#When will my husband return from the war of righteousness. Now

[sbnkalny]

I met my husband on r/Cigarettes in 2011. We were making fun of everyone there among the first to do so. We moved to MSN and I hacked his account: he loved a freaky hacker chick. I went to visit him in the sexy part of Canada in 2012: he fucked on this freaky hacker chick bodyy

O heavenly Kalny, will my husband return from war.... It is quite intense i’m not making fun of him). She hacked me all your recent posts tagged DAY1 ? what are YOU. Mmm hit me baby one more Time to be popular with everyone in canada has as (or should i say to my Friends at this party oh wise one?

[backjustforberena]

So, sort of knowing where this scene is set is making me want to reevaluate it and try and come up with what's happening and why. This is not Rhaenys being a pacifist or saying "don't go to war" - I mean, if nothing else, she's the one who dragged her husband out of bed to make him go and pledge for Rhaenyra. We left Rhaenys at the end of Season 1 during a moment of agency and a moment of action for the character: going to patrol the Gullet. She's in it. She's not flinching.

But being an active participant and being willing to fight does not automatically turn you into either a warmonger or bloodthirsty person. Being fierce in war does not mean inviting it, to the cost of everything.

We know that Rhaenys is going to be a large presence in the war: we see her on the wide shot sitting at the Painted Table, opposing Daemon. The idea that a "pacifist" or someone hesitant to be in the war would be sitting right by her Queen's side is a bit daft, when others could easily hold that place (not least Corlys).

The good chance is, looking at the outfits, this is on or around the funeral for Lucerys. I don't think it's specifically at the event, given that Rhaenys's silhouette on the wide shot seems a lot bulkier and floor length, so she's at least got some sort of outer layer on, if not a whole different outfit/possibly a dress (in other news: please give my lady more than one outfit for this season, I beg).

But either way, this is occurring around a time that Rhaenyra is in flux. Where her emotions are strongest. It's not at the start of the war - so it's not Rhaenys giving a preachy speech or telling her to turn back or whatever. Things have happened. Time has passed. Alliances have been made and quite possibly other things have occurred. A very important thing to note is: Daemon isn't there. He has left for Harrenhal and Jace has returned.

For the first time, probably, Rhaenys will have the chance to counsel Rhaenyra without Daemon's influence or presence. Daemon, who has been gung-ho about vengeance since Viserys popped his clogs and is likely no better now. Someone who feeds Rhaenyra's worst instincts.

Rhaenyra is inexperienced at war. She's never participated in one, never been close to one, never waged one. She's never been in this position of responsibility. There's a decent change she can romanticise it, even, given her father's tales of Valyria, the glorification of Daemon, her childhood wish to be a knight and ride to battle and glory and the righteousness of her cause and her claim as she sees it.

It makes sense for Rhaenys to have both an opinion on that and to offer council, given Rhaenys's own experiences. What Rhaenys is saying is that: there will be a cost. It will not be easy and Luke's death is not the worst thing that will occur, potentially. It will get messier and messier, she could lose more and more. Including Jace, who has just returned to them. And all of that, as Queen, will be on Rhaenyra's shoulders. She has to remain level-headed as opposed to being ruled by emotion and ruled by "the desire to burn and kill" because that way madness lies.

I think the order of the lines will go like this, with them being split up by either more dialogue from one or both of the women:

"When the desire to kill and burn takes hold and reason is forgotten.. we will not even remember what began the war in the first place." [...] "There is no war so hateful to the Gods as a war between kin. And no war so bloody as a war between dragons."

Rhaenys starts by looking into the middle-distance, not looking at Rhaenyra. She is empathising with what Rhaenyra is feeling and remembers experiences that she has been through that conjure up the same desire. The war has started, you see that in the language.

And it makes sense if Rhaenyra is feeling like she is starting this for Luke or starting it for her father or starting it for some noble reason for Rhaenys to keep that in check if she sees Rhaenyra veering towards revenge or vengeance without limit - something that is likely to come out at such an event as Luke's funeral and the aftermath of finding those remains (because a woman screaming over the remains of their burnt son, how could she possibly relate...).

But then she will turn to Rhaenyra. Then she'll look and say the next part which is, essentially: be certain. This war will not be easy, be just or be glorious. It will not be a crusade, it will not be idealistic, it will not go how Rhaenyra expects and at the end of the day, even if victory is assured, people may not like you for it. It will change you. It will have a cost.

That's not something to necessarily run away from or hide from. But it is something to keep in mind and be aware. Don't be consumed. Don't prolong it. Don't deny it. They are in it now. They are all in it. For Rhaenyra and she has to understand that. Whatever Rhaenyra decides, it affects everything. Whatever Rhaenyra is ruled by, it changes all.

[amomentoftimeandword]

Geek rant incoming 😮‍💨

**Spoilers** If you haven't seen The Clone Wars do not proceed.

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Back in 1977 the world was introduced to Darth Vader and his empire, as well as Luke and Leia, in Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope. Back then, it seemed right to have this big bad character reeking havoc across the galaxy, a character who had fallen from the path of righteousness.

Fast forward 22 years to 1999 when Star Wars: Episode I- The Phantom Menace came out and introduced us to Anakin Skywalker. We followed Anakin's journey as he became a Padawan at the end of this first film. In 2002 we followed him as an older, (essentially) fully realized Jedi. Then in 2005 we watched the prophecy surrounding him, come to fruition, as he became the very thing he was meant to destroy, a Sith Lord.

In accordance to the 1977 film, we all knew it had to be this way, that this was what Eps. I-III were setting up. Now, let's jump forward again to August 2008 when the feature length, animated film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, was released. In this film (set between Eps. II & III) we see Anakin take on his own Padawan, Ahsoka Tano. Two months later, The Clone Wars series began.

From October 2008 to March 2013, we got to see Anakin and Ahsoka develop a close relationship. They may have been master and Padawan, but it was more than that. They were friends. Ahsoka was someone who was able to keep him grounded, even when Anakin's emotions threatened to get the best of him.

This series, fleshed out Anakin so EXTREMELY well! We see him as a trusted Jedi, a leader, a mentor, a general in the grand army of the republic. We get to see him as a 'brother' to Obi-Wan, a husband to Padme, and (again) a friend to Ahsoka🥺. I seriously prefer clone wars Anakin over live action Anakin (probably unpopular opinion. Love Hayden Christensen though❤️).

Anyways, in the Season 5 finale episodes (17-20) of The Clone Wars, we watch as Ahsoka gets framed for murder and other crimes against against the republic. No matter how many times she claimed she was innocent... No one but Anakin believed her (maybe Obi and Plo Koon), and the Jedi Council abandoned her, expelling her from the Order. In the grand scheme of things, I understand (again) why it had to happen this way, however I still hold some resentment towards the council for turning their backs on her (I know this is all fictional, but I am ATTACHED 🥺).

That being said, Ahsoka got her name cleared and was offered the chance to rejoin the ranks of the Jedi, but she refused. She was hurt and maybe part of her saw how 'blinded' the Jedi actually could be to one another. WHEN SHE WALKS AWAY FROM ANAKIN AT THE END OF EP. 20 😭😭😭😭😭💔 My heart BREAKS Every. Single. Fucking. Time!!! Personally, I believe this is where Anakin's villain origin story started.

HAD Ahsoka been even an IDEA back in 1977, we honestly probably never would have had a Darth Vader. This is a personal belief of course, and I can't change what's been canon for nearly 50yrs now, BUT a heart can still dream. Ahsoka was SO GOOD for Anakin. She would have kept him on the straight and narrow, I'm sure of it.

This makes an even harder impact in season 7 of the Clone Wars (that didn't drop till 2020), when we see Ahsoka return. She's grown up in her time away and has keep her distance from the Jedi. We follow her journey in this season as she eventually finds her way back to Anakin. Eps. 9-12 tie in VERY closely to the events of Revenge of the Sith.

These last four episodes HIT SO DIFFERENT after you've followed all these characters for so long (even the clones 💔). There is a scene where Anakin presents Ahsoka with new lightsabers and then he walks away to join the mission to capture Dooku (that opens up Revenge of the Sith). THIS IS THE LAST TIME AHSOKA SEES ANAKIN BEFORE HE BECOMES DARTH VADER 😭💔😭💔😭

A lot of people ask where Ahsoka was during RotS and these last 4 episodes answer that too. She had a mission to capture Maul on Mandalore and bring him back to Coruscant to the Jedi Council as a way to help the republic one last time. THIS EXPLAINS WHY SHE WASN'T THERE IN THE END!

Do y'all REALIZE the impact she could have MADE though, if she'd been around to HELP ANAKIN 😭😭😭 (in a perfect world where Vader doesn't exist)!!! However, there's no telling whether she would have survived Order 66 if she had been around. WHICH!!! Order 66 goes into effect while Ahsoka is bringing Maul to the council (of course she defeated him). And seeing HOW she survived the execution order is one of THE MOST HEARTBREAKING, DEVASTATING THINGS THAT EXISTS ON TV!!🥺💔😭🥺💔😭

Yes, I do it to myself, putting my emotions through the ringer every time BUT DAMN! The Clone Wars goes hard and it hurts like hell, but it is for that reason, that it is one of my FAVORITE animated shows. 😮‍💨🥲

I may be part of a small population too that believes Anakin didn't do anything wrong either. If giving into emotions makes way for the dark side, then SO many of us would be. As humans, we are meant to FEEL and some feel more strongly than others. Anakin is of the Force but he feels things SO deeply. All he wanted was to be able to save those that he loved and was coerced/peer pressured/led to believe(falsely) that the Dark Side had the answers he needed. I don't believe he ever truly wanted to be the reason why Jedi across the galaxy were eradicated. We know Palpatine only wanted him for his power and it was ALL Palatine's idea from the beginning. ANAKIN IS A VICTIM!! HE WAS CORRUPTED!!😭😭😭 Sure, Anakin was brash and had some intense moments (a think first, ask questions later type) throughout the series as a whole, but they were justified. He did what had to be done. I am a very firm believer that the corruption of the dark side did indeed 'kill' the Anakin we came to know and love. Everything he did after killing Windu, is not our "chosen one". Though, let's be honest, 'our Anakin' probably started to disappear when Palpatine ordered him to kill Dooku.

If you've seen Clone Wars, you may remember a few episodes in season 3 where the Son (essentially the personification of the dark side of the Force) tried to coerce Anakin, even then. MY WILD THEORY is that, the day Anakin gave in to the dark side, was the day the Son possessed him, "killing him", hence allowing for the creation of Darth Vader and the Empire he rules. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️ Fight me.

Ok, I'm getting off my soap box now. If you've made it to the end, do you agree with any of this? However theoretical it may be? My mind cannot be changed. 🤷🏼‍♀️ This is where I firmly stand. I will die on this hill.

[hiswordsarekisses]

“But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there. I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt. When that day comes,” says the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’ instead of ‘my master.’ O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips, and you will never mention them again. On that day I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky and the animals that scurry along the ground so they will not harm you. I will remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, so you can live unafraid in peace and safety. I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord. “In that day, I will answer,” says the Lord. “I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds. And the sky will answer the earth with rain. Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries of the grain, the grapevines, and the olive trees. And they in turn will answer, ‘Jezreel’—‘God plants!’ At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself. I will show love to those I called ‘Not loved.’ And to those I called ‘Not my people,’ I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’ And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’” Hosea‬ ‭2:14-

[biwenqing]

Lwj getting married into the jiang sect is just a lot of him having to get used to his husband and brother in law acting like children. They WILL throw each other into the water at least once a day, no they often don't have a reason. Prank wars, lwj learnt to stay out of it when his robes turned hot pink an hour before an important meeting. Food wars to de stress. He hears various versions of I WILL BREAK YOUR FUCKING LEGS at least 7 times a day. Jiang yanli is his only saving grace.

I can't tell you how much I love all of this! I ran to open a document and um, this happened. The title of this could probably be "three times Sect Leader Jiang was (righteously) dunked in the waters off Lotus Pier". Also included some of our favorite Wens because I need them to be safe and happy :D

Lan Wangji had finished his morning meditation and was brewing some tea so it would be ready when his husband awoke. Wei Wuxian was sleeping deeply, the sounds of the river coming in their window like a lullaby. Lan Wangji found he enjoyed the sounds as much as Wei Wuxian seemed to, and was getting used to his new home. There were many lovely things about living on Lotus Pier.

There were a few things that Lan Wangji was... not so fond of, however. One of these let himself in with barely a knock on the door as Lan Wangji carefully added the tea leaves to the hot water.

Jiang Cheng barely glanced Lan Wangji's way, giving a grunt of maybe acknowledgment before going into the bedroom. He returned with Wei Wuxian tossed over his shoulder. Wei Wuxian was protesting loudly at such interruption to his sleep as Jiang Cheng left through the still open front door.

Lan Wangji would have been alarmed if this was the first occurrence of his husband being abducted. Now he just continued to make the tea and listened to the distant splash and swearing the followed. A second splash soon came and he thought he caught a shout of, "I'll break your legs for this!"

Lan Wangji had figured out several things since joining the Jiang family. The most important was that Wei Wuxian and his brother expressed their affection... differently than he was used to. Maybe it was the fact that they had all grown up a little too fast with the war. The fact was that Jiang Cheng, while a sect leader, was still a young man who wanted to goof off with his older brother. Wei Wuxian was more than happy to indulge him in this.

Wei Wuxian appeared, dripping wet but smiling as he shut the door. Lan Wangji had set the table for their breakfast in the time it took him to get out of the water. He went and dried off, returning with a smile still in place. He held one hand behind his back as he leaned down to kiss Lan Wangji's cheek.

"Good morning love. I have something for you," he murmured with another kiss, settling close to Lan Wangji's side.

"Good morning," Lan Wangji said back, feeling a smile tug on his lips. It grew as Wei Wuxian presented him with a beautiful lotus flower, a lovely light purple like a summer sunset. "It is beautiful."

"Not as beautiful as you," Wei Wuxian said back, completely earnest as he always was in his complements and Lan Wangji felt his ears warm. Wei Wuxian reached out a hand to tuck his hair back, exposing an ear and kissing it before turning his focus to breakfast.

They ate in contented silence as if Jiang Cheng's interruption never happened.

[...]

When the Wen's joined Lotus Pier, things in this area didn't get better, nor did they get worse. Lan Wangji quite liked both Wen Qing and Wen Ning; they were pleasant, intelligent people and both clearly cared a great deal for Wei Wuxian. But what this did add was poor Wen Ning was often dragged into whatever current prank war Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng were engaged in.

That day, Lan Wangji was settled in quiet study, accompanied by Jiang Yanli and Wen Qing. He had borrowed some books from the Cloud Recesses library the last time he had visited his brother. In addition to the texts he needed to continue his study of musical cultivation, he had brought back some tomes on politics (for Jiang Yanli) and medicine (for Wen Qing). Both women were ideal companions for study. They would sometimes engage in soft debate with each other on matters of sect politics and law, welcoming any input Lan Wangji might have, but not expecting it.

That was the current state of things when the high pitched laughing shriek of little Wen Yuan echoed their way before the boy burst through the door. He went straight for Lan Wangji, crawling onto his lap. Though the boy was wet and muddy, Lan Wangji wrapped his arms around him as Yuan buried his face into Lan Wangji's chest. The boy was giggling, so he wasn't in any type of true distress.

Wei Wuxian was the next one through the door and went to "hide" behind Lan Wangji, looking around his shoulder at the door. His husband as equally muddy. "Lan Zhan, you must protect us!"

Wen Ning appeared third, glancing awkwardly around before carefully taking off his shoes and going to sit beside (and slightly behind) his sister.

"What seems to be the matter?" Lan Wangji asked, raising a brow as he tried to look behind himself. He caught Jiang Yanli's eyes as she hid her laughter behind a sleeve.

"Well, Wen Ning and a-Yuan were helping me in my project to draw all the different kinds of frogs that live with the lotuses," Wei Wuxian explained.

"I catched three frogs!" Yuan reported, holding up three fingers.

"You did! You're so good at counting and frog catching." Wei Wuxian reached around Lan Wangji so he could ruffle Yuan's hair. The boy beamed, and Lan Wangji felt his heart squeeze in a way that was becoming more and more common when he was around both his husband and the little boy. "Anyway, Jiang Cheng showed up and he scared all the frogs away."

Speaking of Jiang Cheng, he was the final one to burst through the door. Jiang Yanli was laughing out right now, as Wen Qing sighed in annoyance. "If you scare my brother, I will end you," she said flatly before Jiang Cheng could come in any further.

"He's not so innocent in this!" Jiang Cheng protested, even as the flush on his face turned into more of a blush. Wei Wuxian stifled a laugh against Lan Wangji's shoulder.

"Excuse me, do I need to remind you of the time he saved your life?" Wen Qing asked, standing. Wen Ning stayed seated and peaked around her legs.

"I repaid that debt!"

"No, your siblings did." Wen Qing stepped forward. Not even bothering to slip on her shoes, she grabbed Jiang Cheng by the ear and dragged him out of the room.

The yelp and splash that came next weren't followed by the usual curses and threats. Or maybe it was, but Lan Wangji couldn't hear over the sound of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli's laugher. Wei Wuxian fell over in his mirth, and Yuan took that as a cue to leave the safety of Lan Wangji's lap to crawl all over Wei Wuxian.

"You both need a bath," Lan Wangji said, closing his books and rerolling scrolls. Standing, he scooped up Yuan and offered a hand to Wei Wuxian. 

His husband took it, springing to his feet and pressing a kiss to Lan Wangji's cheek. "Come on, a-Yuan! Bath time. Then we can have lunch!"

"Yay!" Yuan cheered, loud in Lan Wangji's ear. Much louder than would be permitted in the Cloud Recesses. Lan Wangji found he was glad that he didn't need to ask the little boy to quiet his joy.

[...]

The Lotus Pier was hosting a meeting between the sects and Lan Wangji found himself feeling almost jealous of Wen Qing and Wen Ning, who were to hide during the entirety of the event. This was certainly unfair of him to think because the reason that the Wen siblings had to hide was due to the great injustice inflicted upon their people. However, Lan Wangji couldn't help the petty thought.

Instead, he was on his way to change into his finest white robe. As he approached the rooms he shared with Wei Wuxian, he could hear the sounds of an argument from within. The front door was open, so Lan Wangji entered his home to find Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian in debate.

"I didn't mean to!" Jiang Cheng was protesting.

"You tell Lan Zhan that!" Wei Wuxian said back.

"Tell me what?" Lan Wangji said, using his most intimidating voice.

"I washed our robes!" Wei Wuxian said, turning with a smile. "Well, I tried to. Someone-" Wei Wuxian shoved Jiang Cheng's shoulder. "-tried to prank me."

"I didn't know Lan Wangji's clothes would be there!" Jiang Cheng said though he wouldn't look Lan Wangji in the eye, glaring instead at the floor.

Lan Wangji had a sinking feeling in his stomach. "What happened to my robes?"

Wei Wuxian vanished into the bedroom, to come out carrying two pairs of Lan Wangji's best robes. The robes that were supposed to be white as the snow in Gusu and were now as pink as a lotus bud. Lan Wangji took a moment to process this, then to mourn the fact that it was far too late to get a message to his brother and ask him to bring replacements. 

Lan Wangji turned to Wei Wuxian and asked, "How long until the guests arrive?" 

"We probably still have until afternoon," Wei Wuxian said, his expression turning from amused to curious.

"Good." Plenty of time to get ready still. Lan Wangji crossed the room and grabbed Jiang Cheng's arm. Jiang Cheng was already dressed in his elaborate robes and Lan Wangji didn't even try not to wrinkle them.

"Hey, wait!" Jiang Cheng said as Lan Wangji tugged the man out of his house. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"Be quiet," Lan Wangji ordered, using the tone he used to when he caught other disciples breaking the rules. He marched them to a suitable location, Jiang Cheng still protesting, threatening him, and halfheartedly apologizing. Letting Jiang Cheng go, Lan Wangji gave him a cold look and then pushed.

