#why are all my thoughts consumed with immortal bird men

[stoat-party]

Jakob: *helps his family while they’re actively murdering him*

Aldous: *watching his brother die on the floor in front of him* aw that sucks bro. just remembered i had a thing though. maybe if you kill enough of our descendants it’ll fix it. bye.

[matrixwhore]

the scene opens on a frame of the fire and a burning body.

noooowwwwww. dont come at me crazy behind this.  i am someone who resonated with what happened here. i was someone who learned the hard way cis men dont need the security and secrecy of a private home to show you nightmares. they can be walking monsters out in the open. and it really drove home that the rules are very different for them. when i left home and went out in the world just like claudia. i thought leaving home was all i needed and i wasn’t prepared for any of what came at me. so i feel for claudia. i don’t think it was bad writing just because it was added at all or where they did this to make her stronger. im not even sure i would say this made her stronger more than it made her incredibly hyper vigilant. she was already observant, but she never lets her guard down again especially after what happens when she comes home, which is why she picked up on lestat turning antoinette. it made her mind tunnel vision on murder to the point where she lost sight of whats true about louis and that was the fatal flaw in her plan. 

more than anything it added to her wanting to kill the man (lestat who she likens killer to) that crushed her illusion of heaven and introduce her to this nonlife in hell with demons that she had to become and depend on and fear endlessly. like i have to wonder what that does to a person. to believe you’ve died and gone to heaven only to fully wake up and realize you’re in a worse hell. bc she lived in a hell already and then the fires of that hell took everything she knew in life and she did succumb to her imminent death so she probably did think heaven was next. she thought she was free of it. so what does that do to embrace death and to know heaven was snatched from you? that there is no rest in peace for you and you inherited damnation and you didn't do anything to deserve the eternal suffering you’re being made to endure but you have to endure it. if you get me started on my thoughts on this irt heaven and buffy i will just start barking. yall say she came back wrong i say she should have come back worse and she’d be right

what do you do when the world around you insists you be a monster when all you want to be is a woman. what can you do but lick the flames they would have burn and consume you back and become a dragon. so the next time they allow you to say your peace you set everything ablaze with your fury and remind them they denied you ever knowing peace.

claudia’s living hell was a mother who died and a father who abandoned her with an aunt who abused her. growing up poor in the jim crow south with no prospects and no way out. her hopes and illusion of seeing heaven was shattered by the worse hell filled with damned men conditioning the care they show her with what they feel entitled to take from her. doomed to never really grow up but simply to exist always in stasis and in proximity to wealth with no real access to it and no way out. dying too young and never living and never staying dead and always in pieces and always being shuffled around and placed and never seen as a whole anything. not even outside of her cage. she doesn’t get gentle. she doesn’t get easy love. she doesn’t get companionships without horrifying power imbalances. it was right there in the “who’s gonna fuck me scene” and they never addressed it bc it was sidelined by lestat’s infidelity. by the relationship that takes precedent over everything. over helping her learn to be in this way not that they could. she is theee immortal tragedy amongst them even in death.

she’s has faults that make sense for what she is. a child vampire. so how much can you hold against her. she is not in any position to ever be able to properly cope or reach an emotional maturity. she is turned into a forever victim whose only outlet was to kill with impunity—so she doesn’t get empathy either.

breaking her leg was a call back to louis breaking the wing of the bird and lestat calling her one. it was breaking her ability to fly the coup, and live free of their gothic house of lies. so they pluck her feathers fine. she’ll learn to see the scars as scales and become a worse monster than they ever imagined. one you shouldn’t ever underestimate. idk that this was a weak narrative to make her stronger or whatever it was that rolin was getting at in that after interview. to me it fed her understanding that some things can only be stopped with the only dark gift she can give. death in finality. i know the fucking feeling

iwtv ep 5 rewatch thoughts

opening with the scene within which i have built a home and become a permanent resident. right here in the moment rashmand smiles stupidly and louis slonks (🤭) every last drop of his blood. how anyone thinks they’re boring idk idk idk

they are being clear here that this isn’t consumption for the sake of sustenance. this is bloodletting as sex play and as power play. Danny is not having dinner. so its clear that this isn’t feeding as a meal but it is feeding as sexual exhibition at its most delicious. Danny is reading about claudia’s violent acts via the written recording of her victim’s last words while loumand basically vampire fuck at the other end of the table. this is also setting up the sexual violence to come for claudia and also for louis.

i think it is intentional that louis is the one feeding from armand for several reasons. one being because of what lestat does to him, which we see later on. this is power play for louis in a setting where he has voluntarily and possibly in some aspects dubiously relinquished control over to his lover armand. also bc of the connection between daniel and armand. they are revealing rashid as armand slowly here and his and louis’ involvement with daniel in the past. Daniel isn’t dumb. they know he can figure out the inconsistencies of louis drinking from armand and louis drinking from damek. this leads to daniels curiosity about how armand tastes like and his weight and louis puts daniel’s hidden attraction out on display against his wishes to throw him off. and daniel orders rashid around to take back some power.

i also think it’s a call back to the power dynamic of their first meeting. louis has power over daniel, and it seems he’s the one in control of the entire situation but then he checks in with armand before moving forward. in this moment in the present dubai 2020 setting louis has power over daniel (regardless of him no longer being that naive young man) and he plays the role of the one with the power over rashid, but the power he is receiving is from armands 500+ year old blood that he is offering to louis as the character he is playing. lord take me.

i think it’s interesting that daniel is feasting on claudia’s private memories but objects to louis reading and exposing his personal thoughts. even tho louis has shown time and again that he does that and would do it again. choices/consent is the big issue in this episode.

Daniel: man with green vest: please no. man with fat fingers: please stop. window washer: i can’t die like this. woman with purple shoes: please. boy with inner tube and dog: let my dog live. please no. please stop. stop. oh here’s a good one—man in the last row of The Son of Sheik picture show: You said you had cigarettes.

this is the first recounts we hear him read from claudia’s journal—claudia, who did not get a say in whether her voice and story be used by louis, armand and daniel in this way. He reads this and it’s clear that he [daniel] hadn’t actually consented to being the voyeur of loumand’s sex play given his visible discomfort/agitation. He continues anyways, trying his best to focus on the task at hand and not his bisexual longing for the men at the other end of the table bc even with everything he is reading and witnessing he is still attracted to them in all their insanity and monstrosity.

im interested in the fact that he pointedly reads out (“here’s a good one”) the misleading nature of the last one. “You said you had cigarettes.” i think it speaks to the fact that daniel came here to dubai for a supposed second interview and is slowly but surely realizing he is getting something else entirely. he continues “School teacher, guard your heart. i’m trying to think of something more fucked up than this.” he could be just talking about what claudia has written, but i think it’s also the fact that this is the section of his reading that loumand have chosen to be overtly sexual in front of him for as he reads. all this and he doesn’t even know yet of rashid being armand and his role in claudia’s death, though i’m sure he’s having suspicions of everything by now. also that louis, with being faced with the piece of claudia he doesn’t like to acknowledge, the monstrosity of her vampire nature, focuses of drinking from armand the man who killed his beloved daughter (something he said about “i run to the bottle” etc. etc). it does in fact get more fucked up danny.

and when armand implies that daniel is no better by revealing the danger it poses on louis and exposing louis’ suicidality without his permission (“he lives to share these opinions even when they are not solicited”) and revealing he doesn’t even want this book to happen, louis fights back by leaning into his power over daniel and exposing his thoughts about armand, and continues to, even when danny makes it clear his thoughts were not being voluntarily shared—that he did not want louis in his mind at all. he even interrupts rashmand in the middle of telling daniel he wouldn’t let him near his neck to offer up more information abt rashid (much to armands annoyance) that clearly isn’t even true after reading daniel’s mind again when daniel just explicitly told him not to. and when louis does that daniel fights back by leaning into his perceived power over rashid—louis’ servant—by demanding more of something to drink without even looking at him. and at this armand picks up his lil ipad and leaves without even picking up daniel’s glass, being the one who is actually the most powerful in the room. this is crazy. this is actually insane.

all this and armand is the one who killed claudia!!!! the only one who doesn’t get to fight back against her agency being taken from her in this scene!!! i’m going to fucking throw up. who is bored with them!? they are literally putting on thee insane sexy bdsm emo freaks show like…

“ The Son of Sheik” also alludes to the upcoming sexual assault btw. It’s a sequel to “The Sheik” where the protagonist is the son of the sheik in the first film who falls in love with a traveling dancer Yasmine. He rapes her out of retaliation for having been kidnapped and later whipped, which he believes to be her fault bc she is falsely accused of it. like in this episode and like claudia, yasmine’s rape is strongly implied in the movie with the use of pointed language and a scene cut.

this scene closes out with daniel pointing out he can’t get to accurate statistics of claudia’s murders to corroborate her accounts whether he thinks its more or less than what she recounts im unsure. louis points out that he wouldn’t be able to get an accurate account anyways bc of their disposal practices and how cities tend to downplay the dangers within them. daniel wanting all the details and louis making it clear he will have to accept that he can’t always have all the details will be a point of contention later on as we know.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Lao Nie and Nie Mingjue have a good day together and bond. What was their relationship like before the qi deviation?

Boys - ao3

“Two paths, hmm?” Lao Nie said, squinting at the road markers in front of him. “Well, I don’t see why we can’t go down this one to the right –”

“No.”

“No? Why not?”

“Because little uncle asked me not to let you meet any new dangerous women,” Nie Mingjue said, looking as serious as ever – only his little hands, swinging to the side, revealed that he was just a ten-year-old. Still a child, no matter how mature he tried to act. “And a place called the Springtime Ghost Valley sounds like it probably has dangerous women.”

“Hey,” Lao Nie protested mildly. “Who’s the father here, me or you?”

“If a-die wants a new wife, little uncle will find one that isn’t inclined to kill him.”

That sounded like a recitation.

“Then what’s even the point,” Lao Nie grumbled, and reached out to ruffle his son’s hair, enjoying how Nie Mingjue yelped when he did, glaring up at him with offended dignity.

In all honesty, Lao Nie had no idea how he’d ended up with a son as serious and sincere and earnest as Nie Mingjue – he himself hadn’t taken anything seriously in years. Probably it was his mother’s influence.

Now that was a woman.

Not that his foxy second wife hadn’t been woman enough to blow him away either…

Hmm.

Perhaps they had a point about his taste in women.

“How about men?” Lao Nie suggested. “If it really means so much to you, I could swear off of women entirely –”

“A-die.”

“Mm?”

“Leave Sect Leader Wen alone.”

Lao Nie cracked up.

-

Because Lao Nie was the father, however easy-going he might sometimes be, they ended up heading down the right-hand path regardless. They were supposed to be night-hunting, after all – it was the perfect bonding experience according to Jiwei, though Lao Nie suspected his saber of having selfish intentions there – and deliberately avoiding a place with ‘Ghost’ in the name was hardly appropriate for scions of a Great Sect like theirs.

Although the reference to springtime was admittedly a little worrisome.

If it turned out to be a brothel, with the ghost thing being just a clever if somewhat tonedeaf marketing ploy, Lao Nie was turning around and taking them both home at once. He wasn’t going to risk little Nie Mingjue turning out anything like that awful Jin Guangshan – or, nearly as bad, having to explain anything more about the joys of sex to those earnest little button eyes and dimpled cheeks with no time to prepare first. He still hadn’t recovered emotionally from the last few times Nie Mingjue had asked him a question like that.

When they finally reached the end of the path, turning a corner to behold a clearing that was probably completely ordinary during the daytime, Lao Nie found that he’d been both right and wrong.

“It’s a ghost brothel,” he marveled. He’d never seen anything like it in his life.

“Dangerous women,” Nie Mingjue reminded him.

“A-Jue! Let your father live a little!”

Nie Mingjue rolled his eyes.

Lao Nie virtuously ignored his slightly judgmental brat of a son. It wouldn’t do him that much harm to go visit for a while, with the risk of Jin Guangshan-ness being relatively minimal; they were ghosts, after all. It was the duty of every cultivator to fight against evil, wherever it lived, no matter its form –

“Fighting? Is that what it’s called?”

“Who taught you sarcasm?” Lao Nie asked, knowing perfectly well that the answer was himself. “I ought to smack them.”

Nie Mingjue crossed his arms over his chest and pouted at him. “Fine, it’s fighting, we’ll go fight them. Do you want me to start drawing ghost-repelling talismans?”

“Liberate first!” Lao Nie sang out. “Come on, let’s go see what they’re like – er, that is, I mean, see what grievances they have that are keeping them here, of course. There’s no harm in dangerous women. Just don’t let them eat your yang energy!”

“It’s not my yang energy that I’m worried about, a-die…”

-

The ghostly madame was an extraordinarily charming person and Lao Nie liked her at once.

Not liked her liked her – he’d fallen head over heels with both of his wives from the first word, and that hadn’t happened here – but still, conversing with her was an extraordinarily enjoyable way to spend time.

She was witty and clever, with a broad range of knowledge and a gift for keeping a conversation lively and exciting; she could meet every verbal riposte with ease, and looked utterly gorgeous and composed the entire time. Sure, she kept trying to lure Lao Nie into an orgy in which all of his yang energy would be slowly sucked out before his body was ripped to pieces and his bones cracked open so that the ghosts could consume the marrow within, but what a way to go, right?

Nie Mingjue spent his time making friends with the ghost prostitutes.

Lao Nie wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting.

Well, he supposed he’d been expected a range of things – anything from Nie Mingjue getting suckered in by one of the ghosts and needing to be rescued by his father to Nie Mingjue just pulling out his Baxia and trying to stab them because he felt offended by their existence. He wasn’texpecting his ghostly conversational partner to suddenly frown mid-sentence and say, “What is he talking to them about?”

Lao Nie turned his head slightly and started listening.

“– just because you’re a ghost doesn’t mean you have to work allthe time, surely,” Nie Mingjue was saying, completely serious and earnest in the way he so often was. Lao Nie’s son had in fact inherited his sense of humor, only it tended to be buried fairly deep down and make its way up to the surface in an understated way in the most unexpected times; the rest of the time, he was straightforward to a fault, treating everything sincerely. “The birds in the trees, the animals in the fields – even among prostitutes, even the street-walking ladies know they need to take time to rest! I can’t believe you really have to work every single night. How long has it been since you had a night off?”

The ghost prostitutes around him had contemplative looks on their faces.

“Isn’t the whole point of becoming a vengeful man-eating ghost that you have more power than regular humans? I don’t know, it kind of seems like a bad deal if you have even worse conditions after all that –”

“I’m sorry,” the ghostly madame said, looking irritated underneath all her carefully painted smiles. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment…”

Lao Nie had to bite his hand to keep from laughing out loud.

-

“I think we’ve all learned a valuable life lesson today,” Lao Nie announced.

Nie Mingjue was pouting again.

