#this is me making up to you cause of bald Isaac

[faretheeoscar]

Oscar in that red shirt

[titleknown]

KAIJUNE NEO: BABA O'REILY

[A] Oh, hello! 

[J] Uh... hey. Yo.

[A] It's so nice to see a welcoming face in this... Potemkin hamlet. it seems the others are a bit... scared. Why, perhance, did they send you here?

[J] Trailer trash girl, religious family that really got into The Prophet after Mr Krinkle smashed our old house. I like girls, they found out, there you go. Ain't afraid to die cause there wasn't much to live for, prolly why I'm not running.

[A]...I must confess, that's why I'm here too. Liking girls I mean, though I was a preacher's daughter, middle-class. You know, I was going to run away before they sent me here, the way that man was following The Prophet was... terrifying.

[J] Yeah, like, didn't the bible have something in there about not sacrificing your kids for the Lord's favor? Jacob n Isaac or somesuch? There's gotta be some shit about not, say, sending the kids to die at the hands of a giant monster for...

...Cleansing? To stop it eating their fucking houses? The man's words are a fucking mess, never could make heads or tails of it when it was blaring through the trailer at four fucking AM. I mean, not like the people behind The Prophet give a shit what God wan-

[A] I mean, there was the time God sent bears to consume "youths" for mocking Elijah for his baldness. That was very much a scriptural occurence my father placed a direct emphasis on.

But, that was the divine's perogative, not that of humanity, and the record shows you are correct. On both counts...

{A long pause occurs}

[A]...So, they said Mr. O'Reily was coming?

[J] ...{Starts laughing out loud}

[A]- What's so funny?

[J] Just that Mr. O'Reily's a pretty fucking square thing to call it. But yeah, big Baba's coming, I felt the tremors. 

[A] Funny thing, I'd always heard him more associated with rain from the various rumors. I don't think I've ever seen it rain around here this time of year.

[J] I mean, that's alla 'em. It's always the rain with 'em when they're coming. Don't bother running, those freaks The Prophet got with AK-47s are surrounding the place.

[A] I'm aware. I saw one of the bodies. White and gold tactical gear seems like a bit of a... gauche thing to spend your congregation's tithes on. But then, father was always impressed by those who kept up appearances...

{Another long pause. J takes her phone out of her pocket and frowns}

[J]...God dammit, phone's dead. If I was gonna die here, at least wanted to be able to hear my tunes while I did.

[A] Oh! I brought a spare rechargeable battery, you can use it.

{J takes it to charge her phone, smiles impishly}

[J] Yanno, seems a bit weird to have this on ya when you get dragged off to this slapdash sacrifice shithole... ...But thanks.

[A] No problem, and I'm... slightly embarassed to admit it, but I was about to attempt my egress before they took me. Was not expecting the surprise. 

[A] At least they weren't particularly thorough in their checks, though that hardly matters now...

{Another pause}

[A] You know, there happens to be a rumor about 'Big Baba' I had heard, shortly before I attempted my egress.

[J] Que?

[A] He doesn't seem to really attack people. I've heard many reports of colateral damage, of broken buildings and roads, but none of harm to humans. What does your proposition on the subject appear to be?

[J] I... ain't a philosophizer, so I'm just guessing. I think he just wants to live life, his own way. Kinda like what they put us here for. We're all tryin' to get by in this teenage wasteland, monsters ain't no different...

[J] ...'Course, I almost got my leg bit off by Mr Krinkle, so what the fuck do I know about monsters.

{Tremors appear in the background. Raindrops begin falling}

[A]- I think he's moving forward. Would you... be willing to find out. Together?

[J]- Yeah, I think I would

{[A] and [J] hold hands as a great beast emerges from the earth and the rain begins to fall.}

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

So, another day, another Kaijune-but-it's-in-September!

I feel I must note that you may be noticing a pattern with the Kaiju names and yes, I'm doing a Jojo thing where they're all named after bands/songs. In this case, it's the Who song of the same title, which inspired the lore ('it's only teenage wasteland' and all that). 

In yesterday's case with Virgin Killer, it was after a Scorpions album notable for its extremely skeevy cover art (Like, legit, yeesh), which I only basically chose because it was the only album name of the Scorpions I could think of, and also it just sounded like a really fucking cool name for a giant scorpion, I think we can agree. And yes, "Rock You Like A Hurricaine" is why they have the weather powers.

Ability Notes: Mainly in the realm of burrowing and the ability to produce sonic vibrations, used mostly for burrowing or causing tremors, but also can be used as a wide-ranged projectile attack. Also can spit a deadly acid, though it's metabolically expensive (As much as such things can be for kaiju), and the strange enzymes can have... interesting reactions with other things.

Bonus Trivia: [J] is slightly pudgy with long shaggy red hair, and [A] is black and almost definitely on The Spectrum. They're both 17, about to be 18 in a few months. They both survive this, but I won't tell you how.

And, in that grand (exceedingly late) Kaijune tradition, this character and all related narrative elements are under a CC-BY 4.0 license, as long as I, Thomas F Johnson, am credited as their creator.

[gosorsomething]

The Book of Josephine - Chapter 7 up now!

Another update of my Warrior Nun Universe spin-off now on AO3! Thank you to everyone that has read so far!

An excerpt from Chapter 7: "Now it will spring forth,"

Vincent scoffs across the table. “It’s fine. You know she’d probably give you an earful if she could, Isaac.”

Sister Josephine and Sister Gregory look at each other while suppressing a laugh.

“Trust me, she’s given me a page-full quite a few times.” Isaac raps his knuckles on the table again and stands abruptly. “I’m going to check my e-mail before you all start making non-verbal jokes about my bald spot.”

He turns to leave, and when his back is to the group, the old woman puffs out her cheeks and makes a circle with both of her hands, spreading them apart to expand the shape, mimicking how Isaac’s bald spot must be growing. Sister Gregory and Father Vincent burst out laughing, causing Father Isaac to whip around.

“I knew it!” He storms out.

“Isaac, wait. I need to discuss the demonstration with you, more seriously.” Father Vincent catches his breath as he stands to leave. Isaac yells something unintelligible from the hall.

“Codex, Sister Josephine, it was good to see you again. Sister Gregory, it was nice to meet you.” Vincent bids farewell to the two nuns still seated at the table.

“And the Novice.” He takes a couple of steps in the teenager’s direction, on the way to the door. “Keep in touch about your training, you will know how to reach me, if you need anything. I probably won't see you again before I have to leave this afternoon. Good luck, and I’m terribly sorry you have been put into this situation, but trust that everything will end up as God intends.” He goes to the doorway and turns back once more. “In this life, or the next.”

“In this life, or the next.” Sister Gregory repeats as Sister Josephine tips her chin in acknowledgement.

The younger nun stands quickly and jogs to the door, shutting and locking it in one swift motion. She turns, wide-eyed, glancing between the old woman and the teenager.

The Novice turns to face a very loud laugh coming from behind her, where the old woman is seated.

“What a crock this morning has been!” Sister Josephine lets out.

“Now that I think about it, I should have shot you last week when you asked..."

read more on ao3

[in-christalone]

Tbh there were several Bible stories I grew up with where God's actions struck me as extremely barbaric or needlessly cruel, but off the top of my head there are a few that really stuck out to me.

One was in Kings when a group of young boys mocked Elisha for his baldness and he sent a curse in the name of Lord that caused 42 of the boys to be mauled by bears. I know that just because something happened in the Bible doesn't mean God approves of it, but if I remember correctly Elisha is never condemned or criticized for this. I've also heard the interpretation that the "young boys" were actually young men, but as far as I'm aware there's not really enough evidence to say for certain.

Another thing that always bothered me was in Numbers when the Israelites become impatient and start complaining (the whole "have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness" thing) and God responds by sending venomous snakes to kill a several of them (I think the passage states that "many died")

Another story I always found very upsetting despite it's importance and popularity is that of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis. I have heard it said many times that the whole point of the story is that Abraham had faith and knew God wouldn't actually force him to sacrifice his son, but even if that's true I was always so horrified by the damage that Isaac must have lived with after that. I find it difficult to imagine that he ever felt safe with his father again, knowing he would sacrifice him at God's request. And for what purpose? So God could test Abraham's faith? Was there no way to do that without traumatizing Isaac and putting Abraham in such a horrific situation? I remember being a young child and feeling like I couldn't trust the adults in my own family after being told that story so many times, because they made it very clear that Abraham's actions were admirable and, if God asked them to, they would kill their loved ones.

I'm rambling so I'll move onto the last one, which is the story of Job. I've read article upon article and Bible study upon Bible study, not to mention had multiple discussions with seasoned Christians trying to understand how the things that happened in that book could have ever been necessary or positive and I still cannot stomach it or conceive any sort of rational explanation.

I'm totally open to hearing your explanations for these things but I've had them explained to me many times and I still don't find God's violence to be justified or righteous. With all due respect I personally believe that a lot of God's actions are morally repugnant but Christians, in my experience, sort of just deny it by deflecting to different issues ("well humans don't deserve mercy anyway so it was totally fair") or simply coming to the conclusion that if God does it it must be good.

I am so looking forward to doing some study on this! Of course, I don't expect to change your mind at all but I am so pumped,*( I have an art piece on my wall of the one you mentioned about the snakes coming to kill the people, it's like, a direct allegory to Jesus and how people refuse to turn to Him for salvation. sksksks but I'll explain that in a minute )*

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I'm not going to try and be transparent or "cover-up" anything. I seek Truth, even when we see things that might make us stumble. If I'm wrong on something, I would pray that someone who has studied deeper on the subject would correct me.

»»————-　♡　————-««

"One was in Kings when a group of young boys mocked Elisha for his baldness and he sent a curse in the name of Lord that caused 42 of the boys to be mauled by bears. I know that just because something happened in the Bible doesn't mean God approves of it, but if I remember correctly Elisha is never condemned or criticized for this. I've also heard the interpretation that the "young boys" were actually young men, but as far as I'm aware there's not really enough evidence to say for certain."

2 Kings 2:24-25 From there, Elisha went up to Bethel, and as he was walking up the road, a group of boys came out of the city and jeered at him, chanting, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” Then he turned around, looked at them, and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Suddenly two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.

Elisha was known to be compassionate on the repentant and unforgiving and obstinate on the unrepentant.

From biblehbs commentary on the verse: It is not said how far the lads were injured, whether fatally or not. But the punishment, whatever its severity, came from God, not from the prophet, and we may be sure was just. For "shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" A severe example may have been needed under the circumstances of the time, when a new generation was growing up in contempt of God and of religion; and the sin of the lads was not a small one, but indicated that determined bent of the will against good, and preference of evil, which is often developed early, and generally goes on from bad to worse. 2 Kings 2:24.

I do not believe the boys were killed, nor that all of them were injured, perhaps in that moment of the boy's insults the bears came out and they were able to escape, albeit slightly harmed. I'm not going to say I fully understand what's going on, and I found a little study on it too. When I read it, my initial thought was that Elisha was abusing God's power as a prophet for the sake of his pride, but I see that this could also be a representation of how severe the boys generation is, critical against God and needing reprimanding, tho I don't believe any were fatally harmed. Additionally, what type of bears was it? Polar bears are the most dangerous bears and will kill on sight, but I highly doubt there was a polar bear hanging around Bethel.

⊱ ────── {⋅. ✯ .⋅} ────── ⊰

"Another thing that always bothered me was in Numbers when the Israelites become impatient and start complaining (the whole "have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness" thing) and God responds by sending venomous snakes to kill a several of them (I think the passage states that "many died")"

＼＼\(۶•̀ᴗ•́)۶//／／ aw yis, I love this one

Numbers 21:4-9 Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey.  So the people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we are disgusted with this miserable food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.  So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and against you; intercede with the Lord, that He will remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and put it on a flag pole; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, will live.”  So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the flag pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit someone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

You're right that the people were ungrateful for what God had done. The Egyptians were harsh in their rule over the Hebrews, killing all the firstborn? Refusing them even a day of rest to worship their Lord? Heavy demand and supply? They were slaves, they were treated like cattle and they think, "this manna is tiring to eat and we've been walking for a long time. It was better in Egypt. Even with knowing what their future idolatry would look like, God continued to provide for them, they've fallen into rebellion against God so many times and God would continue to send His prophets to call them to repentance. God is not unjust in how He disciplines His people, His people were stubborn, this was the way God knew they would listen [if only for a moment, I say that because even though this, they still did not honor God and worshipped false gods.]

Like in this instance with Moses, God told Moses to make a bronze serpent, it was an order from God, it was not that Moses tried to save his own people by his own will but that God sought to save them. He has prepared a remedy from death.

If anyone looks to that serpent then they are saved from the death of the bite. In the same way, we are saved from the sting of eternal death when we look to Jesus.

How did the people thank God for saving them? They didn't. They started worshipping the snake instead. Given this before and after treatment, I still don't believe God was unjust in His actions to bring the serpents. Really, I say, "Dude they just killed you, now you're gonna worship them?!"

⊱ ────── {⋅. ✯ .⋅} ────── ⊰

"Another story I always found very upsetting despite its importance and popularity is that of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis. I have heard it said many times that the whole point of the story is that Abraham had faith and knew God wouldn't actually force him to sacrifice his son, but even if that's true I was always so horrified by the damage that Isaac must have lived with after that."

(Genesis chapter 22)

Love this one too and it had me stumbling in the beginning when I read it. I always imagined that Issac at the time was preschool age, ignorantly following his dad for the regular offering to God. After some study, I realized this wasn't the case.

Let's remember that Abraham is ANCIENT in this instance, being over 100 years old [some of his bones probably already turned to dust. ] Issac was strong enough to carry the wood [while Abraham carried only the fire and knife] we can discern from this who is stronger. If Issac really needed to, he had the strength to fight off his dad [in a fight or flight instance, he surely would have chosen to fight and flee] Issac trusted his dad in that, "God would provide a lamb" Commentary from 'gotquestions.org' "Probably the most useful clue to how old Isaac was is Genesis 22:6. As they climb the mountain, Isaac is the one carrying the large pile of wood. Wood enough for a burnt sacrifice would have been fairly heavy. This fact tells us Isaac wasn’t a small child when he was to be sacrificed; he was at least a healthy teenager."

Remember that Abraham is known as the "Father of the faith" and having been told by God so many times that it was most definitely, undeniably Issac [his only son] who would begin the multiple descendants (vs 15-19), He trusted in that information. He knew either God really would provide an animal to sacrifice, or bring Issac back from death.

Issac went on to have great faith in God, given this, it probably didn't mean he had any sort of trauma from the trial and had trusted God through this test as well. Abraham and Issac still had a good relationship after the test as well, Abraham is seen giving his servant a mission to find a suitable wife for his son Issac (Genesis 24) and Issac gave his father an honorable burial after his death (Genesis 25).

Here's the main point, Abraham's son was spared, but not God's Son. Jesus was sacrificed on the same mountain for the sake of humanity, to save us from our transgressions. To atone for our sins, He gave Himself up, willingly. Just as I believe Issac was willing to lay in the trust of his father.

⊱ ────── {⋅. ✯ .⋅} ────── ⊰

The story of Job. I've read article upon article and Bible study upon Bible study, not to mention had multiple discussions with seasoned Christians trying to understand how the things that happened in that book could have ever been necessary or positive and I still cannot stomach it or conceive any sort of rational explanation.

Book of Job

This is a really hard one to study too because it's like,, why would God allow Satan to do this? It's another testing of faith like Abrahams's but more deep. If anything. Look at the pure evil coming from Satan and just how much he does not care for the humans, he has not relented in his evil ways even an inch. God did not kill or harm anyone, but he allowed it. Just as God today allows evil to happen in the world because if He got rid of all evil, He would have to send everyone to hell in an instant. But in this, we can clearly see who is not held back in their wicked ways. The devil is certainly not our friend.

Job's words brought me a lot of comforts when I struggle with suicidal thoughts sometimes, "The Lord gives and taketh away." and "Naked I came into this world, naked I will leave" This told me that ultimately I am not in control, but God is. It took so much stress off me to know that all I need to do is continue to trust in the Lord and He will make straight my paths, He leads me beside still waters, comforts me and cares for me.

The book of Job, I would say, is definitely for the mature Christian to dissect. Someone who's been in the faith and has tasted and seen how God the Lord is can really sink their teeth into the book of Job versus someone looking from outside a Christian worldview.

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I don't claim to have all the answers, but this was definitely fun to study. Thank you for this opportunity! It's been a real blessing talking to you too, you're a delight and very polite!

[new-sandrafilter]

Nerdist - Breaking Down the First DUNE Trailer Shot by Shot

by Amy Ratcliffe

Starting with the Pink Floyd song. The lyrics for “Eclipse” are rather fitting for Dune. But moreover, Alejandro Jodorowsky wanted Pink Floyd to do the music for the adaptation he never finished.

“There’s something happening to me.” Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) stands in a bright light, dust swirling around him. The dust is likely spice, the addictive substance Arrakis is known for producing. He’s in the middle of a spice cloud on Arrakis—at least he is in his dream.

“There’s something awakening in my mind. I can’t control it.” He sees Chani (Zendaya) on Arrakis, illuminated by the sun. Then he sees himself with Chani; they’re both wearing stillsuits. They kiss. This is still part of his dream. A prescient dream, as it turns out.

Paul awakens from the dream in his bed on Caladan, his home planet. Notice that the headboard features fish in motion. It’s a symbol. Caladan is a planet full of water. It’s lush… unlike where he’s about to go.

“There’s a crusade coming.” The young Atreides sees a future of fire and smoke. He stands with what looks like the Lady Jessica (though it could be Chani) at a siege. Someone is attacking Arrakis. Is this part of a dream or is it really happening? Paul can see the future in his dreams, so it’s likely this attack is an event to come. Something that will lead to that dangerous path mentioned above.

Then we’re back on Caladan. Before the Atreides depart their home, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) questions Paul. She asks the Atreides son about his dreams. She then administers the gom jabbar test to see if Paul is actually human.

After some dramatic shots of storm clouds above Caladan, we get a solid look at personal shields, a.k.a. Holtzman shields, and how combat with the shield works. It’s a personal protective energy field the wearer can easily activate. Here, Paul trains with Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin); they both have their shields activated. When the shield flashes red, it indicates a hit. Though brief, this scene illustrates that the Atreides heir is swift on his feet and capable in a fight. He’s been relentlessly trained by Gurney, a warrior poet, and other teachers to handle himself.

And behold, our first glimpse (in this trailer) of Paul’s father, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac). He’s a powerful figure in the Dune world, and as Leto says goodbye to Caladan, he knows Arrakis will bring change and challenge. Paul points out to the Reverend Mother that his father rules an entire planet. The Reverend Mother notes that Leto is losing it. And that the Duke will lose Arrakis too.

We see the exterior of Castle Caladan, and servants and assistants packing up the interior. All of this—the color palette, the size, the number of possessions—sets up Caladan as a very different place than Arrakis. The Atreides are going from a place of comfort, of home to somewhere entirely unknown and unwelcoming.

As we see the last of Caladan, we cut to Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), a Bene Gesserit, Duke Leto’s concubine, and Paul’s mother. She looks on edge to say the least. For one thing, she’s leaving her home. She has no illusions about what Arrakis will really be like. Jessica is suspicious that House Harkonnen is letting go of the spice rich planet and letting House Atreides come in without consequence. She should be on guard. And as a Bene Gesserit, Jessica is unnerved by the Reverend Mother’s presence and that the elder put Paul through the Gom Jabbar. Lady Jessica’s decisions are at the core of a lot of Dune‘s major events, and though she can’t grasp that know, she certainly knows something is in the air.

Next, the arrival on Arrakis. From the first moment, the blinding light is opposite of the cooler hues on Caladan. Duke Leto Atreides appears in full armor and looks over his shoulder to give Paul a look of concern. Jessica and other women of the household appear to be in a formal dress of some kind. The vastness of Arrakis awaits them. Guild transport ships and troops stand on the sand.

As Paul and Gurney walk into the desert, a very eager Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) greets him. Duncan is another of Paul’s teachers; he’s an expert fighter. He went to Arrakis ahead of the Atreides to attempt forging an alliance with the Fremen. In this moment, we also get a glimpse of Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson). A mentat and master of assassins, Thufir works for House Atreides. He’s been training Paul in the arts of war and strategy. Paul and Gurney are in Atreides dress uniforms, while Duncan is wearing a Fremen stillsuit.

And speaking of the Fremen, this is Stilgar (Javier Bardem), a respected Fremen leader. The Fremen, of course, being the inhabitants of Arrakis’ desert. We get a good look at his blue-within-blue eyes—the Eyes of Ibad—which is caused by the consumption of spice. All Fremen eyes look like this.

“Arrakis is a death trap.” As if to emphasize this warning about Arrakis, we see a huge number of Sardaukar, the Padishah Emperor’s elite military force. That these soldiers are on Arrakis is very bad news. And they are present in huge numbers.

With the introduction of the threat of the Sardaukar, it’s time to meet the primary opposition to House Atreides: House Harkonnen. We first see Glossu Rabban Harkonnen (Dave Bautista), a.k.a. the Beast. He’s Baron Vladimir Harkonnen’s oldest nephew and quite sadistic and terrifying.

Speaking of sadistic and terrifying, this is brief look at Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Harkonnen. The leader of House Harkonnen is no foolish enemy. He’s cunning, manipulative, and excellent at staying one step ahead of his enemy. It’s hard to tell what he’s doing here, but I’m going to go ahead and say it’s evil.

As palm trees burn outside the Arrakeen keep the Atreides now call home, a distressed Lady Jessica appears. Arrakis only means trouble for the Atreides family. Paul notes, “This is an extermination.”

This is our first look at Dr. Wellington Yueh (Chen Chang). The Suk doctor serves as Duke Leto’s personal physician. The black diamond tattoo visible on his forehead denotes Imperial Conditioning, which conditions doctors against taking human life. It basically means nobles can trust any doctor with this tattoo not to assassinate them.

And then Sardaukar drop in. We hear Paul say, “They’re picking my family off one by one.” The young Atreides appears by his father, both in Fremen stillsuits. In the book, they wear stillsuits to go out into the desert to observe spice harvesting so that may be what we’re seeing here (or about to see).

“Let’s fight like demons.” Remember how I mentioned Duncan Idaho being an excellent fighter? Well, he’d better be, because he’s facing a lot of Sardaukar. You can see more shield hits as he launches into action.

In the middle of this growing tension, we flash back to the Reverend Mother giving Paul the gom jabbar test. She explains an animal caught in a trap will gnaw off its own leg to escape. The Bene Gesserit elder wonders what Paul will do. Is she trying to say the Atreides are going to be caught in a trap on Arrakis? And that Paul will have to take action? Hmm…

As the footage shifts back to Arrakis, we see Paul’s first in person meeting with Chani. He’s seen the Fremen women in dreams before, so he’s not startled to recognize her.

The next few sequences illustrate the amount of trouble the Atreides face. Some of it, anyway. Drop ships arriving during what looks like a siege. An ornithopter is in the air. What seems to be a group of Atreides troops take a hit with Gurney Halleck looking blinded and surprised by an explosion.

Baron Harkonnen, bald like his nephew Rabban, rises from oily water. Baldness is apparently a Harkonnen thing in this Dune adaptation.

Then Duncan Idaho and Paul salute each other, and it looks like Paul has a crysknife. This is likely before an important duel (if you’ve read the book you know the one, and if you haven’t, I won’t spoil it).

One of Arrakis’ many perils is the sandworm. The creatures that reside in the desert make traveling on foot and harvesting spice a challenge. Case in point, a sandworm devours a spice harvester whole while Paul and Gurney look on in this scene.

Dr. Yueh from earlier walks alongside Harkonnen troops. That sure seems suspicious.

And then next we get a look at Dr. Liet Kynes (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). Dr. Kynes is the planet’s Imperial ecologist and also a Fremen leader. The character is gender-swapped here.

The pace picks up, signaling the increasing threats the Atreides face. We see Rabban leading Harkonnen troops. The camera pauses on the Beast’s stomach, likely because of the whip he’s wearing. It’s an inkvine whip. In the Dune book lore, the Beast used that whip in a fight with Gurney Halleck and left a scar on the warrior’s cheek.

A bloody hand falling from Duke Leto’s shoulder (likely belonging to the Shadout Mapes, the head housekeeper of the Atreides’ new abode).

Paul, apparently settling right into Fremen life, engages in a duel. He pulls a crysknife on one of the Fremen.

Then Jessica and Paul pilot ornithopter in what looks like a rushed manner. They’re running from something or someone. I mean, there’s plenty to run from on Arrakis so…

Arrakis is such a treasured planet because of the spice that comes from the desert. Here, Paul picks up a handful of sand containing the highly valued substance.

We hear Paul say “Fear is the mind-killer” as Duncan Idaho kneels in front of Paul and says, “My lord Duke.” The words Paul recites are from the Bene Gessert Litany Against Fear, maybe the most quoted passage from Dune.

And as the trailer ends, we get a clearer look at a sandworm. It looms above Paul and Jessica, mouth agape and ready to devour whatever and whoever is in its way. You can see how its mass displaces the desert sand around it. If the fact that a sandworm ate a whole harvesting vehicle wasn’t enough to unnerve you, this certainly should do the trick.

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Dragon Dancer Chapter 13: Matriarch

I was moving. Voices came from on either side of me, talking, reading out my blood pressure. The feel of the rumble under me was enough to clue me in that I was being rolled, sitting up in a wheelchair. I lifted my head and tried to rub my face, but my arms were fastened to the armrests. My head was heavy. My vision swam.

We entered an elevator.

A woman in a tight fitting short white skirt and heels pulled her tag off her jacket and scanned it against a reader. The doors closed and we started rising, quickly and silently. 

When the doors opened again, the wall on my left was completely glass, overlooking the city of Chicago at night. A ferris wheel glowed from the park in the distance. I saw the blinking lights of planes navigating to the airport. The headlights of cars were like Christmas lights, many stories below.

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Go back to the beginning

I felt exhausted and disoriented. I tried to speak but my voice came out a whisper. “Who… who are you…?”

No one answered me.

Ahead, a double mahogany door was guarded by two men wearing guns at their hips. One knocked twice. The other opened it and I was wheeled inside, off the hardwood and onto a patterned carpet. A fireplace cast flickering red light into the room as the only illumination. The dark city skyline provided a glittering backdrop to the room. The two women turned and left. The door shut.

One man to my left. I recognized him as the bald guy from the warehouse. He sat, one leg over the other, leaning back in a leather chair. A large golden ring glinted on his finger. He didn’t look at me, staring idly in the distance. 

A small white dog rose from the warmth of the fireside, stretched, its tongue curling back into a yawn, and trotted over to me, sniffing my feet in the wheelchair. It rose up on its hindlegs, leaning its front paws on my knees, pleading to be pet.

A woman behind a heavy wood desk stared at several monitors. Her silvery hair is tied back into a neat braid running down her fine embroidered blue housecoat. Her face was illuminated in blue light, her dark eyes flicking as she read, her hands moving the mouse. 

She swiveled her chair to face me, leaning on her elbows and clasping her hands in front of her. Her eyes crinkled in a smile that deepens the lines on her face. “Why do you want to save Isaac?”

The question wasn’t what I was expecting. She waited patiently while I put the words together in a mind still addled by medication. “Because… what’s going to happen is partly my fault. If I never took what he gave me, none of this would have happened... “

She tilted her head, her eyebrows raising.

Then she leaned back, looking at the screen. Her smile was gone. She spoke quietly, but her voice carried in the paneled room, audible over the loud ticking of a grandfather clock. “I’m going to try to keep things simple for you. I believe your story, because of what you know. What you told us about your experience with Isaac.” She picked up a pen and twirled it between her fingers. “The area he showed you is a secret. The serum he gave you is a secret.”

“What day is it?” I objected. “Maybe he hasn’t shown me yet. He won’t show me until the day after I get to Cassell… There might still be time!”

Chafing at my words, a soft impatient sigh escaped the man next to me. He gazed at the fireplace, frowning.

The woman continued. “How much of the past can be changed is something that will always be up to debate. Because if the change occurs, how could we ever know?” She gave a shrug of her shoulders. “The only people who try to change the past are the ones who feel guilty… feel responsible somehow.” She turned back to me. “I can tell you, honestly, you’re not responsible.”

Her words brought tears spilling out of my eyes down to the white dress I was wearing. “But… I can’t stop thinking about it. I didn’t want to do it. I don’t want to do it.”

She nodded to the man who stood up and unstrapped my arms from the chair so I could catch my tears in my sleeve.  She continued to speak, looking at a framed picture on her desk.

“No, in fact, I should be the one to apologize. He’s my grandson. It was my son who convinced me to marry the girl he loved, despite my better judgement. That girl that...  convinced me that Isaac’s genetic deviancy wouldn’t be an issue. Against my better judgement. And…” She shook her head, speaking slowly, softly. “Their pleas about chances and potential… carried me all the way to this moment.”

The bald man helped me stand up and moved me to the chair where he’d been sitting. He then got a cup of water from a dispenser. The little white dog followed him around, wagging its tail.

“And I invested in him, my first grandbaby. His gene therapy, his schooling. His career within the company.” She put the picture down. “I sent him to Cassell. This was all a mistake and, worst of all, I knew it. Deep down, I always did.”

The man returned with a cup of water and a few napkins to wipe my face. I drank it down quickly, the cool water soothing the cottony feeling in my mouth.

“But sometimes we do things we know are wrong. Convincing ourselves that...maybe generations of progress in the field of alchemy and genetic engineering may be able to counteract what our nature has etched into law. That those with unstable bloodlines inevitably will turn into servitors and perish.” 

She lowered her eyes. “Sitting here now. After receiving your message. I am astonished that I could have made that mistake.”

“I promise you…” She said, watching me wipe my eyes and regain my composure. “I will not make the same mistake again. And I will do everything I can, to make it up to you. You shouldn’t have been the one to kill him. My family is my responsibility.”

I crumpled the tissue in my hands. “You’re not going to save him?”

“Sweetheart… I’ve been trying to save him for eighteen years. I should have ended his life the day he was born… Maybe even before that.”

“But… he’s your grandson…” My shoulders fell, not quite understanding what I’m hearing.

The woman called her dog over with a soft whistle. It leaped into her lap, licking at her fingers as she tried to pet it. “You see this little one here? She’s a Maltese. Now…” She chuckled as her dog refused to settle, panting and wagging her tail and trying to lick her face. “... her breeder has worked very hard to make sure she has good skin, a clean white coat, no defects. But … what about the ones that have defects? What then? Did she breed those too? Of course not… that is not his goal and that would not be kind to the dogs.”

She picked up the dog and it licked her cheek before she set it down.

"People aren't dogs!"

“My daughter-in-law told me the same thing. It’s what a human would say.” She gave me a pointed look. “We’re not human.”

“We’re something else. Something new. And if we’re going to be fit enough to survive in the future, we have to think more biologically than humans do. That’s what our ancestors understood and what too many of us have forgotten. My daughter-in-law… And Principal Anjou.” Her eyes fell and she sighed.

“The kind thing… for Isaac, for his children… and for all of the Hybrids is to stop artificially ensuring that genetic weakness spreads. That weakness that now causes me, the Matriarch of the Comemnus family, to be in debt to a nameless orphan.” She snorted, chagrined.

I was stunned. “In debt?”

Her eyebrows went up again. “Yes… Thank you.”

“....no… No, no… not thank you! You can’t thank me for that!” 

“Isaac would have just brought you down, ruined your sterling genetic heritage.”

At my confused silence, she sighed and stood up walking up to me. “It hurts me. That a purebred like you is so naive and uneducated. So, I’ll make you a deal. Instead of going back to Cassell and their regrettably low standards of admission, you’ll learn the truth here from me.” 

She leaned close to where I was sitting. “I’m not going to hide the ugly truth from you, the same way you didn’t hide the truth from me. And if by the end of your studies, you still think I’m wrong for my decision, you’re free to go. But I don’t think you will.”

“You are wrong.” I glared into her eyes. “I know the truth. People who are unstable turn into servitors if they use their powers. I know that. But I was given the ability to heal their instability. I can save Isaac.”

“Hm?” Her gaze shifted from confusion, to shock. “Can you say that one more time?”

“I … I can cure people with unstable bloodlines. I can fix it.”

The woman glared at me. "You will need to prove your statement. No one has been able to do that."

 "Yes, I know…" I said willing her to believe me.  "But I was unstable. And now I'm not."

She straightened. “You have a lot to learn. I’m going to educate you.”  When she spoke again, they weren’t the words in our common language, but the words of a dragon. Her eyes flashed yellow.

“Speaking Spirit - Sight.”

A bright rune blazed over the windows and the sparkling panoramic view of Chicago was obscured in shadowy gloom before both dissipated.  “If you try to leave, I’ll know it. I can’t have you skipping school before classes are done.”

She put the glass down onto the desk. “Take her to the Phoenix Suite. Make sure she’s well rested and fed. I’m going to make a few phone calls. Tell the family the good news.”

The bald man helped me stand and led me to the wheelchair. The woman ignored my furious glare, as she reached over to put the phone on speaker. "Get my son on the line."

I was wheeled back out of the room to the elevator, burning with rage and disbelief. The bald man pressed a button. The doors closed. “Did you know him? Isaac.” I asked.

He didn’t reply. In the reflection of the shiny metal doors, he looked away.

“Don’t … don’t ignore me! You should do something if you care for him at all!”

The elevator stopped. I leaped up and pressed the close elevator button before the doors could open. As burly and frightening as he appeared, he didn’t respond with force, pressing the open door button again. “What the boss says goes.” He said in a gruff baritone, glaring at me out of his peripheral vision. 

“You’re terrible. You’re bad people!” I grumbled bitterly, my lip shaking. 

“If you can walk…” He held his elbow out to me.

I backed away from him.

“Don’t try to escape. We know where you live. It would be terrible if something happened to your family.” He said, unmoved. “Come on.”

I hung my head and accepted his arm.

As if the dorms at Cassell weren’t opulent enough, this room was trimmed in gold accents, containing yet another fireplace and embroidered tapestries depicting humans battling dragons. In the corner was a large imposing grandfather clock with a heavy golden pendulum. 

“There’s nothing she wouldn’t sacrifice for her family’s future. You’ll understand.” He said. “I’ll come get you for breakfast in the morning.”

He pointed over to the bookshelf. “Read those. They’ll help you see things her way.”

He watched me cross my arms over my chest. 

“Hybrid breeding used to be a lot worse than what she’s doing. A lot worse.” He rubbed the back of his neck, his steely eyes looking away. He turned to leave.

I let him go and he walked away, shutting the door behind him.

That old woman would know the moment I left, but it wouldn’t matter. I was teleporting back to Cassell. I would go there to warn my friends. Then I could teleport to my family’s house. It was the only way.   

I visualized the basketball court, the lights from the baseball diamond. I took a step forward. But instead of that strange cold of teleportation, something seized my throat, wrapping like a belt. I was still in the room, suspended from the ceiling. Red glowing eyes blinked down at me from a black haze that rolled above me like smoke. It dropped me.

I land hard, crying out in fear. I scrambled away from the monster. It didn’t follow but watched, formless, stretching, lowering from the ceiling to regard me, it’s faceless eyes blinking.

The sound of me hitting the floor must have alerted someone because the bald guy was back and lifting me back to my feet. “You really are stubborn.”

“What is that?” The haze moved across the ceiling, toward the window.

“It’s a servitor. It sensed you using your abilities and stopped you.”

I paused. “Oh. It’s… it was human.” It seeped through the window, spreading its smoky form against the glass.

“Hybrid.” He corrected me. “At some point, yes, it was.”

“If I was your daughter, and if you knew that I was kidnapped and held against my will, what would you say?”

“Eat, sleep, read. You’ll be a lot less upset if you learn.”  He seemed to be about to leave again.

“Wait!” I reached out and grabbed his wrist. “Just tell me.” I watched him sigh. Pain flashed across his features. “You do care about Isaac but you’re still not going to help. Why not? Just tell me!”

“You think we're evil people. Today, we have genetic testing, advanced genetic matching systems, DNA databases, interactive predictive family trees that can project genetic deviations over generations. Back in the day? They had nothing but superstition, anecdotes, and ink and parchment.”

He looked at me, sadness in his eyes. “It didn’t matter how rich your family was or how much influence you had. If you were born with the wrong genes? You were dead. And if someone had the right genes? They were bred. Forcibly.”

“You want to talk about evil? Do you want to know who the bad people really are?” He pointed to the bookshelf. “You read those books. And then you come back and talk to me about evil.”

I chewed my lip as he lowered his voice. “You may have these ideals of helping Isaac. One person. But you’re capable of way more than that. You’re more important than he is. We’re not going to endanger you by trying to change what happened to him. Do you understand now?”

When I nodded, he stood up, and left the room once again, slamming the door behind him, leaving me shaking and alone.

Ielia appeared, sitting next to me. She put her hand over mine. Even though I couldn’t feel her touch any more, I remembered what it felt like. “What am I going to do now? Go back to Cassell? And then what? Something might happen to my family? And if I stay here...”

Ielia shrugged and shook her head.

“Hey… are they right? About letting Isaac die.  Do you have this problem in your world?”

She nodded once.

“What do you do?” I whispered.

She folded her hands and hung her head.

“You kill them too?”

She shook her head.

“Right. In your world, you have our father to help you.”

She pointed to the bookcase so I stood up and made my way over. The tomes were elaborately bound in leather and embossed. I picked up the one she pointed to. It was called “History of the Blood.”

I opened it up, looking through the table of contents. “Early Hybrid civilization…” I read.

I flipped through the pages to that chapter.

In the early days, women volunteered or were forced to be mothers to hybrid children. Through alchemy, their unborn children received dragonblood. These were human women, so the pregnancies ruined their bodies, drastically shortening or ending their lives.

The children were raised by wet nurses who watched them carefully. Those who had affinity with dragons but maintained their humanity were set aside to further the bloodlines. Those who were determined to be unstable and likely to be servitors were thrown in cages and stabbed to death with spears.

Thus, at the cost of countless lives, the bloodlines began to stabilize over time.

I stared at the pages, my eyes running over them again and again. The images of children and infants being brutally murdered in cages etched itself in my mind.

I closed the book, trying not to think about it any more. But the words of Isaac's grandmother echoed. She’d been trying to save him for years but in the end, it was the same.

He was dead. And I had killed him with a spear. 

The next morning, I woke up groggy, surrounded by scattered books and used kleenex, under surveillance by the creepy pair of roving eyes of the servitor in the window. When I fell asleep, the nightmares of the war, conflict, and inhumanity I had read about in the books assaulted me. I couldn’t find a way to fit together the paradise of love and affection I’d grown up in as a child with the reality I found myself in now. Outside the borders of my memories was a wasteland of cruelty.

Royal families, mafiosos, oligarchs and aristocrats all hybrids and all jockeying for positions against each other for power and control and with a constant eye on the possibility of a third coming of dragons. They owned vast swaths of property, controlled the flow of wealth and resources, and some ran entire countries, all thanks to the gifts of their dragon heritage.

The way Isaac was so pushy and overbearing was completely in step with how he was used to acting. It was exactly as his grandmother was acting, and even the people at Cassell, and in Japan. Constant fighting, strategy, and intrigue. They did whatever they reasoned was necessary to maintain their power. 

Now here I was, a prize in their eyes, someone with royal pure dragon blood. Caesar hadn’t been teasing me when he told me I was a secret princess, but this was no fairy tale.

Just as with Cassell, I was denied access to the outside. I was confined to the floor of this highrise building in the middle of Chicago. My meals were brought to me, my clothes were handed to me. I was constantly having my blood tested, my pressure checked, my temperature taken. 

It was only because a nurse let it slip that tomorrow was New Years Eve, that I figured out what day it was.

I was getting ready for breakfast twisting my unruly locks into a high bun.  I went over the timeline in my mind. Today my past self would meet Caesar, Nono, and Isaac for the first time. Tonight, my past self would meet Johann.

By tomorrow night, Isaac would be dead.

At the usual time, I was met by the bald man to escort me. His name was Anthony and he became my constant companion. He escorted me everywhere I went. Today, there were more people around, walking down the hall, on the phone, carrying boxes. 

He escorted me to a room that was sealed by key code. It was a storage area full of filing cabinets and boxes shoved aside to make space for people in lab coats poring over tablet computers. Together they looked at me as I walked in.

The matriarch was there, her arms crossed over her chest. “I hope you slept well. It’s time to put your claims to the test. To see if your Speaking Spirit can really restore corrupt genetics.”

A dropcloth was pulled down where it had been draped over a large metal cage. Inside the cage was something resembling a young boy.

He looked to be about ten or eleven.  The twisting of his body into this half human half dragon creature shot a painful sympathetic ache through my bones. I recognized the scaled over skin, the eyes that were golden and near reptilian. This boy wasn’t a complete servitor but he was almost there. He sat in the corner, in a fetal position, rocking back and forth, trembling, teeth chattering. 

“He has hours to live. If you can cure him, you can cure anyone.” The grandmother said.

I hadn’t used any abilities since I’d killed Isaac. I wasn’t sure how to do it but just being in the presence of this person was painful in a way that I had not felt before. It was like hearing the screech of feedback from a loudspeaker. I wanted his pain to stop and I wanted it to stop immediately.

The words that sprang to mind were given to me by my father. “Speaking Spirit - Release!”

Next Chapter

[princeescaluswords]

Continuing on the theme of "power isn't everything, nor is it exactly what you think" did stans miss that Derek was actually unhappy during his alpha tenure? And happiness came when he forgave himself, grew, and found new love? When he let go of toxicity? When he actually treated Scott like a brother like he professed in season 1? Power comes from our loved ones, and standing up against oppressive forces. So, why are they stuck on keeping Derek alpha? Just kidding, I know why

In my opinion, there are three primary reasons why certain stans are stuck on keeping Derek as an alpha.  One of them is racism, which is the one I think you were referring to; one of them is heteronormativity, which is as easy to parse as it is still prevalent;[ and the final one is the fetishization of suffering, which is a byproduct of Christian thought misapplied to our culture.

None of these arguments are going to win me any friends.

To me, the racism aspect is very clear.  While Derek losing the Alpha power had nothing to do with Scott’s actions and everything to do with Derek’s rejecting power for its own sake, his loss narratively paralleled Scott’s ascension, so in the minds of certain members of the fandom, there was  implied causation.  Theories appeared that Scott ‘stole’ Derek’s power, usually through Deaton’s manipulation of the Nemeton sacrifice (however that worked), even though Scott was already manifesting True Alpha potential in Season 1. 

There was no other indication that anyone really consider this a possibility. Derek was supportive of Scott as alpha.  He was the first person in the series to actually describe what made Scott special, which wasn’t the use of power, but Scott’s compassion, humility, and resiliency.  As for the title of alpha changing hands, Derek himself remarked “It happens” when questioned by Scott on the change of the alpha power from Laura to Peter.  (Only Peter had a problem with Scott as alpha, and that was less Scott as alpha than Peter not being alpha.)

Yet parts of the fandom insist that Derek retain his alpha status, even though he failed at it and was miserable while being alpha, even after he became so much happier (and more effective!) without it, is because, as I’ve talked about before, the audience has been trained to see the highest status as rightfully belonging to upper middle-class or upper class white families.  Decades have taught them that is who is supposed to be in charge, so the fact that Derek doesn’t have this status and Scott does is unsettling to them.  (This is also why you see so many human alpha Stiles stories, when Stiles doesn’t have the leadership ability God gave a dachshund.)

A lot of shipping also requires Derek to remain an alpha.   This comes from holdovers of the “best suitor” model of romance and heterosexual love that dominated our culture for centuries.  They identify with Stiles, so they believe that Stiles deserves to be won by the best suitor,’ and conversely, Derek deserves to be the the best suitor for Stiles.  That’s part of the romance – celebrating the perfect couple, finding the perfect match between the dashing  man  and the blushing girl he chooses to make his.   How can Derek sweep Stiles off his feet and fulfill all his needs if he’s not the best? Think about it - if the goal of the romance is to get the best man, then the female-analog’s goal should be to want the best, the hot-shot, cocky, muscular millionaire race-car driver, not the balding, mumbling accountant who collects seashells.   The best, in the werewolf world, is the alpha, so Derek must be the alpha in order to fulfill this ancient and tired role in their fantasies.

Finally, United States culture has been influenced by Christian thought misapplied – in this case, the concept of virtue in misery.   It is through the Passion that all humans are saved, it is often by martyrdom that sinners become saints.  Christian thought intended this to apply to spiritual status, not secular power.  Disabled people fight with this remnant every day when well-meaning people apply this concept to their physical lives. ‘Your suffering must have made you so strong.”  No, suffering is suffering.   

But this misapplied concept persists, permeating our society.  In terms of this fandom, it serves to make Derek the logical choice to be rewarded. Derek had his family killed, endured Paige, was raped by Kate, betrayed by Peter, tried to form a pack only to see it torn apart, and then was manipulated by Jennifer. He’s suffered a lot, but the show insisted that doesn’t make him a good person or even worthy of being an alpha.  Nothing underlines the show’s concept more than this scene:

Isaac: Why’d you do this to us, Derek?  Was it all about the power?  Were you bored?  Were you lonely?

Derek: Maybe.

Derek’s loneliness, regret and misery doesn’t justify the actions he took for the writers of the show, but it does for parts of the fandom because of the cultural bias toward the idea that misery ennobles.  Derek should be alpha because he suffered the most – his secular power should be a reward for all he has endured.  Thus the endless tags of “Derek deserves nice things.”

This runs counter to the theme of the show that trauma is trauma – it doesn’t justify anything.  It doesn’t empower anything.  The fact that Derek’s anchor is anger over his tragedies is presented as a bad thing.   The fact that Scott’s anchor is Allison – a person whom he loves despite all the pain her family causes him – is held up as a good thing.  When that anchor goes, Scott’s anchor is replaced by faith in himself, and he finds that by not allowing the significant trauma he’s gone through to embitter him, to dim his optimism, or to shatter his faith in other people.   Scott becomes a True Alpha not through embracing his suffering but by overcoming it.   When terrible things happen to him (and they do), he gets back up and works to make things better.  Derek and Brett literally give speeches about it.   Scott, when mentoring Liam on leadership, says the same thing.

By the by, this is one of the reasons anti-Scott stans feel the need to claim that Scott didn’t suffer anything. To them, if Scott doesn’t suffer anything bad, than he can’t be ennobled and thus he’s not deserving.  It’s also partly why members of the fandom claim that Derek was a ‘clone’ or mocked him as ‘zen Derek’ when he was no longer a tightly wound ball of misery in Season 3B, 4, and 6.   To them, secular power is dependent on the depth of misery, determined by the Trauma Olympics.  

[selkiewife]

Harlots Season 3 Episode 1 Reaction

*There are spoilers below

Ahhh the opening music. Love it ha.

Okay... who are these people? Is this Josiah Hunt’s family?

Ok get it stable girl

Lady Harlot! Yessss did they make up?? Hmmm I guess?

Hey Luce. Hey new characters.

Holy shit Theon- er Alfie- Isaac is here already and face to face with my LOVING WIFE NANCY BIRCH what.

They’ve given Alfie lines to speak with his MOUTH not just his eyes! Listen up.

“Dainty Size” ha- I mean granted, she’s small but. Did she just threaten to “flay his face off??” Was that a Theon/ Ramsay call back? I doubt it. (Get out of the GOT headspace Selkie, ffs)

I’m sensing real guilt from Charlotte that she’s a bawd and isn’t just one of the girls anymore. You’ve done nothing wrong Char!

Well that’s a weird kink Lucy (licking the bald head). These men are ridiculous.

And now, Kate Fleetwood And Alfie Allen engage in the battle of the jaw lines.

Wait why are they rhyming? Oh right that’s what people did in those days for fun/ to flirt. I know this from Shakespeare. Get in there Fanny! Charlotte is so quick, damn. I want to be them.

“Not a Rogue” Isaac just said more words in this scene than Theon said in the entirety of Season 8 (I’m not ragging don’t at me- Theon said more with his eyes than everyone else combined in Season 8, so it’s fine. I’m just delighted to hear Alfie speak. In fucking RHYME. HA!)

Oh fuck... Bedlam is so horrifying. They are trying to manipulate me into feeling sorry for Lydia and no one is shocked when I tell you it’s working

Charlotte and Isaac. Be still my bisexual heart. Okay but what about Lady Isabella? Well this is just work though. Also maybe they have an open relationship? Or are they even together at all? I NEED ANSWERS HARLOTS. I love how sex is always so clothed on this show- It is realistic of the time period because of the weather and cause clothes were so involved. It just always looks right- like a job and kind of unappealing. And they always get the squeaking of the bed and shit right you know? Oh wait, but they are having a moment.

This must be the brother. Hey Emily. How much time has passed here? 

Did Charlotte just say she hasn’t slept with anyone since she became a bawd. So I guess her and Lady Fitz aren’t together then. But they are friendly? 

What the fuck Nancy where is your birch rod?? Hold up, where is Will? No seriously, where is Will?

I love Cherry so much God. 

Lydia is trying to remember a soliloquy. This is all so Shakespearean what with the rhyming and... 

It’s that stable girl

Lady Fitz’ voice cracks me up tbh it’s so over the top and hushed-dramatic but I love it.

William’s in York y’all... but why?

And Alfie’s.... still rhyming... like? I am starting to have flashbacks of my past outdoor Shakespeare jobs right now and part of me is totally into that. What does that say about me really?

That woman really creeps me out... Oh but this must be the molly house plot line. 

Back in Bedlam. The Shakespeare is continuing... you guys.

*makes a mental note that Lydia would be a great Alannys Harlaw for sad edits (help me chums)

I really love Harriet’s arc. omg THE THEME OF THE EPISODE IS SHAKESPEARE. Harriet’s brothel girls produce stripped down Shakespeare shows before the fucking commences. Truth though, that is my kind of brothel.

I want the backstory on why Nance wears that gold ring around her neck. Ha- Nance is just a big softie in truth. Okay a gripe though- WHY is Lucy not becoming a dom like Nance? They clearly set that up in the Season 1 finale but never went anywhere with it in Season 2- but they could now- since she is showing such dissatisfaction with her job- but instead she’s going to be a bawd? *Slams hands on table* Give me apprentice dom Lucy working through her trauma with Nancy storyline you cowards! It would be so great- they could use that storyline to give us more Nancy backstory too.

I know we aren’t supposed to like Isaac but something about him getting arrested is turning me on here. (But let’s be honest, I have to like Isaac cause it’s Alfie. I don’t have a choice. Like, I’ve been known to say that John Wick’s dog had it coming- just so we’re all on the same page here.)

Honestly I’m going to have to disagree with you Charlotte, I feel like the gibbet would have been better than Bedlam. I mean. Lydia could write self help books though I swear. Okay so it’s been a year- there was like a years jump- okay.

See, I like how they don’t just completely forget about the dead on this show. RIP Kitty. Aww I’d forgotten that Fanny named her daughter Kitty. I kind of shipped Fanny and Kitty. Now I’m really sad. They would have been a perfect little family.

Oh wow Lucy joined forces with Elizabeth and Fredo. I bet that will end well. 

Okay Isaac that was completely unnecessary. Leave baby Kitty out of this. Why does Alfie always get roles where he’s like harassing babies and dogs good lord. He’s so freaking good at them though lol.

Lydia and Isabella are so Shakespearean it’s verging on camp... and I love it. Oh... Lydia. Oh man... she thinks she is going mad. Charles, ffs, you make everything worse.

“A genius with a needle.” Oh no- it’s a hanging offense- again this is not going to end well. Lucy honestly has a noose wish.

Emily wants to learn the art of commerce. Emily is a Slytherin and we stan.

I need more Nance backstory dammit. 

This poor stable girl. I wasn’t listening well when she said her name. But God... poor thing.

THIS IS NOT A DRILL. NANCY BIRCH CAN SING. aww she’s singing Kitty to sleep. Oh no... you’re pushing it Alf. First the dog murder, then shouting cunt to a baby, and now trying to burn Nancy and Kitty during this sweet lullaby scene. Like you really want people to hate you don’t you? (In his defense I think he thought everyone was out of the house. Still, arson is not something to be trifled with in those times Isaac... christ. They didn’t even have like firefighters right? I mean, the whole city could catch on fire...) Alfie I swear it gets harder and harder to defend your characters’ actions with each role you play. But you know what, I am not going to even try with this one and instead I’m going to go with the idea that Isaac is just the kind of villain you love to hate. 

Oh Fuck you Alfie. Now I have to take back my previous statement because you’ve fucking got me with that line “this trade turns us into rats” and that look of regret. Damn you. 

Nancy get out of there... How dare you use Nancy and baby Kitty in this manner, show. I am beside myself.

Charlotte says “Let it burn.” No Char. That is not the attitude. Get some water. I get it though. She still wants to be free. She really should have left with that Irish what’s his name that was so lovely. But then she wouldn’t be on the show and I’d be sad.  

And we wouldn’t have Lady Fitz, which, speak of the siren... I kind of wish we had more info on what the hell happened between her and Charlotte this past year instead of this subplot with her daughter- I find myself not caring at all that her daughter is eloping. I mean, I know that there is some INTRIGUE about that but... we’ll have to see if it pays off I guess?

Final thoughts: AHHHH. I love this show. A quick search in the tag has shown me that people are unhappy? I thought it was great! But I do get what people are saying about the time jump. I found that confusing too. I also don’t think people should be concerned about Isaac ruining the Lady Harlot ship. I think that Charlotte and Fitz will be more of a slow burn and I’ve also seen speculation that Charlotte will seek shelter with Lady Fitz so maybe we will find out more about what happened with them next episode. Also, I just want to enjoy Isaac’s storyline in peace without shipping drama. (Um.. you do know you are on tumblr right selkie?) I think he is interesting, the human trashcan rhyming rogue. (And for the record I do ship Lady Harlot.)

Important Questions: Where the hell is Amelia and Violet and what happened with Amelia and Hunt? Surely they will be on next episode. A quick google search in IMDB for the cast list of the next episode has told me... absolutely nothing. So we’ll just have to wait and see. I see people freaking out that they cut them from the show. I suppose it is possible but I certainly HOPE not. I think they just had a lot to get through with this first episode. They will be on next episode. I am willing it into existence. 

Ahhh, I’m so excited this show is back. 

[starryeyedsweetheart]

Denial is the First Step

Author: @starryeyedsweetheart​

Pairing: Stiles Stilinski & Reader

Word Count: 3578

Notes: first story in a while, first stiles fic ever, first writing piece ive been proud about in a while so enjoy ;)

“I don’t know what you see you in him,” Lydia says from her perched position on the locker beside mine. She shakes her head and makes a disapproving sound before muttering something along the lines of how sketchy Stiles Stilinski is. “Have you ever seen that kid without Scott McCall? It’s like he only exists because his best friend is his life source.”

“I think I saw Stiles in the woods once without him,” I reply while attempting to take out a textbook form the bottom of the pile that is my mess of a locker. Struggling a bit, I look up to my friend Lydia, who could only peer at Stiles from above her magazine, almost like she didn’t want him to think he’s worthy enough to be looked at by her.

“Of course you saw him,” she mutters to herself. “You were probably looking for him.”

I pull the book from the bottom a binder and a couple notebooks tumbling out along with it. The loud sound causes some people to turn and stare, but I could only gawk at Lydia. “I went for a run. I was not looking for him.”

“You’re always looking for him.”

“I am not!”

“I just want you to admit you like him.”

“I don’t,” I tell her for what feels like the thousandth time this week. Lydia would always taunt me over this crush I had for the most spastic boy in school, but I would always deny it. I mean, whatever feelings I have for this kid cannot be...real.

After shoving the fallen school supplies back into my locker for them to fall out another time, I look over my shoulder to see Stiles still standing at the end of the hallway with his best friend Scott. His pink lips were pulled into a dopey smile, his happiness causing my heart to skip a beat. Even from down the corridor, I could hear his angelic laughter and the beautiful melody of it. Stiles’s hand clasps down on Scott’s shoulder as the pair chortle like they were in their own world. He wipes away a tear from how hard he was laughing, and I could feel an army of butterflies spaz in my stomach.

“You’re pathetic, Y/N.” Lydia’s voice snaps me out of my daydreaming. As she looks at me, her lips were pursed and her magazine was now hugged to her chest so she could give me her full attention.

“I don’t like him like that,” I repeat. My friend opens her mouth, about to say something snarky before she looks over me and smirks.

Following her gaze, I turn slightly to see Stiles walk down the hallway, a grin plastered to his face as he fiddles with the strap of his backpack. My breath hitches in my throat and I feel my palms turn sweaty against my books as his brown eyes suddenly meet mine. In that one small moment, it feels like time stops. Never in my life have I felt my heart slow down and speed up all at once. It was like I didn’t know what to feel, but I did know it felt right to have his eyes focused on me, despite the nervousness bubbling inside of me.

And just like that, time went back to normal and his eyes pass over me. Before he disappears around the corner, he turns his head one more time, a nervous smile playing with the corner of his mouth before leaving completely.

Lydia nudges me as soon as he’s gone. “Oh my God, he just looked at you.”

“Oh wow. We made eye contact. I think that means a marriage proposal is on its way,” I say, voice dripping with sarcasm. I shut my locker and Lydia rolls her eyes.

“We’re gonna look for him after school.”

“Um, no. No, we are not.”

I turn quickly and start to walk down the same way Stiles went. I had to get to my English class before I get another late and end up in detention. Lydia follows.

“Why not? You like him, don’t you?” I shake my head at her words. “Isn’t this what best friends our age do? Stalk the boys they like?”

“When has stalking ever been okay?” I question incredulously.

I’m about to walk into class, spotting Stiles sitting in his usual seat. He wasn’t looking at me, as if waiting for me to walk in. Somehow that causes some disappointment to settle in the pit of my stomach. I really shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up over five seconds of eye contact. Before I could make my way towards my seat, Lydia grabs me by my forearm and drags me out of class, earning a small yelp from me as she hides me from Stiles’s line of vision.

“Look, I know you’re not going to admit it, but let’s hang out. Maybe I can drive us somewhere,” she offers.

I narrow my eyes at her, knowing she must have some underlying intention, for Lydia was never the one to just drop something so quickly.

“We only ever hang out at one of our houses. Why would you need to drive us somewhere?” I ask suspiciously.

The bell rings above us, signalling the beginning of class.

“Just let me drive you to this cool new hangout.”

“I’m onto you, Lyds.”

“There’s no need for that.”

“With you, there’s always a need-”

“Ms. Y/L/N,” both our necks snap to my English teacher and his disapproving expression from down the hall. “You’re late to class.”

“I’m standing outside of your classroom!” I argue before he shakes his head. His potato sized nose and balding head shine in the awful lighting of our high school’s hallway. Just his presence was enough to irk me. Rolling my eyes, I say, “You’re not even in your own classroom yet.”

Suddenly, both our eyes widen, knowing what we have to do. Leaving Lydia, I sprint to the inside of the room, beating Mr. Lennon by one second. His body almost crashes into mine as I release a breath of relief, knowing he can’t possibly mark me late.

“You’re a clever one, Ms. Y/L/N,” my teacher remarks as I slide into my seat next to Stiles. “I’ll get you in detention sooner or later.” He glares at me before turning to his chalkboard and mumbling some insults underneath his peanut-smelling breath.

Feeling some eyes on me, I feel the need to look around, only to be surprised to see Stiles staring at me. Before our eyes could meet, he jumps in his seat before turning his attention back to the board, but I still can’t help but smile to myself because maybe him looking at me does mean something.

---

“Lydia Martin, you fiend,” I exhale as she parks her car in between some trees in the Beacon Hills Reserve. After driving for fifteen minutes, I finally realize where she was taking me and why she was taking us here to spend our afternoon.

Rolling her eyes, Lydia begins to rummage through her bag. “He won’t know that we’re here. We’ll just be another car in the woods,” she attempts to reason.

I gape at her. “Cars aren’t meant to be in the woods, Lyds!”

“We’re on a hill. If anything he’ll just assume we’re a bunch of horny teenagers having sex in a nice secluded space.” Lydia’s plump lips suddenly curl into a smirk before she looks over at me. I furrow my brows at her and continue to gawk as she quickly pulls out what she had been looking for in her bag.

“Binoculars?!” I squeak.

Lydia nods her head excitedly before peering into them. I could only lean back in my chair and cover my face with my hands. Becoming best friends with Lydia Martin has been a rollercoaster from start to finish. I moved to Beacon Hills my freshman year of high school and she ever so kindly took me under her wing. She is not as conceited or rude or bitchy as anyone says, but this girl is fucking crazy. No. Insane.

In the three year span of our friendship, I have egged her ex-boyfriend’s porsche and snuck out of my bedroom window (more so plummet to my death) to go to some rager at someone’s house. But that’s where I met Stiles for the first time.

Parties were something I only attended because I was forced to. This reluctance to go started at a young age where I wouldn’t want to go to some girl’s seventh birthday party and somehow it evolved to not wanting to go to some houseparty just for the sake of a Friday night.

Lydia was one of those people who enjoyed having a good time and getting people out of their comfort zones, so that’s why I’m currently sitting on someone’s kitchen island, hesitantly sipping whatever drink Lydia concocted in the thirty second span she was by my side. At the moment, my knee was aching a bit because I fell out of my bedroom window. The thump should have woken up my parents, along with Lydia’s cackling, but somehow we got out safe and sound.

“Hey, do you, um….like do you wanna….what’s the word?”

Looking to my side, I see a tall kid with baby blue eyes and messy, blonde hair. He was well built and brooding over me as he tries to recall what he wanted to say to me. After many encounters with teenage boys, I was just hoping he wasn’t going to ask me to-

“Not hook up or anything.” I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding in. He sways to and fro before his head crashes onto my shoulder for support. I awkwardly grab him by the bicep to help him stand straight, but I was nervous that he might fall in the other direction if I finally got him to stand up. “I just wanna...I wanna go to bed.”

“You and me, both,” I grumble.

“M’name’s-”

“Isaac!”

“Yes, that’s me!” His head shoots up, his forehead almost knocking straight into my chin. Instead, his long excuse of an arm flails around and hits my cup right out of my hand and somehow, the drink misses me completely.

Standing in the doorway of the kitchen was a lanky, scrawny boy who I recognized from my Chemistry class. His brown hair was buzzed and the moles that littered his skin reminded me of the constellations in the sky. His eyes were a warm honey color and I couldn’t help but swoon as he says, “Run off like that again and I’m strangling you with one of your stupid scarves.”

“But...I love my scarves.”

“You’re the only one that does.” I couldn’t help but laugh at that, finally getting the boy, whose name was Stiles, to look at me with a shocked expression. “Oh, sorry about Isaac. He’s just...really dumb.”

“I’m drunk, not deaf,” his friend says before attempting to swing at the pale boy slowly coming into the kitchen.

“Okay, let’s get you home so you can stop bothering the pretty girl,” Stiles mutters, eyes widening when he realized what he said. He looks over to me, wondering if I heard it, which I did. Only, I give him a small smile, as if I wasn’t paying attention. He sighs to himself before throwing one of Isaac’s arm over his shoulder and dragging him out. “Sorry about this big oaf. I’d tell you he’s better sober, but he’s probably worse.”

Isaac smacks Stiles straight in the chest, causing the latter to gasp for air after being winded from that strong hit. “You’re lucky our asses are friends or else I would have let you embarrass yourself more at this party,” Stiles mutters.

“Being seen with you right now is an embarrassment,” Isaac retorts.

This triggers Stiles and him to bicker all throughout leaving the kitchen. As soon as the door behind them closes, the sound of their voices are faint, but I still feel my heart racing in my chest. Suddenly, my eyes widen and I rest a hand over my chest to steady my erratic heartbeat.

Please do not tell me that I might like this kid. My palms sweat and heart races and I can’t help but succumb into the warm feeling in my chest.

Thankfully, Lydia barges in, a glare on her face when noticing my missing drink. Before she could proceed with her lecturing, her mouth suddenly drops into a shocked expression. Then, she crosses her arms over her chest and smirks.

“Did you just meet a boy?” she tauntingly asks me. Before I could question how she knows everything seconds after it happens, Lydia squeals and says, “Oh my God. Tell. Me. Everything.”

“Look! There’s his car!” Lydia shouts, pointing at the distance. She tries to hand me the binoculars, but finding this situation extremely odd, I swat at her. I cannot believe I’m seriously sitting in a car, at the top of a hill, overlooking the town forest, so I can spy on this boy. “Oh…” Lydia mumbles, looking into her magnifiers. “He’s with a girl.”

I snatch the binoculars out of her hand and quickly look into it, only to find Stiles hop out of his blue Jeep with Scott coming out on the other side. “There’s no girl,” I say, now trying to look in the backseat.

“There is no girl. I just wanted you to look,” Lydia smiles. Slowly, I retract myself from the binoculars, squinting at Lydia with a lethal glare. She only beams at me before grabbing another pair out of her bag. “We won’t be here for long.”

Rolling my eyes, I allow myself to submit to the craziness of this all and watch Scott and Stiles set up lacrosse nets. From the five minutes Lydia and I have been watching, we assume that they’re just here to practice their sport. Scott was forcing Stiles to run up and down a hill, and wow, watching that boy sweat had me feeling some type of way.

“This is really how we’re spending our Wednesday night. I can’t believe this,” I say after putting down the binoculars. I reach into my own bag and grab a bag of chips to eat.

Once I open the bag, Lydia reaches her perfectly manicured hands in and pops a couple chips in her mouth before resuming her watching. “Well, we gotta get you two together somehow.”

“For the last time, I don’t have feelings for Stiles.”

“Denial is always the first step, sweetie.”

“Then, that means I’ve been in denial for a year now. I’ve only talked to him like twice.”

“Well, let’s make it three. And then four. And then five. And then until death do us part,” Lydia shrugs. She had put her binoculars down so we could prop our feet on her dashboard and just eat chips, listen to the radio, and chill out with the windows down.

“Maybe I should try talking to him more. I’m a good person. I deserve nice things,” I decide. Lydia nods, her strawberry blonde hair swaying against her cheeks as the wind blows through the car. I think for a moment, and then a feeling of dread overcomes me and I shake my head. “Just kidding. Nope. I cannot talk to him. I refuse.”

Lydia leans over and smacks me upside the head. “Get your head out of your own ass.”

“My head is out of my ass!”

After shaking her head at me, she picked up her stupid pair of binoculars, but instantly dropped them in front of her chair in a frantic fashion. “Shit. Shit. Shit,” Lydia chants like a mantra, trying to get her spy gadget out from underneath her chair.

Sitting up, my back now rigid, I look into my own pair of binoculars and find only Scott. The car was still there, but Stiles was nowhere to be found, which means...he could be anywhere. “Shit, fuck, shit,” I chant along with Lydia as she’s still bent over trying to find her binoculars.

“Oh my God. Oh my God,” Lydia keeps repeating as I’m frantically buckling my seatbelt.

I take another look, expecting the car to be gone, but then I see Stiles climbing up the hill, a look of confusion on his face when he spots our car and never in my life have I felt my heart drop faster than it did in that moment.

“Lydia,” I freak out. “Start the car.”

“My binoculars!”

“GET THEM LATER!”

As soon as her head pops back up, her green eyes instantly meet Stiles, who was close enough to be seen without binoculars now. “Oh fuck!” she screams. She turns the key to the ignition. The engine sputters. The car doesn’t start. Stiles is now jogging towards us.

“Lydia, he’s coming closer.” I’m practically choking on my spit and slamming my hand against the dashboard.

“The car won’t start!”

“Should we run?” I ask frantically.

“I’m in heels!”

“It’s survival of the fittest now, Lyds.”

Both our heads turn to see Stiles closer now and I’m literally about to scream. I feel like George Washington during the Battle of Bunker Hill, where I could honestly see the whites of his eyes. He’s that close. I’m going to scream. I’m throwing my body off this hill right now.

Lydia tries to start it again. It makes a weird sound and I feel a piece of my soul leave my body. I release a strangled cry and Lydia hits her steering wheel.

“Y/N, I’m trying!”

“Oh my God!” I whisper shout when he’s about ten feet from our car.

I duck my head down, almost slamming my forehead against the dashboard. Lydia turns the key one more time and as soon as it starts, we both scream in praise to whatever higher being was on our side that day. Lydia harshly grabs the joystick and slams it into Reverse. Before her foot could even touch the gas pedal, a sweaty body shows up by my window and the two of us scream bloody murder.

“Hi,” Stiles greets with his boy next door smile. Lydia and I could only gawk at him as we try to steady our heavy breathing and racing hearts.

“H-Hi,” I stutter, awkwardly fixing my shirt for any weird wrinkles. I could feel Lydia radiating excitement from beside me. Oh my God, I can feel my stomach starting to do an Olympics worthy gymnastics act from inside of me.

Stiles smiles a warm grin at me, his fingers holding onto the car door. He nervously chews on his bottom lip, his brown hair dripping in sweat, and his chest still vigorously moving up and down from jogging up the hill. I can’t help but smile back and even release some sort of exasperated laugh from the circumstances.

“Do you wanna go out sometime?” he suddenly asks me, his amber eyes twinkling as he spoke.

My jaw drops and I could barely make out a reply. My tongue must have atrophied or something because all I could do was nod and let out the most strangled excuse of a chuckle.

“Is that a yes?” Stiles questions with a worried expression.

Lydia leans over and says, “That’s a yes, Stiles.”

And just like the sun breaking through a bunch of clouds on a rainy day, Stiles beams at me. Despite Lydia talking to him, his eyes never left mine.

“Okay. Um, cool,” he says. He runs his fingers through his damp hair and laughs warmly. “How does Friday sound?”

“Um...erm…”

“Friday sounds great,” Lydia intervenes once again, to which I am so thankful for.

“Maybe this time we won’t have a drunk Isaac bothering the two of us?” Stiles jokes.

Due to my slow reaction time and stuttering replies, his face drops. He probably thinks that I don’t remember our first encounter from last year, but I do. Lydia tilts her head to the side, having no idea what we’re talking about, so I just smile and nod my head.

“That was a good time though,” I finally find the courage to say.

Stiles’s lips tug into a warm grin before nodding his head. “The best time.” He nibbles on his bottom lip before saying, “So, I’ll pick you up at seven?”

“I’ll be ready,” I say.

Stiles nods before we both hear Scott calling him back down to finish his training. Stiles bids us a goodbye before jogging back down the hill and leaving Lydia and I to stare at each other in shock before screaming.

“What the fuck was that?” I gawk, placing a hand over my forehead.

Lydia only throws her head back in laughter before grinning at me brightly. “That’s the third time! And Friday will be the fourth. And then the fifth. And then…”

“Death do us part,” I finish for her, causing her to squeal.

“See, I knew you liked him. I knew that all of your refusal to talk to him was just you trying to hide your feelings,” Lydia claims.

“Well,” I peer over the dashboard to look out at Stiles who finally got to the bottom and high-fived Scott like he just won the biggest game of the season. My heart flutters within my chest. “Denial is the first step.”

[skincare6642]

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[frederickwiddowson]

Levitucs 26:14-46 comments: a warning and a way back

Leviticus 26:14 ¶  But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: 16  I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. 18  And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19  And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 20  And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. 21  And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 22  I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. 23  And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25  And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26  And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. 27  And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 30  And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. 31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. 32  And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 33  And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 34  Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. 35  As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. 36  And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. 37  And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38  And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39  And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

 Notice perhaps one fulfillment of verse 22;

 2Kings 2:23  And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. 24  And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

 These are pretty tough punishments for disobedience that the Jews will often simply ignore and like us, even while they are being judged and suffering they will deny their pathetic condition as in Jeremiah. Verse 24, perhaps, could be used for the time period in prophecy of the tribulation to come for the Jews under the Beast of Revelation, whom we call Antichrist, although that name is not used in that book. This might be a veiled reference to the Time of Jacob’s Trouble in prophecy or for a more literal take simply a warning of the intensity of God’s judgment on them in their Promised Land before Christ.

In considering these passages; first a potential blessing, then a potential curse we must remember that the Law was not only the religious and ceremonial law for the Hebrews but it was their civil law as well. God was their God, their mentor, their benefactor, but He had a plan and they must go along with it or the suffering of these former slaves would be legendary. God was the reason for their existence as a people, His plan, His will, not theirs was what would lead them on or crush them.

Verse 34 and 35 refer to the land enjoying its sabbaths in the event the people disobey God. Go back to my comments on Leviticus 25 to see this command.  2Chronicles talks about the fulfillment of this curse on the disobedient Israelities.

2Chronicles 36:11 ¶  Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the LORD. 13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD

God of Israel. 14  Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. 15  And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: 16  But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy. 17  Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. 18  And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. 19  And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. 20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the

kingdom of Persia: 21  To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

 Leviticus 26:40 ¶  If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; 41  And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: 42  Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. 43  The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God. 45  But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD. 46  These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

 But, God always leaves a door open so that one can return. Just as Peter denied Christ and yet was restored in spite of New Testament admonitions so can God’s people return to Him.

 Matthew 10:33  But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

 Matthew 26:75  And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.

 With every Christian a type of the nation of Israel accepting the judgment for our iniquity and humbling ourselves before God we can be restored to fellowship with Him. This is an important point for us to consider. We can turn from our sin but without humbling ourselves before God and confessing those sins to Him we have not put ourselves in the position to have that fellowship restored. I know people who had children without any commitment to be united in Christian marriage for life and then decided to, “make it right,” by getting married but have never confessed their sins to God or humbled themselves in front of Him. In fact, because they feel they, “made it right,” there is even some aspect of pride in themselves. The pattern here in Leviticus is the pattern to put you in the position for God to have mercy on you and forgive you.

God has given instructions and edified the Hebrew people in His standard of righteousness and what He expects from them, separating them from the depraved world around them.

[gregorsamsadementiaravenway]

Stray notes after watching The Last Jedi

Or: why does this movie just keep getting worse whenever I remember it?

The notes are after the cut just in case someone hasn’t seen the film yet or doesn’t want a long ass bullet point post in their dash. Some of them are serious and well thought-out, some are nitpicky and some are there just for the heck of it.

“Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.” - Why, that’s just peachy, Rian! Too bad the future your selling is a little shit.

In general, Rian Johnson doesn’t seem to have much respect for the past. See tathrin’s post about all the things established in TFA that were turned upside down in this film, but I think Johnson doesn’t have much consideration for the original trilogy either, reducing Chewbacca to a background character and trying to replace “May the Force be with you” with some other, less inspired line.

Seriously, why are they saying “Godspeed”? Did monotheism reach a galaxy far, far away and they now, suddenly, have a notion of God? And, while were at it, why is “treacherous snake” a thing, now? Are there snakes in the Star Was universe? ‘Cause, so far, all animals have been on the fantastic side of things. What else is there? Do they have kittens??? That’s an important question...

The movie had A LOT of hamfisted comic relief. Of course there were some honestly funny scenes (I will forever laugh at Rey feeling the Force with her hand), but most of the jokes felt very out of place. For instance, the first scene, with Hux and Poe. I laughed my ass off at that interaction, but that’s an SNL sketch, not a Star Wars scene. I was half expecting Matt, the radar technician, to show up.

Seriously, someone should tell Rian Johnson that he isn’t directing Guardians of the Galaxy. In more than one scene, the excess of jokes killed what should’ve a truly great, emotional moment.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much indifference do I feel towards porgs?

The ammount of queerbaiting that went into promoting this film was insane. Look, actors on franchises like this one have media training, so whenever, say, Oscar Isaac ran his mouth about the possibility of Finn/Poe being canon, he was at least authorized by Disney to do so (worst case scenario, he was instructed to sell this narrative). I didn’t particularly care about the ship and I think Poe Dameron could’ve died in TFA without any harm to the franchise, but to hamfist that non-sensical romance between Finn and Rose after feeding the fans’ hopes for a gay pairing was, in my opinion, downright cruel.

And don’t even get me started on Poe and Rey’s meaningful gaze at the end of the film, with Poe going all “I know” as if he’s Han Solo or some hot shit like that! Poe/Rey is the worst possible ship to become canon. Yes, the worst. Yes, you heard me, worse than Reylo.

Speaking of Reylo: after TFA, I said that I low-key shipped them ‘cause that’s the kind of fucked up ship I like. Look, there are people in this website who like to wear diapers and want to fuck Pennywise, so, screw you, I’m not apologizing for wanting to read fics about a fictional pairing made up of two adults. HOWEVER, this is not the sort of thing I want to be canon. From the get go, my opinion on Rey’s official love life has been “either she ends up with Finn or she ends up alone”. That being said, I think they handled the relationship between her and Kylo Ren very well in this film. I’m glad they didn’t deny the fucked up sexual tension that was going on there, especially coming from Ren’s side, and chose to play into it. A failed redemption arc fits them perfectly and Kylo Ren’s “please” when he asks Rey to rule beside him was a great moment for the character and one of the few truly emotional moments of the film.

But that thing were they get to hit on each other through the Force, sharing sad stories and touching hands? Yeah, I’m pretty certain I’ve read that fic. Actually, I’m pretty certain I’ve read about three fics like that.

Let’s keep on the Kylo Ren track for now, then: he did get some very nice character development in this film. The Last Jedi was more his than any other character’s, even Luke. For a minute there, before the movie came out, I thought they were going to make some changes to him due to the whole backlash, but they went full “overgrown angsty kid” with him in a way that actually made him more compelling. I like the way Luke’s fear ended up pushing a conflicted teenager into the Dark Side and that Kylo is still very much stuck at that moment. As usual with Sith and Sith by-products, Kylo Ren is moved by anger, and his anger feels much more real after this little bit of backstory.

Who is Snoke, though? Are they going to explain that in the next movie? It feels like they should’ve done it in this one, but I hope they at least give him some context before the trilogy is over.

Sooooo... Did your conflicted antagonist cladded in black, with black hair falling all over his face, just trick his bald, deformed Dark Lord by using his occlumency powers? *Owen Wilson voice* Wow.

“The Supreme Leader is dead. Long live the Supreme Leader.” - A perfect example of a really amazing moment botched by comic relief, ie, Snoke’s little tongue falling out of his dead body.

After the film ended, @robogigante​​ complained a lot about Hux’s transformation from an actual, threatening villan into a punchline, and, you know what? He’s right. There’s a scene there that looks like a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do I hate evil, square-headed BB-8?

I’m sort of glad Rey’s parents aren’t anyone important. Star Wars relies too much on heritage and it’s a nice change having a hero who isn’t Space Jesus or Space Jesus’ direct lineage. Her scene in the cave was incredibly beautiful.

They did point to something else in TFA, though, implying heavily that her origin was important and that Kylo Ren already knew about her. That was some Moffat level of badly written plot twist right there.

There’s something Emma Watson-y about Daisy Ridley. This is neither a compliment nor a complaint, just something I hadn’t noticed before.

Both Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver grew a lot as actors since the last movie, especially Driver. Even though it’s still hard to take Kylo Ren seriously sometimes due to Driver’s cry-baby face, he’s way more convincing in his rage and intensity than he was in TFA, where his acting felt a little too mechanical.

However, some of the other actors aren’t living up to their potential. John Boyega’s charisma is extremely underused and I know for a fact that Domnhall Gleeson can do a lot better than what he was given here. In a couple of scenes, even Hamill and Fisher seemed a little uncomfortable in their roles.

“Shit, we’ve already signed Lupita’s check! Gotta shove her in here, somewhere!” - I’m so sorry, honey. You are so beautiful and talented... You deserved way better than that.

Kelly Marie Tran is adorable and I absolutely love her in interviews and such. She seems like a delightful person. However, her character was completely unnecessary. Her only purpose was to serve as a future love interest to Finn, and I’ve made my thoughts about that pairing quite clear already.

“...it’s saving the ones we love...” - BITCH, YOU’VE KNOWN HIM FOR WHAT? A DAY?

As a matter of fact, all of that storyline felt completely unnecessary. It was as if the writers didn’t know what to do with Finn so they gave him a spunky sidekick and a pointless mission just to kill time. I found myself wishing he had spent the whole movie in a coma, and that’s really sad, because I really like John Boyega and was hoping he would become a strong protagonist for the franchise.

Another thing @robogigante​ pointed out (and I’m quoting him ‘cause I know he’s not making a post of his own) is that Holdo had no reason whatsoever to hide her plan from Poe or anyone else in the Resistance. She just... didn’t like Poe Dameron that much...

Excessive jokes aside, casino planet was okay and helped flesh out the Star Wars universe a little bit more. However, much like Phasma, Benicio Del Toro’s character (whose name I already forgot) was just another Boba Fett, all flash and no substance, and I particularly hate that “squeaky clean abused little children representing hope” crap. It’s one of the tackiest tropes in existence.

I did get the feeling that that kid is going to join the Resistance on the next movie. Like they’re going to do a ten year jump to justify Leia’s disappearance/death. It would also help the Rebels to get their shit back together, Kylo Ren to gain more control over the First Order and Rey to learn some more about the Force in order to meet her fate. The existence of that child is still horrible and that ending was so over the top I can’t even put it into words, but it’s a good hook for a leap that, if handled well, could be very good for the story.

I also got the feeling that they originally inteded to kill one member of the original trio per film. That would’ve been cool. Too bad Leia will have to die off screen.

Was it just me or is the timeline in this movie really weird? Poe’s plan seems to take place entirely in a day, maybe two, while Rey apparently spends at least a week in Luke’s island.

I’m glad Carrie Fisher got to have at least one badass Force user scene before dying. Her flight among the debris of the Rebel cruiser was a beautiful reminder of how powerful the Force can be, on par with Luke’s astral projection, not to mention a gorgeous scene in its own right.

Holdo and Leia definitely had a torrid love affair after the Organa-Solo divorce came through. No one will ever convince me otherwise.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do I love the crystal foxes?

There was a preoccupying absence of wipe transitions and epic soundtrack inserts. Actually, I don’t even remember hearing any music at all. The editing was way too conservative. It didn’t even feel like a Star Wars movie, sometimes.

How is it possible that The Force Awakens was basically a remake of A New Hope and still felt more daring that The Last Jedi? Look, we already know you’re not killing any of the characters ‘cause they have to come back for the next installment, but raise those stakes a little bit, jeez! Give Kylo Ren and Snoke more conflict before their face-off, give Rey an opportunity to actually scare Luke with something that matters, give Finn and Poe a mission that actually means something to the Resistance, not a MacGuffin to keep them busy... Anything!

The Last Jedi is actually an okay-ish movie, to be honest, but, in a way, I think I disliked it even more than the prequels. Sure, The Phantom Menace is objectively a much worse film, but at least it had soul. George Lucas’ midichlorian and CGI packed soul, but soul nonetheless. The Last Jedi has nothing. I know Star Wars movies are all about the money, let’s not delude ourselves that this is in anyway high art, but this one just felt like the biggest money grabber of all. There is no personal investment in it whatsoever and no sign of what makes Star Wars Star Wars in the first place.

When’s Lando coming back?

BONUS: I am never watching a fucking 3D movie again in my life. The background always seems out of focus, it’s too expensive and I hate putting glasses on top of my glasses. I don’t care if I have to wait a month to watch the next Star Wars, I don’t care if I get spoilers, I’m not watching anything in 3D ever again.

[vickyvicarious]

max, johnny, and the very important mission (bmw 2)

bullymagnet week, day two: heist

Since the plan is to make one cohesive story out of these, I’d suggest reading day one first.

.

“Mr. Spender, I need your help!”

It’s not exactly unusual for one of the Activity Club members to come bursting into the room with a dramatic one-liner. Actually, it’s probably far weirder for any of them to make their presence known like normal people, but Max usually does his best to bring down the curve on this one. Pair that up with his reluctance to ask for help in general, and… he would’ve expected more of a reaction, honestly.

“Oh, good afternoon, Max,” Spender mutters, flipping a page of his magazine. He doesn’t even bother to look up. “Yes, your pop quiz was a little below normal for you.”

“I’ve only been here like a week, you don’t know my normal,” Max retorts, frustrated. “Not that I ever expect to see ‘normal’ again… But, anyway, this isn’t about school!”

At this, Spender does perk up. “A spirit? Report!”

“…Not a spirit, per se,” Max shrugs. “More of a… Starchman situation?”

“STARCH-SIT!” Ed bursts into the room, followed by Isabel twirling her new umbrella around her wrist with a fierce grin. As Ed continues talking, he and she begin spontaneously fencing with their tools, leaving Isaac blocked in the doorway, scowling. “Man, I love those! What was it this time? Quoteathon? The Great Tremble? Oh, did he bring out The Noodle?”

“What? No. No. What is that stuff? No.” Max sighs, turning back to Spender. “He confiscated something that belongs to me, can you help me get it back?”

Ed just laughs mysteriously.

“Max! How could you lose y–” Cutting himself off with a quick glance to Isabel, Spender changes tacks with a sigh: “What did you do to make him confiscate your tool? Were you magnetizing things in class?”

“No. It’s weird enough that I’ve been carrying a baseball bat around everywhere, you really think I’m gonna draw attention to it like a numbskull?” The looks Max gets suggest that yes, everyone does think exactly that. Jerks, the lot of them.

“Well, your pop quiz suggests – ”

“There was a spirit on my desk eating that test! You saw it! You sparkled at it!”

“The fact remains, even Isaac gets good grades with spirits around.” The boy still trapped in the doorway perks up a little, until Spender continues, “Well, not in art.”

“Heh.” Max can’t help snickering at that one, despite the betrayed look Isaac shoots him. But he’s quick to get back on track – this is a serious matter, after all. “I only said I don’t really like The Hobbit, can you just help me get my property back?”

Spender sighs again, with feeling.

“Who doesn’t like The Hobbit, Max?” He shakes his head despairingly, and Max rolls his eyes. So sue him for preferring sci-fi. “I really shouldn’t encourage so much flaunting of the school rules – Isabel, your turn to watch the security cameras. I suppose I’ll be busy walking young Max down to the office to plead his case…”

“Max has his bat,” Isaac points out.

“Yes, it’s really not a good idea to separate a new spectral from their tool for long, we all know that Isaac – wait. You do have your bat.”

“I never said he took my bat,” Max grumbles, glaring at Isaac. There’s a stupid triumphant glint in his eyes; Max is totally going to remember how petty he is. He’ll be twice as petty back over this. “He took my hat! I need it back!”

As one, everyone turns to him with silent, yet expressive faces.

Do you really think I, a Teacher, would stand against the ancient teacherly art of Confiscation unless a tool were involved? Spender asks.

Gee, Max, that’s lame. Never knew you were so lame. It’s just a stupid hat, Isabel opines.

I wonder if I made a paint oven, could I cook a spectral potato? Hot potato hot! …Ed.

Ha ha ha that’ll show you, don’t make fun of my dumb drawings ha ha ha I win, gloats Isaac.

“Fine! I don’t need your help anyway!” Max yells, and storms out of the room.

The problem is, he doesn’t even know where Starchman keeps the stuff he confiscates. Normally the teacher’s desk would be a good bet, but this is Starchman. Max vaguely recalls a treasure chest his first day. The English teacher is way too terrifying to just ask for his hat back, and there’s no way he’s just waiting around until he manages to earn twenty-five stars to get it back.

Honestly, he’s not sure if it even counts as confiscation when you require students to pay you to get their stuff back, but the stars aren’t actually real money. Even if no one seems to ever remember that fact. Even the vending machine by the cafeteria accepts them, to say nothing of that school store.

Maybe, if it were just a matter of a day or two, Max would be willing to grit his teeth and wait it out… but collecting twenty-five stars would by all indications take a lot more time and effort. No, there’s got to be some way he can steal it back…

“Ow!”

Even though Max is the one who ends up knocked to the ground, Johnny gets mad. And he wasn’t even the one Max bumped into.

“Ollie,” the bully snarls, cracking his fists with that signature menacing grin, “what little punk dares to bump into my friend?”

The big lug blinks contemplatively down at Max, who rolls his eyes.

“He’s a nerd,” he decides.

“A nerd?!” Johnny’s voice gets more than a little bit insane, his grin ratcheting wider. Max can hear those tires screeching again. “Y’boys know how I feel ‘bout nerds.”

“You wish some of them actually wore suspenders ‘cuz snapping them seems like it’d be fun,” Stephen contributes with a grin, Ollie and RJ nodding seriously.

“No, not that feel, the mean feel!”

“I mean, that feel’s kinda mean too,” Max interjects.

“Yeah, Puckett, but it’s not like punch mean, you get me?” Johnny does a double-take. “Wait. Max?”

All of a sudden, Max finds himself lifted to his feet, brushed off in like fifteen different directions by what feels suspiciously more like nine arms than eight (a ghost?), and his right hand receives another weird Johnny slap-biff-punch-shake-clasp greeting. He’s fairly certain it’s not the same one as last time, but he doesn’t know if that’s because he’s moved up in Johnny’s book, or if they’re both just completely random. At the end, Johnny just stands there, giving him this weird stare.

“You look different, man,” Stephen says.

“Yeah, that’s cause Starchman confiscated my hat,” Max snarls, rage returning as he remembers the injustice done to him. “That thing is basically part of my head!”

“Oooooooh,” Johnny’s gang agree. “Yeah, that’s it. You look naked, dude.”

“You look like a nerd,” Johhny says. “That’s just not right.”

“I thought you thought I was a nerd, though? I mean… you broke into my house to call me one in the middle of the night only like a couple days ago.” Max hoists his heavily-graffitied cast as proof.

“Y-yeah,” Johnny says, cheeks flushing. “But. You don’t normally look like a nerd. Yer all… stealth-nerd. Normally.”

“Did. Did you just say my hat makes me look cool.”

“T-this kid needs a hat, stat!” Johnny roars, and leaps at RJ, trying to tug off their hood. “RJ, c’mon, it’s a sacrifice for the greater good! Gotta cover his, his stupid, uh bald head. Yeah!”

…That sounds like a yes.

Max ducks his head, scratching at his hair, grinning a little. When he looks up, it’s to Johnny staring at him again, frozen, with one hand in RJ’s mouth and the other hovering mid-air.

“W-what?”

“……Nothun’. Ollie, Stephen: extraction.” The two boys help Johnny to prise his hand out of RJ’s mouth, a task that takes a couple of minutes. They all act like this is usual stuff for them, but Max is very concerned about what this implies for RJ’s bite strength, and makes a note not to touch the hood any time soon.

Still, Johnny’s got a point. Max needs a hat. Not just any hat. He needs the hat his mom gave him, the one that makes him look cool. And, well, he was just thinking about how hard it would be to do this alone…

“Johnny,” he says carefully, well aware that maybe this counts as making a deal with the devil or whatever. “Johnny, uh, do you want to steal back my hat with me?”

Johnny’s face is – yeah. Definitely the devil.

“Do I ever, MAX,” he exclaims, suddenly at his side, arm clasped over his shoulders. “Do. I. Ev-arr. Yes! Yes Max I EVER SO DO -”

“Great we got it you like crime,” Max mutters, trying to at least pretend like he regrets this decision.

Twenty minutes later, after one strategy meeting, one hoist into the vents, ten minutes getting lost in the vents, and one spent hovering in the ceiling trying to think of a cool way to jump down without bumping his cast. After some frantic hiding beneath the desk and a lot of attempts at lockpicking the treasure chest and Johnny finally just kicking the lock off with a roar that brings Mr. Starchman back into the room moustache a-tremble and wielding what Max realizes in horror must be The Noodle -

Twenty minutes later, he finds himself bolting down a stairwell, screaming in mutual terror with Johnny at his side, when their escape is foiled by Cody, Violet, and Jeff walking up the steps chatting. The only free space next to them is filled up by a small spectral goat on two hooves wearing a ridiculously huge backpack, so there’s no way through. Well, on the steps anyway, but Max manages to leap up and rebound off the wall, flipping over them and landing in the hallway beyond. Freedom awaits him in the form of the open front doors to the school, and for a second he’s tempted, but…

Johnny’s tangled in a heap with the other kids on the last few steps, and if Max runs now he’ll probably start punching his way out. Jeff has had it rough enough lately, what with the spirit possession and all.

He pretends that’s why he goes back to offer Johnny a hand up, followed only moments later by a pool noodle lasso landing round both their necks with (he could swear) a spectral yeehaw! echoing in the air.

He pretends real hard.

[fightcancerlikeagirl]

War and Peace and NED

It has been six weeks since we unexpectedly stopped treatment because my warrior is NED.  No Evidence of Disease.  We are stopping treatment because there is nothing left to treat.  Six weeks since we told the kids that Naomi will be with us longer that we thought.  Six weeks since Lauren looked at us with her usually confidence and said “told you she would beat it.”  Six weeks since Isaac heard the news, flew past his sister, climbed me like a monkey and tried to squeeze the life out of me with his relief.

I am not a radiologist but I must have looked at her PET/CT scans about 10 times in a span of 10 minutes.  The radiologist and oncologist were excited to finally give us good news.  I kept saying are you SURE?  Because to stop treatment is bad.  Stopping treatment is like stopping the fight.  We were not prepared for the win.  We were prepared for the war, not the peace.

What is peace?  “Freedom from disturbance, quiet and tranquil.”

What is war?  “A state of armed conflict between 2 different nations or states.”

What is NED?  No evidence of disease or treatable disease.

My headspace is a Venn diagram of all of the above, and my heart is where they all intersect.  Initially when Naomi was first diagnosed with Stage 4 ARMS (alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma), it never crossed my mind that she couldn't beat it.  Not once.  But then, the beast wouldn't go away.  Every 3 months after every scan after brutally harsh treatments, there was always some lurking on the scans, challenging my mindset that it might win.  Then the more I read about her particular type and staging of the beast, the more my mindset was challenged.  My faith was being challenged.  My beliefs were being challenged.

Rather than change my mindset with each appointment of bad news, I built a wall around it because it was an optimistic mindset and without optimism or HOPE or FAITH, what would I become?  The wall allowed me to become numb but functioning.  That was my new battle strategy, protect the good, absorb the bad, and prepare for the worst.

I remember reading once that choosing to be happy is the bravest choice of all. In order for me to choose to be happy, I had to protect it, at all costs.  That was my new war.

Fast forward to June 2, 2017 and BAM.  The war is over.  My warrior, the captain of this army, took matter into her own hands and fought back the beast.  Was this the ultimate example of mind over matter?  Was it the new chemotherapy?  Did we really kill it with love?  Probably a combination of all 3.  My warrior has put down her battle swords, has embraced normal, and is living life like she battled the beast, full of sass and determination.

But what if I am not done fighting?  I feel like a soldier who is swinging their sword against empty space because I can't stop swinging.  To stop swinging might expose my wall and leave my happy or optimism un-guarded.  I am not sure when the shift went from protecting Naomi to protecting myself but it definitely happened.  Probably because I am part of a group where I hear the horrors of children dying painfully from this beast weekly around the world.  Childhood cancer deaths are not pretty, they full of despair, pain, and sometimes and eery quiet or a prayer to save the child from pain, and eventually grief combined with relief because the fight is finally over.

The first week after her NED status, my urge to gather the family and disappear was very hard to ignore.  We needed a reset button.  We needed to re-evaluate what our after cancer life was going to look like.  My urge to purge the excess from our lives is also hard to ignore.  Stuff that I used to hoard has no meaning to me anymore.  It actually makes me angry to look at.  I can't explain it, but looking at 15 sets of sheets for 4 beds makes me itch.  Stacking 16 kitchen bowls when I only need 4 angers me.  I want it gone because it does not deserve to be in the house with my warrior.  I guess that is where I am directing my sword now, cutting the excess from our lives.

Naomi however is taking on new challenges.  Her mobility is increasing everyday as the chemo leaves her body.  One description of the nerve damage that chemo can cause is “like walking on marshmallows filled with needles surrounding your feet.”  She even tried knee-boarding again last week at the lake.  This was a huge step for her as she tried kneeboarding once when she was 5 and was trapped under the board under water for about 10-15 seconds but in a 5 years olds time frame, that leaves an impression.  It speaks volumes about her character that she tried it again but in true Naomi fashion, she dictated the rules of engagement.  No strap over her knees, Mom in the water with her to help get her started, and Dad would go as slow as possible with the boat, only speeding up when she was comfortable enough to give the signal.  So imagine my emotions when she is kneeboarding away from me with her pink Shopkins goggles on, her bald head glistening with water, and I can see a smile on her face even though she is facing away from me.  I bobbed in the middle of Candle Lake, balling like a baby because the peace was stronger than the war at that moment, and I didn't know how to handle it.  The peace hurt.

[the-record-columns]

July 19, 2017: Columns

The sermon from my wife was entitled...

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

Often in this space, last week for example, I often revel in the really odd, eclectic, and unusual things that have either been brought in to me, I have found in my travels, I have purchased, or, shall we say with tongue in cheek, have otherwise acquired.

               On Monday of this week I was recounting the stories that go with my chance encounter some years ago with one Joseph Thomas Redding, III, from Long  Beach, California. Joseph was the grandson of legendary businessman, civic leader, entrepreneur, inventor, and the de facto mayor of the Cairo Community, the late J. T. "Big Tom" Redding. I met Joseph when he was in town to settle the estate of his father, J. T. Redding, Jr.

               Over a period of weeks, I was able to acquire some very special items of local history, including some black history items. These include two cement block-making machines which the senior Mr. Redding invented (and the patent model that went with them), all the way to two 9 foot arched doors from the old Damascus Baptist Church-and a plethora of treasures in between.

               There were some really cool old locks in the in-between stuff, and, while locks had never been a focus of my collecting, Kay and Brenda Ball had given me a some locks from the old Thrift Supermarket some time ago. But these at the Redding estate caught my eye and went along well with the other stuff I was loading up. I took what looked like the better one to Harvey Barlow, local locksmith at Wilkes Lock Service on 10th Street here in North Wilkesboro.

               Harvey is not too easy to impress, but his eyebrows did arch up a few times as he looked over my Redding locks, especially an unusual Yale lock, and pronounced the lot of them as "...well worth saving." With that endorsement I proudly placed the locks, along with some Ford wrenches from the same find, on a window frame just outside my office door at The Record. If I can see them often, I will be be reminded to show then to Sonny Church and crow about beating him to the sale.

               So now I am excited about locks, and one evening I happened to be in a place where I really had no business being-at a minimum it was a judgment call-but curiousity won out over judgment. I went inside the building; it was dark, rainy, and leaking and all I had with me was a small flashlight and a flat head screwdriver. As I stumbled around in the dark and dampness, I spied a lock hanging on a door frame.

               My new found interest in locks trumped ( or is that Trumped?) the fact that it was cold and I needed to go top the bathroom. Upon looking closer, I could see the lock was attached to a hasp that had Phillips head screws. Armed only with a flat head screwdriver, I resolved to dig those screws out if necessary, all the while holding the flashlight between my teeth which was making me drool like a baby. After what seemed like forever, I had the lock in hand and managed to get out of the building without breaking a leg so I could find a bathroom.

               I went straight to the office and began to clean up my treasure-WD-40, Gunk Remover, and fine steel wool soon cleared away years of dirt, soot, and grime off the lock. I grabbed my trusty "Carl W's," the jewelers glasses I have which I named after the wonderful jeweler who worked across the street for so many years, Carl W. Steele. With my Carl W's on, the hair on my fingers looks like a tree limb, so I squinted down to see if I had found a Yale, Slaymaker, Master, Hurd or Corbin lock. I found numbers but no name. After more cleaning, I realized that there was a name on the bottom left, but it was so small and full of dirt I still could not read it, Undaunted, I continued cleaning and spraying till the name could be finally read with magnification. I adjusted my Carl W's once again, peered through the three layers of glass at the lettering. I cannot tell you the emotion I felt as I read, stamped clearly on the bottom of my new lock--"Taiwan." When I looked again, it still read, Taiwan.

               I was crushed.

               All that work, basically breaking and entering, enduring the cold, rain, and leaks; enduring personal discomfort to the point of uric poisoning, and all for basically nothing.

               And to top it all off, the only help I got from my wife was a sanctimonious sermon entitled, "You shouldn't have been there to start with."

         Decisions

By LAURA WELBORN

Have you ever acted on something that seemed like a good idea at the moment and then turned out to be a disaster?  I sometimes forget how much everyday decisions can affect our lifes with great consequences both good and bad.  While an immediate need is satisfied, in the long run the decision lasts a long time.  The story of Jacob and Esau (the twins of Isaac and Rebekah) Genesis 25:19-34 where Esau gives up his birth right for food to Jacob, thinking he was going to die anyway.  While this is a dramatic story, it does illustrate how decisions that are made quickly without care thought about how it affects not only ourselves but others as well.

               The Torah guideline is that" every one of us is responsible for the well-being of our neighbors.  What is right is right and wrong is wrong.".  How we treat others is a direct reflection on ourselves. So we must put faith in action with a lantern to our feet and a light to our path so that with power and determination we can accomplish our goals without harming others.

               So how do we keep from making quick decisions?  This goes back to mindfulness.  The

               It's about being silent, and witnessing the thoughts passing through you. Just witnessing at first, not interfering and not even judging, because by judging too rapidly you have lost the pure witness.  The moment you rush to say, "this is good" or "this is bad," you have already grabbed ahold of the chaos.

               It takes a little time to create a gap between the witnessing of thoughts and your reaction to them.  Once the gap is there, though, you realize - that you are not the thoughts themselves, nor the chaos influencing them.  You are the witness, a watcher, who's capable of letting go, changing your mind, and rising above the turmoil.

               And this process of thought-watching is the very alchemy of true mindfulness.  Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, the confusing, chaotic thoughts start disappearing and you can make decisions that are thoughtful, and do not lead to harm to yourself or others.  

Continue to move through each day consciously. Make an effort to notice at least one insignificant little frustration that you would normally get frustrated about. Then do yourself a favor and simply let it go.  Experience, in this little way, the freedom of being in control of the way you feel. And realize that you can extend this same level of control to every situation you encounter in life.

   Ice cream, sunsets, and green pigs in the dog days of summer...

BY HEATHER DEAN REPORTER/PHOTOJOURNALIST

This column will not make much sense unless you are like me, and weird and random facts swirl through your brain at warp speed 24/7.  

               I'm absolutely addicted to the "this day in history" and the "this is National (insert bizarre shenanigan here) day. In fact my 2016 office wall calendar had an assignment for everyday every day. I went with a simple calendar this year because it proved entirely too distracting, as my publisher , Ken Welborn, did not feel as strongly as I did every week about the public-at-large needing to know it was National rutabaga day and the story behind it.

               But I digress....  This week Ken and I were fortunate enough to find out that this is National hire a Veteran month. He asked me to work up a little ditty about it on page 7B and I did, and we talked about all the awesome guys we know and love at the local VFW Post 1142.

               But not before he  and my editor Jerry, spent the next 20 minutes finding out what every day in July was, rather  (Allow me to share those most notable in my opinion:) the 8th is “bald is in”, the 10th “don't step on a bee day”, the 13th is “embrace your geekiness day”, the 14th is “Robin Hood day”, the 15th is “National gummy worm day” (which is every day for me as its my my favorite candy ever) the  16th is “national snake day”, (bet my daughter makes a party hat for her pet snake) and the 17th is “yellow pig day”. Now, we don’t have any yellow pigs, here in Wilkes that I know of, but Ken says we did have a Green Pig restaurant..)

               For those of you who like Ice cream, (I’m the odd duck who doesn’t...) July is National ice cream month. It’s also Park and Recreation month, blueberry month, watermelon month (sorry, Justin...) sandwich generation month, (whatever that means, but I love a good sandwich)....

               Well you get the idea. Very little work was done Monday morning cause Heather got distracted by the fun fact tunnel, but we all shared a giggle at some of the absurdities.

               I guess that’s enough of that for one day.  (By the way, today is National Hot Dog and raspberry cake day.)

               So, enjoy talking your house plant for a walk (July 27) in the dog days of summer (July 3 - August 11) and remember you deserve a massage (July 16-22).

 The Hounds of Summer

By Carl White

Warm summer days in the South are not uncommon and the Dog Days of Summer take things to another level. For the most part, we don’t mind sweat because we know it’s good for us. Sweat is an equalizer for all people…somewhat that is.

I recall a conversation with Jenny Biddle in Conway SC. We were talking about the hot weather and the sweat of summer. She reminded me that horses sweat, men perspire and women glisten.  This expression seems to have originated from the Victorian era. I listened as she explained and later I did a bit of research because I know that sometimes etiquette suggest we say things in a politer way, and often, there is good reason.

As it turns out men do in fact sweat or perspire more than women do, by as much as 4-5 times. It is also of interest that horses do have a few things in common with humans and two of those common traits are armpits and sweat. I realize that the horse has legs and not arms, non-the-less the correct expression is armpit and not legpit.

As it relates to sweating or perspiring for men. If you look back in time we will see that the many cultures used the expression that men perspire and animals sweat. But time has progressed and for good or not humans are often classified as sweating.  I even asked three of the ladies at the office if they sweat and each answered yes. One even said that her husband glistened far more than she.

So, what’s all this got to do with summer heat, well just about as much as dogs have to do with the Dog Days of Summer. It’s easy to ponder the lazy days of summer with our dogs stretched out and not eager to do anything that requires a lot of energy or at least not for an extended period. We humans can find ourselves feeling a bit the same. It’s just too hot to do much, the heat seems to take away our energy. We spend much of our energy trying to find ways to cool off.

We have established annual traditions that take us high in the mountain for shade and cooler weather or off to the coast we go to play in the waters and then lay in the sun and crisp our skins, which does in fact make us feel cooler when the burn stops.

The Dog Days of Summer are normally the hottest days of the year and last between early July and mid-August. It all goes back to the Greek, Roman and Egyptian ideas and mythology. The star Sirius which is represented by the dog apparently rises with the sun during this time of the year.

It was thought that when joined with the sun, Sirius A which is the brightest of the stars, and with its smaller counterpart Sirius B creates our hottest, haziest and yes laziest days of the year.

When you consider the geography of Rome, Greece and Egypt compared to the Carolinas, it’s hard to tell if the idea is valid, however it is hard to dismiss the heat of our summer days.

And how can we deny the sweating horses, the perspiring men and the glistening women all surrounded by our beloved lazy hounds of summer.

Please remember to apply sunscreen.

 Carl White is the executive producer and host of the award winning syndicated TV show Carl White’s Life In the Carolinas. The weekly show is now in its seventh year of syndication and can be seen in the Charlotte viewing market on WJZY Fox 46 Saturdays at 12:00 noon. For more on the show visit  www.lifeinthecarolinas.com, You can email Carl White at Carl@lifeinthecarolinas.com.

[ecotone99]

[RF] Whispers absolute no King (Final Part)

It was around noon when we made breakfast, we couldn't eat in that house and after we cared for the twins and made our way far enough from the cottage to light a fire and prepare the canned foods the sun was already high in the sky. This day there were hardly any clouds and the heat was burning on our skin. We almost reached our goal, Birmingham was only half a day day away.

Liam had to walk on a makeshift crutch and Noel had half his face covered in bandages but Logan was making jokes and pulling faces in front of them to cheer them up and I have to admit he was pretty good at it. He made one joke about fish-sticks that made me laugh so hard snot came out of my nose. It was good that we not only physically but also mentally survived that encounter.

As the sun was setting in front of us it lit up what was now the biggest city in England, it built like a palace from the small buildings around it to the tall spires in the middle, like a mountain there was harmony in the chaos and beauty in the roughness.

What we searched for was so close none of us wanted to wait another day so we pushed through the night. The darkness hit when we reached the first brick buildings, for a while everything looked so similar we questioned our sanity, till we reached a big structure labelled: “ASDA Shirley”.

This was our last stop before we made it to Wilbur Lane, we stocked up on supplies there but it was so big we had to split up to cover everything. It was like some kind of magical place that had everything you wished for. Dara and me were piling up more foods that we could ever carry in a trolly, but it was really fun. I was mesmerized by some sweets in a purple bag that had the picture of a bald man with a face like an orange on it and the words: “Monster Munch” written above it. “What do you think that's supposed to be Dara? … Dara?”

A rough-looking bearded man held a double-barrel gun in Dara's face, behind him there was a slender woman with short blonde hair pointing a gun at me and a short elderly man with an eyepatch casually eating jerky out of a plastic bag.

“Why did you kill all those people?” the bearded man said with a stern voice.

“Wh- what?” I muttered.

“The people on the road, women, children … you slaughtered them.” the man continued.

My mind was racing and all I could get out of my mouth was: ”What?”

The bearded man got visibly angry pushed Dara to the side now pointing his big gun at me. “Say what again I dare you, I double dare you Mother...”

“It's not them!” a female voice shouted from behind me. I turned around to see Isaac, Logan and the twins followed by two men who looked like they hadn't bathed in weeks and a tall muscular woman, she had bits of dried red paint on her face and in her hair.

“They're just kids!” For a moment the bearded man looked at all of us in confusion then his demeanour changed form angry to friendly in a spilt second.

“I'm sorry I spooked ya, we mistook ya for some … ahm … bad men.”

“You mean the green men?” Dara said. “They … on the road … I mean they … “ Noel tried to add.

I can't really describe it but the air grew thick like you could almost choke on it and you could fell the sadness in the room.

“It's OK” the bearded man replied “but yeah they did some bad stuff on the way through the country and we've been tracking them here. I apologise again that we mistook you for those monsters.” The man tried desperately to lift the mood by telling a joke about a horse in bar the nobody except for Logan found particularly funny.

“Wait you said you've been tracking them … Here?” Isaac said with a shocked look on his face. A loud motor sound came from the street below us.

The old man with the eyepatch nonchalantly walked over to the window, looked outside and said: “ Yep time for action.” as he pulled two grenades out of his bag. The tall woman looked nervous and said: “You guys should leave, there is an exit in the back!”

I tried to tell her that we could fight but told us that she will not have our deaths on her conscience. Looking back we probably would have died, we were young and stupid and the twins were in no shape to fight. We started running in the direction she pointed and towards our original goal. To this day I still regret that I didn't take one last look at them.

It took an hour or two until we got our heads straight and found the street-sign for Wilbur Lane. We were so close I could taste victory. It was one of those streets where every house looks the same, red bricks and all attached to each other. This part of town had hardly been touched by the war and it wasn't long till we found 14/B.

The entrance looked cleaner than the surrounding houses, the downstairs windows were boarded shut and the blue front door was slightly open. I took out ol'Batsie, told the others to be quiet and slowly pushed the door open.

It was dark and the air smelled stale, I waited and listened for a few moments but there was only silence. I signalled Isaac to get his torch out, it was a hallway with a staircase at the end and a door to the right. We argued a bit whether or not we should split up but I convinced them that we should stick together and search the ground floor first. The door let to a dining room with a big table surrounded by mismatched chairs and a couch with muddied bootprints on one end. The room had a doorway to the kitchen, unfortunately it was already raided clean the only things left were a couple of dishes and the windows that oversaw an overgrown backyard but we didn't care much it wasn't the reason we took this long trip. The bedroom had to be upstairs, I was halfway up the stairs when I heard a click followed by a hissing sound through the air.

Everything went silent except for my heartbeat that felt like it was about to burst through my chest, when I saw the knife that had stopped half an inch left of my face. It was attached by a plank to the ceiling. It took a couple of minutes to gather my thoughts and stop sweating, we took the plank down and used it to test the other steps for more traps, but there was no more clicking and no more knives. At the top of the stairs was a small window that had been painted black and a door to the right.

I opened the door very carefully ready for knives, raiders or even scourgers to pop out, but the room turned out to be a paradise.

Supplies, supplies and even more supplies. Beef jerky, canned chilli and curry, drinks in every colour of the rainbow on a table in the middle of the room, clean clothes, wellies, raincoats, medicine and even a crossbow on the shelves to the sides.

I could feel the excitement of my friends but there was still one more room we had to check before we could start looting. The red of the door on the opposite side of the supply room was vibrant like the pearly gates of heaven.

We were pretty sure there was no one beside us in the house, they surely would have heard us, but we still wanted to be careful. I opened the door with one swift motion and I was proven right, the room was fairly empty except for a massive bed beneath a coloured window and a small night stand with a framed photograph of a family on top of it.

The walls were covered with drawings in crayon, they reminded me of the ones I used to draw for the old man when I was younger, they were rubbish but he kept all of them in a drawer in his room, they seemed to make him happy.

There was a sense of serenity in the air, but the twins snapped me out of it with a loud and almost harmonious: “LET'S RIP 'EM OUT BOYS!!”. We took our knives and about anything we could use to tear out the floorboards and had Logan take watch at the window in case we made too much noise, the looming threat of the green men was still in the back of our minds.

Taking the boards out was harder than I expected but we never got disheartened at the sight of emptiness, cause it just meant that the chances of it being under the next one were higher. Eventually we got to the last floorboard and we were all pretty knackered, getting the bed through the door into the storage room was the worst part though, if Dara had said “PIVOT!” one more time I swear I would have punched him.

But there we were, the last hurdle on our path to glory. I slid my knife under the weaker side and counted down in my head 3 … 2 … 1 …. “crack”. I felt the adrenaline rushing through my veins as I pulled the board up and … … Nothing. It was empty like all the ones before. No one said a word, our hopes and dreams shattered. Happiness truly was destroyed in the war along with the rest of the world.

Was this really just a sick joke the old man played on us? We sat in silence for what felt like an eternity. Isaac got up eventually and started to pack the things in the storage room, one after another we followed suit.

The things we were gathering felt like a consolation prize, Logan seemed to still have the most spirit still in him, he got excited as he picked up a small knife that had another knife, a saw and even scissors in it that you could pull out. “Hey Isaac look what I fouaaaaa!”

There was a loud crash as Logan who had turned around, stumbled and fallen head first onto the floor.

“What the hell was that” he exclaimed. He looked back at his feet and saw a saw a floorboard that was sticking out from the ground.

Could it be? Did the previous occupants move the bed? We all instinctively rushed over, none of us were ready to be disappointed again. I took out my knife and jammed it under the board, took a deep breath and pulled it up.

I remember a heavenly light coming from the gap in the floor, I know it probably wasn't there but in that moment it felt real. Almost afraid to touch it I took the artefact out with shaking hands, it surpassed even our greatest expectations.

The writing on the front of the artefact read:

“October 2025 Special Edition Playboy Magazine.”

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