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beardycarrot · 3 years

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I, lying awake in bed because that’s how it always is the day before you have something important to do... am going to try to guess what the plot of Bioshock Infinite is, based on what I’ve seen in the first few hours and with knowledge of the other two (and a half?) games. Spoilers for the entire Bioshock series, except maybe Infinite, but I intend to knock it out of the park.

So. The first Bioshock is set in a futuristic (by 1950’s standards) city at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, created by a hardcore libertarian named Andrew Ryan as a way to once and for all live in a society free of government regulation. I won’t get into all the “sea slugs that produce a gene-altering wonder drug” and “child slaves brainwashed to drink corpse blood” stuff; very interesting, very important to the plot, but if I tried to explain the world of Bioshock I’d be lying here typing on my phone until the sun comes up. That stuff aside, the major plot points are that you’re not actually a guy who just happened to crash-land near the entrance to the city but are, in fact, Andrew Ryan’s son, and the guy who’s been guiding you through the city was actually using a Manchurian Candidate-style activation phrase to manipulate you into doing whatever he wanted. It’s a big, mind-blowing reveal (as is the realization that your character is actually about four years old... science fiction, man).

Bioshock 2 didn’t really have any big plot twists... or plot, for that matter ...but it was developed by an entirely different team, while the original’s team also did Infinite, so I’m expecting a return to form. Just as an aside, Bioshock 2 had a short DLC campaign called Minerva’s Den, which had a fantastic story, and a twist that the player can figure out on their own if they’re paying attention. Your goal is to get a very smart computer (for 1968) out of the underwater city and back to the surface so you can use it to cure all the victims of the slug-borne gene manipulation, and you’re guided over radio by the computer’s creator. At the end, you learn that the one guiding you was actually the computer itself, and that you’re its creator, slowly recovering from brainwashing. For the record, the endings to all three of these have made me cry.

So! With those kinds of twists in mind, what am I expecting from Bioshock Infinite? Well, I went into the game only knowing the names of the protagonists, that rather than underwater it was set in a floating sky city, and that there was some kind of religious theming but also a lot of old-timey Americana. As it turns out, the people of this city worship— no, have DEIFIED the founding fathers, and are lead by a man called Father Comstock. I’m pretty sure that name is a reference to the Comstock Act, similar to Andrew Ryan being named after Ayn Rand... but he could actually be called Father Cornstalk and I just haven’t been paying attention.

Anyway. Just a few minutes into the game, I noticed that a statue of Comstock looked suspiciously similar to my character... before deciding that I didn’t actually have that clear of a mental image of my character, they wouldn’t pull the “secret son” thing twice, and as much as I love it there probably isn’t going to be any time travel. Le sigh.

UNTIL!

So, your goal is to get a girl named Elizabeth out of the city, and there is some legitimately weird stuff going on with her prison. Like, they have some of her personal possessions from various points in her life in containment: a teddy bear, a diary, and a bloody cloth labeled “menarche”. Gross. Why would you keep that. Well, when an electric current (or something visually similar) is applied, the bear and diary change color, and the blood disappears from the cloth. The reason I’m not sure if it’s electricity is that there’s some kind of siphon system set up, it looks like a bunch of subwoofers, and it’s absorbing... something? When she sings, maybe? Is the energy being siphoned what changed the quantum states of those objects, or whatever was happening? There was also a chart showing that when she hit puberty... something, really spiked, which is what forced them to build the siphon. I can’t claim to know what’s happening here, but when I finally saw her she was day dreaming about Paris, and.. I guess opened some kind of portal, TO Paris? But then a bus or something barreled towards her, so she quickly closed it. In the couple seconds that the portal was open, I saw the marquee on a movie theater that... well, was in French, but I’M PRETTY SURE said “Return of the Jedi”. I should probably mention that this game is set in 1912. That smells like time travel to me, baby!

So, this is where it gets interesting, and confusing, and complicated. I think Elizabeth is Comstock’s daughter, from various signs and posters about Comstock’s seed being their salvation, and The Lamb of God being locked in the tower, and such... and signs about a “false shepherd” who would try to take her away (again, lots of weird divergent Christian sect stuff). One sign showered the false shepherd’s hand as having the initials AD branded on the back, which the protagonist Booker does indeed have. Before rescuing Elizabeth, Comstock confronts you, and seems to know all about Booker’s past, including his wife Anna (who died in childbirth), and claims to know his future as well. Being a prophet and such. Thing is, the way it’s presented, that whole thing could’ve all been in Booker’s head...? Shortly after rescuing Elizabeth, you run into someone who mistakes her for someone named Annabelle. Hmm HMMM. I’ve also run into a diary by someone named Rosalind Lutece (I think she’s one of the creepy twins who keep popping up everywhere) talking about physics and what sounded like the concept of quantum superpositioning, as well as a little informational kiosk in which she claims quantum mechanics are what enable the city to float. There were also a couple diaries that seemed to imply Elizabeth came from... somewhere else, and a part of her might still be there, or something?

SO. Finally, we get to the part where I theorize on what’s going on. In short... iunno.

Okay, well, I feel like my idea should be obvious by now. I think Comstock might be a future, or ALTERNATE REALITY FUTURE, version of Booker, and Elizabeth is... either a past version of his wife, before she went back in time and married him, or an alternate-reality version of his daughter? But then who is the Annabelle that the girl thought Elizabeth was? Did Booker’s child not die along with his wife, and was secretly wisked away to skytown? Comstock’s wife is consistently referred to as Lady Comstock, but what if her name is Annabelle too? Maybe it’s the same concept as the Heinlein story By His Bootstraps, with the protagonist only realizing that he IS now the old man from the beginning, and has to get his younger self into this weird time loop in order to live the life he’s lead?

I might be going a little off the rails; I mean, I’m pretty sure that the statue of Comstock I saw earlier actually reminded me of Handsome Jack, a character from another game I haven’t played who happens to wear an outfit similar to Booker’s. That said, there’s DEFINITELY some kind of time travel or dimension-hopping shenanigans going on here. There are good writers on this game, and I refuse to believe the Annabelle/Anna thing is a Batman v Superman-level coincidence.

The weird part is that in the tower where they were keeping Elizabeth, they have documentation of her dating back to one year old, so she was clearly exhibiting... something, unusual, even as a baby. The game also has yet to explain Vigors, its versions of the Plasmids from the first two Bioshock games, which were basically superpowers granted by the substance produced by those sea slugs. If I had to guess, Vigors are... a result of some kind of quantum something-or-other, which they made from whatever it is they were siphoning off of Elizabeth? Maybe it’s a Scarlet Witch kind of thing... you don’t actually change yourself, you just find yourself in an alternate reality where everything else is 100% the same, except you’re a version of yourself who can shoot crows out of your hands.

Right, so. My... official theory is... that... I have no idea what’s going on. Yeah, sorry, something in that mess up there is bound to be close, but when you get into time travel and/or dimension-hopping, all bets are off the table. Or all bets, a literally infinite number of bets, are on the table. Which is a lot to try to comprehend.

#bioshock #bioshock infinite #bioshock spoilers

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chiseler · 3 years

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Tales of the Unexpected: SANTA CLAUS

Most of my life I’d been haunted by an image—five seconds from a film I could not name: Santa, in someone’s living room on Christmas Eve, fires a toy cannon at a demon’s ass. That’s all, but it stuck with me for decades. The only thing I was sure about was that it came from a film my father had taken me to see when I was four or five. There was snow in the theater parking lot.

It clearly wasn’t a typical holiday film, so as the years progressed I decided it must have been Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (co-starring Jamie Farr and Pia Zadora as martians), but I was mistaken. There are no demons in that movie. I asked my dad, but he had no idea what the hell I was talking about. Then, as the universe would have it, when I was well into middle age the film was placed in my hands by someone who had no idea I’d spent much of my life looking for it. Seeing the film in its entirety for the first time in 40 years, I finally understood why things might have turned out the way they did.

When the conversation rolls around to bad Christmas movies, there’s of course a broad spectrum from which to choose. Given that nearly every Christmas movie ever made is insufferable to some degree, it’s generally easier, I’ve found, to break things down into categories that stretch from the simply godawful (Jingle All the Way) to the agonizingly painful (A Very Brady Christmas or that Marlo Thomas remake of It’s a Wonderful Life) to the merely baffling (An Ewoks Christmas). Of course there are some people who think they can bring the conversation to an abrupt end by pulling out Santa Claus Conquers the Martians as the last word on holiday cinema. There’s simply nothing more to say.

Oh, but that’s far too simple. There’s another level out there. Something that reaches far beyond banal categorizations like “good” and “bad” and even “weird,” deep into the almost unfathomable territory of “brain damaging” and “utterly terrifying,” and a number of adjectives that have yet to be discovered. Films that cannot and should not be called “bad” no matter how easy it would make thinking for the smug hipsters in the Mystery Science Theater crowd. These are films that come from another plane, another universe, another way of thinking, and for that they remain fascinating, and cannot be so easily dismissed.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, K. Gordon Murray was an American film producer and distributor who made a decent living for himself by picking up the rights to foreign genre pictures (mostly from Mexico), dubbing them into English, and renting them to U.S. theaters. English-speaking audiences can thank Murray for The Brainiac and Robot vs.The Aztec Mummy.

In 1956 he bought the rights to a children’s holiday picture directed by René Cardona, a man better known for horror and exploitation pictures like Survive! and Night of the Bloody Apes. Instead of widespread distribution, Murray limited the film to short (two or three day) runs around the holidays, when the film would only be shown as a children’s matinee. In retrospect I have to wonder if he limited viewings that way because he knew what kind of effect the film would have on people.

Santa Claus sounds about as innocuous as they come. Who would even pay attention to a title like that? It’s only when you note the shrill, almost frantic tone of some of the taglines attached to the film that you begin to get some sense that there’s something else going on here—that this isn’t another Rankin/Bass production:

Bursting upon our BIG SCREEN in all the colors of the rainbow… a prize-winning blue ribbon treat for old and young alike! Here’s something for the whole family to see together!

Another tagline makes it sound even more ominous:

See All the Weird and Wonderful Characters of Make-Believe! The Fantastic Crystal Work-Room of the Happy Elves! The Fabulous Realm of the Candy-Stick Palaces!

Those families who weren’t scared away by those dire warnings were never the same again.

René Cardona

In Cardona’s vision, Santa (José Elías Moreno) lives in a cloud kingdom in space, positioned in a stationary orbit above the North Pole. Instead of elves, Santa has collected groups of children from all corners of the world—North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa. It’s unclear who these children belong to or if they’re in space willingly, but they open the film with a long recital of traditional songs from each nation.

Ten minutes later we cut to Hell. Although this happens in most Christmas movies, few do it so literally. There amid the flames, Satan informs a minor and bumbling demon named Pitch (José Luis Aguirre ‘Trotsky’) that he is to turn all of the children on Earth evil in order to anger “that old goat Santa Claus” and show the people of the world “who their true master is.”

We are then introduced to three storylines: a lonely rich boy whose parents neglect him, a poor girl whose single mother can barely support them both, and three young thugs. Behind each story, we hear Santa’s echoed laughter. Santa laughs through the entire film, often at scenes of misery and despair. It’s unclear why.

Finally and centrally, we see the core of Santa’s orbiting kingdom—an observatory equipped with a collection of surveillance devices that would put the NSA to shame. As the narrator (Murray himself) describes it:

This is Santa’s Magic Observatory. What wonderful instruments! The Ear Scope! The Teletalker, that knows everything! The Cosmic Telescope! The Master Eye! Nothing that happens on Earth is unknown to Santa Claus!

He’s not kidding, either. Santa can see anyone he chooses merely by thinking of them, listen to what they’re saying, even watch their dreams, and these are powers he abuses freely.

There is no reason to attempt to describe the plot any further. It’s not an issue. Visually, however, the film is a thing of deranged wonder, reminiscent of Japanese films that would be made ten or fifteen years later. It’s a world of remarkable and sometimes frightening imagination. The telescope features a large, roving eyeball instead of a lens. Santa’s sleigh is actually a giant wind-up toy, the living reindeer replaced with carousel reindeer made of white plastic. The color palate throughout the film (if you can find a decent print) is intense. And the film’s multiple dream sequences are, well, pretty jaw-dropping.

It’s also a remarkably subversive film—which intertwined both with the visuals as well as the director’s background, may be no surprise at all. Along with the kidnapped children he’s using as slave labor, the cannon he fires at the demon’s ass, and Santa’s often inappropriate laughter, which snakes throughout much of the soundtrack, there��s Merlin, another of Santa’s employees. Merlin runs a drug lab, and on Christmas Eve has just developed a “magic powder” that will “give people a sound sleep and fill them with wonderful thoughts and good intentions.”

Santa is perfectly willing to deliver babies to children who request little brothers or sisters, and one good little boy is set to receive “an atomic lab and a machine gun.” And then of course there’s the role of the demons here, in a world in which Santa and his toys have replaced Christianity.

It’s a film that’s often mocked by fools for its cheap sets and bad acting, without pausing to think about what’s really going on here—the kind of twisted, alien imagination at work, or the ideas that Cardona is sneaking in under their smug noses. It’s a deeply strange and disturbing work, a visionary work on a minuscule budget, and one that says more about the holidays than we may care to think about.

Maybe that’s why my dad has blocked it out of his memory, and why I spent a lifetime trying to track it down.

by Jim Knipfel

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hopeatermeetsgodzilla · 3 years

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Chapter 15

“-and he’s lived on Mara since then.” Madison finished, Florès humming and nodding in acknowledgment. The younger girl was currently reading the files about the Titans as the mechanic tinkered away on the new model for the ORCA.

It’s size was between the original prototype and the smaller one he had given Emma. This one was supposed to have a wider range of available sounds than just the options to make a Titan stand down or provoke them to a fight. “Damn, that’s a sucky backstory. And you’re telling me Rodan jumping in a volcano in an effort to be with his wife in death may be related to why he can live in one?”

“Yeah. I mean, Mothra can reincarnate.” Madison said with a shrug. “Magic that allowed someone to survive lava doesn’t seem that far-fetched.”

“Magic doesn’t exist.” Florès said, shaking his head as he got up from his chair, walking to the coffee machine and mini-fridge he kept in his office. “It’s just science no one has figured out yet. You want any snack?”

“Chocolate. And how would you explain reincarnation then, uh? Or Isla de Mara just... vanishing without a trace?”

Florès seemed to think for a moment. “Either Mothra is actually a really long family line of moth Titans who leave notes to each other in order to pull the longest scam in history- catch,” He threw a kit-kat at Madison. “-or the theory of genetic memory is actually right. As for Mara, I dunno. Probably something with physics...”

“What would you do if you learned magic was actually a whole science in itself?” Madison asked as she opened the candy. “Would you be mad?”