“I don’t think we did,” he said, sounding profoundly skeptical. A filial child like Nie Mingjue shouldn’t sound so skeptical of his beloved father’s words of wisdom, really; if Lao Nie wasn’t so heartless, he might be offended. Of course, the skepticism might have originated from the heartlessness, so it was all six of one, half a dozen of the other in the end. “Those poor ghost ladies! They were still fighting each other by the time we left!”

“I’ve never seen a ghost pull another ghost’s hair before,” Lao Nie conceded. It had been brilliant. “One day, someone’s going to figure out a more reliable way to use ghosts to fight ghosts, mark my words.”

“Isn’t that demonic cultivation?”

“Oh, sure,” Lao Nie said, still cheerful. “If whoever it is does too much of it, eventually it’ll build up into a backlash that’ll kill them in some grossly horrific manner. Probably ripped into pieces by the backlash. And that’s not even counting how they’d be ostracized and hunted by the cultivation world first! But still, imagine how exciting it’d be in the meantime!”

“A-die…”

Lao Nie patted Nie Mingjue on the head again, earning another glare. “Immortality is a lie, A-Jue. We’re all here for a short time, each and every one of us, and only the length determined by fate and man. All that matters is what we do with the time that we have, and whether we’ve used it well.”

“To fight against evil wherever it lives, no matter its form?”

“To leave the world a better place than when we entered it, and to let our memories linger in the hearts of those that love us,” Lao Nie said. “Fighting evil is the best way to accomplish the former, and living a good life the latter. And you might as well have a good time doing it, if you can! Everything else is just extra.”

Nie Mingjue thought about that for a moment. “And a-die likes to have second helpings of extras?”

That was true. Lao Nie was a man of prodigious appetites of all sorts.

Despite that, he protested, “That wasn’t the point I was trying to make. I was being serious for once.” Seeing Nie Mingjue’s skeptical look, he made a face. “I can be serious, sometimes!”

“Can you?”

“It’s been known to happen! A date written on a wall will be right once a year.”

“Not if the wall gets painted over.”

“Ouch,” Lao Nie said. “I don’t even understand the metaphor you’re making, and I’m still going ouch.”

“Uh-huh,” Nie Mingjue said, utterly unimpressed. “You know, if you wanted one of the ghost ladies to be Third Mother, you would’ve been better off with the one playing the qin, not the ghost madame. She was much more powerful.”

Lao Nie arched his eyebrows. “Was she?”

Nie Mingjue nodded. “She had claws like a lizard.”

Lao Nie tried to remember which one of them had been the ghost girl playing the qin. He couldn’t quite remember at first – the women there were all surpassingly lovely, almost to the point of over-saturation – and then suddenly an image came into view, a beauty with a veil and sharp sword-like eyebrows, leaning over the qin with the shining pearl hanging in the center of her forehead dipping down.

And, yes, claws like a lizard.

“Hmm,” Lao Nie said. “That might have been a dragon, actually. You should be careful of those, they’re tricky.”

They’ll rip you and three dozen other cultivators besides into more pieces than can be picked up without blinking an eye, he meant, and you won’t even know what hit you. Avoid at all costs.

“Oh,” Nie Mingjue said, blinking. “Oops.”

“…what do you mean, oops?”

“Nothing bad! If I’m not supposed to interact with her, does that mean I should go and give back the gift she gave me?”

“She gave you a – give me that,” Lao Nie said. “This instant.”

“But a-die, you said there’s no harm in dangerous women –”

“For me, you foolish child!”

-

“I suppose it’s fine,” Lao Nie finally concluded, having inspected the dragon pearl from all angles several times over. “I don’t know how you do this, A-Jue.”

“Do what?”

Lao Nie thought about how his foxy second wife had cooed over his eldest son with a (slightly disturbing) fervor that she otherwise reserved only for eating snacks, and how viciously she’d dealt with anyone who’d even thought of interfering with Nie Mingjue in any way. He was fairly sure he himself had only survived his second marriage on account of having such a charming son.

“Don’t worry about it,” he finally said, mostly because he wasn’t entirely sure how to explain – or if he even entirely understood. “Anyway, it’s nothing dangerous. Rather the contrary! Dragon pearls like this are given to baby dragons to protect them.”

Nie Mingjue frowned. “What feeds on baby dragons?”

“…I think it’s mostly to protect them from themselves,” Lao Nie said, feeling a little uncertain about it himself. “And if it’s not, I don’t think I want to know, to be perfectly honest. There’s fighting evil, which is only right, and then there’s suicide, which is a waste – a wise man should know how to judge the difference between them. Anyway, that wasn’t the point I was trying to make.”

“It wasn’t?”

“It wasn’t, and you aren’t allowed to start worrying about the fate of theoretical baby dragons – I forbid it.” Nie Mingjue scowled. He’d probably started worrying already. “My point was actually that a pearl like this is a remarkably powerful protective tool for cultivators – one of those things that can only be found by chance and not made. Keep this on you, and you’ll never have to fear your opponent in battle.”

Nie Mingjue looked thoughtful.

-

“What do you want to do with that pearl, anyway?” Lao Nie asked after they’d gotten home and split up just long enough to take a nice long relaxing bath and gobble down dinner. “Do you want to put it in the treasury?”

Nie Mingjue blinked twice, which for him was practically the same as looking terribly shifty-eyed.

“You already did something with it,” Lao Nie deduced. “Something that isn’t using it as intended.”

“Oh, no,” Nie Mingjue said, looking shocked at the mere suggestion. “I’m definitely using it as intended.”

Lao Nie looked him up and down. “You’re not wearing it.”

“Well, I wouldn’t use it. Protection from your opponents in proper battle – that seems like cheating!”

Lao Nie felt a slight headache coming on. People who said they wanted a good boy for a son had no idea what they were getting themselves into, he reflected. Why couldn’t he have birthed a complete rascal instead?

“All right,” he said, instead of saying any of that because at the end of the day, bewildering as he might be, Nie Mingjue was his son and he loved him more than anything. “So what did you do with it?”

“I gave it to Huaisang.”

Lao Nie blinked. He supposed that really was using it for its intended purpose – protecting babies from themselves – although he suspected the dragon lady had been thinking of Nie Mingjue as the baby.

“Although…”

Lao Nie raised his eyebrows.

“…I think he may have swallowed it.”

My boys, Lao Nie thought, and had to sit down and hold his ribs because he otherwise feared he might split his sides from laughing so hard. Only my boys.

[it-begins-with-rain]

Chinese Language TV Recommendations

For my Korean TV Recommendations, click here.

*Contains both Mainland-Chinese and Taiwanese programs.

** Updated 05/23/21 with “Miss The Dragon” & “Word of Honor”

A Love So Beautiful

Can the pure love of 17-year-olds endure through all the challenges of college and adulthood?

Chen Xiao Xi and Jiang Chen are high school friends and neighbors who grew up together. Xiao Xi is happy-go-lucky and doesn’t like to study much but she has a talent for drawing. Jiang Chen is popular for his good looks and high grades, but is cold and indifferent to other people.

Their friends include swimmer Wu Bo Song, who will do anything for XiaoXi, the dorky and over-confident gamer Lu Yang, and Lin Jing Xiao, the most beautiful girl in school (who Lu Yang is hopelessly in love with).

How will the realities of life shape the friendships and love lives of these young adults?

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Ashes of Love // Heavy Sweetness, Ash-Like Frost

Jin Mi is the secret lovechild of the Flower Deity and the Water Immortal, conceived before the Flower Deity suffers a fatal wound.

The deity gives birth to a baby girl (Jin Mi) on her deathbed, and foresees the infant will face a terrible trial by her 10,000th year. To save her from her fate, the Flower Deity gives Jin Mi a pill that makes it impossible for her to ever feel romantic love. Upon her death, she forbids anyone in the Flower Kingdom from revealing the fact that she had a child.

Several thousand years later, Jin Mi is a bumbling little fairy trapped in The Water Mirror- a gilded prison where low-level fairies can live in peace. Jin Mi believes she is a small Grape Fairy, and lives a happy (if not dull) life within the Mirror with her friends.

When a charred bird falls from the heavens into the Water Mirror, Jin Mi decides to eat save the poor little ‘crow’– who in reality is Xu Feng, the mighty phoenix son of the Heavenly Emperor. Her decision to not eat save the Fire God will put them at the heart of plots and schemes, romances and adventures spanning the Flower Kingdom, Heavenly Realm, Demon Kingdom, and the Realm of Mortals.

**Trigger Warning: Contains reference to off-camera sexual assault.**

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Dance of the Phoenix

Feng Wu, a former genius girl in the Junwu Continent, was attacked by her old enemy Zuo Qingluan. In the attack, she lost not only her memories and abilities, but her “phoenix blood” which made her powerful.

In order to save Feng Wu her secret tutor, Master Mu Jiuzhou (a hero thought long dead whose soul is bound inside a ring Feng Wu wears around her neck), exhausted his vitality and fell into a deep coma.

The forces Master Mu Jiuzhou were trying to keep at bay are roiling again, readying for war unless Feng Wu can recover her memories, her power, and survive long enough to release him from the ring.

But if Feng Wu at full power couldn’t stop the evil Zhuo Qingluan’s attack and save herself, what chance does “normal person” Feng Wu have?

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Douluo Continent

Tang San is a hardworking and kind young man who was raised by his single father to be a blacksmith to a small village. His demanding father taught him secret techniques and cultivated unknown abilities while refusing to ever allow him to enter the world of the Soul Masters- heroes who use their inner power to defeat monstrous Soul Beasts and collect their power.

One day, Tang San is attacked in the woods by a fearsome Soul Spider and uses his special techniques to survive, drawing the eye of a nearby Soul Master. The man tests Tang San and discovers that while his Soul Spirit takes the utterly useless form of a common weed (as opposed to say a lion or a wolf), he harbors extreme untapped power and potential.

What only Tang San and his father know is that Tang San is a rare Twin-Soul, in possession of not one Soul Spirit- the Blue Grass- but a second extraordinarily rare weapon spirit capable of being wielded either against foes or in protection of innocents.

Unable to deny Tang San the ability to learn to control his power, his father allows him to leave the protection of the village and embark on a journey to develop his powers and perhaps learn the truth of his parentage.

On his journey Tang San will be joined by the mysterious and naïve Xiao Wu- a seemingly unstoppable and optimistic girl with a rabbit as her Soul Spirit and the ability to absorb the life force of Soul Beasts. They are led by a disgraced Soul Master in Training, Yu Xiao Gang, who was disregarded as a janitor all while studying Soul Masters and developing his own radical theories as to the nature of their power.

Tang San, Xiao Wu, Yu Xiao Gang, and the other friends they meet along the way will become a famous team of heroes known as the “Seven Devils of Shrek Academy”, and be drawn into an imperial struggle for power that threatens to consume their entire continent.

Tang San appears to the world as the master of the Silver Grass Spirit, but once that same world realizes the might of the Weapon Spirit he keeps hidden, he will have to fight with everything he has in order to protect what he holds dear.

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Fairyland Lovers

Bai Qi is a “spiritual doctor” who travels the world to rid spirits of their obsessions and stop them from becoming monsters. Eons ago he himself was at the threshold of becoming an Evil Spirit, and was saved by a Divine Warrior who helped him find a way to move past his darkness before tragically losing her life.

Isolated from the world and alone with a sprig of his lost love’s peach tree, Bai Qi meets the sunny but hapless actress Lin Xia. Not only does the tree come to life in her presence- and not only can she use the tools left behind by his lost lover- she also has the same face.

Curious, Bai Qi enters into a co-habitation agreement with Lin Xia and she helps him cleanse souls before they can turn into Evil Spirits. As their lives intersect, a memory that Bai Qi sealed away for over ten thousand years begins to surface.

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Guardian

Super-Detective Zhao Yunlan meets university professor (and powerful supernatural being) Shen Wei and the two men are instantly drawn together by a past one cannot forget and a future the other cannot guess. As they grow closer, they find themselves at the heart of a high-stakes supernatural battle between unknown enemies.

Will the heroic duo’s unique talents- and special bond- be enough to help them outwit the forces of darkness?

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Handsome Siblings (2020 Netflix Edition)

Hua Wuque is a pillar of righteousness and virtue, the only male disciple of the powerful Yihua Palace cultivation clan. An orphan, he was taken in by the clan leader and her sister and raised with only one goal in life: to find and kill Jiang Xiaoyu, a mighty villain and enemy of Yihua Palace.

So who is Jiang Xiaoyu? Also known as Xiaoyu’er, Jiang Xiaoyu is an orphan himself- the same age as Hua Wuque in fact- raised by the five most feared and hated villains in the world within the confines of the Wicked Canyon. Into Jiang Xiaoyu the villains poured their knowledge, tricks, and ruthlessness, seeking to create the ultimate villain. There is only one problem: As he was raised in the Wicked Canyon and surrounded by nothing but villains, Jiang Xiaoyu mostly uses his abilities to… harm villains and protect the weak.

When Jiang Xiaoyu comes of age and leaves the Wicked Canyon (or rather, becomes too much of a trickster for the villains to handle anymore), Hua Wuque is unleashed to venture from Yihua Palace and hunt down his enemy.

But how could someone kept confined in the Wicked Canyon for the first 18 years of his life be a threat to Yihua Palace? And why must Hua Wuque be the one to kill him (under direction that Jiang Xiaoyu cannot die naturally, be killed by someone else, or kill himself)?

There is a piece of the story Jiang Xiaoyu and Hua Wuque do not know: they are orphans of the same tragedy, in which the divine hero Jiang Feng spurned the love of both leaders of Yihua Palace for a beautiful servant named Hua Yuenu. Hua Yuenu was forced to commit suicide and Jiang Feng killed himself rather than submit to the Ladies of Yihua–

Leaving behind newborn (non-identical) twin sons.

Yihua Palace’s plot is a simple (if OTT) act of vengeance against Jiang Feng’s memory:: Force one brother to murder the other, then reveal to Hua Wuque the sin he has committed and let it drive the boy insane.

Will the truth come out before Wuque finds and kills Xiaoyu, or will the evil Ladies of Yihua Palace finally have the vengeance they have waited for for over 18 years? As Wuque and Xiaoyu’s paths cross more and more they strike up an unlikely friendship, even knowing there is no escaping their dark fate.

**Trigger Warning: Later episodes include off-camera sexual assault and on-camera depictions of near-rape.**

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Hi My Sweetheart

Xue Hai is a kindhearted (and extremely wealthy) but naïve man who has been sheltered by his big sisters his entire life. He decides to go to college in China- where no one knows him- under the name Da Lang and with the image of a poor scholarship student. There Xue Hai meets the dominant, friendless, and rebellious Bao Zhu. Naturally the two fall in love, but after 4 years together, just as he’s going to reveal his identity and propose, Bao Zhu viciously dumps him.

Fast forward three more years. Xue Hai has transformed himself into a handsome but ruthless playboy who treats women as nothing more than toys to be used and cast aside. When he chances across Bao Zhu once more, he decides to launch a campaign to destroy her heart as thoroughly and mercilessly as she did his.

Except Xue Hai is missing one important piece of their love story: Bao Zhu only left him to protect him from her domineering mother, and she has been searching for her beloved Da Lang ever since.

