#which i agreed with the gist of but not the specifics so I didn't want to reblog so im making my own post instead

[buildarocketboys]

the way the autistic community went from "having low/no empathy doesn't make you a bad person" to "actually all autistics are hyperempathetic, they just don't express it like neurotypicals!!!!" within the space of a few years :////

[jedi-enthusiast]

Can you please elaborate on the 4-hour conversation about Palpatine screwing himself over bc I would genuinely LOVE to hear it

OH HELL YEAH, I'D LOVE TO!!! and tagging @shootingstarpilot because they also wanted to hear me shit on Palpatine.

I'm gonna do my best to summarize our discussion, but it's probably gonna be long as hell, and for everyone reading please keep this in mind:

My friend and I were obviously not discussing the ethics of Palpatine's way of ruling or our own suggestions--this was just us talking about how he was stupid and could've probably ruled longer if he did the following things.

----------

Number One - The Death Star Was a Stupid Idea

Ok, we both agreed that the Death Star was the fucking stupidest thing ever because it 1. was a huge expense that could've gone to other things that would've worked better and 2. odds are, it would've just led to an uprising in Imperial ranks and wouldn't have worked as the "intimidation tactic" he thought it would.

We're just gonna be focusing on 2 since 1 is discussed in the other parts.

Basically the gist was that obviously Imperials come from the same planets as everyone else, right? They're recruited, not created (something we'll come back to later).

That means that if the Emperor and high ranking Imperial Officers just destroyed planets willy-nilly every time a rebel from that planet didn't listen (like Leia and Alderaan) or had a rebel presence, then they'd be 1. destroying other Imperials' home planets as well 2. destroying those same Imperials' friends and families and 3. destroying the Imperial forces on said planets, which wouldn't send a good message to the Imperials working for them.

That obviously wouldn't go over well with Imperials whose planets were destroyed or probably any other Imperial, because Palpatine would be sending the message that "it happened to this officer, why wouldn't it happen to you?" which would then probably lead to a lot of Imperials defecting to the Rebellion, spying for the Rebellion, or just plain quitting.

And you can't really threaten planetary destruction if they quit because 1. again, there are other Imperials from that planet and 2. that's literally already a possibility, even if they work for the Empire. And if they don't destroy planets willy-nilly because of a rebel or rebel presence, then the Death Star isn't even a very convincing intimidation tactic and ultimately useless.

So either way it's just a very stupid, expensive show pony.

Number Two - They Should've Stuck With the Clones

Choosing to recruit random people from across the galaxy instead of just sticking with the Kaminoans and the clones was just fucking stupid.

Firstly, the clones could be controlled by the chips in their heads. Yes, newer material is showing them start to question the Empire as their chips degrade, but that's because Palpatine's plan was specifically to use them to kill the Jedi and then toss them away--not because he planned on using them as soldiers in the long term.

If that was his plan, I guarantee you that the Kaminoans could have found ways to make the chips permanent or, at the very least, last a lot longer--and, honestly, they probably could've made the effects a lot stronger to the point where it suppressed all personality traits. They also could've made ways to stop the faster aging process after a certain point so that the clones could stay "viable" longer. They just didn't because that wasn't really the plan, it wasn't meant to be a permanent thing.

Second, the Kaminoans were obviously willing to stay loyal to the Empire as long as they kept buying clones--and for an Empire that's constantly fighting and conquering and expanding, I'd say they'd never really have a reason to stop buying clones. Plus, with how much Palpatine shelled out for 2 Death Stars, which were ultimately useless, he obviously has the money to keep buying clones--and obviously the clones aren't being paid. So the fact that he wouldn't be paying the millions of Imperials that work for the Empire would probably pay for the clones themselves.

So Kamino would always be loyal, since it's obvious they don't really give a shit about the moral quandary of things from what we're shown, only really their personal connections/gains. The few surviving Kaminoans only became willing to turn on the Empire (and, even still, it takes a lot to convince them) after Kamino was destroyed.

Third, let's just be honest here, the clones are a whole hell of a lot more skilled and efficient than stormtroopers. Stormtroopers literally miss most of the shots they take, meanwhile clones are shown to be very skilled and capable and also shown to overcome the odds a lot of times and succeed where they should've failed. Yes, sometimes that's because of the Jedi, but a lot of times they're able to just do it themselves (like Rishi and Umbara, for example).

I can't remember the last time I've seen the Stormtroopers actually be successful in a show or movie, unless there was a Darksider helping them or some really high ranking Imperial with them (like Moff Gideon).

So basically, Palpatine threw away a force of skilled, capable soldiers that he could've made be unquestionably loyal to him--a force of soldiers that honestly would've been far more intimidating than the Death Star--in order to recruit a bunch of untrained soldiers that would have to be trained later and could turn on him at any point.

Again, stupid.

Number Three - The Shitty Training and Supplies

I'll admit, my friend was the one who outlined this part for me because he knows a lot more about weapon types and such than I do--but basically his ramble boiled down to this:

Palpatine basically gave Imperials shittier armor, weapons, and ships than the Republic did because he was cheap and that's probably why everything didn't work very well and/or was easily destroyed. I can try to elaborate on this in another post, but he honestly was the brains behind this part of the discussion.

We also talked about how, since Imperials were recruits and their training was done later in life (even if that "later in life" was just like 15), their training was probably a lot more rushed than the training the clones went through, and it probably didn't stick as well. Plus, just because of the nature of recruitment, their standards probably had to be lowered some in order to fill their ranks and also because you can't really threaten them with the same shit the Kaminoans did with the clones.

----------

So, in conclusion, Palpatine made stupid ass decisions.

In other news, water is wet.

[templeofbugsnax]

I did that big meditation, as I said, to discuss terms and commit myself to Snaktooth. It was an incredible experience. Further details under the cut.

For setup: I ate and drank as I knew this would take a while, I scented myself with a barbecue perfume, and opened up Bugsnax specifically to use the night-time theme of Sizzling Sands as meditation music. It worked spectacularly.

I settled quickly into a warm, dreamy state, visualising the Sands. I sat there the way I was sitting in real life, dug my fingers into the sand, took in the scent of spices and felt the cool night wind. I felt truly and deeply at home.

Once I felt relaxed and ready, I called out:

"Queen of Venoms,

Mother of the Swarm,

Lover of the Lost,

Come to me. I wish to devote myself to you, after all this time."

The ground shook as she emerged from the sand, mane of dunegrass, horns of skeletal trees, fur dusty orange, towering, eclipsing the moon.

It kneeled down to get closer to me and offered me a loaded spuddy, a way to communicate more easily. I ate the perfect baked potato, and Snaktooth offered me its massive paw. I put my snakified hand on its pad and it closed its fingers around me and I felt my hand sink into its snak-flesh. I lost some connection to my body, both in this space and in physicality, and my head swam, but I wasn't overwhelmed, only filled with a powerful feeling of affection as it began to speak to me.

It'd be difficult to transcribe. Often I heard multiple things at once in multiple voices, and it would reply before I had even formed my questions.

The gist of it:

We talked about expectations, and boundaries - what we wanted from each other and what we'd be happy to give. It was tender and affectionate.

It wanted offerings - food, feelings of hunger, feelings of satisfaction, sauce and flowers and plants, nurturing and growing things, all forms of pleasure. It wanted me to introduce others to it - through sharing the game, talking about my working with it, and through art of all kinds, even if it's veiled in something else - and to help them if they're interested in worshipping it too. It said affectionately that it doesn't need the formality I gave it at the start but it does like my poetry, which was more than flattering.

It wanted me to bring people together in general, and that's something I want too - so it offered support in guiding me to new connections and in helping form and firm them.

I didn't want for much other than to be able to make some requests for help now and again and to incorporate it into some magical work. It enthusiastically agreed. It offered me its protection, support, and love.

Things wound down; we dropped the connection a little, and I huddled into its chest. It felt deeply safe and comforting, and it offered me more snax to eat. After a couple it told me I'd been with it a while and I ought to wake up. I didn't want to, but it told me I could return whenever I want (and that it would like for us to do this more). It told me to wake up - and I did. It turned out I'd been meditating for just shy of an hour straight. It took some time for me to fully settle back into my body to write this, and this account of the whole thing definitely isn't complete.

In any case, it was wonderful - I think the most beautiful and personal spiritual experience I've ever had. I'm excited to get to work.

[theia-eos]

Hello!

small question about "shadows of the crimean liberation"

in chapter 11 how come Janaff and Ulki didn't recognize Soren as a black dragon branded? I understand for story reasons but you mention specifically that they don't know even after meeting Deghinsea and Kurthnaga in Goldoa so I was wondering if there was another reason too?

