#it's my entire religion

[andrewwtca]

I've been having Thoughts about Cloud Strife in a dress all day and this is my silly self-indulgent corner of the internet, so here we go! a silly scenario.

takes place between Kalm and the Temple of the Ancients. for some reason (post Cait Sith, Cid, and Vincent joining) - probably to gain info - the party has to infiltrate a party in some filthy rich mansion. Cloud needs to go inside to make sure the info is helpful, but he's wanted. he can't just show up.

and he specifically needs to go inside... the party is brainstorming when Tifa and Aerith lock eyes. Cloud groans. he knows exactly what they're thinking, but c'mon Cloud! isn't this the best way to sneak in?

Cloud is adamantly against it, but he can't openly protest it, because that would be suspicious and then they'd know. so Cloud finally huffs and agrees to it. the girls giggle and lock arms with him, looking at the others.

Aerith: hmm... he'll need someone to go in.

Tifa: it can't be us since we're wanted... can't be Barret either...

Aerith: and can't be Cait Sith either - sorry!

Tifa: that just leaves Vincent and Cid...

Cloud: ...do I get a say in this

Aerith: hush. which one of you would be better at a party?

Cid points to himself and Vincent looks off to the side. Aerith would clap her hands in delight and Tifa points to Barret.

Tifa: please get him in a suit! we'll be back in an hour?

Barret: a suit? Tifa, what are you- Tifa!

the girls giggle and drag Cloud off.

they're in the middle of the mart, and they break it up into three sections: hair, make-up, a dress. the hair and make-up is easy, but the dress? do they even have the gil for that?

so, regrettably, they can't get Cloud into an elaborate dress. it's probably for the best, anyway, because his goal is to fit in. after lots of dragging him around, lots of him protesting and whining, they finally have completed the look: a black form-fitting dress reaching down to his ankles; sheer black gloves reaching up to his forearm; black pumps; light lip-gloss; mascara; and an extension braid wrapped around the back of his head. so safe to say, Cloud is a fucking vision.

Aerith: wait, wait! we can't go yet! we need to come up with a name for him

Cloud, speaking in near mumbles, brain still reeling: why? girls are named Cloud...

Tifa: Aerith's got a point, Cloud. if someone finds you familiar, hearing your name could get you in trouble. we'll have to come up with something-

Aerith: Blue.

Tifa, Cloud: blue?

Aerith: yes, I've thought of this a lot! his eyes! or, well, her eyes. her mother saw those baby blues and just knew she had to name her Blue.

Cloud: Blue Strife?

Aerith: no, silly! you're not keeping your last name either.

Cloud: it feels like you're shipping me off for marriage...

Tifa: hmm... how about... Woolf?

Cloud: ...wolf.

Aerith: oh! I love it! because he's such a lone wolf, right?

the girls giggle while Cloud crosses his arms, looking absolutely stunning and absolutely annoyed.

Cloud: you want my name to be Blue Woolf.

Tifa: c'mon, Ms. Woolf, let's go see if your date is ready!

Cloud: kill me...

they drag him to where the rest of the party is. they managed to find Cid some really cheap suit, it's just well-put enough that no one would give Cid a second glance, especially not with his charming attitude.

Tifa: we're back!

Cait Sith: we were about to get worried! er, where did Cloud wonder off to?

Aerith, biting back a smile: he's right here!

Tifa and Aerith step aside to do a dramatic reveal of Cloud. he's not posing and refuses to look up at the shocked expressions of his friends. burning, he stomps forward, grabs Cid's wrist with as much rage as he can manage, and begins to yank him towards the party.

Barret: so that's how he helped Tifa out...

Aerith: bye Cid! bye Ms. Blue Woolf!

Cid: blue? wolf?

Cloud keeps mumbling under his breath for someone to kill him.

and of course, Cloud gets hit on a lot at the party <3

[tea-n-ink]

Homesickness is where the heart is

[canisalbus]

Would Machete still be Catholic in modern!AU?

He was raised in a very traditional household, went through a fraught crisis of faith in his teens, became a disillusioned atheist and then eventually more or less made his peace with the whole thing and slid back a little bit to the secular/lapsed catholic territory.

