#would have! especially one whos greatest fears revolve around being judged! but also. considering the weight of like

[suncaptor]

Xander really was nearly raped and killed by a monster who preyed upon him in the form of his adult teacher, was forced to act out horrible behaviours while being possessed, and routinely faces life or death circumstances as a 16yo, and his nightmares come to life are... a clown from a childhood party and being embarrassed in his boxers.

[joonie-beanie]

Meet my OM! MC - Bean

Yes, she’s a self-insert MC. But that’s why I’m playing the game so lemme live aljkdaksdl;

Also! Check out this commission of Bean by @/frujiko !

Name: Bean (June is her real name, but they refer to her as Bean most of the time)

Height: 5′8 (173cm)

Age: 23

Sexuality: Bi

Likes:

Sweet foods

Peace and quiet (w/optional soft music playing)

Food that involves noodles

Steak (medium-rare)

Easy-to-play video games (Mario Kart, Smash Bros, etc)

Reading/writing smut

Thunderstorms

Open communication

Dislikes:

Anyone who says that cats are demons

Hot weather

Nail polish (on herself)

Chihuahuas (w/Luke as an exception)

Confrontation

Sudden, loud noises

People who lack patience

Ocular headaches (she only wears glasses when she has one)

Relationships with the Demon Brothers:

Lucifer:

Thinks he’s the most beautiful man in existence.

Is immediately attracted to him at first glance.

However, she’s also intimated by him, so she never goes out of her way to make a statement of her affections.

Lucifer embodies pride, which is the sin Bean lacks most (especially with regards to self-image)--hence why she’s intimidated of him at times. Despite him being kind to her, she feels like he’s in a different league.

Therefore, Bean does her best to treat him normally--trying to be someone he can rely on, and be proud of. (She really loves making him proud).

Lucifer, of course, is aware of the little wall she puts up when around him. Like there are thoughts on her mind that she doesn’t want him to know.

He respects her distance, at first, but eventually attempts to figure out what it is that’s causing her to treat him more distantly than his brothers (yes, it bothers him).

Aside from Bean’s complicated feelings for him, she’s always reminding Lucifer to take care of himself, and asking if she can do anything to help out. 

Since she loves to relax, she hates seeing Lucifer so busy all the time, so if anything, she’ll bring him a meal, or come and ask if he wants someone to make conversation with while he works. (He appreciates her greatly for these little acts of kindness).

Also, once Lucifer finally makes her walls crumble and elicits her true feelings, their relationship becomes more physical (sharing skinship like with his brothers, etc). And she is ESPECIALLY flustered by any show of affection from him.

He tends to use her real name 90% of the time, which she doesn’t have a problem with. (It makes their relationship feel just a little bit more special).

Mammon:

Bean thinks his stupid tsundere ass is cute and annoying all at the same time.

She’ll bully him a little bit, but will always follow up with affection, because she doesn’t want him to take her little jabs to heart.

Since Bean loves the casino, they end up being gambling buddies.

Unlike Mammon, however, Bean knows when to stop. Lucifer only allows Mammon to go to the casino with her 1. Because it’s the Devildom and he doesn’t want Bean going alone, and 2. Bean had promised him that she would make sure Mammon stops gambling once he reaches the end of his prepared budget.

Mammon feels comfortable talking to Bean when he’s not feeling the greatest. Or, rather, there’s no talking, but just him holding onto her tightly, or laying in her lap while she pets his hair.

Bean enjoys all forms of skinship, so she’s more than happy to give him cuddles, hugs, etc. The only time she gets annoyed is when Mammon interrupts her while she’s busy, or gets too clingy.

Overall, the two get along fairly well.

Levi:

Bean loves Levi.

She relates to him in a lot of ways--including being an introvert, and enjoying anime and video games. So, she tries to befriend him.

After the whole TSL incident--once things get worked out--Levi finally allows her into his life, and they become close quite fast.

While she doesn’t understand half the shit he’s talking about sometimes, she listens to him and supports his interests nonetheless.

At least once a week, Levi demands that she come over for a game night. Once his brothers pick up on the trend, they start showing up as well (which peeves Levi sometimes because he just wants to spend time with Bean).

