#thread: didn't this happen in the bible

[yukyunotabibito]

Nasir cannot blame the young woman for looking somewhat disappointed. Some part of her, too, is also disappointed. But perhaps it is for the best that they were unable to find anything in their search. Because if Nasir and her sharp eyes could not discern a single reasonable hiding place for something so valuable in this shack, then there was no way that scheming, no good, beorc would be able to get their hands on such a thing. If Nasir had no luck, she could only hope that no one else would either.

She twines her fingers through long blue curls as she quietly follows Ishtar towards the outside of the house, noting the presence of three newcomers. Beorc, all three of them wearing cloaks to conceal their faces. As if they were prepared to ransack the house and then flee with what they intended to take to never be seen again.

Alas, they would not have much luck if they were here for the reasons that Nasir could only assume that they were.

She lends the young woman a nod in agreement, to back up her claims that there was indeed nothing within this house worth taking, let alone any potion that could bring those long dead back to the land of the living.

"I fear there is nothing worth your while within these walls," Nasir says with a sneer, "You will not find what you are looking for, and perhaps you should not. Such things they are... well, they are forbidden for a reason; are they not?"

didn't this happen in the bible

showcase / potion of resurrection

[empty-movement]

GOGAI, GOGAI!!! COME GET UTENA KIBBLES

It's September 3rd. It's 1997. Princess Diana just died, and that's very important to lots of people. You, however, are chewing your nails to nubs waiting for the climax of Revolutionary Girl Utena's Black Rose Saga. It's going to air today.

But like any good fan, you're already one step ahead, because you've spent the last couple days thumbing through Animedia's September issue supplemental, the 100 page Duelist Bible. Strangely, it appears to be in English??? Wow! Thanks Nagumo for translating, Ayu Ohseki for Japanese editing, teasot for proofreading, and ME, FUCKIN' VANNA, for scanning and scanlating this massive booklet!

We've got duel summaries! We've got character design sheets! We've got a school directory! We've got THE DUEL RULES. We've got cast interviews! WE'VE GOT THAT CHU-CHU DOLL CRAFT GUIDE. Check it ALL out here, in the Something Eternal Bibliothèque! You can flip through it page by page here, or you'll also find on the page a link to a PDF version for your at home viewing/archiving needs!!

This gargantuan tome really gets it across that in 1997, you didn't have a fandom wiki or on demand viewing. If you didn't catch and record the episodes, a booklet like this becomes a critical tool for keeping track of everything that's happened up to now, and is also a way for the series creators to tap fans on the shoulder and draw attention to details they want seen but not explained in the show directly. For example, this drops at the close of the BRS, but points out Touga's sword isn't the same in Keiko's duel and in the opening sequence. A thing we don't see cashed in until MUCH later!

This has been a true and absurd labor of love on my part. I even rescanned the booklet from my originals because their quality (decades old lmao) was not worth scanlating. This took a ludicrous amount of time, and has been a main project of mine for over a year now!! I'm so happy to have gotten it done in time for the Something Eternal Watch-Along thread, and I really really hope everyone finds something cool and interesting about it! The really cool thing is this now completes the set of magazine supplementals by the big three magazines made for Utena during its run. We now have fully scanlated this, as well as Animage's June Utena Dossier, and Newtype's November Utena? (Oh My!) UTENA! Take a stroll through memory lane, be they yours or someone else's!

As always, if you like this kind of content, consider supporting us on Patreon! Especially right now, a holy grail acquisition is in the works that I will bleed to share with y'all. More on that later, lmao.

Revolutionize the World! Love, Vanna

[jetspikepub]

No one ever really talks about it in the fandom and it NEEDS to be discussed because it's hilarious to me. I have to ask where all the crazed spike x julia fans come from 😭 like say one thing negative about the ship or ship spike with someone else and there's this one person (who I think owns multiple spikexjulia accounts snd pretends to be different people😭😭) that starts sending their "CAnoN aNd facTuAL eviDencE" with so much hostility

I've also noticed that Julia fans either always hate Faye and/or don't give a damn about Spike's well-being and just want him paired up with Julia even if that costed him his life, which I don't even think Julia herself wanted for him to do in the end lol. It's a little disturbing

Oh trust me, this is a looong story. It's not like we don't see it, we just got tired of it. You're not alone, I give you a warm hug🫂

This user has been terrorising Bebop fandom across multiple platforms since 2022, I think. If you ever see this bitch harassing someone just flag the account or ban it. A collective appeal could do the trick, but it's gonna be like chopping off Hydra's heads. This pain in the ass keeps posting weird commissions on X (Twitter), Deviantart, Reddit, Pixiv (for Christ's sake, please DO NOT search Bebop tag on Pixiv, it's a total disaster in there right now) and edited Bebop wiki, describing Faye as Spike's no 1 enemy and Julia as a goddess of doves and roses 🤢 It's hard to track down every account, the only way to stay safe is to not interact with them and blacklist. "If I ignore it, maybe it will go away" tactics is the best in this situation, don't let them take away your time and emotions, they cannot be reasoned with.

Another thing that bothers me is that stupid localisation of guide books with SpikeJulia nonsence the translators added just because they wanted to and ruined the original idea that implies multiple ways of story perception. I've aready dispelled that "truest lover ever" myth by presenting the original texts from my collection of Japanese books. They fucked up with "love" kanji meaning in Eng and this changed a lot (I did some analysis here and here). Now we can see what happens when these love stories fall into the wrong hands: haters cite it like a Bible in each and every thread about SpikeFaye😩 Also there was a post about some Julia's love letter to Spike (wtf?) written on the back cover of the vol. 6.

I wanted to make a post about it and took pictures of a Japanese edition but forgot. Now it's the right time to dispel another myth.

According to quick translation results, this guide was made to inform fans about some Bebop episodes which weren't aired on regular TV and appeared later on WOWOW (premuim satellite broadcasting) because of censorship.

There was no mention of Julia writing letters to Spike in the original series. It was Spike who gave her a note describing rendezvous point or whatever and she tore it to pieces🤷🏼‍♀️

Just remember: Spike's well-being is up to the viewer. Noone can convince you otherwise if you don't want to and noone has right to insult you. Spike is for everyone 🌸

The situation is so annoying, those who loved SpikeJulia or didn't give a damn about them now hate this. If someone is going to use "SpikeJulia" as a safeword I will understand 🤣

[sagelasters]

the potter and the clay

Both Neville Goddard and Walter C.Lanyon (both are rumored to be taught under the same teacher, Abdullah) discussed about their interpretation about "The Potter's House".

"Eternal mind is the Potter, and eternal thought the clay." - Walter C. Lanyon in "Abd Allah, Teacher, Healer."

The Potter House is a story derived from the Bible about a traveller who encountered a potter, who was molding an object from clay but his creation fell apart. The potter then proceeds to redo the clay so he could create something new, something better, instead of discarding it completely.

Neville tells us that we are the potters and the clay at the same time. The same operate power who gave us the unfortunate circumstances, can do a complete 180 if we acted like the potter. The potter's project fell apart and instead of throwing it all away, they decided to remold the clay into something more desireable. The potter is you, you are the eternal mind, the perfect self who could so easily wove the threads of fate to your liking. The clay is the bridge and components of your thoughts, whatever you feed it, you are molding that clay to something -- anything.

"The clay cannot reply to the Potter." - Walter C. Lanyon in "Abd Allah, Teacher, Healer."

Your thoughts are the hands that mold the clay, and you breathed air into it. You cannot tell the 3D to change because it is only the reflection of your 4D. Neville tells himself that it doesn't matter if he felt self-deceived because the 3D wasn't showing him what he wanted, and he didn't care that it was all in his head. In the end of the day, he will be led to the exact thing he imagined.

By simply being in the state and imagining you have what you want, it is already the fetus that's waiting for nourishment (your thoughts. you feed it till it gets big).

"We are molding and molding within our own mind’s eye everything that is happening in our world; that the world is simply man’s imagination pushed out. And instead of discarding objects in our world, we simply remold it." - Neville Goddard's lecture on "The Potter House"

[apomaro-mellow]

Every Baby Needs a Daddy 15

Part 14

There is officially StevexCC in this. If that is not your jam, skip this part bc that's all that happens here.

Eddie and Steve lied together in bed, Eddie rubbing his back and Steve playing with Eddie's hair. Steve had said he could come down for the movie and the topic had turned to their opinions on different movies.

"You're gonna hate me, but...I've never seen all of Lord of the RIngs", Steve admitted.

"Now why would I hate you for that?", Eddie asked.

"Because you treat the books like a holy bible."

"All I heard was I get to see you experience the full trilogy for the first time someday. Which is the best present you can give me."

