#monk because earth punch

[miqotepotatoe]

Me, bored.

FFXIV character creator: Wanna mess around?

I give you, Lalafell Cole

[nateconnolly]

What Does the Lion Turtle Chant Mean?

A podcast episode about the spirituality of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Transcript Preview:

Many people have told me they struggle to take Sozin’s Comet seriously because they would have killed the Fire Lord without hesitation. And, look, as far as I’m concerned — if you’re willing to kill a genocidal colonizer, good for you! Many blessings upon your journey! And the show isn’t trying to dissuade you. 

Aang is not the only voice of wisdom in Avatar. He’s not a puppet through which the text articulates its meaning. Avatar is about cultural exchange. When one character says what they think is true, that isn’t necessarily the moral of a story. That’s one voice, and the story is a conversation. So, I don’t think that Sozin’s Comet is using Aang to say “Hey, you, you, looking at the TV, you personally should never support violent revolution!” Water Tribe culture doesn’t seem to have any problem with killing on the battlefield. 

When Sokka lops off the Melon Lord’s head, there’s some very clear indications that we’re supposed to be troubled. The musical cue, Momo eating the melon, he lingering focus on Aang’s reaction … But I don’t think this scene is meant to communicate that Sokka is a bad guy. Or that soldiers are inherently bad people. I assume that Hakoda, Bato, and Tyro killed people. These figures are portrayed as admirable, and even as mentors. 

The scene in which Sokka kills the Melon Lord is there to illustrate the difference between Southern Water Tribe culture and Air Nomad culture. Sokka’s journey is about embracing and reclaiming all the parts of his culture that the Fire Nation tried to destroy. He wasn’t able to go ice dodging or to train as a wolf warrior, but he has found a way to become a strong, protective man anyways. And that does mean that he’s willing to kill or die for a cause he believes in. This scene doesn’t communicate that Sokka is a bad person. It communicates that Sokka is walking his own path, and that Aang is walking a different path. But the show doesn’t try to tell you one of them is wrong and the other is right. 

At the same time, I think we need to remember that Aang is saying something he believes. It’s not just an emotional problem for him. 

Aang gives multiple related, but different reasons not to kill the Fire Lord.

“I didn’t feel like myself.” 

The Fire Lord “is still a human being.”

Killing goes against “everything the monks taught me.”

“All life is sacred.”

In Southern Raiders, he also makes a more general claim that “violence is never the answer,” but I think that the writers had to use the word “violence” as a euphemism. In our normal usage of the word, punching somebody would be a “violent” act. Aang clearly has no problem whacking people over the head or shooting wind at them. I think this is a way of making the show more kid friendly, and that what Aang actually means is 

“[Killing] is never the answer.”

Some of these claims are about Aang as an individual. He’s saying he doesn’t feel like he, specifically, can kill someone. That it goes against the values of his culture. And some of these are universal claims. He’s saying no one should kill, not ever. 

But he also believes in a separate ethical mandate. As the Avatar, he has to protect the world. In this lifetime, that means preventing the Fire Lord from burning the Earth Kingdom. 

This is a story about moral standards, and they seem impossible to live up to. There’s no easy answer. If you believe that murder is wrong, and you believe in the duties of the Avatar, then you have a conflict of values, not just emotions. In order to understand the Buddhist themes of Sozin’s Comet, we have to understand Buddhist ideas of morality. 

This podcast episode

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Nate's short story about Buddhism

Transcript with Citations

[oneatlatime]

Want to get your thoughts on something you've touched on in a couple places. A pretty popular idea in the fandom is that one of the (in-universe) reasons airbenders have gone so hard into the peace-and-love monk thing is a self-awareness that, if they didn't, there's not a whole lot anybody could realistically do about it.

Like, Southern Air Temple pretty strongly implies that Gyatso solo'd a room full of comet-roided firebenders. It killed him but he did it, and while he is a master Airbender, we're not given any real indication that he is uniquely so, right?

I have many thoughts on this! Sorry in advance for the long post! And sorry if this goes a bit off topic!

Short answer: I don't agree.

Long answer:

We've seen that nations' cultures tend to reflect their native bending styles. Or vice versa. It's probably a chicken and egg scenario. The Fire Nation chose to spread (like wildfire) and is full of hot headed, impetuous roid-rage sufferers who can't see or plan for the long term. Fire itself easily becomes ungovernable and is at best muzzled/leashed, always waiting for the next chance to bubble over in unplanned / unpredictable / generally unhelpful directions (Hi Zhao!). So an element shapes a culture shapes and element until you've got a positive feedback loop (or in the case of the Northern Water Tribe, a negative feedback ourobouros due to outside pressure). Importantly, neither culture nor element develops in isolation; I think they develop simultaneously.

The Earth Kingdom is probably the most rigid and unchanging, even when it would benefit them to change/innovate. We see rigidity and humourlessness in response to change or the unexpected (see Toph's parents) and we see an inability to let go of a bad idea, or mitigate the consequences / think on the go when things that were clearly bad ideas go bad in ways anyone with a non-earthbender brain can see coming a mile off (think The Avatar State episode). Earth digs in when it should retreat, stands solid when it should duck and weave. It is grounded to the point of stupidity (unless you're Toph or Bumi, although even Toph seems to be unbending so far). It's linear to the point of being unable to deviate from that line.

This is me guessing, but I figure since fire and water are opposites, air must be the opposite of earth, right? So while we'll never see airbending culture in a non-shrunk-down-to-one-person form, we can look at earthbending culture for its dark reflection. Well, probably not dark, but you get what I'm saying. They'll be opposites in world view. We can extrapolate.

So if earth is grounded, humourless, aggressively traditional, linear, then air must be constantly fluctuating, unchained, lighthearted, bonkers-all-over-the-place. The heaviness of earth would dictate that problems should be faced by digging in and facing them head on until the problem blinks first. The lightness of air would dictate that problems should be faced the opposite way: blinking first i.e. removing yourself from the problem entirely. The linearity of earth dictates that fights are solved by fighting - you punch me, I punch you. The non-linearity of air would seek to recontextualise a problem until it's no longer a problem because we all forgot what we were fighting about in the first place, i.e. throwing pies at it or busting out the marble trick. The heaviness of earth would cause excessive earthly attachment; the lightness of air would cause excessive detachment from worldly concerns.

To start violence is to make a statement that you wish to be involved. It's rooting yourself to a particular dispute, choosing a hill to die on. It stems from attachment. This is earthbendery behaviour (and Zuko-y, but let's not go there). To never start violence is to never invest, never dig in your feet and make a stand. To be detached. (I'm oversimplifying here.) It's clear from in-show examples that Aang's pacifism is of the "ladies don't start fights but they can finish them" variety; he's got no problem with self-defence (caveat: we have no idea how typical an air nomad Aang was). But he never attacks first that I can think of.

Violence is a very direct tool. If someone starts a fight with you, and you decide to continue it, you're choosing the most obvious action. Since when is airbending direct or obvious?

All this to say, I think that pacifism, peace and love, monkiness, etc., was more likely a natural and inevitable outgrowth of air nomad culture, caused by constant culture / element interaction, rather than a conscious choice.

So I think airbenders "have gone so hard into the peace-and-love monk thing" because the nature of their element creates a culture that discourages the traits required for effective offensive violence, and the inherent detachment and ever-changing nature of air naturally encouraged spiritual (i.e. monkly) pursuits rather than earthly ones, like whatever the conflict of the week is. I don't think self-awareness of the dangers of their element factors into it. Not to take away from Gyatso's accomplishment, but I think air is nowhere near the most dangerous element. From what I've seen so far that would be Fire or Earth, though I'd give the edge to Fire because they self-generate, and also because they've spent a largely successful century dominating the other elements. Waterbenders and earthbenders can be neutralised by taking away their element; airbenders - due to the very nature of their element - probably can't get past that initial avoid and evade instinct to become legitimate offensive threats.

As for Gyatso, I think he's an outlier. We know little about him so far, but we do know that: a) Aang says he's the best airbender (in I think the Southern Air Temple?); b) he's good enough that he was granted a statue while he was still living, learning, improving; and c) he's good enough that the monkly council (of which he is part) granted him the honour/responsibility of being the quasi-dad of the Avatar. These things tell me that Gyatso was the Spiders Georg of the Airbenders. I suspect Bumi is the same for the Earthbenders, and at least as far as the philosophy of bending is concerned, Iroh may be so for Firebenders. Even the example of Gyatso nuking the comet-enhanced firebenders is a case of defensive action in ultra extraordinary circumstances: he was staring into the teeth of a genocide while mourning the disappearance of his quasi-son and the likely loss of the world's only hope / chance at stopping the war. That's how far you have to push an airbender before they'll take a life. Unless the Avatar world pre-war is a lot more godawful than Aang has implied, airbenders probably wouldn't have been taking lives frequently enough for them to get to the point where they would have to start questioning whether they should consider pacifism.

