#praying he and justin link up (and we get to see it somehow)

[cementcornfield]

Ja’Marr posting an elf on his story 🙄🙄

Jk I’m happy he’s having a great time but I wish Justin would’ve been there 🙁 At least he has PQ and Diggs… Sauce maybe 😂

lmao yes i looked up the player and saw he was on the browns and 😨

truly the pro bowl brings about world peace and unity 🥲 such an important event!!

[resbang-bookclub]

AMA Transcript: Simple Melody

For our final AMA of Resbang 2017, @alliope, @bbbutterfingers & @daciafu stopped in to answer questions about their Resbang, Simple Melody! Here’s some of what went down:

Q: My first question for Allie is what inspired you to do this AU?

Allie: Well I've generally had the idea for an Over the Garden Wall AU for a while, not necessarily for SE, but as the first check-ins deadline was approaching I ended up rewatching bits of Over the Garden Wall and it just kinda clicked? Mainly I think it came from Crona's betrayal and Beatrice's betrayal and everything fell into place from there. I thought the eerie atmospheres would work well together! So I ended up scrapping my previous idea and wrote 3k plus a summary like three days before the first check-ins, rip.

Q: For butter/dacia, what went into how you decided which scene(s) to art?

butterfingers: HM well there was some chitchat when we started about what kind of work we wanted to do and I said that I loved the Boom comics covers, and then I shouted WHAT IF I MADE  COMIC BOOK COVERS! and I think Dacia went WHAT IF I DID BACKGROUNDS and I guess we just approached it as if we were doing something comic-y haha!

Allie: You two were the power duo.

daciafu: I've always been in love with the style of the backgrounds of OTGW since that's where all those cozy and spooky feelings of fall and the Unknown really shine and I'm honestly HORRIBLE at designing backgrounds so I wanted to take the challenge and push myself to get better! Mimicking other people's styles really helps me break down how they make their choices and teaches me how to make things look Decent so I was super hyped to pick up the OTGW style! And then when Butters and I were trying to figure out What Do and she said she wanted to tackle covers, I decided to do background-heavy scenes. 😊

Q: What is generally your guys’ process (writing for Allie and arting for butters and dacia)?

Allie: Well, I wrote in little scenes, like I would get an idea for a scene and just go for it, the fic wasn't at all coherent until maybe a few days before posting. This actually posed a problem since linking scenes took longer than I thought it would. Because I had most of my scenes written, I thought I had more finished than I really did. By the end of Resbang, I had 56k written but only 20k remotely post-able. I'm a super obsessive planner though, so my whole fic was outlined in detail early on, which was nice cause I knew what I was doing lol

butterfingers: I loved going through Allie's notes, I was always excited to see how they'd connect the dots! My art process is as follows: scribble something, put it aside, look at it a lot throughout the day with the thought that maybe I can surprise myself into seeing something new, find something I hate, fix it, rinse and repeat. For this project I actually... have a friend who works with Boom Comics and she was able to hook me up with a nice little gallery of illustrations for the OTGW comic so I got to go through and put together my mood board for it 😊

daciafu: I read over the gloriousness that was Allie's draft and immediately picked out some neat scenes or wanted to reimagine the classic OTWG ones. I spent a lot of time studying first! Looking at the art books, and poring over the show’s scenes and kind of getting a feel for the color palettes, textures and compositions. Then I watched a tutorial on Youtube where someone just deadass uploaded their painting process on a piece of official art that made it into the show. So that was EXTREMELY helpful to watch the way they painted back-to-front and kind of blended the planes without like, losing depth?? The internet is so, so wonderful. And then I got to work! Started with a soft brush for lineart so it wouldn't be too prevalent, moved onto base colors, then shading, and then really trying to establish textures and make the atmosphere Just Right(tm).

butterfingers: Genius!! Oh damn that sounds like such great advice vis à vis backgrounds. /takes notes

Q: You sound like the dream art partner Allie, I weep for my artists and my last minute HERE IS 10K I JUST TYPED UP BC IM A MESS.

Allie: Ahh geez, these two were the dream partners honestly, like I'm so glad they could gather stuff from my notes, cause I've always got everything together in my head, but then it gets out there and it's a mess, these two deserve all the love.

butterfingers: There was one thing I regret that I didn't have the chance to draw and it was like a throwaway line somewhere in your notes about Maka presenting Soul with a praying mantis and him freaking out. I resonated with that so hard hahaha.

Q: What was the hardest scene for you to write?

Allie: The hardest scene to write that's actually posted was anything with Justin really, I don't get his character and it was tough to write him. There were a few scenes that were hard to write because I rushed them, but I wouldn't say they were genuinely difficult scenes, I just gotta rewrite 'em! But overall the ending scene I'm still struggling to write and there's a dream scene that occurs which has been difficult to write just for making it dream-like enough?

Q: And what was the hardest to art? :o

butterfingers: I had a hard time with Maka's expressions. I had many scribbles designing a Ragnarok lantern, too, but it was very fun!!