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The King’s Avatar

In the online multiplayer game Glory, Ye Xiu is well known as the undisputed master of professional sports- though no one outside of the professional teams actually knows what he looks like as he hides his face from media and fans. A player since he was a child- and raised largely in professional player training camps- Ye Xiu has no understanding of the outside world.

Halfway through the season, the money-hungry company behind his team, Excellency Era, forces him out and replaces him with an undisciplined hot-shot. Penniless and with nowhere to go, Ye Xiu crosses the street and enters the Happy Internet Cafe. The owner is a diehard fan of the mysterious Ye Xiu, and hires Ye Qiu as an IT manager not for his experience, but for his shared love of the game.

When Glory launches their tenth server, Ye Qiu throws himself into the game once more. Equipped with ten years of gaming experience, memories of an unfinished pledge to a dead friend, and an incomplete self-made weapon, Ye Qiu will rise from the ashes, forge a new team, and take back his crown.

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The Lost Tomb**

50 years ago, a group of Changsha grave robbers known as the “Mystic Nine” dug out manuscripts of the location of treasures from the Warring States period, but soon after almost the entire group was hunted down and slaughtered.

In the present, the young grandchild of the sole survivor, Wu Xie, discovers a secret within his grandfather’s notes as well as half of a silk manuscript that may reveal the location of the lost tomb. But there is one problem- the other half of the manuscript is held by a shady organization of tomb raiders eager to break in and steal whatever cultural relics are inside the tomb.

Wu Xie has a “National Treasure” moment and decides that in order to stop the objects in the tomb from vanishing into the black market he will break in first and recover whatever is inside (’I’m going to steal the Declaration of Independence…’).

Wu Xie is helped on his journey by his beloved “Third Uncle” Wu Sanxing, his uncle’s right hand man Panzi, and the mysterious Xiao Ge - a tomb raider who seems to know of traps before they are sprung and whose hand has been mutilated in a way not seen among tomb robbing families in over a century.

They expected to find a lost tomb, perhaps chase away some thieves, and learn about an exciting piece of lost history. What they did not expect was for the tomb to strike back, the dead to rise, and the past to fight and keep what secrets it holds.

Who exactly are this alternate group of tomb robbers? What are they searching for? What exactly is protecting the tomb? Whose side is Xiao Ge truly on? And- most crucially- can Wu Xie survive long enough to find the answers?

** This recommendation is part of a broader series of shows and movies, all adapted from “The Gravedigger’s Notebook” and its sequels::

The Lost Tomb (2015)

The Lost Tomb 2: Explore With the Note (2016)

Time Raiders (2016 movie)

The Mystic Nine (2016)

Tomb of the Sea (2018)

Reunion: The Sound of the Providence (which gets its own recommendation below; 2019-2020)

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Love O2O

** O = letter, not number

Wei-Wei has both beauty and brains. A computer goddess, she aspires to be an online game developer. In her spare time, she plays her favorite online game ‘A Chinese Ghost Story’- where she has made a name for herself as the top female player on the entire server.

After her online husband dumps her, she gets a message from legendary player Yixiao Naihe- asking to become her online husband (marriages in-game offer certain benefits and quest lines single players cannot achieve).

Little does Wei-Wei know that Yixiao Naihe is also her college senior and the most desired man on campus, Xiao Nai.

Will their online chemistry lead to a real-life romance? Yes. Of course it will. It’s in the title.

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Miss The Dragon

As a humble maid, Liu Ying never expected her life to be anything other than ordinary. Content with the world and her place in it, she spent her days tending to injured creatures and assisting her mistress Xia Hou Xue. But when Liu Ying finds an injured little snake and nurses it back to health, she has no idea how her life is about to change.

That little snake turns out to be a thousand year old Draong King named Yu Chi Long Yan. He falls in love with Liu Ying, and decides to repay her kindness by naming her as his queen.

And then Xia Hou Xue is captured by a wolf demon. Liu Ying flips the script- begging Yu Chi Long Yan to repay her kindness instead by rescuing her mistress and then keeping her safe for three lifetimes. Trapped by his word, Yu Chi Long Yan agrees to do so, though he secretly remains by Liu Ying’s side.

Now in her fourth lifetime, Liu Ying is reincarnated as Gu Qing Yan. She slowly becomes aware of his existence in her life- and her past lives as well. After waiting three lifetimes to be reunited with his lost love, Yu Chi Long Yan will fight with everything he has to keep her safe and get the Happily Ever After they should have had three thousand years ago.

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My Roommate is a Detective

Shanghai in 1925 is caught between gang leaders and the European powers colonizing China.

A resourceful young police officer named Qiao Chu Sheng is on the trail of a brutal but devious killer. Realizing that the police force will need some extra help with this difficult case, he decides to form an elite crime-busting detective team. He reaches out Lu Yao, a Cambridge graduate a slick con-man.

Qiao Chu Sheng has learned that Lu Yao has remarkable powers of deduction and a brilliant mind – and believes he can help crack this difficult case. To round off the team, he enlists the help of Bai You Ning, a focused young female reporter for a daily newspaper. A free-thinking, independent young woman, she has a strong sense of justice – and pledges to help catch the killer.

The trio form a small detective squad that specializes in solving strange and unsettling murder mysteries.

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Oh My Emperor

Fei-Fei, a young doctor, is wounded in an accident and finds herself trapped in the ancient and mystical nation of Huang Dao. The people of Huang Dao are ruled by a king born of the stars- the physical embodiment of one of the twelve zodiac constellations. To keep discord from arising among the people, the Twelve Zodiac Masters govern together to keep the peace.

But a thirteenth sign has been forcibly subjugated, it’s Lord executed, and its people scattered to the wind. The lost sign- Ophiuchus- is rising once more- and Fei-Fei is its (unwilling) Master.

It only complicates matters slightly that Fei-Fei finds herself between the handsome and charming Master of Aquarius and his nephew- the cold Master of Capricorn (who is also the Emperor). Can Fei-Fei keep her identity secret long enough to solve the mystery of the Ophiuchus purge- or is Huang Dao doomed to destruction?

**This drama is a showpiece for members of the Chinese pop group X-Nine, do not judge it by the same standards as a traditional drama. Showpiece dramas tend to be a bit silly.

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Reunion: The Sound of the Providence**

Wu Xie, “Fatty” Wang Pangzi, and the quasi-immortal tomb raider Xiao Ge (AKA Zheng Qiling, Kylin, and “Poker Face”) have faced many dangerous tombs together over the past twelve years.

Now, it is time for them to go on their last great adventure as the so-called “Iron Triangle” before Wu Xie sets off on the journey all must eventually make: death. He always thought his end would come in a dangerous tomb, but instead it will be lung cancer that claims his life. With only 3-4 months left to live, Wu Xie hides the truth of his illness from his friends and family, revealing the truth only to Xiao Ge.

Once upon a time, Wu Xie was told that when a man meets his death he must do so with a clear conscience. But something has been weighing on Wu Xie- his Third Uncle’s disappearance at the end of their first adventure. Right on time, a message from his long lost uncle appears, setting Wu Xie on a desperate mission to find him before the cancer eating away at his body destroys him at last.

This will most likely be Wu Xie’s final journey, but he will do anything in his power to make sure his friends and family will be safe long after his time is up. In the final 3-4 months of Wu Xie’s life he will seek to unravel the mystery of the “Thunder City”- starting with the most dangerous tomb he’s ever explored, The South Sea King’s Tomb.

The sound of thunder hides a secret men have killed for, but is there really a way to hear the words of gods within it? Someone clearly thought so, but who? Is Uncle Sanxing still alive, or is someone in the shadows guiding Wu Xie to them?

Wu Xie’s enemies thought he was dangerous before, but now he is a dying man with a mission. There is no telling what lengths he will go to in order to achieve his goals. He might just manage to die in a tomb after all…

** This recommendation is just the latest installment in an entire series of stories adapted from “The Gravedigger’s Notebook” and related novels::

The Lost Tomb (2015)

The Lost Tomb 2: Explore With the Note (2016)

Time Raiders (2016 movie)

The Mystic Nine (2016)

Tomb of the Sea (2018)

Reunion: The Sound of the Providence (2019-2020)

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The Romance of Tiger and Rose

Chen Xiao Qian has dedicated her life to making her dream of becoming a well-respected screenwriter come true. Standing on the production set of sweeping dramas she penned through endless blood, sweat, and tears, Xiao Qian can hardly believe what she is seeing: her work, come to life!

Except it isn’t a set. And her work truly has come to life.

Her script is a simple one: the heirs of two rival cities who seek to destroy one another enter into a doomed romance that will lead to endless betrayals and a war that will kill the male lead, Han Shuo.

There is just one problem- Xiao Qian wakes in the body of Han Shuo’s first wife on the day he will murder her! The only way for Xiao Qian to return to this world is to survive the story, but in keeping herself alive longer the script begins to change, and Han Shuo begins to fall in love with the wrong person.

At first it is easy for Xiao Qian to keep herself alive- just go along with the script! But the story wants to return to the original plot, which means characters who should be friends become enemies, enemies become friends, and Xiao Qian might not live long enough to find her way home.

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The Untamed

On the cliffs of the Nightless City, upon defeating his enemies in a bloody slaughter, the cruel and vicious Yiling Patriarch- Wei Wuxian- threw himself to his death.

Sixteen years later, he is resurrected by a madman and given a second chance to right what went so terribly wrong long ago. Wei Wuxian reunites with the honorable, righteous, and stern Lan Wangji- his confidant, soulmate, and best friend.

How can someone as upstanding as Lan Wangji befriend the monstrous and hated Yiling Patriarch? What turned the happy and popular Wei Wuxian into the man who slaughtered thousands at Nightless by weaponizing the souls of the dead?

And what terrible secret was Wuxian resurrected to unearth?

The past is not always what it seems, and there is no clean line between right and wrong.

**Don’t worry if you’re lost when the show starts, that is by design. Near the end of episode 2 the show will enter a 30 episode long flashback sequence to answer all questions.

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Well Intended Love (Season 1: Drama Version)

Seasons 1 and 2 of “Well Intended Love” feature the same stars playing the same characters, but the storylines are alternate-universes of one another telling the story from a different genre. Each season is wholly independent of one another.

A third-rate actress with leukemia becomes entangled with the handsome but cold CEO Ling.

In order to receive a bone marrow transplant and contniue her career as an actress, Xia Lin enters into a secret marriage with Ling Yi Zhou. Despite the conspiracies and misunderstandings they encounter, the two begin to find true love.

But one question nags at Xia Lin’s mind:: Why did the cold, controlling, and distant Ling YiZhou need her to play the role of wife?

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Well Intended Love (Season 2: Rom-Com Version)

Seasons 1 and 2 of “Well Intended Love” feature the same stars playing the same characters, but the storylines are alternate-universes of one another telling the story from a different genre. Each season is wholly independent of one another.

Rising TV superstar Xia Lin finds herself embroiled in scandal after a run-in with business mogul Ling Yizhou at a party. To clear up any misunderstandings the two prepare a joint press conference– where Xia Lin is stunned by Ling Yizhou’s statement that the two are- in fact- an engaged couple.

Ling Yizhou convinces Xia Lin to play fiancee for a period of one year, after which they can go their separate ways. To save face in front of her fans, Xia Lin agrees. She gradually begins to fall for the lovable and doting Ling Yizhou.

Someone works in the shadows to destroy everything Ling Yizhou holds dear- and the closer he gets to the heart of the conspiracy, the more he realizes Xia Lin may have a target on her back as well.

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Word of Honor // Faraway Wanderers

Zhou Zi Shu has served as the leader of Heaven’s Window for much of his life. A once righteous and honorable sect who acted as an elite Secret Service for the royal family, a corrupt prince has turned them into his personal assassin’s guild. With their oaths to Heaven’s Window as nooses around their throats, most of Zhou Zi Shu’s elders and friends have chosen death over continued service.

Wholly disillusioned, Zhou Zi Shu only wants to atone for the crimes he was forced to commit under his oaths to the prince. He endures the slow execution of Heaven’s Window- a process that sees seven nails inserted into the victim and ushers in a slow and painful death that takes three years to play out.

By gaming the system he helped create, Zhou Zi Shu manages to buy himself an extra year and a half of life to wander the world and wipe some of the blood from his slate.

In his wanderings, he is pulled into a conspiracy surrounding a young boy and meets a strange young man named Wen Ke Xing who sticks to him like glue. Zhou Zi Shu and Wen Ke Xing grow closer and closer throughout their journey to find a mysterious treasure that is rumored to give its owner unlimited power.

But just who is Wen Ke Xing? What is he really after? And most importantly of all- can Zhou Zi Shu really trust his new companion?

[revengeoftheantichrist]