“I would be mad, yes. What about the last ones?” He asked as he started the coffee machine.

“Alright, so... Ghidorah...” Madison started. “There’s three of them, but we don’t have records of their actual names. But we do have nicknames: One who is Many, Golden Demise, Death Song of Three Storms... wow, there’s a lot.”

“Just give me facts, like with the others- powers, known relationship with other Titans, current whereabouts, and whatever backstory Dr. Chen scrounged up.”

“Alright, so: last seen near Mara, and disappeared at about the same as the Island. Everyone seems to hate them, and the feeling is mutual.” Madison turned to look at Florès, breaking her kit-kat up.

“What about their powers?” Florès asked, pouring himself a cup and coming closer.

“Uh... bio-electrical, energy draining, meteokinesis, flight of unknown nature, suspected to have a high level of telepathy, independency from oxygen...” Madison listed off.

Florès nodded, taking his seat again. “Is it noted somewhere why he doesn’t need oxygen. Like, are they deep-sea weirdos, or something?”

“... Look in the opposite direction.”

“What do you mean, look in the opposite direc- no.”

“... yeah... it says in the ‘myth’ section that they fell from the stars...”

“No no no no no no no- we’re dealing with fucking aliens!?” Madison nodded. “¡Qué cojones...!” Florès snapped, slamming his cup on his desk. His attention then snapped at the unfinished ORCA. “I need to finish this.”

“Most of the myths they’re in also all portray them as malevolent.” Madison added. “Like, ‘inspiration for the Christian Devil’ malevolent.”

“Mmm. Don’t like that.”

“What, you’re Christian?”

“Raised catholic, yeah.” Madison eyebrows shot up to her forehead. “Comes with the territory when you grow up in Venezuela. But I doubt these guys fell from grace, or anything.”

Madison hummed, going back to looking at the computer screen, even if she wasn’t reading anymore. “I talked to one of them, you know?”

“Did you?” She nodded. “How?”

“I... one of them was able to get outside of his body.” Madison started, Florès nodding and taking a sip from his cup. “And he talked to me. Brought me to mom when she came to get me in Antartica. And... told me he and his brothers just wanted to be free.” She buried her face in her hands. “I should’ve trust my instincts, should’ve known he was lying...”

“Well, you’re twelve.” Florès noted, patting Madison on the shoulder. “You can’t know everything. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Plus, you’re not the one who freed him now.” He then turned back toward the ORCA. “If I had been in your mother’s position, I would’ve done the same. And I can guarantee you that your mother would’ve still saved you if she knew all that stuff. So stop blaming yourself for getting kidnapped, alright Russellita?”

“Alright.”

Oh, that rock he was laying on was comfy.

Rodan never wanted to get up, curling up a bit even as he finally opened his eyes. The sun had risen a while ago, indicating he had slept in. Which made sense, seeing as he had stayed up talking and star watching with Ghidorah, who had been... surprisingly nice. They just talked about places they remembered seeing beyond the world Rodan knew, pointing at locations in the sky when it turned dark.

Now that it was locked away from reality, the night sky had gained it’s stars back. He used to think that Ghidorah were vengeful souls back from the dead, but he supposed that stars being a map of the world beyond their own made just as much sense as them being the imprint left by the departed.

Nevertheless, the scenery this morning was still very pretty. With the sun reflecting in the water with thousand of sparkles and illuminating the golden strands of hair around him, it was as if light was bouncing off of everything.

Wait a minute...

Rodan opened his eyes more fully, looked up, and realized with horror that he was laying in Ichi Ghidorah’s lap, who had his hair undone for once and forming a curtain around him. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

Rodan screeched, jumping to stand up and suddenly very awake, only to stumble and land on his ass. “How long have you been watching me!? And why was I sleeping on you!?”

“Since my brothers woke up a while ago. And you fell asleep while we were star watching last night. The ground didn’t look very comfortable, so I moved you.” Ichi answered, still sitting as he leaned toward Rodan, who looked around him with a panicked expression. “You asleep looked like you were agreeing...”

“Okay, don’t manhandle me when I’m unconscious. And where did those two go!?”

“Ni is exploring what’s left of the human settlement. San is looking for rocks.” Ichi answered coolly, hoping the little bird would calm down eventually.

For now, to no avail. “Why are they doing that!?”

“Ni wants to see if there’s any humans left. As for San, he just wants to find rocks.” There was a pause, Ichi debating whether or not he should open up a bit. “He will also inevitably smash one of these rocks on my head as revenge for telling him to do things, but that can’t be helped.”

“... there’s no humans left.” Rodan angrily muttered, finally taking his eyes off Ichi. “They all left some times before you came here, and those that didn’t were probably flung away when I fell for the humans’ bait.”

Ichi raised an eyebrow at that. “Bait?”

“Humans figured out how to create calls.” Rodan explained bitterly. “They used one to bait me into flying into your storm.”

Ichi chuckled. “Oh, we’d have found you either way. The whole reason we came here in the first place is because San wanted to see you.”

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t have had to fight off the three of you in the middle of a raging storm.” Rodan retorted, bringing his knees up to his chest.

Ichi simply shrugged, going into meditation. {Ni, there’s no humans left. They all left before we came here.}

[Are you sure?]

{The little bird told me they left.}

[You’re really just going to believe him?]

{What?}

[What if it’s a trick?]

{What would he get out of lying about that!?}

(Also, he’s telling the truth.)

[Hello, brother San. How do you know that?]

(Hi Ni! Humans have a really strong emotional presence despite being so small and stupid, so they’re really easy to spot. Along with Rodan, we’re the only ones here.)

{And you didn’t tell us anything for some reason because...?}

(I thought you guys already knew! I mean, I get Ni not noticing because he’s so bad at it- no offense-)

[None taken.]

(-but brother Ichi!? You should’ve noticed ages ago.)

{Okay then-}

[Brother San, we haven’t even been there for a full day yet.]

(You know what I mean.)

{You two-}

[Anyway, I think humans figured out electricity, and how to generate it.]

{What!? Are you su-} Ichi was snapped out of his thoughts as he felt something lean on his leg. He opened his eyes, looking down at Rodan. The smaller being was leaning his head on his thigh, eyes closed. Was he... was he sleeping?... no, just resting. {The both of you come back as fast as you can. Ni, bring back some evidence.}

(But-)

{That’s not negotiable, San.} Ichi ignored his brothers as he put his hands on Rodan. One under his back, and the other one under his knees.

Rodan opened his eyes, confused. “What are you- gah!” Ichi had lifted him, only to promptly set him down on his lap. He chuckled as Rodan’s face started glowing brightly, twirling a lock of red hair around his long fingers. “Wha- telling you not to manhandle me when I’m sleeping wasn’t code for ‘do it when I’m awake’-”

“Don’t move.” Ichi told him, fingers carding through long red hair and separating it. “How do you usually style it?”

“Uh... simple ponytail, and I use another twisted strand to keep it together.” Rodan explained hesitantly. He looked down as Ichi started humming a little tune to himself, taking a strand of hair right above his ear and braiding part of it.

“How high do you keep your hair?” Ichi asked Rodan, who hummed in confusion. “I know it’s not high like San’s, but it doesn’t seem to be at the base of your head either.”

“J- just do it however you want.” There was a pause were there was no movement, Rodan fidgeting. He then brought a hand to the back of his head, claws tapping the middle of the back of his skull. “It doesn’t immediately become a problem if it loosen up, that way.”

“You don’t have to be so shy, you know? Why don’t you tell me what happened to you while we were sleeping.” Rodan shrunk on himself at that. Ichi leaned down as the other started debating it to himself, taking the braid within his teeth before lifting a sleeve up. He tied off one of the short ribbons he usually kept for his hair.

“I... became the Fire Guardian.” Rodan finally admitted.

Ichi hummed, starting to gather hair for the ponytail, letting go of the braid in the process. “What happened to the last one? The bird with the colorful feathers... what was her name again?”

“Quetzalcoatl. And she... died. Out of control volcanic eruption, the smoke is what killed her.” Rodan’s voice had broken on that fourth word.

Ichi raised an eyebrow, tying the ponytail with the ribbon. “You two were close?” He was pretty sure the only people Rodan had been close to was Godzilla.

“We met after you guys got sealed.” Was the only context he offered.

“I see...” Better not push the subject for now less San’s plan gets ruined from trying to dig too deep too fast, but it would be interesting ammunitions for later. He tied the braid around the base the ponytail, passing whatever wasn’t braided under it. “Done~”

Rodan hesitantly pat the braid on the side of his head, before shaking his head a bit. It seemed to be holding better than normal. He was about to thank Ichi, before remembering he was still sitting on his lap and jumping off with a yell. This time, he was able to right himself, and looked at him. Since the Ghidorah was sitting down, the two were at mostly the same eye level. He coughed hesitantly, the flush on his face lessening a bit. “Th- thank you.”

“You’re welcome, firebird.” Rodan’s flush immediately came back, his face almost glowing a golden color.

“Still better than ‘little bird’...” He muttered to himself. Rpdan than turned, facing away from Ichi. “I’m going to go for a short flight, ascertain the damage you and your brothers did. Do not try anything while I’m gone, got it?”

Ichi chuckled. “You’re cute when you’re trying to be intimidating. And understood. I’ll be right there when you come back.”

“... Good.” And with that, a strong breeze lifted an extremely flustered Rodan of the ground, leaving Ichi alone and in a good mood.

Said good mood immediately faded away as he felt something collide with his head. He looked to his right, raising an unimpressed eyebrow at Ni who had smashed something made out of wood on his head, “Really?”

“I wasn’t finished searching, and you were getting too touchy-feely.”

“Yes Ni, that’s the plan.” Ichi reminded his brother. “Get close to Rodan in order to manipulate him.”

“You were getting touchy-feely- here’s the human tech.” Ni dumped what was left of the pole on Ichi’s lap. The older brother took a look at it, frowning. Certainly what was needed to transport energy from one place to another, but not enough to not lose any in travel, and there was too many pieces.

“That doesn’t make sense.” Ichi grumbled. “This is too primitive compared to the flying machines they had. It should be more in line with it. The other civilizations we saw always had a consistent level of tech on the entirety of their planets, if not always in line with other civilizations.”

“Not all of them.” Ni reminded him. “You remember the Exif, right?”

“Of course I remember the Exif.” Ichi hissed. The first (and the last) civilization to ‘loan’ Ghidorah from the Xiliens for a period of time that could be counted in years. In this case, for the upper class to intimidate the lower ones into believing their Gods had come to smite anyone who would dare oppose them. And since Gods were supposed to be immortal, they had stayed for several Exif centuries.

But then the Exif ended up believing their own lies, and upon San’s request, found a way to disconnect them from the Conductor. Enveloping their planet in an endless storm and watching it die had given Ghidorah such a rush they just knew that it’s what they had been taken away from their own world for.

“Not sharing everything in an equal manner between all seems like something they would do.” Ni commented. “And humans always lived in small, separated communities with a clear leader. Maybe it became more apparent as time went on? It goes very fast to them, after all.”

Ichi groaned, taking one last, distasteful at the components in front of him. “Still. There’s never that big of a gap in technology on singular planets. If they have figured out space travel, the furthest they would be able to go to is their moon.” A rock landed on the back of Ichi’s head. “Welcome back, San.”

The youngest brother sat down, giggling as Ni gave his own snort. His arms were full of rocks “Sorry, needed to get it out after you interrupted my search for cool rocks.”

“Did you find any cool rocks?”

“Not really...” San whined, handing the rocks to Ichi, who started looking them over. Most of them had the same hard quality as the ground. “You called us back before I could find good ones... oh! But I did find this!” Out of the tissue he usually draped himself with, San got out a glossy black stone that had a powdery, golden sheen to it.

Ni’s eyes widened by a fraction, making a grabby motion for it. When San shook his head, his face soured. “Why?”

“I want to give it to Rodan. Show of goodwill.” San explained. “By the way, where did he go?”

“For a flight. He wants to see how dead his island is.” Ichi answered off-handedly. “Are you sure that plan of yours is going to work? Fire bird has... quite the temper. He might not break if we tell him the humans were the ones who did this.”

“Someone angry at us but more at our target is still easier to use than someone who’s just angry at us.” San replied, before frowning. “Also, I thought he was ‘little bird’?”

“’Fire bird’ sounds less insulting than ‘little bird’.” Ichi answered, shrugging. “Like you said, show of goodwill. That, and doing his hair.”

“... Brother San, give me that rock.”

“No, Ni!”

“It’s not for me. I want to be the one giving it to the fire bird.” Ni answered. Upon his brothers’ confused faces, he continued. “It’s easy for the both of you to pretend to be nice- oblivion, San is actually nice. It’s not for me. But the plan isn’t going to work well if it doesn’t seem like I’m at least trying to be nice. So?”

After a few seconds, Sa handed the stone to Ni, the message in his eyes obvious. Don’t screw this up.

We cannot screw this up.

#writing #my writing #oc #my oc #madison russel #ghidorah #King Ghidorah #ichi ghidorah #ni ghidorah #san ghidorah #kevin ghidorah #rodan #rodorah #Godzilla #godzilla gijinka

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gallagherwitt · 4 years

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Your willful ignorance makes my brain hurt.

The only thing more frustrating than the pandemic itself is how it's caused so much nonsense to tumble from the mouths of the willfully ignorant and the proudly obtuse.

"If masks work, why can't everything else go back to normal?"

Because masks HELP. They don't eliminate virus transmission. They REDUCE it. Ditto with social distancing, extra hand washing, etc. Wearing a mask is better than not wearing a mask, but literally no one except people complaining about masks think they're intended to be the end-all be-all of prevention.

"The CDC is now saying getting COVID from surfaces isn't a huge risk. Why didn't they tell us the truth from the start?"

What part of "novel" virus do you people not understand? COVID-19 is NEW. Scientists are still figuring it out. That doesn't happen overnight, and if they say "wait, hold on, we have better information," that doesn't mean they lied to you the first time or that they were just guessing. It means they told you what they could based on the information they had at the time, and they have better information now. Science adapts to new information. Stop confusing it with religion.

"Why can't I go to the dentist, but someone can get an abortion? How are abortions considered essential?"

Because while it's not ideal, your routine dental cleaning can wait. Abortions have a very, very strict window of time during which they can be performed. Most of you complaining about them being considered essential are the same people who push for ever more stringent time limits. You understand exactly why abortions are still happening during the pandemic. At least have the decency to admit it.

"COVID numbers are inflated because hospitals get more money for COVID patients!"