Don’t tell him, but every so often, Bean will message the brothers who tend to show up (Beel, Belphie, Mammon), and ask them to not come to game night since “Levi is having me help with a dungeon run and wants peace and quiet”.

....he has never said that to her, but she knows he wants to have some alone time, and so does she, so Bean doesn’t feel bad making up a little white lie.

Also, she absolutely loves giving him affection. She honestly can’t explain her need to kiss him on the cheek, or hug him for a solid 10 seconds, but it happens fairly often once their relationship gets better.

Maybe it’s the way he blushes, and slowly begins returning all of her shows of affection? Yeah, that might be it.

Satan:

Their relationship revolves around literature, love of cats, and late night discussions.

Bean and Satan see each other as someone they can have a solid, intellectual conversation with, so sometimes they’ll show up at each others doors with a bottle of wine, and a topic in mind, and will rally the conversation back and forth until they’re too tired, or tipsy, to keep going.

Bean misses her cats back up in the human world, so Satan makes a point of taking her to cat cafes, or sending her stupid cat videos on Deviltube whenever he finds one.

Bean isn’t into classic literature like Satan, but once the demon finds out she enjoys writing, he becomes entirely too curious as to what, and eventually (after Satan wears on her enough), she admits that she writes smut.

Satan becomes her unintentional beta-reader, once she shares a piece with him, and he actually gives her very constructive feedback.

He promises to keep her dirty secret (hah) from his brothers, if she sends him what she considers to be her best stories so far (because he honestly does enjoy her writing).

At the end of the day, the two have a comfortable, friendly relationship, and really value each other. Simple forms of skinship between the two come as natural as breathing air.

Asmo:

Asmo is absolutely the self-care force in Bean’s life that she both needs and fears.

Despite his self-centered nature, he’ll be damned if he allows Bean to leave the Devildom feeling anything but confident in herself.

And so, in spite of the fact that in the beginning, Bean wants to run away from Asmo, eventually he manages to become someone that she feels she can confide in. Especially when it comes to her body-image issues.

She feels like such a burden when she’s having a bad day, but Asmo is more than happy to be there for her--whether she asks or not--and she really appreciates him for that.

She’s also more than happy to be Asmo’s doll to dress up, put make-up on, etc. and he loves her for that. Of course, he loves to do those things to himself, but it’s so much fun to have a willing subject.

The two also have a habit of giving gifts to each other. Bean gives Asmo a gift to thank him for his kindness towards her, and then suddenly they’re in a constant back and forth of never ending gift giving. (It’s honestly really sweet).

And when it comes to skinship, Asmo is very open--giving hugs, kisses, etc. And whenever Bean initiates skinship with him of her own accord, he honestly melts a little.

Beel:

BIG TEDDY BEAR. Oh, and food buddy.

Bean wants to cuddle with Beel literally whenever possible. She loves walking up and being able to hug him with her face pressed between his tiddies. Because she’s tall herself, knowing a big boy like Beel excites her so much.

And of course, Beel loves all of her hugs, and shows of affection. He accepts them all with a smile, and is more than happy to reciprocate.

One time, Beel picks Bean up during a hug, and she gasps. Beel immediately worries if he had hurt her, but she just says she’s not used to anyone being able to lift her up, and Beel then makes a point of lifting her   into hugs. He also gives her piggy back rides when appropriate, and her heart is so full for him. 

They also end up going out to eat together quite a lot. Beel wants to introduce her to all of his fave Devildom foods, and Bean happily goes along with him.

If there’s ever a day where Bean’s self-image isn’t the best, Beel will make sure she doesn’t skip any meals. And if she expresses the want to change her diet, or start an easy exercise routine, he’ll be more than happy to help her out.

The two tend to go on evening walks together--since it’s exercise done in good company--and Bean appreciates him a lot.

Overall, the two are very affectionate and casual in their relationship with one another.

Belphie:

Low energy pals.

Literally will lay in bed next to each other on their DDD’s, sharing memes, and talking about random shit.

Bean quickly becomes Belphie’s new favorite pillow once the whole stuck-in-the-attic chapter is done with, and their relationship improves.

She’s a little shy about it, but Belphie honestly loves her squish. Perfect for napping.