Ah, thank you for asking! I do plan to go into it more in other stories, but since it would be from the point of view of characters who don't have the whole picture, I'm happy to provide a top down view.

There a few components to consider.

The first being that Micaiah and Soren recognize that there is something powerful and ancient within each other respectively during Radiant Dawn.

Soren: The Maiden of Dawn… What are you? One of the Branded, that’s for sure. But there is something else about you… Power. Yes, I can feel it in you. You possess great power. Micaiah: Yes, and you would know. There’s something very different about you, too. Your energy feels so…ancient. You and I seem to have so much in common. Radiant Dawn, "Blood Contract," Chapter 3-13

So there is some ancient energy within Soren, this is clear foreshadowing to Soren being descended from the Ancient Black Dragon King himself. Micaiah having some unique great power is a likely reference to her being the apostle and having inherited Lehran's ability to hear the Voice of the Goddess and awaken the goddesses.

The other, and most important, component is that Tibarn, Naesala, Reyson, and Caineghis all go to the meeting with Deghinsea and Kurthnaga, and presumably Ranulf, Janaff, Ulki, and Nealuchi all accompany their kings. Many of them speak to, with, and are around Soren, and none of them notice in the game. This despite Tibarn saying later on in Radiant Dawn that:

Tibarn: That Almedha is a formidable woman. At first I doubted her claim that she was the daughter of that useless old lizard. But even I had trouble holding her down. Me! She’s no ordinary beorc woman, that’s for sure. Elincia: I agree. Lady Almedha and Prince Kurthnaga share a striking resemblance, as well. Not just their faces, but their mannerisms, too. Tibarn: Is that how beorc spot blood relations? We laguz use scent, mainly. Speaking of which, something has been bothering me about Almedha. She has no distinct scent. It’s as if she is neither beorc nor laguz. Elincia: She actually told me something that I wanted to ask you about. She said that she lost her power when she became pregnant with King Pelleas. Radiant Dawn, "Unforgivable Sin," Chapter 4-5

The Extended Scripts expand on it a bit more

[ティバ���ン] そうか…ベオクは そうやって判断するのか。▼ [エリンシア] ラグズは、どうなさるんですか？▼ [ティバーン] 主に匂いだな。▼ ラグズとベオクは大きく違うし、 ラグズの中でも種に応じて違う。 …俺たちはそうやって個体を見分ける。▼ が、あのアムリタという女は…… どこかおかしい。▼ Radiant Dawn, "Unforgivable Sin," Chapter 4-5

The basic gist being that each type of laguz has its own unique type of scent in addition to the major difference in scent between laguz and beorc. You can read a fan translation by the always lovely amielleon here.

Tibarn also remarks a few sentences later (fan translation, again, provided by amielleon) that "Parentless" have a scent closer to a beorc.

[ティバーン] 黒竜王がベオクと交わったとでも？ それは、天地がひっくりかえっても ありえねえ話だろうぜ。▼ ”親無し”は、むしろ ベオクに近い匂いがするって話だ。 それでもないから…分からん。▼ Radiant Dawn, "Unforgivable Sin," Chapter 4-5

But that clearly means they have elements of both laguz and beorc in their scent, just more beorc than laguz. (This makes it clear why laguz who aren't in the know, like Skrimir or Vika, could mistake a Branded for a beorc, but Tibarn is clearly in the know and can pick up on however small that differentiation is).

And yet no one, not even he-who-spoils-the-Black-Knight-reveal-almost-certainly-based-on-scent-alone Ranulf, notices that Soren is dragon branded, let alone related to Dheginsea or Kurthnaga. Or if they do, they are weirdly and uncharacteristically quiet about it. Which some of them would be quiet (Ranulf is more of a quiet investigator, but even he has moments of cheek "I know what your secret is" [though maybe he's just trying not to upset Soren by keeping quiet]), and others (especially Tibarn) would never be quiet about that tidbit of information ("You'd let your own grandson die by sending us back to the Kauku Caves?" [I love Tibarn, but if he knew, he'd say something for certain when they're in Goldoa in Radiant Dawn, despite the fact that the revelation would kill Soren on the spot(of mortification)]).

So, why does Pelleas have to figure it out? Kurthnaga travels with the Greil Mercenaries in Part 4 and can fight alongside Soren in the Tower, and yet, nothing??? His own nephew is right there, and nothing???

I have nothing, no really good info from the games, so I have to come up with my own answers based on what little we do get.

So back to why can't anyone recognize what Soren's scent is. If the games don't give me the info I want, then I'll make it up.

Well. as Tibarn says, Almedha has no scent that is distinctive of either beorc or laguz. Beorc and laguz have different scents, and the different tribes have their own unique notes as well.

I've decided that the "beorc scent" is of different varities of metals (copper, gold, silver, tin, etc.) and the "laguz scent" is more earthy. Beast tribes being herbal (I reference lions having a basil note later on in that story), bird tribes being more air/water (herons smelling of petrichor, ravens like a storm, etc.), and dragons being stony (black dragons having a subtle clay scent, etc.). Soren mostly gains the metallic scent of beorc, as Tibarn describes, and since laguz have difficulty smelling anything beyond metal scents, the more subtle earthen smell is lost, they just know it's not all beorc if they're more aware than the average laguz.

In addition to that, he has an ancient power from his maternal grandfather within him that Micaiah can sense., and Reyson can also sense to a smaller degree. Maybe it alters Soren's scent a little, maybe not. I'm undecided as of right now.

So Soren just sits there, being a little enigma, because you would have to get up close and personal and smell him to get the obscured notes of his dragon scent, and no laguz is doing that. (Would be funny if the dragon laguz scent notes were stronger in his breath since he's a dragon. Like he just sighs very heavily because of someone annoying him and Ranulf or someone else with a sensitve sense of smell sitting next to him is like "!!!").

And that's why no one can tell he's black dragon for the moment.

[smaller-comfort]

⭐! Loser Takes All!

You know, I think if someone else had already written the filthy Aephorul/Resh'an tentacle smut I was craving back when I first finished the game, I might not have felt the need to write my own. I hadn't done any serious creative writing in years at that point, but the idea kept rolling around in my head and wouldn't go away. I wrote the first 2500 words of it in a draft tumblr post because typing anything in my notes app or google docs felt too real, and I had to trick my brain into thinking I wasn't actually writing anything in order to get any writing done.

It was always going to start with Aephorul's temper tantrum in the Archives, but at one point Aephorul's violence was going to take the sex in a much darker direction. That got scrapped pretty quickly, and instead there's that whole interlude where Aephorul is insistent on Resh'an's consent. I actually do think that's an important bit of characterization now, but I recognize that it might be a little immersion-breaking in some ways. And it's really in there because otherwise I was going to run up against a bunch of my own weirdly specific squicks around sex and violence. (Maybe I'll unpack that in an essay about content warnings at some point, idk. I'm not always sure where the lines are myself, honestly.)

I didn't end up cutting much from the final story- I think I deleted most of what I didn't use, unfortunately. (Fun fact, I had originally scrapped the sounding because I was getting self conscious about it; this was my first time writing...pretty much all of the kinks in there, actually. It's @kyoukhi's fault the sounding got written back in.)

You can see the tiny handful of bits I did cut here (nsfw-ish):

(This bit is actually in my notes on the tumblr post where I link to the story. Their stupid bickering is 99% of the appeal for me, honestly.)

“An eye for an eye, isn't it? You fucked my plans in two worlds. Now I get to fuck you."

It's too much. He breaks one hand free of Aephorul's grasp, so he can cover his face with it.  “That sounded better in your head, didn't it.”

“...oh, shut up.”

----

His mouth is dry. He feels too hot, as if Aephorul's hand on his bare skin has lit a fever in him. It has been countless thousands of years since he has felt anything like this, and it is awful.

He knows that he can, actually, come from this- endless, merciless teasing- he's done it before. But it had taken weeks to get to that point, and he is not going to think about the stupid sexy games they used to play with each other before everything went to shit.

--

(I think this was actually the first bit of the sex that I wrote.)

"You're such. A. Hypocrite. Play by the rules until you can't be bothered, and then you agree so readily to whatever forfeit I want- it's almost like you enjoy this."

"Should I not?" He asks, drily. It takes quite a lot of self control to keep his voice even, while Aephorul's cock- or whatever it is- twitches. "Probably should have mentioned that at the start then- ah!"

---

(the gist of this bit is actually getting reused in Save Scum, but this is what it originally looked like):

“Do you remember-”

“No.” The word comes out in a sudden, vehement snarl.