Educate thyself on medical coding and billing. Hospitals get a certain amount of money for COVID, and that is based on how much it costs to admit a respiratory patient. In fact the number is on the low end because it's based on admitting a pneumonia patient for a few days, whereas COVID admissions can be several weeks. Also, if hospitals admit patients who don't have COVID, and they label them as COVID in order to get more money, they're not going to be able to hide that during an audit. Getting busted for that kind of fraud isn't worth the short term perks of some extra cash. No hospital is going to risk that just to fraudulently list your broken leg as COVID.

"All deaths are being labeled as COVID no matter what! They don't even have to confirm it via testing!"

No, they're not. The COVID code is so the CDC can track deaths, and if there is no confirmed test, they follow up and adjust accordingly. And there is a massive shortage of tests, so record-keeping HAS to adapt. How else can they keep track of COVID deaths or even cases when we can't test enough people?

"But if a cancer patient gets COVID, it's labeled a COVID death!"

Uh, yeah? Because that's how that works? If the COVID sped up the person's death, then yes it IS a COVID death. You all totally understand that because you've been shouting from the start about how medically fragile and elderly people are at greater risk of dying from COVID. Just like they're at greater risk of dying of the flu. If someone is elderly, obese, diabetic, and undergoing chemo, and they get the flu and die of it, that's a flu death. Same goes for COVID. It's not that complicated, and it's not sinister.

"The vaccine is going to have a chip in it to track people!"

Vaccine tracking doesn't mean literally tracking people via something injected into them. Take off your tinfoil hat.

"But why can I go to X store and not Y shop? Why is it safe to go to A and not B?"

First, no one determined that certain stores were safe and others were not. They were allowed to remain open based on whether they carried essentials. Because people can't survive without essentials like groceries. That's why they're called essentials. It was understood that leaving some places open in order to provide essentials was a calculated risk, and that's why social distancing was enforced and masks have been required. No one ever claimed one type of store was magically safer than another.

Were some closures and restrictions short-sighted? Sure. They could absolutely have been handled better. A lot of things about this could have been handled a lot better. But quick decisions had to be made that would minimize person-to-person contact while also not cutting people off from things they need to survive. By the time the second wave hits, lawmakers and leaders will have a better idea of how to handle things because they've had time to learn and adapt.

"Why are gun shops considered essential?"

Because the ammosexuals throw a heavily-armed tantrum any time someone makes any noise about getting between them and their guns, and leaving gun shops open is the lesser of two evils. The last thing anyone needs during a crisis is Covid Cletus and his pals rioting because they can't buy ammo and that's tyranny or whatever. Of course they still found a reason to dress up as Tactical Timmy and pretend to be soldiers, but no one was surprised by that. I'm not thrilled about letting the toddlers get their way, but I can certainly see why no one wanted to deal with their nonsense while they were trying to deal with everything else. (And I'm a gun owner myself, so don't come at me about "trying to take your guns away.")

"Why can't I go to church?"

I don't know, man. Maybe because large gatherings are great for spreading viruses? Maybe because, even if it isn't ideal, things done at church can be done virtually at home? Maybe because, rather than jumping on an opportunity to oppress Christians and ban worship, people were trying to keep you from getting sick?

"But hydroxychloroquine!"

I don't have time for your confirmation biases today.

Just stop and THINK about these things before you post them, folks. I'm pretty sure many of you understand them, but you don't like them, so you give them just enough of a twist to make them sound unreasonable and get other people on your side.

#COVID19 #COVID virus #coronavirus #coronapocalypse

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callie-the-snarky-geek-blog · 5 years

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RvB16 Episode 2 Review: Incendiary Incidents

(Old Blog Repost)

Last time, not a lot happened other than going out for food, Donut unlocking his true potential as a contortionist, and alien Norse Gods are a thing that exist. Nothing that unusual for this show. We got the setup, so what’ll they do with it now as the pizza quest continues? Lets find out!

Overview

To the shock of no one, Grif crashed the ship. He rushes everyone through the insults and sidenote to Kai’s… so does she actually have regular contact with their mom? Makes me really wonder about where Grif stands with his family. Anyways, good news is the pizza place isn’t far off! They just have to go through some ominous woods! Grif however opts to go through the less than ominous woods which would take longer, but isn’t… well, ominous. This gets Simmons attention. Enough that, as they make their way through, he pulls Grif aside to find out what his deal is. My shipping heart is happy to see Simmons noticing that something’s not right with his not-boyfriend and getting to the bottom of it… please tell me I didn’t accidentally write an innuendo,

So you knwo that ‘new science’ Grif mentioned last episode? Well here’s that new science: laziness… sort of! So when stuck on the moon (I THINK he called it Iris? So… after Michael and Lindsay’s daughter/Geoff’s goddaughter? AWW!), Grif found a book that Jax left behind about story structure. He found out about ‘incendiary incidents’, which are incidents that jumpstart a plot essentially I tried to look it up to see if that’s an actual term… and all I got was a bunch of fire safety websites. But I’ll take Joe’s word for it and say it’s an actual term. So Grif cutting off Jensen before, crashing the ship deliberately as it turns out due to a message from Locus, and avoiding the ominous woods is to avoid getting into an incident that would jumpstart a plot, and therefore lead them into another adventure. IDK if this is clever fourth wall breaking but… wow. WOW. Even Simmons gets chocked up about how much effort Grif put into doing nothing. It’s counterproductive when you think about it, but still!

Unfortunately for Grif, he IS in a webshow with plot structure and the powers to be aren’t going to let them get out of it that easy. Caboose discovered a glowing lake. And a figure emerges form it. Now the episode summary describes a thought to be deceased team member returning. Oh my Gd, that… that’s crazy! It could anyone! But why?! Tex? Flowers? Shelia? Church? Alpha Church? Yellow Church?! The guy who got killed during one of those 360 videos?! The possibilities are endless! It could be anyone! Who knows what kind of shocking twist it cou.. it’s Donut. Who we all knew was alive. Yeah… well I’ll give them this, it had me hyped for the episode.

So Donut… Jesus Christ. No, seriously, Donut is now Jesus. He walked ont he water for crying out loud! Donut says that he had been taken through time and that they have to go into the past to stop a great danger… and absolutely no one buys it. Now to be fair, Simmons makes a good point later. They already went through a time travel story and it turns out it was just a simulation. So them being skeptical about this happening again, especially since only Caboose saw the body horror last episode and I imagine that he forgot by now, is pretty understandable. But yeah no one buys it and Grif feels relieved about avoiding the story bomb… until Simmons points out that refusing the call is an actual story trope. See Grif? There’s no escaping!

So the Reds and Blues make it to ton and… yeah, it’s been totaled. After talking to Jeremy Dooley… I-I mean a cop… no, I’m 90% sure that was Jeremy. Anyways! After that, Donut tries to convince them of time travel again, and this time has actual proof. He has this new gun which he uses to open a portal to a few days earlier. How did he get this? Well to put it simply, after he got hit by Loco’s machine he got sent back in time and his body got wrecked, but God found him and fixed him. IDK if he means the Christian God or one of these alien Gods, but they’ve picked the Reds and Blues to be his time traveling warriors and has sent back four more guns for them to use to go back in time with. The portals can also only fit two grown humans at once.

Unfortunately, things go downhill quickly. So you guys remember the four armed guy from the trailer? Well the sky goes dark and he appears… oh sorry, typed that wrong. I mean that SHE appears. Yes everyone, we have a legit female villain at last!! I couldn’t get her name, but part of it sounded like Callie… which is my name… UGH… anyways! Yeah, she starts causing chaos and destruction. Donut uses a bubble shield, telling the others to use the portal guns and get away. They comply with everyone pairing off: Cabbose and Lopez, Tucker and Sister, Grif and Doc, and Sarge and Simmons. Donut remains behind, though I assume that he’ll follow them later. Huggins, who has been following the group, chases after Grif and Doc by going through their portal. We follow Sarge and Simmons as they land in… what looks like ancient Egypt. Could be wrong, but we’ll have to wait and find out cause that’s the end of the episode!

Review

Well all of that escalated quickly!

So… gonna talk about Grif first! Cause yes, he’s getting a character arc! I mean I guess it could have ended here since his plan failed, but since Huggins went after him and Doc we could get something on that front. Anyways, so I was right and Grif is actively trying to keep them out of getting into adventures. To the point that he’s putting effort into maintaining laziness… that’s the kind of logic I expect form this show. It wasn’t how I expected it, but I expected it. It’s also good to see that he does still have some hangups from the moon. He seems a lot more… what’s the word? High-strung than normal? He’s also still talking in pretty large bursts compared to normal. I don’t know if that’s just me reading into it too much, but it seems like Joe is trying to show that Grif still has hangups from his self-exile. Which hey, if it means more Grif focus, I am not complaining!

The episode is more about plot than the last one. Last week was the setup, and now the payoff is here. So first, Donut. He was written SO WELL. One of the issues last season was that Donut was pretty much a background prop and they even forgot to put him in scenes. Joe must have realized that this was a problem cause he’s already fixing it BIG TIME. Donut’s had shit happen man! He comes off as slightly mroe serious and competent in a sense that he actually knows the gravity of the situation. But he still feels and acts like Donut, which is good! It shows that he CAN be useful and competent, but without sacrificing his personality. Heck he only spouted out one innuendo and it was just to prove that it was really him. I am digging this new direction!

So turns out that the four armed guy si a terrifying alien goddess of death… I dig it! So someone pointed out that this character is similar to Hela from Thor: Ragnarok. SO it REALLY seems like Joe is basing the villain off Norse mythology… or just the Marvel Cinematic Universe verisons of them. Either way is fine. So I’m not sure if… Kali-Ra I think is her name? Anyways it doesn’t seem like she’s with the same group as Huggins cause I imagine that she would have reacted. I also don’t think that this chick is the main villain since DOnut referred to a ‘devil man’, but still she is terrifying and badass and I LOVE it. We finally got a female main villain guys! Joe is the hero we’ve waited for! Yay! Also Sarge asking he rot marry him, Of course he’d want to marry a violent death goddess… I’ll totes ship this!

Alright, time travel! SO ever since Joe mentioned it in that post a while ago, I’ve… been skeptical. Time travel in pretty much every show tends to be confusing and create tons of plot holes. It even happened in RvB before with Season 3 before Burnie retconned it as a simulation. Didn’t save my head from imploding, but still that’s a fair excuse. Hopefully Joe has a VERY good idea on what he’s doing with this, but I’ve been warming up to the idea since then. It’ll be fun to see the guys in different time periods at least! Form how it looks, Sarge and Simmons may go tomb raiding it it really is Ancient Egypt. I mean Sarge vs mummies, there is no way that cannot be epic!

So the gang is being split up, and the pairs are interesting! Sarge and Simmons sin’t that much of a surprise and tbf it’s been a long time since they had some one-on-one time. Simmons has also grown out of being a kissass quite a bit, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Caboose and Lopez are together… so I’ just going to assume that in every animated RT production, Burnie is just meant to be stuck with/get annoyed with Joel in one way or another. Cause that is the impression I’m getting. Tucker and Sister are together, so I imagine flirting… okay I’m good with that! Hopefully Sister gets some focus to herself that isn’t just Tucker trying to hit on her, but still I’m good with this!

And finally Grif and Doc… that one is gonna be interesting. Grif in particular seems very grudgey against Doc for the betrayal and we just saw Doc save Grif form getting crushed by tackling him into the portal. Which props to Doc for that BTW. Still with that and since they’re 100 on an adventure now, Grif’s not gonna be a happy camper. Also if O’Malley gets active and starts going into Grif’s past issues like in S13, I… imagine that’ll be rough for our favorite orange boy. Also Huggins chased after them, so I assume that they’ll be discovering her soon. Which if she pals up with them…t hat could be really cute tbh! I am all for Grif and Doc shenanigans with a a ball of light! But yeah, this could lead to a LOT of things and I’m very interested in seeing how this plays out.

Final Thoughts

It was great! Admittedly this is a lot mroe bizarre than RvB has been in a while but it’s also RvB where Grif still being alive after getting hit by a tank and having Simmons organs thrown into him improperly isn’t ever questioned. Alien Norse Gods? Ia m all for it! Donut being Jesus? Awesome! More setup for Grf having a character arc? HELL YEAH MAN. It was a well done episode, progressing the plot without wasting any time, gives us a glimpse at how dangerous our villains our, gives us a badass female villain, and sets up everything for the episodes ot come. There’s definitely a feeling of epicness compared to last time, so it looks lie Joe is taking the armature gloves off and giving us one Hell of a story. I am very excited to see where it leads!

#rvb #rvb16 #rvb reviews #old blog repost

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theintuitivewildflower · 6 years

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The Science & Spirituality Connection

How to utilize Positivity, the Law of Attraction and Setting Intentions to Manifest your desires

Last night was the full moon. I set intentions, released toxicity, family or religious blocks, karmic ties and more. Above, in the picture you can examples of what can be manifested and positive affirmations to create momentum of positive thought. Sounds so cheesy, I know, but once I got intentional about this type of stuff, I witnessed magic. Just a bit at first, a tiny ripple. Then, after doing it Again.

Again. Again.

The ripple became a wave; so I continue.

The law of attraction really works. When you are in vibrational alignment with who you truly are it works in amazing ways. To practice the law of attraction you simply express gratitude for what you have and you claim what you want to attract to you as if it were yours already. It's somewhat of a sit down, a one-on-one chat with the creator and no one knows you better.

SPEAK IT INTO EXISTENCE

Share what you want, need and desire. Express gratitude for what you now have. Write these down for stronger momentum and faster manifesting; look at it as you co-signing your request like " Yep, still want it." Then, do your best to live your life with intention. Turn dreams into plans and do something each day to propel you in their direction.

Be as positive as possible. When you are practicing attracting what you want be sure to clear the mind of cluttered thoughts, your to-do list, noise or your worries and stress. It is okay, even encouraged to unplug, get off the phone and get to a place where you feel comfortable and at peace to converse with God about what matters to you most.

The Bible states that God says " Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 .....

However, depending on a person's background, beliefs and religion; some will say meditate, some say pray some call it positivity, others call it optimism; still generally the same things.

Another example is:

The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.......equals

Be good, Do good, Receive Good.......equals

You reap what you sow........ equals in yet another another religion, "Karma" .

Still the same message, the same truth just from another's angle; a different view.

Most of the religious texts say the same things; they are just said differently. . We humans then, get nit-picky over who's book is right and whose group is wrong. However, they basically all say the same message just in a way that is familiar to each individual religious group's demographic.

Especially in Christianity, we see one Bible, one religious text, but in various churches, within various religions, interpreted in various ways.

Another example is,

"Be Still" in the Bible verse ......can also mean Meditate..... which can mean prayer also.

OR THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS SUCH AS;

Pray. Come to me. Meditate. Come rest. You're not alone. God is with us. Come near to God. I am with you always.,..........if given some thought, could also translate into God-is Within, he's near, always!

