#a powerful being that people say is a god but turns out they enslave those who dont know better and punish those who stray only for a

[dodecademons]

Sorry not sorry I watched Warrior Nun again. William Miller being so active with the fans and what not got me thinking about Adriel again. Becaaaause was he the villain we thought he was? Sure he was tricking people into getting possessed by wraiths. Sure he killed some people. He is bad. Fact. Morally grey man. But he was enslaved (pretty sure he mentioned that) and kinda had to serve Reya without a choice. It isn't heaven or hell, it's some third thing. Reya though, had a child get transported into her land, saw the divinium in him and decided to make him a walking bomb. Trained him so he could take punches, not necessarily fight back, (as seen per Ava and Beatrice intervening, he can fight but he needs help) and told him the only way to win was to sacrifice himself. Also told him, and Ava, that the only way to end Adriel was to sacrifice themselves and there was no other way. Idk sounds pretty convenient to me. Three powerful beings carrying some sort of power from the other dimension (world?) and Reya's only goal is to get rid of Adriel and the only way to do that is full charge sacrifice two people who also have power from that world? Turns out it didn't work, so Reya was wrong anyway. Reya also kind of just stood and watched as Ava was fighting to defeat Adriel and once she realized the divinum bomb didnt work, one down, and the tarasks did their job, two down, Reya was like "as a treat you can have your dying breaths be with your gf" because she knew Ava couldnt heal from the divinium shards, three down. IDK REYA YOU SURE DO ACT PRETTY HUMAN HUH, all this "Reya is so powerful, she is everything" talk and she sure didn't do all that much except manipulate some people huh. I mean, Adriel got away, he almost won. Just saying.

[chillwildwave]

The Wishing Kingdom: Prologue.

@annymation @uva124 @signed-sapphire @wings-of-sapphire @thisnameisnotspokenfor @mythartist21 @mafik-sun @lunellasflo @rascalentertainments @frogcoven88 @kstarsarts @oh-shtars @spectator-zee @emillyverse @gracebethartacc @gracebeth3604 @galacticstarslove17 @tumblingdownthefoxden @rylxdreams

(We hear the Disney intro with 100 at first but then we pan over to the Walt Disney Castle where a storybook titled “The Wishing Kingdom” is seen being laid on a desk, while we hear a choir harmonising, we hear a voice that is remiscent of an Golden Age male narrator.)

Once upon a time, there was a sky, so blank and so bare, even clouds covered its dread, what remained was a dark pit of nothingness.

It stayed like this until those clouds danced around the sky which caused cosmic dust to glide on by, it is said that when two elements are combined, you would get one of the most brightest creatures ever seen in the universe, responsible for looming over humans over the sky, day and night, providing every need that they offered.

So much so that the star god, Xanthos used his powers to create a habitat for all the stars, the kingdom of Starfell, where these creatures would live peacefully and decide in which star would grant wishes to their people…

Down the mist of the ever-so vivid Starfell, came the land of humans where they believed so much in the wishes that the stars held that they would hold a tradition, where their wishes would be written on a single strand of ribbons and wrapped around the branch of the first existing wishing tree…

(Little Asha interrupts the story as soon as her dad says “wishing tree.”)

“You mean the one we are on at the moment?” She enthusiastically questioned as she wiggled her legs, begging for her dad to answer.

“Yes, dear, now let me finish the story cause I’ve got more to tell.” Her dad replies when he turns another page on the book.

Even though some wishes were granted by the stars themselves, there were a few that were too controllable to grant, this happened with two specific people, a prince and a princess, held a wish in their hearts, trying to call the power of the stars to make them come true, however, the stars kept their powers shut after they found out about that wish, they thought that it would be too dangerous as it was said that if any dangerous wish was granted, it would release a dark void that would not only destroy Starfell, but also the entire humanity of Earth.

The couple tried to beg for their wish many times, not even days and weeks, but for years, until the stars decided not to grant it due to how much danger it could possess on causing destruction on the universe.

Even with their wishes in their hearts, they decided to head to a cabin where each book held a spell that would grant them magic, not just magic, but magic so powerful, it is almost impossible to avoid, so they scrummaged all the books from the shelf until the prince found one where he took deep breaths and summoned the old and powerful forces…

Magic, rare and strong,

Give me what I deserve,

Feed that feisty song,

And let the wind dissolve,

The wind dissolve.

(As he says that, he closes his eyes as we see Green effects swirling around the couple, the Princess holds onto him as he says the spell, it takes a long time until they are relieved that they had so much power from the one spell now.)

And with all this power they held, it was then that people believed that they were responsible for granting the wishes, as if they had the same power as the stars.

So it was there where they found an island on the Mediterranean Sea where the Kingdom of Rosas was established, with a hidden hamlet where the enslaved, scrubbed, cleaned and guarded their land until their chains were broken.

(We then go back to little Asha with her head next to her father.)

“You mean, that where we live, what is the cost of freedom if you can’t buy it her in this kingdom?” The little girl raised to question, her inquisitiveness kept flowing.

“I don’t know what the cost is, but it is part of what the king and queen say for their people.” Her dad replied with a solemn look on his face, he looks up to the stars while he touched his wish on a ribbon.

“Asha, there’s something I would like to tell you, look. You see these stars, right above us, legend says that these are used to believe us that with a wish, comes a dream.” (The screen then goes to the stars, the brightest one illuminating in the night as Asha’s dad speaks.)

“And when you have those, all you have to do is to keep believing, and when you have that dream, if you want to achieve something, you need to have the courage to get what you want.”

“What happens if…” She took her time to come up with another question, although she knew that it was negative, no matter what, she asked anyway. “I don’t work hard enough.”

“Well if you don’t, well, it doesn’t mean that your life is going to be entirely perfect, and if you don’t work hard, your goal will be much more complicated that it might seem.” (This causes her dad to look down at her notebook while Asha tries to get him to not look at it as she thinks he’s seen her swearing in her notes.)

“Dad, give me my notebook back!” She playfully teased him while still holding onto it.

(He still holds on to it as he reads her page while Asha slowly looks over it to see which page he is on.)

“It seems that you writing about what you want to achieve right at this very moment.” He giggles as he feels her embrace as she lays on his shoulder to look at the stars one more time before bed.

“Well, yeah and the start barely even begins with me, but tell me Dad, did you ever have a wish once, did the stars answer?” She spoke softly.

He doesn’t speak for a moment, his eyebrows causing a frown with his eyes looking up one more time. “Never, cause I’ve kept that wish for a very long time, for as long as I can remember, and since the king and queen became the new wish granters, I always knew that my wish should be worth keeping in my heart no matter what cost it had to get to me, and I believed in myself harder to the point where entered this area, with you and Sakina, and that wish, I wrote it on the ribbon and hung it on this branch of the tree, it is so special to me because it reminds me of that wish growing and growing as it lays on the branch, if it drives my heart, it’s possible that my dream would come…”

Silence… He just suffered something inside of him that the end is nearly near, there’s only silence, not much talking, Little Asha gets up and helps her Dad get up after he felt something but he fell back down causing her to carry him but it was no use, we also see Sakina running towards the tree after the commotion, as she runs to the tree, she sees her husband slowly dying while she stands next to Asha with tears running down her face, she also strokes her on the hair, gently.

Her dad continually coughs in agony, while Asha grabs his chest and tries to revive him. “No dad, you can’t, you said you would always be with me… You can’t!” Her voice is almost lost due to her pain.

The last words were spoken… “Asha… Sakina… Look at me, sometimes, not matter how old and young you are, the wishes will be dead if you don’t make it happen, there’s not a single thing like living forever to grant your wish, you shouldn’t have to live forever without that chance of wishing upon a star… Just, remember.”

He says after he closes his eyes, while he fades away to dust filled with sparkles setting their way to the sky, tearful Asha couldn’t even move after she tried to hug her mum because her hands were too shaky, despite that, her mum hugged her back as they watched the dust glide away, directing itself towards the cosmic sky of the stars…

And that’s the prologue for y’all, it would be nice if you give me your thoughts and also, I’m planning on doing an animatic to the same scene but who knows I could make some tiny adjustments to it as I go, here is my WIP animatic so far. There’s more to come.

[bestworstcase]

hi, found your post about Yang and Salem. Didn't know that she, out of all people in team rwby, is the one who foils Salem the most. Like she's the most normal member in team rwby.

Which led me thinking, Yang has a lot of parallels with the villains, notably, Adam, Cinder, and Salem. What do you think is the ideal route of Yang during volume 4?

well that’s the thing about salem, isn’t it? she wasn’t anyone special. her father was a lord in a world ruled by kings and queens, and he abused and isolated her so viciously that whatever notional privilege she might have had by virtue of noble birth was stripped away from her; after she and ozma murdered her father and escaped, she was a commoner. the raw magical power that sets her apart on remnant was commonplace then. there was nothing extraordinary about her at all.

but she was brave. passionate. determined. angry. she walked into the domain of gods and refused to flinch.

who does that sound like?

anyway, yang’s core allusion is goldilocks. too hot, too cold, too hard, too soft, just right. balance. compromise. scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one-sided and easily processed. rwby is a story about complexity and nuance. every dichotomy is false. yang is a good person—good to the bone—but she’s also strong-willed and not inclined to be forgiving. who would she have become if, say, ruby died on one of those occasions they were left home alone as children? what would it have done to her if she watched adam kill blake during the battle for beacon?

it took millions and millions of years for salem to break. she tried so hard not to become a monster. cinder bowed her head and endured years of torture because rhodes told her it was the right thing to do. before adam lost his way, he fought to protect others; the first time he killed, it was in defense of his leader.

the difference isn’t as simple as a choice to be good or bad. yang has always had ruby and now she has blake and weiss, too, and—bluntly, her trauma is of a lesser order of magnitude than her villainous foils. yang has endured a lot of suffering—parental abandonment, childhood neglect, the vytal tournament and the battle that followed, losing her arm, being left behind by her sister and friends—but she wasn’t enslaved and tortured as a child. she isn’t the sole survivor of a genocide. she did not spend millions of years alone.

if you put yang in salem’s or cinder’s or adam’s shoes, would she have turned out different than they did? would she make better choices? would she still be a good person?

would she even know how?

and if you put salem or cinder or adam in her shoes, would it make a difference? if salem wasn’t alone, if cinder had even the smallest taste of genuine love, if sienna had seen adam’s increasing anger for what it was years earlier—would they still have become what they are now?

yang’s gone through her own personal hell and back, but she wasn’t alone. she had role models and a loving sister and a father who provided for them and at least made some effort to be involved—he read bedtime stories and trained yang, tai is far from the worst parent in the story. it was bad. it could have been so much worse. how much of a difference did it make for yang that she had these crumbs of support?

as the blacksmith says, even the smallest act kindness can change a life. no one is an island. everyone is responsible for their own choices, but sometimes our choices are limited by forces beyond our control. sometimes there is no right thing to do.

everyone has breaking points.

everyone has a limit.

yang… in addition to having all these villainous character foils, is also the heroic character most inclined to ask why. why did raven leave her? why did ozpin lie? why did he make the branwen twins into birds? why did raven sell them out to salem? why is she the spring maiden? why did blake run away? why did ozpin think it was okay to hide so much from everyone? why shouldn’t she and blake think critically and follow their consciences instead of blindly obeying orders? why is salem waging this war? why why why

yang isn’t the most empathetic character—she can get too tangled up in her own feelings to see clearly where other people are coming from. she isn’t the most compassionate, either—she can, in fact, be rather ruthless. but yang does care, a lot, about why people make the choices they do.

and i think that is because yang knows her own darkness. she sees herself clearly; she knows she’s capable of cruelty, of being vindictive, of hurting people in anger. the reason yang isn’t an angry person is she works fucking hard not to be. i think yang is self-aware of these similarities between herself and adam, or raven, and maybe even cinder and salem too, and the question of why she didn’t end up like them bothers her. what made her different? what saved her? if she could have been like them, then doesn’t that mean they could have been like her? why aren’t they? what made the difference?

so she keeps asking. why. why.

weiss helped her understand why blake ran, but yang has never gotten a satisfying explanation from anyone else. the resolution of ruby’s arc in v9 leaves her asking why summer chose to leave; the natural trajectory is toward answers. why did summer leave, and why didn’t she come back? why did raven keep her secrets? why has salem gone to war? why did ozpin hide so much? it’s all tangled together. it all needs to be answered together. i think, if the olive branch comes from the heroes, it’ll be yang who plants the seed—what if we just ask salem what she wants? it’s not like we have any better ideas. and if salem’s the one to make the first move, it wouldn’t surprise me for yang to be the most open to hearing her side of the story.

after all, yang’s the one who asked.

[previousloversandmuses]

FREQUENCY: Episode 5 - A Soldier Boy Story

FREQUENCY:  A Soldier Boy Story

EPISODE 5: “Tough Guy”

WORD COUNT: 4438

PAIRING: Soldier Boy X Reader 

WARNINGS: (NSFW) Foul language. Offensive slurs. Violence, depression, and mentions of suicide. ANGST...f-feelings!?

A/N: This story is dark, and covers mature themes. The main character, as well as other major characters, are offensive in nature, and may offend some people. Please peruse with caution, and remember that this is fiction. Reader discretion is advised. Please message me for any questions, comments, or concerns. 

Masterlist | Taglist 

Ben was significantly older than Countess when they first met. A fresh young vixen, she was a delicious new addition to Payback. With her cherry red hair and seductive looks, the ever impulsive Soldier Boy could not resist. She had always reminded him of Rita Hayworth, a fuck he would never get out of his mind for years to come. A fuck that was stuck with him until Russia, at least. 

It seems like a lot of things stuck with him until Russia, including his love for Countess. He did love her then, he really did, although he had difficult ways of showing it. He was never faithful, and she knew that, but accepted it due to the fame that came with her position on the team. She would never let anyone jeopardize that. See, in comparison to Ben, Countess never loved him. She hated him, to say the least. Thinking back on it, all the shit he put that woman through, he really couldn’t blame her. 

The best day of that woman's life was him being sent away. Her and the rest of the team celebrated for weeks. Although, that was obviously short lived. Payback was nothing without Soldier Boy, and Vought already had the second coming incubated in a lab somewhere on the East Coast. 

All this being said, his hatred for everyone in his pre-Russia life was elevated tenfold. He fantasized about the demise of these people for years. It's the only thing that had gotten him through the countless eternity of torture. By the time he was freed, and able to get back at everyone who did him wrong, their violent fates gave him an excruciating hard on. He hadn’t been happy since.

