#seminary adventures

[beloved-not-broken]

I bet you've heard a lot of things about communism and Christianity, but you haven't heard what happened to other religious groups in the Soviet Union. Well, I found out something surprising.

Here's the full story, because evangelicals sure aren't telling it.

[fallenandproud]

heyyyy so my dad suckered me into agreeing to go to institute classes and activities and like. i can survive that easily enough but MY main concern is running into people from school. i was openly out and proud about being trans and definitely not mormon when i was in high school and i was still forced into seminary so all the mormon kids knew and i made them all wildly uncomfortable with my existence. which. i dont mind that part at all im just afraid that somehow itll leak from there back to my parents / family friends / my ward and it isnt safe for those people to know. idk if anyone has any advice for surviving that but if you itd be much appreciated

[ungiorno-nellavita]

Wanderlust Wednesday: Exploring the University of St. Mary of the Lake

After sitting in my drafts for years, I’m finally sharing this experience. 😊 When my husband and I accompanied his grandmother to visit her friend at a seminary, I didn’t think much of it since I had never visited one before. Please forgive my ignorance; all I knew was that it was a place for people who wanted to become priests. So when I heard the name “University of Saint Mary of the Lake” I…

[liminalpebble]

Violet: Chapter 1, Providence

Masterlist Link

Summary: The solitary Reverend Ransome leaves the empty nest of his home in Essex, beginning his life as a professor in London. His expectation of a contemplative religious life as a pious widower is complicated by an odd and alluring foreign student, Violetta Vespero. How can the conflicted vicar keep his gaze and worship skyward with such delicious temptations before him on Earth?

Will Ransome (The Essex Serpent) x Original Female Character

CW: Sacrilege all over the place, slow Burn to smut, angst, multi-parter, probably pretty historically inaccurate  

Chapter 1: Providence

Will reclined in his modest room in the spartan London seminary. He had trouble sleeping in the sea of noise that roiled in the city streets every night. It was a shock to him after the quiet countryside of Essex, but he couldn't stay in that home any longer. The emptiness of it after all the life it contained was too much to bear. Stella, his beautiful delicate blue star of the sea had returned to her maker. Cora had abandoned him for a life of chasing after her fossils; her Biblical monsters buried in the clay of creation, though Cora would never think of it that way.

And the children...his beloved precocious precious children were adults now, living adventurous lives of discovery, growing into the full forms of themselves. How he missed the weight of them in his arms as he read to them when they were small. It seemed like eons ago now, and he was beginning to feel like one of Cora's skeletal beasts, buried under the sands of time.

So it was that the reverend found himself nearing the age of fifty, walking the floorboards of an empty house which once held the footprints of so many. It felt as if everyone he loved had moved on to new places and adventures to fuel their curiosity except for him. He pondered, in his little dormitory room, how he ended up here, and why. What was it he really wanted?

It seemed like an act of providence when his friend from divinity school, Father Grant, visiting one rainy day, offered a position at a ladies' college in London.

“It shouldn't be difficult work for a clever mind like yours, Will,” said Father Grant. “They're looking for a well-educated man of good character to teach the classics, literature, humanities, divinity...perhaps also foreign languages.”

“I'm not Catholic, Paul.” Will said, his deep voice almost a croak from lack of use. Aside from his hour at the pulpit every Sunday, Will cloistered himself these days, giving up his walks to visit parishioners, in favor of solitary ones in the salt air to nurse his loneliness.

“It doesn't matter, Will. These damn Jesuits are in favor of scholarly advancement and a diversity of teachers, regardless of sect. They now welcome professors with open arms so long as they show fair enough morals and credentials,” Paul huffed as if it was all an annoyance to him, but Reverend Ransome smiled, knowing his friend to be progressive and enlightened at heart, just glad for a chance to grumble.

“You said it wouldn't be difficult. It sounds like their standards are quite high.”

“Well yes, but the students are all women. Docile delicate things, either preparing themselves to be entertaining trophies for rich husbands, or readying themselves for the convent and teaching brats in the Lord's service.”

“Paul,” Will said disapprovingly, “Shame on you for being so dismissive of women. The world is progressing past such notions. Watch out, lest it leave you behind.”

Father Grant gave a deep belly laugh. “Me, Will? I think you have to worry about that a good deal more than I do.”

Ransome tapped his teacup back down with defeat and realized, begrudgingly, that his old friend was very right. By the time Grant left, Will had shaken his hand and found himself preparing to enter a new life in the city.

Now, here he was, laying in his uncomfortable bunk, in his private room, kept awake by the city noise and nervous for his first day of teaching.

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[joachimnapoleon]

Hi Sarah! Do we actually know why Murat left the seminary and joined the army? As far as I know, it was not particularly clear of the reasons.

It’s hard to piece together Murat’s early years, unfortunately there just isn’t much documentation of them (if only Agar had been able to write his biography! 😩). One theory is he was trying to escape from the numerous debts he’d accumulated while studying in Toulouse. One early biography provides an unsourced story of Murat having fallen in love and there being a violent quarrel with another man over the woman, but again, there aren’t any primary sources to verify this, at least not that I’ve seen up to this point. His biographer Atteridge doesn’t even bother speculating on it: “In February 1787 there came a crisis of which we have no details. We only know that on the 23rd of the month, without consulting his people at La Bastide, he took a step that disappointed all their hopes and plans.”

Was there a crisis? Or was there just an almost twenty-year-old man full of energy and a desire for adventure, who just couldn’t resign himself to the life his parents had chosen for him, saw a cavalry regiment briefly staying in Toulouse, and decided this was the perfect opportunity to take a new path? I tend to believe it was primarily the latter.

[bucoliqves]

How would the brothers karamazov be if it was an early 2000s italian telenovela with a low budget? 🧵

We follow the (dis)adventures of the Morettis (Moretti < moro = brown), a roman family that owns a very famous bar.