Everything stops, which is agonizing in its own way.  His feet touch the ground, and the bindings on his arms recede. Aephorul holds him in a carefully controlled collapse to the floor.

“No,” he repeats. His eyes are still sealed shut.  “Not- not to this." He trails one hand down the nearest piece of flesh he can reach. "This is fine.”

“Is it?” Hands- tentacles, whatever- wrap around Resh'an's shoulders, massaging the aching muscles there. 

“Yes,” slightly exasperated. “Just don't- don't bring up- the way things were. Don't ask me to remember.”

“Very well.” Aephorul's voice is flat and emotionless.

[sunkissedliterarylightofchrist]

I saw the ask you got regarding your religion and I'm sorry that all that was said to you. It's really unfair of whoever posted it and does not reflect the fandom at all.

However, I did notice that you didn’t specifically address your views on queerness in that post. I was curious about your perspective on the topic as a Christian and how it relates to your beliefs. No hate intended, just genuinely interested.

I did see your take on transness and neopronouns which I do disagree heavily with, as somebody who doesn't use neopronouns. The world is messed up right now, and if something as simple as neopronouns brings a little bit of happiness to somebody, then who are we to care? If god really doesn't make mistakes, and god makes us in Her own image, then who are we to correct people who have lived their lives with this truth? Surely their gender identity is part of how god made them; part of gods plan. And the take of 'I will use their name so not to use their pronouns' isn't as respectful as you believe it is.

But I was hoping for your wider stance on queerness as a whole in regards to your religion. What do you think of people who are gay, lesbian, trans, nonbinary, and everything else under the queer umbrella, and how does it fit in with your Christian beliefs?

I am coming at this with pure respect; I'm just wanting to understand.

Hi! I assume you're talking about the hate ask that got left on my sideblog? If that's the case, I totally agree! ZR is a blast and I've yet to talk to someone who's really rude or hostile, except for that anon. Its a cool fandom! Probably my favorite, even though its so small! I didn't address my beliefs in that post because it did not seem relevent to the ask in question, but I am glad that you saw you could ask me over here what they really are, and that you did! Thanks for being repectful, it's a lot easier to engage in conversation with someone who is actually willing to hear what I have to say, even if they disagree, then someone who's just trying to punch me in the jaw!

So here we go.

I believe what the Bible says. The end-all and be-all authority. It is the Word of God, what God commands us to do, directly breathed out into a book that we can study to learn what His will in our lives is. It's truly remarkable! We don't have to walk through life blind and stumbling about who we are and what our place is in the world, we are told! So everything I believe about anything has its ultimate basis in Scripture.

So here is what the Bible says about homosexuality:

1 Corinthians 6:9 - “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."

 Leviticus 18:22, 20:13 - You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination;  If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Romans 1:26-27 - For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

1 Timothy 1:10 - ...the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,...

There are more. But I think you get the gist here. Homosexuality and transgenderism and even saying you don't have a gender, and a lot of what the LGBTQIA+ movement stands for, goes directly against God's design. There are two genders, man and woman. We are called to have any and all sexual relations within marrige between one man and one woman. It's black and white. That hurts what our flesh craves, that's uncomfortable, and might even feel cruel, but it is how we are created to be. Man and woman compliment each other, and are created to work together as a single unit for our entire lives. That's how God decided it would be.

But note that God isn't slam-dunking on homosexuality because He hates it extra. A lot of the condemnation against gay sexual sin is listed among a list of sins that are all equally condemned. And actually, if you count it up verse by verse, the Bible spends more time talking about men who abuse their wives (physically, mentally, sexually) and how that's wrong over being gay or trans or any of that. Straight sin is no better or worse than queer sin.

Christian culture (which, trust me, is just dumb Western culture and almost none of it is actually Christianity as it is supposed to be) goes after this especially because they hate it more and use the Bible as an excuse. Which I hope you can see is wrong on all counts and by doing that they are sinning just as much. Anger against sin should NEVER result in more sin. Ever. So if anyone has ever used religion as a means to intentionally hurt you or your queer loved ones, I truly and deeply apologize on their behalf. God sees their sin too, and He is enraged at them for disrespecting His name and treating His law with contempt and passing it off as what He wants them to do. They will face justice for their sin, same as all of us.

And it comes to neopronouns- you're basically saying that you aren't a person, or something to that effect, it depends on the person. So as for it making somone happy... I disagree with that because of what the Bible says. Jeremiah 17:9, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Our feelings and emotions and flesh lie to us all the time. If you're a runner, you know that! Your body is screaming at you that this is the worst thing ever and you are going to die if you don't give up right now, but then a chase comes on and you're able to sprint at top speed for thirty seconds and go, 'Huh, I guess I was able to do that.' Our bodies and minds lie to us, all the time. That's a big thing about mental health too- there are some days that there is nothing I want to do more than pack up and leave my entire life behind without telling anyone and intentionally hurt them by this. And then once in a while there are worse days when suicidal ideation gets the better of me and I'm standing at the edge of a river not that far from my house and contemplating drowning myself.

But I don't. Because my mind and body and feelings are deceptive. And I listen to God and what He says. Because what He says is always good, beautiful, and true. And far above me and anything about me. He is strong where I am weak. And I, in my flesh, apart from Him, am weak in everything.

It's the same here. It's the same with every other sin. My feelings are weak and changeable, and my body and mind work together to decieve me into desiring things that are terrible for me. And same with every other person ever. So wanting to do something just because it feels good or makes you happy isn't a good reason for doing a lot of things. Just because being called eir/ehm would make you happy doesn't mean its a good reason. Just because getting drunk would make you happy doesn't mean its a good reason. Just because mastubating makes you happy doesn't mean its a good reason. And this comes to gay relationships too, or being trans, or no gender, or any of that. Just because it makes you feel good doesn't mean its a good reason.

Is it because God hates happiness? By all means no! Look around! God created snow to play in and alchohol to consume and sex to have and other pleasures to read or watch or hear or more, and every good thing in the universe He created and He approves! He loves beauty and fun! I bet Jesus had some really good Aramaic puns he told the disciples! We have our joy in Him and what He has done, but even beyond that joy, because He is a good and gracious God, He has given us billions of reasons to be happy! Let us rejoice in that!

The thing about restrictions on anything ever is that they all have a place and purpose, and for every single one of these we can find the basis of why straight from His word. That's why true and genuine Christians, not those who puppet the name for their own ends or misguided beliefs, study the word. How can you know how to drive if you weren't taught how? Same thing with the Bible. It's all just really one big excerice in delayed gratificaiton. Delayed gratification is the ability to resist the temptation of an immediate reward in favor of a more valuable and long-lasting reward later. So despite our flesh craving things that feel good to us, we have to deny ourselves for His sake, because that is what He has commanded us to do. And while it might be 'boring' now and we miss out on 'good' (as defined by the world, which is wrong) things now, our reward is in Heaven. And our reason for this is Jesus. And there truly is no greater reason.

When it comes to anyone that is sexually confused, or with any sin ever really, its not how God created us. Life is not supposed to be this way. We were all corrupted by the fall and how sin has infected everything. While you might believe that you were 'born this way', its not. Its not who you were made to be.

But good news! GOD CAN FIX IT!

The only thing worth placing our complete and total identity in is Jesus Christ, the son of God, who willingly came down from heaven to earth to be born of a teenage girl in the grossest place possible, to walk the earth for thirty years and experience every hardship and be tempted with every sin, to then die in the most torturous way that humans have ever devised, all for a chance at saving and redeeming His children. Every day, the more I learn about Him and what He has done for me, how can I not deny my impluses to lie and lust and be lazy and succumb to how my evil mind wants me to hurt myself and every other sin? He made the ultimate sacrifice so I could have but a chance at life. So from the moment I put my faith and trust in Him and was saved, until the day I die, I am going to continually deny myself for His sake, because he denyed Himself of His rightful glory for mine.

That's why I'm a Christian.

So when it comes to talking to anyone who is queer, or engaing with any piece of media that has a lot of queer representation in it, I love them and treat them the exact same way I would treat any other person or fandom. With the diginity and love and respect that they deserve as people. Whatever labels they put on themselves or whatever they think about anything ever, I'll be kind and gracious to them like how Christ has called me to. But, I won't accept a sinful lifestyle as okay, no matter the sin. I won't accept the lifestyles of ANYONE who disobeys God, not matter what the sin in question is, because every single lifestyle or belief apart from Him is sinful. But I will never turn my back on them, or treat them with disrespect or even hatred, and with every single desicion I make I do everything in my power to do exactly what God has called me to do.

Now. If you read all of this and now decide that you hate me, or just disagree with my beliefs, and want to block me here and my fandom sideblog, that's cool. I get it, I really do. I'm just glad that you listened to what I have to say here.