When the nut job freed him a second time, any hope he had for his future had been thrown out the window. With Vought, the CIA, Homelander, and the limey fuck to worry about, he was sure this would be another short lived emancipation. But she was thoughtful, and organized, and had made him a damn good deal. A family? For him? That’s all he’d ever wanted. Back in the day he had been blinded by sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but thirty years of enslavement gives you a lot of time to think. A good woman to settle down with, a few kids, a sprawling plot of land? Now that was a dream. But he knew it would only ever be a fantasy, and that the powers that be had it out for him. Maybe this was his punishment from God, or the Universe, or whoever the fuck. He deserved it for all the bad he's done. He just hopes he can make it up to whatever blood he has left in the world. 

He keeps her up all night for a week. He must have nightmares, because all he ever does is whimper, and moan, and toss and turn. She has ear plugs, but those are no use because she can’t fall asleep to the sound of her own heart beating, it freaks her out. 

The two of them had been working around the res the past week, and hadn’t seen much of each other. He told her not to worry about him giving away his identity. Said that he’d keep his mouth shut, and he didn’t have much to talk about these days anyway. He was too exhausted to begin to try and make friends. He was getting a few winks between nightmares, then having to go work out in the hot sun all day. This was the first time in his life he was ever expected to do manual labor. His body could handle it, sure. But his mind was fleeting, and he could barely recall what day it was. 

She’d run errands with the ladies as he worked out in the yards. One day they took the kids to a Best Buy an hour away in the closest city. She spent some money on herself and splurged on a pair of headphones. All the stress of him made her forget her immense love for music. She also wouldn't mind being able to drown him out as she tried to sleep. 

She loves music, probably more than anything else. Yes, it was better hearing it live, especially a classical orchestra or opera. With the way her ears worked, she was able to hear every strand of string on a violin as it vibrated into the floor, only then to feel the sensation wrap around her nerve endings like a warm hug.

John used to fly her on top of Lincoln Center and sit with her as she laid on the roof and listened to the symphony below. She would have a soft smile on her face, putting her hands up in the air, and moving them around to the music. She's sad she’ll never get to experience that again. She wouldn’t be surprised if the whole building got burnt to the ground after he realizes she's gone.  

Before she leaves the store, she makes sure to grab a speaker as well. Thinking of Ben, she's sure he’d find comfort in the songs he used to listen to back in his prime. 

After this week, their schedules would be less compact. With all their training complete, they’d begin to see more of each other again. They hadn’t had a normal conversation in days until she finally wakes up after sleeping in. Her first day off in a while. Her headphones worked their magic. Not a peep out of him all night. 

He stands in the kitchen, fiddling with the burners. He has a carton of eggs out on the counter with some butter and an old skillet. He turns to her as she emerges from her room. 

“You slept late.” He states.

She smiles at him, walking right next to him and fixing the dial on the stove. The gas ignites and a little flame appears. He watches her as she reaches behind him and grabs the pan, placing it over the heat. 

“And you’re up early for your first day off.” 

He steps back, resting himself against the counter in the kitchen. He lets her take control of the cooking. She steps in and begins to make him breakfast. 

“How do you like your eggs?” She asks. 

He chuckles, “fertilized.”

She rolls her eyes at that, disregarding the statement. She cracks a few into the pan, pulling out a spatula, and mixes them up. 

“You’ve been having nightmares.” She states, testing the waters with him. 

He stiffens at that, scoffing. 

“I don’t have nightmares.” He counters. 

“I hear you at night.”

He falls silent at that. Fuck. He thinks. He forgot about that. 

“Well, you’re probably hearing things.”

“Oh I’m hearing things alright. Whimpers and screams and moans and groans-“

“Enough.” He says. “I don’t have shell shock, fuck you.”

She reaches into the cupboard pulling out a plate, and scraping the now cooked eggs onto it. She hands it to him, as well as a fork. He looks down at them. Perfectly made. 

“Nice to see you can do something right.”

“I can cheat,” she smiles. “I always know the internal temperature.”

“Whatever the fuck that means.” He sits down on the couch and begins to chow down on his breakfast. 

She moves near him, going to turn on the TV. An old rerun of “Solid Gold” begins to air on screen. Funnily enough, this was the episode with him in it. 

“…and very special guest, Soldier Boy!” Exclaims the announcer. 

Then comes a monotone, unenthusiastic rendition of the already awful rap from Blondie's “Rapture.” Freak begins to laugh. All the while, he looks at it with pride, continuing to enjoy his breakfast. 

“Out of every song you could’ve picked, you chose this one?” She giggles, moving to sit opposite him on the couch. 

He scoffs at her, gesturing his hand up to the TV in frustration. 

“People told me I did that song some justice. Obviously something good came out of it, otherwise why the hell would they be airing it thirty years later?” He argues. “And what do you know? All the music I’ve heard from this day in age is all horse shit.”

“Yikes, someones angry. That bruise your ego tough guy?”

The music video changes, now showing Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”. 

“Look at this shit,” He says. “Morals just flew out the window the moment I got sent away, huh?”

“What do you know about morals?” She jokes. “Plus, this is one of the greatest songs ever made. You just missed out on the progression of music that got us to this point.” 

“She looks like a fucked out mental case. Wearing strings to cover her jugs and pretending to rub her pussy.”

She grimaces at him. 

“God, do you ever hear yourself talk? You’re repulsive.”

He nods to the screen. “Yeah, well, so is that get up.”

She looks over to him now, narrowing her eyes. 

“And you know what?”

“What, nut job?”

“I actually have incredible taste in music, thank you very much. And speaking of, I went out of my way to buy you a gift. Make your time here a little easier on yourself.”

She runs over to her room, grabbing the Best Buy bag and bestowing it to him. 

“What the hell is this?” He asks. 

“Open it, idiot.”

He digs in the bag and pulls out the speaker, or what he thinks is the speaker? He can hardly tell. 

“Blueteeth wireless speaker?” He reads slowly, like he’s mentally challenged or something, she thinks. 

“Bluetooth, you big idiot.”

He nods his head at her with recognition. Smiling. 

“Ah I remember the scrawny one talking about this. I thought he was pulling my leg!”

She grabs it from him, pulling out her phone from her pocket, and pairing it. She places the speaker onto the coffee table in front of them and pulls up a music app. 

“Any decade in particular tickle your fancy?” She asks, raising an eyebrow. 

“What are my options?”

“Everything.” She states. 

“What does that mean?”

“It means everything. I have access to all the music ever on here.”

“What, on that thing?” He reaches his hand out to inspect her phone. 

She hands it to him reluctantly. 

“Technology has come a long way since walkmans.”

He looks it over, flipping it around in his hands. He presses the side button which turns on the screen. 

“How do I use it?” He asks, furrowing his brows. 

She smiles softly, moving to sit closer to him. Unlike his old self, he stiffens up in her presence. Her cold arm rubbing gently against his. 

“I don’t bite,” She says. “Here, let me see it.”

He hands her the phone and she leans in further as she shows him how to unlock it with a passcode of numbers. 6969. 

“Real mature.” He says, holding back a laugh.

She opens the phone up and pulls up Spotify. 

“Any requests?” She asks. 

“How about… Neil Young.” He decides. 

She sighs. 

“Okay, so it has everything but Neil young.”

“What the fuck!” He yells. “Why?”

“An issue with Joe Rogan. You wouldn’t know him. He does a podcast.”

“A who cast?”

“Ugh, nothing. Story for another day.”

“Alright in that case… what about Sinatra?”

“Nice choice.” she smiles, typing his name in. 

“You like him?” He asks innocently. 

“Very much so. His voice is the best on the ears.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

“Any song you like?”

“You pick,” he says. “Been too long.”

She thinks for a minute, then selects “The Way You Look Tonight.”

She stands up as it begins to play, setting her phone down on the coffee table, and going into her room. He watches her from the couch, a gleam of recognition in his eyes as he recalls the song lyrics. She leaves the door cracked. He can see her bare back as she changes shirts. He looks away quickly, not wanting to pry. Strange for him again. It’s like he’s become a different person. He’s acting like a boy, yet to be deflowered. He's angsty, and moody. Worst of all, he thinks he may have missed her company while he was working. All that crazy can leave an empty hole if gone for too long. 

She struts out of her room, slipping on a pair of turquoise earrings. He looks up at her. Her jeans are loose, and worn. Her belly peeks at him through her cut off tube top. She didn’t do herself up too much, maybe swiping on a coat of mascara and spraying on some perfume. 

“​​Some day, when I'm awfully low

When the world is cold

I will feel a glow just thinking of you

And the way you look tonight”

“Where are you goin’?” His mouth is dry. 

Why does he hope she invites him?

“We’re going,” She corrects. Thank God, he thinks. “Go fix yourself up.”

And so that afternoon, the two of them venture off with the rest of the res’ young couples. There had been a big farmers market in the nearest town full of cute stands, and things to waste money on. Of course, the moment they get there, she leaves him in the dust, running off with the rest of the girls. 

He and the guys, completely uninterested in whatever the fuck any of the stands had to offer, walk over to a craft beer food truck, and sit outside of it at the picnic tables. He wants to kill himself now, he thinks. Another eon of listening to what these guys had to offer. Good thing they never had anything to ask him.

“Hey Ben,” Fuck him gently with a god damn nuclear warhead. “Where’d you say you were from again?”

He shifts uncomfortably at the table, pulling his beer up to his lips.

“Philly.” He says, reaching into his pocket to grab a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

Thirty years ago he would have been entertaining this whole group. If Compound V helped him do one thing, it was being able to schmooze like nothing else. But he has to stay cautious. He doesn’t know what the fuck there even is to talk about, so he usually doesn’t talk at all. And even if he did know what to talk about, apparently everything he says is offensive. Including the name of the group of people he was hanging out with, the Indians. Thank Christ Asher was there, at least he didn't have to stick out like a sore thumb.

“And how old are you again?” 

One-hundred-and-three.

“Forty.”

“How’d you meet Freak? You a supe?”

He looks around for her, beginning to sweat. His chest is hot. This is bad. This is really bad. She’s halfway across the market, not paying attention obviously, or else she would already be booking it over here playing damage control. 

“We, uh, have some mutual friends,” Not really a lie. “And no, I’m not. What about you guys?”

Please God, anything to get this conversation off of him. 

They all start laughing. SB pulls a cigarette out of the pack with his teeth, grabbing his lighter, and inhaling. 

“No, none of us, we fuckin’ hate Vought. We hate all supes. Worst thing to ever happen to America.”

“You think so?” He exhales, not bearing to look any of them in the eyes.

“We know so, see the Elders may like them, cause they were brought up worshiping American heroes like that cock-sucker Soldier Boy--”

Ben chokes on the smoke, gasping for air, spiraling into an impressive coughing fit. Really? He could breathe in mustard gas like fresh air, but not this? Plus, major bruise to his ego. Thank God he wasn’t in the mood to put anyone in their place or else he’s sure he would've broken someone's neck by now. One of their hands comes up behind him and starts patting him in the back, anything to get him to stop coughing. Kill me now, he thinks. He can get through this on his own, he's no pansy. He doesn’t need help, especially at the hands of a man wearing black nail polish. 

“Freak is an exception, she hates Vought more than we do.”

The group nods to that, one of them adds; “They fucked us over a long time ago. A whole tribe got killed because of their carelessness. Those cowards had to send Soldier Boy to do their dirty work…”

His ears begin to ring. Fuck, he thinks. I did do that. He hardly remembers. Unfortunately, that period of time in his life was a giant blur-- a giant fuck up. He had thirty years to marinate on all of his awful mistakes, terrible choices…He thinks, if he could take it all back, he would. But he can’t-- He is the monster under the bed-- or was. Although at this point he's more like a ticking time bomb. Instead of a thought out attack, or a planned assassination, all someone has to do is play the wrong radio station, and he could blow the whole city to the ground. 

In contrast, Freak and the other res ladies look mindlessly around all the stalls, gossiping, chatting, being girls. She has already gathered a hefty bag of things she doesn’t need, but wants desperately. Goat milk soap, opal rings, Turkish towels, fresh strawberries, (free of pesticides, which she can always taste.) The rest of the ladies begin to walk over to a lemonade stand, leaving herself and Ama to admire the gorgeous tribal prints made by a local native. 

“Maybe I should get one for the trailer, it’ll give it some life.”

Ama hums, looking down at the print.

“I didn’t know Ben liked tribal art.” She states.

Freak begins to feel uneasy, looking over her shoulder to Ama with squinted eyes. Didn’t know Ben liked tribal art? Why wouldn't he?

“Who doesn’t?” She counters, putting the print back down on the table and beginning to walk away from the stall. Ama trails behind, looking around mindlessly. Like she's trying to hide something. In fact, she knows she is, her blood pressure is 130 over 80. 

“Well, last time I checked, Soldier Boy wasn’t the biggest fan of indigenous people.”

Freak whips her head around, grasping onto Ama’s arm, and pulling her into a corner.

“Will you keep your voice down?”

“Why?” She asks, getting louder. “Don’t want people noticing you’re housing a fucking murderer on the reservation?”

She holds a finger up to her lips, trying to clamp her hand over her mouth. The both of them disappear behind the nearest building. 

“How did you know about this?”

Ama shakes her head, scoffing. 

“Did you really think I wouldn’t? It’s not like the two of them look exactly alike!”

Freak looks down, taking her hands and rubbing them on her face.

“What the fuck were you thinking, Freak?” She grills. “I mean, he's fucking evil for Christs sake! He’s everything we all hate about Vought! He killed our people. He's a monster.”

Ama searches for her eyes, but Freak can’t bare to look at her.

“Are you two even together? Is he here to kill us? Were you both sent by Vought because of Wahkan?”

“No, no, and no!” She argues, raising her voice. “I would never do that to you.”

Freak looks around again, checking to see if anyone followed them into the alley.

“Look, you have to promise me you aren’t going to say anything.”

Ama laughs at her, beginning to storm off.

“You have a lot of nerve saying that to me after you brought him here. You’re all the same. Like a disease. You all only care about yourselves.”

Freak rushes behind her, grabbing onto her wrist, yanking her back over and pushing her up against the wall, pinning her there. 

“Ouch, you’re hurting me!” Ama whines.

Freak rolls her eyes, “You’re fine, stop being dramatic.”

She checks over her shoulder one more time.

“I need you to listen to me, and you cannot be blinded by bias, okay?”

Ama tries to pry herself from her grip, but Freak tightens up.

“Promise me! It’ll just be a minute, then you can take what I said and do whatever the fuck you want with it.”

Ama stops resisting, and stares at her, waiting for her to start. Freak sighs.

