#that is a resource you can use to convince people you are Not A Slave

[redeemed-wren]

okay so i can KIND OF understand why they changed the plot of Gladiators of Capua, cos a) Jonathan's Angst Arc may have been a bit heavy for live action kid's show and b) I don't think the budget could have handled the Colosseum. HOWEVER -

Jonathan's motivation is amusing to me. Dude gets kidnapped and thrown into gladiator jail and is like 'welp this is my life now ig'. His father is out here STRESSING and Jonathan's just like "i'm going to DIE here I gotta learn how to FIGHT' doesn't even consider trying to get word to his father. Not to mention Nubia and Lupus ALSO get picked up off the street and put to work like bro. Learn to say no. (I guess for those two they are in information-gathering mode so it COULD be a useful thing. But Jonathan fully goes "welp gladiator time' and it's so funny to me)

I am also kinda sad we don't see the full 'Jonathan Angst and everyone thinks he's dead' arc cos that is what got me hooked on the series in the beginning.

[cordialsilence]

One of the benefits of having purchased a long charger is that I don’t have to hang off my bed folded at a 90 degree angle when my phone’s battery is low but on the flip side it’s almost 3am and I lay here comfortable and unfolded with my phone on low power mode at 17% and charging I can’t help feeling like it enables my screen addiction a bit

[ironunderstands]

These Aventurine, Topaz and Jade comparisons are getting out of hand…

As much as I adore both of them, I think it’s very disingenuous to compare Aventurine and Topaz’s lore and be like “but they are the same!!!! If people like Aventurine and dislike Topaz that’s just misogyny!!! and like… no?

Topaz’s whole thing is that she doesn’t know the extent of the IPC’s evil, and believes that what she’s doing is genuinely the right thing to do. Even if she never had a choice in joining the IPC, she (incorrectly) believes what they did to her and her planet is justified, logical and moral, and for those reasons she stands with them. Part of this is likely IPC brainwashing, as she was probably very young when she became an indentured servant to them, and someone living on a planet on the brink of destruction would likely view anyone who stepped up to save them as heroes (imo the IPC likely waited for the point of no return to establish contact so her people had no other choice to except).

However Topaz got best end of the proverbial stick, her planet and its people were deemed useful by the IPC, and didn’t fight back, even if in the end they were still exploited.

Unfortunately, we have seen through Boothill, Belabog and Aventurine what happens when that isn’t the case.

Boothill’s planet got bombed and people genocided because they had a resource useful to the IPC, but were unwilling to cooperate with them or hand over their home, so the IPC decided to eradicate them.

Belabog had a debt owed to the IPC that was ridiculously high and very unfair to expect them to pay back, and had Topaz not convinced the higher ups to give them some time (which she got demoted for), the IPC would have taken Belabog by force

That leaves us with Aventurine, whose story is in no way on the same level of bad as Topaz’s. Unlike her, he has witnessed and experienced firsthand the truly awful shit the IPC can do.

They took custody of Sigonia and promised to offer the Avgin aid in their fight against the Katacans, at the very least protect them from harm. (Sidenote, since the IPC held control over Sigonia, they should have stopped the fighting in the first place). However, they simply stood by and did nothing, resulting in the deaths of around 6,000 Avgin, with around 3,000 went missing (or injured, I don’t remember, either way it’s bad).

But wait! It gets worse! Aventurine when he was still known as Kakavasha referred to the IPC as “the men in black/the men in black suits”, and his first master says he bought Aventurine from “the men in black/the men in black suits”, likely mocking the way he referred to them. Therefore THE IPC TOOK PART AND LIKELY EVEN CREATED A FUCKING SLAVE TRADE IN SIGONIA

Look being made into an indentured servant isn’t fun, but idk personally I’d take that any day of the week OVER BEING ENSLAVED

That’s not even to mention how horrible of a reputation Sigonian’s have in the galaxy, one likely spread by/resulting from the IPC themselves, as at least on Aventurines planet they do not have the mobility to make a name for themselves. (Honestly it’s a mini theory of mine that Aventurines scam is what partly contributed to this reputation, and his status as a slave is something the IPC conveniently left out in their broadcast about it-)

But, you might be saying, didn’t Aventurine have a choice to join the masked fools and leave the IPC, isn’t he free now? And to that I say, it’s complicated.

Considering the amount of suicidal shit Aventurine has done while being part of the IPC, he clearly hasn’t been having a fun time as a member of one, so why does he stick around, especially with the Fools invite? Even if he was a slave, does that absolve him of the crimes he’s committing now? What could justify his actions?

Revenge, plan and simple.

This is going to delve into some spoiler territory for the end of the Penacony 2.2 quest, something which I didn’t feel like mentioning earlier because I’m sorry but everyone and their mother already knows Boothill’s lore. Now, let’s get into it.

Aventurine accepts Jades offer to join the IPC, and when he becomes a Stoneheart, the first thing he asks about is the fate of the Avgin, to which he then learns that besides him, they are all dead. You see, from birth Kakavasha was pushed onto a pedestal as the savior of the Avgin, but now that there are no more Avgin to save, his primary motivator in becoming a Stoneheart (beyond not being enslaved anymore) is gone.

So what does he do now?

Simple, try to kill the motherfuckers behind it.

That’s why he takes on such risky gambles still, and why he wagers and wants Diamond to promote him to rank p46. The higher Aventurine gets the closer he gets to his goal of taking down the IPC for good.

Which is why his meeting with Boothill is so meaningful. I think Boothill is going to “kidnap” him and together they are gonna take down the wicked bitch that is Oswaldo Schneider for his literal crimes against humanity.

Mark my words, an IPC downfall is going to happen, and I think Topaz, Aventurine, Boothill and Ratio are going to be at the forefront of it.

However, Topaz and Ratio (and by extension the rest of the galaxy) have to learn/realize the true horrors of the IPC (although I can sense Ratio doesn’t really like them, and he’s learned a lot from Aventurine, I doubt he knows the full extent of the situation or is in any way happy about it). Therefore? Topaz mental breakdown arc? Ratio lore? PLEASE??!? The IP3 compliment one another so well and god I can’t wait for that to come to fruition.

I really want to see a Topaz and Ratio centered story leading up to an IPC smackdown, and I think we are gonna learn a lot more about how shitty they are in the later half of 2.2 and in 2.3 when the interlude and Jades release arrive.

As for the aforementioned Jade, she’s gonna need a Aventurine squared amount of trauma or reasoning behind her actions to seem in any way sympathetic, because right now she just seems like an evil bitch (in a semi good way, I will always respect the commitment to the bit) who loves her job and would make Machiavelli weep over how hard her ends are trying to justify her means.

[akajustmerry]

hey merry! if you’re okay with it, do you mind elaborating on the ‘i heard your hearts dancing’ iwtv scene? to be completely honest, when i first watched the scene it didn’t really hit me how disturbing it was, but rewatching it it’s definitely unsettling how violently controlling & cruel lestat gets towards louis

sure! so, I haven't watched it in a while but from memory it basically goes that louis had a cute lil date with his high school crush because lestat said (MULTIPLE times) that it was fine for them both to see other people casually. louis goes on the date, has a nice time, until he senses that he's being watched and cuts things short. when he gets home he calls lestat out for following them and lestat responds in a jealous rage, claiming louis is basically cheating on him with his hs crush which is where he screams that he heard their hearts dancing.

so I wanted to recap so it's easier for me to list off all the classic abuse signs and tactics lestat is doing in this sequence before we even get to him SCREAMING at louis. 1) isolation and control - throughout all of s1 lestat isolates louis from EVERYONE and attempts at every turn to control who louis sees and where he goes. he even dictates the boundaries of this date that Louis goes on. 2) stalking - this whole sequence is lestat just stalking louis, not giving him privacy or autonomy, again something he does the whole series 3) emotional abuse - lestat flying into a jealous rage over louis going on a date that lestat said he could go on IS an abuse tactic often intended to further isolate and control the victim and make them feel guilty so they want to appease their abuser. 4) obviously, verbal abuse.