Like I said in that post though, I don't really talk about my faith in Jesus Christ on there at all? And in my writing (mostly unpublished yet though lol) I plan to touch on it slightly, because that's just how my Five runs through her life, but it doesn't like... change my perception of the story really? I love it and enjoy it! So while being a Christian is an integral part of my worldview and all that jazz, its not like I'm going to go into the ZR tag with a megaphone and scream, "I HATE QUEER PEOPLE!!!" And also because... that's not true.

I don't hate someone who disagrees with me or lives their life differently than I do just because we're different. That is just as much of a sin. So look, when it comes to fandom in general, I don't think it is the best place and time to talk about the Gospel and how Jesus has changed my life unless it nautrally comes up, not because I don't want to share how Jesus has radically changed the human condition of emptiness and guilt and shame, but because it's not exactly the perfect way to talk about these things. I personally think its more effective to have a deep converstation about what the meaning of life is and our place in it with someone I know personally, and I have a good relationship with, than just making a post that says 'ur an evil sinner who's going to hell repent or else' in a fandom space.

Also because that's a lie. You, reading this, no matter who you are, are no better or worse of a sinner than I am. We both deserve to die for our sins. But what the difference between us as of this moment is, is that I have been redeemed by Christ. And you can too. I'm praying for you, and if you have any follow up questions or want to learn more, I am here.

I'm sorry this was so long, but thank you for reading it! It became long because there are just so many important things that needed to be said when it comes to this.

[theredmark-dev]

Hello! I make games

My name is Malindu and I make games. I don't want to go into a long intro but I know my inner-writer wouldn't agree. So here's the gist:

Who am I?

I am Malindu Ruwantha Kumaradasa. Since that is a hard name for most of you, I go by the name Mark (MaRK, to be more specific) on the internet. I turn 25 this September (2024). I like games (obviously), music, writing, and dubbing (haven't tried in a professional setting but I definitely would, someday). I still live with my parents while working as a contractor for InforPanacea, UK. I don't always get work and that's where I get my free time to make games. On to the more "game dev" side 👇

What am I?

I'm a graduate of Software Engineering who made games even while doing my unrelated degree. I made a C game on the command prompt, a C# game with visuals, a Js multiplayer game on the browser, and my "Software Engineering" final project using Unity. All this and not finding a permanent job in the software field led me to start working on games. I have currently worked on 2 different game projects: A deck builder similar to Marvel SNAP (project dropped for... reasons) and a tower defense game ("Hyper Towers", a skillset demo, available on itch.io, 5-minute gameplay). Right now, I am working on a game called "Survivesmith", which is a larger game in terms of gameplay and effort. I will write more about this in a different post.

I'll give you one better, Why am I?

I am doing game dev because it had been my passion even before I realized it. At a very young age (probably around 8), I saw some amazing games on TV and on the internet but didn't get to play any of them. I dreamt about those games as a kid and didn't know a lot about how to even play them. I started making games in my head and played them on pen and paper. I made my own art, UI, balancing, stat sheets, and that kinda stuff and played them with the graphics and sound effects turned to the max inside my head.

In school, I made games to be played on our notebooks ("notebooks" here being small A6-sized books where we wrote down our homework for the day). They got really popular among kids in my grade and even in the grade above mine.

All and all, I've always wanted to make games, and I never knew how, until I started learning coding. Now, after 24 years, I'm finally working on something I've always wanted to do instead of what others have told me to. I'd like to invite you to join me on my journey. I might not become a great game developer, but at least I would try to make games that would make me happy, and provide enjoyment to the players at the same time.

Cheers!

[ceterisparibus116]

Hi! Idk if you’ve ever answered this before, but I’m confused as to what exactly a conflict of interest is? I’ve googled it multiple times and I think I sort of get the gist, but it’s one of those things that I can’t entirely wrap my head around without someone basically spelling out to me. Like- if someone is a defence attorney, would they be allowed to defend their best friend in court? Or it that conflict of interest? How does that work?

I really love your fics and all your meta about Daredevil btw :)

You're totally right to be confused - it is confusing! A conflict of interest is literally anything that could cause the attorney to struggle to prioritize the interests of their client.

Literally. Anything.

(Which makes it hard to google. I googled it and got this, which, yeah. I only know how it makes sense because I took a whole class where like 50% of the class was on conflicts of interest lol.)

The specific example I see more than anything in criminal law goes like this:

Two defendants are in a car; illegal drugs are also in the car. To whom do the drugs belong??? Each defendant claim the drugs belong to the other!

Obviously a defense attorney can't in the same breath argue "these specific drugs belong to X, not Y" and also argue "these specific drugs belong to Y, not X." So if the attorney takes X's case, then there is now a conflict of interest with Y.

This is also seen in DDS3 where DA Tower points out that Matt and Foggy aren't just there to protect Nadeem: they want to use Nadeem to take down Fisk. This is fraught with risk that something that would be effective at taking down Fisk would also really hurt Nadeem's case. But Nadeem waives that conflict of interest (albeit informally, and in part because Nadeem is also interested in taking down Fisk), so Matt and Foggy are able to continue representing him.

The best friend thing is a conflict of interest if the attorney is unable to be objective. There are hints of this in the Ella series, although it's never explicit. Whether it's Foggy representing Matt or Matt representing Karen, there are times when the attorney makes choices based on how they think of their client as their friend or wife. For example, as Marci pointed out in You Are My Strength, Matt should have told Marci what he knew about Karen's history with Kevin - and he didn't. Marci, at least, believes that this was not the sort of detail he'd forget to mention if Karen were just a normal client.

But again, the conflict can be waived by the client. So if the best friend (or wife, or whomever) trusts the attorney to be objective, they can agree to have the attorney represent them even though the relationship isn't strictly attorney-client.

Anyway, overall, a conflict of interest is anything that causes the attorney to care about anything other than the client's case. It's very broad.

[narastories]

So I know we're slipping into Saturday in this timezone, but I nevertheless have a question!

What's your relationship to dialog? Because I have had a variety of opinions from writers: some love it, some hate it. Do you like writing it? Is it easier to write than the rest or harder? Do you have opinions on dialog tags? On written accents and language quirks?

Sorry if this is all vague, the gist of it is: tell me about your approach to dialog. I'm asking because I really liked the dialog in your latest FPA fic.

Good luck with your current project and thank you!

Thanks for asking, I'm still happy to answer this on a Saturday lol

Also, I'm really flattered that you liked the dialog in my fic <3

This is such an interesting topic and I think I have lots of opinions! I would say there was definitely a time when I would have said dialog was my least favorite, but I think it has changed. I'm still struggling with it sometimes, especially if I need a character to give a certain piece of information to another character for plot reasons and I don't want them to sound dry. That still feels pretty hard.

But sometimes it's actually the dialog that comes to me first from a scene and then I make sure to write it down immediately. I think it also makes it a bit easier to see if it flows naturally if you only have the dialog next to each other and nothing else. Also maybe my brain hacked itself into daydreaming up some dialog because I found it hard lool

I also really like banter-heavy scenes in media (you know, the FPA has plenty of good lines for example), and that both motivates and inspires me to try to get the dialog right. It can also be fun once you learn how a particular character talks. (Although I do tend to second-guess myself every once in a while.)

Writing in first POV also indirectly helped I think because when you write the narration you are already closer in tone to how that character speaks, if that makes sense?

Writing different English accents specifically is very hard for me I think, because I never got a lot of exposure to them irl. And because of previous fandoms I know how it looks when someone does it really well (looking at you @geekinthefuschiahair sorry to tag you in a random discussion but this question made me think of how you writing Jamie's Scottish accent always filled me with awe and humility lol)

With the punctuation of dialog and the different language quirks around that I'm not picky. I don't know if you agree as a fellow European but I feel like since we get exposed to a lot of languages in our lives minor things like how someone signals the start of dialog just don't seem like a big deal? What I mean for example is that I ordered three books of the Dresden Files series and it took me actual DAYS to notice that one was the UK edition and had single quotes instead of double quotes around dialog lool I just opened both and went "yeah, looks about right" lmao

It's funny because I know that people can be extremely picky about that.

But if you read books in different languages growing up I think it's not that difficult to adjust to punctuation.