[5mcsinatrenchcoat]

I honestly think we don't appreciate enough how much this whole sequence says in terms of Sera's characterization

Right from the incredibly transparent "wrong kind of elf" phrasing and down to the "let's help him in a way that's consistent with his beliefs so he can live well, but also let him know that being threatened with being ostracized for literally being disabled it shit and offer help there too"

[drawfee-quot3s]

i've never made a sunday sauce

well i wouldn't say never, you do cook, quite a lot

but he never cooks sauce on sundays

no. i don't think that's respectful to the lord

- jacob, julia, + karina

[tongues--and--teeth]

Happy Pride to these three specifically

[foxwyrm]

Experiencing weird feelings regarding someone identifying as a w******, it certainly isn't my place to assume they aren't native american but it still strikes an uncomfortable chord in me as they seem to be unaware of cultural attitudes towards the spirit. Have there been community discussions surrounding this topic before? I'd really be curious to hear them, and to especially hear from native alterhumans from whose cultures this spirit belongs.

[namedforvalor]

Scenes from The Vampire Chronicles that genuinely made me laugh out loud: The Vampire Lestat edition. (spoilers)

Really loved Lestat waking up, wandering around a bit, then approaching a group of punks and casually saying "I'm a vampire" and they're just like "oh cool" followed by them finally asking his name and telling him he's in a book. Lestat standing under a street lamp reading the entirety of IWTV in one sitting was a perfect way to start this.

Lestat standing in the church after being chased through town by a hoard of vampires, meeting Armand who is essentially like “can you stop being an asshole? I’ve convinced these idiots that I know god and I’ve established rules and you’re fucking up my game by breaking them” and Lestat is like “…right” and then immediately starts screaming that Armand is in the church at the top of his lungs while Armand chases him around telling him to shut up. You can't write this shit.

When Lestat is in the crypts and Allesandra and Armand are trying to convince him to join them and she's basically like "You can't live with mortals, you'll eventually start to love them" and Lestat, so seriously, is like "Oh.. It takes you three hundred years to love something, you monsters? I loved them from the first night. Were you awful in your mortal lives as well?" like my god read them to filth.

[doomspiral]

Reading ur religious texts (whichever) can also be fic research if ur totally insane

[moonysfavoritetoast]

“modern satanism is the same thing!” baby honey no. honey. please. i encourage you to look up the satanic temple, you clearly don’t understand a word im saying. “IM NOT SELLING MY SOUL TO SATAN” . i don’t even. have anything to say about that. “why have a religion where you worship the embodiment of evil for another religion?” buddy. “who made god?” i don’t know hun, who made god? the people who wrote a book LONG after jesus would’ve been dead? who wouldn’t have even known him?

leave me the fuck alone with your “i don’t respect trans people. i don’t believe that bullshit.” “you don’t respect lily?” and he fucking STUTTERED, “i- i, well—”

maybe i should learn to take this shit. i’m a boy that’s how boys talk. but holy fucking shit i don’t want to listen to you tell me that i’m going to hell because im a disgusting tranny. i know i’m going to hell. i want to go to hell.

bitch also went on and on about how he has the TRUTH of god. you told everyone you were nonbinary in sixth grade. do you understand what nonbinary means?

[momonokopan]

day 16 + 17: angel + demon

but who is the angel and who is the demon?

finally a chance to reveal to the world how much i love trigun stampede i Need to pick up the old anime later i love these brothers

[turqrambles]

I had assumed that when Rayman follows the Rabbids to the human world, he doesn't let the humans discover him.

But no! According to Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 for the DS, Rayman just let every big news station interview him, a strange limbless guy made out of magic and dreams.

This is the biggest lore revelation for me. For years, I assumed that Rayman was behaving like a ninja turtle in TV Party and was living in self exile.

Instead, after a bunch of sapient screaming bunnies magically appeared in modern day and started wrecking shit, a weird little man made out of floating body parts suddenly showed up and said "Hello, humans! I'm Rayman! I'm from another dimension and I'm made out of magic! Magic exists!" and somehow this didn't lead to the collapse of modern society.

Is Rayman's appearance in Laserhawk somehow a reference to this...?