The head of the family is Matteo (I've never met a single Teodoro (fyodor) in my life + Matteo means God's gift too)

His oldest son Giorgio (again, I've never met a single Demetrio (Dmitri) in my life + Giorgio is a name related to the earth > the goddess demeter) never finished highschool, he got in the army but soon dropped out to follow his new girlfriend Caterina to Milan.

Caterina is the daugther of a retired soldier who got Giorgio into the army in the first place. While he was with Caterina, though, he became friends with her sister Agata, who introduced him to her friend Giulia, who everybody calls Lia (Grushenka. Same shit, you won't find any Agrippinas here).

Matteo had Giorgio with a young woman named Adele, whom he was forced to marry when he got her pregnant and divorced a few years into their marriage. Matteo remarried an even younger woman, Sofia, who gave him two children named Giovanni and Alessio.

Giovanni is about to graduate in natural sciences. He rarely visits his family, but he happened to pop by when Giorgio and Caterina were there too. He secretly fell for her and planned to move to Milan as well to follow her and keep and eye on his brother.

Alessio (whom everybody calls Lele) has always been a quiet, lovely child. He dropped out of uni a few months into the semester to follow his true calling and become a priest. He is following a seminary in Vatican city and visits his father every weekend. (Let's pretend they're roman catholics for the sake of this. DOSTO DONT CRUCIFY ME)

Paolo "Cacaliscia" (literally "smooth shit", best rendition of Smerdyakov i can give you), the three Morettis' "distant cousin", works at the family bar and is the one who knows all the gossip. He despises his job and how his "uncle" treats him, so from time to time he tells everybody's business to the right (wrong) person.

Paolo's scenes are always in the bar. In every single episode with him he's either cleaning glasses with an annoyed expression, leaning on the counter with a shit eating grin ready to gossip or just being the typical caricature of a gay guy in an early 2000s piece of media.

Lele is seen with one (1) signature friend, Michele Raccattoni (raccattare=to collect), who's in the seminary with him but is not very... priest like. The directors LOVE adding scenes of him coming back to their shared room late into the night and Lele switching on the lights annoyed.

The show is top of the charts for five years, has 12 seasons and is still ongoing, everyone and their mother lost their shit when Lele almost left the seminary for Lia and some actual radical priest condemned the show during a sermon (he wanted Lia and Giorgio together).

Giorgio's actor has become italian teenage girls' n1 dream guy and in 2021 there's the start of a whole fandom for the pairing between Alessio and Michele. People who like Giovanni are considered edgy and no one likes Paolo except three Cacaliscia apologists on twitter dot com (me).

In the final episode Lele finally rejects the avances of Elisa, a girl in the seminar who has a crush on him, and becomes the youngest cardinal in Rome because he can. He celebrates the double marriage between Lia/Giorgio and Caterina/Giovanni. Paolo is the flower girl.

The ceremony is stopped when Niccolò, a boy whom Alessio had taken under his wing, storms into the cathedral and tells everyone that Matteo has been found dead. It turns out Paolo had murdered him. The two couples find his will. He wanted to leave everything to Alessio, who decides to divide his inheritance between his brothers and their wives. While he's looking for Paolo to tell him he's going to get some money too he finds out he hung himself in the church confessional.

And uhh thats it. Notte notte.

[swissmissficrecs]

Hello! I'm asking everyone who might know, though I'm not sure which blogs are still active...I'm looking for a fic where Sherlock and John were at a monastery. Sherlock had taken a vow of silence and John talked to/prayed a lot to the virgin Mary. It was such a good fic. Thank you!

Sorry I didn't see this before. It might be In the Name of the Lord by Philomena85 (details below). I could have sworn I had a religious-themed rec list already, but it seems not. So here you go, in case that's not it maybe it's one of these others:

Clergy Johnlock

Fics in which either Sherlock or John is a member of clergy or masquerades as one.

A Second Time After the Last Time by S_IRIS (10K, E, Johnlock) In an era when science was condemned by religion, Sherlock Holmes was a man of science and John Watson a man of religion. Will they be condemned for their love and for the felony, or will John be able to convince Sherlock to escape?

All We Ought to Ask by achray (56K, E, Johnlock) “It’s a quiet parish,” Stamford added, beckoning to the maid to pour more. “Apart from that heretic Holmes, of course,” said the Archdeacon.

Children of the Small Gods by alexxphoenix42 (174K, E, Johnlock, JohnAdlock) Brother John is a recent addition to the Temple of the Small Gods on Baker Street. A mysterious stranger catches his attention one night when he does something that no one else has ever managed to do.

Faithful by Megg33k (14K, E, Johnlock) AU (Monk!John & Angel!Sherlock) in which John Watson's life has not gone as planned, and it's about to get even stranger…

Gallant Darling, Pray for Me by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John (104K, E, Johnlock) The priests at the seminary school of St. Sebastian's on the coast of Wales are preparing for a new group of ordinands in the fall of 1927. Father John Watson is not prepared for one of those ordinands to be Sherlock Holmes.

Hearts at Home series by yalublyutebya (74K, M, Johnlock) A series of stories chronicling the intertwined lives of Father John Watson and Sherlock Holmes.

In the Name of the Lord by Philomena85 (70K, T, Johnlock) After returning from Afghanistan, John Watson has managed to get back into professional life - but something is missing. His quest for meaning leads him for a time to a monastery, where he soon acquainted with an exceptional monk. But there’s more there than he had suspected at first glance …

Infidelis by unholiest (13K, T, Johnlock) “I have noticed a decline in my regular parishioners. I do hope none of them have come to any harm.” Sherlock chuckled, and the low pitch of it resonated against the cold brick, letting it echo back into John’s ears. It was nice. It felt like velvet, and John had an inkling that he was one of a few that had actually heard it. “Quite the contrary, Father, I believe you are to be the next victim.”

