#today’s revelation is related to yesterday’s revelation

[yay-depression]

texting my therapist like “hey can we move up our appointment? i keep having revelations.”

[soldiersslut]

GHOST OF YOU — SOLDIER BOY "CHAPTER SIX"

Pairing: Soldier Boy x Female!Reader

Warnings: Language, alcohol use, smut towards the end (not super-detailed, but it is there), cheating, and Soldier Boy being Soldier Boy

Word Count: 3,491

Author's Note: Thank you so much again for all the love and support! This is another chapter of the past. It goes a little more in depth between Ben and Mimicry.

IF YOU WANT TO BE TAGGED PLEASE LET ME KNOW. DON'T FORGET TO FOLLOW, HEART, AND REPOST. THANK YOU AGAIN!

1981 – Behind the Curtains

“Why the fuck would you suggest Crimson Countess and I to appear as a couple in the public eye?” Soldier Boy had barged into Mimicry’s room early in the morning.

There was a meeting with the executives of Vought American and they believed it would raise ratings if their hero was in a romantic relationship. Something about people being able to relate to him.

Initially, Vought American wanted it to be Soldier Boy and Mimicry. She was against the idea as a whole.

Mimicry enjoys her time with Soldier Boy, but not to the point she needs a man.

“Good morning to you too, sunshine. The people eat this shit up. Your ratings will go through the roof. Isn’t that what we are working towards to?” Mimicry had to rub her eyes to stay awake. It had been a very long day yesterday and was hoping to sleep in.

“That’s not my problem. My problem is why the fuck am I going to be in a relationship with the dumb bimbo. She’s not even blonde!” he snapped.

Mimicry rolled her eyes. For someone who has lived for so long he continues to act like a child.

“Think about it. I am supposed to be your sidekick—“

Soldier Boy quickly interrupted, “and I have Gunpowder for that.” He then took a seat at the edge of the bed next to her.

Mimicry put her finger up to his lips, “let me finish, Ben.”

Ben hated when she would do that.

“Yes, Gunpowder is supposed to be your sidekick too but I was the first one. You know how bad it will look on me? I was the sidekick and now I am in a relationship with him. At that point we might as well just tell people I slept my way to get to you.”

Ben scoffed, “no one will think that.” Mimicry gave him a look. He knew she was right, but he did not want to admit it. He hated that too.

“Just think about it this way. While Countess talks your ear off just think of how much exciting it’ll be coming back to me. Can you imagine just how much you’ll be anticipating? And who knows, maybe we can sneak around,” she teased.

The idea of sneaking around made Ben excited. The thrill and adrenaline that comes with it made it so much better.

“And what about you? You won’t be looking forward to it?” he asked.

Mimicry smirked, “of course I will be. Every time you have to kiss her just close your eyes and imagine it was me.”

By now Ben had gotten so close to Mimicry’s face that he felt the tip of her lips on his own.

“And you won’t be imagining me? Every time you see me and Countess you wish it was you?”

Mimicry let out a small laugh, and without answering she closed the gap between them. Ben got a hold of Mimicry’s hips and pulled her to his lap.

Her hands went through his hair and she let out a gasp when he began to kiss her neck.

That was a wonderful way to start off their morning.

Today was going to be the beginning of Soldier Boy and Crimson Countess’ relationship. The revelation will happen at the movie premiere happening later today.

In the mean time the reception hall where the after party was going to be hosted was being put together.

While people worked, Payback had to go over their lines and roles for the night.

Ben and Mimicry entered the meeting room, the rest of the team was already there along with Stan Edgar.

“Big man is here!” announced Gunpowder.

“Shut the fuck up,” Ben shot him down.

Mimicry let out a snicker and sat on the chair that is the right-hand side of Ben.

The meeting began, and Mimicry was already bored.

As usual, Ben was going to be the attention of the party and with his relationship coming forward he had to be on his best behavior. Which meant the alcohol and drugs have to be kept at a minimum. He must also keep his hands to himself.

Crimson Countess was going to be by Ben’s side the entire event, and she is expected to appear like a woman in love.

Mimicry took noticed how Crimson Countess looked eager, and agreed to do anything and everything possible to make this work.

Mimicry had the urge to tell Countess that at this point she might as well just remove her panties and throw them at Ben.

Speaking of Ben, he must have been just as bored because he would just stare down at his paper. At some point his hand reached underneath the table and touched Mimicry’s thigh. She got startled by his touch, but then it hit her why he was suddenly doing this.

He wanted to start sneaking around.

Mimicry looked at Ben. He was unfazed by what he was doing. If that is how he wants to play then she will do the same thing. She continued to listen to the meeting without breaking a sweat.

“Let me make this very clear to you all. Anyone, and I mean anyone asks about Soldier Boy and Crimson Countess. They are the couple. They have the epic love story that all of you desire to have someday.”

Mimicry agreed and nodded her head.

“Who knows, maybe out of this little love between Soldier Boy and Countess another one can arise? How about Mimicry? Who should she be paired up with?” Noir spoke up.

That made Ben pop a vein out.

“Can anything more stupid come out of your fucking mouth? Mimicry isn’t getting in no relationship with anyone. Let’s make that very clear,” Ben snapped.

The protective and defensive side of Ben did bring you comfort. You did not care whose feelings got hurt, or whom he had to put in their place.

It’s cute that Ben believes he has the final say in her life, though. If she wants something she will stop at nothing to get it regardless of whom she has to hurt.

“I think we should just focus on Soldier Boy and Countess. If this is a success then we can discuss that in the future,” Mimicry suggested.

She gave Black Noir a sweet smile and the meeting came to an end.

Mimicry knew better than to leave without Ben. He spoke with Stan about a couple of things. You looked to your left and realized Countess was standing there still.

After Ben and Stan finished talking, Countess jumped at the opportunity to talk to Ben.

You were standing there still and could hear everything. Instead of making it obvious that you were listening you pretended to read over the paper that you were handed earlier.

“I just wanted to talk to you, Ben—”

“Soldier Boy,” he corrected Countess.

Countess felt herself startle now, “I just wanted to thank you for this opportunity and I promise not to fail. I am excited for this and whatever it is you need, I’m your girl.” She had begun to twirl her hair and smile sweetly at him.

Mimicry could not help but snicker, it caught both Ben and Countess’ attention.

“Thank you for the offer, Countess. I will keep that in mind.”

Soldier Boy was doing everything to be cordial. Everything about Countess angered him. The way she spoke, smelled, her smile, and how desperate she looked. If he wanted easy he can easily pay a girl $5 and she will be more entertaining than Countess.

Ben enjoyed challenges, like Mimicry.

Countess began to talk his ear off, and to make matters worse Mindstorm and the rest of the team surrounded Mimicry.

They were hoping she could help them train further. Since she is able to mock their powers they have been using her for training. It makes sense if they can see for themselves where the weak spots are at.

“Noir, we do not need to worry about your weakness” Mimicry teased and put her hand on his arm. The team laughed knowing about Noir’s nut allergy. Noir had removed his helmet and even he was laughing. That is not fair. The only person that she should be entertaining is him. The team continued to talk and laugh more.

“Are you done talking?” Ben asked Countess out of nowhere.

She knew about his attitude problem, but she did not think she had done anything wrong to receive this treatment from him.

Seeing she no longer spoke Ben took that as a sign to leave. He walked over to the group and stood between Mimicry and Noir.

“What’s so funny, guys?” he asked.

The laughter mildly died out. None of them had the balls to tell him the truth. They were asking Mimicry how she is able to keep Ben in check.

“We were discussing about tonight’s event and how it is going to be fun,” she answered.

Ben slapped his hand on Noir’s shoulder. He put in a little more strength into the slap.

“I was thinking, since this is such a huge event with celebrities and other VIPs. Why don’t you stick around with security on the perimeter tonight?” he suggested to Noir.

That is the opposite of what Noir wanted. Tonight is supposed to be the night he can talk to directors and producers about making his own solo movie, and once again, Soldier Boy is attempting to take that away again.

“I don’t think that is necessary. That’s what Vought is for, no?” questioned Mimicry.

Ben hated the way she called him out in front of the team.

“Better to be safe, Mimicry”

“Well, too bad because Noir is my dancing partner for tonight.”

Silence filled the room. Countess was long gone as well as Stan. You knew there was going to be consequences for this after when they are alone and in private.

Ben tried his damn hardest not to let this piss him off. He gave a fake smile, “fine, but don’t be having too much fun.”

Everyone went their separate ways after. Mimicry had not seen Ben for the rest of the day until later that evening during the premiere.

Cameras were flashing everywhere when the team arrived to the red carpet. You smiled, posed, and took pictures with everyone. The flashes came to an end when Soldier Boy arrived with Crimson Countess.

As always he had that millionaire smile, and the crowds were going crazy seeing the new declared couple. He managed to find Mimicry and their eyes connected. It only lasted a couple of seconds before he grabbed Countess and planted a kiss on her lips.

The kiss was filled with hunger, and the sight of them made Mimicry a little annoyed.

She scoffed to herself. He wanted to have all the fun and wanted to forbid her?

When the couple was done taking pictures they entered the theater where the movie will play. You were going to take your usual spot next to him but Countess took it, and Gunpowder took the other seat.

“Sorry Mimi, he asked me to sit here,” Gunpowder explained.

Oh, so Ben was being petty now.

Mimicry gave him a fake smile and nodded.

“Don’t worry, I am going to sit with everyone else” she assured. She did not looked at Ben nor Countess. The rest of the team was sitting a few rows below. What a coincidence the only available seat was in between Noir and Tessa from the TNT twins.

The movie began and Mimicry would whisper to the team. They were going down memory lane when the film was being made.

Although Noir could not speak at the moment Mimicry would smile at him.

Ben could see from where he was sitting and clenched his jaw.

At some point Mimicry had to get up to use the restroom. Ben took that as an opportunity to follow her inside.

“If your intent was to sneak up on me, you are horrible at it” she called out, washing her hands.

“What was that shit you pulled at the tower?” he asked. The restroom was a singular one so he locked the door. They won’t be interrupted now.

Mimicry crossed her arms, “you and I both know damn well what that was. You wanted to flaunt your power, but guess what. It will not work with me. I told you this from the very beginning. If we are doing this it is because we are two mature people to know when we can and cannot. What did we agree on from the very beginning? This was all pleasure.”

