#full of excess and extortion

[scripture-pictures]

[sid471]

Happy Pride Month ^_^ who wants some Queer Rage to celebrate? 😊

Okay ‘rage’ is a little excessive. But it IS a classic Siddy Rant :3 So I’ve been getting back into Fire Emblem Three Houses lately after not playing it for a while. Been reminded why I love it ��️ I love the characters, I love the story, I love the supports. It’s all been great :3

… However 😊 There’s always been one character that confuses me to no end >_> and that… is Anna. For those who don’t know Fire Emblem, Anna is a character who appears in almost every single game as a merchant, but has only been playable as of the most recent games. Awakening Anna, Fates Anna, Fodlan Anna, and Engage Anna. And in Fire Emblem there’s a system called the Support System. Supports are unlocked by two characters fighting alongside each other, and these supports are how we get to know characters and expand on them and their relationships to other characters. In recent games, you can even make two characters get married :3 … I realize that explanation is probably redundant considering this is going in the Fire Emblem tag. And if you’re in the fire emblem tag you presumably already know this. But still just in case ☺️

Anyway, of the Annas, Awakening Anna has just two supports with Tiki and Robin, three if you count male and female Robin as separate characters, and even in those minimal supports we learn more about her than we would if she was just another NPC like she was in other games. In Fates, Anna can only support with Corrin, but even then, that single support shows us an insecurity she has about being one of thousands of Annas, because yes, all of the Annas across all the games DO exist in the same world and are all related and have the same name, canonically 😊. Engage Anna is a fresh take on the Anna character. Engage Anna… is a child. All the other Annas are grown, established merchants while Engage Anna is basically an up and comer. She, also unlike the other Annas, has a good amount of supports, with a total of EIGHT support partners. That’s a lot of characters to help flesh out Anna and make her into a full person :3

… And then we have Fodlan Anna. This is the Anna we see in Fire Emblem Three Houses. And she’s the woman of the hour >_>

She… truly confounds me. To the point it makes me frustrated if I think about it too long. Because this Anna… doesn’t have ANY supports whatsoever. So we can’t get to know her at all ._. And something I didn't mention before is supports aren't JUST to get to know the character, they're also a passive buff to your stats when you're in battle near your support partner granting you more of a chance to land your attacks, dodge enemy attacks, and not get crit... And they also stack. 4 times. 😊 Her not having supports is also extra weird because she’s one of 11 playable characters with a Major Crest .-. The Major Crest of Ernest. Was she born with it? Is this Anna a noble and she abandoned her title to be a merchant? Does Hanneman, The Father of Crestology, know about her Crest? Who the FUCK is Ernest and why is he important enough to have a Crest ._. Are any of these questions answered? No. Because she doesn’t have a single support conversation! .-. And the crazy thing is… I can think of SEVERAL characters that she could support with just off the top of my head! She could have conflict with hagglers like Ashe and Leonie, she could take advantage of sweet but naive characters like Mercedes and Alois and feel bad about it and apologize for it later, she could sell Manuela romance stories in a C-B support, Hanneman could pester her about her Crest and she rebuffs him by distracting him with history or crestology books in her stock, her support with Byleth could start with her recognizing them from when they were a mercenary, maybe she tried and failed to extort them and having to work so close to them now is awkward for her. That’s 7 supports right there, and that’s already breaking the Anna support record for the time and almost matches the current Anna support record set by Engage Anna .-.

Okay, so say you can look past the question marks of her character and you can ignore the support issue. Is she at least a good and unique unit? And the answer….. Is no 😊 No she is not 😊. The thing with Anna is her stats and what she's good and bad at contradict each other .-. She has a good magic stat and learns one of the best spells in the game, Meteor... but she has a weakness in Reason. She has a great Charm stat, but she's weak in Authority. She has a Budding Talent in Riding, of all things .-., but she can't take advantage of it in Valkyrie or Dark Knight because of the aforementioned weakness in Reason. And she COULD be a Holy Knight... But Holy Knight... Isn't even that good of a class, all it has goin for it is the horse ._.

But, okay, being fair, she DOES have strengths in Swords, Axes, Bows, and Faith. With these strengths the intention is clear, for you take her down the Thief class line, making her a thief, then assassin, and ultimately ending in the Trickster class, which provides a lot more speed, and lets her use her Faith spells. And she performs this role... Fine. But there's a problem. A gorgeous, purple haired problem. Meet Yuri

He's my favorite character in Three Houses :3 And he is a problem if you wanna use Anna... Because Yuri does everything Anna can do... just better in literally every way! ._. Yuri has supports, which means we get to dive into his, very interesting, character and also, as mentioned before, supports provide sometimes vital buffs to your hit rate, avoid, and crit avoid. And while Yuri DOES have more weaknesses than Anna, having 4 to Anna's 2... Yuri's weaknesses are in things you wouldn't train him in anyway unless your doing some kinda challenge run... Or hate yourself 😊 His strenghs are all perfectly in line for his role including his Budding Talent in bows which grants him the powerful, if sometimes inaccurate, Deadeye combat art. His role is the same as Anna's, get him to Trickster ASAP and let him slice and dice through enemies or blast them with magic.

Speaking of Magic... Yuri is better at that too! Yuri has 4 Reason spells that he learns, including the strongest wind spell in game Excalibur, while Anna has 3 spells, Fire at D, Thunder at D+ and Meteor... ALL the way at A! Meteor IS a good spell, arguably better than Excalibur because of its sheer range... But with Anna's weakness in Reason getting Meteor is gonna take WAY longer to get than Yuri's Excalibur. He also has more, and better, Faith spells than her .-. Yuri and Anna both have the standard Heal and Nosferatu at D and D+, but Yuri learns Recover, a more potent Heal that restores more health, at C rank, the offensive spell Silence at B which restricts distant magical enemies from using magic, effectively rendering them sitting ducks, and Aura at A. Not THE most powerful Faith spell, but IS the second most powerful and has a high crit chance, aided by Yuri's high skill/dexterity stat. While Anna learns Ward at C which grants the chosen unit +7 resistance that wanes over time... And that's it, no other effect, and she learns Rescue at B rank. Which, I will say, Rescue IS always very good to have in your repertoire, it warps far away allies to her side to get them out danger, the exact range of the spell being the unit's current magic stat divided by four, thank you FE wiki for that lol. Aaaand that's all she learns. So Yuri learns 7 total spells, not including Heal and Nosferatu because literally everyone learns those two, and Anna learns 5.

On top of ALL of this... Yuri has a Heroes' Relic that goes with his Crest, the Fetters of Dromi. The Fetters of Dromi are an accessory he can equip that gives him +1 to his movement, enables canto to let him move again after taking an action if he didn't use all of his movement, AND grants him Aegis and Pavise, skills that have a chance to halve damage taken. AND to top it all off..... His Crest does the exact same thing Anna's does 😊

To review: Anna is a character who we have no way of getting to know, even her Monastery dialogue is static and only changes twice, once at the beginning of the timeskip and again at the end... And even that dialogue is VERY generic and doesn't tell us anything about her specifically, the dialogue boiling down to "Man the war sure is hard for people, I hope they're okay :(" And "I can't believe the war is almost over! I can't wait for this to be behind us so I can get more business opportunities to make more money 😄" Hell, she has a PARALOGUE, a whole separate chapter, all to herself, and even THAT doesn't tell us anything about her! ._. She arranges a business deal with another merchant named Pollardo, Pollardo tries to scam her out of her share of the profit, you fight, Pollardo leaves, and Anna says "I hate getting scammed >:( Thanks for helping me out 😄" like... Cool... She doesn't like scammers... No one does 😊 So... Thanks for that >_> On top of that, she's not even that good of a unit. You CAN use her... But why would you want to when there's a character who does the same thing as her AND is objectively a better unit in very sense .-. And, listen, I LOVE to use bad units, I ALWAYS use the Trainees of Sacred Stones. All 3 of'em are permanent staples in every Sacred Stones playthrough. I go out of my way to use Nino in Blazing Sword, I use Niles in Revelations, and I haven't gotten that far in Binding Blade before, but I DO fully intend to use Sophia. I USE bad units.