Allie: Your design for the Ragnarok lantern was so good, I still cry over it.

butterfingers: Ahaha thank you! He was very Calcifer inspired ;)

daciafu: I struggled quite a bit with the first one I painted, just because it was all so new to me. I had to base color 3 different times because the soft lineart bothered me if something extended too far, or there was white background peeking through. And then reimagining the texture in the leaves and the ground to try to separate the planes there but also wanting them to be cohesive was a bit of a headache. If I had to go back and do that one over again I think I'd be more prepared to deal with the foliage lmao.

butterfingers: Your textures were very excellent, that was a quality I struggled with as well!

daciafu: The first one I painted was the Golden Light scene where Maka and Soul are leaving the woods and entering the fields.

butterfingers: Trees r hard.

Allie: They all came out so incredible though, I'm in awe of how you were able to create those leaves.

daciafu: Omg ;;;;; At the same time trees are so organic and flowy and the chances of getting them wrong are pretty slim considering they can get janked as hell lol they're super fun to just zone out to. "I’ll just put a happy little leaf here, ooh and how’s about another one right next to it. They can be happy friends. Oh look, the squad showed up!!" Channeling my inner Bob Ross... but yeah you can just do whatever with them and they somehow come together.

Q: Daciafu how do u.....background, like you did so well and all I hear from art friends is various levels of pterodactyl screeching when the word background is mentioned.

daciafu: I heavily based the Leafing the Forest scene and the church scene after stills from the show so I don't get composition points there, but I built the pumpkin fields just based off of the environment’s design elements. I really wanted to push the depth of that scene but also give it that same never-ending quality to it, and I'm super happy with the results. Another note is that I omitted the characters entirely while building the backgrounds. Since I'm usually a pretty character-heavy artist, I wanted to tackle it like I was preparing the scene for an animator later. And then once they were done, I added in our sweet kids. Doing it that way first really helped to cement the characters in the space rather than my usual "character is done, how can I put them in an interesting physical space?" struggle lmao.

Q: Did you guys feel like your writing/arting changed at all or that you learned anything/picked up new skills/honed old ones etc. etc. during Resbang?

Allie: Gosh yeah, it changed a lot. In hindsight a bad idea, but this was the first fic I'd ever written with intention of posting and the longest piece I'd ever written. Before this I had written very little and my longest piece was maybe 10k. Throughout Resbang I've learned most of everything from the ground up, it's taught me a lot about my limits, how I work and writing in general. I've definitely improved a lot from the experience!

butterfingers: Let me tell you all about the airbrush tool that I discovered during Resbang. Amazing. Incredible.

daciafu: I learned how to paint backgrounds!!! Which is something I've always wanted to get better at. And I got super comfortable in Clip Studio (I'd just gotten it) as well as using texture brushes, so overall it was a very helpful and wonderful experience as a Resbang participant and as an arteest.

Q: Oh that reminds me butters, what program do you use?

butterfingers: Paint Tool SAI for the most part, and then Photoshop for color correction, borders, and, like, finesse things! :)

Q: Did you guys listen to any music that inspired you or helped you create?

Allie: Ah, yeah! I had a playlist actually! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjTCaFkFU6rkD1edJwCZmHvJiUwlSUeGZ

If you want I can explain some bits of it? I use music a lot when writing aha. I like to associate certain songs with characters and character relationships, so most of the songs are connected to a particular part of the story. The Monroe Transfer, Wayfaring Stranger, and Mountains were all more general atmosphere stuff. Blame was very much related to Maka, which may not be apparent now, but yeah. Ragnarok I actually connected a lot with Willow Tree March. Soul was probably closest with A Lady. Crona had a lot of songs, but Neptune was most specific to them, as was probably Ghost Towns. Some character relationships I associated with certain songs, Crona-Ragnarok and Soul-Maka were both pretty connected to Always Gold, especially that dang last line "there were holes in you, the kind that I could not mend" oh man. Crona-Maka was definitely We Could Be Friends, Bloom, and Spell. Meet Me in The Woods I thought was a pretty good group song! Those are just some general bits of my thinking with the music aha.

daciafu: Definitely checked out Allie's dope playlist. For most of my working time, tho, I was either listening to TAZ: Commitment or MBMBaM oddly enough lol. I will forever think of Justin's uproarious laughter whenever I look at them lmao.

Q: Were any of the relationships difficult to characterize?

Allie: Mmm this may sound weird but early Maka-Crona was weird for me, cause they were kinda at that point where they want to (or at least Maka wants to) like each other, but they don’t like or trust each other at all and it's a weird spot for them. I'm used to writing them as at least interested by one another, if not enemies or already fond of one another, so this felt like a very odd place to start with them.

Q: Do you guys have future plans for writing/drawing? Aside from polishing and posting the rest of the fic!

