#the religious conflict

[maipareshaan]

Damn i finished a book after years

[cy-lindric]

Absolutely fed & cared for by all the Last Valois content in Serpent Queen season 2 so far

[tyrianludaship]

okay im kinda stupid but I don't think selfshipping with Judge Claude fucking Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame, is a good idea

[aventurineswife]

hear me out: sunday x reader, but when Sunday was Bronze Melodia and reader is someone who Gopher (and by extension, Sunday bc y’know grooming.) considers a sinner. Sunday finds himself falling for reader, but kinda mentally battling between love and what he was taught. aka religious trauma sunday ig (bonus points if he argues w gophers nasty ahh)

u can decide what to do with the rest :D just a lil concept i wanted to throw out

"Take me to church, I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies."

Summary: You are deemed as a "sinner" by the Oak Family, led by Gopher Wood, and is frequently summoned to the Dreamscape. Sunday, once a revered figure as Bronze Melodia, is tasked with guiding lost souls, but he begins to question the teachings he’s spent his life upholding. As he finds himself drawn to you, his inner battle between duty and newfound emotions intensifies. Torn between his role and the love he’s beginning to feel, Sunday faces a difficult choice—one that challenges the very core of his existence within the Oak Family.

Tags: Sunday x Reader, Religious Trauma, Forbidden Love, Angst, Slow Burn, Emotional Struggle, Conflicted Feelings.

Warnings: Religious themes (exploration of indoctrination and guilt), Emotional conflict (internal struggles, self-doubt, and identity crisis), Mentorship/Manipulation, Angst (heavy emotional tension and heartache), Mild violence(?).

In the Dreamscape, Sunday is Bronze Melodia—a revered figure among Penacony's people, tasked with guiding lost souls under the Oak Family's watchful eye. You've become his frequent visitor, someone Gopher Wood has labeled a “sinner,” a title that weighs heavily on your shoulders and darkens your interactions in the Dreamscape. Gopher’s sermons have painted you as a threat to the Order, yet there's something about you that draws Sunday closer, unsettling the foundations of everything he’s been taught.

It begins in quiet moments: Sunday, reserved yet diligent, listens as you confide your thoughts and fears. You sense his inner conflict in the way his hands tremble ever so slightly as they rest on the pages of his book, the way his gaze occasionally softens before hardening again. He's polite, distant as Bronze Melodia, yet there’s an undeniable pull between you—one that frightens and fascinates him.

One evening, when the weight of Gopher’s teachings grows too heavy, Sunday finds himself seeking solace in your presence. As you speak, he’s caught between his role and the truth that he feels stirring within. You challenge the ideals he's held all his life, quietly unraveling the bindings of his loyalty to Gopher’s ideals. But still, he’s torn. He’s been raised to believe you’re dangerous, yet your gentleness speaks louder than Gopher’s condemnations.

Sunday can’t help but wrestle with his emotions in moments of solitude, replaying your words and Gopher's warnings over and over. The idea that love and care could exist outside of the Order’s defined “purity” haunts him, conflicting with the strict doctrines he’s internalized. Finally, unable to stay silent, he confronts Gopher.

In a tense exchange, Sunday questions Gopher's labeling of you as a “sinner,” a term that has started to feel hollow in the face of what he feels for you. Gopher's response is calm but chilling, reminding Sunday of his place, of the Order that has made him who he is. Yet Sunday doesn’t back down entirely, holding onto the fragments of his love for you. In the end, Gopher leaves him with a choice—one that could seal his fate within the Oak Family or cast him out as an exile.

Sunday returns to you, conflicted but resolute. He confides in you, sharing the depth of his battle against the values ingrained in him. Your presence becomes a grounding force, something that feels like hope amidst his turmoil. While he’s not ready to completely turn away from the Dreamscape and the Oak Family, he begins to imagine a world where he can both honor his beliefs and explore the connection that has grown between you.

(Art credit to @oversaltedcat on Twitter/X)

[cxlandine]

the AUDACITY of kristen chilis applebees criticising wolfsong for not being serious enough - MA'AM YOU JUMPED FROM FABIAN'S ROOF ON A SHRIMP MOTORCYCLE INTO A POOL OF TARTAR SAUCE AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN MENTION THE RELIGION!!

[apollo18]

Concept: the justice league finds out that Blaze and Satanus, the rulers of hell, are kids of their ‘even more of a boy scout than Superman’ coworker’s “boss” and think Shazam is the Christian God. They ask Billy really vague questions that lead Billy into confusing them even more and they become convinced that Marvel’s Wizard guy is God with a capital G and Marvel’s either an angel or the second coming of Jesus.