Actually, I think when I translated my first fic to English and put it on AO3 I used the Hungarian way of doing the dialog with EM dashes (I can sense some people shuddering right now) because I didn't know any better. I edited it since ofc lol Then because I got into Outlander and because I lived in the UK for a while I tried using single quotes, but then I had a lot of American fandom friends and decided to spare their eyes lol

So that is to say, I'm not picky about that. As long as you tell me who is speaking, I'm fine. Which is more of a pet peeve of mine. As a writer, you obviously know who is talking. And then sometimes you think oh I don't want to overuse a character's name or "he said/she said'. But I think that's a myth and you can't overuse that stuff. It's repetitive but I think when you read your eyes just glide over those phrases and it doesn't take you out of the scene. But if you have to stop and try to figure out who's saying what that is a lot more tedious in my opinion.

Alright, well I clearly had a lot to say about that so thank you for those excellent questions! xx

[daughterofsarenrae]

oh i would love to hear about syzygy and jj 👀👀👀👀 and in case you’re like me and want to talk about OCs but don’t know where to start, i’ll ask a more specific question: what are they to each other, how did they meet and what’s their relationship?

aaaaaaaaaaa ok!!!!

so syzygy's real name is elena, syzygy is her superhero name. she and jj are half siblings! elena is 17, jj is 27, and they hadn't met and barely knew about each other until their mom died. jj came to the funeral and instead of having to worry about the logistics of elena being a minor w/out a guardian, he stepped in to fill that spot for the year. elena is working on senior year of high school...part 2. she ended up having to repeat senior year bc she was the sole caretaker for her mom in her final year, which meant her grades fell completely by the wayside. she skipped a year of school when she was younger but then repeated the last one so she might as well have not skipped. oh well

jj is...trying his best! he's trying to be a good brother and he's doing pretty well at it, but it's hard to find work and elena is looking at colleges and money is hard and he doesnt necessarily have a stable career, he does a lot of odd jobs and free-lancing but. listen. villain henchman gigs pay pretty well... he'll just do a couple here and there. nothing serious. no one has to know

elena is really into physics and engineering and she's been interning at a research lab that's working on developing hardlight tech. [at an unspecified point with an unspecified driving motivation] she steals the tech and incorporates it into a suit, giving her the ability to form hardlight platform projections she can use to. well not fly. but run across in the sky, so it's kinda flying if you squint! and also she can form it into weapons (which she's not very good at) and use it as a shield. she's still ironing out the kinks on using more than one of those at once. eventually the head researcher at the lab makes the connection between elena and the newly debuted syzygy using their tech and confronts elena. they end up teaming up for a bit, the researcher helping to really refine things and train elena

but also uh-oh, the researcher is a minor villain working under a (so far undiscovered) mastermind villain and steals the suit just as elena realizes this. elena is left powerless to stop things just as she's realized the scope of the plot & also gotten used to being able to DO something. insert more contrivances i havent ironed out yet where the only way to stop the researcher involves melding with the hardlight tech itself as opposed to interfacing w/ it through a suit and she loses that defined line between elena and syzygy, which is not something she would have agreed to do if you had asked her before things got dire

and of course there's also a confrontation that happens somewhere in all that mess where some henchman have an injured syzygy backed into a corner but then syzygy looks up and there's jj, and he realizes it's her as they lock eyes, and he throws the fight so she can escape safely but it's quite a blow for syzygy who didn't need more trust issues

anyway that's the basic gist of those 2, there's also multiple more heroes in this verse (including twins sophie & hardy ware, aka software and hardware, who are very diy hacker (for soph) and gadgetry (for hardy). they are horrible teenagers with a main motivation of creating chaos and i love them) but also a lot of them belong to my roommate martin and idk all of their details. i need to sit down and actually Create Tangible Things to point to for this verse bc it's captivated me for like a year now but. as im sure u realized reading this word vomit, it's not at all fully developed yet. but i love them anyways

ALSO! syzygy playlist || jj playlist

[offmychest-official]

really sorry for the long story, i didn't mean for it to turn out this long and in the end ik it's not really that huge of a deal but i feel like i need to get it out somewhere...

basically i didn't tell my friend how upset i was at them for pretty much ditching me when we had plans, and i don't know how to tell them. i don't think they get how important the plans were to me, but at the same time i feel sort of stupid that it was that important to me, and idk what to do about it.

my close friend, I'll call and i (both 19) went to the same high school, but they took a gap year for mental health reasons before starting at the same university, so they're a freshman and i'm a sophomore despite graduating together. i was really excited they were starting at the same school as me, both because it meant i would get to see them more often and because it would give them some (in my opinion) much needed distance from their very overbearing and somewhat controlling parents. (they also agree that their parents kind of suck but i didn't tell them i felt that way until they had already expressed a similar sentiment). this sudden distance from their parents also meant i was expecting a certain amount of "rebellion" while we were at school, which isn't a problem at all to me as long as they're staying safe.

anyway. we had been trying for a while to plan an activity where they could meet of my college friends, since i had already met their roommate and some of their friends. the perfect opportunity came when some of my favorite creators released a piece of media that i had been waiting for for several years and my college friends (despite not really liking that specific type of media, god bless them) agreed to have a watch party with me and asked if i wanted to invite my friend. my friend immediately said yes and seemed super excited. i was incredibly excited for this hangout and could not stop thinking about it for like two days straight. i couldn't wait to introduce my friends in person (they had met over text before and seemed to get along pretty well which was promising) and i absolutely could not wait to share this thing with them. the series it's part of is one of my main fandoms and i've had several periods of intense hyperfixation on it. i was also definitely really intensely hyperfixating on this new addition to the series and i was really really excited to share it with my friends. (note: i had already watched it once before the watch party with my friends, which they all knew and it wasn't a problem. i watched it on my own bc we couldn't all get together the night it came out and they told me not to worry about waiting any longer because i'd been waiting for its release for like 3 years already which i really appreciated.)

so the day of the watch party rolls around. i'm practically bouncing off the walls with excitement. then i see my friend messaging in a discord server w our friends from back home. basically the gist of the messages was pretty jokey, like "haha i'm gonna do something stupid" and then a pic of a tattoo parlor (for context this was the weekend of friday the 13th and there were still some specials going on in the tattoo shops around town). i responded pretty jokingly back pretending to try to talk them out of getting an impulse tattoo. as the conversation went on though it got more obvious to me that they were only kind of joking about the tattoo, which turned into me only kind of joking about maybe not getting impulse tattoos that you might regret later, especially since they said they wanted a tattoo of a character they had only pretty recently become a big fan of and i was worried they might not always like the character enough to have a tattoo of him (although ultimately i don't care what they get a tattoo of, i'd just hope they thought it through for a bit first. tattoos were also something i kind of expected them to get once they were away from their parents but i'm a little concerned the pendulum might be swinging too far the other way and i don't want them to do anything too impulsively that they might regret later). the tone stayed pretty light the whole time at least from my perspective (i asked my friends later too and they said they had also thought it was pretty jokey) and the conversation ended with me thinking that they probably actually did want a tattoo but weren't going to try to get one that day as the line was still very long, they had a test to study for, and we had our watch party later in the afternoon.

later that day though, my friend texted me basically saying they were sorry but with both the tattoo and needing to study they didn't think they were going to be able to make it to the watch party. this obviously caught me a little off guard because i had thought they were joking about getting a tattoo that day even if they had looked into it a bit and they had even said the line was around 4-6 hours long so it most likely wouldn't happen that day. i said something like "wait you're actually getting the tattoo???" and they responded that yeah they were, it was a really good deal. i asked if they had thought through the tattoo and they said they had been thinking about one for a little while (like a few weeks) and had planned on going to the shop the day before but it not working out for some reason. i don't have any issue with them getting a deal on a tattoo but i wish they would have told me in advance or at least not chosen to do it on the same day as the watch party, and i essentially said as much, but i don't think they realized how upset i really was that they decided to skip out on something that, even though it was kind of silly, was actually really important to me. i thought about rescheduling the hangout but i decided that i wanted to spend time with my other friends even if i couldn't introduce everyone. i feel sort of ridiculous that i was so upset at this but like i said, i had been thinking about this watch party for days and i just felt really caught off guard by this, especially when they said they had been thinking about getting a tattoo that weekend for a while before this, because it made me feel like they didn't care to tell me soon enough to reschedule our plans. it really hurt. in the end they couldn't even get the tattoo that day, and they came halfway through the watch party to join. it was nice for them to meet everyone but it just didn't feel the same, and it was sort of frustrating that they came in halfway through and only watched the second half with us.

it's been a couple weeks and i haven't really brought it up to them, or told any of our friends about it, but i'm still a little sore about it. the friend i usually talk to about this kind of stuff is their friend too and i don't want to cause any drama or anything in our group. if they had to miss it because they needed to study, i would totally get it. but they saw how long the line for the tattoo shop was, they knew that they wouldn't be able to get the tattoo and come to the watch party that day, and they still chose to wait in line for something that didn't even end up happening until like a week and a half later. i feel bad that i'm this hurt over a stupid watch party but it sort of felt like they chose a tattoo of a character they had only liked for a few months over me, and we've been friends since middle school. idk, it just hurt, and i don't want to "start drama" in the friend group so here i am talking to you.