Jesus Loves Me by OMSP (11K, M, Johnlock) In this AU, Father Holmes befriends a young, struggling musician named John Watson. They strike up an unlikely friendship born of violence. Can the kindly priest help John fight his demons without losing his own soul?

Mercy by lookupkate (31K, E, Johnlock) John Watson asks God to save him while wounded in the desert. When God does he figures he'd better pay him back. After two years as a vicar at a large parish he finally gets to move to a small town and have a parish of his own.

Take Me To Church by CarmillaCarmine (12K, E, Johnlock) In hiding, John is impersonating a priest. Everything goes according to plan until one of his parishioners confesses the dirty thoughts he has about him.

The Adventure of the Six Painted Virgins by Saathi1013 (14K, E, Johnlock) Sherlock dons an unusual disguise for a case. John is…conflicted. Character study, casefic*, & smut (in that order).

The Beast of Baskerville by mildredandbobbin (74K, E, Johnlock) 15th Century/fairy tale AU. An invalided John Watson comes to the isolated village of Baskerville seeking shelter with his sister, only to become embroiled in a grisly murder. As the villagers point to a local werewolf legend, the odd but brilliant friar, Brother Sherlock, disagrees and soon he and John are on the the trail of a murderer. Captivated by the enigmatic friar, John finds himself struggling with his illicit feelings for the celibate man of God.

The Sacred Bond by ampersand_ch (42K, E, Johnlock) A series of mysterious deaths among priests puts John and Sherlock onto the trail of an ancient, secret brotherhood. Little do they suspect how deeply their own situation is tangled up with the case.

[unsoundedcomic]

So if a post-war Plat kid isn’t dangerously unstable I figure they’re either sent back to their ghers or the prettier ones farmed out to classier brothels; am I close? After being used as war tools and uh, used by fellow soldiers, that’s probably almost a heaven by comparison for most of ‘em. I’ve thought before that if not for current adventures that courtesanship would be one of the least awful of Matty’s fates.

Plats only rarely leave the service once they're in. Jon's plan was to transfer to seminary and join the priesthood, but Plats who persistently Don't Die just keep advancing through the ranks to become spellmasters themselves, or fieldwrights. Sometimes even fieldwright officers, if they're particularly impressive.

Boys aren't sent to brothels at all, generally, as homosexuality is verboten in Alderode and we all know Aldish women don't actually want to have sex, they are chaste and wholesome unlike those slutty foreigners.

It's not likely Matty ever would have been sent to the military as he stood to inherit Vienne's forge. He would have become her apprentice and trained to take over for her. Considering his disposition and Vienne's attitude towards him learning pymary at all, however, this wouldn't have realistically panned out. The elders would have arranged a marriage that left him sidelined by in-laws, most likely. Probably Matty's best case scenario was that, an understanding wife, a clerical role at the forge, and a loving lover on the side.

[mystery-moose]

Tav questions 4, 7, 16

Already answered 4!

7.) What circumstances led to your Tav becoming their Class/Subclass?

Got sent to seminary school as a sort of punishment/attempt to get him to straighten up and fly right, and ended up taking to it rather well! To his parent's chagrin, though, he very much took to a life of knight-errantry as opposed to a scholarly, clerical lifestyle. He wanted to get out there and do the things scholars read and talked about, rather than sit around and read and talk about what other people had done, y'know?

16.) How does your Tav feel about killing?

It's contextual. He's against it as a matter of course, especially at the outset of his adventures, but as time goes on, he becomes much more comfortable with the idea that some people need to get got, and he's not going to pretend he doesn't enjoy it when he gets to put them down. There's a part of him that absolutely understood the tragedy of Orin's entire life, for example, but at the same time? He wanted nothing more than to put her in the ground, make her take a dirt nap, sever her head from her shoulders and banish her to the land of wind and ghosts.

Some nights the idea of taking pleasure in violence keeps him up, and other nights he sleeps like a baby. He contains multitudes!

[docgold13]

365 Marvel Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…

August 12th - Karnak

Karnak Mander-Azur is the son of an Inhuman priest and philosopher named Mander and an ocean biologist named Azur.  Karnak and his older brother, Triton, grew up in the secluded Inhuman citadel of Attilan.  As was the custom on Attilan, Triton was subjected to the transformative properties of the Terrigen Mist in his late childhood.  Terrigenesis granted Triton significant powers, yet also altered him physically in a fashion that was deemed highly unfavorable.  

This was a source of great shame for Triton and his parents.  So much so that Triton’s younger brother, Karnak, was allowed to forgo the process and instead enrolled in the religious seminary of the Tower of Wisdom.  At the tower Karnak trained in various physical and mental disciplines.  He greatly excelled in this seminary, quickly matriculating to a role of high priest.  

Karnak cultivated a nihilistic philosophy, focusing on the inevitable atrophy of all things.  His continued meditation opened up a kind of sixth sense where he is able to perceive the fault in all things.  As such, he can detect an object’s greatest point of weakness.  When coupled with his mastery of the Tower’s particular brand of martial arts, Karnak can utilize this perception break or shatter any piece of matter, from a giant boulder to a bullet hurdling through the air.  

Karnak’s ability to perceive fault has helped him become a master strategist and a nearly unbeatable hand-to-hand combatant.   He went on to become an adviser and bodyguard to Black Bolt, ruler of Attilan.  As a member of the Royal Procession, Karnak has been involved in numerous adventures that has seen him joining forces with various heroes, including The Fantastic Four, Daredevil, The Avengers and others.  

Following the fall of Attilan, Karnak established a new Tower of Wisdom in a rural part of the United States.  He acted as an advisor and paid operative for SHIELD and later became a member of Daisy Johnson’s second iteration of the Secret Warriors.  In the wake of the Death of the Inhumans event, Karnak has abandoned the new Tower to hide away with the remaining Inhumans in a secluded haven.  