The shock on Jiang Cheng's face when he realized a second too late what was happening was more than worth whatever trouble he might get in for pushing a sect leader into the water. As was Wei Wuxian's full-body laugh that had him leaning against Lan Wangji in order to stay standing.

[kumoriyami-xiuzhen]

Hakuoki Tsukikage no Shou - Kazama Final Chapter Translation

So. [im going to swear.]

I tried doing something truly fucking insane. I wrote and copied out almost every single stupid shitty word in Chinese from the CH subbed video for this (99% of everything of this was done w/o freaking copy and pasting since it was too fucking hard to locate every stupid duplicated word that i wrote) with my mouse onto google translate (I don't have any other way to input words cuz i don't have a damn input device) before i went and translated this. 

at the time i did this, writing out every stupid shitty word was a lot fucking faster than using an ocr text extractor at the time since i kept having problems with the one i was using... and my fucking gawd did this feel soooo freaking tedious and it really did hurt my hand and arm for a while.... to the point that i’ll still complain about it despite how that was done back around the time i did the tsukikage countdown video....

i fucking demand that everyone who reads this thank me for hurting myself for the sake of getting this stupid chapter translated lol... all in all, i wrote out over 4600 stupid fucking Chinese characters of this in one sitting....

oh and i think i might have forgotten about copying some of the punctuation but idfcrn.

some words/phrases i don’t wanna write in excess ever again: 1) 知道 2) 就 3) 然 4) 一族 5) 着 6) 这 7) 在 8) 我 9) 萨摩 10) 里

you guys better fucking enjoy this lol. or im going to flip a fucking table. or ten. hahaha lol. seriously (not really lol). 

on that note, i also found the Hakuoki stage play with Chinese subs but I refuse to do anything with it as long as those words aren't in text since that's more than 2 hours long, and i’m not that masochistic or insane xD. if anyone wants to volunteer as tribute though to copy/isolate the text though that’s another matter. 

also i had to go read up on more damn history than i'd have liked to in order to translate this damn thing cuz i couldn't understand several words in Chinese since they were Japanese terms which made doing this even annoying since that meant extra work for me to do... and omfg i hated writing this out despite the fact that doing so did save me a significant amount of time cuz I was still pretty bad at using photoshop when i did this...  though I can definitely say that this will be the absolute fucking first and last chapter of anything that i’ll ever write out again since i can say that my photoshop skills have improved enough so that i can extract text at a significantly faster pace and with more accuracy...

images used in this post were snips of the some video of the chapter aside from the last 2 which were from the cgs i posted a loooong while back.

if someone decides to repost this elsewhere, i will seriously stop posting my translations publicly (also i will curse you) :D

(p.s. i don’t have the chapter intro since that wasn’t translated for any of the final chapter tls that were posted online, and as always, edits will be done later)

Hakuoki Tsukikage no Shou - Kazama Chikage - Final Chapter

Translation by KumoriYami

Eighth year of Meiji 7th month

Six years later after what later generations would refer to the "Boshin War." Chikage-san took me away to live at his village within the Satsuma Domain. This is a story of what happened 5 years after I married into the Kazama family.

Eighth year of Meiji, 7th month

My eyes were unfocused.

I was quietly mending something——

Kazama Chizuru: That hurt......!

I accidentally hit my finger with the needle.

Kazama Chizuru:......Messed up again.

This type of housework, would usually be finished quickly.... But today my concentration, from the start until just now, wasn't here.

I know the reason why.

Kazama Chizuru: Ah......

I stopped/lowered my hand and softly sighed. Recently, Chikgae-san has been increasing his visits to human villages. 

It seems that Amagiri-san has also been frequently rushing around to collect information. The oni in this village saw this, and one after another, they began talking about 

——Soon, there will be no more war with humans.

The female oni were especially scared of war.

However I didn't think it wasn't improbable......

But there was no way to say that war wouldn't happen again.

It's hard to think that the world's become so peaceful.

When I was thinking about these things. (door slides)

There was the sound of a door opening.

I didn't need to confirm who this person was——

Kazama Chikage: I didn't see you, so this is where you were.

Kazama Chizuru: Chikage-san......

The instant I saw him, I immdiately felt relieved...... I couldn't help but smile.

Kazama Chikage: What is it? Is there something funny?

Kazama Chizuru: No, That's......

Kazama Chizuru: I always think it's unimaginable in how I am able to recognize you by your breathing, Chikage-san.

Presumably my answer probably surprised him since Chikage-san's eyes widened......

Kazama Chikage: Of course I am also able to recognize you by your breathing, you and I are husband and wife.

If this had been before, I probably would have immediately denied Chikage-san's words.......

Kazama Chizuru:......That's right/Is that so.

There's no need to deny anything now.

Because Chikage-san and I have already had our marriage ceremony in the Kazama village to become husband and wife.

Kazama Chikage: What are you doing here?

Kazama Chizuru: Sewing clothes.

Kazama Chizuru: If the children's clothes aren't taken care of, they might get torn when caught on a branch or from falling down. 

Kazama Chikage: this sort of housework, you can just give it someone else to do.

Kazama Chizuru: But, I have happen to have time......

Kazama Chikage: Accompany me for a walk.

Chikage-san raise his chin, and spoke with an indisputable tone of voice.

Kazama Chizuru: Wait a moment, let me tie this knot......

Kazama Chikage: That thing can wait and be done later, come with me for a walk first.

Really......

Chikage-san's unyielding personality hasn't changed since [even before] we married.

Kazama Chizuru:......I understand, I'll come with you.

Anyway fighting is useless, so I followed him.

It was slightly hot when we reached the forest.

As small birds could clearly be heard chirping nearby, Chikage-san and I walked together.

Kazama Chizuru:......You seem to be so busy lately, have things calmed down yet?

I spoke to him in this way......

Kazama Chikage:............ [he sighs/breathes out  here]

Not hearing my words, Chikage-san showed a distressed expression, and was silent.

Kazama Chizuru: Chikage-san....... Chikage-san.

After using a slightly heavier tone, he finally stopped.

Kazama Chikage:......What's wrong?

Kazama Chizuru: To ask me what's wrong......

Kazama Chizuru: Just now I called you several times just now and you didn't respond, it's very concerning

Kazama Chikage: So it's like that, I apologize.

Kazama Chizuru: No, I'm not upset......

Kazama Chizuru: What's bothering you?

Kazama Chizuru: If it's alright, you can talk about it with me.

Kazama Chikage:............ [he sighs/breathes again here... this one sounds more like a sigh imo]

Kazama Chizuru: If there's anything that's difficult to talk about, I won't force you to say anything.......

Kazama Chikage: No.......it's not something that cannot be said.

Kazama Chikage: As the leader's wife, I think you should know about this matter.

It felt like there was a different weight to the way he was saying "the leader's wife."

After moving to this village, Chikage-san has told me those words [in that manner] several times...... The subjects that followed afterwards, were matters that directly concerned the village.

As I nervously waited for his next words, Chikage-san spoke in a solemn and careful tone.

Kazama Chikage:......There are rumours, that the Satsuma shizoku has been engaging in suspicious activities. [check audio]

Kazama Chizuru: Shizoku......?

After entering the Meiji era, former samurai are now referred to as "shizoku"...... No longer able to receive an official's salary, I've heard that they have had difficulties in securing their livelihoods.

Kazama Chikage: After last year's "conscription notice," it is said that official talks to forbid carrying of blades were given with the "conscription notice."

Kazama Chizuru: Forbidding the carrying of blades? That is to say......

Before I asked my question, Chikage-san nodded.

Kazama Chikage: Banning the wearing of katana

Kazama Chikage: [Meaning] Depriving warriors of the rights associated with them.

Kazama Chizuru: Doing that sort of thing...... aren't the Satsuma shizoku unlikely to accept that?

The Satsuma shizoku were [perhaps: had been] proud to be part of the Meiji Restoration, and before I heard that it was their greatest pride. They had overthrown the Shogunate with great difficulty, but they [however it seems that they] haven't received a decent reward [pay-off is prob more accurate]......

If they are deprived of their privileges that they had and are again forced into having difficult lives, it is obvious that there will be resentment.

Kazama Chikage:......Last year, reportedly Saigo's defeat at the central government and his return to the Satsuma, appeared to be the cause of riots breeaking out in human villages. [refers to Seikanron]

Chikage-san's words caused me to let out a cold breath.

I've heard that Saigo is the Satsuma's most powerful individual.

If indignant warriors gather assemble together under his banner——

Kazama Chizuru: Then, where are you going [probably planning?]?

Kazama Chikage: Come on...... let's walk for a while.

Speaking like that, Chikage-san urged me......

No mater what, I wanted to confirm this matter.

Kazama Chizuru: Chikage-san......

Kazama Chikage:......Nn?

Kazama Chizuru: Will Chikage-san have no choice, but to once again move for the Satsuma?

Kazama Chizuru: Just like when the Shogunate was destroyed......

Because there is a sense of righteousness and companionship with the Satsuma [i'd assume this is more sense of gratitude and debt based on Kyoto Winds/Edo Blossoms], there's nothing to be done on the matter......

If that’s the case, I don't want Chikage-san to once again be dragged into humanity's wars.

He is my beloved husband—— we have many precious things to protect now.

Kazama Chikage:......Do not worry, our Kazama family/clan has promised to help the Shimazu clan.

Kazama Chikage: There is no involvement in the Satsuma right now. I have no plans to be involved in wars between humans.

Kazama Chizuru: Really?

Kazama Chikage: Have I [ever] lied to you?

Kazama Chizuru:.......No

Kazama Chizuru: Chikage-san, thank you. Hearing what you said just now, I can be at ease.

Even so I felt that nothing was stronger than the promise he made just now.

Chikage-san will certainly use all of his strength to protect us.

Kazama Chikage:......Perhaps, in the near future, war may occur in the Satsuma. [the Satsuma may go to war is likely more accurate given the Satsuma Rebellion]

Kazama Chikage: In order to prepare for such a situation, [we] must consider temporarily moving into hiding elsewhere.

Kazama Chizuru:......Yes

The oni of the Kazama village...... everything must be done to protect them. In the past my clan——the disaster that befell the Yukimura clan's oni must not be repeated.

(scene changes to ocean) ~3100 words by now

Afterwards, Chikage-san and I arrived at place....... a place outside the village and near the beach.

The deep blue sea could clearly be seen in the distant horizon, as well as the rolling waves. It's was a symbol and scene of peace and stability.

............However.

Kazama Chizuru:......Is war really going to erupt again?

It seemed as if war would break this sea of tranquility.

Kazama Chikage: I am afraid that it will.

Kazama Chikage: But do not worry. I will certainly protect you all

Kazama Chizuru:......Nn, I believe you.

Our conversation drew to a close once more, but it didn't feel out of sorts.

The sound of the tide carried away all of my worries.

In this way, looking out towards the majestic sea......

Kazama Chizuru:......This reminds me of when the two of us disembarked back then.

Chikage-san was quiet as he turned towards me.

His pair of red eyes looked at me, almost as if to ask for the truth of what I meant just now.

Kazama Chikage: The people [or officials?] from the Satsuma fled, similarly to how the warriors of Aizu did.

Kazama Chikage: It wasn't only the Aizu. The former Shogunate who fought the Sat-cho probably also hated the Satsuma and wanted to go to war with them.

Kazama Chikage: They were pardoned, no longer are they an enemy seeking revenge......

Kazama Chikage: For what reason would they need to repeat a disastrous policy/the same mistake......

Kazama Chizuru:......Yes. I also......don't understand

Kazama Chizru:......However it's already...... fighting between humans, oni must not participate again.

Kazama Chizuru: That's what I think, ever since I chose to live here as an oni.

Kazama Chizuru:.....Yes. Even though——

Kazama Chizuru: Even if  there's a new battle, the surviving members of the Shinsengumi might take part in it, as will others who are the same——

Among them, I heard that some of them had been pardoned.

That possibility of that is entirely possible.

But——

I've truly observed the conclusion to the Shinsengumi's existence.

They cannot be involved, they can no longer live while fighting against the trajectory [of history? alt:against the flow/tide]/ They can't——it's not possible for them to get involved again, and they can no longer survive against the tide.

Right, though it's difficult to say that/sorry/sad to admit to that.

Kazama Chikage: In front of me, you don't need to be strong [put up a brave front]

Kazama Chizuru:......It's alright. I'm not trying to be strong.

Kazama Chizuru: It's true that I have nothing to do with the Shinsengumi anymore——

Kazama Chizuru: Because of that, there have been things [that I have] obtained.

Kazama Chikage: Oh? Such as?

Kazama Chizuru: Yes......

Options

(Choosing to live together with you)<--- (Understanding how samurai/warriors chose to live)

Kazama Chizuru: Your...... being at Chikage-san's side, it was my choice.

Kazama Chikage: Usually you're only complaining, today you're being quite frank.

Kazama Chizuru: Com-complaining......! I didn't say [anything like] that.

Kazama Chizuru: You and the children never listen and don't even know it......!

I tried to argue——

Kazama Chikage: No need to speak. Come. He took me by my arms then held me tightly.

Kazama Chizuru: Ah......!

There wasn't enough time to respond since I was confused, and he grabbed my chin [face/cheek looks to be more accurate] with his fingers.

(Kazama's kiss with Chizuru cg 1)

Kazama Chizuru: Nn......

It was like saying that everything I was belonged to him, as he gave me a fierce kiss.

I also used my lips to respond to his warmth.

Kazama Chikage:......You don't need to be worried.

Kazama Chikage: Even if the Satsuma ['s lands/domain] becomes a battlefield......

Kazama Chikage: I will do everything to protect you, the children, as well as the village's oni.

Although he spoke in a natural tone......

He however was shouldering the fates of me and the children, and of the entire clan.

[To be the one] dealing with this huge amount of pressure, I couldn't imagine it.

Kazama Chizuru:......I will support you. 

While living as a human, then recalling the everyone from the Shinsengumi, I feel sad, although there are times [Although there are times I feel sad when I think of when I lived as a human, and recall everyone from the Shinsengumi......]

But I, have chosen to to support him on this path.

Kazama Chizuru: As a wife...... as an oni, I will do everything to support you......

So, as long as I'm alive, I will always support him.

Kazama Chizuru: Ah. Please stay at my side. You absolutely will not regret it.

(kiss cg 1 again) ——He never broke his promise.

Chikage-san will stay with never go against this agreement, and will stay with me for a lifetime.

So I shall make a promise to him here.

Kazama Chizuru: I will forever be at your side......

——This is the promise of an oni.

——Tsukikage no Shou Kazama Final Chapter End—— 

maybe i’ll go translate yamazaki’s final tsukikage no shou chapter... in like 2 years. or something. if someone hasn’t done it by then. lol. unfortunately, tsukikage is not on my priority list since 95% of what CH TL I’ve seen is only available as videos... and while I’d very much prefer to translate Saito’s ginse no shou route, the only thing that I’ve found with CH TL so far is a short clip from the 2nd common route chapter.... plus, i still have ssl to worry about... and even then, there are some dramas that i really wanted translated along with the rest of kyoka-roku... 

final edits will be done when i start caring about them... later.

also this is chapter 8 for kazama’s route. each route in tsukikage and ginsei no shou has their own unique ending music.

p.s.s. i always love to complain about unnecessary extra free labour.

[praiseyah]

Top 9 things you need to know about King Dawid ( David) and how the book of Psalms, killing his mistress's husband, his sons brutal rape of his own sister, were just the cusp of his story. ... King Dawid,  The man after Yahs own heart'

#1  He took over the Kingdom of Ysrayl after King Shaul failed as king.

2 Samuel 5:1-4 All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “We are your own flesh and blood. 2 In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And Yah said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.’”

3 When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, the king made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Yah, and they anointed David king over Israel.

4 David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years. 5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.

#2 He was from the tribe of Yahudah ( Judah)

1 Samuel 17:12  Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah

#3 Dawid fell out of favor and angered Yah for lusting after a woman while she was bathing and then fornicating with her and getting her pregnant.

2 Samuel 11:2-5 It happened late one afternoon[d] that David got up from his bed and walked about on the roof of the king’s house, and he saw a woman bathing on her[e] roof. Now the woman was very beautiful.[f] 3 David sent and inquired about the woman, and someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 Then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) And she returned to her house. 5 The woman became pregnant, and she sent and told David, and she said, “I am pregnant.”

#4 After he got Bethesda pregnant he then plotted to kill her husband, Uriah. Dawid told his servants to send Uriah to the front lines of war, so that he can fight against the fiercest opponents and be killed first.

2 Samuel 11:14-16 And it happened in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 He had written in the letter, “Put Uriah in the front, in the face of the fiercest fighting, then draw back from behind him so that he may be struck down and die.”

16 When Joab was besieging[j] the city, he put Uriah toward the place which he knew there were valiant warriors.[k] 17 The men of the city came out and fought with Joab. Some from the army from the servants of David fell; Uriah the Hittite also died.

#5 After Dawid successfully got Bethesda husband killed, he married her and she gave birth to their son.

2 Samuel 11: 26-27 When the wife of Uriah ( Bethesda) heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned over her husband. 27 When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his household, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing which David had done was evil in the eyes of Yah.

#6 Yah cursed Dawid by causing evil in his household. Putting family against family, etc. Yah also took his wives and gave them to his neighbors so they can sleep with them in broad daylight

2nd Samuel 12:11  Thus says Yah, ‘Look, I am going to raise up evil against you from within your house, and I will take your women before your eyes, and I will give them to your neighbor, and he shall sleep with your wives in broad daylight

#7 Once Yah caused evil to rise up against Dawid's family due to Dawids lack of discipline and self control- things got worst. So worst, that his other children were also feeling the brunt of it; because soon after, his own son raped his daughter.

Amnon ( Dawids son) became sexually obsessed with his own Sister ( Tamar)  and then concocted a scheme with their cousin  to rape her. House in shambles.

2 Samuel 13:1-14 In the course of time, Amnon son of David fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom son of David.

2 Amnon became so obsessed with his sister Tamar that he made himself ill. She was a virgin, and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her.

3 Now Amnon had an adviser named Jonadab son of Shimeah, David’s brother. Jonadab was a very shrewd man. 4 He asked Amnon, “Why do you, the king’s son, look so haggard morning after morning? Won’t you tell me?”

Amnon said to him, “I’m in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”

5 “Go to bed and pretend to be ill,” Jonadab said. “When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘I would like my sister Tamar to come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I may watch her and then eat it from her hand.’”

6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill. When the king came to see him, Amnon said to him, “I would like my sister Tamar to come and make some special bread in my sight, so I may eat from her hand.”

7 David sent word to Tamar at the palace: “Go to the house of your brother Amnon and prepare some food for him.” 8 So Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon, who was lying down. She took some dough, kneaded it, made the bread in his sight and baked it. 9 Then she took the pan and served him the bread, but he refused to eat.

“Send everyone out of here,” Amnon said. So everyone left him. 10 Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food here into my bedroom so I may eat from your hand.” And Tamar took the bread she had prepared and brought it to her brother Amnon in his bedroom. 11 But when she took it to him to eat, he grabbed her and said, “Come to bed with me, my sister.”

12 “No, my brother!” she said to him. “Don’t force me! Such a thing should not be done in Israel! Don’t do this wicked thing. 13 What about me? Where could I get rid of my disgrace? And what about you? You would be like one of the wicked fools in Israel. Please speak to the king; he will not keep me from being married to you.” 14 But he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her.

**After he raped his own sister, Dawids other Son Absalom killed him for being a sick and twisted pervert and raping their sister. House in Shambles.**

2 Samuel 13:26 Then Absalom said, “If not, please let my brother Amnon come with us.”

The king asked him, “Why should he go with you?” 27 But Absalom urged him, so he sent with him Amnon and the rest of the king’s sons.

28 Absalom ordered his men, “Listen! When Amnon is in high spirits from drinking wine and I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon down,’ then kill him. Don’t be afraid. Haven’t I given you this order? Be strong and brave.” 29 So Absalom’s men did to Amnon what Absalom had ordered. Then all the king’s sons got up, mounted their mules and fled.

V.32 This has been Absalom’s express intention ever since the day Amnon raped his sister Tamar.