If Belphie finds Beel and Bean cuddling, or hugging, he will absolutely add himself into the equation with zero hesitation. 

Bean is someone that he can talk to without feeling judged, or like she’ll rat out his negative feelings to his brothers. 

He really appreciates her willingness to accept him despite how he’d manipulated her, and hurt her in the past. In turn, Bean hopes that she can continue to be a light in Belphie’s life, and that she can help him continue to grow and change (despite him being thousands of years older than her).

The two tend to hang out in the planetarium together frequently.

Also, Bean will wake up to random messages/memes from Belphie that he sent at an ungodly hour while the rest of them were busy sleeping (and she loves it).

If anyone has any questions about Bean, her relationships with the brothers, or other characters, how she would react in certain situations, etc -- please feel free to send me an ask about it!! 👉👈

SFW or NSFW topics are okay!

[johnlharrisr-blog]

(RNS) — It started in 2004 as a little Bible study looking at the political implications of Jesus’ teaching and the social dimensions of the gospel. Four years later, during the 2008 presidential election, I published a book with Chris Haw called “Jesus for President” and took the movement out on a national tour, traveling through nearly every U.S. state in a bus that ran on waste vegetable oil, hosting packed-out rallies in different cities each night.

We had some solid ideas for serious change in America back then. Like putting the Amish in charge of Homeland Security and melting all of our weapons into garden tools and enacting the biblical year of Jubilee, where property is redistributed and financial debts are forgiven. We were dead serious about some of those ideas (and still are).

A lot has changed since 2008. A lot has changed since 2016. Heck, a lot has changed since last month, and week and day.

One thing that has not changed is that Christians still have a hard time knowing how to engage with politics, especially during an election year.

RELATED: Voting my conscience in this election may mean staying home

Some Christians ignore politics altogether, preferring to focus on matters like saving souls and getting people into heaven. They often quote Scripture about how our “citizenship is in heaven” and insist that this world is not our home. Politics don’t belong in the pulpit, they say (unless it’s abortion or marriage equality). Jesus didn’t come to overthrow Caesar and take over Rome, but to establish an altogether new kingdom that is not of this world. So it goes.

Another group of Christians has totally bought into partisan politics and married itself to these Christians’ favorite candidate or party. If they are evangelicals, that usually means the Republican Party. As my friend the Rev. Tony Campolo says: “Mixing our faith with a political party is sort of like mixing ice cream with cow manure. It doesn’t mess up the manure, but it sure messes up the ice cream.”

More recently, I have become familiar with the progressive version of the savior complex; it still messes up the ice cream.

As people of faith, we are desperately in need of a better political imagination — one not confined by party or candidate or the culture wars at all, but one wholly rooted in our faith. We need to be as peculiar as we are political. Jesus was both — political and peculiar.

Nearly every time Jesus opened his mouth, he talked about the “kingdom of God.” The word he used for “kingdom” was the same word as “empire.” But his empire is upside down. The first are last, and the last are first. The mighty are cast from their thrones, and the rich are sent away empty. The poor are blessed, and the peacemakers are “the children of God.” Literally, Jesus blesses the people this world has cursed and rebukes the people this world has idolized.

According to Jesus, the kingdom of God is not just something we hope for when we die. It is something we are to make “on earth as it is in heaven,” apparently while we’re alive, now. It is an invitation to join a revolution that transforms the world from what it is into what God wants it to be.

We know because he talked about the real stuff and real people — unjust judges, day laborers, widows and orphans: political stuff. The golden rule — love your neighbors as yourselves — can’t be followed if we ignoring the policies and powers that are crushing the lives of our neighbors. Jesus was political in the sense that the word “politics” derives from “citizens” — meaning our neighbors.

As much as Jesus’ vocation was political, it was also peculiar. His entire life (and death) is a parody of power, political satire on a whole new level, a political photobomb that took attention off of the centers of power and put the spotlight on the margins.

Jesus came straight out of Nazareth: a brown-skinned, Palestinian, Jewish refugee from a town out of which people said, “Nothing good could come.” This was what determined his view of power. When confronted by tax collectors about whether he paid his taxes, he pulled money out of the mouth of a fish, questioning what really is Caesar’s and what is God’s.

He called Herod a fox and flipped tables in the Temple. He included the excluded and challenged the chosen. Entering Jerusalem, he did not ride a warhorse with a military entourage like Caesar, but a borrowed donkey. Political satire. Street theater of the holiest kind. Instead of the iron fist of tyrants, Jesus ruled with a towel washing his disciples’ feet. He was accused of insurrection, arrested, beaten, tortured by the state and finally executed.

His execution, directed by the Romans, was also political parody of the highest order. His throne was an old rugged cross. His crown was not made from olive branches like Caesar’s, but thorns. Nailed to the cross read a sign, “King of the Jews.”

Jesus outdid the Romans’ attempt to join in his parody by rising from the dead — the greatest act of protest in history.

The word “savior” was not just used for Jesus. It was also used for Caesar. On the imperial walls in Asia Minor, nearly a decade before the birth of Christ, these words were written: “emperor Augustus … who being sent to us and our descendants as Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order, having become god manifest… the birthday of the god Augustus has been for the whole world the beginning of the good news…”

Sound familiar?

The words attributed to Jesus in the Gospels — Lord, savior, Incarnation — were already attributed to Caesar. The imperial calendar revolved around the birthday of Caesar, not Christ. You start to see why the politics of Jesus are so radical, so revolutionary and so controversial. Every time the early Christians declared “Jesus is Lord,” they were also declaring, “Caesar is not.”

That confession was deeply and subversively political. It was just as strange to say “Jesus is my Lord” 2,000 years ago as it would be to declare him commander in chief today. It was an invitation to a new political imagination centered on the person, teaching and peculiar politics of Christ.

One of the greatest temptations during election year is to misplace our hope. We are tempted to put our hope in a party or a candidate who we think will save us from the chaos we are in. But as the old hymn goes, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. … On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.” There is a lot of sinking sand these days. Lots of big promises and empty words. We are bound to be disappointed if we put too much hope in a person or a party.

Joining the politics of Jesus is about joining God’s redemptive plan to save the world. It is about allegiance, hope and a new kingdom. So I am indeed hopeful in 2020 — not because I have found a candidate who fulfills my deepest hopes, but because I have learned how to hope differently. My hope does not lie in Donald Trump or Joe Biden, or even America. My hope is in Christ alone.

Now that we’ve established that — let me be clear. I will be voting on Nov. 3. But I will not be looking for a political savior. I will be looking to do damage control. I’ll be trying to harness the principalities and powers of darkness that are hurting so many children of God. I’ll be voting for the politicians who I believe will do the least amount of damage to the world, and alleviate the most suffering for the most people. Though that may sound cynical, I think that’s an appropriate theological posture to have.

There are those who will opt out because they don’t want to “hold their noses” and vote, and still others who refuse to choose between the “lesser of two evils.”

But opting out also has consequences. Privilege is being able to choose which issues matter and which ones do not. Privilege is being able to opt out of decisions that have life and death consequences for other people. I believe this election is a referendum, and we have power that we can steward on Nov. 3. I want to look back and say I did everything I could to stand against fear, and racism and violence… including vote. We need to use every tool in our toolbox.

If you have a hard time voting for a particular candidate this year, perhaps consider what it means to vote for the people Jesus blessed. Vote for the poor. Vote for immigrants. Vote for families separated at our border and for the kids in cages. Vote for those without health care. Vote for those who are incarcerated and those who aren’t allowed to vote. Vote for the victims of violence. Vote for Breonna Taylor.

Vote for love. When we vote for love over fear, we can rest confidently that we voted our faith and put flesh on our prayers.

So, I will vote on Nov. 3. I will vote against hatred, and fear, and misogyny. I will vote against Trump and those who have enabled his hurtful policies and hateful rhetoric. And I will do it because I have pledged my ultimate allegiance to Christ.

Surely, Election Day is not the only day we make a difference. I will also vote every day before Nov. 3 and every day after Nov. 3. Change is not confined to one day every four years. Change happens every day. We vote with our lives. Social change doesn’t come from the top down. It comes from the bottom up — just like water boils.