I think what this fandom idea ultimately is, is a desire for the hidden badass trope. Everyone loves it when the most peaceful character in the story is revealed to secretly be a Rambo-level fighting badass, right? Who didn't love it when kindly grandpa Roku manifested in his temple and unleashed a volcano? But I think this trope fundamentally takes something away from the appreciation of Airbending, Air Nomad culture, and the concept of Pacifism as a whole. This is just my interpretation, but applying the "secretly the deadliest all along!" trope to airbenders undermines their commitment to pacifism and makes it performative rather than earnest. It's a cop out; an acknowledgement that violence actually is the answer, and even those head-in-the-clouds monks know to use it when the chips are down. This show goes out of its way to show that non-combatants have value and a place in this world that's worth fighting for, that fighting goes way too far pretty frequently, that non-violent solutions are valid, even preferable. It would kind of undermine that message if all of the elements were easily weaponisable.

Something I've loved so far about Avatar is the show's earnestness. There have been no Marvel-style fakeout bathos plots. I feel making airbending secretly the deadliest element or similar would be exactly that sort of thing. Can't my pacifists be peaceful not because they're secretly untouchable badasses who carry the biggest stick, whom the rest of the world leaves alone out of fear, who are not a threat only because they have chosen not to be, but because that's just who they are?

On the other hand: Aang's been a one-man-army plenty of times. We've seen that; that's undeniable. So air is stupidly powerful as an element. No denying that. Gyatso did murder a bunch of people trying to kill him, so air can be deadly. But I don't think your typical airbender could be deadly. If you gave a can of airbending to a firebender, an earthbender, or even a particularly provoked waterbender, I don't doubt that they could kill people with it. But the culture that the element generated - rather than a conscious choice by that culture's participants - prevents them from taking the direct, violent, solution. And I think that culture developed in tandem with airbending, so there could not have been a time when airbenders were deadly as a rule. Air shaped airbenders as much as airbenders shaped air, and it shaped them into non-violent people.

There's a lot of power in the idea of consciously choosing, and sticking to, something that is perhaps not in line with your natural abilities. Styling airbenders as deadly-but-choosing-peace is a great way to explore themes of agency, identity, strength of character, morals, maturity, etc. But, to me, there's also a lot of power in the idea that some people just can't - not won't, but CAN'T - fight their way out of things, and this doesn't make it any less wrong to genocide the crap out of them.

If the fandom wants to headcanon airbenders as secret badasses who consciously choose nonviolence, I say a) go ahead! there's more than enough evidence to support that conclusion; b) I respectfully disagree; and c) is Iroh not enough?

tl;dr in my opinion, air's pacifism was a natural outgrowth of, and restriction imposed by, the element rather than a conscious choice; airbending can be deadly but airbenders aren't; Gyatso is not representative; 'speak softly and carry a big stick' is all well and good as a philosophy, but those who speak softly and don't have a stick are of value too.

[nardaviel]

Been doing some thinking about the characterization implications of Makoto's aikido black belt, and the interesting contrast between aikido and her Metaverse weapon.

Like, to start with, the fact that Makoto knows aikido specifically says a lot. Aikido is extremely not an aggressive martial art. It's a little difficult to translate something like a martial art name from Japanese into English, but the one I always heard was "way of the harmonious spirit". I'm not going to do a deep dive on it, just summarize a couple of the most relevant points, but it was created by a war veteran who was inspired by a spiritual experience. His guiding concept was like... self-defense without hurting the aggressor.

(Disclaimer: I obviously only studied in one school! Although all of aikido shares the same overall principles, there may be some schools out there that are extra-aggressive. However, given that we lack any indication of what style of aikido Makoto studies, I would guess that it's not anything wild or unusual.)

Aikido focuses on using an attacker's energy and momentum against them. You learn throwing and pinning techniques to defend against various attacks, but specifically techniques where you can pull back before you cause serious damage. You don't learn barehanded strikes at all, except as much as you need to know to initiate fake attacks to help your partners practice. And you don't need to know how to throw a really good, dangerous punch for that. I had years of aikido training and I still sure as fuck can't. At more advanced levels, you start to learn other things such as weapons forms, but even those aren't really attacks. You just perform a ritualized series of movements against imaginary enemies.

It's not the world's most practical martial art, to be honest, although someone who's really skilled can get good use out of it. If Makoto claims she can use it to ensure her safety, she must be that good, because I expect she's too practical to delude herself with false confidence. More importantly! It takes years to get a black belt, like it does in any martial art. So little middle-schooler Makoto looked at all the martial arts on offer in Tokyo, which I imagine is pretty much every martial art on earth, and decided aikido was the one for her.

It suits her, and continues to suit her up through the end of canon. She's not Ryuji; outside the Metaverse, she's not going to start a physical fight. But she's perfectly willing to finish one. Given her family history and personal values, it makes sense that she'd be drawn to the idea of defending herself, but not in a way that causes unnecessary pain. It's also considered a good martial art for women, due to the lack of emphasis on size and strength.

But pre-canon Makoto is also very repressed, very focused on being composed and perfect. Aikido promises self-defense and an outlet, but nothing too aggressive. Nothing that looks too loud or rebellious. Martial arts are male-dominated practices; by studying one at all, she's already being a little bit out of the ordinary. Best not to stand out too much.

And then she gets into the Metaverse.

It's easy to think that the brass knuckles and the punching make use of her martial arts background, but they don't. At all. Makoto has absolutely not learned how to strike with her fists to cause damage during her training, at least not like people envision. If Atlus wanted to go that route, they'd have given her a karate backstory or something similar.

And if they wanted her to know aikido and wanted to carry her training into the Metaverse, they could've given her a staff, which she will have learned forms for during aikido training. The other classic aikido weapons are already taken, or at least the non-wooden versions are lol. But no one else among the Thieves uses a staff. Makoto the warrior monk with her jo staff and her Pope persona would be a coherent design.

But Atlus didn't do that either. Instead, they gave her brass knuckles (among other fist weapons, I know, I know) and let her punch the shit out of her enemies. That's not merely unlike her training; it's in total opposition to the core tenets of aikido. No "way of the harmonious spirit", no self-reflection, no pacifism. She's going to beat up Shadows for justice.

In short, the brass knuckles are an emblem of her rebellion within the Metaverse. They come from the same place as her spiky leather outfit and motorcycle Persona. In the real world, student council president Makoto isn't afraid of anyone hitting her or grabbing her because she can put them on the ground before they can blink. Like I said, I think aikido suits her really well, even without her pre-canon baggage. But in the Metaverse, Queen doesn't bother to wait for an attack. She hits first. <3

[multifandom-nerds-blog]

The silence after the storm (2)

All parts of this and the first days are on my blog and under the tag Ninjago: elemental wizard of Fire. I will start posting them on A03 soon as well. Enjoy....;)

After everything was done and said, they finally, together with Cole and Zane, all returned to the monastery.

With some weird wizard lady, but Lloyd didn't ask. She seemed to be friends with Cole and Zane, so it was fine.

They all returned to the monastery.

Nya was maybe exceptionally quite, Wyldfyre as well, but it didn't mean anything.

Cole had tears in his face, and Zane a very sorrowful expression, after talking to Nya, but it didn't mean anything.

There was no one ruffling his hair after the fight ended, but it didn't mean anything.

A silent voice in his head was bugging him, that something was wrong. He should open his eyes, and ears and his heart. He should stop denying things.

It didn't mean anything.

Lloyd fell into his bed. His eyes fell shut. And for the first time in maybe weeks, he was able to get a proper sleep. One without any dreams whatsoever. But when he woke up, at least twelve hours later according to his clock, he finally realized what that voice in the back of his head was nagging him about.

Kai was gone. Thrown through the portal. Used as a sacrifice.

Stuck in the never space. Probably forever. Unless they could find another, a sacrifice free, way than the bloodmoon to open another portal and get him back.

If he could even survive that long, stuck with four of the forbidden five.

Oh.

Lloyd realized.

Kai was gone.

_______________________________

If Cole learned one thing in his life, than it was how fast things could change.

At first they thought that things must have ended good. The bloodmoon was over, they stopped the cloud kingdom from crashing and the world didn't seem to immediately end.

Then Galandalaria came up to them, talking something about how she "couldn't feel Bonzles presence like she did before" and Cole started to panick.

Then Lloyd and the others joined him and Zane on the Cloud kingdom, and the panick went down. But just for a moment, because Nya came up to him and Zane, with tears in her eyes, with Wyldfyre cornering behind her. He didn't really knew any of the younger kids that well, especially Wyldfyre, but that was clearly not her usual expression.

Nya talked to them, something about the bloodmoon , and yeah yeah, they knew about the bloodmoon and the ritual and stuff, when Cole noticed something was missing.

A certain someone was missing.

