#lord jesus its a long post

[goozeghost]

To celebrate 10 years in this god forsaken fandom, I redrew the og art of my fave paranormal investigators !

Singles and small rant below cut :P

Cannot believe it’s been a damn decade. This fandom and these characters have done so much to shape me and help me turn into the person- and artist!!- I am today, and I am forever grateful for the friends I’ve made along the way. (You know who you are 😉)

I cannot believe young Gooze looked at Johnny Ghost and said Yeah, that’s my entire personality now, and then it WAS. Now I’m an inducted thespian with a love for dramatizing everything, and for doing stupid voices, and a buncha other stuff. I even took his name, Johnny/Ghost. Which I suppose a lot of us have, huh?

Anyway if you’re looking down here, hi, here’s the first ever piece of fanart young Gooze did (that I can find)

(Yes, that’s Ghost and Jimmy. And yeah it’s bad, but I was a very young child. Let’s appreciate how far I’ve come, yeah?)

[flockofcrowsinatornadoofcreation]

Headcanons/theories

• Lloyd's has "traffic light" eyes, starting out reddish brown until he gains his Golden Power, when they turn a golden brown color. After he is possessed by Morro, his eyes turn hazel green, slowly turning greener during the year Wu is gone (due to increased training with/using his Power). By the time the Sons of Garmadon show up, Lloyd's eyes are jade green.

• When Lloyd loses his Elemental Power after fighting Garmadon in S9, his eyes turn a dull brown color until he regains his Power.

• Lloyd's eyes are slitted like a cat's eyes and are highly reflective. When Lloyd gets really excited about something, his pupils expand (like a cat on the hunt)

• Lloyd's eyes actually glow a bit. When he uses his Elemental Power, his eyes glow brighter. If he uses his Power for too long or too much, his vision starts to "go green".

• When Lloyd gets super angry, his eyes take on a red tint.

• Lloyd has fangs! They're not as impressive as Garmadon's and are rather small, but they're sharp!

• When Lloyd gets really upset or angry, the lights start flickering due to his Power reacting to his emotions.

• One time, he got so upset that he he accidentally blew up half the power lines on the block + all the lightbulbs in the building.

• Garmadon's blood is dark purple. Similarly, Lloyd's blood is darker and slightly more purple than human blood.

• Morro cut Lloyd's wrists to keep him weak, which made him easier to control.

• Morro did this so much that it became a habit for Lloyd, even after Morro left.

• Kai found out about this habit one night when he went to the kitchen for a glass of water and found Lloyd trying to bandage himself with one hand. Kai -- freaked out by the sight of Lloyd's blood -- had frantically tried to find Lloyd's attacker before Lloyd stopped him. When Kai asked what had happened, Lloyd began to explain but got emotional. Kai helped Lloyd bandage his arm and clean up, then offered to talk about it.

• Kai told Nya (naturally), and now every time they find Lloyd even hinting at having cut/thinking about cutting, the siblings drop everything and immediately initiate a cuddle session.

• The cutting got worse after the Harumi Incident and The March of the Oni. One especially bad night, Lloyd accidentally cut too deep and just barely managed to wake up Kai before he collapsed from blood loss. Kai had called for help, waking up the entire team. Once Lloyd woke up, Kai and Nya made him tell the rest of the team what had happened.

• Now, the whole team helps support Lloyd on his bad days. Zane bakes cookies, Cole and Jay play harmless pranks to make Lloyd laugh, Nya makes sure Lloyd has taken care of himself, and Kai puts on Lloyd's favorite movies; even Pixal helps by keeping Lloyd distracted building mechs!

• Kai, Lloyd, and Nya are the RGB Siblings and nothing can change that.

• Lloyd loves it when they play with his hair. It's very soothing for him, and he sometimes falls asleep while they do this. Kai and Nya know how much Lloyd loves it, and they play with his hair whenever they can.

• Cuddle sessions with the RGB Siblings are the best. Kai and Nya put Lloyd in the middle, with them curled around him on the sides. The siblings talk about their day, playing with each other’s hair. They usually fall asleep like that, with Kai falling asleep last. Kai likes to make sure his little brother and sister are asleep and warm before letting himself fall asleep.

• Kai and Nya are fashion icons. They have taught Lloyd their ways. No one is safe.

• Cole actually looks more like his mom than his dad, but it comes across in a masculine way. Cole's dad is a tiny Italian man, so Cole must have gotten his frame and coloring from his mom.

• Cole is colorblind!

• Cole is Black/Italian, Jay is White, Zane is either very pale White or Black in his "human mode" (he's normally White, but for his Snake Jaguar disguise, he was Black), Kai and Nya are Hispanic/Filipino, and Lloyd's human side is of European descent.

• Jay and Lloyd are the Meme Team

• Cole had no idea that his mom was the previous Elemental Master of Earth until Master of the Mountain

• Zane secretly remembers his time as the Ice Emperor. He fights to keep up his cheery, innocent front, but he worries that he might slip. He fears that he could hurt someone if the Ice Emperor returned.

• After thinking long and hard, Zane gave Pixal and Lloyd a copy of his shutdown code. He told them it was "just in case", with no further explanation given.

• Nya relies more on her strength than her powers, so she's thicker and stronger. Lloyd is younger and relies more on his powers than his strength, so he's skinnier and smaller.

• Sleeping

• Lloyd: Almost always sleeps flat on his back in what Kai calls "soldier mode". This is due to his strict training at Darkley's. He stays that way until morning, even when having nightmares. As he gets older, though, he sleeps in a more relaxed position, and grows to be a more restless sleeper. Lloyd is the fastest waker, being on his feet even before Zane (also due to Darkley's training + pranks).

• Zane: Zane "sleeps" either on his side or on his stomach. He doesn't sleep like a human would, instead slowing most of his systems to conserve energy. He takes exactly 10 seconds to wake up, without fail. He likes to "sleep" near Pixal. He also "sleeps" less than a human would.

• Kai: Typically the last to fall asleep, Kai is a fairly heavy sleeper. He likes to cuddle with Lloyd and Nya. Kai sleeps however feels most comfortable at the time.

• Nya: The most restless sleeper. She wakes up at weird times and can't get back to sleep. She cuddles with Lloyd and Kai.

• Cole: Cole is the heaviest sleeper, and it often takes several tries to wake him up. Typically sleeps star-fished or on his side, and sleeps the longest.

• Jay: Always sleeps hugging a pillow, without fail. Fairly restless, sometimes sleeptalks or sleepwalks.

• Pixal: Likes to "sleep" hugging Zane. Her wake up time is slower than Zane's at 15 seconds, and she typically "sleeps" longer than Zane.

• Wu: Who knows if he sleeps, tbh

• Garmadon: He snores, and typically sleeps with his eyes open(?) Even as Sensei G, he sleeps the least compared to everyone else on the team.

• Echo is still out there, waiting for someone to find him

• Lloyd died when that part of the Monastery fell on him after the Oni attacked, but FSM let him choose to go back

• Zane is the tallest, then Cole, Kai and Nya (they're the same height), Jay, and Lloyd is the shortest.

• Aging is different for Elemental Masters, and each Master ages differently than the others. This is why Wu looks really old, Garmadon looks old but not as old as Wu (even though he's older), and Maya and Ray look the same age as they did in the memories (Maya perhaps looks younger than she used to!) This may also explain why Lloyd appears to be 13-18 years old, but Misako is like 60 with a full head of grey hair. He just ages slower (?)

• Speaking of ages, Lloyd isn't really sure when his birthday is or how old he is. It's not his fault, he just wasn't told.

• His first birthday party was a huge surprise for him (and for everyone else). It all started mid-September, when Lloyd was sent on a week-long solo mission by Wu and Misako. Once he had left, Misako asked the others what they were getting for his birthday. Everyone was so confused, having had no idea that his birthday even existed. Misako explained that Lloyd's birthday was on September 22nd, then asked if Lloyd hadn't told them. Kai said that Lloyd didn't know. Everyone rushed to buy presents, hoping to make it the best first birthday ever. When Lloyd got back, the team threw him a surprise birthday party.

• Kai made him a pocketknife -- a Smith family tradition!

• When Zane gets too emotional, he can short-circuit. One time Jay scared him and he freaked out then dropped like a stone.

• The Ninja's favorite activity to do together is laser tag. They all have equal skill at laser tag, and they can't break anything. They try to go as much as they can.

• Wu has a pic of the Ninja passed out on each other on the couch of the Bounty after the Final Battle (before Rebooted). It's a really cute picture, and Wu plans on framing it and giving it to Lloyd when he officially becomes a Master Sensei, to remind him of how far he and his team has come.

• Lloyd just really likes space. Some nights, if he can't get to sleep, he sneaks out and stargazes from the tallest thing he can climb. Others may or may not join him to talk about life.

• Zane and Cole are the "parents", Kai is the "big brother"

• Lloyd (still) calls dragons "dregons"

• Kai sometimes thinks of Lloyd as his kid. He always denies it.

• Lloyd's favorite food in any universe is dumplings!

• Lloyd purrs in his sleep sometimes. It fascinates his siblings. His purring sounds like a tiny motorbike.

• Lloyd knows how to sew. He stitched the lettering on the S8 gis himself.

• No one really knows how or when he learned how to sew. Some say he learned it at Darkley's, but he ties his knots like Zane.

• He actually taught himself by watching others for functionality, then learned how to use it for art from Cole.

• Zane is secretly a fashion icon, but he still dresses like an old man half the time. He doesn't want to overshadow the iconic RGB Siblings.

• Example of Icon Zane: "You don't need a rebreather." "Yes, I know, but I like how it completes my outfit😁"

• "Zane, you're a nindroid. You have infrared sensors. You have night vision. Why are you wearing glasses?" "I enjoy the aesthetic."

• Pixane stuff!

• They absolutely adore each other

• When Zane got back from the Never Realm, it was hard for Pixal to let Zane out of her sight for a while

• They love to go on dates, especially to cafés during rain/snow storms. They enjoy the aesthetic.

• Since Zane gave Pixal half of his heart, they sort of feel what the other is feeling. This is usually limited to extremes, and doesn't usually cross realms. This link persists even after the two get new bodies after defeating the Overlord and getting scrapped.

• Lloyd was extremely touch-starved from Darkley's. During the first few seasons, Lloyd had to learn how to react to physical affection without breaking down into a clingy mess of tears

• Remember the Uncanny Valley Effect? Yeah, people get that about Lloyd. There's just something about him that feels off. People can instinctively tell that he's not completely human, even if they don't realize that. The same goes for Wu and Garmadon.