The holy work of “seeking first the kingdom of God” is not confined to a ballot box. No matter who gets elected in November, we will need to be in the streets in January holding them accountable.

[jaigames]

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Review

(Submitted 17th October 2017)

Metal Gear Solid V, Hideo Kojima’s final game for the long time crashing video game company Konami. What could have been the greatest Metal Gear Solid game ever made, a shining finale to one of the longest running video game series starting in 1987 with Metal Gear. Unfortunately, what would have been a masterpiece was let down by poor management, greedy CEOs and a desperate attempt to make sequels.

Metal Gear Solid V is a third person stealth game where you play as the legendary mercenary, Big Boss (also known as Venom Snake). The game begins with him waking up in a Cypriot hospital nine years after the destruction of his mother base, he is told that there are many people out to kill him so they must give him plastic surgery to hide his identity. Before that however the hospital is attacked by armed soldiers, having escaped he is greeted by Revolver Ocelot who informs Big Boss of who he is and what happened nine years ago. From here the game consists of rebuilding his base, tracking down those who betrayed him and putting a stop to their world domination.

Like other Metal Gear games, the story delves into the subject of private forces and their impact upon larger political powers using experimental weaponry or unorthodox tactics, one of which is as always, a staple of the Metal Gear franchise being a Metal Gear (a bipedal armoured vehicle). The story uses the implications of touchy subjects being torture, arms race, nuclear arms race, arms intimidation, bio warfare and child soldiers and wraps them into one coherent storyline. These subjects serve as the middle man in the timeline fixing the two stories of MGS3 and MGS1 together, or at least it would have had the game been finished.

Main Gameplay

The main objective of the game, like most other Metal Gear Solid games, is to sneak through levels and complete specific objectives.

There are two kinds of missions to do in three different areas, those being the main story missions and the side missions. The three areas are Afghanistan, Africa and Mother Base, all of which are large open world areas, Afghanistan and Africa having multiple large points of interest which the main story will take you to. Side missions are much smaller missions consisting of one objective being eliminate a threat, capture a target or steal resources.

With each time Big Boss is deployed in the world the player is given a loadout menu to choose what items and companions they wish to take with them. The edition of this is great because it allows the player options to complete the missions in whatever style they would most enjoy. This is what I think the game excels at, given the large open spaces around the mission areas the player can observe their path before taking it. This along with the large number of weapons and items that can be unlocked, there are plenty of options to take.

In most other stealth games, getting spotted by an enemy is the end of your stealth approach meaning it would be time to load a previous save if you want that perfect stealth achievement when you finish the game. For Metal Gear Solid V there is no achievement, plus upon being seen of course the iconic alert sound will play, but it will trigger a bullet time giving the player time to react by tranquilising or killing the enemy.

A mechanic unique to this Metal Gear Solid game that compliments the quirky nature of the series is the fulton recovery system, by interacting with either soldiers, wild animals, vehicles, containers or mounted weapons the player can extract items from the ground to build up their base or to be deployed on missions later. This adds an extra element to consider when planning assault on strongholds, scanning soldiers and judging their stats to determine whether they are wanted for mother base.

Due to Big Boss being a living legend amongst mercenaries, soldiers from other private forces will jump at the chance to join his ranks. No mini game required, just extract a soldier from the battlefield using the fulton and the soldier is automatically added to the list of soldiers at mother base. These soldier’s combined level in different fields have the effect of making their respective team level raise giving perks to the player. The biggest being the research and development team allowing the player to purchase new weapons and items to use on the battlefield. At times collecting the best soldiers does get tedious, but not enough that it completely disrupts the flow of the game.

Cutscenes

The Metal Gear series is known for having very long and cinematic cutscenes that set them apart from other games. Although in Metal Gear Solid 5 the cutscenes in no way reach the length of previous games in the series, but they are nothing less than stunning every time. Every shot is framed well and every character moves fluently. With each introduction of a piece of high tech gear, the game will give a dynamic view of the focus point along with a digital glint on screen giving the viewer a moment to take in the details and marvel at the design.