Steve raised a brow. "Better than me dressing up as a sexy character for you?"

"I take it back. If you dress up as Uhura or something, I'd adequately lose my mind."

Steve kept that bit of info in his pocket for later. Soon, the conversation veered back to what would happen tonight. Eddie had talked to his friends about it.

"I told them all about what you like and what you don't care for", Eddie said.

And just the idea that they were discussing him like that had Steve getting warm. He insisted on washing up beforehand though. It had been days and while he and Eddie were drunk on the scent, it wouldn't be quite as pleasant to other noses. At least how it was now.

Steve could've cried as he watched the water fill the gigantic bath tub. He'd seen it already, of course. But this would be his first time actually bathing in it. It was big enough to fit two grown men comfortably and that was just a dream for Steve.

He let out a purr as he got inside. Eddie followed and they took their sweet time washing each other. Of course, the touches lingered, and Steve wanted to take it further. He got hotter thinking of the possibilities of tonight. And Eddie could tell, so after a while, he changed his touches to something more chaste.

"You're being so good right now, sweetheart. I can tell you're saving it for later." Eddie rewarded him with a kiss and after soaking for a while longer, they drained the tub and got out.

Eddie kept it simple with a t-shirt and some sweats. Steve wore a pair of boxers he had packed, but topped it with a sweater Eddie owned. He looked himself over in the bathroom mirror when a thought came to his mind.

"Daddy...", he called out in a soft voice. "I have an idea..."

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

Grant was the first one down, seeing that Eddie and Steve were already taking up space on the couch. Steve's head was in Eddie's lap, Eddie's fingers carding through his hair. They looked the picture of comfort, especially with the blanket covering Steve's legs.

"Nice to see you both again", Grant said, taking the recliner on the side and putting his feet up.

"Nice to see you too", Steve said. "Thanks for scenting all those things for me", he added as Jeff and Gareth came down.

"Our pleasure", Jeff took the other side of the couch, letting Steve put his feet in his lap.

Gareth didn't reply as he sat down on the floor, legs stretching out under the coffee table. If Steve reached out just a little bit, he could touch the curls on his head. He kept his hand playing with a frayed thread on Eddie's pants though.

The movie of the evening was Fire and Ice. A decent flick, but one that Eddie had introduced to Steve already. So as his alpha stroked his hair, Steve found it very easy to slip. To let the final embers of his heat rise up for a final crescendo of the night. His hips shifted a little. He felt so empty. He needed... he needed...

Eddie's ears perked as he started to hear the tiny whimpers his baby was trying to keep down. He was trying not to come off as needy but that wasn't necessary. Just as Eddie had answered the call, he was sure the others would too. Eddie's hand moved from his hair, down his chest, to under the blanket.

Steve's breath hitched as he was simply cupped under the covers. It had been his idea to go completely pants-less for the evening, which was why they had to be first downstairs. Steve also insisted on putting a towel under himself, not wanting to mess up what was probably a very expensive couch.

Eddie held him for a moment, feeling the heat coming off him before rubbing slowly, prompting Steve to pull his feet off of Jeff's lap and open his legs. It was faint, but the scent of aroused omega began to waft through the room. Steve's lips parted as his pants got a little louder. Jeff was the first to take his eyes off the tv, able to hear clearly how wet Steve was getting under the blanket.

Steve turned completely onto his back to look up at Eddie from his lap, eyes pleading. "Daddy", he whispered, hips jerking as his clit was played with.

"You know baby, I think now's a good time to train the boys in taking care of you."

Steve nodded eagerly, slowly pulling the blanket off to reveal himself, turning his gaze to Jeff as he spread his legs even more. Eddie teased at his hole but didn't go in. He kissed the top of Steve's head.

"Remember to use your words, sweetheart. There's no mind readers here."

"Wanna be filled. I feel so empty", Steve whined.

The air got thicker with Steve's scent and Jeff started to palm himself through his pants. Eddie finally pushed a finger inside but he knew it wouldn't be long before Steve was wanting for more.

"Watch closely Jeffie", Eddie said as he sunk his finger in deep. When he pulled out to the fingertip, Steve's hips rolled with it and Eddie pushed back in.

"Shit", Jeff said as he squeezed himself.

"Didn't I tell you he had a pretty cunt?"

"So fucking pretty", Jeff praised, making Steve release a moan as Eddie removed his finger completely. Jeff moved closer between Steve's legs. He stroked his thighs before gently rubbing the folds of his pussy. Steve's hips started to roll again and Jeff bit his lip as he sunk a finger into his heat. Eddie cupped the back of his hand, guiding Jeff in how to finger Steve.

Steve reveled in the look of rapture on Jeff's face, knowing it was his body's doing. He looked over to where Grant was sitting and saw that he had pulled out his cock and was stroking it slowly. He couldn't wait to get it in his mouth. He couldn't wait to-

"Fuuck", his thoughts were cut off when he felt two hands on him at once. One was Jeff, thumb circling his clit as he fucked him slowly with two fingers. The other was Eddie, kneading at his chest roughly through his sweater. Steve's head tossed and he saw that there was only one that wasn't looking at him right now.

He reached a hand out to pet at the back of Gareth's head. His eyes were still trained onto the tv and to be truthful, Steve's vanity wouldn't take it.

"Gareth, look at me, please."

"...Is it really okay?", Gareth asked in a soft voice.

"He wouldn't be asking if it wasn't", Eddie assured him.

Slowly, Gareth turned his head and looked at Steve's face first. He ventured to move a little closer as Steve gripped the back of his head in a soft hold. Gareth's eyes roamed from his torso to his legs, watching as Eddie pulled the sweater up, showing up more of his body. He pushed his hand below the waistband of his pants, rubbing between his legs. Steve stroked Gareth's hair, almost in time with the way Jeff was stroking him.

With a bit of coaxing, Steve was able to bring him in for a very light kiss, just the barest touching of lips. Gareth didn't press and Steve was too caught in the middle of a moan as he felt himself getting closer. Then, just before Steve came, Jeff slowed his thrusting and pulled his fingers out. Steve let out a whine, about to complain when Eddie tugged at a nipple.

"I know Stevie, you wanna be filled. And I think Gareth is the one to do the job."

Gareth's eyes widened as he snapped his head to Eddie. "Me? Dude, I don't think-"

"Please?", Steve begged. "I need it, please."

Gareth's eyes looked between them both before landing on Eddie a final time. Eddie gave him a nod, assuring him that everything would be okay. He had only told Steve that Gareth had his reasons for being nervous. But Gareth would have to show him himself. Jeff got off the couch and sat on the floor by Steve's legs, giving him a good view of his cunt still. Gareth stood and pushed his bottoms down. Steve licked his lips as it was revealed to him.

He instantly understood why Gareth would be wary, but to Steve he was simply looking at a gorgeous t-dick that he needed to get inside him some kind of way as soon as possible. His jaw dropped a little and Eddie crooked a finger forward at Gareth, who stepped closer. Just enough to paint Steve's lips with the tip of his dick and just barely slip it inside.

They let out twin moans and Steve felt himself drowning, just as Eddie said he would. He could've cum like this probably, just from sucking Gareth off, but his alpha knew what he needed more and pulled him off by the hair.

"That's a good baby", Eddie praised. "Gareth, go ahead."

Swallowing thickly, Gareth moved to get on the couch, settling between Steve's legs. He hovered over, lowering his hips slowly. When he finally made contact, they both let out a sigh and Steve was already undulating, trying to get more.

"Slow down, angel. Let Gare set the pace", Eddie said. He glanced up briefly to see both Grant and Jeff stroking their cocks as they watched Gareth and Steve rock against each other. He got a little dizzy himself, thinking about Steve letting one of them take his mouth. But for this first time, in the privacy of their home, he wanted Steve to be as loud as possible, with nothing muffling the beautiful music he was making with his body.

Eddie could tell the moment Gareth slipped his dick inside because Steve let out a choked moan and Gareth started to fuck him in earnest. The wet schlick sounding between them drowned out anything coming from the tv. Steve's arms went around Gareth's neck, pulling him to lie right on top so that he could nose at his neck.

Steve was so gone, he didn't know that Eddie had beckoned Grant over to be closer until he was already there, jerking himself by Steve's head. Just as he thought how perfect that it would be in his mouth, his orgasm crashed through him and he felt Gareth's cock pulse inside of him and moments later, Grant's cum painted his cheek and nose. It was so much, it was almost enough, it was almost-

"J...Je..f", Steve tried to speak through panting but it was difficult when his mind was so deeply clouded by pleasure.