Karnak featured in the ABC Network television series, Marvel’s Inhumans, portrayed by actor Ken Leung.   The character first appeared in the pages of Fantastic Four Vol 1 #45 (1965).

[beloved-not-broken]

It's finally Pride Month! To celebrate, I'm bringing back the "Queer People of Faith" series with even more celibate and gender non-conforming folks that I've learned about in seminary.

QUEER PEOPLE OF FAITH: Theodora of Alexandria (died 491 AD)

Identity: Unknown; however, she dressed as a man and used the name "Theodore of Alexandria."

Pronouns: Unknown; however, writings about Theodora of Alexandria use "she/her/hers."

.

The Desert Fathers were hermits who created monastic communities in Egypt beginning in the 3rd century AD. Although most of them were men, there were a few women there, too.

Theodora of Alexandria had committed adultery early in her life, and to atone for her sin, she disguised herself as a man and joined a men's monastery. Apparently, her ruse was so convincing that she fooled all the monks in her community, as well as a woman who would accuse her of being the father of her illegitimate child.

Some sources say that the monks didn't realize she was a woman until she had died. However, other sources say that she became the "amma" ("mother") of a monastic community of women later in life.

As a monk, Theodora of Alexandria taught that...

Trials and temptations contribute to spiritual growth

Humility is more important than self-discipline and rituals

Secular conversations will "not do you any harm" when your heart is turned to God

🏳️‍🌈 Happy Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈

[grigori77]

Critical Role, Campaign 3 Episode 45

Marisha's "ow" in the middle of her suggestion and then just carrying on like it didn't actually happen is so adorable ... and then Laura doing a PSA ... XD "You may be weird looking, but you're opposable, damn it!" This may actually have been one of the least painful ads Sam's ever brought us. He should let the girls take the lead more often.

Wow ... is it just me or does that D&D Beyond plug feel somewhat strained and rote? I wonder why ...

Will Friedel? OMG!!! HELLO BOYO!!!

Welcome back, Taliesin ... "What is WRONG with you people?" Yeah, he just found out about the "sex ruse" ...

Ashton's reply to the Imogen message ... and now she doesn't have a slot to answer back. XD Oh, higher level? Okay ...

Travis counting her sigh as one of the words in the count ... XD

FCG suggesting they put Tuldus in their chest cavity, and then Chetney's fine about the idea but only if they chop him up so he'll fit in the first place ... yeah ...

Can Pate handle this responsibility? Oh dear, he's chuckling, that can't be a good sign. Wow, is he actually a bit dense? Awww, Laudna's finding his telepathic communication so cute.

Now they have him hogtied and stashed ... off to the Seminary, then.

FCG's still a bit sensitive? That's worrying.

Bizarre game controller comment is most amusing.

Oh, he's in disguise? Or something? What? What is going on? Oh, glamour ... what happened to him, though? I feel like there's a story here. Orym: "Did you get a job?" Ashton: "Kinda."

Oh gods, did Ashton just give Chetney wood?

Okay, who's Violet? Is this a problem? Yes, sounds like it might be. Oh shit, did he just give the game away? Chetney: "You freelanced on the side?!" Cops? Fighting? KIDNAPPING?!!! Oh for fuck's sake, Ashton!

The Baneful Brood? Hmmmm ...

MOBSTERS?!!! Oh shit ... it keeps getting worse ... he kidnapped a KENKU?!!! Unconscious? Tied up? What? Oh gods ... THE FEDS?!!! FCG: "What's a Fed?"

Oh, so he's like a snitch now? And yet because of the glamour he can never actually call in that favour now. XD This whole thing is ludicrous snd hilarious.

PASTRIES!!! Nice! :3 THAT makes everything all right again.

Vitro Isham? Okay then ...

Ashton: "Only my dignity is covered in food."

Their recent adventure: the Cliff's Notes version.

Yiosian calzone.

Whoa, did Matt just have to SHUSH half the group? XD

Ashton: "It's only after a break that you realise how WEIRD this group is."

The Ruby Vanguard are pissing everybody off, apparently ... rumours abound, and even Ashton heard about them in the kitchens. Interesting ...

Liam: "A satyr, a god and a robot walk into a bar."

The professor is IN. A firbolg! Okay! :3 Oh boy, this guy is ALREADY a hoot. Wow, Matt is REALLY getting his teeth RIGHT INTO this accent, isn't he?

That whole messaging conversation was a MESS and I loved it. XD

He knows Imahara Joe! Nice!

"Student Laudna ..."

Yes, disarm him, smart ...

A Harmonious Aeormaton! A Peacekeeper? Cool ... The Care and The Culling ... oh, yes, that sounds nasty ...

Oh boy ... mechanical prostate test! XD

He is HOLDING FCG'S POWER CORE IN HIS HANDS!!! A failsafe? Ooooooh ...

CAN he access his OLD memories? Hmmmm ...

Yes, he IS a person. :3 And YES. He is not his memories, he is what he CHOOSES to be. This Prof Isham is a SMART DUDE!!! And really quite sweet, too, it would seem.

FCG: "How can we register to vote?"

FCG wants him to turn him into an Easy Bake Oven ... XD

Oh sweet fuck this conversation sbout things no human being should mention ... XD Once again they're getting derailed by dirty minds ...

Fearne's badgering pays off ...

The Omen Archive ... a comprehensive database of Ruidusborn ... oh yeah, Roe Estani! Yeah ...

So the Exaltants are becoming more frequent, then? And yes ... Thul again ... she really is starting to turn into a proper bad penny in this mess ...

The Reilora? The dust storm dreams? HOLY FUCK!!! Wait ... whoa ... so these are the people who live in the city on Ruidus! Wow ...