Allie: I have,,, too many plans,, I need less plans,, someone please take them away from me, I can't be trusted with them,,,, I do want to do a sequel for this when I get it finished, playing on the detail about crows memory lasting five years so. Beyond that I have a SoMa fic to finish for the prompt challenge!! I'm working on a gift for Crescentcrona, which is a fantasy Kirona fic called Eat The Rich. I have polyam week fics that I'm cleaning up, I think my favorite so far is a Azusa/Naigus/Sid/Mifune one for Through The Seasons. And God I have so many CroMa fics I want to write, I gotta fill the AO3 tag. I think the biggest one right now is a wings-related soulmates au that I've been working on on the side since October I think?

daciafu: Yo there's one scene that I'm like sUPER hyped to do if Allie does the sequel because I already know exactly how I wanna draw it but I wasn't able to fit that in near the end, and it didn't end up in the first part. But there are a couple of other scenes Allie and I workshopped that would be super fun to do and I would love to draw them. Other than that, my drawing plans are pretty much working on commissions as they come in. Surprisingly my queue has been maxed out and I just got a full time job so of course now I'm like.... hm.... I'll get 'em done eventually!!

----

That’s the end of the AMAs for the 2017 season! Thanks again for reading along with us, and see you next year! :)

[regularbeans]

Best Collaborations of 2017

This list is actually growing every year. Last year I only had 15, before that 10 and 10 in 2014 as well. I love it, yes. Give me more collabs! (And remember, I have a bit of a rulebend where stuff released the previous year’s December still counts.)

20 All Time Low: Ground Control (feat. Tegan and Sara) 

If I’m absolutely honest I don’t really know/like Tegan and Sara but I do know they come from around the same neck of the pop punk woods All Time Low does and I can appreciate a bit of out of nowhere collab. 

19 ONE OK ROCK: Take What You Want (feat. 5 Seconds of Summer)

I honest to god know nothing about One Ok Rock but I do love those 5SOS boys and miss them quite a lot so I’m happy for this track.

18 Halsey: Strangers (feat. Lauren Jauregui)

Another confession: I don’t think this song is as much the tits as everybody says it is but my bi heart hungers for any sort of representation so I’ll take it thank you very much.

17 Stargate: Waterfall (feat. P!nk & Sia)

This is for a movie, right? Who the heck cares, Pink and Sia are definitely two of the strongest female vocalists out there and hearing them side-by-side is every bit as brilliant as I thought it would be.

16 Clean Bandit: I Miss You (feat. Julia Michaels)

Artists like Clean Bandit, Robin Schulz, Kygo or The Chainsmokers (all of which actually have a place or two on this list) are good cause they’re giving me a constant supply of collabs to love. I don’t even know Julia Michaels and I fell in love with her voice as soon as I heard this song.

15 Robin Schulz: OK (feat. James Blunt)

Not as good as Sugar but good regardless, James Blunt is the last person I thought would be collaborating with Robin Schulz but surprisingly it works.

14 Linkin Park: Heavy (feat. Kiiara)

This song was the first on my list back when it came out and even though I understood the concerns about such a different track being the lead single, I could not side with the criticism saying it’s bad. It’s an emotional, painful song about inner turmoils sung beautifully by Kiiara and Chester Bennington.

13 Kygo: Stargazing (feat. Justin Jesso)

Kygo, buddy, you always have my back when it comes to collabs. I love my dance pop full of samples and this gives me just that.

12 The Chainsmokers: Something Just Like This (feat. Coldplay)

Alright, sue me, I love catchy songs. So what? In this world where pop music has become electronic pop producers like The Chainsmokers have an easy job I’d say and some of the old pop royalty are left to catch up or get left behind. This results in many bands that started out or became famous worldwide in the last decade prioritising the electro pop sound over their old set-up (two examples are Coldplay and the upcoming OneRepublic, by the way). For some it doesn’t work out that great but for Coldplay here it sounds comfortable, showing another side of themselves.

11 Kygo: Stranger Things (feat. OneRepublic)

 I think I’ve said all I could about this track in the previous two summaries but let me just add that when Ryan Tedder came out with that announcement about not doing another album anytime soon but rather releasing singles whenever they felt comfortable with it because he felt way too under pressure I became worried. I love OneRepublic despite thinking their music have kind of gone downhill since the good old days of the last decade (see?) and would never want them to force themselves into doing shit they don’t want. With a few amazing collaborations under their belt I’m glad they found their way to this song which fits their repertoire quite well.

...remember the beginning of this post when I didn’t write whole novels for every entry? I miss those times. Click through for the first ten songs.

10 San Holo: I Still See Your Face (GOSLO Remix)

Alright, not a classic collaboration but you know what I mean. San Holo’s always been a weird one for me because I barely listen to his vanilla stuff, I always seem to fancy the remixes only. This one is strangely addictive and once you’ve heard it slowed down like that you don’t really want to go back to the original. Sorry(?)

