#utterly horrifying

[mymangamemes]

Me inviting friends to join Tumblr

From The Doomed House's Contract Daughter by Harasyo and SETE

[queenlucythevaliant]

How do you believe Theistic Evolution interacts with other aspects of Christian morality and tradition? I mean, obviously the commands of God are the commands of God - but what new perspective do you think a Theistic Evolutionary viewpoint gives?

Oh my goodness, so many things! Broadly, though, I'd divide the implications into two groups: God's character and the unity of creation.

God's character

Theistic evolution is (I contend) the only framework for understanding creation that has an equally high regard for both Scripture and scientific empiricism; thus, it makes a very profound statement about God's trustworthiness, and about our confidence in him as the arbiter of Truth.

Seeing God's fingerprints in the creative process over the course of millions of years gives us a real sense of his patience and tirelessness. As Chesterton might say, he never gets tired of saying to the replicating cell, "do it again."

We also get a beautiful picture of God's sovereignty over creation: he is the God that knew, from the first time two organic molecules crashed together, that he was creating Man to glorify and enjoy him forever.

In the story of creation through evolution, we see a God who transcends time, but also works within it to bring about his sovereign will; who is endlessly patient, who is clever and inventive, who has an eye for beauty and a love for tangents and (ostensible) dead ends. What does it tell you about God that he spent millions of years creating the platypus? That he created dinosaurs at all? Through theistic evolution, we see a creator who plays across the vast landscape of time, creating endless forms most beautiful. Most importantly, we see a God whose wonderful works are faithfully recounted not just in the pages of Scripture, but in the very substance of the world he created.

Unity of creation

Knowledge of evolutionary history pushes us to think about our own embodied nature, our creatureliness, and our place within creation/the biosphere. We are united in lineage with all other creatures, both living and dead. We are embodied in the same carbon as every other living thing, deliberately, beautifully. This pushes back hard against the strains of "flesh bad" gnostic dualism that have run through our faith for pretty much its whole history. Heaven is not our "real home"; our destiny is the New Earth. God has woven us into its fabric.

Jesus stepped not just into the human lineage, but the lineage of the whole earth! In becoming flesh, he took on our place in the tree of life. Jesus shared DNA with Mary and her family, yes, but also with bacteria and brachiosaurs and banana slugs. While Christ died for the sins of humanity in particular, His stepping into the unity of life points to a future in which all living things are to be redeemed.

We must take the Biblical call to environmental stewardship very seriously then, if the rest of the biosphere is not merely our dominion but something of which we are an inextricable part. Evolutionary theory calls us to reconnect our theology and the created universe. In the same way that Scripture calls us to care for the world God created, evolution tells us of our direct relationship with the rest of creation, which implies a duty of care.

[gorgynei]

the way this was how allura fell for kima is CRAZYY. i knew allura was a little freak

[logicaldelta]

I know in my heart of hearts that crime alley kid Jason Todd wouldn't be able to hear anything about the food bought by Bruce and Alfred without having a heart attack over the fact that they aren't choosing the cheapest option

Bruce is out here buying expensive name brand bacon when the store brand stuff is RIGHT THERE ! Alfred goes out of his way to buy the MOST expensive fruits and vegetables. Even Dick will grab the name brand candy without hesitation

But Jason is a bargain hunter, and no, he won't buy a pear that costs more than 30 cents because that is THEFT.

Dick takes him to really fancy stores just to see how he reacts because Bruce thought he was insane for reacting the same way when he first came to the manor and this is vindicating for him, because dammit Bruce, i told you this wasn't "normal for most kids"!