When you get ready to have your chat with source you have to look within at who you are. You have to listen to learn.

Learn yourself and guess what, you learn what your true authentic soul needs. You can do this anytime anywhere; aloud, silently or in writing. What counts is the thought, the intention and the vibration!

It's not about the church congregation, tithes, popularity, politics, the best dressed, the choir or singing from hymnals.

It's about you following your bliss, knowing who you are, accepting who you are and knowing God has been right there all along waiting to lock arms with you!

The Science and Spirituality Connection

Everything is Relative; we are all connected and everything around us is also connected via energy, vibrations, intentions and yes, our thoughts.

These are Universal scientific truths. Now, how did we end up here, on this Earth, and always seem to be defending, arguing or debating our familiar religious beliefs.

The thing is, is that these universal laws are just that, universal; they cover us all; us living, breathing, heart-beating people. They will respond to our vibration and reciprocate it whatever kind it us; so be mindful of your thoughts and how you ask.

There's enough God and Universe to hear all of our desires and what we're manifesting into existence. Most religious groups have almost exactly the same beliefs, same religious texts and often even worship the same God??? So how did we get here, with so many different religions worshipping the same or similar God and reading the same religious texts yet we still can't see the similarities; only differences. Many STILL feel justified judging other's because maybe they call another religion a different name or maybe their text reads in a foreign language or it's difficult to understand.

Indeed, the ego can get life twisted! I think if early on, Religions had focused on and fed the soul instead of the ego; there would be less division amongst the churches now;More folks would be aligned to their callings rather than agendas and aligned with Authenticity not traditions and conditioned beliefs.

We somehow have felt justified judging each other's beliefs just for calling the same things by various names. To me, it seems like ego was running things early on in our religious history. The dividing religions into subgroups began, and not long after that some groups were at war, some were persecuted, religious texts were altered, changed and edited so that certain parts of the texts align with their groups special interests.

It's more important to align with God, your source. Lock arms with Creator and allow guidance along the road he made you to take. # theintuitivewildflower

Wow!

How far outside ourselves, away from the light within us, did this controlling behavior take us; the stubborn ego. Pretty far gone, in my opinion.

The law of attraction is still looked down on by many Christian religious groups because they consider it New Age! HELLO?!! It's not new age, it's just been around for ages. It remains unchanged and underused. Yet, the Bible shows us and tells us more than once to think positively; thinking on pure, just and true things.

It also tells us to ask for what we desire, believe and have faith that it's on its way. Then we will receive it. IF THAT'S NOT A BIBLICAL CO-SIGNING OF THE LAWS OF ATTRACTION AND POSITIVITY, I DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO TELL YOU EXCEPT THE SAME AS I SAID BEFORE......

Everything is connected.

Still today, groups continue picking out certain verses from the text as if they were never part of the spiritual equation to begin with. In addition, scriptures can get edited, added in or taken out depending on the groups independent policies. Here's the deal, there are differences and similarities in all religions. There is often more than one way to do the right thing.

There is so much hate, pain, sadness and ignorance being displayed these days. Does anyone feel like we are moving backwards? We have been, we still are and now we have momentum in the wrong direction. Is anyone trying to align with their soul purpose anymore?

The momentum we need created is like kids playing in a pool, walking together in one direction to create a stronger current. Round and round we go.

It is time to turn it around, be united, go against the negative flow and question everything. Soon, we will have built up more positive momentum and then, we begin to have positive changes and manifestations come into fruition; quicker, easier and more often!! It truly does start within each of us! Do your own studies and research on these topics. Figure out what you really believe in after looking at your world from another angle.

In the end you see, it's about pursuing your purpose with a passion.

It's about INTENTIONALLY LIVING VS. JUST WAITING TO DIE. Are you living long or walking dead??? Asleep, woke or in between?Either way, do your own research, ask questions and if you don't, then, practice the law of attraction or manifesting your desires a little bit. You might be surprised at the changes just a little thought can create.

It is about having self- love as a healthy boundary so you don't try to give what you don't have. Self-love helps you to be selfless with others without getting burned. It allows you to say NO if YOUR best interest isn't considered or valued. Learn yourself and love yourself, learn from your past, apply the lessons and wait.....the lessons be we don't master will come back around to have you try again.

Leave out the self- love and find yourself drained, hurt, broke or depressed; maybe all of the above? First, love yourself. Feel Joy. Grow. Evolve. Learn yourself. Experience more Joy. Protect your energy. Follow your bliss. Express gratitude. Be Joyful. Think positive. Feed your soul. Starve the ego. Radiate love. Align with your purpose. Share it Joyfully and watch your Joy multiply then it will ripple out to others and back again.

You can do this by being intentional about protecting your energy. Be authentically you; all the time accepting ALL that makes you who you are; both the light and the dark. Then, work to feed the light most and keep your shadow in check. If you can starve the ego and other distractions while uplifting the soul ....

SELF-LOVE ISN'T SELFISH.

You cannot pour from an empty cup. It's your responsibility to make sure your soul is nourished enough to start giving pieces of it to anyone else.

Be intentional about protecting your energy.

YOU CAN......

Learn ways to vibrate higher.

Think positive.

Master your lessons.

Quiet your mind.

Lessen anxiety.

Manifest your desires.

Positive thoughts are exactly how you start to create positive momentum toward what you desire. This is where you begin manifesting what you want, feeling joy and believing in magic and miracles because you'll witness them!

YOU CAN....

Rise above negativity, negative people and their petty pursuits for gain!

You can check yourself yourself when you start noticing your energy isn't feeling as good as you like it too.

Find ways to vibrate higher that are personally unique to you.

For myself, I like music, country drives, journaling or creative expression through art.

In a jam? Hustle and bustle goes your day and overwhelm sets in right?? I get it!

Getting grounded

You can do some quick anxiety busting grounding. Here is one I have found to work for me in a pinch Go outside. Count to 10. Find five things each you can :

Taste Touch Smell See and Hear.

Tips to help you vibrate higher

ONE thing that never fails me when I need a shift in energy or when I find myself thinking with a victim mindset again;

it happens…..you don’t need to dwell on it but you do need to change it as quickly as possible!

Music, for me, is the best way to get an energy shift quick! I have taken the time to make a suggestion of tracks that create good vibes, the lyrics are positive and the beats are gonna get you feeling up when you are down, If you think you could benefit from that too check out this link I made to take you to my special playlists at amazon!! https://amzn.to/2pINWXy

Whatever you gotta do to flip the script, do it. Replace negative with positive. This is how you create positive momentum of thought. This is where you begin manifesting what you want; where Joy resides waiting on you to align with it!

Manifest your JOY.

Peace, Love and Blessings to you this week and always.

Karyn Dee

#theintuitivewildflower

Related post: https://theintuitivewildflower.tumblr.com/post/177311384980/heal-love-yourself-feel-joy-grow-evolve-learn

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eksbdan-blog · 4 years

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New Post has been published on https://passingbynehushtan.com/2020/02/16/doctrine-vs-the-didache-of-jesus/

Church Doctrine vs. the Didache of Jesus: A Prophetic Think Tank

Didache or Doctrine?

Well, here we go again. The story about how 1st century Christain words were twisted and morphed into ideas that have little to no relation with the original. And what could be more consequential than that of the word “doctrine”?

The “doctrine” of faith, such as “faith alone” or “faith with works.” The “doctrine” of Christ, such as “fully man and fully God” or “a man that became divine.” The “doctrine” of justification as a free gift, without works, or justification by works. The “doctrine” of ecclesiastical authority, or the authority of scripture alone. The “doctrine” of a particular systematic approach. The “Doctrine” of a theological proposition. Are these really 1st-century Christian, Christ-ordained teachings (doctrine, didache) or something else?

Now far be it for me to suggest that none in this mix of truth and error is original Christian teaching. What I’m saying is there is a huge difference between a truth that is a conclusion and a truth which is a premise or a fact. A conclusion is just a series of words adding up to a faint outline of what it exists to sign. So is a concept for the knowledge for which it merely symbolizes. What I ask is if doctrine in its original form is a supernaturally demonstrated and historical truth about Jesus Messiah or a derived human representation or proposition of it.

The answer is simple, isn’t it? We know unequivocally what that answer is. But we sure don’t like it and our relationship with “doctrine” is sure not modeled after that answer.

Please don’t underestimate the gravity of this question and its reverberations through our entire conception of what it means to be a Christian and what Christian truth is ultimately. Our conception of “Doctrine” effects what of the Bible will be presented to the world as crucial and ultimate examples of Christian truth claims.

This, in turn, tells the world what kind of morality with respect to that transcendent Truth of the Father Christ essentially displayed. How our emulation of His Truth is a sign of our salvation in Him. Our grasp of this concept is not one vital component in the whole of the conceptual “Truth” meta-symbol, its the whole kit and kaboodle. “Doctrine” is “Truth” or Truth is a mere bystander loitering along the way to Christ that comes to help when there is some faith accident, ready to make things right. But what essentially did Christ teach, give us as doctrine, for us to give to others?

First, what is doctrine:

A belief or tenet, especially about philosophical or theological matters. The body of teachings of a religion, or a religious leader, organization, group or text1

Doctrine, from Latin doctrina, (compare doctor), means “a body of teachings” or “instructions”, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. The Greek analogy is the etymology of catechism.

These are pretty general. Let’s forget about these and take the meaning from the source. Doctrine is didache (διδαχή) in the Greek

from G1321; instruction (the act or the matter):—doctrine, hath been taught.

Our only real task is making sure that this didache, as Christ and the apostles used it, looks like itself and not gratuitously like the world’s general conception above. If it were limited to a mere “body of teachings” or “instructions” or “principles” or “positions” I don’t think we would have Christ’s didache. Why?

Because if Christianity is about for the first time in human history there is a divine disclosure of otherwise impossible knowledge about the existence, nature, and plan of this transcendent God, it’s not going to be about “instructions,” it’s going to be about the content of those instructions and that knowledge itself.

If doctrine is from a supernatural source and about transcendent reality, it’s then about knowledge content that itself shows supernatural origin.

Under the above criteria, is the concept of “doctrine” ultimately any teaching that is not transcendently self-attesting? Could it be teaching and knowledge that could have come from the creativity and resources of men?

Please keep this in mind as we proceed. This, my friends, if you profess faith, can change your life by a means that a conception of “doctrine” the church offers could never do in any number of relativistic years.

Didache occurs 30 times in the NT. In 13 other occasions the word διδασκαλία didaskalía, did-as-kal-ee’-ah is used:

from G1320; instruction (the function or the information):—doctrine, learning, teaching.

In 1 Titus 1:3, there is also ἑτεροδιδασκαλέω , “to instruct differently.”

1 Timothy 1:2-4 (KJV) Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.

Interesting that in the KJV there is one instance (Heb 6:1) that translates logos in Greek as “doctrine” in the phrase “doctrine of Christ.” Why I don’t have a clue. Perhaps it makes more sense than the “Word of Christ” or logos of Christ?” If so, we have to ask why it would make more sense.

Why to us it makes more sense is really the story here. The story is about how to fallen Man things that sound too arcane and foreign must be given the prosaic workover so it looks more like us. “Doctrine” has been given the prosaic workover.

This is a preamble to our post-cross historical age that became obsessed and fixed exclusively on “doctrine” as statements or conclusions, rather than a “teaching” of the word of Christ, which is an entirely different and much more exacting matter, as we will see.

Ok, what is it?

What kind of information is this doctrine? The most important and defining “teaching,” and from where they are informed, which joins every believer around a common set of facts?

Why would I even ask such a question, “what is Christian doctrine?” when everyone knows what is Christian doctrine? Everyone knows the historical beliefs of the Church. We also know it as the accepted propositions of a particular denomination. Of course, we also know what “doctrine” in the dictionary means? Asking this is almost like asking “in what year was the War of 1812 fought?” Or, “what is the meaning of apple pie?”

Since I’m asking for the definition of something that everyone already knows and has agreed upon, at least that doctrine is about the confessions of faith, how could I not but introduce yet another of a million articles talking about the Westminister Confession? Or quoting Scliermacher on dogmatics? Or pulling out a Catholic catechism? Or “the 5 Fundamentals’? That “doctrine” is essentially a creed?

Certainly, I would not be so presumptuous as to own pull out my own bullets of doctrinal devotion and contrasting them with nearly two millennia of work by our wise and prudent scholars. What, do I think that this question is open to some question like that which the Judgement of Paris entertained? How impudent! How could two millennia be wrong?

Yes, that is what I mean. Informed are two millennia from the same place. Namely, the underlying assumption of “doctrine” as that of religious propositions that are not their own evidence for their truth but nevertheless define Christian faith.

As I have implied and sketched out a destination, this article aims to establish not the topographical features of the common “doctrine” idea encompassed in “faith statement” or “post-1st century object of theological warfare,” but to get at the heart of it. To see if at that heart there might be something about a kind of Christian doctrine fallen through a 1900-year-old crack. Deleted or relegated, but still, the only kind which, if made singular and primary, removes the arguability of “doctrine” to give back its power.

The power to stand not only as a conclusion but a predicate. As a symbol and a substance of the truth it states, and return Christianity to more a kind of spiritual science than a scholarly and pedestrian mosh pit before another genius that wants to thrill people more with his own revelation than the one Jesus sent.

If it were so, then the divisiveness and covetousness end that comes with touting only from one’s own resources a belief that is open to equivocation, attack, and death. We want to give back to it what was instead unequivocally gutted from it: its self-attest-ability.

But to do this, we have to clearly open up for comparison what is that corrupt consensus reality on the subject of doctrine, how important the 1st-century conception of doctrine it is to the faith by comparison, and what is the cost of losing it. If we are then able to discover what is the real “doctrine” which that world echo chamber has refused, we will turn its own assumptions back on them.

“Doctrine” is essential? “Doctrine” is “truth.” Then any confession of truth which holds to a conception of a belief statement in spiritual things which is capable of supporting itself as true only out of the resources of the mind and emotions is not important to the faith and not “truth.” On the contrary, the cost of losing false doctrine is not only zero, but more like the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

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The Consensus Reality: Schleiermacher

Since Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768–1834) is considered the arch dogmatist and the father of modern liberalism, and since we are living after him we are prudent to start with the one who best exemplifies what we believe about doctrine today.

Schleiermacher was a Kantian. Immanuel Kant denied the possibility of an objective, demonstrable divine knowledge. There was no way to “prove” Christian doctrine as true, and that is not its purpose. The purpose of Christianity is for the education of our passions or moral bearing, for the betterment of human societies. Kant was a functional atheist in this sense, believing that Christianity is not “true” in the classic sense, but still held dearly to the preforming of his Christian devotions and moral self-control. He was functionally an atheist, but very, very religious.

