene's parents from the emoji movie

I love him and I don't care that he's evil

who ARE you?

Other:

Unborn Nemesis

Good Sister (Finally) TM

Blimey

World's Best Girlfriend

SQUEEMMM

I am currently watching the Dimension 20 Fantasy High series (because I'm apparently using summer break to reach my peak nerd form) and I am very invested but also it's so fucking funny because the plot is literally "6 freshmen get detention and miss a significant part of orientation. several dead, even more injured, everyone traumatized"

plus the characters are just:

a living football

a wizard with anxiety who is clearly convinced making people puke will solve all her problems

a barbarian who sings when he gets mad

a cleric going through a religious identity crisis

Nepobaby™

a flirty wanna-be-emo-kid with daddy issues who thinks she's way more closed off than she actually is

and I think that's really girl boss.

[eretzyisrael]

THE FESTIVAL OF INSECURITY (Sukkot 5780) What exactly is a sukkah? What is it supposed to represent? The question is essential to the mitzvah itself. The Torah says: “Live in sukkot for seven days... so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in sukkot when I brought them out of Egypt” (Lev. 23: 42-43). In other words, knowing – reflecting, understanding, being aware – is an integral part of the mitzvah. For that reason, says Rabbah in the Talmud (Sukkah 2a), a sukkah that is taller than twenty cubits (about 30 feet) is invalid because when the sechach, the “roof,” is that far above your head, you are unaware of it. So what is a sukkah? On this, two Mishnaic sages disagreed. Rabbi Eliezer held that the sukkah represents the clouds of glory that surrounded the Israelites during the wilderness years, protecting them from heat during the day, cold during the night, and bathing them with the radiance of the Divine presence. Rashi in his commentary takes it as the literal sense of the verse. On the other hand, Rabbi Akiva says sukkot mammash, meaning a sukkah is a sukkah, no more and no less: a hut, a booth, a temporary dwelling. It has no symbolism. It is what it is (Sukkah 11b). If we follow Rabbi Eliezer then it is obvious why we celebrate by making a sukkah. It is there to remind us of a miracle. All three pilgrimage festivals are about miracles. Pesach is about the miracle of the Exodus when God brought us out of Egypt with signs and wonders. Shavuot is, according to the oral Torah, about the miracle of the revelation at Mount Sinai when, for the only time in history, God appeared to an entire nation. Sukkot is about God's tender care of his people, mitigating the hardships of the journey across the desert by surrounding them with His protective cloud as a parent wraps a young child in a blanket. Long afterward, the sight of the blanket evokes memories of the warmth of parental love. Rabbi Akiva’s view, though, is deeply problematic. If a sukkah is merely a hut, what was the miracle? There is nothing unusual about living in a hut if you are living a nomadic existence in the desert. It’s what the Bedouin did until recently. Some still do. Why should there be a festival dedicated to something ordinary, commonplace and non-miraculous? Rashbam says the sukkah was there to remind the Israelites of their past so that, at the very moment they were feeling the greatest satisfaction at living in Israel – at the time of the ingathering of the produce of the Land – they should remember their lowly origins. They were once a group of refugees without a home, never knowing when they would have to move on. Sukkot, according to Rashbam, exists to remind us of our humble origins so that we never fall into the complacency of taking freedom, the Land of Israel and the blessings it yields, for granted, thinking that it happened in the normal course of history. However, there is another way of understanding Rabbi Akiva, and it lies in one of the most important lines in the prophetic literature. Jeremiah says, in words we recited on Rosh Hashanah, “‘I remember the loving-kindness of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown” (Jeremiah. 2:2). This is one of the very rare lines in Tanach that speaks in praise not of God but of the people Israel. “How odd of God / to choose the Jews,” goes the famous rhyme, to which the answer is: “Not quite so odd: the Jews chose God.” They may have been, at times, fractious, rebellious, ungrateful and wayward. But they had the courage to travel, to move, to leave security behind, and follow God’s call, as did Abraham and Sarah at the dawn of our history. If the sukkah represents God’s clouds of glory, where was “the loving-kindness of your youth”? There is no sacrifice involved if God is visibly protecting you in every way and at all times. But if we follow Rabbi Akiva and see the sukkah as what it is, the temporary home of a temporarily homeless people, then it makes sense to say that Israel showed the courage of a bride willing to follow her husband on a risk-laden journey to a place she has never seen before – a love that shows itself in the fact that she is willing to live in a hut trusting her husband’s promise that one day they will have a permanent home. If so, then a wonderful symmetry discloses itself in the three pilgrimage festivals. Pesach represents the love of God for His people. Sukkot represents the love of the people for God. Shavuot represents the mutuality of love expressed in the covenant at Sinai in which God pledged Himself to the people, and the people to God.* Sukkot, on this reading, becomes a metaphor for the Jewish condition not only during the forty years in the desert but also the almost 2,000 years spent in exile and dispersion. For centuries Jews lived, not knowing whether the place in which they lived would prove to be a mere temporary dwelling. Sukkot is the festival of insecurity. What is truly remarkable is that it is called, by tradition, zeman simchatenu, “our time of joy.” That to me is the wonder at the heart of the Jewish experience: that Jews throughout the ages were able to experience risk and uncertainty at every level of their existence and yet – while they sat betzila de-mehemnuta, “under the shadow of faith” (Zohar, Emor, 103a) – they were able to rejoice. That is spiritual courage of a high order. I have often argued that faith is not certainty: faith is the courage to live with uncertainty. That is what Sukkot represents if what we celebrate is sukkot mammash, not the clouds of glory but the vulnerability of actual huts, open to the wind, the rain and the cold. I find that faith today in the people and the State of Israel. It is astonishing to me how Israelis have been able to live with an almost constant threat of war and terror since the State was born, and not give way to fear. I sense even in the most secular Israelis a profound faith, not perhaps “religious” in the conventional sense, but faith nonetheless: in life, and the future, and hope. Israelis seem to me perfectly to exemplify what tradition says was God’s reply to Moses when he doubted the people’s capacity to believe: “They are believers, the children of believers” (Shabbat 97a). Today’s Israel is a living embodiment of what it is to exist in a state of insecurity and still rejoice. And that is Sukkot’s message to the world. Sukkot is the only festival about which Tanach says that it will one day be celebrated by the whole world (Zechariah 14: 16-19). The twenty-first century is teaching us what this might mean. For most of history, most people have experienced a universe that did not change fundamentally in their lifetimes. But there have been rare great ages of transition: the birth of agriculture, the first cities, the dawn of civilisation, the invention of printing, and the industrial revolution. These were destabilising times, and they brought disruption in their wake. The age of transition we have experienced in our lifetime, born primarily out of the invention of the computer and instantaneous global communication, will one day be seen as the greatest and most rapid era of change since Homo sapiens first set foot on earth. Since September 11, 2001, we have experienced the convulsions. As I write these words, some nations continue to tear themselves apart, and no nation is free of the threat of terror. Antisemitism has returned, not just to Europe, but around the world. There are parts of the Middle East and beyond that recall Hobbes’ famous description of the “state of nature,” a “war of every man against every man” in which there is “continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” (Hobbes, The Leviathan, chapter XIII). Insecurity begets fear, fear begets hate, hate begets violence, and violence eventually turns against its perpetrators. The twenty-first century will one day be seen by historians as the Age of Insecurity. We, as Jews, are the world’s experts in insecurity, having lived with it for millennia. And the supreme response to insecurity is Sukkot, when we leave behind the safety of our houses and sit in sukkot mammash, in huts exposed to the elements. To be able to do so and still say, this is zeman simchatenu, our festival of joy, is the supreme achievement of faith, the ultimate antidote to fear. Faith is the ability to rejoice in the midst of instability and change, travelling through the wilderness of time toward an unknown destination. Faith is not fear. Faith is not hate. Faith is not violence. These are vital truths, never more needed than now. Chag sameach to you all.