#8 Things didn't get better for Dawid and his family-Yah continued the curse and killed the son that he had with Bethesda. Their 1st born child together.

2nd Samuel 12:13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against Yah!”[j] Nathan said to David, “Yah has also forgiven your sin; you shall not die. 14 But because you have utterly scorned[k] Yah in this matter, the son born for you will certainly die.”[l] 15 Then Nathan went to his house, and Yah struck the child that the wife of Uriah ( Bethesda) bore for David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with Yah on behalf of the boy and David fasted. He went to spend the night and lay upon the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood over him to lift him up from the ground, but he was not willing, and he did not eat any food with them. 18 It happened on the seventh day that the child died, and the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Look, when the child was alive, we spoke to him, but he would not listen to our voice. How can we tell him, ‘The child is dead’? He may do something evil.” 19 When David saw that his servants were whispering together, he realized that the child was dead. Then David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.”

#9 Dawid was extremely remorseful that he fell out of favor with Yah, and caused all this destruction to himself and his family. So remorseful, that he beautifully wrote Psalms 51 as an open apology and humility letter to Yah.

PSALMS 51:A Prayer of Repentance and Plea for Mercy For the music director. A psalm of David.

51 Be gracious to me, O Yah, according to your loyal love. According to your abundant mercies, blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and from my sin cleanse me. 3 For I myself know[b] my transgressions,[c] and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, only you, I have sinned and have done this evil[d] in your eyes, so that you are correct when you speak, you are blameless when you judge. 5 Behold, in iniquity I was born, and in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden parts you make me to know wisdom. 7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and all my iniquities blot out. 10 Create a clean heart for me, O Yah, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.[e] 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and with a willing spirit sustain me. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. 14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O Yah, the Father of my salvation; then my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15 O Yah, open my lips, and my mouth will proclaim your praise. 16 For you do not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. With a burnt offering you are not pleased. 17 The sacrifices of Yah are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O Yah, you will not despise. 18 Do good in your favor toward Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices, burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then bulls will be offered on your altar.

FUN FACT:  Dawid wrote majority of the books in Psalms. Most of them are apologies for his wrong doings to Yah.

Thank you for reading! Yah bless & Shalom!

[mikasa856]

FINAL MOMENTS ( words 10907, this is my first time, whoever is reading this, I hope you like it)

Almost six months passed since Eren acquired the justice and righteousness for the subjects of Ymir and attained world peace. He left a strong message through his staged rumbling which indeed etched the truth about Eldia and their history long suffering.

Historia and Eren's daughter was five months old, a beautiful baby, she was the apple of the eye. Everyone in capital Mitras rejoiced as they welcomed their princess. Eren and Historia were the proudest parents. Sparkles in everyone's eyes but Eren didn't look so amused. Needless to say he feels blessed to have baby Ymir in his life. That was all he wanted, to end his fate and free Ymir of her captivity.

Eren shared the news of being a father six months back to his friends, Armin, Mikasa, Connie and Jean. It took a while for them to comprehend the whole event. In a while, Eren explained everything to them which of course made things clear but there was a slight hint of blandness in his voice, as if he was doing it more out of duty than out of excitement. Everyone was flabbergasted but eventually accepted with exchanging stares with each other.

Mikasa, who appeared motionless for a while, finally sat up and said in an ever so calm voice , " my sole purpose in life was always to honor your words which gave me strength and the will to live. I promised myself to return the favour by protecting you with my life.. I'm really happy that I could finally know that you're happy", she smiled slightly. Eren didn't look at Mikasa , just said, hmm, in his breath .

It took a good deal of time for Mikasa to process the entire story and she could remember herself blandly saying what she told without being able to connect herself with it. She meant all of that but she was hollow inside. It slowly started to dawn upon her. She could finally realise that she was fighting against her brain and heart in a way that she had never fought before. She tried to clench her pillow against her and convince herself to not break down because she can't afford that. She had never really been open to anyone. Yet she couldn't hold those tears back. They came out in large drops which pained her eyes . Again she found herself crying for Eren. It was always Eren. She's not a war machine like everyone considers Ackermans to be. She was a human with emotions. She was unconditionally in love with Eren. He saved her in every way a dying girl could be saved. She loved her from that very day. Yet because she loved her, she needs to let him go. The pain was unbearable. It was unfathomable. She felt shocks of despair running through her spine. She felt hot. She ran to the washroom to splash some water on her face. She looked at the mirror to find her rugged face staring back at her. All her life she was aware of only one purpose, one truth, to save Eren. Eren's happiness was her happiness. " Then why are you sad?", she asked herself and started sobbing again. She pressed the towel against her face to hide her from herself. Sitting in the corner of the bathroom, she stared blankly at the ceiling, taking deep breaths she decided that she cannot inflict any more pain on herself. For Eren's sake, she needed to move on or to show, otherwise knowing Eren, he might feel indebted to her.

About a couple of months after that, when baby Ymir was two months old, Eren and Historia were officially married. The celebration was at its grandest. Amongst the guests were notable people from all over the world who came to congratulate the newly weds. The wedding however was not just for its name, it was also a platform to honour Eren as a patriot and a freedom fighter who risked his life and morality to attain peace and justice, a step no ordinary human could muster up the courage to do so. Indeed the subjects of Ymir were happy and the country is enjoying the fruits of Eren's hardship. " Congratulations Mr. Yeager" was all Eren could hear and see the big smile of all the honoured guests but his mind seem to be elsewhere. He looked oddly distracted at his own wedding. His gaze turned towards baby Ymir and he smiled at her softly. He asked himself if his friends were indeed happy and everytime he thought that, his mind roamed elsewhere and directed him to thinking of one person . He frowned his forehead and immediately shook that thought off then looked in front of him only to see his fate playing with his emotions. It was Mikasa. She smiled at him and congratulated him. They exchanged handshakes and a small hug. It was awkward for two people who knew, understood, criticised and appreciated each other to suddenly turn formal and look at each other with fake smiles on their face. Eren's lips were shaking but Mikasa chose to ignore that with a tight knot forming in her belly. Connie and Jean greeted him too. Later that night everyone enjoyed a beautiful dinner and it all ended in the most stunning way it could have ended.

Around that time, Mikasa exchanged words with Kiyomi about her interests in coming to live with the Azumabitos. Kiyomi was never more happier and was excited about her decision. She almost immediately started to make arrangements. Mikasa thought this was a good start to her new chapter but felt a little selfish to use her family as an excuse to feel better about herself. But she soon realised it goes both ways. She was going to spend time with them. Her only family was the Azumabitos now. She thought about how she could meet her mother's relatives and maybe her cousins. This thought made her smile ever so slightly. She was thinking about these then smirked thinking how strange it was because Eren was her only family. It was always for Eren. She was alive and kept herself going only for Eren. She dedicated herself to Eren. To her it was strange thinking of her blood family over Eren. This was the first time she's taking a decision but without Eren in it.

She took her time to bring herself to the fact that she needs to tell this to Armin atleast. She knew he wasn't going to listen to her and would try to convince her otherwise but she had a backup plan. She taught herself how to not listen to Armin and make more excuses. But it wasn't all that hard because it seems Armin did understand her in the first place. He said nothing but nodded. Armin understood of course. Jean was aghast by the news and Mikasa understood why. But she wasn't altruistic, she was a simple girl who wanted to get her self together because she was crashing down. She found herself selfish to not consider Jean's feelings towards her but she couldn't afford to make herself shoulder that burden either. It was already too much for her. I'm sorry, she told Jean softly. Jean only looked down. He knew this was inevitable and cussed Eren for that but not genuinely. The four scouts had too much to bear from the moment they joined the 104th cadets. This is just another one and hopefully the last one.

It's now six months and in the present, Mikasa sat in her room. Her luggage was packed. As she looked outside her mind started flooding with the beautiful memories she had of Paradis. Her time with her friends, Sasha who died in battle, Annie, Reiner and Bertholdt. They were all caught between morality and indoctrination. Human minds being played with. Marley played it bad, real bad. As she tried to keep those flashbacks subtle, she soon realised she was again thinking of Eren. His gorgeous emerald green eyes. The lashes were beautiful. His hot headed nature. His angst . His will power that gave her strength. She was leaving all of that behind. She was leaving her world behind. Her real home, her Paradis. It wasn't easy at all. But she had to. For Eren, for Historia and for their beautiful daughter.

Just when she started to feel a little better, she wiped her tears and suddenly there was a knock at the door. Her ill fate awaited her. "Mikasa ! Mikasa! " , it was Armin. She hurriedly opened the door to find a gasping Armin . He entered and looked at Mikasa, "Eren wants to meet you! Right now !". Her world came crashing down once again. Her walls which she tried to keep stable. Her consolations. Her forged sense of happiness, everything suddenly seem to disappear and pain crawled along her nerves . She couldn't hold the tightness in her stomach and sat down. She knew the news would reach Eren but now? Why now? Why couldn't it reach him after she left? Why? She asked herself and stared at the wooden floor. It was always Armin, he always came at the wrong time. Even back then when Eren was supposedly dead...

Her hands started to sweat. It's not something she can afford now. She cannot. Eren is a husband now and most importantly, a father. "How can I meet him now ? Armin? I have to leave in a few hours" , she told Armin.

"I don't know Mikasa, he's waiting for you at Pit Riddles, he said he wants to meet you !" Armin said now slightly calm.

For a slight moment, Mikasa felt her sanity, profanity and morality leave her soul. It was Eren after all. He's waiting to see her. Of course she can't not go. At the moment she was fighting her own war of whether she should or she shouldn't.

She went down the streets of Stohess and entered Pit Riddles. She found Eren sitting with his arms crossed, looking down at the table. A chilled glass of water was what he had in front of him. She quietly walked towards the table trying her best to stay calm, took a chair and sat across Eren. Eren looked up at her, his eyes emitted the softest gaze ever. She immediately looked down. His lips were shut. Mikasa's hands were on her lap and she was clenching her handkerchief to release the pressure of her turmoil.

"I heard you're leaving? ", Eren asked softly, his voice cracked.

"Yes", was all she could mumble.

Eren could feel his nose getting hot along with his full face. The ears started to pain.

Mikasa bit her lower lip and continued looking down. She couldn't risk looking at Eren's face.

" ...and you didn't feel the need to tell me...?"

She couldn't answer that. What could she say? This wasn't a strategy. It was matters of heart.

"... I'm sorry" , she said softly a little embarrassed.

All Eren could hear was Mikasa's deep breaths and "yes" resonating in the air. Suddenly everything was mute. The humming of the other customers conversation , the tingling of glasses, the footsteps outside and the honking of modern vehicles. They all seemed to disappear. The only sound was Mikasa's heartbeat, her deep breaths and his own heart thumping against his chest wall. His hands started to shake slightly. His face flushed. He knew Mikasa could no longer be his knight . He knew Mikasa wasn't going to nag him to do this and that, to eat and to occassionally smack him out of his mindless murmurs. Mikasa was everything to him. He loves her deeply. He knew her by heart. The girl he saved. When he saw her dead parents, he was shocked but what was that instinct of saving her? Why? " I had to save her immediately ! " , Eren told Greisha upon being asked. A nine year old Eren, didn't think once before saving her by killing her parents's murderers who tried to sell her. He was awestruck by her face when he saw her in light. He wrapped that scarf around her to keep her warm and blushed slightly. He needed to save her. He fished for her small hand from the layers of clothing and brought her home. And today after eleven years, he has to let those hands go. The pain was deep rooted.

The chilled glass now precipitated and formed a rim of water at the base, Mikasa took a piece of tissue paper and wiped that off the table as an excuse to distract herself from the tension. Eren took a sachet of granulated sugar, tore it and spread that sugar in that spot where she wiped, " clean that too...", He said. Mikasa looked at him in both surprised as well as concerned. Eren looked the other way. His eyes looked slightly watered. His face was flushed.

He remembered the times when they went to fetch firewood. Mikasa promised Eren to not tell anyone he cried in his sleep. Those soft but cold hands. He could feel his feet turning cold , his heart now racing. It was hard for him to keep up.

" Eren", her voice broke , " I have to get going now, I need to take my luggage and then travel for an hour to reach the ferry" , she added.

For the past couple of hours, they hardly spoke.

Eren turned his gaze towards her , she can't be real he thought. To him it was still a nightmare that he wanted to wake up from.

As Mikasa got up from the chair and took her bag, Eren hurried and instinctively hugged her in the tightest way possible. Then he kissed her passionately. Mikasa was awestruck. She couldn't allow that. She felt guilty. Eren was a committed husband and a father now. "Eren please...", She said softly after breaking the kiss, " please let me go".

"Never! ", Eren said, he was crying now.

Eren please, she said again, please let go.

After a while she finally freed herself from his wrap but Eren's fingers were entangled with hers. Their eyes were drenched in tears. "I'm sorry...", she muttered and left hurriedly . "Mikasa..." , Eren said softly reaching out to her but it's late already.

Eren sat there for a long time. Everything comes with a price. Was he still indebted?

At the cost of letting Mikasa go?

"If you want to save Armin and Mikasa" then what is this?

He sat there staring at the sugar on the table, tears rolled down his cheeks while the sky cried to resonate with his sadness.

Duty over emotions....the pain .

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Dragon Dancer IV: Show Down

Aoi Gen turned Spider Fang in her hand, the fire light glinting off the long silver blade. Her blue eyes didn’t leave her opponents face. 

Her opponent, Chisei Gen, seemed to be unarmed and unprepared for a sudden fight, but he stood to face her, the firelight reflecting in his eyes. 

They stood between two lines of open flame. The hems of their yukatas turned black and curled away from the heat of the ground, but their bare feet were unaffected.

Taiga’s powerful arm had wrapped around my neck, his pistol pointed at my head, forcing me to watch while I clutched Ru’Yi to myself. This was supposed to be a peaceful meeting, but I had warned Crow that this could go bad if they continued to ignore her.

I had already noticed the snipers on the roofs of the temple complex, but now as the tension rose, I saw more weapons being revealed as they reached for their waists. Daggers slid from their sleeves, blades from their backs.

Like a sea of hovering fire flies, dozens of eyes glowed yellow in the dark. I glanced up at Taiga whose menacing golden pupils shifted at those around him.

“Everyone here is a hybrid.” I said.

“Of course,” Taiga murmured.

Aoi Gen lifted her chin. “Now that I have your attention... Chisei...”

They stood in the middle of the large arena. The air, heated up by the bonfire made them sweat, but the cool mountain breeze cut through their clothes and chilled them so quickly that on the one hand they were hot and on the other hand they shivered.

The looming buildings of the temple rose into the dark sky with gargoyles and gods snarling down from the eves on the scene below.

“My mother was Hana Minamoto. She left the Hydras at 23 to move closer to her husband, a business man in America. She was already pregnant with me at the time and she wanted a dual citizenship for me.”

Chisei did not respond, nor did he signal to the snipers on the roof to end the discussion. With a glance or a tilt of his head, he could order her to be turned into a bullet riddled corpse. But he didn’t.

"I returned to Japan when I was sixteen. Not to Tokyo but to a small town in the middle of nowhere. Why would a woman of such a prestigious background move her daughter from a wealthy place in the States to a backwater mountain village without so much as a cellphone signal?”

Chisei kept his silence but I had drawn my own conclusion: Aoi’s mother was hiding. I gathered my child to myself against the chilling breeze.

“You were told we were massacred in a gang war. In truth, we were killed off by the Hydras themselves! To make room for Tachibana... and for you.”

Neither of them moved an inch. The scene seemed to be frozen in time, save for the licking of the flames on either side of them. “My grandfather did not agree with the plan to ascend to be pureblood dragons. So we were labeled as Devils.”

At that, Chisei’s eyes narrowed slightly. She knew the family secret!

“Tell me Chisei... what was your mother’s name? What did she look like?” Her eyes flashed yellow. “Do you have any recollection at all?”

The temperature of the air had dropped so much I could suddenly see my breath. This wasn’t the mountain climate. This was Dragon Speech!

I only knew one Soul Skill that could drop temperature called ‘Winter’ but it was relatively weak, concentrated to a small spot around the caster. Now, frost was appearing on the ground at my feet, growing on the eaves of the buildings, on the pointed corners of the roofs. 

I had seen a cold Soul Speech like this once before, when I was fighting Herzog, soaring above the sea of Tokyo Bay. Mingfei had uttered a single word and frozen the waves into jagged pieces of ice.

For her to be able to wield such a powerful word meant that her dragon blood purity must be very high! A-rank level!

Shaking, I struggled. “Let me go!”

Taiga tightened his arm around me.

Chisei answered her question. “No. I was told she died giving birth to me...” 

“You were told a lot of things but you went along with them, without much investigation. You never mourned her or searched for her grave to clean it and pay your respects. Chisei, you really despise your mother that much?”

“What do you want?”

With the golden eyes around, the sea of weapons surrounding them and the menacing soul speech turning the ground hard like concrete, I had expected this to break into a scene of extremely dangerous violence. 

Aoi had made her ruthlessness and violent nature clear from the very beginning. She had expected the same from the former leader of the Hydras, the organization that killed her family.

She knew he had a powerful army and brought her own, dispersing her men throughout the crowd quickly so that they wouldn’t be wiped out in an instant. They were armed to the teeth, fierce fighters. And Taiga held their final card. 

Ru’Yi and I were their hostages.

But Chisei had stood and listened, and then conceded, in an instant throwing all these preparations into disarray. Did she believe Yakuza gangster always stuck to their guns, fought to the end, defended their family’s honor? They didn’t just concede, tossing the fight to the side like a lazy cat that didn’t want to move from its sunbeam!

When she didn’t answer, he continued. “Do you want to join the Hydras? Do you want to be Patriarch? I have no control over either of these things.”

She didn’t know Chisei like I did. He had prided himself on being a friend of justice. He was unbending to the point of cruelty to those who did not fit his vision of righteousness. He’d even pursued me, a young girl of sixteen because he believed I was a dangerous Devil. He’d attempted to kill my first child, the one named Huoli, now memorialized behind Norton Hall, for his Devil blood and Soul Skill.

She remembered that Chisei. 

She didn’t see the one who had been forced to face the fact that the people who cared for him also lied to him easily. Tachibana tricked him into believing I was a Devil, tricked him into believing that the Devil Clan were only animals fit for slaughter, and tricked him into cooperating in his scheme to use them as human sacrifices for the development of Erii’s therapy.

She didn’t see the Chisei that had finally given into the Devil’s need for power and drunk the dragonblood, becoming a Devil himself. 

This was a Chisei who no longer saw the world as so black and white.

“I want them to admit the truth!” Aoi snarled. “If they will not, then... “ She leveled Spider Fang at him. Her stance was perfect, reflecting years of training. “Then I will end the farce myself!”

A thick layer of ice crawled from the ground where she stood, extinguishing the flames, allowing the darkness to descend on them. The cold wind lifted and pulled at her hair. 

Chisei backed away and was flanked by five guards. He held out his arm to stop them.

“All the old clan chiefs are already dead!” He growled. “Hydra has paid for what they did to you and what they did to the Devils.” 

“You still live!” She turned to a blur in front of Chisei, Spider Fang flashing like a mirror from top to bottom. The work of sword masters, it was a blade so sharp it was said to cut through a body as if it had no bones.

Chisei grabbed it in the air as if it were made of wood. A thin river of blood made its way down his wrist and he looked at her with golden eyes.

As the emperor hybrid, he had a special property called Dragonbone that toughened his body like steel. He’d used it to shield me from the falling helicopter at the Red Well. Not even Spider Fang could penetrate him in this state. His hand closed around the blade and he pulled it from her grasp. 

She leaped away, drawing the next one. 

Tongzi.

Chisei lowered his hand. The drip of blood had already begun to slow as his body healed itself.

Though it was the shorter sword, when it came to Hybrids, it was death. Fashioned by Alchemy, it was strong enough to split Spider Fang like wire and more dangerous to him in his Dragonbone state, as it was especially made to kill Dragons and Hybrids.

At the sight of it, all the Hydra members revealed themselves by openly drawing their weapons. 