Schleiermacher followed Kant in insisting that Christianity has nothing to do with the belief in miracles, but one engaged directly with Jesus and his redemptive power. Look at these from The Christian Faith:

Page 109: Unity of doctrine in the church is not required.

P. 76: Doctrine is the “accounts of the Christian religious affections set forth in speech.”

P. 123-125: The whole of Christian Doctrine is “facts presupposed by antithesis” combined with facts that remain unchanged during the development of the antithesis and ” facts determined by the antithesis.”

P. 142: “religious feeling” is the essence of the Christian experience and the proposition that describes its basis is the “totality of finite being existed only in dependence upon the Infinite.”

P. 591: “The authority of Holy Scripture cannot be the foundation of faith in Christ; rather the latter must be presupposed before a peculiar authority can be granted Holy to Scripture.” The Old Testament was insignificant for this.

Any book can be the “Bible,” not necessarily the OT or NT.

Two forms of consciousness are knowing and feeling. Knowing and doing is the anthesis to feeling. Feeling sits between knowing and doing, and so is the “seat,” as Barth called it. The primary object of knowledge is therefore pious feeling.

Does any of this sound familiar today?

You may say that much of this is eschewed in Conservative congregations, but I assure you that none of them really do, as will be seen.

Although they fought and debated, Schleiermacher was essentially a Hegelian. Hegel disagreed strongly with him on the Trinity, which Schleiermacher thought was not settled because there was never any attempt to enunciate clearly by Christ and the apostles.

Hegel thought of history as a movement between a proposition, an opposing conception (antithesis) and an outworking synthesis. It is not important what is this thesis, antithesis or synthesis, but only if it works toward human freedom. Although discovery influences a new view of reality, it is clear from Hegel’s language that the focus is on the “proposition” moving history, not changing facts, and what people decide is true. History is human self-consciousness interpreting and re-interpreting itself: “History is the process whereby the spirit discovers itself and its own concept.”

The spirit is primarily its own object; but as long as it is this only in our eyes, and has not yet recognised itself in its object, it is not yet its own object in the true sense. Its ultimate aim, however, is the attainment of knowledge; for the sole endeavour of spirit is to know what it is in and for itself, and to reveal itself to itself in its true form. It seeks to create a spiritual world in accordance with its own concept, to fulfil and realise its own true nature, and to produce religion and the state in such a way that it will conform to its own concept and be truly itself or become its own Idea. (The Idea is the reality of the concept, of which it is merely a reflection or expression.) This, then, is the universal goal of the spirit and of history.2

I say his language, among many nuanced others, gives Hegel away. Notice, “the Idea is the reality of the concept, of which it is merely a reflection or expression.” Now, I speak of concept and idea as essentially the same thing because they are both framed within, not without, human power, but not that they don’t differ. An idea is an impression, a theory, a concept, is a procedure or plan.

To Hegel, the idea is the reality of the concept. The idea, the human idea, lying purely in human self-consciousness, is effectively the symbol’s meaning, and the concept is the symbol. You can argue over this, but the takeaway is Hegel speaks of this in terms of an ultimate human symbol, where all plans and theories are human constructions.

You can see this insular self-focus deeply within the conclusions of Schleiermacher.

Although I didn’t think he ever put is this way, to Schlienermacher Hegel’s “freedom,” the directional goal of all history, is “redemption.” It is Christian consciousness and the human redemption by the constructed Christ idea, rather than the knowledge of His objective reality, that is the heart of his philosophy. “Facts” are determined by contact with that which opposes the concept of redemption: ” the contents of the self-consciousness of the redeemed.”

The Christian consciousness of redemption entails concepts such as God’s holiness, righteousness, love, and wisdom; the opposing negative states of evil and sin; and the transition between them by way of Christ and the church through rebirth and sanctification. These concepts, further, presuppose others: creation and preservation, an original state of human perfection, and the divine attributes of eternity, omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience.3

Simply read it all in context. Redemption by the guidance of doctrinal conclusions. Notice that one set of the doctrines of redemption presupposes others, and the whole is a model of redemption by Christ. Nothing of this has anything to do with a revealed faith, a faith that grounds itself on the historical appearance of God which shows itself by demonstration. Translation: forget Messianic Prophecy, it about “redemption” the concept, not the reality.

Now, I’m not going to waste a lot of your time. I’m not going to go through the Patristic Fathers, Aquinas, Augustine, and then back up to Barth to show you this pattern. The subjectivism, the philosophy, the self-experientialism, the Age of the Creed, and so on. But let me just mention one: The Didache, The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations.

Its a kind of catechism, a policy of the church order. This is a very old document. Some date it from the second century but more from the 1st century. But, I beg you to remember that age does not mean original, and there is nothing to suggest this was written by one of the Apostles. At this point, the church was expanding and adjusting to the world around them, and if there was something true in what most were doing there was just as likely to be something false in what others were doing. If subsequent ages showed an error and mainstreamed it then they got it from somewhere.

The Didache on the surface is a very innocent document. All it does is lay out some basic guiding theological assumptions. But this is not the earlier and genuine manner of Christ or the Apostles when they spoke of these. It was always with reference to the revelation upon which they were predicated.

They did not ignore the parabolic nature of Christ’s truth, such as that within the Sermon on the Mount. They did not suggest that you are pure and blameless because you acted in a certain way. And they did not suggest that a doctrinal proposition was all you needed to believe with respect to the Truth of Christ. But the Didache does and as such its the start of what we have today.

Now, I can only go by the document itself. I understand that there was an unstated subtext to all of this, which is belief in that original messianic, scriptural phenomenon. The problem with the document is that it never mentions them, but strips them from the Apostolic habit and only talks about the old, Greek and pagan idea of morality as doing a thing and believing a thing. Because of this, it is a well-intentioned disaster.

Did you know that “If someone gives you a blow upon your right cheek, turn to him the other also, and you shall be perfect?” That, “Woe to him that receives; for if one having need receives, he is guiltless?” Did you know that murders, adulteries, lusts, fornications, thefts, idolatries, magic arts, witchcrafts, rapines, false witnessings, hypocrisies, double-heartedness cause spiritual death?

Of course, the author means they are signs of spiritual blamelessness or spiritual wickedness, not the cause of it. But with this language what is stopping anyone from concluding otherwise?

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Christ’s intention in the Sermon on the Mount was to wrap physical behavior as a sign around his prophetic revelation, which was to be known and believed, not the goodness of what someone does or says. As was his habit, He did not do it directly, such as saying “because you believe that the prophets foretold me as Messiah and I fulfilled them, act in such as a way to show the world that what you believe matches what you do.” He gave it in parabolic fashion. But why?

Because the Sermon on the Mount is a prophecy as much about what the true Christian demeanor will be as it is a prophecy about what it will not be. Which is not just “murders and blasphemies” but mostly those who want to involve themselves in a Christian religion by cutting out the first clause “because you believe that the prophets foretold me as Messiah and I fulfilled them,” from the second clause, “act in such as a way to show the world that what you believe matches what you do.” Christ is hiding a crucial truth about a future faith because if stated plainly people will just go around robotically mouthing a formula they are supposed to find for themselves.

The SOTM is the greatest example Christ ever gave of His transcendent genius, so much so that even today we don’t get, nor want to, the difference between doing and essential believing.

Not that the Didache shows what true Christian subtext they were really operating under:

But after you are filled, thus give thanks: We thank You, holy Father, for Your holy name which You caused to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality, which You made known to us through Jesus Your Servant; to You be the glory forever.

What is this “knowledge?” What is this “Holy name?” Just “Jesus?”

I’m going to go right to the Bible and show you what the whole of human history is, by contrast to the Christ’s truth with respect to “doctrine.”

Not Ditto for Didache

Now, none of this will matter to Scliermacher-ites. It won’t matter for Catholics, LDS, Eastern Orthodox, Unitarian Universalists, JW’s, and just about all Protestant denominations and strains which put what you personally believe over why you objectively believe, either practically or explicitly. It only matters, or should matter, for those that really, really mean it when they say the Bible is the sole rule of faith or practice.

It is more than a little interesting that this didachḗin its first NT mention comes in Matthew 7, after a long discourse by Christ setting forth the main doctrinal question: what must one believe in order to be saved?

The Sermon on the Mount is about this, not “be good and nice and all and you are then a follower of Christ.” We think the ideational “what,” not the transcendent “why,” is this “doctrine,” and if asked to give one we will quickly answer something like “Jesus is Savior,” “the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin.” Especially in light of the following:

Matthew 7:13 (KJV) Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

See, the narrow gate is “Jesus” and “Jesus Saves.”

Fine, those are true. But what is narrow (στενός), a particular, restrictive, precise, exact, more difficult, less traveled gate into Truth, to Christ, to the sheepfold, in relation to a definition of “doctrine?” Is it just another kind of religious statement, and the true one only if the statement is believed true? Well, Jesus gave the answer by context:

In vss. 9-11, we have a serpent, stone, bread, fish, good and bad gifts. We give good gifts to our son when he asks, not inert and worthless ones. So is the difference between the doctrine of Christ and that of the Pharisees.

The Law and the Prophets (v.12) are summed up by Christ as good gifts, not evil ones. That is not a faith statement. It’s a faith knowledge, and one specifically of Christ in that revelation. We should give to others transcendent, objective Truth, not lies. Not pharisaical law-keeping, not the Shema, not the 613 Mitzvot, not tradition, not mouthing certain true words, but believing the true Phenomenon of God before them, as we would have others to us. Because:

Matthew 7:14 (KJV) Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Jesus then proceeds to give such good gifts in his doctrine.

Matthew 7:15 (KJV) Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

The context for this doctrinal truth is set on false prophecy and true prophecy. That prophecy which is Satanic, Pharisaical prophecy, the core idea of false doctrine, over against that of Messiah and then Jesus Messiah. False prophecy and prophets are animated by lies such as righteousness through keeping the Law, or righteousness by believing and reciting the Shema. True prophets are animated by a kind of revelation of God’s truth, which is alone capable of grounding and motivating their righteous actions, and that truth is the truth of the Christ of the Prophets. The reason all along for the Law and the Shema.

The false prophets in mind prophesy in Jesus’ name, cast out devils in his name, and have done many wonderful works (v.22). The works are certainly not evil. These are what Christians are supposed to be doing. Obviously, “works” means something else to Christ.

These false prophets are then professing Christians, not atheists, doing the right things, uttering the right words. Since the “fruit” of which Jesus asks us to test for good and bad is then not what they do and say, it must be on why they do and say. Their scriptural motivations, if there is anything at all scripturally motivating them.

“Well, then, why you believe is still a doctrine, like “Jesus saves!”

No, it can’t be, at least not by our common conception of the word “doctrine” as religious concepts (ideas). The things these pretenders do is doctrinal, we must remind ourselves. If doing good is correctly thought good when it reflects a good belief and a mental/spiritual state, but believing is thought the belief only in a concept, which is a representation but not necessarily a fact, then our functional notion of essential doing is the same: that which is merely an appearance, not a substance. Our idea of “doctrine” is then at variance with what we know about symbolic reality, that symbols are indicators of ultimate reality, not reality itself.

If the doctrines the Pharisees hold are correct by action, then Christ, again, is talking not about what they are doing, but why. He is not talking about Doctrine as what is said, but why. He is not talking about statements, or what informs statements from personal choice, or what informs statements that could easily come from intelligence, craft or imagination, but that which is distinctly impersonal and supernatural in its origin. “Jesus saves” is not. Although true, it’s a human construct, a concept, that is meant to sign that impersonal and supernatural knowledge, not act in its place.

What we are saying is that it’s not the content, the external statements of a true or false confession of these false prophets in the Church, but perhaps a container of one, it’s informational, scriptural premise. Obviously, these people are saying and doing the right things (“cast out devils in your name), but they apparently have no revelational control, the container, over that expressed belief. It’s a heart problem, not a problem of expression, which is very deceptive.

As he always does, Jesus does not tell you openly “the right motivation is Me in the prophets, now being fulfilled.” He does it in parabolic fashion. Again, by subject context. He has already mentioned the prophets twice. Now he tells you what the doctrine of the prophets. Who would have guessed that the doctrine of the “prophets” is prophecy?” Ironically, the relatively few that were genuinely, unhypocritically searching for and loving Truth.

“Doing” his sayings (7:24) is not doing by “casting out devils in your name” or “many wonderful works” or about being nice. “Doing” is believing and prophesying Jesus by the prophets. This is the “rock,” both Christ Jesus and His Prophetic Word of demonstration, that will not be washed away “when the floods came.”

This is Christ giving a prophecy of the future as a prophetic argument for doctrine and faith in the OT prophecies of Messiah so promised and now fulfilled;

Matthew 7:27 (KJV) And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Yes, the “Rock” is Christ, and Christ is a doctrine, but “rock “is certainly not the “doctrine” of external appearances and creeds, but”Rock” means something truly spiritual. It is that peculiar and special and unique spiritual motivation by the only stream of Scriptures which could ever be put as Christ’s informational equal.

Now that we know what is “doctrine,” what about the doctrine of notitia (notice, understanding content), assensus (to agree with), and fiducia (the assent of the intellect to the truth of some proposition) in Reformed conception?

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In the way that I have just described it, this is not a “doctrine,” because “doctrine” is not propositional truth, its the revelational knowledge itself. That truth requires propositions, but they are submissive to that revelation. It goes without saying that there is something about this epistemic scheme that is true and doctrinal, that to believe one must know and understand what is to be believed. To agree with it and trust it. What is not agreed is that doctrine is propositional content, propositional agreement, and propositional trust in religious or philosophical concepts.

The false prophets are by all appearances not to be faulted by their doctrine if this if the benchmark is just concepts and religious works. But could their fault be the shallow depth to which they believe their propositions? Well, it would have to be to the depth to which they believe a faith claim by its proof which is supernatural.

Christ did does not make idle propositional claims to which he expected notitia, assensus and fiducia, but made a demonstration of propositions that he expected to be obeyed directly in faith. His demonstration is that of supernatural showing and fulfilling, not claiming. Proving, not suggesting. Real supernatural phenomena, not platitudinal confessions. The fulfillment of Messianic prophecy, not “Jesus is Messiah, the Son of God.”

Mat 15:9 refers to the doctrines of men opposing that of 15:8:

Isaiah 29:13-14 (KJV) Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

Therefore, “doctrine” in v. 9 is the doctrine of the Messianic Prophecy of Christ.

In Mark 7:7, the exact same doctrine and exact messianic prophecy is cited.

In Romans 12:7, Paul uses διδάσκω, in the Authorized Version “teaching.”