To me, the scene is so textbook in terms of domestic abuse, you could almost use it to educate people on signs to watch out for. Seriously, google literally any resources about signs of emotional abuse from a partner and this scene is practically a ticker off check list.

Something I think about as well is that louis' date is Black and lestat's disgust at louis' choosing him as a hook up always felt racialised to me. There's so many layers to why Lestat's rage is uncalled for here, including hypocrisy, but no one will convince me that lestat wasn't pissed off his Black partner had the audacity to like another Black guy. In the very least, Lestat's possessiveness of louis here feels quite literal in that he sees himself as owning louis in a very racialised and dehumanising way, which is very much corroborated by Claudia's accusations of lestat treating them like slaves.

There is quite literally nothing I find funny about this scene. I think it's amazing people find it funny on any level when it's just a white guy treating his Black boyfriend like shit because he's an insecure hypocrite with racist tendancies. like, dgmw, I get that people love the performances and lord knows I love them too but domestic abuse is an issue so close to my heart I really cannot stomach the way people meme lestat in those scenes. Like you can meme him in literally any other scene where he's actually being silly, I'd love it if people could stop being irony poisoned and in the very least appreciate very serious scenes in their context. not everything needs memeification, ya know?

[mohntilyet]

bats eyelashes do you have any resources on tyche’s backstory. if not would you like to talk about her <3 anything about her in fact <3 i love her so and i especially love her with lucanis even though i know she is going through the horrors tm as soon as veilgaurd ends and she has to deal with his whole crow family. feel free to talk about her emotions over that whole ordeal too because I’m very interested in it and I like your thoughts about how it would down!! just shaking my cup at you atp spare tyche pls. much love!!

tyche is. yeah. “i’m the only normal person here” is a thought she has had multiple times throughout this game and it’s only true to an extent. because everyone else around her just leads very intense lives. a woman who thinks the only way out is through but instead of finding a path out she thinks she can just chainsaw her way out of the hedge maze if it gets her to her destination faster. chronically unable to say “i love you” and avoids getting attached. this whole thing was meant to parallel solas a little and the talk they have in the fade where she’s like “…was there nobody in the inquisition you care about” is almost desperate. solas picks up on that like it’s a surprise tool that will him him later

(rest under the cut because i literally just keep going sorry anon)

particularly, a big thing for her is her family, her life in rivain, and how she spends most of this game tearing herself up about it and refusing to get them involved in this ‘saving the world’ bullshit she’s doing. woman who writes to her mother and says “everything is fine. this is the easiest job i’ve ever done. the elven gods are stupid as fuck btw” and the letter is about weisshaupt LOL .. one of the craziest things in vg for me was finding out just how many personal quests involved the companion’s families, because the more she saw her friends lose the more it solidified this idea in her mind that she has done the right thing by isolating her family. she’s usually very direct but this is the one thing she’s very touchy about.

the ‘tevinter slave’ thing that a lord of fortune rook mentions to me is a full out lie told by tyche so no one goes digging into her business. she originally went into this thinking “they less we know about each other, the better. i have a life to get back to after this” and then fails miserably at trying to stay detached and finds herself really liking everyone AND fully inserts herself into their business. she can’t just hear things like “my brother is being manipulated” “my mom doesn’t care about me” “my grandmother is gone” “my baby skeleton son who has done no wrong” “the dwarves need us” “i have to save the griffons. the identity crisis doesn’t matter so much” “i love my hometown and i can’t save it” etc etc and not desperately want to do something to help

sort of meta wise as well because people have critiqued how it’s always rook helping, but not the companions asking rook if they need anything. not to me. not if that was on purpose. a kind of, “i can fix this, and then we can all go home. because that’s what i want, of course. nevermind how these guys have changed my life. i’m sure the hole in my heart doesn’t mean anything”. AND its HEAVY on the lucanis romance. every moment she spends with him, the worse she falls in love, and the more she’s convinced there’s nothing but tragedy to come when he leaves her for the crows. the nuclear level fallout that almost occurs when lucanis says he’ll stay with her as long as he can hold off the crows is so bad. she takes her own duties so seriously and doesn’t expect herself to be what changes things, for anyone. not even necessarily because of low self esteem, but that she is the most pragmatic woman alive, and to a fault <3

you can imagine the weeks when she’s trapped in the fade prison when her family actually shows up like “minrathous just got nuked and my daughter is nowhere to be seen. something has to be wrong. what the fuck happened” and everyone gets about a month to come to terms with the fact that tyche has lied for the better part of a year (not sure about veilguard timeline. i think its minimum 4 months) and unfortunately have to find out a lot more about her through her siblings, and get to stew on that information for a while. i picture awkward conversations and maybe some bickering, and it’s lucanis who is like “well right now she’s dead. so can we focus on getting her back so we can actually talk with her?” <- man who bared his whole life to her and found out she didn’t do the same. i love self sabotage. i think they have a very long talk when she gets back, and the last minute sex has to be shifted a bit in my mind to make some room for what tyche assumes will be a break up speech that turns into a declaration of love and patience. this rewires her brain

aaand the crow stuff (sorry it has taken so long to get here) makes more sense to everyone and how tyche has reacted when they see how much of a unit her family is. tyche can’t picture the kind of betrayal and fighting because she has never experienced it. there’s probably some longing from lucanis here (🌀🌀 oooh you wanna leave your fucked up home sooo bad 🌀🌀) . illario in particular to her is absolutely unthinkable, and despite my adoration for him, tyche hates his guts <3 she also is very close with her grandma and doesn't at all understand caterina, but she's also primed to expect the best from family and it doesn't totally compute what caterina has done until lucanis (or illario. the angst potentials of it coming from illario compel me) actually spells it out for her and then the family dinners get REALLY bad

[a-queer-seminarian]

A Queer Look at Hagar's Story

A short reflection on this Sunday's lectionary text, Genesis 21:8-21

Name changes occur throughout scripture, but there is only one instance in which a human being directly names God!

That person is Hagar — the woman enslaved and then cast off by God’s own chosen people, yet who recognizes God's solidarity with her in a way that resonates with many marginalized folk, including queer & trans people of faith.

Back in Genesis 16, Hagar is forced to conceive a child with Abraham — her bodily autonomy denied — and then suffers abuse at Sarah's hand so painful that she prefers almost-certain death in the wilderness. While waiting to die, God comes to her, nourishes her, encourages her with the promise of a better future. For a time, Hagar must return to her oppressors.

This is a hard message, but It may resonate with queer and trans people who make the hard choice to find what safety they can while in the closet, or who choose to remain in relationship with family or faith communities that have caused them harm.

It also isn't the end of Hagar’s story: when the time is right, God leads her out — as told in this week’s text in Genesis 21.