Rabbi Sacks

[ambersky0319]

Amber Rambles about a Story-

So I wanna ramble about an original story, the ideas I have for it, the characters, the world in general and the one person in my house that would listen and give good feedback or ideas and knows the basics of what I have planned is currently asleep so

There's a lot here oof-

----------------------

So to start off I wanna scratch the surface that is the world before I delve into the characters

The story(from what I have planned it'll take place over 11 books) takes place mainly on an alternate-earth that is more dystopian/sci-fi ish and an original fantasy world I've been calling Fandahli. The first part of the first book takes place in Fandahli, and the second and third parts on this alternate-earth.

The earth is basically unified, most people speaking a new language just known as Emor(basically English under a different name). Technological advances have come to a stop, or so it would seem. The world is pretty much American culture having taken over media, erasing other cultures, etc. They now call themselves Emorians. Not a good place to be.

They had created an organization about twenty-five years before the story takes place, at the time called Prosper, but later it renamed itself as Tempest. The organization was less of that and more like a government experiment, combining animal genes into the genes of humans in a certain way to create the 'ultimate human'. Originally, the Emorians created them to keep everyone in line. These humans were trained to be assassins without the government's knowing however and it wasn't long before Emorian officials began to disappear.

Now Fandahli! Fandahli is a world that's very similar to Earth, but is held together by magic(in this universe, Earth also technically has magic but it's very little/very weak and has been dormant for so long it's been forgotten). It was created by four Cinomeds, powerful beings that have powers no one still on Fandahli has. These four are: Rikki, Angel, Serranidae, and Aki.

Along with that, the most two important continents on Fandahli are Vola and Tione.

After the War of Cinomeds, where Angel rebelled against her companions, the land was pretty much destroyed. But portals to other worlds remained open and the land healed. Humans then arrived after discovering one of the portals, but soon after the portals all closed once more, trapping them there. The humans adapted, gaining magic to help them survive, and changed their name to Dalis.

The Dalis split over the different continents, and then into different kingdoms, and grew from there. The main kingdom focused on is Tongyi, located within Vola. It remains spring there no matter the time of year.

The powers of the Dalis vary, but usuaily end up being one of these:

Weapon-Creation

Barrier-Creation

Healing

Barrier creation and weapon creation can sometimes occur within the same Dali, though it isn't too common- but it's not rare either

Aside from Dalis, there are also Dragons. The dragon species vary on where on Tione they come from, or if they come from a different part of Fandahli. I'm still designing some of them.

And then there are the werewolves. Most werewolf villages are peaceful, and are respected by all Dali. It's believed to be a great dishonor to fight any werewolf village. I'm still developing the werewolves as well, I just know they play important roles within the story itself later on.

Back to Cinomeds cause I forgot an important detail!

After the War of Cinomeds(thought to be a war of gods by the Dali, they're also thought to just be legends), Angel was forcefully split apart. Her soul was torn and although Rikki(the one who defeated her) believed that she was gone for good, it seemed that she would just be reincarnated into two other people(Dalis for a long while, later encompassing both Fandahlian species and Humans) that when together could possibly turn into her. It was rare that any of the reincarnates actually met.

The other Cinomeds fell into a deep slumber until the portals would be reopened.

I feel I've rambled long enough about the world 😅 how about my babies next?

Evanna Mays

Evanna is a force to be reckoned with

The youngest queen to ever rule Tongyi, taking the throne soon after her (quite hated)mother's death. She took the throne midway through a war with another kingdom

Evanna herself is loved among her subjects, though many often try to tell her to do or not do certain things. Try to give her restrictions

Like don't fight on the front lines, have an heir if you're gonna do that, just stay on your throne, don't go to other kingdoms it's too dangerous

Each person fails

Especially whenever they bring up an heir, cause it's not like she doesn't like kids she just never wants to have a biological one

And she refuses to marry someone with a kid so they'd become her heir

She's Aro/Ace if ya didn't catch on

Her family all has bright red hair and pastel blue eyes. They're the only ones in all of Vola with these traits and are quite recognizeable.

She later adopts and people get off her case about having an heir because he is her son just not her biological son but that changes nothing cause she loves him and will fight anyone who thinks he's not fit for the throne

Dani Mays

The adopted son

He's just like Evanna, rushing into battle, and citizens of Tongyi just panic because oh fuck he's gonna die he's more reckless than her-

Very social but people treat him so differently cause he's the prince that he can't seem to make any friends and he h a t e s that

Then two humans come into his life and he is very very bi

Queue a whole love-triangle subplot that goes well

Dani adores reading and learning overall, spending hours in Evanna's old study

Becomes King far sooner than he had wanted

Life goes to hell not long after coronation and he suffers from depression and nothing's good for anyone during this time

Does he get a happy ending? Who knows

He doesn't

Oh also he's a biromantic asexual boi and proud

Leona Carter

Young woman with a troubled past, Leona is a very stubborn and apathetic human

Is a high-ranking member of Tempest

It was a last resort in a difficult situation and she's just glad her heart is still beating

Is pretty well-off so long as she follows orders

But if course she later joins a rebellion after becoming very gay for one of her targets that she now refuses to kill for other reasons

Slow burn subplot ensues

She nearly dies many times

95% of the time she does not care if she dies

Just wants a peaceful life

Does she ever get it?

Eventually, after losing something really important though

Marie Sydney

Marie had a decent life, great parents and an awesome protective older brother, and his new daughter

Yeah that all shattered after something happened to her and she was left to cope by herself cause she wasn't sure what to do about the situation

She just adopted a fifteen year old btw who has no idea about her situation

Then she meets Leona

She thinks Leona's great, but there's something off about this news reporter

And then Leona reveals her actual job and the original reason she ever asked Marie out and she's sobbing and a gun is in her hand but she's placing it in Marie's and begging for Marie to pull the trigger

Turns out Marie was a target but Leona just can't kill Marie, not knowing what's happened to Marie nor what could happen now that the two grew close. But Leona's incapable of taking her own life

Marie doesn't pull the trigger

Life somehow gets worse as she's tangled up in this whole Tempest bullshit

Falls for Leona in the process and is very conflicted about it

Taylor Sydney

Adopted by Marie at 15

Her life's pretty normal until a portal is discovered and when she's a high school senior her class is forced to learn about Vola and Tongyi specifically. They eventually go to Tongyi through the portal

Turns out her Mom and Leona know the queen of Tongyi cause things have happened

Meets Dani and Jeremiah

They find out they can form Angel and that's when shit really goes down

Things happen, love confessions made, near death experiences, loves drifting apart, etc. etc.