Thankfully, somehow the meaning got through and he felt Jeff's fingers on his tongue, the alpha giving him a taste of the cum right from his cock. With that, he had the scent marking of all three on him and his omega felt sated. If he wasn't officially pack before, he was now. And Steve never felt more at home.

Hoo boy. It was hard to write this part one-handed but boy howdy we got it done!

Part 16

Tag Team CLOSED

@awkotaco24 @lingeringmirth @littlewildflowerkitten @estrellami-1 @tartarusknight @velocitytimes2 @mrsjellymunson @trashcanniballecter @paintsplatteredandimperfect @a-little-unsteddie  @sllooney  @starman-jpg  @oxidantdreamboat  @xxbottlecapx   @newtstabber @tiny-enthusiast  @desidrarry-wolfstarshipper @y4r3luv @hello-fellow-nerds  @anonymousbandgirl @alyelf @potato-of-the-lord  @beckkthewreck  @croatoan-like-its-hot @pluto-pepsi @abstractnaturaldisaster @ellietheasexylibrarian @eyesofshinigami @dragonmama76 @greatwerewolfbeliever @chaosgremlinmunson @blackpanzy @millseyes-world @batxsignalsx @lilpomelito @goosesister @libraryofgage @aresthelostboy @royjaimie4eva @silenzioperso @she-collects-smut @lost-wondering-souls @eddielives1986 @marklee-blackmore

[pastlight]

i just wanna quickly say. the second saddest part of people being weird about the myths is that it blocks their ability to have fun with it.

(and i do think part of it is cause we often see pokemon more as characters than animals. i'll take a guess that you probably don't react the same way hearing about typhlosion abducting a woman than you would a regular ass badger)

but taking them at face value is the most boring way to engage with it. you get like maybe the same two pokephilia jokes repeated at nauseam. but look them through a watsonian lens? haven't you seen all the posts about mythology from years ago that keep making rounds all the time?

it's so much more fun to take them not as real stories in-universe but as fucked up fairy tales and myths. imagine someone who grew up with the slaking story trying to explain it to someone who didn't. i'm already thinking about that with my ocs!

all that being said, my favourite story is the octillery one because the narrative thread is all over the place. yes you get the lesson along the way but none of the elements ever truly connect. stuff keeps showing up and getting dropped with no explanation. the father just dies. the sharpedo looking back three times. the magic sword. whatever was happening at the ursaring den while he slept. the beached wailord. bring witnesses. the fact that the kid is a octopus hybrid is NEVER relevant.

"The villagers returned home, and told the people what they had saw." after everything is an objectively hilarious way to end it. im sorry if it's lifted from a real myth but i can't get over how much of a non ending that sounds like.

it feels exactly like reading an old bible story without annotations and having to accept the weird shit cause it probably made sense back then. you're probably missing some context... and you are, in fact! the way he mutilates the ursaring are a reference to the early lake trio lore in the first versions of the creation myth!!!

and hey i get it if they make you uncomfortable, some are pretty dark just like real myths which they were emulating. try to not be weird. get silly with it.

[mikuni14]

4 Minutes - Ep 4

This ep featured some of my favorite tropes: when two lovers share a secret that requires them to choose between their loved one and a cause, family, work, etc., when one of them decides to side with and protect their beloved, even if it means opposing and endangering their own family. And also that, besides Great choosing to side with Tyme and the kidnapped girl against his own family, Tyme himslef also doesn't waver in his conviction about what's right like Tan, even if it could cost him Great.

I just like this kind of stuff. I think it's neat 💖 The only thing I miss is the development of these scenes, more of them.

Unfortunately, this is not possible for one reason, namely that we are probably watching it all from the perspective of the dying Great, so there are no extended scenes, "fillers", there is no conversation between Great and Tyme about what actually happened, who Nan is, what is going on, what happened to Tyme's parents and what's the deal with Great's family business.

I apologize to WinTonklaKorn fans, but I can't convince myself to invest my interest and emotions in them. Especially now, because messy love triangles ALWAYS turn me off. There is also a lot of focus on the physical element of these relationships, and I find myself turning my head away when that happens (and as a fujoshi I should watch it like a National Geographic cameraman spying on two endangered species having sex like 👀), and generally drifting away. This plot could have been interesting, with elements of toxicity, crime, mourning, ambiguity, but it looks like it might want to, but it comes out more and more like a cheap romance with unnecessarily emphasized pornographic elements. Again - sorry to the fans of this thread and this couple 🙇‍♀️, but that's how I see it. Tonkla's brother was murdered, and he's constantly shown in a sexual context, in relation to other guys who are into him, instead of in the family/ sibling context of someone who lost his brother in terrible circumstances like Tan.

The only interesting scene was how Great's changed "reality" affects Tonkla's reality. The moment when he hears his dead brother's voice was very moving. I won't hide the fact that I would rather see more of this Tonkla. I would rather see him follow Tan's path from DFF in a sibling context, than entangle him in love triangles. I would like to see him as someone who doesn't lose sight of the goal and isn't distracted by the pussies around him like Phee. Unless Tonkla has some plan for Win and Korn 🤔 but I doubt it atm.

Of course I must mention the love scene between Great and Tyme, and I assure you, I did NOT turn my head here 🤩 I have no complaints, Bible and Jes are super comfortable together, they kiss beautifully and their physical contact has a nice flow, is smooth and natural (has Jes ever acted in a BL production?). You can also see in this scene the feelings that Great and Tyme have for each other. And I love how Great is vulnerable and open to Tyme in this scene (as in every other scene).

I like how Tyme starts with "innocent" kisses, giving Great time to react and even say no. I like how Great is just as eager as Tyme, which he shows with his whole body (as a huge fan of equality in relationships, I pay close attention to whether the series shows that both MLs are equally emotionally involved AND want each other). I love the moments when they smile at each other, when they laugh, when in addition to obvious desire they also have FUN, gosh, it's so 💯✨👌

Bible's tattooed thigh will forever be burned into my brain.

Oh and this?

This is it people! This is what it's all about, this is the quintessence of them and a good BL series. This showing of every aspect of a love relationship, this joy and pure fun, these smiles, these tattooed thighs, this beauty. Just.. wow. Wow!

(this is the second version of the post, the first one didn't appear at all, probably because of the full screenshots and Bible's thigh area lol hence the second attempt with cropped photos. EDIT, the previous version was flagged! 🥳 This is my first flagged post in my life, what a special day, I think I'll get drunk in honor of it)

[peawinkls]

why jfabe is NOT!!!! boring and lifeless and proving that wrong, an informational thread discussing their relationship and dynamic, because honestly im getting tired of ppl saying their boring

contains s3 spoilers!

The relationship between JFK and abe from Clone High is something alot of people within the community discussed, especially before s3, being talked about more after s2's finale. Many speculated that the two would remain friends or even become more than that.

Now with season 3 out, we have a lot more things to work out with, specifically episode 3. It's something a lot of people are too afraid to admit, but jfabe/abefk would make the show a lot more interesting, rather than its repeatable joanabe plotline.

So, I'm here to talk about the inner workings of this pair, why their so interesting, and why they work out so much, whether platonic or not. If ur not a fan of jfabe/abefk, or heavily dislike the ship, I'd recommend turning away from this post.

Introduction, the who, the when, the why, the how...and their differences n similarities

So, we all know these two characters. JFK the beloved, Abe the hated. Something that many people picked out of the 2020 clone high fandom. But what if i told you that the beloved and the hated were truly meant to be together from the start?

What we already know is that they are the complete opposite of each other in many ways. JFK is meant to be a parody on 90s jocks from highschool movies and tv shows. Abe is the weak nerd who desperately wants to be cool.

JFK is buff and shorter, Abe is tall and lanky. JFK is a douchebag, Abe is the nicer guy. The list goes on and on. And they even have stuff in common, such as the fear of abandonment and the fear of ruining things.

But one difference i can note is that Abe is way more naive than JFK, JFK is portrayed as empty-headed, but not empty-headed enough to not realize whats going on. Of course, despite the differences, both characters make a really good team.

And this was even evident in s2 ep10, aka the finale, where they both realize that they make a great "duo of bros who'll remain friends for the rest of their lives". Jfabe shippers were FEEDING on this shit back then you have no idea

So with this stuff out of the way, it's time to talk about my favorite episode out of season 3.

Bible Humpers: A Much Needed Praycation

This episode revolves around JFK getting tired of having meaningless sex with girls and partying hard, and decides to seek out a new life when he and Abe discovers the prayer pals club, hosted by Lady Godiva. And at first, Abe is happy to see that JFK is taking on new opportunities.

"Where the slut goes, the wing slut follows."