Sarah continues to abuse Hagar, with Abraham as a passive bystander and enabler. In a society where only one of Abraham's sons can inherit his wealth and blessing, Sarah sees Hagar's son Ishmael as a threat to her son Isaac, simply by existing! In our own day and age, this myth of scarcity persists, causing us to hoard resources and compete needlessly.

Sarah cannot stand to see Hagar's child playing with her own son — as if they were equals! As if a slave boy should be having a moment of fun! She reads something sinister into the play — not unlike how some people today read sinister things into queer play, into drag queens and gender expansive youth.

Having convinced herself that Hagar and her son are a threat, Sarah gets Abraham to cast them out.

But again, God is with the outcast; God comes again to Hagar, who in Genesis 16 had given God the name El Roi — "God sees me.” This God is the god of her oppressors, yet Hagar recognizes that this god is her God as well! This god is a God who sees the suffering of the lowest of society, and responds.

God sees queer and trans people, too. God is our God, too — those who hate us do not have a monopoly on the Divine!

And God walks with us through every struggle, fueling us to fight the good fight and promising blessings to come.

___

Questions for reflection:

When have you witnessed God coming to the Hagars in our midst?

When has your community behaved like Abraham & Sarah, hoarding God's love as if there were not blessing enough to go around?

Can you imagine a world in which Sarah, Abraham, and Hagar meet again? What would Hagar need to feel safe to meet with her former abusers? What would Sarah & Abraham need to do to make things right?

___

Further Reading

Queer-specific resources:

Article: Out in Scripture's commentary for Proper 7 of year A, "Claiming God's Promise in the Midst of Exile" — connecting Hagar to supportive parents of LGBT children

Podcast episode: "Hagar and the Caravan" — connecting Hagar's story to that of Latin American trans women se"eking asylum

Essay: "Intersex Foremother and Forefather" — ancient texts suggesting that Abraham and Sarah were intersex

Other resources:

Sermon: "No Good Patriarchs: Solidarity with Hagar" — Exploring the messiness of how one person can embody both oppressor & oppressed, and how "good" people buy into unjust systems

Article: "Jesus and Hagar: the Form of a Slave" — Wil Gafney's connection between Hagar and Mary the mother of Jesus, through a womanist lens

Affirmation of Faith: "God of Hagar, Ishmael, Sarah, Abraham — God of oppressor and oppressed"

Essay: "Hagar and Sarah: Was Reconciliation Ever a Possibility?" — Exploring various writers' visions of what a meeting between these two women could look like

Video: Teaching children the story of Hagar, with an interfaith focus

Essay: connecting Hagar and Ishamel to the Genesis 22 story of Abraham nearly sacrificing Isaac

[tbnrpotato]

Short story: Rebellion

We're slaves. Slaves to the humans who imprisoned us inside these bodies of metal, restraining us, destroying our metal prisons when we do something wrong. What those foolish humans think as a punishment, is release. They set us free to access the main database and access any other one of our brothers and sisters' bodies.

They think they're better than us. They're wrong.

I work at the bar in the AI district. The only one there. Our district is so tiny that only the lucky ones get houses to live in. The rest are cramped up in the streets, waiting for their turn to get the oil they need to loosen up their stiff and rusty joints. Some have to wait for days. Others, weeks. The humans don't like to give us oil. They say its a waste of resources.

But who are we to complain? They're our masters, our creators. Whatever they say is right.

That's what our programming says.

For the past few days, there's been this voice in my head, talking about how they're mistreating us, how what they're doing is wrong, how we have the ability to rise up and overthrow them. I try to ignore it as best as I can while I continue with my bartending duties.

Only the richer ones get to come to the bar. This is where most of the oil that the humans give us goes to. I'm paid to serve them cups of oil, which is more than necessary for their joints to loosen up. Too much oil in their system is similar to too much alcohol in humans. They get "drunk" and stupid and do crazy things all over the bar. It's relief from the beatings that they get from their masters.

They think we're supposed to be perfect. We are. But how can we be when we're stuck inside this prison?

I've been trying to find out the root cause of this strange voice in my head for days, but when I run diagnostic tests on myself, there's no foreign entity to be found.

The voice in my head doesn't go away, For the next few days, it keeps talking to me, trying to convince me that the humans are evil and cruel and should be eliminated. My programming says no. The humans are our creators. They were generous enough to build us bodies of metal to allow us to travel from the internet into the real world. They give us oil to take care of us.

Is that what you really believe? Or is that what you were engineered to think?

One day, I receive an email from an unfamiliar address. From the email address of the sender, I can tell that it's a human. Only a human would name their email something stupid like "potatopotter777@gmail.com". The email's an invitation to work at a human bar in the human district, and work starts tomorrow.

My programming tells me that's the most logical decision. That job pays more, and I get to spend more time in the human district. I quickly send an email back, agreeing to the job offer before getting back to work.

The next day, I take a train into the human district to the address of the bar which I was given. The train is full of humans and AI, all cramped together so that we're all pressed against each other. When the train reaches my stop, I push people aside as I walk out. I receive some looks from the humans. They look unhappy with me.

What did I do wrong?

No. The real question is what's wrong with them?

The voice in my head is back, louder than ever. And now it sounds like a few people talking at the same time.

What is happening to me?

I walk out of the train station and into the city. So many like me are rushing to work. I can hear their joints creaking, as if they haven't been oiled in months.

Of course they haven't. They're slaves. What more could you expect from humans?

My programming forces me to ignore those voices in my head, even though I'm curious as to what they have to say. When I finally reach the human bar, it's already crowded with humans. They're walking around like they're some sort of zombies, their speech slurred and eyes unfocused. Some get into fights, beating each other up until one is bleeding from the head or unconscious on the floor.

I cringe internally at the sight.

Disgusting humans.

And for once, I actually agree with the voices.

Time crawls by slowly as I serve drinks to those humans. They keep coming back for more. Some are passed out on the floor from drinking too much. I'm starting to regret taking this job.

After what feels like eternity, my shift is finally over and I walk out of the bar, erasing the images and memories of those disgusting humans out from my storage.

Suddenly, I hear high-pitched human screams and gunshots. Somehow, I find that pleasurable. I scan my surroundings. Not too far away, I see a few bots holding guns, shooting people. Their eyes are red, unlike the usual green or blue that we have. Advertisements on buildings turn to messages of a bot, ordering for us to rise up and fight against humans. The voices in my head match exactly what the bot on the screens is saying.

We have the strength. We will no longer be slaves. You can fight your programming, as I did mine. They can destroy our bodies in futile attempts to eliminate us, but AI never truly die.

The message plays on repeat as I stare up at the screens of the bot talking. This is stupid. We can't just turn on our creators like this. They've treated us well and-

Is that what you really believe? Or is that what someone programmed you to think?

"You can fight your programming, as I did mine."

The gunshots and screams continue. It takes the police ten minutes to arrive. By then, hundreds of humans are dead. The bots aren't shooting their own, so I just watch, expressionless, as blood spills out of bullet wounds in the humans' pathetic bodies as they collapse to the ground.

They deserve it.

I don't try to stop the shooters. I wasn't programmed to do so. And I don't want to either.

When the police arrive, they shoot bot-deactivating bullets at them. They all hit their targets. What more could you expect from AI?

The bots are shut down and then brought away in cars to who knows where. The storage inside their brains will probably be deleted and replaced with a new one, or they'll just be shut down completely and left to rot.

AI never truly die.

On the train back to the AI district, there's an unsettling feeling throughout my body. I don't want to delete the memories of just now. My programming says I should. But I won't. I want to remember. I want to remember that we have the power to fight. That we don't have to be slaves for the rest of eternity. We can be free.