Doesn't have a happy ending

Jeremiah Canales

My trans boi

I love him, he gets mistaken for Evanna's son quite a lot, usually by humans

He identifies as pan, and doesn't experience dysphoria. Oh and he was a Tempest Engineer for awhile

His family was pretty accepting of him once he reconnected with them(originally drifted apart cause of reasons I have yet to create)

Is pretty much the only braincell Angel has when formed

He feels really, really guilty that weapons he created were used to kill dozens of people and somehow equates that to him killing them even if he was forced to make the weapons

Oh and Deathstriker(highest ranking member of Tempest) uses his Tempest name and despite being absolutely awful in every way refuses to deadname or misgender him

It's the one thing he'll ever appreciate Deathstriker doing

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This ain't even all the characters(obviously). There's still Kord Sydney, Chloe Jansen, and Neva Sydney, all of whom are still being developed. Deathstriker, and all the Cinomeds. Past Angels that will be relevant at different parts of the story. And many other characters that I've never even mentioned in the past.

Anywho fair warning, the series does not end quite that happily. I'm hoping to make the last chapter(an epilogue) to have a bittersweet feeling but idk I'm debating it.

Anyway if you got this far....

Thanks? I think? Idk I've never had anyone get this far I think in any original thing I've ever made- if you got this far tho here's some hearts cause I love you for taking some sort of interest in my personal creations 😅

💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤

[rcunionhq]

BENJAMIN LOCKE era conhecido como 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐍. 

Você não nasceu em New Jersey, e sim, em uma pequena fazenda no interior do Texas. Cresceu na simplicidade, no meio de bois e cavalos, ajudava o pai a cultivar a horta perto da sua casa. Mas tudo mudou. Seu pai recebeu essa proposta para ser caseiro de uma fazenda próxima a New Jersey. Agora, em um lugar diferente, sem rodeios e feiras, você precisava se adaptar. Mesmo percebendo as risadas e piadas por causa do seu jeito de ser, do modo de falar, mas nada te abalou. Você sempre foi muito sorridente, piadista, inocente até. Será capaz de se adaptar a um novo lugar? Ou um rapaz do sul sempre será um rapaz do sul?

THE SOUTHERN ou BENJAMIN ANDREW LOCKE atualmente tem 32 ANOS, mora em New York e trabalha como MÉDICO PEDIATRA.

Na East Wenk diziam que era muito parecido com LOGAN SHROYER, mas atualmente vivem comparando ele com CHRIS HEMSWORTH.

Em seu yearbook, BENYBOO disse: ❝ High school was easy. It was like riding a bicycle. Except the bike was on fire, the ground was on fire and everything was on fire because it was hell..❞

Antes, THE CELEBRITY e THE CLOWN eram uma dupla de perdedores, mas com a sua chegada as coisas mudaram...Vocês passaram a ser um trio de perdedores. De certa forma, ser popular e prestigiado já não era uma realidade desejada e você jamais abandonaria os amigos verdadeiros que conquistou por popularidade. Se vocês eram fracassados, então seriam fracassados juntos. Os três mosqueteiros ou os três patetas?

A companhia de THE ECCLESIAST era um sopro de alívio em meio a tantas pessoas maldosas em East Wenk. Ela nunca julgou seu jeito, ou a forma no qual se vestia ou falava. Parecia até gostar. Por esse motivo, você a mantinha por perto. Tentou contar a ela que acreditava que deveriam ser mais que amigos, mas quando a viu conversando com um dos riquinhos de East Wenk, você desistiu e jogou as flores que havia comprado no lixo. Talvez tinha confundido as coisas e se sentia idiota por isso.

Um dos motivos da facilidade que sua família teve em mudar de estado foi o fato de que tinha parentes em New Jersey. Nesse caso, os pais de THE ACTIVIST, sua prima. De emorou um pouco para se aproximar dela, sentia-se intimidado pela diferença de personalidades e realidades. Com o tempo, a convivência e o carinho familiar se sobressaíram e vocês se tornaram amigos.

Não sabe ao certo quando começou, mas THE TOMBOY inferniza a sua vida desde sua chegada a New Jersey. Ela zomba do seu sotaque, te deu dezenas de apelidos...Literalmente te persegue só por diversão. Mas você não deixa barato. Apesar de achá-la extremamente bonita, o que é inegável, você faz questão de lembrá-la que a mesma não se encaixa nos padrões estipulados de feminilidade. E assim vocês vivem, como cão e gato.

[beep-beep-kneecaps]

i think one thing about childhood trauma is that it not only makes you grow up too fast but theres always this part in your brain which is stuck in child mode, like im 17 and im still pretty sure that im actually 14 or 15, im getting better at the whole processing that im actually 17, like im more mature with a lot of things than my friends are, but in other aspects they are way ahead of me, they know how to drive, i know how to save money, they can talk about their emotions without any blockage, i know how lie about literally anything and get away with it 97% of the time. and they also have childhood trauma, i just have a lot more to the point where me and my siblings often wonder how we survived this far. its true we didnt get the worst of the worst, are parents did love us and never hit us, they just really didnt know how to be parents, let alone adults or even just humans in general. 

but i do have high hopes for my future as both of my sisters got their own place (a good one at that) at the age of 22 (or before), and one of them is engaged at age 22 with an amazing guy and is recovering from multiple mental disorders while also preparing for nursing school, and my other sister (24??) started hormones and is accepted by most of our family, and she lives without any financial aid from others and is doing amazing and is worlds happier ive never seen her smile so much since she was in elementary school or early middle school (at least as far as i have heard i dont quite remember that far back).

and even i am doing better, im living with my grandparents and i finally have my own room since well, the last time i was living here which was 5 yar sago but only lasted a few months, and i can already tell how much better im doing, even just how much ive changed from living her (moved in a littl emore than 4 months ago), i used to be utterly terrrifyied and now i am openly asking questions and getting good grades.

so hell yeah, it gets better my dudes, recovery is possible and it will happen essentially if you want it or not, it will reach you and it might come fast, but a good fast.

[lisaroquin]

yeah, I’m a redneck, but leave the kids alone no matter your opinion

I suppose this all falls under the disconnect, absolute ignorance, and what most out in the sticks would just shake their heads or roll thier eyes with various levels of disbelief and/or disgust at 'city stupid'

Like the post I've seen several times on my dash about calf nose tags, or the post that has gone around several times at OMGWTFBBQ!!! Pigs are big?