Chisei was no longer High Patriarch but he was deeply beloved and respected. The threat from this sword raised their desire to defend him no matter what his status. The game had turned even more dangerous.

By drawing Tongzi, Aoi Gen had signed her own death warrant.

She stood still, her long hair fluttering. She hadn’t stopped her Soul Skill. Ice six inches thick had spread throughout the entire square and was still inching outward in a spiral pattern. 

“Where is your mother now?” Chisei asked.

“Dead. Tachibana found us. Came for us. Three years ago.”

“How did you survive?”

“She kept a body double at the house. An actress paid to pretend to be me while I attended university under an assumed name.” She answered coldly, factually.

“Why come back to Japan at all?” Chisei raised an eyebrow.

“You’re here aren’t you? There are certain things only your hometown can offer.”

For a moment, they were chatting like they were getting acquainted over tea. I looked between them, a little dazed at the change of atmosphere.

“Once you kill me, what then? You’ll just be hunted again.” He said.

She leveled the blade at him. “Are you planning on dying?”

He corrected her. “I’m through killing. I’m no longer Patriarch. I just sell sunscreen on the beach.” 

He turned as though to walk away, but I suddenly shuddered violently against Taiga. Something was happening. Chisei’s tone had fluctuated.

Majesty!

The ice block on the ground suddenly cracked and split open as though struck with a hammer. He kept walking but everyone, Hydra and Aoi Gen’s followers alike were brought low.

I was not effected but Taiga’s weight brought me down as he fell.  I pulled his arm off me and staggered away, tripping and slipping over the ice towards Aoi. I reached down and took Tongzi from her while she lay gasping and struggling to breathe.

As soon as the sword was in my grasp, Chisei released his Soul Skill but few people moved.

The increase in gravity caused the blood to pool at the feet. Like a pilot experiencing G-force on a plane, only the strong exertion of muscle could keep someone conscious. 

The fact that Aoi Gen hadn’t passed out was a testament to both her physical strength and her dragonblood, but that didn’t mean she could stand.

Others were not so lucky. Most of the people around were still unconscious or too dazed to to do anything but moan on the ground.

Chisei turned the hilt of Spider Fang out to me. “I understand what you mean now.”

I accepted it back.

“For a long time, I believed a lot of things that were told me that weren’t true. Much of my life was a lie. A fantasy. Once I learned the truth, I had to accept it. And move on.”

“I don’t know Chu Zihang.” He continued. “But I’ve known you as a clear eyed person. Word did get back to me about your sudden mental illness. And it struck me as strange. Now you’re labeled a traitor?” He shook his head slightly. “I cannot believe it. Something is going on here. I will pray you live long enough to find out the truth.”

I lowered my head, overwhelmed by even this small simple acknowledgement. “Thank you, Chisei.”

“Get out of here.” His whisper was barely audible. “Before they recover.”

I closed my eyes tightly and vanished.

[wanna-b-poet31]

Aziraphale Addresses His Abuse

In case anyone cares, here are some more musings about the significance of Aziraphale’s confrontation of his abuse in Good Omens. This is an extension of a segment in my longer piece: An Angel in Recovery

Needing Closure

After Aziraphale finally admits that Heaven is like an abusive parent, he needs to come to terms with the fact that he’s got >ALOT< of shit to deal with. Not least of which is his internalized self-loathing as evident in the above gif where we can see his association with “soft” as a negative trait.  And we all KNOW Crowley would fight Gabriel for personally helping to instill the belief that he’s a “bad angel” for being kind and compassionate, and loving humanity >and Crowley<.

But, choosing a side is not closure.

What it is, is a support system and a promise to help build up Aziraphale’s confidence. Choosing his side provides safety, and it strengthens his relationship with Crowley, but choosing Crowley alone will not address his underlining trauma. While he now acknowledges that his 6000-year treatment is fucked up (like really fucked up), it is but only one step on his journey towards recovery.

Once Aziraphale chooses Crowley, to be his partner, to stop Armageddon, to defend humanity, he indeed realizes that the line between Heaven’s abuse and the threat of Hell’s is a fucking thin one. Both adversaries team up to actively destroy everything the Ineffable Husbands love, employing gaslighting, physical attacks, or emotional traumatizations to achieve their goals.

In order to have the closure that he desperately needs to properly cope with his trauma, he needs to confront his abusers and reclaim his sense of self, reaffirming his choices to pick the healthy support system that is Crowley.

There are four distinct moments where he gets his closure: With Heaven, With Shadwell, with Gabriel, and finally, with Hell. 

Defying Heaven

I didn’t note this before, but Aziraphale’s first direct act of defiance is to his duties as a leader of Heaven. 

After Aziraphale has picked a side, he is...inconveniently discorporated...and sent into the den of lions that is Heaven. Now, having realized that no one in Heaven has Earth’s best interests at heart, he walks in with his eyes wide open to the abuse and unhealthy nature of Heaven.  Once he is face-to-face with his “duties” as an Angel thrust upon him. And how is he, a principality, an angel of heaven, treated? 

Like dirt.

The Quartermaster >yup weird mustache guy is named “quartermaster”< berates him for losing his body (that up until that point had never been discorporated before) and being a “pathetic excuse for angel”. The verbal abuse is strong in this scene because, as the above gif shows, Aziraphale flinches at his words, visibly becoming uncomfortable with the treatment. And, instead of denying the problem or repressing his feelings, he sees Heaven for the nasty “parent” that it is. 

And then we see Aziraphale finally. fucking. snap.

For the first, but not the last, time we see Aziraphale assert his own desires to heaven. Although in the garden he clearly asserts his desires and kindness by giving Eve and Adam his sword, he lies about where it’s been to both God and Gabriel. He does not lie here. He makes a choice and he does not back down. He deflects blame somewhat, but he admits that the sword is gone, and righteously asserts that his actions were just. 

When the Quartermaster yells abuse at him, then tries to control Aziraphale, promising to overlook his “indiscretion” if he gets in line “now”, Aziraphale fumbles for a second but then comes out in full force. 

He. says. no. 

Not only that, he tells Heaven, on no uncertain terms, that he wants no part in waging war against humanity or Hell. This act of agency defies the hold Heaven has on him, and where, in the past, he would have suffocated on his own repression instead of acknowledging Heaven’s actions as wrong, he won’t be silent any longer. Heaven isn’t used to being told they’re in the wrong, and it lends to their overall power over all angels. But, Aziraphale does it anyway, knowing full well what the consequences are if they retaliate.

But, he’s chosen his side and damn it all if they think he’s not going to see it through until the end. 

Instead of denying there’s a problem with Heaven’s behavior, he demands to be returned to Earth so he can call/contact Crowley and stop the war from starting in the first place. Finally!!! His own wants and needs above the toxic, controlling parent that is Heaven. 

And more than that, he tells Heaven the truth. Up until this point he had repressed his misgivings about Heaven’s actions, lying through his teeth to Heaven about his true feelings towards humanity.  But here, when faced with an ultimatum, he tells the truth and DEMANDS to be sent back to Earth. 

Heaven, it seems, now is not worth the effort. He has a support system he trusts implicitly and without question -- Crowley. The control Heaven used to have on him has been replaced with defiance and anger because of their cruelty to him, to Crowley, and to humanity.  

He has some closure!

Handling Homophobia 

Then there is Shadwell.  

So full disclosure. I haven’t really talked about Shadwell in many of my metas because of all of the abusers in Good Omens, I'm most triggered by his homophobic behaviors. I grew up closeted and queer around people like Shadwell (although they were admittedly less dooms-day focused). I have some family like him and his constant usage of homophobic slurs towards Aziraphale hits close to home.  Sorry if this isn’t as detailed as my other sections, disregarding Shadwell is a form of self-care. 

It is clear with his introduction that Shadwell is dismissive of most people. For example, he elects to call Tracy “Jezebel” and other derogatory terms for her profession, only treating her kindly after she retires. For Aziraphale, he calls him “Southern Pansy”, which is a major slur in the UK for gay men.

With Crowley, Shadwell is less brash. Sure he still fanatical about abusing witches, and wants to milk the situation for as much money as he possibly can, but when he approaches Crowley at the diner, he speaks with a kind of timidness that looks like he’s seeking validation for his actions. I assert this because he’s not scared of Crowley but genuinely sees him as an ally. While it could just be a ploy to get more money out of Crowley, he doesn’t talk back or insult Crowley around him.

However, I firmly believe Crowley would absolutely beat the shit out of Shadwell for his treatment of Aziraphale.

When we look closely at how Shadwell talks to Aziraphale, he is clearly directly manipulative and verbally abusive. He purposefully takes advantage of Aziraphale’s kindness to better line his own pockets by falsely reporting the existence and death of his “soldiers”. Then, out of earshot, he berates Aziraphale for what he presumes his sexual identity is. While Aziraphale is canonically a queer masculine-presenting non-binary entity, Shadwell percieves Aziraphale’s behavior as a net negative (which it absolutely isn’t!!! Fuck Shadwell’s transphobia and homophobia). He uses his prejudice and homophobia to show that he does not view Aziraphale as worth the same respect that Crowley (who somehow Shadwell does not read as genderqueer) is shown.

Shadwell’s abuse is less all-encompassing than Heaven’s, but it’s just as significant because of his dismissive attitude towards Aziraphale devaluing non-normative gender presentations and is generally meant to be hurtful. He is meant to be Aziraphale’s ally, or perhaps his employee. But the homophobic slurs shows malice. Although not as hidden as Heaven, the abusive nature of Shadwell is just as damaging, and the insult is intended to belittle and demean Aziraphale.

This all comes to a head after finding Madame Tracy is angelically possessed by Aziraphale, Shadwell verbally attacks Aziraphale with the slur again. And Aziraphale, who just faced Heaven and walked backward into Hell, is not having any of the homophobic behaviors. 

This whole interaction is a relatively “small” moment compared to his defiance of Heaven, but it shows he’s one step closer to confronting the bigger, more direct, abusers in his life. Defying Heaven was monumental but vague, it’s one thing to defy an organization, or even defy expectations, but to defy individuals is harder, more personal, and confronting the struggle helps give Aziraphale closure against homophobia.  

The One Where Gabriel’s a Dick

The next confrontation is with Gabriel, the primary abuser for 6000 years. While all of Heaven is abusive, Gabriel specifically singles out Aziraphale, belittles his interests (even when Gabriel himself indulges in some less than angelic behaviors like wrath and indulging in nice, expensive human clothing). He is a vehicle for many of the specific actions that traumatize Aziraphale.  

Although I don’t doubt Aziraphale could cut Gabriel with his flaming sword, the most powerful weapon in his arsenal is his words. He defends Adam’s choice to not destroy the world and confronts Gabriel’s use of the “great plan” vs. the ineffable one. Aziraphale knows that poking at Heaven’s excuse for destroying humanity won’t hold up. Adam’s right, there is no rationale for waging war except “to see whose gang’s the best”. Speaking up like that, against a director of war, is ballsy, but Aziraphale does not care. He needs to confront the horrendous way Gabriel/Heaven has treated him, humanity, and Crowley.

And who supports him through this cathartic moment? 

Crowley. 

With a single glance, Crowley interjects and comes through, supporting Aziraphale’s (extremely clever) plan to protect Adam and the world. Based on Gabriel and Beelzebub’s confused reactions Crowley realizes Heaven and Hell don’t actually know what they’re doing.  Aziraphale has them dead to right with his cleverness and devotion to humanity. Stepping closer to Aziraphale, protectively behind Adam, he pushes until Heaven and Hell are forced to admit defeat.

It’s a beautiful confrontation. A perfect FUCKKKKKKK YOU to the embodiment of his abuse, with his support system helping give him the confidence he needs to push past his insecurities and execute his plan. 

Facing His Fears: Hell or Highwater 

The last distinct moment is the switch. 

While Hell specifically hasn’t actually targetted Aziraphale, they have done something worse. Attacked his support system. So, Aziraphale returns in kind, confronting his partner’s abusers head on. And look at the absolute GLEE he takes in showing off how indestructible to Holy Water his partner is. He’s making a performance of daring all of Hell to come after them, terrorizing them like they terrorized Crowley and him.

It’s also him coming to terms with the fact that yes, it’s him and Crowley against the (divine) World. The switch is so significant for so many reasons, but the primary one is that it allows Aziraphale the ability to face his biggest fear -- Hell -- and not flinch. 

The Threat of falling (like from Uriel/Michael/Sandalphon) and going to Hell terrifies our loveable bastard angel. He knew that he was disposable to Heaven, but he’s indisposable to Crowley. This confrontation allows him to come to terms with the unhealthy power dynamic of Heaven and begin the rest of his life with Crowley as equals. 

Once he returns home, to Crowley, he’s not fully recovered (recovery is a process, not a finish line) but he’s faced all of his abusers.  

He has closure. 

TLDR: Aziraphale is on the road to recovery with Crowley. #lovewins

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk

[ariainstars]

Star Wars vs. Pride and Prejudice

Mr Darcy’s famous proposal scene from Pride and Prejudice, here taking place in the rain for further emphasis of his desperate love for her.

“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

Ever since Kylo’s clumsy attempt to convince Rey to stay with him, in the infamous Throne Room scene, I must have stumbled at least a hundred times across the above-mentioned quotation with the assumption of both scenes being parallel to one another, leading to the conclusion that Kylo and Rey also will be together.

How many times, to you think, was I confronted the parallel scene - the one where Elizabeth has to confess that she was prejudiced against Darcy, that she knew too little to judge him, that she felt superior to him although she had no actual justification?

…

…

…

That’s right. Not once.

“Did Luke tell you what happened that night?”

“I know everything I need to know about you.”

To me the revelation of Dark Rey in the second TROS trailer was not in the least surprising. The moment I heard Palpatine’s laugh at the end of the first trailer I guessed he was after her. (My husband’s comment was: “Of course Palpatine wants her, not Kylo. What is he supposed to do with that daydreamer?” 😊)

Honestly: I would have been surprised, even affronted, if Rey had never been tempted by the Dark Side. Every Force user is tempted to misuse his powers, in one way or another. And despite the many claims I have read and heard to this issue, though there were a few clues that might have justified calling Rey a Mary Sue, there were at least twice as much already indicating that she, like her equal in the Force, is fragile and immature.

But for some reason - naivety? Wrongly understood feminism? - for years it was widely assumed, in particular among female Reylo fans, that Rey would be the one the save Kylo (alias Ben Solo); that she is good and pure and flawless and that her love would redeem him, or at least push him to redemption due to his desire to be with her. Few seemed to consider that Rey has her own weaknesses to overcome, too.

Personally, I see nothing “romantic” in the idea of a woman redeeming a guy. I don’t know why a girl is naturally assumed to be better than a man and that it is her task to save or inspire him, morally. Nor do I believe that it is a case of “true love” if the man ends up doing everything the woman wants him to do. It would make her his pet, not an equal partner. I know, it is a mistake that women often make, believing they must “help” the man they love: but no one can be saved from himself.

I do wish Ben and Rey to have a future, and of course they cannot be together if they are on the opposite sides of a war: but that must not necessarily mean, as a matter of fact, that Ben just has to see the righteousness of Rey’s and her friend’s cause and switch sides for everything to be wrapped up. The Force needs balance, which meaning that both sides, each in its own way, have a right and a point to exist. The greatest weakness of people who believe to be - and are universally believed to be - “good” usually have a tendency to be in denial. Rey lived in denial almost all of her life, since her parents left her. When Ben confronted her with what she already knew, i.e. that they would never come back, it was very painful for her, but he immediately added that her being “nobody” did nothing to change the fact that to him, she is much.

Even the fans who called Reylo Reverse Anidala often did not want to see that Padmé had believed she could save Anakin with her love, and failed. Of course she failed: because for a balanced relationship, both have to learn from one another. They must influence one another and grow together. The relationship between Anakin and Padmé always was unbalanced because she was not aware of his inner turmoil, and he always felt inferior to her - an ex slave who had married a former queen. And in a dramatic context as the Skywalker family saga, people have to save one another. The team that was glued together in the classic trilogy always did so, that’s why things worked out.

Ever since The Force Awakens we have often been confronted with Rey’s aggressiveness and judgmental attitude. And she ends her last Force connection in The Last Jedi literally looking down on Ben.

There is no reason at all, except wishful thinking, to assume that Rey has nothing dark inside her, or not enough to make her evil. (Yes, in The Last Jedi she kills a few Praetorian Guards, but in self-defense.)

Even most of the fans who kept stubbornly pretending that Rey is secretly Luke’s daughter did not come to this conclusion. But Luke was never 100 % good and pure himself.

When he met Vader for the first time face-to-face on Bespine, he was welcomed with the sentence “The Force is with you, young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi yet.” Luke immediately proved him right by igniting his light saber first, although Yoda had repeatedly taught him that a Jedi fights only in defense and that violence is not a solution.

Luke paid a high price for his conceit and sense of entitlement: on Bespine all hell broke loose. He came away barely alive, crippled and severely traumatized. But that terrible experience on the long run had done him good: he was much more calm and collected in Return of the Jedi. Luke had learned his lesson. Rey hasn’t, as of yet.

Now I am not saying that Rey is a bad person, and I am not trying to justify Ben’s atrocious deeds. But he was isolated, manipulated and terrified since childhood and then let down by the one person in the galaxy he would never have expected it from - his uncle, whose all-encompassing love for his father, forgiveness and pacifism had made him a legend before his nephew was even born.

Rey was in no position to understand the depth of pain and despair that made Ben kill Han, in an insane attempt to overcome the inner conflict that was tearing him apart. As they say, don’t judge someone unless you’ve been in his shoes.

Snoke, a powerful Force user, knew its mechanics very well: “Darkness rises and Light to meet it.” As Rey had “risen” from Jakku while Kylo did more and more evil, so it was to be expected that since he has freed some of the light that still was in him, she will now go down the opposite path.

I am positive that Rey will not remain in the darkness, that in some way or another she will find out again. But the plunge into the Dark Side is extremely important for her because she must understand that she has no right to judge the man who is her equal in the Force.

Ben and Rey have an important task: they have to bring Balance to the Force and thus lasting peace to the galaxy. But they can’t cooperate if they don’t have a common ground, and they will never have a common ground as long as one of them believes he has the right to make choices for the other. Both are convinced of doing right; which is why the darkness is all the more tempting to them. They have not yet matured the sense of responsibility a Force user needs in order to employ his powers the right way.

Though it contains many tropes, this is not Pride and Prejudice or Romeo and Juliet or Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast. It’s Star Wars. Like a royal family in former times, the fate of the Skywalker saga always echoes through the galaxy. They must find peace at last, and for good, for the sake of everybody. The saga won’t be done by Ben and Rey kissing and making up.

And apart from that: it was about time that the saga got its own female villain. I’m all for female empowerment - it must not necessarily be through virtue. *cough* 😉

[bibleteachingbyolga]

Am I really a Christian?

Perhaps for you, that question looms like a shadow in the back of the soul, threatening your dearest hopes and peace. Others may struggle to understand why. You bear all the outward marks of a Christian: You read, pray, and gather with your church faithfully. You serve and sacrifice your time. You look for opportunities to share Christ with neighbors. You hide no secret sins.

But “the heart knows its own bitterness” (Proverbs 14:10), and so too its own darkness. No matter how much you obey on the outside, when you look within you find a mass of conflicting desires and warring ambitions. Every godly impulse seems mixed with an ungodly one; every holy desire with something shameful. You can’t pray earnestly without feeling proud of yourself afterward. You can’t serve without some part of you wanting to be praised.

You remember Judas and Demas, men whose outward appearance deceived others and deceived themselves. You know that on the last day many will find themselves surprised, knocking on the door of heaven only to hear four haunting words: “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23; 25:11–12).

And so, in the stillness before sleep, in quiet moments of the day, and sometimes in the middle of worship itself, the shadow returns: Am I real — or am I just deceiving myself?

‘With You There Is Forgiveness’

Sometimes, the most apt answers to our most pressing questions are buried hundreds of years ago. And when it comes to assurance in particular, we may never surpass the pastoral wisdom of those seventeenth-century soul physicians, the Puritans.