09 Khalid & Imagine Dragons: Thunder/Young Dumb & Broke

I don’t know how this collab came to be but I like to think that the Imagine Dragons boys and Khalid both separately heard each other’s songs and realised the instrumentals might as well be swapped cause they just fit each other so well. I also recommend the live version which is awesome. I’m so on board with Dan Reynolds wandering into the realms of R&B, it really suits him.

08 Logic: 1-800-273-8255 (feat. Alessia Cara & Khalid)

Mental illness has been getting tons of attention in the mainstream media recently, I think starting around the suicide of Robin Williams (could be sooner but that’s when I became aware of the attention) and that’s not a bad thing but I feel like most artists are still just dancing around the notion of saying things as they are. It’s not a bad thing, I’d rather people are careful rather than misrepresenting or spreading false information and thus enforcing the stigma around mental illness, but then someone like Logic comes out of nowhere with a song whose title is literally the US suicide prevention hotline with several hard hitting lines that tell it like it is. The fact that the music video is about a young black gay boy growing up to be happy is just cherry on top. I’m glad Alessia Cara and Khalid, two people from two different genres came together to collaborate on it.

07 Nothing But Thieves: Hell Yeah (feat. Jonathan Higgs)

Fear not, I will always find a way to cram these assholes onto any list I can get my filthy fingers on. I don’t even know which concert this was and I had no idea these guys even knew each other but it was such a random impromptu collab that I can’t help but love it. The harmonies sounded amazing and I love the idea of any old singer from an otherwise unrelated band just randomly wandering on stage to sing a duet with Conor.

06 dodie: Impossible Year (feat. Jack Howard)

Here’s one of our outliers but one that actually fits our current situation. Panic! forever cemented this song as a must-listen at the end of every year and dodie and Jack Howard did an amazing job covering the song. It works even better as a duet somehow, and I just love their voices together.

05 Lin-Manuel Miranda: Almost Like Praying (feat. Artists for Puerto Rico)

Lin is one of those people who just radiates good energy wherever he goes. You just can’t help but feel positive when he’s around. I imagine it’s a blessing and a burden but when he uses that power to gather around a group of musical legends and contemporary artists to promote a good cause it’s definitely a blessing.

04 Clean Bandit: Symphony (feat. Zara Larsson)

It might just be because this song is the theme song of my OTP but I love it. It’s even weirder because I listened to it a lot this year when I had a bit of a breakdown and yet this song doesn’t remind me of that phase, thankfully. It reminds me that Clean Bandit are master songwriters and Zara Larsson’s voice is too good for the music she does on her own.

03 Machine Gun Kelly: Home (feat. X Ambassadors & Bebe Rexha) 

Do I like Machine Gun Kelly? Not really. Do I like Bebe Rexha? Not in particular. Have I seen Bright? Hell no. I do love X Ambassadors to bits, however, and will lay down my life for a good hook any day. It’s a nostalgic sort of bittersweet song about belonging and missing home, and it carries even more meaning when you realise Machine Gun Kelly wrote his verse after he found out about Chester Bennington’s death. I love this song regardless of the background info but it just fits so well together this way. Also Bebe Rexha’s voice is also too good for the music she does on her own. She’s got a beast in that throat of hers, goddamn.

02 Grizfolk: In My Arms (feat. Jamie N Commons)

Two artists that crept up on me without any warning, indie pop Grizfolk and what the hell is Jamie N Commons even doing when he’s not singing for other people? I should probably check out. But until then enjoy this song between two of the strongest vocals you probably never heard of.

01 Cold War Kids: So Tied Up (feat. Bishop Briggs) 

You’d think I knew this song would be first on the list for a long time but no sir, I did not. Eventually the deciding factor was that the live version they released before the album came out (link in the title) was so good that when the studio version came out people were outraged that Bishop Briggs was barely featured. It wasn’t even the false advertisement that hurt, it was just that the studio version absolutely wasted Bishop’s talents which as we know are plenty. Luckily Cold War Kids realised their mistake and released a “moreBishop” version which is 1) as it should’ve been from the very beginning and 2) fucking hilarious. The music video (linked here) also features “moreBishop”, thank goodness x)

The list also contained Not Easy by Alex Da Kid and featuring X Ambassadors, Elle King, and Whiz Khalifa but unfortunately it’s from 2016 October as it turns out so :[ (Listen to the song anyway cause it’s really good)

[ecotone99]

[TH] Margaret

**Warning! This is the final part of the story! To start at the beginning click here.**

​

Papa killed Mama on a summer’s night, Justine under autumn’s light, and Simon and Ronan on a winter’s day. I had watched him do it all. He broke the thin ice so Ronan and Simon would fall in, but then he jumped in after them. Perhaps he knew I had seen and feared what I might say.

Papa jumped into the frozen water without hesitation, pulling the bodies of the two boys up to the surface with difficulty. His own body was shaking violently from the cold that he nearly collapsed after pulling the boys to the shore.

“We could end it now, you know. Push them all back into the water so he can’t hurt anyone anymore. And who knows if those even are your brothers anymore?” whispered Margaret.