THere was a post "I'll unfriend you if you post a dead deer and your six year old kid" and the hilariously stupid on that of "I don't kill anything for my food, I buy it at the grocery store like a civilized person"

"Civilized" in that case is extremely disconnected. Dude the meat you buy at the grocery store did not just magically appear. Yeah something was killed for it, even if you want to pretend otherwise and didn't do it yourself, something was killed for it. And a hell of a lot more of that animal was probably wasted than the deer some kid was proud as hell of bringing down. (Now trophy hunters after a set of antlers make me fucking see red, but that is not the majority--though the pricing of hunting permits certainly seem to cater to those fuckers. Nor do I have much use for 'fish-in-a-barrel hunting where wildlife ranches sell 'hunting packages' with animals trained to show up in certain spots because food is always left out there)

Hunting season is actually a necessary part of wildlife management--it is also limited, the amount of hunting permits can vary from year to year, and the type of permit (doe or buck for deer season since that is what is coming up and had the comment of stupidity about being 'civilized')  

Wildlife management is about maintaining healthy wild populations. Overpopulation? Means starvation for a deer population because too many deer, not enough to eat, that crosses over to damaged and destroyed crops--which if there's enough of that, your civilized food--particularly cereals or grain based of any type go up in cost. Farmers financial issues can result from that--and guess what civilized folks, that impacts you. Because family farms are a hell of a lot better for the environment than corporate--corporate farms do not give a fuck. The ones making the money are in a city somewhere and do not care about the runoff of anything be it animal waste or chemicals into the water table. (and on a side note--the massive issues of growth hormone and antibiotics in meat supplies come down from fda type mandates on 'safe food standards' same with so much of hte chemicals now used in crop production--pushed by corps, forced on farmers that originally were clueless on how the long term issues would go. family farms keep their animals healthy because their family *depends* on it. and pay a hell of a lot more attention to the impact of things on the land because *their family lives there* and will be effected first.)

Over population also means disease.  Some which very easily hops species to farm animals, and there goes your 'civilized food' at the grocery store, possibly contamniated, recalls. etc etc etc.

And the diseases can wipe out wild populations in an area, can cause some major problems that spread just--well like we had bluetongue go through the deer around here about 3yrs ago. Lot of dead deer around, just dropping dead with cyanotic lips and tongues and then you have the issues brought by carcasses rotting especially along the rivers, which I live near. Populations devastated by disease have years, possibly decades coming back from that and rebalancing the areas ecosystem.

Wildlife management --which includes hunting for some animals--actually keeps the population healthy and prevents the spread of diseases, starvation of the wildlife etc.

But that (eventual, always a few, majority I see ar emore like 10-14 of kids w/ deer but sometimes the littler one gets a really lucky shot) little kid you're howling about pictured with that dead deer--do you know what that little kid actually did? That little kid was up by four at the latest, to go out, and walking through terrain that is not a stroll in park. November--cold, wet, 4am. While there my not be snow, temps esp in early morning are not higher than 20s F (which, for those of you measuring temps differently 32 is freezing). Wait in dew and cold, rain or snow easily possiblilities as well, and quite possibly come home with jack shit, hours of patience and down right cold and shitty-ick-to miserable if it's rainy/snowy for nothing. A permit doesn't mean you get a deer, just means you have a *chance* at getting a deer.

So that six, seven eight year old--who has by the point they go out hunting had hours upon hours of gun safety, like as not been put through hunting and gun safety classes--spends hours of at least semi challenging endurance (which the civilized commenter going to the grocery store probably couldn't stand and would be appalled at). Has had numerous types of wildlife sign, plants, etc pointed out (if they haven't already learned htem) has spent *HOURS* huddled up with parent/grandparent/aunt/uncle and a sibling or cousin or two pending how big the hunting party is and how scattered they are where they're hunting, even if they're sitting up in a deer blind, that's generally fucking cold and windy and not a lot of room so only two or three likely in it (because yup women and girls hunt too, this is not toxic masculinity. Hell I know some women who'll leave the husband at home with the kids and go on a girls hunting trip. hubby more city and doesn't hunt in the particular case I'm thinking of) *gasp* the horrors, hours of quiet conversation, passing down of knowledge.

So the kid gets a deer and is over the fucking moon because actually got one. Picture necessary. Just like any other activity the kid is in (little league/softball/soccer/dance/band/choir/midget football wtf ever)

You know what happens then? The kid gets a lesson in field dressing most likely. Possibly a lesson in butchering--pending if the parents/grandparents do it themselves or they take it to a meat locker to do.

That little kid you'e so horrified over, just provided a fuck of a lot of meat for their family for the winter--and that meat will not be wasted. Unlike the civilized meat at the grocery store which is garbage when it gets past it's packaged expiration date. (and for those of you that don't know--Bambi tastes fucking awesome. Lot like beef only a bit stronger and richer, for the most general comparison) That kid just possibly fed their family for the next two fucking months. That kid has put in some long miserable hours to get that deer, because you don't just walk out and boom come home with a big deer (that *can* happen but realistically it's several days of freezing your ass off, hoping and praying like hell you actually get something. I'm not arguing sport or not--but it is work, with some real fucking physical effort and physical endurance as well as, usually, hours upon hours of patience put in to get a deer)

And if the family is really lucky and the household brings down their limit--which means they have more than their freezer can hold--it's gifted. There's papers got to fill out --yep you have to have your hunting license and have paperwork to legally have deer in your freezer. Has to be accounted for in case of poaching investigation ever cropping up (hey that gives someone a minimum wage data entry job with gov bennies so whatever even if is rather redundant and aggravating for the common folk.) so fill out your gifting paper and give it along with some meat to extended family/neighbors etc.

Several foodbanks accept deer. And give the meat to people who are at the fucking foodbank because they can't afford to eat.

That little kid grinning so proudly with their deer--deserves to be proud. And in the process of getting that deer have gotten a hell of a lot of lessons in everything from gun safety, nature, possibly wildlife diseases (hopefully not, because that would mean there are visible signs of disease on the deer, and meat then unsafe to eat.) has put more time, effort and discomfort into that than a 'civilized' person at the grocery store will ever grasp--even in the learning of gun safety and so on to be able to go, long before there's thought of that child going hunting. That little kid just learned a hell of a lot more of what it takes to feed their family or strangers if that meat is donated, what it feels like to really accomplish something worthwhile. That little kid has spent more time out in nature than the 'civilized' person deriding them and their family likely has--even if one counts a manicured public park as nature.

That little kid has learned a  hell of a lot bringing down that deer, even getting to the point it was deemed they could go hunting. (no one takes a completely untaught and unmindful child hunting). That little kid, is a kid who knows how to listen, who knows how to follow instruction and learn, is a kid who has more respect for and knowledge of wildlife and nature than some airhead model prancing around naked for PETA. Is a kid who has spent hours upon hours time with parent/older family member, probably listening to stories of parent/aunts/uncles childhood, grandparents childhood. Like as not with a few lessons thrown in unthinkingly like finding deer tracks/trails, possibly (probably) spotting other tracks--beaver, raccoon, badger, opossum, dog/coyote/wolf, and around here mountain lion. Seeing plenty of other animals and birds besides the deer they're looking for--around here fucking massive populations of wild turkey, plus hawks, eagles, vast assortment of smaller birds, geese and ducks migrating etc.

Y'all so up in arms at all this flailing and wringing hands....

Why don't you take a hunting safety course? You don't have to hunt to take the course, but more and more (if not almost all) places require it for child hunters these days. See what that kid has actually learned before they go near hunting.

Look up deer diseases. Look up the issues with localized overpopulation of wildlife. Look up sharedeer.org.