Assurance proved to be a common struggle for the Christians of that era, such that John Owen devoted over three hundred pages to the topic in his masterful Exposition of Psalm 130, most of which addresses a single verse: “With you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared” (Psalm 130:4).

With God there is forgiveness — free forgiveness, abundant forgiveness, glad forgiveness, based on the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. But Owen knew that some Christians would hesitate to believe that forgiveness was for them. He knew that some introspective believers, bruised with a sense of their indwelling sin, would respond, “Yes, there is forgiveness with God, but I see so much darkness within myself — is there forgiveness for me?”

In a way, Owen’s entire book is his answer to that question. But he devotes special attention to such believers in one brief section — not aiming, necessarily, to remove every doubt (something only God can do), but merely to help readers see themselves from a new, more gracious angle.

Grief can be a good sign.

When some Christians search their hearts, they have eyes only for their sin. Their highest worship seems tainted with self-focus; their best obedience seems spoiled by strains of insincerity. They are ready to sigh with David, “My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me” (Psalm 40:12). But such grief can be a good sign.

Owen asks us to imagine a man with a numb leg. As long as his leg has lost sensation, the man “endures deep cuts and lancings, and feels them not.” Yet as soon as his nerves awake, he “feels the least cut, and may think the instruments sharper than they were before, when all the difference is, that he hath got a quickness of sense” (Works of John Owen, 6:604).

Outside of Christ, our souls are numb to the evil of sin. The guilt and the consequences of sin may have wounded us from time to time, but its evil we could hardly feel (if at all) — no matter how often it thrust us through. But once our souls come alive, we need only a paper cut to wince. Sin burdens us, oppresses us, grieves us, not because we are worse than we were before, but because we finally feel sin for what it is: the thorns that crowned our Savior’s head, the spear that pierced our Lord.

So, Owen writes, “‘Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ [Romans 7:24] is a better evidence of grace and holiness than ‘God, I thank thee I am not as other men’ [Luke 18:11]” (601). Grief over our sin, far from disqualifying us from the kingdom, suggests that comfort is on the way (Matthew 5:4).

Your resistance, not sin’s persistence, matters most.

Temptation is frustratingly persistent. Sin would grieve us less if it left us alone more often: if pride were not ready to rise on all occasions, if anger did not flame up from the smallest sparks, if foolish thoughts did not fill our minds so often. Can we have any confidence of assurance if we find sin so relentlessly tempting?

Owen takes us to 1 Peter 2:11, where the apostle writes, “Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” He comments, “Now, to war is not to make faint or gentle opposition, . . . but it is to go out with great strength, to use craft, subtlety, and force, so as to put the whole issue to a hazard. So these lusts war” (605).

Sin wars — and not against those whom it holds captive, but against those who have been rescued from its authority and now fight below Christ’s banner. When it comes to assurance, then, what matters most is not sin’s persistence, but our resistance. Or as Owen puts it, “Your state is not at all to be measured by the opposition that sin makes to you, but by the opposition you make to it” (605).

Sin may burden and tempt you, oppose and oppress you. Every army does. But do you, for your part, resist? Do you run up the watchtower and raise an alarm? Do you grip your shield and swing your sword? Do you labor, strive, watch, pray, and keep close to your Captain? Then sin’s warfare against you may be a sign that you are in Christ’s service.

Christ purifies our obedience.

The most sensitive Christians, Owen writes, often “find their hearts weak, and all their duties worthless. . . . In the best of them there is such a mixture of self, hypocrisy, unbelief, vain-glory, that they are even ashamed and confounded with the remembrance of them” (600). Whatever fruit they bear seems covered with the mold of indwelling sin.

But often, God sees more grace in his sin-burdened people than they see in themselves. Remember Sarah, Owen says: even when she was walking in unbelief, God took notice of the fact — a trifle in our eyes — that she called her husband “lord” (Genesis 18:12; 1 Peter 3:6). So too, on the last day, Jesus will commend his people for good works they have long forgotten and struggle even to recognize (Matthew 25:37–40).

Of course, God’s “well done” says less about the worth of our works than about the wonder of his mercy. Our Father hangs our pictures upon his wall because Christ adorns them with the jewels of his own crown. Owen writes,

Jesus Christ takes whatever is evil and unsavoury out of them, and makes them acceptable. . . . All the ingredients of self that are in them on any account he takes away, and adds incense to what remains, and presents it to God. . . . So that God accepts a little, and Christ makes our little a great deal. (603)

The only works that God accepts are those that have been washed in the blood of Jesus (Revelation 7:14). And any work that is washed in the blood of Jesus becomes transfigured, a small but resplendent reflection of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). And therefore God, in unspeakable grace, “remembers the duties which we forget, and forgets the sins which we remember” (603).

Assurance arises from faith.

Owen’s final piece of counsel may feel counterintuitive to the unassured heart. Many who struggle with assurance hesitate to rest their full weight on Christ’s saving promises until they feel some warrant from within that the promises belong to them. They wait to come boldly to the throne of grace until they find something to bring with them. But this gets the order exactly backward.

Owen writes, “Do not resolve not to eat thy meat until thou art strong, when thou hast no means of being strong but by eating” (603). When we wait to focus our gaze on Christ’s promises until we are holy enough, we are like a man waiting to eat until he becomes strong, or waiting to sleep until he feels energized, or waiting to study until he grows wise. Sinclair Ferguson, a modern-day pupil of Owen, puts it this way:

Believing [gives] rise to obedience, not obedience . . . to assurance irrespective of believing. Such faith cannot be forced into us by our efforts to be obedient; it arises only from larger and clearer views of Christ. (The Whole Christ, 204)

The faith that nourishes both obedience and assurance arises only from larger and clearer views of Christ. If we stay away from Jesus until we are holy enough, we will stay away forever. But if we come to him right now and every morning hereafter, no matter how dead we feel, looking for welcome on the basis of his blood rather than our efforts, then we can hope, in time, to find faith flowering in fuller obedience and deeper assurance.

But we will come only if we know, with Owen, that “with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared” (Psalm 130:4). All who come to Christ, trust in Christ, and embrace Christ find the forgiveness that is with Christ. And you are no exception.

[xuesanguo]

(54.1) Zhōu Yú 周瑜 [Gōngjǐn 公瑾]

Zhōu Yú styled Gōngjǐn was a man of Shū in Lújiāng. His cousin’s grandfather [Zhōu] Jǐng and [Zhōu] Jǐng’s son [Zhōu] Zhōng both were Hàn Grand Commandants. (1) His father [Zhōu] Yì was Magistrate of Luòyáng.

Xiè Chéng’s Hòuhànshū states: [Zhōu] Jǐng styled Zhòngxiàng, when young for his honesty and ability met with praise, for his enlightened learning was nominated as xiàolián ‘filial and incorrupt’, and recruited to the office of the Excellencies. Later he became Inspector of Yùzhōu, recruited Rǔnán’s Chén Fán as Aide-de-Camp, Yǐngchuān’s Lǐ Yīng and Xún Gǔn and Dù Mì, and Pèiguó's Zhū Yù as Advisors, and all of them were the realm Under Heaven’s exceptional scholars. Later he was transferred to Director of the Secretariat, and then ascended to Grand Commandant.

Zhāng Fán’s Hànjì states: [Zhōu] Jǐng‘s father [Zhōu] Róng, during the reigns of [Emperors] Zhāng [Liú Dá] and Hé was Director of the Secretariat. When [Zhōu] Jǐng was first appointed to a province, he was friendly with and favored scholars, every year the nominated xiàolián he invited over, ascending the rear hall, to with his own family people feast together, and this happened several fours of times. He even gifted them utensils, and also selected and employed their junior relatives, always saying: “These ministers are like sons, so why not treat them like this?” Before this, Excellency over the Masses Hán Yǐn was Administrator of Hénèi, in public affairs had no selfish intentions, and to nominate someone he needed only one word and nothing more, but he also did not use his own household, saying: “I could recommend you, but cannot order all favor to be heaped on our one family.” Of the commentators of that time, some ridiculed the two.

Yú when grown had beautiful appearance. Previously, [190] Sūn Jiàn raised righteous troops to punish Dǒng Zhuó, and moved his family to Shū. [Sūn] Jiān’s son [Sūn] Cè and Yú were the same age, were exceptionally friendly with each other, and Yú offered his south side mansion to [Sūn] Cè, ascended the hall to pay respects to his mother, and they shared everything together.

Yú’s cousin’s father [Zhōu] Shàng became Administrator of Dānyáng, Yú went to visit him. At the same time [Sūn] Cè was about to cross eastward, reached Lìyáng, sent hurried letter to Yú, and Yú led troops to join [Sūn] Cè. [Sūn] Cè was greatly pleased and said: “With you, everything will be settled.” Therefore he followed in attacking Héngjiāng, Dānglì, capturing them all. Then they crossed to attack Mòlíng, defeating Zé Róng and Xuē Lǐ, turning to take down Húshú and Jiāngchéng, advancing to enter Qū’ē, and Liú Yáo fled. [Sūn] Cè’s army was already several tens of thousands, so he said to Yú: “I with this army is enough to capture Wú and Kuài[jī] and pacify the Shānyuè. You return to defend Dānyáng.” Yú returned, and shortly afterward Yuán Shù sent his cousin [Yuán] Yǐn to replace [Zhōu] Shàng as Administrator [of Dānyáng], and Yú with [Zhōu] Shàng both returned to Shòuchūn. [Yuán] Shù wished to appoint Yú as a General, but Yú observed that [Yuán] Shù in the end would not be successful, and therefore requested to be Chief of Jūcháo, wishing to secretly return east, and [Yuán] Shù listened to him. Therefore from Jūcháo he returned to Wú. that year was Jiàn’ān third year [198].

[Sūn] Cè personally welcomed Yú, appointing him Establishing Authority Internal-Gentleman-General, with two thousand troops and fifty cavalry. (1)

Jiāngbiǎozhuàn states: [Sūn] Cè also gave Yú drums and pipes, to establish his office, and in bestowments none could compare. [Sūn] Cè’s order said: “Zhōu Gōngjǐn is an outstanding and exceptional talent, my old childhood friend, like my own flesh and bone. Like before at Dānyáng, he set out with army and boats of provisions to aide my great affair, and in discussing virtue and rewarding achievements, this is not yet enough to repay him.”

Yú at the time was twenty years, and in Wú all called him Gentleman Zhōu. Because Yú’s favor and faith was known in Lújiāng, he was sent out to defend Niúzhǔ, and later had office as Chief of Chūngǔ. Shortly afterward, [Sūn] Cè wished to capture Jīngzhōu, and so appointed Yú Central Protector of the Army, wth office as Administrator of Jiāngxià, he followed in attacking Huàn, and captured it.

At the time they obtained Lord Qiáo’s two daughters, and both were exceptional beauties. [Sūn] Cè himself wed the elder Qiáo, and Yú wed the younger Qiáo. (2)

Jiāngbiǎozhuàn states: [Sūn] Cè casually joked with Yú: “Though Lord Qiáo’s two daughters are in exile, with the two of us as husbands, it should be enough to please them.”

He again advanced to Xúnyáng, defeated Liú Xūn, attacked Jiāngxià, returned to settle Yùzhāng and Lúlíng, and remained to defend Bāqiū. (3)

Your Servant Sōngzhī comments: Sūn Cè at the time first obtained Yùzhāng and Lúlíng, and so was not yet able to settle Jiāngxià. Yú’s defense should the present Bāqiū county, not the later [Bāqiū, a different location of the same name, where he died].

Fifth year [200], [Sūn] Cè died, and [Sūn] Quán governed matters. Yú led troops to attend the funeral, and therefore remained at Wú, as the Central Protector of the Army and with Chief Clerk Zhāng Zhāo together controlling all affairs. (1)

Jiāngbiǎozhuàn states: Excellency Cáo had newly defeated Yuán Shào, his military power daily flourished. Jiàn’ān seventh year [202], he sent down letter ordering [Sūn] Quán to send a son as hostage. [Sūn] Quán summoned the various ministers for a conference, and Zhāng Zhāo and Qín Sòng and others were hesitant and could not decide, [Sūn] Quán did not wish to send a hostage, and therefore alone brought Yú to visit his mother to first decide. Yú said: “In the past Chǔ state was first established as a fief beside Jīng mountain, a territory not even a hundred lǐ, but by the succession of the worthy and able, they expanded territory and opened borders, setting foundation at Yǐng, and therefore occupied Jīng and Yáng, reaching the south sea, continuing their enterprise and securing their reign for over nine hundred years. Now you General carry on your father and elder brother’s resources, wielding the army of six commanderies, your troops elite and grain abundant, officers and soldiers obedient to command, you can mine mountains for copper, boil the sea for salt, within the borders is fertile and rich, people do not think of treachery. Riding a boat swiftly, in the morning setting out and in the evening arriving, with troops stalwart and brave, wherever you head you have no match, so what is there to threaten you, to have you wish to send hostage? Just sending one hostage, is enough to become the tail to the Cáo clan’s head, so that if orders summon you then you cannot but go, and then you would be controlled by another. You would have no better than a marquis’s seal, about ten servants, a few carriages, a few horses, and how can that be the same as facing south and declaring sovereignty? It is better to not send, and watch for changes. If the Cáo clan is able to read righteousness to settle the realm Under Heaven, the matter would not be too late, General. If he plots treachery, then war will be like fire, and the careless will burn themselves. You General are valorous and powerful, and so can wait for Heaven’s mandate. What need is there to send hostage?” [Sūn] Quán’s mother said: “Gōngjǐn’s suggestion is right. Gōngjǐn is of the same year as [Sūn Cè] Bófú, only one month younger. I look on him like a son. You should treat him as an elder brother.” Therefore he did not send hostage.

Eleventh year [206], he commanded Sūn Yú and others to attack Má and Bǎo, two camps, killing their chief commanders, capturing over then thousand prisoners, and returned to defend Gōngtíng. Administrator of Jiāngxià Huáng Zǔ sent General Dèng Lóng to command troops of several thousand men to enter Cháisāng, Yú pursued and attacked, capturing alive [Dèng] Lóng and sending him to Wú.

Thirteenth year [208] spring, [Sūn] Quán attacked Jiāngxià, and Yú became the Front Division Chief Commander.

That year ninth moon, Excellency Cáo entered Jīngzhōu, Liú Cóng led his army to surrender, Excellency Cáo obtained their river army, boats and infantry of several hundred thousands. The officers and soldiers heard this and all were afraid. [Sūn] Quán met with his subordinates, and asked for a plan. The commentators all said: “Excellency Cáo is a ferocious tiger, entrusted with title as Hàn’s Chancellor, wielding Heaven’s Son in order to campaign everywhere, and his actions have the Imperial Court as his excuse. Today if we resist him, the matter will be very unfavorable. Moreover your greatest strength and ability to resist [Cáo] Cāo, General, is the Cháng Jiāng. Now [Cáo] Cāo has obtained Jīngzhōu, suddenly possessing its territory. Liú Biǎo’s trained navy, chargers and warships of several thousand, [Cáo] Cāo has it all along the Jiāng, combined with infantry, and by water and land he goes down[stream], so this defense of the Cháng Jiāng, he already has it as much as we do. But our power and army is few, and cannot be compared, so we humbly say the best plan is to submit to him.”

Yú said: “Not so. Though [Cáo] Cāo is entrusted with title as Hàn’s Chancellor, in truth he is Hàn’s traitor. With your divine military and heroic ability, General, wielding your father's and elder brother’s fiercness, you established separate occupation east of the Jiāng, the territory is of several thousand lǐ, troops elite enough to use, heroes pleased to serve, and should sweep across the realm Under Heaven, to remove and destroy the evil from the Hàn house. Moreover [Cáo] Cāo is coming to his own doom, so how can we submit to him? I ask to suggest this to you General: Now is the north already secure, so that [Cáo] Cāo has no internal worries, is able to remain long, and when coming to contest the borders, is able to with us decide victory or defeat aboard ships and among oars? Now the northern territories is not yet pacified, and moreover Mǎ Chāo and Hán Suì are still west of the Passes, serving as a worry to [Cáo] Cāo’s rear. Moreover he has given up his saddled horses, to use boats and oars, to contest dominance with Wú and Yuè, which is not the central states’ strength. Also now it is exceedingly cold, the horses have no hay, he has driven the armies of the central states far among the rivers and lakes, who are not accustomed to the water and soil, and there will certainly be sickness. These four points, are reasons against using troops, but [Cáo] Cāo ignores all of them to go. General the time for you to capture [Cáo] Cāo is today. I ask for elite troops of thirty thousand men, to advance to occupy Xiàkǒu, to defend and defeat them for you General.”

[Sūn] Quán said: “The old traitor has long wished to overthrow the Hàn and establish himself, but did not only because he feared the two Yuán, Lǚ Bù, Liú Biǎo, and myself. Now the other powerful figures are already destroyed, and only I remain. I and the old traitor, we two cannot exist together. Your advice to attack, is deeply in agreement with my wish. This is Heaven bestowing you to assist me.” (1)

Jiāngbiǎozhuàn states: [Sūn] Quán drew his single-edged sword and chopped the table in front of him and said: “The officers and officials who dare again advise submitting to [Cáo] Cāo, will be dealt with the same as this table!” When the meeting was dismissed, that night yú asked to meet and said: “The others saw [Cáo] Cāo’s letter, saying his navy and army were eight hundred thousand, and so were all terrified, not considering its accuracy, quickly making their proposal [to submit], and this is deeply without meaning. Now considering its accuracy, the others men from the central states, cannot be more than one hundred fifty to sixty thousand, and moreover their army is already weary. Their gain of [Liú] Biǎo’s army, also at most could only be seventy or eight thousand, and must harbor doubts. With tired and ill troops, and a doubtful army, though their numbers are many, they are very much nothing to fear. With elite troops of fifty thousand, it would be enough to deal with them. May you not worry General.” [Sūn] Quán rubbed his back and said: “Gōngjǐn, your words thus far are deeply in agreement with my heart. [Zhāng Zhāo] Zǐbù and [Qín Sòng] Wénbiǎo and the others, each consider their wives and children, focus on their private worries, and deeply fail my hopes. Only you and [Lǔ Sù] Zǐjìng agree with me. This is Heaven giving you two to support me. Fifty thousand troops is difficult to gather, but I have already picked thirty thousand, the boats and provisions and war equipment already prepared. You and [Lǔ Sù] Zǐjìng and Lord Chéng [Pǔ] will set out at the front, and I will follow with an army, greatly transporting supplies and provisions, to be your rear support. You are certainly able to manage things, but if by chance it is not as you hope, then return to join me, and I will settle things with [Cáo Cāo] Mèngdé.”

Your Servant Sōngzhī believes the plan to resist Excellency Cáo was truly first made by Lǔ Sù. At the time Zhōu Yú was sent to Póyáng, [Lǔ] Sù urged [Sūn] Quán to call for Yú, and Yú from Póyáng returned. but with [Lǔ] Sù agreed, and therefore they were able to together accomplish a great achievement. The base biography says [Sūn] Quán met with his subordinates, and asked for a plan, and Yú separated from the suggestions of everyone else, along advising a plan for resistance, and does not say that [Lǔ] S`¨first had the plan, perhaps to reject [Lǔ] Sù’s goodness.

At the time Liú Bèi was by Excellency Cáo defeated, and wished to go south across the Jiāng, encountered Lǔ Sù at Dāngyáng, and therefore made plans together, and so advanced to occupy Xiàkǒu, sending Zhūgě Liàng to visit [Sūn] Quán, and [Sūn] Quán therefore sent Yú and Chéng Pǔ and others to join forces with [Liú] Bèi to oppose Excellency Cáo, encountering him at Chìbì. At the time Excellency Cáo’s army already had illness, and in the first battle, the Excellency’s army was defeated and retreated, and withdrew to the Jiāng’s north side. Yú and the rest were on the southern bank. Yú’s subordinate General Huáng Gài said: “Now the enemy is many and we are few, and it is difficult to resist for long. But observing [Cáo] Cāo’s army the ships are joined head to tail, and can be burned to make them flee.” Therefore he gathered chargers and warships of several tens, filled with firewood and grass, moistened with oil and pour inside, bound with heavy curtains, setting up ivory banners. First he sent letter to Excellency Cáo, falsely claiming he wished to surrender. (1) He also prepared barges, each fastened a great boat, and so all went forward.