It's starting to sound like there might be some kind of conflict going on UP THERE as well as down here because of all this. That is, frankly, COMPLETELY FUCKING TERRIFYING.

Fancy trapdoor game is SWEET!!!

Ooooooooooooooh ... what is this ... OH SHIT!!! The missing text from Vasselheim!

Oh shit! Older creepy elf dude! That's so bad!

Matt: "And that's where we're gonna take a break!"

"No." Fearne: "No what?" Oooooh shiiiiit!

Wisdom saving throw already? Fuck! 26? Phew ... Nice one, Ashley!

Martinet Ludinus Da'leth. Whoo ... and he means BUSINESS, clearly. And RUDE too!

Holy fuck creepy magic mind control! That is HORRIBLE!!!

Fuck, and he totally recognises Imogen because of her mother ... that is so bad!

Get out of the room. Both of you get out of this room RIGHT NOW.

What's round his neck?

Liam dropping RIGHT DOWN in the chair like he REALLY doesn't wanna be here right now and I DO NOT blame him, this is unbearably tense ... Travis is just chewing on his nails like he's super nervous too ...

Fuck ... has this guy been tracking Imogen through the dreams all this time?

The others are silently signaling them to get out of there now and I am SO TOTALLY WITH THEM right now ...

This is a really clunky plug Sam is trying to pull to cover this latest whisper ...

Da'leth: "I think your mother would like to see you." Oh shit ...

Fearne: "What are you doing with those papers?" Da'leth: "I wouldn't want go spoil the surprise." Okay ... yeah, this guy is TOTALLY giving me HUMONGOUS supervillain vibes ...

Oh yeah, I think Prof Sumal is just GONE now ...

Fearne, do not rob the nice lady.

Ashton's story grows more fascinating, clearly we missed some fun ...

Oh, they're all on the ball now ... this is so bad ...

Yes! Eshteross' cookies! :3

Everybody needs to get back to Imogen snd Fearne NOW.

Eep ... those Crimson arseholes are back ...

Orym trying to Nice Guy husband way around Carolle ... and Ashton has the silver spoon from the kitchen. XD I don't even want to THINK about what Chetney's doing ...

Imogen, what are you doing? Call Ryn? Oh yes ... yes, that's a good idea, she might be able to help ...

Laudna's first concern is IS IMOGEN ALL RIGHT. That is completely perfect.

I love how Ashton can be SO SWEET sometimes, it's just adorable. He tries to be so hard but really he's such a softy.

Imogen messages Ryn ... "Well shit ..." Yeah, we're with you there, luv.

Matt: "What did you roll?" Laura: " I rolled very ... 8."

So Ryn CAN fix her ... that is a relief.

Laudna checks through Pate's eyes ... he's poking the guy, apparently.

Holy fuck the loss of those papers was SPECTACULARLY bad ...

The return of the Flat Earth ... XD

Fey Realm. Totally, Fey Realm. Ashton: "Let's go recruit a fucking grandma."

Pate explodes on the guy's shoulder before reconstituting (very messily) on Laudna's. Oh boy ...

The Harrowcall Fens ... Ligament Manor? Morri keeps getting more and more disquieting by the second.

Chetney reveals how much he's just been taking the piss as a so-called Planewalker. Ryn is unimpressed, but in an amused way. XD

Ryn: "Cuddle up! It's gonna be a ride!" FCG: "Hope I don't kill you all on the way."

And she sends them into the Feywild ...

A magical marshland ... swampy forest ... this is strangely familiar. Oooh, the toads ...

Laudna: "I still have that baggie of weird drugs." Orym: "Not right now."

Fearne says she knows EXACTLY where she is. Roll shit. She has NO IDEA.

Weird as plant tells them where to go ... of course it does ...

Fearne is ... DIFFERENT here. Oh boy ... she us like totally in the Uncanny Valley now here. Oh shit! Fearne's like the Spirit of the Forest in Princess Mononoke right now!

Chetney is completely freaking out right now and I DO NOT blame him.

Morri loves to entertain ... oh boy ...

Who's Doctor Nesbitt? Do I want to know?

Marisha: "Matt's being so creepy!" Matt (exasperated): "I'M LOOKING AT MY WIFE!!!"

Laudns introduces herself to the flowers ... oh boy ... she gets overzealous ... no, they like her ... fucking hell this is so bizarre ... oh shit, they REALLY like her ... oh boy, this is getting REALLY weird now ... oh no, has Laudna offended them now?

Oh gods, NOW what has she done? The trees are angered, it looks like ...

Imogen: "Tell me this us your grandmother, Fearne." Fearne: "It's just the trees."

FCG's SINGING to the trees now ... yeah, I didn't think that would work ...

Natural 1 ... oh boy ... Fearne is NOT getting anywhere here ...

DOES SHE have Speak With Plants? Rolling at disadvantage ... 26? That's at DISADVANTAGE?!!! Wow ...

They can get out if they SING, apparently ...

Oh boy, this is getting embarrassing ... yes, I agree with Matt, this is totally a DIN. They start singing: "Dying In Your Arms Tonight" ... Laura rolls a Nat 20 AND a Nat 1 ... wow ... but Ashley rolls SWEET too and saves the day.

They're free! Phew!

The flowers start screaming and WE start screaming ... oh, that was a GOOD THING? Fucking hell ...

Fearne can smell Morri's lanterns. Okay ...

Toucan Sam ... XD

Secret glade ... massive tree ... draping vines ... empty wooden cages ... decorative wreaths ... yeah, this place is, like, SO FUCKED UP ... kind of beautiful too, though ...

Morri invites them in ... Travis' face is PRICELESS. He is SO creeped out ... knitted dolls, bones, weird potted plants ... he's hating it even more and I love it ... XD

Okay ... Morri is BIG. And WEIRD. Giraffe neck extending out ... freaky ET face, but with sharp teeth ... oh my fucking gods ... it's a nightmare version of when Gertie dresses ET up in drag, isn't it?

Tiki Bar? A TIKI BAR?!!!

Matt: "And THAT'S where we're gonna call it a night!"

Oof ... so, NO Crit Role this week ... but IT IS the premiere of TLOVM season 2 so it's all cool!

[reasoningdaily]

Ota Benga was kidnapped from what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1904 and taken to the US to be exhibited. Journalist Pamela Newkirk, who has written extensively about the subject, looks at the attempts over the decades to cover up what happened to him.

More than a century after it drew international headlines for exhibiting a young African man in the monkey house, the Bronx Zoo in New York has finally expressed regret.

The Wildlife Conservation Society's apology for its 1906 exhibition of Ota Benga, a native of Congo, comes in the wake of global protests prompted by the videotaped police killing of George Floyd that again shone a bright light on racism in the United States.

During a national moment of reckoning, Cristian Samper, the Wildlife Conservation Society's president and CEO, said it was important "to reflect on WCS's own history, and the persistence of racism in our institution".

He vowed that the society, which runs the Bronx Zoo, would commit itself to full transparency about the episode which inspired breathless headlines across Europe and the United States from 9 September 1906 - a day after Ota Benga was first exhibited - until he was released from the zoo on 28 September 1906.

But the belated apology follows years of stonewalling.

'He was a zoo employee'

Instead of capitalising on the episode as a teachable moment, the Wildlife Conservation Society engaged in a century-long cover-up during which it actively perpetuated or failed to correct misleading stories about what had actually occurred.

As early as 1906 a letter in the zoo archives reveals that officials, in the wake of growing criticism, discussed concocting a story that Ota Benga had actually been a zoo employee. Remarkably, for decades, the ruse worked.

Who was Ota Benga?

Captured in March 1904 by US trader Samuel Verner from what was then Belgian Congo. His age is not known, he may have been 12 or 13

Taken by ship to New Orleans to be shown later that year at World's Fair in St Louis with eight other young males

The fair continued into the winter months where the group was kept without adequate clothing or shelter

In September 1906 he was exhibited for 20 days in New York's Bronx Zoo, attracting huge crowds

Outrage from Christian ministers ended his incarceration and he was moved to New York's Howard Coloured Orphan Asylum run by African American Reverend James H Gordon

In January 1910 he went to live at the Lynchburg Theological Seminary and College for black students in Virginia

There he taught neighbourhood boys how to hunt and fish and told stories of his adventures back home

He later reportedly became depressed with his longing for home and in March 1916 shot himself with a gun he had hidden. He was thought to be aged around 25.

Source: Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga

In 1916, following Ota Benga's death, a New York Times article dismissed as urban legend tales of his exhibition.

"It was this employment that gave rise to the unfounded report that he was being held in the park as one of the exhibits in the monkey cage," the article said.

Ota Benga (R) pictured at the World's Fair in 1904 where he and others were exhibited as "pygmies"

The account, of course, contradicted the numerous articles that a decade earlier had appeared in newspapers across the country and in Europe.

The New York Times alone had published a dozen articles on the affair, the first under the 9 September 1906 headline: "Bushman Shares A Cage With Bronx Park Apes".

Then, in 1974, William Bridges, the zoo's curator emeritus claimed that what actually occurred could not be known.

In his book The Gathering of Animals, he rhetorically asked: "Was Ota Benga 'exhibited' - like some strange, rare animal?" a question that he, as the man who presided over the zoo archives, would know best how to answer.

"That he was locked behind bars in a bare cage to be stared at during certain hours seems unlikely," he continued, patently ignoring mountains of evidence in the zoological society archives that reveal just that.

An article about the exhibition, written by the zoo director, had in fact appeared in the zoological society's own publication.

Nonetheless, Bridges wrote: "At this distance in time that is about all that can be said for sure, except that it was all done with the best of intentions, for Ota Benga was interesting to the New York public."

'Friendship between captor and captive'

Compounding these deceptive narratives was a book published in 1992 and co-authored by the grandson of Samuel Verner, the man who went to Congo heavily armed to capture Ota Benga and others to exhibit at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair.

The book was absurdly characterised as the story of friendship between Verner and Ota Benga.

In at least one newspaper account since the book's publication, the younger Verner also claimed that Ota Benga - who had vigorously resisted his captivity - had enjoyed performing for New Yorkers.

So for more than a century, the very institution and men who had so ruthlessly exploited Ota Benga, and their descendants, contaminated the historical record with untrue narratives that circulated around the world.

Even now, Mr Samper has apologised for exhibiting Ota Benga for "several days", and not for the three weeks he was held captive in the monkey house.

The Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs Bronx Zoo, said it condemned certain dishonourable chapters in its history

The zoo has now posted online digitised documents it holds of the episode, among them letters that detail the daily activities of Ota Benga and the men who caged him.

Many of those letters are already cited in my book, Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga, published in 2015.

In the five years since its publication, zoo officials had inexplicably refused to express regret or even respond to media inquiries.

And while I had the opportunity to visit the primate house where Ota Benga was exhibited and housed, the building has since been shuttered to the public.

'Best room in the monkey house'

Now, Mr Samper says: "We deeply regret that many people and generations have been hurt by these actions or by our failure previously to publicly condemn and denounce them."

He also denounced founding members Madison Grant and Henry Fairfield Osborn, both ardent eugenicists who played a direct role in Ota Benga's exhibition.

Grant went on to write The Passing of The Great Race, a book steeped in racist pseudo-science that was praised by Osborn and hailed by Adolf Hitler.

A return to Congo would have been prohibitively expensive for Ota Benga

Osborn went on to lead for 25 years the American Museum of Natural History where in 1921 he hosted the second International Eugenics Congress.