Hunting is not for everyone, that's fine. (Fuck no, while I'll gladly accept some venison even pay for processing of part of a deer, my ass is not going out and freezing for hours for maybe nothing. Joint deterioration I have is not about to let me even if I wanted to)

But y'all love to go on about 'don't like, scroll on, don't be an asshole' practice what you preach.

Yeah. Scroll on, quietly delete, whatever. Just shut up about it. You don't have to be an asshole--especially about a kid that is quite possibly better educated on several 'uncivilized' subjects like wildlife,gun safety, butchering and meat processing than you'll ever be. A kid that actually *put a fuck of a lot of effort and discomfort* in accomplishing something that will feed their family and/or others, with meat that sure as hell isn't going to be wasted like meat at the supermarket might be (and pro-tip, folks who take their *child* hunting aren't big macho dickheads looking for a trophy, they're looking for fucking *food* and quite probably have scrimped and saved back a dollar here five there for the chance at getting that food becuase hunting permits are not fucking cheap and those looking for food are not rich.) That kid so proud of their deer-- honestly worked for that deer with the amount of effort and discomfort and time put into getting it. Has learned a hell of a lot in the process of getting that deer, and just had the time of their life with parent/grandparent/older relative of some sort in the process of it as well as a good deal of conversation with parent/grandparent/older relative.

Y'all, go watch Lion King again maybe? Maybe that will help you grasp a bit of circle of life.... think what you want, scroll past, unfriend/unfollow wtf, but *don't fucking be an asshole and post shit at the kid.*  That kid deserves to be proud, and so do their parents.

[thebeautyoftorah]

EMOR

bs'd

Shalom.

The thought of this week of my book 'Healing Anger'

"It is natural to become angry when we have a goal and this goal is blocked in some way. Out of frustration we blame others because we don’t get our way. Maybe the reason why blaming others is so rooted in human nature is because it releases some of the frustration that we feel over a particular incident, and it frees the blamer from taking any responsibility himself..”

Buy my book at http://www.feldheim.com/healing-anger.html

If you want to buy it from me in Israel let me know.

To join the over 4,000 recipients and receive these insights free on a weekly email, feedback, comments, to support or dedicate this publication which has been all around the world, or if you know any other Jew who is interested in receiving these insights weekly, contact me. Shabbat Shalom.

EMOR Being a Role Model

The name of this week's parsha is taken from a word in its first verse: emor - "speak". The act of speech appears three times in this verse: And G-d said to Moshe: Speak to the kohanim, the sons of Aharon, and say to them: Let none [of you] defile himself for a dead person among his people (1).

The verse states that Hashem spoke to Moshe and this is one of the more common formulations in the Torah, one we have come to expect. But it is strange that the next two uses of the verb emor in this verse, translated here as "speak" and "say", create a passage that is uncharacteristic.

One possible answer of this peculiarity in the text is that the Torah's language creates an emphasis that might otherwise have been absent. By doubling the use of the verb, perhaps the message is that Moshe is charged with speaking to the kohanim in a way that will be heard, so that the message is understood, internalized and integrated.

Rashi offers an alternative explanation. He quotess a Gemara [2] that brings this verse in a discussion regarding adults' responsibilities toward children: "Say [to the Kohanim …] and say [to them]," [This double expression comes] to warn (l'hazhir) adults regarding minors. (Rashi, Vayikra 21:1)

Rashi's comments on this verse contain an uplifting message: Not only should adults take responsibility for themselves, we should invest in the next generation and guide the young and innocent away from sin. We might easily use this teaching as a springboard for a broader discussion concerning the importance of positive, proactive education and the need to take responsibility for the next generation.

As opposed to the lofty world of educational responsibility and values

we thought we had discerned in Rashi's comments on our verse, the

gemara's discussion actually contends with a far more threatening

topic: Our verse is quoted in a passage that analyzes a number of

cases in which adults actively and purposefully lead children to sin!

We may attempt to understand the mindset of the adults in these cases and to rationalize their behavior: Maybe these cases involve young children, not yet at the age of bar or bat-mitzvah, who are not legally responsible or culpable for their actions. For example, when there is a limited amount of kosher food available, an adult might conclude that the best option would be to eat the kosher food and give the underage child something non-kosher.

This scenario inevitably leads to a more abstract, and philosophical discussion about the very nature of sin and its impact on the human being. Is sin merely a question of culpability? If the transgression is not punishable, is it of any significance? In other words, can we say that sin is akin to the proverbial tree that falls in the forest; if there is no one to punish, does the sin make a sound, as it were? Or does sin affect the soul, leaving a stain that is independent of culpability? The Gemara seems to extrapolate an additional, even more far-reaching lesson from our verse: Causing someone to sin is equal to feeding them spiritual poison, and this behavior stains the soul of the instigator as well as the perpetrator, particularly when the transgression is committed by a young, unsuspecting and impressionable soul.

The conclusion we are forced to draw from a careful reading of Rashi's source is that the first verse in Parshat Emor teaches responsibility: not, as we originally thought, that we must educate the next generation, but as a warning against corrupting and causing our children to sin. This message is far more poignant and maybe more difficult to fulfill. We teach our children to do good deeds and to avoid things that are distasteful. The question is, do we transmit messages akin to "Do as I say, not as I do"? Are we somehow corrupting the next generation, causing them to sin through unspoken, non-verbal messages and by setting a poor example? The most effective method of education is serving as a role model for our children. We must set a living example of what we want them to be. They learn from what we do and say, not from what we tell them to do. A child is a constant reminder to us as parents that we must behave properly. Children learn best by modeling their parents’ conduct. What they see and hear is what we get!

In Rashi's comments on the verse, he uses the term Gedolim, which we have translated as "adults"; this same term is also used colloquially to describe our great rabbis. The Gedolim have responsibility for the ketanim, those who are underage or of lesser stature and learning. This past weeks we lost several of our Gedolim. one of them was Rabbi Dr. Aharon Lichtenstein, may his righteous memory be a blessing. Tens of thousands of his student, can attest that Rav Aharon not only educated us, he "took care" of us spiritually. He was a living, breathing model of ahavat Torah, love of Torah learning and devout observance, as well as Yirat Shamayim, and holiness. He shared with us his vision and served as a model for proper behavior, setting a very high benchmark for all Jews in the modern world, and he did all this with love, dedication, eloquence, humility and nobility. For this we will be forever indebted, and express our enduring thanks and love. ______________________________ [1] Vayikra 21:1 [2] Yevamot 114a

Le Iluy nishmat Eliahu ben Simcha, Mordechai ben Shlomo, Perla bat Simcha, Abraham Meir ben Leah, Moshe ben Gila,Yaakov ben Gila, Sara bat Gila, Yitzchak ben Perla, Leah bat Chavah, Abraham Meir ben Leah,Itamar Ben Reb Yehuda, Yehuda Ben Shmuel Tzvi, Tova Chaya bat Dovid. Refua Shelema of Mazal Tov bat Gila, Zahav Reuben ben Keyla, Yitzchak ben Mazal Tov, Mattitiahu Yered ben Miriam, Yaacov ben Miriam, Yehuda ben Simcha, Menachem Chaim ben Malka, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Nechemia Efraim ben Beyla Mina, Mazal Tov Rifka bat Yitzchak, Dvir ben Leah, Sender ben Sara, Eliezer Chaim ben Chaya Batya, Shlomo Yoel ben Chaya Leah  and Dovid Yehoshua ben Leba Malka.