He'll grab a few things after school one day and boast about how little they cost him (and if he stole a lolly pop or two, who needs to know? The corporations won't miss it)

It gets to a point where Bruce comes to prefer some no name items, primarily because Jason would bring them out on patrol and happily offer him some and the memories of those moments make the low quality food taste better

[flowersfrombefore]

*sitting on my bed listening to The Magnus Archives with the anxiety levels of someone being hunted for sport*

“I am having the time of my life right now”

[kiyomitakada]

i am aware that musical!light made L shoot him for strategic purposes i understand i think it was a very logical decision but i do also think that part of light wanted a scar. to remember him by

[twig-tea]

Saw the director of Addicted Heroin Thailand had posted this on his Facebook account:

This man looked at the show that was the tipping point of the first big anti-gay censorship wave in China in the 2010s, and decided to remake it and intentionally self-censor, just to see if he could attract the "Chinese BL is superior because it doesn't rely on kisses or NC scenes to show the emotions" audience to Thai BL?

I am so mad about this.

[starry-bi-sky]

I'm having incoherent thoughts about clone danny again from the clone/clone^2 au (when am I not?) but more specifically I'm thinking about his reaction to finding out he's a clone. The standalone clone au digs into that a little more than clone^2, which is more focused on Danny and Damian's relationship. But neither (so far) really get into Danny's issues about finding out he's a clone after 15 years of thinking he wasn't.

Because he resents his parents for not telling him for so long. He resents the way he found out; through a trivial school project rather than a sit-down talk. He resents the fact that, apparently, they had meant to tell him sooner. But forgot. He resents the fact that they never told him because finding out feels like something was stolen from him when it had the chance to not be.

Danny Fenton, just fifteen, cloned not even half a year ago, knows what that personal violation of autonomy feels like. He knows what it's like to be cloned and while he loves Ellie, he does, she's his sister, and in this au his twin. But he is still left with that feeling of unsafety after realizing he'd been cloned. Being cloned is violating. The onset realization that it's so easy to get DNA without the other party noticing, and that what was stopping someone from trying to clone him again?

Followed only after with the rest of the inexplainable mix of feelings of being cloned, the rest of that inner conflict and panic that's an ugly mocktail of emotions that range from horror to fear. Trying to imagine what it's like to be cloned from the cloned party, and I imagine that it leaves you with the feeling of needing to crawl out of your own skin with discomfort.

And then he gets put on the other side of it. Danny Fenton, only fifteen, was cloned not even half a year ago, finding out he is a clone. And reactions, I imagine, can vary from person to person. But to him, it feels like something got stolen from him, like someone took a hole puncher and stuck it right into his chest and stole a chunk of himself from him.

It changes nothing about him and yet it changes everything. It's a betrayal on it's own to just find out he was a clone and they didn't tell him for fifteen years -- it shouldn't mean anything, because he's still Danny, and yet it means everything. It's him, it's him, it's about him. It's his personhood. It's about the fact that a load-bearing rock in his identity just crumbled beneath his feet and now there's a rockslide.

Because then he finds out that they used the wrong DNA. Its like pouring salt in an open wound. He's not even related to his parents or his sister, when for years he thought he was. It's the fact that pieces of his identity that he's been so secure in for so long just got ripped away from him in an instant. Then they tell him -- only through his own horrified prompting -- that the person whose DNA they used -- Bruce Wayne -- didn't even know he existed. That they accidentally used the wrong DNA, then didn't tell the person whose DNA they used.

The betrayal of being lied to for years turns really quickly into horror at his own existence. Something very similar to the horror he felt at being cloned and the skin-crawling discomfort that made him feel like his own skin wasn't really his. And then its not. It's actually not. Nothing but his own name feels like it belongs to him anymore -- not his hair, not his eyes, not his heart or his lungs, nothing feels like his anymore and he didn't know what that felt like until it was gone.

It's a question of Nature Vs. Nurture -- where does the line of "nature" begin and where does the line of "nurture" end? What of him is actually his? What of him is Bruce Wayne's? It's not logical, it's not supposed to be. It's a load-bearing wall on the house of his identity being destroyed and now everything else is caving down in on him. What belongs to Danny, what belongs to Bruce Wayne?