I walked slowly towards the things pretending to be my brothers and father. I had seen the horrors throughout these last few months that I feared what would happen if I didn’t act now. Ronan and Simon were blue, perhaps because they weren’t breathing or because of the cold. Papa was shivering, his legs still in the water. It would only take one shove to send him back into the water, and he was too weak to pull himself back up. Then, everything would finally be over. I brought my arms up, bracing them against his shoulders. I pulled my leg back so I could move my momentum up into my hands. I brought my foot up to lean forward and—

“Anna! What happened?!” Justine yelled as she ran towards up. Quickly I dropped my arms and stepped back, grabbing Margret from the ground she dropped to once I let her go.

I couldn’t figure out how Justine had known, but then I saw Lily and Stella hugging each other in-between the house and the pound, obviously the ones that had alerted my eldest sister.

I was immensely annoyed with them, especially since they were also supposed to have been on the ice.

“Those brats will pay for this. They ruined everything, now what will we do?” whispered Margaret to me.

Justine pulled Papa the rest of the way out, dragging him further up the bank. Once Papa was at a safe distance she ran back to Roman first, pressing her hands to his chest with pressure, but he immediately coughed up the frozen water he had swallowed. Simon took more time, but he also eventually started breathing again.

They all sat, breathing heavily for a moment. Their eyes were wide with disbelief as to what happened. Papa was cold but able to walk so he grabbed Ronan while Justine places an arm under Simon so they could make their way back to the house.

I followed behind, keeping my distance to whatever was before me. Maybe Papa saved them so he could ensure everyone would let their guard down. This must be some plot to end us all.

The twins were already inside when we arrived, having added more wood to the fire so that the boys could all sit in front of it to warm up. I sat in the back of the room, completely unsettled that the one chance of escape from the demon pretending to be my father was now gone.

Everyone was so quiet, still unnerved from the day's strange events, but suddenly Ronan turned in my direction.

“Annabelle! What in God’s name did you do?!” Ronan yelled, standing up from his place in front of the fire.

I was unsure what he was referring to, but he staggered towards me, his body still stiff from the cold. He still looked like Ronan, but I knew he was dead already. The real Ronan would have already attacked Papa for what he did.

“Why would you push your skate into the ice like that?! Were you trying to kill us?!” Ronan screamed at me.

I was utterly and completely shocked. This had to have been Papa’s plan all along, to turn the entire house against me! He must have thought of this from the moment I saw him kill Mama.

“No. No! I didn’t do it! It was Papa, didn’t you see him?!”

I expected my siblings, if they were still alive, to believe me but by the looks on their faces, I knew they were truly gone. Even the twins must have met their demise when I wasn’t looking because they glared at me too.

“Anna, how wrong of you, to make something so vile up. What is wrong with you?” whispered Justine.

Her words though softer than Ronan’s but hurt even more somehow.

“They’re messing with you Anna, don’t listen! They’re trying to say you’ve gone mad because you know what really happened!” Margaret said.

She was my only ally in this entire mess. It was then that I realized Margaret sounded exactly like Mama.

“It’s true. If you were really Justine you would believe me! He killed Mama, and then you, and now the boys!” I cried.

I needed to run away, I couldn’t stay in this house anymore.

“I told you, Papa, she’s just like Mama. She can’t tell what’s real,” Justine said quietly.

A tear rolled down her face as she said it.

“They’re lying! Don’t listen, Anna!” yelled Margaret.

I grabbed Margaret even closer to me if it were possible.

“No, I saw you. I saw you stab her! You killed her!”

“No Anna,” spoke Papa then, “I sedated her so the physician could take her to get help. She wasn’t sleeping or eating. She started keeping you awake too, I had to do something.”

“Lies! Lies!”

“No, you’re lying! I saw it! I was standing at the bottom of the stairs! I saw you!” I yelled back.

Everyone looked at me with either sad or scared expressions. I knew it then, they were all dead already.

I ran up to my room, slamming the door. Without a second thought, I started to pack up as much as I could possibly take with me. I sat by the window with a small pack of clothes and Margaret, waiting for the house to go silent before I made my escape. Once I couldn’t hear any footsteps or whispering, I opened my window and climbed down, using the vines as footholds. The moon was out so I could see the terrain before me, and I quickly put Margaret into my pouch before starting my path away from that cursed house.

I prowled through the bush, cutting through the large stalks of grass and stepping over scattered logs on the ground of the wooded land. Insects crawled beneath my feet as I moved on through, their exoskeleton gleaming in the light from the moon; the only indication of their presence as their dark bodies blended with the night. I shoved my way through the grass and weeds growing in a wild frenzy around me as if every stem was reaching as tall as they could towards the skyline.