[undeniablespice]

drowned god the weak little beast you put on this earth to write fanfiction and like greyjoys has been neglecting homework in order to reread the affc ironborn chapters and have way too many opinions about the soggiest man in the world. i have Had Some Thoughts on aeron, theon, and names

it really is striking to me just how little people refer to aeron by his name. not just in conversation, but in the narrative itself, with the most notable example of this being aeron himself in his pov chapters constantly thinking of himself not as aeron but as damphair or just The Priest. he refers to himself as damphair or The Priest instead of aeron like twenty times throughout the prophet, to the point where it's used almost as frequently as his actual name. in the drowned man it's only like eight times (which i think is mostly because the vast majority of this chapter is given over to the kingsmoot, where aeron is mostly a spectator and the narrative focus is on the events taking place rather than his reaction to them). in the forsaken, it's ten times, though while aeron is actively imprisoned he mostly thinks of himself as aeron, with damphair being used four times in flashbacks to events that took place in the past, once during a conversation with euron while aeron is defying him, and then three times after he is freed and he can see the sea again

the consistency and frequency of aeron in his own mind thinking of himself as something other than his name reads to me almost like a foil to theon and reek. the identity of the damphair allows aeron to dissociate himself from the burden of his past weaknesses and sins: his pre-drowning frivolity and alcoholism and euron's sexual abuse. for aeron, being damphair is as empowering as being reek is degrading for theon. he is constantly affirming to himself that he is a loyal servant of the drowned god and that this makes him strong. it gives him status and purpose he never had as aeron the boy, who was the youngest and weakest of his brothers. aeron-the-priest cannot be frightened by any mortal man any more than he can be frightened by the dark or by memories. kill the boy to become the man -> drown the boy to become the damphair

(although, of course, when aeron tells himself all this about how god chose him and it makes him strong and special and immune to fear, he is deluding himself. the damphair is haunted incessantly by his brothers. aeron has the tendency to reconcile his lasting fear of euron with his special god-given immunity to such mortal flaws as feeling fear by believing that euron is ungodly/an avatar of the storm god/literally the devil, and therefore not really a mortal man in the same way that balon and victarion are

which is a really interesting parallel to how euron must see himself, what with the whole apotheosis god-king thing he's got going on by twow. in a way, euron is aeron's real god. it is euron's abuse that first connected aeron with faith, and it is faith that aeron uses to cope with and overcome the lasting psychological scars of that abuse and urri's death. aeron doesn't think of euron as a mere flesh and blood human being anymore. he's mythologized the crow's eye in his own mind: euron is not just his abuser, he's a boogeyman, a devil, quite literally the thing that goes bump in the night. and euron knows this, and delights in knowing it and in taking every chance he can to tear down aeron's faith and replace the drowned god with himself as the backbone of aeron's life. which he does not actually succeed in doing, as of the forsaken! aeron keeps his faith like theon keeps his name. it cannot be taken from them)

reek, meanwhile, is not an identity that theon chooses to assume to cope with his trauma. it is forced upon him in the middle of the trauma and he has no choice but to accept it for his own self-preservation. ramsay devastates theon physically: flaying him, starving him, beating him, removing his fingers and toes and teeth and genitals. imprisonment and violence are the tools he uses to take away theon's physical strength to resist him, but reek is how he gets to all the parts of theon that can't be bruised or cut. it's the psychological equivalent of a flaying knife. reek is the weapon he uses to attack theon's identity and sense of self and personhood. though it's important to me to note that those were things theon was already struggling with well before ramsay came on the scene, and that he has an absolutely unbelievably strong will that allows him to retain a degree of his original personality under ramsay and regain his own name later in adwd even after enduring all the torture and abuse. he is a greyjoy of pyke. his name is theon, and if he dies, he will die as theon, not as reek. when he leans into being reek, it is as a means of self-preservation and protection from harm. he basically says as much to jeyne when he tells her to be arya: he believes that serving ramsay and capitulating to his whim is the best way to stay safe. you have to know your name.

ultimately, theon is as relieved to be rid of the name reek as aeron is relieved to see the ocean again at the end of the forsaken. theon's name is a source of pride to him, something that he clings to after he has lost everything else, something that will always be his even after all that has been taken away from him. aeron's name is a source of shame, something that he is reduced to when he feels weak, something that he reverts to when he is powerless at the mercy of his abuser

[existencebringsonlypain]

drew a krisk delt a roon on Tuesday. cut it out cuz I liked it. only just now regained the spoons to get out and take a photo

[decolonize-the-everything]

AND ANOTHER THING

God didn't destroy hell or the devil or turn him to dust. He gave us a choice. He let his fav literally choose to exist as the leader of Hell.

I find this interesting as a queer person who's been persecuted by God's fandom (in the USA at least)

Also can someone tell me which version of the bible I should read? the one with the sections about all the monsters and prophecies seems fun 👀

[ghostsmp3]

the chosen + the disciple whom jesus loved