[sunderingrivers]

The Queens Who Never Were 〚4 / 17〛

╰┈➤ ❝ By taking the girl to wife, the king could heal the rift that had grown up between the Iron Throne and Driftmark. And Laena would surely make a splendid queen. ❞

The daughter of Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen, Laena was a renowned beauty with her father's adventurous spirit and her mother's fiery passion.

She claimed the Queen of Dragons, Vhagar, before the age of 12. Initially considered by the Great Council as an heir to the throne, she once more came into proximity to the throne when King Viserys I's council suggested her as a wife, after the death of Queen Aemma Arryn.

Then betrothed to the Sealord of Braavos's son, Prince Daemon killed the boy and the two wed, then leaving for Pentos. Very close to the Princess Rhaenyra, Laena died giving birth to a third, stillborn child. It is said she attempted to take flight one more time as she bled out, but collapsed walking to Vhagar.

[lost-carcosa]

And naturally she's just put priti patel in her shadow cabinet.

Tories: “we lost the last election because of how far right we moved so to show we’ve learned we’ve elected Kemi Badenoch”

[nikanst]

I gave you everything

[zylphiacrowley]

Code Blood pt.2

<previous - next>

[apollos-boyfriend]

i know it was for emo reasons but still one of the most baffling part of jeff the killer’s backstory is that the bleach (+ alcohol/fire) turned his hair from brown to black. baffling not because that’s not how it works but because there are few things more horrifying than a blond man and i can’t believe didn’t capitalize on that opportunity

[theriu]

Me: Boy, I really enjoyed the Lockwood & Co series! I thought I might be creeped out by the creepy ghosts, but it surprisingly didn't get to me! I wonder if I should try out the TV show-

The Sane Part Of My Brain That Knows I WOULD Get Freaked Out If Some Scenes Had Actual Visuals: DON'T. YOU. DARE.

[jessicas-pi]

-- part one | part two | part three | part four --

Sabine lived in a world where everything and everyone was flawless.

No self-respecting Seelie over five years old went anywhere without their best glamour on. If they fought with each other, they played nice in the Summer Court. If they were unwell or sad or poor or unhappy in some way, they certainly didn't let on to it around their princess. Sabine had lived her life surrounded by beautiful, perfect fey in beautiful, perfect clothes with beautiful, perfect lives.

Maybe that's why she found this human so utterly fascinating.

He, with his scars and unwashed hair and dark circles under his eyes. He, with a life so miserable that he told her to her face that he didn't mind getting kidnapped by the Fair Folk, if it meant he got away from it. He, with his sun-faded shirt and scuffed shoes and ripped, ragged jeans.

He, with no glamour to hide who he was.

He bewitched her.

Sabine looked at him, and struggled to look away.

She was almost upset when her mother insisted he at least be cleaned up and dressed in Seelie garb, if he wasn't to be sent home. (And Mother would have sent him home, too, if that clever boy hadn't actually managed to get Sabine's Word that she would keep him with her until he told her his Name.) But, even without the dirty clothes and greasy hair and faint smell of something strange and mildly unpleasant, he was still flawed.

She was so used to seeing perfection in every face that she found her mind continually wandering back to him during the council meeting Mother forced her to sit in on that night, as punishment for her mischief. The Treasurer, the Advisors, the Captain of the Guard---they were all so unquestionably beautiful. It hurt her eyes to look at them for long. So she called up an alertly attentive glamour over herself, providing the illusion that she was listening to the Chief of Informants report on the Winter Court's most recent doings, and slouched in her seat with her sketchbook and pencils and tried to draw her new guest's expression. But it wasn't right. It was too smooth and symmetrical. It was too... fey.

She slapped the notebook shut with a scowl of frustration and resigned herself to suffering through the rest of the interminable council meeting.