What Kind of Man

Warnings: Mentions of pregnancy, children, gore, threats, possessive behaviour 

AO3  <<<Previous

Chapter 13: Affliction 

“What do you know about him my dear girl?” asked Myrtle, bringing you out of the constant daze you were in. “Hmm? Oh, nothing,” you responded, telling her the truth. “We began to do some observation and research after Madison disappeared,” she started. “There had always been rumours that the Langdon family had been involved in devil worship since time immemorial. It would explain their power and wealth. Count Lucien’s father promised the souls of his decedents in exchange for more. He wanted immortality.” “Immortality? What a strange thing to ask for” you perked up. “Yes. But the irony is, they all died anyway. But he had passed it onto his children. Caesar Langdon was killed by his wife. Lucien Langdon was killed by vampire hunters. You see, these beasts of the night have existed for centuries. There is always someone there to stop them. It’s a curse, to have to feed off the living to keep yourself going. They thought the Langdon line would end with Lucien, but no one was counting on Vivienne on being with child,” she explained. “What about Tate?” “He was far too unagreeable for anyone to willingly give him a child. The hunters would have killed him anyway if Michael hadn’t.” “Michael? Michael killed his own uncle?” “Of course, he did! Well, we can’t prove it, but it was probably revenge for what had been done to his mother,” Myrtle said casually, while stirring her tea. “He was born with this affliction dear, chosen by the devil to do his bidding.” “H- he said he had to feed his clan. What did he mean by that?” you questioned. “Creatures of the night have a complex society. They stick together in ‘Clans’ for protection and sustenance. Michael oversees the Cooperative, which is the name of his clan. They’re the reason we can’t keep you in France for too long, the Cooperative have their claws everywhere. They have been around for far longer than I have dear girl.” You looked at her confused, “Why didn’t we know, no, I know any of this before?” It was Cordelia’s turn to speak. “we only pieced it all together recently, we wished we could have gotten to you sooner. It seems that opium can convince lawyers and accountants to spill their secrets” She was talking about Jeff and Mutt “Did my brother know all this?” “He knew enough to have his tongue cut out.” You looked at her wide eyed, unable to speak after hearing the news. “Why? Why did he choose me?” you began to cry again, what had you done to deserve this. These were only answers Michael had. //// Michael was born with his affliction. His lust for blood was uncontrollable as a child. Maid after maid was drained dry. His own mothers’ wrists and neck scarred from when he would feed of her. His grandmother would look at him with disgust after a feeding frenzy; his little round cheeks glossy with blood. He was always a messy eater. With the bloodlust came rage. So much rage. He almost killed Constance after she commented on his feeding habits. He had killed the dog when Tate had killed his mother, he was biding his time for a longer revenge plan. Mrs Mead had come to work for them when he was 15. She was one of the only staff members Michael hadn’t got his teeth into. Encouraging him to give into his desires, just as his grandfather would have wanted him to. She encouraged him to kill Tate, helping him devise his plan to slowly and painfully kill him. He took great joy in his killings. Hawthorne had let him meet more boys like him. Xavier was like him, a creature of bloodlust. Duncan was a wolf of a great American dynasty. Richard came from a family of hybrids, unstable and unable to survive in either society. But Michael offered him and his siblings a chance, taking them in as staff and the eyes and ears of his projects. No matter how much blood he had consumed, Michael’s cravings were still not satisfied. He craved one thing above anything else. He craved companionship. Someone to share the rest of his eternity with. If cousin Elizabeth could find someone, why couldn’t he? But things were never easy for Michael, they never were. Turning women just seemed to be harder than turning men. All his attempts at turning had been unsuccessful. They were often dragged away by deaths cold hands. The ones that didn’t die were left in a constant state of comatose. Laying between the veil of the living and the dead. There was one benefit to these failures. They became a permanent and constant blood source. They couldn’t move, they couldn’t speak, but they could hear and feel everything. It brought Michael a great sadistic joy that they could feel all the pain he inflicted on them. He had spent his free time looking for the perfect match. The unsuccessful ones usually became a source for him and the clan. He thought that might have changed with Madison. When he first laid eyes on her, the hunger he felt was one he had never felt before. The intense need to have her right there and then overwhelmed him. He went to all extremes to have her. Even promising marriage if she came to him. And she did. She left it all behind for him. So easily willing just like the rest. So, when she was another failure, Michael was shocked. The grief of it all sent him on a killing spree on his grand tour. A bad day and his night visitors never made it home. The feeling he felt after seeing your picture was indescribable. This was more intense than the one he had with Madison. Your image had devoured all logical thought there and then. Looking for girls that looked like you just to satiate him. When he finally had you, he thought he’d kill you. Your scent overwhelmed him, he felt like a wild, ravenous dog in front of a piece of meat. He watched you eat on your first night. He watched you undress, licking his lips with every piece of skin that slowly revealed itself. His fangs ached as he watched you bathe. He feared that if he had gotten too close, he would have ended you. He had almost killed you the night you had consummated your marriage, leaving painful bruises around your neck and breasts. After seeing the bruising, he knew had to control himself if he wanted to spend an eternity with you. Patience was something he never had. His lack of patience made him sloppy. Sloppy enough for him to have his brains shot out. //// You had seen more of the world than you ever thought you’d see. More than you wanted to see. You spent no more than a week in one place, before the paranoia of being watched or followed took over you. You couldn’t trust anyone now. The cooperative always made themselves known when they were around. Places you had stayed would be burned down, or the people that you spoke to would turn up dead. They wanted revenge for what you did to their patriarch. You had become a living omen, forced to wander for eternity, leaving a trail of fire and blood behind you. Eternity. Blood. The smell of your verbenas repulsed you now, but you carried then just incase. Your teeth ached. You couldn’t help yourself. You got hungry sometimes, uncontrollably so. You tried not to take too much, but sometimes you’d go weeks without feeding. Your next meal ending up dead before your teeth let go. Your hearing got sharper too. You heard the Cooperative before they could get too close. You heard about your parents’ death. The carriage accident left no survivors. You wondered what excuses had been given for your absence. You wondered if your family line would end there. Would anyone marry your brother? A man with no tongue? Cordelia and Company refused to kill you. Michael had cursed you in more ways than one. His words rang though your head, when he mentioned a portrait in spring, to represent new life. You understood now what he meant. You understood the other secret everyone hid from you. The Langdon family curse carried on, on Easter Sunday. The cries of a baby boy rang through your secluded cottage at 3 AM. The irony of the event wasn’t lost on you. He looked just like his father, blond curls and blue eyes. A cherubic little thing. Adriel had dimples when he giggled, it made your heart soar. He was your priority now, choosing to settle just for a little bit. The cooperative hadn’t reached the Caucasus mountains yet. You sent news of your son and your decision to settle to Cordelia; the same way you sent every other message, in an intricately embroidered piece of cloth. The sun was bright and warm in the sky and the flowers were vibrant the day you got your reply. The envelope had smelled of smoke and burned flesh. Inside was your ‘letter’ that you had sent, the fabric returned to you singed. Your hands shook as you looked for any other clues. You looked at the envelope again and noticed the seal. Cordelia’s seal was white. This was black; the Langdon coat of arms. The unique form of the seal that was on Michael’s signet ring. He must have been alive. He knew where you were. You had to leave; you were no longer safe here. You ran to grab your son. As you brought him to your chest, you felt the air shift around. The birds had stopped chirping. The breeze had stilled. Storm clouds had quickly engulfed the sun. He was already here, nearby in the forest. You could feel it in every cell of your body, the pull towards your ‘creator’. He wasn’t close enough yet, so you ran in the opposite direction to the pull you felt. But the further you went, the fussier Adriel got. His cries ringing through the silent forest, giving away your location. A flash of brown stopped you in your tracks. A great wolf had landed in front of you. His teeth were sharp, and his eyes were red. You hadn’t felt fear like this in a while. You slowly stepped back, looking around you for a way out. But with each step you took, he took one forward, glaring at you. You thought you’d hit a tree with your next step, but a familiar pair of arms wrapped around you. “Did you have fun enjoying the sights and terrorising innocent villagers my love?” his honey like voice broke through the silence. Adriel had stopped fussing as soon as he heard his father’s voice, as soon as the babe had felt his presence. To you it brought dread and fear, to the child it brought the greatest of comfort, to be held by both parents. You tried to look around for an exit, but you were surrounded. Xavier and Richard to either side. The wolf was Duncan, you could small him. Behind you was Michael. His nose was on your neck, deeply inhaling your scent, “Oh how I’ve missed you so little dove.” There was no way out this time. You weren’t armed. You weren’t as experienced as these creatures. You couldn’t fight without risking Adriel. “Our little game of hide and seek is over little rabbit. I’ve won and now its time for you to come home,” he whispered to you. He had taken Adriel from your arms while you were distracted. You finally got a look at him, expecting to see the empty eyes that haunted your dreams every night. Instead you were met with the same face you saw on your wedding day. His eyes seemed bluer than ever before. His hair was glossier, shining despite the lack of sun. His skin was unblemished, like marble. Not a scar or any discolouration around his eyes. His lips looked softer too. You had missed them so, missed the words that came out of them, the way they felt on your skin. Adriel began to coo at Michael, reaching his tiny hands for his hair. You heard Richard gag at the sight. Michael paid you no mind as he began to walk again. “Where are you going?” you called out, following him like a lost puppy; you didn’t want to be separated from your son. “Your doctor prescribed trip to the French riviera is over. Your fever is gone and oh, how wonderful, the countess has given birth to nice and healthy baby boy. An heir. As I said before we are going home.” You had walked past your cottage and down the pathway. “I’m not going anywhere with you.” “Oh? And is Adriel supposed to have a wet nurse then?” “He’s staying with me Michael.” He stopped in his tracks and looked at you. He began to laugh hard enough to bring tears to his eyes, Adriel giggling with him. His face turned stony again. “The child stays with me. You come now and I might be merciful when we get back. I’m sure you understand the concept of ‘an eye for an eye’. However, if you don’t come with me, I’ll let Shepherd and Mason tear you apart limb from limb. And when you get back to me, well … you’d wish that they had killed you. An eternity is a long time my dear, but my vendetta will last even longer if you don’t get in that carriage right now.” You wished the ground would swallow you up, or that God would strike you down there and then. Your eyes began to well up. Michael walked towards you and shushed you, wiping away your tears. “The world is a scary place for people like us dear Y/N. We must stay together,” he held out his hand to you. The blood in your veins had yearned for him. It wanted to quench his thirst. His blood wanted to do the same to you. You realised then, that you were like two magnets. Always destined to find each other. What would you do without him anyway? Without his protection? His guidance? His ability to satiate all your hunger, no matter what kind or what the cost? You began to laugh to yourself, looking like you had truly, finally gone mad. The conniving bastard. He had planned this all along. Your dependency on him. No matter how far, and for how long you ran, you would always have to go back to him. Child or not. Affliction or not. You would always return to him. There was no place for you to be alone in this world. You finally stopped laughing, wiping the tears of your face. You took Michael’s hand with a bone crushing grip. You’d get revenge for those cracked and bruised ribs eventually. You sat in the carriage in a comfortable silence. The road was long, and you were tired, oh so very tired. You no longer cared about his ‘punishment’, knowing he would have stop eventually. You looked at the scenery from the window, Adriel at your breast. You slapped Michael’s hand away, “Stop distracting him, he’s trying to feed,” you chided. You looked down at Adriel, “And you, don’t go so fast, you’re just as greedy as your father,” you giggled. “I’d like a turn later on,” Michael whispered to you. You rolled your eyes and shook your head, “You’re disgusting. It seems that some of you brain is still splattered across the moor.” He ‘hmphed’ and turned to face away from you. //// What Kind of Man was Michael Langdon? He wasn’t a man, he never was.

[theseerasures]

Conspicuous Media Consumption, 2020

it’s that time of year again! *saddest toot from the party horn*

for those of you just joining us: it’s a “consume a different content every week for 48 weeks of the year” challenge. for a longer explanation, check out last year’s write-up here, and as always, feel free to pop in and ask questions about any and all of this content.

(same disclaimer as last year too: content for this project ONLY here, and not certain...*looks at my billion Sad Cop Lady posts*...hyperfixations.)

(man remember when i was big into X-Men comics earlier this year? better times than these, if only because no one's discoursing about Emma Frost’s woobie/war criminal ratio anymore--her w/w, if you will)

(...i swear at one point i didn’t exclusively like platinum blondes but alas)

Bitter Root (comic, 1 issue finished 1/1/2020): still very cool on a basic concept level, but runs into the Image Comics problem of just not having enough content to keep my interest beyond that. part of that is on me, for picking it up again BEFORE the second arc rolled out, but the first five issues didn’t really follow (or resolve) any cohesive story either, so...meh.

Immortal Hulk (comic, 3 trades finished 1/17/2020): still not gonna be something i care deeply about (maybe one of Bruce’s Hulksonas dyed his hair???), but i do want to give kudos to Al Ewing for sheer consistency in terms of sustaining this level of quality storytelling month by month for more than two years now. working with the dense archive of the Hulk mythos and managing to make it interesting and thoughtful is impressive even if i personally would not expend the same effort.

Disco Elysium (game, finished 1/18/2020): honestly i should have twigged onto what this year was gonna be like when the third thing i drew from the barrel was pure uncut Eastern European flavored depression. i faintly recall people ragging on it for being pretentiously cynical, but i actually thought its core slid more towards idealism than people give it credit for. also gratified that i haven’t heard anything about Robert Kurvitz using slave labor to finish it, which is a thing we have to say about our video games now!!! fun.

Watchmen (TV, 7 episodes finished 1/27/2020): i am a fool who wants to believe in Damon Lindelof and I WAS RIGHT!!! honestly still cannot believe that he pulled off this highwire act with such deft aplomb. might be my favorite TV this year, which is a pretty high bar given how much TV i ended up watching.

On a Sunbeam (comic, finished 2/1/2020): Tillie Walden rightly deserves all the praise for inventive queer storytelling, but i will say that on reread--since i first read this as a webcomic--there ARE some issues with pacing here that clearly come from the foibles of its original intended medium. still just excellent, even if after some plot significant haircuts i was having trouble telling a few folks apart.

Lazarus (comic, 1 trade finished 2/8/2020): it’s so good and i want moooooorrrreee--though obviously Rucka and Lark have the right to take all the time they need. the newer longer issues work really well with the epic prestige drama vibes of the story! i’m into it.

The Good Place (TV, 4 seasons finished 2/18/2020): i’m gonna be super honest: i actually wasn’t a big fan of the finale, nor the last season as a whole. it felt like all of Eleanor’s flaws vanished for a majority of the season, and the Chidi-centric episode where they tried to give a legible justification for why he’s Like This was...i didn’t care for it. still, it’s so good and unique on the WHOLE that we’ll literally never get anything like this ever again, and that counts for a lot.

The Old Republic (game, finished 2/21/2020): it’s an MMO so it will never actually Be Finished so long as the servers aren’t shut down, but i caught up on the content i’d missed in the intervening months. Onslaught thus far has mostly been...kinda bland tbh; going back to Imps vs. Rebs after all the shakeups in the previous expansions feels like a waste.

High Road (album, finished 2/22/2020): someone should tell Kesha not to say that word!! otherwise i was very happy with this album, and happy FOR her even though we don’t know each other. being able to find joy again in the same genre of music you made while you were being horrifically exploited is very cool.

Young Justice (TV, 13 episodes finished 2/28/2020): given how much the middle stuff dragged--STOP KILLING YOUR HIJABI CHARACTER IN HORRIFIC WAYS--i was...actually kinda mad by how the end managed to stick the landing anyway. the day being saved by Vic’s self-acceptance and Violet’s sublime compassion was A+, and even the Brion/Tara switchup was a pleasant surprise, though it relied on me caring about Brion MUCH MORE than i actually did.

Manic (album, finished 2/29/2020): do people still care for/about Halsey? i feel like even That One Song that was on every tumblr gifset ever has kinda faded into obscurity at this point. this album was...okay. i feel like people give Halsey a pass for extremely obvious lyrical turns that they wouldn’t for other folks because of her subject material--which is fine. not really my cup of tea, but i also listened to lots of Relient K this year, so that’s probably a good thing.

Jade Empire (game, 3/10/2020): the only 3D-era Bioware game that didn’t franchise out, and for good fucking reason!!! the Orientalism and appropriation really haven’t aged well, and even beyond that the story was...standard Bioware faire. even my usual “my wife’s a bitch i love her” Bioware type didn’t do it for me, and i just ended up romancing no one. it did make me think a lot about what level of cultural borrowing is accepted nowadays, and why: people still look fondly at Avatar and talk about how ~accurate and respectful it was, for example, despite it being staffed almost entirely by white folks, and the Orientalism ALL OVER the monk class in DND is still fine for some reason.