Ben is reminded, at least, once a month that their little fun is just that; fun.

“Exactly that, sweetheart. Just because we are fucking doesn’t mean you get to me what the hell to do with my team or not,” he snapped.

Mimicry rolled her eyes, “you were being petty towards Noir and then that whole thing with the seat? Really? I get Countess but Gunpowder? I did not realize you and him had gotten so close.”

Ben had the perfect response in mind.

“You wanted it this way. We were given the opportunity for it to be you and me, and yet you rejected it? For what reasons, I am still trying to understand why because all you told me earlier was fucking bullshit.”

Ben got closer and closed the gap between her and the sink. His hands were on her waist and he pulled her close again.

“We can still take this back. Tell me you want this, and I will go in front of everyone and tell them that Countess was a mistake. We can still do this,” he whispered. For a second it sounded like he was begging.

Mimicry scrunched her eyebrows together and just stared.

He wanted this, and deep down she did as well but no. This would only ruin him, and her especially.

Given that they are touching she was able to observe his powers. She used some of his strength to push him off.

“No. This is what we are sticking with. In public you and I are nothing more than colleagues. Behind the cameras, curtains, and everyone it’s you and me.”

Mimicry could not stand being there anymore. She walked out of the restroom and headed back to the theater, but by the time she got there the movie was over.

She faked a smile towards everyone and shook hands. They congratulated her on the film and went on to the reception.

She followed behind the crowd and just flowed around.

Just how Stan predicted. People wanted to know how Soldier Boy and Countess came to be,

“You know how love works, when you know; you know” she would say.

“And what about you, Mimicry? Do you not see a husband and kids in the future?” a few people asked.

Those words always stung the worst. Of course had dreamed of a family, but there was no ideal man for her. The one she is currently tangled with isn’t actually her’s. Not to mention someone such as Ben could never be a husband and a father. He would never be ready for that.

That was a hard pill she had to swallow. As usual, she watched him from a distance. He was an intoxicating man that no matter what she did to cleanse herself from him it was impossible. He was a drug, and no matter what she could not find herself to get rid of him.

So it came down to sacrificing the idea of a family, or Ben.

She made her choice already.

From time to time Ben would look around the crowd and find Mimicry. She looked completely unfazed by what was happening. It almost looked like she did not care and as much as he was in denial of it, there was a pang of disappointment.

The night continued and the dancing began.

Ben and Countess opened the dance floor and others followed behind.

As promised, Noir owed Mimicry a dance. They got to the floor and danced away. Ben was still with Countess, but his eyes constantly looked over to them. Without a second thought he let go of the woman in his arms.

“Let’s dance,” he told Mimicry. Like hell he was going to ask Noir for permission. To avoid causing a scene Mimicry nodded.

“You need to be dancing with your girlfriend, not me” she told him.

Gosh, this man was so stubborn.

“I don’t take orders from anyone. You should know this by now,” he shot back. He twirled her around and brought her to his chest. They stayed like that for a moment, but she had to look away in order not to make it so obvious.

“We are a day into this game, and you are already breaking Mr. Soldier Boy,” she teased.

Ben scoffed, “you have yet to know what breaking means yet, sweetheart.”

That was a promising and delicious threat that Mimicry could not wait for.

“I am feeling a bit parched. I am gonna go grab a drink,” she said.

Ben smirked and let her go. He knew he got her, and it was only a matter of time before temptation gets the best of them.

Mimicry got to the bar and asked for a lemonade. She waited and looked to her right when someone stood next to her. She saw it was Countess who looked upset.

“Whatever it is you are doing to Ben, you need to stop it” she demanded.

Oh, this was new.

Mimicry got handed her drink and she took a sip, not even having a care in the world by what Countess was saying.

“I believe you are supposed to call him Soldier Boy,” Mimicry corrected.

Countess glared at Mimicry.

“Please Mimicry. I do not have much going for me here. I have always admired him. I love him, and I am given this opportunity to have him. Please. Let me have this with him,” Countess begged.

The woman was ready to cry. Mimicry could hear just how desperate she was.

“I know I was not the original pick. It was supposed to be you, but you said no. So please. Leave us be. You can have anyone in this room, just please don’t pick him.”

The way Countess kept begging was annoying Mimicry.

Countess left after that, she probably went to find Ben.

“Get me something stronger,” Mimicry ordered now. No one will ever come to tell Mimicry what she can and cannot do.

Mimicry knew exactly what she was doing for the rest of the night. There was no excuse that she was drunk. From a distance she found herself teasing Ben. She danced with other men, but her eyes were on him.

He knew exactly what she was doing and the more time passed, the harder it was getting to control himself. Finally, the both of them reached their breaking point. Mimicry excused herself for the night and Ben had told Countess he needed to go to his dressing room. He gave her no other explanation.

“Dressing room, now,” he ordered Mimicry.

Mimicry smirked and found her way to the room.

As soon as she closed the door Ben lunged himself at her. His kisses with Mimicry were just as hungry, but there was passion. There was a raw need for her, and she felt the same. They had begun to undress each other.

Without wasting another moment he inserted himself inside of her and began to fuck Mimicry like a dog in heat. Ben would thrust with such need and desperation. He was waiting for this the entire night. They would move to the vanity mirror, wall, and now the couch.

“You’re mine,” Ben said. His hand tangling into Mimicry’s hair and pulling it back.

“And you are mine,” she moaned.

She made sure she was facing the door while Ben moved from behind. If she calculated right, the person she was waiting for will walk in at any second.

On cue, Countess walked in because she got concerned about Ben not coming out.

Her eyes went wide at the sight in front of her.

“The fuck are you doing here? Get out!” Ben yelled.

Mimicry could see the betrayal in her face, and the way her eyes were filled with tears. Even that did not stop Ben nor Mimicry. They continued as if she was not there.

This was a lesson for Countess to learn, and anyone else that thinks they can get in between Ben and Mimicry. Regardless of how stubborn they are to truly express themselves they knew deep inside they both wanted each other, and if this is how it’ll be for Mimicry’s life then so be it but as long as she is in the one with Ben.

Author's Note: I was able to get another chapter out, yay! Phew, that ending was a little rough. Turns out Mimicry isn't as innocent as she comes off to be, especially when it comes to Ben. Please leave your thoughts below what you guys think so far! Thank you again <3

Tagged List: @seven709 | @sadpods | @mayafatimakhan | @justiceforquentin | @ultracarpediemfan | @bitchykittenconnoisseur | @spacecowgirl126 | @ultraviolencexs | @deans-spinster-witch | @xx-spooky-little-vampire-xx | @manicjk | @demodemo909 | @robertthehoover | @riah1606 | @onlyangel-444 | @cunningboyouare | @posiemax | @anna6307 | @jarofer | @sukunassfinger | @faephoria | @cassieriddle713 | @superherosdystopiafreak | @pixviee | @lmhf1

[sorcerous-caress]

I'm sorry if you've already answered an ask like this but what are your werewolf shadowheart headcanons maybe with reader/tav included? I'm like hooked on the idea now

It's alright. If you're new here, you can check the ♡wereshart tag below this post to see the previous things I've written about her.

I haven't officially made it into a fic yet, so this is a good excuse to complie and recap everything into a headcanons post.

Werewolf Shadowheart headcanons

[ fluff, au, nb!reader ]

She's a late bloomer with lycanthropy

Maybe it was the half-elf genes contradicting against her elf father's lycanthropy. Half-elves have a drastically different lifespan and growth sprouts than both elves and humans.

In this au, it started showing during act 2 of the game. There were several hints sprinkled in act 1 but nothing major reveled.

Most werewolf transforms take years of progress, slowly easing the body into its new shape and powers.

But in Shadowheart's case, her body decided to condense these years into months and sometimes weeks. It's major changes after another and each night is more confusing than the last.

Even if she tries to suppress it, her powers evolve so fast that if something worked yesterday, it probably wouldn't work today.

She wouldn't confide a low approval Tav with it, instead she will try to hide it from them or conceal it as much as she can.

With a high approval, she will come to you one night for help. You'll notice an unusual set of fluffy ears on her head as she awkwardly explains what's happening.

But in either cases, Tav will end up knowing because there's a major transformation event at the end of act 2 under the full moon.

Shadowheart loses control fully, she is not herself and her primal urges cloud all the sense from her brain.

It can go in different ways, either ending up in a surprise encounter fight in the middle of the night where you don't have any of your equipments or weapons.

Or a multiple dialogue checks where you try to reason with her.

Being in a romantic relationship with her at the time would make both the fight and skill checks harder, because her instincts urge her to dominate you as her mate.

Having Halsin would make passing the checks easier, likewise having Minthara would make the fight easier because she will be the only one with equipments.

Her werewolf powers type would depend on if she chose Shar or Seluna, although both of them still control different sides of the moon and will give her different boosts.

If the player chose Durge then they'd have a more heart to heart talk with her in the aftermath where they also relate to her struggle. They know what it's like to lose command of their body.

You can either encourage her to embrace her werewolf side, gaining a powerful shapeshift spell in battle and wolf ears & tail.

Or advice her to suppress it, muzzles and collars included if the need arises.

Talking about her werewolf powers, it would definitely heighten her senses. An advantage to survival and perception checks.

There is also the possibility of a mating bite if you're romantically evolved, where she gets an event to reapply it whenever a long amount of rests pass.

Her teeth are sharp, contrasting her soft lips.

[fiercynn]

otw july 2 board meeting: what the hell was that

so the otw (@transformativeworks) board had their Q2 meeting yesterday, which was highly anticipated given everything that's gone down in the past months:

the @end-otw-racism campaign demanding action from otw on their own commitments made three years ago to better address racist harassment in otw and on ao3 (btw, support end otw racism's current campaign #Vote To End OTW Racism!)

recent revelations about how otw has mistreated its volunteers, regarding azarias and how the org reacted after the CSEM attacks on volunteers last year, as well as how the policy & abuse committee (PAC) is overworked and treated by the legal commitee overall (documented here)...