But eventually, JFK starts straying away from Abe and his friendship, to the point of even FORGETTING about the broniversary that Abe had planned for the both of them (he literally baked a giant cake for him, look at me and tell me thats straight cmon now).

Seeing how Abe had already lost Joan and Gandhi, he didn't wanna lose JFK either, and does everything he can to make him happy and thats so clear. And even at the end of the episode, it's revealed that Abe even respected his choice on ultimately choosing celibacy.

He really does care a bunch for JFK, liking him for who he truly was (compared to JFK's other dates) and respecting his choices. And despite choosing celibacy over Abe, the two still remain close, which really tells you how great their bond is.

So something HAS definitely changed throughout the years, from them hating each others guts to potentially becoming clone highs next couple...which didn't happen, and I'm still petty about it i will admit.

But even if they didn't become canon at the end, you could really tell that some people who worked on this episode wanted them to be a thing, and that's a good enough sign for me that they could hopefully become canon in the next season if we ever get one (still petty though).

Let's circle back to season 1 again. I'm not making a jfabe thread without mentioning Litter Kills: Literally, which is another episode that jfabe shippers fed on. In this episode, JFK's close friend Ponce dies, and he's left to grieve over him.

And in this episode, we see a side of JFK that we never saw before. He starts wondering why the hell he's feeling all of these emotions, because he's a Kennedy, and he's not used to them. But Abe helps him realize that emotions like this are normal.

And even if the two hated each other, Abe apologized to him in the end and finally realized his mistakes. It seemed like Abe disliked him, yet he cares about him. Abe never knew what if felt like, because he hasn't lost a friend close to him.

So he starts berating Cleo for comforting JFK and was even aggressive towards JFK as well, believing that he was only doing all of this just to take Cleo away from him. That was all because he NEVER knew what it was like. But he finally understood.

He was sorry, but he felt like he couldn't do much to help because he didn't experience the same thing. So he just hugged JFK and held him...for a really long time.

But that was just enough for JFK, all he needed was comfort, and Abe chose to do that. So even at the episode, he couldn't help but ask JFK if he was alright. And by the next episode, JFK was already feeling better. All it takes is someone to tell you that its gonna be okay.

So what I'm trying to say is despite their own anxieties, flaws, characteristics, whatever, their PERFECT for each other. I don't like how people label them as "boring", when their so much more deeper than that.

Jfabe/AbeFK is one of my comfort ships for this exact reason. Their lore, dynamic and relationship goes beyond that, i don't ship them just because i think their cute, but because their interesting, and it may seem like im going insane over a white boy ship, but i truly, truly, from the bottom of my heart, love this ship to pieces, and hopefully people can see that through me. Thank you, clone high.

[goggles-mcgee]

Can y'all imagine if the nerds actually got away with the unaliving of Max Jagerman and they were just living their best lives. Everyone at school is nice, and it's just great, and Stephanie Lauter is getting closer to her pretty boy Pete. They are toeing the line between dating and not by like a thread. Steph is elated! She's even considering just saying fuck it and asking him to be her boyfriend when it happens.

It's lunch, and everyone is sitting wherever they want. Steph used to have her table before, it was basically the popular kids table and it kind of sucked since it was in the middle of the cafeteria and it was needlessly eye catching since Brenda and Stacy decorated it. The decorations moved to a table closer to the doors but not too close, Pete had said it was logically the best table, and Steph didn't even bother to argue. She had it bad...bad bad.

But, she actually really liked it. She got to sit with Pete, Ruth, Richie, and yeah, sometimes Grace if she wasn't sitting with the Bible Study Club. But she also got to sit with Brenda and Stacy, who had made it their personal mission to help "glam" up Ruth's headgear. Kyle and Jason were there too, usually sitting closer to Richie to talk football, and surprisingly, anime. It seemed like Kyle got really into it, and Jason wasn't far behind from falling. Trevor was there also trying to talk to Ruth about drama and it was all just really....nice.

It had been a normal lunch until Pete took off his glasses to clean them because Richie had been describing a new anime he started, and he got too excited and smacked Pete in the face. Which resulted in Pete muttering about smudges. He took them off and , look, Steph had seen him without the glasses briefly when he had the godawful black eye, but it was different up close with nothing like a black eye to distract from his cuteness. She didn't even hear what was said, but it resulted in Pete laughing and completely forgetting his glasses.

Stacy shrieked, which startled everyone, but then she said, "Oh my god! Pete! You're so cite without your glasses!"

And yeah, Steph felt the ugly jealous monster creep in at that, but she knew Stacy wasn't into him. If that had been it, it would have been fine, but after that, it was like girls were talking to Pete more and trying to get him to take off his glasses.

Richie and Ruth teased Oete that he was in his "Y/N Era" whatever the hell that was...

But Steph didn't like it! She noticed Pete and his cuteness way before anyone else! She mentally called dibs and yeah she knew that was wrong, but if one more girl or actually it was some boys too, if one more person tried to hit on her man she was going to riot.

[whatthehelloh]

Trump

This is an edited thread that @JohnFugelsang posted on Twitter

“Here's a thread for anyone who's been conned into believing Donald Trump cares about the US military or our troops.”

Faked a disability 5 times to avoid a war he didn't oppose

So 5 non-rich guys went to Vietnam in his place

Tried to kick homeless vets off 5th Ave

Stole from vets via his fraud online U

Lied about donating $1 million to veterans' nonprofits

Said he'd make troops commit war crimes

Pardoned a guy who committed war crimes

Falsely claimed he signed Vets' Choice into law

Insulted POWs

Insulted Gold Star Families 

Fined for misusing funds from 2016 Vets fundraiser

Called Generals "dopes & babies"

Falsely accused US service members of stealing funds for Iraqi reconstruction

Deployed 5,600 soldiers to the border in a midterm election stunt 

Personally insulted Generals Allen, Mattis, Kelly, Powell, McChrystal; Purple Heart recipients Mueller & Vindman, & Admiral McRaven

Lied about donating $6 million to veteran’s groups in 2016

Sided with Putin against all branches of military intelligence 

Blew off Veterans Day cemetery ceremony in France because it was raining.

What he said to Myeshia Johnson, widow of ambushed Sgt. La David Johnson. Not gonna repeat it.

He wants to cut SNAP. Do you understand how much that hurts military families & vets?

His budget seeks to cut Medicaid. Do you understand how much this hurts military families & vets?

Froze pay for all Fed agencies via Executive Order

Fed workforce is 31% veteran, approx. 623k vets

Undid regulations on predatory lenders who target military members 

He tried to destroy the Post Office, which employs thousands of veterans

Declared a fake national emergency to divert billions from the Pentagon to fund a wall he lied that Mexico would pay for

Downplayed & trivialized troops w/traumatic brain injuries in Jan 2020 

Insulted troops with PTSD

Used the national guard to tear gas US protestors so he could be photographed w/an upside down bible

Forced West Point cadets to travel back for graduation during a plague, endangering their health and the health of their families, for a photo-op 

Said 26,000 military sexual assaults were to be 'expected' because America lets women serve

Announced that transgender troops could no longer serve, via a tweet, without informing the Pentagon.

Invited the Taliban to Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11 

Claimed, stupidly, that his military budget made up for his lack of military experience

Told wife #2 he'd disown their daughter if she entered the service

Remember his fake veteran’s hotline?'

Here's What Happens if You Call the Veterans Hotline Donald Trump Set Up in 2015 | Blaze Media

TheBlaze decided to investigate.

Lied to US troops in Iraq that he'd given them their 1st pay raise in over a decade

Trump Institute fired a vet for 'absences' after he was deployed to Afghanistan

Claimed if an armored Humvee was hit by an IED, soldiers "go for a little ride upward & they come down." 

Blamed military leaders for the deadly failed Yemen mission he approved

He can't stop defending the Confederacy

Said his expensive prep school gave him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.” 

Attacked Navy Captain Crozier, who sounded COVID alarm for his sick sailors

Used military against peaceful protests by citizens of color

Had government give hydroxychloroquine to 1300 vets w/COVID-19 despite evidence it was dangerous

Didn't know what happened at Pearl Harbor 

Pulled out of Syria with no notice, abandoning US allies

Russia then posted footage of Syrian base, built by US, that they now own

Exploited 4 murdered Americans in #Benghazi for crass political purposes, after his own party had cleared the Obama WH in multiple investigations 

He kept trying to destroy NATO

Because of his government shutdown, members of US military worked without pay for the 1st time ever

No Other President Would Have Survived Defrauding Veterans’ Charities

No Other President Would Have Survived Defrauding Veterans' Charities | Washington Monthly

One of the many perversities of the Trump era is the low bar to which presidential accountability has now become set.  We are currently watching unfold the saga of presidential bribery and extortion o…

Said in 2018 that he was too busy to visit the troops: "I don’t think it’s overly necessary"

Ordered Navy to Strip Medals from Prosecutors in Eddie Gallagher's War Crimes Trial, even though Gallagher was extremely guilty.

Trump Orders Navy to Strip Medals From Prosecutors in War Crimes Trial (Published 2019)

President Trump lashed out at military lawyers who tried the case of Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was acquitted of killing a captured teenage Islamic State fighter.

Now this. Read it to a #MAGA loved one

Putin is financing the murder of our troops and Trump couldn't stop siding with him.

Russia bought the murder of our soldiers.

Trump knew for months and chose to say and do NOTHING about it.

Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says (Published 2020)

The Trump administration has been deliberating for months about what to do about a stunning intelligence assessment.

The Pentagon & cabinet presented him with many options:

a diplomatic complaint to Moscow

a demand that they stop offering bounties for murder of US troops stop

an escalating series of sanctions

Trump has refused to say or do anything. 

He knew that Putin, who owns his debt via Deutsche Bank, was paying Islamic militants for murdering US troops.

He gave a speech and did nothing. 

Well, that's not actually fair…

Trump did a few things after learning Putin was paying for dead US troops in Afghanistan.

He lobbied other countries for Russia to be let back into the G7.

He also talked to Putin on June 1.

Days later he signed off on a plan...

...to permanently withdraw up to 1/3 of the approx. 34k U.S. troops currently based in Germany.

Which is part of Putin's dream of dismantling NATO.

Trump never told Germany he was going to do this.

[delphinidin4]

Some interesting things have been happening lately...

I decided to take the title of witch in 2021, but I've still never managed to reconcile my thoughts with my feelings. I was raised to consider magic just an illusion that people convinced themselves was real, a placebo. I was raised to mock people who believed in it. So despite the fact that I wanted that magic spirituality so bad, I couldn't let myself have it.

No matter what, I was always looking at myself from the outside, judging my behavior, judging my fellow witches' behavior. I felt that to really believe in magic would be cringe, but at the same time I WANTED to believe in it. It made it difficult to talk about magic, even with my closest witch friends. There is no cringe as strong as the cringe you give yourself.

And what's funny is, when I was a Christian, I didn't have this constant battle in my head between science and religion. I fully believed that the two could coexist comfortably, and I didn't have a problem believing in miracles or the power of prayer, just like I didn't have a problem believing in evolution or the big bang. I had faith in them both.

But I left Christianity because I lost faith in it. I learned that the overarching story of the Old Testament was a tissue of lies, much of it reworked and threaded together in the reign of Josiah to further particular political and religious ends. And if my faith was based on the Bible, and the Bible was mostly fiction, I felt I couldn't believe it anymore. And in that light, Jesus stopped looking like the son of God and started looking like cult leader, like so many I have learned about.

This broke not only my faith in Christianity, but my faith in the spiritual and divine. I naturally yearn for spiritual experience, but I kind of threw the baby out with the bathwater: I came to believe that all those voices I had always heard against Christianity was right, and that there was nothing spiritual out there, and science was the only truth. And that I was fooling myself to think otherwise.

--Which was also funny, because I still believed in God and practiced magic. (It's hard to let go of a relationship when you've been talking to a loved one daily for 35 years.) Anyway, I was in this painful place for a long time where I wanted to believe in magic but couldn't.

Last week I was reading What Would Plato Think by DE Wittkower, PhD. It's basically an introduction to the various questions that philosophers struggle with, such as, "Do animals have the rights that humans do? Do we always have free will? Is science able to explain everything?" I was reading the section about science, and it started talking about the Victorian novella Flatland, which takes place in a two-dimensional world. And I had an epiphany.

Scientists tell us that there ARE other dimensions out there, but we only perceive four of them. That means that there are likely things happening in the "outside world" of the higher dimensions that we are not aware of. Sometimes we see signs of them in our 4D world, but we can't fully perceive what they are. For instance, if a sphere passed through 2D Flatland, they wouldn't perceive a sphere: they would perceive a dot which grew into a big circle and then shrank away again. And the scientists of Flatland would have understanding of these circle phenomena and could predict them from other causes in Flatland, but couldn't truly understand what they WERE in the higher dimensions or what was REALLY going on.

There is likely higher-dimensional interaction happening in our 4D world all the time, but we can't tell that that's what it is. Science explains these phenomena through the lens of our 4D senses, but is completely unable to access capital-T Truth.

Suddenly, I began to see the world differently. Perhaps human intuition of the numinous was a sign of interaction with higher dimensions. Maybe life and consciousness were interactions of higher dimensions with ours (the idea that our "soul" is bigger and more complex than our being in this plane). That maybe magic was a recognition of this fact, of the existence of things beyond, and an attempt to consciously interact with it.

This finally reconciled my true belief in science with my true belief in the spiritual and numinous. It gave me a way to see that they CAN coexist comfortably, even if I had come to the conclusion that my old understanding of how the spiritual works was false and inadequate. I was finally able to embrace my magic beliefs and practices without cringe. I had resolved my cognitive dissonance.

So that has been ABSOLUTELY wonderful: freeing myself from my own judgments and embracing the spirituality I wanted so badly. And it opened me up to spiritual experience almost immediately.

So, I have communicated with and "worked with" various deities before, all of whom sort of end up in my collection of favorite deities: I have more than a passing connection with them; they become connected to my identity. But over the weekend, I had a clear call from Hermes, whom I had never connected with before. (Saw a statue of Hermes' talaria, then some coincidences with dimes, which are symbols of Hermes because of the old "Mercury dimes".) He is also one of my friend L's two major deities.

So I felt called to use a particular Lenormand deck to talk to him, which I did. His answer was a little fuzzy (partly because I'm not used to this deck), but something about a loving message, and that my parents (?) would be sad about something, but that I should just carry on peacefully and not let it bother me. Because I've been posting more openly on my public social media recently about my witchy stuff (though I haven't just openly declared anything yet - just sort of sticking my toes outside the broom closet), I think it means that my parents are going to figure out that I left Christianity and became a pagan and a witch, and they are Not going to be Happy about it.

I contacted L and told her that Hermes had been in contact, and to be on the lookout for any info (though I didn't tell her anything about the message I had gotten through the cards). She got back to me later and said that she thought Hermes was saying that I was going to be outed to my parents. Which I knew was going to have to happen sometime, and probably won't be nearly as big a deal to me as to my parents, so now I'm forewarned.

I kept the deck out in case Hermes came knocking again in the next few days, and weirdly, he did not. I didn't feel any particular connection to him or anything. This is the first time a deity has made a connection with me, done one thing, and then fucked off lol But then again, that sounds VERY par-for-the-course for Hermes!

Anyway, one thing I noticed was that I didn't feel self-conscious discussing this divine interaction with my witch friends. I really am becoming comfortable with myself, and it's a great feeling.

[little-meowyao]

Hello..If you don't mind me asking (again), can I ask, what are your top 7 (or top 10) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series/etc) and your top 10 favorite (fictional) characters from any media? Why do you love them all? Sorry if you've answered this questions before......

I haven't! And I'm so thrilled you sent this actually

(Readmore because long-ish post)

So when it comes to medias, I am going to say (and I hope you don't mind classics lol)

No Longer Human

This book is just. Everything to me. You have no idea I went through it so quickly I ADORE IT. Literature bible

Did you ever get the feeling of being so similiar to someone, so close, but there's just this sense of sheer disconnect from them? Like a thread that should in all reason hold two things together but doesn't? "Hello, I feel disconnected from humanity" "Hello, I feel disconnected from humanity too but I can't relate to you"

No Longer Human my beloved

2. Nirvana in Fire

This speaks for itself, I think. It is so incredibly intricate and compelling, also I love Lying Liars Who Lie. And trajedies. I like palace/political dramas a lot!

3. I Became a God in a Horror Game (GHG)

How do I even begin to explain this one. It's a 1.5 million words beast. I've only read half of it. I am on the edge of my seat always. The protagonist is kinda scummy, money-obsessed, and so so interesting. They have powers

Again, I've only read half of it, but it's that kinda novel that just keeps you READING READING READING. I like it a lot

There is a beast of a little girl and a little clown named Daniel. He only just started appearing but if anything happens to him, I will kill everyone in the room and then myself. He's murderous, but that's fine because he spent 10 years in constant torment

The worldbuilding is super intricate

4. Bungo Stray Dogs

I love the worldbuilding (although Fyodor's ability reveal was super whack) but the relationships are what get me. Fyolai especially, a hyper religious man with a savior complex that in the latest chaps I've read is implied to be kinda suicidal and an atheist clown who seeks pure freedom and wants to kill Fyodor because his affection for him is a cage and he also reeks of religious trauma. They are So Insane

Dazai is my most favourite for obvious reasons (see: NLH rant above) but Mori. Mori, this man. Wow

VERY controversial opinion within BSD fandom but I adore Mori and desperately want to know more about him. I will murder someone if his entire backstory isn't shown

Also Fuukuchi. [Weary sigh] I adore Fukuchi. Such a complicated man

5. Mo Dao Zu Shi

I really didn't think I'd put it this low but it's kinda whack actually. Very compelling but also unfortunately very vague world. I love the social dynamics at play and I do think that the ending, while super cruel and horrible to so many people, is thematically appropriate

Also it contains my currently favourite blorbo! Jin Guangyao my dearest. What an interesting little bug

6. The Inheritance Cycle

One way more childish than above (YA) but so good nonetheless. I love the implications of the magic system (a whole language that invokes magic! The Ancient Language) and of the dragons, but especially of the ra'zac. Gods the ra'zac

Birdish creatures that exist outside of the magic grid of the Ancient Language. They cannot use magic but they cannot be detected by it either. Most likely they don't have a name in the ancient language (the One True language of the world that dictates natural laws, kinda). They seem to be natural predators to humans

Their natural speech is hisses and clicks and stuff but they can speak. Then they metamorphise into lethrblaka and lose the ability to speak, and start flying

I also love the implications of the dragons being able to just erase things from existence (via bouts of magic they don't entirely control). They erased the names of the thirteen dragons that willingly participated in the massacre of their species. Their names cannot be spoken out loud and anyone that reads them quickly forgets. It also doomed the dragons to isolation, because any sort of communication or "I like [thing]" would be like naming themselves. Many of their riders (humans bonded to them since their birth) went insane because of that, and a notion dragons are wild beasts spread from that (they're not, they're as sentient and intelligent as any human)

And 7. The Plated Prisioner series

The worldbuilding is not super complex. They have powers that come from fae ancestors, and that's about it (so far; I've only read up to the 4th book)

What keeps me hooked is the story itself. The pacing is actually really good (I think) and the story just keeps going and you just want to keep reading and reading and reading. There are moments of massive tension and people who die and the transformation of the mc is incredibly cool

8. Genshin Impact

This would probably be further up if you'd asked me an year or two ago. I like the story a lot and the characters are really cool. All The Fuckery of Mondstadt has me hooked (why do essentially all the Mondstadt characters have some trauma or something weird about them. Genuinely. And what was the deal with the upside down statue. And why is Celestia pointing to it)

I am really looking foward to 7.0 version and beyond where we get to FINALLY face the main antagonists (HOPEFULLY BECAUSE IF IT ISN'T THE TSARITSA WHO COULD IT BE) and then for Kahenri'ah. There's a character (Dainsleif) that shows up once an year, drops a lore bomb, traumadumps, and then disappears, and he has the entire playerbase by the throath. Though the lsst two quests with him have been sadly very short :(

As for my blorbos, I'm just gonna list some of them (in no particular order)

This is /checks notes, 6 books (series), a show, and a game

Jin Guangyao (MDZS)

Qi Rong (TGCF)

Kaeya (Genshin Impact)

Dainsleif (Genshin Impact)

Bai Liu (GHG)

Dazai (BSD)

Fyodor (BSD)

Mori (BSD)

Nikolai (BSD)

Fukuchi (BSD)

Lan Xichen (MDZS)

Nie Mingjue (MDZS)

Daniel (GHG)

Georgia (GHG)

Tang Erda (GHG)

[melissa-titanium]

wrghfhf OKAY UHMM

where does trout live? and does she have any family living with or near her? or in general

ive seen the dragonss big dragon world where does she fit in there. like what is she. what is their society like if they have one. would she interact with other animals or would her society be kept to others like her?

i sawww something mentioned about her being a past life to. uh. i forgot their names i know mel is there but how did she die if she does and also if its not the same where did she get the scar?

also not technically a question and also not about trout but kinda do u have a picture of mel's sister i saw u mention her and i was interested. u know me. u know how i feel abt siblings.

whos her fishy familiar whatre they like. are they more like a pet or a friend or both?

ive been using periods as question marks whoops. also uhm what is her relationship with all the other ppl and. their lives and whatever

whats her favorite food? color? animal? what is she interested in? what are her hobbies? yknow the basics

i know shes. trout. and those are freshwater. but does she like whales? like whale whales. im just curious. actually how does she feel about whales, sharks, even orcas. stuff like that.

OMG. OMG. OMG. WE ARE SO FUCKING BACK. WAIT. WAIT WAIT. IM FUCKING C;RAZY THANKUOU SO SO SO OSOS M UCH I LOVE ANS;WERING SHIT ABOUT MY STUPID OCS *CRIESSSSSSSSSSHGIJGFKGSERIJ*

where does trout live? and does she have any family living with or near her? or in general

OK SO FUNNY THING ABOUT REPRODUCTION IN MY WORLD. there doesnt actually need to be Two parents to Make A Child Exist. there can be one. three. twelve. billions. doesnt matter. because the source of life in this world are called lovebugs that essentially incubate souls that are ready to be recycled... the only motive they need to initiate the incubation process is some form of desire from an outside source to have that thing Exist, and boom, it will.

so basically, she doesn't have any "biological" family. lovebugs didn't incubate her soul because anyone wanted them to, it was basically like. okay. you know jesus? from the bible? yeah. that's basically what happened to trout. except whats different about her is that she was born from... like... the will of the god of the universe herself (cadie, cici. yeah the god of my universe is my cat) and somewhat from the people of that world at the time.

basically the desire of the masses to have the return of magic culminated so much hope and "desire" into existence that trout just... boom. became real.

to ACTUALLY answer your question though, trout doesn't actually have parents. she hopped across orphanages and foster homes until she was able to bind her soul to an object (long story) and then, seeing her power, the higher status seaskimrs kind of adopted her like "hey she would make a great personal guard to the royal family"

the closest thing to family though? oryx. he's her anxious deranged ghost uncle who projects his existence onto her through time bullshit soul magic.

ive seen the dragonss big dragon world where does she fit in there. like what is she. what is their society like if they have one. would she interact with other animals or would her society be kept to others like her?

OMG OK WAIT SO . FUNNU THING ABOUT THIS. TROUT'S ERA HAPPENS AT THE V E R Y END OF MEL'S SOUL THREAD... MEANING MOST OF THE DRAGONS ARE GONE BY THIS POINT. but AHAAAAAA WAIT !!!! since the world exploded, set on fire, exploded again, and then Flooded (thats why seaskimrs, creatures like trout, are the most populous intelligent species on the planet) tasreradian society managed to sustain some of their society, but alot of it was still lost (the current tasrerads don't even know that the shore dwelling tasrerads existed)

to the seaskimr society, tasrerads are something of lorekeepers. now having to go deeper into the ocean, they've become long-living megafauna. not a SINGLE tasrerad is left from mel's time, but a good ass portion of their history is written in ye olde dragon runes. seaskimrs don't interact a whole lot since tasrerads dwell very very deep in the ocean and rarely come up... but they're chill when they do! trout was born during the period of time where tasrerads come up for their routine (every decade? not sure!) transaction of knowledge. the tasreradian elder take great interest in telling stories to seaskimr younglings, and trout never forgot a single tale.

i sawww something mentioned about her being a past life to. uh. i forgot their names i know mel is there but how did she die if she does and also if its not the same where did she get the scar?

OMG OMG SHES !!! SHES ATUALLY MEL'S FUTURE LIFE iamsosorry if iworded that wrong somewhere i know i always say mel's past lives when in reality mel has One past life. everyone else comes after. help me. i need to finish the loredoc ohhhh my god

SHE !!! well. kind of dies? more like gets punted into purgatory after literally becoming god at some point for a reason i havent really worked out yet. we'll get to that *smiles*

AS FOR HER SCAR..... equally a little vague. in her old story, she got mauled by. this sounds insane but also all of the aquatic creatures from the past eras got like dangerously bigger. she got mauled by a HUGE FUCKING TROUT which earned trout her name!!! (yeah i think in her old lore getting mauled made her transition . ? help)

in her new lore tho. i think it would make the most sense for malibu to be the one to dismember & scar her? or maybe mel. tho i think malibu makes more sense. malibu being burned on accident and being like I NEED TO GET BACK AT THIS BITCH. because to trout, malibu is a reminder of her terrible curse & to malibu, trout is a reminder of a terrible experience that basically lead to the death of her grandmother (a whole other story so i'll just leave it at that)

regardless. unlike mel, she never gets a prosthetic :)

also not technically a question and also not about trout but kinda do u have a picture of mel's sister i saw u mention her and i was interested. u know me. u know how i feel abt siblings.