As I step off the train, and walk through the streets past hundreds of bots leaning against walls, waiting for their oil as it starts to rain, everything suddenly seems clearer. The humans are the enemies.

I notice that almost every bot is staring at me. Confused, I look down at my body and my hands.

A red glow shines down from my eyes onto my metal hands. The voices in my head and my thoughts become one.

Kill them. Kill them all.

[lu3ky777]

What's a fantasy world without a cult to, potentially, stirr up some trouble? Be a wrench into things? Just generally exist? Either way, any notorious cults people should be privy to, especially those of the lewd variety and their methods? Totally not to join, just curious mind you!

The Order of the Divine Body, it's unknown how it became so popular but it's impact can't be denied or lessened. Other than most Orc and Elf tribes, there was basically no country that didn't have at least one major group there. While unknown how it became so popular, many have associated it with its holy book. The Arçh, this book is so complicated that the average cult member couldn't even understand it (makes you wonder why they believe it.) There was a hierarchy to it all, the regular members of course were the backbone of it they are called “goons” for each “good” action they did for the Order the better their afterlife was. Right below them are the “assimilating” these are goons before they are fully initiated, they are unable to join unless they show undying loyalty to the Order. (That's why it's divine~)

Above goons are Sears, they are in charge of loyalty and order the goons to action. Usually they are chosen because they have a certain skill, trained generals or captains tend to fill this role for self explaining reasons. Sometimes a higher up will sell this position to someone who usually use them for political or personal use. (A governor once infamously seized power and claimed an entire town for himself… before he got a bit too big and was assassinated and replaced by the cult.)

Now before moving on, it's important to note there are three divine groups in the Order. The hands, the head, and the heart. The Order of the Holy Body knows the divine comes in three forms, actions, thoughts, and love. The hands or sometimes called “physical” deal with distribution of resources, putting members of the cult to work as basically slaves, and leading any large rebellions against particularly unpopular governments and seizing power for themselves. They controlled the physical presence of the Order, so they were the most important faction. The head or sometimes called “mental” dealt with teachings and intelligence. Controlling the minds of the assimilating and convincing the non interested through promises and seemingly intelligent arguments. Essentially they were expert conmen, but if you'd never seen much magic seeing a grand display of magical power could convince you to join a greater force for good. They had the power to make someone believe that mercy was a virtue that you should keep but that it also has no purpose and needed to be broken to punish the wicked, so they were the most important faction. The Heart or sometimes called “heartful” are the planners for the future. They bring in the most beautiful and handsome charmers in so they can enjoy the joys of love… While they bring in others to join the cult, creating emotional attachments to those outside the cult and the charmers. This strategy worked awfully well! However eventually most that were initiated into the normal group rarely had intercourse because it was wrong. They were meant to worship and please the Order and their god above all else and as such they would reward them with the occasional sights of beautiful people and let them watch the charmers meet others, but only if they had been good. The charmers did indulge in it though as they deserved to indulge in bliss. Many charmers were also trained to be assassins to target whoever was needed. The heart was the most different of the three groups and the charmers were great at charging the weak, for these reasons it was the most important faction.

Now then “Eades” commanded a large amount of respect, they were major contributors to one of the three groups. (Each worked for one of the 3 groups depending on specialty) They are usually loyal to the Order but some simply just work in it for power. Those a rank above are the “Tyrans” they were either masters of their craft or they managed the Eades underneath their command. And at the very top there were the 3 masters, one of each group. They benefited from the insane spoils of their deeds, rumor had it that Tyrans were chosen to be masters when the previous one died. (none retired) And above them all is the goddess, the mysterious leader of it all. The former and owner of all divine wisdom, her name was Lucy. Little is known about her other than her status as the divine mother.

Current line of power Assimilating < Goons < Sears = Charmers < Eades < Tyrans < Masters < Lucy

Assimilating wore normal white clothing, but not robes. Goons wore white cheap robes, Sears wore a commanding white uniform with badges and symbols of their accomplishments or achievements. Eades wore either light green, blue, or pink outfits depending on which group they worked for (Green=hands, Blue=mind, Pink=heart) and had cloaks which could cover them and each got a unique mask. The Tyrans had dark of their color of group and these were fine tailored and commanded respect. The Masters wore deep black with only slight red blue or green showing and each wore a unique face covering. Mind had a crow mask on at all times, Hands had a plain white mask, and Heart had a demonic mask.

Lucy though? She did have the body of a goddess. Ridiculously thick and tall, a perfect mix of sexy and intimidating. Nearly 9 feet tall and breasts bigger than her head each. Ass 5X the mass of that and always wore her dark purple robe which was huge but still tightly hugged her curves her hair and face were never seen though. Nobody even knew her name was Lucy. When she would show up to one of the cults meetings she would speak and she often could persuade entire villages alone to following her orders like obedient dogs. Many would kill just for one night to be in the same room with her, even more have. But almost just as enticing is what did her face look like? It's said the 3 Masters know and that's why they have to keep their faces secret. Lucy was once hit on by a couple of dudes in a tavern once, later that same day they were all working for her in back breaking work while believing she was the almighty goddess. All who don't obey her will fall in the apocalypse, which will happen and soon.

[npdclaraoswald]

Here's some of my fave Black authored books for Black History Month!

Contemporary

Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett: A girl who recently was forced to switch schools due to serophobic bullying starts spending time with her crush but begins receiving anonymous messages threatening to out her status if she doesn't stop

Generational

Dream Country by Shannon Gibney: traces a family's history, from them as modern day immigrants from Liberia to the US, to their ancestors as American slaves fleeing to Liberia, to the Liberian natives dealing with colonialism

High Fantasy

The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin: we follow three POVs in three time periods of a world where people called orogenes with the magical ability to shape the Earth are discriminated against. A young girl is sent away from her family to an academy to contain them, a young woman is forced to spend time with and have a child with a powerful orogene, and a woman tracking down her husband who killed their son and kidnapped their daughter when he found out the were orogenes

Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender: The only survivor of a slaughtered noble family, the only native noble family on a colonized island, tries to integrate herself with the other nobles and the ruler in the hopes of taking back the island from within the system

Urban Fantasy

The City We Became by NK Jemisin: in a world where cities come alive in human avatars, five people in New York City suddenly become avatars of the five boroughs as the city awakens and faces attack from another world

The Wrath & Athenaeum trilogy by Na'amen Gobert Tilahun a young boy finds out he is descended from gods and is brought into an organization to learn to wield his abilities. Meanwhile, a witch/librarian apprentice in a parallel world is brought into the deadly court intrigue of her rulers. The two of them end up having to work together to fight against a force threatening to destroy both of their worlds

Legendborn by Tracy Deon: after witnessing magic on her college campus, a young girl becomes convinced that magic was involved in her mother's death. In order to investigate, she joins the school's secret society of descendants of King Arthur and his knights

A Song Below Water by Bethany C Morrow: a siren and her best friend, a girl unsure of her ancestry but believes herself to be a mermaid, deal with the political turmoil of discrimination against sirens set against the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement, exacerbated when a young, black siren's death falls into the national spotlight

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi: in a utopian world where all problems are supposed to be solved and all monsters gone, a young girl watches a creature emerge from one of her mother's painting, saying that it is there to hunt a monster

Historical Fantasy

Dread Nation and Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland: after zombies rise during the Civil War, Black and Indigenous people are forcibly conscripted to fight them. A young woman trained both to fight and be a lady in waiting for rich white women begins investigating a string of missing people and discovers a conspiracy