• Fav tea flavors (cus I want to)

• Cole: Something about the man screams orange spice tea.

• Lloyd: I think the whole fandom can agree that his favorite tea is peppermint tea. Adds an excessive amount of sugar.

• Kai: Whatever that smoke-flavored one is. Jinsung? I think? He really only drinks it rarely (re: more of a coffee person).

• Nya: Black tea, if any. She drinks it without anything added, no ifs ands or buts.

• Jay: Lemon or ginger tea.

• Zane: Honestly, he feels like a chamomile tea type of guy.

• Wu: Team chamomile as well. Definitely an herbal type.

�� Garmadon: Black tea with tons of sugar. Doesn't even make it into a drink, just swallows the tea bag whole and dumps a few tablespoons of sugar down his throat for good measure. Mostly does it to get a reaction out of Kai others and to make Lloyd laugh.

• Pixal: Tea? What is this tea? She only knows the bitter truth of cold black coffee.

[brainrotdotorg]

hey was anyone going to tell me there is a 258,000 word slowburn glentitus fic on ao3 or was i just supposed to find that out for myself

[yuuuhiii]

hey!! ummmmmmmmm

https://www.tumblr.com/yuuuhiii/744593430176579584/hiii-i-know-that-maybe-that-post-was-for-your-own?source=share

could you maybeeee do megumi too?? (only if its not much!!)

thanks a lot!!!!!!!!

how I think megumi fushiguro would look irl Ⳋ᧙

includes : includes : request, pics and small rambles of how I think megumi would look

note : should I turn this into a series? If so lmk:))

HIS BODY

Back in ch 156 we got a sneak peek of my guys abs and lord. HE IS TONED. He’s in between of having a thick build or slim. He’s not overly buff but he’s not lanky either. He’s got muscle. He doesn’t have that hourglass shape but his muscles are still an eye candy.

HIS HANDS

I see megs having boney,veiny, but something thick hands. They’re not really slim but they’re long. HES SO VEINY LIKE OMG. I can’t stress it enough but he def wears rings here and there. Usually if you buy him some he’ll never take em off (swears it’s a promise ring)

HIS STYLE

I’m sorry but he just wants to be comfy😭 He LIVESSS in his sweatpants/hoodies. But if it’s any other occasion he still wears very loose baggy clothing. Just like gege said he loves to wear clothes that are more for around the house. (He looks hot in everything though)

HIS FACE

Being realistic. Megs hair is not all spiky, maybe if he styles it but it just naturally falls like his father’s. Other than that, he has SUCH a sharp jawline like Jesus Christ. He’s also got those slim tired eyes and pale skin. His nose is so perfect to like it’s a little pointy and long. Then to top it all off his beautifully long lashes. I also seen him having a deep cupids bow, his lips are PERFECT. (He was just born pretty)

© yuuuhiii 24 : don’t plagiarize, translate, or post my work on other platforms

[keeganbrainmush]

" Watching the video that you sent me. " ; Alejandro Vargas x Male Reader (400 follower special!)

*ೃ Jesus christ tysm for 400 followers ALREADY even if I posted my first fic in March, tysm for all the support I love you guys so much *ೃ 2k words ; Male Reader ; Extreme NSFW mention, Minors DNI. *ೃ Summary: Alejandro decides to send you a teasing video while you're at a convention for a company you work for. Hours away, his pretty whimpers and begging for you getting to your head. *ೃ Contains: Overstimulation, teasing, nudes sent, begging, jerking off Alejandro, flustered reader, blowjobs, missionary, Service dom reader, praised Alejandro, bottom Alejandro, creampie

navigation.

You were happily talking to customers, asking them on your opinion of the companys product while writing their answers down. Your eyes were shining in friendliness, fake or not, it was sure making customers feel appreciated. You walked back to your station and sat down behind a table.

You felt your phone buzz in your back pocket, taking it out you saw Alejandros contact name. You smiled at his text as you read " Hi, Mi Cielo. Hope your doing well at your convention, missing you. I can't wait to see you again tomorrow! I love you." with a heart emoji. Tilting your head in confusion as a video was sent seconds later. " Hey, (Name)! " One of your co-workers named Henry called out.

You looked up and turned off your phone, stuffing it in your back pocket mindlessly. " Yeah, Whats up? " You asked as you stood up while facing Henrys pale, freckled face. " A customer wants to know about our policies, can you help me out? " He asked, scratching at the back of his neck nervously.

Henry had only been at your work for a solid 3 weeks before being sent out to the convention with you. Your supervisor told you he needed experience, and lord did he need experience. You nodded at him, patting his shoulder softly. " Sure thing, just stay at the stand and talk to the customers there. " Reassuring him, you walked off and began speaking to customers once again.

You had left Alejandro on seen.

Meanwhile, Alejandro at home wrapped up in your bedsheets with his chin on your pillow. Its been 15 minutes and you hadn't responded. He sighed and turned around on his back, getting up and grabbing a pair of sweatpants and walked into your kitchen, getting ready to make himself lunch as he overthought his video. Was it too much? Too needy?

You had finally finished up talking to customers and started walking over to your area again, rubbing at your back as you saw the clock. 5:21 PM. Convention should be wrapping up in 40 minutes. You suddenly realized you never responded to Ales text. " I'm taking 10. " You told your coworker, his hair bouncing slightly as he nodded. You walked off towards the bathroom while taking your phone out of your pocket.

Pushing open the door with your shoulder as your passcode and walked into a stall, leaning against a wall. Recieved 38 minutes ago. Shit. You rapidly started texting him back. " I'm sorry, Love. I got held up at work. Can't wait to see you too, Love you more. " You pressed send before looking at the blurry cover of the video. You couldn't quite distinguish what it was. A video of him cooking? A video of the gym? Only one way to find out.

And Jesus Christ. None of your guesses were correct even alittle. It was Alejandro filming himself infront of your pillow, sat on your side of the bed with his cock in his hand. And by the looks of it he'd been going at it for a awhile now. High pitched whimpering filled the bathroom as you rapidly turned the volume down nervously. " Mi Cielo, please. I need you home so bad, I can't cum without your touch. " He moaned needily.

The tip of his pretty cock was an angry red, precum seeping out of him and coating the palm of his hand as he continued stroking himself. The video was only 32 seconds long, filled with soft squelching sounds and moans with breathy whimpers, and those 32 seconds were enough to get you hard. You stared at the ending frame of the video with wide eyes, trying to ignore the tent growing in your pants.

You shook your head in attempt to clear your mind of the dirty thoughts clouding your thoughts. You cleared your throat nervously as you glanced at your hard cock pocking out of the pants of your uniform. Shit, Shit, Shit. You unzipped your pants and moved yourself around in a way of hopes of not making it as obvious. Thankfully, your company had insisted against skinny jeans and were fine with a relaxed fit. So your issue wasn't quite as noticeable.

You walked out of the stall and washed your hands with soap and water before walking out and headed back to your stand. Henrys eyes lit up as he saw you. " Hey! You're super red, you okay? " He asked, examining your flushed face. " I'm fine. " You responded shakily, looking at the time once again. 5:30. " Okay.. Can we pack up early? Most of the people have left already. " Henry told you, glancing around to the empty area other than other stands and kiosks. You nodded as you rubbed your forehead with the bottom of your palm.

You and Henry had taken 20 minutes to clean everything up and get it all packed up, so you both were right on time as you were making your way to the hotel in a rented car. " We leave tomorrow, right, Sir? " Henry asked, scratching at his upper lip. Your hand tightened around the wheel slightly as you thought about tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. " Yes. And don't call me sir, makes me feel old. " You teased, trying to take your mind off that beautiful video.

The next couple of hours were a blur. Getting dinner, packing up your clothes, and finally going to bed. You were only able to be tossing and turning with your mind clouded with lust. Alejandro just had to be a tease, didn't he? You were staring at the ceiling until you finally fell asleep, the last time you saw the clock it was 2:21 am.

When you finally woke up, it was a bunch of hurrying and and mumbling under your breathe to catch your flight back home. The plane ride was only a solid 3 hours, but your taxi drive back home was full of traffic and honking. You felt nothing but relief when you finally caught sight of your house, talking to the driver and paying him as you hauled your luggage to your doorstep and put your keys in, twisted it and pushed the door open.

There he was, Alejandro Vargas. The love of your life, your husband. " Hola, Lindo. " He welcomed you, pulling you into a hug with his hug on your shoulders. He was dressed handsomely, with a nice pair of jeans and a long sleeve compression shirt that showed off his arm muscles nicely. You hugged him back and nestled your face in the crook of his neck, breathing in the scent of his expensive cologne.

" I missed you so much. " He admitted, pulling away from your shoulder to give you a quick kiss while taking your hand in his. " I've only been gone 3 days, my Love. But I missed you too. " You replied, relishing in the feeling of his soft lips. " Are you hungry? " Alejandro asked, before pulling you into the living room. " No, Thank you. I ate breakfast afew hours ago. " You reassured him, sitting down next to him on the couch with your hand on his upperthigh as he leaned his head against your shoulder.

After catching up for half an hour or so, you finally mustered up the courage to ask the golden question.

" So, Ale. What was that video you sent me about? " You asked, grazing your thumb over the inside of his thigh as you looked at him while a light blush started creeping in on his cheeks. Alejandro looked back at you with wide eyes, his mouth gaped open. " Whats wrong, Baby? You miss me so much you got hard at the idea of me even looking at you jerking off? " You asked, sliding off the couch and spreading Alejandros legs to sit in between them.

Alejandro only let out small mumbles and squirmed in his seat, his cock slowly hardening. " Sí, por favor.. " He whined out, lifting his hips up slightly. You smiled up at him as you moved one of your hands to his crotch to palm him. " Huh? What was that? " You teased. He sobbed out silently as you touched him there, moving on of his hands to your shoulders. " Please, make me feel good. " He pleaded, his thighs tensing up as you continued to touch at his clothed dick.

" Thats a good boy, Ale. " You praised as you hooked your fingers at the belt rings of his pants. " I can, right? " You asked, reassuring consent. Alejandro nodded hazily as you pulled his pants down and only left him in his boxers, a small wet spot already forming. " What, You're already leaking too? " You mumbled as you pulled down his boxers next and took ahold of it at the base. Alejandro only sat there, looking down at you with desperate eyes, nodding at every word.

You passed your palm over his tip and rubbed the precum around his cock and started jerking him off slowly. Alejandro shuddered at your touch, putting his hand on the back of your head instinctively. " Shit, (Name). Mierda. " He curled his fingers in your hair as you took him in your mouth, swirling your tongue around his tip.