Alif the Unseen (book, finished 3/31/2020): interesting to have read this AFTER reading The Bird King last year, because it highlights how the intervening years have shifted G. Willow Wilson’s thematic interest and improved her craft. i’m actually quite fond of how her characterization work is rougher here--Alif is extremely flawed to the point of being insufferable, but it makes his development by the end more satisfying. Dina is also just good and i love her

Baldur’s Gate (2 games, finished 5/31/2020): well, having finally finished the series i’m happy to say that it...still doesn’t really do it for me, sorry. any awesome story moments were overshadowed by the EXCRUCIATING inventory management system and the combat (i still don’t know what a THAC0 is and at this point i’m afraid to find out). these games crucially lack the Home Base that later Bioware games were so good about, and that (coupled with the huge cast of characters you can drop off and never see again) really hurts the intimacy for me. by the time we finally did get one it was the Hell Dimension in Throne of Bhaal, and i was just...trying to get through it. (yes, i did just say that about one of the most beloved expansions ever to one of the most beloved games ever.) THIS particular iteration of “my wife’s a bitch i love her” was very good, but the game wouldn’t let me romance her :(

The Underground Railroad (book, finished 6/19/2020): honestly what is there even left to say at this point! it was exactly as good as every critic on the planet said it was, even with my usual aversion to hype. draining and horrifying in turns but still insistent upon a future for Black folks.

Steven Universe (6 seasons and a mooooooviiieeee, finished 7/11/2020): yes, i DID finish the show and almost immediately begin a rewatch. this series is now one of my top five most formative things, and the amount of love and respect i have for it is incalculable. that said: i once again did not love how the central conflict of Future was resolved (just the resolution--i loved the finale just fine). for all of Steven’s breakdown was built up, resolving it with “EVERYONE HUG HIM UNTIL HE CRIES” felt...cheap, especially since up until this point the show had been so good about treating trauma and mental illness with the respect and nuance it deserves. it made me wish some of the earlier, less substantial episodes had been cut so we could spend more time at the end.

What It Is (comic, finished 8/19/2020): y’all i love Lynda Barry SO MUCH. for the longest time i was worried that One Hundred Demons was more a lightning in a bottle situation but every book of hers i pick up makes me feel obscure emotions i didn’t even realize existed. the compassionate way she’s able to describe her child self and how weird and fucked up she was (and still is) is honestly aspirational.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (TV, 5 seasons finished 9/26/2020): so here’s a reversal of what i’ve been complaining about with other shows: i was mostly lukewarm-to-warm about She-Ra, but the later seasons and the finale made me much more into it as a whole. more shows should improve in stakes and overall quality as they age tbh!! i still don’t actively love Catradora (my sole quibble with season 5 actually has to do with the way Adora kept backsliding as a character to make certain Plot/Relationship things happen), but i’m very happy for them nonetheless. i can certainly appreciate a show that will go for High Feeling over tight plot. dark horse standout moments: trees growing everywhere proving that Perfuma Was Right, and Hordak and Adora seeing each other--that weirdly intimate moment of recognition.

Fetch the Bolt Cutters (album, finished 10/7/2020): again i find myself not having much to say that no one else has said. it’s good! once again love it when an artist reclaims something they’d attached with negative affect (anxiety, depression, disordered eating) for better and brighter things.

Solutions and Other Problems (comic, finished 10/25/2020): i was very into Allie Brosh’s ambition with this book, which feels weird to say but i stand by it. it’s cool to see an artist try to make a new medium work for them instead of just sticking to what already works. not all the experimentation was 100% effective, but it was still delightful and occasionally devastating to read, so.

Legend of Zelda (3 games: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Link Between Worlds, finished 11/1/2020): this was the third time i’d played Ocarina of Time, which made it the nice, comforting groove i settled into before Majora’s Mask blatted me in the face. i’m not usually a completionist Zelda person because...the gameplay in Zelda is bad, do not at me it just is, but i really felt like i HAD to be one for Majora’s Mask since the whole point is to get attached to the banalities of the town. i’m sure nobody’s surprised that i loved it, even if it gave me an existential crisis about how life goes on in the game for NPCs when you’re not there to save them from it, and there’s not enough time to save them all all the time (also not a surprise to anyone: Romani and Cremia gave Personal Feelings). Link Between Worlds...bad. not like in a “this is a bad story by every measurable gauge” way, but i was already struggling with the 2D playstyle shift enough that for the whole story to end with some “yes it’s v sad that Lorule is Like This but trying to steal Hyrule’s privilege is Even Worse Actually” noblesse oblige bullshit left a VERY poor taste in my mouth, this year of all years. i did audibly gasp when Ravio took off his mask, though. i’m currently playing Breath of the Wild in cautious increments; it’s the first time i’ve enjoyed early Zelda gameplay, but if they wanted fully voiced cutscenes i wish they got voice actors who...knew what words sound like.

folklore (album, finished 11/6/2020): my belief that Taylor Swift is Just Fine continues, i’m afraid. i LIKED this album, don’t get me wrong, and respect her constant drive to innovate, but i didn’t love it substantially more or less than any other Taylor Swift album. mostly i’m just tickled by how she thinks leaning into the indie aesthetic means borrowing Vita Sackville-West’s entire wardrobe, though i will admit to feeling Something when she swore in a song. i think it was like. savage vindication?? you go ahead and swear, Taylor Swift. you deserve it.

Shore (album, finished 11/19/2020): do people still care about the Fleet Foxes? i think there was some Drama with Josh Tillman a while back but i don’t remember where the discourse landed with who was being more problematic. it was nostalgic for me to listen to their new album--made me remember being an undergrad who exclusively listened to men who mumbled and played acoustic guitar all over again.

Star Wars (3 movies: original trilogy, finished 11/27/2020): there is So Much bad Star Wars these days that every time i rewatch the original trilogy i’m afraid that they will suddenly be bad, but guess what! they’re not. i love these children and their hot mess stories, i love that Lando doesn’t know how to say his best friend’s name. what stood out to me this time was the way Obi-Wan described the Force in A New Hope, which strongly implied that ANYONE can be Force Sensitive; that obviously faded with each subsequent movie, but part of me does wish they’d kept it.

X of Swords (comics, 22 issues finished 12/5/2020): i am enjoying Hickman’s X-lines!!! not so much here for the Grand Conspiracy or whatever, but the character work and highkey weirdness is fabulous--they FEEL like X-Men, despite all the shakeups in-universe. this crossover is a nice microcosm of all that: grandiloquently all over the place, but still full of cool standout moments and genuine hilarity. ILLYANA DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO SPELL MAGIC.

Fire Emblem (4 games: Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Awakening, finished 12/14/2020): this was the thing that i was closest to giving up early on, but i ended up hyperfixating on it instead. that’s a credit to what the gameplay does to my lizard brain more than anything else, because the story and character writing is...insipid. it was very bizarre to witness this franchise blunder around with its animal-people racism allegory around the same time i was getting back into RWBY, and ITS animal-people racism allegory blunders. Awakening was the first time i felt anything for the franchise beyond “teehee red units disappear make exp bar go up and brain go ding,” so i’m excited for more mature storytelling in subsequent games (they MUST get better. they MUST). the child husbandry thing is...very bad tho, and Apotheosis being “challenging” entirely through the game changing all the rules is also bad.

once again no vidya games that came out this year--i’ll probably pick up Spiritfarer or Hades after the New Year, though (or maybe TLOU II! but probably not. sry Laura and Ashley). more TV and franchises this year, which made me feel In Touch with the Children but was also kinda exhausting. nothing was so egregiously terrible i dropped it without finishing! in a year like this that feels almost like an accomplishment

[dfroza]

“because we are joined by faith as family, and your faith is spreading across the world.”

A conservation work

Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament is the 1st chapter of the letter of Romans:

Paul, a servant of Jesus the Anointed called by God to be His emissary and appointed to tell the good news of the things promised long ago by God, spoken by prophets, and recorded in the Holy Scriptures. All of this good news is about His Son: who was (from a human perspective) born of David’s royal line and ultimately designated to be the true Son of God with power upon His resurrection from the dead by the Spirit of holiness. I am speaking of Jesus, the Anointed One, our Lord.

And here’s what He’s done: He has graced us and sanctioned us as His emissaries whose mission is to spread the one true and obedient faith to all people in the name of Jesus. This includes you: you have been called by Jesus, God’s Anointed.

To all those who are God’s beloved saints in Rome:

May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, surround you.

First, I thank my God through Jesus the Anointed for all of you because we are joined by faith as family, and your faith is spreading across the world. For I call God as my witness—whom I worship in my spirit and serve in making known the gospel—He alone knows how often I mention you in my prayers. I find myself constantly praying for you and hoping it’s in God’s will for me to be with you soon. I desperately want to see you so that I can share some gift of the Spirit to strengthen you. Plus I know that when we come together something beautiful will happen as we are encouraged by each other’s faith.

If, my brothers and sisters, you did not already know, my plans were set to meet you in Rome, but time and circumstances have forced every trip to be canceled until now. I have deeply desired to see some good fruit among you just as I have seen with so many non-Jewish believers. You see, I am in tremendous debt to those of various nationalities, from non-Jews to barbarians, from the wisest of the wise to the idle wanderer. So you can imagine how eager I am to join you and to teach the good news in the mighty and diverse city of Rome.

For I am not the least bit embarrassed about the gospel. I won’t shy away from it, because it is God’s power to save every person who believes: first the Jew, and then the non-Jew. You see, in the good news, God’s restorative justice is revealed. And as we will see, it begins with and ends in faith. As the Scripture declares, “By faith the just will obtain life.”

For the wrath of God is breaking through from heaven, opposing all manifestations of ungodliness and wickedness by the people who do wrong to keep God’s truth in check. These people are not ignorant about what can be known of God, because He has shown it to them with great clarity. From the beginning, creation in its magnificence enlightens us to His nature. Creation itself makes His undying power and divine identity clear, even though they are invisible; and it voids the excuses and ignorant claims of these people because, despite the fact that they knew the one true God, they have failed to show the love, honor, and appreciation due to the One who created them! Instead, their lives are consumed by vain thoughts that poison their foolish hearts. They claim to be wise; but they have been exposed as fools, frauds, and con artists— only a fool would trade the splendor and beauty of the immortal God to worship images of the common man or woman, bird or reptile, or the next beast that tromps along.

So God gave them just what their lustful hearts desired. As a result, they violated their bodies and invited shame into their lives. How? By choosing a foolish lie over God’s truth. They gave their lives and devotion to the creature rather than to the Creator Himself, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen. This is why God released them to their own vile pursuits, and this is what happened: they chose sexual counterfeits—women had sexual relations with other women and men committed unnatural, shameful acts because they burned with lust for other men. This sin was rife, and they suffered painful consequences.

Since they had no mind to recognize God, He turned them loose to follow the unseemly designs of their depraved minds and to do things that should not be done. Their days are filled with all sorts of godless living, wicked schemes, greed, hatred, endless desire for more, murder, violence, deceit, and spitefulness. And, as if that were not enough, they are gossiping, slanderous, God-hating, rude, egotistical, smug people who are always coming up with even more dreadful ways to treat one another. They don’t listen to their parents; they lack understanding and character. They are simple-minded, covenant-breaking, heartless, and unmerciful; they are not to be trusted. Despite the fact that they are fully aware that God’s law says this way of life deserves death, they fail to stop. And worse—they applaud others on this destructive path.

The Letter of Romans, Chapter 1 (The Voice)

regardless of what people think about gender and sexuality, every person on earth is conceived either male or female by their earthly parents (a mother & father’s combined “egg and seed”) and it is impossible to choose or to change anyone’s given gender, no matter what is done to the physical body. and it is sinful behavior to have sex with anyone outside the sacred marital bond (covenant) of husband & wife, which is the definition of marriage by our Creator’s design. becoming as “One” body with another is only possible between a man and a woman who are free to share themselves sexually. virginity is pure just as the “marriage bed” is pure. this is the way of the children of Light as True daughters & sons of our heavenly Father, reborn through grace (by faith) in the Son.

the spiritual truth of this doesn’t change with the world.

A note from the Voice:

According to Paul, in and by itself, the gospel is power—God’s power. The simple message of Jesus brings healing and rescue to all people. It starts with God’s people, the Jews, but does not end until all people hear and respond to its call.

The gospel reveals how right and faithful God has been all along. It begins with God’s faithfulness to His creation and His covenant people. Then God acts, finally and decisively, in the cross of Jesus. For Paul the cross, more than any other event, displays Jesus’ faithfulness to God the Father. As the Gospels tell us, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus entrusts Himself completely to God’s will. As a result, this good news brings faith and hope to those who hear and respond to its elegant message. Because God is faithful, He acts in a most extraordinary way. Somehow in the scandal of the cross, He offers His own Son in order to redeem the fallen world.

The prophets express God’s mind and will in the world. Sometimes their messages are a word-on-target to the people and powers of their day; at other times, they see and speak about the future. Their words not only predict the future—they speak the word of the Lord, which creates reality and shapes the future.

Paul describes the gospel of Jesus by bringing in the good news on two levels: On a human level, the good news is about God’s Son, David’s descendant, entering the world to begin the task of restoring it from the damage sin and death have left behind. But the resurrection of Jesus from the dead takes Jesus’ sonship to a new level. Now He is the Son-of-God-in-Power, the One called Lord and Master.

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 23rd chapter of the book of 2nd Samuel where David reflects upon the covenant God made with him:

Here are the last words of David, son of Jesse: the words of the one raised up, the anointed one of Jacob’s True God, the sweet songwriter of Israel.

David: The Spirit of the Eternal speaks through me;

His voice emerges from my mouth.

The God of Israel has talked to me;

and the Rock of Israel said,

“One who rules people with justice

and who leads them in the fear of God

Is like the morning light,

the sun rising on a cloudless morning,

and the shining grasslands brought up from rain.”

Isn’t this how God has raised up my house?

Because He has made a perpetual covenant with me,

well-ordered and secure,

Won’t He make all things to grow and prosper,

save me, and give me all I desire?

But the wicked are like thorns cut off and tossed away

that can’t be picked up with your hands;

No, to touch them, use the iron tip

on the shaft of a spear.

They are burned up on the spot.

Here is a list of the warriors who fought for David:

Josheb-basshebeth the Tahchemonite was the most powerful of David’s three most-honored warriors; he took up his spear and killed 800 in one battle.

The next of David’s three mighty men was Eleazar, son of Dodo of Ahohi. Eleazar stood with David when they defied the Philistines who had gathered there to fight. The Israelites retreated, but Eleazar stood his ground. He killed Philistine soldiers that day until his arm grew tired, but he never dropped his sword. The Eternal One gave them a decisive victory that day; and then the people came back, only to pillage the fallen.

Last of these top three was Shammah, son of Agee of Harar. The Philistines gathered at Lehi where there was a field full of lentils, and the Israelites fled from them. But Shammah stood in the center of the field and fought, killing many Philistines; and the Eternal gave His people a great victory.

At the beginning of harvest, these top three of David’s thirty chief warriors joined David at the cave of Adullam. A group of Philistines was camped in the valley of Rephaim, David was hiding in his safe place, and the main force of the Philistines was quartered in Bethlehem.

David (with longing): I wish someone would bring me some water to drink from the well of Bethlehem by the gate!

So these three mighty men broke through the nearby camp of the Philistines, drew water from the Bethlehem well that was by the gate, and brought it back for David. But he would not drink it; instead he poured it out, although he was parched with thirst, as a drink offering to the Eternal One.