But Anna... She just doesn't have anything going for her! She's not an interesting character, she's not a stand out unit, her budding talent is random and grants a mediocre skill. Maybe her budding talent DOES tell us something about her character... Not that we'd ever know because, say it with me, she doesn't have any supports 😊 She doesn't even have a UNIQUE Crest effect. At LEAST give her the effect that raises the damage melee weapons. Because that's the only Crest Effect that doesn't double up with only the Crest of Fraldarius having that particular effect. At least in that case she'd have the same crest effect as someone who ISN'T in direct competition with her spot .-. Felix is a completely different unit than Anna. Yuri and Anna fill the same niche which, as I'm sure I've made clear, Yuri is better at ._.

ANYWAY, thank you for letting me rant. I don't understand the purpose of this Anna as a character... She may as well be a cardboard cutout .-. Or one of those dolls where you pull a string and she spits out a catchphrase ._.

[nogacheloveka-blog]

Horrorgaze

"I'm not very good at speaking and writing in English. I did my best to make the text understandable, especially the jokes, but I may have been mistaken in this. If you see any serious mistakes, don't hesitate to write about it. You will help me a lot. Thank you.

Pairing and Characters: Killer/Nightmare, Horror/Cross, Killer/Cross, Cross, Nightmare, Killer, Dust, Horror

Other Tags: only Horror point of view, no sexual scenes(i think so), a lot of reflections, some memory lapses, weak sexual dimorphism, pairings hinted at in general

Description: Horror lives among variations of himself. He can think a lot and say little. He is also a nearsighted stalker.

Notes: All "Sans" in the text belong to Horror. According to my headcanon, he looks somewhat frightening and beast-like, with fangs and claws, keen hearing and smell, but extremely nearsighted. He is also "older" than Killer and Dust: Horrortale moved forward in time, while the universes of these two remained frozen in repetition.

***

Sans often gnawed on things. This habit remained from the hungry years in the Underground: to suppress the gnawing feeling of hunger, akin to the birth of a black hole below the sternum, he would scrape his teeth against his post in Snowdin, the resinous bark of trees, boil pine needles, and the hard-earned fish. He chewed on thin children's bones.

After Nightmare gave his world a chance to survive, Sans had to keep an eye on his habit. It would be rude to leave marks on someone else's territory, right? But even so, the pens and pencils that came into his possession, as well as the mugs with cutlery, suffered. All his belongings bore the imprint of his sharp-toothed jaw.

All his belongings, not himself.

Sans noticed a bite on his left hand while cooking, surprised by its presence. It was not painful at all, but deep enough to still be visible. It crossed the malicious "U" of his metacarpals and slid into scratches along the heads of the proximal phalanges, becoming particularly deep on the middle phalanx of his pinky finger. Sans himself could not have forgotten to bite himself this way—such an awkward angle.

The injured head made itself known. His memory sometimes failed to retain recent events. It was not as dire as with the Multiverse Defender, as he did not forget his daily routine. Only incidents with strong emotional outbursts, moments of excessive tension, became heavily blurred and slipped away, leaving gaping holes behind. He remembered things in fragments, from the words of those around him or by finding himself in similar situations, but he never had a complete picture. Life now presented itself to him as a series of calm days with patches missing during certain missions—when something went wrong, he had to operate at maximum capacity.

All attempts to recall the nature of the injury were unsuccessful. He remembered a vague excitement and an unclear obsessive desire, as his hands were tightly wrapped around something thin, like tree branches. No, no, wait, it was round and rough. And fabric. The claws on his right palm had definitely snagged something made of dense fabric, digging in, and it had torn under pressure, but it hadn't split apart. And he sank his claws deeper, simply because it felt good to have that sense of power.

His soul raced slightly even at the attempts to remember. Sans swallowed.

Judging by these scant fragments, it seemed he had been holding someone. Perhaps Nightmare had tasked him with stirring up trouble in some place, and he had gotten carried away? That seemed quite plausible. In most universes, just the sight of his massive, twisted figure in the middle of Snowdin or the New Home was enough to raise the level of negativity. Usually, during such missions, time did not particularly constrain him, and he allowed himself to chase the locals, driving them through the woods or engaging in extortion. He loved hunting too. It reminded him of the old days, but now he was full and could do it for fun, like someone of royal blood. Nevertheless, Sans did not like to kill—this did not apply to variations of Undyne—and he had a good sense of his opponents, which was why Nightmare appreciated the work he did.

Horror glanced at the calendar. He marked the days when he experienced memory loss, just to ask the others for details later. Or they would tell him themselves if they saw a new note. The bite had been less than a day ago. Meanwhile, the events of the current day seemed quite coherent, and Sans had noted the second half of yesterday. It seemed unlikely that this was a task from Nightmare, and he would remember many more details if that were the case. Perhaps it was related to someone here at home. In that case, it definitely wasn't Dust: he had left for a mission three days ago. He had seen Killer this morning, bored in the living room, and he looked the same as usual. Judging by the feelings from the memory, his victim should have been pretty battered. And it definitely wasn't a boss. Simply because it's hard to imagine how Lord Nightmare would bite him in self-defense rather than leave him with yet another hole in his skull.

Then Cross…?

He hadn’t seen him today, so that made sense. Did he get into a fight with Cross? Should he...

…The strong, white radial and ulnar bones in the grip of one of his hands, due to the splayed fingers, look like maple branches. Almost dazzlingly white compared to the grayish-yellow of his own bones. They are beautiful. Their color is indistinguishable from the snowy white of his clothing; even the scars do not mar them. Sans sees a brief flash of fear and how Cross freezes, pinned to the floor by his weight. He takes a breath to ask something…

...bring him some healing food?

A brief flash of memory pierces through like a spark.

…Sans covers Cross jaw with his free hand, not allowing a sound to escape. Cross's head is now pressed to the floor, revealing his beautiful profile and the white pupil widened in confusion at what is happening. From this angle, the strong cervical vertebrae, usually hidden by clothing, are visible. They are as lovely as blank sheets of paper and white, sweet marshmallows. He wants to bite-

His heart races from the unclear images. Sans runs his palm over his face. This is just disgusting. Yes, Cross is definitely beautiful, but that’s no reason…

…Hypnotized, he releases the other’s wrists and places his hand on the warm side. Cross flinches. Sans's claws dug into the layers of clothing, tearing through under pressure, but not splitting apart. And he sank his claws deeper, simply because it felt good to have that sense of power. He feels a smile stretching across his face. He wants to purr from the intoxicating sensation…

...to pounce on bones like a hungry dog. Sans wants to be dusted right now. No, no, first he needs to check on Cross's condition, to do everything he can to atone for his disgusting act — whatever it may have been. And then he’ll go impale the remnants of a skull...

…Suddenly, his victim kicks out and bites the hand on his face. He blinks sluggishly, and that moment of confusion is enough for Cross to slip away and disappear in a flash of shortcut teleportation...

...on something deadly.

Okay, fine. Great. He just scared him. The collar of panic and guilt around his neck loosened.

He will get up now and make a coffee pot of hot chocolate. And he will go talk to Cross about what happened. Apologize. Maybe he’ll try to…

It’s painfully shameful because Cross is really too good for all of them.

***

Sans remembered how Nightmare brought in a creature that smelled of dust and human blood. It was like a ghost: a silhouette near the occupied sofas in the living room, disappearing food from the fridge, the scent of cigarettes in empty rooms. One-word answers and silence to personal questions.

It was acutely aware of monster magic — Killer was openly losing at hide-and-seek.

It only yielded to Sans himself in the real hunt. Sans even managed to remember its scent of death before it turned back.