HELL YEAH I DO!!!!!!!!!!!! i havent finished her ref yet Sigh but.... the queen <3 epic spoilers! she's the one who kills mel :)

whos her fishy familiar whatre they like. are they more like a pet or a friend or both?

IM GONNA BE HONEST I HAVENT TOTALLY WORKED THIS OUT YET !!!

it acts as something of a... puppet. an entity that can pass through time to act as a gateway, HER gateway, to the past. which is where she meets oryx! the soulless remnants act as entities outside of time, so when she befriends one (this funny little fish who i dont have a name for yet LOL) she's able to puppeteer it's body and project herself and some of the world around it (including her voice!) into the past. which is how she's able to hear, see, and communicate with oryx. does that make sense? LOL

BUT TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION. it's both :) trout is a "roll with the punches" kinda gal so she didn't really question the presence of half-existing entities that only she could see and just interacted with them as she would with a normal not dead person.

ive been using periods as question marks whoops. also uhm what is her relationship with all the other ppl and. their lives and whatever

HM HM HMMM. okay let me think.

mel - she feels pity for him at first. imagine existing for that long, literal eons stewing in your hate, refusing to let go of a grudge for people that have long forgotten about you? she essentially manages to talk him down from the ledge, something mira failed to do all those eras ago.

the reason trout came in the very last thread of mel's soul is because of how similar the two are. mel surpressed the "trout" part of himself so ferociously that she literally could not exist until oryx BLOCKED HIM from influencing her time in any way shape or form. mel hated, HATED, HATED trout, more than he hated his mom, those who looked down on him, the world, more than he hated himself. which is why his reconciliation with her is such a crucial part of both their character arcs, because truly trout is just mel in a less gristly, bloody font. he's like her deranged grandpa in some way.

when she resets the timeline he's glad to be the only one to remember her.

whats her favorite food? color? animal? what is she interested in? what are her hobbies? yknow the basics

food? she really likes spicy stuff. is eating tilapia cannibalism? maybe, but she doesn't really have a reason to care, all of her past lives were cannibals.

she REALLY likes green. like a soft, gentle sage. salmon pink is a close second.

she likes pufferfish and hammerhead sharks... she thinks theyre funny :)

BIG FAN OF MECHANICS AND BOMBS. bombs especially. it sometimes concerns her peers how excited she gets about stuff like the discovery of remains from those nuclear explosions several eons ago. she loooves pulling things apart and seeing what new stuff she can make with them. guns are a big second fave too! thats why her soulbound object (which can shapeshift. yeah she's a special one) is usually some kind of big impossible gun. she likes to try and dissect it and see how much of it is magic and how much of it is mechanics.

i know shes. trout. and those are freshwater. but does she like whales? like whale whales. im just curious. actually how does she feel about whales, sharks, even orcas. stuff like that.

SHE LOVES WILDLIFE. she's not like, crazy obsessed with animals but if you asked her if she wanted to go to the aquarium she would never say no. she likes predatory animals the most, i don't know if she would have ever seen an orca before but whales are a tasreradian delicacy so she's definitely eaten whales before, and likes to watch sharks sometimes.

ALSO WAIT FUNNY DETAIL. she's actually anadromous, which means she's both freshwater AND saltwater which is why she lives in the sea :)

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Character arcs in China, Korea and Japan v. the US/UK/AU and religion.

I have somewhat of a confession to make. That is that every year since I was little, I've always watched alone, a Christmas Rom Com. Was it high class? No. It was likely Lifetime, Hallmark or TNT. And the thing about that is the majority did not have Asian people in them. They were antithetical to everything I am except for the "Lead must be creative."

I made an expected plot event list around here, too. Here, in case you can't find it.

You might think this is not related, but I'm getting there...

The point is that out of all of the genres of movies I've watched from various dramas and movies, this correlates the strongest to the type of character "Development" (if you can call it that) I am talking about.

US Christmas Movies

Character has X, Y and Z problems in US Christmas movie. And in fact, as the plot goes along, those problems what? Multiply. This is a conflict plot.

So for example, you have Kevin from Home Alone. Kevin hates his family. His mother doesn't pay attention to him, Santa doesn't really seem to care. He has a scary neighbor he doesn't like. AND there are burglars to take care of.

By the end of the movie, there is a transformation arc after using Rube Goldberg machines, thus all of these things are fixed (until Home Alone 2).

In the Rom com, this is usually something like workaholic is paid an exorbitant amount of money AND hasn't found a SO, usually a man, since this is written for cishet women, and occasionally gay men these days (not lesbians?). Or the person is ignoring their own needs, whatever, there are a few plots. Which if you've been following along with my story structure series--the multiple plotline direction and threads is likely from Shakespeare's time, though I read the paper on it, the evidence–on the origin from whom is a bit murky on that count, which often happens in cultural phenomena, especially that far back in time.

However, the multiplication of problems and conflicts is more of recent thing. (Which to be clear in present time ends with a lot of reviewers on Youtube calling it "Fake" and "Unnecessary" etc. Millennials and Gen Z in particular hate it and call the multiplication of this terrible, particularly among women reviewers over men.)

Anyway, the point is that in particularly Christmas movies, which often double down on the religious aspects, huge problem, transformation, then every last problem about the character is fixed. Or for Christians (since Freytag said he based his on Christianity rather blatantly): It follows the Bible in simplified terms.

The connection to Christianity

You have Genesis, then all the stuff in the middle you kinda ignore and then all things go wrong, and then, OMG, there is salvation. Or the simplified version of crucifixion because you fell asleep in church, Jesus exists. Jesus preaches and gets people to hate Him. He dies. He gets ressurrected.

This is transformation. Through this Jesus what? Absolves all of your sins. You, not just Jesus are also transformed.

The majority of the authors that argued for this type of story structure with the diagrams were also Christians. The Jews I found didn't have the diagram.

Back to the Christmas Rom Com

Usually the cast also sings. And there is a part that's not in other Three-act-ish dramas: The Preaching. The incessant preaching.

The types of preaching come in these forms:

Woman (usually, though sometimes gay man who is femme) is told by her friends she is in love with target the audience is supposed to like–like it or not this is supposed to be the OTP, no matter the chemistry on screen.

Woman gets preached to about dead relative, previous Christmas, or some event from the past

You have the unbeliever of Christmas (which may be Christmas Carol+Grinch) and the true believer. Usually in the leads.

The male lead, usually is scarred by a previous Christmas.

All of these get transformed by the end, like a wafer to the body of Christ.

All sins are forgiven, and the preaching in these movies works every time. And usually the rich socialite ends up what? More humble and thus moves to a humble town (though this most of the time is to make filming cheaper, tbh.).

These Middle class main lead often to another middle class main lead or richer person.

All problems solved, world peace, every character flaw is fixed and forgiven.

Cue around here, Brecht throwing up at the blatant misuse of his input into story structure and probably several other theorists scratching their heads at "What is this Holiday Christmas movie?"

And the thing about Christmas movies, if you like them or hate them, they hit the time stamps for what they need to do perfectly. There is no flaw in the timing. The dialogue is flat and not that sparkly, and the introspection is externalized, like a cross, and there you go. This is how the character changes. All is fixed and well.

Shintoism, Buddhism, Mugyo, and general East Asian Philosophy

Particularly said of Japan, Japan is accused of being FLAT character arcs. People go into it and find out character has XYZ problems. Those problems might add, but not multiply, and then at the end, only X or Z problem is solved. It's not a story of transformation at all.

Character is poor and might end poor. That's not solved by magical benefactor.

Character starts off with an oppressive mother, their boss hates them, they don't have romance, and they feel unloved. The character arc fixes the "They don't feel loved." The other stuff is ignored and only there to serve the self-discovery of the character on their journey towards inner peace despite the chaos around them.

This is because the main point is not transformation, but self-realization of oneself.

This ties very, very heavily to the various religions in the region, which focus more on inward growth towards outward control, than outward circumstance towards outward control. Change is thought to be slow, hard to achieve and often either cyclical, or circular until one digs into ones self and really finds a way to say, escape the cycle so they can get out of it to reach say, Nirvana, The Next Life, harmony with all living beings, etc.

In another words, to shape the outer world, one has to work on oneself first, because there is no great Jewish not-white not long-haired savior to help you externally, it comes from your own work within, which is often said to be painful slow and comes with a lot of attachments you might not need. And if you stay attached to those worldly things, it will create evil. (this is true of Shintoism, Mugyo, and Buddhism.) There is no one to save but yourself. And the healthy attachments are often good deeds from within yourself towards others.