David: O Eternal God, I have no right to drink this water. It would be like drinking the blood of the men who risked their lives for it!

So he did not drink it. This is the kind of thing the three mighty men did for David.

Besides the three highest ranking soldiers, there was Abishai (Zeruiah’s son and the brother of Joab), who was commander of the elite force of 30. With his spear he killed 300 men in battle and won honor as the three did. Abishai was the most honored of the 30 and became their commander, but he did not become one of the three.

And there was Benaiah (Jehoiada’s son), son of a great man from Kabzeel, who also did great deeds. He struck down two lionhearted heroes of Moab. Benaiah also killed a lion in a pit one snowy day, and he killed an Egyptian who was a powerful-looking man. The Egyptian was armed with a spear while Benaiah had only his staff, but he took the spear away from him and killed the Egyptian with his own weapon. These were the kinds of feats Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, performed that won him a name equal to the three mighty men for bravery. He was famous among the 30, but never became one of the three. David made him the captain of his personal guard.

These are the warriors who were counted among the 30: Asahel, Joab’s brother; Elhanan, son of Dodo of Bethlehem; Shammah of Harod; Elika of Harod; Helez the Paltite; Ira, son of Ikkesh of Tekoa; Abiezer of Anathoth; Mebunnai the Hushathite; Zalmon the Ahohite; Maharai of Netophah; Heleb, son of Baanah of Netophah; Ittai, son of Ribai of Gibeah in Benjamin; Benaiah of Pirathon; Hiddai of the waters of Gaash; Abi-albon the Arbathite; Azmaveth of Barhum; Eliahba of Shaalbon; Jashen the Gimzonite; Jonathan, son of Shammah of Harar; Ahiam, son of Sharar of Harar; Eliphelet, son of Ahasbai of Maacah; Eliam, son of Ahithophel the Gilonite; Hezro of Carmel; Paarai the Arbite; Igal, son of Nathan of Zobah; Bani the Gadite; Zelek the Ammonite; Naharai of Beeroth; the armor-bearer of Joab, Zeruiah’s son; Ira the Ithrite; Gareb the Ithrite; Uriah the Hittite—37 men in all who were counted among the 30.

The Book of 2nd Samuel, Chapter 23 (The Voice)

A note from The Voice:

David has been brought up from his position as a lowly shepherd, the youngest son in the household, to the pinnacle of success by his faith in God and his own willingness to follow God. It has been an adventure fraught with danger and intrigue, and marked with loss and heartbreak along the way. David’s own failings find themselves reflected—and magnified—in his children. But here is one of the high points of the story of the people of God, united at last under a powerful and beloved king, and victorious against their enemies.

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures for Wednesday, november 30 of 2022 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms

A post by John Parsons about seeking and finding:

“Without faith it is *impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6). Note that the word translated “impossible” in this verse (ἀδύνατος) means powerless, incapable, and so on, which implies that faith is the key that opens the door to God’s presence. It is not possible to relate to God, after all, if you do not trust in his Reality and concern for your life. Indeed confidence in God’s promises is the foundation of everything; it is the source of your inner life connection and the answer to your prayer for healing. As our LORD Yeshua said: “Take heart; your faith has made you whole” (Matt. 9:22).

God *rewards those who earnestly seek him. This hearkens to the promise made to our father Abraham: אל־תִּירָא אַבְרָם - "Fear not, Abram,” אָנכִי מָגֵן לָךְ – “I am your Shield,” שְׂכָרְךָ הַרְבֵּה מְאד - your reward shall be very great" (Gen. 15:1). “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk in trust” (Psalm 84:11). God imparts favor to those who honestly seek Him, as it is written: “and you will seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me bekhol levavkha - with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13). "With all your heart" -- with both your "good" heart and with your "evil" heart -- that is, with all that is within you shall you seek... You don't wait until you are "cleaned up" to reach out to God, but come “just as you are” -- in the midst of the messiness and sin of your life. That is the teshuvah (answer) to God’s haunting question regarding your life; you find “all your heart” as you seek God’s presence in all your ways (Prov. 3:6). Faith is its own reward since it imparts the blessing of Reality. The Greek word used to translate “those who seek” is a present active participle (ἐκζητοῦσιν) that refers to those who continue to search for God’s Presence and truth - even in the midst of the struggle of life. Like the prophet Enoch, this is the way to “walk with God.” So do not lose heart or throw away your confidence, dear friend, because it has great reward (Heb. 10:35). [Hebrew for Christians]

========

Jer. 29:13 Hebrew read:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/jer29-13-jjp.mp3

Hebrew page:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/jer29-13-lesson.pdf

and another about facing fear:

“O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle” (Psalm 140:7). We are in the midst of a great war for the sanctity of our souls, and the enemy is always fear. Fear amplifies our anxieties and magnifies our problems, since it heeds messages of unbelief and justifies despair. We must understand that fear is a false witness - an emissary that gainsays the truth and denies the power of God. In your struggle with fearful thoughts, take every thought captive and resolutely put your trust in the Lord. He will “cover your head” in the midst of the battle. Amen. "Confidence is the present tense of hope." [Hebrew for Christians]

========

Psalm 140:7 Hebrew read:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/psalm140-7-jjp.mp3

Hebrew page:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/psalm140-7-lesson.pdf

11.28.22 • Facebook

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

November 30, 2022

He Is Able

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” (Ephesians 3:20)

Despite man’s arrogant pride, he is utterly unable to save himself or to make himself acceptable to God. Neither is he able to keep himself saved nor, above all, is he able to defeat sin and conquer death.

But God is able! The word “able” (Greek dunamai) is closely related to the word for “power” (Greek dunamis), both speaking of God’s spiritual dynamics. He is all-powerful, His ability is without limit, and His power “works in us”!

Therefore, “he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Hebrews 7:25). Because the gospel of Christ is the “power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16), God “is of power to stablish you according to my gospel” (Romans 16:25).

Even when great troubles and sorrows and temptations come, He is able. “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). He “is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 1:24).

In fact, He is able to meet every need of our lives and even to use us in His service. “God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).

Finally, “he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12). That day will surely come, but then He will give us bodies of glory, for “he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Philippians 3:21). HMM

[igotopinions]

Books I Read in 2019

* = Re-read Check out past years: 2012, 2013 (skipped), 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Follow me on Goodreads to get these reviews as they happen. 1) The Right To Be Cold: One Woman's Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet by Sheila Watt-Cloutier 2) Nollywood: The Making of a Film Empire by Emily Witt 3) The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi 4) My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh Reads like a more mature Chuck Palahniuk. 5) Of Dice and Men by ME I won't be a dink and give myself a star rating or glowing review, but I gotta get that credit for my annual reading challenge! I'll also say it's a richly rewarding experience to, after all the work of writing & editing & publishing & promoting, to re-read something you wrote and still feel all the strong, positive feelings it gave as you figured out the first draft. 6) Lagos Noir, edited by Chris Abani 7) The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St. Clair 8) The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi A really fun, cleverly written coming-of-age story with just the right period touches to it. I gobbled this thing down in a couple of days, having no problem seeing why Zadie Smith spoke highly of it in her latest book of essays. 9) Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice 10) America: The Farewell Tour  by Chris Hedges   TL:DR This book is not toilet paper, but it sure is shit-adjacent. It gave me strong feelings, which you can read on Goodreads. 11) The Anatomical Venus: Wax, God, Death & the Ecstatic by Joanna Ebenstein Great introduction to the subject with fantastic photos & illustrations. My only frustration was the layout, which frequently breaks up the main text mid-sentence for two or even four pages of images with details captions to read or full page quotes, so it takes a bit more effort to read linearly. 12) The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany I found this through the ol' Appendix N reading list and it's not hard to see how this influenced D&D in many ways, but it has value well beyond that novelty. This is a wonderful fantasy tale in the vein of classic fairy tales, a welcome break from the kind of epics we mostly associate with the genre these days. By the final run up to the ending I was really immersed in what I was reading and I know I'll be looking up more of his books. 13) The Worst Is Yet to Come: A Post-Capitalist Survival Guide by Peter Fleming *14) A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.   The first third remains perfect. The middle third is better than I remember, which is to say very good indeed, despite the feeling of inevitability running through it. The final third remains a pretty obvious punchline stretched out over too many pages, something basically predicted by the ending of the middle story. But! Ah! That first third! 15) The Gods of Pegana by Edward John Moreton Dunsany In theory this was an influence on Lovecraft's Dreamlands cycle books. 16) Era of Ignition: Coming of Age in a Time of Rage and Revolution by Amber Tamblyn 17) Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wiwa 18) 1985 by Anthony Burgess 19) Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan 20) Seasonal Associate by Heike Geissler,  Kevin Vennemann (Afterword), Katy Derbyshire (Translation) 21) Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport 22) How To Write Adventure Modules That Don't Suck Edited by Jobe Bittman 23) The Immortal of World's End by Lin Carter 24) This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace 25) My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite *26) Idoru by Oliver Brackenbury 27) Conan by Robert E. Howard,  L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter 28) Heroes in the Wind: From Kull to Conan by Robert E. Howard 29) The Postman by David Brin Yes, this is that “The Postman”, the one which was adapted into a universally reviled Kevin Costner film in the mid-to-late nineties. It is, however, significantly different and far more enjoyable. It is an extremely White Straight Guy book with some curious ideas about gender in the back end, a "Rah rah, America!" through-line, and an obsession with describing horses as "steaming". It is also a well-crafted, clear, concise, quickly-moving story that avoids several obvious turns most authors would have plowed right into, and overall serves as a great exploration of the power of lies & myths. Plus, yeah, it is kind of heartwarming to imagine the concept of snail mail & the people who deliver it serving to re-unite us in the post-apocalypse. Unlike the movie, I'd honestly recommend this. Heck, I'm thinking I'll start exploring the rest of his catalog. 30) Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond  & Adam Horowitz If you're a fan, then you'll like this. If not? I dunno man! The whole thing feels like hearing stories from your favourite old high school buddies when they're at their most honest and interesting. Great stuff. 31) Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raftery 32) Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Michael Shea 33) Conan of Cimmeria by Robert E. Howard,  L. Sprague De Camp, and Lin Carter. As tends to be the case, the pure Howard stories are best. Carter and De Camp are mostly interested in arranging Howard's work into a larger, more coherent universe...which is fine, I guess, but it has a way of making Conan feel less a legend striding in and out of fantastic situations, more a man - a strong, interesting man, sure, yet still just a man. *34) The Hunter by Richard Stark *35) Beast by Paul Kingsnorth 36) The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline 37) It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office by Dale Beran 38) Planetes, Vol. 1-4 by Makoto Yukimura 39) The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan 40) Reawakening Our Ancestors' Lines: Revitalizing Inuit Traditional Tattooing by Angela Hovak Johnston 41) Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq 42) Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott Part life-as-a-writer therapy, part craft, this leans more toward the latter than Stephen King's ON WRITING and that's plenty fine.  A nice, light read that holds value for writers at all stages of their career, I reckon. 43) Conan The Freebooter by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp As tends to be the case with these collections, the pure Howard stories are best. That said, Lin Carter carries himself much better here than in some of the earlier volumes. There are no magical abstractions of good and evil arm-wrestling each other while Conan just stares at them... 44) The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie 45) The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft Pretty good stuff but, as was pointed out on the excellent Appendix N Podcast, this story would have been really something had it been edited down a bit. RACISM METER: Honestly, pretty okay, which is saying something for Lovecraft! No cats with awful names or race theory or any of that. Just a good wholesome story of madness and history. 46) Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad by Brett Martin 47) Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber 48) The Enchantress of World's End by Lin Carter 49) The Barbarian of World's End by Lin Carter These are not terribly good books....but I keep reading them for the goofy ideas and setting. Averaging 180 pages, they're not a big investment so hey why not? 50) The Giant of World’s End by Lin Carter The first is the best. I think because it was written as a complete story, not the literary equivalent of another episode of a Saturday morning cartoon, as the other World's End books read. As with the rest of the series it is enjoyed more on the merits of the wacky ideas than the quality of prose, including a part near the end who may well have been a source of inspiration for the Emperor of Mankind in the Warhammer 40K universe. Its main drawback is the classic scifi/fantasy failing of providing multiple asides to historical background meant to add depth to the world but which is ultimately meaningless to the reader as it has little if anything to do with the story - nevermind the characters! Heck, it's only 140 pages. It's fun. The ending actually got to me a little. It's a good place to pluck out ideas for tabletop roleplaying, if you're into that. Yup! 51) Wonder Tales: The Book of Wonder and Tales of Wonder by Lord Dunsany 52) Outcast of Redwall by Brian Jacques It's a fun little story, clearly intended for younger audiences, and I've no regrets having bought it second hand. BUT You could have clipped off nearly a hundred pages if the author didn't feel compelled to give you a highly detailed account of every single meal - including many feasts - had by characters big and small. Holy mother of God do you come out of this knowing a lot about the diets of the various woodland creatures, with their meadowberry pies and etc. 53) Björk's Homogenic by Emily MacKay 54) DCC RPG Annual Vol 1 by Steve Bean, Julian Bernick, Daniel Bishop, Jobe Bittman, Tim Callahan, Colin Chapman, Michael Curtis, Edgar Johnson, Brendan LaSalle, Stephen Newton, Terry Olson, and Harley Stroh 55) Conan the Avenger by Robert Howrd & L Sprague De Camp This is one of the better collections. Only the third story is a reconstruction from one of Howard's outlines, the rest are undiluted and glorious.That said, the back two stories are a bit cringey re: race, *especially* the reconstruction I mentioned. I'd say I don't know who looks at a Howard story and thinks "Ah, this needs more complex racial hierarchy nonsense!" but I do and that man's name is L. Sprague De Camp, apparently!The important thing is now I'm all caught up for the next episode of The Appendix N podcast, which I heartily recommend. 56) Medallion Status: True Stories from Secret Rooms by John Hodgman 57) Grand Union: Stories by Zadie Smith 58) The Singing Citadel by Michael Moorcock 59) White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo 60) The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson *61) Virtual Light by William Gibson 62) The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance *63) Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Ursula K. Le Guin (Foreword), Olena Bormashenko (Translator) *64) Bill, the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison A fun little dunk on Heinlein and his ilk. Very slapstick. 65) Gonzo by Hunter S. Thompson *66) McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh

STATS Non-Fiction: 23 Fiction: 42 Poetry Collections:0 Comic Trades: 0 Wrote Myself: 1

[redcrownkrp-blog]

Could I see a sample app? Or get pointers on how to fill in the app?

As far as pointers go I would just suggest making sure you have a clear idea of what you want for your muse, possibly a plan or a simple series of events. It’s really up to you, we are not strict with how people format the biography section of the app as long as we can get a true feel for the muse.

I can provide a sample app though for my muse, The Hellblood, under the cut. Trigger warnings for violence, murder, abuse (of all kinds), sexual themes. And a note that bios do not have to be this long in any way, shape or form.