You continued pushing your mouth lower onto him until your nose was nestled into his pelvis, the head of his dick hitting the back of your throat. Alejandro gulped as he fought back every urge to fuck your throat, his chest heaving as he looked down at you. The last thing he expected was for you to be looking back at him, your eyes glossy with tears threatening to spill but also filled with a look of determination.

Just you looking at him like that was enough to make him cum down your throat with a loud whimper and an arching back, a sweet taste coating your tongue as you pulled back from him in shock and swallowed. " Did you just- " You stammered, as Alejandro finally came down from his high, embarrassment starting to creep up on him. He put his hands over his face and threw his head back, avoiding your gaze as you sat up on the couch next to him.

" Hey, hey, no. Its fine, it's kinda cute. " You reassured him, rubbing at his shoulder comfortingly. " Really missed me that bad, huh? " You teased, smiling at him. He moved one of his fingers and groaned, throwing himself sideways onto the arm rest of the couch. You laughed and rubbed at his hips and looked down at him lovingly. " I just wanted us to have amazing sex when you'd got back. " Alejandro admitted into the hands still covering his face.

" We still can, gonna feel alot better for you too. " You told him, hinting at something obvious. Alejandro looked up at you shockingly, acting as if you were the one with a filthy mouth in the relationship.

Which is how you got to now with your cock buried deep inside of Alejandro, his legs on the side of your waist and his forearm muffling his moans as he mumbled out small pleadings as you continuing fucking into his roughly, ignoring his several past orgasms. " Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. " Alejandro sobbed out, feeling himself close to cumming again.

" What, you gonna cum on my cock again like the dirty slut you are? " You panted out next to his ear, biting onto his shoulder as you felt him growing growing gradually tighter around you. Alejandro nodded as he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you tightly against him. " Oh my god.. " He mumbled out, his legs shaking as he sobbed out and arched his back once again, raking his nails down your back as you continued fucking into him, trying to desperately reach your own orgasm.

Alejandro hid his face in the crook of your neck, his brain fuzzy with overstimulation, while you continued thrusting into him until you felt your own orgasm crashing over you. You leaned down to bite at his neck as you felt yourself cum inside of him, your chest heaving as you looked at him after your hips stilled. " Was that amazing enough for you? " You asked, looking at him hazily while bringing a hand up to rub at his cheek. " That was more than amazing, Mi Cielo. Thank you. " He replied, bringing you into a soft kiss.

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

the bafta livestream out of context: top 60 cursed quotes.

There is nothing more cursed than the livestream I just witnessed, and I made a summary post but now I'm just going to put in quotes by the worthy maggots in the stream with no context, because BELIEVE ME THE CONTEXT DIDN'T MAKE ANYTHING BETTER. The livestream chat was NOT A PLACE OF THE LORD.

I'm going to make the quotes that were by me a different colour. Please know that I am NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR A SINGLE QUOTE OTHER THAN THOSE. SO HERE'S THE TOP 60 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Barbenhimer awakened things in me ok

aroace people the most disturbingly sexual talkers on the planet fight me on this

WHO JUST GASPED

MICHAEL SHEENS BABY TALKING BARK BADK IM A DOG BARK WOOF

I feel so sorry for this woman. She's being so heartfelt and we're here thristing over a slinky that possessed a man

IRELAAAND PLEASE ADOPT ME AS YOUR OWN PLEASE TAKE ME TO THE LAND OF UNPRONOUNCABLE WORDS, GREEN FEILD, CATHOLISISM AND HOZIER PLEASE

the urge to go to france and misgender a croissant is real

Devastated the slutty knees have gone away

So many men nowadays are so submissive and breedable like thank you lord for these men thank you

witches and murder slime tutorial

speaking of royals did the bloke who ISN'T lizzy's husband but her son apparently die yet

Turtleneck Crowley is my gender.

WE COULD HAVE LEFT IT AS NOT SAFE FOR WORK WHY THE DRTAOLS ASMI

SAY AN BFUIL CEAD AGAM DUL GO DTÍ AN LEITHREAS AN WE'LL LET YOU THROUGJ

"Oompa loompa doopety dee, I really hated being in this movie" -Hugh grant probably

IF YOU'RE A CHILD AVERT YOUR EYES FROM THAT MESSAGE IM SORRY

i want the kilt back this a betrayal

if someone put me in a room with kilt!david tennant one of us is walking out of that room pregnant and its not gonna be me

a lot of these words are in the bible and none of them should be in that order you need jesus

Can we vote to make david wear that kilt back? Maybe make him do a twirl this time

You mean Bildaddy? 😏

Honey what make you think a dude who roamed around with prostitutes and got himself more holes for mankind won't be calling bildad bildaddy? [this was about jesus btw.]

FREE THE KNEE

Show us the knees!

AND YOU'RE COMING AFTER ME FOR MY BLOWJOB BANANA

He looks like those fancy chocolates. Imma take a bite outta him. Think you'll leak molten goo like them?

My brain isn't working, I read "bratty couch jr"

i'm sorry the what holes

FIND ME ON GOAD AND I WILL MAKE YOU PAY APPROPRIATELY

I genuinely thought it was a road typo and I thought you were threatening asmi with physical violence on the road

OHH FLOWER OF SCOTLAAAAAAND

Combine that with the unfortunate oranges and see what happens.

DEVASTATING NEWS I ATE UP ALL OF THEM SO I'VE BROUGHT A BLOWJOB BANANA INSTEAD

That reminded me of the army video where the guy was deepthroating a 7 inch banana without a hitch.

OMG THEY JUST FLASHED BACK & I GOT A GLIMPSE OF THAT KILT 🥵🥵🥵

thats why apollo had to deliver you at an illegal sushi restaurant

How long do you think it would take to get david naked from his chocolate man suit? Can we set a new speedrun category?

SUPERBOWL FOR TENNANTISTS

Big feelings about pants straps in the chat tonight

Last time i check yoire supposed to thank the lord gor his gifts

HEY GUYS ASMI'S FROM A PARALLEL UNIVERSE CONFIRMED

I just have a deep appreciation for ireland

Can you use suspenders as bondage gear? I mean it looks like it would be fine? I mean if you make the length a bit more they might be more comfortable than ropes. Just sayin

All i can think when i see him in the costume is the one specific ken and oppenhimer slash fic. Lord help me i can't be saved

GIVE MY LOVE TO THE LEPRECHAAAAAAAAAAAUNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Like a giant orange slice on her one arm.

Stop hitting the lectern geez / what if its into that?

Men who wear suspenders are such losers like why do you need so much cloth to keep your pants up. Why dont you just wear a belt. Where do you live. What is your timezone. What are you office hours

what is this suspender shaming ari chappal for you

Aziraphales office hours are: fuck off

Put me ina room with a suspender wearing man and he shall have the same fate as kilttennant

MARIYADAM E ILLAI

It was titled "snake in my b***" It meant butt lmfao

CROWLEY AND LOKI MY GENDERFLUID ICONS

THE KNEES ARE BACK

THEKNEES GOD SAVE ME FROM THESE SINFUL THOUGHTS

What if slutshaming is my kink?

NOT THE BLOWJOB FACE NO

AT THIS POINT IF NEIL HASN'T UNFOLLOWED ME YET HE'S ASKING TO BE MENTALLY SCARRED IM SORRY

I am failing

Tagging the main culprits whose tumblr handles I know:

@thearoacemess @vitrilol @queermarzipan @good-usernames-were-taken

Cheers, maggots.

[iamnotcoolenough]

I've been struggling with wondering if I am doing this right. If I am worshiping Jesus the right way. I am second guessing myself alot lately. Wondering if it's worth it. If life has any point of we can't enjoy the things we like. And it makes me so mad. Because I do it to myself. I sit and question if it's this hard for any one else. I question if I even heard the LORD. If I truly was saves and have been forgiven. And I cry and ask and beg for signs that I am doing this right.

And today I was reminded that all of this is a spiritual attack meant to keep you from the LORD. The enemy tries to get you to feel this way so that you are far from you Father in heaven. To keep you from your purpose. He whispers lies to you and if you choose to accept them it leads to pain and anger and further sin. And its all to get you to distrust the Lord to question if he is truely there, if he cares and anything else. And our best way to combat it is to recognize it for what it is and to bring it to the Lord. Pray and talk it out. He wants our hardships he wants to be there for us. And to know him is to know his word, the Holy Bible.

I've been dealing with this cycle a lot lately. I feel as if I am faking it and going through the motions. Thinking that I am learning of him and not truly having that relationship, questioning if i am making it all up in my head as some sort of comfort to help me cope. And I won't lie, its made me feel quite hollow and sad inside. But then I came across something that reminded me that this is spiritual warfare, the enemy's handiwork. And while I can't find the post that reminded me of this, I will leave you will something He, the Lord, reminded me of when I was in one of these dark cycles.

LUKE 10:10-20

While this is very long, I will sum it up. The deciples were sent into the cities two by two to go and speak all that they learned from Jesus. He told them that people may or may not welcome them. And to all that do not welcome them, shake it off for he has given them "authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall in any wise hurt you. 20 Nevertheless in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

The Lord loves us and gives us power over the enemy because of Jesus's blood. We must remember that the head of the serpent has been crushed by the heel of Jesus all because of his sacrifice on the cross. The enemy has already been defeated. Always remember this beloved.