Meanwhile Shazam doesn’t even know what the Bible is and his knowledge about religion is so outdated he still thinks Solomon’s Judaism is new age and not worth his time to research such a ‘fad’ religion, but he knows humans will make a religion out of anything as well as bastardize existing ones and very well could have mixed up actual tales that involve him, his allies, and his children into some sort of melting pot of a religion.

So when someone finally asks Marvel outright if his “boss” is God, Billy goes ‘wait… old guy in white robes and sandals, with long white hair and a beard… lives in space… aka the “heavens”, whose a ghost(Holy Spirit), and knows everything(historama)??? I need to dig deeper into this hold on guys’ and goes off to ask the wizard.

So when Billy asks the Wizard he just tells Billy “well, my boy, if so many things match up, maybe it is so and the tales of myself and my champions grew so estranged from their origins or mixed in with other beliefs that it can explain the things that aren’t true to our reality.”

Then The Canonical Character To The DC Universe, Jesus of Nazareth, shows up.

[queerprayers]

actually third base is saying the rosary in your partner's room while they shower

[feelingtheaster99]

I have had Bobby Dawn for approximately two minutes and I would already like to return him, please and thank you

[jewkbox]

Palestinians deserve better than Hamas.

But Trumpamzees and their orange puppet master don't seem to distinguish between Palestinians and Hamas, or Muslims and extremists.

[idontlikejazzsonowitsmyname]

There's this one ULTRAKILL fic where Gabriel (SPOILERS BTW) is at the end of his life and the machine tries to save him by feeding him.blood, and if works, but Gabriel's starts to change, cause the bloods from hell and bad.

But there's thus one scene where's in a church or an alternative I can't really remember, but he's in a holy house, and he's thinking about his father, and he says something along the lines of:

"I hope God sees how beautiful I've become without him and W H E E P S."

And I need to remember where I read it because I wanna give the author a big moost freshly chapsticked smooch for giving me a new life motto.

[an-eldritch-peredhel]

The Icon of Eönwë- TRSB Process Post

See the promo post here!

Above the cut is a relatively brief explanation of symbolism, design choices, and everything re: the text. Under the cut is the full (long) story of how I managed to create my magnum opus, + process pics!

Very early in my days as a Silm fan I read a silly summary of the Silmarillion and in the summary of the maiar I somehow completely misread it as saying Eönwë had indigo skin and my Eönwë has been blue ever since. The bird characteristics followed naturally from his service to Manwë, though I kept him fairly humanoid because I imagine as herald he interacts more with Incarnates than other Maiar.

His hair and the color of his wings mostly stemmed from my vague annoyance that he's rarely depicted in a "traditionally (religiously) angelic" way, so I gave him the features of the angels in my church. Floofy hair and golden brown-red-blue wings. The armor and clothing followed from this, with the bonus of the scale armor continuing the feather motif.

The ruby on the sword pommel is there because there was no other red in the composition besides the wings and it looked unbalanced. This icon was painted prior to the War of Wrath, so it isn't necessarily Manwë's sword that he uses during it.

The position his hand is in is a priest's blessing, though people in the @tolkienrsb discord mentioned it reminded them of Buddhist hand forms as well. Interpret it however you will within the meaning of "Peace be unto all".

The Sarati was deliberately chosen as the older form of writing, to be more traditional, and the words are Valarin as I think suits a religious artifact. The transcription reads:

Mayâz Manal Iȝônowêz (Maia-holy Eönwë -> Holy Maia Eönwë) Akesa Baradâš Mânawenûz-iyôz (Voice-raised/high Manwë-of -> High Voice [Herald] of Manwë)

It all started last March, when (instead of doing all the overdue assignments I should have been working on) I decided to draw Eönwë for no particular reason. I further decided that I was going to draw him in the style of Eastern Orthodox/Byzantine icons, because the style is unique, thematically relevant, and frankly very underutilized in fanart (I would soon learn why that is).

(I also found it funny to draw a character made by Tolkien- devoted Catholic- in the Orthodox style.)

I kinda-good-enough finished it over spring break, desperately ignoring the sword and the wings, and was reminded of the existence of TRSB. I wanted to participate, knew I wouldn't have the energy to write, and had no other art in a good enough state to submit. I've long wanted to explore the weirdness of religion in Arda, and this was the perfect opportunity.

The lovely @goschatewabn claimed my sketch and I was off! And then I wasn't.