About the muse

which skeleton are you applying for? The Hellblood

muse name: Park Minho

age: 724

appearance age: 24

gender and pronouns: Cismale, he/him

species: Vampire

face claim: Min Yoongi

aesthetic: stained linen, empty bottles, ripped books, open courtyards, silk sheets, broken chess pieces, bleached hair, wet eyes.

song:  broken crown by mumford & sons

biography: 

The entire history of his clan had been told to Minho over and over, practically beaten into him as a child, teen and eventually vampire. How long they had existed, how their bloodline was birthed from one of the first vampires to walk the earth and how they had kept that bloodline going. The process and traditions he was all too familiar with as he had been born of them.

His mother was a whore. That’s what they called her anyway. A beautiful human stolen away from her family and home to be a breeding pet for the clan, only those of strength and beauty were blessed enough to carry the children that would one day be turned into the newest members of their clan. Minho still remembers her vaguely, how she wore her hair lower than was considered appropriate, the way her eyes creased when she smiled, how her voice became so horribly hoarse when she cried. From the moment he was brought into the world his fate was set. He would live his formative years with the rest of the children, at his mothers bosom when she was available and at the hand of vampiric nannies when she wasn’t. He was to keep out of the sun and listen to his schooling. He was to eat well, diet only consisting of foods that were known to make the blood sweeter, richer, all the more delectable for when his turning would finally come. And he lived in the fear they all did. That if they put a toe out of line the blessing that was offered to them would be pulled out from under their feet and they would be bled dry.

It would be wrong to say he flourished or that he particularly suffered, Minho merely existed. Went along with what was set out, did as he was told. The only time he broke was when his mother passed, she grew too old, hadn’t produced enough healthy offerings to be kept around. He had considered running away after that. Of finding a stake and pushing it through the vampire that had killed her. But he was too well groomed for that. Instead two years later he was finally mature enough for them. He kneeled and bared his neck for his turning trying to not focus on the eyes of what was seconds away from being his sire, how they bore through him, cut him apart reminding him of every ounce of humanity he was giving away as he let them feed. Wondered if his mother had felt the same piercing fear about those eyes before they ripped out her throat.  

He was not a subtle fledgeling. His blood lust came fast and violent. Consumed by a primal urge to feed on anything close to him, any drop of blood, any pulsing vein. It was customary for fledgelings to spend their time in solitude until the worst of the blood lust passed, no matter how long it was, food regularly supplied so that they don’t go mad. It was so dark in that room, impossible to see what he was ever feasting on. Enough awareness to know it was human and warm and oh so delicious. He had been raised with constant descriptions of how blood tasted, the different flavours and feelings it could provide but to finally have his mouth full of it, drinking person after person until he was dripping in it…it was heaven. There was a hunger in him never experienced before but it was worth it for every second he could spend quenching it.

Only after the worst was over was light allowed in, the door opened and Minho got the first true look at all he had done. At first, all he could see were bodies, one on top of another and another. Mutilated and bloodied. But then he caught a pair of eyes and the scream that came out of him was all that could be heard throughout the palace.

The children of the clan were all raised together, played together, it was normal for them to form bonds. Never discouraged. And the bond he had made with her was something he failed to ever describe. Sides of the same coin pulled together by a thread, the readers of each other hearts and minds. It was fair to assume she would be turned just as he had, no reason to doubt when she was ten times as smart and talented than him. Yet there she lay. Eyes wide, neck ripped to shreds, pale flesh dyed crimson.

All his mortal life Minho had dreamed of being turned, drunk on the promises of vampires so so much older than him, their gilded promises and yarns of a better life. Now it was forever stained, overshadowed, tarnished by one of his first acts as the blessed being. His sire was never a kind man, Minho did not expect him to be, but he didn’t think he would be so low in the man’s eyes. Just yet another night child for him to control and have do his bidding and Minho was good at it. How many people he had stolen out of their beds and brought back he did not have a count for. How well he had bent and bowed to his sire and his bloodline, those that ruled over them all. How he had sat in wait, dutiful and good and bloodthirsty all in hopes that one day all that was promised would still come. That the image of stained skin and blank eyes would one day fade.

Life, even immortal life, does not have a simple way of panning out though.

Carpe Noctem came over them like a shadow. First, everything was fine and next there was only screaming and bodies. He ran, as fast as he could. Didn’t consider fighting for a second because he would be damned fighting for these creatures, for this clan, he would run as far as he could and accept the death from whatever vampire managed to catch him. Simply fell to his knees when cornered. A sick fascination and satisfaction overcoming him as he watched his sire get decapitated, the figure that did it seeming so much stronger and more imposing then the ancient being it had just killed. As if the world slowed as the executioner moved towards him all Minho could focus on was what he thought would be the last moments of his inaptly named immortal life. Sweat clung in droplets to the back of his neck chaffing his skin against the silks slowly slipping off of a single shoulder, barely staying in place in the chaos that had fallen. Strands of raven hair had fallen in his face, resting against his cheeks and neck. A neck that was soon to be cut, slashed, ripped, detached. And still, he never raised a hand to protect himself.

No violence ever came to him though. Instead, a cold hand took his chin, not gentle but firm and commanding lifting his head. The same hand would drag him out of the palace, past the fallen of his kin, his bloodline, his clan, his life. Minho had ideas of what would befall him being taken by the clan that had just murdered his own, knew the horrors that might await but none of it seemed to matter. All he could focus on was the relief running through his veins but more strongly the freedom. He was bond, shackled and gagged going to the devil knows where but it was the freest he had felt his entire life.

That feeling did not leave. Not even when the cold firm hand dragged him to a room, decadently decorated with a far too large bed in the centre. It took no genius to connect the dots of why he’d been taken and why the body of the other felt so much closer than before. There was an unspoken choice for him to make and Minho made it embarrassingly quickly. Maybe other vampires would spit on him for it, his own kin would have, he didn’t much care for their opinions though. All he had done is turned and finally truly taken in the man who had stolen him. He didn’t look kind, no person who could disseminate a clan like he had could be kind, but Minho has never trusted kind men. No, he was cruel, violent, in a way terrifying but by the laws of their species and the laws of their time he was so fair. Undressing for him had felt like more of a liberation than a new way of chaining himself.

One night, months into his stay in Carpe Noctem, his eyes were drawn out of the window. Lazily watching the moonlight streak into the room and illuminate the sheets curled around his waist, crumpled beside him, briefly he wondered if he looked as desirable as that first night surrounded by carnage. Probably not, the executioner had a penchant for blood that was absent from this scene. His mind slowly filled with a different idea, a need more than anything, and before he properly processed what he was saying the words were out of his mouth. “I’m not a bird.” He didn’t turn to look at the other, didn’t feel the need, instead simply pressed on. “People keep birds in gilded cages because they think they’ll be useless anywhere else. I’m not a bird.” Two days later he found that need fulfilled stood between the lower ranks, a mess of fledgelings, doing something for what felt like the first time in years.

It would be easy to argue that Minho climbed the ranks of Carpe Noctem through favouritism. Being the one who got on their hands and knees for their leader has its perks, he would never deny that but he would never be in the position he is now if it wasn’t for his own strengths. He wasn’t suddenly the Second in Command. It took years. Years of showing just how quiet he was on his feet, how he moved like a shadow and how useful that was in hearing the conversations those of powerful stations have after dark. That skill growing into being an assassin even more deadly than he had been in his old life, as talented with a knife as he was with his fangs never leaving a soul alive to tell any tales. And years of proving that his tongue was skilled at many things but especially business. That’s what lead him to where he is now. Feared for how he is favoured, feared for the secrets he knows, feared for the blood on his hands, feared for how he is skilled.

extras: i actually don’t have anything to put here which is rather embarrasing asdewkl

I hope this helped tho ‘nonnie!!

[rasekstories]

Tiombi’s Story

There was a darkness in Desolace that extended beyond the night.  Stars peppered the sky and lit the ashen landscape beneath them enough for a man to walk the winding road, but there were shadowy places tucked away in the corners of the wasteland that could not be lit by moon or stars.  Demons roamed these places, clawing at the ancient ruins that sunk beneath the sand, hissing and snarling at each other, bathing in their own avarice and hate seemingly without purpose.

The Cenarion Refuge stood in the center of this desert, a beacon of warmth where once a forgotten outpost stood against the forces of the Burning Legion alone.  The moonwell pulsed at the center of the grove, surrounded on all sides by bent trees, flowering bushes and a thick carpet of moss and creeping vines that made the night elves feel so at home.

Few others besides the elves and the Tauren who’d been there before took up residence in the refuge. The Kaldorei styled houses and screens were more comfortable than Ghostwalker post had ever been, and despite their limited size, the braves had come to stay with them and feel safe, warm and bathed in the love of the Earthmother beside the light of the well.

A young woman sat at its edge, her finger pushing a lily pad along the surface.  The elf sitting next to her was young for one of his kind, though nearly two centuries older than his companion.  He addressed her as an elder regardless.

“Would you like to hear a story, Anathlion?”  She spoke to him in broken Darnassian, her thick Amani accent stumbling over the words, sapping the elegance from the language despite her efforts.  Anathlion nodded.

“It is best told in my own language, if you care to listen.”  He nodded again, and the troll straightened herself.  She was dressed simply in purple robes, feathers and beads on leather straps adorning the edges.  Normal for a troll of course, but Anathlion couldn’t help but regard it as savage.  She tucked a strand of mossy hair behind her ear and folded her hands in her lap.

“Our people were the first people.” The Kaldorei smirked at her ignorance but didn’t speak.  “Long ago, tribes from the great empire could wander as they pleased, everywhere but to the dark borders of the realm of death, where the spirits walked and waited for their chance at a pure and simple paradise.

These lands were ranged by mountains, and any who climbed to the top would look down and see only darkness, and if they gazed into that abyss for too long they would go mad, and tumble into death and leave their broken bodies at the foot of the rock and wander with the spirits for all eternity.

The closest city to these mountains was called Zul’Danaak, the city of the Great Star.”  Tiombi looked up.  Anathlion mirrored her.  “The city was ruled by a great man, feared by his enemies and respected by his people.  He was well loved for his charity, and his justice was stern but fair.  As he grew older, he grew more and more handsome until no man in the great empire could rival him.  He sat on his throne of skulls, day after after day, and when he said something was to be done then it was.

His advisors began to press him into marrying, but none of the woman in the whole of the land were good enough to be his queen.  The Jin was looking for a woman who was beautiful and wise, sweet and caring while also having a sense of justice as firm as his own.  After a year of searching, the Jin was convinced this woman did not exist.  He resigned himself to being a lone man with no heir, and began to look to his advisors for someone to replace him.  You see, Trolls in those days lived even shorter lives than we do now, and at almost forty he was reaching an age where he would no longer win against a younger man.

In his despair and loneliness, the Jin walked to the highest peak of the mountains along the land of the dead, and looked out across the land to where the sky meets the shadow of the valley and wept.  It was then that he heard another, crying as he was, soft and feminine but full of sadness.

There was a woman on the mountain with him.  She was as beautiful as the first bloom in spring, as radiant as the morning sun, and when the wind blew her hair swirled around her like silk and water and falling leaves.  When she looked at him, the Jin saw the whole of creation in her eyes, and he knew he must have her for his queen.

“Why are you crying, woman?”  The Jin spoke softly to her, crossing the peak of the mountain to stand by her side.  But the woman only shook her head, and did not answer.

“Why are you crying, woman?”  The Jin asked again, not used to being ignored.  When she shook her head a second time, he felt his temper flare.  None dared refuse the man who ruled the city under the stars.

“I am the Jin of the great city to the east, and I demand to know why you are crying.”  The woman looked into his eyes, the whole of the world stared into his soul. She smiled at him, and he could not help but love her.

“I am the mother of the Earth, and I am mourning the loss of my children as I do every year.”

The Jin knew that no mortal woman was good enough to sit by him in his city.  If he were to take a mate, it would be the woman who made the beauty of the land.  The woman who birthed flowers and gave birds their songs, who melted snows and gave the grass its dew and grew the flowering vines that climbed up the Jin’s own castle.  He took her by the arm and pulled her to him.

“I would take you back to my city, Zul’Danaak, to rule as my queen.”  But the mother of earth only shook her head.  This time, the Jin’s temper was too much for him. He reached back and hit her with the back of his hand, a scowl on his lips and a growl in his throat.

The woman looked at him once more, the love in her eyes turned to a red furnace.  “No man can love the mother of the earth.”  She spat at his feet.  “The seed gives birth to the tree which gives birth to fruit, and the sweetest soil is in the ash of the fire that destroys all, consuming in its endless hunger until the rains come to keep the flames at bay.”  

The troll smiled at her companion. He’d cocked his head to the side, his lips moving noiselessly as he went over her words in his head, translating back to his own language as best her could.  When he finished, she raised her hand to the sky.

“No city can reach the stars, Anathlion.  No man can rule with such arrogance as to presume the earth owes him anything at all, and no mortal man can truly love something that lies beyond our realm.  The mother of the earth knew this, but the Jin did not.  The fires of her creation spread across the land and encircled the city, burning away the arrogance of men who thought they were more than they were.

The Jin sank to his knees and wept to see his city destroyed.  The woman told him not to despair, for all things die, and in the shadow of their death new life would spring. Pure life, simple life, untouched by the greed and lust of those who came before them.

The Jin clung to her skirts and begged for her to forgive him, to bring back his city and his people, but her skin still stung where he had hit her, and she refused.  In his despair, the Jin threw himself off the mountain, into the realm of the dead where only spirits may walk, and when he left his body he was just as small as any other man and he forgot himself, doomed to walk through the shadows for all eternity.”

Anathlion waited a moment, unsure of whether or not the troll was finished.  They sat silently for several moments, she with her hand in the well and he with his in his lap, before he thought it safe to speak.

“Is that it?”  He asked in his own tongue.  The troll nodded.  “That’s a dreadful story.  She killed an entire city just because he hit her.”

The woman shrugged, the glow of her pale green skin enhanced by the waters beneath her.  “A man cannot own what he cannot tame or control.  The Jin presumed to be an equal to the mother of all living things, but he was nothing.”

“Nothing?”  Anathlion asked, his brow furrowed.  “You said he was a king.”

“What is a Jin to the Loa?”  The woman smiled at him.  “He lived his life as long as any mortal man. He felt lust, greed, hate, pity, kindness and love, just as any mortal man does.  He bled, he cried, he needed to eat and drink. What is that to a woman who, with a single breath, creates the mountains or the streams or the snow on the coldest days?”

Anathlion sat for a moment longer, going over her words in his mind.  His Orcish was good enough, but the stories of Trolls made little sense to him.  There was no land of the dead, and if there had been a city of the stars, it hadn’t existed during a time when his own people had lived.

“We were immortal once.  We needed to eat and felt things just like you do.  Are we above the other races, or were we?”

The woman shrugged, fixated once again on her lily pad.  Anathlion sighed and climbed to his feet.

“It is late, Tiombi.”  He dusted off the seat of his pants, regarding her once more before letting out another sigh.  “Ande’thoras-ethil.”