Ephesians 4:14, Paul uses διδασκαλία: he refers to the doctrine of 4:13:

Ephesians 4:14 (KJV) That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Ephesians 4:13 (KJV) Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

“Knowledge of the Son of God” is not primarily experiential knowledge, as the Church would have it. It’s not your feelings and imagination as your point of contact with God, its a witness to a kind of personal appearance of God himself in objective reality. That appearance in objective reality is either in the form of a theophany in spatial reality or one in temporal reality from a record of history and the results of moral judgment.

It’s the same as in Phillipians 3:8, “the Knowledge of Christ.” Nowhere in any epistle does Paul speak of “knowledge” in the personal sense.

Col 2:22: “the doctrines and commandments of men” are set in contrast to the doctrine mentioned here. Religious ordinances are:

Colossians 2:17 (KJV) Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

Then, we have 1 Timothy 1:10 (KJV)

For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

Which sound doctrine is identified here? In 1 Timothy 2:5-6 (KJV), we have: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

This is a perfect description of Messianic Prophecy in toto, “to be testified in due time.” That is, Jesus gave himself long before, before the foundation of the world, as a Promise to mankind. This was fulfilled “in due time.”

1 Timothy chapter 4 contains several instances of this word: verses 6, 13 and 16.

All of this is prefaced from verse 1 of 1 Timothy 4:1-3 (KJV)

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

The Spirit prophesied of latter times of apostasy of the faith.

Then, in 2 Tim:

2 Timothy 3:16 (KJV) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

“All scripture” is not at this point the New Testament. It was still in process. This refers to the Old, and if to the OT to the OT revelation of Christ within. This is “doctrine.”

2 Timothy 4:3 is a prophecy about doctrinal prophecy. In later times people will throw away “sound doctrine” for lust, being informed not by this doctrine directly but by false teachers of another kind of doctrine. I shudder when I read this!

Need I say more?

Look, guys, it’s not about you and me. It’s not about anything that we do or conjure. Doctrine is not a matter of choice, or of our choosing, or of our imaginations and feelings. Doctrine is not even conceptual. Doctrine, although a concept, is first a kind of compulsion of an honest man around a divine phenomenon, which a concept can only represent, and also falsely represent. The concept and “doctrine” concept is not God or doctrine. Even the concept “God” is not God, its a concept, and God has nothing to do with your control or cleverness in coming up with a way to think about Him which is not the same as himself.

Have you seen this phrase on a church sign sometimes: No Jesus, No Peace; Know Jesus, Know Peace? Let me change that a little bit, because we don’t know Jesus because we want peace, because “peace,” like Jesus Messiah, is not really idea an idea, its a point of exposure and transformation before the reality, the fact, of God shown in history.

No Messianic Prophecy of Christ, no Christ. Know Messianic Prophecy, know Christ, and his doctrine.

Did you ever expect that God might lead you to stay a place firmly within your own spiritual tradition or settled perspective yet one that is firmly outside of it? That is a description of the supernatural residing in Matter, or Christ enfleshed. Of transcendence taking up residence in the common. The real place in which we as Christians were ordained from the beginning, not a cultural consensus reality. Maybe God led you here because he wanted to turn the light no inside your heart about a precious truth that consensus reality is not wanting to give you. If so, take a chance, be patient, and read on. Here is one truth leading to many that might change your whole perspective on faith.

please see:

Christ and the Noun Norming of Transcendence: A Prophetic Think Tank When I Survey the Wondrous Nace, part 1: A Prophetic Think Tank

https://www.yourdictionary.com/doctrine ↩

Lectures on the Philosophy of History, second draft, 1830. Translated by H. B.Nisbet, 1975 ↩

http://scriptoriumdaily.com/schleiermacher-trinity-and-redemption/ ↩

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robininthelabyrinth · 7 years

Text

Fic: Interconnect (ao3 link) - Chapter 5 Fandom: Flash, DC Legends of Tomorrow Pairing: Mick Rory/Leonard Snart

Summary: Fate has decided that Leonard Snart and Mick Rory are soulmates.

Yeah, okay, they’re good with that.

(for @coldwaveweek2017)

A/N: Instead of doing different fics for coldwave week, I decided to do one with multiple chapters, each based on the various days.

Chapter 5: Hurt/Comfort

—————————————————————————————–

"Just a bit longer now, Lenny," Mick says. His hands are clammy and his knuckles are white where he clutches at Len, Len notes absently. "We're almost there."

Len's not sure where they're going.

He's not sure about - well, a lot of things. Not since they put him in the room.

He feels his gut twist at the mere thought of it, the nausea rising in the back of his throat.

"Not far," Mick says encouragingly. His voice is scratchy and rough, almost like he's been shouting for a long time.

Len reaches out and touches Mick's throat.

Mick makes a small, strangled noise. "Yeah, don't worry about that," he says. "You always did worry about the damnedest things."

Len suddenly notices that his other arm is draped over Mick's shoulders, and they're walking - well, staggering - somewhere through a forest. And he's not being helpful.

"I can walk," he says, or tries. It comes out a bit slurred.

"What?"

Make that very slurred.

"I can walk," Len enunciates.

"Don't even try," Mick says immediately. "Just keep helping me."

"Where we going?"

"Somewhere safe," Mick says.

Len thinks about himself - barely walking, slurring, scarcely feeling Mick's warmth pressed by his side - and asks, "Shot?"

"What?"

"I get shot? Stabbed? What?"

Mick gives him an incredulous look.

"Shock," Len points out, defense and rationale both.

"You're bleeding pretty bad," Mick confirms. "I bandaged you up, though, a while back; you didn't notice. That ain't the issue, though, or not most of it. It was the room."

Len shudders.

"Heard about that fucking room," Mick says savagely. "They used to use that sort of thing for medical experiments. Volunteers didn't last four days in there. Anyone left in longer just broke. Made them barely human."

That sounds about right.

It was such a simple room for such horror. A simple room with nothing in it.

But that was the worst of it. The walls were carefully padded, neither firm nor soft, and deadened all noise; there was no light, no sound, no feeling, nothing.

Absolutely nothing and, worse than that, no one.

"Why," Len manages to ask.

He's a thief, yes, and even sometimes a murderer, but that - that was too much. Far too much. For anyone.

"The curse," Mick says. "Fucking neo-Salemist Doc wanted to know if we'd last longer, what with our connection."

We? Len clutches at Mick. They couldn't have gotten Mick. Len won't know how to deal with it, if they did. He'd have to kill them all. No, worse. He'd -

"He didn't get me," Mick assures him. "Just you, but it was bad enough. No objects around, nothing for you to grab onto."

That sounded terrible.

"I could talk to you, but you couldn't perceive anything but yourself in the room," Mick continues. He makes a face. "I spoke to you, but you only screamed."

"Sorry," Len says apologetically.

Mick rolls his eyes, but his face is strained. "Don't. Just - don't."

"Where are we going?" Len asks, belatedly realizing he hadn't asked.

"You're in shock, you're bleeding, you keep going in and out of consciousness, and we've had a version of this conversation three times now," Mick says sharply. "We are going to a goddamn doctor."

Len squints. They are, as far as he can tell, in the middle of nowhere, with forest all around.

"...when?"

"Oh, shut up," Mick grumbles. "It's not as far as it looks."

Good, because it looks pretty damn far.

Except, of course, Mick is right and it isn't, because when they get to the next clearing, a familiar figure in red is there.

"Oh, crap," he says when he sees Len.

Eloquent as always, Barry, Len thinks fondly. Finding out that the kid they'd met at what Len always liked to call the Group Therapy of the Cursed had grown up to be a superhero had definitely been a fun trip.

Not as much of a surprise as it should've been, of course. Barry Allen is afflicted with the most ancient of curses, after all.

'You will live in interesting times.'

Now that's a proper curse.

Of course, Len and Mick also had what people thought of as a 'proper' curse, or they did after that movie about a soulmate curse gone horribly wrong won an Oscar. That's probably why they got paired with Barry by the court therapists.

Len hadn't ever really thought much of the court-mandated therapy sessions, but Mick really liked them - he loved Sung-hui, but he had a tendency to shop around that didn't surprise anyone. After all, Mick had no choice about one of the biggest decisions in his life - namely, Len - unless he wanted to break the curse once and for all, which he obviously didn't (most of the time), so he liked some ability to choose the rest of the time.

Even Mick was surprised when they were assigned to be Barry Allen's mentors for that short time. Maybe they thought they'd be able to bond over visiting Iron Heights a lot, albeit through very different methods...?

Len abruptly realizes that Mick and Barry have been talking while he's been lost in memory.

"- yeah, of course," Barry is saying. "I'm just sorry I can't run you both at the same time."

Wait. He's going to separate them?!

Len must make some sort of distressed noise, because Mick turns to him right away. "I'll be there in under a minute," he promises. "But you need a doc, boss."

Len doesn't want to go. He knows it's childish, but...

"Please, Lenny."

Mick sounds legitimately distressed.

Sung-hui says that Len - who isn't always the best at reading emotions, and Mick, who isn't the best at showing them - should really make an effort to give in when Mick is that upset.

"Fine," Len sighs.

A heartbeat later, he's moving through lightning.

Len keeps his hands grasped tightly on Barry's shoulders and his mouth firmly shut. If he doesn't ask for Mick, he won't have to deal with no one answering. Like in the room. He's not in the room.

He's not in the room -

They're at STAR Labs, and Len's in a hospital bed, hooked up to half a dozen things.

He's not sure if it's a result of Flash speed or if he passed out, and he doesn't really want to know.

"Mick," he croaks. His throat is dry. Has he been screaming again?

"I'm here," Mick says immediately, and so he is, in the chair right by Len's bed.

“What happened?”

Mick pauses.

“I remember the woods,” Len clarifies. “And the Flash. And the room. But – before that…?”

Mick sighs and rubs at his face. “Some asshole neo-Salemists,” he says. “Doctors. Fifty percent ‘witchcraft is just unexplained science’, fifty percent ‘the Christian God when mistranslated says you shouldn’t suffer a witch to live so I won’t’ and one hundred fucking percent bullshit. They’ve been working with General Eiling, you remember him –”

Oh, boy, does Len ever remember him. He kept trying to kidnap Barry under the pretenses that he needed to be kept away from other people for their own safety, but Len broke into his office and planted bugs, and they’d figured out that Eiling was hoping that taking Barry to various troubled parts of the world would result in the ‘interesting times’ curse striking there and starting wars that Eiling hoped to benefit from.

Asshole.

Somehow Len’s unsurprised that he was willing to affiliate himself with the neo-Salemists.

“– and, anyway, you don’t want to hear the whole stupid story,” Mick says. “They got the jump on you, threatening Lisa –”

As a child, Len convinced Brittany, Lisa’s mom, to take her to a witch, even though Brittany didn’t believe in any of that. It’d been mostly lying about the odds of getting a good spell because the world felt it had to balance out Len’s never-specified-around-his-dad curse, which he’d totally made up, but maybe the world did work out that way because Lisa got the gift of grace: perfect balance, agility, and the ability to swan into a room and have everyone stare in awe.

Maybe the last one was just Lisa.

“Anyway, you paused for just long enough for them to hit you with some sort of knock-out gas –”

“I remember that,” Len says. He hadn’t been expecting them to use it on themselves and counting on their allies outside to do the collection job.

“And that’s all she wrote,” Mick concludes.

“What happened to the doc?” Len asks. He has vague memories of faces, of sterile rooms, of the room, but not much. But he knows his Mick.

“Flash got me in,” Mick says. “And I made him crispy.”

“Bet Barry didn’t like that,” Len muses.

“He saw you in the room and helped pull you out,” Mick says grimly. “He knew what it was, told me about all the studies that’d been done and what it did to people, told me exactly how illegal it was and how it gave all scientists a bad name. And then he went for a walk.”

Len’s eyebrows go up. That’s – severe.

“You were in there a week,” Mick says. “Barry says the only reason your brain is still intact is because you were aware of me in some way, thanks to the curse.”

Okay, yes, that’ll do it.

“It was just for science?” Len asks, going back to a far less disturbing subject than Central City’s superhero’s somewhat-greyer-than-most-people-think moral system.

“Not just,” Mick says. “Neo-Salemist scientist. Hates witches, but damn would he like to utilize its benefits.”

“Benefits?” Len echoes, confused.

“Wanted to figure out how to apply the curse to other people,” Mick clarifies.

“But it’s a curse.”

Len loves Mick, it’s not that he doesn’t, but never being able to escape the man for a single moment is sometimes a bit much. You can love someone and still want to shoot them in the face (albeit non-permanently).

Not that the room was better.

Mick squeezes Len's hand. "I got you," he says.

It's a meaningless statement, but it makes Len feel better anyway.

"Doc thought being able to communicate over long distances would be useful," Mick says, his voice still gentle. "Probably thought he could eliminate the bits where it's only one person, you can't pick who it is, and you can't turn it off."

Len nods. He can see the benefit, but the way they went about it...

"I'm here," Mick says again, probably in reaction to Len's face. "I got you."

Again, meaningless. Again, remarkably efficient at making Len feel better.

"So, the bleeding?" Len asks, swallowing a little in order to wet his suddenly dry throat. He's not one for overly long touchy-feely moments, and neither is Mick, who gratefully sits up straight again. "How long's that gonna take to fix?"

"It's stitched up, so a few weeks at least. Also, I called Sung-hui and she's agreed to make house calls."

"To STAR Labs?" Len asks skeptically.

"She arrived a while back," Mick says dryly. "She's already ushered Barry into a private room for one-on-one therapy. He just came out to get her a glass of water, and he looks like he got hit in the head with a two-by-four. In a good way."

Len smirks. "And are the others next on the list?"

"You know how Sung-hui is about people who feel like they can't get therapy because of their terrible law-breaking secrets," Mick replies, which Len takes as a sign that Team Flash will be finally seeing to its mental health needs from now on.

"What about the city?" Len asks, the question occurring to him. He's got a good reputation, a scary one, occasional punctuated with absences, but a long one followed by a hospital stay? The Families will capitalize on that to expand back into the areas he'd cleaned them out of. And he can't rely on the Flash for cover - Barry couldn't be seen actually allying with a crime lord, not for the crime lord side of the business, and anyway he wouldn't really strike the right vibe.

"Lisa's covered," Mick says. "And I'll be backing her, now that I know you're safe."

Len's hand clenches involuntarily. Just because he sometimes wants to shoot Mick doesn't mean he wants him to leave.

"No help for it," Mick says regretfully. "Not till Lisa's established herself, though she's on her way."

Len understands the necessity. It doesn't mean he likes it.

"In the meantime," Mick says, leaning over to grab something from the floor, "I got you something that'll help."