I decided that there was no way to do my vision justice without painting it, that my cheap sketchbook would not hold up to that, and that I would rather stab myself than transfer the drawing to a canvas.

"Hmm" I thought, "Icons are traditionally painted on wood. Maybe I should get a piece of wood from the neighborhood workshop, cut out the sketch, and glue it on there to paint."

"That's a brilliant idea, me," I thought, "But what about the wings (which you haven't drawn) and the sword (which you haven't drawn)?"

"I'm in denial," I thought, "So please shut up. That's a problem for future me."

("Fuck you," thinks future me, repeatedly and with great vigor, ever increasing in wrath as I must spend ~20 hours sketching out and then painting the wings before I do anything I actually want to do because I need to glue Eönwë down over them.)

The wood is successfully found, cut to size (shout out my father for his help), sanded, and conditioned over the course of an afternoon. White acrylic paint and modpodge are obtained from the craft store (shout out my mother for going, I asked for gesso but they didn't have any), and the wood is generously modpodged to seal it because I didn't want to shell out the money for sealant.

See above for my suffering re: wings. I wanted to violently destroy every art supply in the house rather than go through sketching the individual feathers. I bravely restrained myself, and allowed myself the brief reprieve of figuring out how to do the halo.

Not wanting to buy gold acrylic paint, and with my metallic markers working poorly on the wood, I came to the solution of mixing mica powder (that my sister had in excess from her slime-making phase) mixed with modpodge. The result is very very golden and shiny and exactly what I was looking for, though it's difficult to get an even and smooth consistency.

"Hmm," I thought, as I cut out my sketch and glued it down, "maybe it would be a good idea to sketch out the sword now, before I start painting,"

"I'm in denial", I thought, "And besides, we just suffered through doing the wings. We deserve a little break. That's a problem for future me."

("Fuck you," thinks future me, repeatedly and with increasing desperation and devastation as I must sketch out a decent looking sword, fold it to cut it out to be symmetrical, and line it up with his hand so I can perfectly cut out a section of the handle, and the two pieces must then be glued on perfectly.")

It's now relevant to mention that traditionally, icons are painted dark to light. Symbolically this represents the triumph of good over sin, etc, but practically this is a key to the style, as the previous layers build up undertones and also allows for the signature shading style. It also takes much more work to build up a good color, even using fairly decent paint.

(What brand, you ask? Well it came in an art kit I got when I was like 15 and forgot about until the start of the summer. So no idea.)

Was it worth the work? Yes. The final piece looks cool as hell (Valinor?). Am I mad about it? Also yes.

Painting the individual scales of the armor was an exercise in patience and withstanding torture for extended periods of time. It was done over the course of three days, totaling around 10 hours. I mixed mica into the paints and then sealed it with a less intense mica-modpodge mixture, which is very difficult to appreciate in photo but looks fantastic irl.

The clothes were difficult because I had to work with a different style than I had been. Feathers are typically rendered in a more graphic style, as in my piece, and while hair is usually shaded more typically I found a few examples of this style, and the armor was similar. But now I had to do folds and actual shading, which is very difficult when you have a large area and very fast-drying acrylic. On the other hand, I was finally free of all the golds, browns, and yellows. I was so sick of them by then.

(The way I got around the fast-drying on the palette was by DIYing a wet palette. They're magical. You just stick wet paper towels in a tupperware and cover them with a layer or two of parchment paper (or wax paper in a pinch, although I poked some holes on the bottom layer because it's more water-resistant) and it will keep the paint wet for ages- even for a few weeks in my case with the lid on.)

It's at this point that progress halted because I had to pack for returning to college, and get a tattoo, and get horribly sick with a headcold, not in that order. My event partner was very patient with me, which I appreciate more than I can say. Once I was settled in to my new environment, though, I got right back to working

The skin was not extremely difficult to paint in and of itself (the shading and color mixing was fairly straightforward), but all the tiny, finicky details were very stress inducing. I used a teeny tiny nail art brush for details, and even that felt too big at some points (cough EARS AI VALAR THE EARS WERE SO HARD cough). Going around all the tiny feathers on the face and ears was an exercise in holding my breath and using every possible technique to steady my hands. Getting the hand right was also difficult, but fortunately they already look weird in the style, so it was just a matter of making them look weird in a deliberate-looking way.