The frightened expression of the skull reminded Sans of his own past when he looked at his changing body in the shards of a mirror. Back then, he saw living emotions. And how much effort it took him to discern in it the almost defeated self from the past, the one who needed help.

Hunger, long-standing trauma, and LV had long ago twisted Sans's bones, making him more dangerous, like a wounded animal. Dust's LV hung around like a heavy, biting cloud, constantly warping his mind, turning him into a madman, quietly begging the empty corners for either forgiveness or help. Horror caught snippets of phrases as he silently passed by. The addresses to Papyrus particularly pierced his soul. Sans remembered the times of the eighth human's fall and all that exhausting dance with timelines. In Dust's case, the hopeless conditions of the game broke him so much that he couldn't hold on. But it must be said that guy was holding up pretty well now, albeit with disgusting methods.

Dust's refuge was not far from Sans's own room, and at night, his keen hearing picked up unsteady footsteps, while his sensitive nose detected the alcoholic haze, in addition to the usual smell of the dust old attic. Horror was wildly glad that the skeleton didn't use shortcuts in such a state. Sometimes he heard the footsteps stop at his door. From that side came whispers and sobs, provoking a strong desire to grab this dummy by the scruff of the neck like a wayward kitten and carry it to safety.

On one of those days, Sans realized that he simply couldn't ignore his younger and more confused version. He had something to offer him. He did what Sanses did best:

“Knock, knock,” the knuckles rhythmically tapped against the door from the inside. There were doubts about the success of this plan on the first try, but at the very least, it would let him know he was open to company.

“ Who… is there?” The voice sounded uncertain from the other side, as if it were trying to remember the beginning of such jokes. Or preparing for an attack.

Sans was still glad to hear a response.

“A liver,” his large, clawed hand slowly unlocked the horrifically creaky door, creating a small gap. He could distinctly hear a shaky step back from the other side. A faint light streamed through the small opening into the dark corridor. Sans saw half of a skull, a swirling two-colored pupil beneath a disheveled hood, and an elbow frozen in a defensive gesture. The air smelled of fear.

“What… liver?” came the quiet mumble.

“Delivery,” Sans replied with a satisfied rumble, extending a Spider Donut.

It reminded him of how he used to lure children into traps in his Underground with bright sweets wrappers. In any case, the sweets had never been a trick — a really nice scream. He wasn’t a complete fiend.

Dust looked unusually bewildered. But he took the donut. What a good boy. Sans's hand itched to pat him on the head. But he had to hold back.

“Knock. I’m usually here. I’ll open up and help if you need it.”

Dust didn’t knock. It was as if he had completely evaporated. The need to find him and make sure he was okay left Sans restless. But there was no shuffling around and emptying the stock of strong alcohol in the kitchen either. Not for a while.

One calm day, early in the morning, Sans woke up to the sound of something falling outside the door. Could that be considered a knock? Yes? Definitely, yes.

Dust lay there without lights in his eye sockets, like an old, slippery, dusty rag that had wiped up a puddle of absinthe and hadn’t been wrung out properly. Sans took him in. He stripped off the stale Dust's clothes and the only remaining slipper, wrapping the unconscious bones in a blanket. After a moment’s thought, he brought an orange and a glass of water from the kitchen.

He would take care of him.

***

Sans stared blankly at the bare bones, unsure of what to do with himself. Scored with scars and illuminated by the poisonous crimson of the target's soul, they couldn't hide the gentle curvature at the joints. The light, elegant rib cage, with its lovely splay of collarbones, emphasized the fragility of the shoulders. The spinous processes of the vertebrae, unlike the others on the team, were not spiky like a gnawed fish spine but rounded, like feathers on a bird of prey. He had forbidden himself to look below the lumbar region of the spine, but even so, he counted three large vertebrae. The black tears of hatred, it turned out, concealed the subtle differences in the facial bones and jaw. Until that moment, Sans hadn't realized how nearsighted he was. Not just him, but everyone on their team of world evil.

Killer tilted his(?) head questioningly at Sans's confusion. The shattered radius seemed to bother him(?) not at all, just as the broken false ribs didn’t; he(?) was playfully swinging his(?) legs while sitting on the table amid the rubble of bones, like an unfinished cookie. A bit of bandaging and some healing food. That was all. Sans managed it in a couple of minutes, under the mocking, uncomfortable squint of the chocolate-black voids of eye sockets.

It was a pity that sorting out mixed feelings wouldn’t be so easy. He was somewhat old-fashioned about such matters. Sans was so flustered that he didn’t ask anything or request to cover up. Why did none of the guys react to—

But on the other hand, Sans reacted normally to other variations of himself. Himself who killed his brother. Himself with four tentacles. Himself in a blue neck scarf. Himself as a creator, himself as a destroyer. Why did he only short-circuit at the thought of himself

as a girl?

Their kind had weak sexual dimorphism, and the presence of an ecto-body reduced the natural sex to something akin to hair color, essentially a joke. It was a remnant, considering the overall bisexuality. In his time in Horrortale, there had been other skeletal beings — not that Sans “shared a closet” with any of them — who helped him a lot by looking after Papyrus and providing both brothers with an education when their father to vanish into Core oblivion. At the very least, he knew how the females of their kind differed from the males (a couple of anatomy atlases from the Surface had lived under his bed throughout puberty).

Sans decided to observe.

All previous interactions with Killer had not revealed any concern: his(?) clothing was unremarkable, he(?) didn’t try to cover his(?) nudity (Sans realized he hadn’t really noticed nothing during those times), he(?) spoke firmly in the masculine form, teasing without hesitation. Even the tone of his(?) voice (Sans had to listen closely to all the nonsense that came out of that voice) hinted at nothing. The only thing that distinguished him was his(?) fighting style, where Killer preferred to use his(?) natural flexibility and show off in close combat, impervious to pain. And, damn, it was beautiful. Inventive. Next to Killer's deadly tango, Horror felt like a clumsy bear.

The others also didn’t react. Only Cross occasionally grumbled about the need to constantly heal Killer’s fractures, to which the latter shrugged, saying, “It’s so you can touch me a little more, Crossy.” Dust was irritated to the point of cracking with barely restrained magic. Their LV didn’t allow for any other kind of communication.

It became amusing that in all their variations of unfortunsanse outcomes, the conversation about pistils and stamens would only be his. Nightmare clearly had no intention of changing the current state of affairs. Although Sans had seen how disapproving he looked at the flirting from his protégé. To be honest, he himself also looked at it disapprovingly — Lord of Negativity was too old for Killer.

In the end, Sans resigned himself. Killer had socialized as a guy for too long, so even the sudden news that his body was somehow different and that he had to behave differently wouldn’t affect much. If someone suddenly told to Sans, “Hey, buddy, you have feminine bones,” he would shrug it off and do nothing. But Killer could throw something unexpected (in a bad way) in response. So he needed to take his gentlemanly instincts and shove them far up his backside.

Killer was a guy. Conversations about his body being female wouldn’t change anything — they were, for star's sake, made of bones that were covered in magic when it was really needed, with open interpretations the rest of the time. Case closed. Apparently, the long-simmering tension made him worry about trivial matters.

“Been a while since you ran from me, big guy,” Killer said, playing with a knife. “Thought I’d lost my charm with you.”

Sans snorted softly. He had only been thinking about him these past few days.

“I haven’t fought in a long time.”

“Ah, that’s it. Then…” His bored expression shifted to childlike joy. “Hi there! I’m Kill the Killer! Want a little LOVE from me? I share it through my little, pointy ‘friendly knives’!” And with a laugh, he launched magical attacks that appeared in the air, not particularly aiming.

***

Lord of Negativity was strange.

But that was somewhat pleasing, as he didn’t respond to “Sans.” And his brother didn’t respond to “Papyrus.” The body made of black sludge was strange too. Theoretically, it was the same substance that flowed from Killer's eye sockets, which explained the latter's attraction: a part of the substance inside him longed to reunite with its source. Or something like that.