The ground did little to absorb the sound I made as I moved, seeming to echo every footstep and heavy breath back towards me, all fusing with the frantic galloping of my heart in my ears. Every step I made was slow, so painstakingly slow, and all I wanted to do was run out of this unseeable labyrinth. I prayed to any god listening above to help me, I prayed that they would make sure he didn’t see me. Papa couldn’t know I was running away, he couldn’t know I was leaving just like Mama tried.

I was just about to reach the tree line when I saw a shadow approach from my left.

“Annabelle, don’t be afraid. We just want to help you,” said Ronan as he approached me slowly.

He had his hands up, showing me there was nothing in his hands. I could see him clearly in the moon’s light but something was amiss in his eyes. I sprinted away before he could catch me, running to my right. I was just about to make it to the trees again, knowing they wouldn’t be able to find me once I was hidden in the dense woods, but before I could make it, thick arms grabbed me at the waist, pulling my body upwards.

“No! No! Let me go!”

I tried to kick and bite, but the arm of the demon I called Papa didn’t let me go.

“Now Justine, hurry! I can’t hold her like this long!” yelled the man I once called Father.

Justine emerged from the tree line I had been heading towards. Her steps were slow as she approached me, her hair gleaming like a cat’s in the moonlight. She was holding something that caught the light, something metallic.

“I’m sorry Anna, we’re just trying to help you. You have to understand,” said Justine.

Suddenly, I could see the long needle Justine was holding and the clear liquid within it. My body went numb for a moment, convinced death was upon me.

“No! No! Justine, please, don’t do this! I didn’t hurt anyone, please! It wasn’t me! Please, be my sister again!” I cried.

But no matter how much I cried, the dead girl before me continued to bring the needle closer to me. She moved her arm up to arc it downwards with momentum, right into my neck.

I didn’t feel anything at first, but then I felt the heat of the liquid moving through me. Suddenly everything around me looked as if it were melting and fusing together. I suddenly saw so many trees before me, and so many Justine’s all with eyes the color of tar. I tried to reach for my pack to grab Margaret, desperate for her voice of reason amongst this chaos, but my world went black.

When I woke next, I was strapped to a bed. There was a woman to my left in a long dress and white bonnet, and a man to my right with a long white coat.

“Good morning sunshine. What do you remember?” said the man when he saw my face.

“Where am I? Who are you?” I implored.

The man only laughed quietly.

“Don’t worry, we’re going to help you. Your father brought you here, he said you’ve been having difficulty seeing what is real. We’re going to fix you,” said the stranger.

Suddenly, the woman grabbed my face, putting cold metal prongs against the sides of my head and a leather strap in my mouth.

“You’ll want to bite down on that, hun. This hurts just a bit,” said the woman.

I looked between them both frantically, but all they did was stretch smiles across their pallid faces, and pull the switch. I swore I saw their eyes turn black just before the electric current coursing through my skull brought me back into darkness.

———————————————————————

The first escape: Part Four

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[dailyaudiobible]

03/08/2017 DAB Transcript

Numbers 10:1-11:23 ~ Mark 14:1-21 ~ Psalm 51:1-19 ~ Proverbs 10:31-32

Today is March the 8th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I’m Brian and it is a pleasure and an honor to spend this time with you and come around this global campfire that is ours, that is the fire by night that we were talking about yesterday, leading us forward.  And so, from the Good News Translation this week, Numbers chapter 10, verse 1 through 11, verse 23.  

Commentary

We have been encamped at Mount Sinai for quite a while now as the law and the rules and the customs and the regulations and the rituals that God is weaving into this culture, where everything is a reminder, where everything they do as it relates to God orients them to God and tells them the story of who they are, but we finally get to kind of move out.  We’ve been hanging out there for a long time, but we get to move out today.  Everybody is fine.  Everybody is following the directions, the order of things.  Everything looks good.  Everything feels right.  They are moving out and then they start complaining again.  “All we get to eat is this manna.”  

If you ate the same thing every day for a long, long time, it starts to become bland and you’re kind of used to it and you don’t have any variety.  So we kind of get that, at least from a tastebud perspective.  But this manna is being snowed down with the dew and all they have to do is get up in the morning and collect it and they are nourished for the day.  God is sustaining their life in the wilderness. I have been in that wilderness. There is no way, even today that a million people out there on the desert floor can find enough food to survive. They are in the middle of a miracle and it is happening every day.  I mean, cloud by day and a fire by night and manna on the ground every day, everything is miraculous around them.  God is present with them.  There is no denying it and they are complaining about having to eat the same thing every day.  

Then it gets to the meat thing.  “Oh, you guys remember the meat we got to eat when we were slaves?  You remember that?  The watermelon?  The cucumbers?  The leeks? The onions?  The garlic?  And now all we have is this manna.”  So God came to Moses and said, “Fine, I’ll give you meat and you’ll find that you’ll get sick of that too.”  