[knightsickness]

thoughts on Criston getting called a scared little boy inside by Cooke ?

seriously interesting to me i do think a kind of escapist arrested development seems to be a theme of their relationship on both sides. going through the motions of the westerosi chivalric romance knight and lady childhood ideal as cope or a distraction long after both of them know its fake etc. i could see it being incorporated more in season 2 i’ll be looking out for it. alicent in the uncertainty after viserys’ death immediately reverting to the crush she had when she was fourteen on a white knight who might rescue her. criston emotional immaturity i think certainly uncontroversial

i think hes been opposed (as a lower-class visibly dornish guy in an extremely stratified society that doesnt like dornish people) in areas that have given him a moral superiority ‘i had to struggle and fight for this position i DESERVE it im kind of the best guy ever unlike all these coddled green lordlings who lack MY drive prowess and virtue. i should have what they have and they should wash my balls’ complex and a simultaneous not generally having to experience difficult emotions issue bc he seems to often get what he wants. kingsguard posting alicents sworn sword lord commander hand of the king. this makes him handle what he perceives as rejection, particularly if it strikes at his existing sensitivities about his class, extremely badly he’s surprisingly emotionally delicate. related basically all of these can be directly connected to him being hot and good at fighting in westeros i cant remember which publication said his reaction to rhaenyra refusing his proposal was so extreme because of his life of ‘unexamined hottie privilege’ in which hes never been told no. i think its more hes never been told no in a way he can’t immediately write off as his being looked down upon for his class by a villain (reinforcing in his own mind that hes suffered more than jesus see previous moral superiority complex) so thats how he contextualises the rhaenyra interaction and why it bothers him so badly bc that template doesnt quite fit it. i also do think hes in over his head with the targaryens i dont think he likes dragons i dont think he likes that a lot of other people in the war have them and he doesnt. cocktail of various volatile complexes i do think fears in there

unseriously however did immediately make me think of a) this reviewer who forgot hes older than her and grouped him with her sons as hotheaded younger men and b) the trayvis mental age due to brain damage ‘grooning’ tweet

[thatdeadaquarius]

This is riding off the language stuff in sagau but I just cant get it out of my head a reader who uses tumblr slang every once in a while. like they meet the Traveller and they're like "Omg I'm so cheesed to meet you!!" And the Traveller is just like "???" meanwhile Paimon integrates that into her vocabulary. And then maybe at some point, if the reader has a vision they're like "MAIMING AND BITING YOU" "THAT'S IT! I'M SENDING YOU TO EEBY DEEBY!" while their poor teammates are so confused. Just imagine going over to ppl like Razor, Klee, Chongyun and going "Awwww my lil scrunglos"

Just a very chaotic reader in general lmao

HEY WASSUP ANON

MY BRO THIS IS SO OLD BY NOW IM SO SORRY LMAO- SO ANYWAY HELLO!!! A DESSERT FOR UR PATIENCE 🍨🍧🛐

FOR WAITING SO LONG HERE IS SUM ASS WRITINF MY FRIEND HOPE U GET SMTH OUTTA IT

Bro imma be honest i missed out on some slang on tumblr bc i was off of it for awhile before i refreshed this old blog 

So my reaction to these slang words (except for scrunglies/scrunglos ik that one) is just as confused but also its rlly funny that im in the same situation as them LMAO 😭

☆

I would think honestly, even if ur doin it on purpose, 

I feel like some slang or refs r too ingrained into my soul to not make

So i would just accidentally use slang/memes, esp around funny ppl like Kaeya or Beidou, and then just give up eventually 💀

♤

So i stg everytime Xiao shows up in a event or smth it surprises me everytime lol

With his teleporting ability i would guess that if ur just chillin around Liyue anytime, Xiao just… shows up lol

Tea with Zhongli? Oh jesus Xiao’s here now.

Watching Xinyan and Yunjin play? Hes on the roof.

Picking ingredients with Xiangling to help her cook yall some amazing food?

Hes in the tree u were just picking Sunsettias in-

◇

So ur in Mondstadt, and ur like,

“oh well no Xiao here, huh kinda feels weird now”

eventually ur dumbass trips over nothing and goes tumbling down a hill, u know, as u do

Ur at the bottom like, 💀 

And its kinda hot and ur tired, and r selfaware of ur own goofiness so u just-

“I can see the end of the horizon, is this an internal dialouge-”

Xiao comes around the hill ur splayed at the bottom of.

UR STARTLED BC WTF MONDSTADT?? XIAO??? SO U JUST

“HATSUNE MIKU-”

CRYING-

AND XIAOS LIKE-

“??? No. It’s me. Xiao. The Yaksha Adeptus, my liege?”

HAHFLAHHAHA

AND HE KEEPS ASKING U WHO HATSUNE MIKU IS THE WHOLE WAY BACK TO THE CITY AS HE ESCORTS U LFMAO

♧

U see those scary ruin machines the ones with the fucking legs in Sumeru,

Cyno is ur bodyguard for the day, 

And at first he doesn’t see it, like its behind him, but it just like came around a corner, so it hasnt locked in on yall yet

(i headcanon that even if u r the Creator, these are machines, and dont have the sentience to even be self-aware let alone process wtf u are, ig if Khaeynriah made hella AI that is aware maybe it could fathom u)

◇

And u try to warn him but not scare him, so

“CYNO.

CYNO, THE HORSE IS HERE-”

Cue Cyno like

“A horse??? In the desert, Greatest Lord what the fu-”

Almost gets stomped on 😭 rip.

♡

U see Scara for the first time and u befriend him

Ur the only god besides Nahida he’s ok with aw

and one day he’s bodyguarding u around Sumeru 

He gets a little too into it and goes ham on several ruin machines

Like full on elmo burning anarchy meme, he's literally cackling floating above the pile of flaming metal-

And ur just clapping like: “that’s my skrunkly :) <3"

He literally interrupts his own cackle, its the most expressive youve ever seen him 

😶 😑 😶 ?????¿¿¿??¡¡?!!

HE WILL NOT STOP HARASSING U ABOUT WHAT IT MEANT LMAO

U usually define the words/memes as best u can but u specifically just call him that and never explain LOL

☆

🎵 HI. ITS ME. IM THE PROBLEM ITS ME. 🎵

SO SORRY ANON MY BEAUTY- I HOPE U CAN FORGIVE ME FOR TAKING SO LONG 🙏

I dont even mean just replying with a real thing^

I probably couldve posted ur ask w/o even adding onto it tbh

I dont think its anywhere near as chaotic as what u described but ya boy isnt the good at writing 😔

so i just focused on the memes 🤲

Have a good week anon :O !!

♡

Cheers,

🌒🌧🌊 💀Aquarius ♒️🌌🌘

♡the beloveds♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist

[godslove]

Dear Anon,

Beloved, when was the last time you read the Bible, prayed to God and basked in His presence for at least 30 minutes? Some pray and stay in God's presence for up to 4 hours. It's possible. I want to quote a man of God when he said that “I have never seen a man of God with a strong prayer life and reads the Bible/the Word of God that doesn't have peace.”

Why do you feel that way? Why are those the thoughts you think? There are 3 voices that we hear:

God

Satan—the enemy, spirit of the anti-christ, the devil, the one who fell from heaven/the fallen, the evil one (this is a long topic for another post. Read Revelations 20:7-10 to know his destiny in the end times.)

The flesh—the corrupted, sinful nature of the devil mixed with the pure body that God created. In Genesis, man took the sinful nature when Adam and Eve gave into temptation.

‭¹⁹ “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

—Galatians 5:19-21

We have to pray to cast out demons and its whispering lies of gaslighting, slander, gossip, condemnation, self-hatred, self-doubt, hatred towards others, deception, depression and fearfulness. Sometimes the thoughts we hear are not ours. The emotions we feel are not from God. It's either the enemy or the flesh. The flesh grows or shrinks depending on how much you feed it or starve it. It's the part of you that always wants more and complains or blames other people when you don't get what you want.

‭“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

—Galatians 5:16-17

God only gives us a spirit of power, of love and of self-control. Anything other than that is from Satan.

We pray with faith in God's power:

¹⁴ Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

—‭1 John 5:14-15

We lift up our burdens to Him and lay them all at His feet. When we pray, we let it all go and let God be God. Our loving Father will always give the best for His children.

The answers you are seeking are in the Bible. When I read the Bible, He reveals to me the answers I seek about everything in life. When I asked for deliverance, He was faithful to deliver me when the pain was too much to bear.

‭ And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”

— Jesus Christ, The Prayer in the Garden, Mark 14:36

There is purpose in every suffering dear. Sometimes the pain we experience can be excruciating but sorrow that brings you closer to God is better than comfort that pulls you away from Him. Don't look at others and say that “God has favorites” because we don't know the personal problems they are going through which we have no knowledge of. We all have our cup of suffering. Followers of Christ are not free from the winds of trials and tribulations, especially in this earthly life.

The more you walk closer to God, the more the enemy tries to pull you away from God either via pleasure (the worldly temptations) or pain (problems in all areas of life). If that happens, pray to God and stand firm in your faith.

“Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

⁴ Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.

⁶ He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.”

—‭Psalms 37:3-6

God answers prayers dear. Your heart posture has to be right first. When you pray, approach His throne with thanksgiving and praise. Remember the sacrifice Christ has done on the cross for each and everyone of us, God's children. Remove the shame and guilt because ‘it is finished’. When you are already purified from sin, grateful and peaceful, that's when you can ask God to help you bring yourself closer to Him and experience His loving presence. He is always with us dear, He longs for His children to come to Him. Listen only to God's voice.

‭“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

—Matthew 6:33-34

If you have prayer requests kindly send them so I can pray for you. If you have questions, I'll answer them as best as I can. I read it all. It's alright dear. I'm here. And so are the rest of our brothers and sisters in Christ who walk this journey with you. God bless you! *Hugs*💐🤍

[waitmyturtles]

Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: Until We Meet Again Edition

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. In a LONG POST, I’m writing today about New Siwaj’s incomparable drama, Until We Meet Again.]

TW: suicide, suicidal ideation, psychological trauma

Gah. I am so psyched to be finally sitting down to write my thoughts on Until We Meet Again, but I’m actually at a bit of a loss on where to start. There is SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT.

I think, where I can start, is to first say that this was, in my opinion, AN ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR SHOW. I did NOT expect this, at all. I’ve been around the way with New Siwaj, the UWMA screenwriter and director, a few times now for the OGMMTVC -- his writing on Love Sick, his work with Cheewin on Make It Right, and his work on MAME’s novel in Love By Chance have all been on the OGMMTVC list. I know that Between Us, the UMWA WinTeam continuation, was considered mostly a let-down for weak writing, and that New’s more recent shows, including A Boss and a Babe and Double Savage, were viewed quite critically (although I am a Double Savage apologist, for which I’ll explain my viewpoints later in this post). 

So. What I did not expect from 2019′s UWMA was to experience so many layers in a drama à la the work of Aof Noppharnach. Yes, I cannot believe I’m going here, to compare a New Siwaj drama to Aof’s oeuvre, but damn if I will, because good lord, New took his magic hat of tricks, pulled out THE GOOD STUFF, and made it all work. 