The only thing that was not strange, but rather predictable, was the aura of negativity that followed him like a cool trail, displacing even the feverish, biting whispers of their colorful company’s common LV. When it was nearby, breathing felt easier. Dust relaxed his tense shoulders. The trails of eternal tears from Killer dried up. Only Cross became more serious, but he revered Nightmare.

It was no secret that he simply fed off them during such moments.

Well, so what — he didn’t consume regular food, so everyone just benefited at dinner. And dinners were always communal since Nightmare always gave instructions for the next day if there were any. He didn’t make his presence known every time, but judging by the feeling of relief, he was always nearby. Sometimes, Sans felt like he was even сhecking on their well-being during such visits. The feeling of being Checked could have just been a figment of his imagination.

“I don’t need you worrying about your problems,” Nightmare said authoritatively when he sealed their deal. “Just take care of my instructions. I take you, your world takes the food.”

At that time, his words sounded like selling one’s soul to pure evil, which doesn’t keep promises. And he agreed to it simply because everything that gave him the strength to survive was dying in his hands, turning hopes and dreams to dust. But the longer he worked under his patronage, the clearer it became that putting Lord of Negativity's concerns above his own was the best means of achieving any other goals and desires. He wasn’t senseless evil; rather, he was a spectrum from chaotic to lawful and was a personality.

It wasn’t an act of love or care.

For a knife to attack your opponent, its tip must be pointed where you want it to go. If it looks elsewhere, you’ll miss. If the knife is dull, you’ll waste your strength. If you apply constant pressure to it, the knife will break, and you’ll be left unarmed. Also, butter knives are bad for chopping trees, and axes are for social receptions.

Nightmare solved their problems if it truly required his intervention. He taught them tactics and strategy, kept the necessary books on the lower shelves (even if it contradicted the library system), and personally trained them. He gave them personal time and time for healing if it was needed. He didn’t send them on missions if it didn’t suit their abilities.

In other words, he replaced their goals with his own, didn’t let them dull, and didn’t pressure them more than necessary. A delightful approach.

And Sans was devoted to him out of gratitude.

Dream's arrows were no more dangerous to him than usual. You could say he took only half the damage from them, just like any normal skeleton*. And he calmly caught them mid-flight with his bare hands or…

“Wow, big guy, you’re completely insane!” Killer sounded genuinely enthusiastic, encouraging his ego with a peculiar compliment.

His admiration warmed the soul pleasantly, like a fletching of pure positivity warmed his mouth. The magical arrow crunched like glass under the pressure of his teeth.

Dream looked flustered. Blue and Dust even paused their fight to see how the half-broken arrow vanished into cool blue sand in the air along with Sans's 5 HP. For Nightmare, it would have taken comically more.

Horrortale made all parts of the body weapons, so there was nothing strange about utilizing everything available for Lord of Negativity. Magic wasn’t as fast.

And by protecting Nightmare, he was primarily protecting everything most precious in his life, which Nightmare also protected.

However strange that may sound.

Notes:

Horror: Well, I would be quite hot in a female body. Killer: Flirting with a 500-year-old surströmming. Horror: Damn

- In games, skeletons often have resistance to swords or arrows

[walkwithgod07]

23 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,

2 Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:

3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,

6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,

7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.

9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.

11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.

19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?

20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.

21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.

23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:

35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

[lifechanyuan]

Those Who Walk the Way of the Greatest Creator Will Have a Smooth and Wonderful Life

Xuefeng

There is a kind of life that is worry-free, full of love, healthy, and smooth sailing.

There is a kind of life that is constantly troubled, full of pain, lacking love, and full of obstacles.

There is a kind of life that is sometimes bright, sometimes dark, fluctuating, half happy and half worried, and often encountering ups and downs.

Why is this? Is it a destiny set by heaven? Is it a problem of the times? Is it a social problem? Is it a problem with friends and relatives? Is it a problem with nature? Or is there another reason?

My understanding is that the quality of life depends on the path we choose to walk. Even when it comes to acquiring life resources, some people rely entirely on their own hard work to acquire them, some acquire them through parasitic means without labor, some acquire them through extortion and exploitation, some acquire them through corruption and theft, and some acquire them through deception and fame-stealing. Different ways of acquiring lead to different life experiences, different realms of feeling and experience, different outcomes, and therefore different lives.

There are countless paths in life, but which one is the best?

My view is that the best path in life is the way of the Greatest Creator. To make life smooth and beautiful, walk the way of the Greatest Creator. Or to put it another way, walking the way of the Greatest Creator is the most reliable guarantee for a smooth and beautiful life, and no other way can bring as much happiness.

Is this really the case? We can observe, experience, practice, and verify.

My conclusion is that if a person’s life is smooth, beautiful, and trouble-free, it can be affirmed that he has always been walking the way of the Greatest Creator; if his life is half happy and half worried, with great ups and downs, it proves that he sometimes walks the way of the Greatest Creator and sometimes walks other ways; if a person’s life is constantly troubled and full of obstacles, it can be affirmed that he has always been deviating from the way of the Greatest Creator and has never walked on it.

Is there any theory to prove my above conclusion?

I try to prove it with several connotations of the way of the Greatest Creator. You can see if it makes sense.

One important connotation of the way of the Greatest Creator is: to comply with nature, absolutely no coercion.

If a person takes things as they are, follows predestined relations, acts in accordance with nature, and takes advantage of opportunities as they arise, does not force, does not coerce himself or others, lets what comes come, and lets what goes go, does not over-pursue, does not give up effort, eats peaches when he encounters peaches, eats apricots when he encounters apricots, does not have high ambitions, does not feel inferior, is not arrogant and indulgent, and is not habitually lazy, then his life will basically be smooth sailing, without great ups and downs, and without disappointment and heartbreak.

Another connotation of the way of the Greatest Creator is: non-action, non-contention, selflessness.

A person, who can stay in a five-star hotel without arrogance, and can live in a thatched house with peace of mind without self-destruction, who is grateful for eating gourmet food, and is not tired of eating plain food, who does not contend or compete with others, does not reject what should come, does not cling to what should go, does not deliberately seek, plan, or take, likes what others do not like, enjoys what others do not enjoy, is not greedy, only takes a sip from thousands of rivers, does not excessively possess or own, does not excessively seek fame and fortune, is content with poverty and enjoys the Tao, often puts the interests of others and the public first and puts his own interests second, then he will not encounter obstacles and adversity.

The third connotation of the way of the Greatest Creator is: love.

A person, who only gives and does not ask for, only thinks about bringing happiness, joy, freedom, and bliss to others, does not set barriers and shackles for others, does not suppress and control others, does not snatch what others like, does not restrict others’ freedom, does not bully, oppress, deceive others, does not argue with others, does not abuse and slaughter LIFE, cherishes all LIFE, respects all LIFE, does not block others’ way, and is willing to sacrifice himself to help others accomplish their goals, then he will not make enemies, will not be hated, and life will certainly be smooth and unimpeded.

The fourth connotation of the way of the Greatest Creator is: faith.

Jesus Christ is the son of the Greatest Creator, the messenger of the Greatest Creator, he conveys to us the information and will of the Greatest Creator. Jesus teaches us to seek the kingdom of the Greatest Creator, walk the way of the Greatest Creator, and all we need will be provided by the Greatest Creator. We do not need to worry about tomorrow, about the future, about our own food, clothing, housing, transportation, birth, aging, illness, and death. All these are arranged by the Greatest Creator. As long as we have this faith, the road of life will be smooth, safe, and unimpeded.

The way of the Greatest Creator has eight major connotations. Just the above four major connotations—faith, love, selflessness, non-contention, non-action, compliance with nature, and absolutely no coercion—are enough to ensure that our life is smooth and beautiful. If our life lacks faith and love, if we intervene, contend, and are selfish, if we do not comply with nature but force things, then life is bound to be troubled, painful, full of worries and fears, and full of obstacles.

What do you readers think? Does what I say make sense?

If it makes sense, adjust your thinking and consciousness immediately and firmly walk the way of the Greatest Creator!

[brucereavis]

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.🙏🏾👑

[newsdailynow]

THE DOYEN LAW GROUP, CASE UPDATE

Post: July 14, 2019

The First District Appellate Court has upheld a Cook County Jury’s award

The First District Appellate Court has upheld a Cook County Jury’s 2016 award of $252,500 for intentional infliction of emotional distress committed by Cathryn Ilani in 2008 against a then-12-year-old boy. The now adult Plaintiff was represented on appeal by The Doyen Law Group, LLC. of Elgin. The Defendant was represented by The Walters Law Firm of Chicago.

Ilani primarily argued in her appeal that the jury’s verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence and that judgment in the amount of $252,500 was excessive. The Appellate Court found, however, that “[t]here was sufficient evidence for the jury to find that [Ilani], an adult, sent threatening and harassing emails and texts to a twelve year old minor in an attempt to extort him into continuing a romantic relationship with her daughter. [Ilani’s] conduct was extreme and outrageous: she knew that her conduct was intended to cause or would cause severe emotional distress, and her conduct did in fact cause emotional distress.” The Court’s full opinion can be found here:

http://www.illinoiscourts.gov/.../1stDist.../1170754_R23.pdf

The original press release from June 2016 is below:

A Cook County jury has awarded a Sleepy Hollow man $252,500 for abuse and harassment perpetrated by Cathryn Ilani of Elgin. Jackson Buckley was 13 years old in 2008 when the harassing communications began. Ilani, 42 at the time, is the founder, principal, and a teacher at Einstein Academy in Elgin.

On September 27, 2008, officers from the Sleepy Hollow Police Department, with assistance from officers from the the Kane County Sheriff’s Office, Cook County Sheriff’s Office, Elgin Police Department and Aurora Police Department executed search warrants at the Ilani home and at Einstein Academy in connection with an investigation into intimidation, harassment, and possession of child pornography.

Once at the school, Ilani led officers to her office, where nude photographs of Jackson Buckley were confiscated by law enforcement. Ilani had retrieved the images from her daughter’s cell phone, and used them in a campaign to blackmail Buckley into remaining in a relationship with her daughter.

The Plaintiff presented evidence in the form of 350 pages of emails, and phone records showing over 6,000 text messages between Ilani and the young boy in June and July of 2008 alone. At times, the rate of messages received from Ilani reached 200 per hour. Along with threats of releasing the photographs, Ilani told the 13-year-old that she was dying, and that her daughter needed him to be present once she no longer had her mother.

Evidence was also presented that Ilani attempted to intimidate another young man in 2010, stating that if he did not remain in a relationship with her daughter she would have him charged with rape. That man subsequently checked himself into a psychiatric hospital.

Judge Eve Reilly presided over the trial, which took place at the Richard J. Daley Center and lasted seven days. Jurors deliberated for two and a half hours before returning their verdict. The plaintiff is represented by attorneys Michael Doyen, Kathleen Doyen, Christopher Doyen and Anne Chapski Doyen of The Doyen Law Group, LLC.

[thechristgospel]

RCCG Open Heaven Daily Devotional 17 November 2023 TOPIC:  All Round Purity READ: Matthew 23:25-33  25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. 32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? MEMORISE  Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8 RCCG Open Heaven Daily Devotional 17 November 2023 MESSAGE Our memory verse today says those that are pure in heart are blessed and they will see God. What this scripture is saying is that if your purity is not on the inside, you cannot make heaven. Some people will probably jump at that and say, “What matters is the inside, not the outside.” That is untrue because whatever is on the inside will also show on the outside. When somebody is mad, he is mad on the inside, but the evidence is seen on the outside. Many years ago, when we had just started the Redeemed Christian Bible College, I brought some Americans to teach the students, but they began to teach my people that I was too harsh and legalistic. They said God is only interested in what is inside the heart, not outside. When I heard this, I knew I was in trouble and sought the face of God for wisdom to handle the situation. READ RCCG Open Heaven Daily Devotional 16 November 2023 – Be Thou Perfect Thankfully, He inspired me to buy two oranges of the same size and present to the students. One was yellow and the other green. I asked them to choose one and they all chose the yellow one. I asked why and they said it would be sweeter than the green one. I asked them how they came to that conclusion as we had not cut it open; they said the outside shows what is inside. The message was passed. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 that in the last days, there will be many people who will have a form of godliness. You may talk and dress like a Christian, but those things don’t make you one. Christianity is being like Jesus from the inside out. Your heart must yearn to be more and more like Him. You must a

[hellsitesonlybookclub]

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Chapter XVII

The being finished speaking, and fixed his looks upon me in expectation of a reply. But I was bewildered, perplexed, and unable to arrange my ideas sufficiently to understand the full extent of his proposition. He continued—

"You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do; and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse to concede."

The latter part of his tale had kindled anew in me the anger that had died away while he narrated his peaceful life among the cottagers, and, as he said this, I could no longer suppress the rage that burned within me.

"I do refuse it," I replied; "and no torture shall ever extort a consent from me. You may render me the most miserable of men, but you shall never make me base in my own eyes. Shall I create another like yourself, whose joint wickedness might desolate the world. Begone! I have answered you; you may torture me, but I will never consent."

"You are in the wrong," replied the fiend; "and, instead of threatening, I am content to reason with you. I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? You would not call it murder, if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts, and destroy my frame, the work of your own hands. Shall I respect man, when he contemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness; and, instead of injury, I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance. But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union. Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery. I will revenge my injuries: if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care: I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth."

A fiendish rage animated him as he said this; his face was wrinkled into contortions too horrible for human eyes to behold; but presently he calmed himself and proceeded—

"I intended to reason. This passion is detrimental to me; for you do not reflect that you are the cause of its excess. If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them an hundred and an hundred fold; for that one creature's sake, I would make peace with the whole kind! But I now indulge in dreams of bliss that cannot be realised. What I ask of you is reasonable and moderate; I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself; the gratification is small, but it is all that I can receive, and it shall content me. It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another. Our lives will not be happy, but they will be harmless, and free from the misery I now feel. Oh! my creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny me my request!"

I was moved. I shuddered when I thought of the possible consequences of my consent; but I felt that there was some justice in his argument. His tale, and the feelings he now expressed, proved him to be a creature of fine sensations; and did I not as his maker, owe him all the portion of happiness that it was in my power to bestow? He saw my change of feeling, and continued—

"If you consent, neither you nor any other human being shall ever see us again: I will go to the vast wilds of South America. My food is not that of man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment. My companion will be of the same nature as myself, and will be content with the same fare. We shall make our bed of dried leaves; the sun will shine on us as on man, and will ripen our food. The picture I present to you is peaceful and human, and you must feel that you could deny it only in the wantonness of power and cruelty. Pitiless as you have been towards me, I now see compassion in your eyes; let me seize the favourable moment, and persuade you to promise what I so ardently desire."

"You propose," replied I, "to fly from the habitations of man, to dwell in those wilds where the beasts of the field will be your only companions. How can you, who long for the love and sympathy of man, persevere in this exile? You will return, and again seek their kindness, and you will meet with their detestation; your evil passions will be renewed, and you will then have a companion to aid you in the task of destruction. This may not be: cease to argue the point, for I cannot consent."

"How inconstant are your feelings! but a moment ago you were moved by my representations, and why do you again harden yourself to my complaints? I swear to you, by the earth which I inhabit, and by you that made me, that, with the companion you bestow, I will quit the neighbourhood of man, and dwell as it may chance, in the most savage of places. My evil passions will have fled, for I shall meet with sympathy! my life will flow quietly away, and, in my dying moments, I shall not curse my maker."

His words had a strange effect upon me. I compassionated him, and sometimes felt a wish to console him; but when I looked upon him, when I saw the filthy mass that moved and talked, my heart sickened, and my feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred. I tried to stifle these sensations; I thought, that as I could not sympathise with him, I had no right to withhold from him the small portion of happiness which was yet in my power to bestow.

"You swear," I said, "to be harmless; but have you not already shown a degree of malice that should reasonably make me distrust you? May not even this be a feint that will increase your triumph by affording a wider scope for your revenge."

"How is this? I must not be trifled with: and I demand an answer. If I have no ties and no affections, hatred and vice must be my portion; the love of another will destroy the cause of my crimes, and I shall become a thing, of whose existence every one will be ignorant. My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor; and my virtues will necessarily arise when I live in communion with an equal. I shall feel the affections of a sensitive being, and become linked to the chain of existence and events, from which I am now excluded."

I paused some time to reflect on all he had related, and the various arguments which he had employed. I thought of the promise of virtues which he had displayed on the opening of his existence, and the subsequent blight of all kindly feeling by the loathing and scorn which his protectors had manifested towards him. His power and threats were not omitted in my calculations: a creature who could exist in the ice-caves of the glaciers, and hide himself from pursuit among the ridges of inaccessible precipices, was a being possessing faculties it would be vain to cope with. After a long pause of reflection, I concluded that the justice due both to him and my fellow-creatures demanded of me that I should comply with his request. Turning to him, therefore, I said—

"I consent to your demand, on your solemn oath to quit Europe for ever, and every other place in the neighbourhood of man, as soon as I shall deliver into your hands a female who will accompany you in your exile."

"I swear," he cried, "by the sun, and by the blue sky of Heaven, and by the fire of love that burns my heart, that if you grant my prayer, while they exist you shall never behold me again. Depart to your home, and commence your labours: I shall watch their progress with unutterable anxiety; and fear not but that when you are ready I shall appear."

Saying this, he suddenly quitted me, fearful, perhaps, of any change in my sentiments. I saw him descend the mountain with greater speed than the flight of an eagle, and quickly lost among the undulations of the sea of ice.

His tale had occupied the whole day; and the sun was upon the verge of the horizon when he departed. I knew that I ought to hasten my descent towards the valley, as I should soon be encompassed in darkness; but my heart was heavy, and my steps slow. The labour of winding among the little paths of the mountains, and fixing my feet firmly as I advanced, perplexed me, occupied as I was by the emotions which the occurrences of the day had produced. Night was far advanced, when I came to the half-way resting-place, and seated myself beside the fountain. The stars shone at intervals, as the clouds passed from over them; the dark pines rose before me, and every here and there a broken tree lay on the ground: it was a scene of wonderful solemnity, and stirred strange thoughts within me. I wept bitterly; and clasping my hands in agony, I exclaimed, "Oh! stars and clouds, and winds, ye are all about to mock me: if ye really pity me, crush sensation and memory; let me become as nought; but if not, depart, depart, and leave me in darkness."

These were wild and miserable thoughts; but I cannot describe to you how the eternal twinkling of the stars weighed upon me, and how I listened to every blast of wind, as if it were a dull ugly siroc on its way to consume me.

Morning dawned before I arrived at the village of Chamounix; I took no rest, but returned immediately to Geneva. Even in my own heart I could give no expression to my sensations—they weighed on me with a mountain's weight, and their excess destroyed my agony beneath them. Thus I returned home, and entering the house, presented myself to the family. My haggard and wild appearance awoke intense alarm; but I answered no question, scarcely did I speak. I felt as if I were placed under a ban—as if I had no right to claim their sympathies—as if never more might I enjoy companionship with them. Yet even thus I loved them to adoration; and to save them, I resolved to dedicate myself to my most abhorred task. The prospect of such an occupation made every other circumstance of existence pass before me like a dream; and that thought only had to me the reality of life.

[nameandword]

Matthew 23

Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not after their works: for they say, and do not.

"For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, 'Rabbi, Rabbi.'

"But be not you called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all you are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be you called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.

"But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in. You devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. You compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

"Woe unto you, you blind guides, which say, 'Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!' You fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? And, 'Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.' You fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?

"Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

"You blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. You make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

"You are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

"You build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore you are witnesses unto yourselves, that you are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill you up then the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?

"Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth, till you shall say, 'Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.'"

[hardynwa]

N617 per litre is extortion, fuel price should be N150 – PDP dares Tinubu

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of extorting Nigerians with the increased N617 pump price of petrol. PDP said the price of fuel should not be more than N150 per litre, adding that the increased rate was a maladministration by Tinubu’s government that has shown extreme insensitivity and callousness towards Nigerians. The Party cautions that the increase is worsening the already suffocating economic situation under the APC and has the capability of triggering a very serious crisis in the country if not abated. A statement by PDP’s spokesman, Debo Ologunagba said it is appalling that instead of seeking ways to stabilize and grow the economy, the APC administration has abandoned the welfare of Nigerians which is the primary purpose of Government under Section 14 (2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and left the citizens to the vagaries of market forces and exploitative cabal; a disposition that is characteristic of a government that is not accountable to the people. Ologunagba: “The PDP is alarmed that with its ill-thought out, badly planned and hurriedly-executed policies, the APC is running Nigeria’s economy aground with the value of naira rapidly plummeting, businesses and production shutting down; citizens losing their means of livelihood, commercial and social activities crippled, with millions of families no longer able to afford their daily needs as the costs of food, medication and other essential goods and services continue to skyrocket. “The present dire situation comes as a consequence of APC’s insensitivity, seething corruption, scandalous cluelessness and lack of capacity to effectively steady and manage the nation’s economy. “Our Party insists that the N617 per litre of fuel is excessive, unacceptable and cannot be justified under any guise. This is especially given the economic potential and prospects within our country. “Even with the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, the PDP maintains that with a deft, transparent and innovative management of resources, economic potentials, national comparative advantage and expanded value chain in refining capacity, fuel should not sell for more than N150 per litre in Nigeria.” Read the full article

[pugzman3]

Some people have favorite verses. I have favorite chapters. This is one of them. In it, Jesus rips into the hypocrisy of the apostate religious sect to their face, prophesies against them (v. 29-39), declares their judgement, and then leaves his earthly temple for destruction.

Matthew 23:1-39 KJV

1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,

2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:

3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,

6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,

7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.

9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.

11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.

19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?

20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.

21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.

23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:

35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

[bogkeep]

you know what. at this point i feel like i'm circling the topic of my trauma like water around a drain. maybe i'll just talk about it.

this is gonna be a personal one.

i was stalked, harassed, and smeared. it was years ago and i'm doing good now, but it's the worst thing that has ever happened to me. i've been referring to it as The Trauma for a while, but only recently realised i just straight up have PTSD from it.

i hate that that's what it took to finally understand how to set and hold a boundary. i hate how much better my internet habits are now, because of that. i hate that the way to keep myself safe and at peace was to never, ever speak a word of it in public lest it be used against me, and that i'm still scared of it. but what more can they do to me? they've already tried it all, and i'm still here, and the ground can't collapse under my feet anymore.

the long and messy buildup to a break up with a friend was horrible enough, but it probably wouldn't have scarred me as badly if i hadn't been stalked for well over a year afterwards. i say stalking even if it was all online, a whole ocean apart - they made themself present in every space i frequented, and i've become intimately familiar with the blocking and blacklisting systems on every platform i'm on. they tried to get to me through my roommates and my irl friends. it's difficult to fully describe how cornered i felt even in the vast infinity of the fucking internet. i regret nothing, though. cutting them off was my last resort and the best thing i ever did. i'd do it again a million times - i kind of had to, since it was less akin to severing a string and more like having to behead an eel in a bathtub full of oil that also happened to be a hydra.

i had no control over the narrative other than whatever trust my friends had in me, and i lost quite a lot of friends. (i saw one of them block me in real time.) there was this absolute helplessness of it, because what could i possibly do or say to prove that i was not a cruel or unsafe person to be around? i've never held it against them.