Nya kept talking about the events of the latest fight, while Cole looked into the rest of the round. Next to him Zane seemed to be doing something similar, while Galandalaria was still trying to somehow find Bonzles presence with her cristall ball and various spells as it seemed.

Nya and Wyldfyre were there, obviously. Lloyd was talking to one of the monks with Arin just a few steps behind him, both facing him with their backs. Sora was standing with Rayu a bit aside from the group, a sort of troubled and confused expression on her face.

It pained him a bit, that he wasn't even thinking to look for Jay, but even after all his travles he didn't stumble across a single sign of his brown haired freckled friend.

However, Kai was supposed to be here, wasn't he? Zane told him, that he was with Lloyds group.

Kai was very much supposed to be here, but he wasn't.

Was he....

"Ras pushed Kai through the portal as a sacrifice.", Nya said through clenched teath. When Cole looked back to her, he saw her white knuckled fists. He couldn't look into her eyes. "And he was still in there when the portal closed."

Cole wanted to punch something. Anything. Anyone. Preferably that Ras by the love of the FSM.

But he couldn't. He was Cole. The earth Ninja. The stable one. He had to keep it under control.

If not for himself, then for Nya. Nya who probably wouldn't take long before braking down herself.

He would have to keep it together.

------------------------------------

Zane was in the kitchen of the monastery, a few days after the bloodmoon, trying to focus on his cooking. Though 'trying' was the correct word for sure.

It shouldn't be so difficult for him to cook. It was a task he had done millions of times before. He had the recipe memorized in his data drive.

It shouldn't be difficult for a robot to repeat a pretty much programmed task, right?

Ok, maybe the words from those administration agents did hurt him more than he let on at first. But that wasn't the point now.

The recipe was one he made often. A way to make Kai promise them to stay in bed when he had another broken bone or so, which has happened a bit to often for Zanes and everyone's else's preference probably.

Why was he in the middle of making Kais favorite noodles again?

Shouldn't he be searching his data banks for anything about magic?

Shouldn't he be researching portal and dimension magic?

Shouldn't he be... looking for clues. Looking for ways, hints, anything.

Maybe he should just switch off his emotions again. Personally, he thought it worked quite well in matters of productivity, but everyone else on the team told him it was a terrible thing. And the point of eventually switching them back on was honestly terrible.

And he didn't wanted to become that emotionless robot the agents said he was after all. Even if it meant feeling painful emotions after all.

Maybe he should rather make Nyas favorite instead. To cheer her up, at least a little bit before they could on to defeat Ras.

And after that they would find a way to get Kai back for sure. They did so many impossible things in the past, this was just another hurdle to overcome for them.

But for now he was going to cook.

------------------------------------

The bloodmoon made Agent Walker feel pretty weird. Weirder than he already did, from his interaction with the skeleton and what happened afterwards.

The bloodmoon was over almost as soon as it came, and with it most of the weird feeling went away.

His heart stung as if something, or rather more than before, was suddenly missing.

Eh. Probably just the stress of all this forsaken bureaucracy, he thought, while remembering the pile of papers waiting for him on his desk back at the administration.

[broken-endings]

The Earth Avatar

So one thing Legend of Korra did great was make sure not to repeat most story and character beats from The Last Airbender.

Aang was a simple monk with spiritual upbringing, communing with nature and peace. He was also out of his time, and being introduced to this world as an audience we learned about all forms of bending as Aang learned about all forms of bending. Culminating in ending a long war.

Korra was a rough and tough gal with a rural upbringing. Punch first, ask questions later. She was one with bending that came easy, because we the audience already knew about the forms of bending. One thing we never saw through Aang was the struggle to learn airbending. So like a 4th book to the first series, we got to see the avatar learn airbending. Korra was sheltered never traveling like her past life, and so we see the new Republic city through her eyes. Someone who has never been to the city. The rest of her story builds on lore in the world and the evolution of the people in it. Each season she faced a different "tyrant" whose stance has good intentions but they become villains.

I'm trying to think of what types of things neither series touched on that the 3rd series could explore. The only things we know are -They're an Earth Kingdom native -Their only past life connection will be with Korra

What kinds of stories have we not seen the avatar go through? Let me speculate below

My first thought is highly desirable but feels unlikely which would be for this avatar to be nonbinary. Having the Korrasami ending makes it feel not totally impossible. But I'm not holding my breath for this one.

Have the Avatar be an adult. The original audience of the series are all adults now. It would be fitting to have a series about an adult avatar.

Learn about the new avatar gradually through flashbacks. Perhaps there could be a mystery tied to information they've forgotten or are trying to keep hidden.

Have the avatar grow up in the city, and be forced to adjust to being thrown into a rural environment (opposite of Korra). Learning about the differences in life between the two.

Have the avatar be a parent. We haven't witnessed what it's like to be a young child with an avatar parent. We've only seen the avatar's children as adults.

Expand on the treatment of nonbenders. this was the biggest plot point that LoK kind of abandoned once Amon was gone.

Possibly discover a way to reconnect the avatar to all previous past lives. With only Korra as a guide, I feel like she might not excel at guidance, so being able to reconnect to history could empower this avatar. Just like Korra reconnected to her bending.

The previous avatar spirits have been zen and helpful. Korra's spirit should challenge that cliche. Perhaps her spirit gets angry with the avatar and she ignores them at times.

Have this avatar be an intellectual. Korra had a jock personality (gryffindor). Aang had a goofball, spiritual personality (hufflepuff). Perhaps this avatar reads and studies about everything in theory but struggled to put it into practice (ravenclaw).

Have this avatar have a physical disability. Toph was blind, we saw a waterbender with no arms. It would be new to see an avatar that is perhaps deaf or hard of hearing, be unable to walk, colorblind, or have only one seeing eye.

Have the avatar deal with death. Aang learns about all the people he lost but he never lost someone right in front of him. If this series is permitted to not be a kids show, it could deal with death head-on.

Have the avatar be one that needs redemption (slytherin). Now this is unlikely, but what if we were introduced to an avatar that rejected destiny and made selfish choices, and we learn all the things that pushed them down that path, maybe it would be too much of a repeat of Zuko's journey. But there are more ways to build a redemption arc.

[pompomqt]

Journey to the West Chapter 41

Monkey receiving CPR from Pigsy:

This week on Journey to the West with @journeythroughjourneytothewest we get to continue our adventures with Redboy, let's see Sun Wukong put his familial bonds to work shall we?

So Pigsy and Monkey leave Sandy to babysit their luggage and make their way to the demon cave. In front of the stone door of the demon cave there are a bunch of minion demons. So Monkey yells at them to send out his master if they value their lives. So the minion demon's of course run inside to report this to Redboy, and we also get to see how Tripitaka is fairing. And the answer to that is- Not Well. They have my boy stripped and hogtied, and are preparing to steam him. Anyways the minions tell Redboy all about the scary monks outside and their demands. Redboy is mostly impressed that they even managed to find this cave, but nevertheless he decides to prepare for battle. He does this by having the demons haul five carts outside and place them according to the five phases: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. With that done, the Demon grabs his lance and meets them outside.

So Monkey tries the whole 'Your dad and I were besties 500 years ago so you're basically my nephew!' in order to convince Redboy to give him back Tripitaka. Redboy however, unsurprisingly, neither believes him nor cares, and goes on the attack. So a fight breaks out and it soon becomes clear that Monkey is the better fighter and has Redboy on the defensive. Seeing this, Pigsy decides to make a bid for glory before Monkey can finish the fight himself and whacks the demon on the head with his rake while he's preoccupied with Monkey. Unfortunately this doesn't kill the demon, instead it just causes him to flee back to the cave entrance. Monkey and Pigsy give chase only to find the demon in the center cart. Redboy punches himself twice, and Pigsy worries that the demon is going to rough himself up in order to sue them in court.

Luckily the demon doesn't actually plan to turn this week's chapter into an episode of Ace Attorney. Because rather than summoning a lawyer, fire bursts out from Redboy's mouth and the five carts. Pigsy- worried about becoming a smoked ham, flee's as soon as he see's the fire. Monkey on the other hand is better adept to deal with fire, so he just makes a fire repelling charm and continues to try and search for Redboy in the flames. However he's not able to find him in all the smoke so he jumps clear of the fire to regroup with the others.

So Monkey starts yelling at Pigsy for bailing on him, but Pigsy says it's his own fault both for thinking his status as 'Uncle' would mean anything to Redboy and for not bailing when the going gets tough. Anyways the two cool down a bit and have an honest discussion on how the fight went, with Pigsy saying that Monkey was definitely the better fighter, but the fire was a problem. It takes Sandy using the groups singular brain cell to point out that if Monkey can defeat Redboy in martial arts and it's only the fire giving them problems then shouldn't they just... put the fire out?