Besides the text (and last-minute inclusion of the ruby in the pommel- I woke up and decided it needed the contrast) the eyes were the last thing I painted. It felt fitting. I poured my blood (achey back+hands+legs) sweat (I sanded the wood outside on a very hot afternoon) and tears (stress) into him, and in return on this 9"x13"x1/3" sheet of wood he came alive for me, and hopefully for you too. He isn't perfect, there are a few things that in retrospect I would've done differently, but he's the best I've got. I hope I did the High-Voice of Manwë justice.

[d00dle-buggy]

the girlie

[beanghostprincess]

I can't fight this feeling anymore

For (late) @sanusoweek || Day 7: Reunion (posting it late but posting it nevertheless!)

Relationship: Sanji/Usopp

Rating: General Audiences

Tags: Post-Enies Lobby Arc / Sanji-centric / Pining Sanji / Fluff / Reunions / Light Angst / Mutual Pining / Not Actually Unrequited Love / Teen Crush (Tagging as such bc this one gives awkward teenagers so much) / Awkward Crush / Internalized Homophobia / Nosebleed / Religious Conflict (Kind of??? Sanji's POV should be studied)

Words: 5,038

Summary:

Sanji needs to get his shit together. He knows he should. He is being childish. Maybe Sanji is just young. And stupid. And he is a teenager. And being nineteen makes him want and want and want things he should not crave or long for. Like guys. Like Usopp. So it will go away. He tells himself it will, with time. The boiling pot will stop burning and the air will come back to his lungs without needing to have Usopp near. He is back, though. And Sanji can breathe. Just not properly. Never properly when he is near enough to cut his breath away. But he can breathe. He has missed Usopp so much that his body reacts instinctively. Because Usopp is easy to love. Easy to miss. Easy to want. Easy to hold. So, so easy to hold, it seems.

Read on Ao3

More of my works!!

This fanfic was inspired by @the-orion-inexpirience's art for day 7!!

I tried to write a time travel thing but my brain just couldn't work??? Like at all?? And then I saw this masterpiece and the inspiration hit me so hard in the face I had to start writing!!!! So thank you Orion for this <333

[merrimentsmight]

Saw the ask for Cicero-themed prompts.

Wondering if you'd be interested in writing a Cicero x Listener, with a Cicero who hates the Listener but is to loyal to the Tenets to admit that to himself?

“Come here, my Cicero, my dear,” they say. They order. So condescending. My dear. My my mine my mine. Of course, though, it is true. He is theirs. He has made monuments of that truth in actions, in fluids, the shapes he writes, his own blood on their thighs. The way he kills on their order, sleeps on their order, breathes on their order. It is their prerogative. And in the same fashion they, who outstrips him in everything, who sups at the Night Mother’s dry husk of a breast, who could have killed him once and should have taken the chance when they had it, do not belong to Cicero. They belong to no one. Are accountable to no one. Least of all the poor Keeper. 

Sometimes he worries that the Dread Lord will become tired of it and strike them down. Other days he simply prays that their Father will see his loyalty and spare him that repercussion. Other days still he knows that he has fallen prey, and lost himself, and deserves everything coming to them and more. And then on each of those days he comes to his senses, and prays to be released from his own heretical thoughts. He reminds himself that he loves the Listener. He reminds himself so often. 

He rises from where he had knelt at their feet, follows their gestures, sits in their lap. They smell good; clean and like wind and autumn fruit. They kiss him and they taste of full, sweet wine, and they grip his side, and he moans. He could reach out now and strangle them. He could bash their skull against the stone wall until it busted open, their brain red and wet and soft like jam. He could sink inside of them and claw his way out; rip them open from the depths. He could he could he could he could. He could not! He would never. Mother chose them. After all. Out of all, out of anyone, Mother chose them. And they chose him. And that was. That was an honor. 

Is he lying? Is he lying to the Listener? To Mother? Oh no no. Oh no. Oh never. He would never. But when they run their hand through his hair he knows he's a pet. Feels what he has been reduced to. Knows that every moment he falls into it, enjoys it, the praise and attention, is a little lie he's telling to himself. He tries to fall into it anyway, enjoy it anyway. If this is what Sithis laid out for him he has no recourse but to obey. But each day the ties that bind him to the stone altar of devotion abrade against its unpolished edges. They grow thinner. They will snap. 

And what will loyal Cicero be then?

[kollapsar]

The Hanged Man

This tarot commission was an utter delight- challenging, rewarding, compelling, and vampiric! Thank you to crazycorgwyn on Tw/Insta for trusting me with Kyle and this delightful concept!

[static-martini]

If you have an explanation for your preference, I'd love to hear it! Either in tags or reblogs <3