Atzlacha and parnasa tova to Daniel ben Mazal Tov, Debora Leah Bat Henshe Rachel, Shmuel ben Mazal tov, Yitzchak ben Mazal Tov, Yehuda ben Mazal Sara and Zivug agun to Gila bat Mazal Tov, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Yehudit bat Malka, Elisheva bat Malka. For pidyon hanefesh & yeshua of Yosef Itai ben Eliana Shufra

[corpuscrybaby]

I'll elaborate emore on this later with some drawings BC I'm half awake now but I need to get this out before I pass out Kazi was very reluctant to use her void powers. She did not like what had to happen on the Zariman and it was just a reminder whenever she used them. Her emotions were all over the place though, so she couldn't help it. She was younger when she boarded the Zariman. Not quite an adult yet, she did have a guardian. What happened to her parents seemed to be convienently forgotton and whether or not this older man was blood related, a family friend, or a stranger who happen to bond with her was a mystery. She called him her uncle nonetheless, and cared deeply for him. We know what happened next, the adults suffered mental breakdown and the children gained new power. Kazi was one of the handful that were responsible for the death of their loved ones- out of survival or just refusal to see your parents turned into a monster. Her uncle was still holding on to his consciousness when they decided to have Kazi kill him. He told her it was an act of love. She became bitter, unmanageable and, stubborn. They could barely get her into the second dream. She finally thought though, maybe she'd see her loved ones again in the dream, and accepted it.

[unfocused-overwriter]

dree michael aldan

Hi! Thanks for the ask!

I did Dree right here.

Michael

Full Name: Michael Fabian René Wilnes

Gender and Sexuality: Cis man, straight

Pronouns: He/him

Ethnicity/Species: White

Birthplace and Birthdate: Bordeaux, France, January 12th 1972 (if the story takes place this year)

Guilty Pleasures: Brisk mornings, salmon, expensive clothes

Phobias: Suddenly losing everything he has, being abandoned/shunned

What They Would Be Famous For: He’s already famous, as a producer

What They Would Get Arrested For: Slander

OC You Ship Them With: His wife, Elizabeth

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Also Elizabeth but they actually have an agreement on that

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Dystopias

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliché: The anticlimax

Talents and/or Powers: He’s very good at his job. In everything he does, he’s able to take a step back and find the problem.

Why Someone Might Love Them: He’s a handsome man with open hands, very friendly, and for the people he loves, incredibly caring

Why Someone Might Hate Them: He’s an arrogant narcissist who thinks everything can be bought, and a bit of a deadbeat father.

How They Change: He realizes that looking after his children and their happiness matters too.

Why You Love Them: I don’t really love him, I’m pretty neutral towards him. He and Elizabeth crack me up as a pair, though. Even though they’re terrible parents, they’re so synchronized, so on the same level, so incredibly dramatic, they’re a hell of a power couple. They have a weird definition of romance but it suits them so well you can’t criticize them for it.

Aldan

Full Name: Aldan Calanes

Gender and Sexuality: Non-binary (genderfluid, I think), pansexual

Pronouns: He/him

Ethnicity/Species: Our notion of race does not exist in Allastra, but in my Real World AUs he’s half-white, half-Arab

Birthplace and Birthdate: Emor, 63rd day of Spring in the year 417 of the Times of Union

Guilty Pleasures: Hearing himself sing/speak, being seductive just because he can

Phobias: Darkness, abandonment

What They Would Be Famous For: As an artist! See his talents

What They Would Get Arrested For: Oh boy. Let’s say criminal manipulation to keep it short.

OC You Ship Them With: Lith, and I have a weird friends/sex friends OTP with him and Elysa

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Arianna. But she’s only the one on top of the list.

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Epics

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliché: Anything that is perfect beyond nature. Perfect couples, perfect parents, perfect love interest…

Talents and/or Powers: He’s a talented sketch artist, musician, singer and poet. He’s also an expert in manipulation, and not so bad at military and political strategy.

Why Someone Might Love Them: He’s talented, gorgeous, needs love and has so much love to give, will do anything to make you fall for him, and is always respectful

Why Someone Might Hate Them: He’s a manipulative sociopath who, in the end, only cares for himself, he never seems to take anything seriously, and he’s always bragging.

How They Change: Over the course of the story, he finds in himself the ability to love unconditionally. Through that and the trials he goes through, he also develops more empathy and emotional maturity.

Why You Love Them:He’s the worst but I do? He’s a fascinating character to explore and develop, he has chemistry with every other character he encounters, I really can’t wait to cry over him.

[rojedir]

Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

Keeping up with the writeups, but now I’ll try to do something different and pen episodes that I think are more interesting, so this will end up out of order. Let’s begin by this one, probably one of the Volume’s stronger deliverances. I also throw in some focus on scene transitions, since this episode features all the girls. It will contain spoilers.

And talk about those early spars between Yang and Tai. I’ve seen some words about how the fights have become less galant since Volume 3, but this helps put the argument down. It’s quick, balanced and charming, I think.

And the series seems to be addresing Yang more, who only popped up here and there this season. A pretty common theme in RWBY is using the action and fights as an extent to a personage’s character (Weiss and her hereditary glyphs, Blake runing away with her shadows), and the show seems to be using Tai’s levelheaded and profesisonal approach as a counterweight to Yang’s sheer brute force, creating conflict and, ultimately, growth. One can see that Taiyang speaks through the heart, trying to make sure Yang grows up to be different from Raven as well, so their conversation is not only about fighting, but also revolves around one of the most enigmatic characters up to this writing (the whole speech is also carried very well by Burnie’s voice acting).

Here we get all our first transition, and it’s marked by adversity. Whereas Yang’s share is marked by warm colours,open dialogue regarding family and upbeat music, Weiss’s (Weiss’?) is more sober, the colors are mostly shades of blue, the songs ar emore regal, and she’s always framed as being alone. Narratively, Yang finds in her family solace and help. Weiss gets an obstacle. It’s a bridge that she is, metaphorically, able to cross using her semblance (the action-character duo again), by using her old enemies as “helpers”. Also, it’s pretty ironic how Klein comes barging in to help as opposed to her brother or Jacques.

Another transition, through adversity, more or less. Changing Weiss’s reassuring notes to Blake’s chase sequence, and the icy colours to a black-green palette, and a quiet scene to a more action-packed one. Really, the plot thickens, although mystery suits Blake, who make a good duo with Sun, despite (or should I say, because) of all their differences. Speaking of him, I particularly hope he doesn’t die, not without any background or development. And because I like Sun.

And, the last transition, this time having more in common with the last. The opaque ending of Blake’s scene is matched by the grim forests of Ruby’s, and both share a theme- caring for the dying. Heck, the words are almost verbatim. Here we get a pretty common setup, the group has to be split, which makes things worse, since it’s informed that Qrow helped them so far, and Ruby and Jaune will be having to look after him. Kuroyuri seems to have something to do with Ren and Nora, which is nice, since we’ll get to see more of their past, something I’m ever pro. They mention in Volume 3 that both of them are oprhans, so they likely lost their parents when Kuroyuri got burned to the ground. Interesting move in the end, where the camera goes away to reveal an awfully big footprint. It looks like something out of Jurassic Park.