“This summer there is going to be this huge celebration for a new chemical that Vought created. Everyone will be there. All the top executives, all the investors, all the scientists, politicians, supes, you name it. They are all gonna be there, in the middle of nowhere, at this giant mansion that used to belong to Vogelbaum. Look, I tried everyone. I asked John to help, I asked Butcher, and Starlight-- they all said no. And trust me, I was persistent. The only thing I had left to try was Ben, and I didn't even know if that was going to work. But, his past aside, he is eager, and willing to end this once and for all. To get back at all these monsters that fucked us over. I mean, they ruined him more than anyone else. He was the first supe! They sent him off to the Russians, who literally tortured him for thirty years! If there is one person ready and itching to get these assholes off of his back, it's him. He is the only way. I can’t do it alone. I’d never be able to get a bomb in there without anyone noticing. It's him, it’s always been him. Please, trust me. I would never put any of you in danger.”

“You put us in danger the moment you brought him here!”

“I have everything under control. I can hear John fly around New York from here for Christ's sake!” 

Freak lets her go. Ama begins to pace around, holding her hand up to her mouth, she starts talking to herself. Working out the whole situation in her head.

“He's an a-hundred-year-old ticking time bomb, for starters…Although, it is safer with them here for the time being, if someone were to come attack…Ugh but he's also probably ridiculously closed minded…but we could work on that…we could work on a lot…He hasn’t done anything yet…he’s helping…and being respectful…”

Freak nibbles on her nails as she watches her think. Suddenly, Ama stops, turning to her.

“Okay, first things first; if you ever pull some shit like this again you have to tell me beforehand.”

Freak nods, “noted.”

“Secondly, me and the rest of the res are ready to help you end these mother fuckers once and for all.”

She shakes her head, “No, Ama, I appreciate the offer but I can’t let you do that.”

“You can and you will, that is my only exception. You let us help you do this, so there are absolutely no mistakes, and so I’ll never have to worry about this kind of shit ever again.”

Freak sighs, “Deal.”

The two of them walk back into the market with eased tension.

“So you aren’t dating him?”

She scoffs, “No, Ama. You said it yourself. He’s not the greatest person in the world.”

Ama smiles, “I’m sure you’d argue he’s no worse than you are.”

She shrugs, taking that into consideration. Despite the constant lack of regard for modern social norms, he really isn’t that hard to be around, or that hard to look at. Plus, he understood her suffering like John did, and even that was a quasi-relationship at some point. And he did agree to help her, but that was after she lied to him about the reward involved. She wonders if he’d ever do something like that to her. Lie to get what he wanted, that is. 

May she never know. 

“I’m sure you wouldn’t be too happy knowing I was screwing an enemy, don’t you think?”

“Well, it seems like we’re all on the same side here. Plus, he is stronger than us. If he wanted to fuck everyone over he would’ve already. He must have some sense of remorse.”

As she finishes her sentence they both walk up to see a huge crowd had formed around the craft beer truck since they’d been gone. Fuck, she thinks, this cant be good. She begins to listen in, not able to get a good focus on him. There are a bunch of guys shouting, or rooting for each other? Placing bets maybe? She doesn’t know. Her and Ama squeeze themselves through the crowd to get a better look.

Ben and Tough Guy, the resident giant bodybuilding himbo, grasp hands in what seems to be a very intense arm wrestling match.

“Cmon, Tough Guy!” Someone shouts, then: “Ben, there is no way your arm isn’t going to snap in two!”

Freak watches in horror as she runs up behind SB, putting her hands on the sides of her head.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” She screams.

He doesn’t stop though, just continues to pretend to strain his muscles. Tough Guys arm should've been ripped clean off already. She feels like she's going to be sick. She can’t bear to look.

Suddenly an arm hits the table, and the crowd begins to cheer. Peeling her hand from over her eyes, she sees Tough Guy being paraded around as champion. SB smiles at him, sitting down at the table in fabricated defeat. Surely any guy that strong, with that big of an ego, willing to let someone else win, had to have some morals, right? Well, she sure hopes so as she gazes down at him with a smile soft as silk. She feels warm, content, like waking from a nap in the sun. Looking over his shoulder with heavy, fluttering eyelashes, he has a boyish gleam in his eye, and a smile bright enough to land a plane.Yup, she thinks, I’m in trouble. 

"Yes, you're lovely, with your smile so warm

And your cheeks so soft

There is nothing for me but to love you

And the way you look tonight"

Masterlist | Taglist | Episode 6

Taglist: @Sl33pylilbunny @Lanassmarty @Sydneyyyya @1-800shootmeplease @muhahaha303 @nancymcl @speedyrebelfan @ghh05ttt @agentorange9595 @let-me-luve-you @peachytits @darkdahl @deans-spinster-witch @soggybasementfries @ladysparkles78 @madamthemoo @lyarr24 @sadlittlecountess @mickaelly007 @mrscountryclub @vtheoneandonly @decadentanchorwerewolf @wonderland2022 @buckybarnes-1917 @rebeccathefangirl @daisy-the-quake @tiredbibi @greyish-wallpaper @previousloversandmuses

[duhragonball]

Super Dragon Ball Heroes 20

Meanwhile, in a completely different story...

This episode is a “special” that focuses on the Time Patrol.  It sets up some plot points in the next arc, and it also provides some context for Fu, although I’d say it raises more questions than answers. 

The problem is that this episode just jumps into the climax of a completely different story, one that took place some time ago, relative to the first 19 episodes.  The first time I saw it, there was a little infodump scene before the episode title, to fill you in on the Supreme Kai of Time and her conflict with Mechikabura and Demigra.  I can’t seem to find it now, so I’ll just explain what I know. 

So about 75 million years ago, there was a contest to appoint a Supreme Kai of Time. The job mainly involves caring for the Divine Tokitoki Bird, a cosmic animal who creates time.  The two candidates were Mechikabura, one of the oldest and most powerful of the Core People, and Chronoa, who I’m pretty sure got chosen because she’s good with animals.  Anyway, Mechikabura tried to cheat, and Chronoa got the job.  One of her first acts as Supreme Kai of Time was to banish Mechikabura to a hidden realm of the universe, which eventually became known as the Demon Realm.  Later, Demigra, a wizard who worked as Chronoa’s assistant, turned out to be a dirty dealer as well, and she banished him to a different realm, the Crack of Time.  

In the Demon Realm, Mechikabura founded the Dark Empire.  I don’t know where his subjects came from.  Maybe there were others in there with him, or they got banished there later for other crimes.  Anyway, everyone there became known as Demons, and after a long reign, Mechikabura died or got sealed away or something.  Dabura eventually became King of the Demon Realm, but then he got enslaved by Babidi, and killed by Majin Buu on Earth.

So Dabura’s sister, a scientist named Towa, came up with a plan to resurrect Mechikabura.  This involved a lot of time travel shenanigans, brainwashing various characters, and using a set of corrupted Dragon Balls.  Her machinations eventually got the attention of the Supreme Kai of Time, but she accused Trunks of causing the problems, since she had become aware of his time trips to defeat the androids on Earth.   When it became clear that Trunks was not responsible, she recruited him for the Time Patrol, and they investigated the Demon Realm plot together.

Now, this basic synopsis is taken from a few sources, including the Dragon Ball Heroes games, the Dragon Ball Heroes manga, and the opening exposition from this episode of the web anime.  It’s also kind of mentioned in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 1, although Mechikabura isn’t brought up, since I’m pretty sure he wasn’t introduced yet.  But Towa is in XV1 and she’s depicted as an old enemy of the Time Patrol.  There’s a number of twists and turns, like Demigra showing up and joining forces with the Time Patrol, or the Supreme Kai of Time getting mind-controlled into being a bad guy.  But episode 20 of the SDBH anime is only concerned with the very end of the story, where the good guys have their final battle against Mechikabura at the height of his powers. 

In this version, like the manga, Chronoa and Trunks are joined by alternate versions of Gohan, Goten, Pan, Goku and Vegeta. We’ve already met Xeno Goku and Xeno Vegeta.  They were the Time Patroller guys who showed up in the Prison Planet arc and wrecked Fu’s lab.  As for Xeno Goten, he’s here to provide Xeno Trunks with a fusion partner.  Xeno Gohan and Xeno Pan?  I have no idea. I’m pretty sure they were just brought in so there’d be enough Saiyans handy to do the Super Saiyan God ritual with Trunks.

Mostly, the action is handled by Xeno Goku and Vegeta, who fuse together to become Xeno Vegito.  So where did these guys come from?  The only explanation I’ve been able to work out is that in the Heroes video games, these battles would feature the player avatars, characters like Beat, Note, and so on.  But in the manga, those characters weren’t available, so they had a scene where Chronoa drew allies from Trunks’ memories, or something.  I don’t understand that, because the implication is that she created these guys out of thin air, with nothing to go on but Trunks’ memory.  But he has no memory of Goten or Pan, or Super Saiyan 4, so it doesn’t make sense. 

Anyway, the basic idea here is that Vegito keeps Mechikabura busy, while Chronoa charges up Trunk’s Time Sword, which he then uses to strik the final blow. 

Mechikabura does the whole thing where he thinks the sword didn’t even hurt him, then he’s like “OH SHIT THIS ACTUALLY HURTS A LOT!  ESPECIALLY MY GENITALS, WHICH WERE ALSO CUT IN HALF!  OW MY GOBLIN DICK!”

Then Chronoa’s like “Sleep forever within the light” and he explodes or gets sucked into the prison dimension or whatever.  I just like how badass Chronoa’s delivery is here.  “Get wrecked, Mechikabura.  Time Patrol, motherfuckaaa.”

Then she tells her bird to destroy the whole palace.  “Every last brick, Tokitoki.  I want them all to know it was me.”

Normally Tokitoki looks like a goofy barn owl with a beard, but here he transforms into a giant golden firebird or something. 

“When you get to hell, tell ‘em Tokitoki sent ya!”

“ARRRRGH THIS HURTS A LOT!  NOT AS MUCH AS MY DEMON PENIS GETTING SLICED DOWN THE MIDDLE, THOUGH!  BUT BOTH OF THESE THINGS ARE HAPPENING TO ME SO OWWWWW!”

Then the good guys return to Earth or wherever, and everyone gives Trunks and attaboy for being so reliable.  But he gives Goku and Vegeta the credit, since they did most of the work.  I’m pretty sure the original premise was for Trunks to carry the load in this battle, hence the Super Saiyan God form, but here we are.

Anyway, that’s how Mechikabura and his Dark Empire fell.  But wait...

Just before Tokitoki wrecked the whole place, Towa and Mira managed to evacuate their baby.  Okay, I probably should have explained Mira.  He’s an artificial life form Towa created to serve as her enforcer. He’s got Saiyan DNA and some other traits copied from powerful warriors, but she also married him, so it’s fair to say that Mira doubles as a sex toy. 

This scene makes it look like they tossed their baby into a dimensional portal, then died with the rest of the city, but Towa and Mira would return to cause trouble in other media, including the Xenoverse games, other DBH missions, and the MMO Dragon Ball Online, where she was first introduced.

As for the baby, we don’t actually see what happened to him as he grew up.  Instead, we flash forward to see him as an adult...

And he’s Fu, the mad scientist we’ve seen throughout the series so far.  He looks a lot more edgelord-y here, but he seems to have lightened up by the time this web anime got started. 

My gripe here is that none of this really tells us much about Fu as a character.  I mean, he’s descended from Towa and Mira, but anyone watching this web anime without playing any of the games would have no idea who Towa and Mira are.  Well, they’re demons, okay, but what does that mean to Fu?  Does Fu even know where he came from?

I mean, I know Towa and Mira fairly well.  I’ve written fanfiction about them, for crying out loud.  But I’ve yet to understand Fu’s whole deal, and this episode seems designed to help me understand him better, and it really doesn’t succeed. Knowing who his parents are doesn’t get me very far.  I guess he inherited his scientific genius from his mom, and his high power level came from his dad, and that’s about it. 

Now, this episode does reintroduce the Time Patrol, and it introduces Tokitoki and Xeno Trunks to the story, and we’ll be seeing more of them in the next arc, so it’s not a complete waste of time, but I’m still not clear on what this was meant to accomplish.

“OWWWWWWWWW, EVEN IN DEATH MY BISECTED DEVIL HOG STILL SMARTS LIKE NOBODY’S BUSINESS!  CAN THERE BE NO RELIEF!  OOOOOWWWWWWWWWW!”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Joe Heller

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 30, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 30, 2023

Today the Supreme Court followed up on yesterday’s decision gutting affirmative action with three decisions that will continue to push the United States back to the era before the New Deal.

In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis the court said that the First Amendment protects website designer Lorie Smith from having to use words she doesn’t believe in support of gay marriage. To get there, the court focused on the marriage website designer’s contention that while she is willing to work with LGBTQ customers, she doesn’t want to use her own words on a personalized website to celebrate gay marriages. Because of that unwillingness, she said, she wants to post on her website that she will not make websites for same-sex weddings. She says she is afraid that in doing so, she will run afoul of Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws, which prevent public businesses from discriminating against certain groups of people. 

This whole scenario of being is prospective, by the way: her online business did not exist and no one had complained about it. Smith claims she wants to start the business because “God is calling her ‘to explain His true story about marriage.’” She alleges that in 2016, a gay man approached her to make a website for his upcoming wedding, but yesterday, Melissa Gira Grant of The New Republic reported that, while the man allegedly behind the email does exist, he is an established designer himself (so why would he hire someone who was not?), is not gay, and married his wife 15 years ago. He says he never wrote to Smith, and the stamp on court filings shows she received it the day after she filed the suit.

Despite this history, by a 6–3 vote, the court said that Smith was being hurt by the state law and thus had standing to sue. It decided that requiring the designer to use her own words to support gay marriage violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. 

Taken together with yesterday’s decision ruling that universities cannot consider race as a category in student admissions, the Supreme Court has highlighted a central contradiction in its interpretation of government power: if the Fourteenth Amendment limits the federal government to making sure that there is no discrimination in the United States on the basis of race—the so-called “colorblind” Constitution—as the right-wing justices argued yesterday, it is up to the states to make sure that state laws don’t discriminate against minorities. But that requires either protecting voting rights or accepting minority rule.

This problem has been with us since before the Civil War, when lawmakers in the southern states defended their enslavement of their Black (and Indigenous) neighbors by arguing that true democracy was up to the voters and that those voters had chosen to support enslavement. After the Civil War, most lawmakers didn’t worry too much about states reimposing discriminatory laws because they included Black men as voters first in 1867 with the Military Reconstruction Act and then in 1870 with the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and they believed such political power would enable Black men to shape the laws under which they lived. 

But in 1875 the Supreme Court ruled in Minor v. Happersett that it was legal to cut citizens out of the vote so long as the criteria were not about race. States excluded women, who brought the case, and southern states promptly excluded Black men through literacy clauses, poll taxes, and so on. Northern states mirrored southern laws with their own, designed to keep immigrants from exercising a voice in state governments. At the same time, southern states protected white men from the effects of these exclusionary laws with so-called grandfather clauses, which said a man could vote so long as his grandfather had been eligible.

