#....... not trying to judge here

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 198

Now Bruce was not expecting to reincarnate upon his death. At least he thinks he died, he’s pretty sure he did. There wasn’t any other reason for him to be a well, literal baby. Around two he thinks, which fits well with the fact that it’s around that time that babies start forming memory recall, if he, well, remembered correctly. 

But while he knew about reincarnation thanks to Shayera and Carter, he’d never exactly given it much thought towards himself. Because seriously, what were the chances of such a thing as him being given another chance? 

So he was quite surprised at his situation, experimentally opening and closing pudgy hands that looked well, just a tiny bit off. He’d never been that pale before, he thinks, even back when he never went outside like, ever. 

He turned his gaze towards the mobile above him with a sort of idle curiosity- a mixture of bats (ha) and other trinkets he wasn’t familiar with. It also caused him to get his first good look at his parent, asleep on a rocking chair right next to the crib. 

Huh. They had the same pale skin he did, albeit in the light it looked like it was slightly tinted blue, and while their hair was white they didn’t exactly look old. They looked surprisingly well rested for raising a toddler too, unless they had a nanny or something similar… He rolled over, managing to very shakily push himself to his feet with the help of the crib. 

Why was standing so hard as a toddler? And why did he have his memories of everything except how he had died anyway? 

His head whipped up from where they were staring at his feet when he heard a snort, finding his parent awake and standing. Somehow silently enough that he hadn’t noticed- or he was that easily distracted by the unfamiliar giddiness bursting in his chest. 

“Morning little bat,” his parent easily picked him up and held him while he inwardly sighed at the nickname. Of course his bat motif would follow him into this life. A low rumbling almost caused him to jump, his body relaxing before he could fully register the sound. The… purring? 

Oh. 

He wasn’t human this time around. 

[fictionadventurer]

Maybe the problem with Christian fiction is that it's non-denominational. People are just "Christian", with no effort put into showing what practicing that religion looks like for them specifically. No indication that there are other Christians who could have different beliefs. No wrestling with differing ideas and the struggle of how one should live out their Christian faith. And that makes it unrealistic and unrelatable.

[theminecraftbee]

every time i exit like, an exchange writing period, and i no longer have a deadline, i start to become dizzy with "i should be writing right now--no writing??? i do NOT need to be writing right now??? cannot be right?????? writing??????"

anyway i've decided to use a poll to make you all into people who can create a deadline for me (and also i've started using habitica and want to try to write a LITTLE daily). there's no guarantee this is the one i'll actually go with given i've asked this like SIX TIMES in the past few months but this time it is a poll and also this time i'm trying to start writing daily again, so maybe this time it'll stick, idk??? so:

[maniacwatchestheworld]

Here. Have a DPxDC prompt or something. (#1)

Danny, Tucker, and Sam were walking down the streets of Gotham, chatting as they cut their way through the decrepit alleyways and backstreets to get to their favorite comic shop in the city. Tucker and Danny were deep in a debate over the latest storyline in the Road Rage series and so didn't notice the man walking towards them in the dark alley until Sam nudged them both.

"Guys!" She said it in a pointed whisper to catch their attention, but hopefully not that of the stranger's.

Sure enough, heading towards them was a muscular tower of a man. He was wearing what was clearly an expensive suit, tailor fitted for him, and a golden mask over the left side of his face.

"No way...! I-Is that Two-Face!??" Tucker was shivering, suddenly struck by fear now that he was in the presence of one of Gotham's most famous criminal masterminds. "What does he want from us!?"

"Didn't they say that he had reformed...?" Sam asked, less afraid and more curious.

"Maybe if we keep walking, he won't notice us..." Danny mumbled as he continued to shuffle forwards.

A collective breath escaped the trio as they passed the man, but just as they thought they were in the clear, there was a clatter.

Slowly, the three turned around to see the man holding something in front of him.

"Excuse me, young man, but I think you-" but before he could finish, Tucker was yelling.

"PLEASE DON'T HURT US, MR. TWO-FACE, SIR! WE'LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT."

"...What are you-"

"Tucker, I don't think-" but before Sam could talk some sense into their friend, Danny interrupted.

"Don't worry guys, I'll take care of this!" And with that, Danny went intangible and entered the body of Two-Face to overshadow him.

Danny could feel the man inhabiting the body go unconscious as he took control. "See, guys! It's no big... Deal... I'll just..." Suddenly, Danny got the very real feeling that he was not alone inside of this body. There was something else in here. Other... People... And they were fully aware that Danny was in here with them. Inside of this man's mind, Danny knew that all eyes were on him. They did not want him here. And whatever was holding them back before was no longer there, now asleep at Danny's feet.

"What are you doing in here, child?" A faceless voice asked into Danny's neck, forcing a chill to run down his spine.