.

[autumnbrambleagain]

Yhelm p7 - readmore for full

"… can we talk about how last night was fucked up?" Madrigal asked.

Rain was coming scattered and gray on the rooftops of the out-city. Rivulets ran down the walls and left puddles that Yhelm was happily stomping through. "Huh?"

"… last night? With Corbis? You won't catch me saying it wasn't hot, sure, but it wasn't… healthy?"

Yhelm stopped under a wavy roof. A hundred little waterfalls fell in unison onto the cold stones below. And on Yhelm's face. She liked the rain. It wasn't a coincidence she'd reassigned umbrellas from 'keep rain off' to 'this is a weapon.' She had no problem getting wet. She felt like that was a metaphor, and then felt like that was the kind of thing college-Yhelm would have said trying to sound smart. College-Yhelm was supposed to be dead, which meant maybe something was actually wrong.

"Yeah. I don't know," she said. She caught some of the roof water in her mouth as she talked. It tasted like bitter metals. An acadamage had to see the world in metaphors and had to experience everything through literary theory because that was literally how magic worked. It was literally how reality worked. Reality was literature and magic was commentary. She'd chosen to think of that metaphor for a reason. Not point lying to yourself, right? "Yeah. Yeah I guess I'm not feeling great?"

"So, you know I'm not jealous," Madrigal started.

"You are unreasonably laid-back for a weasel," Yhelm agreed.

"This isn't a jealousy issue when I say this. It's not like, I don't want to come across as--"

"Yeah you think I probably shouldn't goad Corbis into uneven, usually angry sex anymore. Yeah."

Madrigal sighed. They didn't like rain like Yhelm did. Kog, Yhelm even looked good with splatters of Wet rolling down her long fur. Maddie just looked sad. Because of the rain. Which was another convenient metaphor. Because reality was created as a work of literature by 9 deer that existed before time on some level it was still a written work. She had gotten so good at not thinking like an acadamage. She wondered if it was trying to distance herself from herself. That seemed right. If she viewed reality like a story she didn't have to accept her place deep in the middle of it. It wasn't her life she was ruining. It was just some character.

Maddie took a few false starts and then asked, "How many times have you and him…"

Yhelm took off her glasses and wiped down a streak of Wet across her fluff. "This is like the third time we've actually, fucked? Ugh. Flyhh what an ugly word."

"Why did you start?"

"I mean he's always Apatted at me he's like that. You remember the time I jerked him off outta spite."

"Yeah. That was actually pretty funny, but."

"Yeah," Yhelm agreed. "Yeah but. I don't know." That was a lie. "So Trackless Gait built a web of little pathways into reality when the world was made."

Madrigal stared at her with their big ferrety eyes. "Aha. Is this, are you doing a thing?"

"Yeah hush. So birmads teleport by slipping into these little hidden roads. But there are other ways to teleport. They're usually, higher level spells? Because Magic is a separate base element from Travel, it's not accessible in all the same ways, so it's usually done in a more round-about approach."

"Right. Okay. I'm following beat so far."

"Right," Yhelm nodded. Right. "Right. So there was one I learned in the Cazirizahd--I don't remember it anymore, and I'd have to actually get it on order to remember it because it was really specific--like I can remember the gist but for magic just remembering the--"

Madrigal interrupted. "Sweetheart, it's great to see you excited about magic," which meant something, because usually Yhelm resented her involuntary education, "but this is kind of a serious conversation that we're having out here in the middle of one of Drizzle's visits."

"I know, I know, I'm deflecting because I don't want to deal with my own emotions," Yhelm said. "Anyway the spell teleported you by codifying this feeling of being without a personal anchor, and just, fucking. This sense of, just, letting go. Just. Throwing yourself out the window because hey there it is."

Madrigal tilted their head. It was kind of adorable. "I've lost the beat?"

Yhelm made this annoyed, miserable dog yawn sound. "Maybe it's Bad Boy's blood. I just. Spicy food. Got it. That's it. It's spicy food. This is me eating something too spicy. Sometimes you crave that. Sometimes you just want, uh, you want--"

"To be hurt?" Madrigal offered.

"Like we're doing all right. We have an apartment. We have steady work. It's, it's sometimes weird and difficult work because we're Guild, but it's work. We got each-other. This is where I want to be, right? Either it's some… adversary instinct to try to upset what I have, or… maybe I feel like I deserve to be doing worse? I don't know. And, I mean, come on. Yeah. Corbis is a jerk sometimes but it's usually when I've actually messed up. And you get a cute guy yelling at you enough times but also he's hitting on you you're just like, okay. I could do with something spicy. Maybe my lips burn. Get a few heat sores, can't taste the next day. I don't know. I'm an adversary, Maddie. I think a part of me is just, obliged to do shit like this. I mean I threw away my acadamage career so I could go be criminals with you."

Madrigal had this look on their face like they weren't sure what kind of look they should have on their face. "But… you didn't come back to be with me just to be self-destructive, though?"

"No, I mean, no. Flyhh's sake no."

"So is what you're doing with Corbis just to be self-destructive?"

It was terrible when Maddie was correct. Because they were always correct exactly when Yhelm felt like she'd come at the solution, had it right in her hand, and then they'd come up and point out she was holding a wad of dirt, and the real answer was like, over there, and she'd been digging in the wrong spot and it wasn't even buried but up on a thing she had to climb to.

Damn if this one wasn't really high up though? She wasn't sure she could reach? "I mean, I wouldn't date him. I don't think either of us could stand the other for long enough."

"Mmhmm."

"Like maybe I got some shape of feelings for him but they aren't enough to. Fuck. I dunno, Maddie. Does it really matter. He's our boss we're his underlings. It's. It's fine. It's how things are going between us and that's just, how it is."

There was that face, where Madrigal gave up but gave up with determination, where you knew they were going to come back to it eventually. "All right. Let's get out of the rain? We're just, sitting here, getting soaked."

"Yeah well we're spending all day in Dockrow in the rain getting honked at by waterfaces. At least here it's just you and me."

Madrigal looked around at the closed windows surrounding them. "And whoever lives here, listening in…"

"Fuck. Right. Okay. Let's go. Hey if anyone's listening to our fucked up life sorry hope you're entertained sorry you won't get to hear the conclusion to it--"

"Yhelm, please!"

"--small payment of 10-want sign up to our relationship newsletter--"

"Pleaaasseeee!"

"--adults only illustrated scenes every tenthday!"

[leonbloder]

A More Thoughtful Faith

A friend recently asked me how many references to men being liars there were in the Bible. I had to admit to them I  didn't know and didn't have the time to do a thorough search.  

But I did caution them that almost all of the references that included the gender-specific term "men" were most likely from Greek and Hebrew words that could also be interpreted as "people." and that the epithet of "liar" was most likely meant to cover all of humankind.

It wasn't exactly what they wanted to hear.  Apparently, I was entering into a larger conversation requiring biblical references to focus specifically on men, not humankind.  

The gist of the conversation was that if women were in charge of our country, things wouldn't be so messed up.  I tend to agree with this.  This past week has been an absolute s**t show in Washington DC.    

I get it.  In a world that often feels overwhelming and burdensome, it is natural for many to seek solace in a simplified version of faith. 

Daniel Migliore's thought-provoking assertion that "Christian faith is no sedative for world-weary souls" challenges us to rethink faith's role in our lives. Rather than offering quick answers or easy solutions to life's most pressing questions, authentic Christian faith invites us on a journey of inquiry, reflection, and growth. 

This perspective encourages us not only to wrestle with our doubts and fears but also to cultivate a deeper understanding of God, ourselves, and the intricacies of our world.

Further, Scripture supports this thoughtful approach to faith. In James 1:5, we are encouraged, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." 

This passage reassures us that questioning is acceptable and essential to our spiritual development. God invites us to seek wisdom through inquiry, allowing us to engage deeply with our faith rather than accepting platitudes that may provide temporary comfort. 

Just as the villagers in the Galilee approached Jesus with their burdens and inquiries, we are reminded that seeking understanding is integral to our relationship with the divine.

Faith that encourages us to engage with life's more profound questions leads us to a more vibrant and resilient spiritual existence. We embark on a transformative journey when we challenge the unexamined assumptions about God and the world around us. 