Curiously, Mr Samper did not mention William Hornaday, the zoo's founding director who was also the nation's foremost zoologist and founding director of the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

Hornaday had littered the cage housing Ota Benga with bones to suggest cannibalism and had brazenly boasted that Ota Benga had "the best room in the monkey house".

Some feel the conservation society now needs to follow its incomplete apology with rigorous truth-telling befitting a leading educational institution.

The episode offers the zoological society the opportunity to educate the public about the history of the conservation movement and its ties to eugenics.

The Bronx Zoo's founding principals were among the most influential disseminators of specious racial inferiority theories that resonate still.

One suggestion has been that the society might also consider naming its education centre for Ota Benga, whose tragic life and legacy is inextricably bound to the Bronx Zoo's.

[jonfarreporter]

Charmian London, a remarkable woman few people really knew.

When taking a walk around the grounds at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen it’s easy to be awestruck by the natural beauty of what was once the famous author’s home. Yet what few people know is that behind London and his vision was his 2nd wife, Charmian Kittredge London.

“She was instrumental not only in ensuring his legacy but also in helping and contributing to his writing,” said poet/historian Iris Jamal Dunkle.

Dunkle’s recent book, ‘Charmian Kittredge London, Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer’ speaks of a woman who was a part of her times and yet ahead of her times.

Dunkle’s work inspired the officials and staff at JLSP to shift the spotlight from exclusively Jack London to highlight Charmian as one of the 20th Century’s most under-appreciated women of significant influence and accomplishment.

As noted when she spoke recently with The Sonoma Valley Sun. “I had never even met a writer until the day I walked into the museum at the House of Happy Walls at Jack London State Historic Park, back in the sixth grade.”

“Suddenly, walking through the exhibits, said Dunkle, I saw how one could spend a life traveling the world and writing about it.”

I fell instantly in love with Jack London and vowed to read everything he had ever written,” said Dunkle.

Dunkle was impressed by London’s insightful writing and his way of capturing the essence of people and perspectives.

Yet it was when Dunkle came upon a collection called, ‘Our Valley of the Moon in poems and pictures,’ which included an iconic photograph of Jack London riding on horseback on Sonoma Mountain. “And to my surprise, beneath it was a clear attribution, said Dunkle. “Charmian London.”

Intrigued, Dunkle had a quest set before her. “When I reached out to several scholars to see if they knew Charmian had been the photographer, each of them gave me the same answer: they had never even thought to ask who had taken this famous photograph!” Exclaimed Dunkle.

In her six-year endeavor of research for the nearly-300 page biography, Dunkle was both surprised and dismayed at what she uncovered.

“From far away, London was an individual genius writer. But up close, in the extensive research I did says Dunkle, the ugly truth, the brushstrokes, that made that illusion so beautiful from afar are fully visible.”

“Each adventure London sought and experienced, said Dunkle, each book he wrote was aided by another force of nature: his second wife, Charmian Kittredge London.”

Charmian Kittredge was unique among the women of her time in that she was college educated. “Not a finishing school or a ladies seminary,” said Dunkle but a progressive college for women, Mills College in Oakland,” added Dunkle.

Despite the fact that Charmian lost her mother when she was little, her father insisted she be educated and have skills. Learning stenography, (shorthand) Charmian worked her way through school in the Mills College administration offices. “She became extremely efficient and invaluable,” said Dunkle.

The most upsetting aspect to Dunkle’s lengthy research was the fact that “Charmian was maligned by London scholars and biographers like Irving Stone who painted Charmian as someone who was an overbearing disruption than a helper,” said Dunkle.

Yet what Dunkle uncovered was a remarkable woman who traveled the world, had a high-paying job. “Charmian worked at the largest shipping firm in San Francisco before she met Jack in 1900 and started dating him in 1902,” said Dunkle.

Illuminating important disregarded if not overlooked facts, Dunkle said. “Charmian began her own writing career in the 1890s publishing non-fiction essays in Sunset magazine and The Overland Monthly.”

“One of my most important discoveries, added Dunkle, however, was that Charmian was not just Jack’s secretary (as had been previously assumed). Charmian helped write several of Jack’s books and acted as his editor beginning with his novel,’The Sea-Wolf.’”

With this revelation, Dunkle became undaunted even when resources at Huntington Library in San Marino, CA was missing important bits and pieces.

Referring to her exhaustive research as “clandestine,”

Dunkle surmised. “After being granted such access, Irving Stone’s betrayal with his unfair biased view in the biography he wrote about Jack London, Charmian became more guarded. Most likely, Charmian burned letters, documents, etc.”

Pointing out how much harm is done when facts are distorted or dismembered, “Charmian more than deserves to be honored,” said Dunkle.

“Charmian refused to adhere to the gender norms of her day,” said Dunkle. “She was an avid horseback rider who thought riding side-saddle absurd.” “Charmian was an equal to Jack, (they were definitely soul-mates) unafraid, athletic and adventurous,” added Dunkle.

Volunteers at Jack London State Historic Park like Mary Oswald are pleased with the new focus on Charmian. “As the old saying goes, behind every great man there’s a woman.”

“I agree,” said Sonoma resident Jude Cameron, who stopped in at the exhibit. “Perhaps in this situation with Jack and Charmian, it was more about a woman beside him as an equal.”

To learn more about the exhibit of Charmian at Jack London State Park in Glen Ellen, visit the JLSP website.

Praised by the Jack London Society, and Sonoma State University’s former chair of the Communications Studies Department, Jonah Raskin said of Dunkle’s work.

“Riveting…this biography sets the record straight as straight as it can be straightened…Despite her flaws, or perhaps because of them, Charmian is indeed the kind of woman whom one would love to have known.”

To learn more about Iris Jamal Dunkle’s biography: ‘Charmian Kittredge London, Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer’ visit her website.

[heathersdesk]

There was a family in my first branch who tried to do this kind of thing because they subscribed to a Creationist timeline. That's what they taught in seminary and Sunday School, even though it's not what the Church itself teaches about the Creation.