So Monkey is all like: "You're a genius, BRB." and rushes off to the eastern ocean to conscript the help of the Dragon King there. As soon as a fishy guard spots Sun Wukong, he immediately gets the King and they invite him inside to talk. Monkey explains the whole ordeal to the Dragon and asks that he whip up a rainstorm to put the fire out. The Dragon King explains that if he wants a rainstorm he unfortunately came to the wrong place, since he can only cause a rainstorm on the Jade Emperors orders. And there is a whole bunch of paperwork involved. Also as we saw in an earlier chapter not doing it by the book can get you executed.

Monkey however just says that he doesn't need the whole works, just some normal rain will do. So the Dragon King just sighs and offers to call his brothers up so they can all help out with this. I guess they don't really have to worried about being executed over this unlicensed storm, since it's on Sun Wukong's orders- and he apparently has a license to do whatever he wants as long as it's for Tripitaka's sake. Anyways the other three Dragon Kings arrive and call together an army to go with Monkey in order to subdue the demon.

So Wukong arrives back at the mountain with the dragon army and tells them to wait in the clouds and only interfere if Redboy busts out the flames again. After that he tells Sandy and Pigsy they will be expecting rain soon, so they should probably put a tarp over the luggage or something. With everyone now having their instructions, Monkey goes back to the cave entrance to pick another fight with Redboy. Now, Monkey tries to be cordial at first, politely asking Redboy to return his master to him, but when Redboy laughs him off and states his intention to eat Tripitaka, Wukong immediately goes for the kill and the fight begins.

They fight for a while, but when Redboy see's he can't win he busts out the flames again. Then as planned Sun Wukong gives the signal to the dragon kings waiting overhead to bring out the rain storm. So the dragon kings unleash a truly biblical storm, however rather then putting the fire out, the flames actually grow stronger, because the true fire of Samadhi is to powerful to be put out by an unlicensed rain storm. Despite this, Sun Wukong makes another fire repelling sign and looks for the demon in the flames. The demon see's him coming and blows smoke in his eyes. Turns out Sun Wukong still kind of has PTSD from when he was almost melted down in the eight trigram brazier and does not appreciate having smoke blown into his eyes. So when the demon smokes him again, Wukong dives clear from the fire and into the nearby stream where the temperature shock knocks him out.

This terrifies the Dragon Kings and their army so they immediately stop the Storm and call for Zhu Wuneng and Sha Wujing to fish his body out of the river. Sha Wujing is able to spot Wukong and bring him back to the shore, but he's looking pretty dead, with even his limbs bent in all directions yikes. So while Sha Wujing is planning his eulogy, Zhu Wuneng just scoffs and says that all of Sun Wukong's forms of immortality aren't just for show. So he has Sha Wujing set all his broken bones, while he gives Wukong some well placed pats on the back to get him to choke up all the water.

This works, and Wukong wakes up. And despite the fact that he almost died, he seems a lot more worried about Tripitaka then himself. He even cries for Tripitaka, and he seems a lot more upset at the idea that he might not be able to save Tripitaka then he is about the whole being set on fire and nearly drowning thing. Anyways, Sun Wukong summons the Dragon Kings back down and tells them they can go home now since the plan didn't work anyways. I wonder what Bai Long Ma thinks about seeing his Dad that was going to have him executed for setting the palace on fire thinks... I guess Bai Long Ma is just hanging back in horse form to avoid an awkward conversation.

Anyways once Monkey calms down a bit more, Sandy suggests they come up with a new plan, and come up with someone who can help them with this. After all, as Guanyin said to them in the beginning, they have the whole world at their disposal for help on this mission. However Monkey concludes that the only one who can help them now is Guanyin herself- since anyone else they could ask is weaker then Monkey is anyways. Monkey is to weak at the moment to make the journey himself though, so Pigsy nominates himself to go, and Monkey allows it on the condition that he treat's Guanyin respectfully. With that in mind, Pigsy heads south for Guanyin's place.

Meanwhile the demon's are celebrating while Redboy brags about his defeat over Sun Wukong. However even he doesn't think he truly managed to kill him, and assumes that their group will try and go to someone for help. So he peaks out his doorway just in time to see Pigsy flying south, connecting the dots that he must be going to Guanyin for help, Redboy decides to intervene. So he has his minions prepare a bag and rope while he goes out to intercept Pigsy by taking a shortcut while disguised as Guanyin.

When Pigsy see's 'Guanyin' he tells her all about the demon problems they've been having. However 'Guanyin' just tells him that Redboy is a standup guy! (Handsome to) So clearly they must have done something to offend that fine demon. To which Pigsy gladly throws the blame in Monkey's direction while he tells 'her' about the trouble with the little boy that Monkey tried to tear apart. Anyways 'Guanyin' offers to mediate for them while they sort out their differences and politely ask Redboy to return Tripitaka. Unsurprisingly as soon as the false Guanyin leads Pigsy into the cave, he is jumped by all the minion demons and shoved into a bag.

Meanwhile Monkey feels a disturbance in the force and comes to the conclusion that Pigsy somehow screwed up his very simple instructions, so he decides to go and check on him. Sandy offers to go instead, but I guess Monkey comes to the conclusion that a half-dead Sun Wukong is more likely to win in a fight against a boss monster then a full strength Sandy. So Monkey goes to the Demon Cave and bangs on their door, however he quickly realizes that he isn't in fighting shape at the moment- so instead of facing them head on he transforms himself into a cloth wrapper which the minions bring into the cave.

One duplicate and replace action later and Monkey is free to explore the cave in the form of a fly. He quickly spots Pigsy tied up in a bag yelling about how the demon transformed himself into Guanyin to trick him. Before Monkey can do anything about that though, he overhears Redboy telling some of his minions to go and invite the Venerable Great King over so they can dine on Tripitaka together. And on that note the chapter ends.

Current Sun Wukong Stats: Names/Titles: Monkey, The Stone Monkey, The Handsome Monkey King, Sun Wukong (Monkey awakened to the void), Bimawen (Banhorseplague), The Great Sage Equal To Heaven and Pilgrim Sun. Immortality: 5 + 94,000 years. Weapon: The Compliant Golden Hooped Rod Abilities: 72 Transformations, Cloud-Somersault, Ability to transform his individual hairs, super strength, Ability to Summon Wind, Water restriction charm, and the ability to change into a huge war form, ability to duplicate his staff, ability to immobilize others, the ability to put others to sleep, and the Fiery eyes and Diamond Pupils, intimidating horses, churning large bodies of water, sleeplessness, seizing the wind, enhanced smell, discerning good and evil within a thousand miles, Spirit Summoning, lock picking, object transformation, distance reduction and vanishing in a flash of light. Demon Kill Count: 9+ Unknown Number of Minions Human Kill Count: 1006 God's Defeated: 22 + Unknown number Defeats: 5 Crime List: Robbery, Murder, Mass Murder, Arson, Theft, Coercion, Threatening a Government Official, Resisting Arrest, Assault, Forgery, Employee Theft, False Imprisonment, Impersonating a Government Official, Treason, attempted murder, failure to control or report a dangerous fire, desecrating a corpse, breaking and entering, trespassing, violating Tree Law, looting corpses, trading counterfeit goods, criminal threat and animal abuse. Cry Count: 7 + 2 fake cries Mountains Trapped Under: 4

Current Tang Sanzang stats: Names/Titles: River Float, Xuanzang, Tang Sanzang, Tripitaka Abilities: Curing Blindness, making branches point a certain direction (allegedly), reciting sutras, pretty privilege, memorization and Heart Sutra. Cry Count: 20 Tight Fillet Spell Uses: 31 Paralyzed by fear: 5 Bandit Problems: 2 Kidnapped by demons: 5 Falling Off Horses: 8

Current Bai Long Ma Stats: Names/Titles: Bai Long Ma (White Dragon Horse), Prince of the Western Ocean, and third prince jade dragon of the dragon king Aorun Abilities: Transforming into a human, a water snake, and a horse, eating a horse in one bite, flight, Magic of Water Restriction, Singing, and Sword Dancing. Cry Count: 1 Crime List: Arson, and Grave Disobedience. Contributions to the plot: 2

Current Zhu Wuneng Stats: Names/Titles: The Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, Zhu Wuneng (Pig who is aware of ability), Zhu Ganglie, Pigsy, Idiot and Eight Rules. Weapon: Rake Abilities: 36 Transformations, parting water, fighting underwater, cloud soaring, size enhancement and CPR Demon Kill Count/Kill steals: 2 Kidnapped by Demons: 2 Human Kill Count: 1 Failed Flirtation/romances Attempts: 3 Cry Count: 1 Crime List: Sexual Harassment, Murder, Kidnapping, arson and defamation.

Current Sha Wujing Stats: Names/Titles: The Curtain-Raising General, Sha Wujing (Sand Aware of Purity), Sandy and Sha Monk Weapon: Monster Taming Staff Abilities: Fighting underwater and Cloud soaring. Demon Kill Count: Unknown number of minions. Kidnapped by Demons: 2 Human Kill Count: 1 Crime List: Breaking a Crystal Cup, murder, and desecration of a human corpse.