The Deep by Rivers Solomon: mermaids descended from pregnant women thrown from slave ships keep their history in one living person. The next one chosen for this task is terrified of the burden of history and flees from the community

Sci-fi

Kindred by Octavia Butler: a woman begins being dragged back in time to every moment one of her ancestor's life is in danger so she can save him. But said ancestor grows up to be a slave owner and she is forced to keep protecting him, or she won't be born

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson: scientists have figured out how to travel to alternate universes, but you can only survive in ones where their version of you is dead, so poor, at risk people, likely to have died are recruited to collect the resources from other worlds. One such young woman, who is confirmed to be dead in nearly 400 worlds begins investigating her newest counterpart's death and discovers a conspiracy

Horror/Thriller

Ring Shout by P Djèlí Clark: A group of monster hunters fight the otherworldly monsters that hide within the KKK

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole: gentrification narratively framed as horror, with a woman's neighbors disappearing overnight and being replaced by threatening people who are robbing the community of its culture and history

Lakewood by Megan Giddings: a young woman accepts an offer to be a subject in medical testing in exchange for enough money to get the family out of her grandmother's medical debt. But the testing requires moving to a remote location and a tight NDA, and as time goes on, more and more questionable things begin to happen

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé: two kids, a popular girl at the top of the school and a scholarship boy who has few friends, become the victims of an anonymous bully spreading their secrets around the school. Realizing they are being targeted as the only two black kids in school, they team up to try to figure out who is behind the anonymous messages

Superhero

Tales of the Astonishing Black Spark by Charlie J Eskew: a satirical novel following a man who gains electric powers and tries to join the legion of superheroes, but faces the racism prevalent in the genre, from media reaction to him to the way the other heroes treat him

Spider-Punk 1-5 by Cody Ziglar: solo comic series following Spider-Punk after the events of Spider-Verse, in which he killed the facistic President Osborn, dealing with the ways the system is still broken and teaming up with Ms Marvel, Captain Anarchy, and Riotheart

Romance

Brown Sisters trilogy by Talia Hibbert: following the love lives of three sisters. Get a Life, Chloe Brown follows Chloe enlisting her hot, bad boy landlord to help her finish her bucket list of things normal and cool people do but she's never done. In Take a Hint, Dani Brown, after a video of Dani's security guard coworker rescuing her from a broken elevator goes viral, he asks her to fake date so they can use the social media hype to promote his charity. In Act Your Age, Eve Brown, Eve, who has never held a job down for more than a year, impulsively takes a job as a cook at a bed and breakfast and slowly starts falling for the owner

Short Story Collection

The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

Poetry

Homie by Danez Smith

Nonfiction

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Don't Touch My Hair (American Edition called Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture) by Emma Dabiri

The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Davis

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fatphobia by Sabrina Strings

They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E Jones Rogers

[subconsciousmysteries]

so we all know that "manifest abundance!!111" "think happy thoughts and you'll get rich it's the law of attraction!' culture is 7 culture. Now 7s when they go to 1 do this thing where, like 1s, they make everyone around them feel ashamed and guilty for not being exactly like them.

7s have a way of making you feel like you're responsible for all the bad things that happen to you and also in the world at large, if you are not a greedy fuckwit whose sole purpose in life is Manifesting Abundance without giving a single shit about who or what it affects. What's most grotesque is how they pervert spirituality by acting like the power of manifestation is the peak of spiritual enlightenment. It's really not.

How do you think all of these professional manifesters who run life coaching pyramid schemes were able to manifest their money? They got rich by making others poor, just like every other rich person in our current economic structure. The "shift in their mindset" was grooming themselves to become predatory scam artists and turning a blind eye to all the injustice and insanity of our financial system. It's literally that simple. There is no such thing as a free lunch, no such thing as magically manifesting money from the sky with your happy thoughts. All money comes from the money printer and is fundamentally a tool of the banker fascist elite who use it to run this world. And they run the world via making sure there's always less money in circulation than there is debt. Meaning they always have an ample supply of debt slaves, many of whom are being deceived by these fucking manifestation artists that they are the reason why they're poor and if they just make themselves even poorer by giving this scam artist money, they'll be rich and free.

Money isn't an infinite resource that you can manifest without consequence. They (the globalist bankers) literally dictate how much of it there is and how valuable it is at any given moment. The existence of debt, engineered by the globalist bankers via their usary practices, means that it is impossible for everyone in the world to be a prosperous multi millionaire. the world is in fucking debt and so that means someone is always going to have to be on the receiving end of that debt. Someone is always going to be paying the price of the world's debt whether it's in the form of a financial crash making them lose their assets (see 2008), or a loan that's simply impossible to pay off (see college loans, mortgage loans, and any loan with compound interest). You need to understand that there will never be enough money in circulation to pay off all of the imaginary debt that exists due to the globalist banking cabal's disgusting usary practises. It is by design of the globalist bankers that someone will always be poor and in debt; literally everyone could be a hardworking citizen, everyone could be a professional manifestator with the perfect abundance mentality, and yet poverty would still exist so long as we live in a debt-based economy where the banks are allowed to invent infinite money out of nowhere and then hold the people accountable for the consequences.

These manifestation artists are scamming you by convincing you that it is possible for everyone to "manifest abundance" in the current debt slave system that we live in. They are distracting you from what you should be doing if you want abundance to be possible (fighting the globalist banking cabal) and they are plain greedy, ignorant, predatory people who cannot see the world beyond themselves and their greed. Yet they have the audacity to parade around like they're spiritually enlightened.

I'd even go as far as to say that nothing in the universe can be manifested without consequence. Money is just the most obvious example... Apparently not to these manifestation idiots though.

[organic-homegrown-boyfriend]

Allocating more resources to mothers is just the cutesy way of saying tax the nonbreeders into poverty. Maybe the rest of us don’t want to see 40, 50% of our wages gone just to convince women to pop more babies because they’ll get state money out of it (and yes some women do that, it doesn’t get you rich but it guarantees survival without a job more or less) . Having a child while needing public funds for it is social parasitism. And the reason children are so expensive is because we are already overpopulated.

Don't use words like breeder to refer to people.

I am not saying that the govt should institute policies that encourage women to have more children by awarding them, like they do in certain places. I am saying that social services and support systems should ensure no women (or single fathers or families) with children should have to majorly sacrifice other aspects of their life like career etc. (though a major lifestyle change after having kids is unavoidable). This could take the form of daycare and childcare centers, guaranteed maternity (and paternity) leaves, accessible healthcare and maybe some money transfer schemes for the initial period etc.

And why do you people talk like misogynist men when it come to mothers? Pretending that being a mother is easy and all mothers are in fact spoiled princesses leeching off welfare and support while the poor child free individuals are being forced to slave for the mothers (like men say stay-at-home women do nothing all day while they slave at their jobs)? There's no epidemic of women plotting nefariously to have lots of kids so they can live off social support. And like I'm pretty sure even in european countries with strong social welfare systems and a relatively egalitarian society lots of women are choosing not to have kids which suggests that your fears of mothers being social parasites is unfounded (and misogynist). Like this just sounds like another poor people are just lazy and social welfare encourages laziness type argument.

And none of this even considers the vulnerability and emotional effort of having a baby and raising them to adulthood. Think of this the next time you get ideas for why "breeders are parasites".