This is a list of themes that I saw in UWMA, that will help me structure this long write-up, but by no means should it be considered complete, as I’m sure I’m missing themes that you all likely caught in your watches and re-watches:

1) A new narrative structure for New -- balancing the impact of side couples by leveraging focus, equally, on two MAIN couples 2) The continuation and end of the 2019 trend of reincarnation and spiritual connections to love 3) Intergenerational queer trauma (micro-level) 4) Generational acceptance of queerness (macro-level) 5) Food and its Proustian effect on memory 6) Reflections on filial piety and the devastating effects of expectations -- and how children and parents seek redemption, particularly in New’s work

And before I even dive into THIS list, can I just say: MY GOD, FLUKE AND OHM. And Earth and Kao! But FLUKE AND OHM. Jesus, does New have an eye for talent -- from the Make It Right guys, to Perth and Saint, and then to Fluke and Ohm. I was seriously TAKEN with their chemistry. I did hear from a number of folks during my UWMA live-blogging that they can’t rewatch UWMA because of Fluke/Pharm’s rendition of the blushing maiden trope, but for my tastes -- I think the way he rendered the trope was really necessary to communicating Intouch’s story, history, and emotions, and just -- Fluke just ATE this role, my gawd. And Ohm/Dean responding in kind vis à vis Korn’s regret. YOW. It’s been a few days since I finished the show, in a total RUSH of drama hunger, and I’m still shaking my head and MARVELING at their performance.

Okay, back to the themes list. So, early in my Thai BL journey in the fall of 2022, after I had watched KinnPorsche and The Eclipse as my first two Thai BLs, I watched A Tale of Thousand Stars (way before the OGMMTVC was born), and noted that I appreciated the lack of side couples in the ATOTS storyline. I now realize, through the OGMMTVC, that side couples are both a BL trope and a byproduct of the drama styles from which BLs were born, the ensemble-based dramas like Love Sick, Senior Secret Love, and Kiss/Kiss Me Again.

New’s Make It Right -- while beloved in my heart, for the chaotic duos of TeeFuse and FrameBook -- WAS messy, with all the other couple stuff happening around it. That, along with Love By Chance, made me wonder -- why do BLs that center fabulous dyads with sizzling chemistry take away from that energy with all the side couple action? Even Together With Me, a non-New Siwaj and non-GMMTV drama, got sidelined in part with a VERY questionable side couple plot in BrightFarm.

Reflecting back on KP and The Eclipse, I had that question in mind as I started UWMA, and wondered where the Alex and WinTeam storylines were going to go. But, frankly, I ended up appreciating what NEEDED to happen with DeanPharm and KornIntouch, because -- the original novel storyline clearly demanded that these two couples, who were NOT side couples, but MAIN couples, needed a MAIN spotlight for their collective story to be told. @clairificusrex mentioned in a liveblog comment (THANK YOU, LOVELY HUMAN!) that New Siwaj benefitted in the screenplay from having a wonderful original novel to work with, and while I don’t read Y Series canon, I can only imagine that this was indeed the case.

So, New, in order to hew to the novel, had to perhaps hold back his usual instincts to muss up the main couple vibe, by centering DeanPharm and KornIntouch. With that control necessary to the story -- I think the narrative STRUCTURE of the drama just blew open. It was FASCINATING, it drew me in, and the structure allowed for another New predilection to be leveraged WELL, in his love for flashbacks. @lurkingshan, you mentioned that your taste wasn’t necessarily aligned with New’s fancy for flashbacks, which I totally understand -- I think flashbacks hurt the overall narrative structure of Double Savage earlier this year. But I think, here for UMWA, they were necessary, and I might very well be apologetic to that considering what I DID see in Double Savage by way of the story that New ended up screenwriting over there in regards to intergenerational family trauma (again, more on this later in the post).

This narrative structure lent itself handily to the next four themes on this list, all of which deal in memory, in spiritual roots, and/or in the generational passage and inheritance of trauma and emotion. 2019, as we know now, was a big year for shows themed around Thai spiritual culture and/or reincarnation. We have He’s Coming To Me, we have Dew the Movie -- we have art here, queer-centered art, that does not lend itself to happy endings, that depicts, through reincarnation or, in the case of HCTM, a ghostly purgatory, how DIFFICULT it had been to be comfortably queer and/or openly out in past and present Thailand.

And then UWMA comes along, telling TWO generational stories, intertwined by the red thread, but also, in the words of the WONDERFUL @bengiyo, connected by Korn and Intouch’s intergenerational queer trauma, the most PERFECT coinage of a theme for this show. In 1988, when Korn and Intouch die, they cannot be out. They cannot even be SECRETLY in love. Their bad dads use the foulest of language to describe their love (much like Phop’s dad in Dew). And Korn kills himself, and Intouch follows.

And what we learn, through Dean and Pharm, are the emotions, the regrets, the LEARNED BEHAVIOR that Korn and Intouch have picked up on in the afterlife, embedded in Dean and Pharm, that keeps Korn and Intouch’s love alive, with CORRECTIONS and ADJUSTMENTS made by Dean and Pharm that reflect on how not only Korn and Intouch’s love has changed and improved, but also how Dean and Pharm are learning how to love EACH OTHER, themselves, as they adjust to their OWN belonging to each other, in Pharm’s own words. GAH -- my aching heart. (Thank you to @lurkingshan for talking this through with me early on in my UWMA watch.)

I mean. THE DEPTH OF THIS. Intouch is a terrible cook, and Pharm is like, a restaurant-level chef?! Pharm is so resistant, and Dean is so FORWARD? (OHM THITIWAT, GAH!!!) (Listen. Pharm. P’Deeeean can grab MY butt, okay?) (See what I did there, @lurkingshan and @bengiyo? THANK YOOOOUU.)

And Pharm’s blushing maiden approach. Yes, I will also admit, that sometimes, it was a little cringey. But I think the blushing maiden trope was really necessary to the story -- ESPECIALLY IN THE CONTEXT of Intouch’s anger, ciphered through Pharm in the last episode. And I think that Fluke Natouch ultimately rendered the trope beautifully -- again, especially against the gorgeous ending of the show. Oh, THAT CONDO SCENE, PEOPLE. I LOST IT. 

Of course, Intouch would want to hold back through Pharm in the present day. If Intouch DIDN’T hold back vis à vis Pharm -- he might lose Korn again, if Pharm missteps with Dean. Intouch may have felt that HIS forwardness lent to their troubles -- so Intouch holds back, through Pharm. And Intouch ultimately communicates his love for Korn differently in the afterlife, more hesitantly -- through a resistance to intimacy, and through food and cooking in Pharm, which itself was another amazing move in this show.

Listen. Even my pinned post says what I value in dramas, not just in BLs. You give me food in BL, and I give you my heart. But also, let’s talk about the meaning of food in Asian dramas for a second. It’s no coincidence that MANY Asian dramas and doramas center food, including my favorite BL of all time, Kinou Nani Tabeta/What Did You Eat Yesterday?. If you don’t know Asians, of any ilk -- let me make a BROAD continental and sub-continental judgement. ALL WE THINK ABOUT IS FOOD, lol. While I’m with my family, while I’m working, while I’m writing meta -- I’m thinking about food, I’m thinking about what I want to cook, what I want to order, how I can mix the cuisines I love (Thai-Indian curries, anyone? YUM). Malaysians literally boast about having multiple meals, way past three meals, a day. We Asians are proud of our cuisines, and we want y’all to be EATING, A LOT, and to try all our dishes. (ITSAY, your Hokkien mee is calling me...) 

But, also: FOOD MEANS FAMILY. Let me say it again: FOOD MEANS FAMILY. You FEED the people you LOVE, with delicious food. Shiro and Kenji. Kurosawa and Adachi. The guys in Jack o’Frost. The guys in The Eighth Sense. Omg, even Kinn and Porsche. We’re seeing it in Tokyo In April Is... And Pharm, to Dean, Intouch to Korn.

And BESIDES Intouch/Pharm becoming a great cook, GOD, the story ALSO INCLUDED the Proustian reference of the madeleine and involuntary memory -- but in SUCH a stunning way, as to RECALL DEAN’S FAMILIAL MEMORY of eating his grandmother’s Thai desserts -- his grandmother, Intouch’s sister, and how Dean could get an indirect spotlight into Intouch and a depth of an understanding of Intouch’s happiness besides his love for Korn. And how Pharm EMBODIED that love for Thai desserts through Intouch’s family lineage. Oh, just get me MESSY, PEOPLE. FUCKING GENIUS SHIT. 

Memory on memory on memory. Dream on dream, nightmare on nightmare, tears and red threads, inherited trauma, intergenerational trauma. The micro-level of what Dean and Pharm had to live with on a daily basis in their recollections of Korn and Intouch. The macro-level of what Pharm and Dean experienced when all of their parents accepted them for who they were as queer individuals, and their partners, as well. How Dean’s dad could ACTUALLY RELATE to Dean himself, because Dean’s dad had been rejected by Dean’s mother’s family. And how that ALLOWED Dean’s dad to accept Dean and his choice to be with Pharm. How that trauma was relieved, how Dean and Pharm DID NOT HAVE TO PHYSICALLY RELIVE what Korn and Intouch had gone through, and how those involuntary memories that Dean and Pharm carried vis à vis Korn and Intouch traumatized them until Dean and Pharm could RECEIVE their OWN familial acceptance.

The LAYERS OF THIS SHOW. Before I get to the last theme on my list, I really just need to metaphorically slam my palms on an allegorical table and give New Siwaj a huge hug, because THIS SHIT IS NOT EASY TO PROCESS ALL AT ONCE, and I can’t wait to do a UWMA rewatch to try to catch more (and I’ll likely need to write another meta, ha, when I do that). I mean, again, just to use food as an example of a kind of storytelling TOOL to INDICATE memory, especially in the context of lost and found love, of intergenerational trauma and relieving regret -- BRILLIANT. BRILLIANT.

And. The last theme on the list, the theme of filial piety, of Asian family systems and devotion and loyalty and expectations, and the devastating effects on the micro-individual level (and even the macro-social level as well) that those expectations can have. 

So, I watched Double Savage, screenwritten by New Siwaj, out of order from UWMA. Very quickly, since many of you have likely NOT watched Double Savage because it’s not a BL (but it DID have Ohm Pawat and Perth Tanapon in a hose-off scene -- you can’t take the New Siwaj out of New Siwaj, amirite): Double Savage is about Korn (Ohm P.), a middle son who is branded a jinx by a HORRENDOUS Thai-Chinese father, and how the abuse leveled on Korn by his dad has intergenerational ripple effects across their family and community. 

Let’s break this down. I now know that New Siwaj does bad dads from Thai-Chinese lineage very well. UWMA’s Korn is expected to take over a mafia business. His dad is disapproving that Korn doesn’t want to take over the business -- which is an UNQUESTIONABLE and EMBEDDED expectation in most Asian family lineages (hello, Jeng and Step By Step) -- AND Korn’s dad is ALSO disapproving in Korn’s love for Intouch and vice versa. Separately, Intouch’s dad is disapproving that Intouch is in love with Korn, a mafia scion. 

