#from prisoner to power

[renee-writer]

There is no moment to low for God to scope down and lift us out of. No situation to messy that He can't restore.

When He says it is time, it is time.

We might not know when or how, but we know Who!

What is hard to God.

Jason Odom First Baptist Church of Rockmart

Genesis 41 From a prisoner to power

[trans-axolotl]

nothing makes me more insane than the phrase "selling your body" btw. like was i not also selling my body at every other job i've had where i had to be on my feet all day, lifting boxes, working in a warehouse, etc. why is it that sex work is uniquely labeled as "selling your body" while every other job is sorted into another category, no matter how much that job might have a physical impact on your body. lmao.

[olessan]

The Rings of Power 2x08: Shadow and Flame

"My place is here. You know it is." "And where is mine? If not with you?"

[turtleblogatlast]

[ cw: death mention / sibling death mention / isolation / ]

Thinking about how Leo’s portal and teleportation powers have both directly (and in one instance, indirectly) been the cause of him being separated from his brothers at least four times now.

There’s that time in Portal Jacked, where his inexperience leads to his portal being messed with and his brothers ending up in Tahiti.

There’s the Bad Timeline, where Leo’s portaling led to them losing the Key, therefore indirectly leading to the apocalypse and in turn, ending with Leo being the last of his brothers alive (though just for a few minutes.)

There’s him teleporting him and Krang into the Prison Dimension, cutting him off from his family so wholly that the only way to fix this was a literal mystic miracle.

Then there’s the comic, where Leo’s powers act up again and make him lose months of time completely isolated from everyone and everything he knows.

Just, looking at all of this, it’s like the universe gave him the powers of distance on purpose to test him (and his bros), literally seeing if they can overcome unimaginable space and still make it back together. Imagine if it doesn’t stop here, and Leo has to learn to either deal with the occasional complete isolation or deal with time travelers coming back to stop some terrible event his powers (whether directly or indirectly) have caused, events that always lead to separation in some way, shape, or form.

It’s worth noting, too, that his portals often led to accidental separation, but his teleportation was the one power of his that was used to isolate himself on purpose…and was also the one that in any other scenario would have been the most permanent.

[s0fter-sin]

remember my vampire au where they can only drink the same blood type they were before they were turned? and how i kind of glossed over how ghost escaped roba’s starvation pit?

(cw gore)

he uses his anger and desire for vengeance to distract from the bloodthirst; holds the wretched heat of them close to keep his will strong enough to withstand the urge to feed from the toxic humans roba torments him with, dotted around his bar-less prison like a mocking, poisoned banquet before the destitute

the venom in his fangs turns on him, eating away at his gums and working into his calcified veins; desperately searching for safe blood, for an end to this slow death. it drips from his slack mouth, burning away his lips after melting the sinew in his jaw to the point that he can’t close his mouth anymore; his flat, human teeth loose and falling out by the day with nothing to hold them to his porous jaw

even then, ghost doesn’t waver

until finally, enough time passes that roba's underlings deem him weakened to the point of harmlessness

they get sloppy when they dump the carcasses into the pit; getting closer and closer to the edge and paying less and less attention to the starved, melting vampire left amongst the decomposition

they don't see the body ghost sequestered away; one of the first, festered and putrid, hidden under the ever growing pile and left to be forgotten

they don't see the calculating edge in his eye as he watches its flesh rot and soften; waving it off as longing, as hunger as he looks into eyes melting from their sockets

they don't see ghost sink his fingers into the rotting caverns, giving him the perfect grip to rock the head back and forth as he stares at the hand-dug dirt walls of his prison. ceaseless, repetitive movements, bone grinding on bone, muscle tearing from flesh as he slowly rips the skull free from its spine

they don't see ghost rear back and, using all the hatred and loathing he's let build in the long weeks of his hollow imprisonment, throw it at the vampire about to drop another caustic human on him; striking him in the head and tipping him off balance so he falls...

directly into ghost's waiting arms and starved fangs

[kingly-court]

I’m legitimately gonna explode if I don’t find someone else who understand the background tragedy of the Gleeful Family in Gravity falls.

[rosykims]

thinking about how that solavellan ending actually Works for lavellans who want that hopeful ending but arent as forgiving abt the whole situation as veilguard presented it. and i do think in ashara's case, yes, she goes with him out of love, but more so out of duty. post trespasser she drops the name lavellan in favor of her family name, dhavise, since her place in the clan had already been cast into question and her allegiances with the chantry/solas are cause for doubt as to whether she's even welcome back anymore. but i think by the end of veilguard she's reaffirmed her identity as Lavellan no matter what, and truly does see herself as the Keeper of not just her own clan but of her whole modern people, and with that rekindled purpose she chooses to watch over them all by way of watching over fen'harel. protecting them by protecting him from himself. which ironically is the reason the dalish HAVE keepers in the first place

[adorablegorilla]

[legobiwan]

Today's depressing thought:

Stan lies awake at night on the boat wondering about a lot of things, a lot of what-ifs (many of which have to do with the IRS), but the question that truly haunts him is this:

If it had been Stan who went through the Portal thirty years ago, would Ford have tried to save him?

And the thing is, he can't say with certainty that the answer would be yes.

[oh-dameron]

Lan Xichen and Qin Su had quite a bit in common when it came to Jin Guangyao:

- First met JGY when they were in peril and he came to the rescue,

- Notably kind, beautiful, and good-natured,

- Did not place value on his origin or look down on him for his mother's profession,

- Were vocal in their support of him socially.

Which makes me think that we were robbed of maybe the greatest potential JGY partnership: Wen Ning.

Wen Ning: so ride-or-die that actually dying did not stop him from continuing to be ride-or-die. Wen Ning, presumably in quite the tenuous situation in Nightless City after the Jiang heir disappeared under suspicious circumstances, right when Meng Yao was working is way into Wen Ruohan's inner circle. Wen Ning, the sweetest cinnamon roll.

Slight canon divergence where Wen Qing missed one single opportunity to send Wen Ning out of Nightless City for a while, Wen Ning gets into juuust enough trouble, Meng Yao has the keys to the cell... one flash of Wen Ning's bambi eyes and he would have been a goner.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazilian Trans Hairdresser Held in Male Wing in Guantánamo: 'I Was Desperate'

Tarlis Gonçalves tells Folha how she was detained by immigration officials while crossing from Mexico to the U.S

A Brazilian transgender hairdresser was arrested by immigration agents trying to enter the United States and was held in Guantánamo prison in a wing designated for male prisoners.

"I told them several times that I was a trans woman and didn’t feel comfortable in a place with only men," 28-year-old Tarlis Marcone de Barros Gonçalves from Minas Gerais told Folha. "I said I was being harassed, but they did nothing."

Gonçalves crossed the border from Mexico into the U.S. on February 15 and was detained by authorities in Texas. She said she paid R$ 70,000 to a coyote. Her plan was to request asylum from U.S. authorities, saying she was being persecuted for being a trans woman.

Continue reading.

[i-reblog-castiel]

and if I said Willard by Will Wood is a very castiel song

[mageknife]

so how exactly did the evanuris bind themselves to high dragons to create the old gods. wiki says the source on this is solas during weisshaupt. i guess i need to play weisshaupt again .

[fumifooms]

Typing the nightmares bit here made me think again about how Dunmeshi is a lot about promoting community— and that, even when community is a lot of what hurts characters. Like, everything is social, humans are social creatures with social lives, it’s hard to avoid, but still when looking at the dungeon lords’ troubles… Troubles with feeling secure within relationships, with feeling like they belong in their society or community, feeling rejected or unsafe or Other.

Struggling with judgement and superstitions like Laios, Falin and Kabru. Struggling with racism like Chilchuck and Kabru. Struggling with strict conformism like Senshi. Ableism, xenophobia, colonialism, hierarchy, Mithrun, Thistle, Namari. All victims from all exclusionist societies one way or another. Again, rejection, on both a wider and interpersonal level.

Ultimately Dunmeshi is about how good community is to have while uplifting everyone’s quirks and differences, but you can’t help but see how exclusionary and harmful some groups are and how identity, especially identity in a social setting, is what characters struggle with the most. What Laios is tempted by is to leave the weight of a human identity behind, flee everything human and social as a monster. With how difference or stepping out of line hurts people consistently across the board and how humanity & social bonds are sometimes framed as the source of pain, you can’t help but wonder a bit if this doesn’t lend itself to promoting a sort of self-less social system, like an ecosystem that behaves like some hivemind of mother nature, but no no that’s what the series is condemning—

The dungeon is not about how an ecosystem (a social life, a hierarchy, a community) is a well-oiled, scientifically calculated machine but about how every being in an ecosystem has a different role and behavior, and how each one is important specifically because their differences are complementary. Diversity is not only a strength it’s essential. Bonds are not only important they’re essential. Otherwise what will you do when a god needs slaying and you don’t have an hungry furry around, huh? What will you do when the dehydrated samurai and the dehydrated elf and their friend circles won’t eat your sister? But more seriously, a lot of the beauty of Dunmeshi’s cast is how truly different they are, in the way they think, in the judgements they hold, in the way they’ve lived. And even in the face of that how our protagonists have always reached out— how Dunmeshi says that it’s good to seek to understand what you do not. Differences can be overcame, differences can be celebrated. A monster is not a being of good nor malice, it just is, and it deserves to be considered a living being, too.

No no no but like, approaching this on an emotional level rather than societal one again— Dungeon Meshi showcases being human as a prison of sorts in many ways, especially in a social and emotional sense. Characters spend a lot of time being worried about laws and reputation, about social judgement and social rejection. Chilchuck, Toshiro, Namari, Marcille… Senshi prefers sidestepping the entire thing and keeping to himself. And on the other hand, Izutsumi doesn’t like her body and doesn’t want to deal with her emotions, she has to accept herself even if being a beastkin has attracted disdain and mistreatment to her. Your identity is not fully your own, it’s framed and shaped by those there to perceive, judge and shape it like reputations. Similarly, your feelings are your own, but shame, hurt, pride— sometimes you’re compelled against your will by others, by relationships, to feel. Laios is the most flagrant and literal example, wanting to become a monster with the mind of a beast to flee the trauma and emotional toll of human society.

In this line of thought, caring about people is a shackle in itself too, Chilchuck wishes he could be free of caring, for the party but also for his wife leaving him.

- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

Chilchuck who doesn’t want to still be hung up on his wife even though he’s deeply hurt who pretends being mad over it who throws his arms up in the air and does nothing about it, even if he brushes it all under the carpet and acts like it’s barely a bump in the road who still speaks of his wife in present and future tense. Who can’t move on yet can’t find the strength to reach out and try and be rejected and hurt all over again. It’d be simpler if he didn’t care about what happens to the rest of his party, if he didn’t feel the urge to risk his life for them so they might be safer. It’d be simpler if he just never opens up to anyone again, if he just doesn’t try, if he keeps to himself and sabotages relationships and forces himself to believe that he. Doesn’t. Care.

Falin also was shackled not by anger but by love. Again that Dunmeshi theme where humanity and feelings and care can feel like a prison, on both ends (caring and cared for)! But connections and care are what it means to be human and none of us are free of them. None of them. Not even Senshi the thriving hermit. Senshi being a recluse who despite always staying at an arm’s length of people as a mentor figure or a temporary guest or a friendly business partner because memories of his first party still haunt him and he thinks the conflict was his fault and that he can’t fit into a group, like with the orcs… Who despite that does want to help others, tags along with groups, even if just for a fun time not a long time. And yet when shit got serious with Laios’ party, he stayed. Even though he keeps exploring post-canon, much like Izutsumi and the other characters still figuring some things out, even though it might feel so much easier to live a quiet life of solitude, he still wants social connections and can’t keep himself from caring.

"What do they call it- it’s like something about love- where it’s like Love compells you- like kinda forces you to act against your own volition- love calls you to be something other than you are, it challenges you and yet you want to be compelled by love, you want to be subsumed to something larger."

- Cj the X, How Jordan Peterson’s Suits Taught Me Fashion

[popculturerobots]

I...Have Failed

Pokémon the Movie 2000: The Power of One

[sprucestairs]

hhhhhh I need to properly reread Percy jackson again. This post brought to you by the fact I was about to make a post about a scene I very vividly remember of Will Solace trying to convince Pollux not to keep fighting with his good arm broken before Percy manages to convince him not to bc he promised Dionysus, then thought to myself "huh maybe I should fact check that- I mean I did also convince myself that Travis stoll died in this battle when he actually just went to college." And guess what? That scene ✨️didn't happen.✨️ Pollux was trying to convince Percy to let him rejoin the fight very half heartedly, while propped against a tree, and Percy was just like "hmmmm... no"