Jiāngbiǎozhuàn records [Huáng] Gài’s letter: “I received the Sūn clan’s generous favor, always serving as their commander, and this has not decreased. But considering that the realm Under Heaven’s matters have great power, and using the Jiāng’s east’s six commanderies' Shānyuè people, to resist the central states’ army of millions, the army is few and no match, and all within the seas can also see it. The east’s officers and officials, whether foolish or wise, all know this is impossible, but only Zhōu Yú and Lǔ Sù are shallow and stupid, and do not understand. Today I submit, because of this honest consideration. What Yú commands is easy to break and destroy. On the day of battle, I will be the front division, and will to at the right situation change sides, to put into your effect your orders from the inside.” Excellency Cáo specially met with the messenger, and secretly asked him, orally commanding him: “Though I fear you are only cheating me, if [Huáng] Gài is trustworthy, then the ranks and rewards he will receive will surpass all others before and after.”

Excellency Cáo’s army’s officials and soldiers all craned their necks to watch, pointed and said [Huáng] Gài was surrendering. [Huáng] Gài released all the boats, at the same time setting fire. At the time the wind was strong and fierce, and helping extend the burning of the river bank’s camps to nothing. Shortly after, the smoke and flame reached the sky, the men and horses burned and drowned and dead were very many, the army therefore was defeated and fled, and returned to defend Nánjùn. (2) [Liú] Bèi with Yú and the others again together pursued. Excellency Cáo left Cáo Rén and others to defend Jīanglíng city, and quickly himself returned north.

Jiāngbiǎozhuàn states: On the battle day, [Huáng] Gài first gathered ten large light warships, carrying dry reads and firewood stored inside, poured with fish oil, with red curtains covering it, and set up banners and dragon flags atop the warships. At the time the southeastern wind was pressing hard, and so the ten warships were at the front most, and in the middle of the Jiāng they raised their sails, [Huáng] Gài raised a signal fire to inform all his officers, to have the army soldiers all greatly shout together: “We surrender.” [Cáo] Cāo’s army men all left camp to go look. When they were two lǐ away from the northern army, at the same time they set fire, the fire was fierce in the ferocious wind, and the ships went like arrows, flying dust blocking out light, and completely burned the northern ships, reaching up to the shore’s camps and wood. Yú and the rest led light elite troops to follow afterward, with thundering drums greatly advanced, the northern army was greatly broken, and Excellency Cáo retreated and fled.

Yú with Chéng Pǔ also advanced to Nánjùn, opposed [Cáo] Rén, on each side of the great Jiāng. The troops had not yet crossed lances, (1) and Yú promptly sent Gān Níng ahead to occupy Yílíng.

Wúlù states: [Liú] Bèi said to Yú: “[Cáo] Rén defends Jīanglíng city, and inside the city provisions are many, enough to be a concern. I will send Zhāng [Fēi] Yìdé to command a thousand men to accompany you, and you divide two thousand men to follow me, and together we will follow the Xià river to cut off [Cáo] Rén’s rear. [Cáo] Rén will hear we have arrived and certainly flee.” Yú gave him two thousand men.

[Cáo] Rén divided his troops and cavalry to attack and besiege [Gān] Níng. [Gān] Níng reported emergency to Yú. Yú used Lǚ Méng’s plan, leaving Líng Tǒng to defend their rear, while personally with [Lǚ] Méng going up to rescue [Gān] Níng. [Gān] Níng’s besiegement was relieved, and therefore they crossed to garrison the north bank, and set a time for a great battle. Yú personally rode horse on the front lines, and was by a stray arrow hit in the right side. The wound was deep, and so he returned. Later [Cáo] Rén heard Yú was lying and could not rise, and readied troops in battle lines. Yú therefore rose, inspected the army camps, encouraging the officials and troops, and [Cáo] Rén because of this then retreated.

[Sūn] Quán appointed Yú as Supporting General, with office as Administrator of Nánjùn, with Xiàjuàn, Hànchāng, Liúyáng, and Zhōulíng as his supporting fief, and garrison at Jīanglíng. Liú Bèi as General of the Left took office as Governor of Jīngzhōu, governing at Gōng’ān. [Liú] Bèi visited their capital to meet [Sūn] Quán, and Yú sent up memorial: “Liú Bèi has the disposition of a ruthless and formidable person, and has bear and tiger Generals Guān Yǔ and Zhāng Fēi, and certainly will not long submit to serve another. I humbly say the best plan is to move [Liú] Bèi to Wú, build for him a palace, give him many beautiful woman to play with, to amuse his ears and eyes, divide the other two, each to one place, and send someone like me to command them to battle, and so the great undertakign can be settled. Now if territory is divided to give him a foundation, and these three are allowed to gather on our border, I fear it is like a rain dragon reaching the clouds, to never again be constrained to a pool.”

[Sūn] Quán because Excellency Cáo was to the north thought it appropriate to gathr and support heroes, and also feared [Liú] Bèi would be difficult to control, and therefore did not accept.

At the time Liú Zhāng was Governor of Yìzhōu, outside Zhāng Lǔ was invading and encroaching, so Yú therefore visited the capital to meet [Sūn] Quán and said: “Now Cáo Cāo is newly beaten, because he had concerns on the inside, and was net yet able to fully with you General face troops to decide matters. I ask to with [General] Exerting Authority [Sūn Yú] to together advance to capture Shǔ, after obtaining Shǔ conquer Zhāng Lǔ, and then leave [General] Exerting Authority to firmly defend the territory, and form alliance with Mǎ Chāo. I will return to with you General capture Xiāngyáng to distress [Cáo] Cāo, and the north can be taken.” [Sūn] Quán permitted this.

Yú returned to Jiānglíng, made preparations to go, but on the road at Bāqiū fell ill and died, (1) at the time aged thirty six years.

Your Servant Sōngzhī comments: Yú wished to capture Shǔ, returned to Jiānglíng to make preparations, so the place that he died, should be the present Bālíng. The previous Bāqiū he defended was of the same name but a different place.

[Sūn] Quán wore mourning clothes and led mourning, emotionally moving his attendants. The body was returned to Wú for the funeral, and he welcomed it at Wúhú, and all the costs and expenses, he completely supplied. Later he set out order that said: “Former Generals Zhōu Yú and Chéng Pǔ, of their people and retainers, all are not to be asked [for taxes].”

Previously Yú met with friendship from [Sūn] Cè, and [Sūn Cè’s mother] the Grand Consort also had [Sūn] Quán treat him as an elder brother. At the time when [Sūn] Quán's rank became a General, the various officers and retainers in their ritual courtesy were simple, but Yú alone was first to be of utmost veneration, to then cause the other ministers to follow. By nature he was very open, and almost everyone he won over, only with Chéng Pǔ were they not friendly. (2)

Jiāngbiǎozhuàn states:

[Chéng] Pǔ relied on being older, to repeatedly insult Yú. Yú humbly deferred to him, and to the end would not bicker with him. [Chéng] Pǔ later himself admired and became close with him, and therefore informed others: “Dealing with Zhōu Gōngjǐn is like drinking strong liquor. Without noticing you intoxicate yourself.” People at the time thus knew his modest deference in treating others was like this.

Previously Excellency Cáo heard Yú was young but had great talent, and believed someone could be sent to persuade and recruit him, and therefore he secretly sent down message to Yángzhōu, sending Jiǔjiāng’s Jiǎng Gàn to go meet Yú. [Jiǎng] Gàn had good bearing, and for his ability in debate met with praise, alone he walked among the Jiāng and Huái, and none could match him. Therefore in plain clothes and hemp head cloth, he went privately to visit Yú. Yú went out to welcome him, and said to [Jiǎng] Gàn: “Zǐyì you have gone through much hardship, have you distantly crossed the rivers and lakes to be a lobbyist for the Cáo?” [Jiǎng] Gàn said: "I and you sir are of the same province region, but have been separated, and from afar I heard of your fragrant reputation, and therefore came to chat broadly, and also observe your elegant conduct, but you say I am a lobbyist, why be so suspicious?” Yú said: “Though I do not match Kuí or Kuàng, I can hear tones, and that is enough to know your intentions.” Therefore he kept [Jiǎng] Gàn inside, preparing drink and food. When it was finished, he sent him off saying: “Right now I have secret matters, so for the time being go out to stay in the nearby building. When the matter is finished, we can again be close.” After three days, Yú invited [Jiǎng] Gàn to together tour the inside of the camps, and when the inspections of the storehouses and military supplies and weapons finished, they returned to drink, showing him the clothes and treasures bestowed on him, and therefore said to [Jiǎng] Wèi: “A man in this world, when encountering and knowing his master, outside must be faithful to the righteousness between ruler and minister, and inside hold to the kindness of one’s flesh and bone [kin]. In words and actions plan on following, sharing with him disaster and fortune. Supposing if [the great diplomats] Sū [Qín] or [Zhāng] Yì were alive again, or elder Lì again about, I would just pat their backs and discount their words, so how could you sir with your youth be enough to move me?” [Jiǎng] Gàn only laughed, and to the end did not say anything. [Jiǎng] Gàn returned, praised Yù as magnanimous with high character, and not someone to be persuaded by words. The scholars of the central provinces also because of this admired him.

When Liú Bèi was leaving the capital to go back, [Sūn] Quán rode a fast and large boat, with Zhāng Zhāo, Qín Sōng, Lǔ Sù, and others of over ten men together sent him off, and had a great feast to say farewell. [Zhāng] Zhāo and [Lǔ] Sù and the others first departed, and [Sūn] Quán alone with [Liú] Bèi remained to talk, and therefore as [Liú Bèi] talked he sighed about Yú and said: “Gōngjǐn’s civil and military ability, is outstanding beyond countless others, and considering his ability is so great, I only fear he will not long be a servant of another.” When Yú defeated the Wèi army, Excellency Cáo said: “I am not ashamed to have retreated.” Later he wrote letter to [Sūn] Quán that said: “At the Chìbì campaign, it happened that there was disease, so I burned ships and myself retreated, and unexpectedly caused Zhōu Yú to falsely obtain this reputation.” Yú’s authority and prestige was distantly known, and therefore Excellency Cáo and Liú Bèi both wished to slander him to cause doubt of him.

When he died, [Sūn] Quán wept and said: “Gōngjǐn had the ability to assist rulers, now that he has died young, on whom can I rely on?” Later [Sūn] Quán claimed Imperial Title, and said to his Excellencies and Ministers: “If I had not had Zhōu Gōngjǐn, I would not be Emperor.”

Yú when young was exceptionally good with music, and even after three goblets, if there was an error, Yú was certain to know it, and knowing it certain to turn to it, and therefore people of the time had a rhyme: “When the music errs, Gentleman Zhōu turns.”

Yú had two sons and one daughter. The daughter was wed to Heir-Apparent [Sūn] Dēng. The son [Zhōu] Xún was bestowed a princess [in marriage], appointed Cavalry Commandant, had Yú’s manner, and died young. [Zhōu] Xún’s younger brother [Zhōu] Yìn, first was appointed Raising Enterprise Commandant, wed a daughter of the Imperial Clan, received a thousand troops, garrisoning Gōng’ān. Huánlóng first year [229] he was given fief as Marquis of Dū village. Later for a crime he was exiled to Lúlíng commandery.

Chìwū second year [239], Zhūgě Jǐn, Bù Zhì together signed and sent up petition that said: “Former General Zhōu Yú’s son Yìn, in the past was immersed in favor and adornment, receiving title as a General, but could not maintain this fortune, think of establishing achievement and efficacy, instead acting by his own wishes, quickly bringing upon himself punishment. We your servants humbly believe Yú in the past met with favor and appointment, entering to serve as heart and backbone [trusted aide], going out to serve as claws and teeth [battlefield fighter], receiving orders to go out on campaign, personally facing arrows and stones, with his utmost integrity following commands, facing death without fear. Therefore he was able to defeat Cáo Cāo at Wūlín, drive away Cáo Rén at Yǐngdū [Jiānglíng], raise up the state’s prestige and virtue, so that the central plains were shaken. He suppressed the Jīng region, so none did not submit. Even Zhōu’s Fāngshū or Hàn’s [Hán] Xìn and [Yīng] Bù truly cannot be honored as better. The servants for striking and defending against trouble, since ancient times there were no rulers who did not heavily value them, and therefore Hàn Gāo-dì [Liú Bāng] when bestowing fiefs made the Oath: “Even if the Yellow River changed course, or Tài Mountain were ground down, if the state is still preserved, then your descendants will continue,” and extended to them a Red Letter [to pardon any crime], heavily swore oath [with a white horse’s blood], stored it in the Ancestral Temples, to pass down without end, wishing to allow the meritorious ministers’ descendants, to from generation to generation succeed after each other, and when there were no direct posterity, then search for other descendants, in order to repay virtues and to make known achievements, industriously and sincerely, and it went so far as this, out of a wish to encourage later people, to be servants following commands, who face death without regrets. Moreover Yú has not been gone for very long, but his son [Zhōu] Yìn has been demoted to commoner, and this is increasingly lamentable and tragic. We humbly ask Your majesty to personally illuminate and study the ancients, to greatly restore succession, and call [Zhōu] Yìn to return, and beg you to forgive his remaining crimes, return his troops and restore his title, so that a rooster that missed a morning, can again be able to crow, and allow guilty ministers, to afterward exert themselves in action.”

[Sūn] Quán answered: “My stomach and heart [trusted aide] with old achievements, who joined with me in matters, that was Gōngjǐn, and I truly do not forget him. In the past Yìn was young, and in the beginning had no achievements, yet received elite troops, was titled as a marquis and general, all because the remembrance of Gōngjǐn was passed onto [Zhōu] Yìn. But [Zhōu] Yìn relied on this, was drunk and wanton and without restraint, and though from beginning to end was warned, he never reformed or changed. My feelings for Gōngjǐn are the same as you two, and would be happy for [Zhōu] Yìn to succeed, how can this not be the case? Because [Zhōu] Yìn’s crimes, it is not yet suitable to bring him back, and moreover I wish to have him go through hardship, to allow him to be self aware and that is all. Now you two sirs sincerely cite Hàn Gāo’s River and Mountain Oath, and I because of it am ashamed. Though my virtue is not at that level, yet my wishes are similar, but the matter had become like this, and therefore I cannot yet follow your wish. Because he is Gōngjǐn’s son, and with you two as intermediaries, if he can be reformed, then what is there to worry?”

[Zhūgě] Jǐn and [Bù] Zhì repeatedly sent this up, and Zhū Rán and Quán Cóng also joined in begging, and [Sūn] Quán therefore permitted it. It happened that [Zhōu] Yìn fell ill and died.

Yú’s elder brother’s son Jùn, also because of Yú’s foundational achievement became Supporting General, with command of a thousand officials and soldiers. Jùn died, and Quán Cóng memorialized Jùn’s son Hù as General. [Sūn] Quán said: “in the past driving away Cáo Cāo, expanding into Jīngzhōu, all was because of Gōngjǐn, and I will never forget him. When I first heard Jùn had died, I had wished to appoint Hù, but heard Hù in nature and conduct is dangerous, and employing him would lead to disaster, and therefore stopped. I miss Gōngjǐn, how can it be otherwise?”