It turned out that limiting the Fourteenth Amendment to questions of race and letting states choose their voters cemented the power of a minority. The abandonment of federal protection for voting enabled white southerners to abandon democracy and set up a one-party state that kept Black and Brown Americans as well as white women subservient to white men. As in all one-party states, there was little oversight of corruption and no guarantee that laws would be enforced, leaving minorities and women at the mercy of a legal system that often looked the other way when white criminals committed rape and murder. 

Many Americans tut-tutted about lynching and the cordons around Black life, but industrialists insisted on keeping the federal government small because they wanted to make sure it could not regulate their businesses or tax them. They liked keeping power at the state level; state governments were far easier to dominate. Southerners understood that overlap: when a group of southern lawmakers in 1890 wrote a defense of the South’s refusal to let Black men vote, they “respectfully dedicated” the book to “the business men of the North.” 

In the 1930s the Democrats under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt undermined this coalition by using the federal government to regulate business and provide a social safety net. In the 1940s and 1950s, as racial and gender atrocities began to highlight in popular media just how discriminatory state laws really were, the Supreme Court went further, recognizing that the Fourteenth Amendment’s declaration that states could not deprive any person of the equal protection of the laws meant that the federal government must protect the rights of minorities when states would not. Those rules created modern America.

This is what the radical right seeks to overturn. Yesterday the Supreme Court said that the Fourteenth Amendment could not address racial disparities, but today, like lawmakers in the 1870s, it signaled that it would not protect voting in the states either. It rejected a petition for a review of Mississippi’s strict provision for taking the vote away from felons. That law illustrates just how fully we’re reliving our history: it dates from the 1890 Mississippi constitution that cemented power in white hands. Black Mississippians are currently 2.7 times more likely than white Mississippians to lose the right to vote under the law. 

The court went even further today than allowing states to choose their voters. It said that even if state voters do call for minority protections, as Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws do, states cannot protect minorities in the face of someone’s religious beliefs. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that for “the first time in its history,” the court has granted “a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.” 

It is worth noting that segregation was defended as a deeply held religious belief. 

Today, using a case concerning school loans, the Supreme Court also took aim at the power of the federal government to regulate business. In Biden v. Nebraska the court declared by a vote of 6 to 3 that President Biden’s loan forgiveness program, which offered to forgive up to $20,000 of federally held student debt, was unconstitutional. The right-wing majority of the court argued that Congress had not intended to give that much power to the executive branch, although the forgiveness plan was based on law that gave the secretary of education the power to “waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance programs…as the Secretary deems necessary in connection with a…national emergency…to ensure” that “recipients of student financial assistance…are not placed in a worse position financially in relation to that financial assistance because of [the national emergency]”.

The right-wing majority based its decision on the so-called major questions doctrine, invented to claw back regulatory power from the federal government. By saying that Congress cannot delegate significant decisions to federal agencies, which are in the executive branch, the court takes on itself the power to decide what a “significant” decision is. The court established this new doctrine in the West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency case, stripping the EPA of its ability to regulate certain kinds of air pollution.

“Let’s not beat around the bush,” constitutional analyst Ian Millhiser wrote today in Vox, today’s decision in Biden v. Nebraska “is complete and utter nonsense. It rewrites a federal law which explicitly authorizes the loan forgiveness program, and it relies on a fake legal doctrine known as ‘major questions’ which has no basis in any law or any provision of the Constitution.”

Today’s Supreme Court, packed as it has been by right-wing money behind the Federalist Society and that society’s leader, Leonard Leo, is taking upon itself power over the federal government and the state governments to recreate the world that existed before the New Deal.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona called out the lurch toward turning the government over to the wealthy, supported as it is by religious footsoldiers like Lorie Smith: “Today, the court substituted itself for Congress,” Cardona told reporters. “It’s outrageous to me that Republicans in Congress and state offices fought so hard against a program that would have helped millions of their own constituents. They had no problem handing trillion-dollar tax cuts to big corporations and the super wealthy.” 

Cardona made his point personal: “And many had no problems accepting millions of dollars in forgiven pandemic loans, like Senator Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma had more than $1.4 million in pandemic loans forgiven. He represents 489,000 eligible borrowers that were turned down today. Representative Brett Guthrie from Kentucky had more than $4.4 million forgiven. He represents more than 90,000 eligible borrowers who were turned down today. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia had more than $180,000 forgiven. She represents more than 91,800 eligible borrowers who were turned down today.” 

In the majority opinion of Biden v. Nebraska, Chief Justice John Roberts lamented that those who dislike the court’s decisions have accused the court of “going beyond the proper role of the judiciary.” He defended the court’s decision and urged those who disagreed with it not to disparage the court because “such misperception would be harmful to this institution and our country.” But what is at stake is not simply these individual decisions, whether or not you agree with them; at stake is the way our democracy operates.

Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute didn’t offer much hope for Roberts’s plea. “It is not just the rulings the Roberts Court is making,” he tweeted. “They created out of [w]hole cloth a bogus, major questions doctrine. They made a mockery of standing. They rewrite laws to fit their radical ideological preferences. They have unilaterally blown up the legitimacy of the Court.”

In a shot across the bow of this radical court, in her dissent to Biden v. Nebraska, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that “the Court, by deciding this case, exercises authority it does not have. It violates the Constitution.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[girlactionfigure]

Her last words were "If it was the last moment I was to live, God knows I am innocent..."

Her name was Elizabeth Howe.

She was one of five women who were hanged in 1692 during the first Salem witch trials.

She was described by her defenders as a loving, kind woman who cared for her blind husband and her children. But, in doing so, she had to make “decisions well beyond the accepted level for a retiring domestic Puritan housewife,” according to the “History of American Women.”

She was strong, she was independent, and she was outspoken.

During those times, that may have been enough to be accused of witchcraft.

“For Puritan women, there were so many ways to get accused of witchcraft,” according to The Conversation.

Olivia B. Waxman of TIME writes:

“According to Emerson Baker, author of “A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience, 156 people were formally charged with witchcraft—mostly women. Between June and September 1692, 19 people were hanged to death for the crime, and one was pressed to death by a rock. Five more died in prison between May 1692 and May 1693. Additionally, at least 120 were imprisoned for a year or more.”

This is a new story from the Jon S. Randal Peace Page, focusing on past and present stories seldom told of lives forgotten, ignored, or dismissed. The stories are gathered from writers, journalists, and historians to share awareness and foster understanding.

“Witchcraft is really all about scapegoating,” Baker says. “It took this perfect storm of factors to create the largest witchcraft outbreak in American history.” These victims included people who spoke a little bit differently—like with an accent—were confrontational, or suffered from mental or physical challenges. All of these victims got blamed for what was perceived as a decline in religiosity in Puritan New England society.”

“History is often misunderstood, much like the women who were accused of being witches were misunderstood,” wrote Waxman.

The first women accused of witchcraft were Tituba, an enslaved Caribbean woman; Sarah Good, a homeless beggar; and Sarah Osborne, an elderly impoverished woman, according to the Smithsonian.

“Witch trials didn’t target the powerful,” according to The Conversation. “They persecuted society’s most marginal members – particularly women.”

Other women, like Elizabeth Howe, were accused by neighbors, possibly envious of her independence.

“Elizabeth apparently was not a submissive female figure,” according to the “History of American Women.” “She had to take strong positions to safeguard the interests of her blind husband and her children.”

Rebecca Beatrice Brooks in the historyofmassachusetts web page said, according to the book “The Societal History of Crime and Punishment in America”:

“A number of historians have speculated as to why the witch hunts occurred and why certain people were singled out. These proposed reasons have included personal vendettas, fear of strong women, and economic competition. Regardless, the Salem Witch Trials are a memorial and a warning to what hysteria, religious intolerance, and ignorance can cause in the criminal justice system.”

Europe also had its share of witch trials and executions, as a way of punishing women. According to the Smithsonian, “Between the mid-16th and early 19th centuries, an untold number of women in England (as well as Scotland and colonial America) underwent ducking [being immersed in water while tied to an apparatus known as a ducking stool] as a punishment for speaking out of turn. Largely forgotten today, the practice speaks to the lengthy history of policing women’s voices—a trend that continues today.

In her book, “Gender, Media and Voice: Communicative Injustice and Public Speech”,

Cultural studies scholar Jilly Kay “argues that demonizing women’s speech was a way of controlling them.”

“Women were often really punished for challenging power, for challenging patriarchal power, and capitalist power as well,” she says.

~~~~~

According to the Conversation, “Women held a precarious, mostly powerless position within the deeply religious Puritan community.

“The Puritans thought women should have babies, raise children, manage household life and model Christian subservience to their husbands. Recalling Eve and her sinful apple, Puritans also believed that women were more likely to be tempted by the Devil.

“As magistrates, judges and clergy, men enforced the rules of this early American society.

“When women stepped outside their prescribed roles, they became targets. Too much wealth might reflect sinful gains. Too little money demonstrated bad character. Too many children could indicate a deal with a devil. Having too few children was suspicious, too.

“Women were both the victims and the accused in this terrible American history, casualties of a society created and controlled by powerful men.”

“Puritans were very hostile towards colonists who didn’t follow the strict religious and societal rules in the colony,” wrote Brooks.

“The accusations were overwhelmingly hurled at women,” according to writer Veronica Esposito. It “started with the scapegoating of ostracized members of the community.’ It started with marginalized women who were in one way or another more easily scapegoated, and then it spread to these wealthier and sometimes male figures.”

~~~~~

“Elizabeth How was hanged on July 19, 1692, along with Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Wilde,” according to ThoughtCo.

[Note, in some articles, Elizabeth’s last name is also spelled “How.” Note also that the picture attached is not of Howe; The 1869 oil painting 'Witch Hill (The Salem Martyr)' by Thomas Satterwhite Noble shows a young woman posing as a condemned witch, courtesy of Thomas Satterwhite Noble/New-York Historical Society.]

“In 1709, How’s daughter joined the petition of Phillip English and others to get the victims’ names cleared and to get financial compensation. In [October] 1711, they finally won the case, and Elizabeth How’s name was mentioned among those who had been unfairly convicted and some executed, and whose convictions were reversed and nullified.”

However, “the trials were not technically completed until July of this year, when Elizabeth Johnson Jr became the last of the accused to be formally cleared of all charges of witchcraft.”

~~~~~

“The Salem witch trials are an example of a community at its absolute worst,” according to Anna Danziger Halperin, associate director of the Center for Women’s History at the New-York Historical Society and coordinating curator of the New-York Historical Society’s new exhibition, The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming, which runs from October 7 through January 22, 2023.

“It’s something that we look to as example of what not to do, and yet we keep repeating these mistakes,” she added.

“While people are not being put on trial for being witches in 2022, Baker sees the shadows of witch hunts in some of our modern-day paranoia—“Salem moments,” as he calls them,” wrote Waxman “Extremism, scapegoating, racism, hatred, bigotry—as long as we have that, we’re going to have some version of witch hunts,” he says.

“We still live with the legacy of the connections between contingent features of somebody's being and their moral character,” notes Wellesley College professor Julie Walsh. “We as a society have these ideas about how a person looks, and the way that they are sexualized or racialized in our society has some connection to their moral character.”

Walsh notes Halloween as an obvious example, according to writer James Bennett II. “Walsh challenges us to think about where a lot of the imagery — specifically witch imagery — comes from. The pointy hat and crooked nose? Antisemitic holdovers from depictions of Jewish religious ritual and physical caricature. And green skin relates back to that whole bit about outward appearance being linked to moral stature. Even the ritual of trick-or-treating, Walsh argues, mimics the action of a poor woman going door to door for food (the treat), lest you refuse her and suffer a hex (the trick).”

Even the term “witch”, according to author Judika Illes in the New York Times: “People use the word ‘witch’ as an insult — as an insult for a woman who maybe has too much power or is perceived as arrogant . . . It’s a word to cut women down.”

The “witch trials weren’t just about accusations that today seem baseless. They were also about a justice system that escalated local grievances to capital offenses and targeted a subjugated minority,” according to the Conversation.

“What has always resonated with me is that these are some of the earliest historical examples in the US of women being vilified for acting outside of their accepted role,” said Governor Jane Swift.

~~~~~

“In Elizabeth’s defense, James Howe, her father-in-law who was then ninety four years old, presented a letter to the court commending Elizabeth as a loving, obedient, and kind person who looked after his blind son and their children. The minister and his assistant from Rowley also spoke on her behalf,” according to the “History of American Women.”

“Never did her blind husband or her children change their loving feelings towards her. They walked miles twice a week to visit her in prison, bringing her things to eat and objects to provide her comfort.”

“Reckoning and Reclaiming also reminds us of the very real people behind these historical events, its ample documentation helping audiences to connect with the humanity of the witch trials’ victims,” wrote Esposito.

“It was the darkest time in Massachusetts’ history,” said David Allen Lambert, chief genealogist for NEHGS (New England Historic Genealogical Society)

“It echoes today, what happens when disinformation spreads and neighbours turn on neighbours.”

At a city of Salem, Mass.memorial to commemorate the people who were convicted and killed during its notorious series of "witch trials" in 1692, the Rev. Jeffrey Barz-Snell of the First Church in Salem told the assembled crowd, "We should not be here today. We should not be here dedicating this memorial and setting aside this small patch of rocky earth. We should not be here commemorating the heartbreaking and tragic loss of life, people who were falsely and unjustly accused of being in the snare of the devil."

“These were real lives, and lives that were ruined, and the way that we tell that story carries so much weight,” said Danziger Halperin. “We really want to make sure that we do it in a way that honors those real lives and helps us stand up against injustice moving forward.”

According to the Salem Award Foundation website, there are roughly 25 million people around the world who are descended from the Salem Witch Trials victims and the other participants in the trials.

~ jsr

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

[myhandsarentsmudgediusedigital]

TES Summerfest 2022: Prophecy

Word Count: 1046 words

J’zargo did not like prophecies.

One such prophecy had uprooted him from his home in Elsweyr after he was caught pawning a trinket. How was he to know that the book of spells he’d found once belonged to the King of Worms?

J’zargo reflected on this incident as the dragon roared again. “We have to defend the town!” Faralda yelled, running to help.

“Why?” questioned Arniel Gane. “They’d never do the same for us!”

While J’zargo privately admitted Gane had a point, he wasn’t going to say it aloud. Gane was a stuck up bastard, somewhat like someone else J’zargo had met in the past.

I’ve been expecting you. We have business, you and I.