What does the Church teach about the timeline of the Creation? It's a non-commital shrug with the acknowledgement that there are more important things to focus on about the Creation than how long it took.

Years later, I was in a classroom at BYU with one of the most conservative professors on campus. He pointed out that the Creationist timeline makes no sense because it's based on the timeline of 7 literal 24 hour days, when the Sun and the Moon (according to the Creation story in the Old Testament) weren't created until the 4th day. It was such a simple response that freed me from any loyalty to Creationism, and I've stuck with that ever since.

Mormonism encompasses so many different worldviews, from the most incomprehensible and observably false narratives from evangelical Christianity to the "God is a Scientist who Uses Scientific Processes" that I experienced from my professors at BYU. It's very much a Choose Your Own Adventure, whether they want to admit it or not.

We might as well embrace the cafeteria approach to religion because it's what people in our religious tradition have always done. Everyone chooses the interpretation of the world around them that is consistent with the relationship they want to have with reality and the people in it.

I can't stop people in the Church from needlessly believing in Creationism, but that doesn't mean I need to adopt it because it's what they're teaching their children.

The fact that my worldview is not identical to the person sitting in the pew next to me is a feature, not a bug.

[karlyanalora]

Birth of a Fanfic Writer

When I was seven, my mom bought a giant roll of perforated printer paper. I rolled it out on my cousin’s carpeted living room and got down on my belly, colored pencils in hand, and drew horse after horse. I named them all and as I drew them, I spoke aloud the story of their lives as it burst into existence within my head.

In 2005, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe came out in theatres. I watched it at home with my family. I remember being in Costco with my dad and him picking out the boxset of the books to go with the DVD, promising to read them to me. Such was the start of a tradition, but that’s a tale for another time. The important bit was dancing in the front yard under the aspen tree, imagining myself beside Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter. They were soon joined by Codename: The Kids Next Door, of which Numbah Five and Numbah One were my favorite. There must have been others, but those are the only two I can remember. My first fandoms if you will.

I don’t remember how old I was when I started, but on long car rides I would be arm myself with a pencil and a brand new notebook. I started many stories that way, writing out the first few chapters before I burned out. I only remember the plot of one. I had recently found a single issue of a comic from the 2003 Teen Titans cartoon. A bad guy tried to impersonate Starfire’s long lost brother and her pet pupa didn’t trust the impersonator. That was my first introduction to superheroes and it was love at first sight. So I wrote a self-insert where my family and I were magical shapechangers and Batman wiped out my people and killed my mom because he thought we were bad guys. Robin questioned him, but Batman was sure he was doing the right thing. I was raising my siblings in a tree when I rescued Robin, who I aged down to be my future love interest, and togethe we were going to show Batman he was wrong or something. I don’t remember what I had planned. I couldn’t have been older than nine. The angstiest thing I could have possibly read at that age was Percy Jackson. I have no idea where that dark storyline came from, but it was the furthest I would get in any story until NaNoWriMo 2014.

I was determined to create an entirely original story. But I found myself writing loopholes where I could connect my characters back to the MCU and DCEU. I did finish NaNoWriMo, but I had to make the outlines for books two and three. My family likes to tease me about He-Man appearing in book three.

In 2018, my friend Annie introduced me to Voltron. I can’t remember what season we were waiting on, but in the parking lot of early morning seminary, she introduced me to fanfic. A story about Pidge getting switched with the Green Lion along with other adventures. It was Though She Be Little by TheRedScreech. I read it, enjoyed every bit, and didn’t think about fanfic again.

Some family friends tried to get us into the YouTube channel craze. My sister and I were going to make a goofy cartoon and try to make money off it. I wrote to Star Wars about permission to do so and was politely told no. I was going to do it anyway and researched fair use laws. I wrote a script. I still didn’t think about fanfic.

During 2019, through regular dog sitting during the week and a month-long stint housesitting during the summer, I watched a lot of tv. I’d burned through all the available seasons for Tales of Arcadia, season seven of Voltron had failed me, so I rewatched my beloved Transformers Animated. And then I watched Transformers Prime and even Rescue Bots. But I was still starved for more. As I lay awake in my apartment at college in the early pre-Covid months of 2020, I remembered what Annie had told me about fanfic. How if I wanted to avoid smut, I should stay away from M-rated fics and so on. Armed with that knowledge, I plunged into the world of fanfiction.net and scoured the Transformers section. I stayed up all night reading @megadoomingir ‘s Redeem the Stars. Didn’t sleep much better when I started what was then up of their Stop Me.

And somewhere during those late nights of early adulthood, I realized I could create original work. But that’s never been what I wanted. Ever since I was a little girl, I had wanted to write fanfic. So in an empty classroom on campus, I called up my sister and read her the first drafts of what would become Widow’s Legacy and the stories that would come after.

I’ve grown a lot since then. Decided to let go of my shameless self-insert, The Fossa. Let a lot of other original characters and oc-centric worldbuilding go too. Started to think critically about the canon I was working with. But I think most of that was a product of growing up. Nothing I was doing before was wrong; it was a product of a less mature me who would have been writing for an audience who was in the same mindspace. I grew up, and so did the kind of story I wanted to tell.

Where ever you are on this journey and trust me, it’s a journey, be proud of it. Maybe you still want to write original work or like me, you’re happy to write fanfic forever. Don’t be ashamed of what you wrote, dreamed up, or outlined in the past. It’s great for where you were in life at the time, a reflection of a past you who is still learning, growing, and changing. They are your five-year-old self’s scribbles, loving placed on the fridge and maybe even saved for years. They are only made more precious by the masterpieces you create today because they are testaments to your beginnings. Your old fics and ideas are the birthplaces of that story you wrote that touched that one reader and left them forever changed. Be proud, and keep writing.