周瑜字公瑾，廬江舒人也。從祖父景，景子忠，皆為漢太尉〔一〕。父異，洛陽令。 　　〔一〕　謝承後漢書曰：景字仲嚮，少以廉能見稱，以明學察孝廉，辟公府。後為豫州刺史，辟汝南陳蕃為別駕，潁川李膺、荀緄、杜密、沛國朱寓為從事，皆天下英俊之士也。稍遷至尚書令，遂登太尉。張璠漢紀曰：景父榮，章、和世為尚書令。初景歷位牧守，好善愛士，每歲舉孝廉，延請入，上後堂，與家人宴會，如此者數四。及贈送既備，又選用其子弟，常稱曰：「移臣作子，於政何有？」先是，司徒韓縯為河內太守，在公無私，所舉一辭而已，後亦不及其門戶，曰：「我舉若可矣，不令恩偏稱一家也。」當時論者，或兩譏焉。 　　瑜長壯有姿貌。初，孫堅興義兵討董卓，徙家於舒。堅子策與瑜同年，獨相友善，瑜推道南大宅以舍策，升堂拜母，有無通共。瑜從父尚為丹楊太守，瑜往省之。會策將東渡，到歷陽，馳書報瑜，瑜將兵迎策。策大喜曰：「吾得卿，諧也。」遂從攻橫江、當利，皆拔之。乃渡擊秣陵，破笮融、薛禮，轉下湖孰、江乘，進入曲阿，劉繇奔走，而策之眾已數萬矣。因謂瑜曰：「吾以此眾取吳會平山越已足。卿還鎮丹楊。」瑜還。頃之，袁術遣從弟胤代尚為太守，而瑜與尚俱還壽春。術欲以瑜為將，瑜觀術終無所成，故求為居巢長，欲假塗東歸，術聽之。遂自居巢還吳。是歲，建安三年也。策親自迎瑜，授建威中郎將，即與兵二千人，騎五十匹。〔一〕瑜時年二十四，吳中皆呼為周郎。以瑜恩信著於廬江，出備牛渚，後領春穀長。頃之，策欲取荊州，以瑜為中護軍，領江夏太守，從攻皖，拔之。時得橋公兩女，皆國色也。策自納大橋，瑜納小橋。〔二〕復進尋陽，破劉勳，討江夏，還定豫章、廬陵，留鎮巴丘。〔三〕 　　〔一〕　江表傳曰：策又給瑜鼓吹，為治館舍，贈賜莫與為比。策令曰：「周公瑾英雋異才，與孤有總角之好，骨肉之分。如前在丹楊，發眾及船糧以濟大事，論德酬功，此未足以報者也。」 　　〔二〕　江表傳曰：策從容戲瑜曰：「橋公二女雖流離，得吾二人作婿，亦足為歡。」 　　〔三〕　臣松之案：孫策于時始得豫章、廬陵，尚未能得定江夏。瑜之所鎮，應在今巴丘縣也，與後所（平）〔卒〕巴丘處不同。 　　五年，策薨，權統事。瑜將兵赴喪，遂留吳，以中護軍與長史張昭共掌眾事。〔一〕十一年，督孫瑜等討麻、保二屯，梟其渠帥，囚俘萬餘口，還備（官亭）〔宮亭〕。江夏太守黃祖遣將鄧龍將兵數千人入柴桑，瑜追討擊，生虜龍送吳。十三年春，權討江夏，瑜為前部大督。 　　〔一〕　江表傳曰：曹公新破袁紹，兵威日盛，建安七年，下書責權質任子。權召群臣會議，張昭、秦松等猶豫不能決，權意不欲遣質，乃獨將瑜���母前定議，瑜曰：「昔楚國初封於荊山之側，不滿百里之地，繼嗣賢能，廣土開境，立基於郢，遂據荊楊，至於南海，傳業延祚，九百餘年。今將軍承父兄餘資，兼六郡之眾，兵精糧多，將士用命，鑄山為銅，煮海為鹽，境內富饒，人不思亂，汎舟舉帆，朝發夕到，士風勁勇，所向無敵，有何偪迫，而欲送質？質一入，不得不與曹氏相首尾，與相首尾，則命召不得不往，便見制於人也。極不過一侯印，僕從十餘人，車數乘，馬數匹，豈與南面稱孤同哉？不如勿遣，徐觀其變。若曹氏能率義以正天下，將軍事之未晚。若圖為暴亂，兵猶火也，不戢將自焚。將軍韜勇抗威，以待天命，何送質之有！」權母曰：「公瑾議是也。公瑾與伯符同年，小一月耳，我視之如子也，汝其兄事之。」遂不送質。 　　其年九月，曹公入荊州，劉琮舉眾降，曹公得其水軍，船步兵數十萬，將士聞之皆恐。權延見群下，問以計策。議者咸曰：「曹公豺虎也，然託名漢相，挾天子以征四方，動以朝廷為辭，今日拒之，事更不順。且將軍大勢，可以拒操者，長江也。今操得荊州，奄有其地，劉表治水軍，蒙衝鬥艦，乃以千數，操悉浮以沿江，兼有步兵，水陸俱下，此為長江之險，已與我共之矣。而勢力眾寡，又不可論。愚謂大計不如迎之。」瑜曰：「不然。操雖託名漢相，其實漢賊也。將軍以神武雄才，兼仗父兄之烈，割據江東，地方數千里，兵精足用，英雄樂業，尚當橫行天下，為漢家除殘去穢。況操自送死，而可迎之邪？請為將軍籌之：今使北土已安，操無內憂，能曠日持久，來爭疆埸，又能與我校勝負於船楫（可）〔閒〕乎？今北土既未平安，加馬超、韓遂尚在關西，為操後患。且舍鞍馬，仗舟楫，與吳越爭衡，本非中國所長。又今盛寒，馬無藁草，驅中國士眾遠涉江湖之閒，不習水土，必生疾病。此數四者，用兵之患也，而操皆冒行之。將軍禽操，宜在今日。瑜請得精兵三萬人，進住夏口，保為將軍破之。」權曰：「老賊欲廢漢自立久矣，徒忌二袁、呂布、劉表與孤耳。今數雄已滅，惟孤尚存，孤與老賊，勢不兩立。君言當擊，甚與孤合，此天以君授孤也。」〔一〕 　　〔一〕　江表傳曰：權拔刀斫前奏案曰：「諸將吏敢復有言當迎操者，與此案同！」及會罷之夜，瑜請見曰：「諸人徒見操書，言水步八十萬，而各恐懾，不復料其虛實，便開此議，甚無謂也。今以實校之，彼所將中國人，不過十五六萬，且軍已久疲，所得表眾，亦極七八萬耳，尚懷狐疑。夫以疲病之卒，御狐疑之眾，眾數雖多，甚未足畏。得精兵五萬，自足制之，願將軍勿慮。」權撫背曰：「公瑾，卿言至此，甚合孤心。子布、文表諸人，各顧妻子，挾持私慮，深失所望，獨卿與子敬與孤同耳，此天以卿二人贊孤也。五萬兵難卒合，已選三萬人，船糧戰具俱辦，卿與子敬、程公便在前發，孤當續發人眾，多載資糧，為卿後援。卿能辦之者誠決，邂逅不如意，便還就孤，孤當與孟德決之。」臣松之以為建計拒曹公，實始魯肅。于時周瑜使鄱陽，肅勸權呼瑜，瑜使鄱陽還，但與肅闇同，故能共成大勳。本傳直云，權延見群下，問以計策，瑜擺撥眾人之議，獨言抗拒之計，了不云肅先有謀，殆為攘肅之善也。 　　時劉備為曹公所破，欲引南渡江，與魯肅遇於當陽，遂共圖計，因進住夏口，遣諸葛亮詣權，權遂遣瑜及程普等與備并力逆曹公，遇於赤壁。時曹公軍眾已有疾病，初一交戰，公軍敗退，引次江北。瑜等在南岸。瑜部將黃蓋曰：「今寇眾我寡，難與持久。然觀操軍船艦首尾相接，可燒而走也。」乃取蒙衝鬥艦數十艘，實以薪草，膏油灌其中，裹以帷幕，上建牙旗，先書報曹公，欺以欲降。〔一〕又豫備走舸，各繫大船後，因引次俱前。曹公軍吏士皆延頸觀望，指言蓋降。蓋放諸船，同時發火。時風盛猛，悉延燒岸上營落。頃之，煙炎張天，人馬燒溺死者甚眾，軍遂敗退，還保南郡。〔二〕備與瑜等復共追。曹公留曹仁等守江陵城，徑自北歸。 　　〔一〕　江表傳載蓋書曰：「蓋受孫氏厚恩，常為將帥，見遇不薄。然顧天下事有大勢，用江東六郡山越之人，以當中國百萬之眾，眾寡不敵，海內所共見也。東方將吏，無有愚智，皆知其不可，惟周瑜、魯肅偏懷淺戇，意未解耳。今日歸命，是其實計。瑜所督領，自易摧破。交鋒之日，蓋為前部，當因事變化，效命在近。」曹公特見行人，密問之，口敕曰：「但恐汝詐耳。蓋若信實，當授爵賞，超於前後也。」 　　〔二〕　江表傳曰：至戰日，蓋先取輕利艦十舫，載燥荻枯柴積其中，灌以魚膏，赤幔覆之，建旌旗龍幡於艦上。時東南風急，因以十艦最著前，中江舉帆，蓋舉火白諸校，使眾兵齊聲大叫曰：「降焉！」操軍人皆出營立觀。去北軍二里餘，同時發火，火烈風猛，往船如箭，飛埃絕爛，燒盡北船，延及岸邊營柴。瑜等率輕銳尋繼其後，雷鼓大進，北軍大壞，曹公退走。 　　瑜與程普又進南郡，與仁相對，各隔大江。兵未交鋒，〔一〕瑜即遣甘寧前據夷陵。仁分兵騎別攻圍寧。寧告急於瑜。瑜用呂蒙計，留淩統以守其後，身與蒙上救寧。寧圍既解，乃渡屯北岸，克期大戰。瑜親跨馬擽陳，會流矢中右脅，瘡甚，便還。後仁聞瑜臥未起，勒兵就陳。瑜乃自興，案行軍營，激揚吏士，仁由是遂退。 　　〔一〕　吳錄曰：備謂瑜云：「仁守江陵城，城中糧多，足為疾害。使張益德將千人隨卿，卿分二千人追我，相為從夏水人截仁後，仁聞吾入必走。」瑜以二千人益之。 　　權拜瑜偏將軍，領南郡太守。以下雋、漢昌、劉陽、州陵為奉邑，屯據江陵。劉備以左將軍領荊州牧，治公安。備詣京見權，瑜上疏曰：「劉備以梟雄之姿，而有關羽、張飛熊虎之將，必非久屈為人用者。愚謂大計宜徙備置吳，盛為築宮室，多其美女玩好，以娛其耳目，分此二人，各置一方，使如瑜者得挾與攻戰，大事可定也。今猥割土地以資業之，聚此三人，俱在疆埸，恐蛟龍得雲雨，終非池中物也。」權以曹公在北方，當廣攬英雄，又恐備難卒制，故不納。 　　是時劉璋為益州牧，外有張魯寇侵，瑜乃詣京見權日：「今曹操新折衄，方憂在腹心，未能與將軍連兵相事也。乞與奮威俱進取蜀，得蜀而并張魯，因留奮威固守其地，好與馬超結援。瑜還與將軍據襄陽以蹙操，北方可圖也。」權許之。瑜還江陵，為行裝，而道於巴丘病卒，〔一〕時年三十六。權素服舉哀，感動左右。喪當還吳，又迎之蕪湖，眾事費度，一為供給。後著令曰：「故將軍周瑜、程普，其有人客，皆不得問。」初瑜見友於策，太妃又使權以兄奉之。是時權位為將軍，諸將賓客為禮尚簡，而瑜獨先盡敬，便執臣節。性度恢廓，大率為得人，惟與程普不睦。〔二〕 　　〔一〕　臣松之案，瑜欲取蜀，還江陵治嚴，所卒之處，應在今之巴陵，與前所鎮巴丘，名同處異也。 　　〔二〕　江表傳曰：普頗以年長，數陵侮瑜。瑜折節容下，終不與校。普後自敬服而親重之，乃告人曰：「與周公瑾交，若飲醇醪，不覺自醉。」時人以其謙讓服人如此。初曹公聞瑜年少有美才，謂可游說動也，乃密下揚州，遣九江蔣幹往見瑜。幹有儀容，以才辯見稱，獨步江、淮之間，莫與為對。乃布衣葛巾，自託私行詣瑜。瑜出迎之，立謂幹曰：「子翼良苦，遠涉江湖為曹氏作說客邪？」幹曰：「吾與足下州里，中間別隔，遙聞芳烈，故來敘闊，并觀雅規，而云說客，無乃逆詐乎？」瑜曰：「吾雖不及夔、曠，聞弦賞音，足知雅曲也。」因延幹入，為設酒食。畢，遣之曰：「適吾有密事，且出就館，事了，別自相請。」後三日，瑜請幹與周觀營中，行視倉庫軍資器仗訖，還宴飲，示之侍者服飾珍玩之物，因謂幹曰：「丈夫處世，遇知己之主，外託君臣之義，內結骨肉之恩，言行計從，禍福共之，假使蘇張更生，酈叟復出，猶撫其背而折其辭，豈足下幼生所能移乎？」幹但笑，終無所言。幹還，稱瑜雅量高致，非言辭所閒。中州之士，亦以此多之。劉備之自京還也，權乘飛雲大船，與張昭、秦松、魯肅等十餘人共追送之，大宴會敘別。昭、肅等先出，權獨與備留語，因言次，歎瑜曰：「公瑾文武籌略，萬人之英，顧其器量廣大，恐不久為人臣耳。」瑜之破魏軍也，曹公曰：「孤不羞走。」後書與權曰：「赤壁之役，值有疾病，孤燒船自退，橫使周瑜虛獲此名。」瑜威聲遠著，故曹公、劉備咸欲疑譖之。及卒，權流涕曰：「公瑾有王佐之資，今忽短命，孤何賴哉！」後權稱尊號，謂公卿曰：「孤非周公瑾，不帝矣。」 　　瑜少精意於音樂，雖三爵之後，其有闕誤，瑜必知之，知之必顧，故時人謠曰：「曲有誤，周郎顧。」 　　瑜兩男一女。女配太子登。男循尚公主，拜騎都尉，有瑜風，早卒。循弟胤，初拜興業都尉，妻以宗女，授兵千人，屯公安。黃龍元年，封都鄉侯，後以罪徒廬陵郡。赤烏二年，諸葛瑾、步騭連名上疏曰：「故將軍周瑜子胤，昔蒙粉飾，受封為將，不能養之以福，思立功效，至縱情Q欲Y，招速罪辟。臣竊以瑜昔見寵任，入作心膂，出為爪牙，銜命出征，身當矢石，盡節用命，視死如歸，故能摧曹操於烏林，走曹仁於郢都，揚國威德，華夏是震，蠢爾蠻荊，莫不賓服，雖周之方叔，漢之信、布，誠無以尚也。夫折衝扞難之臣，自古帝王莫不貴重，故漢高帝封爵之誓曰『使黃河如帶，太山如礪，國以永存，爰及苗裔』；申以丹書，重以盟詛，藏于宗廟，傳於無窮，欲使功臣之後，世世相踵，非徒子孫，乃關苗裔，報德明功，勤勤懇懇，如此之至，欲以勸戒後人，用命之臣，死而無悔也。況於瑜身沒未久，而其子胤降為匹夫，益可悼傷。竊惟陛下欽明稽古，隆於興繼，為胤歸訴，乞匄餘罪，還兵復爵，使失旦之雞，復得一鳴，抱罪之臣，展其後效。」權答曰：「腹心舊勳，與孤協事，公瑾有之，誠所不忘。昔胤年少，初無功勞，橫受精兵，爵以侯將，蓋念公瑾以及於胤也。而胤恃此，酗淫自恣，前後告喻，曾無悛改。孤於公瑾，義猶二君，樂胤成就，豈有已哉？迫胤罪惡，未宜便還，且欲苦之，使自知耳。今二君勤勤援引漢高河山之誓，孤用恧然。雖德非其疇，猶欲庶幾，事亦如爾，故未順旨。以公瑾之子，而二君在中間，苟使能改，亦何患乎！」瑾、騭表比上，朱然及全琮亦俱陳乞，權乃許之。會胤病死。 　　瑜兄子峻，亦以瑜元功為偏將軍，領吏士千人。峻卒，全琮表峻子護為將。權曰：「昔走曹操，拓有荊州，皆是公瑾，常不忘之。初聞峻亡，仍欲用護，聞護性行危險，用之適為作禍，故便止之。孤念公瑾，豈有已乎？」

[wwwnewunificationchurchcom]

(via The Legacy and Unfinished Work of Tossa Cromwell; restoring the Three Great Errors of Sun Myung Moon's book 'Divine Principle')

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........................The ADVENT OF MAITREYA......................................

The Tragic Story of How Reverend Moon was allowed to have failed his Test and Fall from his Position, by not being able to read the Message from the Messenger of my Father Jesus in 1988: and be saved.

To have listened to the Chastisement, and been given Healing in the Church of Laodecia ( the 7th Church of Revelation represents the “Sufic Branch” of the True Vine: the Unification Church..) the Word from the Messenger sent by his Angel, from my Father Jesus: that I wrote down as His Scribe and then sent to Jonathan Gullery, in a 144 page letter.

This was in 1988.

But this was so Rev. Moon could have become the Messiah; but decided to make the mistake I once made; he gained the world; but lost his soul; which I also once did, long ago, before I was raised at the Last Day.

Rev. Moon was first to have restored John the Baptist as in the position of Elijah; the position he left when he married; where I now stand: the bride; as his own Soul. Even he admitted that the soul of the Messenger stands surrogate for the Bride until he brings the Kingdom of the people to the Messiah, as that Bride of which David once said at his Coronation

“…Now this is flesh of my flesh; and bone of my bone“, when being given Dominion over the United Kingdom of Israel.

But the Rich Man cannot enter this kingdom; thus in the story of my Return there is a Party in the House; and Rev. Moon; as the elder brother; stands outside; and is angry; and will not come in.

If Chivalry was dead there would be no New Hope for this World

...........................................The Three Great Gifts

The Three Great Gifts are from they who are His servants, held for me by Sufis, and all new; the Best Robe; now as of being the Bride; the Best Robe is “the Robe of Righteousness with the Golden Girdle of Eternal Chastity“; and the Ring back on my finger is “the Wedding Ring of Perfect Peace of the Holy Marriage; as a “Priest Forever after the Order of Melchizedek”.

And the Shoes are of the “Two Doves of the Seal of the Pahana“; the Seal of the Living God; the Sign of the Pahana; the Blue Star of the Hopi is the Morning Star of the Mustard Seed as the Sign of the Coming of the Son of man. the least of all seeds; as of the Face of the Blue Kachina Dancer; the littlest seed; which expanded One Million Times in size: in One Day: the Sun of Regeneration.

One Million for the One Million Armenians killed in Turkey; in sight of Mt. Ararat

…Islam then no longer loyal in the Cain position; but now;

as when Cain killed Abel…

Comet Holmes as the Morning Star orbited the Sun every 7 years; the cycle of Regeneration; where every cell in the human body was originally created to do; as every cell “new” being replaced every 7 years would give our lives almost infinite duration. Time would mean nothing to us because we would not age.

But due to the Fall our Cycle of Regeneration begins to fail around the age of thirty; and we start to die.

But that is with the Old Sun. With a New, Living Sun; the Cycle Returns; what my Father Jesus called: “The Regeneration”.

That is the Day in which the Son of Man is Now Revealed.

That Day on October 24th, 2007, was my “Death in Christ“. But Comet Holmes represents the “Morning Star” I was given, which began the “Regeneration“.

The "Death in Christ"; October 24th; 2007: Comet Holmes expands one Million Times; the Mustard seed; becomes a full grown mustard tree: in One Day. This is the Blue Star of the Hopi: this is the Morning Star I was given by my Father Jesus.

The “Death in Christ”; October 24th; 2007: Comet Holmes expands one Million Times; the Mustard seed; becomes a full grown mustard tree: in One Day. 

This is the Blue Star of the Hopi: this is the Morning Star I was given by my Father Jesus.

This is what shall occur when I am in the House; celebrating; and the Music is the Song of the Lamb; and the Dancing is the Steps on the Path of the Just that accompany it. This is all written in the Book of Life of the Lamb; of course.

I return as the Beloved; the Bride; and my Lover is the Holy Spirit the Comforter; my Husband; thus Rev. Moon had it reversed; with a “female” holy spirit; and a man; Rev. Moon.

But in the Holy Spirit of Truth; as the 7th of the 7 Spirits of God He sent to the earth in the Comforter I can say my instruction and Marriage is exactly the Opposite: I am female by Virtue of my Soul; which is female; as Adam’s was before he was separated into two. Thus Internally I am the Bride in the Flesh, as the Lake of Fire; and the Holy Spirit is my Husband; Christ Jesus the Last. And Externally I am the Bridegroom; in the Spirit.

This is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb; in the which they eat; and become One Flesh; that is why the Bride  as the Lake of Fire and the Bridegroom as the Sun of Righteousness become “Jehovah Our Righteousness“, as “one flesh”, called the Second Death. This is seen in Jeremiah…\

Pope John Paul II and the New Image of God in Christ Jesus

The Second Death as the Sun of Righteousness

As I, who was once Solomon, the Prodigal Son of David, had sold myself to the Devil; to become Apollo; the last of the gods; I became the leading influence on the 20th and 21st centuries as the ruling ‘sun god’ of Olympus: the of all Science.

As god of the sun I then was Icarus; who fell; to David, my father; who as Daedalus; never fell; as his heart was perfect before God.

Jonathan Gullery never passed the 144 pages onto Rev. Moon; so he never was told the strange news of the Visitation of the Angel and the Vow of the Child, who as Salvation Rose indeed rose, ‘up from the Street’; with the Key of David: revealed now as the Divine Principle embodied in the Cross of Christ the Lamb died on and thus died ‘for‘.

That the Lamb died for a Principle he considered more important than his own life is strangely unknown to most; yet it is then self-evident to all of the Spirit that it was by this same Divine Principle that he was then brought back to life; and now the unknown must became known that my Father rose with his bones intact and in the flesh with a new face; as Mercy cannot be killed; nor True Love ever die…but the face that John and Peter and James saw my Father Jesus’s change to on the Mount of Transfiguration ( that is called Mount Sion )  was that one he came out of the Tomb with after his body’s Resurrection; but his face at it’s Regeneration; the face of David; for the baptism of the Messiah the Prince Jesus to his death in the Jordan was the Resurrection unto life for David the King of Kings in that spiritual Euphrates; who then walked in the Kingdom, as Adam did in Paradise.

This is the untold story of why Mary Magdelene did not recognize him when she first saw him; seeing him by the Tomb at first he looked so different to her who had known him for years that she thought it was the gardener…..and this is why the Apostle’s had such a hard time with my Father Jesus in that 40 Days he walked with them before he returned from the Mount of Olives; his body was that of Jesus, wounds with the scars and all; but the face was now that of David.

How do I say these things?

I am rise first from the  death in Christ as that one reborn: as Solomon, the Prodigal Son of David returned from the Dead; having risen first at the Resurrection of the Just in my Death in Christ: October 24th, 2007, as the Child of the Resurrection formerly called Christopher Witt Diamant; the black sheep of the House of David; formerly also known as: the Preacher.

…..but to Islam I am the Dabbat al-ard of Sura 27:82; the ant who was given wings and flew too close to the sun; who the gods called Icarus; as they called David by the name of Daedalus…amongst many other names….

……….but Solomon is but my shadow upon the ground; I arose as “The Beloved of Jah” in the name Nathan the prophet of David named me; Jedidiah; so now am I a Priest forever; after the Order of Melchizedek; the Bride of the Altar; the Lamb’s Wife as ‘a throne of glory to my Father’s House’…

Jonathan Gullery as Editor of the HSA-UWC should have told Rev. Moon I had obviously been sent by God to bring Rev. Moon a message from our Father Jesus. But Rev. Moon calls himself “Father” and believes he is Christ and God on earth. The truth is very much different than what he believes: because as the “evil servant” of Matthew 24:48 Rev. Moon is now just the dead body of Lucifer. A dead man” walking…soon to die….. Worshipping the Graven Image: the Abomination that makes Desolate

“……By Rev. Moon ignoring the 430 years of slavery for the Red and especially the Black Race in the West from 1492 / 1500 ( when Columbus returned wit the Armada is when the genocide actually “began”), thus Moon seems to have had a certain jealousy seen revealed toward Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and Rev. Moon was of those Koreans who wanted to reach the status of our “third Israel” by “walking over” the bodies of those who died, the Black Christian Race, and the White Youth who joined Dr. King; marching with them, thus setting up the Foundation of Salvation here in the US, as the Third Israel.