...and ongoing mistreatment of chinese, chinese diaspora, and chinese-speaking volunteers, particularly regarding an incident last year that put volunteers in mainland china at risk, and the board's recent unilateral decision to close the otw weibo account without input from the weibo account leads or any chinese-speaking volunteers

the AI shit

and probably more that i've missed, honestly. so! this is my summary of the meeting, focusing mostly on the issues related to racism; i have screenshots of the whole meeting but will at this point only share those i find most relevant/interesting! alt text will be included for every screenshot in the image, not below it.

and hold on, because this is going to be LONG!

pre-meeting ableism in #help channel so shit actually started going down the previous day in the otw board discord's help channel where there was a pretty ableist resposne to a person who asked if the board could consider adding the pluralkit bot to the server. i wasn't there, but hojarasca on dreamwidth posted about it, and i believe some other folks who were there will post screenshots soon too.

all of that conversation was deleted from the help channel by today, which is not unusual but did mean that a majority of people at today's meeting might not know what went down.

board meeting starts; immediate chaos the board meeting started at 8pm UTC, and it was clear almost immediately that the board was unprepared. what you have to understand about otw board meetings is that they are not really meetings where the board members discuss anything with each other. basically otw board members show up, share an agenda , give written updates on the items on the agenda, take votes on board decisions (but without any discussion publicly), and take questions. none of the materials like the agenda or relevant documents were shared ahead of time, and the board did not offer a way to submit questions ahead of time specific to the board meeting. (otw does have a contact us form to email their board or committee chairs, but i've never gotten a response lol.)

another weird thing that happened before the meeting started was that board member alex tischer was active answering questions in the help channel up to five minutes before the meeting, but didn't stay for the meeting. i don't think a reason was shared for this. this is relevant because alex has been criticized for racist responses to chinese volunteers, particularly those that ran & interacted with otw's weibo account, both in the past & last month when they closed their weibo account without any notice to the volunteers. this will also come up again later in the q&a section...

anyway. the meeting starts. all of the discussion directly about the meeting is supposed to happen in one discord channel called #public-board-meetings; the #help channel is supposed to be for tech issues etc. there is no separate channel for asking questions to the board - those are supposed to be posted in the main board meeting channel. and as far as we can tell, there are no mods of either of these channels apart from board members.

at the start of the meeting there are at least 209 attendees. for context, the last board meeting in march had 31. i've heard from people who have attended board meetings for the past couple years that there are usually 10-40 attendees per meeting. but again, given what's been going down, it's not surprising that so many people showed up!

and because there are a lot of people who haven't attended these meetings before, attendees immediately start asking questions, both process questions about the meeting and actual questions they want to ask the board. which again is understandable because there haven't been many answers given in the #help channel, and the board immediately muddies things further by giving confusing instructions about when to ask questions. they first say this - that they are going to proceed through their agenda, so people should hold questions that are NOT about any agenda items until the end. they imply that questions that are about agenda items are okay as they go through the agenda, but there will be conflicting instructions about this later...

agenda is posted & actual meeting content begins...kind of here's the meeting agenda that was shared. not...terribly descriptive lol

- Decisions taken since the previous meeting - Strategic Plan vote - Update on OTW's Diversity Work - AOB (Any Other Business) - Time for questions

people immediately start asking questions about various agenda items & also procedure questions. very few of these are answered. the first agenda item is posted - decisions taken since the previous meeting.

the board gives us "a couple minutes to read the above". everything's getting a little muddled already because people keep asking questions (reasonably!) about agenda items. there are several questions about the specific agenda item of "decisions taken since the previous meeting". some of the questions are getting answered by otw volunteers but none by board members at this point.

the board moves on to the next agenda item without answering questions about the "decisions" item. people are asking for a separate channel for questions but none is created. board members tell us they will try to get to all the answers at the end, but that we should send any additional answers to the board through the otw contact us form. many people point out that they've rarely gotten responses that way.

board gives a brief update (that was NOT on the agenda) from the finance committee chair, who was not at the meeting, to say that the 2023 budget was posted earlier this year, and that people can send questions via the contact us form. i'll note here that i sent a message to the finance committee with a question about the 2023 budget two months ago and have not gotten a response.

strategic plan update + question procedure still unclear the board then starts to give an update on the strategic plan, which board members are to vote on today. attendees ask if the full strategic plan draft was shared publicly before this meeting and we are told it was only shared with volunteers, not with members or the public.

they do share an infographic summarizing the strategic plan. hilariously, the first version they upload is so blurry that it's unreadable. they then share a gdoc with alt text. if you are new-ish to otw stuff, this infographic and the jargon in it are probably pretty confusing.

the board keeps giving us "a few minutes to check things out". people ask them to not do that and proceed because we can read while they are typing. questions to the board keep going unanswered and various other people say that we're supposed to hold questions until the end. we again get told conflicting things about how to ask questions. a board member asks us to hold ALL questions until the end, but an otw volunteer points to an earlier statement from a different board member & says that questions on the current agenda item are allowed.

at 45 minutes into the meeting, when most questions are going unanswered (and a lot of only being answered by otw volunteers, not board members), the board disables messages in the main channel so that they can proceed with the agenda. this is not usual board meeting procedure and was unannounced until they did it. people start getting really creative with emoji reactions because they can't ask questions. the board admits that they were unprepared for the number of attendees at this meeting.

attendees then start asking questions in the help channel, which has been put on "slow mode", which means each user can only post every thirty minutes. multiple otw volunteers share in the help channel that they warned the board about preparing for the meeting, and the only change the board made in response was to make it 30 minutes longer than usual.

in the main channel, the board does not have any public discussion on the strategic plan (which has not been shared, only the infographic has), and votes unanimously to approve it.

diversity work update, aka a glorified otw news post the board moves on to the "diversity work update", which is now a standard section of every board meeting. they share two updates - firstly, that caste has been added as a protected class in the code of conduct, and secondly that they've heard the concerns coming from @end-otw-racism supporters and others. both of which were already shared a month ago in this OTW news post from a month ago, which they link to.

seriously, nothing new is shared in this part of the meeting that wasn't in that post. some update!

q&a part one the board asks for emoji reactions again to see how many people are in attendance. unclear why they do this unless they were hoping people might have left? but alas for them, there are still 182 people that emoji react saying they are in the meeting!

the board FINALLY starts answering questions, but they do not yet re-enable messages so that users can ask more questions. they start by addressing the pluralkit issue from yesterday, but they don't give any response about the ableism that was allowed to go unchecked in the channel.

then, BAFFLINGLY, they start with answering questions from someone who wasn't able to make the meeting. how did this person submit those questions beforehand? NO ONE KNOWS. fortunately this person had (imo) good questions, but again, why were their questions given preference? unclear.

okay there were a LOT of questions and responses, so i'm going to stick to sharing the ones that were most important to me, which were about addressing racism within the otw and on ao3. hopefully someone else will summarize other issues!

we finally get our FIRST REAL NEW RESPONSE on a diversity/racism issue! the board says they plan to hire a diversity consultant by the end of the year.

we also hear that changes to otw's terms of service are being proposed to give the policy & abuse committee more tools to address harassment, including "racially-motivated" harassment.

board says the best way for people other than otw volunteers to get involved with anti-racism issues is...to stay up to date on what otw is doing, attend public meetings, and send questions through the comment form. what.

the board does not answer how they have reached out to fans of color in their work to address racism, which i assume means they haven't; they instead say that fans of color are free to provide input/feedback via the contact us form. emoji reactions explode

the board says that the strategic plan has initiatives to combat racism including improving diversity in recruitment (of...who? volunteers, board members? potential future paid staff?), hiring a diversity consultant, & forming "volunteer coalitions"

slight digression from my focus on racism issues because of how many times the board has told us to submit questions via their contact us form: very little clarity on how long it will take for answers to be questions, or how long people spend on responses

the goals for the future diversity consultant are to do an audit of the organization and offer recommendations on how to proceed. couldn't be vaguer lol

otw does not currently have plans to have an internal committee for diversity, equity, and inclusion work, since they're relying on the external consultant, but if the consultant recommends it they'll consider

by the time they've gotten through these responses, there are only five minutes left in the meeting! remember, messaging by attendees has been disabled for the past 40 minutes, so everything the board has answered so far is from people who got their questions in during the first 45 minutes (or, apparently, one person who managed to get in questions before the meeting).

q&a part two at this point, the board FINALLY re-enables messaging for new questions, but clarifies that they will only take them until 9:30pm UTC. which means anyone who did actually wait to ask their questions now only has five minutes to ask them! questions start rolling in immediately. again, going to focus on the ones about racism.

i'm listing questions in chronological order that they are asked, but please note that the corresponding answers from the board are coming WAY later than the questions. the board took until 10:20pm UTC (almost an hour after the meeting was supposed to end) to answer all the questions. mostly i'm telling you this because the emoji reactions on the answers by the board get more limited as people understandably have to leave the meeting lol

the first question of round two is about how chinese & chinese diaspora volunteers have been treated re: the weibo account closure, & board member alex tischer's role in this.

board response is horrifyingly empty, only promising the creation of a new "anonymous form" to receive feedback from chinese and chinese diaspora volunteers on the situation.

an attendee asks for better prioritization of racism & equity issues in the meetings, and better preparation from the board. (note that the addition of "diversity work update" to the agenda is not new, i believe it was instituted late last year)

in response, board admits they were unprepared despite volunteers warning them, says they will take advice from this meeting forward. emoji reactions are out in full force

an attendee asks more details about how the diversity consultant research officer (who is NOT a hired diversity consultant, but an otw volunteer in charge of the hiring process for a consultant) engages with the board & what goals they have for the future consultant

response from board is that they meet weekly, and that the research officer is herself in charge of identifying goals for the future consultant

an attendee points out that "curate your space" tools are not enough to protect users from targeted abuse, including racist abuse, and that asking fans of color to reach out to the board instead of the other way around is bullshit (my words haha)

the board's response to this is to offload that onto the future diversity consultant. SERIOUSLY.

an otw member asks if the diversity consultant will also look at accessibility for disabled users across the otw

board essentially says "yeah, sure" lol

an otw member asks how otw will remove barriers to becoming a voting member and diversifying membership & committee leadership

board's response is that they don't know the demographics of their members or volunteers, which...somehow means they can't remove barriers that would help fans of color or non-western fans from becoming members and volunteers? lmaoooooooo

an attendee asks for accountability in ensuring that the incoming board keeps the current board's promises re: DEI, pointing to improvements made by the 2015 board that were later reversed by a new board make-up

board does not seem to understand this question so answers an entirely different one! (seriously, i double-checked which question they were responding to.)