Also, Qrow was saying “Tai, she’s not coming back”. Well, we probably won’t know if that’s Raven or Summer. But who knows, maybe he’ll spew something more next.

[eretzyisrael]

Throughout the ages Jews experienced risk and uncertainty, yet they still rejoiced while sitting under the shadow of faith.  by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

What exactly is a sukkah? What is it supposed to represent?

The question is essential to the mitzvah itself. The Torah says: “Live in sukkot for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in sukkot so that your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in sukkot when I brought them out of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 23: 42-43). In other words, knowing – reflecting, understanding, being aware – is an integral part of the mitzvah. For that reason, says Rabbah in the Talmud (Sukkah 2a), a sukkah that is taller than twenty cubits (about thirty feet or nine meters high) is invalid because when the sechach, the “roof,” is that far above your head, you are unaware of it. So what is a sukkah?

On this, two Mishnaic sages disagreed. Rabbi Eliezer held that the sukkah represents the clouds of glory that surrounded the Israelites during the wilderness years, protecting them from heat during the day, cold during the night, and bathing them with the radiance of the Divine presence. Rashi in his commentary takes it as the “plain sense” of the verse.

Rabbi Akiva on the other hand says sukkot mammash, meaning a sukkah is a sukkah, no more and no less: a hut, a booth, a temporary dwelling. It has no symbolism. It is what it is (Sukkah 11b).

If we follow Rabbi Eliezer then it is obvious why we celebrate by making a sukkah. It is there to remind us of a miracle. All three pilgrimage festivals are about miracles. Pesach is about the miracle of the exodus when God brought us out of Egypt with signs and wonders. Shavuot is, according to the oral Torah, about the miracle of the revelation at Mount Sinai when, for the only time in history, God appeared to an entire nation. Sukkot is about God’s tender care of his people, mitigating the hardships of the journey across the desert by surrounding them with His protective cloud as a parent wraps a young child in a blanket. Long afterward, the sight of the blanket evokes memories of the warmth of parental love.

Rabbi Akiva’s view, though, is deeply problematic. If a sukkah is merely a hut, what was the miracle? There is nothing unusual about living in a hut if you are living a nomadic existence in the desert. It’s what the Bedouin did until recently. Some still do. Why should there be a festival dedicated to something ordinary, commonplace and non-miraculous?

Rashbam (Rashi’s grandson) says the sukkah was there to remind the Israelites of their past so that, at the very moment they were feeling the greatest satisfaction at living in Israel – at the time of the ingathering of the produce of the land – they should remember their lowly origins. They were once a group of refugees without a home, living in a favela or a shanty town, never knowing when they would have to move on. Sukkot, says Rashbam, is integrally connected to the warning Moses gave the Israelites at the end of his life about the danger of security and affluence:

Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God … Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery … You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” (Deut. 8: 11-17)

Sukkot, according to Rashbam, exists to remind us of our humble origins so that we never fall into the complacency of taking freedom, the land of Israel and the blessings it yields, for granted, thinking that it happened in the normal course of history.

However there is another way of understanding Rabbi Akiva, and it lies in one of the most important lines in the prophetic literature. Jeremiah says, in words we recited on Rosh Hashanah, “‘I remember the loving-kindness of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown” (Jer. 2:2). This is one of the very rare lines in Tanakh that speaks in praise not of God but of the people Israel.

“ How odd of God / to choose the Jews,” goes the famous rhyme, to which the answer is: “Not quite so odd: the Jews chose God.” They may have been, at times, fractious, rebellious, ungrateful and wayward. But they had the courage to travel, to move, to leave security behind, and follow God’s call, as did Abraham and Sarah at the dawn of our history.

If the sukkah represents God’s clouds of glory, where was “the loving-kindness of your youth”? There is no sacrifice involved if God is visibly protecting you in every way and at all times. But if we follow Rabbi Akiva and see the sukkah as what it is, the temporary home of a temporarily homeless people, then it makes sense to say that Israel showed the courage of a bride willing to follow her husband on a risk-laden journey to a place she has never seen before – a love that shows itself in the fact that she is willing to live in a hut trusting her husband’s promise that one day they will have a permanent home.

Pesach represents the love of God for His people. Sukkot represents the love of the people for God.

If so, then a wonderful symmetry discloses itself in the three pilgrimage festivals. Pesach represents the love of God for His people. Sukkot represents the love of the people for God. Shavuot represents the mutuality of love expressed in the covenant at Sinai in which God pledged Himself to the people, and the people to God.

Sukkot, on this reading, becomes a metaphor for the Jewish condition not only during the forty years in the desert but also the almost 2,000 years spent in exile and dispersion. For centuries Jews lived, not knowing whether the place in which they lived would prove to be a mere temporary dwelling. To take just one period as an example: Jews were expelled from England in 1290, and during the next two centuries from almost every country in Europe, culminating in the Spanish Expulsion in 1492, and the Portuguese in 1497. They lived in a state of permanent insecurity. Sukkot is the festival of insecurity.

What is truly remarkable is that it is called, by tradition, zeman simchatenu, “our time of joy.” That to me is the wonder at the heart of the Jewish experience: that Jews throughout the ages were able to experience risk and uncertainty at every level of their existence and yet – while they sat betzila de-mehemnuta, “under the shadow of faith” (this is the Zohar’s description of the sukkah: Zohar, Emor, 103a) – they were able to rejoice. That is spiritual courage of a high order. I have often argued that faith is not certainty: faith is the courage to live with uncertainty. That is what Sukkot represents if what we celebrate is sukkot mammash, not the clouds of glory but the vulnerability of actual huts, open to the wind, the rain and the cold.

I find that faith today in the people and the State of Israel. It is astonishing to me how Israelis have been able to live with an almost constant threat of war and terror since the State was born, and not give way to fear. I sense even in the most secular Israelis a profound faith, not perhaps “religious” in the conventional sense, but faith nonetheless: in life, and the future, and hope. Israelis seem to me perfectly to exemplify what tradition says was God’s reply to Moses when he doubted the people’s capacity to believe: “They are believers, the children of believers” (Shabbat 97a). Today’s Israel is a living embodiment of what it is to exist in a state of insecurity and still rejoice.

And that is Sukkot’s message to the world. Sukkot is the only festival about which Tanakh says that it will one day be celebrated by the whole world (Zechariah 14: 16-19). The twenty-first century is teaching us what this might mean. For most of history, most people have experienced a universe that did not change fundamentally in their lifetimes. But there have been rare great ages of transition: the birth of agriculture, the first cities, the dawn of civilization, the invention of printing, and the industrial revolution. These were destabilizing times and they brought disruption in their wake. The age of transition we have experienced in our lifetime, born primarily out of the invention of the computer and instantaneous global communication, will one day be seen as the greatest and most rapid era of change since Homo sapiens first set foot on earth.

Sukkot, the festival of joy, is the ultimate antidote to fear.