[phoenixeclipse-lmkau]

Phoenixeclipse JTTW/LMK Fanfic

Chapter 11 - Travel

Phoenix felt her annoyance grow as Wukong just wouldn’t stop talking. How on earth does anyone deal with this guy! He was going on and on about his havoc in heaven not noticing how disturbed it made Tripitaka or how it annoyed Phoenix. Macaque just laughed along with his husband’s antics.

“And then I challenged the Jade Emperor! He ran away with his tail between his legs! Figuratively of course,” Sun Wukong boasted his face twisted into a snarl like grin, proudly showing off his teeth.

“That’s why you were put under that mountain?” Tripitaka asked slowly nervously shaking a little huddling ever closer to Phoenix.

Due to the their previous stunts she had decided to leave the shield active. The downside was that it could attract a bit of unwanted attention which luckily hasn’t happened so far in the half a day that they’d been traveling. Doing her best not to look at the monkey demons who were right behind them she decided to focus on the map and guiding them through the forest.

“Nah. That was because I challenged The Buddha, I almost won too,” He laughed, at this point Phoenix was sure he was just trying to get a rise and a scare out of the monk.

“Awe yes, I remember hearing about that. You were challenged to jump out of his hand but when you failed you fled with your own tail between your legs,” She added to the conversation a playful smirk covering her face.

Immediately his proud smile twisted to a scowl as he growled. Macaque’s cheerful expression also soured as he walked up to the shield. “What did you just say?”

“You heard me,” She responded barely paying attention as she focused on the map as she began to whisper to herself, “now which way are we going.”

“Listen here woman!” Sun Wukong growled as he punched the shield, Phoenix looked up and then over at him with a frown.

“Be quiet, you’re distracting,” Turning her head back to the map she looked up and nodded when she figured out which way she was going. Hopefully she was going in the right direction, oh well they’d know when they either got there or failed to get there. Sun Wukong was fuming but Tripitaka spoke before he could retort.

“Now now, let’s not fight. We are all together in this,” He said calmly.

Phoenix huffed; he could speak for himself but shouldn’t speak for her. Of course, she didn’t correct him because she wasn’t in the mood to explain herself. She was here because she felt bad for him and that’s the only reason she remained. The fact that he was the only person that she knew off the mountain had nothing to do with it, and she didn’t even know him THAT well.

“I’ll fight if I want to monk! I AM KING!!” Wukong shouted his eyes glowing as he stomped his feet causing the ground to shake and crack around his feet.

The two within the shield stumbled a little at the shockwaves but were able to remain standing. Pheonix turned to the Monkey Demon in front of her and glared at him. Not that he was able to see it, but he could definitely feel the angered aura around her. The roses on her mask turned glowed a very faint red before she let out a breath to calm down.

“You need to calm down Monkey,” Phoenix growled the shield being the only thing stopping Sun Wukong from full on punching her.

“Shut your mouth woman,” Macaque growled as he walked up beside his husband.

“Excuse me? All I have heard from the two of you is boasting about killing people, trying to get those circlets off and full on attacking us! AFTER WE SAVED YOU! I cannot believe I agreed to travel with you two!” Albeit indirectly. Phoenix was seething, she was angry about the fighting and the arguing and all the annoyances that kept stacking on top of each other.

Macaque winced at her loud voice but didn’t back down rather he scowled harshly at the woman in front of him. He glanced at his husband who was snarling in anger.

“Saved? You saved us? You chained us. You are trying to treat us like slaves to protect this defenseless monk who we have no connection to,” Macaque spoke in a calm voice, a voice so calm and collected that it made Phoenix flinch back in surprise.

She gritted her teeth wanting to snap back. She didn’t do this, she had nothing to do with any of this. She was dragged into a situation she was never meant to be in, she was supposed to visit her cousin not the Buddha. She didn’t give them the circlets, she didn’t call them on a journey, she didn’t do any of that. Instead of speaking all of her furious thoughts she merely let out a scoff and turned around. This wasn’t a fight she was interested in starting.

“Be grateful I’m allowing you use of MY map,” She growled before whipping her head around and began to walk away, she thanked her lucky stars that the shield didn’t falter when Sun Wukong threw another punch at it.

Tripitaka had only been watching silently, his eyes wide and slightly fearful as he looked at the two monkey demons who glared at him. Phoenix noticed this and patted his shoulder gently guiding him forward. This was the worst idea that they had gone through with… Then again it’s not like she’d seen many of his other ideas. She was ready to finish her own mission.

“Where are we even going?” Macaque questioned his eyes on the rolled up map in Phoenix’s hand.

“We are heading to get the staff first,” was all she muttered not giving any more information than she needed to.

“MY STAFF!” Sun Wukong’s eyes suddenly lit up in excitement, his tail wagging excitedly.

Oh boy. That was probably what she shouldn’t have said. This was going to be a pain in the neck.  There was no turning back now though. At least he didn’t look pissed off now instead bouncing on his feet as he whipped his head around as if looking for his staff.

Glancing away from him she looked forward and frowned. Opening the map again while ignoring the slight sting in her wrist she sighed. They were almost there. Just a little bit longer and then they would be… at a fucking mountain!? Phoenix stopped in front of the large cave entrance at the very bottom of a mountain. Her eye twitched looking back down at the staff and let out a groan.

“So they buried his staff?” Tripitaka asked slowly but was cut off at the end when Sun Wukong ran into the cave without thinking twice.

“NO! DAMNIT WUKONG!” His husband shouted as he chased after him.

They left Phoenix and Tripitaka out in the open by themselves. Phoenix felt her eye twitch again, these were the worst bodyguards that she had ever met. They didn’t even make a plan before running off.

“Ready to go in?” She asked cautiously, she didn’t want to go in.

She wanted to stay out here or better yet get going on her own. There was nothing stopping her, she could have just left him for those ogres, or left him when he got his ‘bodyguards.’ But turning her head to look at him she frowns and sighed, she couldn’t do that. Not to him, not to anyone. Why did she care in the first place, what was so special about him?

“The mountain is a mass of cave systems and we have to get here,” Phoenix pointed at the map her finger touching the mountain causing the image to shift into a map of the cave systems that spanned under the mountain.

“Alright… Should we leave it to them?” Tripitaka responded nervously.

“No, they’ll probably make a complete mess of things. Besides we need the map in order to locate the staff without Wukong being reckless and destroying everything. If his reactions so far are any indication,” Phoenix muttered as she began walking into the cave, the monk hot on her heel to stay within the shield.

Notes:

P! Wukong : I’m getting my staff! P! Macaque : We need a plan! P! Wukong : FUCK THE PLAN LET’S GO!! P! Macaque : NO! Phoenix : What the fuck have I gotten myself into? Author : A lot. Just A lot, that’s all I can say. Phoenix : Oh, fuck you. Author : Hehe, not thanks you’re not my type Phoenix : THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT!!

[themadlu]

Hi! 6, 20 and 32 relationship ask!

Hi - thanks for the request @spacebarbarianweird!

Here are answers for my three OCs and their poor, poor sweet&sour halves (well, two and a half, the last one needs some brainstorming still).

Zélie x Astarion

Zélie is a human martial artist (so basically a less religious monk) from Earth who gets kidnapped by the mindflayers and winds up in Faerun. She is extremely no-nonsense and can't deal with poor behaviour, so obviously she and Astarion will have a great time since their first meeting.

6. Who holds a grudge the longest?

Zel. She's like an elephant, she doesn't forget. It's great because she can always recall the good times, but she also has a mental black notebook of those who crossed her. It does take a pretty big offence to end up there though.

20. Who's more likely to get into a bar fight?

Astarion. He'd start it and enjoy witnessing the ensuing mayhem while Zel shoots him her death glare.

32. Who's the first to apologize?

Zel. Astarion is learning, but his "sorry" still sounds like a dying frog's ribbit.

Chiyo x Aradin

Chiyo is a half-drow (and something else) monk/cleric (still on probation, Bahamut is debating) from the Monastery of the Yellow Rose in the Earthspur Mountains of Damara, the very North of Faerun. She tries to live an ascetic and peaceful life, but even her diplomatic skills crumble when met with a certain punchable face. I know, "but Aradin is a prejudiced prick!" yeah well, so are Lae'zel, Astarion and 90% of the NPCs. It'll develop here, I promise.

6. Who holds a grudge the longest?

Aradin. Not for years, and he'll learn to let things go eventually, but he's still a hothead. Chiyo won't get extremely mad or vengeful, but she will remember who slighted her or her dear ones.

20. Who's more likely to get into a bar fight?

Both. Aradin because he's a hothead and can't keep his mouth shut, Chiyo because she grew up in a monastery in the mountains and she's still learning how wider society works and what triggers people. She will say the wrong thing to the wrong guy from time to time. Good thing they both pack a good punch.