Modern times are modern for a reason. 1988 was 31 years from 2019. I want to emphasize here the understanding that Korn and Intouch likely had -- that besides running away, there was no other existence for them to be together than to kill themselves and be together in the afterlife. And running away, and still living and existing, would have been a guilt-ridden and dangerous existence, for what Asian children are expected to do and live for vis à vis their parents. Korn likely HAD NO OTHER IMAGINATION for a life that he could live OTHER THAN to take over his father’s business and to be a heteronormative adult in the late 1980s. And, to top that all off, both of their dads were fucking assholes. 

I really liked how this was juxtaposed to the relationship between Dean and his father. Dean was clearly set up to be as stubborn as his dad. Meaning, at least to me -- that Dean was FAR less likely to be told what to do by his dad, that Dean would and maybe COULD, stand up to his dad. We didn’t see it happen, but I could have imagined Dean not accepting “no” for an answer from his dad to accept Pharm. (Makes you think about Pat, Pran, and Ming, no?) Dean had Korn in him. Dean/Korn was NOT GOING TO TAKE THAT SHIT AGAIN, and that was CLEAR. I want to emphasize: THAT’S BIG. That was BIG on New Siwaj and the UWMA novel writer to include that in the story. That’s parental defiance. That needed to happen in order for Dean and Pharm to survive. As an Asian, that gives me a kick of welcome energy.

But I also really want to note what New Siwaj did at the end of the show, something so deft, it might have left non-Asian viewers wondering what was going on. In the condo scene, Dean and Pharm are ciphering Korn and Intouch -- and when Korn’s father shows up in the wheelchair, Korn’s father knows what’s happening.

And Korn apologizes to his dad. Korn had already apologized to Intouch, but Korn also apologizes to his dad, and to his brother, and to his nephew in Sin. This really gets me, y’all, I understand this as an Asian. Korn is APOLOGIZING for the PAIN he caused in his family AND in Intouch, because -- filial piety. He knows what he did to himself was devastating to the Asian family system he was born into, to the Asian society he was born into, and he apologized for the suicide he committed unto himself that caused that extra-social pain. 

Like. As crazy as that sounds, it’s also an INCREDIBLY SOPHISTICATED way to ACKNOWLEDGE that Korn had broached a social boundary, and Intouch had followed him. THAT IS A HELL OF A LAYER TO ADD TO THIS STORY, ONE THAT I DID NOT EXPECT, and that SHOOK ME at the end of this series.

A similar situation happened in Double Savage. Despite the horrendous psychological abuse that Double Savage’s Korn received from his father -- an adult Korn ends up apologizing to his father for the trouble that HE may have caused. Now, what I appreciated about Double Savage was that THAT dad was like -- no, no, *I* should be the one apologizing. BUT, I want to indicate and emphasize here, that BOTH storylines acknowledge that Asian children NEED to know, SHOULD know, ARE BORN TO KNOW, that their actions have collective effects on a wider family system. We are born to understand and think like that. We are not dealing with an individualist Western perspective here. (I literally FLIPPED when I realized that New Siwaj has had MULTIPLE CHARACTERS NAMED KORN APOLOGIZING TO BAD DADS, and I’m an Asian over here UNDERSTANDING WHY, and I’m just like, pfffftt GGGAAAHHHH.)

Why am I harping on this? BECAUSE: vis à vis EVERYTHING ELSE that is lineage-based in this story -- from children being born, to intergenerational trauma, to reincarnation -- UWMA is structured around an über-macro theme of worlds being linked, by threads, by genes, by history, by spirit, by trauma. We are collectively linked. Babies are born -- we saw many babies in this show. Children belong to families. Lovers belong to lovers. Dean PHYSICALLY belongs to Intouch’s family, and Pharm to Korn’s family. A happy existence will be when a family accepts a child’s partner. Happiness is in a family growing, not a family shrinking. Warmth and growth and love happens when a happy family sits at a table and eats together. 

As Pharm says at the end of the show -- oh, my HEART -- “I belong to Dean.” Yes, you do -- because you have become Dean’s family, and Dean has become Pharm’s family. Korn’s family BELONGS to Intouch’s family, and vice versa. They are destined, MEANT to be linked together, AND TO BE FAMILY, ALL TOGETHER.

Kurosawa and Adachi become family in the Cherry Magic movie. WDYEY’s Shiro and Kenji become family by way of living and eating together. Even if BBS’s Ming doesn’t acknowledge Pran -- Pran is Ming’s family. LOVE. MAKES. FAMILY.

What Korn apologized for was the impact his decision had on his family — WHILE HE WAS IN LOVE WITH INTOUCH, WHO KORN’S FAMILY WAS NOT ALLOWING KORN TO MAKE AS KORN’S NEW FAMILY in the 1980s. Korn was able to apologize in the afterlife — BECAUSE Dean and Pharm DID WHAT HE AND INTOUCH COULD NOT DO, by way of generations, by way of family acceptance, by way of inherited trauma and STOPPING that inherited trauma in its tracks -- very much like Pat and Pran banding together and doing the same for themselves. Dean and Pharm did the hard work of making the relationship a real one, in every aspect of their intimate, micro-level family lives, to a public, external existence in the world. Korn could FINALLY experience the release of GUILT he had towards Intouch and towards Korn’s family, now that Korn’s love for Intouch could FINALLY flourish outside the constraints of filial piety through Dean. THIS IS HUGE. I have no words to tell you what the BRILLIANCE of this means to me as an Asian. LOVE MAKES FAMILY, and LOVE THAT IS ALLOWED TO FLOURISH GIVES YOU THE RELEASE TO BE YOUR TRUE SELF. 

Dean had learned from the inherited trauma that he got from Korn that he needed to stop the trauma train in his tracks, and he did, and he confronted his father, and his father blessed the union of Dean and Pharm. When Dean took the gun away from Pharm, and embraced Pharm, Korn and Intouch KNEW that they could finally be safe in the afterlife. Dean and Pharm were the ciphers that finally ALLOWED Korn and Intouch to exist happily together in spirit. Korn, especially, could exist freely, now that he was relieved of his guilt. Dean and Pharm were, LITERALLY, Korn and Intouch’s FAMILY -- the FAMILY that ALLOWED the FINAL RELEASE for Korn and Intouch to be together as their true selves and spirits. 

And Dean and Pharm confirmed that in FRONT of the family member, in Korn’s father, that had originally caused all this pain. The intricate layers, communicated to a primarily Asian audience, of Korn apologizing to his father, and then of Dean embracing Pharm and confirming their love AND Korn and Intouch’s love, in front of that former barrier -- that is GROWTH and FLOURISHING in the face of generational defiance, and about as sophisticated and eloquent a communication of familial transcendence as I could possibly imagine seeing in Asian drama art. WHOA. I’m a little out of breath with this.

Wow. And speaking of being one’s true self: I deeply loved that Dean and Pharm took a three-month break. I loved that Pharm was smart and strong enough to demand a break to understand if DEAN and PHARM -- INDEPENDENT of ANYTHING they had INHERITED from ANYONE -- actually loved each other and belonged together. Fuck. Pharm was like, no -- this one’s on me. I need to see, outside of ANY INFLUENCES, FROM ANYONE, ANYWHERE -- if I love Dean, if Dean loves me, and if we belong together. Brave. Badass.

AND, I truly loved how Korn and Intouch -- DEAN AND PHARM’S FAMILY -- came BACK to Dean and Pharm’s dreams to offer thanks. I loved how, in the end, the past and his family came back to give Pharm that little contextual nudge to say to Pharm, it’s okay to love Dean for Dean, AND to love how you two came together, through Korn and Intouch. And Pharm could acknowledge, finally, that he belonged to Dean. God damn.

This story was so multilayered, SO complex, SO filled with a respect for love at its highest and most complicated levels. This story was filled with CRITICAL SCRUTINY towards Asian family systems and the trauma that those systems can render. This story was filled with an acknowledgement for the power of LOVE that those same family systems can offer unto children who NEED pillars of love and support (Pharm’s mom and brother, badasses!). 

Y’ALL. I just, I DID NOT KNOW that New Siwaj could DO THIS! I know that UWMA is considered his best show, but like, this is his best show BY A LOT, A LOT. Double Savage, in contrast, had a lot of narrative and structural issues that detracted from the core stories of filial piety that were ultimately very important to tell. 

UWMA did not fall into that trap. It was SMART, it MOVED (FOR SEVENTEEN EPISODES! I SLAMMED THIS SERIES! I could have watched MORE, I cannot believe I’m SAYING THAT!), it was. It was just BRILLIANT. It was an ode to romantic love, to family love, to the power of memory. In 2019, it joined He’s Coming To Me in a burgeoning echelon of cinema-influenced BLs in storytelling, soon to be joined by I Told Sunset About You, ATOTS, and others. It took the sad endings of He’s Coming To Me and Dew the Movie and said -- not today. Today, we will let love LIVE, let QUEER LOVE live, in REAL LIFE, in REAL TIME, and we will not let our lovers live in regret. We will take queer love, we will give queer love FAMILY, and we will give it the HONOR IT DESERVES.

Until We Meet Again is a must-watch of the highest order, and goes on the shortlist of shows that I will refer to as one that makes me proud to be an Asian. It was easily one of the most important shows I’ve watched in this project. All credit to New, Fluke, Ohm, Earth, and Kao for a PHENOMENAL experience -- my heart and mind have been bettered because of this show. 

[FLUKE. AND. OHM. Fluke and Singto coming thru in Shadow the Series? Sign me the FUCK up. Actors on actors. WOW. Did UWMA ever introduce me to another crop of dudes who can fucking tear up a screen. I had SO much fun watching UWMA, whew!

And, yep. I had to follow this up with 2gether, ha. I’m going to spare myself a little pain, if y’all don’t mind, and combine my write-up of 2gether with Still 2gether. I know there’s a lot to be said about the lack of intimacy in 2G, which I can’t wait to dive into, but I can’t help but to also run into another wall of analysis with dear P’Aof’s work in S2G. I’ll make it all work!

After I get myself together with 2gether (HA) -- it’s ITSAY time. I will be planning on watching ITSAY TWICE before writing, as I’m preparing myself to catch EVERYTHING I can before I pen words. Stay tuned.

Status of the list below. As always -- if you have feedback, send it my way!

1) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 2) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 3) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 4) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 5) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 6) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 7) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 8) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 9) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 10) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 11) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 12) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (I’m watching this out of order just to get familiar with OffGun before Theory of Love -- will likely not review) 13) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 14) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (not a BL or an official part of the OGMMTVC watchlist, but an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content in non-BLs) (review here) 15) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 16) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020)  17) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (watching) 18) I Told Sunset About You (2020) 19) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) 20) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) 21) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 22) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS 23) Lovely Writer (2021) 24) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) 25) I Promised You the Moon (2021) 26) Not Me (2021-2022) 27) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 28) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch 29) Secret Crush On You (2022) [watching for Cheewin’s trajectory of studying queer joy from Make It Right (high school), to SCOY (college), to Bed Friend (working adults)] 30) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 31) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist 32) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 33) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 34) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 35) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 36) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) (Cheewin’s latest show, depicting a queer joy journey among working adults)]

[fantasy-mixtapes]

Kristen Applebees Season 1 Character Playlist BREAKDOWN

OKAY, SO this one is gonna be an ordeal.

I set a 6-song limit for every other playlist I made, but this is the playlist that started it all. So, I didn't have a limit. So it's 12 songs long.

Which is honestly like a normal playlist length BUT it's gonna be a long breakdown which I will lovingly do because I LOVE Kristen with my whole heart. Either way, this is deffos gonna be a long post so read if you want (i would very much appreciate it obvi but I get this is pushing it).

Genres Included: Folk, Singer-songwriter, Alternative, 80's

1. Save the People, The Mountain Goats

When wilt thou save the people? Oh, God of mercy, when? Not kings and lords, but nations Not thrones and crowns, but men God save the people For thine they are Thy children as thy angels fair Save the people from despair

Starting off strong with my main man John Darnielle. John, as prolific as he might be, did not write this song it is originally from the musical Godspell by Steven Schwartz. I was raised as a theater kid and I remember one summer my mom took out our cable and the only things we could watch on the tv were dvds and vhs tapes of musicals, and the 1973 Godspell movie was definitely one of my favorites. Its like "what if Jesus was around in the 70s and was a hippie clown and also was crucified on a chain-linked fence and beaten by cops" ...ah, good times.

ANYWAYS, I don't feel like I need to get into why this is a perfect Kristen song - I feel like it really gets to the divide between the way that Christianity is taught to kids vs the way it is enacted by the adults that do the teaching.

2. Father Texas, Birdtalker

Father Texas on his toes Tells me where and when to go He's a savior, liturgy man He's a stickler and a soap monger Shove it down your throat Holy answer man He says obey and I'll love ya Now I'm doing just to prove And I'm walking out of fear But the devils done

Ok so I was raised Catholic, which I feel like is a whole different flavor of religious trauma compared to Evangelical or Baptist vibes - which I feel like the Helioic religion gives. Either way, this song slaps and really gets to that Evangelical vibe.

3. Big Houses, Squalloscope

I build bridges with these arms I will not build a fortress In the circle around the kitchen table I say my "amen" because I feel blessed Secretly hoping, while joining hands, that you can't feel my trembling fingertips

Here's young Kristen Applebees - Chosen One of Helio- who just wanted to help people. She meets her first non-religious friends, plans to convert and save them, and then straight up dies on the first day of school. She comes face to face with her literal god, is disappointed and grossed out by him, and then is magically (and violently) revived.

Can you imagine her returning home, trying to answer her parent's questions about the first day, making it through dinner, crawling into bed, and just lying there? AHHHHHHHHHHH

4. Under The Table, Fiona Apple

I'd like to buy you a pair of pillow-soled hiking boots To help you with your climb Or rather, to help the bodies that you step over along your route So they won't hurt like mine Kick me under the table all you want I won't shut up, I won't shut up Kick me under the table all you want I won't shut up, I won't shut up

Speaking of those family dinners, as the days go by and Kristen gets closer to her party, how do you think she's gonna react to whatever comments her parents make about them hmmmmmm? The result of coming out of your social shell and realizing how bad the people around you really are.

5. Cleric Girl, Sisyfuss

I need my cleric girl tonight So she can bless me in this plight Dress me in crucifixes so they die on sight I need my cleric girl tonight

This is just a fun song I see as Kristen finds her groove within the party, kinda around the DJ brains fight. Also it makes me think of the prayer chain thing that she had the whole party on at some point.

6. Cornflake Girl, Tori Amos

She knows what's going on Seems we got a cheaper feel now All the sweeteaze are gone Gone to the other side With my encyclopedia They musta paid her a nice price She's putting on her string bean love This is not really, this, this This is not really happening

There's something about a Tori Amos song that never fucking misses. This song, for me, kinda gets at the part of growing up when you really start to uncover the truth of things for yourself, instead of listening to the things you were always told. Kristen buys the book of world religions and reads about the atrocities people did in her god's name. She is also told that the "cool camps" she was going to were run by an actual fanatical cult. Yikes.

7. Eldest Daughter, Isabel Pless

Bring me your battered, your bruised, and your scarred Florence Nightingale, to your broken hearts Bring me your bleeding I'll stitch it up with a bow Tugging at the sword in the stone The dormant hero in me is yet to be known Dying to prove myself again, but I don't know how Wanna lay my weapons down Lay my weapons down Want everyone to adore me even though People's emotions are out of my control Smothering fires Letting flames claim my hands I would do anything to be needed Over and over again.

Okay, the thing about this song is that we get the root of it here in season one, and it shows up really lightly, but God almighty, do we get one hell of a payoff in the next two seasons. Damn. The first time I listened to this song I cried. It's on several of my dnd character playlists - because, for some reason, I can't stop making dnd characters with self-saccrificing tendencies. HM! I WONDER WHY?

But anyways, yeah... something something, Christian households raising their eldest daughters to be surrogate mothers and laborers, something something Kristen is a cleric while her brothers are paladins, something something Women being healers

8. Angel Eyes and Basketball, Foot Ox

There are flowers growing all around A massive animal inside of me And it's so ugly, and I'm so broken And I'm so ugly, and it's so broken I am calling all of my friends To pull me out of this hole But they're so caught up in their own shit And I'm so caught up in my own shit

Ok, this is full Christian guilt. I also really like the way this song is one of those upbeat but devastating ones because it makes me think about her inspiring speeches to her party members just being her ranting about how horrible everything is, and then they get +1 to attacks and extra hitpoints. Living La Vida Loca.

9. We Fell in Love in October, girl in red

Smoking cigarettes on the roof You look so pretty, and I love this view Don't bother looking down, we're not going that way At least I know I am here to stay We fell in love in October That's why I love fall Looking at the stars Admiring from afar

Ok, I know this is cheesy. BUT TO MY CREDIT: both the song and the season came out in 2018. Also, you know Kristen would stream the fuck out of this song.

10. Running Up That Hill ( A Deal With God), Kate Bush

And if I only could, I'd make a deal with God And I'd get him to swap our places I'd be running up that road, be running up that hill With no problems

AGAIN TO MY CREDIT: I made this playlist in 2020 - two years before Stranger Things brought the song back to the general psyche. No shade, of course, to the stranger things; it's a perfect song to choose, and the scene effectively made me cry.

But anyway its here because at her bones, Kristen would die for her friends and has and will (unfortunately) continue to. Speaking of

11. Arms Tonite, Mother Mother

I cry in the afterlife I cry hard because I have died And you're alive I try to escape afterlife I try hard to get back inside Your arms alive

Kristen's dying count is more than double most of her friends at this point - and golly gee just wait till season 2!

Can I roll a nat 20 and then be alive?

12. Glory (Bunker Sessions), Bastille

And all their words for glory Well, they always sounded empty When we're looking up for heaven Looking up for heaven Way down here upon the ground When we're lying in the dirt There's no looking up for heaven Looking up for heaven

I really love this bunker session version of this song; the strings and the piano just give it a lovely honesty. Gorgeous song. Perfect way to end this season

[malwaredykes]

I'm so curious to know what your favorite dlc is! And if it's Old World Blues(mine too) then what's your second favorite?

AND which dlc would be Leigh's favorite experience?

i actually picked up honest hearts as the beginning of my Refreshing My Memories Of The DLCs campaign, as its been a hot minute since i last went through them.

But, yeah, old world blues is my favorite! its got its highs and lows, and for sure the quests arent The most fun, but i think its just overall really charming. sure, tonally its a bizarre addition, but thats what makes it work.

i REALLY dont like the dlcs overall though asjkhkjfhsdkj. ive complained before about what the addition of ulysses' plotline does to the games story, which is to say it cheapens it A LOT through unnecessary contrived backstory. ive also complained before about ulysses himself being suuuuch a deeply insufferable instance of Chris Avellone Character which is a shame because he couldve been awesome. i rly dig the whole "many couriers in the mojave are caesar's spies" and as far as ~legion-sympathetic companions~ go i think "ex-legion guy with a long complicated history with caesar, whos disillusioned with pretty much every existing faction, and whos just kinda weird and with experiences far removed from yours" would probably be the best way to do it. i also think jotchua graham cracker is kind of... i dont wanna say a complete disappointment because i Dont mind him being a mormon who went on to be caesar's legate and who then Found Jesus Again, i think thats kind of great and hilarious actually. obviously the way honest hearts frames it is aaaawful but the "mormon -> Outright Genocidal Fascist Leading An Imperial Campaign As In Literally Building An Empire -> born again christian who thinks hes saving everyone around him with his faith in his lord jesus christ may he save you as he saved josh" pipeline kind of rules like. yeah lmao. but aside from that as The Burned Man i just donnnnt like what hes got going on. like first of all thats not really how burn scars work. id get into more detail here wrt post-healing discomfort and scar compression but Anyway. hes just. not what i expected from a guy who got set on fire and then fell down a canyon lmao. he should be Wrecked. the explanation of how he survived is such a cop-out too and honestly the line about surviving because the fire within him etc fully deserves to be on etsy products because it absolutely is some This Is My Fight Song bullshit like its such a meme. idk. the lack of physically disabled characters in fallout has always bothered me a lot, and in this case, like, yeah the scars are disabling, he is disabled, but youd think the Falling Down A Canyon part wouldve permanently affected him too.