The instant it ended, she rushed from the room, following the tether her Word had joined them with. She found him in the garden, sitting on a bench surrounded by foxglove flowers and, irritatingly, a dozen Seelie youths of her court. They were talking with him and laughing, but in a patronizing way—the way one might laugh at a particularly clever pet. As she watched from a distance, one of them reached over and tugged the color of his new jacket, saying something that sent the others into titters of merriment. Sabine's new friend laughed uncomfortably, his shoulders hunched inwards, glancing between the Fair Folk around him.

Sabine scowled.

She had cast off her formal glamour as she ran; it was cumbersome and got in her way. Now she called it back up, presenting herself in full regalia, with a diadem of flowers and dewdrop-like crystals, a cape of spider-silk gauze, piles and loops of snowy-white hair, and dark kohl around her eyes.

Sabine had been told her fullest glamour was frighteningly beautiful. And right now, she wanted to be frightening.

None of them saw her—she made certain of that with another glamour—as she approached noiselessly, circling around behind the bench and coming within earshot.

"—met a human before," one of the flaxen-haired sons of her mother's most bothersome advisor said, leaning down to look at her guest more closely, going so far as to grip him by the chin to force his head up. "So very unique. Don't you think so, brother mine?"

His twin agreed in a snide voice. "Never seen anything like it."

Sabine's fists curled, but twisted her growing snarl into a saccharine smile as she stopped behind the bench. Folding her arms on its back just beside her guest, she leaned forwards, getting as close to the face of the horrid advisor's son as possible before dispelling her glamour and announcing, "Treating him well, friend?"

The Seelie youths all startled, the ones sitting beside her guest jumping up off the bench and backing away guiltily. The elder twin was the first to reply.

"With every honor and dignity we judged fitting," he answered—well, he was honest, if nothing else.

"I see that," Sabine replied, sweetening her smile and gesturing towards her new guest. "I'm so glad someone has taken the initiative to make him feel welcome here."

"He's a very interesting boy," a Seelie lady put in, sounding eager to please. She'd been coveting a position as Sabine's attendant for quite a while, Sabine recalled. "So... unconventional."

Sabine gave her a smile that showed all her teeth and stood up straight.

"That wasn't the word I'd use," Sabine enunciated slowly. "But I suppose it's true." She glanced down at her guest. One look at his face told her that his every nerve was on end. "You look frightened, friend."

He glanced at the other Seelie, then gave her a weak smile. "I'm nervous around strangers."

Sabine thought quickly, weighing a few different options before settling on the one that would drive the others away while causing the least offense.

So she smiled at him, dropping her voice.

"I'm sure they didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. You're new, and... fascinating. Your eyes... they're marvelous, you know." Sabine put her hands on his shoulders, sliding down so her arms hung about his neck and the side of her face was pressed close to his. As she did so, she spoke, in a slow, smooth, breathy voice. "It's... no wonder... you've got..."

She leaned away just enough that she could put a gentle finger under his chin and turn his head to face her, catching his gaze and holding it tight, and finished in a whisper:

"...admirers."

Her guest blinked at her, wide-eyed, turning red with an unhidden blush, and Sabine felt a pang of guilt. No one in the Summer Court would willingly wear their emotions so blatantly on their face.

The younger of the twins made a choking noise of incredulity and there were a few snorts of amusement at her statement. Instantly discarding her plan of making them embarrassed enough to leave, Sabine turned upon them, feeling a spike of anger.

"Welll, your manners seem to have room for improvement, don't they?" she snapped, dropping the smile from her face, but keeping her arms draped protectively over her guest's shoulders. "All you've done to welcome my personal guest is to make him uncomfortable. He may not be Seelie, but he is here under my Word. So you answer to me for your what you say to him. Is that fully understood?"

A scattering of "of course, my lady," "my apologies," and "sincerest regrets" later, the youths had dispersed, and Sabine was left alone with her guest. Releasing him from her hold, she moved to the side, leaning on the back of the bench again. Sabine watched the others to make sure they were truly gone, then she addressed him once more.