A flash and suddenly Danny was confronted by a mass of anger and scars. "Who are you? You're not one of us! Get out. Get out! GET OUT!!!" He was screaming.

Danny was screaming. The body of the man he had just possessed was screaming for him to get out.

Summary/TLDR: Danny, Sam, and Tucker pass Harvey Dent on the street. Harvey is minding his own business when he notices one of the kids drop something/something falls out of one of their bags. Harvey tries giving it back to them, but Tucker starts freaking out. Thinking that it would solve everything, Danny overshadows/possesses Harvey Dent. However, while he rendered Harvey unconscious, the other members of Harvey's system are still very much awake and do NOT want Danny in here!

Note: Plural system stuff going on here! Danny basically made Harvey (who is mostly harmless and was fronting at the time) disassociate into unconsciousness. When Danny leaves the body, Harvey will probably wake back up, but there is no guarantee that he will be able to get back to his senses quick enough to stop Two-Face from taking the reins to attack whatever/whoever made Harvey black out.

(Feel free to use. Credit is appreciated but not fully necessary. Have fun!)

[passthroughtime]

Why do we put so much value on truths, if all they do is crush us?

[lienwyn]

Happy birthday, @a-very-fond-farewell! I figured you would enjoy seeing Mr. Abyss in a silly apron ;)

And Ga On be like: "DON'T MIND IF I DO"

... possibly connected to Who Holds the Devil, I guess, since Yo Han is cooking? The future we're all longing for, or something. Especially Ga On since he finally gets to bury his nose against Yo Han's neck like he's always wanted. That boy.

[mourning-again-in-america]

"mansplaining is only when a less qualified man is talking over and explaining a mutually understood concept to a more qualified woman! it does NOT refer to trans men explaining their own oppression!"

cool, so now that you've gerrymandered sexism so that it's less of a viable weapon against you and yours, now all you need to do determine when mansplaining occurs is 1. Unambiguously determine the gender of both individuals, 2. Unambiguously determine the relative qualifications of both interlocutors, and 3. Determine whether or not experiences with oppression might be informing the alleged "mansplainer"'s argument. Have fun!

Edit: I charged like a bull seeing red, and forgot an important qualifier in the supposed redefinition of mansplaining. It's only mansplaining if the man thinks that they have higher qualifications than the woman purely because of sexism, which is a simple task to figure out, you just probe into someone's mind to see if they acted Wrong because they have the Evil kind of thoughts, the kinds of thoughts that must be purged and shown no mercy, not because they're neurodivergent or anything. I'm sure this is trivial to figure out, without any possible false errors. Especially given that mansplaining itself is often used as a demonstration of why someone is sexist.

[wheelerpilled]

Byler? I hardly know her!!!!!!!!!!!

PLEASE send fanart reqs in my asks I promise I’ll do them eventually!!

I might try post more fanart!!! I’ve never felt super confidant when I post my art but I really want to get better and u guys are all super nice so I think ill survive my stupid insecurity surrounding my drawings 😭

Anyways this one goes out to my fellow byler truthers ily guys!!!!! Stay strong out there during the wait for st5 Will Byers reveal!!!!!

[meamiiikiii]

[reverse entry AU]

so glad the work week is over!

no more meetings!

what do you mean its only tuesday.

[werepires]

Sometimes I forget Misha got eyelid surgery done but then there’s a con and I’m like why is he staring at me like that

[blood-orange-juice]

I promised a "Furina is Jesus" post. It's kind of a shitpost but also it's not.

The theatre of the courtroom

I'll first have to note that law is a peculiar thing. It is created through practicing it.

It's not just the written rules, it's how we apply them, and who gets to write and rewrite them, and there's no solid foundation underneath.

It's supposed to be treated as immutable until it's suddenly not. Until an insurgence turns into a revolution or the divine right of kings becomes a symbolic relic of the past. In the mildest scenario a bunch of old farts just gather and vote for new rules. Sometimes the very same rules that give those old farts the right to decide rules.

A law remains a law as long as enough people agree to believe and enforce it. How much is "enough" is also debatable (often depends on the size of your army).

It is very much like theatre. Humans like it when the world is molded into coherent stories so they happily participate.

Furina making a show out of trials is not a perversion of law, it shows she understands its very nature.

Transgression and transcendence

Now back to Christianity. The essense of Christianity is transgression. No, seriously.

It's as punk as a religion can get. A god hanging out with publicans and harlots? Killing a god in the most humiliating way possible and being forgiven for it? Symbolically eating a god?

It's insane.

Such practices are usually reserved for small communities of a very special sort (*ahem* left-hand path tantrics*ahem*). It's the only religion I know that gleefully and unashamedly incorporates such things into rituals meant for the lay public.

(this is probably a good time to mention that I'm not Christian and it's a look of an outsider fascinated with philosophy of religion in general)

It's actually one of the real reasons a lot of pagans rejected Christianity so fiercely: it's spectacularly nonchalant in dealing with things that would be considered "unclean" by most archaic cultures.

