#the brew so to speak

[lady-merian]

Maybe a Christian fiction writer just needs to tell the truth. Then tell a better truth.

[merakiui]

that is literally a lie right now. 🤨???

[saltycharacters]

[ID: Digital artwork featuring Shimazaki Ryou from Mob Psycho 100, with some cameos from Serizawa Katsuya and Reigen Arataka. First drawing has Shimazaki in a casual pose as he rests one hand on his hip and the other grasps his white cane. He's wearing a short pink dress with a leather jacket, heels, some pointy jewlery and leggings, smiling smugly. The next image is a rough comic following Shimazaki as he infiltrates Serizawa's home, the text above it stating "Headcanon: Shimazaki likes to teleport into Serizawa's house and steal his food bc he's too nice to stop him". The first panel shows Serizawa flicking the light on, asking in exasperated disbelief, "Shimazaki. Whya re you in my kitchen at 3 am" as Shimazaki casually responds with "Heeeey bud don't mind me just doing a late night food run". Next panel has Serizawa and Reigen sharing a couch as Shimazaki rumages through the kitchen in the background, the words "After Reigen moves in" written near the top. Reigen is facing the kitchen with a confused glare, angrily questioning, "WHY is he in our apartment" while Serizawa stares at the tv in tired acceptance as he responds with "Ignore him". Shimazaki, from the kitchen, inquires "Yo Serizawa did you change the location of the pretzels I can't find them", followed by "3rd cabinet to the left" from Serizawa and a "Thanks" from Shimazaki. End ID]

Shimazaki headcanons for the win

[anartisticalniche]

Bam! Critical Hit!

BR! SMG4 doesn't know how to respond to a flirty long haired Three, no matter what universe!

(BR! SMG3 is PISSED OFF that someone is distracting his waiter- not because he's jealous, nooo- and ACFB! SMG4 is just so disappointed in his partner he wants him to disappear in a plume of smoke eheh)

Brewing Romance belongs to @lizaluvsthis and @shygirl4991

A Corsair Freebooter belongs to me X3

[tethered-heartstrings]

I have 2 weeks off and I really really want to write. pray for me

[cryptidwren]

mouthwashing is gonna rot my brain, i swear. 😵‍💫

[shrikeseams]

A nasty, bitter sentiment that I know in my heart was common among the umanyar who knew Finwe, especially among the sindar:

Of course the man who forgot (abandoned) Elwe for the sparkling new allure of Aman would also forget (abandon) miriel for someone fresh and new like Indis. Would forget the dead and stolen of Cuivienen in favor of the political path of least resistance and invite Melkor into his city.

[supercantaloupe]

frozen bao are clutch when you need breakfast Now but don't want to cook

[kiyrian]

Me after playing Alan Wake II: yeah so I like Casey and I love Sam Lake but it's okay I guess

After seeing all the awesome art on this site: I feel physical need to create something for my favorite girl failure detective. My tired rotten soldier. My comfort character that turned out to be real and not like their creator very much (after all they aren't a character, they are real and even if they brought comfort who gave Alan the right to make their life a spectacle for the masses)

[general-gt]

I’d be so annoying as a borrower because I’m constantly dying my hair different colours and if anyone thinks being 4 inches tall would stop me, think again.

[sisterdivinium]

Finding "the meaning" to a show that could have had up to five or seven seasons but was cancelled after the second is somewhat like trying to understand a novel composed of seventy chapters by having read only twenty — there is a whole wealth of information which we do not possess that could alter our reading of any given element or of the entire thing in itself.

Still, there are always patterns that weave a story into a cohesive unit and they can help us to better grope in darkness towards comprehension. One such pattern in Warrior Nun appears to be how the consequences to mistakes, "sins" or evil deeds committed by characters manifest.

Basic storytelling usually requires characters to act on something so that complications or resolutions may arise from their choices and move the plot forwards. In Warrior Nun, many of these actions are quite tragic in nature: Suzanne's arrogance and pride lead to the death of her Mother Superion; Vincent's allegiance to the higher power he believed Adriel to be inspired him to kill Shannon; Ava's flight from the Cat's Cradle ends up damning Lilith as she is mortally wounded and taken away by a tarask... All of these events have negative outcomes and heavy repercussions on all characters directly or indirectly involved. Something changes permanently because of them, be it in the world around them or within the characters themselves.

And yet, it would seem that all of these dark deeds not only move the story forwards but might also have overall positive results. We would have had no protagonist without Ava — and she would arguably never have received the halo to begin with had she not been murdered. What's more, on a personal scale, the horrifying crime she suffers is, in the end, the very thing that allows her a second chance in life, a new life.

An act of outside evil permits Ava to grow and develop, shows her a path she would not otherwise have found. Without her own season in some sort of hell, Lilith would not have been able to advance towards other ways of being and understanding beyond her very strict limitations. Vincent and Suzanne would not have embarked on their own journeys of enlightenment without having caused the pain they are responsible for.

Beatrice might have been paying for someone else's mistakes, but she, too, is given the chance to grow into herself through it. The afflictions that torment these characters advance the overall plot, but they also advance them, as individuals, as long as they are willing to learn and keep going despite the calamities large and small that they are faced with. Beatrice keeps going after parental rejection, Mary keeps going after losing Shannon, Jillian keeps going after losing her son (in part through her own actions, adding insult to injury)... Trouble and the adaptation that follows it, if one is open enough to learn from the experience, motivates the characters, propels them forward, teaches them.

The problem of evil has occupied the minds of many a thinker throughout the ages, given how the very existence of it, evil, might call into question that of God (a good, omniscient, omnipotent one, anyway). A common way of justifying suffering (and also God), then, is by claiming, as Saint Augustine, that "God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist".

Now, it would be rather ridiculous to say of Warrior Nun that it follows in Leibniz's footsteps, also because this philosopher, expanding on the augustinian concept, attempted to defend the goodness of a real God with his "best of all possible worlds" while all we have is... Well, whatever/whoever Reya is.

But there seems to be an inclination towards some sort of optimism as a worldview nonetheless.

Betrayals reveal truth and grant knowledge (Vincent's culminates with the coming of Adriel, which allows us to know of the threat of a "Holy War" and thus prepare for it; Kristian's gives Jillian much needed insight, William's lights up the fuse for the fight to be taken more seriously...), crimes committed willingly or not open the way for Ava (Suzanne's killing of her Mother Superion causes the loss of the halo, which is transferred to Shannon, whose death opens the gates for Ava to walk through after being herself murdered by sister Frances)... The magnitude of these positive outcomes is perhaps not "balanced" when compared to the evil that brings them about, but there is still something to take out of the catastrophe.

However tragic the tones of a given event, the show itself appears to shun the predetermination that makes tragedy as a genre; if everything is connected, here it at least appears to not necessarily drag everyone into their horrible dooms.

What's more is that this lurking "optimism" matches really well with our own protagonist's personality.

And it makes perfect sense that Ava would do the best she could with whatever she is given.

Life for her, in the conditions she experienced after the accident, would have been unbearable without some sort of positive outlook on life. However deadpan, the joking and the "obscene gestures" and whatever other forms of goofing around beside Diego are a way of turning a portion of the situation in her own favour. Proverbial eggs have, after all, already been broken right and left — might as well make an omelette of whatever remains.

Humour is just another way of looking at the bright side of something, or, at the every least, of mitigating the utter horror it might bring. If the show allows for moments of lightness, if it lets us laugh, if it takes us through a perilous voyage which still bears ripe, succulent fruit instead of the rot of pessimism and its necessary contempt for humanity, it is because Ava herself sees things in this way. It isn't gratuitous or naïve in this case, but a true survival strategy, especially as it is confronted with the morbidity of Catholicism.

Here is a religion that soothes its faithful with the promise of reward in the afterlife — how else does one charge into battle against the unknown, risking one's own death along with that of one's sisters, without the balm of believing that we shall all meet again eventually, "in this life or the next"? How else does one come to terms with the ugliness and the pain of this existence if not by looking forward to a paradise perfect enough to make all trials and tribulations here worth it?

True nihilism would have annihilated Ava. Her present perspective is what avoided the abyss.

And there is nothing Panglossian to her attitude or what the show might imply by giving us her view on things. This isn't about "the best of all possible worlds", but of making the best of whatever situation we're in, of taking what we have and doing something with it, something good, something of ourselves. It isn't God making good out of evil, but our choices.

Killing innocent people and feeling no remorse will never be the best someone can aspire to do. Sister Frances, cardinal William, Adriel all learn this the hard way.

Those who do their best find that, somehow, they can move on from whatever it was that paralysed them. Ava, most of all, knows what it is to be stuck, frozen in place; she can never be the character who refuses to grow, even through pain, lest she condemns her spirit to the same fate her body is all too familiarised with. Those around her wise enough to let themselves be touched by her, by the dynamic power she carries, walk forth with her and live.

It says very little about "God" that Warrior Nun should adopt its heroine's views and seem "optimistic" as it progresses — but it speaks volumes about the values it presents for pondering, of the inspiration its protagonists provide, and of the multiple reasons why this is a story unlike most others.

[emo-hermit]

Emo RD Rambles 3: Patient Playlist

Welcome back to Emo Cannot Write For Shit So You All Get His Rambles. With an additional thing at the end winkwink. This is really really long so let's get cracking.

Today's concept: Ian and Ada approach the idea of creating a Patient Radio - a playlist made of the long term patient's favourites songs to 'maximise comfort'.

As a beta for the Radio, they leave a sheet of paper in the connecting hallway for patients to list suggestions of their preferred music, around three or four songs maximum. Some already have ideas in mind, while others struggle.

This is just a silly idea I had when wondering what type of music the main RD cast listens to; excluding the songs they're actually involved in. This also created some funny writing prompts that I may use for a small comedic anthology. For example:

Hailey is the first person to write anything down: and she's pretty basic (sorry). Her style is very mainstream, involving those pop songs you'd hear on the radio. From there, a few folks follow, with varying genres and tastes. The next day, however, more folks have added some ideas, including Logan. You can tell Logan has visited - because there is now a messy heart drawn next to Hailey's suggestions.

Also, Logan suggests similar stuff to Hailey, with the addition of maybe an anime opening or two.

Cole... suggests his own music. For the sake of both his ego, and the declining state of the patients, he's given a stern 'no'. Of course, it's Cole, so he angrily scribbles out his suggestions and leaves the paper be. He's surprised when 'Unreachable' comes on via the Patient Radio - and, sure enough, someone's written it down past his scribbling. More specifically, Samurai. He even signed it! (By that, I mean the writing is just "Unreachable- Cole Brew (SAMURAI)". All of Samurai's suggestions are signed this way.)

Insomniac writes down only one suggestion: a traditional Japanese folk song (or 'hōgaku'). This would be fine - if he wrote the song's title in Romaji. Instead, the song is written in pure, specific kanji characters.

Ada returns to Ian come the night with a new version of the paper: "Hey, so, uh- I got the paper back today and there's some new stuff from the swordsmen. Any idea what this is?" Ian turns, "Hah?" before seeing the kanji. There's a slight pause before he just casually goes, "Oh! This is (insert Japanese title here)! That's easy, I'll type it up." Ada learns that Ian learnt how to read kanji entirely just for the songs he listens to that are in Japanese.

Oh yeah: the moment this song plays on the radio, the Insomniac falls asleep. Hell, he sleeps like a baby. Unfortunately, they can't play it on loop, but now they know he appreciates a lil' lullaby.

Speaking of Ian and Ada, they decide to add some of their own songs to the mix (Ian mostly - he felt it was a little unfair that the patients get to listen to banger tunes). Ian adds quite a variety, but we cannot ignore the fact he adds maybe one or two vocaloid songs.

Ada, unfortunately, is a little embarrassed of her status as a former theatre kid, still musical lover. She, instead, uses a few common songs from the radio to add to the list. Ian convinces her, after a little while, to add a really popular song from her favourite musical. I do not know what musical this is.

There's a surprising amount of patients that add jazz to the radio, or at least music from the 1950 to 1980's era. For one, the Stevensons' accidentally add the same song to the list twice, given Mr. Stevenson can't read his wife's handwriting that well anymore (I'll elaborate on why later). This also just so happens to be a song that played in their wedding. They have a ball dancing to it.

Additionally, the Miner also includes a bit of Rock 'n' Roll or otherwise jazz into his suggestions. They're very old for the 30-something nut, but it adds up. He also, thanks to Cole, includes a little chiptune.

Hugh somehow adds the tutorial theme. You know, the tutorial song from Rhythm Doctor. Nobody recognises the title, or the artist, but everyone in the ward has a mutual moment of "I swear I've heard this before". Hugh doesn't comment.

There's a slight cultural shift once Insomniac includes his traditional tune. It's not the only Non-English hit, and Ian/Logan do add a couple of Japanese songs to the pile.

In Nicole's case, she ends up not sure what to suggest, but still wanting to take part. So, she ends up adding a Chinese pop song, quote: "I don't know any Chinese myself, but my mom would put this on a lot, and I didn't have anything else that'd be good for a hospital radio."

Lucky adds two jazz, and a rock song to the radio. The biggest issue is that he originally aimed to add a Spanish song from his childhood, but got caught in his own head, scribbling it out halfway. The good thing? Miner is able to read bits and pieces, writing what he could make out - angering Lucky into writing the full title. He jumps when it plays on the radio days later.

I believe that's everything I had listed. Thanks to RDL for allowing me to compile all of my thoughts before adding them here, as these are now far more conjoined.

Oh, right! The bonus thing! Considering the song suggestions were taken on a piece of lined paper, I thought it would be fun to visualise what I believe the main casts' handwriting would look like:

If you have any thoughts/additions you want to make, you have full reign to send me asks/reblog this with whatever you like. Have a good one, lads - EMO

[royalsealy]

Very annoyed at the current bot spam in the l/lita fashion tag, for those looking for something with less spam the egl tag is usually a good place to peruse

[sunsetzer]

Rasmodius totally has the same vibes as Ardyn Izunia and I love that for him

[astronomodome]

Just got rpgmaker xp…. yooo I remember messing around with rpgmaker so much as a kid I bet I could make an actual game w this. That would be so epic

[squidcandy]

a saga