"I give you my apologies," she whispered. "I was trying to make them feel awkward enough that they'd leave without me telling them to. I didn't mean to make you... embarrassed."

"It's okay. I'm just not used to..." He trailed off for a second, biting down on his lip. She almost wanted to reach out and stop him with a light touch of her thumb, traced down his lower lip, and she wasn't sure why.

Or rather, she was sure—or fairly sure—and the reason unsettled her.

"Compliments," he finished, after a second. "I'm not used to compliments."

"I suppose humans didn't really like the way you look," she remarked, and kept herself from adding, but I do.

Her guest was still blushing and clearly trying not to look at her as she straightened up and walked around the bench. In a move of impulse, she cast off her entire glamour. Without it, her hair was straight and plain, cut short above her chin, and her clothes were a simple linen tunic and leggings. She had bare feet, and she kicked them in the grass as she dropped down onto the bench beside him.

"Lucky you," she joked. "Not many people get to see the real me."

"This is what you look like?" he asked quietly, his ethereal blue eyes widening. "You don't have any—glamour, on, right now?"

She leaned back on the bench, lounging casually. "Nope. Not so impressive anymore, am I?"

He fidgeted with the hem of his sleeve—white, trimmed with gold and the same blue as his eyes—and glanced up at her for a second before looking away. " Actually, I... um... I think you're really pretty."

"Oh." Sabine blinked in surprise, instinctively summoning up an illusion to hide a blush that tinged her own face. Looking away, she tucked her hair back behind an ear. "That's... very kind of you to say. Most people think it's quite a step down from my glamour."

"Well, your glamour is..." He laughed a little. "It's something, that's for sure."

"It's so beautiful it's frightening?" Sabine suggested. "Everyone says so. Mother says it's something to be proud of."

"You're not proud?" he asked.

"I'm... not sure," Sabine said softly, gazing out into the garden. She'd never noticed how neatly arranged it was before—how artificial. "I think I might be bored of perfection, actually."

And, she added mentally, I think it's your fault.

"How long have you been waiting in the garden?" she asked, by way of conversation.

He shrugged lightly. "A while. I haven't been keeping track of time."

"I hope I didn't make you wait too long," Sabine told him, clasping her hands on her knees and leaning forwards, chasing the lightest wisp of a breeze that darted past her. "Mother made me sit in on a council meeting. They always seem to take forever."

"It wasn't too long," he assured. "It gave me time to think."

"About what?"

He hesitated a moment.

"My friends," he said. "I was thinking about my friends. I hope they're not too worried about me. I left a note, but... knowing Ka—er—one of them, he'll freak out anyway. Actually—" He reached up to the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. "I'm wondering if maybe that note just made him more worried. He believes in the Fair Folk too, but, um, I think he's more scared of them than anything."

"If it's the Unseelie he's afraid of, then he's right," Sabine said frankly. "Thousands of your years ago, they were friendly with your kind. Helpful. Generous, even. Then the Emperor Palpatine of the Winter Court changed things. Humans have always called us petty, but the new Unseelie are nothing less than evil."

"Then I'm glad you found me," he said, giving her an imperfect smile.

"I'm glad I found you, too," she replied absently. He showed his teeth when he smiled, and one of them was a little bit crooked. But he noticed her staring and stopped smiling, looking awkward. Sabine turned the conversation to another topic. "If you think your friends at home are worried for you, we could go visit them."

He did a double-take. "Visit them? I thought I had to stay here."

"You have to stay with me. If I go to your realm, then you come along." She smiled. "Shall we go? I think I can fit in with your people and not draw attention, in a pinch. No one will know I'm Seelie."

A twinkle came into his eyes, and the side of his mouth twitched. "Actually, you just gave me a really funny idea."

Sabine grinned and leaned forwards conspiratorially.

"Oh? Do tell."

[mybrutalrom4ance]

im raw doggin lunch rn… (I have no eyeliner or bracelets on)