(i wonder, sometimes. do they ever think of me? do they shrug and move on?)

it felt so stupid, really, to feel this anxious about my reputation. oh, no!! not my precious reputation!!!!!!!! but it's

well

how do you recover your reputation? on the internet? it's such an easy thing to ruin, and it was deeply shameful to realise how easily i've swallowed the same bait myself, so many times before. never about friends, i think, but, y'know. can't fault anyone for wanting to stay safe, be it from Supposedly Skeevy Creators or the panopticon.

the worst part was how my own mind felt like wet, crumpled up paper, constantly doubting my own reality of who i am. how do i know i'm not cruel? how do i know i'm safe to be around? what if i was extorting and manipulating the masses, even if that was not my conscious intention? it took a long time to be able to do or say something nice again without intrusive thoughts flooding my brain.

i think i always knew somewhere inside of me that no, of course i'm not an evil mastermind, that's a very silly thought. i don't even believe in evil. but it's like - if i had done something wrong, then at least it would be something i could change about myself. if it was my fault, then it was within my control.

the longer it went on, the easier it was to convince myself that i didn't deserve this. yes, even if i had done... whatever it was i had supposedly done that was so deserving of punishment, i felt like nobody deserved this much punishment. like, it was a truly excessive amount of punishment, going on far beyond the point of contructivity - i wasn't doing anything. i wasn't doing anything to begin with, and whatever it was that i had been doing, i had stopped now! there were only two remaining explanations of my Crimes:

my mere existence was bad, and i would have to completely erase myself from the internet. - no, i was not so far gone as to believe that.

cutting off my friend was the most heinous act of mental violence ever enacted. - no, i did not believe that either. i wasn't super good at boundaries but i've always been a strong believer that relationships are not mandatory. - well i definitely didn't want to be their friend anymore now, and from the sounds of it, i couldn't imagine them wanting to be friends with me anymore either. - should i have ended it differently? could i have ended it differently? i had flattened myself trying to be as kind and understanding and soft and compassionate as i could be, desperately so, but that hadn't saved me. (i remember my mother asking, "but did you make it clear to them that you love them?" when i explained why i wanted to see a therapist again.) maybe if i had just blocked them without preamble on day one.

i had no choice but to accept the sheer injustice of what was being done to me.

regaining my sanity was a bit of a process. i'm very thankful for my friends. (i'm not thankful for the therapy rejection letter telling me i wasn't depressed enough to qualify. it took me a while to get an actual therapist that wasn't a tarot deck.)

i hesitate to call myself lucky, but i was. even with every paranoid prediction and worst fear coming true, i outlasted them. yes sure i sometimes cried uncontrollably to the point i got sent home from work once, yes i lost weight because i was too nauseous from the stress to eat properly, yes i had nightmares about them and yes i would have physical trauma reactions every time i saw their name written anywhere even though it belonged to completely different people, yes, yes - i fucking survived all of that. i had solid foundations to stand on.

even in the forest fire of my social circles i had an incredible, wonderful support network. i feel much more secure in myself and my relationships now. i've learnt so many things - about trauma, about boundaries, about healing, about friendship, about the internet, but at what fucking cost!!!!! my pain shouldn't have been rewarding. it's a cautionary tale about how trying to be soft enough for everyone to step on inevitably leads to hurt, and yet! how fucking dare i come out better for it!

maybe this is no tale and there is no 'better'. it's a painful chapter of my life but i am not a book. i'm a real person of flesh and blood in a confusing reality where people struggle and do their best.

i can't explain why, exactly, i'm sharing this today. it's not all of it, far from it, but i think it explains well enough where i write my blogposts from. maybe i'm hoping it will help someone else. maybe i'm just ready to own my own story loudly. i'm tired of looking over my own shoulder.

thank you for reading, if you did.

[chouhatsumimi]

Vocab from Karneval, Vol. 3

縁起 えんぎ, いんえん omen, sign of luck, origin, history, causation, dependent arising, doctrine that everything has a cause and there is nothing that arises out of nothing / presagio

身内, 身うち みうち relatives, one's family, friends, members of the same organization, followers, henchmen, one's whole body / pariente, consanguíneo

無様, 不様 ぶざま unshapely, unsightly, clumsy, unpresentable, uncouth, awkward, ungainly

交戦 こうせん war, battle, hostilities / beligerancia, guerra

甚だしい, 甚しい はなはだしい extreme, excessive, terrible, intense, severe, serious, tremendous, heavy (damage) / sumo, extremoso

追跡者 ついせきしゃ pursuer

甚振る いたぶる to torment, to harass, to tease

繋縛 けいばく constraint, restraint

羅列 られつ enumeration, citation, listing / enumeración

引ったくる, 引っ手繰る ひったくる to snatch from, to steal from / arrebatar (robar) de

肴, 酒菜 さかな appetizer or snack served with drinks, performance to liven up a bar, conversation to liven up a party

前振り, 前ふり まえふり preface, introduction, lead in (to a joke, question, etc.), lead up, payment in advance (by bank transfer), swinging (one's body) forward

二股, 二俣, 二また, 二叉, 二又 ふたまた seeing two people (i.e. romantically) at the same time, two-timing, bifurcation, fork, branch, dichotomy, fence-sitting, playing it both ways, parting of the ways

ぐっしょり soaking (wet), wringing, dripping, drenched / empapado

息抜き いきぬき taking a breather, relaxation, vent hole

優越 ゆうえつ supremacy, predominance, being superior to / superioridad

浸る, 漬る ひたる to be soaked in, to be flooded, to be submerged, to be immersed in (joy, memories, alcohol, etc.), to give oneself over to, to bask in / bañarse, sumergirse, zambullirse

胸ぐらを掴む, 胸倉を掴む, 胸ぐらをつかむ, 胸倉をつかむ むなぐらをつかむ to grab (someone) by the collar, to size (someone) by the lapels

定石 じょうせき standard practice, playing by the book, established tactic, formula, joseki (in go), standard sequence (esp. in a corner), standard move

甚だ はなはだ very, greatly, exceedingly / en exceso, extremamente, muy

危惧, 危ぐ, 危虞 きぐ apprehensions, misgivings, uneasiness, anxiety, fear / miedo, duda, incertidumbre, preocupación, ansiedad, desconcierto, desconfianza

風通し, 風とおし かぜとおし, かざとおし ventilation, communication (within an organisation), openness / ventilación

強奪 ごうだつ pillage, seizure, hijacking, plunder, extortion

躍進 やくしん making rapid progress, making great advances, rush, dash, onslaught

謎めいた なぞめいた enigmatic, puzzling, mysterious, wrapped in mystery

謎めく なぞめく to be enigmatic, to be puzzling, to be wrapped in mystery / ser enigmático, estar rodeado de misterio

踊り子, 踊子 おどりこ dancer (usu. female) / bailarín

慇懃無礼 いんぎんぶれい hypocritical courtesy, superficially polite but rude in intent / exceso de cortesía fingida, cortesía meramente aparente, cortesía falta de sinceridad, cortesía hipócrita

きしきし squeak, creak

フワフワ, ふわふわ lightly (floating, drifting, etc.), buoyantly, soft, fluffy, spongy, unsteadily, flightily, fickly, frivolously / esponjoso, suave, volátil, inestable

ぼりぼり, ぽりぽり munching, crunching, scratching (an itch) / sonido al rascar algo: ras-ras, sonido al comer algo crujiente: crac-crac, ruido al rascar algo: ras-ras, sonido al comer algo crujiente: crac-crac

箱, 函, 匣, 筥, 筐, 凾 はこ, ハコ box, case, chest, package, pack, crate, car (of a train, etc.), shamisen case, shamisen, public building, community building, man who carries a geisha's shamisen, receptacle for human waste, feces (faeces), counter for boxes (or boxed objects) / caja, estuche, caja, caja con tapa, caja, caja rdonda de bambú, cesta cuadrada de bambú, caja

減点 げんてん subtracting points, points deducted / sustracción, deducción

笑う, 咲う, 嗤う わらう to laugh, to smile, to sneer, to ridicule, to be dumbfounded, to be flabbergasted / reír, sonreír, flojear, debilitarse, quedarse sin fuerzas en, fallar las fuerzas en, burlarse de, mofarse de, reírse malintencionadamente de, reír, sonreír

やり繰り, 遣り繰り やりくり making do, getting by (somehow), managing / ajuste, arreglo, acomodamiento

膨よか, 脹よか ふくよか plump, fleshy, well-rounded, full, pleasant (fragrance), rich

日向ぼっこ, 日なたぼっこ ひなたぼっこ basking in the sun

花形 はながた, かけい floral pattern, flourish, ornament, star (actor, player, etc.)

媚, 媚び こび flattery, cajolery, flirtation

苛める, 虐める いじめる to ill-treat, to bully, to torment, to pick on, to tease, to be cruel to, to persecute, to be tough on (e.g. one's body), to treat harshly / burlarse, atormentar, perseguir, castigar

派閥 はばつ clique, faction / facción

男勝り, 男まさり おとこまさり (of a woman) strong-minded, spirited, mannish / (de una mujer) mentalidad fuerte, animada, hombruna

妖艶, 妖婉 ようえん fascinating, voluptuous, bewitching, captivating / fascinante, voluptuoso

屈折 くっせつ bending, curving, twisting, turning, winding, warping (of feelings, logic, etc.), distortion, twisting, refraction, inflection / curvatura, refracción, distorsión

分け入る わけいる to force one's way, to push through

[numbersbythebook]

Water Into Wine

written by Will Schumacher

One of my last posts I stated that the “second” miracle, as John called it, is a type of what Jesus will do at His second coming and the “first” miracle, as John called it, is a type of what Jesus did at His first coming. The “first” miracle is Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana.  And it isn’t just any wine, it is “good” wine -

John 2:10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

New wine in the Old Testament is symbolic of the Messiah and the Holy Spirit:

Joel 3:18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is likened to drinking wine:

Acts 2:15-17 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

The narrative of the miracle begins with Mary telling Jesus they need wine and Jesus replied his “hour” is not yet come:

John 2:3-4 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. 4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.

Jesus “hour” is His death and resurrection: Matthew 26:45 Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

The wedding was taking place at Cana. Strong’s G2580 = ”Cana” and comes from Strongs H7069 =”buy” “possess” “purchase”. Jesus purchased us with His blood:

1 Corinthains 7:23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

Strong’s H7071 =”kanah” (from H7069 =”buy”) is a river in the Old Testament. It is the dividing line between Manasseh and Ephraim. Manasseh and Ephraim are the children of Joseph born in Egypt after he is raised from the prison and put as second in charge under pharoah.  He is a type of Christ at His first coming raised from the dead and sits at the right hand of the Father. Manasseh the firstborn is a type of the Jewish church born by the Spirit (good wine) at Pentecost.  Ephraim is a type of the gentile church born later by the Spirit (good wine).  Jacob takes Joseph’s children as His own, Joseph thus receives the double portion birthright. Water is symbolic of the word of God because it is essential to life.  Jesus took the water, the word of God, and made it sweet wine.  Jesus constantly judged the religious rulers of the day for taking God’s word and adding their own rules and regulations to it.  It was a burden no one could carry.  It became about the rules and regulations and not about God.

Matthew 23:23-27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

Jesus was the living Word of God.  He showed us how it is to be lived out through grace and truth.  He then out of love for us became the penalty for sin so that we are no longer under the penalty of the law.  He conquered death.  He then gave us the Holy Spirit to write the laws on our hearts so that we do them out of love for God.  Jesus turned water into sweet wine through His death, resurrection, and giving of the Spirit. There is one other part to this I believe though.  There were 6 waterpots of the good wine given to the governor of the feast:

John 2:6-10 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. 7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. 9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, 10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

The governor of the feast is the Father. The number 6 (for the waterpots) represents a physical completion lacking the spiritual though.  Man and creation were completed in 6 days, but the 7th day needed to be set apart (made holy) for the week to be complete. Jesus fulfilled the 3 spring feasts.  He was the Passover lamb for the Feast of Passover.  He was without sin, so He was the unleavened bread for the feast of unleavened bread. The final spring feast is Firstfruits. The spring feasts are about the barley harvest.  The firstfruits sheaf of barley had to be brought to the priest and waved before the Lord before the barley harvest can begin.  Once it is offered the barley harvest can start:

Leviticus 23:10-11 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.

Jesus is called the firsfruits of “them that slept”- 1 Corinthians 15:20-21 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

So Jesus fulfilled firstfruits by being that barley sheaf lifted up and waved (raised from the dead) before God. Once this first barley sheaf was offered to God the barley harvest began.  There was a “barley harvest” at Christ resurrection:

Matthew 27:52-53 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

The 6 stone waterpots of water that Jesus turned into good wine that were presented to and inspected by the governor of the feast/Father is the work Jesus did through His death and resurrection.  The barley wave sheaf was inspected and accepted.  Jesus physical death (symbolized by the number 6) resulted in a spiritual perfection (symbolized by the number 7). Let me show you a few interesting numerical connections that seem to support this. Jesus was declared risen for the first time in Matthew.  This verse has a gematria of 7159:

Matthew 28:6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

Strong’s H7159 =”cover” is used twice in the Old Testament in Ezekiel 37 speaking of the at the time a physical and spiritual restoration/resurrection of Israel.  Jesus’ “new wine” is the beginning of this fulfillment:

Ezekiel 37:6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Ezekiel 37:8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. The very next verse has a gematria of 3631.  Strong’s G3631=”wine” as in the new wine of Jesus.  The Hebrew word for “wind” is the same word for “Spirit”:

 Ezekiel 37:9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

Matthew 28:6 is the verse where Jesus is risen.  It is verse 24202.  John 2:10 is the verse that the governor of the feast/Father calls the wine “good wine” and that the best was saved for last.  It is verse 26106. The verse jump is 1904 (26106 - 24202). Strong’s G1904 =”come”  It is used in Acts where Jesus is about to ascend but tells His disciples the Holy Spirit will come to them:

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

[smolcinnamonchipmunk]

As I go through YouTube to find more videos to put into the background while I work on stuff, I’m finding more and more Shorts, which is to be expected ever since they decided to let people monetize off of them. I agree with this decision, especially for animators and artists who can’t be making full length videos over 10 minutes every week However, I have seen so many blatant reposts of animators and webcomics. The example that comes to mind is Telepurte, an animator who’s work I love and who’s struggled with this kind of thing in the past because he kept getting his work ripped from his Twitter And yeah, some of the shorts have (Artist: Blahblahblah), but the majority of peoples brains are so carbonated by the excess of content available that they don’t even register it and go, “Yo, nice work dude” and scroll by without second thought, and the majority of the ones that DO register it don’t even look at the OG artist I don’t have much stake in the game, I feel, just because I don’t post a lot of art or animations, but it just pisses me off that people look at stuff, go “Oooooh, don’t mind if I do!” and repost it either as their own or lie and say the artist gave them permission, and then basically steal internet traffic from the original artist because they post more due to just stealing stuff I know it’d be INCREDIBLY difficult to try and temper this, but if YouTube could find a way, that’d be amazing P.S. Also, people going “artists shouldn’t complain because that’s just something some people are gonna do” can go suck a knob. Taking that somewhat to the extreme, some people are gonna extort hundreds/thousands of workers and hoard everything. I hate both of these scenarios and would punch anyone that does these in the face