It's like they should have understood that they were in the wilderness. They were like in the middle of nowhere. They were on their way to somewhere that was promised but they were out there in the wilderness and were being fed. So if there is a land of milk and honey out there, there will probably be some cucumbers there.  Probably some garlic and onions and watermelons and some meat.  The gourmet meal may be on the other side of this promise as it has been fulfilled, but for now they’re alive and their God is mightier than anything on this earth.

But that is not what happened.  Even Moses came to the Lord after saying the promise and he's like, “Look, there's hundreds of thousands of people you’ve got me leading here.  Where will this meat even come from?  We don’t have enough cattle and there is not enough fish in the sea.”  And God reminds Moses, “Is there a limit to my power?”  “You’ll soon see whether what I’ve said will happen or not.”  

This is our story, my brothers and sisters.  I mean, we are watching the story play out of God's chosen people, but it is a mirror into our soul because this is us.  Cloud by day, fire by night, we’re being led by the Lord.  We just want to skip the fact that the wilderness precedes the promised land.  Even in the wilderness God is sustaining us, giving us everything that we need and somehow we are still here, but it doesn’t take too long before we’re starting to talk about times when we were a slave because it was easier to be a slave.  We didn’t have to contend for anything.  We just had to do the work.  We didn’t have to pay for any of the food.  It was just given to us.  We were just the labor.  We were just the help.  There wasn’t much to think about.  We didn’t have to plan.  We didn’t have to obey.  We didn’t have to observe.  We didn’t have to be vigilant.  We didn’t have to be aware.  We didn’t have to fight.  We didn’t have to go through the wilderness.  So in those times slavery looks more appetizing.  But really?  Is this who we really are?  Is this what we’re made of?  Because we were made to be free and we were made to be intertwined with the Spirit of God within us.  We are meant to walk around with an authority on this earth like Jesus.  

May we stop replaying the tapes in our head that lead us to the places that we’re reading of in the children of Israel's lives right now because it is going to get us nowhere.  Nowhere. We will never get out of the wilderness that way.  I promise you.  And if you don’t believe me, then just watch as this story unfolds in the book of Numbers.

Prayer

Father, we thank you for your word.  We thank you for the mirror into our souls because we need this disruption. We need to be shaken awake.  And we thank you for fathering us, for being patient with us, for parenting us, for helping us learn how to grow up, for helping us to remember that we are your children and, of course, you love us. But there are lessons that we must learn in order to mature and in order to heed the voice of wisdom.  So you brought us to places that we must wholly trust in you, not because you want it to be hard for us, but because we’ve got to learn how to do this.  So we thank you.  We’re sorry that we’ve misinterpreted what you’re doing in our lives so often.  We’re sorry that we’ve so often turned back and gone into slavery.  We’re sorry that we’ve so often complained about the way you’ve sustained and kept us alive only to just long for the good ol’ days.  Forgive us, Lord.  Have mercy on us, dear Lord, because we are so lost without you.  We never have to be without you for a moment.  We choose it.  Forgive us.  Have mercy on us, Lord, and forgive our sins, we pray.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home base and it's the website.  It's where you find out what is going on around here. And yeah, this freedom that we’re talking about here is one of the things we really explore at the More Gathering. We’ve been talking about the More Gathering for Women that is coming up less than a month from now.  Registration will be closing soon and that will be that. So, if you’re out there, you’re a woman, even if you’re a man in love with a woman and you want this freedom for her, if you want this freedom for your heart, ladies, this is a good start. This is a good reset.  This is a good beginning point.  So check it out.  All the details are at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  You’ll find the More Gathering very easily and all your questions about it will be answered.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link.  It's on the home page.  Thank you for pressing that link.  If you use the app, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner. Of the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today.  I'm Brian. I love you.  I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Hi everyone.  It's Christy from Kentucky.  I wanted to call tonight because as I was working on the community prayers for February 25th, Justin from Oregon, you called in about the 2-year-old child that was missing and there was such great compassion and concern in your voice.  And then when the child was found, you were so grateful and I could hear the relief and the sincerity.  The Lord just put across my heart the word authenticity.  And I just wanted to tell you that you all are such a loving family, each of you.  I hear such great compassion and love for one another.  I hear such sincerity in your voices when you pray for each other.  And I just love that this family is a family of authenticity.  And it is not self-serving.  It is such an unselfish love the each of you have for each other and it blesses me. So I just wanted to share that with you. And also I wanted to ask for a prayer request.  My friend Judy in Orlando has just been diagnosed with COPD and she just sent me a text and asked me to pray for her because she is having difficulty breathing. They are going to have to do more tests because they are concerned something else may be wrong and she is afraid. I can just hear it in her text. She loves Jesus so she is saved, but I just want you, if you would, to please pray for her to have peace and for them to be able to find that there is nothing else wrong and that she will be healed of this COPD.  I'm just asking that the Holy Spirit breathes through her and for her.  Alright everyone, I love you guys.  I pray you’re having a most blessed and lovely day.  