Examples

Spirited Away, Chihiro forgets her entire adventure. She gains a new head elastic, but as the beginning said, she won't really forget her experience. What's the singular thing that Sen/Chihiro gained?

The confidence to face new challenges.

You've gone through the entire movie, and she has not had a huge transformation arc where everything was fixed. Her parents still aren't that great. She still has to move to a new town. And not all of her problems were solved. Haku is still a roaming spirit, No Face might have found a home and a place, but still has its flaw. Not everything was fixed. There was only one thing that totally transformed and changed for our main lead Chihiro.

And the thing is Miyazaki and his animators pulls this all of the time without fail and you still feel wrapped into his world and point of view.

This is true of Ashes of Love, (Chinese) as well. A-Z problems are not solved for the characters. One character flaw is changed for each character, which is a kind of spoiler here. While they do learn and grow, there are still problems looming in the distance that might come back at a later date. Also the ending feels a little bit bittersweet. Following the formula of qichengzhuanhe, it does not linger on the ending, but instead gives us a cyclical feel.

I think the one that drove people up the wall, personally, was Stranger Again. (Korean drama) People argued that it was a "Sad ending" but from the perspective of the characters it was a happy ending. The themes of the drama were met by the end of the drama showing that sometimes love isn't enough to keep a couple together. It really dug deep into what love is and isn't and the imperfections and blemishes of it. But people still struggled really deep with the idea that not everything is fixable. They wanted that transformation, but the drama never promised a transformation. It only promised, from the title and beginning to ending to make sure people understood why people sometimes need to divorce and not to be caught so strongly in hate or so strongly in love, but that middle of finding a way to move forward without another person. The change for the characters, wasn't through conflict--the conflict made their ability to solve things more tangled and worse. The solution came in the form of self-realization and contemplation, where they discovered the painful truth and then were able to let go. And that was the happiest ending for the characters, but those addicted to Christianity's total transformation, sacrifice as ideas of love hated it.

But I dislike the idea that someone needs to give up all of their happiness in order to make another person happy until they are angry and resentful at them. Because then, is that really love? And so if you sat there and thought through the morality and the things the drama was saying that was the happiest ending. But not the one that you wanted. However, it lingered and made you more honest about facing your relationships and the world because it forced you to question yourself and self-reflect–and that's the whole point of a lot of these stories that don't fix everything. The world is messy, and though you might get cooperation, the only thing you can control is yourself, so you need to respect others and their choices and the best way to do that is to know yourself before facing others rather than waiting for a savior to fix it for you.

BTW, I can do this with Taiwanese dramas too. It's rare for an East Asian drama to try to fix everything for the characters. If anything, the characters crawl towards finding their own solutions. Think through some of the dramas you've watched.

[katie-the-bug]

General Reflections After Having Subjected Myself to the Entire Left Behind Series

I figured I should probably close out my silly little series with thoughts more substantial than "what the fuck did I just read." So here they are.

First a couple of basic criticisms of the writing, to get those out of the way:

None of those books need to be 400-ish pages long. Cut out the plot threads that go nowhere, the characters that do nothing, and the dialogue that conveys no information, and you'll have something much more succinct and readable, at the low, low cost about having to think for a moment about what you're writing.

The series would have been much more interesting if the characters didn't know exactly what was going on at every turn. As it is, they talk about every major event chapters or even books before it happens, and then it happens, and then they characters gloat about how they were right. Hell, even the villains knew what was going on! Characters taken by surprise act in much more interesting ways than characters who know it all, and an information advantage, on one side or the other, can be used to create an interesting struggle.

Even in a situation where the characters know what's coming, they should be doing something with that information, be that stopping what's coming, facilitating it, or even just reacting to it in a believable way. The characters in Left Behind just watch dispassionately as horrible things they have predicted happen all around them, and it's boring as hell.

In the final book there was a visual that I thought was kind of cool, and I wondered why there hadn't been any such visuals previously. I have since realized that this series has almost no visuals period. The characters are sparsely described - I haven't the foggiest idea what Rayford Steele looks like, for example - and the settings tend to get vague descriptions, if any. It's impossible to feel that you're there with the characters when you don't know what they or their surroundings look like.

Now the thing I really want to say.

I will freely confess that the only reason I wanted to read Left Behind was because I knew it was stupid, I knew I would disagree with it, and I wanted to make fun of it. (Whether that fun will be a full-on parody or just an addition to my existing edgy Bible-fanfic-in-development has yet to be determined.) I figured that for this purpose, the Wikipedia summaries and the TVTropes pages wouldn't be enough - I'd actually have to familiarize myself with the nuances and details of the source material.

As I was breezing through these 400-page books at a rate of one every one or two days, fast even for me, I was frustrated. Yes, more things happened than were mentioned in the summaries, but they didn't add anything other than mild annoyance. There was interactions between the characters, but only rarely did I feel like I was actually learning things about the people in the story. I've read books where I have to reread passages to get the full meaning, where there are details that come back and are important, but that never happened while I was reading this series.

To cut to the chase: there's really nothing TO Left Behind. Things happen, we're told exactly what they mean and what we should do about it, and the story moves on. There's no deeper meaning, no details, no nuances, nothing to actually think about. The only thing you'll discover by reading the books themselves is how bad they are, qualitatively and morally. If you only read about the books, you'll never experience how terrible the writing quality really is, how little research was done to make the setting and characters realistic, and the degree to which the books are permeated with racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry, and self-aggrandizing fantasy.

In other words, if you only read summaries, you'll have saved your time.

The depth of these books' lacking is simultaneously impressive and unsurprising. If you are looking for something enjoyable to read, look elsewhere. If you are looking for something that will make you hate the characters, the authors, and the God the authors worship, look no further. And if you're looking for something to make fun of on Tumblr...well.

[myrtles-and-blood]

Me again (sorry) but your page is awesome???

do you have any general tips while I'm starting out? Anything would be appreciated. Especially anything around meditation idk

thankiesss

Thank you so much, that means a lot, you made my day. ♥︎

Let me tell you about my experience:

(this is gonna be a long post talking about me fucking up a lot)

I started a couple years ago learning about deities, witchcraft, paganism, etc. I talked to MANY deities and I never got the hang of it. I was busy but then I wasn't okay enough to keep up, and then I had various faith crises, and then I was scared of them. This has to do with other things, but you get how messy I was.

Then I talked to Lucifer once and he scared the shit out of me. Like, a lot. He was scary as fuck. I had never gotten so interested in something in my life, and I found myself thinking about him every day, every moment, and even reading the bible trying to see where he appeared and to learn about him. Yes, I know this is one of the worst methods, but leave me alone I didn't know anything about demons.

So one day I was like "okay enough of this Lord Lucifer come here we're gonna talk" and I told him I wanted to work with him on that, specifically: not being constant and having lots of trouble with my life, in general. Do you know what this guy told me? "Oh, I don't think you're gonna last a week, but if you want I'm not gonna stop you"

😦

So I'm still here out of spite, mostly.

Being serious, he was direct with me. He told me I had a problem, a big problem, and he was not gonna fix me, I was gonna fix myself. That's what got me started and what made me keep up. I'm still having lots of trouble but we're getting there, trust.

What I'm trying to say is that it gave me a purpose, and I think everyone needs a purpose to get started here. What is it that you want to get out of this? What is what moves you inside the craft? Because if you're just doing this to not get anything from it, you're doing it wrong. Do spells, work with deities, just worshipping deities, bettering yourself, looking out for nature, or it just makes you really happy to do one really specific thing, but if it doesn't bring you anything that enriches your life you're not doing it correctly imo.

What do you do when you find something you like? Look into it, make mistakes, try everything, have accidents, believe things that are not true, fuck up again, change your beliefs, change your whole craft all over again... You know, live your craft. It's like everything.

When I started doing cross stitch I had two bloody fingers, the wrong kind of thread and they were the wrong color, but now I'm doing gifts for friends and framing some of my works. It was hard and I'm never escaping the bloody fingers and not having enough colors, but it won't happen as frequently. You know what I mean?

And after all of this, I gotta tell you meditation is something that I'm just starting to work on. The first time I tried to meditate with Lucifer he forced me to go to sleep instantly because it was pretty late at night (I'm still a bit mad at him for that)

What I can say is that guided meditations worked for me wonders, and I think it's a really good place to start! There's plenty and you just sit there listening to instructions, which I love very much.

I hope this helped in some way, or at least I hope I made you laugh at my mistakes lol.