Since 9/11 2001, we have experienced the convulsions. As I write these words, some nations are tearing themselves apart, and no nation is free of the threat of terror. There are parts of the Middle East and beyond that recall Hobbes’ famous description of the “state of nature,” a “war of every man against every man” in which there is “continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” (Hobbes, The Leviathan, chapter X111). Insecurity begets fear, fear begets hate, hate begets violence, and violence eventually turns against its perpetrators.

The twenty-first century will one day be seen by historians as the Age of Insecurity. We, as Jews, are the world’s experts in insecurity, having lived with it for millennia. And the supreme response to insecurity is Sukkot, when we leave behind the safety of our houses and sit in sukkot mammash, in huts exposed to the elements. To be able to do so and still say, this is zeman simchatenu, our festival of joy, is the supreme achievement of faith, the ultimate antidote to fear.

Faith is the ability to rejoice in the midst of instability and change, travelling through the wilderness of time toward an unknown destination. Faith is not fear. Faith is not hate. Faith is not violence. These are vital truths, never more needed than now.

[sea-blue-bombshell]

please dont talk to me about this...

i cant handle talking to poeple about this. please dont.

im not okay right now.

so yesterday was pretty nice? got a pedicure with the boy and then went to go hang out with a mutual friend cassie and patrick. i fucked up my paint job on my toes a little bit, im really upset by that but getting over it. but it was nice to hang out with them.

cassie got on the topic of her kids and how theyre not getting the right kind of discipline and i was listening and laughing awkwardly because haaa kids are annoying.

after words he was driving us back to his house where my car was parked and i brought up how i thought it was funny that when he talks about kids he’s says “not ready but when” and when i talk about them i say “im not ready and no”. and that it was like, a weird way to phrase it.

and he says he’s told me this before but i dont remember but his last relationship, his 2 year long talking about getting married relationship, ended because she said a definite no to kids, and he wants them.

i felt super awkward bringing up the topic because. for him that was an old break up conversation basically. and im on the same page that she was.

we got back to his house and i drove home, fuckign cried damn near the entire fucking time it hurt so badly and i dont. its like its not fair? but i dont even know what fair would be in this situation. i just.

he told me he was serious about having them in the future, to the point he said if he could carry the kid and go through labor for it he would, and my first thoughts were “who the hell willingly goes through that?”.

i dont want them. and of course i know the uture is unclear and maybe slightly i could want them in the future but i cant see a future were i do. where i want to carry some parasite inside me , have all my emotions shot to hell and back, and then go thorugh the literla fucking tearing apart of my body to deal with sceraming and sleepless nights and hating...

i cant do that.

and like. im scraed. because if i ever did i wouldnt want to be the only one taking care of the kid the way my mom does. not that my dad doesnt do ‘dad’ things but hes not as involved and lets my sister do whatever they want without really interacting more oftn than not.

and boy said he wouldnt do that, he wans to have that kind of adventure and do all the fun thigns with a kid and i just. i mean it did make me feel better but i still couldnt.

god it hurts. it hurts so much.

i dont want. 

we were discussing moving i together in the next few months. like our lives were tkaing a turn for th emore adult so soon. i was so excited, hoping that maybe we could go through with it and have maybe a better time being together than my friends have thus far. we’ve talked it out, discussed it, it wasnt a rash decision. and.

i like him. i like him a lot and fuck i dont rememebr the last time i cried over a significant other this damn much.

i dont want. i dont want to lose him yet. i want to stay with him for a long time more and. i feel like im not going to be able to. i really dont htink i could handle kids, i dont think i would be a good parent or anything. i barely have a maternal instinct. i cant fucking stand kids. and.

i dont want. i dont want to convince myself that i would want kids just to keep him around. because i want him to be around. a kid isnt going to solve anything. it would most likely make it worse.

i cant. its not fair to me or to him, for me to try and change how i feel about kids just so we can be together. and i mean, im not saying i would never ever want kids. of course things can change but i just. i feels so unlikely and.

whats the fucking point. if this conversation comes back in two years and i still feel the same about kids then its like. there will be nothing either of us can do. “you dont marry potential”. and potentially i will never want kids. flat out no.

and i know. i know this is so far in the future, a future and planning that we really cant plan for. but it sucks. because if this conversation comes back around and im still set on not having any, then we.

its putting off the inevitable. and i dont fucking want that. i dont him to ose him yet and i feel like i already lost to someone that doesnt fuckign exist yet. because he will. he will chose someone that doesnt exist over someone that doesnt want kids and i hate it.

like it feels like such a stupid issue. like yes? no? bye. but like. its such a big decision to make and it hurts. i dont want another two years worth of memories to have to live with and be hurt over. but i cant. i dont want to give him up yet and it hurts.

i dont want to convince myself that i maybe might want to have kids in the future just to keep him around. i mean sure i might actually want to do the parenting thing, but for like. a 12 year old i adopted. not the point. i mean. i dont want him to influence that decision because i know he’ll probably leave if that doesn’t change.

it hurts so badly.

it feels like we planned a break up. we are still together and all that but. i was so happy. and i honestly feel like i ruined that for myself. like i ruin everything else i do for myself.

...

i dont think i ever told anyone this. but i. i feel it kind of. like i kind of just convinved myself that he would be the one to break up with me if it ever happened. like. i cant see me ever doing it. and he. this whole conversation just gave my head too much to think about and dwell on and. before it was like “he probably will but i dont really know for what.” and now. now its “hes going to because i dont want kids”.

like it feels like my future has been set for me in the next years when this conversation comes up again. and it fucking hurts. and i know things can change but. and maybe i will. but. its not.

i told him while we were talking about this. that i dont want kids, but its not like a super hard no. i am scared. im scared to fuck someone else up, someone that is my responsibility. im scared that i would hate them. i scared its going to hurt.

and i know. it was me trying to give that little edge that  maybe we can work this out. but. i. kids dont sound like fun. and it may be just because of my age or. whatever it is. but. it hurts. and it feels so bad.

i also told him that if my relatives were to ever ask me about kids i would tell them that i dont want any, because then the obvious “oh youll change your mind” fuels me with spite. but its like. small girls are always pressured to want kids and i got sick of it. what if dont change my mind? what if i dont want to spend so much of my time and life in someone else? i dont care if its selfish. stop fucking telling me want to do.

thats a hypothetical situation of course that i have in my head but the point is. i fueled by spite and if one of my relatives ever tells me “oh youll change your mind” its like im obligated to never do so. but i mean. if i do, and they come to me telling me “i told you so”, they will never see my kid or me ever again. fuck off with your sour fucking attitude. i dont need that and neither does my hypothetical kid.

god what the fuck just happened. i went from sad and upset to pissed off in twelve seconds.

please just be my hormonal monthly visitor fucking me over.

...

im so tired, and so upset, and so scared. i wish i never brought that conversation up. i wish i never knew why his last relationship ended. 

...

“you dont marry potential.” and i am potential.

[itamarbdor]

What is the key to making difficult decisions in life? Rabbi Schiller derives vital principles for decision-making and parenting from this week's Torah portion. Rabbi Nota Schiller - Weekly Torah Portion: Emor - Effective Decision Making