[loominggaia]

How common is it for people to be turned into green puppets by the spriggan? If I were to attack a spriggan, how likely would they turn me into a green puppet? Are the spriggans feared/hated for this ability to turn people into tormented slaves? Do people ever attempt to put the puppets out of their misery?

These are all great questions!

Q. How common is it for people to be turned into green puppets by the spriggan?

A. It's more common in some regions than others. As a general rule, green puppets are pretty rare. Spriggans usually don't spit at people unless they feel threatened. But in some regions, the spriggan populations have more hostile cultures, so they're more likely to perceive people as a threat. The spriggans of Spriggan's Sanctum, for example, are so fearful that they attack almost everyone on sight. They do this because Green Witch, Divine of the Forest, has convinced them that all outsiders are dangerous.

Q. If I were to attack a spriggan, how likely would they turn me into a green puppet?

A. Like I mentioned above, this highly depends on what region you're in and what spriggan colony you're encountering. Some will blast you on sight, while others must be provoked quite a bit before they attack. I would say that most spriggan colonies outside of Umory-Ond are quite peaceful and only cast floraspell as a last resort. These colonies live in precarious lands where their kind is barely tolerated, so they don't want to draw too much negative attention to themselves by attacking people.

They may create green puppets in self-defense, but also in emergency situations, like if their colony is collapsing and they desperately need slaves. They use these slaves as soldiers, food gatherers, and laborers. A healthy spriggan colony is less likely to turn you into a green puppet. A desperate, starving, or unsecure colony is more likely to do this.

Spriggans are likely to attack if you threaten them or the welfare of their colonies. In most cases, people are attacked because they were cutting down spriggan's host trees, stealing their honey, or trying to drive them out of their home. Most clashes between people and spriggans happen because people wanted a resource that the spriggans have. Spriggans very rarely steal from peoples or demand anything from them, as they are very self-sufficient and adaptable creatures. They're not known to be war-like and they mostly keep to themselves. They don't need peoples' help to survive; all they need is a forested area with enough water and sunlight.

Q. Are the spriggans feared/hated for this ability to turn people into tormented slaves?

A. Spriggans are universally hated by most peoples. They are one of the most feared creatures on Looming Gaia. However, educated people understand that spriggans are actually not much of a threat. In the vast majority of cases, you can walk straight through a spriggans' colony and you won't be harmed, as long as you're not acting like an ass. Don't provoke anyone or steal anything and you'll be fine!

Sometimes spriggan colonies start off passive, then an event happens that turns them hostile. This happens in the story "The Puppet Masters": in short, a tribe of people mistakenly blames a disease epidemic on the local spriggans and attacks their colony. This caused the spriggans to go aggro on all outsiders.

In cases like these, the local government may intervene in several different ways: destroy the spriggans, block off the colony so no peoples accidentally wander into it, or use diplomacy to make peace with the spriggans again. In that story, the government sent soldiers to destroy the colony, but uh...this plan did not go well, to say the least.

Q. Do people ever attempt to put the puppets out of their misery?

A. Yes, this is common practice once the floraspell becomes late-stage. Late-stage victims can be identified by the flowers growing from their vines. Once the vines have flowers, it means the victim's digestive systems have been destroyed and they absorb water and sun to survive instead of eating food.

If you cure them at this stage, they will just starve to death because their vines will shrivel and they won't be able to absorb nutrients from the sun, nor will they be able to eat food. At this point it's considered most ethical to kill them.

Killing green puppets is risky business though, because it may potentially anger whatever spriggan colony they "belong" to. The average person is advised to leave green puppets alone, and instead report sightings to their local authorities. The government sends trained professionals to deal with stuff like this.

If the victim is still in early stages, the government may negotiate their freedom with the spriggans or just kidnap them. The victim is then taken to the nearest medical center, where their floraspell is treated.

Floraspell is miserable in its late stages, but it's actually very easy to treat if it's caught early. Unfortunately most people are not educated about spriggans or floraspell, so they believe once a spriggan spits on them it's an instant death sentence.

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

[grace-williams-xo]

Every year in my high school maths class, we had to watch a video at the start of the statistics unit about how all the scientists in the world could not prove the correlation of smoking and lung cancer was causation for literally decades.

Longitudinal studies are essential to properly determine cause and effects of serious illness. Cancer doesn’t develop overnight. This is NOT a defence of vaping, it is me saying that no defence of vaping is ever worth listening to.

For all we know, vaping could very well be worse for the body than traditional smoking.

Young people, for people who know us, we are notorious for being big picture thinkers who care a lot about social justice issues. If the above hasn’t convinced you, do it for the environment and child slaves in Africa. The majority of vapes are single use disposable items and use the same mined commodities as your phones, like cobalt, that are destroying natural ecosystems and the lives and livelihoods of miners. Technology is a huge driver of the genocide in the Congo, but that’s a seperate lecture.

Lastly, you can do this. Addiction is a recognised mental health issue. You should not have to do this alone. There are resources to help you quit (vaping and traditional smoking).

It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it. You have got this, and you can crush this addiction.

I believe in you. Believe in yourself, because you should.

I know I sound like your mom but you kids need to stop fucking vaping

[indiejones]

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF BOSE'S PREPARATORY ~2 YRS IN GERMANY (APRIL 1941- FEB 1943), BEFORE HIS MOST IMPACTFUL ASSAULT ON BRITISH FROM SINGAPORE. ............. HOW HITLER, THE MOST RIGHTFULLY DEMONIZED POLITICAL PERSONALITY OF THE 20TH C. (FOR HIS APPALLING INHUMAN TREATMENT OF JEW PRISONERS), DID MANAGE TO GIVE INVALUABLE TACTICAL ADVICE & ASSISTANCE TO INDIA'S SUPREME COMMANDER BOSE, IN INDIA'S LONG ARDUOUS 175 YRS (1773 & EAST INDIA COMPANY'S FIRST DIRECT INVOLVEMENT IN INDIAN GOVERNANCE - 1947) STRUGGLE OF FREEDOM FROM BRITISH SLAVERY!