This process nurtures our spiritual lives and equips us to face life's challenges with a sense of purpose and clarity. In a culture that often promotes passivity and acceptance, approaching our faith critically invites us to live intentionally and authentically.

Moreover, as we delve deeper into our faith, we gain a more profound understanding of grace and love—qualities that must be embodied as we navigate our interactions with others. We become better equipped to tackle societal issues, advocate for justice, and promote compassion. 

Our inquiries lead us to a faith that is engaged, responsive, and reflective of the heart of Christ, which fuels our desire to effect positive change in the world.

I encourage you to embrace a thoughtful and critical approach to your faith. Allow your questions to be stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks. Approach the Scriptures openheartedly and engage with fellow believers in spirited dialogue. 

Remember that the journey of faith is not meant to be traversed alone. Join a community that values inquiry and supports your quest for deeper understanding. The God who invites your questions also provides the answers that may come in unexpected ways.

May your faith blossom into a rich tapestry of inquiry, understanding, and love, prompting you to seek answers and live them out in your life. Embrace the complexity of your faith with courage, knowing that in questioning and seeking, you will grow closer to the heart of God.

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all, now and forever. Amen.  

[mavratt]

venus looks really cute! what's her story like? id love to hear :D

You have my heart, friend. (This will be long and mostly an info dump but oh well.

Also trigger warnings: death of animals and people, accudental murder

Venus is the latest in a line of specifically chosen immortals (the other two in that post were also immortals) I would get into the whole immortal system but that would go one for a while so here is the gist:

To become an immortal, another immortal has to choose you and present you to the other ones (there are 8 in total right now) and if they all agree, you will become an immortal by touching a cool rock (it's more important than that but again, would go on for a LONG time)

Should probably get this out of the way now: Venus is actually a boy, but doesn't really care about pronouns anyway so its ok. And also their story if very fantasy/medieval, the modern depictions of them is usually just me fucking around but hey, they're immortal soooo anything could go.

Anyway, Venus grew up in a small village in practically "The Midwest" of this continent. His father died shortly after the birth of his younger sister Lucy and without the help of her husband, his mother died a couple of months after him.

Left to raise his sister by himself, the village decided to help and by the time he was 18, she was 8. Both healthy, and Venus tries to repay the village as best he can by taking any odd jobs people want.

One day, one of the immortals visited their village: Ecati, the immortal of the Wind, Sky, Battle, Faith and Serpents (immortals are sort of like gods in this world) and told the village that they were to nominate one person from amongst them to become immortal. And that he would come back in a week to take them back to the capital to make them immortal.

The village chose a boy named Tobias, who Venus really liked for the position (despite Tobias actively stealing Venus's girlfriend and doing some pretty fucked things to him)

Three days before Ecati returned, the village prophet told Tobias that he was not to be the next immortal and to "beware the goat". This, of course, scared Tobias and he quickly became obsessed with trying to stop that from happening, kinda going insane. He gathered some men and killed any goat in and around the village to try and stop his fate. This included Venus's pet goat that he had had for 7 years.

Venus was very upset at his pets death but didn't want to get in Tobias's way so he did the mourning ritual in his house. Part of the mourning ritual is to take a bone of the person or animal and wear it on your person for two weeks. The more important the person/animal was to you, the "more important" the bone you took. Venus took the skull of his dead friend and carefully cleaned it and wore it on a necklace.

On the day Ecati returned Venus and Lucy stood next to their house, which was directly next to the town square, to watch the ceremony. Ecati turned up and was greeted by their leader. Ecati seemed nervous throughout the entire interaction.

As Tobias walked up to Ecati to be presented he caught glimpse of the skull around Venus's neck and kinda snapped. He yelled at Venus, accusing him for being the reason the prophesy existed and accusing him of sabotaging his destiny. Despite Venus's best efforts to calm Tobias down, he wouldn't. Tobias drew his blade and cornered to his house he had no option but to fight back. Venus backed himself up to his house and reached out for anything to defend himself with, his hand gripped wood and Venus swung it.

Hitting Tobias square in the head with a hatchet.

The village went wild, all of them yelling at Venus on behalf of Tobias but they all stopped when Ecati grabbed their attention be transforming into his dragon form. Ecati announced that with the rules set by the other immortals, Venus fairly won in a fight against Tobias and that Venus would be the next immortal.

The village was not happy with this and still tried to kill Venus but Ecati scooped him up and flew him to safety.

He then later became the immortal of War, Intelligence, Fear, Friendship and Farming

And that's Venus's origin story, he has more story but this is the most important one for his character.

I bet this probably wasn't what you expected when you asked for their story, my bad for drawing them so modern lmao. The barbie took over me.

[grishaverse-chaos]

Does it matter whether her trust in him is tied to a specific situation? I'd argue that the same is true of most trust unless you have a very close relationship.

Lemme give you an analogy here. I'm close with my History teacher - I know a lot about her and she's the biggest reason why I enjoy History classes. I even baked her brownies for her birthday! I'd definitely say that I trust her. But if I got proof that she was an immortal evil mass murderer, I think I would... you know, stop trusting her. So even if Alina did trust the Darkling, it's entirely understandable that she stops after Baghra's reveal.

I literally gave you a quote where she says she wants to save the world?? (Also, destroying the Fold doesn't fix all of Ravka's problems, sure, but you're acting like the Fold isn't a problem at all, which is blatantly untrue. Even if she doesn't solve all Ravka's problems, she's one person (and a teenager at that) so I'd say that focusing on one problem that she has the specific skillset to solve is a pretty good idea.)

Trust should usually go both ways, but I would argue that in canon it's the Darkling who doesn't trust Alina. Now, in canon he's right not to because his plan is fucking evil and she wouldn't go along with it willingly. Alina, on the other hand, shouldn't trust the Darkling because he is plotting to enslave her power.

The creation of the Fold was a mass murder, even in book canon. The volcra used to be people. True, Baghra says that this was a mistake on the Darkling's part, but it's a pretty big mistake to make!

(And while true, modern standards of morality don't apply to the Grishaverse, I think we can all agree that an adult man with a shit ton of institutional power having a romantic or sexual relationship with a teenage girl who he is technically in command of is... a bit dodgy.)

She still does worry about the practicality of running away, and while she may not worry about being chased by druskelle, she takes precautions to be unnoticeable, which - even if she didn't intend to - means they don't find her.

I'm guessing you're being sarcastic? Please give me some proof that the Darkling used his power to negotiate with the monarchy after the creation of the Little Palace. Please, I'm dying to hear it.

Yes, it's specifically stated in Rule of Wolves that Makhi started the experiments before becoming Queen. Have you even read the books? And of course Ravkans would love to generalise that onto the whole of Shu Han, but it's also specifically stated that ordinary Shu citizens do not know about this experimentation.

"We fulfill this debt by honoring our treaty and agreeing to support the rights of all Grisha."

It's understandable that Leyti doesn't want to involve Shu Han in the war, and it's also understandable that she doesn't want to create mass panic by making the khergud public!

Besides, it's stated pretty clearly that she had an agreement with Fjerda first! Clearly, it was Makhi who made false promises, and Leyti who is forced to deliver the bad news to our protagonists. So they ARE honouring their word - it just happens to inconvenience the main characters, unfortunately.

Also, I'd like to point out that stopping the khergud program is a pretty significant concession, both in terms of cost to the Shu government, and in terms of meaningfulness for the rights of Grisha. (That's slightly clumsily worded, but you get the gist.)

You can (not always, obviously, but in some cases) influence prejudiced people by getting to know them. I've mentioned this before - most horrible people do truly believe that they're doing the right thing, and sometimes (SOMETIMES) it is possible to change their minds with empathy/compassion.

(Also, plenty of people will ignore their own biases in order to form an alliance which might be beneficial to them in some way.)

Yes, the military industrial complex is inherently unethical, and I am personally opposed to murder no matter whether or not it's state-sanctioned. You'll undoubtedly say that this is a naïve and/or idealistic position, but "murder is bad" is kind of ethics 101.

What other options would she have had? He's more powerful, and has more soldiers behind him. If she wants to avoid having her powers enslaved, she really doesn't have very many choices.

Of course I don't believe that Fjerda or Shu Han are innocent of mass murder!! I literally NEVER said that. I think ALL mass murder is bad, actually. (And if you don't think that, I'm slightly concerned.) Of course I care about the nameless innocents who get killed by Ravka's enemies!

I do also think that killing innocent civilians of any other nationality would be bad. Using the Fold on Fjerda would still be a mass murder, and would still be wildly unethical.

No, I don't think soldiers deserve to die either. You can sum up my point of view as "all people deserve to live". (And a government certainly shouldn't have the power to decide who lives or dies.)