Hi, good morning.  This is Judy in Salt Lake City, UT.  I'm calling because James in the UK called regarding Faraj seeking work and the fact that he had been kidnapped and tortured or mistreated badly in Libya because of his human rights work as a human rights lawyer.  I just wanted to remind everybody that at noon every day some of us here in the DAB community are praying for those that are in captivity, whether it be sexual slavery or in Faraj's case, what was happening to him, those that have been enslaved by Boko Haram or used as human shields and kept captive by ISIS and others.  Please remember at noon wherever you are in the world to join us all as we pray for those that are captive.  We know and give the God the glory that he answers prayer.  Faraj is an excellent example of that and Jen's daughter is another one and there are so many others that we don’t even know about.  So thank you, Lord.  Thank you, Jesus, for freeing Faraj.  Now, please, we ask that you find him work that he can support his family in a decent manner, that he can continue his work.  Also I would like to thank our new listener, Candace in Kansas. At first I thought you were Candace in Oregon.  Thank you for that beautiful prayer.  And thank you, Sally in Mass, for your beautiful prayers for the community.  I felt them all the way down to my heart. God bless you and we ask you please to don’t forget praying for the health __________ at…

Hi family.  This is Rachel or Thankful from Australia.  Faraj, I'm praying for you that you will find work in your field.  And also wanting to praise God and thank you, family, for praying.  My daughter who lives in New York, her visa was renewed which was at first denied and then three days later, I believe after your prayers, was granted.  Thank you, family.  Also please pray for my mother who is suffering and tormented by Parkinson's disease.  I do pray for healing for her.  I believe the Lord can heal her.  Also if you would pray for me.  I’ve a longstanding gut condition which I’ve tried all sorts of things to heal and I'm just asking that God would heal that condition, in Jesus’ name.  Thank you, family.  Running out of time so just asking for prayer and also, Faraj, we pray for your beautiful family.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Hello.  This is __________ from Way out West.  I don’t call in very often.  Don’t like to use that name, but that is the name that God gave me and __________ my life when I thought I was going to give it all up.  That name has kind of haunted me.  It has __________ me and done a lot of things in my life and a bit of a __________ working on me.  God has given me this name and it made me think of Victorious Soldier.  That name, Victorious Soldier, is so powerful.  That woman is so powerful.  I just thank God for her and her prayers on the prayer line. I thank God for this ministry that Brian and Jill sustain every day.  It's a wonderful thing and my wife and I support it.  We hope that all the people that listen to it try to support it in some way.  At one point, this one guy on there said try to give $10 a month and I think that is probably a good thing.  If you listen to it, it's worth $10 a month.  If you listen to it every day like I do, it's worth $10 a month.  My wife and I give more than that because we feel led to give more than that because we feel like it is a very powerful ministry for a lot of people.  God bless you all.  I pray for you all on this prayer line.  We’re all praying for each other.  It's a wonderful, wonderful thing.  God bless you.  

Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible family.  My name is Femi and I'm calling from London.  This is my first time of calling.  I’ve been listening now for about two years, but I just had to call today, today being Brian's birthday.  Oh wow! Brian, you have been such an inspiration to us all.  You have helped me personally on my faith walk.  I thank God for your life and I pray that God will continue to strengthen you and God will continue to plant your feet firmly in his presence and to forever meet you at every point of your need.  You will never know no lack.  Oh Brian, you have been wonderful for responding to God's call and for you being steadfast at it as well.  Oh man, you are such an inspiration and I thank God for you and I thank God for your life. I thank God for DAB family.  Thank you very much.  Love you.  Take care. God bless you and God bless every member of this family of Daily Audio Bible.  Thank you very much.  Bye-bye.

Hi, this is Blessed Beyond Measure from New Jersey.  I just finished listening to the March 3 podcast twice.  Brian, you are truly gifted in weaving the word of God into an amazing tapestry that we as listeners can view its true beauty. Thanks for guiding us through Leviticus and helping us to understand that the laws and explanation of the rituals were to help, not harm the children of Israel.  What a reminder that the word of God continues to be an ever present help to guide and not harm as we traverse through this world.  Brian, I know that margin was the word you had emphasized for the DAB listeners this year, but after hearing your commentary on that day's reading in Mark, I'm convinced it is actually release.  As true Christians, by faith in God, we need that action word to actually live and experience God's forgiveness, grace and power.  I agree if we release all things that we see as bad that have happened to us, that we are released to have our faith in God be unstoppable.  So let's pray.  Thank you, Father God, for dying for us because we are all sinners.  That act of love provides us the means to ask you to forgive us for our sins and in turn accept your forgiveness.  We in turn are instructed throughout your word to do the same to others.  Jesus, listening and reading your word with others in the DAB community is not just a devotional, but a way of life.  Thank you so much for the Holy Spirit that prompts people all over this planet to call in and speak praise to you, Father God, ask for prayer in times of need, offer prayer for those requests, share praise reports and even just words of encouragement. Bless each member of the Hardin family for releasing their will in this world and letting your will be done through the Daily Audio Bible ministry.  In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.