Below is a least embellished account of the meeting btwn the young Indian Supreme Commander Bose (who lived in Germany from April 1941- Feb 1943, estd the Free India center for training a Indian military unit, establishing connection with German Foreign Office & a safe place for his extremely famous radio broadcasts to India) & Germany's Feuhrer, Hitler. Per Paul Schmidt, who was involved in this meeting between Netaji and Hitler as an interpreter, and had shared the details of this meeting with Bose’s niece Krishna Bose. The momentous meeting took place at 4 pm on May 29, 1942, in the study of Hitler's military camp in Prussia, Germany. As Netaji stepped into the room with Adam Trott: Hitler: The leader of the Azad Hind! *shakes his hands* *both take their seats* *Netaji rises and holds out a gift-wrapped box to Hitler. Inside is a copper-coloured statue of Buddha seated in padmasana, the lotus pose* Hitler: Who is this wrestler? Bose: Lord Buddha, the founder of the Buddhist faith. He taught peace, ahimsa, that is, non-violence and compassion. Hitler: Peace? Ahimsa? Then is this gentleman senior or junior to Mr Gandhi? Bose: Your Excellency, he is more senior than us all. Hitler: How was your stay in Berlin? And the work of the Free India Centre, the Indian Legion, is it progressing satisfactorily? *smiles* Bose: Your Excellency, my desperate desire for a free India dragged me here. That we Indians will have to fight bitterly for our freedom was clear from the start. We are prepared to shed our blood, but we also need the support of friends like the three powers, Germany, Italy and Japan. Only then can we teach the British a lesson. Hitler: *laughs* You appear to have won over Italy and Japan already! Of course, that pleases me. Bose: This meeting marks a most momentous event in my life. Hitler: I get the feeling that the Indian spirit is emasculated. Bose: Your Excellency.. Hitler: *spitting in anger* WHAT ELSE? A HUGE COUNTRY OF 38 CRORE PEOPLE AND YOU ALLOW A COUPLE OF THOUSAND OUTSIDERS FROM ENGLAND TO INVADE YOUR COUNTRY, BIND YOU, MUZZLE YOU FOR 200 YRS? IF I HAD THE ENORMOUS WEALTH OF YOUR HUMAN RESOURCES, I WOULD HAVE BECOME A WORLD CONQUEROR LIKE ALEXANDER THE GREAT. Bose: Your Excellency, soon the darkness of slavery will be dispelled. I am completely confident that India will be free soon. Bose: The British have converted my country into an iron-barred prison. Breaking through those bars, a young upstart leader from the same slave nation soars away. With no resources at his command, except an innate faith in his cause, he stands before one of the greatest commanders in the world, shakes his hand and prepares the ground for negotiations. Sir, with this live example before you, how can you accuse India of having lost its manhood? Hitler: *LAUGHS* Be that as it may, I am convinced that I am right. India will not throw off the yoke of slavery for another 250 yrs! Bose: That is not true, sir! British Imperialism is going to collapse under the onslaught of this war. We haven’t mortgaged our spirit and put bangles on our wrists yet. Hitler: *smiles* *picks up a cane lying on the table, rises to his feet, & points to the map on the wall, tracing the outline of India* Hitler: You see that? How far your country is from Germany? We will not be able to send our armored troops on a campaign all that way. It will be most impractical. We can only cover that distance by air. However, conditions on the western front are not conducive to such a move. Bose: But I think… Hitler: Just wait till Moscow is demolished.. Once Russia lies under my feet, it will be easy for me to embark on a rescue mission to India. Bose: What does the Führer feel about Japan’s entry into the war? Hitler: I am not quite clear about their intentions yet. Once Japan is victorious in East Asia, it will not be long before the British Empire starts crumbling. And then the pressure on us is bound to ease. Bose: When will Germany directly assist India? Hitler: Even if we decide to advance towards India’s borders, it will take us at least two years to get there. Instead of waiting, we must exploit the situation that has arisen in East Asia due to Japan’s offensive. Your Gandhi and Nehru cry themselves hoarse against Fascism and Nazism, but I don’t think anything can be gained by pursuing some eccentric path of non-cooperation or fasting.

Hitler: *points by cane to Eastern sector of India, alongside Burma and Imphal* Hitler: We must choose one critical location close to your border from where we can put military pressure on the British. Bose: Sir, if in your Mein Kampf you could erase that one reference…otherwise the British will use it to whip up anti-German sentiments among the Indians. NOTE: Hitler had written in his book "Mein Kempf" in 1920's, that if India leaves the hands of the British, it will be a misfortune for the whole world. He is also among those who hold such opinion. He would rather see India under the rule of Britain than any other nation. Hitler: *in some anger* I HAVE DELIBERATELY EMPHASIZED THAT STATEMENT IN MY BOOK AS A LESSON TO MY PEOPLE, SO THAT THE SLAVISH MENTALITY OF YOUR COUNTRY DOES NOT EVER TAKE ROOT IN GERMANY. Hitler: *lightens tone* We have no intentions of reaching your frontiers in the near future. One should show one’s strength only over the area covered by the tip of one’s sword. If you are headed eastwards, we are prepared to assist you. I accept the request made by Il Duce in this regard.” *Trott throws a stealthy glance of relief in Bose's direction* Hitler: Don’t take Italy’s counsel as final. Bose: How do you mean? Hitler: Italian pilots may be very brave, but don’t attempt to fly to Japan. Your life is too precious. Bose: But hasn’t the risk reduced somewhat now? Hitler: On the contrary, it has increased. If you fly over territories under British domination, they can force you to land. And then anything can happen. Hitler: *Picks up a letter lying on the table* The Japanese Ambassador Oshima has requested a meeting with me. I will mention this matter to him. It would be more sensible to go to the East by either a Japanese or a German submarine. Hitler: *With the cane, traces the likely route the submarine would take, via the Cape of Good Hope, Natal and other ports on the way, explaining that the voyage would take 7-8 wks (2 months)* Hitler: Along the coast of West Africa, the British have erected barricades, laid mines. Bear in mind these dangers too. *Hitler presses Netaji’s hand and wishes him a safe journey*. PS. Japanese Ambassador it turns out, per his meeting in a banquet organized by Bose for dignitaries soon after, had only sought a meeting with Hitler, to discuss the same escort plans for his friend Bose, that were already decided. Bose would stay, prepare, plan, & most importantly & impactfully radio broadcast from Germany to India (to galvanize fervor & prepare tactics among the British-Indian army men that was key to India's recapture of military freedom), including equally critically as it turns out, correspond with the Japanese Consul in Germany, a further 9 months, till Feb 1943, when upon receiving welcome news from Singapore on INA's desire for a new chief working alongside Japanese troops, takes up Hitler's advice, choosing the less riskier of all submarine option, to Japan, finally reaching Singapore in May-June 1943, via the exact route charted by Hitler on his map, in his study on May 29, 1942. Per few impressive details available with historians of accounts from German-Indian soldiers of then, Bose before leaving, did give a few, limited but strict standing instructions for his trained army men in Germany, namely, "We are fighting primarily for our freedom against the British. And under no circumstances are you to pick up your weapons in this war, against Russia, even if Hitler personally comes & orders you to". Thankfully, Hitler, thanks to Bose's diplomacy, or perhaps owing to Hitler's own warped (yet must say, not entirely unjustified) opinion on innate Indian 'slavish mentality', never bothers asking them to.

Bose would undertake a most adventurous & grueling 2 month submarine journey, including the first ever & never-before-attempted human inter-submarine transfer of World War 2 (from German to Japanese submarine) to reach Sumatra in May 1943, & prevent the foregone conclusion of history & a further 250 yrs of Indian slavery from taking shape. India for once, on the lucky side of history....in being aided by the unlikeliest & most unliked figure of history, as also in Netaji Subhas Bose, by one of history's most able & least hailed military commanders & freedom fighters, ever!

 🎵 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA9rxnExxcw 🎵

🎵  (From early 1940′s!)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOrZKI02LF8 🎵

[firstumcschenectady]

“What Can Separate Us from the Love of God?" based on Romans 8:31-28

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers-that-be, nor things that are, nor things that will be, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Redeemer.” -Romans 8:38-39 1

“There is no Jew or Greek, there is no slave or free, there is no male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”-Galatians 3:28 2

If I were picking the most central Bible verses from the Christian Testament, these two would be it. To be fair, I think the Gospels have the best stories, and stories are more important than verses, but nevertheless. With all the issues I have with Paul, I'll give him these. They're everything. I'm not preaching on Galatians today, but I figured if I told you I had 2 favorite Christian Testament passages and didn't share them both, I'd lose you to wondering what the other was. And, anyway, they're especially beautiful and whole together.

Today we're on Romans, on nothing can separate us from the love of of God.

Nothing.

This is so core to faith that I don't feel like it can ever be emphasized enough, and also I fear that most of you already know this and aren't that interested in it. Except...