Now this is important.

As post-structuralist theories state, any attempt to establish a power structure, to set rules or to define self will also produce things that would seem unclean. Impure. Things that should be cast off. It's in the nature of our psyche. The concept of uncleanliness is one of the core mechanisms that allow our mind to function.

(I'll redirect you to Julia Kristeva and the concept she names abjection if you want to dive into it.

I also want to note that abjection and horror go side by side and it makes a lot of sense that Fontaine is also the Lovecraftian expansion)

And what did Christianity do? It subtly removed the importance of "cleanliness". The gravity of it. It established as the norm that norms can be redefined and transcended. That the outcasts and the sinners are not to be forgotten.

It fucking changed the rules of how human psyche and society function. Added an extra possible move.

A sin can be forgiven. A criminal executed in the most ignominious way can turn out to be a god. You never truly know. And also anything can be made clean. Go wash it kitten.

(yay)

(and yes, I know a lot of modern Christians practice the opposite of what I describe. I'm not a fan of these folks too. doesn't matter. the possibility is there. it's glorious. also horrifying and a bit disgusting)

That dude from two thousand years ago

What about him.

I often see people calling a "Jesus figure" anyone who is sacrificed to save others. Or anyone who is reborn. The thing is, this is not how it works.

A god dying and being reborn is the oldest myth on this planet. Last time I checked it was connected to the sun worship, day/night cycle and winter solstice rituals (although it could have changed and also I didn't check very thoroughly). In any way, it predates Christianity by millennia.

Sacrificing all kinds of things and beings to get something in return or to offer gods something else in your stead is also pretty old and very much not Christian.

The unique beauty of that story is that a supreme being, ultimately more worthy than any human, wilfully chose to sacrifice himself for lowly mortals. Actually, allowed them to betray and kill him. And then forgave them.

Do you see how it ties to the previous section? It defied the previoisly established world order (where gods were incomparably more important than humans). It created a paradox. It broke the rules, or rather it destroyed the rules.

Theological debates aside, on a symbolic level it pretty much destroyed the old concept of sin and the idea of a fundamental difference between a god and a human. Everything a paradox touches stops being fully real and needs to be redefined (ceci n'est pas une pipe).

'Sin' doesn't mean the same thing anymore, and 'god' doesn't mean the same thing anymore, even 'death' means a different thing now. The world just starts to function differently after a story like that happens or is told.

(since it only needs to mess up the symbolic order it doesn't even need to happen, only to be told and believed)

And there we have it. A Jesus figure should establish new rules. Preferably better ones. It's someone who fundamentally changes the world with their sacrifice.

That's also where we get back to "law is established by practice". That was the process of establishing a new law.

(this is also why I dislike the idea of Childe as a Jesus figure. he is not a supreme being, he's not the type to sacrifice himself for people he perceives as lower than him, and he is not integrated into society enough for his death to establish new rules. he can still die and be reborn in a new quality, he can even change the world in some way but that would be a different type of story)

Our precious girlfailure

So. Furina.

Fontaine's prophecy speaks of all Fontainians being born with some kind of 'sin'. And the way Neuvilette is talking to the pool of primordial water in 4.1 implies that its ability to dissolve Fontainians is not some kind of natural law but an intentional wrathful act.

And Varunada Lazurite (we know that ascension materials contain the final lines of the archon quest) says this:

"My ideals have no stains. I must correct you. People here bear no sins in the eyes of the gods... Only laws and the Tribunal can judge someone. They can judge even me. So praise my magnificence and purity."

I assume the solution will not be simply killing the eldritch whale or "cleansing" the sin or locking the sea away.

I think Furina will in some way redefine what is considered a sin, or how it should be judged, or who gets to administer judgement. She will create new rules for the world. Probably by dying in some way (temporarily or symbolically) to create a paradox.

(maybe we'll also get to learn that death in Teyvat is not true death)

As I said at the beginning, she understands the law and the very nature of law very well, probably better than Neuvilette. Who else would be better suited for this task.

And no one will notice the beauty and insanity of her gesture, like no one really noticed with that guy two thousand years ago. They'll just think things got fixed because they sacrificed Someone Important.

But that's all right. She'll forgive them.

[lucaonthropy]

Overheard someone saying T*re Liy* is the best author in my country and subsequently took psychic damage

[miserymisume]

[milf-harrington]

the fact that steve harrington has such a fancy house but then just. doesn't have a porch gets me every time

[napping-sapphic]

I know it’s already getting unbearably hot but who wants to come try and nap with both me and my heating pad anyway

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

@ghostinthegallery I was in the mood for the Carmen liberetto for some mysterious reason so I looked up the Toreador song and stumbled on to this extremely bisexual performance:

and sharing that with you felt like the right thing to do