32. Who's the first to apologize?

Chiyo. She was raised to respect her seniors and those around her, and she is a stickler for following the rules (most of the time). Though apologising to Aradin takes a lot of self-control. He is still learning to admit his mistakes, like Astarion.

Fuji x Rolan

Fuji is a drow who found life in Underdark society so restrictive and boring she ran away at age 15 (very young for a drow) to try her luck in the outside world. She became a College of Swords bard, though her unruly behaviour saw her kicked out in her final year of studies. Much to her dismay, the propensity for the divine typical of her people caught up with her and she was kind of forced into becoming a cleric after accidentally offending a certain god. Yes, Rolan is in good hands (mostly).

6. Who holds a grudge the longest?

Rolan. Though he's improving a lot since finding more stability as an archmage. Fuji is way too brain-scattered to remember who did what for long. Though she would use her drow charm to scare the living hell out of those who annoy her.

20. Who's more likely to get into a bar fight?

Fuji. She loves a good brawl. She'd start it by pitting two poor souls against each other and happily play her drum along as a cinematic soundtrack to add pathos. Rolan learnt to always cast mage armour before going to taverns with her.

32. Who's the first to apologize?

Rolan. He still regrets behaving so horribly with Fuji for most of their early weeks, and his temper, whilst improving, is still a bit fiery. So he is super aware of Fuji's reaction and of what he does that may cause her distress (he'd rather go back to Avernus than hurt her again).

[alittledoseofchaos]

So many lore thoughts aaahhhh

The sheer potential of a DC × MARVEL × DP × MLB crossover makes me giddy. Their lore individually is so much fun to play with, but together? Vibrating in place at the thought.

For example, the Lazarus Pits.

Quick explanation of Ra's al Ghul in DC (from what I remember so take it with a grain of salt): being interested in science, he becomes a healer. He is ordered to heal the Sultan's son. He finds the Lazarus Pits and heals the Sultan's son, but his wife (Sora) is killed anyways. He overthrows the sultan and becomes the demon head, using the Lazarus Pits as he pleases.

Now, in most DC × MLB crossovers the Lazarus Pits form because of a wish.

In most DC × DP crossovers, the Lazarus Pits are just contaminated ectoplasm.

But hear me out.... its so much fun as both.

Ra's al Ghul is getting desperate, there isn't a science formula he can find that will heal the prince. Noticing his determination, a young monk who was victim to bandits lends him a magic jewel, the ox miraculous. As long as he helps the monk with his thief problem, he can use the ox miraculous during his more dangerous experiments. Al Ghul is running out of time when he finally finds the last two jewels, in two different very hard to get to places. He finally gets the jewels back for the monk, but the monk wants the ox back too. He isnt having it, using the jewels, Ra's al Ghul makes a wish. A wish for a substance that heals almost anything.

Slight problem, the substance bursts from a hole punched through the literal earth and does not belong on the surface. The wish demands balance, every time the Pits are used, it draws ectoplasm from the Ghost Zone. Sora still dies and Ra's al Ghul still overthrows the Sultan, but now the "Demon's Head" holds more weight as he literally had horns like a demon when transformed, oh yeah and the crack? It grows. Lazarus Pits pop up everywhere and the more the used, the sicker the Ghost Zone and its inhabitants get.

I got another one for you: Atlantis, this one makes me internally squeal a little.

Marvel: There is alot to expand upon here, but the parts I'll focus on is that, when still above water it was a place of barbarism and constant war, and was sunk by the Deviants.

DC: Again, a lot to unpack, but with a nice side of DC-can't-make-up-it's-mind. In general, Atlantis was very advanced in both magic and tech before sinking and reasons for sinking vary a lot based on the version(?) Idk im not awake enough to do a deep dive into their lore again. Atlantis and its empire splintered into seven(?) successor kingdoms. (Not including some outliers in their multiple Earth chaos)

All MLB gives us is that Plagg (black cat miraculous) had some part in it sinking.

But how I picture it:

A crazy person was trying to take over Atlantis. He had somehow gotten his hands on the black cat miraculous and was brutal, entire villages wiped out without hesitation. He slowly builds power. It's an age of barbarism and brutality. A few clans and kingdoms of Atlantis band together and form a more advanced civilization, thats still riddled with some power struggles. Atlantis is split in two, barbarism vs advancement. At on point Plagg gets free, and in an attempt to help and maybe steal some cheese he uses cataclysm. His cataclysm disrupts the tectonic plates Atlantis sits on. Years pass with Atlantis teetering over the edge, when it all comes to head one day. The technologically advanced Atlantis was having problems with their tech that made the unstable plates worse. Meanwhile, the barbaric Atlantis was being attacked by Deviants. The crazy person from before though? Didn't care. He had been looking for the Ladybug miraculous to make a wish and had finally found it. Unfortunately for him, he died before he could make the wish. Fortunately for the rest of Atlantis, Nooroo takes pity on them and transforms all people of Atlantis into varying degrees of fish people. Some relied soley on tech that Nooroo had transformed, while other had blue skin and webbed feet. Atlantis does split into many kingdoms, but now there are two kingdoms fighting for the right to be Atlantis. Centuries of stealing from one another and fighting has made it unclear which one is technically the original, but throughout all the ocean the people of the sea curse and cower from the name of Plagg.

But yeah..... I'm to tired to continue my ramble. But the point is so much Lore Potential.

[miqotepotatoe]

This is for pure self indulgence, but here're what FFXIV race each ninja would be, the jobs they'd main if they played FFXIV and how they play the game

Kai would be a raen Au Ra. He'd main black mage (cuz FIAAAAAH!!! And EXPLOSIONS). Would be into pvp, but he'd mostly just challenge the others to duals (poor Jay is his practice dummy). If you have Kai on your team in pvp, prepare for carnage and victory, this man doesn't hold back against anyone, friend or foe. Note to ninja, don't mess with Kai ingame. Can and will purposely cause chaos on raid night, mostly by baiting attacks at others (mostly Jay) much to Cole's dismay.

Jay would be a keeper of moon Miqo'te. He'd main ninja (sadly ff14 has no jobs with nunchucks as the weapon so ninja it is. I mean it fit's because he is a ninja plus he can use lightning attacks). When being casual he'll play machinist. Would be into rp, drags Nya along on some romantic in game dates. Takes the best gposes despite playing on console. Nerds out with Lloyd and Cole about the msq and theories and what will happen next. He got everyone to play FFXIV with him so everyone could have some fun and relax when not doing ninja business. Is the leader of the FC they all made (the Fast Chickenz)

Zane would be a duskwhite Elezen. He'd main astrologian (because Zane often has visions of the future and astrologians in ff14 lore see and predict the future with the stars). He's the main healer and an omnicrafter, has the most gil out of everyone. He's always crafting up to date gear for everyone so they're always ready for their weekly raid night. Always calls out mechanics, but tends to focus too much on keeping everyone alive to do some dps and the boss enrages. But no one can stay mad at Zane, especially since he can and will rescue them into an aoe without hesitation if he's annoyed at someone (usually Kai or Jay)

Cole would be a dunesfolk Lalafell (because I think the contrast is hilarious, the one with super strength is 2'10). He'd main warrior (he's the tankiest ninja + only job that asociates with earth, it's lb3 is literally conjuring up a mountain to protect allies) and is the groups main tank. When he doesn't feel like tanking, he'll play monk and reaper (Earth punch, syche, enshroud = ghost!cole). He's a very casual player, often doing things at his own pace. Enjoys doing the msq and sidecontent and finds the story enjoyable (he did tear up a bit going through EW for the first time, then again everyone did). Leads the ninja's static, going over mechanics and strats, has a notebook filled with notes on raid mechs.

Lloyd would be a midlander Hyur. He'd main summoner. Gets really into the story and lore of the game, and makes up some crazy but liable theories. His WoL is a self insert, and he's attached to all the Scions (G'raha is his favourite because he relates to him the most. Having a destiny you didn't ask for dictate your whole life, having the weight of the world on your shoulders, strange unaturally coloured eyes tied to mysterious powers they've inherited). His carbuncles have nicknames and he often calls them out whenever he summons them, the others find it adorable.

Nya would be a raen Au Ra. She'd main dragoon, but switches it up often with samurai (being greedy dps runs in the family) and gunbreaker whenever Cole want's to play dps. She's a jack of all trades when it comes to what she does in game, one moment she'll be in a fronline match with Kai, then she's doing some in character rp with Jay, gathering materials for Zane to craft some new gunbreaker gear so she can co-tank with Cole when raid night comes up, taking Lloyd through some msq dungeons for the first time and handing the green bean a tissiue or two when he's watching an emotional cutscene. Most of the time she's afk in her fancy small sized private house she was lucky to snag while working on some techy stuff with Pixal and Jay.