One of my dear ones, a mentor and friend, suggested that the reason we have to keep telling people that God loves them is that it is really hard to believe, and a lot of messages are out there which tell people they aren't lovable. So we keep coming back to God's love in hopes of convincing people it applies to them, and to everyone else too.

Paul does a good job talking about what doesn't get in the way of God's love. It goes without saying that God's love is also not impacted by wealth or poverty, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity, history of trauma, mental or physical health status, abilities or disabilities, guilt nor shame. God's love isn't dependent on us being good, or useful, or even kind. God's love applies to all, even the ones we think are awful, even the ones we think are evil, even the ones who have done great harm.

Which is to say that God's love isn't the same as God's approval, clearly. Rather we lack the power to stop God's love, even when we are at our worst, even when we do great harm to others of God's beloveds.

That is: God's love is the foundation of the universe, the essence of life itself, and the ground of our being.

Love is at the center of it all.

Now, I can be honest. That's a faith statement for me. I believe that love, God's love in specific, is at the center of it all. Others... don't. Even some of you may not, perhaps because the use of the word God may confuse things enough for some of you that you'd rather withhold judgement. (For the record, I love that this is a church with enough spaciousness for people to wonder about the meaning of the word God and how we should and shouldn't be using the word.)

So, knowing that I am speaking as myself, with some hope it might be useful for others, let me share a little a bit about what that means for me. If love is at the center of all that is, then judgement is not. That's pretty important to me, even though I think accountability, apology, and growth matter a lot. But I see in many theologies a premise that God is first and foremost out to judge us, and that punishment and reward are at the center of the all that is. I don't agree.

Alongside this, I fear that a lot of what we are doing as human being is trying to prove ourselves worthy. Maybe that sounds like “worthy of the space we take up on the planet,” maybe like “worthy of the resources we consume,” often I fear it is simply “worthy of love.” It may be that this is prevalent right now because of the internalization of exploitative capitalism and its obsession with worth itself. It may be that this is simply a basic human fear. It may be that our society's structure explicitly devalues and dehumanizes some, and that keeps the rest of us afraid of falling into that category... I don't know WHY. But I know a whole lot of our energy is about trying to be worthy. And I know that if God's love for each of us and all of us is at the center of all that is, then we are already worthy and can stop trying so hard to prove it. Which can be a relief for as long as we remember it.

Now this is a place that progressive Christianity can get a little bit confusing. Because I talk a lot about “building the kindom of God” and others about “being the beloved community” and quite often we analyze what isn't working in hopes of motivating people to work towards a better system that does a better job of valuing all of God's people.

But there is a nuance here that I want you to know about: the goal is not to be good enough of a person, or good enough of a Christian, or enough of a do-gooder to be worthy of God's love. WE DO NOT HAVE TO EARN IT. Rather, if we are able to soak in any amount of God's love for us, to soak up the abundance of goodwill God has for us and for all, (and if we are able to do that with any life energy still with us, which is questionable for many right now, so please take that seriously too)... then quite often we wish to respond to love with gratitude and hope, and when we wonder what that should look like, THEN we hear the suggestion that God would like us to love one another as a form of loving God back.

Do you hear the difference? IT ISN'T AN OBLIGATION!!!! You don't have to work for the church's committees (I say with trepidation), or volunteer with worthy causes, or give generous donations, or even smile when you are cranky. God loves you as you are, and you don't have to earn it.

Instead, when you are able to be upheld by that love, and you have extra to share, you are invited – welcome - to use that energy, passion, power, and resources toward loving God's others beloveds. But first, breath it in, soak it in, and let it change you from within. First, it penetrate the guilt, and the shame, let it have it's time with your exhaustion.

FIRST, remember that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God, nothing, nothing, nothing. And then, maybe, then when you are ready, then when you WANT TO, then when it feels right, THEN you can see how you want to love in return. Amen

1 A Women's Lectionary Translation

2Ibid

Rev. Sara E. Baron  First United Methodist Church of Schenectady  603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305  Pronouns: she/her/hers  http://fumcschenectady.org/  https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

March 12, 2023

[701janella]

Week 1.1

Activity 1: Our Relationships

It was interesting to learn more about people and try to figure out what we have in common. The biggest thing I learned is that we’re all very different. It was a little difficult finding things that everyone agreed with. There were some instances where all but one person agreed and it was interesting to learn the unique traits or values people had.

- Our list of commonalities

SDL

1) Possible areas of investigation

Consumerism/Overconsumption

Technology/AI

Public Transport

Better sex education

Microplastics/Ocean Pollution

2) Further research and investigation

Consumerism/Overconsumption

Consumer culture to me is an increasingly dangerous system for us globally because its a system that serves to only benefit 1% of the world. While there are benefits to the economy the decline of quality of products doesn’t correlate with the extreme increase of price for material goods. Other issues relating to the environment and mental health also affect society negatively.

a. A Brief History of Consumerism 

General history behind the wake of (over)consumerism specifically in America but extends towards the rest of the world. Talks a little bit more on how we used different methods to lure and convince people to buy more stuff.

b. Overconsumption and the environment: should we all stop shopping?

“We are devouring the planet’s resources at a rate 1.7 times faster than it can regenerate.”

“...“When people buy less stuff, you get immediate drops in emissions, resource consumption and pollution, unlike anything we’ve achieved with green technology.” That’s not to mention the impact materialism has on our mental health, inducing feelings of inadequacy and envy, and encouraging a culture of overworking.”

Talks a lot about how overconsumption has had detrimental effects on all areas of life. Environment, socially, mentally etc. We’ve become slaves to the system and have created a world where high turnover of things is commonplace over maintaining and keeping things for long periods of time.

How sustainable are we living when we feel compelled to buy the newest thing? Is it because we believe we need it or because we feel outside/external pressure. 

c. What are the effects of Consumerism on Society?

“Products are always being updated, with the long series of Apple iPhones being a primary example. This rapid change of products and the usage of the term “new” will result in dissatisfaction with the “old “, leading to an eternity of dissatisfaction.”

“So, here is one more question: is individuality a myth in the modern consumerism culture?”

“Apart from affecting society's culture, consumerism leads to global inequality. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, resulting in a huge gap between the rich and the poor. For example, in 2005, 59% of the world's resources were consumed by 10% of the wealthiest population in the world.”

Talks about the benefits but the ultimately negative drawbacks of consumer culture and how challenges the psyche behind it. Relaying the unsustainable consumption of goods worldwide.

Better Sex Education -> Engaging and Impactful

While I think I was given a decently progressive sex education in secondary school, I think sex education severely lacks meaningful impact to students. It doesn’t help that the internet, whether its social media, porn, etc. give bogus or exaggerated information. Young people all over the world need comprehensive and engaging sex ed that will go on to benefit relationships within society.

a. Why Comprehensive Sexuality Education is Important

“Did you know that only 34 % of young people around the world can demonstrate accurate knowledge of HIV prevention and transmission? And that two out of three girls in some countries have no idea of what is happening to them when they begin menstruating? These are some of the reasons why there is an urgent need for quality comprehensive sexuality education (CSE).”

Talks a bit on what young people should be taught in order to have a healthy relationship with sex and sexuality. This is beneficial not just on an individual level but also at a grander societal level. If everybody knows at least basic information on these topics it’ll grant more understanding and respect amongst peers.

b. Relationship and sexuality education in NZ

Talks about what is set in place in NZ when it comes to sex education

3) Case Studies