And finally, the reason why you think I believe there's only one person to blame for the mass murders that take place is because........ this is a conversation about one specific mass murder, committed by the Darkling.

Like??? Of course I blame Jarl Brum and the Fjerdan monarchy, of course I blame King Alexander/Pyotr and General Zlatan, of course I blame the Shu government - for the murders THEY COMMIT OR AUTHORISE.

But this is a conversation specifically about the mass murder committed by the Darkling in the Fold, so yeah, no shit I'm focusing on that!

I’ve posted similar thing on Darklina over a year ago (Still no answer.), but I’ll try anyway:

What would be a morally correct, REALISTIC solution of Ravkan situation:

war with both neighbours, both better supplied and developed

separatist movement on West

no money

not enough workforce to support both army and economy

no other resources

ruling nobility using the little you have on luxury

precarious position of the minority you happen to also belong to (No other country to move to.)

servitude

huge area inhospitable and uninhabitable with possible solution tied to theoretical appearance and co-operation of a single person

general distrust or outright hatred towards your person

Now, tell me how to deal with such a situation in a way that wouldn’t involve “death of innocents”, use of the Fold or throwing Grisha under the bus?

@antis, mostly

[galaxy98]

While I like to joke about the whole voice cast of the Mario movie, there's a conversation to be had about celebrity voice acting and whether something like this is an indictment of said issue.

But before I get into that, I would like to share some insight that I learned from Jason Marsden back at an April convention.

While some may know him as Eric's friend from Boy Meets World, I've known him as Max Goof from Disney's Goofy Movie and just about any cartoon where I'm bound to hear his voice.

When I went to his panel, he talked about some things that I didn't even know about. It turned out he had left California a while back and had been doing work over in Tennessee, specifically the entertainment scene. Just recently, he created a web series called The Mars Variety Show, which showcased entertainers over in Nashville.

But the one thing he mentioned from his experience is that the workload he was getting was less compared to what he got back in Cali.

This is especially true when it came to voice acting.

So once it was time for me to ask him a question, I was able get an answer that should've been obvious at first, at least to me.

Voice acting, like Animation and Entertainment, is centralized.

If you really wanted to work in the big leagues, you have to go over to California.

It's like the saying goes, Hollywood is the place to be. Because it's sadly the ONLY place to be.

Because of how centralized it is, no major studio is willing to look outside their own state to see the potential diversity that's out there. Even Marsden lamented about this at his panel because he knew that there were so many talented voice actors that would've killed to have to have a chance in the field. But because they don't live in California, they're ignored.

As such, studios only relied on two groups, career voice actors who live there or celebrities. There are some exceptions, but that's the main gist.

Now what does this have to do with the Mario movie?

Well here's the list of who's going to star in it:

Chris Pratt

Anya Taylor-Joy

Charlie Day

Jack Black

Keegan-Michael Key

Seth Rogen

Charles Martinet

Fred Armisen

Kevin Michael Richardson

Sebastian Maniscalco

Out of all of the cast members, only three of them are career voice actors, Charles Martinet, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Fred Armisen (I think). Even Martinet, who's been doing the voice of Mario for decades is relegated to a cameo. Yet Chris Pratt is billed as the top star for the plumber. Now all of them had done some voice work one way or the other, especially Jack Black and Seth Rogen.

So why is it that celebrities get the all of the marketing while career actors are sitting in the sidelines?

Two words.

Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Jeffrey was once the chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994. While the movies during his tenure would go on to be successful, he was often criticized for his business practices and for his general attitude towards animation. In the documentary, Waking Sleeping Beauty, many animators talked about how he was being disrespectful towards them because he was more concerned with how much money these movies were going to make or how these movies were going to be marketed. It's an open secret that he originally wanted to cut Part of Your World from Little Mermaid because of the reception they were getting at a test screening.

Then comes in Robin Williams.

When creating the movie, Aladdin, they made the Genie character with him in mind. He agreed, but stipulated that he wasn't in the majority of the marketing. According to Williams, he wanted to make movies, not merchandise.

As the story goes, the exact opposite happened and that's what created the sour relationship between Robin and Disney.

So if you wondered why the Genie is voiced by Dan Castellaneta in the supplementary material and spinoffs, this is why. It wasn't because they couldn't afford him. It's because Williams wanted nothing to do with them.

Since then, many would try to capitalize on this type of strategy.

Many Disney rip-offs would place the emphasis on the celebrity marketing rather than putting effort into the story.

Even when Jeffery Katzenberg left Disney, he took that mindset along with him when creating Dreamworks. Some would argue that may have been a factor to why they were struggling in the early 2010s. He was paying the celebrities so much money to star in the movies that once the diminishing returns started piling up, it left them in a struggled state. There were other factors too, but what was happening in the animation side didn't help.

Not even Disney was safe when he left.

All of this set a precedent for years to come. All because Disney didn't abide by Williams's contract.

The most recent example of blatant disregard for career voice actors would have to be the Space Jam sequel.

In the marketing, it advertised Zendaya as Lola Bunny.

You wanna know who they forgot?

Jeff Bergman, Eric Bauza, Bob Bergen, Candi Milo, and Fred Tatasciore.

These people have done voice work for Warner and Looney Tunes, some were even doing it a while longer.

Yet they thought they were being clever by not properly crediting them in the trailer.

I actually had to go on the wiki page to look up the cast.

This caused some controversy within the Animation and Voice Acting community because it exposed a general problem with marketing.

There was also another issue with the animators not getting any proper credit, but that's a whole new can of worms.

Now you may be asking me, "Aren't there any celebrities out there who had done live action before getting into voice acting? If so, wouldn't they be considered a part of the problem?"

And that's where the lines are blurred.

While Mark Hamill had done some voice work prior to Star Wars, his role as Luke Skywalker is what defined him for the rest of his life. People speculated that the reason why he went back to voice acting is because he was tired about being typecasted. It was because of his role as Joker in Batman TAS, he was able to get more work as a voice actor. So while Star Wars is what defined his live action side, he was able show off more of his talent in voice acting. Ironically, he's tends to be chosen for voicing villain characters, so you could say that the Joker defined him on the animation side.

Not convinced? Here's another example.

Tim Curry, a man well known for having such a flexible resume in theater, music, video games, television, radio, and film, had also done a ton of voice work in several mediums and there are a few roles in that specific area that would go on to define him and his career before suffering a stroke in 2012.

Not enough? There's more.

Brenda Song once started as an actor for live action shows for Nickelodeon, Disney, and other misc. TV and is recently voicing Anne Boonchuy on Amphibia with no objections.

Okay then, here are other examples.

Tom Hanks, Jack Black, Jeremy Irons, Mike Myers, Seth Green, Ben Schwartz, just to name a few. They all started doing live action prior to voice acting and yet some of their roles in that field had defined their career.

So most of these examples boil down to circumstances, if anything. Not only that but some of those roles came from either a one-off or a start up franchise.

So why do they never face any scrutiny?

The problem isn't with the celebrities themselves doing voice acting. It may seem like that, but it's not entirely accurate.

The problem is the intent behind it.

When you look at Chris Pratt voicing Mario, you don't hear someone voicing an Italian plumber. You just hear Chris Pratt because that's what defined voice work. You only hear the person himself. And unless if the trailers say otherwise, this is going to be the looming fear over people's heads because that's what we tend to expect from Hollywood.

True, there were other people who had played the role before Martinet, but none were able to stick around like he did. Plus, you have to keep in mind that while the franchise was popular right out the gate, it all took place during the younger years until things started to settle.

You could say the same thing for Sonic, though they are a lot more loose regarding the changing of voice roles.

Would Charles make much of a difference if he starred in the role? I don't know. Make no mistake, what I'm saying isn't an indictment on his craft, it's just...I don't know. While some may think that he's secretly against this, Charles doesn't strike me as that kind of guy.

For Mario fans, myself included, it was such a drastic transition from Charles to....Chris Pratt. Though my reaction was me laughing at the absurdity.

As for the whole movie, who knows. If there's one thing I've learned from Sonic 2020 is that you can never know how it's going to turn out. It's why they have a sequel on the way and Idris Elba is going to voice Knuckles.

But yeah, I feel like the biggest solution to the problem is that system itself needs to be changed from the ground up in order for fresh new talent to thrive.

The Entertainment industry shouldn't be limiting themselves to their own front and back yard just because they can make easy bank off of it. They're passing by unknown talent outside of California that would've wanted to have a chance at working for more than what's given to them.

Is this the only solution out there? Maybe not.

But that's the beauty of taking risks

TL;DR: The Voice Acting industry, like everything else in Entertainment, needs to be decentralized.