[deaconjohn1987]

Tribulation Times

May 30, 2024 (Rev 6:4) And there went out another horse that was red. And to him that sat thereon, it was given that he should take peace from the earth: and that they should kill one another. And a great sword was given to him. COMMENTARY: Arrest These Insane NATO Warmongers!

Stoltenberg with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Giorgia Meloni, Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

at the 2023 Vilnius summit [Wikipedia.org image by Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street]

Incredibly, the world is being pushed to the abyss of nuclear war by nonentity Western numbskulls who are not even elected. Jens Stoltenberg, the civilian head of the NATO military bloc, is the latest blockhead to advocate for the United States to permit the targeting of Russia with long-range weapons. The Norwegian figurehead, we are led to believe, made the conceptual breakthrough (how much was he paid and by whom or what was the blackmail used?) by telling the Economist magazine that the Ukrainian regime should henceforth be officially allowed to use NATO missiles to hit Russia. However, with the logical skills of a hacked-up chopping block, Stoltenberg claimed that such a move would not lead to an escalation in war between Russia and NATO because the weapons were not being fired from NATO countries. So Stoltenberg thinks it’s somehow feasible to turn Ukraine into a silo for launching ballistic missiles at Moscow and yet for Russia not to perceive NATO nations as a legitimate target? As if to further reassure, he added: “We don’t have any intention to send NATO ground troops into Ukraine because our purpose… has been two-fold, to support Ukraine as we do, but also to ensure that we don’t escalate this into a full-scale conflict.” The barefaced cheek of Stoltenberg and other Western figures is that, in their arrogant mindsets, what’s going on is not escalation because they say it is not escalation. It’s like hitting someone with a punch in the face and then having the brass neck to tell the person you didn’t hit them because you said so. The former Norwegian prime minister, who is soon to leave his NATO job to take up a plum post as a central banker, is the latest Western voice to up the ante in the U.S.-led proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS: The War Is Widening Into Armageddon

[wikipedia.org image] UPDATE: Ukraine warns of new Russian reinforcements as NATO members soften red lines on weapons use RELATED HEADLINES Germany and France agree Ukraine may strike Russian military targets Italy says no to Ukraine using Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia Putin’s forces massing in northern Kharkiv as Sweden sends Kyiv surveillance planes ORTHODOX PRAYER: O God of spirits and of all flesh, Who hast trampled-down death by death, and given life unto Thy world, do Thou the same Lord, give rest to the souls of Thy departed servants in a place of brightness, a place of green pasture, a place of repose whence all sickness, sorrow, and sighing have fled-away. As Thou art the good God Who lovest mankind, do Thou pardon their every transgression, whether of word, or deed, or thought, for Thou only art without sin, and Thy righteousness is unto all eternity, and Thy Word is truth. For Thou art the Resurrection, the Life, and the Repose of our Orthodox warriors, those who have laid down their lives in battle for the Faith, our freedom, and our land, and likewise the veterans of wars who have gone to their rest, O Christ our God, and unto Thee we ascribe glory, to Thy Father Who is from everlasting and to Thine All-holy, Good, and Life-creating Spirit. Now and ever, and unto ages of ages.

The Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Sober Living

9. Evagrius said, 'It is a great thing to pray without distraction. It is even greater to sing psalms without distraction.'

Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com

"Have ANY Catholic Question? Just ask Ron Smith at: hfministry@roadrunner.com

This month's archive can be found at: http://www.catholicprophecy.info/news2.html.

[slippyandthelandsharks]

[Entry #1]

Hi Journal,

Is that how you start these things? "Hi Journal"? I haven't had a diary since I was probably twelve, and that's what this basically is, except I'm trying to be a little manlier about it. Except, you know. Butcher?

Anyway, given that Perry just told me my memories can't be trusted, I figured I'd pick up one of these things and a quill because I heard somewhere that writing things down helps with memory. I don't remember who, but it's for actual I didn't think it was important to remember reasons, not somebody put arcane locks on my brain reasons.

Before I get ahead of myself, lemme just give you the run-down of the team here, Journal.

First there's Trinity, who I feel is our leader? I dunno—I've never really seen a team with a bard leader, but she did run, like, twenty miles and somehow talked us all into doing a circus act once, so I'm not gonna question her. Not that I don't trust her. I close-to-trust her. Trinity's like a cross between Adelaide and Gale, I think. Like, she's a lot, I can tell, but she's good. Heart of gold, the sort of person you just want to do stuff for. In other words, I'm glad somebody's got the ability to round us all up and make us do things as one big unit, because I sure as hell can't. That was Gale's job.

Then there's Zaa, this artificer who . . . you know, I admit Zaa's not someone I know all too well. They don't say much. Or she? I think? I just realized I never asked, but either way, Zaa's not bad. I appreciate anyone who's down-to-earth and punches things hard. You're far less likely to get in trouble that way. But then again, from what I understand, you need to be smart to be an artificer with all your fingers accounted for, so I think that stands to reason that Zaa's got a good head on their (her?) shoulders. Also, they were part of a circus at one point? So that's neat.

Third's Perry, our resident wizard, and I admit I wasn't fair to him at first because I was just nearly flambed at sea by a dumbass wizard when I met him. (Long story.) The fact that one of Perry's hobbies was swan-diving off crows' nests did not help matters. (Probably shorter story but still not worth telling.) But last night, we had a bit of a heart-to-heart because he was the only one left to invite out for a drink (not as long of a story but still a tangent), and I realized that he's probably the one person in this party I could come the closest to fully trusting. I mean, he's still right; it's a bad idea to trust anyone fully, especially given my mission and all, but Perry's actually got a good head on his shoulders. And it's nice to know I can come to him and do something like let him read my mind, and the most he does is give me sage words of advice, not turn me in to our guild leader Sori or something. Turns out, he's just eccentric, not an idiot with a death wish. Maybe it's a wizard thing.

Fourth's Ophi, a monk who came from this peaceful-sounding monastery somewhere out in the country. Really did sound like a nice place to hang up one's hat after a long adventure. And it must've been nice to turn out someone like Ophi. Soft-spoken, little sisterly, never would've thought she could throw punches like that just by looking at her. In a lot of ways, she reminds me of Luka. I don't really get the feeling she's been traumatized by the sorts of things you see when you adventure for a long time, and I almost want to take her under my wing and protect her because of that, except that would be demeaning. Luka certainly hated it when I tried to do that. Anyway, she's been hanging out with the next member of our party a lot lately, and on the one hand, that means she's got someone looking out for her, but on the other . . .

Okay, so I admit I have no idea what the short one's name is. I'm pretty sure they told me at some point, but the first time around, they were all ghost-like and I was a little freaked out (long story again), and the second, my dead wizard friend was standing in front of me (another long story). I've been calling them Bob this entire time, because I feel like if they found out I'd called them something like "the short one," they'd deck me. Anyway, Bob's . . . a lot. Loud, impulsive, will absolutely mouth off to the fae if given the chance—I once watched them steal a bowl of candy directly from a shopkeeper who was beaming words into our heads. While they were watching. Perry's just graduated from Most Likely to Get Us All Killed with Antics because I'm pretty sure if anyone's gonna do it, it's Bob. This isn't to say I don't like Bob. I mean, to be fair, they have good opinions when it comes to whether or not we should trust the random being who openly admits to working for the fae. But the point is I don't know much about Bob, and what I do know involved terrible decisions.

(Which I realize Sori would say is rich coming from me, but hey.)

Tangents aside, that's about it for the fighting members of our little crew. Then there's the seventh member, Slippy, who's this weird little blob that we carry around for some reason. It's sentient and telepathic and incredibly excited to be alive, and honestly, I shouldn't be surprised by anything at this point.

Anyway, that's us. We're Slippy and the Landsharks. We beat up giant crabs, tentacle beasts, and robots for fun and profit. We also incidentally are collectors of these weird reality-warping artifacts, just incidentally.

This team is the best hope I've got, and I have no idea how to feel about this.

[zchroniclesofchaos]

SELF FLAGELLATION

Self flagellation is the disciplinary and the devotional parctice of flogging oneself with whips and chains or other instruments that inflict pain, such as self mutilation, and cutting.

in Christianity, self flagellation is practiced in the doctrine of the mortification of the flesh and is seen as spiritual discipline. Self flagellation is used as a form of penance and is intended to allow the one engaging in self flagellation to share the suffering of Jesus, brining their focus to God.

Self Flagellation is seen as a form of purification, purifying the soul as repentance for worldly indulgences. Self Flagellation is also used as punishment on earth in order to avoid punishment in the next life. Self flagellation was seen as a way to control the body in order to focus only on God. By whipping oneself, one would be able to fully focus on Worshiping God.

Christians have engaged in various forms of mortification of the flesh, ranging from self denial, wearing sack cloths, chains, fasting, and self flagellation(using a whip for discipline). Christians will often use excerpts from the Bible to justify this ritual. i.e. 1 Corinthians 9:27. I chastise my body," which refers to self inflicted, self mutilation.

Christians also give other various reasons for choosing self flagellation. One of the main reasons is to emulate the suffering of Christ during his Passion. Just as Jesus was whipped before his crucifixion, many saw whipping themselves as a way to be closer to God, Jesus, and to remind them of the whipping Jesus endured.

Early Christians believed that in order to be closer to God, one needed to literally suffer through the pain of Christ. Paul the Apostle said that inflicting bodily harm made him feel closer to God in his letters to the Romans and the Colossians.

Self Flagellation was done to thank God for responding to a prayer or to drive out evil spirits from the body(Exorcism). The popularity of self flagellation has dwindled, but most Christians today still practice mortification of the flesh by acts by fasting or abstaining from a pleasure.

SELF FLAGELLATION IN CHURCH HISTORY:

Martin Luther, a prominent Protestant Reformer, engaged in Self Flagellation. He used the practice as a way to reminded him of his continued sin, depravity, and vileness in God's eyes.

In the 11th Century, Peter Damion, a Benedictine Monk in the Roman Catholic Church, taught that spirituality should manifest itself in physical discipline. He taught to practice Self Flagellation for the time it took to recite 40 Psalms, increasing the number of flagellations on holy days of the Christian calendar.

He taught only those who shared in the sufferings of Christ could be saved. Self Flagellation was practiced by members of the Clergy, Monasteries, and convents. It was imposed as a form of punishment for disobedient Clergy and Laity.

In the 13th Century, a group of Roman Catholics, known as the Flagellants, took this practice to the extremes. During the Black Plague, self flagellation was thought of as a way to combat the plague by cleansing one's sins. The Flagellants were later condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as a cult in the 14th Century and its members were persecuted and hunted down.

CUTTING:

Another form of Self Flagellation is cutting. Those who engage in it use it as a coping mechanism for dealing with unwanted emotional, mental, and physical turmoil. Some see it as a form of self punishment; others see it as a way to reenact their abuse; worshiping, cleansing, protection, distorted self image, and control. Because the reasons come from psychological reasons and from the brain being hard wired, there is no cure for this problem.

There are ways to cope with the urges to cut oneself, to stop the need for self flagellation(cutting):

Using a red felt tip marker where you might want to hurt yourself.

Hitting a punching bag to vent anger and frustration.

Rubbing ice across skin where you might want to cut.

Getting outdoors and walking

Scribbling on a large paper with a red crayon or pen.

Putting elastic bands on wrist, arms, or legs, and flick them instead of cutting or self flagellation.

[alygatorwrites]

zeke fluff zeke fluff zeke fluff

please literally no one ever writes fluff stuff for my monke man😭

anon, you spoke nothing but facts 😩 don’t worry, ive got your back with monke man <3

Breakfast In Bed

It’s seven A.M. when you find yourself at the stove with a frying pan, swirling butter around the cast-iron middle and adding in pancake batter. 

You wouldn’t usually be awake at this time on a weekend, but it’s your four year anniversary with Zeke Yeager. It just had to start off special. Breakfast in bed is one of the godsends of the Earth, right?

Doesn’t help that you’re half asleep though. 

The abrupt sound of approaching footsteps is what effectively snaps you out of your thoughts, coaxing you to throw a look over your shoulder.

Zeke is walking toward you, wearing that same-old nightshirt and a pair of checkered pajama pants that hang low on his pelvis. The way his wavy hair is all mused from sleep is an ... interesting image to say the least; you love it though, because he’d never let anyone else see him like this.

Just you.

“Looks like we had the same idea.” Zeke’s powerful arms thread around your waist, tugging you backward against the expanse of his muscled chest. His bearded chin settles onto your shoulder as he speaks, a timbre of velvet. "And here I was thinking that I’d be a step ahead.”

“You should’ve gotten up earlier, then.”

“Guess so. The bed was warm though.” Zeke pauses for dramatic effect, and he smirks against your jugular. “I also didn’t have to deal with you breathing in my face.”

You’re too tired to say anything, so you give him the most threatening glare possible. He just throws his head back and laughs like the bastard he is.

“My bad,” Zeke says, pulling away to move beside you. He snatches the spatula and nudges you over with his hip. “Scoot.” 

You shift to let Zeke do the rest, watching as he flips the batter to reveal the cooked, golden side. The way he hums to himself is intimate and domestic, and it’s a privilege to bear witness to it all. 

“Monkey see, monkey do,” you tease, making Zeke give you the stink eye.

It doesn’t pack a punch though, because his glasses have fogged up with the steam rising from the griddle. It’s hard to take him seriously. “Keep up that attitude, and four years is the most you’ll get with me.”

The playful quirk of your lips is beaming, and it’s somehow enough to soften the lines along Zeke’s sour expression. His one and only kryptonite has always been that smile of yours.

Zeke uses the spatula to point at you, wiggling it around with each word. “You’re lucky I’m a patient ass man.” 

“Patient? Yeah, right.”

It has you grinning a little wider, and you wipe the fog away from his lenses with a finger. You can now see a sparkle behind his gaze: silvery and luminescent and radiating with a love that’s visible even through the black of his pupils.

“What?” You finally ask. Zeke shakes his head with a sigh, setting the flipper down.

His palms find their way onto your jaw — coarse, yet tender — and he swipes his calloused thumbs along your cheeks. The yellow light that reflects through the window sets his eyes ablaze, and you feel yourself shrink beneath his shadow. 

“It’s nothing,” Zeke says, breath skittering against the slope of your nose. “Just admiring what’s mine.”

No words can explain the sentiment that paints your bones in strokes of gold in this moment — and it doesn’t matter. The looks you give each other convey everything you wish to give utterance to. Simple as that.

A sparkler twinkles in your ribcage when Zeke suddenly kisses you, mouth soft against your own, and the sparks continue to grow as he reels you into a hug. 

Four years with this man, and he still acts like you’re in the honeymoon phase. For such a person who acts as if he doesn’t give a shit most of the time, he can actually be a sap when he wants. You’re lucky to have him. 

“You’re burning the pancakes,” you realize. 

Scratch that. Lucky sometimes.

“Get ready to go out to breakfast, then.”

[shanastoryteller]

(thank you to @a-side-of-fries for donating to a black lives matter affiliated charity!)

Toph and Zuko, in spite of coming from different countries with different social customs and different positions in society, find themselves encountering the exact same problem.

They don’t know how to react when people touch them. Specifically, Katara, Sokka, and Aang.

Almost nobody touches them unless it’s in a fight, and it takes a while to adjust.

Zuko hadn’t expected Toph to be the one he gravitated towards, to be the one he connected to, but he doesn’t know why.

They’re so alike, after all.

~

The problem, Toph figures out early on, is that remote water tribes and monks don’t have class structures.

Or, well she’s sure they do, because every society does, but not like they do in the earth kingdom. Toph isn’t nobility, exactly, but she is a Bei Fong, which means her family is richer and more influential most of their numerous kings.

When you have money and power, who needs a crown?

It meant she had few peers, and as a little blind girl she had even less. There was no games of tag or rough housing with her, because she was delicate, because she was breakable. Her parents’ affection was sparse, treating her like the glass doll they’d made her into, and she hated it.

The only time she touched or was touched was in the rumble, when she was fighting. Even her servants were so skilled that their fingers didn’t even skim her bare shoulders as they dressed her.

The first time Sokka puts an arm around her, she buries him up to his neck. She doesn’t apologize, but she does undo it in the next moment. She’s only comfortable showing her affection like she’s fighting, punching them in the arms or putting them into a headlock. Sokka and Aang take it better than Katara does, but Toph doesn’t know what to do with her soft, sisterly touches, so she just avoids them.

When Zuko joins them, she notices the same anxiety with him, and imagines it’s the same problems she had, only a thousand times worse. He’s the crown prince. He has no equal.

The only people that would have been allowed to touch him casually would be his mother, who left him, his father, who burned half his face off, his sister, who’s trying to kill him, and Uncle. Uncle has to be careful not to overstep or give the impression he doesn’t respect his nephew’s authority because even if Uncle is older and more powerful, he’s not higher ranked, and that matters. Anyone else could be given a death sentence for laying their hand on the crown prince. Not that Toph thinks Zuko would have ever done that, even at his most bratty, but it doesn’t change that he could have.

Which means the only time he would have had touch was when he’s fighting or training.

He doesn’t know what to do the rest of them and their too friendly touches. He bears it better than Toph, standing their uncomfortably but not leaning away or snapping at them.

“It’s like they never even learned to spell propriety before,” she says to Zuko, after Sokka spends a whole ride on Appa pressed up against his side.

He lots out a sharp, relieved breath. “Fuck, I know, right? This is going to kill me.”

She laughs, and he joins her a moment later.

She hadn’t enjoyed her sheltered, upper class upbringing. But it was still nice to have someone around who could relate to it.