“Elune-Adore, Anathlion.”  And with that he was gone, down the steps from the moonwell to his own bed in this little house on the outskirts of the grove, leaving a woman lost and sullen to sit by the comforting light of the well.  One by one the stars above them closed their eyes and the dawn chased them all away.  Morning found the steps by the moonwell empty, and when Anathlion woke and asked for his friend, the sentries shook their heads and claimed to have not seen, but reminded him that the ghosts of the kodo graveyard took odd forms.

The little elf looked out across the wasted ruins of Desolace, towards a range of mountains in the distance with one mighty peak, and beyond it a deep shadow that masked the horizon and seemed to suck the light of the sun itself in its folds.  In the wind he swore he could hear a woman weeping, and he clicked his tongue and pushed it to the back of his mind.  Stories were stories, that was all.

[dfroza]

A Letter written to illuminate the truth of the Son

was the clear intent of Paul.

rebirth and eternal life is only possible through Love’s pure truth that fully cleanses the heart from all sin.

Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament is the 1st chapter of the Letter of Romans:

Paul, a servant of Jesus the Anointed called by God to be His emissary and appointed to tell the good news of the things promised long ago by God, spoken by prophets, and recorded in the Holy Scriptures. All of this good news is about His Son: who was (from a human perspective) born of David’s royal line and ultimately designated to be the true Son of God with power upon His resurrection from the dead by the Spirit of holiness. I am speaking of Jesus, the Anointed One, our Lord.

And here’s what He’s done: He has graced us and sanctioned us as His emissaries whose mission is to spread the one true and obedient faith to all people in the name of Jesus. This includes you: you have been called by Jesus, God’s Anointed.

To all those who are God’s beloved saints in Rome:

May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, surround you.

First, I thank my God through Jesus the Anointed for all of you because we are joined by faith as family, and your faith is spreading across the world. For I call God as my witness—whom I worship in my spirit and serve in making known the gospel—He alone knows how often I mention you in my prayers. I find myself constantly praying for you and hoping it’s in God’s will for me to be with you soon. I desperately want to see you so that I can share some gift of the Spirit to strengthen you. Plus I know that when we come together something beautiful will happen as we are encouraged by each other’s faith.

If, my brothers and sisters, you did not already know, my plans were set to meet you in Rome, but time and circumstances have forced every trip to be canceled until now. I have deeply desired to see some good fruit among you just as I have seen with so many non-Jewish believers. You see, I am in tremendous debt to those of various nationalities, from non-Jews to barbarians, from the wisest of the wise to the idle wanderer. So you can imagine how eager I am to join you and to teach the good news in the mighty and diverse city of Rome.

For I am not the least bit embarrassed about the gospel. I won’t shy away from it, because it is God’s power to save every person who believes: first the Jew, and then the non-Jew. You see, in the good news, God’s restorative justice is revealed. And as we will see, it begins with and ends in faith. As the Scripture declares, “By faith the just will obtain life.”

For the wrath of God is breaking through from heaven, opposing all manifestations of ungodliness and wickedness by the people who do wrong to keep God’s truth in check. These people are not ignorant about what can be known of God, because He has shown it to them with great clarity. From the beginning, creation in its magnificence enlightens us to His nature. Creation itself makes His undying power and divine identity clear, even though they are invisible; and it voids the excuses and ignorant claims of these people because, despite the fact that they knew the one true God, they have failed to show the love, honor, and appreciation due to the One who created them! Instead, their lives are consumed by vain thoughts that poison their foolish hearts. They claim to be wise; but they have been exposed as fools, frauds, and con artists— only a fool would trade the splendor and beauty of the immortal God to worship images of the common man or woman, bird or reptile, or the next beast that tromps along.

So God gave them just what their lustful hearts desired. As a result, they violated their bodies and invited shame into their lives. How? By choosing a foolish lie over God’s truth. They gave their lives and devotion to the creature rather than to the Creator Himself, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen. This is why God released them to their own vile pursuits, and this is what happened: they chose sexual counterfeits—women had sexual relations with other women and men committed unnatural, shameful acts because they burned with lust for other men. This sin was rife, and they suffered painful consequences.

Since they had no mind to recognize God, He turned them loose to follow the unseemly designs of their depraved minds and to do things that should not be done. Their days are filled with all sorts of godless living, wicked schemes, greed, hatred, endless desire for more, murder, violence, deceit, and spitefulness. And, as if that were not enough, they are gossiping, slanderous, God-hating, rude, egotistical, smug people who are always coming up with even more dreadful ways to treat one another. They don’t listen to their parents; they lack understanding and character. They are simple-minded, covenant-breaking, heartless, and unmerciful; they are not to be trusted. Despite the fact that they are fully aware that God’s law says this way of life deserves death, they fail to stop. And worse—they applaud others on this destructive path.

The Letter of Romans, Chapter 1 (The Voice)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 20th chapter of the book (scroll) of Isaiah where Isaiah is told to become a physical warning sign of nakedness and shame:

In the year the field commander, sent by King Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought and took it, God told Isaiah son of Amoz, “Go, take off your clothes and sandals,” and Isaiah did it, going about naked and barefooted.

Then God said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked around town naked and barefooted for three years as a warning sign to Egypt and Ethiopia, so the king of Assyria is going to come and take the Egyptians as captives and the Ethiopians as exiles. He’ll take young and old alike and march them out of there naked and barefooted, exposed to mockery and jeers—the bared buttocks of Egypt on parade! Everyone who has put hope in Ethiopia and expected help from Egypt will be thrown into confusion. Everyone who lives along this coast will say, ‘Look at them! Naked and barefooted, shuffling off to exile! And we thought they were our best hope, that they’d rescue us from the king of Assyria. Now what’s going to happen to us? How are we going to get out of this?’”

The Book (Scroll) of Isaiah, Chapter 20 (The Message)

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures for monday, june 28 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms

A post by John Parsons that defines our worth in being identified by grace through faith:

One of the main strategies of the devil is to induce a sense of forgetfulness, apathy, and hopelessness... The devil wants you to lose sight of what is real and who you really are. The truth is your weapon against the cascade of lies that pours forth from the world and its princes. The entire venture of teshuvah (repentance) presupposes that you are created "in the image of God," that you are related to him, and therefore you have infinite value and dignity. This is all the more evident in light of the awesome ransom that Yeshua gave to reconcile your soul with God. Therefore hold fast to the truth, friends; "da lifnei mi attah omed" - "know before Whom you stand." Turn to what is real, refuse the lies and despair of this fallen world, and review what will abide the test of Eternity.... [Hebrew for Christians]

6.28.21 • Facebook

and another about how humility is required to see clear:

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Eternal One, the LORD, is the Creator of the ends of the earth (בּוֹרֵא קְצוֹת הָאָרֶץ). He does not faint nor grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength” (Isa. 40:28-29). Human reason has no objection that God can impart strength, but it objects that strength is found in those who are broken and weary – that is, to those mortally wounded in the battle against evil. The principle of the self-life, the ego, religious observance, "doing the law," etc., is a spiritual dead-end. The word is this: God gives strength to the weary, to the faint, to those who are without potency or power. But this means that we first must be emptied, broken, and stripped of our self-sufficiency before the strength of God is manifest in us: "My power is made perfect (τελειοῦται) in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9).

God's way is first to break us, to make us weaker and weaker, so that he can then fill us with the miraculous divine nature. Like all sacrifices that were brought to the altar, we must pass through death to life by means of our union with the Messiah at the cross... It is only after the cross that it may be said, "It is no longer 'I' who lives; now it is Messiah who lives His life in me." There is indeed strength, power, and victory – but such comes after the cross, after we reckon carnal energy as useless. Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says Adonai Tzeva’ot (Zech. 4:6).

Where we read, "Messiah who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20), we emphasize the object of God's redeeming love; we stress that this word is being spoken to "me," and that Messiah's love is poured out "for me." But how can we justify doing so, in light of the innumerable souls that have been brought forth in the world? The Mishnah asks, "Why was man created alone?" and answers so that each person must say the world was created for me. "Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world; and whoever saves a soul, it is considered as if he saved an entire world..." [Hebrew for Christians]

6.27.21 • Facebook

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

June 28, 2021

Abiding Words

“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:7)

In order for the words of the Lord really to abide in us, it seems clear that we should commit as many of them to memory— not only in our minds but in our hearts—as we possibly can. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart,” the psalmist said, “that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11).

There are many promises of blessing to those who have God’s Word in their hearts. “For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips” (Proverbs 22:18). “My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;...Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:1, 5).

Both the apostle Paul and the apostle Peter have noted the importance of Scripture memorization. Paul says: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16).

Peter’s exhortation is as follows: “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets [i.e., the Old Testament Scriptures], and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour [i.e., the New Testament Scriptures]” (2 Peter 3:1-2). The words “be mindful” mean essentially “recall to mind.”

Since the Scriptures cannot be recalled to mind unless they’ve first been installed in the mind, and since they cannot abide in our hearts unless we first hide them in our hearts, it is surely pleasing and honoring to God that we learn “by heart” as much of His Word as we can. HMM

A tweet by illumiNations:

@IlluminationsBT: With your prayers and gifts, the ApMa people will gain access to Scripture in their own language!

Learn more at: https://bit.ly/2Sgv9o6

6.28.21 • 12:02pm • Twitter

[dfroza]

the purest gold of life on earth

is (already inside) the heart as a seed of the Spirit in being first chosen to be in Love as a child of Light.

A seed of grace that silently and patiently waits to be discovered, to be sought out in the spiritual truth of rebirth in the Light (in the True illumination) of the Son.

and the Voice of Love is heard as a mirroring of Heaven here on earth spoken through us who have clearly chosen to “believe…”

and the seed of the Scriptures being written down illuminates this, to conserve the True nature of discovering the place of “Home”

(inside, Anew)

and truly, the beginning of real wisdom is the fear of God.

A point made in Today’s chapter 8 of Ecclesiastes that begins its first verse as this:

There’s nothing better than being wise,

Knowing how to interpret the meaning of life.

Wisdom puts light in the eyes,

And gives gentleness to words and manners.

(The Message)

and interpreting the meaning (the definition) of eternal life begins with grace, in pure & simply trusting in Love and its sacred truth.

from Today’s reading in the ancient Letter of Romans as Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments with Ecclesiastes 8:

God’s way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: “The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives.”

[Ignoring God Leads to a Downward Spiral]

But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being.

The Letter of Romans, Chapter 1:17-20 (The Message)

and the magnificence of True nature here on earth leaves us in awe, to spark a sense of wonder in the amazement of it all. truly designed to inspire us to believe in and respectfully fear our Creator who is Love in pure truth.

‪@MarkTamayokTVU liked by @YoseConservancy: Another fantastic pic from Ellen. Yosemite Falls flowing with some force this week #reflections @YoseConservancy‬

5.9.19 • 3:36pm • Twitter

as God is Trinity in Father, Spirit and Son, yet simultaneously absolutely “One” who originally made the genesis seed of male and female to be joined Together as “One” here on earth. for sexually, as designed by Love, we’re not supposed to engage our bodies with someone of the same sex. this is spiritual truth, not drafted by man but by the Spirit of God our Creator who made the grandeur of the heavens and the universal garden of Mother earth.

something that is also written about in the ancient Letter conserved in the Scriptures as the first chapter of Romans:

Paul, a servant of Jesus the Anointed called by God to be His emissary and appointed to tell the good news of the things promised long ago by God, spoken by prophets, and recorded in the Holy Scriptures. All of this good news is about His Son: who was (from a human perspective) born of David’s royal line and ultimately designated to be the true Son of God with power upon His resurrection from the dead by the Spirit of holiness. I am speaking of Jesus, the Anointed One, our Lord.

And here’s what He’s done: He has graced us and sanctioned us as His emissaries whose mission is to spread the one true and obedient faith to all people in the name of Jesus. This includes you: you have been called by Jesus, God’s Anointed.

To all those who are God’s beloved saints in Rome:

May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, surround you.

First, I thank my God through Jesus the Anointed for all of you because we are joined by faith as family, and your faith is spreading across the world. For I call God as my witness—whom I worship in my spirit and serve in making known the gospel—He alone knows how often I mention you in my prayers. I find myself constantly praying for you and hoping it’s in God’s will for me to be with you soon. I desperately want to see you so that I can share some gift of the Spirit to strengthen you. Plus I know that when we come together something beautiful will happen as we are encouraged by each other’s faith.

If, my brothers and sisters, you did not already know, my plans were set to meet you in Rome, but time and circumstances have forced every trip to be canceled until now. I have deeply desired to see some good fruit among you just as I have seen with so many non-Jewish believers. You see, I am in tremendous debt to those of various nationalities, from non-Jews to barbarians, from the wisest of the wise to the idle wanderer. So you can imagine how eager I am to join you and to teach the good news in the mighty and diverse city of Rome.

For I am not the least bit embarrassed about the gospel. I won’t shy away from it, because it is God’s power to save every person who believes: first the Jew, and then the non-Jew. You see, in the good news, God’s restorative justice is revealed. And as we will see, it begins with and ends in faith. As the Scripture declares, “By faith the just will obtain life.”

For the wrath of God is breaking through from heaven, opposing all manifestations of ungodliness and wickedness by the people who do wrong to keep God’s truth in check. These people are not ignorant about what can be known of God, because He has shown it to them with great clarity. From the beginning, creation in its magnificence enlightens us to His nature. Creation itself makes His undying power and divine identity clear, even though they are invisible; and it voids the excuses and ignorant claims of these people because, despite the fact that they knew the one true God, they have failed to show the love, honor, and appreciation due to the One who created them! Instead, their lives are consumed by vain thoughts that poison their foolish hearts. They claim to be wise; but they have been exposed as fools, frauds, and con artists—only a fool would trade the splendor and beauty of the immortal God to worship images of the common man or woman, bird or reptile, or the next beast that tromps along.

So God gave them just what their lustful hearts desired. As a result, they violated their bodies and invited shame into their lives. How? By choosing a foolish lie over God’s truth. They gave their lives and devotion to the creature rather than to the Creator Himself, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen. This is why God released them to their own vile pursuits, and this is what happened: they chose sexual counterfeits—women had sexual relations with other women and men committed unnatural, shameful acts because they burned with lust for other men. This sin was rife, and they suffered painful consequences.

Since they had no mind to recognize God, He turned them loose to follow the unseemly designs of their depraved minds and to do things that should not be done. Their days are filled with all sorts of godless living, wicked schemes, greed, hatred, endless desire for more, murder, violence, deceit, and spitefulness. And, as if that were not enough, they are gossiping, slanderous, God-hating, rude, egotistical, smug people who are always coming up with even more dreadful ways to treat one another. They don’t listen to their parents; they lack understanding and character. They are simple-minded, covenant-breaking, heartless, and unmerciful; they are not to be trusted. Despite the fact that they are fully aware that God’s law says this way of life deserves death, they fail to stop. And worse—they applaud others on this destructive path.

The Letter of Romans, Chapter 1 (The Voice)

my reading of the Scriptures for may 10, day 52 of Spring and day 130 of the year: