#priest of evil 2010

[thelastdayalive]

PETER FRANZÉN in Harjunpää & Pahan Pappi (2010)

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (August 8)

On August 8, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of St. Dominic Guzman, who helped the cause of orthodoxy in the medieval Church by founding the Order of Preachers, also known as Dominicans.

“This great saint reminds us that in the heart of the Church, a missionary fire must always burn,” Pope Benedict XVI said in a February 2010 General Audience talk on the life of St. Dominic.

In his life, the Pope said, “the search for God's glory and the salvation of souls went hand in hand.”

Born on 8 August 1170 in Caleruega, Spain, Dominic was the son of Felix Guzman and Joanna of Aza, members of the nobility.

His mother would eventually be beatified by the Church, as would his brother Manes who became a Dominican.

The family's oldest son Antonio also became a priest.

Dominic received his early education from his uncle, who was a priest, before entering the University of Palencia where he studied for ten years.

In one notable incident from this period, he sold his entire collection of rare books to provide for the relief of the poor in the city.

After his ordination to the priesthood, Dominic was asked by Bishop Diego of Osma to participate in local church reforms.

He spent nine years in Osma, pursuing a life of intense prayer, before being called to accompany the bishop on a piece of business for King Alfonso IX of Castile in 1203.

While traveling in France with the bishop, Dominic observed the bad effects of the Albigensian heresy, which had taken hold in southern France during the preceding century.

The sect revived an earlier heresy, Manicheanism, which condemned the material world as an evil realm not created by God.

Dreading the spread of heresy, Dominic began to think about founding a religious order to promote the truth.

In 1204, he and Bishop Diego were sent by Pope Innocent III to assist in the effort against the Albigensians, which eventually involved both military force and theological persuasion.

In France, Dominic engaged in doctrinal debates and set up a convent whose rule would eventually become a template for the life of female Dominicans.

He continued his preaching mission from 1208 to 1215, during the intensification of the military effort against the Albigensians.

In 1214, Dominic's extreme physical asceticism caused him to fall into a coma, during which the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to him and instructed him to promote the prayer of the Rosary.

Its focus on the incarnation and life of Christ directly countered the Albigensian attitude towards matter as evil.

During that same year, Dominic returned to Tolouse and obtained the bishop's approval of his plan for an order dedicated to preaching.

He and a group of followers gained local recognition as a religious congregation, and Dominic accompanied Tolouse's bishop to Rome for an ecumenical council in 1215.

The council stressed the Church's need for better preaching but also set up a barrier to the institution of new religious orders.

Dominic, however, obtained papal approval for his plan in 1216 and was named as the Pope's chief theologian.

The Order of Preachers expanded in Europe with papal help in 1218.

The founder spent the last several years of his life building up the order and continuing his preaching missions, during which he is said to have converted some 100,000 people.

After several weeks of illness, Dominic died in Italy on 6 August 1221.

He was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on 13 July 1234.

He is the patron saint of astronomers and natural scientists.

He and his order are traditionally credited with spreading and popularizing the rosary.

The country Dominican Republic and its capital Santo Domingo are named after Saint Dominic.

[thatonepeasant]

My Roman Empire Ships list:

Here's a list of ships I personally go feral over along with their fandom/where they're from:

Haikyuu!!

Kuroo Tetsurou/Sawamura Daichi

Miya Osamu/Suna Rintarou

Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru

Hanamaki Takahiro/Matuskawa Issei

Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru/Hanamaki Takahiro/Matuskawa Issei

Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou

Kyoutani Kentarou/Yahaba Shigeru

Bokuto Koutarou/Kuroo Tetsurou/Sawamura Daichi

Tendou Satori/Ushijima Wakatoshi

Harry Potter

Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter

Regulus Black/James Potter

Sirius Black/Remus Lupin

Kuroko No Basket

Aomine Daiki/Kagami Taiga

Takao Kazunari/Midorima Shintarou

Hyuuga Junpei/Teppei

Hyuuga Junpei/Teppei/Riko

Tian Gi Ci Fu (TGCF)/Heaven Official's Blessing

Feng Xin/Mu Qing

Word of Honour (TV) or Faraway Wanderers (novel by Priest)

Zhou Zishu/Wen Kexing

Cao Weining/Gu Xiang

Global University Entrance Exam

You Huo/Qin Jiu

The Sandman

Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling

Six of Crows

Jesper Fahey/Wylan van Eck

Nina Zenik/Matthias Helvar

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (ORV)

Yoo Junghyuk/Kim Dokja

Yoo Junghyuk/Kim Dokja/Han Sooyoung

Found family for all of them

Beyond Evil (TV Show)

Han Joowon/Lee Dongsik

Captive Prince (C.S.Pacat)

Damen/Laurent

Voltron

Keith/Lance

Inception (2010)

Arthur/Eames

The Witcher

Geralt/Jaskier

Geralt/Jaskier/Eskel

Aiden/Lambert

All For The Game (trilogy by Nora Sakavic)

Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard/Kevin Day

Renee Walker/ Allison Reynolds

Merlin

Merlin/Arthur Pendragon

Munich: The Edge of War

Paul von Hartmann/Hugh Legat

The Man from U.N.C.L.E

Illya Kuryakin/Napoleon Solo

Sherlock (manga & tv)

Sherlock Holmes/William James Moriarty <- Yuukoku no Moriarty or Moriarty the Patriot

Sherlock Holmes/John Watson <- Sherlock (BBC)

Mycroft Holmes/Albert James Moriarty <- Yuukoku no Moriarty or Moriarty the Patriot

Fic recs are always welcome and wanted, just general preferences:

Happy Ending

Give warning if mature/explicit

Written in 3rd person

seems like I have a thing for enemies or rivals to lovers

Bon appetit!!!

[orcabouttown]

Being on the spectrum I find something strangely comforting about rewatching a lot of generic fantasy movies - when I use the term generic it’s not an insult, just an observation. Seventh Son, The Last Witch Hunter, Clash of the Titans (2010), Van Helsing, I, Frankenstein, Hellboy 1 & 2, The Mummy, Priest, all movies I can put on in the background late at night and drift off to without so much as a shrug.

Something about the cookie cutter protagonist who‘s usually some combination of brave/funny/smart/tough/relatable with a tragic/sad/melancholy/irritating/stressful backstory facing off against a series of CGI beasties and an evil sorcerer/conqueror/English person with an axe to grind is calmly reassuring, like walking an old route from your childhood and knowing there’s nothing there to catch you off guard, because even if they add a new postbox or a gate is painted differently it’s still the same path as always.

Those movies and ones like them aren’t explicitly bad, and in fact some like The Mummy and Van Helsing are great, but they don’t stray much if at all from the good old Heroes Journey structure (big ups to my boy Joey C) and I honestly love them for it.

They’re the film equivalent of knowing you should try and cook a nice, healthy, tasty new meal and try to expand your appetite a little all while you fix yourself a simple mac and cheese, because despite what they say familiarity breeds comfort as much as contempt.

More orc thoughts to come, but for now I must slumber to the sounds of studio execs churning out swords and sorcery for the masses - farewell brethren

[phanfictioncatalogue]

Dark Themed (2) Masterlist

part one

abducted (ao3) - iihappydaysii

Summary: dan gets abducted and probed by aliens

Brink Of Insanity (ao3) - A_Million_Regrets

Summary: Dan and Phil are trapped in a strange room with no windows, doors or freedom. It's a little suffocating, and being human is tiring. Slip into insanity, and it feels much better.

But Love Is Overrated Anyways (ao3) - FoxyAtlas

Summary: Dan is an angry mutant with ability to control the cold. He shares a tent with a man Phil, who has powers over fire, but refuses to use it for evil. Dan has no such moral qualms.

Early Sunsets Over Monroeville (ao3) - Morguesick

Summary: Dan had found his first ever safe space in Phil, and for Phil, someone to truly love. Yet, their relationship - and Dan's trust is jeopardised when Phil begins acting strangely following unexpected events on a caravan holiday in an abnormal country town with Chris and Pj.

A story of Dan losing his sense of reality following Phil's spiral into gradual paranormal depravity.

- set in 2010 -

Exist (ao3) - iihappydaysii

Summary: Phil is a trans man and thinking about transition and about his relationship with Dan.

how to befriend your favourite internet star: behind the scenes (ao3) - itsmyusualphannie (itsmyusualweeb)

Summary: What if Phil wasn't the one who was held captive during the video "How To Befriend Your Favourite Internet Stars'?

What if Dan was the one trapped?

Lights Low (ao3) - Misha_with_wings

Summary: You only want me when the lights low, now that you're drinking will you say you need me?

Nightly Routines (ao3) - thesassykels66

Summary: These are just little one-shots combined in a category that is remotely similar. So it's not an on going story, just little stories bundled together as nights happen in the Dan and Phil household.

Red and the wolf (ao3) - natigail

Summary: Phil was used to walking through the forest after having visited his grandmother’s cottage. He never felt particular unsafe... until his possible-physic nana - at least if you asked her - was warning him that someone would take his heart and he might not make the trip alive. Phil wasn’t sure if her words caused the paranoia or if someone dangerous were truly lurking in the bushes.

Smelling Of Smoke (And Hearing Voices Not There) (ao3) - FoxyAtlas 

Summary: Phil was a quiet type of crazy. Dan’s eyes were so loud that they made everyone take a step back from his madness- everyone but Phil, who instead, stepped forwards. Themes: chaptered fic, au, mental asylum, trigger warning, insanity, dark

TW: mental illness, schizophrenia, depression, mentions of suicide/suicide attempts, mental hospital, abuse

the exorcism of agatha howell (ao3) - iihappydaysii

Summary: After exhausting all other options to help his increasingly erratic wife, Dan turns to a priest named Father Philip for help.

The Perfectionist (ao3) - Softy_Spidey

Summary: After a sudden altercation in the middle of the night that would lead to a troubling circumstance. Phil finds the need to “Improve” everything in Dans life no matter the consequences.

[denimbex1986]

'In 2010, Sherlock Holmes encountered a new adversary in the evil genius of Professor Moriarty. In the Sherlock series, Conan Doyle's paranoid military figure was transformed into a seductive, perverse young man, played by then-36-year-old actor Andrew Scott, a regular on London theater stages and in supporting film roles.

Director Andrew Haigh remembered the moment: "I remember thinking this is a very, very interesting actor. There's a way that he talks and a way that the thoughts seem to emerge on his face." That face, with its fine features, that can become as vulnerable as it can be menacing, has grown familiar. We saw Scott as a hot priest in the second season of Fleabag, as an honest officer in Sam Mendes' 1917 and will soon see him again as Tom Ripley in a series based on the misdeeds of Patricia Highsmith's character, already played by Alain Delon, Dennis Hopper, Matt Damon and John Malkovich.

At the beginning of December 2023, the two Andrews, Scott and Haigh, were in London to discuss All Of Us Strangers, a film about ghosts, a celebration of desire, and a meditation on the permanence of memory and love in which Scott plays a solitary writer, Adam, in his first major leading role. "There are certain characters where you feel you want to be unadorned," he said of Adam. "I did a play by Simon Stevens called Sea Wall and I remember having a strong feeling that I wanted to sound exactly like my accent [Scott was born and raised in Dublin]. And I wanted to wear my own clothes."

'Falling back into childhood'

Haigh's script requires the lead actor to balance a magical quest into the past to find his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) as they were when he was 12, and a violent, physical love affair with a Dionysian young man Harry (Paul Mescal).

"I wanted childishness without being a child," said the actor. "And actually, I think a lot of that is physical. It doesn't feel like it's a very physical performance necessarily, but it's something I thought an awful lot about, both sides of this, the physicality of the love story and his physicality with his parents. Because I think the way we behave with our parents as a child is very sensual, very tactile. And that's the through line for me, for the character, he feels like he hasn't had a lot of people touching him or him touching anyone else. And so it's the idea of remembering what it's like to be in your parents' bed between them and making yourself smaller. And because we shot in Andrew [Haigh]'s childhood home, it brought an authenticity that felt incredibly real."...'

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Jesus, our Faithful and Compassionate High Priest

1 Therefore, holy “brothers,” sharing in a heavenly calling, reflect on Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was “faithful in [all] his house.” 3 But he is worthy of more “glory” than Moses, as the founder of a house has more “honor” than the house itself. 4 Every house is founded by someone, but the founder of all is God. 5 Moses was “faithful in all his house” as a “servant” to testify to what would be spoken, 6 but Christ was faithful as a son placed over his house. We are his house, if [only] we hold fast to our confidence and pride in our hope.

Israel’s Infidelity a Warning.

7 Therefore, as the holy Spirit says:

“Oh, that today you would hear his voice, 8    ‘Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion        in the day of testing in the desert, 9    where your ancestors tested and tried me        and saw my works 10 for forty years.    Because of this I was provoked with that generation        and I said, “They have always been of erring heart,        and they do not know my ways.” 11    As I swore in my wrath,        “They shall not enter into my rest.”’”

12 Take care, brothers, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God. 13 Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,” so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin. 14 We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end, 15 for it is said:

“Oh, that today you would hear his voice: ‘Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion.’”

16 Who were those who rebelled when they heard? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt under Moses? 17 With whom was he “provoked for forty years”? Was it not those who had sinned, whose corpses fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did he “swear that they should not enter into his rest,” if not to those who were disobedient? 19 And we see that they could not enter for lack of faith. — Hebrews 3 | New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) The New American Bible, Revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Cross References: Exodus 14:31; Exodus 40:16; Numbers 12:7; Numbers 14:2; Numbers 14:11; Numbers 14:23; Numbers 14:28-29; Numbers 14:37; Deuteronomy 1:34-35; Deuteronomy 18:18; Psalm 78:22; Psalm 95:7-8; Psalm 95:9-10; Matthew 16:16; Matthew 20:24; John 3:18; John 3:36; John 17:3; Acts 1:15; Acts 7:36; Acts 8:29; Romans 11:22; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 3:7; Colossians 2:8; Hebrews 4:3; Hebrews 4:5; Hebrews 4:7; Hebrews 10:24-25; Hebrews 11:1; Hebrews 13:22

[bleuberries-and-video-games]

The best part about religious trauma, is that you still reciprocate the same violence you were taught and that was done to you, and you don't actually do anything to fight the real issue that hurts you in the first place.

Yes please continue to blame the religion, get angry at the book, feel Vindicated when you look down at other people for following a religion you have left. It's not like you need to confront those emotions and actually work through them, it's not like it's just any other trauma, it's special, it's religious trauma, it gets an exemption from working through your shit, you get to continue to be fucking mad and have an unhealthy fixation on it.

You know what, you're right, in fact you're perfectly right, your specific amalgamations of crystals and cards and Loosely tied together white supremacist jargon from Helena blavatsky or a fetishization of logic and antitheism so irrational that calling it logic is an insult to logic itself totally doesn't have an equally massive and unquestionably bad body count, or ties to racism so unapologetically evil that it worked in tandem with Christianity to contribute to islamophobia in the 2000s and 2010s.

It's not like you can trace lines directly from New Age bullshit Magic and new atheist bullshit directly to the current Far Right movement in the United States that has a body count that is counting and currently is weathering away at trans rights both in the United States and the United Kingdom and across the world. Just religion, organized religion is the problem, that's all it is, and your religious trauma totally justifies you being this pissed and blaming one specific institution as opposed to the amalgamation of systems and institutions wielded by people with capital and Power.

Yes your religious trauma totally allows you to be a piece of shit, simply because it hurt you.

Don't ever work through your problems, don't ever confront it or face it or deconstruct the bullshit you were taught. It's entirely the book, it's entirely the religion, it's not the unique intersection of capitalism, racism, imperialism, sexism, and their abuse of religious institutions to maintain their power, it's not like government or Social Clubs and spaces. Religions different, religions archaic, religion is the problem, and once we get rid of religion everything else falls apart. It's not like in the absence of organized religion in various groups, there's a distinct power vacuum that needs to be filled by something, and very often is by very hostile colds that have less predictable behaviors that often times have larger ramifications, like the incel movement, or Mystic fascism, or Theocratic fascism, or New Age fascism, it's not like these things suddenly get filled the moment you remove them, that's not how society works, when you get rid of something it's gone forever, forever, and that's it! It's not like we have evidence that social institutions, and their current establishment bleed into the Next Generation and it requires a constant dismantling and work to undo.

No it's the book.

Keep blaming the heretics, your Evangelical bullshit is showing.

Oh and just for the record I have my own religious trauma. I've been through shit too. I was you once. I asked questions, felt wrong, didn't believe what they were touting, and felt like it was utter bullshit, and I was fortunate and privileged enough to have a support network that helped me through things and showed me that the world was not black and white, and that what they were saying was not the end of it.

It's not that religion is evil, it's that it's been weaponized against us, like every liberatory Force we've had, it's been co-opted by machinations Beyond us, Eldritch Horrors that desire to divide and alienate us. You are not just traumatized by a book or a priest, you felt abandoned by a community alienated from you, isolated and alone, pained and unable to ask for help. And it wasn't the religion that said you couldn't ask for help, no God in Heaven Nor on Earth what deny the aid or liberation of their people. No the people who had power over you did social, fiscal, and cultural capital.

God did not abandon you and you didn't abandon God, they abandoned God and told you they hadn't. They listened to your questions and made you feel comfortable, got you to trust and confide in them, and then used that against you. It doesn't matter how far you run, doesn't matter where you go or what institution you put your Faith or power or person behind, there will always be people who do that, it's not exclusive to religion and it's not unique to religion and it's not just as bad in religion, it's just more hypocritical in it, and seen as more acceptable in those other spaces. It's part of politics to get people to trust you, in capitalism manipulation is King, in racism alienation and division is the goal, in sexism creating class systems is tantamount, and imperialism is dividing up the world into various little collections of land, and conquering them, and subjugating their people. Isn't it strange how we had, for thousands of years, organized but localized religions, somewhat similar to each other or related over larger regions, and then suddenly with the Advent of power into capital, in the creation and establishment of Nations, when power mattered more than people, those Unique Systems of Oppression seem to utilize it, cut it to pieces and put it back together as a Frankenstein abomination? Isn't it strange how something that brought people together was used to divide them up Suddenly, mark them as though they were monsters? Isn't it strange or something so fulfilling suddenly became so evil really quickly? How, when it was changed to justify some sort of power or some person sort of validity, it suddenly became a place where you were subjugated?

Human spirituality and religion as an institution are not the sole reason for why people are subjugated, the reason why it's tied so deeply to the history of religion is because religion was one of the first institutions to be weaponized against people. Who would have thought that one of the oldest things would have some of the longest history of being weaponized? It's not like we can find that happening in sex work, and how despite sex workers being a vital part of society, their mere existence is weaponized against them and has historically been for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

It's almost as if religions can change their intentions but racism can't, and religions can renew or alter or learn and grow, but sexism can't. There is such a thing as Liberation through theological examination, there is no Enlightenment through sexist philosophies and ideas, nor Liberation through racism.

Your trauma is valid, the things you faced hurt you, but god, the book, your belief didn't fail you, and the thing you held dear and you were told to lift up did not betray you, people did. The priest did, your youth Minister did, your choir teacher, one of the elders or apostles, your faith leaders did, the missionaries did. They, people, failed you. They did so wrapping it in a Bible, handing you a Quran, they did it reciting passages and singing hymns, they wrapped you in blankets that you didn't want, and hurt you in ways I cannot express, they didn't listen, and they should have. Some out of ignorance, many out of apathy, and many out of malevolence. And the only path forward is to atone, to reconcile, do not forgive the people who did wrong, but not punish the people who didn't. To build back whatever trust was lost, and fight the actual issue which is power, capital, true and utter strife. Words of Peace didn't fail you, those hungry for power, divided from you, made to hate you or use you and abuse you, they failed you.

Trauma makes it scary, makes harrowing, makes painful that which is mundane or truly an effective. It makes a glass of water scary, the humming of a tune a nightmare, the motion of a hand a flashback. The bitter pill of trauma is that it lasts, and it makes things that would otherwise not hurt us, hurt. And if we are fortunate enough to leave, we should work to help those who can't and to help ourselves confront it.

Religion isn't the issue, and destroying it will not fix your trauma, it will not answer for your pain and suffering and anguish. It's absence does not cure every ill, it just emboldens the ills that remain to fill the void the vacuum that will be present.

To fix your trauma, we must liberate it, liberate you, liberate religion, we must liberate and dismantle, and build upon the foundation and systems that function, the ideas that represent goodness and that can help us further liberation.

You cannot remedy trauma by re-traumatizing, you can only remedy trauma by sitting with it, confronting it, working through it, and finding the source. And God knows a book didn't put a gun to your head, a person did, and blamed the book. Hurt people hurt people. That's all there is and that's the only truth. The only way to stop it is not to destroy it, that's what those systems want, that's what those destructive things want. The only way to stop it is to dismantle that power, to embolden and Empower those who seek to help, and remove from Power those who hurt, and hold them accountable. That is the only way.

[kahaluada]

Daryl + OFC

Tags: fluffly, angst, friends to lovers, childhood friends

Warnings: Daryl childhood (none)

Summary: Sam is trying her best to be good and making friends, but kids at this new city just don't give her a break. Maybe the boy who is always alone can help her. After all, Daryl Dixon seems to know some stuff.

Context

This is a little piece of my long fic A Bond to Survive. It is my 1st work in English and I hope you like it. Daryl is 39 in my fic because in TWD wiki says that at the beginning of the apocalypse (2010) he is in his late 30's almost 40.

This P.O.V is from a kid so I choose to be simple it this passage.

* If you have any grammar feedback I'd love it. I tried to express his accent in some words, hope it shows.

The frog alliance

Young Harris | North Georgia

1980

Sam felt her cheeks burning while tears fell without her permission. She hated the feeling in her chest, a burning sensation of humiliation while the voices of Ava, Asher and the other kids screamed in her ears. 

Kids in school were mean. She sniffed while sneaking behind school to go where she wanted. She stopped, listening the janitor looking for other nautghty kids and hid herself behind a tree, trying to fix her hair.  

She looked at her dirty uniform and her throat tightened with the smell of peaches. Her hands tried to clean it again with no sucess.  

She should have known better. When she realized what Asher did she lost it and tried to punch him, only for his sister Ava held her while they put peach juice on her. 

They've been trying to make her angry for a while now, since she started in the church's choir and discovered her dad was the sheriff. They almost failed because her parents expected her to be good, forgiven and nice to people. 

Also, the priest was clear: any kid who we're going bad in school could not stay in the choir. So, Asher put gum in her hair and Sam started crying, humiliated and angry. She loved her hair, people always complimented her hair and now -for sure- she needed to cut it. 

Sam never had a little mean bone in her seven-year-old body, but what leakes in evil was overflowing in a sense of justice. She knew they did it to make her bad in front of the priest. Why would they do it on friday, the day church was in school to teach?

She sobbed, hiding behind the three seeing the gum in a big chunk of hair. She was so done being good and trying to be nice with the kids in that school.

Sam was tired of them and that school and that city. Asher was so mean to her and when she talked back Ava came to intimidate her. 

So now, she was looking at that dirty pond beyond the school fence for a while, a ideia coming to her mind .

“I’m no peach princess. I don’t like peaches. And I don’t like them” She murmured to herself, feeling sad with the inability to make friends. “Stupid twins” 

She was there for months now and no one wanted to be her friend. It was like they decided without even giving her a chance and she knew how nice she was. 

The girl looked at the fence, trying to figure out how to go beyond it to complete her plan. She was just really upset and she knew how Ava Jones hated frogs. The girl talked about frogs like the little animals were the devil. 

Sam took the frog's side because Ava Jones was so mean to her with no reason and she was sure the frogs never did anything to the girl either. 

The smell of peaches was making her sick and she wanted to go home and at the same time, she didn't. Her dad would be all “sheriff” making kids even more suspicious of her and even the teacher would be annoyed at her because of it. 

Her mom made a scene for less than gum in her hair, calling her father to talk to the principal. It was horrible because her mother would think her scenes helped her when it was the complete opposite.

She sat under the tree, looking to the fence when she saw Daryl Dixon climbing it to go back inside.  Sam sighed, her eyes widened when the boy made it simple to go in and out of school. 

She remembered him from church, but he never talked to her and was always alone in the corner. The boy was dirty, his blond hair covering his eyes and he had scratches in his face and arms. His loose pants and gigantic shirt made him almost a savage to her eyes and so fascinating.

Sam frowned, wishing he would at least acknowledge her presence, but he didn’t. She learned that kids from 3rd grade barely talked to 2nd graders but the girl was in no place to follow the rules. She needed help.

She tried to talk to him, but he just ignored her. His reaction at least was ok, because the others used to mock her, or lead her to think they´re interested in what she says to make fun of her. 

Sam blinked, gathering courage. She had a mission, a war to win against the stupid Jones twins and that boy would help her. She got up when he passed by her and ran in his direction. 

“Hey! Daryl Dixon!” He heard her because he walked faster. “Wait for meee” Her legs were not long enough to catch him, but she had to make him stop and listen to her. “Just listen! I have a preo…A puporsit…Propo…Perpusiton…” He looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes. “ I need to talk to you” 

“No” He answered a little angry and she ran faster. 

“If you don’t stop I’ll tell the principal about your sling!” 

It worked, he stopped and she swallowed when he turned to her, face red as a tomato and lips pressed. Dixon looked at her, weirded out, and she remembered she was covered in peach juice and dirty, with gum in her long hair. 

“What the hell? Ya gonna gossip bout’me? I have nothin with that car window!” He commented way too annoyed. 

Sam didn’t know about any car window. But now she suspected he was in trouble.  

“I need…” She catches her breath, hands on knees “I need your help with the frogs”. He blinked, crossed his arms and looked at her like she could shoot him “I’ll not tell the principal anything but I… I…Need help to destroy The Shine Twins!” 

The boy looked around and back to her. He scratched his neck and raised an eyebrow. 

“Please. You’re my only hope to destroy those ghosts. They need to learn a lesson! It is only a prepoursi…Preposi…Business!” 

She stared at him, hands on her hips, determined in her mission. Sam blinked and raised her chin like she saw her father doing so many times when talking to people on the streets. 

Her pink bracelet was shining with the sunlight and  she saw the boy looking down at her striped purple socks. It reminded her of a Chesshire cat and she loved it.  

She corrected her posture, blinking a lot while trying to hold her pose. Sam wasn’t a sheriff but she knew she could do it. He needed to understand her. He looked at her for so long she felt like they were in a staring contest.

“Why ya’talkin like that?” 

Sam felt her cheeks and chest burning with shame. After all these minutes that was his answer? She frowned, she knew she talked too much, but this wasn’t going to stop her. 

“Where is your uniform?” She asked back and he locked his jaw, making fists. 

“Did they make ya stay here to tease me? Fuckin stuck-up people”

“What?No! I don’t have time to tease you.” She rolled her eyes and tried to fix her hair when he looked at it “I have a mission against the Shine Twins! You know? Ava and Asher Jones! I call them that because they're as scary as the twins in that movie.”

The boy shook his head, saying anything besides that and started to move. Sam ran in front of him and opened her arms. She would make him understand. 

“Get outta my way” 

“No! Are you on Jones' side?” He rolled his eyes “Are you or not?”

“Noah’s younger siblings?”

“Aham!” She nodded slowly, her cheeks burning with determination. 

“Nah, dun like them” She smiled, wild, her dark eyes filled with tears of joy. Finally someone who agrees with her! An ally!

“We should make an alliance against evil. I just need you to teach me how to climb that fence and I’ll go catch the frogs.” He raised his eyebrows, clearly not believing in her. “And you can ask me a favor in return. This is how alliances work. I saw in the Cuckoo’s nest movie.” 

When she mentioned the movie he pressed his lips, but Sam didn’t know if he was holding a laugh or disapproving her. 

“Frogs? Do ya know any types? Some have poison, bad for ya skin.” 

Sam blinked, afraid of what he said. Was he lying? She looked at him, suspicious. His blue eyes were looking her up and down, reminding her of the stray cat she was hiding in her backyard.

He was so tense, like the cat the first time she approached it. She named the cat Bernard, because of The rescues, one of her favorite movies. 

“Can you help me with that, please?” She looked at him with hope and saw his cheeks going red. He took the sling out of his pocket. 

“How many?”  She realized, too fast, what he meant. Her eyes got bigger and she went to his wrist, almost crying. 

“No please, I don't want to hurt the poor little frogs! I don’t even let Bernard kill them. Bernard is my cat, but mom doesn't know. I keep him a secret and…” 

He looked at her hand like it was fire and pushed his wrist in an aggressive way. The way he looked at her made her swallow and shut up. 

“Sorry.” They looked at each other in silence and Sam squeezed her bracelet. “But it is true, I have a cat. I can have a cat, they’re good friends. You know?”

Still silence. Sam felt her cheeks burning now. What if she had only Bernard, a cat, as a friend? She opened her mouth and closed it. 

“Why are ya covered in peach?”  He finally said something, making her twist her lips.  

“Ava Jones” she murmured ashamed “Sorry… I… Just...” 

“Stop cryin like a baby. Let’s go before I change my mind.” 

“Really?” She went to him and he took a step away from her “Sorry” 

“This fuckin school is ridiculous.” They began to walk to the fence

“You shouldn’t curse.” 

“Ya shouldn’t watch movies like that” 

“Hey!” she smiled, looking at him with some sort of admiration. Maybe she made a friend, finally. “I love Jack Nicholson” 

“He have crazy eyes” 

“I love it” Now he laughed, the tension in his shoulder and face disappeared and she loved to see it “ Actually, my granny loves him and I love him too.” 

She put a hand on her hair and remembered the gum. She groaned, furious with it.

“They did it?”

“Yeah” She confirmed with a pouty

“Put some ice on it.”

“Why?”

“The gum will be hard as rock and ya can take without cuttin yer hair."

Sam blinked, impressed, and nodded. 

“Thank you Daryl Dixon. You are really smart.”  When she said it he stopped and looked at her with his face all shades of red. “What? I’m not teasing you. I’m serious!” 

“Whatever” he murmured rolling his eyes “You own me two now” 

She crossed hands behind her back and smiled at him while walking, correcting her posture. When he helped her to sneak out of school she wondered why he was always running away from class. 

Sam chooses the biggest frog in the pond. She named him Mr. Jack Hero to Daryl amusement. When they came back to school she was too happy with her alliance and the big frog. 

She put the frog in Ava’s bag and after the annoying girl discovered it, Sam ran and stayed quiet, only enjoying the chaos.

Her alliance with Daryl Dixon seems a good.

[lboogie1906]

Mike Randal Colter (August 26, 1976) is an actor known for his role as Luke Cage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in Luke Cage (2016–18), The Defenders (2017), and Jessica Jones (2015; 2019). He has appeared as Lemond Bishop in The Good Wife (2010–15) and The Good Fight (2017–present), Malcolm Ward in Ringer (2011–12), Jameson Locke in the Halo franchise (2014–15), Agent J’s father in Men in Black 3, and David Acosta, a former journalist studying to be a Catholic priest in Evil.

He was born in Columbia, South Carolina the youngest of four children born to Eddie Lee, Sr. and Freddie Marion Colter grew up in St. Matthews, South Carolina. He is a graduate of Calhoun County High School. He spent a year at Benedict College before transferring to the University of South Carolina, receiving a BA in theater. He obtained an MFA from the Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts.

His first role was in the film Million Dollar Baby as boxer Big Willie Little. His guests starred in Law & Order: Trial By Jury, Law, and Order: Criminal Intent, ER, and The Parkers as well as several TV movies. He starred in Extinction and Ringer.

In 2020, he starred in Social Distance.

He met his wife, Iva, at Rutgers University while they were in graduate school. The couple married in 2016, they have two daughters. He is a second cousin of actress Viola Davis. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[thelastdayalive]

*quietly* mitä vittua

[tarnishedxknight]

ROLEPLAY HISTORY !

the rules are simple! post characters you’d like to roleplay as, have roleplayed as, and might bring back . then tag others to do the same . please repost, don’t reblog !

{ out of dalmasca } I'm only going to do canon muses for this so it's not a crazy long list, haha. Below the cut for length.

ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛʟʏ ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ

{ I'm including all canon muses that are currently open for threads, even if I haven't really been writing them due to a lack of activity for them. }

Luther Donovan (TV series Red Widow) Vincent (80s TV series Beauty and the Beast) Ardeth Bay (1999 movie The Mummy / 2001 movie The Mummy Returns) Wanda Maximoff (MCU) Pietro Maximoff (MCU) Red Vision / White Vision (MCU) Tony Stark (MCU) Natasha Romanoff (MCU) Stephen Strange (MCU) Clint Barton (MCU) Matt Addison / Nemesis (Resident Evil, Anderson films) Carlos Oliveira (Resident Evil, Anderson films) Chad Kaplan (Resident Evil, Anderson films) Basch fon Ronsenburg (Final Fantasy XII) Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca (Final Fantasy XII) Judge Magister Noah Gabranth (Final Fantasy XII) Judge Magister Drace (Final Fantasy XII) Nuada Bethmoora (2008 movie Hellboy II: The Golden Army) Gizmo (1984 movie Gremlins / 1990 movie Gremlins 2: The New Batch) Raiden (Metal Gear Solid / Rising game franchise) Jared Nomak (2002 movie Blade II) Carl Lucas (2010 movie Death Race 2 / 2013 movie Death Race 3: Inferno) Archangel Michael (2010 movie Legion) Priest (2011 movie Priest) Priestess (2011 movie Priest) Eric (2012 movie Snow White and the Huntsman / 2016 movie The Huntsman: Winter's War) Freya (2016 movie The Huntsman: Winter's War) Marie Sebastian (2013 remake of movie Oldboy) Martha Reynolds (2011 movie Martha Marcy May Marlene) Ben Leonard (2012 movie Savages) Leeloo (1997 movie The Fifth Element) Wade (2015 movie The Night Crew)

ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ (ᴀɴᴅ ᴡʜʏ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇɴ'ᴛ ʏᴇᴛ)

Archangel Gabriel (2007 movie Gabriel) - His actor died tragically at a very young age. I thought his performance was amazing and I wouldn't want to use any other FC, but at the same time, I just feel it's inappropriate to use images of him, out of respect for his family. I actually had an OC that I used him for and have since changed to another actor because I felt uncomfortable using his images going forward.

Alice Abernathy (Resident Evil, Anderson films) - As much as I adore her, I don't feel I understand her well enough nor could I get her "voice" down well enough to write her to my own standards.

Fran (Final Fantasy XII) - I'm not sure I could write her well enough, but also she's in a totally different circle of characters than all my other FFXII muses, so she'd feel a bit isolated and extraneous if I added her to that blog. Also, she's kindof joined at the hip to Balthier, whom I know I could never write properly in a million years, heh.

Eyal Lavine (TV show Current Affairs) - I've wanted to write him for years now, but with certain things going on in the news, writing an Israeli Mossad agent just isn't the best thing to do right now, I feel. I would constantly worry about offending people or being dragged into political conversations relevant to real world events that I really don't want to get into on my blogs.

Yuna (Final Fantasy X) - To bring her to this site would be an impossible amount of new added activity for me. The FFX fandom is a lot larger than FFXII and I'd be afraid of too much activity or even those with muses from other FF games wanting to write with her. I just can't add a popular character right now. if anything, I need to be downsizing, heh.

The town of Silent Hill (Silent Hill game franchise, 2006 movie Silent Hill, 2012 movie Silent Hill: Revelation) - It's just too complicated and would require too much startup time and effort for me to manage right now. But I am keeping it in mind for the future!

ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴡʀɪᴛᴛᴇɴ ʙᴇғᴏʀᴇ, ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ɴᴏᴛ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ (ᴀɴᴅ ᴡʜʏ)

Ned Stark (ASoIaF book series / GoT TV show) - Ned only survived Season 1 (actually, technically, he didn't even survive that). So much happened in subsequent Seasons, and now we've got HotD too. I stopped reading after the third book and stopped watching after the third Season, so... I'm way behind on the world, the lore, the characters, the countries, the Houses, etc. I wouldn't feel that I'm coming from enough of a place of knowledge to write Ned, even though I really adore him and would love to. And someone like him, who was in positions of power, would have that knowledge, he'd know about the major and minor Houses and the politics and the history, etc., so it would affect my portrayal of him to not know all of that myself.

Ygritte (ASoIaF book series / GoT TV show) - Kindof the same problem as Ned, although Ygritte survived a bit longer... but also I'm just not sure how relevant she'd be to most characters other people in the fandom would write. As a wildling, she was somewhat isolated from much of the plot and other characters of the world. Also, I'm afraid of Jon Snows everywhere just wanting to ship with her, heh, since I really hated that ship, personally.

The White Queen (Resident Evil, Anderson films) - Her FC is a child, and as much as I liked the character, the way I developed her was to add an OC origin muse for her that used the same actress as an FC. After a certain point, I just felt like I was doing something wrong by using a child FC and didn't feel comfortable doing it anymore.

ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴡʀɪᴛᴛᴇɴ ʙᴇғᴏʀᴇ, ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ (ᴀɴᴅ ᴡʜʏ)

Luther West (Resident Evil, Anderson films) - I liked Luther, he was pretty cool, and since I write a lot of other RE muses, he'd fit right in. The only reason I stopped writing him was because hardly anyone was interested in him, so it became too much to keep maintaining his blog if no one wanted to write with him.

The Creature (2004 mini-series Frankenstein) - I've always liked Adam, I read the original Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and I've seen various movies and mini-series on the subject. I like this specific version because the actor who played him is a favorite of mine, but also it was fairly faithful to the book as well. The reason I stopped was because I felt I wasn't writing him up to my own standards, but I'd be willing to give it another try.

Tagged by: I stole it! ^_^ Tagging: Anyone who wants to do this! =)

[rockzone]

Tracklist: 3 Jul 2024

Featured Album: "V" by Black Country Communion.

7pm Scorpions - Dynamite (1982) The Commoners - Shake You Off (2024) Mike Tramp - Lights & Thunder (2024) Ghosts Of Sunset - Hide Her Heart (2024) Black Country Communion - Too Far Gone (2024) Gorilla Riot - Black Heart Woman (2020) Shotgun Mistress - It's Alright (2024) Oasis - Columbia (Sawmills Outtake) (2024) Whitesnake - Easier Said Than Done (2011) Greta Van Fleet - Edge Of Darkness (2017) Judas Priest - Evening Star (1978)

8pm Kings Of Leon - Radioactive (2010) FM - Black Water (Radio Edit) (2024) Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks - Jon Anderson And The Band Geeks - Shine On (2024) Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks - Jon Anderson And The Band Geeks - Shine On (2024) Billy Morrison - It's Come To This (Clean) (2024) Black Country Communion - Love And Faith (2024) Joe Bonamassa - Twenty-Four Hour Blues (2024) Palace - Reckless Heart (2024) Uriah Heep - Easy Livin' (1972) Ugly Kid Joe - Everything About You (2008) AC/DC - Evil Walks (1981) Genesis - Eleventh Earl Of Mar (1976)

Recent shows can be heard On Demand

[mediamixs]

10 best horror movies about the demon

1)The Exorcist (1973)

Regarded as a classic in the horror genre, "The Exorcist" follows the possession of a young girl named Regan and the subsequent exorcism performed by two priests. It's known for its chilling atmosphere, groundbreaking special effects, and intense performances.

2) The Conjuring (2013)

Based on true events, "The Conjuring" explores the case files of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren as they help a family plagued by a malevolent presence in their farmhouse. The film's tension-building and effective scares make it a standout in demon-themed horror.

3) Insidious (2010)

Directed by James Wan, "Insidious" tells the story of a family whose son falls into a mysterious coma and becomes a vessel for malevolent entities from another realm. The film's blend of psychological horror and supernatural elements, particularly its depiction of the demon known as "The Lipstick-Face Demon," earns it a place among the best.

4) Hereditary (2018)

"Hereditary" delves into the dark secrets of a family haunted by ancestral demons. As the family unravels, they uncover horrifying truths about their lineage and the sinister forces at work. Known for its disturbing imagery and psychological terror, this film leaves a lasting impression.

5) Paranormal Activity (2007)

Shot in found-footage style, "Paranormal Activity" follows a couple as they attempt to document the demonic presence haunting their home. The film's minimalist approach and escalating tension create a sense of dread, making it a standout in the supernatural horror genre.

6) The Babadook (2014)

"The Babadook" centers on a mother and son who are terrorized by a sinister entity from a mysterious children's book. As the presence of the Babadook grows stronger, the family's sanity begins to unravel. The film's exploration of grief, trauma, and psychological horror sets it apart.

7) Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Directed by Sam Raimi, "Drag Me to Hell" follows a loan officer who becomes cursed by a malevolent demon after denying an elderly woman an extension on her mortgage. The film balances horror and humor while delivering inventive scares and a sense of impending doom.

8) The Omen (1976)

"The Omen" revolves around an American diplomat who gradually realizes that his adopted son may be the Antichrist. As mysterious deaths and sinister events occur, he races to uncover the truth and prevent the apocalypse. This classic horror film remains influential in the demon subgenre.

9) The Devil's Advocate (1997)

In "The Devil's Advocate," a young lawyer is recruited by a powerful law firm led by a charismatic and enigmatic figure who may be more than he seems. As the lawyer's life spirals out of control, he confronts the demonic forces at play. The film blends legal drama with supernatural horror.

10) The Last Exorcism (2010) - Presented in a found-footage style, "The Last Exorcism" follows a disillusioned minister who agrees to perform one last exorcism on a young girl in rural Louisiana. As he confronts the evil within her, he discovers a conspiracy that shakes his beliefs to the core. The film offers a fresh take on the exorcism subgenre with its blend of realism and supernatural terror.

[denimbex1986]

'WHO IS TOM RIPLEY? Steven Zaillian’s recent Netflix series adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s most infamous literary creation starts and ends on this question.

Ripley adapts the first of five books Highsmith dedicated to the exploits of the con artist–murderer-aesthete, and the portion of the story that has been reinterpreted the most: New York shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf hires the low-level grifter to travel to Europe and convince his vagabond son Dickie (Johnny Flynn) to return to the United States. Highsmith’s novel is a masterwork of crime writing, and Ripley is a chameleonic figure who has been interpreted, alternately, as a charming sociopath, a consummate con man, and a serial killer. He has been played by actors of dizzyingly different registers like John Malkovich in Ripley’s Game (2002), Dennis Hopper in The American Friend (1977), Barry Pepper in Ripley Under Ground (2005), Alain Delon in Purple Noon (1960) and, perhaps most famously, Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).

Andrew Scott is the latest and proves to have the most insidiously perfect take on Ripley. The Irish actor, who will be recognizable to many as the “Hot Priest” from Fleabag (2016–19), as well as the maniacal, screeching Moriarty on Sherlock (2010–17), just picked up awards for his performance in the film All of Us Strangers (2023) and the play VANYA, a new reimagining of Anton Chekhov’s classic. There’s little that ties his Ripley to previous Ripleys: Damon’s was lovelorn; Malkovich made him cunning; Hopper, bombastic; Delon’s was mean-spirited; and Pepper, let’s just not. Scott, meanwhile, possesses a soft-featured handsomeness that can “mold into ordinariness” at will. This Ripley is a negative space. He observes and absorbs. Scott’s performance dispenses with charm and charisma almost entirely, in fact, and throughout Ripley’s eight episodes, the character is mostly uncomfortable, ill at ease, and clawing.

Significantly, Ripley is the first adaptation of Highsmith’s character to depict “the unequivocal triumph of evil over good” that she thought her book explored; certainly, it’s the only adaptation that finds Ripley “rejoicing in it.” Ripley will always win. But neither the book nor the series gives us anything to hold on to. There is nothing to root for. Zaillian and Scott’s narrative, visual, and performance choices empty out Ripley of the charm and emotionality that drove previous adaptations. Here, Ripley is a slippery mask that doesn’t ever quite fit right. And in embracing the character’s elusiveness and refusing to make his emptiness attractive, Zaillian and Scott have given us the definitive on-screen Tom Ripley.

How to film a vacuum of personhood? Zaillian told Vanity Fair that the choice to film Ripley in black-and-white came to him early in the process, and was inspired, in part, by the black-and-white edition of the Ripley book he had on his desk. “As I was writing,” he said, “I held that image in my mind.” The black-and-white imagery strips Ripley’s story of the postcard beauty we’ve come to expect from previous adaptations. While the golden cinematography of Purple Noon and The Talented Mr. Ripley capture the sandy ease of wealthy American expats enjoying bright negronis and crystalline seawater, Zaillian didn’t “want to make a pretty travelogue.” And pretty it is not. While there is much to praise about the moody monochrome cinematography, it doesn’t distract. Ripley’s New York is a rusty compilation of ugly details: the rotten wood of the window, exposed wire covered by a sad little painting of a boat, an overflowing shower, a musty slab of soap, the noise of other people’s bowel movements. When he arrives in Italy, the Mediterranean water is black and inhospitable. It’s a graveyard, not a postcard.

Ripley indulges in repetition and the administrative details of criminality. The paperwork, the travel, and the negotiations are granted much screen time. It’s tedious work, conning people. When we first meet Tom Ripley, he’s running a small-time mail fraud, and constantly looking over his shoulder. It’s his frustration with petty paperwork grifts, rather than any fascination with Europe or love of art, that makes him accept Herbert Greenleaf’s mission. But Ripley is a quick study: by the second episode, he’s got conversational Italian down, and he understands the unspoken rules of Dickie’s lifestyle. And he’s a hard worker. This Ripley practices. He has to, in order to maintain his cover. His forgeries are a craft, and he carries his tools—stamps, glue, a rubber goop to forge passports—with him.

Ripley’s foreignness aids him. In a 1989 essay for Granta, Patricia Highsmith recalled the image that became the genesis of Tom Ripley: a young man walking alone on the beach in Positano, Italy, early in the morning, who “looked like a thousand other American tourists in Europe that summer.” Highsmith never met that man, but the image grew and expanded into the famous character. An American in Europe, becoming acquainted with the ways of living in Italy, France, and Germany, just like Highsmith herself had done. Europe as a concept, not a destination. It was freedom. In the same essay, the author recalls a secret sort of affinity for Europe, one “so deep and important that I might not wish or need to discuss it with friend or family.” I wonder if Zaillian read this very essay. His Ripley, too, looks out at the tiny beach of Atrani, which looks similar to the Positano that Highsmith looked upon, and sees a faraway, solitary figure. In Ripley, people who interact briefly with either Ripley or Dickie see them as interchangeable, just two Americans. His foreignness, ironically, allows him to blend in.

Highsmith’s Ripley holds good taste above everything else, and so does Zaillian’s. Ripley’s lack of refinement is palpable at first. He makes all the wrong choices, sartorially and otherwise (in the film, it’s the lime-green Speedos; in the series, the paisley robe), which puts him on the wrong foot with Marge Sherwood and Freddie Miles. Played in the film by Gwyneth Paltrow cosplaying Housewives of Mongibello, and in the series by a po-faced Dakota Fanning, Marge is as desperately oblivious to her lack of talent as Dickie is. She spends her days scribbling away at a memoir about her experiences in Atrani (which Ripley edits in a delightful montage of disdain) and eyeing Ripley suspiciously. He and Marge find each other equally repellent: he is too “vague” for her to grasp (some light-coded homophobia there) and she is tacky (he throws away the hand-knit scarf she makes for Dickie). As the series progresses, he starts to build up a new persona, one that feels truer to him than “Tom Ripley”: “This was the real annihilation of his past and of himself, Tom Ripley, who was made up of that past, and his rebirth as a completely new person,” writes Highsmith. This new Tom Ripley is suave, well dressed, and well regarded, while Marge is condescended to by the Italian police and drinks too much at parties. And Dickie, well, he’s dead.

The murder of Dickie Greenleaf is a turning point for Ripley. It is his graduation from grifter to murderer and is one of the few constants of every interpretation of the text. In the book, it is semi-premeditated. Ripley conceives of this idea earlier, on the train (always the train with Highsmith), knowing that Dickie is going to politely excise him from his life, from his lifestyle: “He knew that he was going to do it, that he would not stop himself now, maybe couldn’t stop himself, and that he might not succeed,” writes Highsmith. The screen has always reinvented this moment for dramatic effect. In Purple Noon, Ripley stabs French Dickie (renamed Philippe Greenleaf, and portrayed by Maurice Ronet) in the heart, on Dickie’s own boat. A risky, impulsive decision. Ripley stages the murder as quietly rageful: neither man raises their voice, Dickie politely severs their relationship and Ripley’s bludgeoning of Dickie is wordless. He looks at Dickie’s ring, as if for confirmation to proceed before striking him in the head with the oar. It’s not about Dickie; it’s about his lifestyle, one that Ripley feels he deserves more than Dickie.

Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley interprets this moment as an emotional and moral upheaval, with Ripley pushed over the edge by Dickie’s ferocious rant. Jude Law’s Dickie is a petulant child who wreaks havoc with his limited attention span and oversized charm. His first interaction (and last) interaction with Ripley is bullish: he mocks his untanned skin (“Did you ever see a guy so white, Marge?”), his lack of refinement, his inability to ski, his obvious worship of Dickie. He is violently repelled by Ripley’s desire to be close to him at all costs. So, when the oar strikes his head, we understand. He calls him a “leech,” a “third-class mooch,” and, most damningly in Dickie’s mind, “boring.”

And, in Damon’s hands, he kind of is. ​​In a 1998 interview, the actor spoke about wanting Ripley’s “humanity to come across,” morphing him into someone who does not “ever manipulate anybody” and who “come[s] from a position of pure honesty all the time. He believes what’s happening and he believes the world he’s indulging in.” At this point in his career, Damon was always in the right place at the right time. Both he and Paltrow were Harvey Weinstein’s golden children. Damon, together with his co-writing buddy Ben Affleck, had just earned a best screenplay Oscar for Good Will Hunting (1997) and Paltrow had picked up her statuette for best actress in Shakespeare in Love (1998), both Miramax releases. It makes sense with Damon’s persona and limitations that he would interpret Ripley as a beacon of honesty, an accidentally talented murderer. He was charming, but not electrically so, unlike Law. Politely handsome, unlike the beatific Alain Delon. Smart, but not obnoxious. His Ripley is a charmless striver looking for love, not money.

Minghella’s adaptation is beautiful, turning the story into an overtly queer text, leaning into Ripley’s identity as a closeted gay man in the 1950s who falls for the petty, vagabond Dickie. It works hard to carve out the humanity of Tom Ripley. The film even opens on a note of regret, with Ripley narrating: “If I could just go back, if I could rub everything out—starting with myself, starting with borrowing a jacket …” It’s a different register, and one that tints the entire film with a note of sick, inescapable sadness. In a different way, Ripley and Dickie were intertwined in Highsmith’s first sketches of the character. In her diary, in 1954, she sketched out a character that would, eventually, be split in two:

A young American, half homosexual, an indifferent painter, with some money from home through an income, but not too much. He is the ideal, harmless looking, unimportant looking, numerous enough, kind of individual a smuggling gang would make use of to handle their contacts, hot goods.

Minghella leans into this merging of identities visually, using mirrors and twisted reflections, all tinted with an overt, and one-sided, desire on Ripley’s part. In Minghella’s version, it’s Dickie who ruins Ripley, setting him on a path of lies and other murders to cover up that initial murder, which ends with him killing the one person, Peter Smith-Kingsley (Jack Davenport), who seemed to see good things in him. Ripley is desperately lonely, encased in shadows.

Zaillian’s Ripley, meanwhile, is all shadows. Gothic, even. This is where Tom Ripley feels most at home, alone but never lonely. Even in the dark, he is not corroded by the darkness that threatens Damon’s Ripley. This Ripley is on a journey towards comfort and beauty. Once he arrives in Italy, he is smitten not with Dickie himself but with the possibility of beauty and the tranquility that the Greenleafs’ money can afford him. If anything, Dickie Greenleaf is the least interesting character in Ripley. Johnny Flynn’s take is not rude, or irascible like Jude Law’s. He might even be considered kind, at times, although deeply, pathetically uninteresting. A laughably mediocre painter, Dickie doesn’t seem to care about much at all: not about his parents, his money, or Marge. When Ripley first meets Dickie and Marge, they are asleep, napping on an Italian beach. He casts a shadow over them. But Ripley is not particularly motivated by murder. It is, like most things, tedious, hard work. The disposal of Dickie (and, later on, of Freddie Miles) takes up more screen time than the murder itself. It is almost comically extended, including a little sit-down to rest after disposing of the corpse. After he bludgeons and disposes of Freddie (Eliot Sumner), Ripley has to go all the way back to the site where he dumped the body to retrieve an incriminating object. Ripley revels in repetition, in its protagonist treading the same steps repeatedly. It is through sheer dumb luck that he isn’t caught, not through his cleverness. And Ripley delights in the lucky tedium of Tom Ripley’s crimes.

The blandness of Dickie and his cohort’s characterization stands in sharp contrast with the undeniable, easy gorgeousness of their lives. Dickie’s villa overlooking the town, his marble floors, his Montblanc pen, and his Picasso, casually hanging in his study. They are so used to it all that they fail to see the value of it, or how intensely Ripley wants what they have, not who they are. Ripley never asks for anything, but in a rare moment of honesty—hidden in plain sight, buried in a rant against refrigerators—he talks about freedom. For Ripley, freedom is not just money but also the invisibility it can buy.

This Ripley covets symbols, things that will act as signifiers of the freedom that wealth can afford. Like the Ripley in the books, who is largely uninterested in sex, desire is not his driving engine. Instead, it’s covetousness. As Scott pointed out, Ripley has an “almost sensual relationship with things.” The moment Ripley walks into Dickie’s house, he comments, “Nice pen,” and promptly pockets it. Dickie doesn’t even notice. That pen casually reappears as Ripley alternates between signing his name or Dickie’s. The camera foregrounds objects, returning to the same ones over and over again, like a murderer returning to the scene of their crime: Dickie’s typewriter and signet ring, the glass ashtray. Every time he settles into a new room, Ripley lovingly sets out his things. He does not imbue them, however, with any sentimentality. He’s not keeping Dickie’s things because they remind him of Dickie, but because they’re nice things and he would like to have them. There is pleasure to be found in objects, as much as there is in art. In the last episode of Ripley, he is gifted Dickie’s ring by Herbert Greenleaf. His work is finished. He has killed Dickie twice over. And he gets to keep the ring. In the end, Tom Ripley is where he wanted to be: alone and surrounded by beautiful things. Dickie is just another object to him, and when he speaks of Dickie, he’s really talking about himself: “Everything about him was an act.”

Art critics speak of negative space as the area surrounding a subject. The brilliance of Ripley lies in how it understands Tom Ripley not as a subject possessed of rich interiority but as the oppressive, empty space that defines those around him. He is the darkness that overtakes Dickie, Marge, and Freddie. Beautiful things smooth out the rough edges of Tom Ripley. As the series progresses, and the Ripley we first meet is well and truly annihilated, something truer emerges: an impeccably dressed black hole.'

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (August 8)

On August 8, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of St. Dominic de Guzman, who helped the cause of orthodoxy in the medieval Church by founding the Order of Preachers, also known as Dominicans.

“This great saint reminds us that in the heart of the Church, a missionary fire must always burn,” Pope Benedict XVI said in a February 2010 General Audience talk on the life of St. Dominic.

"In his life," the Pope said, “the search for God's glory and the salvation of souls went hand in hand.”

Born on 8 August 1170 in Caleruega, Spain, Dominic was the son of Felix Guzman and Joanna of Aza, members of the nobility.

He was named after Saint Dominic of Silos.

His mother would eventually be beatified by the Church, as would his brother Manes who became a Dominican. The family's oldest son Antonio also became a priest.

Dominic received his early education from his uncle, who was a priest, before entering the University of Palencia where he studied for ten years.

In one notable incident from this period, he sold his entire collection of rare books to provide for the relief of the poor in the city.

After his ordination to the priesthood, Dominic was asked by Bishop Diego of Osma to participate in local church reforms.

He spent nine years in Osma, pursuing a life of intense prayer, before being called to accompany the bishop on a piece of business for King Alfonso IX of Castile in 1203.

While traveling in France with the bishop, Dominic observed the bad effects of the Albigensian heresy, which had taken hold in southern France during the preceding century.

The sect revived an earlier heresy, Manicheanism, which condemned the material world as an evil realm not created by God.

Dreading the spread of heresy, Dominic began to think about founding a religious order to promote the truth.

In 1204, he and Bishop Diego were sent by Pope Innocent III to assist in the effort against the Albigensians, which eventually involved both military force and theological persuasion.

In France, Dominic engaged in doctrinal debates and set up a convent whose rule would eventually become a template for the life of female Dominicans.

He continued his preaching mission from 1208 to 1215, during the intensification of the military effort against the Albigensians.

In 1214, Dominic's extreme physical asceticism caused him to fall into a coma, during which the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to him and instructed him to promote the prayer of the Rosary.

Its focus on the incarnation and life of Christ directly countered the Albigensian attitude towards matter as evil.

During that same year, Dominic returned to Tolouse and obtained the bishop's approval of his plan for an order dedicated to preaching.

He and a group of followers gained local recognition as a religious congregation, and Dominic accompanied Tolouse's bishop to Rome for an ecumenical council in 1215.

The council stressed the Church's need for better preaching but also set up a barrier to the institution of new religious orders.

Dominic, however, obtained papal approval for his plan in 1216 and was named as the Pope's chief theologian.

The Order of Preachers expanded in Europe with papal help in 1218.

The founder spent the last several years of his life building up the order and continuing his preaching missions, during which he is said to have converted some 100,000 people.

After several weeks of illness, St. Dominic died in Italy on 6 August 1221.

He was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on 13 July 1234.

He is the patron saint of astronomers, natural scientists, falsely accused people, the Dominican Republic, and other locales throughout the world.