The cutscenes were far less interactive in this game too, previously you’d be able to interact with the surroundings while the extended cutscenes played out. While it does seem like a piece of the Metal Gear heritage was taken out, it did encourage to pay attention to the subject at hand which of course was more than enough to keep me interested. Instead of the long drawn out explanations in cutscenes, they are instead moved to the cassette tapes that came be listened to in game. Personally, I much preferred this much more as the time it took to drive between side missions was easily filled in listening to story that Big Boss wasn’t present to hearing.

Issues

Being a recent Konami game, the game has plenty of issues, some of these points are quite minor while others have had serious repercussions with the game.

Of course, the recent plague with AAA games has been the introduction of microtransactions into full price releases and Metal Gear Solid V is no exception to this. The base building mechanic has an online feature to attack and be attacked from other private forces, those being other players. In theory, this seems like it would be a great idea as a side mini game, but building up your base takes time and resources. Resources you can send out your soldiers on missions to collect, but these missions can take up to two real time weeks, but microtransactions are there to finish the missions instantly. These arbitrary wait times serve no other purpose than to encourage the player to give out more money. By participating in this mode, you are consenting to take part in the online base defence feature, where the player can attack other player’s bases and while simultaneously protecting their own. Unless the player’s base has maxed out statistics, they won’t stand a chance online. This is where base insurance comes in, players can purchase it with real money to insure they keep their resources after being attacked.

This online feature has little to no effect on the main game, the resources gained are tiny in comparison to the resources gained by playing the main game. Building up the base to the maximum size can raise the level of the teams of soldiers, but these can still all be done simply in the main game. All that this feature really amounts to is climbing up a leaderboard that unless those payments are made, there is no hope of ever reaching the top, it is just a leaderboard of who spent the most money. Another issue with this online feature is that the servers are very slow, this is obvious when trying to navigate the menus in game, especially for the research and development menu. When navigating the menus time does not stop and the player cannot exit while a menu is loading, this can take anywhere between 5 to 60 seconds. Personally, this has caused me to die multiple times when trying to request a supply drop in the heat of battle. This has been made worst by the PC port of the game not allowing the player to interact with the menu via mouse and instead must use the keyboard, while this isn’t too significant, it is worth mentioning that it does take some getting used to.

One of the more daunting issues have been the limitations placed on the game due to Konami pushing for console accessibility. While in theory this sounds good that the game could be played on the PS3 and Xbox 360, this also meant that the game was heavily dumbed down. This meant that significantly less polygons could be rendered on screen at any given time meaning a lot of these big open areas became empty and baron except for a couple patrol vehicles and enemy checkpoints dotted around. This was most apparent in missions that took you to vast important enemy strongholds such as military storages, airports or prisons; these places could only render up to 10 soldiers on screen at once. They lacked the feeling of being these grand high security landmarks that would only be looked at and avoided on the map for fear of alerting huge armies of soldiers that didn’t exist.

The largest flaw of Metal Gear Solid V anyone can tell you is the ending, or lack thereof one. Instead of this game being the final chapter of a legendary game series, one that has evolved alongside modern gaming, it was poorly let down by Konami. After completely two thirds of the game and beating the only thing that really qualified as a boss fight, it felt as though the game was ready to start tying up all the side plots and the main storyline. However, this for me is where the game started to stagnate, a lot of the main missions began to become filler in the form of challenge modes of previous missions with the occasional new piece of story thrown in. The ending of the game is completely missing, what could have been a grand finale that would pit the army that the player had built against Big Boss’s final enemy. All of this was cut from the game by Konami to make another sequel from what would of be a great ending. Fortunately, there are videos online of the unfinished cutscenes and storyboards, that were taken from the ending. These can give a somewhat satisfying conclusion to the series, but it remains a let-down of what could have been.

Conclusion

In conclusion Metal Gear Solid V is in no way the worst of the series, but it is a shame that it had the potential to have been the best. From what it lacked in holding the heritage of the game, it made up for with improvements. It, started to feel like it was its own game separating itself far from the usual Metal Gear Solid formula for keeping the main core focus of the gameplay and story purpose. My advice for anyone looking to play Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain would be, enjoy the game from the first two thirds, but prepared to be let down by the last third. I could rate this game a solid 10/10 were it finished, but due to its many flaws I rate it 7/10.