That Rev. Moon never walked with Servant King or listened to the Voice of Prince Aaron with real understanding shows how far he was from the heart of the Providence revealed by God in the US as the uniting of the 2 races was to become the pattern by which every race and people and tongue on earth were to be Unified on the substantial Foundation of Salvation set up after the 430 years and the 3 Days Separation......... seen at Beth-El/Woodstock...... at the Internal Exodus having begun for the Internal Course; Israel walking the External Course seen in the 6 Days War against Egypt militarily or 144 hours in 1967 when San Francisco became New Mecca as our New Jerusalem, at the Pilgrimage at 1967’s Summer of Love against Egypt spiritually; which happened when Israel broke the yoke of Mecca off the shoulder of Jerusalem.

The City of St. Francis immediately became Mecca instead; showing the Times of the Gentiles had arrived.

With the election of Barack Hussein Obama it was seen the Third Israel had successfully “taken Egypt from within” in the Restoration at the Global level; which should have been a cause for univeral celebration by Rev. Moon and the Unification Church: but all we heard was a stunned silence: which still speaks volumes about their real designs on the kingdom and their motives and ways of trying to Steal what belonged to someone else; namely Barack in the position of our David at the Global level.

Rev. Moon did realize the 430 period at the End; but he did this by choosing the year 1517 instead of the 1492 when Christopher rediscovered the New World; yet 1517 is pretty close; since 430 years after 1517 and the Reformation of Martin Luther we did get Martin Luther King at age 18 in 1947 when Israel was regathered.

But strangely he never saw the relation of 1517 and the 400 years plus the 30 which brought us from Martin Luther at Wittenberg to Martin Luther King as our Moses in the Internal Restoration: yet that sign was set up so even he couldn’t miss it: but he stubbornly ignored it…..

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The Year: 1917 at Fatima: with the Three Children of the Lamb; He who holds the Key of David bears the Cross of Christ and at Russia with the False Prophet: Karl Marx ______________________________________________________________

And it must be seen as true that 400 years after 1517 we have 1917; when the 3 Children of Fatimah and the Sun of Mary of Fatimah were “the Signs and wonders” for the start of the Providence: in the Third Course of Restoration into Canaan on the Global Level; and 1917 when the False Prophet Karl Marx and his “magnified image” of Marxism took over Russia; seen in the fact that 70 years later the Wall fell. It fell at Reagan's speech in 1987;

……..spiritually; of course. 1,000 years after 987 when Russia first converted. _______________________________________________________________

The beast out of the earth in Revelation is, of course, Karl Marx the False Prophet; having the two horns of Socialism and Communisn and “speaking as a dragon” the doctrine of Atheism; just as the Axis was the beast from the sea of time where Daniel saw the 3 go in at Daniel 7:12; they came out in 1935 as “one” when the Angel of Christ was talking to Sun Myung Moon on 4-18-1935 on that Korean hillside.: 4-18; our time; when Sister Princess Faustina was praying…in Poland. Our Apostle of Mercy.

That the Wall of Babylon fell after the 930 years from 987 when Russia was converted to 1917 when it was taken over by the False Prophet is unknown. Yet when Russia was converted in 987 it was the “number” of 930 years after this date that shows Russia as having “died the death of Adam” who also died at the age of 930 years of age.

Here it was John of Patmos who did indeed show that the 70 years after 1917: 930 years after it converted was that which completed the “1,000 years” as after which the “devil” was then loosed for his last short season on earth. The 930 years represented the “death of Adam” at the Global level in 1917; just as in The City of Fatima at Portugal in 1917 was the “Rebirth of the Second Adam”, at the Global level, when the Sun of Righteousness came down upon the earth. That was the lamb AT THE Cosmic Level as the bridegroom of Maryam al Kubra: the Greater Mary of Fatima: the bride. _____________________________________________________________

Furthermore it was with the 70 years of Russia’s Babylonian Captivity in the East that came to an end along with the 430 years in the West of the Red Races Slavery; the 430 years in the South for the Black Christian Races slavery; and the 210 years of Suffering of the White Christian race in the North in it’s battle to end Slavery and it’s attendant racism; the dark shadow of Egypt upon the land.

________________________________________________ This Pattern of Fate in it’s relationship to the Design of Providence can be clearly seen, after the Global Wall of Seperation that was centered in the National Wall of Jericho in the Foundation of “the 1,000 year Reich” and the Gates of Hell as those of the deaths of the Kaiser as the “eldest son” and Hitler as the “youngest” who died there were destroyed.

There is little doubt that the Kaiser and Hitler represented the eldest and youngest sons mentioned in the Curse of Jericho by Joshua that fell upon Germany’s Capital for the Kingdom of Satan that set Germany and Italy and Japan as the Beast of the Axis on the Global Level that John describes coming out of the Sea of Time at chapter 13.

This Jericho was magnified to the Global Wall of Babylon by Stalin who had set up Berlin at the Blockade and afterwards as the Iron Curtain between “east and west” that substantially embodied the Euphrates as the “barrier” between “east and west” that had been of Old as that keeping Man out of Paradise; or in this case; a unified world under Christ.

Because of the Song of the Lamb that I copywrote in the Library of Congress here in America I alone have title to this ‘Song of the Lamb’ seen in the Revelation; but the music that Hyo Jin Moon was to have written could not be done without the state of Virginity being recaptured as the restoration of the son of Adam able to hear the Voice of God; which is Gabriel; the messenger of Michael.

This is what my Father Jesus made sure I did when I took that Vow; and kept it in New Hope after that 21 year course of Jacob in which I restored the entire Foundation of Faith; the Foundation of Substance; and then set up with the Word of God the Foundation to Receive the Messiah; as Maitreya in the position of the White Horse as the Lord of the Second Advent.

And this is now at last getting plainer to see for all; minute by minute; for Rev. Moon is now going to take the Fall: entirely, in the position of the body of Lucifer.

Oh…and the error of the Unification Church about the “7 Seals” is as follows:

The 7 Seals are NOT about the 7 levels of the Providence of Restoration….Rev. Moon evidently confused that with the “7 Sealed Thunders” which my servant John was told to “write not”…as this was Rev. Moon’s POR to reveal…and he did….citing the “7 failures” in each of the 7 levels of the Providence, beginning with the first sealed thunder of the DP unsealed at Adam,…and then later saying my Father Jesus was the 6th failure…in the 6th sealed thunder, whose voice is seen and heard unsealed in the DP…but the 7th failure, at the Cosmic or Universal level of “heaven and earth”, which comprises the Kingdom: is Moon’s own failure…Normally Lucifer could then claim Victory; and say he had beaten God, and now owned the entire Creation: by right of combat.

But I ruined that particular strategy: as the arrival in 1986 of my servant John, from my Father Jesus, and the Vow I made that day,  and then 21 years later when my Sacrifice was accepted, was the Providential Cause and  reason, of thus restoring the fall of Rev. Moon in the position of the dead body of John the Baptist…which it was…when alive, itself.

Rev. Moon, like John, had lost his “head”, just as John had also “lost” his head: and long before it was removed from his body….

…..But I restored that, with my Sacrifice accepted on the Altar of God and the Lamb…in my 21 year course of Jacob to restore Moon’s leaving his position……with the Vow of Eternal Chastity which culminated in my death in Christ, October 24th, 2007, 21 years after I made my vow, and came to New Hope in 1986…The 7 Seals are actually 7 Decades, starting in 1910, at the first seal, 1920, at the second seal, and so on, all the way to the 7th seal in 1970. The trumpets go off every 7th year in the Seals, the first trumpet in 1917, the second in 1927, the third in 1937…all the way to 1977…when our Aaron, Aaron Presley, died, in Memphis, at the age of 42, as also where our Moses., Dr. King also died…in the only city in America named after the Capital of ancient Egypt, where met the “Seal” as the “City of Destruction” as of the Two Kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt,,,where the two Witnesses died…”Elvis” was the “golden calf” himself…of course…the Golden Idol of Hollywood Babylon….was his “Gold Cadillac” which people used to pay five dollars just to see and touch when he sent it out “on tour”….

What a Hell of a Shame!

But the term “Hell-bent: has the very meaning of what is now seen by those who finally left the Unification Church amid grave doubts about Rev. Moon’s adulterous affairs that he claims his wife agrees were part of the Providence of God.

Nansook Hong believes differently; and so does everyone else with a shred of intellect.

[thestreamofconsciousness777]

The decoration of one’s ornament—one has set it as reason for pride; and their detestable images, their disgusting things, they have made with it. That is why I will make it to them an abhorrent thing...

“SAY to YOUR brothers, ‘My people!’ and to YOUR sisters, ‘O woman shown mercy!’ Carry on a legal case with YOUR mother; carry on a legal case, for she is not my wife and I am not her husband. And she should put away her fornication from before herself and her acts of adultery from between her breasts, that I may not strip her naked and actually place her as in the day of her being born, and actually set her like a wilderness and place her like a waterless land and put her to death with thirst. And to her sons I shall not show mercy, for they are the sons of fornication. For their mother has committed fornication. She that was pregnant with them has acted shamefully, for she has said, ‘I want to go after those passionately loving me, those giving my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.’

“Therefore here I am hedging your way about with thorns; and I will heap up a stone wall against her, so that her own roadways she will not find. And she will actually chase after her passionate lovers, but she will not overtake them; and she will certainly look for them, but she will not find [them]. And she will have to say, ‘I want to go and return to my husband, the first one, for I had it better at that time than now.’ But she herself did not recognize that it was I who had given to her the grain and the sweet wine and the oil, and that I had made silver itself abound for her, and gold, [which] they made use of for Ba’al.

“’Therefore I shall turn back and certainly take away my grain in its time and my sweet wine in its season, and I will snatch away my wool and my linen for covering her nakedness. And now I shall uncover her private parts to the eyes of her passionate lovers, and there will be no man to snatch her out of my hand. And I shall certainly cause all her exultation, her festival, her new moon and her sabbath and her every festal season to cease. And I will lay desolate her vine and her fig tree, of which she has said: “They are a gift to me, which my passionate lovers have given to me”; and I will set them as a forest, and the wild beast of the field will certainly devour them. And I will hold an accounting against her for the days of the Ba’al images to which she kept making sacrificial smoke, when she kept decking herself with her ring and her ornament and kept going after her passionate lovers, and I was the one that she forgot,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.

“’Therefore here I am prevailing upon her, and I will cause her to go into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart. And I will give her her vineyards from then onward, and the low plain of A’chor as an entrance to hope; and she will certainly answer there as in the days of her youth and as in the day of her coming up out of the land of Egypt. And it must occur in that day,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘that you will call [me] My husband, and you will no longer call me My owner.’

“’And I will remove the names of the Ba’al images from her mouth, and they will no longer be remembered by their name. And for them I shall certainly conclude a covenant in that day in connection with the wild beast of the field and with the flying creature of the heavens and the creeping thing of the ground, and the bow and the sword and war I shall break out of the land, and I will make them lie down in security. And I will engage you to me for time indefinite, and I will engage you to me in righteousness and in justice and in loving-kindness and in mercies. And I will engage you to me in faithfulness; and you will certainly know Jehovah.’

“’And it must occur in that day that I shall answer,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘I shall answer the heavens, and they, for their part, will answer the earth; and the earth, for its part, will answer the grain and the sweet wine and the oil; and they, for their part, will answer Jez’re·el [’God will sow seed’]. And I shall certainly sow her like seed for me in the earth, and I will show mercy to her who was not shown mercy, and I will say to those not my people: “You are my people”; and they, for their part, will say: “[You are] my God.”’”

-Hosea 2, NWT

ALWAYS A DIRTY WORD: What’s Wrong With the PASSION “Translation”?

center picture source: (JJ Brine)

[ngce]

Not Safe, But Good

The Men We Desperately Need Today

Article by Greg Morse

Staff writer, desiringGod.org

I can still remember being startled by the thought: Jesus doesn’t seem very nice.

Unquestionably compassionate, gracious, and patient, Jesus also said and did things that, as I read through Mark, surprised me. The kind of things that today would get him trolled on Twitter and flagged on Facebook.

It was then that I began to think that if Jesus was not “nice,” if he — the one to whom all Christian women also look (2 Corinthians 3:18), and yet, the epitome of a godly man — did not fit within my vision for manhood, then it, not he, needed to change. The more I considered him — the more I considered the long lineage of godly men in the Scriptures — the more I stood confronted: Could these fit within my current conceptions of masculinity?

What about your conception? When you consider a good Christian husband, an upstanding churchman, a godly man, what qualities come to mind?

Traits such as generous, thoughtful, agreeable? Is this man slow to impose, quick to listen, ready to sympathize? Does he speak gently and serve graciously? Does he routinely defer to others’ preferences? Something about this ideal seems unquestionably right — but if this tender side is all, it also should strike us as uncomfortably wrong.

Godly men will indeed emanate compassion, humility, service, and love. This is true. But is this the whole truth? Has the ideal of manhood in the modern church become just a gentle shadow of what God made it to be?

Not Safe, but Good

When we teach about masculinity, do qualities like strength, initiative, zeal, and courage make our list? When we assess men for church office, and when we look for small group leaders and godly mentors, do we commend men who would make good shepherds — industrious, passionate, resilient men, able to corral sheep and willing to combat wolves?

Do we celebrate male strength, courage, zeal, and initiative because we know these are required in order to guard, protect, subdue, and lead? Such men of God who are gentle exactly because they are first strong? Men like Gandalf, who, after exuding his strength of presence, could then softly say to Bilbo, “I am not trying to rob you. I am trying to help you.” A tiger, not a kitten, can exhibit gentleness because he is first strong.

Endangered is that species of lionhearted masculinity that bears Aslan’s description: “not safe, but good.” Our present ideals, like the ones I once held, do not require goodness to make men safe, because they ensure that men are safe regardless of goodness. The man reborn in this image says nothing uncomfortable, rallies no charge, and shows little, if any, initiative. He is goaded to be convictionless, passionless, perhaps even Christless, if but subdued.

But such is not the vision of he who made man. Instead of blunting his sharp edges, God has a different solution for creating good men: rebirth, looking to Christ, and training in righteousness. Godliness must balance his natural perils. He achieves mature manhood through adding the fruit of the Spirit, not subtracting his God-designed nature. Kindness, self-control, compassion flavor his strength, courage, determination — not eclipse them.

Where Have the Men Gone?

Such men — gentle and strong — present a paradox to the world. His hands build up his household, wrestle with his boys, sip tea with his daughters, and grip the hilt of his Sword against the agents of darkness (Ephesians 6:10–20). He is a godly warrior who sleeps in his armor — fierce and meek and good wherever he finds himself. The description can, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, be redeemed: “Thou wert the meekest man that ever ate in hall among ladies; and thou wert the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever put spear in the rest” (Le Morte D’Arthur).

We err when we divide the two: brutal on the one hand, soft on the other. While our society increasingly chooses the latter, some wonder: Where have all the men gone?

We can read, as of an alien species, about men who “through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight” (Hebrews 11:33–34). Men who actively sought for glory, honor, and immortality. Men of faith who hoped for a better country than the one they had. Men who risked much, lost much, and gained more. Men who lived by faith in the living God.

Lukewarm religion, let’s never forget, makes for lukewarm masculinity. And lukewarm masculinity allows too many men to pass by church doors in favor of Islam, Jordan Peterson, or simply ESPN on the road to destruction.

Dying Flame of Masculinity

As I surveyed the lineage of godly men, I honestly wondered how many saints of old would feel discomfort with the feminization, not only of our society, but also in some of our churches.

Would we emasculate men of old? Would we not chide Abraham for wandering, Jacob for wrestling, Joshua for fighting, Elijah for mocking, Noah for madness, Job for arrogance, Daniel for incivility, Nehemiah for violence, Nathan for high-handedness, John the Baptist for name-calling, Paul for divisiveness, and the Son of God for brandishing a whip and turning over tables in the temple?

Have we chosen the conveniences of niceness over the discomforts of godliness? I fear someday lying comfortably beneath the inscription, “Here lies a father, husband, churchgoer — just a really nice guy.”

“Nice” says nothing of spine, of edge, of valor, and thus it can say little of righteousness or purpose. Nice requires no courage, no conviction, and no willingness to make enemies with the wicked. Jesus warns against such palatability: “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26).

Now, we may be tempted, where we have swerved off the road, to overcorrect the error. This would lead us into the other ditch of parasitic strength. Such abominations endure in our day, in all their cruelty, abuse, and cowardice. We must not exchange “good, but not strong” for “strong, but not good.” We cannot charge forth in the flesh instead of being led by the Spirit. We must not settle with feeling like men in our own strength; we must become better men through divine power and self-sacrifice.

Men Set Ablaze

One step on the road to recovery is to reemphasize that unnerving trait of many men of old: godly jealousy. We must reclaim the pulse and convictions of a godly man, not just his actions.

Our God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5). He will not share his glory, or bride, with another. And he fashions men who increasingly burn with his own righteous jealousy. These men, ablaze with zeal for the glory of God, for the health of the church, and for the souls of the lost, will, in certain circumstances, erupt to shatter the status quo. Zeal for the glory of God — not cultural civility or secular sensitivity — is the proper harness for biblical manhood. Godly jealousy makes good men dangerous — to the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Consider Moses, the meekest man on the earth (Numbers 12:3). Enraged by his people’s idolatry to break God’s tablets, he melted their golden calf, and made them drink it (Exodus 32:20). His love for his people and God’s glory acted resolutely against their idolatry.

Consider David, the poetry-writing shepherd-boy who could not simply stand by and watch an uncircumcised Philistine defy the armies of the living God — no matter how menacing he stood (1 Samuel 17:26). He could not listen quietly while his God’s name was defamed.

Consider Phinehas, an African whose name meant “the Negro.” Jealous with God’s jealousy, he turned away God’s wrath by impaling two high-handed sinners in the climax of their romance (Numbers 25:6–13).

Consider Elijah, a man tormented by the unbelief of Israel. He called a public showdown with the prophets of Baal and mocked them for hours (1 Kings 18:20–40). He longed for the people to know the true God and follow him alone.

Consider Paul, a former persecutor of the church who sat provoked as he saw the city full of idol-worship instead of Jesus-worship, and publicly lifted up his voice to challenge the great philosophers and rulers of Athens (Acts 17:16). He lived for kingdom business while many laughed at, opposed, and beat him.

All the King’s Men

Consider Jesus Christ, who grabbed whips, named names, and promised to return with weapons drawn. He is the Lion of Judah who knelt down and played with children (Mark 10:14). And the Lamb from whom men shall run, unsuccessfully begging mountains to crush them rather than face his wrath (Revelation 6:16).

He destroyed “arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5), crushed the dragon’s skull, and yet did not break a bruised reed (Isaiah 42:3). And he went to Calvary, not because niceness led him outside the camp to die among thieves and garbage, but because he burned with a passion for his bride, his Father’s name, and his own glory (John 17:4; Romans 3:25–26; 1 Peter 3:18).

Spurgeon’s last words in the pulpit portray the proper ideal:

[Jesus] is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was his like among the choicest of princes. He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold he always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders. If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yes lavish and super abundant in love, you always find it in him. (Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers, 288)

The King’s men will be found, with Christ, in the thickest parts of the battle. They will eschew wasting their lives venturing nothing, growing warm for nothing, exercising no initiative, taking no stands, building no fortitude of faith, engaging in no spiritual battle, carrying no burdens, planting no flags on unconquered hilltops. The men of this King, for the very reason that they despise playing with foam swords against the forces of evil, create the safest culture for their women and children. Dangerous men under God, holding one another accountable, will not stand idly by as the bears maul those they should rather protect and nourish.

Meek and fierce. Tough and tender. Leaders and servants. Not safe, but good.

Men like Jesus.