an otw volunteer asks what the plans are to deal with the "ongoing exclusion and alienation of chinese-speaking volunteers"?

the board repeats that they have opened a feedback form for chinese-speaking volunteers. that's it.

so those are all the questions i saw on racism; as i mentioned, there were TONS more good questions on board transparency and communications, protection of volunteers, moderating board meetings better, lack of feedback collection on the strategic plan, etc.

at PRECISELY 9:30pm UTC, messages are disabled again so that no more questions can be asked. all of the otw board responses that i shared above are from after messages were disabled again.

takeaways this meeting was a complete mess. the process was extremely unclear and made things inaccessible; while the board did (from what i can tell) answer all the questions posted, people were not able to ask all the questions that they'd planned because of the unannounced disabling of messaging.

and then, of course, there's the fact that the majority of the answers are bullshit, which is probably the least surprising thing about this meeting.

it's just ridiculous that they weren't prepared for this. given everything that's gone down in the past months, why on earth wouldn't they assume that people would show up with hard questions? the mismanagement and incompetence is frankly astounding. which i guess is the story of the last few months re: OTW anyway!

so...see you at the next one in a few months, i guess? 🤷🏾‍♀️

[vulpecular-draconic]

i’ve been thinking about non-otherkin/non-therian alterhuman identities recently and i realized i haven’t really explored that yet in myself. i have a fairly good grasp on my kintypes (for now at least), but i’ve been ignoring or even in denial about some of my other alterhuman identities.

it started yesterday evening (march 26), when i began to officially question whether maned wolves are a kithtype or kintype of mine. i still don’t know, but today, as i was researching about what hearttypes feel like vs what kintypes feel like, i realized that i’ve felt non-kin alterhuman things before now.

first my mind went to cecil palmer from welcome to night vale. i hyperfixated hard on that podcast when i first listened to it last year. i still get unreasonably excited about it, especially about cecil.

i once briefly considered being fictionkin to cecil, but brushed it off immediately — one, because i don’t feel like i am him (which is a pretty tell-tale sign i’m not), and two, because our personalities aren’t similar except for a few surface-level things. i dismissed it as extreme gender envy and tried to ignore it.

but i still felt (and continue to feel) an intense connection to him.

i’ve related very strongly to characters before, and to characters much more similar to me than cecil is. yet even the character i’ve had an intense spinterest on for several years can’t compete with this flavor of feeling. it goes deeper than gender envy (although it does include that). i want to be him. i’m not distressed that i’m not, but i do thoroughly want to, if just for a few hours. that’s not the full feeling, but it’s the facet i can articulate best.

i denied the possibility of being alterhuman in any way about cecil for so long because i was worried that if i decided to call myself fictionkin, i might lose myself in trying to adopt the personality of someone so different from me. (for a long time i didn’t know how widely acknowledged it is that fictionkin don’t have to match the personalities of the canon version of the character.) i didn’t want to consider fictionhearted either, as i was worried taking that first step would be crossing some line.

i think — well, i know, i just like to allow room for uncertainties — that cecil is a hearttype. (kithtype? fictionkith??)

there’s nothing else he could be to me, honestly. hearttype is the closest i can succinctly come to describing this feeling, and by “closest” i mean pretty darn precise.

and now my other revelation: hearthomes.

although i’ve got cecil as a hearttype, i don’t think i’d describe night vale as my hearthome. i’m fond of it, yes, but my chest doesn’t ache with the longing to live there. no, that honor goes to the world of tangled.

i don’t want to get too detailed, as this post is long enough already, so i’ll keep it short:

i’ve wanted to live in the world of tangled/tangled the series since i first watched the show. i don’t have any hearttypes or kintypes from there, not even an oc-kin. but it feels like home.

i’ve been asked what fictional world i’d live in if i had to choose one. i always immediately answer the tangled universe. for all the plot holes and underdeveloped lore, i absolutely love it, and if a portal opened up in my room right now to take me there i’d hardly hesitate. my favorite spot in disney world is that small tangled-themed section, even if it is just relegated to the bathroom area. it’s the closest i’ll ever get to actually being there. it felt bittersweet when i visited. my heart swelled looking at it all, and i think i’ve cried about it, but i don’t have any concrete memories of the latter.

sooo… yeah. i’m ‘hearted to cecil palmer and the tangledverse is my hearthome.

i’ll add these to my intro post soon. i don’t feel like i need a questioning period for these like i do for the maned wolf. they’ve been boiling in the back of my mind for so long that i already just… kinda know.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Pirates of the Legislation

* * * *

It’s worse than we thought. Alito must resign.

May 22, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

MAY 23, 2024

Yesterday, we learned that Justice Alito flew an insurrectionist flag over his residence for three days between the January 6 insurrection and Joe Biden’s inauguration. Standing alone, that lapse of ethics and shocking display of disloyalty to the Constitution required recusal and an impeachment investigation, at the very least.

Today, the NYTimes reported that Justice Alito flew a “Pine Tree” flag a.k.a. an “Appeal to Heaven” flag over his beach house. Per the Times, the Pine Tree flag

is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.

In other words, the Pine Tree flag represents a MAGA trifecta: Support for Trump, insurrection, and Christian nationalism. See NYTimes, Another Provocative Flag Was Flown at Another Alito Home. (This article is accessible to all.) The photos showing the Pine Tree flag over the Alito beach house were taken over three months in 2023.

Justice Alito’s credibility is compromised beyond repair. Every day he serves as a sitting Supreme Court justice, he further erodes the court's rapidly diminishing credibility.

Contrary to the original story about the “Stop the Steal” flag where Alito blamed his wife, the justice has refused to provide a response to the Times. The Supreme Court’s press relations office also refused comment.

Out of loyalty to the Constitution, regard for the Court, and respect for the American people, Alito should resign. Anything less will perpetuate the open wound on the Court’s legitimacy.

There is also a role for Justice Roberts and the associate justices in addressing Alito’s ethical violations.

Roberts should call for investigation by the Judicial Conference. He should assure the American people that the Court is, in fact, “calling balls and strikes” for democracy rather than serving as a cheerleader for the partisan and religious agenda of the MAGA movement.

The associate justices should declare in their opinions, concurrences, and dissents that Justice Alito’s continued consideration of matters relating to Trump is a violation of the Supreme Court Code of Ethics.

Democrats in the Senate must also lead on this issue. To date, leadership in the Senate and on the Judiciary Committee have responded with a collective yawn. That is a perplexing response that reflects the insular politics of cynicism that infects Congress. Enough!  

The stories about Alito’s flags are not “gotcha” journalism run amok. Alito is signaling his partisan allegiance and Christian nationalism. As I wrote yesterday, we should take him at his word. If we do not, he will continue to vote for outcomes and write opinions that are antithetical to the liberties guaranteed in the Constitution.

Apart from demanding that the Court, Congress, and the media work to secure Alito’s resignation or impeachment, what can we do?

Re-elect Joe Biden.

On Wednesday, the Biden Administration announced that it had reached the milestone of appointing 200 federal judges. See WhiteHouse.gov, Statement from President Joe Biden on Confirming 200 Federal Judges. In his announcement, President Biden noted that 64% of his appointments were women and that 62% were to people color.

Amidst the disturbing revelations of Alito’s insurrectionist allegiance, President Biden wrote the following about his 200 judicial appointments:

Judges matter. These men and women have the power to uphold basic rights or to roll them back.

They hear cases that decide whether women have the freedom to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions; whether Americans have the freedom to cast their ballots; whether workers have the freedom to unionize and make a living wage for their families; and whether children have the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water.

There are many issues that compel us to vote for Joe Biden. Reforming the Supreme Court just moved up in urgency and importance. We must adopt an enforceable code of ethics and enlarge the Court—both of which can be accomplished with majority votes in Congress and the signature of the president. Elect Joe Biden to reform the Court.

[Robert B. Hubbell newsletter]

[dailyaudiobible]

12/10/2022 DAB Transcript

Amos 1:1-3:15, Revelation 2:1-17, Psalms 129:1-8, Proverbs 29:19-20

Today is the 10th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we bring another week to a close and gather ourselves around the Global Campfire for another step forward together. We are moving through a lot of territory quite rapidly as we’ve been talking about over these last couple of days. And, so, we have some new territory to move through in the Old Testament today. We read in its entirety the book of Joel yesterday, which leads us today to the book of Amos.

Introduction to the book of Amos:

A good many biblical scholars believe that Amos may very well be the earliest collection of prophetic utterances that have been written down that are found in the Bible. Amos prophesied in the mid eighth century BC. And this is a time when the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah were experiencing peace and prosperity. And into that comes Amos who wasn't a priest or…or trained for religious worship or leading religious worship. He seems to be an ordinary person living a basic life, the life of a shepherd and farmer. We don't know if he was like a commoner, like a day laborer or even a shepherd, or…or whether he owns his flocks and groves. We can tell that he was educated, we can tell that he was socially aware of what was going on around him. He lived in the city of Tekoa and that’s about 10 miles south of Jerusalem. So, his home then would be in the southern kingdom of Judah. Ironically, his mission was to prophesy in the northern kingdom of Israel. And, so, probably he was sent just across the border to the city of Bethel. We may remember when the kingdom was divided there was Solomon’s son Rehoboam and then there was this other guy the sort of the leader of the labor force, Jeroboam, and the kingdoms split with the 10 northern tribes making Jeroboam their king. And he led the northern tribes into idolatry, setting up golden calves at the extremes of his kingdom up in Dan and in Bethel just at the border. Bethel was a hub for trade and commerce and idolatry. But the northern and the southern kingdoms were both experiencing peace and prosperity, like the kind of widespread peace and prosperity that they hadn't seen since Solomon. So, it…it may be weird that God would send some ordinary person to deliver a very, very severe message of judgment that was on its way. It...it would've been hard to deliver this message, but that's exactly what Amos was told to do because peace and prosperity had opened the door in the culture for corruption, which was everywhere. And the way that this was being experienced or made visible is that the poor were being oppressed and greed was ruling the hearts of the leaders, And Amos steps in and denounces this, denounces preying upon the less fortunate, which makes social justice a major theme in this book. And it's funny, anytime I say those two words together, social, and justice together as it relates to some of the text in the Bible, I typically get emails from people, saying, can’t you just say justice, right? Because it's such a politically charged sort of thing. I'm not saying anything to comment on our current wrestling with what social justice might look like. There is justice, and then there is justice that governs society and there is social justice or justice that governs a society that can’t be enforced by a law, it’s how we treat each other. This is what Amos is coming into, wealth and prosperity, but a ton of greed and corruption and marginalization and oppression. And as we'll see as we read this, God is speaking into this. He's the one saying you're not treating each other the way you should be treating each other. This is not how God's people treat one another. And it would seem that we would get by now. I mean, this is thousands and thousands of years ago that this is written. It seems like we would have figured that piece out by now, but we haven’t. We wrestle with the same kinds of stuff in our lives today. But Amos comes in and reminds everybody that nobody is as powerful as they think they are and that God is way, way, way more powerful than we can even comprehend. It’s God's world. He created it. It belongs to God. He is sovereign over all things and all people. So, if we approach Amos with a bit of humility that this belongs to God and things should be done the way God would like them to be done because that would be right and true and righteous, then there's something for us in the book of Amos. And, so, let's begin. Amos chapters 1, 2, and 3 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We love You, Lord. We thank You for all of his new territory that we are moving through. Feels like we’ve speeded up. It’s how the year feels. But it's just day by day step-by-step just like it's always been. And, so, Holy Spirit come plant what we've read in our lives. Let us receive and understand what's being said in the book of Amos. Let us explore and receive and understand what we’re reading in the book of Revelation. Let us explore and read and understand all that we’re reading from Psalms and Proverbs. Lead us into all truth we pray with grateful hearts knowing that only You can, but that You…You will, You desire that we might walk in the truth. And, so, lead us there, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that is where you find out what is going on around here. The Daily Audio Bible app puts that in the palm of your hand. And you can download the app free from whatever app store is connected to your smart device. So, check that out.

It is Christmas time and so it's Christmas time here around the Global Campfire as well. The Daily Audio Bible family Christmas Box for 2022 is available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop, which you can navigate to either on the web or in the app. Just go to the Shop and you'll find a Christmas category and the Christmas Box is in that category. And we have filled it full of resources and goodies for the season that we are in. And there are things in there that you’ll perhaps want to keep and things that you will perhaps want to give away. Check it out in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. And then also the Christmas music that is available for your downloading or your streaming purposes as you create the soundtrack to the season. There are a number of things you can listen to from the Global Campfire here. You can look up Jill Parr, my wife, who is one of the leaders at Daily Audio Bible Chronological, and who is an amazing vocalist. That's what she did. That's what we did before…before the Daily Audio Bible came into our lives. So, there are number of Christmas songs from her that are available online. Then there is the Family Christmas album, a beautiful instrumental Christmas album that…I really made it to be the kind of soundtrack that we would use when we, you know, when it's the end of a long day and it's Christmas time and you shut all the lights off and maybe there’s a fire in the fireplace and just the Christmas lights are on and you’re just kind of drinking in the season, grabbing those rare to find moments of serenity in the silence, Family Christmas is made to be the soundtrack for that kind of time. So, you can find that wherever you stream music or buy music. Just look for my name and family Christmas. And then there's another really beautiful, just beautiful, hauntingly beautiful contemplative Christmas album that we released last year from Max, Maxwell Hardin, my son, and that one is called Christmas Time and it is a beautiful Christmas project as well. And, so, there's some Christmas music from the family here, from our family to yours here around the Global Campfire. Put that in rotation as you move through your season.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, first of all humbly, thank you. There wouldn't be a Global Campfire, there wouldn't be a Global Campfire to come to to be doing this if we weren't in this together. And, so, as we approach the end of the year thank you humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That's the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey Daily Audio Bible family it's John from Westminster MA it's the 6th day of December 340th day of the year. I wanted to call in and just pray to and for a couple of people that called into the 6th or their…their messages aired on the 6th program today. So, one would be…Sparky I believe it was you. You didn't leave your name, but you were talking about how you're really feeling convicted in your heart and to be real careful about saying that you're a son of God but not acting like one. Amen brother. As a brother in Christ, as a follower Jesus like you, as someone with their heart on fire for the Lord and someone who's basically, you know, rooted to Jesus, and that is the aim of your life, is to have a heart after God, this will be a continuous journey my friend. And it's a precious, precious journey with a lot of joy in it. And I know you're on the right track my friend, you're on that narrow path because the Spirit is prompting you to be careful of the way that you're living your life, right? That we should be, you know, a beautiful fragrant aroma for Jesus and if we're not then something's not quite right. You're being transformed and made new each and every day and you're an amazing gift not only to this community, of course, but to the world and all those that you're touch in it. So, I'm going to be praying for you about that my friend. We're all on this journey together. And also, People on the Water, the dad of People on the Water you called in and didn't leave your name. My daughter Lia is a first-year student at college as well and is struggling very similarly to the way that your son is. So, you can bet that People on the Water is going to be in my prayer like my daughter Lia is. And for everybody out there that's got a son or daughter in school that's really having a tough time right now, it's in Jesus we pray…

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Tate from Colorado, and I am calling this morning because I believe the young man said his name was People on the Water from Indiana, a 19-year-old young man. You are on my heart. I have three daughters who are 20, 18, and 16 who have often expressed the same sentiments especially with the last couple of years and my 20-year-old daughter is in the same place you are even as recently as last night calling me crying and just feeling of despair and hopelessness and the angst of not knowing where your life is headed and what to do next. And I know many youth around the world are feeling the same way but I specifically want to lift you up in prayer this morning. Whatever your name is God knows it. Heavenly Father I lift up this Young man to You this morning. I want to beg You for Your mercy and grace over his life that You would fill him with a peace that passes understanding. I pray off the spirit of spare. I pray off the spirit of helplessness. I pray off the spirit of worthlessness. Lord help him to know who he is in You and to…most of all Lord that the right people would be in his life to guide him and direct him to remind him of the next steps that he can take, to remind him of his worth, to remind him of how loved he is. He needs people with skin on Lord. It's too hard to just do that sometimes imagining and knowing that You're there but not knowing to be able to feel You. So, Lord please send him people with skin on to give him this guidance that he needs. Reach inside his heart Lord and hold him tight. Help him to know that he does have purpose and that he will find his path. Thank you so much for loving us and for loving him. And young man you are going to stay in my prayers. God bless you.

People on the Water please don't quit. As a teacher and as a parent I want to encourage you not to quit. Don't quit. I remember Moses and the children of Israel in the Bible. God said to them stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord. And you need to do that even now. I heard your father's message a few days ago and then I heard your message today December 7th and I've been praying for you. I've been always praying for you because I really was impressed with your commitment to the Lord and the way you pray and encourage everyone else. And today people on the water I want to encourage you. Don't quit. Quitting is not going to help you. I think it's going to make you feel worse. Just stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord. Oh God heavenly Father I pray for People on the Water. Even now I pray that You would encourage his heart and Lord help them to believe that You are able to get him through these difficult times. This will pass Lord but help him to believe that and to trust You and to put everything that he knows about You, about Your love, Your forgiveness, and Your care and his life and help them to stand…stay the course even now. Lord, I just bless him down and I lay him before You. I cover him in Your blood and Your protection. I pray that You guard his mind from the enemy. And I give You praise, and I give You thanks for what You're going to do in Jesus’ name. Amen. Randolph from Toronto.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family my name is Makesh. I am asking for your prayers for my baby boy who is battling mentally. He is on mental health medications. For some reason, the nurse’s explained this, he doesn't feel he needs them because he doesn't know himself that he's going through this. I am praying that God will work a miracle on his mind. I know that God can do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we can ask or even think according to the power working within us. So, I pray for everyone…anyone that's battling mental health. I pray that God would cover your minds with peace…blanketed with peace and joy and allow clarity. And I believe that for my son and I trust God for my son. I will continue to pray for you. Brian and Jill, thank you. I've been listening to you for the past…I wanna say six years and every year after year after year is still a blessing for me. I've got to start my day with the word. God bless you all. And have a great day.

Deep Dive into the book of Revelation:

Part 1

Alright. Let’s talk about the book of Revelation for a second. So, Yesterday we got started with that yesterday when John says he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and he today. He saw some things. There was a voice like a trumpet that told him to write these things down and to send them to seven churches. And these weren't metaphorical churches or allegorical churches. These were real churches. Some of the earliest churches that we know about. So, the church in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Messiah, Taira, Sardis, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea. So, those with instructions. And when he turned around to see who was talking to him, he saw more things. He saw seven golden lampstands, and in the middle of the lampstands he saw Jesus. And we get this incredible picture of Jesus, this incredible depiction where Jesus is standing in a long robe and he's got a gold sash and…and his hair is all white like snow and his eyes are burning like flames of fire and his feet like burnished bronze and his voice like was…was like a rush of…of many waters. And He's holding seven stars in His hand and out of His mouth comes a sharp sword and His face is shining like the sun, full-blown full-strength sun. So John, like all of us would come down as though dead. But Jesus comforts him. He tells him to not be afraid. He's the first and the last, that He died but He's now alive forever and He holds the keys of death and Hades, and John needs to write down this stuff. And right off the bat we have some imagery. So, we have seven golden lampstands, and these lampstands represent the churches, the seven churches. But what do lampstands do? Well they hold lamps, right? So, they hold the light, they hold the flame. So, using this symbolism the lampstand’s the church, right, the faith community and the light is their witness of the gospel of Jesus, right? The light shines in the darkness. But Jesus is also holding seven stars in His hand, and these represent the angels of the seven churches. And what the symbolism means there has been debated for a long time. These can be actual angels, who are the guardian angels of the seven churches. But it's also thought that these seven stars could be the pastors of those churches, right. or the priests or presbyters of those churches because what follows, what we started to read today are seven brief letters and they’re addressed to these angels. So, like when we began our reading today it would begin, to the angel of the church in Ephesus and all these little letters are to the Angels of the church. So, you can see why that's a little complicated, because we have the cosmic Christ, the resurrected Jesus appearing to John, the human being told to address these little letters to angels. So, it’s like you have God coming and appearing to a human being who is instructing the human being to then tell the guardian angels a message. So, you can see why the stars or angels have been looked at as symbols for the church leaders because the contents of these little letters are specific to the…the human church. Like, the church in Ephesus was a real church made up of real people and each of these little notes speak directly into what that church is physically, humanly facing. And it's these little notes, these…these little communications from Jesus to the churches that we begin to get into today. So, first up was Ephesus. “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write the words of Him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands.” So, Jesus is saying I'm holding you in my hand and I'm walking among you, and I know what's been going on. I know what you're going through. So, Jesus commends the church at Ephesus because they’ve been…they've endured patiently, they've toiled, they've kept the faith, they’ve resisted false doctrine and false teachers, false apostles. And a lot of all of that that was going, on all this false teaching and stuff we see in the writings of Paul and we…we saw in Peter and…and first, second, and third John and Jude. And we talked about that when we read them. Here in Revelation, we’re saying this church, the church at Ephesus has successfully been able to go back to the beginning to what they were told in the first place and hold onto that. So, Jesus commends them for that, but He says, “I do have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first”, right, so your first love. So…so, look at that. Look at where you were at first and look at where you are now and see how far you have fallen and repent and do the works you did at first because if you don't, I'll come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. So, what is the first love that they abandoned? It's not likely that it was their love for Jesus because Jesus had just commended them for staying true. So, a good many scholars would agree that the first love that they lost was their light in the darkness, their witness of the gospel of Jesus. So, they've done well in holding onto the truth, but they had originally expected this this change, this sudden change of the world to have happened a long time ago and now we’re getting into a new generation, and it still hasn't happened and so they've stopped talking about - sharing the light, sharing the good news into the world. So, they are a community of faith. They are all in this together. They are holding on to Jesus. They are holding on to the things that they were first taught, but they've lost their passion to share this good news. And Jesus is telling them they need to repent from that and reignite the passion that they had at first to rescue everyone by sharing the good news of Jesus. Otherwise, there is no need for the lampstand. It’s not shining light in the darkness. And, so, Jesus says He'll remove the lampstand. And then we have this little note to the church in Smyrna, where Jesus tells them that he knows that they’re suffering and that they’re poor but spiritually they’re rich. he knows that they're being slandered by people who are claiming to be Jews but aren't. They’re actually part of the synagogue of Satan. And Jesus is encouraging them to stay true, that they’re…they're going to be persecuted, but if they're faithful all the way to death then they will receive the crown of life. So, the probable back story here has a lot to do with the Roman empires posture toward Christianity. From how a wider cultural perspective, like the Roman empire cultural perspective, this belief in Jesus was just part of Judaism. That's its origins. But most of the Jews, they were not on board at all, and in fact were in opposition to these teachings about Jesus. So, they had no problem being vocal about denouncing followers of Jesus and saying that they had nothing to do with Judaism. And, so, they would slander the Christians marginalizing them. And, so, a clear distinction between Jews and Christians was developing. So, in…in this little note to the church in Smyrna, Jesus says I know your tribulation and your poverty but your rich. And I also know about the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but they’re of the synagogue of Satan. So, that's what’s likely going on here and Jesus is simply saying, I see you, I see this, and I can see that I’s gonna lead to some trouble and some suffering and I’m telling you that if you stay true, even if that means you have to die, you're not gonna die, you're going to receive the crown of life. And then lastly in our reading today we have this little letter to the church at Pergamum. And in it Jesus commends their loyalty, their faithfulness to them. He says, I know where you dwell, like I know where you are, you’re where Satan's throne is. And from a biblical scholarship perspective, like there's not many people that would say Pergamum, that's where the actual throne of Satan is. Rather, it's thought that this is just referring to the false idol worship that is pervasive in all of these cities, some more than others. I mean there were large temples. When we read through the Bible we think of the temple in Jerusalem as this amazing pinnacle, an awe-inspiring structure and it was. But in the Roman Empire they worshiped many many gods. There were many many temples, some far more ornate than the temple in Jerusalem had ever been, temples with a vast horde of priests and all of the support staff that it would take to run something like that. Pergamum was the first city in that region to build the temple to the…to the Emperor Augustus for the cult of Emperor worship. So, this is what we think is being referred to here. So, Jesus is commending them that. in spite of their marginalization and persecution even…even with some dying. For example, a person named Antipas who Jesus calls my faithful witness, was a person who was killed. Unfortunately, like, we do not know who Antipas is, which is kind of a bummer. I want to know who Antipas is because Jesus mentions him by name. Unfortunately, from at least a scholarly perspective, we don't know for sure. What we do know is that this person was a witness who was killed in Pergamum. But anyway, Jesus commends them for their loyalty but, He says, I have a few things against you. You have some there…some of you…some there in the community of faith hold to the teachings of the Ballam who told Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. And you also have some who hold to the teachings of the Nicolaitans. And the Nicolaitans are another thing that's hard to pin down exactly. But here's a thought. Balaam is mentioned. And, so, Balak was a king, and he summoned Balaam to curse the wandering children of Israel in the desert and he couldn't curse them he could only bless them. But, as tradition holds what Balaam did was later to suggest to Balak that basically he send the ladies in and if…if the women could get the attention of the men who were wandering they would go with the ladies and be seduced. And, so, they would be seduced through sex, but eventually that would seduce them to the worship of the other gods. And that happened and I mean we've…we've read through most of the Bible now and we can see that the problem of worshiping other gods is a pervasive problem in the Bible. And, so, the thought here is that this is what was happening. And it's a problem that we saw earlier in…in some of the letters in the New Testament. People thought an imminent change was going to happen, the end of humanity as we know it, the introduction of the family of God, of which Jesus was the firstborn. And, so, the time remaining with the human experience as we know it or as they knew it was coming to an end and it didn't matter what they did. It didn't matter if they assimilated into their culture and went to the temples of other gods and participated because they didn't believe in those gods and they weren’t real anyway. And many of the cultic practices of these other gods that were being worshiped all over the place included temple prostitution as part of the worship and this is because spilling into the church. On the one hand people had no problem going to other temples having sex with the temple prostitutes, all that kind of stuff because it didn't matter anyway. And them there were those who wouldn’t go into the temple and worship these other false gods but they had no problem having sex with whoever they wanted to have sex with because it didn't matter anyway. And then this begins to seep into the church itself in the way that they observed the Eucharist, or communion. This would be a feast, a love feast. And we have other examples in the New Testament of these things getting out of control. And, so, this sexual component of the culture was seeping into the church, resulting in sexual immorality. And we know that this kind of stuff was happening because there are witnesses to it in the New Testament. And in some ways, this worked to marginalize the believers. They began to get this weird, convoluted reputation of a religion of incest, right? Because the believers all felt like they were part of the same family, the family of God and they called each other brother and sister and the reputation of these love feast wasn't so great and in some cases lead to sexual immorality in the church. And, so, you have people who are claiming to be brothers and sisters having sex with each other. There you go. You have this religion of incest. Now obviously, this isn't like the teaching that they heard from the first. This was obviously never talked about or condoned or as suggested by the apostles. The apostles are totally against this. And it’s not the wider teaching of the church at large, but because it's so juicy and over-the-top, you know, rumors spread. This is how stereotypes begin. And, so, it's thought that this is some of stuff that the Nicolaitans were doing. So, in the case of Ephesus the first church that we have this little note to from Jesus, He commends them for shutting that down. In fact, He says that He hates that. But in the case of the church in Pergamum we see that it's present and He's calling it out. But that’s how far we got today. What we see at the beginning of the book of Revelation is some notes to specific churches and we can see that they are going through different things. And Jesus is encouraging them specifically but also calling them out specifically. So, like in Ephesus the problem isn’t that they're not holding onto the true faith. The problem is that they’ve lost their first love. It's not shining. They're not passionate about shining out into the culture and affecting the culture. In the case of like Pergamum that we just talked about the problem isn't that they're unwilling to engage the culture. They're doing that just fine, but in some cases they're doing that way over the top and engaging in a way that isn’t shining the light of the gospel, but is exploiting their freedom in Christ so that they can do whatever they want. And, so, a problem and Jesus asks them to repent. And there's lots of jumping off places that we can apply this to our own life. I mean what would Jesus commend you on? What would He say you're doing this really really really well but I do have this against you. There is this problem and you need to repent because this is going to take you where you don't want to go.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite you into that because even as the words are spoken things begin to bubble up. And your kindness, your kindness is so apparent. You begin all of these little notes, not with what's being done wrong but with what's being done right. And, so, we listen for those words, Holy Spirit. How…how are we doing things well? This encourages us so deeply that it exposes the things that we need to repent of for what they are. And we invite your Holy Spirit to speak to us individually and personally. Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

[thepete77]

Did you know Adolf Hitler considered himself a Christian?

“I say, my feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fifhjter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few follows, recognized these Jews for what they were. Who god’s truth, was greatest not as a sufferer but a fighter. “

The Aryan Brotherhood, founded and established in Hayden Idaho, was influenced heavily by the racist and extreme right wing Christian Identity Movement, was as well considering themselves a traditional protestant group. Their main central group and splinter groups use the words Church and priesthood as titles and use Pastor as a religious designation.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, teach that the mark of Cain mentioned in the book of Genesis is darker skin than white, and that one can know the spiritual level of someone of color by the color level of their skin.

An argument that is used by Christians is that it is the wrong type that enact this type of behavior and original scripture does not support this focus, the book of numbers that declare invasion as commands against the neighboring countries, taking their children and wives as captives on several accounts, and destroying every last being and item on other accounts, shows otherwise. They argue that's the old testament and not spiritually correct, yet in the new testament Jesus says he has not come to bring peace, but a sword, and not to destroy the law and the prophets but to fulfill them. in the book of Isaiah it is declared over and over that God is the same yesterday, today; and forever, and that he is the Alpha and Omega, declared as well in The Book of Revelation.

The Christians in the beginning was a small cult following, that during the time of Constantine I became the leading authorized religion of Rome that became a basis of established law against Pagans who were consecutively suppressed, and later the international issues of the crusades and inquisitions became active putting many to death, in prison, and converted by force otherwise.

The American eras of slavery brought African slaves they acquired from around the world, who indigenously practiced voodoo in large amounts, who practiced even still within secrecy, adapting their names and symbols under suppression of their masters.

Christians will say that's all in the past, and its not them, yet Billy Graham focused on prosylatizing with the Billy Graham crusades, after the name crusades during and before the crusades and Inquisitions. Pastor John Hagae preaches consecutively against modern media content like heavy metal, and witchcraft, and their are Christian focuses against witchcraft in Law Enforcement teachings that Christians still support.

Three Juveniles in West Memphis were wrongfully accused of murders in a heavily Christian populated area, Damien Echols, one who was among the three convicted, was released from Death Row under a Plea agreement, and became a well known Author. Before this conviction in 1994, there was the Satanic Panic era when family members accused other family members of ritual abuse, certain individuals were released from Prison after several years in 2014 when accused of Child Sexual molestation.

While those accused of crimes not related to witchcraft are not put to death, they often do spend prison time with focuses of documents and records of heavy mentions of witchcraft directly.

Social Media searches return Christian junk media featuring their views against Satanism and witchcraft, and they still preach in major churches that it is wrong.

Socially and emotionally Christianity in the beginning was against pagans and witchcraft, and still are. The only things that have really changed is more public access to literature, and not being put to death to hastily. There are still very hostile emotions against it, and the people who practice it.

[inthiseternalmoment]

PR is coming soon and I hope the energy shifts by then, also watched Nerve and The Devil’s Plan

I’m at a point where I feel I need to vent a little about the energy around us

10/23/2023

I’m looking forward to PR and at the same time I want this FUNK TO BE OVER.

The energy has still been so off and I don’t want this to be the new normal forever. Which I know it won’t since everything changes. I’m just venting.

At this rate, it’s like I won’t have much to write about because so many of our days are affected by the “off-ness” of it all.

…

Aprille had some dreams today that felt significant and related to my dream I wrote about yesterday. I also woke up at 4:44 this morning and she woke up from a nap at 4:44 this afternoon.

…

Watched most of Nerve (will prob finish later) and it takes me back to the mid 2010s so much 🤭 the kind of stuff I was watching, the music, the cast.

I also find it interesting, the symbology around being a “watcher” or a “player.” Yes, it has its cliches and plot holes, but I already figured it wasn’t going to be a revelation. Nowadays I like watching old movies like this that I never got around to seeing because I wonder if there is some message or takeaway I can grasp. And there usually is!

…

Also finished the Devil’s Plan and it was a great watch. I have not been this enthralled by a Netflix show in so long, and I really loved seeing the journeys of every single member. I hope they all hangout and stay friends for years to come!

[wyrdo01]

Revelation part 1

[play video file]

(in the video it shows a recording of Wyrdo's Pov with roya in view, both walking to Floaroma town

Oi prick what do ya think of our trip ere so far?

(Roya was thinking to herself as the robot asked this question, she then snapped out of her thoughts and turned to the robot)

".. eh could be better honestly but at least it beats being at Hoenn at least"-Roya

Fair enough.... say. Are you ok as of late? You have been spacing out a lot as of yesterday and today.

(the female simply sighed and said)

"well... fuck ok, Wyrdo I need to ask you something..."

And that being?

(Roya grew silent before stopping and cussing under her breath)

"So me and Vanilla talked about something related to your past....We may think that there's something else going on with it as well, Are you aware of the fact that you may be wrong on you being the only elementbot functionin or whatever?"

...prick what are you playing at this time? I think you're in over your head at this topic. Again, there's no way for another unit to be built after my disappearance in my world. My files were supposedly up to date before I became functional and all files related to line shows all the other types not built yet.

"yeah but what if your files were wrong or outdated before the presentation day and debut?"

...

(the robot made no response as they tried to come up with something)

...sod you may be right. I... I think you bring up a good point much to my pleasure... I- let's just get going on the path I don't want to think much of this. Alright?

(The robot responded as their voice showed discomfort to this revelation)

"well... alright then. Sorry about that water bucket..."

(the 2 continued to walk towards the path to Floaroma town as the video feed cuts off)

[kwaggysshardmindemporium]

So I was in a slightly different work situation where I couldn't be on my phone much, and that means I'm like a week behind on albumposting. So here's a huge one:

Apparently where I left off was The White Stripes according to my site history, so that makes the next one So by Peter Gabriel. Was good. Has his ginormous hit "Sledgehammer" on it, which is a ginormous hit for a reason. This was like a week ago at this point so that's about all I remember, but I gave it a 4/5.

Next up, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, no points for guessing the artist. I *like* the bits after each track of audio from a classroom where a teacher talks about what the next topic is gonna be, but it definitely gives the album a kind of weird pace because you'll be listening to a fun song and as it fades out and you're eagerly awaiting the next one you instead get a minute or two of only kinda related whatever. Still though, the tunes are good and unlike most albums I've listened to through this that had between-track skits they had a clear POINT and also none of them were painfully awkward audio of the artist getting their dick sucked. (I'm reasonably certain Lauryn Hill doesn't have a dick anyway, but I'm even more confident that if she did she STILL wouldn't have put audio of her getting sucked off on this record as a skit.) Cannot overstate how refreshing that is because LITERALLY every album this list has given me so far with inter-track skits includes one or more of them being the artist getting blown. Aaaaanyway tangent over 4/5 it's good.

Next! The Age of Understatement by The Last Shadow Puppets. Never heard of this one before, but man did it whip ass. It's basically a lost Arctic Monkeys record, and damn did it rock. 5/5. Probably my favorite thing in this grouping here.

Now, Fuzzy by Grant Lee Buffalo. Little bit like the Pixies' softer stuff. Very calming and nice. Not a lot to say about it. 4/5

Like Water For Chocolate, by Common. I just didn't really vibe with this one. It's certainly not bad but it didn't really do much for me. "A Song For Assata" was good. 3/5

Then yesterday was Slanted and Enchanted by Pavement. It's another album where it's the sonic equivalent of sticking your hand in styrofoam packing peanuts, and thus earns the same rating every one of them gets: 3/5.

Today, finally caught up, was Black Holes and Revelations by Muse. An album I'd actually heard a bunch of songs from already from back when I used Pandora in my late teens and got a lot of Muse. Some of it I like a little less than I did then, some a little more. "Knights of Cydonia" I like a LOT more because I was introduced to it through Guitar Hero and it just isn't a super fun song in those games. Listening to it all with fresh ears really makes me appreciate that Muse is such a good fucking band man. 4/5, plus an apology to KoC for having the misfortune of meeting me in an unfortunate method shine on you good little song you.

[theselfdoubtdiaries]

Dear Zoe – lots going on in my head at the moment (you may say always!)….and along with that – the butterflies in my stomach and the shortness of breath. You know the familiar feelings of anxiety ? Anyway, just trying to ride that out ...well what else can one do? Along with all the usual things that I know will help. Walking, writing and just pausing a while….hitting pause on the noise in my head is essential.

So, writing a blog post today is a useful exercise on so many levels!

Yesterday I finally got my hands into some clay (both the stuff in the garden AND the stuff in the studio!) Sometimes just making helps calm those jittery feelings …..I guess it’s the mindfulness of that making the fact that it needs my concentration – that’s the whole premise of the workshops that I’ve been running after all. So I guess I ought to practise what I preach.

The reality of course is that my brain is overflowing with all the things that I need to think about and do (on various fronts….home life, house, and family, garden project, and of course in the studio there are myriad projects as well – it’s not just one thing after all!)

I had a revelation in the garden yesterday as I was pottering around….I always think about the Competing Demands of life ….but maybe they are not so much in competition as I thought….? I have noticed of course the influences crossing over. The work in the yard /garden is all about the materials to hand. Stone, brick, remnants and shards, building rubble etc. And as you’ll have noticed these have found their way more and more into my work….As I was mocking up an arrangement outside my studio in the autumn light with the beautiful yellow leaves in the background it dawned on me that my art practise permeates ALL things that I do. Of course, as artists we never really stop do we? How could we switch off our curiosity and our way of seeing things in the world? It’s pretty obvious I know but it’s a revelation that let’s me off the hook from feeling guilt about now “making’ in a formal sense in the studio… I realise finally that I am always making!! eureka!

I showed you some of my impromptu and incidental installations in my garden/yard. I guess at the time I had thought of them as simply a bit of play….but of course...(and this is a quote I have pinned to my wall after all) The Play IS the work.

So here is a pic of one of these installations using found materials and exploring negative space and relations between things; alongside the usual themes I like to explore of ritual and memorialisation and the patina of the old! Architectural elements and voids….So now it sounds like Real Art right? With a capital A! Instead of just me mucking around in the yard! Go figure. Feeling better now (coffee and cake whilst writing in one of the places where I go when I simply cannot focus at home). That’s a good technique too. :)

These are my thoughts for the day...

F x

[decayingblorg]

9/1/2023

FINAL FANTASY ENDWALKER PATCH 6.3 GODS REVEL LANDS TREMBLE IS OUT TOMORROW! Just one more sleep and then I get to have tons of fun with all the new main story content and even a few other little things! Super pumped for this one. Truth be told spending anytime in the world of XIV with my character is always a great time.

Decided to finally get all the photos from yesterday off and onto my tablet. It took the majority of the day and that was annoying. (I refuse to get the simple 2 mega pixel version. I want the complete picture and all that HQ loveliness)! And gonna be uploading them either daily or every other day, which I am glad about. I got enough for atleast a month. But also I am focusing on smaller, more looked over items that no one usually picks up/has interest in. And I’ve got some pretty strange stuff let me tell you! But that is a story for an entirely other day.

In all honesty, it’s just another day mostly. Watched YouTube and sort of just browsed the internet for more FF goodness, but nothing of much interest to me! Maybe next time? Here is hoping.

Mood has just been meh today. No change in anything at all. The same as I felt the other day, and the day before that. I don’t really like going out at the best of times, but I don’t really have any friends nearby to go out with. I only have Lauren but she isn’t even from where I live! Just another day in my life really.

But tomorrow will be tons of fun! Just one sleep to go! Well, the sooner I stop typing this, the sooner I can tuck into my warm covers and get swept away in some lovely XIV related dream!

Peace!

[antacideclan]

ok i cant get over how perfectly greta gerwig intertwined the childhood and adulthood timelines in little women!!!!! fucking flawless!!!!! tying together past and present through common themes!! like, the writer of the goldfinch film really had a similar idea of changing the original chronological story into a nonlinear adaptation, but it failed because it was clear he had no idea why he was making that change. meanwhile greta is out here with the ***wild*** idea that if you tell your story in flashbacks, maybe you should make it clear that your nostalgic past and your present actions are related thematically! the power of greta’s mind

[beautifulblhell]

The Twins

Summary: Osamu may not be the best uncle

Osamu heaved a sigh when he saw you storming away from Atsumu in the corridor. The door to your classroom slammed shut. It rattled in its frame.

“What did yer do this time?” Osamu strolled towards his twin, not really wanting to get involved, but since you were their childhood friend, and he was related to this single brain-celled organism, he felt slightly responsible.

Atsumu spun around in surprise. “I didn’t do anythin’!” He protested loudly.

“So yer ‘nothing’ got her mad again?” Osamu bit into his onigiri. Salmon filling. One of his favourites.

“I was going to give her that hair clip I bought yesterday,” One of his hands was shoved in his pocket with the present.

“Rewind,” Osamu glanced down into the bag he was carrying. He had five onigiri left. Enough to last him through Maths after lunch. “What did yer say before that?”

“I just said that the hair clip she had on now didn’t suit her.”

The second onigiri paused mid-flight to Osamu’s mouth.

“What?” Atsumu folded his arms defensively, as if warding off the incredulity his brother was aiming at him.

“Just amazed at yer idiocy. Scratch that, it’s an insult to idiots when I compare ya to them. Why would ya say that?”

Atsumu scowled at the exasperation in his brother’s voice. “I thought it would be a good excuse to give her the hair clip then.”

“Honestly it’s better when you don’t think. Keep acting like that and she’ll hate ya,” Osamu said with a mouthful of his second onigiri.

“Huh? Why?” The blonde haired boy looked shell-shocked at this revelation.

Looks like it’s obvious who received all the brain cells, Osamu sighed internally.

“Were ya always this stupid or were ya born this way?” he muttered. “And that’s two days in a row for this week, and today’s Tuesday.”

“For what?” Atsumu blinked at Osamu.

“Making her angry,” Osamu scrunched up the onigiri wrapper in his hand.

“I didn’t make her angry yesterday,” Atsumu stated adamantly.

Osamu tilted his head towards the side. “Did you leave your brain at home today? Or are you a goldfish?”

“Stop insulting my intelligence, Samu!”

Osamu dodged the punch aimed at him. “Newsflash: you ripped up that love letter she had in her shoe locker yesterday.”

Atsumu paused. His eyes shifted to the direction of your classroom. “Of course I’m not gonna lose her to some asshole,” he muttered.

“You don’t even know that guy.” Osamu pointed it out. “How do yer even know that he’s an asshole? Spreading slander?” Atsumu had asked him if he knew who the name on the bottom of the letter belonged to.

“I can tell from his name.” Atsumu huffed and turned his head away.

Osamu rolled his eyes. Since when can you tell someone’s personality from their name? “Then why don’t ya confess like a normal person?”

“I’m trying!”

“Yeah yeah, make up with her before the day ends, yeah?” The bell sounded then, and Osamu walked off. Once he was a short distance away, he tossed the wrapper behind him. Judging from the angry yell, it must have hit dead on, so he sprinted down the hallway before his brother could catch him.

It was obvious that Atsumu had a crush on you. Everyone knew, except you. But it wasn’t like Osamu could blame you for not noticing. Atsumu’s way of showing affection was either riling you up, or showing off in front of you, something you were tired of seeing.

The door flew open with a bang. Bright light flooded into the room.

Three pairs of eyes landed on Atsumu, who stood at the doorway,. “Quit telling ‘em such an embarrassing story, Samu!”

“Whoops, he heard,” Osamu, who was sitting beside the twin beds in the room, grinned affectionately at the twins tucked inside.

“Yer whole life is an embarrassment, Tsumu,” he said to the man glaring at him.

“Shut yer trap!” Atsumu stalked into the room, ready to haul his brother out. “It’s way past their bedtime, let them sleep.”

“I was just telling ‘em a bedtime story like the good uncle I am.”

Two little voices chirped up from the beds.

“Daddy, were you a-” the twins’ eyes landed on Osamu.

“Jerk,” Osamu muttered under his breath.

“-a jerk to mommy?” Two pairs of brown eyes gazed innocently at their father. Atsumu’s eyebrows twitched, and Osamu struggled to hold in his laughter.

“Samu! Stop teaching them those words! What if they use them at the kindergarten?”

“I’m expanding their vocabulary.” Osamu stroked both of the twins' brown hair. “Now sleep tight, and don’t grow up to be an asshole like yer dad, alright?” He waved to them as Atsumu dragged him by his collar out of the room.

Just before Atsumu closed the door, two voices piped up simultaneously.

“Daddy, what’s an asshole?”

“SAMU!”

Masterlist | Support | 2021.11.13

[shadowmist0706]

Diluc's Birthday

Seamstress f!reader x Diluc

A/N: This was originally an OC x Diluc but I also made this version for a bit of emersion. Y/N is a seamstress who takes commissions related to the fatui. She only arrived in Mondstadt recently so she and Diluc are still not in a relationship in this oneshot :> Though they are developing some feelings. Hope you guys enjoy! I'm still a beginner when writing but I think I did good😭

────┉┈◈◉◈┈┉────

Many businessman or woman wouldn't admit owning a successful business is very rewarding, but it is. They love to see people enjoying their hard work and appreciating their efforts. After all, it's what makes them keep the business.

-Well... that and money

But running a business isn't an easy task. It requires you to accommodate to your customers needs, keep up with trends, manage and keep tabs on everything that's going on in the business.

Being a seamstress, that's as much as you know.

So it's understandable when a certain Winery owner was late than usual. After all, today was a special occasion.

After a few more minutes, she heard something land behind her.

"You're late" Y/N said, slightly turning to see the man of the hour, Diluc Ragnvindr or better known as the "Darknight Hero"

"Apologies, work in the tavern has been quite...lively today" He replied, walking up beside her by the bridge inside Mondstadt. Unlike usual, she noticed how his attire seems different. As she turned to face him completely, she were able to figure what was missing.

His Jacket

He normally wears his black signature jacket. But this time, it's just his white vest paired with a button up shirt that shows his bare arms. It was surprising, not in a bad way.

"I presume it's because of your birthday" Y/N eyed Diluc's appearance. Although it was his birthday, it seemed he was a bit worn out.

Meanwhile, Diluc gave her a look of surprise before regaining his composure "So you know?"

"It's practically the talk of the town" It was hard to ignore especially when the people started talking about it yesterday. The tavern was filled with gossip and rumors at that time.

Most of the talk were light hearted with some people wanting to think of a simple token of gratitude to the uncrowned king of Mondstadt. But other news were better kept unsaid.

Y/N wanted to believe it wasn't true. But as she took a closer look in the shadows, things became clearer. Throughout the day, Diluc has been receiving complements and gifts. Despite his gratefulness, it seemed he wasn't that... happy.

Diluc was not fond of attention except his position forces him to. When it comes to topics about his birthday, he quickly dismisses them. Everything pointed that the information was not false but there was one clue that will prove it.

Even if Y/N knew it wasn't right, her curiousness got the better of her. She walked through the backyard of the favonious church, searching for a certain name. After a few minutes, she found the grave with the same date as today.

Crepus Ragnvindr

xx/xx/xx- 4/30/xxxx

To ------- ----- ---- ------

"Ah, let's pay no mind to that now. Let's focus on our agenda-" Diluc dismissed the topic as usual. Y/N doesn't know how to act with her knew found revelation but she knew it'd be best to keep it a secret.

Focusing on the task at hand, Earlier, she was supposed to take this commission alone. Though a stubborn red head decided to tag along claiming it's his duty. Reluctantly, she accepted his request and decided to meet today at this certain time to settle this.

"Before that, I think you're forgetting something" Y/N stopped him from going off.

"Wha-" Before Diluc could utter a word, a cloak suddenly wrapped around his shoulders and clipped on it's own. He was rendered speechless as she secured and fixed the positioning of the clothing. Their proximity was not that close but near enough to make his cheeks redden

"That's better, wouldn't want the fatui recognizing who the Darknight hero is now, would we?" If it were anyone else, he'd be scoffing at the title. But, even Diluc has to admit that it sounds appealing when it falls from her lips. Or, maybe he's just too infatuated to think of it as anything less when it comes from her.

But of course he wouldn't admit that.

"You shouldn't have" Grateful as he is, he sighs, and she can tell he's weighing his options. Diluc was not a fan of presents yet he could see how detailed and high quality the cloak was. It was simple yet the golden accents plus detailed embroidery was beautiful. Before he could think much, Y/N spoke.

"Don't think much of it, it's just a token of thanks-" She knew it'd be best to act naive of her new found information by gifting him something. But it doesn't mean she can't find ways to alleviate the situation

"-For helping me with this commission" As she outstretched her hand, she caught sight of the softest smile as it pulls ever so slightly on the corners of his lips. She chuckled at the sight for it is rare to see the man let down his guard and take a hold of her hand.

"Now let's take care of that fatui hideout so you can gave some peace of mind for the rest of your night." Fatui matters are not something they take lightly but just for today, they'd make their night a living hell as punishment.

For making someone's birthday a memorable one in a horrible way.

Letting off some steam by beating off enemies isn't really a good birthday event. Though it's the only thing Y/N knew how to do good in besides sewing. As they ran through the night in the whispering woods, she started to rethink if this was a good idea. However these thoughts quickly dissipated as soon as it came when she saw a certain glint in his eyes.

She and Diluc were partners yet they know little about each other. That's why these nightly activities became something they could connect at. It probably wasn't a good reason but these ventures is something they could feel comfortable at in each other's presence.

They weren't lovers after all, just partners.

Either way, she knew she should definitely think of another way to celebrate his birthday but as of now, this should do.

'Happy Birthday Diluc'