ANYWAY enough about that. my second favorite, if one can say that, is dead money. the characters are very likeable... the dlc itself is kind of hellish though. like its just Not Fun. but we get to meet veronica's ex gf AND dean domino and dog/god are awesome.

and as for which one leigh has the most fun in i have to say honest hearts purely because it takes part somewhere really nice. like shes loving the place She Really Needed This. whereas the other dlcs are kind of

[orthodoxadventure]

The άνάλαβος (analavos) is the distinctive garment of a monk or a nun tonsured into the highest grade of Orthodox monasticism, the Great Schema, and is adorned with the instruments of the Passion of Christ. It takes its name from the Greek αναλαμβάνω (“to take up”), serving as a constant reminder to the one who wears it that he or she must “take up his cross daily” (Luke 9:23). The ornately-plaited Crosses that cover the analavos, the polystavrion (πολυσταύριον, from πολύς, “many,” and σταυρός, “Cross”) — a name often, though less accurately, also applied to the analavos — reminds the monastic that he or she is “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20).

With regard to each image on the analavos, the rooster represents “the cock [that] crowed” (Matthew 26:74; Mark 14:68 Luke 22:60; John 18:27) after Saint Peter had “denied thrice” His Master and Lord (John 13:38).

The pillar represents the column to which Pilate bound Christ “when he scourged Him” (Mark 15:15) “by Whose stripes we were healed” (Isaiah 53:5; I Peter 2:24).

The wreath garlanding the Cross represents the “crown of thorns” (Matthew 27:29; Mark 15:17; John 19:2) that “the soldiers platted” (John 19:2) and “put upon the head” (Matthew 27:29) of “God our King of old” (Psalm 73:13), Who freed man from having to contend against “thorns and thistles in the sweat of his brow” (Genesis 3:18-19).

The upright post and the traverse beam represent the stipes and the patibulum that formed “the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14), upon which “all day long He stretched forth His hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people” (Isaiah 65:2; Romans 10:21).

The four spikes at the center of the Cross and the hammer beneath its base represent the “nails” (John 20:25) and hammer with which “they pierced” (Psalm 21:16; John 19:37) “His hands and His feet” (Luke 24:40). when they “lifted up from the earth” (John 12:32) Him Who “blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us by nailing it to His Cross” (Colossians 2:14).

The base upon which the Cross stands represents “the place, which is called 'Calvary' (Luke 23:33), or 'Golgotha', that is to say, the Place of the Skull” (Matthew 27:33), “where they crucified Him” (John 19:18) Who “wrought salvation in the midst of the earth” (Psalm 73:13).

The skull and crossbones represent “the first man Adam” (I Corinthians 15:45), who by tradition “returned unto the ground” (Genesis 3:19) at this very spot, the reason that this place of execution, “full of dead men’s bones” (Matthew 23:27) became the place where “the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” (I Corinthians 15:45).

The plaque on top of the Cross represents the titulus, the “title” (John 19:19-20), with “the superscription of His accusation” (Mark 15:26), which “Pilate wrote” (John 19:19) “and set up over His head” (Matthew 27:37); however, instead of “Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews” (John 19:19), which “was written over Him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew” (Luke 23:38), the three languages being an allusion to the Three Hypostases “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19), this titulus reads, “The King of Glory” (Psalm 23:7-10), “for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (I Corinthians 2:8).

The reed represents the “hyssop” (John 19:29) upon which was put “a sponge full of vinegar” (Mark 15:36), which was then “put to His mouth” (John 19:29) when in His “thirst they gave Him vinegar to drink” (Psalm 68:21), Him of Whom it was said that “all wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth” (Luke 4:22).

The lance represents the “spear [that] pierced His side”; “and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:34) from Him Who “took one of Adam's ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof" (Genesis 2:21) and Who “washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Revelation 1:5).

The plaque at the bottom of the Cross represents the suppedaneum of Christ, “His footstool” (Psalm 98:5), “the place where His feet have stood” (Psalm 131:7). It is slanted because, according to one tradition, at the moment when “Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the spirit” (Mark 15:37), He allowed a violent death spasm to convulse His legs, dislodging His footrest in such a manner that one end pointed upwards, indicating that the soul of the penitent thief, Saint Dismas, “the one on His right hand” (Mark 15:27) would be “carried up into Heaven” (Luke 24:51), while the other end, pointed downwards, indicated that the soul of the impenitent thief, Gestas, “the other on His left” (Mark 15:27), would “be thrust down to Hell” (Luke 10:15), showing that all of us, “the evil and the good, the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45), “are weighed in the balance” (Ecclesiasticus 21:25) of the Cross of Christ.

The ladder and the pincers beneath the base of the Cross represent the means of deposition by which Saint Joseph of Arimathea, “a rich man” (Matthew 27:57) who “begged for the body of Jesus” (Matthew 27:58; Luke 23:52), “took it down” (Luke 23:53), so that as in body He descended from the Cross, so in soul “He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth” (Ephesians 4:9), “by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison” (I Peter 3:19).

Through these instruments, “the Cross of Christ” (I Corinthians 1:17: Galatians 6:12; Philippians 3:18) became the “Tree of Life” (Genesis 2:9; 3:22, 24; Proverbs 3:18, 11:30; 13:12; 15:4; Revelation 2:7; 22:2,14), by which the Lord Jesus reified His words that, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

[source]

[gayleviticus]

dont know how to really put this into words and its not a very Easter-y post per se but something ive been thinking abt, and especially since Good Friday, is almost... how slender yet hugely significant a thread the passion of Jesus is in the Christian Bible?

my NRSV is 1102 pages (897 without deuterocanon). the Gospels take up 89 of those pages. 8-10% of the Christian Bible is about the life of Jesus (although ofc the rest of the NT is about unpacking what that means). and then the passion itself is an even smaller slice.

i often pray the catholic liturgy of the hours, which is at its core a bunch of psalms and then some other miscellaneous stuff depending on the time of day, and something i oddly appreciate abt it is all this time spent with OT Psalms makes explicitly Christian stuff like the Trinity or Jesus more exciting when it pops up, because you feel their absence a bit?

Christianity is very Jesus-drenched, and obviously that's because he's literally the core and namesake of the religion. but i sorta feel like sometimes it can be too much. Jesus overload. the significance of what it means for God to become human flesh and suffer and die as the culmination of this whole century-long epic of redemption fades a little. we don't always appreciate Jesus as the climax to the story because we start with him as the beginning.

sometimes i go thru phases where I spend most of my Bible reading time in the Old Testament, and for various reasons - it's got a different feel and scope, it speaks to different things (more of an emphasis on societal social justice), it's more dramatic in certain ways, it has nice poetry, it has a very rich tradition of people getting angry with God and pouring out their souls in suffering.

but i think deliberately spending this time away from the NT makes me appreciate what a big deal the Incarnation is - and i feel a bit in awe of the way that all the threads in this massive story of God's work culminate in the life of just one guy and his humiliating, brutal, embarrassing murder. A story that's weaved its way through global floods and plagues and revolution and kingdoms and wars and exile finds its thesis statement in One Man standing before Pilate, beaten by soldiers, dragging his cross through the streets, nailed to a tree.

it's a bizarre kind of narrative understatement. the Bible rejects the temptation of many a long-running franchise to go bigger and bigger, to keep on raising the stakes, and instead sits you down with the most humiliating, degrading, hopeless moment in Jesus' life and says: this is the face of God. This is what God looks like. The Lord is not to be found in whirlwinds nor earthquakes nor fire but in the face of the oppressed, the falsely accused, the suffering.

of course, there's a cosmic dimension to it as well. in a sense as it simultaneously lowers the physical stakes to one man, one soul, the Passion is also raising the cosmic stakes tremendously. 'now is the judgment of the world, now is the ruler of this world cast out - and i, when i am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.'

but on the face of it, the idea that it should be this Holy Week that's the crux of the story - not the great flood, not the destruction of Jerusalem, not the apocalyptic terrors of Revelation - is a bit odd, and for that endless fascinating to me.

[followingtheladyofthesacredflame]

No hate just wanted to know your opinion on 1 Corithians 10:20 because ive been wanting to Pray to other Gods as well but im scared that its a sin. Tysm in advance 💙

Hey friend, no problem, I'm chill with discussing opinions. Long post in-bound with textual and contextual analysis of 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

So, the verse in question is this one:

"No, it does not; simply that when pagans sacrifice, what is sacrificed by them is sacrificed to demons who are not God. I do not want you to share with demons."

Corinthians is a book of the Bible attributed to St. Paul, who was absolutely famous for writing a LOT of early Church literature (like, 12 books worth of Biblical writings, depending on who you ask) and proselytizing to a wide range of people, even when jailed by the Romans for doing so. St Paul's goal was conversion for these people; he so sincerely believed in the mission and message of Jesus Christ that his ultimate goal was to bring as many people as possible to Heaven through his writing.

With this bias in mind, let's look at the context of 1 Corinthians 10:20. In Chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians, Paul is talking about previous instances of cultures who turned their backs on God to worship false gods and idols, and who were then punished for doing so as God "scattered [their corpses] over the desert." So, his advice to the Corinthians, who at the time would likely have worshipped the Greek and/or Roman pantheons, was to stop worshipping these gods and turn to the Almighty for redemption. He classified these pantheons as "demons."

In the original Greek text, Paul uses the phrase,

δαιμων  δαιμονιον

which, to the best translations I can find, means something akin to "inspiring force" (as in, an independent force with autonomous actions) and is used here by Paul to refer to the pagan gods in a relatively neutral sense. This word in Greek doesn't necessarily have any malevolent intention behind it, and in the text, the line about not cavorting with demons doesn't necessarily call them evil and is followed quickly by "Do we really want to arouse the Lord's jealousy; are we stronger than he is?" (1 Corinthians 10:22).

So, to my reading, Paul isn't necessarily condemning the pagan gods, but the practice of honoring them for things he believes that the Abrahamic God is responsible for, which (understandably) pisses God off. This, he tells the Corinthians, is the sin, and is what they need to stop to convert and be saved.

Now I need to note again that Paul is trying to convert the Corinthians in this letter - he has an inherent bias against their faith because he believes it's the "wrong" one. While Christians generally believe that the Bible is divinely inspired by God, I personally believe that it shouldn't be taken in a literal sense, and should instead be seen as an inspirational mythology to work with. The letters especially I take with a big grain of salt; conversion was a major focus of early Church writing - they were desperate to establish the Church long-term, after all - and so condemnation of other religions is bound to happen sometimes. I take this as human bias and error in the interpretation of the divine inspiration.

Do I personally think it's a sin to work with God and other deities? No, I don't think so. I operate on the idea that as long as you're honoring God for his role in the universe as its creator and overseer, there's nothing wrong with also honoring other deities with specific domains within that universe. It's just probably best not to give them credit for the things He does (you might use the idea of syncretism to avoid doing this - seeing certain gods as aspects of capital-G God and so on).

Sources:

I am a Catholic who went to 10 years of Catholic school.