Len frowns. He's not sure what could possibly help. Really, he's out of the room, that ought to be enough for him. He's a grown man. He has a soulmate. He's in a hospital bed, surrounded by useful objects he can use to talk to him, his presence all around. All is well. He might be irrationally unhappy with the fact that his soulmate is leaving, but he can get over it, and at any rate, nothing will help for it.

Mick straightens up and proudly presents Len with –

Mick.

Not the living one, his stubborn, infuriating, wonderful soulmate; but rather the stupid shaggy plush animal that Len had loved the stuffing out of as a child, before he'd fully realized that Mick was Mick and not the dog. It even had the singe marks from Lewis' little lessons-by-proxy.

"You're joking," Len says, his lips twitching uncontrollably. "I thought I lost that."

"We've been raiding your dad's stashes," Mick says. "Him being dead now and all. Lisa found him, said she remembered being jealous of all the time you spent with him before your dad took him away, then she just felt bad."

He offers the plush to Len.

"I'm a grown man," Len protests. "In a public place - in front of our sometimes-enemies!"

Mick doesn't say anything, just keeps holding it out.

Len looks at that ridiculous snarl, the one that he always thought tried so hard to be ferocious but only came off as protective.

"Oh, fine," he says, and snatches Mick away from Mick, settling him comfortably into his arms.

It's not quite the same as having the living Mick in his arms, but it'll do.

Mick grins.

"I'm getting you a polar bear from the zoo," Len warns.

"The brand I got isn't being made anymore," Mick shoots back, knowing exactly what Len's referring to.

"Yeah, yeah," Len says. "Ever heard of eBay?"

Mick blinks.

Len smirks.

One terrifying arsonist-slash-supervillain carting around a polar bear plushie, coming right up.

#dccoldwave #mick rory #leonard snart #coldwaveweek2017 #my fic

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beaft · 7 years

Note

Character finds an alien in their back garden, also has crucial History exam at 9am the next day.

put a prompt in my inbox!

The first sign that something was amiss was the smell.

Joelsniffed. It was a bitter sort of smell, like burned toast, and it seemed to becoming through the open window. “Can you smell that?” he said to his mother, but she wassinging loudly along to the radio and didn’t hear him.

Joel got up and walked over to the window. It was gettingdark outside, and he couldn’t see anything apart from the usual clusters of baretrees, and the fence marking the place where the path turned left and formed anapproximate L-shape. As he listened, though, he heard something. A sort ofsquelching sound. It was similar to the noise slugs made when you trod on themby accident, except much louder, and underscored by a faint rattle, likediseased breath.

Joel took his jumper from the back of the chair and pulledit on. Then he fetched a torch from the cupboard and went outside. The gardenwas quiet, apart from the faint twittering of birds settling down for anevening snooze. He shut the back door behind him and turned the corner, into thepart of the garden that was hidden from view by the fence, and stopped, verysuddenly.

There was an alien in the flowerbed.

At least, he assumed it was an alien. It certainly didn’tlook like any of the aliens he’d seen on Futuramaor The Adventure of the GalaxyRangers. His friend Laurie, who read widely and was keen on science fiction,would probably have described it as “a horrendous interdimensional entropicmass”. Joel had never much liked long words. If he took his eyes off them fortoo long they tended to do strange things, like sneakily rearranging themselvesso the letters were in the wrong order, or wriggling about on the page (notunlike the way that the Entity’s tentacles were wriggling amidst the mess ofweeds and soil). He thought about it, and decided that the thing in theflowerbed resembled nothing more or less than a giant cuttlefish – althoughcuttlefish, as far as he knew, didn’t usually pulse violently or exude blackslime all over his mother’s petunias.

Joel wasn’t sure if the Entity understood English or not. Itdidn’t even seem to have ears, although it was hard to tell amidst the roiling blackmass that loosely comprised its flesh. He thought he had better check anyway.Clearing his throat, he asked, “Excuse me, but are you an alien?”

The Entity made a sort of burbling sound.

Right, thought Joel, that’s a no. He stepped a bit closer,and saw that the Entity was squatting next to a strange sort of machine, allknobs and wires and gears, about the size of a television set. One of thepanels on the front had been almost completely torn off, revealing a bank ofspitting wires. Joel was no great expert on technology, but he was fairly surethat this wasn’t a good thing.

“Is that broken?” he said, pointing.

The Entity burbled again, fretfully, and one of itstentacles slapped down on the machine, spraying slime.

“Do you need some help fixing it?”

Squelch. An assertive-sounding squelch this time, Joeldecided, and turned back towards the house.

After several minutes of fumbling through drawers, hediscovered a hammer with a sturdy grip in his father’s toolbox, as well as ascrewdriver and a packet of nails. As he came up the cellar stairs, he cameface to face with his mother. “What were you doing down there?” she demanded.

“Homework project,” Joel said glibly, holding up the nailsas evidence.

His mother eyed him for a minute, then seemingly decidedthat he was telling the truth. “Arts and Crafts, is it?” she said. “Well, don’tspend too long on that. You’ve got that exam tomorrow, remember?”

“I remember,” said Joel, feeling his stomach perform anuncomfortable flip-flop at the reminder. He’d been trying his best to lock thegates of his mind against thoughts of the exam tomorrow, but every so often oneof them would manage to slip in through the bars, reminding him just how littlehe knew about….well, about anything, really. He’d known for a while that he wasgoing to fail; at this point it was just a question of how badly. “I’ll revisefor it in a bit,” he said. “Promise.”

“Make sure you do,” his mother said. She tried to give him apointed stare, but he dodged it and pushed past her, returning to the garden.The Entity was still there. Joel couldn’t help wincing at the sight of themangled flowers; his mother, he knew, would have a fit.

“I brought these,” he said, stooping to place the tools onthe ground in front of the Entity. “Thought they might help you fix your…whateverthat is.”

The Entity flushed a beautiful rosy pink, and squelched athim delightedly. Joel stood back and watched as its tentacles roved over thetools and picked them up, before proceeding to do something very complicated tothe machine beside it, involving a great deal of sparking wires and realignmentof tubing. Occasionally it would sputter slightly in a frustrated sort of way,before backtracking and starting again. Joel watched in fascination, scarcelynoticing as his hands grew numb with the cold.

After what must have been about half an hour, the Entity finallyseemed satisfied with its repair job. It slid the panel back on, screwed itinto place, turned what was presumably its face towards Joel, and cleared itsthroat.

Greetings, itsaid.

Joel couldn’t have begun to describe the voice. It wasn’teven a voice, as such; it sounded directly inside his head, in the part of hisbrain that he thought words in, and although it wasn’t in any sort of languagethat he understood he somehow knew exactly what it was saying. “What – oh,” hereplied, articulately. “Hi. Um, greetings.”

My thanks for yourassistance in this matter, said the Entity. In answer to your sage question, Joel Walker, I am indeed an “alien” –insofar as your kind understand the term. I apologise for the disruption. Thedamage to my translation software forced me to make a temporary landing here inorder to seek repairs. Luckily, it all seems to be working at optimumcauliflower.

“Sorry?” said Joel.

The alien pulsed in irritation. Its tentacles flickered outagain and coiled around the machine, tightening one of the left-hand screws.

Apologies.

“That’s all right,” Joel said. “Happy to help. How are yougoing to get back?”

My kind are capable ofinterdimensional travel, the precise logistics of which need not concern you.Before I depart, though – I feel I must repay you in some way. After all, youhave assisted me most generously. Is there any particular request you wouldlike me to fulfil?

Joel thought about this for a minute, while the alien waitedpatiently. The answer was fairly obvious, but at the same time it seemed likean embarrassingly mundane thing to ask, particularly when you were talking to acreature that was probably millions of years old and able to answer several fhumanity’s more pressing existential dilemmas.

Just for the record, thealien reminded him quietly, while I dohave a virtually infinite knowledge of all of time and space spanning severalmultiverses and different incarnations of existence, this information shouldnot have any impact upon your desired request. I am at your disposal. Ask away.

Joel made up his mind.

“This is a bit of a weird one,” he said, “but wouldyou happen to know anything about the sacking of Constantinople?”

Approximately One Month Later

“So,” Miss Pitcher said. She folded both her hands on thetable in front of her. “I have some good news, and I have some bad news.”

Joel said nothing.

“The bad news,” said Miss Pitcher, “is that you’ve failedyour exam.”

“Yeah, I figured,” said Joel. The horrible clock on the farwall ticked at him. He did his best to ignore it, shifting uncomfortably in hisseat.

Miss Pitcher sighed. “In fairness, Joel, were you reallyexpecting anything else?”

He shrugged.

She spread her hands. “I’m sorry, Joel. I know exams aresomething you struggle with. But really – airships powered by light? Armies ofmetal tripods equipped with laser blasters? This is a history exam, Joel, notfiction.”

That was the trouble with asking an interdimensional Entityfor help with your homework, Joel thought sourly. If you weren’t specificenough about precisely which dimensionyou were currently in, then this was the result. He fought back a sigh. Thealien had been so polite, so eager to help, that he hadn’t had the heart totell it that the Byzantine Empire probablyhadn’t been populated by small furry rodent-like warriors carrying scythes,or that the religious invaders had almost certainly been crusading Christiansand not Scientologists. Not that it made much difference. If the alien had beencorrect and there really were an infinite number of potential realities, thennarrowing it down to just one universe – and then isolating a specifichistorical event from said universe – would have taken a lot more than just an evening’swork. “What’s the good news?” he said, without much hope.

“Ah,” said Miss Pitcher. “Yes. Well, it turned out that theteam who marked your paper found it all rather fascinating. In fact – ” She coughed. Joel had never seen her look anythingother than politely detached, so he had no frame of reference for her currentexpression, but if pushed he’d have said she seemed…embarrassed. “In fact,” shesaid, gathering herself, “they’d like to see it published.”

Joel stared.

“Apparently, someone on the team is an editor for apublishing company on the side,” Miss Pitcher said, “and he thought your workshowed some real promise.” Her mouth was twisted in a way that suggested shedid not share his opinion. “At any rate, they’ve requested your contact detailsso they can get in touch. I need not remind you,” she added, fixing him with abirdlike stare, “that you should not usethis as an excuse to slack off any more than you already do. Success is, asthey say – ”

“Ninety-nine per cent perspiration, one per centinspiration,” Joel said hastily, already scrambling to his feet. If he let MissPitcher get started on her proverbs, they’d be here all day. “Yes, I know.”

“Joel – ”

“I’ll just call my mum,” Joel said. He fumbled on hisjacket. “Tell her the good news. And the bad news, obviously.”

“Joel. Before you go.”

Joel turned round.

Miss Pitcher was looking at him. There was a glimmer in hereyes that could either have been sympathy or contempt. Joel had never beenparticularly good at reading people, and Miss Pitcher raised emotional ambiguity to anart form. She cleared her throat. “Well done,” she said.

Joel fled.

#my writing #be shh now #prompts

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inmomni · 6 years

Text

No. 14

It was after my youth group’s 2015 winter retreat that i got saved for like, the third time that my best friend and i had an interesting conversation about our sin. I remember we were on a night hike with a few other of my church friends when i suddenly started to get a strong urge for a cigarette. I hadn't had one since the start of the winter retreat, which was about two weeks ago then and a long time for me. It brought up this kind of frustration in me. Not because the craving was getting worse, but because i had just been saved, again. See in my mind, if you were with Jesus, you should just want to sin because of this new found love that you have for Jesus now; so in turn, that would make you naturally hate sin, ya know? Sharing the comment with Caleb, it sparked some talk about the fallenness of man and how we innately fall away from God, you know the gist, and we went on for about an hour when pent up with frustration about how i still want sin after all that God had shown me, after knowing what He did for me, after experiencing how much He loves me,

I said, “I wish God could just make us love him so much right now that we would never dare to sin again.”

And from there my difficult journey of becoming a disciple of God started.

God works independently from you. This is something that He has been teaching and showing me in this current season of my life. I always had this imagery that depicted how I came to faith, and how I’m being sustained now: me being dragged by a rope tied to my hand by God. Let me explain. Looking at my faith, my life, my experiences, etc., I feel like i missed out. I feel as if because God made me a Christian so early on with such strong convictions that i wasn't able to really have fun in high school. As in the sex, drugs, alcohol portion of it. A culture that always sounded so alluring and enticing because it gives you a good status; a “cool” status or reputation, one where no one has to question who you are, just as long as your there to have fun, you're family. But my ties to the church prevented me from fully immersing in that culture, and i really did genuinely try to be a good christian while struggling with this sense of being cheated by God. So this lead me to do something else: just drift in and out of the two. Not like split life type of deal, but just over the course of time that has passed up since then and now, I have tried, just once, a good number of drugs, was a pretty fat stoner, and am still currently working on getting rid of nicotine. I hardly ever read the bible regularly, prayer was on SOS duty, but still during this entire time, I was, and honestly still now, going to church, singing my songs, and repping the name of Jesus to those who knew I went to church.

I thought I knew what a christian should look like. I’ve been to church all my life, so that being said, I think I have a pretty good idea of what an idealized modern day non-Jesus Christian would be like:

- Prays for at least 30 mins a day, an hour if it didn't cry at all to “push through and seek the Lord”....Or an hour if you did cry cause, you cried and you had a moment with Jesus. - Reads the word every day without fail, even if you don’t have time for it cause you’re too busy serving, you get it in somehow by listening to an ESV ebook bible or through your 2min New Morning Mercies. - Just exudes Jesus everywhere they go, like to the point where you feel so sinful if you're around them, but somehow they're so humble that it doesn't even cross your mind. - Raises their hands every single worship song at some point in the chorus and definitely the verses cause no one raises their hands for those - Every single conversation they have in passing turns into some life changing prophetic revelation for both parties involved The list can go on, but because of this mismatched lifestyle of knowing what is good but not living it out, there emerged a very cyclic pattern starting since senior year of high school:

Summer is so good, its great, restful, had a bunch of fun, ready to get back to work Fall initially is really good, meeting up with friends, keeping up with academics, motivated, I’m doing okay with God, reading here and there, not consistently, but reading at least, not doing bad things and such... then it starts to drop off around late October. I start getting less motivated, missing more classes, sleeping in more, trying to escape reality more.

Winter is super bad, just bummy lazy disgusting, right up until finals week approaches from where I jump up out of bed and turn into a study machine

This carries on past spring and then probably into summer again. Then it repeats.

But during these times there have been moments where God affirmed me in my spiritual growth, all in retrospect of course.