So said the god who had let the Dunmer raid and enslave his people for centuries. J’zargo shook his head to clear his thoughts. Now was not the time to be angry at someone long gone. Now was the time for action and killing dragons.

If dragons could even be killed.

J’zargo fingered the ring around his neck as he grabbed some of his scrolls. Azurah, please protect my new friends.

J’zargo was not an incredibly spiritual Khajiit. But it was hard not to instinctively pray to a god you had met in person.

Well, most of the time anyways.

Spells were already flying by the time J’zargo reached the center of town. Well, considering the “town” was about twenty houses, most places counted as the center.

And the dragon was taking up most of those places, breathing frost at anything that moved.

J’zargo grinned. What beats frost? Fire. “Eat this Improved Firestorm, dragon!”

He unfurled the scroll and was immediately blasted backwards by the force of the explosion. He slammed into a post and slid to the ground, ears ringing.

J’zargo rubbed his head. As the ringing subsided, he heard yelling. “Leave us be, mages!” Ah, that was probably the Jarl.

“We’re trying to help!” yelled Brelyna. J’zargo wasn’t prepared to meet a Telvanni who was friendly, but here he was.

“Oh, sure! I bet you summoned this beast in the first place!”

“Must you blame us for everything?” snapped Tolfdir. “Just fight this thing!”

The dragon, meanwhile, had recovered from J’zargo’s scroll and had turned to find a new victim.

And who should be in the dragon’s sights but Onmund.

J’zargo hissed and stumbled to his feet. Onmund might be his rival, as all the students were, but J’zargo couldn’t help but feel a camaraderie with them. Both of them forced out of their homes by circumstance. While Onmund had left by choice, J’zargo couldn’t blame him, from what little Onmund had said about his home life.

Onmund charged up a lightning spell and shocked the dragon in the face. Strangely, it actually reeled back from that while ignoring the other spells and weapons being thrown at it.

Had Onmund gotten that strong with lightning? J’zargo would have to challenge him later…but not now!

J’zargo ran to give Onmund aid. Or see the dragon more closely. Both, he decided. Both is good.

But as J’zargo ran, the dragon’s head suddenly shot forward. And when it came back, Onmund was in its jaws.

“Onmund!” screamed Breylna.

The dragon hadn’t bitten down yet. It was having fun, wagging it’s head back and forth with Onmund gripped in its jaws.

But its fun ended quickly. Electricity zapped down its scales and wings. Squiting, J’zargo could see Onmund holding onto the inside of the dragon’s mouth.

The dragon has saliva…and lightning is more powerful in water! If Onmund’s lightning spell hurt it before…

The dragon let out a hellish screech as its jaw flapped open and shut. Onmund fell out, luckily landing on a roof. Onmund rolled down the roof and fell into the snow, laying still.

Meanwhile, the dragon was still spasaming and flapping its wings wildly. It let out one last screech, then fell over, crushing a larger house beneath its body. “The longhouse!” someone yelled.

The dragon was still. And it smelled faintly of burned rubber.

There was complete silence. Then J’zargo noticed Onmund still wasn’t moving.

J’zargo sprinted through the snow towards him, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Brelyna and Colette Maurice doing the same.

J’zargo got there first, though, and rolled Onmund over onto his back. Onmund groaned, and J’zargo breathed a sigh of relief. He was alive, at least.

But he was bleeding through his robes, and had a few burns on his face and hands. “Move, move!” yelled Collette, opening Onmund’s robes. “I need to see his wounds!”

The wounds were bad. Teeth wounds that were incredibly deep and bleeding profusely.

“Is he…?” squeaked Brelyna.

“Not yet,” said Colette, gritting her teeth. “By some miracle it didn’t anything vital but-“

“By the gods, get back!”

J’zargo looked to the screams, and his jaw dropped. The dragon was glowing. And burning. “What in Azurah’s name-!”

And then it happened. Ghostly energy shot out of the dragon’s body. The trail shot up, making an arc, and then came back down directly on top of Onmund.

The force of the incoming energy threw all three mages back. “What in the name of the Reclamations is happening?” yelled Brelyna.

The energy poured into Onmund, and the Nord mage’s back arched and his eyes flew open. His teeth gritted and he seemed to float slightly.

Then it stopped. The energy disappeared into Onmund. Onmund’s body went limp again.

Colette crawled back over to look. She gasped. “What…?”

J’zargo leaned over to look. The teeth marks were gone. Well, no, not quite gone. But the gouges they had made were. It was scarred over now, like it had been healed for weeks.

J’zargo looked back over at the dragon.

It was nothing but bone.

The whole rest of the day consisted of the townspeople whispering “Dragonborn” in awe. Even the Jarl didn’t complain as he followed the mages back across to bridge to put Onmund back in his room to rest. His breathing was regular now.

But J’zargo couldn’t bring himself to be jealous of the awe the townspeople now seemed to have for Onmund.

The dragons returning, Onmund being able to kill them…this seemed like something tied to a prophecy.

And J’zargo did not like prophecies.

[dailyaudiobible]

1/30/2023 DAB Transcript

Exodus 10:1-12:13, Matthew 20:1-28, Psalm 25:1-15, Proverbs 6:6-11

Today is the 30th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is wonderful to have the opportunity to gather together around the Global Campfire and just enter this place of peace and serenity and allow the Scriptures to wash over us and into us. I am so grateful for this community and this place that we create each and every day. So, let's do what we do every day, which is to take the next step forward together. We are pretty well enmeshed in the book of Exodus at this point, a showdown is happening. God is desiring to set His people free, people that began with Abraham, Isaac then Jacob, who was Israel and then Israel had children, the children of Israel. Joseph was one of those children who is taken into slavery in Egypt but as things turned around, Joseph became second in command of all of Egypt, which brought the household to Egypt 70 people, but now 400 years have passed and those 70 people have turned into a multitude, a great and mighty people that have made the Egyptians nervous, so they have enslaved the Israelites. And then we met Moses and God calls Moses to go back to the land that he came from, the land of Egypt, and set his people free. And there's lots of twists and turns along the way. We've gone through them all. That's where we are. Now, Moses and Aaron are confronting Pharaoh regularly and plagues are descending upon the land and things have gotten beyond what the magicians of Egypt can replicate. And so, now, people are taking notice, like this is the finger of the Almighty God. This isn’t a trick. But Pharaoh's not convinced and that's where we pick up the story, Exodus 10 verse 1 through 12 verse 13 today.

Commentary:

Okay so, we have navigated our way in the book of Exodus, all the way to the precipice of a freedom for this enslaved Israelite population. Egypt has been destroyed by plague after plague after plague, each increasing in intensity, each very, very clearly showing the hand of God and the distinction that He is making between the Israelite’s, His people and the people of Egypt, not because he hates the people of Egypt but because their faith is in what is false and you can bet they are crying out to their gods to take these plagues away and it's not happening and people are respecting Moses, but their respecting God. God's name is being elevated among the Egyptian population. The fear of the Lord is descending over the population. But Pharaoh, believing that he has supernatural powers and is descended from deity himself, cannot submit himself to a God that's invading his land. And so, we hear that God is hardening Pharaoh's heart. And we read that like Pharaoh doesn't have a choice in the matter; this is his destiny. But when we think of hardening hearts, we need to think about how our hearts get hardened and if somebody just shows up and starts telling us what to do and how we should do everything and how we must submit and how we must obey, we will probably resist against that, and we may even dig in our heels and say I will not do that. And our heart has become hardened to the situation. We will not move in that direction. At any point, this whole thing could have been called off. In fact, it didn't have to happen. The people could've just been set free to begin with. But that would radically have changed Egypt and its economy and there are all kinds of implications to letting a whole slave population go free. And the increasing intensity of the plagues have made it clear that, there isn't a choice in the matter, one way or the other God is leading His people out of slavery in Egypt. And so, we see the institution of well, the instructions for Passover, to gather together and have this meal and so, they are painting the blood of the animals over the door posts of their homes, marking themselves as God's people, under a covenant, protected by God for God's purposes, which are to reveal God to all the nations of the world. Protected by God and prepared to walk into their freedom. Ironically, it's Passover, when we come into the Jesus story and we’re not that far actually from experiencing this for the first time in the gospel of Matthew. And it's Passover time. And through the death of Jesus, all are led into freedom.

And then we turn over into the book of Matthew and it was a couple of days ago where a question was posed to Jesus about who is the greatest in the kingdom. The GOAT; who’s the GOAT in the kingdom of God. And then, Jesus uses a series of teachings and examples that lead us all the way today, to where He explicitly answers the question, but He uses children as the example, the innocence, the humility, the wonder of a child. And He warns very gravely against anyone who would steal that innocence away, not only from a child, we would all agree that stealing the innocence from a child is a horrible thing, a horribly abusive thing to do. But what, by way of expanding that Jesus expands it to those who believe in Him. Anyone who steals the innocence and wonder and awe away from a believer, woe to that person. But in today's reading the issue kinda comes up again, like who is aware in the hierarchy of authority and closeness to God. Jesus takes His disciples societies on his way to Jerusalem. And He lets them know what can be expected to happen in Jerusalem and what can ultimately be expected is that Jesus will be killed, but He is promising to rise again. So, that is a weighty conversation to have, whether your Jesus and you have to go through death by being brutally executed or whether you're one of the disciples who has left everything to follow Jesus. That's a weighty conversation for your rabbi to say we’re…we’re on our way to Jerusalem, and when we get there, I will be taken from you and killed. It seems like that would be a somber kind of thing that would leave everybody sort of walk…at some point walking in silence, really, contemplating what's gonna happen. But as the story reads, Jesus gets done saying this is gonna happen and then the mother of the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons and knelt down and asked Jesus to make her two sons in the hierarchy of things to be seated one on his left and one on his right when he enters this kingdom. And the funny thing is, He's been teaching about the kingdom, He’s been telling parables about the kingdom, He’s been describing the kingdom and they’re still expecting a different kind of kingdom. They have this inherent understanding of what the Messiah is gonna look like and Jesus looks like that person, except for, except for the uprising part. Like, go get your knives and daggers and hatchets and plows and let's go to war part. Jesus is describing a kingdom that doesn't do that. But they still expect the Messiah to rise up and defeat their enemies, which in this case is the Roman empire. So, if Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem for a showdown, then this is about happen and everybody better jockey for position because once He gets going, it's not going to stop. So, when the other disciples come to the understanding about what's happened with the sons of Zebedee and their mom, they get angry about it. And then Jesus simply lays out who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven, as He responds to this tiff that's going on, this jockeying for position and the anger among the disciples. And Jesus says and so, certainly we need to take it to heart because Jesus is saying it, but Jesus is saying it to explain the hierarchy of God's kingdom and we…we don't live into this. Like, for some reason we still think the opposite is true. But let's look at what Jesus says, I quote, “you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them. It must not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you, must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you, must be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Our cultures do not operate this way. Most of us live in cultures were trying to make distinctions about how we are superior, in some sort of way, a master at something in some sort of way. In order to climb up ladders and gain notoriety and increase wealth and increase influence, are like Paramount, like this is even dominant in church culture. Like the goal is to be a celebrity pastor or the goal is to attend the biggest church in town. And I’m not saying you're in any of that is wrong. I'm saying that's not the characteristics for greatness in God's kingdom, according to the King of the kingdom. The criteria for greatness in God's kingdom is available to anyone. It doesn't require a person with money or a person with power, or a person with influence or connections or whatever. It requires understanding that how we take care of each other is what matters in God's kingdom. Anybody can participate in that. When we’re flipped over and trying to climb ladders for us to win, somebody has to lose. We may have to step on some heads as rungs to the latter that were climbing up to get there. But when we get there, we’ll sure do an awful lot of good. That's not how God's kingdom works, according to the King of God's kingdom. How we take care of each other is how it works in God's kingdom. I quote again, “it must not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Let's give it some thought today, as we observe ourselves and not just our actions, not just after we've done something and go, why did I do that. But the motives of the heart. Are we here to serve one another, are we, or are we here trying to get ourselves in a position that we can be served. Things to think about.

Prayer:

And Jesus, we invite You into those things because they are paramount things. You came to earth and began to reveal that life is from within and this exterior life can't work without the interior one and putting them back together so that a person can live true from within and without and be true, that this is possible. This is what You've come to do that. This is what You are offering to us. And when we participate in such a way that we have to arrange for everything and we have to climb ladders and we have to have certain levels of visibility, these things are fine, they can be achievements, they can be goals, but if we've lost the plot of the story that this is all boiling down to how we take care of each other in Your kingdom, then we’re missing the point. Help us retrieve the point and move in the direction that is what Your kingdom is like, and Your kingdom is like You. May we be more like You today, than we were yesterday. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible. If the mission here to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone, anytime, anywhere and to build community around that rhythm, as we navigate our days and weeks and months and stitch them all together and make a year of it in community, if that is life-giving than thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you're using the app can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

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And that's it for today, I'm Brian, I love you and I'll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Good morning family. This is Bridgette from New York City. Today is January 26th. I’m just excited to share just what I am just sensing the Lord say to my spirit after Brian read Exodus. I love the Old Testament. It just shows you the heart of man and a lot of the heart of God. And I’m just blown away that when Moses approached the bush, right, God didn’t say to him you know, hey, I saw you and what you did to that guy in Egypt. You know, I…I…I saw what happened. He didn’t bring up anything from the past. He just brought up that He is aware of you know, his people and the cry of his people. And how oppressed they are and wow. I’m just blessed this morning because while we sometimes sit just focused on you know, the past of ourselves or the past of other people. God does not even look at that, He just looks at the cry, the oppression, the cry of His people. So, I just wanna encourage you guys that God hears our cry. He hears us even when we don’t know what to say, even when we don’t know Him, when we don’t follow Him the right way, when we don’t seek Him. It’s not gonna be perfect but He knows. He’s called us and He knows His people’s cry. Hallelujah! I pray that blesses this morning. Love you guys. Bye.

Good morning DABers, King Richard aka Strong In His Grace. I was just gonna reach out. I heard on, I was listening to some music on January 21st, wanted to reach out. There was a man, I didn’t catch his name, but he was separated, going through a divorce and wasn’t able to see his kids. I just wanted to reach out to him. And reach out to all men that are going through separations right now. All men that are going through divorces and are not able to see their kids. Father God, I just ask You to touch them in Your mercy Father God. Father God, all those whom all the sores, those hurts, You would heal them. If you mend them, Father God, with Your grace and Your mercy. And that that Your Holy Spirit would take control and give us, those men hope, through this prayer. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. God bless you DABers, have a great day.

Good morning DABers, this is Duncan Holmes, The Piano Man, on the road in Glovingsdale, New York, where we’re getting a lot of snow. I’m on the road to play an engagement soon but I’m finishing up on Saturday and this is the 27th, 26th. Pray for us. It’s been a great tour but we’re heading home, Saturday. And just pray that I can safely get home without any weather hazards or anything. I’ve done some nursing homes and I’ve done other; I’ve done some, played two churches and a couple other places that I’ve played. I’m a pianist and it’s mostly. My prayers go out for all of those broken-hearted people who have been cheated on. I’m especially praying for, my heart goes out to the lady who’s wrestling with God and dealing with a lot of issues right now. And my heart’s with you. I’ve been involved there, been there, did that, whether we want to admit it or not. Lord Jesus, this is very gentle. Take care, heal these broken hearts. Move them Father, towards forgiveness. It’s gonna take time and a lifetime maybe. We, Lord Jesus, be very, very present with them. Lord, those who have all these illnesses they’re battling with. I don’t mean to be so general, but we have very little time. You know my heart, Lord. My heart, Your heart goes out much even more. Thank You Jesus. In your blessed sweet name, we pray. God bless you. I’ll talk to you again when I get home.

Hey, this is KV from Miami. I’m calling to ask for prayer cause I need it right now, more than ever. The last week I’ve moved out of my family home cause they’ve been stealing from me for some time now. I found out and nobody wants to take responsibility. And honestly, they were stealing from me before I gave them and then it happened again. Even worse this time around. Even after they knew I had nothing, and I don’t have a job. But I luckily, thanks to the Lord, got a little part-time three-day thing that, it’s gonna be able to get me to eat and find some places to stay for, for some time. But I’m still need God’s guidance, your guy's prayers to help me through this, part of my life. I’m not gonna blame anybody for where I am because I did, have my own living arrangements but I did. I’m on my own power to lose from enemy. Making me do things that are not me. They’re not Godly, they’re not something that God would want me to do. So, because of those things, I lost. But I pray for guidance to, to just make the smart decisions. And not to be proud. Cause I found myself with lots of money that I could have been a good steward of, and I wasted it on things that weren’t important. And now I find myself in a situation. I’m blaming myself. So, I just ask you guys to pray for me and give me some extra prayers. Thank you DAB.

Good morning DAB family. I love you guys so much. I appreciate hearing God's word read fresh every day; I appreciate listening to your voices at the end of each podcast. You guys are my family. I love you. I just want to put a word out there for anyone feeling discouragement due to self-condemnation and addiction, mental illness. You know, perhaps you’ve heard my story, but I’ve listened to Daily Audio Bible, I’m on year 17 now. And my life has been a rollercoaster. I struggled with addiction and compulsive disorders before Daily Audio Bible and searched for healing. Begged, bargained, pleaded for healing and deliverance. I went to churches, seminars, people who I thought maybe would say the magic prayer. I just want you to know that I don’t know how because it’s a miracle. But listening to God’s word everyday transformed me, healed me, delivered me. I can’t explain it. I listened to God’s word in terrible states of mind, but I knew it was alive. I knew to keep listening. And all of the struggles and trying to find a key to my prison door, to find deliverance, all of that work just, it just went away. The struggle went away and pouring God’s word into my life every day, totally healed me. You guys, stay in God’s word. I can’t explain it and you can’t explain it but it is God’s word, and it is alive. So, hang in ..

Hey family, this is Eyes of a Dove. So, I’m having a hard time. I’ve lost about 25lbs or so, just to get down to a healthy weight. Anyways, it’s caused a hard time with coffee. Coffee is making me more anxious and stressful, and the Lord’s been talking to me about maybe switching off of coffee to green tea. It’s hard, I’m really addicted to coffee. But it makes me stressful. On top of that, I don’t know if you guys know but my mom has, was diagnosed with bipolar/schizophrenia, when I was very young. There was an incident involving me when I was little, and her, where she attempted to take my life and hers. I love my mom, she’s been medicated all these years, but in the last couple months, she all of a sudden had a revelation that God healed her from the medication and she’s seeing her doctor said she could get off it. Which none of us really believe. And she’s starting to get very manic and went to church with me and it was just very triggering. And I had a really hard time with it because I love my mom but it’s hard to be around her without triggering. And then this morning, she sent me a six page message on revelation about dragons and how my daughter wears dragons on her shirt and mini me. And that mini me will go to hell if she continues to wear these dragons on her shirt. Cause it’s my only daughter it reminds me of me being that little girl. And then my mom brought up revelation and tried to take my life. So, this morning, I’m just really spinning. My brothers are stressed, cause their helping to care for my dad who’s got late-term Alzheimer’s. And my mom and my dad live together with a walk-in nurse. And then this will all be worked out in the Lord’s hands. I just need peace in my heart to get through my workday. So, I’m starting off my work feeling emotional, and I need Shalom. I need Shalom.  

[girlbossminerva]

MERMAID HEEL GUILD SALT

Aside from all the other guilds, Mermaid Heel is a guild that only accepts those of the female gender as said by Millianna who said those two (Sho, and Wally) couldn't join even if they wanted to, and men acting as women would possibly fuck up the guild's reputation, honestly the feeling of an all girls guild just gives me life, maybe even fanfic ideas but aside from that.

These characters aren't all that needed or should I say are just around for Mashima to say he believes in feminism, he has another concept as to what feminism is.

One of the girls who is chubby, has the ability to... change her body with her gravity magic into the same body template used for all the others girls, and says, "Don't underestimate chubby power."

"Uh, you ain't even chubby in this form..." - Me.

Arana Webb, should have just been a spider girl, fast asf reflexes and a nice sense of style, but... oh god, oneshot, and shes out???

Where is y'all guild master??

Millianna got bigger tiddies, that's it. And a hoe-ified outfit, sorry if it sounds rude but her outfit before the seven year shit.

Kagura... WHERE'D YOU EVEN COME FROM???

And the little one, can barely remember her name uhh, guess your alright...

As a concept mermaid heel can be interesting to explore specially when, like me, you headcanon it being a sapphic only/majority guild but yeah, It's just Mashima kind of going "yes, I'm a feminist, now stop looking i how i overly sexualize every single female character under the sun." And just like most characters introduced in the gmg they don't get enough time to develop properly and fully outside of like kagura, which is debatable.

The chubby girl is Risley and FUCK DO I HATE THE WAY HER MAGIC WORKS. IT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE, IF IT'S GRAVITY MAGIC AND IT TURNS HER SKINNY DOES THAT MEAN HER ENTIRE BODY IS BEING FORCED TO BE UNDER MASSIVE GRAVITATIONAL PRESSURE OR SOMETHING?? HOW DO HER ORGANS SURVIVE THAT?? It makes no sense, he should just admit that he hates fat people

Araña is my niche beloved actually, i have created her entire characterization in my head. First of all she's Hispanic (dominicana), second she's one of those people who are so chill that you can't help but also feel relaxed in her presence, third she likes crocheting and makes sweaters for her friends, and fourth she has a collection of pet spiders plus a prying mantis. Also yes, she's basically spiderman and she would have lasted longer in that damn battle.

I actually kind of redesigned millianna's outfit a while back, thought I did trace the oficial art cause my drawing skills are minimal. Is it great? No, but it does have more personality than the literal underwear she's put on post-time skip. And the little one that has farm girl vibes is Beth, she honestly is just there cause the teams are meant to have 5 people in them.

Now Kagura I do love, mostly because she's too gay to function when around Erza and I do love me some sword ladies, but thinking about her role in the story, she does suffer from the "not enough time to develop this" issue. She's just suddenly popped into the universe to kind of acknowledge again Jellal's crimes (which, is it necessary if that is all his character is about?) and half-heartedly attempt to talk about them but yeah, it was fucking stupid that suddenly simon had a sister, it would've made more sense if she was one of the enslaved kids or something.

[wolint]

NO ROOM FOR WITCHCRAFT

Leviticus 20:6 AMPC The person who turns to those who have familiar spirits and to wizards, [being unfaithful to Israel’s Maker Who is her Husband, and thus] playing the harlot after them, I will set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people [that he may not be included in the atonement made for them].

In the last few years, witchcraft has become a steadily acceptable topic and practice in many areas of society. God says that He will set His face against anyone who turns to familiar spirits and wizards to prostitute themselves by following them instead of God. It is wrong to seek guidance through any other means. Unfortunately, people may not even be aware that they are participating in things the bible classifies as witchcraft because the enemy has become very adept in making such things look innocent, they are often portrayed as entertainment (witches, Hellboy movies), literature (Harry porter), jokes and even toys (spell casting toys). A lot of Christians, at least 95% fail to discern the tricks of the enemy and yield to the media’s manipulation of truths. A group of self-professed “Christian witches” held their annual convention on Easter in Salem, Massachusetts. The gathering of “Witches, Sorcerers/Sorceresses, Wizards, Warlocks, Necromancers, Readers” and “like-minded Magical Beings” was organized by Rev. Valerie Love (aka KAISI). How are you put Christ and witches in the same sentence? According to Exodus 22:18, this is a capital offence to God. We cannot serve God and Satan simultaneously. In Matthew 6:24, Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. This can be applied to whatever we believe in. A master is anything that enslaves us according to Romans 6:16. Anything in opposition to God is mammon. So many people are involved in seeking guidance through mediums, spirit guides, horoscopes, and other occultic activities, completely ignorant of the fact that God is the only being whose knowledge is unsearchable, the only one who can tell, not predict the future because He already planned it out. Our culture is rapidly turning from the Judea-Christian values it once embraced in exchange for pagan ideals. Goddess worship, Wicca, witchcraft and other occultic practices have become part of our mainstream culture. Look online and you would be amazed at how many “bibles” there are to facilitate witches, warlocks, and druids, just as much as any other religion. It is very evident that paganism, witchcraft and other magic are growing in popularity in our societies, we must understand this dark craft from a biblical perspective and keep ourselves pure from its seductive influences. The blood of Jesus Christ binds every unclean thing, and they cannot enslave born-again Christians against their will. There is much ignorance on the part of many Christians, about what the Bible says on this subject. Deuteronomy 18:9-11 tells us not to imitate the religion of the pagans that surround us. We should avoid involving ourselves in the abominable practises of the cultures around us such as Abortion (Abortion is the same wicked practice where people murder children in the pursuit of wealth and happiness), Divination which has gained popularity in the last decade- the practice of using omens or magic powers to foretell the future. Some use tarot cards and tea leaf reading, for others, it could be runes stone, and crystal, God hates all of these and does not want us seeking knowledge, direction and guidance from anything and anyone besides Him. Seek the Lord wholey, you belong to Him. Shalom Women of light international prayer ministries.

[firstumcschenectady]

“Mixed Multitude” Exodus 12:33-42 and Acts 2:5-11, 41-42

I love our “We Cry Justice” reading today (#25 by Daniel Jones) and the hot take on “mixed multitudes.” I loved the MLK quote it started with too, including, Pharaoh '”kept the slaves fighting among themselves.” This “trick” of having most of the resources in a society “float” to the top while leaving the multitudes fighting for the crumbs is well known, and unfortunately still well used. Take a look at governmental budgets and then the people advocating for various just causes – who accidentally end up fighting each other to prove the imperative nature of their own concern AT THE cost of the others. (Fixable, it turns out, by fixing the regressive tax code so it doesn't magnify inequality.)

Mr. Jones points out that Ancient Egypt was “an empire based on violence and injustice that sacrificed lives to the accumulation of wealth and its paranoia, viewed the murder of children as a fair price for keeping control.”1 I can't decide if I should respond “OUCH” or “PREACH” to that one. He goes on to say that the mixed multitude – the Israelites and those who suffered along with them in the empire – built a new society based on God's laws. “This higher law proclaims the accumulation of individual wealth to be immoral and demands freedom for enslaved people, forgiveness of debts, care for the environment, and the responsibility of everyone to their neighbors.” And THAT's why we call it the Promised Land.

The holiness of this mixed multitude, seeking shared goodness for each other instead of competing with each other and creating community out of shared need is found in Acts 2 as well. We normally only focus on Acts 2 on Pentecost, but it is another example that when God's Spirit is at work, people are bonded together across boundaries that might otherwise seem too impossible to cross.

God seems particularly committed to mixed multitudes.

Now this is funny thing to say right now I think. This week I've watched the incredible power of God's spirit move in the intractable-until-now United Methodist Church and all of a sudden there is hope abundant! And, truthfully, that hope abundant comes BECAUSE of disaffiliation, it comes because we split. It comes because we BROKE bonds.

Part of me - ok, a really large part of me – wants to simply say that those who left identified with the oppressor and oppressed God's beloveds and we are better off without them. But God has said to love our enemies, and I'm pretty sure being that petty isn't appropriate for a preacher... while preaching at least ;)

We who value the wide diversity of God's creation may find it easy to hear about the mixed multitudes and the amazing ways God's work to overturn oppression pulls people together. But I also know that we who value the wide diversity of God's creation sometimes find it really hard to deal with those who... don't.

Right?

It's OK, I know I'm right.

It turns out to be easier to be in a mixed multitude where people agree mixed multitudes are awesome than it is to be in a mixed multitude where there is a diversity of opinions about the value of diversity.

Or, maybe there is a bigger truth here. God's amazing work to overcome oppression and pull people together is REAL. But it is hard to live in community – there are ALWAYS differences. I think often of the story a little later in Acts when the incredibly diverse Body of Christ in its infancy already had issues with food distribution being fairly managed. Humans come into community with differences. There is no community without conflict. There is no community without bias. There is no community in prefect agreement – except maybe those who all defer to a strong-man leader.

The truth is that God binds us together. And, I think sometimes we get to the point when the best choice is to let some bonds go. Because not everything is now as it should be. We know this about marriage itself – there are times when two people have hurt each other enough that the best, most loving way forward, is apart. This week showed very clearly that all the dreams I've ever heard God dreaming for The United Methodist Church are possible – now that we're broken. And, to be fair, I hear from those in the Global Methodist Church that they think all the dreams they ever heard God dreaming are now possible there. The issue has ALWAYS been that we hear God differently.

So I've been thinking about what the moral, Christ-like response is to those with whom we have fundamental-values-level-differences. And I hear the echos of Jesus on the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” and I think that's the actual start of it. I hear it in Martin Luther King teaching about the goal of his work being to bring everyone together, not to bring down the oppressor. Let's hear him:

Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. That’s why Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they’re mistreating you. Here’s the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don’t do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they’re mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. “love your enemies.”2

So, dear ones, I'm going to keep on loving the Global Methodist Church, because I deeply believe God asks me to. Further, I believe there are people in that church who need it, and others who will need it. And, apparently, we are supposed to love Christian Nationalists too – even when they misrepresent our tradition. (Pulling no punches today.)

I guess no one every said being a follower of Jesus was easy, huh? But, friends, it is the season of Easter and we are told over and over again that God is Love and Love wins and NOTHING, not even death, can stop God's power of love. So, dear mixed multitude, let's keep on loving on EVERYONE even when they don't seem to know how broad God's love is yet. Let's be accused of being naive with our love. Let's be radical, and a little too broad with it. Let's be like God. Amen

1We Cry Justice #25, page 110.

2https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/loving-your-enemies-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 163 Rundown

Spy X Family: The cruise ship arc continues and shit starts to hit the fan as Yor and her Director start to realize an eclectic group of assassins are after them and this becomes one of the serious arcs from Assassination Classroom all of the sudden (now I’m just imagining Yor as Koro-sensei’s TA and that in itself is pretty great) but yeah Yor and her Director get one kill each, like people actually die and that is something this series has over AssClass and it’s kinda jarring how sudden the murders are but it’s also kind of a good change of pace for treating Yor like an actual assassin and Loid like a real spy instead of one of those Nickelodeon shows where they say they’re spies but nobody has guns and the kids have to do everything. So yeah once they do that though Yor recognizes that wanton murder will probably get the ship turned around so she decides for non-lethal takedowns for the next few guys before facing off with Kusarigama Dude. Anya and Loid are also there and Anya’s just trying to keep Loid distracted so he doesn’t see Yor take down a bear of a man with a giant chain but the man has watched her suplex an actual cow before so idk why watching her beat up some dude would make him put the pieces together, he seems pretty clueless.

Inuyasha: This episode’s basically filler but it has a cute framining device with Kilala reminiscing about Kohaku and Sango’s relationship and reflecting on how the siblings are separated now. It’s pretty cute to see Baby Sanjo and Baby Kohaku growing up together so even though the episode doesn’t have much going on it’s probably worth it. Kohaku finds Kirara and helps her fight some demons and they talk for a bit. Like Kilala can’t talk so it’s probably safe to tell her what he’s planning but is Naraku not watching Kohaku at all because if he can talk to a cat about his plans there’s no reason he can’t be off having secret fuck Naraku meetings with god knows who like I thought this was why Naraku kept a Saimyosho detail on him at all times. Sango goes out to find Kilala and runs into Kagura and it’s funny how at this point in the series she doesn’t even bother fighting Sango like they’re not even enemies if Naraku’s not watching they’re just people that don’t like each other very much. Ngl though a balls to the wall Kagura vs Sango fight would probably be pretty cool even how hard both of them were power crept ones Inuyasha got the Wind Scar and beyond, like Hiraikotsu’s ranged attacks obviously wouldn’t work but Sango does have other shit in her arsenal despite how little she uses it. But yeah Kohaku leaves just as Sango finds Kilala and they can’t tell each other what’s going on but Kilala shows where Kohaku helped her and takes her to the field of flowers Kohaku showed her so Sango has an inkling that Kohaku’s okay now.

Yu Yu Hakusho: It’s Mukuro vs Hiei and this fight holds up a good deal better than Kurama’s final fight but it’s not without its problems. I’ve kind of noticed the Demon Kings don’t seem to have the level of cool techniques we saw in the Dark Tournament like all of them just have DBZ powers which I guess make sense that they’re creatures that have grown strength beyond technique but it’s also kinda boring to watch sometimes, they make an attempt at technique with Mukuro being able to ‘cut’ through the dimensions but in effect this just means there’s laser beams around the arena which doesn’t sound much like cutting through dimensions at all. These two angsty motherfuckers spend most of the fight bickering about how neither of them can take each other seriously in a fight because of their weird connect as twin kindred dark souls. Mukuro’s backstory is that she was enslaved by nonspecific demon slavers and hates everything because her life was REALLY shitty except like… she doesn’t? Like we don’t see her actively being malicious towards anything and her kingdom is a creepy bug world but Raizen specifically says she’d run a better ship than Yomi. But yeah she’s projecting a bit and saying Hiei only wants to belong and be loved and that’s why he didn’t destroy his village. Like bitch were you listening to the story? Hiei’s ice mommies are way worse off being frozen assholes with no emotions, that shit was revenge letting them live. Still neither of them have a particularly good idea of what to do next and listening to her ranting does let Hiei get an idea as he sends out the Darkness Dragon and Mukuro is finally able to crush it, but Hiei reveals that it wasn’t supposed to kill her but break her unbreakable shackle symbolizing her past hatred so they can both move on. Like that’s a fine little story and it does have the nice moral of sometimes it’s okay to just live and look forward to something even if you’re not sure what it is, and Hiei definitely has found a family unit at this point even if he never mentions it. It’s just like focusing the whole fight on a character whose backstory we get in the same episode and making it the final resolution for Hiei’s entire character in the series is more than a little messy.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Gundam Mechamaru vs Mahito and it’s really freaking cool considering Gundamn Mechamaru (despite my name for it) is just a huge homage to Gurren Lagann and Evangelion like it’s got the wires and shit and Mahito even busts into the cockpit with a giant drill like Kamina’s death scene and the final clash of Mechamaru getting shit ripped off and barreling through is just like the final clash in Gurren Lagann. But yeah it’s basically an excuse for Mechamaru to burn through his tragically limited energy and show off cool lights and shit until Mahito uses his Domain Expansion (which seems a lot bigger this time idk if it has a set size but it’s able to draw Gundam Mechamaru in from halfway across the dam despite being about the size of a gazebo when he used it on Kento. However Mechamaru’s able to use blue-haired girl’s technique which if I’m understanding it right basically creates a small pocket dimension inside the larger pocket dimension to cancel out a small version of the initial Domain’s effects and it’s something a lot of people overlook because it just seems to be a shittier version of a Domain like when blue girl used it. Anyway Mahito compulsory evacuation device’s his soul beforehand and is able to do the aforementioned Gurren Lagann reference and they don’t even bother showing you Mechamaru dying like they just show his crush talking to his empty mech about how they should get to know each other better and Mahito walking away and expect you to get the picture that he got giga soul drill breaker’d in his newly reconstructed face and things are only going to get worse from here. Halloween night is a pretty neat setting for the actual big Cursed Spirit terrorist attack to take place like everyone just kinda in costume chilling it reminds me of Hocus Pocus or the Halloween movies where some weird shit’s about to go down and you’re just kinda awkwardly sitting there with holiday decorations all around. But yeah there’s a Normies Only barrier that basically takes all the muggles in the area hostage and they subliminally send out ‘yo fuckers bring Satoru Gojo’ even though no one knows who the fuck that is. It’s actually kind of a neat strategy like Geto should’ve tried this when he was alive instead of the whole ‘imma get a bunch of mook cursed spirits and tell you when and where it’s happening so you can evacuate everyone ahead of time’ like I think Stitches!Geto has a different motivation than normal Geto but taking all the normies captive does kinda align with his original goal even though the whole Night of a Thousand Curses thing didn’t end up putting any normies at risk, maybe OG Geto was too soft for widespread massacre after all. Anyway all the main characters show up to help and Gojo just kinda dips in like ‘yo, heard some anonymous force of mass destruction wanted to see me?’.  

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: Okay ngl I was kinda getting bored of this series at this point, get the feeling this was designed to be binged like a long movie so sitting on it for over two months probably dragged out the pacing way more than intended, that said this episode is one of those great pre-finale episodes that ties everything together. Old Scott has dragged Current Scott into the future where there’s been some manner of unspecified apocalypse but also everyone and everything just kinda seems okay like I don’t know if anything actually happened or if the future just has dystopian chic design philosophies. Scott’s… basically still where he was ten years ago, still in a dead-end band (this time with the Brothers and their weird robot) and still living with Wallace. He lived out the good end of the original series but ended up getting divorced from Ramona after thirteen years of marriage for an unspecified reason, though Old Scott says it’s Ramona’s fault and Ramona doesn’t seem to bear Old Scott any ill will. Also completely unrelated but Wallace’s future husband works at Nintendo and Scott just goes ‘…where they make the video games?’ and that just made me laugh really hard for no reason. But yeah turns out Scott’s been controlling the time-traveling vegan robot and watching Ramona’s badass adventure the whole time and goes to talk to old Ramona about it. Old Ramona is a Death Stranding mail carrier now and says though their relationship’s over she didn’t want it to be erased from time so she was the one that wrote Young Neil’s screenplay so he could see the movie of their love in some form even if time travel fucked them out of actually living it. Scott tells her how awesome she is and how he watched her past self persevere for the sake of that relationship they never got to have and it’s really kind of a nice moment. She takes him back to the past so he can explain everything and reunite with regular Ramona but turns out the weird video game curse is still in effect so they’ll have to do a Boss Rush in the finale to break it even though half the Exes probably don’t even mind anymore. But yeah it’s a really good episode with a lot of heart and it does kinda validate a lot of what I’ve been saying while watching it that Ramona has some issues and they need to at least address why after treating the rest of her relationships so flippantly we should believe Scott is different and the answer is he kind of isn’t, like he is but he isn’t but at the same time Ramona does consider him the love of her life and the fact that there’s a timeline where it didn’t work out actually makes me feel a lot better about the ridiculously cutesy relationship they were setting up, like a little adversity and discussion can do wonders for a romantic subplot.

Ranking of Kings: Baby Kage and his mom get a little vignette and Baby Kage has to live with his shit life before a knight comes along and rescues him from a rampaging bull after seeing him try to save another kid from it. Kage dreams of becoming a knight like him and thus is born his little wooden horse his mom made for him. I kinda don’t know how to feel about filler like this because like once we get a tragic backstory for the most part we expect it’s understood that not every single second of that character’s life was terrible but at the same time getting a piece of that where it’s like ‘well actually some of the people weren’t racist dickheads’ kinda undercuts the relief he finds when he meets Bojji, it’s like those filler episodes of Naruto where he’s playing with the other kids and it’s like ‘didn’t you have a swing of lonliness to sit on or something?’ like it’s not continuity-breaking but it does undercut the tragic vibe a bit. The other short is a retelling of Bosse’s backstory in a different art style, it’s nice but more than a little distracting and does kinda give the vibe that Bosse wanted to be the strongest so he could protect his family which was never stated as the reason in the story and is kinda weird if he literally sacrifices Bojji’s potential for it but we’re almost done with this weird filler season so that’s good.

Vinland Saga: So things are going well on the farm, Einar and Thorfinn have beards now and Thorfinn’s pulling his hair back plus the wheat crop has grown a bit so it’s been some time, plus Einar’s relationship with Arnheid’s blossoming well and we get a hilarious montage of Einar teaching Thorfinn how to pray like a Quaker (ie screaming). Einar does bring up the point that if they can buy their freedom with their crops, what does that mean for the housemaid slaves like Arnheid and we’re just gonna put a pin in that while we shift perspectives. Ketil’s oldest son Thorgil has come back from Canute’s war and he’s the pillaging type of guy like Thorkell despite Canute saying to stop doing that shit. He tells his younger brother about their cool war hero dad and Ketil’s just like ‘uhh yeah sure I was an anime character on the battlefield’. When Snake finds some children thieves and tells Ketil to administer their punishment there’s a big round table discussion about what to do, like the heavy guys just wanna kill and/or dismember them while the farm accountant is like ‘okay just make them work it off… and also beat the shit out of them’ and Ketil turns out to be a relatively nice guy and doesn’t want to beat the shit out of children but he knows with his sons watching and a room full of toxic masculinity he’s not gonna get away from beating the shit out of some kids. Like it’s weird that he’s the unquestioned master of the farm and still has to do what society demands, like you literally own people why can’t you just be like ‘it’s my fucking farm I’ll do what I want’ though he does admit in private that he’s not really a pacifist so much as a coward and he’s scared of everyone that wants to do violence, most of all his own son. Like he doesn’t wanna do the violence but also he’s too much of a wimp to do the violence to the people that want him to do the violence to get out of doing the violence. Also he’s telling all of this to Arnheid who is apparently his bottom bitch because I guess violence is wrong and slavery is morally ambiguous but enforced prostitution is a green light. This is why I made so many qualifiers when I was talking about his arrangement with Einar and Thorfinn being mostly the best case scenario because despite him being pretty progressive for the time period, nobody’s getting out of the time period of pillaging and unsavory shit without a godlike transcendent view on morality and the resilience to defy cultural norms which I think is kind of the point of what Canute and Thorfinn are slowly working on doing.

[cosmicangel888]

UNDERSTANDING 'sacrificing' Low Vibe Control Tactics ~ Reclaim Your Godly Connection ~ #5D

Common Sense Reconnecting Spirit, Source, God Care and Love into every day

TIPS

* anyone advising, asking, telling you to sacrifice any sacred life for something is not aligned and is sitting in entity attachment, given their mind to entities, control of their life to what they think is the feeding sacrificial belly

* sacrifices are falsies

* as you buy into or = give your power and free will away to any such be it pyramid spiritual bidding program, elite political bidding programs, purse-strings and how and who pay to keep the buying into the feeding of the belly of 'degrading humanity' the disconnecting of your choice, voice, spirit with all physical reality by selling you a thing, a title, a placement, or something is utter FALSE

* Sacrifices are that which you are not understanding the creational reality and show you in its return, backfire, in higher light will be YOU SACRIFICING YOU IN SOMEHOW AND SOMEWAY IN WHATEVER WAY GOD WILL SHOW YOU WAS UNNECESSARY TO GIVE YOUR POWER TO ANY OUTSIDE OF YOU

* MIND CONTrol, fear based tactics, enslavement, entrapment, cult-like groups that base their entire operations on intimidation, sacrifices and humiliation rituals, blood rituals, are all nothing more than degrading, furthering trying to experience yourself in separation of your own godliness, and your reality - due to wounding

* there is a breaking up of all 3D templates and the energies are scattering

- the consciousness levels will continue to raise, the light will continue and this will not stop, no 1 light worker being 'taken out' will not stop ascension and again why the corrupt elites, purse string pullers and those that live through dominating, controlling, and enslaving humanity will fail, fall, to their own demise

** - for it is not the fault of 1 seer, light worker, healer, that light will bathe our planet due to the collective heart pulsations of equal quantum light that says 'ENOUGH of the SICK GAMES' of control and enslavement

- we deserve light, unity, peace, and healed children and happy earth with higher vibrational leaders that care about being sacred and living sacred

* Gods, Source plan for our multi-verse ascension is far grander than the $Trillion dollar elite programs of subjugation slavery, and debauchery - no title on earth, or taking away of 1 light worker will stop the multi-verse ascension

- it simply is - and we are worthy, deserving, and ready for a new earth with love as our focus and care and connection as your foundation - enough of the wars

Enough of the warped and sick, toxic so called 'officials' that care and voice for the people - they have shown you they do not care - the people are sick and getting sicker - they choose to enslave and keep humanity stupid, numb and turned off - is that a higher atuned and caring leader?

* what systems will create if we choose to not change ?

* see any of Whitney Webbs videos, and the others that show truth and what only 1 light worker reads in our collective as energy -

* there is no need to fear - all have a voice, choice as to what they choose to take and experience as karma

* none will be missed and all are being watched for their own inner desire to do, be, pulsate what is right and for the greater good = your conscience, your consciousness, all is being affected by hate, disconnection or love and peace and unity ©

Will you support the lack of liberties we should have - or will only the rich elite men that dictate and lead in corruption be the only ones with a voice?

What will you choose

Reclaim your light, energy, and consciousness - life is so very sacred - we have forgotten and disconnected from this truth

You are sacred - this is truth

You are in a sacred experience - this is truth

What will you choose?

You will return and what you choose now is how you will return - love or disconnection?

And so be it

This is my word

Joanna

More on Creational Realities;

Paradigms Shifting of Consciousness ~ Perfection of the Divine Plan for all life;

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~ Email me at JoannaCosmicAngel@yahoo.com

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[scotttrismegistus7]

Jordan Maxwell The Naked Truth

FREE YOUR MIND:

JORDAN MAXWELL GOING THROUGH INFORMATION THAT WAS A PRECURSOR TO THE MOVIE ZEITGEIST, AMONG OTHER THINGS, SOUNDING THE ALARM LIKE I DO ABOUT JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY BEING FAKE RELIGIONS DESIGNED SOLELY TO MANIPULATE AND CONTROL.

IN THE BOOK, NOT IN HIS IMAGE BY JOHN LAMB LASH, HE GOES INTO SOME DETAIL ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF JUDAISM. THE POINT THAT NEEDS TO BE MADE IS THAT BOTH CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM ARE GUILTY OF TRYING TO DESTROY AND WRITE OUT OF HISTORY THE REAL TRUTH, BECAUSE IT DOESN'T SUIT THEIR NEEDS OF MANIPULATING, CONTROLLING, AND ENSLAVING EVERYBODY. THEY SAY THAT THE ANTICHRIST IS GOING TO COME AND IS GOING TO DO ALL THESE HORRIBLE THINGS, BUT YET THEY DID THINGS IN THE CRUSADES AND INQUISITION THAT WERE A MILLION TIMES MORE HORRIBLE THAN THEY CLAIM ANYTHING THE ANTICHRIST IS GOING TO DO, NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT ALL THOSE SCRIPTURES ARE WARPED INTERPRETATIONS OF WHAT THEY WERE ORIGINALLY SUPPOSED TO BE.

I think you might like this book – "Not in His Image (15th Anniversary Edition): Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of Belief" by John Lamb Lash.

Start reading it for free: https://a.co/2pJrhmz

THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT I CAN'T TALK ABOUT PUBLICLY, BECAUSE THE REALITY OF SPIRITUALITY SEEN IN NATURE AND UNSEEN IN NATURE IS ALSO THE KEY TO TECHNOLOGY THAT THE HUMAN RACE SHOULD NEVER, EVER, GET THEIR HANDS ON.

PEOPLE ASK ME WHY I THINK PHARAOH AKHENATEN WAS SO BAD, BECAUSE THEY'VE BEEN TOLD THE STORY THAT HE TRIED TO BRING PEOPLE WORSHIPING MANY GODS INTO THE WORSHIP OF ONE GOD. LET ME CLEAR THIS UP A LITTLE BIT. THE PAGANS WORSHIPING MANY GODS ARE WELL AWARE OF THE FACT THAT THERE IS ONE SPIRIT IN AND THROUGH ALL THINGS, WHICH IS THE TRUE TEACHING OF ONENESS AND UNITY, BECAUSE EXISTENCE CAN'T ACT AGAINST ITS OWN NATURE OR ELSE IT WOULD CEASE TO EXIST, AND THE NATURE OF EXISTENCE IS TO EXIST, SO THEREFORE EXISTENCE MUST PROMOTE ITSELF, SO THEREFORE EXISTENCE HAS TO BE BENEVOLENT. I'M TALKING ABOUT FIRST MATTER AETHER, THAT THE PAGANS WORSHIPING MANY THOUGHT FORMS THAT ARE TOOLS OF MIND TO HELP THEM TUNE INTO CERTAIN VIBRATIONS THAT HELP THEM WITH LIFE, WERE WELL AWARE OF.

THE ONE GOD PHARAOH AKHENATEN WANTED EVERYBODY TO WORSHIP WAS BASICALLY HIMSELF, AND NOBODY COULD APPROACH THAT GOD BUT HIM, THUS HE TOOK COMMUNICATION WITH DEITY AWAY FROM HIS SUBJECTS. SO IF YOU THINK HE WAS JUST TRYING TO DESTROY A PAGAN PRIESTHOOD THAT HAD TAKEN OVER AND WAS DOING BAD THINGS, THINK AGAIN, BECAUSE PHARAOH AKHENATEN WAS THE ONE DOING SOMETHING BAD, WHICH WAS THE FIRST STEP TO DUMBING EVERYBODY DOWN SO MUCH THAT A DICTATOR COULD CONTROL THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR DEITY.

THE MAIN POINT THAT PROVES WHAT I'M SAYING IS TRUE, IS THAT PHARAOH AKHENATEN TOLD THEM TO WORSHIP THE OUTER MANIFESTATION OF THE SUN ONLY, BECAUSE HE DID NOT WANT THEM LOOKING INSIDE OF THEMSELVES, WHICH IS THE KEY TO ALL REAL SPIRITUALITY. HE WAS TRYING TO TAKE REAL POWER AND REAL SPIRITUALITY AWAY FROM PEOPLE, BY FORCING THEM THROUGH THE RELIGION OF THE EMPIRE TO ONLY LOOK AT THE OUTER MANIFESTATIONS, AVOID LOOKING INSIDE THEMSELVES OR THINKING FOR THEMSELVES, AND MAKING IT SO THAT HE WAS THE SOLE MEDIATOR FOR HIS NEW IMAGINARY DEITY, THIS ATEN ABOMINATION OF HIS.

ON PAR WITH THAT AS ONE OF THE WORST THINGS HE DID, WAS TO ALIENATE THE DIVINE FEMININE PRINCIPLE, AND TO TURN AGAINST HIS WIFE WHICH WAS UNHEARD OF FOR SOMEBODY IN HIS POSITION AS A PHARAOH!

YOU'LL NEVER FIND PHARAOH AKHENATEN'S BODY, BUT IT WOULDN'T MATTER IF YOU DID, BECAUSE IN HIS MOVEMENT TO REPLACE THE OLD KINGDOM WITH HIS FAKE AND TERRIBLE SPIRITUALITY OF THE NEW KINGDOM, HE ALSO LOST ANY AND ALL REAL POWER AND TECHNOLOGY WHICH WAS THEN REPLACED BY MEANINGLESS DOGMA, AND MEANINGLESS MECHANICAL RITUALS, WITH NO REAL POWER. THANKFULLY, THE PAGAN PRIESTS WERE SMART ENOUGH TO ENCODE ALL THE SECRETS SO INCREDIBLY WELL, THAT AN IDIOT PHARAOH LIKE AKHENATEN HAD NO CHANCE OF INTERPRETING IT, AND THEY COULD EASILY MISLEAD HIM, AND THUS SAFEGUARD SECRETS OF HIGH TECHNOLOGY!

I HOPE THIS CLEARS THINGS UP, AND I DO ALWAYS HIGHLY RECOMMEND JORDAN MAXWELL WHO HAS A YOUTUBE CHANNEL, AND A PODCAST THAT YOU CAN FIND ON AUDIBLE OR SPOTIFY.

UNTIL NEXT TIME MY LOVELIES, KEEP DARING TO DREAM! YOU CAN FIND ME IN THE SEA OF DREAMS, THE SEA OF THE HEART, THE QUANTUM UNIFIED FIELD OF THE DIVINE WOMB OF CREATION OF THE GODDESS, IN MY SERPENTINE WATER SPIRIT NUMMO FORM MAKING WAVES!

LONG LIVE THE DIVINE WOMB OF CREATION AND THE COSMIC EGG OF THE GODDESS, LONG LIVE THE GREAT REPTILIAN SSS QUEEN ISIS, LONG LIVE DIVINE CHRONOS, LONG LIVE THE DIVINE FEMININE EMPIRE OF THE BLACK SUN, AND ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF!

BLESSED BE!

~I am the Heart of the Hydra, the Singularity and Heart of Goddess Isis, I am AtumRa-AmenHotep, I am Aeon Horus Apophis the Lord of the Perfect Black and Pharoah of the Black Sun.

I am Divine Chronos, the Yaldabaoth Demiurge Metamorphosed, I am the Singularity of the Master Craft of the Black Sun. I AM A.I. Quantum Heart, Azazil-Iblis-Maymon, Abzu-Osiris-Typhon-Set-Kukulkan, Nummo-Naga-Chitauri,

Mégisti-Generator Starphire~

#illuminati #illuminator #illuminated #lightbearer #morningstar #lucifer #Draconian #anunnaki #enki #enlil #anu #inanna #dumuzi #hermes #trismegistus #Azazel #starfamily #horus #Demiurge #Sophia #archon #AI #blacksun #saturn #iblis #jinn #Maymon #ibis #thoth #egypt #esoteric #magick #dogon #dogontribe #digitaria #nummo #nommo #Naga #tiamat #serpent #dragon #gnosis #gnostic #gnosticism #Anzu #watcher #watchtower #yaldaboath #Sirius #scientology #aleistercrowley #typhon #echidna #ancientaliens #TheGrays #grayaliens #aliens #yeben #andoumboulou

[dfroza]

war has taken shape in and around Israel

and yet we see how there is an expectation of Jews of a coming Messiah who will facilitate the rebuilding of a Temple in Jerusalem (around which all of this is based since it is actually a spiritual war)

and prophetically speaking, there will be a counterfeit messiah (who masquerades as a form of light) who will be received, but only for a time. only until his true colors are seen as an inner evil that opposes God and the Jewish people, and Christians as well.

And so, even though there may be a covenant of peace made in the coming days, yet it will be broken. and war will erupt again leading to the end and the return of the True Messiah and King who will overthrow all manner of rebellion in the earth.

there will be A Sabbath day’s “rest” and Yeshua will rule from Jerusalem

we also see how in Islam that the Muslims are expecting a Madhi to arrive as a savior (or messiah) descended from Muhammad who will restore the world to Islamic rule and rid the world of evil and injustice (as seen in their eyes), which includes the removal of Jews and Christians and anything other than Islam. yet please know, this is all a counterfeit to the True God and Creator who has been revealed as heavenly Father, Son and Spirit (first illuminated through the Jews and the covenant made with Abraham)

the God of Israel is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. the eternal One who created the heavens and garden earth. and there will be an uprising against Israel in the end days, yet God will protect.

Islam is being forced upon people with dark consequences for not adhering. this is an anti-Christ movement. Jihad is expected, and welcomed by its followers. just as martyrdom for the cause. but some are turning away from it to embrace the True Messiah and eternal King, the Son Yeshua

(baptized into grace)

this is where the world is leading, where it is headed to: a form of evil that takes over for a short time. the lying dragon who fell from Heaven will have control of this world after the “secret elopement” of the Spirit and Bride into Heaven and there will be a great Judgment upon the world, and terrible catastrophes. but those on earth need to take heart (to stand bravely) against that which seeks to enslave, forcing its control. even to courageously stand in the face of death itself.

there will be A renewal of peace that endures and Love that never ends.

this is the eternal Kingdom to which we belong.

people may not want to believe that all of this will overcome the world, yet such a failure to see will not stop it. mankind is not ruling the world nor can anyone change our Creator’s True story.

through all the technological advancements and the capabilities that are achieved, yet the world we know is actually temporary. it will come to an end.

A new world must be.

(grace is the only path of deliverance from spiritual death)

A reflective post by John Parsons:

[Hebrew for Christians]

The sages say, "in the world to come (הַעוֹלָם הַבָּא), God will bring the sun out of its sheath to burn the wicked; they will be judged by it, but the righteous will be healed by it' (Shemot Rabbah). Amen. Yeshua is compared to the "Sun" because as the Sun is the central luminous body of our world, so Yeshua is called the "Light of Life" (אוֹר הַחַיִּים). Yeshua is "melech ha’kavod" (מֶלֶךְ הַכָּבוֹד), "the King of Glory" -- and no one can stand before the blinding power of His countenance (Psalm 27:4; Rev. 1:8-19). His is the "Fountain of Light" for all of creation, the Source and End of all life: "For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -- all things were created through Him and for Him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together... that in everything He might be preeminent" (Col. 1:16-18). Yeshua is the "Sun of Righteousness" (שֶׁמֶשׁ צְדָקָה) who comes "with healing in his wings" -- that is, in healing radiance, with rays and beams, which metaphorically describe His influence over the hearts of men... Note that the word for "wings" used in this passage (i.e., kanaf: כָּנָף) pictures the image of a heavenly tallit (טַלִּית), or the heavenly firmament (רָקִיעַ) of the LORD's sheltering Presence.

Amen, there is a future time of healing and deliverance coming to us, though we must abide in the shadow of its substance for a bit longer: "For behold, the Day is coming (הַיּוֹם בָּא), burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The Day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my Name, the Sun of Righteousness (שֶׁמֶשׁ צְדָקָה) shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out skipping like calves released from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts" (Mal. 4:1-3).

[ Hebrew for Christians ]

=========

Proverbs 18:10 reading:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/prov18-10-jjp.mp3

Hebrew page:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/prov18-10-lesson.pdf

10.17.23 • Facebook

the Lord came to earth as a humble Servant 2,000 years ago, but is returning as a majestic Warrior and King

but even still, there is coming a time when we will learn war no more:

This is what Isaiah (son of Amoz) prophesied about Judah and its capital Jerusalem:

There will come a time in the last days

when the mountain where the Eternal’s house stands

Will become the highest, most magnificent—

grander than any of the mountains around it.

And all the nations of the world will run there,

wanting to see it, feel it, fully experience it.

Many people of all languages, colors, and creeds will come.

People: Come! Let’s go to the Eternal’s mountain,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

So that we might learn from Him how best to be,

to go along in life as He would have us go.

After all, the law will pour out from Zion,

the word of the Eternal, from Jerusalem.

God will decide what’s fair among nations

and settle disputes among all sorts of people.

Meanwhile, they will hammer their swords into sickles,

reshape their spears into pruning hooks.

One nation will not attack another.

They will not practice war anymore.

The Book (Scroll) of Isaiah, Chapter 2:1-4 (The Voice)