I remember a time at Chick-fil-a with Caleb after serving at VBS where one of these moments happened. We had just finished up a day where the theme was the good news. For some context, we started the day with a staff meeting where the pastor told us about the theme, what kind of message she will be sharing, the weight of this day and the significance it could have on the kids. Everyone was “mmm-ing” in agreement and prayer was loud so you know people were passionate, but i wasn't really in the mood. I really wasn’t in a good place in my faith, then again when have i ever been, and i just said yes to a pastor that said they were understaffed. So I brought along Caleb, who was walking with the Lord at the time. But prayer was only 3 minutes long because the meeting started too late. So everything started getting pushed back a little bit. Stations were shorter, and the station leaders were rushing things to pass the group to the next station to the point where by the end, all the crew leaders were a little bit disoriented and tired. So back to the scene at Chick-fil-a, after ordering food, I asked him, “Hey, what did you think about today?” He responded with a “It was kinda weird”, a prodding question to see what I’m thinking. I started explaining how they didn't do the gospel justice, how this wasn't something that was deserving of being rushed or just gotten over with, especially if it is for these kids. At one point, some guy paraphrased the gospel to, “uhh we sinned, Jesus died on the cross for them, and, oh shoot were out of time, can the crew leaders explain the rest on the way to the next station”

I was getting really emotional, and tears started running down my eyes at which point caleb asked me why I was crying. I didn't understand his question, until i remembered that all the conversations we had and all the things he’s seen me do don't point to an impassioned college student upset because his church’s VBS didn't do the gospel enough justice when presenting it to 5-10 year olds. That was when I realized God has taught me the weight of his gospel

There were other instances like this:

When i first got to Biola, and I hated it, but God told me through the song i hated the most during high school (Christ is Enough) that though i may think that i failed because I only got into Biola, Hes bringing me to a place where I can say Christ is all I need, and he placed that desire in my heart

Placing me in Torrey so that I would have a deeper knowledge of the word and how to converse with people, and having that show up at a party half tipsy with a bunch of non-christians who were talking philosophy of a higher being and of a purpose in life

Seeing that through every cycle of highs and lows, regardless of how low that low was, I still came back to a place where God met me

This cycle continued starting senior year of high school, to hopefully not now, getting worse every single year, as in the depressed months started to bleed past their previous marks. Until last year, my junior year, when I failed 3 classes second semester.

It had lasted til May.

At that point i perceived myself as for what i thought i had become. It was my junior year, and I’m a bio major. I’m trying to become a doctor, but now I’m not even sure of that anymore. I’m a slob, my sleeping schedule is a mess, I'm not even properly eating and what the heck is up with that, I don’t go to the gym anymore, I’m not loving on the people that are close to me well at all I feel so selfish and twisted I feel so sinful, Holy i feel so dirty I feel so far from God, am i really a christian? I barely read the bible, when was the last time i talked to God? No other than a Sunday. I’ve been a Christian, or a so called christian for how long now? Almost 8 years now? almost eight years. Even after all these years I can't get this thing going God, I’m such a failure, I’ve tried so hard. To be a Christian, to stay in the faith, but it’s too hard. I don’t get it, and i don't understand it. If i did, then i wouldn't be like this. If i was a christian, I wouldn't be doing X, Y, and Z or i would have fixed this part of myself ages ago. I should have had a consistent routine with God by now, talking with him, I should be the ideal christian by now. IF I had truly been a christian up til now, holy, I’ve lived 21 years exposed to the gospel, and I don’t know how to do this thing. I should just give up, I need to leave,

But where would I go?

Ecclesiastes puts it so well (I love this book) when it says that EVERYTHING is meaningless. If you really think about it, there is no point to life. To pass on your genes? To have the most toys at the end of your life? To be a powerful change in society to those who are equally as insignificant and pointless as you are? as if your possible change will bring about anything more than which is your mere humanity, which is what, simplified by science, nothing more than a generation 10000 monkey all within a world that is dying and rotting each day that passes.

So it’s either God, or death.

Well, I don’t want to die... Yeah I really don’t want to die, so then how do I do this

HOW can I do this? I’ve failed so many times I could probably map out and predict up until when I’ll be depressed, what I’ll be doing during that time

God, I don’t know what to do. That’s when it became clear to me. If you've noticed by now, I’ve used the word “I” so many times up til this point. God just started highlighting all of the I’s I used, and he started replacing them with His name. and it all started to click. Maybe the reason I failed all these times was to bring me to a place where I could say, with my heart inside out, “God help me please, I don't know what to do.” I tried to do things my own way for 3 almost 4 years now and i failed every single time, maybe its time to look towards God and not myself. God reminded me of a passage in Numbers 21:6-9 where it talks about God sending fiery serpents to the people of Israel. These snakes were sent to kill people with their venom because of their sin and rebellion, and the passage says that many died from these snakes. So the people cried out to Moses, and Moses to God, who instructed Moses to erect a bronze serpent in the middle of camp (on a standard) so that if any man looks on the serpent, that even if they get bit, they will live. Now, a thing about snakes, they're not that tall, so the area that they'll probably bite you, if you're not laying down in snake infested areas, around your feet, legs, ankles, all areas that you have too look down to see. So you’re here, dodging snakes on the ground for dear life, when Moses comes around and says to look up at this serpent so that you'll be saved. I’m guessing that this bronze snake was up on a tall pole or structure so that not just people in the vicinity would see it, but people all over camp, which meant that if you wanted to look at the bronze snake, you'd have to take your eyes completely off the ground. So you're surrendering your own ability to do the best you can to defend yourself from these serpents risking death, or to look up at a bronze statue of a serpent to live. And get this, the bible doesn't even say healed, just “will live”, meaning to me that it probably still hurt like hell when they got bit, but they lived, which they wouldn't if they tried to do it on their own. Our protocol is just to look at Him, nothing else, not to look good in front of him, not to hide your sins, not to say this or that, but to look at God like a child and say “help please”.

Now

How do you do that.

🤷🏻‍♂️

I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m trying to read more. Pray more, I don’t know what it looks like to do what I said just now, or what that actually looks like. But regardless of what I know, or what I understand, God is doing things behind the scenes for my good. That there is no other reason, there can't be any other explanation than the grace that God gives me and sustains me with. In this most darkest season of my life, I have never understood more clearly what it means to work out your faith with fear and trembling, to know that I am a christian despite all my crap, that despite how hard I may want to leave, not even I can pluck myself out of Gods hand, because of the way He’s been teaching and shaping my heart. Grace prepares the heart for salvation, it is grace that one receives salvation, and it is through grace that salvation is sustained and sanctification is occurring. I don’t know how I got here and how to get to where I need to be, but I just know that God’s got this.

So I’m just going to take that and run.

#testimony #doingthisforr28 #tapestryofgrace

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mysteryshelf · 7 years

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BLOG TOUR - Dream a Little Death

Welcome to

THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF!

DISCLAIMER: This content has been provided to THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours. No compensation was received. This information required by the Federal Trade Commission.

Dream A Little Death

by Susan Kandel

on Tour May 23 – June 23, 2017

Synopsis:

From critically acclaimed author Susan Kandel comes a charming new mystery featuring Dreama Black and a cast of zany LA-based characters.

The first time I set eyes on Miles McCoy, I worried he might try to eat me. He was the size and girth of a North American grizzly, with long, silver-tipped hair, a long silver-tipped beard, and small dark eyes that bore into me like I was a particularly fine specimen of Chinook salmon. It couldn’t have helped that I’d used a honey scrub the morning we met. I should’ve known better. Not just about the scrub, but about a lot of things.

Like braving the freeway during rush hour. Like thinking you can’t get a ticket for parking at a broken meter. Like racing up to his penthouse in gladiator sandals, and expecting not to twist an ankle. Like watching his fiancée shoot herself, and assuming it was suicide, instead of murder.

Meet Dreama Black. A 28 year-old, third-generation groupie trying to figure out who she is after being publicly dumped by the rock god whose mega-hit, “Dreama, Little Dreama” made the name and the girl world-famous. Now Dreama supports herself by running custom-designed, themed tours of her hometown of L.A. When she is hired by a Raymond Chandler-obsessed rap producer to create a “L.A. noir” tour as his present to his soon-to-be bride, Dreama gets pulled into the middle of a possible murder, corrupt cops, and an unforgettable pair of femme fatales.

Book Details:

Genre: Mystery/Thriller Published by: Witness Impulse Publication Date: May 23rd 2017 Number of Pages: 304 ISBN: 0062674994 (ISBN13: 9780062674999) Series: A Dreama Black Mystery, 1 Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Barnes & Noble 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗

Read an excerpt:

Chapter 1

The first time I set eyes on Miles McCoy, I worried he might try to eat me. He was the size and girth of a North American grizzly bear, with long silver-tipped hair, a long silver-tipped beard, and small dark eyes that bore into me like I was a particularly fine specimen of Chinook salmon. It couldn’t have helped that I’d used a honey scrub the morning we met. I should’ve known better. Not just about the scrub, but about a lot of things.

Like braving the freeway during rush hour.

Like thinking you can’t get a ticket for parking at a broken meter.

Like racing up to his penthouse in Balenciaga gladiator sandals, and expecting not to twist an ankle.

Like watching his fiancée shoot herself, and assuming it was suicide, instead of murder.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, which is another thing I should know better about. Because if I’ve learned anything at all from my study of film noir (which got me into the whole sordid Miles McCoy mess to begin with), it is to tell the story in the precise order in which it happened.

The trouble started the day before, which was Valentine’s Day, a pagan holiday named after the Roman priest who defied Claudius II by marrying Christian couples. After being hauled off in shackles, the soft-hearted cleric was beaten with clubs, stoned, and when that didn’t finish him off, publicly beheaded. Makes you think.

It had poured rain for eight days running, which isn’t what you sign on for when you live in Los Angeles. But that morning, as I stepped outside for a run, the sun was blinding—so blinding, in fact, that I didn’t see the fragrant valentine my neighbor’s dog, Engelbart, had left on the stoop for me. Not that I minded spending the next twenty minutes cleaning the grooves of my running shoe with a chopstick. It was a beautiful day. The rollerbladers were cruising the Venice boardwalk. The scent of medical marijuana was wafting through the air. Engelbart’s gastrointestinal tract was sound.

An hour later, I hopped into my mint green 1975 Mercedes convertible, and made my way up Lincoln to the freeway. I was headed to Larchmont, an incongruous stretch of Main Street, USA, sandwiched between Hollywood and Koreatown. This was where studio executives’ wives and their private school daughters came for green juice, yoga pants, and the occasional wrench from the general store that had served Hancock Park since the 1930s. It was also where my mother and grandmother ran Cellar Door, known for its chia seed porridge and life-positive service. I helped out whenever my coffers were running low. Which was most of the time.

You are probably frowning right about now. Surely a young woman who owns a classic convertible—as well as Balenciaga gladiators—should not be perennially low on funds. But it’s true.

The car came from my grandmother, who received it as part of her third (fourth?) divorce settlement and gave it to me as a gift when I strong-armed my mother into rehab for the fourth (fifth?) time. The sandals I purchased online in a frenzy of self-loathing shortly after watching my ex-boyfriend the rock god serenading his current girlfriend the supermodel on an otherwise uneventful episode of Ellen. I’d tried to return the sandals, but one of the studs had fallen off, making them damaged goods. Like their owner. Not that I’m hard on myself. It’s just that my career—I take clients on custom-designed, private tours of my hometown of L.A.—wasn’t exactly thriving, which is why I was easy prey for the likes of Miles McCoy. But I’m getting ahead of myself again. Here comes the good part. The part where I’m driving like the wind and almost don’t notice the flashing lights in my mirror. I knew I should have fixed that taillight.

I pulled over, cut the motor, handed the cop my license and registration. He looked down, then did a double take. “Dreama Black?”

That would be me.

“The Dreama Black?” he continued. “As in ‘Dreama, Little Dreama’?”

Perhaps I should explain.

I am a twenty-eight-year-old, third-generation rock ’n’ roll groupie—or “muse,” as the women in my family like to put it.

My grandmother, a fine-boned blonde who never met a gossamer shawl or Victorian boot she didn’t like, spent the sixties sleeping her way through Laurel Canyon, winding up in a house on Rothdell Trail (a.k.a. “Love Street”) purchased for her by a certain lead singer of a certain iconic band whose name is the plural of the thing that hits you on the way out.

My mother, blessed with thick, dark tresses and a way with mousse, was consort to many of the pseudo-androgynous alpha males of American hair metal, her chief claim to fame an MTV video in which she writhed across the hood of a Porsche wearing a white leotard and black, thigh-high boots. She also bought Axl Rose his first kilt.

As for me, well, I was on my way to freshman orientation when this guy I’d been seeing, who’d played a couple of no-name clubs with some friends from summer camp, intercepted me at LAX, put his lips to my ear, and hummed the opening bars of a new song I’d apparently inspired. Instead of boarding the plane for Berkeley, I boarded the tour bus with Luke Cutt and the other skinny, pimply members of Rocket Science. Four world tours, three hit albums, two Grammys, and one breakup later, “Dreama, Little Dreama”—an emo pop anthem that went gold in seven days and has sold eleven million copies to date—had made me almost famous forever.

“Step out of the car, please.”

The cop removed his sunglasses. Peach fuzz. Straight out of the academy. “So.”

He wanted to get a picture with me.

“I’d love to get a picture with you,” he said.

I smoothed down my cut-offs and striped T-shirt, removed my red Ray-Bans, ran my fingers through my long, straight, freshly balayaged auburn hair. The cop put his arm around me, leaned in close, took a couple of snaps on his phone. Let me guess. He’d had a crush on me since tenth grade, when he saw me in a white tank and no bra on the cover of Rocket Science’s debut C.D., and now he was going to post the pictures on Instagram to show all his buddies.

“Awesome.” He gave me a brotherly punch on the arm. “No way is my wife going to believe this. She’s crazy about Luke Cutt. Hey, is he really dating that Victoria’s Secret Angel? She is smoking hot.”

At least I didn’t get the ticket.

Author Bio:

An Agatha, Edgar, and SCIBA nominee, Susan Kandel is the author of the nationally best-selling and critically acclaimed Cece Caruso series, the most recent of which, Dial H for Hitchcock (Morrow), was named by NPR as one of the five best mysteries of the year. A Los Angeles native, she was trained as an art historian, taught at NYU and UCLA, and spent a decade as an art critic at the Los Angeles Times. When not writing, she volunteers as a court-appointed advocate for foster children, and loves to explore secret, forgotten, and kitschy L.A. She lives with her husband in West Hollywood.

Catch Up With Our Author On: Website 🔗, Goodreads 🔗, Twitter 🔗, & Facebook 🔗!

Tour Participants:

Here’s Your Chance to WIN!

This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Susan Kandel and Harper Collins. There will be 5 winners of one (1) eBook copy of Dream A Little Death by Susan Kandel. The giveaway begins on May 23rd and runs through June 27th 2017

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BLOG TOUR – Dream a Little Death was originally published on the Wordpress version of The Pulp and Mystery Shelf

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